LOL... you're wrong, better check the traffic laws where you live.

Why are you acting like such a nasty little ****?[/QUOTE



If they cross not at a crossing it is jaywalking, now lets get serious they are not jaywalking or crossing the are impeding my right of way. If they are stupid enough to try and stop a moving vehicle that is that much bigger than them then maybe we will say they are proving Darwin right. They have NO right to impede my progress on the road. Again I have witnessed what they do to the cars that stop, not happening to me. You want to stop feel free.
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The crowds milled about in the warm, sunny air Saturday at the Northwest Art & Air Festival, which runs through Sunday at Timber-Linn Memorial Park.

Kids scaled the climbing wall, others painted wooden helicopters in the Home Depot craft area, and lines of families filed through a trailer, set within The Reptile Man's display, where deadly vipers, separated by only a sheet of quarter-inch glass, writhed, sniffed with their tongues or just sat in a coil, staring through cold, angry eyes at the people filing through.

A black-necked spitting Egyptian cobra moved its shiny black head around his enclosure, appearing to be searching for a weak spot between its glass and the wood frame, while in other enclosures, small alligators sat idle. It wouldn't be the Art & Air Fest without it.

But the festival also wouldn't be the same without the rows of artisans who set up shop and offered their wares.

And as the festival's reach grows, the sellers come from farther afield.

Amid the soaps, metal sculptures, hats, shirts, lavender-smelly things and custom wallets, one booth, called "Wanna Spoon?," drew a steady stream of visitors. It's the first time Ray Smith has brought his custom wood-crafted kitchenware to the festival, and he said sales have been fantastic. His work ranges from wooden spoons to elaborate pepper mills, complete with lovely burnished metal grinders with adjustable gears for coarseness. Those gadgets, at $45 each, seemed the most attractive.

Like many sellers at the festival, Smith, a Marcola resident, began making wooden spoons one at a time as a hobby nine years ago, but quickly made it a going concern. He quit his day job as an electrical technician a little more than a year ago to go full-time with the wood. He makes his crafts from maple and black walnut, partly because it's readily available, but also because the wood is food grade. And now that he produces a full product line, he's invested in new tools, including a lathe for turning, which he admits was a jump.

"It took me about a year and a half to get used to a piece of wood spinning at 1,200 RPM," he said.

Such finds have become common at the festival, which has become a regional draw. So much so that people like Smith will make the drive north to sell their curious products.

But of course, the food and the music are a good draw as well. It wouldn't be the festival without them, either.
After the Alabama primary, Senor Trumpanzee made one flaccid attempt to paint his rejection by Alabama Republican voters as a plus. He tweeted that his defeated candidate, inchmbent Luther Strange-- upon whom McConnell and a Trump-directed SuperPAC spent millions of dollars-- "picked up a lot of additional support since my endorsement." The final count in the Republican primary was 164,524 (38.87%) for crackpot Roy Moore and 138,971 (32.83%) for Trump and McConnell-backed establishment incumbent Luther Strange. [Another crackpot, Rep. Mo Brooks took 83,287 votes (19.68%) and a scattering of 7 vanity candidates split another 30-some-odd thousand votes between them.] Moore and Strange will face off in a runoff on September 26, the winner of which will then face Democrat Doug Jones, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, who won his 8-person primary with 109,105 votes (66.12%) on December 12.





Moore is more of a Trump candidate than Strange-- but its likely no one told that to Trump. So he backed the wrong horse. Thursday, Sarah Palin endorsed Moore. "Glad hes running and am honored to endorse Judge Roy Moore for the US Senate," reads her statement. "Judge Moore has shown he has what it takes to stand up to the out-of-touch political establishment. The Judge has proven hes not afraid of a fight for what is right, and hes ready to take on DCs swamp monsters and help make America great again. We need more bold leaders like Judge Moore who will fight for all of us in the US Senate." Kind of makes Senor Trumpanzee seem like a weenie.





Polling has been consistent since the run-off, showing Moore ahead of Strange. JMC found Moore crushing Strange 51-32% and the more mainstream Decision Desk HQ found nearly identical results last week-- Moore 50.3% to Strange 32.2%.





Trump doesn't want to look like a loser-- especially since Strange is identified as the McConnell candidate-- a big part of why he's losing-- and Trump is in the middle of one of his childish spats with McConnell. Robert Costa reported on Friday evening that Trump wants to disassociate from the Strange campaign . This is going to further infuriate Senate Republicans, many of whom already hate Trump passionately.

Trump did not signal a desire this week to formally withdraw his endorsement of Strange, the Republicans said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. And with the president having proven to be unpredictable, the individuals offered no certainty that he would stay out of the runoff.



But Trump is considering being less engaged than in the first round of voting, when he tweeted his support and recorded a robo-call for the senator, they said-- potentially turning the contest into yet another example of the frayed relationship between Trump and McConnell.



The Republicans added that the calculus being made in Trumps orbit is logical. With a bevy of challenges on Capitol Hill this fall, the president is unlikely to have much time or political capital to spend on Stranges campaign. On Friday, Trump and Vice President Pence called Strange to assure him of their support but made no specific plans to campaign on his behalf, according to two people with knowledge of the call.



...With Strange in the Senate, McConnells job would be easier than with Moore, a far-right fire-thrower who sent a fundraising email this week with the subject line, Its time to take King McConnells crown. A Moore win also would raise the possibility that future Republican Senate candidates would run on an anti-McConnell promise, especially in red-state primary races-- putting his leadership in jeopardy.



For Trump, who has built a brand on winning, a Strange loss in Alabama could tarnish his image as a titan of the Republican base and raise questions about how much sway he holds in down-ballot contests heading into the midterm elections.

Now let's read this report on the Alabama primary run-off in the context of another bizarre report out of the tumultuous, contentious West Wing. Saturday morning Niall Stanage reported that Trump's allies are telling him he needs a high-profile Republican scalp . Chuck Schumer couldn't write this insane scenario any better than the way it's playing out in real time. Trump advisors-- think, for example, certifiably insane Roger Stone (the one who encouraged Trump to pardon Arpaio)-- are telling him that he "needs to instill fear so that lawmakers do not feel at liberty to thwart him."









Most members of Congress are arrogant, and until a scalp is actually taken they are going to continue to be defiant, longtime Trump friend Roger Stone told The Hill. All he needs to do is punish one incumbent and I think youd see a sea-change.



Advice like Stones feeds the president's instincts to hit back hard against those whom he believes have wronged him: a list that at present appears to include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as well as GOP Sens. John McCain (AZ), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Bob Corker (TN).



Trumps biggest defeat to date, on his attempt to gut the Affordable Care Act, came at the hands of McCain and Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who joined Democrats to sink a Senate bill.



Other Trump loyalists join Stone in arguing that the president should neither forgive nor forget.



He is 100 percent correct to go after McCain, Flake, Murkowksi, said Sam Nunberg, who worked as an aide to Trumps 2016 campaign.



Nunberg also expressed the hope that Trump would be able to engineer the defeat of Collins in a GOP primary if she sought to become Maines governor.



But Nunberg drew a distinction between those senators who have been critical of Trump and the GOP leadership on Capitol Hill.



I do think it is counterproductive for him to have a strained relationship with Leader McConnell, Nunberg said, citing both the danger to Trumps legislative agenda and the widespread support McConnell enjoys among his colleagues.



Steve Bannon, recently ousted as Trumps chief strategist, does not appear to be in a compromising mood, however. He promised to keep up his own attacks on McConnell in an interview published by The Economist on Friday.



Im going to light him up, Bannon said.



Trump himself seems in no particular mood to declare a truce.



The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed! That should NEVER have happened! the president wrote on Twitter on Thursday.



...The strategic wisdom of those moves is lampooned by moderate Republicans. They note that Trump has achieved nothing of real legislative consequence so far in his presidency, and suggest that his fractious personality costs him goodwill on Capitol Hill.



He doesnt make it any easier to support him, said Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant and pollster who worked for the 2016 GOP primary campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).



Trumps willingness to hit back against those who dont follow his wishes may be an integral part of his personality, however. Longtime Trump-watchers say the same impulse was evident in his years as a real estate developer, reality TV star and fixture of the New York tabloids.





He drives everything from the point of trying to always appear to be the winner-- and not brooking dissent from anyone, said Timothy OBrien, the author of a biography of Trump and the executive editor of Bloomberg View. He personally is always prioritizing conflict and bravado so he stays center-stage and is perceived as the winner.



OBrien asserted that any advisors fueling that tendency and encouraging him to slap at McConnell on a regular basis were politically daft.



There are even some internal party critics of Trumps, however, who dont dismiss his words out of hand.



Appearing on Hugh Hewitts syndicated radio show on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Trump, Hes running against Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and others. The Congress is very unpopular, particularly with the Republican base, so theres nothing unhinged about it. Its a political strategy that Im not so sure is smart, but its a very thought-out strategy. Theres nothing crazy about it.



Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm, last month found only 30 percent of Republicans approving of McConnells job performance, while 46 percent disapproved. For Trump, 81 percent of Republicans approved and only 16 percent disapproved.



In five major polls this month-- from Gallup, CNN, CBS News, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University-- overall public approval of Congress never exceeded 20 percent. Even Trump, whose poll ratings are historically low, scores roughly twice as well as that in most surveys.



The Harvard-Harris poll published by The Hill this week found McConnell to be the most unpopular politician in the country with a national profile.



Stone argued that Trump is far more popular and more influential with Republican primary voters than any members of Congress and any member of the United States Senate, and he has enormous leverage to go into party primaries.



The strategist lamented Trumps decision to endorse incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) in the special election in that state. Strange is also strongly backed by McConnell.



...Really, the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate needs to get behind President Trump and his agenda, said Jenny Beth Martin, the president and co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. I think it is fair for him to shed light on what is really happening on Capitol Hill.



The voters voted for Donald Trump to be a sledgehammer and a wrecking ball to Washington, D.C., she added.

How quickly they seem to have forgotten Nevada Republican Dean Heller. It seemed like only yesterday that a Trump/Pence-controlled PAC was running this ad against Heller in Las Vegas and Nevada:













Palin jumped into this race too-- endorsing a nutcase extremist, Danny Tarkanian, as a primary challenger and guess what-- a new poll from JMC Analytics shows Tarkanian leading Heller 39-31% among likely GOP primary voters. JMC: "This is one primary race where President Trumps involvement could make a difference. Republicans in Nevada give him an 80-14% approval rating, and a Trump endorsement would by a 64-13% margin make the respondent more likely to support his endorsed candidate. And given Tarkanians recent strong endorsement of Trump policies, it appears some of that is already happening: those more likely to be impacted by a Trump endorsement favor Tarkanian 43-30% over Heller (27% undecided), while those less likely to be impacted by a Trump endorsement favor Heller 35-23% (42% undecided). Those who say the endorsement doesnt matter favor Tarkanian 35-31% (35% undecided)-- these undecideds almost exactly equal the margin by which Tarkanian leads Heller. In summary, Senator Heller faces a substantial primary challenge from Danny Tarkanian in a race that ultimately could determine partisan control of the U.S. Senate."

UPDATE: Bannon Goes Rogue In Alabama




Oregon Coast Lodging Latest: Glamping, New Spa and Vacation Rentals

Published 08/26/2017 at 5:23 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Pacific City, Oregon)  Some engaging new developments in lodging around the Oregon coast as of late. There's a new campground that brings luxury and glamping to the outdoors, another rental biz in Florence is exploding in stature and size, and there are updates on a fab new spa coming later this year.

If you're looking for a bit of glamping on the Oregon coast  luxury camping  the Kiwanda Hospitality / Nestucca Ridge group has a new twist: spending the night in high end, vintage Airstream campers. It's called Hart's Camp, and it's just a block east of the Inn at Cape Kiwanda.





Each of these Airstream RV's is fully equipped with amenities you'd find at a fine hotel. Upscale linens, towels, plush pillows along with flat screen TV's, Wi-Fi, cable and DVD players are in the mix. They're equipped with full bathrooms and indoor showers, but the park itself has a living plant outdoor shower and communal restrooms and showers.

Looking to bring large groups to the Oregon coast with you on this upscale adventure? Some units at Hart's Camp have fences that open up to others and thus create a large space for greater numbers of people. There are also outdoor grills, Adriondack chairs and European-style bikes to borrow.

Rates average $139 to $339 per night. In Pacific City, next to Inn at Cape Kiwanda. 888-965-7001. Website here.

The much-anticipated Headlands Coastal Lodge & Spa on the north Oregon coast is in the latter stages of its construction, with an opening date projected to be December of this year. It's also part of the Pacific City family of businesses from the Nestucca Ridge Development and Kiwanda Hospitality group.

Owners Mary Jones and Jeff Schon are calling it a luxurious escape paired with coastal adventure.

Headlands, designed by Scott Edwards Architecture (Portland, Ore.) with interior design by EDG (Bay Area, Calif.), will have 33 oceanfront rooms, all with views of iconic Haystack Rock. It will also feature a Spa & Wellness studio, with innovative indoor and outdoor programming, and a restaurant and bar focusing on Pacific Northwest cuisine.

The wood-burning fireplace was recently installed in the lobby, and most of the shingles and windows are in place. Additionally, Jennifer Nelson, formerly of The Inn at the 5th in Eugene, Ore., has just begun her role as General Manager.

For more information and updates, visit www.headlandslodge.com.

Already making a big splash on the central Oregon coast near Florence is a new vacation rental lodging called Heceta Beach Vacation Rental Cottage, which was until very recently simply called Sapphire Sands Vacation Suite. After opening in June, already owner Rebecca Mandeville has expanded. Sapphire Sands opened to rave reviews, even as a tiny bit of luxury a couple hundred feet from the beach. But it just got bigger.

Now, Mandeville has changed the overall name to Heceta Beach Vacation Rentals to encompass two new rental additions: Wind Song Beach House and the Happy Tails Beach Cottage.

Sapphire Sands still sleeps two. Wind Song can host up to five guests, while Happy Tails is dog friendly and sleeps two to four. (Get it? Happy Tails?)

At the northern end of Florence, above Heceta Beach. 650-575-9151. Website here.

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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 6

12:35 p.m. Bar expands LandLine for Harvey victims

The Houston Bar Association has expanded its LegalLine to assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey and set up a toll-free line for Texans outside the Houston area, the group said in a news release.

Volunteer attorneys will answer phone calls from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, through Sept. 29. Extended LegalLine hours will be available from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 6 and Sept. 20.

Those seeking answers to legal questions or referrals may call 713-759-1133 or 1-866-959-1133.

The HBA's Houston Volunteer Lawyers is working with Lone Star Legal Aid to coordinate legal aid for low-income persons affected by Harvey.

Information: www.makejusticehappen.org/Harvey

12:20 p.m. VA deploys mobile vet centers, medical units to Houston area

The VA has deployed five mobile vet centers, three mobile medical units, one mobile pharmacy and one mobile canteen to greater Houston and other areas affected by tropical storm Harvey. The units will offer medical care, pharmacy assistance, counseling services and benefits referral from Wednesday Sept. 6 to Sept. 30. The hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

They are located at NRG Arena, 1 NRG Park (mobile vet center); American Legion Post 658, 14890 FM 2100, Crosby (mobile vet center); Silsbee High School, 1575 U.S. 96 North, Silsbee (mobile medical unit); the Beaumont VA Outpatient Clinic, 3420 Plaza Circle, Beaumont (mobile medical unit, vet center and canteen); the Lone Star Veterans Association, 2929 McKinney St., Houston (mobile medical unit, vet center and pharmacy); and Wal-Mart, 23561 U.S. 59, Porter (mobile vet center).

Veterans may also call the Telecare Call Center at 1-800-639-5137 or 713-794-8985 for medical issues or questions

11:50 a.m. House approves $7.9 billion initial aid package for Harvey losses

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to provide $7.9 billion in aid to address losses from Hurricane Harvey, a move that could be paired with legislation to increase the federal government's borrowing limit.

The initial aid package, approved 419-3, is bigger than the amount floated by the White House over the weekend when President Donald Trump made his second trip to Texas in the wake of the storm. But divisions remain among House and Senate Republicans about tying the aid to the debt-limit increase.

The Senate is expected to attach the money to a debt-limit vote later this week. Conservatives in the House and Senate, including Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, have voiced concern about linking the two votes, which Cruz called "unrelated matters."

Senior Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican Majority Whip, said he supports the plan as a way to immediately replenish needed funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

11:45 a.m. Postal service continuing its Harvey recovery

The U.S. Postal Service says its continuing the recovery from Hurricane Harvey

"We're open for business and delivering where it's accessible and safe to do so," the postal service said in a statement Wednesday morning.

The following offices have resumed normal operations: Brazoria, Lumberton, Sweeny and Thompsons, the postal service said in a news release on Tuesday. All offices in the Houston District have resumed normal operations except for Bear Creek, Deweyville, downtown Beaumont, Glen Flora, Katy, Mauriceville, Nome, Orange and Stowell. The operations for these offices have shifted to other locations.

The postal service urges customers in affected areas to check its website for updates on service interruptions. Updates on service alerts may be found at: http://about.usps.com/news/service-alerts/resident-weather-updates.htm

Those interested in information about a specific post office may call 1-800 ASK-USPS.

11:25 .a.m. Police look for man who went missing during storm

Houston police are looking for a 44-year-old man who went missing as he tried to drive to work on Aug. 26, as Tropical Storm Harvey was moving into the Houston area.

Police said Joseph Dowell left for work at around 2:30 p.m. from the 5600 block of Kennilwood but never made it to work. He is described as a bald African-American man who is 5 foot 9 and 190 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call the missing persons unit at 832-394-1840.

11:12 a.m. H-E-B family member donates $5M to J.J. Watt's relief fund

A member of the H-E-B family has announced a major donation to Houston Texans star J.J. Watt's Houston Flood Relief Fund.

H-E-B chairman and CEO Charles Butt will deliver a personal, $5 million contribution to the Justin J. Watt Foundation's fund, which has collected in excess of $21 million. This looks to be one of the largest personal contributions so far going toward Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

Watt's fund started last week with a modest total of $100,000 and has now become a global effort with contributions by fellow sports figures, celebrities, business owners and regular people chipping in what they can.

11:10 a.m. Nonprofit focuses on children's needs after Harvey

The nonprofit group Children at Risk was to host a meeting with more than 20 area non-profit leaders on Wednesday morning to discuss Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

"As we rebuild our homes, schools and communities, it is imperative to focus on our most vulnerable residents  children," the group said in a news release. "The leaders have identified 6 key areas that Texas must be aware of as we move forward with recovery efforts."



11:01 a.m. Abbott says no hazardous waste sites in Houston area found leaking so far

AUSTIN  Gov. Abbott said Tuesday that an inspection of hazardous waste sites and landfills in the Houston area has found no evidence so far of any leakage or health threats.

At a morning briefing with reporters at the state's Emergency Operations Center, Abbott said five of 17 state sites have been inspected and show no signs of leakage or other issues so far. He said one site, International Creosote, remains flooded.

Eleven others are awaiting inspection, officials said. Abbott said inspections are continuing at the state sites.

Abbott said Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are working closely with federal Environmental Protection Agency officials to closely monitor the sites for any problems.

MONDAY, Sept. 4

9:45 p.m. 500 homes "destroyed" in south Montgomery County subdivision

Five-hundred homes were "destroyed" by Hurricane Harvey in the south Montgomery County subdivision of River Plantation, said Montgomery County Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley.

Riley said volunteers, county employees and law enforcement are conducting relief efforts there, and members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency are helping victims get federal aid.

9:20 p.m. Addicks, Barker reservoirs continue to drop

Addicks and Barker reservoir continued to drop Monday night. Flooding of homes behind the dams was expected to end in the coming days.

Addicks reservoir's pool was down to 105.65 feet. At 103.4 feet, all house flooding should end, said Harris County Flood Control District meteorologist Jeff Lindner.

Barker's level was at 97.99 feet. At 94.9 feet, flooding behind Barker should end, Lindner said.

8:05 p.m. Two Harris County flood victims identified

The Harris County medical examiner on Monday identified two victims of last week's Harvey-related flooding. They had been included previously in the number of confirmed dead in the county, which now stands at 30.

The first victim is Charles Ray James, 65, who was found floating in high waters on a residential street in the 7400 block of Claiborne on Thursday. The second is Samuel Lawrence Burns, Sr., 62, who was found Wednesday in the 4900 block of Airline Drive after apparently collapsing in high water.

More than 60 people in the Houston area and other parts of the state have died since Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25 and unleashed record flooding.



7:50 p.m. Harris County warns of heavy traffic, signal delays during Tuesday's commute

Harris County officials warned that road closures and traffic signal timings would likely create a significant traffic headache Tuesday morning.

Houston area roads are expected to see the highest number of cars Tuesday since Hurricane Harvey made landfall Aug. 25.

There are still several roads closed in Harris County including State Highway 6, Barker Cypress Road, North Eldridge Parkway and Clay Road all north of I-10. Parts of Westheimer Parkway, South Barker Cypress Road and other roads near the Harris County border with Fort Bend County are also closed.

Traffic signals will have special timing schedules to accommodate for traffic altered due to road closures.

7:25 p.m. Houston mayor to decide on curfew Tuesday

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he would make a decision on whether to extend a citywide curfew on Tuesday.

The curfew prohibits people from leaving their homes between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. It is in effect Monday night.

Turner will announce on Tuesday whether it will remain in effect Tuesday night and beyond.

"Persons involved in flood relief efforts, flood relief volunteers, individuals seeking shelters, first responders, and persons going to and from work (late shift workers) are exempt from the curfew," according to the city.

6:45 p.m. Brazoria County bans recreational boating on Brazos, San Bernard Rivers

Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta issued an order Monday banning recreational boating on the Brazos River, San Bernard River, Oyster Creek and Bastrop Bayou.

The order was signed in "an effort to minimize damage to real and personal property of others and for public safety during this disaster," according to a county notice. It would remain in effect until Sebesta rescinds the order or the disaster declaration for the county is removed.

The Brazos had retreated to moderate flood stage earlier in the day, days after reaching a record height.

6 p.m. Army Corps reducing releases from Barker dam

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began reducing the amount of water released from Barker reservoir Sunday night, a move that continued Monday and promised to reduce widespread flooding in west Houston along Buffalo Bayou downstream of Addicks and Barker dams.

As of Monday evening, Barker reservoir was releasing between 5,000 and 6,000 cubic feet per second of water, down from 6,300 CFS in the days before.

Once the Barker releases get down to 4,000 CFS, the Corps said it would begin decreasing releases from Addicks "until we have our releases back below the high banks of Buffalo Bayou," said Richard Long, Natural Resource Management Specialist at the Corps' Galveston District.

The goal, eventually, is to get releases down to 4,000 CFS combined from Addicks and Barker dams.

5:10 p.m. Face recognition software matching pictures of lost pets with those found in shelters

People who lost their pets during Hurricane Harvey can upload the pet's picture into an app that will use facial recognition to match the pictures with animals checked into shelters in recent days.

Photos of animals arriving in shelters are being uploaded into a database.

If someone has lost their pet, they can upload a picture of the pet to findingrover.com or the Finding Rover smartphone app.

An algorithm will try to make a match and provide the pet's potential location. The service is free for shelters and pet owners.

Our Mihir Zaveri has the full story here.

5 p.m. FEMA extends grace period for paying flood insurance premiums

If your flood insurance premium payments were due between July 24 and Sept. 22, and you live in a county that was included in a presidential disaster declaration after Hurricane Harvey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended a grace period by which you can pay your premium.

The grace period is now 120 days, according to FEMA. That means you won't lose coverage if you can't make your payment right away, up to 120 days from when it's due.

"FEMA wants to ensure that policyholders affected by flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey can focus on their immediate needs, begin to recover, and continue to have flood insurance coverage in the event of additional flooding," the agency stated in a notice Monday.

The agency also made it easier to receive payments faster and waived some paperwork necessary to process claims.

Read more here.

4:45 p.m. City of Houston: Cleaning after Hurricane Harvey may pose health hazards

People 7-years-of-age and older with cuts or other wounds should get a tetanus shot and see a doctor if they were exposed to Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters, city officials warned.

The officials said: residents should use special, N-95 rated dust masks when cleaning moldy homes that took on floodwaters.

Surfaces should be washed with soap and clean, warm water and sanitized with bleach.

Any standing water should be drained so disease-carrying mosquitoes cannot breed, the officials warned.

3:30 p.m. FEMA registrations up to more than 550,000

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday it has received more than 550,000 applications for aid in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey.

FEMA has so far granted applications for 176,000 people. Aid totals include $50 million for housing assistance, including rental assistance and $91 million to replace personal property, pay for transportation and shoulder medical and dental costs.

The agency also opened a disaster recovery center at the George R. Brown Convention Center that will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week until further notice. Those affected can apply for assistance, get a status update on an application, speak to a FEMA representative, or discuss a low-interest disaster loan with a Small Business Administrative representative.

3:15 p.m. Harris County begins debris removal

Harris County began removing debris from outside of people's homes Monday.

Officials said residents should place debris curbside "without blocking roadway or storm drains" and sort it into the following categories: vegetative debris, construction and demolition debris, appliances and electronics.

Debris that won't be picked up includes normal household trash and hazardous waste.

Those with questions are encouraged to call (713) 274-3880 or can find more information here.

3:02 p.m.: Gov. Abbott asks that 7 counties added to presidential disaster area

Gov. Greg Abbott asked that seven counties be added to the Federal Disaster Declaration previously granted by FEMA, bringing the total request to 43 counties.

The new additions are Austin, Bastrop, DeWitt, Gonzales, Karnes, Lavaca and Lee counties.

11:48 a.m. East of Houston, death toll rises to 17

The Southeast Texas death toll from Harvey rose to 17 on Monday, the Beaumont Enterprise reports.

Newton County Sheriff Billy Rowles said a Deweyville man and a Newton woman have died in his county due to floodwaters.

Orange County officials said Sunday there have been nine storm-related deaths in the county so far. Four of the deaths were elderly people and possibly related to a power outage, according to officials.

"If you have a friend or family member that did not leave areas that were impacted by the rising waters and you have not heard from them, we urge you to contact your local law enforcement."

Port Arthur spokeswoman Risa Carpenter said an elderly woman's body was found inside her home on 22nd Street in Port Arthur on Saturday.

Colette Sulcer, 41, died after being pulled from rushing waters with her 3-year-old daughter clinging to her side on Tuesday in Beaumont. The girl survived. A second woman, who was found on the city's low-lying North End early Wednesday, has not been identified. Rescue teams found a body floating in the 8600 block of Overhill Lane Wednesday evening. Police did not identify the person.

On Tuesday night, Russell Barnes, 51, and Ginger Barnes, 34, both of Alvin, were killed in Jasper County when a tree fell on their truck.

10:15 a.m. Convicts return to 2 prisons near Richmond

State officials on Monday began returning 1,400 convicts to two prisons near Richmond that were evacuated a week ago because of flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.

Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said transfers of prisoners to the Jester 3 and Vance units began around dawn from prisons in South Texas, after the two lockups near the Brazos River were determined to be safe.

The two prisons had been among five that were evacuated beginning two weeks ago because of record flooding southwest of Houston after Harvey began dumping up to 51 inches of rain on the area as it moved ashore.

More than 5,900 convicts were relocated in secure buses accompanied by correctional officers and other corrections staff. Clark said no decision has been made on when convicts will return to the three remaining prisons that were evacuated -- Stringfellow, Ramsey and Terrell.



9:55 a.m. Brazos River still high, but retreating

Days after cresting at a record-high water level, the Brazos River has retreated to the moderate flood stage level.

Monday measurements from the National Weather Service show the river at a height of 49.6 feet, a read that puts it just below the major flood stage.

The river topped 55 feet for the first time ever last week, devastating towns and neighborhoods throughout Fort Bend and Brazoria counties.

The NWS expects the river's water level will fall into the minor flooding stage by Tuesday, and then rapidly decrease throughout the week.

9:34 a.m. Man with Alzheimer's reported missing since Friday

A 63-year-old man with early onset Alzheimer's disease has been missing since last week.

The family of James Simmon said he was last seen around 6 p.m. Friday in the 1600 block of Castle Court, in south Montrose.

Simmon is 5'9 and white, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a yellow plaid shirt, blue jeans and a Houston Astros hat when he was last seen.

Simmon was the Houston Chronicle's political editor from 1990 to 1994 and the editor of the Houston Press from 1994 to 1998, according to his LinkedIn page. He was last the city editor of the Bryan Eagle.

Anyone with information should call Houston Police Department's Missing Persons Unit at 832-394-1840.



9:04 a.m. After reports of scams, Houston police accompany Energy Insights employees

Uniformed first responders will now be accompanying Energy Insights employees as they work to shut off power in flooded homes around Harris County.

The move, Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted Sunday, is in response to reports of people impersonating Energy Insights employees.

"(Legitimate employees) are not shutting off power in houses not flooded," he wrote. "Don't open doors. ... Call 911 if you spot impostors."

8:37 a.m. Fort Bend County ends curfew

Fort Bend County has ended its curfew meant to protect evacuated properties and their owners.

County Judge Bob Hebert lifted the order Sunday, and also announced that mandatory evacuation orders for districts in the county that operate levees were ended. Such orders are still in effect for some neighborhoods along the Barker Reservoir, and Hebert warned that "individual neighborhoods and homes may still pose hazards" such as "displaced animals, contaminated flood waters and unstable structures."

8:21 a.m. Houston Theater District closes underground parking

The underground parking garages in Houston's Theater District are closed until further notice due to flooding, the Houston First Corporation said Sunday.

"Houston First is assessing damages, and working with contractors to safely and efficiently pump water out of the garages," HFC said in a press release. "Although the pumping process has begun, full restoration of the garages could take weeks."

HFC said it will in the meantime make available 2,000 spaces in other parking facilities nearby. The closed underground parking lots span 18 underground blocks, and have more than 3,350 parking spaces.

7:49 a.m. Chance of more rain through Wednesday

The Houston area could see more rain and thunderstorms this week, according to the National Weather Service.

The Labor Day forecast is dry and hot, with highs expected near 90 degrees during the day.

More rain could come Tuesday, according to NWS, with a 20 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms, and a high of 91 degrees. Chances for rain will climb to 40 percent Tuesday evening, and dip down to 20 percent Wednesday.

The forecast for Wednesday night through Sunday is for clear skies, with highs in the high 80s and lows around 60.

7:45 a.m. Evacuation zone lifted near Crosby chemical plant after 'controlled burn'

A day after a controlled burn destroyed six final trailers of decomposing chemicals, authorities lifted the 1.5-mile evacuation zone around the troubled Arkema chemical plant in Crosby.

The company announced the decision early Monday morning in a press release crediting the Crosby Fire Department and unified command.

"Arkema thanks the unified command for their hard work and professionalism to ensure the safety of all during the post-Hurricane Harvey period," the statement said.

"Arkema will continue to work with its neighbors and the community to recover from the substantial impact of Hurricane Harvey."

SUNDAY, Sept. 3

10:21 p.m.: Gov. Abbott meets with Sen. Cornyn, Reps. McCarthy and McCaul to discuss Harvey

Elected officials committed themselves to help victims of Harvey at a meeting on Sunday and discussed Congress' response to the storm, Gov. Greg Abbott's office said.

Attendees committed to act "swiftly" to pass a funding measure that would help Texans, a statement read.

Attendees included U.S. Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Michael McCaul.

Monday, Cornyn planned to join House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and U.S. Reps. Randy Weber and Brian Babin in Beaumont for a briefing from emergency management officials on conditions in that inundated city.

9:17 p.m.: Houston trash pickup requires moving cars

City of Houston officials urged residents to move vehicles, trailers and debris from the roadways as they prepare to pick up trash on Monday.

Crews will begin work at 7 a.m. in Fosters Mill on Monday. A separate convoy will start at Kings Point on 7 a.m. Monday. Additional trucks will move to Kings Point after completing work at Barrington.

Any trash blocked by a vehicle will not be picked up, city officials said.

9:08 p.m.: City of contrasts: Some Houston residents in crisis, others find normal

In west Houston late Sunday morning, first responders went door-to-door to ensure people had evacuated homes still flooded more than a week after Hurricane Harvey roared through Texas. At that moment, in a dry neighborhood across town, a few dozen residents were enjoying brunch at Pax Americana: Brisket hash, honey-butter chicken, cold mimosas.

More than a week after the worst disaster in state history, Houston officials and residents began confronting a city of contrasts: Between those spared by Harvey, and those still in crisis. Between aiding people in need, and returning to business as usual. Between starting the rebuilding process, and pausing to reconsider the cost of unmitigated development.

For our full story, click here.

8:40 p.m.: Missing volunteer pulled from Cypress Creek



Nearly four days after Harvey's record flooding slammed a rescue boat into an Interstate 45 frontage road bridge, family members of the final, missing volunteer pulled his body from Cypress Creek in Spring.

Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey from Lufkin, disappeared on Wednesday around midnight along with two friends after their boat hit the bridge over the creek and capsized. One of them was rescued after clinging to a tree in the rushing water, but days later, after the rains let up and the creek level receded, Guillen and Tomas Carreon Jr. were still missing.

For the full story, click here.

8:21 p.m.: Mayor Turner: Houston is open for business

In west Houston late Sunday morning, first responders went door-to-door to ensure people had evacuated homes still flooded more than a week after Hurricane Harvey roared through Texas.

More than a week after the worst disaster in state history, Houston officials and residents began confronting a city of contrasts: Between those spared by Harvey, and those still in crisis. Between aiding people in need, and returning to business as usual. Between starting the rebuilding process, and pausing to reconsider the cost of unmitigated development.

A day after issuing a mandatory evacuation order for 300 people in flooded parts of west Houston  one of several areas that are likely to remain inundated for weeks longer  Mayor Sylvester Turner went on national Sunday talk shows with a bullish message for those thinking about visiting his beleaguered city.

"The airport system is up and running. The transit system is up and running. We've started picking up heavy debris," Turner said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Let me be very, very clear," he added. "The city of Houston is open for business."

8:17 p.m.: Numbers in George R. Brown, NRG Center dwindling

About 1,000 people are living in the George R. Brown Convention Center, and about 2,700 people are in the NRG Center as of Sunday, officials said.

The City of Houston said it aims to relocate the last 1,000 people by the end of the week.

So far, Harris County officials said, about 2,275 people have been relocated from the NRG Center.

There are 171 volunteers on site, those officials said.

6:37 p.m.: Fort Bend curfew, evacuation updates

The curfew in the unincorporated areas of Fort Bend County has been lifted, that sheriff's office said at 6:32 p.m. Sunday.

That office also said that the Levee Improvement District evacuation orders have been lifted. The county's Office for Emergency Management warned that there still could be flooded roads, fallen trees, displaced animals and standing water.

Low-lying areas near the Brazos and San Bernard rivers are still under voluntary evacuation.

"The conditions have improved enough to warrant a cautious lifting of these orders for much of the county," stated Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert, who also lifted the county's curfew.

6:30 p.m.: The Red Cross has updated emergency support figures

Saturday night, at least 32,399 people sought refuge in 226 Red Cross and partner shelters across Texas overnight. The Red Cross is also assisting the Louisiana state government with an emergency shelter which hosted nearly 1,700 people .

More than 2,700 Red Cross disaster workers are on the ground, and more than 660 are on the way.

Shelter supplies to support more than 85,000 people are on the ground.

Along with its partners, Red Cross served more than a half million (515,000) meals and snacks since the storm began.



5:39 p.m.: Mexican government says Harvey help to arrive by Tuesday

Amb. Carlos Sada, Mexico's undersecretary of foreign Affairs for North America, said Texas officials on Saturday night cleared the way for Mexican relief teams to begin arriving by Tuesday.

"We are ready to jump in and help as soon as possible," Sada said.

The Mexican government will send high-clearance trucks, all-terrain vehicles, cargo aircraft, boats, communications equipment, large generators, mobile community kitchens and a mobile water treatment plant.

For the full story, click here.

5:27: First Disaster Recovery Center opens in Houston

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday opened its first Disaster Recovery Center in Houston. The center is on the north end of the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown.

The agency is working to identify locations for additional centers, where residents affected by Tropical Storm Harvey can apply for aid, ask questions or resolve problems, said agency spokesman Peter Herrick Jr.

The center at the George R. Brown is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Another center opened Sunday at 1303 W. Gayle St. in the town of Edna, near Victoria southwest of Houston. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Herrick said.

5:02 p.m.: Shippin' down from Boston

Nine truckloads of food, formula, toiletries and blankets from the City of Boston will arrive at 9 p.m. at the Houston Food Bank.

Ed Emmett, Harris County Judge, said he would greet the trucks, backed by Marty Walsh, Boston's mayor.

Boston collected goods from Tuesday through Friday, the city said in a release.

4:13 p.m.: Last six Arkema chemical containers ignited

Arkema Inc. is igniting the remaining six containers of chemicals at its Crosby plant, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Fire Marshal's office said Sunday afternoon.

She declined to comment on how the company is setting off these six vehicles.

"They've started the operation," spokeswoman Rachel Moreno said.

Crosby residents should expect to see visible smoke around the area, she said. A 1.5-mile radius surrounding the plant has been evacuated.

The fire marshal's office called Arkema's ignition of the containers "a proactive approach to minimize the impacts to the community."

Company officials, who said they made the decision to set off the last six containers, said they believe that the chemicals in the trailers have been decomposing. Without the vehicles catching flames, however, they would not be able to know if the the chemicals are totally neutralized, spokesman Jeff Carr said.

For the full story, click here.

4:04 p.m.: Most Metro HOT lanes open Tuesday

Most HOT lanes managed by Metropolitan Transit Authority will reopen on Tuesday, officials said Sunday.

The one exception will be along Interstate 45, where officials are still evaluating the safety of the lanes.

All park and ride service will also resume after the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Along I-45, service will be detoured, but operational.

As of Sunday, Metro said 70 bus routes are in service, along with most rail service. The Red Line is running along all stops, while Green and Purple line trains are not running through the central business district.

3:26 p.m.: Navajo Nation to distribute supplies

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye and Vice President Jonathan Nez picked up toiletries, hygiene items, non-perishable food and school supplies at the First Indian Baptist Church of Houston.

They plan to distribute these goods to Navajo families in need. Right now, they're on the way to a Meyerland home, said Mihio Manus, a spokesman.

12:44 p.m.: So much water, it skipped a watershed

Storms and flooding from Harvey became so severe, water on the Colorado River jumped into the neighboring San Bernard watershed, according to the National Weather Service.

As they analyze flows from the rivers and watersheds, officials said Sunday it appeared levels in the Colorado plateaued, as San Bernard levels remained higher than officials predicted.

The conclusion of researchers was that Colorado water reached the watershed's natural peak and spilled into the San Bernard.

11:36 a.m.: Coast Guard says most ports are open

Most channels of the ports, including the Galveston Bay Entrance, are now open both day and night, the Coast Guard confirmed Sunday. The Houston Ship Channel is open from the entrance channel to Baytown Highlands, but only for vessels with a maximum 40-foot draft. The Houston Ship Channel above the Baytown Highlands is open to towing vessels transits.

At the Port of Freeport vessels with under a 38-foot draft can arrive during daylight. The Galveston Harbor and Texas City are also open, but only for vessels with a maximum 37-foot draft.

Bolivar Roads Anchorages A, B, and C are open at the pilot's discretion. The Coast Guard warns that there is a short duration use for bunkering and inspections.

11:16 a.m.: FEMA updates relief figures, 37,000 still in shelters

More than 37,000 spent the night in Texas shelters as the state slowly digs out from the fierce storms that flooded neighborhoods and sent thousands scrambling for higher ground.

In a Sunday morning update, FEMA officials said President Donald Trumps approval of disaster assistance authorized the federal government to pick up 90 percent of the cost of debris removal, something officials anticipate will strain area landfills and heavy haul trucking companies.

In the meantime, the Red Cross and others are caring for evacuees along the Texas coast at more than 270 shelters. FEMA has given Texas over the past days 4.7 meals, 4.3 million liters of water, 13,900 blankets and 13,400 cots.

10:59 a.m.: Dam releases continuing, with no further home flooding envisioned

Controlled releases continue from Addicks and Barker reservoirs, as city officials tamp down concerns that more homes could flood as waters recede.

A combined 13,300 cubic feet of water is flowing from the two reservoirs each second, according to the Harris County Flood Control District. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is managing the reservoirs.

As a result of the flows, flood control officials said the pools behind Addicks and Barker are shrinking, though it will be up to two weeks before homes impacted are out of the water.

In the meantime, officials do not expect more homes to flood downstream along Buffalo Bayou. City officials called for mandatory evacuations on Saturday, which led some to worry more flooding was imminent.

Houston District G Councilman Greg Travis sent notes Sunday trying to tamp down the concerns.

Let me make this simple: Do you have standing water in your house? If NO, then your power will NOT be cut and you do NOT have to evacuate this morning, Travis office wrote in a message to residents.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said the evacuations were necessary to ensure safety of residents and first responders. Electricity to the area was being shut off to protect everyone from downed lines.

10:35 a.m.: First-responders going door-to-door in West Houston mandatory evacuation area

CenterPoint and first responders are walking the flooded areas marked for mandatory evacuation in west Houston to determine where power needs to be shut off.

The area in question is from State Highway 6 to South Gessner and From Highway 10 south to Briar Forest. Residents in that area who have water in their homes are being asked to evacuate as soon as possible.

All CenterPoint employees will be accompanied by a law enforcement officer of someone from the fire department.

8:42 a.m.: Officials optimistic and cautious about Harvey rebuild

As Houston dries out, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a trio of national television appearances he doesnt want its businesses to dry up.

The City of Houston is open for business, Turner told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan.

Municipal workers report back on Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday, and Turner said the long rebuilding process will continue as Houston roars back to life.

I am expecting employers to open and employees to get back to work, he said.

Turner, however, did not diminish the gravity of what lies ahead. Debris piles the size of railcars must be hauled away from some inundated communities. He told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that simply cleaning up could take 10 days, while rebuilding is poised to last much longer.

"What we need is rapid repair housing, so people can stay in their homes while they make the bigger repairs, Turner told Todd.

The rebuild, however, might not be a return to Houston exactly as it has been, according to Gov. Greg Abbott.

It would be insane for us to rebuild on property that has been flooded multiple times, Abbott told ABC News Martha Raddatz.  I think everybody probably is in agreement that there are better strategies that we must employ.

Meanwhile, Abbott, Turner and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz both applauded the way the community pulled together in crisis as they made the television rounds.

People are hurting, Cruz told Raddatz. But in the face of that disaster we have seen incredible bravery.

7:56 a.m.: Four rescued from fierce Neches River waters

Four boaters stranded without fuel upstream from Beaumont on the Neches River were plucked from the waters by a U.S. Coast Guard recovery team on Saturday night, Jefferson County officials said.

The boaters called emergency dispatchers around 10:45 p.m., saying they believed they were about five or six miles upstream from Beaumonts Riverfront Park, tied off to a tree. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the four, and sent a swift water rescue team to their location to pick them up.

The Neches River is still a danger for boaters, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office said in a release. The current is swift and turbulent. That coupled with floating debris makes it very hazardous.

SATURDAY, Sept. 2

11:50 p.m. Mail delivery resumes in some neighborhoods

The U.S. Postal Service is trying to get back to normal delivery in Houston. But first, it'll deliver some mail on Sunday.

The Oak Forest post office, at 2499 Judiway, will resume delivery to Oak Forest residents on Sunday after a several-day interruption. At first, door-to-door service will include just the most urgent mail: checks and medications.

In other neighborhoods, the post office still isn't able to deliver. But about three dozen post offices are now open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily (including weekends) so residents can pick up U.S. Treasury checks and "identifiable medications." Customers must present proper ID to receive items. Get the full list of pickup stations here.

10:20 p.m. Fort Bend County lifts mandatory evacuation for some areas in Barker Reservoir

Some residents can reenter their homes near the Barker Reservoir in Fort Bend County, while others are still under a mandatory evacuation order.

For a list of which areas no longer are under mandatory evacuation, click here.

County officials caution that even though the evacuation order is lifted, returning may not be safe.

"Many neighborhoods within the Barker Reservoir area may still have hazards present such as flooded roads, fallen trees, displaced animals, and standing water," the county said in a statement Saturday evening. "Residents should use extreme caution when returning to their homes."

9:20 p.m. Harris County to help residents test well water

Harris County plans to help residents test private water wells for contamination in Tropical Storm Harvey's aftermath.

Floodwaters harbor bacteria, fungi, viruses and other contaminants that could have infiltrated private water wells. Water should be tested and chlorinated before drinking, county officials say.

Starting Tuesday, residents can pick up bottles to collect samples and have them tested at 11 locations around the county.

A list of locations can be found here.

8:30 p.m. Harvey victim found dead floating in Cypress Creek

Tomas Carreon-Esquivel, 25, became the 29th flood victim confirmed by the Harris County medical examiner.

Carreon-Esquivel's body was found floating in Cypress Creek, according to the medical examiner.

Officials estimate Carreon-Esquivel died on Friday at around 1:15 p.m. His body was found around 22411 Greenbrook Drive.

More than 50 people - including a veteran Houston police officer - have died or are feared dead in the Houston area and beyond in flooding or circumstances connected to Tropical Storm Harvey, according to local officials.

Our staff has the full story here.

7:30 p.m. Harris County flood control officials: no more uncontrolled releases from Addicks, Barker

Water is no longer spilling out of the north side of Addicks reservoir, Harris County Flood Control District Officials said Saturday.

That means flooding near Eldridge Parkway and Tanner Road from the uncontrolled releases is decreasing.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is still releasing about 13,300 cubic feet per second of water from Addicks and Barker reservoirs. This has been largely the same for days.

Water from Tropical Storm Harvey pooling in the reservoirs has caused widespread flooding upstream, while releases contributed to flooding of thousands of homes along Buffalo Bayou.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner called for a mandatory evacuation of west Houston homes that are inundated.

7:15 p.m. Harris County ramps up debris collection

People who live in unincorporated Harris County and need help with debris removal or repairs to their homes can call a hotline with questions: (713) 274-3880.

The hotline can help people answer questions about debris removal, permits needed to repair or rebuild homes or other buildings, and other general questions about basic needs.

"The major goal of the Harris County Residential Debris and Damage Assessment Hotline is to ensure that public roads and other infrastructure do not pose an immediate threat to public safety," the county stated in a news release Saturday. "Harris County Residential Debris and Damage Assessment teams are currently working to conduct safety and damage assessments, while clearing debris from public roads in areas where flood waters have receded."

6:15 p.m. FEMA registration applications top half a million

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received more than 507,000 applications for aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

FEMA has approved $114.7 million in aid to 161,000 people so far. About $33.6 million is for assistance with housing, such as paying displaced victims' rent, and $81 million will help victims replace personal property, pay for transportation, as well as medical and dental assistance.

5:40 p.m. Mayor Sylvester Turner orders mandatory evacuation of West Houston homes flooded by Buffalo Bayou and dam releases

Mayor Sylvester Turner ordered a mandatory evacuation of an area of West Houston which has been inundated by high waters on Buffalo Bayou.

The order affects areas of Houston south of I-10, north of Briarforest, east of Addicks and Barker reservoirs and west of Gessner.

About 300 people are believed to be in the area, which includes approximately 4,000 homes.

That part of Houston will likely be underwater for weeks as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs to empty them out in case they need to hold back water from future rains.

Our Ileana Najarro has the full story here.

5:20 p.m. Kingwood High School closed for foreseeable future, students to attend Summer Creek High

The Humble Independent School District said that students attending Kingwood High School will have to attend Summer Creek High School while the district attempts to restore Kingwood High from Hurricane Harvey damage.

"This will require a modified schedule," said spokesperson Jamie Mount. "Humble ISD has asked for families and staff to share input through a survey on scheduling options."

Mount said Kingwood high could be closed for the entire 2017-18 school year -- though it could open sooner if restoration work is completed.

"Under normal circumstances, we would never ask two large high schools to coexist under one roof," Mount said. "Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey took away normal."

4:15 p.m. Harris County homeowners can report damage to decrease home appraisals

The Harris County Appraisal district is encouraging homeowners to report damage from Hurricane Harvey so residents can lower their property tax bill.

The district said homeowners can report damage through the "HCAD app," which can be downloaded on iPhone, iPad or Android phones.

Residents can also report damage by calling (713) 821-5805, or emailing help@hcad.org. HCAD asks residents to provide name, address, phone number, account number and inches or feet of water that flooded victims' homes.

"The appraisal district can use this information to identify the most damaged neighborhoods and properties to help the homeowner next year when the property is reappraised January 1 by possibly reducing the value because of existing damage or ongoing repair work," said Roland Altinger, chief appraiser at HCAD.

4:00 p.m. City of Houston warns victims of insurance fraud

Houston officials said scammers are robo-calling flood victims and telling them they may not get covered for Hurricane Harvey damage unless they pay "past due" premiums.

City officials say this is a scam, and that real warnings come between 30 and 90 days before an insurance company rescinds coverage.

"Insurance companies and agents selling flood insurance policies do NOT use this process to communicate with customers about their flood insurance policies," officials said in a release.

The officials said victims receiving these robo-calls should call their insurance companies or the National Flood Insurance Program at 1-800-638-6620.

3:50 p.m. PetWell Partners to offer free vet services after Harvey

When PetWell Partners reopened its Bellaire clinic just a few days after Tropical Storm Harvey swept the region, David Strauss realized the toll the storm had taken on hundreds of desperate pet owners.

The co-founder of the company met a couple whose dog had been having seizures for three days. At one point, they brought it to a fire station to get oxygen, Strauss said.

"It's crazy," he said. "There are so many good people trying to help."

PetWell Partners, which reopened eight of its animal clinics throughout the Houston area, will offer free services and supplies for pets sickened or injured during the storm. Starting Monday, vets will provide basic screening and treatments at certain locations.

Our Katherine Blunt has the full story here.

3:20 p.m. James Harden of the Houston Rockets announces $1 million donation for relief

Chants of "Houston! Houston! Houston!" erupted in Hall E of the George R. Brown Convention Center Saturday when James Harden of the Houston Rockets strode in with Mayor Sylvester Turner at his side. The basketball star announced he would donate $1 million to Harvey relief.

"I am thankful for this guy right here," Turner said.

As Harden walked through the center-turned-shleter, fans ran up to him, taking selfies, getting autographs and receiving fist bumps.

"It's the first time I've seen you in person James, but I love you," a woman shouted as the star signed her pocket notebook.

3:15 p.m. Six-month-old infant swept away in Harvey floodwaters

Authorities in Walker County confirmed Saturday that a six-month-old baby was missing and had been swept away in gushing floodwaters on August 27.

Firefighters had working to to rescue two men trapped in their pickup in the swollen waters of Winters Bayou on Highway 150 near New Waverly and Coldspring, and heard screams nearby.

First responders found a couple up a tree, seeking refuge from the water. They had been fleeing Houston flooding, heading for Louisiana, said Jimmy Williams, with the New Waverly Fire Department.

They became trapped in high water on Highway 150, and had to flee their pickup.

"The current was so fast, it ripped the baby out of their arms," Williams said. "So the baby was lost."

Our St. John Barned-Smith has the full story here.

3:oo p.m. President Trump leaves Houston

President Donald Trump left Houston after meeting residents sheltered at NRG Center.

He arrived Saturday morning to meet with members of the Texas Delegation at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. He is expected to meet with members of the Louisiana Delegation and emergency response teams in Louisiana this afternoon.

1:15 p.m. Oil and gas workers reboard offshore rigs in Gulf of Mexico

Oil and gas workers are reboarding offshore platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico to assess damages after Tropical Storm Harvey.

On Saturday, personnel had returned to all five rigs evacuated during the storm. About 6 percent of 737 stationary production platforms remained evacuated.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is inspecting offshore facilities and monitoring efforts to restart production operations. It has not yet received any damage reports.

1:00 p.m. Church holds benefit for Saldivar family

By the time the flood waters receded and the white van reappeared, Virginia Saldivar was already expecting the worst.

But Saldivar, the grandmother of the four children who drowned in Greens Bayou and daughter in law of the the elderly couple in the van, will cherish her memories of the children as their short lives drew to a tragic end.

Belia and Manuel Saldivar, ages 81 and 84, were found in the front seats. The bodies of their four great-grandchildren -- ages 16, 14, 8 and 6 -- were found in the rear of the van.

"They were our life," Saldivar said. "That's what we're remembering  how wonderful they were."

A benefit was held Saturday at the Iglesia Cristiana Principe de Paz for the family of the six victims who were trapped in flood waters on Greens River Road.

The community room of the church filled with friends, extended family and members of the community coming together to show support for a family devastated by the flood that's taken over 50 lives.

"We want everyone to know that we're very thankful for all the love and support," Saldivar said. "It's really and truly been overwhelming."

12:50: Humble ISD announces back-to-school date

Humble ISD will reopen for the first day of school Sept. 7.

Kingwood High School and Summer Creek High School will reopen Sept. 11 because of the damage they sustained after the storm.

Staff members are required to report to work Sept. 5.

12:35 p.m. Last cruise stuck at sea due to Harvey makes port

For the more than 3,000 passengers aboard the Carnival Breeze, an extra week at sea due to Harvey's wrath ended on a steamy Saturday morning in Galveston.

The Breeze was the last of four ships to dock in the Port of Galveston's cruise terminal after being turned away last week as Harvey strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane. The cruise was originally supposed to end Sunday, and was given clearance to dock early Saturday.

Our Marialuisa Rincon has the full story here.

12:20 p.m. HISD offers more details on damages and displacement

Houston ISD officials said they've surveyed 245 schools as of early Saturday, with plans to reach the roughly 35 remaining campuses. About 200 schools had standing water, with 53 suffering "major" damage and 22 receiving "extensive" damage, which is more severe, Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby said.

Some schools may never be inhabitable again, Superintendent Richard Carranza said, but it's too early to make that judgment.

Carranza said a decision about relocating students to other campuses will be made no earlier than Tuesday. He's exploring the possibility of "double shifts" at some campuses, with students from one school attending classes in the morning to early afternoon, and students from another school coming into the same building for classes from early afternoon to evening.

Our Jacob Carpenter has the full story here.

12:15 p.m. President Trump arrives at NRG Center

President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrived at NRG Center Saturday to visit with those affected by the storm.

Read more here.

12:10 p.m. Cy-Fair ISD delays start of school to Sept. 11

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD has delayed the start of school from Sept. 6 to Sept. 11 because several campuses face sewage issues, Superintendent Mark Henry said in an announcement.

'This is a dynamic situation," he said. "It is difficult to predict other issues we may face in the coming weeks."

Staff will report to work Sept. 7.

The district we have extended its free meal program at Holbrook and Owens elementary schools and Cypress Lakes High School through Sept. 10.

12:05 p.m. Brazoria County issues mandatory evacuations

Brazoria County has issued a mandatory evacuation order for areas where that action had been voluntary. The order includes most areas west of State Highway 288.

Noon: Parents arrive to Carrillo Elementary School to feed their children

Deimin Ramirez, 28, tapped the wooden cafeteria table.

"Eat the pear too," she ordered her 7 and 5-year-old.

Ramirez was the first mother at Carrillo Elementary School Saturday morning receiving a free hot lunch for herself and her three daughters as part of a new HISD effort that launched Saturday to aid Harvey victims.

The brisket sandwiches, mashed potatoes and diced pears were a welcomed reprieve from the few beans and rice the Ramirez family subsisted on for days.

The remaining food stamps in her possession were barely enough for Ramirez to shop at the nearby Fiesta Mart, which itself had been running low on supplies for the storm's duration.

"They were hungry," Ramirez said of her daughters, as she uncapped a water bottle for her 2-year-old.

Water seeped into their one bedroom apartment a few blocks away from the school, but the only damage sustained was a soaked living room carpet that has already been torn out.

Structural damage to their house during Hurricane Ike forced the family to move into an apartment with a more manageable rent. Last year they moved again, this time into the apartments surrounding Fiesta and the school.

School officials put out calls to neighboring families in both English and Spanish announcing the free breakfast, lunch, and dinner available this weekend. Concerned some may have lost power and therefore missed the phone call, staff members printed out flyers on Saturday to deliver door-to-door.

As her girls wiped gravy off their mouths with the back of their hands, Ramirez called up a couple of her neighbors letting them know the school had food.

She packed up the leftovers--mostly pears--as she headed out to search for any milk at Fiesta.

"They're used to milk in the morning," Ramirez said. "We didn't have any since Saturday."

11:45 a.m. H-E-B resumes normal business hours at many Houston stores

Fifty-one H-E-B stores resumed normal hours Saturday as the company worked to restock its chain with essentials.

About 30 stores, including the Gulfgate, Bay City, Grand Parkway, Dairy Ashford, Friendswood and Lake Jackson locations, will keep modified hours through Sunday. All will close at 6 p.m. or later. Some will stay open until 10 or 11 p.m.

Four locations remained closed: Braeswood/Chimney Rock, Kingwood, Orange and Joe V's Smart Shop in Wallisville.

11:20: President Trump touches down at Ellington Field

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump touched down in Houston at Ellington Field with plans to meet residents affected by the storm and visit a relief shelter.

11:00 a.m. City of Houston asks some residents to refrain from normal water use

The West District and Turkey Creek wastewater treatment plants have flooded, and the City of Houston has asked residents in those area to refrain from flushing and using extra water to clean, shower or bathe until further notice. It's working to make repairs.

The following zip codes are affected: 77024, 77041, 77043, 77055, 77077, 77079, 77080 and 77094.

10:50 a.m. Houston ISD outlines widespread damage and student displacement

Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza said at a Saturday press conference there is a small chance the district will delay the start of school later than Sept. 11, but it's working to resume operations by then.

He said as many as 12,000 students will need to be temporarily relocated from damaged schools, some of which won't open for months. The district does not yet have a list of those schools.

10:05 a.m. Coast Guard continues rescue efforts in Port Arthur

The Coast Guard dispatched more than 200 personnel on Saturday to aid the Port Arthur area.

It deployed 27 shallow-draft vessels, which are capable of operating in flooded urban areas. Responders there have rescued more than 490 people and 155 pets in the past 24 hours.

9:45 a.m. Houston activists organize Trump protest

The Houston Socialist Movement and other organizations are planning to protest President Donald Trump when he visits a local relief center at noon. The location has not been disclosed.

In a statement, the activists said they plan to "send a powerful message of opposition to the President and the white supremacists and misogynists who support him."



9:30 a.m. Cy-Fair ISD offers free meals before reopening

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD is offering free meals for children and accompanying adults Sept. 2-4 at Owens and Holbrook elementary schools and Cypress Lakes High School. Food will be served from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The school district will reopen Sept. 6. The USDA has waived all free and reduced meal eligibility requirements through the end of the month.

9:00 a.m. Houston firefighters respond to house fire near Memorial

Houston firefighters are battling a one-alarm fire at a house on Whitewing Lane south of Memorial Drive. Flames have breached the roof in multiple places.

The department has also responded to a one-alarm fire at a house on Frey Road near Edgebrook.

8:15 a.m. Meteorologists expect almost no rain Labor Day weekend

Space City Weather's latest forecast anticipates warm, sunny weather with almost no chance of rain in the Houston area this weekend. Early next week, a cool front might increase the chance of rain, but it's not expected to accumulate.

The forecast anticipates that Hurricane Irma, now brewing in the Atlantic Ocean, will turn north before moving into the Gulf of Mexico later next week.

7:40 a.m. President Trump to meet with Harvey victims in Houston

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will arrive in Texas Saturday morning to meet individuals affected by the storm, visit a relief center and meet with members of the Texas Delegation at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Texas. They will also meet with members of the Louisiana Delegation and emergency response teams in Louisiana this afternoon. They visited Corpus Christi and Austin earlier this week.

6:35 a.m. Trump announces Sunday as National Day of Prayer for Harvey

Trump announced Sunday would be a National Day of Prayer for Hurricane Harvey victims, national responders and recovery efforts, according to a press release from the White House.

"I urge Americans of all faiths and religious traditions and backgrounds to offer prayers today for all those harmed by Hurricane Harvey, including people who have lost family members or been injured, those who have lost homes or other property, and our first responders, law enforcement officers, military personnel, and medical professionals leading the response and recovery efforts," the statement read.



6:15 a.m. Benefit to be held for family of 6 who died during Harvey

A benefit will be held in north Houston for the family of six that was found dead
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VICTORIA  Oh my God!

That was the reaction of Micaela Ramos, 10, whod slept as Hurricane Harvey came down Santa Rosa Street, when she saw the scene Saturday morning outside her grandmothers home.

Dozens of trees were down in the historic district, the original town site. The pavement was carpeted with branches. Leaves were plastered to houses and vehicles.

It was crazy, said Micaelas dad, Abraham Ramos, 34, who had stayed up late to experience natures fury. There was a bunch of wind, rain. It was coming down pretty freakin hard.

RELATED: Meteorologist warns S.A., 'Don't let your guard down'

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The worst damage occurred after hed turned in at 3:30 a.m., but his mother-in-law was awake to hear the soundtrack of sheds being ripped apart and large trees dismembered.

You could hear things tearing, said Juanita Montoya, 58, who couldnt sleep due to the absence of air conditioning caused by downed power lines.

More for you Report: Family of 6 feared dead after van swept away in Houston flood waters

Click through the slideshow to see damage from Hurricane Harvey across Texas.

Josh Burris, a neighbor, endured a parade of gawkers drawn by an unusual spectacle: his car, parked with two wheels in the street and two on the curb, was lifted by roots that emerged from his water-soaked yard as a large tree fell in front of his house.

Burris, 38, explained the car had been hit days earlier by a passing motorist, a crash that pushed it partly onto the curb and disabled it. The falling tree lifted up the car and hit a second large tree, knocking it over too.

RELATED: Port Aransas officials launch rescue operation after 'major damage'

I havent seen this much devastation in Victoria, said Mike Milson, 53, after driving past the hung up vehicle and through the maze of broken limbs en route to check his office nearby. Its unbelievable.

Veronica McManus, who lives on the street, took comfort in knowing none of her neighbors were injured, even though she had four trees blown down.

It was a pretty rough night, McManus, 55, said. There was a couple of times I thought wed have no roof left.

Authorities began assessing the damage here about noon and reported no loss of life, though they hadnt yet canvassed outlying areas.

Getting the streets clear of debris and power restored were immediate issues, but Victoria County Deputy Bryan Simons, who estimated the storm packed 90 mph gusts overnight, said the continuing rain made catastrophic flooding the main fear.

A boil water notice and a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. will continue in effect until further notice. The Guadalupe River is forecast to crest at more than 32 feet here on Wednesday, about two feet higher than seen in the devastating 1998 flood, Simon said, urging local residents to pack critical documents, medications and clothing "in case they need to leave very, very quickly."

RELATED: Bexar County added to disaster declaration

In Gonzales and DeWitt counties, field after field was flooded and rising water lapped at roadways. Three empty water storage tanks  each could hold 750 barrels  had toppled over, rolled over fences and came to rest near one highway.

The few people who ventured to the Walmart in the county seat of Gonzales looked like they'd taken a beating  hair plastered to their faces, shoulders hunched and tempers running high.

Denise Christopherson got into an argument with a cashier that left her crying. It was silly, really, she admitted later  the staffer wouldn't get her a salad bowl  but Christopherson, 66, was pretty sure her place in Port Aransas was, "if not destroyed, under water," and it was just too much.

I hadnt cried until today, she said, wiping tears from her cheeks. I brought all of my earrings. I must have hundreds of pairs, and all of them are from people Ive known through the years. They all tell a story.

Christopherson, 66, a retired Austin social worker, had left Port Aransas on Thursday with her husband, her best friend, her father-in-law and two dogs, a circus without the tent, she said. They found motel rooms and she had gone to Walmart to get her group some basics  food, water, a toothbrush and toothpaste. A breast cancer survivor, Christopherson said she had to learn how to deal with the unknown.

RELATED: One person dead in Rockport as Harvey hit the Gulf Coast

You can waste all your energy worrying about tomorrow, but then you wont have the strength left for today, she said.

Eastward from Gonzales, the roads passed through increasing devastation. In Cuero, a gas station was tipped over in its parking lot, gas pumps uprooted. Half the stoplights were broken, and store awnings looked as if theyve been bulldozed. As in Victoria, large trees in front of historic homes were lying this way and that.

The few people out at a local Subway struggled to get out of their carsthe wind so strong it pushed doors shut.

Nothing was open and we were hungry. All we have at the hotel is canned goods, said Darcel Green, who has lived in Cuero for more than 55 years and saw the interior of her home destroyed by the 1998 flood. When Harvey approached, her family gathered precious belongings and got rooms at a hotel.

Things can be replaced, but our lives cant, you know? she said.

zeke@express-news.net
Fort Myers, Fla.-based St. Mark's Surgical Center experienced a ransomware attack between April 13 and April 17.

Upon learning of the incident, St. Mark's officials commenced an investigation to determine the scope of the attack. Healthcare officials hired a third-party firm to conduct an external investigation. The firm concluded the attack was ransomware May 8.

Officials reported 33,877 individuals were affected in the incident, according to an Aug. 9 submission to HHS' Office for Civil Rights breach portal.

There is no evidence of unauthorized use of or access to patient information as a result of this incident, according to St. Mark's officials. However, the center's server contained patient information such as names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and treatment information.

To avoid future security incidents, officials have installed a more robust firewall and installed a backup and disaster recovery system. They have also offered affected individuals one year of free credit monitoring services.

Click here to view the full notice.

Editor's note: Becker's reached out to St. Mark's Surgical Center for comment and will update as more information becomes available.
State health officials cited Penn State Health's Milton S. Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center in the death of a 6-year-old boy who was admitted to the emergency room Jan. 10 with low body temperature, according to the Lebanon Daily News.

Here are seven things to know.

1. While the boy died the day after he was admitted to the ER, hospital authorities weren't informed of the situation until March 3. The Pennsylvania Safety Authority relayed the information to the hospital after it received a report on the death via an anonymous letter written by a hospital employee.

2. After being told of the incident, the hospital waited until March 29 to alert the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The health department subsequently initiated an investigation April 12.

3. According to the health department's investigation, the boy was admitted to the hospital with a temperature of 89.4 degrees. Hospital staff placed the boy in a heated blanket and monitored his temperature as it gradually rose to 98 degrees between 8 p.m. and midnight.

4. The boy remained wrapped in the heated blanket with its setting on high throughout the night. No other temperatures were documented until 10 a.m. when a physician discovered the patient had no vital signs. His temperature was 107.6 degrees. Efforts to save the boy were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at 5:39 p.m.

5. The night nurse claimed to take the boy's temperature, but failed to record them.

"I know I took temps. I was in the room every hour doing eye drops. I must have not documented, I did not have the computer with me. I was probably busy with something else," the nurse, who was from an outside agency, told DOH investigators, according to Lebanon Daily News.

6. Health officials cited Hershey Medical Center for multiple infractions, including failure to report a serious incident within 24 hours, failure to meet standards of care and failure to ensure the orientation of outside agency nurses.

7. In a statement obtained by Lebanon Daily News, Hershey Medical Center expressed remorse at the death and took accountability for the errors. However, the hospital said the boy had "ongoing, complex and life-limiting health issues" upon admission that may have included a blood infection.

"As an organization that holds itself accountable for providing the highest quality care while protecting the safety of patients, employees and visitors, we recognize this situation as an unacceptable failure," said the hospital, according to the Lebanon Daily News. "We expect more of ourselves as a system and as individuals committed to the highest standards of care for each person we serve. We have responded with the utmost of focus and determination to do better. During the DOH on-site investigation, we immediately developed a corrective plan of action for each issue identified. Just as importantly, we launched our own investigation to determine what happened, how it happened and how to prevent it from ever occurring again."

More articles on quality:

Children's Hospital Colorado to launch 25 clinical trials in next 6 months

Keck Medicine of USC names 1st chief patient safety officer

26% of readmissions are medication related, study shows
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George Freeman says the Conservative Party has joined in a 'creeping sense of hostility' towards business since the Brexit

Theresa May's government appears to be "flirting with anti-capitalism", an influential Conservative backbencher has warned.

Former minister George Freeman, who was appointed chairman of the Prime Minister's Policy Board last year, said the Tory campaign for June's general election showed a "woeful" lack of support for enterprise.

And he said it was "inexplicable" that the Conservative Party had joined in a "creeping sense of hostility" towards business across British politics since last year's Brexit vote.

"Of all the distortions of Conservatism which this year's weirdly dissonant Conservative campaign perpetrated, focusing instead on a hard Brexit message which worries business, the lack of championing of British enterprise was the most woeful," Mr Freeman told the Daily Telegraph.

"Thirty years after unleashing a renaissance of enterprise which reversed this country's economic prospects in the space of just seven years, a Conservative government confronted by a growing anti-globalisation backlash seems to be flirting with anti-capitalism."

The Mid-Norfolk MP, who was life sciences minister under David Cameron but lost his government post when Mrs May came to power, said it was right for a Tory administration to fight against "fat cattery and cosy cartel capitalism", but said the party should always promote "real entrepreneurship".

He urged fellow Tories to champion capitalism at a time when "popular support for business is waning" , particularly among the young.

"The truth is that a whole generation has lived through a period in which the benefits of capitalism have not been obvious to them," he said.

"Is it any wonder that the virtues and benefits of capitalism are not apparent to them? Why would you support capitalism if you have no prospect of owning any capital?"
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan takes part in a release of doves as a show of respect for those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire (Yui Mok/PA)

Hundreds of thousands of revellers have marked the first day of the Notting Hill Carnival with a series of poignant tributes to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Politicians, residents and survivors of the tragedy came together for the annual August bank holiday celebration to commemorate those lost in the disaster, and pay tribute to the scores of emergency service workers who tried to save them.

At least 80 people were killed as a result of the fire, which engulfed the 24-storey apartment block on June 14, just half a mile from the west London carnival route in Ladbroke Grove.

The streets around the site of the tower and the Lancaster West estate where it stands were protected by a special police cordon, to mark a quiet zone of reflection for those wishing to pay their respects.

The official opening ceremony on Sunday morning began with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves as a small act of remembrance to mark the tragedy.

The white birds were released from the hands of survivors and local residents, as well as leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council Elizabeth Campbell, mayor of London Sadiq Khan and local MP Emma Dent Coad.

Ms Dent Coad addressed the Grenfell generation, and said the day marked a moment to set aside our burden of sadness that people had carried in the weeks since the disaster unfolded.

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She also praised the areas amazing community, and added: Today, carnival is for you. Set aside your sadness and worries, smile, dance and sing along. And we will have the most wonderful, musical, colourful and lovable carnival ever.

Remember you are the Grenfell generation, and you are special.

Carnivalists, smattered with paint and wearing brightly-coloured clothes, flooded into the streets around Notting Hill ahead of the commencement of the parade in the early afternoon.

Set against a backdrop of blue sky and blazing sunshine, drummers, costumed-dancers and smiling residents all travelled the slow course along the tree-lined thoroughfares, singing along to music blaring from the numerous party-buses marking their route.

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Volunteers selling Love For Grenfell merchandise to raise money for survivors and local fire and rescue services, stood at the boundary of the main parade and the roads leading to the estate where the blackened shell of Grenfell Tower still stands.

Nicholas Burton, a 19th floor resident of the building, was among the volunteers and said the carnival meant everything to those that survived.

He said: This is what the community is all about.

Notting Hill Carnival has been going on since before I was born and its built up layers and layers and layers of importance as its gone.

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Scores of people wearing green t-shirts, scarves and accessories were seen along the surrounding pavements, and signs reading Green For Grenfell stood in intervals along the official parade route.

The colour had been chosen by local primary school children to commemorate the disaster alongside the celebratory multi-national flags that pay tribute Notting Hills diverse community.

One Ladbroke Grove resident, John Maxwell Worrell, stood decorating the outside of his apartment with green balloons in honour of the campaign.

I think its affected the whole community in every possible way, he said.

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Along with the many posters, banners and decorations lining the route, a heavy police presence oversaw the celebrations, following the a declaration by the Metropolitan Police that an intense security operation would be put in place to safeguard passing crowds.

Steel barriers, concrete blocks and weapons checks were among the measures enforced by officers to protect the world-famous carnival against the threat of a Barcelona-style terror incident, as well as acid attacks.

Police later said 48 arrests were made, including one on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, and four over assaults of police officers.

At 3pm, attendees marked a minutes silence, followed by a spontaneous round of applause, which echoed through the surrounding streets in north Kensington.

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Revellers also came to thank attending firefighters with hugs and kisses, many of whom had battled to save victims caught in the blaze.

Speaking at the opening of Sundays festivities, traditionally the more family-orientated of the carnivals two-day celebrations, Sadiq Khan pledged to redouble our efforts to support this community.

He said: We make sure we have in our thoughts and our prayers all of those affected by the awful Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Part of that pledge is making sure we get justice, we find out exactly what happened, we make sure those responsible are held to account, and also so this never, ever, ever happens again.
A man holds a campaign poster of Jimmy Morales during a gathering to show support for Ivan Velasquez (AP/Moises Castillo)

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has announced he is expelling the head of a UN anti-corruption commission that is investigating his campaign's financing.

But the order was blocked hours later by the country's top court.

A video posted on the government's Twitter site early on Sunday showed Mr Morales declaring Ivan Velasquez "non grata" and ordering him to leave the country immediately.

He also announced he was firing Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales for failure to carry out the expulsion.

Mr Morales said nothing of kicking out the entire commission of foreign experts, but the expulsion would leave its future unclear.

Two years remain on its mandate.

However, by midday Francisco de Mata Vela, head of Guatemala's Constitutional Court, said that it had issued a temporary injunction blocking the order to expel Mr Velasquez.

The court will now analyse the case before reaching a definitive decision. It was not clear how long that would take.

Mr Velasquez heads a 10-year-old commission of experts that has worked with Guatemalan prosecutors to root out corruption in the country.

It was key to bringing down former president Otto Perez Molina, who was forced to resign in 2015 and remains in prison.

Chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana, working with the UN commission, announced on Friday that she was asking the Supreme Court to recommend stripping Mr Morales of his immunity from prosecution in order to investigate financing of his 2015 campaign, when he ran on the slogan "Neither corrupt nor a crook".

If the court agrees, the decision on immunity would be made by Congress.

The prosecutor said Mr Morales had refused to account for more than 800,000 US dollars in campaign financing and had hidden his own party's accounts.

Mr Velasquez said in the joint news conference with Ms Aldana that financing of some campaign expenditures could not be explained.

Mr Morales has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Some 2,500 people demonstrated in the capital on Saturday to demand Mr Morales resign.

The embassies of international donor countries that support the UN commission - United States, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, as well as the European Union - issued a joint statement regretting Mr Morales' decision.

The commission "has played a vital role in the fight against impunity and corruption that undermine security and prosperity in Guatemala. The decision to expel Commissioner Ivan Velasquez harms the ability of CICIG to achieve its mandate," the statement said.

US Rep Eliot Engel, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed disappointment in Mr Morales' decision.

In a statement he said the US government would examine the future of its foreign assistance to Guatemala.

About 50 people gathered on Sunday at the commission's headquarters, among them some foreign ambassadors along with Guatemala's human rights prosecutor, in a show of support for Mr Velasquez.

The crowd chanted: "Friend Ivan the people are with you."

AP
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Conor McGregor has said he is bringing out a brand of whiskey at his post-fight press conference, writes Ciara Phelan.

Walking to the podium at the T-Mobile Arena after the Crumlin native was stopped in the 10th round by Mayweather, McGregor held up a bottle and shouted "Notorious Irish whiskey coming soon."

"I'm going to take over the Irish whiskey market and this is delicious," he said.

McGregor addressed Mayweather as a "composed individual."

"It was a good fight, I tried to bust you up in the early rounds but you are one composed individual," he said.

"You switched up your game plan three times.

"I thought you were being outboxed, then you went to the ropes then you came forward with our hands up.

"I didn't expect you to have three game plans.

"It was a hell of a fight, I have this patch in fights when I get wobbly, it's more fatigue.

"I thought it was 5-4 going into round 10 and I would like to have seen the bell to see what's what."

McGregor was non-committal about his future.

"I'm young, I'm fresh and I'm ready, I was just tired in there, I wasn't dazed or rattled.

"I'm going to hit Ibiza for a childhood friend's wedding and going to hire a 100 foot yacht.

"Those are my plans and then we'll see what's next.

"This was some buzz, to come in and face this man. There were so many doubters, people said it wouldn't happen and then they said I wouldn't lay a glove on him.

"I have many options in mixed martial arts and I'm sure opportunities will present themselves in boxing.

"You can say what you want but I worked my ass off for this.

"I need to get over that dip, it's happened a few times. I've reached great heights and I'll continue to reach great heights."
The Taoiseach intends to ask the Egyptian President to allow Ibrahim Halawa to return to Ireland following his trial on Monday.

Leo Varadkar has said he will phone President Sisi and it is his "hope and expectation" that Mr Halawa will be sent home as soon as possible.
It is said that Lucy Kennedy is set to host the new series of Irelands Got Talent on TV3.

The Six OClock Show presenter will act as Ant and Decs counterparts here on our shores as the show is set to follow the same format of the British version.

This means the show will travel up and down the country searching for Irelands most talented to appear in a week of live finals.

It was also reported that Denise Van Outen, comedian Jason Byrne and RuPauls Drag Race star Michelle Visage will act as the shows judges.

Unfortunately due to a disagreement over a contract fee, Louis Walsh will not be acting as a judge.

Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, a source said, "There has been an exhausting search for the right balance.

"Denise and Jason are household names but Michelle Visage is an international star. She has personality and class and a string of incredible one-liners.

Auditions for the show are scheduled nationwide for November, with the series being broadcast on Saturday nights from January 2018.
Brexit Secretary David Davis is heading for a Brussels showdown, with a demand for the European Commission to be more "flexible" in negotiations on the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

With the third round of formal talks beginning on Bank Holiday Monday in the Belgian capital, Mr Davis is pushing for EU negotiator Michel Barnier to be less rigid in his refusal to discuss the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and Europe.

Mr Barnier insists that progress must be made on key aspects of the withdrawal deal, including the UK's "divorce bill", ex-pat citizens' rights and the Irish border, before there is any talk of future arrangements for crucial issues such as trade.

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU states will decide in October whether the divorce talks have got far enough to move on to the second phase.

But Mr Davis is expected to urge Brussels to show more "imagination" to drive talks forward.

His Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) has in the last week published a slew of papers setting out Britain's vision for a "deep and special" future partnership, dealing with issues ranging from the role of the European Court of Justice to customs arrangements and data protection.

Officials said the documents showed that conversations about the exit deal are inextricably linked with the shape of the future relationship.

And a UK Government source indicated that Mr Davis will warn Brussels not to "drag its feet" in discussions which must be completed in time for the deadline of March 2019.

"This round of negotiations will focus on thrashing out the technical detail on important matters related to us leaving the EU, and will act as a stepping stone to more substantial talks in September," said the source.

"The UK has been working diligently to inform the negotiations in the past weeks, and has published papers making clear our position on a wide range of issues from how we protect the safe flow of personal data, to the circumstances around Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"Now, both sides must be flexible and willing to compromise when it comes to solving areas where we disagree.

"As the EU itself has said, the clock is ticking so neither side should drag its feet."

Mr Barnier infuriated some in London by his response to the DExEU papers, tweeting that while he was "looking forward" to discussing them, the "essential" issue was to make progress on citizens' rights, the financial settlement and Ireland.

Brussels is understood to be frustrated at Mr Davis's refusal to set out the UK's proposals for calculating its final financial settlement with the EU, which some have estimated could come to 50-80 billion.

The two men are due to meet on Monday before leaving teams of negotiators to thrash out technical details over the remainder of the week, leading up to a press conference at the Commission's Berlaymont headquarters on Thursday.

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: "After two faltering rounds of negotiations, there is still a startling lack of clarity on the Government's Brexit priorities.

"David Davis is calling for more 'flexibility' and 'imagination' from Brussels but is yet to put forward a clear and serious offer on any of the key negotiating issues. The Government's incoherent and inadequate position papers on Brexit have left more questions than answers and show the Government remains divided and unprepared for the huge task ahead.

"Instead of 'constructive ambiguity', we need a government that can deliver a strong Brexit deal. That means committing now to transitional arrangements and reaching a long overdue agreement on key issues such as citizens' rights."

AP
A group of four men have been arrested after an alleged attempt to drag a woman into a car.

South Wales Police said they are trying to find the two men who helped save the victim from an alleged attempted abduction in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a young boy.

Police were called to a report of a domestic incident in Wythenshawe, Manchester, at about 12.05am on Sunday and discovered the body of the youngster when they entered the property.

Officers also learned that a man and a woman had left the address in Beaford Road to go to hospital.

The woman is being treated for serious injuries in hospital while the man is being questioned in custody.

The victim has not yet been formally identified and a post-mortem examination will take place later.

Superintendent Denise Worth, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "I know the community will be horrified and saddened to hear this tragic news this morning, and our thoughts at this time are with the family, friends and all others within the local community who may be affected by this incident.

"I want to offer my assurances that we have launched a full murder investigation and have a team of detectives working to establish exactly what led to this young boy's death.

"Although we have made an arrest, the investigation is at the early stages and I would urge people not to speculate on this deeply-distressing incident.

"There will be a scene at the property whilst officers investigate and you will see more police in the area in the coming days.

"If you have any information to pass on, or you have concerns, please get in touch with one of our officers."

Anyone with information should contact police on 0161 856 2239, 101 quoting incident number 14 of 27 August 2017, or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

A cordon is in place around the modern semi-detached house in a quiet residential area.

A police van is also outside the address, which appeared to be a rental property.

Also within the cordon was a Volkswagen Polo car, parked in the drive.

Neighbours said they were woken by the sounds of sirens from police cars and ambulances shortly after midnight on Saturday.

One said: "I have seen a little boy play outside from time to time but I have never spoken to anyone who lives there. It's a shock because this is a really quiet street."

Another said they thought a man, woman and child had lived at the address for about three months.

AP
People on the south coast of England have been warned to stay away from beaches and to keep doors and windows closed due to a chemical 'haze' in the area.

Emergency services issued the warning near the East Sussex coast after up to 50 people complained of irritation to their eyes and throats.

Sussex Police said: "This seems to have been caused by an unknown haze coming in from the sea, but the source has not yet been established."

East Sussex Fire and Rescure Service said the "chemical incident" was ongoing.

The first calls were made to the emergency services just before 5pm.

Police said the source of the haze has not yet been established.

A spokesman said: "Emergency services are treating people at Birling Gap and clearing the area.

"People living along the coast in the area have been advised to keep doors and windows shut and to move away from the Birling Gap area in particular."

Some sort of chemical incident at Birling Gap, eyes are streaming and there's a strong smell of Chlorine in the air pic.twitter.com/rIPMaS58m4  @Kyle_Crickmore (@Kyle_Crickmore) August 27, 2017

The RNLI said that "possibly some kind of gaseous fumes" had drifted over the scene and a significant number of people on cliff tops had been struck down with symptoms including irritation, sore eyes and vomiting.

Fears from the coastguard that people could be trapped on the beach saw the RNLI launch all-weather lifeboats from Eastbourne and Newhaven to the Birling Gap area.

Birling Gap some weird gas leak. People crying. Ambulances called. Don't go to Birling Gap at the moment  jadhav.eth (@samkoyna) August 27, 2017

There was a doctor on board the Eastbourne lifeboat.

A spokesman said: "We have been checking along the shoreline to try and ensure that everyone is safe."

Beautiful afternoon at Birling Gap cut short by some weird mist, burning everyone's eyes which led to the beach and cliff being evacuated  Dan Sankey (@electroblankets) August 27, 2017

He said a "plume" had drifted across the area bringing "some sort of substance" with it which seemed to affect a number of people.
German automakers must invest more in electric vehicles and take on Elon Musk's Tesla, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff said.

Peter Altmaier said he was thoroughly disappointed by German auto executives following the diesel-emissions scandal and that he was also thinking about the future of the 600,000 employees in the industry.

Tesla's Model X. Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff Peter Altmaier wants the best electric cars to be built in Germany. Credit:Tesla

"When is our automobile industry, which is so good, actually going to be in a position to build a car that travels 50 kilometres further than a Tesla and costs 10,000 less?" Altmaier said at a public forum in Berlin on Saturday. "It must be possible to set this as a goal."

Tesla's Germany website shows a Model X Tesla with a range of as much as 417km selling for 91,250 ($137,095). Tesla has added a more affordable vehicle, the Model 3 sedan, which starts at $44,100, with initial deliveries in July.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is set to announce millions in extra funding for his pet project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, after visiting the power station on Monday morning.

The money will be spent on meeting some of the cost of the $29 million feasibility study and will come from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

It represents a major new investment from the federal government, which has only committed $500,000 so far to the project, despite Mr Turnbull frequently championing Snowy Hydro 2.0 as a game-changer for the east coast electricity market.
By the time you read this there will still be 119 shopping days before Christmas, but if you inhale deeply, you can already smell the profits being made from the most wonderful time of the year in that uniquely yuletide category: celebrity perfumes.

The latest of which has been a staggering success, albeit at the budget end of the market: a men's fragrance from the most unlikely of creators, radio pranksters turned television personalities Hamish Blake and Andy Lee.

Hamish Blake and Andy Lee have Nova's drive team nipping at their heels. Credit:Simon Schluter

And at just $29.99 a bottle, Andy by Hamish, billed as a "smart, casual fragrance", has been selling by the bucket load, with industry sales figures leaked to PS indicating about 30,000 bottles of the stuff was sold in its first three hours of going on the market.

Online sales have now been limited to one bottle per customer, though a cynic could argue such strategies are deliberately used to create an aura of unbridled demand for the product.
Samuel, pictured above, was last publicly seen in early 2016 as part of a campaign featuring the faces of numerous asylum seeker babies who were born in Australia but wanted by the government to return with their families to Nauru. Since then, Naomi and Samuel have enjoyed a relatively calm and stable life in Australia. Even though the government saw the High Court refuse a challenge from human rights advocates for a big group of asylum seekers living here for medical reasons to remain in Australia, Naomi said it appeared to be happy enough to let many of them remain in the community. For Samuel, this has meant enjoying all Sydney and Australia has to offer. Visits to the zoo and playing with other kids in a nearby park have been highlights of his young life.

The prospect of their meagre income support and accommodation disappearing has Naomi despairing about what the future might hold for her family, and in particular, what Samuel stands to lose. "My husband and I have been through so much," she said. "The experience of Nauru traumatised us. But we are very proud of ourselves that our son was born in Australia and has had the privilege of possibilities here; the fresh air, the freedom." A spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said that "every IMA [Illegal Maritime Arrival] transferred from a regional processing centre to Australia for temporary medical assistance was aware that once their medical needs were met they would return to Nauru or Manus". He said people would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has slammed the plan to end income and accommodation support, describing the move as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's "weakest move yet". In a strongly worded rebuke, Mr Shorten said the decision was a "new low" from the government. Mr Shorten said that kicking people onto the streets with no support is "needlessly cruel and really, really dumb". "It won't fix anything. It's just hurting vulnerable and sick people for the sake of it," he said. But Human Services Minister Alan Tudge has defended the move, declaring the asylum seekers won't be receiving any further taxpayer support.

Mr Tudge said the asylum seekers facing the new conditions had received medical treatment in Australia "and consequently now they are required to go back to Nauru, or to PNG, or indeed back to their home country". "That is what this is about, and it is consistent ... with the principle that anybody who arrives by boat to our shores, won't be settled in Australia; they will be settled elsewhere. That is what this is about," he told the ABC. The Greens have vowed to try and use Parliament to stop the government's move. Leader Richard Di Natale said on Sunday the minor party was seeking advice on whether the use of a new "final departure Bridging E Visa"  expected to be issued to asylum seekers from Monday  can be overturned when the Senate returns in a week's time. "We do call on members of the crossbench and the Labor Party to support us in doing everything we can to stop this unspeakable cruel act getting through the Senate," he said. Human rights lawyers believe that about 370 people, including more than 50 babies born in Australia and 66 children born overseas, are highly likely to be captured by the government's decision to place new bridging visa conditions on dozens of asylum seekers as of Monday.

The cohort also includes 83 single men and 14 single women. More than 20 of the asylum seeker women have suffered sexual assault or rape in their past. "This decision is about politics not people," said Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre. "It is unconscionable to force families to choose between homelessness or certain harm in the offshore detention centres. We have had to advise all of our clients, 370 people, nearly one-third of which are children, that it appears that the government will force them out of their homes, leaving them destitute and homeless. "These families are living in our communities. Building their lives. They have woken today to terrifying news. There are kids who will be in classrooms this week who on Sunday woke up to incredible uncertainty. They will be confused and afraid." The asylum seekers captured by the "final departure" visa conditions all tried to enter Australia by boat.

The majority of them are Iranians, Syrians and Afghanis from minority backgrounds. Sri Lankan Tamils and people from the Burmese minority group Rohingya are also included in the group. While adult asylum seekers living in Australia on medical grounds have been prevented from being able to work, the children have been able to go to school. Under the new visa conditions, children will still be able to go to school until they turn 18. Those aged over 18 are denied any educational opportunities. Those issued with the new visa conditions will be given work rights in order for them to try to earn an income to pay for accommodation, food and other expenses while they remain in Australia. They will also have some medical support and access to a case officer.
Australians think doctors, scientists and farmers contribute the most to society and believe almost equally that priests, politicians and journalists are a detriment to our wellbeing.

But it's farmers, factory workers and tradies who do the most for us and get the least recognition for their work.

The Australian National University released the Australian Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Science report earlier this week. It showed Australians have a positive attitude towards science, but we have some interesting conflicts about the benefits scientists bring to our lives.

Most of us recognise that while some professions "contribute a lot to the wellbeing of society" they are not always viewed as prestigious. It's not surprising that while many people view doctors as more respected than tradespeople they also recognise both give a lot to society.
Indigenous communities across Queensland have received a $120 million boost, expected to strengthen infrastructure. The money has been designated go towards improved facilities for managing water, wastewater, solid waste and creating job opportunities. The far north Queensland community of Aurukun is one of the communities likely to benefit from the funding. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mark Furner, Minister for Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, said the Indigenous Councils Critical Infrastructure Program would improve the health of communities. "The program is about ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities have infrastructure to improve living conditions and provide a sustainable future," Mr Furner said.

"This funding will be tailored to each community, supporting the infrastructure they need now and into the future, helping to close the gap on disadvantage." He said the program would also develop skills needed locally to maintain the new infrastructure. The project follows state budget announcements in June which allocated $25.7 million to help break barriers of disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders - through a focus on employment, education and preservation of culture. Remote area councils spend up to seven times more on projects when compared to metropolitan locations, Mr Furner said, due to issues like limited access and distance. He made the announcement while visiting the remote, predominantly Indigenous areas of Mornington Island, Aurukun and Pormpuraaw - all three of which originated as Reserves or Christian Missions.
A man was dragged from a cab, then run over after an altercation with a taxi driver in Brunswick on Saturday night.

Witnesses told police the taxi was parked on the side of Moreland Road, near Nicholson Street, about 9.15pm.

A man was arguing with the driver outside the taxi before the driver got in and drove off, police said.

The man gave chase and reportedly continued the verbal altercation through the driver's side window.
Seven out of 10 children are glued to devices when they're in the car, prompting fears it is curbing crucial family connection and child development.

The study of more than 1000 people commissioned by Ford Australia found 76 per cent of parents with children aged 3 to 16 said their child was typically on a device or watching digital media on car trips.

27/8/17 Rebecca and Adrian Zosel do not allow their children Oscar,7, Liliana, 5, and Edith, 5 months, to use devices or have screen time whilst in the family car. Credit:Chris Hopkins

But the study also found nearly all parents - 95 per cent - still consider family drives the perfect time for bonding and an opportunity to get their kids to open up.

Rebecca Zosel and her partner decided to ban screen time in the car and on weekdays for their school-aged children Oscar, 7, and Liliana, 5, or their baby, when the family got an iPad and the pair started asking for it increasingly often.
Father Bob Station? Birrarung station?

Ideas for Melbourne's five new train stations are flowing after the government announced a public vote to name the $11 billion Metro Rail project's new underground stops.

Readers of The Age on Sunday suggested Victorian Nobel Prize Laureates, geographical locations, Aboriginal culture and community identities.

While most ideas stayed on the right side of sensible, a few wags couldn't resist.
Three backpackers have been killed and another has been flown to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a crash in northern Victoria early on Sunday.

The 21-year-old male German driver and two passengers  both 21-year-old Canadians  were killed instantly when their Ford station wagon flipped on a single-lane road at Dingwall, near Kerang.

A 19-year-old British man was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with critical injuries, and a fifth passenger  a 29-year-old German man  is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
BARCELONA - Half a million people gathered in the heart of Barcelona on Saturday, clutching roses and holding banners denouncing violence and extremism, but also bearing signs warning against Islamophobia and calling on Spanish leaders to stop selling weapons.

The mass demonstration followed two attacks that killed 15 people last week, including 13 who were mowed down by a van that zigzagged down Las Ramblas - the most famous promenade in Barcelona.

A young girl holds a sign reading "We are not afraid" in the Catalan language during a demonstration condemning the attacks that killed 15 people in Barcelona. Credit:Emilio Morenatti

On Saturday, marchers carried banners bearing the defiant message "I'm not afraid".

The attacks hit Barcelona at the height of its tourism season. But the violence also came at a critical political moment, as the regional government of Catalonia prepares to hold an independence referendum on October 1 despite strong objections from the government in Madrid and Spain's judiciary, which say the vote is unconstitutional.
Princes Harry and William on the tenth anniversary of their mother's death. Credit:Fergus Greer And there the story did not end. An estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral at Westminster Abbey five days later. This, the 20th anniversary, has seen a blizzard of publicity, documentaries, books and interviews, magazine and newspaper special editions, across the world. Princess Diana in 1989. Credit:AP Somehow, still, we are captivated by the story of a troubled princess who left behind two traumatised boys and  arguably  changed the way royalty, celebrity and humanitarianism work.

A travel sickness bag is mandatory for much of the recent coverage. Even the most fervent Diana fan might choke on the Mail on Sunday's declaration last weekend that Diana "swept away an old, accepted order of protocols and politenesses and ushered in a new era of compassion and liberalism". Paragraphs later, the tabloid slavered over her "sculpted curves enhanced by a new wardrobe of swimwear" in the month before her death, an editorial position somewhere between lechery and butchery. Diana and Charles at the Sydney Opera House in 1983. Credit:Lionel Cherruault Plus ca change. Her sons, Princes Harry and William, are still furious with the media, and as their role in the daily affairs of the royal family continues to grow, that fury must increasingly affect the Windsors' media strategy. Diana, Princess of Wales in 1994. Credit:AP

In the documentary 7 Days, which is due to screen on the BBC on Sunday, Harry says, "I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people who chased her into the tunnel were the same people who took the photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car". William recalls his mother was deeply distressed in the years before her death after run-ins with photographers who waited "like a pack of dogs for her, chased her, harassed her, called her names, spat at her, tried to get a reaction to get that photograph of her lashing out, get her upset". In another recent documentary William said most of the times he saw his mother cry "was to do with press intrusion." "One lesson I've learned is you never let them in too far because it's very difficult to get them back out again. You've got to maintain a barrier and a boundary. If both sides cross it a lot of pain and problems can come because of it." He was obliquely referring to his mother's relationship with the media: she courted journalists and confided in them, trying to make them allies in her fight against the rest of her family. She deliberately exploited her fame to push causes. She told one interviewer she "felt compelled to perform".

The scene of the car crash in Paris. Credit:AP In her children, compulsion has become repulsion. One year on from Diana's death, the BBC's Nick Higham wrote "the public needed someone to blame [and] the media was the answer". "The red-top tabloids were shocked by the public reactions. The result was a bout of media soul-searching and promises to do better." The paparazzi did indeed back off  but they didn't go away. They sought other targets, mostly. Photographers and camera crews stayed clear of the royal children, begrudgingly.

Reporters still pried: a tabloid ruined the boys' plans for a surprise 50th birthday party for their father, for example. And the entire phone hacking saga was exposed when, on the advice of a TV reporter friend to Prince William, the palace set police to investigate whether a tabloid journalist had accessed William's voicemail for a string of royal scoops. When it came to photos, foreign outlets filled the void: spicy (Harry cavorting in Vegas) and prurient (Kate Middleton sunbathing topless). The latter case caused the royals to snap, breaking their usual silent-in-public, complain-to-editors-in-private strategy. William and Kate sued six people over the photos, which were published in two French magazines in 2012. In a statement read out to the court, Prince William said the photos were "all the more painful" in light of his mother's death and the harassment she had experienced. The verdict is due in September, and could set a precedent for celebrity paps in Europe  one way or another. But anyone who tries to argue that Diana's death doused the fires of celebrity-obsessed journalism hasn't looked at journalism lately.

And recently Hollywood has developed monarch fever: HBO's Elizabeth I, The CW's Reign, E!'s The Royals, Showtime's The Tudors, PBS' Victoria, and Starz's The White Queen, not to mention Netflix's The Crown, which promises to catch up with Diana in season 3. Beyond the media, Diana could lay claim to a deliberate, and successful, recasting of modern royalty. There are some who look at the Queen's cameo in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, and see Diana's ghostly hand pushing her out of the helicopter. Andrew Morton, author of the scandalous (and secretly Diana-assisted) 1992 biography of the princess, told CBC radio earlier this month that Diana's "is very much a living legacy with her children". "She's kind of overshadowed or shadowed the lives of both boys, and in that sense as well, she's always been present," he said. Diana explicitly intended this. She told Bashir the royals needed to change their relationship with the public, to "walk hand-in-hand as opposed to be[ing] so distant", and she wanted to achieve that through William and Harry.

"I take them round homelessness projects, I've taken [them] to people dying of AIDS, albeit I told them it was cancer  I want them to have an understanding of people's emotions, people insecurities, people's distress and people's hopes and dreams." Charles Spencer, Diana's younger brother, told BBC radio last month that part of Diana's legacy was "she has left behind this image of what royalty can be and what it needn't be". In his eulogy at her funeral he pledged to guide her sons "so their souls can sing openly  not immersed by duty and tradition", and he now believes "it's worked out very well  Diana was in their life long enough for them to receive an enormous amount of her values and warmth and humanity and I think people see that." The wider royal family also realised they had to change after Diana's death. On the eve of Diana's funeral the Queen told the nation, "I for one believe that there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death".

Floral tributes to Diana outside London's Kensington Palace in 1997. Credit:AP She was admitting the royals had badly mismanaged their response in the moment. Diana's death was the gravest royal crisis since the abdication. They had made a terrible mistake by holing up in Balmoral in Scotland  protecting William and Harry, it was later claimed, though this is hard to square with the decision to put the boys behind their mother, parading through the streets of London in Diana's funeral procession. Royal biographer Penny Junor told Radio 4 documentary A Royal Recovery, "the whole family was in danger. The minute Prince Charles heard Diana had been killed his first words were 'They are going to blame me'." One of the Queen's most trusted former advisers, Mary Francis, told the London Telegraph the royal family had feared "calls for some kind of republican action". The narrative that Diana changed the Windsors is not universally accepted. According to some palace watchers, the royal family was modernising regardless. It had a discussion group made up of senior members of the family, dubbed the "Way Ahead Group". They had made significant moves reflecting modern times: the Queen had started paying tax and she funded the repair of Windsor Castle in 1992 out of her own purse. They had brought in an accountant to straighten up the royal finances, and had cut the number of family members whose lives were paid for directly from the annual government grant known as the Civil List. Most heart-wrenchingly for the Queen, the Royal Yacht Britannia had been scrapped, and she had not asked for a replacement.

Author Monica Ali also doesn't have any truck with the theory that Diana changed the monarchy. "The monarchy is much as it was pre-Diana," she wrote recently. "Diana's life and death didn't reinvigorate the monarchy, it reignited our fascination with it." Outside palace walls, Diana's charity work has stuck with the next generation. Harry, William and Kate have founded Heads Together, a campaign that aims to "end the stigma and change the conversation on mental health". They continue working for many of the charities their mother introduced them to. But they have big boots to fill. And some argue that Diana's true successors are not William and Harry, but Bono and Angelina Jolie. The BBC's Jackie Long wrote that Diana "made giving glamorous". "She embodied the caring '90s but still hung on to some of the style-obsessed '80s. Princess Anne had trudged around the Third World doing charity work for years  she just didn't do it so beautifully."

Diana held hands with AIDS patients, wandered dangerous London streets to meet the homeless, travelled to African and Bosnian battlefields sown with land mines. Harry told a documentary this year "she had the ability to literally change the mindset of millions of people". She is widely credited with the success of an international landmine ban treaty, signed months after her death. Diana talks to amputees who lost limbs to land mines, in Angola in 1997. Credit:AP For Diana, it was where she felt she belonged. She told Martin Bashir, "I found myself being more and more involved with people who were rejected by society  with, I'd say, drug addicts, alcoholism, battered this, battered that  and I found an affinity there. "I respected very much the honesty I found on that level with people I met, because in hospices, for instance, when people are dying they're much more open and more vulnerable, and much more real than other people."

Journalist Andrew Marr wrote that Diana's life and death coincided with a shift in Britain. The country left behind the greed-is-good '80s, and was becoming "more compassionate, more informal and more image-conscious", he said. Whether she was setting the pace or sensing the trend, Diana had been at the forefront. Her death "revived the culture of public sentiment", Marr said. Andrew Morton agrees, saying "Britain's stiff upper lip brigade ended with the funeral. And we have more of a trembling lower lip." "I think that we've become a more expressive nation, a more touchy, feely nation than we were perhaps 30 or 40 years ago. And I think that Diana is a symbol of that." Earl Spencer, Princes William and Harry, and Prince Charles, at Diana's funeral.

Author Monica Ali wrote in 2011 that Diana has frequently been blamed for "our newfound emotional incontinence". "It's likely that the way she chose to speak out did accelerate a trend for greater openness, that her death had an impact on the ersatz sense of community that surrounds certain tragedies," Ali said. But she chooses to view it in a positive light. "For some people, Diana will always be the patron saint of the self-obsessed. I see her differently. I think she had a lasting influence on the public discourse, particularly in matters of mental health. When she spoke publicly about her bulimia, the effect was powerful. "Speaking out instead of shrivelling up was not just a sign of wilfulness  but of her determination to direct her loss and suffering outwards. It was a mark of her strength of character; small wonder that millions of people instinctively responded to that." Ali says Diana also fundamentally changed the world of charity.

She showed the way for the Madonna and Angelina Jolie, for George Clooney in Darfur and Bono in Washington DC. "Put simply, Diana made philanthropy sexy." Not everyone agrees that Diana changed the world. Pulitzer-winning writer Anne Applebaum has called Diana's legacy "pea-sized". She wrote in Slate magazine that "the genuinely bizarre aspect of the all-consuming Dianamania that gripped Britain [after her death] is how slight a trace it has left behind. Actually, the royal family is pretty much the same, only quieter. From Diana, they learned that there is such a thing as too much publicity. "One could argue that Diana's truest legacy is the screaming emotionalism of the British tabloids  except that it long pre-dates Diana, and in fact helped create her in the first place." Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer also swam against the tide of sentiment. Ten years ago he wrote a column titled "Diana just another dead glamorous celebrity", railing against "the absurdities of the cult" that had grown up around her. "Ludicrous ideas are voiced of her contribution to humanity," he said. "[Her death] showed just how unpleasant mass hysteria is. But worse, it revealed an increasingly ungrounded and shallow society that can attach such significance to such things."

He hoped the 10-year commemoration of Diana's death would be the last such public event, and "those who still feel the need to mourn will now be encouraged to do so privately". Ten years later, he has been proven so, so wrong. A grand family Althorp Estate, the Spencers' ancestral home in the Midlands. Credit:Althorp Estate It's often forgotten that the "people's princess" came from one of Britain's grandest families. But visitors to Althorp Estate, the Spencers' ancestral home in the Midlands, and the site for Diana's final resting place, will emerge under no illusions that she was a royal outsider  despite being the first Englishwoman to marry an heir in 300 years.

This is one of the country's grandest homes. Althorp is set in rolling English countryside (one of the first times that Charles met teenage Diana, he was visiting for a "shoot" on the grounds). Its halls and rooms are lined with endless aristocratic portraits, dating back centuries. The house was built in the 16th century but a Bose speaker system here, a bedside thriller there betray the fact this is a living aristocratic home. And some speak of its owner's anger. An exhibition enshrines the Earl Spencer's handwritten notes for the press statement he made on hearing of his older sister's death. There is a hash mark and he has added a second-thought paragraph, saying "I always believed the press would kill her in the end" and accusing every proprietor and editor who ever paid for an intrusive photo of having "blood on their hands today". At the main house, the first room is floor-to-ceiling horse and hounds paintings. But in the next room is a different, modern work: contemporary artist Mitch Griffiths's Rehab. It shows a near-naked man in crucifix position, his addictions on display including a champagne bottle in a bucket marked with the blood-red logo of The Sun newspaper. And upstairs, in a Tudor-era long room where ladies used to take their exercise when it rained, another Mitch Griffiths titled Britannia sits front and centre. It's a portrait of a haughty young woman in a short denim skirt, CCTV camera on her shoulder, police tape on her empty pram. She is the modern UK, and she's not there to be loved.
Citizens of Vietnam have developed an unusual national pastime: Across the country and on social networks, people trade suspicions that their government is secretly giving in to an aggressive China. And lately, there has been plenty of fuel for their rumours.

Some blame a visibly diminished US presence for giving Beijing an opportunity to act behind the scenes. Many blame officials in Hanoi for putting economic cooperation or alleged communist solidarity above questions of national pride. Last month, when a valuable project overseen by the Spanish company Repsol was suspended without explanation, both theories abounded.

Domestically, China is one of the most sensitive issues for Vietnam's otherwise stable communist government. Credit:AP

"Is Trump weak, so therefore China is getting stronger? Maybe," said Dung Nguyen, a small-business owner in Hanoi who often deals with foreign countries, including China. "People even worry in the future we could have another war with China. It's all very scary."

But with Vietnam's closed political system keeping diplomatic machinations a secret, most people - even experts, by their own admission - simply don't know what's happening, providing the perfect atmosphere for wild speculation.
National aggregator Australian Finance Group AFG ) has announced the future soft launch of a newly developed SME loan platform.



Called AFG Business, the commercial broking platform was discussed at the aggregators financial results on Friday (25 August). Initially to be rolled out for commercial mortgages in the second quarter of 2018, it will later be extended to include asset finance and unsecured finance throughout the rest of FY18.



Well be building an initial panel of up to 10 lenders aimed at the core SME market. There will be simple training and direct accreditation for AFG brokers to help deliver streamlined, efficient business finance solutions, said chief executive officer Well be building an initial panel of up to 10 lenders aimed at the core SME market. There will be simple training and direct accreditation for AFG brokers to help deliver streamlined, efficient business finance solutions, said chief executive officer David Bailey



Even unexperienced AFG brokers who undertake basic training through the platform will be automatically accredited to write commercial lending, he added.



AFG is also investigating white-label or manufacturing opportunities to leverage this commercial business platform.



The aggregators financial results included an increase in residential settlements from $33.8bn to $34.3bn between FY16 and FY17. Its total loan book grew by 11% to $133.3bn which included $126.5bn in residential and $6.8bn in commercial mortgages.



Settlements at AFG Home Loans increased by 38% from $1.9bn to $2.7bn which grew the divisions loan book by 44% from $3.8bn to $5.5bn. Lodgments are also up 50% on July FY17 with AFGHL now used by more than 10,000 retail customers.



Across all its products, AFG currently has a panel of over 45 lenders with more than 3,400 individual products (up from 1,450 in April 2015). This shows the increasing complexity that brokers and customers have to deal with, Bailey said.



Increased regulatory intervention in the market has driven more complexity in the market which shows a greater need for broker expertise.



Another indication of this complexity is the visits to AFGs Broker HQ Knowledge Base  which is what our brokers use to assess and understand the market at a greater, in-depth level  has increased from around 28,000 a month in 2015 to over 53,000 currently.



Broker numbers continue to increase, moving from 2,650 on 30 June 2016 to 2,875 a year later.



Victoria and New South Wales have both experienced strong growth which places us in good stead for the year ahead, Bailey said of changes in the broker network.



The aggregator also originated more loans from the non-majors with 35% coming in through the smaller banks in Q4 2017, up from 29% in Q4 2016. One in 11 Australian residential mortgages currently come through an AFG broker.



Finally, AFGs normalised net profit after tax increased by 33%, rising to $30.2m for FY17.



Related stories:


Heads from the non-major lender ING Direct have sat down with brokers in a nation-spanning event series to gain real feedback on the banks products, service levels and mortgage policies.



Australian Broker attended the final of these events on Friday (25 August), the ING Direct 2017 Sydney Broker Roadshow, where the highlight was a Q&A Panel with executive director of operations Adriana Sheedy, chief risk officer Ulrich Heitbaum, head of products Tim Newman, and head of distribution Mark Woolnough

Questions were fielded from an audience of around 80 brokers on topics including how ING is improving apparent inconsistency around pricing and discounts, pain points around loan switching for brokers and customers, whether the bank would extend its recent $1,000 home loan cashback offer to the third party channel, and future product enhancements scheduled over the coming 12 months.



Sheedy also talked about how the bank was reviewing its entire commercial offering to ensure the loan process was efficient and effective.



From now until the end of the year, we will be defining what the technology requirements are for us and for those types of customers and building it into our development and delivery roadmap until the end of 2018.



When asked about extended call times and broker staff waiting for an hour over the phone, Woolnough said that 74% of broker loan applications had problems at submission.



The systems not set up to accept applications that arent signed, that have financial information missing, where the IDs not there, etc so it slows along the process.



While he acknowledged that the brokers main role was to keep the client informed and comfortable throughout the loan application process, the eagerness of support staff could cause problems, he said.



Generally what happens  is that a lot of support staff jump on the phone straight away to find where something is at, where its going to be, and how long its going to be, he said. We receive a number of repeat phone calls on a daily basis from the same office asking the same thing from different people.



Woolnough said that ING needed to be more efficient with how it managed the call flow. However, he stressed that the solution involved more than just throwing additional resources at the issue.



When you get new staff in, youve got to sit them with another staff member for a period of time to bring them up to speed and to bring them up-to-date with all the compliance. Then youre actually narrowing your window.



While Woolnough said the key to solving this issue is the technology supporting the system and applications, he also asked brokers to help as well.



We get applications without any financial information. We get applications where the broker says, I know. I just want to get it in a queue. Its a challenge for us because weve obviously built the reputation in the last period of time that its going to take a bit of time with ING Direct.



In recent months, ING had actually got to many applications before brokers had sent through the information despite this reputation, Woolnough said.



We can continue down this road and [improve] slowly, slowly or we can start to hard gate and say We wont accept an application unless the minimum requirements are met, he added



The roadshow also featured a number of other speeches including an opening address from ING CEO The roadshow also featured a number of other speeches including an opening address from ING CEO Uday Sareen , an economics update from ING treasurer Michael Witts , and a keynote address from futurist Steve Sammartino.



Related stories:
69% principal and interest

31% interest-only.

69.4% owner occupier

30.6% investor

37.3% from NSW/ACT

26.7% from Vic/Tas

17.5% from Qld

11.9% from WA

6.7% from SA/NT.

Leading non-bank Pepper Group has reported an increase in new residential loan originations of 17% to $1.38bn in the first half of 2017 across its Australian business.The lenders half yearly financial results released on Friday (25 August), also reported growth in asset finance with the firm growing its originations in this area by 21% to $375m in 1H17.Looking at the global business, the total value of all new loan originations, including residential mortgages, sits at $2.8bn  indicating that the lions share comes from the Australian arm. As of 30 June 2017, the global residential mortgage book sits at $5.62bn, an increase of $523m compared to six months before.Looking at the Australian portfolio during the first half of this year, Pepper Group CEO Mike Culhane told Australian Broker that around 50% of loans originated through the broker channel, 42% through the lenders white label products and 8% direct to consumer.This hasnt changed massively. Its actually reasonably similar year-on-year. Maybe 5% has gone towards white-label but its a very small change.The number of accredited brokers at Pepper is growing with the firm on track to boost numbers by 20% by the end of the 2017 financial year, Culhane said.The Australian residential loan book can also be broken down by loan type as follows:These figures remain largely unchanged since the second half of 2016.At the time of writing, Peppers loan portfolio remains split approximately 50/50 across prime and non-conforming loans, Colhane said.Effectively, prime moves from being 40% to 50% of the volume, depending on the month.The geographical breakdown of Peppers loan portfolio is as follows:While arrears increased from 1.36% in the first quarter to 1.55% as of 30 June, this dipped back again within managements expectations to 1.41% in July.This was basically an operational change that we made. We were hiring people into the collections division  frankly we were hiring too slowly  so as we sped that up and we got the right bums on the right seats, it brought the numbers back down again. So it was no issue at all with the credit performance of the underlying book, Colhane said.Pepper Group reported an adjusted net profit before tax of $28.3m for 1H17, up 20% year-on-year, while the lenders statutory net profit after tax sits at $28.1m, an increase of 15%. The firm remains on track to achieve an adjusted net profit after tax of $67.5m for the 2017 financial year.The profit after tax for Peppers Australia and New Zealand division was reported at $22.7m for 1H17, up from $17.4m in the same period the year before.Regarding Peppers potential acquisition by global investment firm KKR, shareholders will be allowed to vote in mid-November. If the transaction is approved, Pepper will de-list from the ASX and return to private ownership in early December.Related stories:Non-bank agrees to takeover bidIndustry association partners with non-bankNon-bank launches comp for broker footy fans
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.
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
Ltd (AHEL) is looking at increasing the contribution of private labels to its pharmacy business. Private labels account for around 6.5 per cent of the pharmacy business at present and the company is envisaging to take this up to 20 per cent in five years, said a senior management official.
After US investors such as Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, Canadian investors  CPPIB, CDPQs arm Ivanhoe Cambridge and others  are courting developers based in southern India, according to sources in the know.
The Tata group is in advanced talks to take up rented space in Fort House, a heritage building in south Mumbai, while the conglomerates headquarters  Bombay House  goes for renovation, according to real estate market sources.
State-run Ltd (OIL) will seek shareholders' approval to raise Rs 7,000 crore through bonds.

The company has proposed a special resolution at its annual general meeting on September 23, 2017, for raising up to Rs 7,000 crore, OIL said in a filing to the BSE.

OIL intends to raise the amount through issue of redeemable non-convertible debentures/bonds on private placement basis from domestic as well as international markets in one or more tranches, the filing said.

The proposal to confirm payment of interim dividend and to declare final dividend for 2016-17 on equity shares of the company is also listed on the agenda of the meeting.

The proposals for appointment of P Chandrasekaran as Director (Exploration & Development) and to adopt financial results for 2017 are also listed on the agenda of the AGM.
After years of wait, the Indian Army will finally get an advanced medium-range surface to air missile (MRSAM) system by 2020 which will be able to shoot down ballistic missiles, fighter jets and attack helicopters from a range of around 70 km.

The missile system will be produced by premier defence research organisation DRDO in collaboration with the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a senior army official said.

The MRSAM system will be capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, aircraft, helicopters, drones, surveillance aircraft and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems) aircraft, the official said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The current version of MRSAM is operational with the Indian Air Force and the Navy.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has signed a Rs 17,000 crore deal with the IAI for the ambitious project.

The MR-SAM, a land-based version of the long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) for the Navy, will have a strike range of up 70 km, the official said. The deal envisages 40 firing units and around 200 missiles.

"The MRSAM for Army's Air Defence is an advanced all weather, 360-degree mobile land based theatre air defence system capable of providing air defence to critical areas against a wide variety of threats in a combat zone," the official said.

The first set of missile system will be ready in the next three years, he said.

The Army has been pressing the government to enhance its aerial attack capability considering the evolving security challenges.

In May, the Army successfully test fired an advanced version of the Brahmos land-attack cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Indian Army, which became the first land force in the world to deploy the Brahmos in 2007, has raised several regiments of this formidable weapon.

In May 2015, the Army had inducted the indigenously- developed supersonic surface-to-air missile Akash which is capable of targeting enemy helicopters, aircraft and UAVs from a range of 25 km.

The Army thinks procurement of the MRSAM will mark a paradigm shift in its strike capability.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The death toll mounted to 440 in the devastating floods in Bihar where 17.1 million people have been affected in 19 districts, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday announced an immediate relief of Rs 500 crore.

The prime minister conducted an aerial survey of four flood-hit districts of Araria, Kisanganj, Katihar and Purnea. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi accompanied the PM.

The flood waters, however, receded in some places, prompting many to return to their homes. The number of relief camps also dropped to 262, in which 1.65 lakh people were staying, a release by the disaster management department said.

Araria district alone accounted for 95 deaths followed by Sitamarhi 46, Katihar 40, West Champaran 36, East Champaran 32, Darbhanga 30, Madhubani 28, Madhepura 25, Kishanganj 24, Gopalganj 20, Supual 16, Purnea 9, Muzaffarpur 9, Saharsa 8, Khagaria 8, Saran 7, Sheohar 5 and Samastipur 2.

No death was reported from Siwan.

A total of 2.74 lakh people were being served food at 1,114 community kitchens operational in the marooned areas of the state, the release said.

Twenty-eight Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams comprising 1,152 personnel with 118 boats are taking part in rescue and relief operations, it said.

Apart from the NDRF, 16 teams of the State Disaster Response Force comprising 466 personnel are helping people in the flood-hit areas with 92 boats.

A total of 630 Army personnel in seven teams are assisting in relief and rescue operations with 70 boats, the release added.

The PM arrived at Purnea this morning and conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas. He announced Rs 500 crore as immediate relief for the state besides Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of those who died in the deluge.

The state weather office has forecast rain or thundershower in Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea Sunday.
I have always respected the law. Even though I am having a backache, still abiding by the law, I will go to court (tomorrow). I have full faith in God. Everyone should maintain peace. Thus spake Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, film actor, producer, director, businessman and evangelist of the Dera Sacha Sauda a day before he was convicted by a CBI court of raping a disciple.

The story of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh aka messenger of god (as his film in which he was a hero, actor, director and producer was called) begins in the first decade of 2000.

A dera is a single person setting up a religious institution for social or educational activities. There are thousands of deras, big and small, all over north India, headed by Sikh or Hindu chiefs. The Radhasoami Satsang Beas is one such, the Nirankaris have their own deras. The logic is that as the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh religious body, cannot be present everywhere to translate on the ground the tenets of Sikhism, anyone who wants to can set up a dera to preach and practise a religion that technically does not recognise caste.





ALSO READ: Gurmeet Ram Rahim rape conviction: 36 killed, 250 injured in Dera violence

The Dera Sacha Sauda is one such. It is located in what is now Haryana but was once undivided Punjab. It has a largely Dalit following in Sirsa, which is a Sikh belt contiguous with Punjab. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is a successor of previous highly popular gurus, and has a reputation of being a somewhat quixotic individual who lives in an air-conditioned cave, is fond of dressing in king-like robes, drives in luxury cars, and keeps armed guards with him at all times.

All political leaders  Parkash Singh Badal, Amarinder Singh, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, and SS Dhindsa  have called on him to seek his blessings. This has been a recognition of the huge following of largely Dalit supporters he has been able to command. Sirsa sits atop the Chandigarh-Punjab-Rajasthan border and can influence political opinion in three states.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh would have been just another harmless religious leader had it not been for two events  one, a CBI enquiry into the circumstances of the murder of a journalist in the area who wrote reports charging Singh with various misdeeds including murder and rape; and two, that Singh, one day in the middle of the campaign for the 2007 assembly elections announced to his followers that they all must vote for the Congress.





ALSO READ: How Gurmeet Ram Rahim verdict, violence affected PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat

Alarmed at this, BJP leader Arun Jaitley went to Singh to tell him he was making a mistake by dabbling in . The general perception was that Singh had done a deal with the Congress to get the CBI off his back. When the Congress did, in fact, virtually sweep the Sangrur, Bathinda and Mansa belt (once an Akali stronghold), and it became clear that the Akali Dal had lost 10 to 15 seats in the 117-member Punjab assembly because of Singhs fiat, it was determined to take revenge. Incidentally, Singhs son-in-law Harminder (referred to reverentially by Sauda followers as Sahibzaada) won the Bathinda assembly seat in 2007.

Around this time, the CBI is hot on his heels after the letter of an anonymous Sadhvi said Ram Rahim had raped her in 2002, and the agency discovered that a journalist who had reported on the case was missing, possibly murdered (hence the torching of OB vans of TV channels by supporters who hold the media responsible for the Messengers current travails).





ALSO READ: Dera violence: More army columns deployed in Sirsa ahead of sentencing

The duration of imprisonment will be announced on Monday. But who will head the sect if he is in jail, will they do so with the same elan? And, what of the political clout the Dera has come to wield?
Indians are among eight persons killed in a road accident in southern England after their mini bus got crushed between two trucks, officials said.

Some of those on board the minibus were on holiday from India and visiting their families in the UK.

"We are extending all possible assistance to those affected by this tragedy," the Indian High Commission in London said yesterday.

British police are yet to release details of those killed in the crash.

The driver of the minibus has been locally identified as India-born Cyriac Joseph.

A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in a hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries.

The two truck drivers have been arrested, one of them on suspicion of driving while over the alcohol limit.

Both men are being questioned on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and are in police custody.

The crash occurred on the southbound M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire yesterday.

South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham.

Pictures from the crash site show extensive damage to the vehicles involved, including a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics.

"We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time," said Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire.

"Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries," he said.
America's aid to Pakistan "will be conditional" on the steps Islamabad takes against terrorist groups such as the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior Trump administration official has said.

"There have been long standing relationships between the Pakistani intelligence officials and these terrorist groups. So, we don't expect things to change overnight. We expect incremental changes over time," the official told PTI.

His comments came days after US President Donald Trump hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

"We will be able to see when these changes start to happen. They (might) not become immediately apparent to the public, but we're confident that when Pakistan takes the steps we're asking it to do, we'll know it and we'll be able to assess. And so, our security aid will be conditioned on the steps that we expect them to take against, in particular, the Taliban-Haqqani Network," the official said.

The United States, the official said, is monitoring the situation carefully in Pakistan and expects some progress.

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to give exact timelines that we're dealing in. But, certainly there is an expectation that we'll start to see some changes in the very near future," the official said when asked if the Trump administration has set a time line for progress in action being taken by Pakistan against the terrorist groups.

The official was responding to a series of question on the statements coming out of Pakistan, which are generally in strong opposition to the Trump's South Asia strategy.

"How do you see Pakistan's reaction? Do you think that they would be, given these kind of reactions that's coming up in public domain, think they will be cooperating this time with you on counter-terrorism issues?" the official was asked.

"I think the President was very clear that we are going to take a different approach to that stand. There's a lot of frustration (in the US) with the continued safe havens in Pakistan. But we believe there is hope for greater cooperation from Pakistan on these issues. It's Pakistan's choice. Pakistan has much to benefit from by cooperating with the US and cracking down on some of these groups," the official said.

And Pakistan has much to lose if it fails to do so, the official warned.

"We're not going to talk about the precise steps that the US is considering with regard to its relationship with Pakistan. We'll reserve that for our private discussions on Pakistan. We'll just simply say that it's extremely important to this administration that Pakistan take tangible steps against the groups that continue to support attacks against US service members and US officials in Afghanistan," the official said, adding that the US will be working very closely with Pakistani officials to achieve that objective.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif is soon expected to visit the US and meet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Ahead of the US visit, Asif is scheduled to travel to China, Russia and Turkey to hold meetings with their leaders on the Trump's South Asia policy.

"We think that Pakistan will see that it's in its own interest to cooperate with the US. And that, when they're thinking about their core security interests in Afghanistan, they will assess that they can better achieve those objectives by being in a cooperative relationship with the US, rather than a contentious relationship. These are the kinds of conversations that we're having with Pakistan," the official added.
Chief Justice (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar, who will demit office on Monday, had a short but eventful tenure as the country's top judge in which he presided over two constitutional benches that pronounced landmark judgments  on Triple Talaq and the Right to Privacy.

CJI Khehar, who took over on January 4, had a tenure of just 237 days, of which he presided over court number one for 124 days as the country's top court was closed for 113 days on account of weekends, festival holidays and summer break.

Though his working tenure seemed too short for anything substantial in terms of judicial pronouncements, they were eventful with benches headed by Justice Khehar setting aside instant triple talaq as unconstitutional and holding that Right to Privacy was a fundamental right.

Prior to becoming the CJI, he presided over the constitution benches that held that Constitution's 99th amendment, paving way for the Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) for the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, was unconstitutional.

Described as a strong judge by his predecessor Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice Khehar had pronounced restoration of then Arunachal Chief Minister Nabam Tuki's government as a five judge bench headed by him unanimously quashed then Governor J P Rajkhowa's decision to advance the assembly session.

He was also part of the bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishan (since retired) that had ordered the Sahara group to return investors money that its two companies had raised from the market in 2008 and 2009. It was the same bench that had sent group chief Subrata Roy and two other Sahara directors to jail for not complying with the court's orders.

A no-nonsense Judge, the bench headed by him imposed a cost of Rs 25 lakh on an NGO for filing frivolous PILs and casting aspersions on the judges of the Rajasthan High Court.

On Thursday, a day before his last working day in the court, he had imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh each on two people who had moved the court to seek that the procedure laid down in the Constitution be followed in appointment of Justice Dipak Misra as his successor, describing it as "publicity stunt litigation".

Born in Kenya where he had his primary education, Justice Khehar credits his success in his life to his father who had taught him to pursue life with perseverance, hard work and the ability to accept failures. His successor, Justice Dipak Misra says that he gets freedom in working hard while some call him a "workaholic".

Chief Justice Khehar was also perceived to be on comfortable terms with the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a few months ago said he wished that Chief Justice Khehar had a longer tenure than just eight months as he enjoyed working with him.

Chief Justice-designate Justice Misra, who will be sworn in as 45th Chief Justice of India on Monday morning, has many judgments that took the of law forward.

He was the author of the Constitution bench judgment that had ruled that criminal defamation was not unconstitutional and he passed an order making it mandatory the playing of the anthem in the cinema halls.

He along with Justice P C Pant and Justice Amitava Roy will be remembered for sitting through the night to hear last minute appeal by 1993 Bombay bomb blasts accused Yaqub Memon against his death sentence after his plea against issuance of death warrant was rejected earlier in the day.

A gender-sensitive judge said no to marriage as a compromise between a rape accused and the victim and had pronounced the judgment upholding the death sentence in Nirbhaya gang rape case.

He also presided over the bench that struck down the provision of the Cine Costume and Make-up Artists Association prohibiting women make-up artists and hairdressers from becoming its members.
August 24, 2017, will count as another important day in the history of our 70-year-old democracy and nation  a day when privacy was firmly established as a fundamental right of every citizen under Article 21 and Part 3 of our Constitution.
The mid-term review of the (FTP) is struggling to meet its September deadline, despite being pushed back from its initial release date of July 1, sources say.
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare addresses at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Sankalp Se Siddhi campaign has become a Mass Movement in the country, after Prime Ministers Call for Building a New India. So far, 421 varieties of wheat and 92 varieties of barley have been developed under the All India Integrated Wheat and Barley Reform Project.

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh addressed a gathering at the Sankalp Se Siddhi program organized by ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Kanpur, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad and Krishi Vigyan Kendra Varanasi. He said that Sankalp Se Siddhi campaign has become a Mass Movement in the country. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call, people have come forward to build a New India. The impact of Sankalp Se Siddhi campaign, which was launched on the 75th anniversary of Quit India Movement, can be seen across the country. On the occasion, the Minister asked the people to make a pledge to construct a New India and double farmers' income by the year 2022. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Varanasi also organized a special program to showcase advanced farming techniques. Also, farmers were asked to take a pledge to create Soil Health Cards, adopt integrated and organic farming methods to double farmers' income by 2022. The Union Minister said that all the centers of All India Wheat and Barley Reform Project are making efforts to deal with Biotic and Abiotic factors to make wheat rich in nutrition by the year 2050. He said it today at the 56th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers Meet (2017) organized at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. The Union Minister further said that the integrated program is eco-friendly, economically beneficial and homogeneous. He said that there has been an unprecedented growth in agricultural productivity over the last five decades due to the integrated program. With the integrated program, average yield per hectare has increased from 0.91 tonnes in 1964-65 to 3.22 tonnes in 2016-17.

The Union Minister said that in 1947, during independence, we produced 7 million tons of wheat and the average productivity of wheat was just 700 kg per hectare. However, in 2016-17, we produced 255.68 million tonnes of food grain and production of paddy, wheat and pulses created a new record level. Also, this year we had record production of wheat at 98.38 mt and 3216 kg wheat per hectare. This has been possible due to the hard-work of farmers. He also appreciated concerted efforts by policy makers, agricultural officers, extension workers and the scientific community and said they are the backbone of the project.

He said that we acquired the status of self-sufficient in food grain in the 1970s and during the same period we became wheat exporter too and that is why we can manage the volatility in food stocks or fluctuations year after year so easily.

The Union Minister said innovative techniques, technical interventions and policy reforms made Green Revolution successful. He also reiterated that such sustained efforts resulted in an increase in production and productivity and self-sufficiency in food grain. For this, he gave credit to dwarf variety developed under the All India Wheat and Barley Reform Project. An important milestone in this process was the establishment of the All India Coordinated Wheat Improvement Project in 1965 by the ICAR.

The Union Minister said that so far 421 species of wheat and 92 barleys have been developed under the All India Integrated Wheat and Barley Reform Project, which is being cultivated in different parts of the country. He informed that today we have 8 funded centres and three voluntary centres of barley in main barley producing states.

Some achievements are as follows:

 India's first zinc fortified variety WB2 was developed in the year 2016.

 Production of breeder seeds and capacity building of farmers to produce seeds.

 The draft sequence of Karnal Bunt Fungus has been a big achievement.

 Development of large plots for phenotyping, which are now available as a nodal centre.

 To fulfil our objective of Per Drop More Crop, development work on deep-rooted wheat variety has started to ensure judicious use of water.
President on Sunday renewed his pledge to make Mexico pay for the construction of a border wall between the US and Mexico, days after threatening to trigger a government shutdown if congressional Republicans don't include funding as they tackle a spending bill due September 30.
Tropical storm Pakhar brought strong winds and heavy rain to Hong Kong and Macau on Sunday, just four days after one of the strongest typhoons on record, Hato, caused serious flooding and damage in the territories and killed at least 10 people in the gaming hub. Pakhar brushed passed both cities on Sunday morning and landed in the southern Chinese city of Taishan, according to local weather authorities.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif met former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday for 'directions' ahead of his visit to China, Russia and Turkey for consultations on the United States new South Asia strategy.

Asif briefed the ex-Prime Minister about his planned three-country visit during a one-on-one meeting at Sharif's residence.

"The foreign minister consulted Nawaz Sharif about his planned visit to China, Russia and Turkey and got certain directions in this regard," The Dawn quoted a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, as saying.

Pakistan Railway Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique said Sharif had deep insight into Pak-U.S. relations.

"Khwaja Asif came to take directions [regarding this] from Mian sahib," he said.

"The United States President's statement (about Pakistan) could not be taken lightly," he added.

Earlier, the National Security Committee took the decision for the visit in a meeting on Thursday, which focusses on the United States new policy for the South Asian countries, especially Afghanistan.

"Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif will be visiting regional countries for consultations," Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.

A source has said that Islamabad is trying to mount a diplomatic offensive to muster the support of friendly countries in the face of Trump's allegations that Pakistan was hosting terrorist 'safe havens' on its soil, the Express Tribune reported.

After consulting with three nations, Pakistan will be convening an international conference to highlight its contribution towards the war against terrorism and to adopt a new policy which will call a halt to Washington's unending demand to 'do more' on the issue.

However, Nafees Zakaria underscored that the differences between Pakistan and the U.S. over the new policy did not mean a rupture in ties.

Showing similar sentiment, Pakistan's civil and military leadership on Thursday said scapegoating them will not help stabilise the war-ravaged Afghanistan.

In a clear ultimatum to Islamabad, Trump said Pakistan has to change its "double game" policy or face the consequences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Baloch Republican Students Organisation (BRSO) and the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) held a protest demonstration in Berlin, Germany in a bid to highlight the war crime prepetrated by Pakistan in Balochistan.

The protest demonstration was more of an awareness campaign, also held in the capital city of Brandenburg.

Apart from highlighting the war crimes committed by the Pakistani state, the campaign was also aimed at paying tribute to father of nation Shaheed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti on his 11th Martyrdom Anniversary (August 26).

On the occasion, several events were held in Balochistan and across the .

Abdul Nawaz Bugti, the representative of the Baloch Republican Party at the UNHRC, took to Twitter to pay his tribute to Akbar Khan Bugti.

"You can kill a man but not his ideology. Father of nation #ShaheedNawabAbarBugti martyred 11 years ago. His ideology continues to lead us," he tweeted.

"I bow down to pay homage to the legend, father of the nation #ShaheedNawabAkbarBugti who taught us to stand up, fight & die for our rights."

"BRP & BRSO activists around the paying tribute to father of nation #ShaheedNawabAkbarBugti. We will continue his struggle till victory," he tweeted further.

"Thanks to American Friends of #Balochistan for organizing an event to remember & pay tribute to father of the nation #ShaheedNawabAkbarBugti"

Brahumdagh Bugti, the president of the Baloch Republican Party, also tweeted, "Baloch Republican Students Organization @THE_BRSO held a protest in Germany to highlight human right violations in Balochistan by pak Army."

Earlier on August 19, BRP activist Abdul Bugti had urged Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg to cancel her meeting with Pakistan's former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.

"We appeal and request Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg to cancel her meeting with the ex dictator (Pervez Musharraf)," Bugti said.

He said Musharraf was a war criminal, who was absconding from the courts of his own country on serious charges of treason, murder and assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

Bugti also called Musharraf as 'butcher of Balochistan', who killed thousands of civilians during his rule including Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

He also alleged that Musharraf has no regrets and remorse of what he did to the Baloch people.

Musharraf was also heckled by Baloch activists at the 'Dialogue for Peace' event organised by Nobel Peace Center in Oslo.

The event was cancelled midway after the Baloch activists staged a protest over extending invite to Musharraf as a speaker.

The Baloch activists labelled Musharraf as 'Butcher of Balochistan' and 'Butcher of Baloch' during the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least nine Maoists including DKSZ member Ganesh Ueke's gunner and two from the South Bastar Battalion on Sunday surrendered before the police.

Out of these nine Maoists, six carried a bounty of total Rs. 26 lakh on their head.

The name of the surrendered Maoists and their involvement in the cases:

1. Gunner Nanda (Baarse) was involved in the 2013 Maoist attack in Sukma in which 16 police personnel lost their lives and then in Kapasad attack where 14 police got martyred.

2. Hinga, age 24, was involved in an attack on the CISF patrolling party, where one driver, along with seven soldiers, lost their lives. He also attacked at anti-land mines vehicles in Cholnaar, in which five soldiers lost their lives. Few more cases are registered on his name.

3. Sukka Madkam, age 19, used to keep 303 rifles with him. He was also involved in the killing of 12 CRPF soldiers in Sukma and 25 in Burkapal.

4. Budhram Sodhi, age 21, was involved in the same case of Maoists Sukka Madkam.

5. Baman Kunjam, age 21, was working with a Maoist organisation, since 2016 and used to keep 12 rifles with him.

6. Bhima, age 20, was also involved in killing of 12 CRPF soldiers in Sukma and 25 in Burkapal.

7. Kosi Mandavi, age 20, was with a Maoist organisation from 2008 - 2017.

8. Sudru, age 21, was involved with Maoists organisation for three years.

9. Sehdev, age 26, was involved with Maoists for four years.

The Maoists surrendered under a mission against the Maoists by the Bastar Range Police and the officers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The Police Superintendent will give an amount of Rs. 10,000 to each surrendered Maoist to appreciate their move.

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A day after Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said that Parliament and legislative should be used for debates not for disruption, the Congress party on Sunday asked him to give this advice to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

Talking to ANI, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "We deeply respect the Vice President of India. We would like to respectfully ask him whether he ever gave this advice to leader of the House in Rajya Sabha and former leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and also to his former party BJP which blocked Parliament for almost five years in a row. Will Naidu reprimand Jaitely and BJP leaders?"

Congress leader P.L. Punia also asked the Vice President to recall the deeds of the BJP when he was in opposition during UPA government.

"I agree with his opinion. But he should recall the deeds of the BJP at a time when he was in opposition during UPA government. It was said by the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha that some time disruption is necessary to safeguard the democracy," he told ANI.

The Vice President yesterday said that Parliament and Legislative bodies should be platforms for debates and not disruption.

He was addressing the State Reception hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Government in his honour, in Amaravathi, Andhra Pradesh.

The Vice President cautioned the lawmakers that people were getting disillusioned with frequent disruptions of legislative bodies and emphasised that obstruction was not a solution for any problem.

The House should debate, discuss and decide and there should be no scope for disruption, he added.

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A non-profit organisation has sent a letter to the Cyber Police to file an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor for posting "pornographic material" on his Twitter account.

The president of 'Jai Ho Foundation' NGO, Afroz Malik, in the letter said, "We would request you to immediately register an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor under relevant sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and the IT Act for posting indecent, nude and vulgar picture of a minor child on his Twitter account @chintskap."

Malik further said that Rishi Kapoor has more than 2.6 million followers on his Twitter account, and added, "This means that this child's pornographic image got circulated to more than 2.6 Million people."

"There are more than 62 retweets and 376 likes as of now on his indecent image and this will increase manifold," Malik stated.

Afroz Malik then requested the Senior Inspector of Police, Cyber Police Station to henceforth file an FIR against the actor and "set an example that rule of law is above all."

Actor Rishi Kapoor had tweeted a picture of a child, which was later deleted.

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G. Adarsh, a class six student of the Delhi Public School, Nadergul, died on Saturday at a hospital in Hyderabad after he collapsed while climbing the stairs of the school.

The doctors have reportedly claimed that the child died of heart attack.

Reportedly, the Telangana Police said the child returned to the school after the school hours winning third position among the sixty students who participated in an inter-school singing competition held at the Mandira Hills area in Hyderabad.

A hospital official said the student had started responding to treatment. He was then shifted to another hospital for better treatment, but was later declared dead.

Achyut Rao, the spokesperson for the Balala Hakkula Sangham (APBHS), an NGO working for child rights, has demanded for a strict action against the school management for Adarsh's death.

"The actual reason for death will be known only after the post-mortem report," Rao told ANI.

"This is, however, absolutely wrong and we demand an action to be taken against the school management," he added.

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The Congress party on Sunday said that though the Punjab and Haryana High Court rebuked the Haryana government for failing to control the situation in the state post conviction of Dera Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case, the Manohar Lal Khattar government will not pay heed to it.

Talking to ANI, Congress leader Salman Khurshid said, "The high court rebuked the Khattar government but they are not paying heed to it. This matter should be probed thoroughly and Khattar should resign."

Another Congress leader Meem Afzal said that the high court's observation clearly shows the inefficiency of the Haryana government.

"The high court has never passed such observation for any government. This clearly shows that what is the position of Haryana government," he told ANI.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday slammed the Manohar Lal Khattar government for violence in the states after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted on Friday in rape case.

The court held the Haryana chief minister directly responsible for the chaos and accused him of protecting Dera Sacha Sauda.

"You let a city like Panchkula burn for political gains," the court said on Saturday.

It further questioned the government for failing to stop followers of Ram Rahim from gathering at Panchkula.

"The chief minister is the home minister. Why have you allowed people to assemble for seven days?" the high court asked.

The high court further observed that administrative decisions were paralysed because of political decisions in the state.

The high court also asked the government to submit a detailed plan on seizing the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa and its other branches.

More than 30 people were killed, including two women and a child, and over 250 injured as violence erupted in Haryana and Punjab on Friday after the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was convicted in the rape case.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on August 28.

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Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has started the election campaign of her mother Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment in London.

Maryam on Saturday said she would be virtually staying in the Lahore constituency of the National Assembly-120 to ensure victory for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the by-elections, The Dawn reported.

Election for the seat, which fell vacant after the disqualification of Sharif over the Panamagate case, will take place on September 17.

According to sources, Kulsoom may replace interim prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Abbasi, if she wins by-polls.

Kulsoom is suffering from lymphoma, a type of cancer that starts in the lymph nodes.

"My mother has been diagnosed with lymphoma, cancer of lymph nodes, left side of neck in her case. Her treatment begins immediately," Maryam said in a tweet.

Maryam said her mother's cancer is curable as it was diagnosed at an early stage.

"Drs hopeful that since it is diagnosed at an early stage,its curable. Thanku for yr kind prayers. May Allah bless her with complete recovery," she tweeted.

Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday to discuss the strategy for the election campaign of the NA-120 seat by-polls.

The session was attended by Governor Sindh Mohammad Zubair, Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, Railways Minister and Lahore MNA Saad Rafique, Senator Pervaiz Rashid and other party leaders.

The top brass of the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PML-N) are devising a strategy for the election campaign as Kulsoom is unable to participate in the campaign.

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Majority of Tal Afar City has been reclaimed by the Iraqi forces after a weeklong battle with the Islamic State terrorists.

Joint troops liberated al-Qadisiya, al-Rabei and al-Salam and al-Bawari, as well as the central areas of the Citadel and al-Basateen, said media reports.

The spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC), Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, announced in a statement on Saturday that government forces and volunteer fighters, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, were now in control of 90 percent of the city, located 63 kilometers west of Mosul, Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network reported.

He added that only a few neighborhoods in Tal Afar were still being controlled by IS.

The commander of the Tal Afar liberation operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, also said soldiers from the army's 9th Armored Division and fighters from the 2nd and 11th brigades of Hashd al-Sha'abi had reclaimed full control over al-Muthanna al-Oula neighborhood in Tal Afar, and hoisted the Iraqi flag over several buildings there, reported Press TV.

On August 21, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launching of offensive in a televised speech.

He also warned IS terrorists by saying that they should either surrender or die.

The city was cut off from the rest of Islamic State-held territory in June. It is surrounded by Iraqi government troops and Shi'ite volunteers in the south, and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the north, reported The Australian.

Hours before Abadi's announcement, the Iraqi air force dropped leaflets over the city telling the population to take precautions. "Prepare yourself, the battle is imminent and the victory is coming, God willing," the leaflets read.

Tal Afar has given some of the dreaded IS terrorists. The IS was able to get a footprint in the city due to the violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday devised another moniker for a cleanliness drive ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti - 'Swachhta Hi Sewa' (Cleanliness is Service).

He said that 'Swachhta Hi Sewa' should be kick-started at least 15-20 days prior to the Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 on the lines of the age-old belief 'Jal Seva Yahi Prabhu Seva' (Service to Water is Service of God).

"I urge all NGOs, schools, colleges, social, cultural, and political leaders, people in the government, collectors, and sarpanches, to begin creating an environment of cleanliness at least fifteen days ahead of Gandhi Jayanti, so that it realises Gandhi's dream," he said.

The Prime Minister further said that the campaign of cleanliness which was initiated three years ago will be making its third anniversary on the 2nd of October, asserting that the number of toilets has increased from 39 per cent to almost 67 per cent and more than 2 lakh 30 thousand villages have become Open-Defecation Free (ODF).

"The campaign of cleanliness which was started three years ago will be making its third anniversary on October 2. The number of toilets has increased from 39 per cent to almost 67 per cent. More than 2 lakh 30 thousand villages have become ODF. The initiative which started three years ago can now see the positive signs," Prime Minister Modi said while delivering the 35th edition of his monthly radio address - 'Mann ki Baat'.

Prime Minister Modi also announced that the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has organised a competition 'Swachh Sankalp se Swachh Siddhi' like essay writing in any language, painting, and short film making competition. Any person of any age limit can participate in this. The prize will be distributed to best three from district and state level each.

The Prime Minister further appealed everyone to clean their nearby surroundings to celebrate this cleanliness drive as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

"I appeal everyone to clean their nearby surroundings to celebrate this abhiyaan. Celebrating the swachhta abhiyan is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi," he said.

Prime Minister Modi also wished the nation on festivals like Eid-ul-Zuha, Samvatsar Parva, Onam and said that festivals are the course symbol of faith and beliefs in the New India and we should transform them into symbols of cleanliness as well.

He further said that the eco-friendly Ganpati, in this Ganesh Chaturthi, has turned into a huge campaign. Many people are getting inspired by this and happy to see that people are following this to protect their environment and to keep it clean.

He also praised the volunteers of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind who cleaned 22 temples and two mosques which were affected by flood in Gujarat's Dhanera.

"When the water receded there was a lot of filth, the volunteers of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, who cleaned 22 temples and two mosques which were affected by flood in Gujarat's Dhanera. They came together and toiled collectively. It is an inspiring example of unity with diversity," he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi touched upon a variety of topics in his 'Mann ki Baat' address, including terrorism, violence, and education among others.

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The defence experts on Sunday condoled the death of eight security personnel in Pulwama terror attack and said the Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district has become a hub of terrorism.

Talking to ANI, defence expert P.K. Sehgal said, "I would like to pay my condolences to the next kin of those who have laid down their lives for the nation. Pulwama has become hub of terrorism. This year by far, it is the biggest attack in terms of number of soldiers who have been martyred."

Another defence expert Shivali Deshpande also expressed grief over death of jawans and said the army has to maintain pressure on the terrorists.

"This is bad news that eight security personnel have been martyred. Infiltration should be curbed. It is a good thing that we are dominating the Line of Control (LoC) very strongly. The intelligence sources also have to be upright. Such encounters are signs that we are getting good intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorist in these localities," she told ANI.

Earlier on Saturday, eight security personnel, including four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans and four policemen, were killed in the encounter between the security forces and fidayan terrorists in Pulwama district.

In the massive gunfight, three terrorists were also gunned down.

Speaking to ANI, Inspector General, Kashmir, Munir Khan said, "Bodies of three terrorists were recovered on Saturday."

The terrorists carried out a suicide attack on District Police Lines in south Kashmir's Pulwama.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti strongly condemned the killing of jawans.

Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley also condoled the death of army and police personnel killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

"My thoughts & prayers are with the families of J&K police & CRPF personnel martyred in the #pulwama encounter.(sic)," he tweeted.

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Amid reports surfacing on social media regarding the alleged closure of schools and traffic divergence in the capital in lieu of court proceedings against rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Delhi Police on Monday while dismissing the same said everything will function as normal.

"There are some rumours being spread on WhatsApp and other platforms that schools will be closed on Monday as the sentencing is scheduled. Also, we have also been told that rumours have been spread about gatherings of Ram Rahim's followers in parts of East Delhi. I would like to notify that all these are fake, and people must stop spreading them immediately," Madhur Verma, Delhi Police's Public Relations Officer told ANI.

While necessary security arrangements have been made, Verma clarified that traffic will not be diverted and the metro will comply as scheduled.

"We have got sufficient deployment of the Delhi police in all areas, apart from certain decisions of the paramilitary forces and CRPF. Police patrolling is going on in important places. There is no reason to panic or instigate panic through these rumours," stated Verma.

Meanwhile, court proceedings against rape convict Ram Rahim Singh are scheduled to take place around 2:30 pm today.

Arrangements have been made for the sitting of a CBI Court in Sunaria District Jail, Rohtak for the pronouncement of quantum of sentence against Ram Rahim Singh, after his followers went berserk with grief and anger over his conviction,

Earlier, Rohtak District Collector Atul Kumar while assuring complete vigil from the police stated that if any anti-social elements are found trying to harm themselves or others, shoot at sight orders will be passed immediately.

Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) B.S. Sandhu said 52 cases were registered and 926 arrests made so far.

"At least 52 cases have been registered so far and 926 people have been arrested. As for casualties, 38 people have died in the violence. 6 casualties are from Sirsa and 32 are from Panchkula. All bodies in Sirsa have been identified, but in Panchkula, 24 have been identified through post-mortem, the rest are yet to be identified. Of the 250 injured," he said.

He further averred that the police protection will be provided to the media and the police was prepared to handle any mob situations.

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Rebel Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday said the real JD-U is with him and he will prove it.

He said he would attend Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) rally in Patna and termed it a 'Mahagatbandhan' rally.

Talking to ANI, Yadav said, "I have been invited in the rally. The mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) is still intact and this is mahagatbandhan rally. Those who are asking to me to skip this rally, I would like to tell them that millions of people had put a stamp on mahagatbandhan. They should resign who have immorally snapped ties with mahagatbandhan. The real JD (U) is with Sharad Yadav. I will prove this."

However, another JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi said the rally called by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is to cover up the corruption charges.

"This rally is to cover up the corruption allegation leveled against Lalu Yadav and his family. This rally does not have any political agenda or policy," Tyagi told ANI.

The RJD will on Sunday hold "BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao" rally in Patna.

Besides Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad are expected to attend the rally.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has, however, refused to participate in the rally while Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is abroad.

To oust the BJP-led NDA government, RJD chief had planned the rally about four months ago when the three-party 'Mahagathbandhan' government was still in power in Bihar.

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Surat's Aditya Jhawar has achieved all the three professional qualification Chartered Accountancy (CA), Company Secretary (CS) and Cost and Management Accountancy (CMA) at the age of 21, to become India's youngest to complete all the three professional qualification.

Till now Sarthak Ahuja and Pallavi Sachdeva, both of Delhi, were the youngest to complete CA, CS and CMA at the age of 23.

But now with the passing of his CMA Final examination, results of which were declared day before yesterday, Jhawar has surpassed them and set the milestone of achieving this rare feet.

After passing 12th standard, Jhawar started his higher studies with CA at the age of 15 and passed all its examination.

He also started CS with it and qualified CS too along with CA. He then pursued CMA and qualified that too.

Jhawar was trained by Surat's CA Ravi Chhawchharia. He pursued Bachelor of Commerce from Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) and is awaiting its final results.

Jhawar 's father Mahesh Jhawar, a textile trader, had also cleared the second stage of CA but couldn't continue with CA final due to involvement in family business. Jhawar's mother is a school teacher from last 25 years.

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The swine flu outbreak has claimed a total of 31 lives in south Gujarat so far this year.

Surat Municipal Corporation Deputy Health Commissioner Hemant Desai informed that till now 22 have died in Surat district, one in Tapti, one in Navsari and seven in Valsad district, taking the death toll in south Gujarat to 31.

Talking to ANI, Desai said, "228 positive cases of Swine Flu have been detected in Surat city so far. Out of them 163 have been discharged after recovering."

He added, "47 patients are under treatment in various hospitals across Surat city, of which 33 are recovering while 3 people are in the critical position and 11 are kept on oxygen."

He also informed that a mass survey was conducted 15 days back to control the swine flu spread, in which people with the symptoms were treated.

More than 300 people have succumbed to the H1N1 virus in Gujarat since January.

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Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Wattali, who was sent to a 10-day Investigation Agency (NIA) remand in connection with the terror funding case, will appear before the Patiala House Court today.

Wattali was arrested on Friday. meanwhile, close aide of separatist Shabir Shah and an alleged hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani was to be produced before a Delhi Court in connection with the case.

The Delhi Court on August 14 extended Enforcement Directorate's (ED) remand of Wani, by six days in the terror funding case.

On August 6, the ED arrested Wani from Srinagar with the help of the state police.

Reportedly, Wani was arrested with Rs 63 lakh, received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.

The NIA has been tough on Separatists regarding the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir.

On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatists over money laundering charges, for funding terror in the Kashmir Valley.

All seven separatist leaders - Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Naeem Khan and Bitta Karate - were later sent to 10-day NIA custody.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The NIA visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several Separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

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He made the comment while receiving Chairman of the association U Tint Swai in Yangon on August 26th, as part of his current State visit to Myanmar.

Underscoring valuable traditional ties between the two countries, the Party chief said Vietnam appreciates Myanmars support during her past struggle for national independence.

He noted his current visit aims at elevating bilateral relations to new heights, adding that the two sides have issued a joint statement on establishing a comprehensive cooperative partnership to reinforce cooperation in politics, trade, security-defence, and people-to-people exchanges, as well as at regional and international forums.

Trong said he hopes the two countries friendship associations will share experiences and hold people-to-people exchanges to boost mutual understanding and amity between the two nations.

For his part, U Tint Swai expressed his delight at growing Vietnam  Myanmar relationship.

He said his association needs to learn from Vietnamese partners via experience exchanges on international cooperation.

He said his organisation plans to admit Vietnamese investors in Myanmar as members and to work with its Vietnamese counterpart to intensify bilateral friendship activities.

The chairman pledged to do his best for increasing the engagement between the two Governments and their people.

Earlier the same day, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar./.
Three people were killed and three others were injured after a car of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supporters met with an accident in Bihar's Sitamarhi on Saturday.

The RJD supporters were going to participate in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bhagao Rally in Patna which is to be held on Sunday.

The injured were rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

Further details are awaited.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that no one is above law and that violence in the name of "faith" will not be tolerated.

"I had said this in my earlier speech too, when I spoke from the Red Fort on August 15 that violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated. Whether it is communal belief systems or subscribing to political ideologies, whether it is allegiance to a person or customs and traditions, nothing in the name of violence will be tolerated," Prime Minister Modi said, while addressing the nation in his monthly radio address, adding that no one has the right to take law into one's own hands in the name of belief.

"In the Constitution given to us by Baba Saheb Ambedkar, there is every provision for ensuring justice for each and every person," he added.

Prime Minister Modi added that news of violence comes amidst festivities "it is only natural to be concerned," adding that India is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Buddha.

"We have been hearing and saying Ahimsa Parmo Dharmah (the Mahabharata, one of the epics of Hinduism, has multiple mentions of the phrase Ahimsa Paramo Dharma, meaning, non-violence is the highest moral virtue) from our Childhood," he added.

Prime Minister Modi also said that for centuries, nation's forefathers imbibed community values, non-violence, mutual respect which were "inherent to us".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi touched upon a variety of topics in his 'Mann ki Baat' address, including terrorism, violence, and cleanliness among others.

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After a dull start in the wake of violence following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and sudden showers on Saturday, the Delhi Book Fair saw a large number of book lovers of the national capital turning up to the event on Sunday.

With the theme "Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat" (India reads, India grows), the Delhi Book Fair -- organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in association with the the Federation of Indian Publishers -- entered its 23rd edition.

Held at Pragati Maidan, the fair has been spread over two halls -- one dedicated to stationery items while the other has book stalls.

"Our focus this year is more on study books and syllabus guide materials. However, there are many stalls with story books as well," Pradip Chhabra, Organiser, Delhi Book Fair, told IANS.

Visitor Priyanka Bagaria, who came along with her son Granth, a student of class eight in Blue Bells Public School, said the availability of many books under one roof is a major reason for visiting the fair.

"Visiting Daryaganj is always not possible. Here I got rather more variety of study material and that too with more discount," Bagaria observed.

Like her, Ashish Aggarwal, a resident of Noida who was visiting Delhi Book Fair for the first time, said the lack of good bookstores in Noida drew him to the event.

"There aren't many book shops in Noida. Here I got many books which are not easily available in the market, especially some old books related to General Knowledge and communication skills improvement," Aggarwal said.

This year, the fair is providing a unique platform for business-to-business transactions, establishing new contacts, entering into co-publishing arrangements, translation and copyright arrangements, and reprinting of old and rare books, apart from providing retailing opportunities.

It will also host conferences and seminars, buyer-seller meets, book releases, discussions, literary activities for children and meet-the-author events.

The Delhi Book Fair will conclude on September 3.

--IANS

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The eighth edition of the Mountain Echoes Literary Festival reached its culmination on Sunday evening here. The three-day literary extravaganza in Bhutan's picturesque capital city saw literary stalwarts from several countries participate in debates, discussions and topics of literary interest.

On Sunday, the last day of the festival, the Royal University of Bhutan and Taj Tashi played perfect hosts to the day-long sessions and workshops around Business and Leadership, Buddhism, Natural History and Food.

The day commenced with a traditional performance of "Neyla Dangpa Micha", by the students of the Royal Academy of Performing Arts, an initiative of Bhutan's Department of Culture to preserve traditional Bhutanese culture.

The performance was followed by the first session of the day -- 'Speaking Volumes', which saw acclaimed Indian author and Sahitya Akademi award winner Jerry Pinto in conversation with Tess Lewis, writer and translator from French and German. The duo spoke about Jerry Pinto's diverse body of work, including translations, crime thrillers and his bestselling books, and the relevance of humorous characters and poignant prose in his works.

The following session "Virtual Memory: Digitising the Past" saw writer and editor Ashi Kesang Choden talk to Pema Abrahams, founder of Project Denjong. The intriguing session discussed digitisation and virtual archives as the means to reach a larger audience in today's day and age.

In "Fantasy No More: Living in Dystopia", the audience heard eminent author Prayaag Akbar in conversation with Australian author Markus Zusak, with the former discussing the darker sides to our homes and relationships as it veers between fantasy and prophesy in his highly acclaimed novel "Leila".

Taj Tashi, the iconic five-star property here, witnessed a series of simultaneous sessions on themes of Business and Leadership.

Starting with "Taking The Lead", the first session of the business capsule, Chewang Rinzin, Director of the Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies; Tshering Cigay Dorji, CEO of Thimphu Tech Park; and Justice Tashi Chhozom, who served as the chairperson of the Royal Judicial Service Council, were in conversation with Mohini Gupta to discuss the present and future of Bhutan's culture, economy and business, and the key role the youth will play.

The panel discussed how festivals of this nature help in fostering friendship between nations, promote love for reading and knowledge, especially amongst the younger Bhutanese population.

The subsequent session,"Woman Up", saw a panel of dynamic independent women -- freelance journalist and novelist Amrita Tripathi; Bhutanese archeologist Kuenga Wangmo; Indian journalist and TV host Barkha Dutt; food expert, model and award-winning author Padma Lakshmi -- discuss and deliberate the role women play in the workforce, with Tandin Wangmo, CEO and Executive Director of non-profit RENEW (Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women).

Issues such as how women are still perceived differently than their male counterparts, how they have to work twice as hard to achieve half of what men have to, and fight even harder for their place and recognition, were raised.

The third day of the Festival also engaged audiences with two interesting workshops -- "13 Steps to Luck, Wealth and Success" by Ashwin Sanghi, one of India's most celebrated contemporary authors and "Business Sutra" by Devdutt Pattanaik, leading mythologist and author.

The highlight of the day was "Mistress of Spices", where TV host and food writer Padma Lakshmi spoke to Barkha Dutt about growing up brown, the kitchen gods that inspire her and her go-to recipes. The self-confessed gastronome explained her philosophy of food and how she translates that into the written word as a food writer.

The day also saw three book launches. "Facts About Bhutan" written by Lily Wanggchuk, and "Echoes of Bhutan" by Barbara and Barry Shaffer were unveiled by the Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, followed by the launch of "Adolescence Spirit" by Deebash and Seeksha Bhattarai.

The audiences were delighted with "Romance Aaj Kal", an entertaining session that saw acclaimed Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali at his candid best. He charmed the audience with his sense of humour, and discussed his growing up years, deep association with theatre, love for writing stories and travels and inspiration as a film maker, with actress and former Miss Bhutan Tshokye Tshomo. Confessing his love for Bhutan, he promised the audience that he will be back soon.

Formally closing the eighth edition of the Festival, Siok Sian Dorji, Festival Co-Director, thanked the Royal Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck for her personal and inspiring support, and said the festival celebrated the stories that each one of us carry within our hearts.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the Eastern Himalayas, Mountain Echoes Literary Festival is an initiative of the India-Bhutan Foundation, in association with India's leading literary consultancy Siyahi.

(Saket Suman's visit to Thimphu is at the invitation of the organisers of Mountain Echoes Literary Festival. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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With most airlines and hotels lowering prices to attract customers during what is known as the "off-period" for travel, a vacation during the monsoon season is slowly catching the fancy of travellers in India.

The monsoon period, which is usually considered a lean period of travel -- right after summer vacations and before the beginning of the festive season -- is slowly emerging as a preferred time to holiday due to cost benefits and lower rush, experts suggest.

"People opting for a vacation during the monsoon benefit due to lower rates for stay and travel. About 75 per cent of peak season traffic is still seen for a monsoon vacation," Aloke Bajpai, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of travel search engine ixigo, told IANS.

"Most airlines and hotels drop their rates during the lean period to ensure the fill rate doesn't dip below their viable/profitable levels," he added.

Bajpai added that the preferred domestic destinations for monsoon travel are Goa, Manali, Coorg, Sikkim, and Malshej (Pune district), while international destinations include Colombo, Krabi (Southern Thailand), Malacca, Dubai and Kathmandu.

As per the latest World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report, the Indian travel industry in 2016 generated over Rs 14 trillion (about $208 billion) -- approximately 9.6 per cent of India's gross domestic product.

The industry catered to about nine million foreign tourist arrivals last year.

"This gives us a fairer idea that people now enjoy exploring new places and experiences, and monsoon is no longer considered a gloomy season where people just sit inside and watch the rains," said Manmeet Ahluwalia, Market Head, Expedia in India.

"It has become an experience in itself to travel and explore places during the monsoon... We have seen a 30 per cent spike in travel bookings as tourists flock to quaint resorts nestled amid plantations and forests," Ahluwalia told IANS.

He said places like Cherrapunji, Mawsynram (Meghalaya), Kodaikanal and Araku Valley (Andhra Pradesh), as also the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Kerala, had become among the top preferences for domestic travel.

"When it comes to international destinations, Bali, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka are the popular picks," he added.

For a better-planned holiday, these specialised search engines help travellers figure out the right destination by giving out personalised recommendations.

An interactive "Monsoon Planner" tool launched by Skyscanner, a global travel search engine, is one such instrument which features domestic and international destinations with lower rainfall than monsoon-hit cities in August.

"At Skyscanner it is our constant endeavor to assist travellers in overall vacation planning, right from destinations search to affordable deals of flights," said Reshmi Roy, Senior Growth Manager at Skyscanner for India.

(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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Kerala BJP president Kummanem Rajasekheran on Sunday asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala not to be unduly worried of violence in other states.

He was reacting to the letters written by Vijayan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and by Chennithala to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh after violent protests broke out in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape and sexual exploitation case by a special CBI court.

"Really do not understand why Vijayan is shedding crocodile tears over what happened in those states, when he should be answerable to the political killings that have taken place in his home town. What happened in North India was the violent reaction by the followers of Singh and the security forces used force to curb the excess done, but in Vijayan's place, people who voted against his party are being targeted and those who do it are not taken to task," said Rajasekheran in a Facebook post.

"What Chennithala forgot is when the Congress ruled the country, lakhs was killed on account of violence all over the country. What Chennithala has conveniently ignored is that it was during the Congress rule that the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was given high security cover. The Congress is solely responsible for promoting such fake godmen. The killing of Sikhs also happened during the Congress regime," he said.

He also pointed out that whatever happened in those states was contained in a matter of 24 hours and that shows how the BJP deals with issues.

--IANS

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign taking responsibility for the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra said on Sunday.

"Panchkula is burning with 36 dead and 250 injured. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those affected... Khattar, the CM of Haryana, the nation wants you to take responsibility of security lapses and resign," Vadra tweeted.

Vadra lauded the Punjab and Haryana High Court order to compensate for the losses suffered in the violence by auctioning the Dera chief's property.

He also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state of questioning his integrity and harassing him. Vadra said it was the time for the state government to prove its integrity and take responsibility for the "massacre".

"I appreciate the Punjab and Haryana High Court for pulling up Khattar government (for) letting the situation escalate," he said.

"Time and again, Khattar government has witch-hunted me, questioned me and my integrity, harassed me, without basis. Today, I ask them to prove their integrity and take responsibility of a glaring massacre, which happened under their nose," Vadra said.

"The whole country is shocked. India's image across the world has taken a setback. Citizens need to unite and protect each other. I request the central government to give us our basic right of feeling safe and secure, ensuring such incidents of rioting do not occur again," he said.

--IANS

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In the wake of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern over violence in Haryana and Punjab after controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's rape conviction, former BJP MP Tarun Vijay on Sunday alleged that Kerala has turned "brutal" under Vijayan.

"Under Pinarayi, Kerala has turned brutal to differing Malayalees, who are non-yielding and non-conformists. It is a sin to differ with the ruling elite in Kerala," Vijay said in a statement.

He said that Haryana is a "safe haven" for people from all states and countries and is "heralding a new era of industrial progress", while Kerala has failed to attract "any investment and people" from other states.

Vijay said that Vijayan, who showed "fake concern" on the safety of Keralaites in Haryana, must answer if he has been able to safeguard lives and dignity of citizens in Kerala, noting 14 RSS workers have been killed in 13 months, four of them Dalits.

On Friday, Vijayan had written to Modi that he was receiving calls from Malayalis from the affected areas in Haryana and Punjab who were in fear for their life and property in the face of violence unleashed by Dera Sachcha Sauda followers aftre the conviction of Dera head.

"May I request you to take immediate and necessary action to ensure that the life and property of all our citizens are protected without fail," he had said in the letter.

--IANS

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Sunday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah to do whatever they could against him and his family but warned that he and his party will continue to work for the defeat of "communal forces" in the 2019 General Elections.

"I will neither bow before fascist and communal forces like the BJP, nor stop our fight against them till their defeat in the next General Elections," the former Bihar Chief Minister said while addressing an opposition rally organised by his party in Patna.

He also said he would ensure the ousting of fascist-communal forces from power in Delhi by uniting various opposition parties.

Lalu Prasad said he would prefer to be hanged rather than compromise on his principles and political ideology to fight communal and fascist forces in the country.

"I was the one who used to warn people across the country during the 2014 election campaigning that if the BJP led by Modi came to power, the country will face danger and problems.

My apprehensions were ignored by many at that time, but have been proved true now."

The former Railway Minister accused the central government of misusing the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to lodge "false cases" against him and his son and daughter to defame them.

"Farzi mukadma hum logon ko darane ke liye kiya tha (False case was foisted on us to scare us)," the RJD chief said.

Accusing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of betraying the public mandate by breaking the Grand Alliance in the state, Lalu Prasad said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader (Nitish) had no principles, no ideology, but only love for power.

Lalu Prasad said he was aware of Nitish Kumar's designs of political betrayal and was not ready to name him the chief ministerial candidate when the Grand Alliance was formed in Bihar.

"I was not ready to declare Nitish Kumar the chief ministerial candidate due to his track record of betraying... it was the then Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who persuaded me to agree to his name for the post."

He said Nitish Kumar was envious of and feared his younger son and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav's popularity.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also addressed the rally.

C P Joshi of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party's Tarique Anwar, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Choudhary Jayant Singh, Communist Party of India's Sudhakar Reddy, former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, All India United Democratic Front leader Badruddin Ajmal and leaders from the DMK, Janata Dal-Secular and Revolutionary Socialist Party also attended.

Thousands of people attended the rally despite floods in major parts of Seemanchal, Koshi, and Mithilanchal regions of north Bihar.

Also present at the rally were Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav and wife Rabri Devi along with their daughter Misa Bharti.




The French-born Vallet was honored in recognition of his contributions to bringing study opportunities to Vietnamese pupils and students through the Vallet Scholarship Program as well as promoting Vietnam-France relations.

She said Vallet scholarships have become a source of encouragement to Vietnamese students in the past years and expected the French professor to further his support for Vietnam in education development and children healthcare and protection.

Expressing his honor to receive Vietnams noblest order for foreigners, Odon Vallet underlined that he will continue to present scholarships in fields of science-technology, mathematics, chemistry and biology to Vietnamese disadvantaged pupils and students in mountainous, remote, border and island areas.

Many of the Vallet scholarship recipients have received the worlds scientific awards, he added.

From 1990, through the Aid to the Children of Vietnam (AEVN) in France, Odon Vallet made financial contributions to repairing and upgrading SOS Childrens Village in Lam Dong, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Binh and Nghe An.

In 1999, he set up the Vallet Scholarship fund for high-achieving students in France, Vietnam and Bennin (Germany). The funding is drawn from the professors personal inheritance from his father, once a poor labourer who made his fortune from the insurance business. To date, nearly 30,000 scholarships have been given to Vietnamese students with a total money mounting to VND150 billion (USD6.6 million)./.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Sunday that no compensation would be given by his government to law breakers from the state who were killed in the Panchkula violence in wake of the court verdict against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case.

Talking to media during his tour of nearly a dozen areas in some of the sensitive districts in Malwa region of south-west Punjab, which witnessed sporadic incidents of violence in the wake of the court verdict on Friday, he said that the state government and police had taken effective steps to contain the situation.

Out of the 38 deaths in violence in Haryana in wake of the CBI special court verdict convicting the Dera chief for rape, 11 people have been identified so far as being from Punjab.

The Chief Minister said it was for the centre to take any decisionAon ordering a probe into the collapse of law and order that led to the anarchy and violence in Panchkula and other parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi on Friday.

He reiterated that the main cause of the trouble was allowing such a large crowd to gather in Panchkula in Haryana, adjoining Chandigarh, ahead of the court verdict.

The quantum of punishment to the Dera chief will be announced on Monday in a special court being set up in the jail near Rohtak town in Haryana, where the Dera chief was taken after his conviction

--IANS

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Offshore wind -- plentiful along the coast of southern India -- can be a potential source to meet the increasing energy demand in this region, scientists at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai report.

After reviewing various wind resource maps along the 3,100-km coastline of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, they have identified Rameswaram and Kanyakumari along the Tamil Nadu coast as the most suitable sites for setting up offshore wind farms. Between the two potential sites, wind farms at Kanyakumari are more viable compared to Rameswaram.

Powerful and consistent winds and low sound pollution make offshore wind farms preferable to onshore farms, they report in the journal Current Science.

More than 90 per cent of the global offshore wind farms are located in European waters, including the world's largest such, the 630 MW "London Array", which was commissioned in 2013.

India's installed wind power capacity has significantly increased in recent years, reaching 32 GW at the end of March 2017. But no offshore wind farm is under implementation although an Offshore Wind Policy was announced in 2015.

The NIOT initiated the study to identify suitable sites along the Indian coast. As long-term historical wind data is not available in all the terrains in India, its scientists used the numerical wind atlas maps generated by the Technical University of Denmark for their study.

They also used the offshore wind potential maps produced by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services based on daily wind data derived from the QuikSCAT NASA satellite. This data was validated through in-situ measurements of winds obtained from five moored buoys deployed by NIOT along the Indian coast.

According to their findings, winds of magnitude six metres per second or more persist for more than 300 days along the Tamil Nadu coast. "The wind potential maps indicate Rameswaram and Kanyakumari along the Tamil Nadu Coast as suitable sites for setting up of offshore wind farms.

"These two sites are subjected to very few cyclones when compared to other sites in the north, making them more suitable for offshore wind energy establishments in terms of safety," the scientists said.

"South India is facing huge deficit in electricity which can be compensated to some extent by offshore wind plants." says the report. "However, the cost of offshore wind energy plants will be significantly higher compared to onshore farms because of the higher cost for foundations, installation, operation and maintenance and complex logistics."

After considering the uncertainty in wind speeds, the NIOT team has also identified that 3.4 MW wind turbines will be suitable at these two potential sites to achieve a high plant load factor. The scientists proposed a wind farm about five kilometres from the coastline consisting of 50 such turbines, each estimated to cost about Rs 690 million.

Commercial viability studies of offshore wind farms indicated a cost of Rs 10.8 and Rs 9.6 per Kilowatt-hour (Kwh) of energy produced at Rameswaram and Kanyakumari, respectively, for an internal rate of return of 14 per cent.

"As an offshore wind farm is to be implemented for the first time in India, an attractive policy framework is required to promote this industry and make it commercially viable over a period," the scientists have suggested.

(K.S. Jayaraman is a senior journalist who writes on scientific affairs. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)

--IANS

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Model-actress Paris Jackson sent a fun message to actor Macaulay Culkin as he celebrated his 37th birthday.

On Saturday, Paris wished Culkin, who had worked with her late father Michael Jackson on a song, a happy birthday message on Instagram, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Paris, 19, shared a photo of themselves along with her message.

In the throwback picture, Paris is seen sitting on top of the former "Home Alone" star as he hugs her and smiles.

"Happy burfday I love u. Make 37 your b****," she wrote.

--IANS

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Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that given its geographical location, India has to always remain prepared and that the defence preparedness is its best defence.

"The harsh reality in today's modern world is that India in its present geographical location has to remain prepared. In fact our defence preparedness itself our best defence," he said at a ceremony at Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), where he handed over long range surface to air missile to the Indian Navy.

"Whereas the entire country has full confidence in our forces which represent one of the best traditions anywhere in the world, we obviously need to equip our forces with the support system they require," he said.

Stating that the country faces multiple threats, he underlined the need for the country to become self-sufficient to meet its defence requirements.

Jaitley said India had the best human resources, available at competitive price, and believes India is capable of offering the services to other developed economies.

"There is hardly any country in the developed world, where the presence of Indian minds is not visible, be it in the field of medicine, science or technology. And therefore, not only do we have a large human resource pool, we have surplus resources which serve other countries too," he added.

He claimed that India's human resources resources, compared to other economies in the world, were available at a very competitive price.

"That being a reality, over the last few decades we have seen some of the best companies -- be it pharmaceutical or IT - shifting their research and development bases to India," he added.

Jaitley also visited Ordnance Factory in Medak near Hyderabad as well as the plant of Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (Midhani).

--IANS

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Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sent a solidarity message for an RJD rally held in Patna by former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad and regretted that he could not attend the event since he was travelling.

"I am glad to know that you have organised a large public meeting in Patna on August 27 in which leaders of various (opposition) parties with a common ideology are taking part," Rahul said in his message.

"This rally is being organised at a time when the very foundation of our pluralistic democracy is under severe attack. Using money and muscle power, the ruling party (BJP) is extending its rule into states where it could not secure the electoral mandate," he added.

The Congress leader said that barring a few people close to the government, every section of society is "bearing the brunt of anti-people and anti-poor policies" of this (central) government.

"I am sure this rally will expose the evil designs of the ruling party and its government. I had wished to attend this rally but could not, thanks to an official trip to Norway. I convey my best wishes to all those taking part in the rally," he said.

Lalu Prasad on Sunday held the 'BJP bhagao, desh bachao' rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan in which leaders of various opposition parties participated.

The rally came weeks after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke away from the Grand Alliance and joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

--IANS

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Globally renowned English-Australian chef, television show host and restaurateur Gary Mehigan says he believes that "regionality is what sets Indian food apart" from the cuisines across the world.

In an email interview with IANS from Melbourne, Mehigan said Indian food is gaining deserved attention globally. "We're close to seeing India explore its intellectual property, namely food, properly. We have many Indian chefs like Manish Mehrotra, Sanjeev Kapoor and many other names from all over the world infiltrating the food scene in a big way."

"People still sometimes see Indian food as a homogeneous chicken tikka, rogan josh, chicken vindaloo cuisine, when we know is far from the truth. Regionality is what sets Indian food apart. Regionality is what the world is going to appreciate when it starts to learn about Indian food," Mehigan explained.

"I hope I'm a part of those who bring great Indian food to Australia," said the chef, who is now the face of Fox Life's "Food @ 9: India Special with Gary Mehigan".

"There's quite a bit of Australian talent we're trying to showcase through the series. These shows get addictive and help us travel vicariously through our television sets," he stated.

Mehigan, who will be setting foot in India for the seveth time this November, said he carries back inspiration from the country to his kitchen from each visit.

"I love the country -- something about the colour, the chaos, the diversity and the originality of the food -- it all gets under your skin. I carry home a few recipes and ideas each time I visit. It's certainly changed the way I cook at home," he said.

Known popularly for shows like "Far Flung with Gary Mehigan", and for his presence as a judge on "MasterChef Australia", the chef expressed that food the world over has seen enormous changes driven by social media.

"I'm loving where food is at the moment. Ideas are being shared so quickly through social media -- whether it's Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I can browse through my Instagram and look at what some of my most favourite restaurants in the world are serving for lunch.

"The frame of reference for younger cooks is much bigger. They are able to browse through how a matcha ice-cream is made in Tokyo, or how funky desserts are made in Parisian cafes," Mehigan said.

All in all, it's a great thing for food with awareness growing, he opined. "This global club of foodies is only expanding. It's a great thing for food, our health and our planet too, if we care about where our food comes from."

Social media is also one of his ways to keep reinventing his food, said the chef, who has been in the industry for nearly three decades.

"Social media is there to keep my imagination going. I'm food obsessed. I go on holidays because of food. I think I've never been in love with food more than I am now," Mehigan said, signing off.

(Bhavana Akella can be contacted at bhavana.a@ians.in)

--IANS

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Russian development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), which has signed an MoU with Indian firm Srei Infrastructure Finance to create a $200 million IT and Innovation Fund, has announced it will help the Russian government develop a mechanism of funding the national digital economy programme.

"The Russian government has instructed three ministries to develop a mechanism of funding the programme Digital Economy together with Vnesheconombank. The Bank's Supervisory Board will consider these issues in October," VEB said in a release here on Saturday.

The Digital Economy programme, initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, aims to provide 97 per cent of Russian households with broadband Internet access by 2025.

"5G mobile networks should be deployed by this time in all cities with population of 1 million people," the statement said.

"In September, we will open the first centre focused on blockchain, convergent, and quantum technologies at the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS). We plan to create a group of investment funds with external financing from both Russian and foreign investors," VEB Chairman Sergei Gorkov said in the statement.

In June, Kolkata-based Srei and Vnesheconombank signed an MoU to create a $200 million IT and Innovation Fund, which will enable them to jointly explore investment opportunities in technology companies in Russia, India and other selected regions.

A group of Srei officials visited the Russian Quantum Centre here last month to check out technological solutions based on the principles of quantum physics that could be put to industrial use in the coming years.

In the background of recent cyber attacks that affected networks across the world, Srei is looking at purchase of quantum communication devices designed to protect crucial information and data against the upcoming threat posed by the development of quantum computing.

The classical blockchain technology, on which bitcoins are based for instance, permit quantum computers to falsify digital signatures, change programming and even allow network access to outsiders.

Earlier this year, Russia announced the development of the world's first quantum blockchain which allows using a quantum cryptography and quantum data transfer system to protect databases from hacking. RQC says this device will be ready for industrial use by early next year.

The technology has already been tested by the RQC in one of Russia's largest banks -- Gazprombank -- by creating a three-node quantum network between the branches of the bank in the Moscow region. RQC is now working to expand the capability to other Russian and international financial services organisations.

Quantum theory is about nature at its smallest scale and energy levels and describes the behaviour of sub-atomic particles like electrons, protons, neutrons and photons.

In silicon chips of classical computers, the unit of data is rendered in one of two states -- 0 or 1 pertaining to true/false or yes/no state. However, in quantum theory, data could simultaneously exist in both states, holding exponentially more information. The unit, or "bit" in regular computing, becomes "qubit" in quantum theory, which can be either 0 or 1, or in superposition of them both at the same time.

This means that where a normal computer makes calculations sequentially, one at a time, a quantum computer would be able to process information simultaneously, thus making it much more powerful.

--IANS

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Rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday pledged to form a 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) at the level to defeat and oust the BJP-led NDA in the next general election.

"Hindustan bhar mein Gathbandhan banega ab," Sharad Yadav roared to applause from the large gathering at a rally here organised by RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad.

Without naming Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the JD-U President, Sharad Yadav said: "I would like to remind those who broke the Grand Alliance in Bihar that now we will form the Grand Alliance at the level."

He said breaking the Grand Alliance of the JD-U, RJD and Congress in Bihar was a betrayal of people of Bihar and their mandate. "People were cheated. I am sure and certain that I will form a Grand Alliance in the country."

He said he will visit every nook and corner of the country to form a Grand Alliance of 1.25 crore people.

Sharad Yadav said the formation of a Grand Alliance this time would be different to make a real difference on the ground for the people.

He cautioned people that a nexus of and religion was dangerous. "If and religion mix, it create trouble like what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"I will fight till my last breath. I am member of Parliament for last 43 years but i will not hesitate to fight to protect the country from decisive forces."

Sharad Yadav shared a stage for the first time with Lalu Prasad at the "Desh Bachao, BJP Bhagao" rally at the Gandhi Maidan, ignoring the JD-U's warning not to attend it.

JD-U leaders including General Secretary K.C. Tyagi and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar declared that Sharad Yadav had now joined hands with the corrupt and that the JD-U led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would act against him.

Sharad Yadav was warmly welcomed by Lalu Prasad when he reached the stage. A smiling Lalu Prasad shook hands with and hugged Sharad Yadav before the huge gathering.

Before coming to attend the rally, Sharad Yadav told the media that he was with the Grand Alliance and his JD-U was real JD-U.

"Lets wait for one or two months. I will publicly prove it that the JD-U is our party," he said.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also attended the rally.

C.P. Joshi of the Congress, NCP's Tarique Anwar, RLD's Choudhary Jayant Singh, CPI's Sudhakar Reddy, former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Hemant Soren of JMM, Babulal Marandi of the JVM, AIUDF leader Baadruddin Azmal and leaders from the DMK, JD-S and RSP also attended the rally.

Thousands of people attended the rally despite floods affecting major parts of Seemanchal, Koshi and Mithilanchal regions of north Bihar.

Also present at the rally were Lalu Prasad's younger son and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and their daughter Misa Bharti.
Vice President M.Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday called the people to show selfless dedication and missionary zeal to build a New India similar to what Mahatma Gandhi showed to the nation and also a Ramrajya as dreamt by the Father of the Nation.

In his address at the Anna University here to mark the 75 years of Quit India movement after inaugurating an exhibition 'New India-Resolve to Make', Naidu, recalling Gandhi's speech in 1942 when he called the British to 'Quit India', said: "Now the time has come for every Indian to display a similar sense of selfless dedication and missionary zeal to build a New India in the next five years."

The function was organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Naidu also added that the New India to be built should be free of corruption, casteism, communalism, terrorism, illiteracy, black money, gender discrimination and atrocities against the meek and the weak.

He also rued that 70 years after the nation's Independence, the people are still fighting the demons of poverty, corruption, illiteracy, fundamentalism and others.

Pointing out the demographic profile of the country, Naidu said majority of are young today and their energies to be harnessed in a most productive way.

He also called for steps to make agriculture profitable, climate resilient and sustainable.

The Vice President also said terrorism is an enemy of humanity and the country has to stand united.

Earlier Governor C.Vidyasagar Rao, and Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam received Naidu at the airport.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Signalling a significant new era in cooperation with states, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the country's first Videsh Bhavan, assimilating all Regional Passport Offices and allied departments under a single roof at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) here on Sunday.

In her address on the occasion, she said that ever since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government assumed office in 2014, "the face of the Ministry of External Affairs has changed."

"Till 2014, there were 77 passport centres in the country. We have managed to open up 235 centres in the past six months," said Sushma Swaraj.

Discussing the efforts to streamline passport procedures, she said many rules that created hurdles for people to apply for a passport have been discarded.

"Earlier, orphans who did not have a birth certificate were not entitled to a passport, similarly for divorcees. We have changed the rules, amended them to make them more citizen-friendly."

In his speech, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said this is the first Videsh Bhavan of the country and "will be a model for all other states to follow."

"Being an international class city, Mumbai works very closely with the MEA and the Videsh Bhavan will help even more," he said.

Noting projects initiated from Mumbai always succeed, he expressed confidence in the success of the initiative.

As a first pilot project, four offices of MEA -- Regional Passport Office, Protector of Emigrants office, Branch Secretariat and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations' Regional Office -- have been integrated and brought to function under one roof at the state-of-art office in BKC, said Regional Passport Officer Swati Kulkarni.

Earlier, Sushma Swaraj lit the auspicious lamp marking the inauguration of the Videsh Bhavan in the presence of Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. V.K. Singh (eetd), Fadnavis, Administrator of Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Praful Patel, besides other dignitaries.

The formal inauguration on Sunday follows the shifting of the RPO from its Worli premises to the Videsh Bhavan from August 14 and merging of the Thane and Mumbai RPOs from August 21, which have already become functional.

"The Videsh Bhavan is part of the MEA's effective management of its engagement with the Maharashtra government," said an official, on what is billed as the first "foreign office in India".

The Videsh Bhavan project in Mumbai is part of the central government's policy to bring together different offices of the MEA under a single roof and work closely with states as more and more Indians are going abroad for employment, education, business and tourism.

The existing Passport Seva Kendras in Thane, Thane-II, Malad (Mumbai) and Nashik will continue to function from their existing locations but under the administrative jurisdiction of the RPO Mumbai.

Currently, many of the 90-plus RPOs and PoEs function from rented offices and the implementation of similar Videsh Bhavans in different state capitals is expected to cut costs besides ensuring improving efficiency and speeding up the delivery of various services.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bid to further evaluate Robert Kubica this year, Renault could provide the Pole with an FP1 outing, likely in Malaysia.

Following Kubica's impressive and positive test in Hungary before the summer break, speculation ramped up about the 32-year-old making a sensational return to F1, and taking over Jolyon Palmer's seat at Renault.

Team boss Cyril Abiteboul quickly squashed the rumors however but admitted the French outfit's interest in Kubica was intact, although there remained some interrogations.

"We don't have all the answers that we potentially wanted to get from that test," said Abiteboul in Spa.

"In a perfect world we would want to do more of this type of test to see if he can race again at the level that he and we could have wanted. It may or may not be possible."

Speed Week is reporting that Kubica might indeed be given another chance to prove himself in a few races time, in Friday free practice ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

Abiteboul still isn't giving anything away however.

"I don't want to create speculation and I don't want to put on the team that we have some obligation to go further because there is an interest from the public to see Robert back.

"We would all like Robert to be back, but it has to make sense," he insisted.

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Security forces were on high alert again on Sunday in Haryana and Punjab as both states braced for the announcement of quantum of punishment on Monday to Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who has been convicted of rape by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court.

The sentencing will be done in a court being specially set up inside the District Jail premises in Sunaria near Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi, where Ram Rahim was brought and lodged after his conviction.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation judge Jagdeep Singh, who had Friday held the Dera chief guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002, will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the quantum of punishment.

Curfew was reimposed in Haryana's Sirsa town, where the sect's headquarters are located, on Sunday and security forces braced themselves for any eventuality in and around Rohtak town in view of the sentencing of the sect chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana.

The areas affected by violence in both states remained peaceful on Sunday even though security forces remained on high alert in both states, officials said.

In Sirsa, 260 km from Chandigarh, where curfew was relaxed on Sunday morning for three hours, saw more Dera followers heading for the sprawling sect headquarters on the outskirts of the town as tension still prevailed.

The army and para-military forces are stationed outside the complex and have appealed repeatedly to the sect followers to vacate the premises. However, local authorities said that thousands of followers were still inside the complex, which is like a mini-city with a huge stadium, educational institutions, factories, markets and hospitals inside.

A media team from a news channel was attacked in Sirsa by Dera followers, who chased and assaulted them in presence of the Haryana Police.

The attackers tried to snatch their camera and damaged it. The media team got minor injuries before they were rescued by security forces in the vicinity. However, the assailants took away their car.

Dera followers had attacked the media in Panchkula on Friday after the rape case verdict against the sect chief and outdoor broadcasting vehicles were set on fire by the mobs.

Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) B S Sandhu meanwhile said that no incident was reported from anywhere in the state in the past 24 hours.

"Our top priority is to ensure security for the sentencing in Sunaria (Rohtak) tomorrow (Monday). We are fully prepared with police personnel, para-military forces and Army on stand-by," he said.

"We have searched and sanitised all premises of the sect at various places," he said, adding 826 arrests have been made so far in connection with the violence.

Authorities are apprehending that the situation could take a violent turn following the sentencing of the disgraced godman on Monday.

With tension building up in some parts of Haryana and Punjab in wake of the sentencing, both states suspended mobile Internet services till August 29 (Tuesday). In Haryana, all schools and other educational institutions have been ordered to remain closed on Monday.

Prohibitory orders, barring the assembly of five or more persons and carrying of firearms and other weapons, have been imposed in Fatehabad, Kaithal and Ambala districts.

The conviction verdict led to violence leaving 36 people dead. Of these, 30 died in Panchkula, where the court was located, while six died in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured.

However, curfew was withdrawn on Saturday in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, which saw the maximum violence on Friday.

Meanwhile, trains affected due to law and order situation have been resumed after receiving security clearance from authorities, the Railways said on Sunday.

"All the trains on Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh, Moradabad-Saharanpur-Ambala sections have been resumed with immediate effect," said Northern Railway spokesman Neeraj Sharma.

However, security clearance for Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section is still awaited and 25 trains are yet to be resumed, he said.
The top US official overseeing South Asia diplomacy will visit Islamabad this week following US President Donald Trump's stern warning to Pakistan against harbouring terrorists.

Alice Wells, who is the Acting Assistant Secretary of State in-charge of South and Central Asia, will meet Pakistani officials during her visit, the State Department announced on Saturday.

She will be the first high-level official to visit Pakistan after Trump's speech last week, issuing to Islamabad the bluntest warning so far by a US President that "it has much to lose by continuing to harbour terrorists".

This is the second trip to Islamabad this month by Wells, who is also the Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

During her first visit Wells met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad. She also visited New Delhi during that trip, although she is skipping India this time.

Wells will visit Dhaka and Colombo during the journey starting on Monday.

On Friday, she is scheduled to speak at the Indian Ocean Conference in Colombo.

India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the Vice-Chair of the organising committee of the conference. According to the meeting's brochure, Swaraj and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar have been invited to speak at the conference.

Their participation could facilitate meeting with Wells on the sidelines.

Trump has asked for India's help in Afghanistan and said that "critical part of the South Asia strategy for America is to further develop its strategic partnership with India".

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and several leaders and officials from the Indian Ocean region will attend the conference organised by the India Foundation.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Did the security personnel attached to rape convict and Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh attempt to help him escape from the court complex immediately after he was convicted on Friday?

Haryana Police sources say a definite attempt was made by the sect chief's security personnel, who themselves were from Haryana Police and also included private commandos, to help him flee in his private vehicle.

"The attempt was made by his security personnel to take him away in his vehicle, along with his Z-plus security, from the court complex. They could have taken him to his thousands of followers who had gathered about one kilometre from the court complex after which it would have become very tough for the security forces to arrest him without causing several fatalities," a Haryana Police officer told IANS.

Some Haryana Police officers and paramilitary force personnel inside the court complex in Sector 1 of Panchkula immediately sensed the situation and took the disgraced sect chief into custody after a scuffle with his security personnel who numbered seven to eight.



Ram Rahim Singh's security personnel, including Haryana Police and private commandos, were detained in a separate room immediately and later booked for attempt to murder, sedition and trying to prevent police officials from performing their duty.

All the security personnel were later arrested and have been sent on a seven-day police remand.

The officer, who was witness to events inside the court complex, said the sect chief's security personnel also tried to stop the security agencies from taking away the convicted godman in the police vehicle by lying down in front of the vehicle. They were removed.

They also tried to block the way of the police vehicle carrying the sect chief with a security jammer vehicle of the police but were stopped from doing so.

The seven security personnel of the sect chief booked include Assistant Sub-Inspector Krishan Das, Head Constables Ajay, Ram Singh and Vijay Singh, Constable Balwan Singh (all from Haryana Police) and private security guards Pritam Singh and Sukhbir.



Police officials said the police team attached to the security detail of the sect chief had become his followers and indebted to him to such an extent that they allegedly assaulted their own senior officers and tried to free the self-styled godman.

On August 25, CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002.

At least 36 people died in the violence following the conviction of the Dera chief. Of these, 30 died in Panchkula and in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured in the violence.



The sect chief was later shifted to a prison near Rohtak town, about 70 km from Delhi.

The quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced on Monday at a special court being set up in the prison premises in Rohtak. The judge will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the sentence.
In a country the size of India its not surprising that important developments sometimes dont get the attention they deserve. However, the fact that the home ministrys decision to forcibly deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees, including 16,500 who have been officially registered by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), has been disregarded by most of the media is particularly dismaying and upsetting. This is not just because an important story has been neglected but, more importantly, because the decision to forcibly deport is immoral, arguably illegal and definitely damaging to the idea of India we supposedly cherish.
Three hardcore criminals were arrested and country-made pistols recovered from them in Uttar Pradesh's Kheri district, police said today.

According to Superintendent of Police, S Channappa, the criminals were involved in shooting a sub inspector on August 21.

They were identified as Ram Rahim, Amit Mishra and Shahid of Shahjahanpur district.

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested the three under Pasgawan police limits and also recovered live cartridges from them.

All of them have over half a dozen of cases registered in various police stations of Khiri, Sitapur and Shahjahanpur districts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five persons were arrested in this seaside town by a team of West Bengal police in connection with a shooting incident in Kolkata, police said today.

The five were nabbed by the team from Kolkata with the help of local police from a hotel located in Baliapanda area in the pilgrim town yesterday, said Additional Superintendent of Police, Banabihari Sahu.

The accused persons had allegedly opened fire at Haidar and Md Parvez Ahmed of Beniapukur locality in Kolkata on August 21, he said.

The five persons were absconding after committing the crime, he said.

Acting on an information that the accused were hiding in a hotel in Puri, the police team from the neighbouring state visited the town and arrested the five persons before taking them to Kolkata on transit remand.

The accused persons have been identified as Mirajul Haque Sagar (29), Faizul Haque Sagar (31), Mohammad Arman (25), Sheikh Shahenshah (29) and Azad Alam (19), the ASP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Eighteen people were injured in an accident involving a container, a car, a state transport bus and a motorcycle near Shindewadi on Pune-Satara Highway this afternoon, police said.

Incidentally, the accident took place hours after Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, in a speech at an event in Pune, expressed concern about delay in the ongoing work of widening of a 59 km stretch of the same road.

An officer of Rajgad police station said the accident took place at around 1.30 pm when the driver of a container truck rammed into an SUV from behind, and went on to hit an ST bus.

The bus bumped into a motorcycle ahead.

Thirteen passengers in the bus, two people riding the motorcycle and three occupants of the SUV were injured, one of them critically. All were taken to a nearby hospital.

Gadkari had conceded in his speech that the widening work on the Pune-Satara Highway had hit roadblocks, but assured that it would be completed within six months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Niti Aayog has favoured synchronised two-phase Lok Sabha and Assembly elections from 2024 to ensure "minimum campaign mode disruption" in governance.

The government think tank said it would be in the national interest to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, and suggested formation of a group of experts to devise how it could be done.

"We may begin work towards switching to a synchronised two-phase election from the 2024 election to the Lok Sabha. This would require a maximum one-time curtailment or extension of (the tenure of ) some state assemblies," it said.

Noting that it is in in the national interest to hold simultaneous polls, the Niti Aayog said a focused group of stakeholders comprising constitutional and subject matter experts, think tanks, government officials and representatives of various political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation related details.

"This may include drafting appropriate Constitution and statutory amendments, agreeing on a workable framework to facilitate transition to simultaneous elections, developing a stakeholder communication plan and various operational details," it said in its "Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20".

It has suggested making the Election Commission the nodal agency to look into the suggestion and set a "timeline" of March 2018 for this purpose.

The Aayog's recommendation comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former president Pranab Mukherjee made a strong pitch for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

Modi has repeatedly spoken in its favour, saying if the proposal was not suitable, it could be rejected, but there should be a debate on it.

At the Diwali Milan event organised by the BJP last year, Modi said, "There will be hesitation for some time. But, despite such dilemma, the public discourse should continue."



He had, however, insisted a decision on this cannot be imposed by the government.

Mukherjee, in his speech on the eve of this year's Republic Day, too, had favoured it.

"The time is also ripe for a constructive debate on electoral reforms and a return to the practice of the early decades after Independence when elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously.

"It is for the Election Commission to take this exercise forward in consultation with political parties," the former president had said.

Modi had said again in February that simultaneous elections would "cause some loss to all, including us" but political parties should not look at the idea through the narrow prism of politics.

"One party or a government cannot do it. We will have to find a way together," the PM had said.

Elections are held all the time and continuous polls lead to a lot of expenditure, he had said replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to presidential address.

Modi had said that more than Rs 1,100 crore was spent on the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the expenditure had shot up to Rs 4,000 crore in 2014.

Over one crore government employees, including a large number of teachers, are involved in the electoral process causing maximum harm to the education sector, he had said.

Security forces also have to be diverted for the electoral work even as the country's enemy keeps plotting against the nation and terrorism remains a strong threat, Modi had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday termed the latest political developments in Tamil Nadu's ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as "low comedy turning into farce", and asked why was the Governor not taking any action?



The Tamil Nadu assembly has 233 members and the Governor should not allow time to "artificially alter strength", he said in an apparent reference to the tug of war between AIADMK factions.

"AIADMK is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?" he tweeted.

There have been demands for a trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Congress and the AIADMK faction led by T T V Dhinakaran.

In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has 134 MLAs. There is no one representing the RK Nagar constituency in the House, which late AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had represented.

The DMK has 89 seats, Congress eight and IUML one.

Nineteen AIADMK MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran revolted against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. The 19 MLAs have been staying in a resort in Puducherry. Later, two more MLAs jointed the Dinakaran camp.

The AIADMK will soon join the Democratic Alliance (NDA) and be a part of the Modi government at the Centre, a senior BJP leader has said.

"The AIADMK will certainly join the NDA. It is only a matter of time. And when it joins the NDA, then it is natural that it will also join the government," the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

He also played down the rebellion by a group of AIADMK MLAs, who owe allegiance to Dhinakaran, claiming that it was more an internal matter of the regional party and not a threat to the state government.

Following the recent merger of two AIADMK factions headed by Palaniswami and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, the party has been hit by fresh dissent with a group of MLAs rallying behind Dhinakaran, whose aunt, V K Sasikala, is the AIADMK chief and in jail on a corruption case.

The two factions' decision to remove Sasikala from the post of party general secretary triggered the unrest.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today inaugurated Handloom Park in Chanderi amid a tug-of-war between the BJP and the Congress seeking credit for the facility.

On the occasion, the chief minister announced to link Chanderi with the tourist circuit.

He also announced several other developmental works in Chanderi town, famous for its hand-woven sarees and handloom material.

The BJP and Congress are claiming credit for the facility, as its foundation stone was laid by the local Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia in 2008.

The local Congress MLA Gopal Singh Chouhan today claimed he was arrested while going towards the venue of the inauguration function, a charge denied by the police.

"I was invited for the programme and my name was also printed on the invitation card. But, police arrested me when I was going to attend the event," Chouhan claimed.

However, Ashok Nagar Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh Gaur denied the MLA's contention.

"The MLA was not arrested. We stopped him near his home when he was going to attend Chief Minister's programme. We had information that he may create some problem along with his supporters at the event," he said.

Meanwhile, state unit Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi questioned the "hurry" to inaugurate the "incomplete" Park.

"The Congress MP had got it (Handloom Park) sanctioned, arranged the fund and laid the foundation stone. However, the chief minister hurriedly inaugurated it even without its completion. The CM wanted to take the credit of Scindia's work," he alleged.

Hitting back, BJP spokesman Rajnish Agrawal said Scindia was trying to take credit of every work.

"Scindia wanted to take credit for every work. There is the BJP government in state since the past 13 years and since the last three years at the Centre. Obviously, these works were conducted during the BJP rule," Agrawal said.

Scindia yesterday said he had laid the foundation stone for the facility in 2008.

"Then minister for commerce Kamal Nath had approved Rs 28-crore, but its cost gone up to Rs 48-crore due to delay in work. I had arranged Rs 15-crore from NTPC during my stint as Energy Minister and an additional Rs 2-crore from Commerce Ministry," Scindia said in a tweet.

In another tweet, he said, "I am also making efforts to arrange remaining 3-crore to complete the work".

The Park, spread on ten acres, was built with the investment of Rs 30.69 crore. It has a number of work stations for weavers, whose work will get the quality certificate. It also has an open theatre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Financial services firm ASK group will invest over Rs 1,000 crore as private equity in housing projects this fiscal despite demand slowdown and uncertainty in the market after the new realty law came into effect.

ASK group, which invested Rs 700 crore in last fiscal, expects more opportunity in the real estate sector after the implementation of the new realty law and the GST, a company official said.

"We are planning to invest more than Rs 1,000 crore as equity investment in the mid-segment and affordable housing segment in 2017-18," ASK Property Investment Advisors Managing Director Amit Bhagat told PTI.

"We are more convinced of the opportunity due to ensuing consolidation in the sector after introduction of RERA and GST. There is a room for only serious, committed, customer- centric and well capitalise player in the sector," he added.

ASK Property Investment Advisors is a venture of the ASK group set up to manage and advise real estate dedicated funds. It mainly invests in housing projects in six major cities-- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Bhagat said the company has already invested about Rs 300 crore during this fiscal and it has a healthy pipeline.

ASK Group in May this year invested Rs 200 crore in ATS Infrastructure's mixed use development project 'Knight Bridge' in Noida. This deal marked the company's foray into the commercial real estate space.

Bhagat said the group has so far invested Rs 3,000 crore in the real estate projects in last 6-7 years and made an exit of worth Rs 1,000 crore with a healthy return on investment of 18-30 per cent at project level.

On fund raising, he said the company has raised Rs 535 crore so far under its seventh fund and will reach Rs 1,000 crore by March 2018.

The developers are raising funds from domestic as well as global investors to construct their projects.

ASK group has four key businesses -- wealth advisory and multifamily office service - ASK Wealth Advisors, portfolio management services - ASK Investment Managers, real estate private equity - ASK Property Investment Advisors and private equity management - ASK Pravi Capital Advisors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Leaders of several opposition parties today came together at an RJD rally here and gave a call for dethroning the BJP in the next parliamentary election but much of the sheen was lost due to the absence of leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and BSP chief Mayawati.

Political heavyweights who attended the rally included West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad and JD(U) rebel Sharad Yadav.

Buoyed by the impressive turnout at Gandhi Maidan, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.

Other opposition parties that were represented at the rally included NCP, National Conference, DMK, Kerala Congress, RLD, CPI, JMM, JVM, JD(S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, AIUDF of Assam, RSP and CPI-ML. No CPI-M leader attended the rally citing the presence of Mamata Banerjee whose TMC is its main rival in West Bengal politics.

Besides the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the Grand Alliance over alleged corruption by Lalu and his family members, and later formed the government with the saffron party, was the butt of criticism by opposition leaders.

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav attended the rally, defying the party's directive against it, and spoke at length about the disintegration of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

Yadav said he would now work for forging a 'Gathbandhan' (Alliance) of 125 crore citizens, an apparent reference to attempts at cobbling together a coalition of opposition parties against BJP-led NDA.

Recorded messages of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi were played at the event. JD(S) representative Danish Ali read out the message of his party leader H D Deve Gowda.

Lalu Prasad, Mamata Banerjee, Gulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and others mounted a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned what happened to his promise of ushering in 'achche din' (good days) in the three years that he has been in power.

They blamed the Modi government for the "plight" of farmers, workers and youth.

Almost all the speakers recalled the triumph of the Grand Alliance in Bihar in 2015 which stopped the BJP juggernaut and vented their anger at Nitish Kumar for "betraying people's mandate by going with BJP."



Speaking before host Lalu Prasad, Banerjee, who was the toast of the event, strongly criticised demonetisation and said it would lead to the downfall of BJP in the next election.

"Like nasbandi (forced sterlisation) had led to fall of Indira Gandhi, notebandi (demonestisation) will lead to the downfall of BJP," Banerjee declared.

She also accused the NDA government at the Centre of bias against states non-BJP ruled states. "When there is trouble in Haryana or Rajasthan (ruled by the BJP), they send the Army but the same is not done in case of West Bengal in times of need," she said.

Banerjee also charged the Centre with "misusing" central agencies against opposition leaders "not joining the BJP chorus". "I am a fighter and will not be cowed down by such tactics," she asserted.

Lalu focused mostly on Nitish Kumar, calling him a 'Palturam'(turncoat). "This is probably his last 'palti' (about turn) as no party would trust him now," he said.

The RJD boss accused Kumar of getting false cases foisted on his family members with the help of the BJP as he is "jealous of the rise of Tejaswi Yadav."



Lalu also pointed an accusing finger at Kumar in the multi-crore rupees Srijan NGO scam and repeated the demand for his resignation. He demanded that the ongoing CBI probe be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, all set to face action for attending the RJD rally, did not name Kumar but spoke about how the faith of 11 crore people of Bihar who had voted for the Grand Alliance was broken. "It is for the first time that the manifestos of two rivals mingled midcourse."



"I am not afraid of you," he said, apparently referring to Kumar, and asserted that his struggle for the cause of farmers and workers would continue.

"I am facing 43 cases and both my legs were broken in the course of my struggle for the poor and downtrodden ... The fight would continue. Now I will work for forging a 'gathbandan' (coalition) for 125 crore citizens of the country," he added.

A majority of the speakers including Banerjee, Congress' Gulam Nabi Azad, Akhilesh Yadav, JMM leader Hemant Soren, and RLD's Jayant Chaudhary praised Tejaswi Yadav, younger son of Lalu Prasad who is the leader of opposition in Bihar.

Gulam Nabi Azad, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha launched a blistering attack against Nitish Kumar and the NDA government at the Centre.

"Today one person is missing from this dais ... Nitish Kumar you have betrayed 11 crore citizens of Bihar by selling their vote to BJP," Azad, whose party has decided to stay with RJD, said.

"The BJP had used 26 helicopters and 6 planes during the Bihar poll campaign while the Grand Alliance had only four aircraft for campaigning. Still the poor of the state defeated the BJP and gave us massive the mandate ... Nitish Kumar left Lalu Prasad and now people of Bihar will leave him," Azad, who attended the rally with his party colleague C P Joshi, said.

Akhilesh Yadav questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of creating two crore jobs every year.

Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav blew the conch at the rally and said he had sounded "the bugle for Arjun" (his younger brother Tejaswi Yadav) to launch a decisive battle against Nitish Kumar and the BJP in Bihar.

Tejaswi Yadav, who had promised he would answer accusations about his integrity after CBI registered a corruption case against him in land-for-hotels case, did not talk about it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The moment one steps into Basu Bati, a 141-year-old mansion, an eerie feeling creeps in with its dark, deserted rooms flanked by stately columns and arches creating an ambience horror.

No wonder, the building, located in Baghbazar in north Kolkata, has become the favourite shooting spot for thriller and peiod movies.

Basu Bati, founded by the Basus (not the painter Nandalal Bose family), the then zamindars of Gaya in the 19th century, had guests like Swami Viveknanda, Rabindranath Tagore and was a rallying point against the 1905 anti-partition movement.

Just yesterday, the trailer launch of the film "Shob Bhooturey" took place at the building and director Birsha Dasgupta said he was very impressed by the atmosphere.

The mansion earlier hosted director Srijit Mukherjee whose much-acclaimed "Baishe Srabon" was shot there.

Shob Bhooturey actor Abir Chatterjee said it seemed to him while shooting at the place that the walls were whispering something in silence.

Period film 'Elar Chaar Adhyay', based on Tagore's eponymous work, had also been shot in the house and a Durga idol was installed in the 'Thakur Dalan' (place of deity worship in household) in 2012 during a shooting sequence.

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BJP leader Tarun Vijay today hit out at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, saying he had expressed "fake" concern over the safety of Malayalees in violence-hit Haryana and that Keralites remain "most unsafe" in their home state.

After followers of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim went on the rampage in Haryana on Friday, Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting immediate action to ensure safety of life and property of all citizens.

"Pinarayi, who showed fake concern on the safety of the people of Kerala in Haryana, must answer this question -- has he been able to safeguard lives and dignity of the people of Kerala in Kerala? If Malayalees are most unsafe in any state in India, it is unfortunately Kerala," said Vijay, a former BJP MP.

He said Malayalees remain "most unsafe" in Kerala, specially those who differ with government.

He said Haryana is a safe haven for people from all states and countries heralding a new era of industrial progress, while Kerala has failed to attract any investment and people from other states.

"Under Pinarayi, Kerala has turned brutal to differing Malayalees, who are non-yielding and non-conformists," alleged Vijay in a statement.

Citing examples, the BJP leader said, "Top Malayalam actress was abducted and molested in her car in Kochi, a dalit lady principal was 'greeted' with a 'gift of her grave' by CPM hoodlums in Govt Victoria College at Palakkad who opposed her discipline, fourteen RSS workers have been killed in 13 months, four of them dalits.

"Are these signs of a safe Kerala for Keralites? Save Kerala citizens in Kerala first."



Pinarayi had written, "I have personally been receiving calls from Malayalees who are in fear of their life and property, from the affected areas (of violence). May I request you to take immediate and necessary action to ensure that the life and property of all our citizens are protected without fail. Strict action against those behind these unprecedented acts of violence may also be ensured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Swiss parliamentary panel will discuss next month necessary safeguards the European nation needs to adopt in automatic exchange of banking information with India and 40 other jurisdictions for checking alleged stashing of .

The Committee on Economy and Royalties of the Council (CER-N), a key panel of Swiss Parliament which rejected on August 15 a proposal seeking to outrightly suspend implementation of the AEOI Switzerland has agreed to adopt with 41 nations including India, will examine the criteria a country would need to satisfy to start getting access to data under the automatic information exchange.

According to the minutes of the last meeting of the committee, the CER-N will continue its examination at a meeting on September 11 of the 41 AEOIs agreed upon by the Federal Council, the highest decision-making body of the Swiss government.

In this context, the panel will also discuss how to strengthen the role of the relevant parliamentary committees in deciding whether or not to transmit data abroad.

The Federal Council adopted a resolution on June 15 regarding the introduction of AEOIs with 41 jurisdictions including India. The decision is not subject to any referendum.

The council has also proposed to submit a report to Parliament in order to ensure that the necessary requirements, including on confidentiality and data protection, are met by the concerned countries before transmission of the data.

The report will also entail the possible measures in case of non-compliance.

At its meeting on August 15, the committee rejected by 13 votes to 10, with 2 abstentions, a proposal to suspend implementation of AEOIs until the Federal Council presents a list of criteria for judging whether the exchange can be activated with a country.

The majority observed that the question of criteria could be examined in the context of the discussion by the article.

The committee went into the matter, without objecting to the Federal Council decision, on the control mechanism.

One of the demands, made by some political parties and banking industry, relates to asking the administration specific the criteria on which a country review would be based before deciding to transmit the data abroad.

Among others, the Swiss People's Party (SVP), a populist political party in Switzerland, has opposed the AEOI framework.

The opposition by SVP, which is known as a national- conservative and right-wing populist political party, is in sharp contrast to the official position of the Swiss government that has cited strong Indian data protection laws for agreeing to include India among jurisdictions for the Automatic exchange of information (AEOI) on financial matters.

It is one of the largest parties in the Federal Assembly and late last year it had supported a campaign, 'Yes to protect bank secrecy in Switzerland'.

Earlier, some private bank groups in Switzerland had opposed the pact but the government decided to go ahead with this framework after putting in place necessary data protection and confidentiality clauses.

A draft memorandum has been already ratified by the Swiss Federal council for implementing the automatic information exchange framework with India, which is expected to come into force from next year.

India has been pressing for long to have such a pact amid a widespread perception about Swiss banks being among the most-favoured for stashing of suspected .
An eleven-year-old, boy who collapsed while climbing stairs to his classroom in a private school at Nadergul near here, died at hospital yesterday, the police said today.

"As per preliminary investigation, the boy, a student of class VI, seems to have died due to health issues, may be a heart problem," Adibatla police station inspector R Govinda Reddy said.

However, the honorary president of the city-based NGO 'Balala Hakkula Sangham', Achyuta Rao alleged the body of the boy was transported on a two-wheeler to a nearby hospital.

Demanding an inquiry, he said a case under relevant sections of the IPC and Juvenile Justice Act be registered against the school management for alleged negligence.

He said the NGO will hold a protest at the school tomorrow.

However, the police and a senior school administration official have dismissed the allegations that the boy was taken to the hospital on the two-wheeler.

"We have verified the CCTV footage the student was shifted in a four-wheeler to a hospital," the inspector said.

The school official also denied the allegations that the boy's parents were not informed about the incident.

A case of suspicious death was registered and further investigation is underway.

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A 35-year-old cameraman of a channel was today attacked allegedly by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after he tried to enter the campus of the sect.

The group of followers ran away with his car and allegedly damaged the camera. The victim, identified as Sunil Kumar, suffered injuries in his hand and leg.

"We have recovered the looted car from the possession of the followers and the victim has lodged a complaint," a senior police official said.

The incident took place when the cameraman along with a journalist tried entering the sect's premises and their car was spotted by the followers who then started chasing them.

He has been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Ram Rahim's supporters had attacked media persons when violence had erupted after the conviction of the self-styled godman by a CBI court in Panchkula.

The district administration today relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here, after restrictions were imposed on August 24.

Yesterday, several Dera followers made their way out of the sprawling sect premises after police urged them to vacate the place. Around one lakh people, including women and children, were present in the sect headquarters.

The conviction of the Dera head triggered arson and violence across Haryana that claimed 36 lives and injured over 250 people.

In Sirsa, four people died and 58 have been injured. The violence also spilled over into neighbouring Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana was on edge today, a day before the special CBI judge pronounces the sentence against the maverick Dera Sacha Sauda cult chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted of raping his two women followers, in Rohtak jail tomorrow.

CBI court judge Jagdeep Singh will be flown to Rohtak district jail where he would pronounce the quantum of sentence against Singh, whose conviction on Friday saw his followers run riot in several places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Ripples were also felt in Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The death toll in violence and arson that immediately followed the conviction of the flamboyant chief of the sect that has millions of followers in India and abroad, meanwhile, has risen to 38, state's Director General of Police B S Sandhu said.

Police have registered 52 cases in connection with the violence which left a trail of destruction, particularly in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana, and arrested 926 people, Sandhu told a press conference in Chandigarh.

A multi-layer security cordon has been thrown around the jail where Singh has been lodged, Sandhu said.

The jail is located at Sunaria, on the outskirts of Rohtak city, which resembles a garrison town with security pickets all over the place.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had yesterday ordered the Haryana government to make necessary arrangements at the jail where the judge would sentence Singh in the 15-year-old case of sexual assault of two sadhvis.

Inspector General of Police (Rohtak range) Navdeep Virk, who is overseeing security arrangements in Rohtak, said there was a "complete clampdown" on dera centres known as (naam charcha ghar) and all its functionaries who could gather people for creating trouble have been put under detention in the state.

Sandhu, meanwhile said, Army was on standby in Rohtak to meet any eventuality.

Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) prohibiting assembly of five or more persons, and carrying of firearms and other weapons is already in place in Rohtak.

All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions in the entire state, will remain closed tomorrow, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said in an official release.

Sandhu said curfew has been lifted from all places in Haryana barring Sirsa, where the sect is heaquartered. Sirsa district administration relaxed curfew for five hours in and around the dera headquarters this morning.

There have been no reports of violence from anywhere in Haryana and Punjab since yesterday.

Train operations in Punjab and Haryana, severely affected by violence in two states, have been restored, except for the Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section, a railway ministry statement said in New Delhi.

The security clearance for the section is awaited from state authorities, it said.

Mobile internet services will remain suspended in Haryana and Punjab till 11:30 am on Tuesday. Internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters at Sirsa will also be suspended till then, officials said.

Security forces were on high alert in Haryana and strict vigil was being maintained in sensitive districts including Panchkula, Sirsa, Rohtak and Fatehabad, they said.

At many sensitive places in Punjab too, security forces conducted flag marches and kept a tight vigil in sensitive areas.

Four rifles, including an AK-47, pistols and petrol bombs were among the weapons seized from the supporters of the sect.

Two cases of sedition have been registered against Dera followers, police said without giving much detail as they have to submit a report to the high court on Tuesday.

Under attack over the massive violence, the Haryana government had suspended Ashok Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Panchkula, saying his "defective" prohibitory orders allowed the crowd build-up in the district.

Meanwhile, authorities in Punjab and Haryana have started identifying movable and immovable assets of the cult on the directions of the high court, officials said.

Revenue officials of the two states are compiling details of properties and assets of the dera, a quasi-religious sect headed by Singh, who wields considerable political influence and instructs his followers which party to vote for during elections.

Banks have been asked to provide details of accounts of the dera.

"A list of the Dera's assets, incomes, bank accounts and properties is being prepared on a war footing," an official involved in the exercise in the twin states of Haryana and Punjab said.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the two states to submit by Tuesday a list of the dera's properties and assets which can be attached in case it is found that they were responsible for property after Singh's conviction.

Sedition and attempt to murder charges have, meanwhile, been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, who were part of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's security detail when he had arrived at the Panchkula CBI court on August 25.

"Sedition charge has been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel," Karambir Singh, Inspector, Panchkula Police (Sector-5), said today.

They have also been accused of attempt to murder, he added.

The seven securitymen accompanying Singh had allegedly tried to free him when the self-styled godman was brought outside the Panchkula court complex on Friday after the special CBI court convicted him. A scuffle had broken out between them and Haryana police personnel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The district rural police has arrested a constable and two others for allegedly looting Rs 1 lakh cash from a jeweller near Sinnar in the district.

The incident took place on Friday when the constable Ganesh Ukade, attached with Nashik city police station here, along with his two accomplices, intercepted a car of a Kolhapur-based jeweller in Mohadari Ghat area on Nashik-Pune road near Sinnar taluka, they said.

The trader, Rajendra Patil and his son Manish were on their way to Sinnar, when the trio, impersonating crime branch officials, stopped the car and fled away withRs 1 lakh from their car, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Nashik, Sanjay Darade told reporters here last evening.

The accused also threatened the businessman and his son before fleeing, the official said.

The trader managed to jot the number of the motorcycle of the accused, and later lodged a complaint with the Sinnar police.

During investigation, police traced the owner of the bike and found that it belonged to Ukade. Later, he and two of his friends, identified as Mahesh Ugale and Dinkar Dheringe, were arrested.

Police has recovered Rs 96,000 from them and impounded the two-wheeler, the DSP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ten persons, accused of sexually harassing a minor, have been discharged under the stringent POCSO Act by a Delhi court which said the incident was that of a simple quarrel and there was no sexual intent.

The court said the allegations levelled by the minor girl, a student of class 9, and her sister were "vague and unspecific" and the act of the accused persons does not even point out that they had a sexual intent in touching the hand of the victim or beating her.

It noted that the police had not arrested any of the accused earlier as both the sides were relatives and around 20 cases instituted by the victim's family and the accused persons against each other, are pending in various courts or being probed.

"Even in respect of the incidents of October 18, 2014 and November 21, 2014 regarding the quarrels taken place between both the parties, the act and conduct of the accused persons does not even point out that there was a sexual intent on their part in touching the hand of the victim or giving her beatings etc," Additional Sessions Judge A K Sarpal said.

The court said the record showed that the incidents were of simple quarrel which cannot be stretched into sexual harassment and "even if, during quarrel any of the accused gave slaps to the victim or caught her by hairs or abused her, then that act will not amount to show any feeling or indication of sexual intent".

The girl had alleged in her complaint that in November 2014, she and her sister, also a minor, were standing in front of their house in East Delhi when the accused came there and abused them.

The men, who were drunk, allegedly made obscene gestures, misbehaved with the two girls and tried to drag them out of their house, the complaint said, adding that the accused ran away when they raised an alarm.

The court said the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cannot be invoked as the minor had not specified what type of words were uttered by the accused or how they had misbehaved.

It said if the statement of the minor, recorded by a magistrate, was read as a whole, it can be said that lot of improvements and inconsistency exists, which were not in the original complaint.

It also said that neither the girl, nor her sister and mother had specified the roles of the accused in their statements.

"Accordingly, after considering the charge sheet, I am of the opinion that no offence under the POCSO Act regarding commission of sexual harassment is made out," the judge said.

The designated POCSO Act court transferred the matter to the court of chief metropolitan magistrate to decide whether any other offence was made out against the men.

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The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to decide within eight weeks the plea of a US-based Indian-origin doctor challenging the cancellation of his OCI registration for alleged missionary activities in Bihar.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru issued the direction to the central government after it said that under the Citizenship Act 1955, the petitioner can seek revision of the decision taken by the Consulate General of India at Houston in USA to cancel his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration.

OCI is a scheme, introduced in response to the demands for dual citizenship by the Indian diaspora living abroad.

The court asked the man to approach the government against the Consulate General's August 1 order and directed the concerned authority to decide his case "as expeditiously as possible", within a period of eight weeks from August 21.

With the direction, the court disposed of the plea of Christo Thomas Philip, a medical doctor specialising in emergency medicines.

According to his plea, filed through advocate Dhiraj Philip, he was serving as a volunteer doctor with Duncan Hospital at Raxaul in Bihar from January 2014 till he was allegedly "unlawfully deported" on April 26, 2016 from the IGI Airport here.

According to his plea, while his wife and children were allowed to go through immigration, he was put in detention at the airport and then sent back to Istanbul in Turkey through where his flight from Spain had arrived.

In Istanbul, he was kept in a cell with 25 others for 24 hours after which he was sent to Spain where again he was escorted out by police personnel, the petition has alleged.

He was not given any reason for his deportation, his plea said and contended that he was "deprived of his dignity and treated in an inhumane manner at the detention centre in Delhi and Istanbul in gross violation of his fundamental right to life and liberty", the petition claimed.

The petitioner, born in Kerala to Indian parents in June 1982, claimed that he had challenged his deportation in the high court and the government had said during the hearing that it was recommending cancellation of his OCI registration for "indulging in evangelical and subversive activities".

The government had, thereafter, also issued a look out circular (LOC) against him which he came to know in December 2016, his plea said.

In May this year, during the hearing of his first petition challenging his deportation, the government said it has been decided to cancel his OCI registration and he was informed on August 1 that his OCI registration stood cancelled.

Subsequently, he moved a fresh plea challenging the cancellation of his OCI registration which was granted to him in November 2012.
Defence Minister on Sunday said owing to its geographical location, India had to always remain prepared to defend itself as "it is our best defence".

"It is a harsh reality in today's world that India, due to its geographical location, has to remain prepared. Our defence preparedness itself is our best defence," he said in Hyderabad.

Jaitley added that even though the entire country had confidence in the armed forces, which represented some of the best traditions anywhere in the world, "as part of our preparedness, we obviously need to equip our forces with all the support system they require".

The Union minister was in Hyderabad to attend an event marking the handing over of a long range surface-to-air missile to the Indian Navy.

On the occasion, Jaitley said Indians were now capable of offering services to other developed economies at a cheaper price.

"There is hardly any country in the developed world, where the presence of Indian minds is not visible, be it in the field of medicine, science or technology. And therefore, not only do we have a large human resource pool, we have surplus resources which serve other countries too," he added.

The defence minister said India's resources, compared to other economies in the world, were available at a very competitive price.

"That being a reality, over the last few decades we have seen some of the best companies  be it pharmaceutical or information technology (IT)  shifting their research and development bases to India," he added.

Jaitley also took part in a number of programmes, including the ground-breaking ceremony of the second phase of facility creation at the Bharat Dynamics's (BDL) Ibrahimpatnam unit and inauguration of the ASTRA weapon system production at the BDL's Bhanur unit.
Various student outfits are making the most of social media applications and platforms to garner support ahead of the DUSU polls.

While the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) is taking its message to the audience with hashtag #TakeBackDU, its arch-rival and RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) plans to benefit from social media to make voters aware of its achievements.

"We are going to use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram extensively. It is the only solution to reach out to a larger audience in a short period of time," Saket Bahuguna, the National Media Convener of the ABVP said.

The CPI-M's Students' Federation of India (SFI), with tagline #DUofmyDreams, seeks to use social media to promote the "extensive" ground work its members are engaged in.

"Social media has become entirely money-driven...To make one's presence felt in the name of promotion. We do not have that kind of money, so we advise our activists in various colleges to share the work as much as possible. We use WhatsApp as a tool to reach every individual," SFI Delhi Unit president Prashant Mukherjee said.

The All India Students Association (AISA), which is pitching for violence-free campus, is also putting Facebook and WhatsApp to good use.

"We are uploading every activity on our Facebook page 'AISA Delhi University'. We will also use ask our cadres to reach out to voters through WhatsApp," AISA national president Sucheta De said.

NSUI in-charge Ruchi Gupta said that besides an "effective Facebook page, we have a WhatsApp group for every college. These are being managed by social media coordinators. A central control room will be looking after all these operations during elections".

The elections are scheduled on September 12.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Delhi Police have arrested a 45- year-old ex-model for allegedly running a gambling den in southeast Delhi's Greater Kailash.

Twenty-four others, including servers and players, have also been arrested, police said.

Yesterday, police received information about gambling and betting activities at a house in the posh Greater Kailash-I, they added.

A raid was conducted and 25 persons, including the owner Anupama Jain, were arrested.

Jain claimed to be an ex-model who now works as an event manager.

Police have seized Rs 7.58 lakh, 45 packets of playing cards, 2,700 tokens of different value, poker table, 25 mobile phones, and a currency counting machine.

They said Jain was carrying out gambling and betting activities at her home for the last 25 days. Most of the people who visited her home were from Greater Kailash, Munirka, Pitampura, and Janakpuri.

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The identify of the main suspect in the stabbing attack this month in the Finnish city of Turku has been confirmed, police said today.

Investigators have determined that Abderrahman Mechkah, an asylum seeker whose name had previously been released by police, is a Moroccan man born in 1994.

"The police have interviewed the main suspect, and he is willing to communicate with the interviewing police officer," the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

It said it would not release details of his statements while the investigation continues.

Police have said that Mechkah -- who arrived in Finland in early 2016 -- targeted women in a rampage on August 18 at a market square in the southwestern port city of Turku.

Six other suspects have been arrested on suspicions of being involved in the attack, though three of them have since been released.

Investigators are treating it as the country's first terror attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories from the Eastern Region at 1700 hours today. CAL1 : WB-GJM-SITUATION



Darjeeling : Three persons arrested here for their alleged involvement in arson and violence that took place in the hills in June, the police said today. CAL2 BH-RJD-RALLY



Patna : In a display of opposition unity against the BJP, political heavyweights including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and SP president Akhilesh Yadav share a platform at Lalu Prasad's mega rally her today. CAL3 WB-COW-LYNCH



Jalpaiguri : Two persons were allegedly lynched by a mob after dragging them out of a pick-up van carrying cows at Barhoria village in West Bengal Jalpaiguri district today, the police said.

CES1 WB-PUJA-DARJEELING



Darjeeling : The indefinite strike in the hills for the past two months has made the Durga Puja celebrations in September-end uncertain.

CES2 OD-JAGANNATH-NSG



Bhubaneswar : A team of the National Security Guard reviewed the security arrangements at Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri for chalking out an action plan against any possible terror threat.

CES3 OD-STUDENTS-ILL



Balasore : At least 70 people, mostly students, fell ill after taking 'prasad' during Ganesh Chaturthi festival in a school in Odisha's Balasore district, officials said today. CCM1 BIZ-PMA



Kolkata : The Project Manager's Association has urged the government to recognise International Project Management Association standards and certifications to check losses on account of project delays.

CCM2 BIZ-JUTE



Kolkata : The jute mills have expressed serious concern over the proposed new pricing formulae of jute bags from September.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four insurgents of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have surrendered to BSF at Raisyabari, a remote border village in Dhalai district of the state, police said today.

BSF handed over the insurgents to the police yesterday and during preliminary interrogation they revealed that they fled from the outfit's hideout at Chittagong Hill Tract of neighbouring Bangladesh, Gandacherra sub-divisional police officer Jawhar Debbarma told reporters.

"The insurgents living in the hideouts are reeling under severe food and financial crisis," Debbarma quoted the ultras as saying.

The outfit, he said, has started fresh recruitment possibly for subversive activities before the assembly elections slated for February next year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The finance ministry is open to providing capital support for facilitating consolidation among state-owned banks, which are reeling under mounting bad loans, official sources said.

The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of an alternative mechanism, or a panel of ministers, to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks.

On receiving a proposal from stressed banks, if the ministerial panel finds that the merger is going to create a strong bank, it will not let it go for want of fund shortage, the sources said, adding that acquisition will come at a cost.

"First, the merger proposal should come from the board," said a source, who did not want to be named.

"If the Alternative Mechanism finds the match viable, the finance ministry could provide capital support to the acquiring bank if there is a shortfall," he said.

Sources said the government is keen that at least one merger proposal reaches a logical conclusion by the end of the current financial, which is next March-end.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the Cabinet decision last week, had said that the government has not set any target for consolidation.

There are now 20 public sector banks (PSBs) other than SBI. These state-owned banks are grappling with Rs 6 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which is about 75 per cent of the total distress.

After in-principle approval for consolidation, the banks would take steps in accordance with the law and Sebi requirements. The final scheme will be approved by the Cabinet.

An official source said: "It is not necessary that a larger public sector bank should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity so that the dependence on public exchequer is minimised."



Earlier this year, the government had approved the merger of SBI's five associate banks with itself. In March, the Cabinet also approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.

Five associates and BMB became part of SBI on April 1, 2017, catapulting the country's largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB, were merged with SBI.

With the merger, the total customer base of the SBI reached around Rs 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country. The merged entity began operation with a deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore.

SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
The mortal remains of CRPF jawan Dinesh Borase, killed in the Pulwama militant attack yesterday, were consigned to flames with full state honours here today.

Earlier in the day, the body of Borase (30) was flown to Ahmedabad airport on a BSF chopper.

He was given the guard of honour in presence of Minister of State for Home, Gujarat, Pradipsinh Jadeja, minister Nirmala Vadhvani, and senior officials.

The body was taken to his home at Amardeep Park Society in Naroda locality here, after the dignitaries paid their tribute by laying wreaths.

Hundreds of people were present at the society when the truck carrying Borase's mortal remains arrived there. Waving the tricolour, they shouted slogans like "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", "Vande Matram", and "Pakistan Murdabad."



Borase is survived by his parents, wife, a four-year-old daughter, and a four-month-old son.

His body was then taken to the crematorium after his family members paid tribute, where the last rites were performed in presence of hundreds of people.

Borase's family members said he had visited Ahmedabad only two months back and was planning to visit again during the upcoming festival of Navratri.

He had spoken to his wife before the encounter broke out yesterday, they said.

In a message, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani paid tribute to the martyr and announced the ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh.

Borase, who joined the CRPF in the year 2005, was posted in Jammu and Kashmir for ten years.

He was among the eight security personnel who were killed in a suicide attack carried out by the militants on the district police complex in south Kashmir's Pulwama. Three terrorists were also killed in the encounter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A buoyant Congress is set to make 'happiness index' its poll plank to garner support in the poll- bound Gujarat as a counter to BJP's agenda of development and growth in the state.

The Congress, which seems to have been energised after the recent victory of Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election, also aims to put its weight behind booth-level workers and plans to deploy four dedicated party workers at each booth of 100 votes and 25 of them at 1,000-vote booths.

The party is also banking upon its vice president Rahul Gandhi to give a boost to its campaign by attending a workers' meeting in Ahmedabad on September 4.

"We will make this election as 'happiness index' versus the development touted by the BJP. This election will be fought not on development but on 'happiness index," Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki told PTI.

He said the party is carrying out surveys to select its candidates and will try and evolve a consensus among various contenders to stop infighting.

Solanki hoped that the state's screening committee would be announced soon, starting the process of selecting candidates.

Asked when the campaign would be launched formally, he said, "It is already on. It will be given a formal shape in the coming times. We are holding various programmes, which include the honouring of MLAs in Surat on August 29 and a Kisan Satyagraha on September 1 in Valsad."

On deployment of various agencies for poll work, he said the Congress will not depend on any poll experts for its political decisions which will be taken by the party leadership while other poll-related work can be outsourced to outside agencies.

Solanki also said that the party's political activity has already begun with its campaign, booth management and social media campaign at micro-level.

"The vote gap between the BJP and the Congress in the 2012 assembly elections was only 7 per cent," he said and the party is using all its might to bridge this gap this time around.

The gap, however, increased in the last Lok Sabha elections.

"There is tremendous anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP and people are supporting us. This has been seen in the recent Zila Parishad and other municipal polls," Solanki said.

According to him, the major challenge the party faces is from the "BJP's use of money and muscle power, besides misuse of administrative machinery", alleging that the ruling party is flush with resources and will try and woo the public with it.

Assembly elections in Gujarat are due later this year and could be held in November or December. The tenure of the 182- member current Gujarat assembly ends on January 22, 2018 and elections have to be held before that.
Hong Kong, which witnessed a steady decline in tourist footfall from India since last two years, looks to reverse this trend in the next couple of years.

"We have been losing out a lot of tourist traffic from India due to lack of air connectivity. Earlier, most flights from India and China were connected through transit in Hong Kong, which encouraged travellers to take a small break in the city," Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Regional Director, Europe and New Markets, Peter Hoslin told PTI here.

India and Hong Kong are currently connected with 38 direct flights a week and several connecting flights, he said.

He said global currency fluctuations which devalued Euro and Pound, and strengthened Hong Kong Dollar also diverted a lot of Indian tourist traffic from Hong Kong.

In 2016, 4,80,000 Indian tourists travelled to Hong Kong, which was a nine per cent decline from 2015.

However, this year there has been a steady improvement in tourist traffic flow from India and the negative growth will be narrowed to just two per cent. We are expecting to witness growth in Indians travelling to Hong Kong in a couple of years, he added.

"We are working closely with our trade partners in India to turn this around. We are focusing on young dynamic travellers between 20-40 years, families and repeat travellers," Hoslin said.

Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan country, offers a wide variety and choice of activities for visitors, including night life, culture, food and wine, adventure among others, he said.

HKTB, which is promoting Hong Kong as a premium destination, is targeting three metro cities in India - Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangaluru - for promotions, Hoslin said.

"The tourism board is also targeting other big cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, which has a lot of young professionals," he added.

He said, HKTB is bullish on promotions through social and digital medium and reaching out to opinion leaders, including young celebrities as well as the those residing in Hong Kong, talking about the destinations and experiences.

Neighbouring China is the number one source market of Hong Kong followed by Taiwan, USA, Japan and Korea, he said, adding India is at number 12.

"We are seeing a lot of potential in the long weekend segment, meetings, incentives, conferences, events (MICE) and cruise tourism. We are also planning enhancing experiences, which will encourage Indian tourists to extend their stay in Hong Kong," he added.

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Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful to hit the US in about 12 years,left a trail of destruction as it swept across Texas today, pummelling the region with heavy rains and claiming at least two lives since making landfall on the US' Gulf Coast.

Harvey continued to batter Texas during the early hours of this morning, dropping half a foot of rain on Houston and causing dire, and deadly, flash floods.

By midnight, the authorities had reported two deaths that appeared to be related to the storm, one in Rockport and the other in Houston, with up to 14 people injured.

Some eyewitness accounts stated that more people had died and media reports had earlier said three persons had been killed in connection with the hurricane.

Forecasters warned that Harvey's onslaught was just the beginning. In an advisory yesterday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said the storm was already producing "torrential rains", and it warned that "catastrophic flooding" was likely in the days ahead.

Harvey bombarded the stretch of the Gulf Coast in Texas with home-ripping winds and torrential rains. As emergency officials scrambled to assess the extent of the damage, hundreds of thousands of people were without power after utility poles were knocked to the ground.

Emergency responders continued to comb through the debris of collapsed buildings, overturned trailers, broken power poles and uprooted trees.

Harvey is the strongest storm to hit Texas, the center of the US oil and gas industry, since 1961.

The streets in Houston were drenched and deserted last night as millions of people along the Texas coastline took stock of the devastation -- houses crushed by trees, gas stations torn to shreds, road signs blown out.

US President Donald Trump, facing the first big natural disaster of his term, had said he has signed a disaster proclamation that "unleashes the full force of government help" shortly before Harvey made landfall.

Houston Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner said the city will receive two to three feet of rain in the coming days.

"This is serious...It is important that people stay off the roads," Turner said.

He said that the city is prepared for what he described as a "major water event".

Some areas could get up to more than 100 centimetres of rain.

"Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," the NHC said.

Earlier, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would activate 1,800 members of the military to help with the state-wide clean-up while 1,000 people would conduct search- and-rescue operations.

The seaside town of Rockport, 48km north of the city of Corpus Christi, was hit the hardest with several homes collapsing and many buildings damaged.

At a recreational vehicle sales outlet, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown to the middle of the street.

As many as 6 million people were believed to be in Harvey's path, as it is the heart of America's oil-refining operations.

The storm's impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices.

The US Environmental Protection Agency eased rules on gasoline specifications late on Friday to reduce shortages.

Utilities American Electric Power Company Inc and CenterPoint Energy Inc reported a combined total of around 300,000 customers without power.

While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents stayed put in imperilled towns and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags.

Incessant rain in Houston at nearly 3 inches an hour, left some streets and underpasses submerged.

Francisco Sanchez, of the Harris County Emergency Management Office, said the storm would be around for a while.

South of the city, about 4,500 inmates were evacuated from three state prisons in Brazoria County in the wake of the water level rising in the nearby Brazos River.

The turbulent weather extended into southern Louisiana, where motorists were cautioned about high water, road hazards, high winds and tornadoes.

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A professor of IIT Kharagpur got drowned in a large water filled ditch today while trying to rescue his 4-year-old child who had fallen into the waterbody near the IIT campus in Kharagpur Rural area of West Midnapore district today, police said.

Local people took Joydip Bhattacharjee, a faculty member of Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, and his son out of the water and took them to hospital where the professor was declared brought dead.

IIT sources said the 40-year-old professor was taking a stroll with his two children outside the campus when one child fell into the ditch while trying to take a selfie.

Bhattacharjee tried to pull out his son from the water but lost balance and fell into the ditch.

Registrar Pradip Ghosh said, "He went outside to spend the Sunday with his two children. We are shocked to hear the about his death."



"IIT-KGP mourns the loss of its faculty Prof Joydip Bhattacharjee. It is unfortunate we have lost such a young, talented soul," Dean faculty Prof Subhasis Tripathy said.

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Senior officials of India and the EFTA, a bloc of four European countries, will soon meet here for the next round of talks on the proposed free trade agreement.

India and the EFTA countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) are working on the nuts and bolts of the pact, officially dubbed as the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA).

"Issues which could come up for discussion include a number of goods on which duties will either be eliminated or reduced significantly and liberalisation of norms in the services sector," a commerce ministry official said.

So far, 16 rounds of TEPA negotiations are over and the 17th is due here. The talks resumed last year after a gap of nearly three years.

Both sides had expressed willingness to jointly address major outstanding issues and agree to an early resumption of negotiations and conclude a balanced agreement in a time-bound manner.

The trade pact talks had started in October 2008.

The proposed agreement covers trade in goods and services, investments, trade facilitation, Customs cooperation, protection of intellectual property and public procurement.

The two-way trade between the regions dropped to $19 billion in 2016-17, from $21.5 billion in 2015-16. The trade gap is highly in favour of the EFTA group.

Under an FTA, trading partners give market access to each other with a view to promoting bilateral trade in goods and services, besides investments.

India is negotiating similar pacts with several other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Canada. It has implemented FTAs with Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Asean, among others.
Asserting that nobody has talked about asking India to send troops to Afghanistan, a senior Trump administration official has said New Delhi's role in the war-torn country is focused around economic and democratic development and not on security issues.

President Donald Trump reached out to India in his Afghan and South Asia policy speech last week seeking an enhanced role for New Delhi, especially in the economic field, to bring peace and stability in the war-torn Afghanistan.

The official clarified that there is no specific ask or to do list from the United Stated to India, but the president expects that India would continue with its good economic developmental work in Afghanistan.

"I don't think the president has articulated any specifics (about India's role in Afghanistan). But, the inter-agency (team in the US) has discussed this issue as part of the overall deliberations, and is focusing on what can be done in terms of the economic development issues, and support democratic development," the official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"But, (India's role is) not focusing on security issues. Nobody's talking about asking India to put troops on the ground in Afghanistan. No, that has not been part of the discussions," the official said, giving an insight into the deliberations that has gone within the Trump administration as it formulated the Afghan policy over the past several months.

The official said the discussions have focused around India's role in helping with economic development with basic support to the regional processes that are aimed at ensuring regional partners have a constructive role.

"Here, I'm talking about the six plus one, which India will be very much a part of," the official added.

"We just look forward to India continuing to play the kind of positive role it's been playing over the last several years, and maybe even enhancing that even more, in terms of supporting the peace process in the country, and being involved in those regional initiatives," the official added.

Noting that India was very much involved in the Kabul process, and has always been part of the regional solution and building up regional consensus for a stable, peaceful Afghanistan, the official said, "We look forward to India continuing to play that role."



Responding to a question, the official said that the US recognises that India has already pledged USD 3 billion to Afghanistan, which is a large sum.

"India's development work, whether it be building a dam, or some of the energy projects, the Parliament Building, India has been deeply engaged in the economic development of Afghanistan. We would encourage that to continue," the official said.

"I don't think anybody has mentioned any specific dollar figure," the official said when asked if the president has a dollar figure in mind when he sought an enhanced Indian role in Afghanistan.

"The president was clear that he sees India as a country that can help in stabilising and securing Afghanistan, and that he's looking forward to working with India on these issues, in terms of the economic development in Afghanistan and strengthening the democratic institutions. India has a great role to play here, being the world's largest democracy, and being so close in the region to Afghanistan," the official said.

"So, there's no particular dollar amount that the president is thinking about. He's just thinking about how much India has to offer, and how much is at stake for India in Afghanistan. Sort of putting those two facts together and then expressing his expectation that India would be playing a helpful role in Afghanistan," said the official.

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Indira Gandhi was a powerful woman who showed the world what women were capable of, the Royal Queen mother of Bhutan, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck said here.

Speaking at the launch of the book, "India's Indira: A Centennial Tribute" yesterday at the ongoing Mountain Echoes Festival, she recalled how Gandhi might not have been a tall woman but she certainly had a towering personality.

"I still remember her photograph with the then American president Richard Nixon. She wasn't a tall woman, but she was a towering figure.

"Mrs Gandhi was a female icon and she showed it to the world what women are capable of doing if they decide something," she said.

The book, compiled by the Indian National Congress, consists of articles, essays, photographs of the first woman prime minister of India.

The Queen Mother remembered Gandhi from the time when the latter came "sitting on a yak along with her father".

She said the Gandhi family had been on close friendly terms with the royal family of Bhutan.

"I used to admire the white streak of hair she had. Although I was very young, I still wanted that streak of white hair," she said.

The book, edited by senior leader Anand Sharma, has several photographs of Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru contributed by the royal family.

The book also has a chapter by former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee.

Tharoor, who was also part of the launch, heaped praises over Indira Gandhi's leadership skills.

He said after she became the prime minister, many had wondered if she was capable of the job.

"But as it turned out, she became a better leader than many who came after her could only hope to be," Tharoor said.

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The JD(U) will write to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu seeking disqualification of its rebel leader Sharad Yadav, who today attended an opposition rally in Patna defying the party's directive against it.

The party said Yadav has "voluntarily" given up JD(U) membership by attending the rally organised by Lalu Prasad's RJD.

"As per provisions of the 10th schedule of the Constitution dealing with anti-defection, if somebody attends a rally of another party against the party line it is contrued that he/she has voluntarily given up the membership of the parent party," JD(U) Principal General Secretary K C Tyagi said.

Tyagi had written a letter to Yadav a couple of days back, warning that his attending the rally organised by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad would mean he has acted against the principles of the party and voluntarily quit its membership.

JD(U) sources made it clear that the party will not expel Yadav, a founding member of the party and its longest serving president, as it would allow him to retain his Rajya Sabha membership.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha last year and his tenure ends in 2022.

The Rajya Sabha membership of former MPs like Capt. Jai Narayan Nishad and Upendra Kushwaha had ended in similar circumstances in the past, he said, adding the party would soon approach Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu for Yadav's disqualification.

"We will intimate him about everything and tell him that it is a fit case for ending the membership of Sharad Yadav," he said.

Yadav was cosying up to RJD ever since JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar walked out of the Grand Alliance in Bihar and formed government with BJP.

The JD(U) had replaced Yadav with a Nitish Kumar confidante R C P Singh as its leader in the Rajya Sabha a few days ago.

Earlier in the day, Yadav was warmly received by Lalu at the rally in Patna. Lalu embraced Yadav while his son Tejaswi Yadav addressed him as "guardian".

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Senior Congress leader Tariq Karra said today that the petition in the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution was a "sinister and nefarious plan of the RSS and the BJP" to fiddle with the distinct identity of Jammu and Kashmir.

Karra, a former parliamentarian, said he had filed an application in the Supreme Court to empanel him as a private respondent in the case, the hearing on which will be held after Diwali.

"The application has been accepted and I would like to assure the people of Jammu and Kashmir that we have a very strong case historically, legally and constitutionally... We will not tolerate any attempt to fiddle with it," he said.

An NGO has moved the Supreme Court seeking abrogation of the provision, which gives special rights to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The plea said the state 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.

Karra said the RSS and the BJP was taking an "indirect judicial route" on the matter so as to "take a public posture of not being involved directly".

"By adopting this method, they are planning to sell tomorrow the fulfilling of their promise to the electorate of abrogating Articles 35A and 370 and at the same time creating a room for the PDP to say that this was done by the court and not by the BJP. This is a fixed match," Karra told reporters here.

The PDP and the BJP are in alliance in Jammu and Kashmir.

Karra said Jammu and Kashmir is not the only state which enjoys special powers under the Constitution.

"The entire Northeast and Goa do enjoy special rights under Article 371, but I don't know why these Articles are not being challenged. Why are these not being treated as unconstitutional and why only Article 370 seems to be unconstitutional?" he asked.

He said the Congress high command had approved his plea in the apex court and assured him of full support.

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Amidst allegations about prevalence of 'love jihad' in Kerala, the state police chief has said there was no data "till now" to confirm its existence.

Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera said this while denying reports in a section of the media which quoted him as having confirmed the prevalence of 'love jihad' in the state.

However, he said the police were "keeping an eye on allegations" from various quarters in this regard.

In a section of the media, it had been stated that the state police chief had confirmed that 'love jihad' was there in Kerala which is "not correct and has been totally misunderstood", Behera said in a statement here.

"What I have said is that we are keeping an eye on the allegations from various quarters that there is radicalisation through conversion using various means taking place in Kerala," he said.

The DGP said the Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry into such allegations in a case.

"So, it is our duty to find out whether it is correct or not. Till now, we do not have any data to confirm whether the so called love jihad is prevalent in Kerala," he said. The apex court had on August 16 ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe a case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man, as the agency claimed it was not an isolated incident but a "pattern" was emerging in Kerala.

The Kerala High Court had annulled the marriage holding that the case was an instance of 'love jihad', a term coined by some Hindu groups for alleged efforts to get non-Muslim girls to convert to Islam through love affairs and marriages.

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In a major policy shift, Britain's main opposition Labour party now backs staying in the European single market for a transitional period as the country leaves the EU.

"Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU," Keir Starmer, the party's Brexit spokesman, wrote in The Observer newspaper today.

"That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both," he said, meaning unimpeded immigration from the EU could continue.

The comments represent a major policy shift for Labour, which had previously been ambiguous on whether it would seek to retain single market and customs union membership, arguing only that it wanted a "jobs-first Brexit".

Labour are in a powerful position after making strong gains in June's general election, stripping Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives of their majority in parliament and forcing them to make a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to govern.

As Starmer unveiled Labour's new approach, a government source said the European Union should not "drag its feet" in negotiating Brexit.

"Both sides must be flexible and willing to compromise when it comes to solving areas where we disagree," the source said.

"As the EU itself has said, the clock is ticking so neither side should drag its feet," the source added, just days ahead of a fresh round of UK-EU divorce talks in Brussels.

In a statement, the government's Brexit ministry also called for the European Commission to be "more flexible", as British negotiators push for talks on future trade ties.

Last month, it announced that Britain would try to keep as many aspects of its EU membership in place as possible during a transition period of up to three years.

"Many things will look similar" and goods will continue to flow between Britain and the EU in "much the same way as they do now," even after the scheduled departure date of March 2019, Philip Hammond, Britain's finance minister, said at the time.

But he also said that EU nationals would have to register with the authorities starting from the expected departure date of March 2019 as the government comes up with a new immigration system.

But the EU has said it will not address Britain's proposal for a temporary customs union or start trade talks until "sufficient progress" has been made on a number of key issues.

These include the status of EU nationals in Britain, the bill for the divorce and the future of Northern Ireland's border with the Republic of Ireland.

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RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's opposition rally at Patna will not have any impact on the BJP government, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said today.

A confident Maurya also said the saffron party was well placed to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a thumping majority.

"Since the Union government and the state government of Uttar Pradesh have massive majority, there would be no impact of the opposition rally called by the RJD chief in Bihar today," he told reporters here.

Leaders of several opposition parties came together at the RJD rally today and gave a call for dethroning the BJP in the next parliamentary election but much of the sheen was lost due to the absence of leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and BSP chief Mayawati.

The Uttar Pradesh deputy CM said the country was witnessing the magic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at the 'Sankalp Se Siddhi' program, Maurya claimed the BJP government has been "successful" owing to its commitment for public welfare.

"The BJP government is trying to uproot the corruption of former BSP and SP governments in Uttar Pradesh," he said.

Maurya said when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had expressed that the BJP would be in majority in the parliament and states, "nobody had believed him".

"But now BJP is ruling at the centre and in 18 states," he asserted.

The deputy CM also inaugurated various schemes and eight roads worth Rs 1,025.71 lakh.

He said the guest house of PWD in Farah would be converted into circuit house with modern amenities, including VVIP rooms and video conferencing halls.

"A sum of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for the same," he added.

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Maintaining law and order will be the top priority for the Haryana police on Monday, when the quantum of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's sentence will be pronounced, state DGP B S Sandhu said today even as the toll in Friday's violence rose to 38.

Under fire over the loss of lives in the violence two days back, Sandhu told mediapersons here that the arrangements made for Monday were "foolproof".

To ensure there was no repeat of violence that erupted in Panchkula last week when thousands of Dera followers swarmed near the CBI court that convicted Singh in a rape case, all routes to the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where the self-styled godman has been lodged, have been sealed.

The police has also registered a sedition case against two key Dera functionaries on the basis of a media report, of which the High Court had also taken cognisance of, Sandhu said.

Addressing a press conference here, DGP Sandhu said that in Haryana, only Sirsa, where the sect is headquartered, was now under curfew.

"The top priority now is to ensure that law and order is maintained when the sentencing of convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief takes place in Rohtak tomorrow," he said.

The sentencing is expected to take place tomorrow afternoon.

The DGP added that the death toll in the violence that broke out in Panchkula and Sirsa after the conviction of the Dera chief on Friday had risen to 38.

While 32 persons lost their lives in the violence on Friday at Panchkula, six others died at Sirsa, where curfew was still on, he said.

All the deceased, who belong to Sirsa, have been identified, Sandhu said. Of those who died in Panchkula, 24 have been identified and the post-mortem conducted, he said.

Out of 20 bodies from Panchkula that were handed over to the kin, nine were from Punjab, ten from Haryana and one from Rajasthan, he said.

As many as 263 persons were injured in the violence, the DGP said.

"During the past 24 hours in Haryana, no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere barring one in Sirsa, where a mediaperson was attacked," he said.

Dera centres have been checked as per High Court orders and they have been sanitised, he said. Rail services have resumed on the Delhi-Katra route, but restrictions remain on Sirsa and Hisar routes, the DGP said.

As a precautionary measure, schools will remain shut, he said.

The Dera chief is now lodged in the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where the special CBI court judge will be flown from here for the pronouncement of the sentence. On Friday, the court had convicted the Dera chief in a rape case.

In Rohtak, foolproof security arrangements have been made and all routes leading to the jail have been sealed, DGP Sandhu said.

"Besides Haryana police and paramilitary forces, the Army will remain on standby in Rohtak tomorrow. We have made foolproof security arrangements," he said.

The Rohtak administration has designated a place from where mediapersons can provide coverage when the sentence will be pronounced, he said.

On Friday, several vehicles belonging to media organisations including OB vans were damaged by Dera supporters in Panchkula.

Haryana's ADGP (law and order) and IG, CID, took stock of situation in Rohtak today. Sandhu sought to assure media persons that police will give them full protection to enable them to discharge their duties in a free and fair manner, but urged them to take precaution when they go in sensitive areas.

As far as registration of cases related to the violence on Friday is concerned, the DGP said that 52 cases had been registered in which 926 people have been arrested by the Haryana police.

During the violence on Friday, 76 vehicles were burnt, including 53 in Panchkula, and the rest in Sirsa, he said.

Giving details of the security arrangements in Rohtak, ADGP Mohd Akil said "we are expecting that the court will take up the matter at around 2:30 p.M. However, the timing can vary."



"We are prepared and are hoping that tomorrow's events related to sentencing and afterwards will pass off smoothly. However, if even after these foolproof arrangements, anti- social elements or any criminal tries to create trouble, then we have given orders that strict action be taken as per the demands of the situation," he said.

Akil said that in Rohtak, 23 Companies of paramilitary forces were deployed, besides police forces from the district and Rohtak Range which includes force from neighbouring districts.

SEDITION CHARGE AGAINST DERA SACHA SAUDA FUNCTIONARIES



Meanwhile, sedition charge was slapped against two key Dera functionaries on the basis of a media report, of which the High Court had also taken congnizance of, the DGP said.

The court had told Haryana authorities to verify a report carried in a Hindi daily regarding alleged instigation and mobilising of Dera supporters by its five leaders.

"On the basis of a report in a Hindi daily, of which the High Court took notice of, a FIR has been lodged on the statement of the newspaper reporter in Panchkula police station under relevant Sections of IPC in which main accused are key functionaries of the Dera, Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insaan, who have been booked and sedition case has been registered against them," he said.

Asked about a 35-year-old cameraman of a channel being attacked today at Sirsa allegedly by Dera followers, Sandhu said a case has been registered in this regard.

He sought to assure media persons that the police will give them full protection, but urged them to take precautions when they venture out into sensitive areas.

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The Maharashtra government is eyeing the Shakti Mill land - which was in the spotlight after a brutal gang rape in 2013 - to fund loan waiver for farmers.

The government estimates it can raise up to Rs 38,000 crore if it is able to sell the sprawling mill land, which is under litigation, located in Mahalaxmi, South Mumbai.

"If Shakti Mill (land) comes into the state government's possession, we will get Rs 38,000 crore. If the (court) stay is lifted (on sale of the land) in the next few months, by using a good battery of lawyers, it will be possible to use the money for the Rs 34,000-crore loan waiver," Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil has said.

"What is needed (in strongly arguing the case) is application of mind," he said at Kolhapur yesterday.

A 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine, was raped by five people, including a juvenile, on the premises of the defunct mill four years ago.

In June, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced a Rs 34,000-crore loan waiver, with an emphasis on marginal farmers.

The measure is expected to wipe out loans of up to Rs 1.5 lakh outstanding against agriculturists.

The defunct Shakti Mills was built on leased land and is with the official liquidator since 1980 when it shut shop.

After the gang-rape incident, the official liquidator had moved court seeking to take numerous safety steps to avoid anti-social elements from using it.

The government in August 2014, by the order of the then Revenue Minister, revoked the lease and sought back the land to be used for public purpose.

The state government had opposed the application filed in the High Court by Ajay Poddar - ex-director and contributory of Shree Shakti Poddar Mills - stating the government's order of taking back the land as incorrect.

The government had in 2015 told the court that it (the government) had the powers to cancel the lease as the company had without the consent of the government mortgaged the land to a bank.

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The Maharashtra government will challenge in the Supreme Court a high court ruling on quota in promotions for employees belonging to SC/STs and certain other categories, and has decided to hire a top advocate to argue its case, a minister has said.

On August 4, the Bombay High Court set aside a 2004 government resolution (GR) which provided for reservation in promotions in government jobs for people from SC/STs, Denotified Tribes (DTs), some Nomadic Tribes (NTs) and Special Backward Classes (SBCs).

Earlier this week, Minister of State for Social Justice Dilip Kamble said the state government has decided to challenge the verdict given by a division bench of the HC.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has in-principle approved the Social Justice Department's proposal to rope in a top lawyer to argue the government's case in the apex court, said Kamble.

The bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Amjad Sayed had held the resolution ultra vires (beyond the scope) of the Constitution and contrary to the existing laws.

"The HC verdict has affected the promotions of about 15,000 government employees from SC/ST, Denotified Tribes, Notified Tribes, Special Backward Classes and Other Backward Classes," Kamble said.

"We hope the government will get justice in the SC," the minister added.

After the August 4 verdict, the HC had suspended its order for 12 weeks to allow the government to challenge it in the Supreme Court.

The GR had granted 33 per cent quota at promotion stage for the government employees belonging to the SC, ST, DT, NT and SBC categories.

Meanwhile, asked about the status of the investigation into the multi-crore scam related to alleged misappropriation of funds of the Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, Kamble said barring recovery of properties from two to three districts, the CID has recovered most of the assets.

He said the state CID has seized about 60 cars, some of them high-end models, as part of its recovery process.

"So far, the government has suspended 80 officers in connection to the scam," he said.

The Rs 500-crore scam relates to purchase of luxury cars using the funds of the state-run body. NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam is in jail in connection with the scam. He was an office-bearer of the economic development corporation.

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The Customs officials today seized three kg of gold worth around Rs 82 lakh at the Ahmedabad airport from a passenger who had arrived from Sharjah.

Air Intelligence Unit of Customs searched the luggage of Sheikh Abdullah, who had arrived by an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah, UAE, at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

They found three kg of gold concealed in a ceiling fan which he was carrying, Customs sources said.

Further probe was on.

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Marvel is once again collaborating with ABC for a new "Jessica Jones-esque" female-focused show.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television festival, Marvel Television's Karim Zreik teased that the studio had an aim "to target different audiences", with another superhero show like "Jessica Jones", reported Digital Spy.

Another genre that the studio is planning to explore more is comedy.

Zreik said, "Comedy is something we really want to go into. It took us time to dip our foot in the comedy pool."



The next Marvel/ABC outing will be 'Agents of SHIELD' spin-off "Inhumans" with showrunner Scott Buck.

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"Snitch" star Melina Kanakaredes has been cast as a new series regular on Fox's "The Resident".

Directed by Phillip Noyce, the upcoming medical drama series centers on a senior resident who guides a young doctor through his first day, pulling back the curtain on what really happens, both good and bad, in modern-day medicine, reported Deadline.

Kanakaredes will play Dr Lane Hunter. As the top oncologist in the state of Georgia, Lane is brilliant, warm and a strong leader who spends every waking moment tending to her patients.

The show has been written by Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi, with Antoine Fuqua serving as the executive producer.

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The Centre plans to launch road projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore over the next two years and provide a robust highways infrastructure in Rajasthan, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate 11 projects and lay the foundation stone of six others, in all worth Rs 15,000 crore, in the state on August 29.

He will 'dedicate to the nation', along with Gadkari, the completed totalling 873 km at Udaipur.

"In line with the Prime Minister's vision to accord the highest priority to infrastructure, we stand committed to augmenting the highways infrastructure in Rajasthan," Gadkari told PTI.

The Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister said the length of Highways in the state has been doubled to about 14,000 km, from the 7,000 km when the NDA government took over.

"We plan to take up worth about Rs 1 lakh crore in the state in the next two years," he said.

The investment will be in addition to the existing and completed projects worth about Rs 1 lakh crore, he said.

A new expressway will be built connecting the capital to the pink city in addition to the Delhi-Jaipur Highways which will be completed by December as about 90 per cent of the work has been done, he said.

"The alignment for the new Delhi-Jaipur Expressway has been finalised. Land acquisition will be done shortly. This, on completion, will be an important milestone in the development of Rajasthan," he said, adding that one would be able to reach Jaipur from Delhi in two-and-a-half hours.

Gadkari said augmentation of highways infrastructure in the state will bolster industrial development in the state.

Elaborating on the Rs 15,000 crore projects, he said four of these are such which have been pending for a long time and include 6-lane Cable Stayed Bridge across river Chambal at Kota.

"The cable stayed bridge was stuck for years and had many problems. Contractors were unable to complete the project. Ultimately, we could get it completed," he said.

The Cable Stayed 1.4 km long Bridge across river Chambal at Kota, built at a cost of Rs 278 crore, will be opened for traffic by the Prime Minister.

Gadkari said to expedite highways projects, Centre has taken a number of steps including 22 cabinet decisions.

The 11 projects to be inaugurated by Modi next week include the Rs 1,128 crore Gomati Chauraha-Udaipur project at Rajsamand. The other projects are located in Bhilwara, Pali, Nagaur, Barmer, Sikar, Churu, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer.

In addition, he will perform ground breaking ceremony for six NH projects of about 556 km.
The has favoured conducting synchronised two-phase Lok Sabha and assembly elections from 2024 in " interest".

All elections in India should happen in a free, fair and synchronised manner to ensure minimum "campaign mode" disruption to governance, the government think tank said in its report released recently.

"We may begin work towards switching to a synchronised two-phase election from the 2024 election to the Lok Sabha. This would require a maximum one-time curtailment or extension of some state assemblies," it said.

To implement this in the interest, a focused group of stakeholders comprising constitutional and subject matter experts, think tanks, government officials and representatives of various political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation related details, the report said.

"This may include drafting appropriate Constitution and statutory amendments, agreeing on a workable framework to facilitate transition to simultaneous elections, developing a stakeholder communication plan and various operational details," it said in its "Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20".

It has made the Election Commission the nodal agency to look into the suggestion and set a "timeline" of March 2018 for this purpose.

The recommendation of the Aayog assumes significance as former President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have pitched for simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Mukherjee in his speech on the eve of this year's Republic Day had favoured holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections together.

"The time is also ripe for a constructive debate on electoral reforms and a return to the practice of the early decades after Independence when elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously.

"It is for the Election Commission to take this exercise forward in consultation with political parties," the former president had said.

Modi had in February said simultaneous elections would "cause some loss to all, including us" but political parties should not look at the idea through the narrow prism of politics.

"One party or a government cannot do it. We will have to find a way together," the PM had said.

Elections are held all the time and continuous polls lead to a lot of expenditure, he had said replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the former president's address.

Modi had said that more than Rs 1,100 crore was spent on the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the expenditure had shot up to Rs 4,000 crore in 2014.

Over a crore government employees, including a large number of teachers, are involved in the electoral process. Thus, the continuous exercise causes maximum harm to the education sector, he had said.

Security forces also have to be diverted for the electoral work even as the country's enemy keeps plotting against the nation and terrorism remains a strong threat, Modi had said.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) now has powers to arrest people for violations of law, with the government notifying relevant provisions amid the crackdown on illicit fund flows.

The shot in the arm for the probe agency also comes at a time when the government is cracking the whip on suspected shell being used for illegal activities, including money laundering and tax evasion.

While the Act, 2013 provides powers of arrest to the SFIO, which comes under the corporate affairs ministry, the provision has been notified only now.

Most provisions of the Act came into force on April 1, 2014.

The SFIO is a multi-disciplinary organisation having experts for prosecution of white-collar crimes and frauds under the companies law.

The ministry has notified the rules pertaining to arrests in connection with Investigation by the SFIO and they came into effect from August 24.

The director as well as additional or assistant director level officials at the SFIO can arrest a person if they believe he or she is guilty of any offence with regard to the case being probed, the ministry said in a notification.

According to the ministry, the reason for arrest should be recorded in writing.

"In case of an arrest being made by additional director or assistant director, the prior written approval of the director SFIO shall be obtained," as per the notification.

The SFIO director would be the competent authority for all decisions pertaining to arrest.

The arrest of a person in connection with a government or a foreign company under investigation can be made by the SFIO only "with prior written approval of the central government".

Besides, such arrest should be intimated to the managing director or the person in-charge of the affairs of the government company.

In case the person arrested is the managing director or person in-charge of a government company, then the secretary of the administrative ministry concerned should be intimated by the arresting officer, the ministry said.

A government source said the decision on whether a case has to be probed by the SFIO is taken by the ministry and once an investigation is launched, then the agency has powers to decide whether a person need to be arrested or not.

On the delay in notifying the particular provision that provides the SFIO with powers to arrest, the source said the modalities were in the works and now the agency is ready with them.

According to the ministry, the SFIO would maintain an arrest register which would have entries about particulars of the arrestee, date and time of arrest as well as other relevant information pertaining to every arrest made by the agency's officers.

"The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), relating to arrest shall be applied mutatis mutandis to every arrest made under this (Companies) Act," the ministry said.

The SFIO probed 366 cases in the last three financial years, with 111 of them coming under the scanner in 2016-17, the ministry informed the Rajya Sabha last month.

Among others, the SFIO director has to preserve the copy of arrest order together with supporting materials for a period of five years.

The period would start from the date of judgement or final order of the trial court, in cases where the said judgement has not been impugned in the appellate court.

It could also be from the date of disposal of the matter before the final appellate court, in cases where the said judgement or final order has been impugned, whichever is later.

In a separate notification, the ministry said the "central government hereby appoints the 24th day of August, 2017 as the date on which the provisions of sub-sections (8), (9) and sub-section (10) of section 212 of the said Act shall come into force".

These sub-sections relate to SFIO's powers to arrest people.
A Pakistan-born deputy headmaster at one of Britain's most prestigious schools Eton College has quit after being found guilty of breaching exam security by leaking "confidential information" before a paper whose result has now been annulled.

Mo Tanweer, head of economics and deputy headmaster of academics at the posh school whose alumni include Princes William, Harry and many British prime ministers, left after an investigation by the Cambridge International Examinations Board (CIE), The Telegraph reported.

The embarrassing disclosure emerged after a letter was circulated to Eton students informing them about Tanweer leaving the school, and that a number of students' marks for an economics paper voided due to a "breach of exam security".

The letter, dated August 3, confirmed that the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), an exam board which administers international GCSE, A-level and equivalent qualifications, had found that Tanweer had shared "confidential information" and practice questions which had then been shared with pupils ahead of their exam.

It said that Tanweer, who was privy to the practice papers due to his position as an Examiner for the Pre-U Economics course run by the exam board, had broken protocol by sharing the information with other teaching staff.

Subsequently, all Eton students sitting the paper have had their exam marks voided and replaced with a grade they achieved in other tests.

Headmaster Simon Henderson was quoted as saying that, "I am very sorry to be writing with this extremely unwelcome . Regrettably this decision has had to be taken by the examination board because of the actions of a member of Eton's staff."



"There is no suggestion that any boy at Eton had done anything wrong, nor is any member of staff at Eton other than Mr Tanweer implicated," he said.

"However, CIE has decided that they cannot accept the marks of any candidate at Eton for this paper because to do so would threaten the integrity of the exam and certification," Henderson said.

Tanweer, who is understood to have been born in Pakistan before moving to England and enrolling at Aylesbury Grammar School in the 1990s, joined Eton in 2015 following a distinguished career in investment banking.

He lives in Berkshire with his partner Emily and three- year-old son.

"This is a matter that, as headmaster, I have taken very seriously and Mr Tanweer has now left Eton's employment," said Henderson of the exam security breach.

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The visit of a top US official overseeing South Asian affairs to Pakistan has been postponed, the Foreign Office said today, amid indications that Islamabad was still evolving a response to Trump administration's new Afghan strategy.

Alice Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs and acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was scheduled to visit Islamabad next week, but the visit has been put off by the Pakistan government "until a mutually convenient time."



The Foreign Office did not give any reason for postponing the visit.

But government sources said Islamabad was still evolving a response to the US accusations that Pakistan was providing safe havens to militants and prolonging the US' 16-year Afghan war.

It would be "premature" to interact with the senior US State Department official at this time, they added.

Wells's visit would have been the first by any US official after US President Donald Trump unveiled the new policy for Afghanistan and the larger South Asian region.

The Pakistan government has tasked Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to garner support from friendly countries. He is expected to visit China, Russia and Turkey next week in the first phase of the country's regional diplomatic outreach.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday visited Saudi Arabia and held talks with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

reports in Pakistan said he was accompanied by Asif on the trip and discussed the US' new Afghan strategy there.

The Pakistan-US ties received a fresh jolt yesterday when Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, claimed in a TV interview that his country was aware of Afghan Taliban leadership's presence in Peshawar and Quetta.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied it hosts the Taliban.

Today, Asif said the Afghan Taliban were the US and Afghanistan's problem, not Pakistan's.

He told reporters in Sialkot that Pakistan has been hosting the Afghan refugees for decades and the US "should help to repatriate them back to Afghanistan if they do not trust us.

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Palestinian officials are embarking on a project to transform a presidential palace into a national library near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the culture minister said today.

President Mahmud Abbas and his cash-strapped administration had faced questions over the construction of the USD 17.5 million palace, which was initially intended as a presidential headquarters and location where foreign dignitaries could be received.

Abbas has now decided to transform the 4,700-square-metre complex into a Palestinian national library, culture minister Ehab Bessaiso told AFP.

The complex sits on some 27,000 square metres of land.

"The president believes the palace should be used for public benefit by turning it into a huge national library supervised by a board of trustees," said Mohammed Shtayyeh, head of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR).

Construction on the palace in the village of Surda began some five years ago and is largely complete, but it was not clear how long it would take to create the library.

Its construction was paid for by the Palestinian finance ministry and PECDAR, an institution that handles donor funds.

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Piramal Enterprises Ltd (PEL) is looking at growing organically in pharmaceutical segment to move up the value chain and expanding in services like antibody drug conjugates, injectables and drug discovery, according to its annual report.

"Our pharma businesses continue to deliver significant year-on-year growth. Since the Abbott deal, the business has grown at a CAGR of 17 per cent. We continue to work towards adding more products to better leverage our global distribution network," PEL chairman Ajay Piramal said in the annual report.

In the last two years, the pharma segment deployed around half a billion dollar of capital for future growth through various organic as well as inorganic initiatives, he said.

PEL is now looking at investments for expansion of the manufacturing and service delivering capabilities in niche areas of ADC, injectables, inhalation anaesthesia and discovery services, he said.

It also plans to launch first generic version of Desflurane, the latest generation inhalation anaesthesia product, in FY18, Piramal said.

Last year, the company added two niche differentiated product portfolios in global pharma products business, the report said.

It has acquired a portfolio of five branded products in the injectable anaesthesia and pain management area from Janssen and a portfolio of intrathecal spasticity and two pain management products under development from Mallinckrodt LLC.

"During FY17, we acquired the Ash Stevens facility at Michigan, US, which specialises in manufacturing of High Potency APIs (HPAPIs). Our recent capacity expansion at Grangemouth and discovery services facility is witnessing commercial success.

"We also expanded capacity at our API plants to handle higher volumes and the phase I expansion of our injectables capacity at Lexington is nearing completion. The team is working towards further expanding its capacity in Lexington in FY 18," Piramal said.

PEL has a global distribution network of over 5,500 hospitals through its direct sales force and distribution presence in over 110 countries across the world.

The company has strengthened its presence in North America and Europe - and generates over 70 per cent of its revenues from these two geographies, which host close to 70 per cent of its assets, the report said.

The company sees huge growth potential in the pharmaceutical segment as global spending on medicines is expected to reach USD 1.4 trillion by 2020, the report said.

Spending on specialty therapies will continue to be more significant in developed markets than in emerging markets.

The global pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market (in terms of revenue) also amounted to USD 65.3 billion in 2016 and is forecast to increase to USD 83.9 billion by 2020.

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More than 2,30,000 villages have been declared 'open defecation free' and about 67 percent population has toilets now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today and asked people to undertake 'Cleanliness is Service' campaign ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti.

He asked the people to undertake the campaign to give a push to the creation of an environment of cleanliness while marking the third anniversary of the launch of 'Swachch Bharat' programme.

"The campaign for Cleanliness which was initiated three years ago will be marking its third anniversary on the 2nd October. The positive results are now being seen," Modi said in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'.

"Toilets have increased from 39 percent to almost 67 percent of the population. More than 2,30,000 villages have declared themselves 'open defecation free'," said the prime minister who had launched the campaign after coming to power.

He said the upcoming Gandhi Jayanti should be celebrated as "Swachch Do Aktoobar, Clean 2nd October".

"To this end, beginning 15th September, let us take the pledge of 'Swachchta Hi Seva' (cleanliness is service). Take one or another step towards cleanliness. Make your effort to be a part of it. You will see how this Gandhi Jayanti shines," Modi told the people.

"You can imagine the inner bliss of paying homage to our revered Bapu, with 15 days of this cleanliness campaign 'Swachchta Hi Seva', when we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on the 2nd of October," he said.

He said the campaign should be undertaken on the lines of the age-old belief 'Jal Seva, Yahi Prabhu Seva' (service of water is the service to God.

He suggested that the campaign, in the form of a movement, could be undertaken utilising the festivals like Diwali, Navratra and Durga Puja.

"Donate labour....I urge all NGOs, schools, colleges, social, cultural and political leaders, people in the government, collectors and sarpanches, to begin creating an environment of cleanliness at least 15 days ahead of Gandhi Jayanti so that it turns out to be the 2nd October of Gandhi's dreams," Modi said.

He said social media could also be used to push the campaign which can also be undertaken in the form of essay competitions in any language, short film competitions and painting competitions.

The best three participants - three at the district level, three at the state level will be given prizes, the prime minister said, inviting one and all to join the 'Cleanliness Campaign'.

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The weekly Poonch-Rawalkot cross-LoC bus service, suspended since July 10, may resume tomorrow as a meeting between senior civilian officers from both sides is scheduled in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior official said today.

The chances of early resumption of the suspended bus service brightened on August 24 when senior Army commanders of India and Pakistan held a flag meeting at Chakan-da-Bagh and agreed to keep the channels of communication open between local commanders along the Line of Control (LoC).

The development came after two months of intense skirmishes between the two sides that claimed several lives.

"We are expecting resumption of the Paigam-e-Aman bus service tomorrow after a gap of 50 days. Civilian officers from both sides are meeting at the crossing point on Monday morning to address certain issues prior to resumption of the service," the official said.

Army commanders from both sides had already given a green signal to the resumption of the bus service and trade, which started in 2008 and is considered a major confidence building measure, the official said.

"If everything goes well, the suspended trade between the divided parts of Kashmir through the route is expected to resume on Tuesday," he said.

As many as 116 passengers were left stranded in Poonch and three in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the suspension of the bus service, leading to protests by guests from across the border on several occasions seeking early return.

The 116 PoK residents, who were stranded in Poonch, were escorted to Srinagar in special buses on August 21 and allowed to return through the 'Karwan-e-Aman', the cross-LoC bus which is plying along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road on a weekly basis.

The three stranded residents of Poonch and Rajouri districts also returned through the same bus.

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Actor Riteish Deshmukh created an eco-friendly idol of Lord Ganpati on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and dedicated it to the farmers of the country.

Continuing with the annual tradition, the 38-year-old actor, made a unique planter pot statue of the tusked god, right from scratch.

Deshmukh, who is currently in the US, took to Twitter where he posted almost two-minute-long video of him making the idol.

"Celebrating #GaneshChaturthi in America, made an idol, I humbly dedicate it to our farmers. #ECO #Planter #Visarjan #SonOfAFarmer #Bappa," the "Bank Chor" actor captioned the clip.

In the video, the subtitles read that "the turban on the head of Lord Ganesh represents every farmer in India. As a son of a farmer, I dedicate this idol to them."



Deshmukh's father was former Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, who passed away in 2012.

The actor also thanked his wife actor, Genelia Deshmukh being a source of inspiration.

"I wanna thank Baiko @geneliad for inspiring me to do this and also for shooting this video. God bless you all with happiness prosperity and love," he wrote.

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Within a year of launching its operations in India, global realty services provider Savills India is now aiming to be among the top five international property consultants in the country in the next 3-5 years.

The UK-headquartered firm, which is currently present in 15 Asian countries, is hoping to bring India in the list of top five nations in the region in next 3-5 years.

"Savills is a recent entrant in the Indian market. We are focused on our commercial leasing and project management verticals, and are planning to expand our industrial and valuations businesses in the short term. We plan to get our complete IPC services online in India over the next few years," the firm's Country Manager Bryan Kidd told PTI here.

In India, Savills will compete with the leading IPC (international property consultants) players such as Cushman & Wakefield, Knight Frank, CBRE, Jones Lang Lasalle and Colliers International, among others, he said.

"We have already set up three offices in India in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon. We are working towards being in the list of top five IPC players in the country in the next 3-5 years," Kidd added.

He further said the company is already a huge player in the Asia Pacific market with presence in countries like China (over 25 years), Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, The Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

"India is an important part of our ever growing platform and we predict strong growth in the Indian markets. We hope India will feature in our top five business destinations in the Asian market in the next 3-5 years, when we will establish ourselves as a complete IPC player here," Kidd said.

The company provides consulting services and advice such as valuation, building consultancy, project management, environmental consultancy, landlord and tenant, planning, strategic projects and research in connection with commercial, among others.

Savills operates from over 700 owned and associate offices, employing more than 30,000 people in over 60 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

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Sections of the RSS are coming up smelling of roses, thanks to a special ittar that has been named after one of its leaders, Indresh Kumar.

The perfume -- called 'Indresh' -- has been developed by Delhi-based ittar maker and trader Hafeez Mohammed Sabreen, who says he has been greatly influenced by the RSS leader.

Sabreen, whose family has been in the business of making ittar -- produced with oils derived from botanical sources -- for generations, said 'Indresh' was the second ittar, after 'Kalam', that he had named in honour of a person.

"I named and developed 'Kalam' after former President APJ Abdul Kalam," Sabreen told PTI.

'Kalam' is likely to be launched in October by Kumar, the founder and patron of the the RSS affiliated Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM).

Sabreen said 'Indresh' was based on sandalwood, whose fragrance Kumar is said to be fond of, and rose petals.

"This ittar is a token of my respect for Indresh ji. It is not for sale and I distribute it free of cost at the events where he is invited," Sabreen, who is also an MRM office- bearer, said.

Kumar told PTI he hoped the ittar would have "not only an external but an internal effect" on the people who use it.

"We may belong to different religions but we are one country. So I hope all people who use it will be non-violent and believe in this idea," he added.

For the past few years the RSS leader has been raising issues such as triple talaq relating to the Muslim community. He had earlier said Muslims should not eat beef and break religious fasts with cow's milk.

His name also figured among the accused in the 2007 Ajmer blast case, but was later cleared.

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Sedition and attempt to murder charges have been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, who were part of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's security paraphernalia when he had arrived at Panchkula to appear in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on August 25.

"Sedition charge has been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel," Karambir Singh, Inspector, Panchkula Police (Sector-5), said on Sunday.

They had also been charged for attempt to murder, he added.

The seven security personnel of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had allegedly tried to free him when the self-styled godman was brought outside the Panchkula Court complex on Friday after the special CBI court convicted him in a 15-year-old rape case, the police said.

They allegedly got into a scuffle with the Haryana police when the Dera chief was being taken to the Western Command, from where he was to be taken to the Rohtak jail in a chopper.

However, the securitymen of the Dera chief were overpowered by the policemen.

They were produced before the court yesterday which sent them to a seven-day police remand, said Singh.

The Haryana police personnel, who were arrested, were in the ranks of sub-inspector, assistant sub-inspector, head constable and constable, he added.

Panchkula's Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Manbir Singh, who assumed charge on Sunday, said a number of vehicles, including a fire engine, part of the Dera chief's cavalcade, were impounded on Friday.

Asked if any inflammable chemical was recovered from the fire engine, the DCP said, "There are two large tanks in the fire engine, which belongs to the Dera. A foul smell was emanating from the tanks. We have sent the substance recovered from the tanks to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory."



The Dera chief, who enjoyed a "Z plus" security cover which was withdrawn after his conviction, had travelled from Sirsa to Panchkula in a convoy of vehicles on Friday.

He was convicted in a 15-year-old rape case by the CBI court. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on Monday.
The Customs officials have seized over one kg of gold, valued at Rs 36.86 lakh, from a passenger, who apparently wasn't aware that he was carrying contraband, at the international airport here.

The Air Intelligence Unit of Customs last night seized three gold bars weighing 1,233 grams from a passenger who had arrived from Dubai, a senior official said.

"The bars were concealed by removing copper winding in the inner core of a voltage converter," he said.

The passenger, who had gone to Dubai with the hope of landing a job, was duped into carrying the contraband back home, he added.

The sender handed over a box containing the converter and some other items to the passenger in Dubai, and asked him to hand it over to a person who was to come to receive him at the airport. The passenger wasn't told what was inside, as per the official.

Further investigation is underway.

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Scientists have developed a 'holodeck' - a virtual reality arena inspired from the sci-fi series Star Trek - that can replicate any environment to study behaviours in animals.

Dubbed FreemoVR, the arena is a cylindrical space in which the floor and wraparound wall are made from flexible computer displays.

Animals placed into the environment can be monitored by overhead cameras and sensors that track their movement and behaviour around the 3D space.

In the Star Trek series, the holodeck was used as a training platform, Enterprise or as a recreational space, where officers immersed themselves in nature.

However, the new arena at University of Freiburg in Germany will be used as a controlled setting for examining animal perceptions and behaviour.

The principal benefit of the FreemoVR system is that the device allows animals to move about freely within the environment.

Using specially developed software, the researchers can adjust the visual imagery on the fly, as it were, and project elements based on the animals' behaviour and movements in real time.

"The most important thing is that the animal is actually moving and gets all the appropriate mechanosensory feedback," Andrew Straw, of the University of Freiburg in Germany, was quoted as saying by the 'Live Science'.

"This is really important for studies of navigation and spatial cognition, because if the animal doesn't believe it is moving, it will be difficult to study how the animal updates its 'mental map' as it moves," said Straw.

The study was published in the journal Nature Methods.

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FDI inflows to India is expected to rise significantly over the next few years and this will support the rupee against US dollar, an UBS report said.

The rupee has been among the better performing currencies in emerging markets and has appreciated 6 per cent against the US dollar so far this calender year.

Notwithstanding the strong performance of the domestic currency, the rupee is likely to remain range-bound (62-66) over the next few months and average 64.3 in 2017-18, UBS said in the report.

"We expect the rupee to remain range-bound (62-66) over the next few months and average 64.3 in financial year 2017-18 and 65.4 in 2018-19," global financial services major UBS said in the research note.

According to the global financial services major, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to India have nearly doubled over the past decade to USD 42 billion (1.9 per cent of GDP) as of 2016-17 and expected to strengthen to 2.5 per cent of GDP over the next five years.

"We believe the strength of India's FDI flows will help support the rupee against the US dollar even after the currency's strong performance earlier this year," said the report authored by Tanvee Gupta Jain, an economist with UBS.

The rupee is currently hovering around 64 against the US currency.

According to UBS, the factors responsible for strong FDI inflows include policy efforts to kick-start the investment cycle and implementation of structural reforms in labour, land, capital and business.

Moreover, rising labour cost and ageing population abroad means that India is well placed to emerge as an FDI destination over the coming years, the report added.

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Suspended additional sessions judge R K Shrivas has launched a 'satyagrah' here to draw attention of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the alleged injustice meted out to him.

Shrivas started his three-day sit-in outside the High Court premises here yesterday, after riding here on bicycle all the way from Neemuch, covering a distance of nearly 700 km.

He is observing silence now and will decide on his next move tomorrow, said the lawyers who are supporting him.

"I am fighting to seek justice not only for me but also for my colleagues who too have faced similar hardship," Shrivas had told PTI on August 22 in Bhopal, during his brief stop-over en route to Jabalpur.

The suspended judge had then said if he did not get justice in Jabalpur, he will go to Delhi to fight for his rights.

His main grouse is frequent transfers. He had staged a sit-in outside the High Court during August 1 to 3, alleging that he was transferred four times in fifteen months.

After he called off the protest, he was asked to join in Neemuch district, and was soon placed under suspension for "grave misconduct".

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A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 13 people in an attack on a convoy of Afghan soldiers in the restive southern province of Helmand late today, an official said.

"A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car as the Afghan National Army convoy passed a small market in Nawa District of Helmand," Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

He added that civilians and forces personnel were among the dead.

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Tata Steel today celebrated the 158th Birth Anniversary of Sir Dorab Tata, the elder son of Tata Steel founder J N Tata, here.

TV Narendran, managing director,(India and South East Asia) and R Ravi Prasad, president, Tata Workers' Union paid homage to the legend by offering floral tributes.

Narendran said, "The vision and the wisdom of JN Tata was translated into what we see around us by Sir Dorab Tata."



"The challenges of setting up the Steel plant here over a hundred years back was many times greater than some of the challenges that we have gone through in setting up Kalinganagar Steel plant", he said.

Prasad said "JN Tata's dream was fulfilled by Sir Dorab Tata. He worked for the welfare of employees from the very beginning and included schemes like provident fund, medical aid, maternity leave and Gratuity.

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Three teenaged girls drowned in a river today in Mandalgarh village in Bhilwara district, police said.

The incident happened when Suva (15), Lakhi (13) and (12), all residents of Pali district, had gone to take a bath in Mej River, Rajendra Singh SHO of Kachol police station said.

They went into deep water and eventually drowned, he said.

The bodies have been taken and handed over to family members after post mortem.

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The need of the hour for people is to stay united, shun violence and work towards equality in all aspects to enable India progress, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said today.

After inaugurating an exhibition "New India - resolve to achieve" to mark the platinum jubilee of the Quit India movement at Anna University here, he said seven decades after the country had achieved independence, issues like poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality and caste discrimination were still prevalent.

"We must all resolve to fight these evils and work towards the country's progress," said Naidu, who was on his maiden visit to the city after taking over as Vice President.

He also urged the political leadership at the central and state levels to work to fight these evils.

"There is no place for violence in a democratic society and it must be curbed. We have to stand united against it. If violence takes place, people are the losers," he said while referring to violence in some parts of the country.

He also said that people will have to stand united against terrorism in any form.

Naidu also batted for finding ways to make agriculture profitable and sustainable for the farming community and said "we are a huge population. We cannot sustain on imported food alone and need to produce our own food."



"We have to make farming profitable and sustainable and a long-term solution has to be found to help farmers," he said.

The Vice President also said that the time has come to bridge the urban-rural divide and ensure equality for all.

He termed the recent Supreme Court verdict on 'triple talaq' as a historic one and said it would go a long way in ending gender discrimination.

Naidu said it was imperative to preserve the freedom won after a long struggle.

He exhorted the people to resolve to eliminate casteism, communalism, corruption, gender bias, illiteracy and poverty.

Earlier, on his arrival, Naidu was given a warm welcome by Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, BJP State unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan and Rajya Sabha MP Ila Ganesan.

The Governor presented a copy of the Telugu version of "Tirukkural" (Tamil treatise)" to Naidu.

The translated work was a translation from Tamil original and it was published by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil here.

Naidu later went to the Raj Bhavan where he visited the recently unveiled statues of Tamil saint poet Tiruvalluvar and poetess Avaiyyar in the premises.

The Governor, Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar and top offcials accompanied him at the Raj Bhavan.

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Seven members of Donald Trump's cybersecurity team, including an Indian-origin data scientist, have resigned, accusing the United States (US) president of ignoring the pressing national security matters.

In a group resignation letter, the members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), whose purview includes national cybersecurity, cited both specific shortfalls in the administration's approach to cybersecurity, and broader concerns that have undermined the "moral infrastructure" of the US, Fortune reported.

"You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process," the letter reads.

They also cited his failure "to denounce intolerance and violence of hate groups" when asked about the "horrific violences in Charlottesville" as one of the reasons why they left.

Unite the Right' march was organised on August 12 to protest against the proposed removal of a statue of General Robert E Lee, who commanded the pro-slavery Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Violence broke out after they were confronted by anti-racism groups and later a car ploughed into one group of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville.

Trump had blamed both sides including the "alt-left" for the deadly violence.

The members, who were appointed under the previous administration, resigned just before the panel was supposed to hold its quarterly business meeting.

They include Obama-era officials: the first ever White House Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil, Office of Science and Technology Policy Chief of Staff Cristin Dorgelo and White House Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss.

The president recently lost two other panels before the NIAC members resigned. His administration dissolved the Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum, but not before a good number of their members already left.
A UK MP has criticised some British-Pakistanis for reportedly "going and getting a wife from abroad" for their disabled sons.

Labour MP Jess Phillips said the practice was among "lots of cases" she dealt with where people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities behaved "unacceptably" towards women.

"Well, sorry, the British Pakistani-Bangladeshi community, certainly where I am, has issues about women's roles in a family, in society," she was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.

"That's the truth. Not all of them, obviously. But I have lots of cases on my books. The acceptability of going and getting a wife from abroad if your son is disabled, for example. As if he deserves to have a wife and we'll just get one from Pakistan. That's not okay in my book," she said.

She made the comment in reference to her Labour party colleague, Sarah Champion, who quit as shadow equalities minister after writing in'The Sun'about Pakistani Muslim men abusing white girls.

Phillips believes Champion'spiece was crudely phrased: "I can understand why Naz Shah [a fellow Labour MP] was like, 'Hang on a minute, you're talking about my sons here'".

But she laments that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did not broker a deal so that Champion could stay because "it makes it look like we sweep this stuff under the carpet and it gives more power to people who go, 'It's political correctness gone mad' and that people like me are trying to protect the perpetrators".

The Ann Craft Trust, which works with the learning- disabled, said there was a "serious problem" of British Asian people with learning disabilities being forced into marriage without giving their proper consent.

Around 10 per cent of cases reported to the government's forced marriage unit, 140 a year, concern people with learning disabilities.

Research for the trust found that the vast majority involved people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and also Indian origin.

Rachael Clawson, assistant professor of social work at Nottingham University, who is studying the issue, said: "We will see people trying to use this to get people in as a loophole. But the most common situation is that families really think they are doing their best for their [disabled] son or daughter by getting them a carer".

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Britain should stay in the European single market and accept free movement of people during a transition period after it leaves the EU, the main opposition Labour Party said today.

In a major policy shift, Labour's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer wrote in the Observer that continuity immediately after Brexit would "avoid a cliff edge for our economy".

"Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU," Starmer wrote.

"That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both," he said, meaning unimpeded immigration from the EU could continue.

Starmer added that curbs on immigration "must be addressed in the final deal" as it was a key issue in last year's Brexit referendum.

But he hinted that Labour could aim to retain some form of membership of the customs union even once the transition period has elapsed.

"Remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour, but that must be subject to negotiations.

"It also means that Labour is flexible as to whether the benefits of the single market are best retained by negotiating a new single market relationship or by working up from a bespoke trade deal," he said.

Labour had previously been ambiguous on whether it would seek to retain single market and customs union membership, arguing only that it wanted a "jobs-first Brexit".

Starmer today dismissed "fanciful and unachievable" proposals set out by Brexit minister David Davis.

He also warned about the government's "ideological obsession" with taking Britain out of all of the EU's structures when the country leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The Labour party are in a powerful position because Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives lost their majority in elections in June and have to govern with the support of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.

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The indefinite strike in the hills for the past two months has made the Durga Puja celebrations in September-end uncertain.

With no sign of the shutdown being called off, most of the Durga Puja organizers in the hills have either cancelled the plans for the Puja or have decided to hold it in a small way.

The Durga Puja, the biggest festival of Bengal, is scheduled to be held from September 26-30.

The indefinite shutdown in the hills, which started on June 15 over the demand of separate state of Gorkhaland, entered its 74th day today.

According to the officials of the Bengali association, Kurseong, which has been organizing Durga Puja at the century old Raj Rajeswari Hall for the past one hundred years, the budget for organizing Durga Puja has been slashed.

The British era heritage Hall run by the association was set ablaze by miscreants in July.

"Initially we had decided against organizing the Puja this year, as there was a lot of uncertainty. We are yet to place the order to make the Durga idol. So this time we'll organize it in a very small way. We have to make a marquee and the Durga idol will be much smaller in size," a member of the association told PTI.

None of the members of the association wished to be named as they are afraid of backlash from pro-Gorkhaland activists.

Subhomoy Chatterjee, a member of Bengali association, Darjeeling said "this year we'll be organizing Durga Puja, but our budget is low, as neither have we collected Puja subscription from the locals nor has any proper sponsor. Initially, we had thought that we would cancel the Puja as there was a lot of threats, but later we have decided that we'll organize it in a small way,"



The Bengali association in Darjeeling has been organising the Puja at the Nipendra Narayan Bengali Hindu hall for the past one hundred years.

The total number of Durga Puja organized in various parts of the hills is around 10-15.

Apart from these two century old Durga Puja in the hills, most of the other small Puja committees have decided against organizing a Puja to avoid the ire of Pro-Gorkhaland supporters and due to lack of preparation that is needed to organize the five-day long festival.

"This time we are not at all prepared to organize a Puja. Let's see if the shutdown is called off in the next one week, we might plan something," said a member of Puja committee of Kalimpong.

Contrary to the Durga Puja celebrations in the plains, where most of the Pujas are theme based, Durga Puja in the hills are organized in a traditional way.

Senior GJM leader and Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai, too was apprehensive about the fate of Durga Puja in the hills.

"I really don't know whether it will be organized or not. But I am hopeful that it will be organized in a small way. And I'll extend all sort of support to organize it," Rai said.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today that the "conditions on the ground" in Afghanistan would determine the number of American troops in the war-torn country and the new US strategy was intended to send a strong message to the Taliban that "we are not going anywhere".

Tillerson told Fox that US President Donald Trump had been very clear that the policy he announced this week was a dramatic shift from a time-based military strategy to a conditions-based strategy, "which means it will be dictated by conditions on the ground informed by battlefield commanders."



"He has delegated significant authority to Defence Secretary (James) Mattis to set troop levels, but also has been able to delegate for the military commanders in the field, decision-making, to begin to turn the tide against the Taliban," he said.

"Now, all of this is directed at sending a message to the Taliban that we are not going anywhere. We're going to be here," Tillerson said.

According to the secretary of state, Afghanistan has a history of being a refuge for some of the most devastating attacks carried out.

"As we all know, the attack of 9/11 was organised and carried out from Afghanistan. So, in Afghanistan, we have to secure Afghanistan in a way that that can never occur again because there's no territory available to organisations to do so," he said.

Tillerson asserted that Trump was clear in his speech the US was not undertaking nation-building in Afghanistan.

"So, we will be shifting our diplomatic and aid and development programs as well to coincide with the president's view that the Afghan government and that Afghan people must own their form of government," he said.

"They must come to some reconciliation with all ethnic groups, including the Taliban, as to how they can secure their country, as a peaceful country, one that does not support terrorism, does not provide safe havens for terrorists and does not align itself with any terrorist organisations or countries that do. That's what winning looks like," he said.

He also strongly refuted the allegation of former White House official Sebastian Gorka on the absence of word "radical Islamic terrorism" in Trump's Afghan policy speech.

Gorka was fired by the White House on Friday.

"I think he's completely wrong. I think it shows a lack of understanding of the president's broader policy when it comes to protecting Americans at home and abroad from all acts of terrorism. Terrorism, as we've said, manifests itself in many types of organisation," he said.

"The president has charged us to develop policies and tactics both diplomatically and militarily to attack terrorism in as many forms, wherever it exists in the world and wherever it might present a threat to the homeland or to Americans anywhere. This means that we have to develop techniques that are global in their nature," Tillerson said.

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Hopeful that India and China can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Doklam standoff, a senior Trump administration official has said the US "supports return of status quo" of the tri-junction point.

The US is concerned about "sovereignty issues and adherence to international law" amidst increased tension between the two Asian giants, the official said.

"We are monitoring the (Doklam) situation very carefully. We are concerned. We hope that the two sides can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the issue. We support return to the status quo," the official told PTI.

"We're also concerned about Bhutanese sovereignty issues. We're concerned in general terms about sovereignty issues and adherence to international law. I think that certainly pertains to this particular issue," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of confrontation between India and China.

India and China have been locked in a standoff for over two months in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector. The face- off began after Indian troops stopped Chinese military from building a road in the area.

Even as Chinese officials and the state-run media have increased rhetoric over the past few months, which at times is seen as entering the domain of threatening; India, which has taken a mature and strong stand against Beijing, according to experts, is believed has not reached out to Washington on this issue.

However, as a close friend the US has been closely monitoring the situation.

"We hope that India and China can find a negotiated solution to return to a peaceful state of affairs in the area. We are just watching it very carefully and we are in conversation with the Indian government about the issues. We stand ready to help if that is desired. But, for the time being, we're monitoring the situation carefully," the official said.

The senior administration official, in response to a question, however, quickly clarified that there has been no such request from India and there is no such intention on the part of the United States as well.

"What kind of help? You said ready to help," the official was asked.

"Well, you know, I think it's for India and China to decide if that was necessary. I think for the time being the US is monitoring the situation very closely and very carefully," the official said.

"You know, it (the US) sees it as a bilateral issue between India and China to work through. But certainly, we are interested in seeing peaceful relations prevail in the region. So, if there's anything the US can do to help that situation, we stand ready to assist," he added.

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Talking tough, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asserted that violence in the name of faith of any kind won't be tolerated and the guilty would be punished, in a clear reference to the mayhem caused by the followers of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

He said nobody has the right to take the law into own hands and everybody will have to bow before the law.

Invoking Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi to remind about the country's tradition of non-violence, Modi said the Constitution prepared by B R Ambedkar provides scope for redressal of all kinds of grievances and justice to all.

"On the one hand, the country is in the midst of celebrating festivals and on the other, when of violence from any part of the country comes in, it is only natural of be concerned," the prime minister said in his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' which he began with this issue.

Though he did not take any names, he was clearly referring to the mayhem caused by the followers of Ram Rahim, chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, in Haryana after his conviction in a rape case on last Friday.

"Ours is the country of Buddha and Gandhi. It is the land of Sardar Patel who gave up his all for the unity of the nation. For centuries, our forefathers have imbibed community values, non-violence, mutual respect - these are inherent to us," Modi said.

He highlighted the concept of 'Ahimsa Parmo Dharmah' (non-violence is the biggest religion).

"From the ramparts of the Red Fort, I had said (in the recent Independence Day address) that violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated, whether it is communal belief systems, whether it is subscribing to political ideologies, whether it is allegiance to a person or customs and traditions," the prime minister asserted.

"No one has the right to take the law into one's own hands in the name of one's beliefs," he added.

"I want to assure my countrymen that people who take the law into their own hands and are on the path of violent suppression, whether it is a person or a group, neither this country nor any government will tolerate it," he said.

He said everybody will have to bow before the law which will "fix accountability and the guilty will unquestionably be punished."



Followers of Ram Rahim went on the rampage in Panchkula and some other parts of Haryana on last Friday after a CBI court convicted him of rape in a 2002 case.

During his 30-minute broadcast, the prime minister also spoke about a number of other issues like richness of the country's diversity, asked people to undertake 'Cleanliness is Service' campaign ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti and mentioned about schemes like Jan Dhan for empowerment of the poor.

In the context of the upcoming 'Teacher's Day' on September 5, the birthday of former President Dr. Radhakrishnan, he suggested that people should make a resolve to 'Teach to Transform, Educate to Empower, Learn to Lead'.

Modi pointed out that India has a rich cultural heritage, spanning thousands of years, and in this context, talked about the festivals which are replete with diversity.

He said India is a land of diversities which are not limited to cuisine, lifestyle and attire but can be seen in every walk of life.

He hailed Muslim organisation Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind, saying its volunteers had recently cleaned 22 temples and two mosques affected by floods in Gujarat, setting a "fine" and "inspiring" example of unity.

"When we look at our cultural traditions, social customs, historical events, there would hardly be a day left in the year which is not connected with a festival," he said.

He said the Indian festivals follow the almanac of nature and there is a direct connect with nature. "Many of our festivals are linked straightaway with farmers and fishermen."



He mentioned festivals like 'Samvatsari', celebrated by the Jain community yesterday, as also Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam, Navaratri in Gujarat, Durga puja in Bengal and Eid-ul-Zuha. He extended his greetings to the nation regarding these occasions.

"The festival of Samvatsari is symbolic of forgiveness, non-violence and brotherhood," Modi said.

"'Kshama Veerasya Bhushanam', that is, forgiveness is the adornment of the brave. The one who forgives is valiant. And Mahatma Gandhi always said, that forgiveness is the quality of great men," Modi said.

He also quoted Shakespeare's play 'The Merchant of Venice', saying it explained the importance of forgiveness as it spoke about "Mercy is twice blest, It blesseth him that gives and him that takes". It means the forgiver and the forgiven both stand to receive divine blessing.

Referring to Ganesh Chaturthi, he said this mega festival stands for unity, equality, integrity and honesty. "My heartiest greetings to all of you on the occasion of Ganeshotsav," Modi said.

Onam, which is mainly celebrated in Kerala, showcases the rich cultural heritage of the state and gives the message of love and harmony, awakens new hopes and aspirations, and gives new confidence to the people, he said.

Festivals like Navaratri in Gujarat and Durga puja in Bengal are tremendous tourist attractions, he added.

"In this series of festivals, Eid-ul-Zuha will be celebrated in a few days from now. Heartiest felicitations and best wishes to all countrymen on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha," the prime minister said.

He said festivals are symbols of faith and belief and in the 'New India', "we should transform them into symbols of cleanliness as well."



"Public cleanliness must be insisted upon not just in our homes but in our villages, towns, cities, states and in our entire country - cleanliness has to be inextricably linked to our festivals," Modi said.

He asked people to undertake 'Cleanliness is Service' campaign, 15 days ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti to mark the third anniversary of the launch of 'Swachch Bharat' programme.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the launch of Jan Dhan Yojna, the prime minister also said that 30 crore new families have got such accounts in which almost Rs 65,000 crore have been deposited.

He said banks have conducted surveys about how the common man has benefitted from Jan Dhan Yojna as also from insurance schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jeewan Jyoti Bima Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna, from RuPay Card and Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna and these surveys have thrown up "inspiring stories".

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After six years of legal battle since he was given compulsory retirement by IIT Kharagpur on charges of misconduct, whistle-blower Professor Rajeev Kumar has finally got a posting at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

JNU in an order "requested" Kumar to "immediately" resume his duties at the School of Computer and Systems Sciences.

IIT Kharagpur had in May 2011 suspended Kumar on charges of misconduct. He was accused of damaging its reputation by levelling allegations of irregularities in admissions, purchase of laptops and rampant copying by students in exams.

Kumar was hailed as an "unsung hero" by the Supreme Court the same year for his efforts to reform the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which has since been re-christened as JEE Advanced.

The penalty of compulsory retirement, imposed on Kumar by the authorities at IIT Kharagpur, was recently set aside by Pranab Mukherjee days before he demitted office as president.

After IIT Kharagpur relieved him of his duties, Kumar joined JNU in June 2015 through an order which granted him a lien for two years -- from June 12, 2015 to June 11, 2017.

The order had said he would be deemed to have resigned from IIT Kharagpur if he did not join it back at the expiry of the lien.

Lien represents the right of a government employee to hold a regular post, whether permanent or temporary, either immediately or on the termination of the period of absence.

When the JNU administration decided to confirm him as professor in May last year, he was asked to submit a copy of lien termination or resignation from IIT Kharagpur.

Kumar then submitted his resignation and lien termination request to the IIT, which did not accept it, saying a petition filed in the Delhi High Court by him "has not yet reached its logical conclusion".

It, however, accepted his resignation on August 14, 2017 following a Delhi High Court order in this regard.

Kumar had moved the High Court and obtained a stay on the IIT's decision to impose the penalty of compulsory retirement on him.

The court had on August 16 clarified that in view of IIT Kharagpur accepting Kumar's technical resignation, JNU was not required to release him on account of the request made by the technical institute.

"I wish to express my gratitude to uncountable individuals and groups worldwide who stood with me in this movement, which started in 2006. I pray to Almighty to strengthen academic fraternity for understanding the word, 'autonomy'," Prof Kumar said.

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Four civilians, including a woman and a boy, were injured in unprovoked indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir this evening, officials said.

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire in the Shahpur sector around 6 pm by firing from light to heavy weapons for nearly 45 minutes, they said.

"We have received information that about four persons were injured in Pakistani firing and they are being evacuated to a hospital," District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar told PTI.

According to a police official, Jameel Ahmad (45) and Parvaiza Akhtar (20) of Bandichichi and Javaid Hussain (24)and 14-year-old Mohammad Qasim of Kaswa village were injured in the firing.

The injured were given first aid locally and then sent to a district hospital, the official said.

He said the troops guarding the LoC retaliated to silence the Pakistani guns and the exchange of fire caused panic among the border residents.

This is the first ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch sector after senior commanders of Army from both sides held a flag meeting at the LoC on August 24 in an attempt to de-escalate tension.

However, there has been firing from across the international border in the Jammu area in recent days. The latest violation comes barely a day after the BSF said that it had killed at least three Pakistani rangers after the other side indulged in unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak border in the Pargwal area of Jammu.

"The situation along the international border in Jammu was peaceful today and there was no report of any violation reported from anywhere," a BSF officer said.

A day earlier, a BSF constable K K Appa Rao was hit by a sniper round in the nearby RS Pora sector when the Pakistani side took a direct aim at him while he was drinking water.

The two border guarding forces, on July 17, had held a commandant-level flag meeting in the Samba sector and "committed" themselves to maintaining peace.

In the flag meeting, the two sides had agreed to re-energise instant communication between field commanders to resolve petty matters.

Incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan have risen sharply this year.

Till August 1, there were 285 such violations by the Pakistan Army, while in 2016, the number was significantly lower at 228 for the entire year, according to Army figures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted in a 15-year-old rape case by the Special CBI court in Panchkula, the Haryana govt sealed 36 Dera properties across Kurukshetra, Ambala and Kaithal among other areas. Police also seized weapons and combustible materials such as petrol and kerosene.

The self-styled Godman was found guilty of raping two of his female followers in 2002. As soon as the verdict was out, his followers indulged in large-scale violence. Haryana, Punjab and neighbouring areas were soon found wrapped in a blanket of arson, restrictions and unrest.

The Haryana govt on Saturday faced severe criticism from Punjab and Haryana high court for letting the security lapse on their part and surrendering to the quasi-religious sect, whose followers ran riot across the two states to protest against Singh's conviction.

The clashes left around 36 people dead and over 250 people injured. Several media vans were set on fire and reporters were injured during the clash.

The quantum of punishment to the Dera chief will be announced tomorrow.

The Police raids in the Dera properties came in response to orders of the High Court that announced that all losses caused to property by Gurmeet's followers during the violence will be compensated by Dera properties.

The government seems to have acted on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Soon after which, the sect removed the mention of all its ashrams in various parts of north India from its website.

The Dera's congregation centres, a rest house and other properties were raided in Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Panipat.

According to sources, police was assisted by the army in carrying out the raids, which were conducted following a government order.

As mentioned by the Hindustan Times, police with the help of army sealed five congregation centres and a prayer centre in Kaithal. They recovered about 200 litres of petrol, sharp-edged weapons, sticks and empty bottles.

The police also seized a luxury bus from a rest house.

In Kurukshetra, the police sealed nine congregation centres after the raid was conducted. They also recovered 2000 sticks and canes, sharp weapons and kerosene oil.

In Karnal, the police sealed 10 congregation centres after finding sticks and petrol during searches.

In Panipat, police took control of nine congregation centres and recovered stones and sharp weapons from there.

Dera ashrams where objectionable materials such as lathis, iron rods or other weapons were found had been sealed.

Similar raids were carried out in Mansa district in neighbouring Punjab.


China Unicom unveiled an $11.7 billion ownership reform plan to offer a 35% stake in its Shanghai-listed arm to new investors. Photo: IC.

(Beijing)  China Unicoms $11.7 billion ownership reform plan represents a test case of Chinas years-long push to revitalize the bloated state sector with private capital.

Market investors and observers are closely watching the deal involving one of the countrys three state-backed telecom carriers in hopes of figuring out how far China will go in its efforts to privatize its state sectors. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities are counting on the case to serve as a model that could usher in a wave of reforms at state-owned companies (SOEs).

The state securities regulator treated Unicoms private placement plan to invite new investors as an exceptional case with major significance and granted it an exemption to new private placement rules issued in February on deal size and pricing.

Concerns that Unicoms fundraising plan may have violated those rules prompted the company to take down its statement from the Shanghai Stock Exchange a few hours after its announcement of the plan on Aug.16.

Under the plan, Unicom is offering 35% of Shanghai-listed arm China United Network Communications Ltd. to more than a dozen state and private investors, including tech giants Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings and Baidu, to raise 77.9 billion yuan ($11.7 billion).





The transaction will reduce the state-backed parents holding to 36.7% from 63.7%, while granting new investors 35.2% of the company stake and 2.7% to its employees in an incentive program. The remaining shares would be in the listed companys traded stock.

Unicoms placement plan received the green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission after special approval from the State Council under mediation of different departments, a person close to the matter said.

The privatization push at Unicom is directly led by the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, as a landmark case of Chinas mixed-ownership reform, said a source from an institution participated in Unicoms fundraising.

Beijing initiated mixed-ownership reform in 2013 to expand private investors access to state companies, hoping to stimulate efficiency of state-controlled sectors such as oil, power, railway and telecom. But the reform pace has been slow, and the entryway for private investors to state companies remains narrow.

As the dust settles for Unicoms reshuffle plan, authorities expect it to serve as a model for other companies. But whether Unicoms reform can play its role as expected will depend on how much private investors can shake up the company, analysts said.

Exceptional case

Unicom was named among a handful of central government-owned companies in early 2016 to be mixed ownership pilots. Others include China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Power Grid Co. and China Nuclear E&C Group.

The case is attached exceptional significance because it is the first effort to reform a major SOE as a whole. Unicoms Shanghai-listed unit holds most of the parents 600 billion yuan in total assets and shares almost the same management and personnel. Compared to most major SOEs, Unicom has a relatively simple asset structure and much less unlisted, non-core business. That makes it a good testing ground for corporate reform.





Since China kicked off the mixed-ownership reform in 2013, several pilots have been launched in selected companies, but most only affected a segment of the companies business. In 2014, oil giant Sinopec became one of the first companies to kick off the reform and announced a sale of part of its distribution business to private investment. But the deal was seen as ineffective because many of the main investors were still state companies.

Other companies, such as China National Petroleum Corp. and China Minmetals Corp., have tested the reform program by listing their financial business segments through a backdoor listing. China Eastern Airlines is also preparing to list its logistics division as an ownership reform test. Southern Power Grid has proposed setting up a new power distribution joint venture with private partners, while China National Gold Group said recently it will sell a major stake in its jewelry unit to a group of private investors, including e-commerce giant JD.com.

But none of these deals in on the same scale as Unicom. Unicoms reform initiative has drawn great attention from the market from the beginning. Sources said since late 2016, major internet companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba, JD.com and tech major Baidu and Tencent have approached Unicom for possible tie-up.

Gaining government approval was not an easy task for Unicom, which spent months negotiating with authorities and repeatedly revised the plan according to opinions from different departments. A general plan won approval from the State Council in late May. But details --such as investors, deal size and share placement price -- were not settled, a person close to the matter told Caixin.

Enthusiasm cooled among private investors due to lingering uncertainties, sources said, especially after the CSRCs revision on share placement rules in February, which set stricter requirements and was expected to push up Unicoms placement price.

Unicom held several talks with securities regulators demanding exemption of the new rules but was rejected, sources said.

But Unicom has picked up its reform pace since mid-June, pushed by the NDRC, and in July, the company had preliminarily decided major investors, sources said.





Under the final placement plan, Unicom is to raise 77.9 billion yuan from 14 state and private investors. All of Chinas top private tech giants participated in the deal: the amounts included 11 billion yuan from Tencent, 7 billion yuan from Baidu, 5 billion yuan from JD.com and 4.3 billion yuan from Alibaba. The four will hold a combined 12.88% of Unicom after the reshuffle. China Life, the countrys biggest state-owned life insurer is the largest investor, paying 21.7 billion yuan for 10.22%. Other participants include retailer Suning Commerce Group, tech company Kuang-Chi Group, data centre services provider Wangsu Science & Technology, business software provider Yonyou, ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing and railway manufacturer CRRC Corp.

Unicom's venture is bolder than many expected, a telecom industry analyst said, who added it was widely believed that Unicom would offer no more than a total 20% stake to new investors.

'Major' opportunity

On Aug. 16, Wang Xiaochu, chairman and chief executive of Unicom, said the reform plan offers Unicom a major historical opportunity.

Unicom is eager for changes to gain a competitive edge over its bigger rivals and get fresh capital to bet on the next generation of wireless services. Once a triumphant player in the 3G wireless era, Unicom has been squeezed due to its slow move to tap the new generation of 4G services.

In the first half this year, Unicom registered 124 billion yuan in revenue, with 2.4 billion yuan net profit. That is small compared to its rivals--about 4% the profit of China Mobile and 20% of China Telecom. As of June, Unicom had 139 million users of 4G wireless services, compared to 594 million for China Mobile and 152 million for China Telecom.

Several sources close to Unicom said Wang is counting on ownership reform to transform Unicom into a modern corporation with diverse shareholders and a market-oriented management structure.

Unicom said it would use 39.8 billion yuan of the money it raises to upgrade its 4G mobile network and spend 19.6 billion yuan on technology development and the launch of the faster 5G network by 2020. The remaining will be injected into innovative businesses.

Analysts expect the tech investors to help Unicom advance its technology and business innovation. Since late 2016, Unicom has worked with Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent on new services. For instance, it launched an internet data card with Tencent, giving unlimited data usage on Tencent apps.

Wang said in May that the partnership with Tencent has brought 20 million new users to Unicom, and the cooperation with Alibaba helped add at least 2 million new users.

With new investors on board, Unicom will likely revamp its business model to become a more open tech platform, adding competitive pressure on China Mobile, said an executive at the rival company.

A telecom industry analyst said Unicom will become more competitive if it gradually switches its business model from relying on its own outlets to internet channels for marketing and sales, which would be much more cost efficient.

Unicom is also looking at streamlining its organization by cutting its 712 departments scattered in 31 provincial subsidiaries to 516, according to a company executive. Within two years after the reform, Unicom may lay off 1% of its 230,000 employees after stricter review of their performance, said another source close to the company.

As part of the fundraising plan, Unicom will also introduce a so-called "share incentive mechanism" to its employees and link their compensation to the companys performance. About 2.7% of the company's stake will be offered to select employees, according to the plan.

But the real test for success of Unicom's will be determined by whether the telecom giant gives some control to the private companies, especially at the top decision-making level, industry watchers said.

Unicom has said the reform will also involve reshuffling of the companys board and management team. It will offer four seats of the listed units 15-member board to private investors and five seats to independent directors. Private shareholders will also be able to name one or two of the companys senior vice presidents.

After the reshuffle, state-backed investors will hold a combined 53% stake in Unicoms listed unit. A senior executive at a central SOE said with 36.5% stake, the parent company still has the veto right in decision-making. It will only be a fundamental change if the largest single shareholders stake is reduced to less than 33%, as the companys decision power will be more fairly distributed, said the executive.

Zhou Fangsheng, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society, said Unicoms state shareholders from various sectors represent different interests, and if private shareholders can work together on the board, they will be able to challenge state shareholders in decision-making.

But some analysts said given the complicated competitive relationships among the private shareholders, it will be very difficult for them to act the same way. Each of them only holds less than 5% in the company, with little voting power.

If private investors get into the company only to share profits rather than forming checks and balance, the value of the reform will be very limit, said Zhou.

Whether private capital can truly shake up Unicom and reshape its business landscape remains to be seen. But many analysts said it is still an important step forward in Chinas lagging SOE reform.

It is better to do something than nothing, one analyst said.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 1:23AM

Bootlooping, or having your phone stuck in reboot loops, isnt an uncommon experience. And while certain phones and models are more prone to this, when youre it with bootlooping, it can be very frustrating and a hassle if youd have to contact the manufacturer or carrier. Thats why Google is including a feature it calls Rescue Party in Android 8.0 Oreo to help you get out of crash loops. Google explains the feature as: Android 8.0 includes a feature that sends out a rescue party when it notices core system components stuck in crash loops. Rescue Party then escalates through a series of actions to recover the device. As a last resort, Rescue Party reboots the device into recovery mode and prompts the user to perform a factory reset.

There wont be any activation from your end, Rescue Party will activate itself if its sees that theres an issue. Its turned on by default and wont need any special hardware to work. Each rescue level it goes through will take around five minutes and Google hopes your device will self-recover instead of you needing to get in touch with the phones manufacturer or your carrier.

Source: Android Authority
He said it was difficult to say either way until the reviews were completed, but that Icon had a "robust surveillance program" and he hoped the reviews would confirm that.
While President Donald Trump has lashed the "dumb deal", he has not walked away from it  as a leaked transcript of Mr Trump and Malcolm Turnbull's first phone call revealed  but so far, no asylum seekers have been sent to the US, either, as vetting of the applicants continues.
The report said the council had not established metrics to inform itself, federal Parliament and the public about how efficient its distribution of funding was, had not measured changes in output over time and had not used key data to improve internal review processes.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Photo: Instagram Duane 'The Rock' Johnson posted a video on Instagram praising 10-year-old Jacob OConnor for saving his little brother's life.

The biggest action star on the planet wants to meet his hero.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson posted a video on Instagram praising 10-year-old Jacob OConnor for saving his little brother's life.

Last July, when Jacob could not find his two-year-old brother Dylan at his grandmother's home, he looked outside and found the toddler face down in the pool.

Jacob pulled Dylan from the pool and began administering CPR, which he learned from watching his favourite movie San Andreas, which stars Johnson.

In the movie, Johnson performs CPR on his daughter after she nearly drowned and Jacob said he was just imitating what he saw his on-screen hero do.

Johnson was so impressed that Jacob learned how to do this by watching this big, brown bald tattooed guy in his favourite movie that he is arranging for Jacob and his family to fly to Vancouver where he is shooting his latest movie, Skyscraper.

Were going to fly you guys up here to Vancouver to the set of Skyscraper on my movie set, and Im going to give you a big hug. I want to meet your little brother, I want to meet your mom, said Johnson, adding Jacob had better bring his sweet tooth with him.
Photo: Twitter Some Uber users in Vancouver are disappointed and mad after the ride-share app's free ice cream promotion in the city apparently melted down.

Some Uber users in Vancouver are expressing disappointment, and in some cases outrage, after they say the ride-share app's free ice cream promotion in the city apparently melted down.

The company said it would deliver two free ice cream sandwiches between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday while supplies lasted to anyone within a specified area.

But many people who tried to order the treats claimed they got repeated messages that the ice cream wasn't available.

Earnest Ice Cream, the local business that supplied the ice cream, posted on Facebook that it regrets the venture and that Uber's values do not align with its own.

Uber spokeswoman Susie Heath says the Uber Ice Cream promotion has been done year-after-year in 500 cities.

Heath says that with free promotions, demand typically outpaces supply and that Vancouver was no exception.

"Uber Ice Cream was about connecting people in Vancouver with a local entrepreneur and help contribute to a worthy cause. Yesterday we delivered hundreds of Earnest ice cream sandwiches and raised thousands of dollars for the Vancouver Sun Adopt-A-School Fund," Heath said in an email.

A news release from Uber earlier this week said that for every person who requested ice cream, Uber would donate $1 to the Vancouver Sun Children's Fund  to a maximum of $3,000  to help fund school meal programs for impoverished children in Metro Vancouver.

The promotion appeared to leave some people cold.

"The only thing sadder than no ice cream, is promises of ice cream that aren't followed through... :(" one person posted to Twitter under the hash tag #UBERIceCreamFail.

"Did your drivers eat all the ice cream themselves?" another person posted.

Earnest Ice Cream began its Facebook post Friday by stating it had made "a mistake."

"As we educated ourselves more thoroughly about Uber, we recognized that this is not a good fit for us. We apologize for not doing our due diligence ahead of time and we hope to rebuild the trust that may have been lost with some of you," the post stated.
Photo: CTV

A double-decker transit bus caught fire in Sidney, Friday night.

The blaze occurred at around 10:30 p.m. All passengers made it off safely.

According to fire prevention officer Darrin Blinko, the fire began in the engine compartment at the back-end of the bus. It was likely caused due to an engine malfunction.

- with files from CTV Vancouver Island.
Photo: CTV

Canine photographer Elias Weiss Friedman, also known as The Dogist, is spending his weekend in Vancouver and taking part in an initiative against animal testing.

Weiss Friedman will be photographing dogs at Pet-a-Palooza on Sunday in Yaletown, attempting to get people to sign a petition for his cause against the testing.

To his 2.7 million followers on Instagram, Weiss Friedman is known for his profile-shots of dogs, with captions imitating their personas.

The New York- based photographer was recently involved in news in the Okanagan, after innocently snapping a photo of a dog in Montreal who was stolen from a family in Naramata.

- with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Contributed

The father of 22-year-old Chelsey Gauthier, who was identified as a murder victim in the Fraser Valley earlier this week, is using Youtube as an outlet to express his grief.

Ray Gauthier posted a 10-minute video on Saturday, expressing his thoughts.

"Chelsey was an amazing girl. She loved so many people. She was fun. She loved to laugh".

Since his daughter was reported missing in late July, Gauthier had posted several videos online pleading for people to pray for his daughter.

"I want to thank everyone for their prayers, their kind words", he said on Saturday.

Chelsey's body was found on a property in Mission on Aug. 16. IHIT confirmed the identity on Aug. 25.

- with files from CTV.
Photo: Cariboo Regional District Two Cariboo evacuation orders have been partially lifted.

The Cariboo Regional District (CRD) has partially lifted two evacuation orders and replaced them with an alert for Batnuni Lake area to northeast of Nazko area.

An evacuation order remains in place for the Kluskus, Blackwater, Clisbako, Nazko area and CRD westerly boundary to west of Batnuni Lake area.

Wildfires remain active and firefighting activities continue in the area, says a regional district press release.

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 the areas remain on evacuation alert, residents must be prepared in case the area receives a future evacuation order on short notice.

The CRD warns residens that air quality remains poor as a result of smoke from nearby fire activity.

Those with respiratory issues, small children and the elderly should consider this before they choose to return to the area. Further, services such as health care may be limited for some time.
Photo: CTV Two people have been charged in connection with a fire that left a baby dead.

Charges have been laid against two people in connection with a fire that killed a five-month-old baby in Edmonton.

Police allege patio furniture on the porch near the front door of the home was purposely set on fire early Tuesday.

Cordell Brown, the father of the boy, said he was sleeping on the main floor and that his wife Angie Tang was asleep on the second floor with their son, Hunter.

Firefighters rescued Tang and Hunter, but the boy died of smoke inhalation and Tang is in hospital.

Brown and six others who lived in the house were able to escape the fire on their own.

Bronson Woycenko, 19, faces charges that include second-degree murder, arson and disregard for human life while Jessica Tammerand, 18, is charged with arson and disregard for human life.

On top of those allegations, they also each face a charge of mischief under $5,000.

Several Edmonton media outlets are reporting that Brown told them Woycenko and Tammerand were former tenants he had evicted.

Police say the two suspects were arrested Friday evening without incident, it's not know when they'll appear in court.

Police are still investigating the case.
Photo: CTV/@ve7sl A BC Ferry has rescued six people off the coast of Vancouver Island.

Six people have been safely plucked from the water off the coast of Vancouver Island by BC Ferries crew members.

BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says the company got a call from the Coast Guard on Sunday morning, asking for help rescuing boaters near Mayne Island.

She says four people were in a boat when it began sinking, and two kayakers tried to help, but flipped their own boats in the process, leaving six people in the water.

Marshall says the Spirit of Vancouver was travelling from Vancouver to Victoria and launched a rescue boat just outside of Active Pass.

Two crew members in the rescue vessel scooped all six people out of the water, then transferred the four from the small boat to a Coast Guard vessel and took the two kayakers to shore.

Marshall says all six people were fine, but very cold from being in the frigid water.

The ferry was delayed by about 20 minutes, but Marshall says customers on board likely understand that the rescue took precedence.
Photo: CTV/The Canadian Press NDP leadership hopefuls held a french language debate Sunday.

Federal NDP leadership hopefuls showcased their language skills on Sunday as they squared off in French-language debate in Montreal.

Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, Quebec MP Guy Caron and Ontario MP Charlie Angus and Ontario legislature member Jagmeet Singh debated in a province where the NDP is looking to regain some of the votes it lost in the last federal election.

Early questions focused on the wave of asylum seekers crossing from the United States, the government role in supporting the province's aerospace industry, and Premier Philippe Couillard's plan to restart cross-country discussions on Quebec's role in Canada.

On the latter, Caron and Singh both accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "slamming the door" on the province by rejecting any possibility of re-opening the constitution.

Angus also criticized the prime minister and said he would work to have Quebec sign the document, while Ashton added that any constitutional discussions must also include Canada's Indigenous peoples.

The candidates were also asked to wade into the province's ongoing debate over religion and identity.

All four tread carefully as they were asked to comment Quebec government's proposed Bill 62, legislation that sets guidelines for accommodating religious requests in Quebec.

The bill attempts to enshrine into law the policy that all people giving or receiving a service from the state must do so with their face uncovered.

Caron said it was important to fight racism and Islamophobia, but also stressed the importance of allowing Quebec to choose its own path.

"Our secularism should be a reflection of us as Canadians: progressive and inclusive," he said in his opening statement.

"Rejecting secularism because we believe it's just racism is fundamentally misunderstanding Quebec."

Singh, who has said he is against the bill, said he doesn't believe the state should be able to dictate what people wear but believes the province has laws in place to ensure rights are protected.

Ashton and Angus also disagreed with the idea that the state should be able to dictate what a person wears but refrained from criticizing the Quebec government.

"It's absolutely essential that we stand up for humans rights and the people's freedom. It's also important we respect Quebec," Ashton said.

Angus expressed a similar sentiment, saying it was important to understand's Quebec's fight for the separation of church and state during the quiet revolution of the 1960s and respect the conversation occurring on collective versus individual rights.

Caron is the race's only francophone, while Singh, Ashton and Angus all demonstrated various levels of proficiency in their second language.

During the debate all three expressed themselves fluently, with Singh and Angus occasionally having to search for words.

The candidates will be looking to make an impression in Quebec, where support for the NDP fell in the last federal election after helping to vault the party to official Opposition status during the "orange wave" in the 2011 vote.

The NDP currently holds 16 seats in Quebec  well below the 59 it claimed in its historic breakthrough in the province in 2011 under Jack Laytons leadership.

Members of the NDP will vote for the successor to outgoing leader Thomas Mulcair on Sept. 18.
Two separate boat wrecks in Brazil last week left at least 41 dead

Related 41 dead in two Brazil boat wrecks

Egypt has offered its deepest condolences to Brazil after two separate boat wrecks last week that left at least 41 people dead, according to an Egyptian foreign ministry statement late on Saturday.

"Egypts government and people stand side by side with the government and people of Brazil in this difficult time," the statement read.

On Tuesday, a boat named Captain Ribeiro sank on the Xingu River. It had 49 people on board, of whom 23 were rescued, 19 drowned and seven remain missing.

In separate incident, the Brazilian navy said that 22 people died when a ferry sank early on Thursday off the northeastern state of Bahia.

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This is the second time the crossing has opened in less than a month, with a previous two-day period in mid-August

Egypt opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, allowing passage in both directions for two days ahead of the Eid Al-Adha celebrations, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

This is the second time the crossing has opened in less than a month, with a previous two-day period in mid-August.

Eid Al-Adha -- or the Grand Feast -- lasts for four days and is one of the two most important religious holidays observed by Muslims worldwide. This year, it falls between 31 August and 4 September.

The Eid honours the willingness of the Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his first-born son Ismail as an act of submission to Gods command.

The Gaza border crossing is the main gateway to the outside world for 1.8 million Palestinians living in Israeli-besieged Gaza, being the only crossing point not controlled by Israel.

Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since 2006.

Egypt has kept the border largely closed due to security concerns following the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi almost four years ago.

The border openings in recent months come amid signs of improving ties between Cairo and Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza.

A senior Hamas delegation visited Cairo in late January. Hamas leader Mahmoud El-Zahar said at the time that Palestinian and Egyptian officials had reached a border-control agreement.

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Amazon has been ramping up efforts to get more people to shop using the Alexa voice assistant on Echo speakers  like the Echo Show, pictured here  and other Amazon devices. (Amazon photo)

NEW YORK  In the name of convenience, Amazon and Walmart are pushing people to shop by just talking to a digital assistant.

Shopping by voice means giving orders to the Alexa assistant on Amazon's Echo speaker and other devices, even if your hands are tied up with dinner or dirty diapers. And next month, Walmart will start offering voice shopping, too, with the Google Assistant on the rival Home speaker.

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Voice shopping is still new. But once you start using it, look out  you might never know if it's offering you the best deal. Because these devices can't say much without tiring your ears, voice shopping precludes some of the savvy shopping practices you may have relied on to find the best bargains  in particular, researching products and comparing prices.

You'd be leaving much of the buying decision to Amazon, Walmart or other retailers.

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Hooked on Amazon

Amazon has had more than a year's head start, and dominates voice shopping. Google introduced shopping to Home in February, letting people order essentials from more than 40 retailers like Target and Costco under its Google Express program. Its partnership with Walmart means hundreds of thousands of items will be available to customers in late September.

With websites and apps, many customers place items in the cart, but change their minds before completing the order, said Lauren Beitelspacher, a marketing professor at Babson College in Massachusetts. Voice shopping eliminates those intervening steps.

And with Amazon so far ahead, voice shopping with Alexa is another way of getting you hooked on Amazon . Although Amazon allows some third-party ordering through Alexa, including pizza from Domino's and hotels through Kayak, general shopping is limited to Amazon's own store. If Alexa orders diapers for you just as you run out, for instance, Amazon locks in the order before you have a chance to visit Walmart.

"You can't get away from Amazon," Beitelspacher said. "I don't know if gimmick is the right word, but (voice shopping) is part of a strategy to be omnipresent in consumers' lives."

Assistant in charge

Ask Alexa to buy something, and it presents you with something you've bought before or an educated guess based on some undisclosed mix of price, satisfaction rating and shipping time. Amazon won't provide more details. You can get a product's average customer-satisfaction rating, but not specific reviews, even on screen-equipped Echo Show devices.

Brian Elliott, general manager of Google Express, says that with most affiliated retailers, personalization occurs as the assistant learns shoppers' preferences, but the integration with Walmart will happen more quickly.

In some ways, shopping by voice assistant is a throwback to the days when you were largely limited to what sales representatives recommended at a physical store.

Amazon's website gives you a lot of information about most products, from color options and sizes to the specific reasons other customers hated a product you're considering. You're able to compare similar items and choose something cheaper if you're willing to sacrifice some features or take a chance on an unknown manufacturer.

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And, of course, you can also compare Amazon's prices with those of other online merchants.

But with Amazon's voice shopping, it's back to what the company's representative recommends.

Voice shopping requires membership in Amazon's $99-a-year Prime loyalty program, and it works with most of the tens of millions of items eligible for free shipping. But someone browsing on the web might find deals in non-Prime items; Alexa won't let you buy them.

In addition, Alexa's interactions with shoppers are constrained by the fact that listening and speaking can be a lot slower than reading and clicking.

And while Amazon's website won't necessarily list the cheapest option first either, the alternatives are easier to view on a screen.

Justin Evans, an engineer in Whitman, Massachusetts, bought oatmeal and smart plugs using Alexa to claim exclusive discounts, but he prefers browsing and reviewing products for general shopping. "I'm a less impulsive shopper than I think their target market is," he said.

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Shopping out loud

Companies are aware that voice shopping takes getting used to. "It's not natural to shout out a purchase desire and have it be fulfilled," said Ryne Misso of the Market Track retail research firm in Chicago.

Jenny Blackburn, Amazon's director of voice shopping, believes it will catch on once people get used to it.

To get people started, Amazon has been offering exclusive deals through Alexa and a $10 credit on the first order. For its annual Prime Day promotion in July, Amazon gave voice shoppers a head start of two hours.

Amazon says voice shopping has grown in the year-plus it's had it, though it wouldn't release figures. "We're really just getting started with it," Blackburn said in an interview.

Voice's limited range

Blackburn said voice shopping works best for products with "lightweight decisions," such as batteries, cat food and paper towels. Sure, Alexa can order you a TV, but you'll probably want to do some research first.

Nels Romerdahl, a student at the University of Hawaii in Maui, said Alexa can be a big improvement over Amazon Dash buttons  plastic gadgets that can you place around the house and press anytime you need to reorder a specific item. But he doesn't use either Alexa or Dash for recurring items  he stocks up when his parents visit Costco every few weeks.

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To prevent inadvertent orders, like the widely circulated report from a local television station of a 6-year-old girl who had Alexa order a dollhouse and sugar cookies for Christmas, Amazon lets you set up a PIN you can recite to the assistant. Amazon disputes the report, saying someone would have had to say "yes" before the order went through.

To boost comfort, Amazon promises free returns on voice orders; normally, Amazon charges a shipping fee for returns unless the company's at fault.

That might not satisfy everyone. Los Angeles attorney Pam Meyer, who bought some dog treats through Alexa to claim her $10 credit, said she'd want something like a cash-back guarantee when Alexa doesn't offer the best price.

AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed to this report.
Violinist Artem Kolesov is a graduate student at Roosevelt University. Longtime Chicago gay activist Bruce Koff and his friends to organized a benefit concert to help pay legal fees involved with the young mans obtaining a green card. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

The Russian-born, Chicago-based violin student Artem Kolesov plays the violin beautifully. But what he does most eloquently is offer an inspiring example of hope and courage to other LGBTQ youth trapped, as he was, in homophobic cultures that shame, revile and threaten those who are openly gay, simply because of whom they choose to love.

The 23-year-old's struggle with his sexuality, and the estrangement from his parents (both Christian ministers in a Pentecostal church outside Moscow) and friends he faced because of his orientation, reflects an emotional journey many people, straight or gay, can identify with.

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That journey came to the world's attention last spring when a coming-out video Kolesov taped in Chicago as part of the Russian "Children-404" online forum, in which teenagers tell their stories related to LGBTQ issues, was posted on YouTube. It quickly went viral and made him an icon of support to other oppressed gay youth around the world.

He later told BuzzFeed he felt it was important to share his experience with the estimated 2.5 million gay Russian young people forced to hide their sexual identity for fear of officially condoned persecution.

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So inspiring is Kolesov's story that it prompted longtime Chicago gay activist Bruce Koff and his friends to organize a benefit concert to help pay legal fees involved with the young man's obtaining a green card. The event took place before a capacity audience of more than 100 on Saturday night at the Center on Halsted in Chicago.

Besides Kolesov, performers included Chicago violin virtuosa Rachel Barton Pine, pianist David Schrader, the Yas Quartet of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts and Kolesov's violin teacher, the veteran Chicago pedagogue Almita Vamos. A portion of the proceeds will support the work of American and Canadian organizations aiding LGBTQ refugees worldwide.

In her brief speech supporting Kolesov's bid for citizenship, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky delivered remarks forcefully critical of President Donald Trump's directing the Pentagon last week to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender individuals joining the military.

Kolesov's musical talent proved to be his ticket out of the discrimination and misery he faced as a closeted, suicidal teen in Russia. At 16, he won a full scholarship to pursue his violin studies at a university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he learned English (which he speaks flawlessly) in short order.

Now a master's student in violin at Roosevelt University, Kolesov spoke briefly of the horrors LGBTQ people face daily in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin's 2013 outlawing of "gay propaganda" makes it dangerous for him to return home and reunite with his mother, who refuses to speak to him to this day.

He read excerpts from the hundreds of messages, some of them heartbreaking cries for help, he receives daily from troubled and defenseless LGBTQ youth around the world, thanks to his various video postings. "Today I want to encourage all of you to (be proud to) be different," he told the audience. He said he is encouraged by the countless messages of support he has received since his coming out.

Given the moving backstory to Saturday's concert, the musical program itself could have felt incidental, and some of it perhaps was. The dead room acoustics  unflattering to Kolesov's slender sound  also a clumsy reading of the piano part to the opening movement of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata  did not help.

But there also was ample evidence that Kolesov is a violinist of fine promise who merits encouragement on his career path once he receives his U.S. citizenship, and perhaps is able to acquire a better violin than the one on which he performs at present.

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He offered sensitive renditions of two Bach pieces, a sarabande and the slow movement from the Bach double violin concerto, with Barton Pine taking the second solo part. He displayed his technical mettle in Nathan Milstein's "Paganiniana," a series of virtuoso variations on Paganini's famous 24th solo violin caprice.

Kolesov and Barton Pine dug vivaciously into the Spanish-flavored flourishes of Sarasate's "Navarra" duet (its fast, high figurations resembling chirping birds), also evoking a miniature balalaika ensemble in Kolesov's sentimental arrangement of the popular Russian song "Moscow Nights," which the fiddlers offered as an encore.

Presenting pieces by Tchaikovsky and John Corigliano, Barton Pine explicitly stated she wanted to include gay composers in this event. She then gave gutsy-toned readings of the Canzonetta movement from the former's Violin Concerto and of the latter's "The Red Violin Caprices," whose furious bravura suggests a modern Paganini on steroids.

The Roosevelt student quartet, with Kolesov playing first violin, enjoyed greater success with the spirited opening movement of Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 3 than with Barber's "Adagio for Strings," heard here in its original string-quartet guise.

Kolesov said he will depart soon for California to live with his husband, whom he married in May in San Francisco. Funds raised from Saturday's concert surely will help usher him into the next chapter of his remarkable odyssey.

John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.

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jvonrhein@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jvonrhein

[ RELATED: In Chicago, gay Russian violinist finds freedom, family  ]

[ RELATED: Recent albums highlight an extraordinary array of Chicago classical musicians and composers  ]

[ RELATED: After 40 years, Anne-Sophie Mutter leads ever-growing field of female violinists  ]







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Ngan Nguyen, 60, was last seen about 10 a.m. Aug. 14 at her home in the Albany park neighborhood. (Photo via Chicago police)

Chicago police are asking for help finding a woman who disappeared almost two weeks ago from her Albany Park home.

Ngan Nguyen, 60, was last seen about 10 a.m. Aug. 14 at her home in the 4800 block of North Harding Avenue, according to a police missing-person alert.

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Although Nguyen's family told police she had no "mental or physical disabilities," she did leave a note written in Vietnamese "mentioning that she was disappointed with herself and if anything happened to her, she would be here spiritually," according to the alert.

Nguyen is described an Asian woman with an olive complexion, standing about 5-foot-2 and weighing about 115 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Police had not yet gotten a description of the clothing she was wearing when she disappeared.

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Anyone with information about Nguyen is asked to call Area North Special Victims Unit detectives at 312-744-8266.
These are some of the crime scenes created by gun violence in Chicago from Aug. 24-27, 2017. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) ((John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune))

Updated Aug. 28, 2017 12:20 p.m.  A woman was driving in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side late Saturday when she came across a shooting in the 6200 block of South Laflin Street.

There, she saw a man facedown on the ground. "Momma, there's his hand," her 6-year-old daughter told her.

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The woman drove off and dropped off her children, hoping to shield them from what happened.

About 11:05 p.m., 24-year-old man Brandon Cathey was found on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center. The shooting took place less than half a mile away from the Englewood District police station.

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Cathey, of the 4100 block of South Prairie Avenue, was pronounced dead at 9:12 a.m. Sunday at Christ Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

He had been standing on the street on Laflin when a man or boy came up on foot and shot him in the head, police said.

As officers searched for evidence, a woman could be heard crying just outside the crime scene. A car alarm went off as fireworks went off on a nearby block.

Standing outside of the crime scene, Leesa Walker ran to Laflin Street after hearing "three quick shots." Her 76-year-old mother lives on the block where the shooting took place. One of the officers checked on Walker's mother to make sure she was fine, but Walker still wanted to check on her.

"This is so sad," she said. "This is past sad. You just get desensitized."

Cathey was one of 12 people, including a 15-year-old boy, who were shot from late Saturday to early Sunday in Chicago.

Hours earlier, 18-year-old Adrian Lopez was shot in the head in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Someone walked up to him and opened fire around 7:10 p.m. in the 3300 block of West Potomac Avenue, police said.

Lopez was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died the next day at 2:05 p.m., according to the medical examiner. He had lived in the 6200 block of North Claremont Avenue.

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On the Southwest Side, a 20-year-old man was critically wounded inside a three-story apartment building in the 2900 block of West 40th Street in Brighton Park. About 11:40 p.m., someone went into the building and opened fire, striking the man multiple times. He was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

The windows of the first-floor apartment were covered from the inside. The only light illuminating inside the building was light from officers' flashlights.

Neighbors watched the officers work from the front steps of their porch. Some of the neighbors, who did not want to be identified for safety concerns, said the building where the shooting took place was vacant and without electricity.

Still, people come in and out of the home, neighbors said, and Saturday wasn't the first time they've heard gunshots on their block.

One woman, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade, recalls seeing people on the block firing shots at motorists.

"If they leave, the block will calm down," she said in Spanish.

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Earlier this month, a 25-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were grazed in a shooting on the same block.

The woman said some of her neighbors don't let children play outside anymore.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 18 A police officer lifts crime scene tape for a patrol vehicle to exit in the 6200 block of South Laflin Street late on Aug. 26, 2017, in Chicago. A 24-year-old man was shot in the head and transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Another woman, who also did not want to be identified, echoed her neighbor's concerns. She heard the gunshots Saturday, but she didn't dare get close to see what happened.

"You don't get close because you're scared," she said in Spanish. "Some pay for others."

Less than two hours later on the city's West Side, two people were shot just after 1 a.m. while they were driving in the 3100 block of West Monroe Street, police said.

A 38-year-old man was shot in the chin, and a 30-year-old woman was shot in the ankle. Their conditions were stabilized at Mount Sinai Hospital.

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Officers at the scene placed used bottles and cups that had been left in the neighborhood to temporarily mark more than 20 casings that were littered on the road.

Down the street, neighbors Austin Stone and Milton Segoviano sat outside their homes as officers began investigating the double shooting.

Both men said it felt like the violence on the block had slowed down for a while.

"It cooled down for a while," Segoviano said. "Now, it's picking up again."

Stone, who has lived on the block for about two years while he studies at the Moody Bible Institute, didn't want Sunday's shooting to define his block.

"There are really cool people," Stone said about his neighbors. "They have lives and stories. But this is what this block will be known for."

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A 24-year-old man was shot in the head in the 6200 block of South Laflin Street on Aug. 26, 2017, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) ((John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune))

Other shootings:

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

-- The 15-year-old boy was shot about 11:30 p.m. Saturday while he was in a car in the 6300 block of West Montrose Avenue in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the city's Northwest Side, police said. The shooter, who was wearing a mask, walked up to the vehicle and opened fire, striking the teen in the right hip. His condition was stabilized at Community First Medical Center.

-- About 4 a.m. Sunday, a 19-year-old woman showed up at Stroger Hospital with a graze wound to the buttocks, police said. She was in good condition. The shooting is believed to have happened in the 4300 block of South Western Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood. The woman was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped at a traffic light when a man or boy got out of another vehicle nearby and shot the woman. Police released no further information.

-- A 27-year-old woman was grazed on the left side of her head while she was sitting in her parked car about 2:35 a.m. in the 4200 block of South State Street in the Robert Taylor Homes neighborhood on the South Side, police said. The woman told police she heard gunshots and then realized she had been wounded. Her condition was stabilized at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

-- About 1:40 a.m., a 35-year-old man was shot in the torso and leg while he was in the 6400 block of South Champlain Avenue in the West Woodlawn neighborhood, police said. He was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital. Police did not release any other details about the shooting.

-- Two people were wounded in a shooting about 11:10 p.m. Saturday in the 3900 block of West Van Buren Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, police said. The men were standing outside when someone opened fire. A 20-year-old man was grazed in the stomach, and his condition was stabilized at Stroger Hospital. A 25-year-old man was grazed in the buttock, and he was in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.

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-- About 7:45 p.m., an 18-year-old man was shot in the abdomen while he was in the 6900 block of South Prairie Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood, police said. He took himself to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was listed in good condition. The teen was being "uncooperative" with investigators, police said.

Check back for details.
Paul England pilots his boat through floodwaters in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Port Arthur, Texas, on Sept. 2, 2017. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

As catastrophic flooding and persistent downpours ravaged Texas on Sunday in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, volunteers from the Chicago region mobilized to help.

Volunteers from northern Illinois are part of the developing American Red Cross relief effort to provide shelter and food to residents affected by the storm's destruction. About 10 Illinois volunteers have so far been deployed to provide assistance in the Houston area and the Texas coast. But with downtown Houston and many of the surrounding roads under water, it is unclear when emergency responders from across the country will be able to access the region.

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The director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, James Joseph, has been in contact with his counterpart in Texas, a spokeswoman, Patti Thompson, said. Illinois also is monitoring Texas's requests for assistance and its specific needs so regional emergency personnel can effectively assist.

At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen injured amid the ongoing disaster. The National Weather Service projected rainfall from the storm could reach 50 inches in some areas, and in tweets called the storm and the scope of its damage "unprecedented," "life-threatening" and "beyond anything experienced."

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Photos on social media show several feet of flood waters swallowing up large swaths of the city, including major expressways and intersections. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared Sunday it could take years for Houston to recover.

Volunteer Jim Connelly, a longtime shelter supervisor, made it to Dallas late Saturday after three flight cancellations in Chicago. With torrential rain and wind still battering Houston, Connelly and the other volunteers were standing by Sunday at the regional Red Cross headquarters in Dallas awaiting assignments and instruction. They are in a holding pattern there until it is safe and logistically possible to travel into the disaster zone.

"We're all here to do the job, and we're anxious to get to work," said Connelly, 78, of Lincolnwood.

Connelly, a volunteer with the Red Cross for 48 years, is an experienced responder to post-hurricane disaster areas. He helped at a shelter last year in South Carolina after Hurricane Matthew. In his duties as shelter supervisor, he helps run the aid centers set up at schools, churches or community centers where displaced residents can receive food and a warm place to stay.

That will be Connelly's assignment again once it is safe for him and other Red Cross volunteers to travel to the Houston area. When affected residents first start arriving at the shelter, Connelly said volunteers will help provide a supportive and calming environment. Then the displaced will be offered food, beverages and assigned a cot.

"I enjoy helping," Connelly said.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

The Chicago, the northern Illinois and northwest Indiana regional division of the Salvation Army is on standby to assist since flooding was worsening and the Houston airports are shuttered. They hope to send personnel and supplies by midweek, a spokeswoman, Shanna Schwarze, said.

The Salvation Army's southern territory teams are already on the ground in Texas, Schwarze said, setting up 42 mobile kitchens and two field kitchens. They also are staging emergency supplies, including bottled water and food boxes, in Arlington, Texas, and points closer to the Gulf Coast. And the Salvation Army of Corpus Christi, Texas, is helping to feed first responders at a FEMA shelter there.

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Others with the Red Cross will be dispatched into neighborhoods across Texas to provide safe shelter and food. Once the storm subsides, the Red Cross also offers health services and distributes emergency relief supplies, such as comfort kits and cleaning supplies. The Red Cross is coordinating with government officials and community partners in both Texas and Louisiana for help after Harvey.

Those who wish to donate to the Red Cross efforts can text the word HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation or call 1-800-Red-Cross.

To help the the Salvation Army's relief efforts, visit salarmychicago.org and click the donate to Hurricane Harvey link.

poconnell@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @pmocwriter
Bond was denied Saturday for an 18-year-old Logan Square man accused of opening fire on a pair of teenage twins earlier this month, leaving one paralyzed, according to authorities.

Mondre Hodges slumped his head to the left and mouthed something to himself after Judge Laura Sullivan rejected a bail request, agreeing with prosecutors that the number of eyewitnesses to the Aug. 11 shooting made the "presumption of guilt" great.

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Hodges, of the 2500 block of West Cortland Street, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

The incident began with Hodges approaching the 16-year-old twins outside a home in the 1900 block of North Spaulding Avenue around 4 p.m., accusing one of the youths of being involved in an incident with Hodges' brother, prosecutors told the court. Hodges and the victim know each other from the neighborhood, authorities said.

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When the teen denied involvement, Hodges pulled a handgun and aimed it at the victim's twin brother, Assistant State's Attorney Julia B. Ramirez said. The victim shoved Hodges' hand away so that his brother could escape, but as both teens ran, Hodges opened fire, striking the victim multiple times in the back and arm, Ramirez added.

Hodges fled the scene and the teen was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where doctors discovered one of the bullets struck the teen's spine, paralyzing him from the waist down, authorities said.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

Multiple witnesses and the victim himself identified Hodges as the gunman. Hodges was arrested by fugitive trackers from the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes regional task force at a home in Aurora on Friday morning.

Hours after Hodges' court appearance, the twins' mother told the Tribune she was happy her son's alleged shooter was held without bond. "I want my son to get justice for what happened to him. That's basically it," the 36-year-old woman said in a telephone interview.

Two weeks since the shooting, the mother  who asked not to be named  said her family and her injured son were struggling to deal with this new challenge. "He's really not dealing with it at this moment," she said. "He's just coping and trying to get through the injury as best he can. We just praying that one day he gets his feeling back and (is) able to walk again."

The woman, who wasn't present for the shooting, said she heard a version of events similar to what prosecutors alleged in court, but remained shaken, believing that her sons were attacked by mistake. She also called her injured son a hero for pushing away the gun and trying to save his twin brother.

Hodges is scheduled to appear in court next week.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

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Christopher J. Strout, 52, of Plainview, Minn., has been charged with drunken driving resulting in death in a crash on the Tri-State Tollway that killed Brian S. Gibson, of Atlanta, according to police and court records. (Cook County sheriff's office)

A Minnesota truck driver has been charged with drunken driving resulting in death in a crash on the Tri-State Tollway near Alsip that killed an Atlanta man, according to police and court records.

Christopher J. Strout, 52, of Plainview, Minn., is being held at the Cook County Jail after a Judge Laura M. Sullivan on Saturday confirmed a $300,000 bond set for him when a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier this month, according to court records. Strout is accused in the death of Brian S. Gibson, 35, of Atlanta, after the crash just before 4:40 a.m. July 17 on northbound Interstate 294 south of Ridgeland Avenue near Alsip, according to a news release from Illinois State Police.

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The semi Strout was driving, which was pulling a trailer, hit a passenger car and then overturned, police said at the time of the crash. The passenger car became engulfed in flames, police said.

The driver of the car was unable to get out of the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

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Strout suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Two passengers in Gibson's silver Nissan Altima also were injured and were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment, according to police.

Strout was ticketed at the time, but a felony warrant for his arrest on the DUI charge was issued, and he turned himself in to state police on Friday, according to the news release.

Strout is due back in court before Sullivan on Tuesday, according to court records.
Egypts Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II has inaugurated the first Coptic Orthodox church in Japan during his visit to the country, the first of its kind by a Coptic pope, state-run MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

The church was established in 2016 to serve Egyptian, Ethiopian and Eritrean Coptic communities living in the East Asian country.

In his inauguration speech, Pope Tawadros II praised the Japanese government and people for welcoming the church as well as the Egyptian ambassador and the foreign ministry for organising his visit.

After completing his trip to Japan, the pope is set to visit Australia, where he will participate in a number of Coptic activities in several Australian cities and meet with Australian officials.

The pope is the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which has an estimated 25 million members worldwide.

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To supporters, it is a respectable civil rights movement. To critics, its an anti-police organization that deserves to be banned.

Black Lives Matter came into existence following the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an African American teen, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. The group became known nationally amid protests in Ferguson, Mo., after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man.

Since then, the organization founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi has been on the front lines of protests against what it calls the sustained and increasingly visible violence against black communities.

While its prominence appears to have waned in recent months, Cullors, 32, a native of Van Nuys who lives in Los Angeles, insisted that the movement is today more relevant than ever.

It has swelled to 40 chapters, including branches in Canada and Britain. In November, the group will receive the Sydney Peace Prize, Australias leading award for global peacemakers.

Cullors, who is writing a memoir, recently shared reflections on the state of Black Lives Matter and its future. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.

94402807

Does Black Lives Matter even matter today?

I think Black Lives Matter is very relevant today, especially given the rise of white supremacists and white nationalists across, not just this country, but across the globe. And so our work over the last four years has been putting anti-black racism on the map, talking about the impact anti-black racism has on this country, has on local government, has on policy and how it actually impacts the everyday life of black people.

How do you characterize the impact and influence youve had?

As organizers, we have to think every day are we making an impact. Are we changing the material conditions for black people? I think, yes, we've had an impact. I think part of what we're seeing in the rise of white nationalism is their response to Black Lives Matter, is their response to an ever-increasing fight for equal rights, for civil rights and for human rights.

Left-wing groups accuse BLM of not being visible enough under President Trump . Are they right?

I would actually challenge the media, because the media has in large part focused primarily on Trump and his administration. And so, as our folks have continued to organize locally, have continued to, not just hit the streets, many of our people are thinking about how to enact a political strategy. How do we build black power in this moment? How do we actually get people in office?

It's not a hashtag that built the movement. It was organizers, activists, educators, artists  people who built an actual infrastructure so that a movement can exist and have life. And if the media was interested in the everyday strategy they would know that Black Lives Matter is not just still here, that it's thriving and it's doing some of its best work in this moment.

Trump has called BLM a threat. Is the door open to talk to him?

It's not. And we wouldn't take the invitation.

Why not?

We wouldn't as a movement take a seat at the table with Trump, because we wouldn't have done that with Hitler. Trump is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country  be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.

94402822

He has set out some of the most dangerous policies, not just that impacts this country but impacts the globe. And so for us, the answer is not to sit with him but to resist him and to resist every single policy that he's implemented that impacts our communities.

And  if I'm thinking about what I want my children to know in 30, 40, 50 years, I want them to know that I resisted a president at all costs, because this president literally tried to kill our communities, and is killing our communities.

So then how does your activism have to change?

Some things don't change. I don't want to act like if we have Hillary Clinton in office everything would be different. No.

The first thing that Black Lives Matter had to do was remind people that racism existed in this country because when we had Obama people thought we were post-racial. That was the debate. Is racism over? And very quickly we understood that it was not over. And then the second one was to talk about anti-black racism. And then I think the next step for Black Lives Matter was to decide, What was our target?

And I want to be frank. I think our target has been law enforcement, and that has been important because black folks not only are killed with impunity, but also black folks are some of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in this country. We believe if we can actually get real accountability in this country around mass criminalization, we could start to change the other apparatuses inside this country.

A 2016 protest in New York in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Kena Betancur / AFP/Getty Images)

What kind of influence do you want to have on policing?

I want to see Black Lives Matter be able to ultimately reduce law enforcement funding.

People often ask the question, why reduce their funding? Because they're the one industry in our nation, and locally in particular, that is given more money than education or access to education, resources to shelter, resources to people to have access to healthy food. Over the last 30, 40 years what we've seen is the pouring of millions of dollars into law enforcement and literally divesting from communities, especially poor communities. And so our argument is ... they can start divesting from law enforcement and reinvesting into our communities.

The Harvard-Harris poll found that most people view Black Lives Matter unfavorably. What kind of impact has that had?

I always want to ask who is taking the poll? Which Americans are they talking about? Are they talking about white Americans or talking about black Americans? Are they talking about people who are new to this country?

But the second thing I'll say is [civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] had some of the lowest acceptance rates during his time  him and the civil rights movement. And look at us now. Look at how important of a figure he was.

A message at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Do you believe in violence as a method of protest?

I believe in direct action, but nonviolent direct action. And our movement believes in that nonviolent direct action. But I do believe that our communities need to be defended.

What happened in Charlottesville shouldnt have happened. Many folks that were on the ground said the police were not helpful at all. And yet when Black Lives Matter hits the streets, when we are nonviolent, were the first ones to be snatched up by police. Were the first ones to be beaten by police. So while I think our movement should stick to nonviolent direct action, I do think the government should do a better job at defending us and defending protesters in particular.

94402844

Where do you see BLM four years from now?

One of the biggest places that I see us will be in local and national government. I think youll see, not just black people, but black folks and our allies really pushing to be a part of local government, city government and national government  to move to be mayor, county board of supervisors, to be on boards.

Is that something that interests you?

People have asked me to really think about taking elected office. At this moment, I feel Im more effective on the ground. Im not interested in elected office at this moment. But who knows?

ann.simmons@latimes.com

@amsimmons1

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

@jaweedkaleem
Arriving in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a rally planned by white nationalists earlier this month, Virginia's top homeland security official nodded to a nearby group of men clad in camouflage and armed with semiautomatic rifles, believing they were soldiers in the state's National Guard.

Then he did a double take.

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"They're not ours, are they?" said the official, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran, who described the exchange in an interview. "No, sir," came a reply from his deputy in the passenger seat. "I don't think they're with us."

The presence of the homegrown militia was just one in a series of unanticipated developments in Charlottesville for state and local law enforcement leaders who had planned for weeks for the Aug. 12 showdown between white nationalists and counterprotesters. Despite warnings to the city manager and police chief that a more aggressive approach was needed, including an appeal from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the local police in charge temporarily lost control of the city as people brawled on the streets. Citizens brawled in the streets, leaving one dead.

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And though a torch-lit march the night before ended with white nationalists attacking college students, city officials said police stuck to a tactical plan that included little-to-no visible buffer zone between armed white nationalists and their armed opponents.

Most dangerously, law enforcement experts say, officers initially deployed without adequate protective gear to break up fighting and were not well positioned to keep the peace. As fights erupted, police stayed back. They stood not between the two opposing groups but behind them and off to the sides. And when they cleared the park where rallygoers had gathered near a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, police flushed many of them directly onto the same street where counterprotesters were gathered, according to witnesses and video.

The area became a flashpoint, and video that surfaced Friday appears to show a white nationalist fire a handgun after leaving the park. By the end of the day, two police officers were killed in a helicopter crash.

The police tactics on the ground and approach mystified some law enforcement veterans and experts, including former Charlottesville police chief Timothy Longo, now a lecturer at the University of Virginia who teaches about the use of force by police.

"How do you allow two completely divergent and armed groups to come in contact with one another, knowing full well for weeks in advance that there were warnings of violence?" said Longo. "In the current climate, this has all the earmarks of something that will happen again, and certainly every city should be looking at what happened to learn a lesson."

In a confidential memo Thursday to City Manager Maurice Jones, the City Council demanded an explanation for the "apparent unwillingness of officers to directly intervene during overt assaults captured in many videos."

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, who was in charge that day, declined to be interviewed but said in a statement to The Washington Post that his office "realized the potential for serious violence" and worked closely with the state police.

"We employed the Unified Command approach every step of the way that morning, which ultimately limited the number of injuries, arrests, and incidents within and immediately surrounding Emancipation Park," he wrote. "There was never a 'stand down' order issued. Instead, there were processes to initiate and multiple things going on all at the same time, that participants and the media would not have seen taking place."

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Mayor Mike Signer and some council members, however, say they were locked out of the planning process. In Charlottesville, as in many municipalities in Virginia, the police chief reports to the city manager rather than to the mayor, and the mayor does not have the executive powers commonly held in many states.

On Friday, the council announced that Timothy Heaphy, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, would lead an independent review of the events of Aug. 12.

Court documents, internal city memos, emails and text messages show Charlottesville city leaders were often at odds in key respects in the weeks leading up to the rally. Signer led a push by council members as early as July 13 to relocate the rally outside of the city's downtown core. In the confidential memo, the council faulted Jones for failing to act quickly to relocate the protest and for his handling of the event overall.

Jones denied that he was slow to pursue the idea of moving the rally. The city ultimately decided to revoke the rally permit on Aug. 7, a decision organizers challenged successfully in federal court, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Signer wrote on Facebook that, before the rally, he asked Chief Thomas what he could do to help.

The chief replied: "Stay out of my way."

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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)

A month earlier, Charlottesville and State Police had faced criticism for being too aggressive in their response to a Ku Klux Klan gathering. About three dozen Klan members, surrounded by a phalanx of state and local officers, demonstrated in another downtown park. The police, wearing riot gear, created a buffer zone between the Klan and approximately 1,000 protesters.

There were no reports of violence until the rally ended and straggling protesters confronted police, who then used tear gas to break up the crowd.

Charlottesville council members called for an investigation and public report.

The review never came. In its memo to Jones last week, the council said the failure to produce a report was "a significant problem given the need for us to learn lessons from July 8 for August 12."

As Charlottesville was preparing for the "Unite the Right" rally this month, the governor called Signer on Aug. 2. He asked that Charlottesville shorten the length of the permitted rally and prohibit guns. He recommended that the city not allow backpacks into the protest area, citing warnings  including from the FBI  that bags could be used to conceal weapon or improvised explosive devices.

McAuliffe also wanted attendees to park outside the city and to be bused to downtown. He said he worried officers would not be able to maintain public safety when white nationalists and counterprotesters disbanded and headed back to their cars.

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None of these restrictions were put into place, Jones acknowledged. He said that the city did not believe it had the authority to ban backpacks and that the busing plan was unrealistic because it would require cooperation from the protesters, who he said "did not follow the previously agreed-to security plan."

Under Virginia state law, Thomas, the police chief, was in charge of handling the rally. But Moran and Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the state police, had separately made preparations. Over 600 troopers in Virginia were in Charlottesville or on their way. On the governor's order, the National Guard had also moved a planned weekend training exercise for a military police unit from Manassas, over 80 miles away, to the armory just outside Charlottesville.

As the rally date approached, however, confusion grew about the details.

The final location was not determined until Friday evening, when a federal judge ruled that it could proceed at Emancipation Park. The rally's organizers say they were given conflicting information from law enforcement about which routes to take to the park and what time they could arrive.

Thomas has said police attempted to keep the two sides separate but rallygoers "decided to change their plan and enter the park in different locations."

The rally was scheduled to start at noon Saturday. But organizers said in court records that police instead decided to open the grounds at 6 a.m. and reversed an earlier pledge to escort them into the park, a claim the city did not dispute in court documents.

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Online message boards for white nationalists soon filled up with talk of getting to the park first to hold ground. The brew of conflicting information and confusion set the stage for a Saturday rally that became one of the most violent white nationalist protests in decades.

When Moran left for Charlottesville the day before the protests, he joked with the governor about needing a bulletproof vest. The next day, he texted McAuliffe pictures of the heavily armed militia.

"I'm going to need that vest," he wrote.

At 8:30 a.m., the event's organizer, Jason Kessler, arrived. His group encountered barricades blocking a rear entrance to the park that police had said the rallygoers were supposed to use, he said. They took side streets around to the front of the park, and there encountered a gantlet of counterprotesters to reach the park entrance, he said.

"They created a tinder box," Kessler said. "Police didn't provide the safe passage we expected, and the counterprotesters, they didn't get a fair shake either  an area where they could safely express their views without fear of harm."

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which trains law enforcement officers on best practices, said that Charlottesville appeared not to follow fundamentals for how to deal with events involving confrontational groups.

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"One of the most significant things you can do when you have two kinds of volatile groups is meet with them beforehand and establish strong lines of communications," Wexler said. "You want to establish the rules of engagement, make sure they know their rights to express their opinions and keep them separate from the counterdemonstrators. Above all else, be a visible presence between the two, because otherwise you are inviting problems."

By 10 a.m., Market Street was filled. White nationalists were on a collision course with counterprotesters, marching directly past  or through  them on their way to the park. There was pushing and shoving. Many of the white nationalists wore helmets and protective eye goggles and carried shields, clubs and guns. Some counterprotesters, including a smaller number of antifa, or self-described antifascists, also wore helmets and goggles and carried makeshift shields and sticks.

"We were starting to feel then obviously that things were starting to get to the point where we needed to accelerate our preparations," Moran said. "I ran over to the command center on the Wells Fargo's 6th floor and got a good view. ... There was sporadic fighting. They'd fight, they'd split up. But the groups were starting to amass."

Before 10:30 a.m., council members received an email from Jones, the city manager, warning conditions were deteriorating and authorities likely would have to clear the park.

Soon, bottles and other objects began flying back and forth between rallygoers in the park and counterprotesters in the street. The police in the park and along its sides remained in place. None wore riot gear.

A few minutes later came the first extended brawl. A line of marchers with shields and clubs plowed through a line of counterprotesters. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants. Punches were thrown and bodies kicked to the ground.

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The police did not intervene.

"The worst part is that people got hurt, and the police stood by and didn't do a g------ thing," David Copper, 70, who was there to protest the white nationalists, told The Post that day.

Jones, the city manager, said, "We were hoping for a peaceful demonstration but as the tensions rose, we transitioned our officers into riot gear."

By 11:15 a.m., commanders watching from the bank decided the only safe way to address the melee was to declare an unlawful assembly. At 11:22, they gave the white nationalists and counterprotesters 11 minutes to disperse.

Police forced rallygoers into the street filled with protesters. At one exit, a protester stood waiting with an aerosol can and a lighter that he ignited in a makeshift flame thrower. An ACLU video, first reported by the New York Times, appears to show one of the rallygoers pointing and shooting a handgun toward the protester with the flame-thrower.

Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the white nationalist Traditionalist Workers Party, said he asked an officer if police were going to clear the street. "The cop said, 'It's not my job,' " Heimbach said. "It was really unclear what the rules were. Or if there even were rules. We had no idea."

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Council member Bob Fenwick, however, saw it differently. Most rallygoers headed out of the park peacefully, with some opposing groups standing only a few feet from one another, he said. "It was surreal, like a street festival, but one where every so often a fistfight would break out. But I thought the police had done a good job  if they had been down in the middle earlier, they would have been the target."

The National Guard took control of the park after it was cleared, but violent clashes continued to flare in the streets. Police say they swarmed from one hotspot to another. It was more than an hour before they regained control of downtown.

In that time, white men beat a black man with poles and sticks in the entrance of a major downtown parking garage, leading to one of the day's most searing images. The beating continued without any sign of police intervention, video shows.

A frantic appeal came from Signer before 2 p.m. asking for police protection at the city's only synagogue  a location the mayor had raised alarms about in the days before the rally  after he was shown a series of tweets connected to a white nationalist site. "It's time to torch these jewish monsters lets go 3 pm." Another replied "We must not slacken! SIEG HEIL."

"Address?" replied Moran in a text. "On it."

By 1 p.m. Saturday, Emancipation Park was cleared of protesters and controlled by National Guard.

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It appeared the city had dodged the worst. Then Moran suddenly heard an alert inside the command center: pedestrians struck. He looked up at a screen showing a live video feed from a helicopter hovering overhead.

"We saw the video and knew immediately what had occurred," he said.

Police had put roadblocks around downtown to keep cars away from pedestrians. But that did not stop a driver from speeding into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. The man behind the wheel was later identified as James Alex Fields of Ohio, 20, who faces charges including second-degree murder.

Moran picked up the phone and called the governor.

"You're about to see some very horrible video," Moran said. "The public is going to see some horrible video."

The Washington Post's Arelis R. Hernandez and Michael E. Miller contributed to this report.
A year ago, Ayan Abdi was one of about 5,000 students who jammed into classrooms across the Dadaab refugee camp for a two-hour exam, the first step in seeking perhaps the most generous scholarship anywhere. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

DADAAB, Kenya  It was time to go. Ayan Abdi slipped on a long black headscarf, grabbed her refugee ID and set out for the interview that could save her life.

Since she was 2, Ayan had lived in the world's largest refugee camp, a constellation of tents and huts stretching across the red desert near the Somali border. Now, a few miles from her shack built of sticks and cardboard, three examiners with a Canadian university foundation were sitting at a wooden table, deciding which students were worthy of a way out.

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Ayan hurried along the sandy road. Past the piles of burning trash surrounded by giant scavenging birds. Past the girls no older than her, at 20, who balanced firewood on their heads, trailed by barefoot children. Past the group of men who stared at her - a small figure in a flowing black robe and bright red shoes - and hissed in Somali, "Where are you going, girl?"

When Ayan finally found a taxi, it was already full. She squeezed in, her whole body tense, dots of sweat on her forehead.

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"I'm in a rush," she told the driver, who didn't ask why but careened a little faster from pothole to pothole.

A year ago, Ayan was one of about 5,000 students who jammed into classrooms across the Dadaab refugee camp for a two-hour exam, the first step in seeking perhaps the most generous scholarship anywhere. The World University Service of Canada, or WUSC, would award 16 of those students not just a college education but a new life, with the Canadian government providing them with citizenship and a chance to sponsor their families.

Now Ayan was one of 29 finalists, heading for the interview that would determine whether she won.

Nearly a quarter-million refugees, mainly Somalis, live in the Dadaab camp in Kenya. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

Her other options were being snuffed out. Kenyan authorities were trying to close Dadaab, which for a quarter-century had sheltered the victims of Somalia's endless war and hunger crises. In the United States, which had resettled more than 100,000 Somalis since 2000, President Trump had ordered a temporary ban on accepting refugees. Around the world, countries were shutting their doors to people like Ayan, even as the number of refugees surged past 22 million in 2017, the highest in recorded history.

What was left was the WUSC scholarship - a chance for the bright young refugees of Dadaab to earn their way out.

"It's life or death," said Joseph Mutua, a program officer with the scholarship foundation in Dadaab. "That's how it's seen."

In the taxi, Ayan was drumming her fingers against her knee. A printed verse from the Quran swung from the rearview mirror. On the bumper, a sticker read, "Succeed."

The cab pulled up to a walled compound. "Is this the right place for the scholarship interview?" Ayan asked a security guard.

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In her hand, which trembled, was a brown envelope with her documents. The white food-ration card that said "Family size: 1" because Ayan's parents and siblings had returned to Somalia years ago without her. The report cards she had earned since primary school. The recommendations from a Dadaab school where she was now teaching biology.

She carried the envelope to the cinder-block building where the interviews were taking place and sat under a tree, waiting her turn. "I'm getting a headache," she told one of the other applicants.

She looked down at the cracked screen of her white cellphone, where she had written notes reminding her what to tell the interviewers.

"This scholarship is my only way out," it said.

"I'm the best girl in the camp based on merit," it said.

"Here I cannot awaken my dreams," it said.

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She took a deep breath.

A middle-aged woman stepped outside and called her name.

Ayan walked inside.

Ayan Abdi, right, meets Maryan Hassan to catch up after work at Horyaal Secondary School, where Maryan works as a teacher. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

The afternoon before the interview, Ayan had pulled two lawn chairs into the sandy expanse in front of her hut. Her best friend, Maryan Hassan, sat across from her, with a list of mock interview questions ready.

"Describe yourself," said Maryan, 20, a tiny girl with a high-pitched voice who was also a finalist for the scholarship.

"I was born in a refugee camp in 1997," Ayan began, in the careful English she had studied in school. "My parents are in Somalia."

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"Don't forget to tell them what you want to do for your country," Maryan interrupted.

Ayan nodded.

They were trying to figure out how to distinguish themselves from the other refugees. But on the Internet, all they could find were generic interview questions, so that's what they studied.

"What are your strengths?" Maryan asked.

"My ability to collaborate," Ayan answered, a little unsure of herself, trying to remember what she had read online. "What are yours?

"I don't give up," piped Maryan.

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A cloud of flies hovered around their faces. The goats living nearby yapped. In both directions were rows of hundreds of huts made of whatever people could find - tin cans, tree branches, plastic sheets bleached by the sun. There were 250,000 refugees in all, surrounded by police checkpoints.

"If I get out of here," Ayan said under her breath, "I'm never coming back."

For years, Ayan and Maryan had watched their friends disappear, dropping out of school as they were forced to marry older men, in accordance with old Somali cultural traditions. Fatima left when Ayan was 11. Mahado when she was 13. Farhiya when she was 14. They would reemerge, sometimes years later, balancing babies in their arms, sullen and tired.

What was the point of school anyway, some of Ayan's friends scoffed. You could finish high school, but there was little work in the camp. And refugees were not allowed to hold jobs in Kenyan cities.

Ayan Abdi walks past piles of burning trash, surrounded by storks and goats scavenging for food. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

Ayan was 12 when she learned of the WUSC scholarship, advertised in fliers taped to the sheet-metal walls of classrooms. It turned her from a good student who loved adventure novels into someone whose grades were part of a grand strategy of escape.

She and Maryan taught themselves to type at the camp in a market stall called Bukhara Computer School, with a row of old IBM desktops. In 2012, both girls received scholarships to attend top high schools hundreds of miles from the camp, with college-educated teachers and new textbooks. On their phones, they would enter in the search bar: "Best Universities in Canada."

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In 2015, when Ayan was away at high school, her mother and two siblings left Dadaab and returned to Somalia. They were sick of life in the camp and worried about Kenya's threat to deport the refugees.

Come back to Somalia, her mom said by phone from a town outside Mogadishu, the capital.

Ayan knew what that meant. No schools. Few jobs. And a constant threat from al-Shabab, the Islamist extremists who controlled nearby villages.

In Dadaab, at least there was the WUSC.

I am going to disobey you for the first time, Ayan replied.

She graduated near the top of her class and then moved back to Dadaab, into a stick hut next to the home of family friends. She covered the dirt floor with a red bedsheet and surrounded the hovel with a pile of thorny branches, to keep out the men who knew she was unmarried and alone.

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"The harsh realities of life here are traumatizing," she wrote in her personal essay for the WUSC scholarship. Women were raped when they went out to collect firewood for cooking. Children died of chronic diarrhea during cholera outbreaks. When she was filling her water bucket one morning, Ayan was stung by a scorpion.

Ayan and Maryan talked about their lives in Canada, how they would walk across green college campuses, how they would get their families to safety.

"When I see her," Ayan said, nodding toward her friend, "I see WUSC." Maryan smiled.

Around the world, fewer than 1 percent of registered refugees are resettled each year, and most have little or no control over the process. They are selected by U.N. agencies and approved by host governments, their fate determined by luck and charity, with the sickest and most vulnerable put at the front of the line.

The WUSC scholarship represented something different. It was about merit.

"Make sure you're smiling," Maryan had told Ayan as they prepared for their interviews.

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Ayan was determined not to become emotional.

"It's not professional," she had said. "You need to show them that you're confident."

Ayan Abdi helps prepare breakfast for Shamis Mohamed and her family, who have given her a home since her family returned to Somalia. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

Five minutes had passed since Ayan climbed the steps into the cinder-block building. Then 10.

Through the screened window, the other students waiting their turn outside could see her silhouette in front of the three interviewers.

It was the middle of the afternoon, the sun slicing through sparse trees.

"It's taking a long time," said Mohammed Abdi, one of the applicants, looking at the building.

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Finally, Ayan emerged, glancing at the students waiting in a cluster of plastic chairs.

"I think I said the right things," she said. "I think."

But in the next hours and days, she would replay her performance in her head, over and over.

She had walked into the cinder-block room. The three women welcomed her. Ayan remembered to shake the interviewers' hands, even though she was so nervous she could hardly focus. One woman told her to relax, and that had helped. She sat at a wooden desk.

They asked her when she had arrived in the camp, what she remembered about the journey. Ayan told them that she had been born in another camp in Kenya but that her family had to leave after it was damaged by fire, and that was how they had wound up at Dadaab.

"I told them the name of the road we took. I told them I was just a baby."

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They asked about the importance of education.

"I told them it had shaped me emotionally."

Then one of the administrators asked about the challenges she had faced as a refugee. And suddenly, the weight of it all hit her.

"I told them: 'I'm here alone. My family has left. Without this scholarship, I have no other options.' "

And Ayan began to cry.

"I couldn't stop the tears."

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The women waited.

"They handed me a tissue. I tried to get back under control."

The questions continued. They asked what she wanted to study, and she said nursing.

They asked how she would adjust to Canada.

"I told them I would wear more clothes in the winter. I told them I would get used to the food."

Ayan tried to hold back her tears. She didn't want to look desperate. Finally she managed to focus on the words she had prepared.

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"I said, 'I am the best girl in the camp based on merit.' "

Ayan Abdi reviews multiplication and division with a neighbor's children, whom she tutors on breaks and in the evening. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

The day after the interview, Ayan walked to Hagadera Secondary School in the camp, where she teaches biology, sending most of her $80 monthly salary to her mother.

In the classroom, there were 21 boys and two girls in their mid-teens sitting on opposite sides of the room. A bell rang and class began.

"What is the difference between a plant cell and an animal cell?" she asked.

No one answered.

Ayan tried her best to push her thoughts about the scholarship to the side. It was early June, and she would have to wait about a month for the results.

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"I'm 50-50," she said one day of her chances. But a few days later she had reassessed, thinking about the caliber of the other candidates.

"I'm 20-80."

She thought: "Maryan will get it, but I won't. I'm going to be stuck here forever."

She wrote a text message to a friend: "I'm not sure I convinced the interviewers."

The WUSC committee didn't say exactly when the announcement would come. She checked her phone obsessively.

It buzzed and buzzed, often with messages from Maryan, who lived in another part of the camp.

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"We still have to wait," Maryan wrote in the middle of the month.

The school was a reminder of all the limitations of Dadaab. The boys often ignored commands from female teachers. Islamic clerics shut down the girls' debate team, saying it gave women the wrong idea.

More female students dropped out every week, disappearing into marriage, often by force. Ayan had tried to intervene with one of the girls' mothers, who responded with an old Somali proverb:

"A woman should be at home or in the grave."

In late June, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, with its long, hot days of fasting. Ayan was desperate to get away.

She walked to the police station and applied for a temporary pass to leave the camp. She explained that she wanted to visit the family that had hosted her while she attended the private high school in Nakuru, in western Kenya.

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Ayan was given a white piece of paper that allowed her two weeks outside the camp.

Ayan Abdi gets a hug from Farhiya Abdikadir, 18, a friend she is visiting in Nakuru, Kenya. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

"I feel free here," she said in the living room of the Abdirahman family's apartment, on the bottom floor of a concrete apartment building, with a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and a gate that opened onto a paved road and passing cars.

She wore a pale yellow headscarf, shorter than the ones that women wore outside in Dadaab. She blared songs from her phone: Nigerian pop, American hip-hop, traditional Somali music.

It was easier to forget about the scholarship here, visiting her high school friends. But occasionally they would bring it up.

"We just hope you get it," Anisa Abdirahman, 21, said one morning.

"Dadaab is not a place for a person to live," said Anisa's 23-year-old brother, Mohammed.

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Ayan was looking at her phone.

The scholarship finalists had created a group on the WhatsApp messaging service where they shared rumors, news - anything at all about the WUSC program. But it was silent.

"Still nothing," Ayan said the following morning, sitting on a couch in the living room.

She threw her phone down on the cushion and went to the kitchen to make tea.

She crushed cinnamon and leaves.

"All of us, we are qualified. All of us, we are refugees," she told Anisa as the water boiled. "Maybe it's just luck."

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In the other room, her phone started buzzing, The screen flashed.

From the kitchen, Ayan couldn't see it.

"Ayan, I think your phone is ringing," Mohammed said.

Ayan cleaned her hands, picked up the phone and saw the message.

"Congrats."

Her eyes widened.

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"WUSC? Is it a prank?"

Then she saw a list on the WhatsApp group: "The Successful Candidates for 2018 WUSC scholarships." Her name was No. 4.

She burst into tears.

"Thank God! Thank God!" she yelled.

Her friend Farhiya ran into the room. She grabbed Ayan's hands and they danced in circles, tears rolling off Ayan's cheeks.

"You can stop crying now," Farhiya said.

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Ayan looked again at the list for Maryan's name. It wasn't there. "Oh," she groaned.

But her phone was ringing nonstop now. There were calls from other winners. Calls from her teachers. Calls from numbers she didn't recognize.

Ayan Abdi calls a friend at the Dadaab refugee camp who congratulates her on being accepted into the Canadian scholarship program. (Nichole Sobecki / Washington Post)

"Alhamdulillah," she told one friend. Praise be to God.

"It is the beginning of a new life," she told another.

Then Maryan's number popped up on the screen.

"Congratulations," said the voice on the other end of the line. It sounded as if she had been crying.

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"Maryan, I'm very sorry," Ayan said.

They would have another year together. Ayan would be applying to universities in Canada, practicing her English and getting an introduction to Canadian culture. Maryan would have one more chance to apply for the scholarship - albeit with poor odds after being rejected already.

"Goodbye, sister," Maryan said.

Ayan lowered the white phone from her ear and stared at it. More congratulatory texts were popping up. But Maryan had hung up and was gone.
MILWAUKEE  Milwaukee police say a woman riding in a stolen vehicle is dead and two carjacking suspects are in custody after they fled from authorities and hit a light pole.

Police say the carjacking happened late Saturday evening, and authorities located the suspects early Sunday morning. They fled in the stolen car and crashed into the light pole.

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Authorities say a 25-year-old woman who was in the stolen car died at the scene. Police haven't identified the two 24-year-old suspects in custody.

Milwaukee police say the investigation is ongoing.
As a monster hurricane not seen on American shores in over a decade bore down on Texas on Friday night, a tsunami of news out of Washington was also on its way.

President Donald Trump, in the space of four hours, formally announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military, pardoned a controversial sheriff accused of racial profiling and parted ways with polarizing aide and conservative media darling Sebastian Gorka.

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The announcements were made in the evening hours as the nation focused on Hurricane Harvey, which threatened catastrophic damage to areas along the Gulf Coast, giving new meaning to the Friday night news dump strategy that has long been a staple for Washington politicians looking to bury controversial decisions.

And like many things with Trump, it was taken to an extreme.

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"It was very risky, because if the hurricane is as bad as the experts were predicting, then he's opening himself up to a lot of potential criticism," said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former aide to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. "But very little that Trump does surprises me any longer. He's proven to be very unpredictable and to not act within the norms of other politicians."

Like most aspects of Trump's presidency, the perceived news dump enraged his detractors and buoyed his most ardent supporters, while leaving open the question of how it will be received by voters who don't fit neatly into either camp.

Some Republicans said the timing of the announcements reflected the current state of the White House - new Chief of Staff John Kelly trying to instill more order even as the president remains the most disruptive force.

One Republican close to the White House said Kelly appeared to be trying to quietly clean up Trump's policy move on transgender troops, which had been left in limbo for weeks after the president announced his decision on Twitter to the surprise of the military and with no formal plan ready to be released. While the policy was formally released Friday, it did not provide certainty on the most pressing question - the fate of transgender people currently serving - with the presidential memorandum leaving it to the Pentagon, commissioning a new report on how to deal with their fate, keeping open the possibility they may be permitted to remain on active duty.

Gorka's ouster was expected for weeks after Kelly took over, especially following the departure of his ally, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, despite Trump's fondness for his willingness to go on television and criticize the media. Gorka's credentials as a counterterrorism expert have long been in question, and he was criticized inside and outside the White House for having no concrete responsibilities beyond serving as a surrogate for Trump on the airwaves. But the move was still expected to draw criticism from Trump's allies, who view it as the death knell for the populist wing in the White House, making the leak of the news late Friday advantageous for the administration.

Kelly was likely aware there was little he could do to stop Trump from pardoning Arpaio in spite - and perhaps because of - the likely backlash.

"Kelly is really strong right now," said the Republican close to the White House. "He gives his best advice but he wasn't going to stop the Sheriff Joe thing. Everything else was textbook what a really good chief of staff would do: dump a whole bunch of stuff when there's a hurricane coming."

Democrats and activists groups saw a cynical motive and play and accused Trump of using a natural disaster as cover for unpalatable moves that were aimed mostly at rousing his base and that sent clear messages to the LGBT community and Hispanic Americans that he condoned discrimination.

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"As millions of people in TX and LA are prepping for the hurricane, the President is using the cover of the storm to pardon a man who violated a court's order to stop discriminating against Latinos and ban courageous transgender men and women from serving our nation's Armed Forces," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., posted on Twitter. "So sad, so weak."

The Arpaio pardon, which Trump foreshadowed at a raucous rally in Phoenix days earlier, was aimed squarely at satisfying his base by rewarding a political loyalist on an issue, illegal immigration, that was central to Trump's political appeal.

"The President brought justice to a situation where the Obama administration had attempted to destroy a political opponent," said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. "Sheriff Joe Arpaio made many enemies in the judicial system, the media, and the left because he enforced laws that the federal government ignored. He did right by the law - even as the political consequences continued to mount."

But among legal experts, the pardon raised disturbing questions about Trump's willingness to flout long-standing tradition and Department of Justice procedures in a way that undermined the judicial system, said University of Richmond's School of Law professor Carl Tobias.

"Certainly the pardon seemed principally political and without much thought about the history of that or the procedures used," Tobias said. "It's a bigger piece of Trump's contempt for the judiciary. Every federal judge in the country knows you can't have those orders violated otherwise the federal court system won't work. So that's very disturbing."

The White House's balancing act was evident in the president's own social media feed. Hours after the Arpaio pardon was announced, Trump tweeted confirmation that the federal government had approved a disaster declaration for Texas. Fifteen minutes later, he congratulated Arpaio.

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"I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio," Trump said. "He kept Arizona safe!"

Some Republicans, including Arizona's two Republican Senators who have both recently been in Trump's crosshairs, questioned the decision to circumvent the judicial process. Arpaio was scheduled to be sentenced in October after being convicted of defying a court order to end the practice of detaining people merely on a suspicion of their immigration status.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., decried the message Trump sent by pardoning Arpaio, who had been accused of continuing to "illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status."

"The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions," McCain added.

As Trump's approval ratings have fallen to historically lows, however, most analysts expect him to continue making moves that will please his base even if the draw criticism from others.

"The president has great political instincts - he can read the temperature of the public better than almost anyone else," said Conant. "He is very well aware that his base is shrinking and in a way that explains almost everything he's done over the last month."
Gordon Frey served on the Lisle school district boards in the mid-20th century. He passed away in July.

Gordon George Frey was an elected member of Lisle's elementary and high school district boards in the 1950s and '60s, helping to oversee the construction of Lisle High School and working to bring the districts together.

Eventually, the two districts merged into one unit.

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Frey's family said one of his guiding principles was ensuring quality education for everyone in the Lisle area.

"He wanted to make sure the districts had the best teachers," said Frey's wife, June.

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Frey, 93, died on July 22 while in hospice care at the GreenFields of Geneva senior living community in Geneva, said his son Bruce. A Geneva resident since 1984 who previously had lived for more than three decades in Lisle, Frey had battled prostate cancer for more than two decades, his son said.

Born in Oak Park, Frey grew up in Bensenville and graduated from Bensenville Community High School. Frey served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, locating land mines in France, according to his family. German troops captured him in France and, as a prisoner of war, he was placed first in the Oflag 64 POW camp in Szubin, Poland, and then was forced to march hundreds of miles to the Stalag VII-A POW camp near Moosburg, Germany, from which he was liberated in April 1945, according to his family.

After the war, Frey finished college on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from North Central College in Naperville. He married his wife, June, in 1947.

At the start of his career, Frey worked for Wight & Company in Downers Grove before striking off on his own in 1954 and starting his own land surveying company, Gordon Frey & Associates.

Frey and his wife settled in Lisle on land next to his wife's family farm, on the south side of Warrenville Road, east of Illinois Highway 53. Starting in the early 1950s, Frey served on the board of Lisle High School District 109 where he planned and helped to oversee the construction of the village's first high school, which opened its doors in 1957.

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"He liked the men he served with," his wife said. "They were all leaders in the community."

Frey remained on the board until the early 1960s, when he was elected to the first of several terms on the board of Lisle Elementary School District 70.

In 1962, the two districts started using a joint superintendent and, in 1972, merged to be a unit district.

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Frey and his wife moved to Geneva in 1985, when he retired from his work as a land surveyor. During retirement, Frey enjoyed traveling, performing do-it-yourself home improvement projects and building model ships and airplanes, his son said.

In addition to his wife and son, Frey is survived by another son, Barry; a daughter, Beth Von Driska; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

A private memorial was held.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
U.S. News & World Report looms large within the higher education landscape. Students applying to college consult it, and the public at large accepts its rankings as authoritative.

So it is hardly surprising that annually some school gets busted for supplying fake data. But while outright lies place schools in the spotlight, there are subtler ways to mislead.

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Here is a quick lesson on "data creativity."

The most important measure of a school's selectivity is its admit rate. Seems simple enough  you divide the number of studentsadmitted by the number who applied. But what counts as an application? Some schools have a two-part application, with the second part containing all we usually think of as an application, and the first part is merely a postcard or email expressing interest.

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There is little doubt that some schools report the first part as an application. No recommendation letters, grades, essays or test scores but, yes, an application. The joke among insiders is that the number of "rejected" students is considerably greater than the number of students who actually apply to college, but the humor is lost on anyone relying on U.S. News, other media and even college websites that report admit rates taken as what the term suggests, accurate representations of the chance of being admitted.

And what about the numerator, the number of students admitted? Well, that's also easy to manipulate. Some schools have delayed admissions, with students admitted not for the fall but for the spring or for the following year, and they are then counted as rejected because they were not admitted for the fall.

And here's a new trick: Some selective schools go to supposed "wait lists" long before the national response date of May 1. If a student is unlikely to come  say, because her scores are way above your school's average  put her on the wait list, then call the next day and tell her that if she decides right then to accept an offer of admission, she is in. If she asks to think about it, go on to the next applicant. No wonder the yield off the wait list is so high. Unless a student agrees to come, she was never admitted!

This practice is troubling even in June, after deposits from admitted students are due. But to do it in early April is even worse. It is a gimmick designed to deceptively lower your admit rate, allowing you to claim to be more selective than you are.

It's even easier to manipulate a school's reported test scores. People use this information to gauge both admissions possibilities and the quality of potential peers.

But what if some schools ignore the scores of international students? Or rather, ignore verbal scores, which may be low, and include math scores when they are high? And what about excluding "special admits," such as athletes and development cases? Or students admitted off the wait list or through delayed admissions?

If the public wants to know how strong the total class is, you surely must include everyone. But schools looking to inflate their average test scores do not. Still worse, many schools that are "test-optional" proudly compute their average test scores, and U.S. News is just as proud to print them and include them in its ranking formula. But it is obvious that when test scores are optional, only students with high scores submit them.

U.S. News gives its greatest weight to "reputational rankings," but how are such rankings determined? The usual way is to ask institutions about each other. A school's president, chief academic officer and undergraduate admissions dean are supposed to evaluate the undergraduate program at other schools in their institution's category. It is tempting to coordinate your three votes, and perhaps collude with some of your buddies elsewhere, both to elevate your ranking and downgrade your rivals. One college president proudly proclaimed he does exactly that, using rankings to reward his friends and punish his enemies.

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Next up is the school's graduation rate. The numerator, the number of graduating students, isn't in much dispute. However, the denominator, the size of the "initial" student cohort, is easily manipulated. Is it the number who show up on move-in day, or who stay at least one week, or make it through the first semester? Obviously, the later the date, the smaller the cohort and the higher the graduation rate. How about limiting the denominator to those students who make it past their finals in their senior year? Wow, a graduation rate of 100 percent! The public believes these numbers have real meaning, but that is not always the case.

Finally, what about alumni giving? Schools trumpet the fact that a sizable proportion of undergraduate alumni give annually because a high rate suggests a happy experience. But what does "give" mean, and who gets counted as an alum? What if you get a check for $20,000 from a regional alumni association? If 20,000 alums live in that region, just assume that you have 20,000 donating $1 each. Or try this, which is what one school allegedly did: send $10 bills to alumni, with a letter asking "donors" to return at least that amount, and then count everyone who replied as having made a gift. One highly prestigious school published a dramatic increase in its giving rate over the previous year. Did it figure out an especially effective way to engage the alumni body? No. School officials went through the school's alumni giving records, identified thousands of graduates who hadn't given a gift in more than a decade, and purged them from the denominator. Now they might have wanted those folks dead, but declaring them as such is a separate matter.

It's like graveyard voting in Chicago, only in reverse.

In short, what the public treats as certified facts is nothing of the sort. There is no "data sheriff." The most shocking thing when schools get busted is that they decided to outright lie, rather than to be "clever" with how they manipulate their responses.

But wait: If these data are reported by U.S. News, shouldn't it be checkingfor accuracy? After all, the tricks are widely known. We asked the person who runs the U.S. News rankings this very question. He replied that since the rankings sell magazines, why change?

A final thought: One might imagine that honesty would be a simple matter for universities. Never lie, never mislead. But if your peers all exaggerate, and you do not, then you in fact mislead, since the value of these data is mainly comparative.

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Of course, such reasoning can itself be a mere conscience saver, easily abused. Shouldn't colleges police themselves? Aren't they, after all, supposed to reflect the best of our values? Don't we have a right to expect them to uphold a higher standard of behavior than less exalted businesses such as the used-car industry?

All good questions.

Gary Saul Morson is a professor of arts and humanities at Northwestern University. Morton Schapiro is a professor of economics and the president of Northwestern University. This piece is based on their newly published book, "Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities."
President John F. Kennedy, right, confers with his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, at the White House in this Oct. 1, 1962, file photo during the Cuban missile crisis. (AP)

For the first time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, America is facing a nuclear confrontation, this time with North Korea.

As one of the few remaining members of the Kennedy administration who participated in that crisis, I was an eyewitness to the crucial role that telecommunications played in averting nuclear disaster. As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission at that time, we created a "hotline" with the Soviet Union in the belief that improved communications would help avoid conflicts between nations in the nuclear era.

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Today, telecommunications have improved in ways we could not have imagined. They are faster, stronger, clearer, more accessible and higher resolution. News on television, radio and the internet is far more comprehensive, multisourced and instantaneous.

Some of those new technologies have undermined the very tools President John F. Kennedy needed to avert war.

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I'll never forget the morning I received the emergency call to rush to the White House. The public knew nothing about the missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy was able to keep the Soviet missile threat secret until he and his advisers advisers were able to develop a thoughtful response. There were no leaks.

Today the public sometimes learns about developments before the White House chief of staff does.

News has become more opinionated and inconsistent. Reliable facts become harder to agree upon as some news sources stubbornly insist on their own "alternative facts."

World leaders no longer need to communicate careful diplomatic messages over a secure "hotline," they can insult each other in short, impetuous tweets, playing to their base in ways that are later difficult to retract.

President Kennedy once gave me a top-secret assignment. The Russians had jammed the Voice of America. My job was to enlist eight American commercial radio stations whose signals reached Cuba to carry key messages from Voice of America to the Cuban people. Before confiding in the stations, I asked each station owner to swear that they would not share the information with their news division until the embargo was lifted. Every one of them agreed and kept their word, ultimately playing a useful role in averting nuclear war.

Would broadcasters today be willing to do the same?

Communications were slower in 1962. During the tense negotiations, messages between the U.S. and the Soviets had to be telegraphed in encrypted form or radioed, but at least their content reflected the carefully crafted judgment of our nation's leaders and experts. There was no video of facial expressions to accompany the words. The president was able to negotiate without 24/7 cable news channels pressing for details by the minute, triggering speculation, panic or outrage. No outsiders were able to disrupt the delicate negotiations by hacking databases. There was no WikiLeaks in 1962.

The Cuban missile crisis was as close as the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust. If President Kennedy had to contend with modern telecommunications, his challenges may have been even more daunting.

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For example, today we can safely study recordings of President Kennedy's phone conversations with world leaders, but imagine how negotiations would have changed if transcripts of his conversations had been leaked and aired on the evening news, as recently happened with President Donald Trump's conversations with the leaders of Australia and Mexico.

Kennedy was wisely able to pretend he hadn't received one of Khrushchev's ultimatum letters because in 1962 the letter was not sent as a tweet or announced on CNN. Kennedy was able to overrule his generals in favor of a subtler approach without partisan factions going online and agitating for a "hard-line" approach. Modern communications mean that in the confrontation with North Korea, leaders will sometimes be conducting nuclear diplomacy in a fish bowl.

We are once again playing a high-stakes game but this time with a very different set of rules. Take it from one who was there. Fifty-five years later, our technologies have changed but the lesson remains the same. If we are to avoid conflict, it will require mature human judgment and the best of our resources working together to keep the peace.

Chicago attorney Newton N. Minow was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1961 to 1963.
Our nation's addiction to opioids has been building for 10 years and Illinois' failed medical cannabis policies compound this problem, putting our patients at a dangerous and potentially deadly disadvantage. The Tribune reported on President Donald Trump's declaration labeling the opioid epidemic a national emergency. As a seasoned orthopedic surgeon, I can attest to the devastating effects opioid dependency has on my patients, their families and friends, and our society as a whole. It is a critical public safety issue that must be addressed immediately.

A 2014 study published in JAMA analyzed the association between states with medical cannabis laws and opioid overdose mortality rates. The study concluded that states with medical cannabis laws had a nearly 25 percent lower annual opioid overdose mortality rate in comparison to states without such laws.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses kill 91 Americans every day. While this is tragic, the more obscure storyline is of those who are heavily addicted to these drugs trapped in a deep fog on a downward spiral  often a race to the bottom. These are mothers, fathers, neighbors, even our youth. Physicians must have access to every available resource to help our patients reach their maximum potential and live the best quality of life possible.

The problem is that Illinois is discriminating against patients who suffer from severe pain  severe pain caused by our inability to treat the underlying conditions or when our surgical and medical treatments are unsuccessful. If you live in California, Minnesota, New York or any other of the 26 states that have legalized cannabis for pain  you are entitled to better treatment options than people in Illinois. This is a flawed policy that calls for immediate corrective action. From a clinical perspective, I have witnessed how medical cannabis has helped these patients. While the nation debates how to counter the opioid crisis, access to medical cannabis must be at the center of these discussions.

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This natural, non-lethal remedy should be considered the same as other drugs we prescribe. Physicians should be directing how to best treat our patients. Not politicians. I understand that our state lawmakers and governor are at a crossroads on how to fix our state's budget problems and rebuild Illinois' future. I would argue addressing our state's opioid addiction should be a top priority. In this divisive political environment, providing patients a lifeline to relieving their pain and improving their quality of life should be a nonpartisan issue we can all support. Even in Illinois.

 Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph, professor, Rush University Medical Center
Egypt's foreign ministry described the US decision to withhold $195 million in aid and cut $95 million as a "misjudgement" in its relations with a strategic partner

Egypts foreign ministry said on Sunday that Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was given just "a few hours" notice of planned cuts in US aid before the move was made public by the US.

According to a ministry statement, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Shoukry that US had decided to cut millions in aid and withhold more  but he failed to give adequate notice.

On 23 August, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told journalists that the US would be holding back $195 million pending hoped-for improvements in Egypt's performance on "democracy".

Nauert also announced that $95 million in funding for Egypt would be redirected to other US partners in the region.

Egypt normally receives $1.3 billion annually in military assistance from the United States and nearly $250 million in economic aid.

The Egyptian foreign ministry statement on Sunday denied reports that Egypt had sufficient prior notice of the planned reduction in aid, insisting that it was informed just hours before the US State Department went public.

When the cuts were announced on 23 August, Nauert denied that the Egyptian government had been "caught off-guard" by the move.

She told journalists at a Washington press briefing: "They werent caught off guard, and thats because the Secretary had a conversation with the foreign minister of Egypt and provided a heads-up as to what would be taking place."

However, Nauert did not clarify how much notice the US had given to the Egyptian government.

Egypt later described the US move as a misjudgement about the nature of strategic relations that have bound the two countries for two decades.

The State Department's actions follow a US Senate hearing in April on the question of human rights and democracy in Egypt, with some insisting that aid cuts should be used as leverage to achieve change within Egypt.



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Adam Frisch keeps calm waiting for all ballots to be counted in CD-3
Investigators allege El-Kholy accepted EGP 1 million in bribes from businessmen in return from protecting their illegal properties from demolition

Alexandrias Deputy Governor Saod El-Kholy was arrested on Sunday on several corruption charges, including bribery, profiting and squandering public funds, Egypt's Administrative Control Authority (ACA) said in a statement.

The ACA said that the deputy governor, who was arrested at the governorate headquarters, is accused of receiving over EGP 1 million in bribes from five businessmen, who have also been arrested.

A security source told Al-Arabic Ahram website that El-Kholy will appear today before a public-finance prosecutor.

El-Kholy is accused of accepting bribes in return for protecting businessmen from having their illegally-constructed properties demolished and paying related fines.

Investigators claim that she abused her authority as deputy governer, obstructing the demolition of unlicensed buildings and those built illegally on state land, while exempting the violators from paying the required fines.

According to the ACA statement, her actions are alleged to have cost EGP 10 million in public funds.

El-Kholy is also accused of hiding her "illegal wealth under other names to avoid being sued," the statement reads.

In 2015, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail appointed El-Kholy as the acting governor of Alexandria following the resignation of the former governor Hany El-Mesery.

El-Kholy was appointed deputy governor after the appointment of Mohamed Sultan as governor to succeed El-Mesery.

The ACA is responsible for enforcing laws and regulations within state bodies, including identifying possible cases of corruption and referring them for prosection.

In the past year, the ACA has referred several state officials to prosecution on bribery charges. Last December, Egypt's President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi stressed the importance of fighting corruption in the country, hailing the ACAs role.

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Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry and his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel oversaw the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Berlin on confronting irregular migration to Europe, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Shoukry said at a joint press conference that Egypt appreciates Germany's support on economic and security issues. He stressed that cooperation between Cairo and Berlin to deal with the problem of irregular migration is beneficial to both countries.

"The problem of illegal immigration is an international one, and we must deal with the socio-economic roots of the crisis; the problem must be dealt with while respecting the rights of refugees and migrants in accordance with international law," Shoukry said.

Gabriel said at the press conference that Germany understands that the River Nile is vital to Egypt's agriculture and economy. The German foreign minister said Berlin is ready to play a constructive role in resolving any disagreements between Nile Basin countries, saying any project on the Upper Nile must be subject to consensus among all parties affected.

The two officials also discussed Egyptian-German bilateral relations and the latest developments in the Middle East, including the situation in Libya and Syria.

Shoukry and Gabriel also discussed Egyptian efforts to revive the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

The two ministers discussed the rift between Qatar and Egypt and number of other Arab Gulf countries, as well as the nomination of Egyptian ambassador Moshira Khateb for UNESCO secretary-general, the statement said.

Berlin is the first stop in a European tour by Shoukry where he will also visit Belarus and Romania with the aim of reinforcing relations with the three countries and discuss issues of mutual concern.

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China produced less rice in the first harvest period of the year compared to 2016 due to decreases in planting area and yield, official data showed.

The country produced 31.74 million tonnes of "early rice," planted in spring and harvested in early summer. This was a decrease of more than 1 million tonnes, or 3.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

China's early rice planting area for the year stood at 5.46 million hectares, 2.8 percent less than last year, and yield per hectare edged down 0.4 percent to 5.81 tonnes.

NBS statistician Hou Rui said the falling planting area was due to a lack of rural labor, improved agricultural structure and crop rotation. He said the decline of the yield per hectare was mainly due to meteorological disasters.

Early rice is mainly planted in eight central and southern provincial regions: Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Rice is a staple food in China, and its total grain output consists of three parts -- early rice, summer grain and autumn production. Autumn grain crops, which include corn and middle- and late-season rice, account for the bulk of the grain production.
Beijing's food safety watchdog has begun a two-week sanitation inspection of the city's restaurants.

This came after two Beijing branches of a popular hotpot chain were exposed to have operated in unhygienic conditions. Videos taken by hidden cameras showed rats infested the kitchen, a dishwasher was caked with oily food residue, and a worker tried to fix sewage clog with a soup ladle.

The Sichuan Province-based Haidilao hot pot has admitted its management faults in a frank public statement issued Friday, apologizing for the scandal.

In recent years, Haidilao took major Chinese cities by storm by its signature spicy Sichuanese hot pot and excellent service. According to its website, Haidilao is operating in about 60 Chinese cities and has expanded to Los Angeles, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo,

Beijing Food and Drug Administration said the inspection will target both restaurant chains and canteen suppliers. Business licenses, dishwashers, sanitation equipment, measures to keep off pests and diseases are the focus of the inspection.

The watchdog said it has also ordered Haidilao to open its kitchens to the public in a month and report the overhaul measures. The chain's sanitation ratings will be downgraded.

Haidilao, meanwhile, promised to ensure all its restaurants both in China and abroad maintain good sanitation standards.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for "firm adherence to the right direction in the reform of mass organizations."

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction to a symposium on mass organization reform.

The work on mass organizations is an important component of the undertakings of the CPC, and mass organization reform is an important part of overall reform, Xi said.

Xi asked the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee to enhance guidance on the reform work, with a reform office under CPC Central Committee overseeing the implementation of the reform plan.

Party committees at all levels should take responsibilities to push forward the reform of mass organizations, by steering the direction of the reform, studying the current situation and tackling difficulties to improve the work of mass organizations and their services, Xi said.
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Venezuelans on Saturday took to the streets to protest economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the South American country.

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the ruling socialist party rallied in the capital city of Caracas, marching from the central Plaza Venezuela to Paseo Los Proceres, a street honoring heroes of national independence in Latin American countries.

Protesters rejected the latest "U.S. government aggression," the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Dario Vivas, said in a televised statement.

The executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump "prohibits dealings in new debt and equity issued by the government of Venezuela and its state oil company" and also prohibits dividend payments to the South American country's government.

In announcing the new sanctions on Friday, the White House said these measures are "carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule."

Also on Saturday, Venezuela began a nationwide military drill designed to "keep the country battle ready in case of a foreign invasion."

The drill was planned after Trump's remarks that he would not rule out a "military option" in Venezuela to oust Maduro from power.
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The Syrian army and allied fighters have taken control of 2,000 square km of desert areas following recent battles with the Islamic State (IS), a military source told Xinhua Saturday.

The Syrian forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters wrested control over the areas between the city of Al Sukhnah and Al Shear in the remote eastern countryside of Homs Province in central Syria on Saturday, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The military forces are combing the area for explosives left by IS militants.

It is the latest progress in a string of operations the Syrian army and allied fighters have launched in the Syrian desert.

On Thursday, the Syrian army laid full siege on the IS in the desert.

The ongoing military operations in the Syrian desert aim to reach the key Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria near Iraq, as part of the military will to break the IS siege to the city and reach the besieged civilians and soldiers inside.
A Yemeni colonel loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed in clashes with rebels, Saleh's party said Sunday, in an unprecedented escalation of violence between the two allies.

Colonel Khaled al-Rida was killed in clashes in the rebel-held capital Sanaa late Saturday, a statement released by Saleh's General People's Congress party said.

While the statement did not name the Huthi rebels, it accused a "group that knows no morality or oaths" of being behind the killing -- a thinly-veiled reference to the Huthis, who over the past week have lashed out at Saleh as a "back-stabber" and "traitor" as tensions rise within the rebel alliance.

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The BRICS bloc of emerging economies serves as a model of pragmatic and flexible cooperation and coordination for the international community, according to Brazil's foreign ministry official.

Georges Lamaziere, undersecretary general for Asia and the Pacific region at Brazil's Foreign Ministry, said this days before the 9th summit to be held on Sept. 3-5 in Xiamen, China, of the bloc grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"The summit will certainly renew the commitment of the five emerging countries to promote, through consistent political will, a more just, inclusive and democratic world order," said Lamaziere in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The BRICS capacity to create synergy despite members' geographic, cultural, historical and socioeconomic differences "in itself sets an example for the global community," Lamaziere added.

Regular pre-summit preparatory meetings throughout the year, including more than 10 at the ministerial level, have consolidated the bloc's political will, he noted.

The bloc enters its second decade. The 9th annual summit is expected to produce a declaration that lays out both the progress BRICS has made so far and its vision of future cooperation.

Among the focuses of discussions at the summit are cooperation in politics and security, coordination of macroeconomic policies and development strategies, enhancement of cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and promotion of South-South cooperation.

Lamaziere thinks "BRICS seeks to bolster the world order based on rules, with respect for differences and a focus on expanding political consensus."

Through "mutual respect, diplomacy and negotiation," the bloc "seeks collective solutions to common challenges," he added.

At a time when unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, Brazil values the collaborative and multilateral nature of BRICS more than ever, said the Brazilian foreign ministry official.

"Brazil has taken on increasing responsibilities on the international stage and considers BRICS an important instrument for building a more just and balanced world order that answers to the interests of developing countries," he said further.

Lamaziere expressed confidence about the future of the bloc that now contributes more than half to the global growth.

"There is no doubt that BRICS will continue to play a relevant role in strengthening global economic stability and world order, not just because of the specific weight of its individual members, but above all because of the collective power of the group's actions," said Lamaziere.
In an attempt to defend Hong Kong's judiciary from vicious, unjust attacks, particularly from the biased Western media, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, reemphasized the vibrancy of the SAR's judicial independence on Saturday.

Without any basis or evidence, some Western media outlets and politicians, including a couple of US Congress members, joined a chorus last week to accuse Beijing of meddling in a Hong Kong court case, in which three young activists were imprisoned.

There is nothing new or unusual about such accusations, as some Western media outlets and politicians are known to harbor hostility toward China. And they hardly let slip an opportunity to soil Beijing's reputation.

But they were barking up the wrong tree when they attacked Hong Kong's judiciary and questioned its independence after the city's Court of Appeals sentenced Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang to imprisonment of between six and eight months for offenses related to unlawful assembly.

The imprisonment of the three reflects "the voice of Beijing, not of justice", The Guardian said in an editorial. Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, in a letter to Financial Times, said the three activists' imprisonment is "a further example of Beijing tightening its grip on Hong Kong's aspiration to remain a free society". And a Financial Times' commentator claimed Beijing is "clearly retreating from the commitments ... to guarantee free speech, press and assembly" for Hong Kong residents.

But the accusatory voices were silenced by the swift response from the SAR's judiciary, the Bar Association and Law Society of Hong Kong, which issued a rare joint statement condemning the "unfounded criticism" by "some local and international media". The two legal professional bodies, which together represent all the city's lawyers and have fought for judicial independence, said the judges handled the case strictly based on established legal principles and procedures, and all the defendants were given proper legal representation.

Indeed, the slanderers are guilty of pretending to be unaware of the independence and quality of Hong Kong's judiciary. The city's judicial independence is ranked eighth globally by the World Economic Forum, well ahead of the United States (29th). And the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, which measures people's experience and perception about the rule of law across the world, placed Hong Kong at 16th among 113 jurisdictions on its 2016 list  ahead of "big democracies" such as the US (18), France (21) and Italy (35).

Of course, facts will eventually scotch the lies. But that does not spare us the obligation to set the record straight.
A technician inspects a solar power farm in the remote mountains of Dingyuan county, Anhui province, which has helped alleviate poverty in the region. [Song Weixiong/for China Daily]

China is expected to invest $3 trillion in power generation over the next 25 years, according to a recent report released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance or BNEF.

Some 75 percent of the expected investment will flow into the renewable energy sector.

The report said that the investment in the wind power sector will reach $1 trillion. And the solar and nuclear power sectors will attract $700 billion each.

BNEF estimated that between 2030 and 2040, building wind and solar plants will be cheaper than building coal plants or even operating existing coal plants.

As a result, China will retire coal plants whose collective power generation capacity would be 360 gigawatts, 145 GW of which will be forced out of system, because operating wind and solar plants will be less expensive.

"There had been three consecutive years that the global carbon emission remained stable. The biggest reason behind that is what China had done in the past years. China has become the world's largest country producing and consuming renewable energy, and its carbon emission dropped in both 2015 and 2016," said Spencer Dale, BP Group chief economist.

The report from BNEF also shows that by 2026, more than half of China's installed capacity will come from zero carbon emissions energy, including nuclear, biomass, large hydro, wind and solar energy, and the figure will rise to 63 percent by 2040, doubling China's current level.

In 2015, the National Energy Administration issued a "Front Runner" project to encourage the research and development of photovoltaic products which have the highest energy efficiency, by building demonstration bases as well as launching innovative projects in the field.

JA Solar Holdings, one of the world's largest producers of solar energy products, offered the largest volume of modules to the "Front Runner" project. In the first phase of the project, it supplied 422 megawatts of modules, accounting for about 50 percent of the total volume in the phase.

"The Chinese government is supportive of developing clean energy, and the market potential in the field is huge. Therefore, we grasp the opportunity to continue our research and development in high-performance solar power products," said Xie Jian, president of JA Solar.

"In the first quarter of this year, we started mass production of Bifacial PERC (passivated emitter rear cell) modules with double-glass structure. The module can produce 16 percent more power than the conventional PERC modules. It provides new solutions to achieve PV grid parity where PV power costs are similar to those for fossil fuels."

Xie said that in the first half of this year, JA Solar signed a strategic agreement with Peking University to establish the first "Summer School" in the photovoltaic field. Through their collaboration, JA Solar aims at cultivating a batch of photovoltaic talents with both creative ideas and innovative abilities.

"China's installed photovoltaic power capacity ranks first among the world. Photovoltaic power, especially distributed photovoltaic power, enjoys favorable government policies," said Han Xiaoping, chief information officer at Beijing-based industry consultancy China Energy Net Consulting Co.

Han explained that families from the rural regions in China install distributed photovoltaic power systems on their roofs and make money from the power generated, and each of the farmers can earn 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan ($450 to $750) every year. So, photovoltaic power not only saves the planet but alleviates poverty.

"We have 11 production facilities around the globe. The new production facility launched this June in Baotou, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, will further increase the capacity of silicon wafers. It is estimated that by the end of this year, our PERC technology will raise the solar cell efficiency from 20.5 percent to 21.2 percent," Xie said.

Bloomberg contributed to this story.
Lee Lik Hsin, CEO of Scoot Airways, soon after announcing the merger of Scoot and Tigerair on July 25, 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When he was appointed CEO of both Scoot Airways and Tigerair, two budget airlines owned by Singapore Airlines, in July, Lee Lik Hsin immediately realized he would have no leisure time. His task was cut out: lead the companies to higher growth targets so as to compete with other established rivals.

After Tigerair was merged with Scoot, the latter announced five new destinations from Singapore, including Harbin in China, Honolulu in Hawaii and Kuantan in Malaysia. Scoot's service network now covers 65 destinations across 17 countries and regions.

"The Harbin service will start this December to enhance our service ability between Southeast Asia and China's northeast region," said Lee.

Harbin will be Scoot's 19th destination in China from Singapore.

Having managed both Scoot and Tigerair, Lee said the new, bigger Scoot plans to add more destinations in the long run. The average load factor for all its flights to China from Singapore are above 80 percent, which is fairly healthy.

"We are seeing healthy customer demand on the flights that used to be branded under Tigerair, after the changeover to the Scoot brand," said the Singaporean executive and father of two. "Scoot will continue to increase overall brand awareness in all the Chinese cities we operate to, on our own and together with our distribution partners."

In 2016, Scoot launched flights to Chinese cities like Dalian, Zhengzhou and Wuxi and diversified sales channels via travel agencies, both traditional and online, to reach more customers. Scoot will now tie up with various tourism boards in China to stimulate inflows of tourists into China.

Supported by more than 2,000 employees, Scoot currently has 14 wide-bodied Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 23 Airbus A320 aircraft.

Lee said the growing number of Chinese middle-class consumers will bring greater opportunities for Scoot. With greater disposable income, demand for leisure travel will increase.

The airline currently flies to many new top- and second-tier cities in China such as Hangzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, Xi'an, Qingdao, Shenyang and Dalian. It is confident of serving more budget customers who are willing to travel from these cities by offering them attractive prices where they can choose to pay only for the services they require.

An economics graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Lee said Scoot plans to play a bigger role in advancing transportation services this year for multilateral cooperation in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The service, infrastructure and trade network proposed by China in 2013 envisions a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It has been warmly welcomed by over 100 countries, regions and international organizations as it meets their desire for people-to-people exchanges, urbanization, regional connectivity and other new market growth points.

Scoot is the only airline plying the routes of Singapore-Zhengzhou and Singapore-Xi'an, two major cities involved in the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Lee said these routes are still new and there is much potential to increase the frequency and capacity, in tandem with the economic development in these regions. Apart from its distribution partners, the airline has teamed up with the local airports to jointly stimulate more travel to and from these cities.

On handling hardship, Lee said it is important to remain calm in the face of adversity. "It allows you to rationally assess your options and plan your next steps to overcome the difficulties. It also helps one to put things in perspective, and with that, learn and grow from the setbacks."

Li Xiaojin, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China in Tianjin, said direct flights between first-tier Chinese cities and second-tier foreign cities, as well as second-tier Chinese cities and top-tier foreign cities, are expected to grow rapidly in the future, given the significant demand for international travel in China.
Editor's note:

With the school season coming, students around China face new time in their lives  some are busy with military training and others are donned in Chinese traditional costumes engaging in the rituals of ancestors. Schools staff are also preparing to welcome their newcomers. Let's have a look at them.

Students practice military training at the Jizhou Middle School in Hengshui, Hebei province, on Aug 22. Training usually goes up until school time officially begins. [Photo/Xinhua]
Macao will face another typhoon and many airlines from and to Macao have been canceled, the special administrative region's multiple government departments said on Sunday.

The Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau has hoisted Signal No. 8 at 6:00 local time (GMT 2200). It said Typhoon "Pakhar" (1714) is located about 40 km southwest of Macao at 9:00 local time and moves toward the Pearl River Delta.

Macao International Airport said among the airlines taking off from Macao, 23 have been canceled and five delayed. For those heading for Macao, 21 have been canceled and seven delayed.

Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region Chui Sai On held a emergency meeting at the Macao Civil Emergency Response Center with major government departments representatives to discuss preventive measures against potential damages.

Typhoon Hato ravaged Macao days ago, leaving nine people dead and over 200 others injured. Enditem
People walk against strong wind and rain in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, Aug 27, 2017. Pakhar, the 14th typhoon this year, landed around 9 am (0100 GMT) Sunday in the city of Taishan in Guangdong, bringing gales of up to 33 meters per second. [Photo/Xinhua]

GUANGZHOU -- Pakhar, the 14th typhoon of the year, landed around 9 am Sunday in the city of Taishan, southern China's Guangdong province, bringing gales of up to 33 meters per second.

Pakhar hit the province soon after Typhoon Hato, which landed Wednesday in Zhuhai, some 80 km away from Taishan.

The meteorological center of Zhuhai said the city would see rainstorms and fierce winds Sunday. A temporary closing of local companies, government agencies, schools and public places started Saturday.

China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) said that Pakhar would move northwestward, entering Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Sunday evening while losing strength.




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Premier Li Keqiang called on domestic manufacturers to enhance technological innovations and improve quality of products as a way to upgrade the sector and increase global competitiveness.

The premier spoke to the management of a number of leading manufacturers on Friday at a meeting promoting the Made in China 2025 strategy.

Manufacturing is the key to the nation's economic development, and the economic restructuring requires making the sector stronger, Li said. But the sector is still on the low to medium tier compared with other leading countries, thus it is vital to improve the quality and upgrade to increase competitiveness, he said.

The upgrade depends on innovations, and manufacturers should make technological breakthroughs by focusing on quality and branding and using top manufacturing countries as benchmarks, Li said.

Li called for management innovation to transform models for research and development and production, and increase the efficiency for resource allocation. He said manufacturers should also develop customized production to meet diverse demands.

He urged manufacturers to take advantage of China's rich human resources by promoting entrepreneurship and the spirit of craftsmanship, both requiring long-term input to cultivate high-quality managers and technicians.

Meanwhile, Li also pledged administrative reforms to further reduce unreasonable pre-entry approvals and permits, which will decrease institutional costs for manufacturers. However, market supervision will be strengthened to fortify intellectual property rights protection and crack down on counterfeit products, he said. Financial institutions are encouraged to provide aid to small and medium-sized manufacturers, he said.

With the world's largest manufacturing capacity, China's export-oriented manufacturing has been trying to shift the focus to domestic consumption and high added values in recent years. The central government has promoted more high-end manufacturing, including the strategy of Made in China 2025.

The State Council decided to promote the strategy by granting more favorable policies for the manufacturing sector at two executive meetings in May and July.

Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Co in Huizhou, Guangdong province, who delivered a speech Friday, said, "The meeting, which focused on improving the real economy and manufacturing, provided encouragement and support for manufacturers like my company."

The premier emphasized the key role of manufacturing to compete, he said. "Our manufacturing provides high-end products, besides those with fewer added values, and should strive for more well-known branding by using Germany and Japan as benchmarks. The meeting gave us confidence that we will make more highly value-added goods and world-leading manufacturing."
China has appointed a war hero as chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, according to the Defense Ministry.

General Li Zuocheng, 63, a native of Hunan province, met top-ranking military officers of Pakistan and Afghanistan over the weekend in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, in his new capacity as chief of the PLA Joint Staff Department, a news release from the ministry said.

This means Li, who was commander of the PLA Ground Force, is slated to become a member of the Central Military Commission, the top military ruling body in China, with President Xi Jinping as its chairman, because all of Li's predecessors were included in the commission after they became the PLA's chief of staff.

It remains unknown when Li received his new appointment, as the PLA does not publish detailed information about its personnel reshuffles.

However, the move had to be within this past week because General Fang Fenghui, Li's predecessor, was reportedwhile still as chief of the PLA Joint Staff Departmentto have had talks with a top Thai military commander on Aug 21 in Beijing.

Fang was named chief of staff of the PLA in October 2012. After transferring the post to Li, he remains a member of the Central Military Commission.

Born in October 1953, Li joined the PLA Ground Force in 1970. He became nationally known in 1979 after he led his company to victory through a fierce battle that lasted 26 consecutive days during Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts that year. Li later was awarded the title "Combat Hero" for his command of the company and the fact he remained at the front line of the battle despite multiple injuries.

After the war, he continued to move up through the ranks. In 1997, Li was promoted to major general. In 2009, he was advanced to lieutenant general in the office of the deputy chief of the former Chengdu Military Command. In 2013, he was named chief of the command. Two years later, he was given the PLA's top rankgeneraland was appointed as the first commander of the PLA Ground Force Headquarters, which was established on the last day of 2015.

The last time Li appeared in news reports as the Ground Force commander was on July 31, when he signed a letter to members of the service to mark PLA Day on Aug 1.
An American journalist has been killed while covering clashes between government and rebel forces in restive South Sudan, local officials and the US mission in Juba said on Sunday.

Christopher Allen, a freelance reporter and photographer, was embedded with insurgent troops when fighting broke out in Kaya, near South Sudan's southern border with Uganda.

A spokesman for the US embassy told AFP that "an American citizen" had died in the clashes, which also killed 18 others.

"Yesterday we confirmed the name and we confirmed the fact that the person was killed. We are not providing any additional information about the situation," the spokesman added.

A spokesman for South Sudan's armed forces said Allen had not been accredited to cover the conflict by authorities in Juba and it was likely he entered the country through Uganda.

A statement from the rebel SPLA-IO forces condemned the fighting that killed Allen as a "monstrous and unnatural act (that) violates international humanitarian law which entitles journalists to all rights and protection during armed conflicts."

Allen had worked for several outlets including Al Jazeera and Vice News and previously covered the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

South Sudan's civil war erupted in December 2013 just two years after it obtained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

Thousands of people have been killed by the violence, which plunged part of the country into famine earlier this year. Some four million have been displaced, according to UN figures.

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The opera The Dream of the Red Chamber will tour Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan in September. It premiered in the United States last year. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Novel The Dream of the Red Chamber, written by Cao Xueqin during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is considered one of China's greatest classical novels, and its latest rendition is set to thrill opera lovers in the country.

The San Francisco Opera rolled out the world premiere of its operatic production based on the novel in September.

A year later, the production is scheduled to tour three Chinese citiesBeijing, Hunan province's capital Changsha and Hubei province's capital Wuhanto present six performances between Sept 8 and 23.

The Dream of the Red Chamber chronicles the downfall of the wealthy and influential Jia family during the imperial era, against the backdrop of the country's social and political upheavals.

Apart from its intricate portrayals of hundreds of characters and settings, it also offers a look at China in the philosophical context of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.
Wu Muye is touring the country, playing music of Chopin and Debussy, as well as his adaptation of Chinese folk songs. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When he was 15 years old, Wu Muye studied playing the piano at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the music school of the Paris Conservatory, from where he graduated in 2009.

The pianist says the city brought him closer to the music of some of his favorite composers, Frederick Chopin, Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt, all of whom lived in the French capital at some point in their lives.

Chopin arrived in Paris in 1831 and never returned to his homeland, Poland. In Paris, he forged a friendship with the Hungarian composer Liszt. The French composer Debussy frequently played Chopin's music during his studies at the Paris Conservatory, he says.

"And all of them developed a close connection with Paris, where I stayed for about 10 years," says Wu, 32.

Now, he is conducting a nationwide tour interpreting their masterpieces, including Chopin's 24 preludes, Debussy's Clair de Lune and Liszt's Dreams of Love.

Wu enjoyed strolling around Paris. He says the old buildings, narrow lanes, with their walls and street lights, made him feel connected to the composers, whose music he wants to play authentically.

"I have been to places where they lived. When I play their works, it feels like I am having a conversation with them."

The pianist recalled his years in Paris and sought to convey his feelings through his performance, when he played Debussy's Clair de Lune at the gala of the G20 Summit, which was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, last year.

Wu studied with French pianist Jacques Rouvier at the Paris music school.

"One of the most rewarding parts of learning with him was that he taught me lots of things, which I couldn't have learned just from the score," says Wu. "While keeping the tradition of Liszt's musical style, he also let me incorporate my own understanding of the music."

During his ongoing tour, the pianist is also playing pieces that he adapted from popular Chinese folk songs, such as My Motherland, and his own composition, Yuan, which was inspired by The Interrupted Dream, a well-known Kunqu Opera piece based on the play The Peony Pavilion by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) writer Tang Xianzu.

Born in Beijing in a family of musicians, Wu started learning the piano at age 4, giving his first public performance in a piano competition in Hong Kong at 5 and winning the first prize.

Like many promising child pianists, he was enrolled to study at the primary and middle schools affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he received solid training in technique.

Graduating from the Paris Conservatoire with the highest diploma, Perfectionnement Piano, he was feted for his excellent technique and his expressive playing.

He undertook his first tour in his home country in 2009, and performed with China National Symphony Orchestra in Paris in 2010.

In 2014, to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Wu played Chopin's Polonaise in A-Flat Major, Op 53 at the opening gala held at the Grand Palais in Paris.

The same year, the pianist played in Beijing along with China National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of French conductor Michel Plasson.

His latest tour commenced in Beijing on Friday and will run through November in cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.
Barbara Koster stands on her front door as she surveys her property which was left devastated by Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas, August 26, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

HOUSTON -- A body was found not far from the coastal area in South East Texas on Sunday, the sixth death reported after Hurricane Harvey made a landfall in Texas Friday evening.

Local police said they are not sure if the death is directed related to Harvey. "At this time it is unknown if the subject passed away from health conditions or due to drowning," police said in a statement, noting water in the area was high overnight.

At a Sunday press conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 2,000 emergency calls had been received and more shelters would be opening.

The U.S. Coast Guard has focused all its resources on rescuing people in trouble as waters continue to rise in Houston and surrounding areas, with assistance coming in from bases all over the country.

Eight helicopters and three flood response teams have rescued 100 people so far, officials said, and have received 500 calls for assistance.

The agency said that an additional 11 helicopters are expected. Another flood response team is coming from nearby state Louisiana.

About 80 counties have been declared state disaster zones. Both major airports in Houston have been closed amid severe flooding.

A Houston Airport System statement on Sunday said George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport are closed to commercial flights until further notice.
John Porter

As dangerous flooding swamped Houston early Sunday, the massive "submarine" doors began slamming shut across the Texas Medical Center, sealing off the lower floors of major hospitals.

Texas Children's Hospital deployed the flood gates at the West, Wallace and Feign Towers on the medical campus, a spokeswoman said Sunday.
Cheniere Energy, the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the U.S., said on Sunday that Hurricane Harvey had not, as of yet, significantly impacted production at its $18 billion Sabine Pass facility, south of Port Arthur on the Texas-Louisiana border.

And early inspections of the Houston companys 2,000-acre, $13 billion Corpus Christi expansion site, less than two dozen miles from Harveys landfall near Aransas Pass, revealed only minor damage, said Cheniere spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder.
AUSTIN -- The state has deployed 20 helicopters, 60 boats, 92 ambulances and "countless" high water vehicles to respond to devastating flooding inundating Houston, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.

"Everything they've asked for has been provided and we stand ready to provide even more on top of hat," Abbott told reporters after he was briefed on rescue operations at the Texas emergency operations center in Austin.

But Abbott acknowledged he still has not talked to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner personally.

"I have a called the mayor several times, I have his cell number," Abbott said. "I've left messages for him repeatedly to let him know that whatever he needs the state of Texas will provide."

Abbott says there has been no trouble getting emergency assistance into Houston.

"Not at all," Abbott said.

Abbott and Houston officials have already differed on whether to start evacuations days earlier. While Abbott called on people to leave, Turner gave opposite directions.

Asked about the conflicting messages Sunday, Abbott said he was focused on the emergency at hand.

"Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made," Abbott said.

Abbott said the federal government has already provided an emergency declaration for 19 counties and is now preparing to expand that list to cover Harris County, which was not on the original disaster declaration.

Statewide, Abbott said that state has responded aggressively with 3,000 members of the National Guard and State Guard deployed, 1,750 Department of Public Safety workers in the field, 400 Texas Department of Transportation workers helping clear roads and 400 people the Department of Emergency Management doing search and rescue operations.

"Our top priority is to protect human life," Abbott said during a 25 minute press conference. "We are working with local officials to do everything we can to protect our fellow Texans."

Abbott said more than 250 highways are closed because of flooding and more than 300,000 homes are out of power without even with complete reports from the Houston area.

Officials said there have been so many rescues that they haven't been able to track them all.

Abbott repeatedly praised the cooperation he is getting from the federal government and President Donald Trump. Before speaking with reporters, Abbott said he received call from both Brock Long, the administration for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

"We have a very effective federal partner working with the state of Texas," Abbott said. "One thing that I am very proud of is that the federal government has so quickly responded to all of the aid the state of Texas has needed."
Lebanese soldiers in Islamic State captivity since 2014 are almost certainly dead, a senior security official said on Sunday, just hours after the army announced a ceasefire to hold talks over their fate.

The ceasefire halted the fighting in an Islamic State enclave at the Syria-Lebanon border, where the militants have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with Syrian troops on the other.

Islamic State has held nine Lebanese soldiers captive since 2014, when it briefly overran the northeast border town of Arsal with other militants - one of the worst spillovers of the Syrian conflict. The fate of the troops had been unknown since then.

The Lebanese army announced its ceasefire took effect at 7 a.m (0400 GMT). Hezbollah and the Syrian army also declared a ceasefire in their own attack against Islamic State in Syria's western Qalamoun region, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said.

The ceasefire held on both sides of the border throughout the day, as sources said plans for an evacuation of the remaining militants were under discussion.

The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and Hezbollah together with Syrian government forces, launched separate but simultaneous assaults.

Both offensives have advanced towards the Syria-Lebanon frontier from opposite sides, hemming the militants into a small zone in the arid hills straddling the border. Lebanon's army and Hezbollah have each said the battle was nearing victory.

The Islamic State pocket marks the last militant foothold along the Syrian-Lebanese frontier.

Defeating Islamic State there would end years of insurgents from Syria's six-year war holding territory in the mountainous border region, and allow the two countries to consolidate control of the frontier.

The head of Lebanon's internal security agency said the army and security forces had retrieved remains thought to belong six of the soldiers and were conducting digs on Lebanese land for two others. DNA tests were needed to confirm the identities.

"We believe, almost certainly, that these are the remains of the soldiers," said the general, Abbas Ibrahim, who mediated talks between the army and the militants. The whereabouts of the ninth soldier remain unknown.

The soldiers' families had gathered in central Beirut on Sunday, saying they would hold out hope until the last minute.

Ibrahim arrived in the afternoon to give them the news.

"I know this is a difficult moment ... Liberating the land calls for offering our souls to this country," he said.

"We do not bargain. We are in the position of the victor and are imposing conditions."

A military source had said earlier that Islamic State fighters had "succumbed ... and asked for the negotiations".

EVACUATION TALKS

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants along the border during Syria's war, and has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Earlier this month, Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from Lebanon's northeastern border region. They departed for insurgent territory in Syria after Hezbollah routed them in offensives with the Syrian army.

In a speech last week, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his Iran-backed group had begun talks with Islamic State on a truce.

The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating its attack with the Syrian army or Shi'ite Hezbollah, which Washington classifies as a terrorist group.

Any joint operation between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hezbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable U.S. military aid the country receives.

Hezbollah and its allies have been pressing the Lebanese state to normalise relations with Damascus, testing Lebanon's official policy of neutrality towards the conflict next door.

Calls for closer ties come as Assad's government has put rebels on the back foot and shored up its rule over the main urban centres in Western Syria.

A Western diplomat praised the Lebanese army's performance in the border battle in "a risky and complex operation" and said it would have been "simply unimaginable" a decade ago.

"We see no evidence of substantive cooperation (between the army and Hezbollah)," the diplomat added.

A source familiar with the talks said Hezbollah and the Lebanese army had been communicating over the ceasefire and negotiations.

The Islamic State fighters had asked Hezbollah and the Syrian army to let them withdraw to Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zor, a pro-Damascus official had said.

Several hundred militants are still holed up in the enclave. If the deal continues smoothly, they would evacuate likely there, Ibrahim said.

Damascus has approved an Islamic State-Hezbollah deal that allows for transferring the militants into eastern Syria, state media said on Sunday.

As Islamic State has lost vast territories in Iraq and Syria, many of its forces have retreated to Deir al-Zor province, which remains almost entirely under its control.



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WASHINGTON - FEMA Administrator Brock Long said recovery from Hurricane Harvey would likely take "years," in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday.

The largest storm to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Harvey has exacted a trail of destruction along the Texas Gulf Coast that is only growing as the storm lingers over the Houston region, inundating the city's bayous with rain.

Long, the newly installed FEMA head, said the federal government was already deploying Coast Guard and other military units to assist in getting residents to safety, with close to 5,000 federal employees working to coordinate federal, state and local agencies.

"Right now were not doing recovery. We are deep into the life safety mission, swift water rescue, search and rescue," he said.

Asked whether debate in Congress around the National Flood Insurance Program, which backs virtually every flood insurance policy in the country, would impact the distribution of insurance checks, Long said FEMA was "ready to process all claims."

"Congress has lot of work to fix that program," he said. "But right now I can't worry about that."

Long's appearance came as many political analysts and media are questioning how focused President Donald Trump is on the storm.

On Sunday morning, Trump's Twitter account included a number of posts about Harvey but also a book recommendation and a post about the need to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Long assured his television audience Sunday, "President Trump is extremely concerned," about Harvey.

Trump tweeted Sunday he would visit Texas, "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety."
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Four cruise ships with itineraries affected by Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Harvey remained unable to call on the Port of Galveston Sunday.

About 20,000 vacationers on three Carnival cruises and one Royal Caribbean ship were scheduled to disembark Saturday and Sunday. But Harvey forced the Coast Guard to close the port, and the ships haven't been able to dock in Galveston.

Interim port director Peter Simons said they would not be disembarking Sunday.

A major concern was flooding throughout the greater Houston area that prevented employees from getting to the docks to handle the ships and help unload passengers. And once passengers disembarked, they couldn't drive very far off Galveston Island because of flooded roadways, Simons said.

"It's tough for most people to get around, particularly off the island," Simons said.

Royal Caribbean said it decided to divert the Liberty of the Seas to Miami "until conditions near the Port of Galveston permit safe travel." It was originally scheduled to arrive in Galveston on Sunday.

"We anticipate Liberty will be able to return to Galveston Friday, conditions permitting," spokesman Owen Torres said in an email. "We are doing all we can to help guests adjust their travel arrangements and appreciate their patience during a stressful time."

The cruise originally scheduled to sail from Galveston on Sunday has been cancelled. Torres said guests will have their fares fully refunded and have been provided with a future cruise credit.

RELATED: Hurricane Harvey leaves logjam of cargo, cruise ships at Galveston port

The Carnival Freedom and Carnival Valor, originally scheduled to call on Galveston Saturday, both made a stop in New Orleans on Saturday to replenish supplies and provide guests the option to disembark.

Carnival Breeze, originally scheduled to arrive in Galveston on Sunday, departed Cozumel Saturday afternoon after an extra night in port and will make a brief stop in New Orleans Monday to replenish supplies. Guests on Carnival Breeze who wish to terminate their cruise at that point can disembark in New Orleans.

All three ships will head toward Galveston to enter the port as soon as it's safe, according to a statement. The company intends to operate shortened cruises for passengers originally scheduled to depart Saturday or Sunday on those three ships. Guests who sail on the modified trips will receive a pro-rated refund equal to the number of cruise days missed. Those who wish to cancel may do so without penalty and receive a future cruise credit.

As for the Port of Galveston, Simons said that Harvey hadn't yet caused damage to the port facilities and vessels that remained in port during the storm.

The Freeport ship channel, however, appears to have lost 5 to 7 feet of depth, according to the Brazos Pilots who are tasked with guiding ships in and out of the Port of Freeport.

Henry A. de La Garza, spokesman for the Texas State Pilots Association, said the Houston Pilots sent a boat to the area where they board inbound vessels on Sunday morning. They found seas in excess of 10 feet with wind gusting to 80 mph.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed multiple ports along the Texas Gulf Coast, including those at Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport and Corpus Christi. The Port of Brownsville reopened Saturday morning.

Port Houston facilities, including the Barbours Cut Container Terminal, Bayport Container Terminal and general cargo facilities, will remain closed on Monday, said Port Houston spokeswoman Lisa Ashley. The facilities closed on Friday.

"We will continue to monitor the developing weather conditions to determine whether operations can safely resume on Tuesday," she said in a statement.
6:16 p.m., Sept. 1 Update: Crosby ISD employees are being asked to return to school Sept. 6, and students will return Sept. 7.

"We know that we have many families affected by the hurricane and we are cooperating with local organizations to establish assistance networks for which they need more help ... If for some reason we see it necessary to change the dates of return, we will notify you as soon as possible," reads a statement from the district. "We know these are difficult times but we have confidence in our community and we know that together we will stand out. Together we are strong."

11:13 a.m., Sept. 1 Update: HPD Kingwood Division stated U.S. 59 at the San Jacinto Bridge is now open.

3:01 p.m., Aug. 31 Update: Kingwood First Baptist Church is sending teams out to help residents who are cleaning out their homes and is asking for donations or loans. The church asks people loaning tools to mark them with their name and phone number.

The list of needs includes:

Wheelbarrows

Push brooms

Sweep brooms

Scoop shovels

Trash bags

Hammers

Pry bars

Utility knives

Utility knife blades

Generators

Extension cords

Fans

Spray bottles

Bleach

Floor scrapers

1:30 p.m., Aug. 31 Update: The city of Houston has stated a recent rumor posted to Facebook regarding the Kingwood water filtration plant losing power is false.

The post falsely claimed that the plant lost power and Kingwood's water would run out. The city stressed this is not true.

The director of Houston water, Yvonne Forrest, stated in an email, "This is a rumor. The STE operations staff is onsite and the plants are still functioning."

10:39 a.m., Aug. 31 Update: City of Humble residents who are able to begin the debris removal process from their homes and property are urged to pile their debris in their front yards near the curb. The city's disaster debris removal contractor, DRC Emergency Services, will be coming through to remove storm debris beginning Tuesday of next week. There is no fee for this service.

By utilizing the official disaster debris removal contractor, the city will be able to best track and account for total losses incurred by the city in our reports to FEMA.

Residents should be cautious of individuals or "businesses" that approach them to solicit debris removal services for a fee.

10:24 a.m., Aug. 31 Update: The city of Houston District E office has announced the closure of the shelter at Kingwood Bible Church. The remaining residents have been transported to the George R. Brown Convention Center.

10:22 a.m., Aug. 31 Update: HPD-Kingwood announced West Lake Houston Parkway has now been reopened from Kingwood Drive to the YMCA at 2400 West Lake Houston Parkway.

Additionally, Kingwood Drive is now open from West Lake Houston Parkway to East End Park.

9:05 p.m., Aug. 30 Update: Humble Independent School District's first day of school will be Thursday, Sept. 7, "under the best-case scenario."

In an announcement Wednesday night, the district stated the first day of school will be delayed as staff members assess each campus and work with authorities to determine when roads will open.

"Humble ISD will provide an update, including information about when staff may report back, by noon this Saturday, Sept. 2," reads the statement. "The district is working around the clock to reopen for the well-being of students, families and our community."

3:47 p.m., Aug. 30 Update: Humble's curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. remains in effect.

Humble will "have additional patrols out and will be utilizing boats and high water vehicles where necessary to protect property throughout the city," stated Jason Stuebe, assistant city manager.

3:24 p.m., Aug. 30 Update: Humble City Hall will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 6, but city leaders have announced they are waiving all building, electrical, plumbing and HVAC permit fees for work related to recovery.

Homeowners and contractors still need a permit, but they can begin before city hall opens Tuesday.

"We are asking that they simply come in to apply for and receive a retroactive permit," reads a statement from the city. "This will greatly assist our inspectors in knowing where work is taking place to ensure that the repairs are in compliance with the various codes for the homeowner or business owner's protection."

Work related to the repair and recovery of structures will be eligible for the waiver until Sept. 29.

1:36 p.m., Aug. 30 Update: The following shelters and needs have been reported in the Kingwood area:

Kingwood Bible Church, 3610 West Lake Houston Parkway

Need: Food/Water/Toiletries/Supplies

Kingwood Christian Church, 3910 West Lake Houston Parkway

Need: Food/Water/Toiletries/Supplies

Kingwood First Baptist, 3915 Woodland Hills Drive

Need: Cots/Toiletries, good on food and water for now

11:29 a.m., Aug. 30 Update: Rescue efforts are now mostly local law enforcement and volunteers.

Volunteer Kyle Thomas-Brooks, of Atascocita, is working with volunteers and law enforcement, helping in the effort and directing traffic away from the bridge, which is still blocked off, but the water is receding. He said they've rescued six more people and more are coming. He said the other side of the bridge is pretty bad with a heavy current, but there are still boats making rescues. Unclear how many more need to be rescued.

Pastor Mark Barnhill with Woodridge Baptist Church is also volunteering there. He said Woodbridge will be aiding in cleanup efforts for the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the city of Humble is moving evacuees at the Humble Civic Center to other shelters in the area better equipped and staffed for longer-term aid.

"No more donations are necessary at the Civic Center at this time and volunteers wishing to contribute their time and efforts are asked to please seek other shelters to provide assistance," reads a statement from the city.

8:18 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Humble Mayor Merle Aaron has ordered a curfew for the City of Humble tonight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Also, the shelter at Humble Civic Center reached capacity as of 8 p.m., and the city is now turning people toward Light of the World Christian Fellowship Church on Atascocita Road.

Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office still is seeking volunteers to help man a shelter at Fallbrook Church, 12512 Walters Road. The shelter will be used only for people being transported from Kingwood.

The shelter also is seeking food, water, toiletries, pillows and blankets. For more information, see Martin's Facebook page.

6:07 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Humble Civic Center opened as a shelter for evacuees this morning, Aug. 29. Evacuees are still arriving, and space is available as of 5 p.m.

The civic center shelter is stocked with supplies. However, volunteers are needed, especially for the night shift.

People interested in volunteering are welcome to show up at 8233 Will Clayton Parkway in Humble. For more information, visit the Humble Civic Center & Arena Complex Facebook page.

5 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office is working to open a shelter at Fall Brook Church, 12512 Walter's Road, and needs five volunteers to open it overnight for Kingwood evacuees.

Updated directions: Take 1960 to U.S,. 59 South feeder. Then, take 59 South exit to Sam Houston Parkway and go west across I-45 on the beltway. Exit Veterans Memorial, and take a right on T.C. Jester, another right on Gears Road and left on Walters Road. The church is 1.8 miles down on the righthand side.

3:45 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Crews are wrapping up work at the West Lake Houston Parkway bridge. Equipment is being pulled from the water, and even private-owned boat owners are leaving, according to Matt Rhoades, a federal rescue squad officer from Kingwood.

"Either everybody's been rescued or no one wants rescued at this point," he said.

3:13 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: The shelter at Lone Star College-North Harris is full and not able to accept any more evacuees, according to a news release.

Current needs are:

Box drinks/juice bags for kids

Towels

Travel-sized toiletries  shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes

Pet kennels, leashes

Packaged snacks

Extension cords/power strips

They are not in need of clothing and pet food at this time.

Donations can be dropped off at the LSC-North Harris Digital Technology Building.

2:57 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Family members and friends wanting to check the status of those registered in shelters can call 866-526-8300, Option 3, according to a Tweet from Houston Councilman Dave Martin.

2:18 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Federal rescuers will pull out of Kingwood around 7 tonight, according to Matt Rhoades, a rescue squad officer with the Utah task force.

"The private-owned boats may continue, but we have working orders to pull out," Rhoades said.

He estimated they've rescued several hundred people with several hundred more waiting still waiting. Rhoades did not know if the federal crews tomorrow morning would be reassigned back in the Kingwood area or somewhere else.

1:14 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is overseeing evacuations across the West Lake Houston Parkway bridge in Kingwood and is no longer working with private citizens to rescue residents.

Instead, military vehicles have taken over the operation.

1:11 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Atascocita Fire Chief Mike Mulligan said emergency evacuations are taking place in the Kings River, Walden and Ramblewood subdivisions.

12:46 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Woodland Church in Atascocita is serving as a shelter and is not at capacity. Representatives there said they are in need of water, air mattresses, cots and baby products.

12:31 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: A member of the Border Patrol Search and Rescue Team said they are currently focused on evacuating people on the other side of the bridge at West Lake Houston Parkway bridge in Kingwood.

"If it keeps raining like this, there's not going to be any access across the bridge," he said before quickly rejoining the efforts. "At this point, there's a school down there; there's a few hundred people there, and there's a local police dept that needs to be evacuated."

12:21 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Rescue efforts are underway in Kingwood. Local agencies and volunteers are helping evacuees as they are brought from across West Lake Houston Parkway bridge out of flooded homes in Kingwood and to transports stationed at West Lake Houston Parkway and Kings Lake Estates.

Volunteers are donating time and resources to the effort.

Kingwood resident Alana Nunn is a resident of Kings River, which she says is currently fine.

"We just rounded up all the jackets we had in or house, towels, and just giving it to the people coming over who are soaking wet," Nunn said.

12:15 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Crosby Middle School shelter is out of cots and expecting three busloads of evacuees.

"Our need now is for pillows, blankets, sleeping bags and towels for our new arrivals," states a Facebook post.

11:21 a.m., Aug. 29 Update: Harris County Pct. 4 Constable Mark Herman said his office is working with local Houston fire stations to coordinate rescues. They have an ongoing list of those in need of help and are prioritizing based on medical issues and other urgent needs.

11:05 a.m., Aug. 29 Update: Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office says Willow Creek Elementary is currently taking in people, but has no supplies. The office is trying to coordinate with the American Red Cross, but the Red Cross may not be able to access the area due to flooding.

9:57 a.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Lone Star College-North Harris campus Digital Technology Building and Theater will now serve as the shelter location for displaced Kingwood residents, according to city of Houston District E office.

People may enter through the Hurricane Drive entrance.

For information about volunteering or donating supplies, people can call the Command Post contact number at 281-618-5651.

11:14, Aug. 28 Update: Lone Star College Kingwood's gymnasium has been opened as a Red Cross shelter.

The LSC-Kingwood gymnasium shelter does not currently have food, but water is in transit.

The city of Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office is working with the Red Cross to obtain supplies tonight.

There are still no evacuation orders for Kingwood, and city of Houston District E office urges residents to shelter in place.

For high-water rescue situations, people should contact the HPD citizen line at 832-395-1820.

Rescue boats are not equipped with appropriate nighttime rescue lights, and no nighttime water rescues will be conducted, unless there is a medical emergency. Rescue boats will continue rescue efforts immediately upon first light tomorrow morning.

There are people currently volunteering at the shelter, but if others are interested in becoming volunteers, please contact kwsheltervolunteers@gmail.com and include name and email address.

No supply list has yet been provided, but people who wish to receive alerts can contact kwsheltersupplies@gmail.com and include name, email and items they can donate.

Currently, volunteers and donations are only being sought from residents who have high-water vehicles (lifted trucks).

Once the need is determined, the shelter will require donated items including individual snacks, water, clothing  clean clothes, undergarments, socks  blankets, pillows, towels, toiletries  deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes  phone chargers, Clorox wipes, feminine sanitary products, infant and adult diapers, baby formula and baby food.

Creekwood Middle School will also be open as a transport location at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, in order to transport residents to the Lone Star College  Kingwood shelter.

Lone Star College-Kingwood gymnasium shelter is at 20000 Kingwood Drive. To reach the District E office, email districte@houstontx.gov.

6:12 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The transports service from Kingwood High School to shelters in surrounding areas will be discontinued at 8 p.m., according to Jessica Beemer, chief of staff for Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office.

Beemer encouraged residents to remain in their shelters because much of Kingwood Drive remains impassable.

In addition, Beemer said, many gas stations do not have power and are not functioning.

5:50 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Ronda Trow, public relations manager for San Jacinto River Authority said the water release levels at the dam due to this weather event were unprecedented. However, since approximately 2:30 p.m., the Lake Conroe levels have been starting to drop, and they have not had to increase the water release.

The normal pool for Lake Conroe's lake level is 201 feet and the SJRA website shows as of 5 p.m., the lake level was at 205.84 feet. And the lake release was at 79,141 cubic feet per second.

Trow said the releases experienced at the Conroe dam contribute as one of five sources flowing downstream to the Kingwood, Lake Houston areas, so she said it is difficult to say what the exact effect of the dam release will be on the area. However, current lake and river conditions may be found on www.sjra.net under the Lake Conroe tab.

River level forecasts at certain river and stream sites can be found at the National Weather Service website at http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=hgx

5:08 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: "We are actively involved in voluntary evacuation from the point area of Atascocita Shores on Atascocita Way. We've evacuated 15 so far, collecting an addition of 30, waiting on some boats to come, have multiple requests for boats, from the Department of Public Safety from Katy on their way over," said Fire Chief Mike Mulligan.

There are possibly a 100 homes that have to be evacuated in that area. Mulligan urged residents not to wait until water is in their home to self-evacuate if they are able to do so safely. He stressed residents should know where they are going before they evacuate.

There have been reports of flooding in backyards, and Atascocita resident Jonathan Ryne had to knock out part of his backyard fence to alleviate the water levels as it was inches from reaching inside his home.

"We are getting hit with another round, so we are going to see how well the trench we dug to the bayou works," Ryne said.

4:45 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The city is using Kingwood High School as a transport place to the below shelters while there is space:

New Covenant Church 901 Wilson Road

M.O. Campbell Center 1865 Aldine Bender

George R. Brown Convention Center 1001 Avenida de Las Americas

4:15 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: City of Houston Mayor Turner posted on Facebook, responding to concerns about Houston's drinking water safety. As of 2 p.m., Aug. 28, all of the city's drinking water purification plants are operational, and Houston's drinking water is safe and not a health concern.

The city's four water plants are operational, but one is experiencing flooding. Officials are working with engineering and construction entities to continue operating the Northeast Water Purification Plant. However, the city asks people to limit the use of water for the time being.

Additionally, the brownish discoloration of the drinking water being reported by some residents in the city is most likely due to iron from the aging pipes, but is not a health hazard.

3:44 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Woodridge Baptist Church posted a Facebook update around 3 p.m. stating they do not have electricity and cannot accept evacuees. Additionally, they will not need volunteers until they have power again. They said people can check the Woodridge Baptist Church Facebook for updates.

2:31 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The Huffman Volunteer Fire Department is undertaking rescue efforts. As of 2:25 p.m., they report two shelters are established in the Huffman area at First Baptist Church Huffman and at Copeland Elementary School in Huffman ISD. Both shelters are still able to take evacuees and are accepting any donations, including all food, water, clothing and blankets.

FM 1960 has been closed heading toward Dayton, as has FM 1485 toward Casey Road in New Caney. Minor closures are also being reported throughout the district.

1:35 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Kingwood Drive may become completely covered in water and Houston City Councilman Dave Martin urged all residents out exploring the area to return to their homes immediately.

Rescue efforts are continuing in the Kingwood Area, according to Martin's office, and high water vehicles are deployed as well as boats. The Houston Police Department, Houston Fire Department, and the United States Coast Guard are in the area assisting and responding to all calls.

The Kingwood Citizen Line is open at 832-395-1820.

11:01 a.m. Aug. 28 Update: As of 10:49 a.m., the Crosby Volunteer Fire Department is working to evacuate area residents who have been displaced from their homes due to flooding.

Representatives with the fire department stated they would highly advise anyone in Crosby within 500 yards of the San Jacinto River to self-evacuate if they are able, as well as any Crosby residents within 200 yards of canals or creeks.

The fire department said shelters in the immediate Crosby area are at capacity, and evacuees' best bet is the shelter at Channelview High School.

While they report no major Crosby road closures, the fire department said to proceed with caution as there are several areas with waters over the top of the road.

10:22 a.m. Aug. 28 Update: The city of Humble is advising residents in some parts of the area to evacuate. The city received notice at 3:30 a.m. that Lake Conroe is releasing a record amount of water, which will raise the river height to 65.6 feet.

"At this point we will see US 59 possibly under water and many homes in the Northshire subdivision under water," states a notice from the city. " At daylight we are sending personnel to the Northshire Subdivision and advising the residents along the bayous to evacuate (note at this time the evacuation is NOT mandatory). At this time the river sits at 61.34 ft. and rising."

7:23 p.m. Aug. 27 Update: The Crosby Middle School shelter is at capacity with more than 400 people. They have taken on evacuees from Crosby as well as surrounding communities. They are in need of donations of pillows, blankets, towels, clothes and food.

As they are unable to cook or serve food, they are requesting single-serve, easy to distribute food. For information, visit the Crosby ISD Facebook page.

The Crosby American Legion is not yet at capacity of 350. It currently has approximately 170 evacuees with two buses on the way as of 7 p.m. They are requesting donations of any supplies, including bread, and especially pillows and blankets.

4:34 p.m. Update: Houston Police-Kingwood Division reported high water in the following areas: Northpark Drive at Hidden Pines, Kingwood at Royal Forest westbound lanes, Woodland Hills Drive north of River Grove Park, Belleau Wood Drive, and Moonshine Hill Loop.

Hamblen Road is shut down from Loop-494 due to high water.

There is a tree down at 3900 Glade Valley.

4 p.m. Update: The city of Humble has put a curfew into effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.

3:02 p.m. Update: Harris County Sheriff's Office is looking for community volunteers with boats and trucks large enough to navigate flooding to help people get to safety.

Volunteers are asked to report to First Baptist Church, FM 2100, in Huffman, and Anneshia Keller, with the sheriff's office, is the contact person. Vehicles can be parked in the large lot behind the church office.

The First Baptist Church also is coordinating with first responders to prepare for serving as a shelter tonight. There are no evacuees at the site as of 3 p.m., but the church is expecting the first to arrive later this afternoon, or early this evening.

They are currently asking for donations of towels, socks, diapers, toiletries, hand soap, dish soap, and clean blankets, pillows, towels, and food, including nonperishables, loaves of bread, sandwiches, and water.

First Baptist Church of Huffman is located at 25503 FM 2100 Road in Huffman. Check the First Baptist Church Huffman Facebook page for more information.

Around Lake Houston: Atascocita residents are being urged not to leave their shelters because several roads in the area are flooded.

Also, Mayor Merle Aaron has signed a Declaration of Disaster in Humble, activating the city's Emergency Management Plan.

Residents cannot go west on Will Clayton, but can get across by staying on Atascocita Road, according to Sean Conley, assistant chief of EMS. Woodland Hills, east of Will Clayton Boulevard is impassable, and North Houston Road, north of Townsen is impassable.

"The only thing we were dealing with overnight, was a house fire on the north end of Timber Forest. (We) did have delay getting to it because of the weather, but we were still able to get to it," Conley said.

The Coast Guard will be landing soon at the Atascocita Fire Department at Timber Forest, Conley said, adding there have not been any water rescues as of yet but there have been requests.

According to Houston Police-Kingwood Division, a large tree fell, blocking the northbound lanes at the 2000 block of West Lake Houston Parkway, but it has since been taken care of.

The San Jacinto River is out of its banks and high water has caused some road closures. Hamblen Road in Kingwood has been shut down, as has Woodland Hills to River Grove Park.

In Humble, some sections of McKay Boulevard have been closed near Memorial Hermann Northeast.

U.S. 59 between Will Clayton Parkway and Rankin Road is impassable. One vehicle was stuck on the flooded road, but the driver was able to escape.

Townsen Boulevard also has been closed between the Walmart and the Target.

"There's not much that we can do right now, close the roads and monitor our subdivisions for any water," said James Nykaza, Emergency Management coordinator for the city of Humble.

The Crosby Volunteer Fire Department is under full activation and has made multiple water rescues. The most severe flooding is around the Highway 90 and Eastgate areas.

The Newport area has fared relatively well with water able to drain off.

Crosby Middle School has been converted into a shelter for people who have been displaced from their homes due to flooding.

Crosby Volunteer Fire Department has made evacuation rescues of people whose homes have flooded on roads including Milo Dr., Jean Lafitte and Gulf Pump Road, according to Christy Graves, director of Harris County Emergency Services District No. 5. A school bus was sent to pick up those residents and transport them to the Crosby Middle School shelter.

Crosby ISD Superintendent Keith Moore was busy helping to accommodate flood evacuees.

The Crosby Middle School gym shelter now has approximately 75 to 80 evacuees.

The school district had partnered with the Red Cross, which was supposed to provide water and sup-plies, but the Red Cross was unable to get to the school. Crosby ISD decided to open the shelter any-way and put a call out to the community for supplies, which they received in plenty.

"We got here and needed supplies," Moore said. "We asked for water, food and the Crosby communi-ty came out and stocked us with food, Domino's provided pizza, Walmart gave supplies. People were coming in wet and cold, so we asked for blankets, pillows and towels. The community provided tre-mendous amounts of the supplies we needed."

While the Crosby Middle School shelter is stocked with the supplies they need for the time being, Crosby ISD will continue to provide updates on needed supplies as the necessity may arise in coming days.

Busloads of evacuees are being brought in from the Crosby and surrounding areas, including Sheldon. Barrett Station is among the most flooded areas in the Crosby area.

The Crosby American Legion Hall is also serving as a shelter.

School closures

Humble and Independent School District announced its first day of school will be Tuesday, Sept. 5. Huffman and Crosby school districts are also closed until Sept. 5.
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The City of Houston Office of Emergency Management issued a statement Saturday alerting west Houston residents to the presence of emergency vehicles at Darrel Tully Stadium as a part of a pro-active response effort to Hurricane Harvey.

Emergency vehicles and personnel began assembling at 5 p.m. at the stadium located at 1050 Dairy Ashford on the campus of Stratford High School in Spring Branch Independent School District.
Floodwater resulting from Hurricane Harvey is ravaging the Houston area. Residents are sharing photos of the storm with Chron.com and on social media.

To get a more thorough idea of how Harvey is impacting different parts of the city, we'd like to share your photos so people know what is happening where you are. Please send us your photos and videos to photos@chron.com, message them to us on Facebook, or tweet them to us on Twitter.
Victims of the latest attack on Shia Muslims in Afghanistan directed their anger squarely at the Afghan government, accusing it of failing to protect them despite repeated attacks.

Suicide bombers and gunmen, some dressed in police uniforms, attacked a mosque in Kabul during prayers on Friday, killing more than 40 people and wounding more than 100, according to mosque leaders.

Many of the victims were women trapped on the mosques second floor.

The United Nations put the preliminary toll at 20 civilians killed and more than 30 wounded, while the Interior Ministry said 28 people died and 50 were wounded.

At least 30 victims were buried on Saturday on the grounds of the same mosque as hundreds of family members, friends, and other mourners gathered under bullet-marked buildings.

Inside the mosque itself, blood was spattered everywhere and the walls were burnt and scarred.

The government does not care about us, said Akhtar Hussain as he attended the funeral of a relative. What should we expect from a government that has never tried to protect us?

Islamic State-affiliated militants claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a number of deadly assaults on Afghanistans Shia population.

Sectarian violence has been relatively rare in Afghanistan, but since 2015 Islamic State militants have helped escalate fears by killing scores of Shiites at mosques, public gatherings and elsewhere.

Fridays attack was the sixth attack on Shia mosques so far this year, with Islamic State claiming responsibility for half of them, according to the U.N.

This latest in a series of attacks targeting members of the Shia community at worship has no possible justification, Toby Lanzer, acting head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Such attacks directed against congregations and places of worship are serious violations of international law that may amount to war crimes.

The attacks often take political overtones as members of the Shiite minority complain that the government ignores their needs.

This attack could have been avoided, said Abdul Razaq Sakha, a leader at the mosque. Our government is guilty in this regard.

After past pleas for more protection, the government assigned one policeman to help guard the mosque, he said.

That policeman died alongside a private guard when the attackers stormed the gates.

Mourners who gathered on Saturday said the government should help provide security, otherwise they would take the matter into their own hands.

"A police check point is very close to our mosque but they did not act until terrorists killed and wounded dozens of people," said Mohammad Jahfar Rezaee, whose aunt died in the attack.

"The government is deaf so we have to defend ourselves at any cost."

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The father of the leaders of the pro-Islamic State Maute group that seized control of a southern Philippine town in May died while in government custody, authorities said on Sunday.

Cayamora Maute was taken to a hospital on Sunday afternoon after his blood pressure rose but he died along the way, the Philippines' prison bureau said.

The May 23 occupation of Marawi City by the Maute group, led by his two sons and which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, triggered a brutal urban battle with military forces that entered its fourth month last week.

It has raised concern that Islamic State, on a back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base on the Philippine island of Mindanao that could pose a threat to neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore too.

More than 700 people, including 130 soldiers, have been killed since the militants, aided by foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East, seized control of city of 200,000.

Maute had several ailments when he was taken into custody in June, including diabetes and hypertension, Xavier Solda, spokesman at the Bureau of Jail and Management and Penology told reporters.

The extent of his involvement in the group is not immediately clear but when he was arrested in June, a military spokesman expressed hope he could persuade his sons to stop fighting and surrender.

"This is an unfortunate incident for his family, but more so to the victims of terrorism in Marawi and their relatives who are awaiting justice and expecting that Cayamora would answer and atone for his involvement in the Marawi rebellion," Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Eduaro Ano said in a statement.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has extended martial law on the southern island of Mindanao until the end of the year, to give him time to crush the rebel movement.

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Emergency crews raced to pull people from cars and homes as flood waters rose across southeast Texas on Sunday, rescuing more than 1,000 people around Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey pounded the region.

Harvey came ashore late Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the U.S. state for days, triggering more floods, tidal surges and tornadoes.

Harvey has caused chest-deep flooding on some streets in Houston as rivers and channels overflow their banks. After up to 30 inches (76 cms) of rain in some parts of the fourth most-populous U.S. city, the storm is expected to dump 12 to 25 more inches (30-63 cms) over the next few days, the National Weather Service forecast. The total could reach 50 inches in some coastal areas of Texas by the end of the week, or the average rainfall for an entire year.

"This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced," the government's National Weather Service said on Twitter. The center of Harvey is still 125 miles away from Houston, and forecast to arc slowly toward the city through Wednesday.

Flooding closed many roads and residents hunkered down inside houses and apartments as authorities sent flash flood and tornado alerts to cell phones.

The swift rise of flood waters surprised authorities and residents with boats were asked to help with rescues.

The Ben Taub Hospital in Houston's Medical Center was being evacuated on Sunday. An American Red Cross emergency shelter was forced to shut due to flooding and the group opened two more, including one in a convention center in downtown Houston.

"Within less than a half hour, we had 7 to 8 inches of water in our first floor," said Brian Hoskins, 25, a petroleum engineer who lives in Houston.

"I was worried about losing all our furniture and our cars."

Emergency services told people to climb onto the roofs of their houses rather than into their attics to escape rapidly rising waters, to avoid being trapped if waters rose more.

Authorities warned the city's more than two million residents and people across Texas not to leave homes even if they flooded because roads were impassable.

Many people were stuck in vehicles on raised highway sections with dips in the roads ahead of them flooded.

The Twitter account of the sheriff of Harris County, which includes most of Houston, was inundated with rescue requests and his team were unable to respond quickly to all of them.

"All agencies care but everyone simply operating at maximum capacity," Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted at one point.

Gonzalez said his deputies responded to unconfirmed reports of a deceased woman and child inside a submerged vehicle on a highway near Houston.

Another resident described seeing a woman's body floating in the streets during a flash flood in west Houston. The flood was several feet high, the resident told local TV station abc13.

Houston's Bush International and William P. Hobby airports canceled all commercial flights on Sunday. Hobby had standing water on the runway and said the arrivals area was flooded.

"The flooding in Houston is dramatic," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.

The second confirmed fatality from Tropical Storm Harvey came on Saturday evening when an elderly woman drowned attempting to drive through flooded streets in west Houston, said city police Sergeant Colin Howard.

Authorities evacuated flooded apartment complexes and warned residents to heed warnings not to leave flooded residencies unless asked to do so as up to 5 inches (12.7 cm) of rain fell per hour.

"There are a number of stranded people on our streets, calling 911, exhausting needed resources. You can help by staying off the streets," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter.

On Friday night, a man died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Corpus Christi. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries including broken bones, another official said.

Harvey struck at the heart of the country's oil and gas industry, forcing operators to close several refineries to close and evacuate offshore platforms.

Millions of barrels per day of fuel production have been halted, and gasoline prices rose ahead of the storm. Benchmark gasoline futures were likely to rise again as shutdowns extended from to the refining hub of Houston. Refiners further south in the area around Corpus Christi had already shut.

Exxon Mobil said Sunday it was closing the second largest refinery in the United States at Baytown in Texas.

More than 45 percent of the country's refining capacity is along the U.S. Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation's crude oil is produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Abbott said Sunday he expected disruption to the energy industry to last one or two weeks.

HARVEY THREATENS RECORD RAIN

Harvey slammed into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (210 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961.

The storm ripped off roofs, destroyed buildings, flooded coastal towns and had cut off power to nearly 230,000 people in Texas as of Saturday night.

Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday because its winds have slowed. But authorities issued stark warnings on the threat posed by days of torrential rain.

"This rain will lead to a prolonged, dangerous, and potentially catastrophic flooding event well into next week," the National Weather Service said in a statement.

Harvey threatens to break the record established nearly 40 years ago when Alvin, Texas, was deluged by 43 inches of rain in 24 hours on July 24-25, 1979.

'IT WAS TERRIBLE'

Abbott said 1,800 members of the military would help with the statewide cleanup. Another 1,000 people were conduct search-and-rescue operations.

The coastal town of Rockport took a direct hit from the storm, leaving streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday.

A convoy of military vehicles arrived in the Rockport area on Saturday to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it was forced to evacuate about 4,500 inmates from three state prisons near the Brazos River because of rising water. The U.S. Coast Guard said it had rescued 20 people from distressed vessels on Saturday, and was monitoring two Carnival Corp cruise ships carrying thousands of people stranded in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The size and strength of Harvey dredged up memories of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that made a direct hit on New Orleans as a Category 3 storm, causing levees and flood walls to fail in dozens of places. About 1,800 died in the disaster made worse by a slow government emergency response.

U.S. President Donald Trump, facing the first big natural disaster of his term, said on Sunday he would visit the area as soon as he could do so without causing more disruption.

He said the all-out effort to deal with the disaster was going well. Trump signed a disaster proclamation on Friday, triggering federal relief efforts.

Heavy cloud cover across most of the state was making helicopter relief supply deliveries difficult, the White House's Homeland Security Advisor, Tom Bossert, said on CBS Face the Nation.

Recovery would likely take years, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Brock Long said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. FEMA coordinates the response to major disasters.

"This is going to be a landmark event," he said



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Disney has announced a return to using the Egyptian dialect in dubbing its animation films, which many Arab fans have called for since Disney switched to the standard Arabic dialect in 2013.

After years of using the Egyptian dialect, the new trend of dubbing Disney films in standard Arabic  starting with Frozen (2013)  was met with disappointment from Egyptian and Arab Disney fans.

There were many calls asking Disney to reconsider this decision, including a particularly strong online campaign last year that trended on social media with three major hashtags: 'Disney in Egyptian', 'Disney must return to being Egyptian' and 'Bring Egyptian Disney back.'

The Arabic Voiceover Company had said on its Facebook page in support of the 2016 campaign that the Egyptian dialect is the most well-known in the entire Arab world, spoken by more than 90 million citizens and is number one in all Middle Eastern media and films.

Fans argued that Egyptian Arabic is better at communicating the light hearted nature of Disney films, using language more familiar to young audiences and making it easier to relay the humour, which was often lost in the standard Arabic dubbing.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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The Gouna International Film Festival, founded by Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, is set to open on 22 September at the popular Red Sea tourist city of El-Gouna.

From the first moment, there was clarity in our vision; we wanted an international festival of high standards that also focuses on regional cinema, said Gouna Film Festival director Intishal El-Tamimi at a press conference this morning.

During the press conference, Sawiris shared some of his thoughts and ambitions behind launching the festival.

I love cinema, which is the primary motive behind starting this [festival]. Another reason is that I felt El-Gouna needs to be put on the map in cinema. It could be similar to Cannes, which was a touristic destination that became one of the top spots in the international film scene with its film festival, he said.

So far, the festival has announced that two Egyptian films will be participating in the official competition for long features; Sheikh Jackson, directed by Amr Salama, and Photocopy, directed by Tamer Ashry.

El-Tamimi said that many of the films participating in the international film selection have won awards from the worlds biggest film festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival, and the Tribecca Film Festival.

We are keen to present international films as well as serve as a platform for budding young Arab talents, El-Tamimi said.

He added that the announcement of the festival's opening and its welcome party at Cannes Film Festival was met with excitement and support from both the international film community and the Egyptian film scene.

The festival has a star-studded international advisory board that includes Egyptian actress Youssra, Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, acclaimed Syrian director Mohamed Malas, Tunisian actress Hend Sabry, French-Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, Palestinian actress, writer and director Hiam Abbas, Tunisian producer and distributor Tarek Ben Ammar, award-winning Mauritanian director and producer Abderrahmane Sissako, American actor Forest Whitaker, and German actress and filmmaker Margarethe Von Trotta.

Among the Egyptian stars who attended the press conference in support of the festival were Youssra, Nelly Karim and Ahmed El-Fishawy, as well as film director Amir Ramses, one of the biggest supporters of the festival.

El-Tamimi is supported as festival director by a team of organisers including Kamal Zadeh, Amr Mansi, and Egyptian actress Bushra.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Cinderella, performed by the young ballet dancers of Minya's Alwanat Cultural Centre, is directed by Mamdouh Hassan

Children trained at the Alwanat Cultural Centre in Upper Egypt's Minya will perform the ballet Cinderella at the city's main theatre on 31 August.

Alwanat director Marco Adel says that 50 young ballet talents trained at Alwanat will participate in the 90-minute performance.

"The children have worked over two months and are very excited about their first big performance. Not only is Cinderella the first full-length performance organised by Alwanat, but it is also the first such show to be staged in Upper Egypt," Adel said.

The Alwanat Cultural Centre NGO was launched in 2014, offering a large assortment of art classes to local children. It has since become one of the most dynamic cultural centres embracing the children and youth of Upper Egypt.

The performance of Cinderella, directed by Mamdouh Hassan, is a cooperation effort between the centre in Minya and professional ballet artists from Cairo.

Hassan is a soloist at the Cairo Opera House Ballet Company and a ballet instructor at the Higher Institute of Ballet at the Academy of Arts in Cairo.

Since the launch of ballet classes at the Alwanat centre in 2015, the young students have showcased their talent on several occasions.

This year, Alwanat performed small shows at the Cairo Opera House and participated in celebrations held at the German Embassy in Cairo.

In June 2015, the Alwanat introduced ballet classes, becoming the first centre in Upper Egypt to introduce this art form to the local community.

Despite initial challenges in introducing ballet to a conservative community, interest in the classes grew rapidly. By 2016, Alwanat was training a total of 150 boys and girls in ballet, and a few dozen in gymnastics.

This has led to the centre opening up cooperation with professional instructors from Cairo as well as developing opportunities for the children to perform outside Minya.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs early Monday morning, hours before officials planned to release rainfall from the two dams, according to the Harris County Flood Control District.

The flood control district reported almost an hour later that storm water has started rising in the neighborhoods adjacent to Addicks and Barker. Heavy rainfall forced reservoir officials to begin releasing water from the dams sooner than previously planned.

Col. Lars N. Zetterstrom with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had announced late Sunday afternoon that rising levels in the two reservoirs would force authorities to release water from both dams.

The rising tides within the dams are forcing the water to swell and spill upstream into neighboring communities that sit against the dams.

RESOURCES: Stay up-to-date with forecasts, traffic reports, water levels, etc.

Based on the corps data, the rising waters could place residents in low-lying homes in dangerous situations. He said the measures were necessary to prevent uncontrolled releases.

How Addicks, Barker dams are supposed to work Water flows downward into creeks and streams in Addicks and Barker watersheds, kept behind large earthen dams. The dams control flow into Buffalo Bayou, which keeps downtown Houston from flooding. Too much water on both sides, and the flow is impacted. Thats complicated by the Houston Ship Channel, which is actually pushing water into Buffalo Bayou backwards. This week rising pool levels in Barker Reservoir and Addicks Reservoir spilled over into adjacent subdivisions that sit against the dams, shown below. Map created by data reporter John D. Harden

Source: Harris County Flood Control District

"We will have to release water to reduce the risk flooding in the Houston metropolitan area," he said. "Until we realize the actual rise we can't predict how many homes would be impacted."

Several thousand homes sit in the voluntary evacuation zone. Homeowners near the reservoirs will likely have water seep into their homes prior to the release as the swell continues through the night.

Residents upstream of the dam will begin seeing street flooding first. Then low-lying homes could begin taking in water.

Both Addicks and Barker collect water from streams and rivers that flow through Harris and Fort Bend counties. The surge of water created by Tropical Storm Harvey has resulted in the dams filling up quickly to the point of failure if water isn't released.





Michael Ciaglo/Staff

The water released from the dam will flow into an already bulging Buffalo Bayou and then eventually drain into the Houston Ship Channel.

This could lead to additional damage to structures along the bayou. Officials have not issued a voluntary evacuation for people living along the bayou, but residents should be cautious.

Fort Bend County issued the evacuation for portions of the county later Sunday.

Each dam will be set to release about 4,000 cubic feet of water per second, about double what they release during normal operations, and they will stay open for several weeks, Zetterstrom said. But even that release won't be enough to ease the dam because water flowing in from northern Harris County and Fort Bend is greater than the water released.

Officials are hoping the dying storm system will provide some relief and allow for greater releases and the week progresses.

All roads around the dams will be closed prior to releases.

Zetterstrom said the water taken in by the dam from the storms is unparalleled and will exceed records set in 2015 and 2016.

He said weather models shows that water would begin rising 4 to 6 inches an hour by early Monday morning.

VITAL LINE OF DEFENSE: Addicks and Barker were built to protect the heart of the city by controlling the flow of water along Buffalo Bayou. Things haven't gone as planned. What's at stake is the safety of the nation's fourth-largest city. If the dams failed, half of Houston would be underwater. Under the worst scenario at Addicks, property damages could reach $22.7 billion and 6,928 people could die. Read our story on the dams here.
As many as a half-dozen commercial cargo ships have joined four cruise ships waiting for the green light to dock at the Port of Galveston.

Roughly 20,000 cruise ship passengers are stuck at sea, as are commercial ships including roll-on/roll-off carriers, two grain ships and a few bulk carriers, said interim port director Peter Simons Saturday.

"The four cruise ships - two of which were due today - those are everyone's highest priority," he said.

But at least some of the ships' passengers weren't too concerned about the extra time away.

"This is an extra day in paradise," said Vanessa Gurrusquieta, an Itasca resident who said she boarded the cruise in Houston with her husband and six kids.

And even in the wake of the hurricane, it was mostly smooth sailing.

"It's pretty calm," she said. "A little rocking but not much."

Officials shut down the port Friday, leaving thousands of vacationers with no place to land as Hurricane Harvey loomed at sea. The storm also forced the U.S. Coast Guard to close multiple ports along Texas Gulf Coast, including those at Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport and Corpus Christi.

On Saturday morning, the Port of Brownsville reopened. The Brownsville Pilots began guiding ships into the port with a tanker that arrived at 11:45 a.m., said Henry A. de La Garza, spokesman for the Texas State Pilots Association. Pilots are tasked with guiding ships in and out of ports.

At the Port of Corpus Christi, port personnel began assessing the damage Saturday. The resumption of operations following the storm will depend on the severity of damage to the ship channel and port facilities, according to a news release.

Galveston Port officials said Friday that the cruise ships might not be able to dock in Galveston until Tuesday or Wednesday, but Simons said Saturday afternoon that he was "a little more optimistic."

Two of the ships in limbo  Carnival Freedom and Carnival Valor  were set to dock Saturday and will stop in New Orleans instead, according to Carnival spokeswoman Christine de la Huerta.

"Guests who wish to terminate their cruise at that point and disembark in New Orleans may do so," de la Huerta said in statement. ""We are strongly encouraging them to remain on board as we intend to return the ships to Galveston as soon as feasible."

The Carnival Breeze spent the night in Mexico and was slated to leave Saturday for Galveston, although the company did not offer an update on progress Saturday afternoon.

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas was staying behind the storm with plans to return to port Sunday, officials said.

"We're working with the Coast Guard and the pilots and the cruise line to try to minimize the impact of the storm on the cruise ships," Simons said. "We're all really kind of subject at the end of the day to the mercy of the weather."
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About 3 a.m., the water started coming up at the tent shelter near the railroad tracks behind the University of Houston's downtown campus where Bruce Perry lives.

The homeless 52-year-old started packing what he could - his laptop, medication and one pair of pants. When the water came up to his knees Sunday morning, "I said, 'That's it. I gotta leave.' "

With just a backpack of belongings, Perry walked to the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, which was activated Sunday as an emergency shelter for those displaced by Tropical Storm Harvey.

Before 11 a.m., the first evacuees began lining up in front of the convention center, carrying suitcases and plastic bags, some with babies on their hips and dogs on leashes.

Rescue crews pulled up in pickups, dropping off families, many of whom came from Clayton Holmes, a housing complex just northeast of downtown.

Brandon Polson had five children between the ages of 7 and 11 with him after evacuating the apartments. The overflowing bayou poured about 3 feet of water into his apartment.

About 6 a.m., he started knocking on neighbors' doors to see who needed help. Police arrived about an hour later with a boat.

With his family settled inside the convention center, Polson was taking the situation in stride.

"You have to have faith and stay positive for the kids," he said. "They're cold and sad too. You've got to find a way to balance them not being all down and then protecting ourselves."

The Red Cross arrived to take over operations shortly after the convention center opened to evacuees.

Charlie Maltbie, who was deployed from Indiana to manage the shelter, said about 1,000 evacuees were expected.

Five tractor-trailers, he said, were on their way, carrying cots, blankets, food and other necessities.

"This will be a fully functioning Red Cross shelter, a safe space for people to reside in," Maltbie said.

Hundreds arrive

By noon, several hundred had arrived, including Sarah Matthews who was evacuated from an apartment in Clayton Homes where she was visiting a friend. At 6 a.m., the water was waist high at the apartment, having already washed away her computer and her 14-month-old son Braylin's stroller and playpen.

"I was shaking. I was about to go into a panic attack," said a drenched Matthews, wearing a pink shower cap, her wet clothes clinging to her like a second skin. "It was terrifying. I don't know how I'm going to replace my stuff."

As the day went on, more volunteers arrived. Some lived downtown, and others came from nearby hotels.

Marisol Burk arrived with her friend Laura Gonzalez to help the Red Cross at the George R. Brown.

"We are blessed to be OK, so we want to help people who need our help," said Burk, who works in the Energy Corridor and lives downtown.

"We're here to do whatever they tell us to do: set up cots, pass out, food, whatever they need," she said.

Burk said she already knows she does not have to report to work Monday, so she intends to volunteer "for as long as they allow us to."

Bill Baldwin, a real-estate broker from the Heights, was part of a team handing out towels, snacks and water. He biked to the convention center, going through 4 feet of water at the Watson Street bridge.

With many evacuees arriving with nothing, they huddled with their families, waiting for information on what would happen next.

Terranysha Ferguson and her family, draped in white towels, were grabbing snacks from volunteers after being rescued from their apartment in Clayton Homes.

Walking back to her seat in the cavernous shelter building, Ferguson held her 1-year-old, Christian Phillips, who was cold and in need of a fresh diaper.

"He's freezing. He has a runny nose," she said. "He needs Pampers."

By 5 p.m., more than 500 evacuees filled the shelter and more were on the way. Volunteers were checking people in and taking donations at tables just inside the doors.

Jessica Archer was collecting blankets, clothes, baby supplies and other items people were bringing. Restaurants were dropping off prepared food.

"They need shoes and blankets because everybody's wet and cold," Archer said.

Resources en route

Walmart was sending a truck filled including diapers, baby formula, bandages and medical supplies.

Hundreds of green cots had been placed in the room where evacuees would sleep. One by one, they were laid out in tidy rows, each with their own white Red Cross blanket wrapped in plastic.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, was at the shelter late Sunday afternoon after visiting other parts of the city.

"We're just trying to make sure all federal resources get here and get here quick," she said. "Our concern is, of course, additional rain - where does it go?"

She said Harris County would soon announce efforts to help relieve the water in "some of our tension areas."

Jackson Lee said she had just spoken to the leadership of Congress about the flooding and the affected areas that are going to need money.

"I'm hoping to work with the state, the mayor and county, and we have Rockport and Victoria, so it will be a combination dollars," she said.
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Houston's wildlife began making appearances on Saturday afternoon during a lull from Tropical Storm Harvey's rains.

Christy Kroboth with Houston's Gator Squad was called to assist officials in the Meyerland area with retrieving a small alligator from a residence in that flood-prone neighborhood.

RELATED: Houston resident calls animal control to remove 'alligator' that turns out to be lizard

The Gator Squad is an organization that removes nuisance alligators from residential areas. They are anticipating a very busy next few days in the Houston area as water rises.

The five-foot male gator will be relocated by Kroboth to more hospitable surroundings, likely an alligator farm south of Houston.

His appearance serves as a reminder that as rains continue to pound Houston off and on for the next few days, this won't be the only alligator to make a cameo in neighborhoods and other public settings.

EYES OPEN: Post-flood reminder: Beware of Houston's annoying, slightly dangerous wildlife

As the habitats of these animals, be it an alligator or snake, become more saturated, they will seek dry ground and might be in search of food, which could hard to come by.

Always use your best judgement and call local authorities if you encounter wildlife as you are likely not trained to deal with them.
Rosenberg Police Department

In the midst flooding through Fort Bend County, a massive sinkhole emerged on a major thoroughfare in Rosenberg Sunday morning, according to the Rosenberg Police Department.

The gap in the road, located on the 3900 block of FM 762, near Brazos Town Center, emerged around 11 a.m., Asst. Police Chief Tracie Dunn said.
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey's massive flooding in Texas, victims are in need of relief and aid. Here are the organizations that are helping:

Local organizations

Where to donate:

Harris County Donation Hotline: 1-800-924-5985. Available 6 a.m. to midnight.

George R. Brown Convention Center, NRG Center, Toyota Center and BBVA Compass Stadium are no longer accepting donations from the public. The GRB Center is accepting corporate donations and is in serious need of the following supplies: bleach, buckets, containers to carry supplies, lip balm, Vaseline, work gloves, insect repellent, dusk masks, rakes, shovels, duct tape, tarps, trash bags, sunscreen. Corporations wishing to donate should contact Bill Kelly, Director of Government Affairs for Mayor Turner at Bill.Kelly@houstontx.gov

Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has set up this fund for tax-deductible flood relief monetary donations. It will be administered by the nonprofit Greater Houston Community Foundation. Click here

BakerRipley, the Houston community charity that is running the NRG Center shelter, is accepting monetary donations for the long-term recovery ahead. Click here. Donations of goods can be brought to World Harvest Outreach Seventh Day Adventist, 10800-A Scott Street, 77047. Contact: Pastor Kenneth Goodman (713-364-9763)

Currents needs include: non-perishables/ canned goods, infant formula, diapers, water, new women, children, men's underwear and socks.

Interfaith Ministries: This nonprofit that operates the city's Meals on Wheels program is in need of financial donations and additional volunteers. They specifically need donations of Ensure, walkers, wheelchairs, microwaves and shower chairs. They can be dropped off at Meals on Wheels, 3202 San Jacinto 77004. More info here.

Houston Food Bank helps provide meals for hungry neighbors in emergencies and all year round. To donate to the food bank, click here

Houston Furniture Bank provides furniture in need and is launching a special effort to help Harvey victims. They are accepting donations of furniture, especially mattresses, tables and chairs, call ahead before making a drop-off donation, at (713) 842-9771. Monetary donations are accepted at houstonfurniturebank.org.

United Way of Greater Houston has set up a relief fund that people can donate to. The organization said its first priority is shelter and basic needs like food. The organization said it will also focus on long-term recovery efforts. It also said that it will absorb administrative costs, so 100 percent of every donation goes directly to relief.

Houston Children's Charity is teaming up with the Astros shortstop Carlos Correa to raise $500,000 to provide displaced children with beds. Click here to learn more and to donate.

BARC Animal Shelter is taking donations  the shelter is closed for Labor Day and will resume regular operations Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Rosenberg is serving residents of Fort Bend, Wharton and other surrounding areas devastated by Harvey with hot meals, groceries, cleaning supplies and help applying for assistance. They are requesting monetary assistance. To help, call the church office at 281-232-5113.

Holy Family Catholic Church at 2011 Briar Ln, Wharton, TX 77488 needs supplies for its shelter. They especially need wooden pallets.

UPDATE Sept. 4: -Holy Family Roman Catholic Church is no longer accepting donations. They ask that you now send donations to East Gate New Prosperity Baptist Church in Wharton and Greater New Prospect Baptist Church in Needville.

Star of Hope: The local faith-based homeless shelter is accepting monetary donations to help its community cope with the disaster. Click here to donate.

The South East Texas Regional Advisory Council needs medical supplies. For how and what to donate, contact adunn@americares.org. They are also accepting monetary donations here.

LGBTQ Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund: Donations will help LGBTQ community members displaced by the story. The fund is managed by the Montrose Center. To donate to the relief fund, click here

Avenue CDC: A local nonprofit working to build affordable housing in Houston will help rebuild in the aftermath of the storms. Click here

I Have Food I Need Food is a collaborative of many Houston chefs, restaurant owners, suppliers, and volunteers who are sourcing and preparing food to distribute to storm victims across the region. Commercial kitchens and licensed caters can register to donate here

Pets affected by Hurricane Harvey are being taken in by animal shelters across Texas, including the SPCA of Texas, Austin Pets Alive and the San Antonio Humane Society. The Houston Humane Society is also available, with limited staff. For Habitat for Horses, donate here

HISD Foundation: Help HISD students and families in need of storm relief. Click here

Houston ISD is accepting donations Saturday at Delmar Fieldhouse, 2020 Mangum, Houston, TX 77092, 8 a.m. til 5 p.m. Enter the complex on Mangum and follow the signs.

The district is accepting donations of the following new, unused items: undergarments, socks, uniforms, deodorant, hand sanitizer, pillows, blankets, shoes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, other hygiene items, professional dress for impacted staff

Sept. 5-8 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., donations will be accepted at Delmar Fieldhouse, 2020 Mangum, Houston, TX 77092; Butler Stadium, 13755 Main St., Houston, TX 77035; and Barnett Stadium, 6800 Fairway, Houston, TX 77087. Starting Sept. 11, Delmar Feildhouse will accept donations during normal business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Fort Bend ISD has teamed up with businesses and organizations to set up several donation collection and distribution sites. They are accepting bedding, toiletries, school uniforms and non-perishable food items, among other things. For a list of where to donate, click here

Fort Bend ISD Foundation is accepting monetary donations to aid teachers and students impacted by the storm, click here

KIPP Houston Public Schools has set up a Family Emergency Fund to help students, staff and their families who have been affected by Harvey. Click here

Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: For donations call 1-800-924-5985. For volunteer opportunities call 281-656-1533 or visit volunteerhouston.org

The Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce has set up a donation fund to support African-American businesses affected by Hurricane Harvey. Check donations can be made payable to GHBC Foundation, 4828 Loop Central Drive, Suite 100, Houston, TX, 77081

Brazoria County Recovery Fund, set up by Brazoria County Office of Emergency Management, will help the county with run shelters in the county and in neighboring Fort Bend County. Click here

MC-CARES, a partnership of Interfaith of The Woodlands and United Way, has announced five donation collection sites in Montgomery County. These Hubs are prepared to accept donations. The following items are most needed: baby food, baby formula, diapers, new undergarments, hygiene products, water, squeeze pouch fruit and vegetables, easy open canned fruit and vegetables, pasta and convenience meals, granola bars, toilet paper, paper towels, mops, brooms, garbage bags, towels, and blankets. The hubs are as follows:

Central Montgomery County:

Crisis Assistance Center  1022 McCall Ave. Conroe, TX 77301, Phone: 936-539-1096

Falcon Steel America  3575 Pollok Dr., Conroe, TX 77303

South Montgomery County:

Interfaith of The Woodlands  4242 Interfaith Way, The Woodlands, TX 77381, Phone: 281- 367-1230

St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Parish  7801 Bay Branch Dr., The Woodlands, TX 77382

East Montgomery County:

Mission Northeast  22098 Loop 494 New Caney, TX 77357, Phone: 281-354-1200

Westbury Baptist Church, 10425 Hillcroft, will serve as a drop-off and distribution site for supplies needed by those impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit their website for a list of needed items. Hours are 9 am to 7 pm.

Jewish Community Center, 5601 S. Braeswood, although impacted by the storm, will be distributing supplies and accepting donations for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Hours are Thursday-Sunday (Aug. 31-Sept. 3) from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the J's Tennis Center. Enter off of Atwell and exit Braeswood. For a list of needs, click here

UPDATE Sept. 4: The Jewish Community Center is no longer accepting supplies. Those signed up for their assistance program can pick up supplies at the Tennis Center.

Westbury Christian Church and School, 10420 Hillcroft, on Friday, Sept. 1, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Westbury Christian School and Westbury Church of Christ will be accepting donations of specific items (see their website for details) at the McCloy Gymnasium located at 10420 Hillcroft (west end of south parking lot). On Saturday, September 2, WCS and Church will organize and distribute supplies. For more information and a list of needs, click here

Lone Star Convention Center 9055 Airport Road, Conroe 77303, is serving as a shelter and needs cots and bedding, coloring books, crayons and basketballs for the many children there.

UPDATE Sept. 4: Lone Star Convention Center is redirecting donations to their warehouse (3575 Pollok Dr. in Conroe.) Immediate needs include cleaning supplies and women's pants/shirts size 4x. They are open Monday, Sept. 4 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lord of Life Lutheran Church 3801 S Panther Creek Dr, The Woodlands, TX 77381 is collecting clothing, cleaning supplies, toiletries.

UPDATE Sept. 4: Lord of Life Lutheran Church is no longer accepting anything other than cleaning supplies. They are overwhelmed with clothes.

The Montgomery County Food Bank will be accepting mass quantity food, personal care items and toiletries at: One Food for Life Way, Conroe, TX 77385 Phone: 936-539-6686 (GPS will recognize- 1 Prospect Point Conroe, TX 77385)

Monetary donations to help Montgomery County-wide flood recovery efforts can be directed to: United Way- 1600 Lake Front Circle Ste. 248, The Woodlands, TX 77380 Phone: 281-292- 4155

Holy Name Catholic Church: This Woodland Heights church, 1920 Marion, is open to shelter evacuees. They are also feeding any first responders who stop in. The shelter has plenty of donations already, but needs toothpaste.

Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies: This grass-roots agency helps families with disabilities. Click here.

Easter Seals Houston: The local chapter of this longtime organization provides services to people with disabilities and their families. Click here.

Texas Diaper Bank: This San Antonio-based group needs monetary donations and supplies. Click here.

Galveston County Food Bank: Monetary and food donations are needed at this Galveston County nonprofit. Click here.

Food Bank of the Golden Crescent: This food bank in Victoria needs donations of money and food. Click here.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD: Shelters in the school district are in urgent need of bleach and bottled water. Click here for details on how to donate.

Corpus Christi Food Bank: In this hard-hit city, food and monetary donations are needed. Click here.

Brittmoore Rescue: Located in hard-hit Memorial (1401 Brtittmoore Rd.), the donation center is taking water, snacks and cleaning supplies.

Jewish Family Service of Houston: This local nonprofit is accepting donations to handle immediate needs of those affected by Tropical Storm Harvey and its flooding. The group provides a variety of services, including mental health and support counseling. Click here

Jewish Federation of Greater Houston: This nonprofit provides a variety of services to the Houston community. Click here

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Disaster Recovery Fund - Click here

Casa Juan Diego Catholic Worker House shelter for immigrants: Food can be brought to 4818 Rose St. They also need adult diapers, especially medium pull-ups for the sick and injured, as well as underpads for beds, baby wipes and wipes for adults. Financial donations to assist those who have lost much in the flood and hurricane can be sent to P.O. Box 70113, Houston, TX 77270.

The Forge for Families, a Christian-based community organization, is a temporary American Red Cross shelter, housing more than 300 hurricane victims. They need food, new underwear for men and women, and baby supplies. Easy drop off at 3435 Dixie. Click here for more info about the group.

The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is holding dozens of blood drives across the region to help replenish supplies from three donation days lost during Harvey. For a list of drives, click here

Neighbors Emergency Care Centers are collecting donated items for Harvey relief efforts. Learn more here

Where to volunteer:

Harris County Volunteer hotline: 281-656-1533

BakerRipley is calling for volunteers to sign up for shifts at the shelter at the NRG Center. Sign up here.

Volunteer Houston: This volunteer-agency match program connects those interested in helping others to groups in need. Look here for ways to donate now, and ways to help in the cleanup that's sure to come. Visit volunteerhouston.org

NRG Center: Sign up for a shift to volunteer with BakerRipley at Houston's largest shelter. Click here

George R. Brown Convention Center: Volunteer Houston is coordinating volunteers for the shelter. Sign up for a shift here.

Toyota Center: Volunteers are needed here, but asked to register through the Red Cross and check in at GRB.

Gallery Furniture is accepting monetary donations and volunteers to help with its Rebuild TX initiative, which will provide free help with cleaning up homes damaged by Harvey. Click here

Texas Muck Map helps connect volunteers willing to help clean up homes with flood damage with the homeowners in need. Click here

Houston Food Bank: Volunteers are needed to sign up for various shifts. Click here

Houston Food Bank: There is a critical need for additional volunteers to take calls, coordinate furniture donations, help with furniture distribution, help move furniture in the warehouse, as well as other duties. Please call: (713) 842-9771 or email info@houstonfurniturebank.org to inquire about volunteering.

Woodlands Church at 1 Fellowship Way on Highway 242 needs volunteers to serve, work in shifts, and support those in need who arrive throughout today and the rest of the week. Click here to donate or volunteer.

The South East Texas Regional Advisory Council is connecting licensed caregiver volunteers with hospitals and health providers in need. Volunteer here.

Lord of Life Lutheran Church in The Woodlands: The church is organizing clean up crews to help flood-stricken residents recover. Crews will work from 10am to 6pm Saturday, Sept 2.

Workers should bring solid work gloves, hammers, screwdrivers, electric drills, utility knives and blades, wheelbarrows, pick up trucks, masks 1 gallon spray jobs for use with vinegar solution if they have them.

The Lifelong Learning Center in Katy: The center is offering free respite care for children with special needs and their siblings, ages 12-22. 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sept 5-8, 1701 East Ave. Light lunch and snacks included. They're seeking volunteers, too. 832-795-3342 or 832-935-0903; info@avantrcs.com

Houston Volunteer Lawyers is asking attorneys to volunteer their time and expertise to provide legal help to storm victims. Register to volunteer here

Willow Meadows Baptist Church, 4300 W. Bellfort, is organizing volunteer crews to help area homeowners with cleanup efforts Friday and Saturday. Staging times are at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Volunteers are asked to bring their own lunch and tools. Call or text 713 922-0877 for details.

Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster has a list of religious, community and non-profit disaster relief organizations that provide services to storm victims here.

Emergency Lodging Assistance is a FEMA -funded program that provides emergency housing in hotels. Hotels can find out more about participating in the program here or by calling 1-866-545-9865.

Texas organizations Carter BloodCare and South Texas Blood and Tissue Center are seeking blood donations.

To help Harvey-struck farmers and ranchers, the State of Texas Agriculture Relief Fund, managed by the Texas State Agriculture Department, is accepting private donations. Donate here. To donate hay and animal feed, check here, or call 512-463-9360.

National/global organizations:

The American Red Cross is encouraging people to donate money on its website or to text 90999 to donate $10. The organization is also asking for volunteers.

Apple is letting users donate to the American Red Cross directly on iTunes and App Store.

Salvation Army: Donations will help provide physical, emotional and spiritual care to survivors and relief workers in areas affected by Tropical Storm Harvey. The organization is running two emergency shelters in Houston and has served nearly 120,000 meals to storm victims. To go to helpsalvationarmy.org, call 1-800-SAL-ARMY, text STORM to 51555, or send a check (designated "Hurricane Harvey") mailed to PO BOX 1959, Atlanta, GA 30301

The International Orthodox Christian Charities is collecting donations for its Hurricane Harvey Response Fund.

Direct Relief: This relief organization sends its inventory of emergency health supplies to areas in need, including the parts of the Gulf Coast affected by the storm. Click here

Save the Children: This organization will be working to bring supplies for children in shelters as well as other support. Click here

UNICEF USA has started a fund to assist children affected by Hurricane Harvey. Click here

Samaritan's Purse: This nondenominational evangelical Christian group has provided international relief since 1970. To donate to Samaritan's Purse, click here

Convoy of Hope: This group distributes emergency supplies and is on the ground in areas affected by Tropical Storm Harvey. In addition to financial donations, they are looking for volunteers who live within two hours of the storm-damaged area. Visit www.convoyofhope.org

Episcopal Relief and Development: To help fund efforts for storm rescue, relief and recovery, you can donate to this organization that has an international reach. Click here

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Charities organizes groups of volunteers to help during disasters. Click here

Global Giving: This crowdfunding site is trying to raise $2 million to help storm victims. To donate to Global Giving, click here

Heart to Heart International: The group's disaster response team delivers water, supplies, hygiene/health kits to affected areas. To donate to HHI, click here

Islamic Relief USA: This national group funds a variety of efforts, including disaster and emergency response efforts under way in Houston. Click here

United Sikhs: This religious, international nonprofit organization is organizing volunteers and accepting donations to help bring supplies to underserved neighborhoods affected by Harvey. Call 1-888-423-1690 for assistance with shipping and distribution of donated items. United Sikhs is asking that all supporters consider a $25 or more gift by texting HOUSTON2017 to 91999 or donate here. To volunteer locally, contact sikhaid@unitedsikhs.org or call (888) 243-1690.

Mattew 25 Ministries: This faith-based group provides humanitarian aid and disaster relief worldwide. They accept monetary and product donations. Click here

WATCHING HARVEY: Death toll reportedly reaches 5 as Harvey spawns massive flooding in Houston area

DonorsChoose.org is collecting funds to help teachers rebuild and restock their classrooms with books and other classroom supplies. All of the donations to the relief fund will support classroom projects.

Better Than a Hotel is temporarily making all of their available rentals in Austin and College station free for evacuees affected by Hurricane Harvey. For those in need of shelter can contact Albert Smith, director of business development and marketing at albert@BetterThanAHotel.com.

Airbnb has launched a site for people looking for a place to stay and for those who can offer shelter. Fees are waived for people who check in before September 25.

Americares, an emergency response organization based in Connecticut, is delivering relief supplies and working with a local clinic in Houston. They are taking donations here.

Global Giving is attempting to raise $2 million for funds that will "exclusively support local relief and recovery efforts from this storm."

HARVEY HITS: Houston residents share Hurricane Harvey photos on social media

Other organizations that are accepting donations for disaster relief include the Texas Diaper Bank, Discoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi.

Embark is donating 100 percent of its net profits from consumer website sales from Wednesday to Sunday to the Houston Humane Society and Austin Dog Alliance.

Simon & Schuster is providing assistance by offering damaged Texas public libraries and school libraries a donation of 250 "best of" titles to help restock their collections. School and public libraries can request the donation by emailing S&S at education.library@simonandschuster.com. For booksellers affected by the flooding, S&S is offering multiple copies of 20 new releases and bestsellers free of charge. Booksellers affected should contact the Book Industry Charitable Foundation at help@bincfoundation.org.
Brazoria County officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for all areas west of Texas 288 and south of Texas 6, which covers roughly the entire western half of the county.

County officials designated one evacuation route: citizens are to get on Texas 35 west, then take Texas 71 north to Interstate 10.

Texas 288 north and Texas 36 west are expected to flood in parts, and evacuees cannot take those routes.

"We're asking your citizens to please pack your things and evacuate now," Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta said.

The evacuation orders come as the Brazos and San Bernard rivers continue to rise. Both rivers are expected to hit "major" flood levels, the highest threshold on federal projections.

The Brazos River near Rosharon is projected to hit "major" levels of about 51 feet by 7 p.m. Sunday, cresting at 52.6 feet Monday evening. The San Bernard River hit the 20-foot "major" level early Sunday, and it's expected to rise to nearly 34 feet by mid-week.

Sebesta said they will have "very limited state resources" to perform rescue operations due to flooding stretching from Corpus Christi to east of Houston.

"We're asking people to get out of harm's way," he said.

The evacuation order applies to the Buffalo Camp and Sugar Mill neighborhoods of Lake Jackson, which sits on Texas 288. Residents of Angleton are not subject to the order.

County officials will provide busing out of the area later Sunday. Staging will take place at the Brazoria County Fairgrounds.

Residents in West Columbia, a town of 4,000 people located a couple miles west of the Brazos River, quickly received word of the mandatory evacuation order and started preparing to leave town. Though the region hasn't been hit extremely hard by rain, locals know how quickly the Brazos River rises after flooding last year devastated areas along the waterway.

Karen and Wade Weems loaded a truck and SUV with food, clothing and equipment from their store, Best Signs Galore, after hearing of the order.

The 2016 flood narrowly missed the Weems' store and came within about 18 inches of apartment complex they manage on the river's side of town, Wade Weems said. They were taking no chances this time, getting as much equipment off the ground, using ladders to stack as many valuables as they could toward the ceiling.

"It's panic," said Wade Weems, 60, who has lived in West Columbia his entire life. "I've never had water in my apartments or store. Now they're telling me it could be 6 (or) 8 feet of water."

A few blocks over, Michael Ortega stuffed his grey F-350 truck with clothes and valuable documents, planning to hit the road to Dallas. The evacuation order convinced him it was time to leave.

"I was thinking of leaving Thursday, but I had so much to do here," Ortega, 24, said. "I had to cover all the windows, I had to get ready, and then it started raining so much."
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ROCKPORT  Tropical-force gusts whipped the frizzy hair of 19-year-old Nathan Kaufman as he made a desperate search Saturday of what had been his home.

His upstairs apartment was destroyed, and he carefully picked among the sodden piles of insulation and shattered wall studs that littered a place that was now mostly open to the sky and relentless rain.

All he could find Saturday afternoon was a pair of Jordan sneakers still in a box, two white shirts and some video games. There was no sign of his lost dog Binky, a two-year-old Rottweiler.

He was both desolate at his losses and in awe of the power of the storm.

"All of my stuff is gone," said Kaufman, the words rushing out as if he had been punched in the gut. "I have no idea what I'm going to do. But it's in God's hands."

Kaufmann, who spent Friday night in a shelter, was among the first to return to the popular bayfront tourist town in South Texas, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey when it came ashore Friday night as a Category 4 storm.

Harvey was the strongest hurricane to hit the Texas coast since Carla in 1961.

Widespread damage from Harvey was also reported in nearby Port Aransas and Corpus Christi, the Nueces County seat where residents were told to boil their water.

In Rockport, one person died in the storm in a structure fire, and about a dozen people were treated for minor injuries. Officials said damage was likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

On every block, there were shattered shops and boat yards, homes without roofs that were open to the sky without roofs or crushed by the magnificent oaks that enclose the town. Mobile home parks and commercial RV lots were filled with trailers that had been flipped on their side by the winds.

Power lines and downed traffic signals littered the roadways, along with dozens of wooden power poles snapped by the winds. Even the welcoming sign at the entrance to Rockport and the neighboring community of Fulton was wrapped in metal debris, torn from a roof and twisted by Hurricane Harvey.

Fulton Mayor Jimmy Kendrick fought back tears, his voice choking as he spoke of the loss to the town, which included extensive damage to the school buildings shared by Rockport and Fulton, along with the county courthouse.

"Our town is destroyed, and it hurts," the mayor said, explaining he felt he did not do enough to protect the community.

Aransas County Judge Burt Mills said the community will rebuild.

"It's very disheartening," he said. "We're going to get through it. We'll make it. Working together we'll rebuild and we'll be better."

The Salt Grass Landing apartment complex where Kaufman lived is now literally in shreds. Of the six two-story apartment buildings facing each other across a parking lot, some had lost sections of the roof above the second-floor apartments, while bricks and siding had been shorn from the others, leaving bare wooden studs and bats of insulation.

Kaufman and his roommate, Deantre Thomas, also 19, had been walking from the shelter when Rockport police Officer David Rollins saw them along the road, soaked from the rain.

"It's town-wide," Rollins said. "It's all over. There's not a part of Rockport that you can drive into and not see some kind of devastation - homes, businesses, schools. It didn't leave anyone untouched."

The police officer appeared dazed, and he and other local officials were heartened by the rapid response of the state and federal government to aid the battered seaside resort towns. Outside the police stations, green-and-white Border Patrol SUVs were parked next to a growing contingent of Texas Department of Public Safety patrol units. Buses with workers to help survey the damage were arriving in caravans.

"This is terrible," Rollins said. "It's going to take of lot of time for the recovery."

One of Rockport's most visible landmarks  a cavernous, five-story boat storage facility  was ripped open by the hurricane-force winds. Scores of boats were exposed high in the air, tucked into their spaces, but others had been ripped from the facility and had landed below.

Next door, a sprawling boat yard, called the House of Boats, had been the scene of harrowing escape by worker Fermin Garcia, 46. After he helped the owners lift a number of boats out of the water, he and his son and another young worker retired to their houseboat, moored behind the yard.

Hours after Harvey arrived, Garcia felt the winds was about to lift the boat into the air. The trio quickly abandoned ship, and made their way in the howling wind a short distance to a large iron fuel tank.

They pried open the end of the tank, climbed inside and spent the next 12 hours listening to the storm and the crashing of large boats being thrown from their cradles.

"It wasn't hard to do, especially with the fear we felt," Garcia said of the dangerous sprint from the sinking boat to the empty diesel tank. He hasn't had time to begin trying to salvage his house boat, but he, too, is optimistic.

"The good thing is we are alive, and we are ready to really get back to work," he said.

Harvey's left a path of destruction from the coast to more than 70 miles inland, where the small Texas town of Refugio was also hard hit by the storm.

At the American Best Value Inn, portions of the roof at both ends of the 43-unit hotel had been ripped off. The ensuing sheets of rain and wet insulation eventually caused the ceilings to cave in.

"We did a lot of praying," said manager Pete Lopez. "It was tin-flapping and the wind was roaring like a train coming down with no whistle."
Hundreds of volunteers have traveled from all over the United States to Houston to help victims of Hurricane Harvey with the American Red Cross. The problem is getting them to the places where people need the help.

"I really apologize, you've been sitting around all morning waiting for orders," said Charles Blake, the Red Cross' division disaster executive for the Southwest, in a pep talk to a group of volunteers on Sunday afternoon at a downtown hotel. "We've got the resources, we just don't have the ability to get people in."

Many volunteers had been staying there for days, first waiting for their assistance to be needed, and then waiting for safe enough conditions to travel. Some shelters are seriously understaffed: There are six people in Corpus Christi in a shelter with 900 hurricane victims, Blake said, because convoys were unable to get there during the storm. Some volunteers had been flooded out of their shelters, and then the hotels where they took refuge.

"Every time they get ready to launch a plan, the rain starts again," Blake said. The Red Cross was able to send a number of volunteers to the George R. Brown Convention Center, where the city has opened a "mega-shelter," in a dump truck on Sunday morning. But dozens had been in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza since 6:30 a.m., waiting to deploy.

"How many of you have been in the military?" asked Fred Sanford, regional emergency services director for the Red Cross' Gulf Coast region. A number of hands went up. "You know what they say about hurry up and wait?"

The volunteers, mostly retirees, are very good at being patient. Many of them have been on multiple deployments, which usually last about two weeks each, over years of volunteering. This year has been particularly bad for floods and fires.

Volunteers are trained and certified in a battery of skills, from feeding to mental health treatment to damage assessment, which can only be done when the waters recede.

Dottie Murray, 77, arrived on Friday from Sutton, Mass. She's been volunteering for 12 years, going on at least two deployments a year. "I'd do more, but my husband won't let me," she says, laughing.

She was supposed to have traveled to a shelter in Austin today, for people who'd self-evacuated, but wasn't able to get out.
Guatemalans elected a former television comic as president in 2015 on promises he would be honest, unlike his reviled predecessor. But on Sunday, in a move that sent Guatemala lurching toward chaos, he ordered a U.N.-backed anti-corruption panel expelled after it began moving against him.

The decision by President Jimmy Morales to go after a panel he had once readily accepted was a head-spinning turn for Guatemala, which is regarded as one of Latin America's most corrupt countries but which also appeared to be making progress recently toward accountability.

The panel is led by Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian prosecutor who has spearheaded a series of political corruption inquiries. Velasquez and Attorney General Thelma Aldana said late Friday that they would seek to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution, alleging that he had failed to report anonymous contributions to his campaign.

The sudden expulsion order by Morales on Sunday pit him against a majority of Guatemalans who have supported the wide-ranging investigations launched by Velasquez and Aldana - prosecutors who have become unlikely heroes in a country where political and economic elites had long exercised unchecked control.

The first hint that Morales would face resistance, even inside his own government, came an hour after his announcement, when the government said that he had replaced his foreign minister, Carlos Raul Morales.

In ordering Velasquez's panel out, Morales is also openly defying the United Nations and the United States, which have repeatedly supported the prosecutor's decision to focus the panel's work on tackling corruption.

Two years ago, an investigation by Velasquez and Aldana into a customs fraud conspiracy led to the fall of then-President Otto Perez Molina, who resigned after 20 weeks of relentless street protests that displayed remarkable power by outraged citizens.

Morales became Guatemala's president after he won the election at the end of 2015 on the slogan, "not corrupt, nor a thief." A one-time television comedian, he swept into office as an outsider and political neophyte, an incongruous conduit for the hopes of Guatemalans who had reached a breaking point over the impunity of their corrupt politicians.

When Velasquez and Aldana announced an investigation that implicated the president's son and brother in a scheme to falsify receipts, Morales stopped cooperating with the anti-corruption commission, although he did not try then to block the investigation.
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UPDATE 6:16 p.m.

Lone Star College will be closed through Monday, Sept 4. Classes are expected to resume Sept 5. Registration, payment and all financial aid requirements will be delayed until Wednesday evening, Sept 6.

The John Cooper School in the Woodlands will be closed Monday, including activities. School officials are monitoring the storm and will determine Monday whether to open the campus Tuesday.

UPDATE 6:00 p.m.

Officials are asking residents along Spring Creek in South Montgomery County to leave their homes, if possible, as the creek is expected to reach near record-breaking levels within the next 24 hours, according to Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack.

The creek is expected to crest at 111 feet in parts, which is the same amount of flooding seen along Spring Creek in 1994. It is 3 feet more than what the area saw during the torrential flooding in 2016.

Residents who live in Grogan's Point, Timarron (including residences south of Spring Creek and west of Kuykendahl), Tallowberry, Carlton Woods Creekside, residences near Spring Creek on the south side of Flintridge, and Gatewood Reserve may experience flooding conditions.

Additional neighborhoods or streets include: Aventura, Bracebridge, Carlton Woods Creekside, Cascade Canyon, Creek Ridge, Gatewood Reserve, Grogan's Point, Havergate, Heritage Hill, Heron's Flight, Horizon Ridge, Hunters Crossing, Landsdowne, Legacy Point, Lenox Hill, Pondera Point, Shawnee Ridge, River Bank, Stellar Point, Tallowberry, Tealbriar, Trace Creek, Timarron and Timarron Lakes.

Evactuation routes for residents of Grogan's Point have been established at Sawdust Road Baptist Church at 3100 Sawdust Rd. From there, residents will be transported across Sawdust Road

where buses will be waiting to transfer to local shelter. Residents wishing to be picked by any other means can depart from this location, according to the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management.

Officials have established a shelter at the following location:

St. Simon and Jude

26777 Glen Loch Road

The Woodlands, TX 77381

UPDATE 2:00 p.m.

Trolley service in The Woodlands was suspended Sunday. Woodlands Express Park and Ride Operations will be suspended Monday. Shopping centers are closed.

All Township facilities will be closed on Monday, but personnel will still be working in the field including Township fire department, parks and communications personnel.

Spring Creek remains within its banks at Kuykendahl, but Spring Creek at I-45 has risen out of its banks.

Minor power outages are being reported. Centerpoint and Entergy are working diligently to make necessary repairs, according to the township.

Aside from a few fallen trees, the residents of Oak Ridge North are faring well, said Police Chief Andy Walters.

"We are doing good," Walters said. "No flooding. No problems."

1:30 p.m. The Woodlands Township officials are asking residents to stay indoors and off the roads as remnants of Hurricane Harvey continue to batter the area with rain, flooding roads and threatening homes.

Harvey continues to be a tropical storm with virtually no movement from its present location in South Texas and will continue to bring torrential rain to Montgomery County.

The Woodlands Township board Chairman Gordy Bunch said officials in the master-planned community are working with the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and The Woodlands Fire Department to monitor creeks and lakes in the area.

At least one neighborhood in The Woodlands is experiencing extremely high water, where the entrance to it is impassable, Bunch said.

The entrance to Grogan's Point is underwater, Bunch said. Residents in the area have not reported any flooding to their homes, he added.

The township's biggest concern is how much additional rain the area could see, he said, adding that authorities are monitoring creek and lake levels.

The area has been pelted with about 15 inches of rain and is projected to get an additional 4-9 inches over the next 24 hours, Bunch said.

Spring Creek, which runs along the Harris County and Montgomery County border, has crested at 108 feet, just shy of the Tax Day floods of 2016 where the creek reached 111 feet, Bunch said.

With an additional 9 inches to that creek, we could see some historic flooding, he added.

Authorities are concerned with neighborhoods that may become inaccessible due to roads and bridges surrounding them becoming impassable, Bunch said.

No evacuation order is in place, he said.

"Unless there is a critical reason, don't leave your home," he said.

The Conroe Independent School District has canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday, and Tomball ISD has closed for the week.

CISD buses are being used for evacuations, said board President Melanie Bush. It's unclear where people will be evacuated to.

In Shenandoah, Mayor Ritch Wheeler is advising residents to not venture out of their homes.

"As of right now, Shenandoah only has minor road closures," Wheeler said. "We are urging people to stay off the roads, however. We could potentially see 15-25 more inches of rain between now and tomorrow morning. We have essential personnel, including Shenandoah PD and Public Works on hand to assist in any emergencies."

There have been no reports of home flooding, he added.

Because 911 is overloaded with calls, Shenandoah residents should call 281-367-8952 in the case of an emergency only, Wheeler said.

"Please be thoughtful about what an emergency is, as they will have their hands full," he said.

About 15 road closures have been reported in the area.

The Woodlands current road closures.

The Woodlands Current Road Closures as of 10AM:

RESEARCH FOREST DR EAST OF EGYPT LN

SIX PINES/LAKE FRONT

GLEN LOCH / GARY

RESEARCH FOREST/BRANCH CROSSING

1400 BLK OF LAKE FRONT CIR

MISTY MORNING/MILL TRACE

1500 SAWDUST

LAKE WOODLANDS/WINDWARD COVE

GROGANS MILL/HUGHES LANDING

LAKE WOODLANDS/E PANTHER CREEK

SAWDUST/MILLBEND

GLEN LOCH / DAWNWOOD

GLEN LOCH / SAWDUST

SAWDUST @ GROGANS POINT

HARPERS LANDING / TRADE CENTER
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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AKRON, Ohio -- Akron police Chief James Nice has resigned from his position, city officials said Sunday.

Nice resigned at the request of Mayor Dan Horrigan, a news release from the city states. It does not give a reason as to why Horrigan asked Nice to step down.

Horrigan appointed Akron police Maj. Kenneth Ball to serve as the provisional police chief, the release states.

No further details about the resignation were released Sunday evening. Horrigan's chief of staff, James Hardy, said the city would not provide further details tonight.

Horrigan plans to hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. Monday to address the situation, the release says.

Nice's resignation comes two days after 17-year-old Xavier McMullen died of a gunshot wound to his head while in police custody. McMullen was sitting in the back of a police cruiser about 11 p.m. Friday after he was detained in connection with a robbery.

Shortly after he was placed in the patrol car, Akron officers heard a gunshot and saw that McMullen was shot. Authorities found a gun near the teen, the Summit County Medical Examiner said in a Saturday news release.

During their preliminary investigation, police learned that McMullen likely shot himself, but it's still unclear if the shot was intentional or accidental, Akron police spokesman Capt. Daniel Zampelli said Saturday.

Two other men -- Anthony Criss, 18, of Cuyahoga Falls and Matthew Allen, 18, of Akron -- were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery in connection with the incident, Akron Municipal Court records show.

Akron police's Office of Professional Standards, as well as the medical examiner and the detective bureau, continue to probe the incident.

This is a developing story. This post will be updated.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, the giant glass crystal off Euclid Avenue at Mayfield Road, might not notice the subtle shift in art world gravity emanating from within.

The change is subtle, but palpable. MOCA is evolving from its role primarily as an importer of artistic ideas from elsewhere to that of a laboratory where global artists can feel more freedom to experiment than in coastal art capitals awash in money, publicity and the pressure to conform.

"The notion of being off center, outside the highly dense art world centers, relieves artists from market forces and to some extent from the critical glare," Jill Snyder, MOCA's director, said in a recent interview.

As Senior Curator Andria Hickey sees it, rising artists around the world use exhibitions in places like Milan, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles to battle for credibility, critical esteem and sales.

Cleveland, however, can be a place where there's room to experiment and connect with local audiences in a way that's more intimate and authentic than at lofty events such as the Venice Biennale or Art Basel Miami.

"The art world becomes such a self regulatory body," Hickey said. "You can't break out of it; you have to do what's expected of you."

"The artists we talk to, coming through on their site visits, feel a freedom here that's special," she said.

Announcing a schedule

Such ideas form the backbone of MOCA's plans for shows over the next two years, which will focus on spotting global trends, highlighting talents on the rise, commissioning new works, and underscoring how Cleveland itself contends with global economic and social currents.

"The issues that confront a city like Cleveland are issues that have global import," Snyder said. "When one talks about immigration, social inequity, the environment, socio-economic realities, these all play out in Cleveland, but they are the key drivers for global conversation as well."

Snyder said MOCA is taking stock of its position five years after occupying its architecturally striking new home in a building designed by Iranian-born architect Farshid Moussavi.

Since 2012, MOCA completed the $35 million capital campaign that paid for the building. Annual attendance, at 35,000, is more than twice what MOCA attained in its former home in the Cleveland Play House complex at 8501 Carnegie Ave.

The organization's budget grew from $1.6 million to $3 million, and it has finished the past three years in the black after planned deficits in the first two years after completing its building.

On par with peers

In a study completed last year, MOCA reported, based on data it gathered, that it is performing on par with peer institutions in Denver, St. Louis and Cincinnati.

MOCA will celebrate its achievements at its fundraising gala on Oct. 6, in which it will honor Milwaukee artist Michelle Grabner, who received her first solo museum show at MOCA in 2014, just before her career took off.

After her MOCA exhibit, Grabner co-curated the prestigious biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and joined the James Cohan Gallery, also in New York.

Grabner is also now co-curating the upcoming FRONT International Cleveland Triennial, debuting at a dozen institutions across Northeast Ohio next summer, including MOCA.

"We think Michelle epitomizes the arc of who we are, what we've been become," Snyder said.

Beyond celebrating the past five years, however, Snyder, the director of MOCA since 1996, said she and her colleagues need to ask: "How do we challenge ourselves to really soar?"

What next?

"Poethical Wager," Hickey's big curatorial effort this fall, is an example of how MOCA proposes to answer that question.

Opening Oct. 7, the show will survey the work of mid-career artists from around the world whose works use abstract, minimalist forms to express social or political ideas.

By mixing visual poetry and ethics - producing the "Poethical" wager of the show's title - artists are reinterpreting and enriching 20th century abstraction.

"I'm saying these are not just forms that exist for beauty or for poetic reasons, there's more to it," Hickey said.

Examples would include an installation by Iranian-born Abbas Akhavan comprised in part of a large abstract painting that in fact reproduces the logo of Blue Shield International, the nongovernmental organization whose mission is to shield cultural heritage in war zones.

In a similar vein, the sculptures of Egyptian native Iman Issa are elegant abstractions that from certain angles resemble military ordnance.

Songs from words of the homeless

Alongside "Poethical Wager," MOCA will use its smaller Toby Devan Lewis Gallery to host the first U.S. art museum exhibit devoted to British artist Phil Collins.

The exhibit will consist of six listening booths where listeners can hear vinyl recordings of songs based on recorded phone conversations of residents of a homeless shelter in Cologne, Germany.

In the spring of 2018, MOCA will present a new collaborative project by San Francisco native Tauba Auerbach, who works with film, video and sculpture. She'll collaborate on an installation with French electro-acoustic composer Eliane Radigue.

New Zealand native Simon Denny will simultaneously exhibit an installation exploring how big data can influence politics. That project will be informed by a collaboration with Youngjin Yoo, professor of entrepreneurship and information systems at the Weatherhead School of Management.

Forward with FRONT

MOCA will devote its entire exhibit program next summer to the inaugural FRONT triennial.

In the fall of 2018 MOCA will host "Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle," an exhibition organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum that explores what MOCA calls one of "the most beautiful, economically significant and ecologically complex regions on the planet."

The Rockman show will be accompanied by the first major U.S. solo museum exhibition on works by Aleksandra Domanovic, a native of Novi Sad in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia. The show will include newly commissioned works, along with examples of Domanovic's recent video, sculpture, and installations.

In the winter-spring slot in 2019, MOCA will kick off its 50th anniversary year by collaborating with the Cleveland Museum of Art on the first American museum exhibition devoted to Chinese artist Liu Wei.

Rising star from China

As MOCA states in an announcement, Liu works with diverse media to explore "the rigidly controlled social and political contradictions of modern Chinese society."

Through such exhibitions, MOCA hopes to flex its clout at it completes its first half century and looks beyond.

"We've become a more of an established and impactful cultural institution in our community," Snyder said. "How do we look at that responsibly and how do we use that in ways we really own and can define?"

MOCA's answers will soon be on view for all to see.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The future is now, at Case Western Reserve University's think[box].

The building, which serves as the campus's center for innovation and creation, recently opened its pizza ATM to the public, according to a post on think[box]'s Facebook account. Students and visitors alike can order pizza any time that the building is open, with only a few minutes of wait time.

How does it work?

First, pizzas are assembled in the kitchens of Bon Appetit, Case Western's catering service. Then, the pies are delivered and loaded into the machine. When a visitor orders a pizza, the machine cooks it in under three minutes, then hands the pizza over.

Another pizza ATM exists at Xavier University, which was the first one to exist in the U.S.

[Update: This story has been updated to reflect that the ATM is open any time think[box] is open, instead of 24 hours a day.]
By Alfredo Corchado, Dallas Morning News

NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO -- The internal fracturing of Mexico's once mighty criminal groups, including the Zetas, have led to soaring violence here and across the country, prompting the U.S. Department of State to issue travel warnings to the majority of Mexican states, including four bordering Texas.

The warning for 23 of the Mexico's 31 states underscores the deteriorating security across Mexico under President Enrique Pena Nieto, who came into office five years ago vowing to change the country's bloody narrative.

More than 12,500 people were killed in the first six months of this year, an increase of about 30 percent over the same period last year, putting Mexico on pace for what could be the deadliest year in its post-revolution history. Victims include tourists and returning migrants.

Historically troubled states such as Chihuahua and Tamaulipas made the state department's list, which now also includes popular beach regions like Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur and the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. The move could have a devastating blow to Mexico's $20-billion-a-year tourism industry, which represents about 7 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Quintana Roo alone accounts for an estimated one-third of all American tourists.

"U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes, including homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery in various Mexican states," the travel advisory states, and added that "gun battles between rival criminal organizations or with Mexican authorities have taken place on streets and in public places during broad daylight," but that there's no evidence to show criminal groups in Mexico have targeted Americans based on their nationality.

In Nuevo Laredo, violence has been fueled by fractures within the long-dominant Zetas, now split into two warring gangs, and the growing demand for heroin and other opiates in the United States. Widespread corruption within Mexican government and security forces, and impunity, is also spreading the lawlessness.

For more than a decade, Nuevo Laredo has been ground zero for violence, ever since the birth of the Zetas, a paramilitary group then fighting against Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel for control of the lucrative Interstate 1-35. In recent years, the Zetas split into two groups, one known as La Vieja Guardia, or the old guard, pitted against family members of former leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, who has deep familial ties in North Texas and is believed to influence operations from a Mexican federal prison. That group evolved into the CDN, or Cartel del Noroeste (the Northeast Cartel).

The CDN controls not just drug routes, but also smuggling, extortions, kidnappings and random killings, said Arturo Fontes, a former veteran FBI agent now working as a private investigator in the border region. Citing internal intelligence on both sides of the border, Fontes said the reasons behind the recent brual killings of nine people point to two working theories:

Either encroaching cartels -- Cartel de Nueva Generacion Jalisco aligned with remnants of the old Zetas and Gulf cartel, an explosive situation akin to a powder keg poised to ignite during an unpredictable presidential year.

Or, the victims could have been behind the smuggling, kidnapping of migrants, operating as free agents without paying CDN its cut.

The murders took place week of July 26 when Francisco Narciso of Painesville, and other migrants were being held captive. "There's more desperation for easy money and that makes everyday residents and immigrants that much more vulnerable," said Fontes.

To comment on this story, visit Sunday's deportation and immigration comments section.


CORNWALL, Ontario  Garlic Fest was held for the first time at the Nav Centre this year, and organizer Brenda Norman feels that the event was a great success.

It is way more happening this year, said Norman. Everybody loves it and the vendors say it is so amazing.

The event had a lot of unique features, from the live music to the fact that it was the second to last time that wine from Strathmore Winery was sold at a public event.

Garlic Fest had traditionally been held at Lamoureux Park, which Norman says is an awesome venue, but when they were invited to the Nav Centre by management, they felt they had a real opportunity to evolve Garlic Fest into something new.

Norman said that this year saw a very high turnout with more than 5, 000 people attending the event and more than 50 vendors selling everything from elk meat, to wood art, to of course, garlic.

Joe Schweitzer an immigrant from Transylvania said that he was a real fan of Garlic Fest, pointing out how important the root is in his home country for staving off vampires.
Hero of Mollywood's first musical hit 'Thiramala' shares his Hollywood stint, directing Prem Nazir and more
Did Congress pass and President Trump sign a bill that allows warrantless searches of homes without hardly anyone noticing? The answer is yes, according to the Free Thought Project, which reported:

A bill that will allow homes to be searched without a warrant was passed with overwhelming support by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Trumpand it happened with no media coverage and very little fanfare.

The House Joint Resolution 76 was signed into law on Tuesday, Aug. 22, by President Trump. The text seems fairly yawn-worthy, starting off with: Granting the consent and approval of Congress for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia to enter into a compact relating to the establishment of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.

CNN explained, This law lets Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia form a new panel called the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission to oversee safety of the D.C.-area public transportation Metro train system.

The new safety commission will take over from the Federal Transit Agency (FTA), which has been in charge of safety oversight for the Washington Metropolitan Area Interstate Compact (WMATA) since October 2015.

Well set this up and get the FTA out of Metro. They are happy to get out, and were happy to get them out, Metro Board of Directors Chair Jack Evans told Bloomberg BNA. Im glad we got this thing. If nothing else, well get our money.

The money Evans referenced is an estimated $15 million in withheld federal transit funds from fiscal 2017. The FTA has been withholding transit formula funds from D.C., Maryland, and Virginias transportation departments since February, Bloomberg reported.

None of that seems especially startling, but the Free Thought Project reported on one major red flag buried within the text of the bill that would give the newly formed commission the authority to enter property near the Metro Rail System without limitation and without a warrant, for the purpose of making inspections, investigations, examinations, and testing.

The text reads:

In performing its duties, the Commission, through its Board or designated employees or agents, may: Enter upon the WMATA Rail System and, upon reasonable notice and a finding by the chief executive officer that a need exists, upon any lands, waters, and premises adjacent to the WMATA Rail System, including, without limitation, property owned or occupied by the federal government, for the purpose of making inspections, investigations, examinations, and testing as the Commission may deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this MSC Compact, and such entry shall not be deemed a trespass.

When the bill previously went through Congress, only five Congressmen voted against it. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted:

Only 5 of us voted against bill allowing govt to enter/search private property in parts of VA, MD & DC w/o warrant. https://t.co/SVhTWqbPaB  Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 18, 2017

Three hundred ninety-nine Congressmen gave it the thumbs-up, and 29 couldnt be bothered to vote at all. Apparently, they cant be bothered to stand up for the people or the Constitution. After all, the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. As Amash pointed out, the government will now be able to bust into private property without needing a warrant based on probable cause.

As Rachel Blevins wrote on the Free Thought Project, While it may only affect the Washington, D.C., metro area now, it could be laying the blueprint for future legislation across the country.
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BRIDGEPORT  A good number of Bassick High Schools 250 first-time freshman filled the bleachers of the schools gymnasium for orientation Thursday and Byron Williams  their new principal  was there to greet them.

He pledged to stick it out if they came.

I am not going anywhere, he told the presumptive class of 2021.

Making good on that promise would set a precedent.

Williams is taking charge of a school that has had a revolving door in the principals office for the past decade.

This time, Williams insisted, will be different.

For one, the 64-year-old educator said he is not a quitter.

Two, Williams said he wont be working alone to turnaround a school where just 60 percent of students graduate on time and only 10 percent scored at grade level on the school administered SAT test in 2017.

He said he will have a team of support  three assistant principals who were put into place before his appointment. Only one, Carmen McPherson, was at the school last year. That makes her the veteran.

For Assistant Principal Beswick Channer it is a homecoming. He graduated from Bassick in 1998. Assistant Principal James Denton, who has held quite a number of roles in the district, was last supervisor of security for the district.

This year we will try to attack what the problems are that are keeping students away from school  to get them coming back consistently, said Williams. We want to make school interesting ... safe and orderly. We can only do that as a team.

It is a team that has some recruiting to do. Williams appointment came against the objections of the Bassick School Governance Council, made up of faculty, parents and community members. Teachers also came out against the appointment.

Williams notes that he had a majority of school board members and Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson, on his side. The ultimate decision was Johnsons to make.

I was thinking larger picture, Johnson said of her choice. What do the children need over there at Bassick at this moment in time.

Bassick, Johnson said bluntly, is in crisis.

I thought if my son was there as a ninth grader what would I want there, she said. That is what drives my decision. One principal cant make a difference. They need a leadership team in place. They need central office support. Community support. No one person can move the needle.

Williams has been with the district since 2013, brought in by then interim Superintendent Paul Vallas as the first principal of the Bridgeport Military Academy. He was a retired Marine Corps officer with experience as a principal and district administrator in Philadelphia.

Although well-liked by parents and students, Williams faced termination when he failed to submit paperwork to the state to attain a Connecticut administrator certification. He briefly resigned only to get his job back.

After one school year, he was transferred to Wilbur Cross School as an assistant principal. His last assignment was at Cesar Batalla, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school across the street from Bassick.

I stuck with district, write that down, Williams said from his new office at Bassick where he intends to hang all of his diplomas, including a just earned superintendent certificate from Southern Connecticut State University.

In his new role he will earn an annual salary of $141,561.

Williams said what students at Bassick need most is someone who will stick with them.

We at Bassick have some great students, Williams said.

He wants to meet regularly with the student council as well as children who have challenges.

Our goal is to identify children with issues that we can head off before they become large and uncontrollable, Williams said.

Last years principal, Tomas Ramirez came to the school with a similar philosophy. Ramirez knocked on doors last summer to introduce himself to freshman. Williams applauds the effort, but said getting students in school is just half the battle.

I have a degree of toughness about me, Williams said. You cant be wishy-washy. I am fair but I dont negotiate policy.

The district website shows four teaching vacancies, including two in math, and one each in English and social studies at Bassick as of August 27. Williams on Thursday and then again on Sunday said all positions are filled. He could not speak to how Human Resources status positions on its website.

According to Williams several community organizations are ready to pitch in. A partnership with Housatonic Community College offers students an advanced manufacturing program, and St. Vincents College offers a medical assistant program. The St. Vincents program, however, is not adding a freshman class.

Last year, Bassicks School Governance Council started exploring a Community School model for the school.

We are still headed in the same direction, Williams said. A grant that would fuel the effort is still pending.

Williams said the goal is to pull the school up to blue ribbon status.

I dont see why we cant get there, Williams said. The bottom of the barrel is not for Bassick.
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STRATFORD  The state and some communities are still without a budget plan, but that hasnt stopped school districts from putting on their best face as students return to classes starting this week.

We are optimistic that we will be moving forward in spite of the fiscal obstacles, said Stratford Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson, voicing the attitude of many local educators.

And for Stratford, thats in spite of being one of the hardest hit districts in Gov. Dannel Malloys latest budget proposal, which would strip out its Education Cost Sharing formula  all $21 million of it.

On top of that, the district has not yet passed a budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year, and the first day of school is Thursday.

Robinson said she is counting on district improvement work done over the past four years to see the district through. Stratford has adopted programs to help students manage their behavior and solve disputes without conflict.

Teachers have also learned trauma-informed strategies to deescalate classroom conflict. And they have implemented Readers Workshops where students share what they have read, much like in a book club.

Seymour, Ansonia

More Information 2017 first day of school for CT Post public school districts: Monday, August 28 Ansonia Derby Milford Oxford Seymour Wednesday August 30 Easton Thursday August 31 Bridgeport Fairfield Monroe Stratford Trumbull Tuesday Sept. 5 Shelton See More Collapse

Seymour Schools open on Monday with a new superintendent, Michael Wilson, who previously was an assistant superintendent in Ansonia.

What students and parents can expect in Wilsons schools this year are enthusiastic teachers.

There is a sense of team work and excitement  collaboration, said Wilson. Sort of a we got this philosophy despite any budget woes.

In Ansonia, Schools Superintendent Carol Merlone said the districts brightest spot is its highly qualified, enthusiastic teachers and administrators.

(They) are ready to start off to a great school year, Merlone said, adding All students are welcomed to our district.

Bridgeport

In Bridgeport, where it will be School Superintendent Aresta Johnsons first full year on the job there also are new principals, including Byron Williams at Bassick High School, Dyrene Newton at Hallen School and Stephen Cassidy at Black Rock School.

There are bright spots, Johnson said. We will be putting forth our Attendance Works efforts to combat our chronic absenteeism. In math, we are looking to boost the excellent work being done in our schools.

The district is also launching its own foundation to raise funds for nine specific areas, from reading interventionists to gifted education programing.

Monroe

In Monroe, there is a pilot technology program in an American Studies class at Masuk High School Each student will have a Chromebook to use for in and out-of-class assignments.

The music department in Monroe has also been reorganized, in all grades, to revitalize it, Monroe Schools Superintendent John Battista said.

And teachers will do ongoing training in a different way. Called EdCamp, it is professional development that Monroe is participant-driven and focuses on student learning.

This model uses the expertise of the Monroe teachers to provide learning opportunities to other Monroe educators, Battista said.

Fairfield

In a letter to parents, Fairfield Schools Superintendent Toni Jones outlined several new things that will greet students. Fairfield Ludlowe and Fairfield Warde High Schools now have solar carports.

The green initiative is expected to save about $2 million in electricity costs over a 20 year period.

Holland Hill School in Fairfield has a new principal, Molly Farrell, who once taught and had kids at the school. For the past two years she was an assistant principal in Westport.

Shelton

In Shelton, Schools Superintendent Chris Clouet said there are several new things happening. At Shelton Intermediate School there is the School of Innovation, a school within a school that promises to approach learning from a more project-based approach incorporating engineering, hydroponics and sustainable agriculture along with literature.

Its more a mind set of how we teach, Kenneth Saranich, headmaster at the intermediate school said. There will be flexible scheduling and collaborative learning.

Students were randomly selected for the new program.

At Shelton High School there is a STEM Lab, and at Sunnyside Elementary School  a new roof. Also on the facilities side, Shelton, for the first time in years is said to be completely up to date on sprinklers, making the school fire code compliant.

We are delighted to be opening our schools to the thousands of learners who attend, Clouet said.
Im no snowflake, shrinking violet or day lily, but I have never been so afraid of kielbasa, pizza, Tiki torches, and Sybil Ludington.

Its this tear-down-the-monuments craze thats affecting my appetite, as I consider the obvious and hidden meanings of public art and the resurgence of neo-Nazis, now emboldened by the nods and winks from the White House.

Its one thing to finally admit that those Confederate statues in places such as Durham and Charlottesville were little more than Jim Crow attempts to terrorize people of color, erected decades and decades after Gen. U.S. Grant let the defeated Army of Virginia slink away from Appomattox Courthouse without consequence in early April 1865.

For the statues to become frat boy rallying points, complete with the torches, Hitlerian salutes and racial and ethnic hate, is quite another.

Lets face it: The history of race in the United States leaves very little to be proud of. The largest mass surrender in the Civil War occurred in Durham, North Carolina, nearly two weeks after Appomattox, when more than 98,000 Rebel troops gave up.

No wonder the raging white boys didnt pick Durham for their free speech event in Charlottesville that led to the death of a counter-protester. If the Tiki torchers had showed up there, history majors would come out of the woodwork ridiculing the impotence of the erstwhile Confederate States of America.

The truth has never meant less than it has in 2017, but Durham would not have been a good rallying point for the KKK types. The Jim Crow-era statue illegally pulled down by the lefties was a poorly made rendition of a low-ranking soldier that crumbled like a paper bag. It bore little resemblance to the aristocratic planter-slaveowner-soldier, Gen. Robert E. Lee, to whom the racist mob rallied in Virginia.

The CSA may have lost the war but they won the Reconstruction and within a few years, any social and political gains from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War were eclipsed by a centurys worth of racism and violence worthy of the worst Antebellum atrocities.

This was never more plain than in 2000, when a call to the state Capitol from an editor got me on a plane to Nashville, without a toothbrush or change of clothes, to cover the anointing of Joe Lieberman, who would become Al Gores vice presidential candidate.

The next day, I had a few hours to kill before the big event, so between walking around downtown getting no positive response about either candidate, and covering the sweltering event, I visited the Tennessee Capitol building. Outside the House chamber was a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the CSA general who later founded the KKK. Its still there.

Leave it to the First Birther to defend the neo-Tikis and warn that statues of Washington and Jefferson, two other slaveholders who never betrayed their country in a traitorous war, could be jeopardized.

It didnt take too long for the absurdist aspects of this statutory symbolism to emerge. The New York City Council president wants to get rid of the 76-foot-tall Christopher Columbus near the southwest entrance to Central Park, for his crimes against the indigenous people of the Caribbean more than 500 years ago. Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to study the issue.

Growing up in Stamford, a nearly human-sized statue of Columbus, in a park of the same name, was a benign remembrance for which Italians in the West Side would celebrate each October. The West Side is now mostly occupied by Central and South Americans, whose community is certainly threatened more by Immigration and Customs Enforcement than by any block of stone shaped like a dead guy.

Spin out this argument and you find Yale University actually removing a piece of historic architecture, a stone detail of a nearly comical pilgrim pointing a blunderbuss at an Indian. I guess for $70,600 a year, bubbled Ivy Leaguers should feel safe from symbols for a few more years.

If the protected students knew that a building at Wooster Street and Chestnut Street  the heart of the citys internationally famous pizza belt  was where in the late 1790s, Eli Whitney manufactured the cotton gin responsible for the explosion in cotton production and the market for more Southern slaves, there would likely be shorter lines for the neighborhoods iconic red pies.

Sharon B. Smiths 2010 book Connecticuts Civil War  A Guide for Travelers, also affected my appetite when I saw that one of slaverys great sympathizers, Thomas Seymour, a four-term Connecticut governor who met Robert E. Lee when they served together fighting Mexico, once lived on the site of what is now the Polish National Home in Hartford, a regular lunch stop for hungry reporters in search of kielbasa and pierogies.

Finally Sybil Ludington, whose statue atop her horse, Star, graces the plaza outside Danbury Library, pops my bubble. On April 26, 1777, at age 16, she rode 40 miles in Putnam County, New York, and Danbury, warning of the advancing British troops. She rode twice the distance of Paul Revere, but alas, did not have a poet like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, or Breitbart, doing her PR.

Ken Dixon can be reached in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. See twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst.
Natural disasters have an odd way of bringing neighbors together, and as Tropical Storm Harvey swept the Houston area, it became clear that the spirit of Texas was going to come out.

As of Sunday morning, emergency officials confirmed that over 1,000 water rescues had taken place.

HISTORIC: Harvey being described as the 'worst disaster the state's ever seen'

By Sunday afternoon, 18 helicopters were rescuing people stranded on rooftops across metro Houston, according to Harris County officials. At least two apartment complexes in Greenspoint were evacuated and more than 50 children were rescued from rising flood waters overnight.

Among the rescue workers is Adam Brackman, who some locals might know as the co-owner of Midtown bar Axelrad and Rice Village store New Living. Brackman said he was walking near a flooded intersection south of I-610 when he saw Gabriel Lara.

"I just went to the bridge and met a guy with a boat and he didn't have an agenda," Brackman said.

WATER FROM DAMS BEING RELEASED: Harvey flooding forces release from Addicks and Barker

They embarked on a rescue mission using the vessel. Brackman went to Facebook to find those in the area who might need help: "I'm helping people pulled off boats get to safe places. If you have a house accessible and can take some people let me know. If you have a truck and can get out here at 610 and braeswood (sic) they could use help."

Within two hours time, they had helped about 10 people, most of them elderly, Brackman said. Facebook users are commenting on the post, helping to arrange temporary shelter for the rescued citizens. Some of them even opened their homes to the strangers.

Relief efforts across Texas and the nation have only grown since Saturday, as news of the catastrophic floods spread. Drivers in high-water rescue trucks came in from College Station Sunday morning. >>See some of the rescue efforts in the area above.

"It breaks your heart," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said via a Livestream on Twitter, as he stood in waist-high water in north Houston. "But, it's Texas, we'll get through it."

With every rescue photo and video that comes from the Houston area, we can't help but highlight the spirit of Texas that shines in the photos above.

LOCAL SIGHTS: These are the photos shared by Houstonians around the area

Nationally, states including New York, have sent emergency personnel to help with rescue and relief efforts.

While residents breath a sigh of relief with each rescue , there have been at least 6 deaths due to the floods and damage from to Harvey.

Harris County Sheriff Office officials stress that people should only use 911 in dire emergencies, as dispatchers were struggling to keep up with the calls.
If you're on social media, it's likely that you've seen snaps of the new Sand & Sky clay mask flooding your feed.

And you are most certainly not alone.

The Sand & Sky Brilliant Skin Purifying Pink Clay Mask is the brain child of Australian twin sisters Emily and Sarah Hamilton, 39.

The pair, who are the founders of popular beauty box company, Bellabox, launched the mask and their new brand in April and within just three months, had sold out of their first 60,000 units.

If you're on social media, it's likely that you've seen snaps of the new Sand & Sky clay mask flooding your feed

Pictured is influencer and model Gabby Epstein in the mask

And now, they are selling an average of 2,000 units per day.

So why is it such a hit?

'We have both lived overseas quite a bit and what we realised is that everywhere we went we were recognised as being Australian and this came with the assumption that we were friendly, laid back, beachy and living the dream,' Sarah told Daily Mail Australia.

'Australia has become really cool internationally and we wanted to be able to bring Australia to the rest of the world and we knew people could use something that was proven to be amazing for them that was made with Aussie ingredients.

The Sand & Sky Brilliant Skin Purifying Pink Clay Mask is the brain child of Australian twin sisters Emily (right) and Sarah Hamilton (left), 39

The pair, who are the founders of popular beauty box company, Bellabox, launched the mask and their new brand in April and within just three months, had sold out of their first 60,000 units

'We realised that everywhere we went we were recognised as being Australian and this came with the assumption that we were friendly, laid back, beachy and living the dream,' Sarah told Daily Mail Australia

'80 per cent of Australia's flora and fauna is unique to the country and we really wanted to make something amazing made out of great, pure and organic Australian ingredients.'

After researching the benefits of various ingredients and spending a year developing the concept, Sand & Sky's Skin Purifying Pink Clay Mask was born.

And since, beauty gurus have been sharing snaps and videos of themselves in the masks and their flawless, glowing skin just minutes later.

'The best thing about it is that it shows results immediately and it closes up pores which is a big issue for people,' Emily said, 'It really works.'

Emily said in addition to the product itself being so good, social media played a huge role in their success.

'Australia has become really cool internationally and we wanted to be able to bring Australia to the rest of the world and we knew people could use something that was proven to be amazing for them that was made with Aussie ingredients,' she said

After researching the benefits of various ingredients and spending a year developing the concept, Sand & Sky's Skin Purifying Pink Clay Mask was born

What are the benefits of pink Australian clay? Absorbs dirt & impurities Draws out toxins & combats pollution Restores the skins natural defence shield Tightens & refines pores Gentle enough for sensitive skin Clear complexion & youthful glow Better skin defence = less cellular damage Enhanced collagen production & cell regeneration Advertisement

'Most women are on there every day and beauty tutorials are so huge online so when influencers started showing people how to use the mask and looking at it as an "experience" it just took off,' she said.

'They see it and they love it and when they see it actually works, they buy it.'

Sarah said there's been nothing bad to say about the mask because people can see the results for themselves.

'While it took a while to build momentum there was a time when the sales just went through the roof and big online identities like Jeffree Star were trying it and promoting it,' she said.

'We sold out of our first 60,000 units in the first few months and now we are going through around 2,000 units per day which is just amazing.'

Emily added: 'I think it's a mix of the quality of the product and the trust we have been able to build plus the positive reviews that have really gotten this off the ground.'

And since, beauty gurus have been sharing snaps and videos of themselves in the masks and their flawless, glowing skin just minutes later

'The best thing about it is that it shows results immediately and it closes up pores which is a big issue for people,' Emily said, 'It really works'

'Women share their thoughts and I think these days we have so many at home beauty experts so reviews really do matter.'

The pair plan on growing Sand & Sky and will have new pink clay products available by the end of the year.

'We surveyed more than 5,000 people and asked them what they wanted and they inspired us to come up with more products that will bring the benefits of pink clay to people,' Emily said.

'It's a very exciting time and we can't wait to show you what we've been working on.'

The pair plan on growing Sand & Sky and will have new pink clay products available by the end of the year

'We surveyed more than 5,000 people and asked them what they wanted and they inspired us to come up with more products that will bring the benefits of pink clay to people,' Emily said

For those who wish to follow in the footsteps of the Hamilton sisters, they recommend starting small.

'I would say start working at a start-up is a great idea - somewhere that is exciting where you can learn and get responsibility and really see how it all works,' Emily said.

'Working overseas is important too and don't be afraid to embrace social media. The best thing about it is it is literally global and you can see what other brands are doing too.'

Sarah said you don't need experience to find success.

'We had no beauty background at all so we are the best test subjects. We don't know much but what we do know is what works,' she said.

'As long as we can apply the product and see it works and works well then we're happy and know everyone else will be too.'
For many, a buffet breakfast is a chance to splurge and indulge in an array of greasy hot breakfasts, pastries and lots of courses.

And while it's good to treat yourself, there is a way to navigate the buffet that will ensure you stick to your health goals and don't go overboard.

Australian nutritionist, Jessica Sepel, recently shared her top tips for successfully navigating the hotel buffet breakfast and preventing that uncomfortable full feeling in the hours following.

'These buffets mostly lead to overeating or a bingeing session. This can really cause people huge amounts of anxiety. I get you,' she said on her blog, JS Health.

Australian nutritionist, Jessica Sepel, recently shared her top tips for successfully navigating the hotel buffet breakfast and preventing that uncomfortable full feeling in the hours following

For many, a buffet breakfast is a chance to splurge and indulge in an array of greasy hot breakfasts, pastries and lots of courses

'These buffets mostly lead to overeating or a bingeing session. This can really cause people huge amounts of anxiety. I get you,' she said on her blog

'My suggestion is to take a moment to tune into what you feel like eating and ensure you sit down with that plate of food, knowing you can always have a little more later.'

Ms Sepel said it's important to have a 'plan of action' to avoid 'overeating, binging and feeling like you have to have everything right now'.

Ms Sepel said while you don't need to deprive yourself of sweet options, they should be enjoyed in small amounts.

If not, deprivation will 'make you want it all more'.

'My suggestion is to take a moment to tune into what you feel like eating and ensure you sit down with that plate of food, knowing you can always have a little more later,' she said

Ms Sepel starts her buffet breakfast with a bowl of fruit (mostly berries) followed by a shot of espresso with a dash of hot milk

'My suggestion is always starting the meal with a satiating breakfast and enjoy the sweeter things later on in moderate amounts, if you even still feel like it,' she said.

Ms Sepel starts her buffet breakfast with a bowl of fruit (mostly berries) followed by a shot of espresso with a dash of hot milk.

She then fills up on a protein-rich option - usually in the form of a two egg omelette with sauteed vegetables, avocado and a slice of rye or gluten-free toast,

'Hotels usually will steam up or saute some greens for you these days,' she said.

She then fills up on a protein-rich option - usually in the form of a two egg omelette with sauteed vegetables, avocado and a slice of rye or gluten-free toast

Her alternative is a cup of Greek yoghurt with nuts, seeds, cinnamon, berries, papaya and a sliced banana.

Ms Sepel said she often takes her own granola to hotels to add to yoghurt.

'If it is cold, I will try a bowl of oats with added Greek yoghurt, cinnamon, nuts, seeds, berries,' she said.

While she does often go for the healthy options, Ms Sepel believes it's fine to enjoy the French toast or pancakes guilt-free.

While she does often go for the healthy options, Ms Sepel believes it's fine to enjoy the French toast or pancakes guilt-free

'Pick a morning towards the end of the trip (to avoid sugar cravings for the rest of the trip) and enjoy a favourite indulgence,' she advised.

Pick a morning towards the end of the trip (to avoid sugar cravings for the rest of the trip) and enjoy a favourite indulgence.

'Make sure you have a little protein on top if this too  like a boiled egg on the side or some Greek yoghurt.'

Ms Sepel has previously revealed how she maintains her healthy lifestyle on vacation without missing out on fun and treats.

'I recently got back from a seriously amazing (and much needed) vacation to The Conrad Maldives post book 2 tour,' Ms Sepel wrote in June.

'It was pure magic. And an incredibly HEALTHY vacation too. While I was over there, I felt truly amazing. So well and energised.'

Ms Sepel stressed that a vacation doesn't mean people need to let go of their 'positive healthy living habits' and instead serves as a time to nourish the mind and body

Ms Sepel stressed that a vacation doesn't mean people need to let go of their 'positive healthy living habits' and instead serves as a time to nourish the mind and body.

On her most recent holiday, Ms Sepel was all about balance and said she absolutely did not eat '100 per cent clean' or exercise too much.

Instead, she chose to do yoga each morning, enjoyed one or two glasses of wine each night and had dessert 'most nights' with no guilt whatsoever.

Most importantly, she prioritised a good night's sleep each night (eight hours) and chose to eat well when they ate out.

Instead, she chose to do yoga each morning, enjoyed one or two glasses of wine each night and had dessert 'most nights' with no guilt whatsoever

Top tips for a healthy holiday with balance * Enjoy 1-2 glasses of wine each night * Start the day with yoga or pilates * Pick what you want to have at the buffet instead of trying everything * Ensure your breakfast choice is protein rich * Have a healthy afternoon snack at 4 or 5pm * Enjoy a 20 minute nap in the afternoon * Don't feel guilty about having dessert * Go for a brisk walk after dinner * Ensure you have eight hours of sleep Advertisement

'That is what the healthy life is all about  making healthy choices 80-90 per cent of the time but then allowing 10-20 per cent of healthy indulgence or imperfect eating  minus negative/guilty thoughts,' Ms Sepel said.

She then shared her top tips for a healthy holiday, including constant water consumption throughout each day and healthy meal choices.

For lunch, she enjoyed protein rich meals like fish or curries and would often treat herself to a gelato afterwards.

Other tips included walking wherever possible around the resort, enjoying a healthy snack (like almonds or veggies) at 4pm, having a 20 minute afternoon nap each day to rest the nervous system and enjoying healthy fresh dinners.

Most importantly, she prioritised a good night's sleep each night (eight hours) and chose to eat well when they ate out

Navigating the breakfast buffet was one of the most simple yet effective skills Ms Sepel mastered, with the health guru advising people to keep their breakfasts protein rich

'I love to enjoy 1-2 glasses of wine on holiday  very moderate amounts but enough to just make me feel a little relaxed  I drink red wine or I love rose on holiday,' she added.

'My hubby and I would share an indulgent dessert every couple of nights  remember no deprivation and NO guilty thoughts. This is key.'

Ms Sepel, who has a Travel Plan on her website, concluded her post by saying that dancing is a great way to rid the body of stress and a brisk walk after dinner is a great way to digest food and chat.

After a healthy wedding in 2016, Ms Sepel also had a sustainable, healthy three part honeymoon with her partner where they enjoyed nutritious meals, yoga and green smoothies as they ventured from one country to the next.

From daily yoga and 'fruit sticks in the pool', to quinoa porridge and string bean and coconut salad, the pair said at the time that they couldn't be happier with their menu

From daily yoga and 'fruit sticks in the pool', to quinoa porridge and string bean and coconut salad, the pair said at the time that they couldn't be happier with their menu.

But the newlywed did admit she is happy to relax a little and 'eat imperfectly' on vacation.

'That's part of a healthy life - to try and not be too fussy with foods. And relax into the new cultures and embrace flexible eating when need be,' she said.

'I think it's so unhealthy to be too worried about every single thing that passes our lips (unless you're coeliac, of course) but my body is so happy when I eat foods with joy and in a relaxed way.'
Loose Women star Saira Khan has hit back at 'cowardly' online trolls after receiving a death threat over her bikini snaps, saying 'I'm not scared'.

The presenter, 47, said she is 'standing up' for Muslim women with her social media posts and has urged others to do more to defy extremist views.

The mother-of-two had shared a photograph of herself sunbathing while blasting a Muslim preacher who said it was 'sinful' for Muslim women to pluck their eyebrows.

In response, an anonymous Instagram user posted a comment threatening the star, writing: 'If you value your life keep the f*** out of Islam.'

Loose Women star Saira Khan has hit back at 'cowardly' trolls after receiving an online death threat over her bikini snaps

However, undeterred by the abuse, Saira proceeded to share more bikini snaps, captioning one of them: 'Now where did I put my clothes? #bikini'.

Speaking about her response to the trolls, the presenter told The Mirror: 'Im sorry, but Im not scared. My message to all of those people who try to use religion to hate others is: stop being cowardly.'

'I am standing up for women who practise my religion, who are modern, who are progressive, who are actually quite scared to come out and say it because look at the response you get,' she continued.

'Right now, I am trying to do what is right for my daughter, for my son, for my family and to open up a more open-minded and tolerant society.'

The presenter, 47, shared a photograph of herself sunbathing while blasting a Muslim preacher, who claimed it was 'sinful' for Muslim women to pluck their eyebrows

She captioned the snap: 'Kiss my [bottom] you backward prehistoric dinosaur!'

In response an Instagram user, posting under the account 'silverbengle', wrote an expletive-ridden comment, adding: 'If you value your life keep the f*** out of Islam'

Saira shared the comment on Twitter and tagged the Metropolitan Police, urging officer to 'check it out'

The former Apprentice winner also said she wants to see other Muslim women doing more to defy 'extremist views'.

Saira, who has previously publicly shamed social media users for criticising her religion, called out the troll who sent her a death threat on Twitter, tagging the official account for the Metropolitan Police and urging them to 'check it out'.

Her Loose Women co-stars discussed the issue on her programme, with Nadia Sawalha reading out a text from Saira on the show.

It read: 'I just have to speak out for us women. They do it to make us feel so shameful and guilty for our bodies and desire and dreams. I am strong because I have friends like you.'

Saira says she is 'standing up for women who practise my religion' with her social media posts, and urged other women to do more to defy 'extremist views'

Speaking on the matter, Nadia said: 'Saira is very, very brave. No matter how many threats she gets she will keep on saying what shes saying, she doesnt want her daughter growing up in a world where she's ashamed of her body.'

Saira spoke out after a YouTube video emerged of Australian preacher Umm Jamaal ud-Din that showed her criticising women who pluck their eyebrows.

In the two-hour long sermon the teacher, who wears a burqua, claimed the practice was 'sinful'.

Muslim preacher who believes plucking eyebrows is sinful Saira Khan posted in response to comments by a female burqa-wearing Muslim convert teacher who said it is sinful for Islamic women to pluck their eyebrows. Umm Jamaal ud-Din's fiery, two-hour sermon covered the delicate topics of female grooming and obeying Allah. The Islamic instructor from western Sydney, who is also known as Mouna Parkin, said it was sinful, or haram, for women to pluck their eyebrows, even if they believed it was hygienic. Advertisement

Posting the bikini picture on Instagram yesterday, Saira wrote: 'I woke up to news that A Muslim Preacher is saying that "plucking eyebrows" for Muslim women is a sin - here's my response - kiss my [peach emoji] you backward prehistoric dinosaur.'

Dozens of users praised Saira for speaking out against the conservative preacher.

One wrote: 'Best response I've seen in a while @iamsairakhan to something so silly.'

Another posted: 'Well said Saira, I love how you speak up for what you believe in on something like you say is so prehistoric.'

However others criticised Saira's attack, including anonymous user 'silverbengle', who wrote the threatening post.

The comment, which has since been removed from Instagram, read: 'Keep your f****** mouth shut! Your not a Muslim nor do you represent anything to do with Islam!!! Your white masters have given you what you desire as a sell out reporter!!! If you value your life keep the f*** out of Islam [sic].'

Saira later received further supportive messages from followers, with one writing: 'Disgusting. I hope this is followed through Saira. Don't let it get to you'.

Another added: 'Words fail me...you shouldn't have to receive and deal with this stuff...awful.'
At 16, most girls are just trying to get through school - with big hopes of what they might do once they leave home.

But despite her tender age, Natalie Nootenboom is already taking the fashion world by storm as a plus-size model.

The stunning teenager, who was bullied for her weight growing up, has recently signed with New York modelling agency Muse and has starred in a number of fashion campaigns.

Natalie - who also happens to be the niece of DJ Steve Aoki - says she is 'taller, bigger and more awkward' than what Asian girls are typically expected to be, and now hopes to use her platform to overturn these stereotypes.

The size 16 (US size 12) model, who has a Japanese mother and an American father, explained how Asian girls are stereotypically considered to be 'petite' and 'skinny'.

Natalie said she was bullied at school for her size, with one girl even claiming that she'd stretched her clothes after borrowing them.

She told Revelist, Natalie said: 'The norm for Asian girls is to be, you know, petite, cute, and skinny. But growing up, I kind of was taller, bigger, more awkward.

'I was the opposite of what people expected me to be, and so I really want to use my platform to say, you know what? We're all different. We can't build a mould and expect people to all fit that mould.'

Natalie Nootenboom, 16, hopes to overturn Asian beauty stereotypes as a plus-size model

The teenager, who has a Japanese mother and an American father, has recently signed with the New York model agency Muse

Natalie explained how she often feels like she's 'stuck in the middle' - bigger than most catwalk models, but slimmer than traditional plus-size models.

However, she says that labels shouldn't matter - and that we should embrace women of all sizes.

She explained: '[W]ere all diverse. We all have different sizes, and we can celebrate them all.'

Natalie, whose sister Yumi was also a plus-size model, has already gained a large fan base online, with more than 5,000 followers on Instagram.

As well as her ambitions in the fashion industry, she also dreams of being a novelist and a musician.

The size 12 model said growing up she was 'bigger' than what Asian girls are expected to be
They say that school days are the happiest of your life, but some people appear to have taken that motto a little bit too far.

Apparently school is less about studying and is more of a wild party that you need to prepare for by stocking up on booze, condoms and lingerie.

Or at least that's the message given out in these pictures of hilarious back to school fails from around the world, that teachers definitely would not approve of.

One eager British supermarket erected Back To School emblazoned hoarding right over the spirits shelves, while another put its merchandise sign over a stand full of knives.

Schools themselves have also been guilty of dubious advertising, such as a Queensland educational establishment that put up a welcome sign for all students, but shortening the word to STDs.

Perhaps this British store was aiming its special offer at parents celebrating the end of the long summer break

Perhaps they ran out of letters? This school in Queensland was incredibly naive with its use of abbreviations

If your school is planning on offering lessons in exotic dancing or stripping this may well be the shop for you

Forget textbooks, a brand new bra is the only back to school essential you should be worrying about

It's not the first Back To School item that springs to mind, but who knows what goes on behind the bicycle sheds?

A healthy routine is certainly to be recommended, but you'd probably prefer if your teenager's did not involve a need for condoms

Perhaps it would have been best to keep that information to yourself!

Fight club: Hopefully these knives are intended for use in Home Economics class

Don't forget your pens, pencils and, of course, a packet of Trojan condoms

A gun is probably the very last thing anyone should have in their school bag!

It's not your typical form of school uniform, but this store seemed to think maternity wear would be in huge demand

Perhaps it's best not to head off to begin the school day after downing a few cans

Vitamins and toiletries are all worthy purchases ahead of the return to school, but condoms -not so much
The morning of my eye lift treatment, I look in the mirror before I leave home and say a not-so-fond farewell to the saggy, crinkly skin on my eyelids. At 49, I am finally going to be rid of it.

Eyeliner will glide on effortlessly. I will look more awake and, of course, younger. At least, thats the plan. And the best news of all? Theres not a scalpel in sight.

This moment has been a long time coming. Its not like I woke up one morning and thought: Ugh, I hate my eyelids. I have hated them for a very long time. Probably about ten years.

Beauty writer Helena Frith Powell, 49, pictured before undergoing treatment on her eyelids at a Harley Street clinic

For while it is possible to keep your body in shape and to reduce wrinkles with Botox, there really is nothing you can do to hide that crinkly, loose skin that develops on your eyelids after a certain age.

In fact, sometimes, its almost as if ones eyelid has somehow spawned another, spare eyelid that just sits there, looking saggy and annoying, like an unwelcome guest.

Around six years ago, when I was researching an article about cosmetic procedures around the world, I asked a plastic surgeon in Dubai what he would do to improve my looks.

He inspected my face and suggested Botox, along with some filler for my lips, and then added: I would do an eye lift. But maybe in a few years time.

Much as I agreed with him that an eye lift was probably needed, I have vowed never to go under the knife.

As a beauty writer, I have tried many crazy treatments, but I always said Id draw the line at someone cutting open my face to make me look younger. There seems to me a kind of finality about the knife that is worrying. If something goes wrong, it really is permanent. And what a fool youd look if you willingly damaged yourself in the name of vanity.

Dr Gabriela Mercik asked Helena to demonstrate how she removes her eye make up to understand her skincare regime

So when I heard about Dr Gabriela Mercik, who works out of Harley Street and offers a non-surgical eye lift, I was intrigued. It sounded like the solution to my eyelid problem.

The rest of you looks good for your age, the no-nonsense Dr Gabriela told me when I went for a consultation. But your eyelids let you down.

It is true they are by far the oldest part of my face. In retrospect, this is probably partly because I never thought to put sunscreen on them. Also, according to Dr Gabriela, who asked me to demonstrate how I take off my eye make-up, its because I am too heavy-handed.

Anyway, whatever the reason, it had got to the stage where applying eyeliner was majorly irritating due to the crinkly nature of my eyelids.

Dr Gabriela told Helena she would only need one day down time after the treatment as her eyelids would be swollen

And when I wear eyeshadow, I actually look even older than I am, as it gets into the folds of the lids and accentuates them. I asked Dr Gabriela about the downtime  the time you cant be seen in public while your skin heals. You cant go out and about the day after the treatment, because your eyelids will be swollen, she told me. But after that, you will be fine.

In my experience, doctors always play down the length of time during which you will not be fit to be seen in public.

As I would discover, this was no exception.

On the day of the procedure, I arrive at the clinic and am shown to a large, reclining chair, before a nurse comes in to cleanse my face and give me a hair net.

The doctor inserted a needle into the area underneath Helena's eyes with a thread to increase the skin's collagen

After that, my eyelids and the area around my eyes are covered in an anaesthetic cream, to help with the pain, says the nurse.

My late grandmothers mantra of you have to suffer to be beautiful goes through my mind. She used to say it as she wrung out my hair after washing it. I am imagining this will be slightly more painful than that.

I am left with the cream on to let it work for an hour or so. This is the most pleasant part by a long way. Then the treatment begins with the insertion of the threads. These literally lift your face underneath the skin by pulling it tauter.

Im glad I cant see whats going on as the doctor inserts a needle into the area underneath my eyes, with a thread that will apparently reduce wrinkles under my eyes as well as increase my skins production of collagen, the firming protein that is the holy grail of the ageing woman.

Dr Gabriela twists it to secure it, knotting it into my subcutaneous fat (fat that is just beneath the skin). Having inserted some threads under my eyes, she moves on to my brow area.

The main part of the treatment named non-surgical blepharoplasty uses a wireless device with a needle that generates a small electrical charge

This part of my face is bonier, and I can feel the threads hooking in. Its a strange sensation, and a little painful, but by no means unbearable.

When she has finished one side, Dr Gabriela shows me the difference between the two. This is, of course, before any bruising has set in  and the results are impressive. The side thats been done really does look lifted  Ive lost five years, at least.

Next up is the main part of the treatment, the so-called non-surgical blepharoplasty, which uses a wireless device with a needle that generates a small electrical charge, like a miniature lightning bolt.

This stimulates the instant contraction and tightening of skin fibres, even though the tip of the needle never actually touches the skin, and doesnt affect the area close to it, tightening loose skin on the eyelids.

Until now, there has been no way to deal with excess eyelid skin that doesnt involve a scalpel, with the associated risks, cost, pain and downtime.

On a pain scale of one to ten, where ten is unbearable, Helena says the treatment is a six or seven

As Dr Gabriela says: I believe it is time to stop plastic surgery for beauty reasons. Patients health is a priority, so I strongly advise non-surgical procedures for any aesthetic reasons. But, lets be honest, while non-surgical, this isnt entirely pain-free. In fact, despite the anaesthetic, each zap lasts about two seconds and feels like somewhere between a cigarette burn and an electric shock.

And theres about 50 of them. On each eye. On a pain scale of one to ten, where ten is unbearable, this is six or seven.

And then theres the smell. Its horrible  the smell of burning flesh, my burning flesh. Im really not enjoying myself. But Dr Gabriela works steadily and quickly and, within 20 minutes, it is all over. Im handed a mirror to see whats happened.

So far, I dont look too nuts. Dr Gabriela has put some sunblock on my eyelids, so the tiny pinprick marks are slightly covered. From a distance, you could almost think I was wearing heavy reddish eyeshadow.

Helena was given a tube of gel and a selection of Dr Gabriela's products to help with healing

I head home with a tube of gel that will apparently help with the bruising, along with some of Dr Gabrielas products, which I am told will encourage healing and collagen production.

It feels quite sore, a bit like sunburn, so I take a paracetamol. But it isnt until day two that I really start to look awful, like Ive been beaten up. The skin under my eyes is swollen and bruised, and the scabs on my eyelids are really obvious.

My eyelids are swollen, too. Added to which, they itch. I stop myself from touching them  Dr Gabriela said the most crucial thing is not to pick the little scabs. They will leave scars unless they drop off naturally.

Its not very sunny, but as its June, I can get away with wearing my sunglasses. I have a few events to go to, including an anniversary party. Luckily, its in a marquee and the lighting is low, but I still have to explain my appearance to anyone who can see me closer up.

Helena pictured after the treatment, says at one point, around day five, she felt rather depressed by the state of her face and wondered if she'd finally gone too far in her quest to avoid wrinkles

After that, I stay in as much as possible and wait for things to improve. I bruise easily, and they tend to hang around for an age, so its not until a week later that I feel I can be seen in public.

Admittedly, this does still compare favourably with surgery. A friend who had her eyelids done was out of action for about two months. For the first two weeks, she couldnt do anything that might dry her eyes out, even watching TV or reading. It really was debilitating.

But how do results compare? Some people have two or three goes at this treatment, at intervals of two months, before theyre satisfied. Im sure if I did that, my eyelids would look like my teenage daughters.

As it is, theyre vastly improved. There is much less excess skin  that spare eyelid has shrunk away  and the skin is smoother and younger-looking, especially under my eyes.

On balance, Id say it was definitely worth it, but that, for me at least, the downtime was more than I expected after a non-invasive treatment.

At one point, around day five, I felt rather depressed by the state of my face and wondered if Id finally gone too far in my quest to avoid wrinkles. But now Im fully healed, and my eyelids are perkier, Im very happy.

Will I go for the second treatment? Im not sure I need to. But its good to know I have the option.

Dr Gabrielas non-surgical British Eye Lift costs 3,900. The cost is for two treatments (drgabriela.co.uk)

Helena Frith Powell is the author of Smart Women Dont Get Wrinkles, published by Gibson Square at 8.99
Michele Pernetta lives in London with her husband, Terry. After working as a fashion designer for 17 years, she retrained as a yoga teacher and introduced Hot Yoga to the UK in 1995. She founded Fierce Grace yoga in 2013.

MAGIC OIL

I tried a chemical peel about ten years ago but hated it  my face swelled up for a week after. Now I only go for natural skincare treatments. My favourite is Ayurvedic oil massage, an ancient Indian technique which uses oil to draw out toxins. I do this weekly at home. I massage sesame oil into my body, hair and face before a shower. Not only is the massage relaxing, its good for the joints and the oil forms a barrier to stop my skin drying out.

Michele Pernetta lives in London with her husband, Terry. After working as a fashion designer for 17 years, she retrained as a yoga teacher and introduced Hot Yoga to the UK in 1995. She founded Fierce Grace yoga in 2013

MENS HAIR GEL

I have big curls, so am always looking for products to add definition. When John Friedas Frizz Ease Gel was discontinued, I thought my life was over! However, it turns out mens hair gel works just as well. I happened to try VO5 Mega Hold Styling Gel (3.15, superdrug.com) and am converted. It separates curls and gives them hold.

ROLL OUT LINES

My favourite anti-ageing trick for my face is Gua Sha  a Chinese massage technique using a jade stone tool. These cost less than 10 on Amazon and should be used horizontally over wrinkles, scar tissue or areas of pain. It increases circulation and softens muscle tissues. The effects are instant. Since I started using mine, my skin is smoother, with more of a glow.

SAFE STRETCHING

If you want to keep your body young, stretching is vital. It lets you experience a full range of motion, keeps the nerves functioning properly and carries toxins away from your muscles. Hot yoga is ideal for this sort of exercise after a certain age, as you are less likely to pull a muscle when working out at a higher temperature. And you build muscle while keeping your joints healthy.

NO DIET RULES

I tendto have my meals between midday and 8pm. This is intermittent fasting, where you eat during an eight-hour window to encourage your body to burn fat.

fiercegrace.com
It is news that will send a shiver through prosecco lovers across the country.

The Italian sparkling wines high sugar content could leave frequent drinkers with rotten teeth, dentists are warning.

Prosecco has taken the nation by storm as a cheaper alternative to champagne, but young women in particular risk gaining an unwelcome prosecco smile.

The Italian sparkling wines high sugar content could leave frequent drinkers with rotten teeth, dentists are warning

Dr Mervyn Druian, of the London Centre for Cosmetic Dentistry, said: Women especially enjoy prosecco but unlike wine, which you often have with a meal, it is very easy to just keep sipping prosecco and have a few glasses without noticing.

It is acidic and it has sugar in it so, while a few glasses are fine, if you drink too much of it you are going to have a problem.

The signs of prosecco smile are where the teeth come out of the gum. It starts with a white line just below the gum, which if you probe it is a little bit soft, and that is the beginning of tooth decay which can lead to fillings and dental work.

Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser for the British Dental Association, said: Prosecco offers a triple whammy of carbonation, sweetness and alcohol, which can put your teeth at risk, leading to sensitivity and enamel erosion.

Prosecco has taken the nation by storm as a cheaper alternative to champagne, but young women in particular risk gaining an unwelcome prosecco smile

Carbonated beverages get their fizz from the release of carbon dioxide, which dissolves into carbonic acid. This provides a refreshing taste but also makes these drinks more acidic. Added to that, prosecco comes with about one teaspoon of sugar per flute.

Their warnings come after hundreds of people queued outside Lidl stores at the weekend to get their hands on bottles of prosecco selling for 3.33 each.

Britons drank more than 40million litres of prosecco last year and it is regularly on special offer at supermarkets. The market grew by 34 per cent last year. Dr Richard Coates, of Riveredge Cosmetic Dentistry in Sunderland and Newcastle, had some health advice for fans.

It is much worse than champagne because that isnt so sweet, he said. Prosecco has a PH of just 3.25, making it similarly acidic to fizzy drinks, and weakens tooth enamel, which can then be damaged further if people brush their teeth too soon after drinking it. It may not look very cool but drinking it through a straw rather than a glass can protect teeth.

But the main solution is to make sure that you dont over indulge by drinking more than a couple of glasses at any one time.

People should wait a few hours before brushing their teeth if theyve been drinking prosecco to give the enamel time to harden.
From The Thick of It to War & Peace, REBECCA FRONTs talent for portraying powerful women has won her legions of male fans. She tells Kerry Potter about body confidence, her (teenage) fashion mentor and what shes got in common with Theresa May.

Rebecca wears DRESS, Cefinn

Rebecca Front is fixing me with The Look. Even the most cursory of TV viewers will be familiar with it: stern and authoritative, as seen on Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent in ITV crime drama Inspector Lewis (three years on from Rebeccas departure, her co-star Laurence Fox still calls her maam).

She also deployed it in her role as cabinet minister Nicola Murray in the BBC political satire The Thick of It, as well as in her matriarch roles in period dramas War & Peace and Doctor Thorne. And now The Look is back for Rebeccas turn in Kay Mellors new register-office-set BBC One drama Love, Lies and Records. She plays Judy, an awkward, jobsworth registrar who is furious when she gets overlooked for promotion in favour of her nemesis: gregarious, chaotic working mother Kate, played by Ashley Jensen.

Right now, I am nervously witnessing an impromptu demonstration of The Look up close. We wont call it resting b**ch face because Rebecca doesnt like the word b**ch: We wouldnt call a man that. We settle for resting angry face.

Politics has gone so mad it would be hard to find fictional ideas that are crazier

Its useful to be able to look quite scary, she says. Im really bad at complaining about things in shops or restaurants because I dont like confrontation, but sometimes I dont need to complain because you can just see it in my face. And with that, The Look is gone as she breaks into a grin. I am quite a smiley person; Im actually not stern enough. Im quite soft and woolly by nature.

Shes also a million times sexier than many of her characters. Ive got much more body confident as Ive got older. Im fitter and more muscly. I go to the gym three times a week. My teenage daughter [Tilly, 16] has given me more self-assurance. We shop together a lot and I pick up clothes and say, I dont think I can get away with that. And she says, What does that mean? Youre setting yourself a rule and thats ridiculous. You tell me not to do that, so why should you? So Ive upped my game: I dress more confidently, I carry myself more confidently. You only live once.

Shes about to get her ears pierced for the second time in recent years, egged on by Tilly, having previously been too scared. Thats the only needle shell tolerate though  cosmetic surgery is a big no. Women are under so much pressure: the thought that you have to change your body to be accommodated in society seems wrong to me. Im hesitant to say I hate it because I dont want to judge people for doing it  I understand the impulse  but it worries me.

Rebecca with Ashley Jensen in new drama Love, Lies and Records

At 53, Rebecca is happy to look her age. It bothers me that people arent allowed to grow old naturally because theres a beauty in that. I know its a cliche but confidence is the sexiest thing and if more women felt confident about the way they looked, they wouldnt need to have those procedures. It takes guts to say, Ive got wrinkles and crows feet and Im not bothered about it. I quite like them, actually.

Her tendency to play powerful, brusque characters has won her a legion of male fans. Some men are really drawn to authoritative women, arent they? I occasionally get messages from men asking for photos of my shoes because they probably imagine Im wearing really scary stilettos. I mean, I am today, but usually I think, Erm, do you want a picture of my trainers?

Her turn as Chief Superintendent Innocent especially caught peoples imagination, reportedly inspiring erotic fanfiction about the relationship between Innocent and Laurence Foxs character DS James Hathaway. I try not to engage with that stuff, Rebecca hoots.

Kay Mellor, creator of big-hearted, women-centric dramas such as Band of Gold and Fat Fighters, had the idea for Loves, Lies and Records when she attended a register office to record the death of her mother, noting how the location was a microcosm for lifes highs and lows. Accordingly, the first episode is a rollercoaster of emotion, as sad as it is funny, taking in births, deaths and marriages.

Rebecca in Doctor Thorne with Richard McCabe

Despite appearances, Rebecca says shes not made of stern enough stuff to work in that environment. I wear my heart on my sleeve too much for a job like that. With all the deaths and babies, I wouldnt last more than five minutes. I cry very easily since having my children. (As well as Tilly, Rebecca and her TV producer/writer husband Phil Clymer have 18-year-old Oliver.) Being a cry baby does have benefits though: Ive become a much better actor since I had children. Its made me less self-conscious and opened up a fast-track to accessing my emotions.

Creating Judy was a welcome challenge: I thought, how on earth am I going to play this woman as I have nothing in common with her? She has no sense of humour, shes antisocial, shes judgmental. We would not get on at all. But I didnt want to play her like a cartoon villain. Shes just complicated. Shes a human being and its my job to understand why she does what she does and find a way into her head.

The careers of Rebecca and her co-star Ashley Jensen have bloomed in a similar way, with both making the successful transition from comedy to drama. On graduating from Oxford, Rebecca began her career in radio comedy in the early 1990s, working with Armando Iannucci (who went on to create The Thick of It) and Steve Coogan.

Moving into TV, Rebecca starred in the Alan Partridge canon, with shows such as The Day Today, and later in Nighty Night, Queers and The Catherine Tate Show. Ashley, meanwhile, made her name in Extras and Ugly Betty as well as, more recently, in Catastrophe.

DRESS, Issey Miyake. SHOES, Reiss

Im in awe of Ashley  those shifts she makes between comedy moments and moving moments are effortless, says Rebecca. The two bonded so well off-camera that at one point they had a giggling fit so epic, crew members filmed it on their phones.

The current state of politics, however, is less of a laughing matter for Rebecca. Does she wish they were still making The Thick of It? Things have gone so mad it would be hard to find fictional ideas that were crazier than what were going through, she says. Even Armando couldnt top this.

Having played Nicola Murray, she says she has more sympathy for politicians, especially female ones. Indeed, shes more charitable about Theresa May than you might expect a left-leaning actor to be: We judge women in public life in a different way. She gets criticised for her hair, for what she wears, for being unemotional  I dont think that would get levelled at a man. I suspect shes probably a very nice woman. I dont know her but I dont look at her and think, Shes evil. Its not a job Id want in a million years in this toxic political environment. Shes doing an incredibly difficult job.

Rebecca with her Bafta for The Thick of It, left, and with husband Phil

And the two women share one characteristic: being a bit square. When asked to share a secret, Rebecca pauses: Im hesitant about saying anything that will sound like May admitting that running through a wheat field was the naughtiest thing shed ever done. After she said that, my children said, Mum thats you! Thats the answer you would have given! Im such a square. I was head girl at school and Im so law-abiding. If I saw a wheat field I would only enter it if there was a sign saying, Please run here.

Having suffered from anxiety since she was a child, growing up in Northeast London, Rebecca now campaigns on mental health issues as an ambassador for the charity Anxiety UK. Her claustrophobia was written into her role in The Thick of It in a scene where Nicola refuses to get into a lift and is memorably blasted by her spin-doctor colleague, the legendarily vitriolic Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), as an omnishambles (a word, she notes with glee, thats now in the Oxford English Dictionary).

How did Rebecca feel about her private, real-life issues becoming the butt of a joke? Ive found humour is the best tool to deal with anxiety. You cant afford to take it too seriously because it just gets worse, she smiles. She still struggles a little with lifts and cant see herself ever travelling by tube. These days I check in every so often with CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy], maybe once or twice a year if I feel I need a reboot.

DRESS, Zeynep Kartal. EARRINGS, Monica Vinader

With the tube off limits, she often travels to and from her North London family home by bus. I find them very relaxing and you get great material on buses: people do and say funny things. Nobody expects to see actors on the bus so fans often tweet me to say, I saw your lookalike on the bus today. No, it was me!

She is heartened by Princes William and Harry speaking out about mental health issues. I thought it was great, bless them for doing that. I dont think the stigma has entirely gone, but its really improved.

But back to business. When it comes to work, Rebecca has never been busier. Shes just finished Down a Dark Hall, a supernatural movie starring Uma Thurman; shes filming a TV comedy pilot next week, and she recently delivered the draft of her second book of personal essays, following 2014s Curious. Whats left? Oh, Im still hugely ambitious, she says. Theres loads of stuff I want to do: some Shakespeare, a lot more theatre and drama that will really stretch me as its only been in the past few years that Ive really started to use my drama chops.

What about playing a femme fatale? Id love to do that, she sighs. But I dont know if thats going to come up because theres still this ageist culture. People dont think of you like that when youre over 40. We had a lunch party at our house the other day and I was the youngest woman there. I looked around the table and thought, Just look at all these fabulous, well-dressed, attractive, funny women in their 50s and 60s. Why dont we see that on TV very often? I can imagine shed only have to give a room of casting directors The Look and that would change.

And regardless, shes blazing a trail as the thinking-mans sex symbol. Id be flattered to think that. Ive still got it going on! she grins, slinking out of the door to her waiting car. The Prime of Ms Rebecca Front? You had better believe it.

Love, Lies and Records will be on BBC One this autumn.

Hair: Nadira V Persaud using Maria Nila Stockholm.

Make-up: Justine Jenkins using Nude by Nature.

Styling: Alexandria Reid.
This extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victorias rule stars Academy Award winner Judi Dench. When Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the queens golden jubilee, he is surprised to find favour with the queen herself.

Judi Dench stars as Queen Victoria and Ali Fazal as Abdul Karim, the young clerk with whom she develops an unlikely friendship

As she questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance that her household attempts to destroy. As their friendship deepens, the queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.

Victoria & Abdul will be in cinemas from 15 September, but YOU readers can see it first and for free at 20 cinema screenings taking place across the UK on Thursday 7 September. To see the trailer go to mailonline.co.uk/you.

Victoria & Abdul will be in cinemas from 15 September

TO BOOK TICKETS

Visit showfilmfirst.com and enter the code 268898.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Offer open to UK residents. There will be 3,000 tickets in total. Tickets are subject to availability and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis via the website. Maximum two tickets per reader. Screenings will take place on the dates and at the times and locations specified on showfilmfirst.com. Tickets are strictly non-transferable. No cash alternative. For full terms and conditions go to showfilmfirst.com.
Former mutual friend of Danny Masterson and accuser says alleged victim told her he became 'demanding' after she had 'begged him not to have sex'
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Chilling testimony by children living in the nerve centre of ISIS's 'caliphate' reveals the horrors they have faced at the hands of jihadists.

As fighting continues to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa, youngsters who fled the violence have recounted seeing severed heads and decomposing bodies in the streets.

Families in the war-torn city face a terrifying choice - remain in their homes and be terrorised by ISIS and bombed by coalition forces, or flee and risk being shot or treading on one of hundreds of landmines left by jihadists to prevent escape.

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Two-year-old Foad was hit by shrapnel during an airstrike in Raqqa. His sister, Faridah, said: 'We were sleeping the summer and suddenly a plane dropped a bomb and we saw him screaming. And there was a shrapnel in his head. Whenever a plane strikes it harms everywhere'

Speaking from the safety of a refugee camp, 13-year-old Raashida said: 'The other day ISIS beheaded people and left their bodies on the ground. We saw this and I couldn't handle it'

Buthaina, 10, stands outside the tent in which she and her family now live, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa, Syria. She told Save The Children: '(ISIS) used to scare us by beheading people in front of us and whenever a plane came it would burn whatever it hit.'

Thirteen-year-old Faridah said: 'When they first entered, they were nice with the people. Then they started to whip, cutting-off heads, cutting-off hands. It was just fear and terror'

 Slide me  Aerial photos taken over Raqqa at the start of June and on July 19 show the effect the bombing campaign has had, with families facing a terrifying decision - whether to stay or whether to flee

Humanitarian groups warn that camps around Raqqa are overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of people who have escaped the clutches of ISIS.

Speaking from the safety of a refugee camp, 13-year-old Raashida told a team from Save The Children, which is supporting traumatised youngsters who have lived through the horror: 'The other day ISIS beheaded people and left their bodies on the ground. We saw this and I couldn't handle it.

'I wanted to sleep but I couldn't when I remembered what I saw. And I wouldn't sleep, I would stay awake because of how scared I was.'

She said the brutality has taken a horrific toll on young innocents in the city, stating: 'It's as if they are not children, they see ISIS beheading people right next to them. They (ISIS) would present the bodies without a head in front of the children.'

Raashida stopped attending school because ISIS was attempting to brainwash children. She recalled: 'I didn't like it because all the teachings from first grade are about jihad and mermaids of heaven and such things; that when you grow old you will be with them and there is only one death for the sake of God.'

Children recounted seeing ISIS cutting off peoples' heads and limbs as the city where they lived descended into a living hell

Speaking from the safety of a refugee camp, 13-year-old Raashida said: 'The other day ISIS beheaded people and left their bodies on the ground. We saw this and I couldn't handle it'

Aoun stands with his five children near their tent, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa. He said: 'We are all in a living hell now. Children have forgotten about their children'

Twelve-year-old Yacoub, speaking from the camp in Ain Issa, said: 'The people from ISIS used to cut people's heads off. They would catch them and cut off their heads and sometimes they would beat them with rifles.'

Standing outside the tent in which she and her family now live, 10-year-old Buthaina, said they had fled Raqqa after a home opposite theirs was bombed.

She said: '(ISIS) used to scare us by beheading people in front of us and whenever a plane came it would burn whatever it hit.'

(ISIS) used to scare us by beheading people in front of us and whenever a plane came it would burn whatever it hit. Buthaina, aged 10

And fellow survivor Faridah, also 13, recounted the cruelty she had witnessed at the hands of the jihadists.

'When they first entered, they were nice with the people,' she said. 'Then they started to whip, cutting-off heads, cutting-off hands. It was just fear and terror.'

And the teenager continued: 'If any (woman) goes outside without covering her eyes, they (ISIS) will bring her and whip her.

'And the woman... if she does something wrong they will stone her with stones. And they remain stoning her with stones until she dies.'

While the family was still in Raqqa, shrapnel from an airstrike targeting ISIS hit her younger brother, Foad, in the head.

Faridah said: 'We were sleeping the summer and suddenly a plane dropped a bomb and we saw him screaming. And there was a shrapnel in his head. Whenever a plane strikes it harms everywhere.'

Father of two Yusuf fled his home with his family after heavy bombing. He and his wife Deena adopted niece Muna (pictured, right, along with Yusuf's seven-month-old son Ali) after her parents were killed in an airstrike

Siblings Yacoub, 12, and Faridah, 13, (centre) sit with their parents, brother Fouad and sister, inside the tent in which they and their family now live, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa

Muna was just two years old when her parents died after their home was hit by an airstrike while she was staying with her uncle and aunt, who have now adopted her

She also recalled a man having his mouth sewn shut by ISIS thugs after he said something about the terror group.

'And while they were whipping him, blood came out of his mouth,' she said.

Raashida's father, Aoun, said: 'There are no schools anymore, no toys, and even if the children want to go to school they are going to be taught how to fight but there is no actual education

'I have a son who should be in his last year of primary school, yet he still doesn't know how to read and write.'

Twelve-year-old Yacoub, speaking from the camp in Ain Issa, said: 'The people from ISIS used to cut people's heads off. They would catch them and cut off their heads and sometimes they would beat them with rifles.'

It is estimated that 20,000 civilians are still in the city, where they are being used as human shields by fundamentalists.

A boy carries water through a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Raqqa. An estimated 7,700 are currently living at this camp in Ain Issa after fleeing the city, which has been under ISIS control since 2014

Mother-of-two Deena, who adopted her neice Muna after her parents were killed in an airstrike, said: 'The orphan children of Syria dont have anything and dont have anyone, no mother no brother, no sister and no father. Imagine she (Muna) sometimes sees a picture of her father and she starts crying'

Raashida, 13, walks with her younger brother, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa. She told Save The Children: 'I went to school for a month but I didn't like it and I quit. I didn't like it because all the teachings from first grade are about jihad and mermaids of heaven and such things; that when you grow old you will be with them and there is only one death for the sake of God. All the teachings are about worship and unity- this is what they know'

Yusuf, a father-of-two from the countryside near Raqqa said he had fled after heavy bombing. He said: 'We don't want anything, we just want peace for the people and that is it.

'Peace and wellbeing for everyone and for children to be able to play and go to school, to have education, for things to be like before, freedom.'

He adopted his niece, Muna, after her parents were killed in an airstrike when she was just two years old.

Yusuf's wife Deena said: 'The orphan children of Syria dont have anything and dont have anyone, no mother no brother, no sister and no father. Imagine she (Muna) sometimes sees a picture of her father and she starts crying.

She said that even now they have escaped the city, the sight of a plane is enough to terrify young children. Deena said: 'They would see it and immediately hide. From the sound of the airplane they would be so scared.'

Raashida, 13, sits inside the tent in which she and her family now live, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa

Faridah, 13, from Raqqa, Syria, sits inside the tent in which she and her family now live, in a camp for people displaced by the war against ISIS, in Ain Issa

Yusuf, a father-of-two, sits with his four-year-old son, Sari, in the tent in which he and his family now live. He said: 'We don't want anything, we just want peace for the people and that is it. Peace and wellbeing for everyone and for children to be able to play and go to school, to have education, for things to be like before, freedom'

A survey in Iraq by charity Save The Children has found that 90 per cent of children had lost a loved one in the conflict, and many show the symptoms of toxic stress.

A statement from the charity said: 'The lack of access to communities inside Raqqa makes it difficult to assess the well-being of children still stuck there, but the stories of those whove escaped paints a bleak picture.

'Most of Raqqas 300,000 residents have fled the city. By some estimates there are only between 18,000 and 25,000 people left, almost half of them children, as the coalition aims to drive ISIS out following a similar operation in Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.'

Sonia Khush, Syria Country Director at Save the Children, said: 'Children must be able to leave Raqqa without fear of violence or death, or being forced to walk for days through minefields to reach safety.

'It's crucial that the children who've made it out alive are provided with psychological support to help them deal with the trauma of witnessing senseless violence and brutality.

'Raqqa's children might look normal on the outside but inside many are tormented by what they've seen. The children of Raqqa didn't ask for the nightmares and memories of seeing loved ones die right in front of them.

'We risk condemning a generation of children to a lifetime of suffering unless their mental health needs are addressed.'

IS still controls large areas in Syria and a handful of towns in Iraq.

LIFE IN THE REFUGEE CAMP WHERE FAMILIES LIVE IN TENTS AFTER FLEEING THE CONFLICT IN RAQQA An aid worker from Save The Children, whose name has been withheld to protect them, shares their experience of life in the Ain Issa camp Thirteen-year-old Raashida (name changed) is playing the role of mother to her five younger siblings while her mother goes to work every day in the camp kitchen. Her family stayed in Raqqa until about a month ago, when the house opposite theirs was hit by an airstrike, and the entire family - their neighbours and childhood friends  died right in front of them. 'The house opposite ours was bombed,' she says, 'We saw people dying in front of us and we thought the bombing that happened to the people opposite us might very well have been us. ISIS put an artillery next to our farm and started firing, we got scared so we left Raqqa and it took us four days to get to the camp (for internally displaced people).' Raashida recognizes that what she and her younger siblings have been through is not natural. When she speaks about children in Raqqa, despite her young age, she speaks as if she isn't one herself. Smoke rises after an airstrike during fighting between ISIS and the Syrian Democratic Forces in the war-torn city of Raqqa on August 15, from which tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee The bombing campaign by coalition forces has seen huge displacement of people in Raqqa, but thousands remain trapped in the city, where they are being used as human shields 'It's as if they're not children,' she says. 'They see ISIS beheading people right next to them, ISIS would present bodies without heads in front of the children, and they started to dream about this and wouldn't be able to sleep. They haven't had a childhood at all, an airplane coming and an airplane going. It affected them in all kinds of ways, their lives have passed them by, they haven't experienced childhood, they didn't see toys, parks, they only sit at home terrified of ISIS, if they go out and see someone from ISIS they run back home and hide...they don't want to go outside the house because they're so scared.' All the children gave graphic descriptions of the violence they had seen and experienced in Raqqa. As well as stories of their memories, fears and experiences, there were moments which highlighted how far we have to go to ensure that these children are able to recover from what they've been through. To afford them the opportunity of their full rights as children - rights to education, protection and a sense of well-being. Raashida's new best friend Ayesha (name changed), who she met in the camp when they arrived, wanted to speak to us but we had limited time. At one point Ayesha turned to me and asked, 'how old are you?' I said, 'I'm an old lady compared to you,' to which she replied, 'no way, you look younger than me!' Initially I thought she was trying to flatter me. The city has been the site of intense fighting between coalition forces and ISIS, which has controlled the city since 2014 Raqqa is the self-proclaimed capital of the so-called Islamic State in Syria, and coalition forces have been fighting to drive the jihadists out of the city 'You are thirteen, I am twenty years older than you,' I told her. She stared at me with big, misty brown eyes and said, 'you know why you look younger? Because you're not married like me.' Suddenly all the pain and confusion Ayesha must be going through as a young girl hit me. In Raqqa she was forced to wear a veil covering her face, she lived through a war zone for six years, witnessed all kinds of horrific violence including beheadings - and she was married at the age of twelve. All the dangers of child marriage came into focus. She knew her hardships put her far above her tender age. There were moments of hope in the camp as well. One family I spoke to had a kitten they had found wondering around the camp and had decided to adopt her. The love they had for the kitten and the bond the children had formed with it was beautiful. The kitten even helped the healing process. 'My son has seen so much,' a mother told me of her four-year-old son. 'He was too scared to even speak before we arrived here because of all the things he saw in Raqqa. But thanks to the kitten he is now speaking. His first words were calling out to her!' Later on Raashida's father tells me, 'let the world see what we've been through. They need to know.' But the world already knows. And we have known for a long time. We have a huge level of responsibility to the children of Raqqa, and all the children of Syria who will have to spend the rest of their lives dealing with the memories created by more than six years of conflict. Advertisement

Half of the estimated 20,000 people trapped in Raqqa are children, an official with the UN children's agency said on Friday.

Fran Equiza spoke to The Associated Press in Damascus following a visit to three camps in northern Syria where he met displaced children from Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, both held by the IS.

'I was completely overwhelmed,' he said. 'There are 10,000 children trapped in Raqqa in extremely dire conditions. No electricity, no water, probably very little food ... and the battle almost every day.'

Raqqa is the self-proclaimed capital of the so-called Islamic State in Syria. US-backed Syrian fighters are bearing down on the city from all sides and as the fighting intensifies, thousands of civilians are finding it increasingly hard to escape the city, which is facing constant shelling by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Democratic Forces. ISIS militants have placed mines around the city.

'The level of suffering, losing friends, relatives, family of these children is absolutely staggering,' he said.

Equiza appealed to all sides to allow for safe passage and respect civilians, 'especially the children (who) have no responsibility whatsoever'.

He warned that the situation is about to get worse, as more people flee from the IS-held eastern province of Deir el-Zour where the Syrian military and allied militiamen are on the offensive against IS.

'We need support in order to be able to provide these children the rights they are entitled,' Equiza said.

Half of the estimated 20,000 people trapped in Raqqa are children, an official with the UN children's agency said on Friday

ISIS militants have placed mines around the city in a bid to prevent people from escaping from the heart of its 'caliphate' in Iraq and Syria
An Islamic woman who runs her own plumbing business is fed up with Muslims having a go at her for not wearing a head scarf.

Emma Eros proudly shuns any form of heading covering, except for a hat hard on construction sites, and wants the burqa to be banned.

The 38-year-old company founder grew up in Sydney's west as the Australian-born daughter of Lebanese Muslim migrants.

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Emma Eros is tired of fundamentalist Muslims having a go at her for not wearing a head scarf

The plumbing business founder says Muslim women should be free to wear what they choose

While her mother wore the hijab, Ms Eros was always free to choose what she wore.

Unfortunately for her, there are fundamentalist Muslims who don't feel the same way.

'I'm tired of having many Muslims, thinking I'm not Muslim because I don't put a scarf on,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I'm not Muslim because I'm not married to a Muslim, a Lebanese or Middle Eastern man, I'm not Muslim because I'm actually working, I'm out there and I'm doing things.'

Ms Eros has run her own construction plumbing business since 2009 and juggles employing 30 construction workers with raising two children, aged eight and 10, with her husband, who also runs a business.

Emma Eros runs a construction business that installs plumbing in new apartment buildings

Emma Eros is a regular visitor to Sydney construction sites in a fluoro vest and a hardhat

Across Sydney, she is a regular at apartment and commercial office construction sites.

However, she is dismayed at more recent Muslim arrivals in Sydney's west who are failing to integrate into Australian society or have jobs.

'One of the main problems around us today is that we're having to adjust to a minority that's coming to our country, when it should in fact be the opposite,' she said.

'You do not force your ideology on others: it's against Islamic religion.

'There are wonderful hard working educated Muslim people in this country, but in the last 10 years the many new immigrants haven't assimilated enough to appreciate Australia.'

Emma Eros is very hands on when it comes to running a business that employs 30 plumbers

The construction business manager is dismayed at how the western Sydney suburbs she grew up in have become Muslim enclaves where women are covered up.

'It's very depressing,' she said. 'I'm saddened for what I see in front.

'I can't dress in the way Emma dresses in these areas without getting stared upon.

'It's against the religion to force your child to put a scarf on or your wife.'

She blames 'backyard' Muslim preachers for radicalising the children of migrants

'When I say backyard sermons, there are a lot of Joe Blows that have in their garage religious studies. It shouldn't be allowed. This is why it should be regulated,' she said.

Emma Eros has plenty of equipment and ideas to make immigrants to Australia assimilate

Emma Eros (right) on Mark Latham's Outsiders with fellow secular Muslim Tanveer Ahmed

'We did not grow up in a religion where you've got to kill in the name of God or all this rubbish that ISIS and Daesh are doing.'

The Muslim woman, who prefers not to attend a mosque, wants Islamic preachers to be monitored and has posted a petition on her Facebook page.

She also says it's time for the Australian government to deport Islamist extremists, like Hizb ut-Tahrir, who call for the death of ex-Muslims.

'Absolutely. Why are we wasting time?,' she said.

Ms Eros agrees with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's call to ban the burqa and describes face coverings like the niqab as a form of dictatorship imposed by the likes of Iran's Islamic fundamentalist theocracy.

'I do agree with the banning of the burqa. I'd like to know who is next to me,' she told former Labor leader turned media commentator, Mark Latham this week, adding the garment was not an Islamic 'religious requirement'.

'There could be a man wearing a bomb underneath this burqa.'

Emma Eros supports Pauline Hanson (pictured in the Senate) and her call to ban the burqa

This Muslim businesswoman wants Australia put new laws in the pipeline to deport extremists

She is also a critic of those who use the phrase 'Islamophobia' to silence criticism of Islam instead of allowing free speech.

'It's one of those trendy words like fake news at the moment,' she said.

'It's a left-wing mentality: they will target a word.

'As soon as you mention Islam, people put their barrier up and get offended by it.

'These days, whatever you say ... there's no longer freedom of speech. We may as well be a communist country.'

She wants halal certification to be regulated, Muslims on welfare to be forced to work and for Australia's net annual immigration levels to be cut back from 200,000 to 70,000 people a year.

The businesswoman says it's time Muslims, who make up 2.6 per cent of the Australian population, stopped imposing their religion on the rest of society.

'We have a lot of people that would love to come to this country and appreciate the opportunity this country gives,' she said.

'Not those that want to start dictating and have some agenda.'
William Tyrrell was always intended to stay in foster care for the rest of his childhood, away from his 'career criminal' father.

The young missing boy's mother - revealed this week as Karlie Tyrrell - was also believed to have known of the intention for the arrangement.

She had 'infrequent' visits with her son, but the toddler considered his foster family his parents, according to the Daily Telegraph.

William Tyrrell was always intended to stay in foster care for the rest of his childhood to protect him from his 'career criminal' father

William's biological parents were revealed this week after a shock court ruling, that saw Ms Tyrrell's partner Brendan also named as the birth father.

The pair were linked to domestic violence-related incidents from after William was removed from their care, and never abused him.

William's biological father was also said to be a 'career criminal' who spent most of his son's life in and out of prison.

The young boy was taken into foster care when he was eight months old and was abducted from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall on NSW north coast in 2014.

While William (pictured) had reportedly had 'infrequent' visits with his biological mother, he was to have considered his foster family his parents

The young boy's mother Karlie Tyrrell (pictured) was also believed to have known of the intention for the arrangement

The three-year-old was wearing his now-iconic Spider-Man costume at the time of his disappearance, with police, helicopters and 200 volunteers searching for him in the days following.

William's parents and foster family are not suspected of having any involvement in his disappearance.

Ms Tyrrell, seen reportedly in 2011 when she was pregnant with William, was named as his birth mother this week

His parents' identities were an open secret on the internet for years, but their identities can only now be published following the court ruling.

The revelation was made after a Supreme Court judge admitted William was likely to have died.

The judge made the confronting statement, saying there was 'the tragic probability that he is no longer alive'.

Justice Brereton had disagreed with the stance of the The Department of Family and Community Services that releasing the information would have a negative effect on the case.

'The notion that the efforts of trained and experienced police investigators might be distracted - presumably by an influx of pseudo-information in the nature of rumour and speculation - is quite unconvincing,' he said.

It was a stunning defeat for the Department of Family and Community Services.

The department had reportedly tried to silence a vigilante Facebook group, Walking Warriors 4 Missing Children, for various posts on social media.

But the ruling stated there was substantial public interest in the 'accountability and scrutiny of the out-of-home care system' and accurately reporting the circumstances of William's disappearance.

William (pictured) disappeared from outside his foster grandmother's property in 2014, with police, helicopters and 200 volunteers searching for him to no avail in the days following

Ms Tyrrell (pictured), along with William's father Brendan Collins, were reportedly linked to domestic violence-related incidents according to The Daily Telegraph

William's biological grandmother, Natalie Collins spoke earlier in the week after the birth parents were announced, saying the family had been happy to be named.

She said: 'They made us look like criminals for so long with all the secrecy and not naming us.

'We were happy to be named all along but they wouldn't let us.

'I really think that all the weirdness with not being able to name Karlie and Brendan or the carers has made people think there is something suss about it.'

Ms Collins also said they were 'not the ones looking after William when he went missing'.

'They took him into care and promised us he would be safe, she said.

'We are so relieved by the judge's decision and I am very grateful to (activist) Allanna (Smith) for what she's done for William.'

There is a $1 million reward for information which leads to the toddler's discovery. He has been missing since September 12, 2014.

The incidents involving Ms Tyrrell and her partner were said to have occurred after William was put into care
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Activists paraded shirtless through the streets of New York City on Saturday, flashing their chests to celebrate the 10th annual Go Topless Day Parade.

Walking to the beat of drums in a carnival-style atmosphere, dozens of men and women embarked on the one-mile march from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park for the event, which this year falls on Women's Equality Day.

The annual event was established in 2007 by Nevada-based organization GoTopless, which promotes gender equality.

Participants of all shapes and sizes held up placards proclaiming: 'Equal Topless Rights For All' and 'War Is Obscene Not My Nipples, Meditate 4 Peace Topless'.

Elle Wesseling from Sydney, Australia (pictured), participates in the 10th annual Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday

Dozens of men and women embarked on the one-mile march from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park for the event (Pictured, two women go shirtless for the 10th annual Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday)

Participants wrote 'Go Topless' on their chests (pictured) or held up placards proclaiming: 'Equal Topless Rights For All' and 'War Is Obscene Not My Nipples, Meditate 4 Peace Topless'

Similar events held in cities across the US support the right of women to go topless in public on gender-equality grounds (Pictured, a woman walks topless during the Go Topless Day Parade)

'It's important to send a message. These are our bodies. They should not be policed any other way than men's. Men walk around like this all the time, so why is it such a big deal?' one woman said (Pictured, people participate in New York City's Go Topless Day Parade on Saturday)

Several US cities marked the day with participants tweeting using the hashtag #FreetheNipple (Pictured, a bare-chested woman attends the Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday)

'I wouldn't miss this for the world,' said Rebecca Barwick, 35, who traveled to New York from Virginia and works in the federal government.

'It's important to send a message. These are our bodies. They should not be policed any other way than men's. Men walk around like this all the time, so why is it such a big deal?'

Many wrote 'Go Topless' across their chests and wore headbands with breasts popping up from the scalp on springs. One woman wore a blue Wonder Woman cape, and a couple of men wore bras.

An SUV topped with giant inflatable pink breasts demanding 'Equal Topless Rights' was also featured.

Two participants tape the word 'Censored' over their breasts as they march in New York City's Go Topless Day Parade on Saturday

The annual event was established in 2007 by Nevada-based organizationa GoTopless (Pictured, a bare-chested woman attends the Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday)

An SUV topped with giant inflatable pink breasts demanding 'Equal Topless Rights' was also featured in the parade (pictured)

A cancer survivor takes part in a march to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday

In New York, it has been legal since 1992 for women to bare their breasts in public (Pictured, left and right, women bare their chests to participate in the Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday)

While the majority of the US is top-free for women, there are still three states where it is illegal: Utah, Tennessee, and Indiana (Pictured, a woman shouts into a megaphone during the Go Topless Day Parade in New York City on Saturday)

Hundreds of spectators filled the streets for the unique event as marchers shouted chants for women's breasts to no longer be censored.

In New York, it has been legal since 1992 for women to bare their breasts in public. While the majority of the US is top-free for women, there are still three states where it is illegal: Utah, Tennessee, and Indiana.

Even with a top-free law is firmly in effect, there have been cases of women being arrested on the grounds of 'disorderly conduct'.

Participants and onlookers gather for Go Topless Day celebrating its 10th anniversary in Venice Beach, California

Even with a top-free law is firmly in effect, there have been cases of women being arrested on the grounds of 'disorderly conduct' (Pictured, women pose for pictures during the Go Topless Day Parade in Venice Beach, California)

This year the event falls on the 97th anniversary of Women's Equality Day, which celebrates when American women were given the right to vote (Pictured, women march in the Go Topless parade in Venice Beach, California)

Several US cities marked the day with participants tweeting using the hashtag #FreetheNipple.

The international effort also included events where participants were protesting for similar rights in 29 other US cities, including Venice Beach, California; Denver, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona. GoTopless Day events were also celebrates outside America, including in Montreal, Canada, and Paris, France.

This year the event falls on the 97th anniversary of Women's Equality Day, which celebrates when American women were given the right to vote.
Diana's driver was not a depressed alcoholic and had been given a clean bill of health just days before the fatal crash, according to his friends who allege he is the victim of a conspiracy.

Henri Paul, the acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, was at the wheel of the Mercedes which crashed in the Alma Tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997 with Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in the back.

Henri's aviation medical certificate now appears to give the driver a clean bill of health and apparently contradicts claims he was an alcoholic.

Diana's driver (right) was not a depressed alcoholic and had been given a clean bill of health just days before the fatal crash, according to his friends who allege he is the victim of a conspiracy

'If Henri was an alcoholic and depressive how was this signed by a doctor just three days before he died?' says Henri's oldest friend Claude Garrec, according to the Sunday People.

Another of Henri's friends, Josy Duclos, who saw him on the night of the crash, says she never saw him drunk.

Garrec, who believes his friend is the victim of a conspiracy, added: 'There have been no answers even 20 years on. And one particularly strong memory for me was the message on a wreath at his funeral, "We are not fooled".'

Diana arrived in Paris on 30 August 1997 with Dodi Fayed after spending nine days together on his father Mohammed Al-Fayed's yacht in Sardinia.

The pair dined at the Ritz hotel and left after midnight to travel to an apartment in Rue Arsene Houssaye, just off the Champs Elysees.

Photographers pursued them into the Pont de l'Alma tunnel and driver Henri Paul, who was under the influence of alcohol and speeding, lost control of the Mercedes 280S while trying to outrun the press pack and careered into a support pillar.

Diana (right) arrived in Paris on 30 August 1997 with Dodi Fayed after spending nine days together on his father Mohammed Al-Fayed's yacht in Sardinia. Pictured left, Henri Paul

Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly, but Diana was still alive and was removed from the wreckage.

She suffered a cardiac arrest and died in hospital several hours later.

An inquest in 2008 found Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed due to the 'gross negligence' of Mr Paul, who had been drinking. A lack of seatbelts also contributed to their deaths.

This is not the first time a conspiracy theory has been linked to Diana's death.

In 2013, the Met dismissed reports claiming SAS troops were behind the couple's death, insisting there was 'no credible evidence' of secret service involvement.
Xavier McMullen (pictured), 17, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in the back of a police cruiser

Authorities say a 17-year-old male has been found fatally shot in the back seat of a police cruiser in the northeast Ohio city of Akron.

Akron police said in a statement a gun was found Friday night next to the teen, who was identified as Xavier McMullen, according to Fox8 Cleveland News.

Police haven't said whether the teen shot himself or how the gun ended up inside the cruiser.

The shooting occurred after the teen and two 18-year-old men were arrested as suspects in an earlier armed robbery and were placed in separate cruisers around 11pm.

Police said McMullen and two accomplices allegedly held a pair of female victims at gunpoint and stole their property at the 2200 block of 10th Street.

Authorities haven't said whether the teen shot himself or how the gun ended up inside the cruiser

Police said McMullen and two accomplices allegedly held a pair of female victims at gunpoint and stole their property at the 2200 block of 10th Street

Police Capt. Daniel Zampelli said a gunshot was heard while officers were investigating and found the teen 'mortally wounded.'

He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Akron detectives, the department's Office of Professional Standards and the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office are investigating.

The two other adult suspects, 18-year-old Matthew Allen and 18-year-old Anthony Criss, have been charged with aggravated robbery.

They are currently being held at the Summit County Jail until their pending arraignments next week.
New data obtained by the media suggests that more than 100,000 job seekers have fallen back on government handouts.

Figures published by the Sunday Telegraph report that over the past ten years, these payments have cost Australia $15 billion, and that almost 19,000 recipients have been receiving Newstart for more than a decade.

The federal government is currently trialling new data analysis techniques to target 'high-risk' groups and identify signs that people could end up dependent on welfare.

Over the past decade, jobseeker payments to more than 100,000 people have cost $15 billion

According to the Herald Sun, those who do not meet job seeking obligations such as interviews, training courses and employment programs, are less likely to find work and transition off welfare.

This is supported by new statistics indicating that 88 per cent of 34,358 jobseekers who failed to meet these obligations more than ten times are still reliant on Newstart,

Up to 88,816 people have been receiving jobseeker payments for five to ten years, to the tune of $12.6 billion.

Additionally, more than half of the welfare recipients on continual assistance began receiving it in their 20s and 30s, according to recently-released data.

The Turnbull government currently faces enormous pressure to cut Australia's welfare bill, and has developed a 'driver-style demerit point system'.

Those on job-seeking payments will have their allowance docked if they do not actively seek work by attending interviews and accepting jobs they are offered.

People on job-seeking payments will have allowance docked if they do not meet obligations

The move has been widely slammed, particularly by Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie, who told ABC that Australia already has one of the toughest 'compliance systems'.

But the new system was welcomed by Human Services Minister Alan Tudge, who believes it will help identify people who may risk ending up reliant on benefits for multiple years.

Mr Tudge called long-term welfare dependency 'a poison on capable people' and wants to target jobseekers before they 'fall into the welfare trap'.

ACSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie says Australia already has 'tough' compliance systems

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge has said that long-term welfare dependency 'a poison'

'We know that people who actively job search are more likely to get work,' Mr Tudge told the Herald Sun.

'We are tightening the compliance system to identify those who have serious problems but also ensure those who are aren't doing the right thing face consequences.

'The longer you are on welfare, the steeper the road is back to employment,' he told The Australian.
It is one of the best-known jewellery brands in Britain  and has been proudly hallmarking its wares here for more than 100 years.

But now Tiffany & Co may move its hallmarking operation to Europe because of Brexit to avoid being caught up in potential trade disputes.

It is feared other major global brands may follow suit, which could cost millions of pounds and put hundreds of skilled UK jobs at risk.

Moving on: Tiffany & Co may move its hallmarking operation to Europe to avoid being caught up in trade disputes when Britain leaves the EU. Pictured: Model Lily Cole in a Tiffany advert

For 700 years, Britain's hallmarks on precious metals such as platinum, gold and silver have reassured customers around the world that the jewellery they are buying is of the correct purity and weight.

But some EU countries, including France, Italy and Spain, may choose not to recognise British hallmarks after we leave the EU in 2019.

'Brexit is a disaster for British hallmarking,' said Dr Robert Organ, deputy warden at the Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office in London.

'There is a real fear our customers who use the UK as a distribution hub will move their business elsewhere in the EU.'

The Antiques Trade Gazette has reported some of the largest global jewellery firms are preparing to switch their hallmarking from London to EU countries such as the Netherlands to maintain hallmarks recognised in the European Union. Now several industry sources have told The Mail on Sunday that Tiffany & Co is one, planning to move its hallmarking operations from London to Amsterdam.

Tiffany currently uses Britain as its distribution hub for Europe. It flies its jewellery into Heathrow, where it is picked up by the security firm Brink's. It is then checked and hallmarked by The Goldsmiths' Company office before being distributed to stores across the UK and Europe.

Concerning: It is feared other major global brands like Tiffany & Co may follow suit, which could cost millions of pounds and put hundreds of skilled UK jobs at risk

One insider said: 'Tiffany's is worried it will not be able to sell items in places such as France and Spain if they play hard ball after Brexit and do not recognise British hallmarks.

'At the moment they have to accept British hallmarks because we are in the EU. But if British hallmarks are shunned by EU countries, the most sensible option would be to get the jewellery marked in the Netherlands.'

Another source, involved in the transportation of high-value jewellery, said: 'If Tiffany stops sending jewellery to be hallmarked in the UK, other big US brands will follow. It will mean job losses at the Assay Offices and in the logistics chain.'

A Government spokesman said: 'Our ambition is to work towards a future agreement with the EU, which includes securing the freest and most frictionless trade possible.'

Tiffany did not comment.
A small group of neo-Nazis held a ceremony outside a shopping mall, sparking a protest by angry neighbors in response.

The neo-Nazis, five men and one woman, were marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Virginia, around noon on Friday.

The small group fit into a single parking spot at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, where 50 years previously, on August 25, 1967, a disgruntled fellow Nazi shot and killed Rockwell.

A small group of neo-Nazis, five men and one woman, gathered on Friday around noon outside the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in Arlington, Virginia. They gathered and did a Nazi salute to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, who was shot dead by a disgruntled fellow Nazi in 1967

Matt Garcia, who was getting his hair cut at the shopping center when he saw the group assemble with their Nazi flag and wreath, took a picture of the small ceremony.

In the picture, one of the men holds the flag with a swastika emblazoned on it while the others held their arms up for a Nazi salute.

'I was shocked and surprised. Definitely it was disturbing see,' Garcia told WJLA.

'First thing I noticed was the Nazi flag. After a minute or two I saw them doing the salute. Thats when I said, "You know what? Let me just take a picture of this just so I have it documented whats going on".'

Matt Garcia, who was getting his hair cut at the shopping center when he saw the group assemble with their Nazi flag and wreath, took a picture of the small ceremony and within hours dozens of neighbors came out to the shopping center to condemn the Nazi gathering

They gathered around the shopping center and held up signs that read 'Choose Love' and 'United Against Hate' to drivers passing by

In a matter of hours after seeing the picture, dozens of neighbors came out to condemn the Nazi gathering.

They gathered around the shopping center and held up signs that read 'Choose Love' and 'United Against Hate' to drivers passing by.

'I can't say that I've felt rage much in the last 10 years, but I felt rage today,' one woman told WJLA.

To the group who gathered, another person said: 'I can't believe we even have to contemplate this stuff. I mean this is just pathetic.'

One woman said: 'I can't say that I've felt rage much in the last 10 years, but I felt rage today'
Media commentator and former Liberal Party staffer Peta Credlin says Australia needs to ban the burqa.

She has described the controversial Islamic garb as a security risk and a form of female oppression.

'The burqa is about control and subjugation of women; it is not about religion,' she wrote in a Sunday Telegraph column.

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Peta Credlin agrees with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson (pictured) who says the burqa should be banned on security grounds

Former Liberal staffer Peta Credlin says the burqa is used by men to oppress women

'Right now, the burqa is seen as a method of dehumanisation by men over women under the shonky guise of religion and a security risk because it conceals identity.'

Ms Credlin, who was former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott's chief-of-staff, also chastised Liberal Attorney-General George Brandis for denouncing Pauline Hanson for wearing a burqa into the Senate.

'Rather than condemn Hanson to win the applause of Labor and the Greens, George Brandis should have shown leadership on an issue where women are denied their rightful place in our community,' she said.

Earlier this month, Senator Brandis was given a standing ovation on the other side of the chamber after he slammed Senator Hanson for disrespecting religious sensitivities.

Peta Credlin says Attorney-General George Brandis was wrong to slam Pauline Hanson

Peta Credlin says burqas are used to shield women from men who are aroused by female face

The One Nation leader had worn a full-face burqa on to the floor of the Senate to call for the Islamic garb to be banned on security grounds.

However, Senator Hanson didn't emphasise in parliament how the burqa is used to shield women from the prying eyes of men.

Ms Credlin said the burqa symbolised who men can't control their sexual urges when they see a woman's lips or cheek and wonders why left-wing feminists aren't speaking out against it.

'Women in this country should stand against the burqa if we are serious about the rights and values we want expressed to our daughters,' she said.

Ms Credlin, who is now a Sky News commentator, said the burqa was worn by supporters of terror suspects and women who have refused to stand for judges and show respect for the justice system.

The burqa has been banned in France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and in nations with a large Muslim population including Chad.
LOW PROFILE: Charles wants to avoid 'being caught in a storm'

A series of bruising opinion polls has shown his popularity flagging.

But as the 20th anniversary of Dianas death approaches this week, The Mail on Sunday understands that the Prince of Wales is determined to remain silent in the face of criticism.

With the south gates of Kensington Palace designated a makeshift memorial to his first wife ahead of Thursdays anniversary, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are to stay away from London and will make no statement.

Friends of the Prince suggest that he wants to avoid being caught up in a media storm as the nation marks two decades since Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. Instead, he will devote himself to a campaign of official engagements.

Some commentators continue to criticise the Royal Family for its treatment of Diana throughout her troubled marriage and during the break-up.

However, there will be some solace for Charles in tonights much-anticipated BBC documentary, which focuses on the week after Dianas death and features warm words from his younger son, Prince Harry.

Praising his father for looking after him and Prince William in the aftermath of their mothers death, Harry, 32, says: One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that the other parent has died. But he was there for us, he was the one out of two left. And he tried to do his best to make sure that we were protected and looked after.

Prince Charles will return to work next month with a typically busy autumn schedule, including a three-country foreign tour on behalf of the Government.

These tours are now, effectively, State visits because the Queen, 91, no longer carries out overseas trips.

Charles is also expected to accompany the Queen at the Cenotaph as they lead the nation in reflection on Remembrance Sunday  another significant step as he continues to assume more Royal duties.

The Prince and other senior Royals will be increasingly called upon to support the Queen at public engagements, now that the Duke of Edinburgh has retired.

...and what could her cad be thinking about? PENSIVE: James Hewitt out and about yesterday Princess Dianas former lover, James Hewitt, seemed absorbed in his own thoughts yesterday when he was spotted out and about near his home. The former Army officer, who had a five-year affair with the Princess, could be forgiven for having a lot on his mind. As well as the approaching 20th anniversary of Dianas death, it was only a few months ago that doctors reportedly warned him he only had a slim chance of survival after suffering a heart attack and stroke. Hewitt, 59, was yesterday seen walking in a park near the two-bedroom flat he shares with his mother Shirley in Exeter. Sitting on a wooden bench to fiddle with his mobile phone for a short time, he wore a thick green body warmer despite the sunny weather. Advertisement

Indeed, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Charles has concluded that the example set by his mother is the best one to follow this week  keep calm, keep quiet and carry on. He was famously damaged by the televised interview he gave to Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994, in which he admitted infidelity, and is understood to be determined to avoid a similar experience.

Charles will now throw himself into official duties, including a naming ceremony for the Royal Navys 6.2 billion aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales at Rosyth on 8 September, and the three-country tour with Camilla, which is yet to be officially announced.

A recent poll suggested that just a third of Britons believe the Prince of Wales has been beneficial to the Monarchy, down from nearly two-thirds four years ago.

But Charles is said to be eager to continue his charitable work and attend the sort of local engagements that rarely attract national attention, believing that it is here that he connects with members of the public and the problems they face.
President Trump has praised emergency officials for their response to the devastating Hurricane Harvey as he hunkered down at Camp David.

The powerful Category 4 hurricane slammed into the Texas coast on Friday night with 130mph winds and left one person dead and 14 more injured as of Saturday.

Trump departed the White House before the storm, wishing luck to the state's citizens and added that he would monitor the situation from Camp David.

The president tweeted out his praise to emergency officials for their response to the storm on Saturday, saying: 'Wonderful coordination between Federal, State and Local Governments in the Great State of Texas - TEAMWORK!'

President Trump praised emergency officials for their response to Hurricane Harvey from Camp David on Saturday. The White House said Trump held a video conference with officials about the storm's aftermath (pictured)

Trump said: 'Wonderful coordination between Federal, State and Local Governments in the Great State of Texas - TEAMWORK!'

Trump had been active on Twitter on Saturday as he kept an eye on the hurricane's aftermath from the presidential retreat in Maryland.

He also thanked volunteers pitching in with the storm of the decade's relief effort.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the White House said Trump held a video conference with officials regarding Hurricane Harvey.

Trump instructed the relevant departments and agencies to 'stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives.'

Trump also reminded his department heads that the full impact of the storm won't be apparent for days.

Residents of Texas and Louisiana are facing heavy flooding, with up to five feet of rain and severe wind damage.

Trump instructed the relevant departments and agencies to 'stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives' in Harvey's aftermath (pictured)

Trump signed a disaster declaration in response to the hurricane being elevated from a Category 3 to a Category 4 on Friday night

Although Trump is spending time at the private retreat, he certainly has been busy.

Trump signed a disaster declaration in response to the hurricane being elevated from a Category 3 to a Category 4 on Friday night.

Trump tweeted: 'At the request of the Governor of Texas, I have signed the Disaster Proclamation, which unleashes the full force of government help!'

On Friday night Trump also signed a pardon for controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and an executive order that banned transgendered individuals from enlisting in the armed forces, reversing an initiative began by Obama.
Police posing as terrorists managed to break into the House of Commons in less than five minutes during a late-night drill, it has been reported.

The mock attack exposed huge security flaws and showed that MPs are 'sitting ducks'.

A group of officers gained access to Parliament by approaching on a boat before storming the Commons Chamber.

Night attack: Police officers raided Parliament during a drill earlier in the year. One source said that over 100 MPs could have been murdered if it were a real attack

A source told The Sunday Telegraph that the simulation showed over 100 MPs could have been slaughtered during the exercise.

'I remember thinking "Jesus Christ, if that's where we are at and that can happen, then the public would be horrified",' one source said.

Another explained: '[The public] would be scared stiff. They wouldn't come back to the place.

'It is not safe. We are sitting ducks in Parliament.'

The drill was conducted just weeks before jihadist murderer Khalid Masood stabbed a police officer to death on Parliament's grounds after driving a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.

PC Keith Palmer (left) was murdered on Parliament's grounds by a jihadist in March. Right: Tributes to PC Palmer and the other victims of the attack

Five people were murdered during the Westminster attack

It was held during recess in a bid to keep its findings as quiet as possible, with most MPs unaware.

A spokesperson for Parliament said the safety of MPs was its 'highest priority' and stressed that security measures were constantly under review.

The drill was revealed as part of a probe into the Palace of Westminster's security five months after Masood's rampage.

It has also been revealed that an official has recommended the building of a barrier to stop boats reaching Parliament from the Thames.

An armed guard has also been placed at river entrances.

A 3ft-high fence around Parliament, meanwhile, has been highlighted as potentially low enough for an attacker to jump over.

It comes as a terror suspect deliberately drove at police outside Buckingham Palace then attacked three unarmed officers with a 4ft sword on Friday night.
As unpaid childcare fees rise, centres have been forced to call in debt collectors to chase up parents with outstanding payments.

Australian Debt Collection Agency Prushka said that unpaid childcare fees are becoming a 'huge problem' as parents are 'crippled by the cost of living', according to Sky News.

While the average unpaid childcare debt reportedly sits at around $1,200, families owing as little as $100 are being targeted.

Australian debt collectors have said that unpaid childcare fees are becoming a 'huge problem'

Centres have called in debt collectors to chase up families who have outstanding payments

Unsurprisingly, families with the most debt are single parents, welfare recipients and parents who are casual employment, Newscorp reported.

The Daily Telegraph claim that centres are trying to sniff out parents who are 'rorting the system' by moving their child from centre to centre 'leaving a trail of debt' behind them.

Industry experts suggest that debt collectors have been brought in so that childcare centres do not have to waste resources tracking down unpaid fees.

Prushka's chief executive officer Roger Mendelson told the Daily Telegraph the inability of centres to do 'background checks' on parents made it impossible to distinguish who were the good and bad payers.

As such, families that pay on time may have to pay more to compensate.

Mr Mendelson suggested that daycare centres act as soon as a payment defaults so reduce the escalation of outstanding fees.

Prushka's chief executive officer Roger Mendelson suggested that daycare centres act ASAP

Families owing as little as $100 in unpaid childcare fees are being targeted by debt collectors

Financial Counselling Australia's chief executive officer Fiona Guthrie is unsurprised by the growing number of parents not paying childcare fees.

'It's becoming more a necessity for both parents where they both need to work and the cost of childcare is quite expensive,' she said.

However, there have been claims that most centres only experience 'one or two' payment dodgers a year.

Top Ryde Early Learning Centre director Nesha Hutchinson said that she wouldn't both chasing up small debts of hundreds of dollars.

'But when it gets into the thousands, we file with the local court,' she said.

This method successfully led to the centre recouping $3,500 in unpaid fees.

According to Adelaide Now, Prushka acts on behalf of 29 childcare centres in Queensland and is currently pursuing more than 100 active files in that state alone.

Director of Petrie Kids Korner Lisa Taskov, said childcare fees were 'relegated to the bottom of the pile' as parents opt to 'put food on the table first'.

'It seems to be that childcare fees gets paid last as people will pay their rent, power, and buy the food first and childcare fees get paid last, if at all,' she said.

Financial Counselling Australia's chief executive Fiona Guthrie is unsurprised by the debt

Director of Petrie Kids Korner said childcare fees are being 'relegated to the bottom of the pile'

Debt has been slowly increasing for the last two years, with even middle-class families feeling the pinch.

Childcare Queensland chief executive Gwynn Bridge commented that recent changes to rebate rules have dropped some families' access to subsidies by as much as 30 per cent.

'This is as tough as I've ever seen families doing in the 24 years I've been in child care,' Ms Bridge said. 'It's quite sad to watch.'

If you are having financial problems contact the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.


Daniel Borden, 18, (pictured) from Ohio, was arrested Friday and charged in the brutal attack of black man Deandre Harris, 20, at the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12

A teenager was arrested for his involvement in the brutal beating of a black man in Charlottesville, police said.

Daniel Borden, 18, was arrested in Ohio Friday and charged with malicious wounding for an attack on Deandre Harris, 20, on August 12 after the rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Harris was one of the members counter-protesting at the white supremacist rally 'Unite The Right,' when a group, including Borden, approached him and one person began clubbing him with a pole.

In the photo of the attack, captured by photographer Zach D. Roberts, the furious man is shown gripping the stick in his hand as Harris kneels hunched on the ground helplessly.

Harris was left with eight stitches in his head, a broken wrist, lacerations and a chipped tooth from the onslaught.

Harris was one of the members counter-protesting at the white supremacist rally 'Unite The Right,' when a group, including Borden, approached him and one person began clubbing him with a pole

Borden, a white supremacist, has been obsessed with Nazis since his junior year of high school, the New York Daily News reported.

In 2012, one of Borden's middle school classmates told police Borden held a knife inches from his face, drew swastikas and called him 'Jew Boy' because he had a big nose, Cincinnati station WCPO reported.

Borden also reportedly claimed he was a member of a gang called Brothers of Confederacy.

Borden is currently in custody at the Hamilton County Criminal Justice Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Officers said Charlottesville police will determine when he will be extradited.

In the photo of the attack , captured by photographer Zach D. Roberts, the furious man is shown gripping the stick in his hand as Harris kneels hunched on the ground helplessly

Borden's attorney Greg Berberich released a statement about Borden's charges, NBC 29 reported.

Charlottesville police have also issued an arrest warrant for Alex Michael Ramos, 33, (pictured) in relation to the assault on Harris. Police are charging Ramos with malicious wounding as well

'Daniel Borden and his family have cooperated fully with the FBI in its investigation of the events in Charlottesville,' Berberich said in the statement.

'When Dan was advised yesterday afternoon that a warrant for his arrest had been issued by Virginia authorities, he immediately surrendered himself to the FBI and, later, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department.

'Dan is awaiting extradition to Virginia. He will defend himself against charges filed as a consequence of rioting caused by the City of Charlottesville's decision to allow BLM and Antifah members to attack those protesting the removal of Robert E. Lee's statue from a local park.

'As Dan attempted to leave the protest grounds, he was struck in the head and tear gassed multiple times. Dan repeatedly requested protection from Charlottesville Police and was ignored. We believe Dan will be exonerated.'

Charlottesville police have also issued an arrest warrant for Alex Michael Ramos, 33, in relation to the assault on Harris. Police are charging Ramos with malicious wounding as well.

Harris was left with eight stitches in his head, a broken wrist, lacerations and a chipped tooth from the onslaught

After he was attacked and treated at a nearby hospital, Harris told The Root: 'Me and about five of my friends were out protesting. We thought (the racists) left, but at one point they came back.'

He said he and his friends did not initiate physical violence towards the rioters.

'Everyone was exchanging words with the group, but then the KKK and white supremacists just rushed us,' he said.

The controversial rally took place right outside the Charlottesville Police Department, which was shown in images from the deadly event.

'No police were there to help me at all,' Harris revealed, while adding he was shocked the event was not shut down sooner.

'I think for them to be allowed to come here and protest is really crazy. How do you expect the KKK to come to your city to protest, and them not be violent?' he said.

'I understand everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech, but the government and the mayor made a bad business move. It's only caused havoc in your own city. It's crazier that people have the hatred in their heart to want to kill black people.'

Deandre, an aspiring musical artist, moved to the city of Charlottesville two years ago when he began working as an instructor for a special education program.

Harris said he and his family are seeking a possible lawsuit against the perpetrators.

Loved ones of the victim have since created a GoFundMe page to help aid in Harris' medical expenses.

When describing the event on the page, Harris said he was 'knocked unconscious repeatedly' and each time he tried to stand up, he 'was knocked back down' to the ground.

'If it was not for my friends that I came with I would have been beaten to a pulp... Once I was dragged off to some near by steps I was taken to the designated area for injured protesters & counter-protesters,' he wrote.

'My injuries were too extensive to be treated at the scene so I was taken to the ER at Martha Jefferson Hospital.

'I was diagnosed with a concussion, an ulnar fracture, and had to receive eight staples in my head. I also have a laceration across my right eyebrow, abrasions on my knees & elbows, and a chipped tooth.

'I'm so blessed to be alive to tell my story and to show the world that racism is very much still alive ... I appreciate the support from my friends, family, and the news platforms that have reached out to check on me,' he added.

'We will not let this fade & disappear. People are carrying real hate in their hearts for the Black Community and I refuse to just let it happen. God Bless & thank you all again!'
Newly released video footage from the Charlottesville demonstrations and counter-protests involving white supremacists and anti-fascist activists shows a white nationalist firing his gun in the direction of a black man while police stood by, it was learned on Saturday.

The man who was filmed firing his weapon has been arrested and charged with a crime, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filmed the original incident and posted it on its Twitter feed.

Nonetheless, questions abound as to why the man was not arrested immediately after he discharged his weapon within earshot of about a dozen Virginia State Police troopers, who are seen standing idly by in the video.

We all heard it and ran - I know damn well they heard it, Rosia Parker, a community activist in Charlottesville, told The New York Times. They never moved.

Newly released video footage from the Charlottesville demonstrations and counter-protests involving white supremacists and anti-fascist activists shows a white nationalist firing his gun in the direction of a black man while police stood by

The white nationalist seen above has been arrested and charged, according to officials

But critics said the authorities failed to act immediately after the shooting even though it was within earshot of state troopers nearby

We all heard it and ran - I know damn well they heard it, said Rosia Parker, a community activist in Charlottesville. The man is seen walking away from the scene after firing the shot

The Times cited an official familiar with the investigation as saying that a man was in custody.

The shooter fired a single round toward the ground in the vicinity of the black man who was holding an improvised torch.

In response to the criticism over police inaction, Charlottesville authorities insist that officers were not given a stand down order.

It is believed that police in Charlottesville were hesitant to use force during the August 12 rally because a month earlier law enforcement came under heavy criticism for spraying tear gas and making numerous arrests at a Ku Klux Klan rally in the same town.

In total, law enforcement, which included 125 local police officers, hundreds of National Guard soldiers, state police, and cops from neighboring municipalities made a total of just eight arrests on August 12.

That was the day of the Unite the Right rally, which brought out counter-demonstrators, one of whom, Heather Heyer, was killed when a suspected neo-Nazi, James Fields, drove his car into a crowd.

Fields has been charged with murder.

Other counter-demonstrators complained to police that they were assaulted, yet no arrests were made.

In total, law enforcement, which included 125 local police officers, hundreds of National Guard soldiers, state police, and cops from neighboring municipalities made just a total of eight arrests on August 12

Kendall, a 25-year-old woman, told the Times that she was chanting in the direction of neo-Nazis when one of them punched her in the face, giving her a bloody nose.

I moved quickly to the police and said: A man attacked me! Please help me! I need your help. Hes right there! she said.

They didnt move a muscle. Only a few of them had the courage to make eye contact with me.

A photographer at the scene also described a similar experience.

Eze Amos, a resident of Charlottesville who is originally from Nigeria, said he was snapping a picture of a white nationalist protester wearing an Adolf Hitler shirt.

As he was taking the picture, the nationalist punched his camera, which then ricocheted into his face.

This happened right in front of the cops, Amos told the Times.

I said, Hey, this man just assaulted me! The officer said, Well I didnt see it. I told him, Everybody just saw it!

The police officer took down Amoss name.

I am a black man photographing this. I kept telling myself, If it gets out of hand, the cops will jump in and save me, he said.

I saw a white woman get hit, and they did not do anything. Thats when I actually got really scared of the whole thing.

Amos said that it was clear from observing the officers that day that they were given specific instructions not to intervene.

Somebody is not telling us what happened, Amos said.

Those cops did not just decide to fold their arms and watch this happen.

It wasnt just anti-fascists who criticized law enforcement.

Investigators are reportedly nearing an arrest in the assault of DeAndre Harris, a 20-year-old African-American who was viciously beaten with a metal pipe and slabs of wood in a parking garage not far from police headquarters (above)

White nationalist planners of the rally said that police reneged on understandings that had been reached weeks prior to the event, such as arrangement for ensuring safe entrance and exit to the park where the statue of Robert E. Lee stands.

They didnt follow through on any part of their plan, an alt-right figure who goes by the name Eli Mosley told the Times.

They threw the whole thing away without telling us.

Looking back, we think it was nefarious, he said.

The local government is very left wing, and they didnt want anyone protesting the statue coming down.

I believe this was somewhat of a trap in some ways, he said.

We went there peacefully and were attacked, because we were forced to get past that gauntlet of counter-protesters.

The city of Charlottesville is denying the accusations that it bore responsibility for the violence that ensued.

It has so far resisted calls to publicize their action plans from that day, saying that it is possible they will use the same plans in the future.

The Times also reported Saturday that investigators are nearing an arrest in the assault of DeAndre Harris, a 20-year-old African-American who was viciously beaten with a metal pipe and slabs of wood in a parking garage not far from police headquarters.
Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour would consider adopting a federal government system if it was voted into power.

The opposition leader said his party would look at 'all options around devolution' if he was elected into Number 10 - a policy that would see more powers handed to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as well as parts of England.

His words come after Labour's Scottish leader, Kezia Dugdale, voiced her support replacing the House of Lords with an elected senate. She was overwhelmingly backed by her party at its conference in February.

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale in Glasgow on Thursday, said his party would consider adopting a federalist system in the UK if it was elected into power

When asked about the proposal Mr Corbyn told STV: 'We are going to be looking at all options around devolution.

'We'll also be looking at the future structure of an upper chamber, of what the House of Lords will look like in a democratic Britain, and obviously we'll look at devolution in that context.'

Mr Corbyn was then asked if that meant the party would consider adopting a federalist system, to which he replied: 'Everything is on the table.'

The Labour leader made the comments on Thursday as he toured Glasgow with Ms Dugdale.

He is in Scotland as part of a five-day campaign to win support in marginal constituencies across the country.

Ms Dugdale has previously proposed replacing the House of Lords (pictured) with an elected senate

Mr Corbyn voiced his support for returning powers, currently held by the EU in devolved policy areas such as agriculture, back to devolved nations after Brexit.

It comes after Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accused Theresa May's government of attempting a 'power grab' by seeking to divert these powers to Westminster through the Brexit Repeal Bill.

Both Ms Sturgeon and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones have rejected the legislation.
An Islamic preacher has slammed Muslims who show their tattoos in public.

Nassim Abdi, a Sunni morals campaigner from Sydney's west, had some harsh words for Muslims who seek forgiveness for their sins only to expose their ink patterns.

'A person who gets a tattoo, and then he repents to Allah. He starts to pray and he starts to ask Allah for forgiveness but he's always showing his tattoos,' he said.

The fundamentalist Muslim from the hardline Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association was particularly stern about Muslims who post images of themselves on social media without covering up their tattoos.

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Islamic preacher Nassim Abdi has slammed Muslims who show their tattoos out in public

Nassim Abdi says Muslims with tattoos need to cover them up and not show them on Facebook

'For example on his Facebook, or social media, all of his sins are still exposed,' he said.'

'Him at the club, him here or him there, all of his sins are still there.

'Is that showing regret for the sin that you committed? No.

'Especially if you continue to post and preach about it.'

High-profile Muslim converts Anthony Mundine, a boxer, and Sonny Bill Williams, a New Zealand rugby union All Blacks star, continue to post images of their tattooed arms on Twitter.

Muslim convert Sonny Bill Williams continues to show his tattoos on the field and social media (pictured in a Blues Super Rugby jersey)

In May Mr Abdi, criticised Muslim men who had beautiful, supermodel wives, which would also see Williams fall short of his fundamentalist standards.

The preacher who delivers sermons at Auburn also believes it is sinful for women to wearing hijabs in public without covering up their ears.

Men with tattoos are also advised to do the same thing on the streets.

'You need to feel regret for what you have done and cover it up as much as you can,' Mr Abdi said.

His 29-minute lecture, posted on YouTube, was titled, 'The Best Days of the Year.'
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One man has told of his family's desperate fight to survive Hurricane Harvey as he tells how they 'didn't stand a chance' when 130mph winds blew apart their home, forcing them to take shelter on a bus to save their lives.

The storm of the decade slammed into Texas with devastating winds and an expected five feet of rainfall on Friday, leaving at least two dead, 14 injured and thousands of family homes left in ruin.

Eight million residents have been warned the worst is yet to come, as hundreds of thousands of shell-shocked Texans on the Gulf Coast prepare for life-threatening flooding as they began to pick up the pieces of their lives.

The coastal city of Rockport was one of the hardest areas hit by the Category 4 hurricane and local man Kevin Rea, 23, revealed that his family was lucky to survive the long and brutal night.

Speaking to Dailymail.com on Saturday, Rea said: 'We tried staying in our house for as long as we could but the hurricane was just too much. We didn't stand a chance.

'A small bus saved our life; it is where we spent the next six hours riding out the storm and keeping dry.'

Kevin Rea, of Rockport, Texas, shared his horrific story of how he and his family survived Hurricane Harvey, which slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday night. Strong 130mph winds ripped apart Rea's home, he said on Saturday

In order for his family of six to survive, Rea had to knock down the home's front door and escape to a small bus that was parked outside. His family huddled together for six hours to wait out the devastating storm

The coastal city of Rockport was one of the hardest areas hit by the Category 4 hurricane and Rea said he felt lucky to survive

Although the hurricane has since diminished, Texans are still bracing for the aftermath of the storm with 'life-threatening' flooding expected to hit the region in the following days

Winds of 130mph ripped apart Rea's home, tearing off the roof and blowing the home off the foundation. Rea said his family lost almost everything and he is planning to move away from the city after the catastrophic storm

Rea said: 'We tried staying in our house for as long as we could but the hurricane was just too much. We didn't stand a chance. 'A small bus saved our life; it is where we spent the next six hours riding out the storm and keeping dry'

Rea said he and his family battled the hurricane in their home just miles outside of Rockport, which was the epicenter of the deadly storm.

He said there were four adults and two young children who waited out the storm and it almost cost them their lives.

Rea and the other adults tried to keep their front door from blowing open during the powerful natural disaster with wind gusts up to 130 mph.

'We even moved our piano up against our door to try to get it close, but the winds were just too strong. We didn't stand a chance. We finally kicked the piano down in the hopes to barricade us in, but it didn't work.

'Our house blew off the foundation and the supports poked through the floors of the house.

'Within hours and you could hear the house slowly coming apart, it was like a movie set, surreal.

'The rain was pouring down like I've never seen before and water was rising into the house, it was practically knee deep by the time we left.

'We made the decision we needed to get out of the house or risk injury or possible death so we all jumped into a small bus we had parked.

'A small bus saved our life; it is where we spent the next 6 hours riding out the storm and keeping dry.'

Rea said there were four adults and two young children who waited out the storm and it almost cost them their lives. They attempted to keep their front door from blowing open during the powerful natural disaster

Rea said the hurricane's strength caused the house supports poked through the floors, making him fear for his life

Rea said his family decided to ride out the storm instead of fleeing because they didn't think it was going to be that bad

Eight million residents have been warned the worst is yet to come, as thousands of shell-shocked Texans on the Gulf Coast began to pick up the pieces of their destroyed homes

Rea said that he plans on leaving the area for good as soon as he can, adding: 'Now we've lost everything like a lot of people, we are going to have to start over.'

He said they decided to ride out the storm instead of fleeing because they didn't think it was going to be that strong of a storm.

At least two people have died and another 14 have been injured after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the state leaving a path of 'widespread devastation' and catastrophic flooding over several hundred miles across the state of Texas.

Eight million residents have been warned the worst is yet to come, as hundreds of thousands of shell-shocked Texans on the Gulf Coast began to pick up the pieces after Harvey destroyed homes and businesses, left several injured and the state facing a clean-up bill of $40billion.

Texas utility companies said more than 338,000 were without power and the coastal town of Rockport, 30 miles north of Corpus Christi was hardest hit as the storm - which has weakened to a tropical storm with winds of 70mph - settled over southeast Texas.

It will sit over the Lone Star State well into next week pounding hundreds of miles of coastline with life-threatening storm surges, causing deadly walls of water to move inland.

The hurricane made landfall around 10pm local time between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, as waves flooded onto roads, roofs were sent flying into the air and residents in the storm's path were told to label themselves in case they died

By dawn, more than 20 inches of rain had fallen in Corpus Christi and 16 inches of rain had fallen in Houston. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said another 20 to 30 more inches of rain could fall and that 'dramatic flooding' remained the biggest concern

Rea said his family tried to use a piano to blockade their front door before they fled from their home and waited in a bus

Rea said that he plans on leaving the area for good as soon as he can, adding: 'Now we've lost everything like a lot of people, we are going to have to start over'

Governor Greg Abbot warned Texans to stay away from rising water, noting that currents can be swifter than they appear.

'Turn around, don't drown. Don't risk your life,' he said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. 'The most important thing all Texans can do is to put your life and the protection of your life first and foremost.'

With streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris, authorities warned the storm's most destructive powers were just beginning. Rainfall that will continue for days could dump more than five feet of water and inundate many communities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.

By dawn, more than 20 inches of rain had fallen in Corpus Christi and 16 inches of rain had fallen in Houston. In a press conferences, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said another 20 to 30 more inches of rain could fall and that 'dramatic flooding' remained the biggest concern. A disaster declaration has been made for 50 counties.

The hurricane made landfall around 10pm local time between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, as waves flooded onto roads, roofs were sent flying into the air and residents in the storm's path were told to label themselves in case they died.

A truck is flipped over after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday, in Port Aransas, Texas. It is unclear if the dog lying in the car is dead or injured

With streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris, authorities warned the storm's most destructive powers were just beginning. Pictured: A man checking on a boat storage facility in Rockport

Antonio Barron, right, looks back to his girlfriend, Melissa Rocha, as they run through the street during a band of heavy rain from Hurricane Harvey on Saturday in Palacios

The storm will sit over the Lone Star State well into next week pounding hundreds of miles of coastline with life-threatening storm surges, causing deadly walls of water to move inland. Pictured: A destroyed apartment complex in Rockport

A mobile park is destroyed after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas, Texas

Rainfall that will continue for days could dump more than five feet of water and inundate many communities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city. Pictured: The hurricane has since de-escalated in this satellite photo on Saturday evening

As of Saturday morning at least 14 people have been injured after the roof of a single story senior housing complex collapsed - but the extent of the injuries are unknown.

The mayor of Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm's path, said his community took a blow 'right on the nose' that left 'widespread devastation,' including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.

Mayor Charles 'CJ' Wax told The Weather Channel that the city's emergency response system had been hampered by the loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication.

Ahead of the storm, residents were told to head north to cities such as San Antonio, which is a federally and state-designated evacuation center.

Texas state parks are open to hurricane evacuees to camp for free and 12 campgrounds and RV parks were made available for Hurricane Harvey evacuees. Some have even headed east to evacuation centers in Louisiana.

All seven counties on the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island were under mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas. Four counties ordered full evacuations and warned there was no guarantee of rescue for those choosing to stay behind.

Dogs are left tied up and abandoned (left and right) on properties off US Route 77 in the eye of the storm on Saturday in Victoria, Texas. The dogs were untied and taken to safety by the DailyMail.com photographer

By dawn, nearly 20 inches of rain had fallen in some places. By storm's end, more than 40 inches of rain is expected to fall. Pictured: A damaged home is seen after Hurricane Harvey passed through on August 26, 2017 in Rockport

Mobile homes are destroyed at an RV park after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

A trailer overturned and objects strewn about in the wake of Hurricane Harvey on Saturday in Aransas Pass, Texas

Trump tweeted that the administration was closely monitoring the storm from the Camp David retreat and that federal funds would be allocated to help residents in the storm's aftermath (above)

President Donald Trump signed a disaster proclamation from the Camp David retreat and tweeted on Saturday morning that the government was 'closely monitoring' the storm.

'We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!' he wrote

To Texas Senator Chuck Grassley he tweeted: '[G]ot your message loud and clear. We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!'

Governor Abbott warned that Hurricane Harvey would be 'a major disaster' before the storm barreled into the state with violent winds and massive rainfall, all on top of storm surges up to 13 feet.

Harvey is the strongest storm to hit the US in 12 years and the National Weather Service warned that this was the 'start of many difficult days to come'.

Despite the storm's weekend, forecasters say that Harvey's impact will be devastating and leave areas 'uninhabitable for weeks or months'.

Flash flood warnings continue to be in effect as Hurricane Harvey pounds Port Lavaca, Texas, one of the city's under mandatory evacuations

A power generator container tips in front of a hospital on the Corpus Christi shoreline on Friday night as the hurricane came in

The insured property losses from Hurricane Harvey were estimated to cost between $1billion and $2billion from wind and storm damage, according to CoreLogic.

Daybreak revealed downed lamp posts and tree limbs and roof tiles torn off buildings. The city's marina was nearly unscathed, save an awning ripped from a restaurant entrance and a wooden garbage bin uprooted and thrown.

Along Interstate 45 leaving Galveston, motorists had to stop under bridges to avoid driving in whiteout conditions.

Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Harvey grew rapidly, accelerating from a Category One early Friday morning to a Category Four by evening. Its transformation from an ordinary storm to a life-threatening behemoth took only 56 hours, an incredibly fast

Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the US in 12 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

Before the storm arrived, property owners raced to nail plywood over windows and fill sandbags. Steady traffic filled the highways leaving Corpus Christi, but there were no apparent jams. In Houston, where mass evacuations can include changing major highways to a one-way vehicle flow, authorities left traffic patterns unchanged.
Natalia Veselnitskaya (pictured) denied having ties to a dossier that made a litany of tawdry accusations against President Trump

The Russian woman who met with Donald Trump Jr. in a highly controversial meeting last year during the presidential campaign is seeking to distance herself from a scandalous dossier on the President that surfaced following his White House win.

Natalia Veselnitskaya described the infamous document as 'cheap gossip' and denied having any links with the file after a Senate witness testified that she worked with the company that put together the information on a separate project.

'When I read some parts of this 'dossier' in the media I laughed,' Veselnitskaya wrote in an email sent in Russian to Fox News.

President Donald J. Trump arrives at the The White House on August 23. The unsubstantiated dossier, commissioned as opposition research by unknown anti-Trump actors from the firm Fusion GPS, makes a number of salacious charges against the President

'What kind of idiots does one have to take Americans for to think that they can believe that stupid and incompetent [and] absurd [dossier]?'

The unsubstantiated dossier, commissioned as opposition research by unknown anti-Trump actors from the firm Fusion GPS, makes a number of salacious charges against the President, including his involvement with Russian prostitutes.

Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former MI-6 intelligence officer, to compile the document.

Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele (pictured) was hired by the firm Fusion GPS to compile the now infamous dossier

CEO of Hermitage Capital Management Bill Browder (pictured) testified that Veselnitskaya was hired by the same firm commissioned to compile Trump dossier to smear him

CEO of Hermitage Capital Bill Browder testified before a Senate committee last week that Veselnitskaya coordinated a 'smear campaign' against him while working for Fusion GPS and its co-founder Glenn Simpson.

Browder told the committee that he believes he was targeted for his support of the Magnitsky Act, a law passed in 2012 in the wake of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky's death to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs suspected of money laundering.

The Trump administration was quick to highlight the point, saying it offered proof that Moscow was actually working against the President during the campaign despite 'collusion' claims.

The dossier was first made public in January by internet publication Buzzfeed, which posted the file in its entirety causing an international firestorm.

Buzzfeed is now being sued for libel in a civil suit, with Steele fighting an order to give a deposition in the case.

In speaking with Fox News, Veselnitskaya, 42, said she was almost in 'shock' when she learned Simpson was behind the compiling of the dossier.

Veselnitskaya first made headlines when it was revealed earlier this year that she held a private meeting with Trump Jr (pictured), senior White House aid Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairmen Paul Manafort last summer

'The only thing I can say is that what I read on BuzzFeed - that is not something of Glenn's level, it's not his modus operandi, it's not his work,' Veselnitskaya said.

'Cheap gossip and tall tales - that is diminishing for an investigator like Mr Simpson.'

Veselnitskaya denies that she had anything to do with the dossier, but acknowledged that she had worked for Simpson's firm around the same time the file was being compiled.

Veselnitskaya first made headlines when it was revealed earlier this year that she held a private meeting with Trump Jr., senior White House aid Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairmen Paul Manafort last summer.

The episode helped stoke an investigation into possible Russian government efforts to meddle in the 2016 US election, and is being headed by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the former head of the FBI.

The Trump administration denies any wrongdoing.
Australia's richest man will give away $1 billion to charity - more than double the biggest donation in the country's history.

Anthony Pratt, worth $12.6 billion, promised to give out the record-breaking amount to worthy organisations over the rest of his life.

The 57-year-old will fund the donations from the cashflow of his privately-owned cardboard behemoth Visy, which makes about $1 billion in profit annually.

Australia's richest man Anthony Pratt, 57, will give away $1 billion to charity from his $12.6 billion fortune over the rest of his life

'My goal is to give away $1 billion before I die. I can afford to and its a great honour and privilege to do so,' he told the Herald Sun.

Organisations set to benefit include the Royal Childrens Hospital, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The Princes Trust Australia.

Arts institutions like the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia would also attract sizable donations.

The executive chairman's promise dwarfs that of mining magnate Andrew Forrest, who gave away $400 million in May - then Australia's biggest-ever donation.

Organisations set to benefit include the Royal Childrens Hospital, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The Princes Trust Australia

Mr Pratt's promise dwarfs that of mining magnate Andrew Forrest, who gave away $400 million in May - then Australia's biggest-ever donation

Mr Forrest praised his fellow philanthropist's generosity and leadership and promised to collaborate with him on future charitable endeavors.

'The challenge we all face is to give with our hearts, mind and soul... to bring others along to improve the lives of those less fortunate,' he said.

Businessman Dick Smith also joined in saluting Mr Pratt's donation, holding it up as an example for other wealthy Australians.

Businessman Dick Smith also joined in saluting Mr Pratt's donation, holding it up as an example for other wealthy Australians

'[He and his family] are among the few billionaires in Australia who fulfil their obligations to the wider community and give back,' he said.

Mr Pratt's donation promise ranks well among global displays of generosity, outstripping the nine-figure giveaways of many rich-listers.

But it was nothing compared to the biggest two donors, stockmarket whiz Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Mr Gates in 1999 established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with US$11 billion of his own money, gradually extending that to US$28 billion.

Mr Pratt took over the global Visy empire, which dominates the Australian market, when his father Richard (pictured) died in 2009

Warren Buffett (L) and Bill Gates (R) are the world's biggest philanthropists, Mr Gates giving away US$28 billion and Mr Buffett promising to donate US$30 billion

Mr Buffett regularly donates millions to charity and in 2006 promised to give US$30 billion to Mr Gates' foundation, handing over five per cent every year.

Mr Pratt was named not only Australia's richest man, but its most wealthy person ever as he topped the 2017 AFR Rich List with a $2.3 billion jump from last year.

The booming home delivery market fuelled Mr Pratt's burgeoning wealth as his cardboard box company raked in sales from lucrative U.S. contracts.

Visy's annual revenue is well over $5 billion with about $1 billion profit and Mr Pratt hoped to push it above $10 billion in the next two to four years.
Footage of Secretary of Defense James 'Mad Dog' Mattis giving a motivational speech to a number of enlisted soldiers was posted online this weekend.

The retired general can be seen asking the service to not let recent political divisions inside the United States distract them from their duty.

'Youre a great example for our country right now and its got problems,' Mattis told the servicemen.

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Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis gave a motivational speech to servicemen abroad, it was revealed over the weekend

Wow. "Hold the line until our country gets back to understanding & respecting each other..." Jim Mattis to US troops pic.twitter.com/VMAAXjBWyg  Richard Chambers (@newschambers) August 26, 2017

Earlier this month, one person was killed and 19 were injured when an alleged white supremacist used his vehicle to plow into a crowd of demonstrators protesting hate groups

'You know it and I know it. Its got problems we dont have in the military. And you just hold the line, my fine soldiers, and sailors and airmen and Marines.'

'Just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it,' he added.

Mattis reportedly made the comments to servicemen at a base in Jordan

Mattis gave the impromptu pep-talk to a platoon at an undisclosed location, where the talk was later posted online by the Facebook page U.S. Army W.T.F! Moments.

According to Mediaite, the speech was shot at a base in Jordan, although that could not be substantiated.

ABC News reported that Matiis gave the talk while President Donald Trump was embroiled in controversy stemming from his remarks on Charlottesville, Virginia.

Earlier this month, one person was killed and 19 were injured when an alleged white supremacist used his vehicle to plow into a crowd of demonstrators protesting hate groups.

Following the incident, the President remarked that there were 'many sides' to blame for the violence, seeming to equate a moral equivalence between neo-Nazis and their anti-hate protesters.
The daughter of one of President Donald Trump's cabinet secretaries posted a profanity-laced tirade against her father's boss on social media last month to denounce him for his ban on transgender soldiers.

'This man is a disgrace,' Jennifer Detlefsen, a Virginia-based artist who is the daughter of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wrote on her Instagram account on July 26.

'I've tried to keep politics out of my social media feed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable.

'This veteran says sit down and shut the f*** up, you know-nothing, never-served piece of s***.'

The daughter of Ryan Zinke (above), who serves as President Donald Trump's interior secretary, posted a message on social media excoriating her father's boss for his ban on transgender soldiers in the military

Like her father, Zinke, who is a former Navy SEAL, Jennifer Detlefsen (above) served in the Navy

'I've tried to keep politics out of my social media feed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable,' she wrote on her Instagram page on July 26. 'This veteran says sit down and shut the f*** up, you know-nothing, never-served piece of s***'

Detlefsen ended her post with the hashtag '#itmfa' and '#wtf', which are initials that stand for 'impeach the mother f****r already' and 'what the f***.'

Like her father, Detlefsen is a Navy veteran. Zinke is a former SEAL.

Detlefsen also posted a news item from National Public Radio describing Trump's transgender ban.

Although Detlefsen posted the original message on July 26, it started to gain significant public attention on Friday, when Trump signed the order making the ban on transgender troops official.

Detlefsen ended her post with the hashtag '#itmfa' and '#wtf', which stand for 'impeach the mother f****r already' and 'what the f***'

Although Detlefsen posted the original message on July 26, it started to gain significant public attention on Friday, when Trump signed the order making the ban on transgender troops official

The post was shared on a number of LGBTQ sites and went viral, according to the Missoulian.

Zinke was appointed interior secretary after he won re-election in 2016 as Montana's only Congressman in the House of Representatives.

After Trump's choice of Zinke was confirmed, Montana held a special election for his seat, which was won by tech millionaire Greg Gianforte.

Zinke did not return calls for comment on his daughter's social media post.

According to her resume, Detlefsen served in the Navy as a Deep Sea Diving Medical Technician and as a High Risk Instructor of a bomb disposal training unit.

She now lives in Virginia, where she works as a glass artist.

Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that directs the U.S. military not to accept transgender men and women as recruits. The memo makes official Trump's tweets from last month announcing the ban on Twitter

Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that directs the U.S. military not to accept transgender men and women as recruits and halts the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgeries for active personnel unless the process is already underway.

The memo, released by the White House, laid out in more detail a ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. armed forces that Trump announced via Twitter last month, reversing a policy shift started under his predecessor, President Barack Obama.

In it, Trump directed the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to stop using government funds for sex-reassignment procedures unless it is necessary 'to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex,' the memo said.

The order requires Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to determine in the coming months how to handle transgender individuals currently serving in the military using criteria including 'military effectiveness and lethality,' budget constraints and law.

A White House official who briefed reporters about the memo declined to specify whether transgender service men and women who are currently active in the military could continue to serve based on such criteria.
Its been less than a week since Malia Obama moved into her dorm and officially became Harvard Universitys most famous freshman.

It appears the public attention is beginning to grate on the 19-year-old former first daughter.

Barack and Michelle Obamas first-born reacted angrily Saturday to a gawker who waited outside a campus store in order to snap a picture of the famous former occupant of the White House, TMZ reported.

The gossip cite said that eyewitnesses reported a woman approached Malia at a salad shop in Cambridges Harvard Square asking for a picture for her grandson.

Its been less than a week since Malia Obama (seen above this past Monday in Cambridge, Massachusetts) moved into her dorm and officially became Harvard Universitys most famous freshman

After Malia politely declined, the woman walked reportedly walked outside and waited for her to complete her purchase and exit the store.

As Malia left the store, the woman snapped a photo, prompting the newly minted college student to say: Are you gonna take it in my face like an animal in a cage?

Malias protest notwithstanding, the grandmother ended up walking away with her desired photo, TMZ reported.

Malia moved into her Harvard University dormitory on Monday afternoon, one day before her fellow students began arriving with their parents.

The family was joined by members of the Secret Service as they pulled up to Malia's new residence in a two-SUV envoy, managing to avoid detection despite the thousands of people around the campus and in Cambridge.

Barack and Michelle Obamas first-born reacted angrily Saturday to a gawker who waited outside a campus store in order to snap a picture of the famous former occupant of the White House. Malia is seen going for a run this past Wednesday in Harvard Square

That was due in large part to their timing, with the Obamas electing to get everything moved and Malia settled into her new digs during the solar eclipse.

Then it was time to say goodbye, which did not look easy for the parents of the 19-year-old freshman.

Barack and Michelle, who both went to Harvard Law School, had their sunglasses on long before they exited Malia's dorm and kept their faces looking down as they rushed into their SUV, leaving their daughter behind to start her new life.
Sunrise host Andrew O'Keefe has repeatedly suggested Captain Cook didn't discover Australia - earning a rebuke from an indigenous academic.

The Seven Network presenter challenged the historical wisdom the 18th century British naval explorer had discovered the east coast of Australia in 1770.

'There's that debate about Cook and his so-called discovery of Australia, which is absolutely, historically inaccurate,' he said on Sunday.

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Weekend Sunrise host Andrew O'Keefe (left) says Captain Cook didn't discover Australia

However Anthony Dillon, an academic from the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, debunked the idea that equating Captain James Cook with the discovery of Australia was an insult to 40,000 years of Aboriginal heritage.

The TV clash comes after a statue of Captain James in Sydney's Hyde Park was defaced with the words, 'No pride in genocide.'

'If I said I discovered a great Chinese restaurant in Newtown, I don't literally mean I was the first one,' Dr Dillon said.

The academic and indigenous affairs commentator said there were more important issues to focus on for Aboriginal people, like homelessness, child abuse and domestic violence.

'We shouldn't become distracted from the important issues as well,' he said.

Indigenous academic Anthony Dillon says there are more important issues than Captain Cook

A Sydney memorial to Captain James Cook was defaced with the words: 'No pride in genocide'

Protesters have made a political point about Captain Cook's place in history with vile graffiti

After agreeing with the idea of new statues to salute indigenous Australians, Dr Dillon rebuked Weekend Sunrise co-host Monique Wright's suggestion Australia needed to address Aboriginal injustices of the past.

'We're never ever victims of the past. We're only ever victims of our view of the past,' Dr Dillon said.

'Today, there are thousands and thousands of of successful Aboriginal people who are thriving in this country. They haven't let the past hold them back'.

However, this didn't appear to convince O'Keefe that Captain Cook's place in Australian history was inaccurate.

'The Cook statue, in a sense, is a bit of a no-brainer,' he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned as 'cowardly' the desecration of three statues in Sydney and compared it to the behaviour of communist Russian dictator Joseph Stalin.

He said the defacement of monuments to Captain Cook and Governor Lachlan Macquarie on Saturday both 'denied' and 'obliterated' Australia's history.

In a Facebook post he called the graffiti of the statues 'deeply disturbing' and said that he hoped the police 'swiftly find those responsible and bring them to justice'.

'This is what Stalin did. When he fell out with his henchmen he didn't just execute them, they were removed from all official photographs,' Mr Turnbull wrote on Facebook.
The mayor of a coastal Texas town says no one should consider visiting or returning due to the complete devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey, it was reported on Saturday.

Charles Bujan, the mayor of Port Aransas, said that people are being urged to stay away until emergency crews can clean up leftover debris and wreckage, according to WTSP-TV.

Bujan said that there are search and rescue operations by emergency services underway to find people trapped by the water.

While the mayor provided an estimate of the number of human casualties, there is still no independent verification of these figures.

'I do know that our town has absorbed a major hit,' Bujan told San Antonio Express-News.

A vessel is spotted listing in a channel from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter during an overflight after Hurricane Harvey passed the area from Port Aransas to Port O'Connor, Texas on Saturday

Housing surrounded by flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey is seen from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter

People stand on a sinking boat awaiting rescue from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, after Hurricane Harvey passed near Port Aransas

A woman sleeps on a cot after she evacuated to a shelter after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

People stand on a sinking boat awaiting rescue from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter

Mobile homes are destroyed at an RV park after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

'To be honest with you, I'm sick to my stomach.'

Bujan, who is helping oversee the recovery efforts from Corpus Christi, said that he has heard from residents who stayed behind that the town's harbor and marina are 'pretty well wiped out.'

Police are also searching for victims at Port Aransas' Pioneer Trailer Park, which he said suffered a '100 percent loss.'

While experts believe the worst of the storm is over, forecasters say that more rain is expected.

Members of the National Guard arrive at Port Aransas after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday

The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Harvey from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm

A boat is located on land after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday

A mobile home lies split open in the Paradise Lagoons RV Resort on Saturday in Aransas Pass

Mobile homes are upended in the Paradise Lagoons RV Resort in Aransas Pass

'There's still talk about some major rain events, but that won't hinder what we're doing in town now,' he said.

'We are in initial stages of search and rescue and our crews do not need to be hindered in any way.'

The most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years has killed at least one person and is now threatening catastrophic flooding as search and rescue teams deploy to the hardest-hit zones, authorities said on Saturday.

Harvey slammed into Texas, the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry, late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour, making it the strongest storm to strike the state since 1961.

It ripped off roofs, snapped trees, and triggered tornadoes and flash floods, and cut power to nearly a quarter of a million people.

It also curtailed a large portion of America's oil and fuel production, prompting price hikes at the pumps.

Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days as it lumbers inland, bringing as much as 40 inches (102 cm) of rain to some areas, and affecting heavily populated.

Houston could receive as much as 2 to 3 inches of rain per hour overnight, Mayor Sylvester Turner said late on Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center described the rain forecast for the state as potentially 'catastrophic.'

'Rainfall measured in feet rather than inches can certainly create a catastrophic flood,' spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Corpus Christi, as Harvey roared ashore overnight, Mayor Charles Wax said in a news conference on Saturday, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries like broken bones, another official said.

Water rises on a home after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

Cleaning crews clean debris located on Highway 361 after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

A boat is located in the middle of the street after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

Charles Bujan, the mayor of Port Aransas, said that people are being urged to stay away until emergency crews can clean up leftover debris and wreckage

Electric poles are destroyed after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

Bujan said that there are search and rescue operations by emergency services underway to find people trapped by the water

A truck is flipped over after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

The town took a direct hit from the storm and had streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday afternoon.

At a recreational vehicle sales lot, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown into the middle of the street.

By Saturday evening, a convoy of military vehicles had arrived in the Rockport area with people and equipment to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents.

'It was terrible,' resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters.

The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4am, he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm.

'I could feel the whole house move.'

Before the storm hit, Rockport's mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury.

A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media.

Some were being used as shelters.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.
While thousands crammed into crowded pubs for the 'Fight of the Century', one generous Sydneysider offered his spacious Bondi pad to total strangers.

He posted a last-minute invite to watch Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor in his living room to a local Facebook group.

All the Good Samaritan wanted in return was for guests to chip in $5 to cover the $60 pay-per-view fee to buy access to the broadcast on Foxtel.

A generous Sydneysider posted a last-minute invite to watch Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor in his living room to a local Facebook group

All the Good Samaritan wanted in return was for guests to chip in $5 to cover the $60 pay-per-view fee to buy access to the broadcast on Foxtel

'If you're struggling to find a place to see the fight OR you don't want to watch it in a crowded pub... We are streaming it in our living room with a beach view,' he wrote.

'Bring your beer and munchies and it's game on! You just have to chip in a 5er in the streaming. PM if interested and don't wanna miss out!'

Soon after making the post, less than an hour before the fight started, he simply told those interested to rock up at his address.

His offer came after popular Bondi pubs started filling up before midday with fans preparing for the pre-fight antics with people lining up around the block

One bold fan wore a quaint flower crown in the Irish fighter's home colours (pictured centre)

Keen Irish supporters crammed into pubs early to ensure they got a seat before start time

'Guys it hasn't started yet so grab the cold ones and hurry up!' he wrote, minutes before the fighters entered the arena.

A few local punters appeared to take him up on the offer, saying they were on their way or expressed excitement about an ensuing house party.

His offer came after popular Bondi pubs started filling up before midday with fans preparing for the pre-fight antics with people lining up around the block.

The highly-anticipated boxing match began on Sunday afternoon Sydney time

Hundreds of people packed into the busy bars, some seen singing along to Irish themed songs in the lead up to the big fight.

From artists sketching pictures of McGregor at Darling Harbour, pubs ordering more than 300 kegs of beer at Bondi to dedicated fans starting their Sunday with an Irish brew.

Excited fans are in high spirits, some showing their support for the Irish fight with Irish flags or donning the colours on their faces.
A young boy has been arrested following a terrifying rampage where he threatened a number of women with a knife.

The 15-year-old boy was allegedly armed with a knife as he threatened a 47-year-old woman and demanded keys to a car in Moruya, four hours south of Sydney.

NSW Police said the woman was able to get the attention of a passing car who was able to stop and intervene, before the boy fled empty handed.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested following a pursuit with NSW police which ended on Princes Highway, Termeil (pictured)

The boy was allegedly armed with a knife as he threatened a 73-year-old woman and demanded keys to a car in Moruya, four hours south of Sydney (stock image)

A short time after, the boy allegedly approached an elderly woman and man, aged 73 and 72, and demanded keys to a car.

Police say the 15-year-old allegedly left empty handed before he approached a 70-year-old woman with a knife at a supermarket, demanding car keys.

The boy fled the scene in a Mitsubishi Colt, driving 44 minutes north of Moruya.

NSW Police attempted to pull the car over at several locations including in Moruya and Batesman Bay as they began a pursuit.

'Road spikes were deployed and the car eventually stopped on the Princes Highway at Termeil,' a police statement said.

The boy tried to flee the scene and crashed into a marked police car before being arrested Saturday afternoon.

After allegedly threatening a number of elderly people, the 15-year-old took off in a car before a crashing into a marked police car in NSW (stock image)

During the arrest, a police officer was allegedly assaulted.

The 15-year-old was charged with a number of offences including armed robbery, damage to property, reckless driving, assaulting a police officer and driving without a license.

The boy was refused bail and faced a Children's Court Sunday.
Families of people who overdosed on heroin and residents of an inner Melbourne suburb have marched together to call for safe injecting rooms.

The 'March to Save Lives' on Sunday aimed to rally support for a safe injecting room in North Richmond and is organised by community group Victoria Street Drug Solutions.

Amid the rally a scuffle occurred as the 500-strong crowd were met by a small group of traders who argue against a safe injection room being setup on Victoria Street despite supporting the idea.

The 500-strong crowd were met by a small group of traders on the corner of Lennox and Victoria Streets (pictured)

The traders object to a safe inject being set up in Victoria Street but support the idea for one

Families of people who overdosed on heroin and residents of an inner Melbourne suburb have marched together to call for safe injecting rooms (pictured)

The small altercation broke out at the corner of Lennox and Victoria Streets, an area commonly known for heroin dealing, the Herald Sun reported.

In only 12-months 34 people died from heroin related causes in the area.

A representative from the Traders association said the group had been kept out of the loop.

The march on Sunday morning in North Richmond heard from the families of people who died from drug overdoses including Loretta Gabriel, whose son Sam died of a heroin overdose.

Ms Gabriel, whose son passed away on Little Lithgow Street a year ago, told the crowd a safe injection room would prevent deaths.

In only 12-months 34 people died from heroin related causes in the area

Respected barrister Robert Richter said that since 2000 hundreds, if not thousands of lives had been lost unnecessarily

Loretta Gabriel, whose son passed away on Little Lithgow Street a year ago, told the crowd a safe injection room would prevent deaths

'The longer the government delays introducing a safe injection room the longer that are complicit in more deaths,' she said.

Respected barrister Robert Richter said that since 2000 hundreds, if not thousands of lives had been lost unnecessarily.

'Politically its a no-brainer. Because youre saying that saving lives is important,' he said.

The Victorian government is holding an inquiry into a pilot program for a medically supervised injecting room.
Two thirds of Australian Catholics say gay marriage should be legal, despite church leaders demanding they vote no.

Catholics were the most likely people of faith to indicate they would vote yes in the upcoming postal vote, along with non-Christian religions, a new poll found.

The poll commissioned by the Equity Campaign found 66 per cent of the 1,000 respondents planned to vote yes, including 58 per cent of religious people.

Two thirds of Australian Catholics say gay marriage should be legal in new poll

This was despite church leaders like Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart (pictured) demanding they vote no in the plebiscite

Anglicans and Uniting Church were more reticent with 59 per cent in favour, while 79 per cent of those with no religion signalled their support, according to Fairfax.

Marriage equality advocates plan to use the results, by Jim Reed of Newgate Research, to convince Australia's five million Catholics to vote yes.

They will have to overcome recent directives from church leadership to vote no, and threats against LGBTI members if they got married themselves.

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart wrote a lengthy and impassioned letter to followers on Thursday urging them to voice their concerns.

Anglicans and Uniting Church were more reticent with 59 per cent in favour, while 79 per cent of those with no religion signalled their support

The poll commissioned by the Equity Campaign found 66 per cent of the 1,000 respondents planned to vote yes, including 58 per cent of religious people

'Marriage is a natural institution established by God to be a permanent union between one man and one woman, intended towards the formation of a family in which children are born and nurtured,' he wrote.

A week ago the 76-year-old threatened to sack Catholic employees including teachers, nurses and church workers who entered a same sex marriage.

'I would be very emphatic that our schools, our parishes exist to teach a Catholic view of marriage. Any words or actions which work contrary to that would be viewed very seriously,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'Our teachers, our parish employees are expected totally to uphold the Catholic faith and what we believe about marriage. People have to see in words and in example that our teaching of marriage is underlined.'

Marriage equality advocates plan to use the results to convince Australia's five million Catholics to vote yes

A week ago Archbishop Hart, who preaches from St Patrick's Cathedral (pictured), threatened to sack Catholic employees who entered a same sex marriage

Archbishop Hart also earlier this month declared he'd rather go to jail than report child sexual abuse revealed to him on confession.

The new poll was conducted online and asked respondents if they would vote yes or no if they were to cast a ballot in the plebiscite.

Mr Reed said the margin or error in each religious category was eight per cent, and the overall margin of error was three per cent.

A 2014 poll by his former company Crosby/Textor also found two thirds of Catholics would vote yes with 72 per cent in support overall.

A Newspoll last week also found 63 per cent of Australians planned to vote yes.
Disgraced former deputy mayor Salim Mehajer appears to have won thousands on the Mayweather McGregor fight despite claiming he was not travelling to the US to watch it.

Mehajer, 31, gloated about his winnings on Instagram following the match on Sunday, showing piles of hundred dollar bills being counted out in front of him.

The former Auburn deputy mayor, who is on strict bail conditions, arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday for a 'business' trip - maintaining he did not travel to the party city to watch the fight.

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Mehajer posted a picture of himself at the fight on Sunday, despite claiming he was not going to the US to watch it

Despite denying he was there to watch the boxer and UFC champion in the ring, the 31-year-old publicly backed Floyd Mayweather to beat Conor McGregor - and celebrated the win with his online followers.

Mehajer's strict bail conditions were relaxed in a secret hearing at Downing Centre Local Court on Monday, so he could travel to the United States on business.

He faced punishment if he broke the rules of his relaxed bail or if he committed any other crimes.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mehajer breached his bail conditions by travelling to Las Vegas.

'Thanks Floyd... that was a last minute ditch... mind, less the online $$$,' Mehajer posted alongside photos of cash being counted out in front of him

Mehajer pictured at the Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas on Sunday

'Work, work, work,... then travel and then repeat #InGoditrust #businessbeforepleasure' he posted alongside a photo of his passport

Salim Mehajer (pictured) has touched down in Las Vegas on a 'business' trip, after his strict bail conditions were relaxed this week

Mehajer also assured that creditors, who are pursuing two of his companies, would be paid in full in coming weeks.

'The creditors will be paid. As any development company it's asset rich and one settlement is in place, which we've already received over 110 percent of the debt cover,' he told Channel Nine.

'We anticipate to have settlement in the next two weeks and see all the creditors have been paid in full.'

Mehajer is also facing fraud charges for allegedly forging Australian Electoral Commission enrolments and fabricating addresses for friends and family.

However, the 31-year-old said that he hoped Mayweather would come away victorious in the match

Mehajer also told awaiting media that creditors, who are pursuing two of his companies, would be paid in full in the coming weeks

To travel to the United States Mehajer had his bail conditions relaxed in a secret hearing at Downing Centre Local Court

Upon his arrival he again denied he was flying to Vegas to witness the Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor fight on Sunday

Earlier this month Mehajer put up his palatialLidcombe mansion for lease two years after it was made famous by his $35 million wedding.

The four-storey house on Frances Street, which Mehajer illegally shut down for his extravagant wedding, was advertised for lease for $2,950 a week.

The controversial former Auburn deputy mayor offered his family home hours before he faced his estranged wife Aysha in court after she slapped him with another AVO.

Neither couple turned up to Sutherland Local Court on Wednesday morning but an interim order was granted against Mehajer to protect his estranged wife.
Sir Daniel Moynihan earns around 425,000 as chief executive of the Harris Federation

Calls are growing to cap the salaries of academy school bosses after it emerged more than 100 earn more than the Prime Minister at a time when school budgets are being cut and parents are being asked to pay for textbooks at state schools.

Department for Education statistics revealed 111 academy trustees - including headteachers and chief executives - earned more than 150,000 in 2015 and at least seven chief executives earned between 200,000 to 300,000.

The country's highest paid academy trust chief executive, Sir Daniel Moynihan, takes home around 425,000 a year for running the Harris Federation, a chain of 44 high-performing schools in and around London.

And some academy fat cats even enjoy lucrative perks such as BMWs, the Sunday Times reported.

Campaigners argue none of the academy top staff should be paid more than the 150,000 Theresa May earns to run the country.

Labour's former schools minister Lord Adonis and Sir Michael Wilshaw, a former chief inspector of schools, told the newspaper ministers need to act and introduce a salary cap for academy chiefs.

Adonis said: 'It is a simple question of morality and use of public funding.'

It also emerged four senior staff members at the Swale Academies Trust in Kent have access to company BMWs.

The trust defended the move, saying CEO Jon Whitcombe, who is paid 170,000 a year, needed to drive between 17 schools.

The calls to introduce a pay cap for senior staff come as teachers face a 1 per cent pay rise and at some state schools parents are being asked to put their hands in their pockets to pay for basic equipment including textbooks.

And earlier this year it was revealed academy heads were often earning more than their counterparts in elite private schools because of an 'immoral' culture of milking the taxpayer.

Many heads of multi-academy trusts earn 'obscene' six-figure salaries as the 'rot of greed' sets into the education system, unions warned.

Lord Adonis (pictured) has told ministers to introduce a pay cap for academy school top earners

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said the bloated state school pay-packets were 'unsustainable' and dwarfed many of those in the independent sector.

The union voted to lobby the government to curb salaries for academy bosses, which are often the equivalent of pay for five or more front-line teachers.

England's highest-paid academy chief, Sir Daniel Moynihan, got a pay rise of five per cent to around 425,000 last year to run the Harris Federation.

This is 85 per cent higher than the 230,000 paid to the head teacher of Eton College, which charges 36,000 a year and has educated the Duke of Cambridge and David Cameron.

Academy schools are free from local authority control and instead take their funding directly from central government.

They have a range of powers not available to traditional schools, including being able to choose their curriculum, the length of the school day and the salaries they pay to staff.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said academy trusts and their governing bodies are responsible for setting executive pay levels and can use that power to reward 'exceptional leaders'.
Being obese may help patients survive common heart treatments, a new study claims.

The study, which looked at more than one million adults, found that during a routine cardiac procedure, underweight patients were five times more likely to die than those who were obese.

Obese patients were also more likely to survive than patients of normal weight, according to the US study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona.

The study tracked patients for 30 days after cardiac catheterisations, procedures used to investigate and unblock narrowed arteries, and looked at readmission and lengths of stays at hospitals as well as which weight class had the highest death rates.

A US study, which looked at more than one million adults, found that during a routine cardiac procedure, underweight patients were five times more likely to die than those who were obese

About 100,000 of such procedures, using balloons and stents to keep the arteries open, are performed in England each year.

The research, which looked at patients BMIs to establish their weight class, did not establish why those who weighed more were more more likely to survive the cardiac procedures.

One theory, however, is that people who weigh more have larger energy reserves than thinner patients to help fight disease.

Another theory is that obese patients often seek medical advice earlier in the disease process because they are out of shape and suffering other symptoms, which gives doctors the chance to diagnose problems earlier.

Underweight patients had the highest rates of death and the longest stays in hospitals as well as highest rate of readmission.

Obese patients had a death rate of 1.2 per cent, while overweight patients had a rate of 1.7 per cent, with those of normal weight at 2.3 per cent and underweight at six per cent, according to data obtained by The Telegraph.

When it comes to readmission, underweight patients are 18 per cent more likely than normal weight patients to return to the hospital within 30 days.

Overweight and obese patients were the least likely to return to the hospital.

About 100,000 of catheterisations, procedures used to investigate and unblock narrowed arteries, are performed in England each year

Lead author Dr Afnan Tariq, an interventional cardiology fellow, from Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, said: The obesity paradox has flummoxed researchers for some time, and our research also flips the conventional wisdom that a higher BMI should portend a worse outcome.

We found that the lower BMI group had worse outcomes across the board, including readmission, length of stay, cost, and mortality.

The doctor suggested that when it comes to catheterisations the lower the BMIs the harder they fall.

Obesity continues to be an epidemic across the globe, with a recent global report revealing nearly a third of the world is obese or overweight.

The World Health Organization said the issue has become a 'disturbing global public health crisis', which is contributing to booming rates of diabetes and heart disease.

Excess weight is already contributing to one in every 14 deaths from any cause, the researchers found, a figure which they said is bound to rise.

In addition to unhealthy weight causing mobility issues, obesity causes a slew of health conditions and is known to limit lifespan.

Being overweight or obese has also been proven to lead to strokes, heart disease, hypertension and high blood pressure.
Even the Fight of the Century wasn't exempt from an inevitable onslaught of memes, poking fun and ridicule.

Social media erupted with hilarious pictures mocking Conor McGregor after his historic defeat to Floyd Mayweather.

He brutalized McGregor in the 10th round, landing numerous shots and chasing McGregor around the ring until referee Robert Byrd saved the Irishman and stopped the fight.

This Instagram post is a reference to episodes of The Simpsons predicting the future. One foresaw Donald Trump being elected president

Despite the sportsmanship displayed by each of the fighters one another following the match, the memes targeting McGregor came thick and fast

Clutching a bottle of his own brand whisky 'Notorious', which he said was 'coming soon', McGregor appeared to take defeat in his stride during the post-fight press conference.

'I'm going to take over the Irish whiskey market - and this is delicious!'

He added: 'It was a hell of a fight. I would have liked to have seen the end of the 10th.

'I have this patch where I must overcome - I get a little wobbly - but it's more fatigue ... I would have liked to have seen the end of round 10 and seen where it brought us.

This perfectly-time photo shows the moment Mayweather lands a blow on McGregor... that produced some unexpected results

A mocked-up bromance between the fighters appears to depict them at a tropical lovers' retreat

A nation weeps: One Twitter user took a swipe at Ireland which is no doubt reeling from McGregor's defeat

'You've got to take your hat off to Floyd. It was a good fight. It was a bit of fun, right?'

He added that he thought the referee had done a 'great job' despite believing the fight had been called off 'a bit too early', but still respected the decision.

Mayweather said after the fight: 'He's a tough competitor. I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see.

Clutching a bottle of his own brand whisky 'Notorious', which he said was 'coming soon', McGregor appeared to take defeat in his stride during the post-fight press conference.

The pair maintained mutual respect during the press conference after the fight and praised one another for the 'great fight'

Mayweather said after the fight: 'He's a tough competitor. I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see'

'You've got to take your hat off to Floyd. It was a good fight. It was a bit of fun, right?'

'Our game plan was to take our time, let him shoot all his heavy shots early and then take him out at the end down the stretch.

'I gave the fans what they wanted to see. I told them that I owed them for the Pacquiao fight. I must come straight ahead and give them a show.'

He then shockingly announced: 'I chose the right dance partner for my last dance ... this was my final fight.'
Pictured: Charles Bronson wants to become a father behind bars

Britain's most violent inmate is demanding sex visits so he can become a father after marrying his former Coronation Street star in prison.

Charles Bronson, 64, wants to have a daughter with actress Paula Williamson, who he proposed to six months ago.

Bronson is one of the country's most notorious prisoners and has spent the majority of the past four decades imprisoned for a series of violent crimes.

But despite his past, he believes he will be an ideal father and is calling on the justice system to allow him to become a father after hours.

The criminal, who currently resides in HMP Wakefield, told reportedly told a friend: 'Ten years ago in this very jail they started giving out condoms so where I come from that's encouraging sex. Why can't I have sex like they do here? I want to be a dad and come out to a beautiful angel with a beautiful wife.'

The lifer whose crimes include kidnap and threatening to eat a terrified inmate told newspaper The People: 'I want a little baby. I've always fancied a daughter and I'll be the best dad in the world.

He added: 'I've even got my girl's name, Sophie, the angel of all angels. My life will be a dream come true.'

In 2013 Charles Bronson began writing to Paula, who has had small roles in Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks

He plans to marry his partner Paula, 37, in autumn, hit out at current prison legislation which will prevent them conceiving naturally.

The inmate at the top-security jail in West Yorkshire, said: 'Last month in prison down south two filthy, stinking paedophiles got married. They're doing bird in the same prison and they was allowed to get married.'

Bronson knows his only hope is being allowed to have a test-tube baby.

The fitness fanatic told the paper: 'I'm 65 now, I can't hang about. When I'm 90 my angel will be 25 and my wife will be 72. Lovely ages.'

He first struck up a relationship with Paula - who also had roles in Emmerdale and Hollyoaks - back in 2013 after they started writing to one another.

Former Coronation Street star Paula Williamson, pictured, is due to marry Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson at a ceremony inside HMP Wakefield

On Valentine's Day this year Bronson, who also calls himself Charles Salvador after the artist Salvador Dali, popped the question.

Last night the smitten actress confirmed she is hoping to have a baby with her jailbird fiance.

She said she hadn't contemplated having children until she finally met Bronson in real life.

Paula said it was him who first broached the subject, concerned that she would miss out on the chance to become a mother.

After turning 37 last week, she said she realised she 'wasn't 25 any more'.

The television actor from Stoke-on-Trent said: 'It was Charlie who first raised the subject of having children. He wants me to experience as much of life as I can. He feels awful he's stuck in there. There's no one else I would want to have children with.'
Thousands of migrants are attempting to reach Britain on ferries from the Spanish port of Bilbao following the close of the Jungle camp in Calais, it was revealed today.

Police have stopped 1,765 people attempting to stowaway at the port on the Basque coast this year - five times more than in all of 2016.

Small encampments of tents have grown up near the ferry terminal, under motorways and in abandoned properties, Spanish media reported.

Many have attempted to board Brittany Ferries' vessels which sail three times a week to Portsmouth, carrying mostly British holidaymakers (stock photo)

The majority of the migrants are from Albania, but they also include desperate refugees fleeing war zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every day police at the port are stopping migrants who attempt to sneak onto passenger ferries or into freight containers.

Police have increased patrols, installed new cameras and motion sensors and reinforced fences in a bid to stop the situation getting out of hand.

On Monday the Civil Guard police caught 26 stowaways attempting to board ferries and container ships.

Police have stopped 1,765 people attempting to stowaway at the port on the Basque coast this year - five times more than in all of 2016. Pictured: The port of Bilbao

Many have attempted to board Brittany Ferries' vessels which sail three times a week to Portsmouth, carrying mostly British holidaymakers.

Around 100 migrants, mostly young Albanian men with some under 18, are living in tents just 300 meters from the ferry terminal, El Pais newspaper reported.

They use binoculars to monitor the Guardia Civil police and to see which containers are being searched. The officers use CO2 sensors to detect people within the large shipping containers. Police also search cars, caravans and lorries.

Brittany Ferries' freight ship Pelican carries around 100 unaccompanied containers twice a week from Bilbao to Poole, Dorset.

Entering the port at Bilbao is not a criminal offence. The migrants can be handed over to the National Police's Immigration Department and can be expelled from Spain.

But many are not expelled and a Guardia Civil lieutenant at the port told El Pais: 'Sometimes they hide in the containers twice in the same day. We have increased our security and our controls so that the passage is closed to anybody who has not paid their fare.

'It's a heavy workload and it is increasing.

'The Albanian immigrants are distinct from the refugees. They come with enough money and telephones to last for weeks, and they operate in a different way.'

Bilbao, on the Bay of Biscay in northern Spain, became a focus for people-smuggling mafia gangs following the closure of the Jungle last autumn.

Associate director of Brittany Ferries, Roberto Castilla, said 66 migrants have been arrested in the UK after being caught on ferries from Bilbao. Of those, 35 were sent back to Spain.

Mr Castilla said: 'The rest were minors or people from war zones who requested asylum.'

Ferry companies are fined by the UK for every stowaway who reaches Britain - and must pay for the flights back to Spain.

But it is not known how many migrants are successfully making the journey without being caught.

Local newspaper El Correo described the development as 'a problem of the first order'.

A source at the port said the closure of the Jungle camp in Calais had had 'a pernicious effect' on Bilbao, which had become 'an alternative route' to the UK.

The source told El Correo there has been a 'significant rise in the number of attempts to access the ships', adding: 'We are intensively patrolling the points of greater risk of stowaways. We have detected small settlements under motorways and in abandoned buildings.'

Last May 27 migrants were caught in one day trying to board ferries from Bilbao to Portsmouth.

They were mostly refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In June another 15 were found in a single day.

And last month a Romanian couple attempted to smuggle eight people in a shipment of bananas in a rented lorry.

The majority of those using Bilbao as a route to the UK are from Albania in the Balkans.

In June the UK's National Crime Agency warned that Albanian gangs were increasingly involved in violent organised crime in Britain.

The NCA said in a report: 'Albanian crime groups have established a high-profile influence within UK organised crime, and have considerable control across the UK drug trafficking market, with particular impact and high-level influence on the cocaine market.'

The report said Albanians make up 0.8 per cent of organised criminals in the UK, adding: 'London is their primary hub, but they are established across the UK.'
The federal government is moving to cut welfare payments to hundreds of asylum seekers who are temporarily in Australia to receive medical treatment.

The move will slash $200-a-fortnight payments and public housing to up to 400 asylum seekers, forcing them to work or face being sent back to Nauru, Manus Island or their country of origin.

A Department of Immigration document said income support would cease from Monday and a 'final departure Bridging E Visa' would be issued, giving many just three weeks to find their own accommodation.

'What we're saying to these people is that until you leave, we do not want you continuing to be a burden on our welfare system,' government minister Dan Tehan told Sky News.

The Federal government is pushing to cut welfare payments to hundreds of asylum seekers who came to Australia to receive medical treatment. Pictured, asylum seekers at Manus Island in 2014

'What we're saying to these people is that until you leave, we do not want you continuing to be a burden on our welfare system,' government minister Dan Tehan said

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the party was seeking advice on whether the policy can be overturned when the Senate returns in a week's time.

'This announcement from [immigration minister] Peter Dutton is just unspeakable cruelty. We're talking about people who are traumatised, people that are vulnerable,' he said.

'We do call on members of the crossbench and the Labor Party to support us in doing everything we can to stop this unspeakable cruel act getting through the Senate.

'If this is a disallowable instrument, it simply requires a majority of the Senate to stop it. So the question is for Bill Shorten and Labor - will you end this cruelty?'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was a new low for the government of Malcolm Turnbull.

The move will slash $200-a-fortnight payments and public housing to up to 400 asylum seekers, forcing them to work or face being sent back to Nauru, Manus Island or their country of origin. Pictured, a generic image taken from the Australian Government's Department of Human Services website

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the party was seeking advice on whether the policy can be overturned when the Senate returns in a week's time

'Malcolm, this is not strong. This is cowardly and cruel. It's your weakest move yet,' he said in a Facebook post.

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge could not confirm the precise number of asylum seekers at risk, but said there wouldn't be any further provision of taxpayer support in Australia.

Mr Tudge said the move was consistent with the principle that anybody who arrives by boat would not be settled in Australia.

'They will be settled elsewhere. That's what this is about,' he said.

He did not think it was unreasonable to withdraw taxpayers support if they refuse to return back to Manus or Nauru.

Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser said the asylum seekers in question have been prevented from working.

'And now, completely out of the blue, with no notice whatsoever, they've been told tomorrow, you have no income we're taking all of your income away and in three weeks time we're taking your homes away,' he said.

A file image of Asylum seekers staring at media from behind a fence at the Manus Island detention centre

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was a new low for the government of Malcolm Turnbull

Advocate Natasha Blucher said the asylum seekers were 'very, very employable' and wanted to work.

But with their history of trauma and the short notice, getting on their feet in 'this time frame is absurd and it's impossible and it will end with children homeless.'

The move comes as the federal government's third and final trial site to drug test new welfare recipients was announced as Mandurah, Western Australia.

It joins other trial sites in western Sydney and Logan in Queensland.

Trials will start at the beginning of next year and will be focused on helping job seekers overcome drug problems and on the path towards securing a job.

A Department of Immigration document said income support would cease from Monday (stock image)

Social Services Minister Christian Porter said Mandurah was chosen because illicit drug use in this region is considerably higher than the national and Western Australian averages.

'It is not about penalising or stigmatising people ... we want to help people in this situation,' Mr Porter said.

'Failure to do so simply leaves people at risk of a cycle of welfare dependency.'

Up to 5000 new recipients of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance will be drug tested during the two-year trial.

Those who return a positive test will have 80 per cent of their benefit payment put onto a Basics Card which limits the amount people can withdraw as cash.

Remaining funds will be reserved for essentials such as rent, child care, food and household needs.

After a second positive test, the person will have to see a doctor at the government's expense and undergo any treatment proposed in order to continue receiving benefits.
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Police have arrested 33 people at Notting Hill Carnival for alleged crimes ranging from being drunk a disorderly to assaulting a police officer.

A total of 20 people have been taken into custody for drug-related offences while five people are believed to have breached the Public Order Act.

Others were taken into custody for grievous bodily harm and criminal damage.

The arrests came after 8,000 police officers were put on patrol along the carnival route amid fears of terror attacks and anger over the Grenfell fire turning into violence.

The offences range from being drunk and disorderly, possession of a controlled substance, assault on a police officer, breach of a court order, a Section 5 Public Order Act offence and common assault

Police pictured on patrol at Notting Hill Carnival where officers have arrested six people for a range of offences

Police arrive to attend the first day of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London. Up to 8,000 officers are on patrol along the festival route

Officers will be stationed around the perimeter of the carnival zone, carrying out checks for weapons and corrosive substances, following a controversial three-week crackdown to reduce criminality at the event

A heavy police presence comes after the Met carried out a series of raids in the run-up to Notting Hill Carnival, in which they seized knives, guns and drugs and arrested more than 600 people

An ambulance worker was seen tending to a festival-goer earlier today after they were spotted slumped on the pavement

Powerful images show people raising their fists in solidarity with victims  others show crowds applauding firefighters who risked their lives during the inferno

The festival fell silent as carnival-goers broke off from the vibrant event to pay their respects to victims of the tragedy in June

Firefighters who were involved int he Grenfell Tower disaster were applauded by carnival-goers who gathered outside a fire station in Weest London

Two women hug firefighters outside the fire station in West London following the minute;s silence in memory of those who lost their lives in June's tragedy

London's Metropolitan Police said thousands of officers would be on patrol on each day of the event amid the heightened security concerns.

During one particularly sombre moment, the crowds fell silent as carnival-goers broke off from the vibrant event to pay their respects those affected by the Grenfell tragedy in June.

The festival-goers, smattered with paint and wearing brightly-coloured clothes, bowed their heads in respectful silence for those caught in the tragedy on June 14, when at least 80 people lost their lives.

Powerful images show people raising their fists in solidarity with victims  others show crowds applauding firefighters who risked their lives during the inferno.

The carnival opened with a multi-faith ceremony dedicated to victims of the horrific blaze, and charity single Bridge Over Troubled Water was sung.

Hundreds of thousands of revellers at Notting Hill Carnival will observe a minute's silence today to mark the Grenfell Tower tragedy

The carnival opened with a multi-faith ceremony dedicated to victims of the horrific blaze, and charity single Bridge Over Troubled Water was sung

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan poses with a young performer during today's festivities. Mr Khan released a dove at the opening of the vent to mark the Grenfell tragedy

These chaps look regal in their costumer. Golden lion heads sit on top of their heads while feathers and ribbons jut out from the side

Green for Grenfell: People gather together to observe a minute of silence for the victims of the tower block fire

A man plastered in paint has a plastic bag for his mobile phone tied around his neck - a wise move when becoming slathered in paint is almost an inevitability

Everyone's pretty in pink! Revellers dance in the street as hundreds of thousands of party-goers descend on the carnival in West London

The looming shadow of Grenfell Tower: The high-rise can be seen in the background as dazzling performers adorn the streets this morning

Police said a dedicated area would be put in place for people to leave tributes without obstructing the carnival flow

Organisers said this year's Notting Hill Carnival will be a "healing" opportunity for the local community after the Grenfell Tower fire

But somber overtones have failed to cloud the carnival atmosphere  as one Sky News reporter found out all too well.

Journalist Joe Tidy was playfully ambushed when reporting from the London festival at around 8am this morning.

He described festival-goers' moods as 'fantastic' before spotting revellers carrying paint.

He joked: 'Hold up, I've been waiting for this!' before he was slathered in colourful paint.'

Journalist Joe Tidy was playfully ambushed when reporting from the London festival at around 8am this morning

He described festival-goers' moods as 'fantastic' before spotting revellers carrying paint

He joked: 'Hold up, I've been waiting for this!' before he was slathered in colourful paint

The heightened security and a hugely increased police presence failed to dampen the spirits of the annual festival

It comes amid an intense security operation in place as the carnival gets under way.

The two-day west London festival, taking place in the shadow of the burnt-out Grenfell Tower, will see thousands of police officers on the streets.

Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad gave a speech this morning as the celebration opened with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves in remembrance of the Grenfell victims.

Performers near to the high-rise have been asked to keep their music volume low and walk respectively.

Steel barriers, concrete blocks and weapons checks are some of the measures being used to help protect the world-famous carnival from the threat of a Barcelona-style terror incident as well as acid attacks.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan pictured releasing doves in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower tragedy

Members and representatives from different religious communities met at the opening ceremony for Notting Hill Carnival this morning

Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad, left with mayor of London Sadiq Khan, gave a speech this morning as the celebration opened with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves in remembrance of the Grenfell victims.

Police said there is no specific counter-terrorism intelligence but security plans had been 'thoroughly reviewed' following the attack in the Spanish city earlier this month, in which 15 people died after being hit by a van.

Officers will be stationed around the perimeter of the carnival zone, carrying out checks for weapons and corrosive substances, following a controversial three-week crackdown to reduce criminality at the event.

They also plan to use facial recognition technology, which will help the force spot those thought to be likely to cause trouble.

Despite the seriousness of heightened security, revellers are still determined to enjoy themselves  many of whom have prepared magnificent costumes and outfits for the occasion.

The unfortunate owner of this car may think twice about where they leave their pricey motor ahead next year's Notting Hill Carnival

Boisterous carinval-goers have transformed the otherwise boring-looking car into a dazzling piece of art. Hopefully, the owner won't be too critical...

Crowds gather around the car as a man dances on top of it. At 3am, the festival will embrace a more somber tone when a 3pm one-minute silence will be observed to mark the Grenfell Tower tragedy

A pair of what appears to be a women's underwear sits on top of the car while a man takes a break from the festivities and parks himself on the roof

A performer beams while wearing a dazzling costume. The Notting Hill Carnival is Europe's biggest the event is expected to draw in at least a million people

Colourful and vibrant costume is a yearly feature at the carnival, the history of which is rooted in celebrating Afro-Caribbean culture and community cohesion

Despite the seriousness of heightened security, revellers are still determined to enjoy themselves

Costumed festival-goers prepare for Notting Hill Carnival. The festival is expected to draw more than one million visitors this year

Left, a man and woman covered in colourful paint dance together while he clutches a bottle of alcohol. Right, the Carnival spirit already seems to be in full swing

The colourful west London festival, taking place in the shadow of the burnt-out Grenfell Tower, will see thousands of police officers on the streets

Participants throw flour and cover each other in jouvay chocolate and coloured paint in the traditional Caribbean tradition known as Jouvert to kick off the Notting Hill carnival celebration

Overall policing numbers will stay the same as last year, with around six to seven thousand officers on duty each day.

Hundreds of hand-drawn tributes, flowers and candles laid in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire will be protected by fencing, while a 'ring of care' will be formed around the tower by police officers to protect the Lancaster West estate from the hundreds of thousands of passing carnival-goers.

Local MP Emma Dent Coad, who has said the carnival is needed this year more than ever, will give a speech on Sunday morning as the celebration opens with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves in remembrance of the dead.

A bejeweled woman wears a beaming orange headdress as she enjoys the sights and sounds of this year's carnival

The streets are heaving with hundreds of thousands of people who have all flocked to experience the London-based festival for themselves

Left, one reveller opted for a jewel-encrusted motif on her face and chest and right, another rocks a heart-shaped pair of glasses

He's having an oily good time! A man points to the camera after the early morning opening event

Left, a police officer dons protective eye gears while enjoying the carnival atmosphere and right, a festival-goer pulls along a miniature car

A reveller dressed as some form of terrifying, neon yeti during the carnival festivities that were already underway this morning before 8am

Four festival-goers dressed as Skelator from Heman pose ahead of the festival getting into full swing in the afternoon

Vibrant photos show festival-goers smothered in colourful paint. The woman on the left is wearing a dazzling headpiece while the young boy on the right appears somewhat overwhelmed by the party atmosphere

A man wearing a black viking helmet rides a coffin filled with what appears to be oil barrels as he is pulled along by another man

A man who is absolutely covered in paint chats with a police officer as the carnival atmosphere takes hold

The annual two-day carnival, which is the largest of its kind in Europe and is expected to attract around 2 million revellers to the Notting Hill area

Performers passing the blackened high-rise have been encouraged to lower their music volume and walk respectfully in memory of those who died in the inferno.

At 3pm on both days hundreds of thousands of revellers along the route are expected to pause and observe a minute's silence to mark the tragedy, in which at least 80 people are confirmed to have died.

Organisers are encouraging attendees to wear or accessorise in 'green for Grenfell' in a display of 'reverence and respect amidst the revelry'.

There will be a reflection zone near the tower and posters have been put up asking the public not to take photographs 'at the site of our great loss' - an activity which has distressed locals since the fire two months ago.

Police said a dedicated area would be put in place for people to leave tributes without obstructing the carnival flow.

Youngsters are also welcome at Notting Hill Carnival. Pictured are children dressed in colourful costumes as they enjoy the sights and sounds of the day

This young girl chose to wear a fairy-princess costume for the huge festival, while other chose very different outfits for the vibrant event

French drum band Timbao provided the essential festival atmosphere needed to kick off the event during this mornings opening ceremony

Revellers are pictured embracing the sense of community on which Notting Hill Carnival prides itself on by sharing drinks with one another

Drinks in hand, carnivalgoers take a break from the festivities to pose for a picture together with a range of beverages

The mayor of London Sadiq Khan meets revellers who have dressed in green for Grenfell at the Notting Hill Carnival in London

Mr Khan spoke with families of victims of the Grenfell Tower fire the festival got underway. Revellers were asked to dress in 'green for Grenfell' to mark the tragedy

Organisers are encouraging attendees to wear or accessorise in 'green for Grenfell' in a display of 'reverence and respect amidst the revelry'

The carnival is getting underway after the Met Police defended a series of raids carried out in the run-up to the event.

In three-week crackdown by officers, more than 600 people were arrested and large numbers of knives, guns, weapons, drugs and money seized.

The Met also tweeted and image of what they say was a kilogram of uncut heroin found in Catford, southeast London.

There are fears the capital could be faced with significant travel disruption after 400 bus staff went on strike at 12.01 this morning.

Controllers of London's travel network will continue the action for 48 hours, over a disparity between their pay rises and those of London Underground staff.
A teenage boy has been critically injured in Victoria's Gippsland region after being shot in the head in what police think may have been accident.

The 17-year-old teenager was injured in the head at Memory Lane, Neerim East, east of Melbourne at 1.30pm on Sunday.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesman says the teenager was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition after the 'possibly accidental' shooting.

The 17-year-old was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in critical condition (stock image)

'The circumstances are yet to be established and the investigation is ongoing,' a Victorian police spokesperson said in a statement.

A Royal Melbourne Hospital spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the teenager remained at the hospital in critical condition.
A father-of-three accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl while dressed in a camouflage suit has refused to face court on Sunday.

Troy Stephen Johnson of Woongarrah on the New South Wales Central Coast was charged with multiple sex offences committed against two girls.

Police claim Johnson, 31, groomed an 11-year-old girl known to him for sex between October 2016 and April 2017 and sexually assaulted her.

In May he allegedly dressed in a full-body camouflage suit and snatched a 12-year-old girl on her way to school before sexually assaulting her in a bushland lair.

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Johnson (pictured) was due to face Wyong Local Court on Sunday but refused to leave his cell

A number of items were seized during a search of a Woongarrah home (pictured), including camouflage gear allegedly worn during the attacks

Officers also reportedly seized hunting knives (pictured), boots, cable ties and a mask during their search

Johnson was due to face Wyong Local Court on Sunday but refused to leave his cell, Nine News reported.

He was arrested after a three-month investigation, with officers able to link the two attacks thanks to a detailed description provided by the 12-year-old victim.

'Obviously she is relieved that an offender has been arrested, and it is an obvious comfort to her,' Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett said Saturday.

'I also want to acknowledge the bravery of the victim. She has been absolutely exceptional with the detail that she has been able to provide the investigation.'

A father-of-three (pictured) accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl while dressed in a camouflage suit has refused to face court on Sunday

Police claim Johnson (pictured), 31, groomed an 11-year-old girl known to him for sex between October 2016 and April 2017 and sexually assaulted her

Troy Johnson (pictured Friday night) allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl as she walked to school

Detectives from the State Crime Command's Sex Crimes Squad arrested Johnson during a 'very well planned' vehicle stop at Lake Haven at about 9.30pm on Friday.

A Woongarrah home was searched following the arrest, with officers reportedly seizing a camouflage suit, hunting knives, boots, cable ties and a mask.

Police will reportedly allege they also found a rape kit inside the garage.

Johnson has been charged with 13 offences including stalking, intimidation with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm, kidnapping and child sex offences.

Johnson (pictured) was arrested after a three-month investigation, with officers able to link the two attacks thanks to a detailed description provided by the 12-year-old victim

Johnson (pictured) allegedly dragged the girl into the bushland to a 'lair' to rape her before she was able to escape and alarm teachers at her school

Police previously said they believed the man involved in the attacks wore the camouflage suit to carry out a 'hunter fantasy'.

After several interviews with the two young victims, detectives said the man had been wearing a dark camouflage coloured top and pants with fake leaves attached to it, along with a matching mask, gloves and backpack.

A photo of a person in a similar suit was posted on one of Johnson's family members social media pages, while his own account also featured hunting pictures.

It is alleged the man behind the attacks dragged the 12-year-old girl into the bushland of his lair, bound her with cable ties and raped her before she was able to escape and alarm teachers at her school.

In May he allegedly dressed in a full-body camouflage suit (pictured) and snatched a 12-year-old girl on her way to school and sexually assaulted her in a bushland lair

The man (pictured left) arrested Friday in high-vis gear is Troy Johnson (right) a Central Coast father-of-three

Police said there is a 'possibility further victims might come forward' following the arrest and are alleging the sexual assaults took place between late 2016 and early 2017.

The Ghillie suit worn by the man during the attacks is usually worn by military snipers trying to stay hidden for hours on end but can be bought easily at army surplus stores.

Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett said in July a lot of effort went into wearing the Ghillie suit.

'The offender went to a fair amount of trouble to wear that particular outfit, obviously wanting to disguise his identity,' she said.

'As you can imagine, it has been a difficult process, particularly for the younger girl, who has bravely relived the incident over and over to help us.'

Troy Stephen Johnson (pictured) of Woongarrah on the New South Wales Central Coast was charged with multiple sex offences committed against two girls

The 12-year-old girl previously told police the man was wearing a camouflage suit similar to what is pictured

It is believed a lair was used by the man while he allegedly attacked the 12-year-old girl while dressed in a leafy 'Ghillie' suit.

The lair, located by police between Reeves St and Carrington St, Narara, was hidden out of sight from a nearby walking path that many students, including the 12-year-old girl, took to get to school.

The hidden lair was littered with rubbish alongside a plastic orange chair, old tyres and a make-shift tent made out of a large draped sheet.

NSW Police said on Saturday the man suffered a medical episode shortly after being arrested and was taken to Wyong Hospital for treatment.

The creepy lair (pictured) was allegedly used by the man when he attacked the 12-year-old girl
Princess Diana's astrologer claimed she predicted a huge event would take place on the weekend the royal died in a Paris car crash.

Debbie Frank, a close friend and confidant of the princess, says the pair were studying an astrology chart at Kensington Palace when they saw an eclipse - which often signals an upcoming dramatic experience.

And astrologer to the stars Ms Frank, who worked with Diana from 1989 up until her death in 1997 at the age of 36, said Diana thought the eclipse represented a positive event as in the past they had apparently predicted her separation from Prince Charles and the birth of her son, William.

Princess Diana's astrologer Debbie Frank (pictured) claimed she predicted a huge event would take place on the weekend the royal died in a Paris car crash

Princess Diana (centre with princes William, left, and Harry, right) thought the eclipse signified something good was about to happen

Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Ms Frank said: 'She was really happy with Dodi, was spending more time with the boys and embarking on more work as an ambassador. We thought the alignment could be a positive.

'I spoke to her after that meeting, in a final phone call, and she sounded wonderful and told me, "I'm the happiest I've ever been".

'I had no idea she would die. I would never have been able to stop it. Let's get one thing clear, astrologers can't predict death.'

Diana was a strong believer in astrology and used it often.

She used Ms Frank's skills to try and understand Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and spoke honestly about her husband's infidelities.

At the peak of the pair's friendship, Ms Frank claims Diana would call her three times a day for advice - even going as far as phoning her hotline if she had trouble getting through.

According to Ms Frank, Diana would call her up to three times a day asking for advice

And, according to Ms Frank, the princess called from a yacht off the Greek coast while on a second honeymoon with Charles in 1991.

She had just discovered Charles had been calling Camilla and was seeking advice.

And the last time they spoke, less than three weeks before the princess' death, Ms Frank read Diana's partner Dodi's chart as she claimed to be the happiest she had ever been.

Diana showered Ms Frank with gifts and even spoke to her every Christmas day during royal meetings at Sandringham.

She would complain about the gifts she received from her in-laws and would even sneak off upstairs to get a break, according to Ms Frank.
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These harrowing images of Monte Cassino feature in a new book about the military offensive which sheds fresh light on atrocities committed by military troops after the famous battle.

The monumental four-month battle saw the Allies launch four assaults against the Gustav Line in Italy held by Axis forces as they sought the breakthrough to clear the path to Rome.

However, the route was blocked by the rugged Monte Cassino massif with its hilltop medieval monastery.

The Allies were confronted by barren, rocky slopes and inaccessible mountains where German soldiers with machine guns lay in wait.

These harrowing images of Monte Cassino feature in a new book about the military offensive which sheds fresh light on atrocities committed by French forces after the famous battle. Pictured above, after the fall of the Gustav Line, British tanks of the 78th Infantry Division cross a pontoon bridge in Liri valley

The monumental four-month battle saw the Allies launch four assaults against the Gustav Line in Italy held by Axis forces as they sought the breakthrough to clear the path to Rome. Pictured above, Polish mortar crew on Monte Cassino

When the Allies arrived at Monte Cassino, they were confronted by barren, rocky slopes and inaccessible mountains where German soldiers with machine guns lay in wait. The crew of a British machine gun, a 17-pounder (76.2-mm) antitank gun, and a Sherman tank waiting for the attack order in Liri valley in May 1944

On the night of May 19, 1944, immediately after the collapse of the Gustav Line, when 12,000 Moroccan colonial soldiers called 'Goumiers' and other colonial troops swarmed over a group of mountain villages of the Province of Frosinone committing mass rapes. Pictured above, the destruction of the town as recorded by an Allied camera, March 15, 1944

Historian Angelos Mansolas has researched the Battle of Monte Cassino for his new book Monte Cassino, January - May 1944, The Legend of the Green Devils, which includes haunting first-hand accounts of soldiers on both sides.

There are shocking before and after pictures of a majestic monastery which was reduced to ruins after it was bombed by the Americans.

One dramatic image shows US B-25 Bombers flying over an erupting Mount Vesuvius en route to another aerial assault on the town of Cassino, which by the end of the conflict resembled a First World War battlefield.

Another shows a German paratrooper perched on the snowy heights of Monte Cassino ready to fire at the valley below.

Polish infantrymen clamber up an almost vertical mountain-face in a photo which captures the fiendishly difficult nature of the terrain the Allies faced.

There are heart-pounding images of troops about to charge into a ruined house unaware of what lay lurking inside and a heart-breaking image of Polish troops carrying one of their fallen men along a path lined with dead German defenders.

Historian Angelos Mansolas has researched the Battle of Monte Cassino for his new book Monte Cassino, January - May 1944, The Legend of the Green Devils, which includes haunting first-hand accounts of soldiers on both sides Pictured above, the moment of the bombing of the Monte Cassino abbey, 15 February 1944

The Monastery of Monte Cassino shown at the beginning of the battle, before the four-months of fighting destroyed the surrounding area

One dramatic image shows US B-25 Bombers flying over an erupting Mount Vesuvius (pictured above) en route to another aerial assault on the town of Cassino, which by the end of the conflict resembled a First World War battlefield

The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses estimated at 20,000 killed and wounded. Pictured above, members of the eLiberatorsi of Italy during the battle

Some of the heaviest proportional losses within the Allied forces were endured by the courageous Polish II Corps who suffered 4,000 casualties. Pictured above, a New Zealander sniper in the ruins of Cassino, 26 March 1944.

In a final, poignant image, a Polish bugler plays in recognition of Allied victory at Monte Cassino on May 18, 1944.

The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses estimated at 20,000 killed and wounded.

Some of the heaviest proportional losses within the Allied forces were endured by the courageous Polish II Corps who suffered 4,000 casualties.

Monte Cassino, January - May 1944, The Legend of the Green Devils , by Angelos Mansolas, is published by Fonthill Media and costs 20

Polish platoon commander Lieutenant Edward Rynkiewicz, wrote in his diary: 'The German guns blasted us so effectively that we were obliged to throw ourselves flat and crawl around looking for cover, which was practically non-existent, since all the sizeable boulders had been blown to bits by our own artillery.

'As we hunted feverishly for somewhere to hide, the defenders hit us with everything they had.

'It seemed impossible that men could live in such a holocaust. Breathing a prayer, I groped blindly towards a shell hole.

'It was filled with bodies, sprawling on top of each other.

'Most of them were lifeless, but I clawed frantically at those on top in an effort to burrow deeper.

'The defenders were so skillfully concealed and so adept at sharp-shooting that even the briefest exposure usually meant death or a serious wound.

'We no longer knew where to shoot or whom to aim at.'

Mr Mansolas has also highlighted little-known atrocities committed by Moroccan irregular mountain troops of the French Expeditionary Corps upon Italian citizens throughout the course of the Italian campaign, especially after the Battle of Monte Cassino.

One such example was the night of May 19, 1944, immediately after the collapse of the Gustav Line, when 12,000 Moroccan colonial soldiers called 'Goumiers' and other colonial troops swarmed over a group of mountain villages of the Province of Frosinone committing mass rapes.

The mayor of a 2,500-population town reported the rape of 700 women including two sisters, 15 and 18 years old, who were raped by more than 200 soldiers each.

Pictured left, Shermans of the Polish 4th Armoured Regiment advance towards Albaneta Farm, May 1944. Pictured right, following the German withdrawal order, a Polish flag was hoisted in front of the abbey and Master Corporal Emil Czech bugled the Krakow victory march, announcing the victory at Monte Cassino, 18 May 1944

The author of the book has also highlighted little-known atrocities committed by Moroccan irregular mountain troops of the French Expeditionary Corps upon Italian citizens throughout the course of the Italian campaign, especially after the Battle of Monte Cassino. Pictured above, soldiers are taken prisoner after the bombing of 15 March are guarded by soldiers of the 2nd NZ Division behind a Sherman tank

Pictured above, a group of German paratroopers ready to depart for yet another raiding patrol. The Oberleutnant standing in the middle is the squad leader

Among the ruins of the abbey, a paratroop of cer gives instructions to a mortar team. Following the battle, the mayor of a 2,500-population town reported the rape of 700 women including two sisters, 15 and 18 years old, who were raped by more than 200 soldiers each

Some of the young men in the villages were also raped, buildings were destroyed and everything of value was stolen.

An Italian eyewitness remembers: 'We thought that once we were behind Allied lines our troubles would be over; in fact they were just beginning.

'The soldiers would point the gun at the man and rape the woman. Practically all the women who were violated by them died. Slowly they all died.'

Another said: 'We suffered more during the 24 hours of contact with the Moroccans than in the eight months under the Germans.'

It is estimated that during the Italian campaign some 60,000 women, aged 11 to 86, were raped as one village after another fell under Goumiers' control.

Roughly 800 civilian men who tried to protect their families were also murdered.

Polish soldiers carry a dead comrade through the rubble of Cassino passing past dead German defenders lying along the trail

New Zealanders charge into a ruined house. The picture, although probably posed, captures the confusion and violence of the street fighting during the battle

Men of the 2nd NZ Infantry Division advance into the town past the ruins of the Hotel Des Roses. Historian Angelos Mansolas has researched the Battle of Monte Cassino for his new book Monte Cassino, January - May 1944, The Legend of the Green Devils

Before and after photos in the book show buildings that were fully intact (pictured above) ahead of the four-month battle tat were later destroyed

After the bombing, the monastery northern wall sector which remained largely intact and provided excellent defensive positions to the German paratroopers

A view of the town after its complete destruction. Buildings were completely destroyed in the fighting, and in the aftermath, everything of value was believed to be stolen from villagers

Mr Mansolas, 55, a retired Hellenic Air Force officer born in Athens, Greece, said: 'The chapter about the mass rapes in Italy reveals a neglected page in history. Although some contemporary historians do mention the subject, they tend to avoid its gruesome details.

'The Battle of Monte Cassino will always be remembered as the longest battle ever fought on European soil, comparable to losses to such costly battles as the Somme, Verdun or Stalingrad.

'It was also one fought before a German superbly constructed, fortified line on the Western front - the strongest the Western Allies would ever come up against.

'Monte Cassino was an epic battle just for the courage of the soldiers who fought it. It was a struggle for survival against the enemy and the battlefield itself.

'Behind each mountain, there followed another - on these mountains, two entrenched Germans armed with a machine gun could easily pin down enemies 10 times their number.

'For the attackers, building trenches and foxholes in the granite ground of Monte Cassino was near impossible and there is nothing that can wear down a soldier's morale faster than the lack of a decent cover.

'Out of all the assaults with bayonets, the grenade exchanges, the savage hand-to-hand fighting, often with bare hands just to capture a yard of rocky ground or pile of rubble under darkness, rain and snow, one thing stands out - the sheer determination, toughness and courage of the average soldier.'

Monte Cassino, January - May 1944, The Legend of the Green Devils, by Angelos Mansolas, is published by Fonthill Media and costs 20.
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As temperatures across Southeast Britain continue to rise, England could see its hottest August Bank Holiday Monday on record.

A warm spell has hit the UK, with temperatures hitting 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27C) across the Southeast of England on Sunday and 68F (20C) in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Temperatures are expected to rise throughout Monday, with a 20 per cent chance of highs hitting 86F (30C) in the Southeast, which would make it the hottest August Bank Holiday Monday ever recorded, the Met Office told MailOnline.

Thousands took to the beaches of the UK over the weekend to celebrate the warm wather sweeping the country. The heat is boosting 17million Brits on UK holidays or day trips this weekend, with 7,000,000 staying overnight, and 10,000,000 having a day out, VisitEngland showed

Festival goers in Leeds were enjoying the sunshine as the sun beamed for the late August bank holiday weekend

Several people stand along waterfalls in Warleigh Weir, Bath, on Sunday as temperatures soared into the mid 80s over the August Bank Holiday

H2-Wooah: Festivalgoers cooling off in the warm weather at the 2017 Reading Festival

A woman and a young boy enjoy a day out at the beach Weymouth, Dorest, by heading into the water on a two-seated kayak

Sunshine and beer: Revellers take a break during the Notting HIll Carnival in West London today

And the weekend's not over yet - temperatures are expected to continue to rise on Sunday and Monday, and the could reach as high as 86F (30C)

A dog wearing a life jacket enjoys a ride on a paddle board at the beach in Weymouth during bank holiday celebrations on Sunday

A man and a girl play in waist-deep water as others look on at the beach in Weymouth during bank holiday celebrations on Sunday

A pair of women wearing bikinis chat near a metal fence as they gathered with thousands others at a beach in Weymouth on Sunday

Thousands of people take to the beach in Weymouth, Dorset, on Sunday during the bank holiday weekend as temperatures soar to the high 80s

The beaches, including one in Weymouth (pictured) were completely packed with locals and tourists as Britons tried to soak up the last of the summer sun

A boy carrying an inflatable shark walks through crowds of people at a beach in Weymouth, Dorset, on Sunday as people enjoy the summer sun

As thousands gathered in Weymouth, Dorset, on Sunday, they brought flags, colourful partitions and towels and beach toys to enjoy the last of the summer heat

Many beach goers brought their dogs, who played in the water among the thousands of people enjoying the sun at the beach in Weymouth on Sunday

Kayakers and sailors took to the water in their boats off Weymouth beach as they enjoyed the heat of ank holiday weekend Sunday

A man wades into the water at the beach in Weymouth on the Bank holiday weekend Sunday while thousands of others relax in the sand

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The heat is comparable to temperatures hitting Madrid this weekend, while it's even hotter in the UK than it is in parts of Portugal.

Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said the mercury could reach 84F (29C) - or even 86F (30C) - making it 'potentially the warmest late August Bank Holiday on record which dates back to 1965'.

He said the UK's previous top August Bank Holiday temperature was 80.78F (27.1C) heat which hit Santon Downham, east Anglia, on August 31 2009.

Predictions are for Monday's temperatures to hit 82F (28C) or 84F (29C) in the south east and there is a 20 per cent chance of it climbing to 30C, according to Mr Petagna.

He said the sun is very strong at this time of year so it does not take much for the heat to build up, particularly in urban areas.

It will be cooler in Scotland and Northern Ireland with 17C-20C predicted, while those in central and southern England along with South Wales may enjoy summer heat that is in the mid-20Cs.

The all-time highest temperature recorded in August was 101F (38.5C) in Faversham, Kent, on August 10 2003, the Met Office said

Two women sit atop a waterfall in Warleigh Weir in Bath, on Sunday as they soak up the sunny rays of the final days of summer

People of all ages waded into the water at Warleigh Weir, Bath, on Sunday as groups of Britons enjoyed the August Bank Holiday weekend

In Bath (waterfalls at Warleigh Weir in Bath pictured above), temperatures hit highs of 77F (25C) on Sunday over the Bank Holiday weekend

People cooled down at Warleigh Weir on Sunday as temperatures continued to rise throughout the weekend across the UK

A woman holds a young girl as another plays in the water at Warleigh Weir on Sunday morning during the August Bank Holiday

A young girl wades into the water while another family walks close by at Warleigh Weir during the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday weekend

Families climb down into the water at Warleigh Weir in Bath on Sunday as they enjoy the warm weather hitting England

People ride boats down a canal at Warleigh Weir in Bath as they soak up the final days of summer as temperatures reach the 80s

) Walkers enjoy a sunny afternoon with their dog in a field near the River Thames at Pangbourne in Berkshire on Sunday

Kayakers travel down the River Thames at Pangbourne in Berkshire on Sunday as temperatures soared into the 80s

Boaters enjoy a sunny afternoon on The River Thames at Pangbourne in Berkshire Seasonal weather over the August Bank Holiday weekend

Boaters enjoy a sunny afternoon on The River Thames at Pangbourne in Berkshire during the August Bank Holiday weekend

Britons took to the beaches to celebrate sunny skies and warm weather as thousands traveled to Brighton, Blackpool and Bournemouth for the weekend.

One million visitors were due in Cornwall this weekend, with 300,000 visitors expected in Brighton across Saturday and Sunday, with 200,000 in Blackpool, 150,000 in Bournemouth and 150,000 in Great Yarmouth.

The heat is boosting 17million Brits on UK holidays or day trips this weekend, with 7,000,000 staying overnight, and 10,000,000 having a day out, VisitEngland showed.

In London, people took to the streets in Notting Hill to celebrate Carnival, enjoying temperatures of 73F (23C) and sunny skies.

The official opening ceremony on Sunday morning began with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves as a 'small act of remembrance' as a show of respect for those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire.

High temperatures won't be around for long, however, as cooler weather is expected to hit near the middle of the week.

By Wednesday or Thursday, temperatures in the South will be back down in the high teens or high 60s or low 70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius). The sun, however, is expected to stay around for a least a little while.

'There's a lot of bright weather to come,' Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said. 'But there will be rain later in the week'.

People sunbathe on Boscombe beach in Dorset, as Britons enjoy predicted highs of 27C (81F) after a wet and cool August

Most parts of the UK can look forward to some sunshine and warmer temperatures during the long Bank Holiday weekend

People sunbathe on Boscombe beach in Dorset, as Britons enjoy predicted highs of 27C (81F) after a wet and cool August

People walk past multi coloured beach huts along Boscombe beach in Dorset, as Britons enjoy predicted highs of 27C (81F) during the August Bank Holiday weekend

A man paddle boards off of Boscombe beach in Dorset as he enjoys the final sunny days of summer during the August Bank Holiday

Locals and tourists lined Boscombe beach in Dorset as they soaked up the sun on Sunday over August's Bank Holiday weekend

A fisherman casts off from Bosocmbe pier on Boscombe beach in Dorset, as Britons enjoy warm weather over the weekend

People walk along Boscombe Pier on Boscombe beach in Dorset, as Britons enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend on Sunday

She said: 'We couldn't have asked for a better bank holiday weekend. Normally they end up being a bit of a wash-out, but it's been so sunny and warm.

'It's perfect beach weather and clearly lots of other people thought so too..'

In the North in Scotland and Northern Ireland, temperatures will remain around the high teens or low 20s throughout the Bank Holiday weekend and into the week.

Government forecasters say hot air from around France is helping the heatwave.

Met Office forecaster Petagna said that the weather has made for a 'lovely' Bank Holiday weekend, 'with fine, mainly dry conditions and strong sunshine'.

He added: 'There's a push of air from the near-continent, with high pressure allowing heat to build over the UK.

'It comes after maximum temperatures for August were below average for almost all areas of the UK.'

The sizzling sunshine in the popular seaside town of Bournemouth, Dorset, saw about 100,000 sunworshippers hit the seven miles of sandy beaches.

Temperatures reached 79F (26C) on Sunday with seafront car parks full by lunchtime and people queuing for ice creams throughout the day.

Some beat the queues by getting to the beach by 8am and the resort's 3,000 deckchairs and 1,800 sunbeds were rented out.

Festival goers geared up to see performers including Eminem, Migos, Glass Animals, and Major Lazer take the stage on Sunday

Despite the heat, some festival goers still opted to wear jeans to the festival's activities on Sunday morning

The week-long festival in Leeds saw revellers from across the UK and the world gather to hear three days of performances

Revellers at Leeds Festival on Sunday wore vests and even went shirtless to beat the summer heat. Temperatures in Leeds hit highs of 70 degrees on Sunday

Two women cool off at Leeds Festival by drinking cool drinks and sitting in the grass as hit musical performers played sets around the grounds

Despite the hot and sunny weather, many women opted to wear rain boots during the festival on Sunday in preparation for potential muddy conditions

In London, people took to the streets in Notting Hill to celebrate Carnival, enjoying temperatures of 73F (23C) and sunny skies

The official opening ceremony on Sunday morning began with a multi-faith prayer and release of doves as a 'small act of remembrance' as a show of respect for those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire. Grenfell is pictured in the background as people take part in the festival

Dancers wearing feathered headdresses perform during the Family Day parade at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London on Sunday morning

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan metwith performers during the Notting Hill Carnival Family Day in west London ahead of the parade

In Norfolk, beaches saw sunny skies on Sunday as the warm weather continued to spread across the UK throughout the Bank Holiday weekend

Katie Marks, 35, from Ringwood, Hampshire, spent the day at the beach with her family.

Fans at Reading Festival enjoyed high temperatures this weekend, with mostly cloudy skies.

Despite the laid-back atmosphere, moods were up in the hot weather on Saturday, as young women dressed in colourful trousers and lacy crop tops could be seen browsing the fashion stores while waiting for their favourites to step onstage.

Dedicated fans turned up at the main stage for in hopes of securing a good spot for Saturday night's Eminem concert.

In Leeds, festival goers geared up to see performers including Eminem, Migos, Glass Animals, and Major Lazer take the stage on Sunday.

In Kent, a fire was started after bright sun rays shining on a glass bottle started a fire on Saturday evening.

Fire crews in Faversham think the bottle magnified the rays through the day and the shed got so hot it smouldered during the evening and finally burst into flames.

Temperatures in the region could reach as high as 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30C) on Monday, making it the hottest August Bank Holiday on record. Pictured above, a family identified only as Emily, Brook, Everly and Bryan enjoying the bank holiday sunshine on Brighton beach on Sunday

Temperatures across England are expected to rise throughout Monday, with a 20 per cent chance of highs hitting 86F (30C) in the Southeast

A warm spell has hit the UK, with temperatures hitting 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27C) across the Southeast on Sunday and 68F (20C) in Northern Ireland and Scotland

Britons took to the beaches (Brighton Beach pictured above) to celebrate sunny skies and warm weather as thousands traveled to Brighton, Blackpool and Bournemouth for the weekend

By Wednesday or Thursday, temperatures in the South will be back down in the high teens or high 60s or low 70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius). The sun, however, is expected to stay around for a least a little while

The heat is comparable to temperatures hitting Madrid this weekend, while it's even hotter in the UK than it is in parts of Portugal

A man wearing shorts and a vest while carrying a shovel uses a metal detector on Brighton Beach during Sunday's warm weather

A man and woman lounge on the beach in Brighton on Sunday during the August Bank Holiday weekend as temperatures continue to rise

Two women walk along the edge of the water in Brighton Beach as they enjoy the warm weather of the Bank Holiday weekend

High temperatures won't be around for long, however, as cooler weather is expected to hit near the middle of the week

A man and two girls wade into the water near the pier at Brighton Beach as they celebrate warm weather during the Bank Holiday weekend

Met Office forecaster Petagna said that the weather has made for a 'lovely' Bank Holiday weekend, 'with fine, mainly dry conditions and strong sunshine'

Faversham Fire Station crew manager Peter Yarwood said 'We suspect there was a magnifying glass effect. There is no other explanation.

'The shed was totally alight when we got there and it ended up completely destroyed. The occupants of the property had already gone to bed and had to be alerted by their neighbours.'

Two fire engines, from the Faversham and Teynham stations, were called out and the crews were at the scene for two-and-a-half hours.

Mr Yarwood added 'These sorts of freak incidents can happen so people should be aware on hot, bright days. One precaution would be not to leave mirrors or glass by their windows.'

The end-of-summer sizzle is rescuing the coldest August for 45 years as festivalgoers camp out at Creamfields.

The 25.6C peak UK temperature from August 1-25 was August's coldest maximum temperature for 45 years, since August 1972, when 25.1C was the maximum, Met Office records show.

This month's 25.6C high was measured on Wednesday at Weybourne, Norfolk.
A three-year-old girl has been found dead with a gunshot wound to the neck at a home in Sydney's west.

Police were called to a property in Lalor Park, near Blacktown, where they discovered the child's body at around 8pm on Sunday.

A man inside the house was heard screaming 'she's dead... she's shot herself,' according to The Daily Telegraph.

Detectives and forensic analysts were seen combing through evidence at cordoned off home on Monday morning. The three-year-old's body was removed from the home around 8am - 12 hours after the shooting.

It is believed the three-year-old was at home with her mother and three brothers, aged between three and eight, at the time of the shooting, according to 7News.

Neighbours reported seeing the girl's siblings frantically run from the home while screaming for help.

The girl's father and uncle were also reportedly in the area at the time but not at the home, according to The Daily Telegraph.

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A three-year-old girl has been found dead with a gunshot wound to the neck in Sydney's west

The young girl's body was seen being removed from the home around 8am on Monday

Police were called to a property in Lalor Park, near Blacktown, where they discovered the child's body at around 8pm on Sunday. Forensic officers were seen at the Danny Road home on Monday morning

Pictured is a distressed woman being placed into an ambulance on Sunday night after the shooting. Reports suggest the woman is the girl's mother

Danny Road has been blocked off by police and was still closed early on Monday morning

A destraught man (pictured) was helped to his feet by police, before he was placed in the back of a van. Police told Daily Mail Australia there was no one in custody over the death

Video captured on Sunday night shows two distraught men - believed to be the girl's father and uncle - sitting in a gutter with their heads in their hands shortly after authorities arrived at the scene.

One of the men was later helped to his feet by police, who patted him down before placing him in the back of a van.

A distressed woman, who reports suggest is the child's mother, was seen sitting the back of an ambulance.

'I hate you, I hate you,' the woman inside the van could be heard shouting to an unknown person as the door opened.

'I hate you, he killed my baby girl... rot in hell,' she later screamed.

Next door neighbour Mark Tupua told The Daily Telegraph he ran outside to see what was going on when he saw the three-year-old's father crying in the street.

Mr Tupua said he tried to open the front door of the family's home but it was locked.

About ten minutes later the child's hysterical mother emerged, he said.

'She was just screaming. I seen (sic) another guy leave the house with blood on his hands. She was saying it was his fault that he should not have had a gun in the house,' the young man said.

Mr Tupua told 9News the mother was angry at the bloodied man and told him police 'could take the kids away from [her] because of what hes done.'

It is believed the three-year-old was at home with her mother and three brothers, aged between three and eight, at the time of the shooting

Clothes can be seen hanging on the line in the backyard (pictured)

A children's toy car is pictured under the clothesline

A neighbour (not pictured) said he helped take three other children from the home where the girl died into another property

A distraught man is pictured holding his head in his hands at the scene on Sunday night

Police reportedly responded to a report of a domestic at an address they had been called to last year after reports of gunshot sounds and yelling

A member of the forensic team places an evidence marker on the ground

A neighbour said he helped escort three other children from the home where the girl was shot.

'We saw there was chaos and we thought one of the neighbours was in trouble and we went out to help,' he told the paper.

'Our neighbour took all the children into her house... there were three of them, the oldest would have been around eight.

'Then the mum came into the house and it was chaotic and all of that. She was just rambling, she was hysterical.'

The distraught man who was seen sitting in a gutter at the scene is pictured being placed in a police van

A woman can be seen being escorted to an ambulance by police

Police are said to be investigating whether the girl's gunshot wound may have been self-inflicted.

Emergency services are believed to have arrived at the Danny Road home in response to a report of a domestic.

They had been called to the same address in September last year after reports of gunshot sounds and yelling, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A crime scene was established and detectives spoke with the girl's family.

Police told Daily Mail Australia there was no one in custody over the death.
Catalan police failed to act on a tip-off from Belgian security forces about extremist cleric Abdelbaki Es Satty who is believed to have radicalised the Barcelona terrorist cell.

The 42-year-old Moroccan national had been jailed for drug smuggling in 2004 but Spanish authorities were unable to send him home after his release over fears for his human rights.

Worse still, Catalan authorities are accused of ignoring intelligence from Belgium warning about Es Satty's extremist links.

A total of 16 people died after terrorists drove a van through Las Ramblas, Barcelona on August 17, less than a day after a house exploded killing suspected ring leader Abdelbaki Es Satty

The Los Mossos d'Esquadra police force received information that Es Satty was responsible for radicalising young Muslims behind the terrorist attacks. They failed to act on the intelligence which could have possibly prevented the atrocity.

According to the Sunday Times, the Catalan police failed to co-ordinate with the national security services in Madrid.

Es Saty is believed to have become friendly with one of the 2004 Madrid train terrorists Rachid Aglif while in prison.

One source said the house explosion where Es Satty is believed to have died 24 hours before the Barcelona attack should have been a warning.

It is claimed Catalan authorities did not wish to involve the National Police and the Guardia Civil over fears it would undermine their self-sufficiency.

A source said: 'If the first explosion had been investigated, the conclusion that a terrorist attack was being prepared should have been reached.'

It is claimed the Los Mossos d'Esquadra failed to adequately investigate an explosion on the day before the Barcelona terrorist attacks which could have warned of the imminent threat

The death toll following the August 17 attack has risen to 17 after a 51-year-old German woman passed away from her injuries in hospital overnight

The Spanish government tried to throw Abdelbaki Es Satty, 42, out of the country in 2014 after he served a sentence for drug smuggling.

But a judge said two EU directives gave Es Satty the right to stay in the country - because he did not pose a 'serious threat'.

After the failed attempt to deport him, Es Satty went on to brainwash members of the cell who carried out two terror attacks in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils earlier this month.

Catalan police ignored warnings about suspected terror leader Abdelbaki Es Satty in advance of the Barcelona terror attacks

Today a 51-year-old German woman who had been in a critical condition in intensive care since being mowed down on Las Ramblas died in hospital. Her death brought the number murdered by the cell to 16. More than 100 more were injured when a van ploughed into pedestrians on the famous boulevard on August 17.

A written judgment reveals judge Pablo de la Rubia blocked Es Satty's deportation because of EU laws.

The judge highlighted two EU Council Directives - numbers 2003/109/EC and 2001/40/EC - which prevented the Madrid government from booting him out.

The EU directives say member states can only deport non-EU nationals who pose a 'serious and present threat to public order or national security and safety'.

The judge ruled Es Satty was not a threat - because he had only been convicted of one offence and because he was making attempts to 'integrate' into Spanish society.

Es Satty was arrested in January 2010 on a ferry to Spain from north Africa, with 121 kilos of cannabis resin worth POUNDS 162,000 packed into a van.

He was jailed for four years and a month and served two thirds of his sentence in a prison in Castellon, north east Spain. It is believed he became radicalised while behind bars.

When he was released in 2014 the Spanish government issued a deportation order, expelling him from the country for five years.

Spanish law permits the government to deport foreign criminals who have been jailed for a year or more once they have served their sentence.

Senior government official David Barelles wrote on the order that Es Satty posed 'a real threat which is sufficiently serious to justify his expulsion'.

But Es Satty appealed - insisting he had a right to stay in Spain despite his conviction.

His won his case at the Contentious-Administrative Court Number 2 in Castellon in April 2015.

Citing the two EU directives, judge De la Rubia wrote: 'Although the conduct of the accused is serious, there is only one offence, which is old, and it is claimed he has laid down employment roots in Spain, which demonstrate his efforts at integration into Spanish society.'

The judge added that it would be 'disproportionate' to deport the Moroccan.

After leaving prison, Es Satty became the Iman of the mosque in Ripoll, a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, 65 miles north of Barcelona.

He radicalised local youths, mostly Moroccan immigrants aged 17 to 34, and is thought to have been the leader of the 12-man cell who brought mayhem to the region last month.

The gang plotted a terrorist 'spectacular' using vans packed with bombs made from butane-gas bottles and the explosive TATP - nicknamed the Mother of Satan.

They planned to blow up targets including the famous Sagrada Familia basilica.

But the plot was foiled when their bomb factory in Alcazar, 125 miles south west of Barcelona, exploded - killing Es Satty and another member of the cell.

Police initially thought the explosion was caused by a gas leak. They later found a book in the rubble linking the house, and specifically Es Satty, to ISIS.

After the explosion foiled their original plan, the gang carried out a less sophisticated attack on August 17.

Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, drove a van down Las Ramblas, killing 14 pedestrians including seven-year-old Brit Julian Cadman, and injuring more than 100.

Abouyaaqoub fled on foot and then carjacked Spaniard Pau Perez, 35, stabbing him to death and stealing his Ford Focus.

Later that night five other members of the gang ploughed into pedestrians in the seaside town of Cambrils before going on the rampage with an axe and large knives, stabbing one person to death.

Four were shot dead by a patrolling police officer, who happened to be a former elite soldier. The fifth was shot by another officer.

Abouyaaqoub, the Barcelona van driver, was later cornered and shot dead by police last Monday.

Last week it emerged Belgian authorities asked Spanish police in 2016 if Es Satty was linked to Islamic terrorism.

Es Satty lived in Vilvoorde, then a hotbed of extremism on the outskirts of Brussels, in early 2016.

Locals warned police that he was preaching hatred among the muslim population. And a Belgian police officer emailed counterparts in Spain saying: 'The more information you can share about this individual the better.'

On March 8, 2016 the Catalan police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, replied that Es Satty was not known to be linked to terrorism.

But last week it was reported that police obtained a warrant to tap the Iman's phone calls in 2005 as he was suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda. Despite these suspicions he was never arrested for terrorism offences.

Catalan interior minister Joaquim Forn said: 'This was not a failure. They asked us for information. We gave what we had, and at no time that we were aware of had he been investigated or was considered dangerous.

'If we had been informed of this, we would have acted differently.'
US border patrol agents discovered a new hidden tunnel running from Mexico that led to the arrest of 30 illegal immigrants.

Around 1.30am on Saturday, agents patrolling at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, saw a group of several dozen people and tried to approach them for questioning.

Some people in the group ran back into what the agents discovered to be the exit of a cross-border tunnel with a ladder inside near Drucker Lane and Siempre Viva Road.

Agents made 30 arrests both inside and outside the tunnel. Of those arrested, 23 were Chinese nationals and seven were Mexican nationals.

US border patrol agents have arrested 30 illegal immigrants after they tried to cross into the country through a newly discovered hidden tunnel leading from Mexico (pictured)

According to investigators, the tunnel began in a building in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the US-Mexico border in San Diego (Pictured, Otay Mesa port of entry)

According to investigators, the tunnel began in a building in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the US-Mexico border in San Diego and three miles from the border crossing bridge.

The opening to the tunnel had been covered by dry bush and branches.

Mexican authorities are working to determine who is responsible for the build-out and operation of the smuggling tunnel.

Authorities say this is the 13th underground passageway discovered along California's border with Mexico since 2006.

The use of such tunnels is not new, but they have typically been used for drug smuggling.

As of 4pm on Saturday, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent Eduardo Olmos told NBC 7 that no drugs had been discovered inside the tunnel.

The use of such tunnels (route highlighted in red) is not new, but they have typically been used for drug smuggling. As of 4pm on Saturday, no drugs had been discovered inside the tunnel

'Preliminarily it appears this latest tunnel may be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered and seized by Mexican authorities,' the CBP wrote in a press release.

'While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics.

'However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling.'
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The flood of a lifetime has hit Texas after the violent winds of Hurricane Harvey began to die down, with the state expecting another 50 inches to pour down upon the region in record-setting precipitation.

The destructive path of the hurricane began to take shape on Sunday, with a striking collection of aerial photographs laying bare its damage for the first time.

Highways lay submerged in water where abandoned cars bobbed alongside rescue boats taking residents to safety, as Galveston County estimates up to 1,200 people had to be rescued from the 'life-threatening' waters.

At least five people are dead and dozens are injured after 130mph winds and unprecedented floods swept through the southeast pocket of the state on Friday and Saturday.

There is even more rain on the way - a record-setting 50 inches - and emergency response teams have been stretched to their limit as the state was hit with 11 trillion gallons of water, according to reports.

On Sunday, as thousands fled their homes in kayaks and swam through the watery streets, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, revealed it would take the area years to recover from the storm which is the worst this decade.

Harvey has been downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm but its threat is still imminent. Authorities are now fearing its second deadly phase - the floods.

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An aerial photograph reveals the huge swathes of flooded land in Houston, Texas on Sunday. Hurricane Harvey blustered through the town on Friday and Saturday, bringing with it unprecedented downpour and triggering life-threatening floods

Rockport was one of the worst hit coastal towns by the Category 4 storm. Hurricane Harvey blustered through the town on Friday and Saturday, bringing with it unprecedented downpour and triggering life-threatening floods

A shocking view of Aransas County on Sunday shows chunks of roads lying underwater and buildings almost submerged

Aerial footage in Aransas County, which sits along the coast, was ravaged with wind and rain over the weekend and is now swamped

Houston's tall sky scrapers were among the only buildings that were safe from the devastating flooding on Sunday

Flooded downtown is seen from a high rise along Buffalo Bayou after Hurricane Harvey inundated the Texas Gulf coast with rain causing widespread flooding in Houston

Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey seen during widespread flooding in Houston

The National Weather Service said: 'The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before. Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days'. Pictured: Aerial image of Refugio

Aerial images show a trailer park that has been devastated by Hurricane Harvey on Sunday in Aransas, Texas

Thousands of people evacuated after floods swamped parts of the region, leading Dallas to announce it aims to open a 'mega-shelter' for 5,000 evacuees by Tuesday morning.

The National Weather Service said: 'The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before. Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days.'

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that as of 5pm on Sunday, Houston police and fire departments had received nearly 6,000 calls for rescues and had rescued more than 1,000 people.

Turner said that so far only one fatality has been confirmed in his city  a woman who died Saturday evening after getting out of her car when it drove into a flooded street.

Turner said 22 aircrafts were working to help identify people stranded on roofs. Sixteen of those aircrafts are from U.S. Coast Guard.

In addition, 35 boats and 93 dump trucks were being used by the city for high water rescues.

The mayor also defended his decision not to order an evacuation.

'The decision that we made was a smart one. It was in the best interest of Houstonians. It was the right decision in terms of their safety... absolutely no regrets. We did what was the right thing to do,' Turner said.

Residents in Houston abandoned their cars after becoming stuck in flood waters on Telephone Road on Sunday afternoon

Houston Police SWAT officer Daryl Hudeck carries Catherine Pham and her 13-month-old son Aiden to safety after rescuing them from their home

An aerial view of Cove Harbor Marina in Rockport, Texas, on Sunday morning after the storm had passed

Salt Grass Landing Apartments in Rockport, Texas, were entirely destroyed in the hurricane. No residents were thought to have been inside the building when Harvey took hold

A bird's eye view of Aransas Pass in Texas, one of the worst affected areas. At least five people have died in Aransas County but officials say it is too early to confirm all of the suspected deaths

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that as of 5pm on Sunday, Houston police and fire departments had received nearly 6,000 calls for rescues and had rescued more than 1,000 people. Pictured: Aerial image of Refugio

Thousands of people evacuated after floods swamped parts of the region, leading Dallas to announce it aims to open a 'mega-shelter' for 5,000 evacuees by Tuesday morning. Pictured: Aerial image of Aransas

The scene at Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston on Sunday morning where flood water is now covering entire portions of the city

Jesus Rodriguez rescues Gloria Garcia after rain from Hurricane Harvey flooded Pearland, in the outskirts of Houston

Evacuees wade down a flooded section of Interstate 610 as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise in Houston Sunday

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Sunday afternoon he hadn't yet spoken to Democratic Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner  despite repeated attempts.

Abbott said he'd called Tuner's cell phone 'several times' to 'let him know that, whatever he needs, the state of Texas will provide.' Abbott said he'd yet to hear back.

The governor and mayor clashed before Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday, with Abbott suggesting people in Houston might want to evacuate but Turner saying fleeing unnecessarily would clog highways for those leaving other communities facing bigger threats.

However, despite the massive 'unprecedented' flooding, Turner argued that he stands by his decision not to evacuate, saying that it would have led to a worse outcome.

Turner added in a press conference: 'If you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. Especially when it's not planned,'

'If you do it or attempt to do it and it's not coordinated, not done right, you are literally putting people in harm's way, and you're creating a far worse situation,' Turner said.

A woman is helped out of a Houston Police dive team boat after being rescued from the Meyerland area during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on Sunday

A group of young men removed their shirts to push a truck through the flood water in Houston on Sunday

An abandoned Hummer sinks in floodwater on another section of the busy Interstate 610 in Houston on Sunday

A family evacuates their home in a canoe, bringing their beloved dogs with them in Meyerland near Houston

An eighteen wheel tractor trailer is stranded on Interstate Highway 45 which is submerged from the effects of Harvey

In residential areas of Houston, 4x4s floated in the flood water as yet more rain pounded the city

A woman carries belongings from an apartment under water on Houston Avenue near Woodland Park after heavy rain from Hurricane Harvey fell overnight on Sunday

Two kayakers beat the current as they make their way along South Braeswood in Houston, Texas, on Sunday

Wilford Martinez (bottom) grabs a median as he is rescued from his flooded car in Houston on Sunday. More than 1,000 rescues were made over Saturday and Sunday

The main street is covered by flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas on Sunday

As the region braced itself for more devastation in the coming days, the president was upbeat in his analysis of the increasingly dire situation saying the 'good news' was there was 'talent on the ground' and congratulated 'all levels of government' for its strong response to the disaster. Pictured: Aerial image of Rockport

The coastal city was hit hard by the Category 4 hurricane that slammed into land with wind speeds of 130mph

As the region braced itself for more devastation in the coming days, the president was upbeat in his analysis of the increasingly dire situation.

Tweeting from Camp David where he is spending the weekend with his family, President Trump said the 'good news' was there was 'talent on the ground' and congratulated 'all levels of government' for its strong response to the disaster.

The president plans to visit Texas on Tuesday, the White House revealed on Sunday.

'The President will travel to Texas on Tuesday. We are coordinating logistics with state and local officials, and once details are finalized, we will let you know.

'We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,' a statement read.

Trump tweeted: 'Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with. Thousands rescued.'

Trump continued: 'Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen. Good news is that we have great talent on the ground.

President Trump congratulated the orchestrated response of emergency workers and 'all levels of government' to the hurricane on Sunday

'I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.'

In the same flurry, he announced he would soon be returning to Missouri for a visit, taking the opportunity to remind followers that he won the state in the 2016 election.

'I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!' he wrote.

Around an hour later, he returned to his account to marvel at the size of the storm.

'Wow - Now experts are calling Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!'

He then complained about Mexico being 'one of the highest crime Nations in the world', pleaded again for 'The Wall' and then threatened to scrap the US's trade deal with the country and Canada.

'We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?' he said.

Later, Trump, who spent the weekend at Camp David with this family, participated in a teleconference call with Cabinet Officials to discuss the matter further.

'President Trump continued to stress his expectation that all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the Governors of Texas and Louisiana and his number one priority of saving lives,' a White House statement said.

'He reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery.

'Last, he urged survivors impacted by the storm to continue to heed the instructions of their State and local officials.

Water surrounds tombstones at a cemetery in Pearland, Texas, on Sunday

A knocked over soda machine lies in front of a damaged car and ravaged main street in Port Aransas, one of the worst hit areas

Sterling Broughton was rescued from her home in Dickenson, Texas, in a kayak, and was taken to safety

Survivors cower from the rain under their jackets and life jackets after being rescued on a boat on Sunday in Houston

An elderly woman is rescued by Precinct 6 Deputy Constables Sgt. Paul Fernandez, Sgt. Michael Tran and Sgt. Radha Patel near Brays Bayou

Mikhail Bachynsky hugs her dog Lily after being rescued from their home in Friendswood. Neighbors used their own boats to transport people out of the area

Valerie Cross and her dog Boudreaux survived the storm. They are seen walking down a street strewn with toppled palm trees in Rockport on Sunday

A preacher wades in to the water in Houston to check for trapped motorists inside submerged cars

Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey seen during widespread flooding in Houston, Texas

Men wearing trash bags wade through the waist-deep water in Houston on Sunday

The same two men were later seen dragging suitcases from cars as flood water rose around them in Galveston

A man walks down the center of Interstate 225 after abandoning his car as flood waters rose on the street on Sunday

Residents walk through high waters, the remnants of Hurricane Harvey, on Watonga Boulevard, Sunday, in Houston

A National Guard rescues two puppies from flood water (left) while a man approaches a car as he clutches an umbrella in Houston on Sunday morning (right).

An abandoned car is submerged on water on the Interstate 610 on Sunday as flood waters covered the region

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin releasing water into Buffalo Bayou from two flood-control dams on the western outskirts of the city on Monday morning.

Col. Lars Zetterstrom said this was being done very slowly to prevent uncontrollable flooding of downtown Houston and the Houston Ship Channel.

Downtown Houston is 17 miles downstream from the dams, which were built during the 1940s in response to a 1935 flood that inundated much of downtown area.

Zetterstrom says the water contained by the dams is 'unparalleled in the dams' history.' The waters are rising about 4 inches per hour.

Zetterstrom says the dams will impound water for one to three months as water is gradually released. He adds that some neighborhoods on the fringes of the reservoir are likely to see some floods.

Meanwhile, Galveston County officials said they have made up to 1,200 rescues due to the storm.

The area hardest-hit by floods has been Dickinson, a low-lying city of about 20,000 residents along Dickinson Bayou, where crews had to lead to safety 19 residents and five staff members from an assisted-living center flooded with waist-deep water.

Henry said about 90 percent of the county's rescue calls have come from Dickinson. An appeal had been made through social media for assistance by private boat owners and their vessels, and 25 to 35 owners responded.

Henry is appealing for volunteers to help staff rescue shelters and see to the needs of the 2,000 to 10,000 people that have sheltered in them.

Grocery stores placed limits on the number of water bottles customers could buy. There were none left int his store in Austin on Sunday

A boat sits half sunk in a harbor in Port Aransas on Sunday where some of the worst damage was seen

A boat sits on a dock after Hurricane Harvey passed through Port Aransas, Texas on Sunday

Hector Castillo helps his wife Gloria escape floodwaters on Interstate 225 as waters rise on Sunday morning

Despite warnings from local authorities, a number of drivers still took to the roads in Houston. Many were diverted at the Hardy Toll Road (above)

Residents in Houston awoke to rising flood water on Sunday. Emergency services were inundated with requests for help and warned that they had reached 'capacity' by early morning

Texan Emanuel Ramirez holds his belongings above water as he swims to safety after becoming trapped in Houston (left). Two other residents in a less flooded area were seen wading along the road (right)

Houston residents Vincente Navas and Alma Barrientos stand outside their home in Cottage Grove where the water was knee deep

Two men push their broken down truck through flood water as law enforcement officers watch on

People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on an air boat in Dickinson, Texas on Sunday

Five people have been reported dead, with three people from Aransas County and another two are thought to have died in Houston as 130mph winds and thrashing rain lashed the region.

911 operators were 'at capacity' on Sunday morning and had to choose between pleas for help. Frantic stranded residents turned to social media after having their calls go unanswered and some were rescued from the roofs of their homes where they waved sheets and towels for help.

In Texas, local politicians, police and weather experts in painted a dire picture of the devastation Harvey has brought.

Local authorities painted a dire picture on Sunday, warning residents not to call for help unless they were immediately in danger because 911 services were overwhelmed

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are warning that it will take years to recover from the hurricane.

'FEMA is going to be there for years, sir. This disaster recovery  this disaster is going to be a landmark event,' administrator Brock Long said, adding: 'This disaster's going to be a landmark event.'

CBS Science Contributor Michio Kaku said on Sunday: 'If it lingers over the land it could cause massive flooding.

'Then, watch out, if it goes back into the Gulf it could get re-energized and create a second, even a third landfall.

Maritza Willis tweeted for help on Saturday night when her 911 call went unanswered

'So the agony has just begun with this hurricane of the decade.'

911 operators in Houston were quickly overwhelmed by the volume of calls for help and had to start choosing between pleas from stranded residents.

One woman turned to social media after having her call for help go unanswered.

'I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up. Please sent help. 911 is not responding!!!' wrote Maritza Willis. She was rescued soon afterwards.

HARVEY AT A GLANCE At least five people reported dead Dozens more injured More than 1,000 rescued overnight 2,000 calls for rescue placed in Houston alone 911 operators 'at capacity' in Houston 50 inches of rain expected 130mph winds Flash flood and tornado warnings in place over parts of the state 'Unprecedented' flooding Major airports closed Apartment complexes evacuated Advertisement

Charles Bujan, the mayor of Port Aransas, said his town had been entirely wiped out by the hurricane.

'To be honest with you, I'm sick to my stomach,' he told The San Antonio Express on Saturday, describing painstakingly how one trailer park in the town had been entirely washed away.

'It's a 100 percent loss,' he said of the Port Aransas' Pioneer Trailer Park.

Huge swathes of Port Aransas are still inaccessible because of the damage. It makes it difficult for authorities to properly assess the extent of the devastation, but Bujan said he feared the worst.

'I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it,' he said.

Cell phone service was entirely scrambled in Rockport, a coastal town thought to have been among the worst hit.

Residents were left in no doubt of the danger they faced by staying - the town's mayor ominously told them to mark their arms with Sharpie pens in order for search and rescue teams to be able to later identify their corpses.

One of those killed in Houston was found dead in their car, NBC reported on Sunday. They are thought to have drowned.

Another person died in a house fire in Aransas County as they waited for emergency services to get to them. The rescuers could not get there quickly enough because of the Category 4 Hurricane, it was claimed.

Andrew White helps his neighbor escape with her dog after rescuing them from their home in his boat in River Oaks

Volunteers and police men rescue dogs from their homes in boats and take them to safety in River Oaks

Bentley, a 10-year-old Maltese, dries off in a towel at a shelter in Rockport after being rescued with his owner

Ruby Young and her husband Claude were rescued from their home and taken to a pickup point in Edgebrook. He suffers medical issues relating to a stroke in May

Jacque McKay shields her dog from the wind as she walks through an apartment complex in Rockport, Texas

A military truck plows through water in Houston on Sunday with a dog watching from the window for anyone in distress

People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vechile

People wait to be evacuated from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas on Sunday

A toppled boat lays on it's side almost completely underwater after Hurricane Harvey hit a harbor in Port Lavaca

Mike Bush, 56, ties a loose boat up at the harbor in Port Lavaca where other many small yachts and sail boats bobbed and swayed uncontrollably in the flood water

Rain continued to hammer the area on Sunday, bringing no respite after a weekend or treacherous conditions

Boats are washed up on shore at the Bayfront Pavilion Park after Hurricane Harvey hit Port Lavaca, Texas

According to ABC, one woman's body was seen floating in flood water in Houston on Saturday.

Some defiant residents who stayed behind in Corpus Christi, another coastal town, have not been heard from since the Category 4 hurricane made landfall on Saturday.

While the hurricane itself is over, flooding is bringing fresh concern to emergency services, particularly in Houston where more than 1,000 people have already been rescued from the rising waters.

'There is life-threatening, catastrophic flooding happening now in Southeast Harris County,' Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District told The Weather Channel on Sunday.

Among the rescued were 50 children who were saved from two apartment complexes in the city.

Louisiana is bracing for rain, with the storm due to travel towards it as it tails off in Texas. No weather warnings are currently in effect for Louisiana.

A flooded park in Houston on Sunday where flood water is rising at a frightening rate

A path was underwater in Houston on Sunday and streets entirely flooded after yet more downpours

Glen Cove Park in Kemah, Texas, was entirely underwater on Sunday. Authorities say the flooding is the worst the region has ever seen

A National Hurricane Center graph shows the dramatic concentration of flooding and rain in coastal Texas on Sunday

A severe weather warning map from The Weather Channel shows the lit-up area of south-east Texas which is the worst affected

Much of the rain is still concentrated in coastal towns but authorities and weather experts are warning that it could move inland throughout the day

The aftermath of Harvey was plainer in some parts of the state including Rockport where, after the rain stopped, residents could survey their destroyed homes

People wait in line at a rescue point in Edgebrook, Houston, on Sunday. Shelters have been set up across the state

Cars power through flood water in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday. Life-threatening floods are expected on Sunday

A boat covered in reeds and branches washed up outside a convenience store in the Coast Bend area of Port Aransas on Saturday

An abandoned car sits in a ditch in Rockport beneath toppled electricity pylons and damaged traffic lights

MORE THAN 4,000 FLIGHTS CANCELLED More than 4,000 flights due to arrive and depart from Houston's two major airports as a result of the havoc wreaked by Harvey. Hundreds of flights scheduled for Monday have already been scrapped at both Houston Bush and Hobby Airport and some as far ahead as Tuesday were also canceled as the region faced yet more unrelenting rain. The rain is expected to carry on for several times and bring unprecedented flooding to the state. Advertisement

In some homes, more than six feet of water has poured over sandbags and makeshift barriers. Residents fled to their attics to try to escape the rising flood water, a tactic weather and safety experts strongly urged against on Sunday.

'Calls to HCFCD of people climbing into their attics...Do NOT go into attics. Get on your roof if necessary. If calling 911, stay on the line if unanswered,' Lindner tweeted in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The flooding in Houston is expected to go down as the worst in the region's history, surpassing that of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

On Sunday, Mayor Sylvester Turner warned that 911 services were 'at capacity'.

Harris County Sheriff's Office told people to remain inside their homes even if they were filling up with water, tweeting: 'Non-life-threatening water inside home is safer than going outside. Difficult & scary, but we'll get to you. Pls shelter in place. Be safe.'

A vessel is spotted listing in a channel from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter during an overflight after Hurricane Harvey passed the area from Port Aransas to Port O'Connor, Texas on Saturday

Housing surrounded by flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey is seen from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter

People stand on a sinking boat awaiting rescue from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, after Hurricane Harvey passed near Port Aransas

A woman sleeps on a cot after she evacuated to a shelter after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

People stand on a sinking boat awaiting rescue from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter near Port Aransas

Mobile homes are destroyed at an RV park after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

Members of the National Guard arrive at Port Aransas after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday

The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Harvey from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm

A boat is located on land after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday

A mobile home lies split open in the Paradise Lagoons RV Resort on Saturday in Aransas Pass

Mobile homes are upended and left sitting in flooded waters in the Paradise Lagoons RV Resort in Aransas Pass

Harvey slammed into Texas, the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry, late Friday.

It ripped off roofs, snapped trees, and triggered tornadoes and flash floods, and cut power to nearly a quarter of a million people.

It also curtailed a large portion of America's oil and fuel production, prompting price hikes at the pumps.

Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days as it lumbers inland, bringing as much as 50 inches of rain to some areas, and affecting heavily populated.

The National Hurricane Center described the rain forecast for the state as potentially 'catastrophic.'

'Rainfall measured in feet rather than inches can certainly create a catastrophic flood,' spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles north of the city of Corpus Christi, as Harvey roared ashore overnight.

Mayor Charles Wax said in a news conference on Saturday, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm.

Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries like broken bones, another official said.

Water rises on a home after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas

Cleaning crews clean debris located on Highway 361 after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

A boat is located in the middle of the street after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area

Charles Bujan, the mayor of Port Aransas, said that people are being urged to stay away until emergency crews can clean up leftover debris and wreckage

Electric poles are destroyed after Hurricane Harvey landed in the Coast Bend area and wreaked havoc

Bujan said that there are search and rescue operations by emergency services underway to find people trapped by the water

The town took a direct hit from the storm and had streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday afternoon.

At a recreational vehicle sales lot, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown into the middle of the street.

By Saturday evening, a convoy of military vehicles had arrived in the Rockport area with people and equipment to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents.

'It was terrible,' resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters.

The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4am, he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm.

'I could feel the whole house move.'

Before the storm hit, Rockport's mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury.

A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media. Some were being used as shelters.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.

People recover their possessions on Sunday in Aransas, Texas, one of the areas hit by the hurricane

A sunken boat lies submerged in front houses after Hurricane Harvey hit Port Aransas, Texas

People seek shelter from the weather during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on Sunday in Houston, Texas

Shoppers wait in line for last minute supplies at a grocery store after Hurricane Harvey inundated the Texas Gulf coast

People walk along the road to board Metro buses to be taken to a shelter at the GRB Convention Center in Houston

Evacuees from Hurricane Harvey take shelter at the Delco Center in east Austin, Texas on Sunday

The Red Cross says they currently have 185 people at this Austin shelter center but if needed, are prepared to handle 350 people at this location

Children play while adults attempt to get some rest while staying at a makeshift shelter for storm evacuees in Austin, Texas

People on a porch watch as rain from Hurricane Harvey inundates the Cottage Grove neighborhood in Houston

People make their way down partially flooded roads following the passage of Hurricane Harvey in Galveston

Rain from Hurricane Harvey inundates the Cottage Grove neighborhood in Houston, as home for sale sits flooded

A truck sits stranded after breaking down on Interstate 10 which has been inundated with flooding from Harvey in Houston

Members of the Texas Task Force 2 search and rescue team work through a destroyed apartment complex trying to find anyone that still may be in the apartment complex after Hurricane Harvey passed through Rockport

A local pastor went around to submerged cars to check if anyone was trapped inside the partially sunken vehicles in Houston

An official climbs through a window as he checks a home damaged by Hurricane Harvey on Sunday in Rockport
The trend of Chinese expats buying Australian products and sending them back home is growing as thousands are making small fortunes off the practice.

The 'middle-man' tactics are known as 'daigou' in Chinese, which translates as 'buying on behalf of' and one 18-year-old in Sydney is in hot demand with eager buyers in her motherland.

When Sherry Jia isn't concentrating on her business degree, she is busy searching stores for the latest Australian products Chinese people are craving.

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Sherry Jia (pictured) is part of a trend of Chinese expats buying Australian products and sending them back home as thousands are making small fortunes off the practice

When Sherry Jia isn't concentrating on her business degree, she is busy searching stores such as Chemist Warehouse for the latest Australian products Chinese people are craving

Baby formula, Weet-Bix cereal and confectionery treats have all been big hits in recent years as Jia keeps up to date with the latest demands and posts them to her WeChat account.

'They heard that Australian products are better than Chinese products and they want me to buy stuff for them,' Ms Jia told SBS World News.

Now over-the-counter medicines and vitamins are sought after entities which Ms Jie continuously taps into.

WeChat is China's largest messaging app and allows users to share 'moments' to its contacts, such as pictures and videos.

It has enabled thousands of 'daigous' to document and broadcast the array of Australian products that are on offer.

Ms Jia regularly buys up to $2,000 of products weekly, and is able to operate the business by herself, maximising her profits.

Baby formula (pictured) and Weet-Bix cereal have both been big hits in recent years as Jia keeps up to date with the latest demands and posts them to her WeChat account

Now over-the-counter medicines and vitamins are sought after entities which Ms Jie continuously taps into

'You just need to buy it from the chemist... and send the products straight from these Chinese shops, so you don't need to have them at home,' she said.

And Ms Jia is not alone, as the practice is gathering speed with now around 80,000 people sending goods to China.

Livia Wang, a marketing expert from AccessCN, says it's a potentially a $100billion market that Australian firms can take advantage of.

'The sky is the limit at the moment for Australian brands. The quality and the trust in Australian brands is phenomenal. Especially we're seen as a very natural and clean country,' she said.

The market is continuously evolving and long gone are the days where supermarket stores would be left empty because of Chinese demand.

Now 'daigou stores', which stock up on the most popular products, are popping up across major cities, where budding entrepreneurs can take their customers' shopping lists and find what they need.

Ms Jia is not alone, as the practice is gathering speed with now around 80,000 people sending goods to China

With such lucrative deals at stake, many have questioned why large Australian firms break into the Chinese market themselves.

But experts suggest setting up from scratch in China is a tedious and elongated process and often involves changing one's product to fit in with their specific regulations.

Ms Wang also reveals the 'daigous' are a valuable asset to western companies and have become 'very influential' when it comes to marketing products.

Their products in the limelight through these Chinese middle-men comes at no cost at all for Australian brands.
A house that had been on the market for two months was sold within a week after a crafty agent decided to put a new spin on its marketing campaign.

Pat Lapalapa, 28, of Harcourts Manukau said the Auckland property was snapped up within days after a new ad mentioned it was 'walking distance to KFC'.

The three-bedroom one bathroom house had been on the market for 10 weeks before Mr Lapalapa was roped in by the vendors to sell the place, reports NZ Herald.

House in Auckland on the market for two months sells all thanks to a new marketing ploy

The first thing he did was to convince the vendors to change their marketing ploy to included the KFC approach.

They agreed and the rest was history.

Mr Lapalapa said the new campaign was a hit among social media users with several buyers showing strong interest on the property the first day the ad went live.

The house new marketing ploy says that it is walking distance to KFC (stock image)

In the end, the 633sqm Mangere East house was sold to a couple in their 20s.

'They're stoked,' Mr Lapalapa told the publication.

'They're dying to move in.

'They thought I was joking but I turned up to take the picture of the sold sign and I pulled out KFC and they started laughing,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Lapalapa for comment.
Giles Coren (pictured) has sparked outrage by describing locals in Devon as 'tattooed fatties'

A food critic has sparked outrage in a seaside town after describing locals as 'tattooed fatties'.

Giles Coren visited Mothecombe Beach, near Plymouth, Devon, with celebrity friend Sue Perkins to review a new eatery.

Mr Coren, 48, had holidayed at the formerly private beach for the last five years but complained after it was opened to the public.

He awarded the Schoolhouse Cafe a rave review but then ripped into the local people enjoying the picturesque surrounding area.

In a scathing tirade Mr Coren poured scorn on 'the general public' enjoying a day out in the sunshine.

He ranted about 'tattooed fatties day-tripping from Plymouth' who were enjoying the beach below.

He wrote: 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. And whether he giveth and taketh in exactly the way that you were hoping for is not up to you.

'Only recently, for example, he tooketh away the beautiful private beach in Devon where I have holidayed for the past five Julys and gavethed it to the general public.

Picturesque: Mothecombe Beach, near Plymouth, Devon. Food critic Giles Coren has sparked fury by calling locals 'tattooed fatties'

'And I was gutted, because I now have to share the beach with a load of tattooed fatties day-tripping from Plymouth, with their barbecues and their loud music and their pikey tents and windbreaks and their swearing and their topless sunbathing and their rank, loutish littering.

'But on the plus side, he gavethed me in return a restaurant at the top of the hill overlooking that beach.'

But residents of Plymouth responded to Mr Coren's 'snobby' remarks.

Mr Coren was reviewing the Schoolhouse Cafe (pictured) but caused outrage when he insulted locals

Some even called him a 'grockle' - a term for a holidaymaker visiting Devon or Cornwall.

Ben Mayne wrote: 'Should read white middle class London elitist is offended to share Devon beach with working class people.'

And self-confessed 'fatty', Amanda Atkinson, wrote: 'I'm a fatty. I have tattoos, I am proud of being Plymouth born & bred. But I have respect for others. I have taught my son the same.

'If snobby arrogant grockles want to come and enjoy the beauty down this way then they have to make do with what is around them.

'Everywhere you go there are tattooed fatties like me. But do you hear us complaining of the overpayed snobbs (sic) like him ???'
A British rower who was left stranded on a tiny Arctic island with his six-man crew has posted a heart-wrenching message on Facebook revealing why he can't go any further.

Double Olympic gold medallist Alex Gregory and his Polar Row team were attempting a 1,200-mile voyage from Troms to Iceland via Svalbard.

The crew, who endured freezing temperatures and almost constant soaking in their fibreglass boat, were forced to land on the tiny island of Jan Mayen, just 340 miles from their destination on Iceland.

Nightmare: The Polar Row team (pictured) had endured freezing temperatures and almost constant soaking in their fibreglass boat, which has neither an outboard motor nor sails

Having landed on the island, four of the rowers, including Gregory, refused to continue because of safety fears. Only the boat's Icelandic skipper and an American crewman wanted to keep going.

Writing on his Facebook page on Saturday, Gregory described the decision as 'both an easy one to make and an incredibly difficult one'.

'For me to be stopping makes it more difficult for the boat to reach the end destination of Iceland,' he said.

'But I support the skipper Fiann and am trying to help and facilitate that happening.

'This isn't easy though, we find ourselves on an island that is incredibly difficult to get on and off. We were lucky to find it and be allowed on, but getting off is nearly impossible unless you're prepared to stay for months!'

British double Olympic gold medallist Alex Gregory (pictured) was one of the crew who refused to go on after 'thinking heavily about my children' upon reaching Jan Mayen island

Stranded: The expedition set off on July 20 from Tromso, Norway

However, the 33-year-old added: 'It's an easy decision because I want to get home to my family.

'My three young children need their dad, they need him to be responsible and to make the right decisions in life.

'They need him to be brave, adventurous, ambitious and to set them the right example, but they also need him to not take unnecessary risks.

'Where there's a chance, although slim, that he may not come home, the decision to stop has to be taken. The decision is simple. Some will see that as a failure, some will see that as not finishing the project, not reaching the ultimate goal, but I do not.'

He said the team's skipper, the Icelandic athlete Fiann Paul, was now working to bring replacement rowers onto the island to replace those who did not wish to continue.

'There is news that a boat may be coming past next week that may have space on board for us,' he wrote.

'Hopefully they will be willing to allow us to jump aboard and begin the journey home.'

It is understood the stranded crew are being looked after by an 18-strong Norwegian military contingent based there.

Last night the Maritime & Coastguard Agency confirmed it had received an SOS.

The team was led by Fiann Paul, and also featured Britons Sam Vye and Danny Longman, and Americans Tyler Carnevale and Carlo Facchino. The expedition set off on July 20 from Tromso, Norway.

Gregory posted an emotional video message on Twitter after arriving on Jan Mayen on August 19, in which he described how the crew had been taken in by Norwegian military personnel who had 'saved our lives'.

A post on the expedition's Facebook page, from August 18, said the crew had a 'phenomenally tough 72 hours'.

It quoted Gregory saying: 'We never seem to be getting very far, nothing changes. I've never been so wet and cold. It's seeping into my bones, there is absolutely no escape from it. I have to wait for land. It's getting worse though, the colder I get, the more I have to work during my shift, the sweatier I get, the wetter I get, the colder I get.'

The team was led by Icelandic athlete Fiann Paul, and also featured Gregory, fellow Britons Sam Vye and Danny Longman (above), and Americans Tyler Carnevale and Carlo Facchino

Two days earlier he had written of 'a grey, cold, damp, dangerous and pretty miserable existence'.

On Friday, he told The Mail on Sunday by email: 'Thinking heavily about my three young children I made the decision my journey would end on Jan Mayen. This was a personal decision, one that was also agreed to by three other crew members.

'As it happens we were also the least experienced ocean rowers out of the six of us. Fiann Paul and Carlo, who are both extremely experienced and confident, were committed to continuing the journey to Iceland.'

He said there were no arguments and that 'Fiann as captain completely understands our decision and respects our decision. The differences of opinions have come through the individual's perception and confidence in personal safety and ability to continue the expedition. We all continue to support Fiann in his challenge of finishing the expedition to Iceland'. It is not known if Paul and Facchino will carry on with fresh rowers.

Yesterday a Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are assisting three British men who have sought refuge on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen following a rowing expedition and remain in contact with Norwegian authorities.'

The Maritime & Coastguard Agency said: 'The UK Coastguard received a call from the rowers but as there was no threat to life, no search and rescue was required. The Coastguard contacted the rowers' UK shore support team and informed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.'

The crew were attempting to smash a number of world records to raise funds to build a school in the Himalayas. They were aiming to be the first to row the ocean from south to north, as well as being the fastest and largest team to row in the Arctic. They were also conducting research.

Sam Vye (pictured) a British Exploration Geologist who has experience in remote challenging environments around the world
In between tweets on Hurricane Harvey, President Trump said he would be campaigning against Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Democrat up for re-election next year in Missouri.

'I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!' Trump pledged Sunday using shorthand for McCaskill's name, and the U.S. Senate.

Trump fired off the tweet right after he said he would visit hurricane-ravaged Texas, too, 'as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption,' Trump said.

President Trump (left) vowed to come to Missouri in an effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (right), who is up for re-election next year

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. (left), will likely face off against Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (right), though he has yet to formally announce

President Trump said he would travel to Missouri, to take on 'C.M.,' Claire McCaskill, in a series of two tweets in which he also pledged to visit hurricane-ravaged Texas

Democrats need to unseat at least three Republicans next year to take back control of the Senate, but they're playing defense in a number of states too, including Missouri.

McCaskill looked like she was going to get unseated back in 2012, the last time she was up for re-election, but then was boosted by comments her Republican rival Todd Akin made about 'legitimate rape.'

Speaking to a local television station, Akin explained why he thought there were rarely pregnancies born out of rape, as he articulated his anti-abortion views.

'If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,' Akin said in August 2012.

The comment haunted him through November, when he lost to McCaskill by 16 points.

Now Republicans have another chance to boot McCaskill out of office, in a state President Trump won by about 19 points.

The potential GOP candidate getting the most ink is Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who won't face GOP primary voters until next August.

McCaskill has already tried making his residency an issue, as he cast a primary ballot in Boone County indicating, according to the Democrat, that he wasn't properly living in Jefferson City, as Missouri's attorney generals are supposed to reside at the 'seat of government.'

'Either he's violating the law by not living in Jefferson City or he's violating the law by voting in some place he doesn't live,' McCaskill recently said. 'One of the two.'

On the flip side, Republicans have hammered McCaskill for saying 'normal people' can afford to fly.

The Republicans are casting McCaskill as out of touch for suggesting that 'normal people' can afford to fly private, though the video doesn't indicate if she's saying that or simply referring to people being able to buy plane tickets.

McCaskill had previously weathered a political controversy over a private plane she owned with her husband.

She had charged taxpayers for flights aboard the plane and failed to pay $300,000 of personal property taxes on it.

In both cases she paid money back.

The editorial board of the Kansas City Star is already railing against the candidates' sniping, with 14 months to go in the race.

'The possible U.S. Senate campaign pitting Sen. Claire McCaskill against Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley already shows signs of devolving into a meaningless mud fest,' they wrote Thursday.

'The petty skirmishes should stop now,' they advised. 'The 2018 Senate race must be about important things, not personal minutiae.'

'Yet the campaigns and surrogates for both sides seem hell-bent on turning the race into content-free hot air,' they said.
A Polish tourist was repeatedly raped in front of her boyfriend who was beaten and robbed by the same group of men on Italy's popular Rimini beach, police say.

Italian news reports say that the 26-year-old Polish woman was raped by four men early Saturday on a secluded stretch of beach in the Adriatic town on Italy's eastern coast.

Her partner, also 26, passed out after being beaten on the head and robbed, reports said.

A 26-year-old Polish woman was repeatedly raped by a group of men on Italy's popular Rimini beach, police say. Pictured above, Italian Scientific Police investigate the site of the incident

The woman's partner, also 26, passed out after being beaten on the head and robbed, reports said

A forensic police officer inspects the area where a suspected gang rape of a Polish tourist and the beating of her partner took place, in Rimini on Saturday

The Poles were hospitalized with injuries after passersby saw the couple, bloodied and dazed, on the beach.

It wasn't immediately clear if any suspects had been detained.

Italian police are still searching for suspects following the incident, which they have called a 'brutal and bestial attack'.

Last year, a 17-year-old British girl was raped on the same stretch of beach after she had been asked by a 19-year-old to watch shooting stars on the beach in the northern coastal resort.

She said that the 19-year-old then attacked and raped her.

The Poles were hospitalized with injuries following the attack on Rimini beach, Italy (pictured)

Italian police are still searching for suspects following the incident, which they have called a 'brutal and bestial attack'

The Poles were hospitalized with injuries after passersby saw the couple, bloodied and dazed, on the beach

It wasn't immediately clear if any suspects had been detained, though police are still looking for suspects

The man was arrested and local media reported that the suspect is from Switzerland and of Bosnian origin.

Defending the suspect, lawyer Piergiorgio Tiraferri argued the girl had agreed to have sexual intercourse but later felt guilty for cheating on her boyfriend.

He claimed that the teenager had been driven by guilt to falsely accuse his client of rape.

In August 2015, two other woman claimed they were also raped on a beach in Rimini.

A third woman said that a man attempted to rape her but she escaped.
European getaways could cost families hundreds of pounds more if the UK currency fails to recover from its post-Brexit slump.

If Sterling continues its current downward trend, having fallen by 13 per cent in just over a year, it could be worth less than the Euro by next year and will force holiday prices up further.

A Euro equates to 92p on current exchange rates, and if this levelled out to the point where they were worth exactly the same, an average trip to Italy would cost 495 more, while a typical trip to Spain would be 345 extra.

Beachgoers enjoy themselves on the Costa del Sol in Spain, but it could soon cost an extra 345 to go there

The increase is likely to be even greater for popular countries further afield in the European Union, such as Greece and Croatia.

Britons travelling abroad have already seen far less bang for their buck when taking out foreign currency, but flight prices are yet to see a major spike.

And fees could rise even higher if Britain is not part of the EU-US Open Skies agreement when Brexit is finalised on March 29, 2019.

The pound has continued to fall as fractious talks between Britain and the European Union rumble on, albeit in the very early stages.

Relations between the two parties are already straining, with David Davis set to provoke a huge row with Brussels next week by calling a halt to negotiations on the Brexit divorce bill unless the EU provides a legal basis for its hefty demands.

Stirring things up: David Davis (pictured) will provoke a huge row with Brussels next week by calling a halt to talks on the Brexit divorce bill unless the EU provides a legal basis for demands

By contrast, Britain's tourism industry is booming as people from overseas look to exploit comparatively cheap prices, and more British families deciding to holiday domestically.

Flights into the UK rose by 80 per cent from 2016, the travel site Expedia reported in May.

Statistics from the Office for National Statistics also showed that more tourists were coming to Britain.
President Donald Trump is accusing Canada and Mexico of being 'very difficult' at the negotiating table over the North American Free Trade Agreement, and threatening anew to terminate the deal.

'We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?' Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

The tweet echoed comments he made while campaigning in Phoenix last week, as he said told the crowd he would 'end up probably terminating NAFTA 'at some point.'

President Trump again suggested he would pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, blasting Mexico and Canada for being 'very difficult' at the negotiating table

The U.S., Mexico and Canada began formal negotiations earlier this month to rework the 23-year-old trade pact that Trump blames for hundreds of thousands of lost U.S. factory jobs.

The trade agreement was signed by former President Bill Clinton, the husband of Trump's political rival Hillary Clinton, who he beat in the November presidential election last year.

Trump is also taking to Twitter to press the need for his promised southern border wall.

'With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL,' Trump wrote.

He also tweeted that Mexico will pay for it 'through reimbursement/other.'

Mexico has repeatedly said there's no chance of that happening.

In the meantime, the tab will be paid by the American taxpayer, with Trump trying to get funding for his campaign pledge in the budget Congress must pass before the end of next month.

In Phoenix, Trump blasted the Democrats for saying that they wouldn't fund his wall.

He also said he'd be OK with shutting down the government if he doesn't get those funds.

'But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall,' Trump told supporters. 'Let me be very clear to Democrats in Congress who oppose a border wall and stand in the way of border security: You are putting all of America's safety at risk,' Trump said. 'You're doing that. You're doing that.'
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has claimed people aren't solely interested in core school subjects such as English ,Maths and Science, branding them as 'Michael Gove's Victorian theory of education'.

Mr Corbyn was addressing the Edinburgh Fringe festival on the final day of this five-day tour of Scotland.

He told the packed meeting that he was planning to lead his party into the next election and into Downing Street.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival today admitted it would be 'impossible' for a bespoke Brexit deal to be worked out for parts of the UK

The Labour Party today committed itself to remaining in the single market and customs union after the country leaves the European Union

Mr Corbyn, pictured, was on a five day tour of Scotland touring marginal seats

During his talk, Corbyn said: 'Don't believe in Michael Gove Victorian theory of education that only English, Maths and Science matter. Nobody here is only interested in those three subjects, so why should our children be?'

Mr Corbyn had previously compared himself to Bostik glue claiming he had plenty of 'stickability'.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he said separate Brexit deals for the various regions of the UK would be incredibly difficult 'if not impossible'.

Speaking in Scotland, Mr Corbyn was questioned on his party's Brexit policy after his Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer admitted the UK could stay in the single market and customs union after leaving the EU.

The UK Labour leader said it would be very complicated to separate things out because some companies operate across the whole of the country, and that a UK-wide agreement is needed.

He also said that the idea of separate economic and legal systems in different parts of the UK becomes 'difficult and very problematic'.

Mr Corbyn was speaking at the New Town Theatre in Edinburgh on Sunday in conversation with comedian and broadcaster Susan Morrison, on the last day of his five-day tour of Scotland.

The UK leader spoke after Labour said it is committing itself to continued UK membership of the EU single market and customs union during a transition period following the official Brexit date of March 2019.

In a dramatic policy shift, the party's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has announced that a Labour government would abide by 'the same basic terms' of Britain's current EU membership during the transition, which some observers expect to last as long as four or five years.

Mr Corbyn said: 'There has to be an arrangement in the long term with Europe which is one of tariff-free trade access to Europe that gives protection of the rights, regulations and gains we've made from Europe on workers' rights as well as protection of consumer rights and continued membership of the European institutions, particularly the European Court of Human Rights, but there are many others as well.

Jeremy Corbyn has been on a five day tour of Scotland targeting SNP marginal seats

Corbyn, pictured admitted that while he was at school the better off children would shoot birds while those less well off were the beaters - although he said he did neither

'Could you have a separate arrangement for different parts of the UK?

'I think that becomes very complicated because if you are trading, companies exist in Scotland, exist in Wales, exist in England, they are making things, doing things together, it would be very, very difficult if not impossible to see how we could separate those out.

'It has to be a UK-wide agreement.'

In the question and answer session with members of the audience Mr Corbyn was asked whether the party would consider fine tuning its policies further in a federalist way to reflect the nations that voted remain in the EU referendum.

He replied: 'We are thinking very hard about what forms devolution would take in the future. Devolution in Scotland has gone a long way.

'We are looking at the way we bring about genuine devolution and particularly economic devolution. Could you have a separate economic and legal system in different parts of the UK?

'I think that becomes difficult and very problematic. I want a Labour government that is going to legislate better working conditions for everybody across the UK.'

Mr Corbyn has been targeting marginal seats held by the SNP on his tour of Scotland.

During the talk at the festival he spoke about his school days, remembering how his school was divided between the better-off children who went out shooting birds at the weekends and those who did the beating of the birds, while he did neither.

He also spoke about his time teaching in Jamaica as a young man and travelling around South America.

According to The Mirror, Mr Corbyn pledged to continue funding galleries and museums ensuring they were free for the public.

Earlier in an interview with The Sunday Post, he confirmed his intention to lead the party into the next election.

He said: 'I have got great stickability. It is the Bostik question. I stick around like Bostik.

'Its been fun. I am a relentlessly optimistic person. I was given a 200-1 chance of winning. I am not a betting man but many in my family wish I was.

'We went into the General Election being dismissed by what you might call the commentariat but we mounted a campaign which was transformational.'

Mr Corbyn admitted he was not satisfied with the election result despite his party doing far better than expected.
A sacked Labour councillor has claimed the party has a 'problem with black and ethnic minority women'.

Amina Lone went on TV to say that MP Sarah Champion was being treated as a 'scapegoat' after she was forced to resign.

The member for Rotherham had said the UK had a 'problem' with British Pakistanis abusing white girls.

Manchester councillor Ms Lone went on to stand up for her, telling the BBC: 'She is not a racist but a brave woman speaking out about a politically awkward issue.'

The Labour leadership at the council said the decision not to reselect her had been taken because she had a poor attendance and campaigning record.

Amina Lone (left) went on TV to say that Sarah Champion (right) was being treated as a 'scapegoat'

But the punishment will add to concerns that moderates who speak out against Mr Corbyn are being silenced.

Miss Champion quit as shadow women and equalities minister last week. The Labour leader told her she would be sacked from the Shadow Cabinet if she refused to resign over her controversial article in The Sun five days before.

The article came after 17 men were convicted of forcing girls in Newcastle upon Tyne to have sex. Miss Champion, MP for Rotherham, has campaigned for years about organised sexual abuse in her constituency where at least 1,400 children were exploited.

After Miss Champion's resignation, Miss Lone went on BBC2's Newsnight to say: 'I think she's been punished and used as a scapegoat because as a politician she's an easy target.' She later wrote on Twitter: 'I grew up in a Muslim community where these attitudes were common. 'White girls are easy', 'Nobody cares about them', 'They are just slags', 'Their parents don't look after them properly' etc were/are still said today. I hear it regularly.

'Sarah Champion was talking about a particular type of grooming which is carried by men because of their cultural/religious practices. Obviously not all men.

'She is not a racist but a brave woman speaking out about a politically awkward issue. Labour, bury your heads as much as you like in the black and white purist world you push. The chickens will come home to roost.'

Miss Lone, who has been a councillor in Manchester for seven years, has been barred from standing again in next year's local elections.

In a letter to the party, a former local party chairman has called it 'one straw too many' and said it brought 'shame to the Manchester Labour party'. Drew Walsh said: 'Councillors who do not fit in and comply are sidelined or worse still, removed from the council.'

Miss Lone told the Manchester Evening News that her 'outspoken' campaigning on gender equality in the Muslim community may have fuelled the decision.

She said her de-selection was the result of a faction 'looking to curry favour and get rid of an outspoken woman', adding: 'It is sad that a minority within tarnish the work of so many decent Labour people.

The Labour councillor who spoke up in support of an MP effectively sacked by Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) has been deselected

'It is curious this action has been taken at a time when I am loudly championing gender equality within faith communities.'

Usually sitting councillors are automatically allowed to stand again, but earlier this summer Miss Lone was ordered to face an interview on the grounds that her campaign and council attendance records were not good enough.

She was not re-selected despite a letter of support from council leader Sir Richard Leese, and also lost a subsequent appeal. A fellow female councillor who went through the same process, again due to issues with her campaign record, was re-selected.

A Labour spokesman said: 'The process for selecting local government candidates is clear and outlined in the party's rulebook.

'We conduct a fair and rigorous appeals process with members from outside the area. The decisions made are based on evidence provided.'
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has returned to the fray in his spat with Stephen Hawking, issuing a detailed rebuttal of the world-renowned scientist's claim that the NHS was at risk of privatisation under the Tories.

Professor Hawking used a high-profile lecture last week to warn that the Government was taking the health service towards a US-style insurance system.

The 75-year-old physicist, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1962 and said he 'would not be here today if it were not for the service', also took Mr Hunt to task over his plans for a seven-day NHS, accusing him of cherry-picking research findings which backed his case.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised Stephen Hawking's claims that the NHS was at risk of privatisation under the Tories. Professor Hawking used a high-profile lecture last week to warn that the Government was taking the health service towards a US-style insurance system

Prof Hawking has won the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, but Mr Hunt used a series of tweets to say he was wrong about the research findings.

Now, the Health Secretary has used an article on The Guardian's website to counter his argument in detail.

'I am afraid Professor Stephen Hawking... is once again wrong in his characterisation of government policy towards the NHS,' said Mr Hunt.

'He does not deny that it has record funding or record numbers of doctors and nurses, but describes these as a "distraction".

'Such figures surely are crucial evidence if he is arguing, as he did last weekend in a speech at the Royal Society of Medicine, that the direction of the NHS is heading towards a US-style insurance system.

'Such systems - which he seems to now concede are not Government policy - rely on individuals, and not the state, paying for their healthcare. If that was the direction of travel, the state would be spending less, not more, on the NHS.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt first took to Twitter to respond to Prof Hawking's attack on the Tory Party

Mr Hunt has cited studies showing higher death rates at weekends when setting out his argument for a seven-day health service

Prof Hawking has won the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, but Mr Hunt used a series of tweets to say he was wrong about the research findings

Mr Hunt hit out at Mr Hawking's comments a second time and denied that the Government was trying to implement a US-style health insurance system

'Likewise, more individuals would be taking out private medical insurance - again, the opposite is the case. Although there was indeed a small rise last year, overall there has been a dramatic drop in private medical insurance since 2009.'

Mr Hunt rejected as 'incorrect' Prof Hawking's claim that new 'accountable care organisation models' in some parts of the NHS represented a step towards an insurance-based system.

'This has absolutely nothing to do with the funding model of the NHS, which will remain a single-payer taxpayer-funded system free at the point of use - and should do forever as far as I'm concerned,' he said.

Mr Hunt insisted that no-one should 'bury our heads in the sand' over standards of weekend care, claiming that most doctors 'in their hearts' would prefer their loved ones to be admitted midweek.

Ignoring clinicians' concerns about the weekend care gap would be 'a betrayal of duty by a health secretary', he said.

Prof Hawking, who is director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, renewed criticism of Mr Hunt for 'cherry-picking' scientific research into the so-called 'weekend effect'

He added: 'I admire and respect Stephen Hawking, and have offered to meet him to discuss these issues further, because I believe - whatever our disagreements - that we both believe in the NHS, and share a passion that it should be the safest and best healthcare system in the world.'

Prof Hawking, who is director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, renewed criticism of Mr Hunt last week for 'cherry-picking' scientific research into the so-called 'weekend effect'.

The Health Secretary had used his drive to create a seven-day NHS as one of the main reasons for reforming junior doctors' contracts - which led to the biggest walkout of doctors in NHS history.

Mr Hunt has cited studies showing higher death rates at weekends when setting out his argument for a seven-day health service.

But Prof Hawking accused him of suppressing contradictory research to suit his argument.

He wrote: 'Hunt had cherry-picked research to justify his argument. For a scientist, cherry-picking evidence is unacceptable.

'When public figures abuse scientific argument, citing some studies but suppressing others to justify policies they want to implement for other reasons, it debases scientific culture.

'One consequence of this sort of behaviour is that it leads ordinary people to not trust science at a time when scientific research and progress are more important than ever.'
Pictured: IT consultant Mano Rajan was one of four to survive the fatal M1 crash

A young girl fighting for her life has been orphaned after both of her parents were killed in the M1 horror crash on the way to the Eurostar to begin a dream family holiday.

Eight people were killed when a minibus was 'squashed flat' in a crash with a FedEx truck and a delivery lorry on the M1 at Newport Pangell yesterday morning.

Four people survived the crash including IT consultant Mano Rajan who moved to Nottingham just six months ago.

A five-year-old girl was also survived when she was pulled from the wreckage after being trapped in the destroyed minibus for more than an hour.

She is understood to have been visiting the UK from India with her parents who are family friends of Mr Rajan's. Now the young girl is fighting for her life in hospital with no immediate relatives nearby.

Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arunachalam, Mano Rajan's uncle and aunt, were both killed in the crash.

Their son Dr Arun Arachelvan, 30, said: 'I received a call from police last night . I could not believe what they were saying.

'They told me my parents and other relatives were in an accident and that my parents died on the spot.

'My uncle succumbed to his injuries while on the way to hospital. I have been told that my aunt Valli and sister-in-law are fine but traumatised. My cousin Manoranjan is still critical.

'I have applied for a visa but it will take 48-50 hours. I am requesting that the British and Indian High Commission understand the sensitivity of the case and expedite the visa process.

'The police are very helpful. They have told me as it is a medical-legal case, the autopsy can take seven to ten days. They think the truck driver was drunk.

'They have said they will keep in touch with me and tell me a timeline so I can go and retrieve their bodies.

'I am shell shocked. My parents were supposed to be back on September 2.'

IT workers Karthikeyan Ramasubramaniyam Pugalur, Rishi Rajeev Kumar and Vivek Bhaskaran were also named among those who were killed by their IT firm Wipro.

Eight people died after a minibus, pictured above, was 'squashed flat' after a crash with two lorries on the M1 yesterday

The group were being driven from Nottingham down to the Channel Tunnel where they were due to board the train to Paris to start a month-long holiday in France.

Polish lorry driver Ryszard Masierak, 31, from Worcestershire, has been charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and eight counts of causing death by careless driving while over the drink-drive limit, Thames Valley Police said.

He was remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court tomorrow.

David Wagstaff, aged 53, of Derwent Street, Stoke-on-Trent, was charged causing death by dangerous driving.

A relative of one of those who died in what has been described as the worst motorway crash on British soil in 26 years has paid tribute to their loved one.

Mani Balasubramian lost his brother-in-law and his sister and husband in the crash.

Bank Holiday horror: The smashed up cab of the FedEx lorry involved in a fatal crash being towed away from the scene on Saturday

But his own sister as well as his friend, who had recently moved to Nottingham, and his mother survived.

Tragically Mr Balasubramian revealed neither of the girl's parents survived the crash, leaving her battling for her own life in hospital without any immediate relatives nearby.

He said the young girl was the daughter of a man named Vivek, a friend of Mr Manoranjan.

The five-year-old was trapped under the a seat for more than an hour until being rescued by firefighters and a passerby at the scene.

Speaking about the heartbreaking moment he heard the news, Mr Balasubramian, 54, said: 'We learnt about the accident in the morning and were told a truck driver had lost control and suddenly slammed the brakes on and the minibus my relatives were in collided with it.

'My brother-in-law and his sister and her husband died. Luckily, my sister, nephew and his wife survived the crash but they are hospitalised.

'Manoranjan had also asked his four friends, a couple Vivek and his wife and two other men. They all died but Vivek's five-year-old daughter survived.

'I am devastated with the loss of my brother-in-law and his relatives. They wanted to enjoy a nice week travelling across Europe but sadly, they met with a fatal accident.

'But I am relieved that my sister and nephew and his wife are alive. I am told they have sustained severe injuries. They do not have any kids.'

He revealed the party had hired a minibus from ABC Travels - the owner who was named as the first victim of the tragedy as Cyriac Joseph, a father-of-two from Nottingham.

Pictured: Visible skid marks can be seen in the left-hand lane while the churned up verge shows where vehicles collided with the bank

Mr Balasubramian said: 'They had hired a minibus from ABC Travels. I do not know if Manoranjan already knew the driver but he was from the same country and neighbouring state Kerala. We have learnt his wife is a nurse.

A director of a local news station in Chennai, India, Mr Balasubramin said his sister and her husband hey flew out to see his nephew Mano Ranjan on August 18.

Mano had moved to Nottingham six months before to work for technology firm Wipro as an IT consultant.

Two days after arriving the family made a last minute plan to tour France for a week, inviting with them two other family members and friends and Mano's work friends.

Manoranjan, his wife Sangeetha and his mother Shri Valli survived the crash, but his father A Paneerselvan was killed.

The driver, Cyriac Joseph, who owned the minibus company, was killed in the collision taking an Indian family to the Eurostar to begin their dream holiday

Paneersevlan's sister and her husband were also killed, along with two of Manoranjan's colleagues, his friend Vivek and Vivek's wife.

The only other survivor of the crash was Vivek's five-year-old daughter, who was trapped under a seat for more than an hour until being rescued by firefighters.

Mani Balasubramian, 54, said: 'My sister Shri Valli and her husband A Paneerselvan, a retired engineer and lecturer, left on August 18 to meet their son Mano.

'My brother-in-law Paneerselvan also asked his sister Tamil Mani, 55, and her husband Arutchilvan to join them for the vacation. But they had left two or three days after and were supposed to stay for 10 days.'

Today a church service has been held for the minicab driver who was last night named as father-of-two Cyriac Joseph.

Known as Benny, he ran the minibus company ABC Travels based in Nottingham and was driving a bus load of It's believed he was driving a bus load of passengers, many from India, from Nottingham to Wembley.

The Mass was held at St. Paul's Catholic Church on Lenton Boulevard.

Speaking outside the family home before a church service, his bereaved son Benson Joseph said his father had booked the job to take the family visiting from India down to North London.

Benson said he missed his father 'so much' already as he heartbreakingly revealed he and his mother and sister had only just returned from holiday.

He said: 'We had not seen dad for a while. He stayed home so he could keep running the company. That's when he agreed to take these clients. We hardly saw him after we got back. I miss him so much already.'

A close friend of Cyriac, Manu Zacharia, said he picked up the clients close to his home at 1am before setting of on the journey to the Euro tunnel.

The father-of-two, who had studied botany in India, had been running his taxi business for four years after working for supermarket chains Morrisons and Asda, and would regularly make long distance trips.
A new poll has revealed that seven out of ten kids prefer to be on their mobile phones than to chat with parents while on car trips which is threatening precious family time.

The Galaxy poll found that out 1,200 polled, 76 percent of parents with kids aged from three to 16 said the youngsters were glued to a mobile device while on family car trips.

The trend has left one Australian parent banning the use of mobile devices in her car altogether, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Seven out of ten kids are hooked to their phones while in car trips with parents (stock image)

Rebecca Zosel told the publication that her partner and herself had come to an agreement to ban any screen time in their car.

'We don't drive a lot but when we do, we just use the time to talk,' she said.

'There are sometimes arguments and they get bored or irritated but as a family of five, there are always things to talk about,' she told the newspaper.

Her sentiments were also echoed by psychologist Sabina Read who said car trips were the best time for families to catch up.

'We need to be regularly available as parents and car trips are the perfect opportunity,' she said.

The poll which was commissioned by Ford Australia also found that adults who were not behind the wheels were equally guilty of the same trait of being too involved with their mobile phones while in cars.

The poll found 63 percent of those surveyed admitted to using their mobile device to check their social media page, send emails or sometimes play games.
Tests on a hunk of concrete may soon solve the 1989 disappearance of a young mother - by determining whether her remains were fed through a wood chipper and then entombed in the basement of a duplex.

Sunbury Police Chief Tim Miller announced earlier this month that preliminary results showed the three-ton slab of concrete contained wood chips, and he's waiting to see if they also hold the remains of Barbara Elizabeth Miller.

A forensic pathologist is 'dissecting the walls, so to speak, piece by piece, hammer-and-chisel type, looking for the smallest of clues,' Miller, no relation to Barbara Miller, said last week.

He called it 'mere speculation if a wood chipper was or wasn't used. Obviously the presence of wood chips in a concrete wall is highly suspicious.'

Tests will be conducted on a slab of concrete to see if it contains the remains of Pennsylvania woman Barbara Elizabeth Miller (pictured), who went missing on July 1, 1989. Her ex-boyfriend, Mike Egan, reported her missing four days later

When searching the basement of a Milton home once rented by Egan's sister, police found concrete later revealed to be containing wood chips (pictured, June 2017). Tests on the concrete will determine if Miller's remains were fed through a wood chipper and then entombed in the duplex's basement

An affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for the duplex, located in Milton, disclosed that investigators believe the woman may have been killed by her ex-boyfriend, a onetime Sunbury police officer named Joseph Walter 'Mike' Egan.

Barbara Miller, then 30 years old, was last seen on July 1, 1989, after she attended a wedding and went with friends to a bar in Mifflinburg. It is believed she was killed in her Sunbury home.

Egan, who served prison time for extortion, reported her missing four days later.

He was identified by police in the affidavit as the lead suspect.

Egan, who trims trees for a living, denied on Friday that he had anything to do with Barbara Miller's disappearance.

'They're way off base,' he said.

The Milton home, where the concrete slab was recovered from, was rented from a judge by Egan's sister, Cathy Reitenbach.

Tim Miller said an informant told him that Reitenbach told the informant in 1990 that she had been one of the last people to see Barbara Miller alive. Reitenbach died in January.

Over the years, Egan (not pictured) has remained the lead suspect in Miller's (right) disappearance

The police affidavit said several people have claimed over the years that Egan would talk about driving past his sister's home in Milton to 'visit' his 'old lady'.

The affidavit also says Barbara Miller had complained to police in the months before she disappeared about Egan and, days before she vanished, told friends she feared for her life.

Her teenage son, Eddie Miller Jr, said she and Egan had a fight the night before she disappeared over her plans to attend a friend's wedding without him.

Eddie Miller also recalled that the morning after the wedding, Egan was driving his mother's car, and the tires were covered with yellow clay that he thought was related to concrete work.

'Let me tell you something. It was my car, not her car,' Egan said.

Although a judge declared Barbara Miller dead in 2006, the Sunbury Daily Item, a local paper, began looking at the case again and encouraged Tim Miller to investigate after he became police chief last year.

'This is most action this case has ever seen, and you can't ask for more than that,' said Daily Item reporter Francis Scarcella. 'There's no miracle, but we've got the attention of people now.'

The chief found a 2009 report in department files that recorded a tip that Barbara Miller's remains were in the Milton home, but apparently the tip was not pursued.

He also located a 2004 report in which three people claimed 'that Egan put a body inside the wall of a home,' Tim Miller wrote in the affidavit.

A police affidavit said Miller (pictured, left and right) had complained to police in the months before she disappeared about Egan and, days before she vanished, told friends she feared for her life. Her teenage son, Eddie Miller Jr, said she and Egan had a fight the night before she disappeared over her plans to attend a friend's wedding without him

The affidavit also said several people have claimed over the years that Egan would talk about driving past his sister's home in Milton (pictured) to 'visit' his 'old lady'

The Milton home's current owners let investigators into the basement, where they found 'highly suspicious construction', including a concrete floor that was added on, with portions of what appeared to be hand-mixed concrete.

A small room in the basement, Tim Miller wrote, 'was very peculiar,' with thick concrete walls and an exhaust fan.

In early June, police brought in more than a half-dozen cadaver-smelling dogs that all separately alerted that human remains may be present in the basement or in material taken from the basement.

During a subsequent week-long dig, police hauled the massive rectangular chunk of cement from the basement, leading to last week's announcement that it contains wood chips.
A Central Coast father accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl while dressed in a camouflage suit allegedly took pictures of the horrific attack, a court heard.

Police will allege the photos were discovered after the wife of tradesman Troy Stephen Johnson handed his mobile phone to investigators, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Johnson, 31, was arrested at the weekend following a three-month police investigation that began when he allegedly snatched a girl, 12, as she walked to school at Narara, near Gosford, on May 15.

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Troy Stephen Johnson, 31, (pictured) was due to face Wyong Local Court on Sunday but refused to leave his cell

Police seized a number of items during a search of a Woongarrah home (pictured) on Saturday - including camouflage gear allegedly worn during the attack

Officers also reportedly seized hunting knives (pictured), boots, cable ties and a mask during their search

Johnson is due to face court on multiple sex charges on Monday.

The charges include aggravated sexual assault of someone under 16 and performing an aggravated act of indecency on a person under 16.

The arrest follow a months-long police search for a man who was in a head-to-toe camouflage outfit, or ghillie suit, which is used to blend in with surroundings.

Officers searched a house in Woongarrah and seized several items following Johnson's arrest on Friday night.

The arrest follows a months-long police search for a man in a 'ghillie' suit (pictured left and right)

A picture of the bush lair which was the subject to police investigations earlier this year

Troy Stephen Johnson (pictured) of Woongarrah on the New South Wales Central Coast was charged with multiple sex offences committed against two girls

Some of the charges relate to alleged assaults on a second girl, who is 11, between October 2016 and April 2017.

Johnson reportedly suffered a medical episode after his arrest and spent Saturday night under police guard in hospital.

He was released on Sunday but did not appear at Wyong Local Court. Court records seen by Daily Mail Australia state 'the accused did not wish to be brought into court.'

He is due to face Gosford Local Court on Monday morning by audio-visual link.
Two week after the violence in Charlottesville occurred, former Vice President Joe Biden put his thoughts on President Trump's response into words, writing an editorial for the Atlantic.

In short, Biden was disgusted by it.

'We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with message of comfort and support,' Biden said, as he hinted Trump's pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio was what motivated him to pen the piece.

Vice President Joe Biden (left) wrote a strongly-worded editorial for the Atlantic, which was released online Sunday, in which he condemned President Trump's (right) response to Charlottesville and his pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

He starts it by recalling January 17, 2009, as an Amtrak train carrying President-elect Obama was to pick up Biden, too, from a station stop in Wilmington, Delaware.

As he was about to take his historic trip into D.C., to be sworn in alongside the nation's first African-American president, his mind thought back to 1968, when he was standing on that platform and watching Wilmington burn in the aftermath of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

'I was living history  and reliving it  at the same time,' Biden recalled 'And the images racing through my mind were a vivid demonstration that when it comes to race in America, hope doesn't travel alone.'

'It's shadowed by a long trail of violence and hate,' he said.

That 'long trail,' he said, emerged once again in Charlottesville earlier this month when 'neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists emerging from dark rooms and remote fields and the anonymity of the web into the bright light of day on the streets of a historically significant American city.'

Biden said he believed 'we are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.'

'The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human forces are being met with ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest in American,' he said.

'Are we really surprised they rose up? Are we really surprised they lashed back? Did we really think they would be extinguished with a whimper rather than a right?' the ex-vice president mused.

Former Vice President Joe Biden hammered President Trump for pardoning former Sheriff Joe Arpaio (pictured), though he didn't mention Arpaio by name

'Did we think the charlatans and the con-men and the false prophets who have long dotted our history wouldn't revisit us, once again prop up the immigrant as the source of all our troubles, and look to prey on the hopelessness and despair that has grown up in the hollowed-out cities and towns of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and the long-forgotten rural stretches of West Virginia and Kentucky?' Biden continued, listing a number of states that President Trump won.

While racial hatred is an old problem, Biden pointed to the 'special challenge' of extinguishing it under President Trump.

'Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate,' Biden proclaimed.

He also said, then, that Trump had 'emboldened white supremacists.'

'This is a moment for this nation to declare what the president cant with any clarity, consistency, or conviction: There is no place for these hate groups in America,' Biden said. 'Hatred of blacks, Jews, immigrants  all who are seen as "the other" wont be accepted or tolerated or given safe harbor anywhere in this nation.'

'That's the America I know,' he added.

Biden then chronicled the response to Trump's comments, with business leaders backing away from the president, followed by charities pulling their events from Trump properties like Mar-a-Lago.

Biden himself had taken to Twitter the day 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed by a car driven by a Nazi sympathizer, when Trump had condemned the violence on 'many sides.'

'There is only one side,' he tweeted.

'No. Not in America. We must be stronger, more determined and more united than ever. Racism and hate have no place here,' he also wrote.

Biden pointed to the counter-protests in Boston, where those marching against hate groups far outnumbered those who were members.

But then he spoke of Trump's actions this week.

'Now he's pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called in a "concentration camp,"' Biden said, not saying Sheriff Joe Arpaio's name.

He said that the citizens of the country 'carry a special burden in 2017' thanks to Trump.

'We have to do what our president has not. We have to uphold Americas values,' Biden said. 'We have to do what he will not. We have to defend our Constitution.'

'We have to remember our kids are watching,' he said. 'We have to show the world America is still a beacon of light.'

The former vice president has left the door slightly open for a 2020 presidential run against Trump, telling NPR, 'I have no intention of running for president, but I'm a great respecter of fate,' the former vice president said. 'I don't have any plans to do it, but I'm not promising I wouldn't do it.'

Since leaving office he's been involved in a number of Biden-branded projects including the Biden Foundation, the Biden Cancer Initiative, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the University of Delaware's Biden Institute for domestic initiatives.
A man who vanished after going swimming in lagoon which has been the scene of two previous drowning tragedies was found dead yesterday.

A massive search was launched on Saturday night when the 32-year-old went for a teatime dip and never came back.

He was spotted in difficulty about 7pm by other visitors enjoying the sunshine at Horbury Lagoon, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

A man is believed to have died after getting into difficulties while swimming in open water at Horbury Lagoon, Wakefield (pictured)

West Yorkshire Police confirmed yesterday afternoon that teams of 999 workers searching for the man for Leeds had now found a male body.

A force spokesman said emergency services were called to a report that the Eastern European man, from the Leeds area, had got into difficulties while swimming in the lagoon on Saturday.

Police, fire and ambulance services attended the scene and a man's body was found on Sunday.

Police have issued a warning about the dangers of open water swimming.

Stuart Kemp, 19, drowned at the same beauty spot in 1995 while swimming with friends. Bosnian-born student Denis Nadarevic, 16, drowned when he became trapped in a car which slid down a muddy bank into the water in 2004.

Emergency services searching for the 32-year-old man have found a body. Officers have also issued warnings about the danger of open water swimming

Superintendent Marianne Huison, of West Yorkshire Police, said:'I would like to remind all residents in, and visitors to, West Yorkshire of the extreme dangers posed by swimming in or entering open water at lagoons or industrial sites.

'Such water can be very cold, even in the summer months, and people suddenly entering cold water are susceptible to hyperventilation, which could result in the body going into seizure.

'There can also be hidden currents and unseen dangers such as mud banks or items under the water which a swimmer can become caught on.'
A brazen couple were oblivious to shocked train passengers when they had sex on a London overground platform in the middle of the day.

A man wearing a black down jacket had his trousers unzipped and his backside clearly visible, while his female companion, who had cropped red hair, leaned against a concrete barrier with her trousers and underwear pulled down.

The shameless pair romped enthusiastically at Hackney Downs station in east London before readjusting their clothes and casually strolling across the platform to board a train.

This shameless couple romped enthusiastically at Hackney Downs station in east London before readjusting their clothes and casually strolling across the platform to board a train

A graphic video of the copulation, posted yesterday at 1.20pm, has attracted more than 4,200 retweets - and hundreds of comments from disgusted viewers.

One said: 'Broad daylight and not a single damn given. These people have no shame. The way they boarded the train like nothing happened too!'

Another added: 'True gent. Romance is alive and well.'

A Tweet of the graphic video (above), posted yesterday at 1.20pm, has attracted more than 4,200 retweets - and hundreds of comments from disgusted viewers

A British Transport Police spokesman said: 'We are investigating reports of a couple engaging in sexual activity on a platform at Hackney Downs station'. The copulating couple casually caught the train just moments after the incident

While a third said: 'Classy.'

A British Transport Police spokesman said: 'We are investigating reports of a couple engaging in sexual activity on a platform at Hackney Downs station.

'The incident was reported to BTP around 1.20pm on Saturday 26 August and we are appealing for anyone with information to text 61016 or call 0800 40 50 40 quoting 286 of 26/08/2017'.
Police in Magaluf are seeking three men, possibly British, after a 20-year-old Scottish woman claimed she was raped on the beach.

The victim says she was sexually assaulted on the stretch of beach in front of the Punta Ballena strip, the most popular part of the tourist resort.

The attack is said to have happened some time between Friday night and the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Punta Ballena strip in Magaluf, where a woman says she was raped on a beach (file image)

According to local media, the woman went to the beach area with one of the men and his two friends were waiting there when she arrived.

She told police all three sexually assaulted her and was found by the police and Civil Guard without her clothes and crying in distress.

She said she had shouted for help whilst on the beach but no-one came to her aid. The Civil Guard is analysing her clothes for clues and DNA.

A police spokesman told the Spanish newspaper that such cases were 'very complicated' and might have involved men who had since left the holiday island.

They were therefore working against the clock to try and find the three suspects, believed to be foreigners and possibly British.
A little piece of Mum thats still here: Josie Russell with her mother Lins beloved Welsh cob Rosie, who is now 26, as it emerged Josie is engaged

Josie Russell was just five years old when she met Rosie. She recalls how excited she and her younger sister Megan were when their mother Lin brought home the pretty Welsh cob with the long blonde mane and tail.

Today, Rosie, a little greyer around the muzzle, is still a vital part of Josies life  a poignant link with an idyllic childhood that, just four years later, was savagely ripped apart.

It was on a sunny July day in 1996, that Lin, Josie and Megan were the victims of a frenzied attack as they walked along a quiet country lane in Kent, on their way back from a school swimming gala in the village of Chillenden.

They were blindfolded, tied to a tree with strips of Josies towel, and bludgeoned with a hammer in a pitiless crime that appalled Britain.

Lin, 45, and Megan, who was just six, died at the scene, alongside their pet dog, Lucy. Police and paramedics assumed Josie was dead, too  until a faint pulse was found. Shed sustained catastrophic head injuries but she somehow survived.

After Josies discharge from hospital, her father Shaun Russell, a botanist, took her back to the secluded Nantlle valley in North Wales where the family had once lived, and where they could focus on dealing with their grief and her recovery.

Her rehabilitation was a long, slow process  it was a year before she could speak again  but Josie stunned doctors with her progress and her academic achievements.

Now, aged 30, and bearing a striking resemblance to her mother Lin  the same dark hair, perhaps a little less unruly, dark eyes and beaming smile  shes a successful textile artist who has just announced her engagement to her boyfriend of 12 years, Iwan Griffith.

A family torn apart: Josie, above, with mother Lin and younger sister Megan on the day Mrs Russell brought Rosie the pony home

Now, aged 30, Josie is a successful textile artist who has just announced her engagement to her boyfriend of 12 years, Iwan Griffith (pictured together)

He actually proposed last December, but it is only now that Josie feels ready to share her happiness and plans for a family of her own.

There is no doubt in Josies mind that the right man, Michael Stone (pictured), is behind bars after he blamed Levi Bellfield

It was on Christmas morning, Iwan gave me chocolates and said Sorry, I didnt get you much, she says laughing.

Then he produced the ring  a diamond solitaire  and said: Happy Christmas.

He did offer to get down on one knee and propose but I told him he didnt have to. It was a wonderful moment because Iwan is not only a wonderful man, hes my best friend.

The couple met in a pub in Caernarfon on December 31, 2005, while Josie was at university. Their romance was sparked by their love of the dramatic Welsh landscape. We arent a lovey-dovey couple but there is love and mutual respect, Josie says.

I think we are both quite strong-willed which sometimes makes for conflict, but apart from that we get on well.

Were happiest when were walking on the beach together or in the mountains biking. Iwan, a 31-year-old fire alarm engineer, grew up on a farm and was blissfully ignorant of Josies past  a factor which had huge appeal for her.

It meant things were just nice and normal from the start, she says.

He asked about my mum once and I just told him she had died. Later his parents told him the full story but we never talk about the past. Its better for me to just get on with the present.

Shaun Russell is pictured with his wife Lin, Josie, 6, and Megan, 4, in the conservatory of the Welsh home where Josie now lives

According to Shaun Russell, 65, Rosie (pictured) was also key to Josies recovery, a tangible reminder that in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy she had not lost quite everything

Josie says that as her friends have settled down and started having children, its inevitable that my thoughts have turned to whether we should too.

The day that changed Josie's life forever Killer: Michael Stone Josie Russell was walking home from a swimming gala with her mother and sister in the quiet village of Chillenden, Kent, on July 9, 1996, when they were attacked by a man with a hammer. Her mother, Lin Russell, 45, and sister, Megan, six, died as a result of Michael Stones brutal attack, but nine-year-old Josie survived, despite suffering life-changing head injuries. Eight hours after the attack, searchers found the bodies of Lin and Megan Russell, and barely-alive Josie, who had been tied to a tree. A police manhunt was launched, and heroin addict Stone was arrested 12 months after the attack. Stone, who has psychiatric issues, was found guilty of killing Mrs Russell and Megan, and was given three life sentences in 1998. A retrial was ordered in 2001 because some testimony had been discredited, but Stone was found guilty again. In 2011, a lawyer acting for Stone claimed there was compelling evidence linking Milly Dowlers killer Levi Bellfield to the Russell case. Paul Bacon said: Bellfield is 6ft 1in and it was said by Josie that the person was a bit taller than her dad. Her dad was 6ft. Michael Stone is 5ft 7in. Advertisement

Dr Lin Russell, a geologist with a passion for the countryside, animals and her family, is never far from Josies thoughts  but perhaps even more so now.

Before now Ive never really been interested in babies, but Im getting to know my friends children and enjoy being with them, she says.

I only had my Mum for nine years. She was strict but loving. She did so much stuff with us.

We made puppets, paper lanterns and dolls house furniture. Ive still got the peg bag she stitched by hand.

She wasnt the sort of mum who sat us down in front of the TV while she did something else. For Josie those treasured memories are rooted in the home she shares with Iwan  the same home, in the foothills of Snowdonia, where she and Megan had lived with their parents.

In 2011, using money from a trust fund and compensation for her injuries, Josie was able to buy back the house which the couple have lovingly renovated. Her studio is the bedroom that Lin decorated for her when she was a little girl.

I think my mother was a good role model  not too much TV, very hands-on, Josie says.

I want to be the kind of mum who has lots of tea parties. A constant reminder of her mother is Rosie, Lins beloved pony, who lives in the paddock behind the house with another horse, Folly.

According to Shaun Russell, 65, Rosie was also key to Josies recovery, a tangible reminder that in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy she had not lost quite everything.

Shes 26 now. I cant bear to think of Rosie not being here one day, Josie says.

It was on a sunny July day in 1996, that sisters Josie and Megan (pictured together) were the victims of a frenzied attack as they walked along a quiet country lane in Kent with mother Lin

She was my mothers and now shes mine. Shes a little piece of mum thats still here.

Weve been through a lot together and she knows me so well. There is no doubt in Josies mind that the right man, Michael Stone, is behind bars for the murder of her mother and sister, and she is angry about the way in which the familys wounds were reopened earlier this year when the BBC screened a controversial documentary called The Chillenden Murders.

It invited a panel of independent criminal experts to re-examine evidence which convicted Stone and suggested questions remained over his conviction.

It didnt seem to prove anything, she said. We just want to get on with our lives. We dont want it to come back again.

While she long ago came to terms with the publics interest in her story and how she has been able to carve out life on her own terms, Josies focus is very much on the future and the big world out there that she and Iwan will explore.

And, of course, there is her career with her distinctive artwork that conjures up intricate compositions of local landscapes and animals which sell for upwards of 250.

She exhibits regularly and has commissions stretching well into next year.

Its a job which I love, she says. And Im very lucky because it means I can work from home and stay close to my animals.

She has, she reveals, also started work on her autobiography in the hope of one day figuring it all out.

There is one thing Im sure of. I dont want to be known as Josie the victim or Josie the survivor. Im just Josie.

For more information, go to josierussell.com
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hinted on Sunday that he wasn't impressed with President Trump's response to the recent racial violence in Charlottesville, which left one young woman dead at the hands of a Nazi sympathizer.

'The president speaks for himself, Chris,' Tillerson said when asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace if the president's response has made it harder push American values worldwide.

Wallace had brought up the 'early warning' the United States had received Wednesday from a United Nations committee, in which members expressed concern after seeing the overt signs of racism on display in Charlottesville at the 'Unite the Right' rally.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that the president 'speaks for himself,' when asked if President Trump's response to Charlottesville has made it harder for the top diplomat to promote American values

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) sat down with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace (right) and discussed an early warning the United Nations put out about the U.S.'s over racism, which was on display in Charlottesville, Virginia

Rex Tillerson was the second high profile person in the political world to express frustration over President Trump's (pictured) Charlottesville response on Sunday. Former Vice President Joe Biden did too

Watch the latest video at <a href="//video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

'We are alarmed by the racist demonstrations, with overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klus Klan, promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred,' the committee's chair Anastasia Crickley said.

The early warning puts the U.S. alongside Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria, countries that also received U.N. rebukes.

Wallace asked Tillerson about the warning and about Trump's most recent response to Charlottesville, which consisted of blaming the media for the coverage of the rallies.

'The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news,' Trump had said in Phoenix on Tuesday night.

Wallace wanted to know if Trump was making it harder for Tillerson to tout American values, when foreign leaders were questioning the president's own values.

'Chris, we express America's values from the State Department,' Tillerson answered. 'We represent the American people. We represent America's values, our commitment to freedom, out commitment to equal treatment to people the world over.'

'And that message has never changed,' he added.

Wallace, however, pointed out that 'when the president gets into the kind of controversy that it does and the U.N committee responds the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt our  whether we're living those values.'

'I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values,' Tillerson replied.

Wallace then asked, 'And the president's values?'

To which Tillerson replied that Trump spoke for himself.

Tillerson was the second prominent figure in politics to pan the president's Charlottesville response on Sunday, with former Vice President Joe Biden penning an editorial for the Atlantic, lambasting Trump for 'embolden[ing] white supremacists.'

The secretary of state's reaction, however, is more surprising as he's a member of Trump's cabinet, not a voice from the opposing political party.

When Wallace asked if Tillerson if he was separating himself from Trump's comments, the former ExxonMobil chief executive didn't say no.

'I've spoken  I've made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department last week,' Tillerson responded.
With Texas in the grip of Hurricane Harvey, President Donald Trump and his family returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon after spending two days at Camp David.

The president, First Lady Melania Trump, and their 11-year-old son Barron were seen disembarking from Marine One and walking across the South Lawn toward the White House.

They were joined by Trump's daughter, Ivanka, her husband and presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner, and their three children.

Trump makes his return to the nation's capital as Texas continues to grapple with a hurricane that continues to devastate its eastern coast.

The president will travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey storm damage and flooding caused by Harvey, which hit the state late last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, a White House spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The White House was 'coordinating logistics with state and local officials,' spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

President Donald Trump and his family returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon after spending two days at Camp David

Trump is seen giving a salute to a soldier as he steps off Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday

Trump was accompanied by his 11-year-old son, Barron, and First Lady Melania Trump

Trump makes his return to the nation's capital as Texas continues to grapple with a hurricane that continues to devastate its eastern coast

The president will travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey storm damage and flooding caused by Harvey

Trump returns to Washington after an eventful weekend which began when he made the controversial decision to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

The president was wearing a white USA hat. His facial expression and body language made him appear somewhat unhappy

Once details were finalized, more information would be available, she said.

'We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,' Sanders said.

Trump has been tweeting about Harvey, praising the coordination between the various government agencies responding to the catastrophe.

The president also tweeted that his travel plans were being arranged according to conditions on the ground.

Harvey came ashore late on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people.

The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the state for days, triggering record floods, tidal surges and tornadoes.

Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner (far left), Kushner's wife, Ivanka (far right), and their three children also returned to the White House with the president

Kushner most recently returned to the U.S. after leading a team of negotiators on a trip to the Middle East

The president's son-in-law has been tasked with heading the U.S. government's efforts to bring peace to the Middle East

Ivanka Trump is seen with her children, Joseph and Theodore, after disembarking Marine One

Like her husband, Ivanka Trump is also a senior adviser to her father

'We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,' Sanders said.

The widespread flooding caused by Harvey in Texas, including in Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, is the first test of how Trump, who never previously held political office, responds to a major storm on his watch.

Former President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, was sharply criticized for his handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the last time a storm of Harvey's magnitude struck the United States.

Bush was called insensitive for not initially visiting New Orleans, hard hit by Katrina, and instead releasing a photo of himself looking out a plane window at the damage.

Trump has been tweeting about Harvey, praising the coordination between the various government agencies responding to the catastrophe

Since the president travels with a large retinue of Secret Service agents and under a rigorous security protocol, most administrations avoid visiting during the height of natural disasters for fear they will pull resources away from rescue and aid attempts.

During a video conference with his Cabinet on Sunday afternoon, Trump 'reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery,' according to a White House statement.

A year ago, Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Mike Pence, toured the scenes of major flooding in Louisiana and criticized Democratic President Barack Obama for vacationing at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts during the storm.

Trump spent Saturday and part of Sunday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland where he tweeted frequently about Harvey and other issues.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference on Sunday that coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its new director, Brock Long, was going smoothly.

Long said Harvey's effects would last for years.

'This disaster is going to be a landmark event,' Long told CNN on Sunday. 'We're setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years.'
A new and unlikely rival has presented themselves as a threat to the federal parliament seat of Labor Leader Bill Shorten.

Gangland widow Roberta Williams has been nominated by the Australian People's Party to run for the seat of Maribyrnong, currently held by the opposition leader.

The convicted drug trafficker faces some hurdles before her political career can become a reality but believes her 'colourful' past will help springboard her new career.

'I like Bill Shorten. I've always liked him. I like his strategies and the way he presents himself. He's a real people's person. But I'm going to beat him,' Williams told the Herald Sun.

She has already found an ally in another convicted felon, Pauline Hanson, who supported her right to run.

'I think that Bill Shorten's track record and he is not all squeaky clean. Some things I have heard about him. He has put it to rest and said it is all good. If she passes it and she has not got a criminal conviction, why not? Live in a democracy,' the One Nation leader told Sunrise.

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Gangland widow Roberta Williams has been nominated by the Australian People's Party to run for the seat of Maribyrnong, currently held by the opposition leader

'I like Bill Shorten. I've always liked him. I like his strategies and the way he presents himself. He's a real people's person. But I'm going to beat him,' Williams said

She has already found an ally in another convicted felon, Pauline Hanson, who supported her right to run

Despite her criminal past, Williams is still able to enter the political sphere because she has spent less than one year in jail.

The 48-year-old may have her application denied because she declared bankruptcy and still owes the ATO nearly $300,000. Should she not resolve her financial status she would be ineligible to run.

Williams will attempt to have her status discharged before she officially submits her application to run.

'I'm ready to win the vote of the people and ready to show them what I'm made of. I'm a people person,' she said.

Williams says she will run a campaign based on tackling homelessness. She also believes in unlimited funding for schools and the education system.

She would not confirm her stance on same-sex marriage.

Carl Williams (pictured) died in a brutal prison attack in 2010

Williams is currently living in the family's Essendon home, which the ATO have been attempting to sell to get back the money she owes the government

She is currently living in the family's Essendon home, which the ATO have been attempting to sell to get back the money she owes the government.

When her ex-husband died in 2010 in a brutal prison assault, his debts was passed to Williams.

'No, I've got nowhere. I don't know where I'd go. I've got not one single place. I've got a child with a disability and a teenage daughter,' Ms Williams told the Herald in June..

The ATO is required to give Ms Williams notice if they intend to sell the home, after which the police could evict her.
A plot to smuggle three AK-47 assault rifles into Britain in a courier box has been foiled by the Albanian authorities.

Police fear the guns seized en route to a London address were due to be used in a terror attack or organised crime.

Security staff found the weapons at the cargo section of Tirana airport moments before they were due to be loaded.

Security staff found the weapons at the cargo section of Tirana airport moments before they were due to be loaded (pictured)

They were wrapped in towels and cellophane inside a DHL box also containing clothes and letters.

Albanian anti-terror police had stepped up surveillance following terror attacks in London and Barcelona.

Officers have not released the intended delivery address but said they have alerted their UK counterparts.

They were wrapped in towels and cellophane inside a DHL box also containing clothes and letters

Sajmir Cullhaj, 32, who was arrested in Albania following the seizure, is alleged to have received an order to move the guns three days before sending the package on Friday evening.

He has refused to give more details about where the weapons came from, what they were to be used for or their intended recipient. Detectives are also hunting a man  known by the initials NF  from the town of Durres, west of Tirana, where the package was sent from.

A spokesman for DHL did not respond to a request to comment yesterday.

Last month police found 79 handguns bound for Britain hidden in engine blocks being ferried by van through the Channel Tunnel. It was the largest haul of handguns ever seized by British police.
Ivanka's shy daughter Arabella hid from cameras when she returned home from a weekend getaway at Camp David.

The six-year-old held her father Jared Kusher's hand and ducked her head as she walked off Marine One onto the White House's South Lawn on Sunday afternoon.

Arabella seemed shy after waving to the press pool when she initially left for retreat, as she held onto President Trump's hand and gave a meek smile Friday.

Ivanka had her hands full when she landed, smiling as she carried her one-year-old son Theodore on her hip and holding the hand of her three-year-old son Joseph.

Ivanka's shy daughter Arabella, six, hid from cameras when she returned to Washington DC on Sunday from a weekend getaway at Camp David

The little girl held her father Jared Kusher's hand and ducked her head as she walked off Marine One with her siblings and mother Ivanka Trump

Despite her cheery yellow frock, Arabella seemed glum after coming back from the brief weekend trip to the Maryland retreat

Ivanka walked slightly ahead of her husband and daughter, sporting an all white look with a preppy striped cardigan hanging around her shoulders while she carried her son on her hip

President Trump held hands with his granddaughter Arabella as the two waved to the press pool when he and his family prepared to board Marine One for a trip to Camp David on Friday

Despite her cheery yellow frock, Arabella seemed glum after arriving from the brief weekend trip to the Maryland retreat.

Ivanka followed closely behind her husband and daughter, sporting an all white look with a preppy striped cardigan hanging around her shoulders.

Ivanka and her family disembarked with her father, Melania and 11-year-old Barron.

Trump was wearing a 'USA' cap, the same one he was spotted wearing when he was meeting with officials about Hurricane Harvey on Saturday.

Melania looked chic in an all pink ensemble, with a checkered button-down shirt paired with fuchsia jeans and hot pink flats.

Ivanka had her hands full when she landed, smiling as she carried her one-year-old son Theodore on her hip and held the hand of three-year-old Joseph

Arabella seemed to go shy after waving to the press pool when she initially left for retreat, as she held onto President Trump's hand and gave a meek wave on Friday

Special Advisor to The President Jared Kushner and Special Advisor to The President Ivanka Trump walk across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington with their children

President Trump, Melania, Barron and Ivanka and her family all boarded Marine One on Friday for the quick getaway.

Trump was holding both Arabella and Joseph's hands as he, Melania, and Barron stepped out of the Oval Office, but he and his granddaughter eventually took off by themselves ahead of the group.

While Trump was with Arabella and waving with his free hand, Barron walked alongside his nephew Joseph, who is turning four in October.

It was Trump's third time visiting the naval support facility that functions as a private retreat for sitting presidents .

However, Camp David, the country retreat located near Thurmont, Maryland, is just 45 minutes away from Washington, D.C., and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert told reporters during a televised briefing that 'it's not a trip'.

Ivanka Trump, the daughter and assistant to President Donald Trump, walks past Marine One helicopter with her children Joseph and Theodore

Wave! The whole family put on a show of solidarity as they smiled for the cameras

During his stay at Camp David, Trump kept a close eye on monitoring Hurricane Harvey in Texas, tweeting frequently about Harvey and other issues.

He will visit Texas on Tuesday to survey storm damage caused by Harvey, the first major U.S. natural disaster since he took office in January.

Harvey came ashore late on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the state for days, triggering record floods, tidal surges and tornadoes.

'The president will travel to Texas on Tuesday,' White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

'We are coordinating logistics with state and local officials, and once details are finalized, we will let you know. We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers.'

Ivanka and her family disembarked with her father, Melania and 11-year-old Barron on Sunday Trump was wearing a 'USA' cap, the same one he was spotted wearing when he was meeting with officials about Hurricane Harvey on Saturday

Melania looked chic in an all pink ensemble, with a checkered button-down paired with fuchsia jeans and hot pink flats

President Trump praised emergency officials for their response to Hurricane Harvey from Camp David on Saturday. The White House said Trump held a video conference with officials about the storm's aftermath (pictured)

The widespread flooding caused by Harvey in Texas, including in Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, is the first test of how Trump, who never previously held political office, responds to a major storm on his watch.

Since the president travels with a large retinue of Secret Service agents and under a rigorous security protocol, most administrations avoid visiting during the height of natural disasters for fear they will pull resources away from rescue and aid attempts.

During a video conference with his Cabinet on Sunday afternoon, Trump 'reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery,' according to a White House statement.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she regrets nothing about her response to the migrant crisis of 2015.

More than a million people from across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East entered Germany two years ago after Mrs Merkel opened her country's doors to Syrian refugees.

Her party's support dropped as a consequence and led to a surge in support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which pollsters say could win up to 10 percent in the September election.

But in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, the chancellor said she would do everything 'the same way again' if she had the opportunity.

No regrets: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she would change nothing about her response to the migrant crisis of 2015

'I'd make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again,' Merkel said.

'It was an extraordinary situation and I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint.

'Those kinds of extraordinary situations happen every once in a while in a country's history,' she added. 'The head of government has to act and I did.'

She also attacked EU countries that refused to accept migrants as part of a redistribution plan, explaining that such behaviour is 'not on'.

'That contradicts the spirit of Europe,' she said. 'We'll overcome that.

'It will take time and patience but we will succeed.'

Influx: More than a million people from across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East entered Germany two years ago after Mrs Merkel opened her country's doors to Syrian refugees

Decider: Mrs Merkel said it 'was an extraordinary situation and I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint'

Four weeks before the September 24 election, an Emnid opinion poll showed Merkel's conservatives would win 38 per cent, or 15 points ahead of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

That is up from 32 per cent in February but well below the 41.5 percent her party won in the last election in 2013.

Merkel, seeing a fourth term, has had to contend with loud and sustained heckling from demonstrators strongly opposed to her refugee policies so far on the campaign trail.

Pictured left: A man holds up a sign reading 'No violence against women' as he takes part in a demonstration in front of the cathedral in Cologne. On New Year's Eve 2015, there were sex attacks by migrants in the city. Pictured right: A long line of migrants in Hungary on the journey north during 2015

The volume and intensity of the protests have been especially strong in her home region in formerly communist eastern Germany.

But the 63-year-chancellor said she would not be kept away from areas where animosity towards her runs high.

'We're a democracy and everyone can freely express themselves in public the way they want,' she said. 'It's important that we don't go out of our way to avoid certain areas only because there are a bunch of people screaming.'

Her party's support dropped as a consequence and led to a surge in support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which pollsters say could win up to 10 percent in the September election. Pictured: AfD candidates and supporters react to the first predictions in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliamentary elections in March 2016

Support for Merkel and her party has recovered somewhat after the influx of refugees slowed in 2016 to 280,000 and fell even further to about 106,000 in the first seven months of this year.

Merkel said it was unfair that Greece and Italy were left on their own carrying the full burden of the refugee crisis 'simply because of their geography'.

She added she would not stop pushing for a distribution of refugees across the European Union.
Have you noticed you're scrubbing fewer squashed flies off your windscreen of late?

You're not alone. Drivers across the UK have been reporting an absence of flies, gnats, wasps and moths on their vehicles - prompting fears from scientists that such insects could be in decline.

And this is no new phenomenon, with experts noting a decline in insect numbers over the past few decades.

Drivers across the UK have been reporting less flies, gnats, wasps and moths than usual on their vehicles - prompting fears from scientists that such insects could be in decline

'Where have all the insects gone?' wondered Michael Groom of Teffont Evias in Wiltshire in a letter to the Telegraph newspaper. 'My windscreen remains clear whatever the speed.'

According to data collected by the Krefeld Entomological Society, a German amateur group of entomologists that monitored more than 100 nature reserves in western Europe since the Eighties, insect levels have fallen sharply in recent years.

In 2013, the group returned to one of its trapping sites from 1989 and found the number of insects had dropped by nearly 80 per cent, Science Mag reported. Analysis of further samples confirmed the phenomenon.

So why should we be worried?

According to data collected by the Krefeld Entomological Society, a German amateur group of entomologists that monitored more than 100 nature reserves in western Europe since the Eighties, insect levels have fallen sharply in recent years

HOW THE BEES ARE AFFECTED BY PESTICIDES 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

According to Dave Goulson, an ecologist at the University of Sussex who is working with Krefeld Entomological Society, other species are at risk, too.

'If you're an insect-eating bird living in that area, four-fifths of your food is gone in the last quarter-century, which is staggering,' he told the magazine earlier this year.

'One almost hopes that it's not representative - that it's some strange artifact.'

The so-called 'windscreen phenomenon' has been blamed by experts on the increasing use of pesticides over the past 50 years.

And it's not just the kind of insect you find on your windscreen that is affected.

Since 2006, bee colonies have declined by about a third due to the chemicals, as well as the loss of flower-rich grassland.

This was backed up by Matt Shadlow, chief executive of the insect charity Buglife, who told the paper: 'Yes, indeed this is a well-recognised phenomenon.

'Just today we had a member of the public phone up and say, unprompted, that "the front of my car is now devoid of insects, and there are virtually no moths in the headlights."'
She's one of Australia's top models, having worked with the likes of Victoria's Secret.

And Elyse Taylor has opened up about how she balances her busy career and being a single mother.

The 30-year-old, who shares daughter Lila, three, with ex Seth Campbell, told The Sun-Herald's Sunday Life: 'It's all about striving for balance.'

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'It's all about striving for balance': Elyse Taylor reveals how she juggles her modelling career and being a single mother

'It's all about striving for balance, being okay with saying no to jobs sometimes and making sure I get quality time with Lila,' Elyse said.

The beauty posed in a stunning photo shoot for the publication and revealed her beauty regime, saying she just cleanses her skin when she's not working.

'For hydration, I used to use a lot of cream moisturisers but as my skin has aged I've switched to oils,' she said.

Doting: 'It's all about striving for balance, being okay with saying no to jobs sometimes and making sure I get quality time with Lila,' Elyse said (she's pictured with her daughter)

Her tips and tricks: The beauty did a stunning shoot for the publication and revealed her beauty regime, saying she just cleanses her skin when she's not working

She also said she likes to use a highlighter for a makeup look, and wears mascara, saying 'less is more.'

In May last year, close friends of Elyse and ex Seth Campbell, confirmed their split to Daily Mail Australia.

The pair first tied the knot in August 2014, at Seth's family estate outside of New York.

Over: In May last year, close friends of Elyse and ex Seth Campbell, confirmed their split to Daily Mail Australia (pictured on their wedding day in August 2014)

'I'll only do it once': A month after the nuptials, Elyse said she was very serious about her marriage to Seth

'Elyse's main priority is the happiness and well-being of Lila,' a source said of Elyse at the time.

A month after the nuptials, Elyse said she was very serious about her marriage to Seth.

She told The Daily Telegraph at the time: 'I'll only do it once.'

'It was such an intense experience.

Late last year meanwhile, Elyse sparked speculation she had found new love, taking to Instagram to share a shot of herself hugging a mystery man, adding a love heart emoji in the caption.
Jeremy Paxman has waded into the BBC gender pay gap row by claiming female presenters could have negotiated better deals

Jeremy Paxman has waded into the BBC gender pay gap row by claiming female presenters could have negotiated better deals  and joking that they should be jolly glad to get out of the house.

After seeing his audience recoil in horror, the former Newsnight grand inquisitor was quick to add: That was a joke. J.O.K.E.

But when asked by journalist Ruth Wishart  who was interviewing him at the Edinburgh Book Festival last week  whether it was the fault of female TV personalities that they were paid less than their male colleagues, Paxman did not disagree.

I didnt say that  you said that, he replied, before adding: Its a market. Its a bogus market, I agree, but it is a market. This is the Kirsty Wark argument about Would I get more if I had a penis? People are not negotiating big enough deals if thats what they want.

However, one top female BBC presenter was quick to shoot down Paxmans argument last night by saying: The trouble is that many of us have agents  male in my case  to negotiate on our behalf.

The Corporation faced a torrent of criticism last month after revealing the pay of its biggest on-screen talent. Nearly two-thirds of its stars earning more than 150,000 a year are men, and some women are paid far less than their male colleagues for doing the same job.

Paxos former Newsnight colleagues Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark were among those who signed an open letter to director-general Tony Hall urging the Beeb to change its ways.

During the event last week, Paxman also claimed the Beeb would cut mens pay following the furore.

Ruth Wishart is pictured with Scottish poet Liz Lochhead. When Wishart asked whether it was the fault of female TV personalities that they were paid less than their male colleagues, Paxman did not disagree

He also declared that BBC salaries were too high across the board. There are really important jobs out there for which people should be paid better money. But if people can get paid for it, well good luck to them, I say.

However, the BBC told me last night that they werent worried by Paxos comments. A source said: Jeremy is entitled to his views. Weve committed to go further than anyone else and close the gender pay gap by 2020.

Paxman still presents BBC2s University Challenge, but he was not included on the earnings list because he is paid through an independent company. During his Newsnight days, he was reported to be on more than 1 million.

You won't BELIEVE what they tell me!

Kate Thornton admits TV presenting is one of her better jobs

I lived with a homeless person for TV, and even had a bath with him. He got tired of me after a couple of days and preferred homelessness.

Russell Brand confesses that he is even harder to live with than he is to watch on TV.

When I worked in a sexual health clinic, a guy took off his wedding ring and asked me what I was up to later. I thought, Do I look that desperate?

Kate Thornton admits TV presenting is one of her better jobs.

David Bowie told me the one thing that made him want to kill himself: people who said to him, My mum loves your records.

Writer Hanif Kureishi explains what upset his rock-star pal at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

I was drinking a cup of tea and suddenly in front of me was Paul McCartney. I was lost for words.

Former MP Alan Johnson recalls being star-struck on bumping into the ex-Beatle in Liverpool.

I only take half an hour in wardrobe and make-up. Im long past improving my appearance.

After decades of glamour, Dame Diana Rigg assures me that shes relaxed about growing older at a screening of ITVs Victoria.

Ive seen some low culture, trust me. Ive seen Ed Balls wearing almost nothing.

Judge Rinder reveals his time on Strictly wasnt all glitter robes.

I remember seeing U2 when they started. They werent great.

X Factor judge Louis Walsh reveals he actually isnt that good at spotting rising stars.
Its hard enough for politicians to be down with the kids but, as Theresa May found out last week, it can be totally baffling when you discover theyve nicknamed you after a bottle of shampoo.

When the PM met British athletes Perri Shakes-Drayton and Asha Philip at No 10, cheeky Perri, in what must have been a dare, referred to her as TRESemme.

When the PM met British athletes Perri Shakes-Drayton and Asha Philip at No 10, cheeky Perri, in what must have been a dare, referred to her as TRESemme

Its a joke among youngsters that if you say Theresa May quickly, her name sounds like the haircare brand.

Unfortunately for Perri, Mrs May had no idea what she was talking about.

Perri described the picture, above, on Twitter: When you think you are the class clown and call the PM Tresemme and she replies Come again? 

Edie Campbell is famous as a well-bred Vogue model with a passion for horse-riding, but shes finally revealed her wild side.

Edie and her sister Olympia hosted an Absolute Filth joint birthday in Northamptonshire over the weekend, and she certainly took the theme to heart.

Her godfather  Conde Nast chairman Nicholas Coleridge  posted this snap, right, of Edie wearing little more than body art with the caption: Beautiful and demure. One of those words is right!
Newlywed Pippa Middleton must have plenty of time on her hands these days  shes taken to making her own birthday cards, much to the irritation of fellow shoppers.

My spies spotted Pippa stocking up on card-making materials at a branch of Paperchase near her West London home ahead of hedge fund manager husband Jamess 42nd birthday.

My spies spotted Pippa stocking up on card-making materials at a branch of Paperchase ahead of hedge fund manager husband Jamess 42nd birthday

In fact, Pippa, who had her cocker spaniel Rafa and Jamess black labrador in tow, was buying so many items that other shoppers were forced to queue up behind her for ten minutes, while one of the dogs licked at their feet.

I hope Pippa took inspiration for Jamess birthday from her famously inane party-planning book, in which she gave superb advice.

A well-wrapped gift helps express how much thought youve put into it, she cannily pointed out. And dont forget to remove the price tag from the gift. Genius!

Will hunky James Longman never learn?

Dubbed the Beirut Beefcake during his time as a BBC foreign correspondent, James was often in trouble with his former bosses over his social media gaffes.

Now at US network ABC, he dropped another clanger by posing for a rather jolly selfie with colleagues outside Barcelonas Sagrada Familia  just hours after 13 people were murdered in a terror attack in the city.
Fans had counted her out of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show after not being one of the first wave of models to confirm they were chosen for the gig.

But on Saturday, after being seen leaving VS headquarters, Bella Hadid shared that she would be strutting in the show after all.

The 20-year-old stunner bared her cleavage in a shot confirming her spot in the lingerie brand's annual event, writing: '@victoriassecret I am so excited!..!!!!'

Busting with excitement: Bella Hadid took to Instagram on Saturday to confirm her spot in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show after there was speculation that she didn't make the cut

'I feel so crazy humbled to get the opportunity to be a part of this show again...Walking into the offices this year i felt so happy, healthy, and honored..

'I can't wait for another incredible experience!!! Congrats to all of the beautiful ladies I will be walking beside. I can't wait! Xx' she gushed.

Prior to the post, Bella was spotted stretching her enviably long and slender legs in pale blue blue skinny jeans and white high heels as she walked into the brand's New York offices.

For good measure: The ecstatic star shared another lingerie selfie on Instagram Stories

Strike a pose: Bella Hadid showed off her enviably slender legs in pale blue blue skinny jeans and cream high heels when she was spotted out in Midtown, Manhattan, NYC, on Saturday

The beautiful brunette teamed her jeans with a low-cut white blouse and waistcoat and she carried a small purse apparently made out of denim to match her outfit.

Bella's straight tresses swept her shoulders and she wore full make-up, including dark red lipstick, as she made her way into the building in Midtown, Manhatttan.

The 5ft 9ins celebrity smiled and waved as she left the building later.

Smile and wave: The 20-year-old model combined her jeans with a white blouse and waistcoat

On a mission: She was on her way to the Victoria's Secret headquarters for a meeting but has yet to be confirmed for the brand's glitzy winter show this year in Shanghai, China

On show: Bella's white blouse and waistcoat also gave a glimpse of her cleavage

Victoria's Secret opened it's first 'full assortment' store in the city in February, per WWD, so it's a fitting location for the show although the date has yet to be revealed.

If it follows the time table of previous years, it is likely to take place in November and be shown on CBS in December.

In 2016, Lady Gaga and Bella's ex The Weeknd both performed on the runway in the exquisite Grand Palais in Paris, France, while the Angels, Bella and sister Gigi Hadid, and Kendall Jenner strutted their stuff.

Read to move on: Her beautiful brunette tresses blew in the breeze as she left the VS building

Selfie time: Bella passed time in the car by taking videos of herself being chauffeured in NYC

She's an old hand: Bella walked the runway during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Le Grand Palais in Paris, France on November 30, 2016

In 2014 year the girls were at Earls Court in London where they walked to performances by Rihanna and The Weeknd.

Meanwhile, Bella appears in the September issue of Vogue China wearing Bulgari.

Both she and the jewelry and luxury goods brand posted Instagrams on Wednesday promoting her shoot.

Getting into China: Bella and model Anna Ewers covered the September issue of Vogue China

Sleek look: On Wednesday, Bulgari shared this picture of Bella wearing items from its line captioned, '#bulgari in the September issue of @voguechina' on Instagram
She is set to tell her side of the Bachelor In Paradise drama on Tuesday.

And ahead of her big interview, Corinne Olympios happily headed out to West Hollywood's Catch restaurant.

The 25-year-old showed her playful side, as she laughed and jokingly stuck out her tongue during her night out.

Grabbing dinner: Corinne Olympios, 25, happily headed out to West Hollywood's Catch LA

Corinne wore a prairie-inspired, dark dress layered under a leather jacket.

The long-haired blonde added a pair of white, mid-calf boots and accessorized with a soft pink handbag and delicate jewelry.

The reality star chose a natural look for make-up, and wore her hair in her go-to effortless style.

A child at heart: The reality star showed her playful side, as she laughed and jokingly stuck out her tongue during her night out

Outfit choice: Corinne wore a prairie-inspired, dark dress layered under a leather jacket. She was joined by a pal for the evening

Following a stint on the Bachelor, Corinne joined Bachelor in Paradise. She and co-star DeMario Jackson were caught in a whirlwind of drama.

Production of the show briefly halted in June, followed by an investigation into an alleged 'sexual misconduct' between the duo. An investigation revealed that no wrongdoing took place.

DeMario shared his side of the story last Tuesday, and next Tuesday, Corinne will share hers.

Not good: Following a stint on the Bachelor, Corinne joined Bachelor in Paradise. She and co-star DeMario Jackson were caught in a whirlwind of drama

Ahead of the event, the Florida native spoke with reporters on Thursday to share how she's coping with the situation, according to Us Weekly.

'[I've been doing] a lot of yoga, a lot of therapy, just family time. We're a really close family,' she said.

'I've had many different experiences with The Bachelor. All positive, all good. There was a setback, but everything really just comes from me and how I'm feeling.

'I always try to just come being the best I can be, the best Corinne I can be, I guess.'
He's The Chase's self-described 'Supernerd' who surprisingly has become a sex symbol, with his role on Hell's Kitchen.

And in The Sunday Telegraph, Issa Schultz opened up on his newfound status, telling the publication 'I'm naturally shy.'

The 33-year-old added that he's nowhere near as popular as co-star Gaz Beadle, 'who say's he's been with 1000 women.'

'I'm naturally shy': Issa Schultz, 33, spoke on being a sex symbol in The Sunday Telegraph, and jokes he's not like Hell's Kitchen co-star Gaz Beadle, 29, who's 'been with 1000 women'

'I am naturally quite shy. I think that's held me back. I'm not like (Hell's Kitchen co-star) Gaz (Beadle) from Geordie Shore who says he's been with 1000 women,' Issa joked to the publication.

Describing himself as 'old-fashioned', Issa went on to say that he's not on dating app Tinder, and wouldn't even know how to use it.

'I do not have that app where you swipe to date people. That's how up with it (Tinder) I am, I don't even know what it's called.

'I would have been happier dating back in the 90s where you just met people through friends rather than from behind a computer.'

Not online: Describing himself as 'old-fashioned', Issa went on to say that he's not on dating app Tinder, and wouldn't even know how to use it: 'I do not have that app where you swipe to date people. That's how up with it (Tinder) I am, I don't even know what it's called'

Passing on tips: Geordie Shore star Gaz, who's expecting a child with model Emma McVey, taught Issa some skills with the ladies, last week, during an episode on Hell's Kitchen

Gaz, 29, who's expecting a child with model Emma McVey, taught Issa some skills with the ladies, last week, during an episode on Hell's Kitchen.

A woman introduced herself to Issa and said she was a big fan of his.

Gary convinced Issa to kiss her on the cheek and tried to get him to write his number on a napkin before she left.

He didn't, but the woman left her number and a message for Issa on a napkin, with Issa saying how it's never happened to him before.

Gary laughed about how excited Issa was getting, saying to camera: 'If that's how excited Issa is getting after getting a girl's number at 33 years old, I'd hate to see him after having sex!'

On-screen antics: A woman introduced herself to Issa and said she was a big fan of his. Gary convinced Issa to kiss her on the cheek and tried to get him to write his number on a napkin before she left

First time for everything: He didn't, but the woman left her number and a message for Issa on a napkin, with Issa saying how it's never happened to him before

Issa meanwhile said how shocked he was at his feat: 'Gaz has taught me not just cooking, but his moves. I've learned from the best.'

Back in April 2015, Geordie Shore star Gaz revealed to Daily Mail Australia that he has bedded over 1,000 women in recent years, prior to his romance with Emma.

He said of his bedroom antics: 'It's with the job. If I wasn't doing Geordie Shore I would probably only be on 250 my whole life. An average lad nowadays is on 100 - easy.'

'If you're doing 12 appearances a month and if you slept with a girl every time that's 144 girls a year.'
Her Friday night was spent on a date with 24-year-old model boyfriend Younes Bendjima at LA hotspot Poppy.

And on Saturday morning, Kourtney Kardashian, 38, was back in mommy mode as she made a Target run with son Mason, 7, and daughter Penelope, 5.

Following their mommy-and-me time, the eldest Kardashian sister took time for herself as she posed for a mirror selfie.

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Mommy duty: Kourtney Kardashian took her kids to Target on Saturday morning in Canoga Park, California

Choosing a much more casual outfit than Friday's plunging black velvet LBD by Saint Laurent, the eldest Kardashian daughter wore a white bodysuit without a bra for the shopping trip.

The reality star was still hard to miss in her baggy yellow pants that made her stand out from the crowd.

She held onto her children's hands for the outing at the trendy Topanga Mall in Canoga Park, California.

A bodyguard carried bags from Target and Gap as he watched over the famous family.

Toned down: Her look for the trip to Target with Mason, seven, and Penelope, five, was appropriate for the shopping trip

Taking time for herself: The reality star later posed for a mirror selfie, clad in a neon swimsuit

Bean me up: The family also stopped by The Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf for refreshing drinks

Following an exhausting day of shopping, Kourtney took time for herself.

The reality star posed for a mirror selfie, clad in a neon swimsuit.

It is not known if the star intended to go for a swim, or simply felt the need to share a photo.

The night before: The 38-year-old reality star stunned the night before at LA hotspot Poppy

In 2015, Kourtney split from Mason and Penelope's father Scott Disick, with whom she also has two-year-old Reign, citing his partying as the cause of the break up.

However, Scott and Kourtney have been seen together recently for the sake of their kids.

Kourtney and Younes have recently returned from a romantic trip together in Egypt.

Not-so-mellow yellow: Kourt's pants were hard to miss and made her stand out from the crowd

Wild: Stylish Penelope sported a fuzzy pair of leopard print slippers and a Kids Supply dress

Offspring: The children's father is Scott Disick, they also have son Reign, two, together

The breakdown of Scott and Kourtney's relationship came after he was pictured getting close to stylist Chloe Bartoli in Monaco in the summer of 2015.

After the split, Kardashian was spotted with 23-year-old Justin Bieber before getting closer to her current model beau.

Still, it's reported she tries to keep her love life and her children separate, as Younes has not ever been spotted around her three kids with Disick.

Moving on: After nearly a decade with Scott, who she never married, Kourtney has been dating 24-year-old model Younes Bendjima

Keeping Up: The Kardashian family celebrates 10 years of their hit E! reality show this year

She talked to The Hollywood Reporter about her most difficult episode of KUWTK - when she had to talk about their split after nearly a decade together.

'I had a lot of anxiety about it, and finally said let's just get this over with. I sat down and started crying. You go through something, and then you move past it.

'Then you do your interview, and get all riled up again. And then you see the episode, and start seeing all these comments [on social media].'

Kourtney and Scott never married during their relationship, although he did reveal on an April episode of KUWTK that he had popped the question at one point.

He said, 'We were like, "Lets just put the ring aside and well talk about it another day." Never spoke about it again.'

Quality time: Penelope looked to enjoy the shopping excursion with her mother on Saturday
Zoe Ball has reportedly been finding solace with ex-husband Norman Cook following the death of her boyfriend Billy Yates three months ago.

According to The Sun, Norman, who DJs as Fatboy Slim, has supported Zoe through her heartache after Billy committed suicide in May.

Billy, 40, was tragically found hanged in his flat in Putney sending Zoe into a spiral of grief.

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Former flames: Zoe Ball has reportedly been finding solace with ex-husband Norman Cook following the death of her boyfriend Billy Yates three months ago

The couple were seen on Monday overcome with emotion as eldest son Woody collected his GCSE exam results outside school.

Afterwards Zoe and Norman were said to be enjoying dinner and looked to be getting on great with lots of laughter.

The source said:'Despite their split they looked very happy to be in each other's company.'

Tragic: Zoe's boyfriend Billy Yates, 40, (pictured) was tragically found hanged in his flat in Putney in May sending Zoe into a spiral of grief

They added: 'While they are just good friends, it's an amazing achievement considering they have ended their marriage.

'It's been a very difficult few months for Zoe but Norman has played a massive part in building back up her happiness levels.'

MailOnline have contacted Zoe and Norman's representatives for comment.

Proud parents: The couple were seen this week overcome with emotion as eldest son Woody collected his GCSE exam results outside school and reportedly went for a family meal after

Good pals: Zoe and Norman split last September but have remained firm friends and live on the same beachfront esplanade in Hove, East Sussex

The couple split last September but have remained firm friends and live on the same beachfront esplanade in Hove, East Sussex.

Zoe, who hosts The Big Family Cooking Showdown and also presents her own BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday afternoons, was left devastated earlier this year after the death of her boyfriend, Billy Yates in May.

Cameraman Billy, 40, was found hanged in his flat in Putney, South West London after suffering from depression.

In control: Meanwhile the legendary DJ has been cutting up a rug at Leeds Festival to packed crowds

Turning it up to 11: Playing under his guise Fatboy Slim he played his way through a musical journey of current hits and retro records

Banging tunes: The DJ couldn't resist a good old fist pump while wheeling out the classics

Meanwhile the legendary DJ was seen performing at Leeds Festival on Saturday to packed crowds.

Playing under his guise Fatboy Slim he played his way through a musical journey of current hits and retro records.

Leicester rockers Kasabian were also on hand to play a hit packed set from their fifteen year career.

On fire! Leicester rockers Kasabian were also on hand to play a hit packed set from their fifteen year career

Mad fer it! Liam Gallagher also pleased fans with his hit laden back catalogue performing Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger and Rock N Roll Star

RKid: Sporting a shaved head and classic Stone Island parka - the star carried his usual pair of maracas near the mic while performing

Liam Gallagher also pleased fans with his hit laden back catalogue performing Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger and Rock N Roll Star.

The Mancunian has experienced a resurgence in popularity of late following an impressive solo album debut and string of charity raising performances in aid of victims of the Manchester bombings.

Sporting a shaved head and classic Stone Island parka - the star carried his usual pair of maracas near the mic while performing.

Charlie XCX also cut an effortlessly cool figure in a Nineties inspired shell-suit.

A pair of John Lennon shades pushing back her long dark hair was enough to glam up her retro look while Puma Classic trainers kept up the jazzy look.

Retro: Charlie XCX also cut an effortlessly cool figure in a Nineties inspired shell-suit

Gangsta chic: A pair of John Lennon shades pushing back her long dark hair was enough to glam up her retro look while Puma Classic trainers kept up the jazzy look

Hip hop legend Eminem was also playing at Leeds sister festival Reading.

The uber-talented lyricist hasn't performed in the UK since his three sold out Wembley Stadium shows in 2015.

Reeling off a litany of unforgettable songs, the Detroit rapper headlined the festival with aplomb.

Real Slim Shady: Hip hop legend Eminem was also playing at Leeds sister festival Reading

Rap God: The uber-talented lyricist hasn't performed in the UK since his three sold out Wembley Stadium shows in 2015

Classic: Reeling off a litany of unforgettable songs, the Detroit rapper headlined the festival with aplomb
He's the former Triple J and ABC radio host.

And on Sunday, Adam Spencer revealed to Confidential that he and his wife of over 10 years Melanie Mossman split some time ago.

The 48-year-old said they parted ways more than two and a half years ago and pointed out that no-one noticed until now.

Marriage over: And on Sunday, Adam Spencer revealed to Confidential that he and his wife of over 10 years Melanie Mossman had split some time ago

'We've been separated for two and a half years and I'm surprised I've managed to evade the pages of Sydney Confidential in that time,' he said.

'I guess that goes to show the level of D-list celebrity I now inhabit.'

'Most importantly, the girls are handling it as well as you could hope,' he continued.

It's been a while! 'We've been separated for 2.5 years and I'm surprised I've managed to evade the pages of Sydney Confidential in that time'

Loves his kids: And it's been no secret Adam who shares custody of his two children has moved on

And it's been no secret Adam, who shares custody of his two children with Melanie, has moved on.

Taking to Instagram, the comedian often shares photos of his daughters and new girlfriend Yana Podroubaeva.

In a recent photo, the massive Sydney Swans AFL fan was seen posing with his new woman in front of the Swans Ladies Lunch media wall.

New love: Taking to Instagram, the comedian frequently shares photos of his new girlfriend Yana Podroubaeva

Loved up: In a recent photo, the massive Sydney Swans AFL fan was seen posing with his new woman in front of the Swans Ladies Lunch media wall

'Perfect Friday to celebrate all kind of happy things,' he said.

Last month the pair both partook in the Dry July challenge.

'Close to the end of my 10th @dryjuly and humbled by the $30m we've raised since hatching the idea on my radio show in 2008,' he said.
Haaz Sleiman of Nurse Jackie proudly came out as gay in a candid Facebook video Saturday.

The 41-year-old actor proclaimed 'I am a gay, Muslim, Arab-American man' in the social media clip, while also offering a cheeky TMI tidbit about his life saying 'Not only am I gay, but Im also a bottom.'

The Lebanon-born talent's announcement comes a full eight years after he told The Advocate that he identified as straight during a 2009 interview.

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'I am a gay, Muslim, Arab-American man:' Haaz Sleiman of Nurse Jackie proudly came out as gay in a candid Facebook video Saturday

Haaz, who was the out and proud character 'Mo-Mo' De La Cruz in the beloved Showtime series, said he was inspired to go public after learning that more LGBTQ Americans have already been killed this year than the whole of 2016.

He wasn't playing straight in the clip, where he said 'I am a gay, Muslim, Arab-American man.'

The Wayne State University alum continued, offering a blushworthy description of his preferences: 'And Im going to take it even further: Not only am I gay, but Im also a bottom.

He dialed up the sass, adding 'Not only am I a bottom, but Im also a total bottom which means I like it up you know where.'

Haaz wasn't afraid to offer his opinion to bigots and haters.

Not mincing words: Haaz (above in 2015) wasn't afraid to offer his opinion to bigots and haters, saying If you ever come to me, to kill me just because Im gay I will destroy you'

'And I say this to all the homophobes living in the United States of America and across the globe Why not? If you ever come to me, to kill me just because Im gay I will destroy you.'

'I might be gay and I might be a nice guy, but dont get it twisted because I will f*** you up,' he finished.

The Covert Affairs actor also explained how he ended up calling himself straight while talking to The Advocate almost a decade ago.

Taking a stand: The Lebanon-born actor said was inspired to go public after learning that more LGBTQ Americans have already been killed this year than the whole of 2016

TMI! The Wayne State University alum also offered a blushworthy description of his preferences dishing 'Not only am I gay, but Im also a bottom'

'I told Showtime only on one condition, no personal questions. The Advocate agreed,' he wrote on social media.

But the LGBT mag didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

'At the end of the half hour interview over the phone the idiot interviewer, whom I think was gay, asked me if was gay or straight (no personal questions)

Blindsided by the question, Haaz blurted out his answer without thinking.

'I froze:' The Covert Affairs actor (above in 2015) also explained how he ended up calling himself straight while talking to The Advocate almost a decade ago, saying he was blindsided by the question after the magazine agreed to not ask anything 'personal'

'I was so shocked. I froze. My body started shaking. And then I lied and said I was straight. Shame on gay people who are not kind to other gay people. He did that on purpose.'

In addition to his work on Jackie, Sleiman has enjoyed a host of other compelling projects.

In 2007 he earned an independent Spirit nomination for his role in The Visitor.

Most recently, Raaz played Dr. Rabia in The State, a Channel 4 mini-series about British citizens who join ISIS in Syria.
She's the tart-tongued conservative commentator who recently came under fire for jokingly saying she would have 'run over' Muslim activist Yasmin Abdel-Magid.

And on Sunday, Prue MacSween once again hit headlines as she clashed with Peter FitzSimons in a fiery debate about the defacement of a Captain Cook statue.

'The Aborigines were, I believe, reasonably well treated,' the outspoken star stated during her appearance on Weekend Today.

Back in the headlines: On Sunday's edition of Weekend Today, conservative commentator Prue MacSween stated that 'The Aborigines were reasonably well treated' as she clashed with Peter FitzSimons

Prue's comments came as she and left-wing journalist Peter discussed the vandalisation of statues of Captain Cook and Governor Macquarie in Sydney's Hyde Park.

On Friday night, the historic monuments were defaced with graffiti reading 'No pride in genocide' and 'Change The Date.'

Peter expressed shock at Prue's claim regarding Indigenous treatment at the hands of white settlers, remarking 'reasonably well-treated?'

Fiery clash: Prue and Peter loudly disagreed during the segment

'They were,' Prue shot back in reply, adding '[Governor] Phillip was very kind to them in a lot of ways.'

However, the outspoken pundit did concede that 'there were some acts of genocide in certain parts of Australia'.

Prue then defiantly stated: 'Let's learn and move on. Why [do] we have to flagellate ourselves all the time?'

Statue debate: On Friday night, historic monuments of white settlers were defaced with graffiti reading 'No pride in genocide' and 'Change The Date'.

She added: 'We throw billions of dollars at the Indigenous community to try and help them. What more are we expected to do?'

A fired-up Peter replied: 'What I want us to do is not wave a dismissive hand [that] 'the Aborigines were well treated.' In our history, Aboriginal people, there are appalling things that happened'.

Prue held steadfast to her beliefs throughout the segment, also remarking: 'It disturbs me that people want to enter into revisionism of history'.

Firing back: Peter wore his trademark red bandana as he argued with conservative Prue

However, the two talking heads did find some common ground, both slamming the defacement of the statues.

Peter labelled the perpetrator, who is still at large', 'a d**khead'.

Sunday's clash comes just weeks after Prue attracted ire for her statements about Yasmin Abdel-Magid.

Despite backlash, the tart-tongued commentator refused to retract her opinions, writing on Twitter: 'To all you festering, humourless Twitter ferals. Go tell someone who cares. Get a life'.
Mel B's English mother Andrea Brown has agreed to move from Leeds to Los Angeles to help support her through legal battles against her second husband Stephen Belafonte and ex-nanny Lorraine Gilles.

The platinum-blonde sales manager and property developer tweeted on Wednesday: 'Start spreading the news my visa approved lookout spongebob Browns r back in town!'

It came a month after Brown (born Dixon) revealed she overstayed her previous 90-day ESTA by just one day and the American embassy wouldn't let her fly back to the States.

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Mommie dearest: Mel B's English mother Andrea Brown (pictured in 1997) has agreed to move from Leeds to Los Angeles to help support her through legal battles against her second husband Stephen Belafonte and ex-nanny Lorraine Gilles

Andrea is no doubt eager to reunite with the 42-year-old artist formerly known as Scary Spice and her three daughters from three different men - Madison, nearly 6; Phoenix, 18; and Angel, 10.

'4 the 1st time in almost 10yrs I can go 2 bed knowing my daughter and the kids r safe no more abuse 4 any of us,' the grandmother tweeted back on April 12.

The Chocolate City actress filed for divorce from the 42-year-old producer on March 20, listing their official separation date as December 28.

According to TMZ, Mel is under great financial strain paying the admitted domestic abuser $40K a month in court-ordered spousal support as well as $140K for his legal fees.

The platinum-blonde sales manager and property developer tweeted on Wednesday: 'Start spreading the news my visa approved lookout spongebob Browns r back in town!'

'Invallid': It came a month after Brown (born Dixon) revealed she overstayed her previous 90-day ESTA by just one day and the American embassy wouldn't let her fly back to the States

Grandmother: Andrea (2-L) will reunite with the 42-year-old artist formerly known as Scary Spice (L) and her three daughters - (L-R) Madison, nearly 6; Phoenix, 18; and Angel, 10

Warring couple: The Chocolate City actress filed for divorce from the 42-year-old producer on March 20, listing their official separation date as December 28 (pictured in 2016)

Split: According to TMZ, Mel is under great financial strain paying the admitted domestic abuser $40K a month in court-ordered spousal support as well as $140K for his legal fees

Unemployed Belafonte's last producing credit (not involving his estranged wife) was Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans way back in 2009.

Brown has allegedly accused Stephen of regular beatings, paying for Lorraine's abortion after a three-way, dropping $21k on a tattoo, and showing staff Isis beheading videos.

The warring biracial couple - battling for custody over little Madison - originally met on the 2007 set of Talk and they were married for nearly a decade after eloping in Las Vegas.

The former Spice Girl stands to lose another $2.2M next summer if German-born Gilles wins her defamation lawsuit for Mel calling her a 'homewrecker, prostitute, and extortionist' - according to TMZ.

Threesome: The former Spice Girl stands to lose another $2.2M next summer if German-born Gilles (M) wins her defamation lawsuit for Mel calling her a 'homewrecker, prostitute, and extortionist'

With her husband and attorneys Tuesday: Speaking of visas, the pretty presenter's mother Andrea frequently expresses her disgust for both Belafonte and 26-year-old Lorraine (L)

The grandmother tweeted to her 5,795 followers on August 4: 'Did [Gilles] marry Stephens friend [Michael Bleau] for a visa? After getting the sack?'

Speaking of visas, the pretty presenter's mother Andrea frequently expresses her disgust for both Belafonte and 26-year-old Lorraine.

The stone mason tweeted to her 5,795 followers on August 4: 'Did [Gilles] marry Stephens friend [Michael Bleau] for a visa? After getting the sack?'

Brown currently judges the 12th season of America's Got Talent - airing Tuesdays and Wednesdays on NBC - alongside Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Simon Cowell, and host Tyra Banks.
He is Kevin McCallister to his fans, but to her, he is her godfather.

And on Saturday, Paris Jackson wished Macaulay Culkin a Happy Birthday on Instagram Stories.

The 19-year-old beauty shared an adorable photo of themselves along with her special message.

Sending her love: On Saturday, Paris Jackson, 19, wished Macaulay Culkin, 37, a Happy Birthday on Instagram Stories

In the throwback picture, Paris is seen sitting on top of the former Home Alone star as he hugs her and smiles.

'Happy burfday I love u. Make 37 your b****,' wrote the teen.

The two are close, and Paris occasionally visits with the star when she's in New York.

Good pals: The two are close, and Paris occasionally visits with the star when she's in New York. They are pictured in The Big Apple in January

Bonding moment: Back in 2016, the pretty teen also took to social media to share snaps of herself painting the actor's toenails

The duo's friendship is rooted in the bond Macaulay had with her late father Michael Jackson.

Recently, Paris and Macaulay received matching ink on their arms of what looked to be a spoon.

Back in 2016, the pretty teen also took to social media to share snaps of herself painting the actor's toenails.

Where it began: The duo's closeness is rooted in the friendship Macaulay had with her late father Michael Jackson. Paris is seen in LA earlier this month

Aside from Michael Jackson, something else the duo have in common is a career in showbiz.

Macaulay will next star in the Seth Green-directed comedy, Changeland, alongside Breckin Meyer and Brenda Song.

As for Paris, she will star in Gringo alongside Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried and David Oyelowo.
Fans have been patiently awaiting to watch Australia's first celebrity Bachelorette Sophie Monk find the man of her dreams.

And although the lucky man's identity has not yet been announced, on Sunday, Confidential revealed why it's taken the 37-year-old so long to find her happily ever after.

Speaking to one of Sophie's former radio co-hosts Matty Acton, he declared Sophie's sweet antics were to blame.

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Her problem: On Sunday, Confidential reported that her former radio co-host Matty Acton believed Sophie Monk was still single because she's too sweet

'Because she is such a nice person, she can get walked over a bit and treated badly and she just takes it,' he revealed.

'I've been friends with her when she has been in some of her terrible relationships.'

With filming assumed to have wrapped up, last week, Sophie said she chose her career over her love life.

Too sweet? 'Because she is such a nice person, she can get walked over a bit and treated badly and she just takes it'

'Living in LA for 10 years, I've dated high-profile people like actors and rock stars, but that's not at all what I've been looking for,' she said to Confidential.

'I'm so lucky to do what I do....but the one thing you do sacrifice is a really healthy, good relationship.'

But after returning home, things seem to be looking up for the starlet with the Courier Mail reporting that the former Bardot member had found love on the show.

Her way: Revealing she wasn't at all 'afraid to call people out', her cutthroat attitude helped weed out the men she wasn't interested in

'It's going really well. She is in love,' said their source.

Revealing she wasn't at all 'afraid to call people out', her cutthroat attitude helped weed out the men she wasn't interested in.

Some of Sophie's past partners have included Benji Maddern, Sam Worthington and Eric Grothe Jr.
It's set to be one of the biggest fights of the year, with scores of fans descending upon Sin City to watch legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather go head-to-head with UFC fighter Conor McGregor.

And Vanessa Hudgens looked like a total knockout as she arrived to the fight's pre-event VIP party in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The actress, 28, packed a punch on the hot pink carpet in a slinky white dress that flashed a little cleavage.

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K-O! Vanessa Hudgens looked like a total knockout as she arrived to the fight's pre-event VIP party in Las Vegas on Saturday

Vanessa glammed up the House of CB dress with an array of jewelry, including a layered necklace, rings, and bracelets.

She wore her long, silky locks down, while bringing out her gorgeous complexion with smoky eye shadow and pink blush.

And to top off the look, Vanessa rocked a pair of strappy beige heels.

She's a 10! She wore her long, silky locks down, while bringing out her gorgeous complexion with smoky eye shadow and pink blush

Date night! Hudgens was joined on the red carpet by her boyfriend, Austin Butler, who sharpened up in a black suit

Happy: The pair looked infatuated with each other as they cosied up for cameras

Say cheese! She later posed playfully with the World Boxing Council's Money Belt

She was joined on the red carpet by her boyfriend, Austin Butler, who sharpened up in a black suit.

Karlie Kloss turned heads in a black A.L.C. gown with thigh-high appeal.

The 6foot2 stunner offered a hint of cleavage with an off-center peep hole while metallic studs lined the edges of her frock.

Jeepers peepers! Karlie Kloss turned heads in a black gown with thigh-high appeal and an off-center peep hole atop her bust

What a stud! Metallic studs lined the edges of the supermodel's frock

Thigh's the limit! The 6foot2 stunner flaunted her endless legs with a thigh-high slit

Hot metal! The St. Louis native topped off her look with a chic ponytail and silver heels

The St. Louis native topped off her look with a chic ponytail, silver heels and a metallic clutch to match her garments studded accents.

Olivia Munn dazzled the fuchsia carped in an sparkling Balmain mini dress.

The ex of Aaron Rodgers was all smiles while showing off her long, tan stems in the flirty frock.

Mini me! Olivia Munn dazzled the fuchsia carped in an bedazzled long-sleeve mini dress

Girly girl: The starlet glammed up the look with tousled curls, firey, red lips and a matching manicure

Leg's go! munn was all smiles while showing off her long, tan stems in the flirty frock

What a Foxx! The Newsroom lead teamed up with Jamie Foxx for a punchy pink carpet portrait

She glammed up the look with tousled curls, firey, red lips and a matching manicure.

The Newsroom lead teamed up with Jamie Foxx for a punchy pink carpet portrait.

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were some of the biggest names sitting ringside.

Playful pals! The rumored beau of Katie Holmes and ex of Aaron Rodgers played around at the Showtime hosted event

Creme of the crop! The Shades Of Blue lead was chic in long-sleeved creme body-con dress

Date night: The former Yankee looked classic in a suit and tie while doting upon his love

Put a ring on it! Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were some of the biggest names sitting ringside

The Shades Of Blue lead and MLB All-Star made a chic appearance, with JLo donning an long-sleeved Hamel body-con dress while the former Yankee was classic in a suit and tie.

The All I Have artist added a simple buy glam touch with hoop earrings and a polished half-ponytail.

Leonardo DiCaprio was also there.

African jewel! South African beauty Charlize Theron looked classic in a plunging black number with oodles of jewelry

Guy's night! Bruce Willis enjoyed the event with two of his close pals

Always incognito: Leonardo DiCaprio kept under the radar with a dark cap and sunglasses

The Oscar winner kept under the radar with a dark Detroit cap and sunglasses.

Nick Jonas cut a casual figure in dark pants and a distressed baseball cap.

The Jealous singer added a stylish touch to his look in a button up that featured leather pockets and contrasting panels while throwing in some sparkle with a handsome wristwatch.

Oh brother! Nick Jonas cut a casual figure in dark pants and a distressed baseball cap

Can't hide it! The Jealous singer added a stylish touch with a button up that featured leather pockets

South African beauty Charlize Theron looked classic in a plunging black number with oodles of jewelry.

Jamie Foxx also graced the fight in all black, hiding his eyes behind larger than life shades while keeping simple with a dark tee and matching pants

Chance The Rapper looked understated in a green Ralph Lauren Polo jacket and his iconic 3 baseball hat while stowing a cigarette behind his ear.

Night out! Jamie Foxx graced the fight in all black, hiding his eyes behind larger than life shades while keeping simple with a dark tee and matching pants

Taking a Chance! The Chicago rapper looked understated in a green Ralph Lauren Polo jacket and his iconic 3 baseball hat while stowing a cigarette behind his ear

Wowza: Jasmine Sanders rocked the hot pink carpet in a classy LBD and long coat

Model Jasmine Sanders rocked the hot pink carpet in a classy LBD and long coat courtesy of Alberta Ferretti.

Bruce Willis, who iconically played boxer Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction, was handsome in a light blue shirt tucked into his jeans

Emmy winning actor Barry Pepper was dapper in a black jacket and matching tee.

Party Harden! NBA player James Harden enjoyed the evening in white pants, a corduroy coat and his signature beard

Don Cheadle kept simple in a black tee, grey hat, nighttime sunglasses

Golden Globe winner Don Cheadle kept simple in a black tee, grey hat, nighttime sunglasses.

Nick Cannon sported a motorcycle jacket, round glasses, and matching turban to the fight.

NBA player James Harden enjoyed the evening in white pants, a corduroy coat and his signature beard.

Tee'd off! Emmy winning actor Barry Pepper was dapper in a black jacket and tee while Nick Cannon sported a motorcycle jacket, round glasses, and matching turban to the fight

Mean jeans! Bruce Willis, who iconically played boxer Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction, was handsome in a light blue shirt tucked into his jeans

Backstreet Boys Nick Carter and AJ McLean attended.

Carter made a subtly nod to Irish fighter McGregor with his black clover cap while McLean displayed his chest tattoos.

Entourage's Jeremy Piven donned glasses, a forest green tee and handsome watch to the event.

Watch me now! Entourage's Jeremy Piven donned glasses, a forest green tee and handsome watch

Boys will be boys! Backstreet Boys Nick Carter and AJ McLean attended. Carter made a subtly nod to Irish fighter McGregor with his black clover cap

The stars have taken over Las Vegas for what is being billed as the Fight of the Century, as Conor McGregor gets set to take on the undefeated Floyd Mayweather later tonight.

UFC fighter McGregor, from Dublin, is transitioning into boxing for the first time to fight Mayweather.

The money-spinning showdown is likely to break all records and surpass the $600million generated by Mayweather's 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao.

Croc talk! Darius Rucker paired croc-skinned kicks with blue jeans and a polo at the pre-party

Hat's off! Cedric The Entertainer looked summer chic in a pink linen shirt, red pin dot pants, and a matching straw hat

Run with it!: Actress Aisha Tyler also posed with the expensive belt before the match

The winner of the match will also get the WBC's Money Belt, which is adorned with 3,360 diamonds, 600 sapphires, 160 emeralds and approximately 3.3 pounds of 24-karat gold.

An audience packed with 20,000 ravenous fans is expected at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, USA, with private jets ferrying celebrities into Vegas as bets worth more than a million dollars are placed on the bout.

Mayweather, who has an incredible undefeated record of 49-0 to his name, has come out of retirement to fight the younger McGregor.

Good luck charm: The winner of the fight will receive the Money Belt, seen here with Sanders

White hot: Demi Lovato was seen making her arrival in a low-cut white dressby Christian Siriano before heading inside to sing the national anthem

He's a fan: Sin City star Bruce Willis attended the Showtime, WME IME and Mayweather Promotions VIP Pre-Fight party

The men: Actor Nick Cannon and rapper Meek Mill were also on hand to take in all the action

Last night the pair faced off for the final time before they meet in the ring, with both men making appearances at the official weigh-in.

After stripping down to his boxer briefs for the weigh-in, 'Mystic Mac', as McGregor is known, left little to the imagination as he faced off with the undefeated boxing legend known as Money.

Muscles were not the only thing bulging during the spectacular stare-down, with veins visibly popping in McGregor's neck as he screamed in the face of his more composed opponent.

Comparison: William H Macy compared his belt to the over-the-top prize for photographers

Thoughtful: Vanessa posted this saucy shot before the red carpet with the caption 'Pondering who's gonna win the fight tonight'
She's the stunning New Zealand-born model who has been confirmed to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show for the second time.

And on Sunday, Georgia Fowler took to Instagram to thank the casting directors for giving her another opportunity.

Acknowledging the other models who missed the chance to model in the 2017 show, the 25-year-old said she was honoured to be reliving her dream.

Grateful: On Sunday, Georgia Fowler took to Instagram to thank the casting directors for giving her another opportunity

'There are so many beautiful woman in the world, and so many hard working models casting for a coveted spot in the biggest catwalk in the world,' she captioned.

'To say I'm humbled to be included amongst these stars is an understatement. Thank you to everyone at @victoriassecret for noticing my dedication allowing me to relive my dream for the second time around.'

The photo saw Georgia dressed in her sea green bejeweled lingerie ensemble she donned during last year's fashion show.

Thanking her lucky stars: 'To say I'm humbled to be included amongst these stars is an understatement'

In for a second time: Earlier in the week, Georgia revealed the exciting news to her 311,000 Instagram followers

Earlier in the week, Georgia, who had auditioned unsuccessfully five times before landing the gig revealed the exciting news to her 311,000 Instagram followers.

'With all things celestial this week...I can say, I am truly over the moon to be confirmed in the #VSFashionShow!' she announced.

With Georgia the only New Zealander to make the cut, Australian models who have also been confirmed to walk include Kelly Gale and newcomer Victoria Lee.

Back again: Australian model Kelly Gale has been cast for the fourth consecutive time

First time! New-comer Victoria Lee is also set to grace the runway later this year

With all three girls over the moon after securing one of the most sought after and coveted spots, veterans Shanina Shaik and Bridget Malcolm seemed to have both missed out.

Daily Mail has reached out for comment to both Shanina and Bridget.

Although no official confirmation from the lingerie brand, the show has been heavily rumoured to be held in Shangahi, China this year and will air in early December.
She's known for flashing the flesh whenever she gets the chance.

But on Saturday, Blac Chyna was covered from head to toe in a floral-print Adidas tracksuit as she visited a nail salon in Encino, California.

The mother-of-two, 29, sported a blue wig and a Gucci cap for the outing and finished her look off with a pair of fuzzy pink flat sandals.

Nailed it: Blac Chyna was uncharacteristically covered up for a trip to the nail salon in Encino, California on Saturday

Blac was back to her usual attire later that same night when she showed off in a series of Snapchats.

Showing off the blonde wig she switched into, the video vixen gave fans a glimpse of her generous cleavage as she stared seductively into the camera.

Her dermal chest piercing was front and center, as it is located directly between her breasts.

Blonde by night: Chyna switched her blue wig for a blonde one as she showed off her bust on Snapchat that same day

Chyna also used to sport cheek piercings which were part of her signature look, but she had them removed in 2014, tweeting: 'Bye bye piercings.'

She gained fame in 2010 with a series of magazine spreads in addition to her time spent as a stripper, even getting name-checked in a song by Drake.

Recently, she was featured in a Yo Gotti music video with Nicki Minaj, who gave her friend a shout out on the track Rake It Up.

Diamond in the bust: The model showed off her dermal chest piercing, she used to also have her cheeks pierced but removed them in 2014

Chyna, born Angela Renee White, is currently in the midst of a custody dispute, with her ex, Rob Kardashian.

Rob and Chyna got together in January 2016 and welcomed baby Dream on November 10th of that same year.

Chyna is also mother to King Cairo, four, with ex-boyfriend Tyga, who went on to have his own on-off relationship with Kylie Jenner - Rob's half sister.
Comedienne Casey Wilson gave birth to her second child Thursday.

And on Saturday the 36-year-old actress gave followers their first glimpse of son Henry Bear Caspe via her Instagram.

The Happy Endings lead offered fans an intimate peek at the little guy, who was being lovingly cradled by hubby David Caspe while the lady of the family kissed her partner atop his head.

Oh baby! Comedienne Casey Wilson gave followers their first glimpse of son Henry Bear Caspe on Instagram Saturday

Casey kept the introduction short and sweet, captioning the family photo 'Henry Bear Caspe is here!' along with a tiny bear emoji.

Henry is Wilson and Caspe's second son after Max, two.

The little guy is doing well after finding his way to the world a month before his September due date.

The SNL alum's father Paul said on Casey's B*tch Sesh podcast that although Henry had been born a month premature, he is 'perfectly fine'.

Early bird gets the worm! The little guy is said to be healthy and happy after finding his way to the world a month before his September due date

Casey's B*tch Sesh co-host Danielle Schneider announced the happy news via their podcast on Thursday.

She said: 'Our dear friend Casey Rose Wilson Caspe has given birth to a little baby boy while we were recording the podcast. You guys this is so exciting!'

The Gone Girl talent revealed she was expecting her second child with husband David Caspe, 38, back in March on her beloved B*tch Sesh podcast.

It takes two! Henry is the happy Endings star and her screenwriter husband's second son after Max, above

'Some big news on my end, which is that I am pregnant again,' said the star.

'Im so excited. I was feeling so sick for about a month, but now Im  not feeling great.'

Casey and her screenwriter spouse - who got married in May 2014 at an intimate outdoor wedding in Ojai, California - have been vocal about wanting to add to their brood ever since they had son Max in May 2015.

Delighted: The B*tch Sesh podcaster revealed she was expecting her second child with screenwriter husband David Caspe on her audio show in March (pictured September 2016)

The couple didn't reveal the gender of their new baby but Casey admitted when she had Max that she didn't feel 'ready' to have a little girl so soon after the death of her mother.

At the time, she told Fit Pregnancy: 'Having lost my mom, and having had such a close mother/daughter relationship, I felt like somehow I wasn't ready for a girl.

'I felt like the universe is letting me try this out with a boy first.'
She was on hand as a spectator, but Karlie Kloss got into the fighting spirit.

The 6ft2in model, who recently celebrated her 25th birthday with pal Gwyneth Paltrow, shared a pic where she threw a punch to the camera on Instagram as she attended the Mayweather vs McGregor fight in Las Vegas.

Kloss sported a form-fitting black frock that featured a cutout in her chest and a slit up her leg.

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It's a knockout! Karlie Kloss flaunted her sensational figure in a slinky black midi dress as she arrived at the Mayweather vs McGregor fight in Las Vegas on Saturday night

Fighting spirit: Getting into the spirit of things, the blonde appeared to be in good spirits as she posed like a boxer for a photo on her media

The blonde was made even taller by a pair of silver high heeled shoes.

Karlie shared a behind-the-scenes look at the fight with her 6.8 million followers via Instagram stories.

'Fight time', she wrote along with a video showing her VIP seating where she mingled with Vanessa Hudgens, Jasmine Sanders and Terrence J.

Slinky: Kloss sported a form-fitting black frock that featured a cutout in her chest and a slit up her leg, to tease at her famously statuesque figure

The supermodel revealed to fans that she had Mayweather taking the fight in the sixth round.

Though she got the winner correct, the fight did not come to an end until its tenth round.

Showing support for the loser of the match, McGregor, she posted a video of his post-fight interview and wrote: 'Love this guy.'

VIP: She gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at the spectacle, sitting with Terrence J, Jasmine Sanders and Vanessa Hudgens

Jeepers peepers! Karlie Kloss turned heads in a black gown with thigh-high appeal and an off-center peep hole atop her bust

On Friday, Kloss was seen leaving Victoria's Secret headquarters in New York City, sparking speculation that she will be walking in the lingerie brand's upcoming annual fashion show.

Just two years ago, it was reported that she would be leaving Victoria's Secret permanently due to her studies.

And in 2016, Karlie told fans said she was unable to walk the brand's annual fashion show due to a 'work commitment.'

Oops: The supermodel revealed to fans that she had Mayweather taking the fight in the sixth round. Mayweather won but not until the tenth round

Karlie has been in a relationship for five years with Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband and one of Donald Trump's top presidential advisers.

Kloss, an outspoken feminist who supported Hillary Clinton in last year's election, has kept mum about her connection to the first family.

Bravo reported last month that she's had her reps to instruct media outlets not to ask her questions that aren't directly related to her modeling career.

Thigh's the limit! The 6foot2 stunner flaunted her endless legs with a thigh-high slit
She's been enjoying the single life since splitting from boyfriend Alex Beattie shortly after leaving the Love Island villa.

And Montana Brown was stepping out in style on Saturday night, looking lovely in a beige bodycon dress as she arrived at STK Restaurant in London with a group of girlfriends.

The brunette bombshell, who was celebrating turning 22, was dressed to impress in the slinky number, which boasted a sheer skirt.

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Party girl: Montana Brown was stepping out in style on Saturday night, looking lovely in a beige bodycon dress as she arrived at STK Restaurant in London with a group of girlfriends

Montana's sexy strapless number showcased her long legs and flashed her underwear through the mesh material.

She set off her look with a statement choker necklace and a pair of lace-up gold heels.

The reality starlet accessorised with a simple black clutch bag and wore her hair down loose.

Racy: Montana's sexy strapless number showcased her long legs and flashed her underwear through the mesh material

Leggy: She set off her look with a statement choker necklace and a pair of lace-up gold heels

Making a statement: The reality starlet accessorised with a simple black clutch bag and wore her hair down loose

Her outing comes after her ex Alex hit out at 'materialistic' trolls who have mocked his upcoming public appearance at Poundland.

The Love Island star was confirmed for a meet and greet at the Wednesbury branch of the discount store last Friday - but was forced to defend the gig after his followers scoffed at the unusual location.

The 22-year-old model took to Twitter on Thursday last week after becoming the butt of several jokes.

It's not about the money: Meanwhile, Montana's ex Alex Beattie has hit out at 'materialistic' trolls who have mocked his upcoming public appearance at Poundland

He wrote: 'Honestly chill out. Meeting people who are excited to see you means all the same to me regardless of the location. Don't be so materialistic.'

His comments were in response to tweets such as 'Maaaaaate', 'I'm actually doneeeee I saw this and was like ???? a whole Poundland meet and greet sksksksk he's not rated'.

'Hilarious imagine you just wanna go shop and they're doing a meet and greet', 'fail your exams, don't worry, become a love island celeb and do big appearances at major events'.

Hitting out: The 22-year-old model, took to Twitter on Thursday last week after becoming the butt of several jokes

Writing on Twitter earlier in the day, Poundland shared: 'The Love Island celeb who'll be visiting on Friday is... ALEX BEATTIE!'.

The much-loved bargain retailer even ran a contest alongside the impending visit with customers for a chance to bag an 100 voucher to use in store if they guessed correctly.

His public appearance comes after it was reported that he was 'thrilled' to have signed with online retailer Boohoo men for a six-figure sum, as he looks to establish himself as a successful male model.

Trolled: The star had been subjected to scathing comments online

Split: While the rest of Love Island finalists have remained firmly loved-up, Alex's relationship with Montana crumbled at the first hurdle and they announced their split last month

Alex is thrilled to sign with Boohoo men  hes always wanted to model and this opportunity couldnt have come at a better time, an insider revealed.

While the rest of Love Island finalists have remained firmly loved-up, Alex's relationship with Montana crumbled at the first hurdle.

Taking to Twitter prior to her outing, Montana announced that she and her onscreen beau had broken-up, writing: 'Alex and I have decided to split.

Loving life: Montana has been making the most of her newfound singledom and recently enjoyed a lunch date with Mike Thalassitis

Dinner date: Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Mike shared snaps of the pair tucking in as they enjoyed some bonding time after leaving the villa

Making our relationship work on the outside has been hard. He hasn't been the same since coming out of the villa. Despite this we are still close and I will always support him.'

Montana has been making the most of her newfound singledom and recently enjoyed a lunch date with Mike Thalassitis.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Mike shared snaps of the pair tucking in as they enjoyed some bonding time after leaving the villa.
Pia Muehlenbeck is known for her racy bikini photos.

And on Sunday, the Gold Coast model showcased her extremely pert derriere in her latest Instagram upload.

Wearing a raunchy black G-string bikini, Pia's rounded buttocks were on full display.

Feeling cheeky! On Sunday, the Gold Coast model showcased her extremely pert derriere in her latest Instagram upload

Whether her rear is the result of hard work in the gym or a little surgical enhancement is yet to be revealed.

Pia recently made the news when photos from her early modelling career recently surfaced and fans began to question whether the blogger had achieved her good looks via surgery.

Leading cosmetic surgeon Dr Jeremy Hunt weighed in on the debate and later gave his expert opinion on what work she may have had to achieve her new look.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, he said: 'Her appearance is highly suggestive of rhinoplasty, as the nasal bones in the upper part of the nose are narrowed.'

My how you've changed! Celebrity cosmetic surgeon Dr Jeremy Hunt has revealed the procedures Pia Muehlenbeck may have undergone to achieve her look

'The tip of her nose appears smaller and the bridge seems narrower.'

A rhinoplasty would have set Pia back a cool $15,000, with recovery time extending to around two weeks.

Just the tip? 'The tip of her nose appears smaller and the bridge seems narrower,' Dr Hunt said

Costly: A rhinoplasty would have set Pia back a cool $15,000, with recovery time extending to around two weeks

Lip service: Dr Hunt also revealed that Pia appears to have had lip fillers in both the upper and lower lip, both of which look fuller compared to older photos

Dr Hunt also revealed that Pia appears to have had lip fillers in both the upper and lower lip, both of which look fuller compared to older photos.

'The natural proportion of the lips has been lost and the upper lip is too large compared to the lower lip resulting in the 'trout pout',' Dr Hunt said.

This procedure would cost $1,000 with two days of down-time.

Cheeky: Pia may have had fillers in her cheeks, a procedure that costs $2,000 and requires two days of down-time as her 'upper cheeks appear fuller with more volume,' the doctor said

Brows: Pia's eyebrows appear much fuller these days

Pia may have had fillers in her cheeks, a procedure that costs $2,000 and requires two days of down-time as her 'upper cheeks appear fuller with more volume,' the doctor said.

The celebrity surgeon also revealed that Pia's changing face shape may be the result of a Buccal fat pad removal, which costs $5,000 with three days down-time, he explained.

'The lower cheek is hollower with less volume, leading to a more heart-shaped face,' Dr Hunt noted.

Her breast assets? Dr Hunt also weighed in on Pia's prodigious chest size, explaining that he believes she may have had breast implants

Dr Hunt also weighed in on Pia's prodigious chest size, explaining that he believes she may have had breast implants.

'[Her breasts] keeps getting bigger,' he explained, adding that a breast augmentation can cost up to $15,000.

A revision breast augmentation can also cost another $15,000.
Sylvia Jeffreys gets glammed up every week day morning to read the news for the Today Show.

But on Sunday, the 31-year-old turned heads on the red carpet for the opening night of My Fair Lady at The Capitol Theatre.

The journalist looked glamorous in a shimmery gold wrap frock, with a black slip dress underneath.

All that sparkles! Sylvia Jeffreys turned heads on the red carpet for the opening night of My Fair Lady at The Capitol Theatre

She paired the look a pair of strappy black heels that contrasted her fire engine red manicure and pedicures.

The blonde beauty kept accessories to a minimum with a pair of silver dangling earrings and her engagement ring.

Sylvia oozed a glowing radiance as she smiled for the cameras.

Stunning: The journalist looked glamorous in a shimmery gold wrap frock, with a black slip dress underneath

Elegant: She kept accessories to a minimum with a pair of silver dangling earrings and her engagement ring

Date night with dad: However her face lit up even more as she stood beside her date - her father Richard, who looked dapper in his suit and tie ensemble, and excited to be with his daughter

However her face lit up even more as she stood beside her date - her father Richard, who looked dapper in his suit and tie ensemble, and excited to be with his daughter.

Also on the red carpet was actress Zoe Ventoura who went braless in a daring sharp, black suit.

The 36-year-old, who attended the event without her husband Daniel MacPherson, accessorised her edgy ensemble with a shiny clutch and black pointed heels.

Edgy ensemble: Actress Zoe Ventoura who went braless in a daring sharp, black suit

Flying solo: The 36-year-old, who attended the event without her husband Daniel MacPherson, accessorised her edgy ensemble with a shiny clutch and black pointed heels

She wore her luscious, wavy brunette locks down, which contrasted her silver drop earrings.

The Morning Show's Kylie Gillies also graced the red carpet in a tailored black blazer and flowy top, teamed with ankle length trousers.

The 50-year-old television presenter paired the look with black heels and a matching purse.

She accessorised with fine silver jewelry and chandelier earrings.

Chic: The Morning Show's Kylie Gillies also graced the red carpet in a tailored black blazer and flowy top, teamed with ankle length trousers

Red carpet ready: The musicals stars Anna O'Byrne and Charles Edwards, who is also known for his work on Downtown Abbey, walked the red carpet together

The musicals stars Anna O'Byrne and Charles Edwards, who is also known for his work on Downtown Abbey, walked the red carpet together.

She exuded an elegant charm in a black gown, which featured a short black dress, a sweetheart neckline and a long, lace skirt.

Meanwhile, the handsome actor looked dashing in his navy suit and stripped tie, which he matched with a pair of black dress shoes.

All smiles: Actor Simon Burke attended the event with actress and stage star Helen Dallimore. He was suave in his black suit and bow tie ensemble, and was all smiles for the photographers

Razzle dazzle: Helen looked exquisite in a black lace frock, paired with a furry capelets, strappy heels and a sizeable Mimco bag

Actor Simon Burke attended the event with actress and stage star Helen Dallimore.

He was suave in his black suit and bow tie ensemble, and was all smiles for the photographers.

Helen looked exquisite in a black lace frock, paired with a furry capelets, strappy heels and a sizeable Mimco bag.

Actress Danielle Catanzariti, who starred in Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, was all smiles as she posed for the cameras in a short, pink, figure hugging, lace dress.

Sweet in pink: Actress Danielle Catanzariti, who starred in Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, was all smiles as she posed for the cameras in a short, pink, figure hugging, lace dress

Fabulous! Comedian Bob Downe shone in a sparkly in a blue, tailored blazer and skinny blue jeans

The fabulous Bob Downe shone in a sparkly in a blue, tailored blazer and skinny blue jeans.

Lorraine Bayly, who starred in the 1980s family drama The Sullivans, attended the event in a conservative black outfit.

The red carpet wasn't without politics with the Former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop at the event.

TV legend: Lorraine Bayly, who starred in the 1980s family drama The Sullivans, attended the event in a conservative black outfit

Night out! Former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop at the event wearing black slim fitting pants, boots and a white caplet jacket

Enjoying a night at the theatre, she arrived in black slim fitting pants, boots and a white caplet jacket.

She accessorised with matching pearl earrings and a necklace.

NSW Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward also enjoyed the musical, posing on the red carpet before watching the show.

The minister opted for a black frock with an unusual frilled, balloon style skirt and black heels.
She is usually seen commanding attention on the red carpet in a plethora of elegant ensembles.

But ditching her usual Hollywood glamour for a much more low-key look, Natalie Portman proved she is every inch the doting mother as she stepped out in Los Angeles with her brood on Saturday.

The actress, 36, is mother to two children; son Aleph, six, and six-month-old daughter Amalia and was seen cradling her youngest child while heading to a birthday party.

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Low-key: Make-up free Natalie Portman, 36, was seen clutching onto her six-month old daughter as they headed to a birthday party in Los Angeles on Saturday

Choosing to forgo her make-up for the outing, Natalie flaunted her natural beauty and flawless complexion with her fresh-faced look.

She was dressed down in a pair of dark denim shorts and a loose-fitted white t-shirt that featured a polka dot panel across the neckline.

Sweeping her brunette locks back from her face, she pinned her tresses into a low-sitting bun and opted for comfort on her feet with a pair of casual trainers.

Natalie appeared to have her hands full while holding onto daughter Amalia in her arms and favouring not to use the baby harness she had slung over one shoulder.

The No Strings Attached star had given birth to Amalia in February, earlier this year, and relishing in her role as a mother, Natalie insists becoming a parent has hugely helped her with battling stress.

Ditching her Hollywood glamour: Natalie appeared to favour a laid-back look teaming a pair of loose denim shorts with a white t-shirt that featured a polka dot panel across the neck

Speaking last year, the star - who shares her two children with her husband of five years Benjamin Millepied, claimed: 'It's made me much calmer under stress because there's that weird parent thing you develop, that when things get really bad, your voice gets calm and your blood pressure slows - you can make everything okay again.'

Her low-key appearance of late comes after it was revealed Natalie has reportedly pulled out of playing Ruth Bade Ginsburg in new movie On The Basis Of Sex - her reason for doing so is said to be unknown.

She had been tied to the role since 2015, but in July it was announced that Felicity Jones will now star instead.

Casting news: Felicity Jones will play Ruth Bader Ginsberg (R) in On The Basis Of Sex, according to Deadline, the film will start shooting this September

She's out: Natalie had been linked to the project since 2015 and it is unknown why she is now not playing the role

British-born Jones will be playing the Brooklyn resident, who was the first Jewish woman to be assigned to the Supreme Court, while Mimi Leder will direct the film that begins shooting in September, according to Deadline.

Due to her family history, many had considered Portman to have been perfect to play the feminist icon as she was born in Jerusalem, Israel.

A script for the project has been ready since 2014, even making the coveted Black List, which is a compilation of un-produced scripts chosen by industry insiders.

Taking another page from Portman's book, Felicity has been attached to Universal's Swan Lake.

Black Swan: Jones, 33, has also been announced as a part of Universal's adaptation of Swan Lake

The story of Swan Lake was featured heavily in Portman's 2010 movie Black Swan, of which she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as ballerina named Nina.

Portman was nominated for Best Actress again at this year's ceremony, this time for her portrayal of Jacqueline Onassis in Jackie.

Natalie, however, had missed the ceremony as she had given birth to her youngest child Amalia just days before the event.
They enjoyed a night out at the Miss Swimsuit UK auditions in Birmingham on Saturday.

But Katie Salmon was forced to hit at out trolls on social media the following day, after they criticised her pal Emma-Jane Woodhams for heading out while pregnant.

The 20-year-old had showed off her blossoming bump in a glamorous pink dress as she attended the bash with Katie, 21, - who later lashed out at 'horrible' haters, who claimed Emma could not 'slay' pregnancy, and enjoy a night out with friends.

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Think pink! Emma-Jane Woodhams showed off her blossoming bump in a figure-hugging pink dress on Saturday night, as she attended the Miss Swimsuit UK auditions in Birmingham

Emma, who announced her pregnancy earlier this month, looked truly stunning as she shared her outfit on social media - which displayed her blossoming bump for all to see.

The frock cut into a daring double cut-out at the front to tease at her ample cleavage underneath, before hugging her figure all the way to the hem, to accentuate her ever-growing stomach to fans.

Clearly enjoying her night out, the brunette later shared a second snap of her reuniting with pal Katie Salmon once inside.

Standing up for her: Emma also shared a snap of her and pal Katie Salmon (L) - who later lashed out at haters claiming Emma could not 'slay' pregnancy, and enjoy a night out with friends

Fellow Love Island star Katie was seen kissing her baby bump in the sweet snap, while a glam Emma, sporting bouncy curls and a pale pink lip, simply beamed at the camera.

Yet, the image soon came under fire from cruel trolls, who claimed she should not be embarking on such nights while pregnant.

Proving their close friendship however, Katie later shared the same snap to her own Instagram - and fiercely defended her friend against haters in the caption.

Fierce: Uploading the same photo, Katie (above) wrote in rage: 'She's a young beautiful mum to be and could do without the hate'

Loyal: Going on to slam the trolls for being too judgmental, she added in anger: 'A lot can be assumed from a picture. Remember everyone has a story'

She wrote to her 227,000 followers: 'I cannot believe the horrible comments on this post. If my girl wants to attend a friends event supporting her show for 2hrs she can.

'If she would like to slay her pregnancy and make herself feel good she can wear a lovely dress. She's a young beautiful mum to be and could do without the hate.'

Going on to slam the trolls for being too judgmental, she added in anger: 'A lot can be assumed from a picture. Remember everyone has a story.'

Having a ball: Emma (above) and Katie had been enjoying a night out at the Miss Swimsuit UK auditions in Birmingham

However, showing her affection to Emma, she rounded off her message with a sweet message of congratulation - and affirmed that any further haters against her friend would be blocked on the site.

She added: 'Congrats again my beauty! We're super proud of you! Don't comment unless it's nice. You will be removed. It's a positive happy journey and no hate is wanted nor needed. Love you emz x'

Emma confirmed she was expecting her first child at the beginning of August - just five months after confirming her split from Love Island co-star Terry Walsh.

Exciting: Emma confirmed she was expecting her first child with childhood at the beginning of August

After their break-up, the brunette reunited with her childhood sweetheart Jordan in April, and fell pregnant the following month.

However Emma has already suffered at the hands of trolls during her pregnancy, after revealing last week she received death threats following her happy news.

In a series of Instagram videos, the tearful star explained that online bullies had branded her a 's**t' and claimed she cheated on her boyfriend with Terry - and that the baby was his.

Emma sadly responded by explaining she has 'real feelings' and that the comments 'cut her deep' as she defiantly spoke out against the abuse.
He's always preferred boardrooms to big parties.

So it's no surprise that James Packer is planning to have a quiet one for his upcoming 50th birthday.

According to Sydney Morning Herald, the billionaire businessman will likely ring in his upcoming birthday, set for September 8th, on a quiet note.

No drama: James Packer is planning to have a quiet one for his upcoming 50th birthday

The publication cites his previous low-key milestone birthdays as evidence that his next one won't be a lavish affair.

The 49-year-old reportedly had a 'quiet dinner' for his 30th birthday, and an 'intimate get-together' for his 40th.

According to recent reports, Packer has now severed business ties with Scientology, nearly a decade after withdrawing from the secretive religion.

Parties are overrated! The 49-year-old reportedly had a 'quiet dinner' for his 30th birthday, and an 'intimate get-together' for his 40th

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis this week left Packer's CPH investment company after the billionaire abandoned US gambling expansion plans.

The casino king's former fiancee, Mariah Carey, last year accused Tommy of being a key reason behind their split, reports Sydney Morning Herald.

Miss Carey, 47, and Mr Packer, 49, parted ways after a blazing row on board the billionaire's yacht in Greece in September.

Split: Mariah Carey, 47, and Packer, 49, parted ways after a blazing row on board the billionaire's yacht in Greece in September

Sources close to Mariah alleged Davis assumed control of James's investments, put him on a detox program and ordered he 'disconnect' from the pop star, according to New York Post.

The allegations were vehemently disputed by sources close James, who said the split with Mariah was due to her lavish spending and drama-prone ways.

Mariah rebounded from her relationship by dating her backup dancer Bryan Tanaka.
They have left fans confused over their relationship, after appearing to split and rekindle their romance multiple times over the last few weeks.

But a defiant Charlotte Crosby made sure to champion her relationship with boyfriend Stephen Bear while commenting on his Instagram post of the pair that revealed they are now back together again.

Commenting on the couple's tumultuous times of late, the reality star insisted every relationship has its ups and downs, but 'REAL relationships' get through their rocky patches.

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'REAL relationships get through it': Charlotte Crosby, 27, defiantly supported her rekindled romance with beau Stephen Bear by responding to his Instagram tribute to her

Despite tweeting about himself and Charlotte splitting, just a day later Bear had paid tribute to his girlfriend on the photo-sharing site, hinting that they are now back together.

He shared a split picture of two make-up free selfies which showcase the blonde bombshell's natural beauty in her full glory and penned alongside his post: 'No relationships perfect but I wanna do my best to keep this girl with me forever.'

'She's my best friend,' he gushed.

Clearly moved by the sentiment, Charlotte made sure to share her thoughts on the duo rekindling, after her beau's post had sparked a slight backlash online.

Having her say: Bear had hinted the pair are now back together after yet another brief split, with Charlotte hitting back at the duo's critics and insisting they are now 'stronger'

Backlash: They have left fans confused over their relationship, after appearing to split and rekindle their romance multiple times - with many now urging the pair to part ways

Fans claimed they had been left 'confused' by the couple's relationship, with one fan remarking the drama-fuelled break up had changed 'every six hours'.

Setting the record straight, Charlotte hit back: 'Every relationship has ups and downs, all relationships go thru hell, REAL relationships get thru it. We are stronger then any1s opinions.'

However, her comment sparked a new wave of criticism from Instagram users, as some branded Charlotte an 'idiot' for getting back together with Bear once more, claiming he is 'using' the starlet for 'publicity', while others urged her to rethink her decision.

MailOnline have contacted a representative for Bear.

Escaping the commotion: Bear is currently in Las Vegas with his brother - having jetted overseas for the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor

Drama: He had been overseas when he initially tweeted about himself and Charlotte splitting on Thursday - a day before hinting the duo were then back together on Instagram

Fans penned: 'She's just his meal ticket!! One day she will wake up and smell the coffee.. Don't know why they post things all over social media and then delete it!!

'You are a grade A class b***end if you take him back after he dumped you on Twitter like what? Yesterday? He's using you for publicity, fame, and $$$. I'm a fan of yours Charlotte, but you're making yourself look like a pure idiot.

Others suggested that the duo keep their relationship private between themselves and refrain from taking to social media to speak so publicly of each other:

'They're what 9 months into a relationship!?! Already put on social media that they've split 3 times. It's supposed to be the easiest time of the relationship. I agree it takes work to make it last, that work usually starts after years of marriage not within a year. Sometimes you're fighting a losing battle.

Angry: Instagram users were quick to hit out at the volatile nature of the pair's relationship, with one claiming they are 'fighting a losing battle'

'Stop posting your feelings': Others advised the couple to refrain from posting on social media when it comes to their rocky romance

'Maybe it's to do with the Twitter post...don't laugh at people who are following what is it YOU AND YOUR "BOYFRIEND" or whatever you two call yourselves are publishing on tv and social media. Maybe try to keep your relationship between yourselves and you won't have to deal with people's opinions.'

Many more, however, rushed to send Charlotte and Bear their support, clearly delighted that the pair seem to be getting back on track.

They were dubbed a 'brill couple' by one user, while another urged Bear not to let Charlotte 'slip through the net'. One eager fan excitedly expressed their hopes for the pair to now have a baby, adding: 'NOW A BABY BEARRRRR.'

Charlotte's comment on Bear's post dedicated to her comes after he had 'dumped' her, just 24-hours after she broke down on live television discussing ex-boyfriend Gary 'Gaz' Beadle's news that he is expecting his first child with girlfriend Emma McVey - 16 months after Charlotte lost his baby through an ectopic pregnancy.

'Now a baby Bear!' Many were quick to support the reality star couple, with one urging the duo to have a baby together now they are back together

Troubled: Stephen had 'dumped' Charlotte just 24-hours after she broke down on live television discussing ex-boyfriend Gary 'Gaz' Beadle's news that he is expecting his first child

All over? The news came 16 months after Charlotte had lost Gaz's baby through an ectopic pregnancy and the fragile star burst into tears when asked her thoughts on her ex becoming a dad

'It's a hard time': Days earlier Charlotte broke down in floods of tears on live TV as she thanked fans for their support with ex Gaz Beadle's baby news...after losing his baby 16 months ago

Happy news: Her post comes a day after her ex Gary 'Gaz' Beadle announced he is expecting a baby with his girlfriend Emma McVey with a sweet snap on Instagram

Charlotte burst into tears on Ireland AM, when presenters Alan Hughes and Sinead Desmond asked the former Geordie Shore starlet, 27, how she was feeling about ex Gaz's baby news.

The fragile reality star was in floods of tears over the situation, having thanked fans for their support during what she branded 'a hard time', while also alluding to the troubles she had with boyfriend Bear.

In his initial tweet about their split, Bear had addressed his 294,000 followers and wrote: 'Sadly me and Charlotte have split up. We have had a good run but we wasn't right for each other (sic).'

Getting emotional: She also mentioned her troublesome relationship with current boyfriend Stephen Bear, leaving host Alan to comfort her

Brave face: She said, through her tears 'Honestly I get so overwhelmed by all the support, it's just so amazing. I've gotten so many nice messages over the past couple of days

Little one on the way: Gary went on to share a second snap of their first baby scan on Tuesday - alongside a white Dior dummy, and another pair of baby shoes

Bear had jetted to Las Vegas for the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight and reportedly did not speak to Charlotte about breaking up, instead 'dumping' her on Twitter after being left 'upset' that she had partied with Jeremy McConnell whilst in Ireland for her make-up launch.

A source told The Sun: 'Charlotte literally had no idea Stephen thought their relationship was in a bad way.

'She logged onto Twitter and saw his message, she's in pieces and can't believe her fairytale ending has been shattered.'

Upset: Bear reportedly 'dumped' Jeremy on Twitter after reportedly being upset that she had partied with Jeremy McConnell whilst in Ireland for her make-up launch

Party animal: Bear, meanwhile, had been spotted partying with a group of swimsuit-clad girls during his Las Vegas holiday

Finished: He had confirmed his separation from Charlotte in an emotional Twitter post on Thursday - a day after her emotional appearance in Ireland

Proving that he was still in good spirits after their supposed split, Bear was seen out partying with a host of girls during his Las Vegas holiday.

Reports then surfaced claiming the break up is costing former Geordie Shore star Charlotte 'thousands of pounds', after setting up a clothing company titled His and Hers with Bear that's premise had been based around their relationship.

Stephen and Charlotte are both listed as directors of the company, but another source added to the paper that they are now reluctant to promote the brand and are instead hoping to 'cut ties' with one another.

The insider claim that the duo have 'thousands of pounds' worth of stock left to sell that is now set to 'go to waste'.

Former flames: Bear and Charlotte started dating in February 2017 while filming reality show Just Tattoo Of Us and had been inseparable ever since

Costly: News of their split is said to be costing former Geordie Shore star Charlotte 'thousands of pounds', after setting up a clothing company titled His and Hers with Bear that they will no longer pursue

They said that Charlotte and Bear had been so invested in the fashion brand and determined to make it work, but now they have split, it's something they can longer pursue.

The source claimed: 'Their relationship was a key part of the brand... but now they're not together, that's not going to happen.'

Prior to Bear announcing the pair had parted ways, a week before Charlotte suggested their on/off romance had culminated in another split.

She made the announcement in an emotional Snapchat video, but hours later appeared to backtrack and claimed she had been a 'drunken d**k' - insisting she and Bear were still together.
Summer may be slipping rapidly away.

But Kourtney Kardashian's still parading her enviable beach body on Instagram.

The 38-year-old uploaded a smoldering photo on Saturday of herself on the water in a backless metallic-studded black one-piece and black sunglasses.

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Side view: Kourtney Kardashian uploaded a couple of swimsuit photos to Instagram on Saturday, including this one taken during her July holiday to Saint-Tropez

That picture was taken during her July trip to Saint-Tropez with her boyfriend Younes Bendjima, who incidentally happens to be a decade and a half Kourtney's junior.

Earlier on Saturday she'd posted another photo of herself on a boat, lounging in a skimpy black bikini top and pale green miniskirt and resting her head in her hand.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star and mother of three captioned the photo - which offered up a breathtaking view of the sea behind her - simply: 'mood.'

'mood': Earlier on Saturday she'd posted another photo of herself on a boat, lounging in a skimpy black bikini top and pale green miniskirt and resting her head in her hand

Her summer's been chockablock with travel, including earlier this month, when she and Algeria-born Younes were joined by a claque of friends on a vacation to Egypt.

Back in May, she and her latest man had swung by Cannes during its iconic film festival - but it was her ex Scott Disick who attracted a bit of infamy around that time.

The 34-year-old soi-disant 'Lord' was cavorting with a string of women in the South Of France, including such names as Bella Thorne, Chloe Bartoli and Chantel Jeffries.

A place in the sun: Her summer's been chockablock with travel, including earlier this month, when she and Algeria-born Younes were joined by a claque of friends on a vacation to Egypt

Kourtney's got three children by her on-and-off paramour Scott, their firstborn Mason's 2009 birth having been immortalized on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

The co-parents welcomed their now four-year-old daughter Penelope into the world in 2012, and Kourtney gave birth to her youngest child, a son called Reign, in 2014.

Kourtney and Scott, who'd been introduced in 2006 by Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis in Mexico, last ended their romantic relationship in July of 2015.
She recently sparked speculation that she was dating model Jordan Barrett.

But according to new reports, Cheyenne Tozzi is actually seeing Brazilian male model Marlon Teixeira.

The Daily Telegraph claims that the pair are currently holidaying together in Bali.

New man? According to new reports, Cheyenne Tozzi is seeing Brazilian male model Marlon Teixeira

Marlon, 25, is currently one of the world's leading male models.

The hunk has starred in campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Balmain, and parties with fashion's A-list like Olivier Rousteing and Irina Shayk.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Cheyenne's management for comment.

Runway: Marlon, 25, is currently one of the world's leading male models

In demand: The hunk has starred in campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Balmain, and parties with fashion's A-list like Olivier Rousteing and Irina Shayk

Last week, raunchy footage indicated that 'bad boy' Jordan Barrett and Cheyenne may have taken their friendship to the next level.

Shared to Instagram, the clip showed Cheyenne, 27, wearing a blindfold in a luxurious tent on the beach, flaunting her cleavage in a plunging blue one-piece.

Captioned 'Monkey can't see,' Jordan laughs as he watches his close friend tie a blindfold around her head.

Next level: Raunchy footage has revealed 'bad boy' Australian model Jordan and his close friend Cheyenne (pictured) taking their friendship to the next level

Attempting to utter a seductive phrase about the three wise monkeys, Cheyenne offers: 'Monkey see... If I speak no evil, wait, what is it?'

'Speak no evil, say nothing and don't even look because then you don't see anything mean!' she jokes, acknowledging that she'd forgotten the saying.

An hour later, Jordan and his fellow-Australian model friend appear to have stripped down to nothing, sharing a grainy selfie video from near the water.

Naughty! Shared to Instagram, footage shows Cheyenne, 27, wearing a blindfold in a luxurious tent on the beach, flaunting her cleavage in a plunging blue one-piece

All tied-up! Captioned 'Monkey can't see,' Jordan laughs as he watches his close friend tie a blindfold around her head

Down to nothing: An hour later, Jordan and his fellow-Australian model friend had stripped down to nothing, sharing a grainy selfie video from near the water

It appears as if they'd just come from a dip, as the pair whip their messy, wet hair and smiled cheekily at the camera.

Jordan, the son of convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrett, was first discovered at age 13 while shoplifting at a convenience store in 2010.

He was trying to steal matches when he was approached by a model scout working for international agency IMG, which he eventually signed to in 2015.

Firm friends! Jordan and Cheyenne are firm friends, with the Australia's Next Top Model judge even greeting the 20-year-old at Sydney Airport as he touched down last month

Jordan and Cheyenne are firm friends, with the Australia's Next Top Model judge even greeting the 20-year-old at Sydney Airport as he touched down last month.

The pair are known to be just friends, although Jordan has been romantically linked to the likes of Paris Hilton, Kate Moss, and Lara Stone.

Cheyenne, reportedly split with her boyfriend Jon Adgemis in March this year.
She is one of the most popular characters on the ITVBe show, thanks to her hilarious one-liners and carefree personality.

And Gemma Collins only gave fans more reason to love her on Thursday, as she paid a charitable visit to her local animal rescue centre in Basildon, and helped look after their pigs.

The TV personality, 36, could not stop beaming as she stroked the hog at the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society - and was even seen brushing its hair, as she filmed new scenes for the upcoming series of TOWIE.

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Hog-ging the limelight! Gemma Collins paid a charitable visit to her local animal rescue centre in Basildon on Thursday, and helped look after their pigs

It's never boar-ing with Gemma! The star happily stroked the hog at the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society - and was even seen brushing its hair, as she filmed new scenes for TOWIE

Gemma appeared to be in very high spirits as she spent her afternoon with the farm animals, in order to organise her own fundraiser with the sanctuary.

Despite spending her day at a farm, the bubbly blonde did not let her trademark Essex glamour falter - as she arrived to meet the pigs in a typically glitzy look.

The reality star opted for a chiffon striped blouse of grey and black, which plunged at the neck to tease at her cleavage before being lined with a flashy diamante trim.

All that glitters: Despite spending her day at a farm, the bubbly blonde did not let her trademark Essex glamour falter - as she arrived to meet the pigs in a typically glitzy look

Tres chic: The reality star opted for a chiffon striped blouse, lined with a flashy diamante trim, as she cared for the pigs with co-stars Bobby Norris (L) and Mike Hassini (R)

Keeping casually cool elsewhere, she paired the blouse with heavily distressed black jeans, and tied her look together with comfortable flip flops, again embellished with her signature sequins.

Sweeping her hair back with oversized sunglasses, it was Gemma's beaming smile that took centre stage as she whiled away an afternoon with the animals.

Joined by co-stars Mike Hassini and Bobby Norris, the blonde was seen happily stroking and cooing over the pigs, as well as a gorgeous white pony during her day at the farm.

Having a ball: Sweeping her hair back with oversized sunglasses, it was Gemma's beaming smile that took centre stage as she whiled away an afternoon with the animals

Horsing around: The blonde was seen happily stroking and cooing over the pigs, as well as a gorgeous white pony during her day at the farm

Pamper session: However Gemma seemed keen to give the pigs some of her own glam treatment - as she was later spotted brushing a number of the hogs' hair in the fields

However as a boutique owner herself, Gemma seemed keen to give the pigs some of her own glamorous treatment - as she was later spotted brushing a number of the hogs' hair as they relaxed in the sunshine.

Documenting the day on her Instagram, the star revealed she was not only filming for the show at the centre, but was also there to organise her own fund raiser.

Sharing a snap with the society's staff and of course, the pig, she told her 444,000 followers: 'Loving life today at the animal rescue centre going to be fund raising for this cause hope you can all come to my fund raiser event!'

Gemma maintained her usually chic sense of style for her humble trip to a farm - having recently revealed she will always dress for herself, no matter the time or location.

Giving it a go: The trio were later seen feeding the pigs after giving them a good brush on the farm

Doing her bit: Documenting the day on her Instagram, the star revealed she was not only filming for the show at the centre, but was also there to organise her own fund raiser

Charitable: Sharing a snap with the staff and of course, the pig, she told her 444,000 followers: 'Loving life today at the animal rescue centre going to be fund raising for this cause'

Speaking to The Sun last week about many of her garish looks of the past, she explained: 'I'm 36 now. If I wake up and I'm feeling a certain look, I'm going to rock that look.

'If I wake up and I want to wear sequins to go to Tesco, I'll wear sequins. Don't dress for others, dress for yourself. Don't follow the trends, and just be you.'

Meanwhile Gemma's charitable trip comes shortly after she returned to the UK from Marbella, for a lengthy stint of TOWIE filming.

The new series is expected to air later this year, and sees show stalwarts joined by former favourites Lauren Pope and Mario Falcone - no doubt making it one of the most explosive seasons.
She's best known as one of the judges from The Block.

And on Monday, Shaynna Blaze offered praise for the latest season of the renovation show.

'The standard is really high this year because the five teams are so competitive,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

'The standard is really high this year because the five teams are so competitive': The Block's Shaynna Blaze voiced her support for the renovation series this week

Blaze's comments come after The Block beat rival The Bachelor in the ratings last week.

The Block airs on Channel Nine, while The Bachelor is on Network Ten.

According to OzTam's overnight ratings, The Block came in top spot with 1.028 million viewers on Wednesday, followed by the dating reality series at 749,000.

Proof love doesn't conquer all? Home renovation series The Block beat The Bachelor in the ratings war, on Wednesday night

OzTam's overnight ratings saw home renovation series The Block come in at top spot with an average metro audience of 1.028 million.

Channel Ten's The Bachelor with hunky Matty J, 30, at the helm, came in second, with an average metro audience of 749,000.

The ratings war saw news and current affairs programs from Seven, Nine and the ABC, following suit.

Falling short: Channel Ten's The Bachelor with hunky Matty Johnson, 30, at the helm, came in second, with an average metro audience of 749,000

The Block continues its stellar run in the ratings war, drawing an impressive 1.3 million viewers on Sunday night.

Host Scott Cam, 54, revealed the secret behind the program's success, in Wednesday's The Herald Sun.

Scott said that with Australia's housing market a hot topic, viewers are after more renovation-style programs.

'The Block is an opportunity to give them (viewers) some great ideas to see what they can do with their own homes,' he said.

'It gives viewers ideas for their own homes': Host Scott Cam, 54, revealed the secret behind The Block's success, in Wednesday's The Herald Sun

Success story: The Gold Logie award-winning personality insisted that with people viewing their home as an investment, they're now after programs that provide tips on adding value. Pictured are The Block stars Josh Barker, 28, and Elyse Knowles, 24

The Gold Logie award-winning personality insisted that with people viewing their home as an investment, they're now after programs that provide tips on adding value.

And hoping to capitalise on the program's success, co-host Shelley Craft, 41, revealed to The Daily Telegraph last week, that she wants a 'Big Brother-style' channel.

The additional platform would live stream 24-hours a day and air the 'best bits.'

'We shoot 20 hours a day, seven days a week. There is plenty of footage to go round!'
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Bethenny Frankel had a tough time during the reunion show for Real Housewives Of New York earlier this week.

The 46-year-old siren broke down in tears as she discussed her terrible situation with ex-husband Jason Hoppy, who she has accused of harassing her.

But on Saturday the raven-haired Skinnygirl founder looked to be in good form as she showed off her toned bikini body in Ibiza, Spain.

Body of work: Bethenny Frankel showed off her killer curves in a white bikini as she hit the beach in Ibiza on Sunday

Solo: Bethenny has said that she is dating New York based businessman Dennis Shields again after a short split. But he was not seen with her as she soaked up the sun. Instead the cover girl was with a few female friends

The looker appeared to be in top shape thanks to frequent yoga sessions in Manhattan.

Frankel looked sensational in a white bikini that had an off-the-shoulder top and string bottoms.

Later the reality TV queen added a pretty embroidered white skirt that came down on her hips offering yet another flash of her toned tummy. She carried a black-and-white purse that was woven and had short handles.

Boating: Later the reality TV queen added a pretty embroidered white skirt that came down on her hips offering yet another flash of her toned tummy. She carried a black-and-white purse that was woven and had short handles

Backstory: A handsome young man with blonde hair and a white polo shirt and blue shorts helped her on a speedboat by grabbing her hand

Another helper: Here a man in blue shorts took her hand as she stepped onto the vessel

A handsome young man with blonde hair and a white polo shirt and blue shorts helped her on a speedboat by grabbing her hand.

It looked as if the Manhattanite was headed to a yacht.

Bethenny has said that she is dating New York based businessman Dennis Shields again after a short split. But he was not seen with her as she soaked up the sun. Instead the cover girl was with a few female friends.

Her back story: The star has to stay in top shape for her Skinnygirl brand which sells vodka as well as candy

Good-looking pals: Here she chats up a woman with brown hair and a black bikini; two men drive up on a Jet-ski

The star confirmed she is again dating NYC businessman Shields when she appeared on the Bravo reunion special on Wednesday.

'I am with Dennis,' said the Skinnygirl founder as she smiled.

'Its more than giving it another shot,' she said.

'Things had to be dealt with and sort of a gauntlet needed to be gotten through and it happened. Im in a better place. And Im in a better place to make a sane decision.'

She has known him for almost 30 years as was friends with his wife too. But when Dennis' marriage came to an end he called up the reality TV star and they began dating in 2016.

Nice name: The boat she was on with her pal was called the Sirenusa; she was headed to a yacht with several men on it

They were seen together in NYC last week and E! News claimed they were back on several days ago.

Bethenny and Dennis split earlier this year. She said: 'I rightfully ended the relationship because of some of the circumstances surrounding my divorce and surrounding his divorce

'A person thats been married that many years needs to go through a certain cycle. I think that I needed him to make changes that I really didnt think he would make. And I think that thinking the possibility of losing me really scared him straight, to be honest.'

She feels the break was good.

'Ive learned a lot about myself in the last year/year and a half. Ive been working on myself more, Ive been in therapy. I have a difficult time getting close to people. Especially since my situation, I do not allow people in.'

Bottoms up: The looker appeared to be enjoying a tall glass of white wine as she bit her lip on the craft

The Real Housewives of New York City beauty was also romantically-linked to another New York City businessman, Russ Theriot, for some time in June.

Also on the reunion Frankel talked about ex-husband Jason Hoppy.

The star described her protracted divorce as 'torture.' 'It's been a very negative, inexplicable situation,' cried the star.

'It's been $3 million dollars in legal fees, I have to work really f***ing hard to make that,' she sniffed.

'You can't even imagine the torment,' she sobbed, saying that the only way she could be 'free' is to have 'zero contact' with Jason.

Jason, 46, has been charged several times with stalking in the past, once allegedly turning up at their daughter's school.

Back on: Frankel is again dating Dennis Shields, left, she told Andy Cohen, right, earlier this week

'He's obsessed with her,' said Carole Radziwill.

Bethenny did her best to describe her duress. 'It is indescribable and it is inexplicable and it's like, if someone wants to talk about like a war zone in Israel, how are you going to explain that to someone?' she said.

'I'm not comparing this to actual war but in my life, you can't even imagine the torment that this has been. There's no way to describe it,' Bethenny said.

'It is torture,' she later said after trying to describe her ordeal.

The third and final installment of The Real Housewives Of New York City reunion will air next week on Bravo.
She shot to fame as the older sister of Ex On The Beach star Chloe Goodman, 23.

But Lauryn Goodman ensured all eyes were on her as she shared a sizzling, semi-clothed Instagram shot on Thursday.

The beauty blogger, 26, oozed confidence as she showcased her perfectly peachy behind in thong high-cut bikini bottoms, while reclining on a beach hammock, above white sand and crystalline waters.

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Eye-popping: Lauryn Goodman, 26, oozed confidence as she showcased her perfectly peachy behind in thong high-cut bikini bottoms, while reclining on a beach hammock, above white sand and crystalline waters in a snap shared on Instagram on Thursday

Peachy: She is also no stranger to a racy swimsuit snap as evidenced when she flaunted her bootylicious behind and pert bust in a navy thong cut swimsuit earlier this month

Showing off her confidence, the star also revealed a hint of sideboob as she went topless in a bid to get the perfect tan on her sunshine break.

She piled her caramel tresses into a messy bun on top of her head and appeared to be adjusting her shades as she looked out to sea.

Lauryn flaunted her healthy glowing tan and toned physique as she enjoyed a day of relaxation.

The bold snap also revealed her toned and shapely pins and slender midriff.

Busty: Lauryn has shared a multitude of racy bikini snaps from her many exotic holidays this year

Plunging: Lauryn oozed confidence in this plunging swimsuit

Sun-kissed: The star has taken a series of sun-soaked breaks in recent months, holidaying in Los Angeles, Barbados, Mykonos, and the Maldives since June

The star has taken a series of sun-soaked breaks in recent months, holidaying in Los Angeles, Barbados, Mykonos, and the Maldives since June.

She is also no stranger to a racy swimsuit snap as evidenced when she flaunted her bootylicious behind and pert bust in a navy thong cut swimsuit earlier this month.

The confident star arched one toned leg as she struck a pose, sending fans into a frenzy.

Lauryn has recently been seen painting the town red with reality stars Lauren Goodger, 30 and Pascal Craymer, 30.

She was also seen enjoying a wild night out on the tiles with new mum Chelsee Healey and sister Chloe.

Pals:Lauryn has recently been seen painting the town red with reality stars Lauren Goodger, 30 and Pascal Craymer, 30
They are arguably the most controversial team on The Block this season.

And Ronnie and Georgia Caceres have been accused of using the Instagram of a professional interior design company to inspire one of their winning rooms, even though 'contestants [are allowed to] gather inspiration from many different sources', according to a Channel Nine spokesperson.

The Perth couple defended themselves against the claims to Woman's Day on Monday, with Ronnie calling their fellow contestants 'bullies'.

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Dubious: Ronnie and Georgia Caceres have been accused of using the Instagram account of a professional interior design company to inspire one of their winning rooms

'It's Tall Poppy Syndrome,' Ronnie told the magazine, with Georgia adding: 'It felt like we were ganged up on!'

The experienced renovators appeared to take inspiration for their children's room from Melbourne-based Norsu Interiors, who thanked them on social media.

'A heartfelt thank you to the gorgeous @ronnieandgeorgia for visiting our store, we're absolutely pinching ourselves. Such a special moment for our Norsu team,' they wrote.

Remix? The experienced renovators appeared to take inspiration for their children's room from Melbourne-based Norsu Interiors, who thanked them on social media

Not only is the same rose gold metal bed from Incy Interiors used in both designs, so are the wall prints, a canopy in the corner and a stuffed toy on the bed.

A shot of the 'professionally designed' room was sent to Ronnie and Georgia's fellow Block contestant Jason, 46, who immediately accused the duo of being 'copycats'.

According to a publicist for the reality show, it is 'a long-standing rule on The Block that contestants are not allowed to enlist the help of a professional interior designer'.

Inspired: Not only is the same rose gold metal bed from Incy Interiors used in both designs, so are the wall prints, a pink canopy in the corner and a stuffed toy on the bed

Guidelines: According to the reality show's rules, all competitors are banned from being assisted by a professional interior designer

'Ronnie and Georgia have not broken any rules by drawing inspiration from the latest trends and styles,' the Nine Network spokesperson explained.

'During the episode airing on Tuesday, August 29, other contestants are seen to be gathering inspiration from many different sources i.e. from stores, photographs in magazines, and online outlets. This has been the case with contestants across many past seasons,' they added.

Viewers of the show took umbrage with Ronnie and Georgia's perceived actions, with one writing they were 'not really inventive' on the program's Instagram account.

'Ronnie and Georgia have not broken any rules by drawing inspiration from the latest trends and styles,' the Nine Network spokesperson explained

'To copy it almost exactly is getting money for someone else's ideas, it's a building and design show, you should be losing points for such plagiarism,' added another.

Georgia is reportedly 'determined' to find out who sent the Instagram picture from Norsu Interiors to Jason, with rivals Hannah and Josh being cited as two possibilities.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Norsu Interiors for further comment.
Victoria started its second series with an episode depicting the events of her life and our history in 1841 but was in fact so modern it couldn't have been more of the moment.

Its heroine was after all the type of young, good-looking, feminist queen that is all the rage from Game Of Thrones, with the show clearly treating Victoria as a pioneering icon - its Dickensian Daenerys.

The perfectly-cast Jenna Coleman could have been a slightly older Arya Stark and even had to fend off the arrival in court of the imperious Dame Diana Rigg pecking at her.

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Royal return: Victoria started its second series with an episode depicting the events of her life and our history in 1841 but was in fact so modern it couldn't have been more of the moment, writes Jim Shelley

Around her, Buckingham Palace positively throbbed with dashing princes and buxom beauties blessed with Made In Chelsea hair and raging libidos.

Rather than an old-fashioned history lesson, events like the Anglo-Afghan War had shades of Blackadder more than Wolf Hall, or even Carry On Up The Kyber given the frankly alarming discussions about Prince Albert's helmet and whether he 'dressed to the left.'

'May I ask you to look at my brother Septimus' commission' was a line any actor would struggle to say with a straight face.

Victoria was such perfect Sunday night viewing it bordered on genius: standard costume drama given a twist.

Perfect portrayal: The perfectly-cast Jenna Coleman could have been a slightly older Arya Stark and even had to fend off the arrival in court of the imperious Dame Diana Rigg pecking at her

Someone at ITV had worked out the best way to create 'the new Downton Abbey' was simply upgrade it  making its aristocrats (and their furnishings) so classy the Earl, Lady Mary, et al suddenly looked provincial.

The various travails of the maids, chefs, and dressers below stairs were dreary and cliched  just distractions from the only thing that really mattered: Victoria and Albert, whose relationship was here portrayed as a love-story so passionate and romantic not even a crying baby could alter.

Only their bickering about Afghanistan led to him sleeping on the sofa. (We've all been there.)

Episode One picked up where the first season had ended  with their daughter Victoria Junior twelve weeks old  and in only Year Four of the great Monarch's reign. At this rate we'll still have another nineteen series to go when it's finished.

Downton Abbey with more glamour: Victoria was such perfect Sunday night viewing it bordered on genius: standard costume drama given a twist

It began with a shot straight out of 'Thrones' - not the Night King, sadly, but a CGI of a snowy mountain expanse  'Afghanistan, the Kyber Pass.'

Decimation lay ahead for the British troops.

As GoT's female rulers had discovered, Victoria found it wasn't just the enemy she was up against.

One royal tradition decreed it was 'most irregular' for the Queen to appear in public before being 'churched.'

'It is customary for a woman who has had a child to be purified in church before she rejoins society,' the Prime Minister explained pompously.

Tackling the patriarchy: One royal tradition decreed it was 'most irregular' for the Queen to appear in public before being 'churched'

'Well Sir Robert I am not a woman,' she rejoined. 'I am a queen.'

Even she succumbed in the end.

Even her husband regarded decisions about the war and the army as man's work  his work.

'Uz-er-vie-z you vill wear yourself hout !' Tom Hughes proclaimed in one of the cast's many pantomime German accents.

'It may be your regiment Albert but it is my army,' the young queen reminded him primly.

When he finally informed her about the planned (doomed) retreat from Kabul, she accused him of 'undermining me' and 'treating me as a child that needs to be protected not as an equal.'

Cheeky: The delicate subject of Prince Albert's helmet came up repeatedly (as it were)

'Nein, nein, nein!' he cried as if he was phoning the German emergency services. 'I was merely trying to shelter you!' he added, basically proving her point.

To be honest, the way they argued about the British troops' uniform neither of them inspired much confidence.

Prince Albert was fixated with re-designing it, insisting: 'I do not think zis uniform is dees-heined for ze modern warfare.'

Queen Victoria countered that it was a Good Look.

'I think I would feel brave wearing it,' she reiterated  hardly relevant.

The delicate subject of Prince Albert's helmet came up repeatedly (as it were).

Reasserting herself: When Albert and the Prime Minister advised her it was a time for the country to retreat and 'lick its wounds' she inevitably insisted on making a stand, attending the launch of HMS Trafalgar on the grounds 'we need to do something splendid'

'Prime Minister Peel was most complimentary about my helmet designs,' he boasted.

'I don't give a fig about your helmet !' she snapped.

Albert was still going on about it when 4000 men were 'ambushed and annihilated' in the Kyber Pass (an event approximated from 1842).

When Albert and the Prime Minister advised her it was a time for the country to retreat and 'lick its wounds' she inevitably insisted on making a stand, attending the launch of HMS Trafalgar on the grounds 'we need to do something splendid.'

'I vill not be able to attend,' sulked Albert. 'I have a meeting of the sanitation commission.'

Rousing speech: 'Today this becomes my ship' the young queen addressed the silent crowd at the ceremony, not for the first time sounding rather self-obsessed. The crowd cheered, flags waved, even Albert who had moodily appeared at the back, clapped his approval

'As you wish,' pouted Victoria. 'But I think the fighting spirit of this country is more important than plumbing.'

Ouch!

The Duke of Wellington (Peter Bowles) had advised her that 'if the men don't make it back the country will look to you for direction.'

So it proved.

'Today this becomes my ship' the young queen addressed the silent crowd at the ceremony, not for the first time sounding rather self-obsessed.

But she won them round when she continued: 'We have suffered a blow in Kabul. Brave men have perished. We mourn their loss. But as a soldier's daughter I know this nation has the greatest armed forces in the world. We will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.'

The crowd cheered, flags waved, even Albert who had moodily appeared at the back, clapped his approval.

True love: They were in love again, the nation adored her, she had got her Italian chef Francatelli, back. All was well...

They were in love again, the nation adored her, she had got her Italian chef Francatelli, back. All was well...

She even began to have some maternal feelings for her baby, but still finding a way to make a feminist statement as she cooed to Albert over her crib: 'I don't want Victoria to be a pawn in some dynastic game. I want my daughter to free to marry as I did. For love !'

He kissed her and they were soon back in bed, under the sheets.

'I'm sorry I was rude about your helmets,' she told him, somewhat spoiling the moment.

For all her attributes as a young queen and as a woman, she needed to work on her pillow talk.

Even Victoria wasn't quite perfect.
This NASA file photo taken on August 3, 2002 shows an artist's rendition of the Voyager spacecraft, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its launch

Are we alone?

Forty years ago, NASA rocket scientists sought to answer this question by launching the Voyager spacecraft, twin unmanned spaceships that would travel further than any human-made object in history.

They are still traveling.

When Voyager 1 and 2 launched about two weeks apart in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, scientists knew little about the outer planets in our solar system, and could hardly imagine the scope of their upcoming space odyssey.

"None of us knew, when we launched 40 years ago, that anything would still be working, and continuing on this pioneering journey," said Voyager project scientist Ed Stone.

Voyager's main mission was to explore other planets including Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, but it also carried the story of humanity into deep space.

On board each Voyager is a golden record -- and record player -- that is built to last one billion years or more and contains key information about humanity and life on planet Earth, in case of an alien encounter.

The sounds include the calls of humpback whales, the Chuck Berry song "Johnny B. Goode," Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, a Japanese shakuhachi (a type of flute), a Pygmy girls' initiation song, and greetings in 55 languages.

Late American astronomer Carl Sagan, one of the lead scientists involved with the project, also asked his son, Nick, who is now 46, to record his voice on it.

"Hello, from the children of planet Earth," says the young American boy.

A total of 115 images are encoded in analog form, including the Great Wall of China, telescopes, sunsets, elephants, Jane Goodall with chimps, an airport, a train, a breastfeeding mother, dolphins and images of the human sex organs.

- Exploring other worlds -

Voyager 2 launched first, on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5 on a faster, shorter trajectory that would eventually take it into the lead.

The timing of the mission took advantage of a rare planetary alignment that only happens every 175 years, along with "gravity-assist" boosts from passing by planets that minimized the fuel needed.

This handout photograph from Sept. 5, 1977 shows the launch of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida

But Voyager faced many challenges from the start, from tight budgets to the limits of modern technology in the 1970s.

One project scientist famously recalled wrapping Voyager's cables in aluminum foil -- the store-bought kind for kitchen use -- to protect the spacecraft from frying in heavy radiation.

Then-president Richard Nixon wanted to contain the mission to a two-planet flyby and a five-year life, but scientists building Voyager planned for a longer mission just in case.

The cosmic duo went on to unveil planetary features unlike anything ever seen, including details about the surface of Jupiter with its raging storm the size of two Earths, known as the Great Red Spot.

"These were, at that point, better pictures than any ground-based telescopes could provide," said Alan Cummings, a senior research scientist at Caltech who worked on the project beginning in 1973.

The Voyager mission also discovered the first active volcanoes beyond Earth on Jupiter's moon Io, and signs of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa.

Saturn's moon, Titan, turned out to have the most Earth-like atmosphere in the solar system, while Neptune's moon Triton was revealed to be spewing icy geysers.

- 'Cherish that blue dot' -

Astronomy textbooks were rewritten on a wide scale, thanks to Voyager, which zoomed past Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus and "revolutionized the science of planetary astronomy," NASA said in an online remembrance of the famed mission.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft gave its first glimpse of Neptune and its moon Triton in 1989. This picture of Neptune obtained in August 2014 was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the Voyager 2 narrow angle camera

When Voyager had no more planets to be encountered on its trajectory, Carl Sagan pressed to have its cameras turn back toward Earth for a final snap of the planet that sent it.

From four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away, the images were taken on Valentine's Day, 1990.

The Earth appeared as tiny as a speck of dust in a sunbeam, less than a single pixel in the vastness of space.

"I think this perspective underscores our responsibility to preserve and cherish that blue dot, the only home we have," Sagan told a press conference at the time.

- Where are they now? -

Voyager 1 has traveled father than any human-made spacecraft, and made it to interstellar space, about 13 billion miles away from Earth, in August 2012.

Voyager 2 is on its way there too, and is the only spacecraft to have flown by all four outer planets in our solar system.

The plutonium-powered spaceships will continue until they finally run out of fuel, and will then orbit in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Cummings said the cameras stopped working a long time ago, but about five instruments still collect data.

Scientists still hear from the Voyager spacecraft daily, and expect to get data for about another decade.

"It is still discovering new things because it is going where nothing has been before," said Stone.
Residents say the project to beautify Ouzai has brought new life to a rundown neighbourhood

Seen from the highway out of Lebanon's capital Beirut, the Ouzai neighbourhood is a jumble of haphazard construction, but venture inside and its low-slung buildings transform into street art canvases.

Artists taking part in the "Ouzville" project have painted walls in brilliant blues, reds, yellows and greens, adorning others with enormous murals, doodles, and cartoon characters.

The project is a breath of fresh air for Ouzai, a rundown and largely informal neighbourhood on the Mediterranean coast south of Beirut.

It was once a sleepy seaside village, with long stretches of beach that attracted sunbathers from miles away.

But during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, civilians displaced from elsewhere built slapdash housing in the area, often without permits, to accommodate their needs.

The "Ouzville" project to cover Beirut's Ouzai neighbourhood with street art is the brainchild of property developer Ayad Nasser

For decades, the neighbourhood's chaos of jumbled buildings and the web of electrical wires hanging overhead have been among the first things visible from planes landing at Beirut airport.

Ayad Nasser, the property developer behind the Ouzville project, was born in Ouzai in 1970 but moved overseas during the civil war.

He said each landing at the nearby airport was a painful reminder of the neighbourhood's decline.

"Every time, I was sad landing here. I said, 'I'm going to take care of Ouzai,'" he told AFP.

- 'Brought joy' -

Some 140 buildings around Ouzai have now been repainted in bright colours

Nasser launched his project 18 months ago, inviting Lebanese and international street artists to beautify parts of Beirut -- Ouzai in particular.

"I felt that the most abandoned area in Lebanon is Ouzai," Nasser said in English.

"It's been 40 years that nobody is taking care of it: not the government, not the local parties, not even the local peoples."

He worked with Ouzai residents to identify streets and buildings to be brightened up with bursts of colour.

Around 140 buildings have now been painted, with a handful done by the residents themselves.

From the street below her first-storey home, Jumana Yunis can be seen preparing green beans for lunch, framed by a large window in the bright yellow outer wall of her building.

Below the window is a large mural of a girl's face, rendered in serene shades of turquoise and royal blue.

At 38, Yunis has spent her whole life in Ouzai and is raising her four children in the home where she was born.

For her, the Ouzville project has "brought joy" to a neighbourhood she loves.

"You're happy when you go outside and see the colours, even if sometimes it's strange. You feel that this is a new neighbourhood," she told AFP.

"Lots of new people came to the neighbourhood, and we got to meet strangers. It's really lovely, the neighbourhood has flourished with the colours."

Nasser said part of the project's goal is to "break the stereotype" of Ouzai, which many in Lebanon see as a slum to be avoided.

Much of the $140,000 (120,000 euros) he has spent on the project has gone on hosting people elsewhere in Lebanon and abroad at a local fish restaurant to encourage them to engage with Ouzai's residents.

- 'Like Disneyland' -

Artists and volunteers have descended on Ouzai to repaint its buildings -- with a few residents taking part, too

Rania al-Halabi, an amateur artist participating in the project, admits that Ouzai is "an area that we usually only enter with a car, in the best of circumstances."

But she said the project inspired her from the minute she heard about it.

"Colour can make everything in life beautiful, and this is something that will certainly change everyone's lives," she said, as she daubed green paint around a stark face several metres high.

While residents welcome Nasser's initiative, they note it underlines the relative absence of local services -- although municipal workers were digging up a street when reporters visited recently.

"It should be the municipality that does this kind of work, not just here in our area," said Zakaria Kobrosly, a 57-year-old fisherman, whose home is metres from the shore.

And the project's future will depend on residents' willingness to continue the work.

Nasser plans to bow out after he launches a crowd-funding campaign later this month to raise $35,000 towards continuing the project.

Laila Slim, 51, preparing parsley for a salad next to the salmon-coloured outer wall of her home, gestured to an area where the paint was peeling.

"The project is very lovely, but with the humidity, it is damaged already. I hope they will come back again," she said.

Kobrosly said the project had improved the neighbourhood's social fabric.

"People used to socialise in their houses, now you find them out in the street below together," he said.

"It has calmed people's nerves... they've started to get to know each other."

The best view of Ouzai, he said, is from his fishing boat out in the Mediterranean.

"You can see it all together, with all the colours. It's like Disneyland or something!"
Lebanese armed forces launched their campaign against IS militants entrenched in the mountainous Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa areas on Lebanon's eastern border on August 19

Lebanese authorities Sunday located the remains of eight people they believe to be soldiers kidnapped three years ago by the Islamic State group along the restive eastern border with Syria.

The announcement came hours after the army declared a pause in its nine-day assault on IS in exchange for information on the missing soldiers.

Head of the General Security agency Major General Abbas Ibrahim said IS fighters who had surrendered led his agency and the Lebanese army to the remains.

"We have removed the remains of six bodies. We are expecting the number to go up to eight," he told reporters gathered in downtown Beirut.

"We believe that these remains belong to the soldiers."

The army later released a statement saying the remains of eight bodies had been retrieved from the Jurud Arsal mountainous border area with Syria and taken to a military hospital for DNA testing.

The troops were among 30 soldiers and police kidnapped by IS and Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014.

Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds while 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015 that was also overseen by Ibrahim.

- IS fighters to withdraw -

Nine troops remained missing, but on Sunday Ibrahim spoke only of eight bodies and said he was "almost certain that the case is closed".

A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance carrying human remains believed to belong to troops kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago drives through the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on its way to Beirut, on August 27

He spoke to reporters after informing the families of the missing soldiers of the latest developments.

The families had gathered for hours in downtown Beirut amid blistering heat to await news of their loved ones.

They sat in tents they had pitched three years ago during protests to pressure the government to find the troops.

The army had said the missing soldiers were its "top concern", as it launched an offensive earlier this month against an estimated 600 IS jihadists in the border region.

Relatives of Lebanese soldiers taken hostage by jihadists in 2014 sit inside a tent in downtown Beirut on August 27, 2017 awaiting news of their loved ones

Before Sunday's ceasefire, the army had squeezed IS into 20 square kilometres out of 120 held by the jihadists in the mountainous region of Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa, near the Syrian border.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which had simultaneously launched its own assault against IS from the Syrian side of the border, also declared a ceasefire on Sunday.

Hezbollah's War Media channel said the unilateral pause was "in the framework of a comprehensive agreement to end the battle in west Qalamun against Daesh (IS)".

The deal is expected to see hundreds of IS fighters leave both sides of the border for an area in eastern Syria, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the deal would see IS's "surrender and deportation from west Qalamun (in Syria) and the Lebanese outskirts to the city of Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province".

Mayadeen is an IS-held city near Syria's eastern border with Iraq.

The War Media channel said later Sunday that 17 buses and 10 cars belonging to Syria's Red Crescent had arrived in the west Qalamun area in preparation for the evacuations.

- Defeating IS in Lebanon -

Hezbollah and Syrian forces battle IS on the Syria side of the border with Lebanon where the army launched its own assault on the jihadists

Hezbollah has been fighting alongside troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.

Syria's state news agency SANA, quoting a military source, confirmed Hezbollah and IS had agreed that "the remaining Daesh (IS) fighters will leave to eastern Syria".

And a Lebanese military source told AFP the jihadist group would quit territory it held in eastern Lebanon.

"When this happens, Daesh's military presence in Lebanon -- its control of geographic territory -- will be finished," the source said.

But the source warned that IS still had "sleeper cells" in Lebanon.

Six soldiers have been killed since the start of the assault, which the army has insisted is not being coordinated with Hezbollah.

Last month, Hezbollah carried out its own campaign further south on the border area against what is now Al-Qaeda's former affiliate, after Al-Nusra broke off ties with the extremist group last year.

The six-day offensive ended with a ceasefire under which 8,000 refugees and jihadists were transported to northwestern Syria in return for the release of five captured Hezbollah fighters.
Indian paramilitary personnel in Sirsa

Supporters of an Indian guru ended a tense standoff with soldiers Sunday after the "godman" was convicted of rape, but authorities are bracing for more trouble on the eve of his sentencing after rioting by devotees left 36 dead.

Thousands of followers of Ram Rahim Singh had congregated in the spiritual headquarters of his sect in the northern state of Haryana over the weekend and refused to leave, despite calls from police and troops for them to disperse.

Singh's loyalists had gone on a rampage in many other parts of the state after the court decision Friday.

On Sunday, followers began trickling out from the compound in the town of Sirsa one by one under army guard.

Hundreds of soldiers and riot police had blocked approaches to the premises spread over 1,000 acres (404 hectares) and were urging those holed up inside to surrender peacefully.

A curfew imposed in Sirsa, where soldiers patrolled empty streets, was briefly lifted Sunday morning to allow Singh's followers to leave the headquarters as spiritual anthems blared from megaphones.

Indian authorities have been on high alert since rioting and arson broke out minutes after Singh -- who has starred in films and claims to have 50 million followers -- was found guilty of raping two of his devotees.

Police said at least 36 people were killed as tens of thousands of followers took to the streets, attacking television vans and setting fire to dozens of vehicles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday it was "natural to be worried" as the violence even briefly reached the capital New Delhi.

"Violence is not acceptable in the nation, in any form," Modi said in his monthly radio address.

"Those who take law in their hands or take to violence will not be spared, whoever they are."

But his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which is also in power in Haryana, has come under heavy fire for failing to prevent the outbreak of violence and allowing the 50-year-old guru to travel in a luxury chopper to jail.

Critics say state authorities grossly underestimated the risk posed by the 200,000-strong army of Singh devotees who poured onto the streets vowing to defend their spiritual leader who they consider innocent.

- "Father can do no sin" -

Authorities are taking no such chances ahead of Monday, when Singh will be sentenced in a prison-side court hearing in Rohtak. He could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The city has been heavily fortified ahead of the ruling, with roads blocked by barbed wire and residents warned to stay indoors.

"We have made multi-layered arrangements so that nobody is able to reach the venue (prison) or enter Rohtak district itself," police deputy inspector general Navdeep Singh Virk told Indian broadcaster NDTV.

"I am fully confident everything will go on peacefully and there will be no untoward incident tomorrow (Monday)."

As a precautionary measure, all senior members of Singh's Dera Sacha Sauda sect have been placed under "preventive detention", he added.

The guilty verdict, and police response to the rioting that followed, enraged many of Singh's supporters.

"Our father can never do any sin," said devotee Trilok Insaan at a shop in Sirsa adorned with posters of a heavily-bearded Singh.

"This is a conspiracy. Authorities issued a 'shoot at sight' order at innocent devotees, which is totally wrong."

India has been rocked by numerous scandals involving popular ascetics claiming to possess mystical powers, and Singh is no stranger to controversy.

He is known as the "guru in bling" because of his penchant for bejewelled costumes, and is often seen sporting flamboyant leather jackets and riding customised superbikes.

In 2015 he started a film franchise portraying him as MSG or the 'Messenger of God', performing miracles, preaching to thousands and beating up gangsters while singing and dancing.

His last flick 'MSG - The Warrior Lion Heart' was released last year, with the guru playing a secret agent fighting aliens and UFOs.

But he has previously been accused of encouraging 400 followers to undergo castration at his ashram so they could get closer to god.

He also stood trial for conspiracy over the murder of a journalist in 2002.
A woman holds a child in her arms as she arrives at Yathae Taung township in Rakhine state after fleeing violence in their home village

Bangladesh detained and forcibly returned 70 Rohingya migrants to Myanmar, police said Sunday, just hours after Myanmarese troops on the other side of the border had opened fire on people fleeing the country.

Police intercepted the Rohingya late Saturday after they crossed the "zero line" border zone, where Myanmar soldiers earlier fired mortars and machine guns at villagers making the dangerous dash from the northern state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.

The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingya already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer.

"All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards," Khaer told AFP.

Police said some of those detained had entered Bangladesh via the Ghumdhum border area -- where the Myanmar forces unleashed the barrage of fire just hours earlier.

"They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar," said one policeman on condition of anonymity.

Rakhine has become a hotbed of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and spurned as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But in October a new militant group -- the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) -- attacked a string of Myanmar border posts, sparking a military crackdown that left scores dead and forced 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The latest violence erupted early on Friday as scores of men purportedly from ARSA, ambushed Myanmar police posts.

Using knives, some guns and homemade explosives they killed at least a dozen security force members.

Remote villages along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar have seen fierce fighting since then between suspected militants and Myanmar security forces.

The violence has left a total of more than 100 dead since Friday and forced thousands of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh.

But authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with thousands of people -- mainly women and children -- stranded along the border zone.

The Bangladeshi government has instructed local officials in Cox's Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar that is home to several large refugee camps, not to allow any "illegal entry" by Rohingya, Abdur Rahman, a senior government official, told AFP.

The impoverished country already hosts some 400,000 Rohingya refugees.

But Rohingya community leaders, local media and an AFP correspondent said despite heavy border patrols, at least 3,000 Rohingya refugees have managed to enter the country and found refuge in camps and villages since Friday.

In Rakhine itself six members of a Hindu family have become the latest victims of the violence. Their bullet-riddled bodies -- including three children and a woman -- were discovered on Sunday and brought to a hospital in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine.

The victims had allegedly been shot dead by Rohingya militants on Saturday evening as they tried to flee to Maungdaw, a relative who lived in the town told AFP.

"We were still in contact with them yesterday by phone before they were killed. Now their dead bodies are in this hospital," the distraught man told an AFP reporter.

The office of Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi posted pictures of some of the victims on its Facebook account, saying two women and four children survived the ambush and alerted authorities.

Myanmar's Rohingya are the world's largest stateless minority and endure severe restrictions on their movements.

Northern Rakhine has been stalked by violence since last October, with civilians trapped between security forces and the militants -- who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against perceived collaborators with the state.

Bangladesh border guards on alert as Rohingya people (far L) escape fresh gunfire at the frontier

Rohingya, meanwhile, live in fear of police and troops.

"They arrest and beat whoever they see along the way," a man, who gave his first name as Anawar, told AFP Sunday morning by phone.

"Not everyone is terrorist," he added. "We want a peaceful and calm society."

bur/jta/sj-sa/np/sm
Bangladeshi players react after the dismissal of Australian batsman David Warner (centre) during their first day of the first Test match at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka on August 27, 2017

Bangladesh's spinners spoilt a strong day for Australia Sunday, claiming two quick wickets after the hosts had been dismissed for 260 on the first day of the first Test.

Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar took three wickets each to wrap up the Bangladesh innings despite half-centuries from Tamim Iqbal and Shakib al Hasan.

But there was redemption for Bangladesh -- meeting Australia in a Test for the first time in over a decade -- when their spinners took two scalps in the final moments of the session. A third batsman was run out, leaving Australia precariously placed on 18-3 at stumps.

David Warner was given a reprieve by the third umpire from a lbw decision off Mehedi Hasan, but the spinner trapped the left-hander the same way with the very next ball.

Soumya Sarkar was responsible for a brilliant run out to remove Usman Khawaja for one in the next over, before left arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan dismissed nightwatchman Lyon for a duck.

Opener Mat Renshaw remained unbeaten on six at stumps along with skipper Steve Smith, not out three.

When the match got under way Australia looked unstoppable as Cummins rattled Bangladeshs top order with a fiery opening spell.

Cummins struck in his first over when he dismissed Soumya Sarkar for eight, beating the left-hander with a short-pitched ball that took an edge and flew to Peter Handscomb at gully.

In his next over he removed Imrul Kayes and Sabbir Rahman for nought off successive deliveries to reduce Bangladesh to 10 for 3.

But Shakib and Tamim came together to add 155 for the fourth wicket and lift the home team's score towards respectability.

Tamim lofted Lyon for a six over extra cover, growing in confidence as he built the partnership with Shakib.

Occasional spinner Glenn Maxwell finally broke it when he forced Tamim to cut one loose at backward point, where David Warner took the catch.

Tamim, who like Shakib was playing his 50th Test, made 71.

Shakib scored 84 including 11 fours before he was dismissed by Lyon on the stroke of tea, with Smith taking a sharp catch at first slip.

"It was quite challenging to bat out there. I think Tamim and I applied ourselves," said Shakib.

"It was an important partnership. We may be in the driving seat but we need to take seven more wickets.

"They have some batting left too, so we have to focus well. Every day gives you a new situation in Test cricket," he added.

Agar trapped Mushfiqur Rahim leg-before for 18, a decision which the Bangladesh skipper unsuccessfully reviewed.

Nasir Hossain (23) and Mehedi Hasan (18) provided brief resistance but were undone by Agar and Lyon respectively for Australia to expose the tail.

Cummins finished with figures of 3-63, while off-spinner Lyon claimed 3-79 -- surpassing Richie Benaud's Test haul of 248 wickets to become Australia's second most successful spinner after Shane Warne.

"It's in the balance to be fair," Lyon said after the opening days play.

"You can probably look at Bangladesh who have the momentum at the moment. To lose the toss and bowl a team out for 260 or under 300 is always a good result for a bowling team.

"It's not ideal losing three wickets, but thats the game. Youve got to give them credit, they batted well, they bowled well," he said.

Agar, playing his first Test in four years, did his part with 3-46 which included the final wicket of Shafiul Islam.
South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 with the violence killing thousands of people

An American journalist has been killed while covering clashes between government and rebel forces in restive South Sudan, local officials and the US mission in Juba said on Sunday.

Christopher Allen, a freelance reporter and photographer, was embedded with insurgent troops when fighting broke out in Kaya, near South Sudan's southern border with Uganda.

A spokesman for the US embassy told AFP that "an American citizen" had died in the clashes, which also killed 18 others.

"Yesterday we confirmed the name and we confirmed the fact that the person was killed. We are not providing any additional information about the situation," the spokesman added.

A spokesman for South Sudan's armed forces said Allen had not been accredited to cover the conflict by authorities in Juba and it was likely he entered the country through Uganda.

A statement from the rebel SPLA-IO forces condemned the fighting that killed Allen as a "monstrous and unnatural act (that) violates international humanitarian law which entitles journalists to all rights and protection during armed conflicts."

Allen had worked for several outlets including Al Jazeera and Vice News and previously covered the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

South Sudan's civil war erupted in December 2013 just two years after it obtained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

Thousands of people have been killed by the violence, which plunged part of the country into famine earlier this year. Some four million have been displaced, according to UN figures.
Thai police outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok on Friday, when ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra failed to appear

Thailand's junta has come under fire from conservative allies following ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra's escape overseas, with many questioning how the military could have let her flee given she was heavily monitored.

Yingluck, whose government was toppled by the military in 2014, pulled a dramatic disappearing act before a scheduled court judgment on Friday in a criminal negligence trial.

She faced up to ten years in prison and a lifetime political ban if convicted. But instead she was a no show, with junta and party sources saying she had fled abroad.

Analysts say Yingluck most likely cut a secret deal with the junta to exit the country -- a charge the military has denied.

The leadership is desperate to avoid instability as it digs in for a long stay.

The junta says it does not yet know how the country's first female prime minister managed to slip the net.

But key conservative figures, some of whom agitated for the coup that toppled Yingluck and are seen as political allies of the junta, rounded on the military in a series of statements over the weekend.

"It was clear that security officials followed her closely and took photographs of her everywhere she went, all the time. But she still was able to escape," Panthep Puapongpan, one of the leaders of 2014 protests against Yingluck's government, told reporters.

"With Yingluck now escaped, the government, the security forces and the NCPO has to take responsibility," he added, using the official acronym for the junta.

Veera Somkwankid, another prominent opponent of the Shinawatra political dynasty, took to Facebook to vent his frustration.

"The government must hunt down the traitors and punish the persons (who might have helped her escape), otherwise the NCPO will end up being the defendant," he wrote.

Yingluck frequently complained of being constantly followed by military intelligence since she was ousted from office.

Thai media has been filled with speculation over how she might have escaped, with most suggesting she went to Cambodia either by land or sea in the days before the court verdict and then on to Singapore.

A senior junta source told AFP they believed she had fled to Dubai, the base of Shinawatra family patriarch Thaksin, who is Yingluck's older brother.

The Shinawatra political dynasty emerged under Thaksin in 2001 with a series of groundbreaking welfare schemes that won them votes and the loyalty of the rural poor.

But their popularity rattled the royalist and army-aligned elite, who assailed successive governments linked to the clan with coups, court cases and protests.

Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 coup and fled overseas two years later to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.

The period since then -- dubbed the "Lost Decade" -- has seen frequent deadly street protests, short-lived governments and the return of military rule in 2014.
A Libyan coastguard watches on as illegal immigrants are brought to shore in a dinghy during a rescue on June 27, 2017

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said the Libyan coastguard should be supported in its efforts to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, but warned that rights abuses would not be tolerated.

A day before a Paris summit on the migrant crisis, Merkel said the Libyan coastguard had to become capable of patrolling its waters and should be given "the necessary equipment to do its job".

"At the same time, of course we also consider it of the utmost importance that the Libyan coastguard adheres to international law, both in its dealings with refugees and migrants as well as non-governmental groups," she told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

"Should any doubts be raised about this, then we will investigate the allegations," she vowed.

The Libyan government sparked controversy this month when it barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, claiming that charity boats active in the search and rescue zone were facilitating illegal migration.

The move was welcomed by Italy, the main port of arrival for migrants from north Africa, but several NGOs have since suspended their sea missions, accusing the Libyan coastguard of making threats and creating a hostile environment in the Mediterranean.

So far this year more than 100,000 people have made the perilous journey from Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration, and the European Union is eager for Libya to clamp down on the influx.

Over 2,300 have died attempting the crossing.

"We cannot allow the business of people smugglers who have the deaths of so many on their conscience," said Merkel.

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting talks on the crisis at the Elysee Palace on Monday, with Merkel and her Spanish and Italian counterparts in attendance.

Libya's unity government chief Fayez al-Sarraj and the leaders of Chad and Niger will also attend the gathering.

Merkel, who is campaigning for a fourth term in next month's general election, told Die Welt am Sonntag that she had no regrets about her bold move to open Germany's borders to refugees in 2015.

"I would make all the important decisions of 2015 again in the same way," she said.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, mainly from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, deeply divided Germany and hurt Merkel's approval ratings.

But as the influx has slowed in recent months, Merkel's popularity has rebounded and her conservatives are comfortably leading in the polls ahead of the September 24 vote.
A Yemeni soldier stands on the debris of a house hit in an air strike on a residential district in the capital Sanaa, on August 26, 2017

A Yemeni colonel loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Huthi rebels have been killed in Sanaa, in an unprecedented escalation of violence between the allies with Saleh's party warning it could push the capital into all-out war.

An anti-government alliance between Saleh and rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi has crumbled over the past week, with the two accusing each other of treason and back-stabbing.

Witnesses in Sanaa, which Saleh and Huthi jointly control, said the ex-president's forces had spread in southern parts of the capital near the presidential offices, which Saleh still holds despite resigning in 2012.

They said the forces had deployed in Sabaeen Square and the district of Hadda.

Saleh's General People's Congress party said in a statement on Sunday that "remaining silent on the incident would open the door to strife that would be difficult to contain".

Colonel Khaled al-Rida, the deputy head of foreign relations in the GPC, was killed in the clashes between supporters of Saleh and Abdul Malik al-Huthi late Saturday, the statement said.

A source within the GPC said the clashes erupted at a Huthi rebel checkpoint in Hadda after a dispute between fighters manning the checkpoint and armed supporters of Saleh who were driving by.

The rebel-run Saba news agency said two members of the Popular Committees, a tribal alliance largely dominated by the Huthis, were also killed.

Saleh and Huthi joined ranks in 2014 in a shock alliance that drove the internationally recognised government out of Sanaa and into the southern province of Aden.

From its inception, analysts have viewed the alliance as a tactical move by both sides, with rebels exploiting Saleh's political power and the former president benefitting from the Huthi's guns on the ground.

- War of words -

Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh remains the head of his General People's Congress party, whose 35th anniversary was marked with a mass rally in Sanaa on August 24

But in the past week, a war of words between Saleh and Huthi erupted with Saleh suggesting that his allies were merely "a militia", and the rebels calling him a "back-stabber" and "traitor" who would "bear the consequences" of his insult.

The most recent clashes have added fuel to the fire, with the GPC statement accusing a "group that knows no morality or oaths" of being behind the colonel's killing -- a thinly veiled reference to the Huthis.

The Huthis reportedly suspect Saleh has been negotiating with a Saudi-led military coalition that supports the Aden-based government.

Saleh, meanwhile, is said to be displeased with the Huthis' newfound power in the capital, where they run a number of key offices.

The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen's war in March 2015 in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government against the Iran-backed rebels and Saleh.

The war has since pushed the country to the brink of famine, and killed more than 8,400 civilians -- including in coalition air strikes.

On Sunday UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged warring parties in Yemen to allow humanitarian aid into the country, namely by re-opening the international airport in Sanaa and Hodeida port.

The coalition supporting the Hadi government imposed an air and sea blockade on all rebel-held territory in March 2015 and tightened it in August last year saying it was the only way to stop weapons smuggling.

Hodeida, a port on the Red Sea, is a key entry point for aid also in rebel-held territory.

Yemenis stand in protest amidst the debris of a house, hit in an air strike on a residential district in the capital Sanaa on August 26

The coalition on Saturday claimed responsibility for an air strike in the Yemeni capital that killed 14 civilians the previous day, which it called a "technical mistake".

On Friday, the United Nations human rights office said air raids by the coalition had killed 42 civilians in Yemen in the past week, with multiple children among the dead.

The country also faces a deadly cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 2,000 lives and affected more than half a million people since late April.
Fighters of Hashed al-Shaabi advance in the city of Tal Afar, where Iraqi forces are poised for victory over IS jihadists

Iraqi Turkmen fighter Abbas Yussef is all smiles, clutching his Kalashnikov near the front lines in Tel Afar after his unit retook his home neighbourhood from Islamic State group jihadists.

"I can't describe my joy when I saw my house again," Yussef says.

"I can't describe how it felt to take it back, a gun in my hand."

Three years ago, IS seized nearly one third of Iraq, including Tal Afar, in a sweeping offensive that forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Yussef was among them, but quickly, along with thousands of others, he responded to a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, to take up arms against the jihadists.

Soon afterwards he enrolled in the paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella organisation which is dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias but which also includes Shiite Turkmen.

The Hashed took part in the offensive to retake Iraq's second city Mosul, which was liberated in July after a gruelling nine-month onslaught, alongside US-backed Iraqi military, police and counter-terrorism forces.

Now the paramilitary group has been battling to recapture Tal Afar, where IS has been driven out of all 29 districts in the northern city a mere week into an assault by Iraqi forces.

- Families fled south -

A fighter of the Hashed al-Shaabi carries an Iraqi flag as he walks through a building in Tal Afar, where the paramilitary organisation is battling IS alongside Iraqi forces

With Iraqi forces poised to declare victory over IS, Hashed fighters like Yussef recall how three years ago they were driven from their homes by advancing jihadists.

"I had to leave with my family for Diwaniya" province south of Baghdad, "leaving behind the house I had spent a lifetime building," Yussef tells AFP, wiping dust and sweat from his face.

The former Iraq army officer now in his 40s was battling IS holdouts in the western Tal Afar neighbourhood of Al-Kifah when he saw his house -- and that brought a smile to his face.

Akram Kambris was also driven out by IS from Al-Kifah.

Sitting on a rock, the Hashed fighter points to an out-patient clinic.

"I was posted there when I was in the local police," he says before pointing to another rose-coloured red-brick building. "That's my sister's house."

Kambris recalls that three years ago he and his "entire family" fled south when the jihadists swept into Tal Afar.

Now, he says, all of Tal Afar's residents are involved in the offensive to rout IS from the city. "The younger ones fight and the older ones organise (food) convoys" for the militiamen.

- 'Masters of the land' -

Most of the city's 200,000-strong population -- overwhelmingly Shiite Turkmen whose beliefs are considered heretical by the Sunni jihadists of IS -- fled Tal Afar after IS seized it.

A member of Hashed al-Shaabi removes a sign on a lamp post bearing the logo of the Islamic State (IS) group in Tal Afar

Some members of the city's Sunni minority joined the jihadists and went on to form a contingent with a particularly brutal reputation.

According to Akram, "just a few families linked to IS" have stayed on in Tal Afar.

Yussef says that "most of the IS chiefs in Tal Afar" hail from prominent families.

According to him, "there are Kurds among IS and their leader is Abu Alaa al-Talafari", who was close to the leader of the jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"Actually most of the IS emirs are originally from Tal Afar. Foreign and Turkish IS members joined later," says Yussef.

Another Hashed militiaman, Abu Zeinab, brands IS fighters in Tal Afar as "cowards".

"They are not fighting. We entered one house yesterday and found a stockpile of weapons," he says.

"They could have used them and held out for another two weeks, but they didn't. They can't resist us, because here we are the masters of the land."
Relatives of Lebanese soldiers taken hostage by jihadists in 2014 sit inside a tent as they gather in downtown Beirut on August 27, 2017 awaiting news of their loved ones

A top Lebanese security official said Sunday that authorities had located human remains believed to belong to troops kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago.

The announcement came hours after the Lebanese army declared a ceasefire deal with IS along the border with Syria in exchange for information on the missing soldiers.

The head of the General Security agency, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, said IS fighters who had surrendered led his agency and the Lebanese army to the remains.

"We have removed the remains of six bodies. We are expecting the number to go up to eight," he told reporters gathered in downtown Beirut.

"We believe that these remains belong to the soldiers."

The troops were among 30 soldiers and police kidnapped by IS and Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014.

Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds while 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015.

The army has said the missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive against an estimated 600 IS fighters in the hilly border region.

The missing troops were numbered at nine, but Ibrahim on Sunday only referred to the bodies of eight people and did not give details on a ninth.

He said the remains would be subject to DNA testing to ensure their identities but that he was "almost certain that the case is closed."

The top official spoke in downtown Beirut after informing the soldiers' families of the developments.

Relatives of the hostages had gathered for hours in the blistering heat on Sunday to await news of their loved ones, sitting in tents they erected three years ago during protests to pressure the government to find the troops.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that North Korea's latest missile test was 'provocative' but that he still hopes to persuade Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Sunday that North Korea's latest missile test was a "provocative act" but said he still hopes to persuade Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table.

Earlier this month, Washington's top diplomat suggested a diplomatic opening might be close after North Korea reacted to a new round of United Nations sanctions with what he termed "some level of restraint."

And on Tuesday US President Donald Trump seized upon the lack of immediate North Korean missile tests as evidence that the country's leader Kim Jong-Un "is starting to respect us."

But on Saturday, true to recent form, North Korea test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles, with Kim apparently thumbing his nose at calls for him to send Washington a signal that he is serious about nuclear disarmament.

"The firing of any ballistic missile is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions," Tillerson told Fox News Sunday. "We do view it as a provocative act, a provocative act against the United States and our allies."

But he added, "We continue to want the Kim regime to understand (there) is a different path that he can choose."

Asked whether he and Trump had been too quick to imagine that Kim might be ready to show restraint, Tillerson said: "I don't know that we are wrong ... I think it's going to take some time to tell."

"Clearly they are still messaging us as well that they are not prepared to completely back away from their position," he said.

"Having said that, we are going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it," Tillerson said, "working with allies, working with China as well, to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table, begin a dialogue on a different future for the Korean peninsula and for North Korea."
Libya's unity government chief Fayez al-Sarraj at a joint press conference in the Sudanese capital on August 27, 2017

President Omar al-Bashir said on Sunday that the crisis in neighbouring Libya has impacted Sudan, with human traffickers using the East African country's territories to commit "cross-border crimes".

Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting UN-backed Libyan premier Fayez al-Sarraj, Bashir also said security issues in Libya had made Khartoum's fight against human trafficking "more expensive".

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at a joint press conference with Libya's unity government chief in Khartoum on August 27, 2017

"We are affected directly by the insecurity in Libya, which has made it expensive for us to fight human trafficking, illegal immigration and cross-border crimes," Bashir said.

"Those who are committing these crimes are using the instability in Libya, and using Sudanese territories to commit their crimes."

Every year tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa cross Sudan and enter Libya for their onward journey to Europe across the Mediterranean.

In recent years European and African authorities have put pressure on Khartoum to boost efforts to curb illegal immigration and human trafficking.

Khartoum recognises the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Sarraj, a rival of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is accused by Sudan of enlisting rebels from the country's Darfur region to fight alongside his forces.

Bashir reiterated that accusation on Sunday.

"We have some Sudanese members of rebel groups active in Libya as mercenaries," he said, without elaborating.

Sarraj said the two leaders discussed the security situation in Libya.

"Sudan is of strategic importance to Libya, and we discussed how to secure the border," he said.

The two leaders did not talk about last month's closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats by the Haftar-backed authorities in eastern Libya.

A pro-Haftar news agency had reported that the Sudanese mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya, was closed on the grounds that it damaged "Libyan national security".

According to officials in Khartoum, dozens of young Sudanese -- both men and women -- have been killed in Libya fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Libya has been rocked by chaos since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed revolution.

Jihadists, arms dealers and people traffickers have gained a foothold in the North African country as multiple authorities and dozens of militias vie for power.
Syrian government troops, seen near Aleppo in March 2017, broke into Deir Ezzor from a border region with Iraq in June

Syrian government troops advanced 13 kilometres (eight miles) on Sunday in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor as they pressed an offensive against the Islamic State group, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops of the Damascus regime pushed into the southwest of the oil-rich province from the desert town of Sukhnah.

In June, Syrian troops broke into Deir Ezzor from a border region with Iraq and earlier this month they breached it from the neighbouring province of Raqa, but moving just four kilometres in.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said Sunday's advance was the first carried out from the Badia desert region.

Since May, Syria's army has been conducting a broad military campaign with Russian support to recapture the Badia that separates the capital Damascus from Deir Ezzor.

Most of Deir Ezzor has been held by IS since 2014, and jihadists have also besieged government forces and civilians inside the provincial capital Deir Ezzor city since 2015.

On Thursday, regime forces backed by Russian warplanes completely surrounded the jihadists in a vast central desert region.

Fierce clashes erupted in that area on Sunday, the Observatory said, adding that the region was also struck by more than 50 air strikes overnight.
A border fence between Mexico and the US is seen in January 2017 from the Mexican side in Tijuana, where authorities discovered the entrance to a tunnel that runs between the two countries

Military authorities have uncovered a tunnel under the Mexico-US border that was used to smuggle migrants from the city of Tijuana to San Diego, California, the Mexican government said Sunday.

The entrance on the Mexican side was inside a warehouse and the exit was just beyond the border fence in San Diego, officials said.

Twenty-five migrants were picked up by the US Border Patrol as they emerged from the passageway, a Mexican state police official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Mexican defense ministry said in a statement that the tunnel was detected after a tipster called in to report the presence of armed men at the warehouse.

Nobody was arrested on the Mexican side of the border, the police official said.

In recent years, Mexican authorities have detected several border tunnels used to funnel drugs and migrants into the United States.

In August 2016, they uncovered a 30-meter (100-foot) tunnel running from the Mexican state of Sonora into Arizona.

In April, US authorities discovered the longest border tunnel yet -- an 800-meter passageway connecting Tijuana to Otay Mesa, California.
Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016 according to US watchdog SIGAR

A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded several more in an attack on a convoy of Afghan soldiers in Helmand province late Sunday, an official said.

It was the latest in a series of deadly blows to Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces and yet again underlined spiralling insecurity in the war-torn nation.

"A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car as the Afghan National Army convoy passed a small market in Nawa District of Helmand," Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.

He added that civilians and forces personnel were among the dead while more than a dozen others had been wounded.

A source working at a nearby hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity that the bodies of 15 victims had been brought to the hospital. Another 19 injured were also admitted, he added.

"The majority of the dead belong to Afghan forces and most of the wounded are civilians," the source said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a WhatsApp message sent to journalists.

The deadly assault came days after a Taliban suicide bomber killed five civilians and wounded dozens of others, mainly children, when he detonated a car filled with explosives at a police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, Helmand's capital.

That attack was the insurgents' first major one since US President Donald Trump announced he was committing American troops to Afghanistan indefinitely.

The resurgent Taliban are at the peak of their summer fighting season and have been ramping up their campaign against government forces.

Afghan police and troops -- beset by a high death toll, desertions and non-existent "ghost soldiers" on the payroll -- have been struggling to beat back the insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

More than 2,500 Afghan police and troops were killed from January 1 to May 8.

Ordinary Afghans have also paid a heavy price for the 16-year US-led war.

Civilian deaths are at their worst since records began in 2009. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.

Analysts have warned that Trump's commitment to sending thousands more American troops to Afghanistan -- reversing earlier pledges to pull out -- could fuel the insurgency and lead to more casualties.

The Taliban had called for a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and, following Trump's announcement, vowed to make the country a "graveyard" for US forces.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A fired dishwasher shot and killed a chef and held a person hostage for about three hours before he was shot by police at a crowded restaurant in a tourist-heavy area of downtown Charleston on Thursday, authorities and one of the restaurant's owners said.

The hostage was freed unharmed, Mayor John Tecklenburg said. The shooting took place at Virginia's restaurant on the usually crowded King Street, a row of shops and nice dining that caters to both tourists and residents in South Carolina's largest and most historic city.

Tecklenburg quickly said the shooting was "the act of a disgruntled employee" and not a terrorist attack or a hate crime in a city where nine black church members were killed by a white man two years ago.

A Charleston, S.C. Police officer blocks access to King Street near the restaurant Virginia's on King in Charleston, S.C.,Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. A disgruntled employee shot a gun in the restaurant and a hostage situation happened after the shooting. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says the hostage situation has ended with the gunman being shot by police. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

"This was a tragic case of a disturbed individual, I think, with a history of some mental health challenges," Tecklenburg said at a news conference.

The gunman killed Virginia's executive chef, 37-year-old Anthony Shane Whiddon, deputy Charleston County coroner Sheila Williams said late Thursday.

Authorities had not released the name of the wounded gunman. They initially said they believed there were "a couple" or a "small number" of hostages.

The shooting was reported shortly after noon Thursday.

Peter Siegert IV and his family from Galesville, Maryland, had just been served fried chicken at the restaurant when he noticed waitresses and kitchen workers leaving hurriedly through the front door. Then he saw a man in a backward ball cap and an apron enter the dining room from the back of the restaurant.

"He said, 'There's a new boss in town,'" Siegert told The Associated Press. "I don't think anybody realized he had a gun until after he locked the door. And then he turned around and had a revolver in his hand. He never pointed it at any of the patrons. He held it by his side."

The man told all the customers to get onto the floor, Siegert said, then directed them to crawl to the back of the restaurant - where the rear exits remained unlocked.

"He told everybody to get out," he said. "Everybody started running for the doors."

One of the restaurant's owners, John Aquino, told WCSC-TV that a dishwasher who had been fired came back to the restaurant and shot a chef to get revenge.

The restaurant was packed with a lunchtime crowd and the first officers to arrive were able to get the man who was shot and a number of diners out safely, interim Charleston Police Chief Jerome Taylor said.

The site is a few blocks away from Emanuel AME church, where nine black members of a church were killed by a white man during a June 2015 Bible study. Dylann Roof was sentenced to death in the case.

It is also just several blocks from where more than 100 cruise ships dock in Charleston each year.

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Associated Press writers Seanna Adcox, Jeffrey Collins and Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.

A Charleston, S.C, police officer escorts Kathleen Dayton, left, and her mother Maria Vereen, from James Island, S.C., down King Street away from the restaurant Virginia's after a hostage situation was over in front of the restaurant Virginia's on King in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. A disgruntled employee shot a gun in the restaurant and a hostage situation happened after the shooting. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says the hostage situation has ended with the gunman being shot by police. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

Charleston, S.C. Police Department blocks the street during an active hostage situation in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

Police gather near the scene of a reported shooting in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (Grace Beahm Alford /The Post And Courier via AP)

Charleston, S.C. Police Department blocks the street during an active hostage situation in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

Charleston, S.C. Police Department blocks the street during an active hostage situation in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

Charleston, S.C. Police Department officers block access to King Street in front of the restaurant Virginia's in Charleston, S.C.,Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. A disgruntled employee shot a gun in the restaurant and a hostage situation happened after the shooting. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg says the hostage situation has ended with the gunman being shot by police. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Wallabies lock Adam Coleman has been forced to withdraw from Saturday's Bledisloe Cup test against the All Blacks because of a shoulder injury.

Captain Michael Hooper described Coleman's withdrawal as a "huge blow" to the Wallabies, who were beaten 54-34 in last weekend's series opener.

Hooper said, "We found out this morning. We know he was pushing to the last minute to get right."

Rory Arnold, who had been relegated to the bench to accommodate the return of Rob Simmons, returns to the starting lineup as Simmons' locking partner and youngster Izack Rodda comes onto the bench.
BERLIN (AP) - The Latest on climbing deaths and mountain rescues in Europe (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

News reports say eight mountain climbers have died in three weekend accidents in the Austrian and Italian Alps.

Austrian news agency APA quoted the Austrian Red Cross as saying that five climbers died and a sixth was severely injured on Mount Gabler, east of Innsbruck.

Rescue leader Martin Reichholf says it appears that one member of the roped group slipped on a glacier, bringing the others down with him.

Italian news agency ANSA reports that two Italian mountain climbers also were killed Sunday after the fell into a crevasse in Adamello Brenta Park in northern Italy.

The accident involved a group of nine mountaineers and all of them were injured, including two 13 year olds.

Another Italian climber died Saturday after being hit by boulders in the Valtellina Alpine area.

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1:45 p.m.

News reports say three Italian mountain climbers have died, two of them after falling into a crevasse in the Italian Alps.

The Italian news agency ANSA says one of the victims had been rescued Sunday in grave condition but later died of their injuries. It said the two who died after falling were part of nine mountaineers roped together while climbing on a glacier in the Ademello Brenta Park near Trento in northern Italy. What caused the two to fall wasn't immediately known.

On Saturday, an Italian climber died after being hit by boulders in the Valtellina Alpine area, further west of Trento near the border with Switzerland.

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1 p.m.

The Austrian Red Cross says five mountain climbers have died in the Austrian Alps.

The head of rescue services Anton Voithofer tells the Austrian news agency APA that the five died Sunday in an accident at Mount Gabler, east of Innsbruck.

APA reported the five mountain climbers were part of a group of six. Rescue efforts are still underway and it is not clear what happened to the sixth person. Five helicopters are involved in the rescue efforts.

APA said the nationalities of the climbers have not been identified yet. It also wasn't clear how exactly the five persons died.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - When Alexis Kozmon and her husband decided to get a dog for their 6-year-old daughter, they chose to adopt rather than buy from a breeder to teach the child the value of rescuing.

Four weeks later, the puppy the family named Sugar was dying painfully from distemper, and despite $3,000 in veterinary treatments, the only humane option was to put her down. Two of Sugar's siblings met the same fate. Kozmon faulted the volunteer-based rescue that had trucked the puppies from Texas, but when she complained to New York's consumer protection agency, she learned such groups are exempt from oversight.

"There was a loophole," said Kozmon, who lives in Middletown, Connecticut, but adopted from a group in southeastern New York. "There was nothing they could do to follow up or investigate."

In this July 16, 2016 photo provided by Sara Butler, Peanut, a puppy adopted by Butler reclines on a sofa in Butler's Gloversville, N.Y., home. Peanut, who was adopted from a New York Pet Rescue shelter, died of parvovirus. A new law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month increases state oversight of non-profit rescues, which have been exempt from regulations that apply to commercial pet stores and municipal animal shelters. (Sara Butler via AP)

Kozmon is among the animal lovers who pushed for a new law to provide state oversight of non-profit pet adoption groups. It cracks down on everything from shoddy health and record-keeping to unscrupulous pet dealers rebranding themselves as non-profit "rescues" and peddling puppies from the same puppy mills adopters seek to avoid.

The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month, puts non-profit shelters and rescues under the same state Agriculture and Markets regulations that cover licensed pet dealers and municipal shelters.

"You have up to 500 non-profit entities under no regulation whatsoever," said Bill Ketzer, a regional official with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The new law requires the organizations to register with the agriculture agency, follow state documentation and vaccination requirements and disclose the number of animals transported annually. It also gives the agency the authority to craft additional regulations.

More than 35 states have some form of regulation of shelters and rescues, ranging from simple registration to standards of care, Ketzer said. Massachusetts lists state-approved organizations online. Connecticut requires anyone bringing a dog into the state for sale or adoption to be registered with the state and have health certificates for each animal.

Ketzer said New York's lack of oversight has spawned a brisk trade in puppies shipped from southern states and overseas to the Northeast, where the local supply has been reduced by aggressive spay-and-neuter programs and bans on pet store puppies supplied by breeders.

The dogs are often sold quickly without adequate veterinary certification to ensure they aren't infected with deadly distemper, parvovirus or rabies. If a dog turns out to be sick, the new owner has little recourse under current regulations.

Michelle Linendoll, of South Glens Falls, is one of several adopters who say their puppies were infected with parvovirus at an upstate New York shelter that receives animals from Georgia, Alabama and other southern states. Her puppy, Tanner, survived, but others died after their owners spent thousands of dollars trying to save them.

"Peanut died in my car on our way to the vet; I held him when he took his last breath," said Sara Butler, who got an 8-week-old boxer mix from the same rescue. "They did try to offer another puppy to take home but after watching Peanut suffer horribly on that last car ride, I couldn't watch it happen to another."

The lack of oversight also threatens human health. In 2013, a puppy that was shipped from Texas to an upstate New York rescue was sold to a Vermont woman. It turned out to have rabies, and 15 people had to undergo rabies shots.

Diane Scuderi, director of PawSafe Animal Rescue, where Kozmon got Sugar, said she's happy to comply with the new legislation. "We're already registered in Connecticut and we're a registered charity in New York," she said. "Giving them the extra information is no problem."

Scuderi disputes Kozmon's complaints about Sugar's health documentation and other issues. She said with her group adopting out nearly 1,000 dogs a year, occasionally a puppy gets sick despite being vaccinated and checked by a vet. "When someone calls and says they have a sick puppy, we'll work with them," she said.

Ketzer said adoption rates for homeless animals have soared and euthanasia rates have plummeted over the decades through the work of well-established shelter and rescue groups, but there are also well-documented cases where not-for-profit rescues have failed to protect animals and adoptive families.

"This new law is the beginning of an attempt to find out who the bad actors are and formulate standards that everyone will have to live by," said Libby Post, executive director of the New York State Animal Protective Federation, which represents municipal shelters.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - After more than five decades of battle in Colombia's jungles, the nation's largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party Sunday at a concrete convention center in the capital, vowing to upend the country's traditional conservatism with the creation of an alternative leftist coalition.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will transform into a political party under a new, still-to-be-announced name as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress and the same funding the state provides to the nation's 13 other political parties, in addition to a half-million dollars in funding to begin a think tank to develop their political ideology.

"We are taking an extraordinary step in the history of the common people's struggle in Colombia," said Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, to an audience of former guerrillas dressed in white T-shirts with the hashtag #NuveoPartido (#NewParty) on the back.

Leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) sit before an audience of former guerrillas as they lead the FARC's National Congress in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug, 27, 2017. The nation's once largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

"This doesn't mean we are renouncing in any way our fundamental principles or societal project," he said.

The organization has signaled that it will adhere to its Marxist roots and focus on winning votes from peasants, workers and the urban middle class with a social justice platform, but it faces opposition from many who identify the guerrillas with kidnappings and terrorism.

A poll released in August found that fewer than 10 percent of Colombians said they had total confidence in the rebels as a political party and a large majority said they'd never vote a former guerrilla into Congress.

"They're not going to be received very warmly in most of Colombia," said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. "Their human rights record hurt them. Their media image is terrible. Most Colombians quite simply aren't socialists or communists."

But, he added, "All is not lost. A message of wanting to redistribute wealth and undo economic injustice could probably do quite well in a lot of poor areas of Colombia."

The group's entrance into politics has been met with fierce resistance from leaders like former President Alvaro Uribe, one of the peace agreement's staunchest critics. After passing a law earlier this year ratifying the group as a political party, the nation's Supreme Court is now debating the legislation's constitutionality. Critics say the former rebels shouldn't be allowed to participate in politics before first going through a special peace tribunal.

"The fact that a war criminal could become the president of Colombia makes no sense," former Peace Commissioner Camilo Gomez said at a recent court hearing.

Supporters like Ivan Cepeda of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole contend that political incorporation of the group known as the FARC is the best means of ensuring a lasting peace.

"We have had to pay a very high cost in lives, in infrastructure ... that today we are saving with the end of the conflict," Cepeda said. "It's more an investment in the democracy of Colombia."

The FARC was formed in the early 1960s by guerrillas affiliated with Colombia's Communist Party. Over the next 53 years the battle between the rebels, government forces and right-wing paramilitaries claimed at least 250,000 lives, left another 60,000 people missing and displaced millions, becoming the region's longest-running conflict.

Four years of negotiations in Havana between rebel leaders and the government culminated with the signing of a peace accord in which guerillas agreed to turn over their arms, confess their crimes in a special peace tribunal that will spare most of any jail time, and turn over their war spoils as reparation to victims.

The agreement also addresses thorny issues like how to reduce Colombia's booming coca production and provide economic alternatives to poor farmers. The U.S. once labeled the FARC one of the world's largest drug trafficking organizations.

Colombian voters rejected the accord by a razor-thin majority in a post-signing referendum but a modified version with relatively minor changes was later approved by the legislature. A poll this summer by the Colombian firm Politmetrica found that optimism about the peace process has declined since last October's referendum, from 67 percent of those surveyed to just about 53 percent.

The conference launched Sunday is expected to gather 1,000 former combatants from around the nation and define the FARC's political platform. In a document leaked this spring - called the "April Theses" in a nod to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's directive by the same name - the FARC leadership described its political party as rooted in "Marxism, Leninism, emancipatory Bolivarian thought and the people's revolutionary ideology."

The rebel leader known by the nom de guerre of Pastor Alape said the party's would quickly seek a leftist coalition to advance implementation of the peace accords.

FARC leaders have toyed with keeping their same acronym and changing their name to the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia, but the idea hasn't received a warm reception.

"If the FARC intend to grow it's a mistake," journalist Angel Becassino told news magazine Semana. The acronym "signifies a past that generates a lot of confrontation."

Hanging over the FARC's political transition is a bloody past: As many as 3,000 members of a FARC-aligned political party were gunned down by right-wing paramilitary assassins, sometimes in concordance with state intelligence services, during an earlier attempt at peace in the 1980s. Already, nearly two dozen former FARC members or their relatives have been assassinated since the end of hostilities, Cepeda said.

"What would kill the peace process is if they're not protected and a lot of their leaders and activists are killed and nothing happens," Isacson said. "Then you're looking at a new wave of violence."

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Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario

Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) speaks to an audience of former guerrillas during the FARC's National Congress in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. The nation's once largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Former rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attend the FARC's National Congress in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. The nation's once largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Rodrigo Londono, right, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), applauds next to fellow rebel leader Ivan Marquez, before an audience of former guerrillas as they lead the FARC's National Congress in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug, 27, 2017. The nation's once largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee the ex-combatants 10 seats in Congress. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden has leveled harsh words at President Donald Trump for placing blame on "both sides" for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In a commentary published Sunday in The Atlantic, Biden wrote: "Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate."

He said Trump has "emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support."

Biden and former President Barack Obama have kept a low profile since leaving office, carefully choosing the moments to weigh in.

In his commentary, Biden said: "This is a moment for this nation to declare what the president can't with any clarity, consistency, or conviction: There is no place for these hate groups in America."
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) - Residents say suspected Boko Haram extremists killed at least 16 people and burned homes in two villages in Cameroon's north, near the border with Nigeria.

Iya Gana, whose husband was killed in the attack Thursday night, said the rebels entered her village and killed her husband and others. She said they burned down homes and stole vehicles and cattle after killing people in two villages near Mora, in Cameroon's Far North province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Nigeria.

Boko Haram extremists have been crossing into and attacking towns in neighboring countries, including Cameroon, that contribute to a regional military force trying to eliminate the insurgency. Boko Haram is blamed for killing more than 20,000 people in their eight-year existence.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin Democrats have sometimes struggled to field candidates against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. This time around, they find themselves with the opposite problem.

At least 18 Democrats have declared they're running or are considering the race against Walker next year. They include a mayor, multiple state lawmakers, numerous former officeholders, a recent college graduate, a salon owner and a prosecutor.

"There's not going to be a Democrat left in the state who's not running for governor," Walker quipped recently when asked about the race.

FILE - In this May 23, 2017, file photo, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker speaks at an event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wisconsin Democrats have sometimes struggled to field candidates against Walker. This time around, they have the opposite problem. Five Democrats have announced they're running in 2018. At least 13 others are considering it. The party says the rush is because Walker is vulnerable. His approval ratings have been below 50 percent since early 2014. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File)

Democrats say the rush of candidates comes in part because there is no heir apparent in the party to take on Walker. But they also say he's vulnerable, pointing to approval ratings that have been below 50 percent since early 2014.

"There's a tremendous opportunity and people know it," said Joe Zepecki, a strategist who worked for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke in 2014. "Scott Walker benefited from wave election years in 2010 and 2014. It does not mean he's immune if in 2018 the wave is moving in the other direction."

Walker, who said this week he will announce his intentions in the next month or two, said he's more optimistic about Wisconsin's future than ever. Unemployment is at a 17-year low and his re-election hopes got a boost with global electronics giant Foxconn Technology Group's plans to invest $10 billion and hire up to 13,000 workers at a display panel manufacturing campus in southeastern Wisconsin.

Democrats have assailed the deal - which comes with $3 billion in tax incentives - as corporate welfare that threatens the environment. They've also questioned whether Foxconn will come through with the jobs, a question that won't be answered until well beyond the 2018 election.

GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman said Democrats are fooling themselves and pointed out that many prominent Democrats have passed on challenging Walker.

"Wisconsin Democrats are offering nothing more than the same failed policies of yesterday, while Republicans will continue fighting for reforms that deliver results for hard-working Wisconsin families," he said.

The flood of lesser-known Democratic candidates comes after, or perhaps as a result of, several more prominent potential candidates taking a pass. Those skipping the race include U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, of La Crosse, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi.

Those eyeing a run in 2018 include a longtime mayor of Madison who once gave the key to the city to Fidel Castro; a recent Stanford University graduate who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California before returning home to Wisconsin; a salon owner with no political experience; and a former state representative who was ridiculed after threatening to hand out white hoods at the state Republican Party convention.

That former lawmaker, Brett Hulsey, said he hopes for a large field of Democratic candidates.

"Give people choices," he said in a text message. "Much better than picking a weak candidate."

Democrats' best hope may rest with the one candidate who's never run as a Democrat before: the officially nonpartisan state schools superintendent who has long had the backing of liberals, unions and others Walker has spent his political career taking on and defeating.

Tony Evers, the only Democrat in the race who has already won a statewide election, said a crowded primary "is good for democracy."

"People get to look at a wide variety of candidates," he said. "Frankly I'm not concerned about whether there's a primary or not. My goal is to beat Scott Walker. That's where I'm spending my time and effort, and frankly resources, to make that happen."

Evers is one of five Democrats who have officially declared they are running. Only one of the other four, state Rep. Dana Wachs, has won election before. He's served in the Legislature since 2013, representing Eau Claire.

The other declared candidates are Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik, recent Stanford graduate Bob Harlow and salon owner and political newcomer Michele Doolan.

The largest Democratic field in the past 20 years was five in a 2012 recall targeting Walker. Three ran in 2002 when then-Attorney General Jim Doyle won with 38 percent of the vote and went on to serve two terms as governor.

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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP

In this Aug. 3, 2017, photo, provided by Beverly Wickstrom, Wisconsin Democratic state Rep. Dana Wachs, of Eau Claire, poses for a photo. Wachs is one of five Democrats to announce they will challenge Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2018. At least 13 others are considering it. (Beverly Wickstrom via AP)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Military police on Sunday buried the 100th officer to be killed in Rio de Janeiro state this year, a 39-year-old who was shot multiple times while off duty and visiting his father.

The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence in Rio, Brazil's signature city that just a year ago hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics. Authorities acknowledged in recent months that drug trafficking organizations and other criminal gangs now control large areas of the city. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to help police, but even their presence has not slowed the bloodshed.

A sense of desperation could be felt among the 200 people who attended the funeral for Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante on Sunday afternoon. Cavalcante's wife was so distraught that she could barely walk during the procession and had to be held up by the fallen officer's brother, himself a part of the force.

People's shadows are cast on the tomb of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante, 39, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Brazilian police buried the 100th officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year. The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy army soldiers across Rio. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Cavalcante, the father of an 8-year-old, was killed Saturday in Baixada Fluminense, one of Rio's most violent districts. Several armed men approached, apparently intending to rob him. When they learned he was a police officer, he was shot at least 10 times, his father, who Cavalcante was visiting, told local media.

"We were supposed to have a picnic today with the wives and widows of police officers," said Rogeria Quaresma, the wife of an officer in attendance. "How long? How long is this going to keep happening before someone does something?"

Rio has long been the deadliest place for law enforcement in Brazil, which is Latin America's largest nation. Going back to the 1990s, the number of officers slain in the state each year has almost always gone over 100.

What has security experts worried this year is the pace of slayings of military police officers, the force responsible for patrolling and apprehending suspects. At the current rate, 2017 is on track to be the deadliest year since 2006, when 153 officers died, according to military police data.

That spike is being mirrored in myriad crime data across the board, a surge fueled by rising unemployment in the wake of a major recession, an inability by the broke state government to pay thousands of public employees on time and a political crisis from a mega corruption scandal that has shifted the focus of many lawmakers away from Rio's perennial security problems.

There is also growing consensus that Brazil's criminal gangs, which are heavily armed and control many of Rio's hundreds of slums, are strengthening. Earlier this year, gang-led slaughters in several Brazil prisons left at least 130 dead.

Many Rio residents, particularly in slums, loathe police, which have long been accused of corruption and excessive force. Every year, several hundred civilians are killed during police operations.

A Human Rights Watch report found that more than 8,000 people were killed by Rio police between 2005 and 2015, the majority young black men. While many were criminals shooting at police, many others were caught in the crossfire or even killed deliberately without provocation.

Adding to the problems is the erosion of a pacification program launched several years ago that aimed at building connections between officers and residents. Budget cuts have slashed program funds, and today neighborhoods previously lauded as "pacified" are increasingly dangerous.

Paulo Storani, the former captain of an elite squad of military police known by the Portuguese acronym BOPE, says that drugs have long powered the gangs because they provide ample resources while police forces are often working at a "deficit" of funds, training and arms.

What has him most worried of late, however, is the way officers are dying. While some are killed during confrontations, more are falling while off duty. That can happen because an officer sees a crime being committed and gets involved without the backup of his team, or because his position as officer makes him a target.

"Criminals are motivated to kill police," said Storani.

All of Brazil was able to witness such brazenness in the killing of the 99th officer, Mabel Sampaio, on Thursday.

Street cameras in his neighborhood, obtained by local media and broadcast nationwide, captured the officer pulling into the garage of his home. Seconds later, a young man carrying a pistol can be seen walking in. Sampaio was shot several times and died en route to the hospital.

"I feared that this would happen, and that day has come," his daughter Giulia wrote on her Facebook page. "They have destroyed our family. Unfortunately, this world is filled with monsters."

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Renata Brito on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RenataBrito91

Peter Prengaman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterprengaman

Police and relatives attend the burial of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante, 39, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Brazilian police buried the 100th police officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year. The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy army troops across Rio. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Relatives and friends of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante, 39, attend his burial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Brazilian police buried the 100th police officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year. The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy Army troops across Rio. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A police officer gestures in protest next to the tomb of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante, 39, after his burial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Brazilian police buried the 100th police officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year. The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy Army troops across Rio. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Police arrive for the burial of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante, 39, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Brazilian police buried the 100th police officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year. The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy Army troops across Rio. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
JERUSALEM (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories to discuss ways to revive the peace process.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres arrived Sunday evening. He is set to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his three-day visit, his first since taking office.

Dujarric said in an email that the visit will allow Guterres "to engage directly with Israeli and Palestinian people and their leaders" about "finding a long overdue peaceful resolution to the conflict."

The visit comes at a time of Israel-U.N. tensions.

Israel was angered by a resolution adopted by the U.N.'s cultural agency that it says diminishes Jewish ties to Jerusalem. Israel also criticized the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon for being in its view soft on Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces on its border.
Protesters opposing a right-wing freedom rally in liberal San Francisco have claimed victory after the event was cancelled when city chiefs walled off a park.

The rally organiser claimed the draconian move was more about silencing his groups message than preventing a violent clash, but civic leaders in San Francisco, a cradle of the free speech movement that prides itself on its tolerance, repeatedly voiced concerns that the Patriot Prayer event would lead to a clash with counter-demonstrators.

Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, who is Japanese American, insisted his group disavowed racism and hatred and wanted to promote dialogue with people who may not share its views.

San Francisco Police Officers guard an entrance to Alamo Square Park in San Francisco

He cancelled Saturdays planned rally at a field under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge after he said his members received anonymous threats on social media and feared civic leaders and law enforcement would fail to protect them.

He said mayor Ed Lee wrongly labelled Patriot Prayer as a hate group, needlessly raising tensions and stirring emotions in the San Francisco Bay Area, and felt San Franciscos Democratic leaders had shut him down.

But Mr Lee described the counter-protests as peaceful celebrations of love.

The rally in San Francisco

Earlier in the week he raised concerns that Patriot Prayer would attract hate speech and potential violence and US congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Democrat who represents the city, called the planned rally a white supremacist event.

Theyre definitely doing a great job of trying to make sure my message doesnt come out, Mr Gibson said.

San Francisco officials closed the park where Mr Gibson had planned a news conference after cancelling the rally at Crissy Field.

City workers surrounded Alamo Square park with a fence and sent scores of police officers, some in riot gear, to keep people out.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Mr Lee defended the citys response.

If people want to have the stage in San Francisco, they better have a message that contributes to peoples lives rather than find ways to hurt them, he said.

Thats why certain voices found it very difficult to have their voices heard today.

Mr Gibson later spoke in suburban Pacifica with a handful of supporters that included African Americans, a Latino and a Samoan American.

Several said they supported US president Donald Trump and wanted to join with moderates to promote understanding and free speech.

Protesters march in San Francisco

But more than 1,000 left-wing counter-protesters descended on Alamo Square park, where they suspected right-wing supporters still might show up, waving signs condemning white supremacists and chanting Whose streets? Our streets!

Hundreds of others took to the streets in the Castro neighbourhood.

San Francisco as a whole, we are a liberal city and this is not a place for hate or any sort of bigotry of any kind, Bianca Harris said.
A furious Esteban Ocon accused Force India team-mate Sergio Perez of putting his life at risk following their high-speed crash in Belgium on Sunday.

Ocon and Mexican Perez collided on two occasions in Sundays race, with both drivers sustaining heavy damage in their second coming together at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Perez, 27, moved across to cover Ocon on the run-up to the high-speed Eau Rouge corner, but in doing so, provoked a collision which saw him sustain a right-rear puncture, and left his team-mate with a damaged front wing.

Esteban Ocon accuses Sergio Perez of putting his life at risk

"In future they'll never have that opportunity to race again"



Trouble for Perez and Ocon after #BelgianGP clash >> https://t.co/Da0wkCaTyA pic.twitter.com/5i8bQyUUGw  Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2017

Frenchman Ocon, who eventually finished ninth, called Perez an idiot in an expletive-fuelled radio message.

Perez, who was forced to retire, admitted fault for the collision, but an incandescent Ocon was not in the mood to accept his apology.

He risked my life in there at 300km/h [186mph] down to Eau Rouge, Ocon, 20, said. Thats the first thing, the second thing is we lost a lot of points.

Hes supposed to be a professional driver, but today he didnt show it. He has not done that with any other team-mates. I dont know why hes doing it with me.

Im going to go and speak to him man-to-man and tell him the truth. Hes going to have a child. I dont know if he wants to die or something. Its just ridiculous.

The incident, which threatened to turn Sundays result on its head following the ensuing deployment of a safety car, marked the second contest from the last five in which the team-mates have been involved in a collision.

And Force India boss Otmar Szafnauer has said his drivers will now not be free to race each other for the remainder of the year.

In the future theyll never have that opportunity again, American Szafnauer said. Weve let them race up until now, but if they cant do it in a manner which is good for the team then they wont be racing any more.

They shouldnt be coming together. Weve given them the latitude to race and Ive always said that. But weve told them that if it happens again then well be calling the race from the pit wall in the future.
By Dhara Ranasinghe

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Portugal's 10-year bond yield rose to its highest level in almost a month on Friday and was set for its biggest weekly jump since January as renewed focus on the ECB policy outlook weakened sentiment towards lower-rated euro zone debt markets.

A sell-off in southern European bonds that began with Italy earlier this week spread to Portugal, where the premium investors demand for holding 10-year bonds over German peers rose to its highest level in five weeks.

Analysts said renewed uncertainty about the European Central Bank policy outlook has dimmed the appeal of southern European bonds, a key beneficiary of ECB stimulus.

Those jitters have encouraged investors to unwind carry trades - borrowing in low-yielding assets to invest in higher-yielding ones such as peripheral government bonds.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speak at a gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later in the day.

Draghi speaks after the close of European markets and is not expected to deliver a new policy message. Still, his speech is in focus amid growing talk that the ECB is likely to signal a scaling back of its monetary stimulus in September or October.

The last time Draghi spoke at Jackson Hole in 2014, he laid the foundations for the ECB's unprecedented monetary stimulus.

"With the summer lull coming to end and central banks returning, markets are thinking about the future course of ECB action," said DZ Bank rates strategist Rene Albrecht.

"So investors are taking a more a defensive stance on countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal and that has accelerated this week."

Portugal's 10-year bond yield rose was up almost 3 basis points to 2.89 percent, its highest in almost a month. It was set for its biggest weekly rise since January, with a jump of just over 12 basis points.

That has pushed the gap over top-rated German bond yields to around 250 bps -- the widest in five weeks. The spread is often viewed as a gauge of how investors view relative risks in the euro zone.

In Italy, the 10-year bond yield gap over German peers this week widened to around 176 bps, the highest since mid-July.

Italian bond yields, trading at 2.11 percent, were set for their biggest weekly jump in seven weeks.

Political risks in Italy as an election approaches in 2018 were thrown back in the spotlight after former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi refloated the idea of a parallel currency at the weekend.

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

(Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
HONG KONG, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Tropical storm Pakhar brought strong winds and heavy rain to Hong Kong and Macau on Sunday, just four days after one of the strongest typhoons on record, Hato, caused serious flooding and damage in the territories and killed at least 10 people in the gaming hub.

The two cities lowered their typhoon signal to No.3 in the early afternoon, after Pakhar brushed passed and landed in the southern Chinese city of Taishan in the morning.

Both cities issued their third-highest weather warnings, storm signal No. 8, early in the day as winds intensified and heavy rain lashed down, churning up rough seas and prompting alerts of flooding in low-lying areas.

No serious damage has been observed in Hong Kong so far. The government said it has received 13 reports of flooding and 159 reports of fallen trees.

Hong Kong's weather observatory said in the early hours that winds occasionally reached storm force in the southern part of the territory and hurricane force on high ground on Lantau Island to the west of the city where the airport is situated.

Pakhar's arrival comes as the cities are still reeling from Hato. While Hong Kong escaped major damage, Hato devastated Macau, the world's largest gambling hub, killing at least 10 people, injuring 244 and exposing critical infrastructure flaws after it left the city without water and power for days.

The maximum sustained winds recorded at Cheung Chau and Chek Lap Kok were 114 and 76 kilometers per hour (71 and 47 miles per hour), respectively, in the morning, with maximum gusts at 136 and 101 kmh.

China's Meteorological Administration maintained its yellow typhoon warning, the third-highest of four levels, as of midday Sunday and said torrential rains are expected in several southern provinces through Monday afternoon.

Airport Authority Hong Kong reported 300 flights have been cancelled or delayed, and around 30 diverted to other places by noon. Hong Kong's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd , said the storm would cause delays and cancellations to flights arriving and departing on Sunday and Monday.

Some ferries to Macau and outlying islands in Hong Kong resumed service after the typhoon signals were lowered.

In Macau, the storm will pose a major setback to clean-up efforts that saw Chinese People's Liberation Army troops deployed to help remove mountains of stinking debris strewn across some heavily flooded districts battered by Hato.

Power has been restored in the territory but some areas still lacked water supply as of Saturday evening, the Macau Government Information Bureau said on its official website.

The government said the city still faced a severe challenge in removing huge piles of waste from the streets, with 2,600 tonnes of debris collected on Saturday alone. Shower facilities and changing rooms at four public swimming pools have been opened to accommodate residents with no water facilities.

Four Hong Kong journalists were denied entry to Macau on Saturday to cover the storms and relief effort on grounds they "posed a risk to the stability of internal security," according to reports from the media companies they represented.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association expressed "deep regret" over the incident and urged Macau to respect press freedom. Police chief Ma Io-kun told a press conference on Saturday he was not aware of the case, but said the government respects press freedom "very much". (Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree, Clare Jim, Venus Wu and Farah Master; Additional reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Andrew Hay and Paul Simao)
BEIRUT, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Hezbollah and the Syrian army announced a ceasefire on Sunday in their offensive against Islamic State in Syria's west Qalamoun region at the border with Lebanon, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said.

A Hezbollah military media unit said the ceasefire took effect at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) "under a full agreement to end the battle in west Qalamoun against Daesh".

The Lebanese army announced a ceasefire earlier on Sunday on its side of the border, where it has been waging an assault against Islamic State militants from inside northeast Lebanon.

The Islamic State enclave straddling the border is the last part of the Syrian-Lebanese frontier under militant control. (Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Michael Perry)
By Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb

BOGOTA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Colombia's leftist FARC rebel group will debut its political party at a conference beginning on Sunday, a key step in its transition into a civilian organization after more than 50 years of war and its first chance to announce policy to skeptical voters.

The six-day meeting in Bogota of FARC members, who have handed in more than 8,000 weapons to the United Nations during their demobilization, is expected to conclude Friday with a platform that the party, still officially un-named, will campaign on in elections next year.

Under its 2016 peace deal with the government to end its part in a war that killed more than 220,000, the majority of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters were granted amnesty and allowed to participate in politics. Whether Colombians, many of whom revile the rebels, will be inspired to back them remains to be seen. The FARC's often-old fashioned Marxist rhetoric strikes many as a throwback to their 1964 founding, but proposals for reforms to labyrinthine property laws may get traction with rural voters who struggle as subsistence farmers.

The peace accord, rejected by less than a 1 percent margin in a referendum before being modified and enacted, awards the FARC's party 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026, but the group may campaign for others.

"I think the FARC will try for a regional consolidation, using the presence and influence they have in certain provinces," said Catalina Jimenez, politics professor at Externado University. "At a national level they need a large amount of votes they still don't have."

The FARC is open to coalitions, the group said this week.

Fractured by in-fighting, leftist parties have long struggled in conservative-leaning Colombia, despite some success in winning urban positions.

"We have to define our course of action, which will surely bring up the need to have coalitions," FARC secretariat member Pastor Alape told reporters on Friday, adding the group wants a "big political convergence that redefines the limits of the left."

Colombia's "semi-feudal" state will need to be modernized, and the country must wake up to the scourge of corruption, Alape said.

Both legislative and presidential elections will take place in 2018. It is not yet clear for which positions the FARC will field candidates.

Widespread corruption scandals will likely be a top issue for the crowded field of 2018 presidential candidates, as will bettering the daily lives of Colombians, many of whom say improvements to security, public education and healthcare are desperately needed.

The FARC says the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, which gives a certain amount of regulated funding to each party, should help carry the costs of the conference, given the rebels have handed over their assets to be used as reparations for victims of the war.

But though the peace deal is the cornerstone of Santos' legacy, the government has raised doubts about the veracity of the rebels' $324 million asset list, creating a commission to check the FARC have included all profits they may have earned from extortion, ransoms and drug trafficking, and saying the group must play by the same rules as any other party.

The new party has no official name yet, though one rebel leader has said it could be called the Revolutionary Alternative Force of Colombia, preserving the FARC initials in Spanish. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Helen Murphy and Frances Kerry)
DUBAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Gunmen from both groups in a strained civil war alliance withdrew from streets in the Yemeni capital on Sunday after trading fire in unprecedented violence, officials from the two groups said.

The clash late on Saturday between members of the Houthi movement and loyalists of a powerful former president killed at least three combatants and marked a breakdown within the main political gathering confronting a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen's 2 1/2-year-old war.

"The situation has been contained and armed men have been withdrawn. A commission to investigate the incident has been formed," a Houthi official told Reuters.

Residents of the upscale Hadda district where the fighting raged for several hours said traffic was picking up as people began morning commutes to work.

The two fighting groups together rule northern Yemen and have maintained an uneasy alliance throughout the largely stalemated conflict that has killed at least 10,000 people and unleashed hunger and disease.

Ali Abdullah Saleh ran Yemen for 34 years, and a mass rally to commemorate his former ruling party's anniversary last week aroused the ire of the Houthis, who viewed it as a show of force meant to undermine them.

The tensions boiled over on Saturday night when Houthi fighters set up a security checkpoint near the home of Saleh's son and his media office.

Two Houthi fighters were killed and Yemeni media reported that an army colonel who served as a senior official in Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party also died.

Houthi-run state news agency Saba reported that neutral forces intervened to stop the fighting and that an investigation had been launched.

A GPC official said forces on both sides were leaving the area after the Houthi checkpoint was dismantled.

Houthi and Saleh forces fight side-by-side in nationwide battlefronts against the country's internationally recognised government, which is backed by the Saudi-led coalition.

It intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 to restore the government to Sanaa after the Houthis seized it and entered into their alliance with Saleh. (Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by William Maclean and Mark Potter)
By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Thin news flow and upcoming Islamic holidays towards the end of the week kept many long-term equity investors away on Sunday, leaving stock markets in the Middle East vulnerable to profit- taking, but Kuwait's index bucked the trend.

"Speculators are booking capital gains while long-term investors were dormant," said a Jeddah-based broker.

Stock markets are often sparsely traded ahead of Eid al-Adha, he noted. The holidays will start on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia and Thursday in the United Arab Emirates.

The Riyadh index retreated 0.3 percent on Sunday as some of last week's best-performing banks fell; National Commercial Bank, which was up 5.4 percent last week, lost 1.5 percent.

Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co fell 0.8 percent after its board proposed a first-half cash dividend of 0.75 riyal per share, down from 1.5 riyals for the first half of 2016.

But Al Tayyar Travel Group rose 1.9 percent in relatively active trade after the company said it was still "carrying on its business dealings" with the Ministry of Education.

The company had previously stated that on average 30 percent of its total yearly revenue came from contracts with the ministry, and there was concern among some investors that Al Tayyar might lose a long-term contract with the government amid Riyadh's austerity measures.

In the UAE, Dubai's index fell 0.6 percent as some shares favoured by speculative investors weakened, including GFH Financial Group, which lost 3.3 percent.

Abu Dhabi's index slipped 0.3 percent with the main drag coming from property-related shares; heavyweight Aldar Properties fell 1.3 percent.

Qatar's index declined 0.2 percent, its third straight session of losses. Shipper Qatar Navigation (Milaha) fell 1.4 percent but the largest listed lender, Qatar National Bank, rose 1.3 percent, reversing some of last week's losses.

In Cairo, the index fell 0.1 percent in the lowest trading volume since September 2016. Six of the top 10 most valuable shares fell including Commercial International Bank , which lost 0.7 percent.

Kuwait's index rose 0.4 percent in healthy volume, supported by gains in blue chips. Boubyan Petrochemical jumped 3.8 percent and Kuwait Finance House rose 1.0 percent.

At the end of September, index compiler FTSE will announce its decision on whether to include Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in its secondary emerging market index. Analysts at Arqaam Capital believe the chances for both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to meet FTSE's inclusion criteria are high, but a bleak domestic economic outlook has been weighing on Saudi Arabia.

"We expect Kuwait to have a weight of 0.54 percent in the FTSE EM + China A All Cap Index, equivalent to $455 million in inflows," Arqaam Capital said in a report this month.

The Kuwaiti index has outperformed its counterparts in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council this year; it is up by almost one-fifth since Jan. 1.

HIGHLIGHTS

SAUDI ARABIA

* The index fell 0.3 percent to 7,225 points.

DUBAI

* The index lost 0.6 percent to 3,603 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index slipped 0.3 percent to 4,480 points.

QATAR

* The index declined 0.2 percent to 8,934 points.

EGYPT

* The index fell 0.1 percent to 12,913 points.

KUWAIT

* The index rose 0.4 percent at 6,914 points.

BAHRAIN

* The index was flat at 1,302 points.

OMAN

* The index rose 0.3 percent to 4,963 points. (Editing by Andrew Torchia)
BEIRUT, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Exports from Iran's South Pars, the world's largest gas field, rose 12 percent over the past year, its head of customs said on Sunday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The field exported about $6.9 billion worth of gas condensate, a 28-percent increase in the value of exports of that product over the same period last year, Ahmad Pourhaydar said.

Other exports included methanol, propane and polyethylene, he added. The bulk of its products went to China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Frances Total signed a deal with Tehran last month to develop phase 11 of South Pars, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions against it.

Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC with 30 percent, and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent. (Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh)
FRANKFURT, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Former F1 driver Niki Lauda is interested in buying back insolvent Air Berlin's Niki, the Austrian airline he once owned, joining a slew of companies and investors vying to grab parts of the German carrier.

Lauda expressed his interest in Niki in a letter to Air Berlin's insolvency administrator but he has yet to look into Niki's books, he told Austrian newspaper Kronen-Zeitung.

"Now let's see what happens, whether I'll be invited to the negotiations at all," he was quoted as saying.

Air Berlin filed for insolvency after major shareholder Etihad pulled the plug on further funding. It is still flying thanks to a 150 million euro ($177 million) loan from the German government.

Lufthansa, Thomas Cook's Condor, easyJet and Ryanair are among airlines interested in the carrier's business or parts of it, sources familiar with the negotiations have said. German aviation investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl is also working on a bid.

Lauda set up Niki in 2003 after buying the Austrian arm of bankrupt German charter carrier Aero Lloyd. Air Berlin acquired a stake shortly after and gained full control over the years.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; editing by Susan Thomas)
Joint statement on Vietnam-Myanmar comprehensive cooperative partnership

Vietnam and Myanmar issued a joint statement on their comprehensive cooperative partnership on the occasion of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trongs State visit to Myanmar from August 24 to 26.













The statement reads that at bilateral talks and meetings, Vietnamese and Myanmar leaders shared the view that the State visit by General Secretary Trong is a historic milestone in the two countries relations.They expressed their delight at the rapid growth of the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation in recent years, agreeing to promote bilateral cooperation between the countries parties, parliaments, governments and people.On the basis of the growing bilateral ties and new developments in the region and the world, the leaders agreed to establish a comprehensive cooperative partnership between Vietnam and Myanmar.This partnership will intensify the countries five cooperation pillars, namely political relations; defence and security cooperation; economic cooperation; cultural and social cooperation, people-to-people exchange, and other fields of shared concern; and cooperation in the region and the world.With the newly founded comprehensive cooperative partnership, the two sides agreed to enhance political ties through mutual visits and meetings at all levels.They agreed to bolster government-to-government cooperation and make efforts to improve bilateral cooperation in economy, culture and science-technique. To strengthen the two economies connectivity, they pledged to prioritise cooperation in transport infrastructure and tourism while expanding connections in agriculture-forestry, telecommunications and banking.The two sides were also unanimous in taking measures to improve the investment climate so as to encourage Vietnamese and Myanmar businesses to invest in each others markets. They agreed to step up investment and trade promotion and trade facilitation, thus raising bilateral trade to 1 billion USD as soon as possible.Party General Secretary Trong affirmed that he will encourage Vietnamese firms to invest in potential areas in Myanmar such as energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.President Htin Kyaw recognised the contribution by Vietnams investment projects in Myanmar to local socio-economic development, reiterating that he will create optimal conditions for and ensure interests of Vietnamese businesses in his country.The two sides also concurred in fostering cooperation in information and communications technology and telecommunications.The two leaders shared viewpoints on regional peace and security issues of mutual concern and vowed to boost bilateral security and defence cooperation through the sharing of information and experience, bringing into play existing cooperation mechanisms, and considering the establishment of defence policy dialogues and a joint working group between the two defence ministries.They also applauded their countries effective implementation of the bilateral security dialogue mechanism, agreeing to reinforce cooperation in security, including working together to build and complete legal frameworks for joint activities in crime fight and justice.They noted with satisfaction the two countries good coordination and cooperation at regional and international forums like ASEAN, the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.General Secretary Trong appreciated Myanmars readiness to support Vietnams candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021.Both sides welcomed the continuation of cooperation in the management and sustainable and effective use of the Mekong Rivers water resource, which they said are important to Mekong countries, including Vietnam and Myanmar, as well as to the connectivity, community building, stability and development of ASEAN.They repeated the commitment to maintaining and promoting peace, security and stability in the region, resolving disputes by peaceful means, not using force or threatening to use force, and complying with broadly recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.They also reiterated their support for the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and soon finalisation of a code of conduct (COC) in the waters on the basis of the approved COC framework.VOV
EDINBURGH, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Britain should rule out the possibility of leaving the EU without establishing terms of its future relationship with the bloc, Scotland's Brexit minister said on Monday, describing such an outcome as "unthinkable".

Michael Russell was speaking before the visit of Britain's Brexit minister David Davis to Brussels this week for a third round of negotiations with the European Union.

London last week published a series of position papers that broadly show it wants to keep close ties with the bloc without the costs the EU says that would involve.

Scotland, whose devolved nationalist government wants to keep EU single market membership, says the United Kingdom is engaged in "brinkmanship".

"The (position) papers confirm the benefits of EU membership, yet bafflingly assume those benefits can be maintained while leaving the EU, Single Market and Customs Union - a position that has been met with derision," said Russell, Minister for Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe in the devolved government.

He said the British government's Brexit position had failed to incorporate the opinions of devolved authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland despite having committed to consulting them.

Prime Minister Theresa May has been under pressure to back away from her stance that "no (Brexit) deal is better than a bad deal" since losing her governing Conservative Party's parliamentary majority in an ill-judged election gamble in June.

"The UK Government must make clear - without delay - that no deal is not only a bad outcome, it is an unthinkable outcome. More and more people across business and in our communities are expressing their concern at the damage being done to our economy and public services," Russell said.

In last year's Brexit vote, England and Wales voted to leave the EU while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to keep membership. (reporting by Elizabeth O'Leary; editing by John Stonestreet and Andrew Hay)
On Wednesday the 30th August the world over observes the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The aim is to raise awareness that enforced disappearance is a crime and a criminal act, which cannot be used as a tool to deal with situations of conflict.

Unfortunately even today enforced disappearance is used as a strategy to spread terror within the society. Unfortunately the phenomenon continues to grow. In its 16 September 2016 in its report to the United Nations, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances noted that the numbers of enforced disappearances was more than three times higher than those reported in the previous years annual report.

Enforced disappearance is used as a strategy to spread terror within a diven society. It occurs when people are arrested, detained or abducted against their will and when governments refuse to disclose the whereabouts of these people. Enforced disappearance is a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world.

Because the problem continues to grow, on December 2010, the UN officially declared that it would annually observe the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30 each year, starting from 2011.



The term enforced disappearance became a part of the Sri Lankan lexicon in the aftermath of the passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in 1978 which became operational in 1979. The PTA was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under President J. R. Jayewardene and subsequently became law of the land in 1982.

Since then, no matter from which race ethnicity or religion, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers have lived in fear, not knowing for whom the bell would toll next, so-to-say.

Thousands of people have disappeared in Sri Lanka since the 1980s. A 1999 study by the United Nations found that Sri Lanka had the second highest number of disappearances in the world and that 12,000 Sri Lankans had disappeared after being detained by the Sri Lankan security forces.

In 2003 the Red Cross stated that it had received 20,000 complaints of disappearances during the Sri Lankan Civil War of which 9,000 had been resolved but the remaining 11,000 were still being investigated.



One of the best examples of enforced disappearance is the case of D. Sivaram a former journalist of the Daily Mirror and founder-editor of the Tamilnet better known by his nom de plume Taraki. Sivaram was brazenly disappeared in front of a police station and in the presence of witness. His body was subsequently discovered in a High Security Zone, where at that time the public were not permitted to enter!

The Prevention of Terrorism Act or PTA as it is widely referred to, can be seen as the handmaid to the enforced disappearances which over took and held hostage the people of Sri Lanka until the present regime was elected to office.

In an effort which the government claims will bring to an end the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in our country, the present regime on May 22 last year introduced and gazetted a bill to establish the Office on Missing Persons (OMP).



The OMP is mandated to search and trace missing persons, clarify the circumstances in which persons have gone missing and their fate, make recommendations towards addressing incidents of missing persons, protect the rights and interests of missing persons among other tasks.

Despite sections among the opposition criticising the bill as an act of betrayal against troops who helped crush the separatist war to divide the country led by the Liberation Tigers of Tameelam (LTTE), the bill was unanimously passed in parliament.

While this move by the present regime to bring about an end to the deplorable practice of enforced disappearances must be applauded, it cannot be said that the measure is sufficient.

The passage of the OMP Bill is an applaudable first step to eradicate this nasty criminal practice of disappearing opponents which both the main political parties the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party- stand guilty of.
A major fire broke out in a shop at Ihala Veediya, Chatham Street a short while ago, the Colombo Fire Brigade said.

It said the fire brigade teams from the Colombo Municipal Council and a substation doused the fire using six fire trucks.

So far, no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire and the damage is yet to be estimated. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)

Video by Amantha
United National Partys former General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said yesterday that he would come into national politics again as a UNP member in the upcoming elections.

Addressing a rally in Geli Oya, Kandy Mr. Attanayake said though he supported former President Rajapaksa during the last Presidential Elections he always remained a UNPer and did not go to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

I feel that this is the correct time to get back into politics. I will always stand with the peoples hopes and represent the general public, he said.

He said he was away from the politics for certain period as it was a transition time in politics and was not the right time to take a political decision.

He said that he wasnt satisfied with the current political situation in the country.

People too doubt the political leadership and their work, he said.

I hope to support the UNP to take the State leadership. Over 23years UNPers suffered without UNP President in the country. As to my belief the justice is not done to the UNPers. It is the peoples hope that a UNP candidate would take the countrys leadership, Mr. Attanayake said.

Meanwhile, he said that the UNP needed a Presidential Candidate, who could win the 2020 Presidential Election. (Thilanka Kanakarathna and J.A.L. Jayasinghe)
Vijay Nagaraj (44) a Human Rights activist died in a car accident while driving to Batticaloa from Colombo on Friday.

Vijay Nagaraj was a former Director of Amnesty International-India. He joined Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan in Rajasthan in 1995 as a fresh graduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

"He was in Sri Lanka for about 10 years, working on Human Rights issues as head of research of the Law and Society Club," Nikhil Dey of MKSS said.

"Exhaustion got the better of him and his car ran into a truck before falling into a nearby water body in the early hours of Friday morning, resulting in his untimely death," the MKSS said in a media release on Friday.

Nagaraj was a part of the struggle for the Right to Information. He left MKSS to work for Amnesty India, Human Rights in Geneva and with TISS Mumbai in various capacities.

He rejoined MKSS in 1999, and was part of the group that organised several public hearings.

He also was closely engaged in the process that saw people associated with MKSS contest Panchayat elections.

"The news of his death comes as a huge shock and setback to those of us who have worked with him. We wish his family courage in this difficult hour," MKSS said.

Nagaraj is survived by his parents, a sister and brother. The family is based in Bangalore.
The new Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Travis Sinniahs commencement of duties merits special attention on account of some observations he made besides the pleasantries associated with assuming office. One of the statements at his first press conference was regarding the future role of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which he reportedly said would be to protect commercial trade between the Gulf of Aden and the Straits of Malacca. According to reports he was referring to the role of sea marshals in protecting commercial vessels from pirates.

Obviously the Navy Commander was not expressing a personal decision or opinion but reflecting the position of his government. He was in fact echoing a view articulated earlier by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe when he addressed naval personnel at a commissioning ceremony in Trincomalee in April last year. The PM said the SLN would have to prepare for a role where it would be called upon to protect not only Sri Lankas territorial waters but also the seas of the entire Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean as well - from the Maldives to the Strait of Malacca. The PM went so far as to say Sri Lanka should arm itself with more ships, planes and weapons for this purpose.

It would be relevant to ask if the GoSL has thought through the implications for Sri Lanka of asserting this ambitious new role, in a context where the rivalry among big powers in the region is intensifying, and security concerns growing increasingly complex. Sri Lanka would be projecting itself into a strategically sensitive triangular relationship currently playing out among India, China and the US in the Indian Ocean Region. Indias suspicions of Chinas motives have grown, with Chinas increasing maritime presence and especially with its new Belt and Road initiative. The stand off in the Doklam plateau is a pointer to long simmering tensions between the two Asian giants - both nuclear powers - despite the major trade relationship between them.



The US and Indian naval strength in the Indian Ocean is said to be far greater than that of China. Ironically, both India and China seem to fear encirclement by each others militaries, going by what analysts on both sides have been saying. Americans came up with the concept of a String of Pearls consisting of a series of strategically located ports developed by China such as those in Mynmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan which, according to the theory, encircles India and could be used for military purposes. Chinese analysts too express fears of encirclement, in the context of beefed up military facilities in Indias Andaman and Nicobar islands located near the Strait of Malacca.

Almost 40% of Chinas foreign trade depends on Indian Ocean sea lanes. With over 80% of its imported oil going through the Strait of Malacca, China has long feared the possibility of rivals blocking off access to this vital channel. Adding to these fears is the US military build-up in the Asia Pacific region leading to escalating tensions in the South China Sea. Several analysts have worried about the increasing risk of a Third World War on account of the US having encircled China with nuclear weapons.

Chinese analysts assert that Chinas purpose in maritime expansion is commercial and not military. Hence the appearance of what China calls a logistical facility in Djibouti  seen as its first foreign military base  has become the subject of much talk. These discussions may not mention that Japan, France and the US too have bases there. For perspective, compared to Chinas one, the US has some 800 bases in foreign countries, according to David Vine writing in 2015 in The Nation. (That figure may have increased by now.) ... The United States likely has more bases in foreign lands than any other people, nation, or empire in history says Vine.

U.S. and Indian experts are debating whether China is pursuing a strategy of building commercial port facilities along the rim of the Indian Ocean that will one day be used for military purposes writes David Shinn in a recent paper on Chinas Power Projection. Shinn who is an adjunct professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University notes that While China is expanding its naval capacity in the Western Indian Ocean, it is important to understand that the PLANs (Peoples Liberation Army Navys) highest priorities remain along Chinas coast, the South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, and Western Pacific.



Chinas build-up of military installations on islands of the South China Sea would need to be seen against the backdrop of these concerns over access. A dispute has arisen for example with the Philippines, over airstrips being built by China on the Spratly Islands. According to Indian Defence News, this was a dispute without priority until Washington pressured Manila, and the Pentagon launched a propaganda campaign called freedom of navigation.

What does this really mean? It means freedom for American warships to patrol and dominate the coastal waters of China. Try to imagine the American reaction if Chinese warships did the same off the coast of California the article argues. Why is China building airstrips in the South China Sea? The answer ought to be glaringly obvious. The United States is encircling China with a network of bases, with ballistic missiles, battle groups, nuclear-armed bombers, the report says.



In a scenario so fraught with tension, one needs to ask on what basis Sri Lanka is rushing in to protect the oceans from the Gulf of Aden to Strait of Malacca. Besides, the piracy threat in Gulf of Aden is said to be greatly reduced now as a result of coordinated international efforts. With the exception of an incident in March this year where Somali pirates hijacked a ship, the last recorded hijacking incident is reported to have been in 2012.

Sri Lankas Navy, while it has distinguished itself remarkably in a war that liberated the country from terrorism, does not pretend to be on par with the navies of the worlds nuclear powers. As such, if it takes part in any international exercise of patrolling the high seas it would have to be as a junior partner of a bigger naval force. In the event of a major conflict, the geopolitics of the situation would demand that Sri Lanka take sides. And that will be the end of Sri Lankas professed status of being friends with all and enemies of none. With this ill-considered bid to curry favour with the US by offering to protect the sea lanes from the Gulf of Aden to the Strait of Malacca, will Sri Lanka end up between the devil and the deep blue sea?
Let's first count our daily challenges starting from sunrise.

It all begins with storing water for the rest of the day. We stopped demanding 24x7 supplies decades ago.

When we step out for work, we squeeze our way through all kinds of encroachments on our streets. We have become alien to footpaths because there's hardly any left, for example in most parts of non-Lutyens' India, free from trespass.

I tweeted myself about this ugly invasion of public space on several occasions in West Delhi, but backed off when none acted.

We have also resigned to a virtually non-existent state ambulance service. We have made as much peace with noisy drumbeating, outdoor loudspeakers and honking as with the dirty air we breathe in.

Almost 20 years ago, we reconciled with the falling standards of government education. No matter what, we now manage expensive private schooling for our children.

We can only fret that how our courts, our hospitals, our institutions involved in public dealing are bursting at the seams. But we don't treat this everyday disorder as an election issue ever.

It's a devastating truth that we, as a nation, are born out of the bloodshed of the Partition of 1947. Generations later, we haven't really been able to evolve ourselves out of anarchy, big or small.

We may come out in the open once in a while against some outrageous act or behaviour, but we largely remain tolerant of administrative failures.

And this tolerance of everyday lawlessness has, in fact, made us immune to progressive thinking. We may have acquired wealth or gadgets of modern world. But our thinking DNA remains frozen in time.

We don't really assert our right to a dignified life - beyond buy-able by-products of material growth.

As a society, we allowed 1984 to happen in independent India. Next came Gujarat in 2002, then Muzaffarnagar. Each entry on the of list innumerable massacres that have taken place across the country since the 1970s is a subject matter of research.

The latest rioting unfolded in Haryana over the rape conviction of a sect leader, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. But we have been no stranger to chilling imagery - of burnt-down cars, teargas, police firing and of army patrols in civilian areas - which emerged this time from Sirsa or Panchkula.

Haryana replayed it not only for us but for the world outside as a reflection of a nation caught in a time warp.

It's our tolerance of everything gross - right from inadequate water to streets choked by trespassers to pogroms of 1984, 2002 and so forth - that's to be blamed for the indignity followers of a convicted cult head heaped on us.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation from the Red Fort stated that the Kashmir problem can be solved only through embrace and not bullets. This is a welcome policy shift from the one which emphasised no talks till the time violence and stone-pelting stops.

After relative calm of a few years, Kashmir suddenly erupted and has been witnessing a cycle of violence after the death of Burhan Wani, Hizbul Mujahideen commander in an encounter last year. He was young, educated and tech savy and was, therefore, seen as a hero by the locals. Besides, the locals continue to believe that the circumstances leading to his death were not entirely above board.

Besides interacting with several Kashmiri acquaintances, during my visit to Kashmir in April  immediately after the infamous incident of the human shield when stone-pelting incidents were at their highest  I also interacted with a retired senior police officer-turned-politician.

Everyone seemed to agree that the Kashmir problem is not about lack of development or poverty. The levels of poverty seen in Kashmir are much less when compared with other parts of country. Yet the militancy aided and abetted by Pakistan continues to get support because of the policies adopted by the Indian government which give rise to a sense of alienation amongst locals.

Everyone seemed to agree that the Kashmir problem is not just about lack of development or poverty.

The deceased militants are now idolised because they are mainly local "heroes". Such large gatherings on namaze janaza were never heard of earlier. Foreign militants used to die in encounters, but since no relatives were there to mourn them their bodies received quiet burial by security forces. These factors at least point to one major success of security forces that they have been able to considerably control infiltration from across the LoC.

There is a strong sense of mistrust in politicians and bureaucrats because of rampant corruption. A large portion of the funds meant for development of the state is siphoned off by these people which is causing widespread resentment amongst the ordinary population. People do not have confidence in the government's ability or devotion towards resolving their problems.

Politicians belonging to present ruling dispensation are specially disliked. The PDP is seen to have betrayed the population by compromising the interests of the state by aligning with the BJP, which is seen to be pursuing its aggressive Hindutva agenda and diluting the status of J&K.

The common Kashmiri appears to have only a woolly idea of what is azadi. He is certain that he does not want Kashmir to go to Pakistan. He also is sure that an independent Kashmir cannot survive on its own. They need to remain within India but still want azadi.

When asked about their idea of Azadi, the most common refrain is that they wish to live with dignity and "without oppressive restrictions imposed upon them in the name of controlling militancy".

It is repeatedly pointed out that the present government in J&K came to power to implement the agenda of governance (AoG) agreed upon by the BJP and the PDP.

However, the central government and PDP are seen to be dishonouring important commitments specifically provided in the AoG. Amongst others, the main provisions of the AoG provide that (A) review will be undertaken to assess the necessity of retaining the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA); and (B) there will not be any dilution of Article 370.

The most common grouse is that indiscriminate use of the AFPSA by the forces is causing lot of harassment and disruption in day-to-day life of common kashmiris and this is leading to further alienation.

Presently, the AFSPA is applicable throughout the state. However, there are parts of the state, especially, the districts of Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Ladakh region which are not affected by militancy. The government as a confidence-building measure can withdraw the AFSPA from these areas, thereby giving positive signals about its intentions and sincerity.

The other issue relates to Article 370. The AoG is said to have a provision which says that provisions of Article 370 will not be tinkered with. However, the refrain from BJP leaders is totally opposite to that. They also have gone to court to have the article abrogated. There is even a challenge to Article 35(A) of the Constitution.

These developments are creating a suspicion in the minds of politicians and people at large about the intention of the central government.

An often-heard argument by some is that the special status of Kashmir is responsible for all its ills, but that's not true. On the contrary, as has been oft-repeated by many, it is Article 370 and related provisions which made it possible for the instrument of accession to put into effect.

Most of the provisions of Constitution and most of the laws applicable in India are also applicable in Kashmir. Therefore, the practical implications of autonomy or azadi that they now seek appear to be limited to the extent of being allowed to lead their lives peacefully.

I, therefore, agree with Lt Gen (retd) HS Panag, who in an article published last year, said "autonomy within the framework of our Constitution is an insignificant price to pay for bonding our nation".

Another general feeling amongst common Kashmiris is that all of them are treated as militants or militant sympathisers. Their loyalty to the nation is always suspected. The infamous case of human shield is cited to buttress their claim. Whether the person was guilty of stone-pelting or not, they feel that the officer used him as a shield just because he wanted to save us (personnel of Indian Army) from them (Kashmiri common man).

The presence of security forces everywhere and restrictions placed on free movement of Kashmiris, especially at night is another sore point. They find themselves pushed to a corner  On one side are the security forces which treat all of them as suspects. On the other hand, are the militants who exploit and threaten them of dire consequences if they cooperate with security forces.

I too saw that deployment of troop (in ones and twos) all along the roads and market place. I feel that this kind of deployment besides exposing them to risk of being surrounded and pelted is also counterproductive as it disrupts daily life and causes resentment.

Continuous deployment also tires out the troops and slows down responses in case of exigencies. The authorities concerned may instead consider deploying them on posts and send out area domination patrols on regular basis.
More female migrants to get stable jobs

VietNamNet Bridge  Some 2,000 young women and female migrants in Ha Noi will be provided with information and consultation on housing, employment and study opportunities.









Female migrant workers at the press conference share their thoughts after joining a training course that is part of the project.  Photo kinhtedothi.vn



They will also be trained and supported to connect with businesses to get stable jobs or be self-employed.

This information was stated at a press conference held on Thursday to introduce a project organised by Plan International Viet Nam to create sustainable and safe employment opportunities for Ha Nois migrant women.

The project aims to enhance the adaptability and economic stability of young women and female migrants aged between 18-30, living in Ha Nois Dong Anh District.

They will be trained in professional, soft and work-ready skills, encouraged to show willingness to work and provided with stable job opportunities.

In addition, counseling centres will be established in Dong Anh District to provide information and advice to young women and female migrants to reduce the risk of gender violence and improve access to safe housing, reproductive healthcare and sexual health services.

The project also promotes the establishment of a network of enterprises that commit to sustainable employment and gender equality.

The four-year project has been implemented in Dong Anh District since June 2016.

According to Luu Quang Dai, director of the Plan International Viet Nam programme, more than 80 per cent of participants in a survey conducted by the project in November 2016 among female migrant workers and women living in Kim Chung Commune, said the current work conditions are unstable.

According to the survey, 53 per cent disliked their current jobs and wished to move to another sustainable one.

Another survey by the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions under the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour showed that workers aged over 30, especially women, were forced to leave their jobs for various reasons.

Some 43.1 per cent of workers do freelance work after being fired, 17.2 per cent do business, 15.3 per cent do housework, 13.3 per cent work in the field and over 11 per cent work as street vendors.

Le Quynh Lan, project manager of Plan International in Ha Noi, said the project called for the participation and support of all residents and house owners in Dong Anh District, as well as employers, to build a safe and equal working environment for female migrant workers to help them have stable jobs and feel safe in the city.

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A man accused of firing a gun during the white nationalist Unite the Right rally on Aug. 12 has been charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.

Richard Wilson Preston, 52, was arrested Saturday and is currently in the custody of the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson, Maryland. Charlottesville police said in a news release Saturday that Preston fired the gun in the 100 block of West Market Street, which is a corner of Emancipation Park, where the rally was held.

In addition to Prestons arrest, Daniel Patrick Borden, 18, has been charged with malicious wounding related to an aggravated assault near the Market Street Parking Garage on Aug. 12. He was arrested on Friday and is currently in the custody of the Hamilton County Criminal Justice Center in Cincinnati.

Related to that same assault, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, also has been charged with malicious wounding. Ramos is currently wanted by the Charlottesville police and has a last known address in Marietta, Georgia.

Police and city officials did not reply to multiple requests for confirmation that Borden and Ramos charges are related to the beating of Deandre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage.

The rally, scheduled to begin at noon Aug. 12, fell quickly into chaos as white nationalist groups entered the park hours earlier. An unlawful assembly was declared after ralliers and counter-protesters clashed.

Later that afternoon, area resident Heather Heyer was killed near the corner of Fourth and Water streets after a car drove into a group of counter-protesters. James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio, was later arrested and charged with second-degree murder, among other offenses. Police on Saturday said they have now identified 35 victims of the car attack.

In a video taken Aug. 12 by a legal observer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, a white man is seen at the corner of First Street North and Market Street, just outside Emancipation Park, pointing a gun and then firing it once toward a black man who had used a spray can as a torch, then putting the gun in his pocket, turning and walking away.

Police and city officials did not reply to multiple requests for confirmation that the man in the video is Preston.

The ACLU of Virginia said it noticed the specific content of the video on Aug. 16, when a legal observer uploaded it to the groups Dropbox account.

Letters provided by the ACLU of Virginia show that staff sent the video to the FBI on Aug. 17 and then to Charlottesville and state police on Aug. 20.

Our decision to release the video of this significant event is consistent with our regular calls for law enforcement to release body-camera video that depicts any incident of public concern, a Saturday statement from the ACLU of Virginia said.

Virginia State Police troopers can be seen in the background of the video, standing behind barricades on First Street North. Police did not move as the man who fired the gun walked with a group of rally attendees farther west down Market Street.

Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the state police, confirmed that state troopers can be seen in the video, but said that, from where they were standing, none of the troopers witnessed the incident.

Nor did they hear the single shot being fired because it was muffled by the loud volume of the crowd yelling and chanting, drums and music, she said. Had any one of our troopers witnessed that incident, they would have immediately acted, just as they did for the other four arrests made during the weekend.

Charlottesville police did not respond to additional questions regarding the video by press time.

According to the city police news release, authorities are continuing to investigate the vehicle attack. Fields has been charged with second-degree murder, five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and one count of felony hit and run in relation to the incident. Additional charges could be filed as the investigation progresses, police said.

Any relevant information about the Aug. 12 rally and violence can be sent to city police at cvillerally@charlottesville.org.
The University of Virginia Police Department announced late Wednesday night that white nationalist Chris Cantwell turned himself in to Lynchburg police on Wednesday afternoon.

Cantwell is being held in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail in Lynchburg pending transport to Charlottesville, according to a news release.

The UVa police announced on Tuesday that they had secured warrants for Cantwells arrest related to his actions on Grounds on the eve of the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally.

Cantwell, who was slated to speak at the rally, was arrested on two counts of illegal use of tear gas and one count of malicious bodily injury, all felonies.

Police did not release further details Wednesday night.
The Charlottesville City Council is alleging that City Manager Maurice Jones and the police department he oversees did not ensure the safety of the local Jewish community during the Aug. 12 rally attended by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, a claim that Jones directly disputed one week ago.

In a confidential memorandum sent to Jones ahead of a closed meeting on Thursday and obtained by The Daily Progress soon after, the council wrote that authorities did not provide any officers to protect Congregation Beth Israel in spite of assurances that one community service officer would be sent to the East Jefferson Street synagogue during the Aug. 12 rally.

However, a statement from Jones on Aug. 18 contests the councils allegation, saying that CBI was not left unguarded and that city officials had since conferred with CBI representatives about the security provisions.

The memorandum asserts that leaders of Congregation Beth Israel did not receive the level of protection they required in light of the anti-Semitic rhetoric used online by neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites regarding the rally. An email sent by Signer on Aug. 9 to Jones, city Police Chief Al Thomas, Deputy Chief Gary Pleasants and Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy outlined some of these threats and noted that potential demonstrators were aware that the synagogue was only two blocks away from the rally site.

Given all of these variables I feel it would be prudent for us to have a more overt police presence near [the synagogue], Signer wrote in the email.

That request was taken up by police Lt. Joe Hatter on Aug. 11, according to an email listed in the memorandum, but CBIs executive director, Kathryn Mawyer, later advised that Hatter told her no officer could be provided specifically to the synagogue.

I expressed my fear that it only takes one troll with a Molotov cocktail to burn down a building which has a history dating from 1882 and is the only synagogue in Central Virginia, Mawyer wrote in an email to Signer. She added that Hatter had promised to make sure that the shift commanders through the weekend will be reminded of the presence of CBI so close to downtown and to the park, and would be encouraged to increase, as resources allow, patrol around CBI.

Neither Mawyer nor Hatter responded to requests for comment on the matter.

The councils memorandum also states that Rabbi Tom Gutherz had received firm assurances that a community service officer  who does not have arrest powers or a firearm  would be present at the synagogue during the day, but received no such officer.

While neither Gutherz nor any official from CBI responded to request for comment on the security of the synagogue during the Aug. 12 rally, CBI President Alan Zimmerman published a letter on Aug. 14 to the blog ReformJudaism.org, saying that the polices limited promise of an observer near our building was not kept.

Jones directly addressed that allegation in a statement released on Aug. 18 to The Daily Progress. In it, Jones said that authorities stationed one officer on the corner of CBIs block, while another 32 officers were one block away.

In addition, we had snipers on a rooftop in close proximity whose primary responsibility was to monitor a two block radius which included Beth Israel, Jones wrote. We also had a group of Virginia State Police officers who were walking a four block radius between two of our parks on a route that passed the synagogue on numerous occasions throughout the days events.

Jones goes on to say that his staff met with Gutherz and Zimmerman on Aug. 16 to explain the security in place around the synagogue. Jones then provided a response made by Gutherz on Aug. 17, saying he and Zimmerman were now confident that the steps they took were carefully considered to protect us and were effective.

We note that we had also met with and spoken to the department prior to the rallies as part of our preparation, reads Gutherzs response. We look forward to continuing to work with them to guarantee the security of our community and thank them for their service.

Gutherz could not be reached to confirm the response attributed to him.
Updated at 8:43 p.m.

Hundreds of people came together Sunday to voice continued frustrations to Charlottesville officials and ask them questions about what transpired two weekends ago.

City Council members, as well as City Manager Maurice Jones and city Police Chief Al Thomas, sat dispersed through the crowd at the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center as residents called for accountability for what happened Aug. 11 and 12.

The meeting was organized in response to the tragic events surrounding the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, as well as a torch-lit rally through the University of Virginia Grounds the night before. Representatives for the Community Relations Services division of the U.S. Department of Justice took notes on what was talked about.

For nearly three hours, people voiced their anger toward city leadership and law enforcement and demanded answers about the events. Many expressed frustration that Sundays event was not useful for moving forward.

Many residents asked at the town hall, as well as at last weeks City Council meeting, why the rally, which included white nationalists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis, was allowed to happen and why police did not intervene more as violence broke out in the streets surrounding Emancipation Park.

Jim Baker, a city resident, asked Jones, Thomas and Mayor Mike Signer if their responses and actions in recent weeks were the best they could do for the city and its residents.

The city is crying out for leadership, you can hear that cry ringing through pained responses of everybody in this room, and you are coming up weak, Baker said. But if this is the best you can do, negotiate your packages, move to the next town, learn your lessons from whatever you can from this and move on.

This town needs better, it deserves better and you are failing it, Baker added. You are not doing what we need. You are not showing leadership.

City resident Leslie Brown asked why the extremist groups were allowed to march downtown on Aug. 12, and spoke out against racial profiling by law enforcement in the community. She pointed out the lack of affordable housing in the city, as well, which was a frequent topic during the town hall.

We need to do better as Charlottesville, she said.

Local attorney Jeff Fogel spoke near the end of the town hall, using a portion of his time to talk about discrepancies African-Americans face in the criminal justice system, saying they are treated as second-class citizens and asking when the questions asked by the public will be answered.

This community will never heal itself until it overthrows white supremacy, he said.

On Aug. 12, the Unite the Right rally broke into chaos as ralliers and counter-protesters clashed in the streets before an unlawful assembly was declared.

Later that day, 32-year-old local resident Heather Heyer was killed near the corner of Fourth and Water streets after a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters, injuring dozens.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, who had come to attend the Unite the Right rally, was later arrested and charged with second-degree murder and numerous other charges.

A few hours after the deadly car incident, two Virginia State Police troopers, Jay Cullen of Midlothian and Berke Bates of Quinton, who had assisted in law enforcements rally response, died in a helicopter crash in Albemarle County.

Toward the end of Sundays town hall, Councilor Wes Bellamy and others discussed the possibility of another meeting, possibly in two weeks, to continue the discussion. Specifics and location would need to be worked out, he said.

People, they want answers and they deserve answers  I don't know if I can reiterate that enough, Bellamy said. We owe people an explanation about how and why certain things happened to the best of our abilities, and I think that will help us all move forward. But before we can move forward, we absolutely can acknowledge, empathize, sympathize and then react accordingly.

In an interview several hours before the town hall meeting, Signer spoke a bit about the recent controversy over a memo leaked Friday, one day after a closed-door meeting with Jones and the City Council was held.

Among other issues, the memo revealed the councils frustration over the citys delayed response to inquiries regarding police operations Aug. 12.

Saturday evening, Jones provided reporters with his response to most of the questions raised in the memo. Signer has since said hes disappointed in Jones for driving the news story forward and sharing more information about the confidential meeting.

Jones said the mayor threatened to fire him and Thomas on two separate occasions during the height of the crisis Aug. 12. According to Jones, Signer promised retribution after he had been barred from entering the command center where Jones and Thomas were handling operations that day.

It was essential for me to understand the reality of what our forces were dealing with, Signer said Sunday. Because the mayor is a conduit on City Council to the people, I think its a best practice that elected officials are involved in the information and knowledge about operations like this.

As for last weeks closed-door meeting, Signer said: All I can say is that the full story of what is happening in closed session has not yet been reported. But Im not comfortable talking about it.

On Friday, city officials announced they had hired Tim Heaphy, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, to lead a review of recent events in the city.

Daily Progress staff writer Chris Suarez contributed to this story.
Addressing point-by-point the serious allegations lobbed at him in a leaked confidential memo, City Manager Maurice Jones detailed his version of the events leading up to the Aug. 12 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in an email on Saturday.

Jones also said Mayor Mike Signer threatened his job and that of city Police Chief Al Thomas on two separate occasions.

 the Mayor threatened my job and that of the police chief because of our concerns about allowing him to be part of the command center, Jones wrote. He said, You work for me, and I replied that I worked for the City Council.

In Charlottesvilles form of government, the day-to-day duties of government, including public safety operations, are implemented and overseen by the city manager.

In a text message, Signer responded to the city managers assertion: Mr. Jones does work for City Council-and for the citizens of Charlottesville. It saddens me that he would release confidential closed session material in a blame game.

This is a distraction from the two real issues: making sure we know the truth of everything that happened here, and making sure it never happens again. Thats what we should all be working on-together.

In his letter, Jones says no other councilors requested entrance into the command center that weekend. He says Signer was left out because operations were being conducted in a small space and with more people than was the case on July 8, when the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied in Justice Park.

Jones says none of the councilors asked to review security plans for the rally.

He added: In the nearly 16 years Ive been involved with local government Ive never had a Councilor request to review documents related to security plans for events including visits by Presidents Obama and Bush and the Dalai Lama.

Joness letter does not address concerns about how a car was able to plow into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring at least 35 others.

The security plans, the city manager said, were complicated by the possibility of a rally in McIntire Park.

Beginning in early July, city staff began exploring the feasibility of requiring the Unite the Right rally to move from Emancipation Park, where a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stands. City councilors voted in February to remove the statue, and the rally was billed as a protest of that decision. The removal is on hold while a court injunction is in place; a hearing on a lawsuit against the city is set for later this week.

In the letter, Jones documents meetings held throughout July and August with city attorneys, councilors and staff. He disputes the leaked memos notion that the will of the Council was clear, saying that several councilors, including Signer, expressed concerns that they could be held personally liable if City Council took action to move the rally to McIntire Park. Councilor Wes Bellamy mentioned this same concern at last weeks City Council meeting that was overtaken by angry attendees.

In early August, Jones says, Signer cited a legal expert who told him that there was a one in three chance of winning a court case against the decision if it was challenged.

But according to rally organizer Jason Kessler, the odds of the Unite the Right rally actually taking place in McIntire Park were slim to none, Jones says, adding that Kessler made it clear to city police Capt. Wendy Lewis in July and on Aug. 7 that he would demonstrate there even if a judge allowed us to move the rally to McIntire Park.

The legal murkiness of a decision to relocate the rally impacted police planning, according to the city manager. Concerned with defending two fronts, Thomas told Jones on Aug. 10 that he was already preparing for McIntire and Emancipation Parks just in case. The city manager also reached out to city schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins about utilizing the nearby Charlottesville High School parking lot, he said.

Jones said he was unaware of state Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Morans promise to have the Virginia National Guard provide protection of the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, but he noted that several police officers were stationed nearby, as were snipers on a nearby rooftop. Jones also said that Thomas does not recall Captain [Victor] Mitchell stating that a [community service officer] would be stationed at the synagogue.

He also addressed the memos assertions that requests by low-income neighborhoods for police protection went unheeded.

The police did not have any credible intelligence that Friendship Court, Sixth Street or Crescent Halls was a target of white supremacists.

Residents also were afraid that those attending the Unite the Right rally would park their cars in their neighborhoods to reach Emancipation Park.

I am extremely disappointed in the citys no parking plans for this coming weekend, Brandon Collins, organizer for Public Housing Association of Residents, wrote in an email sent to Jones on Aug. 10 that was included in the leaked memo. Friendship Court, Sixth Street and Crescent Halls will be completely exposed to violent, armed racists parking in their neighborhoods.

In his letter, Jones responded: Forbidding parking on Garrett Street, 2nd Street SE, Monticello Avenue, Sixth Street and South First Street was proposed by Mr. Brandon Collins. As far as I know no resident of those housing complexes that are served by those spaces, or the property owners, ever requested restricting street parking. It would have also been difficult to provide adequate enforcement of the no parking restrictions on August 12th due to the need for all of our resources to be on or near the scene of the rally.

He also denied that there was a stand down order made by himself, Signer or city police, and he said that officials are concerned about reports of officers unwillingness to intervene in particular situations.

 Chief Thomas has responded by instructing his commanders to review body camera video footage from each CPD officer assigned to the demonstration, Jones wrote. Officers were instructed to continuously record on August 12th. Chief Thomas has directed his commanders to review the 8-10 hours of video for each officer assigned to determine if officers did not intervene with citizens begging for assistance.

The city manager addresses criticisms of Thomas for the use of tear gas by Virginia State Police following the KKK rally. The memo claims Thomas disagreed with that decision and was frustrated by it, even though he was in charge of the overall operation and the state troopers who were called to the city that day.

Chief Thomas has made it clear that the use of tear gas was an effective way to disperse the crowd on July 8th, Jones said.  He made it clear that he supported the decision to deploy [tear gas] in an effort to safely disperse the unruly crowd.

Yes, there was a miscommunication about deploying the tear gas at that moment but it avoided physical force by the police.

In his final point, Jones says the city is reviewing its decision-making and planning: Chief Thomas and his team are working on an after action report for both July 8th and August 12th. He and his command team had little time to do a comprehensive report on July 8th while simultaneously preparing for August 12th. In addition we have hired outside counsel to conduct an independent review of the City's preparations and response.
ROANOKE  Lacey Putney could drive through Bedford County and point out who lived in each house, said state Sen. Steve Newman. He could also tell you who lived in that house before the current occupants. He knew people, and he knew their parents and their grandparents.

It was quite remarkable to see how his mind worked, said Newman, R-Lynchburg, who used to travel the area with Putney. You saw how much he cared about people to remember them.

Putney, the longest-serving state legislator in Virginias history who earned the respect of his peers for being a courtly Southern politician, died Saturday. He was 89.

Putney, who served in the House of Delegates for 52 years, will lie in state in the Rotunda of the State Capitol, where flags will fly at half-mast in his memory. He will be the first House member to lie in state since Speaker A.L. Philpott in 1991. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date.

Putney, known as the lion of Bedford County, served most of his tenure as an independent. He bolted the Democratic Party in 1967 after he refused to sign a loyalty oath committing him to support the partys candidates in all elections. He said upon that decision that the oath was an effort to force conservative officeholders to forsake their convictions, bow to the Democratic party, and support anyone who chooses to call himself a Democrat, even if it means supporting socialism, communism or the welfare state of the Great Society.

Putney ran as an independent for the remainder of his political career, even after he joined the House Republican Caucus for organizational purposes in 1998. He flirted with the idea of formally joining the GOP in the early 1970s, but the Watergate scandal deterred him and many Byrd-era Democrats who no longer felt at home in the Democratic Party. Ultimately, party identification had little impact on Putney when he ran for his seat, because the voters knew him and he knew the voters.

The voters recognized him, said former 5th District U.S. congressman Virgil Goode, a Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican. He could have gotten elected on any party he ran on. It didnt matter.

Putney was born and raised in Big Island. He received his bachelors degree and law degree from Washington and Lee University, where he was a baseball star while pursuing his degrees. He also served in the Air Force from 1950 to 1954.

Conservatives recruited Putney, a Bedford attorney, to run in the Democratic primary in 1961 against an incumbent, Bedford pharmacist Charles Green. His legislative district encompassed Alleghany County, part of Bedford and Botetourt counties and the cities of Bedford and Covington.

When Putney entered the House in 1962, Democrats occupied 95 of the chambers 100 seats. He didnt imagine he would be there more than a half-century later after the emergence of two-party competition and the realignment of the states political parties. Putneys legislative career would span a period of economic and social transformation.

Throughout his 52 years in the House, Lacey came to embody what this institution stands for: productive public service, individual integrity, sound stewardship and so much more, House Speaker William Howell said in a statement. He was dedicated to the legislature as a vital and necessary institution within state government, possessed an independent voice and always acquitted himself as a wise and effective legislator. He showed compassion for all with a caring and soft heart, was a man of action and responded to all his constituents with unconditional resolve exemplifying all that a true citizen legislator can and should be.

Putney served a brief stint as interim speaker in 2003, but his real power emanated from his 48 years on the Appropriations Committee, six as chairman, allowing him to keep a watchful eye on every penny that passed through the state budget. He also served as chairman of the House Privileges and Election Committee.

He was great to work with, Goode said. He gave everyone a chance to have their say, and he listened to all sides before making a decision.

A short list of Putneys legacy would include many university buildings across the state, such as the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute in Roanoke. He sponsored a $2.6-billion statewide bond package in 2008 that included funds for many higher education buildings. He also won a provision in that bond package that held college presidents accountable for avoiding cost overruns and established a clearer process for the states financing of academic buildings. He played a key role in securing more than $4.4 million in state funds for the completion of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

Hes a man who had more impact on the commonwealth than anyone in my memory, Newman said. Governors come and go, but Mr. Putney was there for half a century. And its the way he did it. He had a statesman-like quality thats irreplaceable.

Putneys first wife, Elizabeth, died after a long struggle with Alzheimers disease in 2005, nearly 55 years after they married. He pressed through, and in 2007 he married Carmela Bills, the House information officer who was the primary contact for visitors to the state Capitol.

Putney batted away retirement rumors for years. In 2012, Putney was treated for early stage throat cancer. In January 2013, he suffered a minor stroke that forced him to miss the opening days of the upcoming legislative session. He returned to work and regained his health, but he announced in March that his 26th term would be his last.

Republican Terry Austin of Botetourt County succeeded Putney in the 19th District. Putney sent a congratulatory letter to Austin after the election. Austin replied with a letter of his own, telling Putney that he felt like a batter stepping up to the plate after the mighty Babe Ruth.

Lacey was more of a statesman than a politician, and he represented his people well, Austin said. The 19th is Laceys district regardless of who has the seat, Austin said.
Honda has clinched the title of being the number 1 bikemaker in the southern state. It was evident with its sales figures, but now the company has officially claimed its dominance.

The company now commands 35 per cent of market share in India, out of which the southern states contribute to over 28 per cent. Their sales have grown exponentially this year. To put it simply one in every three two-wheeler customers is buying a Honda offering and India is its biggest market globally. The company now has set themselves a target of selling six million units this year (2017/18) which will give them a huge 20 per cent growth over the large existing market. This has been possible because of the tremendously successful Honda Activa, which still remains the highest selling scooter in India for over two years now. There has been a massive decline in the sale of mopeds and demand for scooters have reached an all time high. This has been possible due to development of better road infrastructure, co-usage among family members and increasing number of women entering the workforce.

Honda plans on capitalizing this shift from traditional bikes and overtake Hero MotoCorp as the biggest two-wheeler manufacturing company in India by 2020. In its attempt to capture the rural market Honda has launched the all new Cliq. The rugged scooter is powered by a 110cc Honda BS-IV HET (Honda Eco Technology) engine. It generates 8.03PS of power at 7000rpm, while generating 8.94Nm of torque. At 5500 rpm. This new kid on the block is sure to attract many potential buyers with its multi-utility functionality. It gets useful features like mobile charging, a wide floorboard, combi brake system, great under seat storage, additional load carrier and even block tread tires. However, the most impressive part of the scooter is its pricing. The Cliq comes at a price tag of Rs 42,499 which hugely undercuts most of the 110cc scooters on sale.

Source: BikeDekho.com
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) trinity has ushered in a social revolution which will eventually bring all Indians into a common financial, economic and digital space, similar to how GST has created a unified market.

"Within reach of the country is what might be called the 1 billion-1 billion-1 billion vision. That is 1 billion unique Aadhaar numbers linked to 1 billion bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones. Once that is done, all of India can become part of the financial and digital mainstream," he said.

In a Facebook post on the third anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), he said, "Just as GST created one tax, one market, one India, the PMJDY and the JAM revolution can link all Indians into one common financial, economic, and digital space. No Indian will be outside the mainstream."

Noting that JAM is nothing short of a social revolution, the Finance Minister said it offers substantial benefits for government, the economy and especially the poor. Highlighting the benefits, he said the poor will have access to financial services and be cushioned against lifes major shocks while government finances will be improved because of the reduced subsidy burden and weeding out of leakages from the system.

Currently, the government makes direct transfer of Rs 74,000 crore to the financial accounts of 35 crore beneficiaries annually, at more than Rs 6,000 crore per month.

These transfers are made under various government anti- poverty and support schemes such as PAHAL, MNREGA, old age pensions and student scholarships, he said. Talking about seeding of Aadhaar with bank accounts, the Finance Minister said today about 52.4 crore unique Aadhaar numbers are linked to 73.62 crore accounts in India.

"As a result, the poor are able to make payments electronically. Every month now, about 7 crore successful payments are made by the poor using their Aadhaar identification," he said. Besides, he said, with the launch of BHIM app and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), JAM has become fully operational.

"A secure and seamless digital payments infrastructure has been created so that all Indians, especially the poor can become part of the digital mainstream," he said.

Giving details of achievements of the scheme over the last three years, the Finance Minister said total PMJDY accounts opened increased from 12.55 crore in January 2015 to 29.52 crore as of August 16, 2017 while the number of RuPay cards issued increased from 11.08 crore to 22.71 crore in the same period.

At the same time, the number of rural accounts opened under PMJDY has grown from 7.54 crore to 17.64 crore and the average balance per account increased from Rs 837 to Rs 2,231 as of August 16.

Jaitley said the total balance in beneficiary accounts rose to Rs 65,844.68 crore while zero balance accounts declined from 76.81 per cent in September 2014 to 21.41 per cent in August 2017.

In addition to financial inclusion, he said, the government has taken steps to provide security to the poor via life insurance under the Pradhan Mantra Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and accident insurance Pradhan Mantra Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY).

As on August 7, total enrolment was 3.46 crore under the PMJJBY and 10.96 crore under PMSBY with 40 per cent of the policy holders being women in both the schemes.

PMJDY, launched on August 27, 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was aimed at providing financial services to the poor. These included opening bank accounts for the poor, giving them electronic means of payment (via RuPay cards), and placing them in a position to avail themselves of credit and insurance.

"The vision underlying it was, of course, much broader: nothing short of ending the financial, and hence economic, digital and social exclusion faced by Indias poor. Indias poor would not only be able to overcome their economic deprivation but they would also become an integral part of the social mainstream," he said.
New Delhi: Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the country is within the reach of 1 billion-1 billion-1 billion vision where 100 crore Aadhaar numbers are linked to 1 billion bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones to bring all of India into financial and digital mainstream.

Within reach of the country is what might be called the 1 billion-1 billion-1 billion vision. That is 1 billion unique Aadhaar numbers linked to 1 billion bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones. Once that is done, all of India can become part of the financial and digital mainstream, Mr Jaitley said in a post on Facebook.

He said that just as GST created one tax, one market, one India, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and the JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) revolution can link all Indians into one common financial, economic, and digital space.

No Indian will be outside the mainstream. This is nothing short of a social revolution, said the finance minister.

Three years ago today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a flagship program: PMJDY aimed at providing financial services to the poor. These included opening bank accounts for the poor, giving them electronic means of payment, and placing them in a position to avail themselves of credit and insurance, he said.

Mr Jaitley said that JAM social revolution offers substantial benefits for government, the economy and especially the poor.

The poor will have access to financial services and be cushioned against major shocks. The government finances will be improved because of the reduced subsidy burden; at the same time, the government will also be legitimised and strengthened because it can transfer resources to citizens faster and more reliably and with less leakage, he said.
Mumbai: A non-profit organisation has sent a letter to the Cyber Police to file an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor for posting "pornographic material" on his Twitter account.

The president of Jai Ho Foundation NGO, Afroz Malik, in the letter said, "We would request you to immediately register an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor under relevant sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and the IT Act for posting indecent, nude and vulgar picture of a minor child on his Twitter account @chintskap."

Malik further said that Rishi Kapoor has more than 2.6 million followers on his Twitter account, and added, "This means that this child's pornographic image got circulated to more than 2.6 million people."

"There are more than 62 retweets and 376 likes as of now on his indecent image and this will increase manifold," Malik stated.

Afroz Malik then requested the Senior Inspector of Police, Cyber Police Station to henceforth file an FIR against the actor and "set an example that rule of law is above all."

Actor Rishi Kapoor had tweeted a picture of a child, which was later deleted.
Sayyeshaa, who looked ravishing in her Tamil debut Vanamagan opposite Jayam Ravi, went on to sign a big project Karuppu Raja Vella Raja, which had Karthi and Vishal as part of the cast. However, the film drew a blank eventually. Now, the Shivaay actress has been roped in for the female lead in the film Junga, according to a source in the know.

When contacted, director of the film Gokul says, It is true that we are in talks with Sayyeshaa. But we are yet to make the official announcement. So, we will know about it in near future.

Other than Junga Sayyeshaa has also been in talks with a couple more projects in Tamil.

Owing to the humongous success of Gokul-Vijay Sethupathis first collaboration Idharku Thaanae Aasaipattai Balakumara, there is a huge anticipation from the duo, and the director promises that people will see a different dimension of Vijay Sethupathi in the upcoming film.

His character will not be similar to what he played in Idharku but there will be quirkiness in his role, he says. The crew will move to Paris in October for Jungas shoot, which will be a comedy-actioner.
Lima: Archaeologists exploring Perus pre-Colombian past recently unearthed a glimpse of a less prominent chapter in the Andean countrys history - the remains of 16 Chinese laborers who toiled in the country over 100 years ago.

The bodies, thought to be those of indentured workers brought to Peru to replace slave labor, were found buried at the top of an adobe pyramid first used by the ancient Ichma people, Roxana Gomez, the lead archaeologist of the site, said on Thursday.

Peru was one of the biggest destinations for Chinese labor in Latin America in the 19th century, a market that thrived after slavery was abolished in the country in 1854.

The Chinese found at the Bellavista pyramid in Lima were buried in the late 1800s and early 1900s and had likely picked cotton at a nearby plantation in very difficult conditions, said Gomez.

In a possible sign of how the Chinese gradually emerged from dire poverty in Peru, the first 11 bodies were shrouded in cloth and placed in the ground, while the last five wore blue-green jackets and were buried in wooden coffins, Gomez said.

In one Chinese coffin, an opium pipe and a small ceramic vessel were included in the funerary ensemble, said Gomez.

Chinese laborers were generally not allowed to be buried at Limas Catholic cemeteries, forcing them to improvise burial sites, according to Perus Culture Ministry.

The remains of Chinese laborers were previously found in Lima at other adobe pyramids known as huacas. Built by the indigenous societies that once ruled much of Perus Pacific coast, huacas were used as administrative and religious centers where members of the elite were often buried with gold objects, ceramics or human sacrifices.

Gomez said the huacas had a sacred association that might have made them attractive places for burial by Chinese laborers.

The Bellavista huaca was occupied by Ichma starting in about 1000 A.D. and was later annexed by the Incan empire until the arrival of Spanish conquerors who deemed huacas blasphemous.

Italian immigrants later kept vineyards at the base of the site, Gomez added.

"The best way to understand our history is as a continuum of different cultures," said Gomez.
The gang involved had substituted the goods before loading onto the ships by tampering the container seal latches and door hinges, a DRI official said (Representational Image)

Chennai: As many as 40 metric tonnes (MT) of red sanders logs worth RS 16 crore supposed to be smuggled to Malaysia through containers were seized after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials swung into surprise raids at the Chennai port on late Thursday night.

According to DRI officials, the red sander logs were to be smuggled in four different consignments destined for Malaysia. The red sanders were substituted for goods declared as garments and floor mats and cleared for export after the containers left the freight station. The gang involved had substituted the goods before loading onto the ships by tampering the container seal latches and door hinges, a DRI official said.

Officials received specific inputs about red sanders smuggling in container ships bound to Port Klang in Malaysia. One of the containers was identified in the terminal inside the port and search inside lead to about 2 metric tons of red sanders logs worth Rs 5 crore. Two more containers were found to have their goods substituted with red sanders logs instead of the declared cargo. About Rs 11 crore worth logs weighing approximately 27 MT was recovered from the two containers, according to sources.

DRI officials even unloaded a container from an already loaded ship and seized 9 MT of red sander logs worth Rs 3.6 crore. Investigation is underway to identify and arrest the persons involved in the attempted smuggling. According to an official statement, DRIs Chennai zonal unit has seized 176 MTs of red sanders worth Rs 71 crore in the last three years.
The passport details of the and contact numbers have been sent to Telangana Gulf Welfare and Cultural Association president Patkuri Basanth Reddy (Representational Image)

Nizamabad: Around 50 Indian youths, mostly from Telangana state are stranded in Saudi Arabia since four months without documents, jobs, accommodation and food.

The youths sent a video clip explaining their plight in Saudi Arabia and urged the Telangana state government to rescue them from Saudi Arabia. The youths hail from undivided Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and other districts.

They said that Indian Embassy officials in Riyadh had ignored their plea to return them to India. Embassy officials told us that the Telangana state government should initiate steps for the safe return of their subjects, the victims said. They said that the embassy had suggested that they should meet their sponsors for returning home. But we have troubles with them, they said. The victims have urged the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, NRI minister K.T. Rama Rao and Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha to take the initiative for their safe return. The passport details of the and contact numbers have been sent to Telangana Gulf Welfare and Cultural Association president Patkuri Basanth Reddy.
s agreed before the marriage, Ahmed paid Rs 5 lakh to the brokers at the time of nikaah and the latter distributed it amongst themselves (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: Omani national Ahmed selected the teenager for marriage after going through the profiles of around two dozen girls and meeting some teenagers and their families.

The brokers, Ghousia Begum and Sikander, had gathered the pictures of the girls and arranged a meeting with some for the Omani. As agreed before the marriage, Ahmed paid Rs 5 lakh to the brokers at the time of nikaah and the latter distributed it amongst themselves.

Police sources said the parents of the teenager and the brokers are giving conflicting versions on how they distributed the money. Sikander obtained identity documents fraudulently with the help of some agents and applied for a passport through an Internet cafe owner. The police contacted Ahmed through the Indian Embassy in Oman and asked him to send the teenager back. The man said that he will send the girl soon. But now he is demanding the Rs 5 lakh he had paid to the brokers and the family here at the time of marriage. Embassy officials are also making efforts to convince him and is seeking help from the Oman government too, said DCP, south,V. Satyanarayana.

The police is planning to take the help of the Interpol to get the Omani. He has committed a crime and a case was registered against him at the Falaknuma police station. We have to bring him here and ensure justice to the teenager, he said.

Meanwhile, the police caught a woman who had facilitated the marriage of the girl with the Omani. The broker was caught in Maharashtra and is being brought to the city, police said.
The Chinese side is attempting to change the status quo, said Army chief Bipin Rawat. (Photo: PTI)

Pune: China is attempting to "change the status quo" on its border with India and incidents like the ongoing standoff in the Doklam area are likely to "increase" in future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Saturday.

"The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future," Rawat said.

He was delivering the General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture on 'India's Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct' organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University in Pune this evening.

"Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops...however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.

He said that during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps insisting that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand- off began), but no resolution has been found yet.

"Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives," he said.

Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted.

"This is due to the development of force infrastructure of military significance. Their force reorganisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," Rawat said.

Later, speaking to reporters and explaining his statement that incidents like Doklam are likely to "increase", Rawat said,

"We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it cannot happen again in different sector.

"It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down," the Army Chief added.

China continues to enhance its influence in the regional security environment, he said.

"It is doing so by increasing defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India's sovereignty," he stated.

Confirmation for annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year, he said.

"We have been doing the exercise every year. One year our team goes to China and on the second year, their team comes to us. While this time the exercise is planned in

October, it is not being confirmed (from their side) yet, whether it will take place or not," he said.

Asked if the ongoing stand-off was the reason for this, Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."

Rawat slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern.

"Pakistan's unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China," Rawat said.

The Army Chief refused to comment on Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who recently got bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, saying the issue is before the courts.
A Qatar Airways aircraft made an emergency landing at midnight on Saturday at the Shamshabad airport after its co-pilot took ill while it was on its way from Doha to Bali.

Hyderabad: A Qatar Airways aircraft made an emergency landing at midnight on Saturday at the Shamshabad airport after its co-pilot took ill while it was on its way from Doha to Bali. The co-pilot Andrei Dinu, 34, suffered from severe chest pain and was unconscious when he was taken to the Apollo emergency care centre at the airport. He was stabilised and later taken to Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills. QR Flight 964 landed at 12.05 am on Saturday. The airline arranged another co-pilot for the flight which took off at 3 am for Bali. The co-pilot is a Romanian national, reports said.
New Delhi: Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, the first Sikh Chief Justice of India (CJI) retired on Sunday after a brief tenure of about seven months. Two other Sikhs, who were apex court judges, are Kuldip Singh and HS Bedi but they did not become CJI.

Justice Khehar's successor Justice Dipak Misra will be sworn-in as the 45th CJI on Monday.

Justice Khehar became a judge of the apex court on September 13, 2011. He endeared himself with the members of the bar and brother judges by his impeccable honesty, integrity, simplicity, frank and forthright views and comments. He treated seniors and juniors alike and often encouraged junior lawyers to argue their case whenever, seniors are not available.

In his farewell address on Friday, Khehar thanked his family, India and Kenya, where he completed his primary education. He said I would thank my land of birth for all it gave me. My primary education was in Kenya, which laid the foundation of my character.

He also thanked his parents, teachers and his seniors in the profession for their contribution in his life. Recalling his late father for teaching him perseverance and resolve, Justice Khehar said, When I drew my first salary as a high court judge, my fathers pension was higher.

He said that he feels devoted to his 95-year-old mother. She loves me so much and is always worried about me, he added.

Khehars great-grandfather Wazir Chand was a part of the DAV institutions in Lahore and moved to Kenya to avoid arrest since the British believed that he was motivating people towards the freedom struggle.

His father held a job in the postal service in the country. The family moved back to India after independence, when his father decided to take Indian citizenship. Khehar was still a school student then.

As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Khehar has rendered several landmark judgments. He was part of the bench that sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to Tihar jail for flouting the orders to refund money his company had collected from investors for two financial schemes declared illegal by SEBI.

Justice Khehar struck down as unconstitutional the National Judicial Appointments Commission law and asked the Centre to come out with a fresh Memorandum of Procedure for judicial appointments.

The MoP is yet to be finalized with both the judiciary and executive refusing to come to terms. It would be a challenging task for Justice Dipak Misra, who will now, heads the collegium of Judges to sort out the differences with the Centre to finalise the MoP as well as in filling judicial vacancies for High Court and the apex court.

In the triple talaq case, Justice Khehar held the practice of talaq-e-biddat being a constituent of personal law has a stature equal to other fundamental rights. The practice which is in existence and accepted by all for over 1,400 years cannot therefore be set aside, on the ground of being violative of the concept of the constitutional morality, through judicial intervention.

In the right to privacy issue, Justice Khehar agreed with Justice D.Y. Chandrachuds main judgment which said Right to privacy has been held to be a fundamental right of the citizen being an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution. Life is precious in itself. But life is worth living because of the freedoms, which enable each individual to live life as it should be lived. The best decisions on how life should be lived are entrusted to the individual. They are continuously shaped by the social milieu in which individuals exist.
Hyderabad: Convicted Dera Sacha Souda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh owns 55 acres in Nalgonda district, of which nine acres comprise assigned land  land given to the poor which cannot be sold. The 50-acre site was purchased in phases during the last decade. The issue of purchase of assigned land parcels came to light following complaints by locals. The government ordered an inquiry following which Chityal mandal revenue officer Vishalaskhmi on Saturday inspected the site and found that the complaint of purchase of assigned land was true. She said the government would initiate steps to take back the assigned land.

The land in Telangana state was purchased from local farmers between 2008 and 2015. The plan was to set up an ashram in Velmanedu in Chityal mandal in Nalgonda district abutting the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway. The land, lying in Survey Nos. 98, 102, 132, was registered in the names of Purushotham Lal, Kishan Lal, Satbeer, Chandkrakanth and Chandrababu among a few others. A compound wall has been built around the 55-acre site with the approval of gram panchayat.

There are only two small sheds and a welcome arch. Very recently, the ashram staff had started preparations for construction on the land. Locals said one Shyamlal, who was said to be based in Hyderabad, had been visiting the land frequently. After locals demanded demolition of compound wall to the extent of 9 acres of assigned land, the ashram officials obtained stay orders from the High Court in March 7. In April, they applied for regularisation of the property under the land regularisation scheme at Chityal MRO and in May submitted regularisation applications to Nalgonda district joint collector, Chief Commissioner of Land Affairs and the collector.

It is learnt that the Dera chief had invited the Velmanedu sarpanch to his ashram in Haryana two years ago and discussed about building the ashram and had donated Rs 1 lakh for a Ramalayam, construction of a cycle stand in the government school and setting up of a Vivekananda statue in the village. Ashram in-charge Shyam Lal said that the Dera chief had planned to construct schools, colleges, hotels, an old age home and a hospital on the site. He said they were not aware that the property that was bought was assigned lands when they purchased it, but got to know of it only during registration. Locals are now demanding that the government take back the assigned lands and use it for constructing 2BHK houses for the poor or use it for any other public welfare purpose.
He, however, refused to make any comment on the JD(U) headed by Nitish Kumar issuing a warning over his participation in Prasad's rally. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Unfazed by threat of party action, rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav arrived in Patna on Saturday to take part in RJD leader Lalu Prasad's political show on Sunday which he described as "rally of Mahagatbandhan" (grand alliance).

He, however, refused to make any comment on the JD(U) headed by Nitish Kumar issuing a warning over his participation in Prasad's rally.

"Earlier it was rally of RJD but now it has become a rally of Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) to save the country," Yadav told reporters at Jay Prakash Narayan Airport in Patna on arrival.

Asked about his party warning that participation in the rally would invite action against him, Yadav refused to make any comment saying "Kuch nahi bolna hain" (I have nothing to say)".

Another JD(U) rebel and suspended Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar who also came here for the rally claimed that many genuine workers of JD(U) would participate in the rally at Gandhi Maidan.

JD(U) principal general secretary K C Tyagi repeated that with departure of "mahanayak" (great leader) of the erstwhile grand alliance (Nitish Kumar) the Mahagatbandhan ceases to exist.

"Its an RJD rally in which nobody from the party should go," Tyagi said.

"Jo jayega woh napega (who so ever will go will invite punishment)," he said.

Sharad Yadav who is charting a different path after Nitish decided to break away from the grand alliance of JD(U), RJD, and Congress, is presently a JD(U) Rajya Sabha member.

Tyagi and Nitish have hinted that in the event of Yadav participating in Prasad's rally in violation of the party line, he might lose his RS membership.

Sharad Yadav would be a prominent personality at Prasad's political show along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, among others.
New Delhi: From schools to shampoos and hair-oil to hospitals, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the flamboyant self-styled guru convicted of rape by a court on Friday runs an empire that would be the envy of any business tycoon.

His Dera Sacha Sauda, a quasi-religious cult with hundreds of thousands of followers, offers a wide variety of products and educational and health services, its website states.

Often called the guru of bling  a reference to his fondness for colourful robes and glares that glitter  the Dera chief who studied up to Class X runs 11 schools and two colleges, including a management institute, it says.

Sacha Sauda  described as the place of real truth  also has factories for confectionery products in its sprawling headquarters on the outskirts of Sirsa City in Haryana, Sirsa residents said.

According to the wesbite, the Dera sells hundreds of products, from grocery items and clothes to batteries, mostly under the brand name MSG.

MSG is a possible allusion to his 2014 debut film Messenger of God or MSG, which he co-produced, directed and acted in. Cinema is another of his passions. He has directed and appeared as the hero in four films so far. A fifth is slated to be released this year. The Dera claims the films all crossed the `100-crore mark.

Food items such as biscuits, toffees and confectioneries are produced by the Dera itself, while most products are manufactured by other groups under the brand name MSG.

The Dera also sells cosmetics products  including 9-9 hair-oil and 7-7 shampoo  online.

Last year, the MSG All Trading International Pvt Ltd, a Dera Sacha Sauda firm, introduced 151 products including food items, the site says.

The Dera website also states that it runs three hospitals  an ayurvedic centre, a naturopathy institute and a multi-speciality hospital  in Sirsa.

The educational institutes are in Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it adds.

While his products have a ready market, his institutes and hospitals draw others into his fold, a Sirsa resident claims.
The Dhinakaran camp hit back on August 22, with 19 MLAs loyal to him meeting the governor and saying they no longer had confidence in Chief Minister K Palanisamy. (Photo: File)

Coimbatore: Sidelined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran on Saturday claimed he could have become the chief minister immediately after the demise of J Jayalalithaa.

"However, I did not desire to become CM...AIADMK General Secretary V K Sasikala chose O Paneerselvam to continue the AIADMK rule," he said at Avanashi in Tirupur district.

Even Sasikala could have chosen to become chief minister, after becoming the party general secretary, but decided against it and instead chose Paneerselvam, he said.

At that time, all ministers and the chief minister had wanted her to take over the reins, but had now turned against her, the sidelined leader said.

Stating that Chief Minister K Palanisamy had sought votes for him in the run up to the R K Nagar bypoll, Dhinakaran said the Palanisamy and O Panneerselvam camps had come together with "selfish interests" to oppose Sasikala.

After the merger of the rival factions on August 21, the party said that steps would be taken to expel her.

Panneerselvam was also made the deputy chief minister.

Sasikala, Dhinakaran's aunt, is serving a prison term at a Bengaluru jail following her conviction in a disproportionate assets case.

Dhinakaran had termed the merger as a "betrayal" of Sasikala.

The Dhinakaran camp hit back on August 22, with 19 MLAs loyal to him meeting the governor and saying they no longer had confidence in Chief Minister K Palanisamy, prompting the opposition DMK to demand a trust vote.

The MLAs backing Dhinakaran later proceeded to a resort in neighbouring Puducherry.

On August 23, Dhinakaran sought to assert his authority, axing four ministers from party posts while the MLAs loyal to him stayed put in the resort.

He also appointed a number of his supporters to various other posts, besides expanding the office-bearers list. All this were done with the "approval" of Sasikala, he said.

To this, Palanisamy said at a government function at Ariyalur on August 23, where he shared the dais with Panneerselvam, that unity was the need of the hour to take the party and AIADMK government forward.

The Dhinakaran camp received a shot in the arm on Friday when AIADMK MLA from Vriddhachalam, T Kalaiselvan, met and extended support to him, taking the number of legislators backing him to 21.
Anshul also slammed the Dera chief for provoking his followers, saying that he is a criminal in guise of a saint. (Photo: PTI)

Sirsa (Haryana): The son of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who exposed the rapes of two women at Dera Sacha Saudha headquarters in Sirsa 15 years ago, has been fighting a lonely battle to get justice for his father.

Months after exposing Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Ram Chander was shot on October 21 right outside his home. He died on November 21.

"My father, Ram Chander, was an advocate before he became a journalist. He has worked with a number of media organisations. He was not satisfied with the kind of journalism in those organisations because of the filtration by editors so he opened his own publication titled 'Poora Sachh'. He had exposed the alleged rape of 'sadhvis' (female followers) at the Dera 15 years ago with a concerned letter which was addressed to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee," Anshul Chhatrapati said.

"My father was targeted and threatened several times after the letter was published. High Court had then ordered a CBI investigation taking the suo motto of the letter. Then on Oct 24, 2002, my father was attacked; he was shot five times by two people. I was 21 then, and did not know where to go for justice after the police did not include the name of the Dera chief in the FIR," he added.

Further, speaking on the horrifying incident the day he lost his father, Anshul stated that the police did not include the Dera chief's name in the FIR.

"My father fought for life in the hospital for 28 days after they pumped bullets into his body, and he had named the Dera chief as the accused in his statement to the local police. But the cops did not include the Dera chief's name in the FIR, and the legal battle began from there. The concerned revolver was licensed in the name of Dera Sacha Sauda," he said.

"The police did not take written statements by my father even when he was in a position to provide his claims. The right minded people and media protested a lot after in Sirsa. The statement recorded by police was amended; they had deleted the name of Dera chief in that statement. We filed a petition for CBI enquiry into the death case of my father," he continued.

Anshul also slammed the Dera chief for provoking his followers, saying that he is a criminal in guise of a saint.

"The investigation was ordered in 2014 which was challenged by Dera Sacha Suada. CBI was pressured to release Dera chief. They tried to approach us initially so that we drop the matter. The Dera chief and his supporters constantly provoked the followers yesterday. He is a criminal in guise of a saint. He should be given life imprisonment," he added.

Anshul's legal battle has now reached final arguments in the same CBI court at Panchkula that found the Dera chief guilty on August 25.

In January 2003, the key witness, Anshul, petitioned the High Court for a CBI probe.

In November 2003, the High Court ordered a CBI probe.

In July 2007, the CBI filed a chargesheet against the Dera chief.

In November 2014, the evidence presentation concluded.
A nation was traumatised and found itself in a serious dilemma after reports recently emerged of a 10-year-old rape survivor delivering an underweight baby after being refused the right to abortion by the Supreme Court. The top court was concerned over the implications of an abortion on a minor girl but heres a shocker from our own Mysuru, Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs home district  these are not rape cases, girls get married and deliver before 18 in what is a regular occurence with the blessing of the whole village! The health implications, the fact that they are breaking sacrosanct laws of the land, hardly matter to the villagers of Hosalli Mole in T Narsipur taluk, for whom tradition matters most, and the bane of dowry, rape and even secret love affairs is something too fearful too handle. Shilpa P. visits these villages where no Bhagyas have been able to make inroads, where young girls turn physical and mental wrecks even before 18, unable to cope with the pressures of motherhood.

Who said I am married? asks 16-year-old Niveditha (name changed), her cherubic face lighting up with a naughty smile. The young girl is now the proud wife of her moms younger brother after she was recently married off secretly by her parents, at a temple in a far-off village. She had hastily removed her toe ring and mangalsutra, revered symbols of marriage, soon after the news spread in the village of 120 dwellings, 51 km from Mysuru, about the arrival of the media team.

Like most Indian villages, Hosalli has not been blessed with good roads, or other facilities, there are no private or KSRTC buses connecting it to the rest of the world in what is ironically a part of public works minister Dr H.C. Mahadevappas constituency. A narrow sludge filled road, cattle jostling for space in the front yards of tiny dilapidated houses and the reeking poverty all around, says a lot about why the villagers clutch to their obscure practices like a lifeline.

And what was it that made the family marry off skinny Niveditha, who is hardly four and a half feet tall, to her uncle when she has hardly come to terms with the changing biology of a teenager? Her young mother Susheelamma (name changed) who was married at the age of 12, comes out running to the rescue of her daughter saying, I am blessed with a male baby in the family at last, after three girls. I have to take care of the infant for which Niveditha stays at home to help me and the baby. There are no buses in this village, if she has to go to school, she will have to walk three km to the high school in Moogur. With a perpetual drought in the region, we frankly dont have the money to spend on her educational expenses, she smiled. Niveditha may soon become a mother but Roopamma, an Anganwadi worker at Hosalli, blushes when she discloses that she is already a grandmother at 35! These are no exceptions, it is the same, pathetic tale of almost every girl, every young mother and grandmother in every household in Hosalli Mole, nearby Moogur Mole and Kannaiah Mole. It all boils down to the abysmally low social status a girl child has to contend with in rural India, in remote, underdeveloped places like Hosalli. No one knows of the law banning child marriage in these villages-or does not care to know for it would make girls like Niveditha an unbearable burden for them, making it impossible to marry off minor girls.

There have been at least 16 child marriages in Hosalli Mole, 13 in Moogur Mole, three in Kannaiah Mole in the recent past according to sources in the women and child development department. But police records for the entire district say there were four cases of child marriage in 2015, six in 2016 and five so far this year (Mysuru city had two cases each in 2015, 2016 and 2017).

The practice is rampant in the Uppar Shetty community in these villages. Even in this age, it is the village head (Yajamaanaru) who decides on any issue. Even though we warned the village heads that they would be punished if they allow a child marriage, they say its a custom in their community reasoned T Narsipur Child Development officer Basavaraj B.N.

A girl child is a Lakshmi no doubt, we would not like to consider her a burden. But from age immemorial, it is a custom in our community to name a bridegroom or find one later once a girl child is born, and get her married before she attains puberty. If she crosses 15, she has to marry a widower or divorcee, or else remain unmarried for the rest of life. We have a few such girls who are unmarried in our village. We know of the law, we will try to get them married only after they complete 18, village head at Moogur Mole, Madevshetty (name changed) said.

You people come here questioning child marriage, what do you know about our problems as parents of a girl child? Earlier, it was said that since the female sex ratio was low, bridegrooms paid money to marry girls. But now, with increasing dowry and the drought staring at us, getting a girl married is a costly affair. If the girl is fair, the less the dowry, if she is dark, it will inevitably be more. The dowry will depend on her education, status and the bridegrooms job. The drought has made the situation unbearable; most villagers have to migrate to Kodagu or Mysuru for jobs. Rice under Annabhagya is hardly of any use, we are used to having rice from the paddy grown in our own fields, explained Susheelamma.

For the gullible villagers, reports of child rape and girls eloping with lovers putting them to shame, has only made them consider child marriage like a blessing from the heavens. We want to be relieved of our responsibilities as fast as possible, Susheelamma defended. There have been 43 cases of child rape in Mysuru district in 2015, 78 in 2016, and 56 so far in 2017. As for cases of children going missing which are considered as kidnap, there were 44 cases in 2015, 110 in 2016 and 48 this year. Most of the kidnap cases filed with us are actually those of girls eloping with boys, said a police source explaining why the villagers are so fearful of keeping a grown-up girl in the house. You say marrying young is bad for the girl`s health. Even we were married young, our ancestors got married at the age of seven and had 12 to 16 children. We all had normal deliveries, said Suchithra (name changed), a young mom from Kanhalli mole.

Are those who get married young, dying early because of the burden of pregnancy and child birth? The maternal mortality rate in Mysuru district is a comfortable 50 per lakh in 2016-17 compared to the national average of over a hundred but is still a matter of concern. In 2016-2017, there were 40,800 births in Mysuru district with 20 mothers dying during delivery including one from T Narsipur, according to the health department. In the same period, 427 infants have died in Mysuru district, including 38 in T Narsipur. But statistics usually hide more than what they reveal. Will Mysuru ever be able to stop child marriage? The times are changing. Earlier, there were hardly any girls who went to high school or beyond, now we have a few doing their degree course in these villages, said an Anganwadi worker.

I wont get married young, I want to study like those in cities, achieve something in life and take up a good job so that my parents do not have to pay dowry. A day may come again when men may have to pay to marry girls, quipped Apoorva (name changed) a class 8 student from Moogur mole, her wide eyes sparkling with hope and the dream of a new beginning. For these simple, untainted villagers, the shadows of poverty and tradition, cast over a hundred generations, are hard to erase but the winds of change are definitely blowing strong with those like Apoorva leading from the front. Sometime in the future, young girls from Hosalli will have to thank gritty youngsters like her, for refusing to bow before an inflexible village elder and for saving them from the vagaries of a child marriage.
Chennai: After complaints were raised against nine Neet applicants who had bagged state quota seats using fake nativity certificates in MBBS counselling on Friday, the debate on fake certificates has increased.

The health department officials warned of legal actions against presentation of fake certificates and have strengthened the measures to keep a check on such practices.

We are keeping a strict check on the documents being presented for counselling, considering the eligibility criteria mentioned in the prospectus. Nativity certificates could be based on domicile or nativity, which makes him eligible in both states based on different criteria, said health secretary, J. Radhakrishnan.

He also said that city police was undertaking the investigation and the decision could be made only after analysing the eligibility criteria that are laid down in another state.

Health department officials also undertook verification of other certifications including birth certificate, caste certificate, educational qualification certificate and application form that should be issued by concerned officials.

Senior police officials said that besides alerting the health department on the issue, they have begun the verification of the allegations made against presentation of fake nativity certificates.
Police forces deployed outside the Dera Sauda ashram during the search in Faridabad on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

Chandigarh/New Delhi/ Rohtak: As the toll in Fridays violence rose to 38 on Sunday, security was beefed up in Haryanas Rohtak district and Sunaria prison in Rohtak city was turned into a virtual fortress, a day before a CBI judge is scheduled to pronounce the sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, lodged in the prison after his conviction for rape on Friday.

Panchkula-based judge Jagdeep Singh will travel to Rohtak and announce the Dera chiefs sentence at around 2.30 pm at a makeshift court in the jail on Monday.

The police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in Rohtak and the Army was put on standby on Sunday. Schools and colleges across Haryana and Punjab will remain closed on Monday, officials said.

Violence may erupt, warns intel

As curfew continued in Sirsa, where the Dera headquarters is located, the state government extended the statewide suspension of mobile Internet services, including 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS, all SMS services and all dongle services on mobile networks, except voice calls, till 11.30 am on Tuesday. Similar curbs were imposed in Punjab. The Internet leased lines at the Dera premises in Sirsa were also suspended till Tuesday.

All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions in the entire state, will remain closed on Monday, additional chief secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said.

Some schools in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh have also decided to remain shut on Monday.

Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu told reporters in Chandigarh that maintaining law and order will be the top priority on Monday. Apart from the police, 23 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed.

A multi-layer security cordon has been thrown around the jail where Mr Singh has been lodged, Mr Sandhu said.

Earlier, Mr Sandhu said Dera ashrams were searched and sanitised ahead of the sentencing of the cult chief on Monday.

The jail is located at Sunaria, on the outskirts of Rohtak city, which resembles a garrison town with security pickets all over the place. Meanwhile, violence may erupt in Haryana on Monday after the quantum of sentence is pronounced, states intelligence agency cautioned.

Inspector General of Police (Rohtak range) Navdeep Virk, who is overseeing security arrangements in Rohtak, said there was a complete clampdown on Dera centres (known as Naam Charcha Ghar) and all its functionaries who could gather people for creating trouble have been put under detention in the state.

Mr Sandhu, meanwhile said, Army was on standby in Rohtak to meet any eventuality. Section 144 prohibiting assembly of five or more persons, and carrying of firearms and other weapons is already in place in Rohtak.

Under attack over the massive violence, the Haryana government had suspended Ashok Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Panchkula, saying his defective prohibitory orders allowed the crowd build-up in the district.

Meanwhile, authorities in Punjab and Haryana have started identifying movable and immovable assets of the cult on the directions of the high court, officials said.

Two Dera spokesmen, Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan, were booked for sedition on the basis of news reports that accused them of inciting the violence on Friday. The Punjab and Haryana high court took notice of the news report, after which an FIR was lodged in Panchkula. Sedition and attempt to murder charges have also been slapped on seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, who were part of the Dera chiefs security detail when he had arrived at the Panchkula CBI court on Friday.

Sedition charge has been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, inspector Karambir Singh of said on Sunday.
People taking selfies at Hussainsagar during the third day of Ganesh nimarjanam on Saturday.

Hyderabad: The GHMCs Rs 140-lakh project to build immersion ghats on lakes seems to have let down devotees when they needed them most. Many devotees are heading towards various lakes in the city as most of the immersion tanks, which were commissioned this year, are yet to be completed. The authorities said that only five out of the proposed 15 ghats will be completed in the next two days.

The GHMC had planned 15 new ghats in major lakes in the city to prevent heavy metal paints and PoP from reaching them. But lakes are receiving these non-biodegradable materials in large quantities.

At Neknampur village, where the biggest immersion ghat was planned, nearly 40 per cent of the construction work is yet to be completed. We are disappointed with the government for the delay. All the conservation works we did last year to salvage the Neknampur lake will go in vain as people would proceed to perform the ritual here, said Ms Madhulika Choudhary, an environmentalist.

Though the HMDA has banned immersion in the lake, the panchayat opened it for immersion.

She noted that environmentalists have diverted over 100 Ganesh processions to the Malkham Cheruvu where the immersion ghat is ready since last year. On Sunday, 426 idols were immersed in the lake and 300 were diverted to the Malkham Cheruvu.

At Uppals Nalla Cheruvu, the immersion ghat will be completed only for Bathukamma, forcing devotees to the lake or Hussainsagar.

The work has not yet started at Gurunath Cheruvu and Gopi Cheruvu in Gachibowli.

The rains disrupted the work but we are sure to complete it within two days, said Mr Y Shekhar Reddy of the irrigation department of the GHMC.

The following ghats are ready to use

Malkham Cheruvu

Peda Cheruvu at Gangaram

Nallagandalla Cheruvu

Ambi Cheruvu

Ideal Cheruvu, Kukatpally

Hussainsagar

Mansurabad Pedda Cheruvu
The elections per se will make no difference to the existing power of the TD that will happily continue its full term till 2019 with a solid majority in the Assembly.

Kurnool: The Nandyal bypolls should have been a cakewalk for the TD. Instead, the Nandyal bypolls is being played out with full drama and action. The elections per se will make no difference to the existing power of the TD that will happily continue its full term till 2019 with a solid majority in the Assembly. But it is not taking any chances and has deployed six ministers and 60 MLAs in Nandyal for the bypolls to be held on Wednesday.

In fact, this bypoll would have gone unnoticed if YSRC had stayed away from the election as was initially expected. After the sudden death of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy in March this year, the bypolls had become mandatory. It was believed that the TD candidate Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy would be unanimously elected without any opposition from the YSRCP.

In fact, soon after the Chief Minister announced Reddys candidature, the TD president of Kurnool district, Somisetty Venkateswarlu, appealed to Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and asked them to cooperate for the unanimous election of the TDP candidate.

He had also said that as the TD had not fielded a candidate in the by-elections after the sudden death of YSRC Allagadda MLA Sobha Nagi Reddy in 2014, the YSRC should do the same and not field a candidate. For a while, it did seem as though that was the way it would be. Especially when, tourism minister Bhuma Akhila Priya met Y.S. Vijaymma, mother of the opposition chief, Jagan Mohan Reddy in Kurnool.

But suddenly, Jagan announced that the party would be contesting. He picked on Shilpa Mohan Reddy, who had defected from TD and fielded him as candidate. And thus started a free for all. The Nandyal bypolls will go down in the history of AP as one of the most expensive and vigorously fought elections. Though winning is being considered a given for the TD, the Chief Minister and his band of ministers took no chance and went full throttle to campaign for the elections.

First it was Nara Lokesh, son of N. Chandrababu Naidu who came to Nandyal, assessed the ground reality and devised strategies.

This was followed by municipal administration minister, Narayana who visited and stayed there for weeks. Followed by deputy chief minister Chinna Rajappa and ministers Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Amarnath Reddy, Adinarayana Reddy, and others.
Hyderabad: One in three TRS legislators will not be nominated for the 2019 elections, according to top sources in the party.

According to these sources, TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao have instructed key managers of the party to search for alternative candidates in at least 30 Assembly seats out of the 90 that the party holds now, in view of the poor performance of the incumbents.

Nowhere in the past has any ruling party renominated all MLAs. Largescale changes will happen here too, a key source said.

Party sources said former MP Gaddam Vivek will be fielded from the Peddapalli Lok Sabha seat, and this had been conveyed to Balka Suman who holds the seat. Suman will be fielded from one of the seats reserved for the SC community in the erstwhile Karimnagar district.

Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy will be fielded from a key Assembly seat in the district. Party MLC Palla Rajeswara Reddy will be pitted as a Lok Sabha candidate from Nalgonda.

At least three MPs out of 14 will be fielded as MLAs. Party leaders have been asked to search for replacements to 20 MLAs, said another key source.

These MLAs, sources said, did not improve their performance despite being specifically warned by Chandrasekhar Rao, who periodically conducts surveys to know the pulse of the people.

With regard to an MLA from the erstwhile Ranga Reddy district, the Chief Minister was not happy as he had taken money to vote for the TD candidate in the 2015 Council polls.

Rao was said to have personally warned a legislator from the erstwhile Karimnagar district against collecting bribes from the public but he had ignored the Chief Minister.

Key managers have been spreading word across the party that 15 MLAs will not get renomination, which comes to 15 per cent.

But a minimum of one third of MLAs wont get renomination for sure, said a source.
By ruling that the right to privacy is a fundamental right, the nine- judge Supreme Court bench has set the stage for a three-judge bench to decide on the validity of Aadhaar. Aadhaar has been challenged by a clutch of 21 petitions, starting with the first one filed in 2012 by a retired Karnataka high court judge, Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, claiming that the collection of biometric data and linking it to various activities of citizens threatened their right to privacy. The 91-year-old retired judge will now have his day in court, as will those 20 others.

The name Aadhaar was chosen as it was envisaged as the basis of a transparent new way of governance and compliance. While the provocation was Aadhaar, the issue before the Supreme Court was a much larger one, relating to the fundamental character of Indian democracy. The Supreme Court, however, made it clear that the right to privacy is not absolute, and space will have to be conceded to the State and other authorities who need basic information and proof of identification to go about their business. The Supreme Court also enjoined the State to ensure that the data is protected, as guarding citizens privacy is its duty.

The nine-man bench unequivocally rejected the States contention that privacy was an elitist construct. To argue privacy was not a fundamental right was imbecilic enough, but to argue it was an elitist construct reflects on the mentality of the lawyer-politicians at the helm of affairs. The eminent lawyers who argue in courts do so on their clients instructions. The Aadhaar scheme is a huge and costly effort, and if its potential is not usefully exploited to the fullest extent, it will be a wasted effort with people having little to show except for a numerical identification. There is a huge space between just being a person with a number, and to becoming just a number, as in some Orwellian nightmare. The governments argument that theres no right to privacy was in its sheer brazenness and philosophical hollowness reminiscent of the argument by late Niren De, then attorney-general, that during the Emergency even the right to life can be suspended. It is arguments like these that cause citizens to distrust the States motives and think the worst. Personal identification numbers linked to bank accounts and income-tax are quite normal in many countries.

In India, where the biggest item in the Budget after interest is subsidies, Aadhaar was envisaged as the base of a system that would ensure beneficiaries got their full benefits instead of being diddled of them by governmental and other intermediaries by direct transfer of benefits. Remember Rajiv Gandhis famous comment that 85 per cent of funds meant for people didnt get to them. Aadhaar was also envisaged as the base of a system that by being linked with bank accounts and income-tax identification (PAN) would result in fewer escapes from the tax net and fewer transactions outside the banking system.

Now theres so much hue and cry about the biometric data stored with Aadhaar. As biometric verification, in this case fingerprint and retinal scans, requires a person to be present, it actually adds a layer of dense security. The usual types of identification like name, ID number and password can be stolen, lost or forged. All these along with name and photographs are identification data that we routinely part with, whether for a visa, passport, drivers licence or bank account. Yet when it comes to giving our government this data, we are clearly uncomfortable. The level of distrust also depends on class. Poor people are quite willing to part with these as they hope it will entitle them to long-denied benefits. Most rich people have much to hide, and are thus wary about parting with personal data. It is this that possibly caused the governments lawyers to dismiss the fears as an elitist construct.

Privacy, like all other fundamental rights, are circumscribed by the rights of others and the collective us. In a dictum almost a hundred years ago and that is still cited, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote what is perhaps the most-quoted sentence in US Supreme Court history: The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. With this he made it clear there were limits on the First Amendment, that guaranteed free speech.

Ironically, it was this dictum that was often misused to limit free speech. It was used to imprison antiwar activists during the two world wars. It was only in 1969 that the US Supreme Court vastly expanded the limits of free speech. by ruling even inflammatory speech is protected under the First Amendment, unless the speech is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

People who are against the government having your personal data and the means to track your movements, money transfers and spending habits, fear the misuse of State powers, as we saw in the US after the Justice Holmes dictum. Privacy as a right is no less valuable than free speech. Privacy, in its simplest sense, is the right to be left alone. In the technologically advanced society we live in, unfortunately, you can only be left alone if you live on a deserted island like Robinson Crusoe.

When we interact with society and State institutions, we have to cede a part of our privacy. The State and the myriad private and public institutions that constitute the society we now live in require information about a person. As we move ahead, with technological changes cascading upon us at a pace we have never seen before, the notion of privacy will be still a work in progress. We must therefore constantly seek to redefine the limits of individual liberties whichever way the times demand.

The writer, a policy analyst studying economic and security issues, held senior positions in government and industry. He also specialises in the Chinese economy.
For some time India-Nepal relations have not been on an even keel, although high-level visits have taken place recently and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself been in Kathmandu twice since assuming office in 2014.

In this backdrop it was reassuring to see Nepal PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, who heads a coalition of his Nepali Congress and former PM Pushp Kumar Dahal Prachandas Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), making New Delhi his first port of call after taking charge as PM.

Mr Deuba publicly said during his four-day official visit last week that his government would not permit any anti-India activities. This has a specific context, of course. Indias open border with Nepal is exploited by drug traffickers as well as Pakistan-based terrorist elements, and border management is a serious concern.

Mr Modi drew attention to the importance of security considerations and strengthening India-Nepal relations in defence and security.

There is another compelling concern, however: efforts by China to disturb India-Nepal ties. Since Chinas Doklam incursion in June (involving Bhutans claims), which has led to a military standoff between India and China in the eastern Himalayas, Beijing has been provoking Kathmandu to begin a discussion on its own tri-junction problem involving India and China. At the India-Nepal-China tri-junction at Lipulekh in the Uttarakhand region, India and Nepal have a small area where the boundary is not settled. Beijing is instigating Kathmandu to rake this up. For this reason, Beijing is said to have been closely monitoring Mr Deubas India trip. In the event, the Nepal leader did not oblige.

While this was helpful from the Indian perspective, we should be mindful that Mr Deubas current political status in his country needs to be shored up for him to be able to withstand any carrot-and stick policy that the Chinese may like to inject. A day before he arrived in India, his government was not able to have passed in Parliament a constitutional amendment to accommodate the political sensitivities of Madhesis of the Nepal terai, who are people of Indian origin. Apart from money to explore for oil in the Nepal-Tibet border region, and other such allurements, Beijing could seek to exploit the parliamentary deficiency of the Deuba government through Nepalese political elements sympathetic to it, for example former PM K.P.Oli and his Communist Party (UML).

Helping Nepal and Bhutan, which share a border with both India and China, retain their sovereignty in the full sense of the word, while keeping bilateral ties smooth, is a key challenge for India in the coming years.
Indias Supreme Court, through its ruling to outlaw triple talaq, the right of Muslim men to divorce their women on an instant or a whim, has been welcomed as a giant step forward in the civil rights of women. It is seen as a further step towards the legislation of a uniform civil code in India, and in feminist circles in Britain who follow national victories of international significance.

The news led me to the career and policies of a British feminist who doesnt. In the 2015 British general election, the voters in the South London constituency where I live were offered the option of voting for one Anne Marie Waters. Ms Waters stood as the candidate of the United Kingdom Independence Party whose entire raison detre before the Brexit referendum was getting the country out of the European Union  hence the Independence in the partys name.

The Brexit referendum proved to be marginally in favour of leaving the EU and Ukip celebrated. Mission accomplished! So disband and disappear? Of course not.

The party now said its mission was to see that the negotiations for the break with the EU were absolute, complete and to their liking. That may have been a logical aim and one which could possibly give Ukip a reason for existence, but it was a mission with only one possible missionary. In other words, they only had one member of Parliament out of the 620 or so at Westminster. Even that one soon quarrelled with the partys leadership and quit. And then there were none!

Ms Waters again applied to stand as a Ukip candidate in our constituency at last snap general election in Britain  the one which poor Theresa May hopelessly miscalculated. The then leader of Ukip vetoed her selection as their candidate and Ms Waters was debarred. Not that she would have won  Ukip was virtually wiped out in that reckoning.

And yet the party persists and, apart from professing to hold the Brexiteering negotiators nose to a hard-Brexit grindstone, is seeking to evolve other policies which might appeal to its electorate. Even so, nothing at all emerges as settled intentions of policy. I have no idea, and I very much doubt if the man or woman on the Clapham Omnibus can tell you, what Ukip thinks about higher education, the licensing of vicious rats, free cherries for pickers or anything else. And so their membership has turned to the inevitable  the victimisation of a minority.

The voice of this prospective policy is none other than the failed candidate of my constituency Anne Marie Waters. She is standing for the now-vacant leadership of Ukip and is, according to the polls, the second favourite of the membership. Her programme is based entirely on an assault on Muslims in Britain. She hit the easy targets first  ban all burqas, disband all Sharia law courts and freeze, at least temporarily until she can think of something more appealing, all immigration.

Ms Waters has been, I suspect, reading the crystal ball of police reports which say that after Brexit hate-crime against foreigners has increased four-fold. And after the recent terrorist attacks on Manchester and London, she probably calculates that votes can be won and some bigots influenced by making anti-Muslim policies her rallying cry.

Ms Waters is a curious politician. She is Irish, lesbian and a professed feminist. She began her political life as a member of the Labour Party but now says she cannot back Labour because it has anti-women policies. Its an argument she cant quite back up.

She also justifies her anti-Muslim campaign as she says Muslim men oppress their women and she has said Islam treats women like absolute dirt.

There is a connected logic to her progress from a left-leaning Labourite to her ambition to lead the far-right Ukip party whose main appeal to the Brexit electorate was an anti-immigrant xenophobia which, despite denials from several of its prominent personnel, was overtly racist. Ms Waters began her career in activism campaigning on feminist issues. The group for whom she worked One Law For All had very many Muslim women members, who while challenging the inequality that they felt they suffered were not willing to join hands or make alliances with anti-Muslim groups. Ms Waters was.

She quit One Law and co-founded the British branch of a German organisation called Pegida whose platform was combatting what they called the Islamisation of Europe. This was a manifestly flat-earthist platform. Pegida staged demonstrations in several European countries contending that the wearing of burqas by a minority of Muslim-born women, the freedom of the numerically tiny communities of Muslims to build and pray in mosques and to educate their children in their religion and their isolated and hidebound or even evolving traditions, was Islamisation.

The platform failed to attract the membership or generate the political momentum that would sustain it. In 2016, Pegida packed up. Ms Waters hasnt. She now offers herself as the anti-Islamic candidate leader of Ukip.

Without calling her names, one can mention several parallels of this journey to the right in British politics. Most of them had no impact on events or history. The only one worthy of mention is Oswald Mosley who moved in the 1920s and 30s from being a Labourite to founding the pro-Hitler UK Fascist Union. He wasnt a neo-Nazi; he was the real thing. He never won more than insignificant percentages in elections and was jailed during the Second World War as a Hitlerite, anti-Semite and a subversive.

Surprisingly, the most popular former leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, who led its Brexit campaign, opposes Ms Waters candidacy. If she becomes leader, he has said, the party will be finished. A large swathe of British opinion believed and believes that if Nigel Farages Brexit policies succeed, Britain will be finished.
As Iraqi forces, with Ameican air cover, mop up the last strategic foothold of the so-called Islamic State in Tel Afar, the tragedy of the witches brew the Middle East has become comes into bold relief. There are two threads that define the present state of affairs: the role of outside intervention and the heightening of the Sunni-Shia schism.

To understand the dimensions of the various conflicts, one must segregate them. In recent times, the original sin was committed by the division of the Middle East into British and French areas of influence in 1916 to crown the end of the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, inconvenient rulers were replaced by outside powers in Iran or elsewhere.

In more recent times, the United States, the main outside power that had replaced an exhausted Britain after World War II, invaded Iraq under the false pretence of Saddam Hussein seeking nuclear weapons. And in governing a defeated Iraq, the American viceroy took the foolish decision of dismissing Sunni Army officers, most of them in high positions, to provide fodder for Al Qaeda and later the Islamic State. Saudi Arabia had rescued the Sunni rulers of Bahrain from the revolt of the majority Shia population in 2011.

Syria is in its seventh year of civil war, with protagonists on various sides near exhaustion. The new development was Russias late intervention on President Bashar al-Assads side giving him much-needed relief and securing Moscows credentials after the demise of the Soviet Union and in safeguarding its assets in the Mediterranean. That the US and Russia agreed to set up ceasefire zones in Syria denotes Moscows new role.

Iran, as the pre-eminent Shia power in the region, won some easy victories. It had a natural advantage with Iraq after the Shia majority asserted itself. It has been supporting President Assad, who belongs to a Shia-allied Alawite sect. It is in concert with the Hezbollah militia of Lebanon, which helps Iranian foreign policy goals in the region.

Iran came in from the cold, thanks to former US President Barack Obamas success in closing a deal, assented to by other major powers, to cap its nuclear programme in exchange for removing sanctions. And it has fully exploited the changes that have come about in giving Shias their due, much to the discomfort of Saudi Arabia.

Another area of conflict was opened up by Saudi Arabia in Yemen to counter the success of Houthi rebels in capturing large slices of the country, including its capital. It led a military intervention in league with the United Arab Emirates to defeat Houthis, loosely a Shia tribe supported by Iran. There are appalling losses of civilian lives in a country that is largely starving.

Add to this impressive list of conflicts, the latest is the decision by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain to boycott and cordon off gas-rich Qatar for its alleged support of Islamic extremists. Resentments between the Saudis and Qatar have been simmering for long because the latter followed its own foreign policy and refused to genuflect to big brother Saudi Arabia.

The most recent crisis was triggered by US President Donald Trumps visit to Riyadh, the first to any country after assuming office. He was treated as an honoured guest, plied with lucrative military contracts and was sufficiently effusive about Saudi Arabia to encourage Riyadh to act against Qatar. The Saudis made impossible demands on Qatar, including the closing down of the popular Al Jazeera television channel, with US officials seeking to limit the damage to safeguard the largest American regional base in Qatar. It is no secret that the main provider of money and men to promote extreme Wahabbi Islam around the world is Saudi Arabia.

What of the future? There was a brief moment when the Arab Spring inspired hope in the Arab world that the pattern of dictatorships of the military or other varieties would end. Tunisia showed the way and Egypt, in some ways the most consequential country in the region, toppled its dictator. Saudi Arabia threw money around to ensure that its citizens did not catch the democracy fever.

Egypt even held a rare free election that brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. But it did not measure up to the occasion and was more interested in promoting its beliefs than in giving the country good governance. Thanks to public disillusionment, the civilian government lasted barely a year because the Army re-entered the picture by staging a coup.

It is, indeed, ironical that in the entire Arab world Tunisia remains the only country that is still struggling to keep to its democratic experiment. In the region as a whole, Turkey is ruling itself out by the ambitions of its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cement his absolute power. Iran remains the only country, apart from Tunisia, that has a limited measure of democracy, despite it being clothed in religious garb.

Unlike past US Presidents, Mr Trump believes in transactional relationships. Arabs must find the inspiration and strength to get out of the cycle of one autocratic ruler succeeding another, with the armed forces enjoying profits from lucrative business ventures even as they rule their peoples. The pioneers of the Arab Spring are either in prison or obliterated.

The success of the Tunisian experiment lies in the realisation of all parties, including the Islamists, that in democracy one has to compromise on ones maximum goals. Compromise does not come naturally to revolutionaries and it is easy to defeat them by military force.

A solution of the Syrian civil war will come through sheer exhaustion. Ultimately, the Saudis will have to reconcile with a maverick Qatar. And the sheer scale of human tragedy will force Riyadh to resort to end its military assaults in Yemen through diplomatic means.

Turkeys regional role will be determined by the scale of Mr Erdogans ambitions. No one is holding his breath for peace to break out in the Middle East.
Nellore: In view of the problems that plagued the atomic clocks  highly accurate clocks that measure time in terms of vibrations in certain atoms  in one of the seven satellites of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, Indian Space Research Organisations Satellite Application Centre is working towards ensuring that the other six satellites are not similarly affected. The atomic clocks that run on the element rubidium were imported from Europe. Rubidium is a cousin of sodium and pottasium. The firm which supplied the clocks has updated the three atomic clocks in IRNSS-1H, which is scheduled to be launched on August 31 aboard a PSLV rocket. This satellite will replace IRNSS-1A whose atomic clocks have stopped working.

The rubidium atomic clocks were among 27 imported from Europe to provide precise locational accuracy to the NaVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) users. Each of the NaVIC satellites has three atomic clocks. According to sources, the firm had studied anomalies in the clocks along with the Isro team and found some problem with electronics. An improved version of the clock has been developed eliminating the hitch, which will be launched with the IRNSS-1H.

Except for malfunctioning of the atomic clocks in IRNSS-1A, the other components are functioning perfectly and it is being used for satellite messaging. The failure of atomic clocks had no impact on the overall performance of NaVIC, a scientist in Shar said. He said similar clocks in the European navigation system, Galileo, had failed in the beginning of this year.

He said a team of scientists in Satellite Application Centre had conducted several ground tests before installing the modified clocks. Isro engineers will be moving the PSLV-C39 with the IRNSS-1H on board to the Second Launch Pad from the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sunday. The mission will be launched after a series of tests at 6.59 pm on August 31, 2017 from Satish Dhwan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota.

Backup in place for all equipment:

Dr K. Sivan, director of Isros Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said every crucial equipment in space applications, be it in the satellite or in the rocket, has a back-up system for redundancy. Speaking to this newspaper, he said Isro instals two and sometimes three computer systems as standby in satellites and rockets, to take over immediately if the original fails.

In case of navigation satellites, he said every organisation providing navigation system makes it a point to have number of backup satellites for uninterrupted service to the users. Isro has readied two more satellites as per original plan and one among them, IRNSS-1H, is being launched now. Asked about the snags with the atomic clocks, he said that every country had issues with navigational satellite systems at one time or the other.

He said only one among the three atomic clocks would be put to use at any point of time henceforth in all the NaVIC satellites. According to the senior scientist, firms supplying critical equipment keep track of their functioning and update the technology for future missions. He added that the companies also provide replacement whenever necessary. He expressed confidence in the satisfactory functioning of the improved version of rubidium atomic clocks.

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As one part of the launch, passengers on the Hainan Island high-speed train will be able to watch the ceremony through LTE broadcast technology and the Gigabit wireless network. Ericsson.

Ericsson and China Unicom announced the commercial launch of Gigabit LTE network, allowing subscribers to enjoy the services and benefits available with high-speed mobile broadband data.

The Gigabit LTE network, upgraded by Ericsson, will provide China Unicom subscribers with enhanced customer satisfaction, but it will also make full use of network resources and improve profitability.

As one part of the launch, passengers on the Hainan Island high-speed train will be able to watch the ceremony through LTE broadcast technology and the Gigabit wireless network. Ericsson, as China Unicom's strategic partner, is the exclusive provider of the LTE broadcast solution, which is China's first LTE broadcast commercial deployment.

Ericsson's LTE broadcast solution is aimed to revolutionise video delivery in mobile networks enabled by the combination of three new standards: eMBMS, HEVC (H.265) and MPEG DASH and will address the growing consumer demand for media services.

To accelerate the development of China Unicom's video strategy, Ericsson supported China Unicom with eMBMSin the high-speed train scenario so that passengers could enjoy high-definition video without buffering on the network.

Recently, Ericsson supported China Unicom in setting up a 1Gbps network in Guangdong, Hainan, Shandong, and Beijing with peak speeds of up to 979Mbps. With that speed, it takes just 13 seconds to download a 1080P high-definition movie. There are more on-going 1Gbps trials in Sichuan, Hubei, Shanxi, Jilin and Jiangsu province. A high-speed mobile broadband network will enable businesses and services using Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Realityand other big data operations.

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In May, hospitals and doctors surgeries across Britain were forced to divert ambulances, turn away patients and cancel appointments after a cyber attack crippled some computer systems.

A regional authority in Britains state-run health service was hit by a malware attack on Friday and warned people with non-emergency medical conditions to stay away from its hospitals.

NHS Lanarkshire said in a Facebook post it was investigating and working to resolve the issue.

I would ask that patients do not attend our hospitals unless it is essential, said acute division medical director Jane Burns. Emergency care will still be provided for those who do require to be seen.

In May, hospitals and doctors surgeries across Britain were forced to divert ambulances, turn away patients and cancel appointments after a cyber attack crippled some computer systems.

As far as we know this has just affected NHS Lanarkshire. It is not the same malware as in May, NHS Lanarkshire responded on Facebook to an inquiry from Reuters.

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According to a banner showing on the Jio website, millions of Indians have pre-booked the JioPhone.

Reliance Jio has suspended taking pre-bookings for the much-awaited JioPhone through its official website jio.com. The website now only allows buyers to register for the 4G feature phone.

Reliance Jio kicked off pre-booking procedure for the JioPhone on August 24, at 5.30pm on its website. Hours later, the website went down for a short period, with many reporting they are unable to access the site. And now, the pre-bookings have been suspended altogether.

According to a banner showing on the Jio website, millions of Indians have pre-booked the JioPhone. Just below it, Reliance Jio confirms suspension of pre-booking for the JioPhone stating, We will inform you when the pre-booking resumes," neither clarifying the cause of suspension nor revealing any expected date for resumption of pre-bookings.

screengrab of JioPhone banner on jio.com

However, the company continues allowing people to register for the model by clicking onto a register now option showing on the banner. The option will then ask buyers to submit details such as name, phone number and email ID. In case, if you are seeking the phone for business purpose, additional information including PAN/GSTN number will be asked.

Meanwhile, those who successfully placed the order can check for updates by dialing 18008908900. Customers can also view status in MyJio app under Manage Voucher section.

Those who are unaware, pre-orders for the JioPhone will be accepted for Rs 500, which will be adjusted against security deposit of Rs 1,500 at the time of delivery. To recall, the JioPhone features a 2.4-inch QVGA display, FM radio, torch, headphone jack, SD card slot and an alphanumeric keyboard. It supports digital payment via NFC, 4G VoLTE calls and data and a suite of Jio apps, which includes Jio Cinema, Jio Music and more.

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Samsung has kicked off pre-orders for its newly launched Galaxy Note 8 smartphone, weeks ahead of its official release slated for September 15.

The S. Korean-based tech giant has started taking pre-orders for a handful of countries, including United States and Britain, while it is expected to open pre-order window on Sept. 7 in its home market, reported news agency Yonhap. The pre-order date for the Indian market is yet unknown. However, the phone is expected to get released in India in early October.

Samsung hasnt officially disclosed the price of the Galaxy Note 8 model. But the price tag is expected to hover above $1000.

In America, the 64GB model of Galaxy Note 8 is being sold for $929 (approx Rs 60,000) including taxes, according to industry sources.

The actual production cost of the Galaxy Note 8 is estimated at $350 (approx. Rs 23,000).

Despite, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics statement, the company will try to set the price of the Galaxy Note 8 below 1 million won ($887), and he does not wish to make the device too expensive for users, Note 8 seems to hold a higher price tag in major markets.

To recall, Galaxy Note 8 features a 6.3-inch AMOLED quad HD display with 2960 x 1440 pixel resolution, is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835/ Exynos octa core SoC, backed by 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with support for microSD card. On the photography front, the Galaxy Note 8 boasts a dual camera setup with two 12MP sensors  one wide angle lens and one telephoto lens and an 8MP selfie shooter. The phablet runs on Android 7.1.1 with companys UI on the top. The Galaxy Note 8 has a dedicated button for Samsungs virtual voice assistant Bixby. The Galaxy Note 8 draws power from a 3300mAh battery and is IP68 certified water and dust resistant. Connectivity on the smartphone includes NFC and MST for Samsung Pay, and offers USB Type-C charging port.

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A plenary meeting of the elite nuclear club in June failed to take a decision on India's application for its membership, but decided to discuss in November the issue of entry of non-NPT signatories. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: The US is looking at ways to "more actively support" India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as the Trump administration considers it a very important matter, a top White House official has said.

A plenary meeting of the elite nuclear club in June failed to take a decision on India's application for its membership, but decided to discuss in November the issue of entry of non-NPT signatories.

China, a key member of the NSG, has been stridently opposing India's bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its opposition has made India's entry into the 48-member group difficult as the Nuclear Suppliers Group works on the principle of consensus.

"There is a meeting coming up shortly on this issue. The US is considering ways it can use to support more actively India's membership in the NSG, because it is something that's very important to the US," the White House official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was responding to a series of questions on what steps the Trump administration has taken so far to push India's membership to the NSG, which has repeatedly been blocked by China.

"The US is very supportive of India's membership in the NSG. That continues to be something very important, and in fact it came up during the meeting of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi with President (Donald) Trump (at the White House on June 26)," the White House official said.

"In terms of the specific interactions with China, I'm not aware if it's been raised. It's something certainly that the US does support," the official said, insisting that the Trump administration is committed to support India's case.

After India's application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing.

An NSG statement after the June meeting had said that the members had discussions on the issue of "Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of the Participation of non-NPT States in the NSG".

"The group decided to continue its discussion and noted the intention of the chair to organise an informal meeting in November," said the NSG statement issued at the end of the two-day plenary meeting in the Swiss capital Bern.
Washington: The eldest daughter of former US President Barack Obama reacted angrily after a woman asked to take her photograph, according to media reports.

Malia Obama moved into her Harvard University dormitory last Monday. According to TMZ, a woman approached Malia at a salad shop in Cambridges Harvard Square and asked for a picture for her grandson. Malia reportedly declined, politely. The woman then reportedly walked outside and snapped the former first daughter's photo when she was exiting the store. This reportedly angered the 19-year-old who shouted: Are you gonna take it in my face like an animal in a cage?
A Rohingya insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for Thursday night's attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defense of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces. (Photo: AFP/Representational)

Bangkok: Myanmar's government and advocates for the country's Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority traded charges on Sunday of killing civilians, burning down buildings and planting land mines, as clashes that began last week when insurgents launched attacks against police posts continued.

An announcement posted online by the office of the country's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, said the death toll from the violence that started on Thursday night had reached 96, mostly alleged Rohingya attackers but also 12 security personnel.

The announcement was the first by the government to list civilians among the dead - six people identified as Hindus are said to have been killed by the insurgents.

Myanmar is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but about 1 million Muslim Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine state, where the violence is taking place.

Advocates for the Rohingya suggest many more civilians have died in army attacks on villages, but they have not given a total. They also say the attacks have caused villagers to flee to the mountains for shelter or to try to cross the border into Bangladesh.

Witnesses and refugees on the Bangladesh border said on Sunday that the situation there was tense, with thousands of Rohingya trying to flee Myanmar but still unable to leave. Witnesses said they heard the sound of gunshots. Bangladeshi villagers said they could see military helicopters hovering in the Myanmar sky.

Several hundred Rohingya got stuck in a "no man's land" at one border point in Bangladesh's Bandarban district, barred from moving farther by Bangladeshi border guards. Lt. Col. Manzurul Hasan Khan of Border Guards Bangladesh said they cordoned off about 1,000 Rohingya after they attempted to enter Bangladesh.

Still, more than 2,000 Rohingya entered Bangladesh overnight through two points at Teknaf in Cox's Bazar district, said Jalal Ahmed, a local government official at the Kharangakhali border point.

A Rohingya insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for Thursday night's attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defense of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces.

Suu Kyi's office accused the insurgents of "torching police outposts and monasteries, killing innocent people and planting mines."

ARSA, meanwhile, accused the army of using civilians as human shields.

Clashes were continuing on Sunday, with witnesses contacted by phone in the northern Rakhine town of Maungdaw saying they could hear gunshots.

Independent confirmation of the situation is difficult because the government bars journalists from the area.

Suu Kyi's office issued an official warning to media on Sunday, saying "some media" have been referring to the group as "insurgents" instead of "terrorists."

On Friday, the government declared ARSA a terrorist organization, which means most contacts with it are illegal. Sunday's announcement specifically said "we warn the media to avoid writing in support of the group."

The government refuses to recognize Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority, calling them Bengalis to reflect the position that they are mostly illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Most Rohingya are denied citizenship and its rights.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people - predominantly Rohingya - from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

Suu Kyi has called Thursday's attacks "a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state." The attacks were also generally condemned by Western nations and rights groups, who also warned the government against violent retaliation.

The clashes were deadlier than an attack by the militants on three border posts in October, 2016 that killed nine policemen and set off months of brutal counterinsurgency operations by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya communities in Rakhine state.

Human rights groups accused the army of carrying out massive human rights abuses, including killing, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings.

The army's abuses fueled further resentment toward the government among the Muslim Rohingya. ARSA took advantage of the resentment by stepping up recruitment of members.
Police secure the scene in downtown Brussels after a reported attack on Belgian Army soldiers on Friday. (Photo: AP)

Brussels: The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier.

In a statement on Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting ISIS. Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting "Allahu akbar!" Arabic for "God is great." He was shot dead by troops.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the man was known to police for assault charges but had no previous terror-related offenses.

The suspect, a Belgian citizen of Somali origin, was also carrying a fake fire arm and copies of the Quran.

ISIS often claims attacks by people who have no known link to the group.
Military forces are reportedly moving from the western and northeastern front of Tal Afar. (Photo: AFP)

Tal Afar (Iraq): Iraqi forces raised the national flag on Saturday in the heart of Tal Afar, Islamic States stronghold in the countrys northwest, and said they were poised to take full control of the city after a week-long offensive.

Tal Afar is the latest objective in the US-backed war on the jihadist group following the recapture in July of Mosul, where it declared its self-proclaimed caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Tal Afar was cut off from the rest of ISIS-held territory in June and the campaign to recapture it started on Aug. 20, when up to 2,000 militants were believed to be defending it against around 50,000 attackers, according to western military sources.

Tal Afar city is about to fall completely into the hands of our forces, only five percent remains under Islamic State control, an Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters.

Elite forces had liberated the heart of the city and raised the national flag on top of the citadel building, a statement from the Iraqi joint operations command said. Much of the Ottoman-era building was destroyed by the militants in 2014.

Such a quick collapse of Islamic State in the city, which has been a breeding ground for jihadist groups, would confirm Iraqi military reports that the militants lack command and control structures west of Mosul.

A Reuters visuals team in Tal Afar said fighting had eased on Saturday, with just occasional artillery rounds heard. There was no sign of civilians in two neighborhoods it visited.

God willing, the remaining part will be liberated soon, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said earlier at a news conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and French Defence Minister Florence Parly, in Baghdad.
Controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with investigations into a money laundering case involving him and others.

Qureshi, an alumnus of Doon School and Delhis St Stephens College, was apprehended on Friday late night after he was called for questioning in the case registered under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

ED arrests Moin Qureshi under PMLA. He was involved in accepting huge amount of money in the name of public servants, the agency tweeted.

The ED is investigating two FIRs against Qureshi, one in Income Tax evasion case and the other arising out of a corruption case involving public servants.

The arrest comes in connection with the case involving public servants. The ED had earlier referred to the CBI to probe corruption angle after it emerged that Qureshi had links with public servants, including former CBI Director A P Singh with whom he shared coded messages on Blackberry phone. Singh was named by the CBI in its FIR, which was taken by the ED later.

According to the ED, certain facts emerged during its probe that constituted omission and commission of certain acts by certain public servants holding high positions in collusion with Qureshi. Huge amount of illegal money found to have been transacted in this connection.

Analysis of messages from Qureshis phone showed that hawala operators used to transfer bribe money collected by officials to different locations in France and the United Kingdom, the statement claimed.

In this way, he also obtained huge amount of money for providing influence. The money was obtained in the name of government servants or political persons holding public office. The public servants illegally either obtained the money for themselves or through their kin, it said.

The probe also showed that some accused involved in criminal cases as well as persons who want to seek undue favours from investigating agencies were in touch with Qureshi to get them off the hook, it said.

Qureshi allegedly took huge money from various persons for obtaining undue favours from public servants and politicians after exercising his personal influence.




The move was firmed up after a three-and-half-an-hour meeting of BJP's Karnataka core group which was convened by BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday.





Emerging out of the meeting, the party's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa told reporters that the BJP has vowed to take out Nava Karnataka Parivartan Yatra to put the Congress government on the mat on corruption.





The yatra will start from November 1 to coincide with Kannada Rajyotsava, said party sources. The former CM stated it will be modeled on rath yatra and committees will be formed at the districts level to chart out a blueprint for its effective execution.





Shah is believed to have asked its state leaders to pull up its socks after the party failed to exploit IT raids against Congress minister DK Shivakumar. The party high command has asked poll managers to prepare a timeline for executing different agendas outlined during Shah's three-day Karnataka tour which took place mid month, a BJP leader who attended the brainstorming session said.





Others who participated in the meeting were union ministers Ananth Kumar, DV Sadananda Gowda and Prakash Javadekar, who has been made poll in-charge, party leaders Ram Lal, Muralidhar Rao, BL Santosh, Jagdish Shettar, KS Eswarappa, CM Udasi, CT Ravi, R Ashok and Govind Karjol.





When asked what the BJP's strategy would be to counter CM Siddaramaiah's attempts to revive cases against Yeddyurappa, another party leader present in the deliberations, said the party will gain out of it since the Lingayat leader will "earn sympathy" as everyone understands that it showed their vindictiveness.





The meeting was held in two batches with the leaders first assembling at Ananth Kumar's house and followed it with another at Shah's residence.

The BJP has decided to take out "Nav Karnataka Parivartan Yatra" to expose corruption in chief minister Siddaramaiah's government ahead of next year's assembly election.
Hopeful that India and China can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Doklam standoff, a senior Trump official has said the US "supports return of status quo" of the tri-junction point.



The US is concerned about "sovereignty issues and adherence to international law" amidst increased tension between the two Asian giants, said a senior administration official. "We are monitoring the (Doklam) situation very carefully. We are concerned. We hope that the two sides can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the issue. We support return to the status quo," a senior administration official told PTI.



"We're also concerned about Bhutanese sovereignty issues. We're concerned in general terms about sovereignty issues and adherence to international law. I think that certainly pertains to this particular issue," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of confrontation between India and China.



Even as China  both its officials and the state- sponsored media -- have increased its rhetoric over the past few months, which at times is seen as entering the domain of threatening; New Delhi, which has taken a mature and strong stand against Beijing, according to experts, is believed has not reached out to Washington on this issue.



However, as a close friend the US has been closely monitoring the situation. "We hope that India and China can find a negotiated solution to return to a peaceful state of affairs in the area. We are just watching it very carefully and we are in conversation with the Indian government about the issues. We stand ready to help if that is desired. But, for the time being, we're monitoring the situation carefully," the official said.



The senior administration official, in response to a question, however quickly clarified that there has been no such request from India and there is no such intention on the part of the United States as well.



"What kind of help? You said ready to help," the official was asked. Well, you know, I think it's for India and China to decide if that was necessary. I think for the time being the US is monitoring the situation very closely and very carefully," the official said.



"You know, it (the United States) sees it as a bilateral issue between India and China to work through. But certainly, we are interested in seeing peaceful relations prevail in the region. "So, if there's anything the US can do to help that situation, we stand ready to assist," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that people who take the law into their own hands and are on the path of violent suppression will unquestionably be punished.



The assurance came from the prime minister during his Mann Ki Baat monthly radio address on Sunday, two days after the followers of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh perpetrated violence in Haryana and parts of neighbouring states over a CBI court convicting the Dera chief in a rape case.

The situation in these states continues to be grim as the special CBI court is scheduled to pronounce the quantum of sentence against the convict, amid heavy deployment of security forces, including army, in Haryana.

I want to assure my countrymen that this government will not tolerate people who take the law into their own hands and are on the path of violent suppression  whether it is a person or a group. Each and every person will have to abide by the law; the law will fix accountability and the guilty will unquestionably be punished, the prime minister said.

He, however, did not make any direct reference to the violence unleashed by the Dera supporters which left at least 28 people dead and 250 injured on Friday.

When on the one hand, a sense of festivity pervades the land, on the other, news of violence comes in from one part of the country; it is only natural to be concerned, the prime minister said. He said India is a country of Buddha and (Mahatma) Gandhi.

Inherent values

It is the land of Sardar Patel who gave up everything for the unity of the nation. For centuries, our forefathers have imbibed community values, non-violence, mutual respect  these are inherent to us.

We have been hearing and saying Ahimsa Paramo Dharma from our childhood. No one has the right to take the law into ones own hands in the name of ones beliefs, he said.

The prime minister noted that the Constitution of India had provisions for ensuring justice to each and every person.
The Directorate General of Military Operations of the Army does not have records of any "surgical strike" conducted before September 29, 2016.



Responding to an RTI application filed by PTI, the DGMO at the Integrated Headquarters of the Defence Ministry (Army) said a "surgical strike" was carried out on September 29, 2016.



"This section does not maintain records of any other surgical strikes, if any, conducted earlier," the reply said.



It said a statement on this was issued by the DGMO at a press conference.



The RTI application with the Defence Ministry also sought the definition of the term "surgical strikes" in the records of Indian Army.



The DGMO replied, "As per the information available in 'open source' the definition of 'surgical strike' is '...an operation which is planned based on specific intelligence, on a legitimate military target for maximum effect and with minimum or no collateral damage. It involves deliberate insertion to the target area, precise execution and swift extrication of the body of troops back to the base'."



The application asked the Defence Ministry if the "surgical strike" mentioned in a DGMO statement of September 29, 2016, was the first ever in the history of the Indian Army.



It also wanted to know if the Army had carried out a "surgical strike" between 2004 and 2014.



The Ministry transferred the application to the Integrated Headquarters (Army) which sought information from the DGMO.



The DGMO provided the responses which were forwarded to the petitioner by the IHQ (Army).



The Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was severely hit in the cross-LoC surgical strikes on terror launch pads carried out by the Indian Army with assessment reports of radio intercepts indicating that around 20 of its militants were killed.



In a well-calibrated operation, on the intervening night of September 28-29, the Indian Army moved across the LoC and smashed four launch pads that were under the guard of a Pakistani post located 700 metres from the LoC.



"Based on receiving specific and credible inputs that some terrorist teams had positioned themselves at launch pads along the Line of Control to carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states, the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes at several of these launch pads to pre-empt infiltration by terrorists," the DGMO had said in a statement after the strike.


The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump in June laid a strong foundation for moving India-US relationship forward, a senior US official has said, indicating that the defence and counter-terrorism are likely to be key areas of cooperation.



Modi's visit to the White House "dispelled doubts" about moving the relationship forward among Indian officials, the Trump administration official told PTI.



"I think the main issues that were discussed and will be followed up include security in the Indo-Pacific region and working closely with India to maintain free and open seaways, freedom of commerce, adherence to international law and sovereignty issues," the official said on condition of anonymity, giving a brief review of the India-US relationship in the first eight months of the Trump administration.



This very much came across in the joint statement with the references to the common principles for the Indian Ocean region, the official said, adding that the two countries will be working to follow up those commitments.



Defense cooperation was a big part of the visit, said the official, mentioning the estimated USD 2 billion deal for sale of guardian drones to India by the US.



This is "the first time" that the US has decided to provide such technology to a non-NATO ally.



"This was a big step in the administration to agree to do that. Now there are follow up discussions in terms of the conditions of the sale and (other) specifics. As you know, these kinds of defence deals take time to completely move through the bureaucracy and come to the final agreements. That's ongoing," the official said.



The official said that there was also a great meeting of the minds between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump on the terrorism issue. This also came through in the joint statement, in terms of stepping up our cooperation with India when it comes to consulting on terrorist designations, sharing information, intelligence on terrorist groups, and working together more closely in Afghanistan, the official added.



"Of course, the economic and trade issues, those were a little bit more contentious. We have a lot of work to do to address each market access issues that are there. Each side has particular concerns about market access," the official said, adding that the Trump administration will be following these up through the trade policy forum meeting that's coming up here shortly.



"I think it was a great visit. There are still some positive reverberations from that visit. Not only did you see a personal rapport established between the President and Prime Minister, that frankly, they were able to build on even more in the President's phone call to the Prime Minister on the eve of Indian Independence Day. But, also, a strong foundation for moving the overall relationship forward," the official said.



"All of the US government agencies, practically all, are invested in this relationship with India. We are moving forward on all cylinders, in terms of the collaboration and cooperation. We could talk about Homeland Security and the movement there, but there are so many facets of the relationship, and I think this visit did what was necessary to provide that foundation, which now we can build on," the official asserted in response to a question.



In the defence arena, the official said, naval cooperation is a key priority area.



"Our Navy-to-Navy cooperation probably is the strongest of all the service to service cooperation between our governments. In terms of equipment sales, I think, F-18 is in the negotiating process. This would be for the Navy. Hopefully, that will move forward. It is something that the Indian Navy is looking for the US eager to help fulfil that requirement of the Indian Navy. We're very much focused on that particular deal," the official said.



At the same time, the official said, there is increasing exercises and cooperation, whether it be on humanitarian disaster relief operations, and anti-piracy.



"Then also, the US had demonstrated its interest in joint patrols. These don't necessarily have to be joint patrols in faraway places. They can be joint patrols in the Indian Ocean region. They can be focused on issues such as proliferation interdiction, nonproliferation activities, and other issues. But, this is something that the US is very interested in and is talking with India about," said the official.



"Then there's the sort of diplomatic efforts looking at extending the cooperation with other nations in the region, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and others. That's very important, and of course, there's an important conference happening in Sri Lanka hosted by the India Foundation in the Indian Ocean region. There will be high-level US participation in that. All of these efforts are extremely important in terms of our naval engagement," the official said.



On Saturday, the State Department announced that Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs and Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Alice Wells will travel to Dhaka, Islamabad, and Colombo from August 28 to September 2.



She will meet with government officials, business leaders, and civil society representatives to discuss our cooperation in the region, a media statement said.
In a shocking incident reflecting gross negligence, stray dogs ate away parts of a woman's body, which had been kept at the mortuary in a government hospital in the state capital on Sunday.



Taking a serious view of the incident, the authorities sacked three employees of the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and ordered a probe, according to the sources here.



Sources said that the dogs had eaten away almost the entire face of the woman along with one of the eyes.



The woman, a resident of Chinhat area on the outskirts of the state capital, had been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition on Saturday evening. The woman had consumed some poisonous substance following a family feud. She died late in the night and her body was kept at the mortuary.



The family members were shocked to see the condition of the body, when they reached the mortuary on Sunday morning to take the body for cremation.



''Almost the entire face was eaten away...one of the eyes was also missing....stains of blood was seen on the floor outside the mortuary...the marks of dogs' paws were clearly visible,'' said one of the family members.



The eye witnesses said that a portion of a channel gate had been left opened at night as a result of which the dogs entered the mortuary. The dead body had also been dragged, sources said.



The kin of the woman also held a demonstration at the hospital in protest against the shocking incident.



The hospital administration later terminated the services of a security supervisor, guard and a ward boy on charges of negligence. A probe was also ordered into the incident, sources said.



A case would be lodged against the guilty persons, the officials said.




A Swiss parliamentary panel will discuss next month necessary safeguards the European nation needs to adopt in automatic exchange of banking information with India and 40 other jurisdictions for checking alleged stashing of black money.



The Committee on Economy and Royalties of the National Council (CER-N), a key panel of Swiss parliament which rejected on August 15 a proposal seeking to outrightly suspend implementation of the AEOI Switzerland has agreed to adopt with 41 nations including India, will examine the criteria a country would need to satisfy to start getting access to data under the automatic information exchange.



According to the minutes of the last meeting of the committee, the CER-N will continue its examination at a meeting on September 11 of the 41 AEOIs agreed upon by the Federal Council, the highest decision making body of Swiss government.



In this context, the panel will also discuss how to strengthen the role of the relevant parliamentary committees in deciding whether or not to transmit data abroad.



The Federal Council adopted a resolution on June 15 regarding introduction of AEOIs with 41 jurisdictions including India. The decision is not subject to any referendum.



The council has also proposed to submit a report to Parliament in order to ensure that the necessary requirements, including on confidentiality and data protection, are met by the concerned countries before transmission of the data.



The report will also entail the possible measures in case of non-compliance.



At its meeting on August 15, the committee rejected by 13 votes to 10, with 2 abstentions, a proposal to suspend implementation of AEOIs until the Federal Council presents a list of criteria for judging whether the exchange can be activated with a country.



The majority observed that the question of criteria could be examined in the context of the discussion by article.



The committee went into the matter, without objecting to the Federal Council decision, on the control mechanism.



One of the demands, made by some political parties and banking industry, relates to asking the administration specific the criteria on which a country review would be based before deciding to transmit the data abroad.



Among others, the Swiss People's Party (SVP), a populist political party in Switzerland, has opposed the AEOI framework.



The opposition by SVP, which is known as a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party, is in sharp contrast to the official position of the Swiss government that has cited strong Indian data protection laws for agreeing to include India among jurisdictions for the Automatic exchange of information (AEOI) on financial matters.



It is one of the largest parties in the Federal Assembly and late last year it had supported a campaign, 'Yes to protect bank secrecy in Switzerland'.



Earlier, some private bank groups in Switzerland had opposed the pact but the government decided to go ahead with this framework after putting in place necessary data protection and confidentiality clauses.



A draft memorandum has been already ratified by the Swiss Federal council for implementing the automatic information exchange framework with India, which is expected to come into force from next year.



India has been pressing for long to have such a pact amid a widespread perception about Swiss banks being among the most-favoured for stashing of suspected black money.
All schools in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, bordering Haryana, will remain closed tomorrow in view of the sentencing of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted in a rape case.



The Shamli district authorities have also sealed roads connecting the district with Haryana.



According to district inspector of schools M S Siddiqi, all schools will remained close on August 28.



Additional Director General of Police (Meerut Zone) Prashant Kumar told reporters here today that security had been beefed up in all nine districts of the zone -- Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bullandshahr, Meerut and Gautam Budh Nagar.



Fifteen ashrams of the quasi-religious sect led by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh have been inspected.



Prohibitory orders barring assembly more than five people were in force in these districts.



The hearing on quantum of sentence against the 50-year- old self-styled godman, now lodged in Rohtak jail, will be held tomorrow.



After the Dera chief was convicted by a CBI court in Panchkula on August 25, his followers went on rampage setting fire to vehicles and railway stations, and damaging public and private properties. Thirty-six people were killed and more than 250 injured in violence in Panchkula and Sirsa.
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a suggestion that the Karnataka government should not bear cost of Rs 2554 crore for construction of new railway lines, sub lines and conveyor system in mineral-rich Chitradurga and Tumakuru districts.



Since the construction of conveyor systems and railway sidings result in substantial saving on transportation cost being incurred by lessees and the entire capital cost is likely to be recouped in about five years or so it is appropriate that the entire cost is met by the lessees and not by the state government or Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation, M K Jiwrajka, former Member Secretary, Central Empowered Committee told the apex court.



The state government has proposed Tumakuru to Davanagere railway lines, sub lines and roads in Chitradurga and Tumakuru from Rs 20,000-crore fund collected under a Comprehensive Environmental Plan for the Mining Impact Zone (CEPMIZ).



It has already set up a Special Purpose Vehicle known as Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation on June 13, 2014 following a direction by the apex court in a PIL filed by NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya.



On being asked by the apex court about feasibility of the projects, Jiwrajka said in a written note that the construction of five conveyor systems and three new railways sublines and a number of roads is not likely to serve any purpose.



A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Ranjan Gogoi would consider his suggestion on September 13. The court also sought to know from the Centre about the directions issued by a separate bench earlier on revisiting the National Mineral Policy 2008 and recovery of costs from miners for illegal mining as mandated under the law.



The proposed scheme plans to cover 28 mining leases, out of which 27 are presently non-operating. The iron ore deposits are scattered, shallow and are of low grades. Most of the C category leases are not likely to be successfully sold and most of the category A and B mining leases are not likely to become operational due to reasons such as in adequate minable reserves, lack of statutory approvals, he said.



The project that involves a very large infrastructure and is not likely to result in transportation of substantial mineral through conveyor system/railways. So it may be appropriate that the proposed expenditure of Rs 2554 crore by the KMERC may not be approved, he said.



He suggested that the state government may be directed to prepare and submit an integrated long term infrastructure development plan and taking into consideration the projected demand and production for the next 10-15 years.
Mobile internet services will remain suspended in Haryana and Punjab till Tuesday, besides internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters at Sirsa have also been suspended for the said period, officials said today.



The authorities had earlier suspended the services to prevent rumours from being spread, ahead of the court verdict against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was convicted by a CBI court in Panchkula on Friday in a 15- year-old rape case.



Now, the ban has been extended till Tuesday to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order in view of the quantum of punishment to be pronounced against the Dera chief in Rohtak tomorrow, officials said.



Mobile internet services, which were suspended for 72 hours in Haryana, ahead of Friday's court verdict, would continue to remain suspended in the state till 11.30 am on Tuesday, they added.



Besides, all educational institutions in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal, Ambala, Bhiwani and Fatehabad districts will remain closed tomorrow, the officials said.



Mobile internet services, which were suspended in Punjab three days back, would also remain suspended till Tuesday, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had announced yesterday.



The Haryana government said today it had extended the period of suspension of mobile internet services, including 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS, all SMS and dongle services provided on mobile networks, except voice calls, in the state till 11.30 am on August 29.



"Besides, the internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa have been suspended till August 29. Any person found guilty of violating these orders would be liable to face legal action," Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Ram Niwas, said here.



He added that the orders had been issued under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017.



"The orders have been issued considering the critical law-and-order situation, to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state and prevent any loss of life or further damage to property. It has been reported by the IG, CID that the situation is tense and violence may continue for several days, especially on August 28, when the quantum of punishment (against the Dera chief) will be announced," an official release quoted Niwas as saying.



He added that it had been reported by the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police, Sirsa that the devotees might attempt to breach peace and tranquillity and resort to arson, leading to damage of properties.



"Since the environment is tense, rumours of different kinds may be spread through broadband and internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda," Niwas said.



Directions had also been issued to the telecom service providers and those providing the internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa to ensure compliance of these orders, he added.



Thirty-six people died in violence in Panchkula and Sirsa after the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's conviction on Friday.



Punjab and Haryana have been on a high alert with curfew imposed at many sensitive areas of the two states. The CBI court will pronounce the quantum of sentence in the rape case against Gurmeet in Rohtak tomorrow.
A much-anticipated report of the Law Commission on the uniform civil code is likely to be submitted to the government next year, a senior functionary of the panel has said.



The commission was asked by the law ministry in June last year to examine whether a uniform civil code could be introduced in India now where all religions have separate personal laws.



When a Supreme Court bench was examining the issue of triple talaq, the law panel had decided to go slow on its report on the common code as it believed that the order would be a guideline to the panel in drafting its recommendations.



The law panel will also ascertain whether the verdict striking down the practice of triple talaq can shed light on what the constitutional bench of the apex court thinks what personal law is.



It will seek answers on the issue of religious faith and religious practice in the 400-page order.



The law panel, which advises the government on complex legal issues, will now involve various stakeholders for discussion to complete its report on the common code. It has already received nearly 45,000 written views on it.



The commission is at present working on tabulating the responses it has received. A recent fire in its office had delayed the process.



"By early next year, we'll be ready with our report," the functionary said. The government has already said that it would take the report to an all-party meet it would convene to decide on the future course of action.
Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam was on Sunday prevented from meeting Amitabh Bachchan  when the former was to plead the Bollywood superstar to support the strike of 1.5-lakh cine workers



On Sunday morning, cops from Mumbai police came knocking to his doors and prevented him from going out. Later he was taken to the Versova police station, where he was detained and released around 6.30 PM.



On Saturday, Nirupam, the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), had said in a message said: Tomorrow, Sunday, 27 August, 2017, 2 PM, Mumbai Congress President will meet Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan at his residence to request him to support backstage cine artists and junior film artists and request him not to participate in any kind of shooting. Meeting at Jalsa



The BJP is conspiring to break the strike, Nirupam told Deccan Herald on Sunday evening after he was released from the police station. He said that Bachchan is continuing his shooting of Kaun Badega Crorepati season nine at the Filmcity. It is shocking, however, I will continue to protest, he said.



Nirupam, a former Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MP, said that Bachchan might have got the news of his wanting to meet and would have called up New Delhi, which might have forced him to detain him. A majority of the workers are on strike, but they are being forced and threatened and only a few of them are working.the BJP is backing the producers and ignoring the rights of film workers, he said.



Nearly 1.5 lakh cine workers led by Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) went on indefinite strike from 14-15 August midnight demanding eight-hour shifts and other things like health insurance, job security. The strike has support of 22 associations.





The spotboys, junior artistes, technicians, cameramen, art-directors, set designers, style photographers, fight masters, make up persons, dress suppliers besides others.

The FWICE had intimated associations like the Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC), Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA), Western Indian Film Producers Association (WIFPA) and The Film and Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. The Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, popularly known as the Filmcity at Goregaon had already been informed to cancel all shoots.
The family of a 25-year-old woman from Jaipur who mysteriously disappeared during a visit to the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Haryana two years ago are still waiting for her to return.



Even thought the Jaipur police have failed to trace the missing woman, the aggrieved family is seeing a slight glimmer of hope after the conviction of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim on Friday in a 15-year-old rape case.



Guddi Devi, the wife of Kamlesh Kumar went to Sirsa back in March 2015 to visit a religious programme convened by the self-proclaimed godman. During the ceremony, a man from the Dera Sacha Sauda took his wife away and she hasnt been seen since then, said Babulal Bairwa, counsel of Kumar.



Kumar then tried to search for his wife for several days but after failing to know her whereabouts he went to the nearest police station is Sirsa to file a complaint.



The cops in Haryana threatened him and refused to lodge the case following which he returned to Jaipur to register the FIR, said Bairwa.



In a FIR registered at the Jawahar Circle police station had named Gurmeet Ram Rahim, DPS Dutta, managing director of the Dera and Shah Satnam.



The complainant accused all three of the men of kidnapping, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy.



As soon as the FIR was lodged, people claiming to be followers of Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Dera devotees started building pressure on Kumar as well as me to take back the case. The police too didnt cooperate with us and termed the case as inconclusive, said Bairwa.



The two young sons of Kumar and Devi are waiting for their mother to return since the past two years, with the family yet to get any trace of her.



The police presented a final report to the court in early 2016, terming the case as inconclusive and no action was taken against the accused.



Following that, a protest petition against the final report was filed by Kumar in February this year which will be heard in September.



After the conviction of the self-proclaimed godman, we hope that our case will also be heard and the children of Devi will finally get to know what happened to their mother, said Bairwa.



The police said that the final report was submitted because the area was outside the jurisdiction of Jaipur police.



The final report was submitted because the place where the woman went missing was out of our jurisdiction, said Rajesh Kumar Soni, SHO, Jawahar Circle police station.


The opposition National Conference (NC) is in talks with top legal luminaries of the country to defend the Article 35A in the Supreme Court as a private party, its working president Omar Abdullah has said.



Addressing a rally in Poonch district yesterday, he accused the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir of putting up "weak defense" in the case while countering the challenge to Article 35A in the apex court.



"The PDP-led government cannot be trusted on this crucial and sensitive issue that relates to identity, dignity and existence of people of the State," the former chief minister said.



He said the NC would not let Article 35A to go at the strength and commitment of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. "The machinations of the BJP to repeal this proviso through judicial process will not be allowed to succeed," he said.



Omar accused both the PDP and the BJP of using the issue of Article 35A as per their "specific agendas".



"While the BJP is playing to galleries across the country by whipping up passions on this issue, the PDP is trying to involve the defenders of Article 35A by pretending to be serious in safeguarding this constitutional guarantee.



"We just cannot trust the PDP, as lust to remain glued to power may make Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to give up and compromise with the interests of the people," he said.



He cautioned against the conspiracies being hatched by the BJP to dispense with Article 370 and Article 35A as per their well stitched strategy.



However, he reiterated the resolve of the people, irrespective of caste, creed, region or religion to thwart all these conspiracies.



The former chief Minister said the 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.



"The PDP and BJP were using Article 35A as a double-edged weapon against the people of Jammu and Kashmir - first to erode the special status of the state and second, to divert the attention of the people from governance deficit and their failure on all fronts," he alleged.



Criticising the government for its "failure on governance front", Omar said the security scenario has come to such a passe that the atmosphere of fear is again gripping the people.



He referred to the disturbed conditions, especially in the so-called core constituency of the PDP in south Kashmir and said "I could not travel on Mughal Road (passing through the area) due to security situation."



Omar took the coalition government head on for "failing in providing any respite to border dwellers who are intermittently braving shells from across the border".



He said no forward movement has been made in creating shelter sheds or constructing bunkers for safety of the people in forward areas during exigencies.
In a symbolic gesture, the indigenous Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) was handed over to the Indian Navy by Minister for Defence, Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, at Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Kanchanbagh here on Sunday.



LRSAM is an advanced combat suit for missile defence against air targets, missiles and includes air & surface surveillance, threat alert and fire control.



LRSAM is a DRDO-IAI (Defence Research & Development Organization - Israeli Aircraft Industries) Joint Development Contract with defined work-share. BDL is the Missile Production Agency to deliver and support the Indian Armed Forces in country's Defence preparedness. The missile is same for Tri Services viz., Navy, Air Force and Army.



State-of-the-art and first of its kind for a Defence production unit, the Rocket Motor Static Test Facility was dedicated to the Nation by Arun Jaitley, at BDL's Ibrahimpatnam Complex. An amount of Rs 48 Crores has been spent on this facility.



The 50 Ton Rocket Motor Test facility for Surface to Air Missile (SAM) class of missiles will support the design and vendor development activities needed for the production of missiles. These efforts were hitherto shouldered by DRDO as the development agency.



BDL is now equipped to take the responsibility on its own which has been actively guided for realization and establishment by DRDO. The test bed is capable of withstanding a load of 50000 Kg (50T) and explosive limit of 1000kg with H.D 1.1 category. All kinds of SAM motors can be tested.



At BDL, Bhanur Unit, Arun Jaitley, inaugurated the ASTRA Manufacturing Facility. Astra weapon system is an indigenously developed Air-to-Air beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile developed by DRDO.



It comprises of Astra Launcher and Astra Missile. It is designed as a BVR missile with a range of 110 Km in head-on mode and 20 Km in tail-chase mode. BVR missiles are the latest in the air to air combat. BDL has been designated as the lead integrator by DRDO.
American President Donald Trumps speech on Afghanistan last week was expected to unveil a new US policy towards the war-torn country. During his election campaign, he had pledged to pull out American troops from Afghanistan. His speech last week, however, laid out a policy that largely follows the old path. He will depend on the military to fight terrorists, US troops will stay on in Afghanistan, perhaps even in larger, as yet unspecified numbers. A deployment of 4,000 additional troops is expected for now and could grow. He has not laid out a withdrawal timetable. A pull-out of US troops, even a downsizing of their numbers, at this juncture would have been disastrous as the situation in Afghanistan is particularly delicate and dire today.



The Taliban controls large swathes of territory and the Islamic State has established its presence in the eastern districts. There was concern that if Trump ordered a pull-out of troops as pledged, it would result in Afghanistans descent into chaos. Yet, even Trumps new surge could also lead to heightened violence. He has promised to attack, obliterate and crush the various armed groups in Afghanistan. Afghans can expect to be pounded with greater firepower. The US President has said that he has lifted restrictions on what his troops can do on the field. Soldiers, especially those fighting an insurgency, need some operational autonomy and flexibility. But the lifting of restrictions that Trump is talking about could reduce their accountability. It would result in more Afghan civilians dying, abuse of human rights, and perhaps even war crimes.



The Trump administration has rightly identified Pakistans provision of safe havens for terrorist organisations as the key reason for continuing instability in Afghanistan. Trump has said that the US can no longer be silent about the threat Pakistan poses to the region and beyond. What kind of pressure does he propose to apply on Pakistan? The US administration is reportedly considering sanctioning of Pakistani officials with ties to terrorist organisations. This could impact ISI officials mainly. If the US implements this, it would mark a major turning point in US-Pakistan relations.



India and Afghanistan have welcomed Trumps forthright stating of the problem. But elation in policy-making circles in Delhi over Trumps ultimatum to Pakistan may be premature. An angry Pakistan is mobilising support against Trump from China, Turkey and even Russia. Any concrete action that the US takes to shut down terror safe havens in Pakistan will deepen the Russia-China-Pakistan bond, which would have serious repercussions for Indias national security. India must be on guard as the ISI can be expected to encourage attacks on Indian nationals and assets in Afghanistan.
Junked lorry parked on road

A junked lorry has been parked opposite the Indian Oil petrol pump near Ayyappa Swamy Temple in Vijaya Bank Colony, Bannerghatta Road, for the past one month, supposedly for repair.

The traffic police asked the petrol pump management to remove the lorry, but it did nothing. The traffic police should mean business and take stern action.

Dr Jeffrey Remy

Repair road on Jnanabharathi campus

The road from the National Law School of India University (Nagarabhavi Circle) to Bangalore Universitys administrative office is in a bad condition. It is filled with potholes, and motorists struggle to navigate it.

Proper maintenance of this road would have avoided this situation. Streetlights on this road are dysfunctional and its pitch dark after dusk. I complained about the matter several times but there has been no action. Will the authorities look it?

Kiran Manjunathaswamy

Road repair stopped midway

The road repair in Rustam Bagh Layout (ward number 113) began in January-February this year but has stopped midway. We understand that the BBMP allocated enough funds for the road repair in the budget.

Will the BBMP explain the real position and inform the residents when can we expect the work to complete?

V Padmanabhan, Rustam Bagh Main Road

Feeder buses from Maragondanahalli

Hundreds of office-goers, students and others travel towards the ITPL and the

city from Maragondanahalli every day. But there are few bus services while auto-rickshaws are not readily available.

I request the BMTC to introduce a feeder bus service from Ambedkar

Circle, Maragondanahalli, to the Baiyappanahalli Metro station via Horamavu-Kithaganur Road and Halehalli-TC Palya Road, especially during peak hour. A shuttle service could also be introduced from KR Puram to Maragondanahalli, which is growing into a busy suburb.

S Balakrishnan, Maragondanahalli

Indira Canteens in all govt hospitals

The governments intention of feeding the hungry by opening Indira Canteens across Bengaluru is praiseworthy. But it should go a step further and open subsidised eateries in all government hospitals such as Victoria Hospital, Bowring Hospital, KC General Hospital, Minto Hospital, Nimhans, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences

and Research, ESI Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, etc, since these hospitals are visited by the poor.

While the hospitals provide food to poor patients, the needs of their attendants, relatives and people coming to see them from far-off places should also be taken care of.

Since these hospitals have ample space, the government should seriously think of opening Indira Canteens there. This will go a long way in benefiting the poor.

Hari Kanniah

Axe old, ailing trees

While the ferocious rainfall has subsided, many large trees have been brought down by strong, gusty winds in various parts of the city. This is a matter of concern. On the busy Nrupathunga Road, a large tree fell on a vehicle opposite the state police headquarters. The driver and the owner were lucky to get away without any scratch.

The BBMP would do well to pull down ailing trees and those that pose a threat to life and limb, and plant fresh saplings in their place.

N J Ravi Chander, Fraser Town
After cracks appeared in the 13 hill parties conglomerate, the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC), with several constituent members favouring talks with the West Bengal government over the Darjeeling impasse, further cracks seem imminent.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which has been spearheading the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland, has a new favourite leader, as opposed to its president Bimal Gurung.



GJM chief coordinator Binay Tamang has emerged as the favoured alternative to Gurung, not only in the GMCC but also among the moderate ranks of GJM.

The state government on Sunday reiterated its position that it will only accept

Tamang as the GJM representative for the crucial

August 19 talks at the state secretariat.

The meeting, convened by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accepted by the GMCC, will be the first such talks to restore peace and normalcy in the hills and lift the indefinite shut down in the Darjeeling hills, which has entered its 74th day.

Charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act in connection with the Darjeeling blast and the grenade attack on the Kalimpong police station, in which a civic volunteer was killed and two others were injured, GJM president Bimal Gurung will face arrest if he attempts to reach Kolkata for Tuesdays meeting.

Tamang, who will take his place, on Saturday announced his team, which is filled with people taking the moderate stand.

While talking to DH, West Bengal Tourism Minister Goutam Deb said, We are all hoping to end this impasse. Everyone one is suffering. We know that the GJM is also under extreme pressure to lift the shutdown with Durga Puja less than a month away.

The tourism sector desperately hopes to gain something during the festive season after the massive loss in the summer.

Then there is the question of students who have been suffering as schools are shut and exams are around the corner.



"We think Tuesdays meeting will bring good news for Darjeeling hills. Deb added.
The state BJP on Sunday commenced district-wise meetings of its units to deliberate on a plan of action to strengthen the partys political activity at the grassroots ahead of the Assembly polls.



Members of the core committee headed by BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa will be present at each of the meetings which will go on for the next five days. The districts of Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Uttara Kannada and Udupi were covered on Sunday.



The meetings come close on the heels of party national president Amit Shahs recent warning to state leaders that he expected visible progress in the partys performance as well as improvement in its image in the coming weeks, failing which he will be forced to crack the whip.



Review meeting



Shah held a review meeting with core committee members in New Delhi on Saturday.



Prime on the agenda of the party is to strengthen booth-level committees and sort out differences, if any among district leaders.



The party has decided to take out Nava Karnataka Parivartan Yatra to expose the misdeeds of the Siddaramaiah government.



wwThe yatra will start on November 1 to coincide with Kannada Rajyotsava.



The BJP is planning six mega conventions in different parts of the state in the coming weeks. The party will also organise protests, dharnas, rallies, two-wheeler rallies, torch-light processions and silent processions against the government at the state, district and taluk levels.



Speaking at a party event in Bengaluru, Yeddyurappa said a large number of leaders from other parties will be joining the BJP three months ahead of the polls.



He said ticket has not been promised to anybody to contest the elections and it will be decided by Shah. Yeddyurappa said the party should strive to secure a thumping majority in the polls.



DKS ex-aide joins BJP



Earlier, Bengaluru unit Congress general secretary Varaprasad Reddy joined the BJP along with his supporters in presence of Yeddyurappa. Reddy was said to have been close to Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and his brother and Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh. He recently fell out with them.








India and Japan will next month launch the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, a development cooperation initiative envisaged to link the two continents and run counter to the One-Belt-One-Road initiative of China.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will outline the vision of the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor during the annual India-Japan bilateral summit in New Delhi next month, sources told DH.

The new initiative is being seen as a move by New Delhi and Tokyo to counter Beijings bids to expand its geopolitical influence in Asia and Africa, particularly through its One-Belt-One-Road cross-continental connectivity initiative.

The vision of the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor is being developed on the four pillars  Development and Cooperation Projects, Quality Infrastructure and Institutional Connectivity, Enhancing Capacities and Skills and People-to-People Partnerships.

We would naturally like the initiative (Asia-Africa Growth Corridor) to be based on universally recognized international norms, good governance, rule of law, openness, transparency and equality,Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

One of the reasons New Delhi cited for staying away from the One-Belt-One-Road initiative of Beijing was that China did not hold any consultation with India before embarking on it.

There must be a strong sense of local ownership that can only happen with consultative project designing, transfer of technology and encouragement of skills, Jaishankar said at an event held by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a think-tank under the Ministry of External Affairs, for consultation on the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor in New Delhi on Friday.

India has been particularly opposing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key component of the OBOR of China. The CPEC is proposed to pass through areas New Delhi claims to be integral parts of Jammu and Kashmir state of India and accuses Islamabad of illegally occupying.





New Delhi has been accusing Beijing of infringing on sovereignty of India by joining Pakistan for the CPEC project. Our activities must fully conform to balanced ecological and environmental protection and preservation standards. And, I am compelled to add, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, Foreign Secretary said as he tacitly took a jibe at China.

New Delhi in May turned down an invitation from Beijing to attend a conclave of the leaders of the countries, which joined China in the OBOR initiative. This was followed by the current India-China military face-off in Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan, worsening the complex relations between the two neighbouring nations.

Tokyo, unlike New Delhi, has joined the Belt-and-Road initiative of Beijing. But Japan's troubled ties with China has cast a shadow over its participation in the communist country's international connectivity initiative, which has of late been also criticized for putting the smaller participating nations at the risk of being caught in a debt-trap.

No less important is ensuring of financial responsibility, so that there is no encouragement of unsustainable debts, Jaishankar said, as he outlined how New Delhi would like to take forward the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor.

Modi and Abe first conceived the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor during their last summit in Tokyo in November last year.

The Research and Information System for Developing Countries of New Delhi and Institute of Developing Economies of Tokyo worked with Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia of Jakarta and other Asian and African think-tanks to draw the outline of the development cooperation initiative.

The Asia Africa Growth Corridor will have a series of projects which will be designed based on development priorities of different countries and sub-regions of Africa and taking advantage of simultaneous homogeneity and heterogeneity among them.





This would be undertaken to improve growth and interconnectedness between and within Asia and Africa for realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region, the RIS said in a note on the initiative.

The initiative has been envisaged to give priority to development projects in health and pharmaceuticals, agriculture and agro-processing, disaster management and skill enhancement.





The connectivity aspects of the AAGC will be supplemented with quality infrastructure. The growth led by the initiative in Africa and Asia will be responsive to the collective commitment for the Sustainable Development Goals.





The vision study for the corridor will use Geographical Simulation Model to bring out the economic gains for Africa through its integration with India, South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and Oceania, noted the RIS, adding: It will contribute to develop institutional mechanisms and models for connecting businesses, people and think tanks that represent, and contribute to, the integration efforts in Asia and Africa.
A Swiss parliamentary panel will discuss next month necessary safeguards the European nation needs to adopt in automatic exchange of banking information with India and 40 other jurisdictions for checking alleged stashing of black money.

The Committee on Economy and Royalties of the National Council (CER-N), a key panel of Swiss parliament had rejected on August 15 a proposal seeking to outrightly suspend implementation of the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), Switzerland.

It has now agreed to adopt with 41 nations including India and will examine the criteria a country would need to satisfy to start getting access to data under the automatic information exchange.

According to the minutes of the last meeting of the committee, the CER-N will continue its examination at a meeting on September 11 of the 41 AEOIs agreed upon by the Federal Council, the highest decision-making body of Swiss government.

The panel will also discuss how to strengthen the role of the relevant parliamentary committees in deciding whether or not to transmit data abroad.
The Congress on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal for peace as propaganda that has an entirely opposite meaning for the BJP cadre.

The main opposition party also accused prime minister and his party of inciting violence and listed the 2002 Gujarat riots and the recent killings in the name of cow protection.

While any appeal for peace by a prime minister is good, for this prime minister it is only and only propaganda, AICC spokesman Sandeep Dikshit said here.

He said while Modi appealed for peace, every time the message for BJP cadre was very clear. What happened in 2002, what happened in the name of cultural violence... the message has gone out very clear  As prime minister I will keep making statements but nothing will happen on the ground, Dikshit said.

The ground forces the prime ministers party and various organisations will continue to do exactly what they want, the Congress leader said adding that the congress was extremely disappointed at the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde game that the prime minister was playing.

The Congress leader said it was a sad commentary on the nation that a High Court had to say that Modi was the prime minister of the country and not that of the BJP.
Amid elaborate security arrangements, the army has been put on standby ahead of Mondays pronouncement of the quantum of sentence in the Dera Sacha Sauda rape case.

Official reports on Sunday said that in Sirsa, which is the headquarters of the sect, devotees may resort to arson, breach of peace and tranquility, leading to damage to public and private properties. The sect chief was on Friday convicted of rape charges by a CBI court in a 15-year-old case.

The ground situation in violence-ravaged Panchkula remains peaceful, but tense. Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said no incidents of violence have been reported in the last 24 hours. He said, as of now curfew continues to be enforced in Sirsa only.

CBI judge Jagdeep Singh, who will be flown to Rohtak on Monday, is likely to pronounce the quantum of sentence by 2.30 pm inside the Rohtak jail, which has been designated as the court. The convicted chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh faces a minimum of seven years in jail or up to life imprisonment.

There are fears of a repeat of Fridays violence in places which have a strong presence of Dera supporters. The death toll has gone up to 38 so far. All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal, Ambala, Bhiwani and Fatehabad will remain closed in view of the quantum of punishment to be announced Monday.

The Haryana and Punjab governments have extended the suspension of mobile internet services, including all SMS services on mobile networks till around noon on Tuesday.

There are 131 Dera establishments in Haryana alone; most of these have been sanitised by the police in the last two days, something they should have done routinely to keep tab on such sects.



The government has drawn flak from various quarters, including the high court, for its failure to deal with the situation in the desired manner.



An AK-47 assault rifle, 72 petrol bombs and other weapons have been recovered from Dera followers. A fire tender of the sect was also confiscated on Sunday.

Sources said the vehicle may have been custom made from inside to store petrol. As many as 200 packets of red chilly powder have also been recovered.A few video recordings have come to the fore that point towards the conspiracy angle to disrupt law and order in the state.

The police said they have taken cognizance of all such video recordings and are verifying the veracity of the clips.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said no compensation would be given by his government to law breakers from his state who were killed in the Panchkula carnage.
By Matt McGrath

24 August 2017

(BBC News)  A commercial LNG tanker has sailed across the colder, northern route from Europe to Asia without the protection of an ice-breaker for the first time.The specially-built ship completed the crossing in just six-and-a-half days setting a new record, according to the tankers Russian owners.The 300-metre-long Sovcomflot ship, the Christophe de Margerie, was carrying gas from Norway to South Korea.Rising Arctic temperatures are boosting commercial shipping across this route.The Christophe de Margerie is the worlds first and, at present, only ice-breaking LNG carrier.The ship, which features a lightweight steel reinforced hull, is the largest commercial ship to receive Arc7 certification, which means it is capable of travelling through ice up to 2.1m thick.On its maiden voyage earlier this year, the Christophe de Margerie docked in the Russian port of Sabetta. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the crew and energy company officials gathered on the ships bridge, saying: This is a big event in the opening up of the Arctic. [more]
26 August 2017 (Desdemona Despair)  How low can Trump go, and how long will it take him to get there? One way to gauge public sentiment is to aggregate data from multiple polls and compute an estimate. Fortunately, the good people at FiveThirtyEight are doing this for us at their excellent site, How popular is Donald Trump? Today (26 August 2017), Trumps approval rating is bumping along the bottom at 36.9%, very close to his lowest rating of 36.6% on 7 August 2017. Where is it likely to go from here? The FiveThirtyEight model is pretty sophisticated, and it predicts a general increase in Approval, and a corresponding decrease in Disapproval.

What do the simple linear trends look like? The FiveThirtyEight folks generously post their trend data for public consumption, so its easy to find out.The top graph shows the linear trends for FiveThirtyEights Trump Approval and Disapproval estimates. Various other curves (e.g., exponential, logarithmic) dont improve the fit by much. The current rate of increase in Trump Disapproval is about 0.05% per day. At this rate, Trump Disapproval increases by a full percentage point every 20 days. Extrapolating the trend, the average poll will have Trump at 60% Disapproval sometime in early October 2017.The current rate of decline in Trump Approval is about 0.04% per day, or 0.4% every ten days. At this rate, Trump loses a full percentage point every 25 days. Extrapolating the trend, the average poll will have Trump at 30% approval sometime in late February 2018.In the Disapprove signal, Desdemonas eyechrometer detects some nonlinearity in the first month or so of data. What do the trends look like for recent polling only? Here are the estimates for the last two months:

Over this time span, Trumps Approval rating declines more rapidly compared with the full data set, at about 0.05% per day, and his Disapproval increases less rapidly, at 0.04% per day. Extrapolating these trends, Trump Disapproval crosses 60% in November 2017, and Approval falls below 30% in January 2018.Obviously, these curves could be deflected by all sorts of drivers: a sudden event, like Trump going to war with somebody, could cause a step-change in these curves; or a general lessening of his administrations incompetence could allow a slow return to the mean, like what the FiveThirtyEight model predicts. For example, if Trump doesnt completely botch the Federal response to Hurricane Harvey, he may be hailed as a success, causing an inflection in the approve/disapprove trends.Also, theres reason to expect a floor in Trumps Approval rating. Even Richard Nixons freefall from nearly 70% stabilized at around 25%, in what appears to be a smooth exponential decline.
June 2017 (EDGI)  The Trump administration currently poses the greatest threat to the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its entire 47-year history. Twice before, presidential administrations in North America have targeted their own

environmental agencies with comparable aggression, in the early Reagan

administration (1981-1983) and under Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

(2006-2015). Trumps assault is on track to surpass these. Successful challenges to these earlier attacks provide pointers for those hoping to uphold the EPAs mission

of protecting human and environmental health today, Republicans and Democrats

alike. Our analysis draws upon deep digs into historical literature and archives as

well as sixty interviews with current and former EPA and some OSHA employees.Key points:

In its early decades, the EPA enjoyed bipartisan support, growing under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

The greatest exception was the first Reagan administration (1981-1983).

Trumps attack has mirrored Reagans in its reliance on appointing administrators with corporate ties who decry government overreach, including his first EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch; an executive order undermining stringent environmental protections, by requiring cost-benefit analysis of new rules by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); reorganization to break up the EPA Office of Enforcement; and proposals for deep budget and staff cuts.

Impacts: During Reagans first two years, Anne Gorsuch along with OMB director David Stockman succeeded in reducing the EPA budget by 21% and staff by 26%. Enforcement actions also dropped dramatically: civil cases referred from the regions to headquarters, for instance, fell by 79%.

The early-Reagan assault on the EPA ended after only two years, because of: revelations of conflict of interest, lying under oath, obstruction of justice, and more, via Congressional investigations and subpoenas, investigative reporting, and leaks; resistance from former and current employees, working through a Save EPA group and a new employee union, along with environmental and community groups; and political pressure from mounting public disapproval.

Reversal: By late 1983 Gorsuch and 21 other political appointees had resigned and the Reagan administration was seeking to restore the agencys leadership, resources, and mission.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harpers administration (2006-2015) also anticipated Trump in targeting science as well as the environment.

Harper did so in an era of solidifying consensus among scientists about human contributions to climate change, when the need to shift energy usage away from fossil fuels was becoming ever more apparent.

Harpers attacks on environmental regulation came coupled with others on Canadian science and scientists: the Harper administration reversed Canadas approach to climate change, and undermined environmental initiatives in general. It also significantly cut funding for federal laboratories and research programs, monitored and in some cases prohibited federal scientists from speaking publicly, deleted content from federal environmental websites, and closed federal environmental libraries.

Successful challenges to the Harper Administration took longer to materialize. From 2011, Canadian residents protested and formed organizations. Both science and the environment then emerged as key issues in the 2015 campaign season, which ushered in current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Trump administrations overt challenges to the agency are compounding the effects of a quieter, longer-term erosion of support.

The EPA has been

shrinking in budget and staff size since the Clinton administration. Its peak

staff

size came in 1999, and its FY 2016 budget of $8.1 billion represents 9% fewer real dollars than the Agency received in 2006. Congressional

Republicans have already been targeting the EPAs Science Advisory Board.

In its first few months, the Trump administration has subjected the EPA to provocations and pressures surpassing those of Reagans early months. Appointments like that of Scott Pruitt, who combines hostility to EPA

overreach with greater experience than Gorsuch.

Speeches and publicity that ignore or contest the agencys basic mission and that pledge overt allegiance to regulated industries.

Multiple executive orders asking the agency not just to favor fossil fuels but to rescind two existing rules for every new one (with assessments based only on compliance costs and not on calculated benefits); reevaluate the rest of agency rules for burdensomeness; and reorganize with a view to downsizing.

Proposals for steep budget and staff cuts beyond what even Anne Gorsuch first ventured, especially targeting climate, international collaborations, environmental justice, and enforcement programs; scientific research; and grants to states for implementation and enforcement.

Marginalization, monitoring, and suspicion of career employees.

Morale has plummeted, and many describe a deep anxiety about their own careers and the future of environmental protection and the EPA.

Our historical analysis singles out key determinants of the EPAs future:
HTC announced the Android Oreo update for the HTC 10, U 11 and U Ultra in a reply to a twitter users question about the same. Android 8.0 was recently made official by Google and some Pixel, Nexus smartphones have already started receiving the OTA update

Update: HTC has now confirmed that the Android Oreo update will be rolling out to the HTC 10, U11 and U Ultra in Q4 2017. Users of the HTC 10, U11 and U Ultra can expect the update to arrive sometime between October and December. In the tweet, HTC writes, "We're excited to bring Android 8.0 to the HTC U11, U Ultra, & 10, beginning with U11 in Q4. Stay tuned for more Oreo details & new products!"

Android Oreo is fresh off the oven and has already started rolling out to some Pixel and Nexus devices as an OTA update. Now, HTC has confirmed that the HTC 10, U11 and U Ultra will be updated to the latest Android operating system. All the three devices currently run on Android Nougat.

Replying to a Twitter query, HTC noted that owners of the HTC 10, U11 and U Ultra handsets worldwide should expect the Android Oreo update soon. Heres the tweet:

We're excited to bring Android Oreo to HTC U11, HTC U Ultra, and HTC 10 owners worldwide! Details & additional devices to be announced soon.  HTC USA (@HTCUSA) August 22, 2017

HTC is one of the first few smartphone makers to announce the Android 8.0 update for its smartphones. However, Google had already mentioned a few companies it is partnering with to roll-out the new OS. In a blog post, Google said it is working with, Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global Home of Nokia Phones, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony to upgrade existing device to Android Oreo. Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax had also recently confirmed that its latest launch, the Micromax Canvas Infinity, will be upgraded to Android O.

Apart from the OS update, HTC is already rolling out another new update for its flagship U11 smartphone. The update called as version 1.27.400.9 weighs in at around 665MB and brings new enhancements to the handset. The biggest addition is the support for 1080p video recording at 60 frames per second, a feature that was announced at the time of the launch.
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Kim Gulledges second grade class at the Eufaula Primary School said goodbye to a special guest Wednesday, a girl who had never experienced school in the United States.

The special guest was seven year old Lily Sucaet from Edegem, Belgium. Lily has been visiting her grandparents, Bo and Mary Ellen Gatlin from Eufaula, during her break from school in her hometown, where she and her family have lived for seven years. This isnt Lilys first trip to Eufaula though, she gets to come once a year to visit her grandparents, but it was her first experience with what an American school is like.

When asked how she has liked attending an American school, Lily said she has enjoyed it. According to Lilys mom, Tamera, her favorite thing has been her experience with an iPad.

She said she likes the iPads, thats her favorite thing. They do not have electronics in the schools like they do here, Tamera commented. They had computer when she was in kindergarten, but they didnt have it when she was in the first grade. She likes art and going outside too. She did wonder why they didnt go out to the playground though.

Gulledge explained to Lily and her mother saying, We have formal physical education that is more structured than what I believe she is used to at home. I think the students get to go out on Fun Friday to the playground, otherwise they have a formal physical education program they do. Ive tried to explain to her the difference in the weather, how its been too hot for them to go outside to play much during the day. By now at home, Lily and her family would already be experiencing some fall weather, something southern Alabama will not see for a couple months yet.

Lily was rather shy when asked about her school at home but she did reveal that there are no school buses like there are here. Students ride their bikes, walk or are delivered to school by car. She also said that they write everything in cursive and do a lot of work. No art or music is taught in the Catholic school that Lily attends according to her mother.

No stranger to American schools, Tamera, who graduated from Eufaula High School attended Troy University. She met Lilys father, Yves Sucaet, during her time at Troy when he attended the university as an exchange student. He later received a PhD from Ohio State. He was named Troy Universitys Alumni of the Year this year.

When asked about the differences between the education systems, Tamera said that in Belgium, students do not learn to speak and write in English until they learn Dutch and then French, which is the second language of Belgium. Lily speaks and reads in Dutch and has also learned to speak and read some English.

For our Hispanic students, this has been special because they have gotten to meet someone like them that knows two languages. Normally, they only get to interact with students who only know English, Eufaula Primary School Principal Emily Jackson said of Lilys visit to the school.

Something that Lily said her school doesnt have that they have here is a lunchroom. Students bring their lunch and eat outside a lot, she said. She also noted that their playground is in the middle of their school, surrounded by the buildings.

Schools start in Belgium for students at the age of 2  years old according to Tamera. Lilys younger brother, Lucas, who is now three years-old, was able to attend school part of last year when he came of age. The school he attended was very much like an American preschool.

Before leaving on Wednesday, Lily sat in front of the class and read from what her grandmother, Mary Ellen, said is called funny books in Belgium. The book, which was a Lego Friends book, was printed in Dutch so as Lily read, her mother translated to the students. Mary Ellen said funny books are the same as American comic books.
A bench warrant has been issued at Dundalk District Court for a motorist who hit a patrol car as he tried to evade gardai as he had drugs on-board which resulted in a chase towards the M1 motorway.

Alan Harris (27) of Rathmore Road, Drummully, Newry was prosecuted for dangerous driving, driving without insurance or a driver's licence and failing to stop for gardai, at Lower Faughart on August 15th 2015.

The original hearing 13 months ago was told that the defendant came to garda attention in Cox's Demesne in Dundalk and drove off towards the M1.

Alan Harris performed a u-turn and hit a patrol car. He also drove the wrong way up a slip road and collided with another vehicle. Cannabis worth 500 was found in three bags, along with weighing scales and three mobile phones.

The accused had no previous convictions and the defence solicitor said her client is a father of two children who knew he had drugs in his possession and that was why he drove off. The solicitor added that her client - who was by then clean of drugs, had been abandoned by his mother when he was 14.

Judge Flann Brennan adjourned the case saying if the accused paid compensation for the damage caused, he wouldd take a more lenient view.

In October, the solicitor said that 1,000 had been confiscated when her client was arrested and he was suggesting that 500 of that be taken for compensation, while in April, the solicitor said there was a further 500 in court.

However, after Sgt. Fintan McGroder pointed out the monies involved did not cover the full amount of damage of more than 5,000 the case was further adjourned until to last Thursday but Alan Harris was not in attendance when the case was called.

Judge Conal Gibbons issued a bench warrant although the defence solicitor said it was possible that her client's failure to appear was because he had been advised that Judge Brennan would not be present and all the cases he was due to finalise were being adjourned to next month.
A 29 year old man who gave false details to gardai, who had come upon him banging on the door of an address in Dundalk, and shouting loudly at the occupants, has been fined a total of 225 euro at the local district court.

The court heard it happened on Bridge Street shortly before midnight on March 20th last, and it was discovered that there was a bench warrant in existence for Chinedu Omee after he was arrested.

The accused Chinedu Omee with an address at Martello Road, Balbriggan had 21 previous convictions - nine of which were for public order matters.

The Defence barrister said her client - who is serving a five month sentence with a release date in October, was apologetic for his behaviour.

She added that he was going through a difficult patch at the time, as his grandmother, whom he was very close to as a child, had died.

Judge Conal Gibbons imposed a 75 fine for being intoxicated in a public place, and a 150 euro fine for failing to appear before the CCJ in Dublin on a previous date.

He added he would take into consideration the charge relating to giving false details, saying "It doesn't strike me as being sinister".

The judge said he believed that it had "more to do with the consumption of alcohol".
This is when Democrats get to explain what theyre for  the people over the powerful

After the horrors of Harvey, Congress will soon return to Washington D.C. and the fate of Donald Trumps presidency will be decided by his ability to keep the government open, raise the debt limit and  most importantly  cut taxes for the rich.

The promise of these tax breaks is the very air inside Wall Streets bubble and the rubber in the rubber cement that fixes Paul Ryan to Trumps hind quarters. And passing giant tax breaks, mostly for the rich, should be the easiest thing in the world for a Republican president with Republican majorities in both Houses that rigged the rules so you only need 50 votes in the Senate to pass said tax breaks.

Think about it: Which three GOP Senators are going to vote against tax breaks?

The great Andy Slavitt  who ran the ACA, Medicaid and Medicare under President Obama  suggests that Trumps presidency depends on these tax breaks. Where did he get this idea? By talking to health care CEOs in touch with hedge fund managers who share Trumps obsession with repealing the ACA.

Well get to that in a moment.

But first, two tweets.

Theres this:

Watch how income gains have shifted toward the richest Americans over timehttps://t.co/huz839nM9b pic.twitter.com/J5pyOt0U7S  Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) August 23, 2017

Which must be considered in terms of this:

My dogs live in this two-story doggy mansion that has air conditioning, heating, designer furniture, and a chandelier. Loves it pic.twitter.com/4dXAf5XPXV  Paris Hilton (@ParisHilton) August 25, 2017

This is why Democrats Not One Penny campaign, which focuses on making sure that the wealthy and their corporations dont get any tax breaks, is a smart strategy. We know Republicans feel vulnerable on this issue, which is why the tax breaks for the rich in the House Trumpcare bill never even got a real vote in the Senate.

We also know that Medicaid is newly popular thanks in large part to the work of activists, especially National ADAPT. Given that the GOP is still fixated on cutting Medicaid with the Graham-Cassidy ACA repeal, we need to make sure that the importance of Medicaid isnt buried in the flurry of legislation thats about to sweep in on top of the gale force graft, incompetence and scandal of the Trump Administration.

I hope Democrats note that any tax breaks for the rich becoming law now is basically signing the death warrant for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security as we know them, given that its no secret that the point of tax cuts we cant afford is to justify the destruction the of our safety net.

But theres an even larger opportunity to begin resurrecting the Democrats natural identity as the party that puts the people over the powerful.

Exploitation of the working class is the the through-line that connects Trumps entire agenda, which is all about freeing polluters, bankers and bosses to exploit workers in ways only people who see the non-rich as disposable would tolerate.

Despite his standard GOP policies, Trump was elected by effectively stealing the pro-worker narrative from Democrats with his faux concerns about trade and immigration. These growls are proving to be dog whistles tied to no substantive policies except mass deportations, which is why the GOPs billionaires are mostly thrilled with the meat of his presidency. But his record-low popularity and manifest unfitness for office poses real costs for the rich in terms of fusing their agenda to a madman who coddles white supremacists, comforts adversaries and seeks every opportunity to loot taxpayers.

At some point, he  despite his willingness to let the Federalist Society/Mike Pence pick his judges  becomes too much of a burden to bear.

When could that happen?

Here Andy Slavitt connects the dots:

And we also need to continually ask ourselves: What happens if Trump gets the tax breaks he needs?

Given the advantages the GOP has created for itself in 2018, the way reluctant Trump voters seem to behave and the billions of dollars these tax breaks would put in the pockets of donors who could then spend freely to save the House and expand their control in the Senate, passing tax breaks for the rich could be Trumps Get Away with Everything Free card.

Thats when we realize theres no waking up from this nightmare.
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ICMAI CMA December 2022 exam form submission date extended The candidates who have not applied yet will have the opportunity to fill the application form for the ICMAI

NAAC accreditation will now be in binary terms, check details here Individual programmes offered by a college or an individual department of any university will also have the

President Murmu launches AICTE Engineering books in Odia language The Odia language translated books are available at called e-KUMBH portal
karanbansal91 said:

Got an invite for 190.

I am just wondering that "Should I go for medicals before visa lodgement or after visa lodgement"???



Feeling



My agent is saying to got for medicals after CO request. What shall I do?? Hi,Got an invite for 190.I am just wondering that "Should I go for medicals before visa lodgement or after visa lodgement"???FeelingMy agent is saying to got for medicals after CO request. What shall I do?? Click to expand...

It's subjective however it's better to go for medicals after visa lodgement as your medicals/pcc date determine how much later you can make initial entry to Australia. Secondly, you will get enough time to go for medicals after visa lodgement too.
Please give me appropriate suggestion.



I am from india, i have been working 3 years as ship officer . I have completed B.sc. nautical science. I am willing to move to Canada permanently. Is there any visa i can apply to get PR. Or i need to go via student visa?



Regards.

Mandeep
Hi All,



I'm from Srilanka and here we don't have hourly based jobs. we do only have permanent work and temporary work. Due to this fact, my employers didn't mention abt the working hours in my service letter.



I was a permanent employee and permanent employees normally work around 45 hours per week and they get benefits like retirement fund contributions which will deposit under our name in the Central bank. So if I can attach those retirement fund statements and If I explain that in the Letter of explanation will that be fine?



Thanks,

Sam
Hello EF folks!Does anyone know a good pediatric ophthalmologist that they can recommend?Took my son to one of them yesterday and he has been diagnosed with myopia and prescribed glasses to the power of -2.25 which is quite shocking.Issue is that he has absolutely no problem with his eyesight and can read, play sports, etc without any issue. It's the distance of his board in the classroom that is the biggest challenge. I do not want him wearing spectacles 24/7 which is what has been prescribed because I do not want him to grow up being dependent on glasses for even the simplest tasks, which I fear will happen.Any advice and recommendations will be appreciated. Thank you!
Has anyone had success applying for a freelance visa in the Dubai International Academic City free zone as an English teacher?
AUSTIN  Gov. Greg Abbott added Bexar County and 19 others to a state disaster declaration Saturday in response to damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Although the storm weakened to a tropical storm by mid-afternoon, Abbott warned about the potential for dramatic flooding in the coming days and urged residents to remain vigilant.

Put your life and the protection of your life first and foremost, he said in a press conference at the Austin-based state operations center, two levels underground.

Harvey pummeled the Coastal Bend area last night, downing power lands, uprooting trees and leading to flood damage, but Abbott said Saturday he could not confirm any fatalities. The state will be working with local officials over the coming days to get that information.

Buses have already made more than 100 trips transporting evacuees from coastal towns inland and 228 buses are available to continue the effort, Abbott said. On Friday, Abbott waived the states hotel occupancy tax for all evacuees and first responders.

Abbott said evacuees he met at a shelter in San Antonio Friday had a sense of relief.

They were happy to be alive and they were at peace in that regard, he said.

The biggest threat remains the rain, which Harvey continues to dump across coastal areas and inland. The stretch between Corpus Christi and flood-prone Houston could see an additional 20 to 30 inches of rain, Abbott said.

The storm has so far led to more than 338,000 power outages, but due to high wind speeds in the area, it may be days before all the outages can be addressed, Abbott said.

After addressing reporters, Abbott appeared before dozens of state, federal and military officials coordinating a response to Harvey from the basement of the Department of Public Safety building and thanked them for the work.

I want you to know what a difference you are making in the lives of your fellow Texans, he said into a microphone.

The storm is expected to last into the middle of the week, though officials said Saturday the exact path is difficult to know.

Right now, forecasts show Harvey will move toward San Antonio before doubling back Sunday morning and pressing north through Thursday.
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After tearing into the Gulf Coast, killing at least one person, Hurricane Harvey is lumbering over South Texas, threatening to drop feet of rain and turn creeks and rivers into raging torrents.

That means the worst is yet to come for San Antonio, New Braunfels, Seguin and other communities along the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers, where forecasters and state and local officials are urging continued caution through Wednesday.

Residents of quaint tourist towns along the Gulf awoke Saturday to scenes of destruction caused by Harvey, the most intense hurricane to hit Texas in 56 years. Winds mangled trailer homes and tore the roofs and sides off restaurants, hotels, shops, churches and the high school gym in Rockport.

One Rockport family of four toughed it out inside their house.

With their vehicle in poor condition and no word of public transport inland, they tried to find lodging in nearby Portland. They were turned away by two hotels, with clerks citing liability issues. One hotel called the police on them.

The car wasnt safe, but the house wasnt safe either.

Our vehicle was shaking, mother Lisa Rehr said.

The police? Even better. They told us to head to Corpus, we hear there's a shelter, but by the way, the bridge isn't safe.

So they returned to their house, but the flood water rose quickly. Hearing helicopters overhead, they punched a hole in the roof and climbed through, waved bright blankets and spray painted SOS.

They inked their names, Social Security numbers, and I love you, on their arms in case they didnt survive.

They flew right past us, she said. "We watched them pick up somebody else, right across the field from us.

They tied a long outdoor extension cord around themselves so they could stay together  grandmother, mother, father, and 4-year-old Max.

When the sun came up Saturday and the water subsided, they loaded Max into a rolling plastic storage container, dubbed it the boat, and walked down drier parts of the street until the someone from the Department of Public Safety picked them up.

We lost everything, Rehr said. But we didn't lose anything that mattered.

Sarina Gonzalez also weathered the hurricane from her Rockport apartment even as Harvey ripped it apart.

"It's terrible, it's just terrible," she said.

It's demolished.  The living room started caving in and then the bedroom started caving in. And we were hanging out in a little bitty closet. I called the cops five times, Please help, please help!

Aransas County Judge C.H. Burt" Mills Jr. on Saturday confirmed the death of one person in the coastal county.

Harvey made landfall after 10 p.m. Friday near Rockport, about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi, as a category 4 storm with winds topping 130 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Federal authorities have declared a disaster in the counties of Bee, Goliad, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio counties.

A primary concern remains dramatic flooding, said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who added 20 counties, including Bexar County, to a disaster declaration list that by Saturday added up to 50 counties.

San Antonio remains under a tropical storm warning as local officials urge residents not to let their guards down.

A former tropical storm that dissipated near the Yucatan Peninsula and reformed rapidly starting Wednesday, Harveys slow-moving intensity was fueled by warm ocean water and calm air at 40,000 feet.

Denise Christopherson, 66, wept as she recalled the home she left behind in Port Aransas on Thursday as she fled 170 miles inland with her husband, her best friend, and her father-in-law.

Were pretty sure our place is, if not destroyed, under water, she said. I brought all of my earrings. I must have hundreds of pairs, and all of them are from people Ive known through the years. They all tell a story.

The U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews plucked at least 17 people from danger Saturday, including 15 rescued from boats near Port Aransas and Sandy Point, along with a man, a woman and their dog stranded near Rockport.

As the storm approached and made landfall, evacuees from the coast streamed inland, with roughly 1,100 people currently sheltered in San Antonio. Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city will not turn anyone away and is prepared to shelter them even after the storm ends.

The eyes of the world, as we know, are on Texas right now, the mayor said at a Saturday afternoon press conference. Were very proud of San Antonio because we have developed a reputation for doing things the right way.

Coming ashore sapped the hurricanes strength Saturday, and meteorologists downgraded Harvey to a tropical storm by late Saturday afternoon.

In San Antonio, the outer edges of the storm arrived as a moderate rain late Saturday morning, with wind gusts of up to around 40 to 50 mph knocking down tree limbs and leading to scattered power outages.

Forecasts had called for the storm to drop anywhere between 6 and 20 inches over parts of San Antonio, though the city had received slightly less than 1 inch by 5 p.m. Saturday after the storm changed tack.

Austin ended up getting 4.28 inches Saturday, a new record for Aug. 26, NWS meteorologist Mark Lenz said.

The center of the storm actually moved a little further north, he said. It put some of the heavier rain we thought would come into San Antonio into Austin.

Updated forecasts are calling for 5 to 10 inches of rain with possible patches of higher amounts in San Antonio proper. Areas east of interstates 35 and 37 could get 10 to 20 inches, with isolated highs up to 30 inches, according to the NWS.

A tight rainfall gradient is expected on the western and northern edge of Harvey's precipitation shield, near or along the I-35 corridor, the forecasts state, adding that small shifts in Harveys path could lead to big differences in rainfall across a relatively short distance.

Coastal areas will see more extreme rainfall  15 to 30 inches with isolated patches of up to 40 inches in a line from Beeville to Port Aransas, according to the NWS.

For much of South Texas, forecasters warn that the greatest danger Harvey poses will be flooding over the next several days.

Cities and towns between the coast and the Interstate 35 corridor will face Harveys wrath twice  once from the heavy winds and intense rainfall soon after the storm made landfall and again by Tuesday or Wednesday when the rivers swell with the rain Harvey is already dumping upstream.

National Weather Service forecasters described the flooding parts of South Texas will see over the coming days in words rarely seen in government bulletins - catastrophic and life-threatening.

The creeks are what are going to cut us off, Victoria County Deputy Bryan Simons, said, describing how the rising Guadalupe River and its tributaries threaten to isolate the city of 67,000.

By 5 p.m., the river at Victoria had already reached flood stage at 24 feet, with forecasts calling for it by Wednesday to hit 32 feet, just 2 feet shy of the all-time record.

Towns along the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers will see similar flooding, including Goliad, Cuero, Falls City and Gonzales.

Staff Writers Lynn Brezosky, Zeke MacCormack, Silvia Foster-Frau and Richard Webner contributed to this story.

bgibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
Elders wool manager Danny Burkett told clients in the WWC auction viewing room on Thursday that unlike other years, there was not the volume of wool held in reserve on farm or in store to flood the market and flatten prices when they went up like they had in the past two weeks.
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As the worlds first fully painted animated feature film, theres a lot riding on the release of Loving Vincent, hitting movie theatres across the UK and Ireland this October. Starring the likes of Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Robert Gulaczyk, Helen McCrory, Chris ODowd, Saoirse Ronan, John Sessions, Eleanor Tomlinson and Aidan Turner, the film will explore the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh, as told by his paintings and the characters inhabiting them. Check out the official teaser trailer for the flick below:

Starting a year after Van Goghs death, Loving Vincent tells a portrait of the artist like no other, with interviews conducted by Armand Roulin (Booth) who quickly becomes obsessed with the man for whom he had modelled so many times.

Taking a bullet to the stomach, the film will explore whether or not this was a suicide, accident or something altogether more sinister.

Every single one of the 65,000 frames in the movie are an oil-painting, hand-painted by 125 professionals who worked with a live action film, first shot by actors and then hand-painted over. The final effect is the interaction of both the live performance and the paintings, as the characters are brought into a medium like no other.

Loving Vincent hits UK and Irish cinemas on October 13, 2017.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Fijian nationals holding an ordinary or official passport will no longer require a visa when entering Brazil following an agreement signed between the two countries.



Fiji's Ambassador to Brazil, Cama Tuiloma, signed the 'Visa Exemption Agreement' on behalf of the Fijian Government with the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira. This development marks a new step in strengthening bilateral relations with Brazil - the largest economy in Latin America.



Fiji's Ministry of Foreign Affairs acting permanent secretary Mr Yogesh Karan commended this new development and highlighted the opportunities that a visa exemption agreement can bring.



"Brazil and Latin America have enormous potential - as a destination for Fijians to visit and conduct business in. This is a milestone achievement for Government because it allows Fijians to enter Brazil for these reasons without having to apply for a visa", Mr Karan said.



"This development also allows easy travel to both countries by Fijians and Brazilians - boosting tourism and people to people exchanges and in the process, growing our bilateral relations.
HON PM BAINIMARAMA AT THE OPENING OF NEW CLASSROOM BLOCK AT RAMPUR PRIMARY SCHOOL





Vinaka vakalevu and Dhanyavaad.

Bula vinaka and good morning to you all.I am honoured to be here today to inaugurate this new four-classroom block, which will ease classroom crowding at Rampur Primary School and help improve the quality of education here.The children must always come first, and I thank this communitys communal effort and your sacrifices in the construction of this block for your children.As you know, my Government has put a priority on improving education in Fiji and making it more accessible. That has meant improving facilities, freeing parents of the many financial burdens that they once had to bear, improving the teacher pay, the quality of teaching and improvement in the learning environment throughout the country. As part of the education reform, the Attorney-General has been holding roadshows whereby a lot of rumors and misinformation have been removed and teachers are happy and support this reform. We are also doing other reforms to increase the student-teacher ratio. We are also bringing development everywhere including the Rampur- Nakaulevu area. We will be installing street lights along the Rampur- Nakaulevu area that will be completed in this financial year and after the installation of the street lights, we will be upgrading and installing new footpaths along Rampur  Nakaulevu.Fiji must be a knowledge  based society to compete in the world. But it is also vitally important that every Fijian have the education to lead a productive life, be a responsible citizen, raise a healthy family, and appreciate art, music and literature. That begins with primary school.We dont offer those opportunities to our children if they are crowded into classrooms and the teachers cant give adequate attention to each student. I know that it is a great frustration for a teacher to have to teach a crowded class room. Four new classrooms here should ease that burden. This will also increase school attendance and decrease school dropouts.It is my fervent hope that smaller classes will lead to a better pass rate at this school. This is not because I am so interested in statistics. It is because every child who doesnt pass as a result of the lack of quality education tools is a child we have failed. So I also want to urge this communitywhich has shown throughout the years its commitment to this schoolto take an active part in the education of your children. Dont just leave it to the teachers. Work with the teachers. Make your homes an extension of the classroom. Get engaged with your childs lessons and homework.There are 900 students at Rampur Primary School, and each one of them carries great potential for himself or herselfand for the future of this country. Each one of them representsand deservesa happy adult life. We cannot guarantee that, but we can set them on that path and give them the tools to succeed. Then it is up to them.With these 900 students and the population increasing rapidly in this area, we will have to pay close attention to the need to build more schools, but for now we continue the tradition that this school established 75 years ago, when the Rampur Education Society secured this land to build this school. So I thank you. It is a fine example of a community coming together for the common good and for the country.That tradition continues today, because Mr. John McDonald contributed $37,000 to top up the $219,000 provided by my government for this project. Many people would just throw up their hands and leave it all to government, but Mr. McDonald stepped forward with a generous contribution to the community because he cares about children. For that, we are grateful.To the students of Rampur Primary School, I believe you are fully aware of your parents struggles to provide a decent education for you. They do that because they love you, and the only way in which you will repay that love is to try hard and do your best at school. Listen to your teachers, do what they ask you to do, and let them know if there is something you dont understand.Always remember what your teachers and parents have taught youand what you learn in church, mosque or the temple because all religious teachings in their pure form teach us to do the right thing such as being honest, being compassionate and loving one another. And therefore, always choose to do what is right.And now, I wish to sincerely thank all of you who have toiled hard to make today what it is, and I wish the school the very best in its future undertakings.
Infiniti Research, a global market intelligence solutions provider, has just released their new market assessment study on the mining industry. The client, a prominent mining company, wanted to evaluate the potential risks and decrease the bottlenecks to enter the market. The client wanted to know the market potential and create effective ways to measure the needs, expectations, standards of the target customers.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180203005037/en/

Market Assessment Assists a Prominent Mining Company to Identify the Potential Opportunities (Graphic: Business Wire)

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Editor's note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. His films have received worldwide critical acclaim and won him several awards, honours and recognition  both in India and elsewhere. In this column starting 25 June 2017, we discuss and dissect the films of Satyajit Ray (whose 96th birth anniversary was this May), in a bid to understand what really makes him one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century.

There have been several people who had a profound impact on Satyajit Rays creative career. Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyays keen observation of nature, his own teacher artist Benode Behari Mukherjees approach to positivity and unshakable dedication to his art, and French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss deep insights into the true meaning of civilisation  all of these have found a place in Rays work and life in some form or the other  that too, time and again.

Among these great minds, however, there was one which injected the very notion of free thinking into his veins  a notion, which, as we all know today, was a pillar of Rays success as one of the champions of meaningful cinema in India. That individual, whose teachings literally  and in Rays own words  set his mind on fire, was none other than Rabindranath Tagore. In the year 1961, on Tagores birth centenary, Ray paid his tribute to the great man with an anthology of three films based on three short stories by Tagore. In this article, we will discuss one of these films  Samapti (The Conclusion).

At its very core, Samapti is a love story, which shows the rather painful journey of its lead character Mrinmoyi (played with great compassion by a magnificent Aparna Sen) from being an unruly and carefree young girl to a loving wife. A young graduate named Amulya has just finished his exams and returned to his riverside village in Bengal with an assumed air of urban supremacy. While alighting from the boat on the muddy banks of the river, he slips and falls, setting a free-spirited tomboyish girl named Mrinmoyi into an uncontrollable bout of laughter. Not at all amused by this disastrous insult, Amulya is rather furious with the girl, who soon scoots from the spot.

When his mother asks him to get married before going back to the city to study further, Amulya insists on taking Mrinmoyi as his bride, because by now, after another close encounter with the girl, he has fallen in love with her. Mrinmoyi, however, is severely opposed to the very notion of marriage, because it would inevitably bind her to a domestic life  putting an end to her wayward and happy-go-lucky days of climbing trees to pick fruits, swinging from the branch of a tree by the river and playing with her pet squirrel. But as was the practice during those days, she doesnt have a say in the matter, and is promptly married off to Amulya. On the night of his wedding, Amulya realises that his wife has been forced into the marriage. Not willing to win her by force, Amulya goes back to the city, leaving Mrinmoyi behind. And it is then, that Mrinmoyi begins to realise, much to her surprise, that she is actually beginning to miss the man who she had refused to accept as her husband.

With a few necessary changes to the original story in order to keep the events confined to the village itself, Ray ensured that he stuck to the essence of Tagores message. He deals with the character of Mrinmoyi with great compassion, making us realise, time and again, that she is someone with merely the body of a woman, but the mind of a little girl. Her whims, her fancies, her obstinacy emanate from something simple  she just loves her freedom. And Ray maintains this note throughout the film. When her husband leaves her in the village and goes away to the city, causing much disgrace to her family, she begins to recall his comforting words of support and realises that she has made the grave mistake of misunderstanding him, and that her ideas about marital life need not necessarily be true. And when her husband comes back to the village and looks for her through a raging storm, she realises, perhaps for the first time, his love for her. That someone can do this much for her  a poor, madcap, loony girl who everyone has always reprimanded and rebuked  is enough to make her fall in love.

Ray tackles the first half of the film with comedy, with Amulya finding it difficult to adjust to the village life after his long stay in the city. But in the second half, the film dives headlong into the tragedy of an unwilling young girl losing her independence to marriage. Amulyas character is beautifully portrayed by Rays go-to man Soumita Chatterjee. He is the kind of man who likes to reason with his wife to reach a point of marital harmony, and does not believe in curbing her freedom. Although his initial approach to Mrinmoyi is one of a conqueror, he soon realises that he genuinely loves the girl who had once laughed at him. In order to keep peace with a mother he loves and cares for, and not wanting to force his newly wed wife into submission at the same time, he gets away from it all, considering the failure of the marriage as his own fault.

As with his previous films, Rays portrayal of the rural life in Bengal is absolutely marvellous in this film as well, with pretty sailboats plying up and down a free flowing river by the side of the village, an abandoned chariot of Lord Jagannath at the base of a massive tree, ample trees and plants all around, and post-monsoon pathways full of the worst possible slush and mud that one can imagine. The thunderstorms, the cocks crowing to announce the rising of the sun, the white sheet of smog hanging just over the fields in the evenings, the ponds, the orchards  everything is captured meticulously by the camera. Rays detailing and wit also deserve a special mention, for instance, in a scene where Amulya places a framed photograph of his hero Napoleon Bonaparte on the shelf of his room, and hours later, on realising that he would not be able to win the love of Mrinmoyi so easily, pushes it right towards the back of the shelf in a dark corner. Or in another scene, when he and his mother are quarrelling over his choice of bride, as an equally shrill and cacophonous piece from an Indian classical music plays full blast on an old gramophone in the room.

But perhaps the most beautiful scene in the film comes towards the end, when Mrinmoyi is lying on her bed in her mothers house, thinking about her husband, and one of her friends comes into the room to inform her that her pet squirrel has died. As the dead rodent hangs in front of her face, she feels sad for a moment, but soon gets over it and goes back to the loving daydreams of her estranged husband. We realise that with the death of the squirrel, a symbol of her childhood, Mrinmoyi has shed her old skin too, and although it did take some time, she has now finally stopped being a girl and matured into a woman.

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is an author and translator. His translations include 14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray, and his original works include the mystery novels Patang, Penumbra and Here Falls The Shadow.
About 15 years ago, the newspaper I was editing carried the transcript of a conversation between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai. This had been published also by the Hindustan Times. Its reporter J Dey (who was later murdered) sourced it from the Mumbai police.

The transcript carried a mention of Preity Zinta in a vulgar comment on her by Khan. Zinta was offended and filed a defamation case against me.

The case carried on for a few years till she dropped it. However, what was interesting was that the police claimed that they had not done the phone tapping. The voices were clearly those of the actors and so the tape was authentic. So who tapped them?

We still dont know. There are many other instances like this. Like the Tata tapes, about 20 years ago, in which The Indian Express claimed that the corporation was being forced to pay extortion money to separatists in Assam. The private conversations of Nusli Wadia, Keshub Mahindra, Gen Sam Maneckshaw and Ratan Tata were recorded and leaked. By whom? We don't know.

All these instances show that surveillance of Indian citizens by the government happens illegally without authorisation or supervision. Though these crimes became public, no official was charged with wrongdoing for the illegal surveillance.

Even the scale of legal surveillance in India is very large. A recent right to information application filed by The Indian Express showed that the Union home secretary approved 10,000 phone taps a month. What is all this data being collected for? We are not told.

We do not have the safeguards and checks like other democracies. In the United States, the police must show evidence to a judge who has to authorise phone tapping, and that also is done with rigid conditions. That is lacking in India.

The lobbyist Niira Radias phones were tapped for months, and then, criminally, the conversations were leaked to the press. Even if there was no suggestion of a crime, people were smeared.

In India, the government can tap citizens and then deny it has done so, as in the cases mentioned above. Because of a lack of institutional process, the government has no control over the material gathered in surveillance, even if it is gathered legally (like in the Radia tapes). And there is no accountability.

This is the background to the judgment by the Supreme Court on the right to privacy. I have not got an Aadhaar card because I know the history of surveillance in India. Why should the government force me to hand over my biometric details to it? It is absurd.

As proof of identity, I have already a passport, a drivers license, a PAN card, my landline telephone bill, my electricity bill, the documents of my house, and my voter identity card.

These are all valid forms of identity issued by the government. How many other things does it want from me and why? I have received noticed from Airtel and HDFC bank that my mobile phone and my bank account must be linked to Aadhaar. There are horror stories of children in school being forced to get Aadhaar before they are allowed to appear for exams.

Aadhaar has already been made compulsory for filing tax returns (I filed mine early to avoid this silly rule).

The governments supporters argue that if one has nothing to hide why resist registering under Aadhaar? My answer is that I don't want to because the governments safeguards are weak.

If the issue is that linking Aadhaar with bank accounts and PAN numbers can catch tax thieves better then I object. The civilised form of democracy assumes that people are innocent. Forcing everyone to link their biometric identity to their finances assumes everyone is guilty. This is unacceptable to me.

On 8 April, 2014, Narendra Modi was campaigning in Bangalore for the general election. He said he would scrap Aadhaar after winning.

Attacking Nandan Nilekani (who came up with the idea of Aadhaar) Modi said: I want to ask him what crime you have committed that the Supreme Court had to rap your Aadhaar project?

Modi added: "For the first time, I want to tell publicly. I asked several questions on Aadhaar project. I asked them questions relating to illegal migrants and national security. They (the UPA government) did not have any answer.

From his position Modi has totally reversed himself and is forcing Aadhaar on those who do not want it. Should he not explain why this reversal has happened? Of course he will not.

I met someone from an intelligence agency a few days ago. He said that there was a file on me which would have many details, much of which was gathered illegally. There must be thousands, if not lakhs of such people the government is illegally spying on. Why should we enable this criminal activity by volunteering our details?

We must not, and the Supreme Court judgment has given hope that this compulsory enrollment of Aadhaar, linking our biometric identity to all aspects of our lives, will be stopped.
Sirsa: Sushil Kandoi and his neighbours wake up around 4 am every day to prepare breakfast for Army personnel, paramilitary forces, police and media persons, who are on the job near the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa, popularly known as the "land of donators" in Haryana.

Throughout the day, a group of people serves snacks, tea, lassi and food to security and Army personnel on motorbikes, gypsy cars and tractors.

The Army is deployed in the vicinity of the Dera headquarters to maintain law and order in the nearby areas where curfew is in force since Thursday night.

There are around 120 social organisations engaged in social work in the Sirsa Assembly constituency, which has a population of around 2.5 lakh.

People have also constructed a long wall called "Neki ki diwar" on the Dabwali road where locals keep items they do not need so that the needy could use them.

Also, a "Roti Bank", which works on the principle of collecting food from do-gooders and distributing it among the poor, was launched here recently.

Kandoi, who is a supplier of mustard oil, said there are 40 people in his group who serve tea, snacks, lunch and dinner to security personnel and media persons.

"The people of Sirsa, popularly known as 'the land of donators' in Haryana, believe in serving humanity. Thus, we decided to serve Army, paramilitary forces, police personnel and media persons when the administration imposed curfew in the area," Kandoi said.

Another resident, Mahender Kumar, said the residents come forward and donate money every day for the purpose of serving tea, snacks and food to security personnel.

"We will continue to make such arrangements for security personnel till they are here," Suresh Soni, a resident of the Beghu area, said.
Bengaluru: Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said India was "located somewhat sensitively" and the nation's defence preparedness was something "we could never compromise on".

Terming his visit to Defence Public Sector Units like HAL, BEL and BEML in Bengaluru as "satisfying and a personal education", he said that with the experience of Defence Public Sector Units (DPSU) and the entrepreneurship of private sector, "coupled with the size of our market, we should enhance our manufacturing ability".

"In the present geopolitical situation, India is located somewhat sensitively. We've had in the past also multiple threats and, therefore, preparedness is something India could never compromise on," the defence minister said.

He said India's DPSUs have made an important strive and their costing and quality are competitive.

"It has been traditionally said and believed that countries don't win battles merely by depending on equipment they buy from others in the world. They have to enrich and expand their on capacity," he said.

Jaitley was speaking after launching the production of HAL-designed 5.8-ton category Light Combat Helicopter and dedicating the companys design upgrade programme of Hawk-i to the nation at HAL premises in Bengaluru.

He said India has young and emerging DPSUs and they are increasing their share of contribution to country's defences along with ordinance factories. He said the county has always been heavily dependent on the rest of the world for buying, both equipment and technology.

Noting that research and development centres of a large number of global companies in various sectors of economy are shifting to India, Jaitley said, "We have a very powerful human resource, both numerically and in terms of trained minds and therefore our ability to throw up people who can be world leaders in research and technology is second to none."

"Therefore, it is extremely necessary we came out of the mindset that India will always be a buyer of defence equipment. Our narrow policies have also contributed to this," he said.

Jaitley said India is systematically moving in a direction where "we wish to now evolve and develop overselves in to a major manufacturing hub, not only for our own

requirements but also to supply to other countries".

He said the nature of this business is such that there are very few suppliers and within the country there was only one buyer, the armed forces. Therefore, the policy has to be designed in a manner that resources and manufacturing facilities created are not wasted and they are optimally utilised.

Pointing at the changes made in the Defence Procurement Procedure policy, Jaitley said some platforms are thrown open to private sector to set up manufacturing facilities in India.

He said, "It is absolutely necessary that both our strength with the experience of DPSUs and the entrepreneurship of private sector coupled with the size of

our market, we enhance our manufacturing ability so that India even in this field graduates from being net buyer into manufacturer and hopefully at a later stage a supplier to other countries in the world."
The recent India-China standoff in Doka La can prove to be an important disruptive event, triggering vital strategic changes in Indias military and foreign policies. The standoff brings with it multiple strategic and foreign policy lessons for the Indian establishment, which until now, was caught napping on fundamental policy issues relating to military modernisation, rusting infrastructure, border management and its 'neighbourhood-first' policy.

While the standoff was underway, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) came out with its report on Indian Army categorically stating that the country did not have enough ammunition to last more than 10 days, in the event of a war breaking out. The chinks in the countrys armour were further exposed when the lack of a strategic military and diplomatic policy vis-a-vis China made itself evident during the hardening of stance by the two sides.

The lack of robust internal connectivity and rusting border infrastructure continues to plague instant mobilisation of troops on the Indian side of the border. Besides the military considerations, the standoff has also yielded certain important foreign policy lessons for India which has found little support for itself in the immediate neighbourhood.

Underlining a failure of its 'neighbourhood-first' policy, the lack of forthright support for India from countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar or even small island nations in the Indian Ocean Region has been telling of India's receding influence in its immediate neighbourhood. The most crucial of these was the statement by Nepal, which bluntly stated that the country won't take any sides in the current standoff. By some standards, even Bhutan's response to the standoff has been less aggressive, something that has worked to take the sheen off Indias posturing in the crisis.

While India does find itself in an advantageous position in the current standoff, in reality, these advantages stem from the multiple geopolitical and geostrategic realities facing the two countries. In the Doka La region, the Chinese military finds itself placed in a strategically disadvantageous position, with the Indian forces occupying a much higher ground at Doka La and Doklam area overlooking the low lying narrow Chumbi valley, occupied by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). In trying to push for a limited war with India in the Doka La region, the PLA will most definitely face a defeat. This will dent the personal reputation of President Xi Jinping before the all-important 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC); a scenario that Jinping would best like to avoid.

Geopolitically too, China has stretched itself a bit too thin by stoking trouble at multiple fronts. It finds itself involved in a continuing maritime dispute with Japan with the situation threatening to reach a flashpoint, given how Japan is increasingly expanding its operations in the South China Sea. The bilateral relations between the US and China have also witnessed a deterioration over the issue of Chinas continued ties and support to North Korea, with the US threatening China with more stringent trade protectionist measures.

Chinas disadvantages have, therefore, contributed to the relative strengthening of Indias position in the current impasse.

Even if the two countries are somehow able to find a way around the current standoff, India will need to seriously re-evaluate its strategic and foreign policy choices. It will need to restructure its China policy, by crafting specific strategic as well as tactical military responses to standoffs such as these. The two countries will find themselves embroiled in face-offs more frequently, a situation that is the structural outcome of Chinas rise and its attempt to achieve a 'great power' status. India will find itself in the position of a reluctant second pole to China in South Asia, something that will further trigger clashes over disputed boundaries; a natural corollary of the battle over establishing regional primacy.

At one point, the Doka La standoff witnessed a drying up of communication lines between the political decision makers in the two countries. Therefore it becomes important for India to pursue the idea of establishing hotlines between key decision makers, at multiple tiers. Unlike in the Doka La standoff when the maximum firefighting was done by diplomats sitting in India, the Indian embassy officials in China should assume a greater role in a crisis such as this. India will need to remember that diplomacy is an important alternative to a military conflict, and therefore, its foreign policy establishment in Beijing must become its first line of defence.

The military, supported by a unified command and control structure for all the three forces and established SOPs in scenarios of a short and decisive war, should form its second line of defence. India's military is in dire need of a major revamp. For this purpose, the government will need to pursue its strategic partnership policies for defence production on mission mode basis. The impending military reforms and consequent military modernisation cannot remain on the back burner anymore.

Thirdly, India will need to strengthen its military and economic alliances not just with countries around the world but also with the countries in its immediate neighbourhood. In trying to find a middle ground between India and China, Indias immediate neighbours have drifted too close to the Chinese side; something that has become evident in the recent months. For the smaller nations, India appears to be a far greater geopolitical threat than China does in the South Asian region. The prevailing mistrust between India and its neighbours stem from unresolved territorial disputes, a legacy of the colonial era, but their resolution has found little political will on the Indian side. Instead of correcting historical injustices perpetrated by the colonial rulers, Indian policy makers have found themselves reluctant to initiate dialogue on the issues. The resolution process, instead, has only witnessed incremental changes, something that has worked to dent Indias credibility in its neighbourhood. Besides, Indias hegemonic tendencies in the South Asian region and its continued meddling in the domestic affairs of smaller countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh has generated concerns over the issue of political sovereignty in these countries. Hence, in an attempt to balance the threat emanating from Indias behaviour as a regional hegemon, the smaller countries appear to have bandwagoned with China; their overwhelming support to the Belt and Road Initiative project, despite Indias misgivings, being an important case in point.

India, therefore, faces a battle of narratives in the South Asian region. While Chinas bullying of a smaller country in its neighbourhood can be raked up to puncture its grander narrative of benevolent hegemony, Indias own historical faux pas in the South Asian region will need to be corrected. India will need to employ an optimum mix of soft and hard power to strengthen its ties and recalibrate its image in South Asia.

Historically, the Chinese military forces have always followed their traders; relying on an iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove kind of a model for pursuing bilateral relations. The lesson for India is to convert its domestic economic successes into robust and meaningful bilateral alliances. One cannot see why the successes of Reliance Jio, for instance, cannot be replicated in smaller countries in the neighbourhood to provide for a cheaper and a more reliable alternative to Chinese telecom companies.

Indias attempt at deepening its defence ties with Myanmar under its defence assistance programme can be another important military-commercial cooperation template that India can pursue in its bilateral ties with other neighbours in the region. Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's recent visit is a good step towards gaining greater leverage with the countrys elites and push for a greater people to people and private partnerships. The bottom up rebuilding of relations will need to drive the relations between the two countries, from hereon.

Doka La offers the opportunity for India to re-calibrate, re-structure and revitalise its foreign and domestic policy. The question is if the countrys establishment is willing to seize it.
Jammu: Four civilians were injured on Sunday in unprovoked firing and shelling by Pakistan troops on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, officials said.

Defence sources said here that Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling at two places on the LoC in Poonch, using small arms, automatics and mortars to target Indian positions at Karni and Degwar.

"Pakistan ceasefire violation started at 6 pm. Our troops have effectively and strongly retaliated," a source said.

Police said four civilians including a woman were injured in Pakistan shelling in the area.

"The injured have been shifted to hospital," police said.

On 18 August, an Indian Army soldier was injured on Friday in accidental firing on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said.

Sepoy Sanjay Kumar was injured when his service rifle accidentally went off in Mankote area of Mendhar Sector on the LoC in Poonch district, the sources said. The soldier was hospitalised.
Rohtak district, where Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is lodged in jail after his conviction by a special CBI court in a rape case, is returning to normal on Sunday.

"As many as 10 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the district. 18 columns of the army have been requisitioned, and these would soon reach the district and carry out flag march," Rohtak deputy commissioner Atul Kumar said on Saturday.

Being Sunday, the shops in the city are closed. Roads wear a deserted look.

Police have set up barricades on Rohtak-Delhi national highway bypass near Sunaria village. Civilians have been told to stay at home.

Parveen Kumar, a resident of Sunaria village, where Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is jailed, said that his village has only one or two families who follow Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS).

Kumar says that this is the reason why the question of lawlessness in Rohtak does not arise. He added that people in Rohtak would support the administration in the hour of crisis.

Police have set up barricades on roads leading to Rohtak. Only government and emergency services vehicles are being allowed to enter the city.

At Sunaria village jail, all routine meeting of inmates with their relatives have been suspended for three days by the administration. Daily phone calls have also been suspended for same duration.

Meanwhile, an estimated 50,000 people are still stuck inside the DSS ashram in Sirsa.

As the transportation services are suspended, many have not left the ashram and are taking shelter inside.

A few are walking on foot, with a hope of getting some transport services to reach home.

Panchkula, which was worst hit by violence, is also limping back to normalcy.

According to officials at the government hospital in Panchkula, of the 28 dead, 15 bodies have been claimed by their family members while the rest still remain unidentified.

With inputs from 101 reporters

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After a special CBI court in Panchkula convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case on Friday, the court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Monday.

However, due to the violence that ensued after the conviction which left 36 dead, Haryana Police said the jailed godman will not be brought to Panchkula for sentencing.

Director General of Police BS Sandhu said on Saturday that the sect chief would not be brought back to the Panchkula court over security concerns. "The sentencing will either be done through video conferencing or, if required, the court will be held there (Rohtak prison)," he said, adding that the judge (Jagdeep Singh) will be taken to Rohtak.

The punishment can be a jail term not less than seven years but may even extend to life imprisonment.

The sexual exploitation case was registered against the Dera chief in December 2002 by the CBI on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, after an anonymous letter was written to the then-chief justice about the alleged sexual exploitation of two sadhvis (female followers) by him.

The case was registered eight months after the then-chief justice received the letter. Ram Rahim is also an accused in two murder cases.

CBI filed the chargesheet against the Dera head in Ambala court in July 2007 around five years after the registration of the rape case. The chargesheet mentioned sexual exploitation of two sadhvis between 1999 and 2001.

The special CBI court framed charges against Ram Rahim under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code in September 2008. Between 2009 and 2010, the two complainants recorded their statements before the court.

The court shifted from Ambala to Panchkula, and the case against Dera chief was also transferred to Panchkula CBI Court. In July 2017, the court ordered daily hearings, arguments of prosecution and defence concluded on 17 August, 2017. The judge then fixed 25 August as the date for pronouncement of the verdict and Ram Rahim was directed to appear in person before the court.

After Friday's conviction, Ram Rahim's supporters, many of whom were camping in different parts of Punjab and Haryana, attacked public property, leaving 36 dead and over 250 injured. The army, CRPF and the Rapid Action Force were called in.

The violence subsided on Saturday after restrictions were imposed in several parts of these states.

"The law-and-order situation is being maintained and constantly monitored in the entire state. As many as 101 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the state, six columns of the army have been deployed in Panchkula and four in Sirsa. Curfew has been relaxed in Panchkula and Sirsa," chief secretary DS Dhesi said.

The Opposition stepped up its attack with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanding the dismissal of Manohar Lal Khattar government for its failure to handle the situation at Panchkula. Hooda also sought the imposition of President's Rule in the state.

The Khattar government also came under sharp criticism from the Punjab and Haryana High Court which castigated it over the deadly violence, saying it had "surrendered" before the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda head for "political considerations".

Dhesi said security has been beefed up in all neighbouring states ahead of Monday's sentencing to prevent more untoward incidents.

With inputs from agencies

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To understand why a religious sect leader wields so much power, we need only to look at the number of politicians among major political parties who have welcomed the special CBI court's decision to convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for raping two of his followers. At last count, none.

There have been many tweets and sound bites cutting across the political divide condemning violence, arson and loss of lives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi have expressed shock and pain at the turn of events and appealed for peace and calm.

Modi was quick to congratulate the judiciary on the triple talaq verdict. Gandhi heaped fulsome praise on Supreme Court for its ruling on Right to Privacy. Both are silent on Ram Rahim Singh's conviction, and so are their peers.

The Congress held a presser, but even as it lambasted the BJP, demanded Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's resignation and imposition of President's Rule in Haryana, its spokespersons had nothing to say about the verdict. This is curious. The thuggish "godman" who resided in a fortress, raised a private militia and faced charges of murder, rape and castration had just been convicted of a crime. Wouldn't it make sense for politicians to welcome the verdict?

At least the Opposition leaders could have condemned the controversial guru. Just to cause deep discomfort to the BJP which has been severely reprimanded by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for their grave dereliction of duty.

The BJP's uneasiness about the entire controversy was evident. The Khattar government allowed the situation to deteriorate until it was out of control. By the time it acted it was too late: 36 people lost their lives and 250 more were injured. An awestruck administration appeared to treat a convicted criminal with kid gloves, and Khattar tried to absolve Dera followers of violence.

Defining post-arrest photo of rapist Ram Rahim eating chocolate in a leather seated VVIP AgustaWestland AW139, accompanied by @insan_honey. pic.twitter.com/Ubocpj4Bj3  Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 26, 2017

A furious court didn't spare even Modi, reminding the Centre's lawyer that "he is the Prime Minister of not the BJP but of India." It had earlier told the Haryana government that "you let a city like Panchkula burn for political motives."

What explains the Opposition's missed opportunity? The answer takes us into the heart of India's dysfunctional democracy where the writ of State is often overruled by criminals, godmen and criminal godmen who enter into an unofficial power-sharing contract with politicians. They command multitudes, often by administering pop spirituality and filling up the vacuum left by poor institutions of the State, is a lucrative prospect for politicians.

For instance, a 2015 Bloomerg report pointed out that "in ordering the CBI to examine the castration issue (against Ram Rahim Singh) in December, judge K Kannan of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana wrote, 'In a democracy, numbers mean everything. The clout that a person enjoys with patronage lying outside the spiritual circles can make even a powerful police force go limp'."

Through his sect Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS), Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan (a moniker to reflect his secular credentials) claims to have 50 million global followers. From Akali Dal, National Lok Dal to Congress and BJP, his massive and loyal fan base made all parties pay obeisance to him for electoral salvation.

The Congress may well try to take the high moral ground but its association with Ram Rahim is long and deep. In 2007 Punjab Assembly polls, the Dera asked its followers to cast their ballot in their favour. Five years later, Captain Amarinder Singh again sought his "blessings", according to a report in Hindustan Times. An India Today report points out that Ram Rahim's son Jasmeet "is married to the daughter of senior Congress leader Harminder Singh Jassi, who is a former Punjab MLA."

A report in The Times of India, quoted an ex-CBI officer as saying that despite facing a number of criminal charges, no one could touch Ram Rahim because political leaders tried to stop the CBI from acting against him while witnesses turned hostile. "For five years, between 2002 and 2007 (when the Congress was in power), despite a high court order, nobody did anything because of his political clout. The CBI investigation against him didn't move much. We then decided we have to collect evidence against him, record statements of victims in rape and murder cases but it was very difficult," he told the newspaper.

The BJP wasn't far behind. In subsequent years, the sect leader grew closer to BJP and reportedly "blessed" the party during Punjab Assembly polls, though that didn't translate into a win for Akali-BJP combine. The point is that no political party is in a position to challenge Ram Rahim's clout. Which explains why the Opposition is quiet about the verdict and the ruling party is hemming and hawing in carrying out the court order and trying every trick in the book to prove to Ram Rahim that their hands are tied.

What has confused many during the fallout is the massive support for Ram Rahim among his followers despite the court order against him. It's almost as if his fans were not ready to acknowledge the writ of the State and staged an orgy of violence to show their defiance of the court order. It will be too simplistic to call their reaction an act of organised thuggery (though that was definitely a factor) but the fanatical support that these sect-leaders command cannot be explained away solely in terms of a client-patron relationship.

These cultish sect-leaders operate on the tricky intersectionality of subaltern power, failure of the State and blind faith. Most of these spiritual gurus provide basic public services that a low-capacity State fail to provide. The weakness of State institutions creates a void where these quasi-religious sects provide a variety of social services.

In the case of Punjab and Haryana, Ram Rahim's DSS (which has been registered as an NGO) provides a host of such services. It reportedly conducts camps for blood donation, raises awareness against drug abuse (a particularly toxic problem in these states), offers online meditation courses, funds and constructs hostels for young girls, hospitals, helps with the rehabilitation of sex workers by employing them in small-sector enterprises.

The sect also represents the underclass among Sikhs, and almost 70 percent of its members are Dalits. The DSS brought Dalit assertiveness in a strictly hierarchical society and its followers enjoy a measure of egalitarian empowerment through Ram Rahim, who denounces all caste practices.

Sikhism doesn't believe in caste but nevertheless the Jat-Khatri fraternity has cornered the corridors of power. Their dominance has been challenged by a push back from below, led by power brokers like Ram Rahim, which tells us why radical Sikh leaders are the only ones to welcome the court verdict.

This may also help explain the fanatical support of the underclass for their 'pita' (father) who see in Singh's conviction a State-sponsored conspiracy to undermine him. It is very easy to call his followers "fools" or suggest that they lack in intelligence for failing to recognise or respect a court order but we must remember that democracy rules through consensus, and a massive number of followers fervently believe in the narrative that their leader has been 'victimised' for standing up against oppression.

The complainant, whose letter eventually led to the conviction against Ram Rahim, told The Indian Express of the unflinching backing that he enjoys from his followers. "If anybody complains against the Dera chief, their parents would tell them, you are wrong."

There are no easy answers. This vicious cycle of tyranny and victimhood will continue as long as the State doesn't ramp up its capacity-building. These exploitative godmen will go out of coinage only when they are no longer of any use to the people. But looking at the state of governance, that's not likely to happen any time soon.
Jaipur: The rape conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has spurred a Rajasthan man's quest for justice.

Kamlesh Kumar, a 27-year-old labourer from Jaipur, lost his wife during a family visit to the Sirsa-based Dera on 24 March, 2015, according to his lawyer.

Kumar's wife, Guddi, in her twenties, was allegedly taken aside by a volunteer as the "Dera chief wanted to meet her personally", lawyer Babulal Bairwa said.

That was the last time that Kumar saw his wife, Bairwa told reporters today.

As Kumar and his children searched for her, some Dera volunteers asked them to wait for a couple of days.

According to Bairwa, when Guddi did not return, Kumar approached the Sirsa police, but was turned back.

Left with no alternative, he moved court, he added.

On 5 May, 2015, on the directions of the court in Jaipur, an FIR was registered at the city's Jawahar Circle police station on charges of abduction and criminal conspiracy, Bairwa said.

However, the investigating officer filed a final report in the case, having failed to record the statement of the 50-year-old flamboyant Dera chief.

This prompted Kumar to file a "protest petition" in the ACJM's court on 18 February. The matter has been listed for hearing on 7 September, Bairwa said.

When contacted, Jawahar Circle police station SHO Rajesh Soni said that the then SHO and investigating officer had filed a final report in the matter related to Kumar's complaint but added that he was not aware of its content.

Bairwa hoped that the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case by a CBI court would help Kumar to get justice.

On Monday, CBI court judge Jagdeep Singh will be flown to the Sunaria jail in Rohtak where he would pronounce the quantum of sentence against Singh, whose conviction in a 15-year-old rape case on Friday saw his followers run riot in several places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Ripples were also felt in Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The death toll in violence and arson that immediately followed the conviction of the flamboyant chief of the sect that has millions of followers in India and abroad, meanwhile, has risen to 38, state's Director General of Police BS Sandhu said.
Sirsa: The district administration relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa on Sunday, after restrictions were imposed on 24 August.

Petrol pumps, shops and other commercial establishments were allowed to open in the area.

"I was not able to purchase essential items for my household since Thursday night due to imposition of curfew. I will buy sufficient stock of such items," Surender Soni, a resident of Begu area near Dera headquarters said.

Curfew-like restrictions were imposed here on Thursday in view of the rape case judgement against sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Tension had gripped the locals on Friday, after the Dera head was convicted of rape by a special CBI court in Panchkula, as the frenzied followers of the sect asserted they were ready to go to any extent to avenge their spiritual leader's conviction.

On Friday, several Dera followers made their way out of the sprawling sect premises after police urged them to vacate the place. Around one lakh people, including women and children, were present in the sect headquarters.

The conviction of the Dera head triggered arson and violence across Haryana that claimed 36 lives and injured over 250 people.

In Sirsa, four people died and 58 have been injured. The violence also spilled over into neighbouring Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign taking responsibility for the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra said on Sunday.

"Panchkula is burning with 36 dead and 250 injured. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those affected Khattar, the CM of Haryana, the nation wants you to take responsibility of security lapses and resign," Vadra tweeted.

Vadra lauded the Punjab and Haryana High Court order to compensate for the losses suffered in the violence by auctioning the Dera chief's property.

He also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state of questioning his integrity and harassing him. Vadra said it was the time for the state government to prove its integrity and take responsibility for the "massacre".

"I appreciate the Punjab and Haryana High Court for pulling up Khattar government (for) letting the situation escalate," he said.

"Time and again, Khattar government has witch-hunted me, questioned me and my integrity, harassed me, without basis. Today, I ask them to prove their integrity and take responsibility of a glaring massacre, which happened under their nose," Vadra said.

"The whole country is shocked. India's image across the world has taken a setback. Citizens need to unite and protect each other. I request the central government to give us our basic right of feeling safe and secure, ensuring such incidents of rioting do not occur again," he said.\

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Last month, Rohit Bal became the first designer in India to copyright his entire collection. Other prominent fashion designers, Anju Modi and Anita Dongre, soon followed the suit and copyrighted their entire collection ahead of Fashion Design Council of Indias (FDCI) India Couture Week this year.

Plagiarism of designs is a growing concern among the Indian fashion industry and is attributed to the lack of awareness surrounding intellectual property rights (IPR) which are available to fashion designers in India. Even as awareness about IPR protection is increasing in India, the law relating to the protection of fashion designers rights remains unclear.

Copyright protection for designs

Different IPRs (such as copyrights, trademarks, and patents) serve different purposes: patent protects inventions, copyright protects creative works and trademark protects brand-names (or elements of a business which act as source indicators). The intellectual property (IP) of a designer, i.e. designer clothes is best described as creative works and are therefore eligible for copyright protection.

While creative works such as artistic works are typically protected under the Indian Copyright Act, designs applied to clothes can be copyrighted under the Designs Act 2000. Under the Designs Act, designs which are applied to a specific class of articles (including garments) can be registered. A design must be registered for a particular class of articles as enumerated in the Third Schedule of the Designs Rules, 2001. Articles of clothes and haberdashery fall in Class II under the Designs Rules.

Under Section 11 of the Designs Act, a registered design is copyrighted for a period of 10 years from the date of registration of the design. The copyright protection can be further extended for five years. Piracy of a registered design is prohibited under Section 22 of the Designs Act: this makes it unlawful for a person to apply the registered design or any fraudulent of obvious imitation of the design to any class of articles in respect of which the design has been registered. A person who knowingly facilitates the sale of an article which bears a pirated design is also liable for piracy of the design. This means that retailers who consciously sell articles containing pirated designs can also be punished under the Designs Act.

Under Section 22 of the Copyright Act, the term of protection granted to copyright-holders subsists during the life of the copyright-owner and for sixty years thereafter. According to section 15 (1) of the Copyright Act, protection under the Copyright Act is not applicable to designs which are registered under the Designs Act. Therefore, once a clothes design is registered under the Designs Act, the Copyright Act will not apply to it and the work will only enjoy protection under the Designs Act. If a design (which is capable of being registered under the Designs Act) has not been registered, it will be protected under section 15(2) of the Copyright Act; however, the copyright protection will expire on an unregistered design if the design has been reproduced on more than 50 articles.

Issues which arise in copyright protection of designer clothing

Two kinds of designs are conceivable in clothes, namely, a drawing applied on any garment and the shape/design of the clothes (which does not necessarily bear any drawing). An example of the first kind of design is a t-shirt which bears the words, I love Mumbai printed on the front. The shape of the t-shirt may be commonplace such as a typical round neck half sleeve t-shirt. In this case, the designer would get the drawing design, i.e. the words, I love Mumbai (printed in a particular manner- using a unique combination of words, colours and figures) registered under the Designs Act.

The second kind of design refers to the design of the clothes itself and includes elements such as the shape of the garment, the style in which it has been cut and tailored, and the fabric of the garment. This kind of design is often the subject-matter of IP disputes involving designer clothes. For instance, lehengas designed by Rohit Bal do not have any drawing element, and it is the lehenga, the item itself, on which IP protection is sought. Anybody who copies the style of the lehenga would be fraudulently imitating Rohit Bals lehenga. So if Rohit Bal designs a particular lehenga style originally in pink, and a person creates a knock-out of that lehenga in black, this would still amount to piracy of Rohit Bals designs. This is because, under the Designs Act, a design also includes the shape, configuration, pattern, ornament of any article.

In cases of design infringement of clothes relating to their shape/style etc, it may become very difficult for a judge to decide where to draw the line between permissible copying and design piracy. Designer clothes are often improvisations of existing styles of clothes. Therefore, another issue which arises is whether every design is original enough to merit protection?

To illustrate, a Kerala Kasavu sari is a hand woven cream sari with a golden border, worn traditionally by women in Kerala. There are designer Kerala Kasavu saris also available. In designer Kerala Kasavu saris, the basic design (cream sari with a gold border) remains the same. Therefore, the creativity or originality of the designer will perhaps lie merely in the design of the blouse or any print added to the sari. Should such designer saris, which are themselves based on an existing design (namely, the Kerala kasavu sari), be afforded copyright protection under the Designs Act? Secondly, if someone designs the same blouse (as the original designer) for a Kerala Kasavu sari but adds a different print to the sari, will this amount to design piracy of the original design?

In the absence of a landmark judgment in India on the issue of design piracy involving designer clothes, it is best to assume that only obvious/identical imitations or imitations with minor differences (such as colour) would be considered design piracy.

Laws protecting fashion designers in other jurisdictions

In the UK, the original drawing/graphic work on an item and 2-D items such as textiles are protected under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; the copyright protection under the 1988 Act subsists during the life of the copyright owner and for 70 years thereafter. Similarly, in the US, fabric prints are protected for a term spanning the life of the designer plus 70 years. Another form of IPR in the US is design patent which protects the ornamental design of a functional object such as ornamental design of a mobile phone, watch, jewellery etc. The term of protection for design patents is 14 years; however, it is difficult to obtain design patents for clothes. Interestingly, in 2012, the Design Piracy Prohibition Bill (also known as the Fashion Bill) was introduced in the US Congress which aimed to provide protection to fashion designs for a term of three years. However, the Bill was not subsequently enacted.

Indian fashion designers have become more vigilant about copycat designers and have taken to shaming those who steal their designs. No doubt, designers invest significant time and resources in designing and marketing their clothes, and incur huge economic losses due to rip-offs of their work. A sui generis (of its own kind) protection for the IP of fashion designers, similar to the Fashion Bill in the US, could be a good way to protect fashion designers rights in India. A law exclusively for fashion designers IPR can also clarify the murky issues in design piracy and infringement of fashion designs relating to clothes.

The author is a research fellow at Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. She is also a volunteer at Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR). Views expressed are personal.
When the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) took an ambiguous stand on re-opening liquor bars closed by the United Democratic Front (UDF) government as part of its phased-prohibition policy during the 2016 Assembly elections in Kerala, many had viewed it as a sign of the party's intention to reverse liquor policy if it returned to power in the state.

True to their fears, the LDF prepared the ground for a change in the policy as soon as they assumed power. It came in the form of a plea from tourism minister AC Moideen to open the closed bars at least in tourist destinations. Excise Minister TP Ramakrishnan picked up the thread from him and promised consideration of the plea when he formulates the liquor policy for the new Abkari year. Curiously, the draft policy went beyond what his colleague actually demanded.

The announcement of the policy allowing the reopening of all closed bars in three-star hotels and above, however, was deferred following the declaration of Lok Sabha by-election in Malappuram in March. By the time Ramakrishnan came out with the policy (in June), the 31 March Supreme Court verdict ban on the sale of liquor within 500 meters of state and national highways came on the way.

The government sought to overcome the hurdle by paving the way for the relocation of liquor outlets to interior areas. Anticipating objections from local bodies, especially those ruled by the Opposition, the government stripped them of the power to sanction liquor outlets in their jurisdiction through an ordinance.

In spite of all this, only 77 of the over 700 closed bars could be reopened till July end. The government facilitated reopening of another 219 closed bars by de-notifying stretches of state highways passing through municipal areas. The government will be in a position to reopen the closed bars along national highways too following the recent apex court clarification that state and national highways passing through municipal limits will be exempt from its earlier ruling.

Around 1956 liquor outlets, including toddy shops, were shut down as a result of the 31 March Supreme Court order. This included 11 five star bars, 619 beer and wine parlours as well as 134 retail outlets of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the sole wholesale and retail distributor of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the state.

According to a Manorama Online report, the state government has given its nod for opening 466 liquor outlets, including 25 Bevco outlets within municipal and corporation limits, in the wake of the apex court clarification.

This literally marks an end to Keralas brief journey to become a dry state by 2023. The previous government had in September 2014 sought to turn the state totally dry like Gujarat by shutting down all bars immediately and retail outlets within ten years.

The UDF went to the people in May 2016 challenging the LDF to make its stand clear on the policy. However, the LDF sought to play safe by placating both the prohibitionists and the boozers despite pressures from all quarters, including CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, to state that the LDF will not reopen the closed bars if they come to power.

The crushing defeat that the UDF suffered in the elections forced the proponents of total prohibition to retreat. This made the job easy for the present government. Barring former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president VM Sudheeran, who incidentally forced then chief minister Oommen Chandy to announce phased prohibition, none in Congress have come out against the reversal of their policy by the present government.

Curiously, Sudheeran has chosen the legal route to restrain the LDF government from reopening closed bars as he could not muster enough support from within the UDF to mobilise the people. The petition he filed in the Supreme Court may not even stand as his plea was against an alleged violation of its order on the sale of liquor along the highways, a matter already clarified by the apex court.

The Congress had earlier alleged a deal between the LDF and the bar owners to reopen the closed bars. Many in the party even believed that the liquor barons had used their money power to oust the UDF from power.

The UDF's silence on the reopening of bars can be attributed to the defeat they have suffered in the Assembly election, but what has amused the prohibitionists is the silence maintained by the Kerala church, which was very vocal against liquor. The Madhya Virudha Samithi (MVS) of Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) had batted for prohibition by threatening to use their votes to defeat those who opposed prohibition.

The church body was a mute spectator when the government step-by-step reversed the liquor policy they supported. Though MVS had threatened to stage a dharna in front of all reopened bars across the state, it confined its protests to a few statements and a token dharna in Ernakulam.

"What is the use in chanting a mantra to a buffalo? was the immediate response of MVS general secretary Fr TJ Antony when Firstpost sought his reaction on the reopening of bars. He said they were sure that the LDF will reverse the policy.

"The LDF was hand in glove with the liquor barons. There was a clear understanding between the two on the reopening of the bars before the election. The LDF government is acting on the understanding. We cannot do anything to stop them, Antony said while expressing his helplessness.

The priest said that the only option before the church was to move the court, which had endorsed the liquor policy of the previous government. Antony said he will consult the leaders of MVS and a take a decision on the future course of action soon.

However, church activists see more to the issue than meets the eye. Reji Njallani, chairman of Open Church Movement, said that the protests being launched by the church were part of the pressure tactics that the latter has been adopting from time to time to "gain favours from the government".

"The church's silence on the liquor issue may have a connection with the liberal stance that the government took in conceding the demand of self-financing medical colleges for fees and the appointments of teachers in government-aided schools," Njallani told Firstpost.

A report in a local daily claimed that the government bought the Churchs silence on the reopening of bars with a threat to cancel the previous governments decision to recognise the appointments of 1,796 teachers in government-aided schools and leave the selection of teachers to the Public Service Commission.

The newspaper argued that the church could not ignore the threat as a majority of the government-aided schools in the state are under its control. Appointment of teachers is a major source of income for government-aided schools as the management allegedly takes lakhs of rupees from candidates for regular appointments. The current rate for an appointment is Rs 25 lakhs, according to the report in the daily.

Antony said that he was not aware of such a deal. He claimed that the prohibition wing of the church was working as an independent agency and it had nothing to do with the government-aided schools.

However, some indications of a deal were visible in the budget session of the state Assembly in March this year, when the government ruled out any moves to entrust the selection of teachers with the PSC. Incidentally, it was a strong demand of both the CPM and its number two partner  Communist Party of India (CPI)  while they were in Opposition.

Both the parties had been demanding this since the salary of government-aided teachers is given by the government. The CPI had raised the issue in the budget session. Education minister C Raveendranath evaded the issue stating that the government had not taken a policy decision on the issue.

CPI MLA C Divakaran, who raised the issue, argued that if the teachers of government-aided schools are getting the salary from the government, the appointments must also be made by a government agency. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan kept mum when Divakaran grilled the minister.

The meek surrender of the prohibition lobby before the government has indeed cheered the boozers, who, earlier, had to stand in a long queue before Bevco outlets to get their quota of booze.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has informed the Bombay High Court that while there is no separate crisis management plan for drought, it was considering to form a committee to assess prevalence of water scarcity.

"There is no separate crisis management plan for drought in the state. However, the component of drought has been integrated into the State Disaster Management Plan," according to an affidavit filed by Subhash Umaranikar, deputy secretary, Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

The state government filed the affidavit before a division bench of Justices AS Oka and Riyaz Chagla earlier this week in response to a PIL. The PIL has been filed by Sanjay Lakhe Patil, president of the Marathwada Anushesh Nirmulan Aani Vikas Manch, on the issue of drought faced by farmers in parts of Maharashtra every year due to deficient rainfall.

In its petition, the voluntary organisation has sought to know the measures taken by the government for drought mitigation.

According to the affidavit, while a drought monitoring centre has not been formed, the government was considering setting up a drought monitoring committee headed by the agriculture commissioner.

"As per the Drought Manual, 2016, though rainfall and dry spell is a mandatory indicator for assessing drought situation there are four other impact indicators  area under sowing, remote sensing, soil moisture and hydrology  which needs to be taken into consideration for assessment of drought," the affidavit said.

"Drought is a complex phenomenon which needs to be monitored by taking into consideration mandatory indicators, impact indicators and ground verification," it said.

The government said it is in process of putting in place a mechanism for monitoring indicators related to drought.

"A proposal to set up a mechanism in the state for monitoring mandatory and impact indicators for assessment of drought situation is under consideration. The government is in process of issuing orders for putting in place a mechanism for monitoring these indicators," the affidavit said.

The bench, after perusing the affidavit, posted the petition for further hearing on September 20.
After the Supreme Court declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right, former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi had some opposing views on the verdict. In an interview with The Indian Express, he said: If I was there (as attorney general), I would have said we have lost the case. As lawyers, we are used to winning and losing cases. Because the fact is, we havent won this case."

According to The Indian Express report, Rohatgi, who stepped down as the governments top law officer was astonished by the Supreme Court's 24 August verdict declaring the right to privacy as a fundamental right.

Rohatgi added that the verdict might be a path-breaking judgment, but it could open up a Pandoras box since it could lead to a demand for other rights to be converted to fundamental rights: "There can be a challenge for the right of getting good medical treatment to be converted into a fundamental right."

Furthermore, Rohatgi said that a court could not engraft more fundamental rights. According to PTI, Rohatgi stated: "I still maintain there is much ado about nothing for the simple reason that I do hear that the government has stated that they agree that privacy is a fundamental right."

He stated that a court has no power to engraft more fundamental rights in the Constitution as the right to make a law or amend it belongs to the Parliament.

Rohatgi, while speaking to a TV channel, also said there are two spheres  judiciary and Parliament  and both cannot overlap each other.

"There is no amendment in the Constitution by a court as you have two different spheres. The sphere of the judiciary and the sphere of the Parliament. Both the spheres cannot overlap," he said.

Since 2015, as reported by NDTV, the former attorney general has been making a point on the government's behalf that privacy is not a fundamental right. NDTV quoted Rohatgi as: "Later, the government in the court agreed to kind of bring it (privacy) to a slightly different plane, by admitting it to be some kind of a right."

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed the mayhem created by followers of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, saying violence in the name of faith won't be tolerated and asserted that the guilty would not be spared.

In his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Modi said everybody will have to bow before the law.

He said the Constitution provides scope for redressal of all kinds of grievances.

"At a time, when the country is in the mode of celebrating festivals, news of violence from any part is naturally a matter of concern," the prime minister said, clearly referring to the mayhem created by the followers of Ram Rahim, chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, in Haryana.

"This is a country of Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. This is a country of Sardar Patel, who devoted his life for the unity," he said.

He said non-violence has been the foundation of the country for ages.

"I had said it from Red Fort (in Independence Day speech) that in the name of faith, violence will not be tolerated. Whether the faith is religious, political or in favour of a individual or a tradition, nobody has the right to take the law into his own hands in the name of faith," the prime minister said.

"I want to assure the country that no country, no government can tolerate anybody taking law into their hands, whether it is an individual or a group. Everybody will have to bow before the law. The law will determine accountability and the guilty will be punished," he asserted.

Followers of Ram Rahim went on the rampage in Panchkula and some other parts of Haryana on last Friday after a CBI court convicted him of rape.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the nation is proud of the six women officers of the Indian Navy who will embark next month on a mission to circumnavigate the globe.

Convey your best wishes to the crew of Navika Sagar Parikrama, on the NM App. Will share your wishes with them. https://t.co/c7sLBPMaPL  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 27, 2017

Modi said the updates on their journey would be made available on the prime minister's mobile application (Narendra Modi App).

"I had the opportunity to meet some young daughters, some of who, were born in the Himalayas, who had absolutely no connection with the sea. Six of these young daughters are in the navy. Their grit and zeal is inspiring for all of us," Modi said in his radio programme Mann Ki Baat.

"These six young women will embark on a voyage across the seas, in a small boat, INSV Tarini. The expedition has been named Navika Sagar Parikrama. They will circumnavigate the globe and return home, after many months," he said.

"Our six daughters riding the waves of the high seas, with courage, is the first instance of its kind in the world," the Prime Minister said.

"Each and every Indian would be proud of these daughters. I salute their valour and I have asked them to share their experiences with the entire country.

"I am making a separate arrangement for their experiences on the Narendra Modi App to ensure that you can read it. This is a tale of heroism, a tale of personal experiences, and I would be happy to bring you the stories of these daughters. My best wishes and blessings to these daughters," he said.

An all-women team of Indian Navy led by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi, along with Lt. Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and P Swathi, and Lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta is set to embark on the circumnavigation journey in September.

The gruelling journey would take them through some of the roughest seas.

The around eight-month-long journey would be covered in five legs with stop-overs at four ports  Fremantle (Australia), Lyttelton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa).
Mansa: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday said no compensation would be granted to victims from the state who are found to have violated the law during the Panchkula violence in the wake of the court verdict against self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The chief minister stated this while interacting with mediapersons during his tour of nearly a dozen areas in some of the sensitive districts in Malwa region of Punjab, which witnessed sporadic incidents of violence in the wake of the court verdict against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief on Friday.

The chief minister said it was for the Centre to take any decision on ordering a probe into the collapse of law and order that led to the anarchy and violence in Panchkula and other parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi on Friday.

He said the main cause of the trouble was allowing such a large crowd to gather in Panchkula ahead of the court verdict.

Amarinder welcomed the prime minister's strong condemnation of the violence and expressed hope that the central government would punish the criminals who indulged in violence, with an iron hand.

"Nobody can or should be allowed to disturb the law and order of any state or region in the country," he added.

He said his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar had made no attempt to get in touch with him even though the Punjab intelligence was regularly providing their counterparts in the neighbouring state with all inputs.

He said while his government was preparing a list of the damage caused to public and private property, there would be no compensation for those who broke the law and indulged in violence.

"The list of damaged property would be submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court for recovery of compensation from the Dera, as per the court's directions," he said.

The chief minister said 45 preventive arrests have been made so far under sections 107/151 in the seven districts of the sensitive Bathinda zone, which was considered the base of Dera supporters in Punjab.

A total of 23 FIRs have been registered, with 30 arrests made, he said, adding that 62 petrol bombs had been seized along with a 12-bore gun with a dozen cartridges and a .22 revolver with 28 cartridges.

The chief minister expressed satisfaction that the situation in the region was under control and there was no sign of panic among the people.

Day curfew in the area had been lifted and the district administration would again review the situation at night, he said.

Besides Mansa, where he started his tour from Kotli Kalan, the chief minister toured the areas of Maur, Bhatinda, Balluana (Bathinda Rural), Gidderbaha and Malout, where he met the people and security forces.

In Bathinda Rural, he visited the Balluana railway station damaged in the violence and spoke to the staff members, who gave him a first-hand account of the events on Friday.

They described how armed men broke into the railway offices and damaged windows, and computers, before making an abortive attempt to set the station afire.

The chief minister said there had been no fresh incident of violence in Punjab after Friday's minor cases of attack on property and vehicles by Dera supporters.

"The situation in the state was completely stable," he said.

He directed the district administration and police to ensure that there is no disruption of peace in the region and all steps are taken to maintain law and order.
A media team from a national news channel was attacked by followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) on Sunday as the area around the sect headquarters remained tense.

The Dera followers, numbering five to six, chased the media team and assaulted them after stopping them near the sect headquarters, about eight kilometres from Sirsa town.

The attackers tried to snatch the camera of the team and damaged it. The media team got minor injuries in the attack before they were rescued by security forces in the vicinity.

However, the miscreants took away the car of the media team. The car, which contained equipment, was later recovered by the police.

Dera followers had attacked the media in Panchkula on Friday after the rape case verdict against the sect chief. Media outdoor broadcasting (OB) vehicles were set on fire by mobs of Dera followers.

Tension prevailed in and around the sect headquarters on Sunday with security forces still stationed close to it.

A large number of Dera followers continued to come to the sprawling campus on Sunday despite appeals by security forces and the administration to vacate the premises.

On August 25, CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002.

The areas affected by violence in Haryana and Punjab remained peaceful on Sunday even though security forces remained on high alert in both states, officials said.

Curfew was withdrawn in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh which saw the maximum violence on Friday following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Curfew was withdrawn in Kaithal town in Haryana and relaxed in Sirsa town, 260 km from here.

The death toll in the violence has gone up to 36. Of these, 30 died in Panchkula while six died in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured in the violence.

The sect chief was shifted to a prison near Rohtak town (about 70 km from Delhi). The prison has been put under heavy security. The quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced on Monday at a special court being set up in the prison premises.

The judge will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the sentence.

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Chandigarh/Sirsa: Haryana was on edge on Sunday, a day before the special CBI judge pronounces the sentence against the maverick Dera Sacha Sauda cult chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted of raping his two women followers, in Rohtak jail on Monday.

CBI court judge Jagdeep Singh will be flown to Rohtak district jail where he would pronounce the quantum of sentence against Singh, whose conviction on Friday saw his followers run riot in several places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Ripples were also felt in Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The death toll in violence and arson that immediately followed the conviction of the flamboyant chief of the sect that has millions of followers in India and abroad, meanwhile, has risen to 38, state's director general of police BS Sandhu said.

Police have registered 52 cases in connection with the violence which left a trail of destruction, particularly in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana, and arrested 926 people, Sandhu told a press conference in Chandigarh.

A multi-layer security cordon has been thrown around the jail where Singh has been lodged, Sandhu said.

The jail is located at Sunaria, on the outskirts of Rohtak city, which resembles a garrison town with security pickets all over the place. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had Saturday ordered the Haryana government to make necessary arrangements at the jail where the judge would sentence Singh in the 15-year-old case of sexual assault of two sadhvis.

Inspector general of police (Rohtak range) Navdeep Virk, who is overseeing security arrangements in Rohtak, said there was a "complete clampdown" on Dera centres known as naam charcha ghar and all its functionaries who could gather people for creating trouble have been put under detention in the state.

Sandhu, meanwhile said, army was on standby in Rohtak to meet any eventuality.

Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) prohibiting assembly of five or more persons, and carrying of firearms and other weapons is already in place in Rohtak.

All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions in the entire state, will remain closed on Monday, additional chief secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said in an official release.

Sandhu said curfew has been lifted from all places in Haryana barring Sirsa, where the sect is heaquartered. Sirsa district administration relaxed curfew for five hours in and around the dera headquarters on Sunday morning.

There have been no reports of violence from anywhere in Haryana and Punjab since Saturday.

Train operations in Punjab and Haryana, severely affected by violence in two states, have been restored, except for the Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section, a railway ministry statement said in New Delhi. The security clearance for the section is awaited from state authorities, it said.

Mobile internet services will remain suspended in Haryana and Punjab till 11.30 am on Tuesday. Internet lease lines on the premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters at Sirsa will also be suspended till then, officials said.

Security forces were on high alert in Haryana, and strict vigil was being maintained in sensitive districts including Panchkula, Sirsa, Rohtak and Fatehabad, they said.

At many sensitive places in Punjab too, security forces conducted flag marches and kept a tight vigil in sensitive areas. Four rifles, including an AK-47, pistols, and petrol bombs were among the weapons seized from the supporters of the sect.

Two cases of sedition have been registered against Dera followers, police said without giving much detail as they have to submit a report to the high court on Tuesday.

Under attack over the massive violence, the Haryana government had suspended Ashok Kumar, the deputy commissioner of police in Panchkula, saying his "defective" prohibitory orders allowed the crowd build-up in the district.

Meanwhile, authorities in Punjab and Haryana have started identifying movable and immovable assets of the cult on the directions of the high court, officials said.

Revenue officials of the two states are compiling details of properties and assets of the Dera, a quasi-religious sect headed by Singh, who wields considerable political influence and instructs his followers which party to vote for during elections.

Banks have been asked to provide details of accounts of the Dera. "A list of the Dera's assets, incomes, bank accounts and properties is being prepared on a war footing," an official involved in the exercise in the twin states of Haryana and Punjab said.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the two states to submit by Tuesday a list of the Dera's properties and assets which can be attached in case it is found that they were responsible for property after Singh's conviction.

Sedition and attempt to murder charges have, meanwhile, been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, who were part of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's security detail when he had arrived at the Panchkula CBI court on 25 August.

"Sedition charge has been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel," Karambir Singh, Inspector, Panchkula Police (Sector-5), said on Sunday.

They have also been accused of attempt to murder, he added. The seven securitymen accompanying Singh had allegedly tried to free him when the self-styled godman was brought outside the Panchkula court complex on Friday after the special CBI court convicted him. A scuffle had broken out between them and Haryana police personnel.
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China is attempting to "change the status quo" on its border with India and incidents like the ongoing stand-off in the Doka la area are likely to "increase" in future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Saturday.

"The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future," Rawat said.

He was delivering the General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture on 'India's Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct' organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University. "Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops, however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.

He said that during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps insisting that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand- off began), but no resolution has been found yet.

"Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives," he said.

Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted.

"This is due to the development of force infrastructure of military significance. Their force reorganisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," Rawat said.

Later, speaking to reporters and explaining his statement that incidents like Doklam are likely to "increase", Rawat said, "We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it can not happen again in different sector.

"It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down," the Army Chief added. China continues to enhance its influence in the regional security environment, he said.

"It is doing so by increasing defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India's sovereignty," he stated.

Confirmation for annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year, he said. "We have been doing the exercise every year. One year our team goes to China and on the second year, their team

comes to us. While this time the exercise is planned in October, it is not being confirmed (from their side) yet, whether it will take place or not," he said.

Asked if the ongoing stand-off was the reason for this, Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."

Rawat slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu & Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern.

"Pakistan's unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China," Rawat said.

The Army Chief refused to comment on Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who recently got bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, saying the issue is before the courts.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has asked Income Tax authorities to carry out a detailed study of the accounts of businessman Zahoor Watali, arrested by the agency in connection with a case it has registered on terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The officials also said the agency would hire chartered accountants to examine the books and ledgers of Watali and his business establishments.

The NIA on Saturday conducted raids in Srinagar in the office of Trison Farms and Construction Pvt Ltd, owned by Watali.

"The search has unearthed incriminating documents pertaining to Zahoor Watali's financial transactions. These have been seized and a further investigation is on," an NIA spokesman said.

NIA officials said the Income Tax authorities would be examining the documents seized and also comparing the accounts with his tax returns.

The chartered accountants (CAs) would examine the ledgers and investments including 'kaccha' (unofficial) receipts seized from his various offices, they said.

The officials said the CAs would also scrutinise the accounts of some NGOs and trusts in Kashmir Valley.

Watali is being questioned by the NIA regarding "incriminating" financial transaction details and property-related records seized during the searches.

The NIA has also accused Watali of travelling on an invalid passport.

"Instead of surrendering the cancelled passport to the authorities, he travelled abroad on the cancelled/invalid passport on 21 March, 2016 in violation of the law and again when he tried to do so, his invalid passport was seized in Delhi by the authorities," NIA had said in a statement.

The statement had said that Watali, "who is suspected of acting as a conduit for illegally remitting funds to secessionists, terrorists and stone-pelters", had earlier been arrested in 1990 by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

"Some anti-national activists were found present in his house at Bagat Barzulla, Srinagar. He was taken into custody along with Yaseen Malik, Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Lone and others and was jailed for eight months at Jammu," it said.

The NIA is also questioning several separatists including the sons of pro-Pakistan hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The NIA had registered a case of terror funding and named Hafiz Saeed, leader of the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, as an accused. Several separatist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir have also been named in the FIR.
Arif Mohammed Khan, 66, has consistently championed for equal rights of Muslim women and the need for Muslim society to evolve and modernise, to extricate itself from the clutches of the clergy, and to rid itself of shibboleths. He has not been afraid to follow his convictions: In 1986, he quit the Congress government of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi government in protest against its decision to bring in a new law that would overturn a Supreme Court verdict providing a monthly maintenance of Rs 179.20 to a 68-year-old divorcee called Shah Bano Begum.

Khan started out as a student leader at the Aligarh Muslim University, his alma mater, and went on to serve as a junior minister in Indira Gandhis cabinet. He is a four-time member of Parliament and served as a Cabinet minister under both Rajiv Gandhi as well as VP Singh of the Janata Party (he left the Congress after the government overturned the Shah Bano verdict). His speech in favour of Shah Bano in Parliaments lower house, the Lok Sabha, won him praise, for his progressive stand, marshalling of facts and his oratory.

Khan has urged Muslims to think ahead and move with the times, taking on the Muslim clergy and braved a vilification campaign. Before a five-judge Supreme Court bench, which on 22 August, 2017, delivered a verdict against instant talaq  verbal divorce uttered three times by Muslim me  he argued for an end to the practice. In a manner, 31 years after he first sought equal rights for Muslim women, the Supreme Court has endorsed his views. In an interview with IndiaSpend, Khan shared his views on the Supreme Court verdict, its implications, and the fate of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).

You have often said triple talaq is anti-constitutional, anti-Quran and anti-human. In fact, you said the act of triple talaq should be treated as contempt of court and invite prison term of at least three months of iddat (the period a couple is supposed to stay together before final separation). What do you make of the courts recent verdict? Do you think this is a victory the government can claim for itself?

Its a historic judgment and it will have far-reaching consequences. This will empower and embolden women. It will come as a confidence booster to not just Muslim women but women across religions. Muslim women used to grow up with the sword of rejection and humiliation hanging over their heads. They used to be at the mercy of their husbands, who could, with the aid of the mullahs (clerics) get away with abandoning them at will, but that will no longer happen.

Its not right to look at it (the judgment) as a victory for the government or a political party. In fact, the first government affidavit on this issue was a very weak one, where the government said it would talk to everybody and then take a position. It was only after the Supreme Court pointed out that their position was at variance with their stated position that Mukul Rohatgi (then attorney general) filed a second affidavit.

You also have said the uniform civil code is a constitutional obligation of the government. However, when we talk about institutionalising a code, triple talaq aside, there are other practices in other religions discriminatory to women that need to change, such as the inheritance laws, divorce rights, or adoption rights. Do you think the current government will address these as decisively and eagerly as it did triple talaq?

In a secular democracy, laws are meant to be uniform, where all citizens have equal rights and obligations. It also means that neither will laws prohibit people from following their religious practices nor will the state force everybody to follow a particular practice. A uniform civil code can only come through consultations. It does not mean that people of different religions will have to perform marriages in a particular manner. It will, as Guru Gowalkar said in an interview to the Organiser (a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh magazine), take into consideration the sensitivities and diversity of India. After all, the Hindu code bill is not the product of the shastras (scriptures), it has borrowed from different religions. For instance, a daughters share in property and meher (a mandatory payment) have been adopted from Muslim law. While the provisions of the Hindu code bill are also applicable to Jains and Christians, they retain their identities.

The stated position of the government is that it is consulting different stakeholders, and I hope it will work towards that goal.

You criticised Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 for reversing the Supreme Courts order on Shah Bano with the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights under Divorce) Act  in fact, that led to your parting from the Congress. Do you think this current government would be better equipped to sensitively deal with the personal laws of Muslims?

Ive said this before and will say this again. I do not believe that Rajiv Gandhi took the decision to overturn the Supreme Court verdict on his own. He had a modern mind and was averse to obscurantism. I have, in fact, seen Rajiv Gandhis noting on the file, in which he had clearly written that there should be no compromise with obscurantist and fundamentalist elements. He was pressurised to do so by the likes of PV Narasimha Rao, Arjun Singh and ND Tewari (the then ministers in the government). They were of the opinion that it was not the job of the Congress party to reform Muslims, (they said) if they want to lie in the gutter let them be.

After the passage of the act to reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court in Shah Bano case, you had said, We can make and change laws according to our requirements, but it would be difficult to put an end to the communal poison that has been injected into the body politic of India by the speeches made by personal law board members. Why do you believe that was the starting point of fresh communal tensions in India?

The communal poison was injected by the aggressive and abusive language used by leaders like the Shahi Imam (of Delhi). He threatened to break the legs of those Muslim MPs who were opposed to the (Rajiv Gandhi) governments decision to overturn the (Shah Bano) verdict. Another Muslim leader called the judges names. All this vitiated the atmosphere and led to a tremendous backlash. To balance the backlash, they ordered the unlocking of the Babri Masjid, and the rest is history. That one decision and the constant appeasement of obscurantist and hardline elements has done more harm to Hindu-Muslim relations than anything else.

When speaking of the Uttar Pradesh elections, in a recent interview, you had said : When we talk about consolidation of the votes of one community or caste, we flagrantly violate the spirit of the Indian Constitution. Post the elections, the Uttar Pradesh state Assembly now has the lowest Muslim representation in a quarter of a century. You said this was because non-BJP parties have played the Muslim card rather clumsily. But with the Yogi Adityanath government now in Uttar Pradesh, do you think the communitys needs are being met? Would you say they feel secure given the kind of rhetoric the BJP has indulged in or the fact that Muslims have been victims in 86 percent of attacks related to cow-related violence, 97 percent of which took place after 2014? At the risk of sidelining the communitys interests, do you still believe there shouldnt be a consolidation of votes?

Consolidation cannot happen one way. If Muslims consolidate other communities will also be tempted to consolidate as well. Consolidation on caste and religious lines has had dangerous consequences . It is not good for the country, restraint and reconciliation is the way forward.

How will the verdict impact position of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board? They were of the view that personal laws cannot be interfered with.

They (the Muslim personal law board) are entitle to their view. I am inspired by the Quran, which says that unless you evolve and move forward you will perish. If the AIMPLB wants to wallow in the past, good luck to them. The mullahs have always been irrelevant. Even in 1986, if the government hadnt buckled to their pressure, they would have been exposed. In fact, Ive always been of the opinion that mainstream parties have, by choosing to deal with them rather than the Muslim community, provided the obscurantists with legitimacy .

There are many who argue that the Supreme Court verdict cannot be implemented on the ground and will not make much of a difference to the plight of the Muslim women.

Those who believe this are deluding themselves. Those men who divorce through instant talaq, can now be hauled up by the police for harassment and mental torture and will have to face the consequences.

Is there a sense of vindication, that the courageous stand you took in the Shah Bano case has now in a way been upheld by the Supreme Court?

It is not personal vindication that I am looking at. Whatever I did was out of conviction, and I am happy that the Supreme Court has intervened and restored the rights of the Muslim women, (the rights) that should have always been available to them.
Washington: Asserting that nobody has talked about asking India to send troops to Afghanistan, a senior US administration official has said New Delhi's role in the war-torn country is focused around economic and democratic development and not on security issues.

President Donald Trump reached out to India in his Afghan and South Asia policy speech last week seeking an enhanced role for New Delhi, especially in the economic field, to bring peace and stability in war-torn Afghanistan.

The official clarified that there is no specific ask or to do list from the United Stated to India, but the president expects that India would continue with its good economic developmental work in Afghanistan.

"I don't think the president has articulated any specifics (about India's role in Afghanistan). But, the inter-agency (team in the US) has discussed this issue as part of the overall deliberations, and is focusing on what can be done in terms of the economic development issues, and support democratic development," the official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"But, (India's role is) not focusing on security issues. Nobody's talking about asking India to put troops on the ground in Afghanistan. No, that has not been part of the discussions," the official said, giving an insight into the deliberations that has gone within the Trump administration as it formulated the Afghan policy over the past several months.

The official said the discussions have focused around India's role in helping with economic development with basic support to the regional processes that are aimed at ensuring regional partners have a constructive role.

"Here, I'm talking about the six plus one, which India will be very much a part of," the official added.

"We just look forward to India continuing to play the kind of positive role it's been playing over the last several years, and maybe even enhancing that even more, in terms of supporting the peace process in the country, and being involved in those regional initiatives," the official added.

Noting that India was very much involved in the Kabul process, and has always been part of the regional solution and building up regional consensus for a stable, peaceful Afghanistan, the official said, "We look forward to India continuing to play that role."

Responding to a question, the official said that the US recognises that India has already pledged $3 billion to Afghanistan, which is a large sum.

"India's development work, whether it be building a dam, or some of the energy projects, the parliament building, India has been deeply engaged in the economic development of Afghanistan. We would encourage that to continue," the official said.

"I don't think anybody has mentioned any specific dollar figure," the official said when asked if the president has a dollar figure in mind when he sought an enhanced Indian role in Afghanistan.

"The president was clear that he sees India as a country that can help in stabilising and securing Afghanistan, and that he's looking forward to working with India on these issues, in terms of the economic development in Afghanistan and strengthening the democratic institutions. India has a great role to play here, being the world's largest democracy, and being so close in the region to Afghanistan," the official said.

"So, there's no particular dollar amount that the president is thinking about. He's just thinking about how much India has to offer, and how much is at stake for India in Afghanistan. Sort of putting those two facts together and then expressing his expectation that India would be playing a helpful role in Afghanistan," said the official.
Chennai: The need of the hour for people is to stay united, shun violence and work towards equality in all aspects to enable India progress, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday.

After inaugurating an exhibition "New India  resolve to achieve" to mark the platinum jubilee of the Quit India movement at Anna University here, he said seven decades after the country had achieved independence, issues like poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality and caste discrimination were still prevalent.

"We must all resolve to fight these evils and work towards the country's progress," said Naidu, who was on his maiden visit to the city after taking over as Vice-President.

He also urged the political leadership at the central and state levels to work to fight these evils.

"There is no place for violence in a democratic society and it must be curbed. We have to stand united against it. If violence takes place, people are the losers," he said while referring to violence in some parts of the country.

He also said that people will have to stand united against terrorism in any form.

Naidu also batted for finding ways to make agriculture profitable and sustainable for the farming community and said "we are a huge population. We cannot sustain on imported food alone and need to produce our own food."

"We have to make farming profitable and sustainable and a long-term solution has to be found to help farmers," he said.

The Vice-President also said that the time has come to bridge the urban-rural divide and ensure equality for all.

He termed the recent Supreme Court verdict on 'triple talaq' as a historic one and said it would go a long way in ending gender discrimination.

Naidu said it was imperative to preserve the freedom won after a long struggle.

He exhorted the people to resolve to eliminate casteism, communalism, corruption, gender bias, illiteracy and poverty.

Earlier, on his arrival, Naidu was given a warm welcome by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, BJP state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan and Rajya Sabha MP Ila Ganesan.

The governor presented a copy of the Telugu version of "Tirukkural" (Tamil treatise)" to Naidu.

The translated work was a translation from Tamil original and it was published by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil.

Naidu later went to the Raj Bhavan where he visited the recently unveiled statues of Tamil saint poet Tiruvalluvar and poetess Avaiyyar in the premises.

The governor, Tamil Nadu fisheries minister D Jayakumar and top officials accompanied him at the Raj Bhavan.
It was a decade of war and liberation, of food revolutions, of sloganeering and unrest. The tumult of the 1970s in India was the outcome of a young democracy hurtling towards its ideals, only to collide with the government of the day, and have its freedom revoked. Amid the chaos of the milieu, a project landed in the classroom of Vikas Satwalekar, erstwhile executive director of the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, who was conducting a course on Symbol Design. Doordarshan (DD), the countrys only public service broadcaster, which began its tentative and grainy telecasts in 1959 and regular transmissions in 1965 as a subgroup of All India Radio (AIR), required a symbol  a visual representation of its corporate identity. It was soon to been separated from AIR, in April 1976, and the logo was meant to represent this newly autonomous entity.

Devashis Bhattacharyya, the student who designed what is now popularly referred to as the DD Eye recalls making the two curves that comprise the logo (sometimes called yin and yang) by hand. It was 1975; the only technology designers had access to, was rudimentary stationary. This logo harks back to an analog world, although the vector image anticipates the kind of digital visual articulation one sees now, he explains. In the absence of computers, graphic designers sketched. Even a small iteration meant one did a draft all over again. That was the reason, one had to be very careful  a decision to make a change meant enormous changes in the whole process, he elaborates. The DD Eye was also created for DDs initial attempts at a national broadcast. This was a time when ISRO launched its communication satellites, and DD was turning into a national broadcaster. It needed a logo that people from every corner of the country could relate to, he expands.

Bhattacharyya, who is now 66 years old, perhaps inadvertently suggests the reason for DD seeking an alternative to the logo he created when he was a 24-year-old student at NID. His DD Eye logo, sketched by hand and animated by RL Mistry, belongs to a black-and-white era of analog signals and quivering transmission. DD, which has announced a competition and invited entries for a brand new visual emblem, is keen to keep up with the times. Its invitation for the contest states: In order to engage with Indias youth and to get a mindshare for DD brand within the current generation, DD is seeking a new logo design. The invitation acknowledges the deep nostalgia evoked by the old logo and suggests that the new design, while recalling this nostalgia, should reflect the aspirations of new India.

While DD is undoubtedly fired by the zeal to foray into new markets with younger demographic audiences, its invitation is problematic. Is the old DD Eye logo, for instance, a mere reminder of a milieu punctuated by the Rukawat Ke Liye Khed Hai message that appeared with annoying frequency on ones boxy TV sets? Or does it represent an idiom that is diverse, timeless and undeniably Indian?

DDs flawed call for entries:

Vikas Satwalekar, under whose supervision the old DD Eye logo was created, deliberates upon labelling a work of art, and in this context, a visual identity for a corporate, old or new or dated or contemporary. He advises caution while denouncing a design for being out-dated, or glorifying its avant-garde traits. I do not subscribe to the view that a visual identity in itself is either dated or contemporary, he emphasises. These are attributes of the public perception of an organisation or product. Stating that the logo designed by Bhattacharyya is iconic and timeless, he also argues that while a new logo may hold out a promise, the promise has to be ultimately delivered by the quality of the product.

DDs call for new logo designs is also a poorly articulated one. Satwalekar describes it as sketchy and quite generic. Referring to a sentence from the call for entries  The logo shall comprise an attractive design depicting Doordarshan  he says, Attractive? That is a wholly subjective criterion!

He acknowledges that an organisation like DD might feel the need to undertake a rebranding exercise: An image makeover, a different audience  these are all perfectly valid reasons for rebranding because the organisation is heralding a significant change, he explains. But he isnt convinced that changing the logo alone will achieve the shift in image and perception that DD is eager for. A new visual identity is emblematic of an organisations new purpose, but, asks Satwalekar, What is this new purpose? How will it manifest in their programming? Is DD going to make changes in its organisational structure?

Pertinent questions, which bring to fore a potent symbol that appears on car bonnets, airline liveries, washing machines, cereal boxes, handbags, phones, computer screens, flatscreen TVs , shoes, underwear  the logo. Paul Rand, the American modernist and graphic designer who created some of the most iconic logos of the corporate world  IBM, ABC, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., and NeXT  defined the logo and its chief function, in an article titled Logos, Flags and Escutcheons, first published in 1991 by AIGA, the professional association for design. He wrote:

Heres what a logo is and does:

A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon.

A logo doesnt sell (directly), it identifies.

A logo is rarely a description of a business.

A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.

A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.

Rands definition is suggestive of all that a logo is capable of achieving for a brand, as an emblem of its ideals and as a visual summation of its philosophy. It also reveals the unrealistic expectations companies have of their logos  of conferring upon their brands, a value or worth that may or may not exist. DDs rebranding exercise is perhaps a case of expecting too much of a new logo  that a contemporary design might denote a contemporary organisation reflects a naivety that Rand hints at, when he discusses why organisations undertake the task of redesigning a logo: There are as many reasons for designing a new logo, or updating an old one, as there are opinions. The belief that a new or updated design will be some kind of charm that will magically transform any business, is not uncommon. A redesigned logo may have the advantage of implying something new, something improved  but this is short-lived if a company doesnt live up to its claim.

A new or updated logo, then, must signal a new and updated company, one that has really sloughed off whatever constitutes its dead skin  old management, a philosophy at odds with the milieu, obsolete products or technology. Itu Chaudhuri, a Delhi-based graphic designer and founder of Itu Chaudhuri Design, echoes Rand when he dwells upon DDs call for a new logo. Chaudhuri, whose work includes designing the logo and website for e-commerce store Almirah, redesigning the financial daily The Economic Times, as well as reimagining the website of The Hindu, cites three reasons why any company should consider changing its logo. When a company believes that it has come a long way and its logo no longer reflects that; or when an organisation embarks upon deep-rooted changes and needs a logo to hint at that; or when the market or target audience changes and the brand continues to satisfy its audience, but the logo doesnt, is when redesigning the logo becomes a legitimate exercise, he explains. DD would have to change in its entirety; merely changing the logo is a cosmetic way of making people believe that DD is up to something new, he adds .

DDs new logo must become an insignia that presages visible changes in DDs programming, or management, or both. Else, it will be reduced to a decorative crest that merely alludes to better offerings, without ever living up to its promises.

An Indian idiom: is there one?

The 1970s were also a decade when NID established links with other national organisations, like the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Ashoke Chatterjee, the second executive director (he was appointed in 1975) was keen to usher in an age of design solutions that responded to the Indian economy and the unique challenges of it environment. At a meeting titled Design for Development held at NID in 1979 and organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), he spoke of NIDS mission as a design institute: It will be clear from what I have said that NIDs basic task is to create an Indian idiom of Industrial Design and Visual Communication: design disciplines relevant to the needs of a huge economy which embraces every stage of industrial development.

Aligned to NIDs design culture of unearthing solutions for the microcosm of institutes around it, were several logos created for national organisations. The visual identity for Operation Flood, for instance, was a response to Dr Verghese Kuriens simple brief  flood the country with fresh pasteurised milk. Operation Flood was launched by NDDB in 1970, and its symbol, created by Satwalekar in 1973, was the lone but elegant, drop. Satwalekar recalls designing what became an instantly recognisable symbol: A flow of liquid begins when drops converge to form a trickletorrentflood, the circular form with an opening at the bottom placed in the middle of the drop (form) was indicative of the pasteurisation processthe starting point of the flow moving upwards.

Satwalekars design was approved by Dr Kurien, and the symbol appeared on stationery items, packaging, vending machines, rail and road milk tankers, distribution centres and uniforms. The synergy between the client and the designer was exhilarating and vastly productive, Satwalekar reminisces.

There were logos conceived in the decades prior to the '70s, which also represented NIDs involvement with a new nations tremulous first steps towards setting up banks, airlines, film institutes, railways. The logo for Indian Airlines was designed by the late Benoy Sarkar in 1967. Sarkar had been a student of Paul Rand at Yale University, and was teaching at NID when he designed the logo. He describes it in Design Folio, and NID publication: The symbol chosen is based on the golden section of the ancient Greeks. It is aesthetic and has a pleasant formal division, geometrically simple and fits the letters IA for Indian Airlines.

The visual identity for the State Bank of India (SBI), also designed in 1967 by Shekhar Kamath, is still being used. Kamath, who has been quoted in the 2013 tome titled 50 Years of the National Institute of Design: 1961-2011, explains the enduring symbol of economic inclusion that he created  the keyhole: I knew that 90 percent of these branches were in the rural areas. So, I figured that the design had to be simple and easily recognisable by all, including those who were illiterate. They should be able to simply look at the logo and associate it with security.

Each of these symbols was a powerful solution to a clients design brief. And while NID created some of the most longstanding logos of Indian organisations, their iconography was not overtly, or deliberately Indian. There were emblems that borrowed from Indian motifs  for instance, Benoy Sarkars 1974 logo for India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), formerly known as Trade Fair Authority of India (TFAI) was inspired by an inscription on a gold coin belonging to King Samudraguptas epoch (330-380 AD). SM Shahs logo for the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was an imaginative rendering of the Devnagri script. But even these symbols were not consciously attempting an Indian aesthetic. Satwalekar observes that, If these are symbols with marked Indian visual metaphors, I believe that is more due to the clients desire for a specific aim rather than the designer imposing Indianness.

An Indian idiom, represented by each of these logos, is perhaps what DD is referring to, when it states that the new logo should represent an ambitious new India. But Indianness is something that draws from multiple influences. Chaudhuri mentions the Raag Shudh Kalyan, in an attempt to explain the heterogeneous nature of Indianness. Its most powerful rendering was by Ustaad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, an Afghan, he says. DD too, in picking a new logo, should consider one that is as vivid and pluralistic as the milieu it is meant to represent. And a contest may not be ideal in identifying such a logo; Chaudhuri describes the contest as the equivalent of a swayamvar, in which the target is unknown; the bride, unreachable. A long conversation then, between the designer and the client, is perhaps one way of arriving at a new logo for DD.
New Delhi: The AIADMK will soon join the NDA and be a part of the Modi government at the Centre, a senior BJP leader has said.

It is only a matter of time before an announcement is made on this, the BJP leader, who is a key party functionary involved with the southern state's affairs, said.

"The AIADMK will certainly join the NDA. It is only a matter of time. And when it joins the NDA, then it is natural that it will also join the government," the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

He also played down the rebellion by a group of AIADMK MLAs, who owe allegiance to TTV Dhinakaran, against Chief Minister K Palaniswamy, claiming that it was more an internal matter of the regional party and not a threat to the state government.

Following the recent merger of two AIADMK factions headed by Palaniswamy and former chief minister O Panneerselvam, the party has been hit by fresh dissent with a group of MLAs rallying behind Dhinakaran, whose aunt, VK Sasikala, is the AIADMK chief and in jail on a corruption case.

The two factions' decision to remove Sasikala from the post of party general secretary triggered the unrest.

About 20 MLAs are reportedly supporting Dhinakaran.

Though BJP has downplayed its part in the merger of the two factions, party leaders have made it clear that they were keen that the two groups come together.

While there is speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon make changes in his ministry, party sources indicated a Cabinet reshuffle was due.

The AIADMK, which has 37 and 13 members in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively, has often lent its support to the government on key issues in Parliament. Its members also voted for the NDA's presidential and vice presidential candidates in the recent elections.

Representatives of the JD(U), which is in power in Bihar and joined the NDA recently, are also likely to join the government.
Chennai: A DMK-led delegation of opposition parties on Sunday called on Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao and urged him to direct Chief Minister K Palaniswamy to prove his majority in the Assembly in view of rebellion by a section of ruling AIADMK MLAs.

DMK also later said it would be constrained to move President Ram Nath Kovind, and if needed the court, if action was not initiated by Rao within a time frame.

Ever since 19 MLAs loyal to sidelined AIADMK deputy chief TTV Dhinakaran met Rao on 21 August and expressed their lack of confidence in the chief minister, DMK has been demanding a floor test claiming that the present government had lost its majority.

In the 234-member assembly, the present AIADMK government "enjoys the support of only 113 MLAs including the Speaker," DMK working president MK Stalin said in a letter to Rao, the second since last week on the issue and handed over by the delegation.

Pointing out that his party had 89 MLAs, Congress eight and IUML one member, he claimed the number of MLAs opposed to the government stood at 120 including the "22 dissenting ruling party MLAs" in the 234-member House with one vacancy.

"It is now abundantly clear that the Council of Ministers headed by Palaniswamy has lost confidence of the majority MLAs," Stalin claimed.

Terming the situation as a "Constitutional crisis", Stalin requested the governor to immediately intervene and order a floor test to prove Palaniswamy government's majority.

"...kindly take all measures to restore good governance and democracy in the state," the DMK leader said.

The delegation comprised Duraimurugan, DMK Rajya Sabha MPs Kanimozhi, RS Barathi, IUML MLA K A M Mohammed Abubacker, and Congress legislator and party whip, S Vijayadharani.

Stalin had on 21 August itself written to Rao for a floor test shortly after the 19 MLAs met the Governor. He had also reiterated the demand in a statement days later.

Meanwhile, addressing a function near Tiruvarur on Sunday, Stalin said his party might have to approach President Kovind and later the court to "protect democracy" if suitable action was not initiated by Rao.

Echoing him, DMK's deputy leader in the assembly Duraimurugan, who led the delegation, said, "We hope, the Governor will not push us to do that."

Rao assured them that he would scrutinise the matter and take appropriate action, he told reporters emerging from the Raj Bhavan.

The meeting of the opposition delegation with Rao comes days after Stalin and Congress Legislature Party leader KR Ramasamy separately wrote to him seeking a floor test.

In his previous letter, Stalin had claimed that any delay in directing immediate floor test will only encourage "horse trading" and lead to "unsavoury political manipulations" and "injure" democracy.

Like in their previous letters, Stalin in his latest plea again cited the landmark SR Bommai case and said allowing the Palaniswamy regime to continue would tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court judgement in that case.

The top court had held in the Bommai case that the only place to determine a government's majority was the legislative assembly.
As political heavyweights across parties attended a rally hosted by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in Patna in a show of Opposition unity, the absence of a section of Bihar Congress leaders was not easy to miss.

According to News18, a faction of the Bihar Congress led by state president Ashok Chaudhary decided to not show up for the rally, adding fuel to reports of a possible rift in the party's state unit.

The rally, however, was attended by senior national Congress leaders such as leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and party general secretary CP Joshi.

This is not the first time this month that members of Bihar Congress have decided to not attend official functions in protest.

On 11 August, four of the 27 party MLAs skipped a meeting called by senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in Patna and demanded the removal of the state chief.

"The post of a party president is in itself a very strong position and he was made a minister too. But he never ever did anything for the party. We have conveyed to Jyotiraditya that change in leadership is required," Congress member Sarwat Jahan Fatima had said.

But expectedly, Scindia played down reports of discontent within the party and claimed that all are united against Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar's decision to break the grand alliance. He attacked Nitish for siding with the Bharatiya Janata Party, whom he had intended to fight in 2019.

Among several other leaders, Sunday's 'BJP bhagao desh bachao' rally was attended by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, all of whom shared a stage to claim the Opposition's unity.

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is staring at expulsion from the party for defying orders of not to attend the rally, was greeted warmly by Lalu who embraced him on the dais. Yadav was accompanied by suspended JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government for the militant attack in Pulwama, saying the "national security is adrift under the rudderless Modi government".

"Post Uri, Pulwama attack and sacrifice of eight security men is a grave reminder that the national security is adrift under a rudderless Modi government," wrote Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala in a tweet.

"Pulwama encounter and Panchkula deaths tell us that the BJP, both in Haryana and at the Centre, is ill-equipped to govern India.

3/n 8 security men killed in #Pulwama, while 36 dead in Haryana's maddening violence.

A mammoth security failure by a clueless BJP Govt.  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) August 26, 2017

"Eight security men killed in Pulwama, while 36 dead in Haryana's maddening violence. A mammoth security failure by a clueless BJP government," he wrote in subsequent tweets.

Eight security men and two militants, were killed on Saturday in a gunfight between holed up militants and the security forces inside the district police lines complex in Pulwama.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala BJP president Kummanem Rajasekheran on Sunday asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala not to be unduly worried of violence in other states.

He was reacting to the letters written by Vijayan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and by Chennithala to Union home minister Rajnath Singh after violent protests broke out in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape and sexual exploitation case by a special CBI court.

"Really do not understand why Vijayan is shedding crocodile tears over what happened in those states, when he should be answerable to the political killings that have taken place in his home town. What happened in North India was the violent reaction by the followers of Singh and the security forces used force to curb the excess done, but in Vijayan's place, people who voted against his party are being targeted and those who do it are not taken to task," said Rajasekheran in a Facebook post.

"What Chennithala forgot is when the Congress ruled the country, lakhs was killed on account of violence all over the country. What Chennithala has conveniently ignored is that it was during the Congress rule that the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was given high-security cover. The Congress is solely responsible for promoting such fake godmen. The killing of Sikhs also happened during the Congress regime," he said.

He also pointed out that whatever happened in those states was contained in a matter of 24 hours and that shows how the BJP deals with issues.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday termed the latest political developments in Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK as "low comedy turning into farce", and asked why was the governor not taking any action.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 233 members and the governor should not allow time to "artificially alter strength", he said in an apparent reference to the tug of war between AIADMK factions.

"AIADMK politics is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?" he tweeted.

AIADMK politics is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 27, 2017

There have been demands for a trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly by the DMK, Congress and the AIADMK faction led by TTV Dhinakaran.

In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has 134 MLAs. There is no one representing the RK Nagar constituency in the House, which late AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had represented.

The DMK has 89 seats, Congress eight and IUML one.

Nineteen AIADMK MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran revolted against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy. The 19 MLAs have been staying in a resort in Puducherry. Later, two more MLAs joined the Dhinakaran camp.

The AIADMK will soon join the NDA and be a part of the Modi government at the Centre, a senior BJP leader has said.

"The AIADMK will certainly join the NDA. It is only a matter of time. And when it joins the NDA, then it is natural that it will also join the government," the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

He also played down the rebellion by a group of AIADMK MLAs, who owe allegiance to Dhinakaran, claiming that it was more an internal matter of the regional party and not a threat to the state government.

Following the recent merger of two AIADMK factions headed by Palaniswamy and former chief minister O Panneerselvam, the party has been hit by fresh dissent with a group of MLAs rallying behind Dhinakaran, whose aunt, VK Sasikala, is the AIADMK chief and in jail on a corruption case.

The two factions' decision to remove Sasikala from the post of party general secretary triggered the unrest.
tech2 News Staff

Cross Match Technologies, a US-based company that was one of the first suppliers of biometric devices in India for the Aadhaar program has refuted recent allegations made by WikiLeaks. According to a previous report, WikiLeaks hinted that Cross Match Technologies may be linked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the CIA might be using the company to gain access to Aadhaar database. However, according to a new report, the company has clarified that is has not stored, captured or processed any personal information about its customers.

The company elaborated that its software does not have the capability to record, store or process the biometric data or information of its clients while speaking to Gadgets 360. Vice President of Global Marketing for Cross Match Technologies, John Hinmon reiterated the companys commitment towards data privacy and security.

He added that in addition to the lack of technical ability, the company is not involved in developing or supporting any such solution. He pointed out that the company values its partnership with India for Aadhaar and the system can only be accessed by administrative users like the case with UIDAI.

This comes days after Wikileaks sent out a tweet which almost seemed to allege that central intelligence agency (CIA) spies might already be having access to the Aadhaar database. According to the link to a story tweeted out by Wikileaks, tools developed by Cross Match Technologies are being used by CIA to access the Aadhaar database. This claim has been dismissed by the official sources in India.
IANS

Infosys is yet again in the news for all the wrong reasons. The poster child of the Indian IT industry just cannot seem to stabilise its ship even after a decade of consistently losing market share under different leaders, mostly comprising of its co-founders. In fact, Vishal Sikka was the first non-founder CEO

In fact, Vishal Sikka was the first non-founder CEO of the company and was the first one successful in bringing stability to the company's market performance vis-a-vis rivals like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) since it had begun deteriorating almost a decade ago.

The real story in the Infosys saga, however, does not lie in the intricacies of the company's boardroom battles but the larger malaise that it highlights within the Indian corporates as a whole.

First, the succession planning of Indian corporates seems to be a serious issue. While the concept of succession planning exists in India, blue-chip corporates have been struggling to successfully put it into practice. Sikka's abrupt exit puts the company in a state of disarray. The Indian system of succession planning within corporates differs largely from their global counterparts, which begin to hunt for a successor quite a few months in advance.

Second, there seems to a lack of clarity on the role that different stakeholder play in a company. Promoters in companies need to define their roles as executives, board members, and shareholders. Problems like the one in Infosys arise when promoters overstep their roles and assume different responsibilities at different points of time. The founders at Infosys seem to be having a tough time letting go of their control over the company and often cross jurisdiction is the result. After N.R. Narayana Murthy stepped down as CEO in 2002, three co-founders succeeded him -- mostly unsuccessfully in maintaining the company's growth trajectory. Murthy's vocal interference in the company's workings and Nandan Nilekani's return following Sikka's exit points to an utter unwillingness of handing over control to an "outsider". Founders assuming control anytime they feel uncomfortable with operations undermines decisive leadership and puts the stability of the company under threat.

The founders at Infosys seem to be having a tough time letting go of their control over the company and often cross jurisdiction is the result. After N.R. Narayana Murthy stepped down as CEO in 2002, three co-founders succeeded him, mostly unsuccessfully in maintaining the company's growth trajectory. Murthy's vocal interference in the company's workings and Nandan Nilekani's return following Sikka's exit points to an utter unwillingness of handing over control to an "outsider". Founders assuming control anytime they feel uncomfortable with operations undermines decisive leadership and puts the stability of the company under threat.

Founders assuming control anytime they feel uncomfortable with operations undermines decisive leadership and puts the stability of the company under threat.

Third, corporate governance seems to be quite problematic among Indian firms. The fact that the issue has arisen in a firm that made the concept popular in India is especially concerning. When the acquisition of Israeli solutions provider Panaya was questioned by Murthy, a shareholder in the company, it behooved the board to address the concerns to the satisfaction of its shareholders. Transparency is the key to ensuring the highest standards of corporate governance. In the board's

Transparency is the key to ensuring the highest standards of corporate governance. In the board's defence, they did call for an independent inquiry into the matter and found no wrongdoing. However, it fell short of releasing the complete reports of the investigation as demanded by Murthy.

All these factors, succession planning, clarity of roles and corporate governance, play a crucial role in determining the sustainability of large firms and if they become a ubiquitous problem, among Indian corporates, their survival might come under threat. There is also a much larger problem that springs out of the tendency of the old guard to not let go of their companies, the ability to innovate.

Infosys was slowly becoming irrelevant with back office processing and IT support work due to large scale automation. Rapid automation calls for a move into emerging sectors like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics for IT firms and Infosys was losing ground here. Sikka attempted venturing into these disruptive sectors and the founders who were accustomed to making profits through labour arbitrage did not feel comfortable with such moves.

This is a typical problem with large firms. Innovation does not come easily to them. In most industries, innovators are usually "outsiders" in some sense. Either it comes from a new company whose founder has a non-traditional background or from existing companies through senior managers who are new and unfamiliar to the industry.

Such sets of people are usually more able to identify new opportunities and are bolder in pursuing them as well. This is the biggest problem with Infosys and results in slow-paced innovation within the company, which is hurting the company itself in the long run.

An innovation handicap will mark the company for its slow demise in an industry as fast paced as IT. On a larger scale, it also damages the country's ability to innovate as a whole, which is quite worrying for its relevance on the world stage.

Therefore, the crisis in Infosys isn't just limited to the company itself. The Indian corporate sector needs to take copious notes as it unfolds and learns what not to do in order to ensure its sustainability. Also, it must learn not to fall into the trap of sticking to old ideas at the cost of innovation.

(Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Chirag Yadav, senior researcher, Institute for Competitiveness, India has contributed to the article)
AFP

About 1,000 Russians braved pouring rain in Moscow on Saturday to demonstrate against the government's moves to tighten controls on internet use, with police arresting about a dozen protesters.

Shouting slogans such as "Russia will be free" and "Russia without censorship", the protesters were escorted by several police officers, in a march authorised by local authorities.

Several were also marching in support of Khudoberdi Nurmatov, a reporter for the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, who faces deportation back to Uzbekistan over allegedly violating immigration laws.

Some of those were arrested, according to OVD-Info, a rights group that monitors detentions of activists, while an AFP photographer saw two protesters carrying rainbow flags detained.

In July, Russia's parliament voted to outlaw web tools that let internet users sidestep official bans of certain websites.

It allows telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor to compile a list of so-called anonymiser services and prohibit any that fail to respect the bans, while also requiring users of online messaging services to identify themselves with a telephone number.

"Innovation and technology will win! We will defend our freedoms!" one protester said, according to a broadcast of the march on YouTube.

Russia's opposition groups rely heavily on the internet to make up for their lack of access to the mainstream media.

But the Russian authorities have been clamping down on such online services, citing security concerns.

In June, Russian officials threatened to ban the Telegram messaging app after the FSB security service said it had been used by the attackers responsible for the deadly Saint Petersburg metro bombing in April.

Earlier this year, around 1,000 people marched through central Moscow on Sunday to protest against the government's harsh legislative controls on the internet. Demonstrators at the rally, which was authorised by city authorities, shouted slogans including "No to censorship, no to dictatorship", and "Down with the police state".
IANS

South Korea's business and political communities were divided over a local court's ruling to put Jay Y. Lee, the heir-apparent of Samsung Group, behind bars.

Some of the business and political honchos expressed concern over its potential fallout for the national economy.

Multiple business insiders expressed shock over the Seoul Central District Court's decision to slap Lee with a five-year jail term for bribery, embezzlement, and other charges in a massive corruption scandal that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-Hye.

"The court should have considered that (Samsung) did not have a criminal intent, but wanted to avoid trouble if it refused the government's request," Yonhap News Agency quoted an official from a local business group as saying on Friday.

Another official from a South Korean conglomerate said it was disappointing that the ruling came at challenging times when the country is facing diplomatic tension with China coupled with Washington's move towards protectionism.

"Samsung Electronics takes up 11.9 percent of South Korea's manufacturing segment, and 30.7 per cent of the combined operating profits," the official pointed out, adding that the prolonged absence of Lee was expected to lead to side-effects.

South Korea's ruling party, on the other hand, cheered the decision. "The ruling targets the back-scratching alliance of government and businesses," said Choo Mi-ae, the head of the Democratic Party. "A company must be transparent to receive trust from the global community and beef up competitiveness."

The party chief expressed the hope that the case may act as an opportunity for Samsung to become a socially responsible company. The minor opposition People's Party also said the business community should become more aware that South Korea is no longer tolerant of conglomerates' wrongdoings as seen by the case. Labour activists also welcomed the court's acknowledgment of Lee's corruption.

"Lee has personally used state authority to facilitate its power succession, resulting in massive losses to the state pension," unionised workers of Samsung Electronics Service said. Prosecutors earlier sought 12 years against Lee, claiming Samsung's de facto leader offered or pledged $38 million to win the state pension's approval for a merger between two affiliates under terms designed to increase his control over the entire business empire.

The court ruled that Lee provided over $6 million in bribes. The union also claimed that Lee should have received a jail term beyond 10 years if the court had considered him an ordinary criminal, rather than the head of a conglomerate.

"Lee provided Park and her confidante Choi Soon-sil with bribes, which was the money that could have been spent on victims suffering from work-related diseases at Samsung," said Hwang Sang-gi an activist from the Protector of Health and Human Rights of Semiconductor Workers (SHARP).

"It is unacceptable that he received only five years," Sang-gi added.
Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh): Bangladesh detained and forcibly returned 90 Rohingya migrants to Myanmar, police said on Sunday, just hours after Myanmarese troops on the other side of the border had opened fire on people fleeing the country.

Police intercepted the Rohingyas late on Saturday after they crossed the "zero line" border zone, where Myanmar soldiers earlier fired mortars and machine guns at villagers making the dangerous dash from the northern state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.

The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingyas already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer.

"All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards," Khaer told AFP.

Police said some of those detained had entered Bangladesh via the Ghumdhum border area - where the Myanmar forces unleashed the barrage of fire just hours earlier.

"They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar," said one policeman on condition of anonymity.

Rakhine has become a hotbed of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and spurned as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Despite years of persecution, the Rohingyas largely eschewed violence.

But in October a new militant group  the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)  attacked a string of Myanmar border posts, sparking a military crackdown that left scores dead and forced 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The latest violence erupted early on Friday as scores of men purportedly from ARSA, ambushed Myanmar police posts.

Using knives, some guns and homemade explosives they killed at least a dozen security force members.

Remote villages along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar have seen fierce fighting since then between suspected militants and Myanmar security forces.

The violence has left a total of more than 100 dead since Friday and forced thousands of Rohingyas to flee towards Bangladesh.

But authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with thousands of people  mainly women and children  stranded along the border zone.

The Bangladeshi government has instructed local officials in Cox's Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar that is home to several large refugee camps, not to allow any "illegal entry" by Rohingyas, Abdur Rahman, a senior government official, told AFP.

The impoverished country already hosts some 400,000 Rohingya refugees.

But Rohingya community leaders, local media and an AFP correspondent said despite heavy border patrols, at least 3,000 Rohingya refugees have managed to enter the country and found refuge in camps and villages since Friday.

In Rakhine itself six members of a Hindu family have become the latest victims of the violence. Their bullet-riddled bodies  including three children and a woman  were discovered on Sunday and brought to a hospital in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine.

The victims had allegedly been shot dead by Rohingya militants on Saturday evening as they tried to flee to Maungdaw, a relative who lived in the town told AFP.

"We were still in contact with them yesterday (Saturday) by phone before they were killed. Now their dead bodies are in this hospital," the distraught man told an AFP reporter.

The office of Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi posted pictures of some of the victims on its Facebook account, saying two women and four children survived the ambush and alerted authorities.

Myanmar's Rohingyas are the world's largest stateless minority and endure severe restrictions on their movements.

Northern Rakhine has been stalked by violence since last October, with civilians trapped between security forces and the militants - who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against perceived collaborators with the state.

Rohingyas, meanwhile, live in fear of police and troops.

"They arrest and beat whoever they see along the way," a man, who gave his first name as Anawar, told AFP Sunday morning by phone.

"Not everyone is terrorist," he added. "We want a peaceful and calm society."
Berlin: German chancellor Angela Merkel said she has no regrets about her 2015 decision to open the countrys borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees and added she will not be deterred from campaigning by angry hecklers.

In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, Merkel denied she had made any mistakes with her open-door policy even though the arrival of a million refugees over the last two years from Syria and Iraq opened deep rifts in her conservative party and depressed its support.

Four weeks before the September 24 election, an Emnid opinion poll on Sunday showed Merkels conservatives would win 38 percent, or 15 points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). That is up from 32 percent in February, but well below the 41.5 percent her party won in the last election in 2013.

Id make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again," Merkel said. "It was an extraordinary situation, and I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint."

Those kinds of extraordinary situations happen every once in a while in a countrys history, she added. The head of government has to act, and I did.

Her decision to open the borders contributed to a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which pollsters say could win up to 10 percent in the September election.

Merkel, seeing a fourth term, has had to contend with loud and sustained heckling from demonstrators strongly opposed to her refugee policies so far on the campaign trail.

The volume and intensity of the protests have been especially strong in her home region in formerly communist eastern Germany. But the 63-year-chancellor said she would not be kept away from areas where animosity towards her runs high.

Were a democracy, and everyone can freely express themselves in public the way they want, she said. Its important that we dont go out of our way to avoid certain areas only because there are a bunch of people screaming.

Support for Merkel and her party has recovered somewhat after the influx of refugees slowed in 2016 to 280,000 and fell even further to about 106,000 in the first seven months of 2017.

Merkel said it was unfair that Greece and Italy were left on their own carrying the full burden of the refugee crisis "simply because of their geography". She added she would not stop pushing for the fair distribution of refugees across the European Union.

"That some countries refuse to accept any refugees is not on. That contradicts the spirit of Europe. We'll overcome that. It will take time and patience but we will succeed."
Spain: The number of people killed in twin vehicle attacks in Spain last week rose to 16 on Sunday, local authorities in Barcelona said.

"This morning a 51-year-old German woman died after being treated in a critical condition in hospital," said a statement from the region's civil defence.

The attacks on Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona and in the seaside resort of Cambrils left around 120 wounded.

The woman who died on Sunday was hurt when a man ploughed a van through crowds of tourists on Spain's most famous street on 17 August  an attack that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Hours later, a car sped into Cambrils some 120 kilometres (75 miles) south, hitting people before crashing into a police vehicle.

The five occupants of the Audi A3 jumped out and went on a stabbing spree, killing a woman, before they were shot dead by police.
Queensferry crossing 'could last 150 years'

Opening the Queensferry Crossing

Wednesday 30 August

Friday 1 September

Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 September

Monday 4 September

Tuesday 5 September

Thursday 7 September

27 August 2017BBC NewsThe new 1.35bn Queensferry Crossing could still be operating in 150 years, according to its technical director.Mike Glover, who has managed the bridge project for the decade since it was first approved, told the BBC its design would make it easy to maintain.The new 1.7 mile (2.7km) crossing over the Firth of Forth will open to traffic for the first time on Wednesday.It will take most of the vehicles that currently travel over the 53-year-old Forth Road Bridge.The existing suspension bridge will be adapted to be used by lighter traffic such as cycles, pedestrians and public transport.Mr Glover told the BBC Radio Four documentary Gordon Goes Forth that despite the Forth Road Bridge being replaced because of issues about its safety and reliability, it could last another 50 years if it was properly maintained.The current Forth Road Bridge opened in 1964 but a serious problem was found with corrosion of the wires inside its cables not long after its 40th birthday.The corrosion meant that the bridge's cables had already lost about 10% of their strength and it was forecast that it might not be able to take the heavy loads for much more than a decade.The decision to replace it was taken in 2007, with construction of the new crossing beginning in September 2011.Mr Glover, who has been the technical director of the Queensferry Crossing since 2007, calls it a "world class bridge" which will be around well into the 22nd Century.He said: "The length of time this bridge will be in position will be well in excess of 120 years - 150 years."The civil engineer said there were two main reasons for predicting such longevity."The first is that the exterior of the bridge is a continuous structure - it is a box - which means the level of maintenance that is required is very minimal, unlike the trusses on the current suspension bridge," Mr Glover said."The second is because the individual cables that make up the cable-stay bridge each one can be replaced without the stability of the bridge being in doubt."Whereas with the suspension bridge any problem with that suspension cable means that the bridge would have to be closed."Despite the problems with the existing Forth Road Bridge, Mr Glover predicted it could survive for another 50 years now that it would be carrying lighter loads.He says: "It does require the maintenance regime to be maintained but with modern instrumentation we will know where to look for issues."In the early hours of the morning, the Queensferry Crossing will fully open to traffic in both directions.Police will put in a place a rolling roadblock to stop traffic driving across the Forth Road Bridge and will redirect them across the Queensferry Crossing.The northbound carriageway will be opened first. The southbound carriageway will be opened about 45 minutes later.The bridge will be fully open to traffic for the rest of the day and the following day.Early in the morning, the Queensferry Crossing will close to all traffic.Police will redirect all vehicles back across the Forth Road Bridge.It will remain closed until the early hours of Wednesday morning.About 50,000 members of the public, who were given tickets after a ballot, will get a "once in a lifetime" chance to walk over the new bridge on Saturday and Sunday.The Queen will officially open the Queensferry Crossing. She will be joined by the Duke of Edinburgh.The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will bless the bridge, and the Queen will cut a ribbon on the south side.A chance for a further 10,000 local people and school children to walk the bridge.The bridge will re-open to traffic, with no pedestrian access.The initial speed limit will be 40mph but after work has been completed to adapt the Forth Road Bridge public transport will be switched back to the old bridge and the Queensferry Crossing will become a 70 mph motorway.
Brussels: The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife is an Islamic State group soldier.

In a statement on Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting Islamic State.

Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting "Allahu akbar!" Arabic for "God is great." He was shot dead by troops.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the man was known to police for assault charges but had no previous terror-related offenses.

The suspect, a Belgian citizen of Somali origin, was also carrying a fake firearm and copies of the Quran. Islamic State often claims attacks by people who have no known link to the group.
Washington: Seven members of Donald Trump's cybersecurity team, including an Indian-origin data scientist, have resigned, accusing the US president of ignoring the pressing national security matters.

In a group resignation letter, the members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), whose purview includes national cybersecurity, cited both specific shortfalls in the administrations approach to cybersecurity, and broader concerns that have undermined the "moral infrastructure" of the US, Fortune reported.

"You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process," the letter reads.

They also cited his failure "to denounce intolerance and violence of hate groups" when asked about the "horrific violences in Charlottesville" as one of the reasons why they left.

Unite the Right march was organised on 12 August to protest against the proposed removal of a statue of General Robert E Lee, who commanded the pro-slavery Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Violence broke out after they were confronted by anti-racism groups and later a car ploughed into one group of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville.

Trump had blamed both sides including the "alt-left" for the deadly violence.

The members, who were appointed under the previous administration, resigned just before the panel was supposed to hold its quarterly business meeting.

They include Obama-era officials: the first ever White House chief data scientist DJ Patil, Office of Science and Technology Policy Chief of Staff Cristin Dorgelo and White House Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss.

The president recently lost two other panels before the NIAC members resigned. His administration dissolved the Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum, but not before a good number of their members already left.
Helsinki: The identify of the main suspect in the stabbing attack this month in the Finnish city of Turku has been confirmed, police said on Sunday.

Investigators have determined that Abderrahman Mechkah, an asylum seeker whose name had previously been released by police, is a Moroccan man born in 1994.

"The police have interviewed the main suspect, and he is willing to communicate with the interviewing police officer," the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

It said it would not release details of his statements while the investigation continues.

Police have said that Mechkah  who arrived in Finland in early 2016  targeted women in a rampage on 18 August at a market square in the southwestern port city of Turku.

Six other suspects have been arrested on suspicions of being involved in the attack, though three of them have since been released.

Investigators are treating it as the country's first terror attack.
Yangon: Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said, while thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said. The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.

Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi on Friday condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority, and of defending the armys counteroffensive after the October attacks.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 ethnic villagers who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.

The ministry is arranging facilities for non-Muslims in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities.

We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities, said Win Myat Aye.

He was unable to describe the governments plans to help Rohingya civilians.

It is very difficult to say  this is a conflict situation so it is very difficult to say who is right or wrong, he said.

Panic-stricken Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said.

"The clashes continued all day on Saturday on the main road, there are a lot of landmines. I dont think local authorities have enough food for all the people. The price of commodities is rising day by day, a local journalist from Maungdaw town said on Sunday.

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya - mostly women and children - were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border as gunfire could be heard from the Myanmar side, Bangladesh border guards said.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border.

Bangladesh's foreign ministry said it was concerned that thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" had assembled near the border to enter the country.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country's citizens.
Vatican City: Pope Francis is decrying persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and praying they receive "full rights."

The pontiff said Sunday that there was "sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers."

Thousands of Rohingya are trying to flee into Bangladesh after escalated deadly violence at home. Last week, Rohingya militants attacked police and border outposts, and security forces responded.

Francis asked the faithful in St. Peter's Square to pray that God "saves them" and they receive help.

A Myanmar bishop recently said Francis will "most likely" visit Myanmar, while the Vatican has said only a pilgrimage is being considered.

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blasted the Rohingya militant attacks as a bid to undermine efforts to "build peace and harmony in Rakhine state."
Washington: Hopeful that India and China can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Doka la standoff, a senior Trump official has said the US "supports return of status quo" of the tri-junction point.

The US is concerned about "sovereignty issues and adherence to international law" amidst increased tension between the two Asian giants, said a senior administration official.

"We are monitoring the (Doka la) situation very carefully. We are concerned. We hope that the two sides can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the issue. We support return to the status quo," a senior administration official told PTI.

"We're also concerned about Bhutanese sovereignty issues. We're concerned in general terms about sovereignty issues and adherence to international law. I think that certainly pertains to this particular issue," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of confrontation between India and China.

Even as China both its officials and the state- sponsored media have increased its rhetoric over the past

few months, which at times is seen as entering the domain of threatening; New Delhi, which has taken a mature and strong stand against Beijing, according to experts, is believed has not reached out to Washington on this issue.

However, as a close friend the US has been closely monitoring the situation. "We hope that India and China can find a negotiated solution to return to a peaceful state of affairs in the area.

We are just watching it very carefully and we are in conversation with the Indian government about the issues. We stand ready to help if that is desired. But, for the time being, we're monitoring the situation carefully," the official said.

The senior administration official, in response to a question, however quickly clarified that there has been no such request from India and there is no such intention on the part of the United States as well.

"What kind of help? You said ready to help," the official was asked. Well, you know, I think it's for India and China to decide if that was necessary. I think for the time being the

US is monitoring the situation very closely and very carefully," the official said.

"You know, US sees it as a bilateral issue between India and China to work through. But certainly, we are interested in seeing peaceful relations prevail in the region. "So, if there's anything the US can do to help that situation, we stand ready to assist," he added
London: A UK MP has criticised some British-Pakistanis for reportedly "going and getting a wife from abroad" for their disabled sons.

Labour MP Jess Phillips said the practice was among "lots of cases" she dealt with where people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities behaved "unacceptably" towards women.

"Well, sorry, the British Pakistani-Bangladeshi community, certainly where I am, has issues about women's roles in a family, in society," she was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.

"That's the truth. Not all of them, obviously. But I have lots of cases on my books. The acceptability of going and getting a wife from abroad if your son is disabled, for example. As if he deserves to have a wife and we'll just get one from Pakistan. That's not okay in my book," she said.

She made the comment in reference to her Labour party colleague, Sarah Champion, who quit as shadow equalities minister after writing in The Sun about Pakistani Muslim men abusing white girls.

Phillips believes Champion's piece was crudely phrased: "I can understand why Naz Shah (a fellow Labour MP) was like, 'Hang on a minute, you're talking about my sons here'".

But she laments that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did not broker a deal so that Champion could stay because "it makes it look like we sweep this stuff under the carpet and it gives more power to people who go, 'It's political correctness gone mad' and that people like me are trying to protect the perpetrators".

The Ann Craft Trust, which works with the learning-disabled, said there was a "serious problem" of British Asian people with learning disabilities being forced into marriage without giving their proper consent.

Around 10 percent of cases reported to the government's forced marriage unit, 140 a year, concern people with learning disabilities.

Research for the trust found that the vast majority involved people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and also Indian origin.

Rachael Clawson, assistant professor of social work at Nottingham University, who is studying the issue, said: "We will see people trying to use this to get people in as a loophole. But the most common situation is that families really think they are doing their best for their (disabled) son or daughter by getting them a caretaker".
Washington: America's security aid to Pakistan "will be conditioned" on the steps Islamabad takes against terrorist groups such as the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior US administration official has said.

"There have been long standing relationships between the Pakistani intelligence officials and these terrorist groups. So, we don't expect things to change overnight. We expect incremental changes over time," the official told PTI.

His comments came days after US president Donald Trump hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

"We will be able to see when these changes start to happen. They (might) not become immediately apparent to the public, but we're confident that when Pakistan takes the steps we're asking it to do, we'll know it and we'll be able to assess. And so, our security aid will be conditioned on the steps that we expect them to take against, in particular, the Taliban-Haqqani Network," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The United States, the official said, is monitoring the situation carefully in Pakistan and expects some progress.

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to give exact timelines that we're dealing in. But, certainly there is an expectation that we'll start to see some changes in the very near future," the official said when asked if the Trump administration has set a time line for progress in action being taken by Pakistan against the terrorist groups.

The official was responding to a series of question on the statements coming out of Pakistan, which are generally in strong opposition to the Trumps South Asia strategy.

"How do you see Pakistan's reaction? Do you think that they would be, given these kind of reactions that's coming up in public domain, think they will be cooperating this time with you on counter-terrorism issues?" the official was asked.

"I think the President was very clear that we are going to take a different approach to that stand. There's a lot of frustration (in the US) with the continued safe havens in Pakistan. But we believe there is hope for greater cooperation from Pakistan on these issues. It's Pakistan's choice. Pakistan has much to benefit from by cooperating with the US and cracking down on some of these groups," the official said.

And Pakistan has much to lose if it fails to do so, the official warned.

"We're not going to talk about the precise steps that the US is considering with regard to its relationship with Pakistan.

We'll reserve that for our private discussions on Pakistan. We'll just simply say that it's extremely important to this administration that Pakistan take tangible steps against the groups that continue to support attacks against US service members and US officials in Afghanistan," the official said, adding that the US will be working very closely with Pakistani officials to achieve that objective.

Pakistan's foreign minister Khawaja Asif is soon expected to visit the US and meet secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

Ahead of the US visit, Asif is scheduled to travel to China, Russia and Turkey to hold meetings with their leaders on the South Asia policy.

"We think that Pakistan will see that it's in its own interest to cooperate with the US. And that, when they're thinking about their core security interests in Afghanistan, they will assess that they can better achieve those objectives by being in a cooperative relationship with the US, rather than a contentious relationship. These are the kinds of conversations that we're having with Pakistan," the official added.
Caracas: Venezuelan troops taught civilians how to shoot rifles, fire missiles and engage in hand-to-hand combat during drills in defiance of US sanctions and President Donald Trump's threat of military action.

War planes, tanks and 200,000 troops of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) deployed along with 700,000 reservists and civilians as socialist President Nicolas Maduro launched two days of military exercises on Saturday.

In a Caracas military academy, soldiers taught civilians how to use their fists, rifles, bazookas and anti-aircraft guns and supervised them on obstacle courses. "Yankees out!" 60-year-old Erica Avendano yelled as she bashed a rag dummy with her rifle on an assault course. "I hope nothing will happen, but we are ready for anything," she told AFP.

Trump warned earlier this month that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary."

Top US officials later played down the threat. "No military actions are anticipated in the near future," said US national security advisor HR McMaster. But Trump's tough talk bolstered Maduro's oft-repeated

claim that Washington is plotting to topple him and wants to grab control of Venezuela's oil the largest proven reserves in the world.

Gregorio Valderrama, a 23-year-old father of three, received a shooting lesson from soldiers on Saturday. Valderrama said he was there to learn "to defend my country and my family." "We may not know how to handle a rifle and when to shoot, but here we are learning," he added.

Elected in 2013, Maduro, the political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, has hung onto power despite food shortages and social upheaval. His grip is largely thanks to the support of the military, which holds vast powers in his government, including over food distribution.

The opposition has repeatedly called on the army to abandon Maduro but so far he has faced only low-level dissent. Military analyst Rocio San Miguel judged the weekend's exercises to be "mere propaganda" rather than a meaningful challenge to Trump.

She said they aimed to discourage "any disloyalty in the ranks of the FANB, which is a worry for the intelligence services," and "to reinforce the anti-imperialist line."

On Thursday, the president warned the armed forces not to break ranks. "This is no time for any fissures," he said in a speech to the top military brass. "Never before has Venezuela been threatened in such a way."

Tension surged again however when the White House on Friday unveiled its first-ever sanctions to target Venezuela as a whole, rather than just Maduro and his inner circle.

The measures ban trade in new bonds issued by the Venezuelan government or its cash-cow oil company, PDVSA. That could choke off access to New York debt markets and raise the risk of Venezuela being forced into default. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces support "all measures being implemented to counter the financial blockade."

Venezuela's center right-led opposition and international powers including Washington say Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship. Maduro's opponents accuse military police and pro-Maduro militia of beating and killing anti-government protesters who are demanding elections to replace him.

Protest clashes have left 125 people dead so far this year, according to prosecutors. Maduro says the violence and the economic crisis are a US-backed conspiracy.

On Friday, he accused opposition leaders in his country of pushing for the US sanctions and called for legislative speaker Julio Borges to be tried for treason.

Also on Friday, Maduro called an "urgent" meeting of American companies that buy Venezuelan oil and hold Venezuelan bonds to discuss the sanctions.
It was a good moment for the Rev. Anthony Gerber.

As a pastor, Gerber has enjoyed teaching parents how to lead family devotions. One day, a girl told the minister how excited she was that her family had read a devotion the night before.

It was very exciting, Gerber said. Thats statistically what keeps children in the faith  family devotions.

Now, Gerber has an opportunity to share these and other insights as he begins his latest job  leading the flock at Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont.

Gerber is the churchs new senior pastor and director of ministry.

About 400 people worship at the local church each weekend. Trinity Lutheran School serves approximately 130 students and about that same number of children are served at the churchs Early Childhood Center in downtown Fremont.

Gerber has been at his job for about two weeks. The new pastor was born in Sidney and lived in Chappell until he was 5 years old when his family moved to Hastings where he grew up.

He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in secondary education with an emphasis in math.

In 2009, Gerber took a year off and took classes at Concordia University in Seward. He went to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., and graduated with masters of divinity degree in 2014.

While still in his senior year in college and during the year he took off, Gerber was interim youth director at Christ Lutheran Church in Lincoln and was a substitute teacher in the public school system there.

After seminary, he went to Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Joseph, Michigan, where he was assistant pastor of youth and family ministries.

Gerber and his wife, Stacy, have been married for nine years and have four children: Landon, 5, Alexandria, 3, Samantha, 2, and Bennett, 6 weeks.

Stacy is a stay-at-home mom.

She has a full-time and overtime job, Gerber said.

Although hes only been at his job for a short time, Gerber already has been enjoying the opportunity to meet the congregation.

Theyve been very welcoming and it quickly began to feel like home, he said. One of my favorite things is going to the store and seeing people wearing Husker stuff.

Gerber appreciates Trinitys staffers.

Theres a fantastic staff here, he said.

He also notes that his job at Trinity is more diverse than his past ministry experiences.

Its a very different job for me  going from an assistant pastor whos focused on one or two areas to director of ministry, senior pastor, with a much broader focus, but knowing that I have the staff that is really good at what they do will make that transition much smoother, he said.

Gerber has enjoyed getting to eat lunch at school with Landon, who attends Trinity. Gerber looks forward to getting to know the members and families of Trinity.

I have a big passion for equipping parents to hand down the faith to their children, he said.

He likes being able to teach how to lead devotions in the home and to equip parents to be the spiritual heads of their households.

Gerber believes its important to make disciples.

Im a big fan of the Great Commission  Matthew 28:18-20  where Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them, Gerber said. That is a great message for us, too. All people need to hear about Jesus, not just the ones who come in our doors and not just the ones who are exactly like us.

Gerber has embarked on the challenge of learning names, to get to the point where I know the people here. I really look forward to that.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) Chairman Jeff Immelt announced Sunday he has pulled himself out of the running for the top leadership role at ride-hailing company Uber.

I have decided not to pursue a leadership position at Uber. I have immense respect for the company & founders - Travis, Garrett and Ryan. Immelt tweeted late Sunday morning.

I have decided not to pursue a leadership position at Uber. I have immense respect for the company & founders - Travis, Garrett and Ryan.  Jeff Immelt (@JeffImmelt) August 27, 2017

Ubers CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from his post in late June, facing pressure from some of the companys main investors. Kalanicks resignation came following multiple lawsuits and an investigation into workplace culture, headed by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was hired by Uber after a former female employees sexual harassment allegations against the company were documented in a blog post.

Uber and General Electric did not respond to FOX Business' request for comment at the time of publication.
Though it seemed like a long shot just a few months ago, it looks as if in a little over two more months, Americans will once again be headed to their laptops and desktop computers to pore through health insurance options via Obamacare's marketplace exchanges.

When Donald Trump was elected president, one of his first proposed tasks was to rid America of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is the official name for Obamacare. However, after multiple efforts to do so in the House and Senate, lawmakers have been unable to come to a consensus as to how to repeal and replace the ACA. Despite Trump's best efforts, Obamacare remains the health law of the land, for better or worse.

Obamacare: Part success, part failure

On one hand, it can be argued that Obamacare hit its primary goal of reducing the uninsured rate. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it wound up lowering the uninsured rate from 16% before its implementation to about 9% in mid-2016. The ACA's subsidy platform, along with 31 states taking federal funds and expanding their Medicaid programs, allowed millions of folks who previously couldn't afford healthcare access to the system.

On the other hand, Obamacare has failed miserably in its efforts to attract healthier young adults, and, as a result, the exchanges haven't been very business-friendly for insurers. Young adults are a necessary component to the insurers' success, since they don't head to the doctor as often; thus, their premium payments are what insurers use to offset the costs of treating sicker patients. Most of the national insurers have lost significant amounts of money on the ACA exchanges, leading many to jump ship in 2017 and the year to come.

For example, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) slashed the number states it's operating in to just three in 2017 from 34 in 2016. Meanwhile, Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM), which had their proposed merger shot down by regulators, cut their county-based coverage by nearly 70% and almost 90%, respectively, in 2017, and both plan to exit Obamacare's exchanges completely by 2018. Even Anthem (NYSE: ANTM), which has been a major beneficiary of Medicaid expansion, is exiting a number of markets in the coming year.

The scariest Obamacare figure ever we've seen

As we look toward 2018, one thing is readily apparent when it comes to Obamacare: Premiums will be significantly higher. Insurers in most states are requesting an average of a double-digit percentage increase in premiums. Yet this isn't even the scariest Obamacare statistic (although it's very unpleasant).

The scariest statistic is a result of the exodus mentioned. In the coming year, up to 1,300 counties are expected to have just a single insurer offering plans. Residents in Alaska, Wyoming, Mississippi, Nebraska, Alabama, Iowa, and most of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona -- states that cover about 2.4 million ACA enrollees -- could have just one insurer offering plans next year. With 3,007 counties in the U.S. as of 2016, there's the possibility that 43% of all counties will have no choice whatsoever, other than the lone insurer operating in their county. A lack of choices gives insurers incredible pricing power, which could be positive for profits, assuming insurers have lifted premiums enough in 2018, but not for consumers.

President Trump has a solution, and you're probably not going to like it

Donald Trump believes there's a clear problem with ACA prices, and he's often opined that the program will collapse on itself if allowed to continue. However, given the lack of progress in Washington from his own party, Trump has considered "going nuclear" and giving Obamacare a swift kick toward a possible death spiral to elicit progress on the repeal front.

Within the past few weeks, Trump has considered dropping an appeal to a decision District of Columbia Judge Rosemary Collyer made in May 2016. Collyer ruled, based on a lawsuit by the House GOP against former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell, that cost-sharing reductions (CSR) -- subsidies that reduce the cost of copays, coinsurance, and deductibles -- were being apportioned without Congress' approval. The Obama administration appealed the decision, and that appeal still stands today, despite new personnel in place. With no majority opposition to keep the appeal in place, Trump and the new Secretary of the HHS, Tom Price, could drop the appeal and allow CSR payments to end.

At the end of the 2017 open enrollment period, some 7.05 million people were receiving CSRs, meaning a majority of these folks would lose their ability to see a doctor should Trump give Obamacare a swift kick off the cliff. While it would likely accomplish his goal of repealing Obamacare, it could hurt both low-income individuals and families, as well as insurers in the process. Anthem has been a big beneficiary of government-sponsored members, so it would probably be the national insurer hurt most by a CSR repeal, should Trump go through with his threat.

We're certainly nearing an inflection point with Obamacare. While it's really anyone's guess what'll happen, the likelihood of further premium increases is growing by the day.

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According to the latest snapshot from the Social Security Administration (SSA), around 41.9 million retired workers are receiving a monthly benefits check, and of those workers, some 61% count on that check for at least half of their monthly income. Social Security's importance in helping seniors meet their financial obligations simply can't be overstated.

Big Social Security benefit cuts may be just 17 years away

What also can't be said enough is just how much trouble America's most important social program is in over the long term. The latest annual report from the Social Security Board of Trustees pegged 2022 and 2034 as major inflection points. Beginning in 2022, the program will begin to pay out more in benefits than it's generating in revenue as a result of the ongoing retirement of baby boomers and lengthening life expectancies. By 2034, the nearly $3 trillion in asset reserves that Social Security once had will be completely depleted. If this were to happen, the Trustees have estimated that a 23% cut to the benefits of current and future retirees would be needed to ensure its solvency through 2091.

On the bright side, you can breathe a sigh of relief in that Social Security isn't going bankrupt. As long as you have 40 lifetime work credits by the time you enroll, you'll be receiving retirement benefits from the SSA. However, that may not make what could be an imminent benefits cut of up to 23% any more tolerable. Considering that the average retired worker is receiving $1,368.67 each month as of June 2017, a 23% cut in benefits would mean a reduction to less than $1,054 a month. That's only marginally above the federal poverty level.

In short, Social Security needs a fix that'll work to protect benefits for current retirees without mortgaging the future for today's workforce.

The case for raising taxes or cutting benefits

If we were to break down Social Security's "fixes" into their most basic form, we'd be looking at either raising taxes to generate more revenue or cutting benefits in order to resolve its expected $12.5 trillion budget shortfall between 2034 and 2091.

Raising taxes is traditionally a solution that Democrats have proposed in Washington. A 12.4% payroll tax on earned income between $0.01 and $127,200 is what primarily fuels income generation for Social Security. In 2016, 87.3% of the $957.5 billion it collected came from payroll tax revenue. However, that $127,200 maximum earnings cap allows about one in 10 Americans a free pass on the payroll tax for at least some of their income. Democrats want to fix that by requiring the wealthy to pay more into the system.

Republicans, on the other hand, have proposed increasing the full retirement age for future retirees, which is, in effect, a cut to future benefits. Those born in or after 1960 will already see their full retirement age increase to 67 by 2022. Republicans would like to see this figure gradually increase to age 68, 69, or 70 to compensate for lengthening life expectancies. Retirees would either have to wait longer to receive 100% of their benefits or accept a larger reduction to their monthly payout if they choose to claim early.

Raise taxes or cut benefits: It's not even close, according to the public

So, what should Congress do? According to the pretty overwhelming consensus from the American public by way of surveys, raising taxes and generating more Social Security revenue is the best solution to Social Security's woes.

In the summer of 2015, national pollster Gallup questioned the American public about what method they'd prefer. The question asked was as follows: "If you had to choose one of the following approaches to ensuring Social Security's long-term future, would you rather (1) raise taxes, (2) curb benefits, or (3) no opinion." In total, 51% of respondents chose to raise taxes, just 37% preferred curbing benefits, and 12% had no opinion on the matter. That's a pretty overwhelming response in favor of increasing income to the program.

Furthermore, a separate survey, known as "Voice of the People," questioned nearly 8,700 respondents in 2016 about how willing they'd be to accept an increase in their payroll tax to aid Social Security for future generations. When asked if they'd be willing to accept a 0.8% aggregate increase to 13.2%, 76% of respondents were in favor. Mind you, since most people aren't self-employed, their employer would cover half of this increase. Most workers would go from paying 6.2% of their earned income to 6.6% under such a scenario. Assuming the average worker makes $30,000 annually, we're talking about an extra $120 a year into the program.

Admittedly, favorability dropped as the proposed tax increases went higher, with just 19% supporting a 14.4% payroll tax, which would be a full 1% increase from what the average worker is paying now (and a 2% aggregate increase). This would still be 0.83% shy, in aggregate, of what the trustees predict will be needed to fix Social Security over the next 75 years (the latest report lists a 2.83% actuarial deficit). This suggests it could be hard to get a lot of public support for a payroll-tax increase, but compared with benefit cuts, it's the much-preferred solution.

Will Congress follow the will of the public on this matter? That's what remains to be seen.

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I have little doubt that ten years from now Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) will still be around, serving up burritos to the masses. And with the stock now trading at its lowest level in nearly 50 months, you'd think now might be a good time to buy.

But I won't be snatching up shares anytime soon, and I think you should think twice about doing so as well. While the stock could be a winner, in the long run, that's far from a guarantee. What I know for sure right now is this: the company is fragile -- in many ways -- and that should give you pause.

Chipotle's brand: the dangers of putting yourself on a pedestal

Best-selling author and former trader Nassim Taleb famously coined the term "antifragile," referring to something that becomes stronger as a result of time, chaos, volatility, and unforeseen events. In other words, it becomes stronger due to stress.

The opposite, of course, is to be fragile. And that's right where Chipotle has landed right now. Case in point: last July, an employee at a single Chipotle location came into work sick. As a result, a number of customers were infected with norovirus. In reality, this hardly represents a systemic failure on Chipotle's part -- the company has over 2,200 locations in the world, and this problem was very localized.

And yet, since then, shares of Chipotle are down a whopping 35%. That alone isn't a big deal, but it's the reasoning that's behind it: fewer people are going to visit Chipotle. The brand itself and "foodborne illnesses" are starting to become intertwined. And in the restaurant business, you're only as good as your brand.

Without a doubt, when Chipotle started out in Colorado, the "Food with Integrity" theme coincided perfectly with a larger national movement toward healthy eating. As the company gained popularity, the trust that customers had in Chipotle's integrity became greater and greater -- and the margin for error thinner and thinner.

Having put itself up on a pedestal, Chipotle could scant afford to have an illness scandal, but that's just what happened in 2015. Since then, comps have decidedly slumped, as have shares -- which are down 60% from all-time highs.

To understand just how fragile Chipotle is, consider this: over the next two to three years, Chipotle can't afford to have a single well-publicized food-borne illness outbreak. Whether it be truly the result of negligence, corporate espionage, or just an employee who comes to work when they should have stayed home, it could prove to be a death-blow to shareholders. That's what brand fragility looks like.

An increasingly fragile balance sheet

One of the things that kept Chipotle afloat after the outbreak began, was the company's over $1.5 billion of cash on hand in mid-2015, and absolutely no long-term debt. While the second-half of that scenario is still true, the first-half is not.

While Chipotle is admittedly moving in the right direction relative to where it was six months ago, it is still in a tenuous position.

And all of this ignores the fact that, despite all of the above-mentioned fragility, the stock still trades at a premium. Shares currently go for 63 times trailing earnings, and 52 times trailing free cash flow. That's just way too rich for a company in Chipotle's position.

Remember, moats in the restaurant industry are razor thin and provided by one key thing: brand. While Chipotle may have been a first-mover in the "better-for-you" food movement, it is hardly alone. There are a host of competitors out there with virtually identical offerings, sans the growing reputation for foodborne illness problems. Once those companies reach Chipotle's scale, the earnings multiple could contract significantly, and I don't want to be holding the bag if/when that time comes.

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President Donald Trump on Sunday said both Mexico and Canada are being very difficult regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation process.

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate? Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Speaking at a campaign rally last week in Arizona, the president said he didnt believe the U.S. could reach an agreement to renegotiate the trilateral trade deal.

I dont think we can make a deal because we have been so badly taken advantage of, Trump said at the rally. They have made such great deals -- both of the countries but in particular Mexico -- that I dont think we can make a deal. So I think well end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point.

Trump has been a vocal critic of NAFTA from the beginning of his presidential campaign, vowing to amend the agreement with Americas northern and southern neighbors, as well as other trade deals that are detrimental to the U.S.

Earlier this month, the administration began the renegotiation process with the two countries, both of which are two of Americas largest trading partners. Both Mexico and Canada said they dont believe the deal needs major changes, in stark contrast to the opinion of the Trump administration.

We believe that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many Americans and needs major improvements. We need to assure that the huge trade deficits do not continue, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said at the start of the talks in Washington.
Rehab Addict star Nicole Curtis has taken her advocacy of normalizing breastfeeding to new heights. In a lengthy post on social media, the HGTV celebrity shared her difficult journey with breastfeeding, motherhood and the legal system.

In a post designed to celebrate Womens Equality Day, the mother of one had some blunt things to say about her recent custody battle with her ex, Shane Maguire, and how its made her private life go very public.

Did my great-grandmother ever think we'd be in a position having to fight for our rights as mothers ? Our world is turning backwards, she wrote in a post on her Instagram. People ask me what it's like to work in a male-dominated industry -piece of cake. Now ask me about the struggle of having my breasts discussed in an open court room, my child's name sold to tabloids, being court ordered to pump rather than feed my baby the only way he knows how.

Curtis went on to explain that shes been forced to pump her breasts in front of a court supervisor to prove, legally, that she cannot produce an adequate amount of milk from breast-pumping, and how that information was then shared with strangers throughout her custody hearing.

According to People, Curtis took up the cause of being a breastfeeding advocate thanks to her custody battle. Maguire sued for joint custody in 2016 and won. However, Maguire lives in Michigan, while Curtis and their son live in Minnesota. This proved a problem when Curtis was exclusively breastfeeding their son. Mcguire's lawyers and the court thought pumping would be an easy solution to their long-distance problem, but she maintained that the human body doesnt just allow for that. Now, the star seems to have had enough and is taking to her social media to speak out.

As E! News notes, this isnt the first time that shes used her social media presence and following to share her motherhood and custody struggles with her fans.

The worst part of all this? I'm not the only one, she writes. I never intended for my story to be public. I wanted my privacy, I asked for records to be sealed-I was laughed at. Now that its public, not by my doing, I'm berated for speaking out.
Please, pray for Houston.

Growing up in Kansas within Tornado Alley and living through the Sandy Super Storm in Halifax, Nova Scotia, would lead me to believe that we were prepared for Harvey. We are not.

We live at ground-zero in Houston and the meteorologist (live from Rosenberg, Texas, just down the street from where where road-762 has caved in) said moments ago this is a once-in-500-year situation. We are sheltering in place and as of Sunday afternoon we are being advised that two more feet of rain is possible because the storm system is not moving. Where we live in central Fort Bend County, 22 more inches are expected.

We have five children, including triplet boys aged 13 months. And, like thousands of other families across the Houston metroplex, we are experiencing apocalyptic and eerie feelings of unrest, which began on Thursday when gas stations ran out of fuel and grocery stores out of water.

The news anchors are discussing how impossible it is to evacuate 6 million people. Our 8-year-old Lily Faith is asking us to define catastrophic, life-threating flooding and unprecedented crisis.

Since Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday evening around 10 p.m. our family has been camped out in our master bedroom (two air mattresses and three pack-n-plays). Well, that is when we are not in the master closet at the inner-most part of our home during constantly extended Tornado Warnings in Fort Bend and Harris Counties. Turns out the Tornado Warnings make the same noise as the Amber Alerts on your cell phone, which creates a vicious cycle of waking up to worry and anxiety with our 8- and 5-year olds saying, Daddy, I am scared Why do the warnings keep sounding?  Are we going to be okay, Daddy?

Yet, unlike Kansas, there are no tornado sirens near us, so there is little warning of an approaching tornado.

My wife, Audrey and I are in a constant state of monitoring the situation while trying to stay calm for our children.

We are devastated by the catastrophic events all around us.

Hundreds of thousands of homes are taking on water.

Rainfall in Harris County has exceeded 2001s Tropical Storm Allison in almost half the time.

If our home floods, the public is being advised that we are not to go into our attics but rather wait on the roof for rescue.

How on earth would we get five children on our roof (three of them babies) if it comes to that?

My wife and I have had to work through scenarios of who would grab which baby while directing our older two children to stay in a safe place.

If you call 911 for rescue, do not hang up, they say, stay on hold because so many rescues are underway.

KHOU 11 went off the air as their station flooded. A remote uplink was live, but now unavailable.

The news crew is broadcasting from phones via Facebook.

As of late morning, there have been over 1,000 rescues across Houston. We are concerned we will run out of food and water as flooding is widespread around our beloved city.

A moat is essentially forming around our two-acre property as water is creeping closer to our home. Theres that Tornado Warning alert again. Hold on 

Okay, we are back. All schools are canceled this week, obviously.

Our reality is concern we will again lose power which sets off a chain of other negative factors.

If we lose power, our well ceases to operate and we have no water. We purchased 50 pounds of ice but wonder how long it will last in our Yeti/RTIC coolers.

Did we buy enough milk for our boys? We have some left-over formula.

We have a go-bag with diapers, formula, extra clothing, birth certificates and other documents but where would we go? With triplets we go through a minimum of 15 diapers per day.

We are also concerned about our beloved Houston Baptist University students. They are okay, thank God, and so far the dorms have no flooding.

So what can we do in this moment? We can pray. We can join with hundreds and thousands of others and asking God to help us. We can  like our church, Houstons First Baptist (who is a strategic staging site for disaster relief volunteers for the North American Mission Board volunteers), and like so many other houses of worship  open facilities to those who are homeless.

Yet, if you are in Houston, like us, you might feel similar to the biblical character Gideon who, in view of all the tragedy around him, said, Pardon me  but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? (Judges 6:13). We serve the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3).

Only God can enable us to see our trials as temporary experiences, as awful as they may be, and as preparation for the exceeding joy and glory of His eternal presence.

The apostle Paul said that our present suffering is a momentary, light affliction that will last only a short time and that it prepares us for the glory of heaven (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

From his prison cell Paul wrote to the persecuted church at Philippi, admonishing it to rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4).

Isaiah 26:3 reminds us: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3).

Theres that Tornado Warning again. And the rain continues to pour.
Question: Why didnt President Bill Clinton in 1994when the North Korean nuclear menace was still in its infancydestroy Pyongyangs atomic program before it would transform into the existential threat it is today?

Simple. He risked the possibility that the Kim family would, at the very least, rain down a barrage of massive artillery and rocket fire on the capitol of South Korea, Seoul, just some 35 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.

As one senior Clinton official told me some months ago: We just couldnt take that risk.

And this weekends test of three successful weapons remind us yet again that Pyongyang doesnt need to fire nuclear missiles at targets in Asia or strike the U.S. homeland to kill scores of peopleits conventional weapons can do enough damage all on their own.

In the event of a Second Korean War, North Korea could very well open its assault with such conventional weapons targeting downtown Seoul, home to 25 million people.

So much for the restraint the Trump Administration was commending Pyongyang for just a few days ago.

Indeed, in the event of a Second Korean Waror a continuation of the first, as we must remember, the First Korean War never ended with a treaty but a mere armisticeNorth Korea could very well open its assault with such weapons targeting downtown Seoul, home to 25 million people in that metro area alone.

Stop and think about it for a second. Kim Jong Un, seems to be reminding us again and again of his capabilitiesone at a time.

Over the course of this year alone, Kim has been testingand showing offhis ability to not only attack with short-, medium- and long-range missiles, but also killing off his half-brother with chemical weapons.

But Friday night Kim seemed to want to make a statement that he can strike with weapons we almost always forget about, with reports claiming that North Korea tested what is referred to as MLRS, or a multiple rocket launcher system, with a range that could put a large portion of South Korea under threat of attack.

Such systems are nothing new and not exactly a novel concept. What is concerning, however, is that the system that was potentially tested, according to reports in South Korean media, was one of North Koreas more advanced missile systems, a 300-mm artillery rocket launching platform, commonly referred to as the KN-09.

The system, per the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has a range of 190km, carrying a total of eight rockets in two pods of four launchers. These deadly weapons sit on a mobile truck, making them mobile and harder to destroy in a conflict.

The danger of such weapons is obvious: such a platform might just be the ultimate terror weapon.

Consider this: With little or no warning, and if used in combination with more classic artillery platforms, these weapons could do tremendous damage to not only South Korean cities but also incite a mass panic the likes of which has not been seen in decades.

Imagine in Seoul large skyscrapers collapsing thanks to MLRS fired in a surprise attack with millions of people heading for safety. Roads, bridges, and highways would be clogged for miles. Social media worldwide would be filled with images of what looks like 9/11but far worse than you can possibly imagine.

Now to be fair, such weapons would not last long in a conflict with South Korea and America, and indeed, Kims army is no match for Allied forces on the peninsula as it is old and clearly obsolete.

However, as the saying goes, quantity is a quality all its own. And the North Korean military is largeit has over 1 million men under arms, 4,300 tanks, potentially as much as 5,000 tons of chemical weapons and as many as 60 nuclear weapons. In wargame after wargame I have been a part of over the years, millions of people could be killed in a conflict with North Koreaas many as 8 million or more in one simulation I was part of.

Clearly the Trump Administration must redouble its efforts to contain North Korea as much as possible, as Kim Jong Un will no doubt to continue to show off his growing military might. He is also likely trying to sprint towards even more deadly nuclear and missile technologiespictures coming out of the hermit kingdom last week seem to make that point crystal clear.

In fact, in the coming weeks, we will likely see Kim test another nuclear weapon or ICBM, potentially as early as September 9th, on North Koreas founding daythe last time Pyongyang tested a nuclear device.

But no matter what Kim does next, he will continue to reinforce his ultimate pointto show that he can reach out and kill someonelots of someones.

And we need to take that very seriously.
North Korea once again chose to ratchet up tensions with the Trump administration Saturday by firing three short-range missiles about 155 miles into the Sea of Japan. That was a disappointing development, but doesnt mean were drawing close to a nuclear or conventional war with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Kims missile test Saturday appears to be a response to twice-yearly war games that U.S. forces are conducting with the South Korean military to prepare for a possible North Korean attack.

But despite a war of words between President Trump and Kim thats been going on for weeks, Kim is not crazy. He is well-aware that he would be committing national suicide if he launched a nuclear attack against the U.S., South Korea, Japan or one of our other allies because we would respond with a devastating nuclear retaliatory strike that would wipe North Korea off the map. Deterrence works.

So even if North Korea could send a nuclear warhead to the continental United States with its current technology, as it claims  an idea that some highly acclaimed nuclear weapons experts doubt  such an attack is extremely unlikely.

And Kim also knows that a conventional war would be very costly for both North and South Korea and would claim an enormous number of lives. In fact, the potential for these high costs has contributed to the peace on the Korean peninsula for more than 60 years, long before the North developed a small stockpile of atomic bombs.

During the Cold War, the idea of nuclear deterrence created a tense but non-apocalyptic stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union. The theory held then, as it does now, that the credible threat of nuclear retaliation keeps one country from launching nuclear weapons against another.

The rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea is hot. President Trump famously promised to meet North Koreas threats of war with fire and fury. And as the U.S.-South Korean military exercises began last Monday, North Korea vowed merciless retaliation and unsparing punishment against America. But the verbal hostility between the two nations is nothing new, even if the fresh rhetoric is troubling.

Its important to note that North Korea, which launched what it claimed were two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July, could have taken far more provocative action than the test of three shorter range missiles Saturday.

The North threatened last month to fire four ballistic missiles around the U.S. territory of Guam, surrounding the island that is home to two U.S. military bases with a ring of fire. The U.S. would have been forced to respond in some way to such a provocation.

To understand why a nuclear or conventional war is not likely to break out between the U.S. and North Korea, lets make a sober analysis of North Koreas nuclear threat.

During the Cold War, the idea of nuclear deterrence created a tense but non-apocalyptic stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union. The theory held then, as it does now, that the credible threat of nuclear retaliation keeps one country from launching nuclear weapons against another.

Nuclear deterrence is the reason why nuclear war is unlikely between the United States and Russia, or between the United States and China.

Make no mistake. Kim Jong Un is a terrible dictator whose desire to maintain power and control has led him to continue North Koreas decades-long atrocities, human rights violations, and collectivist economic policies that have led to widespread poverty. He has kept North Korea from flourishing like its neighbor to the south.

But the abuses that show Kim as being the top enemy of the North Korean people also show why he isnt an imminent threat to the United States. Kim and the members of his regime loyal to his family want to maintain power and authority, along with the benefits that go along with it. This is why they go to such great lengths to remain in office.

Its highly doubtful that Kim would give up all of his power through the act of war with the United States. He does not have a death wish for himself or his country. His father, Kim Jong Il, was similarly tyrannical and sounded just as crazy But on nuclear matters, he was coldly rational and thus could be deterred.

As long as the United States properly signals a credible commitment to retaliate and the capability to act on it, Kim has an incentive to avoid war, whether nuclear or conventional.

The horrible specter of nuclear war  or the more likely and yet still quite awful consequences of a conventional fight  is why we should all hope that President Trump and Kim will keep cool, avoid more fiery rhetoric, and focus on diplomatic attempts to resolve the tension between their two countries.
Since the terrible of events in Charlottesville earlier this month, Ive thought again and again about the encounter I had with Rosa Parks.

The year was 1994, andoddly enough I found myself on a bus. As we boarded, an older African-American woman joined us. I did not recognize her at first but thought she looked very familiar. I asked someone who she was. I nearly had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I was told her name: Rosa Parks.

Wait, THE Rosa Parks? I asked. THE Rosa Parks, as in the civil rights legend, Rosa Parks?

One and the same, they assured me.

I was quickly struck by how strong her faith in God truly was. As a pastor, I knew at that moment where her resolve came from.

In a time like this in America, its important for all Americans to remind themselves of what type of country we once were.

Rosa Parks grew up in Alabama during segregation, a time when black people had separate drinking fountains and restrooms. They also were expected to sit in the back of the bus, in what was then called the colored section, and they even had to give up their seats to white passengers if asked.

One day, on her commute home after a long day of work, Rosa Parks was told to give up her seat. She said, No. She sat there in holy defiance.

They arrested her for itarrested her! Then they convicted her of breaking Alabamas segregation laws. But her bravery did not go unnoticed.

Her simple act of courage became a moment of national consequence, and it galvanized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a precursor to the civil rights movement. Mrs. Parks was eventually called the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement. She was later awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the two highest honors that can be given to a civilian. Throughout her life, she received more than 43 honorary doctorates and countless other awards and recognitions.

She was an American hero who showed us a better way during a very dark time. And there I was with Mrs. Parks  on a bus.

The other Christian authors I was traveling with carried on joking with one another and talking loudly as preachers often do, while in our midst sat this soft-spoken lady who had nerves of steel to take the stand she did so many years ago on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Eventually, I managed to grab a seat next to her, and we began to talk. I was quickly struck by how strong her faith in God truly was. As a pastor, I knew at that moment where her resolve came from. She wrote in her book Quiet Strength that her belief in God developed early in life.

Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray, wrote Parks. We even had devotions before going to pick cotton in the fields.

Prayer and the Bible, she recalled, became a part of my everyday thoughts and beliefs. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength. Rosa Parks loved and followed Jesus Christ and no doubt that helped her to have the courage she needed when she had to have it. It has been said, Character is not made in crisisit is only revealed. I believe this is exactly what happened when Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat. We chatted for a while, and I asked her about that day in 1955, and she told me her story. It was like I crawled right inside of history for a moment, and it left an impression on my life that I have often drawn from in moments of brokenness in our American life.

Rosa has been in Heaven for a while now but the legacy she left cries out to us today. Especially in light of Charlottesville, it calls us to a moment of self-reflection for our nation. It calls us to remember the grave mistakes of our past and to renew our commitment to never allow such injustice to fester again. It calls white leaders like myself toward a kind of empathy thats nearly impossible to experience.

In moments of conflict and division, we must stop to remember lessons from the past and be inspired by those whove shown us a better way. Like Rosa Parks, followers of Jesus Christ must draw upon his desire to reconcile the world unto himself and to make us ambassadors of reconciliation.

This last weekend, over 90,000 people of all ages and races gathered at Angel stadium in Southern California for three nights of meetings calling our nation to faith in God and love for one another.

Over 35,000 of us prayed on Sunday night for our fractured nation to be healed. And many of these people made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

First, we need to be reconciled to God.

Then, we can be reconciled with each other.

Politics and the press cannot heal our nation. Only faith can do that.
ERBIL, Iraq  This September 25, Iraqi Kurdistan will hold its long promised referendum on independence from Baghdad. This move is controversial everywhere except in Kurdistan; yet it presents a defining opportunity for U.S. interests.

President Trump should ratify Iraqi Kurdistans overwhelming desire for independence  a long overdue step toward healing the historical injustice of Sykes Picot and also an opportunity to bring his Safe Zone policy to Iraq to reverse the ISIS genocide of Christians, Yezidis, and Turkomen, many of whom have taken refuge inside Iraqi Kurdistan. Moreover, those two steps would create a buffer against ongoing Iranian efforts to build a land bridge to the Mediterranean.

The Arab world still resents the arrogance of Sykes Picot, the Western powers century old revision of the map of the Middle East, drawn not along natural lines of ethnic, religious, or linguistic communities but rather to divide them in ways to allow the West to control resource extraction. But even more than the Arabs, the Kurds have reason to chafe under the violence of Sykes Picot. Moderate-majority Sunni Muslims, Kurds are the largest ethnic group on the planet without their own country. They live as a majority in one contiguous geographic area yet are divided by the map into Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and so have been oppressed as an ethnic minority.

When ISIS conquered large swaths of the region in 2014, many of the displaced, especially Christians and Yezidis fleeing genocide, took refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, the most U.S.-friendly area of Iraq. While the U.S. and EU have officially declared this to be a genocide, we have yet to do anything to fulfill our treaty obligations to redress it.

As a Peshmerga general asked me last year at his command post on on the front with ISIS, Dont you Americans know that Iran is even more dangerous than ISIS?

Genocide is not merely about theft, rape, and murder: It is a scheme to eradicate a people from a place. In that sense, genocide can and should be reversed.

President Trumps proposed Safe Zone in Syria is not merely realpolitik but is the preferred policy of those Ive spoken to in the camps  they want to go home. That Safe Zone should include those areas of Northern Iraq adjacent to Syria that are home to the victims of the ISIS genocide. Those areas also border Iraqi Kurdistan, which has offered refuge to so many displaced by ISIS.

President Trump, who carried Michigan by fewer than 12,000 votes, owes his margin of victory there to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians around Detroit who supported him overwhelmingly. It is time to deliver his promise to make it possible for their relatives to return home.

Safe Zones only work when security fosters productivity. In addition to external security, internal security and the rule of law (including the administration of property rights) are absolutely necessary to achieve lasting peace and allow people to return to the productive employment required to restore their sense of dignity.

The United States should enlist a coalition including Kurdistan, Iraq, and NATO allies to secure the borders of the zone, but insist that internal security forces and judicial administration be entirely indigenous, under international training and observation. In other words, both the Shia militias Baghdad has sent to the North at Irans instigation (who are already moving Shia into formerly Christian areas) and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces who today compete with them for control of these areas, must leave the zone. This is a deal the Kurds are willing to make, and President Trump must be willing to bring Baghdad to the table by holding hostage the prospect of any continued U.S. aid. A united Iraq is a failed experiment, and our aid only goes to prop up a government dominated by Tehran. As a Peshmerga general asked me last year at his command post on on the front with ISIS, Dont you Americans know that Iran is even more dangerous than ISIS?

While Baghdad has become enthralled to Tehran, Tehran is expanding its military footprint, sending Shia militias into Iraq and propping up Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon. Irans long term strategy to pave a road to the Mediterranean is plodding along without raising much alarm in the very West that strategy is designed to threaten. It is time we do something about it. We might start by helping our only friends in the neighborhood: The Kurds, Christians, and Yezidis.

As the Kurdistan Regional Governments Minister of Foreign Relations, Falah Mustafa Bakir, told me this week, Kurds yearn for a long term strategic partnership with the United States. We share the same values and principles, and deserve the support of the US. Lets make a deal with the Kurds to protect our other friends in the region and unite them against Iranian encroachment. All they want is the same independence that made America great.
U.S. Sen. Luther Strange made his case to state Republican party leaders on Saturday, urging them to vote for him in a GOP runoff next month because of his "conservative accomplishments" and the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, who faces Strange in the runoff, lashed out at Strange's financial backing from the GOP establishment and said the "Washington crowd" was trying to buy the Senate seat from Alabama.



Sharing a stage for the first time since securing their spots in the runoff, Moore and Strange spoke to more than 400 members of the GOP executive committee on the campus of Troy University. The brief speeches highlighted style differences between the two Republicans vying for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' former Senate seat. It also was a prelude to what is expected to be a bitter runoff between the two men who sprang from different factions within the state GOP.

"All of America is watching what happens in this campaign," Moore said, displaying his fire and brimstone style. He hammered Strange for receiving financial backing from a super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"There's a Washington crowd trying to buy this election," Moore said, adding that Trump was not part of that establishment. "They don't want change in Washington. They want to keep it like it is, and they want to fool the people of Alabama."

"There's a Washington crowd trying to buy this election. They don't want change in Washington. They want to keep it like it is, and they want to fool the people of Alabama."  Roy Moore, Alabama Republican running for a U.S. Senate seat

Moore, who was twice stripped of his duties as chief justice said the nation must return to God. Moore left the bench for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument and for telling probate judges that they remained bound to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.



Strange, who was appointed in February to fill Sessions' seat, touted his backing from Trump, who tweeted an endorsement and recorded a telephone message on his behalf on the eve of the primary.



"I have a personal relationship with the president. He cares very much about Alabama. I couldn't be more proud to have his unconditional endorsement. Why is that important? Because we in this room care about his agenda. It's going to make America great again," Strange said.



Strange also touted his record as attorney general, which he said included several lawsuits against the Obama administration and putting together a tough public corruption unit.



"My campaign will be about conservative accomplishments, taking on the special interests, working with President Trump to get it done," Strange said.

"My campaign will be about conservative accomplishments, taking on the special interests, working with President Trump to get it done."  U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala.

Moore and Strange will face off in a Sept. 26 runoff after emerging as the top two vote-getters in the August primary. Moore led Strange by six percentage points in that first round of voting. The winner will face Democrat Doug Jones in December.



"It's neck and neck," said Jerry Ann McCarron when asked how the GOP runoff race was going in her home Baldwin County, a GOP stronghold in south Alabama that is expected to be important to both candidates.

Both Moore and Strange will be vying to pick up the votes of third-place finisher, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who has not officially endorsed a candidate.



Fourth-place finisher, state Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, on Saturday threw his support to Moore. Pittman said he believed Moore was the best choice in the race. Pittman had about 29,000 votes statewide.



"Roy Moore is a man of outstanding integrity, of commitment, of faith," Pittman said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is among the latest to criticize President Trump for his response to the deadly Virginia protests, suggesting the president has allowed the darkest forces in America to undo years of progress on civil rights.

The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America," Biden, who served in the administration of President Barack Obama, writes in an opinion piece published Sunday in The Atlantic.

Biden, a former Democratic senator who has run for president, also seems to affirm the argument that those who supported Trumps presidency are connected to the deadly Aug. 13 protests in Charlottesville, Va., that were triggered by a rally organized by white supremacists by asking: Are we really surprised they rose up?

"Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate, Biden continues. We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support.  There is no place for these hate groups in America. Hatred of blacks, Jews, immigrants -- all who are seen as 'the other' -- won't be accepted or tolerated or given safe harbor.

Trump condemned neo-Nazis, the KKK and the supremacists after the deadly rally in which a counter-protester was fatally struck by a car. However, he has been widely criticized for also saying both sides are to blame for the violence.

Biden left public office earlier this year with the Obama administration, after considering a 2016 presidential run on the Democratic ticket. He decided not to run because his son Beau was dying from brain cancer but said in March that he regrets not running.

Biden has repeatedly said he wont run again for office, but the potential 2020 presidential field for Democrats remains wide open.

This spring, the 74-year-old Biden started a political action committee, or PAC, called American Possibilities.

In January of 2009, I stood waiting in Wilmington, Delaware, for a train carrying the first African-American elected president of the United States. I was there to join him as vice president on the way to a historic Inauguration, Biden also writes, before criticizing Trump for pardoning Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He wont stop. Now hes pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a concentration camp. 
The possible need to give hurricane relief funds to Texas could be an X-factor for Congress as it hustles to pass spending bills before October and avoid a government shutdown -- and the kind of political struggles that Republicans faced with 2012s Superstorm Sandy.

Congress is on recess until after Labor Day and will have less than four weeks upon its return to pass 12 spending bills to keep the government fully operational past Sept. 30. Their passage is already overdue. And negotiations could be complicated by the need to draft another, seperate bill to provide potentially billions in Hurricane Harvey relief money.

Trump has already made the spending-bill situation more complicated, by again suggesting last week that hed veto any spending resolution that doesnt include money for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In addition, Congress must also agree to increase the federal debt ceiling or default on its financial obligation. The situation has pitted the administration against fiscal conservatives in Congress.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reiterated Friday that he wants Congress to raise the debt limit by the end of the month, as conservative lawmakers argue theres no plan to offset a debt-ceiling increase with spending cuts.

In January 2013, the GOP-led House approved a special spending bill to help rebuild the Eastern seaboard and New York City, lashed the previous October by hurricaine-like Superstorm Sandy.

However, the bill passed with the support of just 49 Republicans, which as a result required yeah votes from 179 of 180 House Democrats.

The vote was noteworthy because then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, held it despite deep opposition from the super-majority of his own party.

The Sandy request was in essence a 13th spending bill, sometimes called a supplemental appropriations bill, was destine to drive up the deficit.

The storm was exceptionally expensive, which was why many Republicans demanded offsets to the primary $60 billion supplemental request to keep the federal deficit from exploding.

With Harvey, nobody knows for certain whether there will be federal need to cough up a supplemental spending bill to help Texas recover. However, the states congressional delegation wields a lot of clout.

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn is the second-most-powerful member of the Senate. And three Texas Republicans lead House Appropriations subcommittees, which control the federal purse strings. They are Reps. John Carter, Kay Granger and John Culberson.

The question is how bad the storm will be and how much the recovery will cost. The answers could take weeks -- just about the time the House and Senate are trying to address funding the entire federal government and avoiding a debt crisis.
Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore is seeing his star rise in the states Republican Senate race despite both President Trump and Vice President Pence publicly backing his incumbent rival.

Moore, a Christian conservative known as the Ten Commandments Judge, finished atop a crowded field during the Aug. 15 primary, winning 39 percent to incumbent Sen. Luther Stranges 33 percent.

Because no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote, Moore and Strange, endorsed by Trump and Pence, head to a Sept. 26 runoff.

MOORE, STRANGE HEAD TO ALABAMA SENATE RUNOFF

Last week, Moore, who has portrayed himself as an anti-establishment crusader, was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"Judge Moore has shown he has what it takes to stand up to the out-of-touch political establishment, Palin said.

The other top candidate who didn't make the runoff, Rep. Mo Brooks, hasnt endorsed either of his former rivals. But on Saturday, the Moore campaign announced state Sen. Trip Pittman, who also sought the Republican nomination, is backing his campaign.

Breitbart News, the populist conservative website run by former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, has written favorably about Moore, calling the Palin endorsement a huge momentum booster for the conservative candidate.

Breitbart has also dinged Strange for not accepting an invitation to appear on its SiriusXM radio show.

It is unclear why he is refusing to talk to conservatives who support the president, Breitbarts Matt Boyle wrote this week.

But Moores rise in the polls has come under more scrutiny in recent days. Old video surfaced last week of Moore questioning whether former President Barack Obama was a natural-born citizen.

"My personal belief is that he wasn't, Moore said in 2016.

Local polls have shown Moore with a significant lead over Strange. But the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, circulated a poll last week that shows Strange still within four points of Moore.

Earlier this month, before the initial primary election, Trump tweeted: Senator Luther Strange has done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement!

But Trump turned heads in Alabama by congratulating both candidates  and not just Strange -- on Twitter for being the final two and heading into a September runoff in Alabama.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Friday that Trump is considering backing away from Strange in the runoff, a scenario that could further inflame tensions between the president and McConnell.

But there have been no outward signs of the president abandoning Strange and a source told Fox News that Strange spoke with both Trump and Pence on Friday about how they could help him in the race.

Moore, a favorite of religious conservative voters, has a colorful political history that has both fueled and complicated his rise.

He first got national attention in the 1990s as a county judge when he hung a wooden Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of his courtroom.

Benefiting from his popularity after the episode, Moore then ran and won a race for chief justice of the states Supreme Court in 2000. But he was ousted after refusing to remove a 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.

He resurrected his political career in 2012, getting elected chief justice again. But his tenure was short-lived once more: In 2016, Moore was suspended as chief justice after he directed probate judges not to issue marriage certificates to gay couples.

Strange, the states former attorney general, was temporarily appointed to the seat in April after then-Sen. Jeff Sessions joined the Trump administration.

Strange was appointed by then-Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in the cloud of a scandal. His opponents have used that appointment from Bentley against him: Stranges office was investigating Bentley before the governor made him senator.

The winner of the runoff will face Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney under the Clinton administration who was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden. Alabama hasnt elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 20 years.
President Trump will visit the state of Texas on Tuesday, the White House confirmed Sunday.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House is still working to coordinate logistics for the trip with state and local officials.

Trump had previously tweeted he would visit the storm-ravaged state "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety."

The president praised the government response to Hurricane Harvey, including emergency crews that have rescued "thousands," as stormwater rises and strands residents across the state.

"Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with," Trump tweeted. "Thousands rescued."

The storm hit the states Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday and continues slowly to move northwest as a tropical storm, with steady rain that is flooding homes and streets. Some areas have had as much as 24 inches of rain.

The storm is Trumps first natural disaster as president. The ways in which the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other offices within the administration are responding will be a big test for Trump, a former businessman who until this year never had held elected office.

Trump is monitoring the developments from the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland. He led a video conference Saturday and Sunday with Vice President Pence, Cabinet members and other top administration officials.

Also on Sunday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry told Fox News' "Fox & Friends," "The administration is being very focused on making sure the state has everything it needs."

Perry, a former Texas governor, was, like Trump, careful to make clear that Texas is leading the storm-recovery efforts, praising Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts response, as floodwaters reached dangerous levels in Houston, where evacuations are expected to continue for days.

"We need to be prepared for a really long recovery," Perry said.
President Trump on Sunday got an early start on his legislative agenda this week -- pushing again for U.S.-Mexico border wall funding and confirming his visit to Missouri to tout his tax reform plan and apparently hammering incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill for her non-support.

With Mexico being one of the highest crime nations in the world, we must have THE WALL, Trump said in one of eight tweets Sunday morning.

While most of the tweets focused on praising the immediate efforts of government and emergency crews in Texas for Hurricane Harvey, several others dredged up issues that Trump has yet to resolve.

Mexico will pay for (the wall) through reimbursement/other, tweeted Trump, who vowed during his 2016 presidential campaign that Mexico would finance the multibillion-dollar construction.

Trump also returned to the issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with Canada and Mexico that Trump first vowed to end, then moved toward renegotiating.

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate? the president tweeted.

Trump is scheduled to travel Wednesday to Springfield, Missouri, to talk about his plan with the GOP-controlled Congress to overhaul the U.S. tax code to help everyday Americans and businesses.

I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!, Trump also tweeted on Sunday.

He was apparently referring to McCaskill with the initials C.M. Trump has no support among congressional Democrats for his tax reform. McCaskill is a first-term senator seeking re-election next year.

Trump has tweeted numerous times about Harvey since the storm hit the Texas Gulf Coast late Friday. Though now downgraded to a tropical storm, Harvey continues to drop heavy rain on the state, flooding streets and homes, which has resulted in hundreds of evacuations.

Wow, Trump tweeted Sunday. Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all-out effort going, and going well!
More than 17,000 California National Guard soldiers wont have to payback more than $190 million in enlistment bonuses and other payments that had been handed out in error between 2004 and 2010, the Pentagon said.

The decision comes several years after an audit revealed the Guard was overpaying bonuses as it faced pressure to hit enlistment goals during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

California lawmakers in Congress successfully pushed for the Pentagon to waive any repayments unless it could provide evidence a solider knew or shouldve known they werent eligible for the money.

"I am pleased that an overwhelming majority of the service members affected by the California National Guard's bonus clawback will be able to get their bonuses back," Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement. "These enlistment bonuses and other benefits were accepted in good faith and were given in exchange for serving the nation."

A report by the Pentagon found that a vast majority of the 17,485 soldiers that got bonuses or loan aid wont have to repay it or will be refunded if they already did. The report, given to the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees on July 31, was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The Guard paid out $194.6 million in bonuses and $6.4 million in student loan repayments between 2004 and 2010 to California soldiers, the report found. More than 1,400 soldiers had been asked to pay back the debt when former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter suspended the recoupment plan in late 2016. An additional 16,000 who were given bonuses during the same time period were included in the Pentagon's review.

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham, who helped craft the legislation requiring the Pentagon evaluation, criticized the U.S. Department of Defense for taking so long to "admit their mistake."

"The men and women who wear the cloth of this nation deserve the security of knowing that the country they swore an oath to protect has their back at the end of their service," Denham told the Times.

The "overwhelming majority" of soldiers given bonuses  a total of 17,092  won't be asked to pay back any money or will receive a refund.

The remaining 393 cases involved soldiers who did not complete their enlistment terms, because they were absent without leave, failed to show up for basic training or had a substance abuse problem, the report said. Those soldiers can appeal their cases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is paying an Iowa veteran $550,000 to settle his allegation that he suffered life-shortening heart damage because of a three-year delay in treatment.

John Porter, 68, of Greenfield, initially sought $5 million when he sued last year in federal court in Des Moines after he says VA staff overlooked a test result showing his heart was failing.

Porter told the Des Moines Register on Friday he was glad he lived long enough to see the case settled.

Im just glad its over. They drug it out for so long, he said.

Porter's lawsuit says he went to the emergency room of the Des Moines VA hospital in October 2011 after feeling tightness in his chest, and tests showed he might have heart problems. The lawsuit said a follow-up test three weeks later showed his heart was functioning at less than half of normal levels, indicating heart failure, but no VA doctors told Porter of the findings.

Only three years later did doctors at an Arizona VA hospital, where Porter had gone in 2014 after experiencing severe chest pain, find the 2011 test results and inform Porter.

The lawsuit cited a cardiologist at the Des Moines VA who later wrote that the oversight kept Porter from seeing a cardiologist promptly and that because of the three-year delay, "I doubt there will be much progress made" in treating Porter.

A VA spokeswoman did not respond Friday to the Register's request for comment. Federal lawyers' formal response to the lawsuit acknowledged that the 2011 test was done on Porter and that the doctor said its results weren't acted on. But they denied that the VA staff was negligent or that Porter's life expectancy was curtailed because of the delay.

Porter, 68, is an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam. Hes also a retired truck driver.

His lawsuit came amid national outrage over delays that many veterans were experiencing in dealing with the VA.

Porter told the Des Moines Register that he blamed his ordeal on communications problems within the VA. But he stressed that he wasnt mistreated by VA employees.

The Des Moines VA is full of knowledgeable, caring and competent people, he told the newspaper. I have nothing against the VA hospital.

"The Des Moines VA is full of knowledgeable, caring and competent people. I have nothing against the VA hospital.  John Porter, 68, Vietnam veteran from Iowa

The $550,000 for which Porter settled will likely shrink fast, he told the Register.

After Im done paying my lawyer and expenses, Im not going to be rich, he said Friday. To me, its more of a moral victory than money, for sure.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
A Colorado teenager faced charges last week after the feds say he posted photos of himself with stolen guns on Facebook.

Viet Trinh, 18, of Thornton, is accused of being part of a smash-and-grab burglary ring that targeted gun shops in the Denver area, according to reports.

Know anyone that wants to buy a baby .40? $300, Trinh messaged friends on Facebook on Nov. 11, the day after thieves broke into a Thornton gun shop and stole 25 guns, the Denver Post reported Thursday.

I got my 9 wit (sic) full clips, Trinh wrote on Dec. 20, the paper reported, citing federal court papers. Mixed with poison hallows, regular hallows and strait meadle (sic) jackets.

The court papers say that when asked by text where he got the weapon, Trinh texted, A yistol (sic) shop, according to the paper reported.

Trinh was arrested Aug. 16 and, during an interview with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives agents, he admitted to being the getaway driver in the Thornton smash and grab.

He also said that he sold one of the guns he got from the burglary for $375, Fox 31 Denver reported.

An informant told agents Trinh was offering the stolen guns on Facebook under another name.

Stupid people do stupid things, and thats why they get caught. And that is a prime example, Jacob McIntosh, a worker at the South Platte Tactical gun shop in Brighton, told CBS 4 Denver.

McIntosh says agents recovered some of the guns stolen from his store after Trinh was arrested, according to the station.

Trinh is a suspect in another break-in and is also accused of helping burglars who were involved in other smash and grabs, the station reported.

Trinh was charged Tuesday in Denver federal court with theft from the inventory of a federal firearms licensee and faces up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Tropical Storm Harvey continued to hit southeastern Texas on Sunday with "catastrophic flooding" in Houston, forcing residents to flee to their roofs and higher ground as officials respond to thousands of 911 calls for rescues in the "unprecedented" event.

The National Hurricane Center's 7 p.m. CDT advisory shows the center of Harvey 120 miles southwest of Houston. Forecasters said "some slight re-strengthening is possible after the center moves off the coast on Monday night and Tuesday."

Rainfall from Harvey could reach up to 50 inches in some spots, making it the highest ever recorded in the state, the National Weather Service announced.

"This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced. Follow orders from officials to ensure safety," the National Weather Service wrote on Twitter.

The storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, or 6.8 million people in 18 counties.

Several hundred people arrived at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, which officials are using as a shelter as floodwaters have inundated much of the city. The center was also used as a shelter for Hurricane Katrina refugees in 2005.

The Red Cross is prepared to manage 1,000 people at the convention center. Authorities throughout Houston and the surrounding Harris County area are opening shelters as thousands continue to evacuate their homes due to severe flooding.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Sunday afternoon that Texas has now activated 3,000 National and State Guard members to combat the severe flooding and damage resulting from the storm. Abbott added that 500 vehicles and 14 aircraft have been put into service.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett asked that anyone who has a boat or a high water vehicle to help with rescue efforts in the Houston area. Those sent to Houston to help from outside the city are unable to enter due to flooded roadways.

"We desperately need boats and high water vehicles," Emmett said. "We can't wait for assets to come from outside."

Between 1,500 and 2,000 high-water rescues have been conducted since Harvey began wreaking havoc in the area, the Harris County Sheriff's Department wrote. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo wrote on Twitter that Houston Police have "completed 90 flood rescue missions resulting in over 1,100 community members being brought to safety."

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference Sunday more than 2,000 calls to 911 for rescues have been made, assuring priority has been given to life-threatening calls. Turner also defended his previous decision not to ask residents to evacuate before the heavy rain swamped roads.

"If you think the situation right now is bad and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," Turner said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government is expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years. More than 1,200 FEMA employees have been deployed to assist with Harvey response.

"This disaster's going to be a landmark event," Long said.

Acevedo said the city's 911 system has been "overwhelmed" since Harvey struck.

"Do not call 911 unless it is a life or death situation... [we're telling people] not to panic," Acevedo said, adding that "we haven't seen the worst of it yet."

Houston residents, attempting to escape the water quickly rising in their homes, were spotted on top of gates outside their homes and on kayaks. Acevedo urged residents not to go to their attics and instead seek refuge on their roofs.

"Reports of people getting into attic to escape floodwater  do not do so unless you have an ax or means to break through onto your roof," Acevedo wrote on Twitter.

Rising rainwater also forced Ben Taub Hospital, Harris County's public hospital, to be evacuated and patients to be dispersed to nearby hospitals because flooding problems in the basement are disrupting power service. The water was waist-deep at the Level 1 trauma center.

"We're going to get the sickest patients out first," Bryan McLeon, a spokesman for the Harris Health System said. "We have 16 or 17 people on ventilators."

McLeod said the staff is making sure everything is being done properly, including the transfer of medical records and charts. He added: "Our staff has been performing heroically."

Harris County sheriff's spokesman Jason Spencer said flooding throughout the county that includes Houston and the region is so widespread that it's "difficult to pinpoint the worst area."

"It's heartbreaking," Spencer said.

Acevedo said rainwater threatens to bring more flooding into the city in the coming days as it trickles down from other parts of the state.

"[I] cannot emphasize enough how much flooding there is on roadways. You are endangering yourself and our first responders by being out. Stay put," Acevedo wrote on Twitter earlier.

Meanwhile, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Turner continued urging residents on Twitter to "shelter in place" and stay off rain-swollen roadways.

Gonzalez actively used Twitter overnight Sunday to field assistance for those trapped inside water-soaked homes, attics and vehicles. Those appealing for assistance or being steered to help via Gonzalez's Twitter feed included a person suffering "cardiac-arrest," and a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up. Please send help."

Gonzalez at one point appealed for calm and patience, saying officials were "trying to make it to everyone as best we can."

Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said at least 35 of the emergency vehicles in his fleet have broken windows and windshields and are out of service. The smashed windows on the vehicles allowed rainwater to get inside, which shorted out the electronics in the vehicles and set off their sirens and lights mid-storm. Mills said some vehicles had six inches of water in them.

A sinkhole opened on a two-lane Texas highway, Farm-to-Market 762, about 25 miles southwest of Houston. Rosenberg Police tweeted a picture of the sinkhole, which could be seen filling with water. The department asked people to avoid the area.

Flights from William P. Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental airports were halted due to standing water on the runways, according to Fox 26. Thousands of flights were canceled and travelers were left stranded in the area.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin releasing water Monday morning from the Barker and Addicks Reservoirs to prevent uncontrollable flooding of downtown Houston and the Houston Ship Channel. The dams were built during the 1940s in response to a 1935 flood that inundated much of downtown Houston.

Col. Lars Zetterstrom said the water contained in the dams is "unparalleled in the dams' history," with waters rising about 4 inches per hour.

Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday night, but downgraded to a tropical storm by Saturday. The hurricane center said in its 4 a.m. Sunday update that the tropical storm has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and remains stationary about 45 miles northwest of Victoria, Texas.

At least one person died due to the flooding, Houston Fire Department's Sheldra Brigham said. Paramedics found the individual in a vehicle just before 10 p.m. A doctor, a passerby who stopped to help, was already at the scene and pronounced the person dead. A second person was confirmed dead in a house fire as the hurricane came ashore Friday night. Aransas County Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. told the Austin American-Statesman that 12 to 14 other people were injured.

Harris County Flood Control District Meteorologist Jeff Lindner said all of the county's 22 watersheds have spilled over their banks and are experiencing record flooding. Watersheds are creeks and bayous that take water away from the Houstin area and eventually drain into Galveston Bay.

It may take until Sunday night, well into Monday or possibly Tuesday "to get the water out of these areas that have been impacted so hard," Lindner said.

A video, taken from aboveground and posted to Twitter by the Coast Guard Heartland, shows an unidentified area majorly submerged in water as part of the aftermath of Harvey.

The White House confirmed Sunday that Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House is working to coordinate the logistics of his trip with state and local officials.

The president had previously tweeted that he would go to Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety," Trump tweeted. The president said on Saturday he was "closely monitoring" the storm from Camp David.

On Sunday evening, Trump took to Twitter to add that with the "HISTORIC rainfall in Houston, and all over Texas," that the "Spirit of the people in incredible."

Abbott said Trump's response to the storm was "extremely professional, very helpful" and offered any resources the governor needed. He added it's still unclear what amount of money will be needed for storm damage repairs, but estimated to be "billions of dollars."

Abbott on Sunday said the number of counties declared federal disaster areas has increased from six to 18, a number which has been approved by Trump. There have already been 50 counties declared state disaster zones  30 earlier in the week and 20 on Saturday.

Nearly seven million people live in the 18 counties now covered by the disaster declaration Trump approved, including Houston  the nation's fourth-largest city.

During the news conference Sunday, Abbott thanked a number of states for their help providing resources in Texas, including Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, California, Missouri, Ohio, Arizona and New York.

The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

Harvey arrived as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

For those who want to help those affected by Harvey, please visit www.RedCross.org.

Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
As Hurricane Harvey approached the Gulf Coast of Texas last week, various authorities had warned Texans to stay off the water.

If youve evacuated, please stay where youre at, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Tony Hahn told reporters Saturday. The most important thing right now is your safety, he added. Where your boat might be is most likely not a nice place  or not a safe place.

But apparently some decided not to heed the message: The Coast Guard rescued a total of 32 people from Texas waters between Friday and Saturday, the New York Times reported.

According to the Times and Fox 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth:

-- Four people were rescued from a vessel called the Signet Enterprise, with Coast Guard video showing one of them wearing a lifejacket as he was pulled ashore.

-- Seven people were airlifted to a rig near Aransas Pass. They had been aboard a tugboat called Sabine.

-- Four people were rescued from a vessel called Sandy Point.

-- Two people and a dog were in good condition at a hospital after being rescued near Rockport.

-- Three people on a fishing vessel were rescued, but the Coast Guard did not provide additional details.

-- Twelve people were rescued Friday from a 160-foot vessel that had been taking on water near Port Mansfield. All were in stable condition with no injuries, the Coast Guard said.

Equipment used by the Coast Guard included two MH-65 helicopters, the Times reported. In all, the newspaper said, the Coast Guard deployed 14 boats and seven helicopters to Houston.

The Coast Guard has stationed rescue boats and planes at several locations around parts of Southeast Texas affected by Harvey.

The Coast Guards Houston-Galveston sector protects the coastline near the nation's fourth-largest city, a region home to a critical port and major oil refineries.

Capt. Kevin Oditt, sector commander, told reporters Saturday that he's confident the refineries have made contingency plans for the rain and winds expected to pelt the area for several days.

The Coast Guard closed the Port of Houston on Friday. At least two dozen boats in the sector were on standby for water rescues or other emergencies.

Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane Friday night but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Harvey was a fierce Category 4 hurricane when it struck land on Friday night. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005, and it was expected to hover over Texas until at least midweek.

Forecasters warned that the storm would continue to produce torrential rain and that catastrophic flooding was possible.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
As Tropical Storm Harvey continued to pound southeastern Texas on Sunday with "catastrophic flooding," residents of a nursing home southeast of Houston had to be evacuated from waist-deep water.

Fifteen senior citizens were evacuated from the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, David Popoff, the citys emergency management coordinator, told the Galveston County Daily News.

Popoff told the newspaper all 15 were rescued by helicopter.

We were air-lifting grandmothers and grandfathers, Popoff said.

A picture of the residents sitting in waist-deep water shared to Twitter Sunday went viral after it was posted by Timothy McIntosh, who told the newspaper his mother-in-law owns the assisted-living home.

His wife, Kimberly McIntosh, said her mother sent the picture at 9 a.m. this morning.

She said it was a disaster and they were hoping the national guard would come, Kimberly McInstosh said.
Residents of a New York City building are being terrorized by a property manager who wears a Trump mask and plastered the lobby walls with pictures of swastikas, Confederate generals and Hitler, according to reports.

Surveillance video purportedly shows Neil Milano in the Trump mask slapping Trump campaign bumper stickers on the wall of an elevator in a would-be attempt to menace neighbors in Sunnyside, Queens, according to WPIX-TV.

I open my door and these two. Heil Hitler! said a Greek woman who lives in the building and was interviewed by the New York Post. They brought war to my country.

Tall Uncle Sam statues flank the door of the building on 39th Place, according to the paper, which described the lobby as filled with an eccentric hodgepodge of hyper-patriotic posters supporting the NRA and President Trump, alongside one of Martin Luther King and a 9/11 mural.

The banner documenting the two sides in World War II  which features Hitler in front of a Nazi flag  went up recently, residents told the paper.

The paper reports that even more bizarrely the buildings directory is littered with names of people who dont live there  including Nazis Rudolf Hess and Josef Mengele.

Everyone in that building is afraid, said Lynn Calvacca, who owns two condos in the building and is suing Milano over a financial dispute, according to the Post. When you have somebody whos a large man, boisterous, loud  he pretty much convinces or scares anyone hes with to get his way.

New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the Sunnyside neighborhood where the building is located, said at a press conference Wednesday the lobby had become a hate crime, according to WCBS-TV. He noted that Milano was also president of the buildings condo board.

What's happening in this building is an affront to all of us, he said, according to Fox 5 NY. It is an absolute disgrace that there are Sunnysiders who are living in fear, literally, being held hostages in their own homes because of the property manager and director of the board here who is terrorizing the people of this building with racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant actions that are taking place on almost a daily basis."

Milanos attorney Jacob Laufer told the station that the murals in the lobby were approved by the board to reflect American history.

While the appropriateness of such informative and evocative artwork in the lobby is a matter of judgment and taste, no fair observer would conclude that it is bigoted in any way, he said.

But Calvacca told WCBS that only one person sits on the buildings condo board -- Milano.

There are no other board members that I know of of, Calvacca said. This is his message to say, You know what, dont fool around with me cause I own this building. And I dont mean financially, he owns with the terror that hes inflicting upon people.
Charlottesville police on Friday arrested a man in connection with the beating of 20-year-old Deandre Harris in the wake of the deadly Unite the Right rally.

Daniel Patrick Borden, 18, was arrested and charged with malicious wounding in the Aug. 12 assault that took place in a parking garage. Police also charged Alex Michael Ramos, 33, with malicious woundingbut he has not yet been arrested.

Video and photographs of the incident, in which Harris was attacked with clubs and poles by a group of white supremacists, went viral and sparked outrage.

They were beating me with poles. I have eight staples in my head, a broken wrist and a chipped tooth, Harris told The Root.

Borden is currently being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center in Ohio.

James Alex Fields has been charged with second-degree murder, five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and one count of felony hit and run in relation to the vehicular death of Heather Heyer, who was protesting against those at the rally in Charlottesville.

Police have identified a total of 35 victims in the unrest and are in the process of reaching out to all of them.

Harris attorney, Lee Merritt, told WCPO that he will file a civil personal injury lawsuit on behalf of Harris.
California border patrol agents made a startling discovery over the weekend when they found a crude tunnel that was being used to smuggle Chinese nationals and other illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S.

The tunnel, with a ladder inside, was spotted near San Diegos Otay Mesa border crossing, authorities said. Border agents happened upon it at 1 a.m. Saturday after arresting a group of 30 people who had just been smuggled into the U.S. through the tunnel. The group included 23 Chinese nationals, including two women.

While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice told KNSD-TV. However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling.

Some in the group tried to run off when agents approached them. Others ran back into the tunnel.

The group also included seven Mexicans, including three women.

Those who were detained were taken to the border patrol station in Chula Vista to be questioned, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The tunnel was near a fence line and hidden by dry brush and branches, according to reports.

The tunnels entrance was in a building in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, more than 300 feet south of the U.S.- Mexico border, KNSD reported.

Authorities say the tunnel, which stretched about a mile, may be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered by Mexican authorities.

The arrest of Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border also signals a new trend.

The Union-Tribune reported in June that the number of unauthorized Chinese immigrants coming to San Diego has skyrocketed in recent years.

Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector apprehended an estimated 663 Chinese nationals between October and May, compared with 48 Chinese nationals last fiscal year, five in fiscal 2014 and eight in fiscal 2013, the paper reported.

A Border Patrol spokeswoman told the paper that criminal organizations involved in smuggling maximize their profits by transporting Chinese immigrants, often charging anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000 per person.

The further you travel from, the more arrangements these criminal organizations have to make, the more expensive it will get, the spokeswoman told the paper.

Mass emigration from China is also fueling the increase.

China has become one of the worlds leading sources of immigrants, the paper reported, citing a new study.
A New Mexico state police officer was shot on Sunday and suspect involved in the shooting has died, officials said.

New Mexico State Police said on Twitter Sunday the officer was shot in Farmington, located north of Albuquerque near the border of Colorado. The officer, whose name was not released, is currently being treated and is believed to be "O.K."

The suspect in the shooting has died.

It's unclear what lead to the incident at this time.
New Orleans, already bogged down by inches of rain from previous storms, braced for more flooding from Hurricane Harvey on Sunday as the city scrambles to repair its malfunctioning pump system.

Rain from Harvey, which downgraded to a tropical storm a day after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday, threatens to dump up the 8 inches of rain starting Sunday. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in an update on Saturday the city's contractors are working "around the clock" to repair all power and pumps."

"Yesterday, contractors completed repairs to another large drainage pump at Drainage Pump Station No. 6, which brings the total to four large pumps returned to service since August 6," the city said in an update.

Nearly 40 boats and 20 high-water vehicles with rescue supplies were scattered at various fire and police station in preparation. A mandatory evacuation was not put in place since the storm did not directly hit New Orleans, but residents were urged to prepare for a "shelter in place" if flooding worsens.

Mike Shields, a forecaster with the National Weather Service's Slidell office, told NOLA.com the storm seems to likely shift farther west than previously predicted, but New Orleans is still not completely clear of Harvey's path.

"It's looking much better than it was, but we're still not off the hook," Shields told the news site.

"The threat has decreased somewhat and shifted further west, but there is still some threat," he added.

The city's pump system failed after a storm dropped 9.4 inches of rain in three hours earlier this month. Pumping stations in two of the hardest-hit areas went down to half to two-thirds capacity. City officials and spokespeople then said repeatedly all 24 stations were working at full capacity.

Harvey wreaked havoc in southeastern Texas and caused "catastrophic flooding" in Houston as of Sunday. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said its 911 system was "overwhelmed" by the number of calls coming in.

President Trump announced on Twitter Sunday he will be making a trip down to Texas to access the damage.

"I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety," Trump tweeted.

He sent out an earlier tweet saying he was "closely monitoring" the storm from Camp David.
A 44-year-old Pennsylvania high school teacher was charged on Friday by state police with having sexual intercourse with a male student.

Nikki Varney, 44, has been charged with institutional sexual assault, statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors and unlawful contact with minors, reports PennLive.com.

The investigation began after the school reported to the police that Varney was allegedly in a sexual relationship with a male student, police said.

The Willamsburg Community School District's spokesperson told local media that Varney has been placed on administrative leave.

According to the district's website, Varney has been at the school since 1997 and she currently teaches science, chemistry and physics.
A second death has been confirmed in Texas in connection with Hurricane Harvey.

The medical examiner's office in Harris County said one person had died in flooding. The fatality was an elderly woman who was killed as she drove through flooded streets on Houston's west side Saturday night, a Houston police officer said.

"It appeared that her vehicle went into high water and she drowned as a result,'' said Sgt. Colin Howard of the Houston police department. The victim was not immediately identified.

Previously, Rockport Mayor Charles Wax said one person had died there in a house fire as the hurricane came ashore Friday night. Aransas County Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. told the Austin American-Statesman that 12 to 14 other people were injured.

"Its pretty sickening," Mills told the paper. "Lots of emotions are involved when you see your community destroyed like this, but well bounce back."

Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, packing winds of 130 miles per hour. It weakened overnight to a Category 1 and then to a tropical storm. By 4 p.m. local time Saturday, its maximum sustained winds had fallen to about 65 mph. The storm was centered about 60 miles southeast of San Antonio. It was moving north at 2 mph, the hurricane center said.



Long after the system came ashore, weather conditions prevented emergency crews from getting into many of the hardest-hit places.



In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of "massive" damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street. Mayor Charles Bujan had few other details.



"I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," he said.

By dawn, nearly 300,000 consumers were without power in the coastal region, and nearly 20 inches of rain had fallen in some places.

But officials warned Saturday that the worst may be yet to come, as rainfall forecast continue for days could dump more than 40 inches of water and inundate many communities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.

Strong storms rolled into Houston around midday, dropping at least ten inches of rainfall. Residents rushed to flee the rising waters as rivers and tributaries threatened to reach record flood stages.

"Were out of here, Susan McDaniel told Fox News while filling up on gas at a Shell station on the outskirt of the city. She said she and her family would ride out the storm in Dallas. "Houston always floods. Its not a guessing game. Its a fact. The kids have Monday off from school so why not head to Dallas?"

But Houston resident Jonathan Henri told Fox News he was still on the fence about leaving.

"It didnt seem too bad at first," he said. "My wife and I were joking about it but clearly its getting worse. Were pretty lazy though. Well probably stick around."

The Wharton County Office of Emergency Management warned that the Colorado River will enter its major flood stage Sunday before creating at 50 feet on Tuesday.

"If you have flooded in any past flood, this is higher than all of them," the office said on social media.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm's path. The mayor said his community took a blow "right on the nose" that left "widespread devastation," including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.

Rockport's roads were a mess of toppled power poles. A trailer blocked much of one major intersection. Pieces of 100-year-old oak trees impeded the slow passage of emergency vehicles. Wood framing from ripped-apart houses was strewn along Route 35 on the town's southern end.



Harvey's relentless wind tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium. The windows of some police vehicles had been blown out.



About 10 people were taken to the county jail for treatment after the roof of a senior housing complex collapsed, television station KIII reported.

In the storm's immediate aftermath, the Coast Guard sent two helicopters to try to rescue the crews of three tugboats reported in distress in a channel near Port Aransas. And about 4,500 inmates were evacuated from three state prisons in Brazoria County south of Houston because the nearby Brazos River was rising.

In Katy, just west of Houston, a tornado uprooted trees and tore apart a tralier dealership.

"Its shocking, the dealership's manager, who gave his name only as BJ told Fox News. "The office is gone. The front gates are gone. Thank God nobody was here."

Key oil and gas facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast were temporarily shut down as Harvey pounded the region with torrential rain and high winds, virtually assuring gasoline prices will rise in the storm's aftermath.

Even before the Harvey made landfall late Friday, dozens of oil and gas platforms had been evacuated, at least three refineries had closed and at least two petrochemical plants had suspended operations.

How soon they reopen depends on the severity of flooding and the resumption of power to the areas.

Harvey also continued to take a toll on U.S. air travel Saturday, with more than 960 flight cancellations as of mid-day, according to FlightAware. A ground stop was lifted at Houston's two major airports, but more than 340 flights to and from the city had been canceled as of Saturday afternoon.

At least 15,000 people aboard three Carnival Cruise Line ships scheduled to return to Galveston this weekend were delayed or detoured due to the hurricane. The Port of Galveston was closed on Friday.

A statement from the Miami-based Carnival Cruise Line said the Carnival Freedom and Carnival Valor were at sea and would remain a safe distance from the hurricane.

The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of President Donald Trump's administration.



Trump met with his Cabinet and other senior administration officials to discuss the federal response to the damage and flooding, the White House said Saturday in a statement.



The president held a video conference from Camp David in which he instructed relevant departments and agencies to "stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives," the statement said.



Trump, who on Friday signed a federal disaster declaration for coastal counties, also reminded department heads that the full impact of the storm will not be apparent for days. On Twitter, he commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the disaster.

In Corpus Christi, the major city closest to the storm's center, wind whipped palm trees and stinging sheets of horizontal rain slapped against hotels and office buildings along the seawall as the storm made landfall.

Daybreak revealed downed lamp posts and tree limbs and roof tiles torn off buildings. The city's marina was nearly unscathed, save an awning ripped from a restaurant entrance and a wooden garbage bin uprooted and thrown.

Along Interstate 45 leaving Galveston, motorists had to stop under bridges to avoid driving in whiteout conditions.

Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Harvey grew rapidly, accelerating from a Category 1 early Friday morning to a Category 4 by evening. Its transformation from an ordinary storm to a life-threatening behemoth took only 56 hours, an incredibly fast intensification.

Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

The storm's approach sent tens of thousands of people fleeing inland. Families who escaped Rockport were worried about neighbors and whether their homes are still standing.

Johanna Cochran was panicking over whether her house or the McDonald's where she works survived the storm. She and her boyfriend evacuated to a San Antonio shelter.

Another Rockport resident, Pamela Montes, said she knew many people who stayed behind because "no one felt like it was going to hit."

Just hours before the projected landfall, the governor and Houston leaders issued conflicting statements on evacuation.

Gov. Greg Abbott urged more people to flee, but Houston authorities recommended no widespread evacuations, citing greater danger in having people on roads that could flood and the fact that the hurricane was not taking direct aim at the city.

The last Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Charley in August 2004 in Florida. Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost tropical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane.

Harvey is the first significant hurricane to hit Texas since Ike in September 2008 brought winds of 110 mph to the Galveston and Houston areas, inflicting $22 billion in damage.

Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Texas police officer stopped at nothing to save an American flag as Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday.

Aransas Pass Police Department posted on Facebook a photo of Officer Jack McCarty battling the strong winds and rain to take an American flag down before it was whipped away.

"While some dishonor and desecrate her, APPD Ofc. Jack McCarty will stop at nothing to honor and save her. #GodBlessAmerica #HurricaneHarvey," the department wrote on Facebook Friday.

RESIDENTS AT EPICENTER OF HARVEY'S LANDFALL RETURN TO HEARTBREAKING DEVASTATION

Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, with 130 mph wind gusts. By Saturday, Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm, but brought more than 20 inches of rain and "catastrophic flooding" to southeastern Texas Sunday morning.

Rising rainwater left residents trapped in their home. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told "Fox & Friends Weekend" residents should avoid going to the attics of their homes and head straight to the roofs if water level rises. He added the city's 911 system has been "overwhelmed" with calls.

At least two people have died in connection with Harvey. Houston Police Department confirmed one person died in a vehicle just before 10 p.m. Saturday. Another individual died in a house fire in Rockport as the hurricane made landfall Friday night.

HARVEY CAUSES 'CATASTROPHIC FLOODING' IN HOUSTON

Houses and trailers were found destroyed Saturday in Port Aransas and Rockport, after the worst of the storm had cleared.

"We have a camper that survived it. At least we have something to live in. A lot of people dont," Nancy and George Collins, whose home was destroyed during Harvey, said. "Its everything we had."

Aransas County Independent School District canceled all classes for the next two weeks, the police department announced.

President Trump said on Sunday he will be making a trip to Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption."
There were demoralizing signs of Hurricane Harveys devastation around Rockport and Aransas Pass, Texas Sunday. Collapsed homes, businesses and roofs lying in the street covered every block, as many residents returned to see the damage for the first time.

But as some looked through the rubble of their homes and businesses to salvage what they could, they took comfort in the American flag, Old Glory. They found their flag, and hung it up on what was left of their building.

I found it in the rubble and I thought it was fitting to put it up. It feels like weve been through a war, said Bill Coxwell, who owns a cushion manufacturing company.

Coxwell said hes optimistic about trying to rebuild his destructed business. He estimated his company wont be able to work out of the building for a couple months.

Well rebuild. Its going to take time. But I think everybody will help everybody, and maybe thats part of why I put the flag up, Coxwell said.

Gail White said she was heartbroken when she first arrived in downtown Rockport to assess the furniture business where she works. The windows of the building were blown in, the ceiling leaked water and started falling down, and the warehouse down the block that stores their mattresses collapsed completely. Mattresses were thrown blocks away.

I love this town, I love these people. Were going to comeback. I know we are. Were strong, we have heart, White said. We got to do what we got to do to bring it back.

A local auto repair shop also collapsed. One wall stood in the middle as one side of the building laid in ruin and the other was gone. But again, the owners found an American flag in the rubble and hung it on what appears to be the storefront, leaning against the pile of rubble.

Basically grew up and its never really changed. And now its just gone, said Taylor Webb, son of the owner.

Webb said the shop has been in the family for 16 years and they will definitely rebuild. He estimates it could take months for them to rebuild, and years for the area to come back.

Its definitely not easy. Its pretty emotional seeing all this hard work completely destroyed. Theres a few items left, Webb said.

Voluntary evacuations were ongoing Sunday as the National Guard, Texas Guard, federal, state and local law enforcement worked to keep the peace. According to a Texas State Trooper, 200 people were evacuated Saturday night to Austin and there were still lines of buses available for residents who still wanted to leave.

Evacuees were given water and food if needed, according to the trooper. There was also an EMS station available for medical care. National Guard troops were driving around in 10-ton trucks and Humvees to help residents who couldnt get out on their own. Theres a curfew from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
An Afghan official says two police officers, including a district police chief, have been killed when their convoy was attacked by militants in western Nimroz province.

Gen. Jialani Abubaker, provincial police chief in Nimroz, said Sunday that Abdul Hakim, Dilaram district police chief, and another district police officer were killed in an ambush.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban insurgents are active in the province, especially in the Dilaram district where the attack took place.

Abubaker said Hakim was returning to duty from the provincial capital Zaranj when he was killed.

Dilaram is a remote district about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from Zaranj.
A former member of Boko Haram has surrendered and spoken out about his involvement in the abduction of Chibok girls in an interview with PRNigeria.

Auwal Ismaeela told the website that he and another commander with the extremist group led other squads to abduct the Chibok girls.

Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls in Chibok, Nigeria, in April 2014 -- and though some of the girls have been released through talks with the government, approximately half continue to be held, the Premium Times reported.

SUSPECTED BOKO HARAM EXTREMISTS KILL 16 IN NORTH CAMEROON

Ismaeela also said that hed been part of an operation in 2014 where we killed some students and youths at the Central Secondary School in Sabon Garin Madagali.

It is unfortunate that I was brainwashed and misled not only on some abductions, but in the killings of my own people that were innocent, he said. I wholeheartedly regret my actions.

Ismaeela is working with authorities, saying in the interview, I will continue to cooperate with the security agencies in providing useful information on our mode of operations and to disclose top-secret hideouts of our commanders.
An attorney for the founder of a mystical, New Age version of Shiite Islam says an Iranian court has sentenced his client to death.

Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei tells The Associated Press that the court sentenced Mohammad Ali Taheri to death on charges of founding a cult.

The lawyer says he will appeal within 20 days.

In 2014 the 61-year-old Taheri was sentenced to death on similar charges but an appeals court later rejected the verdict. He has been in jail since 2011, when a court sentenced him to five years in prison for blasphemy.

In recent weeks, authorities reportedly detained dozens of his followers.

Taheri also has done research on alternative medicine. Iran's leaders see New Age beliefs as a threat to the principles of Islam.
A senior Lebanese official says bodies believed to be of soldiers kidnapped by Islamic State militants three years ago have been found buried near the border with Syria.

Abbas Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, says locating the bodies was part of a deal reached with the Islamic State group during a military offensive in the area that began last week. In exchange for locating the bodies of the soldiers kidnapped in 2014, the militants will be evacuated to eastern Syria.

Ibrahim said the operation Sunday to dig out the bodies of six soldiers is underway, and two more bodies are believed buried there. Ibrahim said the search for a ninth soldier continues. He said DNA tests will be carried out to determine the identity of the soldiers.

ISIS CLAIMS BRUSSELS KNIFE ATTACKER IS ONE OF THEIR OWN

Cease-fires were announced earlier Sunday to allow for the negotiations to continue.

The Central Military Media, an outlet run jointly by Hezbollah and the Syrian army, said the Sunday cease-fire will pave the way for a comprehensive agreement to end the fight against IS in the area.

The U.S-backed Lebanese military denies it is coordinating with the Syrian army. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Syrian forces since 2013.
Authorities on Sunday arrested a second man in London in connection with a terrorist incident near Buckingham Palace.

A man drove up to a police van and then reached for a 4-foot sword.

Three police officers were slightly injured Friday night as they confronted a 26-year-old man who approached a police van in a restricted area outside Queen Elizabeth II's London residence then reached for the sword in his car. The man, who repeatedly shouted "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great" in Arabic), was arrested on the scene.

Scotland Yard said a second suspect, a 30-year-old man, was detained Sunday in west London on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Officers were searching an address in the area as part of the probe.

LONDON POLICE ARREST MAN WITH FOUR-FOOT SWORD NEAR BUCKINGHAM PALACE

The force added that a warrant has been granted to detain the first suspect until Sept. 1.

Police had said Saturday they believed the man was acting alone and were not looking for other suspects.

Palace officials declined to comment. British media reported that no members of the royal family were in the palace in London at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Pope Francis is decrying persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and praying they receive "full rights."

The pontiff said Sunday there was "sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers."

Thousands of Rohingya are trying to flee into Bangladesh after escalated deadly violence at home. Last week, Rohingya militants attacked police and border outposts, and security forces responded.

Francis asked the faithful in St. Peter's Square to pray that God "saves them" and they receive help.

A Myanmar bishop recently said Francis will "most likely" visit Myanmar, while the Vatican has said only a pilgrimage is being considered.

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blasted the Rohingya militant attacks as a bid to undermine efforts to "build peace and harmony in Rakhine state."
The Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen says an airstrike that killed at least 14 civilians, including eight members of a single family, was the result of a "technical mistake."

Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said in a statement that Friday's bombing in the capital, Sanaa, was "accidental" and "unintentional."

He expressed "sincere sympathy" in his statement Sunday, and said the planned target of the airstrike was a "legitimate military objective" belonging to the Houthi rebels, who control the capital.

The bombing in the neighborhood of Fag Attan struck a three-story building occupied by at least three families. It came just days after at least 41 people died when aircraft bombed a small hotel in the town of Arhab, north of Sanaa.
The recent tragic events in Charlottesville bring to mind an incident that occurred in Culpeper exactly 50 years ago this week.

On Aug. 25, 1967, American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was assassinated at an Arlington laundromat by a former party member (John Patler) who had been expelled. Since Rockwell was an honorably discharged military veteran, party members were reluctantly granted permission to bury him in Culpeper National Cemetery.

That burial was supposed to take place at 11 a.m. on Aug. 30 and by 10 a.m. a crowd was beginning to gather on Stevens Street (near the old Merchants Grocery building) in anticipation of whatever excitement the event would attract.

Amid the throng of curiosity seekers were a number of World War II veterans who had fought Adolph Hitler and the Nazis a little more than two decades before.

Roy Legge, commander of American Legion Post 330, had issued a statement on Aug. 29 protesting the burial of a Nazi among those who had fought Nazism. We are violently opposed to the Rockwell burial in the National Cemetery, Legge was quoted as saying.

With a possible confrontation looming, President Lyndon Johnson sent Maj. Gen. Carl C. Turner, Americas top-ranking military policeman, and a small contingent of MPs to town.

Not only were they in Culpeper to thwart violence, but also to make sure one rule concerning the funeral was not violated. It was stipulated that no Nazi insignia would be allowed through the cemetery gates.

Among Rockwells mourners, of course, were party members with Nazi insignias. Even one array of flowers was shaped in the form on a swastika.

So as not to interfere with the funeral procession that made its way down Main Street about 10:30, Turner and his group arrived beforehand by helicopter, the craft landing somewhere on or near the cemetery grounds.

As the burial procession approached from the west on Stevens Street, Turner and his men came out from the cemetery entrance to meet them. When the MPs stopped the hearse, it was sitting squarely on the railroad tracks.

Less than a minute after the procession was halted in this precarious position, everyone involved in the tense situation heard the blaring horn of a Southern Railway freight train fast approaching from the north. For a few moments, it seemed that there might not be enough left of Rockwells body to bury, but at the last second, the driver of the hearse pulled forward.

After the train pulling about 100 cars passed, the funeral procession followed the hearse across the tracks. Here, however, everyone was stopped and told that the swastika rules would be enforced. A standoff had begun.

As word of the impasse spread, the crowd began to grow. TV, radio and newspaper reporters began to show up as a national news story started to develop.

The Nazis screamed Heil Hitler!, White Power! and other taunts in an attempt to provoke the crowd. The onlookers, however, just shook their heads in disgust.

One drunk, having no idea what was happening, staggered down the tracks, walked up to one of the Nazis and proclaimed, I truly admire you and all you stand for. Those who heard just laughed.

Among those in the burial contingent was a 19-year-old U. S. soldier from Mount Pleasant Mich., Pfc. James G. DeWitt. Stationed at Fort Gordon, Ga., he said he had been granted emergency leave in order to attend the funeral of my commander and a great and dear friend.

DeWitt was interviewed by the media until he was finally arrested and charged with being absent without leave.

For five hours, the standoff continued in 90-degree heat. Curiosity-seekers came and went and then came again. Some watched from the windows at Merchants Grocery while others climbed atop empty boxcars on a siding to get a good view.

The only attempt at violence occurred when a uniformed Nazi climbed onto the hood of the hearse, yelled something and then jumped forward in a symbolic charge. He didnt get five feet before the MPs grabbed him.

At 3:45 Gen. Turner pulled out his bullhorn and announced that the party was over. There was now not enough time to get Rockwell in the ground and covered up before 5 p.m., when the cemetery closed. Federal employees would not work overtime to bury a Nazi.

So, the hearse turned around and left, as did the onlookers, who went home to watch themselves on the 6 oclock News.

When asked by a WTOP (then Channel 9s call letters) reporter what she thought of the event, one Culpeper woman who appeared to be in her 60s replied, Its the biggest thing to hit Culpeper since the Civil War and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The next day, Rockwells ashes were cremated and reportedly sprinkled from the air onto Arlington National Cemetery, where he was initially denied burial.

Culpeper, meanwhile, had survived a Nazi event without violence.
Editors note: This story was originally published in the June 16, 2001, edition of Town & County magazine in The Free LanceStar.

Albert Crutchfield is remembered by many Fredericksburg-area residents as the former slave who was the last man sold from the auction and slave block at William and Charles streets. He is pictured on a postcard sold in the 1920s and 1930s to tourists.

He died Jan. 22, 1931, at his home on Winchester Street, probably from heart disease. He had lived alone since the deaths of his wife and son.

The well-known and respected man was born in slavery, the son of Mammy Judy Crutchfield, in Spotsylvania County. He was thought to have been born about 1850 and was linked with the Fredericksburg of the immediate post-Civil War days, according to the Jan. 22, 1931, Free LanceStar.

Albert Crutchfield belonged to the family of Anne Oliver. The Oliver home burned not long before the Civil War, according to the Jan. 24, 1931, newspaper, and Anne Oliver moved to Fredericksburg, taking an apartment just back of what was the Knoxanna Apartment house at Charles and William streets, just a stones throw from the slave block.

When Anne Oliver died, the Crutchfield family was supposedly freed by her will. However, the family was not freed because of a lawsuit against the estate, and the family was sold on the slave block. That sale took place in 1858.

According to Albert Crutchfield, his two older brothers, John and Lewis, were sold south and heard from only once after the sale.

The rest of the Crutchfield familyJudy, Albert, Douglass, Tom and Mariawere sold to Arthur Goodwin and remained with his family until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. After the Civil War, Judy Crutchfield was connected with the family of Judge John T. Goolrick.

For a number of years Albert Crutchfield worked for the late A.P. Rowe, the mayor of Fredericksburg.

Crutchfields funeral was conducted from the D.M. Kay funeral home on Charles Street, led by the Rev. B. H. Hester of Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church.

Interment was in the Shiloh Cemetery at Monument and Littlepage streets.

Both white and black friends of Crutchfield attended.

Ruth Coder Fitzgerald wrote A Different Story: A Black History of Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, Virginia. She died in 2013.
About seven Communications Corporation of America employees escaped Saturday night from an extremely large building fire in the Boston area of Culpeper County that officials said would probably not be fully extinguished for several more days.

According to Salem Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department Chief Mike Bailey, the multi-alarm blaze started around 11:30 p.m. Firefighters were still on scene Sunday morning, as smoke continued to billow from the 122,000-square-foot building.

He said the fire was so large that onlookers could see the smoke from neighboring Fauquier County. Bailey added that while he was not sure how the fire started, he was certain that no injuries occurred.

He said Sunday that the building will probably continue to smolder for four or five more days.

Bailey said more than 150 firefighters from nearby counties responded to the blaze, including all of Culpeper fire and rescue companies, Spotsylvania, Rappahannock, Fauquier, Madison and Prince William (Occoquan, Woodbridge, Lorton), which shared its fan system to help extinguish the blaze. Bailey added that Kenny Mills, chief of Culpeper County Volunteer Fire Department, shared a lead role in battling this fire.

Communication Corporation of America owner Steven Fisher of Culpeper established the printing facility, which has provided direct mail services since 1971.

While Steve Fisher was too distraught to talk on Sunday, his wife, Monica Fisher, verified that all employees got out of the building safely. She said her husband was devastated.

His main concern right now is the safety and future of his employees, she said. He is in a state of shock. Hes had the company for nearly 46 years.

Monica Fisher said her husband was recently in the process of remodeling the expansive building. She added that CCA employs more than 300 people.

According to the countys assessment records, the building was recently appraised at $2.87 million.
A fox was sent off to a state lab to be tested for rabies after it attacked a 3-year-old girl and a man before being shot dead by the girls father in Colonial Beach Friday night.

No one seemed to be seriously injured in the attacks, according to Colonial Beach Police Chief Danny Plott.

He said they got a call about the attack on Stratford Circle at 8 p.m.

Plott said officers believed the fox scratched the girl but did not bite her. He said her parents took her to be treated.

The girls mother posted on Facebook that her daughter was getting on her bike in the yard when the fox attacked. The girls father threw something at the fox and it scurried off. They then called 911.

The mother wrote that police, rescue workers and neighbors searched for the fox.

Chief Plott said the fox went after a 2-year-old boy near the first attack. The boys father was able to pick up the child. The fox then tried to bite the father. The chief said it appeared the fox was only able to clamp down on the mans pants before the man kicked the fox away.

The father of the girl in the first attack then used a handgun to shoot and kill the fox, the chief said.

You know somethings wrong if it keeps coming back, the chief said.

Plott couldnt recall any cases of rabid animals in Colonial Beach, but said they had to put down four or five raccoons last year because the animals appeared to be sick.

He said they expect to get results of the rabies test early this week.
People taking Jervis Hairstons black history tour of downtown Fredericksburg have been known to weep when he stops in front of the slave auction block and tells them that human beings were sold at that corner of William and Charles streets.

The tour, which he gives on request, talks about John Duncan, captain of the Othello, who landed at the riverfront in 1771 with a cargo of slaves he hoped to sell, and about how blacks were kept in slave pens along the riverfront until they were auctioned off at various places around town.

Hairston includes other struggles and accomplishments of the citys black community as well, but said that its the chipped, knee-high sandstone block with a step cut into one side that evokes the most sadness and pain of any of the stops on the tour.

Its the place where people are the quietest, said Hairston. You can hear a pin drop. They weep and they cry.

One woman in her 30s became so distraught that he never forgot her reaction, even though it happened about 15 or 20 years ago. He said that she was probably remembering what her parents and grandparents had gone through.

I felt guilty about telling her how families were separated forever, because there was likely no deference given to selling families intact, Hairston said. Especially if they saw that you had run away or been the cause of some problems, you could end up on a plantation in the South and never see your family again.

Over the years, there have been efforts to have this painful reminder of the past removed.

The latest can be traced to a candlelit prayer vigil Sunday evening that started at the auction block and included a prayer by the Rev. Hashmel Turner to have for God to heal our land and to lead city officials to remove the auction block, calling it an obstacle that brings remembrance of so much heartache, so much suffering and so much pain.

Three people asked City Council to consider removing it during the public comment portion of the councils meeting Tuesday, and a change.org petition calling for its immediate removal has gotten 2,462 signatures from across the country as of Friday, according to the website. The petition, in part says:

Today, the auction block serves only to represent oppression and racism. We, as a modern society, have had enough of this stone symbol of bigotry; let us have it removed from our beautiful downtown neighborhood. Display it in a museum if you wish, but this vile monument does not belong on a public streetcorner as a constant reminder of the hatred that once filled this town, state, and nation which we call our home.

A NEED TO FEEL SHOCK

Yet there are others who feel that the artifact should remain in its original context.

City Councilman Matt Kelly said at Tuesdays meeting that the auction block helps people understand what humans are capable of doing to other humans and instills in them the desire never to do that again.

We need to sometimes feel shock, pain and remorse to know how far weve come, what has been done, what has been sacrificed, he said.

Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw pointed out that the auction block serves as the start of a mini-history lesson in three city blocks.

Near the corner of William and Princess Anne Street is Jubilation, a sculpture celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was designed by a James Monroe High School graduate and sits next to the Fredericksburg Area Museum. The next block has signage about Fredericksburgs role in the Civil Rights movement and a sit-in at the lunch counter of the former Woolworths and two other national chains.

People who weighed in on informal poll on The Free LanceStars website, fredericksburg.com, were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the auction block where it is. In answer to the question, Should the slave auction block be moved to a museum? As of Friday afternoon, 425 readers had voted no; 137 had voted yes.

Hairston said that hes torn about what should be done.

Theres probably some benefit of having these types of places so that people can hear the story, understand the story and never repeat the story, but its just as important if you can remove pain and sadness by placing it in a museum, he said. I think you ought to do that as well. We can still tell the story and describe it in detail, but it evokes the most sadness and pain, and Ive seen it for 20 years.

City Councilman Chuck Frye Jr., who has deep roots in the community, has heard stories about the auction block from his parents and grandparents. He asked City Council at its meeting Tuesday if he, Greenlaw and City Manager Tim Baroody could meet to discuss the next steps about the publics concerns and report back at the Sept. 26 City Council meeting.

One good thing is we got a great group of council members, Hairston said. I think they are all about fairness, and that is a good thing. Its not a council that will not listen to every side and take it into consideration and come up with the right thing to do.

The Rev. Lawrence A. Davies, Fredericksburgs first black mayor, said that he cant remember how many times the issue of what to do about the auction block has come up. He said that he wanted to reserve comment until after hearing what others have to say whenever City Council holds a public forum on the issue.

I want to hear the different facets of the problem, he said. There may be some things people have considered that Im not privy to.

Charlyne JacksonFields, president of the Fredericksburg chapter of the NAACP, said that her organization is discussing the matter but hasnt taken a position on it yet.

HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY

John Hennessy, chief historian and chief on interpretation at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, has written extensively about the auction block in his Fredericksburg Remembered blog. Over the years, he and others have found nine documented sales of slaves in front of Planters Hotel between 1850 and 1862. The most vivid is a photograph of former slave George Washington Triplett, who is said to be the last slave sold on the block in 1862.

Hennessy said that after he moved to Fredericksburg in 1995, hed hear occasional rumblings from people who said that slaves werent auctioned off on the stone block.

I had assumed this was a modern manifestation of discomfort with an undeniably uncomfortable bit of historyhistory that seemed to me based on a solid documentary and oral history of the block as a site of slave auctions, he wrote in his Fredericksburg Remembered. I have come to discover, though, that not only has the history of the block been disputed in Fredericksburg for nearly a century, but at times the wisdom of its continued existence has been questioned.

In 1924, the local Chamber of Commerce petitioned City Council to remove the auction block, according to his research. It said that it had been used by ladies as a base for mounting horses, and that telling tourists that it was a place where slaves were sold may serve somewhat to keep alive the sectional feeling which has long ago since disappeared.

A few days later, Confederate veteran and local historian John Tackett Goolrick threw his support behind the chambers request, saying claims that the block was used as a slave block were flagrantly false, and that the stone be should be broken up and carried away, Hennessy wrote in his blog.

That prompted local auctioneer N.B. Kinsey, whose shop was almost directly across the street from the auction block, to march into the offices of the Fredericksburg Daily Star a few days later armed with a newspaper clipping of an ad for the sale of slaves in front of the Planters Hotel. That building, which today houses Olde Towne Butcher, is next to the auction block and is said to have had a holding pen for slaves who were to be auctioned.

The ad, which Hennessy wrote most likely ran in the Christian Banner, was dated Oct. 14, 1857, and said seven young and valuable slaves would be sold for the high dollar by Thos. B. Barton and John M. Herndon, commissioners.

Kinseys counter-assault apparently had the desired effect, Hennessy wrote. Council never acted on the demand by Goolrick and the Chamber of Commerce that the stone block be broken up and hauled away. The matter vanished from public notice.

As for this latest push to remove the auction block, Hennessy said that the community should decide its future.

A VISCERAL CONNECTION

Time has not always been kind to the controversial piece of sandstone. It bears scars where its been backed into by trucks and hacked by vandals. In 1984, thieves pried off its bronze marker, which opened up debate over its history once again.

Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc. agreed to replace the citys marker with added text. Barbara Willis, then head of the foundations History and Research Committee, said that the block had served as a carriage-mounting block for the old Planters Hotel, and that many things besides slaves had been auctioned at that corner. The replacement plaque identifies the stone block as Fredericksburgs Principal Auction Site in Pre-Civil War Days for Slaves and Property.

Scott Walker, the current president of HFFIs board of directors and owner of Hallowed Ground Tours, said that he uses the auction block as a teachable moment when hes giving his companys Bricks and Boards in the Burg tours. He tells them that slaves were sold on that corner, and then takes them to see the Jubilation statue to talk about Emancipation and to the historic Renwick Building because it was once the site of the local Freedmens Bureau.

The reaction he gets to the auction block depends largely on where people in the group are from. Those from the Midwest and California are generally amazed, probably because slavery isnt talked about much there, he said.

It does generate discussion, Walker said. People say, Youre kidding me. Here? Our downtown is so beautifuland then theres that. Thats a harsh reality.

He said that he knows the community has to have a discussion about the auction block, but hes not in favor of removing it.

Its my background, he said. I use it as a teaching tool.

Timothy P. Konhaus, a history professor and dual enrollment coordinator at Germanna Community College, said that while some people find it too painful to even walk past the auction block, others want to touch it to make a visceral connection to their ancestors. Its one reason why they visit the slave processing centers at Isle de Gore in Senegal or Elmina Castle in Ghana, where they can walk in the footsteps of those Africans kidnapped and shipped to the Americas.

They draw literally thousands. Theyre going because they want to have that connection, he said. I have to see this. I have to feel this. I have to know. I dont know that I would ever want to take that away, but for others its very hurtful and we tend to overlook that all too often.

Konhaus said that if the slave auction block is moved, the community will still need to have a conversation about slavery.

Its a difficult conversation to have, he said.

The auction block plaque is one of about 300 monuments, plaques and other historical markers in the city. A little more than half interpret the Battle of Fredericksburg or memorialize Union or Confederate soldiers, according to the findings of Stephen Hanna.

The University of Mary Washington geography professor worked with two UMW students to map, photograph and transcribe them to create a database. Whats largely missing, he said, are mentions of slavery, a prime cause of the war, and emancipation, which was one of its results.

Hanna and Fariss Hodder found only 16 that mentioned slavery or named any enslaved individuals in 2014, but the professor and Eli McCleary found 20 new historical markers and context changes on 24 existing markers when they were updating the database last year. At least four made reference to slavery or emancipation.

White Americans need a reminder of this history, Hanna said. We cant ask black Americans to suffer because we dont remember. Thats why, if AfricanAmerican residents feel united that theres no way they can see the auction block continue as a hurtful marginalization, then I cant ask them to keep it.

He said whats needed is a way to strike a balance between the feelings of those who are hurt the most by the auction block and the need to help people remember this part of history. An interpretive sign placed at the site, for example, could include the ads offering slaves for sale so people can understand how it was a part of Fredericksburgs history and economy, as well as oral history of those who were sold there.

The city and the Fredericksburg Economic Development Authority have made an effort to include more of the black communitys history in the 50- plus interpretive panels around the city. They partnered in 2015 to redo some of the old interpretive panels to give a more balanced presentation of the citys history. There are now 15 panels that include the African American experience, compared with five in the past.

Mike Middleton, a co-owner of the former Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen, said that hed like to see more signs about the auction block. Its next to the space where Poppy Hill was located, and he said that he probably talked to 200 people about it over the years.

Ive never had anybody say it was a celebration of slavery. To me, its a marker showing mans inhumanity to man, he said. This is markedly different from a statue to a general. Its a place where despicable actions happened.
Theres no such thing as a vacation.

Not for you, anyway. You cant escape work: even when youre off the clock, youre on the job, thinking about projects, heading off problems, solving conundrums or, in the new book Sulfur Springs by William Kent Krueger, solving crimes.

Bad news usually starts with a phone call, as every parent knows, but the call that came to the home of retired Tamarack County Sheriff Cork OConnor was different  the look on Corks new wife, Rainys, face was clear about that. Shed received a message from her son, Peter, and though it was staticky and near-unintelligible, two words were plain: Rodriguez and killed.

Alarmed at the message and the fact that Peter wasnt answering his phone, Rainy and Cork rushed to Arizona , near the Mexican border where, years before, Peter had spent three months in a tony Arizona rehab center. Once hed finished treatment, Peter stuck around, got a job, and had been living in the area for some time but, after inquiring, Cork discovered that no one claimed to know a Peter Bisonette. Peters photo and his physical description drew faux-blank looks, but the local Border patrol seemed intent on following Cork and Rainy in their search for him

When Cork began to hear whispers of danger attached to his stepsons name, and the remote starter on their rental Jeep turned the vehicle into a fireball, he and Rainy knew the whispers were true.

Peter, it appeared, had his mothers soft heart and had become a Desert Angel for illegal immigrants. His presence, therefore and for many reasons, was unwelcome in Sulfur Springs, and finding him (or his body) meant going deep into the desert. The unforgiving Arizona terrain was nothing like back home in Minnesota . The people in Sulfur Springs were equally unyielding, but Cork couldnt find Peter without help.

The question was: who could he trust?

Sulfur Springs may seem like something different  and it is, mostly.

As a Cork OConnor Mystery, it maintains the aura of Minnesota Nice, 10,000 Lakes, and lush green forests that other novels in this series have. Admittedly, its premise is an otherwise bland-tasting blue-plate special of plot line (illegal immigration and drug smuggling) but heres the deliciousness: its served with a side dish of sand, cactus and nail-biting thriller.

That last part will make fans take notice: the homegrown crook youve come to expect is gone, replaced by a bigger, wider web of worse. Furthermore, author William Kent Kruegers signature character, a widower for many years, is now married and readers arent entirely led to embrace his new wife; she has a dark past that hints of something untold. Even Cork himself has changed with the wedding: hes edgier and angrier. Harder, even. Everyone feels subtly, urgently, not-quite-comfortable here, and the mood is as prickly as an Arizona cactus because of it.

That leads to a book thats noose-taut and totally un-let-go-able, a cant-miss for fans and a new obsession for new readers. Skip Sulfur Springs? Theres no such thing.
Its all about the smiles, Deb Buenaga told the crowd of about two dozen, many wearing fluorescent pink Ainsleys Angels T-shirts, gathered in front of the Lucky Road Run Shop in Eagle Village shopping center Saturday afternoon.

Buenaga and her husband, Steve, then proved it with a pair of surprise giveaways.

First, Steve Buenaga rolled a blue, three-wheeled adaptive bike to Esther Mullins, a pig-tailed 6-year-old King George County girl who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

She sat in her wheelchair, stunned for a moment. Then Esther realized the brand new bike was hers and she tilted her head to the side, her mouth curling into a broad smile as the group cheered.

Esther was quickly strapped into the bike and ready to roll. Her mother, Cindy, and 9-year-old sister, Anna, then pushed her along the storefront sidewalk, Esthers tiny legs pedaling away.

A moment later Steve Buenaga rolled out a green recumbent three-wheeled bike with hand pedals.

And Michele Tritt, a King George resident and local ambassador for Ainsleys Angels, looked to her friend standing next to her and told Constantin Langa the bike was his.

Langa, who has a disease that causes neurological and muscle problems along with other ailments, stood motionless. His eyes then quivered and teared up and he smiled as they set up the bike so he could climb aboard.

The 34-year-old King George resident moved slowly to the bike, got in and was soon pedaling it with his arms in the opposite direction of Esther.

Those are the moments that drive the Buenaga and Tritt families, who both give their time to nonprofits that offer adaptive bicycles and push-chairs (three-wheeled chairs used for races) to the disabled.

Michele Tritt got involved with Ainsleys Angels after pushing Esther in a race a little more than a year ago.

She eventually contacted Kim Rooster Rossiter. The Virginia Beach area man and with his wife, Lori, started Ainsleys Angels of America for their daughter, Ainsley, who had infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, a rare terminal illness, according to their website. Ainsley died in 2016, but not before she had competed with her family in more than 100 races in which runners push disabled riders. This inspired her parents to start donating three-wheeled push-chairs nationwide.

Michele Tritt, who is a preschool speech pathologist in King George, told Kim Rossiter she wanted to do what he did. He said he would give her three of the push-chairs if she would start a Fredericksburg-area chapter of Ainsleys Angels. So she did.

She and her husband now have eight push-chairs, which they haul around to races in a trailer.

For Saturdays donations, the Tritts hooked up with the Buenagas, who started Prestons March for Energy for their son, Preston, who has mitochondrial disease, which affects the muscles and causes developmental delays.

A family friend raised $2,300 so Preston could get an adaptive bike, which he rode for the first time in 2011.

Deb and Steve Buenaga had $100 left from the fundraiser and started their nonprofit so they could give other children bikes like their sons.

They donated both bikes on Saturday. The couple, Preston and their pitbull-bulldog mix, also named Esther, drove three and a half hours from their home in Pennsylvania to hand deliver the bikes. Thats what theyve done with the other 216 adaptive bikes the couple has donated.

Deb Buenaga said theyve put 32,000 miles on their van in the past year. This coming week, they will deliver more bikes in New Hampshire, followed by a trek to New York the following week.

We want to pay it forward, Deb Buenaga said.

After about a half hour of pushing her daughter around, Cindy Mullins looked a little worn down. But she was still all smiles, like her daughter.

We are very thankful, she said during a brief respite, adding that the bike will help with therapy. Shes wanted a bike for a long time.

The same could be said for Constantin Langa.

For the past year, he has tried time and again to get an adaptive bike for himself, but struck out each time.

Michele Tritt said he is a brilliant man and that he has been instrumental in helping Ainsleys Angels by writing grants. So they wanted to do something for him.

On Saturday, his wife, Nichole, stood next to him as he sat in his new bike admiring it with others. Their 7-year-old son, Traian, was chomping at the bit to get out his bike so he could ride with his dad.

Youre gonna roll in this thing, Nichole said to her husband.

Turning to Michele Tritt, she told her how good the bike will be for him. Before his illness hit, she said they used to run and hike together all the time. Now hell be able to get out and be active again.

Asked what finally getting a bike meant to him, Constantin Langa used an iPhone to type out a response.

Getting outdoors and enjoying family time.
The impassioned debate over honoring Confederate leaders may sound familiar to some longtime Spotsylvania County residents.

A similar argument over Robert E. Lee Elementary Schools namesake took place in the county nearly three decades ago.

That discussion between parents, which a February 1990 Free LanceStar article described as frank and often angry, was remarkably similar to current disputes over symbols honoring the Old South. The newspaper headline stated: Use of Lee as mascot cited for insensitivity.

At the time, some parents of black students said a proposed mascota cartoon generalstood for slavery. Youre asking the descendants of former slaves to accept a symbol that represented a struggle to keep them enslaved, Lee Broughton, then a PTA member, was quoted as saying. Broughton, who later became a School Board member, and the two other black parents quoted in the article, have since died.

PTA leaders defended the proposed mascot, which they hoped to print on T-shirts and shorts for students. They argued that Lee fought out of loyalty to his native Virginia, not for slavery.

Sandy Link, then the schools PTA president, said the mascot simply depicted a general, though she did acknowledge the soldier had a CSA, or Confederate States of America, belt buckle in an earlier version of the drawing. CSA was later replaced with a star.

I see nothing offensive about that picture, Link said, according to the FLS article. This is the South, this is part of history. We should remember it, but we dont have to relive it.

The PTA apparently dumped the mascot, but the school is still named after the Civil Wars most famous Confederate general, who earned much of his fame for battles in and around Spotsylvania.

The country continues to grapple with the same issue. Outrage over this months rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville has put Confederate symbols, including schools named after leaders from the Old South, back in the spotlight.

But Spotsylvanias Robert E. Lee Elementary School, which was built in the early 1950s near the site of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, appears to have mostly escaped scrutiny since that heated debate 27 years ago. It is among 109 schools nationwide named after Confederate figures, according to a 2016 study from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Nearly 70 percent of the schools 513 students last year were white and about 13 percent were black, according to the state Department of Education. The states other Robert E. Lee Elementary School, where 84 percent of the students are black, is in Petersburg.

More than a dozen Virginia schools are named for Confederate generals, but that number could drop.

Last month, the Fairfax County School Board voted to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School, which is named after a Confederate general. More than 70 percent of the schools students are Hispanic, black, Asian or multiracial, while 22 percent are white. School officials have not considered renaming Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield.

In addition, a Prince William County School Board member is raising money to rebrand two schools named after Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

Similar changes have not been proposed in Spotsylvania this year.

Nobody from the public or the Spotsylvania School Board brought up Robert E. Lee Elementary School at a meeting Aug. 14, just two days after the Charlottesville rally. School Board Chairwoman Erin Grampp, whose Berkeley District includes the school, said she had received no feedback from the community as of Thursday.

Asked about her position on the name, she replied in an email: My job is to represent my voters and their wishes. At this point, with no one reaching out, I assume it is not an issue for my community.

Shawn Davis, president of the Spotsylvania branch of the NAACP, also has not heard any concerns, though that does not mean they dont exist, he said. The local NAACP does not meet until next month.

Asked about his position on the schools name, Davis stressed that he was speaking for himself, not on behalf of the NAACP.

To me, its a name thats on a building, but thats Shawns opinion, he said.

Someone did create an online petition at least two years ago asking that Robert E. Lee Elementarys name be changed. That was around the time that a white supremacist killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Just five people signed the petition.

If the schools name were changed, which appears unlikely in the near future, it could not be named after another person under School Board policy. That policy says school names can include places or events of historical significancebut not individuals.

Robert E. Lee Elementarys website does not include a mascot, but the PTAs site pictures a drawing of a galloping horse with the text: Robert E. Lee Mustangs. Lee rode a horse named Traveller that has become part of the generals lore.

Laura Armentrout, Robert E. Lees PTA president, said the schools name always comes up when she orders spirit wear. Are they going to change the name? a person taking the order will inevitably ask.

I just say, Well, we havent heard anything. So not yet, Armentrout said.

She said none of the parents shes talked with have expressed concerns. A picture of Robert E. Lee hangs in the schools lobby, she said, though many students do not know the history behind the name.

But the 65-year-old school will eventually be rebuiltand perhaps rebranded, Armentrout said. I kind of feel like that school is so old, its going to go away, and when they build a new elementary school, its not going to be Robert E. Lee, she said.
Culture guided views on slavery in the 1800s

My paternal ancestor arrived in Philadelphia from Germany in the 1740s. In the 1760s, he and his family followed the well-worn German path to North Carolina, where land was cheaper. His son, George, served five tours of duty in the Revolution.

Georges sons later went to Georgia and Alabama, while his brothers children went to Illinois. Some of those who went south embraced the practice of the times of having slaves to help work the land, while those who went north did not. Same family, different environments, cultures and practices.

Georges grandson served in a Georgia cavalry unit, while all his brothers and cousins of military age served with either Georgia or Alabama units.

My family history is the history of the United States. It is also the history of much of the American population living today. While slavery was an evil institution over which Americans argued since the founding, it was what is was. The war ended it once and for all.

I make no apologies for my ancestors and hold their military service as well as their leaders in high esteem, even if the overall cause they were fighting for was wrong. I also make no apology to the people of our age 150 years later. I personally treat people of all colors and creeds according to their qualities as people. If they are patriots and adhere to the values our society holds dear, then I respect them. If not, I dont, regardless of color or origin or anything else.

People who continue to use slavery and the war as leverage for personal or political gain do not have my respect. Nor do activists for whom The Confederacy is a cover for general anarchy, which is the case today.

Paul S. Cariker Spotsylvania
Autumn is quickly approaching, and in many areas, the water clears up in the fall. This is due to several things within the ecosystem, but the reality is, autumn waters can be clearer, and that will affect how we the fish react. And how the fish react should have an impact on how we react to our fishing presentations.

Ive got a trip planned to visit Sturgeon Bay of Door County in Wisconsin this fall. In planning for this trip, I refer back to a trip I made there in the fall a couple of years ago.

Door County is a peninsula north of Green Bay in extreme eastern Wisconsin and is known for its ultra-clear water: When ice-fishing you can see bottom in almost 50 feet of water. Thats clear stuff, and it requires special fishing considerations if you want to be successful.

On this particular trip we started out fishing for walleyes. Much of the time we think of walleyes to be bottom-hugging fish, and in many bodies of water they are. But walleyes are hungry in the summer and fall, so theyll be wherever the baitfish are.

Around Door County, the baitfish suspend, and the walleyes do the same. At times theyll be just a few feet below the surface. On this day on the water, we employed a trolling presentation thats very refined and that enabled us to keep our spinner rigs where the walleyes were.

We used planer boards with Off Shore snap-weights. We set out three lines on each side of the boat. The outside lines had the lightest weights, so those rigs were running closest to the surface. The lines closest to the boat had the heaviest weight. This meant that the lines closest to the boat were running the deepest.

We were covering three different depths on each side of the boat. In this exceptionally clear water, most of the walleyes bit on the line farthest away from the boat. We were using Off Shore in-line planer boards with Tattle flags, so the boards were easy to read even when they were a good distance from the boat. By employing this technique, we caught good numbers of walleyes, and some big ones.

Later in the day we got after smallmouth bass. They were in four to six feet of water. We saw several swimming near the boat, but they wouldnt eat our bait. We started making long casts and started catching smallmouth, nice ones, very regularly. They wouldnt eat our baits when they were close to the boat, but if they saw it when it was a good distance away from the boat, they ate it willingly.

Many of the biggest bass bit as soon as the bait hit the water at the end of a very long cast. This is when a no-stretch line like P-Line XTCB Braid can be a huge benefit. You get much better hooksets when the line doesnt stretch. Some anglers like to tie a fluorocarbon leader to the braid. They believe this makes the presentation more appealing to the fish, as the fluorocarbon attached to your lure is less visible than the braid. Tie a two foot leader of eight pound test Tactical Fluorocarbon to your braid and see if the strikes increase.

You can catch lots of fish, and big fish, in clear water if you employ techniques that minimize the effects of the clear water. Fish have to eat regardless of water color. Keep the above ideas in mind and youll catch more fish when the water is clear.
UK exports of beef, lamb and pork broke the 500m mark in the first six months of 2017, an 18% rise year-on-year.

HMRC figures show there has also been a 21% increase in offal exports, taking the total value of shipments from the three sectors to 582m.

Exports to non-EU countries also rose, with the Asian markets continuing to offer exciting opportunities for beef, lamb and pork, says AHDB.

See also: China: How the UKs food can appeal to consumers

Lamb has been a star performer, with total export volumes to both European Union and non-EU countries up 18% and valued at 178m. Exports of sheep meat to non-EU countries have doubled in 2017 so far.

In the first half of the year, beef exports to countries outside of Europe are up 45% year-on-year to almost 8,000 tonnes, while their value has risen 62% to 23.5m.

Against a background of relatively tight UK supplies, third-country pork exports rose by almost 4% in volume to 41,000 tonnes. More than half of this went to China where there has been a 6% rise in exports in the first half of the year, worth 24m.

These latest figures paint a positive picture for the meat export industry, said Jean-Pierre Garnier, AHDBs head of exports.

It is very encouraging to see an increase in exports to non-EU countries and a strong progression in value as this is an important area for our meat exports with the challenge of Brexit.

AHDB recognises the importance of developing balanced international trade that does not rely solely on the EU, but we also cannot underestimate the importance of Europe as two-thirds of our meat exports are still destined for the EU.

However, we understand the challenges that our meat industry faces and we must look at new exports deals and continue to work towards securing access to third countries.

Key target markets such as Hong Kong and China have led the growth of exports to non-EU countries this year  with the latest data showing a four-fold increase in chilled beef exports to Hong Kong as well as a 91% rise in chilled lamb.

Non-EU exports are expected to rise even further following the recent announcement of a trade deal for pork access to China and access for UK beef to the Philippines.
The field appears to have settled on seven Democrats seeking to become the partys nominee for Iowa governor in 2018.

And those seven Democratic candidates are honing their message to voters nine months out from the party's primary.

Each appeared in Des Moines this week at a meeting of one of the states largest union groups, the Independent Federation of Labor. The candidates were asked topical questions, but also had the opportunity to give opening and closing comments. It was during those 3-minute windows that candidates were free to make their pitch to a group of voters who are likely to be motivated and mobilized in 2018.

Obviously issues central to organized labor were prominent in the discussion. It should surprise no one that the new collective bargaining law  passed by the Republican-led Iowa Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Terry Branstad  was addressed (and opposed, of course) by all seven Democratic candidates.

But the candidates also used their time to make their cases more generally.

John Norris and Andy McGuire, for example, talked about the need for Democrats to recoup voters lost in rural portions of the state. Thats an issue Democrats are talking about across the Midwest, and its a critical issue for Iowa Democrats if they are to win a statewide race for governor in 2018.

McGuire said while traveling across the state as chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, she observed that many people feel left behind. And Norris touted his farm roots.

I am from rural Iowa, said Norris, who was raised on his family farm in Montgomery County. I understand rural Iowa. I am passionate about it.

Fred Hubbell pitched himself, as he has throughout his campaign, as the candidate with rich experience in both the public and private sectors. Hubbell was chairman of Younkers and president of Equitable of Iowa, and also served on state boards overseeing economic development and renewable energy.

Like many other candidates, he criticized the incentive package  a combination of state and local incentives  awarded to Apple for the new data center it plans to build in suburban Des Moines. Hubbell said he could have negotiated a better deal for the state.

I have training and experience to do that, he said.

Cathy Glasson has carved out her niche in the field as the bold, progressive candidate. She uses the phrase often on the stump and did so again this week when speaking to the labor group.

Nate Boulton was on quasi-home turf in addressing the labor group. Boulton, who has been endorsed by 23 labor organizations across the state, received a standing ovation when he was introduced. So naturally the bulk of Boultons comments were on labor-related issues.

If all seven Democrats remain in the field, each candidates message will be critical to help himself or herself separate from the crowd. Already voters can get a sense of the lanes the candidates are picking to travel the primary trail.

Reynolds, Boulton win straw poll

Kim Reynolds and Nate Boulton were the most popular choices among those who cast votes  and kernels  at the Iowa State Fair.

Reynolds, the successor incumbent Republican governor, and Boulton, a Democratic state senator, garnered the most votes in a pair of straw polls conducted throughout the State Fair: by the Iowa Secretary of State office and by Des Moines TV station WHO-TV.

In the Secretary of States poll, which was also available online, Reynolds got 77 percent of the votes cast for Republican candidates. Cedar Rapids mayor Ron Corbett was a distant second at 12 percent.

Boulton got 38 percent of the votes in the Democratic field. Fred Hubbell was second with 17 percent.

At WHO-TVs Cast Your Kernel booth, voters placed a corn kernel into jars labeled with the candidate they support. The field was not separated by party.

Reynolds received the most kernels, snaring 51 percent of the overall vote. Boulton was second, and tops among Democrats, with 22 percent.

No other candidate reached 10 percent.

This all means, of course, absolutely nothing. But its a fun Iowa State Fair tradition.

Although, for what its worth, the winners of the 2015 Cast Your Kernel polls were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
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.
bohlah at 26-08-2017 11:30 AM (5 years ago) (m)

The Ex-Husband of Angela Nwachukwu 

The Ex-Husband of Angela Nwachukwu  the 72-year-old British gran who spent 20,000 trying to get a visa for her 27-year-old Nigerian husband  expressed concerns that she was being scammed.

Donald Neate, 71, described the grandmother-of-six as gullible as she continues to fight for her husband  who is 45 years her junior  to be allowed into the country.



Anglea, from Dorset, has been married for three months after her now-husband CJ added her on Facebook and messaged her to compliment her on her profile picture.



Donald, who separated from Angela 18 years ago, told the Daily Mail: The first time I knew about it was when I read the papers. She has been scammed by a man who just wants to get into the country.



He also expressed concern that she would have to deal with the consequences of her actions.



Angela insists CJ is her soulmate, and since they married has spent 20,000 visiting him and trying to get him into the UK.



The gran of six was devastated when CJ was denied a visa  but says their marriage is solid despite the 4,000 miles between them.



Angela, a retired taxi driver, told The Sun: CJ is the most caring man any woman could want to be with.

He makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I know in my heart we belong together and we wont stop fighting until we can be together as husband and wife. We wont let this break us.

After the wedding, I found it hard leaving CJ. I knew Id see him again soon but my family visa application was rejected.

I was so determined to get him a visa I hired lawyers to fight for us. Ive since visited him twice.

Weve spent a combined 20,000 trying to see each other. Ive used my savings and he has gradually paid me back half.

Donald was Angelas first husband but she has since had a second marriage that lasted 16 years, and was then single for six months before she was contacted out of the blue by CJ.



But shes not the only one to have encountered turmoil in her relationship.



This woman from Bournemouth fell in love and spent 20k on wedding and fees to be with Lamin, 44, from The Gambia only to be left as soon as he got to the UK.



And last year we revealed migrants are targeting needy pregnant women for sham marriages to get a UK visa.



























Donald Neate, 71, described the grandmother-of-six as gullible as she continues to fight for her husband  who is 45 years her junior  to be allowed into the country.Anglea, from Dorset, has been married for three months after her now-husband CJ added her on Facebook and messaged her to compliment her on her profile picture.Donald, who separated from Angela 18 years ago, told the Daily Mail: The first time I knew about it was when I read the papers. She has been scammed by a man who just wants to get into the country.He also expressed concern that she would have to deal with the consequences of her actions.Angela insists CJ is her soulmate, and since they married has spent 20,000 visiting him and trying to get him into the UK.The gran of six was devastated when CJ was denied a visa  but says their marriage is solid despite the 4,000 miles between them.Angela, a retired taxi driver, told The Sun: CJ is the most caring man any woman could want to be with.He makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I know in my heart we belong together and we wont stop fighting until we can be together as husband and wife. We wont let this break us.After the wedding, I found it hard leaving CJ. I knew Id see him again soon but my family visa application was rejected.I was so determined to get him a visa I hired lawyers to fight for us. Ive since visited him twice.Weve spent a combined 20,000 trying to see each other. Ive used my savings and he has gradually paid me back half.Donald was Angelas first husband but she has since had a second marriage that lasted 16 years, and was then single for six months before she was contacted out of the blue by CJ.But shes not the only one to have encountered turmoil in her relationship.This woman from Bournemouth fell in love and spent 20k on wedding and fees to be with Lamin, 44, from The Gambia only to be left as soon as he got to the UK.And last year we revealed migrants are targeting needy pregnant women for sham marriages to get a UK visa.

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 26-08-2017 11:30 AM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero
nametalkam at 27-08-2017 11:30 AM (5 years ago) (m)

It is no longer news that the Ooni of Ife, HRM Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusis marriage to beautiful Wuraola Zaynab Otiti (nee O) has hit the rocks, less than two years after it was contracted in an elaborate ceremony.

It is no longer news that the Ooni of Ife, HRM Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusis marriage to beautiful Wuraola Zaynab Otiti (nee O) has hit the rocks, less than two years after it was contracted in an elaborate ceremony.

Since the news of the crash broke, many have hurled accusations bordering on infidelity on Olori Wuraola and also called her unprintable names.



However, a close source to the estranged couple has revealed the real reason Olori Wuraola voluntarily packed out of the palace, otherwise known as the House of Oduduwa.



The source disclosed to Spy Glass that Olori Wuraola had been victimised by some of Oonis family members due largely to the fact that she is not Yoruba and because they wanted to turn her to their slave.



She, according to the source, however, bore the pains silently because she not only loves her husband but respects the institution of marriage.



Contrary to the insinuations that she couldnt stand the sight of another woman sharing the bed with her husband, the source said, Olori Wuraola is aware of the Yoruba tradition that a king is allowed to marry more than one wife. It was part of the orientation she was given before marriage. However, the plot to bring her person down and relegate her in her marriage is what she cant stand. 



The source, who was quick to also dismiss the allegation of infidelity against the Olori, said, The Yoruba cosmology and belief state that when a king is married to an Olori, nobody else dares sleep with the Olori. Death is the repercussion. If Olori is truly promiscuous, why is she still alive or why is it that none of the men who had allegedly slept with her has died?



Its widely known that before Adeyeye married this Olori he has chased away two women in his life. This shows that the problem is not from Olori Wuraola, but from the Kabiyesi himself.



Faced by this development, she immediately moved to Lagos recently, while planning to relocate to Abuja to start a new life soon.



Speaking further, the source said Wuraola had all the while been suffering in silence. She was said to have been abandoned most of the time by the King. In fact, she never enjoyed the marriage for a day, she kept wondering what actually led her into the marriage in the first instance. It was that terrible



Olori Wuraola, who was described as a millionaire and a successful businesswoman before she got married to the first-class monarch, was said to have supported the Oba in so many ways.



It was learnt that the Oonis three sisters were the architects of the disaffection the Ooni had for Olori Wuraola.



The sisters- Princesses Folashade, Adeshola and Adebimpe had allegedly encouraged their brother to take another wife.



The three sisters have never liked the beautiful Benin born from the very first day she set her feet in the palace. And they didnt pretend, they showed it to her. But she didnt get the signal, the source revealed.



It was reliably gathered that none of the Oonis sisters had been in any blissful marriage. Princess Folashade is married to an American returnee, who has a wife and kids in the United States. Princess Adeshola broke up with her Pastor husband for un-publishable reasons. Adebimpe, at 40, also left her husband, Dawudu, who still works in the Oonis palace, said the source.



The three sisters known as Yeye 1,2,3 according to our source rely on their brother, the monarch for survival. Since the news of the crash broke, many have hurled accusations bordering on infidelity on Olori Wuraola and also called her unprintable names.However, a close source to the estranged couple has revealed the real reason Olori Wuraola voluntarily packed out of the palace, otherwise known as the House of Oduduwa.The source disclosed to Spy Glass that Olori Wuraola had been victimised by some of Oonis family members due largely to the fact that she is not Yoruba and because they wanted to turn her to their slave.She, according to the source, however, bore the pains silently because she not only loves her husband but respects the institution of marriage.Contrary to the insinuations that she couldnt stand the sight of another woman sharing the bed with her husband, the source said, Olori Wuraola is aware of the Yoruba tradition that a king is allowed to marry more than one wife. It was part of the orientation she was given before marriage. However, the plot to bring her person down and relegate her in her marriage is what she cant stand. The source, who was quick to also dismiss the allegation of infidelity against the Olori, said, The Yoruba cosmology and belief state that when a king is married to an Olori, nobody else dares sleep with the Olori. Death is the repercussion. If Olori is truly promiscuous, why is she still alive or why is it that none of the men who had allegedly slept with her has died?Its widely known that before Adeyeye married this Olori he has chased away two women in his life. This shows that the problem is not from Olori Wuraola, but from the Kabiyesi himself.Faced by this development, she immediately moved to Lagos recently, while planning to relocate to Abuja to start a new life soon.Speaking further, the source said Wuraola had all the while been suffering in silence. She was said to have been abandoned most of the time by the King. In fact, she never enjoyed the marriage for a day, she kept wondering what actually led her into the marriage in the first instance. It was that terribleOlori Wuraola, who was described as a millionaire and a successful businesswoman before she got married to the first-class monarch, was said to have supported the Oba in so many ways.It was learnt that the Oonis three sisters were the architects of the disaffection the Ooni had for Olori Wuraola.The sisters- Princesses Folashade, Adeshola and Adebimpe had allegedly encouraged their brother to take another wife.The three sisters have never liked the beautiful Benin born from the very first day she set her feet in the palace. And they didnt pretend, they showed it to her. But she didnt get the signal, the source revealed.It was reliably gathered that none of the Oonis sisters had been in any blissful marriage. Princess Folashade is married to an American returnee, who has a wife and kids in the United States. Princess Adeshola broke up with her Pastor husband for un-publishable reasons. Adebimpe, at 40, also left her husband, Dawudu, who still works in the Oonis palace, said the source.The three sisters known as Yeye 1,2,3 according to our source rely on their brother, the monarch for survival.

Post Reply I specialize in investigative reportage across several subject matter and sectors but mainly focus on metro events and investigation. Do leave your thoughts and opinion on my reports to let me know what you think about them. Thank you Posted: at 27-08-2017 11:30 AM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero
When Gov. Terry McAuliffe addressed the General Assemblys money committees last week to give them an early preview of where the administration is heading in the crafting of the new biennial budget to be unveiled later this year, he had good news and he had bad news.

But underlying it all is fiscal uncertainty.

The good news, he told the Senate Finance Committee and the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee, is that the states revenue streams are in good condition with the budget on track to end up with a surplus. Most of the surplus, $136 million in all, will be devoted to the states Rainy Day Fund and a new special cash reserve fund. Both McAuliffe and Republican leaders of the Assembly support the idea, in a rare display of bipartisanship in Richmond.

Also, the states main source of revenue  income tax withheld from payrolls grew at a rather strong rate of 5.2 percent, compared to a forecasted annual rate of 3.6 percent. That resulted in an addition $215 million in tax revenue in the last fiscal year.

Now, the bad news.

That relatively strong growth rate of 5.2 percent for withholding came despite the fact that jobs, personal income and wages are still below forecasts by state budget planners. The additional money generated, while good for the state, managed to partly offset a decline in sales tax revenues, something that is a concern to Richmond.

Also, state elected officials and top budget planners in the executive and legislative branches are still grappling with the implications of a relatively underreported news item from last spring. In April, Standard & Poors, one of the nations leading bond ratings companies, downgraded the commonwealths long-term financial outlook from stable to negative. The underlying reason, troublingly so, is the fact that the federal budget picture is so uncertain. Virginias economy is heavily dependent on federal spending, especially in Northern Virginia and Tidewater. S&P, in announcing the outlook change, pointed to that fact and the states resulting dips into the Revenue Stabilization Fund (the so-called Rainy Day Fund) in both 2014 and 2016 to close budget shortfalls.

The two-year budget McAuliffe is expected to unveil in December likely will top $100 billion, a first for Virginia. It will also be his last budget submission, as his single, four-year term ends in January. Both House and Senate money committees will develop their own budget proposals, as will the new governor, either Republican Ed Gillespie or Democrat Ralph Northam.

Whatever the complexion of the final budget proposal hammered out in the 2018 session, one thing is certain: The two biggest items will be education spending and Medicaid.

That prompted yet another plea by McAuliffe for the Republicans in the Assembly to expand Medicaid under the terms of the Affordable Care Act to cover individuals making 138 percent of the federal poverty income. Its a plea thats fallen on deaf ears in the Assembly for years, as Republicans had planned on eventually being able to repeal and replace the ACA.

But as McAuliffe pointed out, that effort appears dead in Washington. Each repeal and replace proposal congressional Republicans floated would have hurt states like Virginia that didnt expand Medicaid, a fact that didnt go unnoticed in Richmond. Virginia, for example, has missed out on approximately $2 billion in federal Medicaid dollars per year since Jan. 1, 2014, and with changed reimbursement rates, hospitals in the state are scrambling to cover holes in their own budgets.

While long-term economic diversification of Virginias economy is the only way for the commonwealth to free itself from fiscal vagaries in Washington, the near and medium term outlooks still point to tight times for Virginia. With another fight over raising the federal debt limit looming in Washington this fall and sequestration in the back of everyones minds, uncertainty demands continued restraint and prudence from our elected leaders in Richmond. We expect nothing less from them.
The emergency Penn Station repair work that inspired Governor Andrew Cuomo's now-infamous "summer of hell" taglinewhich has become a catchall for each derailment, stalled subway train and rush hour meltdown sincewill finish on time, Amtrak announced Thursday.

Track repairs have continued apace while many New Yorkers focus on the ongoing subway crisis, and regular service is now scheduled to resume on Tuesday, September 5th.

"We thank customers for their patience while we renew the infrastructure at New York Penn Station. We also appreciate the collaboration and support of our commuter partners, NJ Transit and the Long Island Rail Road," said Amtrak Co-CEO Wick Moorman. "Our engineering forces are making great progress and we look forward to resuming scheduled operations."

Amtrak has already completed more than six of the eight scheduled weeks of repair work, according to the agency. Repairs have focused on a network of aging New Jersey Transit and Amtrak tracks on the station's western end, confirmed in the wake of mounting service delays, derailments, and residual commuter headaches.

The end goal is maintenance of the "tangle and mangle" of switches that make up the so-called A interlockinga wide track configuration that allows train dispatchers to route trains entering the station from New Jersey and Washington.

"This is basically replacement work," Michael DeCataldo, Vice President of Amtrak Operations East, told reporters in May. "Really no new technology is going in. It's just replacing something that's been in the ground for 20 or 25 years, if not longer."

This spring Governor Cuomo publicly questioned Amtrak's ability to maintain Penn Station, the largest transit hub in its network, and suggested that Penn Station management be privatized or taken over by Port Authority or the state of New York. "Amtrak has had a track record of coming up with a schedule and the actuality has no connection whatsoever to a schedule," the Governor chided.

Cuomo's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his apparently incorrect prediction.

[Update 2:30 p.m.]: "I want to thank our customers for their patience and willingness to try the temporary travel options, as well as our employees for their hard work to make the transition as smooth as possible," stated MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.
To the editor:

Recently I was channel surfing and ran across C-Span which was broadcasting the House of Representatives. Our Fifth District representative, Tom Garrrett, was speaking. At the end of his presentation, I was pleased to have him as my congressman. He spoke of his role as a congressman, issues he was concerned with and the responsibility to his constituents. I was impressed as he spoke without notes, lending sincerity to what he had to say.

He spoke of government dysfunction and the frustrations in trying to do the job he was elected to do. Unfortunately, few members of the House were there to listen. I doubt many constituents would listen to a politician with todays political environment. I am troubled for the future of this nation. Likewise for those who will have to live with the problems we have, and are, creating for them.

Our nation was established by men well versed in government philosophy and its relationship to the citizens it serves. They argued and challenged each others view points. After much debate they came to understand that compromise was the only way to get results. These men were statesmen. Today we have politicians. There is a great difference.

In no way do I imply that Rep. Garrett is a statesman. He is one of 535 elected officials. Many appear to care more about what is in their interest or party victories, certainly not the overall national interest.

Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the delegates in Philadelphia had created. He is reported to have responded, A republic, if you can keep it. Can we  are we?

Some of you may remember the tale of Roman Emperor Nero, who is said to have played the fiddle while Rome burned. I suggest that many of our leaders (Nero) are playing politics (the fiddle) while our Republic is crumbling (burning). Lets hope it is not too late.

ALAN F. SANDS

Danville
Fernando Alonso and Williams are not denying rumours that they might team up for 2018.

At Spa, Spaniard Alonso seems out of patience for Honda, who have struggled since day one of the works McLaren project.

"The current situation didn't arise in a single day -- it's been three years," he said.

And so the latest rumour is that he could decide within the month of September to make the switch to either Renault or Williams.

As for the new Williams rumour specifically, Alonso said: "I have received some offers -- in June, July and in August. 60 per cent of them I have already rejected.

"The other 40pc are still open," he added.

And a similar non-denial is also coming out of the Williams camp.

"We have not yet announced who will be driving for us next year," said technical boss and co-owner Paddy Lowe.

"It's something we're working on so I can't confirm or exclude anything."

And deputy boss Claire Williams told Brazil's Globo: "It would be great for any team to have Fernando.

"But as I've said, we are focusing on this year. Maybe the drivers will be something to worry about towards the end of the year.

"He (Alonso) would be a good driver for Williams -- he'd probably look good in Williams overalls too, right? We'll see," she added.

(GMM)
Renault has played down the chances it might supply engines to McLaren next year.

As the British team struggles with Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari have already made clear they will not be leaping to McLaren's rescue.

So at Spa, rumours emerged that if McLaren does split with Honda, the only option could be Renault.

"I can confirm that there has been discussion with McLaren," said Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul.

The spanner in the works, however, is that FIA regulations forbid manufacturers from supplying to more than three teams -- and Renault is fully subscribed with its works team plus Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

Of course, a Renault deal would be freed up if Toro Rosso makes the switch to Honda -- and that would also keep the Japanese carmaker in F1.

"It doesn't really affect us whatever engine Toro Rosso takes," said Red Bull's Christian Horner. "We just need to know pretty quickly what the situation is -- within the next couple of weeks."

For its part, McLaren is therefore pushing hard for a Toro Rosso deal and even willing to produce a gearbox for the junior Red Bull team.

But if Toro Rosso doesn't make the switch, Renault advisor Alain Prost says it is "impossible" that a McLaren-Renault deal can happen.

"As McLaren have problems with the Honda engine, they asked us," Prost told the Belgian news agency Sporza.

"But it's impossible for Renault to have another team."

(GMM)
Naidu Going Overboard In Kakinada!

It appears Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is taking every election  big or small  every seriously, since he is afraid that a defeat in any election would spell doom for his party in the 2019 elections.

Look at the way Naidu has taken the ongoing municipal corporation elections in Kakinada.

Normally, a chief minister is not expected to attach much importance to any local body elections, because they are generally fought on local issues, rather than on the performance of the parties at the state level.

In a municipal election, the election plank will be the performance of the local corporator or councillor, rather than the performance of the party in power at the state level.

But, the TDP president has taken the Kakinada Municipal Corporation election very seriously.

He has roped in as many as 11 cabinet ministers, a couple of MPs and a large number of MLAs from East and West Godavari districts into the campaigning for the TDP candidates. They have divided the wards among themselves and are extensively campaigning in their respective areas.

And Naidu himself took a plunge into the canvassing on Saturday and he would be conducting road shows for the next two days.

Imagine how serious the campaign is going to be, if the chief minister himself enters the scene even for municipal elections.

Of course, YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, too, would have joined the campaign for his party candidates, but he dropped out at the last minute due to high temperature.

Needless to say, heavy money is flowing in the municipal elections. And Naidu wants to win the Mayor seat by hook or crook!
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Eagle Awards

Cameron Waldron, son of Ken and Michelle Waldron of Greensboro and a member of Troop 109, has earned his Eagle Award.

For his project, Waldron and his fellow members of Boy Scout Troop 109 recently crafted and delivered about 60 lap blankets for people at the Kernersville Health Care Center, which serves military veterans.

Each blanket had the logo of one of the branches of the U.S. military, along with a thank you for your service card enclosed in the blanket for each veteran, with a photo of Troop 109 as well as the Boy Scouts signatures.

The Boy Scouts expressed their appreciation to each of the veterans for the service to their country and enjoyed listening to the veterans military experiences.
Activities

High Point University junior Mandy Engelman interned this summer with AshComm, a division of Ashley Furniture. She worked with the site merchandising team in the companys Tampa, Fla. office. This group manages the assets, analytics, product placements and third-party vendors that make up Ashley Furnitures e-commerce website.

***

In celebration of its 125th anniversary, UNC-Greensboro kicked off this academic year with the first of whats hoped to become a campus tradition: Nav1gate New Student Convocation.

The daylong event Aug. 14 was designed to help first-year Spartans connect with faculty, staff and student leaders, prepare for the academic experience ahead and learn more about campus history and traditions.

While UNCG has held a convocation for decades, this years event took place on the first day of class and officially marked the beginning of the semester.

Attendance was required for all new freshmen and was highly recommended for transfer students. Faculty and staff members were encouraged to wear blue and gold to help welcome new students.

***

As part of Ann Berry Somers biology class, several UNC-Greensboro students traveled to the Sea Turtle Conservancy Tortuguero Biological Field Station in Costa Rica on July 29-Aug. 5.

The seminar and field-studies course, Biology and the Conservation of Sea Turtles, began in spring 2017 and along with the Costa Rica trip, it includes a trip to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City. This allows the class to compare conservation efforts in North Carolina with those in Costa Rica.

The course has 12 students and has been offered to undergraduates every other year since 1996.

The centers mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release sick and injured sea turtles.

Announcements

AbolitionNC, a nonprofit that assists survivors of human trafficking, is helping to provide comprehensive anti-human trafficking education to every Rockingham County public high school.

Beginning this fall, high school students will be instructed about the dangers and signs of human trafficking as a part of their health classes through the use of the film Chosen and a newly developed curriculum by AbolitionNC based on North Carolina law.

Featuring two young American girls lured into prostitution, Chosen discusses the potential signs of trafficking while encouraging students to report suspected cases to law enforcement authorities.

The Rotary clubs in Rockingham County (Eden, Reidsville, Madison-Mayodan and Stoneville clubs), joined by the Rotary E-Club of Global Trekkers, are assisting with this effort.

Fellowships

Megan Berry, a second-year student in High Point Universitys physician assistant studies program, is the recipient of a Student Health Policy Fellowship with the Physician Assistant Education Association. The fellowship involves PA students in the political process and health policy and aims to inspire grass-roots advocacy that promotes the profession as an integral part of the health care system.

Berry will participate in a three-day intensive workshop in Washington and complete projects under the mentorship of PA faculty members.

Berry also served as HPUs representative within the Student Academy at the American Academy of Physician Assistants conference.

During the meeting, a resolution she submitted in support of PAs providing care and managing Medicare patients in hospice settings was approved and will result in advocacy efforts to enact these changes on a state legislative level.

Scholarships

Yasmene Dergham, a junior at High Point University majoring in international relations and political science, was selected for the U.S. State Departments Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to pay for her study abroad in Morocco. Dergham will spend the fall semester in HPUs exchange program with Al-Akhawayn University.

Recipients of the scholarship participate in study abroad and international internship experiences that help them gain skills critical to Americas national security and economic competitiveness, such as studying a critical-need language.

***

Brekk Hayward, a junior majoring in actuarial science at High Point University, received the Jo Anne J. Trow Scholarship from the National Council of Alpha Lambda Delta. She is one of 36 scholarship recipients selected nationally.

Hayward is a member of HPUs local chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society that recognizes first-year students and encourages continued academic excellence through graduation.

***

High school equivalency graduate Isabella Stowe was awarded a scholarship totaling $2,228 from the Rockingham Community College Foundation.
If you thought Lily James didnt have enough to do in Baby Driver, check her out in The Exception, in which theres not much she doesnt do.

She plays newly hired domestic Mieke de Jong (still wearing an apron) at the World War II Holland estate of exiled German ruler Kaiser Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer), a place swirling with international intrigue.

The banished Wilhelm is the one potential rival to Adolf Hitlers power that the Fuhrer hasnt killed, making him a likely target for assassination. To that end, a German officer named Brandt (Jai Courtney) with a mysterious past, recovering from serious wounds, is sent to guard him.

Wilhelm also looms as a figure of interest to the Allies  if they can manage to unseat Hitler, Wilhelm might be useful as a means of stabilizing a defeated Germany. This would not be disagreeable to the kaiser, who wishes for a restoration of the aristocracy almost as much as his delusional wife (Janet McTeer) does.

All this makes his remote estate a place ripe with espionage. The Gestapo believes the Allies have installed a spy close to Wilhelm, and Brandt is assigned the task of rooting him out. Under the circumstances, fraternization with the kaisers staff is out of the question, but Brandt is smitten with Mieke, and they commence a torrid affair, adding to the estates dangerous tangle of secrets.

As history goes, The Exception is about as valuable as Where Eagles Dare. It makes Wilhelm seem more doddering and harmless than he was, as though his anti-Semitism is something that turned up (or spread) in old age, like gray hair.

On the other hand, old-pro Plummer finds some interesting angles in his Wilhelm  part of him wants to return to power, part of him sees the conflagration that has engulfed Europe and understands there is no going back. Driving home the latter point: a visit from Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsden), offering a creepy reminder of the hateful forces now in control of the continent.

Courtney and James have good chemistry, and the sexual candor of their scenes together comes as a bit of a surprise, given the costume drama, art house tone of the production, though perhaps this is just the residue of James Downton Abbey days.
On Woman's Equality Day, hundreds of people gathered for the Go Topless Parade in Manhattan, to celebrate equal shirtless rights for all. As with all events with naked elements, there seemed to be a parallel parade of (mostly male) onlookers snapping photographs, prompting one marcher to yell, "The internet is full of boobs you know!"

In a statement, Go Topless spokesperson Rachel Jessee explained, "Our goal is for equal gender topless rights to be enforced worldwide, freeing women's nipples." Similar parades were also held in Los Angeles and in dozens of cities around the world on Saturday, but Jessee noted, "New York has been one of the world's few cities to legally recognize womens topless rights." She also credited the movement gaining traction with the movie Free the Nipple and celebrity support from Scout Willis, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Iggy Azalea, Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler, "who have been baring their nipples publicly."

Parade participants were mostly from NYC and the surrounding region, but a pair of marchers came from Canada (Montreal and Toronto) specifically to attend the event. Many of the participants were newcomers to the parade, and they and veterans alike eagerly seized the opportunity to march topless to destigmatize and desexualize the female body from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park.

While there were some tourists surprised by the paradeour photographer overheard some saying "Whoa, crazy New York!" or "Go ladies!"there was a large, almost overwhelming contingent of men with cameras and smartphones following the parade. The Post reports some male hecklers were "quickly ushered away by cops".

Some participants told Gothamist that it was worse in past years when there was a smaller police presence and no barriersall were appreciative of the heavy police turnout.

The Go Topless movement also has roots in the Raelian movement, which believes that aliens created life on Earth. Jessee said, "Spiritual leader, Maitreya Rael, who inspired the creation of GoTopless and founded the Raelian Movement, says there must be absolute equality between men and women to ensure the preservation of society. Centuries of gender inequality and exclusive male rule created major planetary imbalances that could prove fatal to society. Its time for change! She added that enforcement of equal topless rights is a crucial aspect of gender equality.

Additional reporting by Sai Mokhtari.
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After all the ugliness from the past couple of weeks, Im glad I had the opportunity to spend this past weekend in Navassa, a small community outside Wilmington, celebrating the 90th birthday of a friends mother. Seated at the head table with the honoree were four other women 90 and older. They smelled of White Diamond perfume, dressed in their Sunday best, smiled as only those with decades of experience can do, greeted acquaintances, remembering their names with ease. They climbed the two steps to the stage without hesitation.

As I sat through the two-hour program, I stopped thinking about what was happening across the country, especially the ugly racial underbelly that has been exposed as of late, and looked in the faces of the five women with almost 500 years of experience sitting before me.

The stories they could tell. They could talk about living through the Jim Crow era and the Wilmington race riots. They would spin yarns about having to walk in the back door of most public facilities, if they could enter at all. They would share tales of attending segregated schools and how, if they finished high school and had the opportunity to attend college, their only career options were teaching and nursing. They might also give an account of what they were doing during Freedom Summer in 1964, or Bloody Sunday in 1965 and the deaths of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, the four little girls in Birmingham, and Malcolm, Martin and the Kennedy brothers. They lived a history that, for the most part, Id only read about or have a scant recollection of.

But these same women could also talk about the first time they could walk in the front door of a local restaurant, sit down and order a meal. They could share the times they sat in high school auditoriums alongside white parents as their children walked across the stage and received high school diplomas, and the feeling of knowing that their children could be whatever they wanted to be. They could talk about the first time they voted and how that right was not to be squandered just because you didnt like either candidate.

Theyve lived through some of the countrys most turbulent times and surely might have thought, never again. Never again will we have to fight for the right to vote. Fight for the opportunity to be judged as simply a person and not a black person. They must have figured that those hard-fought battles were over and we were headed to a more diverse, tolerant and inclusive society. After all, theyd been there the night that America held its collective breath as Barack Obama was declared the countrys 44th president.

But then it all changed.

The belief was racism and racist thoughts and attitudes would die along with those who grew up in a segregated America. None of us could have guessed that a young generation with no knowledge of separate but unequal, or of nightly newscasts telling of Nazi terror would don khaki pants, polo shirts with racist logos and Confederate flags and roam the streets shouting hateful epithets, boasting of their superiority and promising to take back a country that was never theirs.

How did we get back to zero in such a short period?

But for two hours Aug. 19, none of that crossed our minds. Instead, the focus was on the strength and power of the honoree. How she and her husband, on the salary of a cafeteria worker and a laborer, sent all their children to college, most going on to get advanced degrees. They talked about how, after high school, she went to cosmetology school and supplemented the familys income with a wash-and-press business, mostly on Saturdays. How the little shed next to the familys home also served as a voting site and a GED classroom. They talked about how she persevered and grew and blossomed into a wise woman, a pillar of the community, the mother of the church and a woman of grace, style and elegance.

While I temporarily deadened my thoughts of what was happening outside the community center, I knew that because of the sacrifice, tenacity, faith and hard work done by them and thousands of others, it was my duty to continue the fight. Anything less would be an affront to the ancestors.

In fact, all of us owe it to these almost-centenarians to make sure that the road theyd trod was not in vain.

We call it being woke. They remember Dr. King saying, This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

They stayed on their post.

The family had hoped to keep the birthday celebration a secret. That wasnt the initial plan, but somehow they whispered around her, made calls out of her earshot, colluded and connived so she wouldnt know of their plans. But after the party, the honoree told me shed known they were up to something. I asked who told her and she assured me she figured it out.

Ive lived too long for them to fool me, she said.

Another lesson learned.

A significant battle for a country that calls out for  your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, and that promises  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all may have been won, but the war, the big one, rages on.
When my daughter, Anna, and her children flew in from Santa Fe, N.M., for the Aug. 12 reception celebrating my 60 years in the journalism, it was the first time my two children and their children all had been together for more than 12 years.

It was also the first time her daughter, Jasmine, 12, had been to North Carolina and the first time in several years for Austin, 20, and Jude, 27.

I had a house full, and the logistics of getting everyone to different places at the same time was quite challenging.

Our food is quite different from what they have in New Mexico. One of the first things Jasmine noticed was that chili is not listed separately (as a choice of red or green) on menus. The first time she looked at a menu, she said, No chili?

One day, when Jude was going to the store for Anna, she told him to get her some liver pudding. She had to tell him where to find it and what it looked like. He brought it home, but he didnt want to hear what was in it or how it was made. And, of course, he wasnt about to sample it.

One day, we went to Mabry Mill in Virginia. Jasmine was amazed at all the trees and foliage since they live in a high desert area where trees are sparse and small. She enjoyed seeing the old buildings and especially the mill itself. It also was the first time I had taken Joseph, 8, to the mill. Although Thomas, 14, had been years ago, I dont think he remembered it.

Austin didnt arrive until early on the morning of the reception but served as the chief photographer for the rest of the trip. It was nice not using a camera for a change.

I also enjoyed watching Austin do whatever it took to get a picture. At the beach, I saw him lying on his side in the sand to get a picture of a bird or shell, or holding on to a railing to get a better view. He has an excellent eye for pictures and has done some amazing shots in New Mexico. He hopes to become a professional photographer and enjoyed talking to Gordon Allen, who was the official photographer at my reception.

We had company after the reception, so we did not leave for Wilmington until after midnight.

My son, Stevie; and grandsons Skylar, 18, Thomas and Joseph also went us. We stayed with longtime friend Tommy Griffin and were camped out in the living room and den as well as the bedrooms. He lives in Monkey Junction, about halfway between Wilmington and Carolina Beach.

After a couple hours of sleep, we headed for breakfast at Carolina Beach. Angie Stevens and a friend came in from Atlanta to surprise Anna at the restaurant. I had Anna sitting with her back to the door, so she didnt see Angie when she entered. I wish I had taken a picture of Annas expression when Angie said, Excuse me, but you look like someone I know, and Anna looked up. I couldnt believe we had pulled it off.

After breakfast, we went back to Angies hotel on the beach, and the children headed for the ocean while the adults caught up since we hadnt seen each other in a number of years.

Austin was anxious to get Jasmines first reaction at seeing the ocean for the first time. She was a little leery of the surf, which was a lot rougher than usual because of an impending storm. However, she soon was catching the waves with the others.

After they tired of the ocean, we all walked up the new boardwalk for our annual visit to Britts Donut shop.

Imagine our disappointment to learn the shop had closed early that day and wouldnt open again until 11 a.m. Thursday. Anna was especially dismayed since she had been eating doughnuts from Britts since she could walk and had looked forward to sampling them. Later, I learned they had started winter hours because most of their employees are students who had returned to school.

That evening, we went to the inlet docks to board the Winner Princess cruise boat for a sunset trip up the Intercoastal Waterway and back. The evening was perfect for the trip as we watched from the top deck. On the return trip, we all went to the deck below and everyone danced. It was especially rewarding to see Anna and Stevie dancing with their children since both generations are talented dancers.

Everyone went to bed almost as soon as we got back to Tommys house, but we were up early the next morning to head out again.

This time, our first stop was the Carolina Beach Arcade. This was our first time at the new arcade, which was relocated after the old one was destroyed by fire in September 2014. The new one has more machines and many ways to earn tickets to trade for prizes.

I was the caretaker of the tickets as the children ran to Grandma for coins to play and returned with fistfuls of tickets. I did a great job of keeping them separated so each child got his correct share. However, they saved their tickets and cashed them in on their final day at the beach. Their prizes ranged from candy to a blow-up alien from Roswell, N.M.

Early Tuesday morning, Anna and her children went back the beach for a final time. When they returned about noon, we loaded the car and made the drive to Raleigh, where Anna, Jasmine, and Jude flew back to New Mexico. Austin joined Stevie and Skylar for their trip back to the mountains since his flight home was not until Thursday from Charlotte. He enjoyed two days in the mountains, where he had visited Stevies family over the years.

After dropping Anna and her crew at the airport, Thomas, Joseph and I went back the beach for a couple more days. We drove home to Eden on Friday. On Sunday, I took them to meet Stevie in Hickory, halfway to their home in Sylva.

It was so quiet when I got back home, I had a hard time adjusting. Looking around, I see a sock, a toy and makeup left by family members. Looks like when I find everything, Ill be mailing a large box to New Mexico.

The quiet is nice for a short time, but, oh, how I miss the laughter, talking and even the quarreling of my family! Who knows when we all will be together at one time again?
Chef David Bouley

At an exclusive Thuzio event at his test kitchen, renowned New York chef and Japanese cuisine goodwill ambassador David Bouley shared a story from his latest trip to Okinawa. Fascinated by residents' long life-spans and great health, Bouley asked for three tips for a long and happy life. Bouley is the proprietor of many restaurants including Manhattan's Brushstroke, which serves inventive multi-course Japanese meals. His focus is on the relationship between health and food.

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Published on 2017/08/27 | Source

Infant cribs are empty in a hospital in Seoul on Wednesday.

Korea's birthrate fell to a record-low 1.04 children per woman during the second quarter of this year, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

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Couples must have at least 2.1 children to sustain the current population level, but at this rate Korea faces a precipitous decline.

The number of babies born in the first half of this year fell below 200,000 for the first time ever.

Some 28,900 children were born in June, down 12.2 percent from the same month last year and the lowest figure since Statistics Korea began tallying such data in 1970.

In the first six months of this year, 188,400 babies were born, down 12.4 percent on-year.

Korea's birthrate declined to 1.076 children per woman in 2005, but recovered slightly to 1.239 in 2015, only to drop to 1.17 last year.

That is not only the lowest in the 35-member OECD but even lower than Japan (1.42 children), which has been suffering from a chronic low birthrate and aging population.

Statistics Korea has said that the population is expected to halve to 26.2 million by 2085 if the birthrate remains at 1.12 children per woman.

But since the birthrate fell below 1.12 this year, the population is now expected to halve even sooner. It will probably start dwindling much sooner than 2032, the last government projection.
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Here's how this free app turned amateurs into UAE's top professional stock market traders

Going into business without first having some basic knowledge of how the market works and the tools at our disposal increases your risk of getting into trouble. Simulators provide learning platforms for people who want to start learning how to invest.
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Published on 2017/08/27 | Source

Haeundae Beach in Busan is empty on Aug. 11. /Yonhap

Some 92 public beaches of Gangwon Province closed on Sunday as the summer season came to an end. According to provincial officials, the beaches drew 22.44 million visitors this summer, a drop of 8.7 percent compared to last year and the lowest number since 2012, when only 19.26 million people visited the beaches due to the impact of typhoon Bolaven.

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Gangwon had targeted 30 million visitors this summer, but rainy weather and stronger-than-usual waves dashed these hopes.

Since opening on July 7, the beaches in Gangneung saw 30 days of rainfall, and those in Sokcho and Yangyang 25 days. In fact there were only two weekends in July and August when it did not rain somewhere in Gangwon Province.

Making matters worse, unusually high waves pounded the beaches for 11 days starting on Aug. 9, prompting officials to limit access to swimmers.

Sokcho and Yangyang had hoped that the new highway linking Seoul with the resort cities would boost the number of vacationers. But Sokcho saw 557,000 fewer visitors this year than last year and Yangyang saw 478,000 fewer.

Hyun Ok-ja (59), who has run a restaurant in Sokcho for 22 years, said, "I think the days are gone when the East Coast was considered a top vacation spot".

And Song Woon-gang at Kangwon National University said, "After peaking at 30.3 million in 2008, the number of vacationers to the East Coast has never surpassed 24 to 25 million. We need to create new tourist attractions that can draw tourists regardless of the weather".
UHPA Seeks to Allow Legislature to Appropriate Salary Funds during a Special Legislative Session

News Release from UHPA, August 21, 2017

UHPA filed a request that the Hawaii Labor Relations Board rule on whether the Legislature may appropriate funds for a collective bargaining agreement during a Special Legislative Session. Over the course of this month, it became clear that there were issues being raised by the Governors office and the Speaker of the House that the collective bargaining law, Chapter 89, might not allow an appropriation be made during a Special Legislative Session. To be clear neither the Governors Chief of Staff nor Speaker Saiki would reveal their specific concerns to UHPA Executive Director Hanselman. UHPA was informed that the Attorney General was being asked to comment on some technical issues. President Lassner was also not informed of these matters by the Governors office.

This lack of candor is antithetical to the practice of good faith negotiations.

UHPA believes that there is no prohibition to the funding of a collective bargaining agreement during a Special Legislative Session. UHPA seeks to have this issue resolved should a Special Session be conveyed this year. There are no decisions previously issued on this matter.

UHPA wants faculty members to receive their salary increases as quickly as possible. Delaying an appropriations until 2018 has a negative impact on the pocketbooks of faculty and retroactive lump payments can have tax consequences.

You will be informed of the outcome of this request for a ruling from the Hawaii Labor Relations Board. Time is critical with a Special Legislative Session tentatively scheduled to begin next week.

* * * * *

SB 3 Relating to Public Employment

From UHPA, August 25, 2017

The Committee on Labor and The Committee on Ways and Means

Monday, August 28, 2017 11:00 a.m.

Conference Rm. 211

RE: SB 3 Relating to Public Employment

Attention: Chairs Jill Tokuda and Donovan Dela Cruz, Vice Chairs J. Kalani English and Keith-Agaran and Members of the Committees

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA) appreciates the consideration the legislature has extended to faculty members during this special session. We respectfully request the Committee support passage of SB 3 which is a measure to appropriate funds for fiscal biennium 2017-2019 for salary costs for public employees in collective bargaining unit (7) and for certain employees excluded from collective bargaining.

UHPA requests the committee support SB 3.

Sincerely,

Kristeen Hanselman

Executive Director

* * * * *

UHPA wants its raises to be funded next week

SA: Leaders of the University of Hawaii faculty union want state lawmakers next week to approve funding to pay the raises the union won during negotiations this year but say Gov. David Iges administration hasnt agreed to that plan.

A news release issued by the faculty union Tuesday alleged that the governors office threw in a last-minute, post-agreement monkey wrench to delay the facultys agreed upon wage increases.

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, which represents nearly 3,700 faculty members, finalized a new contract with the state Aug. 3.

read . UHPA
Haifa is on the "front line" in any action in the north but this blog looks at life in the shadow of danger to all of Israel
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Lets play a numbers game. Well go first.

15: Thats the number of cents Sullivan County Commission wanted to avoid in a property tax increase for the in-progress fiscal year.

8.4: Thats the number of cents being proposed for the property tax increase instead.

Why the need for a tax increase when the state-certified rate  $2.46  is lower than the current rate of $2.5754? No one advocates higher property taxes, and in this situation, the reasons behind it make it harder to support.

2,067,402: Thats the monetary amount settled out of court between the county and its Sheriffs Office. Its a seven-digit reminder of Sheriff Wayne Andersons 2015 $6.5 million lawsuit against the county over a denied request for additional funding  a method to extort funding for his department, essentially, and one that forked the financial responsibility for legal fees over to taxpayers, thanks to Tennessee law.

5.8: Thats the millions of dollars of interest to be paid on the countys $140 million school bond issue this year and the other necessitation for the tax increase.

Surely, there must be excess funding somewhere the county can shave to help offset the property tax increase. The County Commission, indeed, believes there is.

10.5: That the proposed number of cents of county tax revenue for diversion to the countys general fund from the school systems general purpose and renovation funds.

Lets simplify those figures so far: Sullivan County Commissions Budget Committee did not want to raise property taxes 15 cents to pay for the settlement and bond debt. Instead, it's delineating an almost 9-cent increase that will 1) pay off Andersons settlement; 2) negate the funding its previously provided to the school systems; 3) redirect that to the countys budget; and 4) as part of the countys larger budget proposal, further remove monies from the school systems budgets.

Were not mathematicians, but that sums up to a qualitative loss for parents, school staff and children and a forced sacrifice from all homeowners in Bristol with no visual benefit for them. This budget proposal shamelessly demands more of Bristol residents  even their children  while cushioning the countys general fund and the sheriffs department.

But can the county be blamed? A 2015 lawsuit in another part of the state maintained that counties are not legally obligated to share capital projects funds with its cities. So the county technically doesnt need to share that with us.

Could this juncture have been avoided?

1: Thats the number of people responsible for the Commissions necessary recalculation for this fiscal years budget.

If it werent for the Sheriffs unnecessary lawsuit we wouldnt be in this position, Sullivan County Commissioner Mark Vance commented to the Herald Courier.

Comparing the extraneous nature of Andersons settlement to standard school budgetary items like special education and student health services only exaggerates the bitterness of these numbers consequences. But, according to Anderson, the property tax increase for the settlement is justified. We might be safe in assuming that absence of perspective irks readers as much as it does us, but we will come back to that another time.

But its the cost of that settlement that bothers us: The Sheriffs Office got what it wanted in exchange for our school systems maintenance and improvements.

So whos at fault? Sullivan County Commission for being unable to orchestrate the countys school operational budget to avoid rescinding money from city schools? Anderson for willfully exploiting a legislative weakness to force funds for his department at a high expense? Or even Bristol City school systems for assuming the continuity of the countys voluntary (and we might add, alleged) generosity?

Lets end our numbers game with this quick question: Considering the proposed increase, the distribution of that revenue and the crater left in Bristol Tennessee school systems funds, how much of that tax increase will Sullivan County residents see as a quantifiable return of their investment?

Well, thats an easy answer: 0.
Rachel Carson's expose shocked the world. And we're better for it
Names and faces

Brandon Newgard, M.D. has joined St. Peters Hospital. His primary focus is interventional radiology.

Most recently, Newgard worked at Montana Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology Specialists in Helena.

Newgard received his Doctor of Medicine from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and completed his residency at the Universitys Medical Center. He completed a vascular/interventional radiology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, N.Y.

He holds of Bachelor of Arts in biology from Carroll College and is a member of the Montana Medical Association, Society of Interventional Radiology, Radiology Society of North America, and the American College of Radiology.

Newgard is originally from Kalispell and is a Flathead High School graduate.

***

Kerry Pedersen, EI, has joined Robert Peccia & Associates (RPA) Traffic and Transportation Group in Helena as a transportation planner. She graduated from Montana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and an honors degree. She is a member of the Chi Epsilon Honor Society and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

At RPA, Pedersen is assisting with transportation plans, corridor studies, traffic studies, safety projects, and urban planning. Her immediate work is as a team member on the Belgrade Long Range Transportation Plan. She is also assisting on the Kalispell Courthouse Couplet project (US Highway 93 in the city of Kalispell) and the Gore Hill Interchange project (located immediately south of Great Falls on Interstate 15).

Justin Millar, EIT, has joined RPAs Streets, Highways and Drainage Group in Helena as an engineering designer/construction technician. He is a registered Engineer in Training and he holds a Master of Science degree in civil engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the Oregon Institute of Technology, respectively. His previous project experience includes road and bridge projects for the Washington State Department of Transportation in Yakima.

At RPA, Millar provides professional engineering services that include field inventories, signing inventories, data analysis, road design, and intersection improvements, including roundabouts. He is a team member currently working on the Montana Department of Transportation Lincoln Road  Montana Avenue to Interstate 15 roundabout.

***

First Community Bank has announced that David Heesch has joined the organization as commercial loan officer based in the Helena office. Heesch is responsible for originating commercial loans of all types.

He comes to First Community Bank with more than eight years of lending experience. Prior to joining First Community Bank, Heesch was a loan officer/personal banker for Valley Bank in Helena. His previous experience includes loan portfolio management, real estate sales, and insurance sales in Helena.

Heesch may be reached at 449-9300 or at the Helena Branch of First Community Bank, 2987 Prospect Ave.

***

Peter Schade has started working as a water quality specialist for the Water Quality Protection District, a division of Lewis and Clark Public Health. He has 20 years of experience in the field and previously worked for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Montana Watercourse. Schade has bachelor's degrees in geology and communications from Purdue University. He also has a secondary science teaching certificate from Montana State University.

News and notes

Chamber leader selected for education fellowship

Cathy Burwell, President/CEO of the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce, has been selected by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) to study education attainment and workforce development along with 20 other chamber of commerce professionals from communities throughout the United States.

The Fellowship for Education Attainment is an immersive executive development program that provides chamber of commerce professionals with education and tools to improve the cradle-to-career education pipeline in the communities they serve.

Throughout the year-long Fellowship for Education Attainment, participants are required to develop a regional action plan that focuses on addressing specific education attainment or workforce development issues in their communities.

ACCEs Fellowship for Education Attainment is designed to advance a chamber of commerces already-defined education attainment goals and ultimately help the business associations nationwide build replicable programs and processes.

***

Project to focus on reducing youth suicide

Mountain-Pacific Quality Health will lead a one-year project geared to increasing awareness of mental illness and reducing teen suicides in the greater Helena area. On Aug. 14, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana presented Mountain-Pacific with a $50,000 grant to help fund the project.

Suicide and attempted suicide seems especially prevalent among high school students. There were 27 youth suicides from Jan. 1, 2014 to March 16, 2017 -- seven of which occurred in the greater Helena area. Based on these statistics, the focus will be on Helena, East Helena, Montana City and Clancy.

A youth task force will develop messaging and strategies geared to increasing awareness of problems common to this to this age group such as the stigma of mental health, stress, relationship issues and bullying.

Mountain-Pacific has engaged members from Helena School District, the East Helena School District, Shodair Childrens Hospital and the Montana Hospital Association to develop a strategic plan that includes activities focusing on youth mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Guidelines

The IR welcomes reports of hiring, promotions, awards, recognition, learning opportunities and other news from local companies and nonprofits. We accept press releases and photos (digital images at 300 dpi or more are preferred). Email your information to irstaff@helenair.com.

There is no charge for items appearing in the Business Briefcase. Items are run on a space-available basis, and we reserve the right to edit and use information as we see fit.

The deadline is Tuesday at noon to be considered for publication the following Sunday.
When Gov. Steve Bullock attempted a final negotiation with Republicans to pass a bill funding infrastructure projects in the final days of the Legislature, he sent a text message.

Speaker, Bullock here. You have some time this am to talk? the Democrat tapped into his phone at 9:17 a.m. on Monday, April 24.

At 8:43 a.m. that Friday, Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen sent a text back.

Mr. Governor- we are not accepting your deal, he wrote.

Conversations and decisions about state policy increasingly are conducted by texts zinging between the governor, legislators, lobbyists and staff. But state policies do not provide specific guidance on how to manage and maintain text messages as records that state law requires to be preserved.

In numerous interviews this year, many elected officials expressed skepticism about whether text messages  and other digital communications like emails and Facebook direct messages  should be public record and if it is worth the trouble to save them even temporarily for public inspection. Open government advocates argue elected leaders have a responsibility to modernize records-keeping strategies to remain transparent in a digital age.

It strengthens the publics right to access information, Sunlight Foundation Executive Director John Wonderlich said. Thats how we have trust in the government and how we ensure our elections are not just a beauty contest, but that they are about whats actually happening.

It is a debate sure to grow as leaders use the convenience of smart phones to communicate about public business and as more members of the public and media request access to digital messages under open government laws.

Some states discourage elected officials from sending text messages about public business, seeing the medium as insecure or difficult to retain. Others require those texts to be sent from state-owned phones, which include software or contracts with service providers to save messages. Most, like Montana, do not have a text-specific policy and no strategy for recovering them in response to a request. That often results in public records being destroyed too soon and leaves states vulnerable to lawsuits for breaking open government laws.

The failure of Bullocks office to complete a recent records request highlights the challenges state officials face and attitudes about reform. Some messages that were released provide a sense of what public information is being destroyed.

On May 1, the Monday after the Legislature adjourned, Lee Newspapers requested text messages from the final three weeks of the session between any legislator and Bullock or Budget Director Dan Villa. State officials, including the governor, had referenced text messages they received when discussing bills throughout the session but it was unclear to what extent the technology was used to finalize critical public policy decisions.

Several major details of the state budget were negotiated in those final days. The governor, Democrats and some lobbyists focused extensively on trying to pick up Republican votes to support an infrastructure bonding bill to fund water, sewer and school facility projects statewide.

Villa, in particular, worked closely with a small group of legislators to create a plan for when the state should trigger additional spending cuts if revenues did not match projections. Earlier this summer, those extra cuts took effect. The budgets of numerous state agencies were reduced, about 20 people lost their jobs, and $30 million was taken out of the fund for fighting wildfires to plug holes elsewhere in the state budget.

In late July, the governors office released some of the requested records. Some texts were recovered from the governors phone, but not Villas.

When Bullock Senior Adviser Eric Stern was asked by Lee Newspapers what the governors office would do to recover text messages that Villa deleted from his phone but that likely are available through his cell service provider, he replied: We will not ask Mr. Villa to do that. Nor would we make him go to the garbage dump to retrieve a sticky note he might have thrown away, containing a short message.

Advocates for government transparency argue text messages frequently must be preserved under state laws and can show important conversations of public relevance.

If you were to write a detailed budget memo with instructions about negotiations on Post-it notes, I expect they would still be official records, Wonderlich said, extending Sterns comparison of text messages to sticky notes. Just because the piece of paper is smaller and there is a sticky part of it, doesnt create an exemption from having to provide public access. Thats an interesting image theyre trying to invoke, but I dont think it actually gets them out of hot water.

Montanas public records law is considered one of the strongest in the nation because a public record is defined by its content, not the format in which its kept.

Records documenting critical discussions and decisions must be preserved the longest, some permanently, while transitory communications must be kept for at least 30 days under state policy. Minor communications unrelated to state business, such as asking a colleague if they want to grab lunch, may be deleted sooner. The only exemptions to public disclosure are for some confidential legal records and sensitive personal information, such as health records.

Lee Newspapers previously reported that Montana frequently fails to retain some digital records, like emails, in accordance with state law. There is no enforcement mechanism to encourage compliance or punish bad actors. Requesters have only one recourse if records are not released or have been destroyed: File a lawsuit.

This year, the Legislature set aside $100,000 to defend Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, after she and the state were sued for failing to release some of her emails after more than a year had passed since being requested by the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability. Part of the debate centered on whether emails sent from her private account about state business must be released.

To retrieve Bullocks text messages, a staff member scrolled through his cell phone, typing every missive with a legislator or Villa into a spreadsheet. An attorney later reviewed those messages and deleted ones that were deemed to be personal and not public. Several senior members of the governors staff did not answer when asked how many messages were deleted and what kind of topics were considered private. They did confirm that no effort was made to recover messages that might have been deleted from the phone, but that would still be available from the service provider.

Bullock sent or received at least 86 text messages from April 10-30, according to the released information.

Some are perfunctory: coordinating meetings or requesting status updates on bills. Others contain the kind of information that require at least one months preservation under Montanas public records laws: conversations about which bills to offer up in last-minute deals, which legislators should be targeted by lobbyist allies and which parts of the state budget could be cut.

Just got word from League of Cities and Towns that Villa told them to stand down and NOT work the infrastructure bill. Am I missing something here? Isn't this a time for more pressure, not less? House Minority Leader Jenny Eck, D-Helena, texted Bullock at 11:02 a.m. in the final week of the session as debate over the bonding bill intensified.

That's silly, Bullock replied.

Ok, they say they will unleash their machine as soon as they get a green light. So I'll tell them they should have at it, Eck said, referencing the league waiting for direction from the governors office.

The next night, just hours before what was expected to be the final vote on the infrastructure bonding bill, Bullock asked Villa, Learn anything?

The budget director replied: (Montana School Board Association) and Taylor Brown is working Vinton, (Department of Justice) working Mortenson, Richland (County) and (Montana Association of Counties) working Staffanson, Boulder working to hold Wagoner, Taylor holding Lavin, Essman on Jones, Cascade Browning/Kalyzach and Fitzpatrick working Trebas, Mandeville is got, Miles City working Holmlund. (For clarity, some punctuation was added and acronyms were converted to organizations full names.)

Other messages provide a deeper look at Capitol relationships that drive policy and the critical information exchange used to craft strategy.

I'm currently working on reviving the market source bill, Rep. Rob Cook texted at 7:38 a.m. April 13. He is a moderate Republican from Conrad who frustrates some conservative members of the party for brokering deals with the Democrat governor. The damn thing dies everywhere it lands.

Everything seems to be, Bullock replied.

It's normal during this phase. Extreme fatigue and inordinate angst. On the positive side, infrastructure sounds positive with the buildings in.

Who's saying that?

Republicans that formerly opposed, Cook said. They fear another failure more than they dislike any particular project.

The infrastructure bonding bill ultimately died a few votes short of the needed two-thirds majority.

The public does not know what Villa said by text as he worked deals in the sessions final days. The former legislator, whose budget office reviews every bill for spending impact, was the governors lead negotiator on several priority proposals. That influence is summarized neatly in one exchange with the governor the night of April 10.

Just talked to (Senate Finance Chairman) Llew (Jones), Villa texted Bullock. He's ready to deal. I walked through how cash flow works based on fund balance, etc. He's already thinking of ways to do trigger cuts.

That's a good sign, the governor replied. Did he talk infrastructure. Or any revenue(?)

The East wants to add oil boom options for themselves. I said maybe if we got some accommodations too but we're talking tomorrow. He said it sounded find but talk to Cook since its his bill. Cigs, etc dead.

Asked why the governors office would not attempt to recover Villas messages and why he was not directed to preserve them when the request was made May 1, Stern told Lee Newspapers on July 28: I am not aware of any Montana state agency that requires state employees to retain their text messages on personal devices. Text messages are transitory and ephemeral communications with a high expectation of privacy for the sender and receiver, and they occur almost always on personal devices."

In fact, existing state law and records retention policy requires records to be retained for different lengths based on their content, regardless of format. Lee Newspapers submitted its request three days after the session ended, well before end of the monthlong retention period for transitory communications.

Wonderlich wondered if the deletion (of Villa's text messages) was in response to the request.

The office of Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, a Republican, is charged with training agencies about records retention. He previously suggested that improving the retention of emails or text messages would only cause state leaders to find other ways to communicate privately  even if it broke the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of Montanas open government laws.

The same sentiment was expressed by several state legislators who were interviewed this spring. The effort to limit access to some policy discussions was seen in other strategies at the Legislature.

In the final days of the session, a small group of legislators planned to meet with Villa to debate the details of the budget cuts eventually made this summer. They met in a closet-sized room in the basement of the Montana Capitol, and unsuccessfully tried to avoid reporters for a meeting that might have qualified as a public meeting under state law.

Similarly, Bullock summoned legislative leaders to his office for an early-morning meeting April 25, hours after telling reporters the day before that he had no plans to meet with legislators, but would tell them if he did. When reporters saw legislators entering his office, they followed to watch negotiations. The next time the governor invited legislative leaders to meet with him before the Legislature started for the day, the door was kept closed and locked, with staff only allowing in invited members.

Wonderlich questioned Sterns suggestion that text messages are not public.

They are not taking a principled position on how far the freedom of information laws reach. The position is one of political convenience. Messages they dont want to release, they are finding a way to either deny or are saying its beyond the scope of what they have to respond to, he said. If text messages are ephemeral, then maybe they shouldnt be using them to negotiate the state budget. If they are used for that kind of communication, it suggests they are official records and not some ephemeral Post-it note.

Without the release of the records, it is impossible to know to what extent texting was used in budget negotiations.
As editor of the Hickory Daily Record, I have the distinct privilege and honor of serving in the Thursday Rotary Club of Hickory.

Rotarys motto, Service above self, and each members calling to represent our community, in one of more than 34,000 clubs worldwide, carries a significant responsibility  an opportunity to help our neighbors.

Spearheading service projects since the Hickory clubs founding in 1921, Rotary members have enriched countless lives in the community along the way.

Hickory City Manager Warren Wood was a guest speaker at Thursdays meeting.

Wood discussed a crucial initiative regarding economic development within the city limits  conversely, a project that could improve lives throughout the county.

The project will remain on the HDRs radar, and readers can view the initial reporting about Woods economic framework online (http://bit.ly/2uk4QLB).

During the last few minutes of Woods presentation, he petitioned the club for questions. The first query was an amusing jab at the impending elections due to some mayoral candidates attendance.

However, the tone changed when asked how the city plans to respond to the opioid crisis.

Wood confirmed the person was referencing the 2016 Castlight Health report findings recently published in the HDR.

He said the report was false.

An audience member responded with it was in the Hickory Daily Record, which eventually led to Wood saying, I dont read the paper, and then he added, Im joking; Im joking.

In a matter of minutes, two problems barreled into the audience. First, the seeming denial of an actual crisis impacting the community, and second, rhetoric making light of staying informed  words spoken by arguably the most important, and highest paid, public servant of Hickorys government.

Now, I emphasize seeming denial of an actual crisis when referencing Woods remarks about the Castlight report that labeled Hickory the fifth worst city in the nation in regards to opioid abuse.

Immersed in the business of words, of course, I believe semantics are important.

Perhaps he didnt have the time Thursday to dive into Hickorys opioid crisis at the tail end of his message.

Woods job, simply stated, is to make certain the city is represented in the best possible light (among a plethora of other responsibilities).

As someone listening to his response, I saw it as a knee-jerk reaction to the Castlight report, and from a marketing and public relations standpoint, a reaction like this typically attempts to discredit and deny the message.

The HDR pursued the story well past the initial report; on the following Sunday, an expansive article was published about the opioid crisis (http://bit.ly/2vFIZQB).

In the second story, not only did the HDR interview members of the Hickory Police Department, but we reached out to Olive Branch Ministries, which is a faith-based harm reduction ministry, and delved into the Castlight report findings.

Plainly stated, the Castlight report was at best weak and at worst incomplete due to sampling.

The organizations survey targeted employers across the country that use Castlights health benefits platform. In all of the companies using the platform, nearly 1 million Americans medical and pharmacy-based claims were analyzed.

With these claims, Castlight defined opioid abuse and applied that criterion to the data.

Abuse required two conditions to be met: an individual received greater than a cumulative 90-day supply of opioids, and an individual received an opioid prescription from four or more providers over the five-year period between 2011 and 2015.

Common sense would dictate these two conditions are more than likely to identify opioid abusers, regardless if an individual was arrested, hospitalized or died  three categories the state measures closely.

But, if you dont like dealing in probabilities, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services tracks data that hits close to home.

Catawba County is 13th in the state for unintentional prescription opioid poisoning deaths and 16th in the state for prescription opioid poisoning hospitalizations, according to DHHS.

In an effort to save lives, the Hickory Police Department now carries Naloxone, a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose.

We have saved many people with that over the last couple of years, HPD Deputy Chief Reed Baer said in the July 23 article. Our job is to protect and preserve life. One (overdose) is too many, in our eyes.

Baer added the department is continually seeking programs that can divert abusers out of a cycle of arrest and into treatment.

(We) cant arrest (our) way out of this problem, and you have to really look outside of traditional law enforcement measures to deal with a problem of this magnitude, Baer said previously.

Olive Branch Ministries has been HPDs partner in the fight against opioid abuse in the area, too. The group, in conjunction with North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, helped provide officers with Naloxone while on duty.

Olive Branch Ministries also partners with the coalition and its syringe exchange, which helps lessen the risk of disease and creates an opportunity to guide more people into recovery.

The report was not false  Hickory has an opioid abuse problem.

Beyond the opioid crisis, crime statistics were compiled from eight different police agencies in the county, according to an Aug. 7 HDR article (http://bit.ly/2vd9e2Y).

The countys drug abuse violation rate (1,473 incidents per 100,000 residents) was three times higher than the national average (463 incidents per 100,000 residents).

The good news, however, is HPDs drug abuse violations have dropped 23 percent from January to June 2016 vs. January to June 2017.

The folks that are trafficking and supplying it, we have to really work hard to put them out of business, HPD Chief Thurman Whisnant said in the August article.

In the same article, Catawba County Sheriffs Office Capt. Jason Reid discussed the Castlight report.

I dont care about (the study), because what I try to tell our drug investigators is yeah, thats terrible for us to be number five in the nation, but we need to have the mentality that were number one, Reid said previously. Theres nothing to brag about; everyone is on the list somewhere.

Police officers across the county, and countless organizations, work tirelessly to save lives and tackle the epidemic.

As Baer said, one overdose is too many. Regardless of your love or passion for Hickory, its OK to admit there is a problem; thats the first step in fixing it.

Jon LaFontaine is the editor of the Hickory Daily Record.
For almost 60 days now, anganwadi workers (AWWs) and helpers (AWHs) in Delhi have been on strike protesting low wages. They have won a partial victory with the Delhi government announcing a doubling of their salaries from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 9,678 per month for AWWs and Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 4,839 per month for AWHs. However, the workers union continues to be on strike demanding to see the Gazette Notification on wage increase as well as immediate payment of wages that have been delayed. The workers concerns need to be addressed urgently, not only for their sake but also for the sake of the children and women who are beneficiaries of the governments Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme.

Anganwadi workers are responsible for providing a number of vital services including pre-school education, supplementary nutrition, nutrition counselling, growth monitoring, and so on. Anganwadis are part of the ICDS, a centrally-sponsored scheme whose norms are set by the Government of India and costs are currently shared on a 60:40 basis (Centre:States). Although AWWs/Hs perform some of the most important services at the frontline level, the central government has always maintained that they are voluntary workers and therefore what they are paid is an honorarium and not a salary. The honorariums were revised last by the government in 2011 to Rs. 3,000 for workers and Rs. 1,500 for helpers. Many state governments make additional contributions to this amount.

Experts as well as activists have highlighted that these workers are overburdened and underpaid. AWWs/Hs also work under very hostile conditions: infrastructure is poor; the supply of food (through central contracts in most places) is irregular and of poor quality, education material is inadequate, honorarium is delayed and so on. In such conditions what is ultimately affected are the services for young children, pregnant and lactating women.

The issues that the workers are raising in Delhi are relevant to most parts of the country. While a number of state governments have recently increased workers wages, this is not enough. The central government needs to step in and ensure that the workers are paid at least minimum wages. Since 2015, the central budget for ICDS has been stagnant and decreasing in real terms.

AWWs have been short-changed by the system for long and the Delhi government must do everything it can to win their trust. They must make all efforts to convince the workers that their concerns are being taken on board. The longer the strike continues the longer young children are denied the food, care and education due to them. It is in the interest of young children and their mothers that this matter is urgently resolved.

India has among the highest child malnutrition rates in the world and poorest learning outcomes. Both these need sustained efforts in improving early childcare services which the anganwadi centres provide. AWWs/Hs are the backbone of this system and their role needs to be acknowledged. If governments are serious about protecting rights of young children, they must respect the role that frontline workers such as AWWs/Hs play. The first step towards this would be to remunerate them adequately.

Dipa Sinha teaches at School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University DelhiThe views expressed are personal
A case was filed against actor Rishi Kapoor on Saturday for posting pornographic material on his Twitter account.

Afroz Malik, President of Jai Ho Foundation NGO said: We would request you to immediately register an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor under relevant sections of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and IT Act for posting indecent, nude and vulgar picture of a minor child on his Twitter account @chintskap.

However, police later clarified that they have not lodged any FIR against the actor and the Cyber Crime cell has registered a complaint. The complaint has been lodged at the Cyber Police station of Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra East. Jai Ho Foundation is a Maharashtra based NGO registered under Women and Child Development Department of the state.

On Saturday the veteran actor posted a video where it shows that a little boy spanking a girl and fooling around with another boy.

The statement further reads: Rishi Kapoor has more than 2.6 Million followers on Twitter account. This means this pornographic image material got circulated to more than 2.6 Million people. There are more than 66 retweets and 476 likes as of now on his this indecent image.
Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor landed in controversy after posting a nude photo of a child on his Twitter account, following which an NGO filed a written complaint with the Mumbai Cyber Police.

Initially, the reports suggested the NGO had filed an FIR but cops have now clarified that there was no case registered by them.

The actor removed the post within a day of posting it. While sharing his thoughts in a sarcastic way on a social issue, he posted a nude boys photo along with a message. However the method of spreading the message did not go down well with a local Mumbai based NGO who works for underprivileged children.

Actors Rishi Kapoor, Aadar Jain and Film Director Habib Faisal during the special screening of Qaidi Band in Mumbai. (IANS)

They shot a written complaint to the Mumbai Police who forwarded their plaint to the Cyber police station. When contacted a senior police official from Mumbai Police confirmed that a written complaint was received but there was no FIR.

Afroz Malik, President of Jai Ho Foundation NGO said in his complaint: We would request you to immediately register an FIR against actor Rishi Kapoor under relevant sections of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and IT Act for posting indecent, nude and vulgar picture of a minor child on his Twitter account @chintskap.

Rishi Kapoor has more than 2.6 Million followers on Twitter account. This means this pornographic image material got circulated to more than 2.6 Million people. There are more than 66 retweets and 476 likes as of now on his this indecent image, he added.

Jai Ho Foundation is a Maharashtra based NGO registered under Women and Child Development Department of the state.

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At a time when Bollywood is witness to a host of films with fresh and off-beat scripts, another diametrically opposite trend seems to be picking up, too. That of films with stark similarities in their storylines. Sample this: Habib Faizals directorial Qaidi Band that has just released and Nikhil Advanis production, Lucknow Central, slated for a release next month, both narrate the same story of a music band formed inside a prison. Also, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehras upcoming film, Mere Pyaare Prime Minister, addresses the issue of open defecation, just as Akshay Kumars Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

Qaidi Band and Lucknow Central are both about prisoners forming a band inside the jail and trying to escape.

Speaking of why such similarities crop up, Faizal explains, At any given point, filmmakers draw inspiration from what is happening around us  either something disturbs you or something excites you. So there will be an overlap and you cant do anything about it.

Film critic Omar Qureshi agrees, There are so many movies to make and such few stories and thats been the bane of Bollywood. The problem is that when biopics or true stories are told, the danger of someone else making it with a similar thought is even higher.

Faizal states that when he started scripting Qaidi Band, he had no clue of a similar film being made by someone else. He says, Its for the producers to figure out if it does make good business sense to make a similar film. I feel that if both the films are entertaining enough and are able to engage the audience, there will be takers for both.

Padman and Phullu are both based on spreading awareness about low-cost sanitary napkins.

Other recent examples include Akshays 2018 release Padman that talks about a mans endeavour to make low-cost sanitary napkins available for women in his village, and Phullu, which released in June this year, that narrated a similar story. Starring Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadha, the film Jia Aur Jia is about two girls on a road trip, as will be Rhea Kapoors directorial, Veerey Di Wedding, which is yet to be shot. Ayushmann Khurranas Shubh Mangal Savdhaan talks about erectile dysfunction and the 2016 film Fuddu, too, was loosely based on similar lines. Even Indu Sarkar and Baadshaho are both set against the backdrop of emergency in India from 1975-1977.

Mere Pyaare Prime Minister and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha both highlight the issue of open defecation in India.

Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha says two different filmmakers working on a similar storyline is unfortunate. More often than naught, these coincidences are inadvertent. However, they certainly eat into each others business. If the films are of different sizes and budgets, they might not hurt each other. Unless there are four Bhagat Singh biopics being made simultaneously. Those episodes are rare, says Sinha.

Qureshi opines, There are cases wherein a super screenplay and a well made film with the right noise can pull the crowds away from the wannabes. When four movies were released around the legend of Bhagat Singh, even though some of those films may have been decent, fatigue drove the audience away.

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Two days after a CBI court in Panchkula convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 2002 rape case and his followers brought two states (Punjab and Haryana) to a complete standstill, Bollywood actor Twinkle Khanna has held the public responsible for the violence.

The death toll in the violence that followed the announcement of the verdict has risen to 36. As many as 30 persons died in Panchkula and six were killed in Sirsa. Over 250 people were injured and property worth crores of rupees damaged.

In her weekly blog for Times of India, Twinkle wrote that such self-proclaimed godmen are guilty, but the public that keeps them on a pedestal is equally liable.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a helicopter in which he was flown from Panchkula to Rohtak town to lodged in jail on Friday. (PTI)

After outlining the various businesses most self-styled godmen happen to run, the actor-turned-author wrote, But ultimately that is their business both literally and figuratively speaking, and I am fine with it. What really bothers me is how we cut open our skulls and hand them our minds on a plate like the legendary delicacy, monkey brains.

Anyway, all this monkey business reminds me of a certain cheeky monkey and old colleague, Kiku Sharda who was jailed for mimicking the Love Charger. I think he should immediately go to the nearest Chinese restaurant to celebrate, order a beer and tell the waiter, I dont want any monosodium glutamate in my Schezwan chicken, you people should lock away your MSG too. Cheers, she added in her typical style.

Earlier, Twinkle had tweeted, Our fault Babas exist as we turn towards them like silly sunflowers looking for the sun,forgetting that a halo is just a trick of the light!

Our fault Babas exist as we turn towards them like silly sunflowers looking for the sun,forgetting that a halo is just a trick of the light!  Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) August 26, 2017

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Public sector banks have taken loan recovery action under Sarfaesi law against 5,954 wilful defaulters owing about Rs 70,000 crore to the lenders.

At the end of March 31, 2017, 21 banks together have taken action against 5,954 wilful defaulter under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, as per data collated by the Finance Ministry.

The countrys largest lender SBI has taken action against 1,444 such defaulters with outstanding loan of Rs 20,943 crore.

Remaining 20 banks have taken action against 4,510 wilful defaulters with outstanding loan of Rs 48,496 crore.

Total outstanding loans due to public sector banks by wilful defaulters amounted to Rs 92,376 crore, according to the finance ministry data.

The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs 92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, from Rs 76,685 crore at the end of fiscal 2015-16  up 20.4%.

At the same time, there has been close to 10% increase in the number of wilful defaulters on annual basis. It increased to 8,915 at the end of March as against 8,167 in the previous fiscal.

Out of 8,915 cases of wilful defaults, banks have filed FIR (first information report) in 1,914 cases with outstanding loans of Rs 32,484 crore.

During 2016-17, 27 public sector banks, including SBI and its five associates, had written off Rs 81,683 crore, the highest in the last five fiscals. The amount was 41% higher than that in the previous fiscal.

Gross NPAs of the public sector banks rose to Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 as against Rs 5.02 lakh crore a year ago.

In order to check incidences of wilful default, RBI has tightened the norms and made it clear that promoter of the defaulting company cannot escape from his responsibility even if he is not a whole-time director.

As per earlier guidelines, a bank couldnt label a non- whole-time director of a company as a wilful defaulter unless there was conclusive evidence that the individual was aware of the wilful default by the company and had not objected to it.

A wilful default occurs when a borrower does not honour an obligation despite having the capacity to pay or siphons off funds by disposing of assets without the knowledge of the bank, according to RBI.

RBI has allowed banks to name and shame wilful defaulters by publishing their photographs.
It took 138 years, but the remains of what researchers believe were two Northern Cheyenne killed during the historic Fort Robinson Breakout of 1879 have been reunited with their ancestral homelands in southeastern Montana.
A young dera follower pelts stones at security forces on a street. The next moment, he collapses after being hit by a bullet. A 11-second video of the incident has gone viral on internet.

The man in the video was a Dera Sacha Sauda follower, who became a part of the mob that turned violent post conviction of their sects chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case on Friday.

According to doctors, all the 32 agitators who died and most of the 250 injured, were hit by a bullet on the upper part of the body.

By Sunday evening, the post mortem of all bodies, including 4 women, one child and 27 men, were done at Panchkula Civil Hospital.

Cause of death in all the cases was gun-shot injuries in the upper part of the body. We cannot tell exact number as in how many got injuries in head or chest as this is confidential. But all have received injuries in head and chest, said Dr Sunil Gambhir, senior medical officer and forensic expert at Panchkula Civil Hospital.

Sudden Death

In case one receives bullet injuries in limbs, then there is no sudden death. All these were immediate deaths; expect one, who was operated in PGIMER, he added.

The doctor also said that an injured Dera follower told him that the Haryana police did not fire, but paramilitary forces did.

Experienced police officers have called for sparing use of paramilitary forces in such situations as consequences are harsh.

Central paramilitary forces are trained to shoot to kill. This is what they had done as the police was under immense pressure once crowd went out of control, said a former IPS officer who probed the Jat quota agitation in Haryana, adding that this was not an ideal way to deal with the situation.

Firstly, they should have taken preventive measure by not allowing lakhs of people to gather. Then they could have used non-lethal weapons like pellet guns, plastic bullets. Several lives could have been saved this way, he said.

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I urge those who are intent on perceiving instant triple talaq an issue only about the rights of Muslim women, to look back at the history of India. I am sure theyll find the answers for many of their questions there.

Let me begin with an example that pre-dates both Christianity and Islam. When Chandragupta Maurya, born in an ordinary family, assumed power in 321 BC by unseating the Nanda dynasty, which force was at work? It wasnt just the handiwork of Chanakya, who had arrived from faraway Taxila. Believing this theory will be poetic sentimentality. There are dozens of examples in India of a change in government through the instrument of peoples power.

As far as social change is concerned, without going very far, let us begin by discussing sati (widow burning). A vocal advocate for ending this regressive practice and launching a movement in this direction was Raja Ram Mohan Roy. His initiative couldnt have been successful had he not got the backing of the Hindu majority. The British rulers were aware of the contradictions within our society. They were interested in everything that could divide Indians on caste, communal and parochial lines. Despite that they agreed to create a law to abolish the practice of sati since they realised that sooner or later, the majority of the Indian population was bound to boycott it.

The question is, is simply making a law enough to banish social ills?

No, the prevalence of the dowry system is living proof of this misconception. Despite an anti-dowry law existing for a long time, the heinous practice continues even today. And leading the battle with this social ill are not the guardians of our Constitution but ordinary women. You must have read in newspaper reports that a number of brides have turned back the marriage parties of those grooms who were asking for dowry. Of late, in the past few months, we have also read reports where girls have refused to get married if there was no toilet in the grooms residence. Clearly, Indian women are demonstrating that they are capable of paving the way for social reforms on their own.

A large number of women from the Muslim community, who publicly celebrated the verdict on instant triple talaq, are symbolic of this shift in mindset. During this time we also saw a number of men who came out publicly against the practice of instant triple talaq. Hearing the statement of a father on television made me emotional. He is the father of five daughters. Two of them are divorced and the other three are not finding suitors because their elder sisters marriages have broken down. Shayara Bano has emerged as a beacon of hope for such tormented women.

Even for those opposing the triple talaq verdict, our Constitution has the provision of a review petition. If even that is rejected, they can still file a curative petition in an appropriate court. I am not sure about the stand that the judiciary will take, but it is true that changes such as these are like a deluge  once they take shape it is impossible to control them.

Consider the examples of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Within hours of the verdict being delivered, a case was filed in Kanpur against a former woman MLA and five other people for deserting a woman and proclaiming triple talaq when their demand for dowry wasnt met. Similarly Patnas Atiya Fatima, whose doctor husband allegedly divorced her over the phone, has filed a police complaint against instant triple talaq. How many verdicts with such an immediate impact have you seen in the country?

Why dont the few people still making uncharitable remarks about the verdict look at Pakistan and Bangladesh? These are Islamic nations. Pakistan divorced instant triple talaq in 1961 itself. Bangladesh hasnt even bothered to adopt it since the countrys genesis. Clearly, these social malpractices were nurtured in India thanks to the insecurities created by our politicians. The self-styled custodians of religion supported them for selfish gains but the women of India have given them a reality check by winning the judicial battle. Here it is important to clarify that the first country to say no to instant triple talaq was Egypt. In 1929, after a few amendments, it was discarded. The 22 countries that have placed restrictions on this practice include many Muslim nations such as Turkey, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria and Malaysia. Although the verdict in India was delayed, but it was appropriate.

I salute women like Shayara and others trying to bring in social reforms in the country. Their juggernaut will be unstoppable now.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief Hindustanletters@hindustantimes.com
The state government, sitting with more than 8,000 kilos of plastic seized across Delhi since August 17, could face another herculean task soon -- how to dispose of this banned material.

A senior official in the state environment department said that the government was exploring options on how to dispose of these plastic bags. The final call would be, however, taken by the National Green Tribunal as it was on the courts order on August 10 that plastic less than 50 microns was seized and fines imposed.

We cannot just dump them in the landfill sites, nor can we burn them openly as it would trigger heavy pollution. We are exploring all options, said a senior official.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the Bureau of Indian Standards has not laid down any norms or guidelines how to recycle plastic less than 50 microns.

Till August 23, the government, civic bodies and other government bodies had seized around 7,739 kilos of plastic. The amount has now crossed 8,000 kilos.

We have seized around 350 kilos of plastic. We assume the court will surely give some options for disposing of the seized plastic, kept at our store rooms, said senior North DMC officials.

In the past, civic bodies in Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru had faced similar problems when tonnes of plastic were seized. In Thiruvananthapuram, municipal workers had to manually tear the plastic bags to ensure than it didnt reach the markets again.

One of the options could be sending them to waste-to-energy or cement plants where they could be used as coprocessors. But authorities have to be extra cautious about emission norms because burning plastic triggers heavy pollution, said Swati Singh Sambyal, program manager (solid waste) of Centre for Science and Environment.

A second option could be selling to plastic manufacturers through a tendering process. The seized plastic could be turned into pellets, which could be used to manufacture reusable plastic as pen, caps, bottles and boxes.

The SDMC planned to dispose of the seized plastic material as per the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, notified by the Union ministry of environment and forests.

The process would include mixing the plastic with the garbage is small quantity and using as fuel at the waste to energy plant. There is no other option as the quantity of plastic seized so far is not huge and we cant get into the cumbersome process of installing furnace and turning into plastic pellets, said senior official South DMC.

The NGT will hear the matter again on Tuesday.
India has multiple and at times contradictory goals in its relations with Nepal. One is to bring political stability to South Asias poorest and arguably most divided country so that it does not slip back into civil war. The overriding element of this goal, at present, is to ensure Nepals fractious leadership does not pass a Constitution that creates a polity that is permanently biased against its Madhesi population. Its other goal is to persuade the several political elements of Nepalese politics to work together to produce a reasonably functional government and allow India to help the countrys economic development, especially in terms of infrastructure. Finally, and publicly unstated, is New Delhis desire to limit the degree to which Pakistan  which has used Nepal as a conduit for terrorist attacks on India  and China are able to have an influence on the country.

State visits by Nepalese dignitaries, the most recent being that of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, bring the complexity and intimacy of the Indo-Nepalese relationship into focus. The Deuba government has promised to pass the two constitutional amendments that would ensure Nepal does not marginalise the Madhesis and other terai groups. However it is highly doubtful his coalition government will be able to muster the necessary votes. Kathmandu seems set to descend into yet another game of political musical chairs in which the same three or four politicians take turns holding the prime-ministership.

Nepals present situation offers up a set of suboptimal choices. The timeline for passing the constitutional amendments seem likely to be pushed back given Deubas weakness. Therefore New Delhi has urged the Madhesi parties to end their boycott of coming provincial elections, calculating that the loss of political clout outweighs the gains from pressing a gridlocked Kathmandu. The focus of policy has instead switched back to finishing the numerous connectivity and power projects that are still pending between the two countries. These have become more important given Chinas enormous Belt Road Initiative and its implicit use of infrastructure to change the geopolitics of South Asia. The joint statement following Mr Deubas visit is noticeable for the prominence given to such projects. While this policy back-and-forth can be partly understood given the ever changing landscape of the countrys fragile polity, India must remain clear about the overriding priority of ensuring the Nepalese constitution is genuinely inclusive. Without this, Nepals development will carry within it a latent cancer that will in time become destructively malignant.
There is every indication that had the authorities concerned acted in time, the life of the young doctor killed by his stalker who was a colleague in Delhi could have been saved. But the fact that despite complaints, the matter did not receive the seriousness it deserved reveals the general attitude to stalking  in this case perhaps also because the stalker and victim were both male. Last week, in UP a young girls hand was cut off by a stalker. And, of course, we recently had the sensational Chandigarh case where fortunately, the stalker was brought to book thanks to the victims unrelenting pursuit of justice.

The police are often reluctant to take action in stalking cases because the victim cannot claim physical harm until often it is too late. The ambiguity in the law helps offenders get away with the crime. The first offence of stalking is bailable which means the offender need not actually be produced in court. It is a subsequent offence which becomes non-bailable but then again that is up to the discretion of the court. After the gang rape in Delhi in 2012, the Justice Verma committee had recommended that stalking be made a non-bailable offence but it was opposed by the then home minister and several members of the opposition on the rather specious plea that this would be misused against men. Many of our law makers seem to confuse stalking with some form of romantic overture  in many Hindi films the heros persistence in forcing his unwelcome attentions on women is often finally rewarded by her giving in. The message that should go out unequivocally is that stalking is a crime and that there is nothing remotely romantic about it. In many cases, the victim is condemned as having invited unwelcome attention by being out too late or dressing in a particular way. If stalking had been taken as a serious offence and a grave danger to women, there would not have been the patriarchal attitude that boys are given to such antics and that it is all in good fun.

National Crime Records Bureau data shows that at least 18% of all stalking cases take place in Delhi. The womans lack of resistance is seen as encouragement by the stalker to increase his attentions until it becomes physical threats or assault. In the doctors case, though he had actually been assaulted by the stalker the institution where he worked seemed to have been remarkably lax in allowing the offender back on the premises after first suspending him. A similar apathy on the part of the police has meant that thousands of women live in fear of stalkers across the country every day.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable Jaswant Singh (36) of 183 battalion, who was martyred in the Pulwama (J&K) attack on Saturday, was cremated with full state honours at his native village Shekhupur, Farrukhnagar in Gurgaon on Sunday.

The body was wrapped in the Tricolour after it was brought in the bedecked vehicle to his village and a large number of people, including officials of the district administration and those neighbouring areas, paid homage. He was also accorded a gun salute.

The district administration also decided to name a government school in the village after Singh. The demand had been put forward by the village panchayat. Gurgaon deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh agreed to grant the villagers wish to have the village school named after their fallen hero.

Eight security personnel, including four CRPF men, were martyred and seven others injured when a group of terrorists attacked the district police lines (DPL) in south Kashmirs Pulwama district early on Saturday. The terrorist carried out a suicide attack on the DPL, triggering a massive gunfight in which three terrorists were also killed.

Singhs last journey, which began at around 11am from Delhi airport, was attended by local residents, family members, relatives and officials of the district and police administration and CRPF officials.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, senior officials and minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju paid tributes to the martyr.

Raghubir Singh (90), the bravehearts father, had tears in his eyes. His brother Brahm Prakash said he was drafted into the CRPF in 2003 and for last one year, he was posted in Pulwama.

Read I Gurgaon: BSF jawan found dead at Bhondsi camp, suicide suspected

He was fond of travelling and adventure and was liked by all in the village, Prakash said.

Pataudi MLA Bimla Chaudhary, Gurgaon deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh and CRPF DIG Bhanu Pratap Singh were among the dignitaries present at the cremation.

Chaudhary announced a compensation of 50 lakh for the martyrs family. Singh is survived by wife Rekha Devi, who is a constable with Delhi police, daughter Deepika (11) and son Keshav (8).

He was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters.

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With train and bus services across Haryana and Punjab either cancelled or disrupted in the wake of the Dera chiefs conviction, several city residents shuttling between these states are at a loss to figure out alternative commuting options.

Due to safety concerns, nearly 500 trains were suspended by the railways on Sunday and state bus services of Haryana and Punjab, too, were truncated and available on selected routes.

Deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, however, assured residents on Sunday that bus, train and Metro services in the city as usual on Sunday.

Passengers travelling on these routes faced constant hassle, uncertainty and anxiety until they reached their destinations.

With bus plied by Haryana Roadways limited and those of Punjab Roadways off the road, I reached Kashmiri Gate, ISBT, in the hope of catching a ride. Ticket counters of the two transport undertakings were closed and the chances of getting a ride looked slim. After hours of waiting, a Volvo (luxury) bus of Haryana Roadways came to the terminal and agreed to ferry passengers to their destination, Pratyush Jha, a resident of Panchkula, said.

Trains between New Delhi and Chandigarh were also affected. Only Shatabadi trains were available for passengers and they ran to full capacity.

I was fortunate to get a reservation through tatkal booking, as there were no other alternatives. The air fares are inflated and travelling by road is unsafe due to the protests, Supreet Kaur, a resident of Chandigarh, said.

While some were lucky to catch a ride, others couldnt reach their destinations.

Apart from travelling by road, there is no other way to reach Ludhiana. All trains are cancelled and there are no flights either. In this situation, it isnt advisable to travel by road. I am simply biding my time and waiting for a semblance of normality to be restored, Surender Chopra, a resident of Sector 54, said. Surender runs a factory near Ludhiana.

Rajasthan Roadways and Uttrakhand Roadways have also suspended a large number of buses plying towards Haryana and Punjab in the wake of the violence that followed the Dera chiefs conviction.

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How it works Diagnostic laparoscopy is a procedure performed under general anaesthesia that allows a doctor to look inside the abdomen or pelvis with a laparoscope -- a thin viewing tube that is passed into the abdomen through a small incision.

Rama Mahendru, then 42, had uterine fibroids the size of a 30-week foetus, but she had no clue they were even there. Except for weight gain, I had no symptoms, no pain, no bleeding. But nothing I did would rid me of my growing tummy, so in desperation I signed up for an Ayurveda weight-loss programme in Kerala in May last year, she says.

On her first day of therapy, the masseur refused to do a weight-reduction massage saying her stomach felt too hard.

She said something was clearly wrong and I should get an ultrasound, says Mahendru, 43, who is a Delhi-based finance advisor. An ultrasound revealed fibroids weighing a total of more than 2 kg.

To take something out that size would have been almost like having a baby delivered and I really didnt want a big scar across my abdomen, said Mahendru.

She did some online research and learnt that fibroids can be removed using laparoscopic surgery, but given the size of hers, she was still worried. She got several opinions, a third, fourth and fifth, before settling on Dr Malvika Sabharwal, director of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Jeewan Mala and Apollo Spectra Hospital.

Rama Mahendru with Dr Malvika Sabharwal of the Jeewan Mala and Apollo Spectra Hospital. Dr Sabharwal removed Mahendrus uterus laparoscopically, to rid her of massive fibroids. (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

Dr Sabharwal said she could remove the uterus laparoscopically, without cutting me open, and I said yes at once, says Mahendru, who spent just two days in hospital and returned to her normal routine when she got home. It didnt even feel like surgery, she says.

Uterine fibroids are very common and 35% to 60% of women develop some by age 35, with the numbers going up to 70% to 80% by age 50. Symptoms include excessive uterine bleeding, infertility and miscarriages.

Conventional hysterectomy (uterus removal to get rid of fibroids) requires five days in hospital. We now remove the uterus laparoscopically by morcellating (cutting solid tissue into pieces) it under a day-care procedure. Rama was observed for two days after surgery because her fibroids were massive, said Dr Sabharwal.

From diagnosis to cure

Procedures done via laparoscopic surgery include... Hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) Removal of ovaries; ovarian cysts Removal of fibroids; uterine polyps Endometrial tissue ablation (to treat endometriosis) Adhesion removal Reversal of tubal ligation (type of contraceptive surgery)

Over the past decade, laparoscopic surgery has evolved from being a diagnostic aid to evaluate pelvic pain, unexplained infertility, stopping of a menstrual cycle or a history of pelvic infection, to being a major surgical tool used to treat a multitude of gynaecological problems ranging from ectopic pregnancy to masses in the lower abdomen, performing hysterectomies and staging and treating gynaecological cancers.

In 2005, diagnostic laparoscopy accounted for 62.96% of all laparascopic procedures, but by 2012, the ratio had reversed to 26.08% diagnostic procedures and 73.91% operative use, says Dr Sabharwal, president of the Delhi Gynaecological Endoscopists Society, which is currently holding a three-day conference in New Delhi to train doctors from across India. The procedure has several benefits and though its use has grown manifold, laparoscopic surgeries for gynaecological disorders are underused because not enough doctors are trained to do them.

Improved endoscopic devices and growing skill among surgeons is leading to the technique being used for a wide variety of disorders and diseases.

Laparoscopic surgery causes less postoperative pain, enables quicker healing and leads to early recovery, while keeping costs almost at par with conventional surgery by reducing hospital stay to a day at most, instead of five days, says Dr Sabharwal.

Despite the equipment being expensive, the cost of surgery is either at par or about 20% more than conventional surgery, which, coupled with the benefits for the patient, makes it popular among both doctors and patients.

Except for delivering a baby, all gynaecological problems can be fixed using laparoscopic surgery and now awareness is so high that women come asking for it, says Dr Anurita Singh, gynaecologist and medical director of the Divyajyoti Specialities Hospital & Trauma Centre in Meerut.

On Thursday, she operated on a 23-year old woman with severe pain that was diagnosed as endometriosis (abnormal tissue growth outside the uterus) and appendicitis. Both surgeries were done back-to-back, using laparoscopic methods.

You have to upgrade your skills regularly. And if its a technique that helps put your patient back on her feet in six hours instead of many days, without added cost for the patient or the clinic, theres really no reason not to learn, says Dr Singh, who has been doing laparoscopic surgery in Meerut for 12 years.

Widening scope

How surgery is done laparoscopically A 5-mm incision is made near the navel, through which carbon dioxide gas is pumped in order to inflate the abdomen and increase working and viewing space. A laparoscope is then inserted through the incision to relay images from inside the abdomen to a monitor in the operating room. Two to three more tiny incisions (depending on the surgery) are made and the surgeon operates through these laparoscopic cuts while monitoring the surgery in real time on the monitor. After the procedure, the carbon dioxide is released, the incisions are closed using staples and dressing is applied.

It works very well for people with diabetes and obesity as the procedure is done through 5-mm ports and the lower abdominal trauma leads to faster recovery, said Dr Tripat Choudhary, director of obstetrics and gynaecology at Fortis La Femme, New Delhi.

The only people who should not opt for it are people with heart disease and compromised lungs because filling up the abdominal cavity with gas (carbon dioxide to increase working and viewing space) can put pressure on the diaphragm and compromise the heart and lungs, she adds.

While laparoscopic surgery is the procedure of choice in most private hospitals and large super-specialty public hospitals, Dr Choudhary does not foresee it being widely used in small government hospitals or private clinics with fewer patients, however.

The equipment is expensive and its maintenance can be a problem in the government sector, where getting replacements and disposables quickly remains a huge problem because of procurement protocols. In smaller clinics, making a huge investment in equipment does not make financial sense unless you use it extensively for several types of surgeries, says Dr Choudhary.

Laparoscopy is a learned technique that requires a unique set of surgical skills and instruments that an experienced surgeon trained in conventional surgery can automatically acquire, adds Dr Sabharwal. Unless more doctors train, laparoscopic surgery will only be available in large city hospitals  and that shouldnt be the case.

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RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Sunday joined 18 national parties to issue a joint call to all anti-BJP forces to close ranks to save the country from the communal and divisive BJP and its unholy intention to gobble up India by breaking alliances and parties by underhand means, as it did in Bihar.

Lalu Prasad accused the Centre of launching a witch hunt against anybody who opposed it by misusing the central investigate agencies, but said he would not be cowed down.

Addressing the Desh Bachao, Bhajpa bhagao (Save the nation, drive out BJP) rally at the sprawling Gandhi Maidan in the heart of Patna, he said parties proving to be inconvenient to the BJP at the Centre were facing witch hunts and their leaders threatened through misuse of central investigating agencies.

This rally will redefine the direction national politics will take hereon, he declared.

Lalu Prasad, a former Bihar chief minister, was joined by TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and five ex-chief ministers -- Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), Hemant Soren of the JMM, RJD leader Rabri Devi and Ghulam Nabi Azad of Jammu and Kashmir -- besides D Raja of the CPI and Sharad Yadav of the JD(U).

The JD(S) and the RLD also joined the show of strength against the BJP and the Nitish Kumar-led government.

BSP chief Mayawati, Congresss Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, CPI-Ms Sitaram Yechury were among the notable absentees, taking some sheen off the opposition unity rally, though the messages of the two Congress leaders were played on screen and senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad filled the party spot.

The rally was also seen as an attempt by the RJD chief and his family, faced with cases of CBI, ED and Income Tax, to launch his heir apparent, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the former deputy chief minister in the grand alliance cabinet led by chief minister Nitish Kumar.

It was the CBI FIR filed against Tejashwi over a benami deal and his refusal to come clean in public or resign, as demanded by Nitish Kumar that brought down the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance government on July 26, with the JD(U) joining the BJP.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, and Akhilesh Yadav at the RJD rally in Patna. (HT photo / Santosh Kumar)

Sharad Yadav, who risked expulsion from the JD(U) by attending the meet, said, The state of politics is such that even my shadow has rebelled against me. Its a travesty that there is no commitment to truth left in politics today But I am not afraid and will fight to save the country from divisive forces till my last breath, he said.

He said the Mahagathbandhan was a mandate created by the people, which was insulted, yet he did not carry any grievance against those who brought it down.

Democracy should use the bedrock of truth to carry on, otherwise it collapses, he said, adding, The call for the national unity meet was consciously placed in Bihar.

He warned that the sacrifices and values of the forefathers on which the country was built was on the verge of destruction and it was necessary for all to come forward to.

Lalu Prasad focused his speech mostly on CM Nitish Kumars clandestine deal with the BJP and breaking ranks with the grand alliance.

He called Nitish Kumar an unprincipled and untrustworthy person but refrained from taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I am a Bhola baba, who made Nitish the CM, trusting him. But he broke our trust and his realignment with the BJP would prove to be his nemesis as the BJPs Amit Shah has taken him in his grip like an elephant folds a person in his trunk, Lalu Prasad said.

He (Nitish Kumar) is jealous of my son Tejashwi and was in the know of the CBI raids at my house in connection with the land for hotel scam, he said , adding, All details of my property is in public domain.

Mamata Banerjee, in a fiery speech, launched a broadside at the BJP for misusing federal agencies to harass regional parties and gave a call to oust the party from power in the 2019 polls.

The BJP government is of the agencies, for the agencies, by the agencies. They have put my parliamentary party leader in jail. But we are not going to be intimidated. How many of us would they put in jail? she asked, amid a thunderous response from the crowd.

Banerjee thanked the RJD chief for his initiative of opposition unity, saying she had full faith on Lalu Prasad, but took potshots at Nitish Kumar for the leaving the grand alliance.

The BJP-led government at the Centre is now interfering in all matters, be it food habits, religion or dress code. It seems they have made god a party member. Would they now give us a certificate that we are Hindus? she asked.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also castigated the Modi government for playing up the rhetoric of achche din and doing little to ameliorate the condition of the poor, farmers and youths.

Now, the BJP has changed its tagline from achche din to new India, realising they have failed to fulfil their promises. But such gimmicks will no longer befool the people of India, he said.

Akhilesh, who suffered a defeat in UP a few months back, also flayed the practice by the BJP to misuse agencies to victimise rivals, referring to the inquiry set up by the Yogi Adityanath government on the Gomti riverfront beautification scheme.

I am also in the club of those being inquired into, he quipped, evoking a big cheer from the crowd.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke against indulging in violence in the name of faith as clashes across Haryana claimed over 30 lives after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape trial.

Addressing the nation on the 35th episode of his monthly radio programme Mann ki Baat, Modi said violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated, and those who take the law in their hands will not be spared  whoever they are.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister had condemned the violence in Panchkula district of Haryana. He termed these instances as deeply disturbing in a tweet.

The instances of violence today are deeply distressing. I strongly condemn the violence & urge everyone to maintain peace.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 25, 2017

Heres a look at some occasions when PM Modi talked tough on various issues:

COW VIGILANTES

August 6-7, 2016

Modi lashed out at self-styled cow protectors twice in a span of two days and condemned fake vigilantes who want to create turmoil in the name of cow protection.

On the second occasion, the Prime Minister said at a public meeting in Telangana that people should beware of fake cow protectors. Asking state governments to take action against such elements, he said: Fake gau rakshaks have nothing to do with cows. They want to create tension in society.

A day earlier, Modi had said at a town hall meeting in New Delhi that people who have set up shop in the name of gau raksha make him very angry. This was the first time Modi had commented on the raging controversy over cattle-related attacks against Muslims and Dalits ever since he became the Prime Minister.

A few hours after the event, the Prime Minister also tweeted on the issue: The sacred practice of cow worship & the compassion of gau seva cant be misused by some miscreants posing as gau rakshaks .

June 29, 2017

Modis next statement on the matter came a year later, following widespread protests across the country against lynchings and violence by cow vigilantes. Modi condemned the escalation in mob attacks on cattle traders, beef eaters and dairy farmers during an event at Ahmedabads Sabarmati Ashram.

Modi invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave to condemn violence, and expressed his pain and unhappiness over the atmosphere of violence  being created in the name of cow protection.

The Constitution teaches us its (cow protections) importance. But do we get the right to kill a human (to save cows)? Is this how we worship the cow? Is this cow protection? This cannot be the path of Bapu. Vinoba Bhaves life doesnt convey this message to us.

BLACK MONEY

November 13, 2016

Days after announcing the demonetisation of high currency notes to tackle black money, the Prime Minister warned of further action against people holding illicit cash .

I would like to announce once again that after the end of this scheme, there is no guarantee that something new will not be introduced to punish you (the corrupt), Modi said in an address to members of the Indian community in Kobe, Japan.

February 10, 2017

Addressing a public rally in Haridwar, the Prime Minister warned Congress leaders to mind their language because he possesses dossiers containing proof of their iniquities, which he was quite capable of disclosing. Modi also threatened to take legal action against their corrupt regime in Uttarakhand.

This corrupt (Congress) regime has sullied the name of the land of gods (Uttarakhand) very badly, and its sanctity needs to be restored, the Prime Minister said. The public meeting was meant to launch the last phase of the BJPs campaign for the state polls, which the party eventually won.

BJP MPs NOT ATTENDING PARLIAMENT

August 10, 2017

Earlier this month, a fuming Modi indicated to BJP MPs that they may not get an opportunity to contest the next Lok Sabha polls if they continue absenting themselves from Parliament, NDTV reported.

The Prime Minister said at a BJP parliamentary meeting that the party was bigger than any individual, and wondered why MPs should have to be reminded about the need to attend Parliament.

What are you and me? The party is everything... You do what you want to, I will see in 2019, PM Modi was quoted as saying. The next Lok Sabha elections will be held that year.
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Security forces gunned down the three militants who stormed a police complex in south Kashmirs Pulwama, a senior police official announced on Sunday, a day after the attack that killed eight jawans.

All three terrorists involved in the police lines #Pulwama attack have been eliminated. Salute to the sacrifices of our brave hearts, tweeted deputy inspector general of police, south Kashmir, SP Pani.

The ambush began before dawn on Saturday when the militants stormed the police complex that also houses residential buildings, leading to a siege that went on for the entire day.

Four policemen and an equal number of CRPF personnel were killed in the attack.

Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility, though police is yet to identify the militants involved.

A wreath laying ceremony for two of the CRPF men  Constable Borase Dinesh Dipak from Gujarat and Constable Mohammad Yasin Teli from Baramulla district in north Kashmir  was held in the morning on Sunday at regional training centre, Humhama, Srinagar.

Tributes were paid to the other two CRPF constables, Ravindra Baban Dhanawade of Maharashtra and constable Jaswant Singh of Haryana, on Saturday evening.

The J&K policemen killed in the shootout were Imtiyaz Ahmad, Mohammad Yousuf Hajam, Rafiq Ahmad Hajam and Amarjeet Singh. Their wreath-laying ceremony was held in district police lines Awantipora on Saturday.

In a tweet, Armys Chinar Corps commander and all ranks saluted the martyred CRPF & JKP personnel & offers heartfelt condolences to the families.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the killings and conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families.

Violence of last three decades or more has taken a heavy toll on the people of the State in terms of death and destruction, tearing apart of the social fabric, inflicting massive economic, academic and other losses besides the irreparable loss of human lives, she said in a statement.

Opposition National Conference expressed sadness and rued the futility of violence.

Thoughts & prayers with families of those who have lost their lives in DPL Pulwama attack. Nothing good has or will come from violence. Sad, tweeted Junaid Azim Matoo, NC spokesman.
Villagers beat to death two Muslim men who were on a vehicle transporting cattle in the early hours of Sunday morning, an assault the police said could have been instigated by so-called cow protection vigilantes.

The attack took place at a village in Jalpaiguri district, around 622 kilomteres from Kolkata, shortly after 2:30am on Sunday.

This the second case of cow-related lynching in West Bengal in the last two months after three Muslim youth were beaten to death in June.

Such attacks, ostensibly under the pretext of protecting cows, have increased in recent months with critics pointing the finger at Bharatiya Janata Party. The Prime Ministers party has been accused of going soft on such attackers, since protection of the cow is seen as a largely Hindu agenda.

The place of the attack was Dadon, a small village just 15 kilometres from Dhupguri town in Jalpaiguri. On being informed, the police rushed to the spot and found the bodies of the two victims who appear to be in their mid-thirties, said a district police official. The area where the incident took place is close to the Indio- Bangladesh border at Falakata.

The victims were identified as Hafizul Sheikh, a resident of Dhubri, Assam, and Anwar Hussain, a resident of Patlahawa village in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal.

It was not clear if they were cattle smugglers or legitimate traders who purchased the cows from a nearby cattle market. We are also investigating if this lynching was because of spontaneous rage of the villagers or conducted by any organised group under the garb of public rage, the district police official said.

The additional director general (law & order), Anuj Sharma, did not comment on the issue but a senior police official said on condition of anonymity that cow vigilante groups have become increasingly active in certain pockets in north Bengal.

Police are yet to make any arrests.

According to the statement by the driver, who escaped the attack, the group lost its way while passing through the area and started driving in circles.

Probably, that alerted local villagers, who first tried to stop the van. When the driver tried to dodge them and speed out, the villagers blocked the way and forced them to stop. Though the driver somehow managed to escape, the two victims could not and were ultimately lynched by the angry villagers, a police officer said.
After the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted of rape, police have sealed his properties in various parts of Haryana and seized weapons and combustible materials. Affected areas in Haryana and Punjab on Sunday morning were peaceful as security forces remained on high alert, officials said. Curfew was withdrawn in Panchkula.



Here are the other highlights of the day:

4:32 pm: Services of bulk messages and mobile internet suspended in Kaithal, ahead of sentencing of Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh on Monday.

Broadband, internet lease lines in premises of Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa suspended till 29 Aug ahead of #RamRahimSingh's sentencing #Haryana  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

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4:21 pm: Schools, colleges, educational institutions in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal and Ambala to remain closed on Monday.

#Haryana: Section 144 to remain in effect in Ambala till further orders. #RamRahimVerdict  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

3:42 pm : 12 dera followers booked for sedition in Panipat, arrested

The Panipat police on Sunday booked twelve people on sedition charges for allegedly giving provocative speeches and instigating followers of the dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The accused, identified as Munish Insa, Boby Insa, Subhash Kumar Insa, Bhupendra Insa, Jitendra, Suresh and a woman Bunty from Samalkha of Panipat, have been already arrested. The police said the accused have been booked under sections 124-A, (sedition), 144 (joining unlawful assembly with weapon), 153-A (to provoke with intent to cause riot), 149, 506 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.

Police sources said they have arrested all eight, including the girl whose video had gone viral on the social media making anti-national comments during a meeting of Dera followers on August 20 at Panipat. Panipat DSP Atma Ram said they held a meeting on August 20 and police had accessed the video in which they made anti-national comments.

3:41 pm: Train operations in Punjab and Haryana, severely affected by violence in two states, have been restored, except in the Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section, a railway ministry statement said on Sunday. The security clearance for the section is awaited from state authorities, it said.

Twenty five train services which were halted due to issues of rake balancing and availability had not been restored. The railway also asked passengers to check the railways online or telephonic enquiry facilities to find about trains status.

3:11 pm: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday assured of peace in the violence-hit areas of the state while adding that the curfew will continue.

We understand the safety of the people of Punjab. The arrangements were made before hand. There is peace in our state since the court had convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim. Now, along with the Haryana DGP, we are going towards southern Punjab, where Dera Sacha Sauda supporters have a greater hold, to check if everything is all right there. The curfew will continue and any decision on relaxation or lifting it will be taken only after reviewing the situation, Amarinder Singh told ANI.

3:09 pm: No relaxation in curfew on Sunday. It will be imposed throughout the day: Sirsa deputy commissioner Prabhjot Singh to ANI



Number of followers inside Dera is dropping.They are leaving for their homes& we are helping them: #Sirsa Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh pic.twitter.com/6YpSoDhkGR  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

1:56 pm: Police have identified 20 of the 38 dera followers who died in Panchkula and Sirsa. 13 are from Haryana, 7 from Punjab

1:52 pm: Mobile internet and data services will remain suspended in Punjab and Haryana for another 48 hours. The mobile internet and data services will remain suspended in both Punjab and Haryana till 11 am on August 29, Haryana additional chief secretary, home, Ram Niwas told Hindustan Times.

He said the administration has decided to suspend broadband services also in Sirsa where the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarter is located.

12:50 pm: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign taking responsibility for the violence, Congress president Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra said on Sunday.

12:17 pm: A 35-year-old cameraman of a news channel attacked allegedly by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after he tried to enter the campus of the sect.

Was shooting when curfew was relaxed. Ppl outside Dera chased&beat us up with stones&batons. Snatched camera bag,Live-U&vehicle:Media person pic.twitter.com/OsOL8lY52Z  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

11:35 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemns Dera violence. The entire country is in sorrow due to the violence. I want to make it clear that no one has the right to violate law and order in the name of faith, the Prime Minister said, without categorically mentioning the Friday violence after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

11:26 am: Curfew reimposed in Sirsa, reports ANI

11:12 am: During festival time when reports of violence come, it is natural to get concerned: PM Narendra Modi in Mann Ki Baat

Those who take the law in their hands or take to violence will not be spared, whoever they are: PM Modi  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

11:07 am: Trains affected due to law and order situation in Haryana and Punjab resumed after receiving security clearance from authorities, the Railways said on Sunday. All the trains on Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh, Moradabad-Saharanpur-Ambala sections have been resumed with immediate effect, Northern Railways spokesman Neeraj Sharma said. However, security clearance for Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section is still awaited and 25 trains are yet to be resumed, he said.

11:00 am: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to visit to Mansa, Bhatinda to take stock of the situation.

10:40 am: Mediaperson beaten up,vehicle vandalised in Sirsa: ANI

10:32 am: Affected areas in Haryana and Punjab on Sunday morning were peaceful as security forces remained on high alert, officials said. Curfew was withdrawn in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, which saw the maximum violence on Friday.

10:21 am: Curfew withdrawn in Kaithal town of Haryana.

10:13 am: The death toll in the violence has risen to 36. (IANS)

9:56 am: RamRahims bodyguards wanted to take him in his car,but as he was convicted, we said he will be taken in police car: Haryana DGP

There was an argument and finally he was taken in the police vehicle. We arrested the bodyguards who misbehaved: Haryana DGP BS Sandhu pic.twitter.com/JGEo9wE65P  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

9:40 am : The district administration has relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here, after restrictions were imposed on August 24. Petrol pumps, shops and other commercial establishments were allowed to open in the area.

I was not able to purchase essential items for my household since Thursday night due to imposition of curfew. I will buy sufficient stock of such items, Surender Soni, a resident of Begu area near Dera headquarters said.

Curfew-like restrictions were imposed here on Thursday in view of the rape case judgement against sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
Defence minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said owing to its geographical location, India had to always remain prepared to defend itself as it is our best defence.

It is a harsh reality in todays world that India, due to its geographical location, has to remain prepared. Our defence preparedness itself is our best defence, he said in Hyderabad.

Jaitley added that even though the entire country had confidence in the armed forces, which represented some of the best traditions anywhere in the world, as part of our preparedness, we obviously need to equip our forces with all the support system they require.

The Union minister was here to attend an event marking the handing over of a long range surface-to-air missile to the Indian Navy.

On the occasion, Jaitley said Indians were now capable of offering services to other developed economies at a cheaper price.

There is hardly any country in the developed world, where the presence of Indian minds is not visible, be it in the field of medicine, science or technology. And therefore, not only do we have a large human resource pool, we have surplus resources which serve other countries too, he added.

The defence minister said Indias resources, compared to other economies in the world, were available at a very competitive price.

That being a reality, over the last few decades we have seen some of the best companies -- be it pharmaceutical or IT - shifting their research and development bases to India, he added.

Jaitley also took part in a number of programmes, including the ground-breaking ceremony of the second phase of facility creation at the Bharat Dynamics Limiteds (BDL) Ibrahimpatnam unit and inauguration of the ASTRA weapon system production at the BDLs Bhanur unit.
Tamil Nadus principal opposition party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Sunday urged governor Vidyasagar Rao to direct chief minister K Palaniswami to prove his majority in the assembly as the running feud in the AIADMK got murkier ahead of a crucial meet of the ruling party.

The DMK upped its ante even as one more AIADMK legislator joined the rebel camp led by partys ousted deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran, who now claims to have the support of 21 MLAs.

The fresh mutiny was triggered after Palaniswami and former chief minister O Panneerselvam buried the hatchet and merged their rival AIADMK factions last Monday.

The group-led by Dinakaran opposed the reunion and threatened to rock the Palaniswami government by galvanizing his sleeper cells within the AIADMK.

The raging war is all set to escalate further with Palaniswami- Panneerselvam combine convening a meeting of the party office bearers, MLAs, MPs on Monday where a resolution to unseat their jailed chief VK Sasikala, who was convicted of corruption this February, could be adopted.

The rebel MLAs, gravitating towards Sasikalas nephew Dinakaran, threatened violence if she is ousted.

Sasikala, the long-time live-in aide of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, reportedly still wield considerable influence in the party.

Dinakaran supporter Thanga Tamilselvan told reporters there will be violence in the party office if such a resolution was passed.

The rebel MLAs also given governor a two-day deadline to take a decision on their demand of a trust vote as they had withdrawn support to the chief minister.

Rebel MLAs are camping in neighbouring Puducherry and are expected to stay there for another week.

Amid the internal strife in the ruling party, a DMK delegation led by senior leader Durai Murugan called on the governor to press for a floor test.

The governor assured the delegation that he would act in the best interests of the constitution after examining all the legal aspects of the situation.

The DMK delegation spent some 15 minutes with the governor.

DMK working president MK Stalin, addressing a gathering at Thiruvarur, constituency of his father M Karunanidhi, said his party would move a court if the governor does not convene an assembly session immediately to conduct the floor test.

The government has lost legitimacy and has no right to stay in office even for a second, he said.

Refuting the charges that his party was trying to grab power through the backdoor, Stalin said the AIADMK government would fall because of its internal conflict and that the DMK will have nothing to do with it.

Incidentally, to save the government chief minister Palanisami and his deputy Panneerselvam have reportedly devised a strategy to get some DMK legislators suspended for breach of privilege.

Under focus are some 20 DMK MLAs, including Stalin, for carrying banned ghutka products into assembly to highlight the issue of poor implementation of ban on the tobacco products in the state.

Meanwhile, Dinakaran continued with his sacking spree and removed several AIADMK leaders from party posts on Sunday.

Among the leaders axed by Dinakaran so far is Palanisami from the post of the partys Salem district chief, a position to which he was appointed by late Jayalalithaa.

G Venkatachalam, a supporter of chief minister, said Dinakaran did not have the power to remove anyone from anywhere. These appointments were made by Amma and so these would continue.

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Floods have cut off rail link between the Northeast and the mainland since August 13, hurting the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in its best revenue year, besides depleting the stock of essentials across the region.

Damage to tracks has enforced a blockade that has again put the spotlight on alternative rail routes for bailing out the Northeast during emergencies.

Unlike other zones, NFR, catering primarily to eight landlocked north-eastern states besides parts of Bihar and West Bengal, is dependent on passenger traffic for revenue.

For the first time in decades, NFR topped all zones across the country to record 12.2% growth in passenger traffic between January and July this year. Passenger earnings too increased by 7.73% to touch Rs 1,009.40 crore during this period.

But two breaches on the arterial track near Telta and Sudhani stations in Bihar (between Kishanganj in Bihar and Malda in West Bengal) on August 13 came as a dampener for NFR, which has lost more than Rs 40 crore in revenue since.

The loss could cross Rs 50 crore by August 31, when the railway line is expected to be repaired for movement of trains.

Our goods traffic is mostly inbound, which means there is hardly any loading of goods in the Northeast. Our revenue is thus passenger-dependent, said NFR spokesperson Pranav Jyoti Sharma.

From August 13-20, NFR lost Rs 23.77 crore because of cancellation of 284 trains.

FCI stocks depleting

The nature-enforced railway blockade has hit Manipur  a victim of blockades by NGOs for long  the most.

As on August 20, Manipur had only a days stock of foodgrains and sugar procured by Food Corporation of India (FCI) via the railways. Mizoram followed with 11 days stock, Assam with 13, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland with 14 each, Tripura with 27 and Meghalaya with 29 days stock.

The next assessment of stock will be done on Tuesday.

FCIs total storage capacity for foodgrains and sugar in the Northeast is 563,557 million tonnes.

According to the Kamrup Chamber of Commerce, the most influential trade body in the region, FCI warehouses being low on essentials is no cause for panic.

Private players have sufficient quantity of essential commodities to last more than two months. Merchants are also bringing in goods by road. But the problem is NFR has halted continuous loading of wagons because of the disruption, said the chambers president, Mahavir Jain.

Unlike FCI, merchants across the Northeast bring in only 30% of their goods by trains

NFR officials handling freight admitted 109 rakes, 10 of them for FCI, were stopped from being loaded in commodities hubs across the country. This was because 100 Northeast-bound rakes were not able to enter the NFR system for unloading at specific destinations in the region.

A rake has a maximum 52 wagons that are booked by a single or group of merchants. NFR handles an average 630 inbound rakes per month.

The freight service has been affected because the Guwahati-headquartered NFRs three goods interchange points  Purnea, Katihar and Malda  are beyond the stretches where the tracks have been damaged.

Katihar and Purnea cater primarily to rice and wheat from northern India, while Malda is the interchange point for freight trains bringing in potatoes, onions, sugar, and fertiliser from western, central and southern India besides the ports on the Bay of Bengal.

Security concern for oil rakes

Seven loaded oil rakes stranded in northern West Bengal have raised security concerns for NFR. The railway zone has sought extra security fearing sabotage and pilferage of high-speed diesel and superior kerosene oil from these rakes.

NFR moves an average 120 oil rakes per month. Some of them are loaded from the four refineries in Assam and some from two pipeline points in northern Bengal connected to two of these refineries. Each rake has 3,000 tonnes of diesel or kerosene, a senior commercial manager said, declining to be named.

The vulnerability of the oil tankers increases manifold if they are stationary.

Alternative tracks

The Chickens Neck, a narrow strip of land in West Bengal connecting the Northeast to mainland India, allows little scope for alternative railway tracks.

This disaster should make NFR give serious thought to laying tracks that can be relied upon during times of crisis. The railways has been delaying a few such projects, Jain said.

NFR officials, however, disagreed, claiming work on one such broad gauge project  the 110.75 km Araria-Galgalia line in north-eastern Bihar  was started after a budget grant of Rs 150 crore during the 2016-17 fiscal.

The progress of work on this new line, estimated to cost Rs 838 crore has been 2% till date, according to an NFR officer.

A grant of Rs 10 crore was also provided for another project, the 50.87 km Jalalgarh-Kishanganj line in Bihar, but work has not started yet, said the officer. The anticipated cost for Jalalgarh-Kishanganj is Rs 565 crore.

If we had either of these two lines, all goods and passenger trains could have been diverted, the officer said.

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Four civilians, including a woman and a boy, were injured in unprovoked indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday evening, officials said.

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire in the Shahpur sector around 6 pm by firing from light to heavy weapons for nearly 45 minutes, they said.

We have received information that about four persons were injured in Pakistani firing and they are being evacuated to a hospital, district development commissioner, Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar said.

According to a police official, Jameel Ahmad (45) and Parvaiza Akhtar (20) of Bandichichi and Javaid Hussain (24)and 14-year-old Mohammad Qasim of Kaswa village were injured in the firing.

The injured were given first-aid locally and then sent to a district hospital, the official said.

He said the troops guarding the LoC retaliated to silence the Pakistani guns and the exchange of fire caused panic among the border residents.

This is the first ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch sector after senior commanders of Army from both sides held a flag meeting at the LoC on August 24 in an attempt to de-escalate tension.

However, there has been firing from across the international border in the Jammu area in recent days. The latest violation comes barely a day after the BSF said that it had killed at least three Pakistani rangers after the other side indulged in unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak border in the Pargwal area of Jammu.

The situation along the international border in Jammu was peaceful today and there was no report of any violation reported from anywhere, a BSF officer said.

A day earlier, a BSF constable K K Appa Rao was hit by a sniper round in the nearby RS Pora sector when the Pakistani side took a direct aim at him while he was drinking water.

The two border guarding forces, on July 17, had held a commandant-level flag meeting in the Samba sector and committed themselves to maintaining peace.

In the flag meeting, the two sides had agreed to re-energise instant communication between field commanders to resolve petty matters.

Incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan have risen sharply this year.

Till August 1, there were 285 such violations by the Pakistan Army, while in 2016, the number was significantly lower at 228 for the entire year, according to army figures.
Eleven members of a family died when their jeep collided with a truck near on Sunday morning, police said.

The accident, in which one person was injured, took place near Tagdi village of Ahmedabad district.

Eleven members of a Mumbai-based family, including five women, died, while one teenage boy was critically injured in the accident on the Dhandhuka-Barwala Road this morning, said District Superintendent of Police R V Asari.

Preliminary investigations revealed the jeep driver lost control and the vehicle went onto the wrong side of the road, resulting in a head-on collision with the truck coming from the opposite direction, he said.

The family was headed towards Vallabhipur, their native place (in Bhavnagar district). On the way, it appears the driver fell asleep at the wheel, following which the jeep went onto the wrong side of the road. Prima facie, the truck driver was not at fault, said Asari.
A mix of aggression, elation, hope, anger, disappointment, and insecurity marks the mood of Bihar, exactly a month after Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister, in a new avatar, with the BJP.

Nitish junked the Grand Alliance that trounced the BJP two years ago and returned to his old ally after weeks of tensions over graft allegations against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son.

The realignment in Patna has catalysed a new round of social churning on the ground. On the one hand, the coalition of extremes - of upper castes and backwards - represented by the BJP-Nitish combine is back. On the other, the old social base of Lalu Prasad - of Muslims and Yadavs - is stronger than before, says eminent social scientist, Saibal Gupta. This is most visible on the ground.

aggression and hope

If there is one constituency which is the most elated, and the most aggressive, it is the upper-castes.

In the Buxar bazaar, Narayan Upadhyay runs a shop selling construction material. A Brahmin, he voted for BJP in the 2014 and 2015 elections, and says, Bihar slipped in the last two years. We remember the dark days of Lalus rule. RJD cadre bully their way around, the administration is helpless, and Lalu is corrupt.

Nitish, he argued, had made a mistake in breaking with BJP - and was correcting that mistake.

But while Upadhyay framed his support in terms of development and law and order, others see it in terms of raw power.

Angad Rai is a Rajput farmer in Chillhari village. Sitting on his tractor on the Buxar-Bhojpur road, he says, After Nitish-Lalu alliance, these backwards had become too big. This will show them their aukad (standing). We are back in power.

The other end of this alliance is represented by those like Tapeshwar Singh, an auto mechanic in Muzaffarpur district.

A Kuswaha, which is among the backward castes, he says, Nitish did the right thing. He and Lalu were pulling the government in different directions. Under Lalu, Yadavs become too dominant. We will get more space in this government. An old voter of Nitish Kumar, Singh had shifted to BJP in the last election.

The disappointment

But precisely for the reason Singh is hopeful, Dilip Yadav is furious. As one turns at the end of the newly inaugurated Digha-Sonepur bridge into Saran district, Yadav is idly staring at the cars running past him.

I am a Yadav. I support my side. Didnt Nitish know two years back Lalu was tainted? Why did he ally with him then? Because he knew he would lose otherwise. He is a traitor.

How does the change at the top affect people like him? He replies, When RJD is in power, I can walk into the secretariat. There are often fights with upper castes, who trap us in false cases. If we have someone in government, forwards are cautious. We have the upper hand. All that is over.

Yadavs had been out of the power structure between 2005 and 2013, and in the last poll, swallowed their pride to vote for Nitish as they saw it as the route to re-enter Patnas secretariat. The door, they think, is closed again.

The insecurity

But it is another group which is even more wary. Jamaluddin Chak is a Muslim-dominated village in Danapur on the outskirts of Patna. Mansoor Alam is selling chocolates to three children, as he narrates the events of August 15.

Bajrang Dal people came in as a part of a procession. They chanted slogans- Hindustan Zindabad, and then added Pakistan Murdabad, Mian Murdabad. Some village boys threw stones at them. There was a scuffle.

But Alam is willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Nitish Kumar, for his government immediately controlled the situation. See within an hour, police was here. For five days, security forces were stationed in the village. Alam also nodded at the CMs explanation for splitting the Mahagatbandhan, saying, It is not easy to work with Lalu.

But other Muslims do not share his assessment. In Ranipur Sagar of Bhojpur district, Mohammed Tasleem Ahmed is a local aspiring politician. He says, We voted for a particular agenda, to keep the BJP out. It is a betrayal. Tensions have already started in our village. Some distance away, in Shahpur, Ahmed says Bajrang Dal activists had recently attacked a truck and men transporting cow meat.

In all this, the Dalits remain the most silent constituency. Many remained non-committal; others were brushed aside by the more dominant castes as they thought through politics. But the wide social group of Dalits will remain a key swing constituency when elections approach.

High politics at the top has created new social realities on the ground. Navigating this would be the new governments big challenge.

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Dipak Misra is set to be sworn in on Monday as Indias 45th chief justice, a position that will give him the chance to take on several challenges for the country in general, and the judiciary in particular.

Misra, who takes over from JS Khehar, began his career on February 14, 1977 when he was enrolled as an advocate. Misra was appointed as an additional judge of the Orissa High Court in 1996, and transferred to Madhya Pradesh a year later. In 2009, he became the chief justice of the Patna High Court before moving to head Delhi HC in 2010.

On October 10, 2011, Misra was appointed to the Supreme Court.

With a tenure of nearly 14 months, Justice Misra will have an unenviable task of filling up vacancies in High Courts and the Supreme Court. HCs in India are working with 56% strength, and the shortfall in SC will widen to 6 when PC Pant retires on Tuesday to leave only 25 judges in Indias apex court.

The contentious MOP (Memorandum of Procedure) continues to remain an unresolved issue between the government and the SC collegiums, which has rejected the idea of including a security clearance clause that would allow the executive to veto superior court appointments in case of a negative remark against a proposed candidate.

Soft-spoken but a man with steely resolve, Misra has issued far-reaching orders, some of which have drawn criticism. His order making national anthem mandatory in movie halls ignited a debate whether an increasingly aggressive brand of nationalist fervour was stifling civil liberties. His verdict in a defamation case was similarly termed as regressive by advocates of free-speech.

But, the astuteness with which he got the NDA government to withdraw Presidents rule in Uttarakhand speaks to his wisdom as a judge.

Misras stature grew when he agreed to give a early morning hearing when Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memons lawyers rushed to the court on the night of July 29, making a last ditch effort to delay his next days hanging.

The bench presided by him refused mercy to Memon, who was executed on July 30 morning. He also headed the three-judge bench that handed down death sentences to the convicts in the December 16 gangrape-cum-murder case in which a 23-year-old girl was brutally assaulted and killed.

Besides the challenge to appoint judges, Misra has work cut out for him on the judicial side. He will be hearing contentious cases such as the Babri-Masjid dispute, Cauvery water dispute, womens right to enter the Sabrimala temple in Kerala, and the legal challenge to Article 35A that gives special status Kashmir.

As chairman of National Legal Services Authority, he has introduced several measures to provide legal aid to poor litigants. He is the mastermind behind the idea of introducing Legal Assistance Establishments in states to streamline the NALSAs activities.

In court Justice Misra is often seen quoting poetry and verse. He often engages himself in conversation with senior advocates on literary works.

There have been times when he has stump well-known jurists with his knowledge on classics and literature, and his passion is reflected in his judgements.

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WASHINGTON -- Deep in the heart of Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick must have thought they had a political winner.

Patrick, a conservative crusader and talk-radio host, got Abbott to call a special session this summer of the Texas Legislature -- an emergency! -- largely for the purpose of passing a "bathroom bill" to restrict the use of public restrooms by transgender people.

It was opportunistic and cynical, a solution in search of a problem. Proponents of the "Privacy Act" raised bogus fears about men exposing themselves to, and assaulting, women and girls in showers and toilets. Texans, Patrick proclaimed, "don't want their children showering together, boys and girls in the 10th grade  and women want to be protected."

But things didn't go according to plan. The business community objected, fearing the sort of economic boycott that hit North Carolina over a similar bill. Police chiefs called the legislation counterproductive. Polling showed Texans, particularly young Texans, didn't think the issue a priority. Support for the bill shrank from an earlier attempt at passage. The House speaker, a Republican, refused to bring it up. The Legislature adjourned August 15 with the bathroom bill swirling in the drain.

Even deeply conservative Texas, it seems, has no appetite for discrimination against transgender Americans. Yet here comes President Trump with a fresh attempt at just such discrimination.

After Trump announced last month, via Twitter, that he would block transgender people from serving in the military, there were reports last week that the White House was issuing guidelines to the Pentagon that transgender people would not be allowed to enlist, and those already serving could be removed.

Never mind that transgender people have been serving openly in the military, essentially without incident. Never mind that the military wasn't asking for such a ban. And never mind the American tradition that any able-bodied patriot should be allowed to serve.

The proposed ban on transgender enlistments follows the administration's revocation earlier this year of protections for transgender students in public schools. In both cases, Trump stands athwart history, yelling, "Go back."

Just as a consensus has rapidly formed in recent years in support of gay marriage, the experience in Texas makes clear that acceptance of transgender people is moving inexorably in the same direction.

A Quinnipiac University poll this month finds that 68 percent of voters believe transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military. A majority of military households agree. By 46 percent to 14 percent, voters said more acceptance of transgender people would be "a good thing for the country" rather than bad. Even a third of Republicans accept transgender service.

Trump is, as usual, playing to his (dwindling) base. In doing so, he is aligning himself, literally, with the past over the future. Younger voters are the most accepting of transgender people and older voters the least. Quinnipiac found that 54 percent of those aged 18 to 34 believe more transgender acceptance would be good for the country, compared with only 35 percent of those 65 and older.

So it goes for Trump generally. He has the strong support of just 26 percent of the country -- and that falls to 20 percent among the youngest voters while jumping to 33 percent among the oldest. Now he's talking about shutting down the government unless Congress funds his border wall, an idea that Americans oppose by nearly 2 to 1. Support for the wall draws greatest opposition from young voters and least opposition among older voters.

This means that Trump is, in an actuarial sense, charting a course to oblivion. History is moving in one direction and Trump in the other.

That's where Patrick, Abbott and the Texas bathroom-bill proponents were heading. Polling by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune found that Texans did not share their leaders' sense of alarm about transgender rights. Only 26 percent of voters considered it a "very important" matter (44 percent considered it important) for the Legislature, and older voters were 10 percentage points more likely than younger voters to think it important. Support within the House actually declined over time: There were 80 co-sponsors during the regular session but only 60 in the special session, the Tribune noted.

For good reason. The bill had little substance: no penalties for those who violated the law, no increased punishments for crimes in restrooms, no real enforcement mechanism. It was just rank discrimination.

Texas rejected that. Inevitably, the nation will, too.

Dana Milbank is a columnist for The Washington Post.
Five persons were arrested in Odishas Puri seaside town by a team of West Bengal police in connection with a shooting incident in Kolkata, police said on Sunday.

The five were nabbed by the team from Kolkata with the help of local police from a hotel located in Baliapanda area in the pilgrim town yesterday, said additional superintendent of police, Banabihari Sahu.

The accused persons had allegedly opened fire at Haidar and Md Parvez Ahmed of Beniapukur locality in Kolkata on August 21, he said.

The five persons were absconding after committing the crime, he said.

Acting on an information that the accused were hiding in a hotel in Puri, the police team from the neighbouring state visited the town and arrested the five persons before taking them to Kolkata on transit remand.

The accused persons have been identified as Mirajul Haque Sagar (29), Faizul Haque Sagar (31), Mohammad Arman (25), Sheikh Shahenshah (29) and Azad Alam (19), the ASP said.
Theres a life after Rashtrapati Bhavan and Pranab Mukherjee, the former head of the state, wants to live it to the fullest.

The new chapter began last month, when he moved into the 10 Rajaji Marg, where  away from strict protocols and official work  the former President now leads a more relaxed life.

In an informal chat at his residence, Mukherjee says that he has no plans to go back to politics, denying speculation that he may take up advisory roles.

The question doesnt arise... It took me some time to get completely detached from following the countrys political progress. And, now I have no intention to get attached again, he says, while glancing at Doordarshan news playing on a small TV nearby.

To be sure though, politicians have not left the former President alone yet. Since he shifted, a slew of ministers and opposition leaders have visited him. Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goel, Kalraj Mishra, Ravi Shankar Prasad have come by for what Mukherjee terms as courtesy calls. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is scheduled to meet him in a day or two.

And while the protocol leaves little room for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make a similar visit, the two can always talk over phone.

From the Opposition side, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad were among those who visited the former President.

There is never a vacuum in a political system. When I was inside the system, it was a different matter. But after I got out, theres no way to return, he said.

In a lighter vein, Mukherjee adds: I dont even understand what these people say nowadays.

The former Congress leader is currently busy finishing a book that comes out in October.

An imminent problem, additionally, is something different: how to tackle 50-60 monkeys that regularly visit his residence in the morning.

Monkey problem is nothing new for me. In my 13, Talkatora bungalow, they used to eat the home-grown vegetables. When I was in the finance ministry, a baby monkey used to come regularly, and I fed him peanuts.

In this quiet corner of Lutyens Delhi, Mukherjees days are now filled with books that help indulge his razor sharp memory. A memory that makes him share nuggets like these: Remember, in 1957 assembly elections, a candidate ate up two ballot papers after he was defeated by one vote in the first countingand secured a victory!.

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Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday equated ISROs rockets with the arrows of Lord Ram, saying the Hindu deity had done in the past what the space agency was doing now.

Invoking the Ramayana, Rupani also praised Ram for his engineering skills by having a bridge, the mythological Ram Setu, constructed between India and Sri Lanka, with the help of the engineers of that era.

Each arrow of Lord Ram was a missile. What ISRO is doing right now (launching rockets), Lord Ram used to launch in those days, the chief minister said while addressing the first convocation ceremony of the Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management(IITRAM), located in Maninagar area here, yesterday.

Tapan Misra, director of the Indian Space Research Organisations Space Application Centre, was also present at the event.

IITRAM is an autonomous university established by the Gujarat government.

Rupani said, If we link infrastructure with Lord Ram, imagine what kind of engineers he had at that time to build that Ram Setu bridge between India and Sri Lanka. Even squirrels contributed in building that bridge. It was Lord Rams imagination which was realised by the engineers of that era.

The BJP leader went on to pick more examples from the mythological text to connect to the modern era.

According to the chief minister, Hanuman carrying an entire mountain to bring a cure for Lakshman was a story of infrastructure development, while Ram eating berries tasted by Shabari was social engineering.

When Lord Hanuman could not pick up the right herb which can cure Lakshman, he brought the entire mountain. We wonder what kind of technology existed back then which facilitated the shifting of the mountain. This is also a story of infrastructure development, he said.

Not just developing weapons and infrastructure, Lord Ram also did social engineering. He brought people from all castes and communities together. By eating berries offered by Shabri, he won trust of adivasis (tribals). Imagine bringing together Sugreev, Hanuman and the army of monkeys, it was social engineering by Lord Ram.
The Niti Aayog has favoured conducting synchronised two-phase Lok Sabha and assembly elections from 2024 in national interest.

All elections in India should happen in a free, fair and synchronised manner to ensure minimum campaign mode disruption to governance, the government think tank said in its report released recently.

We may begin work towards switching to a synchronised two-phase election from the 2024 election to the Lok Sabha. This would require a maximum one-time curtailment or extension of some state assemblies, it said.

To implement this in the national interest, a focused group of stakeholders comprising constitutional and subject matter experts, think tanks, government officials and representatives of various political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation related details, the report said.

This may include drafting appropriate Constitution and statutory amendments, agreeing on a workable framework to facilitate transition to simultaneous elections, developing a stakeholder communication plan and various operational details, it said in its Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20.

It has made the Election Commission the nodal agency to look into the suggestion and set a timeline of March 2018 for this purpose.

The recommendation of the Aayog assumes significance as former president Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have pitched for simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Mukherjee in his speech on the eve of this years Republic Day had favoured holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections together.

The time is also ripe for a constructive debate on electoral reforms and a return to the practice of the early decades after Independence when elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously.

It is for the Election Commission to take this exercise forward in consultation with political parties, the former president had said.

Modi had in February said simultaneous elections would cause some loss to all, including us but political parties should not look at the idea through the narrow prism of politics.

One party or a government cannot do it. We will have to find a way together, the PM had said.

Elections are held all the time and continuous polls lead to a lot of expenditure, he had said replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the former presidents address.

Modi had said that more than Rs 1,100 crore was spent on the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the expenditure had shot up to Rs 4,000 crore in 2014.

Over a crore government employees, including a large number of teachers, are involved in the electoral process. Thus, the continuous exercise causes maximum harm to the education sector, he had said.

Security forces also have to be diverted for the electoral work even as the countrys enemy keeps plotting against the nation and terrorism remains a strong threat, Modi had said.

Study on groundwater banking potential

The Niti Aayog has suggested conducting a study to assess the countrys groundwater banking potential by 2018 to effectively manage the limited resource.

Groundwater banking, the think tank said, is a practice of recharging specific amount of water in a groundwater basin that can be later withdrawn and used by the entity that deposited the water

The policy think tank has also recommended expediting the Groundwater Development and Management programme, under which the Centre is preparing aquifer management plans and quantifying the availability of water in aquifers.

An aquifer is a layer of permeable rocks which can contain or transmit groundwater.

The Aayog said that in 4,530 blocks (which were surveyed in 2011) in eastern and northeastern states, where groundwater development has been reported as safe, groundwater-based irrigation may be developed sustainably.

Indias groundwater resources amount to 433 billion cubic metres (BCM) and are 39% of the total water resources. Surface water resources make up the remaining 61%.

Groundwater accounts for around 63% of the total water used in irrigation.

A feasibility study should be conducted for assessing the groundwater banking potential in India by 2018.

Some clear advantages of groundwater banking are: low fixed costs as compared to dam and reservoir construction, no requirement for rehabilitation and resettlement and less environmental changes, it said.

The Aayog has made the suggestions in Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20, released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley three days ago..

On aquifer mapping being carried out under the Groundwater Development and Management programme, it said the scheme should be prioritised in pockets where the resource is over-exploited, critical and semi-critical.

As on March 31, 2011, out of the 6,607 administrative units surveyed, 4,530 units were safe. 1,071 were found to be over-exploited, 217 were critical, 697 semi-critical and 92 completely saline.

More than 50% of the over-exploited and critical administrative units were located in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Daman and Diu, according to the survey.

Groundwater development was reported more than 100% in Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, while in northeastern and eastern states it was lower than the national average of 62%.

Special courts to deal with traffic challans

Niti Aayog has come out with a novel idea to take the load off subordinate judiciary set up special courts solely to deal with traffic challans where offenders do not have to turn up before judges to pay fines.

The Niti Aayog has taken a cue from a July, 2014 Law Commission report which had recommended appointment of law graduates to preside over special traffic courts.

In its report submitted to the law ministry, the panel had said if law graduates preside over special traffic courts, judges in the lower judiciary can take care of other pressing cases.

In its Three Year Action Agenda 2017-18 to 2019-20, released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Thursday, the government policy body said since traffic and police challan cases constituted 37.4% of the total number of cases during the three-year period examined by the law panel, special courts can be dedicated to these offences.

Consideration may also be given to waiving the requirement that offenders must come to court to pay their fine, it said.

The Law Commission had made a similar recommendation in the report. It had said that facilities should be made available for online payment of fines as well as payment at designated counters in the court complex to reduce pendency of cases.

The number of cases in lower courts have risen from 2.64 crore in 2014 to 2.74 crore in 2016 due to increase in filing of cases, the law ministry has said.

While the total strength of lower courts is around 21,000, the vacancies have been pegged at 4,937.
The Janata Dal (United) war is getting knottier, with the official faction led by chief minister Nitish Kumar set to invoke Rajya Sabha rules to demand rebel party leader Sharad Yadavs disqualification from the House.

However, the Yadav faction has also decided to seek the disqualification of the MPs of the Kumar faction, quoting the same Schedule 10 of the Rules of Procedure and Business of the Rajya Sabha, as per which a member can be disqualified if he voluntarily gives up the membership of the party by which he got elected.

Yadav has defied the partys official line by attending RJD leader Lalu Prasads rally at Patna today (Sunday). He had been specifically instructed to not attend the rally. His decision amounts to an anti-party activity. We will be writing to Rajya Sabha chairman (and Vice-President) M Venkiah Naidu to demand Yadavs disqualification, party general secretary K C Tyagi told HT.

Ostensibly, the official faction has taken to this route (Schedule 10) to bring about the speedy disqualification of Yadav as a MP, as the conventional process of expelling him would have allowed him to continue as an unattached member of Parliaments Upper House.

For Schedule 10 to be invoked, the party will need to furnish documentary evidence to establish that a member has been involved in anti-party activity. If the Rajya Sabha Chairman is satisfied with the evidence furnished, such a member can be disqualified, a senior Rajya Sabha official said.

The rebel faction argues that Nitish Kumar, in deciding to dump the Mahagathbandhan to align with the BJP, had violated the earlier decisions of the partys national council.

The MPs belonging to the official faction are liable to lose their membership under Schedule 10 of the Rules of procedure, said Javed Raza, general secretary of the Yadav faction.

Both factions have also decided to approach the Election Commission to seek claims over the party election symbol  the arrow.

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Haryana and Punjab stepped up security a day ahead of a court hearing on the quantum of sentence against rape convict and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Rohtak on Monday.

The special CBI court will pronounce the jail term on Monday during the proceedings to be held in the district jail where the flamboyant godman is lodged. The judge will be flown to Rohtak as per the order of the Punjab and Haryana high court in view of the prevailing law and order situation in Haryana. Ram Rahim was held guilty on Friday of raping two sadhvis (female followers), following which his supporters ran riot leading to the death of 38 people  32 in Panchkula and six in Sirsa  and injuries to around 250.

Scalded by the magnitude of violence and stinging remarks against the Haryana government by the high court, the state agencies have turned Rohtak into a fortress. A multi-layer security cordon has been thrown around the district jail. A police official said 10 more companies of central armed police forces such as BSF, CISF and ITBP reached the district on Saturday night, taking the total to 20.

Rohtak deputy chief Atul Kumar said that miscreants who try to spread violence will be shot dead. We requested for 18 columns of army. It is on stand-by and will arrive within one hour of our request, he said.

The administration has advised the people not to travel to Rohtak unless there is urgent work. Nakas (checkpoints) have been set up at all entry points and within the city for checking private vehicles. Also, 10 Dera followers were arrested as a precautionary measure.

Haryana additional secretary, home, Ram Niwas said foolproof arrangements were being taken to avoid a replay of Fridays violence. Dus kilometre radius me parinda bhi par nahi mar sakta (Not even a bird can enter the 10 kilometre radius of the prison). I have been assured by the top police officials and the local administration, he told a news channel.

All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions, in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal, Ambala, Bhiwani and Fatehabad districts will remain closed on Monday.

Both Punjab and Haryana, which suspended all mobile Internet, data and SMS services on August 24 for 72 hours, extended the suspension of services for two more days.

The administration also decided to suspend broadband services in Sirsa, home to Deras headquarters, which continues to be under lockdown. A media crew was allegedly assaulted near the Dera. Army and central armed police forces also carried out flag march in the city on Sunday.

Punjab also continues to be on a high alert with curfew imposed in many areas. The state authorities are going all-out to identify movable and immovable assets of the Dera on the directions of the high court.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is facing criticism for failing to check the violence, a virtual repeat of the shoddy security arrangements during the Jat community protests for quotas last year in which nearly 30 people died.

Tearing into the governments defence for not reining in Dera followers following Ram Rahims conviction, the high court observed, This was political surrender to lure vote banks. It asked the state why it couldnt stop 200,000 followers of the sect from gathering in Panchkula despite prohibitory orders.
Haryana director general of police (DGP) BS Sandhu on Sunday said strict security arrangements were in place ahead of the special CBI court pronouncing the quantum of sentence on Monday in the rape case in which dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was held guilty on August 25.

While the police and paramilitary forces were deployed in Rohtak, army had been kept on standby to help maintain law and order, the DGP said at a news conference in Panchkula on Sunday evening.

As many as 23 companies of paramilitary forces along with district police, range police and police forces from other areas have been deployed in Rohtak, apart from adequate number of women police personnel. Stating that peace was prevailing throughout Haryana and that no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state in the past 24 hours, he said curfew will continue to be imposed in Sirsa.

The CBI judge will pronounce the quantum of sentence in Rohtaks Sunaria jail where the dera head is lodged.

The DGP said the rail service from Delhi to Katra via Ambala was resumed but rail services to Sirsa and Hisar remain suspended. The movement of traffic in all districts except Rohtak and Sirsa is normal.

As many as 52 cases have been registered in connection with the violence and arson and 926 persons have been arrested. In all, 76 vehicles were damaged 53 in Panchkula and 23 in Sirsa.

The DGP said that 38 people were killed in Fridays violence (32 in Panchkula and six in Sirsa). As many as 264 people were injured out of which only 17 were admitted to the Civil Hospital, Panchkula, including three police personnel.

The ADGP (law and order) Mohd Akil, and IG, CID, visited Rohtak during the day to review the law-and-order situation. The court proceedings will start at 2.30pm on Monday in Rohtak. No untoward incident will be allowed to occur and the entire process would be completed in a peaceful manner, the DGP said.

If anti-social elements made an attempt to hamper the proceedings or indulge in any mischievous act, strict action will be taken.
Haryana and Punjab ordered schools and colleges shut, suspended mobile services, beefed up security and threw a five-tier cordon around a Rohtak jail, where on Monday a judge will hand out punishment to self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for raping two disciples.

The special CBI court will at 2.30pm begin hearing arguments on quantum of punishment, which could range from seven years to life imprisonment, in the district jail at Sunaria where the flamboyant Dera Sacha Sauda chief is lodged.

Rohtak deputy commissioner Atul Kumar said miscreants who try to spread violence will be shot dead. We requested for 18 columns of army. It is on stand-by and will arrive within one hour of our request, he said.

The burly sect leader, who is partial to body-hugging T-shirts, leather and rhinestones, was on Friday found guilty of raping two women in a 15-year-old case.

Within minutes of the guilty verdict, his followers ran riot and clashed with security forces, leaving 38 people dead and 250 injured.

While 32 people were killed in Panchkula, where the case was heard and bore the brunt of violence, and six were killed in Sirsa, where the dera is based.

The scale of violence left everyone stunned, with the Haryana government and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar coming in for severe criticism for going soft on the dera.

Violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated and everyone will have to bow before the law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP is in power in Haryana, said in his monthly radio address on Sunday.

CBI special judge Jagdeep Singh, who found the 50-year-old sect leader guilty, will be flown to Rohtak on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court. Rohtak is one of the few districts in Haryana, where the dera doesnt have much influence.

But security agencies are not taking chances and have turned Rohtak into a fortress, with a multi-layer security ring thrown around the jail.

Personnel of para-military forces stand guard at an entry point of Rohtak on Sunday. (PTI)

More than 10 companies of central forces such as the BSF, CISF and ITBP reached the district on Saturday night, taking the total to 23, a police official said. The army was on standby.

The administration has advised people not to travel to Rohtak unless urgent. All entry and exit points were being monitored.

Dus kilometre radius me parinda bhi par nahi mar sakta (Not even a bird can enter within 10km of the prison), Haryana additional chief secretary (home) Ram Niwas said.

Sirsa continues to be under a lockdown and a worry for the authorities. Curfew was relaxed on Sunday morning for three hours as more dera followers headed for the sprawling sect headquarters on the outskirts of the town.

The army and para-military forces stationed outside the complex repeatedly requested the sect followers to vacate the premises but thousands of followers were still inside the complex.

A media crew was allegedly assaulted near the dera as the army and central armed police forces patrolled the streets.

Around 100 dera followers were taken into preventive custody across Haryana while 10 naam charcha ghars, or prayer houses, in Rohtak were sealed.

Around 103 congregation centres were searched and sedition case registered against the sect heads aides, including Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan, for the violence in Panchkula.

While all schools and colleges in Haryana will remain closed on Monday, in neighbouring Punjab educational institutes in 13 districts in Malwa region will be shut.

Both the states have extended by two days the suspension of mobile internet, data and SMS services. Punjab also continues to be on a high alert, with curfew in many areas. The states Malwa belt has a sizable presence of dera followers and police fear trouble from them.

Around 18,000 police personnel and 85 companies of paramilitary forces had been deployed in the area.

(With agency inputs)
All eyes are on the sealed vault B of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, one of the richest shrines in the world, with Supreme Court-appointed amicus curie Gopal Subramanium expected to arrive at the state capital on Tuesday to hasten the process of opening it.

The 16th century temple, situated in the heart of the state capital, shot to fame six years ago when one of its six vaults (later codenamed A) was found to contain ancient valuables estimated at Rs 1 lakh crore.

During the last hearing, Subramanium had impressed upon the apex court the need to open the B vault of the temple in order to complete the inventory of its assets. He will meet members of the erstwhile Travancore royal family, the former custodian of the temple, and other stakeholders to evolve a consensus on the matter.

The royal family and a section of devotees have opposed the opening of the sealed chamber on the grounds that such an action would violate the sanctity of the temple. They had earlier conducted an astrological ritual  devaprasnam  to perceive the mood of the deity, and informed the court that opening the vault amounted to violating the temple tradition in a manner that would invite divine wrath. The apex court, however, rebuked the royal family for putting superstition before the law.

There are many beliefs surrounding the B vault, including one claiming that it houses an underground tunnel linking the temple to the Arabian Sea. However, a team of experts from the Centre for Earth Science Studies has ruled out the presence of any such passage. Though the team  led by Dr Ajaykumar Verma  did find small cavities and drains around the structures, they were deemed insignificant.

Another myth states that the sree chakra  a place that symbolically contains the powers of the deity as well as the universe  is located just beneath the vault, and opening the door would displace it.

There are six chambers, A to F, located under the temples sanctum sanctorum. While a couple of these are opened for pooja every day, two others are unlocked twice a year. Vault A used to be a secret vault until it was opened in 2011 on the Supreme Courts orders.

According to sources in the temple, the antique coins found in the sealed chamber alone weighed over 600 kg. Of the two lakh items documented by government officials, 600 were found embedded with invaluable gems. Besides this, the inventory also listed precious stones, necklaces, golden crowns and pots. Special equipment was used to chart all the valuables, and list them in accordance with their purity and age.

In 2009, retired IPS officer TP Sundararajan had filed a petition alleging extensive pilferage of valuables from the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. He claimed that precious ornaments and jewels were being smuggled out of the shrine, and replaced with cheap copies. In the years that followed, the Supreme Court ordered that the valuables be inventoried and the royal family divested of its hold over the temple management.

Sundararajan died at the age of 70 in 2012, while the contents of vault A were still being examined.

Officials believe vault B may contain more wealth than the first one.

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Haryana Police on Sunday said tight security was in place ahead of the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, adding that the army was asked to remain on standby in Rohtak.

Curfew now remains enforced in Sirsa only, Director General of Police (DGP) BS Sandhu said.

He said the priority for now was to secure Rohtak since the court judgement on the quantum of punishment would be delivered in the jail premises there.

Our priority for now is the court hearing, to keep that place safe and secure. Sufficient security arrangements have been made. The army has also been requisitioned and asked to be on standby, said Sandhu.

We hope the court proceedings will be conducted without problem and peace maintained. But if there is any disturbance, or hooliganism, we are ready to deal with it, he said.

ADG (Law and Order) Muhammad Akil said he had toured the jail area in Rohtak where the sentence will be handed out, and expressed satisfaction with the arrangements.

The security arrangements are in place. If any incident takes place, we will take action as per the demand of the situation, he said.

At present, 12 Army columns each have been deployed in Sirsa and Panchkula in Haryana, and two columns each in Mansa and Muktsar in Punjab.

On August 25, CBI Special Judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera sect head, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of rape of two female disciples and in 2002 and criminal intimidation.

As many as 36 persons were killed and over 250 others injured in violence that erupted after the conviction.

The sect chief was shifted to a prison near Rohtak, about 70 km from Delhi, under heavy security.

The quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced on Monday at a special court being set up in the prison premises in Rohtak.

The judge will be flown to Rohtak for announcing the sentence.
CHICAGO  One day this spring, Artem Kolesov set up a video camera in the Chicago townhouse where he lives, sat down in a chair and started talking to the young gay people of Russia.

Yesterday I turned 23 years old, he began.

He went on, in Russian, to tell the story of growing up as the fourth of six brothers in a small town, an hours drive from Moscow, where his father was a deacon and his mother was a youth pastor at the Pentecostal church.

In my family, he said on the video, I often heard that all gays should be destroyed, that they should be bombed and that if anyone in our family turns out to be gay, my family should kill them with their bare hands.

He spoke for 15 minutes, dressed in a plain white pullover shirt, his voice occasionally shaky as he talked of his suicidal thoughts and his search for courage.

I never thought I would live to be 23, he said into the camera, not knowing who, if anyone, would watch. I think about everything I would have missed if I took my life.

Frankly, Kolesov hadnt been sure the world needed another coming-out video. But he told himself that if anyone did, it was kids in Russia, where being openly gay can be dangerous and discrimination is common and condoned.

The response to the video has proved him right.

My heart has been breaking for the five months since I posted this video, he said one day this week, sitting at Cafecito, a Cuban coffee shop near Roosevelt University, where he is a masters student studying violin.

Hes a slender man with sharp, bright eyes. The left side of his face droops slightly, which, as he explained in the video, is the consequence of nerves damaged when he was born. His English is impeccable.

Almost every day brings Kolesov new messages from Russian kids trapped in a culture where theyre shamed and threatened. He spends hours communicating with them, grateful that he has made it to Chicago, where he doesnt have to hide.

He came to the city two years ago, after attending college in Canada, to work with the renowned violinist Almita Vamos, who calls him a very natural player, with a natural, beautiful sound.

When he started studying with me, he told the kids, Dont tell her Im gay, Vamos said. He was afraid I might not react well.

Eventually, he opened up to her about the conflict that being gay had created between him and his family, especially his mother, whom he loves deeply and has always wanted to please.

Once, at the age of 7, as he tells the story, he overheard her friends lamenting to her that she had no daughters.

He put a pair of leggings on his head, like braids, and went to her and said, I will be your daughter and help you around the house.

If she suspected the truth about her sons sexuality, it was never spoken of, not until this March, after shed made a strained visit to Chicago, when he wrote her a long coming-out letter and read it to her over the phone.

I was afraid if I did it on Skype, I would chicken out, he said.

By his account, she didnt respond well. She told him it was unnatural, that he was just trying to be cool, hadnt found the right girl, should keep it to himself, needed an MRI, should come back to Russia to be cured.

Her censure motivated him to make the video, but also made him hesitate.

People like to put out positive things, he said. A boy comes out, his parents accept him and everyone cries. No one wants to see a video where people are disowned.

Apparently, they do. The video went viral.

Kolesovs decision to come out was also eased by his relationship with Carol and Rob Schickel, a couple he met while playing violin at Chicagos Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Last summer, when they heard he had no money and nowhere to stay, they invited him to live with them in their South Loop townhouse. He made the video in their living room.

I dont think it was until he got to Chicago that he could really publicly be out, said Carol Schickel, a psychotherapist. His coming out has been not only about his sexuality. Its about him being in life. Whats being revealed, even to him, is his deep inner strength.

Because of the video, many of Kolesovs old Russian friends deleted him from their social media accounts. He says the Russian church he once attended, aware of his video, is planning a youth course on why being gay is wrong.

Even if he wanted to go home for a visit, he wouldnt feel safe. With the video, he has broken the so-called gay propaganda law, which bans the distribution of information on nontraditional sexual relationships to minors.

But if making the video has cost Kolesov relationships he cherishes, it has also led him to new friends.

I saw that video on Facebook, said Bruce Koff, a longtime Chicago gay activist, and I wept. I went to my husband and said, You have to watch this, and he wept.

They and some friends got in touch with Kolesov, and as a result organized a benefit concert on Saturday at the Center on Halsted. Kolesov performed, along with the well-known violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Some of the money raised will help him pay legal fees involved in getting a green card, and some will go to organizations that help LGBT people fleeing persecution in other countries.

Soon after that, Kolesov will leave Chicago for California. In May, he got married to a man who is enrolling in a Ph.D. program at UCLA. The Schickels, whom he calls my American parents, came to the wedding in San Francisco.

His only regret was that his mother wasnt there.

I hope her love for me is bigger than these misconceptions, he said.

One thing he has learned in his 23 years is that you never know whats going to happen next.
Amidst allegations about prevalence of love jihad in Kerala, the state police chief has said there was no data till now to confirm its existence. Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera said this while denying reports in a section of the media which quoted him as having confirmed the prevalence of love jihad in the state.

However, he said the police were keeping an eye on allegations from various quarters in this regard.

In a section of the media, it had been stated that the state police chief had confirmed that love jihad was there in Kerala which is not correct and has been totally misunderstood, Behera said in a statement here.

What I have said is that we are keeping an eye on the allegations from various quarters that there is radicalisation through conversion using various means taking place in Kerala, he said.

The DGP said the Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry into such allegations in a case.

So, it is our duty to find out whether it is correct or not. Till now, we do not have any data to confirm whether the so called love jihad is prevalent in Kerala, he said.

The apex court had on August 16 ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe a case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man, as the agency claimed it was not an isolated incident but a pattern was emerging in Kerala.

The Kerala High Court had annulled the marriage holding that the case was an instance of love jihad, a term coined by some Hindu groups for alleged efforts to get non-Muslim girls to convert to Islam through love affairs and marriages.
The Centre and Haryana government came under scrutiny for administrative lapses after at least 31 people were killed in riots that broke out on Friday when the Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted.

Over the last few days, the Punjab and Haryana high court has been hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Panchkula resident, who had raised law and order concerns and stated that over 1.5 lakh people had entered the Haryana district despite prohibitory orders.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has been drawing flak for letting nearly 200,000 followers of the controversial but influential spiritual leader to gather in Panchkula before a CBI court in the township held him guilty of raping two women 15 years ago.

The HC bench comprises of Chief Justice S Singh Saron, Justice Avneesh Jhingan and Justice Surya Kant

Heres how the three-member bench pulled up the government for security lapses in the state:

Political surrender

The court observed that the BJP government seemed to have surrendered before the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda for political considerations.

This was a political surrender to allure vote bank... they were outsiders, you allowed them to enter and stay, the court said, a day after Dera followers went on a rampage.

Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has in the past publiclly announced his support for political parties during polls, including for the BJP-Akali alliance ahead of Punjab assembly election.

PM is of India, not BJP

The court termed the Centres response to the violence only a knee-jerk reaction.

The PM is of the nation and not of the BJP. National integrity is above parties. Are we one nation or a party nation? asked the bench of acting chief justice SS Saron and justices Surya Kant and Avneesh Jhingan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday condemned the violence and appealed for peace. Instances of violence are deeply distressing. Strongly condemn violence urge everyone to maintain peace, he tweeted.

Why didnt you prevent entry of people

The high court also took note of CM Manohar Lal Khattars statement on Saturday in which he blamed anti-social elements for the violence, which also spilled over into neighbouring Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi.

If the CM came to know in a day about antisocial elements, why couldnt you prevent their entry over the past seven days?... How is it that you failed to take note when large number of Dera followers arrived in Panchkula.

Suspended officer scapegoat

After the state government suspended on Saturday the Panchkula deputy commissioner of police for the lapses, the court said said the officer was made a scapegoat and sought an investigation into the shoddy security arrangements that failed to control the rampaging mobs.

Other directions

On Friday, the HC had ordered the Dera to pay for all damages and sought a list of its movable, immovable properties, bank accounts and incomes.

The court also sought a status report on the deaths in the violence.
A cow sanctuary will be set up in Bharatpur district -- first in Rajasthan -- to shelter stray cattle and curb their smuggling for slaughter, officials said.

The Union government proposed a Project Cow in April this year, under which sanctuaries will be set up in every state to save cows from slaughter.

Bharatpur collector Narendra Kumar Gupta has directed the animal husbandry department to establish a cow sanctuary in the district in coordination with local officials, said Yogendra Singh, joint director of the department.

We plan to build the cow sanctuary at Mulla Murar village under Kanbada gram panchayat of Kaman block where nearly 1,000 acre pasture land is available with greenery; we have visited the place, Singh said.

The district has 11 registered cow shelters where nearly 7,000 stray, aged and infirm cows have been accommodated; the shelter at Jarkhon in Kaman block has at least 5,000 head of cattle.

The animal husbandry department has built a transit camp to keep stray cattle and then shift them to shelters. The Bharatpur municipal corporation was tasked with operating the camp, but officials said the civic body failed to handle it properly.

We are exploring the possibility of setting up a cow sanctuary to save cattle from smuggling and prevent their killing in slaughterhouses, the collector said.

Bharatpur district is a part of the Braj area, famous for cows and banyan trees. We are searching for a proper land to set up a sanctuary for cows, Gupta said.

The countrys first cow sanctuary in Agar district of Madhya Pradesh is yet to become functional despite being ready for a long time.

Despite police crackdown, many in Mevat area of eastern Rajasthan have been found transporting cows allegedly for slaughter. Police data shows that 65 cases were registered in 2015 against cow smugglers, 65 in 2016, and 27 till May this year under Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.

As many as 1,121 cattle head were rescued in 2015 from smugglers, 403 in 2016, and 210 till May this year.

In October 2014, chief minister Vasundhara Raje approved 39 new police outposts in the state for cow protection. Armed police personnel are deployed to prevent cow smuggling at six outposts -- Pasta Mod, Ghana, Amruka, Bedham, Sikri Fatak Nagar and Sahida Mod -- in Mevat area.

Rescued cows are sent to cow shelters at Jarkhod, Bhojan Thali and Badipur in Kaman block.

In the name of saving cows, self-proclaimed cow protectors unleashed violence in several parts of the country. This year in Rajasthan, Pehlu Khan was beaten up by a mob when he was transporting cows for his dairy farm; he died after two days of the attack.

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Tourists looking for sightseeing services in the Pink City can now book environment friendly e-rickshaws driven by women, who also double up as a guide.

A not-for-profit organisation has trained women from the weaker sections of the society to drive the battery-operated e-rickshaws that have been modified and painted pink. A public limited company  Pink City Rickshaw Co  has been formed with equity participation from about 40 women e-rickshaw drivers and the number will be eventually increased to 200, founder Radhika Kumari told HT.

The company has tied up with hotels and tour operators to offer customised tour packages.

The project focuses on training women, ideally in the age group of 18-35, selected from weaker sections of society. It has opened a new channel of income for these women after their training in rickshaw driving and soft skills. They have smart uniforms and are groomed to interact with tourists, Radhika said.

We offer three tours  heritage, crafts and shopping. A tourist circuit has been designed keeping in mind the tourists who want to visit the historical sites in the city, but are hesitant to manoeuvre the congested streets on their own, she said.

One of the drivers, Renu Sharma, said that apart from earning she was doing driving the rickshaws as she was enjoying the job. My husband runs a paan kiosk, and was supportive of my decision. I did not face any opposition from other family members either. I have been trained to interact with tourists, including foreigners, using a few English words and its not difficult, she told HT.

At times, we also offer suggestions on places to visit to the tourists, she said.

Another driver Pushpa Devi said that initially she faced some opposition from her family, but now they have no issue with her job.

The e-rickshaws have been modified by Jaipur-based NID graduate Ayush Kasliwal. The modified vehicle has a collapsible canopy and ergonomically designed seats, mechanical improvement for greater safety and also a locker for safekeeping of belongings of the clients, a mobile charger, water bottle holder, city maps and so on. The e-rickshaws also have an IVRS app installed with the pre-marked routes, which prove to be helpful for both tourists and add a secured system for operations for women drivers.

Its a first of its kind service in Jaipur and garnering a lot of support from different agencies, most of the niche hotels, as well as travel companies who want to offer unique experiences. Its a novel way of getting introduced to the city and exploring the hidden by-lanes, Radhika said.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje will formally inaugurate the project in September.

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Stray dogs consumed parts of a womans body kept at the mortuary of the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital at Lucknow on Sunday morning.

Principal secretary (health) Prashant Trivedi took cognizance of the matter, and asked hospital authorities to submit a probe report at the earliest. Three staff members, including the security supervisor, were dismissed in this connection.

The deceased, Pushpa Tiwari, was brought to the hospital after she consumed a toxic substance on Saturday. Doctors pronounced her dead soon after admission, and the body was shifted to the hospital mortuary.

When Tiwaris family reached the hospital to claim her body the next morning, they found parts of her skull missing. A complaint was lodged with RML authorities, after which an investigation was launched.

UP govt has taken serious note of security lapse at RML Hospital. Services of security supervisor and guard have been terminated with immediate effect. FIR has been lodged, and an inquiry is underway to further fix responsibility, the Uttar Pradesh government quoted Trivedi as saying in a series of tweets later that day.

Hospital director Dr Devendra Negi said chunks of flesh were ripped off the womans face and neck. The body was also found in a different location from where it was originally kept.

While conducting the preliminary investigation, police found canine paw-prints near the mortuarys channel gate. Dogs managed to get to the body because the staffers had not bothered to put it in the freezer, a policeman said.

The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by the deceaseds husband, Vinod Tiwari.

This is the second time in the last few weeks that the Uttar Pradesh government has come under the scanner over the dismal state of affairs at its hospitals. Several children died at Gorakhpurs BRD Hospital between August 10 and 11 after oxygen supply was disrupted due to non-payment of dues.
Ten members of a Dombivli family were killed after their jeep hit a truck near Tagdi village in Ahmedabad on Sunday, said police.

Five of those killed were women. A teenage boy was also critically injured in the accident, which occurred on the Dhandhuka-Barwala Road, said RV Asari, district superintendent of police.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the driver of the jeep lost control of the vehicle and veered on to the wrong side of the road, leading to a head-on collision with the truck coming from the opposite direction.

The family was heading towards Vallabhipur in Bhavnagar district.It appears as though the driver fell asleep at the wheel, which led to the accident. The truck driver was not at fault, said Asari.
A 22-year-old man, who allegedly molested a 26-year-old nurse on August 17 in Bandra (West) while she was going to her workplace, was arrested on Saturday.

The police said the woman had seen the face of the accused before he could flee and gave an exact description of how he looks, which helped them nab Dhanraj Gore, a resident of Transit camp in Bandra reclamation.

The Bandra police said the incident took place at around 6.30 am on August 17 when the nurse was on her way to a hospital near reclamation in Bandra (West) where she worked. The woman said the incident took place in a secluded lane next to Bazaar Road. She said when Gore came from front, she moved aside and gave him way. However, he came back from behind, groped her and fled the spot.

She tried to raise an alarm but as it was early morning no one was nearby, she told the cops. She said she was so terrified that she kept quiet as she found it embarrassing but in the end mustered the courage and confided in her family members.

They supported her and rushed to Bandra police station with her where she filed a complaint against Gore. A case has been registered under section 354 (criminal force on a woman outraging her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code. A police official said, The woman remembered how the man looked and gave us his detailed description. Based on that we started looking for the accused and zeroed in on him. He has been remanded to judicial custody.
The fire brigade and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel on Sunday could not rescue any labourer trapped under the debris of a seven-storey building in Chandivali parts of which collapsed while being demolished on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) blamed each other for lack of vigilance during the demolition.

At least four daily wage labourers are still feared trapped under the debris of erstwhile commercial building  Krishnan Business Park. On Saturday, three people were pulled out  one of whom Gaurav, 32, died and Tivandas, 19, and Bablu, 25, were injured.

The civic and fire brigade authorities have no official information on how many labourers were working on the site and their estimate is based on eyewitnesses statements. A senior civic official said, The contractor whose labourers were working at the site has absconded, so we have no count of how many people were working there when the building collapsed. We have no estimate of how many are trapped. We are relying on eyewitnesses.

Prabhat Rahangdale, chief fire officer of the Mumbai fire brigade, said, The rescue operation is proving to be challenging as the remaining portion of the building is wobbly and its dangerous to enter the building to clear debris as portions of the slab, columns and beams are hanging precariously.

BMC-SRA blame game

While the BMC says it has been unable to confirm the structural stability of the buildings remaining portion as the SRA has not provided them the information, the latter claims it has nothing to do with the building.

Ajitkumar Ambi, assistant municipal commissioner of L-ward, said, We are really helpless as SRA, under whom the building falls, has not given us any information. It is really sad that SRA officials will not provide BMC with requisite documents of the building, or even answer our phone calls. So BMC is now focusing on rescue operations only. The investigation can start on Monday after SRA replies. Ambi added that the civic body has no information on the height of the original building, number of floors, why it was being demolished, and what permissions it had.

A senior SRA official told HT, The builder wished to give a part of the plot for SRA project but the building is registered with BMCs building proposal department. The SRA has nothing to do with it. The official said SRA had written to the BMC asking it to close Krishnan Business Parks file so that the documents could be transferred to SRA, but BMC did not reply.
Mumbais East Indian community has formed an umbrella body, Gaothan Monitoring Committee, to protect its villages from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).

The nine-member committee owes its existence to the one-year-old Gaothan Bachao Andolan, which has 44 associations. Gaothans are urban villages housing indigenous people. Mumbai has 189 gaothans.

According to activist Godfrey Pimenta, the Development Plan-2034 shows only 52 villages as gaothans. This may create a hurdle for the restoration of the remaining gaothans. Of the 52 earmarked gaothans, 20 had been classified as slums by SRA, said Pimenta.

The committee members fear that the SRA classification will pave way for builders to approach it for redevelopment and thus destroying Mumbais heritage.

Representatives from the 44 associations met for a second time on Thursday to finalise an action plan for protection of gaothans and form the committee,which will coordinate among villages and spread awareness on the issue.

According to Alphi Dsouza, spokesperson for the East Indian community, associations from Thane and Vasai gaothans also attended the Andolan meetings. The movement is to impress upon the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to save gaothans. Once our areas are demarcated as gaothans, they cannot be called slums, said Dsouza.

Gleason Barretto, trustee of Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, said, We are getting prepared before the new DP-2034 marks gaothans as slums. It is difficult for all members from across the city to meet regularly. But the advisory panel will meet again in a fortnight. The committee has prepared an action plan, which includes filing RTIs with SRA and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, petitioning courts and holding open meetings with all gaothan residents. It also wants that the BMC rename all village roads and bylanes, and build entrance arches and history boards.

Former MLA Krishna Hegde told HT, Several gaothans were marked as slums in the draft DP. They should be given an increased floor space index. The authorities must build an East Indian community centre. I have spoken to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and a meeting will be held soon.
DALLAS  Donna Rosen and her 6-year-old son, Braxton, may never know why their pet dachshund went missing for 13 months or what happened to him while he was gone.

Those answers, if they ever come, will have to wait. Only one thing matters now.

Bobo is back! Braxton proclaimed as he watched his mother cradle the chestnut-colored dog in a park near their home. Hi Bobo. We missed you for a long time.

Bobo has come a long way since he mysteriously disappeared from the Rosens Denton County home on July 25, 2016. Rosen said she doesnt know how the dog got away, though she suspects he was kidnapped. What she does know is that she has looked for him every day since.

I am just flooded with emotions, its unreal, she said after being reunited with the dog just outside Portland, Ore. With everything that Ive been through, its a miracle and too good to be true.

Rosens friend was driving on a mid-winter night 10 years ago, when she saw someone in another car throw what looked like an animal into a freezing pond. The friend rushed to the animals aid, then called Rosen.

It was a 4-week old dachshund puppy, and it stole Rosens heart.

I rescued him from a bad situation, she said. He was always loyal and appreciative  its like he knows where he came from.

From that day on, wherever Donna went, Bobo went, too. There could not not be a more inseparable pair. That was, until the day Braxton was born.

Theyve been together ever since, Rosen said.

The dog became Braxtons best friend. But for Braxton, Bobo was more than just a companion.

Braxton has ADHD and has experienced seizures since his first birthday. As the two grew up together, Bobo became Braxtons emotional support dog.

He doesnt understand emotions of sadness or anger or frustration or how to express them, Rosen said of Braxton. Bobo was that calming support to calm him down.

The dog was like another child to Rosen and because he was constantly with her and Braxton, she never had him micro-chipped.

The dog was always in the bed with us, in the car with us, everywhere, she said.

Bobo was always there, until he wasnt. On that July morning Rosen let Bobo and her other dog, Spike, outside to go to the bathroom in the gated area beside the house.

Spike soon returned. Bobo did not.

Spike comes through the door. I say Bobo and nothing, Rosen said. I thought maybe he had found something to play with. When I walked around to the side of the house, he wasnt there. I started searching, and Ive been searching ever since.

Devastated but determined, Rosen contacted local shelters and reached out to rescue organizations. She checked countless lost dog Facebook pages  reuniting other people and their pets in the process. She got nowhere.

Meanwhile, her son was restless. Around the same time Bobo disappeared, the family was also dealing with a new move, an accident that required Donna to get plates in her arm and the start of school.

Theres never a good time, she said. This was the worst possible time for the dog to go missing, she said. Everything was changing. The only thing that was consistent or comforting was that dog. And now that was gone, too.

For Rosen, a single mother, the weight of searching day and night took a physical toll. She has an intestinal disease and was in remission, but the stress caused her health to deteriorate.

My lung collapsed and I had a stroke and had to go to ICU, Rosen said, adding that she spent last September and December in the hospital. Its literally made me sick

Pranksters called her in the middle of the night. Some shelters refused to help, blaming her for not micro-chipping Bobo. But she never stopped looking.

After scouring every lost dog resource in Texas, she turned to Kyle Shugart, a member of the All Texas Dachshund Rescue group, who encouraged her to expand her search. Shugart told her that stolen dogs are often taken to be sold for dog fighting, or flipped, which means they are re-sold as purebred dogs.

I warned her, your dog can be out of state,  Shugart said. She loved that dog and she did not give up.

So Rosen broadened her search, even contacting a rescue in Australia.

On the morning of Aug. 2, she was scrolling through an Oregon found pets Facebook page and noticed a dogs picture that stood out among the countless others shed scrolled past.

She was certain it was Bobo.

Rosen reached out to the family immediately. Kara Schendel and her boyfriend, Dan Burnett, had found the brown dachshund running by the railroad tracks where they lived in Hubbard, Ore.

When Schendel learned that Rosen was from Texas, it hit her that she loved the dog so much that she found it in this little tiny town.

So she and Rosen started talking. Sure enough, there were similarities between the dogs they described. But there was also a glaring difference.

The dog in Oregon was described as partially blind and deaf, although Bobo had been fine the last time Rosen saw him.

Rosen made a FaceTime call and when she called Bobos name, he began looking around for her.

Immediately when the camera turned around on him, I knew it was him, Rosen said.

According to Schendel, her boyfriend had doubts about the dogs owner before the FaceTime call. But when he saw Bobos reaction, he said, get her out here.

On Aug. 11, Rosen flew to Oregon to reunite with her other child, leaving Braxton with relatives. She returned to North Texas with Bobo on Monday and surprised an unsuspecting Braxton. The Rosen family was back together at last.

We got him back, a smiling Braxton said. Im so happy right now. I dont want to lose Bobo again.
Hoping to provide some relief to the lakhs students who are still waiting their results despite giving exams three months ago, the University of Mumbai (MU) recently opened a temporary help desk at its Kalina campus. But knowing that just one point of contact will not be enough for the students, several city colleges have set up their own help desks to help panic-stricken students calm their nerves.

A special help desk headed by vice-principals has been set up since the number of calls and queries from panic-stricken students kept increasing. All those who have grievances seek help from us and we communicate their problems directly to the university, said Nupur Mehrotra, vice-principal, Mithibai College, Vile Parle.

Earlier, help desks only provided answers to queries related to the announcement of results.

Last week, HT highlighted the plight of hundreds of students from the arts and law faculties whose results were withheld by the varsity as they were marked absent for certain exams held in April-May. While the university termed it a technical glitch, students panicked after it came to the fore that the university was trying to trace answer sheets of a few students.

Its not just about students not knowing when their results will be announced anymore. Most complaints are now about students being marked absent for certain exams and our college help desk had to go through their attendance records from exams to give a clear picture to the university, said a professor from Sathaye College.

He added that nine out of 12 third-year Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) students from the college were marked absent during the exams. So the college help desk contacted the university and also forward complaints of students to the examination house. Most students thought the college was at fault, and we had to prove it to them that weve done our job, he added.

At Jai Hind College, the principal is personally looking in to the complaints raised by students. The vice-principals and coordinators of every department bringing every complaint to me. Im personally forwarding them to the university. Students have been informed about the contact person in every department whom they can approach with their grievances, said Ashok Wadia, Jai Hind principal.

He added the process helped several students confirm admissions for institutes abroad, despite not having their mark sheets.

Though thousands of students have approached the varsity with their queries, most said it was of little help. After marking us absent for more than one subject, the university staff told us was that either our papers were yet to evaluated or our answer booklets were missing. What do we make out this? asked Abhishree Kulkarni, 21, a student.

Most colleges feel the help desk will calm down students psychologically. It is more important to calm down the students, and thats exactly what we are doing. All complaints are being forwarded to the university immediately, said Sobhana Vasudevan, principal, RA Podar College, Matunga.

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A Jain monk has been accused of goading residents of the Mumbai suburb of Mira-Bhayandar, when they recently elected a municipal body, to vote for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) if they wanted a meat free society. The Shiv Sena, the runners-up in the election, has complained to the Election Commission that the BJP, the party which won, used the Jain monk to get votes from the Jains and vegetarian Hindus.

Politics of meat is not new in Mira-Bhayandar: for the last ten years, the towns have enforced some sorts of ban on meat, seafood and poultry during Paryushan  a period of religious significance for Jains and Hindus. This is despite the fact that the Jains form only an estimated 15% of the towns population of nearly a million. The towns have a diverse population that includes Muslims in Mira Road, East Indian Catholics in Bhayander, Uttan and Dongri, apart from Jains and Hindus and meat-eating communities. Groups opposing the ban have said that the ban is unconstitutional.

Muni Naypadmasagarji, the monk who made the statements in favour of the BJP, is an influential leader among the Jains. He does not have a permanent address as he, like other Jain monks, travel from one Jain locality to another, usually on foot. The only time they stay in one place is during the four monsoon months, called chaturmaas, where there is a prohibition against travel. He is currently reported to be staying at a monastery in Bhayandar. Naypadmasagarji is an unusual monk: he has opinions on matters ecclesiastical and profane.

His people feat him as the conceptualiser of the Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO), an association of influential Jain businesses and industrialists. A few years ago, Jains made plans to create The International Settlement Forum (ISF) that could serve as an arbitration body to settle disputes. The idea of the arbitration forum, according to its promoters, came from Naypadmasagarji. In the last few years, he has travelled across the country by foot. He met thousands of people who told him about their biggest worries  failing businesses, losing families and getting involved in legal disputes. That is when we thought of an arbitration group, a member had told this reporter.

The Jains launched an extensive scheme to provide medical insurance to every member of the community. The scheme is called Shravak Arogryam. Shravak refers to lay members of the Jain community. The scheme is unique because there is no insurance plan that exclusively covers members of one religious community. The scheme was the idea of Naypadmasagarji who felt it was the communitys duty to provide cheap medical insurance for families who do not have such safety. Jains across India can avail of medical cover by paying low annual premiums.

In September 2014, when Maharashtra was preparing for the assembly election, Mumbais Jains were being guided by Naypadmasagar in their strategy to get more representation in elected bodies. The monk said that he wanted more Jain candidates to contest the elections. We are in talks with various political parties to give tickets to our representatives. Some of them will fight as independents too, he had said while talking at an event in south Mumbai.

His followers do not think he said anything controversial during the Mira-Bhayandar elections. He works for the benefit of the community, said Bharat Parmar, a follower. The Jain religion promotes vegetarianism; there is nothing wrong, or nothing new, about this. He (Naypadmasagarji) is not talking about elections; he was talking about something we believe in.

Trishna Satra of the Jain International Trade Organisations womens wing, said, I do believe overall, there is a need for every religion, to be relevant, to talk about current issues, said Satra. If you have a monk saying that everybody should go to the temple it will not be relevant for a kid who is 14 or 15 years old. If he talks about television viewing it is pertinent.

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Police have arrested Anil Bawariya, the 38-year-old gangster and absconding accused in the Jewar gang-rape and murder case.

A native of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, Anil headed the Bawariya gang comprising eight members of his family including himself, the police said. He was arrested from Pilakhua in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday night by a team from STF (Special Task Force), Noida. Police had announced a reward of Rs 12,000 on his arrest.

Anil is accused in many cases of loot, robbery and murder, apart from Jewar murder and gangrape. We held him from Hapur and recovered an SUV, a countrymade pistol and live cartridges, Raj Kumar Mishra, DSP Noida-STF, said.

Police said Anil is the son of Megh Singh, a notorious criminal who headed the Ramesh Bawariya gang formed in 1980s in Bharatpur. Megh, they said, was involved in looting money worth crores from traders in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

He had four children each from two wives. Anil, then all of 18, wasnt allowed by his fathers peers to join the gang. He rebelled and formed a separate Bawaria gang comprising his three siblings and four other step brothers, a police officer said.

Anil studied in KCM School in Moradabad, UP and then joined a residential school in Mathura. He was in class 9 when he joined the gang ranks.

He earned notoriety in 2000, when he, along with eight gang members, looted Dr Khanna, a popular physician in Moradabad and a jeweller on the same day. Dr Khanna survived bullet shots in his belly. Three years later, the gang waylaid a car on Moradabad highway, shot dead two businessmen and relatives of a steel giant and decamped with valuables worth crores.

In 2004, the gang robbed commuters of two buses, one truck and three cars on Mathura highway after blocking the road with a Babool tree. Two commuters who resisted were shot dead in the incident. Anil and his brother Laxman were arrested a few days later.

In 2007, Anil and his gang started their activities in Bharatpur for a year where he committed five murders. In 2008, he shifted to Bandsur in Alwar and started living there after buying a land and constructing a house worth Rs 1 crore, the police said.

Read I Noida: Jewar gang-rape victims demand capital punishment for accused

He then put together a gang of petty criminals who would carry out chain snatchings during calendar events such as Pushkar Mela.

Anil was in touch with Raju, another accused in the Jewar gangrape and murder, and planned the crime. Anil and Rajus wife hail from the same place in Alwar.

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The officials of Mahamedha Urban Co-operative Bank Limited, Ghaziabad, have written to the Union ministry of finance to grant them one more year to make recovery of loans, some of which have turned into non-performing asset over the years.

The move by the bank comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently cancelled the licence of the bank to carry on banking business.

Senior officials of the bank said that their appeal was sent to the ministry to allow them more time for recovery of pending loans. The bank has six branches and officials claim that they have nearly 36,000 accounts of different customers, including savings and current account holders. The banks six branches are located in Ghaziabad, Greater Noida and Hapur.

There are loans to the tune of 40 crore which have turned into non-performing assets. The RBI cancelled our license on this account. We had also sent a revival plan to the RBI but the licence stands cancelled. However, we have moved an application to grant of one more years time to us for recovery of loans which are secured with backing of mortgage, said Raj Singh Bhati, chairman of the bank.

We would like to assure our customers that their money is secured, he added.

The officials added that the operation of the bank was hampered since the last 13 months. Some of the customers who arrived at the banks headquarters at Ghaziabad said that they were facing difficulty in withdrawing money.

For the past one year, I have not been able to do any transactions. I have nearly 14 lakh as deposit in my saving, current and fixed deposit accounts. I had to take loans for my daughters marriage and also for my husbands bypass surgery. I could not withdraw my own money even though I gave the bank the estimate of my husbands surgery, said Lalita Rani, a customer from Patel Nagar.
Solapur police have arrested a doctor couple for carrying out illegal abortions. Preliminary police investigation reveals that the couple was involved in carrying out at least 36 abortions in the past few years.

The action was taken jointly by the police and officials of health department on Friday in Akluj in Solapur district of western Maharashtra. The doctors, Tejas Gandhi and Priya Gandhi, have been remanded to police custody.

Tejas Gandhi (HT PHOTO)

Police suspect a bigger racket and the possibility that the foetus may have been buried by the parents after abortion.

Akluj PI Arun Savant, who is investigating the case, did not rule out the possibility of a bigger racket. He told HT that police are not ruling out the arrests of more people.

Preliminary police investigation has revealed that Dr Gandhi used to hand over the aborted foetus to the parents. We are scrutinising the list of women, who have undergone abortion and each case would be traced independently, Savant said. Police feel that parents might have destroyed the foetus after the abortion.

Solapur police said the Gandhi couple was illegally running Siya Maternity Home in Akluj town of Solapur district where sex determination tests and abortions were carried out. The maternity home was raided and police seized papers as evidence.

Priya Gandhi (HT PHOTO)

Action was taken when officials of neighbouring Satara district alerted their counterparts in Solapur. Satara police had found a buried foetus near Shirval on the river bank a few days ago. Investigation by Satara police found that a couple from Wai had buried the foetus near the river bank. The couple was later arrested.

Information given by the couple led to the arrest of the Solapur doctors in Akluj. The maternity home was raided immediately by the officials. The couple has been arrested under The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

Police officials said that the doctor couple did not cooperate during the interrogation, claiming that they were practising legally. Police will now study the sonography machine and papers, which have been seized from the maternity home.

Tejas Gandhi, along with his father Pradip, was arrested for the same offence in 2007. Police record shows that Tejas worked as a technician during the abortion. While his father was sentenced to imprisonment, Tejas was acquitted of the charges by Bombay high court.

Second case

This is the second major case in western Maharashtra, involving a doctor running a suspected racket of abortion of unwanted babies. In March this year, Dr Babasaheb Khidrapure, a homoeopath doctor, was arrested by Sangli police. Dr Khidrapure ran a systematic racket and is alleged to have buried 19 infants in the backyard of his nursing home at Mhaisal near Miraj. More than ten persons, including doctors, medical representatives, chemist shop owner and agents were arrested in the case.

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Ganesha is present across boundaries and is worshipped across the world, said Vinayak Awate, philatelist and numismatist who has hundreds of stamps, stamp papers from countries having faith in Lord Ganesha. I have stamps of Ganesha in various forms from Niger in Africa, Ceylon, Nepal, Czech Republic, Thailand, Indonesia and several other countries. It was interesting to find coins from these countries with Lord Ganesha as the currency, he added.

This also means that the world is aware of what Lord Ganesha denotes  that he is the God of knowledge and prosperity. I was searching for Ganesha in forms of stamps, currencies and miniatures, so when I found Ganesha in other countries, I was surprised and it felt great to find these unique stamps and other paraphernalia. Awate started collecting stamps specifically on Ganesha from the age of 15. I was born on Chaturthi and I was named after Ganesha, besides I was fascinated with the God of knowledge that led me to search more about him, he said.

Besides stamps, he also collects coins and has coins from South India. These are from Hindu and Muslim kings, mainly known as Madurai Nayaka, interestingly these coins all have Ganesha. These belong to the 6th and 7th century. The coins are of metal, mostly copper with die-cast.

Indian postcards with pictures of the elephant god. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

While collecting, I came across an Indonesian note with Ganesha prominently displayed, and a Thai coin with Ganesha. Both countries have temples and worship Ganesha, he said. Besides these, Awate also has stamps and stamp papers of the Indian princely states  Sangli, Miraj, Kurundwad, Wadi, Jamkhandi and Pipoloda from Madhya Pradesh, all of them have Ganesha printed on it. All the above states except Piploda, had Ganesha as their Kuldaivat and hence, it was widely used in their court fee stamp papers, revenue stamps, he said.

Czech Republic stamp bearing Ganesha picture. (HT PHOTO)

Pratisad Neurgaonkar, another philatelist from the city, also has Ganesha special postal covers issued by the India Post. India does not have stamps as far as Ganpati stamps are concerned, but they bring out special covers and customised greeting cards, like in 2002 Shrimant Dadgusheth Halwai Ganpati, while Lalbaugcha Raja special cover came out in 2016. It is assumed that we are secular and we cannot issue any religious stamps. We also have stamps released in the US customised to show Ganesha, he said.

Basically, Ganesha is very popular from all ages, and he is the most worshipped everywhere. Traditionally, everyone has a Ganesha. When I found out that other countries are issuing stamps, its a different feeling and it is so unique that every philatelist will like to own one and display it, he said.

His daughter Urja is following his footsteps, and is keen on becoming a philatelist with repute, with her recently winning a silver in an international philately exhibition.

Ancient coins of south India bearing pictures of Ganesha. (HT PHOTO)
Haryana Police reportedly wanted Chandigarh to give passage to the 300-odd cars convoy of Dera followers, accompanying Gurmeet Ram Rahim on August 25, to pass through the UT to enter Panchkula. The director general of police Tajender Singh Luthra, however, refused to allow the same.

For public safety, I put my foot down, said Tajender Singh Luthra, DGP Chandigarh. The Dera Sacha Sudha head was on his way to appear before the CBI court Panchkula on August 25, for the verdict in rape case.

On August 25, Luthra says he received a call from senior Haryana intelligence officer just 30 minutes before the cavalcade was to reach Chandigarh, asking him to allow the cavalcade to pass through city to enter into Panchkula. It was a sensitive day. How could I have allowed the cavalcade? We were checking each and every vehicle and person. At the 11th hour, how could I allow the cavalcade to pass? The responsibility to ensure law and order in the city is my responsibility, said Luthra, a 1990 batch AGMUT cadre officer.

He said: Chandigarh was never part of the route plan, and added: There was no justification for the diversion from the planned route plan.

Luthra along with DIG Om Prakash Mishra was present at the Zirapur-Chandigarh to ensure that no unauthorised vehicle is allowed entry into the city. The DGP had rushed from a meeting with Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore, to be at the Chandigarh-Zirakpur border to take charge.

The vehicular traffic on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh highway was stopped and the nakas strengthened. A Chandigarh police pilot vehicle escorted the cavalcade that entered Zirakpur. As it was heading towards Chandigarh, Haryana officers wanted the cavalcade to go through Chandigarh in wake of the gathering of supporters on the sides of the highway.

The pilot was, however, instructed to escort the cavalcade from the wrong side of the Zirakpur flyover to take a U-turn towards Zirakpur after touching down from the flyover and enter Panchkula from the Zirakpur side.
Qaidi No 1997 had a sleepless night on the hard jail floor, far from the ostentatious luxury at his beck and call as chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda quasi-religious empire.

The 50-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sent to the district jail in Rohtaks Sunariya after a CBI court in Panchkula convicted him on Friday of raping two women.

Director general of police (prisons) KP Singh said on Saturday he slept on the floor of his cell in the prison barracks like any ordinary prisoner.

According to jail sources, the spiritual leader spent a sleepless night.

He skipped dinner but had a glass of milk before retiring for the night. He had green tea in the morning and bread for breakfast. He ate some dal and roti cooked in the jail kitchen for lunch.

Theres no bottled mineral water for him. He drank what prisoners drink  water from the purifying machines in the jail.

The disgraced self-styled godman has two qaidi nambardaars, or trusted prisoners, for company.

The cell is not air-conditioned. He is kept under surveillance of two prisoners in accordance with the jail manual, officer Singh said.

The Haryana government denied reports that the Dera chief was given VIP treatment.

A woman, Honeypreet, whom the Dera website describes as his daughter, was allowed to accompany him along with bags and suitcases when he was flown in a special helicopter from Panchkula to a resthouse for police officers in Rohtak after the verdict.

The visuals provoked allegations that the BJP government was showering favours such as air-conditioners and mineral water bottles on a convicted rapist.

He was shifted from the guesthouse to the jail around 9.30pm on Friday after a medical examination and given the prisoner tag of Number 1997.

Police director general Singh said: The Dera chief has been kept with other prisoners and no separate arrangements have been made for him. He was allowed to take only his clothes to his cell.

The convict had complained of a backache and requested an appointment with his personal physician. The request was turned down and jail doctors checked him.

(with agency inputs)
As many as 13 people, including both Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded by a car bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, officials said.

Omar Zwak, the Helmand governors spokesman who gave the casualty figures, said the attack occurred in a market in Nawa, a district in the centre of the province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks as government forces have battled for control with Taliban insurgents.

Afghan forces said they had retaken Nawa district in July but there has been continued fighting in the area since.

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate comment from the Taliban, which has carried out regular suicide attacks in Helmand, where it controls much of the area outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

The hospital in Lashkar Gah run by the Italian aid group Emergency said it had received 3 dead and 19 wounded while Bost Hospital, another facility, said it had received 10 wounded.

It was unclear whether any of the wounded had died after being taken to the hospitals.

The attack comes just days after a suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah killed at least seven people and wounded 40 as the Taliban continued its push to restore strict Islamic rule to Afghanistan and drive out foreign forces backing the government in Kabul.

US President Donald Trump last week announced a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground steadily in Afghanistan since a NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.
Five people died and many were injured as of Sunday by weather system Harvey, which made landfall on the gulf coast of Texas as a hurricane on Friday but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

It has stopped moving and is stalled over Houston and the neighbouring region and is expected to bring catastrophic flooding and is expected to worsen over the next few days, the National Weather Service said.

Hundreds of people have been rescued and local officials warned residents to stay sheltered and not venture out, especially at night, when danger signs are more difficult to detect.

This disasters going to be a landmark event, Brock Long, FEMA administrator, told CNN. This is a storm that the United States has not seen yet.

President Donald Trump, who has been monitoring the storm closely, tweeted: Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!

This is the first natural disaster to test the Trump administration, and he has seemed keen to come through. .@ChuckGrassley - got your message loud and clear. We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!, he tweeted, in response to a warning from a Republican senator, who reminded the president of George W Bushs failure to prepare for, and react adequately to, Hurricane Katrina that struck seven states in 2005, killing more than 1,800 people.
A senior commander in al Shabaab, Somalias al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels, was killed last month in a US airstrike, the group said on Saturday in an online statement.

Somalia said at the time that its military and allied foreign troops had killed the man identified as Ali Mohamed Hussein or Ali Jabal, believed responsible for several bombings.

It did not disclose the nationality of the foreign troops, but American soldiers have in the past taken part in such raids.

The cowardly American enemy planes tried to strike him. The first missed him and the second hit, making him a martyr, said the al Qaeda statement circulated on social media.

Somalia said last month that Ali Jabals death would reduce al Shabaabs ability to conduct senseless acts of violence against the people of Somalia, its East African neighbours, and the international community.

The insurgents have carried out frequent attacks in the capital Mogadishu as they bid to topple Somalias Western-backed government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops.

Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
More than a hundred years after he died, the ghost of an Irish revolutionary is haunting the Canadian ambassadors house in Ireland. At least thats what he believes.

The Canadian envoy Kevin Vickers said in a Facebook post he believes Patrick Pearse, a revolutionary from the 1916 Easter Rising, may be the reason behind unusual noises and breathing sounds in his Dublin home.

Pearse lived at the Vickers residence, Glanmire House in Ranelagh district from 1908 to 1912.

So I wonder if it is he (Pearse) who walks the hallways of this residence, Vickers wrote in the August 16 Facebook post, CTV News reported.

Some evenings he or she seems agitated. Then days go by and all is quiet, BBC quoted Vickers as saying.

The diplomat further said that the day before writing the post, he was watching TV when all of sudden I heard a heavy chain fall on the floor in the dining room. I immediately went there and there was nothing on the floor.

His housekeeper refuses to go upstairs, Vickers said, adding that he didnt believe in ghosts until now and those who dont believe his story are welcome to stay a night at his residence.

HT could not independently verify the ambassadors claim.

Vickers was appointed Canadas ambassador to Ireland in 2015. He shot to fame in 2014 when he and a Canadian police officer shot dead a gunman in the parliament building.

Patrick Pearse was one of the leaders of the 1916 uprising against the British rule in Ireland. He was executed on May 3 that year, days after he launched the rebellion on Easter Sunday.
Tropical storm Pakhar brought strong winds and heavy rain to Hong Kong and Macau on Sunday, just four days after one of the strongest typhoons on record, Hato, caused serious flooding and damage in the territories and killed at least 10 people in the gaming hub.

Both cities issued their third-highest weather warnings, storm signal No. 8, early on Sunday as winds intensified and heavy rain lashed down, churning up rough seas and prompting alerts of serious flooding in low-lying areas.

Hong Kongs weather observatory said winds occasionally reached storm force in the southern part of the territory and hurricane force on high ground on Lantau Island to the west of the city where the airport is situated.

Pakhars arrival comes as the cities are still reeling from Hato. While Hong Kong escaped major damage, Hato devastated Macau, the worlds largest gambling hub, killing at least 10 people, injuring 244 and exposing critical infrastructure flaws after it left the city without water and power for days.

Pakhar will land to the west of the Pearl River Estuary in the next few hours, said the Hong Kong Observatory, the territorys weather forecasting agency.

A storm batters a street in Macau during Typhoon Hato, in this still image taken from social media video obtained by Reuters August 24, 2017. (Deo Carmel Viste/via REUTERS )

The maximum sustained winds recorded at Ngong Ping, Cheung Chau and Chek Lap Kok were 140, 114 and 76 kilometers per hour (87, 71 and 47 miles per hour) respectively, with maximum gusts 173, 136 and 101 kmh.

Hong Kongs flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, said the storm would cause delays and cancellations to flights arriving and departing on Sunday and Monday. Local media said 140 flights had been canceled as of 6 a.m. local time (2200 GMT on Sunday).

Other transport services including ferries to Macau and outlying islands in Hong Kong were suspended.

In Macau, the storm will pose a major setback to clean-up efforts that saw Chinese Peoples Liberation Army troops deployed to help remove mountains of stinking debris strewn across some heavily flooded districts battered by Hato.

Power has been restored in the territory but some areas still lacked water supply as of Saturday evening, the Macau Government Information Bureau said on its official website.

This picture taken in Macau on August 24, 2017 shows the Venetian Macau resort at night, the day after Typhoon Hato hit the territory. (AFP)

The government said the city still faced a severe challenge in removing huge piles of waste from the streets, with 2,600 tonnes of debris collected on Saturday alone. Shower facilities and changing rooms at four public swimming pools have been opened to accommodate residents with no water facilities.

A tree that was uprooted by strong winds from Typhoon Hato is seen in Macau, China August 24, 2017. (REUTERS)

Four Hong Kong journalists were denied entry to Macau on Saturday to cover the storms and relief effort on grounds they posed a risk to the stability of internal security, according to reports from the media companies they represented.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association expressed deep regret over the incident and urged Macau to respect press freedom. Police chief Ma Io-kun told a press conference on Saturday he was not aware of the case, but said the government respects press freedom very much.
Colombias leftist FARC rebels seek political rebirth on Sunday as they move to transform into a party to seek elected office after disarming to end a half-century war.

About 1,000 delegates from the freshly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will launch a founding congress to choose their political representatives.

They will choose a name for the party and candidates to run in next years general elections.

We are going to define the character of the political party that we aspire to build, former guerrilla commander Carlos Antonio Lozada told AFP.

He said they will also shape its structure and name the leaders, at least at national level.

Another former commander of the force, Ivan Marquez, said he expected the movement to call itself the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia.

However, the overall FARC leader Rodrigo Londono canvassed opinion on Twitter and many respondents said they favoured the name New Colombia.

Conflict analyst Frederic Masse of Bogotas Externado University said the debate reflected a dilemma in the movement.

Some want to keep the word revolutionary while others want to change that to show that this is a new start, Masse said.

Regardless of how many votes they may win, the peace deal signed with the government last year guarantees the new party five seats in each of the two legislative chambers for two terms.

We hope to get enough votes not only to justify those five senate and five lower house representatives, but also we aspire hopefully to achieve an even greater representation, Lozada said.

Londono has ruled out the new party fielding a presidential candidate.

But he said it will support a candidate who guarantees the peace deal the FARC signed with center-right President Juan Manuel Santos.

The communist FARC formed in 1964 from a peasant uprising for rural land rights.

Its members have avoided publicly framing their current discussions on their political future with terms such as socialist and communist however.

Another former FARC commander, Pastor Alape, said they were looking for a broader liberal democracy movement.

Some ex-FARC leaders have said it will be anti-imperialist and anti-patriarchal in spirit.

Lozada said it would focus on promoting free health and education and environmental protection.

After 53 years of attacks and kidnappings, the FARC in its new form faces a struggle for acceptance.

Recent polls indicate that more than 80% of Colombians are opposed to it.

There is a long history of grievances weighing against the FARC, said analyst Angelika Rettberg.

Voters narrowly rejected the peace deal in a referendum last year. Santos and the FARC tweaked it and the government pushed it through congress.

The FARC will face a number of challenges The first is not to betray their support base. The second is to enlarge their electorate, said Masse.

The third is to show that they are capable of doing politics differently and not letting themselves get sucked into traditional patronage politics.
US President Donald Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of being very difficult at the negotiating table over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and threatening anew to terminate the deal.

Trump tweeted on Sunday morning that NAFTA is the worst trade deal ever made.

Trump said at a rally last week in Phoenix that he would end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point.

The US, Mexico and Canada began formal negotiations earlier this month to rework the 23-year-old trade pact that Trump blames for hundreds of thousands of lost U.S. factory jobs.

Trump is also taking to Twitter to press the need for his promised southern border wall, tweeting that Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other. Mexico has repeatedly said theres no chance of that happening.
The finance ministry is open to providing capital support for facilitating consolidation among state-owned banks, which are reeling under mounting bad loans, official sources said.

The Union cabinet has approved the setting up of an alternative mechanism, or a panel of ministers, to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks.

On receiving a proposal from stressed banks, if the ministerial panel finds that the merger is going to create a strong bank, it will not let it go for want of fund shortage, the sources said, adding that acquisition will come at a cost.

First, the merger proposal should come from the board, said a source, who did not want to be named.

If the Alternative Mechanism finds the match viable, the finance ministry could provide capital support to the acquiring bank if there is a shortfall, he said.

Sources said the government is keen that at least one merger proposal reaches a logical conclusion by the end of the current fiscal, which is next March-end.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the Cabinet decision last week, had said that the government has not set any target for consolidation.

There are now 20 public sector banks (PSBs) other than SBI. These state-owned banks are grappling with Rs 6 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which is about 75% of the total distress.

After in-principle approval for consolidation, the banks would take steps in accordance with the law and Sebi requirements. The final scheme will be approved by the Cabinet.

An official source said: It is not necessary that a larger public sector bank should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity so that the dependence on public exchequer is minimised.

Earlier this year, the government had approved the merger of SBIs five associate banks with itself. In March, the Cabinet also approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.

Five associates and BMB became part of SBI on April 1, 2017, catapulting the countrys largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB, were merged with SBI.

With the merger, the total customer base of the SBI reached around 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country. The merged entity began operation with deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore.

SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
Vienna Five people were killed and a sixth seriously injured after a climbing accident Sunday morning in the Austrian Alps, rescue services said.

The cause of the accident, which occurred below the Mannlkarscharte pass near Zell-am-See, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the central city of Salzburg, has not yet been determined.

We think a rope may have come loose, said Anton Voithofer, head of the Red Cross rescue team.

Five helicopters were sent to the scene, and the injured climber was transported to a hospital in Schwarzach.

The victims have not yet been identified.

It was the deadliest climbing accident so far this season in the Austrian Alps, where several dozen mountaineering deaths are reported each summer.
France will help reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Iraq as it emerges from a war against Islamic State, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday after talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad.

France is a main partner in the US-led coalition helping Baghdad fight the militants who seized parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The coalition provided key air and ground support to Iraqi forces in the nine-month campaign to take back Mosul, Islamic States capital in Iraq.

The citys fall in July effectively marked the end of the caliphate declared by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over parts of Iraq and Syria. Iraqi forces were close to taking back full control of ISs northwestern stronghold of Tal Afar on Saturday.

We are present in the war and we will be present in the peace, Le Drian told a news conference in Baghdad with French Defence Minister Florence Parly and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Even if our joint combat against Daesh is not finished, it is entering a phase of stabilisation, of reconciliation, of reconstruction, a phase of peace, Le Drian said, calling Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

During the talks, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi urged France to invest in Iraq, at the economic, commercial and investment levels, according to a statement from his office.

France will grant a 430 million ($513 million) loan to Iraq before the end of the year, a French diplomatic source said.

KURDISH REFERENDUM

Later on Saturday, the French ministers met Kurdish President Masoud Barzani in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, whose Peshmerga fighters have played a prominent role in the fight against Islamic State.

Le Drian said that France will continue to support the Kurdish Peshmerga, according to a statement by the Kurdish presidency. The Kurdistan Regional Governments (KRG) plan to hold an independence referendum next month was also discussed by both parties, according to the Kurdish presidency.

Iraq's Kurdistan region president Massud Barzani (C) welcomes French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) and French Defence Minister Florence Parly (R) ahead of their meeting on August 26, 2017, in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. (AFP)

France and other western countries are worried that the referendum to be held on Sept. 25 could ignite fresh conflict with Baghdad and neighbouring states with sizeable Kurdish communities, mainly Iran and Turkey.

During the meeting with Abadi, the French delegation expressed its commitment to a unified Iraq, according to the Iraqi premiers statement.

Prior to the meeting in Erbil, a diplomat familiar with French policy said Le Drian and Parly would convey to KRG President Massoud Barzani the French position in favour of an autonomous Kurdistan that remains part of the Iraqi state.

During the meeting with Barzani, Le Drian called for continued dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to reach a mutually satisfactory solution over the referendum, according to the Kurdish presidencys statement.

In Baghdad, the French ministers and Jaafari did not mention the fate of families of French citizens who fought with Islamic State, found in Mosul and other areas taken back from the militants. Several hundreds French nationals are believed to have joined the group.
Myanmars government said it has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said.

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya - mostly women and children - were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border. Reuters reporters at the border could hear gunfire from the Myanmar side on Sunday, which triggered a rush of Rohingya towards the no mans land between the countries.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

The violence marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation dogged by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

While the chaos and lack of access made detailed assessments difficult, experts said the latest attacks were so widespread they appeared to be more akin to a movement or an uprising, rather than an insurgent offensive.

One army source said the military was also struggling to differentiate.

All the villagers become insurgents, what theyre doing is like a revolution, said the source in Rakhine. They dont care if they die or not. We cant tell who of them are insurgents.

CHALLENGE FOR SUU KYI

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi has condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 ethnic villagers who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.

We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities, said Win Myat Aye. He was unable to describe the governments plans to help Rohingya civilians.

Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said.

People from the main towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung said they were worried food supply routes had been temporarily cut off.

BREAKING POINT

The Rohingya have for years endured apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar - they are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements. Many Myanmar Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Observers worry that the latest attacks represent a breaking point many Rohingya have reached with the help of a charismatic insurgent leader, Ata Ullah.

Ata Ullah leads the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks and claimed responsibility for the latest offensive.

Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks.

Across the border, Bangladeshs foreign ministry said it was concerned thousands of unarmed Myanmar nationals were planning to enter the country.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other countrys citizens.

At the no mans land near Bangladeshs Gumdhum village, dozens of Rohingya women, most wearing burqa, sat cramped under a few black plastic sheets shielding them from the harsh sun.

A number of Rohingya men ran to the unoccupied area between the two countries after several gun shots rang out on the Myanmar side.

Bangladesh border guard officials said they were providing food and water to the Rohingya, but that no one would be let in.

Please save us, said 61-year-old Amir Hossain said, as infants cried nearby. We want to stay here or else well get killed.
Indians visiting the United Kingdom were among eight people killed on Saturday morning when the minibus they were travelling in collided with two lorries on the arterial M1 motorway, official sources here said on Sunday.

The involvement of Indians in the incident emerged following investigations; they were said to be associated with a major Indian information technology company. More details were awaited, while four injured were being treated in hospitals.

Details were awaited but unconfirmed sources said all the eight killed were likely to be Indians. One of the injured is said to be a boy whose parents died. Their identities were yet to be formally released.

Chief inspector Henry Parsons from the Joint Operations Unit for Roads Policing said: The scene facing the officers who attended was complex and the recovery operation which followed was challenging. Tragically eight people lost their lives, with four further people seriously injured, and it is our duty to establish the circumstances of what happened.

Officers are working to inform the next of kin of the people who died and specially-trained family liaison officers will be offering them their support. Some of those involved were visiting the UK from India and we are working to keep families abroad informed.

The Thames Valley police on Sunday charged two men driving the two lorries in connection with the fatal collision around 3.15am at Newport Pagnell, nearly 55km north of London.

Ryszard Masierak, 31, was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and eight counts of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit.

David Wagstaff, 53, was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

The police said a woman, a man and a five-year-old girl who were also in the minibus, were taken to hospital where they remained in a life-threatening condition. Another woman was also taken to hospital with serious injuries which are not believed to be life-threatening.

The Indian high commission in London and the consulate in Birmingham are extending assistance and coordinating with British authorities.

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DECATUR  Concerns about how the proposed Macon County Beltway project could affect the Farm Progress Show will have to wait until after this year's event.

The long-discussed beltway project would be a 22-mile stretch of road allowing traffic to loop around the east side of the city. Farm Progress Show Director Matt Jungmann said the road would separate the show site from the field where suppliers demonstrate their equipment, essentially cutting the event in half.

County officials and Farm Progress representatives are scheduled to meet shortly after the show ends, according to Jungmann and Macon County Engineer Bruce Bird. Jungmann said he was hopeful the meeting could clear up some uncertainties about the beltway and its potential effect on the show.

City and Macon County leaders have been planning construction of the beltway for more than a decade, and have spoken of it as key to the community's economic development efforts.

Earlier this month, the Macon County Farm Bureau announced its opposition, citing in part the unknown effect the work would have on Farm Progress.

Jungmann said the show's organizers had long known about plans for the beltway, but for years, they had no timeline. Recently, the project has picked up steam. Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Aug. 5 giving Macon County "quick-take" eminent domain authority, allowing the county to claim a parcel of land near Brush College Road and Illinois 48 that would be the first piece of the road.

The cost to redevelop the intersection is covered by a $10 million in state money given to the county in 2014 by former Gov. Pat Quinn. Macon County Chairman Jay Dunn said in early August that he hoped the work could start this summer.
The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier.

In a statement Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting IS.

Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting Allahu akbar!  Arabic for God is great. He was shot dead by troops.

The Federal Prosecutors Office said the man was known to police for assault charges but had no previous terror-related offenses. The suspect, a Belgian citizen of Somali origin, was also carrying a fake firearm and copies of the Quran.

IS often claims attacks by people who have no known link to the group.
Most French voters are now dissatisfied with President Emmanuel Macrons performance, a poll showed on Sunday, a dramatic decline for a president who basked in a landslide election victory less than four months ago.

The poll, conducted by Ifop for newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), showed Macrons dissatisfaction rating rising to 57%, from 43% in July.

Forty percent expressed satisfaction with the centrist leader - down 14 points from July.

French government spokesman Christophe Castaner said the ruling party was going through a tricky time, but added that displeasing some people was a price worth paying if the government wanted to push through reforms.

Yes, we are encountering difficulties, but you cannot just spend your time only looking at polls when youre in government. We are there to transform the country. Our country needs us to take risks, and we are taking risks, Castaner told BFM TV.

Macron, who is midway through a schedule of official visits to various European capitals, has suffered a number of setbacks since being elected, including tough debates in parliament over labour reform, a standoff with the military and cuts to housing assistance.

Social media commentators and political opponents criticised the president after it emerged he spent 26,000 euros ($31,000) on makeup during his first 100 days in office and his office also backed down on plans to give his wife a formal, paid role after a public backlash.

Bernard Sananes, head of French polling company Elabe, said the latest survey could encourage Macrons political opponents, after his party won a commanding majority in parliament.

It could mean, for the government, that the opposition mobilises itself again, Sananes told BFM TV.

The Ifop poll showed the cumulative drop in Macrons popularity ratings since May was bigger than that of previous Socialist president Francois Hollande over the same period.

The poll also showed a drop in popularity for Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, with 47 percent expressing satisfaction with him - down 9 points from last month.

Macron, Frances youngest leader since Napoleon, faces a big test next month when the far-left CGT trade union leads a rally to protest against plans to deregulate the jobs market.

Now is the key time, with the labour executive orders to be presented, said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Geneva-based investment firm Prime Partners, who has an underweight position on French equities.
Pakistan postponed a visit by a US acting assistant secretary of state, officials said, as small protests broke out against US President Donald Trumps accusations that Islamabad was prolonging the war in Afghanistan.

The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant secretary of state for South and Asian affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first high-profile visit by a US official since Trumps Afghan policy speech on August 21.

At the request of the Government of Pakistan, acting assistant secretary Wells trip has been postponed until a mutually convenient time, a US embassy spokesperson told Reuters in Islamabad on Sunday.

Pakistans foreign ministry released a statement with similar wording. Neither side gave a reason for the postponement, but US officials working in Pakistan have been on high-alert since Mondays speech.

Trump accused Pakistan of harbouring agents of chaos and providing safe havens to militant groups waging an insurgency against a US-backed government in Kabul.

Pakistani officials responded by saying the US should not scapegoat Pakistan and accused the American military of failing to eliminate militant sanctuaries inside Afghanistan.

In the southern metropolis of Karachi, police fired teargas at protesters from a religious student group as they began moving toward the US consulate building.

Between 100 and 150 protesters carrying placards bearing pictures of President Trump and chanting anti-US slogans were kept at bay by police and not allowed within 3 km of the consulate.

On Friday, banned Islamist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa, held responsible by Washington and New Delhi for a series of coordinated attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, staged nationwide protests but also failed to draw large numbers.
A Pakistani court on Saturday acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in a major corruption case that dogged him for almost two decades, his lawyer said.

Zardari, who left office in 2013, faced corruption allegations involving Swiss banks dating back to the 1990s.

He was accused along with his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, of laundering $12 million of illegal kickbacks.

An accountability court today acquitted Asif Zardari in a case filed against him in 1998 accusing him of making and maintaining assets beyond his known sources of income, lawyer Farooq H. Naik told AFP.

He said the court, which has held hearings in Lahore and Rawalpindi since 1998, recorded statements from more than 40 witnesses.

It has now become abundantly clear that the allegations against my client were fake and there were no solid grouds for filing a baseless case against him 19 years ago, Naik said.

Zardari has spent time behind bars on charges ranging from corruption to murder.

Little-known at the time of his arranged marriage into the Bhutto dynasty in 1987, he carved out a powerful position for himself, serving as a government minister in his wifes two administrations
A British MP has criticised some Pakistanis in the UK for reportedly going and getting a wife from abroad for their disabled sons.

Labour MP Jess Phillips said the practice was among lots of cases she dealt with where people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities behaved unacceptably towards women.

Well, sorry, the British Pakistani-Bangladeshi community, certainly where I am, has issues about womens roles in a family, in society, she was quoted as saying by The Times.

Thats the truth. Not all of them, obviously. But I have lots of cases on my books. The acceptability of going and getting a wife from abroad if your son is disabled, for example. As if he deserves to have a wife and well just get one from Pakistan. Thats not okay in my book, she said.

She made the comment in reference to her Labour party colleague, Sarah Champion, who quit as shadow equalities minister after writing in The Sun about Pakistani Muslim men abusing white girls.

Phillips believes Champions piece was crudely phrased: I can understand why Naz Shah (a fellow Labour MP) was like, Hang on a minute, youre talking about my sons here.

But she laments that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did not broker a deal so that Champion could stay because it makes it look like we sweep this stuff under the carpet and it gives more power to people who go, Its political correctness gone mad and that people like me are trying to protect the perpetrators.

The Ann Craft Trust, which works with the learning- disabled, said there was a serious problem of British Asian people with learning disabilities being forced into marriage without giving their proper consent.

Around 10% of cases reported to the governments forced marriage unit, 140 a year, concern people with learning disabilities.

Research for the trust found that the vast majority involved people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and also Indian origin.

Rachael Clawson, assistant professor of social work at Nottingham University, who is studying the issue, said: We will see people trying to use this to get people in as a loophole. But the most common situation is that families really think they are doing their best for their [disabled] son or daughter by getting them a carer.
Texas governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that conditions on the storm-ravaged coast were bad and growing worse, as torrential rains continued to batter Houston and nearby areas.

Abbott offered no casualty figures, saying We will see. So far, two deaths have been officially confirmed.

But he added that search-and-rescue teams have been going door-to-door through some of the worst-hit neighbourhoods. He said National Guard troops were deployed overnight to Houston, with boats, helicopters and high-clearance vehicles to help in rescues.

There were a lot of warnings to evacuate, he said, adding that those warnings likely saved a whole lot of lives.

Though Harvey has been downgraded from hurricane to tropical-storm status, it is expected to continue dumping up to two feet of rain in the area. It has caused rivers to overflow and necessitated more than 1,000 swift-water rescues.

Now, of course, we are dealing with the damage around the Houston area because of the flooding, Abbott said on Fox News Sunday.

It is large and growing larger -- it will be in the billions of dollars but we really will not be able to tell for the next couple of days.

A damaged two-storey apartment building after Storm Harvey hit Rockport, Texas on Saturday. (AFP)

Houston is the fourth-largest US city, and surrounding Harris County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. The combination of dense population and low-lying elevations leave it particularly vulnerable to Harveys ravages.

If there was any silver lining to Abbotts assessment, it was that the petroleum industry in the area -- including half the nations oil-refining capacity -- was very well prepared for the storm.

They hunkered down and were able to contain the facilities and they have the ability to ratchet up back up there quickly. he said. This will be probably a one- or two-week downturn.

The governor also praised President Donald Trumps role, saying his federal emergency declaration was the quickest Abbott had seen.
Japans Defense Ministry on Sunday said it was searching for three crew members of a Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter in the Sea of Japan after contact was lost with the chopper. One crew member had been rescued uninjured.

The ministry said the SH-60J anti-submarine warfare helicopter lost contact around 90 km (56 miles) off the coast of Aomori Prefecture late on Saturday.

It said the flight data recorder had been located, but did not say what had actually happened to the helicopter, whether it crashed or ditched into the sea. The MSDF has launched an investigation into the incident.

Earlier this month, four Japanese crew members were injured after their CH-101 chopper crashed on land during a training exercise at Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan.
The most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years has killed at least one person and is now threatening catastrophic flooding as search and rescue teams deploy to the hardest-hit zones, authorities said on Saturday.

Harvey slammed into Texas, the heart of the US oil and gas industry, late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to strike the state since 1961.

It ripped off roofs, snapped trees, and triggered tornadoes and flash floods, and cut power to nearly a quarter of a million people. It also curtailed a large portion of Americas oil and fuel production, prompting price hikes at the pumps.

A home owner of a Bolivar, Texas, beach cabin looks over the remains of their home Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, after a fire destroyed it and two others during Hurricane Harvey's early morning land fall. (AP)

Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days as it lumbers inland, bringing as much as 40 inches (102 cm) of rain to some areas, and affecting heavily populated.

Houston could receive as much as 2 to 3 inches of rain per hour overnight, Mayor Sylvester Turner said late on Saturday. The National Hurricane Center described the rain forecast for the state as potentially catastrophic.

Rainfall measured in feet rather than inches can certainly create a catastrophic flood, spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

A home damaged by Hurricane Harvey remains surrounded by flood waters, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Rockport, Texas. (AP)

One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Corpus Christi, as Harvey roared ashore overnight, Mayor Charles Wax said in a news conference on Saturday, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries like broken bones, another official said.

The town took a direct hit from the storm and had streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday afternoon. At a recreational vehicle sales lot, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown into the middle of the street. By Saturday evening, a convoy of military vehicles had arrived in the Rockport area with people and equipment to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents.

It was terrible, resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters. The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4 a.m., he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm. I could feel the whole house move.

Before the storm hit, Rockports mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury. A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media. Some were being used as shelters.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.

Housing surrounded by flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey is seen from a US Coast Guard helicopter during an overflight from Port Aransas to Port O'Connor, Texas, August 26, 2017. (REUTERS)

The streets of Corpus Christi, which has around 320,000 residents, were deserted on Saturday, with billboards twisted and strong winds still blowing. City authorities asked residents to reduce use of toilets and faucets because power outages left waste water plants unable to treat sewage.

Elsewhere, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it was forced to evacuate some 4,500 inmates from three state prisons near the Brazos River because of rising water. Texas utility companies, meanwhile, said 220,000 customers were without power for an indefinite period of time.

The US Coast Guard said it had rescued 20 people from distressed vessels on Saturday, and was also monitoring two Carnival Corp cruise ships carrying thousands of people stranded in the US Gulf of Mexico due to the effects of the storm.

Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale when it hit the coast, the second-highest category, and the most powerful storm in over a decade to come ashore anywhere in the mainland United States.

HEADING INLAND, STORM WEAKENS

Harvey weakened to tropical storm from hurricane strength on Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center said. The center of the storm was barely moving and was less than 150 miles (240 km) from Houston with sustained winds of 60 mph.

Rain from Hurricane Harvey batters the downtown area on August 26, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Harvey, which made landfall north of Corpus Christi late on Friday night. (AFP)

Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States and home to a third of the 6 million people that could be impacted by Harvey, has gotten about 16 inches of rain so far, and will receive 2 to 3 more feet in the coming days, Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday afternoon.

This is serious, Turner said in a televised interview as Harvey turned into a tropical storm expected to linger over the mid Texas coast. It is important that people stay off the roads. Turner said the city, which has faced flooding in recent years during smaller storms, is prepared for what he described as a major water event.

Other authorities warned of the potentially life-threatening impact of heavy rains between Houston and Corpus Christi over the next several days.

The latest forecast storm track has Harvey looping back toward the Gulf of Mexico coast before turning north again on Tuesday.

This rain will lead to a prolonged, dangerous, and potentially catastrophic flooding event well into next week, the National Weather Service said.

The size and strength of Harvey dredged up memories of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that made a direct hit on New Orleans as a Category 3 storm, causing levees and flood walls to fail in dozens of places. About 1,800 died in the disaster made worse by a slow government emergency response.

This photo made available by NASA shows Hurricane Harvey over Texas on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, seen from the International Space Station. (AP)

US President Donald Trump, facing the first big natural disaster of his term, signed a disaster proclamation on Friday.

He met with his cabinet and staff on Saturday to discuss the federal reaction to the storm, according to a White House statement.

President Trump emphasized his expectations that all departments and agencies stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives, according to the statement.

GASOLINE PRICES SPIKE

Utilities American Electric Power Company Inc and CenterPoint Energy Inc reported a combined total of around 240,000 customers without power.

Several refiners shut down plants ahead of the storm, disrupting supplies and pushing prices higher. Many fuel stations ran out of gasoline before the storm hit, and the US Environmental Protection Agency loosened gasoline specifications late on Friday to reduce shortages.

The American Automobiles Association said pump prices rose 4 cents in four days in Texas to reach $2.17 a gallon on Friday.

Disruptions to fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline futures to their highest price in four months.

More than 45% of the countrys refining capacity is along the US Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nations crude is produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Just under 25% of Gulf output, or 429,000 barrels per day (bpd) had been shut in by the storm, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said on Saturday.
British police announced on Sunday a second arrest in connection with an assault on three police officers by a man armed with a four-foot sword outside Londons Buckingham Palace on Friday.

A 30-year-old man was arrested at an address in West London on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism, police said.

A man deliberately drove at a police van close to the Queens official residence in London late on Friday and was detained by three police officers, who sustained minor injuries.

A 26-year-old arrested at the scene remains in custody after a warrant for his detention until September 1 was granted, the police said.
Americas security aid to Pakistan will be conditioned on the steps Islamabad takes against terrorist groups such as the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior Trump administration official has said.

There have been long standing relationships between the Pakistani intelligence officials and these terrorist groups. So, we dont expect things to change overnight. We expect incremental changes over time, the official told PTI.

His comments came days after US President Donald Trump hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to agents of chaos that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has much to lose by harbouring terrorists.

We will be able to see when these changes start to happen. They (might) not become immediately apparent to the public, but were confident that when Pakistan takes the steps were asking it to do, well know it and well be able to assess. And so, our security aid will be conditioned on the steps that we expect them to take against, in particular, the Taliban-Haqqani Network, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The United States, the official said, is monitoring the situation carefully in Pakistan and expects some progress.

It wouldnt be appropriate for me to give exact timelines that were dealing in. But, certainly there is an expectation that well start to see some changes in the very near future, the official said when asked if the Trump administration has set a time line for progress in action being taken by Pakistan against the terrorist groups.

The official was responding to a series of question on the statements coming out of Pakistan, which are generally in strong opposition to the Trumps South Asia strategy.

Supporters of Defence of Pakistan Council, a coalition of around 40 religious and political parties, carry banners during a protest against US President Donald Trump in Karachi on August 25, 2017. Angry and offended Pakistanis fired back against Donald Trump's accusations that their country harbours militants, highlighting the heavy toll they have paid fighting extremism and slamming his embrace of arch-rival India. (AFP)

How do you see Pakistans reaction? Do you think that they would be, given these kind of reactions thats coming up in public domain, think they will be cooperating this time with you on counter-terrorism issues? the official was asked.

I think the President was very clear that we are going to take a different approach to that stand. Theres a lot of frustration (in the US) with the continued safe havens in Pakistan. But we believe there is hope for greater cooperation from Pakistan on these issues. Its Pakistans choice. Pakistan has much to benefit from by cooperating with the US and cracking down on some of these groups, the official said.

And Pakistan has much to lose if it fails to do so, the official warned.

Were not going to talk about the precise steps that the US is considering with regard to its relationship with Pakistan. Well reserve that for our private discussions on Pakistan. Well just simply say that its extremely important to this administration that Pakistan take tangible steps against the groups that continue to support attacks against US service members and US officials in Afghanistan, the official said, adding that the US will be working very closely with Pakistani officials to achieve that objective.

A Pakistani resident watches his tablet device in Islamabad on August 22, 2017, showing a live broadcast of US President Donald Trump delivering his address from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia in the US. (AFP)

Pakistans Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif is soon expected to visit the US and meet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Ahead of the US visit, Asif is scheduled to travel to China, Russia and Turkey to hold meetings with their leaders on the Trumps South Asia policy.

We think that Pakistan will see that its in its own interest to cooperate with the US. And that, when theyre thinking about their core security interests in Afghanistan, they will assess that they can better achieve those objectives by being in a cooperative relationship with the US, rather than a contentious relationship. These are the kinds of conversations that were having with Pakistan, the official added.
President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions this past spring whether he would drop the federal case against Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but was rebuffed at the time, according to The Washington Post.

Sessions told Trump it would be inappropriate for him to interfere in the federal case against Arpaio, one of Trump's most ardent allies, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation who spoke with the Post.

Trump eventually decided to let the case go to trial with the plan of pardoning Arpaio if he was convicted, according to the report.

When asked about Trump's conversation with Sessions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Post: "It's only natural the president would have a discussion with administration lawyers about legal matters. This case would be no different."

The Justice Department declined to comment to the newspaper. It also declined to comment to CNN when asked about the Post's story.

The White House did not immediately return CNN's request for comment.

CNN has not independently verified the Post's story.

Trump quietly pardoned Arpaio late Friday as the national focus turned toward Hurricane Harvey as it was about to hit Texas. Trump hinted at the pardon earlier in the week during his rally in Phoenix, but the White House was circumspect about what would happen.

Arpaio was found guilty last month of contempt of court for refusing to comply with a federal judge's orders that he stop racially profiling Latinos. Arpaio was scheduled to be sentenced in October.

Trump's pardon of Arpaio enraged Democrats across the board and divided Republicans. Many in the GOP, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, denounced the pardon, while others, including Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, praised the move.

Unlike almost all presidential pardons, this one did not involve any role for the Justice Department, according to a source with knowledge of the process. Typically an office at the Justice Department reviews clemency applications and gives a recommendation to the President.

"This is the President's pardon," the source said.
Chevron Phillips shut down its massive Cedar Bayou petrochemical complex in Baytown on Sunday as flooding overtook much of the Houston region.

Chevron Phillips is undergoing a sitewide shutdown of one of the nation's largest chemical campuses, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The plant is currently undergoing a $6 billion expansion that's scheduled for completion by the end of 2017.
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Public outcries have stalled the Keystone XL, the Dakota Access Pipeline and other multistate projects, but here in Texas pipeline companies are relatively unimpeded and planning to stick more straws in the earth than may ever be needed.

There are at least 15 projects to expand or construct pipelines that will traverse most of Texas from the Permian Basin to Houston, Corpus Christi and Beaumont. These projects routinely cost more than $1 billion each and range from 300 miles to more than 700 miles long. They pose environmental risks, consume capital and will pump an increasing load of Texas' energy reserves to other countries. On top of it all, analysts say they're not going to be used to capacity.

"It's a safe bet that industry will overbuild as we've seen in other basins," said Ethan Bellamy, an energy analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "By 2020, it will be a buyer's market for transportation capacity out of the Permian."

Proposed crude oil pipelines would nearly double the current capacity levels from the Permian Basin, and plans for new natural gas liquids pipelines would raise capacity volumes by more than 50 percent, according to a new report from Credit Suisse analysts.

Pipeline operators are expanding after Congress lifted the nation's decades-old crude exporting ban at the end of 2015. Since then, exports have risen to nearly 1 million barrels a day now, almost doubling 2016's export averages. That number should rise to 3 million a day by 2025, driven by Permian production and pipeline growth, said Kurt Barrow, vice president over oil markets for IHS Markit. The most bullish projections have the U.S. becoming a net crude exporter as soon as 2019.

The vast majority of new Permian oil production will simply be exported from Corpus and Houston to Asia and other growing regions, Barrow said. Gulf Coast refineries use some of the Texas oil, but they're built to primarily rely on denser crude from Canada, Latin America and some Middle Eastern nations, and they'll continue to import that oil.

Proposed pipeline capacity could easily eclipse production in a few years. Permian oil production is approaching 2.5 million barrels a day - up from less than 1 million as recently as 2011. But the amount of oil pipeline projects in the works could bring the Permian's crude takeaway pipeline capacity to nearly 5 million barrels a day by 2020.

Even if U.S. oil prices rise to a consistent $60 per barrel, Permian production is projected to only barely exceed 4 million barrels daily. And $40 oil would cause production levels to fall below today's levels, according to the Credit Suisse report. The U.S. benchmark for oil is currently hovering near $47 a barrel.

Despite the Permian boom, the number of active drilling rigs is showing signs of plateauing, and even some refining CEOs are complaining about pipeline companies trying to build too much.

Too much too soon?

Perhaps not every proposed pipeline project will be built, and some companies may form joint ventures with others to avoid duplicative projects. But for now, they seem intent on ensuring their "mutually assured destruction," said Jack Lipinski, CEO of Sugar Land-based CVR Refining.

"There are fewer and fewer pipelines that need to be built," he said during CVR's recent earnings call. "They are slowly realizing that the merry-go-round is slowing down, and they're hoping to be the winner."

In the last wave of quarterly earnings calls, pipeline executives expressed long-term optimism about the Permian but, when pressed by wary analysts, expressed more openness toward joint venture efforts to reduce their liabilities and debt loads in a weak oil price environment.

DCP Midstream - a JV between Houston's Phillips 66 and Calgary-based Enbridge - doesn't want to risk building any new major pipelines on its own for now. Instead, DCP plans to expand its existing Sand Hills natural gas liquids pipeline capacity by 60 percent that runs from the Permian to Mont Belvieu. DCP also opted to partner with Houston's Kinder Morgan for a new, 430-mile natural gas pipeline from the Permian to the Corpus Christi region that's called the Gulf Coast Express pipeline project.

Lessons to learn

DCP CEO Wouter van Kempen said there can be lessons learned from all the extra pipeline and processing capacity in South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale, where the energy sector hasn't bounced back as strongly from the recent oil bust.

"There is a risk for an overbuild, and we've seen it in many, many different places where a lot of people are skating to the buck and throwing a lot of capacity down," van Kempen said.

Nevertheless, Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean loves the Gulf Coast Express project in part because it would tie into its pipeline network to Houston, giving the gas more options for different uses and destinations.

"The Houston Ship Channel is now a premium market in the gas market, and that's driven by the fact that we have got LNG, power generation, petrochemical development and Mexico demand," Kean said.

Don't have to be full

Oklahoma-based Magellan Midstream Partners owns the largest oil pipeline network from the Permian to Houston, and CEO Michael Mears said Magellan is one of eight players pushing crude pipeline projects from the Permian to Corpus, where there's a refining base and a burgeoning world-class export hub. He acknowledged there's a competitive landscape with lots of negotiating going on behind the scenes.

Mears and other pipeline players contend they don't even need to keep their pipelines at full volumes to turn a profit. They just need the long-term contracts with exploration and production companies and enough minimum commitments to move forward.

"All the proposals are out there, and once somebody decides to make a commitment, then it'll happen very quickly," Mears said of the negotiations with oil and gas producers. "The pump is primed."

The projects that can't secure commitments are the ones that may fall by the wayside, he said.

Houston's Plains All American Pipelines' Cactus II project and Buckeye Partners' South Texas Gateway pipeline are among the other Corpus crude efforts in the works. The first Cactus line is the only current major oil artery from the Permian to Corpus.

Activists voice worries

Magellan is keeping busy expanding its BridgeTex oil pipeline capacity from Colorado City in the northern Permian to Houston by nearly 50 percent. Magellan owns BridgeTex jointly with Plains All American.

There are environmental and financial risks, though. Magellan's other West Texas oil pipeline to Houston, the Longhorn pipeline, burst in July outside Austin, leaking nearly 90,000 gallons of oil in Bastrop County.

Luke Metzger, director of the advocacy group Environment Texas, said there are big environmental concerns that often go overlooked in Texas because of energy-friendly politicians and eased regulatory processes, especially for pipelines that don't cross state boundaries, even if they're 700 miles long.

"These spills, unfortunately, are pretty routine and hurt the environment and wildlife," Metzger said.

One stark illustration of the weak sway environmentalist have had in Texas is Dallas pipeline magnate Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer Partners. Despite protests, he was confirmed on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission this year, just as his business was building a pipeline that runs adjacent to Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Energy Transfer currently is proposing building the Permian Express 3 pipeline from the Midland Basin to Beaumont ports. Likewise, Houston's Enterprise Products Partners already is constructing its Midland-to-Sealy crude pipeline in the Houston area.

Shipping constraints

Some say that the Houston Ship Channel is getting too crowded and that Corpus Christi has become a more ideal place to expand.

Enterprise CEO Jim Teague scoffs at this claim.

"There's a famous guy in Washington, D.C. that would call that fake news," he said. "You look at what producers want. They want to make sure that their product flows, and they want market choices. When you're in Houston, you're not captive to a limited market. You've got multiple outlets."

Enterprise's Shin Oak NGL pipeline proposal and Houston-based Targa Resources' pending Grand Prix pipeline are among those fighting to bring more natural gas liquids to the Houston area for petrochemical plants and products exports.

Still, many industry observers remain fascinated by the notion that Corpus Christi can rapidly grow into a major export hub. There's less traffic and deeper waters that can accommodate larger crude oil tankers vessels. Houston's Occidental Petroleum Corp., for instance, is beginning work to modify its Corpus Christi-area terminal to accommodate the largest crude tankers.

Other pipeline projects aiming for Corpus Christi are led by newer companies with private equity funding both domestic and international. Houston startup Permico Energia, with South Korean investments, has proposed a $2 billion effort with a 510-mile NGL pipeline to refining and port access near Corpus Christi. Likewise, a three-company consortium - San Antonio's TexStar Midstream Logistics, Castleton Commodities International and Dallas-based Ironwood Midstream Energy - is pushing a massive, 730-mile crude pipeline to Corpus Christi.

Oil is still below $50

In the Permian, lower oil prices currently are causing a lot of producers to sit on their wells after drilling them, waitingan average of five months or more to start pumping oil out of them, according to Plains All American.

Surge next year?

That backlog could create a production surge next year when the wells are finally completed. In the shorter term, that could mean production growth outpaces pipeline construction, Sandy Fielden, Morningstar's director of oil and products research, said in a recent report.

Longer term, cheaper crude coupled with a global glut could create big problems for Texas pipeline companies betting billions of dollars on growth. Big investment decisions are made well in advance of the stop-and-start oil production ups and downs in Texas shale plays.

"An oversupplied market could prompt lower prices that might in turn choke off new shale production before planned new pipelines come online," Fielden wrote. "That is the quandary for today's midstream developers in a post-shale world with shorter boom-and-bust cycles."
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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk got into a spat recently on Twitter with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg over the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Musk urged a group of governors to proactively regulate AI, which he views as a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

"Until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don't know how to react because it seems so ethereal," Musk said.

Zuckerberg shot back, saying fearmongering about AI is "irresponsible."

The two divergent views on AI reflect the existential questions humans face about their uniqueness in the universe.

Today, robots are quickly populating our cultural landscape. Engineers are building robots that can converse, perform dangerous tasks and even have sex.

Like Musk, people may see robots as a threat, especially as some become increasingly humanlike.

Even the appearance of humanlike robots causes many people discomfort. This phenomenon, called "the uncanny valley," is a hypothesis proposed in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, and according to researchers, this discomfort stems from some existential questions about the nature of humanity.

This hypothesis says that the more humanlike something is, the more comfortable we feel with it. But this comfort level suddenly dips when the object closely resembles a human.

Researchers have corroborated this hypothesis, and many factors contribute to it. For one, these humanlike robots remind us of our own mortality.

"They contain both life and the appearance of life," said Karl MacDorman, associate professor in the Human-Computer Interaction program of Indiana University. "It reminds us that at some point, we could be inanimate after death."

What's more, the idea that robots may have a consciousness and become almost indistinguishable from humans disturbs some, as recent movies such as "Ex Machina" and "Her" attest. The possibility that humans are not unique opens up questions about the nature of humanity.

Philosophers such as Daniel Dennett describe humans as nothing but complicated robots made of flesh. But Jews, Christians and Muslims believe humans are made in God's image, the apex of God's created order.

"I think particularly in the Christian tradition and Jewish tradition there's this concept of Imago Dei, which means we are created in the image and likeness of God," said Brent Waters, Christian ethics professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. "To try to create something unique that God created may also be a form of idolatry."

People from cultures that attach spiritual significance to trees or stones may have an easier time with robots.

MacDorman points out that Japanese society, which is both Shinto and Buddhist, has a general tendency to be more accepting of robots, including humanlike ones. For example, robots interact with customers in department stores, and engineers have built companion robots for families and the elderly.

On the other hand, followers of Abrahamic religions tend to be more disturbed by robots that bridge the gap between the human and inanimate.

"I would say they make us uncomfortable because they're different," said techno-theologian and futurist Christopher Benek, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "They're creepy. They're off somehow. But from a theological standpoint, we are special because we are loved by God. I think it's really important for us to continue to wrestle with it. We're challenged by something that might be able to have more power than we have."

The human sense of self also is grounded in biology. Even newborns show signs they distinguish their bodies as unique, said Philippe Rochat, psychology professor at Emory University who recently worked on a study verifying the uncanny valley.

"Identity in being unique is a necessary ingredient for us to move forward in the world and adapt to the world," Rochat said. "This is how the mind works. It works to create meaning. ... We have to fundamentally distinguish ourselves as other entities in the world."

And while people might get used to humanlike robots, the uncanny valley is still a perceptual instinct.

"People can have a very uncanny feeling even if they're exposed for a 10th of a second," MacDorman said. "There is a conflict, and our brain is immediately detecting the problem and the error signal."

This instinct comes from the conflict between us imagining emotions in robots and knowing these robots are inanimate objects, said Catrin Misselhorn, director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. Humans empathize when they perceive that another human is about to produce an emotion.

"If we see a real person as opposed to a robot, we infer that this face has thoughts, emotions, feelings and physically has a mental state," Rochat said. "We have an automatic inference of mental state. You dehumanize someone when you reduce this inference or eliminate this inference of mental state in this humanlike entity."

Although robots cannot produce or even show emotions, humans involuntarily imagine that robots can experience emotions or pain.

The fact that humans can feel empathy for humanlike robots raises ethical implications, Misselhorn said. For example, service robots may try to persuade people to buy things, but the fact that robots can be almost humanlike may be manipulated in more malicious ways.

While artificial intelligence may benefit human's lives in many ways, setting limits for robots and drawing the line between humans and machines has increasingly become relevant in government meetings. In the future, governments may have to clearly define robot rights.

"The fact that we feel empathy with inanimate objects makes us prone to some types of manipulation so we should think about where we want humanlike robots and where we don't want them," Misselhorn said.

Still, artificial intelligence can be used for the good of humanity, said Benek. If AI gains a humanlike intelligence, robots may even be able to practice religion.

"I don't see anywhere biblically where it prohibits us from creating, as long as it's in accordance with God's will," Benek said. "I think if they're truly autonomous and significantly more intelligent than we are currently, to me, it makes us want to advocate for the good of humanity and the Earth and creation."
In the dead of night, as the rain that had been pelting our house for two days pounded even louder, I lay awake thinking of my two young daughters hard asleep in their upstairs bedroom, their small bodies tangled in Hello Kitty sheets.

They were safe - for the moment - from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey, safe from the floods sweeping through vast swaths of Houston, safe from the tornadoes whipsawing through the west and northern parts of the city.

In our backyard, in a suburb northeast of Houston, the pool water slipped past the mosaic tile and onto the patio. In the black night sky, the thunder cracked and lightning flared. But our street, which curves slightly upward, and our house, which sits on a gentle slope, had been spared from Harvey's devastation.

We are lucky, I thought.

At least for the time being.

At 2:12 a.m., a Twitter post flashed across my iPhone: "Water is swallowing us up. Please try calling 911 for rescue. Please send help."

Seven minutes later, another: "Urgent water rescue needed now ... Cancer patient with feeding tube."

My social media feeds were a jumbled record of an unfolding disaster: Videos of water-logged streets, weather advisories warning of "catastrophic" flooding, reports of overflowing banks and stranded motorists, images of roads and freeways turned into rivers, forceful warnings from officials: Stay at home. Don't go into your attic. Don't venture onto the roads.

Houston, a sprawling, kaleidoscope of a city, a place where I first landed reluctantly and have since grown to love, was under siege by a storm that showed no signs of budging.

All I could do was stare at the ceiling and pray.

*******

The harsh buzz of another flash flood warning pulled me out of bed before daylight. The rain still pummelled the roof. My daughters had not yet stirred. Our beagle and Chihuahua pawed at me nervously.

A weather report showed swirling bands of green and red -- stalled over Houston. This was not close to being over.

All night long, I had tracked reports from the Precinct 4 Constable. There was high water on streets in and out of Kingwood, a tree down on West Lake Houston, some nearby neighborhoods hit by flooding.

But we were still safe, still lucky.

That's all it was. Sheer, stupid luck. We chose this suburb -- nicknamed the Livable Forest -- because of the plentiful trees and the lush greenbelt that cuts from one end to another. We chose our house because of the high ceilings and welcoming aura.

We didn't think of flood plains or drainage.

We might have ended up living in Cypress, where tornadoes chewed through neighborhoods, tearing off roofs and bulldozing brick walls. We might have picked Meyerland, where residents have been forced out by floods three times in the last two years.

I might have been called into work on Saturday, and gotten stuck like some of my Houston Chronicle colleagues, at our building off the prone-to-flood Southwest Freeway, where the parking lots quickly transform into lakes. Or like others, who spent the night in strangers' driveways on the way home.

My fellow journalists plunged into waist-high water and risked their vehicles and safety to report on flooding and water rescues. My fellow Houstonians clambered onto rooftops and waded through roiling currents to safety. First responders plucked victims out of cars and houses and apartment complexes.

I gave thanks that my 8-year-old and 9-year-old were playing dolls. They worried about the cracking thunder and the pouring rain, asked about the continuous news reports and weather alerts. But they were dry and warm. Lucky.

On local news, I watched as a Houston police officer led an elderly woman, dazed and dull-eyed, clasping her pet dog in her arms, out of a flooded street. He walked her slowly and gently out of danger.

I listened as another reporter recounted the story of a mother holding an infant cried out for help as the waters rose around her. As families with small shivering children and frightened pets climbed from rescue boats, clutching their belongings in black garbage bags.

JUST AFTER 9 a.m., when the rain slowed to a steady drip, I ventured out, equipped in rain boots and a blue poncho, to survey the neighborhood around me.

I expected to be the lone driver on rain-soaked roads. Instead, I saw a line of cars wrapped around the drive-thru of a nearby Whataburger. I saw trucks and SUVs driving as if on a regular Sunday morning.

How random natural disasters can be. In one part of the city, lives are being storm-tossed and shattered. In another, folks are waiting on orders of burgers and fries.

It took me about 20 minutes to drive from my house to the entrance to Kingwood and Highway 59 and another 40 to get back. Forty minutes for the rain to whip up again, for streets passable only a short time before to suddenly become menacing, f or the freeway to be closed off and cars diverted.

On the radio, a news update listed some numbers: 250 water rescues, all from vehicles; 2,500 emergency calls answered; another 1,000 waiting in queue.

By the time I got back home, treading cautiously through patches of deep water, the downpour was lashing furiously at my windshield, blurring the view ahead, the Whataburger was closing up, and I was heaving a sigh of relief.

I am so lucky, I whispered to myself. If only everyone could be.
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The City of Houston Office of Emergency Management issued a statement Saturday alerting west Houston residents to the presence of emergency vehicles at Darrel Tully Stadium as a part of a pro-active response effort to Hurricane Harvey.

Emergency vehicles and personnel began assembling at 5 p.m. at the stadium located at 1050 Dairy Ashford on the campus of Stratford High School in Spring Branch Independent School District.
As Joseph Arpaio's federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Donald Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration.

The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.

After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency.

So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judge's order to stop detaining people merely because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants. Trump was, in the words of one associate, "gung-ho about it."

"We knew the president wanted to do this for some time now and had worked to prepare for whenever the moment may come," said one White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the action.

Responding to questions about Trump's conversation with Sessions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "It's only natural the president would have a discussion with administration lawyers about legal matters. This case would be no different."

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Trump's decision to issue his first pardon Friday evening for Arpaio was the culmination of a five-year political friendship with roots in the "birther" movement to undermine President Barack Obama. In an extraordinary exercise of presidential power, Trump bypassed the traditional review process to ensure that Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court, would face no time in prison.

Trump's pardon, issued without consulting the Justice Department, raised a storm of protest over the weekend, including from some fellow Republicans, and threatens to become a stain on this president's legacy. His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department, and taken together with similar actions could undermine respect for the rule of law, experts said.

Arpaio faced up to six months in prison and was due to be sentenced in October. During his 23 years as Maricopa County sheriff, Arpaio was a lightening rod, in part because of his aggressive crackdown on illegal immigrants. He also was accused of racial profiling, failure to investigate sex crimes, poor treatment of prisoners and other instances of police misconduct.

To Trump, however, Arpaio is an American hero - a man who enlisted in the military at age 18 after the outbreak of the Korean War, worked as a beat cop in Washington and Las Vegas and as a special agent investigating drug crimes around the world, and then got elected sheriff in the epicenter of the nation's roiling immigration debate.

Arpaio's age weighed on Trump, some of his confidants said. The 71-year-old president could not stomach seeing an 85-year-old he admired as a law-and-order icon wasting away in a jail cell.

Trump's spring inquiry about intervening in Arpaio's case is consistent with his attempt to interfere with the federal investigation of Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser. Trump also made separate appeals in March to Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Trump's pardon of Arpaio "was his backhand way of doing what he wanted to do at the front end," said Robert Bauer, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration. "He just wanted to kill the prosecution off. He couldn't do it the one way, so he ended up doing it the other way. This is just another vivid demonstration of how far removed from an appropriate exercise of the pardon power this was."

Presidents can set law enforcement priorities, but they are expected to steer clear of involvement in specific cases to avoid the perception of politicizing the impartial administration of justice.

Trump backed off the Arpaio case after being advised it would be inappropriate, but that he even tried is "beyond the pale," said Chiraag Bains, a former senior counsel in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Bains said he believes Trump "has a sense that the chief executive controls everything in the executive branch, including the exercise of criminal power. And that is just not the way the system is set up."

Trump and Arpaio became brothers in arms five years ago. As they saw it, the two provocateurs - one a celebrity real estate developer, the other a polarizing sheriff - were pursuing justice in the form of supposed evidence that Obama's birth certificate was fraudulent.

As caretakers of the false "birther" conspiracy, Trump and Arpaio relentlessly probed Obama's birth in Hawaii and nurtured a lie to damage the legitimacy of the nation's first African-American president.

"There was no collusion," Arpaio said in an interview Saturday. "I started my birth certificate investigation around the same time he did his."

The Manhattan mogul sent Arpaio a fan letter and flattered him on social media. "Congratulations to @RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims @BarackObama's 'birth certificate' is fake," Trump tweeted in 2012.

Three years later, in July of 2015, when Trump swooped into Arpaio's hometown of Phoenix for the first mega-rally of his upstart presidential campaign, the sheriff returned the favor by testifying on stage to "the silent majority" that Trump had begun to awaken.

Backstage at that rally, Arpaio recalled, the two men talked about their shared birthday - June 14, which is Flag Day. Their friendship blossomed and Arpaio became a fan favorite at Trump rallies. "I had a gut feeling that he was going to win," Arpaio said.

Even as Trump went on to win last November, however, Arpaio lost his reelection - and that was the least of his troubles.

Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Arpaio last October. Trump was paying attention to the case and he called Arpaio to check in on him around Thanksgiving, according to the former sheriff. That's when Arpaio told the president-elect that his wife, Ava, had cancer.

On July 31, Arpaio was convicted by a judge, as opposed to a jury. Arpaio and his lawyer, Mark Goldman, said they did not contact Trump during this period, nor ask anyone in the administration for a pardon.

"I didn't ask for the pardon," Arpaio said. "He wanted to do it because I think he understood what I was going through."

Inside the West Wing, the pardon process was set in motion. Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who had gotten to know Arpaio through their work on immigration policy during the campaign, advocated internally for the pardon, as did chief strategist Stephen Bannon, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

The White House Counsel's Office had quietly begun preparing the paperwork and communications staffers had started drawing up talking points when Trump foreshadowed his intentions on Aug. 15 by retweeting a Fox News story reporting that the president was "seriously considering" pardoning Arpaio.

Around the same time, Arpaio received a call from the White House Counsel's Office asking whether he would accept a pardon if one were issued. He told the presidential lawyer that he would, according to Goldman.

The drumbeat culminated on Tuesday when Trump returned to the Phoenix Convention Center - the site of the July 2015 rally - for a "Make America Great Again" campaign event.

As Air Force One rumbled toward Arizona, Sanders tried to douse speculation by telling reporters that the president would have "no discussion" and "no action" pertaining to Arpaio at the rally.

Arpaio said he was eager to attend the rally and visit with the president backstage, but decided, "I didn't want to cause any harm or riots, so I stayed away, which really hurt me."

When Arpaio heard Sanders say Trump would not talk about a pardon, he said he turned to his wife and told her, "Don't believe anything you hear because I know how he is."

Sure enough, Trump bellowed from the stage, "I'm just curious: Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe?"

The crowd burst into applause.

"Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?" Trump asked.

More applause.

"He should have had a jury, but you know what? I'll make a prediction," the president said. "I won't do it tonight, because I don't want to cause any controversy. . . But Sheriff Joe can feel good."

Arpaio and his legal team did not feel very good the next night, when they read a CBS News report that Trump was being advised not to pardon Arpaio until after his sentencing.

Goldman wrote a two-page letter to White House Counsel Donald McGahn II, sent on Friday morning, saying, "Hopefully this is more fake news," and telling McGahn that a delay until after sentencing "would place Sheriff Arpaio in an untenable and unprecedented position."

Without a pardon, Goldman said, Arpaio could be "sentenced, handcuffed, given a 'perp walk' and incarcerated" and "left to languish in federal custody."

McGahn did not immediately reply, but a few hours later, about 6:30 p.m. Washington time, another lawyer in his office called Goldman's co-counsel to double-check that Arpaio would accept a pardon. A few minutes later, an email arrived from the White House with a single page attachment: an "Executive Grant of Clemency" for Arpaio signed by Trump in his thick black script, complete with a golden Department of Justice seal.

Goldman printed out three copies of the document and drove out to Arpaio's home in Fountain Hills, a suburb of Phoenix, where the former sheriff was getting ready to take his wife to dinner at Arrivederci, an Italian restaurant, to celebrate Ava's 86th birthday.

"Of course, his first question was, 'Is this a fake document?'" Goldman recalled. "We know the sheriff has looked into fake documents."

The Arpaios still went out for their spaghetti dinner. As of Saturday, Arpaio had not heard from Trump personally, but said if the president were to call he would advise him to take a lesson from his Arizona adventures.

"If they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody, including the president of the United States," Arpaio said. Alluding to the Russia probe, he said, "He's been under a lot of fire right now, him and his family, and I've been through the fire quite a while."
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 60F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 44F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
KABUL, Afghanistan - For months, Gen. John W. Nicholson, Jr., made the case for an expanded U.S. military commitment to Afghanistan, telling skeptics that the faltering Afghan war was an urgent matter of American security, that the struggling Afghan government was a reliable partner, and that its defense forces just needed more time and U.S. support to become self-sufficient.

Last week, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan finally got his wish.

President Donald Trump, who once advocated abandoning Afghanistan and in recent months questioned the fundamental premises of America's costly 16-year military involvement here, has now publicly committed himself to a strategy that hews closely to the military plan Nicholson and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani hammered out in dozens of meetings this spring and summer.

Now, the burden will be on Nicholson, 61, a boyish-looking four-star general who has spent more time in Afghanistan than any other senior commander, to deliver on what many observers say may be an impossible mission. Its aim is to help Afghan forces turn around a stalemated conflict with the aid of a few thousand extra advisory troops - something his predecessors failed to do with more than 100,000 combat troops at the war's peak.

Trump and Nicholson do not know each other, and the general said last week that he communicates with administration officials through the military chain of command, meaning his boss at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa. At one White House meeting to discuss Afghan policy, Trump reportedly threatened to fire the popular Nicholson out of frustration at the stumbling war effort, stunning his aides.

In an interview at his headquarters here Friday, Nicholson declined to discuss that episode, and he referred to Trump's speech on Afghanistan several times rather than answer questions directly. Asked if he now believes the president supports him, Nicholson paused, smiled and answered, "Yes." Asked to elaborate, he smiled again and shook his head.

If he has any doubts about his mission here, the congenial but cautious West Pointer has buried them beneath a can-do persona and a glass-half-full approach to every problem. He exudes confidence in Ghani and his determination to reform the Afghan security forces, which have been weakened by corruption and nepotistic leadership. He heaps praise on the Afghan special operations forces, which will be doubled in size and trained by U.S. and NATO advisers under the new military plan.

And he is relentlessly on message about connecting the dots among the ongoing fight against Afghan insurgents; the dangers of terrorism radiating from an unstable, Taliban-plagued Afghanistan; and the American interests at stake in making sure this impoverished Muslim nation does not again become a redoubt for international Islamist militias such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

"As a soldier, the concern I have is about terrorism emanating from this area," Nicholson said in the interview, echoing Trump's speech last Monday on Afghan strategy. "The requirement to keep pressure on these terror groups to prevent another attack on our homeland . . . fundamentally, that is why we are here."

Americans, he added, "need to be concerned about the Islamic State emerging from this region. The Taliban enable them to exist, and if the Taliban were to return, they would flourish." A return to Taliban rule , he said, "would mean another threat to our homeland."

There is also another more personal aspect to Nicholson's commitment: an evident empathy for Afghans and their struggles, developed through four tours of duty totaling five years of immersion in the conflict - from early optimistic days of sipping tea with tribal elders and inaugurating village projects to later struggles with military setbacks and growing Afghan resentment of the foreign military presence.

"I believe in the Afghan people," he said. Since his first assignment here in 2006, he continued, "I came to have great respect and affection for the Afghan people, who have endured an incredible amount of hardship for the last four decades, yet still in spite of all that are incredibly pious, hard-working, hospitable and truly want a better life for their children."

That attachment deepened during one of the worst crises of the U.S. combat mission, when an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital killed 42 people in 2015 during a chaotic battle with Taliban forces in the northern city of Kunduz. Several months later, when Nicholson assumed command of the U.S. reduced advisory mission, a U.S. military report came out acknowledging that a series of errors had led to the tragedy. Nicholson immediately apologized to the nation, then flew to Kunduz with his wife and met with families of the victims.

"It was a very emotional and personal event," he said. Afghans "don't want to see a return of Taliban rule, and they genuinely appreciate our help. So when we make a mistake, it is the right thing to do to reach out to them." The gesture also had a strategic aspect. "In this culture, when you make a mistake and make a genuine apology," Nicholson said, it is "almost always accepted, and you are able to move on in the relationship. . . . That needs to happen in this long war."

Lately, Nicholson said he has spent a lot of time consulting with Afghans of all political stripes and affiliations, seeking support and common cause at a time of domestic political turmoil and uncertainty about U.S. intentions, especially with the post of U.S. ambassador vacant since last winter. As a matter of course, he works with senior army, police and intelligence officials.

But the Afghan closest to Nicholson is Ghani, a no-nonsense technocrat who is often criticized by Afghans as autocratic and remote. The general, who meets with Ghani several times a week, called him a "very willing and capable partner" who is pursuing "rigorous reforms" across the government and the security sector, where corruption and poor leadership have been major impediments to the war effort.

Nicholson particularly praised Ghani for replacing a number of senior army and police officials with others who were more qualified and not tainted by corruption. He pointed to the removal of two army commanders in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, one of whom was recently convicted of keeping money for soldiers' food and using combat troops as personal guards. Their replacements, he said, have "fundamentally changed the environment. . . we're already seeing a difference on the battlefield."

The general declined to discuss Pakistan's role in the Afghan conflict, although for months he publicly argued in Congress and elsewhere that Pakistan was harboring Taliban fighters and that the U.S. government should pressure Pakistan to stop. In the interview, he was far more circumspect, referring vaguely to the problem of "external enablement" of insurgencies but stating that relations under the new U.S. strategy will be "managed from Washington to Islamabad."

Nicholson was much more loquacious about the challenges on his own turf, with a ready list of achievements he hopes the expanded U.S. role in Afghanistan will produce. They include the defeat of al-Qaida and the Islamic State, the reduction of foreign support to the insurgents, the increased capacity of the Afghan security forces, and the "marginalization" of the Taliban insurgents until they must either "die or reconcile." Reconciliation will be complicated, he acknowledged, "but this conversation needs to begin."
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No one welcomes a hurricane. But if we humans must endure calamity, it's a nice change of pace to have one we didn't create.

Certainly, news of the man-made disasters is still washing in. Under cover of a monster hurricane bearing down on Texas, President Donald Trump announced several controversial decisions Friday, including the pardon of Joe Arpaio, a tough-guy sheriff in Arizona who probably treated his toilet tissue with higher regard than the U.S. Constitution.

Arpaio, who had reaferred to his tent city jail in Maricopa County as a concentration camp, was convicted last month of criminal contempt for defying a court order to stop illegally profiling Latinos based on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally. Prominent Republicans condemned the decision, including U.S. Sen. John McCain, who noted that it undermined Trump's "claim for the respect of rule of law."

A hurricane doesn't make us immune from the trouble in the world. But for a little while, it forces us to prioritize the basics we usually take for granted: survival, water supply, a dry floor.

For now, as we in the Houston region hunker down, say prayers and hope that the "major rain event" forecasted in the days ahead doesn't send Harvey lapping anywhere close to our front doors, many of us have had a little time to reflect.

On the big things. And on the little things.

Time for board games with the kids. For movie nights with friends. For connecting with panicked out-of-town relatives who mean well with their incessant welfare checks perfectly calibrated with the latest apocalyptic cable news updates. (I'm OK, Mom!)

Many of us who have lived through hurricanes know the paradox of the natural disaster. Its power to destroy is only rivaled by its power to bring us together as people. After Ike, neighbors helped neighbors clear debris and repair homes. We delivered water to those who needed it. We ran extension cords into the last house on the block waiting for the lights to come back on.

The other night, a friend was recounting how Ike forever changed the way she treats the folks who work at Walgreens. She used to get impatient sometimes waiting in line at the pharmacy. Not anymore. She remembers how employees showed up to work when few places were open. She learned to put her own need for a nonessential zit cream in perspective.

Seeking comfort

In a disaster, we bond over our common experience, which, as I have learned this past week, includes a primal need for exotic junk food the likes of which my pantry has never seen. Somehow, gum drops and cherry pie made into my shopping cart alongside the pile of D batteries that fit no device in my house in particular.

When I vented about the impulse buys on Twitter, others commiserated on their weird purchases: candy corn, pizza-flavored Cheez-Its, pork rinds. Then there was the guy who said he bought cat litter even though he didn't have a cat. He thought maybe it would suffice as a sand bag.

Comfort. We're seeking comfort amid this panic and uncertainty, wherever we can find it.

In the past few days, I have found it in a source more unlikely than gum drops: politicians. At least, the local variety.

Like many, I was alarmed when Gov. Greg Abbott suggested at a press conference before Harvey's landfall that people in Houston should consider evacuating, contradicting local officials' pleas to stay put. Did Abbott not remember the disastrous lesson of Hurricane Rita, when thousands of people who didn't need to evacuate, some with luxury boats in tow, were stuck on outbound freeways for sometimes 10 and 12 hours?

In this case, Abbott's contempt for local control could have caused chaos more profound than the kind we've grown accustomed to in the Legislature. The governor could have endangered people's lives.

A storm veteran

Luckily, local leaders responded like the pros they are. They kept calm and reiterated that Harvey wasn't a direct-impact storm, but likely a major rain event that did not retire mass evacuation.

Watching a press conference led by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, I found comfort in leaders who acted like leaders. Not partisans. Not politicians. Just people focused on one goal: keeping us safe.

Emmett, a Republican, introduced Turner, a Democrat, as "my good friend and colleague."

Turner took the mic and praised Emmett, saying "there's no one who's more experienced and capable of dealing with incidents of this kind, major storm events" than the judge.

They weren't just platitudes. Emmett is a storm veteran whose logistics expertise helped organize lagging supply lines and relief efforts after Ike. Turner is a longtime state representative whom I happened upon one day after Ike, personally delivering ice to the door steps of his constituents.

"Thank you for your leadership," Turner told Emmett. "It makes it much easier to address these sorts of situations."

Surprising candor

Yes, it makes it easier to have a government that functions as it should - that functions at all.

In a speech to troops that surfaced recently, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis spoke with surprising candor about problems in our nation, telling the young people in uniform to "hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other."

He suggested America had lost some of its influence, but promised, "we'll get the power of inspiration back."

I hope he's right, with regard to Washington and Austin. But I believe the power of inspiration can still be found if we know where to look. In the case of Houston, a region of millions hunkering down against a powerful storm on the advice of a few trusted leaders, that inspiration is closer to home.
As Houston-area schools work to recover from wind and water damage from Tropical Storm Harvey, inaccessible roads and campuses are forcing some school districts to reconsider when they can open and start their school years.

Houston ISD, the largest district in the state, is one of those school systems. Houston ISD superintendent Richard Carranza said at least 35 schools either sustained water damage or lost power during the storms.

"At the rest of the schools we're even trying to monitor with our cameras, our cameras lost power. There's no way to look at it," Carranza said Tuesday. "We're in the process right now of trying to get some boats so we can have facilities guys go in and do assessments."

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD superintendent Mark Henry said his district has contractors on standby waiting to start repairing damaged schools.

The school district's old Matzke Elementary, which was closed this year for renovations scheduled to begin in December, will house shelter-seekers until those renovations begin.

"One of the interesting things people don't think about is that most of the children in HISD have city of Houston to provide shelters. But for us in the county, school districts often serve as the primary government agency," Henry said. "Schools stepped in and provided services cities would normally do."

Here's an alphabetical list of local schools and their actions in light of Hurricane Harvey, with universities at the bottom.



Aldine ISD

Schools will be closed until Thursday, Sept. 7.



Alief ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

Alvin ISD

Schools will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Barbers Hill ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Channelview ISD

Classes will resume Thursday, Sept. 7.

Clear Creek ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

Conroe ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

STATE OF DISASTER: Abbott declares 30 Texas counties in danger

Crosby ISD

Classes will resume Thursday, Sept. 7.

Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston

The school will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

First Academy Baytown

The school will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5 (optional classes) and Monday Sept. 11 (full classes).

Fort Bend ISD

Classes will resume Tuesday, Sept. 12.



Friendswood ISD

Friendswood ISD will resume operations next week. All employees will return to work on Tuesday, and students will return to classes on Wednesday.

Galena Park ISD

Schools will be closed until Thursday, Sept. 7.

Galveston ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Goose Creek CISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

A FRIGHTENING COMPARISON: Harvey draws a scary parallel



Houston ISD

Classes will resume Monday, Sept. 11.

Houston ISD parents and teachers can text YES to 68453 to receive district weather alerts.

Humble ISD

Schools will be closed until Thursday, Sept. 7.

Kingwood and Summer Creek High School students return on Sept. 11

International Leadership of Texas

The school will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Katy ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11

KIPP Houston Public Schools

Schools will be closed until Thursday, Sept. 7.

Klein ISD

Schools will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Lemm Elementary sustained flood waters that will require major restoration so the district has made arrangements to house those students in a wing at Klein Cain High School for the foreseeable future.

La Porte ISD

Schools will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Lamar CISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.



Needville ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

New Caney ISD

Schools will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Parish School and The Carruth Center

Classes will resume Sept. 5

Pasadena ISD

Classes will resume Monday, Sept. 11.

LANDFALL LOCATION? What past tropical storms have to tell us



Pearland ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Royal ISD

Schools will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Sheldon ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 18

Spring ISD

Spring ISD has delayed the reopening of its schools until at least Sept. 11

Spring Branch ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

Stafford MSD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

St. Mark's Episcopal School

The school on Bellaire Boulevard will be closed until Sept. 5.

St. Pius X High School

St. Pius X High School will be closed until Sept. 5.

St. Thomas High School

St. Thomas High School will be closed until Sept. 5.

Texas City ISD

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.



Tomball ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Varnett Public Schools

Schools will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

Waller ISD

Schools will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

YES Prep

YES Prep Northbrook Middle and High School students will open on Monday Sept. 11. All other YES Prep Public campuses will reopen to students on Thursday Sept. 7.

The following colleges and universities have canceled classes and/or activities:

Baylor College of Medicine and outpatient clinics are open as of Thursday, Aug. 31.

Brazosport College will be closed until Monday, Sept. 11.

Galveston College will reopen on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Houston Baptist University canceled all classes and activities until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The University of Houston including UH Katy and UH Sugar Land are closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The University of Houston - Downtown will remain closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Houston Community College campuses will resume on Sept. 11. In person registration will be from Wednesday to Sept. 9. Online registration continues.

Lone Star College will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

LSC - Kingwood suffered extensive damages to its facilities due to Hurricane Harvey. Classes will start the week of Sept. 25 at LSC-Atascocita Center and at the East Montgomery County Improvement District (EMCID) Complex in New Caney.

Pima Medical Institute's Houston campus will be closed until Sept. 5.

Rice University will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Sam Houston State University will be closed until Sept. 5.

San Jacinto College will be closed until Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Texas A&M - Galveston classes will begin Monday, Sept. 4.

Texas Southern University will be closed until Sept. 5.

University of St. Thomas will be closed until Tuesday, Sept. 5.

UTHealth cancelled all classes and clinical rotations for students through Friday, Sept. 1. Classes will resume on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

Please check back for updated information about closures and schedule changes.
JUBA, South Sudan - An American has been killed in civil war-torn South Sudan, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday, while South Sudan's army and opposition said the journalist was caught in the fighting between the two sides.

The embassy confirmed the death of Christopher Allen and said his family had been notified. His body was taken to the military hospital in South Sudan's capital, Juba.
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PORTLAND, Maine - Marine authorities in the U.S. and Canada said they will marshal resources to try to find out what's behind a string of deaths of endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The animals are among the rarest marine mammals in the world, with only about 500 still living. The countries will collaborate on a report that could help craft future regulations that protect the vulnerable whales, representatives said Friday.
Bread producers in Armenia plan to stage a demonstration protesting a government decision obligating them to obtain sanitary certificates to transport bread and related items.

They argue that the government hasnt provided enough time to obtain the certificates.

A bread manufacturer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Hetq that those who fail to obtain the certificates by the September 1 deadline will be fined 300,000 AMD.

The bread deliverer said that he was all for the new regulation, having seen bread being delivered in banana crates or placed on carpet, but that food safety inspectors should start monitoring bread deliveries to the countrys kindergartens.

He argued that the new regulation was less about ensuring health standards and more a ruse to extract money from the people.

The man said he would have to spend 100,000 AMD apiece in order that his four vehicles satisfy the new health requirements, and even then, they wouldnt pass inspection.

He gave the example of friends who reoutfitted their vehicles, only to have them fail inspection, which costs 22,000 AMD.

He says the State Service for Food Safety has provided the names of 2-3 organizations that can conduct the inspections, arguing that the organizations will not issue certificates to vehicle owners that have made improvements on their own, thus obligating them to pay the organizations to do the work at a higher price.

He also claims the new regulation, also covering meat transporters, will result in a 20-30 dram price increase for bread across the board.
The CEO of a cybersecurity company woke up in a bad mood earlier this month, so he decided to kick neo-Nazis off the internet.

Cloudflare, which protects websites from being shut down by attacks, had been selling its service to the Daily Stormer, a long-time cyber outpost for racists, bigots and hate. After the violence and death in Charlottesville, Va., Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince was determined to cut them off.

By his own assessment, it was a personal and arbitrary choice.

"This was my decision," Prince wrote in an email to his staff. "Our terms of service reserve the right for us to terminate users of our network at our sole discretion. My rationale for making this decision was simple: the people behind the Daily Stormer are a******* and I'd had enough."

Any good-hearted person in his position probably would have done the same thing - but was it the right thing? As Prince told his company, this decision opens the door to ramifications we can't yet predict.

"Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn't be allowed on the Internet. No one should have that power."

The dark corners of the internet have become a refuge for the vilest forms of white supremacy and home-grown fascism. There they can fester and grow unencumbered until, as we saw in Charlottesville, they reappear in public light bearing torches and firearms.

Shutting them down online helps get to the source of so much hate in our society, but who gets to make that call?

"We need to have a discussion around this, with clear rules and clear frameworks. My whims and those of Jeff [Bezos] and Larry [Page] and Satya [Nadella] and Mark [Zuckerberg], that shouldn't be what determines what should be online," Prince told Gizmodo, a technology and science blog.

"I think the people who run The Daily Stormer are abhorrent. But again I don't think my political decisions should determine who should and shouldn't be on the internet."

Today we may celebrate the fact that hate groups are being driven out of cyberspace - good riddance. How do we guarantee that web companies don't exploit this power to stifle free speech?

This conversation shows why net neutrality policy is so important.

Major telecommunications companies, like AT&T and Comcast, control the underlying network that powers the internet. Websites like Facebook and Twitter provide a powerful service on top of that network. But if those websites start censoring conversations or booting users, there's always room for a competing upstart. Don't like Google? Try Bing.

However, because they control internet service itself, telecoms have the ability to shut down the upstarts. It would be as if a power company could charge people more, or deny electricity service, based on its own arbitrary standards.

Don't like it? You probably don't have much choice. Nearly half of all U.S. households have only one option for wired broadband service.

In the 21st century, internet access has become another must-have utility. It should be regulated like one. Companies like Cloudfare can choose their users - that option shouldn't be available to Comcast or AT&T.

The likes of Prince, Zuckerberg and Bezos need to have a public conversation about the role they play in fighting hate groups and protecting freedom of expression.

Telecoms, on the other hand, just have to ensure the internet works.
Media and Trump

Regarding "Trump vs. Jefferson" (Page A14, Thursday), the editorial called President Trump's attack on the media "an affront to the American people." I would offer that it has been the media's attack on Trump that is the real affront on the American people.

In fact, the media has been pulling for Democrats and a liberal agenda going back as far as Bill Clinton's term as president.

In fact, Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy recently released a study of media coverage of the Trump White House and found 80 to 90 percent of the news coverage of Trump since he has been in office has been negative. It is truly a sad day for our country when most if not all the media has lost its ability to be objective politically.

I just wished Trump would use the correct term "biased news" instead of "fake news."

Larry Tidwell, Baytown

Ego-driven wall project

Regarding "Trump widens rift with Congress" (Page A1, Thursday), Donald Trump never promised to build a wall with our money. His promise was consistent with his background as a borrow-and-build developer to build a wall with other people's money and make Mexico pay for it.

Borrow and build and using other people's money as business principles also need a healthy level of trust, honesty and mutual respect or the result is bankruptcy. While those methods might have worked for Trump in Atlantic City, they won't work in Washington. Mutual respect has to start with self-respect; perhaps Trump has confused a massive ego with self-respect.

Bill Turney, Houston

Remember the past

Regarding "Let's rid ourselves of Confederate statue" (Page A15, Aug. 21), if we forget the past, we cannot learn from it to create a better future. Wiping out every horrible thing in our past will not change the fact that the events still happened.

Even worse, some people will begin inventing their own versions of the past, glorifying and cementing the false notions they carry about the Confederacy.

Instead, I want it so that one day we can remember the truth about the Confederacy. So that we can never again make the same mistakes made in the past. And so that people in the future cannot only confidently say "we won," but also that the true ideals of American freedom won in the end.

Ronald Peters, Pearland

Success at all costs

Regarding "Rift among state leaders shows no signs of healing" (Page A3, Aug. 22), our Republican leaders in state government frequently talk about what "the people" want. The people they are talking about are the people of yesterday, not the people of tomorrow.

But they have done a brilliant job of campaign success by recognizing who their voting base is, pandering to it and gerrymandering voting districts to win elections with less than a popular majority. Now large cities are voting decidedly Democratic.

The Republican leaders' response is to propose new laws that cripple city governments. This is not admirable. They should be helping their city constituents, not hindering them.

This maneuver is not likely to be a campaign benefit to Republicans, and it could throw a wrench into the smooth functioning of our state and local government.

Jim Varnon, Kingwood
I recently spent some time following a congressman around the sun-baked precincts of West Texas. I watched Will Hurd meet with constituents, deliver his stump speech, and wax lyrical about the Dairy Queen Blizzard.

I listened to voters tell me how much they admired Hurd, a moderate Republican in the only competitive district in Texas. I also watched the folks who don't admire Hurd stand up and heckle to interrupt his stump speech. I wondered: "Why are you doing this?"

I had spoken with a couple of them before the event, so the answer should have been easy. They were nice people - middle-aged, middle-class and passionate about politics. One of them was a lifelong Democrat, another a former Republican who parted ways with the GOP after the Tea Party began to rise. Both were Democratic precinct chairs. I heard their issues, which were about what you'd expect: health care, Planned Parenthood, immigration, and the man sitting in the Oval Office. Given my criticisms of the Republican health-care efforts, and my own qualms about Trump's presidency, I found it easy to sympathize.

But understanding someone's goals doesn't necessarily mean you understand the tactics they've chosen to reach them. I might sympathize, but not everyone there did. And the more aggressive their questioning got, the less sympathy there seemed to be for their views.

The town hall was being held in a Dairy Queen southwest of San Antonio; the crowd was largely white, and judging from their reaction to the repeated interruptions, largely conservative. There were rolled eyes; there were people calling "You asked your question." The audience began to murmur as the back-and-forth wore on. The next day, at a coffee shop in Castroville, more protesters arrived, and the heckling got more intense. So did the reaction. The crowd in Castroville seemed to be more liberal, more sympathetic to the protesters - but nonetheless, a soft-spoken man who had recently moved to Castroville turned around, laid a finger over his lips, and issued a fierce "hush!"

These San Antonio suburbs are quiet, polite places; it seems unlikely that these tactics changed anyone's mind. Nor did they provide new information to Hurd, who addressed his interlocutors by name and was clearly familiar with their stance on the issues. Which brings us back to the question I asked above: What is the purpose of these tactics?

That's a question that I find myself asking a lot these days. The antifas setting fire to Berkeley  Black Lives Matter blocking highways  these demonstrations certainly carry a message. And because it's showy, it's more likely to end up on the evening news. Unfortunately, it's no good getting publicity for your message if the result is people hating the message and the messenger.

I don't mean to suggest that interrupting a congressman is somehow morally equivalent to breaking windows and setting fires. Vigorous debate is a proud part of our democratic tradition, and those Democratic precinct captains had every right to confront their representative with their disagreements.

But what this tactic does have in common with more extreme forms of protest is that interrupting violates a social norm. It's on the other end of that spectrum from breaking windows and setting fires. But it's still a violation, however minor, and norm violations make other people uncomfortable.

So all norm-breaking protests, no matter how mild, run the risk of hurting your cause more than they help. It's possible that there's a silent majority for your view, who will be heartened by seeing you say what they've been thinking for a long time. But it's just as likely that your audience disagrees with you, and more likely that they just don't care very much either way. Those people are going to be somewhere between irritated and outraged by your display, no matter how justified it is.

This is Human Nature 101. So why do we see so many of these risky displays? Well, for one thing, while such tactics are lousy ways to recruit people to your cause, they are terrific ways to build solidarity among the people who already agree with you (which is why the Tea Party - which ultimately mobilized a groundswell of existing sentiment against the stimulus and Obamacare, did so well by asking angry questions at town halls).

All three of the examples I've offered have something in common: they are demonstrations of power over a space. To state the obvious, people like feeling powerful. They are more likely to stay involved with a movement that gives them opportunities to feel powerful. Why did white supremacists organize a demonstration in Charlottesville? To look and feel powerful. Why did the counterprotesters organize en masse in response? To look and feel more powerful.

The more transgressive an action is, the more powerful it feels. Asking a question and then politely sitting down after the representative gives you a suitably mild answer is neither noticeable nor particularly empowering. Publicly arguing with the congressman, on the other hand, feels like noble battle. Shutting down a highway is more powerful still, especially if you can get away with it without getting arrested. And setting fires or breaking windows  well, you can practically hear the war-movie soundtrack running through your head. (In our minds, we always play the good guys.)

McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist. She wrote for the Daily Beast, Newsweek, the Atlantic and the Economist and founded the blog Asymmetrical Information. She is the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success."
CASA of South Central Missouri is hosting an informational meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Texas County Justice Center in Houston.

The organization assists abused and neglected children in foster care. Last year, CASA adovacted for 200 children in the 25th Judicial Circuit  97 from in Texas County.

Although we served many children in the circuit, we need to serve more, said Brock Whisler of CASA. There are still children who need a voice and a mentor, especially because of the current spike in abuse of opioid and other controlled substances. Over 450 children come into care annually in the circuit  90 percent either directly or indirectly related to substance abuse. The children need a voice.

Whisler said CASA offers hope and consistency to children in the court system.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about what CASA does for children, and to hear from some of our current volunteers about what they have experienced in the program, Whisler said. See what you can do to help children in foster care and be the change that every child needs.

CASA has spouse teams and friend teams, and encourages teamwork in the program. Anyone over 21 is eligible to assist after passing a drug screening and background check.

For information, visit www.casascmo.org or call 573-202-8405.
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According to Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) investor presentations, demand for natural gas in the US expected to rise by 32% over the next nine years. Most of those gains will come from the US becoming a net exporter of natural gas in 2017, with exports predicted to keep increasing. Since Kinder Morgan operates one of the largest networks of natural gas pipelines in the US, moving about 40% of gas consumed in the US, it's in a good position to capture much of this business.

The plan in the pipeline

We can glimpse into Kinder Morgan's future by looking at their current capital projects. Kinder Morgan's largest capital project on the go is the expansion of their LNG plant on Elba Island, in Georgia, to include liquefaction and export capacity. This $1.9 billion project is supported by 20-year contract with Royal Dutch Shell and due to come on line next year. Additionally, there is about $2 billion worth of various expansion or upgrade projects underway along its gas network also subscribed under long-term contracts, some of which related to pipelines connecting to Mexico. The Mier-Monterrey pipeline is one example.

The hopeful result of its natural gas infrastructure build-out, combined with a few other major projects in other non-gas segments, is that Kinder Morgan expects to increase annual EBITDA by $1.5 billion for 2020 and beyond.

What's everyone else doing?

Kinder Morgan is not alone in seeing natural gas as a major growth opportunity. Many gas infrastructure companies are investing heavily. There has been a boom in construction of liquefaction and export terminals along the Gulf Coast. There are six new LNG export terminals currently under construction, including Kinder Morgan's Elba Island, and four more approved. On top of that, there are 10 pending applications and four in pre-filing status with the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission. A good majority of these LNG terminals are located on the Gulf Coast where Kinder Morgan has a significant network of pipelines and storage facilities. The U.S. may not be on the list of the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporters, but it will be soon if all of these projects get the green light.

Terminals aren't the only thing being built. The pipeline expansion to Mexico has been expanding significantly; there are four new natural gas export pipelines completing construction in 2017 and two more being added in 2018. Export capacity to Mexico is expected to double with the addition of these pipelines.

A closer look at demand from Mexico

Kinder Morgan is well positioned to take advantage of increased exports to Mexico. It captured 76% of gas exports to Mexico last year, which means it's pipeline infrastructure is currently a dominant player along the border.

Demand in the Mexican market is expected to grow because Mexico's own domestic natural gas supplies are falling at the same time that it needs more. In 2016 Mexico imported about 5% of daily US gas production.

The U.S. Energy Administration states that "with a near doubling of U.S. export pipeline capacity to Mexico by 2019, [it] expects U.S. natural gas exports to increase, though they should remain well below the available pipeline capacity. Mexico's national energy ministry (SENER) expects to increase its natural gas use for electric power generation by almost 50% between 2016 and 2020. Mexico's domestic natural gas pipeline network is undergoing a major expansion, primarily to accommodate new natural gas pipeline imports from the United States."

Mexico is resisting this trend a little bit, and has just recently opened up the northeastern part of Mexico, part of the Burgos Basin region, to private exploration firms, to offset dependence on imports.

Nevertheless, from the U.S. perspective, exports to Mexico eclipse exports to other countries. In 2016 the U.S exported 2.148 billion cubic feet of gas via pipeline and only 186.8 million cubic feet via LNG vessel. The bulk of the pipeline exports (62%) were to Mexico which indicates the significance of the Mexican market to the U.S.

Having a large developing export market just across the border is a boon to U.S. gas companies. While the new Mier-Monterrey pipeline to Mexico is the only export pipeline directly owned by Kinder Morgan, it is expanding many of the feeder pipelines which will supply U.S. gas to Mexico.

A rosy outlook

In total Kinder Morgan owns 70,000 of natural gas pipelines in the U.S. It is well positioned to feed both the large number of LNG export terminals being built on the Gulf Coast and the extensive pipeline build-out for the Mexican market.

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Nancy Wilson owns shares of Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A new market as large as $8.7 billion per year could open up in Canada in 2018. That's the high end of the range projected by accounting and consulting firm Deloitte for the Canadian recreational marijuana market. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing to legalize recreational use of the drug by next summer.

Several marijuana growers already dominate the medical marijuana market in Canada and stand to benefit if the country legalizes recreational marijuana. The publicly traded companies on the list include Aphria, Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth, and MedReleaf. Which of these Canadian marijuana stocks is poised to be the biggest winner of all?

By the numbers

One way to evaluate the likelihood of future success is to look at each company's past track record. Here's how the four Canadian marijuana suppliers compare on key financial metrics.

Company Market Cap Price-to-Sales (TTM) Revenue (TTM) Net Income/(Loss) (TTM) Aphria (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) $643 million 40 $16.1 million $3.3 million Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: ACBFF) $699 million 66 $10.5 million ($12.3 million) Canopy Growth (NASDAQOTH: TWMJF) $1.2 billion 30 $38.4 million ($13.4 million) MedReleaf (NASDAQOTH: MEDFF) $594 million 18 $33.1 million $6.7 million

If your figurative bottom line is the literal bottom line, MedReleaf appears to be in the best shape. However, the net income/loss amounts probably shouldn't be the thing to focus on the most. For example, while Canopy Growth lost more over the last 12 months than its peers, much of that loss stemmed from the company's aggressive acquisitions strategy.

Canopy Growth's and MedReleaf's sales results over the past year significantly outpaced those of Aphria and Aurora Cannabis. Some of that gap stems from capacity. Aphria is moving forward with a major expansion of its Ontario greenhouse facility to ramp up its capacity, a move that should allow the company to increase sales significantly. It's not the only marijuana grower expanding, though.

While Canopy Growth ranks at the top in revenue, Aphria maintains that it has the best cost structure. That might not be an exaggeration -- the company's earnings as a percentage of revenue easily topped Aurora Cannabis and Canopy Growth and narrowly edged out MedReleaf.

On the other hand, MedReleaf has the lowest price-to-sales ratio of the bunch. While MedReleaf's ratio of 18 is sky-high, it pales in comparison to those of the other marijuana stocks.

Beyond the numbers

What the numbers don't tell, however, is what each of these companies is doing to grow. Aphria, for one, isn't just expanding its Canadian capacity. The company is also increasing its presence in the United States. Aphria owns part of Arizona medical marijuana provider Copperstate Farms, and it acquired Florida medical marijuana grower Chestnut Hill Tree Farm.

Aurora Cannabis improved its position in the Canadian medical marijuana market (which continues to grow significantly) with its acquisition in 2016 of CanvasRx, Canada's largest medical marijuana patient outreach service. The company is also targeting the German medical marijuana market with its purchase in May of Pedanios GmbH, a leading German wholesale importer, exporter, and distributor of medical marijuana.

Canopy Growth is active in multiple international markets, including Australia, Brazil, Chile, and Germany. The company acquired German distributor MedCann in November 2016. The subsidiary now operates in Germany as Spektrum Cannabis Germany and recently passed the first stage of the process to become a licensed producer of medical cannabis in Germany. However, Canopy Growth is intentionally remaining on the sidelines in the U.S. market because of its desire to only conduct business "in jurisdictions where it is federally legal to do so."

Like Canopy Growth, MedReleaf has also expanded internationally. The company completed its first export to Brazil in July. MedReleaf is also moving forward in the regulatory process for supplying marijuana to Australia (through partners in that country) and in Germany (through its subsidiary MedReleaf Germany GmbH).

Most likely to succeed

Perhaps the best answer to the question as to which of these marijuana stocks are likely to succeed is "all of the above." If Canada moves forward with legalization of recreational marijuana as expected, all four companies should enjoy tremendous growth.

But which stock is most likely to succeed from an investing standpoint? It's a tough decision, but my nod goes to MedReleaf. It's not far behind Canopy Growth in total sales, and like Canopy Growth, MedReleaf is also well positioned in Germany. The company's cost structure also appears to be a big plus. MedReleaf had the misfortune to have an IPO at a relatively bad time for marijuana stocks in general, which I think is a big reason why it claims a more attractive valuation than its peers.

Keep in mind, though, that all four of these stocks are priced at astronomical levels. There's a ginormous expectation for growth baked into each stock. Any -- and I mean any -- bumps in the road with legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada or exporting to international markets could cause the stocks to plunge. MedReleaf looks like the most likely to succeed in my view, but success certainly isn't guaranteed.

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A second man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after an attack on police officers near Buckingham Palace.

The 30-year-old from west London has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism, the Metropolitan Police said.

The arrest was carried out by officers from the Mets Counter Terrorism Command, who are investigating the terrorist attack in Constitution Hill on Friday evening, which resulted in three officers receiving minor injuries.

Officers have also been granted a warrant for the further detention of a 26-year-old man who was arrested at the scene after reaching for a 4ft sword while shouting Allahu Akbar, Scotland Yard said.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red 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of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will 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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 initial suspect, who is being questioned by counter-terror detectives, deliberately drove a car at police outside the Queens official residence and then reached for a 4ft sword.

The suspect was arrested at the scene on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police. He was further arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is understood no members of the royal family were in Buckingham Palace during the attack.

The incident took place in a restricted area in Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace, when a car deliberately drove at a police van and stopped in front of it.

The officers, who were unarmed police constables and from Westminster borough, got out of the van and approached the car.

Two of the officers were taken by ambulance to hospital with minor cuts and discharged a short time later. The third officer did not need hospital treatment.
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Over 230 people have sought medical help for breathing difficulties, vomiting and stinging eyes following a suspected gas leak near Beachy Head near Eastbourne on Sunday.

Emergency services evacuated the popular beauty spot after dozens of people basking in the bank holiday weekend sunshine complained of stinging eyes and sore throats after a "mist" appeared on the beach.

Eastbourne District General Hospital said it has treated 233 people, where they are being 'decontaminated' East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust told the BBC.

Witnesses claimed there was a distinct and pungent smell of chlorine in the air at the East Sussex site, with one saying it 'stung their noses.'

People have been warned to stay away from the area as Coastguard UK confirmed they have been ushering people from the beach.

Residents have also been advised to keep all their doors and windows closed.

East Sussex police have confirmed they are investigating the incident with the source of the "haze" and the irritation remaining unclear.

A statement from the force said the first report came from Birling Gap where up to 50 people had been affected by "irritation to eyes and throats".

"This seems to have been caused by an unknown haze coming in from the sea, but the source has not yet been established.

"Emergency services are treating people at Birling Gap and clearing the area."

Witness Mark Battershill was at the beach with his wife and two children aged 5 and 11.

He told the BBC: "My eyes were really streaming. My wife had the same problem, and my daughter."

Police have issued a further warning that the "haze" appears to be shifting eastwards towards Hastings.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service said anyone affected should wash with copious amounts of water.

"If you have any serious concerns then you should seek medical advice.

"People are urged not to go to hospital unless an absolute emergency."
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The alcohol content of Carling is lower than advertised, its owners have admitted in a court case.

The lager is advertised as having an alcohol by volume (ABV) of four per cent but is actually brewed at 3.7 per cent, owners Molson Coors said.

In the tribunal hearing brought by HMRC, the firm said the ABV was reduced in order to cut tax on Carling products as stronger beers are subject to higher taxes than lower-strength ones under UK excise duties.

EU law permits beer to have a natural variation of 0.5 per cent and the owner insists it does not believe customers are being misled.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

HMRC took Carling to the tax tribunal because it claimed the firm underpaid tax by more than 50 million between 1 September 2012 and 31 January 2015.

But the firm won the case after it successfully argued the actual strength of the lager meant it should not be subject to the four per cent level of taxation.

According to papers from the tribunal, Philip Rutherford, vice president of Molson Coors Europe, told the tribunal the key driverbehind the decision not to change the labelling on Carlings products was to prevent retailers, including pub chains and supermarkets, from demanding a slice of the savings.

Molson Coors said in a statement: "As a major brand, the trust of our consumers is paramount. We abide by all legal requirements in the brewing and labelling of Carling.

"The natural process of brewing means all batches of Carling vary fractionally in alcohol content - the variation range for Carling is less than a quarter of 1% (0.23%).

"It is completely normal for consumable products to have a slight variation. For example, the allowed variation for wine is 1%."

Carling, which was founded in Canada but now has its headquarters in Staffordshire, became the UKs most popular brand of lager in the early 1980s and has remained a leading brand ever since.
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As Notting Hill Carnival attendees pay their respects to the people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and local residents are dealing with the latest failure by the local council to respond to their concerns.

For the past five weeks, the central west London branch of care consumer watchdog Healthwatch has been collecting questions and complaints from local people and submitting them weekly to Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC) - who are required to respond in 20 working days.

But last week the council missed their deadline to respond to the first submission, which it received on 28 July.

Healthwatch has statutory power to hold both the NHS and the local council to account.

"It's yet another kick in the teeth for those affected by Grenfell," Clare Maloney told The Independent.

The volunteer running the Grenfell Humanitarian Information Report (GHIR), which provides up-to-date information for survivors, added that the people affected by Grenfell had used this mechanism as a platform to voice their questions and concerns in good faith.

"For RBKC to not even respond after so many grave errors and missteps on their part is a travesty and shows a monumental disregard for those affected and those whose lives were lost," she said.

 Grenfell survivors release white doves at the start of Notting Hill Carnival

The three-page document is seeking answers to a range of questions about the still uncertain death toll, rehousing options, rent payments for people still living in the neighbourhood and queries about what support is available for the families of the dead.

Local people are concerned about air quality after experiencing dizziness, getting nose bleeds, and suffering from chest pains and insomnia, it reads.

Some people living in the area are worried about an increased risk of suicide and have been requesting access to trauma counsellors.

There are also concerns about the protection of vulnerable survivors who are being pressured by self-styled "community leaders" to sign up with particular law firms, the document says.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

There is a question about the process for rehousing and another about whether people from outside the area whose relatives died in the fire will be allowed to access any support.

"Trust has been lost as to date many people have not had responses to their queries- what are you going to do to change this?" reads a question under the sub-heading "getting information".

Another asks: "Can you provide a list of people who have died and a list of people who are missing?"

In a statement, Healthwatch Central West London said while RBKC acknowledged receipt of the questions, it had not provided a response. Healthwatch will now report that failure to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Scrutiny Committee, and ask them to take action.

A RBKC spokesperson said: "Since the Grenfell Tower fire we have received unprecedented requests for information. We have spoken to Healthwatch and have offered to meet with them next week to discuss the best way of getting them the information they need.
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A Labour MP has called for increased support and training for women in public life after revealing she received 600 rape threats in a single day last year.

Speaking to The Independent, Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley since 2015, said there was nothing in common with those threatening her other than them being men.

Its left, right, middle, British, foreign, etc, she said.

Ms Phillips, who is chair of the womens parliamentary Labour Party, added that training would be helpful for women in her position.

Specifically, she thinks it should look at the best ways to report threats, what counts as harassment, and whats illegal, and examine different approaches for fighting back or not.

Ms Phillips made it clear that the deluge of threats she received last year were not related to her accusing the Labour Party of sexism, as has been reported by other media outlets.

In a separate interview with The Times, Ms Phillips  who has more than 62,000 Twitter followers  said she has put her settings at peak block, peak mute so she doesnt see mentions of rape anymore.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take 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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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However, other abuse continues. Last week, Ms Phillips said her timeline was filled with men telling me I didnt understand sexism, that I deserved it, that I was fat, ugly, that I was probably on my period after she insulted left-wing men.

When it comes to sexism, Ms Phillips also said its easier to counter right-wingers than members of her own party.

She added: Its much harder when people think they are the goodies. If theyre accused of sexism, [they] compare me to other women they love. And these are always women who support their man.

She has previously called left wing men the absolute worst sexists.
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London might be known for its expensive drinks, but one pub has come under criticism for selling a pint for 13.40.

The Rake, in Borough Market sold a pint of Cloudwaters North West Double IPA for more than three times the average price of a beer.

The price of the 8.2 per cent craft IPA, brewed in Manchester, came in for criticism on social media.

Seven quid is a very expensive pint of beer. 13.40 is bonkers; stark raving bonkers, said one Twitter user.

Recommended 10 best beers from Bristol and Bath

Kat Sewell said: Either this keg was hideously expensive for them to buy or it's ridiculously marked up.

The average pint in London costs 4.08, according to the Good Pub Guide.

But other defended the cost as the price of quality craft beer.

The pub has denied gouging customers and likened speciality beer  which is often sold by the half pint - to fine wine.

We are not making vast profits we work to a margin like all businesses and if we stopped wed start losing money and eventually go out of business, said Utobeer, which runs the pub.

Utobeer said the brewer, Cloudwater, would not deliver directly to The Rake meaning the pub has to buy through a distributor, who added a margin to the beer.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty

Whilst we always endeavour to keep the prices as keen as possible the DIPA being a 9 per cent beer is never doing to be a cheap, they added.

Being charged 130+ for a 20L keg by the distributor were always going to struggle to keep the price down but we love Cloudwater beers  we want to showcase them and spread the love.

Utobeer said they were looking into how they could reduce the cost.

The supplier, Euroboozer, released their costings for the beer and said their gross profit on the keg was 22.39  less than the company would usually make, they said.

The company added that the beer cost up to four times more to make than a normal brew.

No one here is making anyone buy any beer but if you can afford it and want to then go ahead because its a smashing pint. Good beer costs good money, Euroboozer added.

Paul Jones, owner of Cloudwater, told the Manchester Evening News the pint was priced at the more expensive end.

But he added: Its no surprise to me that some people are shocked by the cost - just as they are by thje bold flavour of the DIPA - and think Oh, I could get five pints for that. But its not a fair comparison.
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Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have released dozens of white doves at the opening ceremony of the Notting Hill Carnival as community leaders urged attendees to come in the spirit of peace.

The opening address saw faith leaders take part in the small act of remembrance to mark the tragedy that claimed at least 80 lives in June.

Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad, flanked by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and council leader Elizabeth Campbell, told the crowds: Today is a day to set aside our burden of sadness, before bereaved families and local residents released the birds into the sky.

Clarrie Mendy, the aunt of artist Khadija Saye who died in the blaze, said: This is for Grenfell and everybody present at the carnival  everybody dead or alive  just have a great time and in peace. We pray for peace. Lets release the birds in the name of peace in Notting Hill. Grenfell reunited. Amen.

Mr Khan greeted survivors, shaking their hands and hearing about their housing situations, nearly three months on from the blaze that left hundreds homeless.

The mayor spoke for a few minutes with Hamid Ali Jafari, 33, who said he was from the 11th floor of Grenfell Tower and is living in a temporary flat, awaiting permanent accommodation.

Mr Jafari, who lost his father Ali Yawar Jafari, 82, in the blaze, said he was glad to be at carnival.

Asked how it felt to release one of the doves, he said: Its the pain of remembering my dad, because he was there.

Europes biggest street party has been overshadowed by Junes devastating tragedy.

Community tensions have threatened to boil over since the fire after it emerged residents in the 24-storey block had repeatedly expressed concerns over fire safety.

But the carnival is also being seen as an opportunity for the community living in the shadow of the tragedy to come together in unity.

Scotland Yard faced heavy criticism in the lead up to the event after launching an aggressive campaign of preemptive arrests.

Roughly 6,000 officers are expected to be on duty over the two days, with some fearing tensions between the north Kensington community and authorities could lead to civil unrest.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

But Justice4Grenfell coordinator Yvette Williams told The Independent there is always a propaganda campaign leading up to Carnival over fears the event could provoke riots.

Prior to the opening ceremony, faith leaders called for the event to lift the spirits of people and members of the local community have been urging attendees to come in the spirit of peace for weeks.

The event has also been carefully coordinated to put those who died at its heart, with attendees being encouraged to wear clothing that is green for Grenfell.

The route has also been carefully planned so that the towers charred shell will be mostly out of sight.

A float during the Family Day parade at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London ( Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images) (Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images)

Performers will pass the site from half a mile away and will be encouraged to lower their music out of respect for the victims.

Recommended Grenfell Tower residents are right to feel betrayed by the Government

A quiet zone, decked out in yellow, has been constructed where the parade route meets Lancaster Road and the tower comes into sight.

Posters have also been put up at spots where the tower can be seen, asking the public not to take photographs at the site of our great loss  something which has distressed locals.

At 3pm on both days, hundreds of thousands of revellers along the route are expected to pause and observe a minutes silence to mark the tragedy.
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Notting Hill Carnival fell silent in memory of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Revellers bowed their heads in quiet reflection to honour the at least 80 people who died in June's devastating blaze.

Set against a backdrop of blue sky and blazing sunshine, floats lining Ladbroke Grove lowered their sound systems as onlookers remembered the dead.

The moment was concluded with a spontaneous round of applause and cheers from the hundreds of thousands celebrating over the bank holiday weekend.

Elsewhere, firefighters on Westbourne Avenue led the silence, with onlookers concluding the act of remembrance with applauds for their efforts on the night and shouts of "justice for Grenfell."

Nicholas Burton, a 19th floor resident of the tower, said the carnival meant "everything" to those that survived.

"This is what the community is all about. Notting Hill Carnival has been going on since before I was born and it's built up layers and layers and layers of importance as it's gone," he said.

But he warned deep divisions still remain between Kensington council and the local community.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

"This has left 150 families without homes, but if this was a Japanese tsunami (the council) would be in real trouble," he said.

"I'm an optimist so I'm always hopeful, but the time it's taken - 10 weeks to home 150 families in the borough - that's awful."

Hundreds of people dressed in green T-shirts, scarves and accessories lined the surrounding pavements, with "Green For Grenfell" signs dotted along the official parade route.

Recommended Police measures at Notting Hill Carnival are an example of racial bias

The colour had been chosen by local primary school children to commemorate the disaster alongside the celebratory multi-national flags that pay tribute to Notting Hill's diverse community.

Earlier in the day, survivors of the fire released dozens of white doves as community leaders urged attendees to "come in the spirit of peace".

The opening address saw faith leaders take part in the small act of remembrance to mark the tragedy, one of many efforts to put those who died at the centre of the celebrations.
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The scientist in charge of Europes drive to harness a revolutionary new form of energy has accused Theresa May of risking its development by putting up a new political wall between researchers.

Professor Tony Donne said Brexit and the UKs decision to withdraw from the EUs atomic agency would mean a strong negative impact on ground-breaking nuclear fusion research.

UK and EU scientists are collaborating under his programme to be the first to make a major breakthrough on fusion technology, which mimics processes at the core of the sun and promises a new era of clean, safe and cheap energy.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Prof Donne said Brexit had only losers in fusion research and went on to put up a staunch defence of EU free movement as a way of harnessing the collective knowledge needed to make its success a reality.

His intervention follows attacks from other scientists and doctors arguing withdrawal from the Euratom agency risks the UKs power supply, life-saving cancer treatments and plans to make all cars on British roads electric. A survey of specialists said retaining links to the agency should be a high priority.

Prof Donne is the programme manager for EuroFusion, the umbrella organisation of Europes fusion research laboratories.

He said: Brexit has only losers, as it will have a strong negative impact on European, UK and international fusion research.

Currently nuclear reactors produce power by fission, splitting uranium atoms and harnessing the energy released to drive turbines and generate electricity.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

But scientists know it would be more efficient to actually force hydrogen atoms together through fusion, producing four times as much energy, with helium the only by-product, and removing the toxic waste created by fission.

At the international Iter project in France, EuroFusion and other scientists are trying to build a huge magnetic ring that can force heavy hydrogen isotopes to fuse together at temperatures up to 150 million degrees Celsius, for operation in 2025.

Prof Donne set out how fusion scientists during the Cold War helped inspire Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to start Iter and more recently brought Russian and Ukrainian academics together despite the problems between those countries.

He said: Unfortunately, almost at the same time when Ukraine became associate member of Euratom, Theresa May announced a new political wall, Brexit.

This causes a new hurdle for the fusion scientists as the United Kingdom is one of the key players in European and international fusion research.

Days after immigration data revealed the number of EU nationals coming to the UK plummeted, he argued free movement is critical to gain and retain skilled scientists and engineers.

One project Prof Donne claims is immediately threatened when the UK falls out of Euratom and the EU is the Joint European Torus scheme hosted in the UK at Culham near Oxford.

 EU set to block UK's temporary customs union plea to stop Brexit border chaos, warns former commissioner

JET, commissioned by Euratom, is Europes main ongoing nuclear fusion experiment and is integral research for making Iter a success in proving fusion energy can work on an industrial scale.

The decision to leave Euratom is believed to be largely driven by Ms Mays desire to remove the UK from all areas of jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, which oversees the nuclear agency.

But under pressure from MPs, including enough on the Conservative benches to cause an upset in the Commons, it has signalled a potential softening, emphasising a strong, mutual interest in ensuring the UK work closely with Euratom.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said that an association agreement may even be possible, but has been clear the UK will not sign up to any mechanism which gives the ECJ oversight over UK affairs.

 The horrendous travel rules awaiting Britons after Brexit

A Government spokesperson said: We have been clear that we want the UK to remain the best place for science and innovation. As a key contributor to the EUs nuclear fusion research programme, we will be working closely with our EU partners to ensure international collaboration in this field continues.

Thats why the Government has pledged to meet its fair share of funding for the JET project until the end of 2020, should the EU extend the contract to host the Oxfordshire-based JET facility beyond 2018.

But UK Atomic Energy Agency chair Professor Roger Cashmore has warned leaving Euratom will leave no framework for transporting nuclear materials between Britain and the EU, with a risk the UK could run out of fuel within two years  just as Britain increases its reliance on nuclear energy.

Professor Martin Freer, one of Britains leading nuclear physicists, told The Independent earlier this month the shortsighted decision to quit Euratom would also hit the UKs nuclear-driven power supply, just as demand for electricity explodes due to a soaring number of battery-powered cars  the Government wants to ban all petrol cars by 2040.

Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned in July that quitting would make it harder for the UK to access the isotopes for cancer treatments and medical imaging.

A survey of over 1,500 energy and nuclear specialists published by Prospect today showed 86 per cent thought keeping links with EU energy agreements is a high priority for Brexit negotiations, while 82 per cent called for the Government to opt to stay in Euratom or retain associate membership.
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The Brexit talks have been left stuck in the mud over the summer, and this week the British and EU negotiation teams will do their best to restart them.

Its still August in Brussels and the European institutions are physically deserted, with most eurocrats off on their customary substantial summer breaks. The whole city quite literally closes down: many bars, restaurants, and even some of the citys famous friteries shutter for a month.

But as life slowly returns to the Berlaymont, the Justus Lipsius building, and the other landmarks of Europes capital district, David Davis and his negotiating team will come striding back into town under the mantra that both sides must be flexible.

European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker has got a head-start, and has already been back in the Berlaymont over the last week. He is said by officials to be busy working on his state of the union address  his second since the EU referendum. In his first, he did not directly mention Brexit, but warned that Europes enemies would like us to fragment.

Michel Barnier, the European Commissions chief negotiator, has been less silent. He was keen to stress this week that the EUs positions on Brexit had been clear and transparent since day one  apparently contrasting this with the British position.

On Monday, as if to emphasise the work the Commission had already done fleshing out it positions, he sent a flurry of tweets linking to nine separate position papers the EU had produced, detailing its views on subjects ranging from dispute settlement mechanisms to citizens rights.

This idea, that the EU has clear positions, is clearly an agreed line for the EU side to take  the fact the Commissions position has been set and public for some time been echoed by the skeleton crew of EU officials and spokespeople minding the capital over the summer, too.

Officials are clearly tiring of what they call intra-UK debate on what the British position actually is. The famous photograph of David Davis without any notes during the last round of talks may have been just a photograph; but it touched a nerve for a reason.

Britain, meanwhile, has been playing catch-up. In the quiet days of August the Department for Exiting the European Union has been firing off its own position papers  some more enlightening than others.

These efforts have not impressed EU officials, with one senior EU official saying that the paper on the Northern Ireland border in particular contained magical thinking about a border that wasnt really a border.

The Commission says it wants to make progress on the rights of EU and British citizens living out of their home countries, the settling of the financial accounts and the Irish border. Other EU institutions, like the Europe Parliament, confirm they have similar asks.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar summed up the EU mood well when he said the bloc was confused and puzzled at what exactly Britain wanted.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

But having published their position papers, the British see it as the EUs turn to give a little. This round of negotiations will focus on thrashing out the technical detail on important matters related to us leaving the EU, and will act as a stepping stone to more substantial talks in September, a UK government source said.

The UK has been working diligently to inform the negotiations in the past weeks, and has published papers making clear our position on a wide range of issues from how we protect the safe flow of personal data, to the circumstances around Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Now, both sides must be flexible and willing to compromise when it comes to solving areas where we disagree. As the EU itself has said, the clock is ticking so neither side should drag its feet.

For now, both sides still see the ball as being in each-others court, a situation which doesnt bode well for any progress being made this week.
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Brexit is being shaped by big business and banks while the interests of ordinary people are being drowned out, a damning new report has concluded.

The analysis of lobbyist activity exposes how big corporations and the finance sector are dominating back-room discussions with negotiators in both London and Brussels.

At the same time small business, labour groups and NGOs are being marginalised, leading campaigners to warn Brexit will be dictated according to a corporate bias.

The report passed to The Independent highlights how a single investment bank had more meetings with officials from the UKs Department for Exiting the European Union, than Britains two biggest trade unions put together, representing millions of workers between them.

Groups that have poured money into Conservative party coffers - and even donated to Brexit Secretary David Davis himself - were also granted direct access to the UKs team.

In Brussels business interests also dominated, with officials at the EUs Brexit taskforce three times more likely to meet corporate lobbyists than representatives of civil society.

Details of the new report from the Corporate Observatory Europe and Global Justice come as Mr Davis heads back to Brussels on Monday for talks with the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

But the report could be embarrassing for leaders on both sides, with Theresa May having pledged to run Britain for ordinary working people, while European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker is set to emphasise how the EU must be in touch with citizens in a major speech next month.

Analysis of the UK teams meetings show they were dominated by the finance sector, which concerned 46 gatherings at Dexeu in six months. Goldman Sachs - an investment bank heavily criticised for its actions during the financial crash - attended four meetings.

HSBC, which recently paid 28 million to Swiss authorities to close a money-laundering case, attended six and lobby group TheCityUK was at eight.

In contrast, the UKs two biggest trade unions, Unite and Unison, which together represent some 2.7 million working people, had one meeting each  the same number as attended by think tanks like Policy Exchange and the Legatum Institute, unknown to the wider public.

Other sectors which had meetings included food and agriculture, whose representatives were at 17 meetings; infrastructure industry lobbyists, at 13; the defence industry, at eight, and tech groups, at seven.

The Federation of Small Businesses was present at five round tables with other groups but had no one-on-one meetings, despite small firms making up 99 per cent of the UKs private sector.

Mr Davis did hold two meetings in quick succession with Arbuthnot Banking group, which has donated 267,470 to his party since 2009.

 Brexit Secretary: UK wants temporary EU customs deal

The cabinet minister himself accepted 50,000 from Arbuthnot in 2005 to fund his unsuccessful leadership campaign against former prime minister David Cameron.

BlackRock, which secured participation in two meetings, has recruited former chancellor George Osborne, while Citigroup, which employs former Conservative foreign secretary Sir William Hague, had three meetings.

JCB, which has given over 3 million to the Conservatives since 2001 met Mr Davis via a roundtable event, while Odey Asset Management, which has given 219,000 to the Conservatives, met Brexit minister Lord Bridges in November last year.

All in all, it meant Mr Daviss Brexit ministers and officials had six meetings with corporate lobbyists for every one held with civil society groups.

 Michel Barnier seeks clarification over key issues in Brexit talks

Jean Blaylock, a campaigner at Global Justice Now, said: The corporate bias that has been exposed in this list of meetings shows that we are veering dangerously towards a big business Brexit rather than a Brexit that might take into account the wider needs of UK society.

Unless there is some sense of transparency and accountability in this process, there is every chance that the UK Government will use Brexit as an opportunity to do away will all manner of vital protections relating to labour rights, consumer standards and the environment.

The report warns that the lack transparency on the British Governments meetings meant the visible corporate influence may be the tip of the iceberg.

It added: The agendas, minutes and papers for all lobby meetings held by both the UK and EU negotiators are secret.

Theresa May's team has met more corporate that civil representatives during Brexit consultations (EPA)

This is highly problematic as it means its not known exactly who is in the room and what is being said.

Data for meetings held by the EUs Brexit taskforce show that of 151 meetings held in eight months between October 2016 and May 2017, business lobbyists were present in 71 per cent.

For every one NGO met, the taskforce met ten business lobbyists. For every one trade union met, it also met 15 corporates. Groups that had the most meetings were Business Europe and the Centre for European Reform, funded by corporate donors including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, Centrica, EDF and The Daily Mail.

German interests were prominent in meetings held by Mr Barniers team. BMW had three, while the countrys Association for the Automotive Industry, Deutsche Bank and the German Mechanical Engineering Association had two meetings each.

 Jean-Claude Juncker says he has no clear idea of what the UK wants from Brexit

Corporate Europe Observatorys transparency campaigner Vicky Cann said: Brexit will strongly affect peoples private and professional lives in the UK, so it is vital that the process is as transparent as possible and that many different interests are consulted.

But we observe a strong corporate bias in the lobby meetings of both the UK and the EU Brexit negotiators. Civil society groups and SMEs have had far fewer opportunities to voice their needs, concerns, and proposals around Brexit.

When Ms May first took office she promised to lead a government in the interests of ordinary people, intervening in markets where necessary and tackling corporate irresponsibility.

But questions have been raised about the Prime Ministers commitment since the election, in particular with reports she has abandoned key parts of her corporate responsibility agenda - including measures to control excessive executive pay.

A British Government spokesperson said suggestions of 'corporate bias' made in the report are wholly inaccurate.

He went on: We are working hard to deliver an exit deal that works for the whole of society and the papers we published this week on civil judicial cooperation and dispute resolution are evidence of that.

Ministers have visited small businesses, civil society organisations and a wide range of other stakeholders up and down the country, engaging with them on their priorities for exit.

We are now intensifying this process as the negotiations proceed.

Mr Juncker is set to deliver his state of the union address on September 13, in which he will flesh out options for Europes future, stressing that citizens must be at the heart of the EUs decisions.

Michel Barnier will return to talks with David Davis on Monday (REUTERS)

Asked about its Brexit meetings, the European Commission pointed out that the Brexit taskforce only met lobbyists on the EUs transparency register.

An official said the Commission wanted to understand the impact of Brexit on UK business and that it was important to meet people who had experience of supply chains and the effects of the loss of passporting rights on their business model.

Labours shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer told The Independent: If were going to get a Brexit deal that works for all parts of the economy and all regions of the country, its vital that all voices are heard.

That means the Government need to do far more to listen to trade unions, NGOs, small businesses and wider community groups. It cant just be big business that has the ear of this government.

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake brands the situation a disgrace, adding: In their haste to ram through a hard Brexit, Conservative ministers are only hearing from the best-organised with the biggest pockets.
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Theresa May has confirmed she will not implement tough measures to crackdown on excessive executive pay, instead adopting a diluted set of policies.

The Prime Minister said that bosses who milked their companies had become the unacceptable face of capitalism as she announced a package of measures designed to show her party is prepared to tackle boardroom irresponsibility.

But they will fall short of previously floated plans to give workers representation in the boardroom and shareholders more significant votes on bosses pay.

Recommended Big business and banks dominate formation of Brexit warns report

The Independent has reported how big business has been given a commanding influence on the direction of the Brexit, in the UK and Brussels.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Ms May stressed her support for the majority of British businesses, which she said understood the need to respond to the concerns of employees and shareholders.

But she went on: Too often in recent years, we have also seen another, unacceptable, face of capitalism. A minority of firms are falling short of the high standards we expect of them.

Some have deliberately broken rules that are designed to protect their workers. Others have ignored the concerns of their shareholders by awarding pay rises to bosses that far outstrip the companys performance.

She added: When big businesses are brought into disrepute, public trust in an open, free-enterprise economy is weakened. It is bad for individual workers and companies, but also damages the social fabric of our country. It emboldens those on the far left who hate to see business succeed.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

Ms May said the Government reforms would include measures to ensure workers voices were properly heard in the boardroom, but made clear listed companies would choose for themselves whether to do this by having an employee advisory panel, a dedicated board member or an employee representative on their board.

A new public register will also be established by the end of this year, listing companies which have faced shareholder revolts over salaries and bonuses, she said.

The register will enable potential investors to identify firms where existing shareholders do not feel that bosses rewards are justified.

Ms May warned that she was ready to take further steps if businesses did not respond positively.

The corporate responsibility drive was part of Ms Mays personal agenda, driven by former aide Nick Timothy, often to the irritation of more business-minded Conservatives.

But with Ms May in a weaker position since the election, Chancellor Philip Hammond is said to have blocked plans to put workers representatives directly on to boards, and the idea of giving shareholders more power to veto excessive pay have also been dropped.

A source close to labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: Yet more words and no action from May. Fat cats, rip off bosses, tax dodgers and billionaire bankers  the whole rigged system  support the Tories because the Tories support them.

If May meant what she said, shed adopt Labour policies on pay ratios to tackle excessive pay, enhance trade union rights so workers get a fairer deal, crack down on tax cheats, and reverse the Tories tax giveaways to corporations and the richest. Instead she runs a country for the few, at the expense of the many.

The measures are still likely to face resistance from pro-business Tories. Backbencher George Freeman, a former minister and head of the PMs policy board, warned on Saturday that Ms Mays Government was flirting with anti-capitalism rather than promoting real entrepreneurship.
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Jeremy Corbyn is to conclude his tour of Scotland tomorrow telling supporters the Government should be fighting for a society free from racism and discrimination.

The Labour leader will pledge that his government would honour the UKs international legal and moral obligations by taking its fair share of refugees.

He will also say a Labour government will immediately guarantee the rights of all EU nationals living in the UK and promise a zero tolerance approach to hate crime.

The tour is part of an effort to re-ignite Labour as an electoral force north of the border following the election, which indicated to strategists at Labour HQ that the SNPs support was past its peak.

Mr Corbyn will meet activists in Musselburgh, East Lothian, on Sunday before attending an event at the Edinburgh Fringe and later speaking at the Rock Against Racism festival in Glasgow.

He is expected to say: Tory cuts and austerity have affected everyone but have disproportionately hurt the poorest, the young, women, LGBT people and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.

Instead of causing such harm, we need a government that will fight for a society free from racism and discrimination, where people are free to live their lives.

We will immediately guarantee the rights of all EU nationals living in the UK.

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

People are not bargaining chips. It is disgraceful that the Conservative Government treated them this way.

Highlighting the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, Mr Corbyn will add: Britain has a proud tradition as a place of safety for those forced to flee their homes by war, famine or disaster.

The next Labour government will be proud to honour our international legal obligations  and our moral duty  to offer safety to our fair share of refugees.

The tour has seen the Labour leader join protest marches and re-affirm Labour polices that proved popular at the election.
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The architects of Labours Brexit policy have said they are ready to take a political hit after their plan to keep Britain in the single market after EU withdrawal exposed divisions at the top of the party.

Allies of Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer accepted their proposal would mean the party is accused of wanting to keep the EU free movement many Labour voters oppose, but said it was the least worst option for the economy and critical to safeguarding jobs.

But others at the top of the party branded the move unwise and warned it would be incredibly damaging in Labour voting areas that had backed Brexit in a bid to reduce immigration.

Recommended Big business and banks dominate formation of Brexit warns report

Sources close to leader Jeremy Corbyn sought to keep the two sides together, claiming the announcement was not a shift, but a development of the sensible, pragmatic position outlined in the partys election manifesto.

It comes as Brexit Secretary David Davis prepares for a further round of talks in Brussels on Monday in which he will call for flexibility and imagination as he tries to make progress in discussions that appear stalled.

Mr Starmers announcement that Labour would back the UK remaining in the single market and customs union during a transition period heaps pressure on Theresa May, who knows that there will be some Tories who support it.

But Labours Brexit team is acutely aware that the move to provide more clarity also leaves them exposed to attack from within, particularly over the vexed issue of EU immigration.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

One source told The Independent: There is going to be a political hit, we know, because what weve said we want means we'll be accused of accepting free movement and the European Court of Justice during that transition period.

We accept thats not helpful and know that it is the least worst option in those senses, but it is also the safest option in terms of protecting the economy and jobs.

The Starmer ally went on: Keir has said in the past that we would want the same basic terms as now during a transition, but has not spelt out exactly what that means.

This is the first time that we are saying that during the transition it means we would stay in the single market and a customs union and it does draw a clear line between us and the Tories.

The announcement on Sunday gave more clarity than any party has given to date about its approach to the transition period, which could last two or three years, between Brexit day and adopting new trading arrangements with the EU.

But it was surprising because until now it has been the lack of clarity that has allowed both major parties to more easily deal with internal splits over how to approach Brexit.

 EU set to block UK's temporary customs union plea to stop Brexit border chaos, warns former commissioner

In a piece written for The Observer, Mr Starmer admitted staying in the single market during the transition would mean abiding by its common rules, or in other words, accepting free movement and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

It appeared to be a significant win for the wing of the party fighting for closer ties to Europe, which has also recently been buoyed by polling showing Labour could have benefitted from being seen as the party of soft Brexit during the election.

But senior figures fear the announcement also reflects a growing belief in the party that Labour voters who backed Brexit in 2016 no longer consider it important, and are now more enthused by Mr Corbyns anti-austerity agenda.

One individual warned that there is still a real risk of a backlash from voters in Labours Brexit-voting heartlands, against both the party and the leader himself.

Jeremy Corbyn is working to unify his party round a single Brexit position (AFP/Getty)

The person said: Its going to be an incredibly damaging thing that theyve done. Its unwise.

Its going to cause us problems in the South West, in the North and East of England where people voted for Brexit. Its the whole thing of giving the impression that somehow we are only half-hearted about it.

The source added that despite advances made at the ballot box, Labour was still not in a position to start disregarding the views of its leave voters.

There was a sense in white working class areas, that there was not the enthusiasm for Jeremy that there was in other areas, and there wont be enough young metropolitan voters to win us a majority, the source said.

 No other countries will follow Britain in leaving the EU, says David Davis

When the Brexit-voting white working class sees this, they are not going to warm to it.

Aware of the sensitivity around the announcement, Mr Corbyns aides sought to play down its significance on Sunday, pointing instead to how the party had come together since the election.

A source in the leaders office said: This is not a dramatic shift. For some time we have been talking about keeping the same basic terms during the transition period and so this is in line with that.

Recommended David Davis pictured without any notes at Brexit negotiations

But it does draw a dividing line with the Tories, who either back a cliff-edge position like Jacob Ress Mogg and Liam Fox back, or the Chancellors [Philip Hammonds] position which sees the need for a transition, for which they want to negotiate basic terms with very little time.

We have said we want the same basic terms as now, so our transition is the sensible, pragmatic position.

Asked in a TV interview whether the UK would continue to accept free movement after March 2019 under Labour's plans, Mr Corbyn said: Obviously, we have got to work out what the arrangements are during the transition period and make sure we reach agreement on that.

Quite clearly, the priority has to be protecting jobs and also understanding the needs of EU nationals that are living here.

What Labour wants from the final Brexit deal in terms of the single market remains the fullest possible access, without more detail about how this would be achieved.

 Michel Barnier: A 'fundamental divergence' remains between the EU and the UK

A Conservative spokesman said: The truth is Labour have no idea what they want and this is a weak attempt to kick the can down the road.

Their leader can't say they would end unlimited freedom of movement, they can't decide whether we are leaving the single market and they have no vision for what Britain should look like outside the EU.

But Conservative Brexit Secretary Mr Davis has also courted what he called constructive ambiguity in his approach to Brexit, claiming he chooses to keep his full ideas for Britains post-withdrawal future secret as a negotiating tactic.

That has not stopped many in the EU suggesting his plans are secret because they are not conclusively formed, with one official suggesting last week that the UK was even guilty of magical thinking about what it could achieve.

Mr Davis is expected to say at the outset this week: We want to lock in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree, and make further progress on a range of issues.

But in order to do that, we'll require flexibility and imagination from both sides.
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A lifelong Tory who once worked for Margaret Thatcher has said he would consider voting for the Labour party after it announced a significant shift in its stance towards Brexit.

Former Conservative MP and columnist Matthew Parris made the comments after shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer announced Labour backed staying in the single market and customs union during a transition out of the EU and possibly for longer.

Mr Parris said that despite his loyalty to the Tories and his opposition to leader Jeremy Corbyn, he began to think about the possibility of voting for a party that is brave enough to take this stand.

Recommended Big business and banks dominate formation of Brexit warns report

The move by Labour creates a clear dividing line with the Tories, who are still committed to leaving both the customs union and single market in March 2019 on the day of Brexit.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mr Parris said: It really is a dramatic shift.

He added: Im a Conservative. Ive always voted Conservative. Ive been a Conservative MP. I have never voted Labour. I have never even contemplated voting Labour.

But when I read this story, though I wont vote for Labour while Jeremy Corbyn is leader, I did begin to think about the possibility of voting for a party that is brave enough to take this stand.

Theresa May has said there will be a transition period lasting at least two years after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 during which time the Government aims to negotiate an interim customs arrangement and to operate from outside the single market albeit with ongoing access, in order to avoid an economic cliff edge for businesses.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

But Corbyns party is to say it hopes ongoing membership of the single market and the customs union might be possible throughout an interim period and have not ruled out it continuing afterwards.

Sir Keir said: We will always put jobs and the economy first.

That means remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour, but that must be subject to negotiations.

It also means that Labour is flexible as to whether the benefits of the single market are best retained by negotiating a new single market relationship or by working up from a bespoke trade deal.
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The sister of a Morrocan gang rape victim has said she suffered a miscarriage after watching footage of the assault.

The video of the young woman being attacked by a group of teenage boys on a bus in Casablanca sparked outrage after it was shared on social media.

It showed the victim, who is believed to be 26-years-old, being molested while the attackers tore off her clothes and insulted her.

The woman, who the authorities said has learning difficulties, can be seen crying for help as neither the bus driver nor any of the passengers intervene.

The victims sister, who was pregnant when she found out about the assault, said her heart ached after she watched the video.

"My sister looks a lot like me," she told AJ+. "As soon as I came across the video in the morning, I knew it was her."

She added: "I lost my baby... When I saw my sister in that situation, being assaulted and screaming, without [being shown] any sympathy nor mercy.

The assault was filmed and posted online and quickly went viral. It lead to hundreds of Moroccans staging a mass sit-in protest in response to the incident.

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. 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Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. 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Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. 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Protesters chanted "we are not afraid! Liberate public space!" as they marched in Casablanca.

Sexual harassment and abuse of women is rife in Morocco where a national survey found that nearly two-thirds of women had experienced physical, psychological, sexual or economic abuse.

The Moroccan authorities said they had arrested six boys aged 15 to 17 for their presumed implication in the woman's aggression and put them under investigation.
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An Englishman who claimed he once drummed with Mick Jagger, said that as the most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years shook at his humble motel room, all he could think of were the words to Jumpin Jack Flash, a pulsating rock classic about a man born in a cross-fire hurricane.

I kept thinking Jumping Jack Flash, its a gas, gas, gas, said Frank Skipper, who retained a strong London accent despite having lived in the United States for decades.

The 68-year-old Mr Skinner and his partner, Terri Smith, were among scores of people who grabbed hold of whatever they could, when Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane with winds of up to 130mph, roared through this coastal town and tore inland. The storm lasted anywhere up to ten hours, howling and battering.

Frank Skipper said he thought of the Rolling Stones (Andrew Buncombe ) (Andrew Buncombe)

The community of around 10,000, 30 miles north-east of Corpus Christi and made up of homes and trailers barely designed to withstand a stern glare let alone a direct hit from a hurricane, was among those that suffered the very worst of the storm, that has left at least one person dead, injured 14 and triggered fears about massive flooding in one of America's biggest cities.

In a number of communities, officials said they had not been able to account for everyone and had been forced to delay search and rescue operations until the weather relented. The day before the storm struck, the mayor of Rockport, Charles Wax, warned those seeing the storm out to write their names on their arm so they could be identified in case they perished.

On Saturday afternoon Rockport was a tanged mess of downed wires, and flooded fields. House after house looked utterly guttered, while a yacht ramp appeared to have been shredded. It seemed hardly a single home had escaped damage in one way or another. Strangely, the sea appeared utterly calm, seemingly disinterested.

 Hurricane Harvey seen approaching Texas from space

Mr Skipper did not think much of the construction of the motel room he was living in. He said he had listened as the shingles on the roof were torn off one by one. Not a single nail among the lot, he said, as he pointed out where the ceiling in the room where he and Ms Smith had spent part of the night, had collapsed

We spent half the night under a mattress, and the other half in the shelter," he said. "We didnt hear that there was a shelter until 9am.

Ms Smith, an American who had lived on the Texas coast all her life, said this was her first hurricane. Ive never seen anything like this. All these years with nothing, and then this - the worst.

Many communities have yet to account for everyone (Reuters)

Melanie Tweedys family - her daughter, mother, husband and one of her dogs - left Rockport on Friday. They returned to find their home and business - three trailers and three cabins - all but destroyed. Of their chickens and goats, there was no sign.

Weve pretty much lost everything - everything we worked for, said Ms Tweedy, her voice catching. One positive ray was that their second dog, which they had been forced to leave behind, had survived.

Harvey weakened to tropical storm from hurricane strength on Saturday, the US National Hurricane Centre said. The centre of the storm was barely moving and was 140 miles from Houston with sustained winds of 60 mph. Along the coast, anywhere up to 300,000 people have no power, and there are hardly any fuel stations operating.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The next immediate concern is what impact the storm will have as it moves on Houston and prepares to dump anywhere up to 40 inches of water.

The city, the fourth largest in the US, has already recieved 16 inches of rain so far, and will receive 2 to 3 more feet in the coming days, said Mayor Sylvester Turner.

This is serious, said Mr Turner, according to the Associated Press. It is important that people stay off the roads.

Already on Saturday, the rain was moving towards Houston, flooding fields, rivers and making driving utterly treacherous. A river called the Chocolate Swale had swollen into a small lake the colour of a soft Snickers bar.

After Harvey struck Rockport, the next sizable community to feel its wrath was Refugio, about 30 miles inland. Police had spent the night in their boarded-up office, and once it got light began checking on people. So far, there had been no reports of casualties, said officer Jeff Raymond.

One couple, Sherstin and Casen Kruse, said they had spent the night in a friends trailer. The force of the storm ripped off the roof and they clung together under the mattress, they said. Once it became light, they went to the towns hospital to keep out of the rain. Mr Kruse said: It felt like it was collapsing on us.
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Donald Trump might refuse to leave power when his time at the White House comes to an end, an expert on Latin American leaders has warned.

Tim Rogers, a journalist, said the US leader had no respect for the "sanctity of the presidency".

The expert on Nicaraguas Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) and the country's former President Daniel Ortega, Mr Rogers said it was common for Latin American leaders to stay in power for long periods.

He added that he sees similarities between Mr Trump and the likes of Mr Ortega.

Describing Mr Trump as a tribal leader", he said he was dividing" the US as opposed to uniting it.

This is a dangerous moment for the country," he wrote on the Fusion website. "Trump has shown no interest in preserving the sanctity of the presidency or the traditions of U.S. democracy. He might not even be familiar with them.

Trump is only interested in Trump. Hes willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of self-preservation. This is how dictatorships are born."

He added: Shortly after Daniel Ortega was elected president of Nicaragua in 2006, renowned author and intellectual Sergio Ramirez told me, 'anyone who thinks Ortega is going to leave office at the end of his term is being naive.' I was naive. I didnt see it coming, even after I was warned what to look out for.

I might be naive again by thinking that Trump will try something similar by refusing to go away when his time is up. But Nicaragua taught me its best to err on the side of caution when dealing with authoritarians.
Tony Evers, state superintendent, speaks during his gubernatorial campaign announcement at McKee Farms Park in Fitchburg on Wednesday.
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Donald Trump's allies should not expect to be pardoned if they are convicted of colluding with Russia during the US election, a senior Democratic senator has warned.

Richard Blumenthal dismissed the suggestion that controversial ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio's reprieve could send a signal those under investigation over allegations of meddling by Moscow.

Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff had said the "appalling and political" pardon "sent a message" to witnesses in the Russia investigation to "keep quiet, stay loyal".

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing the election allegations, has empanelled a grand jury to pursue the investigation.

The President's son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign manager Paul Manafort are also expected be summoned for questioning over a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging material on Hillary Clinton.

Mr Mueller is also reported to have asked the White House for documents relating to Mr Trump's former national security adviser, who resigned after it emerged he had concealed the extent of his contact with Moscow.

Mr Schiff suggested the pardon of Mr Arpaio, convicted of criminal contempt after ignoring a court order to stop racially profiling Latino motorists, could undermine the Russia investigation.

"Arapio action was appalling and political. It also sends a message to the witnesses in the Russia investigation to keep quiet, stay loyal and get pardon," he tweeted.

National security lawyer Bradley Moss said Mr Trump "undoubtedly is attempting to forestall [his allies] co-operating with Mueller beyond whats legally required".

"By demonstrating his willingness to issue pardons without bothering with the trouble of bureaucratic due diligence or concerns about political backlash, President Trump has sent out a subtle and implicit message to Flynn and Manafort: hang tight, I have your back," he wrote for the Huffington Post.

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

But Mr Blumenthal, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said: "Any witness counting on a Russia investigation pardon should think again.

"Trump's loyalty is limited, witnesses can still be compelled to testify, and the pardons apply only to federal crimes."

Senior Republicans including veteran senator John McCain and House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan, have criticised Mr Arpaio's pardon.

Mr McCain said the President's decision "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law".
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Veteran senator John McCain has led criticism of Donald Trumps decision to pardon the controversial former sheriff Joe Arpaio, saying it undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law.

The long-serving Arizona senator joined a chorus of condemnation of the move, announced as Texas battened down the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Harvey.

Mr Arpaio, 85, ignored a 2011 court ruling that blocked him from racially profiling Latino residents and was convicted of contempt of court less than a month ago, leaving him facing potential time behind bars.

Recommended Trump officially directs Pentagon to ban transgender recruits

He had gained notoriety for backing Mr Trumps birther campaign and for his massive roundups of suspected illegal immigrants. At Maricopa County jail he reinstated chain gangs and banned coffee, salt and pepper.

Mr Trump said Mr Arpaio was an American patriot who kept Arizona safe!.

But his longtime critic, Mr McCain, said: No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold.

Mr Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judges orders.

The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.

 Trump calls for unity one day after 75-minute rant at Arizona rally

Cecillia Wang, a lawyer who helped press the racial profiling case against Mr Arpaio, called the pardon a presidential endorsement of racism.

Mr Trump has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of colour and have been struck down by the courts, she said.

Her view was echoed by former Democratic presidential candiate Senator Bernie Sanders, who said the pardon has again made clear [Mr Trump] will use the powers of the presidency to defend racism and discrimination.

And Hilarie Bass, president of the American Bar Association, said: Pardoning a law enforcement officer who has disobeyed the courts and violated the rights of people he has sworn to protect undercuts judicial authority and the publics faith in our legal system.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, said the President had given a free pass to his buddy Joe Arpaio, the nations most notorious agent of racism and bigotry. The decision to issue the pardon as a dangerous hurricane was bearing down on Texas was not presidential, he added.

Enrique Acevedo, a news anchor for the popular Spanish-language channel Univision, tweeted: This is all you need to know about Trumps promise of law and order: He fired James Comey and pardoned Joe Arpaio.

Jeff Flake, Arizonas other Republican senator, said on Twitter that I would have preferred that the President honour the judicial process and let it take its course. Mr Arpaio was due to be sentenced in October and faced up to six months in prison.

Both Mr Flake and Mr McCain have been public targets of Mr Trumps anger; Mr Flake for his outspoken criticism of the President, and Mr McCain for his July vote against the repeal of Obamacare  a legislative win Mr Trump desperately needed.

On Twitter, the Phoenix New Times recounted a string of stories that chronicled Mr Arpaios 24-year reign.

It said: By 2015, his fondness for racial profiling had cost the county more [than] $44m. On top of, you know, ruining lives.

Oh, and one time he staged an assassination attempt against himself? That was weird.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, has called North Koreas most recent missile launch a provocative act, but said the US will continue to seek a peaceful resolution with Kim Jong-uns regime.

North Korea reignited tensions with the US this weekend by firing three missiles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. One failed and none posed risk to the United States, the US Pacific Command said in a statement late Friday.

The missiles appeared to be short-range, unlike the intercontinental ones capable of reaching the mainland US that North Korea fired last month.

We do view it as a provocative act against the United States and our allies, Mr Tillerson said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. We're going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it, working with allies, working with China as well to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

Animosity between the two countries spiked earlier this month after North Korea warned it might fire missiles toward the US territory of Guam in response to warlike rhetoric from Donald Trump. The US leader said any threat from Kim Jong-uns regime would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.

North Korea later appeared to put a hold on its threat to attack Guam, saying it would wait to assess the foolish and stupid conduct of the US before launching any missiles. At a rally in Phoenix, Arizona last week, Mr Trump said Kim Jong-un is starting to respect us...maybe something positive can come about.

While the US prefers a diplomatic approach, the country and its allies are prepared to respond to a North Korean threat with military force, Mr Tillerson said at a news conference in August.

Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Show all 10 1 /10 Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images

Mr Trump has repeatedly complained that China is not helping the US rein in North Korea, and Mr Tillerson has said China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for North Koreas growing threat to regional and global stability.

But Chinese diplomats and the state news media have asserted that the US and its allies should not depend so much on China to ease tensions created by North Koreas growing nuclear weapons programme and missile capabilities.
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Hundreds have died in clashes between Burmese authorities and Rohingya insurgents, sending thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

Ongoing violence has seen civilians killed, buildings burned down and land mines planted after insurgents launched attacks against police posts last week.

The death toll from the violence has reached 104, the vast majority being militants, plus 12 members of security forces and several civilians, according to a Reuters tally based on official figures.

Advocates for the Rohingya suggest many more civilians have died in army attacks on villages, but they have not given a total.

 Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya  mostly women and children  attempted to cross the Naf river separating Burma and Bangladesh and the land border.

Reuters reporters at the border heard gunfire from the Burmese side, which triggered a rush of Rohingya towards the no mans land between the countries.

Several hundred Rohingya got stuck at one border point in Bangladeshs Bandarban district, barred from moving farther by Bangladeshi border guards.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh so far, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

Burma is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but about 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine state, where the violence is taking place.

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

The treatment of the Rohingya population has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority.

A Rohingya insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for Thursday nights attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defence of Rohingya communities that had been brutalised by government forces.

Ms Suu Kyis office accused the insurgents of torching police outposts and monasteries, killing innocent people and planting mines. ARSA, meanwhile, accused the army of using civilians as human shields.

Buddhist monks protest against the interference of UN and NGOs in Sittwe, Rakhine State (EPA)

The government refuses to recognise Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority, calling them Bengalis to push the position they are mostly illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, though many can trace family in Burma for generations.

Most Rohingya endure apartheid-like conditions as they are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements.

The Rohingya were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people  predominantly Rohingya  from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

Additional reporting by agencies
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A majority of French voters are now dissatisfied with Emmanuel Macron's performance just four months after the president gained a landslide victory in the country's elections, a poll has found.

The survey, conducted by Ifop for newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), showed Mr Macron's "dissatisfaction rating" rising to 57 per cent, from 43 per cent in July.

Forty per cent expressed satisfaction with the centrist leader - down 14 points from July.

The 39-year-old, who became France's youngest president since Napoleon, suffered the worst drop in popularity for a French president in 20 years in July, with his approval rating plummeting from 64 to 54 per cent in the space of one month.

The drop was the biggest decline in popularity for a French president since Jacques Chirac in 1995.

He has also suffered lower popularity ratings than his predecessor Francois Hollande, who himself was extremely unpopular.

French government spokesman Christophe Castaner said Mr Macron's En Marche! party was going through a difficult time, but added that displeasing some people was a price worth paying if the government wanted to push through reforms.

"Yes, we are encountering difficulties, but you cannot just spend your time only looking at polls when you're in government. We are there to transform the country. Our country needs us to take risks, and we are taking risks," he told BFM TV.

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 Macron has pushed himself onto the international stage since winning power in May. He hosted high-profile visits from Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, and he is midway through a series of visits to various European capitals.

However, he has suffered significant setbacks at home, including tough debates in Parliament over labour reforms, a standoff with the military and cuts to housing assistance.

It comes after Mr Macron faced a furious backlash for spending 26,000 euros (24,000) on makeup during his first 100 days in office.

His campaign pledge to "moralise public life" also suffered a blow when his office was forced to back down on plans to give his wife a formal, paid role following public criticism.

Bernard Sananes, head of French polling company Elabe, said the latest survey could encourage Mr Macron's political opponents, after his party won a commanding majority in parliament.

It could mean, for the government, that the opposition mobilises itself again, Sananes told BFM TV.

The Ifop poll showed the cumulative drop in Mr Macron's popularity ratings since May was bigger than that of previous Socialist president Francois Hollande over the same period.

The poll also showed a drop in popularity for Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, with 47 percent expressing satisfaction with him - down 9 points from last month.

Mr Macron faces a big test next month when the far-left CGT trade union leads a rally to protest against plans to deregulate the jobs market.

Now is the key time, with the labour executive orders to be presented, said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Geneva-based investment firm Prime Partners.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Five mountain climbers have died and another was seriously injured in the Austria's Zillertal Alps, according to the country's Red Cross.

It brings the death toll of this weekend's Alps mountaineering fatalities to eight.

The most recent victims were climbing at around 2,000 metres on Mount Gabler, east of Innsbruck, and were roped together when they fell.

Five rescue helicopters were sent to the scene but only one climber survived and is now being treated in a Salzurg hospital.

The cause of the incident is currently unknown. Emergency responders are working to recover the bodies.

"We think a rope may have come loose," said Anton Voithofer of the Red Cross rescue team.

The nationalities of the dead climbers have not yet been released.

The picturesque Zillertal Alps feature deep gorges and are a popular area for hiking and climbing.

Also on Sunday, two Italian climbers died while falling into a crevasse in the alp's on their country's side of the border.

The Italian news agency Ansa said one of the crevasse victims had been rescued Sunday in grave condition but later died of their injuries.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The two who died after falling were part of nine mountaineers roped together while climbing on a glacier in the Ademello Brenta Park near Trento in northern Italy, Ansa added.

The cause of the fall wasn't immediately known.

On Saturday, an Italian climber died after being hit by boulders in the Valtellina Alpine area, further west of Trento, near the border with Switzerland.
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Italian police are investigating after a Polish tourist was gang raped as her boyfriend was savagely beaten on Italy's popular Rimini beach.

Italian news reports said the man passed out after being beaten on the head and robbed.

His partner was repeatedly raped by four men early on Saturday on a secluded stretch of beach in the Adriatic town on Italy's eastern coast, near San Marino.

Italian Scientific Police investigate the site where a couple of Polish tourists were attacked by four men, in Miramare in Rimini (EPA/MANUEL MIGLIORINI)

Media reports said the 26-year-old Polish couple were hospitalised with injuries.

Passers-by called police after seeing the couple, bloodied and dazed, on the beach.

Italian police are still searching for the suspects of what they described as a "brutal and bestial attack."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Last year, a 17-year-old British tourist was raped on the same stretch of beach.

The girl went to the beach with a man she had meet to "watch the shooting stars" when he attacked and raped her.

A 19-year-old man was arrested after last year's attack.
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Eight Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped by Isis militants three years ago are almost certainly dead, the head of the country's internal security agency has said.

The army had retrieved the remains of six soldiers so far and was digging for two others, General Abbas Ibrahim said, although it still needed to conduct DNA tests to confirm the identities.

Isis has held nine Lebanese soldiers captive since 2014, when it briefly overran the border town of Arsal in northeast Lebanon with other militants - one of the worst spillovers of Syria's civil war.

The fate of the ninth soldier remains unknown.

 Liberated from Isis, women burn their burqas and men shave off their beards

Locating the bodies was part of a ceasefire deal which took effect in an Isis enclave straddling the Syria-Lebanon border, where separate but simultaneous week-long offensives against the group saw them fighting the US-backed Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with Syrian troops on the other.

The two sides said they have driven the militants from most of the border region.

Hezbollah, which Western nations view as a terrorist organisation, has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces inside Syria since 2013.

Lebanon's main political factions are bitterly divided over the war in neighbouring Syria, and many would fiercely object to any direct cooperation with Assad's government.

In exchange for locating the bodies, the Isis militants will be evacuated to eastern Syria.

In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Show all 30 1 /30 In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian family arrives at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian woman, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, reacts as she stands with her children in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past resident fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood , after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-regime fighters, gesture as they drive past residents fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-regime fighter speaks with a child, as residents flee violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood. Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops AFP/Getty Images In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Smoke rises as seen from a governement-held area of Aleppo, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers targeting rebels-held areas in the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria. According to media reports, the army is now holding on 99 percent of Aleppois eastern neighborhoods EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian pro-government forces patrol Aleppo's eastern al-Salihin neighbourhood after troops retook the area from rebel fighters Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian soldiers rest following the battle at al-Sheik Saeed neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria EPA In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian pro-government fighter walking past closed shops in the Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo's Old City. Once renowned for its bustling souks, grand citadel and historic gates, Aleppo's Old City has been rendered virtually unrecognisable by some of the worst violence of Syria's war Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its 'final phase' after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilans arrive at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, at the al-Hawoz street roundabout, after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods. Syria's government has retaken at least 85 percent of east Aleppo, which fell to rebels in 2012, since beginning its operation Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian civilians flee the Sukkari neighbourhood towards safer rebel-held areas in southeastern Aleppo Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrians celebrate in the government-held Mogambo neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, after rebel fighters retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The fall of Aleppo would be the worst rebel defeat since Syria's conflict began in 2011, and leave the government in control of the country's five major cities Getty In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee Aliya inside the tent where she lives with her husband and ten children in a camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Syrian refugee women and children outside the entrance to their tents in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA Wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A Syrian refugee woman outside the entrance to the tent where her family live, in the refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, close to the Syrian border PA wire In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria A vehicle drives past a mosque at night in Idlib, Syria. Picture taken with a long exposure Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria The night sky is seen through damaged windows in the rebel-controlled town of Binnish in Idlib province, Syria Reuters In Pictures: The crisis unfolding in Syria Damaged buildings stand in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, Syria Reuters

Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from Lebanon's border region earlier this month.

They departed for insurgent territory in Syria after offensives by Hezbollah and the Syrian army.

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting Sunni militants along the border during Syria's six-year war and has sent thousands of fighters to support the Syrian president.

The group and its allies have been pressing the Lebanese state to normalise relations with Damascus, testing Lebanon's official policy of neutrality towards the conflict next door.

Additional reporting by agencies
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It is impossible to overstate the Labour change of line on Brexit. It is as big as the party moving from its Brexit manifesto pledge in the 1983 election to being the champion of Britain in Europe a decade later.

Today politics moves far faster. At Labours party conference in 2016, pro-European Labour MPs were busy drawing up pet schemes to control Europeans coming to work in Britain by regional or sectoral quotas.

In the June election Labour was on the same page as the Tories on membership of the single market and customs union. Indeed only two weeks ago Labours shadow trade secretary was writing op-eds and speaking in favour of a full rupture with the Customs Union. This would guarantee hard frontier customs posts on the Northern Ireland border.

Now at a stroke the internal turmoil is over for Labour. There are still weasel words on free movement but all this is for another day, or years, in some far-off transition period.

 Labour's Keir Starmer demands parliamentary vote on 'hard Brexit' negotiation plan

How has this come about? Three women are responsible. The most important is Theresa May. Her insistence that the June election meant that more than 80 per cent of voters were backing her hard Brexit line was intolerable to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.

Corbyn refused to be on the same platform in the Brexit plebiscite as David Cameron in arguing for Remain. In every interview in the last 12 months Corbyn has refused to endorse staying in the single market and customs union.

But to be told by May, David Davis, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg as well as every single pro-Labour commentator that there was no difference between the Corbyn and the May position was utterly intolerable  especially ahead of the political conference season where Corbyn wants to tell TUC and Labour delegates that he alone incarnates anti-Tory policy.

Recommended If Remain campaigners work together they can stop Brexit

In addition, the British Electoral Study of 30,000 voters showed that more than a third voted Labour in opposition to Mays hard Brexit line. The massive support of the young for Labour is based on these voters dislike of the amputational Brexit urged by Boris Johnson or Liam Fox.

So quietly behind the scenes, Labours tectonic plates were shifting. Labour MPs now accept that it will be a long-haul parliament and that the best way of making life difficult for May is to align Labour with those Tory MPs and the business world thats very worried about hard Brexit.

The second woman who has reshaped Labours Brexit stance has been Frances OGrady, the respected and very effective TUC General Secretary. Without fanfare OGrady has been gently nudging and cajoling union leaders into moving away from supporting Brexit on the issue of free movement.

The volume and velocity of workers arriving from Eastern Europe, especially those arriving via unregulated employment agencies that are little better than gangmasters, provoked hostile reaction from the trade union base. Many TUC members believed Ukip and tabloid lines on Europe and supported Brexit in the 2014 European Parliament elections and then in the referendum.

Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA

But in the general election Ukips vote slumped to 1.8 per cent and now Eastern Europeans are going home as the devalued Brexit pound and the anti-European language of the Brexit press has made life less rewarding in the UK. OGrady and key TUC staffers have been writing recently of ways of managing immigration with better regulation of the UKs internal market and pro-employment policies for British workers.

Big TUC unions know that outside the single market the kind of inward investment that provides scores of thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs would dry up. The TUCs Frances OGrady has articulated those fears and helped move Labour to its new position.

Recommended No one outside of the EU actually wants to trade with Brexit Britain

The third woman or group of women who have shifted Labour policy are MPs like Alison McGovern, Heidi Alexander and Mary Creagh. They do not have the smart media profile of fashionable anti-Brexit London MPs. McGovern from Liverpool and Creagh for Wakefield have had to deal with strong pro-Brexit feeling in their working class voter base but see the bigger prize over the next years of taking on Tory English provincial nationalism. They sense that Brexit can be turned against May and her hardline pro-Brexit ministers.

So May telling Corbyn he was a faithful poodle on Brexit, Frances OGrady gently urging TUC bosses away from The Sun or Mail line on Brexit and some clear-slighted next generation Labour women leaders have brought about the biggest shift in a British political party in a generation.

Denis MacShane is the former Minister of Europe and author of Brexit, No Exit. Why (in the End) Britain Wont Leave Europe
Dublins IFSC has yet to see the expected influx of jobs from London City-based firms switching to Ireland in the wake of the Brexit vote

A big shopping Christmas for Newry may be on the way as sterling fell to an eight-year low against the euro during the week. As it clawed back some of its losses, when the euro broke through 92p, the British currency appeared to be perching on a new ledge before its next fall.

The last time it was at these levels, there were queues of cars on the Belfast road stocking up on chocolate, Prosecco and toilet roll!

What may be good for bargain hunters heading North, or online shoppers browsing UK retail websites, is surely bad for most other aspects of the Irish economy. Sterling is likely to keep falling, further hitting Irish exports and making the country more expensive for British holidaymakers to visit.

So whither the so-called Brexit dividend which is supposed to provide a counterweight to all of the job depletion and economic costs that Brexit is likely to bring?

The expected exodus of financial services jobs from London is happening, but so far there are precious few facts available about how many are coming to Ireland.

There are lots of announcements but not a lot of specifics.

During the week a senior official at the German Bundesbank, Andreas Dombret, said that Frankfurt and Dublin were proving to be the big winners in the jobs hunt. But announcements made so far regarding new investments in Dublin have been a little opaque.

JP Morgan is taking up new offices which could cater for 1,000 more staff. Great! Is that the same as saying it plans to hire 1,000 additional people in Dublin? Not quite.

Bank of America was flagged as choosing Dublin for its EU hub after Brexit, which rightly generated some positive headlines. But no jobs figure accompanied the announcement. The language used by the company suggested it would see Dublin as the place to consolidate its "legal entities". This isn't exactly the same as saying it will locate its European trading hub in Dublin. That is because it has said the trading hub will go to Paris or Frankfurt.

'Barclays picks Dublin for its European hub' was a Daily Telegraph headline last month. That sounds huge. The bank currently employs around 120 staff in Dublin but declined to say how many new jobs it might create in Dublin. In fact Barclays chief executive said in May that he saw no reason to shift jobs to Europe as a result of Brexit.

The Telegraph speculated the Dublin initiative could create around 100 to 150 new jobs. Pretty good but not a bonanza.

IDA Ireland has said that deals have been struck with more than a dozen companies to move some of their operations to Dublin. That is very positive but where's the beef? It is early days yet and many banks are exploring options and putting together plans without committing irrevocably or too heavily.

In January 2017, seven months after the referendum result, there were 21 banks licensed by the Irish Central Bank to operate here. In August the figure is 20. In January there were 33 credit institutions from the EU or EEA area licensed to operate in Ireland or on a cross-border basis. In August the figure remains at 33.

Of course you don't need a new licence to ramp up jobs in Ireland, if you have a licence already. But there is very little meat in the Brexit dividend sandwich yet.

The PR must be working abroad when the Bundesbank's head of banking supervision suggested we are doing very well. He may know something we don't know yet. Or he may be simply buying into a bit of hype.

CRH should re-assess plans in 'toxic' Philippines market

CRH has done a nice bit of business by selling its Americas distribution business for 2.2bn while acquiring a new German company for 600m. It sold on the US business 12 times earnings and bought the German business for six times earnings. Well done indeed.

Perhaps CRH chief executive Albert Manifold should consider doing something clever with its joint venture in the Philippines, where he said this week the market was "challenging". That is one way of putting it.

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte is famous for engaging in a massive war on drugs.

This has seen around 12,500 people killed in the last year, most by masked assassins, believed to be undercover police officers, and 3,500 killed in formal police operations.

There were mass protests last week when a 17-year-old boy was killed by police after CCTV footage showed him being dragged through alleyways and allegedly told to run with a gun, before being shot.

He was heard to say "please can I go home, I have school tomorrow".

Aside from the drugs war, Duterte has promised to deliver a "golden age of infrastructure" backed by a plan to spend $160bn on infrastructure over a six-year period.

This is great news for cement-makers like CRH which has a joint venture with Philippine investment group AEV and is the biggest cement maker in the country by capacity.

Yet, the performance of major cement makers there has suffered.

Rather than invest in new capacity, the market is being flooded with cheap imports. CRH's venture has committed to spending 300m in the next five years expanding capacity at its existing five plants in the country.

But enter billionaire friend of Duterte, Ramon Ang. His Eagle Cement floated on the stock market in May. Investors couldn't get enough of it and were dumping rivals shares ahead of the IPO.

His sales are up and he is investing big time in the country. Described by Duterte as a "fast friend", he allegedly offered to buy the president a private jet for his own safety, but Duterte declined the offer.

Since then a state competition probe has been stepped up which alleges anti-competitive cartel practices by the main providers in the market through the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines, including CRH's operation, called Republic Cement. Ang's Eagle Cement is not a member.

Ang's influence in the economy is growing. One national newspaper, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, has held successive presidents to task and has been critical of Duterte.

Its owners have been accused of tax evasion, and according to The New York Times, have been bullied into selling the paper.

The buyer is none other than Ramon Ang, who is currently doing due diligence on the business.

At a time when major cement companies should be doing very well, Cemex Holdings Philippines reported a 46pc drop decline in net income in the second quarter. CRH's JV partner, AEV, reported a 43pc year-on-year drop in the income contribution from Republic Cement and Building Materials.

Ang's Eagle Cement is thriving.

Manifold has defended the plan to invest heavily in its Philippines plants, suggesting that in the longer term domestically produced cement will be a better bet and customers are brand aware.

The Philippines looks like a, shall we say, "complicated" place to do business right now. Duterte is becoming more toxic and CRH will have no guarantees it will even get the full benefit of any infrastructure spend that may be coming from Duterte's government.

Climate change claims a washout

Flash floods in Donegal will place the thorny issue of home insurance back on the agenda for many people further south in flood-prone areas. November is coming.

The Donegal rain storm flooded houses that had never been flooded before. Described by meteorological expert Gerry Murphy as a "once in a century event", how will insurers treat houses hit by floods in Donegal when they try to renew their policies?

Companies have been known to refuse home insurance on properties in flood prone areas which have been flooded.

How will they view a once-in-a-hundred-years event?

Will they refute that risk on the basis that it is likely to occur again because of climate change or is it a very good risk because it won't happen again for a hundred years?

I bet it will be the former.
Developer Johnny Ronan has said that he intends to return to building in London despite the uncertainty thrown up by Brexit.

"We are looking at opportunities in London post-Brexit. We'll be back to develop in London," Ronan said in an interview with Property Week when asked how big an opportunity the UK's departure from the EU might be for his company, Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE).

Ronan believes the full extent of the Brexit opportunity for Ireland "remains to be seen", but our future status as the only English-speaking country in the EU after Brexit should reinforce our place as a leading foreign direct investment destination, especially for US companies.

However, he cautioned that the terms of the UK's eventual trade deal with the EU would "matter a lot to Ireland". Having said that, he noted that in 2016, Ireland's export of goods to North America had been worth more than twice as much as its exports to the UK - 31bn versus 13bn - with no trade deals in place with the EU.

"Trade isn't a zero sum game - almost everyone benefits from it - and the opportunities for Ireland will be best if there is a prosperous and growing economy in the UK as well as in the EU," Ronan added.

Asked what other opportunities he and RGRE are looking at, he said: "We moved from oversupply to undersupply in almost every sector of the property market in Dublin during the past four years, so there are opportunities to develop new buildings profitably in almost every sector."

Referring to the sectors RGRE might now target, he added: "The student and private rented sectors are obvious given the recent social and demographic changes we have seen in Ireland.

"There is space for a small number of true five-star hotels in the market. The continuing evolution of how companies and individuals use office space is something we continue to pay close attention to and the opportunity to partner with providers of co-working space to complement our more traditional office investments is one we are also likely to capitalise on."

Asked if he is an optimist or pessimist by nature, Ronan said: "Optimist. I believe in solutions rather than problems and equally in managing and minimising risks."
The supply of new homes in south County Dublin could be in line for a boost of nearly 500 units with plans submitted to An Bord Pleanala for consideration under the Government's temporary fast-track planning application system.

Pearse Farrell, of receivers Duff Phelps, has sought a pre-planning consultation for the development of 482 apartments on the site of Cork developer John Fleming's Rockbrook scheme in Sandyford.

Should the proposal receive the green light, the site would jump in value immediately, opening up the prospect of its sale to both developers and investors.

Ireland's biggest private landlord, Ires Reit, would be one obvious buyer given its existing interests in Sandyford, both within the wider Rockbrook scheme and at nearby Beacon South Quarter.

In the case of Rockbrook, Ires Reit is currently awaiting a ruling from An Bord Pleanala on its appeal of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's refusal of its application for the development of 467 apartments.

Were An Bord Pleanala to approve both Rockbrook proposals, the pipeline supply of new apartments at Sandyford, an area of proven demand, would increase by 949 units.
Solicitor and property developer Noel Smyth has submitted plans for a nine-storey hotel in Dublin city centre.

His company, Fitzwilliam Real Estate Properties, plans to demolish several building on Liffey Street and Middle Abbey Street on the north side of the city.

Motel One, a leading budget hotel chain in Europe, would be the operator of the 365-room hotel. The chain provides high quality and affordable hotel accommodation. It operates 57 hotels with more than 15,000 bedrooms in cities such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Vienna and Zurich. It offers a flat rate all year around.

According to documents submitted to Dublin City Council last week, there will also be a retail element to the development.

Alannah Smyth, Director of Fitzwilliam Real Estate Properties said: "This proposed development would ensure the regeneration of an underutilised brownfield urban site in the heart of the city, in an area which has suffered from dereliction.

"It will be operated by a company that operates several hotel developments across Europe and internationally and will comprise a high-quality design." She said that footfall in the area would increase significantly as a result.

Stefan Lenze, Motel One's head of development said: "We would love to open our first hotel in Dublin soon. It is one of the most exciting cities in Europe and this is the perfect location for our brand."

Smyth has been involved in the Middle Abbey Street area for some time, having won control of Arnotts, which opens out on to both Middle Abbey Street and Henry Street, in 2015. The business was later bought outright by Selfridges which also owns Brown Thomas in Dublin.

In recent weeks, a section of Arnotts known as the Blue Building has been blocked off. It was not part of the store's original footprint and is now being developed by Smyth.
To-date over 100 female entrepreneurs have taken part in ACORNS.

Female entrepreneurs in rural Ireland are being encouraged to apply for the ACORNS programme, a six month part time development programme designed for aspiring rural female entrepreneurs.

Fully funded under the Department of Agricultures Rural Innovation and Development Fund, the initiative is focused on developing the potential of female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland who have recently started a business or who have taken concrete steps towards setting up a business.
Pat Mulcahy and his daughter Sheena from Ballinwillin House and Farm near Mitchelstown and have a herd of 800 deer, 350 wild boar, 150 goats and 40 beef cattle.

The produce from his organic farm is sold online, mainly to the UK and Europe, and into hotels and restaurants around the country.

All the processing and packaging is carried out on the farm so what goes out is a finished product. The produce from the farm is also served in the B&B.

"We had this idea that we would start trading with each other and inter-trading and try to create a few jobs in the area by working together," Pat explains.

"The whole ethos is about the farming community and businesses working together to try to create jobs."

Pat bought Ballinwillin House in 1985 and started importing deer and wild boar from Hungary about 10 years later and now has two fine breeding herds that produce all the meat that's processed and packaged on farm.

"If you go back 30 years when we started doing this first, it was a hard enough sell and in some cases, Irish people can still be very traditional about the food they eat.

"Chefs now want to sample and see where their produce comes from and it's chefs like that who know what we do that give us the name we have now."

Pat sees the biggest challenge in setting up something like the Butter Roads Trail - a food tourist trail around the original Cork butter routes - is getting people to see the future.

"People ask why they should join it and I'd tell them it's for the future and trying to create a better future for their area and their family.

"Already it's paying dividends. We would be dealing with about 10 restaurants and hotels that we didn't deal with before the Butter Roads Trail and we're also buying stuff from people we didn't know existed before this," he said.

Now when his guests are looking for recommendations for places to stay and eat, he refers them to other people on the Butter Roads Trail network.

"Tourism is rampant and there are huge numbers coming into the country for business and food tourism and if you have places they can eat and stay you try to hold them in your area for another 24 hours and get them to spend some of their money in the area. That is hugely beneficial," he said.
The start of the new school year next week signals the end of the summer but hopefully the beginning of a good autumn.

Over the last month we have had a good deal of rain and sunshine and thankfully we could handle it well.

Grass growth has been slowing down but it has been very steady up to now. Last week my farm cover was 893. I am now stocked at 4.09 LU/ha and the grass cover/LU is 218. Rotation length is now 28 days.

I brought in another 3ha of aftergrass last week and that reduced the stocking rate. This is all the land available to me now as the milking platform takes up 21.74ha. I have started to build up covers for the autumn. I probably will dry off some of the lowest yielders and thinner cows to help build up covers as well.

The 90 milking cows are presently producing 21 litres ast 3.87pc butter fat, 3.40pc protein giving 1.53kg MS/cow/day, TBC 5000, SCC 92, Therm 100 and Lactose 5pc. Cows are getting 4kgs of a 16pc protein nut.

Nitrogen in the form of CAN or urea is being spread at 25 units/acre for the final three weeks. All breeding of cows has stopped since early August.

I reseeded six acres on August 10. It worked out well with a good spell of weather and very few stones. The two fields of three acres each were burned off for two weeks. They were ploughed, disked, power-harrowed, levelled and sowed.

I spread about three tonnes of lime per acre on the ploughed ground and the remainder I spread on the cow paddocks. I only spread 1-1.5t/ac on paddocks that had been grazed off. The lime costs 28/t delivered and spread. I also sowed about four bags per acre of 10-10-20 on the reseed. The grass seed mix contained the varieties abergain, aberchoice, dunluce and drumbo. After the seed was sown I rolled it.

A few weeks back I had to call the vet for a cow that came into the parlour very sore, irritated and kicking herself. The diagnosis was sunburn or photosensitisation. After some treatment she settled down but a week later she stopped giving milk and was losing flesh rapidly.

On examination the stomach sounded alright but the vet wasn't convinced. He decided to operate and discovered the stomach was displaced. This is very unusual for this time of year and also the cow was back in calf again. After the operation the cow went to the field and began eating grass. Thankfully she is recovering well, but I reckon she won't come back into milk so drying off will be the option.

I sold the six bulls I had to an exporter for Turkey. They were about 15 months of age. Their average weight was 453 kgs at 1.80/kg. I was happy enough with them as they were low maintenance and low cost.

Gerard Sherlock farms in Tydavnet, Co Monaghan
'The company, which earlier this week reported a 16pc revenue jump year-on-year in the first half, also announced it had appointed Carl Shepherd as a non-executive director.'

Online hostel booking business Hostelworld is seeking to add a financial expert to its board to chair its audit committee, chief executive Feargal Mooney has told the Sunday Independent.

Former Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley, a non-executive director at Hostelworld, is leaving his role as audit committee chair to chair the company itself.

The company, which earlier this week reported a 16pc revenue jump year-on-year in the first half, also announced it had appointed Carl Shepherd as a non-executive director. Shepherd is a co-founder of online holiday rental booking business Homeaway.

Mooney said growth in June and August had been a bit softer, citing terrorist attacks and ongoing currency fluctuation.

He said the performance in the first half had been flattered by a weak comparative period after the Paris and Brussels attacks of late 2015 and early 2016 respectively.

The company has also opened a technology development hub in Porto in northern Portugal. It also has staff in this area in Dublin and London. "Porto is a great location, there's a very vibrant and energetic technology culture developing within Porto," Mooney said.

"It's really just to give us additional bandwidth in terms of technology development. The majority of our development team are based in Dublin, we've got a small development team in London. But like most technology companies there's always more opportunity to add new features or functionalities."

Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) excluding exceptional items rose 37pc to 12.9m in the first half, and total bookings rose 11pc. Booking growth rose 18pc in Asia - an area of particular focus for the company.

Half of bookings were made on mobiles, a rise of seven percentage points year-on-year.

"We are impressed with the execution of management's KPI's (key performance indicators) ... the large negative reaction to terrorist attacks which plagued the group last year seems to have subsided as people adjust to the increased risk of travelling," said Merrion Capital senior equity analyst Darren McKinley in a note to investors earlier this week.
'On average users are renting cars for four days for an average cost of 150, all in.' (stock image)

Fleet - which bills itself as the Airbnb of the car rental market - is looking to raise 1m to expand into Britain in 2018, just months after launching in Ireland.

The Dublin-based company facilitates car owners to rent out their vehicles to other users, through a peer to peer model. Launched just 10 weeks ago, it already has almost 5,000 active users after its app was downloaded 10,000 times in its first few weeks in business.

On average users are renting cars for four days for an average cost of 150, all in. It is also set to add commercial vehicles and motorhomes to its lineup by the end of the year, ahead of any UK expansion, as well as an hourly rate.

So popular has the site proven to be that it has faced teething problems matching the number of cars available with the large number of potential renters. The business, which is a high potential startup with Enterprise Ireland, was set up by Maurice Sheehy (28), who funded his previous business - two gyms - and a house through the sale of a racehorse he bred himself. He is also a nephew of former AIB chief executive Eugene Sheehy, who is not involved in the business.

Maurice Sheehy said he received an initial private investment of 210,000 for market research and prototypes.

"I sold my house and put a further 250,000 in myself," he said.

"I moved home because I believe in the product so I think it was a risk worth taking. People don't know where this market is going. Do you really want to spend 10,000 a year on owning a car you only use half the time?

"And if you are going to own a car, why not utilise it rather than it burning a hole in your pocket?"

He added: "One of the main issues we are facing at the moment is getting cars on the platform because we have so many renters." Sheehy said that he is working with KPMG for a seed round of 1m and has received interest from a range of venture capital funds and wealthy individuals.

"I'm all ears at the moment to see what money we receive," said Sheehy.

"Ideally it will be from a venture capital fund with contacts within the industry who can help us with our expansion."
Low-cost transatlantic carrier Norwegian has begun hiring Irish flight crew to operate out of a greatly expanded base at Dublin Airport. The airline has already expanded hugely in the Irish market this year but is set to grow further in the increasingly competitive transatlantic market.

Last week, Icelandic carrier Wow Air became the latest airline to launch new US-bound connections from the capital, to America's midwest via Reykjavik. But the Norwegian plan could see a host of new jobs for flight crew and engineers at Dublin airport.

"With a range of new transatlantic routes recently launched from Ireland and Belfast, and plans for continued expansion in future, Norwegian is opening a new operational base at Dublin Airport to support our growing operations from Irish airports," said a Norwegian spokesman.

"Recruitment is now under way for pilot positions at the new base, with opportunities for both internal and external candidates.

"Our plans for a Dublin base are at an early stage but we are planning for the new base to begin operating later this year, with around 40 pilots initially. We will also be exploring options for further pilot positions and potentially cabin crew positions at the base next summer."

Earlier this year, Norwegian invested $65m in its Irish subsidiary as it prepared to launch transatlantic flights from Dublin, Cork and Shannon. That brought total investment by the Nordic carrier in its Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International, to over $500m since it was set up in 2013.

The investment came after it was awarded a foreign carrier permit allowing it to operate from Ireland, after a three-year battle with American trade unions and transport authorities.

In July, Norwegian launched a series of new transatlantic routes from Ireland to the US east coast. It now flies a total of 19 weekly transatlantic flights from Cork, Shannon and Dublin, as well as five weekly services from Belfast into a number of smaller US airports, close to Boston and New York.

Norwegian is the European launch customer for the new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft which it uses on its Irish transatlantic routes. As part of a much bigger order of 100 aircraft, Norwegian took delivery of six of the new jets this year.

Two of the new aircraft delivered earlier this summer are currently in operation on selected transatlantic routes from Dublin and Edinburgh, with four more expected to go into transatlantic operations from other Irish airports shortly, said a spokesman.

The increased capacity on flights out of Ireland looks set to increase pressure on airlines such as Aer Lingus, which has also greatly expanded its transatlantic product from Dublin.

A report last week suggested that transatlantic fares had fallen close to 10pc because of the huge number of seats now available for bargain hunters looking for cheap flights to the US.
Even a trip to the airport was little help in trying to trace a lost phone

Few of us are without a customer-support horror story. Ordinary people now have to battle unmanned email addresses, de-listed phone numbers and overworked, demoralised staff whenever they have a problem or query.

The difficulties seem to have multiplied in an age of resourcing cuts and computer automation.

The most recent Ireland Customer Experience Report - which measures over 150 high-profile Irish brands for customer support - found that cutting human resources from customer support often comes with heavy levels of user dissatisfaction.

Its top 10 customer support scores in Ireland went to entities that still have humans as a core response strategy. This list was led by companies such as Irish Credit Unions (1st), An Post (3rd), Peter Mark (6th), Aldi (8th) and Penneys (10th). Worse-performing companies included Ryanair (77th), Ulster Bank (83rd), Aviva (117th) and Liberty Insurance (145th).

I recently came across a pretty stark case.

It happened when I left my phone on an Aer Lingus plane. I realised my stupid mistake the moment I left Dublin Airport. One can hardly be more careless. So I expect no sympathy or expectation for the return of my phone.

Nevertheless, the process of trying to register it as a customer issue with the airline has been fascinating.

It has opened my eyes to how acute the hurdles we face are when dealing with hollowed-out systems where no one is responsible and almost no one is contactable.

In my case, this went so far as the airline telling me that it may take 45 working days (nine whole weeks) to respond to my customer-support email.

Before I outline the dismal experience I had, I should note that Aer Lingus generally scores fairly well in customer satisfaction surveys. It finished 28th (out of over 150 major Irish brands) last year, despite slipping seven places in 12 months. That's quite respectable and well ahead of rivals such as Ryanair.

But no such statistic seems relevant when you're told to wait 45 working days for a response to an email.

Within minutes of realising I'd left the phone behind, I went online to try to find an email address or a number to call on Aer Lingus' website. But there was nothing directly applicable. A 'lost property' section simply looped back to the general 'contact' page, with no specific numbers, email addresses or forms.

Desperate for some sort of contact, I looked for somewhere on the site to register a complaint but only found it through the help of Google (for anyone interested, it's buried under 'Legal' at the bottom of the page).

But when I filled in the form and hit enter, I got an error page. I started again from scratch on another type of computer with the same result.

Back to Google. One chat forum said to try emailing ccu@aerlingus.com. I remembered, too, that I have an airmiles account with its own email avenue. I tried both, pleading with whoever might receive them that they were my last resort.

Twenty-one days later, I've had no response or acknowledgement from either email address.

I then decided to try social media as Aer Lingus, like many retail companies, has an active Twitter account. I tweeted them a query but received no response. (Just prior to writing this column I received a response, asking me to send a 'DM' direct message. At the time of writing, I haven't received a reply to my DM.)

Having no luck with email, the website forms or social media, I decided to do what they didn't want me to do an to call. After being switched around several times, I spoke to a young lady who told me she couldn't see any recovered phone logged in 'the system'.

However, she said that sometimes items left on board are not logged into 'the system' and that the best option might be to turn up at the airport to see if it was there.

Because it's an expensive phone, I decided to do this.

A few days later, I returned to the airport, I was directed to a dark corridor to sit on a bench with three other people chasing up lost luggage. The bench was situated by a door into an office. Every 60 seconds or so, someone with a uniform or a clerk's outfit entered the office. But each one avoided our gaze.

A tall man sitting on the bench knocked on the office door, stuck his head in and asked whether we would be dealt with.

"We're all out here wondering what's going on," he told the five or six people inside the office.

An elderly clerk sitting at an office desk told him that they were all very busy and that they didn't know when we might be seen.

"That's all well and good but I've been waiting on my luggage for almost two weeks," my bench associate said. "Every time I try and see where it is, I'm told to email such and such an address or call such and such a number. But I never get a reply to the emails and the person I'm told to ring never knows anything about lost luggage."

Ushered back out into the corridor, he told me he was stuck wearing his nephew's clothes. "No one wants to deal with us," he said.

Another of the bench-sitters said that he was on holidays from Michigan with his family but that none of their luggage had arrived.

We all sat there for another hour. About 50 staff walked in and out of the office door. None of them spoke, most tried to avoid our gaze.

Eventually, the office door opened and a young security woman told us to enter. We went through a security machine and were led through another corridor and then out a side door which brought us to the main arrivals baggage area. At a counter, I was told that no phone matching my description was there.

"What I'd advise you to do is to call Aer Lingus or fill a form on aerlingus.com to log the query," said the lady behind the desk, apparently unaware of the futility of doing either.
Across

1 While soldier gets first American vegetable... (9).

6 ...organised body of police catch rebel leader (5).

9 Scribbles by daughter - lots (7).

10 Get away without a politician, to be cleaner (7).

11 Sincere men leading province (5).

12 It's not the rule to give offence (9).

14 Environmental campaigner is enemy (3).

15 Show that evil spirits run in gallery (11).

17 Earnest talk reforms one that's venomous (11).

19 Prompt payment is hoax (3).

20 Austerity measure has pal suffer injury (6,3).

Video of the Day

22 Informal speech females twist without number (5).

24 Rude, alas, our awakening (7).

26 On maturer reconsideration become literal (7).

27 Rather obscure university broadcaster (5).

28 Policy is turning to run - in case (9).

Down

1 The German follows excellent assistant (5).

2 Fuel for ache to ear (7).

3 Part with toy, as good example (4,5).

4 Singing so, leave special tree with this community in charge (6,5).

5 Close relative, one among saints (3).

6 One's a winner with potato dish (5).

7 Parcel I open to copy (7).

8 Overindulge nationalist in satire with English journalist (9).

13 Visual aid to get in touch with the French and Poles (7,4).

14 Troublemaker dismissed keeping support note (9).

16 Financial officer will rue arrest in dismay (9).

18 Long-winded note dealing firstly with debts (7).

19 Restrain follower of Charles the Ninth? (7).

21 Try drugs, perhaps (5).

23 Play one need not make with grand new mime (5).

25 Unit of money that is left in return (3).

Solution to Sunday Independent Cryptic Crossword no. 1,109

Across: 1 Hovel; 4 Engrosses; 9 Balaclava; 10 Torso; 11 Ottawa; 12 Estoppel; 14 Brain drain; 16 Sear; 19 Dice; 20 Demography; 22 Slovakia; 23 Snooze; 26 Raita; 27 Imprudent; 28 Tellingly; 29 Later.

Down: 1 Hobnobbed; 2 Valet; 3 Lacewing; 4 Elan; 5 Grass widow: 6 Option; 7 Scrapheap; 8 Scowl; 13 Tree-living; 15 Auctorial; 17 Rhymester; 18 Tranquil; 21 Safari; 22 Sprat; 24 Overt; 25 Spry.

The Sunday Independent Cryptic Crossword Book, containing 60 crosswords, is available for 8.00, including postage. Call (01)8335305 or email glenbower@iol.ie
The last time I interviewed Domhnall Gleeson he was promoting a low-budget Irish film called Sensation, in which he played a bored young countryman who becomes an amateur pimp. Six years later, rather a lot has changed. In 2013, Richard Curtis cast him in his charming romantic comedy, About Time; a year later, he shone opposite Michael Fassbender in Lenny Abrahamson's Frank. Then, his film career quite literally took off.

Unbroken, Ex Machina, Brooklyn, The Revenant, two Star Wars films - Domhnall's recent CV is breathtaking, and overnight he's become one of the most sought-after character actors in Hollywood. Now he's starring opposite Tom Cruise.

Directed by Doug Liman, American Made is set in the 1980s and tells the true story of Barry Seal, a devil-may-care airline pilot who began smuggling cocaine into the US for the Medellin cartel while acting as a mole for the CIA. Cruise is Seal, whose flashing smile makes you wonder if he ever fully realises the mortal danger his life choices have placed him in, and Gleeson is Monty Schafer, his sphinx-like CIA handler.

In the film's version of events, it's Schafer who persuades Seal to leave a steady job in TWA and begin skimming the skies of Central America taking surveillance photos of the Sandinistas and anyone else Ronald Reagan's White House considers undesirable. Soon he's running guns to the Contras, and flying drugs back into America for a Colombian cartel led by Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar, all under the watchful eye of his CIA handler, who always seems a step ahead of poor Barry.

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Gleeson (34) plays Schafer as an affable everyman who makes everything sound like a harmless jape: for him, no problem is too big to solve, but his eyes don't smile and Barry Seal realises too late that this will-o'-the-wisp agent is not his friend. Domhnall was three years old in the year the film is set, so getting inside the character's mind required a lot of research.

"I read a lot about the Reagan administration, the war against drugs, Iran-Contra and Ollie North," he tells me. "But I found this one book that was very helpful - I had to photocopy it in a [US book retailer] Barnes & Noble because it was out of print. It was written by this guy who'd been in the CIA, and it was really useful because he just had this total America-rules-the-world attitude, and that any country challenging America's might should be prepared to deal with the consequences.

"Originally, the character I was playing was more just a guy who spewed out lines that drove the action, 'you need to go here, you need to go there', but we were talking about ways of making him more interesting, and then I remembered the CIA guy in the book. And we thought, what if the most important thing to Schafer is not how is America doing abroad or what's the deal in Nicaragua, but that I need to move from a cubicle to my own office? If that is more important to him than all the geopolitical stuff, suddenly he's an interesting character."

All this background work feeds into an intriguing and detailed portrayal of a character a lesser actor might have phoned in. "I think it's just the way you present him as well," says Gleeson. "You know, isn't this great, we're having fun here, but underneath, he doesn't care about anything."

Other actors who've worked with Tom Cruise have talked about having these 'Cruise' moments where they suddenly realise who they're in a scene with, and become hopelessly overawed. "He very generously helps you through the first 20 seconds," Domhnall explains. "I think he understands that when you're meeting him you're meeting 'Tom Cruise' and it's going to take a second to understand that you're talking to a man whose name is Tom, who is an actor you'll be working with. And he bridges those 20 seconds very well.

"There are moments - if you see him running, you go, oh my God, that's Tom Cruise running; the moment he puts on aviators, you think, oh my God, that's Tom Cruise in aviators. There are those little things, but he was really generous to me, incredibly nice. He's really good in it I think, and in this film he and Doug [Liman] spark off each other in very interesting ways - they both like pushing it and making themselves uncomfortable, and that made for a better film."

American Made marks the start of a hectic 12 months or so for Domhnall Gleeson. Later this year, he'll play AA Milne opposite Margot Robbie in Simon Curtis's eagerly-awaited period drama Goodbye Christopher Robin, and one of the founders of National Lampoon in David Wain's A Futile and Stupid Gesture: he's currently working with Lenny Abrahamson on his next film, The Little Stranger; then there's the small matter of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Not bad for a man who thought twice about following his father, Brendan, and younger brother, Brian, into the family business. "I did enjoy acting at school," he says. "Miss Keogh at the Malahide Community School put on Grease when we were in fourth year, and I signed up for that. We did King Lear in fifth year - I played The Fool! So it was something I liked, but I never really considered it something I might do for a living.

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"I wasn't particularly good at it, whereas Brian was clearly - I won't say built for it, because that would imply that acting comes easy to him, and he works very hard - but he's just excellent, it was evident. So Brian, it felt like, was going to be the actor, and I thought that directing might be my thing. Then things changed."

At 19, Domhnall was cast in a West End production of Martin McDonagh's Lieutenant of Inishmore. He worked on it for five months, then came back to Ireland and "didn't get any work at all". It was a chastening experience, and one he hasn't forgotten.

"You move with what's happening," he says, "but I never forget that it's possible for everything to go away really quickly. It doesn't necessarily affect the way you act, but it's good to just, every now and again, say hang on a second, enjoy this. I'm working with Lenny [Abrahamson] at the moment, which is fantastic, and you think 'I may never get to work with him again'."

If Frank, his last outing with Abrahamson, is anything to go by, The Little Stranger should be worth waiting for. The whole world is waiting for The Last Jedi, in which Domhnall will reprise the role of tight-lipped imperial commander General Hux. The scale of the Star Wars films is, he says, daunting, but his experiences on Harry Potter prepared him for these epic productions well.

"I didn't grow up really seeing Star Wars, I didn't see them in the cinema so I kind of missed all that. I was more of a Harry Potter fan, but on my first day on set on Deathly Hallows, I had a horrible day, just a terrible day. There were 300 people on the set, it was absolutely nuts, I went Australian on the accent instead of English, I kind of panicked, you know, I met these amazing people whose work I had watched and loved for years, and the pressure got to me.

"I didn't handle it well, the first day, but after that I got better, and I learnt that I'm going to be under similar pressure in the future but I'm not going to let it get to me."

There are ways, he says, of closing yourself off from the madness around you on a big-budget film. "You concentrate on what you're doing, you block it all out as much as possible and you focus on the other actors. That's much more difficult to do than it sounds, because you can get het up, but if you actually look at Adam Driver and what he's doing, he is brilliant, so let that be the focus and let that bring it out of you."

One of the most interesting films he's worked on recently is Ex Machina, Alex Garland's brilliant sci-fi thriller. Gleeson was a young programmer who thinks his big chance has come when he wins a contest and is flown to the remote subterranean home of his company's reclusive inventor boss.

But he turns out to be a maniac with a god complex who's been experimenting with android women who seem frighteningly real. "I was incredibly lucky on that," Gleeson says, "in that Alex sent me the script early. I'd worked with him before, on Dredd and Never Let Me Go, and he was very honest with me - he said 'I'd like you to play this part but I'm not sure how the finance will go if we cast you'. So he said we'd have to convince the producers, so I did an audition. Everyone was at the top of their game on that film, and Alex is a master - I'd love to work with him again."

Though Domhnall's work takes him around the world, he's still based in Ireland. "My friends, my family, most of the people I want to be around are in Dublin," he says, "so that's home." I ask him something I've always wondered - is there a protocol in the Gleeson family about actors talking shop?

"My siblings who are not actors, Rory and Fergus, are very film-literate, and my mother is the same, so we have great conversations about movies. But when me and Dad and Brian were doing Enda Walsh's play The Walworth Farce a couple of years back, my mother basically said 'you are not talking about this at the dinner table, that's not how we're going to spend our Sundays'. And she was right. I think we're all going to work together again soon, and we'll just have to make sure that doesn't spill over into the Sunday dinners."

In 2014, he shared an extraordinary scene with his father in John Michael McDonagh's controversial drama Calvary. Brendan Gleeson played an Irish country priest who is struggling with his vocation and faith. Domhnall was Freddie Joyce, a monster who killed a string of women before eating bits of them. Freddie's in jail, and has attracted Father James into a visit by claiming he seeks redemption and is prepared to reveal the whereabouts of one of his victim's body.

But he just wants to taunt the priest, and sneer at his fragile faith. "I'm terribly proud of the fact that I'm in that film," Domhnall says, "and that was a real battle with my dad, a proper battle.

"You've got to step up to stand with him. It was a lot of work for a very short scene, because he was such a hard character to get inside, but it was worth it." Was it hard to block out the fact that you're talking to your dad?

"Well, psychologically there was so much you had to park playing that guy anyway, you're already moving into an area which is so different from your understanding of the world to consider what it must be like to be this person, that you're kind of beyond all that stuff. But I loved it - any time I get to work with my dad is special.

"We're going to do a short soon, with Brian, and that will be taken every bit as seriously as working on The Revenant, or Star Wars."
With Electric Picnic selling out months in advance, and spare tickets few and far between, you may well be staring into the abyss of the first weekend of September wondering what the hell you're going to do with yourself.

Never fear, we've trawled the festival and events schedules to find the best of what's on offer to keep you occupied from Friday September 1 to Sunday September 3...

Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival

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Kicking off on September 1st, the annual festival runs until October 8th with a programme that offers so much more than matchmaking. Music-wise, there's Mike Denver and country DJ Gerry Sexton on Friday, followed by Nathan Carter on Saturday.

There's also "dancing and matchmaking after mass till late every day". Sure what more could you want? If you hang about there's the LGBT music and matchmaking festival The Outing the following weekend.

Harvest Time Blues

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Monaghan's rhythm and blues festival runs over three days from September 1st and boasts a jam-packed line up of the best of jazz, blues and country. Now in its 21st year it's considered one of the best blues festivals in Europe.

The line-up includes Lucky Peterson from Dallas, Jeff Jensen Band from Memphis, The Steepwater Band from Chicago, Texas' talent Sugaray Rayford, homegrown talent Crow Black Chicken and Grainne Duffy and many, many more.

Annual Appalchian & Bluegrass Music Festival

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The 25th annual festival takes place at the Ulster American Fold Park in Omagh from September 2-4. Expect "strumming on the porches of log cabins, dancing in the cobbled streets, and jamming outside the General Store".

There will be six stages of music at the museum throughout the day or you can book tickets for the evening concert in the park.

Among the artists performing on Friday include Old Hannah, English band Flats & Sharps, Canadian group Viper Central and Scottish group The Dirty Beggars. On Saturday Estonians Robirohi will perform as well as Rackhouse Pilfer from Sligo.

For more info; full line-up, food, tickets etc visit http://nmni.com/bluegrass

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Air Waves Portrush

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The air display show takes place across Saturday and Sunday against the stunning backdrop of the Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle and the beach will be available for spectators. It's split across two viewing areas - Village North (Lansdowne) and Village South (East Strand) and a visit to both is recommended.

Confirmed aircrafts include the RAF Red Arrows, RAF Typhoon FGR4, RAF Battle of Britain Memorial (Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane), Mig 15, RAF Grob Tutor Mark 1, Team Raven, Consolidated Catalina, Wildcat Aerobatics, Irish Coastguard S-92, Muscle Biplane, Bell Huey, Hughes Loach, Aerobatic Glider, and Calidus Autogyro.

The are also attractions on the ground including a motor village, Star Wars characters, and the Ulster Aviation Society exhibit. There's free parking and free admission. Check out www.airwavesportrush.co.uk

Johnny Logan: The Greatest Hits Tour

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Three time Eurovision winner (he won twice and penned Linda Martin's winner 'Why Me') and hugely successful solo artist Johnny Logan will be belting out his greatest hits at Vicar Street on Friday and Saturday night. Tickets from 39.95 from Ticketmaster.

Blackrock Film Festival

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The inaugural Blackrock Film Festival takes place from August 31st to September 3rd at Blackrock Village, Co Louth and is an expansion of the hugely popular Cinema on the Sand event.

A movie will be shown on the beach and there will be three more movies showing in venues around the village across the weekend.

Charlie Chaplin classic The Kid will be screened in Danny Hughes' shop on Thursday while Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl will be shown on Blackrock Beach on Friday. On Saturday, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon's Some Like It Hot will screen at The Clermont Arms and on Sunday Roddy Doyle's The Commitments will screen in The Neptune.

The events are free. For more info email info@Visitblackrock.ie

LeakyCon

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Harry Potter fans from across the world will converge on Dublin for LeakyCon, a weekend-long celebration of all things Harry Potter. There's a convention running August 31st to September 3rd and a Fandom Expo on September 3rd.

Evanna Lynch, Dan Fogler, Katie Leung and Alfred Enoch will be in attendance, as well as a host of other names connected to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For more info check out www.leakycon.com

Riverdance

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Composed by Bill Whelan, produced by Moya Doherty, and directed by John McColgan, Riverdance continues to run at the Gaiety Theatre over the weekend. If you still haven't seen it (and even if you have) it's a must!

Christy Moore

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The legend that is Christy Moore plays the Johnstown House Hotel, Meath on Friday September 1st.

Sister Act

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Directed and choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, this feel-good musical will lift your EP-missing spirits. http://www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie/ Tickets from Ticketmaster.

The Origami Festival

Looking to exercise your dormant creative muscles? The Kiki Theatre and Performance Group present the Origami Festival taking place in Portlaoise from August 26th to September 3rd with workshops, competitions, and a decorative and interactive public exhibition of stunning origami works. Email kikitheatregroup@gmail.com or call 085-1696575 for more.
Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar and Ariana Grande will vie for best artist at the MTV Video Music Awards in the first year where judges have scrapped gendered categories.

Lamar leads the way with eight nominations at the VMAs in Los Angeles on Sunday, which will not feature its typical best female and best male video groups.

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They have been replaced with the best artist accolade, which will see the trio face Bruno Mars, Lorde and The Weeknd.

Viewers will find out whether any transgender troops attend the ceremony after they were invited by MTV bosses in a rebuke to Donald Trumps ban.

The Pentagon was reviewing the invites as the US President ordered there to be no new transgender recruits, and left it to military officials to decide whether existing troops can remain in service.

Katy Perry and The Weeknd follow close behind Lamar with five nominations each.

Sheeran, Lorde, Perry and Miley Cyrus are among the acts performing at The Forum arena on the night.

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The disposal of gendered categories follows the broadcasters Movie & TV Awards in May which saw Emma Watson and Millie Bobby Brown scoop best actor awards.

Stars will tread the red carpet from around 10.30pm UK-time before the ceremony itself kicks off at 1am on Monday.

:: The show will be broadcast in the UK on the MTV channel at 8pm on Monday.
In the line of fire: The State on Channel 4 managed the very tricky subject of the murderous Islamic State campaign adroitly

'Pure poison" fumed the Daily Mail about this week's four-part IS-recruitment drama, The State - which was enough reason to approach the Channel 4 series with an open mind.

The paper also slated the series for "glorifying" the murderous Islamic State campaign in the immediate aftermath of the Barcelona atrocities and while it's true the timing was unfortunate, that's not the fault of the drama itself.

As for the charge of glorifying IS in the manner of "a Nazi recruiting film", that's like saying that The Handmaid's Tale, recently shown on Channel 4, was a misogynist's manual on how to treat women.

In the event, Peter Kosminsky (who tackled the Israel-Palestine debacle in The Promise and also directed the superb BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall) managed his very tricky subject adroitly, and his decision to focus on four young British recruits to the IS cause gave the film real impact.

Indeed, it was by investing them with some sympathy (another source of tabloid criticism) that he was able to fully convey the ghastliness of the cause to which they'd signed up.

For the women that meant instant enslavement to male repression, and you wondered how educated London doctor Shakira (a superb Ony Uhiara) could have been silly enough to think otherwise - and indeed daft enough to bring her young son with her on this suicidal trip to Syria.

That stretched credulity and there were other false moments, too, but generally Kosminsky's touch was assured and you watched in dread as the raw recruits became intimately acquainted with beheadings and other barbarities and as they risked their lives for their hosts' savage fundamentalism.

Certainly there was no glorification to be found in this frightening drama.

Unease rather than fright marked much of the first instalment of From Russia to Iran: Crossing the Wild Frontier (Channel 4), in which former British army officer Levison Wood made the arduous and perilous 2,600-mile journey through the Caucasus mountains and into such dangerous territories as Chechnya and Dagestan.

An engaging explorer, he was fortunate to have the equally personable Rasheed as his experienced if more circumspect guide as they stopped at hostile border posts and were shadowed by furtive men in bad suits.

But Wood won over many of the locals with his affable enthusiasm, and even a suspicious policeman softened his attitude to the duo and offered them spartan lodgings for the night.

This was an eye-opening glimpse into a part of the world I knew nothing about and I'll certainly be watching the rest of the series.

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Not as compelling, Dangerous Borders: A Journey Across India and Pakistan (BBC2) was part of the BBC season marking the 70th anniversary of partition and featured two English-born presenters of Indian origin.

Adnan Sarwar, whose family are Muslims, stayed on the Pakistan side of the 2,000-mile border, while Babita Sharma, who's of Hindu descent, remained on the Indian side, and the film kept criss-crossing between the two.

In a programme that was too soft for its own good, neither of them had an awful lot to disclose that I hadn't already learned from two excellent BBC documentaries last week and that I also learned this week from India's Partition: The Forgotten Story (BBC2), in which Gurinder Chadha (director of Bend it Like Beckham) tried to tease out the truth about the calamitous 1947 severance of India and Pakistan.

Was her Indian-born mother right in maintaining that Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims had been getting on amiably until the British carved the country up? Or had there been such deep-rooted enmities that division was unavoidable? Again, the film told me little that hadn't already been covered in the earlier documentaries.

Given its title, Storyville: Silk Road (BBC4) seemed to be concerned with the same region of the world, though its subtitle, 'Drugs, Death and the Dark Web', suggested otherwise, and indeed we weren't in Karachi anymore, Toto.

This was the story of young American college graduate Ross Ulbricht, who set up a global internet network for the sale of illegal drugs - an Amazon for acid-heads - and who evaded detection until an enterprising FBI agent finally tracked him down.

Ulbricht had seen himself as some kind of libertarian crusader, eluding the reach both of governments and of murderous drug cartels, but when he himself sanctioned the killing of a troublesome internet middleman, his outlaw image as ghostly CEO of a black market drug ring went up in smoke. The documentary brilliantly evoked the hallucinatory nature of its subject while telling an engrossing story.

Inspector Montalbano was a guilty pleasure when BBC4 first screened it a few years back. The storylines were mostly too meandering for their own good and some of the regular characters were no more than caricatures, but the Sicilian setting was a delight and Luca Zingaretti was a thoroughly engaging hero, gruff but kindly, and amiably feckless in his love life.

Now he's back for a new season and suddenly the charm has evaporated, not helped by the fact that different performers have taken on some of the old roles. But it's Montalbano himself (still played by Zingaretti) who now seems boringly sexist, and rather charmless, too. Ah well.

What else? Oh yes, there was The Rose of Tralee (RTE1), now in its 58th year of parochial pageantry and with its young contestants still robed and coiffed as if the 21st Century had never happened. But they seemed to be having a good time and Daithi was in his element.
A businessman will appear in court on Sunday morning charged in connection with the discovery of 1.2m in cash, believed to belong to the Kinahan crime cartel.

The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested by gardai during a routine checkpoint carried out in Carlow on Friday as part of Operation Thor.

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Gardai stopped the car shortly before 8pm at Ballyvergal.

During the course of a search, Gardai discovered a large quantity of cash, amounting to approximately 1.2 million, a garda spokeswoman said.

The man was arrested on suspicion of committing an offence under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010.

This evening gardai confirmed that the man is scheduled to appear before a special sitting of Kilkenny District Court on Sunday morning charged in connection with the incident.

Detectives believe the cash seized belonged to the Kinahan crime cartel and was the proceeds of drug trafficking.

The cash was packaged to send to gang members based in Spain.

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Independent.ie can reveal that it was a random checkpoint rather than a targeted operation. Gardai had no prior knowledge or intelligence that this man was travelling with that sum of cash in his car or that he was connected to the Kinahan cartel.

A senior source said: "This was an incredible find because it was so random and unexpected. It is a significant blow against money laundering."

The man is currently detained under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, as amended at Carlow Garda Station.
A MAN arrested on Friday after 1.2 million in cash was found in the car he driving at a garda checkpoint has been refused bail at a special sitting of Kilkenny District Court this morning.

Judge John Cheatle said that because of the seriousness of the offence and the quantity of cash involved he was satisfied that the State had successfully shown that John Fitzgerald might flee the country.

Mr Fitzgerald, with an address at 7 Woodbrook Place, Green Lane, Carlow, and aged in his mid-fifties, is originally from Tullow, Co Carlow.

Earlier, Gda Sylvia Ryan had set out the Garda objections to Mr Fitzgerald being freed pending the trial.

The court heard that Mr Fitzgerald had, allegedly, intended shipping the cash which amounted to 1,212,120, out of Ireland on Monday.

Before his court appearance, Mr Fitzgerald made no reply when he was charged, while in custody, by Garda Ryan under Section 7(1) of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.

Gda Ryan also gave evidence in court of stopping a vehicle driven by Mr Fitzgerald at a checkpoint at Ballyvergal, Carlow on August 25, shortly before 8pm and recovering the money.

Judge Cheatle remanded the accused to Clover Hill prison to appear at the district court there on Friday next.
Scene of the attack in Castlecomer and inset Jamie Hennessy with Jessie Connell

The girlfriend of a man left fighting for his life after a violent stabbing has revealed they were lured to a party by men who then launched the vicious assault.

Jessie Connell (20) dragged partner Jamie Hennessy (22) from a house in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny while two men repeatedly knifed him in the neck and body last Saturday, August 19.

She was hit during the terrifying ordeal but incredibly managed to save Mr Hennessys life by wrapping her jacket around his neck and shielding him from the assailants.

Now, in an exclusive interview with Independent.ie, Ms Connell has revealed that she intends to stand up to the scumbags who carried out the attack.

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Describing the moments after the assault Ms Connell said: We were in a pool of Jamies blood.

Them dogs that did this didnt even try run from the scene. Theyre all a bunch of sick creeps out there.

Ill stand in court if I have to pin them scumbags to a wall.

Ms Connell said she is still shaking eight days after the incident. She is afraid to return to the accommodation she shares with her boyfriend.

The young woman said she finds it difficult to talk about the events and opts instead to communicate over a messaging service. Despite this she is determined to tell her story in a bid to get justice for Jamie.

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The young couple visited Mr Hennessy's mother Sandra in Crettyard, Co Laois last Saturday afternoon and were planning to return to their home in Athy, Co Kildare.

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However they were struggling to get a lift and Ms Connell explained that meanwhile these boys were ringing Jamie to go out to Castlecomer for a few drinks.

Not realising that they were in any danger the couple walked the 8km from Crettyard to the house on Love Lane in Castlecomer where they shared a two-litre bottle of cider.

They left to buy more drink and returned some time later.

Little did we know they were planning on taking Jamies life, she said. We got back with our drink and sat there, drank a bottle or two and that's when this happened. I never saw so much blood in my life.

They didnt just stab him they slit his throat and left him to die.

"I pulled Jamie out of the house away from them. There were two attacking him while the other one was trying to help. At one stage I got hit myself but I knew if I didn't get Jamie out he was dead."

She continued: I got him out of the house wrapped a jacket around his neck to keep the blood in.

Ms Connell said at that stage there was a group of people around her, just looking at me and Jamie.

I was screaming for help, I lay on the ground with him, talking to him until the ambulance arrived. I was scared.

She said the men who attacked Jamie didnt leave the house but others were on the street around them.

Mr Hennessy was taken by ambulance to St Lukes hospital in Kilkenny city where he was resuscitated twice after his heart stopped beating.

Doctors fought for over 24 hours to stop the bleeding in his neck and Mr Hennessy remains in a critical condition at the Mater Hospital in Dublin this weekend.

Ms Connell, who is still traumatised by the events of last Saturday, has visited him a number of times in the capital and says he is improving day by day. Despite this it is a long road ahead for the young Laois man.

Three men were arrested in connection with the stabbing on Saturday but all were subsequently released without charge. Last week Independent.ie revealed that one of these men was previously arrested for the cold case murder of Gerry Nolan while a second man was arrested over the fatal stabbing of Kieran Monahan in 2012.

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Gardai are investigating if the attack was in connection with the murder of Mr Nolan whose caravan was set on fire while he was locked inside in 2006.

Jamie Hennessy, who was just 11 at the time of that attack, had no involvement in the murder of Gerry Nolan.

Ms Connell insists Saturday's stabbing was in connection to a dispute over a 20 mobile phone.

She explained that Jamie left with this phone, which belonged to an older man, two weeks earlier.

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I dont know why it turned out like it did over a phone, its something that will stay with me forever.

Asked what she wants to see happen now Ms Connell said, first and foremost, she wants to see an improvement in Mr Hennessys condition.

My hearts broken looking at him, you wouldn't do it to an animal they destroyed him intentionally.

She said she cant understand why the men were released without charge. I think theyre mad to let them walk free, prison is too good for the likes of these people, absolute dogs.
Andrea Glennon (19) is advising students that there are other options outside Ireland

Andrea Glennon (far left) and Stephen Keller (third from left) with fellow classmates in Poland

An Irish student has offered hope to Leaving Certificate students who may not have received enough points to follow their dream of studying medicine in Ireland.

Andrea Glennon, from Longford, is one of 12 Irish students in her class of 44 in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

It is expected that another 30 Irish students will travel to Poland to study a medical discipline through English this year.

Andrea (19) said she "has always been fascinated by medicine", but considers herself a realist and knew she was not going to achieve the CAO points to study medicine in Ireland.

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Speaking to Independent.ie, Andrea said she "couldnt be happier" after completing her first year of the six-year course.

"My granny got a stethoscope when I was five and Ive been obsessed by anything medical since," Andrea said.

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"I did my Transition Year placement in Temple Street Hospital and it was so amazing, thats how I definitely knew I wanted to do medicine."

The former Wilsons Hospital boarder said studying medicine in Poland was her first option for after the Leaving Cert.

Andrea was offered a preliminary place in the course based on her Leaving Cert mock results and her secondary school teachers predictions. She said she had to achieve certain grades in the Leaving Cert exams and also had to do an interview in Poland for the university place. She was also tested on her knowledge on biology and chemistry.

"Its a different process. I definitely did still feel the pressure, but it was different. The worry began at the mocks, the pressure was earlier in the year," Andrea said.

My parents were very supportive, it was never a surprise to them that I wanted to study medicine.

"I think they would have liked for me to have had the opportunity to do something in Ireland, but when they saw the universitys facilities, they knew they were the same as Ireland, if not a better standard.

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"Im an only child so they were sad to see me go, but they were delighted I got what I wanted."

The medical course is "full-time" and "full-on", according to Andrea, who has just completed her one-month placement in an Irish hospital.

Life in Bydgoszcz is sociable and budget-friendly, according to the young student, and Andrea now says she "would absolutely recommend" studying in Poland. She credits Medical Poland, an application support service for medical universities in Poland, with helping her achieve her course.

"I was talking to my mum the other day and I was saying even if I got the points for Ireland, I dont think Id change where I am now," Andrea added.

Stephen Keller (19) said he moved to Poland last-minute after starting a course in UCD he knew he wasn't going to fully enjoy.

The young student, from Drumcondra, advised this year's batch of medicine hopefuls to consider options abroad if they don't get enough points to study their discipline through the CAO.

"I always wanted to do medicine," Stephen said.

"If it's something you know you want to do, you have to do it and you have to take the chance.

"I would say don't let you doubt yourself, if you can't do medicine because you don't have the points, that doesnt mean medicine is not for you."

Stephen said studying in Poland was not his first option, but it was always "in the back of [his] mind."

"It was great to have a back-up plan," he said.

"I would now say if you know what you want to do and you dont get it in Ireland, dont settle for less, go for Poland."

Stephen said he spends his weekends like any students in Ireland; sometimes he needs to study for tests, while other weekends he is able to go out and socialise with his college friends.

He said the cost of living is "very cheap."

'Not too late'

Student Advisor with Medical Poland, Artur Banaszkiewicz, said it is not too late for those who did not receive enough points this week to study medicine, veterinary or other medical disciplines through the CAO.

"There are still places to offer this year, it is still possible to apply up until the 31st of August. We have a number of interviews already scheduled and were expecting at least another dozen, or even two dozen, applications," Artur told Independent.ie.

He said studying in Poland will require tuition fees, but explains that the cost of living is very low.

"Student fees are approximately 10,000 a year for medicine and they range up to 16,000 a year for some programmes. Most students go for veterinary which is 8,000 a year. This is just tuition fees but you need to remember the living costs in Ireland are much higher.

"We estimate in all of the cities that our students need 450 a month which is sufficient to cover the costs of living, including accommodation and transport."

Artur represents Nicolaus Copernicus University's Collegium Medicum (CM) in Bydgoszcz, Poland that runs a 6 year MD program through English. Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy are also on the list.

Medical Poland are holding their Dublin Open Day on Thursday, 31 August at the European Commission Representation in Dublin, 5:30pm. There will be a chance to meet student advisors, academics from Polish universities, the Polish Ambassador and an Irish Department of Foreign Affairs representative.
A Government minister has warned that Ireland needs a dedicated agency to handle emergency situations, in the wake of last week's major floods in Donegal.

Last night, Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, Minister of State for the OPW and Flood Relief, said it was time for the Government to follow other European nations and establish a single agency that would be responsible for the security and medical responses in the case of a national emergency.

Mr Moran said the State response to catastrophic events such as major floods needed to be handled and co-ordinated within a single Government department.

His remarks came as more than 500 families in the north-west deal with catastrophic damage to homes and businesses in the wake of flash floods last Tuesday night.

"The Government agency would oversee emergency services and protect people during natural disasters. Its primary aim would be to provide a rapid response in the case of emergencies," said Mr Moran.

"The agency would consist of all the relevant organisations including gardai, Defence Forces, Civil Defence, the HSE and the various Government departments.

"This is particularly important where houses have become uninhabitable and people need help urgently.

"A dedicated agency would have the personnel to get on the ground in the immediate aftermath of a major event which would be reassuring to those in dire need of help."

Meanwhile, a woman who escaped the torrential floods on a tractor has given birth to a baby boy - and she is calling him Noah.

Edel Kerin was stranded in the town of Clonmany when flooding struck the Inishowen Peninsula last Tuesday evening. The 35-year-old was due to give birth on the day the floods struck.

She was with her sister Danielle, who is also six months pregnant, and her daughters Emma (6) and Lauren (2), when the area was engulfed with water. They were desperate to check on their parents who live in Urris, when local man Nathan Noone came to their rescue and drove all four in his tractor back to the family home.

Edel's husband Damian (38) spent last Wednesday cleaning up his parents' home in Cockhill, Buncrana, after also becoming stranded when he got word that the baby was on the way .

Damian was ordered to pack the bags for Letterkenny General Hospital as Edel went into labour with the couple's third child. Just after 1.30pm last Thursday, the couple's first son was born, weighing in at 8lb 4oz.

Damian revealed how the couple just could not resist naming their new bundle of joy Noah.

"We had thought about a number of different names. Noah was one of them because my dad's name is Noel and Edel's is Anthony.

"We just thought that with the week that it was in and all the biblical connections, we would name him Noah," said Damian.

Mum and baby Noah were discharged yesterday and returned to their home in Heather Park, Buncrana. Both mother and baby are doing well and Damian said they were looking forward to telling their son how he got his name and of the eventful hours before he arrived.

"I was stranded and couldn't get to Edel and the girls but they are fine considering all they've been through. In fact, the girls wanted to get on the tractor and do the journey again, which is great considering all they'd been through.

"Obviously, Noah wasn't around but we're really looking forward to telling him all about it when he is old enough to understand," added Damian.

The Red Cross warned that as many as 500 homes in Donegal were affected by the flash flooding. The society is working on a support scheme to provide emergency humanitarian support to small businesses and local community groups affected by the floods after receiving a request from the Government.

"The details of the scheme are not yet known but it is anticipated that Government will make an announcement concerning these details next week," said a Red Cross spokesman.

"It is understood that the scheme will be similar to the scheme administered by the Irish Red Cross on behalf of Government in 2015-2016. Once the scheme details are announced, application forms will be accessible via the Irish Red Cross website and relevant Government websites."

The Department of Social Protection has a scheme in place for householders affected by the floods, but Mr Moran said the clean-up operation would be enormous.

Additional Defence Forces personnel were in the area yesterday, helping clear debris for the second day in a row.
Part of the lower Lough Erne at Killadeas, Co Fermanagh

A man caught up in a boating accident which claimed the life of a woman in Co Fermanagh has left hospital after treatment.

The man and woman both entered the water at the Round O jetty in Lough Erne, Enniskillen in the early hours of Saturday morning.

He reportedly jumped into the lough after the 49-year-old woman fell in.

A member of the public raised the alarm. By the time police and ambulance arrived at the scene the man had made it to land but the woman was unaccounted for.

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She was later recovered from the water and resuscitation efforts were made to save her life. She died later in hospital.

The man was also taken to the emergency department of the South West Acute Hospital in the town for treatment. He has since left hospital.

The Round O is a popular lough-side visitor spot and the marina was packed with boats over the bank holiday weekend.

Councillor John Coyle said the community was in shock.

"My deepest condolences to the family and friends of the woman who died," said the SDLP representative.

"There is great shock among everyone, tourists and locals alike. It's such a shock to lose a life during this holiday season."

Fellow councillor Rosemary Barton (UUP) said: "It is very sad that something like this should happen on what should be a fun time for families over the bank holiday weekend.

"I also commend the member of the public who raised the alert and the emergency services who reacted so swiftly to try to save lives during this incident.

"I appeal to everyone, whether they are boating or travelling on our roads, to be always mindful of how simple accidents can happen."

The PSNI said police and other emergency services responded to reports of a woman and man having fallen overboard from a boat moored at the Round O jetty at approximately 2.40am on Saturday.

Inspector Keith Hicks said: "On arrival the male was already out of the water. A search operation was implemented and a woman was taken from the water. Unfortunately she died a short time later in hospital.

"An investigation into the circumstances is now under way and a post mortem examination is expected to be carried out.

"Local police would extend their sympathies to the family and would offer thanks to all of the agencies involved in the operation."

It is the second drowning tragedy to hit the lake this year.

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In April mother-of-two Luna McKinney (35), died after an accident on Lough Erne at Devenish Island, near Enniskillen.

Ms McKinney, who was originally from China, was checking on ropes attached to the boat when she fell into the water.

Her husband Stephen, who was alerted by the sound of the splash, dived in to try to rescue her.

When he couldn't locate her in the dark, he contacted emergency services.

The couple were living in Convoy, Co Donegal.
Former Green Party TD Trevor Sargent and his wife Aine Neville with Rev Norma McMaster, Deacon Tom Gordon, Rev Ruth Elmes, Arch Deacon Andrew Orr and Bishop Michael Burrows at his ordination as Deacon at Shillelagh Parish Church. Photo: Tony Gavin

Former Green Party TD Trevor Sargent with Arch Deacon Andrew Orr at his ordination as Deacon at Shillelagh Parish Church. Photo: Tony Gavin

Former Minister of State and Green Party Leader, Trevor Sargent said his heart "almost skipped a beat with emotion, when he was ordained a Church of Ireland deacon in Co Wicklow yesterday.

Mr Sargent (57), told Independent.ie that the ceremony, which took place in Shillelagh Parish Church, Co Wicklow was very emotional for him on a personal level.

Expand Close Former Green Party TD Trevor Sargent and his wife Aine Neville with Rev Norma McMaster, Deacon Tom Gordon, Rev Ruth Elmes, Arch Deacon Andrew Orr and Bishop Michael Burrows at his ordination as Deacon at Shillelagh Parish Church. Photo: Tony Gavin / Facebook

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Whatsapp Former Green Party TD Trevor Sargent and his wife Aine Neville with Rev Norma McMaster, Deacon Tom Gordon, Rev Ruth Elmes, Arch Deacon Andrew Orr and Bishop Michael Burrows at his ordination as Deacon at Shillelagh Parish Church. Photo: Tony Gavin

He said: It was very emotional as I had to make a number of commitments that I would serve the community and be faithful. Its a very specific call from the Holy Spirit and it feels like fate.

"The congregation were asked if they knew any reason that I should not be made deacon and when they accepted me my heart almost skipped a beat. To get that sort of affirmation from the community was incredible.

The former politicians faith stems back from his teenage days. He feels the different roles of parishioner, principal and politician that he has held throughout his life are not a million miles away from his new role of deacon.

I was a parishioner for 30 years in St Georges Parish in Dublin and principal of St Georges National School in Balbriggan. It was always part of the calling and the legacy of it goes back to when I was in secondary school. Being a teacher always has a certain amount of pastoral element to it.

"Even as a TD and leader of the Green Party all these jobs require empathy and a willingness to serve the people. Theyre not a million miles away from each other.

Mr Sargent served as a Green Party TD from 1992-2011 and was leader from 2007. For him, his love for the environment and faith in God were always linked.

The environment and religion have always been one of the same to me. One of the requirements in the Bible is that you nurture people and the earth. This speaks to me and motivates me, he said.

He is currently entering his final year of a Theology Masters at Trinity College. He explained that he is looking forward to getting stuck in to his role as deacon and has no current aspirations to become a Church of Ireland priest.

He said: I dont have those aspirations or ambitions. Im lucky that Im able to do this and Ive a very understanding wife who is great even though she has plenty other things going on in her own life. I can count my blessings.

"Im looking forward to getting to know all the parishioners. Theyve been incredibly generous to me so far. They painted the church from top to bottom and laid on a feast. It was a great credit to them.

According to the Dubliner, the role of a deacon is much like a waiter in a restaurant.

It comes from the Greek word to wait or to serve. It involves reading the Gospel and helping the rector. I will assist them in the distribution of bread and wine and if they are not there I will do the Morning Prayer. Ill make sure to help people, visit the sick and make myself available for youth events and weddings and baptisms," he said.

Mr Sargents wife, Aine Neville, extended family and former Green Party colleagues, John Gormely, Mary White and Dan Boyle were all in attendance at the ceremony yesterday.

They all travelled from different parts of the country to wish me well. Weve all travelled different paths but they were very happy for me. It was just the most incredible day and the weather shone.
Three copies of the same permit seized by gardai. Picture: @GardaTraffic

Gardai will bring 26 people before the courts in the coming months for fraudulently using a disability permit to park on Dublin streets, Independent.ie can reveal.

Gardai launched Operation Enable in March and since then they have held two days of action across Dublin streets as well as a high-profile social media campaign to highlight parking abuses.

The initiative, led by Sergeant Peter Woods of the DMR Traffic Division, has already yielded big results and next month the first prosecutions will be brought before Dublin district court.

In an exclusive interview with Independent.ie Sgt Woods has also revealed:

On the first day of action in March they seized 11 parking permits;

In one West Dublin housing estate gardai identified three cars using the SAME permit;

Gardai have snared drivers using permits issued to dead relatives;

Those caught face fines of up to 3,000 and/or up to six months in prison.

Sgt Woods first came up with the idea for Operation Enable after dealing with an incident involving a disabled motorist last Christmas, and hearing of the difficulties encountered by him in finding accessible parking.

It was decided to take a closer look at the issue of disabled bay and disabled parking permit use in Dublin City Centre.

A disabled persons parking card allows the user to park for free in disabled bays and any other public parking spots across the country.

Sgt Woods then identified the law of fraudulent use of a permit under Section 115 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 as amended.

Buoyed by this he contacted the two groups responsible for issuing permits the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) and the Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland (DDAI). Both, he explained, were delighted to come on board and just a month later they launched Operation Enable at Dublin Castle.

The objective, he explains, was to remind motorists to respect parking bays and to prompt permit holders to respect the conditions attached to the permits issued to them.

The following month, on March 1, gardai held their first day of action across the capital.

Undercover gardai travelled to locations identified by Dublin Street Parking Services and Dublin City Council where badges were being used in places other than disabled bays.

On that morning we challenged people as they parked. And at the end of that day we had 11 permits seized.

Most, he explained, were people using a disabled relatives permit.

We had two incidents where people were using dead a dead relatives permit. One man was using his mothers permit but she died two years earlier.

In June Sgt Woods and his team held their second day of action with similar results. I didnt want it to be a one-day wonder, he said explaining that there will be another day in October.

We are aiming for quarterly targeted days of enforcement.

In conjunction with the days of action gardai have also held special operations based on tip-offs from members of the public.

In one case traffic gardai seized a number of permits from workmen who were parking for free on an upmarket Dublin street while doing works on a house. They also towed vehicles on this occasion as the vehicles had no valid tax or NCT.

On another occasion Sgt Woods and his team travelled to a housing estate in West Dublin where they identified three cars using the same permit. One of the permits was legitimate while the other two were convincing forgeries.

In our experience many of those using fraudulent permits or ones belonging to a family member will not park in disabled bays as this may arouse suspicion. Instead, they will park for free in regular bays.

Sgt Woods and his team have been documenting the operation on social media and this has led to further tip-offs from members of the public.

In the coming moths 26 people will appear before Dublin District Court charged in relation to the first six months of Operation Enable.

Under the legislation a judge can fine them up to 3,000 and or jail them for up to six months.

#OperationEnable - A social media campaign that has caught the imagination and illegal parkers

The @GardaTraffic twitter account has become a huge success over these last few years and Independent.ie has covered its hilarious posts on more than one occassion.

When Sgt Woods launched Operation Enable last February he was keen to have an online campaign to match the on-street offensive.

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Here are some of the best posts from operation Enable:

1. 'Convertible to a fine'

When this Porsche driver couldn't find a spot to park in, in Dublin City centre on a warm day they simply pulled into the nearest disabled bay.

Gardai were quick to spot the infringement and issue a fine. They also didn't miss an opportunity to for a pun.

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2. Spot the fakes!

Following a tip-off gardai from DMR traffic travelled to a home in West Dublin where they found three copies of the same permit being used on different cars.

The first was legitimate but the other two were convincing copies. All three were seized and a court appearance will follow.

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3. 'L' driver hasn't learned his lesson

Learning how to drive can be difficult and this 'L' driver learned the hard way when he parked in a disabled bay.

They were slapped with an 80 fine and a fixed charge notice was issued.

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4. 'Laziness is not a disability'

We have all done it! Stepped out of the car, stuck on the hazard lights and run into the shop to buy a litre of milk.

This Dublin taxi driver took it one step too far though when he blocked a disabled spot, and half the road. He, too, was slapped with an 80 fine and a fixed charge notice.

This prompted @GardaTraffic to write: "Laziness is not a disability."

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5. Someone else's disabled permit

Despite six months of a high-profile campaign some drivers just aren't learning their lesson.

Last week @GardaTraffic posted this image of a Toyota Yaris parked in a disabled spot on Stephen Street Lower. The driver was using someone else's permit. This was seized and the driver will now be brought before court.

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6. Heuston... we have a problem

Operation Enable has proven a huge success across the capital and gardai from other parts of the city and the country have now adopted it.

The Community Policing Unit in Kilmainham detected a number of offences by taxi drivers using disabled bays at Heuston station.
Norman Potot with his wife, Pearly Fernandez Potot and his two children Nathaniel Paul Potot (5) and Nailah Pearl Potot (9).

The Irish Philippine Consulate and a private ambulance company made the travel arrangements to bring home the Irish Filipino family injured in the Barcelona terrorist attack.

Norman and Pearl Potot and their two children arrived in Dublin on Wednesday night, relieved but traumatised by the terrorist atrocity that turned their family holiday into a nightmare.

The Irish Philippine Consulate in Dublin organised the Potots' return flights with Ryanair and enlisted the assistance of the private ambulance firm owned by mortgage campaigner, David Hall, to help transport the family home.

Speaking yesterday, Pearl and Norman Potot said they were relieved to be home. "We are feeling okay now that we are home. My son is recovering from his operation. We need rest," said Pearl Potot.

As yet, the only official visitors to the family since their return have been the Irish Philippine consul, Mark Christopher Congdon, who called on Friday to provide them with a wheelchair for their son.

Norman Potot suffered a fractured skull when he was mowed down on Las Ramblas by a truck driven by a Islamic terrorist. Their son, Nathaniel (5) broke his leg. Their daughter, Nailah (9), is recovering from a broken arm. Mrs Fernandez Potot was severely bruised in the attack which killed 13 people.
Swifts, 'devil birds' or 'feathered angels of the upper air' (as the poet John Heath-Stubbs described them), have returned to the burning shores of Africa by now.

A few stragglers may still be about but most of the several thousand birds that arrived here in May now will have departed. And details of a tracking-tagging project on the summer home-comers, undertaken last year by BirdWatch Ireland, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Northern Ireland Swift Group, are still under wraps, as is usual for scientific studies where careful analysis is paramount. Details are eagerly awaited.

Seven swifts were geo-tagged for a survey to learn more about their migration patterns in a first-time project The technology included light sensor, memory chip, clock and battery - all packed into a tag weighing 0.65gr, or about 2pc of a swift's bodyweight. This light-level geo-locator logged a bird's position each day, using sunrise and sunset to calculate longitude and latitude.

BirdWatch Sligo branch's Michael Casey told the nature charity's journal Wings that as the tags did not transmit data the project depended on their unhindered return so that the body chips could be downloaded.

The chosen birds were tagged at two colonies - one at Michael's home at Tubbercurry and the other at the Antrim nestboxes of Mark Smyth, of the North's Swift Group. Chris Hewson, of the British Trust, an expert on geo-tagging, supervised the Irish bird-ringers.

If you are a fan of these beautiful dawn-and-dusk sky screamers and would like to help in their survival you could consider placing suitable swift boxes in high eaves - if you live in an old house or have a business link with a warehouse or factory.

The purpose-built Schwegler boxes are expensive (up to 60 each), and it is also necessary to invest in swift-call CDs and see they are played at dawn and dusk daily for encouragement. However, as has happened in the North, commercial sponsorship may be found, such as Tesco at Crumlin, Co Antrim (an impressive 20-box nesting tower at the store) and Translink, the North's bus service, at a depot.

In recent times the birds have faced serious challenges seeking sites on newer buildings in their old areas. However, some sites remain and the birds return to convents, church buildings and warehouses.

Unlike their cousins, swallows and martins, swifts do not hold farewell assemblies on high wires. One evening the high-pitched shrieks may be heard overhead, the next, all is silence.

I have vivid memories of watching swifts in diverse places from Listowel to Tarragona in Catalonia, and them swooping over diners' heads at the walled town of St Paul de Vence in the Alps Maritimes.

The naturalist David Cabot reckons about 20,000 pairs of the gabhlan gaoite arrive each year. The black screamer, which snatches at scraps in mid-air to build its nest, is kin to the tropical humming-bird which can fly backwards, according to Heath-Stubbs.

Such data may not be expected to be found on the geo-tags, I am sure.
Following on from the success of its inaugural Burger Bash last year, the guys at Box Burger in Bray, Co Wicklow, will be hosting their Annual Burger Bash - "celebrating the burger in all its glory" - on Thursday August 31, from 5pm.

Box is at the heart of a culinary renaissance under way in the seaside town and has become a favourite with serious meat-eaters, who like to have their burgers washed down with ice-cold craft beers such as local brewer, Wicklow Wolf's single hop ale, Born in Bray.

For those who prefer to accompany their burgers with cocktails, Box has a fine selection, including the signature Drumstick (vanilla vodka, raspberry vodka, lime juice and sugar syrup) and Ticket Evader (Beefeater gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, mango puree, sugar syrup and Prosecco). Box also has a comprehensive gin list, and a 'hard shakes' menu.

The 100pc Irish beef burgers are not for the faint-hearted, and include the monthly Burger Panel winner the PJB (peanut sauce, strawberry chilli jam, crispy onion, crushed roasted peanuts, lettuce, pickle, mayo) and the self-explanatory Mac 'n' Cheese, with all the burgers cooked over smoking coals and served in a steamed brioche bun.

Frickles - deep-fried Cajun pickles served with garlic mayonnaise - are a popular side order, along with sriracha halloumi fries and waffle fries with sriracha mayo. Oooof!

The Burger Bash will feature DJs, games and taste tests including the The Hottest Burger Challenge, and there's a chance to be crowned Champion Pickle Eater. Booking is not required, the event is suitable for all ages, and it takes place in Box's covered outdoor area so is not weather-dependent.

The people behind Box Burger are local couple Conor and Nicola Duggan, who also have a number of other businesses in Bray, including the Harbour Bar, Fish Bar, Ocean Bar & Grill, Pow Bao, Platform Pizza and The Martello. Pow Bao and Box have outposts at EatYard at the George Bernard Shaw in Dublin city centre too.

The latest addition to the Duggans' expanding empire is CowFish - steaks and seafood - which is located on a rooftop terrace on Strand Road in Bray. It's up a notch from their other restaurants in terms of pricing and the ambition of the menu and early reports are good.

For more, see boxburger.ie and cowfish.ie.

Bites...

AUTUMN EATS

A festival of food takes place at the Airfield Estate in Dublin over the weekend of September 9 and 10. Entry is free and there is a host of market stalls, workshops and demonstrations, rough and tumble activities for children, and plenty of local and seasonal eating. See airfield.ie.

PIG OUT IN LIMERICK

Limerick is hosting a series of events to celebrate its food history and culture. September 22 sees the launch of Limerick's Food Mile with a four-course dinner, each course at a different hotel, and carriage transfers between them. Tickets are 49, see pigtown.ie.

DELIGHTS OF THE DEEP

Chef Brian McMonagle's menu at the new Seafood Bar at Dock 1 restaurant in Galway features oysters from Kilcolgan, Doonbeg and Dungarvan, and all manner of fishy delights including Cleggan potted crab and Rossaveal lobster, paired with Taittinger house champagne. See dockone.ie.
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
Dave Bouche of Dane is this weeks You Toon winner.

Congrats, Dave!

His caption about a child screaming about going back to school beat out more than 60 entries.

Bouche wins publication of his line with todays finished cartoon. He also will receive a signed print by State Journal artist Phil Hands.

Runners-up and their suggested captions include:

Pete Lien

of Edgerton: Quit your whining. When I went to school the tablets we used were made of stone.

Patrick OConnor

of Madison: Your teachers feel the same way.

Edward Malin

of Madison: Maybe sending him to acting school this summer wasnt a waste of money after all.

Thanks to all participants. Well play again next Sunday with a fresh cartoon and empty caption.
Not a weekend goes by when the majority of folk aren't scrolling through their phones, desperately trying to discover the latest and best brunch spot to while away their Saturdays in a haze of hollandaise sauce and bottomless Prosecco.

But the need for hours of pre-baked eggs browsing can come to a halt as Ireland's best brunch has been revealed in an annual awards ceremony.

The all-new FOOD&WINE Awards which this year introduced a host of new categories has announced their top restaurant, chef and best 'local' award winners at a gala luncheon in The Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin.

The event was attended by Irelands top chefs and restaurateurs from across the country and was hosted by broadcaster and publisher, Norah Casey, and comedian Colm ORegan.

And the winners are...



Irelands Best Brunch was revealed to be found in Hadskis, Belfast while the 'Best for Romance was awarded to Gregans Castle, Clare. lEcrivain in the country's capital was named as the Best Restaurant for Business.



The Best Local Award went to Noble in Holywood, Co. Down.

Whelehans Wines in Dublin took the Best for Wine Lovers Award, which celebrates those venues that offer a wine experience to remember, while Cafe of the Year was awarded to Country Choice in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.



The biggest awards of the night  for Overall Chef and Restaurant of the Year  went to Ross Lewis of Chapter One and Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud respectively.



Mag Kirwan, a supporter of local food and advocate of sustainable fishing of Goatsbridge Trout was also inducted into the FOOD&WINE Magazine Hall of Fame on the day.



Other big winners on the day included The Catalina Restaurant, Co. Fermanagh; Kai, Galway; The Lady Helen Restaurant, Co. Kilkenny; Renvyle House, Galway; and Klaw, Dublin.



Restaurants are championing high quality ingredients and offering beautifully thought out and creative menus. Also, our wine and drinks offering has really come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. We also wanted to shine a light this year on the local food heroes  the pubs, cafes and neighbourhood eateries that mirror the magazine through thoughtful and quality sourcing," commented Miriam Atkins, editor of FOOD&WINE Magazine.



Now in its 17th year, The FOOD&WINE Awards in association with Nespresso are considered the most prestigious and authoritative culinary awards in the Irish calendar.
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Dan O'Brien Opinion While we catastrophise about Covid, we ignore risk of running out of cash

We Irish view the world in an increasingly strange and unhealthy way. We catastrophise about Covid in a way other European countries do not. We focus on how bad the effects of the virus could get, on how many more restrictions might be imposed by Government and how helpless we are in the face of the virus.
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Eoghan Harris Opinion Misery media fails to give due credit to the Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheal Martin must drive his advisers mad. Unlike Leo Varadkar or Donald Trump, he never bigs up success stories such as the effect of Level 3 Plus on Covid or his visionary Shared Island project. Last Friday, Tony Holohan and RTE cheerleaders seemed to imply Level 5 was responsible for the improved Covid situation. Not so.
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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Just what our politics needs: Stalin-like applause police in the Dail

In the words of Miriam Lord in the Irish Times: There was much scanning of the Dail chamber after Zelenskys speech to identify the TDs who did not clap. Well, imagine that! The arrival of the remarkable Mr Zelensky in our parliament  albeit a virtual presence  aroused celebrity excitement of the kind not seen since the last time Matt Damon went for a stroll in Dalkey, Co Dublin.
Not for nothing was Barbara Bush known as 'The Enforcer'

Barbara Bush, tougher than her husband and known to her family as 'The Enforcer', is probably the most popular of all ex-US first ladies of recent times. Jackie Kennedy is remembered across the globe for elegance and tragedy, but she was not loved. Rosalynn Carter worked hard and was a noted campaigner on issues of mental health, but she has suffered in retrospect because of her bitterness at his defeat by Ronald Reagan, who is widely perceived to have been as great a success as Carter was a failure. The brittle Nancy Reagan was an essential support to her husband, but was thought to care little for anyone else. Hillary Clinton was loathed by those who thought her a careerist. The likeable Laura Bush did a lot of useful work but lacked her mother-in-law's commanding personality. And although Michelle Obama had rock-star status, that has diminished as she and her husband embrace luxury and celebrity. Betty Ford is probably the closest rival, having been far more effective and formidable than her husband Gerald, the 38th president, and still having a posthumous reputation for her prowess as a campaigner on addiction, not least because so many of the famous troop to the Betty Ford Clinic.
There is no substitute for face-to-face encounters, no matter how slick instant messaging or FaceTime might seem. (Stock picture)

Sir - Teenagers keep their distance in the cautious new world of dating and sex, writes Niamh Horan (Sunday Independent, August 20).

There is no substitute for face-to-face encounters, no matter how slick instant messaging or FaceTime might seem. Social media preserves distance between users, the safety of not fully engaging, of hiding emotional barometers such as facial expression or voice tone.

Dating before the ubiquity of social media was a genuine encounter, where humans met and experienced chemistry, that indefinable, sensual spark that happens through conversation, voice timbre, laughter, body aroma and, as the famous lager ad from long ago went - "The way she might look at you."

The unhurried, gentle process of getting to know someone, finding out similarities and differences via a series of real-life, one-on-one dates is made unnecessary - a Facebook search will deliver a life story replete with favourite hobbies, holiday and party photos. Before a couple have a chance to meet up and try out for chemistry, a deluge of information is available to each party, removing the mysterious elusiveness that is the life blood of getting to know someone. The relationship often fizzles out before it has time to develop.

If proof was required that dating has become almost 'outdated', the irresistible First Dates series featured hordes of attractive, interesting people in their twenties who admitted to never having been on a date or held down a relationship. A cautious new world indeed!

Mari Gallagher

Newbridge

Co Kildare

Real aims of toxic Sinn Fein

Sir - The sky is definitely darkening if your contributor Ed Brophy (Soapbox, Sunday Independent, August 20) believes Sinn Fein is about an abiding faith in the State. Sinn Fein is the party whose stated aim not that long ago was to bring down the governments in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

He also declares Sinn Fein not to be toxic and refers to Ms McDonald by her first names, to give her a softer feel as if she were some benign den mother. This woman is probably soon to be leader of the political wing of the Provisional IRA, a woman who refuses to denounce the atrocities of that organisation. An organisation that carried out similar atrocities against the innocents of these islands as do now followers of Isil across Europe.

Mr Brophy boldly pronounces that the 18-45 urbanites will decide the next election, thereby dismissing the franchise of the over-45s everywhere, with those of us living in the country having no say in the matter. He further declares that Micheal Martin perpetrates the myth that up to a fifth of the electorate is off limits for government. The last time I looked, majority rules and by my reckoning 80pc of the population do not want Sinn Fein anywhere near government.

It is incumbent on all of us of an age that suffered the 30 years of terrorism at the hands of the IRA to continue to educate the younger electorate, including the deluded Mr Brophy, that to use Gerry Adams's own words "they haven't gone away you know".

Brendan Hogan,

Wexford

The irony of Ed Brophy's position

Sir - At the end of Ed Brophy's article (Soapbox, Sunday Independent, August 20) there was a footnote telling the readers that Ed was the chief of staff to Joan Burton during the last coalition government. Joan Burton's Labour Party, as I recall it, was all but wiped out on Ed's watch.

Yet here he was deigning to give advice to either FF or FG on why they should be thinking about a coalition with the considerably less than constitutional, Sinn Fein.

Clearly Mr Brophy doesn't do irony.

Eddie Naughton

The Coombe

Dublin 8

Debating facts about spies and informers

Sir  Eoghan Harris (Sunday Independent, August 13) misrepresents our findings on suspected spies and informers killed in Cork during the War of Independence. This research was presented in a paper to the recent West Cork History Festival. In this I acknowledged Peter Harts contribution to the historiography but challenged a core conclusion in his work that Looking over the whole span of the revolution, we can see that the main themes of the west Cork massacre [in April 1922] conspiracy theories, land and sectarian vengeance were prefigured in the executions of informers carried out in the previous two years.

The results of our work provides a good basis to test Harts contentions about 1920-21 (the War of Independence period) in the final chapter of his book on the Cork IRA, which hinge on the killing of suspected spies and informers.

The implications of Harts findings in the final chapters of his book was that not only was the Dunmanway massacre a sectarian event, but sectarianism also resonated through the earlier killing of suspects, thus raising the spectre of a systemic sectarian problem within the IRA during the War of Independence.

Our research challenges this formulation as set out by Hart as it reveals that 69pc of the suspected spies and informers killed during the War of Independence in County Cork were Catholics. This makes these killings fundamentally different to those during the Dunmanway massacre in April 1922 (all of whom were Protestant). The sectarian implications of the latter event were widely understood and immediately publicly condemned by both sides of the republican leadership following the Treaty split at both a local and national level. So it is simply incorrect for Harris to state that there was a shameful silence, more particularly since he cites Erskine Childerss declaration, which contradicts his claim.

Our findings for the War of Independence revealed that by far the largest category of suspects killed in Co Cork were ex-crown forces (56pc of the total), the vast majority of whom were Catholic; in short this was not a story about sectarianism.

The majority of the 71 victims identified came from poorer backgrounds (eg unemployed accounted for 16pc; unskilled or semi-skilled for 37pc; skilled trades for 10pc) and a majority of victims (eg, 61pc) were killed in the Cork One Brigade area (which included the city and all of rural Cork) in between the territory of the West Cork and North Cork Brigades.

This area accounted for 43 of suspects killed compared to 18 in the West Cork Brigade area, which was therefore less important in this particular matter. Our study reveals that the picture regarding the killing of suspected spies and informers for the War of Independence period in Co Cork painted by Hart, which implies that either sectarian vengeance or land were centrally important is not factually accurate, and now requires revision.

We never argued for one minute, as Harris implies, that there was not even a relatively minor sectarian aspect to the IRA campaign in Cork during the Irish Revolution at large. Concrete proof of this is that we have published our detailed findings on the Dunmanway massacre in the journal Eire Ireland in the autumn of 2014, in which we concurred with Harts assessment that this event was most certainly sectarian, but we dont accept his assessment that this was prefigured in the killing of suspected spies and informers in 1920-21. This is what I argued in the paper in West Cork, contrary to Harriss falsification of our position. In studying the revolution at large we need to distinguish between its different phases; thats what historians do.

We are already working on covering deaths during the Truce and the Civil War and this will be published in due course, along with our analysis of those findings.

Our findings do not concur with Harriss evidence-free version of 1919-23 (basically Irish History in the Shadow of the Troubles in which sectarianism seems to be the only factor of consequence for the entire period and Dunmanway is repetitively invoked as proof of this for the entire revolution, which can thus be treated as a mini version of the northern troubles.

When we move away from that inaccurate perspective, using multiple sources (not just one) we will be in a better position to gain a more accurate picture of the Protestant experience of the entire revolution, which certainly needs to be told, including widespread emigration, population decline, forced departures, Protestants within the IRA etc.

Andy Bielenberg,

School of History,

University College Cork

Eoghan Harris writes: As Dr Bielenberg charges me with being evidence free, let me use his own figures to prove Peter Hart was correct in seeing a sectarian side to the IRAs pre-Truce killings of alleged spies in Cork. Dr Bielenberg says that 69pc of suspected informers killed were Catholic  which means that an astonishing 31pc were Protestant. Astonishing because the Protestants were such a small minority. The 1911 Census for Cork county shows, 91.45pc were Roman Catholic, so only 8.25pc were Protestant; in Cork city 88.84pc were Roman Catholic, so only 11.16pc were Protestant. Excluding the British Army and dependants, the Protestant minority falls to under 10pc. Going on his own figure of 31pc Protestant victims this means the 10pc Cork Protestant community was disproportionately targeted. Peter Hart  and common sense  suggest this was for sectarian reasons.

Not a pogrom

Sir  Successive writers and columnists down the years (including Kevin Myers) have mistakenly described the 1904 Limerick outbreak of harassment and boycott of the Jews as being a pogrom. Latest to use this misnomer is Eoghan Harris in his article on the Bandon Valley massacre (Sunday Independent, August 13).

The outbreak of anti-Semitism in Limerick in 1904 was indeed a disgraceful act, fuelled by Father Creagh, a bigoted Mens Confraternity Director, but it was not a pogrom. A pogrom, according to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, is an organised massacre of an ethnic group, originally that of Jews in Russia.

This letter is by no means a defence of the Limerick anti-semitism outbreak, but as we are constantly reminded of this blot on our citys history, would writers such as Mr Harris, in future, please desist from using the term pogrom in describing the events in Limerick of 1904.

Denis OShaughnessy,

Limerick

Eoghan Harris writes: Although History Ireland and many academic articles use the term Limerick pogrom, I accept Denis O Shaughnessys point and will not be using the term again.

Life will work out

Sir  Eilis OHanlon (Sunday Independent, August 20) urges middle-aged people to leave the Leaving to the young and stop reliving the past. She maintains that people talking about their own Leaving Certs many years previously adds to the pressure on todays teenagers, who must feel the while country is peering noisily over their shoulders.

However this couldnt be further from the truth. When older people speak about their own Leaving Cert results this creates an affinity between the generations and some young people who may have been disappointed may realise that in the overall scheme of things the majority of people find their niche in life irrespective of their Leaving Cert results.

Students have the option of repeating their exams. This may not appeal to many students at this particular time but they can also return to education as mature students after the age of 23. In this instance they may apply for a course by just obtaining the minimum entry qualifications and doing an interview.

To quote the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Life is long, for most people their are many twists and turns but if you really want something and are prepared to jump through whatever hoops life throws at you, things will work out in the end.

Tommy Roddy,

Galway

Dont discriminate against the mothers

Sir  In response to the letter Time for equality for all (Sunday Independent, August 13), I would also like to ask Mr Varadkar not to discriminate against the mothers of Ireland. I too worked all my life. I was forced to give up work in the 1970s to rear my children.

I returned to work in the 1990s and am due to retire shortly, but when calculating my contributory pension they decided to average it over the years I was forced to give up and awarded me a reduced pension. I would also like to ask Mr Varadkar to reverse this very unfair act. I am a HSE worker.

Ann,

Name and address with Editor

Time to arm frontline gardai

Sir  The recent terrorist attack in Spain, and previous ones, should be a wake-up call to our Government of the potential danger we face. We are assured that the security forces are ready to deal with any threat and that a police force that is mainly unarmed can be ready to respond to armed and ruthless terrorists, which is absurd.

It is clear that if the Spanish police had not been armed and responded so swiftly, the situation would have been much worse. Our Government seems to be operating on the dangerous assumption that it will not happen here. I believe our frontline gardai should be armed as a matter of urgency. Even if there was no terror threat, the number of armed gangs around the country would warrant it.

I find the silence from senior gardai on this matter strange. I know there are some rank-and-file gardai who would prefer not to be armed, but in the world we live in now, these are the tools of the trade.

John Farrell,

Edenderry,

Offaly

Canadian lesson in our human rights

Sir  I am pleased to note that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was willing to spend at least a couple of hours discussing the matter of reproductive healthcare and access to abortion facilities with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For far too long, Irish politicians have ignored this issue on the basis that the matter is supposedly of no interest to their constituents. The consistent evidence of repeated opinion polls shows this is not the case.

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution denies every woman and girl in Ireland the right to decide how she is treated during pregnancy. And worse, it criminalises those who make decisions outside this restrictive constitutional framework.

The inaction by Irish politicians regarding the reproductive rights of women  which in advanced western democracies like such as Canada are rightly understood to be fundamental human rights  cannot be accepted any longer. It is therefore to be hoped thatthe Taoiseach returned from his trip committed to holding a referendum on removing the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution as soon as possible.

Alan Gibson,

Cobh,

Co Cork

Sheltered housing

Sir  I refer to Philip Ryans excellent and topical report (Sunday Independent, August 20). Might I mention sheltered housing which is not properly recognised or available in this country. Such accommodation for elderly, and not so elderly, persons consists of private independent dwellings, with shared and communal facilities, as necessary. Residents may be tenants or owner occupiers. The Government could urgently explore this matter in their present review which Mr Ryans report also covered, as those who prefer remaining in their own homes need more support to do so.

Nursing home care is required by some elderly people but many others just need some basic supports. Owners may well benefit by downsizing and purchasing a sheltered housing dwelling, valuing the quality of their lives, leisure activities, and their independence.

Sean Quinn,

Blackrock,

Co. Dublin
More than 300,000 refugees in Tanzania face a cut in UN food rations due to lack of funding.

The UN World Food Programme urgently needs 23.6 million dollars (18.3 million) to meet the food and nutritional needs of 320,000 refugees in the north-west through December.

And more cuts for the affected refugees, mainly Burundian and Congolese, will be necessary unless donors respond immediately, said the World Health Organisation.

Rations which were reduced for the August distribution reached just 62% of the recommended daily intake of 2,100 kilocalories.

The UN has also urged the international community to help more than two million South Sudanese refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries.

AP
Parts of Texas are experiencing major floods in the wake of Hurricane Harvey which hit the states south-east coast on Friday.

As the chaos unfolds and news outlets struggle to cover the disaster, one Houston reporter made the news  during her broadcast.

Brandi Smith, a journalist for KHOU 11 News Houston, was doing a piece to camera amid the heavy rain and wind, when she averted the lens to a lorry stuck in the road below.

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The lone truck was sitting in the middle of a deep flood, with the waters slowly rising to meet the driver who was trapped inside.

As the broadcast went on, Smith spotted a water rescue team and flagged it down. The journalist ran to alert the rescuers, who were unaware of the truck below.

Hold on, just a sec, she said mid-broadcast, before running towards the rescuers, from the Harris County Sheriffs Office.

Theres a truck driver stuck here in about 10 feet of water, she told the officers, who were equipped with a rescue boat.

Thanks to her, the rescuers made their way down to the driver in danger.

Many on Twitter praised Smiths concern and quick-thinking.

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In a statement on Twitter, Smith assured followers that the driver was now safe.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out. We are safe and so is Robert, the driver who was rescued.

Second, all the credit for that rescue goes to photographer Mario Sandoval, who spotted the truck, and HCSO crews who rescued the driver. Amazing work, you guys!

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Smith posted the full broadcast on her Facebook page, in which the emergency crew are seen rescuing the driver.

As many of you know, KHOU 11 News was evacuated due to flooding. That meant my photographer Mario and I were the only ones left on air for  well  I don't even know how long. The #KHOU11 signal cut out just as Harris County Sheriff's Office crews got their rescue boat in the water to pull a semi driver out of his flooded cab. I've had SO many people asking if he made it out OK and I wanted to share the video. (We kept going and rolling until the camera's battery died, not knowing we'd been knocked off the air.) They pull him out around the 4:40 mark. THANK GOD for that crew. Posted by Brandi Smith KHOU on Sunday, August 27, 2017

Staff at the KHOU television network were also evacuated from their building as water from a nearby stream started gushing through closed doors on Sunday morning.
The Assembly approved a campus free-speech bill in June, and the Senate is now considering the proposal to protect freedom of speech on University of Wisconsin System campuses.

Those who disrupt free speech on campus merit sanctions for a simple reason: Free speech and open inquiry comprise the heart of a university worth its salt, and disruption of someone elses protected speech violates the rights of the speaker, the rights of those who brought the speaker in, the rights of those who want to listen, and the right of the institution to be an open university.

So we appreciate the Assemblys concerns. But we also do not think Assembly Bill 299, as presented, is the right way to go.

The bill mandates instruction on free speech for UW freshmen. Universities should do this on their own initiative because too many people on todays campuses dont understand free-speech principles. We often hear the claim from students, protesting the protection of offensive ideas, that free speech cant mean that!

Sorry, it does mean that, according to longstanding free speech and First Amendment principles that have great merit. Higher educations failure in this regard has unfortunately opened the door to government intervention, which can always pose its own problems.

The bill also requires universities to remain neutral on controversial policy matters before the Legislature. We find this provision troubling. Whereas official university neutrality is a valid presumptive norm for several reasons, mandating it comes across as a gag order. What about policies that directly affect a university? Do universities not possess a free-speech right to speak as institutions about such matters? Must a university remain silent about this very bill?

The bill orders sanctions for all members of the university community who engage in violent or other disorderly conduct that materially and substantially disrupts the free expression of others. This wording tracks Supreme Court language and, as asserted, no one has a right to disrupt a speaker. But immediately after this language, the bill calls for sanctions against protesters who interfere with the protected speech of another. The uncertain meaning of this term could chill the right to engage in protected counter-speech or protest.

AB 299 provides meaningful due-process protections for alleged violations only for students, not for faculty and staff. And for the disruptive behavior identified above, it calls for suspension when a student is in violation a second time, and expulsion for a third offense. But the bill requires no such suspension or termination for other members of the institutional community under similar circumstances. Students are singled out.

To our knowledge, this is the first time in state history that the Legislature has dictated what penalty a university must impose for an infraction. Does this move open a door to more such intervention down the line? Wouldnt it be less intrusive to simply pass a constitutionally scrupulous state criminal law against disruption of speakers?

It is disappointing the Assembly has made no attempt to cite the UW Board of Regents statement in 2015 reiterating the boards commitment to academic freedom and affirming its commitment to freedom of expression. This statement was UWs version of the famous University of Chicago Statement on Principles of Free Expression.

Why did the Wisconsin Assembly not build on the foundation of this document that reflected such conscientious effort? After all, contained in this document is the countrys most historically significant statement on institutional academic freedom and free expression and it is attributed to the University of Wisconsin itself:

Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.

The question now is whether this bill as it stands is the best bill Wisconsin can give us governing freedom of expression on campuses across this state. We believe it requires much more effort from our Legislature than what AB 299 provides.
The fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade caused widespread damage and dumped torrents of rain along hundreds of miles of the Texas coastline.

Residents were warned of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" to come, after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday night with 130mph winds battering buildings, knocking down trees and electricity cables, and leaving up to 300,000 without power.

The hurricane has weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days, bringing as much as a metre of rain. Texas utility companies said nearly a quarter of a million customers were without power.

One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 48km north of the city of Corpus Christi, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm - but it was expected to take time for emergency crews to reach many areas and assess the damage.

Rockport, a coastal town of about 10,000 people, where two thirds of residents had already evacuated, was directly in the storm's path. CJ Wax, its mayor, said it had been hit "right on the nose" and there was "widespread devastation". The roof of a high school reportedly caved in, and 10 people were taken to the county jail for treatment after a roof collapse at a nursing home.

Mayor Wax said emergency services had been hampered by a loss of mobile phone service.

Earlier, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would activate 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.

One man who stayed in the town said: "The storm sounded like a train with square wheels. It was the most stressful thing I've ever been through. I saw trees going down, roofs blowing off. I've got 300-year-old oak trees down in my yard, a magnolia tree on my roof."

On Friday, Mayor Wax had offered ominous advice to people who chose not to evacuate. He said they should mark their arm with a marker pen, implying that the marks would make it easier for rescuers to identify their dead bodies.

Rockport resident Frank Cook, 56, said: "If you have something left of your house, you're lucky."

Up to 50cm of rain fell in a matter of hours in some places and there were warnings of flash floods. Texans were warned to look out for alligators. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said: "Expect them to be displaced. Simply looking for higher ground. Leave alone until water recedes."

The storm stirred memories of Hurricane Katrina, which made a direct hit on New Orleans in 2005 and led to 1,800 deaths. Harvey was the first natural disaster to hit the US since Donald Trump became president. Mr Trump signed a disaster declaration late on Friday night which he said would "unleash the full force of government help".

As many as six million people were in Harvey's path and tens of thousands fled inland before it hit. In Corpus Christi, the closest city to the storm, streets were littered with lamp posts, tree limbs and roof tiles. Donna McClure, a resident, wrote on Twitter: "In the dark, internet out, ham radio not working. Is anybody out there? Alone trying not to be scared."

Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane, the fiercest to hit Texas since 1961. It moved slowly inland and was later downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 150kph and gusts of up to 190kph.

But forecasters suggested as much as a metre of rain may fall by next Wednesday. The National Hurricane Centre said that could unleash "catastrophic" flooding. Steve Sims, the volunteer fire chief in Rockport said: "We've heard rumours of 1,000 different things, we can't confirm anything because we haven't seen anything. We know we've got a lot of problems, but we don't know what yet."

Houston - the fourth most populous city in the US and home to a third of the six million people that could be impacted by Harvey - seems next in line to feel the fury of the elements. Residents of the city received automatic cell phone warnings of flash floods early yesterday. Authorities warned of the potentially life-threatening impact of close to 60cm of rain falling on the city over several days. The storm's outer bands had already dumped 15cm of rainfall on parts of the city by early Saturday afternoon.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
No remorse: US President Donald Trump and Joe Arpaio, whom he pardoned last week. Arapio had been found guilty of criminal contempt for illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona Photo: PA

The White House was accused last night of "using the cover of a hurricane" to release a slew of controversial announcements.

As the potentially catastrophic storm made landfall, Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, America's "toughest sheriff", high-profile British-born adviser Sebastian Gorka left the administration, and the president officially signed his ban on transgender people in the military.

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A row then erupted over Mr Gorka's departure, as the former deputy assistant to the president claimed he had resigned, while a senior White House official said: "Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House."

Mr Gorka, who previously worked at the news website Breitbart, had caused discord within the administration by espousing hard-line views on national security in numerous media appearances. He released a "resignation letter" in which he wrote: "It is clear to me that forces that do not support the 'Make America Great Again' promise are, for now, ascendant within the White House."

Mr Gorka also criticised Mr Trump's recent speech on Afghanistan, calling the prospect of future US actions there "worrying".

His departure had been widely expected following that of Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, who recently returned to his previous role running Breitbart. The pardoning of Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff, was the first of Trump's presidency and sparked a fierce backlash.

Veteran senator John McCain has led criticism of the pardon, saying it "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law".

Joe Arpaio, 85, ignored a 2011 court ruling that blocked him from racially profiling Latino residents and was convicted of contempt of court less than a month ago, leaving him facing potential time behind bars. He had gained notoriety for backing Trump's "birther" campaign and for his massive round-ups of suspected illegal immigrants. At Maricopa County jail he reinstated chain gangs and banned coffee, salt and pepper. Mr Trump said Mr Arpaio was an "American patriot" who "kept Arizona safe!".

But his longtime critic, Mr McCain, said: "No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge's orders.

"The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."

Cecillia Wang, a lawyer who helped press the racial profiling case against Arpaio, called the pardon "a presidential endorsement of racism". Mr Trump "has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of colour and have been struck down by the courts", she said.

Her view was echoed by former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, who said the pardon "has again made clear Trump will use the powers of the presidency to defend racism and discrimination".

Mr Arpaio was due to be sentenced in October and faced up to six months in prison. Mr McCain has been a public target of Mr Trump's anger for his July vote against the repeal of Obamacare - a legislative win Mr Trump desperately needed.

Such is the battering that Mr Trump has taken just seven months into his presidency, Republicans and right-leaning independents have begun to contemplate the possibility of an organized bid to take down the sitting president in 2020.

No president in the modern era has been defeated by a member of his own party, and significant political and practical barriers stand in the way. The Republican National Committee, now run by Trump loyalists, owns the rulebook for nominating the party's standard-bearer and is working with the White House to ensure a process favourable to the president.

Yet Trump's muddled response to the white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia looks like a turning point. Even before Trump's divisive remarks, his public approval ratings were bad. Gallup found in mid-August that the president earned the approval of just 34pc of all adults and 79pc of Republicans.

Ohio governor John Kasich has not ruled out a second run in 2020. And a handful of wealthy outsiders including outspoken Texas billionaire Mark Cuban, and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, are being encouraged to throw their hats into the ring. The actor (No2 best-paid in the world, earning $65m last year) is a former Republican-turned-independent, who said in May that he'd "like to see a better leadership" from the Republican president.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
A driver tries to negotiate a maze of downed power lines in Taft, Texas (AP)

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into Houston on Sunday as rising water left thousands stranded and overwhelmed rescuers.

Helicopters, boats and high-water vehicles swarmed around inundated areas, pulling people from their homes or from the turbid water, which was high enough in some places to gush into second floors.

As the extent of the flooding emerged, President Donald Trump announced he will travel to Texas on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tolds reporters the White House is still coordinating logistics with state and local officials.

She added: "We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers."

The flooding from the tropical storm was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas.

They urged people to get on top of their homes to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

As floodwaters rose, the National Weather Service offered another ominous forecast:

Before the storm passes, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could receive as much as 50 inches of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.

"The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before," the National Weather Service said in a statement.

Average rainfall totals will end up around 40 inches for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require Fema's involvement for years.

"This disaster's going to be a landmark event," Mr Long said.

Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many displaced families to fend for themselves. The city's main convention centre was quickly opened as a shelter.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up."

Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety.

Others waded while carrying rubbish bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in pet carriers.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in.

He urged drivers to stay off flooded roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

"I don't need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm," Mr Turner told a news conference.

"We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically."

The mayor defended his decision not to ask residents to evacuate before the heavy rain from Harvey swamped roads and neighbourhoods.

He said there was no way to know which areas were most vulnerable.

"If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," he said, citing the risks of sending the city's 2.3 million inhabitants onto the roads at the same time.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the state had activated 3,000 National Guard and State Guard members to cope with the flooding, along with 500 vehicles and 14 aircraft.

And as a sinkhole opened on a road about 25 miles (40 kilometres) south west of Houston, Mr Abbott revealed there were now 250 road closures around Texas.

Rainfall of more than four inches per hour resulted in water levels higher than in any recent floods and higher than during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, said Jeff Linder of flood control district in Harris County, which includes Houston.

The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

Staff at a Houston television station broadcasting live coverage of the floods had to evacuate after water started to gush into the building.

The anchors and news operations at KHOU moved first to a second floor before finally abandoning the station.

AP
A day heavy in green Indian equity markets saw a day, heavy in green, today. Nifty 50 ended, up by 321.5 points. Sensex ended, up by 1181.34 points. Top Gainers today were HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys. Top Losers ... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 3:43 pm

In early trade, Rupee rises 71 paise to 80.69 / $ Early on Friday, the rupee strengthened 71 paise to 80.69 against the dollar as investors' attitudes were bolstered by easing US CPI data and a decline in the dollar index. Forex traders claime... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 2:24 pm

Sensex zooms over 1,100 pts; Nifty above 18,300; IT index top contributor Domestic benchmark indices in the fast lane today led by IT and Metal stocks outperforming. Both the Sensex and Nifty benchmarks were nearly 2% higher amid positive global cues. On the se... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 2:00 pm

NIBE receives order of Rs11.88 crore from Goa Shipyard; Stock slips 1% Nibe Limited stocks in focus as the company announced the receipt of purchase orders. As per the regulatory filing, it has received two purchase orders dated November 08, 2022 from G... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 12:53 pm

Ashoka Buildcon receives provisional certificate for NHAI road project; Stock up 2% Ashoka Buildcon Limited has informed the declaration of October 26, 2021 as the Commercial Operation Date (CoD) for its Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) Project of National Highways Authority of ... November 11, 2022 | 11-11-2022 12:26 pm
Women's safety in this country has become a grave issue, as news of women's sexual exploitation in many forms is making the headlines every single day. In a similar shocking incident, a 30-year-old patient was allegedly raped by a nurse in a hospital in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh.

The police informed that the woman, admitted in the isolation ward of the district hospital, was allegedly raped by Pushkar Kumar, the male nurse on Friday night, Superintendent of Police, Umesh Kumar Singh told PTI.

The accused according to the police is absconding. The SP said that the woman informed about the incident to the staff nurse when she arrived on duty this morning, after which the police was informed. After taking her statement, the woman has been sent for medical examination.

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An FIR will be lodged on the basis of the report and an investigation will be carried out, he said. Pushkar, who had been appointed in the hospital under outsourcing of staff, is absconding, he said. The victim belongs to Ranchi.
Pirate Bay Ordered To Pay Labels A Paltry $477,000

Despite being an early target of multiple lawsuits brought my several labels and music trade groups, torrent tracker Pirate bay is still operating and helping to enable music and media piracy worldwide. Now , 6 years after a lawsuit began, a court has ordered to Pirate bay founder to pay labels, just $477,000.

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A court in Finland has ordered two founders of The Pirate Bay to pay record labels just $477,000 in damages. Pirate Bay co-founders Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm were found liable for ongoing copyright infringement.

Neither even appeared in court to mount a defense; and thus both were found guilty in their absence. The lawsuit was brought in 2011 by international major label trade group, the IFPI.

At the same time, the Pirate bay sails on, serving pirates everywhere.

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On the day Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted, we saw two sides of the men and women entrusted to protect and serve us. One acting in accordance of the law, while the other working hard to slow it down.

Seven Haryana police personnel who were part of the Z+ security provided to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh were arrested on Friday for preventing the Panchkula cops from taking him into custody after his conviction.

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ALSO READ: Court Sets A Precedent, Asks Govt To Confiscate Ram Rahim's Property To Compensate For Lost Public Property

The arrested policemen, who were deployed in the Dera chief 's security for the last six to seven years, were sent in police remand for seven days on Saturday.

The accused had tried to take Gurmeet away when he was being taken to a helicopter in a Scorpio by a special team of Haryana police on Friday. The cops, who were equipped with a jammer vehicle, also manhandled an IG-level officer who was overseeing arrangements for transporting Singh to Rohtak, sources said.

ALSO READ: Rape Of Women By Ram Rahim Was Called Pitajis Maafi' At Dera Sacha Sauda. Disgusting

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Police are now probing the antecedents of the seven cops. They will also investigate whether they were acting on someone's orders and who they had been in touch with recently.

A case of attempt to murder under the IPC and another one under the Arms Act have been lodged against them at the Panchkula Sector 5 police station. The cases were registered on the complaint of ASI Ramesh Kumar, who was in charge of the team assigned to take Singh into custody. The seven cops have been identified as head constables Ajay Kumar and Ram Singh and constables Balwan Singh, Krishan Das, Khusbir Singh, Vijay Singh and Fateh Singh.

ALSO READ: Politicians, Cops All Were Too Scared And Didn't Dare To Probe The Case Against Ram Rahim

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ASI Ramesh Kumar said in his complaint that the accused travelling in the jammer vehicle overtook the Scorpio carrying Gurmeet to the district inspector's office and forced the police team to stop.

"Before we could react, two persons in commando dress approached the SUV from either side and tried to take the Dera head away. As we struggled, one of them said, 'Hum pitaji ko nahi le jaane denge. Gaadi back karke in par chada do, inko kuchal kar maar daalo (We shall not allow them to take father. Start the car and crush these cops).' The driver of the jammer vehicle tried to hit us while we were reversing. We got to one side but overpowered them with the help of other cops," the complaint read.

ALSO READ: Mineral Water, A Chopper & An Assistant, Rape Convict Ram Rahim Still Enjoys VIP Treatment

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Interrogation of the accused revealed that all of them are Dera followers. Police seized their weapons  an assault rifle and three pistols. Haryana DGP B S Sandhu confirmed on Saturday the registration of FIR against the seven cops. "We are hopeful of getting more information from them," he added. Sandhu, however, tried to avoid questions about the assault on the IG. A cop had allegedly opened fire and the IG had a miraculous escape.

ALSO READ: Fearless Efforts Of These Five People Made Sure That Influential Ram Rahim Gets Convicted
With a 10 kg bomb tucked in his arms, a policeman sprinted 1 km to save 400 children who were in school when the unexploded artillery shell was discovered in Chitora village of Sagar district.

Still breathless from his cross-country run, head constable Abhishek Patel told mediapersons: "My only objective was to take it away as far from the children as possible. Far away from all residential areas." A 12-scond videoclip of Patel running with the bomb on his shoulder has gone viral. It uncannily reminds you of the iconic Forrest Gump running scenes.

TOI

There were about 400 children in the school when the bomb was found on Friday morning. It's not known who dialled 100 but police responded instantly. Senior teacher Ajay Kumar said, "Police saw the bomb and immediately asked us to close for the day, almost two hours early. We asked the students to leave at once."

A student, Basant Kumar, said, "Teachers declared chutti after being told that there was a bomb on the school premises." Within minutes, media crews arrived. Amid all the hubbub the bomb was lying where it was.

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Suddenly, head constable Patel picked it up and started a 1-km-long sprint. Journalists were taken unawares and only one person could snap a quick video, where you can see Patel's face for barely a second as he leaps over boulders and bushes and disappears in the distance, clearly making for a small hill.

On returning, he explained that a few months ago, he was part of a police operation when a similar bomb was spotted. "Had it exploded, we were told, it would have damaged a radius of 500 meters. I was afraid it would blow up and decided to take it as far away as possible," he said. The shell is yet to be defused.

IG Sagar Satish Saxena said, "There is an Army shooting range near the village. The Army was informed about the bomb. How it reached there and who placed it near the school is being investigated." He announced a reward for Pate for showing exemplary courage.
Human activities aren't inconsequential anymore.

There is no dearth of the instance and live examples that validate just how much we have messed with our environment. Cutting down trees, increase use of plastic, air pollution, contaminated water system - everything is on the verge of falling apart.

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Southern Spain, the most recent victim of climate change is going through a terrifying transformation.

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Once thriving with mightly reservoirs and water bodies, the region is now slowly turning into dry-dotted-landscapes.

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The water levels are constantly dropping, resulting in a dramatic change.

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As a result, the land that one hosted huge reservoirs and areas for boating and taking a dip is now nothing but cracked arid soil...

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Other than the environment, even locals who benefited from the tourism are going through unfavourable changes.

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The entire area is hit by a severe drought, forcing in the formation of larger landscapes across the region.

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Last year, a study revealed disaster for the lush Mediterranean region due to human activity.

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It further reveals that by 2100, southern Spain will have transformed into a desert.

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Researchers say that if dramatic measures aren't taken, this phenomenon won't be that rare anymore. They said that we need to curb carbon emissions to slash the worsening effects of global warming.

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The effect of the human is to deforest, to replace with agriculture and so on," lead author of the study, Joel Guiot of Aix-Marseille University, told The Guardian last year.

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Let's take charge of the things we put to waste, the mess we leave around, and the pollution we create. We only have one planet!
A serving Senator has been declared wanted by the Nigerian Police on the grounds that he did not legitimately resign from the Force, the Senator, Isa Hamman Misau is being wanted by the police for alleged forgery and desertion from the Police.

On Friday, Sen Misau, who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy and member of the Committees on Police Affairs and Intelligence, condemned what he described as series of fraudulent practices in the running of the Nigerian Police.

Addressing National Assembly Correspondents on Friday, Senator Misau, who is a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said that a high level of corruption had been noticed in the handling of monies allegedly being collected by the police as payment for special security services rendered by the Police to corporate bodies, oil firms and highly placed citizens in the country.

The lawmaker also accused the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of extorting money from Commissioners of Police, State Mobile Commanders and SPU Commanders.

But the Police spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood has asked the general public and indeed the Senate to dismiss statements credited to Senator Misau, saying everything he said about the IGP and the Police are false.

According to Moshood, Senator Misau is a habitual and unrepentant liar.

His real name in the Police is DSP Mohammed Isa Hamman, with Police number AP No. 57300. He is still a Police Officer and not a Senator because his name is still in the Police Service.

Senate will do the nation good by asking him to return to the Nigeria Police Force to face disciplinary committee and answer all the charges bordering on serious misconduct, unprofessional wrong doings as earlier contained in our press statement released today.

We want the public to know that he is not fit and proper to be a Senator of the federal republic of Nigeria; because that purported retirement letter he displayed today was forged.

All DSP Hamman was saying were cheap blackmail, distraction and deliberate acts to derail investigation.

So the force will want the Senate Ethics and Privileges committee which we have confidence and trust into see reason to ask him to dress up in his police uniform to come and appear before police disciplinary committee to answer charges against him.

The IGP has no use to distractions DSP Hamman is instituting before the public, and no matter the position any person is, once he or she runs afoul of the law, he will be made to answer the charges, Moshood stated.

Source: ( PM News )
Hurricane Harvey reportedly hit Texas city of Rockport, on Saturday afternoon. The victim died in a house fire during the storm, while at least 12 people were injured.

Texans who rode out the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in a decade ventured out Saturday to find widespread devastation as Hurricane Harvey lumbered north in what was now turning into a deadly inland event.

With dire warnings of tornadoes, torrential downpours and days of flooding to come, broad swaths of southeast Texas were littered with uprooted trees, toppled signs, flagpoles that snapped like toothpicks and clusters of bricks peeled like scabs from walls and rooftops.

Fatalities were feared in coastal Rockport, Texas, where an estimated 5,000 residents had stayed put for the storm that blasted ashore as a Category 4 around 11 p.m. ET Friday between Port Aransas and Port OConnor, Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said.

Callers to the local emergency dispatch line told of walls and roofs collapsing on people across the city, where an official had warned those who opted to stick out the storm to write their Social Security numbers on their arms for body identification.

Shortly after Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 70 mph, Saturday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters that he couldnt confirm any fatalities. The state had more than 1,000 workers involved in search and rescue operations.

Theres been widespread devastation, Rockport Mayor Charles Wax told CNN late Saturday morning. No deaths had been confirmed, he said, noting that emergency workers were just beginning to go house to house to check on residents and assess damage.

While the worst of the storm surge had ended by midday Saturday, the coastal flooding threat was due to increase as already-swollen rivers and bayous get pounded with heavy rain, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. Sea water pushed onto the shore also wont recede quickly, he said, meaning this is going to be a long, ongoing flood event.

Abbott said the 210-mile-long corridor between Corpus Christi and Houston was expected to receive as much as 30 more inches of rain on top of the 20 inches that had already fallen.
The decision by the Federal Government to re-arrest IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has been described as the height of hypocrisy by the Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, and the pro-Biafra group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

According to a statement released on Saturday, the president of Ohaneze, John Nwodo, warned the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to respect his oath of office, and beam his attention on other urgent national matters.

I am amazed that the distinguished attorney is prepared to contest the superiority of the provisions of the Constitution on fundamental human rights of freedom of movement and freedom of association over an erroneous judicial proclamation violating those rights, Mr Nwodo said.

A few hours ago under the watchful eyes of the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and in total defiance of the Head of States proclamation of the rights of a citizen of Nigeria to live anywhere in Nigeria and to do business anywhere in Nigeria, the Arewa Youths, pretending to withdraw their quit notice, gave qualifications to the Head of States proclamation, issuing conditions for enjoyment of citizenship status.

These same Arewa Youths are supposed to have been arrested on the orders of the Governor of Kaduna State and the Inspector General of Police for acts of treason, conversion and sedition. As the chief law officer of the Federation, the Attorney-General looks the other way. He does not go to court to seek an order of arrest or prosecution.

Mr Malami had on Friday demanded the revocation of Mr. Kanus bail which was granted the defendant in April.

The application which was based on 12 grounds of appeal, followed an allegation by the AGF that Mr. Kanu exhibited flagrant disobedience of court orders on his bail conditions.

But Ohaneze said that Nnamdi Kanu, as a citizen of Nigeria, is free to hold any point of view no matter how displeasing to anyone so long as they are not inciting or provoking any criminal activities.

He argued that even though some Igbo leaders had differences of opinion with Mr. Kanu on certain matters, that did not mean they would sit back and allow his rights to be trampled on.

We have been insulted and abused by Radio Biafra but we concede them their right to differ from us. We concede them their nature to be exuberant as youth but we cannot be judgmental about their rights.

This is a democracy. In democracies, leaders are abused, pelted with rotten eggs and booed at, as the former Edo State Governor was booed in Abuja a few days ago. These acts are not necessarily criminal, the Ohaneze said.

The group urged the Attorney-General not to exacerbate the already tense situation in the nation by commencing a legal action which portrays him as biased, insensitive and misdirected.

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB in its own statement described the move by the federal government to re-arrest its leader Nnmadi Kanu as a dangerous path of intimidation, which smacks of state sponsored terrorism designed to silence free speech and infringe on rights to peaceful assembly.

The group noted that before the federal government decided to make a move to arrest its leader, it must first go to court to obtain a court order or else it will be resisted by millions of IPOB members.

The media and publicity secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, while reacting to call said the government must also approach the courts to grant its prayers and not try to subvert the legal process by arresting without the permission of the court.

We wish to place the whole world on notice regarding the illegal and wholesome undemocratic moves by Government to re-arrest our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who committed no crime known to the laws of the Nigerian state. This dangerous path of intimidation, smacks of state sponsored terrorism designed to silence free speech and infringe on our rights to peaceful assembly.

Merely asserting that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a threat to the Nigerian government is not a crime unless accompanied by legally definable crime or offence. The Buhari led administration must know that threats and more threats heaped upon intimidation after intimidation do not wash with IPOB. Before Buhari decides to make a move to arrest our leader, he must first go to court to obtain a court order or else it will be resisted by million of IPOB members.

He said Mr Kanu was prepared for a long drawn battle with the Federal Government.

Nnamdi Kanu is spiritually and mentally prepared for this epic battle. He is not afraid of being locked up without trial as long as his personal physician will be allowed to visit and attend to his medical needs. In dictatorial and totalitarian regimes such as we have under this APC government, outspoken critics are often imprisoned without trial, so this undemocratic and illegal approach to resolving the thorny issue of Biafra self-determination championed by IPOB is to be expected.

The Federal Government must also state where it is written in the 1999 Constitution that being in a crowd of more than 10 people, calling for the election and attending rallies is a crime. Our teams of local and international lawyers are following the developments closely. That Nigeria is dangerously close to the brink of collapse today is a direct result of the first illegal arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, arresting him again will plunge Nigeria into an unimaginable crisis, the group warned.
The Police has arrested a man in Kabuchai Constituency, Bungoma County while burying his mother alive following a land dispute between both parties.

According to Residents of Siuno village in Kabuchai constituency responded to distress cries from an elderly woman on Thursday, August 24, when they found her being buried alive in a pit latrine that was halfway dug by her son. Mr. Chris Wamalwa.

Daily Nation reports that Wamalwa was angry at his mother, Beatrice Nasaka, after she sold a piece of land that he was hoping to inherit. In a protest towards the decision, he decided to bury her alive in broad daylight.

Narrating what led to the wicked act, the traumatised widow who was rushed to Bungoma County Referral Hospital after she was saved, said her son wanted to bury her alive after she declined to give him a share from a piece of land she had sold.

Im a widow and my only property will save me from poverty. I had sold a piece of plot so that I can use the money for my personal needs but when my son heard of the sale, he rushed to my home and demanded a share. He attempted to bury me after he failed to get what he wanted, claimed the victim.

The 40-year-old man was handed over to the police by an elder in the village.

Source: ( Linda Ikeji )
A committee is to be set up by the Federal government to review the minimum wage of workers in the country, this was made known by the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, he said the FG had written them to forward a list of its representatives to the committee on minimum wage. A committee is to be set up by the Federal government to review the minimum wage of workers in the country, this was made known by the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, he said the FG had written them to forward a list of its representatives to the committee on minimum wage.

According to Punch, Ozo-Eson said: A week ago, we were informed in a letter that the government has now agreed on a chairman and that we should send our list and we did that immediately. What we are waiting for now is the inauguration of that committee so that it can do its work and we hope that is something that will happen without further delay.

It was also said that the committee is expected to include representatives of the government, NLC and employers.

However, Ozo-Eson noted that what Osinbajo said had nothing to do with the agitation for a new minimum wage in the country, noting that the vice president was specifically talking about wages in the public sector. From my reading of what the vice president said, I think he was referring to wages in the public sector. He was saying rather than consider a review of all wages in the public sector, the government would likely consider specific parastatals. That has nothing to do with the agitation or the demand for a new minimum wage. The minimum wage as it stands is excessively eroded in value. It cannot be regarded as a living wage. The demand for the committee to start work on the minimum wage is completely on course. We expect that process to start as soon as possible, the NLC scribe said.

Source: ( Naij.com )
The Enugu State Police Command,prevented break down of law and order on Friday, in Ozalla in Nkanu West Local Government Area of the state.

It was gathered that a man identified as one Ndubueze Oboro was attacked by a suspected Fulani herdsman at his farm in Umane Ngene Bush.

The suspect allegedly gave the victim matchete cut on his back shoulder and chopped off five of the his fingers.

After allegedly committing the crime, the suspects escaped just as the victim was rescued through the assistance of villagers and taken to hospital for medical attention.

This however angered the irate youth in the area who quickly moved into action of revenge. They sighted a man identified as one Abdulraham Usman and pounced on him and allegedly inflicting several degrees of injuries on him but was promptly rescued by the operatives.

All the victims were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment while investigations have commenced in full scale.

Source: ( Linda Ikeji )
British boxer, Amir Khans estranged wife has revealed that she is pregnant with baby number two.

Faryal Makhdoom Khan shared the good news on Twitter last night.

Her tweet comes after it emerged the couple have turned to an Islamic sharia law expert in a last-ditch attempt to save their troubled marriage.

Before she shared the good news, the beauty blogger delivered a jab to her boxer hubby by praising Conor McGregor for his devotion to his partner of over eight years.

Amir Khan and his estranged wife Faryal Makhdoom who already have a three-year-old daughter Lamaisah Khan, are currently battling to save their marriage after they dragged each other on Twitter over cheating claims.

Earlier this month, Khan accused his American wife of having an affair with heavyweight rival Anthony Joshua and announce that he was divorcing her

Left my family and friends for this Faryal. Im not hurt but another fighter. Im making it public. You getting the divorce #Golddigger.

But Faryal hit back minutes later, claiming her husband left his family because they had robbed him and telling him to stop making false things up.

She branded him a 30-year-old baby, and also went on to accuse him of sleeping with prostitutes and being a bad role model.

After getting Anthony Joshua involved in his family drama, he later apologised and said there was no truth to his claims after the British/Nigerian boxer threatened to sue him.

Source; Linda Ikejis blog
World Number One, Andy Murray has pulled out of the US Open with two days before the start of the tournament in New York after failing to recover from a hip injury.

Murray has not played since Wimbledon, when he was hampered by the injury as he lost to Sam Query in the quarter-finals.

Murray practised all week but said on Saturday the hip remained too sore.

Ill definitely make a decision on the rest of the year in the next few days, said Murray.

Source: ( BBC Sports )
Nollywood actor and reality show host, Chidi Mokeme, has reacted to the President Muhammadu Buharis Mondays nationwide address on the unity of Nigeria.

The 45-year-old thespian said in a letter he addressed to the President that he was mostly worried about the dictatorial tone with which the address was delivered to Nigerians.

He also faulted President Buharis comment that Nigerias unity was not negotiable, saying that under the present realities Nigerians must discuss how they want to live.

Mokemes letter to Buhari reads, MR PRESIDENT YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE UNITY OF NIGERIA BUT. My major concern about Mr Presidents speech is the dictatorial tone applied, negating your fatherly factor and the concerns of dissenting voices in a democracy, especially as it relates to the restructuring of Nigeria.

These dissenting voices in my estimation does not include IPOB. Mr President I agree with you that it is good to keep Nigeria united. But to say that the type of unity we currently have is nonnegotiable smacks of dictatorship.

In case you have forgotten the so called unity was actually discussed by our fathers and the terms of unity Nigerians wanted was agreed upon. But the military boys came in with violent disorder and destroyed what was negotiated prior to independence and in 1963, and gave us what you now describe as nonnegotiable, called 1999 constitution.

What the military led by one man gave us is unanimity and not unity. They took away the content of what was negotiated that was supposed to be nonnegotiable and gave us inequality, stifled systems that undermine Nigerias progress, development and prosperity. Indeed our fathers had a detailed discussion and negotiation with the British in the 50s about the kind of union that was acceptable us.

They all agreed on real federalism whereby each zone maintained its own economy, peculiar political structure and institutions. These included resource control, regional/state police and prisons and many other creative structures that made Nigeria progressive pre-independence to 1967.

Any document decided by Adulsalam Abubakar and his junta called the 199 constitution is without our general contribution ant it is largely not acceptable. And the change required cannot be made by only a council of state populated by retired generals from one region or national assembly without equal representation from across the states and zones.

There maybe need for input from other well meaning Nigerians if we are serious about carrying zone along. A unity based on inequality and military imposition must be negotiable.

Source: Dailypost
An HIV and AIDS expert in Omu-Aran, Kwara,Mr Matthew Awoyiola, has advised pregnant women to always go for HIV and AIDS testing and counseling to remain negative.

Awoyiola, the Coordinator, Local Action Committee on HIV/AIDS (LACA) in Irepodun Local Government Area of the state, gave the advice on Saturday in Omu-Aran.

The coordinator said that such gesture was to guard against mother-to-child transmission of the disease.

He said that the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by pregnant women, especially during ante-natal care was a veritable platform to reduce the scourge and prevalence of the diseases.

Awoyiola said that it would be a double jeopardy for an unborn child to test positive to HIV and AID due to the negligence of a negative mother.

The entry point for prevention of mother-to-child services is basically through HIV testing and counseling of women attending antenatal care.

In any healthcare setting, HIV testing and counseling should be offered to all pregnant women seeking this services.

Service providers should promote strategies to mobilise pregnant women and other women of reproductive age to go testing and counseling, he said.

The expert said that the country had been hit hard by the HIV and AIDS epidemic with an adult prevalence of around 4.4 per cent and estimated 3.9million Nigerians living with the virus

This is in spite of the concerted efforts at halting and reversing the spread the by multiple stakeholders.

The country remained among top five countries of the world in terms of its HIV and AIDS burden, he said.

Awoyiola said that the benefits of testing and counseling in the antenatal setting as reinforcement of safer sex practices and empowering HIV negative pregnant woman to remain negative.

He noted the importance of testing and counseling, especially when care providers and mothers services and other interventions were not available.

Source: ( PM News )
According to reports coming in from Owerri on Saturday, three people were suspected to be confirmed dead when they protested against the demolition of the main market in the capital, called Eke Onunwa Market, by the Imo Government.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Imo, Mr Andrew Enwerem, however, said he could not confirm the deaths.

A protester was allegedly killed by a stray bullet fired by security operatives deployed to maintain order in the area.

The death of the protester escalated the situation and subsequently two others died.

The state government had issued an evacuation order to the traders and advised them to relocate to a new site to make way for development at the market site.

Efforts of the government to relocate the market from the city centre to decongest the area have been resisted by Owerri indigenes who regard the market as their ancestral heritage.

The people had instituted a court case against the government over the matter.

However, the market was demolished in the night in spite of the resistance of the natives.

Source: ( PM News )
The Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB) group , has dared the Federal Government of Nigeria to attempt to re-arrest its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The IPOBs challenge came as a response to an appeal by Nigerias Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, asking for the revocation of a court order that granted bail to Mr. Kanu.

The minister also advocated the re-arrest and detention of the IPOB leader pending the determination of the charges against him.

The Attorney General cited Mr. Kanus violation of his bail conditions as one of the major reasons the secessionist agitator should be arrested.

Reacting to the ministers position, IPOB accused the Federal Government of playing politics, adding that Mr. Kanu could never be rearrested. The group also vowed that many tragic events would happen if Nigerian authorities ever rearrested the IPOB leader.

IPOB is not doing anything about the order of [the Federal Government] through the Attorney General to revoke [a] court order and arrest Nnamdi Kanu again. We are just watching and waiting to see what is going to happen and how it will happen, the secessionist group stated.

IPOB added, Think about what his re-arrest would cause in Nigeria. The FG is just playing politics. They cannot arrest Nnamdi Kanu. This is not the first time they would be calling for his re-arrest. Nevertheless, a lot of people have written articles stating the tragic that will happen if he is rearrested.

IPOB restated its advice to all Igbo to leave the Northern part of Nigeria on or before October 1, 2017. It warned Igbo resident in the northern part of Nigeria not to fall into a trap set by Northerners.

In April, a Federal High Court in Abuja granted bail to Mr. Kanu who is facing trial for alleged treason. The bail, which was granted on health grounds, came with certain conditions, including stipulations that the secessionist leader should not address rallies, grant interviews, or be at a gathering of more than 10 people.

Mr. Kanu has since been addressing huge crowds of people who support his agitation for an independent republic of Biafra.

Source: ( PM News )
A 40-year-old man in Kano, Hassan Lawan, who goes by the nickname, Mutuna, allegedly murdered his close friend, Zilani Yusuf, 35, who lent him N50,000.

When Yusuf asked Lawan to repay the loan, the suspect chose the devilish option of killing him rather than paying back the loan.

The evil deed happened in Bari village, Rogo Local Government Area, Kano State. To actualise his alleged evil act, Lawan invited Yusuf to his house on two occasions, ostensibly to discuss the issue of the loan.

The first time, he took Yusuf on his motorcycle to his house at Tarenge Village in Rogo Local Government Area, Kano State. After the visit he gave Yusuf a ride back to his own house in Sabongari, Nasarawa village in Kafur Local Government Area, Kastina State, about 8.00pm.

Then on July 16, 2017, he invited him to visit his house the second time, on the pretext that he would pay the money. He also asked the victim not to tell anybody about his visit to his house. Again, it was with his motorcycle that he took the victim to his house

Sunday Sun learnt from the Commissioner of Police, Kano Police Command, Mr. Rabiu Yusuf, that the suspect allegedly killed his friend during that second visit and then harvested his organs.

But the bubble burst when Yusuf did not return home and the friend he had confided in before leaving to visit Lawan, raised the alarm and informed the victims family.

His relatives reported his disappearance at Rogo Police Station, which launched a search for him.

Meanwhile, Yusufs friend told police what he had confided in him, that Lawan always said that he should not inform anybody about his visits to his house. Homicide detectives pulled the suspect in and questioned him. He owned up to the crime. The police later found the dead body of the victim in Bari village, Rogo Local Government Area with his private parts cut off,

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Mr. Ahmed Azare, commended Yusufs friend for providing useful information to the police, which enabled detectives to crack the case.

In a brief chat with Sunday Sun, Lawan admitted that his close friendship with the deceased, who he said lent him N50,000 but he could not immediately repay. When he continued to demand for the money, I decided to kill him to stop him from disturbing me. I invited him to my house the first time and tried to settle with him. I told him not to tell anybody about his visit to my house. The second time I went to his house with my motorcycle to pick him. Then I killed him and removed his private parts, so that he would stop disturbing me to pay him.


The 2 Division of the Nigeria Army said it would begin Annual Inter Brigade Combat Proficiency competition on Monday in Benin.

A statement by the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Capt. Mohammed Maidawa, on Sunday in Benin, said the event was designed to improve leadership qualities of Junior Commanders.

Maidawa said the competition which would be hosted by the headquarters of the 4 Brigade, Ekehuan Military Cantonement, Benin, was also meant to prepare the junior commanders for higher responsibilities.

He said the competition which would feature five events, is expected to have all the formations and units under the 2 Brigade as participants in the four-days event.

He listed some of the competing events to include; Map Reading, Combat Swimming, Physical fitness, Obstacles crossing, Skills at arm shooting competition and Communication skills.

The assistant director, army public relations, also listed the participating formations and units to include; The 4 Brigade, 22 Brigade, 32 Brigade, The Headquarters Engineer Construction Command, 42 Engineer Brigade, 52 Division Signals and 2 Division Garrison.

Maidawa advised the general public not to panic on hearing the sound of gunshots within the general area as gun shots were routine military training in the Nigeria Army.

[via]
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ogun State Command, arrested a man identified as Abiodun Onipede for attempting to commit suicide over his inability to refund a N24,000 debt, the man while attempting to take his life in a bush along Ayetoro road in Abeokuta.

According to reports, the suspect had tied a rope to a tree and was about to hang himself when a member of the team who wanted to relieve himself in the bush stumbled on him and prevented him from committing suicide.

The suspect, who is an Okada rider, had dropped out of school at 200-level at the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, due to a financial challenge.

He was also said to have lost one of his children due to his inability to pay the childs medical bills.

By the time he could raise the money, Onipede who was an employee of Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, said his child died after a surgery.

Thirty-four-year-old Onipede later said his inability to perform his responsibility as the head of the family led him to attempt suicide.

He added that his failure to pay the Lapo loan, an informal money-lending scheme, made him miserable.

He said, Due to the health problem of my child in 2008, I had to drop out of school so that I could raise some money to take care of my sick child. But the child died in 2009 because we were unable to pay some hospital bills after people had helped us to raise money for the surgery.

I was duped by some people and they even threatened me, and this made me to leave Abeokuta for Akwa-Ibom State. It was when I came back after a year that I discovered I had been sacked from the TRACE.

I am frustrated because I owe a lot of people ranging from house rent to electricity bill, and some other bills. I am ashamed of myself because I am not a responsible man. I cannot cater for my family.

The Lapo officials have used members of the Oodua Peoples Congress to arrest my wife because of the money. I am just frustrated because I have to pay N3,000 every Friday and I am jobless. I have about N24,000 to balance.

I cannot pay the hospital bills of my mother. I cant take care of her, I was told she is now on the street begging to survive. No family to help me. We have been living in abject poverty.

What convinced me to commit suicide was due to my inability to refund the Lapo loan I collected when I wanted to start my tricycle business. The officials of the Lapo have been harassing my family because I cannot afford to repay N3,000 every Friday, he said.

He, however, said he regretted his action, adding, It was not my fault. I am a frustrated man that does not know what to do.

I wish to go back to school; I want the government to help me with a job that can cater for my family.

The state Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC, Ogbonaya Dyke, said, Since the matter is under our crisis management team, we have to swing into action to address it.

It is a crime against the state for someone to try to take his life. Necessary actions will be taken by the corps to address the situation. He is going to be handed over to the police after our intelligence unit has done its work.

Source: ( PM News )
The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, Aje Ogungunniso 1, has vowed not to attend the coronation of 32 new Obas scheduled for today by the state government.

In a statement signed by the Olubadans spokesperson, Adeola Oloko, Olubadan categorically stated that he has no hand whatsoever in the proposed coronation of new Obas by the Oyo State Government led by Governor Abiola Ajimobi. He said that he would not attend the coronation of the new obas slated for Sunday at Mapo Hall, Ibadan.

Though, the government has made him the father of the day, Oba Adetunji vowed not to attend the coronation.

According to a statement from Olubadan, I have said it for the umpteenth time that I am opposed to the chieftaincy review and its recommendations as the process for such exercise has not been followed. Therefore, I cannot see how, as being advertised in some media houses I could possibly play a fatherly role in an exercise that I have not endorsed? Besides, as the father of Ibadan indigenes irrespective of political and ideological persuasions, I cannot attend an occasion where local government executives of one political party have been sending text messages to the party members in Ibadan land to mobilise for the event as if it is a political rally.

He continued, So, as the prescribed and appointing authority on Ibadan Chieftaincy matters, I consider, until otherwise reversed, that any conferment of crowns on anybody is an exercise in futility. More so, it is going to be contemptuous for anybody to attend that programme as there are two suits that are yet to be determined before the court. Also, where is the humanity of the organizers of this programme when Ibadanland is still mourning the passage of the Otun Balogun, High Chief Dr. Femi Olaifa, who was one of them until Thursday 24th August?

However, Governor Abiola Ajimobi has prayed for renewed strength and continued peaceful reign for Olubadan, as the monarch celebrates his 89th birthday, on Saturday.

A statement by the Special Adviser, Communication and Strategy to the governor, Mr. Yomi Layinka, quoted the governor as having congratulated the monarch and the entire people of Ibadanland on the momentous occasion.

The governor said it was by divine arrangement and not sheer coincidence that Olubadans birthday was coming at a period Ibadanland was witnessing a major transformation and boost in royalty, which, he said, was poised to enhance the status of the ancient city.

As the monarch inches very close to assuming the nonagenarian status, the governor prayed that the Almighty should continue to strengthen him and imbue him with greater wisdom and knowledge for the benefit of the people of Ibadanland.

Ajimobi said, Kabiyesi, on behalf of the good people of Oyo State I rejoice with you on the occasion of your birthday, which provides another opportunity for me to thank the Almighty for preserving your life and for renewing your vigour.

I pray for a renewed strength for you and may God continue to preserve your life to witness more years and peaceful reign in Ibadanland. During your time, may Ibadan continue to witness rapid progress and development.

As we savour this occasion, I call on the entire citizens of Ibadanland, members of the Olubadan-in-Council and friends of our dear state at home and in the Diaspora to join me in clinking of glasses to celebrate our dear fathers 89th birthday.

The governor prayed that the Olubadan lived long enough to join the league of centenarians, just like his immediate predecessor, late Oba Samuel Odulana, so that the people of the state would continue to draw from his fountain of knowledge.

Source: ( PM News )
The Special Assistant to the President on Senate Matters, Ita Enang has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for fulfilling his promises to Akwa Ibom State.

He was speaking in an interview with journalists on Saturday in Uyo, Enang said the President has delivered enough democracy dividends to Akwa Ibom in line with its position as the highest revenue earner for the country.

Enang listed the projects executed by the President to include the N56bn Calabar Itu Ikot Ekpene Road with a spur to Ididep, the $11bn Lagos  Uyo- Calabar railroad project as well as the appointments of prominent indigenes into prominent federal positions.

Maintaining that the country has never had it so good, he urged that Buhari be supported to for a second term so that he can complete all the lofty visions he has started in the state.

Enang said he went to Atlanta Georgia to represent the President at the annual convention of the Akwa Ibom State Association of Nigeria, USA Inc,(AKISAN).

The presidential aide said he mesmerized AKISAN with all the achievements of President Buhari and called for support for him.

The President had what to account for, and he sent me to the AKISAN Convention plenary to give account to Akwa Ibom State indigenes in USA

While acknowledging the contributions of Governor Udom Emmanuel in the State, Enang however said the credit should go to President Buhari who released the states allocation to the governor.

Credit should be given to President Buhari for giving Akwa Ibom State Government money to construct toothpicks factory , tomatoes farm , cattle ranch, and the roads.

This, according to Enang, was because the, State Government is operating a feeding bottle economy to FG and doesnt have an internally generated revenue that could be accounted for 

Akwa Ibom people should be inquisitive to how the money allotted to them by the Federal Government is used by their governor.
The Ogun State security operatives have arrested a father of five in the state for allegedly attempting to commit suicide over his inability to refund a N50,000 loan.

The man was arrested by the Anti-Vandal Team of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ogun Command, while he was trying to hang himself in a bush on Ayetoro Road, Abeokuta.

The man had tied a rope to a tree and was about hanging himself when a member of the NSCDC team saw him.

The man, a 34-year old father of five, later told newsmen that he worked with Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun but was sacked.

He explained that his inability to perform his responsibility as the head of the family led him to attempt suicide .

He added that his failure to pay the loan from LAPO, a private micro-credit lending organisation, forced him to take the decision to take his life.

I am a 200 level drop-out of Federal College of Education, Osiele, I dropped out because I could not get financial assistance to continue.

Due to the health problem of my child in 2008, I had to drop out so that I could have some money to take care of my sick child.

But, we later lost the child in 2009 because we were unable to pay some hospital bills after people had helped us in raising money for the surgery.

I was duped by some people and they even threatened me which made me to leave Abeokuta for Akwa-Ibom state.

It was when I came back after a year that I discovered I had been sacked from TRACE.

I am frustrated because am owing a lot of people ranging from house bill to electricity bill and some other bills.

I am ashamed of myself because am not a responsible man, I cannot cater for my family as a head.

The LAPO officials have used OPC (Odua Peoples Congress) to arrest my wife because of the money, if not for the help of my pastor.

Am just frustrated because I have to pay N3,000 every Friday and I am presently jobless. And I still have like N24,000 to balance .

What added to my conclusion to commit suicide was due to my inability to refund the LAPO loan I collected when I wanted to start my tricycle business.

The officials of the LAPO have been giving my family tough times for sometimes now because, I cannot afford to be repaying N3,000 every Friday, he said.

He, however, said he regretted his action and wanted a second chance in life.

I wish to go back to school; I want the government to help me with a job that can cater for my family and other things that are important,  the man said.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of NSCDC, Ogbonnaya Dyke described it as a crime against the state for someone to try to take his life.

Dyke added that the suspect would be handed over to the police, after the NSCDC Intelligence Unit had concluded its work.

Since the matter is under our Crisis Management Team, we have to swing into action to address the situation.

Necessary actions will be taken by the Corps in addressing the situation. He is going to be handed over to the police after our intelligence Unit has done its work,  he said.

Source: ( PM News )
Teams of insurance adjusters were mobilized Friday in Texas cities closest to Hurricane Harveys expected path of destruction.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall late Friday evening as a category 4 hurricane. According to AIR Worldwide, the eye of the storm crossed between Port Aransas and Port OConnor, about 30 miles east-northeast of Corpus Christi. Winds at landfall were approximately 130 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extending 140 miles from the center.

A second landfall occurred a few hours later north of Rockport, where extensive building damage was reported.

GEICO, Farmers, Travelers, USAA and State Farm reported hundreds of adjusters have been stationed across the state.

A USAA spokesperson said that adjusters pulled from locations nationwide were stationed in San Antonio.

According to Carrie Bonney, director of Public Relations at Farmers, the insurer has two mobile claims centers located just outside the hurricanes path. She explained that once it is safe to enter the damaged areas, the insurer will begin servicing affected policyholders as well as offering community relief.

We also have hundreds of adjusters prepared to deploy into the damaged areas to start helping customers as soon as possible, said Bonney.

Pat Gee, senior vice president of Claim at Travelers, said they have several mobile claim offices strategically placed in Dallas and Southeast.

Travelers continues to monitor the weather in case of spin-off storms or tornadoes.

We have hundreds of employees already on the ground in local claim offices who can assist customers affected by Hurricane Harvey, said Gee. We are closely monitoring the storm from our National Catastrophe Center to determine where to deploy additional Catastrophe Response teams, who are currently on standby, to handle any potential increase in claim volume.

The insurer also expects it will use drones to survey policyholder roof damage.

On Friday afternoon, State Farm adjusters arrived in Austin and Dallas for deployment to the coast, according to Chris Pilcic, the insurers Texas media specialist.

Additionally, we have six catastrophe response vehicles that have deployed to Texas  four are staging in Dallas and two in Austin, said Pilcic.

State Farms in-office personnel will reportedly start working catastrophe claims resulting from Harvey as soon as they are reported, he added.

CoreLogic released early estimates of storm surge and wind damage, indicating insured commercial and residential property losses could reach $2 billion. The global information and analytics provider said that this damage estimate does not include damage resulting from flooding, business interruption or contents claims.

Harvey has weakened, according to AIR, to a Category 1 storm. Rainfall from the storm is expected to last several days and the damage resulting from expected catastrophic flooding is still unknown.

Topics Catastrophe Texas Profit Loss Hurricane
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Q: Given the increase in residential development in the downtown area, has the city given thought to issuing or selling annual parking permits to residents of downtown Winston-Salem? It seems the city could do this for a reasonable fee and would alleviate concerns over parking for those living in the area.

A.H.

Answer: According to Greg Turner, assistant city manager, there are hourly, daily and monthly options for downtown parking decks. We even have multiyear leases to institutions, he said. We dont have annual, but we will be happy to look at it.

On-street parking is always in high demand. Our intention with this parking is high turnover to support adjacent businesses.

Q: A neighbor had a livestock animal die. It was taken to the edge of a field and dumped, not buried. What are the laws concerning the disposal of dead livestock, and who is responsible for their disposal? Which county agency handles these issues?

M.M.

Answer: North Carolina State Statute 106-403 notes that dead domesticated animals should be buried three feet below ground and at least 300 feet from any stream or body of water, according to Damon Sanders-Pratt, deputy Forsyth County manager.

Another option is rendering at a rendering plant or complete incineration. Dead poultry may be placed in a prescribed disposal pit, or any other method approved by the State Veterinarian.

If an animal is improperly disposed of in the county, it would fall under the umbrella of the health department; however, the animal control department would enforce these rules and cite individuals as necessary, Sanders-Pratt said.

You can reach Forsyth County Animal Control at 336-703-2490.

Q: The facility that I use for my regular Red Cross blood donations is switching to the use of Community Blood Services of the Carolinas. Is the Red Cross doing something different or just outsourcing?

G.M.

Answer: The American Red Cross is not outsourcing its blood collections and urges blood donors in the region to give blood at our blood donor center at 690 Coliseum Drive NW in Winston-Salem or through one of our mobile blood drives, said Maya Franklin, external communications manager for the organization.

Donors can find convenient times and locations and make an appointment to give by visiting redcrossblood.org. The Red Cross thanks all the generous blood donors who help to save the lives of patients in need.

We are not familiar with a Community Blood Services group, but you may be referring to Community Blood Center of the Carolinas, an independent, non-profit community blood center that works with various hospitals in North and South Carolina. Find out more about them at www.cbcc.us/about-us.

Q: I read that the Winston-Salem City Council passed the Brunch Bill. It is clear that restaurants will now be able to sell alcoholic beverages starting at 10 a.m. on Sundays, but does this also mean that grocery stores will be able to sell packaged alcohol at 10 a.m. or will those sales remain with the noon start time?

C.R.

Answer: Any place in Winston-Salem that sells alcoholic beverages can sell at the allowed hours, starting at 10 a.m.
Parkinsons support group to meet

Parkinsons Forward, a support group for people with Parkinsons disease and their caregivers, will meet at 1 p.m. Monday at Senior Services Inc., 2895 Shorefair Drive.

The program will be Show and Tell or Ask. Participants can bring devices or other things that make life with Parkinsons easier. Also, they will be encouraged to talk about exercises, experiences and other ways they have found to cope with the disease or ask questions about living with Parkinsons.

For more information, contact Jim Nottke at 336-972-7091 or nottke1@yahoo.com.

Faith in Action needs help with homebound

Faith in Action, a program of the Shepherds Center of Greater Winston-Salem, needs volunteers to make home visits, provide respite care for caregivers, make minor home repairs and provide transportation for homebound seniors.

Mileage reimbursement and training are provided.

For more, contact Drea Parker at 336-748-0217 or dparker@shepherdscenter.org.

Emotions Anonymous meets Wednesdays

Emotions Anonymous meets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Augsburg Lutheran Church, 845 W. Fifth St.

Emotions Anonymous is a 12-step program that helps people with emotional difficulties gain knowledge and support from others who have had similar experiences.

For more information, go to www.triadea.org.

This veterans coffee

to be an adventure

A special veterans coffee will be held at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 6 at the Richard Childress Racing facilities, 425 Industrial Drive in Welcome.

Veterans are invited for a free breakfast. The special guest will be retired Army Col. Walter Joe Marm, a Medal of Honor recipient.

The Hospice & Palliative CareCenter, UNC-TV and PBS have collaborated to present a preview of the new Ken Burns documentary, The Vietnam War.

The Richard Childress Racing Museum will be open for free visits for the participants after the coffee.

For more information, call Don Timmons at 336-331-1309 or email Don.timmons@hospicecarecenter.org.

Lunch and Learn

Workshop on Medicare to be held Sept. 11

Compass Financial Services will hold a Lunch and Learn: Medicare workshop at Bleu Restaurant & Bar, 3425 Frontis St.

The workshop will begin at 11:15 a.m. Sept. 11, but participants are asked to arrive 15 minutes early.

Topics will include Medicare Part A and B benefits and enrollment rules; Medicare Advantage plans versus Medicare supplement plans; how Part D and the doughnut hole work.

The workshop is recommended for people who will turn 65 soon. It is educational only, and no solicitations will be made.

The workshop and lunch are free, but registration is recommended. For more information or to register, call 336-768-5111.

Kernersville Shepherds

Center sets talent night

The Shepherds Center of Kernersville will have its annual A Night of Talent fundraiser at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Main Street United Methodist Church, 306 S. Main St., Kernersville.

Groups that will be featured include The Eastwind Band, Nice & Easy, and EC Stars, a Special Olympics cheerleading squad.

Admission is $10 in advance for adults, $7 for seniors and children. All tickets at the door are $12. Tickets are available at the Shepherds Center of Kernersville, 431 W. Bodenhamer St., or the Kernersville Senior Enrichment Center, 130 E. Mountain St.

Proceeds will benefit the Shepherds Centers programs.

Davidson agency needs volunteers

Davidson County Senior Services needs volunteers for its Meals-on-Wheels program in the Wallburg area.

Most volunteers deliver once every other week. Meals are picked up from a local church at 10:30 a.m. weekdays.

People interested in riding along to learn more about the program should contact Jacob Gordon, the agencys volunteer coordinator, at 336-242-2948 or jacob.gordon@ davidsoncountync.gov.

Dementia caregivers can get support

Senior Services Inc. offers support groups for families and caregivers of people suffering from Alzheimers disease or other memory impairment.

The free meetings are held at various times at the Williams Adult Day Center, 231 Melrose St. in Winston-Salem.

For more information, call 336-724-2155.

Program helps areas elderly population

Connections, the Aging with Purpose initiative of Senior Services Inc., has volunteer opportunities for Forsyth County residents interested in friendship with an area senior citizen.

For more information or to volunteer, call Melissa Smith at 336-721-6954.

Donate a vehicle, get tax break, help others

Senior Services Inc. is accepting donations of used cars, trucks or boats.

The proceeds from their sale help provide food and care to homebound seniors, and the donors will get a tax deduction.

To get the process started, call 855-500-7433 or go to http://bit.ly/2pYmRxD.

Vehicle donations will help seniors in the community through such programs as Meals-on-Wheels, Home Care, the Williams Center and the Help Line.

For more information, call Patty Mead at 336-721-6908.

Meals-on-Wheels needs volunteers

Senior Services Inc. has openings on its Exodus route to deliver food in eastern Winston-Salem each Tuesday.

Meal pickup is at Senior Services, 2895 Shorefair Drive.

To learn more or to volunteer, call Heather Livengood at 336-721-6910. Online sign-ups are available at www.bit.ly/1RoZZRg.

Compiled by Melissa Hall
After 30 years in the Winston-Salem Police Department, Chief Barry Rountree is hanging up his hat to embrace retirement.

Admittedly, law enforcement wasnt a job he foresaw himself devoting a lifetime of service to, but within the Winston-Salem department he found his calling.

This is the only job Ive ever had, Rountree said. There have been so many memories, but the highlight is the people and the relationships formed not only in the department but in the community.

Rountree, who has been police chief since 2013, will retire Thursday, leaving a legacy of community-policing initiatives.

City Manager Lee Garrity said Rountree has excelled as the police chief, helping to keep the city safe.

I wish he wasnt retiring, not because I dont have faith in the next chief, but because he did an incredible job, Garrity said. He has a whole list of accomplishments, but the biggest thing is that hes proven to be a very strong and steady leader.

While other communities across the country have faced turmoil regarding law enforcement, Winston-Salem has been fortunate enough to have avoided that, which Garrity said he credits to Rountrees leadership.

Internally, Rountree has worked to improve police facilities with a renovation of the Public Safety Center and the Beaty Public Safety Training and Support Center, Garrity said.

I worked with him when he was a lieutenant, and back then he already stood out to me as someone who was very bright, very thorough, Garrity said. I had my eye on him for quite a while, and he made a great chief.

Community members and of Rountrees co-workers sing his praises, recalling memories of his leadership.

Police Capt. Mike Weaver of District 2 first met Rountree when they were partners on foot patrol, he said.

Hes very good at developing the younger officers, and Ive learned a lot from him, Weaver said. I credit a lot of my success to him.

Rountree became an officer in January 1988 and climbed the ranks to become senior police officer  equivalent to todays corporal position  in 1992, sergeant in 1996, lieutenant in 2000, captain in 2004 and assistant police chief in 2007.

He has also worked in the field-services bureau, the investigative-services bureau, the support-services bureau and the professional standards division.

Theres a lot going on in our country, shining a negative light on law enforcement, said Catrina Thompson, who will take over as police chief. Because of Chief Rountrees leadership weve been able to continue building bridges and tearing down walls.

Rountree was the first black man to lead the Winston-Salem Police Department and the 14th police chief in the citys more than 100 years of history.

He has a bachelors degree in business administration from Winston-Salem State University and a masters degree in public affairs from UNC Greensboro.

Rountree is also a graduate of the Administrative Officers Management Program at N.C. State University and the Municipal Administration program at UNC Chapel Hill.

Chief Rountree has been phenomenal. Weve really been fortunate to have him, Thompson said. Hes prepared the agency going forward.

As Rountrees final month at the helm of the department comes to a close, he said he is most proud of trying to make the police department better for its employees and for improving service delivery to the citizens.

Rountree said he has had a rewarding career and strived to make positive changes where he could.

This wasnt something I planned on doing for 30 years, but I liked it and I saw the difference I could make, he said, not just in the big things but in the everyday things. Thats what kept me in it.
Correspondent of the week

STEPHANIE INGRAM, Winston-Salem

Building bridges

I've lived in Winston-Salem for 20 years and have often wondered why the Confederate soldier, keeping watch downtown, isn't controversial. And now, it appears, it is. Some see it as a symbol of hate and a violent past while others see it as validation of a proud heritage.

For the sake of argument, let's say it's both. But rather than remove it, I say we recognize it as one part of a complex and compelling history that ought to be embraced through the careful and deliberate creation and placement of more statues (and accompanying written explanation) around our city. We begin with the native people, early Moravians, their free black citizens, the establishment of Salem College, the American Revolution, abolitionists, Civil War factions (including Union sympathizers), suffragists and end our timeline with, perhaps, a celebratory salute to the multiple ethnic and cultural groups who call Winston-Salem home.

Of course, I've offered up a short list, but we have many qualified historians in our midst to flesh this out. Then we commission artists and sculptors to assemble our statues, city planners arrange them in a walking tour configuration, and we all are able to learn about, and honor, our combined heritage.

"But it will cost a lot of money!" you say? Yes it will. But we rallied and raised money for the I-40 bridges and I believe this bridge, also, will add to our city's identity and integrity.

***

DAVID TURCK, Clemmons

A Christian nation

Is the U.S. a Christian nation? Some would like it to be, some think it should be, and some are convinced that it is. I dont believe our country was ever meant to be a Christian nation, but a nation where Christians and people of all faiths or no faith can live together without persecution. At least that is what the Constitution says.

If we are a Christian nation, we are certainly a nation of very immature Christians: We havent learned to love one another, and to be tolerant of others beliefs. We havent practiced the basic teachings of the one whose name we invoke as our leader. We take what little faith we have as our given right instead of a gift from God to be used in service to others.

We who are born in the U.S. are most fortunate to be born free. Many have paid a great price and sacrifice to become U.S. citizens. If the U.S. is considered to be a Christian nation, people will begin to think they were born Christian, and it trivializes the faith. What you are born to is your ethnicity. You cannot be born a Christian; you must be born again. It is a decision!

***

JERRY RAY, Winston-Salem

Comments on Graham

In regard to the Rev. John Mendezs comments on Franklin Graham (Local leaders are critical of Grahams comments, Aug. 15): I'm not convinced the Rev. Mendez knows the same Jesus that Franklin Graham does, although he makes the claim. Mendez comes across as a very bitter man, something Franklin Graham and Jesus are not.

***

RICKY S. PHILLIPS, Winston-Salem

A good question

That was a good question raised by the Aug. 21 letter Why now? There was no push during the Reagan, Clinton, Bush I and II and Obama administrations to remove memorials to Confederates, so why now?

Ive got a similar question: Why are Nazis, white supremacists and KKK members suddenly coming out of the woodwork? They werent so bold during the Reagan, Clinton, Bush I and II and Obama administrations. Why do they suddenly expect a warm reception? What has changed? Why now?

I suspect the answers are related.

***

LOIS ROEWADE, Pfafftown

Gerrymandering

Racial and political gerrymandering is a serious problem in many states, but to such an egregious degree in North Carolina that the Supreme Court had to step in and order our legislators to re-draw the legislative district maps.

The newly proposed maps were presented on Tuesday, Aug. 22, at seven locations around the state. Hundreds of people showed up at the public hearings hosted by the state legislature.

Not surprisingly, since the same consultant who drew the current illegal maps was hired again, the new maps continue extreme partisan gerrymandering. About 90 percent of the districts clearly favor one party, creating safe seats with little or no partisan competition.

Was it just coincidence that in all seven locations, people were crammed into tiny rooms and overflow crowds were put into rooms with inadequate sound, or was this an attempt to make it as difficult as possible for people to speak, knowing that the majority were there to voice opposition to the proposed maps?

Racial and partisan gerrymandering has to stop. Now. It is a faulty, misguided political construct that de-legitimizes our votes, creates unbalanced legislatures and results in white-power rule. Instead of drawing maps that perpetuate a bad system, our legislators should be calling for an independent, nonpartisan commission to redraw districts.

***

ROMAINE POINDEXTER, Kernersville

A knee-jerk reaction

Please, please, please do not destroy any statues. I understand that well-meaning people think they should be destroyed, which I think is a knee-jerk reaction that will not solve a systemic problem. If they have to go, let's move them.

It is heartbreaking to think of the works of art and monuments that have been destroyed in the past because they offended someone. Think of the giant Buddha destroyed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. We are all poorer for the loss.

Some of these Confederate statues are truly works of art. If they must be removed from public places, then let's do it methodically and move them somewhere. Donate them to a Confederate museum or some private individual. Just don't smash and destroy. Please.

***

BONNIE G. VAUGHN, Winston-Salem

Losing democracy

I read the book you discussed in your editorial, Democracy in Chains (Defending democracy, Aug. 7). Its central premise is that certain rich people have put their proxies in positions of power where they will implement legislation that will destroy democracy, erasing the ability of the populace to decide matters for themselves. Theyve adopted these tactics because they know that the majority of Americans would not support their cause. They have to destroy the majority vote before they can implement their agenda.

This calls for gerrymandering and suppressing the vote.

It doesnt matter to these rich people whether they use conservatives or liberals to reach their goals, but theyve found conservatives to be more useful tools for now.

This is being played out in North Carolina right now, where Republican legislators are trying to entrench themselves into positions of permanent power with their gerrymandered legislative maps. If they succeed, theyll never have to listen to voters ever again. Theyll be free to do the bidding of their rich patrons.

Conservatives may think they like the way things are going. But they wont like it when they, too, lose their ability to make decisions about their own communities, their own health and their own lives.

For the good of our state and our nation, gerrymandering and voter suppression must be stopped.

***

SIRI BRUCCILIERI, Winston-Salem

A simple resolution

This is so simple. Its common sense of the sort that anyone should be able to see, and would, if they werent dazzled by simplistic cult-worship.

President Trump had his chance. Whether his supporters like him or not, whether they agree with him or not, hes simply too volatile to continue as president.

If the press can rile him, on purpose or by accident, so can North Korea, Iran or anyone with a Twitter account. This blustery bully could lead us into war with very little forethought and no one to stop him.

Look at the way even conservatives, even members of his own staff, talk about him: Theyre hoping that this or that figure can introduce some discipline, or keep him on message. Thats not how one should have to approach a president. He has no self-control, no discipline, no guiding philosophy. Everything he does is simply a reaction -- actually, an overreaction -- to whatever happens around him. Our country has not been in this much danger in my lifetime.

I dont want Americas sons and daughters to go to war on account of something this ignorant blowhard says or does. He must resign or be impeached.

***

ROGER L. MACK, Winston-Salem

Trumps remarks

Trump blames media for uproar over comments on Charlottesville, your Aug. 23 headline read. Its true: The uproar is the direct result of the media reporting President Trumps very words. I guess they should have just said, President Trump made some remarks and moved on to sports.

When Trump recited his statements for the Arizona crowd, he omitted the part that caused the uproar. But dont tell his followers: they dont want to know.

***

JOHN HARTMAN, Danbury

Acting on impulse

We've had a couple of years now to learn the depth and breadth of President Trumps militant ignorance of history, the U.S. Constitution and governmental protocol. Some think this lack of awareness is good; generally they too are ignorant of them, if less militantly.

Add to these a poor understanding of military realities, most notably the horrors of nuclear war. While campaigning, and then as president-elect, he said, on at least three occasions, versions of, "We have these nuclear weapons; why can't we use them?" as though a hydrogen bomb were a new broom or a sharp knife.

Words have consequences. In this case, the president is giving truth to the North Korean narrative of the U.S. -- that we are Goliath, preparing to obliterate David.

We are used to irresponsible chatter from above the DMZ. By not ignoring it, as presidents of both parties have done, this president gives power to North Korean President Kim Jong Un's blather, at least in his own mind. And we know this president acts on impulse, not strategy.

It requires an act of the U.S. Congress to formally declare war. However, a nuclear strike can be ordered by the president alone. Congress must wake up to the fact that this is not 1945. Ultimate destructive power cannot be trusted to any one person, even one that Congress is shamefully reluctant to stand up to.

***

JANE MONROE, Winston-Salem

Another lie

Last month, President Trump announced that he was going to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military.

Last week he announced that he was going to roll back the Obama-era order that medical personnel are required to treat transgenders.

So when he said during his campaign that he was going to protect the rights of transgenders, that was just another lie, right? Like the lie that our nuclear weapons would be safer with him than with Hillary Clinton, and the lie that he would drain the swamp in Washington, and the lie that he would bring back coal-mining jobs and the lie that he was opposed to white supremacy.

America, how does it feel to be trolled?

***

CHRIS GEIS, Winston-Salem

Fine people

When Nazi sympathizers stood outside a synagogue in Charlottesville, Va., recently and flew a Nazi flag, or when they marched through town at night carrying the torches of 1930s Berlin and chanting anti-Semitic slogans, there were not "many sides" to the issue, and there was not "blame on both sides." Nor were there "fine people" on both sides.

No, there were only two sides, and there was only right and wrong.

The scene in Charlottesville last weekend was, in fact, one of perfect moral clarity. Only a person utterly lacking any shred of moral character or decency would say otherwise.

***

JOHN JUSTMAN, Winston-Salem

Statues

History? We need to keep statues of traitors in the town square so we dont forget history?

There are no statues of Adolf Hitler in Germany. Yet somehow 

***

KEVIN BOYD, Winston-Salem

Confederate symbols

Confederate symbols on public land, in effect, endorse a movement founded on white supremacy. If they didn't, the Confederate flag would be an odd choice to wave at a Klan rally (see: Charlottesville).

To our shame, Winston-Salem currently has such a Confederate monument on Fourth Street, ironically situated across from a marker honoring our city's sit-in movement during the 1960s.

As long as our elected city government continues to pay homage to the Confederacy, people of color who live, work and belong here can never be sure they will be treated fairly. And we will never solve our communitys problems if an entire group of our citizens feels targeted for discrimination.

No amount of empty rhetoric will change this. Action is needed.

Mayor Allen Joines and other leaders of our community should follow the recent example of Baltimore and quickly remove this symbol of white supremacy before it causes the kind of tragic violence our country witnessed in Charlottesville.

***

GARY BOLICK, Clemmons

Our own history

The rights guaranteed us through the Constitution make up the foundation of our democratic republic. So how we choose to observe and preserve these rights is a mirror on who we are as a people and the limits to which we will go to tolerate the rights of others.

Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes writing in his opinion in Schenck vs. United States: The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing panic. Empirical knowledge informed Holmes opinion. Simply allowing every right to be upheld without applying the lessons learned through empirical knowledge can lead to, well, forced sterilization of people deemed mentally deficient and the lynching of those who are deemed a threat to the preservation a civil society. Yes, I am describing the Nazis and white supremacists.

Issuing permits allowing them to demonstrate on public property is akin to shouting fire in a theater. History tells us that left unchecked, Nazis will attempt to euthanize fellow human beings who do not fit their particular view of correct. History also teaches us that white supremacists routinely used lynching as a means to suppress and control the African-American citizens of our country.

Both sterilization and lynching are illegal, obviously, now. What seems obvious now was not so clear just a short while ago.

We have a president and a growing minority of people in this country who are ignoring the undisputed, empirical facts of our own history. Frightening.

***

RENEE BIZZELL, Lexington

Changing history

Some people think we should leave statues in honor of the Confederacy. They say we shouldnt change history. But to have these statues skews history. A memorial says this person was right. This person was respected. This person was a hero. The Confederates were either traitors to the U.S. or foreign enemies of the U.S. Why should we have memorials for foreign generals or traitors?

I had ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War (Confederacy) and World War II. I do not know the stories of how they became soldiers, except for my father. I am proud that those ancestors from the Revolutionary War were successful, and a new country was founded on the idea that all men are created equal.

I have different feelings about those who fought in the Civil War. I dont know their stories, but I hope they didnt believe only white men were created equal. I hope if those ancestors were here today, they would say, I was wrong. I should have fought to make all men free. We shouldnt keep statues dedicated to wrong.

None of our Founding Fathers were perfect. And in practice, the Declaration of Independence was only true for some people in the beginning.

We should keep the memorials for those people who fought to make this country better. I think George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, among many others, meet this condition. Robert E. Lee, unfortunately, chose the wrong side of history.

***

BILL BLANCATO, Winston-Salem

Respect predictions

Viewing the solar eclipse from a parking lot in downtown Winston-Salem was amazing. Watching the moon slowly pass between us and the sun is a sight Ill never forget. But what was more amazing is that I knew exactly when to go out to watch the eclipse because scientists told us the precise time it would happen.

We trusted scientists to tell us the minute the eclipse would happen. Why dont we trust scientists when they warn us about climate change? The earliest climate science prediction was made in 1897 by a Swede named Svante Arrhenius who predicted the Earth would warm in response to emissions from fossil fuels. His prediction has been proven as global temperatures have risen almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Predictions made by other climate scientists are also coming to pass: sea level rise, heavier rainstorms and soaring heat waves.

There was a time when astronomers were attacked for their conclusions. During the Inquisition, Galileo was forced to recant his belief that the Earth revolves around the sun. But astronomers soldiered on and now predict eclipses centuries in advance. The best way to honor the scientists who told us when the eclipse would occur is to respect and heed the predictions of their colleagues, the climate scientists.

***

CLIFFORD LEWIS, Lewisville

A more perfect union

Racism and religious intolerance are indefensible. But the only way to counter hatred is with love and understanding, not more hatred.

We are admonished to love our enemies, but there was little love or understanding displayed by any of the protesters in Charlottesville. Racism, religious intolerance, love and understanding are not right and left issues. The seeds of these expressions of human emotions are found in all of us: hope, despair, fear, and promise. As human beings, none of us is immune to them.

The protections afforded by our Constitution have allowed peoples of all races and creeds to coexist and flourish in America -- not always equally, not always easily and not always peacefully. But there is no other country or system of government on earth that has created an atmosphere in which an individuals God-given rights and talents are protected and encouraged as they are here. Even as our countrys founders wrote and adopted the Constitution, they were aware of the shortcomings of their efforts and the Constitution itself. The preamble doesnt state In order to form a perfect union It is the responsibility of each American citizen -- of every generation, of every origin -- to do her or his part to make it a more perfect union -- a process that will stop only when our belief in America stops.

***

DON A. HOLMES, Pfafftown

The center of the problem

When a boil appears on the human body, it cannot be effectively treated, and healing cannot begin, until the core is removed. I see the Trump presidency in much the same way.

At the center of the problem is President Trump, and everything around him that happens is a result of the core problem. How can anyone with any common sense possibly continue to support this very sick joke? His presidency is truly shameful for this country, a travesty for the nation and a shocking disappointment for the world.

Populism, nationalism, bigotry and hate are slowly and steadily destroying this country. If this is allowed to continue, we will ultimately destroy ourselves.

***

JOEL NEWMAN, Winston-Salem

Send a letter

Many Republican senators and representatives must be wondering what to do now. Perhaps they could write the following letter:

Dear President Trump:

I have supported you, despite the repugnance of your actions and words over the years, because I thought it would be worth putting up with your many faults in order to enact the Republican agenda. I was wrong. Your reaction to the horrific events in Charlottesville proves again that no agenda is worth the damage to the nation, and to my party, that you continue to inflict.

I am ashamed that we have elected a president so lacking in a moral compass. I will no longer work with you, nor do I consider you to be a member of my party. You should resign, for the good of the nation.

Sincerely,

Republican senator/representative

If Republican members of Congress are unwilling to sign such a letter, I would like to know why not.

***

MELISSA PHIPPS, Kernersville

Remembering our history

Defacing public property is vandalism, sometimes punishable by a slap on the wrist. Driving a car into a crowd of people is murder, sometimes punishable by the death penalty. Somehow, we, the people, managed to elect a president who can equate vandalism with murder.

It would boggle the mind if one were not also aware that we, the people, explain away the genocide of the American Indians, the enslavement of the African Americans, the objectification of women and children and the mockery of anyone who dares to be different than a generic us.

Maybe it is the presidents materialism that allows him to equate the destruction of a statue with the destruction of a human life. Yes, we do need to remember our history. Like a person from a dysfunctional family, we need to remember our history so we can admit the evil acts we, the people, are capable of, and reach toward the good acts that are the only hope of a better life for all of us. We need to remember that human history is full of good people who did bad things for misguided reasons, and that if we arent careful we will be just as self-defeating, ignorant and cruel as the worst of us.

***

MARY LYNN WIGODSKY, Winston-Salem

Infrastructure

President Trump's intended week of infrastructure ended without his intended meetings or message. But, perhaps the week was about infrastructure after all.

Our nation's true infrastructure is our national myth ... that myth of equality for all. This past week ripped and rent the facade, revealing our current and past divisions and the long simmering hatred of "the other." The greatest myth is that of white supremacy, which pervades all our institutions and many hearts.

We have work to do.

***

NAOMI J. DAVIS, Winston-Salem

Cant change history

It is a known fact that history cannot be changed, because even a grain of knowledge tells us that something that has already happened is history. We may learn from it, or change our future actions to improve upon it, but we can't change what has already happened.

Even though I understand that these statues are sad reminders to those whose lives were made difficult because of their skin color or other sad issues, in my opinion, the statues that represent our past history should never be taken down. My love of art makes it hard to imagine how disappointed this would have been for the artists who sculptured them.

I think we should just learn from them and leave them where they are rather than take them down or relocate them.

***

ANDREW ETTIN, Pfafftown

A perfect campaign slogan

President Trump, who never misses an opportunity to disappoint, obviously missed the chance for a campaign slogan that would have perfectly represented his programs and also would have contained a grain of truth: "Make America Eclipsed Again."

***

ANGELA STEWART, Winston-Salem

Education and exposure

Franklin Graham has been way off-base relative to the mainstream in his social/political positions for many years. No, President Trump was not directly responsible for the reprehensible actions of an ignorant collective of white supremacist hate groups in Charlottesville, although his divisive rhetoric certainly has done nothing to unite our country, either. His delay in calling out these groups by name is inexcusable and a bit ironic, since he was one of loudest voices in demanding that President Obama use the term radical Islamic terrorism as opposed to the more general term terrorism for ISIS actions. Wouldnt the same specificity apply when naming groups such as the KKK or neo-Nazi collectives? Once again, the shoe only fits until it applies to Trump.

As for Grahams the devil made them do it response, deflecting the blame from delusional racists to some mythological bogeyman only serves to perpetuate the idea in some minds that we can do nothing about this but wring our hands and pray. The fact that the numbers associated with these hate groups is small, relative to the population of the U.S., shows that education and exposure to people of all races, religions, creeds, etc., does go a long way toward opening eyes to the idea that holding onto notions that divided our country nearly 160 years ago will not move us forward. There is certainly work to be done, but that work can only be accomplished if we realize the enemy is human ignorance, not supernatural malevolence.

***

BOB STERN, Winston-Salem

Giving credit

Most of us have heard or read the phrase in the name of ... It is most often used to mean representing, but not in a negative sense. Like in the name of Jesus or in the name of justice. But I wonder what President Trump or his speech writers were thinking when, three days after Charlottesville, he told the nation, Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs. And again: Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.

Not that I would question the writers choice of words, and possibly the speakers, but I would hesitate before saying or writing, I admit I robbed this guy, but I did it in the name of violence. Could the text of the president's address merit closer scrutiny?

***

CYNDY LIVELY, Winston-Salem

Remove the Confederate monuments

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger insists the law preventing local governments from removing Confederate monuments in our state should stand, arguing for more public discourse to decide their fate. Like Berger, I grew up in a South where African American children were not allowed to attend my schools, eat in the same restaurants, sleep in the same hotels, use the same restrooms or drink at the same water fountains. I was taught a revisionist history in which the War Between the States was fought over economic issues, barely acknowledging that the issue was the reliance of the Southern economy on the labor of an enslaved people. I learned that segregation was not the systematic denial of constitutional rights, but rather a matter of states rights.

I urge everyone to read the eloquent speech Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, gave on the occasion of the removal of Confederate monuments in his city. I urge everyone to watch the faces and listen to the words of those who marched in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Confederate monument. I ask everyone to imagine that the visceral response of our African American neighbors as they pass these monuments might be akin to that experienced by our Jewish neighbors viewing a swastika scrawled in a public space.

If you still cannot bring yourself to stand with those of us who want these monuments removed from our communities, at least stand aside and let us get the job done.

***

EDWARD ROBSON, Winston-Salem

Swore an oath

President Trump swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Was he promising to guard the piece of parchment on display in the Rotunda of the National Archives? Or was he stating a commitment to preserve the union of American states, the diverse multitude of people who call themselves Americans and our laws -- the democratic system of self-government that binds us together to affirm the rights and freedom of us all?

Trump has demonstrated most emphatically that he has no interest in preserving the sanctity of our elections. He has demonstrated that he has no respect for our system of governance and no interest in learning or performing the actual work of being chief executive. Now he is demonstrating his contempt -- as he so often did during his campaign -- for the welfare or the rights of hundreds of millions of the people who constitute our nation.

He made a lot of promises to the people at his rallies, but just one at his Inauguration and the latter is the one he is in no way trying to keep.

What could possibly constitute grounds for impeachment of a president, if not such gross and flagrant dereliction of duty?

***

HELEN BATTERTON, Winston-Salem

No excuse

I dont condone violence. For any cause.

But it boggles my mind to learn that some Americans so dislike the left -- Black Lives Matter, the antifa, etc. -- that they will side with Nazis instead. Thats the only explanation for their support of the Nazis who marched on Charlottesville.

Despite the way some are portraying the left, the Nazis showed up with guns, shields, bludgeons, helmets and other war equipment. They also carried Nazi flags, gave Nazi salutes and chanted Nazi slogans. They gave speeches about exterminating Jews and blacks. If anyone went to Charlottesville to provoke violence, they did. One of them drove a car through a crowd of people and murdered a young woman. They had a permit is no excuse.

These are Nazis. We fought a world war against them. Theyre opposed to America and to democracy. I would hope someone would have the guts and sense of moral duty to stand up against them.

***

JOEL R. STEGALL, Winston-Salem

Powerful symbols

All my great-grandfathers fought in the Civil. Two were killed. A third served nearly three years before he was captured and sent to a Union POW camp.

I want to remember and honor my great-grandfathers courage and sacrifice for their families. I want to know about their lives as they were, not a vanilla fantasy. But the heroism, and faults, of my ancestors should not be presented in a way that appears to celebrate slavery, the economic, political and social foundation of the Confederacy. Symbols, such as statues and monuments, whether Gen. Robert E. Lee or Silent Sam on the UNC-CH campus, that for me mean historical fact may appear to others to revere an atrocious social and legal system.

Those of us who are Christians might find it helpful to remember the teaching of the Apostle Paul regarding those with different responses to symbols. Some of the early Christians felt they should not eat meat that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. Paul said it didnt bother him, but if the practice offended others, he would give it up (I Corinthians 8).

Surely reasonable people can find ways to display historical monuments that allow a full appreciation of the past and also move toward a just and compassionate world today.

***

LYNN BYRD, Winston-Salem

Moving forward

In all seriousness regarding the Confederate statues and how they have negatively impacted the lives of others by simply existing, ponder this: it's unenlightened for any of us to think that if we can't see, hear or feel someone's experience, it didn't happen. In other words, the statues don't express our collective history regarding the Civil War. This is fact, not fiction.

Perhaps by adding new monuments/art in close proximity to or in place of the 170-plus in our state, and making them interactive (maybe by adding a listening storyline), North Carolina can take the lead on not only preserving this sad era for what it was, but, finally, giving our state and the tens of thousands of our ancestors who rightly opposed the Confederacy and its philosophy their due.

What if the statues become a county-by-county exhibit, a statewide museum connecting the dots to the whole story? Imagine the possibilities for healing and learning as well as commerce for artists and businesses.

A precedent for creative repurposing of negative political monuments exists. In 2015, the Ukraine entombed a statue of Lenin in the body of Darth Vader, whose helmet emits free WiFi on the square. Maybe this blue-sky thinking can help us step into a monumental plan that moves Winston-Salem/Forsyth County beyond our arts and innovation tagline. Lets lead in compassionate change, too. Lets walk our talk and move forward, free helmet WiFi or no.

***

MARTIN GRACE, Winston-Salem

Resistance

Nazi logic: "People are resisting our attempts to exterminate them so they are the ones being violent!"

Its amazing how many conservatives agree with them.

***

PATRICIA LONG, Winston-Salem

Nazis in America

Our children should not have to worry about Nazis in America in 2017.

***

ROBERT GEYER, Bermuda Run

Stop World War III

We should ignore North Korean president Kim Jong Un, stating only that an attack of any kind will bring a swift, surgical maneuver executing him and any top personnel who support him. We have no hate for the Korean people, and doubt that they have hate for us other than what has been wrongfully instilled in them. We should state that we wish them success and a happy healthy life, that we would hope they would reunite with South Korea and prosper.

We should propose to the United Nations that it pass a resolution that the head of any nation that attacks another will be removed and executed. We do not wish to force any nation to have our system of government, but that no nation should attack another for any reason. They should be governed by their own people.

***

RICHARD J. WYDERSKI, Winston-Salem

Dialogue with North Korea

War. It is one of the least healthy activities of those in which humankind engages. It not only leads to loss of life, but leaves permanent physical and psychological scars on its survivors. It decreases the quality of life of people removed from it, and distracts us from achieving greater things. It is a vast blight that has affected the people of our world for millennia, and despite great advances in technology that allows us to communicate with anyone around the world at any time, we still contemplate engaging in it. Lets stop.

The armistice that was signed to end the Korean War was never accepted by North Korea, perhaps in part due to Gen. MacArthurs contemplation of the use of nuclear weapons and strewing nuclear waste upon the northern peninsula. Prior to World War II, the country had been occupied by Japan, then afterward by the Soviet Union, whose invasion of South Korea led to the U.S. involvement in the war. Prior occupations and South Korean westernization may help us better understand North Koreas apparent irrational behavior.

Placing its antisocial behavior in this context suggests it may be more rational than we realize, but doesnt excuse it or mean we should capitulate to threats and demands. However, acknowledging past injustices to the country may help frame a dialogue that will gradually bring North Korea into the world of nations and avert war. Lets continue the hard work of diplomacy. Lets not substitute global warming with nuclear winter.

***

TOM RAIF, Winston-Salem

The art of destruction

If these Confederate statues were in a museum, would the people who are defacing them think of them as art? And if so, is it then OK for anyone to come into a museum and destroy any art that they may find offensive?

The truth of the matter is, I enjoy art. All kinds. Probably because I have very little (no) talent and appreciate those who do. So, any destruction of statues/art I think is wrong.

But then again, I can see their desire to take them down. These "racist" statues depict the Democrats ugly history. So, I guess if I were them, I might want to hide that fact from future generations as well.

Please submit letters online to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. Letters are subject to editing and are limited to 250 words. For more guidelines and advice on writing letters, go to journalnow.com/opinion/submit_a_letter.
An engineer from Oslo attempts to disrupt the Nazi war machine at the height of World War II in The Saboteur, the latest historical thriller by Andrew Gross.

Kurt Nordstrum has lost his fiancee, and much of everything else he holds dear. He sneaks back into his hometown and sees the full integration of German forces. Nordstrum learns of an isolated factory hidden inside Norway where the Nazis are building a terrifying weapon. With a few close friends, he hijacks a passenger ship bound for Germany and steers it toward England. With the help of some British forces, they arrive in Scotland. With the information in hand, they join a team of Norwegian Freedom Fighters with a suicidal mission to take out the factory.

Nordstrum becomes the go-to guy for the impossible missions to stop the onslaught and assist the Allied forces. If he succeeds, his efforts will make the path to victory easier. If he fails, the Germans will have a path to full domination.

Gross takes readers back in time to a turbulent and terrifying era. Like his previous novel, The One Man, he immerses the reader in the 1940s with sympathetic characters while focusing on the lone wolf who faces impossible odds, but has no other choice. He also uses real historical figures and events with some slight name changes, demonstrating that with a talented writer at the helm, the past can truly come alive.

The Saboteur is a terrific thriller.
This year's Nov. 8 election didn't present any unforeseen outcomes, at least as it pertains to Dorchester County Council races. However, the competition between Republican Rita May Ranck and Democrat Carlisle Harrison was one of the more thrilling ones in the State, as the latter temporarily Read moreNewly elected Councilmember Rita May Ranck ready to 'work' and 'listen'
I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army:

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1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army
Justin Remy Napoleon, stands outside Cornwall's Nav Centre, which is temporarily housing U.S. asylum seekers, on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017. "I decided to come to Canada because the politics of migration in the United States changed," says Haitian-born Justin Remy Napoleon, 39. "I was scared. I came here to continue my life." Napoleon says he feared deportation over Trump's policy shift, so he left his adopted home in San Diego, flew to the eastern seaboard and boarded a bus for the northern border. It wasn't the first time he decided to start over in another country. He left Haiti in 2006 for the Dominican Republic and then went to Brazil. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A parade participant poses for a photograph with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne during the Grand Parade at the Caribbean Carnival in Toronto on August 5, 2017. Critics of Ontario's premier wondering why her dismal personal approval ratings aren't prompting her to quit before next year's election need look no further than government-commissioned polling. The last nine of months of polling that have landed in Kathleen Wynne's lap, and were obtained by The Canadian Press through a Freedom of Information request, suggest improving public opinion fortunes for a now somewhat less unpopular Liberal government. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
A man and a girl walk past some debris caused by tropical storm Pakhar on the waterfront of Victoria Habour in Hong Kong, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. The Hong Kong Observatory says Severe Tropical Storm Pakhar has made landfall over Taishan of Guangdong. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
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Police secure a scene in downtown Brussels after a reported knife attack on Belgian Army soldiers on Friday, Aug. 25, 2017. Belgium's anti-terror crisis center says soldiers have "neutralized" a man in downtown Brussels, amid media reports that the man may have been shot after attacking troops with a knife. (AP Photo/Sylvain Plazy)
For 17 years, the Greater Mount Hebron Church has sponsored a back-to-school event, handing out backpacks and school supplies to hundreds of families.

On Saturday the church held its Save the Youth Day in Lincoln Park, serving lunch, playing music and offering links to services for community residents.

Our church has been in this community for 51 years, said Antoinette Tolefree-Campbell, who organized the event his year.

Providing service to the greater community, from weekly free lunches to the annual back-to-school event, is part of their mission.

This is what we want to do; we want to give back, she said.

She said the church also likes to partner with local schools and aid organizations at the event to make it easy for families to learn what programs are available in the area.

Tolefree-Campbell said the church had 750 backpacks with school supplies to hand out, and that the church was ready to serve lunch for about 1,000 people.

She said donors including the Mary Lou and Arthur F. Mahone Fund help sponsor the event.

Tim Mahone said the event works well with the foundations mission, which is focused on education, children and families. He said he is pleased with the idea of helping families and kids get ready for school.

Its an exciting time of the year, he said.

Among the volunteers were teenagers who served food, played games and did projects with kids.

Fifteen-year-old Curtiss Tolefree III was working at the face-painting table, painting a Batman symbol for 8-year-old Jeremy Stewart.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Darryl Jones Jr., who is entering his senior year at Bradford High School, was working the grill.

Ive been coming to this for as long as I can remember, Jones said, saying his family attends Mount Hebron.

As soon as he could, he started to volunteer, and said he likes to cook for the event.

I want to help the community and give back, he said.
Kenosha Rabbi Dena Feingold knew she would be peppered with hateful comments when she confronted U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan about President Donald Trump.

During a town hall hosted by CNN Monday night, Feingold, of Beth Hillel Temple, asked Ryan if he would support censuring President Donald Trump for his remarks that appeared to equate the actions of white supremacist groups and those protesting against them.

Ryan said he wouldnt, saying censure would be absolutely (the) worst thing we should do, adding that it wouldnt help unite the country and that all of us have a lot more to do on this.

Feingold said she was not happy with Ryans reply.

I was disappointed in his answer, especially after he had stated so strongly that he thought what happened in Charlottesville (Virginia) was terrible, Feingold said Thursday. (Ryan) seemed to separate himself from the remarks the president had made, but he didnt want to take another step and say, Therefore I am going to hold him accountable. I felt his answer was kind of simplistic.

After her brief appearance on CNN, Feingold said she received some angry messages, and some internet users left nasty, even sexist, comments about Feingold under those articles and on social media.

I think that many in our country, me included, feel that white supremacist, neo-Nazis, anti-Semitic groups have felt emboldened by the election of President Trump, Feingold said, adding that anti-Semitism is nothing new.

Whether its true or not, they saw in him an ally because of people that were working with him, people that he hired to be in his administration, because of statements he made seeming to condone anti-Semitism or showing a callous attitude toward various groups in our society.

Stepped-up security

Feingold said her congregation has hired private security for its synagogue and asked the Kenosha Police Department to stay vigilant amid threats against other synagogues in Milwaukee and Chicago. She said Kenosha police are aware of the problem and have been told to to pay special attention to the Jewish institutions in our area.

Feingold, who has served the Jewish community for some 40 years, said, I dont ever recall a time like this, with brazen public expressions of anti-Semitism on the streets and public squares of America.

Anti-Semitism rising

Thomas Long, an assistant professor of religion at Carthage College, echoed Feingolds concerns. Long is an expert on Christian redemption, Nazism and the Christian response to the Nazi State in 20th century Germany.

I think there is a rise of anti-Semitism, Long said. Its always been here, but now it has more of an authoritative voice.

Long highlighted Albion College in Michigan, his alma mater, which was vandalized with swastikas after the 2016 election.

Im not going to blame it all on our current president, but I think hes allowed some bad voices within his administration more sway than he should have, Long said. World War II should have been the end of (Nazism).

Even some labels thrown around on conservative message boards to describe opponents to the current administration  globalist, elitist, Wall Street banker  have anti-Semitic connotations, Long said.

It is scary. It is very disturbing, Long said.

The Anti-Defamation League reports that anti-Semitic incidents increased by 34 percent in 2016 compared with the previous year. In the first quarter of 2017, the number of incidents rose 86 percent compared with the same period in 2016.

Roots of anti-Semitism

The ADL defines anti-Semitism as the belief or behavior hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish.

Anti-Semitism may also take the form of religious teachings that proclaim the inferiority of Jews, or political efforts to isolate, oppress or injure them. It may also include prejudiced or stereotyped views about Jews.

Hostility toward Jews dates to ancient times, perhaps even to the beginning of Jewish history, according to the ADL.

When things are going poorly in a society, especially economically, society tends to look for a scapegoat, and Jews have always been a scapegoat, Feingold said. There is a long history behind that.

Jews are a tiny minority, Feingold said. Were a little different. Were little understood by a lot of people. So were an easy group to lash out at.

Feingold said throughout history, some protestants and Roman Catholics have participated in the persecution of Jews because they wanted to denigrate the old religion  Judaism  that they wanted to go away.

Long encouraged all people of faith to stand up to neo-Nazis and racists to help stem the tide of hate.

Could the (rise of Adolf Hitler) have been prevented if there had been a concerted effort on the part of churches to stop it? Perhaps the answer is yes, Long said.
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.

So I'd like to know where, you got the notion, said I'd like to know where, you got the notion to rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby, rock the boat, don't tip the boat over.

As if Janet Yellen took a cue from the 1974 song by the Hues Corporation, in her speech Friday at the annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she decided not to rock the boat. Although she spoke out in defense of the regulations that were initiated during the Obama presidency, she did not address any future plans or timetables in regard to the Federal Reserves next rate hike.

The only boat she really rocked was her own. She sent a loud and clear message to this current administration as she defended the Dodd Frank legislation implemented after the 2008 crisis. In her speech, she acknowledged that it was the reforms that shored up the U.S financial system by making it mandatory that banks increase the capital on hand, as well as the alleviation of high-risk assets on their balance sheets.

Initial commentary about Janet Yellens speech has alluded to the fact that her comments were directed at the current administration, and that likely this would be the last keynote address from the current chairwoman, as her position with the Federal Reserve will come to a conclusion in February.

According to an article penned by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, in Fridays Business Insider, In her keynote address at the high-profile conference in the Grand Teton mountains of Wyoming, Yellen was not holding back  in a way that potentially suggests she is not holding her breath for a reappointment from Donald Trump. Yellen's term as Fed chair expires in February, and Trump is widely expected to nominate Gary Cohn, ex-president of Goldman Sachs and head of the president's National Economic Council, to replace her.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said in a research note, "Fed Chair Janet Yellen's passionate defense of the post-crisis tightening of financial regulation isn't going to go down particularly well at the White House. Donald Trump has made rolling back regulation the centerpiece of his presidency."

With the looming potential for a government shutdown, if the powers at hand are unable to come to an agreement about our budget and raise the debt ceiling, there is the potential for further economic upheaval in the United States.

This, coupled with other upcoming events as well as the current political turmoil in Washington, has put defined pressure on the U.S. dollar, which has been extremely supportive of gold pricing. As Friday, gold futures are trading up 4  dollars at $1296.50. The U.S. dollar continues its freefall losing over 8/10 of a percent in value vis-a-vis the U.S dollar index.

Although Janet Yellen said very little today in regard to the future plans of the Federal Reserve, the current economic climate is certainly rocking the boat in regards to U.S. dollar strength.

For those who would like a deeper analysis, simply use this link.

Wishing you as always, good trading,
HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) - Emergency crews raced to pull people from cars and homes as flood waters rose across southeast Texas on Sunday, rescuing over 1,000 people around Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey hit the region with unprecedented rain expected to last for days.

Harvey came ashore late Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the U.S. state for days, triggering record floods, tidal surges and tornadoes.

The storm has caused chest-deep flooding on some streets in Houston as rivers and channels overflow their banks. More than 25 inches (64 cms) of rain has fallen in some parts of the city, with the storm expected to dump a further 12 to 25 inches (30-63 cms) over the next few days, the National Weather Service forecast.

The total could reach 50 inches in some coastal areas of Texas by the end of the week, or the average rainfall for an entire year. Scenes of submerged highways and flooded homes in the nations fourth-largest city recalled the devastation that struck New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced, the governments National Weather Service said on Twitter.

The center of Harvey was still 125 miles away from Houston, and was forecast to arc slowly toward the city through Wednesday. Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday because its winds had slowed, but days of torrential rain are forecast. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, in a press conference, said new tornado warnings are expected later on Sunday.

The storm struck at the heart of the countrys oil and gas industry, forcing operators to close several refineries and evacuate and close offshore platforms. The Gulf is home to about nearly half of the nations refining capacity, and the reduced supply could affect gasoline supplies across the U.S. Southeast and other parts of the country.

The swift rise of flood waters surprised authorities and Houston residents with boats were asked to help with rescues. Emergency services told the citys 2.3 million inhabitants to climb onto the roofs of houses, if necessary, to escape the water. People in Houston and other areas of Texas were asked not to leave their homes, even if they flooded, as roads were impassable.

Weve already had 20 helicopters in the air to help with rescue missions, said Abbott.

The Ben Taub Hospital in Houstons Medical Center was being evacuated on Sunday. An American Red Cross emergency shelter was forced to shut due to flooding and the group opened two more, including one in a convention center in downtown Houston.

Within less than a half hour, we had 7 to 8 inches of water in our first floor, said Brian Hoskins, 25, a petroleum engineer who lives in Houston.

Many people were stuck in vehicles on raised highway sections with dips in the roads ahead of them flooded.

The Twitter account of the sheriff of Harris County, which includes most of Houston, was inundated with rescue requests and his team were unable to respond quickly to all of them.

All agencies care but everyone simply operating at maximum capacity, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted at one point.

Houstons Bush International and William P. Hobby airports canceled all commercial flights on Sunday. Hobby had standing water on the runway and said the arrivals area was flooded.

There are a number of stranded people on our streets, calling 911, exhausting needed resources. You can help by staying off the streets, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter.

On Friday night, a man died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of Corpus Christi. The second confirmed fatality came on Saturday when an elderly woman drowned attempting to drive through flooded streets in west Houston, said city police Sergeant Colin Howard.

Millions of barrels per day of fuel production have been halted, and gasoline prices rose ahead of the storm. Benchmark gasoline futures were likely to rise again as shutdowns extended from to the refining hub of Houston, including Exxons Baytown refinery, the second largest U.S. refinery.

HARVEY THREATENS RECORD RAIN

Harvey slammed into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (210 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961. It threatens to break a record established when Alvin, Texas, was deluged by 43 inches of rain in 24 hours on July 24-25, 1979.

The storm ripped off roofs, destroyed buildings, flooded coastal towns and had cut off power to about 280,000 people in Texas as of Sunday.

Abbott said 1,800 members of the military would help with the statewide cleanup. Another 1,000 people were conducting search-and-rescue operations.

The size and strength of Harvey dredged up memories of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that killed 1,800 in a disaster made worse by a slow government emergency response.

U.S. President Donald Trump, facing the first big natural disaster of his term, said on Sunday he would visit the area as soon as he could do so without causing more disruption. Trump signed a disaster proclamation on Friday, triggering federal relief efforts. Abbott said 50 counties have been declared state disaster areas.

Jose Rengel, a 47 year old construction worker who lives in Galveston, was helping with rescue efforts in Dickinson, Texas, southeast of Houston, where he saw water cresting the tops of cars.

I am blessed that not much has happened to me but these people lost everything. And it keeps raining," he said.
Stuff reports:

Jacinda Arderns all-time favourite election? Well, Obamas 2008 victory will always feel special. But closer to home? It would have to be 2005, when the contest between race-baiting National leader Don Brash and two-term Labour prime minister Helen Clark went down to the wire. Ardern, then a 25-year-old staffer for Clark, was beside herself as early results seemed to show Brash had denied Clark her third term. I remember my dad calling me and saying, Dont worry, youll be able to find another job  because he could hear how upset I was. And I remember saying in this broken voice, Its not about my job. What about all the people wholl have to pay market rents in their state houses?'

The interesting thing with this recollection is that as far as I recall that was not National policy in 2005. So Jacinda was upset over a non existent policy!

The job in Blairs Cabinet Office was in 2006, shortly before he handed over the UK prime-ministership to Gordon Brown. So is Blair one of Arderns chums too? Because as activist John Minto has pointed out, Blair took Britain into George W Bushs catastrophic Iraq war on a lie, and many consider him a war criminal. How did working for Blair jibe with Arderns enthusiasm for peace and justice and so on? Actually, says Ardern, she never met Blair in person at that time   the Cabinet Office is massive. But the issue of whether she was bothered about working for a war criminal? Thats a fair question.

It isnt a fair question. Blair is not a war criminal. Shoddy journalism to report an opinion of John Mintos as fact.

She had very low expectations, so when the job offer came, I was absolutely gutted. I felt this real dilemma, which was absolutely about Blair. She still took the job though.

So Jacinda is no Blairite.

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Filmmaker Edgar Wright, left, and actor Ansel Elgort pose during the press conference for their crime action film "Baby Driver" at Megabox Theater in Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of Sony Pictures



By Kim Jae-heun

Edgar Wright, English filmmaker of crime action film "Baby Driver," and the movie's leading actor Ansel Elgort visited Seoul, Friday, to promote their film that is set for release on Sept. 14.

On arriving at the press conference in Megabox Theater in Coex, the two started off with how much they love Korean film and K-pop music.

Wright said Korean movies have developed explosively in the last 15 years and many of them have made international debuts, particularly this year.

"I am a big fan of genre films and I like Bong Jun-ho and Park Chan-wook," Wright said. "I've watched several of their films. I watched The Handmaiden in L.A. during the preview session and I've known Bong since his film The Host opened."

"I heard that Edgar in Bong's Snowpiercer, played by Jamie Bell, took his name from mine. He was not a bad guy and he was good guy but he died very early in the scene. Korea is producing many crime and thriller films and many of them are introduced in England and America. I expect to see many of the upcoming films," Wright said.

Elgort said this is his second time visiting Seoul and he came here to participate as a DJ in last year's Ultra Music Festival.

"I love Korean culture and Korean food. K-pop is very unique too. I wish I could come to Korea every year," Elgort said.

The actor also revealed his friendship with K-pop band Bangtan Boys (BTS), who he met during the Billboard Music Awards.

"We took pictures together at Billboard Music Awards and we've been keeping in touch since then. I am going to meet Rap Monster and V. They've made great music and music videos, which I believe are similar to Baby Driver. If you like BTS, you will like our movie too," Elgort said.

"Baby Driver" is a crime action film starting Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James and Jamie Foxx. Elgort plays young getaway driver Baby living in Atlanta, Georgia. He ferries bank robbery crews assembled by Doc (Spacey). Baby lost his parents in a car accident when he was young and he suffers from tinnitus, making him listen to music all the time to block out the irritating sound in his ear.

The filmmaker said he also suffers from the same illness that Baby goes through and he had created the character based on his childhood experience.

"I did not know music could help with tinnitus and I had a hard time overcoming it. I wanted to create a character that fully depends on music," Wright said.

In this context, Wright emphasized that music plays the most important role in the movie and he wrote the script according to the music he plays in the scenes.

"I really wanted to play Queen's Brighton Rock in the scene. As complicated as the song is, it was difficult to produce action scenes to go along with the music," Wright added.

Elgort starred in romantic drama "The Fault in Our Stars" as Augustus Waters in 2014. His counterpart James, who plays Baby's love interest Debora, appeared in the 2015 Disney film "Cinderella."
By Jung Min-ho

Former President Park Geun-hye will likely be found guilty of receiving bribes from Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, following the court decision that found him guilty of bribing her, lawyers said.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled Friday that Samsung gave 7.2 billion won ($6.4 million) in bribes to Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil, and Lee "implicitly ordered" company officials to do so.

The court confirmed Lee knew the bribes would end up in Park's hands when he decided to give the money to Choi and expected the former president to help ensure his control of the business empire.

Following the verdict, lawyers said, it is very likely that Park will be found guilty of bribery  a charge that could put her in prison for life.












A souvenir watch given to guests invited to Cheong Wa Dae has President Moon Jae-in's signature on the dial. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

Demand is rising for a watch with President Moon Jae-in's signature that is given as a souvenir to visitors of Cheong Wa Dae, amid the President's high popularity, which is above 70 percent.

While many people want one, Cheong Wa Dae is managing the supply tightly, increasing its rarity.

The so-called "Moon Jae-in watch" has the design of a set of Asian phoenixes on the upper side of the dial, which is the symbol of the Korean presidency. On the bottom side is Moon's signature, "President Moon Jae-in."

On the back of the dial is the phrase, "Putting people first," which is Moon's political philosophy. The sheepskin-made strap is beige in color, unlike those of former presidents' watches that were black. It comes in two sizes, a larger one for men and a smaller one for women.

The watch, which was introduced earlier this month, is made by a small company, and costs around 40,000 won. But it is not purchasable and is provided as a souvenir only to those invited to events at Cheong Wa Dae.

Up through Lee Myung-bak's 2008-13 administration, the presidential office used to stock many watches and provide them generously, and usually then-ruling party lawmakers hoarded them and offered them to bigwigs of their constituencies. The supply of the presidential souvenir became rather tight under the succeeding Park Geun-hye administration, but still such lawmakers could manage to get the watches through high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae officials by taking advantage of their personal ties with them.

However, the Moon government set up an internal rule to manage the supply more tightly. According to the rule, the watches are given to those invited to ceremonies or events at Cheong Wa Dae, foreign dignitaries visiting Cheong Wa Dae or those invited to events in foreign countries hosted by the President, such as meetings with overseas Koreans during the President's visit to the countries where they live now.

Cheong Wa Dae does not keep a stock of the watches but places orders for the needed volume ahead of such events in order to prevent waste of taxes and possible misuse of the presidential souvenir.

Presidential secretary for administrative affairs Lee Joung-do, who decides which occasions Cheong Wa Dae will provide the watches, rejects any personal requests for the watches, although high-ranking officials may make the requests, according to officials at the presidential office.

"I can't get a single watch while dozens of my acquaintances ask me to get one for them," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.

Along with the watch, Cheong Wa Dae also introduced a teacup as a souvenir, which is usually provided at events hosted by first lady Kim Jung-sook.

Besides the souvenirs provided by Cheong Wa Dae, many other items related to Moon have been popular.

Stamps commemorating the inauguration of the nation's 19th President sold out when they were released on Aug. 17, with people queuing up in front of post offices nationwide. After the initially released 20,000 stamp albums were sold out, Korea Post produced an additional 12,000 albums, which also sold out. The agency is now receiving orders for a third production run.

The brands of his glasses, shoes, tie and outdoor jacket, the coffee bean blending ratio he enjoys, and books he read during his summer holiday have also created new demand in the market.
Patience, imagination, practicality in need



Korea and China didn't even stage a joint celebration to mark the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic ties. Their leaders' congratulatory statements revealed the low point of the relationship. President Moon Jae-in expressed his hopes for a substantial strategic partnership with China, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the fair settlement of their differences.



The two didn't explicitly mention what chilled their relationship _ Seoul's decision to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptor battery, and Beijing's demand to remove it.



There appears to be no easy and prompt fix. Beijing sees THAAD as an extension of its hegemonic standoff with the United States, recognizing it as part of the U.S. missile defense shield aimed at Chinese encirclement. Seoul takes it as a self-defense move against North Korea's growing missile threat and is deploying it at the strong suggestion of the U.S., its key ally.



But this stalemate shouldn't stop the two neighbors from reaching out to one another.



As a matter of fact, Korea went the extra mile to show China how seriously it takes China ties. During a celebratory dinner hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Seoul Thursday, Korea was represented by a rather high-powered delegation. The official delegates included National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, top presidential security adviser Chung Eui-yong and Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam. Unofficially on hand were Moon Chung-in, President Moon's national security mentor, and Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk.



Their presence has helped maintain contacts with China at the senior level, keeping dialogue going and preventing bilateral ties from degenerating further. This is the right long-term patient approach that will help ensure the two countries' ties flourish again, once the THAAD issue is passed.



Korea should also adopt an imaginative and bold policy. At the moment, Korea is looked at and acts as a cameo in the grand theater of the clash of interests between the U.S. and China, and THAAD only confirms this status. But on the flip side of this equation, there is a potential for Korea to become a main actor that can mediate the two big powers' struggle. Korea has grown to be a global industrial power and strong military power but it tends to see itself as a small fry in the big pond of global diplomacy. The nation should free itself from these self-imposed constraints in order to lcreate solutions to the THAAD dispute with China and play the role that fits its size.



It is worth considering launching a China bureau to pursue related policies with consistency and foster China experts at a time when calls are rising for the overhaul of the foreign ministry. Together, recommended is a dual-track approach _ boosting regional government-level contacts while the central governments' ties are on the doldrums.



Above all, it takes two to tango.China has to rethink its relationship with Korea because both Korea and China have a lot more to lose.




By Oh Young-jin





As with most successful power grabs, this coup attempt took place in the din of distractions. Few noticed it until it was well underway.

The most stunning part of it was that the coup leader was not an Army general, a usual suspect, with no tanks or troops involved.

His cause was to close the dysfunctional legislature and usher in the rule through direct partnership between the leader and the people. As things stood, there was a good chance that his coup would succeed.



When and where



It was Sunday night when the Blue House put on a show to celebrate the achievements of the Moon Jae-in government's first 100 days in office. The cast of Cabinet ministers and top presidential aides together with a hall full of guests were on hand. An indie band belted out an opening song, followed by a session of questions and answers about the government's policies and plans. The one-hour program was broadcast live through three major television stations. In contrast to the festive tone of the show, a bit more than one in 10 people watched it, with some complaining about the special primetime broadcast bumping regularly scheduled dramas off the air. Those who viewed it would say that the program didn't look as corny as similar self-complimentary programs of past governments. Still, they said they wanted results, not a show. But the impatient types who changed channels early missed an extraordinary declaration by President Moon himself. Even those who saw it all still missed the gravity of his declaration as most of the following morning papers gave light treatment to it, if they did not skip it altogether.



What and who



People are not satisfied with representative democracy where they are reduced to bystanders whose jobs are perfunctorily casting votes in elections that come every so often.

They want to show their political views directly when politics goes wrong by raising candles as happened during the candlelit protests and the unloading of online postings.

They demand their direct suggestions be reflected in policy formation. These are the words uttered by President Moon during the show.

In his own words, Moon denied the legitimacy of the National Assembly, the legislature, one of three branches of the government according to democratic principles. Throw in his nomination of a progressive judge and his ally to lead the Supreme Court. Also it is a fact that six of the 12 justices on the highest court besides the chief justice are scheduled to retire next year, meaning the judiciary could take a hard turn to the left, and gone will be the hope of giving proper checks and balances to the executive branch.

Moon showed his desire to cut a deal directly with the people. It was based on his experience with the candlelit protests that mobilized millions of people over months and pushed the conservative-controlled National Assembly to pass a motion of impeachment against then President Park Geun-hye, their boss. After the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the legislature's decision, Park was ousted and is now on trial. Months of virtual anarchy with the government led by an acting president turned the street protests into the great political force that helped their supporter, Moon, get elected. Moon was no stranger to the power of the candles as his friend and mentor, the late President Roh Moo-hyun, owed his 2002 election to the protests amid anti-U.S. sentiment sparked by the death of two girls crushed by a U.S. tracked vehicle during an exercise. As shown during the confirmation hearings, Moon supporters pounced on opposition lawmakers who grilled Moon's candidates and sent "text bombs" with hundreds of hate messages to them. To Moon, the candles and online postings are the unbeatable political tools that can overpower his enemies and detractors.



How



President Moon has job performance approval ratings of over 80 percent. At this stage of his presidency, few of his predecessors had surpassed Moon's popularity. His popularity is not just due to the leadership void left by his predecessor's misrule _ some detractors sardonically argue that Moon should gain an approval rating of over 90 percent, considering the people's great anxiety for stability because of the Park Geun-hye scandal. Kim Young-sam, the late president who led the "civilian" government, was very popular as he came after the end of three generals-turned-presidents. But feeding Moon's popularity is his image of freshness and honesty. Political parties fall far behind Moon in popularity. Especially, conservative parties and their leaders are unpopular and have failed to show any signs of emerging as alternative power to Moon. The National Assembly has long been criticized for being useless _ a paralyzed venue for frequent fights of vested interests and a symbol of incompetence where nothing gets done. Then, the news media, a supposed reinforcement to put the government on its toes, have lost their credibility as watchdogs _ bombardments by once powerful conservative newspapers making little dent on Moon's controversial policies and unyielding attitude to stick to his appointees despite significant flaws. Then, readers also put pressure on the progressive media to give up their role as the fourth estate, forcing them to cooperate with the administration.



Why



It remains to be seen how Moon will go on with his plot. He may go slow or make a swift move. Or he will ditch it. But he has to worry about a couple of things. First, direct democracy belongs to ancient Greece. Now, giving up its modern alternative, representative democracy, can be a short cut to dictatorship _ conspiring with the like-minded people to dominate the decision-making process. Moon got far less than a majority in the May election and his high popularity rating means that there are a lot of fence sitters who temporarily support Moon for a variety of reasons. Even if Moon successfully rules with direct democracy by turning it into a populist dictatorship, it wouldn't work for his successors. If Moon gives in to this temptation, it would turn out to be a deal with the devil. The candlelit protests proved a revolution that set things right. But they could have degenerated into mob rule.



Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com.
Marines deploy a K-9 self-propelled howitzer, manufactured by Hanwha Techwin, during an artillery drill on Korea's northernmost Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea. The National Tax Agency investigated the defense unit of Hanwha Group Thursday, a week after the explosion of a K-9 howitzer in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, in what some industry analysts call the government's widening corruption probe into the defense industry. / Korea Times file photo



By Lee Hyo-sik

Tax investigators have raided Hanwha Group's headquarters and the offices of its two defense units in what some industry analysts call the government's widening corruption probe into the defense industry.

The National Tax Agency (NTS) said Friday it sent about 100 investigators the previous day to the Hanwha headquarters in Seoul and the offices of Hanwha Techwin in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, confiscating financial and other documents.

While searching the group headquarters, they targeted mainly the offices of Hanwha Corp., the holding company that produces gunpowder and ammunition.

The search came a week after a K-9 self-propelled howitzer, manufactured by Hanwha Techwin, exploded during an artillery drill.

The accident, which killed two soldiers and wounded five others, has led the Ministry of National Defense to investigate whether there were any irregularities surrounding the ministry's procurement of the K-9 self-propelled howitzers.

Hanwha Techwin developed the 155-millimeter howitzer for the nation's armed forces in 1998 to replace the K-55 howitzers. The Army has about 1,000 K-9 howitzers deployed, mostly along the Demilitarized Zone.

"As far as we know, the visit by NTS officials is part of a regularly scheduled tax probe," a Hanwha Group official said. "They took necessary materials only from offices of Hanwha Corp. and Hanwha Techwin. Other units were untouched."

However, the search didn't appear to be regularly scheduled because it was executed by a department at the Seoul Regional Tax Service, which conducts an investigation when there is credible evidence of possible tax evasion and other dubious activities.

"It seems the NTS's latest search of Hanwha is part of the government's expanding investigation into widespread corruption in the defense industry," said an executive at a major business association, who declined to be named.

"There have been numerous cases of collusion between military brass and defense company officials over the past few years. The Moon Jae-in administration is now making an example out of the defense industry to show the public that it is doing its best to eradicate corruption and other irregularities in Korea," the executive said.

Korea Aerospace Industries is facing the prosecution's investigation for allegedly creating a slush fund, manipulating accounting books and making intra-group dealings, he said, adding that in the wake of the K-9 howitzer explosion, the probe has reached Hanwha Group.

"I believe other defense companies will also soon be subject to tax or criminal investigations," he said.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong leaves the Seoul Central District Court on Aug. 25 after being sentenced five years in prison for bribery. / Yonhap





Samsung Group is expected to prepare for a long-drawn leadership vacuum, with its de facto leader being sentenced to five years in prison for bribery, industry watchers said Sunday.

A Seoul court passed the sentence against Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Friday, finding him guilty of bribery, embezzlement and other charges in a massive corruption scandal that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye earlier this year.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted Lee of providing 7.2 billion won (US$6.4 million) in bribes for the equestrian training of the daughter of Park's longtime friend and confidante Choi Soon-sil.

Prosecutors had demanded a 12-year jail term for Lee on charges of offering or pledging 43.3 billion won in bribes to win the government's blessing for a merger of two Samsung units under terms designed to increase his control over the entire Samsung empire. This move was seen by some outsiders as being part of a grand corporate strategy to cement a power transfer from his ailing father and group chair Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized since 2014.

"With the court ruling, the group which had probably hoped that Lee would be freed, must now consider the possibility that it must be managed in the absence of the 'owner' who had effectively managed the company these past few years," an observer said. "The absence of Lee must now be seen as a constant instead of a temporary situation,"

He said that despite Lee being unable to take on a direct part in running the company, the conglomerate may move to a 'remote control' setting with the vice chairman managing, at least big issues related to South Korea's largest family-run business group or chaebol from his cell.

Samsung watchers said that Lee still seems to be making key decisions, pointing out that the group's corporate strategy office, the top decision making body that drew considerable public flak, was disbanded after the vice chairman's incarceration in February, and an announcement was made on investing 30 trillion won into a local semiconductor line in the coming years in July.

"Such critical moves can only be made by Lee," a business insider claimed, without providing details.

He said that while there are bound to be restrictions due to the flow of information that can reach Lee, there is no other recourse since important decisions still need to be made.












A woman wearing a hijab walks along a street in Myeong-dong, Seoul, in this Aug. 21 file photo. The Korea Tourism Organization said the number of Muslim visitors to Korea amounted to 985,858 last year, up 33 percent from 2015. The figure is expected to top 1 million this year. / Yonhap



Muslim travelers emerge as alternatives to Chinese tourists

By Park Jae-hyuk

Unaccustomed to Muslim visitors, Koreans have both hopes and fears about them.

For now, hopes seem to overwhelm fears for at least businesspeople, given that more companies are carrying out marketing campaigns for customers from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In particular, the rising number of Muslim travelers helps the country's retailers and hotels find alternative revenue sources at a time when the number of Chinese tourists is plunging due to the diplomatic row over the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here.

Lotte Department Store recently opened a prayer room for Muslims at its Jamsil branch in southeastern Seoul.

Including copies of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, the 49.6-square-meter room is equipped with prayer rugs, foot baths and the Qibla, the direction that Muslims should face when they pray.

Lotte has also designated Muslim-friendly restaurants at its main branch in downtown Seoul and at the Jamsil store, giving free facial masks and 10,000 won ($8.7) vouchers to every Muslim shopper. The retail giant is offering halal-certified snacks and tea at the Global Lounges in the two stores as well.

Hanwha Galleria is another retailer making every effort to attract Muslim tourists.

Earlier this year, Galleria Duty Free signed deals with travel agencies in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

As four fancy restaurants in the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul, have been acknowledged as Muslim-friendly by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) last year, the duty free store in the landmark building is expected to attract more Muslim shoppers.

Cooperating with Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital and Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, the Seoul-based firm is offering medical services for tourists from the Middle East as well.

The Plaza Hotel Seoul, Sheraton Seoul D Cube City Hotel, InterContinental Seoul Coex and other deluxe hotels here have also begun offering halal dishes using ingredients approved by Islamic law.

Korean retailers and hotels regard Muslim travelers as alternatives to Chinese tourists, whose number have rapidly declined after Beijing's de facto order for Chinese tour agencies to stop offering group tours to Korea. A political conflict over the THAAD anti-missile defense system is causing it.

According to KTO, the number of Chinese visitors to Korea dropped 66.4 percent in June from a year ago, while that of Muslim tourists amounted to 985,858 last year, up 33 percent from 2015. The figure is expected to top 1 million this year.

"Customers from the Middle East spend 30 percent more than those from China," a Galleria Duty Free official said, "so they are spotlighted by many Korean companies."





Three winners of an Indonesian beauty pageant pose in front of a prayer room at Avenuel's World Tower Branch in Lotte Department Store in Jamsil, Seoul, in this Aug. 16 file photo. Lotte recently opened the prayer room for Muslim shoppers. / Yonhap



Spread of anti-Muslim sentiment

However, domestic companies still face challenges to overcome anti-Muslim sentiments among Koreans.

The more they give benefits to Muslim tourists, the more negative opinions on them spread through the internet.

Not only Koreans but also foreigners show anxieties over the inflow of Muslim visitors, as they complained about Chinese tourists to Korea.

Expressing their fears of terrorism, some internet users in Korea said that Muslim tourists are potential terrorists. Some foreign internet users agreed that Lotte's opening of a prayer room is "the slow road to join suicidal Europe," urging Korea not to "make the same mistake as the EU."

Although Korea has lagged behind Japan and Taiwan in terms of the number of prayer rooms for Muslim tourists, some even regard Lotte's prayer room as "insanity," or "pure hypocrisy despising other religions."

Earlier this month, Christians in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province, also held a press conference to resist the construction of a halal slaughterhouse in the county.

"Despite the failures in building halal food manufacturing plants in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, and in establishing halal towns in Daegu, Jeju and Gangwon Province, the government is still trying to build a halal slaughterhouse," the Christians said in a statement.

When they carried out marketing campaigns for Chinese tourists before the THAAD row, local retailers faced criticisms from both Koreans and foreigners as well.

Many Korean consumers and non-Chinese tourists from other countries felt they were ignored by sellers in Myeong-dong and Jeju. The decline in the number of Chinese tourists here therefore made them say, "Now's a good time to go shopping," or "Really eager to go again, lovely Korea without Mainlanders."

However, Korean companies say they have no choice but to attract Muslim visitors for now.

"As the Chinese government continues economic retaliation because of THAAD, we are desperate to make profits from Muslim customers," a retail industry official said. "The populations and the economic growths of Southeast Asia and the Middle East are our only hope."

Critics said Korean companies should not repeat the same mistake as they did during the influx of Chinese, pointing out they tend to excessively depend on Muslim tourists.
Scientists hold China's first successfully cloned pigs, born in 2006 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.



By Stephen Chen





Chinese scientists say they are waiting for the government to approve clinical trials using genetically modified pig organs for human transplants.

The first such transplant surgery could be just two years away, according to one researcher from a national xenotransplantation project.

Recent experiments conducted in China and elsewhere on animals including monkeys have shown they could live for an extended period of time  sometimes years  after receiving transplants of pig organs.

China is meanwhile home to the world's biggest pig-cloning farms that could supply animals bred specifically for transplants of livers, hearts and other organs to humans.

There is also huge demand for transplant surgery in the country given its high rate of conditions such as cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and hepatitis that result in organ failure, according to Zhao Zijian, director of the Metabolic Disease Research Centre at Nanjing Medical University in Jiangsu.

Zhao, who is also a senior scientist at a xenotransplantation laboratory in the province that is involved in the national project, said the ball was now in the government's court.

"We have patients dying from organ failure and their desperate relatives pleading for them to have the chance to live," Zhao said. "But when we turn to the authorities in charge of approving the clinical trials, all we get is silence. We understand it must be very hard for the government to make a decision, but it's time we got an answer," he said.

Beijing stopped the practice of obtaining organs from executed prisoners in 2015  its major source for decades  leading to concerns over whether there would be enough donors to meet the transplant needs of the world's most populous country.

According to the Chinese health authorities, fewer than 10,000 people donated their organs in total from 2010 to 2016  but more than 1.5 million patients need a transplant every year.

The proposed clinical trials are part of a national xenotransplantation project involving more than 10 research institutes and funded by the central government.

They include the Fourth Military Medical University run by the People's Liberation Army in Xian, Shaanxi; the Chinese National Human Genome Centre in Shanghai; the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing; and the Second People's Hospital in Shenzhen.

Pig organs are considered the best animal candidate for transplants to humans because they are most similar in terms of size and metabolism. In recent years, researchers from around the world have achieved a series of breakthroughs using pig organs in xenotransplantation.

A baboon survived for nearly three years on a pig's heart at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, according to a report by Science magazine last year.

Similar animal experiments involving other organs  lungs, kidneys and livers  have been conducted in Europe, South Korea and Japan.

In China, a team in Xian successfully transplanted a pig's liver into a monkey in November. It said the monkey's blood had entered the pig's liver and came out filtered and clean.

Tao Kaishan, a xenotransplantation scientist at the Fourth Military Medical University who was involved in the experiment, told state-run China Youth Daily that the team expected to be able to use pig livers in human transplants by around 2019. He is also involved in the national project.

Pig cornea transplants are already being carried out in China. Since 2010, more than 100 patients have had their eyesight restored with the surgery, which costs around 30,000 yuan (US$4,500), according to Chinese media reports.

Corneas, or eye tissues, do not contain blood vessels, which reduces the risk of rejection when they are transplanted. But this is not the case for organ transplants, which carry a greater risk of the body rejecting them.

Recent advances in biotechnology  especially the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool that allows scientists to precisely alter or cut certain genes from pigs  have led to successful xenotransplantation trials around the world using pig organs.

It could also enable scientists to genetically modify pigs so that certain genes are removed to prevent the human immune system from rejecting the organs immediately after transplant surgery.

In recent years, China has produced more of these genetically modified pigs than any other country. Shenzhen biotech institute BGI produces 500 cloned piglets annually, according to a BBC report. BGI is the world's first industrial pig-cloning plant.

Other such farms in China are not as big as BGI, but together they produce about 1,000 cloned pigs a year, according to a researcher who works in a cloning facility run by the Ministry of Agriculture to develop organs for transplants.

"This is unmatched by any other country. The world will eventually depend on China for organs," said the researcher, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

But cloning  which involves inserting cell nuclei containing the modified genes into eggs and implanting them in a sow's womb  is hard work that requires both time and skill.

"It can take one to three years of intensive training to get a lab worker up to speed on cloning," the researcher said.

Moreover, cloning has a high failure rate. Out of 100 embryos, only one to three will eventually produce a healthy piglet, according to the researcher.

Zhang Jun, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine in Nanjing, agreed, adding that cloning difficulties made producing pig organs a slow and costly process.

But another researcher in Beijing said most scientists believed transplanting pig organs to humans was still a long way off  and certainly would not happen within the next couple of years.

Experiments that had already been conducted were mostly done on genetically modified hosts, such as monkeys, with artificially muted immune systems, according to the researcher, who also declined to be named, from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"We definitely can't do this with humans yet  the human immune system can easily recognise and attack organs even when they're from other humans," she said. "Pig transplants will take some time, maybe years or even decades."

Zhao from Nanjing Medical University acknowledged that genetically modified pig organs were currently a 50 per cent match for human organs. He said while an organ transplant from a pig to a human might not be immediately rejected, there was still the risk of side effects such as inflammation in the long term.

But for patients waiting for a human organ to become available, Zhao said, pig organs could be their only hope  and further progress on the technology depended on clinical trials.

"Someone has to take the first step  whether it's the US Food and Drug Administration or the China Food and Drug Administration," he said.
Local residents clean debris and rubbish on a street in the aftermath of Typhoon Hato in Macau.



By Raquel Carvalho





Little Ip Jon-kei is standing at the entrance of his grandparents' antique shop in Macau visibly confused at the brooms dancing around him. It is hard to imagine his thoughts about the chaos that unfolded in the Inner Harbour, one of the areas worst hit by Typhoon Hato on Wednesday.

A jumble of rubbish, broken Chinese porcelain pots, piles of old and wet boxes, damaged vehicles and broken wooden furniture were scattered in the streets in the days after the storm. Ip's world  at the age of two  turned into a nightmare.

The worst typhoon that Macau has seen since 1968 left wounds not only in the city, but also in this boy. "He is still terrified. When something out of the ordinary happens, he starts crying," said Ip's grandmother, Leong Kwai-heng, 65.

"That day, we ran to the first floor. The ground floor was full of water. He was really afraid ... He started screaming and crying when he saw the water coming, rising up and covering the stairs," Leong recalled. "Our glass doors were broken and the power was out. We feared the water could reach our first floor," she said, noting that it was 3 metres deep.

Not far from their antique store, two people drowned in the basement of a rice shop. Typhoon Hato claimed the lives of at least eight others across the city and left more than 240 people injured, hundreds of trees uprooted, billboards torn down and windows shattered.

The city went without electricity for several hours on Wednesday, and the water supply was not fully restored by Saturday.

The authorities were also struggling to clear rubbish in the streets, as severe tropical storm Pakhar approached the city.

The Inner Harbour - a neighbourhood of traditional businesses mostly run by elderly people - is an area of the Macau peninsula that is very susceptible to flooding. Each year, particularly during the tropical storm and typhoon season, people living and working there expect floodwaters.

Although this is a long-standing problem, the impact of a typhoon has not been this devastating in decades.

Leong, who has run the shop since 1968 with her husband, said they had not taken any special precautions before the storm. "We could not imagine this ... It was the worst situation we have ever encountered," she said.

As the three ran up their metal stairs, they saw people trying to save their cars and motorcycles as the streets quickly filled with water. "We were really afraid but there was nothing we could do. We begged them to leave their cars and motorbikes, so they could save their lives. We really thought they could drown," Leong said.

"Afterwards, there was so much mud and rubbish inside the shop ... It was very smelly," she said as she swept her floor.

Leong said they hadn't calculated their losses yet. "I think to lose property is the least thing to worry about. Because our neighbours died, it made me learn that the fact that we and our relatives are fine is the most important thing. I hope other people realise this too," she said.

Not far away from Leong's shop, Chao A-soi's radio would be blaring out old songs if it was a normal day. There is instead the sound of trucks removing rubbish from the streets. He sits in front of his shop with a lantern, ignoring the smell of rotting debris, while greeting dozens of volunteers distributing food and water.

The streets' bleak mood matched Chao's feelings. "I am heartbroken," he said, referring to the daughter and son of an old couple who died when they tried to get some rice out of their shop's basement.

"They were caught by water. The parents asked them to leave, but they did not agree," Chao said. "I heard they were going to move to a new shop in just a matter of days. And in a few seconds the lives of their children were gone."

He said he also felt sorry for those who drowned in car parks, raising questions about the suitability of underground car parks in areas prone to flooding. "But this is Macau, there is little space," he shrugged.

The 61-year-old man said the government should have taken preventive measures and warned people earlier, so they could have prepared. But he did not completely blame the authorities. "This was a natural disaster," he said.

Chao was not at his shop when the water covered all of his antiques, because he had been warned not to go there by a neighbour. The small shop is filled to the rafters with antiques collected over the past 40 years, including Chinese porcelain, dozens of records, 8-millimetre movies, a giant projector, photos, ancient books and old electronic devices.

Chao said he could not calculate his losses. "I love every single item in my shop. They are invaluable," he said, holding a schoolbook from the 1970s. "No money can cover this," he said.

The man recalled that when another typhoon hit Macau in 2008, he asked for a loan of 200,000 patacas from the government. He was allowed half of it. "I only finished paying it back now. It seems that I will have to borrow money again," he said.

As the city is preparing for another tropical storm, Chao said he would not do much more cleaning in his shop. He said he intended to wait patiently for the bad weather to pass and hoped the storm would not claim any more lives. "I hope both people and the government will learn from what just happened," he said.

Mr Ip, the owner of a music shop in the neighbourhood, said that he was not too concerned about another storm. "I am not afraid anymore. This is already a mess," he said. "So I will just let it go."

The 65-year-old man said he lived the worst on Wednesday. "This was the worst typhoon I ever encountered since I was born," said the man, who has run a shop in the neighbourhood for about 40 years.

When the typhoon battered Macau and the floods kicked in, Ip was at his shop and had no time to escape. He had to climb up a piece of furniture used to display CDs. "I was standing here for about 20 minutes ... I was really afraid because there were lots of bulky objects and trash coming towards me," he said, pointing to where he could stand. "Everyone was in their own shops, but we could not do anything to help each other," he said.

Eddy Ko, 28, who was helping a friend near the rice shop where two people died, also thought on Wednesday that his life could come to an end.

"I almost died. Suddenly, I had water up to my knees and then after a minute it reached my chest," he said. Ko had to swim with live fishes from nearby markets and rubbish. "I had to help my wife too, because she can't swim. The water was so strong," he recalled.

Ko said they survived thanks to the kindness of strangers. "I knocked on a door and they opened it. Lots of water came in, but they saved us," he said.

Ko told his story of survival in front of the house where two people died. The shop's facade was fully open to the street as rubbish filled the space where rice and Japanese biscuits used to be sold. Its stillness contrasted with the cleaning work in neighbouring shops.

Around the city that is considered the world's gaming hub, from the central area to the outlying island of Coloane, sirens often interrupted the unusual silence and darkness rarely seen in the former Portuguese enclave, known for its glaring neon lights and businesses that never close.

"We are all grieving. I never thought this could happen in Macau," Ko said.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating the injured tally)

Jammu, Aug 27 (PTI)Five civilians, including a woman and two minor boys, were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir today, officials said.

The Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from light to heavy weapons for nearly 45 minutes, targeting forward posts and villages in the Shahpur sector around 6 pm, they said.

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"Five persons received splinter injuries in the cross LoC firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Two of them are undergoing treatment at district hospital,? District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar told PTI.

Zargar, who visited the injured in the hospital, said their condition was stable.

The injured have been identified as Jameel Ahmad (45), Parvaiza Akhtar (20), Mohammad Safir (10) of Bandichichi, Javaid Hussain (24) and Mohammad Qasim (14) of Kaswa village, a police official said.

The injured were given first aid locally and then sent to a district hospital, he said.

The official said the troops guarding the LoC retaliated to silence the Pakistani guns and the exchange of fire caused panic among the border residents.

This is the first ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch sector after senior army commanders from both sides held a flag meeting at the LoC on August 24 in an attempt to de-escalate tension.

However, there has been firing from across the international border in the Jammu area in recent days.

The latest violation comes barely a day after the Border Security Force (BSF) said it had killed at least three Pakistani rangers after the other side indulged in unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak border in the Pargwal area of Jammu.

"The situation along the international border in Jammu was peaceful today and no violence was reported," a BSF officer said.

BSF constable K K Appa Rao was hit by a sniper in the nearby RS Pora sector on Friday when the Pakistani side took a direct aim at him while he was drinking water.

The two border guarding forces, had on July 17, held a commandant-level flag meeting in the Samba sector and "committed" themselves to maintaining peace.

In the flag meeting, the two sides had agreed to re-energise instant communication between field commanders to resolve petty matters.

Incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan have risen sharply this year.

Till August 1, there were 285 such violations by the Pakistani army, while in 2016, the number was significantly lower at 228 for the entire year, Army figures said. PTI TAS SRY

--- ENDS ---

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A report published by Wikileaks on August 25 claims that CIA uses technology provided by Cross Match Technologies to collect biometric data. Coincidentally, the company also provides its services to UIDAI.

By India Today Web Desk: Wikileaks has recently released a report hinting that India's Aadhaar data might have been compromised. The report, released Thursday, claims that CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is using tools that have been developed by Cross Match, a US-based technology provider for cyber spying.

Incidentally, UIDAI also uses technology provided by Cross Match Technologies to collect biometric details.

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Are our biometric details already with the CIA?

In a tweet posted on August 25, Wikileaks asks "Have CIA spies already stolen #India's national ID card database?"

The report states that "Cross Match was one of the first suppliers of biometric devices certified by UIDAI for Aadhaar program. The company received the Certificate of Approval from the Indian Government in 2011. Cross Match received the Certificate of Approval for its Guardian fingerprint capture device and the I SCAN dual iris capture device on October 7, 2011. Both systems utilize Cross Match's patented Auto Capture feature, which quickly captures high-quality images with minimal operator involvement."

The government has however denied any such claims. As reported by Times of India, the government officials said that the "leak" is not possible as the data is received and transferred in encrypted form. "The reports do not have any basis in fact. Aadhaar data is safely encrypted and is not accessible to any other agency," the report quoted official sources as saying.

The report came a day after Supreme Court claimed that privacy is a fundamental right of the citizens of India.

You can access the full report here.

--- ENDS ---
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation requiring New York City police officers and state troopers to complete CPR training.

The bill, "Briana's Law," is named in honor of Briana Ojeda, an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl who died on Aug. 27, 2010 after she suffered an asthma attack while at a playground.

Ojeda's mother attempted to drive the girl to the hospital for treatment, but she was pulled over by a New York City police officer. The police officer didn't have proper CPR training. Ojeda died at the hospital.

The girl's family sued the New York Police Department, but a judge dismissed the case because the agency lacked a CPR requirement for its officers.

"This common sense law will give law enforcement the training and the tools that will help save lives," Cuomo said in a statement. "CPR is a critical skill and by requiring law enforcement candidates and officers to become certified, we can create a safer New York for all."

The legislation, which will take effect in 60 days, will mandate CPR training for all New York Police Department candidates before they graduate from the academy. They must be recertified every two years.

The same requirement will apply to state troopers, which are already mandated to complete CPR training.

State Sen. Jesse Hamilton, one of the bill's sponsors, said the new law will make New York safer.

"Briana Ojeda and her family have given the gift of life to New Yorkers who turn to help from police," he said. "Briana's Law ensures our police officers have the training to provide life-saving assistance in an emergency."
Former MLA Srinivasan has also been roped in by the BJP who till Friday was functioning as the district secretary of Amma Peravai, Vellore district. A Jaya Shenkar is another name who has joined the BJP from the party that once was ruled by Jayalalitha.

By Anindya Banerjee: When Amit Shah said strengthening the BJP organisation in the southern state of Tamil Nadu is his prime focus right now, many laughed it off considering the national party's very limited presence in the state. However, slowly and quietly the election machine Amit Shah, is ensuring the state BJP comes across as a serious player. Today many tier two leaders from the ruling AIADMK and other parties joined the BJP here at Ashoka Road in New Delhi in presence of the party president.

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For instance the 55-year-old Nainar Nagendran may not be a big face but this former AIADMK member has been in active politics for more than 30 years and won two out of the four elections he has contested. Another key AIADMK leader K Karthiyayini who is also the former mayor of Vellore joined the BJP on Saturday. Sources in the BJP said that considering her background she may be given the task of heading the IT Cell of BJP.

Likewise former MLA Srinivasan has also been roped in by the BJP who till Friday was functioning as the district secretary of Amma Peravai, Vellore district. A Jaya Shenkar is another name who has joined the BJP from the party that once was ruled by Jayalalitha. And the list doesn't end here.

Be it C Shekhar or KPD Elanchezhiyan with 20 years of experience in politics and R Ramadass who is a prominent face representing the Vanniyar community, have also happily joined the party whose existence in Tamil Nadu is next to negligible.

Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, BJP's state president said, "We are happy with them joining the party. We are sure the party is going to benefit in the coming days with their political experience."

This may come across as a insignificant achievement for BJP, but achievement nonetheless. For a party that valued even a party with a single MP during forging alliance in the run up to 2014 general election with many ridiculing them had only silenced everyone with a thumping single majority win under PM Modi. Though that may not be possible to replicate in Tamil Nadu, but top sources in BJP suggest the new joining are keeping in mind two things: One, to ruin the existing vote bank of a candidate of the party they are coming from, and two, to forge a development driven and caste sensitive leadership in the state that will ensure the party is a force to reckon with.

Also Read

AIADMK merger row: Govt whip S Rajendran seeks disqualification of 19 Dinakaran MLAs

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Exclusive: BJP-EPS pact on the cards in Tamil Nadu to end political stalemate?

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Patna, Aug 27 (PTI) Leaders of several opposition parties today came together at an RJD rally here and gave a call for dethroning the BJP in the next parliamentary election but much of the sheen was lost due to the absence of leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and BSP chief Mayawati.

Political heavyweights who attended the rally included West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad and JD(U) rebel Sharad Yadav.

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Buoyed by the impressive turnout at Gandhi Maidan, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.

Other opposition parties that were represented at the rally included NCP, National Conference, DMK, Kerala Congress, RLD, CPI, JMM, JVM, JD(S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, AIUDF of Assam, RSP and CPI-ML. No CPI-M leader attended the rally citing the presence of Mamata Banerjee whose TMC is its main rival in West Bengal politics.

Besides the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the Grand Alliance over alleged corruption by Lalu and his family members, and later formed the government with the saffron party, was the butt of criticism by opposition leaders.

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav attended the rally, defying the partys directive against it, and spoke at length about the disintegration of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

Yadav said he would now work for forging a Gathbandhan (Alliance) of 125 crore citizens, an apparent reference to attempts at cobbling together a coalition of opposition parties against BJP-led NDA.

Recorded messages of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi were played at the event. JD(S) representative Danish Ali read out the message of his party leader H D Deve Gowda.

Lalu Prasad, Mamata Banerjee, Gulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and others mounted a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned what happened to his promise of ushering in achche din (good days) in the three years that he has been in power.

They blamed the Modi government for the "plight" of farmers, workers and youth. Almost all the speakers recalled the triumph of the Grand Alliance in Bihar in 2015 which stopped the BJP juggernaut and vented their anger at Nitish Kumar for "betraying peoples mandate by going with BJP."

Speaking before host Lalu Prasad, Banerjee, who was the toast of the event, strongly criticised demonetisation and said it would lead to the downfall of BJP in the next election.

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"Like nasbandi (forced sterlisation) had led to fall of Indira Gandhi, notebandi (demonestisation) will lead to the downfall of BJP," Banerjee declared. She also accused the NDA government at the Centre of bias against states non-BJP ruled states. "When there is trouble in Haryana or Rajasthan (ruled by the BJP), they send the Army but the same is not done in case of West Bengal in times of need," she said.

Banerjee also charged the Centre with "misusing" central agencies against opposition leaders "not joining the BJP chorus". "I am a fighter and will not be cowed down by such tactics," she asserted.

Lalu focused mostly on Nitish Kumar, calling him a Palturam(turncoat). "This is probably his last palti (about turn) as no party would trust him now," he said. The RJD boss accused Kumar of getting false cases foisted on his family members with the help of the BJP as he is "jealous of the rise of Tejaswi Yadav." Lalu also pointed an accusing finger at Kumar in the multi-crore rupees Srijan NGO scam and repeated the demand for his resignation. He demanded that the ongoing CBI probe be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court. Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, all set to face action for attending the RJD rally, did not name Kumar but spoke about how the faith of 11 crore people of Bihar who had voted for the Grand Alliance was broken. "It is for the first time that the manifestos of two rivals mingled midcourse."

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"I am not afraid of you," he said, apparently referring to Kumar, and asserted that his struggle for the cause of farmers and workers would continue. "I am facing 43 cases and both my legs were broken in the course of my struggle for the poor and downtrodden ... The fight would continue. Now I will work for forging a gathbandan (coalition) for 125 crore citizens of the country," he added.

A majority of the speakers including Banerjee, Congress Gulam Nabi Azad, Akhilesh Yadav, JMM leader Hemant Soren, and RLDs Jayant Chaudhary praised Tejaswi Yadav, younger son of Lalu Prasad who is the leader of opposition in Bihar. Gulam Nabi Azad, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha launched a blistering attack against Nitish Kumar and the NDA government at the Centre.

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"Today one person is missing from this dais ... Nitish Kumar you have betrayed 11 crore citizens of Bihar by selling their vote to BJP," Azad, whose party has decided to stay with RJD, said.

"The BJP had used 26 helicopters and 6 planes during the Bihar poll campaign while the Grand Alliance had only four aircraft for campaigning. Still the poor of the state defeated the BJP and gave us massive the mandate ... Nitish Kumar left Lalu Prasad and now people of Bihar will leave him," Azad, who attended the rally with his party colleague C P Joshi, said.

Akhilesh Yadav questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis promise of creating two crore jobs every year. Lalu Prasads elder son Tej Pratap Yadav blew the conch at the rally and said he had sounded "the bugle for Arjun" (his younger brother Tejaswi Yadav) to launch a decisive battle against Nitish Kumar and the BJP in Bihar.

Tejaswi Yadav, who had promised he would answer accusations about his integrity after CBI registered a corruption case against him in land-for-hotels case, did not talk about it. Instead, he asked the gathering: "Do you believe that I am a thief or corrupt?" PTI SNS KK SK SK

--- ENDS ---
Whats news, and not

Lorraine Ali has hit the nail on the head [Trump and the Media: Have We Crossed the Red Line? Aug. 20]. For a long time now cable news shows have been anything but news. Opinions and pundits rule the airwaves with news anchors who usually lead the guests with questions that have preordained answers, thereby attempting to sway the audience to the agenda of the hosts and networks. Those of us old enough to remember Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite can at least hang on to our memories.

Congratulations to The Times for putting this piece front and center.

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William Goldstein, composer

Los Angeles

::

Unfortunately for our country, your article is spot-on. Media news is no longer news, its gossip porn. President Trump has rerouted presidential utterances from the boulevard of historical greatness to the dirt road of reality show banality. Despite ourselves, and despite the damage, we rubberneckers cant turn our eyes away from the train wreck. If the next president cant fix this by being intelligent, articulate, relatable and media-savvy, upcoming generations are doomed to aspire to, at best, celebrity stupidity when it comes to presidential choices. The second dark ages are upon us.

Sharon Graham

Huntington Beach

::

Im absolutely turned off by the entire ordeal and the reporting of it. I grew up in the era of Huntley and Brinkley, Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw. There is no one of that ilk today.

Ed Masciana

Torrance

::

The Donald Trump Show is a blockbuster TV series of a madman taking over the most powerful country in the world. The star conceived, produced and wrote the show. Minor characters come and go, and the viewers, while hissing the leader, are fascinated by his audacity and charisma.

It would have become a bit repetitious by this time and start to lose viewers except this reality show is reality, with the star character having the capability, on his own volition, to start a chain of events that will return civilization to the dark ages. We dare not look away.

Al Rodbell

Encinitas

::

Lorraine Ali has it close to right when talking about the absence of news on the cable news channels. Vice news on HBO is the best current antidote. But 30 minutes is not even close to enough. News should teach like the first pass of history that it is. There is room for opinion, but on a foundation of reality. That reality, the reporters responsibility, is sorely missing from the vast expanse of cable news.

Jim Berland

Culver City

Where to place the monuments

Regarding Symbols of Ugly History, Not Pride [Aug. 19]. Christopher Knights article suggesting that Confederate monuments be put in museums is excellent. I would suggest that, instead of Appomattox, the location be an existing Civil War Confederate cemetery and that the cemetery be renamed something like The Jim Crow Memorial Park. I would also suggest that instead of citing the relocated monuments as examples of ugly history, we somehow acknowledge responsibility for enabling this history to occur.

Joseph D. Murphy

Venice

::

Christopher Knight nailed it when he wrote, Some claim that removing [monuments to the Confederacy] erases history. Thats backward. Erecting them does.

Carol Wells

Venice

::

Christopher Knight has written a balanced, thought-provocative article on the contentious issue of Civil War monuments. Many of these monuments were erected in the early 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was in the process of lynching many African Americans. A similar wave of monuments were erected in the late 50s and early 60s, when the civil rights movement was challenging segregation.

The conclusion is clear. If we are to keep these monuments, they must be balanced by understanding what they represented and symbolized.

Michael B. Natelson

Newport Beach

Why audiences skip Detroit

Why arent people going to see Detroit [Why Did Detroits Flames Fizzle Out? Aug. 17]? Part of the reason may be that its two hours, 22 minutes long. Why cant filmmakers say what they want to say in something closer to an hour and a half? Im not willing to spend that much time watching a movie, unless Im pretty darn sure its going to be worth it. (Im only going tonight because Ive enjoyed Kathryn Bigelows films so much in the past.)

Jeff Cohlberg

Rolling Hills Estates

::

Simple: its a 2 1/2-hour movie with exactly 10 seconds of nuance. My friends of every skin color are sick to death of being baited into racial division by a media and culture that continue to pit peace officers against the inner-city residents who badly need their protection from drug- and gang-related crime. Todays urban police forces are often majority-minority and/or majority-female, and bear no resemblance to the snarling Klansmen Kathryn Bigelow serves up in this picture. More generally, were sick of race being given grossly disproportionate pride of place in our national discourse.

Jordan Chodorow

Los Angeles

::

Kathryn Bigelows boldness and the commitment to relevancy that her films adhere to is admirable. But the subject matter of Detroit is better suited to a documentary format aimed at a select and interested audience, not a wide-release feature film meant for mainstream moviegoers.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

Kennedy honors disappointment

How sad I was to read President Trump and the lovely First Lady Melania will not be attending the Kennedy honors and parties [Trumps Bow Out of Kennedy Center Gala, Aug. 20]. The president and first lady greet all the honorees at the White House the night before and there is a wonderful dinner party. I watch the program on television every year and have loved every moment of it. I probably will never watch it again. President Trump is a good man and what you see is what you get; he speaks truth and truth is a hard pill to swallow.

Elaine Vanoff

West Hollywood

Memories of Days gone by

Thank you for taking me down memory lane with these movies that I first saw in the theater [Still Resonating 30 Years On, Aug. 20]. One film in particular,Radio Days, carries a somewhat more somber memory. The exterior shots were around the city of Rockaway, N.Y., before Hurricane Sandy moved through the East Coast. The next time you watch that movie, chances are likely that many of the homes (which were originally built in the 20s and 30s) no longer exist.

Dori Sahagian

Sunland

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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
The tiny gas-rich nation of Qatar has been ostracized by its regional Arab neighbors, which accuse it of funding terrorism and being too cozy with Iran.

In June, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic and trade ties, closed their air routes to Qatari aircraft and served the government with a host of demands aimed at fighting terrorism and extremism. Mauritius, Mauritania, Yemen, the Maldives and one of Libyas two warring governments also suspended diplomatic relations.

Qatar did little to quell the conflict last week when it announced it was restoring full diplomatic relations with Iran, more than a year after it pulled its ambassador in a show of solidarity with Saudi Arabia, whose embassy and diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked.

Qatari officials say their country has done no wrong and that a statement by the countrys emir that became a pretext for the row  he was quoted on Qatar news sites as praising Iran and the fundamentalist group Hamas  was fabricated in a hacking attack. Qatar blamed the Emirates, which has denied it.

Qatar does not fund terrorism whatsoever  no groups, no individuals. Not from afar or from a close distance, Sheik Saif bin Ahmed al Thani, director of the government communications office, said in an interview with The Times editorial board and reporters.

His comments have been edited for length and clarity.

President Trump and Qatars Emir Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al Thani during a bilateral meeting at a hotel in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in May 2017. (Mandel Ngan / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images) (Mandel Ngan / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images)

Why do these countries want to pick a fight with Qatar and why now?

I can answer what we think it is. We have differences in opinion. That is the main issue. Differences of opinion. We do not support parties or individuals or get involved in [the] domestic affairs [of other countries].

So when we get involved in Tunisia, or Syria  or Libya, we do not go around and pick a party or [an] individual. We usually focus our attention on the public and try our best not to pick sides.

They accuse us of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood . For example in Tunisia, after the Arab Spring, the government that came into office was from the Muslim Brotherhood. We worked with them once they became the government. We didnt work with them as a party. We worked with them as a government, to support them.

After that, the opposition party won. [And] we are the ones working with them. We did a conference last year in support of Tunisia, supporting investment. We established a fund for small and medium businesses.

How do you characterize your relationship with Hamas?

The Bush administration supported the elections in Palestine. They wanted to ensure the participation of all different entities in the election. And it was requested of us that Hamas participates.

Arab countries did not support the idea of elections. The U.S. wanted all Arabic countries to support the elections. So we took the lead on that. And other countries came in afterward.

So Hamas won the election. Hamas keeps a fraction of a political office in [the Qatari capital] Doha. Our funding to Palestine is all done through the United Nations and it is done for certain projects. [Its] funding for building the infrastructure. We have a commitment of about $1.2 billion dollars for rebuilding Gaza. In a few cases we have given salaries to the government in Gaza. The few times that happened, it happened through the U.N. in coordination with Israel.

So whether it's money, or whether its building materials, it all goes through the U.N. and through our governmental structure, except the three or four times when we paid salaries and that was paid through the Palestinian Authority with the U.N.

In June, Qatars National Human Rights Committee reported that it had been receiving a hundred complaints a day since the blockade by four Arab nations started June 5. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times) (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)

Does Qatar have any relationship now with the Muslim Brotherhood?

We don't have a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. All of these accusations came because of Egypt. You know, when the Arab Spring happened, when the military was in control, we started supporting Egypt economically.

We had cash placed in their central bank. We committed to five shipments of gas free of charge, and other things. These commitments started before [President Mohamed] Morsi came into power and they continued after he left. The last shipment of gas was at the end of 2016.

We didn't stop [them] because these commitments were from us to the people of Egypt. So we don't really care who's in office. Other than that, we do not support the Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi lost power in a coup. So it sounds like your government doesnt care how a government changes.

We deal with what the people choose.

A coup isnt the peoples choice.

Yes, but we will not get involved internally.

But by dealing with an illegitimate government that came to power via coup arent you de facto getting involved?

I get your point. But in the end, we wont deal with domestic matters. To us, what's happening in Egypt is a domestic matter. The people chose not to do anything about it. So  well go with their choice.

So if the Muslim Brotherhood rose and took power back your policies would be the same toward Egypt?

Yes.

What about claims Qatar paid billions of dollars to Iran and Al Qaeda-linked affiliates to secure the release of Qatari hostages that were held in Iraq?

The money was not given to any terrorist groups. While we were trying to get [the hostages] out, we did approach Iran. We approached any government that could help influence these groups to get them out.

Everything was done with the knowledge, and in partnership with, the Iraqi government, with the Iraqi intelligence and security.

Whats it going to take to resolve the crisis?

What its going to take is first to remove the blockade. This is not a way of bullying a country into taking a certain position.

And secondly we're willing to sit and negotiate and sit in a dialogue environment and discuss all these things. Of course anything that will affect our sovereignty and independence, we will not consider, even slightly. We will not sit at the table unless we have a sort of level playing field. But we're willing to discuss. At the end of the day most of these things are differences of opinion and we can discuss them.

Whats Qatars relationship with the Trump administration?

Broadly, the relationship between the U.S. and Qatar is a very strategic, strong relationship. It has always been strong. After Sept. 11, the U.S. military left Saudi Arabia for domestic reasons. They just moved everything to Qatar and we gave them our main and only airport as a base, until the current base was ready.

So our relationship with the U.S. is very institutional. We have a good relationship with the Trump administration, as we did with the Obama administration, and the Bush administration, and so on.

So you dont take offense that President Trump sometimes comes across as being anti-Muslim?

I do not know if its correct to put it that way. The U.S.-Riyadh summit [in Saudi Arabia last May] was indeed successful. It had all the Muslim Arab countries there. We are the only country that has taken further steps with the counter-terrorism [agreement] we signed. It's the first of its kind for the region. So I don't really agree with your point [that Trump is anti-Muslim].

FOR THE RECORD, Aug. 27 2 p.m: An earlier version of this article incorrectly phrased a question as saying that Mohamed Morsi gained power in a coup. He lost power in a coup.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter

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It doesnt seem safe, organizer says in canceling San Francisco far-right rally

(Eric Risberg / AP)

Organizers said they canceled Saturdays planned right-wing rally in San Francisco because of safety concerns.

Joey Gibson, founder of the Patriot Prayer group, in a Facebook Live post said that his group had been working with police and decided that tomorrow really seems like a setup.

It doesnt seem safe, a lot of peoples lives are going to be in danger tomorrow, he said during an interview with Unite America First. The rhetoric from Nancy Pelosi, Mayor [Ed] Lee, the media  all these people are saying we are white supremacists and its bringing in tons of extremists. It just seems like a huge setup, so we just decided that we are going to take the opportunity and not fall into that trap and we are not going to go down there. We are not going to have a rally at Crissy Field.

Instead, Gibson said, the group would hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Saturday at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco to talk about some of the rhetoric in the city.

We have a lot of respect for the citizens in San Francisco and at the end of the day, we want people to be safe, he said.

The park was supposed to be closed off, Gibson said, so organizers could control the event, search people who were entering and turn others away.

But he said that it appeared that wasnt going to happen.

Anyone could have come in and it would have been mingling [anti-fascist groups]. Also white supremacists could have shown up, Gibson said.

Honest, in our opinion, it seem like it would have been a huge riot, he said.

Law enforcement has spent weeks planning for the events in San Francisco and Berkeley. At the center of the campaign will be a huge police presence, perhaps more than a thousand officers who intend to crack down at the first sign of trouble.

The San Francisco Police Department planned to have its entire roster on duty for Saturday afternoons rally. Officials said they could not immediately comment Friday on if theyre plans would change for the following day in light of Gibsons announcement.

In Berkeley, the site of Sundays rally, city officials have expressly banned weapons, sticks, projectiles and even soda cans from gatherings of more than 100 people within the city limits. The National Park Service, which operates the land where Saturdays protest was to take place, has established similar rules.

Organizers for both rallies this weekend have said that the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who surfaced in Charlottesville are not welcome at their events. Gibson had demanded that white nationalist figures such as Richard Spencer and Nathan Damigo stay away.

Last week, Gibson told The Times he was concerned that some extreme or racist figures might try to co-opt his rally, a fear shared by experts who track hate groups. He has repeatedly denied the assertion that his event is a white supremacist demonstration and criticized politicians who branded it as such.

Youve got two different people in this world right now. You have people that are trying to change hearts and minds of people, and you have people who are trying to divide the country, he said.

The need for stronger crowd control became clear in the wake of the violent clashes this month between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va., where demonstrators on each side complained of lax law enforcement.

But hands-off policing can also allow events to spiral out of control. Anaheim police drew criticism last year after a violent Ku Klux Klan rally. Uniformed officers were nowhere to be found when Klansmen arrived in Pearson Park, and several people were stabbed during a series of brawls between Klan members and anti-racist protesters.

One of the most difficult things we do in our profession is policing 1st Amendment activity, said LAPD Deputy Chief Bob Green, who has served as a commander at dozens of protest scenes during his 30-year career.

Sundays rally in Berkeley, branded by organizers as an anti-Marxism demonstration, has drawn additional concern. Berkeley has been home to a number of violent clashes between political opponents this year. Violent protests on the UC Berkeley campus shut down an appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos in February, and subsequent demonstrations in support of Trump collapsed into roving street fights.

Those opposed to the rallies, including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, have called on counter-demonstrators to stage their events several blocks from the proposed far-right events. Some activists have also said they are hoping to avoid the violent exchanges that have marred Berkeley in recent months. One woman affiliated with Pastel Bloc in Berkeley, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said she hopes the number of counter-protesters will swell because of the planned nonviolence.

By not directly confronting the white supremacists, who have brought weapons and started fights before, maybe people who have been hesitant to come show solidarity will feel more empowered to do so, she said, adding that Pastel Bloc itself will not take part in Sundays events.

Even with vows of nonviolence on both sides, law enforcement leaders said they are well aware that it would only take a few agitators to cause a fracas. The issue with policing protests, they say, is that it becomes hard to isolate violent individuals in crowds that often number in the thousands.

Green said preparation is critical to minimizing violence at any large-scale demonstration, adding that the move to disarm protesters in the Bay Area is a good idea.
Her best friend was one of the first to go. Then the two families she shared a three-bedroom house with headed north. Finally, the nanny.

Over the course of three months, Josiane Valsaint watched fellow Haitians pull roots, pack and make for Canada.

They traveled to Quebec, finding French speakers like themselves and a well-established Haitian community.

Its hard for me to see all my friends leave, Valsaint, 37, said mournfully. They now have to start over, again.

Only a blip of time ago, 200 Haitians squeezed into the Haitian Methodist Ministry for evening services. Only 25 showed up earlier this month.

The church was so spare that Nahomie Labady, a Haitian woman who led the congregation in Creole songs of worship, urged people to fill the first four pews. A lighted cross, a 5-foot American flagpole and vases filled with orange, yellow and red silk flowers decorated the drab space.

M grangou pou prezans ou ap rele, rele pou glwa ou, Labady sang in Creole. Im hungry for your presence  I cry, I call for your glory.

Fearing deportation, hundreds of Haitians are leaving the U.S. and crossing into Canada every day. The exodus is depleting the Haitian community in San Diego.

Hundreds of Haitians began leaving California, including neighborhoods in places like San Diego, after a Trump administration decree in May. Under it, 60,000 Haitians living in the U.S. could lose their protected status after it expires Jan. 22.

Department of Homeland Security officials have said the program was designed to be temporary in nature, stating that Haiti is showing significant signs of recovery after the 2010 earthquake that drove so many people away. DHS officials say the island nation is ready to repatriate Haitian nationals returning from the U.S.

Jimmy Marcelin, a volunteer for Christ Ministry Center in San Diego, said the community is now on the decline.

The center has helped more than 5,000 Haitians. Most had initially fanned out across the nation while others stayed, said Marcelin, who is a U.S. citizen originally from Haiti.

Now its decimated. Everybody is moving, he said.

Marcelin, who helps shuttle Haitians to immigration, doctor and other appointments, said he noticed a change about two months ago.

I would go to pick them up and they were not there, he said. Later, they would text me from Canada.

Valsaint once cared for up to 50 children at the Sunday school. Now there are fewer than a dozen, and most of them just stay at the service. A few play the drums or harmonica. Others clap along to the Christian songs, while some play among the pews.

Their children played with my children. They were friends, she said. They are American citizens.

In her living room, her two boys  Philippe, 11, and Joshua, 4  and 20-month-old daughter Sephora played with pull toys and walkers. A Haitian flag was draped over one of the walls of her cramped and cluttered living room.

Haitian immigrant Nahomie Labady holds her 3-month-old daughter Hadassa for pictures during her birthday celebration after a Sunday service at Christ United Methodist Church. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Valsaint paused and took a deep breath, unsuccessfully trying to fight back tears.

Joshua pulled up a chair next to her, sat down and held her hand.

This is too much. We are in a bad situation in our country. Why would you kick us out like animals? she said. I know nobody is perfect. We Haitian people  we try our best.

She looked down at Joshua and stroked his face.

These are my brothers and sisters, she said of those who have left. I miss them.

Valsaint said she briefly considered moving to Canada. But she could not bring herself to do it.

She has a good job as a certified nursing assistant at a local hospital, which allows her to provide for her three children. She makes enough money to send a couple hundred dollars home to her father, who has cancer.

Moving would mean her children would probably no longer see their father, whom she is separated from but who currently lives in San Diego.

I think of my children, she said. They do not want to move to Canada.

Ryan Labady, 5, Joshua Valsaint, 4, and Ruben Jacques, 4 from left, talk about playing the harmonica, in Joshuas hands, during a service at Christ United Methodist Church. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Her youngest, Sephora, an animated toddler who struggles to walk, was born with a hole in her heart and nearly died. Sephora has other health issues that may soon require surgery, Valsaint said. Leaving would put her daughters health in jeopardy, she said.

Most days Valsaint gets through her day with a low-simmering anxiety, worried about her familys fate.

What happened today, Mommy? Philippe asks her. Did someone else leave?

Valsaint said Philippe, who was born in Haiti, refuses to return there. After the earthquake, he was found under the rubble of his flattened school  seven hours later.

Im not going back to Haiti, he tells his mother.

Vansaint joined hundreds of refugees in May 2010, boarding a smugglers boat in Port-au-Prince. She fled political unrest and death threats after she decided to investigate her mothers homicide during a period of rising impunity in the aftermath of the earthquake, she said.

After a week at sea, she reached Veracruz, Mexico, where she stayed a couple of months before a smuggler guided her across the country to Tijuana. There, she walked up to U.S. immigration officials at a border crossing. Later, she obtained temporary protected status.

Valsaint said life was going well until the Trump administration announced in the spring that it would extend temporary protected status for six months but probably do away with further extensions.

Her best friend, who left July 12, sent Valsaint a text message in Creole before she left.

I have so much regret and sadness. Im going to have to leave you, my sister. But I cannot stay here. I have no choice.

I will pray for you, Valsaint texted back.

In late July, the two families who lived with Valsaint  renting two rooms in her three-bedroom home  told her theyd be leaving for Canada in a few weeks. That left Valsaint short on cash for August and unable to send money to her family in Haiti.

Then her longtime babysitter departed without much notice, leaving Valsaint without child care. Valsaint, who works 12 hour days, five days a week, could normally rely on her Haitian friends. But most have left, she said.

All she can do is plead: Dont leave. Something good will happen for us.

On a recent Sunday evening, Valsaint attended a mostly emptied church and listened to Pastor Jean Elise Durandisse speak about keeping faith in God, especially during what he called troubling days.

The parishioners stepped away from the pews and joined him in the front of the church. They gathered around him as he spoke into the microphone.

When life is tough we need faith to make it through. Please, God, help us keep our faith, especially for the many of us still here, he said. We dont want to go to Canada. We have faith. We want to stay here.  Please don't let sadness overcome us. Please give us faith so we can overcome.

Swaying, with eyes closed, Valsaint nodded and raised her hand.

Amen, she said. Amen.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

Follow Cindy Carcamo on Twitter @thecindycarcamo
Over more than five decades, the Bay Area has been the epicenter of protest movements like no other region in the United States.

Free speech rights. The Vietnam War. Racial injustice. The nuclear bomb. U.S. policy in Central America. Wars in the Middle East. The AIDS crisis. Economic inequities. Police brutality. Animal rights. Tree preservation. Wall Street and even sugary soda pop.

All these hot topics and many more have brought protesters to the streets, mostly peacefully, but at times with violence.

Chicago, New York and Los Angeles have their natural histories of political movement, but the Bay Area has a special place as one of dissent, said Ramsey Kanaan, founder of a left-wing book publishing company. One of the misinterpretations is that the Bay area is a liberal place, but it has become liberal by what it opposed.

Mario Savio gestures during a 1964 Free Speech Movement rally at UC Berkeley . (Associated Press) (Associated Press)

The left, the right, and some dogs too

Those dynamics help explains all the attention being paid to two now aborted rallies by far-right supporters of President Trump and the white nationalists who usually travel along with them.

Amid concerns about violence, organizers of the rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley announced Friday afternoon they were canceled. But officials said they will still be out in force, and it remains unclear whether some activists will show up anyway.

A signal to the expected size of the demonstrations: the San Francisco Police Department has canceled days off and ordered every officer on duty.

And this being the Bay Area, some people plan to bring their dogs to the event Saturday and then leave dog droppings behind in a counter-protest against the right-wing forces.

A second protest is planned Sunday in Berkeley, whose potency as a symbol for liberalism centers on its role as birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in 1964.

After being kidnapped by the SLA and appearing to join them, Patty Hearst became the epitome of radical chic. (Associated Press) (Associated Press)

Free speech, Black Panthers, SLA and Earth First!

Students such as Mario Savio returned from searing experiences as civil rights workers in the South and sought to expand those campaigns in California, upsetting some state legislators. Their politicking was limited to a small sidewalk strip thought to be off-campus and immune from university restrictions.

After learning that the property was owned by UC, school authorities moved to ban the tables and pamphleteers. Activists ignored the rules and resumed their activities. Three months of ever-increasing confrontations, arrests and demonstrations of crowds as large as 10,000 followed, capturing international attention. Eventually, the restrictions were lifted with some limitations  a victory that paved the way for later protests supporting women's rights and environmentalism and opposing the Vietnam War.

Jo Freeman, a Berkeley student radical in the 1960s and today a New York-based author and political scientist, said the newly empowered student groups of Berkeley then began inviting a host of controversial speakers, including Malcolm X and a Nazi figure.

The Black Panther Party rose out of Oakland in 1966 as a street militia against city police the movement accused of brutalizing African Americans. The next spring, with shotguns and rifles, they occupied the state Capitol in Sacramento.

In the 1970s, some of the activism took on more violent, criminal undertones. Symbionese Liberation Army members would kidnap the heiress Patty Hearst and assassinate Marcus Foster, the Oakland schools superintendent.

Judi Bari, a firebrand Earth First! organizer, was seriously injured when a pipe bomb exploded under her car seat in Oakland on the eve of the 1990 "Redwood Summer" anti-logging protest. Conspiracy theories continue to surround the incident.

A California Highway Patrol officer detains a protester on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) (Noah Berger / Associated Press)

A hub for the far left

In recent years, Bay Area protests have focused on income inequity and issues of race and policing. In 2009, protesters took to the streets in anger over the shooting of a young black man, Oscar Grant, by a BART police officer. Oakland also became a power base for the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2011, Bay area activists again went head to head with police during the Occupy protests against Wall Streets financial excesses, until campus police at UC Berkeley used batons to rout demonstrators who would not leave their tents.

Oakland, too, has emerged as the western hub for anarchist movements, and radical publishing houses including the AK Press and now the PM Press, which rolls out No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA T-shirts for the current round of events.

That anarchist and socialist community in turn has incubated activists sworn to direct action, adopting tactics of Europes black bloc to disrupt events or wage counter protest, lobbing pepper spray and M-80 firecrackers, and smashing windows.

Since Trumps election, far-left and far-right protesters have clashed several times at Berkeley. Some in the university town decry the violence, blaming it on outsiders who come to make trouble and seek media attention. However, most of those facing criminal charges for protest violence in March and April hail from the Bay Area.

Hoping to avoid trouble on Sunday, city officials have expressly banned weapons, sticks, projectiles and even soda cans from gatherings of more than 100 people within the city limits.

Even though both rallies now formally canceled, police said they still plan heavy deployments and a zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior. In the Bay Area, you never know when a new protest might crop up.

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Thousands of demonstrators carrying signs with slogans like Stand Against Hate descended on Berkeleys Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Park on Sunday for what many hoped would be a peaceful march against bigotry and President Trump.

But it was soon punctuated by tear gas and a scattering of violent skirmishes. Some anti-fascist protesters, wearing black and with their faces covered, chased or beat Trump supporters and organizers who had scheduled and then canceled the anti-Marxist rally, citing concerns over safety.

Police, and in some cases other counter-protesters, stepped in to halt the violence or escort the victims away from the area. Officers reported 14 arrests, many of them for violations of the citys emergency rules banning masks, sticks and potential weapons inside the demonstration area.

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The clashes came despite widespread calls from activists and elected officials across the Bay Area for peaceful civil disobedience and underscore Berkeleys growing reputation for violent reaction by the far left. Other protests earlier this year in the city turned ugly, with far-left and far-right forces fighting in the streets.

Some in Berkeley worried that Sundays chaos, captured on video and quickly disseminated through social media, would provide unwanted ammunition to Trump and his supporters.

We cant keep producing this audio-visual propaganda, said Andrew Noruk, a counter-protester who denounced the fights. It is recruiting for the right.

The incidents came a day after a series of mostly peaceful activities in San Francisco, where demonstrators also marched in response to a planned far-right rally near the Golden Gate Bridge. Counter-protesters there boasted that they had shown that far-right groups, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists, were not welcome. Police reported one arrest, for public intoxication.

In Berkeley, the demonstration of more than 4,000 people pulled heavily from area labor unions, church groups and liberal activists  but also scores of young people clad in all black, some carrying shields and others with bandannas pulled over their faces.

Those activists are sometimes referred to as antifa, a name taken by anti-fascist organizations formed to oppose white nationalists. They are known for their punch a Nazi bent.

The counter-demonstrators were in the city to protest the Say No to Marxism in America rally, police said. Several who were expected to speak at the event have been linked to white nationalist sentiments or violence in the past.

Kyle Chapman, the far-right activist known as Based Stickman who gained fame for his role in previous Berkeley brawls, had been listed among speakers for the canceled event, but was not seen. On Friday, during a hearing on a pending felony weapons charge related to a prior rally, a judge ordered Chapman to stay away from Sundays demonstration.

Other planned attendees included Augustus Invictus, a Florida-based white supremacist who attended a torch-lit rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to the Anti-Defamation League. Invictus was not seen Sunday either.

One far-right figure who did show up was Johnny Benitez, the alias of an Orange County resident who organized an America First rally in Laguna Beach. Protesters got into shoving matches after he appeared, with some screaming Go home, Nazi.

Police tried to escort him and Irma Hinojosa, a member of the Southern California group Latinos for Trump, through the crowd and out of the park.

Before the day had ended, Benitez wrote on Twitter that anti-fascists should be designated as terrorists.

If the federal government doesnt move to expose these terrorists the patriots of this country need to prepare for war, he tweeted.

Benitez was not the only right-wing activist hurried away from scene. Counter-protesters clad in black pounced when Joey Gibson, founder of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, showed up in the park. Masked protesters began pepper spraying people and used their shields to hit people who appeared to be with Gibson.

#UPDATE: Black-clad anarchists attack 5 protesters in Berkeley, including organizer of SF Patriot Prayer rally. https://t.co/DItm9Zkx0J pic.twitter.com/2vCMu40lNE  NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 28, 2017

Gibson, who was behind Saturdays aborted rally in San Francisco, was handcuffed and escorted away by police. Assistant Chief Jim Libby of the California Highway Patrols Golden Gate Division later described the officers action as a rescue.

Anti-fascist protesters also beat one person wearing an American flag. Some threatened to break the cameras of anyone who filmed them, including journalists. Others set off purple smoke bombs.

One counter-protester, in tears, said she worried that Sundays event would be tied to violence. Another, who helped break up a fight, was upset over the altercations.

We need to get antifa out of here, said Jack Harris, 20, of San Francisco.

1 / 65 Demonstrators clash as they beat up a man and chase him down during counter protest against white supremacist. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 65 Demonstrators beat up a man and chase him down during counter protest against white supremacist at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 65 Clergy members march to the MLK Park. After a right wing rally was cancelled at Martin Luther King Park, various counter protesters converged from the UC Berkeley campus and other locations. (David Butow / For The Times) 4 / 65 After a right wing rally was cancelled at Martin Luther King Park, various counter protesters converged from the UC Berkeley campus and other locations. Above clergy members march to MLK Park. (David Butow / For the Times) 5 / 65 After learning that Trump supporters had been pushed from the park, two counter protesters embrace in Berkeley, Calif. (David Butow / For The Times) 6 / 65 Demonstrators beat up a man and chase him down during counter protest against white supremacist at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 65 Demonstrators chase, jump and tackle a man as police officers watch in a distance, outside of MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 65 Demonstrators clash as as they beat up a man during counter protest against white supremacist at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 65 After a right wing rally was cancelled at Martin Luther King Park, various counter protesters converged from the UC Berkeley campus and other locations. Above a person is lead away from the park by police. (David Butow / For The Times) 10 / 65 Police officers detain and escort a protester out after counter protesters surround him. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 65 Protesters react to their friend getting detained by the police. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 65 Members of the black bloc attack a man during their rally outside of MLK park in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 65 Clergy members who were part of an organized march confer as they arrive at Martin Luther King Park in Berkeley, Calif. (David Butow / For The Times) 14 / 65 Members of the black bloc celebrate as they push into MLK park in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 65 Members of the black bloc push into MLK park after police officers retreated during a day full of protests in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 65 Members of the black bloc march into MLK park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 65 Members of the black bloc jump over barriers and spill into MLK park in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 65 A protester is escorted out by the police at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 65 Police officers arrest a protester and her dog during a day of clashes and protest against racism in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 65 Police officers arrest a protester and her dog during a day of clashes and protest against racism, i (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 65 Purple smoke is released as police officers hold the line around MLK park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 65 Smoke clears out after police launch tear gas to disperse a crowd in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 65 Police officers detain and escort a protester out after counter protesters surround him. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 65 Protesters and counter protesters on both sides of the spectrum, confront each other at MLK park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 65 Counter-protesters against racism confront protesters aligned with President Trump at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 65 BERKELEY, CALIF. -- SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 2017: Counter-protesters against racism confront protesters aligned with President Trump at MLK Park in Berkeley, Calif., on Aug. 27, 2017. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 65 Erin Smith talks to a live broadcast on her phone in front of protesters against racism. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 65 Members of the black bloc hold up shields as they anticipate getting pepper sprayed in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 65 Police officers step and break up a melee during clashes in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 65 Protesters march down Hearst street to celebrate chasing out white supremacist out of their planned events in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 65 A protester is escorted out by the police at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 65 Matt Christian drapes an American flag over himself as he is surrounded by a rainbow flag during a protest against racism. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 65 A President Trump supporter holds up a sign amidst protesters against racism at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 65 Matt Christian, right, is confronted by a protester against racism, at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 65 Jovi Val talks to reporters during a rally at MLK Park in Berkeley. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 65 Arthur Schaper debates with counter protesters at MLK Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 65 A man marching with a group organized by various clergy raises his fist inso lidarity with others fighting racism during a counter protest march. (David Butow / For the Times) 38 / 65 After learning that Trump supporters had been pushed from the park, two counter protesters embrace. (David Butow / For the Times) 39 / 65 A police officer dons his gas mask while Black Bloc protesters prepare to enter the park. (David Butow / For the Times) 40 / 65 Black Bloc and other Antifa protesters enter MLK Park after police left. The park had been sealed off to allow police to check for weapons at certain entry points as people entered the park but when the large group of Antifa arrived, they pulled out. (David Butow / For the Times) 41 / 65 A woman is led away by police. (David Butow / For the Times) 42 / 65 Marchers which was organized by a coalition of clergy groups head to MLK Park. (David Butow / For the Times) 43 / 65 Clergy members march to the MLK Park. (David Butow / For the Times) 44 / 65 Protesters gather at the edge of the UC Berkeley campus as they gather for a day of demonstrations. (David Butow / For the Times) 45 / 65 Donald Trump supporter and far-right activist Steve Solomon, left, argues his position with Johnny Benitez during a rally on Sunday in Berkeley. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press) 46 / 65 Wearing riot gear, U.S. Park Police from Washington, D.C., assemble Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 65 Protesters who support President Trump, left, debate with a counter-protester Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 65 Joey Gibson, left, who organized the canceled Patriot Prayer rally, speaks to Dexter Thomas of Vice News on Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 65 Arthur Schaper, a pro-Trump protester, debates with a counter-protester Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 65 A protester aligned with President Trump is escorted away after counter-protesters surround him at Crissy Field on Saturday in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 65 Protesters rally Saturday at San Franciscos Alamo Park, which has been closed off by the Police Department. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 65 People practice yoga near San Francisco City Hall to warm up for a rally against far-right groups on Saturday. (David Butow / For The Times) 53 / 65 Protesters with signs watch other demonstrators make their way to San Francisco City Hall for a counter-demonstration on Saturday. (David Butow / Los Angeles Times) 54 / 65 Protesters gather outside the fences of Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Saturday. (David Butow / For The Times) 55 / 65 Protesters hand out flowers near Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Saturday. (David Butow / For The Times) 56 / 65 A large crowd sits in the middle of Hayes Street during a rally outside Alamo Park in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 57 / 65 Protesters against fascism gather outside Alamo Park in San Francisco while police close the park off Saturday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times ) 58 / 65 Protesters against fascism gather outside Alamo Park in San Francisco. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times ) 59 / 65 Police close off Alamo Park, keeping counter-protesters from entering the area following the cancellation of a far-right rally. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times ) 60 / 65 Activists sing and hold a candlelight vigil during a Light Up the Night rally in San Francisco on Friday night. Organizers of right-wing rallies planned for this weekend in San Francisco and Berkeley have canceled the events. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 61 / 65 Ian Oshaughnessy sings We Are the World with fellow activists during a Light Up the Night rally in San Francisco on Friday night. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 62 / 65 Activists sing during a candlelight Light Up the Night rally in advance of far-right rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley. Organizers have canceled the events, but city officials are still prepared for clashes between demonstrators and counter-protesters. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 63 / 65 A man holds a sign outside San Francisco City Hall on Friday at a rally in opposition to far-right events planned in the Bay Area this weekend. Organizers of the right-wing rallies canceled them. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press) 64 / 65 Entertainer MC Hammer speaks at a rally in San Francisco on Friday against anticipated far-right demonstrations scheduled this weekend, which have been canceled. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press) 65 / 65 A crowd gathers outside San Francisco City Hall to oppose far-right rallies that had been planned in the Bay Area this weekend. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

Joanna Mendelson, senior investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League, watched footage of Sundays confrontations and said she drew a sharp comparison between the two weekend events. San Francisco provided a proud example of a community response to objectionable speech, she said in an email to The Times.

Todays story should have only been about the voices of tolerance overpowering those marred by bigotry, she said. Instead, any violent response, even if perpetrated by a small number, undermines their entire effort to counter the narrative.

Others strongly disputed the idea that anti-fascist marchers were initiating violence. Kitty Stryker, a member of counter-protesters known as Struggalo Circus, said she provided medical aid to someone who had been pepper sprayed by a far-right activist.

Stryker said she broke up a fight between a Trump supporter and another demonstrator  and was almost punched in the face. And she argued that counter-protesters shut down the far-right demonstrations with overwhelming numbers, not violence.

I think that has to do with having strong numbers and solidarity, she added.

Berkeley has been home to a number of clashes between political opponents this year. Violent protests on the UC Berkeley campus shut down an appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos in February, and subsequent demonstrations in support of Trump collapsed into roving street fights.

In the days leading up to Sundays event, Berkeley officials had laid plans for stronger crowd control in the wake of a violent clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, where demonstrators on each side complained of lax law enforcement.

Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed while protesting against the white supremacist rally.

Berkeley officials prohibited the carrying of weapons, sticks, projectiles and even soda cans in the demonstration area. Officer Jennifer Coats, spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department, said 500 officers were on the scene for Sundays demonstrations.

When protesters and counter-protesters arrived, they encountered a series of dump trucks lined up to form a barricade, an effort aimed at keeping a car from heading into a crowd. Marchers encountered concrete barriers at the park.

After the march, Berkeley resident Nancy Kerr said she viewed the protest as a success. Kerr, 33, said she was not afraid of the masked black bloc marchers, arguing that they had a role to play in protecting protesters.

Still, she and her husband, 34-year-old Kyle Sessions, expressed mixed feelings about some of the incidents that occurred.

The violence worries me because it puts the police more on edge, Sessions said. Theyre more likely to respond more forcefully with violence of their own.

The violence raises the stakes for two upcoming visits to UC Berkeley by outspoken conservatives.

Milo Yiannopoulos has announced plans to return next month to spend days in a tent city in Berkeleys Sproul Plaza. Conservative author and columnist Ben Shapiro is scheduled to visit Sept. 14.

On Monday, Berkeley police released the names of those who had been arrested.

james.queally@latimes.com

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Times staff writer Jazmine Ulloa contributed to this story.

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT @paigestjohn & @boreskes for news from the Bay Area protests this weekend.

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UPDATES:

1 p.m.: Updated with names of those arrested.

8 a.m. Monday: This article was updated with news about upcoming scheduled appearances by outspoken figures on the right at UC Berkeley.

8 p.m.: This article was updated with a new top and more details from demonstration.

6 p.m.: This article was updated with new comments from demonstrators.

4:20 p.m.: This article was updated with new comments from demonstrators.

3:10 p.m.: Updated with video showing violence.

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with more details about violence, new lede.

1:50 p.m. This article was updated with new information from the scene.

1:35 p.m.: This article has been updated with more news from the scene.

1 p.m.: This article was updated with new information from police.

11:55 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from demonstrators.

12:55 p.m.: This article has been updated with new information about arrests.

11:30 a.m.: This article has been updated with more comments from demonstrators.

10:10 a.m.: This article has been updated with new details about the scene at a UC Berkeley park.

This article was originally posted at 9:40 a.m.
Dozens of firefighters across Southern California have been deployed to Texas to help with search and rescue efforts after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Gulf Coast.

A team of 70 Los Angeles firefighters, 10 members of a support crew and four dogs were activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy to Texas, along with a 15-member Los Angeles County Fire Department swift-water rescue team.

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Across southern Texas, officials had yet to learn the full extent of the damage from the Category 4 storm. Emergency responders combed through the debris of collapsed buildings, broken power poles and uprooted palm trees as heavy rain and lashing winds continued to pound the area in what was one of the worst natural disasters in state history.

At least five people were reported dead, according to the National Weather Service in Houston, and authorities expect that number to climb as floodwaters recede.

The Los Angeles firefighters were expected to board buses and leave from a Sherman Oaks fire station Saturday night, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.

FEMA requested the swift-water rescue team about 2 p.m. Sunday.

Within 30 minutes, the crew loaded four hard-bottom boats and two inflatable boats onto a box truck and hit the road for what was expected to be a 20-hour drive to Houston. The team is scheduled to arrive Monday afternoon.

As soon as they get there they should go straight to work, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Joey Marron.

Theyll probably be going door to door, rescuing residents trapped in their homes and rendering aid to those injured, he said.

A search and rescue task force from the San Diego Fire Department also was activated Saturday night and was preparing to travel to Houston, the department wrote on Facebook.

Another team of firefighters left Irvine for Texas on Friday, the day the hurricane made landfall, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

The Southern California teams are three of the states eight Urban Search and Rescue task forces, which are specially trained to search collapsed buildings and other confined areas after natural disasters and other emergencies.

CA Task Force 8 just activated to go to Houston to assist w/ Hurricane Harvey efforts. Prepping equipment now. #harvey pic.twitter.com/4cTG836fTR  SDFD (@SDFD) August 27, 2017

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

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UPDATES:

Aug. 27, 7:50 p.m.: This story was updated with the deployment of a Los Angeles County swift-water rescue team.

This article was originally published on Aug. 26 at 10:45 p.m.
A San Diego federal judge has ruled that the lawsuit against the El Cajon police officer who fatally shot Alfred Olango, an unarmed black man, last year can move forward.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant also on Friday dismissed the city from the case, saying there was not enough evidence to argue that policies or specific decisions made by the Police Department contributed to Olangos death.

Olangos father, Richard Olango Abuka, argues that Officer Richard Gonsalves used excessive and unreasonable force when he fired on Olango and that he also failed to request medical aid for the dying man, according to the lawsuit.

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Olango, a 38-year-old Ugandan refugee, was having a mental breakdown the morning of Sept. 27, his sister said. She called 911 three times to ask for help and report his strange, paranoid behavior, which included wandering in traffic.

Gonsalves found Olango pacing in the parking lot of the Broadway Village shopping center and confronted him. According to the officer, he commanded Olango to take his hands from his pockets, but Olango wouldnt comply. Surveillance and cellphone video shows Olango suddenly pull an item from a pocket and point it toward the officer in what police have described as a shooting stance, prompting the officer to fire.

The item turned out to be a vaping device.

The district attorneys office, which reviews all police shootings, determined the officer reasonably feared for his life and was legally justified in the shooting.

The judge ruled that a jury could find that the officers conduct shocked the conscience because the officer knew going into the call that Olango was having a mental breakdown, that he had not been threatening anyone and hadnt committed a crime.

The judge also ruled that, when viewing the allegations in the most favorable light to the plaintiffs  as required at this point in the case  it is sufficient to conclude that  at the time Officer Gonsalves shot and killed Mr. Olango  it was clearly established (law) that someone who is unarmed, is not a threat to anyone, and had not committed any crime has the right not to be shot and killed.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The system will be capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, aircraft, helicopters, drones, surveillance aircraft and Airborne Warning and Control Systems, a senior army official said.

By Press Trust of India: After a long wait, the Indian Army will finally get an advanced medium-range surface to air missile (MRSAM) system by 2020. It will be able to shoot down ballistic missiles, fighter jets and attack helicopters from a range of around 70 km.

The missile system will be produced by India's premier defence research organisation - DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) - in collaboration with the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a senior army official said.

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The MRSAM system will be capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, aircraft, helicopters, drones, surveillance aircraft and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems) aircraft, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The current version of MRSAM is operational with the Indian Air Force and the Navy.

DEAL WORTH SEVERAL THOUSAND CRORES

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has signed a Rs 17,000 crore deal with IAI for the ambitious project.

The MR-SAM, a land-based version of the long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) for the Navy, will have a strike range of up 70 km, the official said. The deal envisages 40 firing units and around 200 missiles.

"The MRSAM for Armys Air Defence is an advanced all weather, 360 degree mobile land based theatre air defence system capable of providing air defence to critical areas against a wide variety of threats in a combat zone," the official said.

The first set of missile system will be ready in the next three years, he said.

PARADIGM SHIFT

The Army has been pressing the government to enhance its aerial attack capability considering the evolving security challenges.

In May, the Army successfully test fired an advanced version of the Brahmos land-attack cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Indian Army, which became the first land force in the world to deploy the Brahmos in 2007, has raised several regiments of this formidable weapon.

In May 2015, the Army had inducted the indigenously-developed supersonic surface-to-air missile Akash, which is capable of targeting enemy helicopters, aircraft and UAVs from a range of 25 km.

The Army thinks procurement of the MRSAM will mark a paradigm shift in its strike capability.

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--- ENDS ---
In the latest move by states to curtail abortions, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed an executive order to stop giving state money to any doctor or group affiliated with providing abortions.

The move is part of a growing trend. More than four decades after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed abortion legal, states are trying to place restrictions on when and how the procedure may be performed, or to cut off funding for groups that perform abortions.

South Carolinas move is also another salvo aimed at Planned Parenthood, the largest single provider of abortions in the country, and a popular target among conservatives who oppose abortion. The group was the subject of a bill signed quietly by President Trump in April that allowed states to deny some federal funding to the nonprofit groups operations.

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There are a variety of agencies, clinics, and medical entities in South Carolina that receive taxpayer funding to offer important womens health and family planning services without performing abortions, McMaster said in a statement. Taxpayer dollars must not directly or indirectly subsidize abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

It is already illegal to use federal dollars for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the mothers life is in danger.

Planned Parenthood officials say that abortions make up a small fraction of the services they provide, and that federal funding supports the other healthcare services the group offers.

Planned Parenthood tweeted shortly after McMaster signed the executive order, saying state residents would hold the governor accountable and ending with a one-word admonishment: Shame.

4,000 SC residents rely on PP for birth control, cancer screenings & other preventive care each year. They will hold you accountable. Shame. https://t.co/dOI6uElml9  Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) August 25, 2017

Trumps signing of the bill overturned a regulation that stopped states from denying federal Title X family planning funds to places that also provide abortions. Planned Parenthood  which has three locations in South Carolina, only one of which offers abortions  fell under the scope of that bill, which narrowly passed earlier this year with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

McMaster, who supported Trumps presidential campaign, is facing a primary challenge next year, and some of his opponents had already come out in favor of defunding sites that offer abortion services.

South Carolina is just the latest state to take aim at Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that allowed abortion. The executive order follows the states decision last year to ban doctors from performing abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. That law also doesnt allow for an exemption if the fetus has a fatal defect in the womb, and also makes no exceptions for rape or incest cases.

Carole Joffe, a professor at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at UC San Francisco, notes that conservatives who oppose abortion rights have been steadily passing restrictive state laws and making abortions almost unattainable in some states.

Some states may only have one abortion provider, making it difficult and expensive for many low-income women to get abortions. The lack of access due to tough state restrictions, Joffe says, has effectively made abortion not an option for some women.

Trumps election may change this and the womens marches may change this, but historically, Democrats have been much more mobilized around presidential elections and congressional races, she said. Republicans have done a much better job in bringing people though the pipeline of local races  school board, then state assembly and state senate. Democrats havent paid as much attention at this level.

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and Democrats controlled both houses in Congress, Republicans got to work. In the 2010 midterm election, the GOP cashed in at the congressional and state legislative level and among governorships.

State legislatures swung to the GOP as well  with 25 states entirely controlled by Republicans. There are only five states where Democrats are in control of both the governors seat and the legislature. Republicans also hold 33 governors seats.

The Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for reproductive rights including abortion, reported that since Republicans began dominating at the state level after President Obamas election, hundreds of state measures have been passed that have choked off access to abortions.

Iowa and Kentucky joined about 16 other states that restrict abortions after 20 weeks  though federal courts have said they violate Roe vs. Wade. Tennessee passed a law requiring that two doctors confirm a fetus is not viable before an abortion can be provided at 20 weeks or later, except in a medical emergency.

Arkansas and Texas joined Mississippi and West Virginia in passing bans on a procedure used in the second trimester referred to as dilation and evacuation  though the courts have stepped in to block the bans. Last week, however, Arkansas appealed that federal court order.

The Guttmacher Institute reported this year that the abortion rate in the United States declined 14% between 2011 and 2014  a record low as the number of procedures fell below 1 million annually.

McMasters executive order was praised by National Right to Life, an antiabortion nonprofit, and the Susan B. Anthony List, which has fought to defund Planned Parenthood.

Thank you Gov. @HenryMcMaster for taking #ProLife action to stop tax funding of abortion business Planned Parenthood in South Carolina!!  pic.twitter.com/AshChvF2Rd  Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) August 25, 2017

Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said that until Roe vs. Wade can be overturned  something she is optimistic about if Trump gets to appoint another U.S. Supreme Court justice  the state strategy has been effective, and she applauded McMasters executive order.

There is no reason tax dollars should be used to pay for abortions, Tobias said. And organizations that provide abortions or have them offered on site shouldnt receive those public funds either.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

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When the rainfall turned torrential late Saturday night, and water began pouring into his living room, KeRon Hooey sloshed down the block to the highest ground in the neighborhood: his neighbors two-story house.

He and 10 others, including two elderly neighbors, spent the night on the second floor, watching the waters rising out of the nearby Buffalo Bayou and spreading across their quiet subdivision, Wood Shadows II.

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All night, Hooey dialed emergency numbers  911, 311, the Coast Guard, local police stations  only to find wait times of more than two hours, or lines so busy that his calls were dropped. So he turned to Twitter.

Entire Wood Shadows II neighborhood is under water, Hooey wrote in a Tweet posted at 4:23 a.m. Then he shared his address.

As Tropical Storm Harvey drenched Houston, hundreds of residents trapped in rising waters inside their homes encountered long waits and dropped calls on the regions 911 lines.

After officials reported that emergency lines were at capacity, residents like Hooey turned to Twitter and Facebook, breaking with typical Internet privacy standards to share their home addresses and phone numbers in hopes of a quicker rescue.

One woman begged someone to help her aging parents, trapped in waist-high water in the Meyerland neighborhood. Talk-show host Montel Williams posted a video on Facebook, asking someone with a boat to rescue a colleague with cerebral palsy. Other users reported relatives with heart conditions, and families with children who could not swim.

Just after 1 a.m., a woman in the Ellington neighborhood said on Twitter that she had two children with her, and The water is swallowing us up. Please send help. 911 is not responding!!!!!!

One woman in southeast Houston shared a photo of murky yellow water covering her home, saying: I really need rescue, and no numbers are working.

Update, we're moving to the attic pic.twitter.com/5QnYYeNaxj  Lauren (@shameless_l) August 27, 2017

A sort of volunteer social media brigade began to respond, urging stranded Houston residents to leave their attics and head for the roof. Others tried what they called a signal boost, retweeting posts and tagging emergency officials in an effort to speed the rescue process.

On Sunday night, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said 911 operators had received 56,000 calls in less than 24 hours. Police and fire departments had received nearly 6,000 calls for rescues and rescued more than 1,000 people, he said.

If youre stranded in your vehicle, but you are in a safe place, or a dry place, lets give preference to those who are in a situation in their home where water is rising very quickly, Turner said at a televised news conference earlier Sunday. I ask that you continue to call. We are manning 911. But a lot of calls have come in.

He urged residents who were not in life-threatening situations to stop calling emergency lines.

Houston is battered by unprecedented storm; flooding is widespread with more to come 

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said 911 dispatchers had missed some calls due to volume, and were trying to call those numbers back.

Officials stressed that callers should stay on the line and wait, instead of hanging up and calling back. Those seeking immediate help can contact the U.S. Coast Guard, officials said.

People in #HurricaneHarvery distress can call the following #USCG numbers:



281-464-4851

281-464-4852

281-464-4853

281-464-4854

281-464-4855  U.S. Coast Guard (@USCG) August 27, 2017

Emergency responders also sent out pleas on social media to residents who own boats and high-water vehicles, asking them to contact fire officials to help with rescues in flooded neighborhoods.

As the sun rose, Hooey and his neighbors began trying to get the attention of passing helicopters, waving T-shirts and flags, and blinking their phone flashlights on and off.

At 10:30 a.m., Coast Guard officials picked up Hooeys two elderly neighbors and the women in the group, wading through waist-high water to load a walker and a wheelchair in the boat.

The Coast Guard didnt return for the rest of the group, Hooey said, and they hitched a ride on a residents boat, gliding down what had once been Centerwood Drive.

Oh my God, this is just a horrific experience, Hooey remembered thinking as he saw roofs, cars and lamp posts poking out of the water. Then he wondered why Houston officials had not told his neighborhood to evacuate  because he would have, he said.

We were told to stay inside and stay safe, and there was no plan at all, Hooey said. Houston has to do better.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

Follow @laura_nelson on Twitter.

UPDATES:

5:40 p.m.: This article has been updated with figures and comments from the mayors news conference.

2:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with description from a resident and other details.

This article was originally posted at 11:40 a.m.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a bill that would have raised the states minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, arguing that it would hurt businesses and ultimately reduce jobs.

Advocates for the wage hike had been anticipating a veto by the Republican governor. The veto kept Illinois from becoming the third state, after California and New York, to adopt a $15 minimum wage.

States and cities have increasingly moved to raise their minimum wages in the absence of federal action on the issue. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009.

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A number of cities, such as Los Angeles and Seattle, have raised the minimum wage, but some have had to roll back hikes. St. Louis, which recently adopted a minimum wage increase to $10 an hour, must lower it to $7.70 to match the state minimum after the passage of a new Missouri law, which takes effect Monday.

The Illinois bill would have increased the minimum wage, now $8.25 an hour, to $9 in January and gradually stepped it up to $15 by 2022. For part-time or seasonal workers under 18 years old, the raise would have been to $12 an hour. To give small businesses time to adjust, the law offered employers with 50 or fewer workers a credit toward their income tax liability that is proportional to the wage increase.

Lawmakers could attempt to override the veto, but it passed both the House and Senate on May 30 with fewer votes than would be needed. The bill was approved 61-53 in the House and 30-23 in the Senate, and each chamber had two members voting present. A veto override would require 71 votes in the House and 36 in the Senate.

Knowing this was wrong for Illinois he waited to the last minute and, with this veto, Gov. Rauner showed us once again who he is and what his vision is for Illinois: A permanent low-wage economy, where services and infrastructure are slashed, where workers are deprived of dignity and rights and where corporations call all the shots, SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Greg Kelley said in a statement.

Rauner said in a veto message Friday that helping low-income families and individuals get out of poverty is a top priority, but that economic evidence suggests such a big wage hike would hurt workers more than help.

He cited a University of Washington study published this year on the impact of Seattle raising its minimum wage to $13 an hour, as it steps toward $15. That study found the average low-wage worker lost money as employers faced with higher labor costs reduced hours, put off hiring or laid off people. By that studys measures, the hike would cause Illinois low-wage workers to see a net reduction in earnings of $1,500 per year, Rauner said.

The University of Washington study was criticized by some economists and advocates for methodological problems. Other research has found minimum wage increases lift pay without little or no impact on jobs. Advocates said the minimum wage hike could have increased the pay of 2.3 million people in Illinois.

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the bill as being a job killer, applauded the veto.

Thanks to the governors veto of SB 81, Illinois employers can breathe a little easier today, president and CEO Todd Maisch said. This keeps Illinois in competition with our neighbors by helping to maintain our jobs and to recruit prospective employers.

Elejalde-Ruiz writes for the Chicago Tribune.
To President Trump and many of his supporters, Joe Arpaio is a national hero whose aggressive pursuit of people in the country illegally and cooperation with federal immigration authorities should be a model for cities and counties around the country.

Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job? Trump asked at a raucous campaign-style rally in Phoenix last week, three days before pardoning the 85-year-old former Arizona sheriff.

The pardon of Arpaio  who was convicted of criminal contempt in July for flouting a court order to stop racial profiling of Latinos while he was sheriff  has galvanized Trumps political base around an issue that was at the center of his presidential campaign.

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But for civil rights advocates, who believe that local authorities should not enforce federal immigration laws, the pardon was an endorsement of illegal tactics and will only serve to deepen racial tensions.

Arpaio built his work on terror and fear, said Alejandra Gomez, co-executive director of the Arizona-based Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, an immigrant rights group. Arpaio targeted the immigrant community, separating thousands of families. Arpaio built the foundation for Trumps agenda.

The issue of how to combat illegal immigration has become a major dispute between the Trump administration and left-leaning cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

The presidents threats to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities  which refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents  by withholding federal money have spurred little cooperation and several lawsuits.

Arpaio has long been a divisive figure at the center of the debate over illegal immigration.

During his more than two decades as Maricopa County sheriff, which came to end after he failed to win reelection in November, he ordered his officers to stop drivers simply on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally, sometimes leading to the detention of Latinos who were citizens.

In 2011, a federal judge ordered Arpaio and his deputies not to racially profile Latinos. A year later the Justice Department sued Arpaio, alleging a pattern of illegal discrimination against Latinos.

That only elevated his stature in the movement against illegal immigration.

Trump understood that as well as any politician, and early in his campaign he called Arpaio a friend and ally in fighting illegal immigration.

Arpaio became one of the first major figures to endorse Trump, urging voters to back the billionaire businessman because of his hard-line immigration positions.

When Trump suggested a pardon last week  Ill make a prediction. I think hes going to be just fine, he said to cheers at the Phoenix rally  Arpaio was facing the prospect of up to six months in jail.

To 72-year-old Daniel Magos, seeing Arpaio convicted of criminal contempt last month felt like justice.

One morning in December 2009, Magos was driving his rusted Ford pickup on his way to a drywall restoration job near his home when one of of Arpaios deputies turned on his patrol lights.

Im just trying to earn a living, and all of a sudden Im being stopped  you know, for what? said Magos, who was born in Mexico and became a U.S. citizen in 1967. The deputy is just staring at me, very angry, like I shouldnt be here in this country trying to make an living.

After a 10-minute interrogation, the deputy sent him on his way.

It was profiling, no doubt about it, said Magos, who joined a 2012 lawsuit against the sheriff. To this day its stuck with me.

On Friday, as Magos prepared dinner at his Phoenix home  about 35 miles from where Arpaio lives  he learned that Trump had issued the pardon.

I thought, why, how could this be? he said. But then I just thought how Trump and Arpaio are the same.

In an interview Saturday, Arpaio denied that he or his officers had ever profiled anybody.

I was doing my job and combating illegal immigration, he said by phone from his home in a Phoenix suburb. I didnt ask for a pardon, but it is greatly appreciated.

It was also appreciated by Trump supporters, as the president by some measures has fallen short in his attempt to curb illegal immigration.

In January, Trump signed an executive order that called for the hiring of 5,000 more Border Patrol agents, the increased deportation of undocumented migrants and funding for the immediate construction of a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But seven months later, the number of new Border Patrol agents has dropped by 220 instead of risen. Immigration officials are on pace to deport 10,000 fewer people this year than during President Obamas last year in office. And Congress has not made a border wall a priority, prompting Trump to threaten a government shutdown if funding for it is not authorized.

Given those shortcomings, some of his advisors have been urging the president to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program started by Obama to offer legal residency to people who were brought to the country illegally as children and grew up here.

On the issue of sanctuary cities, Arpaio said he remains confident that Trump will triumph over local authorities.

What hes doing will work.  It really will help out a lot, Arpaio said. Are there sanctuary cities for bank robbers? No. There needs to be action taken against these mayors and police chiefs that are just allowing safe havens.

To civil rights activists, Arpaio provided the worst kind of model for dealing with illegal immigration.

For more than two decades, Sheriff Arpaio terrorized and profiled Arizonas Latino citizens, was finally voted out of office, and was convicted for failing to follow a court order to cease his unlawful, racist policing, Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement. This pardon sends a dangerous message that a law enforcement officer who abused his position of power and defied a court order can simply be excused by a president who himself clearly does not respect the law.

Arpaio said Saturday that hell take the criticism.

Its expected, he said. Ive been talked about my whole career.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

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The White House on Sunday defended President Trumps divisive pardon of a former Arizona sheriff who had engaged in racial profiling, even as cracks began to appear within the administration over the presidents response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va.

As the outcry over Trumps leadership on race continued to mount, his secretary of State and a top homeland security advisor appeared  unusually  to distance themselves from the presidents post-Charlottesville statements, in contrast to the full-throated defense most administration officials had previously offered.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, appearing on Fox News Sunday, was asked about a United Nations panels recent criticism of the U.S. over its failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject and condemn  racist violent events.

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The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which normally confines its concerns to the actions of dictators or groups like Islamic State, did not mention Trump by name, but its statement clearly referred to this months white supremacist march in Charlottesville and its deadly aftermath.

A 32-year-old paralegal, Heather Heyer, was killed Aug. 12 when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters; a 20-year-old Ohio man described as a Nazi sympathizer, James Alex Fields Jr., has been charged in the killing.

Asked about the U.N. panels statement, Tillerson said he did not believe anyone doubts the American peoples values with respect to combating racism. But pressed by interviewer Chris Wallace as to whether Trump shared those values, Tillerson replied, The president speaks for himself.

When Wallace queried him about whether he was separating himself from Trumps views, Tillerson again offered distancing language, saying that I have made my own comments as to American values on race and racism.

Trump places a premium on personal loyalty, and his aides tend to staunchly defend him even under the most controversial circumstances.

But even amid the fresh furor over Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff in Arizonas Maricopa County, the White House homeland security advisor, Tom Bossert, seemed to contradict on Sunday the presidents contention that there had been very fine people marching among the white supremacists in Charlottesville.

Asked about that characterization, Bossert said that I think youll have to ask the president how he wanted to parse the march participants. Id ask you to ask the president for clarification, he said on ABCs This Week.

Queried about his own opinion of those hurling racial invective while marching with Confederate banners, Bossert said, I dont think anyone chanting those things is a very fine person  period.

He did defend the overall tenor of Trumps remarks condemning racism, however.

I cant be clearer, the homeland security advisor said after repeatedly attempting to return the conversation to the administrations response to the hurricane that hit Texas. I think the administrations been clear.

The remarks from Tillerson and Bossert follow a more blunt criticism last week from Gary Cohn, Trumps economic advisor, who told the Financial Times that the administration must do better at condemning racism. Cohn said he had considering resigning over Trumps reaction to Charlottesville but decided to stay in his post.

In an essay published Sunday, former Vice President Joe Biden directly accused Trump of emboldening white supremacists and other far-right extremist groups.

Like many Trump critics, the former vice president drew parallels between the Arpaio pardon and events in Charlottesville.

If it wasnt clear before, its clear now, Biden wrote in a starkly worded opinion piece ay on the Atlantic magazines website. We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation. The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America.

Now, Biden wrote, Trump has pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a concentration camp.

Bossert played down the significance of Trumps pardon of Arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt of court.

Trumps announcement of the pardon, made late Friday as Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on Texas Gulf Coast, drew criticism from some high-profile Republicans, including the states two GOP senators and, on Saturday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who is normally muted in his commentary about the presidents actions, if not cheering him on.

The speaker does not agree with the decision, Ryans spokesman Doug Andres said.

Democrats including Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) have expressed concerns that the pardon might be an attempt to undermine the wide-ranging Russia investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who is examining potential collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

Schiff, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Saturday that the Arpaio pardon could be intended to reassure former Trump associates under scrutiny that the president would undo contempt convictions they might face if they fail to cooperate with investigators.

Some Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said the pardon undermined Trumps promise to respect the rule of law.

Bossert argued that pardoning Arpaio was pretty straightforward and not something that is going to threaten our constitutional order.

I certainly dont think its fair to characterize [Trump] as not caring about the rule of law, he said.

laura.king@latimes.com

@laurakingLAT
The sculpted clay was dry and the bronze would soon be cast, but artist Martin Dawe still found himself waking with a start before dawn, worried that he didnt get the details of the famous mans face exactly right.

On Monday, Dawe will find out if he succeeded when officials unveil his statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Georgia Capitols grounds for the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Getting to this point was a three-year struggle. Officials had to negotiate with Kings family for the right to use his image. Then an artist was selected for the project, only to be killed in a motorcycle accident. After a lengthy screening, Dawe was chosen to replace him.

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Then came the artistic challenge.

Its the most difficult portrait Ive ever done in my whole career, Dawe said this month at his Atlanta studio. He has very elusive features. He has a very distinct profile but no over strong characteristic like some historical figures.

Dawe knew other tributes to King had been criticized and he set one goal: Make the 8-foot statue look like the man.

People have their own image of King, Dawe said, from a favorite photo perhaps, or a personal glimpse caught in childhood. He said hes prepared for mixed reactions because of that history. But hes still hoping most will conclude: That looks like him.

A reflection of epochal changes, the civil rights leaders statue is going up in his Southern hometown at a time when monuments honoring Civil War Confederates are coming down in many other places across the South.

Less than two miles from Kings birthplace, Georgias Capitol has held only one representation of the civil rights icon and Nobel laureate since 1974  a painting. Black lawmakers lobbied without success for years to install a statue on the grounds commemorating him.

Then, in late 2013, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal ordered the statue of white supremacist Tom Watson  a Georgia political leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s  removed from the Capitol lawn.

On the 2014 national holiday bearing Kings name, Deal visited the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where King preached and promised to find an appropriate way to honor him at the Capitol.

Kings family is fiercely protective of his name, image, words and more. Within weeks, an attorney representing the estate warned the governors chief of staff that permission for such a statue would be required.

Lawmakers approved a resolution proposing the statue and Deal appointed Rep. Calvin Smyre, a black Democrat from Columbus and longest-serving member of the George House of Representatives, as a liaison to the family. The state and the King estate ultimately came to an agreement for the statue, at no cost.

Smyre said the estate never asked for a financial commitment to use Kings image, and he thinks Kings children deserved to be involved.

I can understand them wanting to make sure the things that people do that represent their father would be done in good order, Smyre said this month.

Eric Tidwell, the estate representative, did not respond to several messages requesting comment on the project.

Meanwhile, Smyre and Republican Rep. Joe Wilkinson began seeking donors to cover the estimated $100,000 expense. By early July 2015, Kings estate signed off on a design proposal from artist Andy Davis, whose statue of Ray Charles for a south Georgia city convinced state officials that he was the right pick.

But within days of getting the OK to start his work, Davis was fatally injured when an allegedly drunk driver collided with his motorcycle. Officials had to start over.

It took almost a year to narrow down the hundreds of artist portfolios that poured in after Davis death, interview four finalists and select a new artist. That delay ballooned the cost to $300,000.

Last January, nearly three years after the statue was proposed, Dawe actually began crafting it.

For its stance, he already had a photo originally chosen by Davis. A fedora-wearing King is shown leaving a courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1956 bus boycotts. Hes mid-stride, adding curve to his body in a way that reminds Dawe of classic Greek sculptures. His shoulders are squared under a suit and his left arm holds a stack of paper and an overcoat.

Kings face, though, took weeks of research. Dawe studied hundreds of photos and watched Kings speeches and interviews, along with every educational DVD he could find. He still felt something was missing. Then, buried in the extras section on one of those DVDs, Dawe found a brief video clip.

King has just given his famous I have a dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. He stands with the overcast sky lighting his face perfectly.

Dawe played the five or six seconds in a loop, examining the curves of Kings face and chin, his bone structure and the overall shape of his neck and head. This, he felt, was the key.

In the finished piece, Dawe aimed for an expression just short of a smile but hopeful and deep in thought. Once in place, the completed statues head will be turned slightly, gazing toward Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Dawe hopes the slight tilt inspires viewers to ask themselves: What is he thinking?

Kathleen Foody writes for the Associated Press.

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Facing the digital wrath of a Republican president increasingly unhappy with legislative roadblocks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a GOP gathering in his home state on Saturday that people should not be surprised with the challenges that come with governing.

A lot of people look at all that and find it frustrating, messy. Well, welcome to the democratic process. Thats the way it is in our country, McConnell said during the Republican Party of Kentuckys Lincoln Dinner in Louisville.

President Trump has criticized McConnell for the Senates failure to repeal and replace former President Obamas healthcare law despite years of promises, tweeting that should NEVER have happened!

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The perceived acrimony has fed a narrative of discord in the GOP that threatens the future of Trumps agenda, including changing the tax code and passing a national infrastructure bill. McConnell sought to quash those sentiments on Saturday, vowing to pass both and have a permanent impact on the country.

While McConnell praised the Trump administration for his appointment of conservative judges, he seemed to remind the president where the power lies in getting those appointments on the bench.

I like to remind people the Senate is in the personnel business, McConnell said. There are over 1,200 appointments that a president makes that are subject to confirmation in the Senate. So, were deeply involved.

Congressional leaders are expected begin work on changing the nations tax code when they return to Washington after the August recess, and McConnell indicated he would not seek to partner with Democrats to get it passed. He said Senate Democrats such as Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts want to redistribute income, calling them the party of government.

We are, for the most part, Americas private-sector party. Obviously, America needs both. The question is what is the balance? McConnell said. The liberals are going to struggle and fight and protest every step of the way. But were the ones in charge now, and we intend to deliver.
I teach comparative literature at Columbia University. At the start of every semester, if I plan to discuss one of my own novels in class, I always tell my new students an old story about writing and teaching.

Its a very popular (but possibly apocryphal) anecdote about Vladimir Nabokov. In 1957, he was proposed for an appointment at Harvard University as professor of Russian literature. Not everyone welcomed the idea. If Russian literature is to be taught by Russian greats, the Harvard linguist Roman Jacobson reportedly told his colleagues, then we must get elephants to teach at the faculty of zoology.

My students laugh, and then I turn to the matter at hand. This semester, I will stand before you as an elephant, but I will also try my best to be a professor.

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Elephants dont know what it is that makes them elephants. They just are. Similarly, novelists do not consciously dwell on what they do when they write their novels. The things they mean to describe and express when they write, the territory they wish to cover, may be very different from those elements that readers and students focus on. The author of a novel is not always the best placed to interpret it, and eventually others may become more familiar with the text than he is.

The author of a novel is not always the best placed to interpret it, and eventually others may become more familiar with the text than he is.

Most of my bright students at Columbia are fully aware of these paradoxes, so I dont have to spend too much time on the subject, though I do later occasionally warn them: I am going to speak now not in my capacity as a professor, but as the elephant in the classroom.

I may explain, for example, that one of the reasons I wrote My Name Is Red is that until the age of 22, I wanted to be a painter, but failed.

With this novel, I say, I tried to construct a narrative inspired by the contrast between what a painter envisions, and the way his hand can sometimes move of its own accord.

Then the professor steps in: That contrast is similar to the difference between being a novelist and being a professor teaching the art of the novel. Which leads to the question of what John Berger, himself a novelist, terms ways of seeing, and then to the East-West dichotomy, Persian miniatures, Renaissance art and history.

Or about another of my novels, Snow, I may say: As the elephant in the classroom, I can tell you that everything that happens to the protagonist Ka over the first 200 pages is almost exactly what I experienced myself when I went to the Turkish city of Kars, in 1999, where the book is set. I wanted to write a political novel that would contain an entire nation, just like Graham Greenes novels set in poor and troubled third-world countries.

Though I try to resist the temptation, I have been inclined in class  even more so than my students  to see my own novels of a nation as introductions to the cultural norms and particular afflictions of Turkey, the Middle East and the entire Muslim world. Because I am interested in theory and the field called cultural studies, I sometimes end up theorizing about my own work.

In this passage, our author is aiming to explore the history of the streets and shops of Istanbul.

Or: In Islamic societies, where men and women rarely get to interact unless they are already married, boys and girls will develop an alternative language with its own special grammar of silent glances, frowns, moments of deliberate immobility and pointed questions: Would you like another meatball? 

But how much emphasis should I place on Turkish history, the transformation of Istanbul, or Islam and secularism, so that the logic of my novels will be more accessible to my students? After a lifetime spent battling against political pressures on literature, devoting classroom time to social context or political ironies instead of literary nuances makes me feel like a traitor. Whether I am teaching my own novels, or Anna Karenina, Mrs. Dalloway and The Red and the Black, I sometimes feel that no matter what I do, I am actually betraying true literature  a feeling that stays with me like a kind of heartache.

Ten years of teaching experience have shown me that the best way to avoid these anxieties and contradictions is to steer away from theory and social context and re-discover the intricacies of the text itself with my students  be it my own work or someone elses. So at the start of every class, I devote some time to poring over the pages Ive assigned for that day.

Lets analyze whats been happening here, Ill say. Why do you think Ka is arranging the meeting at the Hotel Asia? What key events from this section should we discuss? What do you think is the dominant mood in these pages?

Like most educated upper-middle-class Turkish men, I have an authoritarian streak in me, and even though I enjoy teaching through dialogue, I cant always resist just telling students the facts about my novels. And yet I also marvel at a student reminding me of the oddities of a novel Id written years ago, and wonder if Id even meant any of it.

Whenever I set theory and social context aside in favor of a close reading of novels, seeking out their subtleties and internal symmetries, I discover just how much I have forgotten about my own books. One day, just before class was due to start, a student saw me frantically skimming through Snow outside the classroom. Thats what happens if you dont bother to do your reading! he joked.

He had that teasing, mischievous expression I sometimes see on students when they spot little things in my novels that I hadnt even realized I was doing, or when they dont agree with what I say is the logic of a novel and point out its contradictions and ambiguities. But after years of giving lectures on my own work, my students have taught me to think this comforting thought whenever I catch that expression on their faces: Maybe theyd rather have an elephant in the classroom than a professor.

Orhan Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006. This essay was translated from Turkish by Ekin Oklap.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.
As monuments to the Confederacy are swept away from public spaces, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the president of the United States have been fretting over the so-called attack on history, presumably their history. Their white history.

Attack, assault, erasure, destruction  well, truth and justice in the face of denial and dissembling can certainly feel like that. But there is no such thing as whites-only history, there never was, not even with regard to the Confederacy.

Like millions of African Americans, I am the descendant of a Confederate soldier. True, we are most likely descendants through coerced sex and rape, but we are descendants all the same. According to Ancestry.com, the DNA of the average African American is 29% European. These bronzed southern soldiers are literally our forefathers too.

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In the peculiar, perverted institution of slavery, white men sired, enslaved and often sold their own children; black nieces and white nephews played together before adulthood drove them to disparate destinies. Whites owned their black siblings. Thomas Jefferson was 45 when he fathered the first of six children on the 15-year-old Sally Hemmings, who was his wifes half sister and also her property. My great-great-grandmother Mary Ellen Fulton was her mistresss niece.

The monuments debate isnt about the past. Its about present-day white supremacy and whether our nation is going to stop making excuses and stare it down.

None of this is new or secret information. But the Southern states established powerful dont ask, dont tell rules that were essential to both their social structure and the economics of slavery. With power on one side and humiliation on the other, our mythical, segregated history took shape.

Of course, most white Southerners of the period were neither villains nor heroes. The majority did not enslave other people, but neither did they advocate the end of slavery or even the softening of slavery. They did not work to halt the worst practices of the era  the sale of children away from parents, the separation of husbands and wives  nor did they seek to end the concubinage of enslaved girls and women. Many did not own slaves simply because they couldnt afford them.

Blacks and whites will have different perspectives on their entwined history. War victory for my white great-great-great grandfather, Jeremiah H. Dial, who enlisted in the 31st Arkansas infantry regiment and was wounded in the battle of Stone River, Tenn., in December 1862, would have meant defeat for my great-great-great-grandmother Lavinia Fulton and their daughter, Mary Ellen. Instead, Lavinia died a free woman, living to play with her grandchildren and give thanks to God every Sunday in church in Birmingham, Ala. I thank God my great-great-great-grandfather lost. Every right-thinking person should be glad he lost.

Yet the monuments debate isnt really about the past. Its about a present-day assertion of white supremacy and whether our nation is going to stop making excuses and stare it down. Most of the statues, as has been widely discussed, were erected long after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. They were hoisted into view to assert white dominance at specific points in time when African Americans gained a measure of political influence  during Reconstruction and the civil rights era. With the bronzes came domestic terrorism, lynchings, bombings and cross burnings. The current uptick in neo-Nazi and white supremacist activity was entirely predictable. With clockwork precision it surged at the time of the nations first African American president.

So why do some people treat modern icons as if they were ancient relics, like marbles from the Parthenon?

Fear. History isnt being erased, but it is being corrected. Relocating a Confederate statue to, say, a museum, is an acknowledgment that we see the naked emperor; we see through the contorted logic that it is possible to separate the Confederacy from the institution of slavery, that its a whites-only story and slavery is blacks-only, and that treason is the same as patriotism.

The president has asked, Where will it end? Will the removal of General Lees lead to upheaval for Thomas Jefferson? Trigger the end for George Washington?

I would ask, How could a patriot be confused with a traitor? How can leading a war to bring forth a new country be confused with leading a rebellion to tear it in two?

The two kinds of monuments do, however, have something in common. The memorialized men serve as avatars, as conduits for the values they espoused. Revolutionary-era monuments lead us to contemplate and revere Revolutionary-era values. Confederate monuments do the same for Confederate ideals. The men of both ages were flawed, but the values of one age bind and sustain us as a nation. The values of the other do not.

As for my Confederate ancestor, I consider him without bitterness. He was a man of his time, his family, his community and his culture. He probably wasnt particularly evil  just an ordinary man, without the advantage we have: 152 years perspective on the Civil War. I have met a few of his white descendants  my cousins  and we regard each other with genuine affection.

To those who would keep Jeremiah Dial frozen in time, forever trapped at the moment he chose a cause on the wrong side of humanity, I believe you do him a disservice. To those who use him as an excuse to fly the flag of modern-day anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry, you have no right.

To all the bronze Confederate soldiers, in whom I see the image of my great-great-great-grandfather, I would extend this grace. Without resentment or rancor, I would move them into museums and there tell the story of their lives. I would end their utility as flashpoints for racism and division, and, once and for all, allow them to retire from their long service as sentries over a whitewashed history.

Lisa Richardson is a former member of the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook

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To the editor: The Times observes the following: The 1st Amendment to the Constitution establishes the right to free speech and peaceful assembly. The 2nd Amendment creates a right to own firearms. (Dont restrict free speech. Restrict the right to carry guns at potentially explosive public events, editorial, Aug. 23)

Those statements are misleading. Neither the Bill of Rights nor any other part of the Constitution establishes or creates any right. All valid rights precede the Constitution or any other law.

In District of Columbia vs. Heller, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explains, The Constitution secures the right of the people to keep and bear arms. He goes on to say: Like most rights, the right secured by the 2nd Amendment is not unlimited.

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The Constitution and Bill of Rights do not establish or create any rights. They secure the unalienable rights with which we are naturally endowed as human beings. Governments are instituted among men to secure our rights, not to create them.

Jonathan Ball, Sacramento

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To the editor: There The Times goes again, making sense in an era where nonsense rules the day. Of course, combining the four combustible issues mentioned in the editorial (Incendiary speech, demonstrators, open-carry and stand-your-ground-laws) will continue to result in violence and worse.

With a president who suggests that some people should be carried out on a stretcher from his rallies, who remarks that he could shoot someone in public and not lose support, and who said he can sexually assault a woman because of his fame, the tenor has be set and the fire has been lit.

The question now is how can we rescue ourselves from the madness of President Trump? And will it be before our country, its Constitution and its conscience come to a fiery end?

Ben Miles, Huntington Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) Cellular service providers need to take consent from the state pollution control boards for installing and operating generator sets, the National Green Tribunal has ruled.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar declined to quash the order dated March 31, 2009 passed by the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB).

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"While we decline to quash the order dated March 31, 2009, passed by the MPPCB, we order and direct that the following conditions/directions shall be read in consonance with the order dated June 28, 2012. The parties to the lis shall abide by these directions.

"We hold and declare that the applicants/appellant are obliged to take consent of the MPPCB for installing and operating Diesel Generator sets as an alternative source of power to the towers that they erect in the State under the provisions of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981," the bench said.

The tribunal granted four weeks to them to file applications for consent to operate and asked the pollution board to deal them expeditiously in accordance with the law.

"For a period of eight weeks from the date of pronouncement of this judgement, the Board will not take any coercive steps against the applicants/appellant. However, after expiry of the above-said period, the Board shall be at liberty to proceed in accordance with law," it said.

MPPCB, in its March 31, 2009 order, had said registration and renewal of registration under Hazardous Waste (Management, handling and transboundary movement) Rules, 2008 of medium scale industry and mines above an area of 5 hectare, has been given to Director and regarding up to 5 hectare and less given to local officers.

The state pollution control board had also said that the director would be authorised to include or omit any condition in the Rules of 2008.

The order was challenged before Jabalpur High Court by Bharti Infratel Ltd, IDEA Cellular Ltd and ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.

The High Court disposed of the petitions while directing the MPPCB to consider the objections of the petitioners raised before it against the applicability of the Act and rules before taking action.

The Board held that the petitioners were required to make an application in a prescribed form, obtain its consent and also pay fee.

The order was again challenged in the High Court which transferred the matter to the NGT in September 2012.

The petitioners had contended that diesel generator sets attached to a tower as an alternative source of energy cannot be termed as industrial plant as that is not "legislative intent" of the provision of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. PTI PKS SJK ARC DV

--- ENDS ---

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To the editor: President Trump has altered the bully pulpit to serve the pulpit bully, as demonstrated by his speech in Phoenix on Tuesday. (Again breaking ground, Trump takes the permanent campaign to new heights, Aug. 23)

As demagogues have always known, when large swaths of the public dont support you, the zeal of the faithful is a key weapon in keeping your enemies off balance. Thus, rather than public addresses to inspire the country at large, you need campaign-style rallies to whip up your supporters and keep your opponents cowed.

There is nothing innocent about this, nor is Trump doing this merely because he wants to bask in the adulation of supportive audiences, as the article put it. Trump appears to be laying the groundwork (with this and allegations of voter fraud and media dishonesty) to challenge the 2020 presidential election if he loses.

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David Saffan, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: I found this article, which ran in print on the front page, to be an excellent example of the challenges journalists face in covering Trump.

While the information in the article was excellent and well written, it also contained parts such as Trumps tempestuous appearance  offering a one-man oratorio of anger and indulgence. So whats new? He has performed this way many times and he doesnt seem likely to change.

Featuring an article like this so prominently feeds Trumps constant need for attention and gives fodder to his supporters who believe the lying media continually persecute their hero. It also gives Trumps detractors more of the same frustration they have experienced for seven months.

As the media grapple with the question of how to cover Trump, I suggest they should consider a key question: Is the president doing something different, or is it more of the same?

Stuart Fischman, Mission Viejo

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To the editor: When my stepson was an adolescent, he wondered why I was so hard on him. I told him I was hard on him in inverse proportion to how hard he was on himself. He was self-centered and could not admit that he had ever made a mistake.

Our president suffers, at an advanced age, from similar issues. And he wonders why the media are hard on him.

If only Trump would admit to a mistake and show any humility at all, the media might be more tolerant. Until then, he will be given a rough treatment by the one institution built to dish it out  because he and America need it.

Peter Maradudin, Costa Mesa

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To the editor: I noticed a typo on your print editions front-page headline, Trump wages a campaign without end. The w should have been an r, and the headline should have read, Trump rages a campaign without end.

Jim Ouellet, Playa del Rey

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A bill to establish single-payer healthcare screeched to an abrupt halt earlier this summer  but that hasnt blunted its continuing influence on California politics.

Calls for a sea change in the states healthcare system have proved remarkably durable, even after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved a measure in June that would have made the state responsible for paying all of its residents medical costs.

A recently filed ballot initiative, budding campaigns against sitting lawmakers  including a recall effort against Rendon  and new plans for legislators to wrestle with how to achieve universal healthcare have taken shape in recent weeks, and the conversation is poised to take on national heft as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) prepares to introduce a Medicare for all measure in the fall.

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It all sets the stage for a combustible coming election year, in which questions about the viability of single payer will be posed to gubernatorial candidates, incumbent lawmakers and new entrants to politics galvanized by the healthcare debate.

People are literally dying because of a lack of healthcare, said Don Nielsen, government relations director for the California Nurses Assn. Its not a matter of waiting until somebody high enough in the power structure decides its time. The time is now.

The nurses group was the prime driver behind the legislation, SB 562, which would have established a single-payer system in California. The plan proposed to largely do away with private insurance companies and instead have the state cover the tab for residents healthcare expenses. The proposals total cost ranged from $330 billion to $400 billion but passed out of the state Senate without identifying a revenue source to fund it.

What would Californias proposed single-payer healthcare system mean for me? 

The effort to push through the measure came at a time of increasing awareness  and growing approval  of the single-payer concept. Pew Research Center found that nationally, 33% of respondents backed a single-payer healthcare system, a 12-percentage-point bump in approval since 2004. Statewide, the Public Policy Institute of California found in May that 65% of all adults backed the single-payer insurance system that would have been established by SB 562. But that support plunged more than 20 percentage points if the plan would require raising taxes.

Facing the prospect of saddling his caucus with an unpopular tax vote  or approval of a measure without determining how it would be paid for  Rendon opted to table the bill in June, igniting an immediate outcry from its supporters.

Two months later, that ardor has not fizzled. Last week, a new ballot measure was filed with the goal of removing roadblocks to establishing single payer. The initiative, filed by Dale Fountain, who leads the Facebook group Enact Universal Healthcare for California, would create a special account expressly for healthcare that would be exempt from rules that dictate how the states general fund dollars must be spent.

The initiative also states its purpose is to spur the Legislature to act, since its passage would theoretically underscore public support for single payer.

Days after the initiative was filed, Rendon announced that informational hearings would be held during the fall legislative recess. He said lawmakers would examine a number of healthcare models, such as Medicare for all or an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, to achieve universal healthcare coverage.

SB 562 has become the most widely known single-payer proposal in the state, but it is not the only road map.

Jonathan Oberlander, professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said that single-payer systems  broadly defined as those in which the government is the sole payer of healthcare costs  can vary in financing, benefits and cost-sharing. And single payer is not the only way to achieve universal coverage.

Countries like Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and others have universal coverage but not through single-payer arrangements, Oberlander said. The notion that the choice is the U.S. status quo or Canadian-style single payer is a prevalent myth.

By providing a forum to hash out the healthcare debate through the fall, the hearings almost certainly will propel the issue into 2018. But the conversation holds political risk: Will Democrats be expected to produce a bill at the hearings close? Will their findings satisfy the most zealous advocates?

People rally in favor of single-payer healthcare in California outside Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendons office in South Gate on June 27. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

I dont want anybody to have an impression that well do two or three hearings and then, boom, well have a magical solution, said Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), one of two Democrats leading the panel.

He insisted the hearings would not be a meaningless exercise.

This is a real effort, Wood said. I would hope people would be patient and would learn along with us as we move forward, because there is a lot to learn.

Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), the committees co-chairman, said he expects the conversation will spill over to the contest to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown.

Its imperative to bring healthcare to that governors race, Arambula said.

The top Democratic candidates have staked out varying positions on the topic: Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called a state-level single-payer plan snake oil, while Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is backed by the nurses association, has called for universal healthcare but has not yet rolled out a proposal. Treasurer John Chiang has signaled support for the concept of single payer but said he has concerns over implementation.

Rendons call for hearings was immediately greeted with suspicion from SB 562s most ardent backers, including those behind a nascent recall effort against him.

The speakers decision to release this misleading statement at this time demonstrates clearly that the speaker has decided not to change course, but rather that the public pressure that has been brought to bear on Speaker Rendon is succeeding, said Steve Elzie, an attorney advising the recall proponents.

Although the nurses group is not backing the recall, it is keeping the heat on other Assembly Democrats. During the summer break, the union held town halls and knocked on doors in a number of districts. Its also sent mailers to constituents asking why their representatives arent supporting SB 562.

All signs point to the pressure continuing into 2018, and Nielsen did not rule out recruiting challengers to take on Democratic incumbents.

All options are on the table, he said. This is a key issue. This is an issue that really should separate the serious progressive politicians from those who are not serious about the issue.

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Follow @melmason on Twitter for the latest on California politics.

California Assembly leader Anthony Rendons decision to shelve single-payer healthcare angers progressive activists

Q&A: You asked, we answered. Here are some of our readers questions on Californias proposed single-payer plan

Updates from Sacramento
Several years ago, little was known about the StingRay, a powerful surveillance device that imitates the function of a cell tower and captures the signals of nearby phones, allowing law enforcement officers to sweep through hundreds of messages, conversations and call logs.

The secrecy around the technology, which can ensnare the personal data of criminals and bystanders alike, spurred lawsuits and demands for public records to uncover who was using it and the extent of its capabilities. In California, a 2015 law requires law enforcement agencies to seek permission at public meetings to buy the devices, and post rules for their use online.

But a Los Angeles Times review of records from 20 of the states largest police and sheriffs departments, plus the Alameda County district attorneys office, found some agencies have been slow to follow or have ignored the law. Several that partner with federal agencies to work on cases are not subject to the laws reporting requirements. The result is that little information on StingRay use is available to the public, making it hard to determine how wide a net the surveillance tools cast and what kind of data they gather.

Who has stingrays

Out of 21 law enforcement agencies surveyed, 12 were found to own or have access to a StingRay or similar device. Nine of those agencies had developed and released online public polices.

Department Device Policies Department LAPD Device OWN Policies YES Department Long Beach Police Device OWN Policies YES Department L.A. County Sheriff Device OWN Policies YES Department San Diego Police Device OWN Policies YES Department San Jose Police Device OWN Policies YES Department Fresno Police Device ACCESS** Policies NO Department Sacramento Police Device OWN Policies YES Department Sacramento County Sheriff Device OWN Policies YES Department Oakland Police Device ACCESS** Policies YES Department Alameda district attorney's office Device OWN Policies YES Department Santa Ana Police Device ACCESS** Policies NO Department Anaheim Police Device OWN Policies YES

**Officers don't operate the stingray but work with other agencies that may

Source: L.A. Times review of public records

The Times reviewed more than 400 documents it received from public information requests, including grant proposals, purchase orders and memos on the use of StingRays and similar devices generically called stingrays or dirtboxes.

The devices, which cost between $242,000 and $500,000, are primarily marketed for preventing and responding to terrorist threats, but the documents suggest they are used most frequently in felony criminal cases, such as burglaries, murders and kidnappings.

Out of 21 law enforcement entities The Times surveyed, 12 either owned stingrays or used or had access to them through partner agencies. Nine owned the surveillance devices, and each of them posted public policies online as required by law. Three of the nine went a step further to conduct annual reporting audits that showed when and in what cases the devices were used.

But some stingray policies posted by the law enforcement agencies revealed little about the devices besides noting they were in use. Other agencies took months to post their stingray guidelines online. The Los Angeles Police Department, which owns a stingray, updated its public safety policies to include its stingray guidelines only after questions from The Times.

Data on stingray purchases and use have long been difficult to come by, a problem the 2015 law requiring more public accountability was meant to correct  and has yet to fix.

California police would have to disclose the use of more surveillance devices under this proposed law>>

The Times found that the nine agencies that own stingrays bought them between 2006 and 2013, mostly with federal grant money or under programs or agreements that prohibited any public disclosure, following a national trend. Local tax dollars werent used on the purchases, and city and county officials didnt ask about them in a public forum.

Just two of the 21 law enforcement agencies polled by The Times have ever publicly discussed buying new devices before city or county officials: Santa Clara (which did not buy a device) and Alameda counties.

And only one agency, the Oakland Police Department, has gathered input from the public to develop guidelines for stingray use, which isnt required under the 2015 law.

Any tool can be used for good or bad, said Brian Hofer, chairman of Oaklands Privacy Advisory Commission, which helped establish the surveillance policies. This is the most controversial piece of equipment that we know about, and they should not be used in the dark.

The StingRay II gives off the strongest wireless signal in an area, tricking nearby phones, tablets and laptops to connect. (Associated Press) (Associated Press)

A device cloaked in secrecy

Stingrays tend to be the size of small briefcases and mimic the function of cell towers. They give off the strongest wireless signal in an area, tricking nearby phones, tablets and laptops to connect.

Investigators can target the location data of specific phones, allowing them to track suspects and their associates. They can also sweep up communications over a wide area. How much and what types of data they collect  location information, audio or images  depends on how the devices are designed and how law enforcement agencies use them.

The technology has been used for about 20 years by federal, state and local law enforcement, often secretly, under manufacturer agreements that typically prohibit agencies from disclosing the purchases.

The public did not learn about the existence of the equipment until 2011, after an inmate in federal prison, Daniel Rigmaiden, spent three years scouring government records and meeting transcripts on a hunch that investigators used some kind of secret device to catch him.

Rigmaiden, a native of Seaside, Calif., who hadnt had a stable living situation, was arrested in Phoenix for filing fake tax returns. Police were able to find him through tracking an old Verizon wireless card he seldom used to connect online.

It wasnt just that [investigators] were able to get historical call data from Verizon, said Linda Lye, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an amicus brief in support of his case. They were able to pinpoint him to a particular apartment in a particular apartment building, which was far more precise.

State bill requiring California police to disclose surveillance equipment clears its first hurdle>>

In 2015, California lawmakers passed the sweeping Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which prohibited any investigative body in the state from forcing businesses to turn over digital communications without a warrant. That same year, state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) introduced legislation to compel local law enforcement agencies to disclose more information about the use of stingrays in California.

Our country has a rich history of democracy and civilian oversight, Hill told a Senate judiciary committee that May. The stealthy use of these devices undercuts the very nature of our government.

The law, which took effect in January 2016, requires cities and counties that operate a stingray to create guidelines for how and when officers use the equipment. Any agency that wants to buy a device must first receive approval at a public hearing.

Investigators can target the data of specific phones. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Opening access to information

The state law helped open up some public access to information about how and where the devices are used. Privacy advocates and lawyers have kept up the public pressure in some cities and counties, particularly in the Bay Area, calling on officials to put ordinances and guidelines in place to bar police from collecting data from those not under investigation.

Under most of those policies, officers can use the technology only when it is critical to a case and is approved by higher-ranking officers, or in emergency situations such as natural disasters. Investigators are also required to obtain search warrants. Any data not considered official evidence cant be sought, recorded or stored. Officers must delete or destroy all information gathered by the equipment related to an investigation at the end of the period in which theyre authorized to use the technology.

Three agencies keep track of when officers use a stingray  the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, the San Jose Police Department and the Alameda County district attorneys office. But their data offer few details about the cases.

In Los Angeles County, a report from the sheriffs office showed deputies followed state law and obtained a search warrant in nearly all 138 investigations that required a cell site simulator in 2015, and 38 investigations in 2016, the majority of which were murder cases.

In that time, the device helped officers arrest 70 suspects and find one crime victim. Sheriffs Department officials declined to disclose further information or records on those cases.

Source: L.A. County Sheriffs Office Ally Levine / @latimesgraphics Stingray use in Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in Los Angeles County asked to use the surveillance equipment for investigations 138 times in 2015 and 38 times in 2016. In 2015 17 Narcotics 16 Assault 9 Robbery 6 Grand theft In 2016 Most common investigations using stingrays Murder 63 Murder 21 Weapons 3 Attempted murder 2 2 Rape 2 Assault* *with a deadly weapon

The Alameda County district attorneys office, which purchased a device to be operated by the Sheriffs Department and other area police agencies, said the stingray had not been used as of January.

The San Jose Police Department bought a $500,000 stingray in June 2013, and used it about 20 times between early September 2016 and June 2017.

Law enforcement officers in Oakland and San Jose, as well as several other California cities, say the law requiring them to disclose use of the devices has allowed them to ease community fears over what the technology can and cant do.

You watch TV and youd think that we are sucking their phones dry of all the images, of all the texts, of all the pictures and emails, said San Jose Police Lt. Steve Lagorio, who crafted guidelines for stingray use with the city attorneys office. But we are not. We dont have that capability.

The cellphone interceptor at his department is strictly used to target the phones of individual suspects, and Lagorio said he doubted any local law enforcement agencies used the equipment to do much more than that.

A traditional cellphone tower. Cell tower interceptors, often called stingrays or dirtboxes, tend to be the size of small briefcases and mimic traditional cell towers. (Jeff Roberson / Associated Press) (Jeff Roberson / AP)

Calls for oversight

Privacy advocates and lawyers say a state agency is needed for oversight to ensure law enforcement agencies are following the law and post their own guidelines.

Most of the records on purchases and grant proposals reviewed by The Times were highly redacted, providing little insight into how their equipment is designed and what it can collect.

The LAPD provided purchase orders and invoices that show the department first obtained price quotes for stingray equipment in 2004, but it is unclear when it acquired the technology. LAPD officials said only that the stingray was not deployed due to technical malfunction issues, but declined to elaborate.

Other records from the Police Department show it obtained another stingray in June 2012, but the department declined to release additional information on the purchase, including its cost.

It was used more than 21 times in routine criminal investigations over four months in 2012, according to LAPD records that were first obtained by the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that works to advance free speech and open-records laws.

In response to an information request regarding its purchases of stingray devices, the San Francisco Police Department provided heavily redacted records, including a 2012 grant proposal and shipping receipt showing the purchase of specialized surveillance equipment in 2007.

The department also gave The Times a document indicating a stingray was bought with 2009 federal grant funds. But a spokesman said the department did not have any public policies on the technology because the equipment was not in use.

Seventeen of the 21 agencies polled by The Times said they did not keep or declined to provide data on how often and in what types of cases they used stingrays.

Privacy advocates point to a loophole in the law that allows some law enforcement agencies to avoid reporting their use of the devices. Police departments that partner with another agency that owns and uses a stingray in an investigation are not required to publish their own guidelines for using the equipment.

The Santa Ana and Fresno police departments, for example, said they did not have any records on the use and policies of surveillance devices. But both departments acknowledge they work with agencies that do have them, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, and might have indirect access to the data they produce.

Our officers dont use the equipment, but we often look for fugitive hunters, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. Anaheim [police] may have one, the U.S. Marshals may have one. They do help us catch fugitives, but whether they have one  youd have to ask them.

A new proposal by state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), left, would expand the states transparency laws on StingRays and extend it to all surveillance devices. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Increasing transparency

This legislative session, a new proposal by Sen. Hill would expand the states disclosure law on stingrays to all surveillance devices, including facial recognition software, drones and social media monitors.

Senate Bill 21 would require law enforcement agencies to disclose not only the use of the surveillance equipment, but the use of any information obtained from the devices.

Civil rights lawyers and advocates have supported the measure, saying transparency is necessary at a time when concerns over surveillance of immigrant and Muslim communities have risen under the Trump administration.

The legislation was narrowly approved by the state Senate, with heavy opposition from law enforcement officials who argued it would give criminals a road map to police agencies crime-fighting technology.

Its prospects of passage in the Legislature are unclear. Hill says he understands the technology has many benefits for law enforcement.

[But] we need people  we need agencies  to be accountable, and we need civilian bodies to create that accountability standard, he said.



FOR THE RECORD

6:31 a.m.: This article reported incorrectly that Daniel Rigmaiden was arrested in Phoenix. He was arrested in Santa Clara.

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

Twitter: @jazmineulloa
Conservative Republicans in the state Assembly dumped their moderate leader last week, and it was hardly a shock.

That historically has been what Assembly Republicans do mostly: oust their leaders.

Theyre collectively a grouchy bunch. Youd be, too, if you were perpetually stuck in the minority and practically irrelevant in serious lawmaking.

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The minority party removes its leaders faster than the majority because theres no reason to be happy, says Republican consultant Richard Temple, who once worked for five Assembly GOP leaders within 12 years. They have no power.

Theres another thing that makes Republican leaders vulnerable to a coup, Temple notes. Theyve got very little power to ward off rebels. Democrats see to that. The Assembly speaker appoints all heads of committees and dishes out the perks.

So when Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley was booted  actually, he resigned under pressure and escaped being fired  it wasnt just about a cadre of cave dwellers failing to adapt to modern ways and further endangering survival of the California GOP species. There was that, of course, but it wasnt so simple.

The public reason Mayes was pushed out is that he sided with Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators in voting to extend Californias climate-fighting cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases. Most Republicans strongly oppose the program, calling it a tax increase on consumers who ultimately are saddled with the permit costs.

Never mind that the state Chamber of Commerce and business organizations supported the legislation because it offers polluters flexibility. Its better than Soviet-style command and control, Mayes said.

He told his colleagues during the floor debate: California Republicans are different than national Republicans. Many of us believe that climate change is real and  we have to work to address it.

He got a sweet deal for GOP interests in negotiations.

Brown agreed to scuttle a hated fire-prevention fee paid by 800,000 rural landowners. The governor also extended a manufacturers sales tax break until 2030. And he supported a proposed constitutional amendment requiring the 2024 Legislature to reallocate cap-and-trade revenue. That would require a supermajority vote and jeopardize funding for his bullet train.

But only six other Assembly Republicans followed Mayes in voting for the bill. Eighteen Republicans voted no. Its an old truism that a leader without followers is just taking a walk, often headed for a cliff. Mayes stumbled over it.

It wasnt just ignoring the Republican Caucus that irritated his party. Immediately after the vote, Mayes joined Brown and Democrats in a celebratory high-five photo-op. Republicans thought he should have just held his own little news conference rather than cuddle with the enemy.

Worse, they griped, Mayes tactically should have insisted that all politically vulnerable Democrats vote for the controversial bill before any Republicans did. Democrats wound up obtaining the necessary supermajority support with one vote to spare, thanks to Mayes. But he allowed a few Democrats facing competitive races next year to escape voting for the legislation.

That was a mistake.

It also didnt help Mayes that there was bad blood between him and the state party over fundraising. The California Republican Party board voted Aug. 18 to urge Mayes to resign his position. Im not going to capitulate, he vowed. But last Thursday, he did.

Im still on a mission to try to change the face of the Republican Party in California, he told me. If we dont, were going to continue the death spiral weve been in.

Fewer than 26% of California voters are registered as Republicans. At the present trend, GOP registration soon will trail no party preference. Democrats are near 45%.

There has been a gradual GOP slide. Ten years ago, it was at 34%. In 1990, it was 39%.

Over the years, dispirited Republicans in both legislative houses have bounced many leaders.

Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto was canned one hour after voting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers tax increase in 2009. Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines of Clovis also voted for it and afterward was shunned by the party.

Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, one of the best legislators ever, was ambushed and dumped one night in 1995 by colleagues who didnt think he was partisan enough.

In 1991, Assembly Minority Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra was bounced because  get this  he wouldnt support Republican Gov. Pete Wilsons big tax increase. Yes, things were different back then. Republicans actually were winning governorships and other statewide offices.

Mayes will be replaced by one of his supporters: conservative Assemblyman Brian Dahle, 51, a likable seed farmer from the states northeastern corner. Its gorgeous country with lots of pines and wildlife. The Pit River runs through Dahles 2,000-acre farm.

Dahles hometown is Bieber in Lassen County, with a population of 312 at the last census. Cellphone service is spotty. To get to Sacramento requires a 4 1/2-hour drive. Or he can grab a plane 2 1/2 hours away in Reno.

His nine-county district voted for President Trump in landslide numbers. Dahle backed Trump, too, but wasnt an early supporter.

California has a lot of challenges, he says. Weve got lots of poor people, we have housing issues, were overregulated. Its getting harder and harder for business to survive. Its death by a thousand cuts.

And hed better look over his shoulder. Theres probably some Republican plotting a coup.

Updates from Sacramento 

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter

ALSO

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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
Not just anyone is on a first-name basis with Katy Perry, but even fewer are on a first-name basis with her dog. Nugget! L.A. groomer, comedian and director Jess Rona said with affection. I groomed her yesterday.

Rona shot to insta-fame with her Instagram account @jessronagrooming, an ingenious feed that transforms her stylishly groomed dogs into movie stars  literally.

Dogs of all breeds become the stars of their own music videos, set to a soundtrack of pop and indie rock songs and filmed in slow motion, a fan blowing their freshly fluffed fur just like a models hair on a fashion shoot.

The videos are hypnotic  and hilarious, a testament to Ronas talents as a longtime dog groomer and improv comic.

More from L.A. Times pets 

Although her Instagram account has exploded in popularity, her expertise didnt happen overnight. She started working at PetSmart in Reseda when she was 18, a dog bather who knew nothing about dogs.

My boss was like, Can you go put that lead on the Lab and bring it out? Ronas reaction: Whats a lead and which ones the Lab?

She worked on and off as a groomer while in her 20s, then threw herself into the job. I started to develop my own style, she said, which she described as Japanese-influenced pet trims, a whimsical look for people who arent going to sit and brush their dog every day.

The Instagram account became an outlet for my urge to create, she said, and a way to showcase her meticulous cuts and comic timing.

After she groomed and filmed Marni in April 2015, the dogs owner reposted the video and Ronas following ballooned. I never tried to get followers. I never did hashtags or anything like that, she said.

Rona has since landed a deal for a book of her dog photographs, and is writing a television pilot loosely based on her life. Whats next? She wants to continue writing and directing bigger projects, and develop a product line and grooming kit for at-home groomers.

In the meantime, Rona has some do-it-yourself tips for getting your dog Instagram-ready:

Dog grooming artist Jess Rona with Meemu, left, and Chupie, at her grooming studio in Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Sit!

How to get dogs to sit still for pictures? I just hold the treat bag in one hand, she said, the camera in the other. I have squeaky toys; I ask them if they want to go on a W.A.L.K. She also recommends seating the dog on a counter or table. If a dog is high up, theyre less likely to walk around.

Stay!

For at-home grooming, Rona recommends the Artero Double Flexible Slicker brush and, her favorite, the Mark VII Curved Back Large Slicker Brush by Chris Christensen. I would recommend getting a pair of thinning sheers versus regular shears for at-home trims, she says  theyre better for blending.

Roll over!

Once youve taken the perfect shot, its time for the fun part: filters. Ronas visual approach is intuitive. For her dramatic bath photos, I take out the warmth and make it really blue, sharpening the resolution to highlight long, sudsy fur. For a happy, glamour shot, warm it up with sunny tones.

Good dog!

The most important thing, said Rona, is to project calm and confidence. Dogs are not word readers; theyre energy readers, she said. She encourages her clients to avoid baby talk when communicating with their pets. When a dog is seen and validated and heard, they calm down, she said, adding, the same with people.

Info JessRonaGrooming.com
That crashing noise? It was an antique lamp that had belonged to my parents. And Beau, my hunka hunka burning Siamese love, had just sent it hurtling to the floor.

I wanted to throttle him. After I saw the look on his face, I wanted to pick him up, cradle him and tell him not to worry.

Because in the contest of things versus pets, there is no contest. The pets always win.

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You have only to look around Southern California to see animals ubiquity, never mind their elevation, in our culture: the dogs that seem to pop up in so many places where their presence was unthinkable just a few years ago, the cat cafe that lets you have a cuddle with your coffee, the clothes and adornments with which they are now festooned, making their owners look comparatively dowdy.

Although its true that having a pet is like living with a creature that is permanently 2 years old, it is also true that once you welcome one into your life, you have a new roommate that promises unconditional love and is capable of enormous affection and of addressing, if not always curing, many of lifes ills.

These polar opposites may overlap on any given day in my several decades of pet-owning experience.

Its part of the contract we accept when we adopt or are acquired by an animal. In the U.S., 44% of households have a dog and 35% have a cat, according to the ASPCA, quoting the American Pet Products Assn.

I can promise you that 100% of those households occasionally have some problem with their pets, sometimes involving the destruction of the things you have acquired that your pet has now made you disacquire.

But they are only things. And things cannot greet you at the door when you arrive home. They cannot kiss your face in unfettered joy or sit with you when you are weeping about one of lifes cruelties.

Things cannot make you howl with laughter at their antics. They cannot keep you warm at night (OK, maybe a blanket can, but blankets dont purr.) And they do not stand by you when it feels like the rest of the world believes you are lower than a snakes belly.

One of the great truths of life is that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, which is far worse. Ive known animals I didnt love and that didnt love me but none that didnt have an opinion about me nor I about them. Indifference is an impossibility.

Even with the monkey.

We found the monkey in a tree, and no, I am not making that up. We lived in a place where finding a monkey in a tree wouldnt be completely unexpected, not unlike a man becoming president who studied for his law degree while he was in prison for killing his fathers political opponent. (The place was the Philippines, where anything could happen, including Ferdinand Marcos.)

We wanted to keep him but that monkey quickly earned the title Worst. Pet. Ever. If he had papaya for lunch, he ate some, mushed up some and rubbed it in his hair, and flung the rest at us, sometimes worse.

This habit helped earn him a trip to the security guards compound where he stayed until his original owners claimed him. The saps.

The rest of my pets have been fully integrated, usually fully functioning members of the household. I am always surprised at the surveys, usually from the vet that ask, Do you think of your pet like a member of your family?

I always say no. Because they are much, much better than some of my family members, and I would never think of insulting my pet that way.

Especially when it came to Beatriz, a lilac-point Siamese with one pink nostril.

When we married later in life (my husband and I, not Beatriz and I), he was not a cat person, unfortunate because cats (two) outnumbered dogs (one). He doted on the dog who was sweet but no rocket scientist.

You know, he finally acknowledged to me, this dog couldnt spell cat if you spotted her the c and the t.

But Beatriz could spell a lot of things, figuratively speaking, including kidney disease exacerbated by high blood pressure.

She made my husband Carl her special project. She taught him that no afternoon nap was complete without a cat (preferably her) and that having a cat nearby made reading the Dodgers box score less painful. (This was when managers Joe Torre and then Don Mattingly werent quite succeeding.) He came to embrace the notion that a cat in the bed provided a physical and psychological warmth unlike any he had known.

His doctor kept a close eye on a blood pressure that medication often failed to control. About 18 months after Carls conversion to cat personhood, he had a checkup at which his reading was normal.

His doctor asked him what was different in his life. Was he taking some off-the-books medication? Was he practicing meditation? Had he taken a vacation?

No, he said. He was now owned by a cat.

His doctornow dead, by the waywas dismissive, but science backs this up: Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that owning a cat or a dog reduced stress levels in people already taking medication for hypertension.

Even the most amazing animal cannot stave off the ravages of renal disease, but Beatriz did give us a gift that no one else could: By her caring, unceasing love, she gave us the gift of time  hers and, perhaps, ours.

As Carl was dying, he asked that his ashes be mixed with Beatrizs when her time came and that they be placed by our two favorite rose bushes.

A little more than a year after his death and three months after hers, Carl and Bea are together, just as they always were.

The saucer-sized blooms from that bush remind me almost daily that love comes on two feet as well as four, and that sometimes, if youre very, very lucky, as I have been, both.

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For that final blast of summer vacation you can find hula in the mountains, gravity-defying sand castles at the beach and Middle-Eastern sandwiches at a chili cook-off.

Santa Ana

Want a brief escape from stress? Consider a calm and meditative day viewing the ancient art of Bonsai: The Living Art at the Bowers Museum. Members of Kofu Bonsai Kai will give demonstrations on the graceful art of miniature trees.

Kids might like the museums free International Mask Festival (midday Sept. 3) with mask-dances from Japan, Mexico and Africa.

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When: Aug. 30-Sept. 3

Cost/info: Free (but does not include museum admission). Children welcome. No dogs. (714) 567-3677

San Diego

Is that really sand? Yes, it is. The sand sculptures at the U.S. Sand Sculpting Challenge & Dimensional Art Exposition are not your grandmothers sand castles. OK, so its special sand, but its still just sand and water shaped into amazing, thought-provoking, awe-inspiring works of art.

When: Sept. 1-4.

Cost, info: Adults from $15, seniors (62 and older) and active military from $12, children younger than 12 from $10. Only service dogs allowed. (619) 994-3752

Crestline

A luau in the mountains? Indeed, and aloha. Lake Gregorys Mauka Makai Luau celebrates Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures with music, songs and dance from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and New Zealand. A Samoan chief is on tap to perform a fire-knife dance. Polynesian-themed cuisine includes island-style roasted pig, kalua pork and Hawaiian-style potato and macaroni salads.

When: Sept. 2.

Cost, info: Tickets $58. Children younger than 5 sitting on a parents lap are free. No dogs. (951) 818-2292

Long Beach

Move and swoon to 30 bands on two stages at the New Blues Festival in El Dorado Park. Scheduled to appear are Guitar Shorty, Zac Harmon, Janiva Magness, Ana Popovic and Chris Cain.

When: Sept. 2 and 3.

Cost/info: Adults from $40, child with adult free. No pets except service dogs. (707) 572-5837

Hermosa Beach

Fiesta Hermosa displays artwork created by more than 300 jewelers, potters, sculptors, photographers and painters. Tribute bands on the main stage honor the Beatles, Doors and Neil Young, and surf, pop and classic rock from the 70s through the 90s rock another stage. Kids can ride ponies, visit the petting zoo and play in the small Kiddie Carnival, which offers rides, a climbing wall and a bungee-jump.

When: Sept. 2-4.

Cost, info: Free except for carnival rides and games. Family friendly. Dogs on leash welcome. (310) 376-0951

Camarillo

Cast a vote for the Peoples Choice Chili at this Chili Cook-Off & Music Festival. If chilis not your thing, youll also find pizza, burgers, Middle Eastern pita sandwiches, popcorn and ice cream as well as fresh lemonade and craft beer. When visitors arent eating, they can look at classic cars and boogie to live music. Kids can make crafts and jump in a bouncy house.

When: Sept. 3

Cost, info: Adults from $20; active military $10; child 12 and younger free. Only service dogs permitted. (805) 484-4383.

Always check before you go because weather or other factors can affect events. Children should always be accompanied by an adult. Assume dogs must be on a leash. To suggest an event thats cool and close to home, email travel@latimes.com.

travel@latimes.com

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Its become a ritual for South Korean business tycoons who break the law: charges of corporate malfeasance, an apologetic bow for the television cameras and perhaps a little jail time.

But for many of these titans, there is a different ending: a presidential pardon.

The last four South Korean presidents have granted amnesty to scores of executives, including heavyweights at the nations largest and most influential firms, including Hyundai, Lotte and Samsung.

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But that pattern, a relic of South Koreas economy-first ethos, could be changing.

Clemency is unlikely for Lee Jae-yong, the Samsung scion sentenced to five years in prison on Friday for a bribery scheme involving disgraced former President Park Geun-hye, according to political analysts.

Thats largely because the conviction and sentence were more severe than other recent corporate malfeasance cases. But its also because pardoning Lee might be too toxic politically for the nations new president, Moon Jae-in.

He came to power in May after a historic corruption scandal involving his impeached predecessor, Park, and her alleged illicit ties to companies such as Samsung.

The problem is public sentiment. Moon is not going to pardon Lee if its unpopular, said Michael Breen, whose book, The New Koreans: The Story of a Nation, explores the countrys recent economic, political and social development. It all depends on what the mood is.

Samsung is the biggest company in South Korea by a wide margin and among the worlds largest manufacturers of electronics. Lee, whose grandfather founded it, became its de facto leader after his father, who is credited with turning it into a global leader, suffered a debilitating heart attack in 2014.

The younger Lee was convicted of paying millions of dollars to an associate of the former president to win support for a merger between two of the companys affiliates.

The merger effort was seen as a way to secure Lees dynastic control over the group, which includes flagship Samsung Electronics but dozens of other affiliates, including insurance, automotive and healthcare companies.

The bribery scheme was a key factor in the removal of Park, the daughter of South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee. She is accused of colluding with a friend to extort bribes from several companies, a scandal that led to months of historic street protests and her removal.

Park Geun-hye granted more than 16,000 pardons during her presidency, mostly to petty offenders, but some for elite business executives. She now faces her own lengthy prison term if convicted of bribery and other corruption-related charges during her trial, which is expected to end in October.

The pardons are part of a legal system that has granted amnesty to tens of thousands of ordinary South Koreans over the years. Most beneficiaries were traffic offenders or other minor criminal offenders  but plenty have hailed from the nations highest echelons of corporate power.

Pardons of executives at family-controlled conglomerates  known here as chaebol  have been common over the last two decades, according to a study published this summer in the Yonsei Journal of International Studies that reads like a whos who of corporate influence here.

There was Lees father, of course, who was pardoned by President Lee Myung-bak in 2009 after a conviction for tax evasion and embezzlement. And there is Chey Tae-won, the SK Group chairman, who spent time in prison for misappropriating corporate funds and was pardoned by Park in 2015. He remains the companys chairman.

The pardons are generally justified publicly as efforts to spur the economy.

But the study found a general decline in recent years in pardons, especially those considered controversial because they involved business leaders, politicians or associates of a president. The last two presidents, for example, avoided pardons involving executives accused in corruption cases.

The research suggests the downward trend has less to do with the personal character of the recent presidents than with public sentiment thats grown increasingly wary of corporate misdeeds.

Park Geun-hye took the toughest line when it came to issuing pardons of any recent president. She declined to grant clemency to other political leaders, regardless of the crime, and she only helped business executives accused of financial impropriety, not more serious corruption offenses.

Granting less pardons doesnt mean youre less corrupt, said Felicia Istad, a doctoral student at Korea University who conducted the study. It just means youre more wary of the public perception.

The changing mood comes as the nation, which quickly rose from poverty after the Korean War to become Asias fourth-largest economy  behind China, Japan and India  confronts growing inequality in how that prosperity has been distributed.

With relatively high youth unemployment, household debt and income inequality, corruption has become a galvanizing political issue.

The sentiment has led to renewed calls for reform at South Koreas powerful chaebol, which control a massive chunk of the nations economy but whose power can foster resentment among the less fortunate.

The national mood leaves Lee Jae-yong  one of the countrys wealthiest and most-powerful men  more likely to serve his time, assuming his case isnt reversed on appeal.

A pardon is not very likely, in my opinion, said Park Sangin, an economics professor at Seoul National University. It would be a huge setback in terms of public opinion.

Stiles is a special correspondent.
The Iraqi military says it has fully liberated Tall Afars town center from the Islamic State group.

Pockets of resistance remain but the announcement brings Iraqi forces a step closer to taking full control of one of the extremists last strongholds in Iraq.

Sundays statement says troops have captured all of the towns neighborhoods but are heading to Ayadia district, about 6 miles northwest of Tall Afar, to pursue a group of militants who fled.

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On Aug. 20, U.S.-backed Iraqi troops launched a multi-pronged operation to retake Tall Afar, a month after declaring Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, fully liberated. Tall Afar is about 60 miles from Syrias border.

Militants still control the northern town of Hawija as well as Qaim, Rawa and Ana, in western Iraq near the Syrian border.
By PTI: Boston, Aug 27 (PTI) Exposure to a common chemical found in yoga mats, baby products and upholstered furniture may reduce the chances of pregnancy through IVF, a Harvard study warns.

The flame retardant PentaBDE, used in polyurethane foam, was replaced by organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) as a safer alternative.

However, they have been found to cause hormone disruption in animal studies.

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PFRS are used in polyurethane foam in many products, including upholstered furniture, baby products, and gym mats. Studies have also shown that PFRs can migrate out of furniture and other products into the air and dust of indoor environments.

Researchers from Harvard University in the US examine associations between organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs)and reproductive outcomes in women.

They analysed urine samples from 211 women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) between 2005 and 2015.

The women were enrolled in the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) study, which looks at how environmental chemicals and lifestyle choices affect reproductive health.

The statistical analysis took into consideration factors including maternal age and race, smoking history, and body mass index (BMI).

They found that the urinary metabolites (products of a chemical that has been metabolised) of three PFRs - TDCIPP, TPHP, and mono-ITP - were detected in more than 80 per cent of participants.

On average, compared to women with lower concentrations of these metabolites, women with higher concentrations had a 10 per cent reduced probability of successful fertilisation, 31 per cent reduced probability of implantation of the embryo, and a 41 per cent and 38 per cent decrease in clinical pregnancy and live birth, researchers said.

"Couples undergoing IVF and trying to improve their chances of success by reducing their exposure to environmental chemicals may want to opt for products that are flame- retardant free," researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. PTI MHN MHN

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Reem Kaedbey was never very religious. Shes not even sure there is a God.

But when it came to marriage, she never had any doubt she would choose within her familys sect, a tiny offshoot of Shiite Islam known as the Druze faith.

Its a requirement for my parents, said 28-year-old Kaedbey, who lives near Beirut and works for the United Nations. I didnt want to get into problems.

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Finding a life partner is hard enough for anybody. Members of the Druze faith face an added pressure: keeping the religion alive.

The faith is thought to have about 1.5 million members, with most living in Lebanon, where they make up 5% of the population, and Syria, where they make up 3%. But an exodus of people fleeing wars in those countries has fueled a small but growing diaspora. There are about 30,000 in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California.

While the Internet has made it easier for Druze to connect with each other  Kaedey met her husband on social media  growing contact with the outside world has increased the chances that members will marry outside the faith. That is a path to extinction, because the religion does not accept converts and in its more conservative strands rejects children of mixed marriages.

In the modern day, theres a lot more tolerance and acceptance, but for the ones who truly follow the faith, once a person marries a non-Druze, they took the decision of leaving the faith, said Daniel Halabi, a 22-year-old sheikh, or religious leader, who lives in Chicago. The religious laws are clear.

And so the future of the Druze faith may depend not only on pairing up its youth  a community effort  but also on whether the religion itself can make accommodations to the modern world.

As religions go, the Druze faith is not especially old, having been formed roughly 1,000 years ago. It accepted the prophets of Islam and Christianity and incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and Gnosticism.

Unlike other forms of Islam, it embraced reincarnation, allowed women to become religious leaders, banned men from having multiple wives and did not mandate prayer at set times or places.

Its most important early promoter was Al Hakim bi-Amrillah, the sixth leader of the Fatimid Caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa and the Middle East and had its capital in Cairo. After his mysterious disappearance, his followers in Egypt were exterminated.

But they survived in other areas of the Middle East, including in present-day Lebanon and Syria.

In 1044, after a brief period of proselytization, the faith was closed to converts. Early Druze communities were insular and isolated and left historians with few records.

The religious texts have never been widely disseminated, leaving it to the sheiks to educate adherents on the finer points of the faith.

The diaspora began as a trickle and picked up in 1975 with the beginning of Lebanons 15-year civil war. The countrys 2006 war with Israel spurred more to leave, and most recently, many Druze have joined the stream of refugees from Syrias civil war.

As Druze members have branched out, many have lost touch with the religion, raising existential questions about its future.

Very few of them have an in-depth understanding of their dogmas, said Chad Kassem Radwan, an anthropologist of Lebanese Druze descent who wrote a doctoral dissertation for the University of South Florida on Druze identity in Lebanon. How do you preserve your heritage? This is truly the seminal issue of the Druze community.

He and most Druze who care give the same answer: marriage.

Marrying outside the faith is a betrayal that is not easily forgiven.

Our children always ask me, Why do we have to marry a Druze? What if I fall in love with someone not Druze?  said Anita Dakdouk, who was born into a Lebanese Druze family in Venezuela and now lives in Valencia , where she and her Druze husband run a coffee company. I tell them, Dont think about yourself only, because there is family involved. 

Those who stray are often ostracized by their families and sometimes by the larger community. In one instance Radwan found in his research, a Druze man was going to marry a woman of Shiite and Christian heritage. When the neighbors found out, they visited his parents to express condolences on the loss of their son, as if he had died.

In a case that made headlines four years ago, a Druze woman and Sunni man from northern Lebanon eloped. The brides family hunted the groom down and cut off his penis.

Some members of the faith are pushing back on the rules.

Walid Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon and perhaps the countrys most prominent Druze figure, married outside the religion.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in his Beirut home. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

On identification documents, the Lebanese government considers anybody with a Druze father to be Druze, even if the mother is not  a concept that has been embraced among more liberal adherents to the faith.

Yes, yes, they are Druze, said Hassan Sleem, a Druze resident of Beirut who runs a translation service. We are a small community. We need more people.

Rima Muakkassa, who lives in Akron, Ohio, where there about 100 Druze families, said that while she never considered marrying outside the religion, her four children could do as they wished.

In the end, its not by force. We believe in free will, she said. The purpose is to enlighten and guide our children so they can make the right choices.

From a practical point of view, the biggest challenge to finding a spouse within the faith is the shortage of other Druze, especially outside the Middle East.

Many second-generation children of the diaspora visit Lebanon or Syria in hopes of finding a husband or wife  with mixed success.

Kaedbeys husband, Firas Talhouk, recalled a cousin from Miami whose parents sent him to Lebanon one summer.

All his moms friends stacked up their daughters and he was so happy, Talhouk said. He dated one each night and hes like, You know what, cuz?  Im coming next summer, man. But he didnt marry any of them.

In the United States, annual conventions of the American Druze Society, which is based in San Antonio, have become a well-known matchmaking ground, with mixers and outings aimed at young people always on the schedule alongside religious presentations.

Muakkassa, the societys current president, met her husband at a convention, as did the the vice president, Labiba Harfouch, and her daughter. Some gatherings have included weddings.

But the conventions are not for everyone. Halabi, the young sheikh in Chicago, said the first time he attended one he left the singles night after an hour because it was at a bar and alcohol was flowing. As a strict adherent to the faith, he does not drink.

He complained to the societys leadership, which led to his teaching religious sessions for the children at this years convention in Irvine.

Halabi, who is now in college, said he eventually wants to return to Lebanon, where he grew up, to marry and start a family with a Druze woman with similar religious views. But for now, he sees his mission as reaching the younger generation of Druze living in the United States.

If they dont know their identity, its easy to have them dissolve in the society we live in, he said. Once we abandon being Druze, we are just like all the other people around the world who have no identity.

Sewell is a special correspondent.
Salhah Younes gazed at her three grandchildren, her mouth puckered in a tight frown as she watched them fidget by her feet.

Near her stood an intelligence officer who gave his name as Col. Ahmad.

Was anyone in your family Daesh? he prompted, employing an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

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Younes looked up, her face defiant.

Yes, my son was Daesh, she said. And these are his kids.

The defiance was soon replaced by the uncertainty at what Younes now faced in the wake of the battle for Mosul, the city where the jihadis had mounted a long and punishing defense over the last eight months against U.S.-backed Iraqi troops.

With the fighting in Mosul finally finished, the fate of Younes and thousands of Islamic State family members like her and her grandchildren now presents a conundrum for the Iraqi government. Should they be punished, or rehabilitated? Allowed to stay in Iraq or deported to another country? And who would take them?

The scale of the problem is unusual. Unlike other areas recovered from Islamic State, where the militants were allowed to exit as troops overran their positions, in Mosul, there was no escape. And as the groups Iraqi capital, Mosul became home to Islamic State fighters who settled down with hundreds  perhaps thousands  of wives, children, parents and other relatives.

This is the first time we see this with Islamic State. Its really tough to deal with their families, said Capt. Osama Fuad Saady, a doctor with the Iraqi armys 9th Division tasked with giving first aid to residents streaming out of the Old City quarter.

The presence of children makes an already difficult job even more challenging. The Islamic State families came from all over Iraq and from abroad, and many now miss one or both parents.

Younes was left to care for her grandchildren by herself. At a registration center in Mosul in mid-July, she told Col. Ahmad how she fled the Old City when the last Islamic State redoubt in Mosul fell to Iraqi government forces. During her escape, Younes said, she lost track of her daughter-in-law. Her son was almost certainly dead. And an airstrike had killed many other family members.

Did I escape only yesterday? I dont even know anymore. Ive lost half my family, she said, her voice wavering as she began to cry. Her grandchildren, Khadija, 6, Khattab, 3, and Ibrahim, 2, kept on playing.

Later Younes sat cross-legged inside a tent, waiting for the bus that would take her to a refugee camp. The frown had not gone away.

There is no consensus among officials as to what to do with the families, nor any certainty about how to determine if family members adhere to the harsh, sometimes violent brand of Islam preached by Islamic State.

You dont know whats going to happen with these people later on, and what their mentality is, Saady said.

Identification papers of displaced people are checked against a database of Islamic State members at a camp in Hamam Alil on March 23, 2017. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Last month, Mosuls district council announced that it would force Islamic State families to return to their places of residence as of June 10, 2014, the date when Mosul was overrun by Islamic State.

But it appears that no family has been deported so far.

This is a central issue, and the decision is not in the hands of the local government or the governor but instead it is something that involves the security of the entire country, Mosuls Asst. Gov. Amin Fanash said in an interview.

Right now, the governorate, local councils and different security services are setting up a database of names of Daesh families so that we can deliver it to the central government. It can then decide what to do.

In the interim, those families linked to Islamic State have been forced to remain in camps around Mosul  a move security services say protects both the families as well as the community.

Some Sunni communities, have taken thaer, tribal vendettas, against families of Islamic State members in a bid to prove their rejection of Islamic State. Others do the same in a bid to prove their loyalty to the government.

Families of Daesh were pursued by others around them, so they couldnt return to their areas. They had no option but to come to the camps because theyre under threat, said Malek Anas, assistant director of the refugee camp at Hamam Alil, a town roughly 14 miles south of Mosul that houses more than 25,000 refugees.

Anas estimated that about 30% of the people there had links to Islamic State.

How long will they stay here? he said. Until Allah wills it.

Other officials, like Athir, an intelligence officer with the national security service who gave only his first name for reasons of security, said the government was treating the families humanely.

Look, when Japan attacked the U.S., America interred 120,000 Japanese citizens because it suspected them, and they stayed there for four years, Athir said at a registration center in Mosul.

But this is different: Daesh families face two kinds of danger: The first is that we will lose them to this ideology if they have no rehabilitation, and the second is vengeance attacks from people around them.

He added that the government would give religious lessons to replace the Daesh ideology in them.

But some administrators doubt any instruction would change hearts or minds.

What can you teach these people? Theyre old. Theyve been with Daesh for a long time, and now you tell them its not good? asked Laith Haitham, an engineer at the Hamam Alil camp.

Many of those now at the camp are orphans. Saady, the army doctor, spoke of soldiers bringing abandoned children to the field clinic where he worked.

Why do they leave their kids behind? I dont know. But we found many orphans, said Saady, adding that an aid organization, Save the Children, takes custody of the kids and tries to find their relatives.

In one area there were 12 kids, just thrown in the street. The youngest one we found was 6 months old.

Security services face another problem in determining the role a person occupied in Islamic States hierarchy.

The question is more than academic, according to Brig. Gen. Watheq Abdul Rahman, head of the Nineveh police. A person who worked with Daesh worked with a gang. But a killer is one thing, and a person who worked as a guard is another, he said.

For some Iraqis stuck in camps, the only way out is to prove they no longer have any connection to an Islamic State member. In a camp in Bartella, Jassem Mohammad Obeid, 19, pleaded with authorities to let him go to Kirkuk province to continue his studies.

He and his mother had fled from their house in the Islaah Ziraai neighborhood in west Mosul. When his name was checked for Islamic State links he was flagged. His father had been a fighter with the group.

But, Obeid said to camp administrators, My mother had divorced my father before Daesh came here. We dont know anything about him.

Authorities told Obeid that to prove his case he would have to get a copy of the divorce papers, a tall order in the chaotic aftermath of the fighting.

Outside the fence, Ali Sabaawi, a 47-year-old former army officer, waited in line to try to take his 23-year-old daughter, Abeer Ali Younes, from the camp. She had been transferred to Bartella after security forces had taken her from the Old City, where she had lived with her husband, a militant, up until a year ago.

Her husband? Hes gone to hell. We havent heard from him in over a year, said Sabaawi with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Does it make sense that my daughter is in there while the men of her family are out? he said. And youve seen how this place is. Its not possible to sit here in these tents in this heat.

An especially thorny issue authorities face is what to do with non-Iraqis.

In the final weeks of the offensive on Mosul, security forces captured foreign fighters, women and even children who had been brought into the country by their parents or were born during Islamic States three-year reign over Mosul.

We found this woman from Tajikistan, said Saady, his voice incredulous. She had a kid with her, a 3-year-old, and she only spoke formal Arabic.

Saady and other officers explained that cases like these are dispatched to Baghdad. Like Iraqis, foreigners found to have belonged to Islamic State could face the death penalty, but some of them may be extradited to their own countries, a state of affairs that has angered some of the soldiers who fought in Mosul.

The other day this Belgian Daeshy came and surrendered to us. I know his government will ask to take him back, said 1st Lt. Mohammad Taleb, a unit commander with the Counter-Terrorism Service. This guy came here and destroyed and killed people. At the very least, we should demand reparations from their government.

For the moment there was little talk of compensation.

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @nabihbulos

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A cease-fire was declared Sunday on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border, officials said, pausing attacks on Islamic State to allow the transfer of the militants out of the area and recover what were thought to be the remains of kidnapped Lebanese soldiers.

The announcement came after a weeklong offensive by the Lebanese army to oust the Sunni Muslim extremists from their last bastion in the wildlands near Ras Baalbek, a Lebanese border village.

At the same time, the Syrian army, backed by irregulars from the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, launched its own campaign against Islamic State on the other side of the border.

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A communique Sunday from the Lebanese army said that its forces halted attacks on Islamic State at 7 a.m. to facilitate negotiations to reveal the fate of nine soldiers who had been missing since 2014.

They were among about 30 soldiers and policemen snatched by a number of militant groups when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal. Sixteen of the captives were released in December 2015 in a deal with the Al Qaeda affiliate then known as Al Nusra Front, but there had been no word of those held by Islamic State.

Lebanons security chief, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, said Sunday that the army had retrieved the remains of what were thought to be eight soldiers and had taken them to a nearby hospital for DNA testing. Six of the bodies were found wearing military uniforms, he told reporters outside the tents in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where family members of the kidnapped soldiers have been camped out for years waiting for news of their loved ones.

Those who surrendered to us from Daesh were the ones who led us to the location where the soldiers were [buried], Ibrahim said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The Syrian army also declared a cease-fire Sunday and gave the militants safe passage to the eastern Syrian province of Dair Alzour, which is largely under the control of Islamic State.

Hezbollah, which is a key battlefield ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and negotiated Islamic States departure, said in a separate statement that a number of buses and cars had arrived in the area to transport the militants to the city of Bukamal, near the border with Iraq.

Lebanese officials insist there has been no coordination with their Syrian counterparts or with Hezbollah, even though the offensives began and were paused at the same time.

Authorities in Beirut fear that any appearance of cooperation with Hezbollah, which the United States has designated a terrorist group, would jeopardize the military aid they receive from Washington. They also fear a backlash from local political factions who resent Hezbollahs alliance with Assad.

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @nabihbulos

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Finding a life partner is hard enough. For those of the Druze faith, their future depends on it
Interrogations of arrested Dera men have exposed their sinister plans to disturb law and order.

Security men next to burnt remains of vehicle torched in Panchkula after violence erupted following Ram Rahim Singh's conviction for rape (India Today/Prabhjot Gill)

By Manjeet Sehgal: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his aides planned riots and arson much before a Panchkula court convicted him of rape on Friday.

Interrogations of arrested Dera men have exposed their sinister plans to disturb law and order by provoking Dera followers who had been given specific instructions to reach Panchkula, where a CBI Special court announced its final judgement.

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Sources say the Dera followers were given codes for rioting and arson in case Ram Rahim was convicted. There were also codes for a celebration in case the verdict went his way.

All this came to light when police on Friday arrested and questioned four Dera men in a Dera-owned ambulance with two pistols and petrol canes.

It was this interrogation which produced a startling revelation about 'suicide squads' recruited by the Dera's Quarbani wing.

"The arrested men have told that they wanted to sacrifice themselves for the Dera chief and were part of Quarbani Wing, set up by Dera to deal with extreme situations when Dera Chief was in trouble. They were asked to use the code word 'Paudharopan' ( plantation) in case rioting and rampage was required," a police official said, requesting anonymity.

Highly placed sources said the youths had been asked to join the Quarbani wing last year. They were allegedly offered Rs 11 lakh and a house. Hundreds of youths became members of this wing, on which police have launched a crackdown.

DERA SPOKESPERSON PROVOKES CROWD, BOOKED

A Dera spokesperson - along with four others - allegedly provoked a crowd of supporters while Friday's hearing was under way. First, they asked people to show strength, and then spread rumours that Ram Rahim Singh had been acquitted.

Two of them, spokesperson Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan, have been charged with sedition after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the police to register an FIR against the duo.

"Dera Spokesperson Dr Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan have been booked under various sections of IPC and are also facing sedition case. They will be arrested soon. The investigations are on," Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said.

Aditya Insan and others were also seen at Hafed Chowk, where media vans and other vehicles were set on fire.

The recovery of weapons - including an AK-47 rifle, pistols, petrol bombs, iron rods, cycle tyre tubes and wooden sticks - and of a chemical from the Dera-owned fire brigade vehicle, has confirmed that the rioting was planned.

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SECURITY GUARDS PLANNED TO FREE RAM RAHIM SINGH

Seven of Ram Rahim Singh's security guards - five of whom are employees of the Punjab and Haryana police (the others are private guards) - are also accused of sedition and possessing illegal weapons.

Three Haryana police constables - Ajay, Balwan, and Ran Singh - were carrying illegal weapons.

The two private security guards, Pritam and Khushbir, shouted anti-national slogans like "We will erase India from the world map. (We) will burn everything". The role of two other security guards, Krishan and Vijay, has yet to be ascertained.

Sources said the three Haryana policemen fired outside the court complex, and had an altercation with a senior police officer who'd asked Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to sit in a police vehicle.

Police have arrested the seven guards, and a case has been registered against them.

Sources say Gurmeet Singh's security guards wanted to release him, and that altercations with the police were part of their strategy.

FIRE TENDER SEIZED

A fire tender which managed to enter the court complex has also been seized,. A suspicious chemical and a secret chamber were found inside.

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However, police downplayed the recovery of the fire tender, and said the chemical was not inflammable.

Interestingly, when Ram Rahim Singh was brought to court, his vehicles weren't checked.

"The substance recovered from the fire tender which formed part of the motorcade of Dera Chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, is being examined by a special investigation team constituted for this purpose. Prima facie, the substance had neutral pH value and was not inflammable. Apart from this, some luxury cars which had been seized are also being examined. SIT will be formed to look into the matter," DGP B S Sandhu said.

Sources say other Ram Rahim Singh supporters managed to reach the Army headquarters where his medical examination was being conducted. They clashed with the police and the military, and weren't allowed to enter the Army area.

They managed to escape through the Mansa Devi Complex link road, but were apprehended by police on Friday.

SECURITY BEEFED UP IN ROHTAK

Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said that stringent security arrangements had been made ahead of the announcement of the quantum of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's sentence. Police and para-military forces have been deployed in Rohtak and Army has been placed on standby to help maintain law and order.

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ADGP (Law and Order) Mohammad Akil, and IG, CID, visited Rohtak earlier today to review the law-and-order situation and issued necessary directions to security forces.

"Proceedings of the court would start at 2.30 pm tomorrow in Rohtak. No untoward incident will be allowed to occur and the entire process would be completed in a peaceful manner. If anti-social elements make an attempt to hamper the proceedings or indulge in any mischievous act, strict action will be taken. As many as 23 companies of para-military forces along with district police, Range Police and police forces from other areas have been deployed in Rohtak. Adequate number of women police personnel have also been deployed", Mohammad Akil said.

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--- ENDS ---
Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said his state's police force was "totally alert" ahead of the announcement of the quantum of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's sentence. The self-style godman was convicted of rape on Friday, triggered widespread violence.

By India Today Web Desk: Haryana DGP B S Sandhu today sought to allay fears of a repeat of the ghastly scenes witnessed in the wake of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's conviction on Friday, ahead of the announcement of the quantum of his sentence.

The "totally alert" state police and paramilitary forces will be on hand to deal with "any untoward incident," Sandhu said. The Army is on standby, he added.

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Sandhu also assured media professionals that police were making "all efforts" to ensure their safety.

23 companies of paramilitary forces deployed in Rohtak: Mohammad Akil, Haryana ADGP (Law & Order) on tomorrow's sentencing of #RamRahimSingh pic.twitter.com/aTL4iLxLG8- ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

Haryana ADGP Mohammad Akil said an FIR under sedition charges had been registered - based on news reports - against Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan at Panchkula police station.

Aditya and Dhiman Insan were among five people who media reports said instigated violence after the Ram Rahim Singh was convicted, the Times of India reported today.

LETHAL VIOLENCE

38 people were killed in the violence that followed Friday's verdict convicting the Dera Sacha Sauda chief of rape. 32 of the deaths occurred in Panchkula, the town where the court is located. The rest occurred in Sirsa, where the Dera Sacha Sauda is headquartered.

20 corpses have been sent home and the six people who died in Sirsa have been identified, Haryana DGP Sandhu said today.

Over 250 people were injured after Gurmeet Ram Rahim's followers resorted to arson in several places. Properties worth crores of rupees - including 76 vehicles - were damaged. India Today's reporters and equipment came under severe attack in the violence.

Sandhu said 926 people had been arrested, and that 52 cases had been registered. Curfew has been imposed in Sirsa.

In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "the guilty will be punished."

"I want to assure the country that no country, no government can tolerate anybody taking law into their hands, whether it is an individual or a group. Everybody will have to bow before the law," he said.

(Inputs from ANI)

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Newbridge, you might, say, has been a tad unfortunate with its public infrastructure.

There was the unheated public swimming pool at Ryston, which hadnt been used for many years before it was officially decommissioned, followed by the closure of the Credit Union building and now the old band hall at Cutlery Road will likely be rebuilt as something else entirely.

To be fair, the swimming pool wouldnt cut it today. Local authority pools, as such are no more, having been replaced by ultra modern public-private facilities embracing pools, gyms and multidisciplinary fitness classes overseen by expert staff.

And many private leisure enterprises come with indoor pools.

The sale of O Modhrain Hall has nothing to do with the loss of the credit union building; save for the fact that it is now unlikely to be a public facility again.

The loss of the credit union building as a place that could be used by the public was significant.

By definition almost, credit unions are community led, and community based, and people led. And this facility was the finest of its kind anywhere - even if, to put it mildly, there was a whiff of over-the-top ostentation to this creation.

Its closure was linked directly to the demise of Newbridge Credit Union which collapsed in 2013, at a time when the nearest comparative institution, Naas Credit Union, was thriving and encouraging people to borrow.

At the time Newbridge CU was the biggest community based credit union in Ireland.

In its aftermath an action group was formed by some of the Newbridge CU members. They held a few meetings shedding a lot of heat, but little light on why the it collapsed leaving the taxpayer to cough up 54m - an estimate in late 2013 - to sort it out.

Newbridge CU had 32,000 deposit accounts and 7,000 loan accounts. Not all of the loans were for the standard two weeks in Majorca or to meet the ever increasing costs of sending a child to school.

The loss of the building to the community is the most visible reminder of what happened.

According to The Sunday Times the building cost 14m, but at the time the facility closed was valued at 3.9m - a paper loss which would buy or renovate a large swathe of property in the town.

O Modhrain Memorial Hall has a much longer history in the town and is named after Eamonn O Modhrain, who was a figure of some importance in local nationalist history. The historical element to this and the fact that O Modhrain family members still live in the area only accentuates this loss. Its been sold for 270,000 and may well be developed as something else entirely different.

A campaign has been launched to reverse this, or at a minimum to ensure that the sale price is spent locally.

At a public meeting, attended by some but not all of the elected representatives in Newbridge, there was criticism of the lack of facilities and meeting places for young people in the town, especially of the non-sporting variety. It's a legitimate point, there is much more to life than sport.

Three years ago when Newbridge Credit Union was merged with Permanent TSB it moved out of the building, Sinn Fein councillor Mark Lynch said the building had been taken off the people of Newbridge by the State. He was partly right but the lending policies at Newbridge CU had nothing to do with the State.

It now looks as if Newbridge is to lose another facility, which could possibly (at some expense) have been turned into a community asset.

Residents of Newbridge and Naas are finding time and again that its so much easier to have residential property built, opened, and occupied, than it ever is to have any kind of community facility opened and kept.
Donald Trump was the politician most spoken about in 5th and 6th class in primary schools across Ireland last year.

The results of a survey carried out among Junior Entrepreneur Project participants showed that over 96% of teachers of the 5th and 6th class pupils involved said that the new US President Donald Trump was the politician most spoken about in their classroom in the last year.

He was followed by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 2.8% and new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 0.7%. More than 90% of the teachers surveyed said children in their classroom would not be able, unprompted, to name any of their local TDS.

Irish school children are also aware of Brexit, with over 85% of teachers saying the topic of the UK exit from the European Union had come up in the classroom in the last year.

On the issue of career opportunities for their pupils, only 37% of the teachers felt the majority of children in their classroom would be able to find employment in their local area when they completed their education, compared to 63% who felt that their students would not be able to find employment in the area they lived.

According to the JEP Survey of 5th and 6th class teachers in Ireland, the subject teachers would most like to see added to the school curriculum was wellbeing/mindfulness at 27%, followed by both information technology and home economics/nutrition on 21% each, business studies at 20% and a foreign language at 17%.

Parents were cited as the biggest positive influence on the 11 and 12 year old pupils at 36%, compared to school at 26%, sport at 18%, community 10.5% and friends at 9.5%.

Confident was the word used most to describe 5th and 6th class pupils in Ireland today at 22%, followed by enthusiastic at 21%, creative 16% and energetic 12%.

The 300 teachers surveyed had all taken part in this years Junior Entrepreneur Programme. The programme is free of charge to all 5th and 6th class pupils in the country, and is a 12 to 16 week programme helping them learn and develop business skills in collaboration with their classmates.

Close to 40,000 children have participated in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme since its inception in 2010. Developed and supported by entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly of Tweak.com and some of Ireland's other leading entrepreneurs.
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The Observer headlines Keir Starmers announcement that Labour might be prepared to back a longer transitional arrangement to keep us in the single market for longer as a dramatic shift.

That editor must have lead a really sheltered life if they think that reversing the tank a few metres back from the cliff edge in the middle of a storm is actually going to help that much.

The claim that Labour is now the party of soft Brexit is laughable. Soft Brexit means staying in the single market and the customs union in a Norway style arrangement. Labours position is the same as some Tory hard Brexiteers who support a two year transitional period before leaving the single market and customs union altogether.

Labours so-called shift is nothing but a baby step and its not even in the right direction. Any transitional period will come to an end and we will end up out of the single market and suddenly much poorer.

If you want a party that is willing to be honest about the very dangerous territory we are now in and which is prepared to offer people a way out of the mess, you have to go with the Liberal Democrats. Labour will not help. Some of them may want to go further, but Corbyn is holding them back.

Tom Brake, our Brexit spokesperson, explained why Labours position is all spin and no principle.

This is all spin and no principle. When Labours Chuka Umunna sought to win a parliamentary vote to stay in the single market, Jeremy Corbyn sacked any frontbencher who dared vote with him. Mr Corbyn supported the Conservative Brexit government and is Theresa Mays best ally in her attempt to drag Britain out of the worlds largest market. Judge a party by hard actions, not empty words. Jeremy Corbyn conned a generation at the last general election that he was somehow against Brexit. He isnt. Keir Starmer can say he opposes hard Brexit, but his leader doesnt back him. Labour is utterly divided. Even Mr Starmer is only proposing to remain in the single market during a transitional period, and refuses to say he will back membership after that. Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to staying in the single market and customs union so only the Liberal Democrats will be able to build a sound economy.

UPDATE

Tom Brake later challenged Labour to actually, you know, vote for the single market if thats what it says it wants. They havent on every other occasion so far.

The Liberal Democrats will table an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill to force a vote on whether Britain should leave the European Economic Area and therefore the single market. The party will also seek to amend the Bill to retain membership of the customs union.

The current wording of the Bill (p.54, paragraphs 12  17) would repeal the 1993 EEA Act which implements the EEA agreement into UK law.

But there is ongoing legal debate over whether the government has the authority to leave the EEA without a separate parliamentary vote.

Tom said:

This Bill is a chance to take a wrecking ball to the extreme Brexit agenda being pursued by this government. Labour needs to make up its mind whether it is with the Conservatives, seeking to take us out of the single market and customs union, or with the Liberal Democrats who want to protect jobs by remaining inside. We will use every opportunity to defend Britains membership of the single market and customs union on which so many peoples jobs and living standards rely. There is a growing consensus that parliament must have the final say over whether to leave the European Economic Area. If ministers were expecting to ram through their extreme Brexit plans with no accountability, they might be in for a nasty surprise.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
The incident, which was captured on a CCTV camera, took place on August 15 when four men were spotted walking in a narrow lane of South Delhi's Vasant Vihar area in the dark hours of Tuesday.

By Chayyanika Nigam: Two out of the four men who made headlines for killing a stray dog in Munirka two weeks ago were finally arrested on Friday. What's shocking is that during interrogation, the two, who hail from the Northeast, admitted to having eaten the dog's meat after killing it.

They told the police they were unaware that killing and consuming dog's meat in Delhi is a crime.

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The incident, which was captured on a CCTV camera, took place on August 15 when four men were spotted walking in a narrow lane of South Delhi's Vasant Vihar area in the dark hours of Tuesday. They killed a stray dog with a brick and stuffed the body in a bag before taking it away.

Police have arrested T David Haokip (23) and Lalminsang Khongsai (20) for the crime. The other two persons involved in the incident are still at large.

It has been learnt that the two were living in a rented house in South Delhi and were preparing for the IAS examinations. On Independence Day, they planned to party and have the dog's meat for dinner. "Stray dogs are not easily available in Katwaria Sarai where Haokip lives. So they planned to party in Munirka at Khongsai's house. In the evening they consumed liquor and then went on the streets to hunt for a stray dog. They searched for the stray dog for over half-an-hour, but didn't found any," said a police official close to the investigation.

After a long hunt, they found a stray dog sleeping and decided to kill it. In the meantime, one of their friends, who also hails from the Northeast, joined them as he was excited to eat the meat, the official said, quoting the confessional statements of the accused.

While giving the statement to police, they said: "We were not aware that killing a dog and eating its meat is illegal in Delhi, as it is a common practice in the northeastern states."

The CCTV footage shoes that after bludgeoning the dog to death, all four did a recce of the area as few locals were seen walking around the spot. Then one of them arranged a plastic bag to stuff the body. Later, they realised that the plastic bag was transparent. Then they started hunting translucent plastic bag. They first stuffed the body in the translucent bag and then in the transparent bag. Then they escaped with the body.

Also Read

This restaurant offers a three-course brunch for dogs. Fancy much?

Lapse of reason: Dog sentenced to death in Pakistan for biting a child

--- ENDS ---
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 486th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere  Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-26 August, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed.

Dont forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox  just click here  ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, lets start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. Ruth Davidson, racism and the modern non apology apology by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.

The Scottish Tory leader may not be as progressive as first thought.

2. Laura no mates Pidcock MP by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace.

Jonathan takes the MP to task for saying that you cant be friends with the opposition.

3. Why I never bought the Corbyn line on Traingate by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England.

It was still a botched media stunt, however you look at it, says Jonathan.

4. Is centrist being used more often now? by Nick Barlow on What you can get away with.

It seems so, but why?

5. How the left is stuck in the first stage of grief -and what that is doing to the Corbynist agenda by Nick Tyrone on NickTyrone.com.

Its all about train carriages and not about challenging the Governments dodgy statements on Brexit.

And now to the seven blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days  your own, or someone elses, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected] You can also contact us via Twitter, where were @libdemvoice

6. Politics and mindfulness. Unlikely bedfellows? by Charlotte Newman on Your Political Blog .

If only politicians could be kinder and more compassionate towards each other.

7. Things to do the night before results day by Maelo Manning on Libdemchild aged 17.

Sound advice from Maelo. Incidentally, Libdemchild is no more. Maelo turned 18 on Friday, so Happy Birthday to her and we hope that her adulthood is as successful as her childhood.

8. Calling me an f***ing Paki does not make me feel like I am enabling your right to free speech by Jane Chelliah on Feminist Mama.

The effects of racism  and how its victims feel it more when the likes of Farage are in the headlines.

9. My #Remainers Diary Day 300 by Jo Hayes on Jo Hayes.

What happens if the Scottish and Welsh legislatures reject the Brexit Bills?

10. Giving yourself credit by Rebecca Plenderleith on Some Ramblings.

A candid account of coming through 6 years of illness, loss and pain.

11. A display of national arrogance and egoism by Chris Bowers on Chris Bowers .

Got to love an article that starts this will get me into trouble

12. Were a party for all, not of the centre, a party of government not opposition by Ewan Hoyle on Ewan has something to say.

Be confident because our values and policies have the best interests of our citizens at heart.

And thats it for another week. Happy blogging n reading n nominating.

Featured? Add this to your blog post!



<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-lib-dem-golden-dozen-486-55123.html"><img src="https://www.libdemvoice.org/images/golden-dozen.png" width="200" height="57" alt="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" title="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" /></a>

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
By India Today Web Desk: TV actor Namik Paul, who rose to fame as Shravan of Sony TV's Ek Duje Ke Vaaste took to Twitter to find a loving home for his rescued kitten Chuck.

Namik posted a video on his Twitter and Facebook, appealing his fans to help him find a loving home for the little kitten.

Namik with his rescued kitten Chuck.

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Namik, who will soon be seen in Sony TV's Ek Deewana Tha, found this kitten sitting on top of a car's tyre. "I found him sitting on top a car's tyre. Thankfully, the guy in the car was playing video game. If he would have driven, this guy would have been dead. He was just a week old and was crying. Thankfully, one of my friends kept him in their house and now he is old enough to be adopted," said the actor in the video.

He appealed to his fans to spread the word. He posted the video on Facebook and wrote, "Hey guys, need your help to spread the word and find this little dude a loving home! Serious inquiries only because a pet is a big commitment."

The actor also said that he will be actively involved in the adoption. People interested in adopting the kitten can DM him on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Namik with his dog Hobbes. Picture courtesy: Instagram/namikpaul

The actor is animal lover and is very fond of cats and dogs. He has a German Shepherd and his name is Hobbes. The actor often posts pictures of his dog.

The actor will soon be seen in Sony TV's Ek Deewana Tha, which also stars Donal Bisht and Vikram Singh Chauhan.

Also read: Can you recognise the TV actor in this throwback picture?

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By India Today Web Desk: Violence after Ram Rahim verdict: Khattar let Haryana burn for political gains, says high court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has hit out at Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for allowing the state to burn for political gains.

Myanmar crisis: Thousands of Rohingyas gather at Bangladesh border as fresh fighting erupt in Rakhine state

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Thousands of Rohingyas have started gathering at Bangladesh border as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state between Rohingya insurgents and security forces.

Sebastian Vettel to stay with Ferrari for three more years

Four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel has extended his Ferrari contract for three more years to the end of 2020, the Italian team said in a statement on Saturday.

On Misha's birthday, Shahid shares adorable picture with daughter

As Misha turns a year older today, daddy Shahid Kapoor took to Instagram to share a cute picture with his little girl.

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The top Republican in the New York State Senate slipped into the Finger Lakes region this week to tour businesses, hold meetings  and raise money for state Sen. Pam Helming.

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan spent several hours Tuesday in Helming's district, which covers all or parts of six counties. They visited the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park and the Viticulture and Wine Center at Finger Lakes Community College in Geneva. The tour also included stops at del Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre and Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack in Farmington.

Flanagan, R-East Northport, said in an interview Thursday that he likes traveling and seeing his colleagues' districts. His counterpart, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, has spent the summer making similar trips to upstate New York.

The majority leader's swing through the Finger Lakes region was the first time he's visited the area since Helming's election in 2016. The former Canandaigua town supervisor was elected to represent the 54th Senate District  a seat that was held by former state Sen. Michael Nozzolio for nearly 25 years.

Flanagan offered rave reviews of Helming's first eight months in office.

"I think she's doing a fantastic job," he said. "She gets invested in and she is intimately knowledgeable about virtually every aspect of her district."

Helming has established a reputation for being a "tenacious advocate" within the Senate Republican conference, he added.

"She's real people," he said. "She's got a lot of spunk and she's not afraid to speak her mind. She is not shy about offering her opinions."

While the tour allowed Helming to showcase her knowledge of the district, it also gave Flanagan an opportunity see some of important elements of the Finger Lakes economy.

The tour of del Lago Resort & Casino was a new experience for Flanagan, who doesn't gamble. It was the first time he's been to a casino. He noted that the Seneca County gaming resort has more than 1,000 employees, most of whom are local residents.

He was impressed with Cornell University's work at the agriculture technology park. The school's operations in Geneva serve as a major source of research for agriculture and the food industry.

Flanagan used the visit to highlight the state's investments in agriculture and the benefits of supporting farms across New York.

"It was gratifying to see how some of the money we invest reaps its own rewards," he said.

In a statement, Helming said she was pleased to showcase economic development in the Finger Lakes region during Flanagan's stop.

"The places that we visited are great examples of the business success of the Finger Lakes region, but there are certainly more of them around our area," she said. "I thank Senator Flanagan for his interest in supporting upstate New York and giving our region consideration in the future when it comes to funding and other measures."

Flanagan previews 2018 agenda

During the interview with The Citizen, Flanagan briefly discussed the 2018 legislative session, which is more than four months away. A lot can change between now and January, but he already has an idea of what the state Senate will be focusing on  or continuing to focus on  next year.

"It's all about jobs," he said.

The state Senate's priorities will include looks at ways to boost economic development and reduce the burden of regulations and taxes. Addressing those areas could help existing businesses and entrepreneurs planning to set up new firms in New York.

"The taxpayer only has so much money they can give to their government," he said.

Other items on the agenda: Continued investments to combat the opioid epidemic; supporting arts across the state; and building on the state's tourism successes.

Flanagan praises DeFrancisco

Flanagan's deputy in the state Senate, State Sen. John DeFrancisco, is exploring a run for governor in 2018.

The two men were candidates for majority leader after Dean Skelos stepped down in 2015. Flanagan beat out DeFrancisco for the post. Not long after his election, he named DeFrancisco deputy majority leader.

There have been questions about their relationship. Flanagan hasn't been afraid to align with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, on key legislative issues. DeFrancisco has been an outspoken critic of the governor's policies, especially on the economic development front.

Flanagan, who attended an event for DeFrancisco in Syracuse this week, said he has a good rapport with the central New York Republican.

"We work very hard and we work very well together," he said.

As for DeFrancisco's potential run for governor, Flanagan said his colleague has a resume "that could rival anybody." He highlighted his work as an attorney and his service in the state Senate.

"He's obviously a critical player, certainly in our conference, for the upstate region," Flanagan said.
With China getting more aggressive with its salami slicing policy in the Himalayas, the Indian Army must prepare for what General Bipin Rawat described as more Doklam-like incidents.

By Prabhash K Dutta: Delivering the General BC Joshi Memorial Lecture in Pune yesterday, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat warned that standoffs with China like that at Doklam are likely to "increase in future".

"The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future," General Bipin Rawat said.

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Indian and Chinese troops are in eyeball encounter at Doklam plateau of Bhutan for over two months. Standoff began when Indian troops, after formal request by the Royal Army of Bhutan, stopped the People's Liberation Army of China from constructing a highway through Doklam area.

Doklam plateau is governed by Bhutan and has long been inhabited by the Bhutanese shepherds. China has been eyeing this piece of hilly terrain because of strategic significance. Doklam lies very close to the Silliguri Corridor that connects the northeastern states of India with rest of the country. It is the sole passage for supply of materials and transport to and from the northeastern states.

CHINA'S SALAMI SLICING IN HIMALAYAS

General Bipin Rawat has underlined what many geostrategic experts have been saying for long. China is the only country post-World War II that has been engaged in territorial expansion by poaching lands and maritime areas of its neighbours. This Chinese policy is widely known as Salami Slicing through which it cuts into the territories of its neighbours and then stakes claim over the same.

Furthering the Salami Slicing policy China has captured the entire Tibetan kingdom in 1949 forcing the Buddhist government of the plateau state flee to India and seek asylum. The Dalai Lama has headed the Tibetan government in-exile since 1950s with its headquarters at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. Later, India recognised Tibet as part of China.

China captured Aksai China area in Ladakh of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1962 war with India and has illegally governed it since then. Aksai Chin is roughly of the size of Switzerland in area. China also forced Pakistan to cede almost 6,000 sq km area north of Karakoram mountain ranges in Pakistan-occupied parts of Jammu and Kashmir state.

CHINESE BORDER POLICY WITH INDIA

Apart from Aksai Chin and the area in northern Kashmir, China stakes claim on Indian territories in two more pockets. It claims Arunachal Pradesh to be its own territory calling it South Tibet and several patches along international borders falling in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The borders between India and China are not properly demarcated and the demarcation done during the British colonial regime is contested by Beijing as per its suitability.

During his lecture on India's Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University in PUne, General Bipin Rawat said, "Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC)."

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"Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops," General Rawat said, adding, "However, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations." But, Chinese Salami Slicing policy stands in the way of resolving issues.

Even in the case of Doklam standoff, it has been reported that during all flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army has insisted on restoring pre-June 16 positions of the troops. But, no resolution has been found yet.

DOKLAM AS SALAMI SLICE

The Doklam standoff is a classical example of Chinese border policy with India. Chinese policy towards Indian borders has three well defined contours. China invests heavily to strengthen its infrastructure in the regions where it is in stronger position.

It pursues Salami Slicing policy more aggressively where both troops are on equal footing strategically while China needles India where Indian Army is in stronger position to test water.

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At Doklam plateau, Indian Army has been patrolling for decades while Chinese troops used to visit there occasionally and never stayed for long. As it is a disputed area between China and Bhutan, and is very close to the Indian borders, PLA attempted to alter status quo.

WHY THERE MAY BE MORE DOKLAMS

China has invested in its defence forces and infrastructure more than any other Asian country over past several decades. Even General Bipin Rawat underlined that the PLA has made significant progress in enhancing its "capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations" particularly in the Tibet.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has overhauled the entire military structure and divided the PLA commands in more reasonable units. Their force reorganisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," General Rawat noted in his speech.

China is also working on other aspects of geostrategy vis-a-vis India. China is increasing its military and economic partnership with Pakistan and has also been trying to win over Maldives, Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh in India's neighbourhood.

On the other hand, while Doklam standoff continues, China has not yet confirmed about the annual joint military exercises with India. India and China conduct joint exercise every year on reciprocal basis. Named "Hand-in-Hand", Indian team goes to China one year followed a visit by Chinese troops next year.

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Responding to a question whether Doklam standoff is affecting India-China annual military exercise, General Bipin Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."

The ground realities leave no doubt that China's approach towards India is adversarial than friendly and General Bipin Rawat seems to have delivered the right message by saying, "It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down."

ALSO READ |

General Bipin Rawat on Doklam standoff: We have mechanism to resolve such issues:

Why Doklam standoff is not good for Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of BRICS Summit, CPC Congress

Why Japan lent support to India against China over Doklam standoff

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Troy

America has quite a few problems. Most are easy to identify.

Crumbling infrastructure. Too many struggling schools and students. A widening gap between the rich and poor. The flavorless tomatoes sold in grocery stores. I could go on.

But the Rev. John Koletas, pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Lansingburgh, has identified a national problem that never would have occurred to me, not in a million years.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Koletas mentioned it in his sermon last Sunday. If you want to give it a listen, it's on the church's website.

"The problem we're having in America  you listen to me good  the black churches, they don't preach against fornication, they don't preach against adultery no more, they don't preach against gambling no more, they don't preach against liquor no more."

At this point, it's worth wondering how Koletas knows so much about what's preached in the thousands of black churches out there. He wasn't done, though.

"They don't preach against heresy no more. And so you have  listen to me good  black America sitting in black pews who are rebelling against God. And it's coming out of the church pews into the streets."

Sadly, Koletas wasn't done.

"They don't preach about personal responsibility. They don't tell them how to get a job. They don't tell them to live right with God. And so what you see is a bunch of thugs out there that are blaming everybody else."

It sure sounds as though Koletas is saying the problem with America is black people. If those darn people weren't so immoral, everything in this country would be A-OK!

Reached by phone Saturday, Koletas said he stands by what he said.

"The black culture in America, the inner cities, I think it's a direct result of the lack of Bible teaching  it's a direct correlation."

He noted that his church includes longtime black congregants.

If his name sounds familiar, and you aren't one of the 100 or so people said to attend his services each Sunday, that's likely because he made international news a few years ago when he gave away a semi-automatic rifle from the pulpit.

"Let Us Slay," screamed the front of the often-clever but rarely subtle New York Daily News.

"I'm just trying to be a blessing and a help to the gun owners and the hunters and give away a free AR-15," Koletas told the Times Union then. "It's the right thing to do."

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Koletas was locally famous for his street-corner preaching, which was not always appreciated by the unrighteous citizens of Troy. Police repeatedly arrested Koletas for making "unreasonable noise"  leading to a free-speech lawsuit that the preacher lost.

Judging by the sermons available online, Koletas preaches fire-and-brimstone blended with his uniquely right-wing beliefs. If you're like me and prefer that Sunday mornings provide a break from our divisive politics, his Fourth Avenue church won't be your cup of tea.

"Always go right, always go right," he said last Sunday. "God's right and you're wicked and you're evil. God's right and you're left."

His sermon was topical. Here, for example, is Koletas' enlightened take on Charlottesville.

"What in the world was she doing on the street?" he said of Heather Heyer, the woman killed there when a car struck a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally. "She didn't have a permit to be there. He was in, as far as I know, a lawful car."

Koletas did concede that the "hotheaded" driver should go to jail. Thank goodness for that.

I hesitated to write this column. Who really cares, I thought, what a misguided preacher says to a small audience on Sunday mornings in Lansingburgh? People are free to pray how they wish and say what they want in this country, which is how it should be.

But when I thought about what Koletas said about black churches, I remembered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

That's the Charleston, S.C., church where Dylann Roof killed nine people who had welcomed him into Bible study two summers ago. That's the congregation that responded by publicly forgiving Roof, an incredible act of religious grace and mercy.

Black churches have long been targets because they are powerful voices for social justice and racial equality. They are also powerful voices for the best tenets of Christianity  including "love your enemies" and "do good to those who hate you."

Koletas' message last Sunday was about division, weakness and fear. Us versus them. The supposedly good versus the supposedly evil. His words echo what's wrong in our politics and culture.

The message from the church in Charleston was the opposite, and it's worth remembering as an example of what religion can be. It was unity and love, strength and forgiveness. It was beautiful and sacred. It was light amid gloom.
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Disaster readiness class to be held Thursday at center

ALBANY  State residents can attend a free disaster preparedness class 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at the Sidney Albert Jewish Community Center, 340 Whitehall Road, and learn to better respond to emergencies and disasters.

The class will be presented by the New York National Guard troops, in cooperation with the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

Since the program's launch in February 2014, troops have held more than 1,690 events statewide and taught over 108,000 citizens.

The event is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's continuing Citizen Preparedness Corps Training Program, which provides citizens with the knowledge and tools to prepare for emergencies and disasters, respond accordingly, and recover as quickly as possible to pre-disaster conditions.

To register, go to http://www.nyprepare.gov/aware-prepare/nysprepare.

Saratoga County senior picnic slated at the fairgrounds

BALLSTON SPA  The Saratoga County Office for the Aging's annual senior picnic will take place Sept. 8 at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds, 162 Prospect Street.

The event is for Saratoga County seniors 60 and older.

There will be live music. A barbecued chicken lunch will be served at noon.

Tickets cost $4 each and must be purchased by Friday. No tickets will be sold at the door.

For more information, call 518-884-4100.

Sisters planning 'Half Way to St. Paddy's Day'

COLONIE  The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet will have a Half Way To St. Paddy's Day celebration at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at St. Joseph's Provincial House, 385 Watervliet Shaker Road.

The band Get Up Jack will perform.

Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Attendees must be at least 21 years of age.

For tickets, call 518-389-2654.

Coxsackie is site of Blessing of the Animals on Sept. 9

COXSACKIE  The Annual Blessing of the Animals will take place 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Coxsackie Riverside Park on the Hudson River.

Local faith leaders are invited to attend and offer blessings to beloved pets.

There will also be a brief ceremony to remember pets no longer with us.

Pet-friendly vendors are invited to attend at no charge.

Attendees are requested to donate cat and dog food to help with the local pet food pantry.

For more information, call Jeffrey Haas, 518-478-5414, or email: jhaasrph@aol.com.

Clearwater cruises slated to leave from Rensselaer

RENSSELAER  Sail aboard the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a working tall ship, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 9 departing from the Riverfront Park Dock.

This sail on the Hudson River will include dockside orientation before departure, Clearwater's history, wildlife observation, education and even a chance at steering the ship.

There will be music by the crew and sing-a-longs. Refreshments will be available at the dock after the sail.

Tickets cost $135 a person.

Proceeds benefit the Rensselaer Land Trust and the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

Clearwater is a 106 foot long wooden sailboat, with one 108 foot tall mast.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://www.renstrust.org.

 Compiled by Azra Haqqie
A new law that would allow residents to vote on whether they want to be annexed by a nearby city isn't being looked upon too kindly by some city governments, but it's not expected to have an impact on Conroe until 2020.

Senate Bill 6, which had the backing of four local lawmakers, is being described by supporters as annexation reform, giving residents a voice when a neighboring city wants to annex the area they're living in. But opponents of the bill say it will hurt the ability of cities to expand, while also limiting their ability to pull in more tax dollars.

Under the law, which goes into effect in Dec. 1 after being signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during the Legislature's special session this summer, residents of an area that a city is eyeing can demand a vote before being annexed by that municipality. That is, so long as the county the city is located in has a population of at least 500,000.

"In Texas, of all places, property rights matter," Abbott said when he signed the legislation. "Residents from across the state that have expressed their concerns about feeling abused by the annexation process have had their voices heard. I'm proud to sign legislation ending forced annexation practices, which is nothing more than a form of taxation without representation, and I thank the Legislature for their attention to this important issue during the special session."

Rep. Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, who was one of the co-sponsors of the bill, says he "was proud to support" the measure. Metcalf says the new law "reforms the municipal annexation process to protect homeowners from being annexed by cities to create a larger tax base." Likewise, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, a co-author of the bill, Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia, a sponsor, and Rep. Mark Keough, R-The Woodlands, all voted in favor of the bill.

Although the new law limits the ability of cities to expand by gobbling up territory -- like Conroe has in the past -- the details in the bill won't stop Conroe from annexing any territory until the 2020 census.

Under the bill, cities that are located in counties with a population of less than 500,000 are considered "Tier 1" cities and still will have the power to annex more land without a vote by residents of the area. The last Census figures have Montgomery County with a population of 455,746, placing Conroe in the Tier 1 category.

But a city within a county with a population of more than 500,000 is considered a "Tier 2" city, which will require an election before an area can be annexed. By the time the 2020 Census is compiled, Montgomery County's population most likely will surpass half a million people, making it a Tier 2 city -- and meaning elections would be required before the city could annex any land.

Annexations have been an occasionally contentious issue in Conroe, with Mayor Pro Tem Duke Coon describing "forced annexation" as being "very troublesome at times."

Coon notes that although cities need to have the ability to expand, the new law will give residents living in Tier 2 cities "a voice" during annexations.

The matter was a subject of debate during Conroe's 2016 mayoral race, with Toby Powell, who mounted a successful campaign to become the city's mayor, promising during a political forum that if he were elected, there would be "no more forced annexations in the city of Conroe."

An April 30, 2016, article in The Courier covering the forum reported that Powell argued against any more annexation because of safety and budgeting concerns.

"(Public safety) comes first and foremost in all areas; we need to beef up our police department. We have to work to budgetize our new budgets to work on our fire protection and get the response times back down to where they should be," he said. "The massive annexations we've had have put us in such a financial burden right now that we're going to have to be cautious about what we do in the next budget time and the next few years."

Figures provided by the city show that Conroe annexed 11 parcels of land, with a little more than 1,328 acres in 2015. But in 2016, according to Conroe Director of Community Development Nancy Mikeska, the city "did not complete a substantial annexation"and will approach future annexation proposals cautiously.

"Current city leaders are very conservative regarding annexation," Mikeska said. "The new annexation law, allows the city to continue annexations because the restrictions were governed by county population at the time of the census count. Knowing the law has changed, and not knowing what the next legislative session will bring, staff will be looking carefully at our annexation plan for the future."
Victoria, Texas

Harvey pummeled Texas on Saturday, destroying buildings and causing massive power outages, as residents evacuated towns and prepared for historic flooding that could keep them from their homes for days.

After the storm pounded the Texas coast, it crept inland and stopped moving, as if mired in mud, meaning its torrential rains are not expected to abate for many days. Rising rivers have started to trigger evacuations across a broad section of the state, and computer models are forecasting record flooding.

Officials confirmed one fatality near the small coastal town of Rockport, which took a direct hit from the eye of the storm, as search and rescue operations continued in ravaged areas that have become largely inaccessible. Officials said Rockport could receive up to 60 inches of rain through midweek.

"We've been devastated," Rockport Mayor C.J. Wax said in a telephone interview. "There are structures that are either significantly disrupted or completely destroyed. I have some buildings that are lying on the street."

In the nearby island town of Port Aransas, officers conducted a search and rescue mission for eight people who have been reported missing, an Aransas County Sheriff's deputy said.

In the coming days, forecasters expect, the tropical storm will meander south and east, and possibly slip back out over the warm gulf waters, allowing it to restrengthen to some extent. All the while it will dump what could be historic quantities of rain  15 to 30 inches in many areas, with as much as 40 inches in isolated areas, according to the National Weather Service.

More than 200,000 people across the state were without power early Saturday, and wastewater and drinking-water treatment plants here were offline.

The National Weather Service predicted "major flood" conditions at some 49 rivers across a vast region of coastal Texas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he had declared 50 counties a disaster area. With the storm now ashore, he said, "our primary concern remains dramatic flooding." He urged residents to follow the familiar advice: "Turn around, don't drown."

Many coastal Texans ignored mandatory evacuation orders and hunkered down for Harvey.

"We've always stayed. Daddy taught us well how to ride out a storm," said Melissa Stewart, 41, of Victoria. "It's always better to stay than to run."

That city was directly in the line of fire of Harvey and emerged Saturday looking trashed, with the streets deserted. The once-stately oaks in the public square by the historic courthouse had been knocked over. On the main drag through town, the Exxon station looked demolished, along with a Valero station nearby. Plywood that had been nailed to storefronts littered the streets. Shingles had been blown off roofs.

Bryan Simons, spokesman for Victoria County Sheriff's Office, warned that more devastation was coming.

"There will be life-threatening, catastrophic flooding here," he said.

The Tres Palacios River has already risen more than 20 feet near Midfield, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The San Bernard River near the town of Sweeny is expected to rise more than 10 feet above its 1998 record flood stage. The Brazos River is expected to break a flood record set last year, and officials have ordered mandatory evacuations in low-lying areas of Fort Bend County.

Among the cities at risk of major flooding is Houston, the nation's fourth-largest, with a population in excess of 2 million. Early Saturday morning, the city was buffeted by waves of rain and lightning followed by periods of calm.

In the southwest part of the city, Brays Bayou was swelling with fast-flowing, debris-filled brown water, and a tornado touched down in a suburban neighborhood.

Montry Ray was staying up late to ride out the storm with his wife and two children when the roaring sound of the tornado sent them running for cover in a bathroom. Just as they bolted from the master bedroom, the storm exploded through its wall, embedding bricks in the drywall across the room. The storm ripped open the roof.

"You know how they say you hear the train noise?" said 12-year-old Caden Hill, who lives down the street. "I heard it."

He, along with about 50 neighbors, turned out Saturday morning to help clean up. Volunteers chopped fallen trees, hauled away crumpled fences and gathered debris while roofers worked on homes.

To the west, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg urged residents to continue to stay off the roads as Harvey neared the city and brought wind gusts up to 60 mph and heavy rain. The city is under a flash flood watch and tropical storm warning.

"We don't want anyone in San Antonio to let their guard down," Nirenberg said.

The city closed 10 roads in the area due to high water, and officials expect that number to grow.

Weather officials took to social media and the airwaves Saturday in an effort to persuade people not to become complacent because of the relatively muted impact so far in places away from the Rockport area.

In Galveston, a city that lived through the last big Texas hurricane  Ike in 2008  residents seemed unconcerned.

"We thought it was going to be much worse," said Latoya Fulton, 33, who was eating breakfast with her husband and four children at Waffle House. The Fultons, who live in Galveston, spent Friday night in a hotel in Conroe, north of Houston, as a precaution. But they returned Saturday morning to their undamaged house when news reports made it clear that Galveston had been largely spared from the hurricane's winds.

A few tables over at the packed restaurant  one of the few businesses open in the area  Galveston residents Dottie and Kevin Bowden ate breakfast with their 16-year-old granddaughter, Savannah Stewart.

"This ain't nothing," Kevin Bowden said.

All the houses in their neighborhood are built on stilts, so the Bowdens and their neighbors weren't worried about flooding, and local officials did not issue a mandatory evacuation order. Everyone in the neighborhood stayed to ride out the storm.

"We're not crazy," said Dottie, 63, who runs a business cleaning rental properties. "If they told us to leave, we would have."
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At least eight roads have been deemed impassable in North/Northwest Montgomery County, according to Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Meador. Meador reported no evacuations, no flooded homes and no down trees.

He said about eight impassable roads, including at Landrum Village in Montgomery where residents are OK but unable leave due to the flooded entrance. He asked residents to stay off the roads and to stop stealing barricade and road signs.

"For goodness sakes, don't run out in that high water," Meador said. "... If you see a barricade and high-water signs, leave them alone. Don't steal or move; you could put people's life in jeopardy."

Despite flooded roads, no major damage to homes or businesses from Tropical Storm Harvey have been reported in Willis, Montgomery, or Panorama Village.

Willis

Willis Police Chief James Nowak confirmed Rogers Road near the ballparks in Willis was blocked and had at least 10 inches or more of water moving across the road. Lincoln Ridge had at least a foot of water as of 10:50 a.m. and is not impassable.

"Things are changing as we get more rain," Nowak said.

Willis City Administrator Hector Forestier estimates about 11-12 inches of rainfall since then-Hurricane Harvey hit the area this week.

"We have had an abnormal amount of rainfall; however, it is draining pretty well. We have had some issues here and there, but other than that, lift stations are working well (but there will be some issues here and there). Now hopefully with this break in the rain hopefully everything will come back to normal for a little while, and get ready for the next 24 hours or so."

He noted there may be some issues although drainage and paving projects have helped.

"With the rainfall with the way it is coming down we may have some issues inside the city limits. However, once it stops the drainage is pretty good because of the work we've done for the last several years. Drainage and paving goes hand in hand. Streets like Longstreet, Paddock, when I drove by there yesterday and this morning, you can tell it is doing its job but it is too much water."

Non-emergency phone calls can be made to the Willis Police Department at 936-856-4039. The call will be forwarded to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office after business hours to a dispatcher who will be able to assist with the call.

Montgomery

Officials reported Harvey caused some temporary road closures on FM 149 before Lone Star Parkway and before Simonton due to high water. However, as of noon he said the roads were reopened. Montgomery Police Chief Jim Napolitano noted the roads are subject to closure again depending on the inclement weather.

A tree was also reported down at Caroline Street. Entergy crews were working on shutting off the electricity to the wires for city officials to move the tree as of noon on Sunday.

Panorama Village

Panorama Village officials reported some flooded streets in the city from an estimated 6 inches of rain. A barricade has been set up on Indian Wells. No homes have been flooded, according to Mayor Lynn Scott. He does not anticipate any evacuations will be needed. City Hall, which has a generator, will be open in the case of power outage for residents to be able to charge batteries and oxygen tanks, according to Scott.

NORTH MONTGOMERY COUNTY WITH HIGH WATER::

This list was last updated at 11 a.m. Sunday.

19200 block of Meadowlake Road - 2 inches of water

Old 105 at South Duck Creek Road - about 1 foot of wawter

Old Highway 105 at Morrell Road and Daw Collins Road- 3 feet of water

North of 15881 Rogers Road - more than 2 feet of water

McRae Lake at South Lake Shore Drive - 3-foot by 1-foot sinkhole reported, may continue to grow

County Line Road east of David Moore - 18 inches of water rising swiftly

Royal Creek Road at Royal Campbell Drive - 2 to 3 feet of water

Interstate 45 northbound feeder at Lincoln Ridge - 12 inches of water

Calvary Road at Amblewood Street - 1 foot of water

FM 1097 at Running Bear Drive - 1 foot of water

County Line Road at Cedar Lane Loop - rushing water, about 1 foot

River Plantation Drive at Stonewall Jackson Drive - 1 foot and rushing

Indian Wells Lane from Westchester Drive to Hanover Lane - unknown how deep

FS 204A to FM 1375 - 8 inches and rushing
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Around 4,500 inmates at three Texas prisons are set to be evacuated in light of heavy rain sparked by Hurricane Harvey, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

The Ramsey, Terrell and Stringfellow Units in Rosharon will all be emptied Saturday as the Brazos River continues to rise near the Brazoria County facilities.

HURRICANE HARVEY: Get the latest information, newest photos here

The prisoners will be loaded onto TDCJ buses headed for East Texas prisons, accompanied by corrections officers and other staff who showed up to help with the evacuation.

Now Playing: Hurricane Harvey Update 8-26 11:30am Video: JW Player

The inmates won't be allowed to have visits at their new locations, but they will be able to call home.

More Information ` See More Collapse

In anticipation of the storm, TDCJ activated an emergency command center in Huntsville on Thursday, and it's been in operation round-the-clock since then.

PHOTOS: Readers share their Hurricane Harvey images on social media

Ex-prisoners on supervised release in affected areas were told to report to evacuation addresses, and high-risk parolees were moved to facilities out of the area, TDCJ said in a release.

Additional food and water have been sent to the units expecting an influx of prisoners, and sandbags have been sent to the affected units.

Inmate families may contact TDCJ's 24-hour hotline at (936) 437-4927 or 1-844-476-1289 for information about a specific inmate.

"This is something that we prepare for each year," Executive Director Bryan Collier said. "Our command center is operating around the clock and we stand ready."
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) The government today restricted imports of gold and silver items from South Korea in a bid to check spurt in inbound shipments of precious metals from that country.

The importers will now have to obtain a license from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for importing gold and silver from South Korea.

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These restrictions are being imposed against the backdrop of sudden surge in imports of precious metal from South Korea, with which India has a free trade agreement since January 2010.

Gold imports from South Korea has jumped to USD 338.6 million between July 1 and August 3 this year. The import in 2016-17 stood at USD 70.46 million.

"Imports from South Korea of articles of jewellery and parts thereof, of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal...;articles of goldsmiths and silversmiths wares and parts thereof...and coins are restricted," the DGFT said in a notification.

Under the free trade pact between India and South Korea, basic customs duty on gold was eliminated.

Further, the 12.5 per cent countervailing duty on gold imports has been subsumed in the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Accordingly, the imports now attract only 3 per cent integrated GST.

Imports of gold from non-FTA countries, attract 10 per cent customs duty.

India is the worlds second biggest gold consumer after China. The imports mainly take care of demand by the jewellery industry.

The collections from customs duty and IGST from imports post implementation of GST has almost doubled to Rs 30,000 crore in July.

Gold imports contributed significantly to this increased collection.

The revenue collected include those on account of customs duty, Integrated-GST (IGST) from imports, countervailing duty (CVD), special addition duty (SAD) and cess collection on imported items. PTI RR CS BAL

--- ENDS ---
The first thing to vanish from grocery store shelves when Harvey started barreling toward Houston was water.

But the Houston Office of Emergency Management wants residents to know that it's not necessary to turn off the tap just yet.

"Rumor: @HoustonPWE is NOT Shutting (sic) off water. Water is currently safe to drink and meeting 100% of the need," Houston OEM wrote on Twitter Sunday just after noon.

READER PHOTOS: Houston residents share Hurricane Harvey photos on social media

Stories circulating on social media sites had claimed otherwise and the city felt it was necessary to set the record straight.

Rumors and false stories have been a problem as Harvey pounded the Texas coast starting Friday. Before the outer bands hit Houston, a viral email claimed that the storm was going to be much worse than officials said. City officials were quick to shut the story story down.

More recently, a false contact number for the National Guard was being passed around on Facebook. The number was actually for an out-of-state insurance company, and would not reach any emergency services personnel, Chron.com reported.

EXPLAINED: Maps show potential impact, dangers of Tropical Storm Harvey

Now Playing: Emergency personnel conduct a water rescue in League City during Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday, August 27, 2017. (Video: Kirk Sides) Video: Houston Chronicle

Corpus Christi and other coastal communities that took the initial brunt of Harvey have also faced a deluge of fake news, which media organizations have been quick to shoot down.

After the initial scare on Friday, Mayor Sylvester Turner encouraged residents to follow mainstream news organizations, the National Weather Service and the Office of Emergency Management for updates on the storm.

"False forecasts and irresponsible rumors on social media are interfering with efforts by the city of Houston, and its government and news media partners, to provide accurate information to the public about the expected effects of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Harvey," Turner said in a statement.
Elmer F. Smiley Williams did not let poverty or the rough Baltimore neighborhood of his youth keep him from greatness.

Having worked in careers advocating for social justice, Williams died Aug. 21 from cancer. He was 81.

Williams grew up seeing his mother alone in her struggle to provide for him and his two brothers.

Her sons did whatever odd jobs they could find to help her make ends meet, wife Sandra Williams said.

More Information Elmer F. 'Smiley' Williams Born: March 30, 1936, Baltimore Died: Aug. 21, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Elmer and Catherine Williams; brother Bernard Williams; sister Charlotte Williams. Survived by: Wife Sandra Naylor Williams; daughters Karan Y. Williams, Cheryl F. Williams, Michele A. Williams, Yolanda E. Pearson and Brandie S. Williams; sons Elmer F. Williams II, Jonathan M. Williams, Marques A. Williams and daughter-in-law Jo An; brother Vernon T. Williams and sister-in-law Harriet; numerous friends and family. Services: Visitation 5 p.m. today, followed by 7 p.m. rosary at Sunset Funeral Home, 1701 Austin Hwy. Funeral at noon Tuesday at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church, 125 W. Whittier St., with burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Reception after burial is at Second Baptist Church 3310 E. Commerce St. See More Collapse

Wanting to help his mother with the bills, Williams dropped out of high school. But in 1954, he made a decision that would alter the course of his life.

Knowing he was capable of great things, at 18 he joined the Marines and four years later switched branches of service to start a 16-year career as an airman.

He felt that if he had never left, he would be on drugs or in jail. It was the most viable option, his wife said.

While in the Air Force, Williams worked in personnel and later, in the early 1970s, in social actions, where he rose in the ranks to chief master sergeant.

He was the first person to achieve the rank of chief master sergeant in the social actions career field, his wife said about his supervisory job.

In 1971, Williams, working as a procurement supervisor for the 1605th Air Base Wing in the Azores islands off Portugal, was named as one of the Outstanding Airmen in the U.S. Air Force.

Not only did Williams excel in his job, but also in his education. Having received his GED in the early 1980s, he continued his studies, receiving a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences from Southwest Texas State and a master of arts from Webster University in St. Louis.

After 20 years of military service, he started a career in the federal government, rising through the ranks to become a member of the senior executive service, a grade equivalent to a two-star general.

As a civil servant, his first assignment was as a race relations instructor and staffing specialist at Webb AFB in Big Spring.

At the top of his field, he later received the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service.

When he worked for the Department of Defense, his direction reached all over the world, his wife said. He set policies  had an office at the Pentagon with duty at Aberdeen Proving Ground. His heart was in helping people. He was just the kindest man I know.

iwilgen@express-news.net
By PTI: sector under PMLA

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) The newly created GST intelligence arm, Directorate General of Goods and Service Tax Intelligence, has been named the regulator for dealing with money laundering cases in the gems and jewellery sector.

The Finance Ministry last week amended the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 to make the Directorate General of Goods and Service Tax Intelligence (DGGSTI) as the regulator with respect to the gems and jewellery sector, said the notification.

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The regulator under PMLA issues guidelines and prescribes measures to establish client identity in different transactions.

It may prescribe enhanced or simplified measures to verify the clients identity taking into consideration the type of client, business relationship, nature and value of transactions based on the overall money laundering and terrorist financing risks involved, the rules state.

Under PMLA, every reporting entity is required to maintain record of all transactions of value exceeding Rs 10 lakh, all cross border wire transfers of more than Rs 5 lakh and all purchase and sale of immovable property of Rs 50 lakh or more.

Rules provide for "client due diligence" by the reporting entity to prevent money laundering or terrorist financing. After the amendment, the DGGSTI would now keep a track of transactions in the gems and jewellery sector to see if they are conformity with law.

Under the PMLA, Regulator is defined as an authority or a Government which is vested with the power to license, authorise, register, regulate or supervise the activity of reporting entities or the Director as may be notified by the Government for a specific reporting entity or a class of reporting entities or for a specific purpose. Experts said this is likely to give power to DGGSTI in the line with that of a Sales Tax officers to go to shops and check whether money laundering has happened.

Nangia & Co Executive Director (Taxation) Neha Malhotra said through this amendment the DG GST Intelligence has been made PMLA regulator for the gems and jewellery sector.

"This sector has to ensure that they are compliant with the law, since now they are directly under the lens of DGGSTI who shall keep an eye on any money laundering activities in this sector," Malhotra said.

The DG GSTI is the new name given to the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), which was mandated to check service tax and central excise duty evasion. Ahead of the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, the government had strengthened DGSTI for detecting excise and service tax evasion using its intelligence network across the country. It also alerts field formations about the latest trends in the duty or tax evasion. During the last financial year, DGCEI detected tax evasion worth Rs 15,047 crore during financial year 2016-17. PTI JD ANZ MR SRK

--- ENDS ---

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Haryana and Punjab remained peaceful this morning. Curfew has been withdrawn from Panchkula and Kaithal while it has been relaxed in Sirsa, the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda of Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

Army GOC Rajpal Punia intracts with an RAF officer during a visit near Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: The violence-hit areas of Haryana and Punjab were peaceful this morning as security forces remained on high alert in both the states.

Curfew has been withdrawn in Panchkula, the worst affected town in the violence that erupted after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted in a rape and sexual exploitation case. The special CBI court of Panchkula found him guilty of raping two sadhvis at his Dera in 2002 on Friday.

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Curfew has also been withdrawn in Kaithal town of Haryana while it was relaxed in Sirsa, where Dera Sacha Sauda of Ram Rahim has its headquarters.

The death toll in the violence has risen to 36 with 30 people losing their lives in Panchkula violence while six were killed in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured in the violence after the followers of Ram Rahim resorted to arson at several places. Properties worth crores of rupees were damaged in the violence.

CRACKDOWN AFTER VIOLENCE

The DSS headquarters near Sirsa is still surrounded by the Army and paramilitary forces and appeals are being made to Dera followers to vacate the 800-acre sprawling complex.

Authorities have got the sect complexes across Haryana except Sirsa vacated. Some of the complexes have been sealed. Security forces recovered sticks, rods and other materials to make petrol bombs in search operations in the complexes.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said all 98 campuses of the sect were searched and sanitised. An uneasy calm prevailed in Punjab and Haryana yesterday as the Army and paramilitary forces continued to patrol several places across the two states throughout the night.

PROHIBITORY ORDERS CONTINUE IN DELHI

Prohibitory orders imposed in 11 of the 13 police districts in Delhi in the wake of the violence following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh are still in place.

The day-to-day life of the citizens would, however, not be affected, police said. Section 144 was imposed in the entire city except for North and Central police districts on Friday night after multiple incidents of arson were reported in the city following the conviction of Ram Rahim in the 15-year-old rape case.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said the imposition of prohibitory orders would be reviewed after monitoring the situation. He added that several miscreants were arrested in connection with the violence in the city on Friday after they were identified through CCTV footage, though he did not specify the number.

However, Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav on Saturday evening tweeted that 10 persons had been arrested and sent to jail under stringent sections of the law and bikes and petrol bottles were recovered.

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CBI judge Jagdeep Singh will pronounce the quantum of punishment in the case tomorrow at a special court being set up in the prison premises in Rohtak. The judge will be flown to Rohtak for pronouncing the sentence.

(With inputs from agencies)

--- ENDS ---
Almora: The cops started investigation over the petition of the shopkeepers at Almora in Uttarakhand stating that they were delivered shoes in tricolour boxes. The shoes were believed to have been imported from China. After the interrogation the police got an information of a wholesaler in Delhi, who imported it from China.

The boxes also had some words written in Chinese language Mandarin. The incident happened amid the tensions between India and China over Doklam issue.
Pulwama: At least eight security personnel were killed in an encounter started on last day at Pulwama district in Kashmir. The security forces gunned down three militants and started search for other terrorists. The encounter started after three terrorists started firing at the security staff's premises. Five more security personnels were injured in the attack.



According to the reports the encounter started soon after the Pakistani attack on Indian post on Friday.

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Kollam: J Mercykutty Amma, Minister for Fisheries said that the international cargo vessel that rammed a local fishing boat will be taken into custody. The accident occurred about 39 nautical miles off the Kollam coast on last day. The six fishermen in the boat were rescued by the other boats. The minister also said that state has sought the help of Navy to help the fishermen to reach the shore.

According to the reports the HongKong vessel called Katalia departed soon after the mishap. It was Marine Enforcement agency that informed Minister about the accident. The Navy deployed advanced light helicopter and a Dornier to locate the vessel.
Ram Rahim was seen sitting in a VIP helicopter chewing on a cigar, or was it a chocolate?

By India Today Web Desk: As Baba Ram Rahim was convicted of rape on August 25, tensions broke out in Punjab, Haryana, parts of UP and Delhi. While the supporters of Ram Rahim were busy taking to the streets, the love charger baba himself was being flown to safety in a VIP helicopter.

A photograph of Ram Rahim sitting in the helicopter chewing on something sparked debates on social media. While some claimed it's a cigar, there were people who also claimed he is eating a chocolate.

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The woman seen with Ram Rahim in the photograph is Honeypreet Insan, Ram Rahim's daughter. The authorities confirmed that she is Ram Rahim's daughter. The authorities now claim "she is no longer with him" and he is being treated like any other prisoner. Meanwhile, the authorities have not commented on why was Honeypreet allowed to travel with her father after his conviction.

According to rules, no relative is allowed to travel with the prisoner, the relatives can meet the prisoners in the jail premises as per the rules of the jail.

The helicopter Baba Ram Rahim was traveling in, AW139 is meant for VIP and corporate transport. AW139 is a 15-seater Augusta Westland helicopter. A similar copter was also used by Narendra Modi during his 2014 election campaign. The authorities said the helicopter used for transporting Baba Ram Rahim was hired but did not specify from where.

Currently, Ram Rahim is in Sunaira jail, Rohtak and is in "solitary confinement". The punishment that is to be pronounced on August 28 will be pronounced in the Rohtak jail itself to avoid any disturbance that can be caused Ram Rahim supporters. The judge will have to travel around 250 km to pronounce the punishment.

Meanwhile, the video that went viral which showed Haryana government's Deputy Advocate General, Gurdas Salwara accompanying Ram Rahim after the verdict was pronounced. Salwara is also seen as carrying Ram Rahim's suitcase. Salwara has been sacked by the Haryana government.

FYI || Meet the judge who declared Ram Rahim Singh guilty in rape case ||

FYI || How Baba Ram Rahim went from being a 'prophesied' child to being a rape convict ||

FYI || Ram Rahim has 19 Guinness world records to his credit, which is a record in itself ||

FYI || Baba Ram Rahim's road trip to court is nothing less than his masala movies ||

--- ENDS ---
Bridlington Summer Seaside Bank Holiday Fun Ends in Nightmare - Tourists Beware!

The long Bank Holiday weekend is well underway, and many day trippers can be expected to hit the coastal seaside towns such as Bridlington. Whilst it's a time of letting ones hair down and relaxing. However don't make the mistake of letting your guard down too much as seaside fun could easily turn into a nightmare day trip.

Our day trip began nearly 2 miles North of Bridlington Harbour, a long walk towards our final destination, completely oblivious of the fate that awaited one of us.

So tourists always beware!

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright  2005-2017 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




MARTINSVILLE-Is it legal to remove a Confederate monument? Or would doing so violate a nearly 20-year-old portion of the Virginia Code? The discussion will come up this Monday, during the Patrick County Board of Supervisors meeting.

For Lock Boyce, the law is clear. The way he reads the Virginia Code, you cant remove, relocate or otherwise change anything about a monument to the Civil War, be it Union or Confederate.

To me, its written in plain English, Boyce said. We cant touch them.

Boyce is a member of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors and the person who added a discussion on Confederate monuments to Mondays agenda. In front of the county courthouse in Stuart, a memorial to Confederate soldiers stands and while no one has demanded that it be removed, Boyce said he just wanted to put peoples minds at ease by going over the portion of state law that he feels protects the monuments from being touched.

The issue has been a topic of conversation among residents after seeing cities like Charlottesville and Richmond discuss and in some cases vote to remove Confederate monuments. Boyce himself is a descendent of Confederate veterans. His family owned slaves on a rice plantation on the PeeDee River before the war.

None of them were very happy with the war, he said. They looked at the war as something that ruined the South. They would not have approved of Confederate memorials. When it was over, their feelings were that it was something best left forgotten.

But while Boyce would prefer to see monuments to the Confederacy taken down, he also feels that the law should be followed and as he sees it, the Virginia Code is clear on the subject.

The law hes referring to is Section 15.2-1812 of the Virginia Code, which states that a locality may, within the geographical limits of the locality, authorize and permit the erection of monuments or memorials for any war or conflict.

That includes a variety of wars, including the Algonquin, French and Indian, Revolutionary, War of 1812, Mexican, Civil War, Spanish-American, World War I, World War II, Korean, Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the ongoing Global War on Terrorism, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. For the Civil War, there is specific language in the law, stating that it includes Confederate or Union monuments or memorials of the War Between the States. That part of the law is not under debate. Its the sentence that follows which causes arguments, as to what it means.

If such [monuments] are erected, it shall be unlawful for the authorities of the locality, or any other person or persons, to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials so erected, or to prevent its citizens from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation and care of same, the law states. For purposes of this section, "disturb or interfere with" includes removal of, damaging or defacing monuments or memorials.

For Boyce, thats clear enough.

The Code says you may not deface, disturb or replace, Boyce said. That seems clear to me. The only way this gets removed is if the state legislature meets and passes a law to replace this one.

For state officials, as well as some judges, those words have a different interpretation.

The other side

State officials argue that the current wording of that section, signed into law in 1998, was not meant to be retroactive. The latest state official to make this argument was Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, in an opinion issued on Friday. Because the section of the Code does not specifically say it applies to all monuments, regardless of when they were created, Herring argued that it should only apply to any created after 1998.

It should be noted that the longstanding rule in Virginia is that statutes are construed to operate prospectively only, unless, on the face of the instrument or enactment, the contrary intention is manifest beyond reasonable question, he wrote in the opinion.

In other words, Herring argued, if the 1998 General Assembly wanted their law to apply to all monuments, then they should have said so in the language of the bill.

When the General Assembly omits a clear manifestation of intent that a statutory change should apply retroactively, it generally should be concluded that the legislature did not intend such, he wrote.

That 1998 law was actually an amendment to a part of the Code that already existed. The portion about war memorials was actually created back in 1904, but the problem relates to how it was worded. That original document states that a countys circuit court, with support from the board of supervisors could authorize the erection of a Confederate monument upon the public square of such county at the county seat thereof. It goes on to say that the locality or any other person or persons whatever [could not] disturb or interfere with the monument. The law stated that no one was allowed to prevent the citizens of [the] county from taking all proper measures and exercising all proper means for the protection, preservation and care of the same.

The argument by Herring and other state lawmakers, as well as some judges, is that by failing to mention independent cities, that 1904 law only applied to counties. The law was amended several times between 1904 and 2017, but the first time independent cities are mentioned is in the 1998 version. As a result, Herrings argument is that the protection against removal shouldnt count for any statute in an independent city.

Another part of Herrings argument is that when courts determine legislative intent, they look at both bills that passed and bills that failed on the subject in question. In 2016, the General Assembly voted to approve House Bill 587, which would have made it clear that the provisions of this subsection shall apply to all such monuments and memorials, regardless of when [they were] erected. While the bill passed the House and Senate, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed it and the General Assembly was unable to come up with the votes needed to override the veto.

But if a court or judge looks at legislative intent, shouldnt the fact the bill passed the House and Senate be enough to establish that? The Bulletin asked that question of the attorney generals office, but did not get a response back by presstime.

Additionally, the Bulletin reached out to five different attorneys, to ask for their interpretation of the law. Each refused to go on record or offer their analysis of Herrings argument. The Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union spoke with the Bulletin before Herring released his statement on Friday, with officials saying they felt that portion of the Virginia Code would need to be changed, before any decisions are made.

ACLU Director of Strategic Communications Bill Farrar said that we believe the code section you referenced would have to be amended or repealed to take the handcuffs off localities, so they can make their own decisions about monuments in public spaces within their own borders.

However, after Herring issued his opinion, Farrar reached out again, saying that after reading the attorney generals document, the ACLU chapter agreed with his interpretation of the law.

Lawsuits filed

In terms of not being retroactive, thats an argument which has been heard before, when talking about this issue. In 2015, the Danville City Council passed a law banning any flag except the national, state, city and MIA/POW flags from flying on city-owned property. That led to the Third National Confederate flags removal from the grounds of the Sutherlin Mansion and a lawsuit from the Heritage Preservation Association. When the case went before Danville Circuit Court Judge James Reynolds, he determined that 15.2-1812 didnt apply, because the flag was not a memorial to soldiers, but rather a historical marker. He also ruled the same way as Herrings opinion, arguing that the 1998 law did not apply to monuments built in prior years.

The case was brought before the Virginia Supreme Court for consideration, but the justices refused to hear it.

Another, very similar lawsuit was filed earlier this year in Charlottesville, over the citys plans to relocate the statue of Robert E. Lee. The lawsuit, filed by a group called The Monument Fund, consisting of the Virginia Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, Friends of CVille Monuments and several Charlottesville residents, argues that by voting to move Lees statue and redesign both Lee and Jackson parks, the Charlottesville City Council violated Section 15.2-1812 of the Virginia Code, as well as the terms of the gift.

That last part is key, because it highlights something that Herring warned about in his opinion on Friday. In the letter, Herring cautioned city councils and other groups not to assume that a monument can be moved, even if he felt the portion of the Virginia Code didnt apply. The reason is that in most situations, these statues and memorials were not paid for by cities or counties. Instead, they were donated by local groups in each area, using privately collected funds. When these monuments were turned over, in many cities and counties there was a contract or gift document involved, with certain requirements.

For example, a look at state records shows that the General Assembly in 1903 gave permission for Confederate monuments to be built in Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Greensville, Mecklenburg and King William counties. In most of these cases, the General Assembly attached a stipulation that the monument couldnt be moved. In a weird situation, there are two versions of the King William document, one that does prevent moving the memorial and one that does not.

The memorial in Patrick County, as another example, was put up by the Junior Stuart Book Club and dedicated on Jan. 1, 1936. According to local historian Tom Perry, the Junior Stuart Book Club was a group formed in 1933 with 17 members, at a time when there was no formal public library in Patrick County. They were responsible for putting up the statue and then turning it over to Patrick County.

Even if there were no stipulations made when handing over the monuments, that still doesnt mean they can be removed. Herring also points out that when a city or county applies for a grant to maintain or preserve a monument, some groups have clauses in the contract about removing or disturbing the memorial.

As an example, a grant received under the National Preservation Act likely includes a preservation agreement, Herring wrote, imposing certain restrictions on the receiving party and likely would require recordation of restrictive covenants on the property on which the monument is located.

Two local lawyers, who would not go on record, even questioned if that would extend to something such as putting a tarp over the statue, as Charlottesville City Council did this week with both the monuments to Lee and Jackson. Also, once those documents are signed, if theyre violated, then often the city or county will have to repay what they were given.

For Boyce, all of these qualifications arent something he wants the Patrick County Board of Supervisors to deal with.

At the least, that would cost us some money and we as a county could be fined, Boyce said. This would be a pointless gesture. Im just not gonna break the Virginia Code.
MARTINSVILLE  The roar of dozens of motorcycles marked the noon-time start of the sixth annual Bikers for Babies charity ride Saturday to benefit the nonprofit Pregnancy Care Center of MHC Inc.

The participants left the Broad Street parking lot in uptown Martinsville after brief remarks by organizers and prayer.

The ride was scheduled to proceed to Snow Creek, then toward Sontag , south on Route 220 back to Collinsville, concluding at the Pregnancy Care Center on Fairy Street Extension. In all, the ride was 50 to 55 miles.

Jay Santoemma, one of the organizers, said in an interview about an hour before the event began that last year there were 75 registrants and this year he was hoping for more than 100.

Patrick (Rusmisel, the other organizer) and I are members of New Life Community Church in Ridgeway, Santoemma said. We have a Bible belief that abortion is wrong. Every baby has a right to live. Every baby is conceived for some reason and God has a purpose for that life. Pregnancy Care Center is a Christian-based organization.

Santoemma said he hopes this years ride will raise at least $5,000 to $6,000. The bike entry fee was $10.

During his public remarks immediately before the start of the ride, Santoemma said, in part, that being the father of four boys, I couldnt imagine what my life would be without my kids.

According to Zachary Cumberland, assistant executive director of Pregnancy Care Center of MHC, and a brochure, the nonprofit offers ultrasounds, pregnancy testing, proof of pregnancy, options counseling, baby items, abstinence education, parenting classes, life skills classes, child care classes, pregnancy care classes, post-abortion healing, Bible studies, help with unplanned pregnancies and sexual abuse recovery.

The brochure says: Studies reveal that up to 90% of young women who are abortion seeking will choose life once they see their babies sonogram pictures. With your help, 9 out of 10 babies can be saved. Will you help us save the lives of babies?

The brochure quotes Jeremiah 1:5: I knew you before I formed you in your mothers womb, before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Pregnancy Care Center of MHC does not perform nor refer for abortion services.

Rob Chester of Greensboro, North Carolina; Jim Kingdon of High Point, North Carolina; and Jerry Canterbury of Thomasville, North Carolina, participated in the ride as part of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. This was their fourth year participating. They indicated they came because they are pro-life.
MARTINSVILLE  As much as $290 million could be leaving Martinsville-Henry County annually as a result of residents going elsewhere to shop and eat out, an Alabama retail consulting firm estimates.

That equates to about $4,266.50 per resident of the city and county and $9,920 per household, based on 2010 Census figures.

The more that people would shop and eat in the community, the more sales tax revenue that the city and county would collect, which would mean that the localities could spend more on efforts to improve the community, such as appropriating more money for schools, said Martinsville Mayor Gene Teague.

As part of its efforts to help the city and county attract, develop and retain businesses, the Chambers Partnership for Economic Growth (C-PEG) has contracted with Retail Strategies of Birmingham, Ala., for help with persuading prominent store and restaurant chains to locate here.

C-PEG, an independent affiliate of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, supports and helps fund local economic improvement efforts.

Outgoing chamber President and C-PEG Executive Director Amanda Witt said the $290 million retail leakage estimate is based on Retail Strategies analyses of factors such as Census figures, U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics and consumer spends trends.

Neither Lacy Beasley, Retail Strategies president and chief operating officer, nor Matt Petro, the firms chief development officer, returned voice-mail and emailed requests for comment by Saturday night.

C-PEG and Retail Strategies signed their contract on Aug. 8. The firms work on behalf of Martinsville-Henry County is just getting started, Witt said.

Already, though, employees of the firm have visited the community, she said, to talk with property owners; examine potential locations for new stores and restaurants, including empty storefronts and other buildings as well as vacant sites; inventory existing stores and restaurants and identify new shopping and dining opportunities based on the areas population and spending habits.

Not all store and restaurant chains will consider locating anywhere, Witt noted. In deciding where to go, she said, they take into account factors such as locations that would accommodate their construction needs, how many people live within certain distances from those locations and those residents incomes and spending habits versus the price points of products they sell, she said.

Retail Strategies already has determined that most people go out of the area to shop and eat, at least sometimes, Witt said.

The firms research, she said, shows that area residents who do so are most likely to visit clothing and accessory stores, sporting goods and hobby stores, both traditional-style and fast-food restaurants and/or  perhaps surprisingly, since there are a dozen in Martinsville-Henry County  grocery stores.

With the latter, she speculated that people who work out of town may be stopping at supermarkets near their jobs while on the way home.

According to its website, Retail Strategies identifies opportunities in retail markets and develops and carries out recruitment strategies for clients. The firm attends retail and shopping center industry trade shows and has contacts with roughly 9,000 retailers nationwide, pitching clients to stores and eateries seeking places to locate. Using the data collected, it identifies shopping patterns in communities and provides answers to questions that prospective retailers frequently ask.

The firm has experience in partnering the right retailer with you, Teague said. They can help us find the right matches (for Martinsville-Henry County)  ones that will come here and stay.

They already have a lot of relationships with retailers and real estate brokers that could take years for us (chamber and C-PEG officials) to forge, Witt said.

She said she doesnt know why retailers and restaurants may not have looked at Martinsville-Henry County in the past but with Retail Strategies help, were going to try to get them to look here now.

Changes happening

Probably the biggest change in the local retail scene in recent memory happened several years ago when the former Liberty Fair Mall on Commonwealth Boulevard, which opened in 1989, was redeveloped by its previous owner, the Hull Property Group, into a traditional-style shopping center in which stores entrances open to the outdoors instead of an interior hallway.

The shopping center now is named the Village of Martinsville and owned by Virginia Beach-based Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, which bought it for $23.53 million late last year.

Over the years, amid economic troubles in the community, more and more stores left the mall until it was almost vacant. Hull determined that due to local economic factors as well as more and more people doing their shopping at traditional strip centers, the community no longer could support a mall.

According to Witt and Teague, Retail Strategies agreed with the malls conversion. Teague said that while larger malls  such as Valley View Mall in Roanoke  still attract many shoppers, smaller malls have less space to house a variety of stores, and less variety maybe tends to lead to fewer customers, especially among people who view a shopping center itself as a destination instead of a store or two in it.

Most spaces at the Village of Martinsville are occupied, but there are a couple of empty spaces.

C-PEG is paying Retail Strategies $120,000 over the next three years for its assistance. Funding was contributed by C-PEG, the city and county, the Campbell Family Group and local developer George W. Lester, Witt said.

Friday was Witts last day at the chamber. On Monday, she starts working for Appalachian Power as its manager of external affairs for Southwest Virginia. Her successor as the chambers president and C-PEGs executive director, Lisa Fultz, will have the task of keeping the ball rolling on the retail project.

Still, Witt will be joining C-PEGs board and continue being involved in the project. She said she looks forward to seeing its outcome.

Mickey Powell reports for the Martinsville Bulletin. He can be reached at mickey.powell@martinsvillebulletin.com.
From ruling on triple talaq and the right to privacy to sending Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, to jail for rape, Indian courts delivered important judgements with far-reaching consequences last week. Here is a recap.

By Dev Goswami: India's courts, often accused of overextending their brief and of 'judicial overreach', were in focus last week. From the country's highest court to one at the bottom of the ladder, the Indian judiciary was involved in epoch-making judgments of great on-ground consequence.

On Tuesday, August 22, the Supreme Court of India invalidated the practice of instant triple talaq, a ruling that arguably affects a small percentage of Muslim women but one that is likely to have bearing on the contentious issues of personal law and a Uniform Civil Code.

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Days later, the Supreme Court was in the limelight again, this time on the issue of privacy and whether Indians had a fundamental right to it. Indians indeed have a fundamental right to privacy that is protected under the Constitution, nine judges of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, ruled in a judgment likely to have far-reaching consequences for years to come.

Barely had the national media started analysing the Supreme Court verdicts on triple talaq and fundamental right to privacy when the attention abruptly shifted to Haryana, more specifically Panchukla. A little-known Central Bureau of Investigation court was getting ready to send Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, to jail over rapes he committed 15 years ago.

The region's top court - the Punjab and Haryana High Court - saw itself unwittingly become part of this historic week for the Indian judiciary when the executive - especially the ML Khattar government in Haryana - seemingly failed to take enough preventive measures to manage the violence, arguably entirely anticipated, that followed the hugely popular Dera chief's conviction on Friday.

Incidentally, the week ended with the retirement of Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, who was involved in both the triple talaq and privacy judgements of the Supreme Court.

Here's a recap of a week that saw the Supreme Court address two deeply contentious issues and a High Court assume a role that arguably should have been fulfilled by the executive.

NO TO TRIPLE TALAQ

On August 22, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that the practice of instant triple talaq - wherein a Muslim man divorces his wife by uttering or texting the word 'talaq' three times in one sitting or instance - was illegal and unconstitutional.

In a 3:2 ruling, the Supreme Court judges set aside the practice, finding it in contravention of the Constitution's Article 14, which promises equality before law and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Reporting of the judgement was initially conflicting with the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar choosing to read his own verdict on the issue. This was taken to be the court's judgement and so, initial reports said that the Supreme Court had upheld the practice of instant triple talaq. However, as the five-judge bench continued delivering the verdict, it turned out that three other judges - Justices RF Nariman, UU Lalit and Kurian Joseph - had disagreed with CJI Khehar and Justice Abdul Nazeer.

Credit: Newsflicks Click here to Enlarge Credit: Newsflicks

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The latter two wanted a moratorium to be placed on the practice of instant triple talaq and directed Parliament to enact legislation - holding instant triple talaq lawful or otherwise - within six months. Khehar and Nazeer, however, were overruled by the three-judge majority of Nariman, Lalit and Joesph.

The judgement, openly welcomed by the Narendra Modi government, is likely to have ramifications on the vexed issue of the Uniform Civil Code. In fact, the Law Commission, which is in the process of compiling public opinion on UCC, has already said that it will refer to the Supreme Court judgement for its report.

"Yes we will closely study the judgment. It will form one of the basis (of the report). The Supreme Court has done its bit and now we will do the remaining work", Law Commission Chairman Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan said.

Politically, the Supreme Court's triple talaq ruling, which was welcomed by all parties, is being seen as vindication by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has long batted for the introduction of uniform personal laws.

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It remains to be seen if Parliament will bring out a new law to explicitly ban the practice of triple talaq. Initial reactions from the government indicate that it does not consider the need to do so.

"The government will consider the issue in a structured manner. A prima facie reading of the judgment makes it clear that the majority (of the five-member bench) has held it (the practice of instant triple talaq) as unconstitutional and illegal," Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, according to a PTI report from last week.

PRIVACY IS SUPREME

The second landmark judgment delivered last week was on the question of whether the Constitution of India, as it is currently read, protects privacy as a fundamental right. Up until now, Indians were considered to have a common law protection against an invasion of their privacy. They were protected against privacy intrusions committed by fellow citizens or by corporations, but not necessarily by the State.

This changed on August 24, when a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that privacy was an "intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution."

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The ruling was unanimous and was seen as a setback to the Centre, which had earlier told the apex court that privacy was a common law right but not a fundamental right. After the ruling, however, the government claimed that it had always supported the idea of privacy as a fundamental right with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad brushing away the Centre's earlier stand inside the Supreme Court as "banter".

The Centre also chose to focus on the fact that privacy - while a fundamental right - is not absolute, saying that the Supreme Court had validated the Centre's stand that that privacy is subject to "reasonable restrictions". It must be noted that governments of the day do have the option of imposing 'reasonable restrictions' on fundamental rights, but that is provided for by the Constitution itself, so the Supreme Court in its privacy ruling was merely reiterating an existing constitutional provision.

In terms of impact, the privacy ruling will have consequences immediately, as well as years into the future. One of the first impacts will be on the validity of the Aadhaar Act, which has been challenged in a bunch of petitions. Incidentally, it was a hearing on one of these petitions that prompted the privacy ruling - the issue of whether the State was infringing on its citizens' privacy via Aadhaar could only be settled after it was known whether there was a fundamental right to privacy in the first place, the Supreme Court felt.

Other issues the privacy ruling is likely to have a bearing on include Article 377 (which criminalises homosexuality) and Maharashtra's beef ban. The Supreme Court, in its privacy ruling, has already indicated that where there is a fundamental right to privacy, there cannot be a law criminalising homosexuality. The court all but struck down a 2013 Supreme Court judgement delivered by a two-judge bench that in effect criminalised homosexuality by setting aside a Delhi High Court ruling that struck down Article 377.

Click here to Enlarge Reuters file photo of a gay pride march in New Delhi; Supreme Court in its privacy ruling opened the door for revisiting its earlier ruling that effectively criminalised homosexuality

GURMEET SINGH JAILED

The week's third biggest development was the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for rape. A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula, Haryana held the high-flying, self-styled 'godman' guilty of raping two female followers in a case dating back nearly 15 years.

The court case and the eventual conviction assumed significance because of Gurmeet Singh's vast following and past incidents in India's history when controversial 'godmen' have had brushes with the law. Violence and unrest in case Ram Rahim was convicted, as he eventually was, had been foreseen by the media and as it turned out, by the intelligence agencies.

Despite massive security arrangements, violence erupted after the special CBI court convicted Ram Rahim of rape and sent him to jail to await his sentence, which is expected to be pronounced on Monday. While the ML Khattar BJP government in Haryana, from where most instances violence were reported, said that it had made adequate arrangements, an angry Punjab and Haryana High Court took both the state and Union government to task.

"You let a city like Panchkula burn for political motives," the High Court said, admonishing the Khattar government.

Click here to Enlarge Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was on Friday held guilty of committing rape

This was not a one-off intervention by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh case. It was this very court which in 2002 had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to initiate a probe into allegations of rape and sexual exploitation against the Dera chief. The court did so taking cognizance of an anonymous letter purportedly written by a 'sadhvi' who detailed the allegations against Gurmeet Singh.

This week, as the verdict day drew near, the High Court involved itself in the security arrangements in and around Punjab and Haryana, warning that it would call in the Army if the state governments did not take adequate measures.

Then, hours after Ram Rahim's rape conviction and after multiple instances of violence and arson were reported, the High Court once again took up the matter, ordering the Punjab and Haryana governments to attach the properties of the Dera Sacha Sauda if the sect was found to be complicit in the violent clashes that ultimately killed nearly 40 people.

The court has kept up its involvement, ordering that the Ram Rahim's sentencing be moved to the Rohtak jail where the Dera chief has been held since his conviction Friday. It also ordered that special air travel arrangements be made for special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh, who will pronounce the sentence.

ALSO READ | With two landmark judgments Chief Justice JS Khehar ends his tenure with a bang

ALSO READ | 5 unique facts about Supreme Court's landmark verdict on triple talaq

ALSO READ | Ram Rahim's rape was pardon: The guru's gufa and maafi of a sex fiend

ALSO WATCH | Historic Supreme Court ruling on instant triple talaq: Meet the heroines who made it happen

--- ENDS ---
SPRINGFIELD - Police are investigating back-to-back shootings that left two men dead over a particularly violent weekend.

The killings happened less than 27 hours apart and occurred within a mile of each other.

The first victim, Mark Mayweather, 29, of Springfield, was shot multiple times at about 11:45 p.m. Friday in the area of 82 Albemarle St., James Leydon, spokesman for Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, said.

When police arrived they found the victim in serious condition. He was brought to Baystate Medical Center by ambulance and later pronounced dead, Leydon said.

A second man was killed early Sunday morning at the Reed Village Apartments, which is operated by the Springfield Housing Authority, police said.

The shooting was reported at 3:07 a.m. When police arrived they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound in the parking lot at the corner of Bay and Aster streets, police said.

The man was later pronounced dead. His name is not being released until his family can be notified, police said.

Springfield detectives are investigating both homicides. Anyone with information is asked to call the detective bureau at 413-787-6355. Anonymous text-message tips may be sent to "CRIMES," or "274637," and should begin with the word "SOLVE," police said.

It is not known yet if the two shooting deaths are related, but Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said neither was random.

"They seem to be targeted and isolated incidents. Both are known to police and the SPD (Springfield Police Department) is not getting a lot of cooperation at this moment," Sarno said, adding that police are working hard to try to make arrests.

"I stress again to the affected community that besides all of our proactive and preventative efforts, whether through the (police), through social, educational, workforce development and youth development programs, when these unfortunate incidents occur in urban America, the community needs to be part of the solution," he said.

Sarno urged people to work with police and other law enforcement officials "so that we can rid the streets of these negative individuals."

The two killings are the ninth and 10th in Springfield this year. The last three happened within hours of each other.

This is the second time this summer there have been back-to-back shooting deaths over a weekend. On June 3, 22-year-old Derieke Walker II was killed inside the 944 Worthington St. apartment building where he lived. Three hours later, on June 4, Chauncy Marshall, 31, and Warren Payne, 27, both of Springfield, were shot to death at the Kick Back Lounge on State Street.

There have been no arrests in the three homicides. The Worthington Street slaying is not believed to be connected to the two homicides at the Kick Back Lounge.

Sarno, Gulluni and Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri all expressed their sympathies to the victims' families.
At least five people died as Tropical Storm Harvey pummeled Texas with torrential rain. Catastrophic flooding in some areas is expected Sunday and during the week, according to the National Weather Service.

A flash flood emergency was in effect Sunday morning for some areas of Texas.

"The threat for continued additional catastrophic, unprecedented and life threatening flooding continues today and into next week with periods of heavy rain bands coming off the Gulf," the National Weather Service said. "Flash Flood Watches and Warnings are currently in effect for all of southeast Texas."

Three to 4 inches of rainfall fell in the Houston area within one hour's time Sunday. The National Weather Service said the Houston/Galveston area had received more than 24 inches of rain within the past 24 hours.

Sustained winds were near 45 mph Sunday, but the tropical storm is "likely to become a tropical depression by tonight," the National Weather Service said.

Devastating flooding has occurred in some areas on the West Gulf as rivers and bayous reached record values.

Hurricane Harvey made it to landfall Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane then by Saturday afternoon is was downgraded to a tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to produce several days of "rainfall disaster" over the week.

The New York Times reports one death occurred in Houston and another in Rockport, Texas.

The Harris County's Flood Control District reports more than 1,000 people were rescued overnight due to flooding in the Houston area.

People have been warned not to drive or walk in the heavy rain. Rescue boats have been dispatched.

"Do not go into attics, you will get trapped," the Harris County Flood Control District said. "Get on roofs. As son as day breaks it will be easier to rescue you."

The United States Coast Guard rescued more than 30 people from boats since the rainfall began. Video released by the Coast Guard shows a helicopter crew rescuing four people from a boat near Port Aransas, Texas on Saturday.

Rescue workers continued to search in Houston for people trapped in their homes, CNN reports. The television station said emergency workers from Florida and New York City are heading to the area to help.

"This could easily be one of the worst flooding disasters in U.S. history," Weather Channel meteorologist Greg Postel wrote on Twitter.

The Coast Guard is conducting searches Sunday in Houston and has five helicopters in the air. People are being asked to mark their roofs and wave sheets or towels so they can be seen from the air.

"More than 300 requests for urban search and rescue have been received by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Houston Command Center," the Coast Guard said.

Four additional helicopters from New Orleans are expected to help.
A former Massachusetts computer executive serving life for brutally killing his wife and two children in 1992 has been denied parole again after the state Parole Board found he lacks empathy and insight into the "horrendous crime."

Kenneth Seguin, now 59, was sentenced to serve life in prison with the possibly of parole for the April 1992 murders of his wife and two children. A Middlesex County Superior Court jury found him guilty on three counts of murder.

Records show Seguin's wife, Mary Ann, was out when he drugged his children, 7-year-old Danny and 5-year-old Amy, and drove them from their home in Holliston to a deserted pond in Franklin on April 28, 1992.

Seguin cut his son's throat and cut his daughter's throat and wrists. The children were hidden in the pond after the killings.

Authorities said Seguin returned to the Holliston home and bludgeoned Mary Ann to death with an axe while she slept in bed. Mary Ann was found the next morning floating in the Sudbury River in Southborough.

She died from blunt force trauma to the head, the Parole Board said.

"After she body was discovered, police questioned Mr. Seguin, who claimed that two men had broken into his home and attacked him, and bashed Polly (Mary Ann) over the head with an axe," the board wrote. "He told authorities that the intruders had given the children sleeping pills, and that they had been in their beds."

Two fishermen found Seguin near a pond in the woods in Hopkinton on April 29, 1992. He had slashed his wrist, ankle, temple and neck.

The bodies of both children were found submerged at Beaver Pond in Franklin on May 2, 1992. Seguin, according to investigators, used leaves, sticks and debris to hide the bodies.

Autopsies revealed traces of sleeping pills in their systems.

Police learned Seguin tried to cover up the murders by flipping over the blood-stained mattress where Mary Ann was killed.

"He had also made anonymous calls to the children's schools the morning after the murders, informing school authorities that neither child would be present that day," the board wrote.

Seguin appeared before the Parole Board in May, the third time he has been before the board.

He apologized for the killings and expressed sorrow and pain for the murders, the board said. Seguin discussed having depression, difficultly with money and Mary Ann mentioned leaving him.

Seguin intended to kill his family and himself over Mary Ann's statement that she might leave him.

The board was skeptical of Seguin's statement about planning to take his own life, noting he made several efforts to cover up the crime scene.

"Board Members also questioned whether Mr. Seguin is selfish and narcissistic, expressing concern that these traits are what led him to commit such horrific crimes," the board wrote.

Seguin has served as a librarian while in prison and participated in mental health groups. His brother, sister and a former employee spoke at the hearing and expressed support for parole.

Mary Ann's two sisters, Holliston police officials and representatives of the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office all spoke in opposition.

The board found Seguin has not rehabilitated and lacks empathy into the brutal murders.
NORTHAMPTON - In the early 1990s, when Jon Aronstein was 14, he visited Rudy's Music Stop on 48th Street in New York City--one of the most popular music venues in Manhattan at the time.

Aronstein, who grew up in New York before moving to western Massachusetts, describes the experience as transformative--a real inspiration to get involved in the music industry.

Now Aronstein is forty two, a Pioneer Valley resident, and running a music shop of his own. The Mill River Music and Guitar Workshop, located at 16 Armory Street in downtown Northampton, will be opening its doors in September. Aronstein said in an interview Friday that he hopes Mill River will be a real hub for local musicians and city residents.

The venue offers guitar and instrument sales, repairs, consignment, and music lessons, Aronstein said.

The new business cleared a last hurtle at last week's City Council meeting when councilors approved Mill River's second hand dealer license, which will allow it to trade and resell guitars.

Aronstein runs the store with his wife, Nina, who also has a background in music.

"We really wanted to be able to build something the way we wanted to, as well as to offer the kind of service and the level of variety that we thought people should have," he said.

For Aronstein, music has been an integral part of life since an early age. After becoming enthralled with guitars and guitar making during his teen years, he played in a short lived, jam rock band called "Clovis Point," before going on to study to become a luthier--the craft of building and repairing guitars.

After moving to the Northampton area, Aronstein worked for a number of years at Birdhouse Music on Main Street as a luthier and guitar salesman.

Aronstein said his time with Birdhouse was good, but he reached a point where he felt he wanted to run a business the way he wanted.

Some inspiration for that aspiration came, no doubt, from New York's music venue haven on 48th Street, where Aronstein spent his time as a teenager.

"In New York City back then [48th] had all the guitar shops," Aronstein said. "We heard stories about Jimmy Hendrix or Bob Dylan stopping by these stores. All the famous musicians would shop there, because it was the only place in New York where you could buy a guitar," Aronstein said. "It's almost all gone now."

Still, Aronstein said that he hopes Mill River Music will be a kind of "old school" music shop experience--one that focuses on the "brick and mortar, high service" kinds of relationships that comes from keeping business local.

"There has been a big change in the music industry but there's a lot of new opportunities as well," Aronstein said. "For a store like us we can offer a "hands on" experience that's old school and doesn't really exist anymore in a lot of places," the new store owner said. "We want to keep things local."

Mill River Music and Guitar Workshop will be open to the public in September. Until that time, Aronstein said services are available by appointment.
SPRINGFIELD - A man shot and killed on Friday night has been identified as a 29-year-old city resident.

Mark Mayweather of Springfield, was shot multiple times at about 11:45 p.m., in the area of 82 Albemarle St., James Leydon, Hampden District Attorney office spokesman.

He was brought to Baystate Medical Center by ambulance and pronounced dead, he said.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni and Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri express their sympathies to the victim's family during this difficult time, Leydon said.

The homicide is under investigation by the Springfield Police Department along with the Hampden District Attorney's Office's Homicide Unit, he said,
SPRINGFIELD - One person was shot on Bay Street early Sunday morning.

The male victim was shot around 3 a.m. in the area of 617 Bay St., according to 22News.

Western Massachusetts News is reporting the victim has died. Police declined to release any information Sunday morning.

Officers remain on Bay Street investigating the crime, police in the detective bureau said.

This is a breaking story. Masslive will update as more information becomes available.
SPRINGFIELD- It signals an unofficial end to summer as the Springfield Public Schools, along with their food service company Sodexo, hosted the annual Back to School Celebration at Blunt Park Saturday.

Several thousand backpacks for students in every grade level were given out in an effort to start their school year off on the right note.

The celebration was free and open to Springfield Public School students, staff and their families.

In addition to the backpacks, food, and music, games were offered to those that took part in the event.

Also on hand were representatives from every Springfield school as they offered information to the students and their parents.

Springfield School Superintendent Daniel Warwick was also in attendance. He said he looks forward to this event and appreciates all the work that goes into the celebration by the staff and volunteers, which resulted in another successful run.

Springfield police and firefighters were also at the park to talk to the children and parents.

First Student, the school district's transportation company, brought a bus and their mascot Safety Dog. Young people could have their photos taken with him and learn about school bus safety at the same time.
The first day of school in Worcester won't be cancelled due to a union bus strike, but negotiations between the union and the Durham Bus Company broke down Sunday, according to officials from Teamsters Union Local 170.

Mayor Joseph Petty intervened Sunday and asked the union not to strike for three days and get back to the negotiation table with the bus company. The union agreed. The first day of school is Monday in Worcester.

The union and Durham Bus Co. continued to negotiate throughout the weekend, but the company walked from the table Sunday while meeting with union officials, according to Shannon George, the secretary-treasurer and principal officer for the union.

"They abruptly left and said they were done negotiating," George said Sunday. "I'm hoping that Durham will get in touch with us and resume negotiations."

Kate Walden, a spokesman for Durham Bus Co., released a statement to MassLive Sunday evening.

"We are ready and willing to continue to bargain and had offered to meet this evening. Union representatives have made themselves available to meet tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.," the statement from the company said. "While progress has been made in the negotiations, we must reconvene to formalize an agreement. We have and will continue to bargain in good faith and have local, regional and corporate resources onsite to get to a resolution as quickly as possible."

Petty told MassLive he spoke to George and asked for the union to hold off on any work stoppage for three days.

"I talked to the Teamsters and I asked them not to take any type of job action for at least three days," Petty said. "I asked them to return to the bargaining table."

Petty said he has offered to work with both sides in order to find a "fair and equitable" solution to the ongoing contract dispute. He said it was his understanding that the bus company ended negotiations Sunday.

School Superintendent Maureen Binienda was speaking to Durham Bus Co. officials Sunday evening, the mayor said.

Petty said it is important for the students to head to their first day of school, an event he called exciting for parents and students. Having a strike delayed for three days allows for school to start as planned and for negotiations to continue, he said.

"This gives us time for them to work it out," the mayor said.

The bus union has been without a contract since Dec. 2016, and members are looking to healthcare and retirement benefits. The union represents 130 drivers and monitors.

"We don't want the work stoppage," George said. "Durham has brought in drivers over the weekend from New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York and training them on the routes."

George said the union doesn't want people who don't know the city or the students to be responsible for driving the routes.

Binienda warned parents Friday night that a possible union bus strike could cancel the first day of Worcester Public Schools. Worcester Public Schools put out a Twitter message Sunday that school is open and on a regular schedule Monday.

Any strike will affect the Worcester Public Schools and the Seven Hills Charter School and possibly some of the area parochial schools.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 27 (PTI) Hong Kong, which witnessed a steady decline in tourist footfall from India since last two years, looks to reverse this trend in the next couple of years.

"We have been losing out a lot of tourist traffic from India due to lack of air connectivity. Earlier, most flights from India and China were connected through transit in Hong Kong, which encouraged travellers to take a small break in the city," Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Regional Director, Europe and New Markets, Peter Hoslin told PTI here.

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India and Hong Kong are currently connected with 38 direct flights a week and several connecting flights, he said.

He said global currency fluctuations which devalued Euro and Pound, and strengthened Hong Kong Dollar also diverted a lot of Indian tourist traffic from Hong Kong.

In 2016, 4,80,000 Indian tourists travelled to Hong Kong, which was a nine per cent decline from 2015.

However, this year there has been a steady improvement in tourist traffic flow from India and the negative growth will be narrowed to just two per cent. We are expecting to witness growth in Indians travelling to Hong Kong in a couple of years, he added.

"We are working closely with our trade partners in India to turn this around. We are focusing on young dynamic travellers between 20-40 years, families and repeat travellers," Hoslin said.

Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan country, offers a wide variety and choice of activities for visitors, including night life, culture, food and wine, adventure among others, he said.

HKTB, which is promoting Hong Kong as a premium destination, is targeting three metro cities in India - Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangaluru - for promotions, Hoslin said.

"The tourism board is also targeting other big cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, which has a lot of young professionals," he added.

He said, HKTB is bullish on promotions through social and digital medium and reaching out to opinion leaders, including young celebrities as well as the those residing in Hong Kong, talking about the destinations and experiences.

Neighbouring China is the number one source market of Hong Kong followed by Taiwan, USA, Japan and Korea, he said, adding India is at number 12.

"We are seeing a lot of potential in the long weekend segment, meetings, incentives, conferences, events (MICE) and cruise tourism. We are also planning enhancing experiences, which will encourage Indian tourists to extend their stay in Hong Kong," he added. PTI SM KRK BAL ABM

--- ENDS ---
Rockwell Scales of Great Falls is among the seven Montana businesses that are on their way to Australia to promote their mining products and services to companies overseas at the Aug. 29-32 Asia-Pacific International Mining Exhibition in Sydney.

The ExportMontana office at the Department of Commerce http://marketmt.com/EXPORT is organizing the trip for the businesses, which will share a Montana-branded pavilion on the show floor.

Funded in-part through a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administrations State Trade Expansion Program, Commerce is covering their tradeshow booth expenses and providing a travel stipend.

Phil Drake, [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/money/2017/08/26/great-falls-company-australia-bound-mining-expo/599918001/
What they make: A wristband that uses sonar to alert visually impaired people of nearby obstacles

Why its cool: Have you ever wondered what its like to be a bat, and navigate through the dark using sound waves to detect obstacles? Strapping a Sunu band to your wrist might be the next best thing. The band emits a high-frequency sound wave that bounces off objects in the users path, and translates that information into gentle vibrations. By feeling the change in vibrations on his or her wrist, a blind user can navigate around people and other obstacles in a crowded room or sidewalk, find doorways, and more.

By MARISA KENDALL | [email protected] | Bay Area News Group

Full Story: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/27/early-stage-this-y-combinator-startup-helps-blind-people-see-using-sonar/
Some rural state and county leaders are asking Utahs largest electric utility to put more of its money in areas with its biggest customer base.

But Rocky Mountain Power officials say theyre already doing just that.

By Jasen Lee @JasenLee1

Full Story: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865687578/Elected-officials-want-Rocky-Mountain-Power-to-invest-more-in-rural-Utah.html
Here is our Top 10 for this week, celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen our regional Great Falls economy.

1) Montana Eggs and Wilcox Farms invite you to celebrate the grand opening of their new Montana Eggs processing plant! The BBQ will be on September 11. Lunch will be served at 1:30 followed by speakers and tours. They need a head count for lunch so please RSVP here https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eein9jnb75146f50&oseq=&c=&ch=  Guests are welcome.

2) We joined Pasta Montana in celebrating its 20th anniversary in Great Falls and the opening of its new $6.5 million processing line. The expansion increases the plants production capacity by 28%, from 55 to 80 million pounds of pasta each year. In its first 20 years, Pasta Montana has purchased over $300 million in wheat from Montana farmers.

3) Construction started on Panda Express in the new East End Retail Center. The Mix opened in Machinery Row downtown. The Mix serves Italian sodas, smoothies and an array of non-alcoholic mixed drinks. Food is available from its neighboring new business, the Al Banco bistro. More info in Tribune http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2017/08/24/mix-moves-into-machinery-row-focuses-giving-back/597172001/ Auto Zone plans to build a new 7,381 square foot retail building on 3rd Street NW, continuing the revitalization of this major west side commercial corridor.

4) Hosted a workshop on doing business with the State of Montana, attended by 22 businesses owners and entrepreneurs. Assisted a local business on updating their SAM registration from the old contracting system to receive a State contract. Provided one-on-one training with a business owner to educate on Federal Contracting 101. If you are interested in federal, state or local government contracting opportunities but arent sure where to start, contact Lillian Sunwall at [email protected] or (406) 750-1253.

5) Registration is open for the Montana Downtown Conference and the Great Falls Downtown/Riverfront Development Opportunity Showcase, October 18-20. The focus of the 10th Annual Montana Downtown Conference will be "Attracting Private Investment to Your Downtown." More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/10th-annual-montana-downtown-conference-downtownriverfront-opportunity-showcase-tickets-36917428021?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MTI1MDY0NDkvYmRvbmV5QGdmZGV2ZWxvcG1lbnQub3JnLzA%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&ref=enivtefor001&utm_term=attend Were looking for successful downtown developers and entrepreneurs to speak at the conference. They dont have to be from Montana, but they do have to be the best! We want to hear from and bring the best developers and businesses here to look at our downtown. Please contact Jolene with your ideas, 406.750.4481.

6) Visited with borrowers and bankers about three new potential loans we will be working on  two SBA 504 loans and one GFDA gap financing loan. These loans would separately help finance the purchase of the business, the start of a business and the expansion of a business. If you need help starting, purchasing or expanding a business, please contact Mike Archer at 406-284-1789 to discuss your options. In the last 5 fiscal years, we loaned $22,704,908 to fill financing gaps that has leveraged over $160 million in additional investment.

7) Great Falls College MSU is offering Commercial Drivers License training starting October 23. Registration deadline is 10/18; contact Roch Turner at 406-360-8478. The college is offering low-pressure and third class steam boiler trading September 12-15. Contact Erin Granger at 406-771-4314 or [email protected]. The Colleges Testing Center now offers Performance Assessment Network (PAN) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) tests here in Great Falls. Join the Testing Center for an open house on September 19 from 1:30-2:30 PM. We can help you access state funds available for incumbent and new worker training.

8) This Friday, September 1st, is GFDAs monthly Investor Development Coffee. Join your peers at 7:00 AM at Pacific Steel and Recyclings headquarters (5 River Drive South) to discuss development projects. Thank you Pacific Steel and Recycling for hosting!

9) Presented Boots to Business to 15 active duty military at Malmstrom Air Force Base in partnership with the Veterans Business Outreach Center and the Air Forces Transition Assistance Program. The goal of Boots to Business is to provide a basic business education to military members and spouses transitioning from active duty to civilian life who are planning entrepreneurship for their future. Our next Boots to Business is November 29-30. For more information or to ask eligibility questions, please contact Jason at [email protected].

10) MSU Bozemans College of Engineering is looking for student engineering projects. Projects can involve a wide range of engineering issues including mechanisms, thermal systems, fluids, structures, building systems, instrumentation and control, engineering trade studies and advanced modeling. Contact Robb Larson at 406-994-6420 or [email protected]

11) What are some of the new and exciting projects around Great Falls? How do we increase the Cascade County Tax Base? How does GFDA determine what to focus on each year? These are some of the questions answered this week by Brett and Jolene at luncheon presentations to the Great Falls Rotary Club and the Great Falls Pachyderm Club. "I didnt expect this. You need to reach more people with this message. Everyone needs to hear about the economic development here," said one Great Falls Pachyderm Club member. Call Jolene to schedule GFDA as a guest speaker for your business (were happy to come to your team meetings), club, or association, 406-750-4481.

12) Preservation Cascade has mounted an effort to complete a trail acrid the historic 10th Street bridge by 2020, the bridges 100th anniversary. A 4250 gift buys one-yard length of railing. Visit http://www.montanas-archbridge.org or call 406-452-5492.

More exciting news is in the works. Lets keep working together to keep the positive momentum moving forward. Treading water is not an option for our local economy when the world economy is changing at such a rapid and uneven pace. Communities and regions that thrive are the ones that are making it happen locally, not waiting for someone else to do it for us. Thank you to our staff, investors, volunteers and partners  Team Great Falls  that are making things happen!

Hungry to Grow the Great Falls region!

Brett

Brett Doney

President/CEO

Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-doney-83269b6?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=r7jF&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A19615718%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1485731580114%2Ctas%3Abrett to network with the Great Falls region.

Forward the GFDA Top 10 to friends and colleagues. You can join our distribution list HERE https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=0016gbbKsaiGSq74CQ4kaaKRxcjLLNecgN6wHgSWvEMX0SSWpd0E4m-32CJBv5bsES-pMIg02qkMdppKg31TEhtaa2FtyawDlJJDhaRFrOnoVw%3D or text GFDA to 22828.

"There is no waste of any kind in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed and ineffective motions."

Frank Bunker Gilbreth

Congratulations to Bert & Ernies on its 40th anniversary! Great story in Tribune http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2017/08/25/40-years-bert-ernies-has-been-food-first/602307001/

Commercial Loan Portfolio Manager opening. Exceptional professional sought to support the growth of GFDAs business and real estate lending and overall economic development efforts. Join our dedicated, passionate, fun, fast-paced, results-driven economic development CDFI team. Help us grow and diversify the Great Falls regional economy and support the creation of higher wage jobs. Duties include loan portfolio risk rating and financial analysis, loan documentation and servicing, reporting to a variety of public and private funding sources, maintaining our loan portfolio management system and other specialized software databases, responding to client and partner inquiries, and business development. Requires the ability to maintain accurate records, timely submission of reports, and strong computer and written/oral communication skills. Must be detail oriented, self-directed, and organized with the ability to be flexible to help achieve our overall team mission. Lending, finance, government grant management and/or accounting experience preferred. BA/BS or equivalent relevant experience. Salary range $40,000-45,000 with excellent benefits, professional development, growth opportunities, and flexible work environment. Work with a great team, help us move Great Falls Forward, and make a difference in peoples lives! EOE. Cover letter and resume to Lillian Sunwall at [email protected]. Open until we find a great candidate.

Cost-Effective Industrial Sites Available

If your company needs a rail-served, BNSF-Certified, shovel-ready site with all municipal services at your door, we have lots available for immediate construction in the Great Falls AgriTech Park. Contact Brett Doney at 1-406-750-2119 or [email protected]

Upcoming Business Events & Training

Profit Mastery workshops assist entrepreneurs to more efficiently manage the cash flow of their businesses. Our next Profit Mastery workshop is scheduled for September 13-14 at Great Falls College MSU. The two-day course is $125, which includes materials and lunch. Click for more info https://mtsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/3782 . We are also offering a QuickBooks basics workshop for $79 on October 11. Click for details: https://mtsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/3863.

Import 101 offered by Montana World Trade Center, September 21st, 2:00-5:00 PM in Missoula. More info at http://www.mwtc.org or [email protected]

Montana Downtown Conference, "Attracting Private Investment to Your Downtown," October 19-20 right here in Great Falls. Sponsorship opportunities available, contact Sheila Rice at [email protected]. Come a day early on October 18th for a special Great Falls Downtown & Riverfront Showcase. Register here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/10th-annual-montana-downtown-conference-downtownriverfront-opportunity-showcase-tickets-36917428021?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MTI1MDY0NDkvYmRvbmV5QGdmZGV2ZWxvcG1lbnQub3JnLzA%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&ref=enivtefor001&utm_term=attend or email [email protected]

This fall Senator Daines will be hosting the second biannual Montana High Tech Jobs Summit in Missoula, October 8-9th. To register or for more information, please visit the website at http://www.montanatechsummit.com.

Join us for the first annual Montana Food Show! This tradeshow will provide opportunities for food buyers and food producers to connect and find ways to get more Montana foods on Montana plates. Over 50 Montana fresh produce, meat, food and spirit companies will be showcasing their products in Bozeman on Tuesday October, 10, 2017. We invite food purchasers from schools, restaurants, hospitals, grocery stores, catering businesses, and other organizations to attend a private buying event from 10am-4pm. Doors are open to the general public from 4 to 7pm. Buyers can register and learn more at http://www.foodshow.mt.gov Questions? Contact Steph Hystad with the Montana Department of Agriculture at 406.444.5425 or [email protected]

Vision

Hungry to Grow the Great Falls region

Mission

Grow and diversify the Great Falls regional economy.

Create higher wage career opportunities.

Improve market competitiveness.

The first economic development organization in the Rocky Mountain West to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council.

GFDA is a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a 501(c)3 charitable organization. High Plains Financial is a certified Community Development Corporation that offers SBA 504 loans statewide. GFDA and High Plains Financial are Equal Opportunity Lenders.

GFDA is proud to host a Montana Small Business Development Center

and a Montana Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

For more info, click to our website.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 27 (PTI) Hong Kong, which witnessed a steady decline in tourist footfall from India since last two years, looks to reverse this trend in the next couple of years.

"We have been losing out a lot of tourist traffic from India due to lack of air connectivity. Earlier, most flights from India and China were connected through transit in Hong Kong, which encouraged travellers to take a small break in the city," Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Regional Director, Europe and New Markets, Peter Hoslin told PTI here.

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India and Hong Kong are currently connected with 38 direct flights a week and several connecting flights, he said.

He said global currency fluctuations which devalued Euro and Pound, and strengthened Hong Kong Dollar also diverted a lot of Indian tourist traffic from Hong Kong.

In 2016, 4,80,000 Indian tourists travelled to Hong Kong, which was a nine per cent decline from 2015.

However, this year there has been a steady improvement in tourist traffic flow from India and the negative growth will be narrowed to just two per cent. We are expecting to witness growth in Indians travelling to Hong Kong in a couple of years, he added.

"We are working closely with our trade partners in India to turn this around. We are focusing on young dynamic travellers between 20-40 years, families and repeat travellers," Hoslin said.

Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan country, offers a wide variety and choice of activities for visitors, including night life, culture, food and wine, adventure among others, he said.

HKTB, which is promoting Hong Kong as a premium destination, is targeting three metro cities in India - Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangaluru - for promotions, Hoslin said.

"The tourism board is also targeting other big cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, which has a lot of young professionals," he added.

He said, HKTB is bullish on promotions through social and digital medium and reaching out to opinion leaders, including young celebrities as well as the those residing in Hong Kong, talking about the destinations and experiences.

Neighbouring China is the number one source market of Hong Kong followed by Taiwan, USA, Japan and Korea, he said, adding India is at number 12.

"We are seeing a lot of potential in the long weekend segment, meetings, incentives, conferences, events (MICE) and cruise tourism. We are also planning enhancing experiences, which will encourage Indian tourists to extend their stay in Hong Kong," he added. PTI SM KRK BAL ABM SDM

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (EDS: Updates toll, adds fresh info)

By Seema Hakhu Kachru

Houston, Aug 27 (PTI) Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful to hit the US in 13 years, left a trail of destruction as it swept through Texas today, pummelling the region with heavy rains and claiming at least five lives since making landfall on the US Gulf Coast.

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After a night of flash flood and tornado watch, Houston woke up to a catastrophic morning, yet more life-threatening flash flooding, heavy downpour as rescuers answered desperate calls for help all along the ravaged Texas coastline.

The actual toll from Harvey remains unclear as rescuers were still trying to reach people stranded across the region.

But the National Weather Service (NWS) said five people lost their lives in the Houston area in unconfirmed flood- related deaths. Fourteen people have also been injured.

With winds topping 130 mph, Harvey is the first Category 4 storm to make landfall in the US on Saturday since Hurricane Charley struck Florida in 2004, and the first to hit Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961.

The hurricane dumped more than 20 inches of rain in the Houston area, causing "life-threatening catastrophic flooding" in southeastern Texas, The National Hurricane Centre reported.

President Donald Trump this morning tweeted his support for the rescue workers. "Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government," he said. "Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with. Thousands rescued."

"I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety," he said in another tweet.

Earlier, authorities had reported two deaths that appeared to be related to the storm, one in the hart-hit coastal city of Rockport and another in Houston. The first fatality in Rockport was due to a house fire during the storm.

Though there were multiple hazards present across the area, the greatest threat to life and property remained the ongoing extreme rainfall and subsequent flash flooding.

Tornadoes spawned by Harvey damaged more than 50 homes in Fort Bend County, struck a commercial centre near Katy and tore through Cypress, while parts of the Houston region were evacuated ahead of record river floods.

"Its catastrophic, unprecedented, epic - whatever adjective you want to use," said Patrick Blood, a NWS meteorologist. "Its pretty horrible right now."

Forecasters said Harveys onslaught was just the beginning. The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami warned "catastrophic flooding" was likely to occur in the days ahead.

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Harvey bombarded the stretch of the Texas Gulf Coast with home-ripping winds and torrential rains. More than 300,000 people were without power after utility poles were knocked to the ground.

Parts of Harris County, which includes Houston, have seen more than 20 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. The streets in Houston were drenched and deserted last night, and houses crushed, gas stations torn to shreds, road signs blown away.

Emergency responders completed more than 1,000 high-water rescues during the night. "Travel across the area is severely hampered, if not impossible," said an announcement from the Weather Service.

"This is serious... It is important that people stay off the roads," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said. He said the city is prepared for a "major water event".

Some areas could get up to 100 centimetres of rain.

"Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," the NHC said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said he would activate 1,800 members of the military to help with the state-wide clean-up while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.

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At a recreational vehicle sales outlet in Rockport city, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown to the middle of the street.

As many as six million people were believed to be in Harveys path as it is the heart of Americas oil-refining operations. The storms impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices.

The US Environmental Protection Agency eased rules on gasoline specifications late on Friday to reduce shortages.

Utilities American Electric Power Company Inc and CenterPoint Energy Inc reported a combined total of around 300,000 customers without power.

While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents stayed put in imperilled towns and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags.

Francisco Sanchez, of the Harris County Emergency Management Office, said the storm would be around for a while.

South of the city, about 4,500 inmates were evacuated from three state prisons in Brazoria County in the wake of the water level rising in the nearby Brazos River.

The turbulent weather extended into southern Louisiana, where motorists were cautioned about high water, road hazards, high winds and tornadoes. PTI SHK ASK ABH

--- ENDS ---

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By PTI: (EDS: Updating with fresh inputs)

By Aditi Khanna

London, Aug 27 (PTI) Indians were among six men and two women killed in a major accident in which their mini bus got crushed between two trucks on a highway in southern England.

The crash occurred on the southbound M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire in the wee hours of yesterday.

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All those who died were travelling in the minibus, which got crushed between the two larger vehicles.

"We are extending all possible assistance to those affected by this tragedy," the Indian High Commission in London said.

The two truck drivers arrested from the scene of the accident were charged with causing death by dangerous driving this morning.

Thames Valley Police said 31-year-old Ryszard Masierak and 51-year-old David Wagstaff had been charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Masierak, also accused of careless driving while over the prescribed limit of alcohol, has been remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates Courttomorrow.

Wagstaff, charged with dangerous driving, has been bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court on September 11.

"The charges are in connection with a collision shortly before 3:15 AM yesterday in which six men and two women died. Four people who were injured and taken to hospital remain in serious conditions," Thames Valley Police said in a statement.

The British police is yet to release details of those killed in the crash.

The driver of the minibus has been identified as India- born Cyriac Joseph.

The 52-year-old father of two, originally from Kerala and based in the UK for 15 years, was described as "lovely and generous" by friends.

The others in his minibus were tourists from Chennai who had reportedly hired the vehicle along with family based in Nottingham to travel to London, from where they had plans to go on a tour of Europe.

A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries.

South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham.

Pictures from the crash site show extensive damage to the vehicles involved, including a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics.

Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, said,"We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time."

"Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries," Elmagdoub said. PTI AK KJ ZH ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---

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The study was published inOne in six couples struggles with infertility--a proportion likely to rise as increasing numbers of people in developed countries delay childbearing. Previous studies have linked exposure to products containing hormone-disrupting chemicals, such as pesticides and phthalates, to infertility and poorer reproductive success.The flame retardant PentaBDE, used in polyurethane foam, was phased out more than a decade ago after it was linked with negative health effects in animal and epidemiologic studies. PFRs were introduced as a safer alternative, but they have been found in animal studies to cause hormone disruption. Studies have also shown that PFRs can migrate out of furniture and other products into the air and dust of indoor environments.For this study, the researchers analyzed urine samples from 211 women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center between 2005 and 2015. The women were enrolled in the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) study, which looks at how environmental chemicals and lifestyle choices affect reproductive health. The statistical analysis took into consideration factors including maternal age and race, smoking history, and body mass index (BMI).The researchers found that the urinary metabolites (products of a chemical that has been metabolized) of three PFRs-- TDCIPP, TPHP, and mono-ITP--were detected in more than 80% of participants. On average, compared to women with lower concentrations of these metabolites, women with higher concentrations had a 10% reduced probability of successful fertilization, 31% reduced probability of implantation of the embryo, and a 41% and 38% decrease in clinical pregnancy (fetal heartbeat confirmed by ultrasound) and live birth."Couples undergoing IVF and trying to improve their chances of success by reducing their exposure to environmental chemicals may want to opt for products that are flame-retardant free," said senior author Russ Hauser, Frederick Lee Hisaw professor of reproductive physiology and acting chair, Department of Environmental Health.Further research is needed on the potential impact of male partners' exposure to flame retardant chemicals and on the joint effects on both men and women of exposure to different types of environmental chemicals, the researchers said.Source: Eurekalert
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Epidemiologic research has been conducted globally, using mathematical modeling to study transmission dynamics of major cholera epidemics, mostly with regard to the 2010 epidemic in Haiti. Many studies were conducted to study and evaluate measures to contain cholera epidemics, with most centering on how best to distribute limited resources. But virtually no real-time analyses of data from devastating outbreaks, like the one in Yemen, were conducted to frequently provide updated forecasts.After the cholera outbreak in Yemen, the team compiled a real-time forecast based on weekly data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) about suspected cases and fatalities between April 16 (16th week of the outbreak) and July 1 (26th week). The team incorporated reporting delays--time lags between the onset of the disease and the reporting of cases--in the mathematical model by analyzing the epidemic curve that was updated every week. It also discovered a method, through the study of weekly death rates, to adjust the ascertainment bias--the tendency that more cholera cases likely will be reported after many cases have already been reported rather than in the initial phase of the outbreak. Incorporated in the epidemic curve is a logistic curve or generalized logistic (Richards) curve.The team estimated the cumulative cholera cases at the end of the epidemic would be 790,778 on the logistic model and 767,029 on the Richards model. The researchers estimated the epidemic curve would peak by the 26th week of 2017 and then drop monotonically in the subsequent weeks. The forecasted monotonic decline has been actually seen in WHO data by mid-August 2017."Our model succeeded in excluding two biases for the first time and the resulting forecast has been proven reliable so far. Real-time forecasting could assist enhancing situation awareness about the ongoing epidemic communication between experts and citizens while avoiding excessive pessimism, in addition to crafting future measures against cholera," says Hiroshi Nishiura of the research team.Source: Eurekalert
For most families summer is a busy time filled with family vacations, day trips and the occasional lazy day by the pool  one of my favorite places to read! With the end of summer in sight and back to school right around the corner, we want to welcome the travelers, daytrippers and pool loungers back to the library. We are starting the school year off big with programs for adults and storytimes for kids.

Seymour Library is excited to participate in Outside the Lines, a week-long (Sept. 10-16) celebration demonstrating the creativity and innovation happening in libraries. Libraries arent just the books they hold! Join us on the librarys front lawn for chair yoga with instructor Deborah Daly at noon Thursday, Sept. 14. No mats are required; comfortable clothes and shoes are recommended.

Discover new interests or rediscover an old one with great programs this month:

 Environmental Education Specialist Donna Richardson from the Montezuma Audubon Center will be at the library at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19. Learn about the local bird population and how to identify them. Interested in becoming a birder? Check out the librarys Bird Watching Discover! Kit, featuring binoculars and three different birdwatching guides.

 Nicola Minott-Ahl, associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, will spotlight fashion during the life of Jane Austen as part of the librarys 200 Years Since Austen at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30.

 Lifelong learning? Learn about the complexities of student loans or how to talk to someone with dementia. The New York State Department of Financial Services will be running a one-hour workshop, Financing Your Education, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the library. The workshop will include a presentation, a Q&A session and helpful brochures and takeaways on filling out the FAFSA, grants, scholarships, types of loans, determining the amount of aid you qualify for and helpful New York state programs. This program is for high school juniors/seniors and their families.

 The Alzheimers Association is back at the library at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, for Effective Communication Strategies. Explore how communication takes place when someone has Alzheimers, learn to decode the verbal and behavioral messages delivered by someone with dementia, and identify strategies to help you connect and communicate at each stage of the disease. Registration is required. Please call the library at (315) 252-2571 to register.

What is happening in the Childrens Room? Storytimes, slime science and more!

 Storytimes for children start back up at Seymour Library in mid-September with Books and Babies at 10 a.m. Mondays, Sept. 11, 18 and 25; Toddler Storytime at 11 a.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 12, 19 and 26; and Toddler Tango at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 13, 20 and 27.

 Special storytimes this month will include Imagination Library Storytime at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Play Space, 63 Genesee St., featuring Dolly Partons Imagination Library books. There will also be a Pajama Storytime at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the library.

 Kids will also explore the Science of Slime and make their own slime at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.

For more about upcoming programs, please visit the librarys website at seymourlibrary.org.

Welcome back!
By PTI: mother

(Recasting overnight story)

Thimphu, Aug 27(PTI) Indira Gandhi was a powerful woman who showed the world what women were capable of, the Royal Queen mother of Bhutan, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck said here.

Speaking at the launch of the book, "Indias Indira: A Centennial Tribute" yesterday at the ongoing Mountain Echoes Festival, she recalled how Gandhi might not have been a tall woman but she certainly had a towering personality.

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"I still remember her photograph with the then American president Richard Nixon. She wasnt a tall woman, but she was a towering figure.

"Mrs Gandhi was a female icon and she showed it to the world what women are capable of doing if they decide something," she said.

The book, compiled by the Indian National Congress, consists of articles, essays, photographs of the first woman prime minister of India.

The Queen Mother remembered Gandhi from the time when the latter came "sitting on a yak along with her father".

She said the Gandhi family had been on close friendly terms with the royal family of Bhutan.

"I used to admire the white streak of hair she had. Although I was very young, I still wanted that streak of white hair," she said.

The book, edited by senior leader Anand Sharma, has several photographs of Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru contributed by the royal family.

The book also has a chapter by former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee.

Tharoor, who was also part of the launch, heaped praises over Indira Gandhis leadership skills.

He said after she became the prime minister, many had wondered if she was capable of the job.

"But as it turned out, she became a better leader than many who came after her could only hope to be," Tharoor said. PTI MAH TRS TRS

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At the mega rally, Lalu also lashed out at Nitish Kumar, who he called a cheat who is without ethics or ideology.

By India Today Web Desk: At the BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao rally held in Patna today, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, aside from daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to act against him and his family, said he would rather hang than reach a compromise with the BJP.

Lalu said he would prefer to be hanged rather than compromise on his principles and political ideology to fight communal and fascist forces in the country.

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"I will neither bow before fascist and communal forces like the BJP, nor stop our fight against them till their defeat in the next General Elections," Lalu said, adding, "I will get hanged but won't compromise with the BJP."

Accusing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of betraying the public mandate by breaking the Grand Alliance in the state, Lalu said the Janata Dal-United leader had no principles, no ideology, but only love for power.

Nitish joined hands with the BJP after parting ways with the RJD and Congress in the grand alliance over corruption charges against former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of Lalu Prasad.

"Nitish has no ethics or ideology. He was jealous and felt threatened by Tejashwi's political rise," Lalu said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav with rebel Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav. Photo: PTI RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav with rebel Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav. Photo: PTI

Lalu Prasad said he was aware of Nitish Kumar's designs of political betrayal and was not ready to name him the chief ministerial candidate when the Grand Alliance was formed in Bihar.

"I always knew that Nitish Kumar is not a good person but still forged Mahagathbandhan," Lalu said, adding, "I know Nitish is a cheater. He hates Dalits and hence did not support Meira Kumar."

"I was not ready to declare Nitish the chief ministerial candidate due to his track record of betraying. It was the then Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who persuaded me to agree to his name for the post," he stated.

Lalu also accused the central government of misusing the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to lodge false cases against him and his son and daughter to defame them, but it will not work.

"Lalu Raj will again come in Bihar. I will form the next government in Bihar and I will recruit candidates who are Class 7 pass also," he said.

The mega rally was also addressed by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

An aerial view of RJD's rally BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday. Photo: PTI An aerial view of RJD's rally BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday. Photo: PTI

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Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is staring at an expulsion from the party for defying orders warning him not to attend the rally, was greeted warmly by Lalu Prasad Yadav who embraced him on the dais. Sharad Yadav was accompanied by suspended JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar.

JD(U) leader KC Tyagi, in a letter to Yadav, had asked him to skip the rally and if he attends it would mean that he has quit the party voluntarily.

CP Joshi of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party's Tarique Anwar, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Choudhary Jayant Singh, Communist Party of India's Sudhakar Reddy, former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Babulal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, All India United Democratic Front leader Badruddin Ajmal and leaders from the DMK, Janata Dal-Secular and Revolutionary Socialist Party also attended.

Also present at the rally were Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav and wife Rabri Devi along with their daughter Misa Bharti.

Thousands of people attended the rally despite floods in major parts of Seemanchal, Koshi, and Mithilanchal regions of north Bihar.

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Also Read:

While Sonia, Rahul skip Lalu's anti-BJP rally, Sharad Yadav, Mamata, Akhilesh share stage

Watch Video: Patna: Massive show of strength at RJD's anti-BJP rally, Sharad Yadav, Mamata, Akhilesh share stage

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RJD supremo said that the rally had been planned some three months ago, and Nitish Kumar will be on their radar.

By India Today Web Desk: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, ahead of his mega anti-BJP rally today, lashed out at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

RJD supremo said that the rally had been planned some three months ago and was initially supposed to target the NDA government on unemployment, famine, demonetisation and GST.

However, Lalu said that since Nitish decided to snap ties with the Mahagathbandhan, it thwarted their plans.

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He reiterated that it was a rally by the RJD. "We are out of the government now and we have more issues to focus on. Nitish Kumar will be on our radar," said Lalu.

HERE ARE THE LIVE UPDATES:

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee reaches RJD's rally in Patna.

Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad arrives at RJD's rally in Patna.

Bihar: Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad at RJD's rally in Patna. pic.twitter.com/ju3MHcgn1P- ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

JDU MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar with Lalu Yadav at RJD's rally in Patna.

JDU MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar with Lalu Yadav at RJD's rally in Patna pic.twitter.com/ztIBCqvTVY- ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017 RJD's 'BJP bhagao Desh bachao' rally to begin shortly.

Lalu said that Opposition leaders will be present at the rally. "Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee will be a part of the rally. Since Soniaji is unwell, we will be relaying her recorded message.

Rahulji will not be present as he is abroad at present," said Lalu adding that BSP supremo Mayawati will be absent over some personal issues.

The RJD chief also slammed the Modi government for its treatment of Bihar floods.

Also Read:

Rahul Gandhi chooses Norway over Lalu Prasad's 'BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao' rally

BJP bhagao, desh bachao rally: Lalu isolated as Sonia, Mayawati, Left skip event

WATCH | Corruption charges against Tejashwi part of political conspiracy of Nitish, BJP: Lalu Yadav

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It is the dearth of options that leave the elderly worried the most. As a result, many of them spend their time at some park.

By Arpan Rai: Senior citizens in our capital are lonely. Their loneliness is surging and further compounded by the increasingly demanding urban lifestyle, claim experts. While the urban life paces up, senior citizens are left behind, looking for a shelter, company and care. Attesting to this growing reality, are the numbers.

"At present, old age homes sponsored by the state have accommodation capacity for maximum 30 senior citizens even as they get requests from from 350-400 families every day. If anything, the state needs to expand its budget to provide for this chunk of our society, said J R Gupta, president, Senior Citizen Council.

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"Every day we come across at least 200 old people who are in search of recreational activities, home and company."

Gupta, who is himself a senior citizen, highlighted that people crossing 70 years are bearing the maximum brunt. "Senior citizens above 70 years are worst affected, as their children fail to give them an hour in a day.

As a result, these old parents end up spending four-five hours at some park."

The council, addressing the plight of isolated parents, has brought together nearly 500 senior citizens who are otherwise isolated.

They come together every morning and evening and take part in yoga, computer training sessions, lectures, panel discussions, and in a game of chess and caroms at the activity centre in Deer Park, Hauz Khas village.

It is the dearth of options that leave the elderly worried the most. "While people who are economically well off can go for private citizen homes, there are some of us who cannot afford such expensive places," said Gupta. "Property rates have skyrocketed and we acquired them at low rates decades ago. It is a sad truth that children are leaving their parents in the care of old age homes," he said.

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After India's application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan, the all-weather ally of China, too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing.

By Press Trust of India: The US is looking at ways to "more actively support" India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as the Trump administration considers it a very important matter, a top White House official has said.

A plenary meeting of the elite nuclear club in June failed to take a decision on India's application for its membership, but decided to discuss in November the issue of entry of non-NPT signatories.

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China, a key member of the NSG, has been stridently opposing India's bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its opposition has made India's entry into the 48-member group difficult as the NSG works on the principle of consensus.

"There is a meeting coming up shortly on this issue. The US is considering ways it can to support more actively India's membership in the NSG, because it is something that's very important to the US," the White House official told PTI.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was responding to a series of questions on what steps the Trump administration has taken so far to push India?s membership to the NSG, which has been blocked by China.

"The US is very supportive of India's membership in the NSG. That continues to be something very important, and in fact it came up during the meeting of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi with President (Donald) Trump (at the White House on June 26)," the White House official said.

"In terms of the specific interactions with China, Im not aware if its been raised. Its something certainly that the US does support," the official said, insisting that the Trump administration is committed to support India's case.

After India's application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan, the all-weather ally of China, too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing.

A NSG statement after the June meeting said the members had discussions on the issue of "Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of the Participation of non-NPT States in the NSG".

"The group decided to continue its discussion and noted the intention of the chair to organise an informal meeting in November," said the NSG statement issued at the end of the two-day plenary meeting in the Swiss capital Bern.

Also Read: Why US policy change on Afghanistan matters for India

US President Donald Trump seeks greater role for India in Afghanistan, toughens position on Pakistan

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Donald Trump corners Pakistan, says can no longer be silent over its safe havens to terrorists

WATCH | Trump slams Pakistan for harbouring terrorists, seeks bigger role for India in Afghanistan

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Earlier this month, retired Marine Lt. Col. Amy McGrath grabbed national attention overnight when she announced a bid for Congress with a video ad that quickly went viral. Days ago, she released another spot, this one recalling the chilling role she was called to play in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Then a newly minted F/A-18 Hornet pilot stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, McGrath (call-sign Krusty) was one of the few weapons systems officers to report to the base before it was locked down.

"My commanding officer had no choice but to put me in the back seat of an F-18 with engines running at the end of the runway, ready to take off at a moment's notice," she said. "I sat there for four hours, waiting to see if we would have to shoot down a passenger airliner. All I could think of was, this is not what I signed up for."

Although the order to take out the passenger plane never came, for McGrath, the episode illustrates the power wielded by the president and the contemporary choice she believes lawmakers may have to make: "Do you stand with the president, or do you stand with the country?"

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In her ads, McGrath said she is troubled by what she perceives as President Donald Trump's failure to condemn recent white supremacist demonstrations. In an interview with Military.com this week, she said she was also perturbed by the atmosphere of dishonesty and "fake news" that followed the 2016 election.

"I think they respect the office, but many of my [military] colleagues are worried that [Trump] does not understand what a commander-in-chief is," she said.

McGrath, 42, retired from the Marine Corps on June 1 after a 20-year career, having completed her final tour of duty as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. To go from being subject to the orders of a sitting commander-in-chief, to openly challenging him in politics in just a matter of months isn't a role she envisioned for herself.

"If you had talked to me a year ago today, there's no way I would tell you that I was going to be running," she said.

While she is challenging Republican incumbent Andy Barr as a Democrat for Kentucky's 6th district, McGrath said she's interested in getting beyond the partisan politics. Her husband, retired Navy officer Erik Henderson, is a lifelong Republican, she said, and while he won't be able to vote for her in the upcoming primary, they agree on a majority of issues.

McGrath's campaign website currently has a detailed biography of her life and service, and will eventually include a section that outlines her political stances. While she said she's working on that now, it's emblematic of her priorities, which stress leadership and service above all.

For McGrath, a recent example of congressional politicking that did not serve the people came with the unsuccessful Republican attempt to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, an effort that culminated in a down-to-the-wire midnight vote in July.

"I think people are hungry for regular people to stand up and throw the bulls--- flag," she said. "That's essentially what I'm doing. I want to be someone who says 'Hey, we need to stop this.' Great military leaders are not the ones who say we can have it all and don't follow through. I just felt like we need better leaders. And if I don't try, I can't complain."

There are now 102 military veterans serving in the House and Senate, and that bond of military service may help to overcome other dividing political lines, she said.

"Veterans are already sort of invested in the country ... we put our lives on the line in combat," McGrath said.

McGrath often tweets about military issues, and weighed in recently to condemn Trump's recent plan to ban transgender troops from serving. A centerpiece of her first viral campaign ad was the fact that she is the first female Marine to fly a Hornet in combat, years after petitioning local and national officials -- as a teenager -- to overturn the policy preventing women from doing so.

She also supports the full gender integration of initial military training, a move currently being considered by Marine Corps leadership.

"When you have a pack and you're doing the exact same thing that the guy next to you is doing, it's much harder for that man to turn to you and say you don't belong," she said. "And that's why integrated training is so important."

McGrath is exultant now that women in uniform have the right to serve in any military position, but emphasized that she and other female troops did not need handouts to succeed.

"I never asked to be placed in the cockpit of an F-18. I asked to compete," she said. "We're just asking for that opportunity."

The primary is set for May 22, 2018. McGrath will face Democrat Reggie Thomas, a member of the Kentucky state senate, before she can make it to the general election.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related Video:

Video Flight of the F-18
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...
States sent National Guard air and ground assistance along with Fire Department rescue units to Texas Sunday and the Coast Guard joined rescue and disaster relief efforts in heavily-flooded Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Texas authorities said at least two people had died, but the National Weather Service said the death toll through Sunday morning may have reached five in the hurricane that reached shore as a Category 4 storm Friday and has now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

The Coast Guard reported rescuing about 32 people from commercial and private shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. In Houston, helicopters plucked flood victims from rooftops, and authorities used boats and high-ride vehicles to bring others to safety in the storm that was expected to linger over Texas through mid-week and drop record rainfall.

The Harris County, Texas, Flood Control District reported that from Saturday through Sunday morning more than 1,000 water rescues were conducted in the Houston area.

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, praised the states that have pledged or offered National Guard assistance, including New York, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Florida.

"This is something where everybody is pitching in to help out," Abbott told CNN Sunday. He said that about 1,000 Texas personnel were mobilized for search and rescue, mostly along the coast, "and we're now adding search and rescue in the Houston area."

"We've made multiple requests and we're getting absolutely everything we need," Abbott said. "The White House is being very responsive."

In a series of early morning Tweets, President Donald Trump said "Wow -- Now experts are calling Harvey a once in 500-year flood! We have an all-out effort going, and going well!" He said later "Major rescue operations underway!"

In a statement, the White House said later that Trump had convened a video teleconference meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet officials on the response to Harvey.

"President Trump continued to stress his expectation that all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the Governors of Texas and Louisiana and his number one priority of saving lives," the statement said.

At Abbott's request, about 900 members of the Texas Army National Guard and Air National Guard were mobilized before the storm, and that number was expected to increase, the Pentagon said.

UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopter air crews were in position and on standby in Austin and San Antonio to assist with emergency search and rescue, swift-water rescues and emergency evacuations, officials said.

In addition, multiple Texas Army National Guard ground transportation teams have been activated to support local and state agencies with any request for swift-water rescues, high-water ground transportation and personnel evacuation needs, the Pentagon said.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-New York, mobilized more than 100 National Guard personnel from the 106th Rescue Wing, based in Suffolk County on Long Island, including three helicopters, a C-130 aircraft, rescue teams, maintenance and support staff, and several watercraft.

"As Hurricane Harvey continues to devastate the Gulf Coast, I am deploying emergency personnel and equipment to help mitigate damage and aid in the recovery effort," Cuomo said in a statement Saturday. The New York personnel were deploying first to the Army post at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a Tweet Sunday that he was sending 120 police and fire department emergency technicians from New York Task Force-1 to provide medical and rescue assistance.

"After Superstorm Sandy, so many cities stepped up to help our people. We'll do all we can to help those affected by this storm," de Blasio said.

The Arizona Army National guard and the Phoenix, Arizona, Fire Department each announced Saturday that they had sent assistance to Texas.

The Arizona National Guard said it had sent four helicopters and crews. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said that the Phoenix Fire Department's Arizona Task Force 1 urban search and rescue team had been activated.

Coast Guard Capt. Tony Hahn, in charge of the area around Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf Coast, said the Coast Guard had rescued about 32 people since the storm hit, mostly by MH-65 helicopters hoisting Harvey victims off ships in distress.

Hahn had this advice for residents of the area who had evacuated: "Please do not come back," until authorities announced it was safe.

At a news conference, Hahn noted that one of his major concerns was the petro-chemical facilities in the Corpus Christi area. "There's a potential for different types of chemical releases," he said. "There could be hazardous substances in the water."

FEMA Director Brock Long said the federal government will be involved in Texas' recovery for years to come. "This is a storm the U.S. has not seen yet," Long said. "We're setting up and gearing up for the next several years."

He told CNN that about 5,000 federal personnel were currently involved in Harvey recovery and rescue but they were hard-pressed in the continuing storm. He urged Texans to call 911 only "if you are in a dire situation."

Long also said it was not the time to dwell on the lack of appointments to leadership positions in the federal government under the Trump administration. FEMA, which has two deputy director posts open, has an experienced workforce to respond to Harvey, he said.

"I don't even have time to worry about it right now," Long said. "I have no concerns. We are doing a job."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Alice Cooper performs at Rock the Rapids in Grand Rapids, 2011 | MLive.com file photo

By John Serba | jserba@mlive.com

Detroit has one of the country's proudest rock 'n' roll histories. This is outside the city's obvious significant and great musical contributions via Motown, techno and hip-hop - we're talking guitars, bass, drums and attitude. Apt for the Motor City, its rock is identified via automobile terminology - garage rock, a defiant, sometimes noisy, riff-driven sound rooted in blue-collar aesthetics.

Sure, New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco are touted among the U.S.' greatest cities for rock 'n' roll, but that's almost by default - they're population epicenters rich with culture by sheer size. For quality over quantity, Detroit is easily one of the richest epicenters of rock music, ever. From To back this undeniable assertion, here's a rundown of Detroit's rock history, from The Stooges to The Coop to The White Stripes.

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It's one of the birthplaces of punk

First, Detroit is one of the epicenters of punk rock. Mabye the city is the birthplace of punk, but that's a point we could argue long into the night over too many six-packs of Stroh's. Nevertheless, two of the genre's sonic pillars emerged from the Motor City music scene - two bands without whom the Ramones might not exist, two bands that would leave an indelible mark on music forever.

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Iggy Pop performing in Ann Arbor, 2011 | MLive.com file photo

The Stooges

NO FUN: The Stooges were young, loud, ugly, sloppy, angry, raw and trashed, all elements exquisitely represented by Iggy Pop, whos an easy finalist for greatest rock frontman of all time. They shoved everything right in your face, and didnt give a darn.

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From its Detroit-via-Ann Arbor garage, the band produced the disaffected noise of their generation: artfully primitive, stripped down to the essentials of chords, beats and emotions. Released between 1969 and 1973, The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power comprise a proto-punk holy trinity rivaled by none. The Stooges were never Detroits most popular or commercially successful band. But theyre certainly Detroits most influential.

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0.

KICK OUT THE JAMS: The Motor City 5 aligned their crashing chords with radical political movements - punctuated by the defiant deployment of a particular 12-letter obscenity - to become one of the most incendiary live acts of the time, and possibly all time. That's why breakthrough debut record "Kick Out the Jams" was recorded live at Detroit's Grande Ballroom.

(Note: video contains adult language.)

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Like The Stooges, the MC5 proved too fiery and volatile a unit for a music-biz run of any significant length, imploding after three albums. But both bands burned hotter and brighter than most. A few years later, punk popped in New York City and London, but it happened first in Detroit.

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Bob Seger

One of the great rock songwriters of his generation, Seger was a journeyman touring artist for a decade-and-a-half, playing every nook and cranny throughout Michigan and the Midwest before breaking through to the mainstream in the mid-1970s. That rightly earned him the reputation as the hard-working mans rocker du jour, an ethic perfectly representing his hometown of Detroit.

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Bob Seger at the Jackson County Fair, 1976 | MLive file photo

Backed by the Silver Bullet Band, Seger released Live Bullet, recorded during a Cobo Hall concert, in 1975, and subsequently enjoyed significant commercial success for the next dozen years: Old Time Rock and Roll, Night Moves, Mainstreet, Turn the Page, Like a Rock, Youll Accompny Me, Weve Got Tonight, Against the Wind and Ramblin Gamblin Man make for a perfect greatest hits compilation - or playlist for you younguns out there - one many songwriters would envy.

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Bob Seger at Dow Event Center in Saginaw, 2014 | MLive file photo

Seger ended a decade of retirement in 2006, releasing two new albums and returning to the live-music circuit, drawing his biggest crowds right where he started - here in the heartland.

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Alice Cooper

Thee original mega-theatrical shock rocker, the Coop - real name Vincent Furnier - grew up in Detroit before his family moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where he began his musical career. But his heart remained in the Motor City, his sound rooted in the defiant clatter of Midwestern post-blues garage-rock.

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Alice Cooper performing in Bay City, 2014 | MLive.com file photo

Alice is one of the most recognizable characters in rock history, a larger-than-life cross-dressing ghoul in Baby Jane makeup, wearing a boa constrictor and carrying a cane like the worlds most demented circus ringmaster. Hes best known for being electrocuted and decapitated on stage - and for inspiring the likes of KISS and Marilyn Manson.

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His hits ranged from youthful paeans Im Eighteen and Schools Out to smart ballad Only Women Bleed to riff rockers Under my Wheels and No More Mr. Nice Guy. Truth is, Alice is one of the nicest guys in rock, and still puts on a professional, entertaining, must-see live show, 50 years into his career.

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Glenn Frey performs with the Eagles at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, 2004 | MLive file photo

Glenn Frey

So, the $25,000 question: Do the Eagles play rock 'n' roll? Ehh. Maybe. Sometimes. Sort of. (Being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn't necessarily mean one plays rock music.) But any retrospective on Detroit rock that doesn't include Glenn Frey is flawed. Born in Detroit and raised in Royal Oak, Frey was a significant part of the city's music scene, playing in many bands and palling around with Bob Seger (Frey played guitar and sang background vocals on "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"). When Frey passed away in 2016, Detroit mourned heavily.

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Frey moved to California in the late 1960s, met Don Henley in 1970, and the rest is history. Once the group spectacularly self-destructed (only to get back together many years later, and all that), Frey enjoyed a significant solo career in spiked with a handful of slick 80s hits, the biggest ones associated with movie and TV soundtracks: The Heat is On for Beverly Hills Cop, Shakedown for Beverly Hills Cop II and You Belong to the City and Smugglers Blues for Miami Vice. Those are all considerably more rockin than Take It Easy.

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The White Stripes

Of course the leader of the new-millennium garage rock revival is from Detroit. OF COURSE. The earth might spin off its axis if it wasnt. Anyway, that leader was The White Stripes, the then-husband-and-wife duo of Jack and Meg White, who played a distinctive and crude blues time-warped from the analog days of reel-to-reel recorders and fuzz pedals.

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Fell in Love With a Girl and Hotel Yorba reflect the raw directness of their early years; the unmistakable crunch of Seven Nation Army, the song played over the PA system of every sporting event youve ever been to, marked their commercial breakthrough; latter hits Icky Thump and Blue Orchid show a progression toward more layered, experimental sounds. The duo split in 2011.

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Meg White has kept a low profile since The White Stripes disbanded. Jack White become a musician of considerable influence, integrity and relevance. He's a purist in a time when rock 'n' roll is more niche than commercial force. Although he lives in Nashville, Jack continues to support his hometown, performing special concerts, bailing the Detroit Masonic Temple out of its tax debt and opening the Third Man record store and record-pressing plant in the city.

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Ted Nugent at the Jackson County Fair, 1994 | MLive file photo

Ted Nugent

The Motor Citys self-proclaimed madman, The Nuge, Uncle Ted, Terrible Ted, the Whackmaster, is a conundrum for some, specifically those who appreciate his wild and ribald rock n roll but cringe at his equally loud socio-political opinions. So well stick to the music here: He began his career with psych-rockers the Amboy Dukes, eventually going solo and writing some of the most awesome, colossally dumb hard-rock guitar riffs in music history: Cat Scratch Fever, Stranglehold, Dog Eat Dog. Hes certainly one of the most significant guitar heroes of the 1970s.

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He subsequently joined Styxs Tommy Shaw and Night Rangers Jack Blades in platinum-selling supergroup Damn Yankees, remembered for smash hit ballad High Enough. But since then, his extramusical antics - do I really need to detail them here? - have pretty much overshadowed his career as a songwriter and scorching guitarist.

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Kid Rock at Allegan County Fair, 2014 | MLive file photo

Kid Rock

Every Michigan musicphile has an early Kid Rock story - in my hometown of Grand Rapids, it was seeing him in the early 1990s, his high-top-fade years, unloading turntables from his trunk and rapping at the local dive, the Reptile House, to a couple dozen people, and doing costume changes anyway. Now, hes a crossover star, an outspoken (for better or worse; like Nugent, his politics have made him a divisive figure) and self-made icon, on the downside of his commercial peak, yet still able to sell out multiple nights in a row at Pine Knob- er, I mean, DTE Energy Music Theatre.

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Its hard to know where to begin with Kid Rock, who traversed multiple genres: hip-hop, rock, metal, country and the handful of godforsaken blends of the aforementioned sounds, which boosted his appeal to numerous marketing demographics. Hes a savvy guy. Sure, he was probably the first to play hick-hop, but you cant blame him for being an innovator. Hits Bawitdaba, Only God Knows Why, Cowboy, Picture and All Summer Long showcase his significant musical diversity.

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Negative Approach

One of hardcore punks pioneering groups, Negative Approach was matched in its savagery by few of its peers (see: Bad Brains, Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Dead Kennedys), all of whom made punk rock faster and nastier. NA burned hot and quick, releasing an EP and a full-length LP before breaking up, leaving a big, smoking crater behind; they reformed in the mid-2000s, and still play live.

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CHECK IT OUT: Negative Approach singer John Brannon, one of the true characters of the Detroit music scene, subsequently formed Laughing Hyenas (who worked with producer Butch Vig, pre-fame) and Easy Action, both grossly underrated acts which will rock yer face right off.

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Death

From 1971-77, the three Hackney brothers from Detroit, inspired by The Who and Alice Cooper, toiled in obscurity, producing high-velocity demos heard by almost no one. Decades later, Death's story became a dream realized for music obsessives: dusty old tapes found in an attic, and they contained real genius, the missing link between Motor City innovators the Stooges and MC5 and the wildly popular punk of the Ramones and Sex Pistols. The rereleased tapes, "...For the Whole World to See," is now an essential piece of the Detroit rock 'n' roll collage. (The documentary "A Band Called Death" tells their extraordinary story with the dutiful respect they deserve.)

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The Gories/The Dirtbombs

Singer/guitarist Mick Collins is the common element of these two underground bands, beloved by the fistful of folk who love their punk trashy and their trash punky. Active in the late 1980s and early 90s, and listed as an influence by Jack White, The Gories were one of the first acts to smash the DIY punk-rock philosophy with primitivist blues and soul (a sound later popularized, relatively speaking, by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and other indie rockers of the 1990s). Collins post-Gories act The Dirtbombs boasted a cleaner sound, and enjoyed greater notoriety as a live act; the garage-rock revival boosted the bands profile, and fueled acclaim for albums such as Ultraglide in Black and Dangerous Magical Noise.

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Bill Haley

Haley is included here, albeit with an asterisk. He was born in Metro Detroit - Highland Park, to be exact - but only lived there until he was seven years old. Of course, he went on to make history as the voice of the first-ever rock n roll band, Bill Haley and His Comets, whose Rock Around the Clock helped define and popularize a genre. Can his city of origin take some credit for that? I think so.

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Bonus: Kiss, 'Detroit Rock City'

No, Kiss isnt from Michigan. But Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons didnt write a song called Bug Tussle Rock City to pander to Oklahomans sense of rock n roll pride. Its a deserving testament to Detroit being one of the great pillars in rock music.

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Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino." (Photo provided to MLive.com by Warner Bros.)

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A guide to the 9 drive-in movie theaters still standing in Michigan

Alice Cooper's classic 'School's Out' turns 45

A celebration of 40 years of Bob Seger's 'Night Moves'

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12 wild facts about the biggest fish you can catch in the Great Lakes

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Funny thing happened in Las Vegas when Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor finally had to stop talking and get into the ring.

An actual boxing match broke out.

But a 40-year-old Mayweather started timing McGregor by the middle rounds and eventually landed enough that had the MMA star wobbling, causing referee Robert Byrd to stop the fight in the 10th round.

Mayweather moved his career record to 50-0.

It was McGregor's first career professional fight.

"He's a tough competitor. I think we gave the fans what they wanted to see," Mayweather told Showtime's Jim Gray after the fight. "He's a lot better than I thought he was. He's a tough competitor, but I was the better man tonight.

"Our gameplan was to take our time, let him shoot all his heavy shots early. And then take him out down the stretch. I told you guys I would go straight ahead, and that's what I did."

At the time of the stoppage, all three judges had the fight scored in favor of Mayweather: 89-81, 89-82 and 87-83. McGregor's only winning rounds on the official scorecards came in the first three rounds.

The Compubox punch stats for #MayweatherMcGregor. McGregor came to fight. pic.twitter.com/9kpL2XuioM  Andreas Hale (@AndreasHale) August 27, 2017

Mayweather stands to make in excess of $250 million for coming out retirement. His base purse for the fight was $100 million, and it's expected to beat the pay-per-view record he set in the Pacquiao fight in 2015.

Of course, Mayweather was asked if this was really it.

"This was my last fight tonight. For sure," Mayweather said. "Tonight, I chose the right dance partner to dance with. Conor McGregor, you're a hell of a champion."

As for McGregor, this was the biggest payday of his life, as he was guaranteed to make $30 million and could top $100 million once everything is counted.

His unorthodox style helped fend off Mayweather in the opening rounds, but as the fight wore on, McGregor started to show fatigue and his punches lacked power.

McGregor wasn't knocked down, but was defenseless against the ropes when it was stopped.

"I turned him into a Mexican tonight. He fought like a Mexican," McGregor quipped, a salute to the more-aggressive Mayweather.

"He adjusted, he changed his style. He's not that fast, he's not that powerful, but he's composed. I'm just a little fatigued. He's a lot more experienced. Early on. That's what 50 pro fights will give you. I've been strangled on live TV and came back. I'll just let it go. I thought we were close."
ANN ARBOR, MI - It's no secret that alumni of the University of Michigan's School of Music Theatre & Dance had a big year on Broadway in 2016-17.

All signs point to another big year for SMTD alums, according to Playbill, which published its list of the Top 10 Most Represented Colleges on Broadway for the 2017-18 season this week.

UM came in at No. 3 on the list, which tracks where members of the casts and creative teams of each Broadway show went to college. New York University topped the ranking, while the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music was No. 2.

Among UM alums featured on the list was Gavin Creel, who won his first Tony in 2017 for featured actor in a musical in Bette Midler's return to Broadway in "Hello, Dolly!"

Creel grew up in Findlay, Ohio, and graduated from UM's the School of Music, Theatre & Dance with a BFA in musical theater in 1998.

This was Creel's third Tony nomination, previously being recognized for his work in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Hair."

Ann Arbor Pioneer High School and UM graduate Ashley Park is one of three graduates from UM's School of Music, Theatre & Dance to be cast in roles for Tina Fey's new Broadway musical "Mean Girls," which is expected to debut in March 2018, according to Playbil.

She is joined by UM alum Erika Henningsen and Taylor Louderman, who has played roles in Broadway's "Kinky Boots," and "Bring It On: The Musical."

Jennifer Laura Thompson appears on the list for her role as Cynthia Murphy in the hit Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen," which was the winner of six Tony Awards this year, including best musical.

"Dear Evan Hansen," of course, was written by SMTD alums Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, opening on Broadway in December 2016. The duo earned Tonys for best score for writing the songs for "Dear Evan Hansen."

The songwriting team recently were recognized for their professional achievements during UM's spring commencement ceremony with Bicentennial Alumni Awards.

They provided a special musical performance during the ceremony along with students from the UM School of Music Theater & Dance. The songwriters also won a Golden Globe for the song "City of Stars" from the movie "La La Land." The two met and began collaborating as students at UM, graduating in 2006.
By Utpal Kumar/Mail Today: In December 2007, soon after the Gujarat assembly election results, Lord Meghnad Desai was asked on live television to analyse then chief minister Narendra Modi's electoral victory. "Modi is the next leader of the BJP," he said matter-of-factly.

The statement provoked "surprise and some disgust", as he recalls later, among co-panelists, to the extent that social scientist Ashis Nandy gave a terse one-liner: "Over my dead body!" To this, Desai replied, "Ashis, you and I are young enough and it will happen in our lifetime."

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And it happened in less than seven years, very much in the lifetime of both Desai and Nandy. Modi became the Prime Minister of India in May 2014 and that too with a thumping majority - a first for any party in over three decades of Indian politics.

Since then the world of the liberals has collapsed further, especially in 2016 when the US got trumped by the Donald and the European Union received a big Brexit jolt. So widespread was the shock to the older order that Desai, in his latest book Politicshock: Trump, Modi, Brexit and the Prospect for Liberal Democracy, prophetically declares 2016 to be the year when the liberal order collapsed.

"Brexit and Trump mark the collapse of the liberal order worldwide, a phenomenon which saw its beginning with Modi's rise in 2014," says Desai while emphasising the liberals' stubborn refusal to acknowledge the trend. "First, they dismissed Modi and Trump as outsiders who should not be taken seriously, and then, when the two got elected, this very liberal brigade mourned and screamed as if the entire world had fallen apart," says Desai, who recalls how a prominent member of Lutyens' Delhi invited him to a qawwali event in May 2014 saying, "I must not miss the last qawwali programme in the city!"

Politicshock by Meghnad Desai, Rupa Publications India; Rs 595.

Desai provides two reasons for the liberals' utter disdain for Modi and Trump. "First and foremost, the liberal order worldwide is traditionally left-of-centre," he says. The second reason is even more damning and exposes liberal hypocrisy. "They are liberals only when they win and are in a dominant position. It all changes when they are on the losing side. Our liberals behave most illiberally when they lose."

Desai argues that there is a lot in common between Modi and Trump, the foremost being that both were outsiders and were scornfully greeted by the mainstream media when they entered national politics. "The liberal media thinks Modi and Trump are dumb. I remember how they, in India, thought they were dealing with Modi of 2002. Likewise, they forgot that Trump was a very successful businessman, a smart television producer, and a publicist. They just failed to realise that Trump's presidential campaign was smartly planned and carried out."

But despite these similarities, putting Modi and Trump together would be like comparing chalk with cheese. "Forget about stark differences in their upbringing, and that Modi, unlike Trump, had the experience of successfully running a state for over a decade, they have different administrative approaches. While Modi has tried to reinvent the centrist ground with his slogan 'Sabka sath, sabka vikas', President Trump takes one section of the population as the 'true' representative of the nation and the rest pushed to the margins," says Desai.

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So, does this explain why Modi is making waves while Trump is foundering? "Yes, it can be one of the reasons. But we have to also realise that Trump is dealing with a constitutional disability. The American Constitution was written by people who distrusted executive power. Modi, at least, doesn't face this challenge."

The author credits Modi for reinventing the BJP. "The party, under Modi, is consciously projecting itself as a pro-poor party. You can see how skillfully he has taken the cause of Dalits and incorporated national icons like Gandhi, Patel and Ambedkar. Modi is building a BJP where the core Hindu nationalism is retained, but that is not the only thing in the party. The PM realises that to govern India one needs inclusiveness and development agenda."

When reminded of recent cases of cow vigilantism, Desai hits back by saying that no matter where the incident happens, Modi gets the blame. "We have often been unfair to him, though this doesn't mean cow vigilantism isn't the issue."

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So, is it all over for the Congress? Desai thinks so, at least for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "The UP assembly results have more or less settled the 2019 poll debate in favour of the BJP." He, however, doesn't want to single out Rahul Gandhi for the mess. "There's no doubt that Rahul neither has the idea nor the will to fight a political battle with Modi. But the primary reason for its decline seems institutional. The party, dynastic in nature, seems out of sync with the young, aspirational India. Worse, it is still stuck with the obsolete secular-communal binary, which hardly has any resonance with the youth of today."

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DETROIT, MI - A 15-year-old boy died Saturday evening after he fled police who tried to stop him as he drove a four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle recklessly through Detroit, Michigan State Police reported.

While police were in pursuit, the boy tried to drive off the road and onto a sidewalk about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 26 on Rossini Drive near Gratiot Avenue, north of E. State Fair Avenue on the city's east side. He lost control of the ATV and it hit the back of a pickup truck, according to a statement from the state police.

Troopers assigned to Detroit had attempted to stop the four-wheeler for reckless driving by activating emergency lights and a siren. The boy did not stop, initiating a chase.

The officers immediately began to render first-aid and called for paramedics. An ambulance took the boy to St. John' Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, where he was pronounced dead.

State police detectives from a special and crash investigation sections are continuing an inquiry into the incident.

Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to contact the state police Metro South post at 734-287-5000.

No more information is to be released on the boy because of his age, state police reported; his family has been notified.

Roads, streets and highways maintained for year-round automobile travel, including shoulders, are closed to off-road vehicle operation unless designated open by local ordinance, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
IONIA COUNTY, MI -- A 59-year-old Lake Odessa man was found dead in a ditch after what police are calling an accidental tractor crash.

According to the Ionia County Sheriff's Office, police and the Lake Odessa Fire Department responded to a report of a fatal crash involving a tractor on private property in Odessa Township. The 59-year-old man was found by family members in a drainage ditch near the 300 block of West Henderson Road, police said.

The crash occurred around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26. Police are calling the crash an accident, but did not release additional details about the incident.

First responders on scene were assisted by Life Ambulance and Reed & Hoppes Towing. The incident remains under investigation.
JACKSON, MI - For Ron Clary it happened while camping on an actual battlefield, the site of the Battle of Wildnerness in northern Virginia.

It was cold. It was miserable and he "saw the elephant."

Reenactors talk about that moment, the time they forget.

They forget it isn't real, that this isn't their war, that they live in a nation traversed by freeways and connected by internet.

"It's a beautiful thing," said Clary, 42, of Sterling Heights, a sergeant with the Fourth Michigan Voluntary Infantry, Co. A, participating this weekend in the annual Jackson Civil War Muster at Cascade Falls Park.

Organized without issue despite national conflict surrounding symbols of the Confederacy, the event, in its 33rd year, drew large crowds on a mild, sunny day. It continues Sunday. The Battle of Malvern Hill, won by the Union in July 1862, begins at 2 p.m.

Clary and other actors will acknowledge how strange it all seems. They are sweaty in wool. They smell oddly of campfires, gunpowder and bacon grease.

Some like the drama. Some have interests in firearms. All seem to enjoy exploring a long-past era.

"We want to know what the individual soldier experienced," Clary said Saturday, Aug. 26.

"You boil it down to the nuts and bolts; we are history geeks."

Clary was sitting with several other soldiers. Greeted by women in hoop skirts with cold drinks, they had just returned to their camps after recreating the 1861 Battle of Bull Run, the first major land conflict of the Civil War. The clash near Manassa Junction, Va., was a victory for the Confederacy.

Saturday, rebel actors chased, to the spectators' delight, some of the Union reenactors off the battlefield into the crowds gathered along the hill behind the falls.

Children covered their ears as cannons fired and watched with interest as the Confederate cavalry rode past, guns raised.

After any protracted gunfire, soldiers crumpled to the ground, leaving the field spotted with men who were soon resurrected, a perk of simulated war.

While they are not prearranged deaths, they try to play fair, said Laura Swisher, 27. She has the role of a private, also in the Fourth Michigan. "Thirty guns go off, and someone needs to die."

Swisher, a loan underwriter, has been involved for about 10 years in Civil War reenactments. While most soldiers are and were men, there were cases of women, documented and otherwise, taking up arms during the war.

She noted the wide variety of people attracted to the hobby. "You get people of all sorts."

To her right was an Ohio landscaper and a Detroit-area engineer. Clary, who spent 22 years in the U.S. Army, sat to her left, cleaning his weapon.

Now working in the prosthetics department of a Veterans Affairs hospital, he talked of the reeanacting brotherhood, a group of likeminded people.

He served in a combat tank unit and missed the comradery of a team. He said he found it among reenactors.

Clary talked of how the Fourth Michigan regiment had nearly 1,100 soldiers in 1861. By July 1863, the regiment went to battle at Gettysburg with 340.

"It gives you a sense of sacrifice," he said.

It is not about glorifying war. Regardless of whether it was good, bad or horrible, the United States is a product of that history. "We cannot allow ourselves to forget."

The muster is important because for more than three decades it has accurately portrayed the past, said Kim Conant, Jackson Civil War Society president. "No bias. We don't take sides," she said.

People will see the Confederate flag. "But it is historically appropriate and in its context."

There were a few people who expressed safety concerns, she said, since a deadly rally of neo-Nazis and white supremacists protesting earlier this month the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Va,. But there had not been aissues and organizers did not believe it necessary or productive to tighten security.

Attendance is up, she said, and praised her team of volunteers. Thousands were at the park for Saturday's battle. There were about 900 reenactors, an increase from 2016, and organizers say the event brings $1.4 million into Jackson every year through hotel stays, restaurant visits and other spending.

Taylor Gervais, 22, of Grand Rapids came to the muster as he has for 10 years.

Carrying what he called a Confederate naval battle flag, he said the event teaches what schools do not in a way that is apolitical. People collect information they do not receive in classrooms.

"It's interactive history."
Now that the threat of former Hurricane Harvey has turned to inland flooding in Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard there says it's received more than 300 calls for help with urban search and rescues Sunday as flooding swamps parts of the city.

Authorities this morning said they were getting reports of floodwaters in second-floor apartments and homes, according to The Associated Press.

The Coast Guard is advising people not to panic - and not to hide in their attics, where rescuers can't seem them.

They are asking people to get to their roofs if they can, and to wave towels so they can catch the attention of overhead rescue teams.

"Stay calm, do not panic. Get to high ground immediately. Mark the roof to be seen from the air. Wave sheets, towels, to be noticed from the air," the Coast Guard said in a news release this morning.

U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Houston has several helicopters in the air already performing rescue missions. It is requesting more HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from New Orleans, and additional support from the Air National Guard.

Airboats and other and high-water vehicles are also being used to rescue people. But authorities have so many requests for help coming in that they are having difficulty prioritizing them, the AP said. Right now, they are handling only life-and-death situations.

"It's heartbreaking," said Harris County sheriff's spokesman Jason Spencer.

Areas south of Houston are seen as the largest risk areas, the AP reported. There is also flooding in downtown Houston and near the Texas Medical Center.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez was using Twitter to dispatch rescuers to people trapped inside homes, attics and vehicles. One woman posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up."

Harvey made landfall late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane. Now a heavy, slow-moving story, it's expected to linger over Texas for days, dropping up to 40 inches of rain in some parts of the state.
NASHVILLE, TN -- The Republican National Committee voted Friday to condemn white supremacy through a resolution which states "Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and others are repulsive, evil and have no fruitful place in the United States," the Associated Press reports.

The resolution passed during a meeting in Nashville Friday where the group passed several resolutions, including this one.

And while the resolution passed unanimously, the AP reports that several members spoke out against the vote in the first place because of how ridiculous they though it was to have in the first place.

"It's amazing that we have been lured into this argument that we're not racists. It's absurd," said Colorado Republican Chairman Jeff Hays. "Why would we feel compelled to do that?"

Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said it was important that the party speak out against racism and do so with an official resolution. She also understood why some members were opposed to the idea.

"Every day, I wake up proud that we're the party of Lincoln," McDaniel told the committee Friday. "Condemning violence is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an American issue."

Republicans were careful not to criticize President Donald Trump and his response to the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Many took the president's side in attacking the media over how the events were covered.

"The president was not wrong to point out what the media has failed to point out," that counter-protesters also "came for a battle" in Charlottesville, said Pennsylvania Republican Chairman Val DiGiorgio.
A police constable from Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district sprinted one kilometre with a bomb to save the lives of 400 children.

By India Today Web Desk: A policeman in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district has become talk of the town, after his superheroesque deed.

Head constable Abhishek Patel from Sagar Police saved the lives of as many as 400 children.

Patel took a 10 kg- bomb on his shoulder and sprinted for nearly 1 kilometre in a bid to save the students of a school in Chitora village.

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A 12-second video clip of Patel running with the bomb on his shoulder has gone viral on social media.

Many have drawn parallels with the scene from Tom Hanks' classic Forrest Gump.

Patel told media persons that his sole objective was to take the bomb far away from the school and residential area.

Chaos unfolded after anonymous call was made to 100 informing about the presence of an explosive in the school. Acting on the information, police rushed to the school.

A teacher from the school said that after police found the bomb, they were asked to shut the school. Nearly 400 students were present in the campus when the bomb was found.

Amid the bedlam, Patel valiantly picked up the bomb and started a sprint that lasted for nearly a kilometer.

Patel later explained that he had been in a drill where a similar bomb was spotted and had done a similar sprint.

IG Sagar Saxena, said that the police are investigating to find out who planted the bomb. Incidentally, the school is located near an Army shooting range.

In appreciation of Patel's bravado, the IG announced a reward for his exceptional courage.

FYI || What governments, police and public should understand about Blue Whale Challenge

FYI || Moral-policing at its best: F-word on T-shirt lands Bengaluru man in XL trouble with police

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The research firm recommended a BUY rating on Godrej Agrovet with a target price of Rs 461 from Rs 387 | Upside potential 19 percent.

Activists today criticised the biotech regulator GEAC's decision to recommend commercial use of genetically modified mustard in a submission to the environment ministry.

Coalition for a GM-Free India said it is no coincidence that credible committees are asking to stop the introduction of GM crops.

Their comments came a day after a parliamentary panel said that no GM crop should be introduced in India unless the bio-safety and socio-economic desirability is evaluated in a "transparent" process and an accountability regime is put in place.

The department-related parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forest chaired by Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury made its recommendations in its 301st report on 'GM crop and its impact on environment'.

The panel's comment came in the wake of India's GM crop regulator Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) recently recommending the commercial use of genetically modified mustard in a submission to the environment ministry.

The coalition said the latest report is a reiteration in many ways of what earlier committees like the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture (2012 and 2013) had said as well as the majority report of the Supreme Court's Technical Expert Committee (2013).

"The fact that certain unacceptable lacunae are being pointed out again and again by neutral, independent committees in the law-making and judicial wings of our democracy clearly shows that there are serious problems with transgenic crops as well as their regulation.

"While the government is claiming that it is yet to take a decision with regard to GM mustard 'environmental release', it is clear that this GM food crop does not stand scrutiny under the parameters recommended by the Parliamentary Committee," the coalition said in a statement.

Some of the findings and consequent recommendations of the committee are a "strong indictment" on the approach of the various concerned ministries including the Ministry of Environment, Health and Agriculture with regard to GM crops, the coalition said.

It said the report also acknowledges the rejection of GM crops by state governments.

"The report clearly exposes how poor and unreliable the Indian regulatory regime is, in addition to exposing the lies of GM proponents including within the government.

"It is worrisome that there are no strong policy shifts happening despite repeated exposures of the failures of the Indian biotech regulation," the coalition said.

The Coalition also demanded an inquiry into the "farcical" recommendation of the GEAC for GM mustard environmental release, to "expose the anti-national elements" therein.

The Coalition said the GEAC should be immediately dissolved and its approvals and clearances annulled.

"The report keeps alive our faith in the Parliamentary processes, and we urge the Supreme Court also to take note of this report," the Coalition said.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley today said India was "located somewhat sensitively" and the nation's defence preparedness was something "we could never compromise on".

Terming his visit to Defence Public Sector Units like HAL, BEL and BEML here as "satisfying and a personal education", he said that with the experience of Defence Public Sector Units (DPSU) and the entrepreneurship of private sector, "coupled with the size of our market, we should enhance our manufacturing ability".

"In the present geopolitical situation, India is located somewhat sensitively. We've had in the past also multiple threats and, therefore, preparedness is something India could never compromise on," the defence minister said.

He said India's DPSUs have made an important strive and their costing and quality are competitive.

"It has been traditionally said and believed that countries don't win battles merely by depending on equipment they buy from others in the world. They have to enrich and expand their on capacity," he said.

Jaitley was speaking after launching the production of HAL-designed 5.8-ton category Light Combat Helicopter and dedicating the companys design upgrade programme of Hawk-i to the nation at HAL premises here.

He said India has young and emerging DPSUs and they are increasing their share of contribution to country's defences along with ordinance factories. He said the county has always been heavily dependent on the rest of the world for buying, both equipment and technology.

Noting that Research and Development centres of a large number of global companies in various sectors of economy are shifting to India, Jaitley said, "We have a very powerful human resource, both numerically and in terms of trained minds and therefore our ability to throw up people who can be world leaders in research and technology is second to none."

"Therefore, it is extremely necessary we came out of the mindset that India will always be a buyer of defence equipment. Our narrow policies have also contributed to this," he said.

Jaitley said India is systematically moving in a direction where "we wish to now evolve and develop overselves in to a major manufacturing hub, not only for our own requirements but also to supply to other countries".

He said the nature of this business is such that there are very few suppliers and within the country there was only one buyer, the armed forces. Therefore, the policy has to be designed in a manner that resources and manufacturing facilities created are not wasted and they are optimally utilised.

Pointing at the changes made in the Defence Procurement Procedure policy, Jaitley said some platforms are thrown open to private sector to set up manufacturing facilities in India.

He said, "It is absolutely necessary that both our strength with the experience of DPSUs and the entrepreneurship of private sector coupled with the size of our market, we enhance our manufacturing ability so that India even in this field graduates from being net buyer into manufacturer and hopefully at a later stage a supplier to other countries in the world."
Most often it is argued that investing in mutual fund through a systematic investment plan (SIP) mode is the best way to make your money grow. Entering the market through SIP does not require you to time the market and helps you in rupee cost averaging, minimising the investment risk. However, its not as easy as it looks. Whether you are investing through a lump-sum mode or an SIP mode, you always need to be sensible in your investment decisions.

Anjaneya Gautam, National Head Mutual Funds, Bajaj Capital said that SIP and lumpsum are two approaches to investing, depending on the availability of funds for the investor and readiness to invest in one go or small installments.

While both approaches have their respective suitability for the investor, returns may be linked to the phase of the market cycle. If markets are in one way upward movement, lumpsum investments tend to perform better than systematic (SIP/STP). SIPs perform better in volatile or bearish markets as compared to lumpsum investments. An external factor to consider is the performance of the underlying scheme.

If we look at the history of equity markets, one trend does not hold true all the time. SIP investments, due to their periodic nature, invest on a fixed frequency and get the benefit of fluctuations of equity markets. SIP is also a better approach for salaried investors, as it goes very well with the availability of funds to save and timing of salary credit. Investing at all levels of fluctuating equity markets is one the best way to ride through the volatility, said Gautam.

The classical argument in favor of SIPs is that they help mitigate market timing risk. But if the markets are in a unidirectional bull run, then SIPs will underperform lump sum investing, said Kaustubh Belapurkar, Director Manager Research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India Pvt. Ltd. But we all know that such a market is hypothetical and volatility is very much a given, even though over the long term the market is trending upwards, Belapurkar added.

SIPs in equity funds help in insulating investments from a crash. The advantage of SIPs is that even in a volatile market, you keep investing and buying at different levels. If the markets are high, you buy fewer units of the fund and if the markets are low, you buy more units for the same amount. This helps you ride out the volatility and earn better returns.

Belapurkar added further, SIPs work well on two fronts, they reduce market timing risk by spreading the investments out over a period of time and secondly SIPs help instill financial discipline as it encourages investors to save on a frequent basis to make good these investments.

Archit Gupta, CEO, and Founder, ClearTax validated this with an example. Suppose you had Rs 2.3 lakh to invest in August 2015. You invested the entire amount in a lump sum on 20 August 2015 in a diversified multi-cap fund like HDFC Equity. Then, the markets crashed by over 1,600 points on 24 August 2015, which is something you wouldnt have known a few days before. So, how would your lump sum investment of Rs 2,30,000 have fared? Immediately after a month, your investment would be down by more than 6%. If you had been brave enough to continue holding your investment, it would have grown to around Rs 2.7 lakh by 21 June 2017. But most investors would have run away after seeing a major loss. Very few would have stayed invested.

But suppose, instead of investing a lump sum, you decided to start an SIP of Rs 10,000 in the same fund. Then, till 21 June 2017, you would have invested Rs 2,30,000 and your investments would have grown to over Rs 2.8 lakh. A return of more than 20% per annum.

This is the real benefit of investing through SIPs. We never know when the markets will crash and it is best to spread our investments over a period of time instead of taking the risk of catching a peek through a lump sum investment, he said.

Investments are always done in a way to generate good returns. SIPs are a good investment process which inculcates the habit of doing disciplined savings, also regularise the investment of individuals into the market by minimizing the risk. However, if you want to invest in mutual funds for the purpose of doing tax savings then you should ideally go for lump sum investing.

Investing through lump-sum or an SIP mode differs from individual to individual, which may be related to their cash flows, holding period of investments, risk appetite or any other requirements. Therefore, before making any investments, it is always better to take guidance from a financial advisor who can help you out in proper investing at that point in time.
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Public sector banks have taken loan recovery action under Sarfaesi law against 5,954 wilful defaulters owing about Rs 70,000 crore to the lenders.

At the end of March 31, 2017, 21 banks together have taken action against 5,954 wilful defaulter under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, as per data collated by the Finance Ministry.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has taken action against 1,444 such defaulters with outstanding loan of Rs 20,943 crore. Remaining 20 banks have taken action against 4,510 wilful defaulters with outstanding loan of Rs 48,496 crore.

Total outstanding loans due to public sector banks by wilful defaulters amounted to Rs 92,376 crore, according to the finance ministry data.

The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs 92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, from Rs 76,685 crore at the end of fiscal 2015-16 -- up 20.4 per cent.

At the same time, there has been close to 10 per cent increase in the number of wilful defaulters on annual basis. It increased to 8,915 at the end of March as against 8,167 in the previous fiscal.

Out of 8,915 cases of wilful defaults, banks have filed FIR (first information report) in 1,914 cases with outstanding loans of Rs 32,484 crore.

During 2016-17, 27 public sector banks, including SBI and its five associates, had written off Rs 81,683 crore, the highest in the last five fiscals. The amount was 41 per cent higher than that in the previous fiscal.

Gross NPAs of the public sector banks rose to Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 as against Rs 5.02 lakh crore a year ago.

In order to check incidences of wilful default, RBI has tightened the norms and made it clear that promoter of the defaulting company cannot escape from his responsibility even if he is not a whole-time director.

As per earlier guidelines, a bank couldn't label a non- whole-time director of a company as a wilful defaulter unless there was conclusive evidence that the individual was aware of the wilful default by the company and had not objected to it.

A wilful default occurs when a borrower does not honour an obligation despite having the capacity to pay or siphons off funds by disposing of assets without the knowledge of the bank, according to RBI.

RBI has allowed banks to name and shame wilful defaulters by publishing their photographs.
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA - NOVEMBER 13: Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid attends the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting on November 13, 2013 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will take place from November 15-17, amidst pressure from human rights groups urging leaders to boycott the summit until Sri Lanka further investigates charges of war crimes. Both the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper and Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Signh have confirmed they will not attend. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

The idea of India would be "incomplete" if Jammu and Kashmir is removed from it, former Union minister Salman Khurshid said, asserting that the country cannot suffer another division after the 1947 partition.

The former foreign minister made the remarks at a panel discussion -- Why is Kashmir Burning? -- held in the capital, which he said, sought to "objectively discuss" the issues related to the Kashmir conflict and find a way forward.

"India is less about territory and more about an idea. And, that idea essentially includes Jammu and Kashmir. And Jammu and Kashmir minus from India means we will have to redefine India in some form. But the idea of India becomes incomplete if Kashmir is removed from it," Khurshid said.

Former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) A S Dulat concurred with Khurshid, and referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, where he had said that the Kashmir problem cannot be solved "through bullets or abuses", but by embracing its people.

"The Union of India is big enough to accommodate a Muslim majority state within it... And, neither a youth pelting stones in the streets in the Valley nor any person raising a flag is a Pakistani. Those who have raised Pakistani flags have only done it out of frustration," Dulat said.

The former special director of the Intelligence Bureau also cautioned against the idea of "Kashmiri sub-nationalism".

"What is the excitement about Kashmiri sub-nationalism or Punjab or Bengal or Kerala sub-nationalism... I cannot agree more with the idea of India," Dulat said.

During his address, Khurshid, in a veiled attack on the the BJP, also said, "Some people think that the gaps, between what India or Bharatvarsh originally was and what modern India should be, must go."

"It is irrational and somewhat myopic to think, India begins in a certain century and stops in a certain century, and after a while it begins again. And for some people that re-beginning of India is still incomplete because they think something more need to be done," he said.

Khurshid said India for a long period was part of the Mughal Empire and later under the British Empire, and alleged that "there are some people who believe you need to obliterate those period to recognise what India is today".

Elaborating on his Kahshmir conflict point, the former Union minister said, "Kashmir is about an idea. People think it is about territory, it is not about territory, it is about an idea that traces back to Partition."

"And, whenever I have had the chance to speak to Pakistani interlocutors, I have always said to them, your idea of Pakistan, complete or incomplete, as it may be, is of no concern to us. But our idea of of India will remain incomplete.

"You forced us to review our idea of India. We cannot go through another truncation, another partition, another division... We cannot suffer another redefinition. And, redefinition is much more than losing or winning territory. We lost PoK (Pakisatn-occupied Kashmir) and we lost some part to China, but the core of the idea (of India) remains intact," he said.

India as a country is not a physical entity but an idea which includes multitude of languages and culture that we celebrate as a whole, like a bouquet of colourful flowers, Khurshid said.
Mustakeem Ahmad, a cook in a restaurant in West Delhi, shot his colleague after he developed throat cancer. The man alleges that the victim introduced him to smoking and marijuana.

By India Today Web Desk: A 25-year-old man has shot his colleague who allegedly introduced him to smoking that caused him throat cancer.

Mustakeem Ahmad, the man who used the fire arm, is a cook at a West Delhi restaurant. The victim, Inayat, was also a cook there. The two men were friends at work. Reports claim that Inayat was reportedly better at his work, and soon became a favourite of the restaurant owner.

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Ahmad was infuriated by this. Meanwhile, he also started smoking cigarettes and marijuana. According to Ahmad, it was Inayat who introduced him to smoking. Ahmad told the police that he was so consumed by hate for Inayat that he practiced it several times before shooting Inayat.

After Ahmad started smoking, he developed a throat infection. When he consulted a doctor, he learned that he has developed throat cancer. Furious at Inayat, Ahmad blamed him for getting him addicted to smoking.

Ahmad's quality of work drastically decreased and he was sacked from his job. He then went back to his native village in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, where he bought a pistol and some cartridges. Before returning to Delhi, Ahmad made sure he practiced shooting well so that he doesn't miss the shot.

On returning to Delhi, Ahmad first tried to convince the restaurant owner to fire Inayat. When he was unable to convince the owner, he picked a fight with Inayat and shot him in the process.

Inayat was taken to the hospital but died later.

Meanwhile, the police was trying to catch Ahmad. They got a tip that he visited some relative in West Delhi before leaving the city after which he was grabbed by the police on Friday.

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Gujarat is expecting a 15 per cent rise in tourist flow into the western state in the current financial year, a top official today said.

"A total of 4.5 crore tourists, 2 per cent of them foreigners, visited Gujarat in the last fiscal (FY2016-17). It is expected that tourist arrivals into the state will be 15 per cent more this fiscal," Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL) managing director Jenu Devan said.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Declaration of Ahmedabad as India's first world heritage city by UNESCO will help in attracting more international tourists to the state, Devan said.

To a query, Devan said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has not adversely affected the tourism industry in his state. "We haven't come across any adverse impact of the new tax regime to the Gujarat tourism sector so far.
India today raised "serious concern" over the report of renewed violence and attacks in Myanmar and extended its "strong" support to the Myanmarese government at this "challenging moment".

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "India is seriously concerned by reports of renewed violence and attacks by terrorists in northern Rakhine State of Myanmar. We are deeply saddened at the loss of lives among members of the Myanmar security forces".

"Such attacks deserve to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be brought to justice and we extend our strong support at this challenging moment to the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar," Kumar said.

At least 89 people, including a dozen security forces, were killed as Rohingya militants besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State.
North Korea today launched three ballistic missiles, US military officials said, dampening President Donald Trump's optimism to strike a deal with Pyongyang to contain its rapidly expanding nuclear weapons programme. The US Pacific Command said the missiles launched into the sea east of the Korean Peninsula appeared to be short- range.

The first and second missiles "failed in flight" and the third "appears to have blown up almost immediately". It said the North American Aerospace Defence Command determined the missile launches did not pose a threat to Guam, which the North previously warned it would target if provoked.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump has been briefed and "we are monitoring the situation." North Korea last month fired intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, triggering heightened rhetoric from both the sides.

Trump had warned of "fire and fury" and days later ramped up his threat, saying "maybe that statement wasn't tough enough". But the US president this week indicated a deal could be struck with North Korea to contain its nuclear weapons programme. His comments had come soon after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the North has demonstrated some level of restraint in recent days, "that we've not seen in the past".

Tillerson had hoped that this could be the beginning of the signal from Pyongyang the US had been looking for. Today's missiles launches, though failed, reignite the possibility of increasing tensions in the peninsula. They come during a joint military exercise between the US and South Korea.

The two countries say the annual military exercise is defensive but Pyongyang condemns it as hostile, and even as a rehearsal for invasion. In response to the ICBM launches in July, the UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on August 5.
Jarrett Coleman goes from school board to statehouse with win in 16th Senate District race
By PTI: (EDS: Updating with fresh inputs)

By M Zulqernain

Lahore, Aug 26 (PTI) Maryam Nawaz, the political heir apparent of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has begun campaigning for the Lahore National Assembly seat by-poll which is being contested by her ailing mother.

Sharifs wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is under treatment for throat cancer in London, will contest the September 17 election for the National Assembly seat despite her ailment.

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Maryam, 43, is likely to play a key role in campaigning for the election for the NA-120 seat which felt vacant after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif on July 28 in the Panama Papers case.

Sharif reportedly pitched his wife to make his come back in the prime ministers house as first gentleman.

Maryam held meetings with the PML-N workers of the NA-120 and motivated them for running an aggressive campaign to make her mother win the by-poll.

Maryam directed the party workers to do door-to-door campaigning and listened to the peoples problems. She said she would also visit the constituency on a regular basis.

"My father is innocent. Nawaz Sharif is betrayed by whom he gave love. Those conspiring against him will be exposed soon," Maryam said.

She asked the workers to pray for the health of her mother.

Maryam has replaced her cousin Hamza Shahbaz in running the campaign of her mother amid reports that Sharif counts much on his daughter than his nephew.

Media reports had earlier said that Sharif had "smartly" denied his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, of becoming premier despite nominating him as his successor.

Sharif is set to leave for London, where his wife is being treat. He has reportedly booked tickets for tonight and August 28. "We have asked Nawaz Sharif to go to London to see Begum Kulsoom in London," Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters.

He, however, denied that Sharif would leave the country under some deal.

"These are rumours as Nawaz Sharif will only go to London to see his wife," he said.

Sharifs political secretary Senator Dr Asif Karmani said earlier this week that Kulsoom may not be able to participate in election campaign because of her cancer treatmentbut she would contest the election for sure and win it.

The former first lady, in her mid-60s, is being tipped as next prime minister replacing Shahid Khakan Abbasi after winning September 17 by-poll. PTI MZ/ASK AKJ ASK

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August 27, 2017

Syria Summary - Towards The End Of The Caliphate

This map from the last Syria summary shows the forming of two cauldrons north and north-west of Palmyra. ISIS forces there were enclosed by the Syrian army progressing eastwards on several axes.



Map by Weekend Warrior - bigger

Ten days later the most eastward of those cauldrons has been eliminated.



Map by Islamic World News - bigger

The Syrian army progresses further east and continues to move onto Deir Ezzor on three axes.

ISIS attempted counterattacks towards the supply line to Aleppo and along the Euphrates southeast of Raqqa. Both were defeated within a day or two and the attacking ISIS forces were eliminated. There is clearly a change in the pattern of ISIS deployment. It is now lacking manpower and is giving up in outlining areas. Its counterattacks use swarming tactics and lack the command and force of monolithic military units. In Iraq the army and the popular militia units took just 10 days to liberate the ISIS held city of Tal Afar. Of the estimated 2,000 ISIS forces there only some 200 non-locals had remained. 1,800 had been evacuated towards east-Syria, In the Qalamun area at the Lebanese border the Lebanese army and Hizbullah attacked the last ISIS enclave along that border. Today the remaining 200 ISIS fighters in the area agreed to lay down arms in exchange for an evacuation towards east-Syria.

Three ISIS pockets remain in Syria. One is in Raqqa where the enclosed ISIS units will fight to death. The U.S. military and its Kurdish proxy forces are literally destroying the city to save it. It is unlikely that the remaining ISIS forces in the city will give up or agree to an evacuation deal. In an earlier deal with Kurdish forces a group of ISIS fighters negotiated a retreat from the Tabqa dam in exchange for free passage towards Raqqa. The U.S. military broke the deal by attacking the retreating ISIS fighters.

A second pocket is in the semi desert north-west of Palmyra. ISIS fighters there have dug elaborate cave systems (video). The caves may protect against detection from the air but these positions are indefensible against a ground assault. The area will likely be cleansed within a week.

The third ISIS pocket left is near the Israeli border in Golan heights. The area still awaits a solution but there is no doubt that the Takfiri forces there will eventually be eliminated. Israel has tried to press the U.S. and Russia for protection of the area from an expected onslaught by the Syrian Hizbullah. It also asked to suppress all Iranian influence in Syria. But Washington as well as Moscow rejected the Israeli requests. Netanyahoo lost the war he waged on Syria and Israel will now have to live with a far more capable force along its northern borders.

What is left of ISIS, probably some 10,000 fighters in total, is now confined to east Syria and west Iraq. No more replenishment is coming forward. No new fighters are willing to join the losing project. Its resources are dwindling by the day. The U.S. is extracting its assets within the organization. The Euphrates valley west and east of Deir Ezzor will become the last defensible territory it holds. Six month from now it will be defeated. Its Caliphate will be gone. ISIS though will probably continue as a desert insurgency.

The other Jihadi project in Syria is run under the various names of al-Qaeda in Syria. It is now mainly confined to Idleb province. The estimated strength is some 9,000 fighters with some 12,000 auxiliary forces of local "rebels". Like ISIS, al-Qaeda in Syria is now isolated and no one is willing to come to its help. Its local helpers will give up and reconcile as soon as the Syrian army will move in on them. The hard-core militants will be killed.

The U.S. has told its proxy "rebels" to give up on their political project. Jordan is sending peace signals towards Damascus. The Syrian President Assad will not be removed and the country will stay under the protection of Russia and Iran. The U.S. still supports the Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria's north-east. But its relation with its NATO member Turkey will always be more important than any national Kurdish project. In the end the Kurds, like others, will have to accept the condition Damascus will set for them.

Posted by b on August 27, 2017 at 13:03 UTC | Permalink

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By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) With mutual funds gaining traction among retail investors, asset management companies have filed draft offer documents with the regulator Sebi for 85 new schemes so far this year.

In comparison, 106 draft papers were filed by the fund houses in 2016.

Equity, debt, hybrid and fixed maturity plans (FMPs) are some of the themes for which the MF houses have filed the applications.

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Fund houses like Mahindra, Axis, ICICI Prudential, Birla Sunlife, HDFC, UTI, Reliance, Edelweiss and SBI have filed the offer documents for new fund offers (NFOs) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Many of the schemes are already being launched, while others will be opened for subscription soon after the necessary clearance.

Interestingly, some mutual fund companies have approached Sebi for launching plans with Hindi names so that investors in rural areas understand the objectives of the schemes in a better manner. The move is seen as moving away from the old tradition of English names for investment schemes.

Dynamic Bond Bachat Yojana, Pragati Bluechip Yojana, Unnati Mid & Small Cap Yojana are some of the schemes filed with Sebi by Mahindra Mutual Fund.

Since the beginning of the year (January-August so far), draft documents for 85 NFOs have been submitted with the Sebi. Of these, 10 draft offers have been filed so far this month.

According to market participants, fund houses are in a rush to launch new schemes, given heightened interest among retail investors and good response the recent fund launches have evoked.

This year, fund houses are more focussing on retail investors who are already showing a lot of commitment and maturity, they added.

There has been a growing demand from retail investors for mutual fund products as the investors base touched a record high of 4.8 crore at the end of July.

Last month, Sebi launched an online registration mechanism for mutual funds, a move aimed at making it easier for the existing and new fund houses to complete their registration with the markets regulator in a much faster and cost-effective way.

Experts believe that Sebis move towards paperless online mechanism for registration for mutual funds will turn into a boon for the sector. PTI SP BAL SRK

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The construction of a new plaza has been going on behind McAllisters Deli on Wadley Avenue over the past few months, but a familiar symbol marks the presence of its anchor tenant.

Atop a 100-foot pole flies a 30-foot-by-60-foot Texas flag at Texas Pride Plaza, owned by Jeff Russell, who also owns Paul Evans Carpet & Flooring, a longtime fixture among retail flooring businesses in Odessa.

Russell bought the business from Paul Evans upon Evans retirement about three years ago and erected a large flag pole to fly a giant state flag as a way to show his Texas pride and to market the company.

We thought it would be a great way to make our Odessa store a landmark, he told the Reporter-Telegram, adding that he wanted to show that everything is bigger in Texas.

For the new store, which is set to open in about a month, flooring retail will be bigger in Midland. Russell is building a 13,000-square-foot showroom and will have several hundred rolls of carpet and 750,000 square feet of hard surface flooring in stock, all in an attempt to keep Midlanders in town.

I think there are a lot of people traveling to Dallas or Houston to buy floors, particularly when building a new home, he said. We want to keep them from doing that by letting them know that we have great service and that were competitively priced.

If a quarter-million square feet of hard surface floorings seems like a lot, it is -- but thats where the demand is.

Everything is moving toward hard flooring and away from carpet, Russell said. Nationally -- and Id say its true locally -- weve seen where carpet was 70 percent to 80 percent of flooring purchases. Now, its just under 50 percent.

Russell is a relative newcomer to retail. His past business ventures have focused on real estate and technology, particularly his OneTravel online travel agency, which he said made nearly $100 million in its final year before the companys sale. To Russell, hes still in the tech world.

Flooring doesnt sound much like a technology business, but it really is because of the things theyre just able to do, such as the looks and features theyre able to build into the flooring products, he said. It really is a very dynamic market, and we just want to bring a lot of that into Midland.

Russell said he planned to expand Paul Evans to Midland when he bought the business.

Texas Pride Plaza, on the southwest corner of Wadley Avenue and Midland Drive, will be home to 10 to 14 businesses. Russell said a concierge pharmacy, a Vietnamese restaurant and a nail salon already have committed to be tenants.

Russell said flying the flags is a big investment.

Our winds just shred flags. We like to keep our flags looking good, so we swap out flags once a month for repair. We have a whole rotation of flags.

The pole is a large investment unto itself; it cost about $25,000. However, Russell said flying the large flag has worked out well to bring visibility to the plaza and Paul Evans store.

Were very proud Texans and like being big, he said.
VFW Post 7208 held a flag-retirement ceremony Saturday at the post's headquarters, 1306 E. Taylor Ave. Members of the Midland High School JROTC participated in the ceremony for retiring tattered and worn American flags. Burning the flags is the proper method of disposal, according to the website of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The flag is folded in the customary manner and then placed in a fire that is "fairly large and of sufficient intensity to ensure complete burning of the flag," according to the website. The ceremony includes saluting the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Two Auburn men were arrested Saturday and charged with burglarizing a city business hours earlier.

The Auburn Police Department said that its Patrol Division was dispatched Saturday to investigate an overnight burglary at A&M Graphics, 202 Grant Ave.

In a news release, the APD said that its investigation led to two suspects who were interviewed at police headquarters and then arrested.

Patrick Sheehan, 24, of 2 Schwartz Drive; and Tyler Mallon, 25, of 61 Capitol St., were both charged with third-degree burglary, a felony, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor. Both were arraigned in Auburn City Court and sent to the Cayuga County Jail.

As a result of the investigation, police said, the majority of the property stolen from the business was located and recovered. The APD said it was assisted by the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office.
Anwar Hussain and Hafizul Sheikh, both 19 years old, were beaten to death by the mob.

By India Today Web Desk: Two people were allegedly lynched by a mob, which dragged them out of a pick-up van carrying cows, in Barhoria village in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district today, police said.

Anwar Hussain and Hafizul Sheikh, both 19 years old, were beaten to death by the mob, which intercepted their vehicle and pulled them out of it early this morning, police said.

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The pick-up van was also badly damaged, they added.

Police took Hussain and Sheikh to Dhupguri hospital, where they were declared brought dead.

The police also took charge of the animals in the vehicle. A large contingent of police was deployed in the area.

This comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "killing people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable."

"We are the land of non-violence. We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi. Why do we forget this?" he asked at a public event after visiting Sabarmati Ashram.

(Inputs from PTI)

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FYI | Politics of lynching, the new normal in India

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As Harvey continues to hammer Texas, volunteers from Central Florida are assisting in the recovery.

Central Florida volunteers head to Texas for recovery efforts

John Lanzetti one of the Red Cross volunteers

Lanzetti plans to volunteer for a minimum of 2 weeks

Red Cross volunteer, John Lanzetti, drove one of three Central Florida Red Cross trucks to help the folks out West.

Early Sunday morning, Lanzetti left for Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

He plans to split up the trip in two days.

"Everything is locked and loaded and ready to go," said John Lanzetti, Red Cross Volunteer.

Lanzetti will be volunteering for a minimum of two weeks.

"Someone will have a game plan when we are out there for us to do something, whether it's to distribute food, run supplies, support shelter, the mission is unknown at this time," said Lanzetti.

Even though the mission is unknown, his end goal is in sight. He wants to help people in need.

"You know people don't realize the impact that a disaster has, anything from a major hurricane like we are going to go face, to an everyday house fire, it is devastating to most families," said Lanzetti.

Lanzetti also said now is the time to donate.

The Red Cross is still looking for more donations. People can drop items off at donation drop boxes. Clothing, shoes and small household items are always needed.

Lanzetti hopes the donations continue even after the recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey have concluded.

He is one of a dozen people from Central Florida who will be assisting in the aftermath of Harvey.

To make a donation to help Harvey victims, contact the American Red Cross at 1-800-RED CROSS or visit redcross.org/hp/harvey3.


By Karishma Kuenzang: Momos, the bite-sized appetisers can be found in every nook and corner of the city. Despite constant demands for it to be banned by politicians, it has managed to dodge all the accusations and emerged as a popular street food. And in an era where everyone is trying to be as innovative as possible and 'fusion' food is the 'in thing', the steamed dumpling has also undergone several changes. Tandoori momos are passe, and people are indulging in butter chicken momos, coconut momos, oreo momos, korma momos, and every possible combination you can think of.

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This Tibetan dish (not north-eastern contrary to popular belief), trickled down from Tibet to Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Darjeeling and surrounding areas, all of which have their own versions. They are minimalistic and ingredients comprise basic stuff found around the house in Tibet -- ginger, onion and meat. In Nepal, they add some spices to the stuffing.

Compartmentalised open momos served at Darjeeling Steamers. Picture courtesy: Mail Today

Dim sums -- Chinese version of momos -- are the specialty of Chef Zhang Hongsheng, Chef De Cuisine, THE CHINA KITCHEN, from Tongzhou district in Beijing. "The traditional version is simple -- with chicken and vegetable fillings (seafood dim sums aren't a thing in China) -- and is healthy," he says.

While outlets like WOW MOMO have started serving momo burgers and pastas, which Binita Chamling, owner of Sikkimese restaurant NIMTHO, says, is just a value-added version of the dish. "Fusion food means evolution of a dish because of its growing popularity. People in Delhi love momos and butter chicken, so they thought why not fuse the two or make tandoori momos. But because the method of cooking (besides the ingredients) is different, the flavour will not be what it's originally meant to be. We serve buckwheat momos because it's healthier than maida and people in Delhi are quite health-conscious," she explains.

For Chef Zhang, a momo is only so when its filling is raw and steamed. "The momos I've had in Delhi are hard, unlike any steamed preparation. I've never heard of alcohol dim sums. But we do a chocolate dim sum, which is made once a year on the Chinese New Year. It's filled with chocolate and boiled in hot water and served by itself," he says.

Roma, owner of THE SOUTH DELHI KITCHEN, serves oreo momos, coconut momos and pizza momos. "We wanted to use Compartmentalised open momos served at Darjeeling Steamers. From coconut to Oreo fillings, the Tibetan dish is now being reinvented to suit an array of palates something that people can relate to in terms of taste. And so, we picked oreo because people like it," she says, adding that this momo is stuffed with an oreo biscuit and some chocolate sauce, usually nutella, steamed and then fried. It's served with chocolate sauce and can be paired with vanilla ice cream.

The coconut version is steamed and stuffed with dry coconut, which is powdered and mixed with vegetables, paneer. "As it steams, it becomes creamy on the inside as the coconut oil oozes out and helps the content cook and mix," adds Roma. This version is dipped with a spicy coconut dip. The pizza momo is also steamed, after being stuffed with cheese, and vegetarian pizza topping options, and tastes like pizzas served as small bakeries. It's served with a cheesy dip. "These options are unusual, some people like it and some don't," Roma adds.

Oreo momos at The South Delhi Kitchen is served with chocolate sauce. Picture courtesy: Mail Today Oreo momos at The South Delhi Kitchen is served with chocolate sauce. Picture courtesy: Mail Today

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DARJEELING STEAMERS serves open momos, chocolate momos and healthy versions. Their open momo, is literally that and is served with three to four dips -- mayo, a sweet and sour dip, a soya and sesame sour chutney and a dhaniya chutney. The chocolate version is any dark chocolate lover's delight -- as it's stuffed with the same, along with dry fruits.

Owner of the outlet, Yudin, has also come up with red and green momos -- made by blending beetroot in the dough and palak respectively. They even have a chatpata chaat version of momos, which are topped with chilies, dalmuth and sesame oil. "They say when in Rome, act like the Romans. And so, we're offering chatpata flavours and serving momos with mayo," Yudin says. Mayank from MOMOTARIAN, a five-month old establishment, is serving butter chicken momos -- steamed momos which are fried and sauted in butter chicken gravy.

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However, Binita adds, "Just because its shape is similar doesn't mean that it's momo. Anything is being sold and people are eating momos with mayonnaise and tomato ketchup. A chocolate momo isn't momo, it's a dessert. It could be a chocolate samosa!" Mary, who owns ROSANG CAFE, which boasts of offering foods from all the seven north eastern states, adds, "Many vendors stuff non-vegetarian momos with nutrela to make it bigger. That's why one plate is sold for Rs 30! The cost of making one plate of momos is Rs 60 easily, so it's impossible to sell it for less."

According to Mary, 50 per cent of the taste depends on the chutney. "Normally, we serve a mixture of red chilli (Raja Mircha), tomato and vinegar. But people in Delhi can't handle Raja Mircha chutney, so we also serve a milder chutney." Binita adds, "We serve dalle chutney at the restaurant. Mayonnaise is a strict no."

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By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 27 (PTI) The cargo ship that hit a fishing boat off the Kerala coast was "most likely" a Hong Kong-registered vessel and it would be asked to berth at a nearby Indian port for further investigation, the Navy said today.

The ship is now in international waters, about 400 nautical miles away from Kochi, a Navy spokesperson said, a day after the incident which left the boat totally damaged. Six fishermen on board were, however, rescued by nearby boats.

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"The ship involved has been identified most likely to be Ksl Ang Yang, registered at Hong Kong, and it is heading southward," the spokesperson said.

As the ship is now much beyond the range of Dornier aircraft, long-rangesurveillance aircraft P8I would be used to divert it to the Indian coast.

Since this involved flying over the Sri Lankan air space, permission of the neighbouring country had been obtained, the spokesperson added.

Besides, a naval ship from Port Blair was being deployed to move it to the Andaman Nicobar islands capitalif it was reluctant to turn back towards Kochi.

If the ship failed to cooperate, it would have to be handled as a "legal case involving the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)", the spokesperson said.

The fishing boat was hit by the cargo vessel, about 40 nautical miles from Kollam, in international waters, yesterday.

All the six fishermen, one Keralite and five from Tamil Nadu, on board the boat were rescued by other boats nearby and brought to the shore safely.

The boat involved in the incident has also been brought to the Neendakara fishing harbour in Kollam district.

The incident came close on the heels of two fishermen being killed and 11 others getting injured when a Panama- registered cargo ship hit their fishing boat off the Kochi coast on June 11.

Kerala had also witnessed another fatal incident involving a foreign ship in February 2012 when two Indian fishermen from the state were shot dead by two Italian Marines on board an oil tanker. PTI LGK JRK VS GVS

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Climate change: Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, hosts a conversation on climate change with UC Berkeley Professor Daniel Kammen and Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown. The event is from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the San Francisco Zoo, Sloat Boulevard and Great Highway. Tickets required; event will also be streamed on Speiers Facebook page. Information and tickets: http://bit.ly/2uZ9ELJ

Virginia candidate: The Sister District Project is raising funds for Kathy Tran, a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, by hosting a discussion with Rita Bosworth, the Sister District Project founder, and former California Assemblyman Ted Lempert. 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., 390 Capistrano Road, Half Moon Bay. Information: www.goo.gl/d2KVLu

Sexual minorities: Phillip Ayoub, assistant professor of politics at Drexel University, discusses the recent history of transnational movement in Europe and the reasons for states varying approaches to legal recognition for LGBT rights. His talk begins at 4:10 p.m. Thursday in Room 382 of the humanities building at San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. at 19th Avenue. Admission is free. Information: https://lca.sfsu.edu/events/2017-08-31-231500/817163.

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Town hall: Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, hosts a town hall meeting at the Crockett Community Center, 850 Pomona St., from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday. Information: www.facebook.com/events/336289353489096

Town hall: A forum for students in West Contra Costa middle and high schools and Contra Costa College. Speakers include members of the Richmond and El Cerrito city councils and other government panels. The event, hosted by Contra Costa Young Democrats, is at 5 p.m. Sept. 7 at John F. Kennedy High School, 4300 Cutting Blvd., Richmond. Information: www.youngdems.org

Voter registration: Volunteers will help new U.S. citizens register to vote after swearing-in ceremony. Sponsored by Democracy Action, which works to advance Democratic candidates. 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 7 outside the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Information: https://demaction.us

Picnic in the park: Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, hosts a picnic in Golden Gate Parks Marx Meadow picnic area Sept 10. RSVP: http://chiuassembly.ngpvanhost.com/form/-1081566039410473216

Town hall: Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, holds a town hall at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station. Information: http://bit.ly/2vpinSI

To list an event, email Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com.
Piedmont Mayor Jeff Wieler stepped down Sunday, one day before the City Council was scheduled to vote on whether to remove him over controversial social media posts about Democrats and transgender people that prompted outrage in the community.

Wieler resigned his position in a letter to the city administrator. However, he said he will remain a member of the City Council until he is termed out in November 2018.

In Piedmont, mayors are not elected but appointed by fellow council members, and the tradition is to appoint the person with the most seniority. The position is ceremonial  it has no special powers  but the mayor runs public hearings and often represents the city during events and meetings around the region.

Vice Mayor Bob McBain is now acting mayor of Piedmont, an affluent city of 11,353 surrounded on all sides by Oakland. None of the council members, including the mayor, is paid.

At an Aug. 21 council meeting, city resident Conna McCarthy  the daughter of Leo McCarthy, the late former lieutenant governor of California  read some of Wielers alleged Facebook comments aloud, including Black Lives Matter encourages cop killing, Democrats are the plantation slave masters of today, and Transgenders are mentally ill.

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Wieler could not be reached for comment Sunday. In his resignation letter, he said that his continued role as mayor is no longer tenable for the City Council.

After a quarter century of volunteering for Piedmont in various roles, I regret the impact this has had upon the city I love and the men and women in the staff who do such a fine job for our citizens, he wrote.

In another statement, he said his Facebook posts were inappropriate and that the episode had been embarrassing. He noted his behavior came as the country is going through a very difficult period.

We have a president who has coarsened the national dialogue and made many people feel insulted, Wieler said. No matter what you think of his policies and programs, this is a reality that I and many other Republicans are coming to acknowledge.

I apologize deeply for the pain Ive caused, he said. Going forward, I will restrict my Facebook posts to pictures of our pets and vacation pictures. Fortunately, Ive never tweeted!

Councilman Tim Rood said Sunday that while Wieler conducted himself professionally as mayor, it was appropriate for him to step down. He said he found some of Wielers comments to be offensive and lacking in empathy and compassion.

The mayors gavel is a privilege granted by the council, Rood said, and as Piedmonts representative to the broader community, the mayor has a special responsibility to represent the entire community in an inclusive and affirming way, regardless of the forum.

Councilwoman Jen Cavenaugh said she had heard from more than 100 residents upset by Wielers posts.

Our community has been really clear that this is not reflective of who we are and what we value, she said. Whats been amazing to me is how many people have spoken out for the first time.

Cavenaugh and her colleagues do not have the power to remove Wieler from the council. Asked if he should resign from the council, she said, If he feels his actions have somehow compromised his ability to serve as mayor, the question should be, How different is that from sitting on the council?

Chronicle staff writer Filipa Ioannou contributed to this report.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@ctuan
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Thousands of counterprotesters found themselves with no one to protest against when a planned right-wing gathering failed to materialize in San Francisco.

The collapse of Patriot Prayers plans, first for a rally at Crissy Field and then a press conference with the same lineup of speakers and bands at Alamo Square Park, left the field to those who had come to San Francisco to oppose them.

See? We won. They didnt even show up, said Trevor Martin, who took part in a peaceful march of counterprotesters from Alamo Square to the Mission District.

Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer leader who had sought to organize a freedom rally at Crissy Field before rescheduling for Alamo Square at the last minute, said he would have shown up had officials let him. City workers erected a fence around the square early Saturday, and at 10 a.m. police closed the park and told everyone in it to leave, saying they couldnt ensure public safety otherwise.

Today has been a crazy day, Gibson said. Everywhere we go, the police, the city, they want to shut it down.

Now Playing: Hundreds of protesters gathered near Alamo Square Park and Civic Center in San Francisco on Aug. 26, following the cancelation of a planned right-wing rally. Video: Kimberly Veklerov

Its unclear how many people ever intended to attend Gibsons event. He apologized to everyone that bought plane tickets and spent money to come down here, but the only evidence of support were the couple of dozen of Patriot Prayer supporters who stood around Saturday afternoon at Crissy Field, site of the originally scheduled event.

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In any event, they appeared to be badly outnumbered by people who didnt want them there.

Leslie Manjarrez, 28, a teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco, said she came to Civic Center Plaza for a counterprotest rally featuring speakers and musical acts because I want to fight against the hate thats happening in our country. Its part of our duty as citizens.

Thousands of people attended the rally, boosted by a throng that marched down Market Street from the Castro district. Hundreds of other people headed to Alamo Square, some holding signs reading, Nope, not here today, Resist bigly and Nazis are losers.

Carlos Martinez, 24, and a friend took an overnight bus from their homes in Los Angeles after hearing about the Patriot Prayer event.

It was like, What can we do this weekend? Oh, lets go protest Nazis, Martinez said outside the fence around Alamo Square.

Penny Clifton, 51, a nonprofit worker who lives on Divisadero, stood across from the square on Steiner Street. She had planned to show up at the Crissy Field protest and was pleased that organizers could make new plans on the fly.

I just dont want any white supremacists in San Francisco, she said.

Gibson complained that Mayor Ed Lee, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other officials had unfairly tagged them with that label. He said that the group was simply trying to exercise its free-speech rights and that officials were pandering to the antifa, militant left-wing activists who have confronted right-wing demonstrators at some rallies.

Gibson said he would be popping up at random spots around the city, and by late afternoon put in an appearance at Crissy Field.

Waiting for him there was San Francisco resident Patrick Porcuna, 28, who identifies as Libertarian and said he voted for President Trump.

It seems like if youre conservative in California, youre deemed as a racist, Porcuna said. Im down for people to talk and have free speech.

Kathryn Townsend, who said she would have co-managed the Crissy Field event, traveled from Olympia, Wash., to attend. Like Gibson, she said the group stood for free speech, not racism.

Weve been called white supremacists. Its a flat-out lie, Townsend said. Im standing up for the right of Americans to speak without the threat of violence.

As a group of counterprotesters began chanting, Black lives matter, two Patriot Prayer supporters shouted back, Also!

With no Patriot Prayer sympathizers to rail against at Alamo Square, protesters there embarked on an early afternoon march to 24th and Mission streets. Participants were buoyed by the lack of opposition.

I dont stand for this alt-right stuff here where they know they dont belong, said Anthony Shuton, 48, who lives in the Mission District and joined the march when he heard the commotion.

Like many in San Francisco, he followed as best he could the promises of Patriot Prayer to turn up somewhere.

Their point seems to be to cause chaos and keep people running around, Shuton said. It seems to be working because these guys arent showing up anywhere.

The off-again, off-again protests in San Francisco left participants, police and officials at loose ends.

We dont know what the other side is planning. The last posting I saw said they would be out around the city, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy said as he watched the rally in the Castro. That concerns me. But I have every confidence the police can handle anything coming our way.

Theres amazing spirit and a lot of love here, he said, pausing to look at a police helicopter circling overhead.

San Francisco officials said all police officers were on duty Saturday. Mayor Ed Lee, who said he was deferring all decisions to police in the swiftly changing situation, said the city was prepared for contingencies and spontaneous events.

Late in the afternoon, Gibson and about two dozen members of Patriot Prayer showed up at Crissy Field, and some brief shouting matches broke out. Gibson, watched warily by park police, accused Lee and Pelosi of spreading untruths about him and his followers.

I truly believe they were trying to incite a riot, Gibson said.

At days end, Lee said he was proud to see the large and peaceful outpouring of residents march against hate.

They marched in the Mission. They marched in the Castro. They marched in Alamo Square, he said, standing outside City Hall. They made sure the themes of love and compassion dominated over hate speech.

Police Chief Scott said there were no major problems at any of the many demonstrations Saturday. One person was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public.

What you saw today is a city that came together, he said.

The next question is what will happen at a right-wing rally scheduled for Berkeleys Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Sunday. One of its organizers, Amber Cummings, asked supporters Friday not to attend the rally.

As for the people who showed up at Saturdays counterprotests, they were unsure of their plans.

I have to work a double (shift) tomorrow, said Courtney Gill, 27, who works at a bakery downtown and joined the march to the Mission when she got off work.

I just think whats going on this world is not good, she said. The more people who show up, the more represented our values can be.

Jose Martinez, 40, who works as a busboy at a Mission District restaurant said he joined in the rally before work to show solidarity against right-wing groups.

We have to stop the discrimination, he said. The more people they see, the more they know were against them.

Martinez has to work Sunday, so he wont be going to Berkeley either.

Chronicle staff writers Kimberly Veklerov and Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.

Kurtis Alexander, Rachel Swan, Catherine Ho and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com, rswan@sfchronicle.com, cho@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KurtisAlexander, @RachelSwan, @Cat_Ho, @SteveRubeSF
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Commercial flights were suspended at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports Sunday, and more than 900 total passengers were stranded between the two airports.

Flights will resume once they can be operated safely and people can safely get to and from the airports. Roads leading to the airports were flooded on Sunday.

"We're doing everything we can to work with our airline carriers to accommodate the passengers and keep them as comfortable as possible until those conditions improve," spokesman Bill Begley said Sunday.

RELATED: Tropical Storm Harvey unleashes historic flooding in Houston area

Bush Intercontinental reported some water damages, and Hobby Airport had some leaks, Begley said. Hobby closed around 3:30 a.m. when water reached the runways.

A spokeswoman with Southwest Airlines said that flights were suspended Sunday and Monday, adding that customers should not attempt to go to the airport until local authorities provide further direction.

"Safety is paramount; those unable to leave the airport have been advised to continue to shelter in place where they are safe and have access to power, facilities, and food," she said in an email. "Southwest leaders are working with the appropriate agencies on a plan to help employees and customers who are in the airport or other Houston Hobby facilities when it is safe to do so."

The runways at Ellington Airport were closed Sunday with the exception of the U.S. Coast Guard using helicopters for search and rescue missions.

United suspended all operations until noon Monday, United spokesman Charlie Hobart said. The carrier is planning on bringing additional employees and resources from its other hubs to further support and assist United's team in Houston and its customers.

RELATED: Vignettes from the Harvey deluge: How Houstonians are coping

"Customers in the Houston-area with upcoming travel plans should avoid the airport today and visit united.com or our mobile app for the latest updates, developments and rebooking options," Hobart said in the email.

Both United and Southwest have travel waivers in place to help travelers.
Lightning from Hurricane Harvey struck a fiberglass crude oil storage tank shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday near Port Arthur, south of Beaumont, next to a sensitive state wildlife park.

The strike sparked a fire, burning two tanks and spilling about five barrels of crude oil and 20 barrels of produced water, Texas Railroad Commission representatives reported and the tank's owner confirmed.

The tank battery, operated by Karbuhn Oil Co. out of Tomball, sits across a road, waterway and levy from the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area, a 25,000-acre coastal wetlands preserve that harbors muskrat, river otter, mink, bobcat, and many species of fish and birds. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department called Murphree a key nesting area for Mottled Ducks, and home to more American alligators per acre than any other site in Texas.

RELATED: Hurricane Harvey spares new Cheniere LNG site near Corpus Christi

A Karbuhn owner, Dick Tracy, said the tanks were filled in part with oil and in part with salty produced water, which comes up out of the ground during oil production. The salt water acts as a lightning rod during storms, he said, and the Harvey strike essentially exploded the two tanks. The ensuing fire burned up three barrels of oil before the fire department could arrive, Tracy said.

But he insisted the incident couldn't have affected the wildlife management Area. The tanks were surrounded by a retaining wall, and a tall levy also stands between them and the park.

"There's no way in hell it could get into the park," Tracy said.

The Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas production, dispatched an inspector, and said the spill was contained on-site. Vacuum trucks cleaned up the liquids, said commission Communications Director Rich Parsons.

Oil and gas operators are required to report spills to the Railroad Commission. The Port Arthur incident was the only one reported to the commission since Harveys landfall.

The wildlife park was closed because of the hurricane and a Texas Parks spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
NEW HAVEN >> The U.S. Coast Guard identified a man who went missing Sunday after his 32-foot boat capsized as Michael Murphy.

According to a press release, a good Samaritan reported an overturned vessel near the west breakwall in New Haven around 9:15 a.m.
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BRIDGEPORT  A good number of Bassick High Schools 250 first-time freshman filled the bleachers of the schools gymnasium for orientation Thursday and Byron Williams  their new principal  was there to greet them.

He pledged to stick it out if they came.

I am not going anywhere, he told the presumptive class of 2021.

Making good on that promise would set a precedent.

Williams is taking charge of a school that has had a revolving door in the principals office for the past decade.

This time, Williams insisted, will be different.

For one, the 64-year-old educator said he is not a quitter.

Two, Williams said he wont be working alone to turnaround a school where just 60 percent of students graduate on time and only 10 percent scored at grade level on the school administered SAT test in 2017.

He said he will have a team of support  three assistant principals who were put into place before his appointment. Only one, Carmen McPherson, was at the school last year. That makes her the veteran.

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For Assistant Principal Beswick Channer it is a homecoming. He graduated from Bassick in 1998. Assistant Principal James Denton, who has held quite a number of roles in the district, was last supervisor of security for the district.

This year we will try to attack what the problems are that are keeping students away from school  to get them coming back consistently, said Williams. We want to make school interesting ... safe and orderly. We can only do that as a team.

It is a team that has some recruiting to do. Williams appointment came against the objections of the Bassick School Governance Council, made up of faculty, parents and community members. Teachers also came out against the appointment.

Williams notes that he had a majority of school board members and Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson, on his side. The ultimate decision was Johnsons to make.

I was thinking larger picture, Johnson said of her choice. What do the children need over there at Bassick at this moment in time.

Bassick, Johnson said bluntly, is in crisis.

I thought if my son was there as a ninth grader what would I want there, she said. That is what drives my decision. One principal cant make a difference. They need a leadership team in place. They need central office support. Community support. No one person can move the needle.

Williams has been with the district since 2013, brought in by then interim Superintendent Paul Vallas as the first principal of the Bridgeport Military Academy. He was a retired Marine Corps officer with experience as a principal and district administrator in Philadelphia.

Although well-liked by parents and students, Williams faced termination when he failed to submit paperwork to the state to attain a Connecticut administrator certification. He briefly resigned only to get his job back.

After one school year, he was transferred to Wilbur Cross School as an assistant principal. His last assignment was at Cesar Batalla, a pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school across the street from Bassick.

I stuck with district, write that down, Williams said from his new office at Bassick where he intends to hang all of his diplomas, including a just earned superintendent certificate from Southern Connecticut State University.

In his new role he will earn an annual salary of $141,561.

Williams said what students at Bassick need most is someone who will stick with them.

We at Bassick have some great students, Williams said.

He wants to meet regularly with the student council as well as children who have challenges.

Our goal is to identify children with issues that we can head off before they become large and uncontrollable, Williams said.

Last years principal, Tomas Ramirez came to the school with a similar philosophy. Ramirez knocked on doors last summer to introduce himself to freshman. Williams applauds the effort, but said getting students in school is just half the battle.

I have a degree of toughness about me, Williams said. You cant be wishy-washy. I am fair but I dont negotiate policy.

The district website shows four teaching vacancies, including two in math, and one each in English and social studies at Bassick as of August 27. Williams on Thursday and then again on Sunday said all positions are filled. He could not speak to how Human Resources status positions on its website.

According to Williams several community organizations are ready to pitch in. A partnership with Housatonic Community College offers students an advanced manufacturing program, and St. Vincents College offers a medical assistant program. The St. Vincents program, however, is not adding a freshman class.

Last year, Bassicks School Governance Council started exploring a Community School model for the school.

We are still headed in the same direction, Williams said. A grant that would fuel the effort is still pending.

Williams said the goal is to pull the school up to blue ribbon status.

I dont see why we cant get there, Williams said. The bottom of the barrel is not for Bassick.
Police in Montgomery County are pleading with residents to unchain dogs ahead of Hurricane Harvey, promising to take legal action against any pet owner who fails to heed this warning.

"Last year as Chief (Stephen) Carlisle was checking the level of water on FM1485, TxDOT crews were shutting down the San Jacinto East Fork Bridge and told him about a dog tied to a tree out of reach in the distance as the water was rising," the Roman Forest Police Department posted on Facebook.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) The Niti Aayog has favoured conducting synchronised two-phase Lok Sabha and assembly elections from 2024 in "national interest".

All elections in India should happen in a free, fair and synchronised manner to ensure minimum "campaign mode" disruption to governance, the government think tank said in its report released recently.

"We may begin work towards switching to a synchronised two-phase election from the 2024 election to the Lok Sabha. This would require a maximum one-time curtailment or extension of some state assemblies," it said.

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To implement this in the national interest, a focused group of stakeholders comprising constitutional and subject matter experts, think tanks, government officials and representatives of various political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation related details, the report said.

"This may include drafting appropriate Constitution and statutory amendments, agreeing on a workable framework to facilitate transition to simultaneous elections, developing a stakeholder communication plan and various operational details," it said in its "Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20".

It has made the Election Commission the nodal agency to look into the suggestion and set a "timeline" of March 2018 for this purpose.

The recommendation of the Aayog assumes significance as former president Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have pitched for simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Mukherjee in his speech on the eve of this years Republic Day had favoured holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections together.

"The time is also ripe for a constructive debate on electoral reforms and a return to the practice of the early decades after Independence when elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously.

"It is for the Election Commission to take this exercise forward in consultation with political parties," the former president had said.

Modi had in February said simultaneous elections would "cause some loss to all, including us" but political parties should not look at the idea through the narrow prism of politics.

"One party or a government cannot do it. We will have to find a way together," the PM had said.

Elections are held all the time and continuous polls lead to a lot of expenditure, he had said replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the former presidents address.

Modi had said that more than Rs 1,100 crore was spent on the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the expenditure had shot up to Rs 4,000 crore in 2014.

Over a crore government employees, including a large number of teachers, are involved in the electoral process. Thus, the continuous exercise causes maximum harm to the education sector, he had said.

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Security forces also have to be diverted for the electoral work even as the countrys enemy keeps plotting against the nation and terrorism remains a strong threat, Modi had said. PTI AKV GVS AAR

--- ENDS ---
City officials in Patton Village are keeping a close eye on the next wave of rain associated with Hurricane Harvey. High-profile vehicles and flat-bottom boats are on standby in Patton Village, ready to respond to neighborhood flooding in the likely event that more rain falls.

As of Saturday evening, Peach Creek, which bisects the city, was already several feet above flood stage of 13 feet and projected to peak at 22.1 feet by Sunday evening.

"The creeks and ditches are pretty full. If we get substantial rain overnight, we are going to be flooding," said Mayor Leah Tarrant. "But we are prepared and blessed to have the resources we have on hand. We have learned that sometimes you simply have to ask for help."

Tarrant does not want a repeat of the experiences city residents felt during two major flood events last year in April and May.

"When we heard this storm was coming, I went to Police Chief Shannon Sharp and said, 'Can we call the teams in to help?' He was already on it," Tarrant said.

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The "teams," as she called them, are the Lone Star Task Force and Texas Search and Rescue (TxSAR). Sharp was once the Gulf Coast team leader for TxSAR when he worked for another law enforcement agency and knew just who to call for help.

"They were more than happy to help us. They drove all through the night to get here. They will be available for rescues should we need them. Once that is done, they will be available to assist in other areas," Sharp said.

The police chief also arranged for 150 cots to be staged and ready in the event that citizens need to evacuate from low-lying areas and for American Red Cross to drop off supplies in advance of the storm.

Because Patton Village is expected to be temporarily bisected by Peach Creek flooding, Sharp is staging teams on both sides. The west side will be responsible for US 59 operations, including any problems that arise, while the east side will handle all issues inside the central part of the city.

Sharp said citizens should not become complacent about the storm as it could be several days before the rains end.

"Right now everyone is walking around and kind of bored with it but the storm is not over," Sharp said, pointing to a computer screen showing Hurricane Harvey's tracking and projected path. "These rain bands are going to move our way again and we have to be ready for it. There is another wave coming."
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12:46 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: Woodland Church in Atascocita is serving as a shelter and is not at capacity. Representatives there said they are in need of water, air mattresses, cots and baby products.

12:15 p.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Crosby Middle School shelter is out of cots and expecting three busloads of evacuees.

"Our need now is for pillows, blankets, sleeping bags and towels for our new arrivals," states a Facebook post.

9:57 a.m., Aug. 29 Update: The Lone Star College-North Harris campus Digital Technology Building and Theater will now serve as the shelter location for displaced Kingwood residents, according to city of Houston District E office.

People may enter through the Hurricane Drive entrance.

For information about volunteering or donating supplies, people can call the Command Post contact number at 281-618-5651.

11:14 p.m., Aug. 28 Update: Lone Star College Kingwood's gymnasium has been opened as a Red Cross shelter.

The LSC-Kingwood gymnasium shelter does not currently have food, but water is in transit.

The city of Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office is working with the Red Cross to obtain supplies tonight.

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There are still no evacuation orders for Kingwood, and city of Houston District E office urges residents to shelter in place.

For high-water rescue situations, people should contact the HPD citizen line at 832-395-1820.

Rescue boats are not equipped with appropriate nighttime rescue lights, and no nighttime water rescues will be conducted, unless there is a medical emergency. Rescue boats will continue rescue efforts immediately upon first light tomorrow morning.

There are people currently volunteering at the shelter, but if others are interested in becoming volunteers, please contact kwsheltervolunteers@gmail.com and include name and email address.

No supply list has yet been provided, but people who wish to receive alerts can contact kwsheltersupplies@gmail.com and include name, email and items they can donate.

Currently, volunteers and donations are only being sought from residents who have high-water vehicles (lifted trucks).

Once the need is determined, the shelter will require donated items including individual snacks, water, clothing  clean clothes, undergarments, socks  blankets, pillows, towels, toiletries  deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes  phone chargers, Clorox wipes, feminine sanitary products, infant and adult diapers, baby formula and baby food.

Creekwood Middle School will also be open as a transport location at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, in order to transport residents to the Lone Star College  Kingwood shelter.

Lone Star College-Kingwood gymnasium shelter is at 20000 Kingwood Drive. To reach the District E office, email districte@houstontx.gov.

7:21 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: First Baptist Church Huffman posted to Facebook at approximately 6:45 p.m. it is currently stocked with clothing, bedding and most supplies.

They are asking for donations of hand sanitizer and wipes, and are searching for people who could provide port-a-potties and mobile showers.

6:12 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The transports service from Kingwood High School to shelters in surrounding areas will be discontinued at 8 p.m., according to Jessica Beemer, chief of staff for Houston Councilman Dave Martin's office.

Beemer encouraged residents to remain in their shelters because much of Kingwood Drive remains impassable.

In addition, Beemer said, many gas stations do not have power and are not functioning.

5:50 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Ronda Trow, public relations manager for San Jacinto River Authority said the water release levels at the dam due to this weather event were unprecedented. However, since approximately 2:30 p.m., the Lake Conroe levels have been starting to drop, and they have not had to increase the water release.

The normal pool for Lake Conroe's lake level is 201 feet and the SJRA website shows as of 5 p.m., the lake level was at 205.84 feet. And the lake release was at 79,141 cubic feet per second.

Trow said the releases experienced at the Conroe dam contribute as one of five sources flowing downstream to the Kingwood, Lake Houston areas, so she said it is difficult to say what the exact effect of the dam release will be on the area. However, current lake and river conditions may be found on www.sjra.net under the Lake Conroe tab.

River level forecasts at certain river and stream sites can be found at the National Weather Service website at http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=hgx

5:08 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: "We are actively involved in voluntary evacuation from the point area of Atascocita Shores on Atascocita Way. We've evacuated 15 so far, collecting an addition of 30, waiting on some boats to come, have multiple requests for boats, from the Department of Public Safety from Katy on their way over," said Fire Chief Mike Mulligan.

There are possibly a 100 homes that have to be evacuated in that area. Mulligan urged residents not to wait until water is in their home to self-evacuate if they are able to do so safely. He stressed residents should know where they are going before they evacuate.

There have been reports of flooding in backyards, and Atascocita resident Jonathan Ryne had to knock out part of his backyard fence to alleviate the water levels as it was inches from reaching inside his home.

"We are getting hit with another round, so we are going to see how well the trench we dug to the bayou works," Ryne said.

4:45 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The city is using Kingwood High School as a transport place to the below shelters while there is space:

New Covenant Church 901 Wilson Road

M.O. Campbell Center 1865 Aldine Bender

George R. Brown Convention Center 1001 Avenida de Las Americas

4:15 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: City of Houston Mayor Turner posted on Facebook, responding to concerns about Houston's drinking water safety. As of 2 p.m., Aug. 28, all of the city's drinking water purification plants are operational, and Houston's drinking water is safe and not a health concern.

The city's four water plants are operational, but one is experiencing flooding. Officials are working with engineering and construction entities to continue operating the Northeast Water Purification Plant. However, the city asks people to limit the use of water for the time being.

Additionally, the brownish discoloration of the drinking water being reported by some residents in the city is most likely due to iron from the aging pipes, but is not a health hazard.

3:44 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Woodridge Baptist Church posted a Facebook update around 3 p.m. stating they do not have electricity and cannot accept evacuees. Additionally, they will not need volunteers until they have power again. They said people can check the Woodridge Baptist Church Facebook for updates.

2:31 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: The Huffman Volunteer Fire Department is undertaking rescue efforts. As of 2:25 p.m., they report two shelters are established in the Huffman area at First Baptist Church Huffman and at Copeland Elementary School in Huffman ISD. Both shelters are still able to take evacuees and are accepting any donations, including all food, water, clothing and blankets.

FM 1960 has been closed heading toward Dayton, as has FM 1485 toward Casey Road in New Caney. Minor closures are also being reported throughout the district.

1:35 p.m. Aug. 28 Update: Kingwood Drive may become completely covered in water and Houston City Councilman Dave Martin urged all residents out exploring the area to return to their homes immediately.

Rescue efforts are continuing in the Kingwood Area, according to Martin's office, and high water vehicles are deployed as well as boats. The Houston Police Department, Houston Fire Department, and the United States Coast Guard are in the area assisting and responding to all calls.

The Kingwood Citizen Line is open at 832-395-1820.

11:01 a.m. Aug. 28 Update: As of 10:49 a.m., the Crosby Volunteer Fire Department is working to evacuate area residents who have been displaced from their homes due to flooding.

Representatives with the fire department stated they would highly advise anyone in Crosby within 500 yards of the San Jacinto River to self-evacuate if they are able, as well as any Crosby residents within 200 yards of canals or creeks.

The fire department said shelters in the immediate Crosby area are at capacity, and evacuees' best bet is the shelter at Channelview High School.

While they report no major Crosby road closures, the fire department said to proceed with caution as there are several areas with waters over the top of the road.

10:22 a.m. Aug. 28 Update: The city of Humble is advising residents in some parts of the area to evacuate. The city received notice at 3:30 a.m. that Lake Conroe is releasing a record amount of water, which will raise the river height to 65.6 feet.

"At this point we will see US 59 possibly under water and many homes in the Northshire subdivision under water," states a notice from the city. " At daylight we are sending personnel to the Northshire Subdivision and advising the residents along the bayous to evacuate (note at this time the evacuation is NOT mandatory). At this time the river sits at 61.34 ft. and rising."

7:23 p.m. Aug. 27 Update: The Crosby Middle School shelter is at capacity with more than 400 people. They have taken on evacuees from Crosby as well as surrounding communities. They are in need of donations of pillows, blankets, towels, clothes and food.

As they are unable to cook or serve food, they are requesting single-serve, easy to distribute food. For information, visit the Crosby ISD Facebook page.

The Crosby American Legion is not yet at capacity of 350. It currently has approximately 170 evacuees with two buses on the way as of 7 p.m. They are requesting donations of any supplies, including bread, and especially pillows and blankets.

4:34 p.m. Update: Houston Police-Kingwood Division reported high water in the following areas: Northpark Drive at Hidden Pines, Kingwood at Royal Forest westbound lanes, Woodland Hills Drive north of River Grove Park, Belleau Wood Drive, and Moonshine Hill Loop.

Hamblen Road is shut down from Loop-494 due to high water.

There is a tree down at 3900 Glade Valley.

4 p.m. Update: The city of Humble has put a curfew into effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.

3:02 p.m. Update: Harris County Sheriff's Office is looking for community volunteers with boats and trucks large enough to navigate flooding to help people get to safety.

Volunteers are asked to report to First Baptist Church, FM 2100, in Huffman, and Anneshia Keller, with the sheriff's office, is the contact person. Vehicles can be parked in the large lot behind the church office.

The First Baptist Church also is coordinating with first responders to prepare for serving as a shelter tonight. There are no evacuees at the site as of 3 p.m., but the church is expecting the first to arrive later this afternoon, or early this evening.

They are currently asking for donations of towels, socks, diapers, toiletries, hand soap, dish soap, and clean blankets, pillows, towels, and food, including nonperishables, loaves of bread, sandwiches, and water.

First Baptist Church of Huffman is located at 25503 FM 2100 Road in Huffman. Check the First Baptist Church Huffman Facebook page for more information.

Around Lake Houston: Atascocita residents are being urged not to leave their shelters because several roads in the area are flooded.

Also, Mayor Merle Aaron has signed a Declaration of Disaster in Humble, activating the city's Emergency Management Plan.

Residents cannot go west on Will Clayton, but can get across by staying on Atascocita Road, according to Sean Conley, assistant chief of EMS. Woodland Hills, east of Will Clayton Boulevard is impassable, and North Houston Road, north of Townsen is impassable.

"The only thing we were dealing with overnight, was a house fire on the north end of Timber Forest. (We) did have delay getting to it because of the weather, but we were still able to get to it," Conley said.

The Coast Guard will be landing soon at the Atascocita Fire Department at Timber Forest, Conley said, adding there have not been any water rescues as of yet but there have been requests.

According to Houston Police-Kingwood Division, a large tree fell, blocking the northbound lanes at the 2000 block of West Lake Houston Parkway, but it has since been taken care of.

The San Jacinto River is out of its banks and high water has caused some road closures. Hamblen Road in Kingwood has been shut down, as has Woodland Hills to River Grove Park.

In Humble, some sections of McKay Boulevard have been closed near Memorial Hermann Northeast.

U.S. 59 between Will Clayton Parkway and Rankin Road is impassable. One vehicle was stuck on the flooded road, but the driver was able to escape.

Townsen Boulevard also has been closed between the Walmart and the Target.

"There's not much that we can do right now, close the roads and monitor our subdivisions for any water," said James Nykaza, Emergency Management coordinator for the city of Humble.

The Crosby Volunteer Fire Department is under full activation and has made multiple water rescues. The most severe flooding is around the Highway 90 and Eastgate areas.

The Newport area has fared relatively well with water able to drain off.

Crosby Middle School has been converted into a shelter for people who have been displaced from their homes due to flooding.

Crosby Volunteer Fire Department has made evacuation rescues of people whose homes have flooded on roads including Milo Dr., Jean Lafitte and Gulf Pump Road, according to Christy Graves, director of Harris County Emergency Services District No. 5. A school bus was sent to pick up those residents and transport them to the Crosby Middle School shelter.

Crosby ISD Superintendent Keith Moore was busy helping to accommodate flood evacuees.

The Crosby Middle School gym shelter now has approximately 75 to 80 evacuees.

The school district had partnered with the Red Cross, which was supposed to provide water and sup-plies, but the Red Cross was unable to get to the school. Crosby ISD decided to open the shelter any-way and put a call out to the community for supplies, which they received in plenty.

"We got here and needed supplies," Moore said. "We asked for water, food and the Crosby communi-ty came out and stocked us with food, Domino's provided pizza, Walmart gave supplies. People were coming in wet and cold, so we asked for blankets, pillows and towels. The community provided tre-mendous amounts of the supplies we needed."

While the Crosby Middle School shelter is stocked with the supplies they need for the time being, Crosby ISD will continue to provide updates on needed supplies as the necessity may arise in coming days.

Busloads of evacuees are being brought in from the Crosby and surrounding areas, including Sheldon. Barrett Station is among the most flooded areas in the Crosby area.

The Crosby American Legion Hall is also serving as a shelter.

School closures

Humble and Independent School District announced its first day of school will be Tuesday, Sept. 5. Huffman and Crosby school districts are also closed until Sept. 5.
Barcelona, Spain

Half a million people gathered in the heart of Barcelona on Saturday, clutching roses and holding banners denouncing violence and extremism, but also bearing signs warning against Islamophobia and calling on Spanish leaders to stop selling weapons.

The mass demonstration followed two attacks that killed 15 people last week, including 13 who were mowed down by a van that zigzagged down Las Ramblas, the most famous promenade in Barcelona.

On Saturday, marchers carried banners bearing the defiant message "No tinc por"  Catalan for "I'm not afraid."

The attacks hit Barcelona at the height of its tourism season. But the violence also came at a critical political moment, as the regional government of Catalonia prepares to hold an independence referendum Oct. 1 despite strong objections from the government in Madrid and Spain's judiciary, who say the vote is unconstitutional.

To defuse political tensions, Saturday's march was led by police officers, paramedics and other members of the emergency services  with King Felipe VI of Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, following them.

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Still, many in the crowd held Catalan separatist flags and booed every time the monarch's face appeared on the big screens. Amid a sea of Catalan flags, Sergio Fernandez, a local truck driver, held a Spanish flag and described the booing of Spain's king by some of his fellow Catalans as shameful.

"We came here to condemn killers, not to insult our king," he said. "I'm from Barcelona, but Spain is of course my country."

Last week's attacks were claimed by the Islamic State and carried out by a terrorist cell whose members were mostly born in Morocco. Several participants in Saturday's march held up signs warning against Islamophobia in the wake of the violent attacks.
NEW HAVEN >> When New Haven Public Schools reopens its doors to students on Monday, the textbooks wont have the answers to every question.

As legislators in Hartford continue to wrestle over school funding in the midst of a budget impasse, school officials are about to begin the school year with few certainties.

One of the uncertainties is enrollment; districts dont report that number until Oct. 1, but NHPS Chief Operating Officer Will Clark said the district projects upwards of 22,000 students will show up for the first day of school.

In a budget narrative submitted to the Board of Alders to ask for greater funding from the city, district officials said the schools will focus on six pillars: academics; social-emotional growth; educators; the school portfolio; family-community engagement and resources stewardship.

The challenges to Urban Education remain significant, and much more work needs to be done, the narrative said, asking for an $8 million increase in funding.

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One thing in the Elm Citys schools is for certain  Reginald Mayo, interim superintendent, will oversee the first day of school, after the search for a replacement for former Superintendent Garth Harries has run over its original time frame. Originally, the plan was for a full-time superintendent to be selected before the end of the summer. In June, the Board of Education voted to extend Mayos contract until Dec. 31.

Although several projects remain on the districts capital improvement plan  patching up West Rock STREAM Academy, Quinnipiac Real World Magnet Math STEM School and High School in the Community and finding a new home for Creed School  Clark said the construction subcommittee has pushed back meetings, choosing to wait for current data on enrollment trends, before taking any action on new buildings.

Ansonia Superintendent Carol Merlone said about 2,350 students will start school on Monday.

Our goals for the coming school year (are) to improve literacy and math and prepare our student to be college- and career-ready, she said in a statement. We will continue to work on refining instruction and improving student performance. Our focus will also be on supporting our students emotionally and academically by providing them with the love, assistance and encouragement they need to succeed.

It appears as though Ansonia will not be really impacted by the cuts, she said.

We made our cuts in programs based on our anticipation of the Alliance Grant going away.

In Middletown, which like New Haven is considered an Alliance District for receiving a state grant, Superintendent Patricia Charles said state funding is also a concern.

As an Alliance district, we rely heavily on these funds to provide the additional resources our students require as we work to close the achievement gap, Charles said in an email.

On Tuesday, the Middletown Board of Education voted not to lay off any additional teachers, and Charles said the district is looking to fill several paraprofessional vacancies.

We will continue our focus on equity and valuing the cultural diversity within our classrooms, particularly in light of the events this summer that highlight the racism that continues to exist in our country and the fear that is instilled as a result, Charles said. Every child should come to school feeling safe and valued for who they are. As a staff, we must be introspective and look at our own biases and habits to ensure that every student is expected to achieve at high levels and feels cared for in our schools.

Currently, the district is interviewing superintendent of schools candidates to replace Charles, who previously announced her retirement as of November.

Middletown students return to school on Aug. 31.

The start date was pushed back even further for students in Torringtons public schools. Superintendent of Schools Denise Clemons said the decision to push back the start of school to Sept. 5 for more than 4,200 students in the district was motivated by the state budget crisis.

Clemons, who joined the district in January, is looking to launch her first full year with the district by emphasizing instruction after seeing some stagnation in Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium scores. Clemons and her team developed a strategic plan, the first in the district since 2014.

Of the districts seven schools, four will have new principals this year, Clemons said, and the district continues to explore the possibility of shuttering one or two elementary schools if enrollment continues to decrease.

Because of the moving parts in the district, Clemons hosted a meet-and-greet event in Aug. 10, in order to introduce herself and to open the district to the community.

Like New Haven, Milford will open its doors to students on Monday. District Communications Coordinator Kathryn Bonetti said the district expects 5,773 students in the 2017-18 year.

The district established a list of four-year priorities and goals in 2016, emphasizing school safety, strong academic learning, quality professional development and community engagement.

West Shore Middle School is still under construction, Bonetti said, as one of 125 construction projects pursued over the summer, and students will enter the school on Thursday, three days after the rest of the district. The construction is on schedule to be completed in late spring 2018.
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NORWALK  The Connecticut Department of Transportation this month tamped down talk that it might raze The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk to make room for the replacement of the Walk Bridge.

The IMAX Theater stands to be the only acquisition at the Aquarium at 10 North Water St., according DOT spokesman Judd Everhart.

The Maritime Aquarium itself will not be acquired for the Walk Bridge project, wrote Everhart in an email response to an inquiry about the bridge replacement. The IMAX Theater will be acquired to accommodate construction requirements, but the city will retain permanent ownership of this parcel.

Opened in July 1988 as The Maritme Center, the aquarium now attracts 450,000 visitors and pumps more than $25 million annually into Norwalks economy, according to its website.

The city owns the property upon which the aquarium and theater are located.

Everhart added, however, that the DOT anticipates that it will need temporary access from behind the aquarium and along the Norwalk riverfront to accommodate construction. And that will require the relocation of some exhibits.

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Based on the likely construction activities, both the Aquarium and the Department think it is prudent to perform several relocations, Everhart wrote. The existing seal exhibit, which contains an outdoor portion, will be reconfigured; in addition, the animals which are currently housed in the addition to the Aquarium (tent-like structure) will be relocated within the Aquarium building.

Everhart deferred to the aquarium for the specifics of those relocations and how they will be addressed.

Report raises questions

The DOT and Federal Transit Administration recently released a Record of Decision and Finding of No Significant Impact, respectively, on the bridge replacement, which is expected to begin in early 2019. The reports were required under the Connecticut and National Environmental Policy acts.

The existing 120-year-old bridge bisects the Maritime Aquarium and theater. Its planned replacement with a 240-foot vertical-lift bridge has caused concern along the Norwalk River waterfront.

A passage within the FTAs Finding of No Significant Impact report last week sparked speculation that the entire Aquarium might fall victim to the project.

CTDOT is working with the City of Norwalk and the Aquarium to develop a plan to identify and address the impacts of the project upon the Aquarium's outdoor and indoor exhibits and its terrestrial and aquatic animals, the report reads. CTDOT will compensate the City of Norwalk for the property rights to be acquired. In connection therewith, CTDOT will provide the City of Norwalk and/or the Aquarium the assistance necessary to relocate the animals affected by the acquisition.

That language generated discussion among members of the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission during their monthly meeting at City Hall on Wednesday evening. Geoffrey Steadman, planning consultant for the harbor commission, said the report provides additional information about the bridge replacement and sort of implies that theres going to be more acquisition than just the IMAX Theater.

Its interesting to think if the project will actually affect the property of the Maritime Aquarium itself and if theyre talking about assistance necessary to relocate the animals affected by the acquisition, Steadman said.

NHMC members concurred with Steadmans assessment.

Ongoing discussions

The Maritime Aquarium, when asked about the bridge replacement project, said, ConnDOT is not taking the entire Aquarium and reissued its earlier statement addressing the IMAX Theater.

Discussions continue, with the purpose that The Maritime Aquarium receives proper compensation for the loss of its IMAX Theater and other changes to the building and its exhibitry, the statement read. Loss of the IMAX Theater and that vital revenue stream without a replacement would be detrimental to the long-term sustainability of the organization. Other substantial changes to the institution are necessary to ensure the safety of our animals and guests, and to not diminish the full Aquarium experience.

While negotiations regarding payment are not complete, the discussions have progressed enough for the Maritime Aquarium to begin acting on its Walk Bridge response, including planning for the relocation of certain exhibits and construction of a new theater on the aquarium campus, the statement continued.

James I. Mason, assistant director in the DOTs Division of Rights of Way, informed the aquarium in August 2016 that the transportation department had received early acquisition approval for the theater in accordance with the FTAs corridor preservation authority.

This approval is related, in part, to the property that is occupied by the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk and IMAX Center located on North Water Street, Norwalk; which will be impacted by the Walk Railroad Bridge Replacement project, wrote Mason in a letter obtained by The Norwalk Hour through the Freedom of Information Act. This letter will serve to initiate negotiations and establish the eligibility of the Maritime Aquarium to receive relocation assistance.

Mayor Harry W. Rilling has noted that the city owns the aquarium and IMAX Theater property. As such, it will be part of negotiations concerning acquisition of the theater portion.
New York

Mark Cuban isn't ready to launch a formal campaign to challenge President Donald Trump.

Yet Cuban, an outspoken Texas billionaire who describes himself as "fiercely independent" politically, sees an opportunity for someone to take down the Republican president, who is increasingly viewed as divisive and incompetent even within his own party.

"His base won't turn on him, but if there is someone they can connect to and feel confident in, they might turn away from him," Cuban told The Associated Press. "The door is wide open. It's just a question of who can pull it off."

Indeed, just seven months into the Trump presidency, Republicans and right-leaning independents have begun to contemplate the possibility of an organized bid to take down the sitting president in 2020. It is a Herculean task, some say a fantasy: No president in the modern era has been defeated by a member of his own party, and significant political and practical barriers stand in the way.

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The Republican National Committee, now run by Trump loyalists, owns the rulebook for nominating the party's standard-bearer and is working with the White House to ensure a process favorable to the president.

Yet Trump's muddled response to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., this month has emboldened his critics to talk about the once unthinkable.

GOP officials from New Hampshire to Arizona have wondered aloud in recent days about the possibility of a 2020 primary challenge from a fellow Republican or right-leaning independent. No one has stepped forward yet, however, and the list of potential prospects remains small.

Ohio's GOP Gov. John Kasich has not ruled out a second run in 2020. Another Republican and frequent Trump critic, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, last month visited Iowa, which hosts the nation's first presidential caucuses. And a handful of wealthy outsiders, including Cuban and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, are being encouraged to join the fray.

Trump's comments about Charlottesville "frightened" many Republicans in New Hampshire, said Tom Rath, a veteran Republican strategist in the state that traditionally hosts the nation's first presidential primary election.

"While he has support from his people, the party itself is not married to him," Rath said of his party's president.

Trump denounced bigotry after the Virginia protests, but he also said "very fine people" were on "both sides" of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. One woman was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

Even before the divisive remarks, Trump's public approval ratings were bad. Gallup found in mid-August that the president earned the approval of just 34 percent of all adults and 79 percent of Republicans. Both numbers marked personal lows. And as he lashes out at members of his own party with increasing frequency, frustrated Republican officials have raised questions about the first-term president's political future.

On Monday, Maine Sen. Susan Collins said it's "too early to tell" whether Trump would be the GOP presidential nominee in 2020. On Wednesday, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said Trump's divisive governing style was "inviting" a primary challenge. And on Thursday night, former Sen. John Danforth, of Missouri, called Trump "the most divisive president in our history" in a Washington Post op-ed.

"There hasn't been a more divisive person in national politics since George Wallace," Danforth wrote.

Trump has also disappointed "The Rock," a former Republican-turned-independent, who told Vanity Fair in May that he'd "like to see a better leadership" from the Republican president.

Trump's response to Charlottesville "felt like a turning point" among those thinking about 2020, said Kenton Tilford, a West Virginia political consultant who founded "Run The Rock 2020." He said the group has already organized volunteers in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"He's vulnerable," Tilford said of the president.

Yet there is good reason why no sitting president since Franklin Pierce in 1852 has been defeated by a member of his own party. As is almost always the case, the most passionate voters in the president's party remain loyal. And in Trump's case, activists across the country are starting to come around.

The president has personally installed his own leadership team at the Republican National Committee and in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where new GOP chairmen are more devout Trump supporters than their predecessors.

As RNC members from across the country gathered in Tennessee this week, leaders had already begun focusing on protecting Trump in 2020.
TAL AFAR, Iraq - Iraq's military fully reclaimed this northern city from the Islamic State on Sunday in a rapid campaign that defied expectations that the extremist group would put up a fierce resistance in one of its last major strongholds.

The battle for Tal Afar, which lasted just eight days, highlighted the diminished capabilities of the Islamic State in Iraq a month after it lost the key bastion of Mosul to a coalition of Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes and is likely to determine how future fights against the militant group will be executed.

Senior Iraqi military officers said the group has lost the will to fight in the face of a motivated and increasingly more professional military and are advocating that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorize his armed forces to launch simultaneous battles for the last major cities that the Islamic State controls

Since the Islamic State took over nearly one-third of Iraq's territory in 2014, Abadi has opted to reclaim cities one by one while the U.S. and other Western nations helped to rebuild Iraq's armed forces, which collapsed during the Islamic State blitz.

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Now, with more than three years of combat experience, Iraq's security forces are eager to quicken the pace of the fight, with some commanders urging that the battles for the two remaining Islamic State strongholds, Hawija and Qaim, be launched at the same time.

"The enemy's back is broken," said Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridhi, a top commander of the elite counterterrorism service units in Tal Afar. "Their morale is gone."

Aridhi is among a cadre of influential commanders who believe the main branches of Iraq's armed forces - the army, federal police and counterterrorism service - are capable of fighting concurrent battles.

Those forces, along with 12 brigades of mostly Shiite militias, attacked Tal Afar from three fronts, breaking Islamic State defense lines on the edges of the city before rapidly advancing to the city center.

The troops were surprised by what Col. Arkan Fadhil, a counterterrorism service officer, called a "controlled resistance" by small clusters of Islamic State fighters and the near- total lack of civilians in the city.

Ahead of the battle, Iraq's government and its U.S. military partners had estimated that 10,000 to 50,000 civilians remained in Tal Afar under desperate conditions. The city had been surrounded by the Shiite militias since late November as Iraq's armed forces waged the grueling nine-month battle for Mosul, about 40 miles to the east.

At the same time, U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes were pounding the city, an important way station for the Islamic State to move fighters and resources between the territory it controlled in Syria and Iraq.

The desolate city provided ample room for Iraqi troops to use heavy weaponry without fear of killing civilians. That use of firepower, along with the months-long siege, apparently sapped Islamic State's fighters of the ability to effectively use their most ferocious weapons: car and truck bombs rigged with armor, commanders said.

"We haven't seen a single civilian, dead or alive," Aridhi said. "If there were 20,000 civilians in Tal Afar, we would have only just taken the first neighborhood by now."

The large presence of civilians had complicated the battle for Mosul and led to high casualties. The exact number of civilian casualties has yet to be released by the government.

Along with the absence of residents, the number of Islamic State fighters in Tal Afar appeared to be vastly overstated. Before the operation was launched, Iraq's intelligence services estimated that between 1,400 and 2,000 militants occupied the city. Iraq's military said Saturday that they had killed 259 fighters, indicating that many had fled the battle into the vast desert north and west of the city toward Syria.

Unlike Mosul and cities like Fallujah, administrative centers that also housed Islamic State families, the dusty Tal Afar did not appear to be much more than a military outpost for the group.

Houses inside the city appeared unlived in and were stocked with material to manufacture explosives and store military gear. In one house inside the Kifah neighborhood, the rooms were full of hundreds of feet of coiled wires, apparently used to make improvised explosive devices, and discarded tactical vests and sawed-off rifle butts.

Two rusting trucks, outfitted with metal plates to turn them into devastating armored bombs, were left unfinished in a garage.

"The siege worked in preventing the enemy from getting all the materials they needed to build explosives," said Maj. Raji al-Amidi of the counterterrorism service.

The swift collapse of the militancy in Tal Afar was unexpected. The city had a unique standing in the Islamic State's hierarchy, with several top figures in the group and deputies to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi hailing from Tal Afar. Along with its strategic location, just 40 miles east of the border with Syria, it was one of the few places the Islamic State occupied despite the large presence of Shiites there, making it an important propaganda tool for a group with a stated goal of exterminating Shiites in Iraq.

With the Shiite militias surrounding the city and participating in the bid to reclaim it from the Islamic State, experts had expected the militants to fight fiercely and try to inflict as much damage as possible before ceding the city, said Hisham al-Hashimi, who has advised the Iraqi government.

"Tal Afar was an important point of identity for Daesh," Hashimi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
By PTI: waste

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) The NITI Aayog has suggested setting up an authority which will take up installation of waste to energy plants in public-private partnership (PPP) mode to clean up municipal solid waste, which, it said, has become a "serious threat" to public health.

Noting that rapidly rising prosperity has resulted in generation of vast volumes of solid waste in the cities, the Aayog underlined that cities have been "slow to develop effective ways" to dispose municipal waste and called for accelerated action to combat the problem.

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"The mountains of waste, which can now be seen in nearly all cities, have become a serious public health threat," it said.

The Aayog made the recommendations in its Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20, released by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently.

"To speed up the process of cleaning up municipal solid waste, it may be worth exploring the possibility of an authority at the Centre to spread the use of waste to energy plants," it said.

Such an authority can be called Waste to Energy Corporation of India (WECI) and placed under the housing and urban affairs ministry, the Aayog said.

"Just as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been instrumental in developing high-quality national highways through Public Private Partnership (PPP) across the country, the WECI may set up world class waste to energy plants through PPP mode across the country," it said.

The authority can play a "key role in fast-tracking coverage" of waste to energy plants across 100 smart cities by 2019, the Aayog said,

As per the 2011 census, 377 million people living in 7,935 urban centres generate 1,70,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily.

Urban local bodies spend about Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per tonne on solid waste management. Out of this, about 60-70 per cent is spent on the collection of waste and 20-30 per cent on transportation but almost nothing on its treatment and disposal.

The NITI Aayog said Waste to Energy is the best option to tackle the problem. PTI MP NSD

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President Donald Trump's end-of-the-week pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, a campaign supporter who shares Trump's hard-line views on immigration, touched off a political outcry that did not abate Saturday even as much of the nation was focused on a hurricane that pummeled Texas.

Democrats condemned the president's decision, which was made public by the White House on Friday night as Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, churned toward the Texas coast. Some Republicans praised the move, and others criticized it, but most remained silent about a decision that further entangles the party in racial controversy.

Jesse Lehrich, a spokesman for Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of former President Barack Obama's campaigns, said the pardon "signals a disturbing tolerance for those who engage in bigotry."

He added: "It sends an unsettling message to immigrants across the country. And it's a repudiation of the rule of law. As a massive hurricane is hurtling toward the southern United States, the White House is focused not on saving lives, but on pardoning a man who committed unlawful acts of racial discrimination."

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The White House announced the pardon amid preparations for the storm, which the federal government said were in place.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., echoed Lehrich's sentiment that Trump had sent a poor message about living by the rule of law. The state's other Republican senator, Jeff Flake, who has been attacked by Trump and who is facing a potential primary challenge, was more muted.

"Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course," Flake wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Trent Franks, another Arizona Republican, said he saw it as a just end to the saga of Arpaio's legal entanglements, which included defying a court order intended to halt racial profiling of Latinos.

"The president did the right thing  Joe Arpaio lived an honorable life serving our country, and he deserves an honorable retirement," Franks posted on Twitter.

Outside Arizona, most Republicans stayed quiet.

Arpaio had become a symbol of anti-immigrant sentiment, a staple of cable television for his roundups of people suspected of being in the country illegally in the heavily Latino state. After the Republicans lost the 2012 presidential election, the Republican National Committee conducted what came to be known as an election autopsy on what went wrong. The report concluded that the party needed to promote comprehensive immigration reform and do better outreach to Hispanics.

But Trump ran on a message of curtailing immigration, and his message dovetailed with Arpaio's. Republicans have been grappling with how to stand up against racism while doing nothing to alienate the older, whiter demographic of the party's base.

Many presidents have issued controversial pardons. Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon. Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, one of his donors, in his final days in office. By definition, pardons absolve someone of having broken the law.

But Arpaio, who had yet to be sentenced in his criminal case, has long been accused of abuses against minorities, including repeated violations of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. His pardon struck a different political chord, one that led Democrats to tear into Trump.

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, suggested that Trump was offering a different type of signal  one to people who might be approached by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as possible obstruction of justice by the president when he fired the FBI director, James B. Comey.

"It was a signal to the targets of the Mueller investigation that 'I got your back,'" Begala said on Bill Maher's HBO program Friday night.

David Axelrod, who was a senior adviser to Obama in the White House, said Trump was sending a signal after removing his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, a nationalist who is an icon among segments of the president's base.

"I think this was a nod to the base, post-Bannon, that he's still with them," Axelrod said.
Three men allegedly involved in attacks on counterprotesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville earlier this month have been charged with felonies, Charlottesville police said late Saturday. One of the men has been identified as an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the men is still at large.

Police said 18-year-old Daniel P. Borden of Mason, Ohio, is allegedly part of a group of six men who violently beat a man in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department on Aug. 12. That man, DeAndre Harris, suffered a broken wrist and a gash to his head which required 10 staples. The attack was captured on video.

Another suspect, Richard W. Preston, 52, is allegedly the man seen on video shot by the American Civil Liberties Union taking out a pistol and firing a round toward a counterprotester who was wielding a flaming can of aerosol. He then turns and walks away. Preston has identified himself to news media as the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in northern Maryland.

Preston spoke to a reporter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, two days after the rally and blamed the violence on the mayor of Charlottesville for reportedly instructing police not to intervene between the white supremacist protesters and the counterprotesters.

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Charlottesville and Virginia State police were widely criticized for not making arrests or even taking actions on violence in their presence. State police officers can be seen in the video standing near where Preston fired on the counterprotester, but a state police spokeswoman said troopers did not hear or see the incident due to the noise and chaos.

A woman who had joined the counterprotesters, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car slammed into a crowd of people. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder in that case.

Borden was arrested Friday in Cincinnati and is being held in the Hamilton County jail on a charge of malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said in a news release. Preston was arrested Saturday on a charge of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, and was being held in the Baltimore County jail, police said.

Police were seeking help finding a third man, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, who also was allegedly involved in the beating of Harris. Ramos is also charged with malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said.

A lawyer for Harris told the New York Times that he credited Shaun King, an activist and columnist for the New York Daily News, with using social media to identify the suspects in Harris' beating. King offered a reward for information leading to names of those involved in the attacks, and circulated photos and videos on Twitter. The lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, said Ramos was identified after he wrote about the attack on Facebook.

Charlottesville police asked that anyone with information on Ramos' whereabouts contact them at 434-970-3280.
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson became the latest and highest-ranking administration official to distance himself from President Donald Trump, saying in a Sunday interview that the president "speaks for himself" in his response to racial hatred and violence.

Tillerson was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he thought Trump was expressing American values of tolerance and equality in his handling of racially tinged violence during a white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month.

"The president speaks for himself," he said.

When host Chris Wallace then asked whether Tillerson was "separating himself" from Trump's remarks, Tillerson answered, "I've made my own comments as to our values."

That was a reference to remarks Tillerson made Aug. 18 about inclusiveness and tolerance in a discussion of racial diversity and American values. His remarks were read as implicit criticism of Trump and his assertion that "both sides" were to blame for violence that killed a woman who was protesting the white-supremacist rally.

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Tillerson's remarks followed harsh criticism of Trump from National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, who said in an interview Friday that he nearly quit over the president's handling of the events in Charlottesville.

"Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK," Cohn said in the Financial Times interview.

Cohn, who is Jewish, said that the administration "must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups."

Trump has condemned hate groups in the wake of Charlottesville but twice added equivocation about blame for violence and once said some "fine people" were among the white-supremacist marchers.

At a campaign rally before a largely white crowd on Tuesday in Phoenix, Trump decried the removal of Confederate statues - the flash point in Charlottesville - and blamed the news media for "trying to take away our history and our heritage."

Tillerson had told a group of State Department interns on Aug. 18 that "we do not honor, nor do we promote or accept, hate speech in any form."

Tillerson did not invoke Trump or levy direct criticism then, but his discussion of "hate speech" just days after the Charlottesville rally made his meaning clear.

"Those who embrace it poison our public discourse, and they damage the very country that they claim to love," Tillerson had said.

On Sunday, Tillerson rejected criticism from a United Nations committee last week that the Trump administration had failed in its response to Charlottesville and set a poor example for the rest of the world.

"We express America's values from the State Department - our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over," Tillerson said in the Fox interview, "and that message has never changed."

The leaders of Britain and Germany had previously said in response to Charlottesville that violence and bigotry must always be condemned.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed implicit criticism of Trump last week in impromptu remarks to U.S. troops captured on video.

Mattis says the country has "problems," and asks those in uniform to "hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it."

Mattis has not commented on the video, which was apparently recorded as he addressed troops in Jordan.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has defended Trump's remarks, but most other top aides have not directly addressed the controversy. Trump was privately furious about Cohn's rebuke, The Washington Post reported, but the president has not commented publicly on his aide's remarks.

Trump highly prizes personal loyalty and had earlier sharply criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for actions in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that Trump saw as disloyal.

It is not clear whether Tillerson has raised his concerns directly with Trump, although the two speak frequently and Tillerson met with Trump last week at the White House. Tillerson has not addressed whether he considered resigning over Trump's remarks.

Tillerson participated in Trump's video Cabinet meeting about flooding from Hurricane Harvey shortly after the television interview.

In that interview, Tillerson also addressed the departure Friday of former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, who had criticized Tillerson as one of the "globalists" thwarting Trump's "America First" agenda.

Wallace quoted from Gorka's resignation letter, which said that "a crucial element of the presidential campaign has been lost" because Trump's speech laying out his policy for Afghanistan did not mention "radical Islamic terrorism."

"I think he's completely wrong," Tillerson said. "I think it shows a lack of understanding of the president's broader policy when it comes to protecting Americans at home and abroad from all acts of terrorism."

Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief executive with no prior government experience, has expressed mainstream Republican views on many foreign policy issues and has lost some internal policy battles such as whether to remain a party to the landmark Paris climate accord.

"I don't see any division," between Trump's nationalist advisers and his more mainstream aides, Tillerson said Sunday.

He added: "I think it's a question of tactics and how you achieve those objectives. I think the president has been clear in his speech in Afghanistan that we are not undertaking nation-building," as Gorka and others have charged.

On North Korea, Tillerson said the nation's missile tests don't necessarily mean that Kim Jong Un's regime is thumbing its nose at the offer of negotiations with the United States.

"Clearly, they are still messaging us, as well, that they are not prepared to completely back away from their positions," Tillerson said. "We continue to want the Kim regime to understand there is a different path that he can choose."

The launch of three short-range missiles Saturday followed statements from Trump and Tillerson last week that took note of what Tillerson called recent "restraint" on the part of Pyongyang.

Until the launch, which came Friday night in the United States, North Korea had not launched any missiles since the unanimous approval of new United Nations Security Council sanctions three weeks ago. That caused Trump to say that North Korea was finally "starting to respect us."

"I don't know that we're wrong," Tillerson said. "It's going to take some time to tell."
After attacking pretty much everybody else, President Donald Trump is now battling his own party. In recent days, Trump has upped the infighting ante, openly tangling with the GOP leaders of the House and Senate, along with vulnerable Sen. Jeff Flake and now Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who had questioned Trump's "stability" as president last week.

Trump's most significant feud, for the moment, is with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The New York Times described it in detail last week - complete with Trump having "berated" McConnell and McConnell doubting whether Trump's presidency is salvageable. Trump previously even suggested McConnell might have to resign if he can't whip the Senate into shape. Now he's blaming him for both failing to replace Obamacare and the current budgetary "mess."

I wouldn't be the first to note that it seems, well, counterproductive to attack your own party's leaders. It's entirely possible that this is Trump simply trying to motivate his team in his own divisive, Trump-ian way. It's also possible he's just lashing out and doesn't actually have a plan.

But there's also an Option C here. What if Trump, fed up by a lack of progress and fealty, is ready to take on his own party? What if, having systematically attacked what seems like every other institution involved in American government - the judiciary, the intelligence community, the press, the election process, law enforcement, Congress - he's now set to attack and undermine the institution whose nomination he commandeered to obtain the presidency? What if he simply ditched the Republican Party, either officially or in spirit?

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It's not entirely far-fetched. This is a guy who has changed his party affiliations repeatedly, after all. And while Trump would seem to be throwing in the towel on his and the GOP's agenda - with Republican congressional majorities, no less - this is a man who doesn't lack for self-confidence and isn't afraid to fire people when things go wrong. Why should the GOP be immune to being fired?

"I've seen this as the inevitable outcome for some time now," said Rick Wilson, a Trump-antagonizing GOP consultant based in Florida. "Trump was never a Republican to begin with; the GOP was a flag of convenience."

The biggest question in the near term, from Trump's perspective, would be what it does to his legislative agenda. But if the GOP-controlled Congress isn't getting things done anyway - and if McConnell refuses to do what Trump asks and nuke the 60-vote threshold for legislation - Trump could decide: What's the difference? The official GOP tried to stand in his way during the 2016 campaign, and he won anyway. Why couldn't he just go it alone again? And what good are they to him if they can't pass his agenda?

But then we get into his re-election hopes. Assuming Trump plans to run again in 2020, ditching the GOP officially would mean he would have to run in what would likely be a three-way contest - a three-way contest that would risk creating chasms in the Republican Party and giving Democrats a much easier path to victory. That would seem to work against both his and the party's interests in a big way.

"If Trump were to leave the party, the immediate impact would be very problematic for fundraising efforts at the RNC - and dry up his fundraising for his super PAC," said one national GOP operative granted anonymity for a candid take.

Another GOP consultant said, while he viewed this situation as unlikely, it would be "cataclysmic" and would split the party in three. "Thirty percent would be (angry) as hell and mad at him, 30 percent would go with him," and the rest would be up for grabs, the consultant said.

Those divisions already lie somewhat beneath the surface, but there are cracks starting to show in Trump's base (as Trump's own pollster has confirmed). Polls show between 75 and 80 percent of Republicans still approve of Trump, but some of that approval is soft, with slightly more than half of Republicans "strongly approving" - 53 percent in one poll and 61 percent in another. That seems about as good a measure of who might stick by Trump if he went the independent route, at least initially.

Beyond that, Trump's decision to actually leave the GOP could alienate longtime Republican voters who would begin to doubt his conservatism in a way they previously hadn't - as could months and years of a lack of progress on conservative agenda items. Trump's conservative bona fides have never been great, and without the GOP label or major conservative accomplishments to speak of, that may be driven home.

"The conservatives - ideological ones, especially those within the Christian conservative movement - would fall in line behind the GOP," said the national GOP operative. "The 'alliance' with Trump was never a comfortable one; the biggest split would be between those activists more motivated by rhetoric than substance."

However the party fractures, we're already seeing how deep those fractures could be. Recent polling from Democratic-leaning automated pollster Public Policy Polling has shown more than 60 percent of Trump's base turning on both Flake and McConnell in Arizona and Kentucky, respectively. We'll have to see if other polling confirms it, but these data suggest huge peril in Trump pitting his supporters against Republicans in Congress.

In addition, a poll released Thursday showed 53 percent of GOP voters in Republican districts said their members hadn't been supportive enough of Trump. If Trump says the GOP is failing him, plenty will believe it.

And you can pretty much guarantee that plenty of Republicans would stick with Trump no matter what, not least because he would be the incumbent president running for re-election. The question would be whether Trump or the GOP nominee would have any real shot against a Democrat who could pull 40-45 percent of the vote without really breaking a sweat.

But even if the GOP split 75/25 in Trump's favor or 75/25 against him, that's still very bad for the general election. Seventy-five percent of the 46 percent that Trump took in the 2016 election is nowhere close to enough to win the presidency.

Which is to say that leaving the GOP wouldn't seem to be a rational move when it comes to Trump's hopes for re-election. But all that's assuming that he's thinking rationally about running again - and that he's thinking about running again, at all.

"For him to run as an independent would require creating a massive financial and political infrastructure, but his ego is such that he'd shrug and laugh," Wilson said. "It would destroy the GOP, but he's well on the way to doing that already."
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Sunday said his government would not provide compensation for law-breaking Dera followers who died in the violence sparked by the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for rape.

Amarinder Singh in Balluana, Bhatinda where an abortive attempt was made to burn a railway station on Friday (Photo: India Today/Prabhjot Gill)

By India Today Web Desk: Punjab will not provide compensation for Dera Sacha Sauda followers who died in the Panchkula violence if they were part of the mob that instigated the unrest, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh indicated on Sunday.

At least 38 people were killed and over 200 more were injured in clashes with security forces after Dera followers went on a rampage following the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the sect's chief, for rape.

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Captain Amarinder Singh was reported as saying by news agency IANS that that his government will not provide compensation for law breakers from Punjab who had died in Friday's violence. The Punjab CM was speaking during a Punjab's Malwa region, which saw sporadic violence including an attempt to burn a railway station in Bhatinda, according to the IANS report.

Out of the 38 deaths in violence in Haryana in wake of the CBI special court verdict convicting the Dera chief for rape, 11 people have been identified so far as being from Punjab.

CM Amarinder Singh also, once again, subtly blamed his Bharatiya Janata Party counterpart in Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, for Friday's violence, saying that the main cause of the trouble was allowing such a large crowd to gather in Panchkula ahead of the court verdict.

Khattar has attracted criticism from several quarters that he failed to make adequate arrangements to deal with the violence that follow Ram Rahim's conviction. Khattar, while admitting that there were lapses, said that all arrangements had been made. He also said that those who had taken the law into their hands would be punished.

Meanwhile, Haryana is gearing up for Ram Rahim's sentencing, which is expected tomorrow. A special Central Bureau of Investigation court is expected to pronounce the sentence on Monday amid tight security in Rohtak.

While the CBI court is located in Panchkula, Haryana, where most of the violence and deaths were seen on Friday, the sentence will be pronounced inside the Rohtak jail where Gurmeet Singh is currently being held.

(With agency inputs)

ALSO READ | Ram Rahim sentencing: Shoot-at-sight orders around Rohtak jail premises

ALSO READ | Ram Rahim's rape was pardon: The guru's gufa and maafi of a sex fiend

ALSO WATCH | Meet CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh who convicted Ram Rahim Singh

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: By Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Aug 26 (PTI) Bangladesh said today it will not allow any more Rohingyas to enter the country which is already hosting about 400,000 Myanmar nationals who have caused "massive" social, economic and environmental problems.

The Foreign Ministry summoned the Myanmar envoy in Dhaka and expressed "serious concern" over the recent happenings, including the new clashes between security forces and Rohingya militants that have killed 89 people and forced thousands of civilians - Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine - to flee their homes in the northern Rakhine State.

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Rakhine State which is home to more than a million ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims has been the epicentre of religious violence since 2012. The Rohingyas are perceived as illegal immigrants in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

"Bangladesh stressed on the need for respecting the state responsibility to protect its civilian population and urges Myanmar to ensure appropriate protection and shelter for the unarmed civilians especially the vulnerable segments of the population such as women, children and elderly people," Bangladeshs Foreign Office said in a statement.

The statement was issued shortly after Myanmar envoy in Dhaka met Secretary for Asia & Pacific region Mahbub Uz Zaman at foreign ministry to discuss the "evolving situation" in the Rakhine State.

"The Secretary emphasised on addressing the root cause of the protracted problem through a comprehensive and inclusive approach," it said.

Zaman said that thousands of unarmed civilians including women, children and elderly people from the Rakhine State had assembled close to the border and were making attempts to enter Bangladesh.

"He expressed serious concern at the possibility of recurrence of such a situation as Bangladesh already hosts about four hundred thousand Myanmar nationals," it said.

The development came as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) today pushed back scores of Rohingyas and halted hundreds of others on the frontiers.

Officials at southeastern Coxs Bazar bordering Rakhine said BGB troops sent back 73 Rohingyas while intensifying their vigil along the 64-kilometre long frontier, a day after 176 ethnic Muslim minority Rohingyas were returned.

"We have sent back 73 more of them today," BGBs Battalion 2 commander Lieutenant Colonel SM Ariful Islam told PTI.

The Rohingyas were returned with a "humane" approach, said Cox?s Bazar deputy commissioner Ali Hossain, adding that Bangladesh was unable to offer them refuge as "we are already overburdened with thousands of Rohingyas who caused us massive social, economic and environmental problems".

Police have issued a stern warning against offering assistance to Rohingyas.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar army said today that the death toll from attacks staged by "Rohingya insurgents" yesterday climbed to 89, including 12 members of the security forces.

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Rohingyas are Muslim Indo-Aryan people from the Rakhine State in Myanmar. According to the Rohingyas and some scholars, they are indigenous to Rakhine State, while other historians claim that the group represents a mixture of precolonial and colonial immigrations.

The official stance of the Myanmar government, however, has been that the Rohingyas are mainly illegal immigrants who migrated into Arakan following Burmese independence in 1948 or after the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. PTI AR MRJ AKJ MRJ

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Blinking furiously from the rain outside, firefighters in Bastrop County set up caution tape on Shiloh Road off Highway 21.

In an attempt to cross a low-lying bridge, a pickup truck was swept up and submerged in flood waters. The occupants attempted to pull it out with a towline but had no luck.

Ive been here 10 years and I havent see it this bad, said Ellen Wilford, who lives near the bridge. (The water level) has never come up that far.

Earlier Sunday morning, Randi Fishbeck, Bastrop Countys public information officer, reported nine inches of rain in the Western side and more than 19 inches on the South East side.

And it has continued to rain so Im sure those totals have gone up, she said. Were still preparing for flooding and treating it as the important event it is.

The air in the city was thick and dank on Sunday, with frequent gusts of wind and a continuous drizzling rain. The mildly stormy weather could have been deceiving if you looked at it through a window in your home, but take to the streets and the fields are flooded, and several streets are blocked from high water levels.

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The countys Twitter page advised all residents to avoid the roads, due to extremely hazardous life-threatening conditions.

The county currently has two shelters open, at the First United Church in Bastrop and the Smithville Recreation Center in Smithville. The county was expecting to open a third shelter at 3 p.m. today at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Elgin.

School is canceled Monday at all of the countys school districts. Fishbeck said its still important for residents to take the storm very seriously, and try to avoid going outside as much as possible.

Wilford said her neighbors, whose pickup was flooded, should have heeded that advice.

They think theyre infallible, she said.

She hasnt left her home since word got out about the hurricane, dubbed Harvey, which is now a tropical storm.

Its like, if were going to be stuck here, we might as well stock-up on food and be stuck, she said.

Bastrop County was added Sunday night to the list of state disaster declarations, Sen. Kirk Watson said Sunday at a Bastrop County press briefing.

The announcement came after what County Judge Paul Pape called record numbers of rainfall for the county.

Through Saturday night, the county received between nine to 18 inches of rainfall, said county officials.

Evidence of the deluge was just feet away from the 5 p.m. press briefing, where the Colorado River had swelled up over the banks and inundated Fishermans Park, submerging the playground and trees. The view from the bridge made for a lonely scene in Bastrop, where scant people were seen and a dismal heaviness hung in the air.

This monster has done enormous damage to our state and the people of our state. And its not over, said Watson. This is something were going to be dealing with for a while. So lets hold our family members, Texans, in our thoughts and prayers.

Some areas were worse than others. More than 20 inches of rainfall fell over the city of Smithville, and staff measured more than 24 inches in their own homes, Pape said. Cedar Creek experienced over 19 inches, he said.

The county barricaded 120 roads because of storm-related damages, and officials urged citizens to take heed of these closures.

Were encouraging our citizens to honor those barricades and not do anything that would impinge their own health or anyone elses, Pape said.

Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook said eight people were arrested on Sunday for ignoring the barricades. Its considered a Class B misdemeanor, he said, punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Whenever people violate the barricades, they put themselves in jeopardy and they put first responders in jeopardy, he said. We want to emphasize were there for their safety.

This is not a video game, this is real life, emphasized Pape. And you really do drown, and you die, if you get into these flood situations.

Overall, Sunday was a good day for Bastrop County. Only one to two inches of rain were added throughout the day and no new evacuations had been listed as of Sunday evening.

Things have improved since this morning, said James Gabriel, emergency operations coordinator for the county. Weve significantly reduced the amount of power outages in Bastrop County.

As of 5 p.m. he said there were about 15 power outages county-wide, affecting 100 residential customers.

Emergency operations received seven calls during the day and two of them were water rescues, saidFishbeck, Bastrops public information officer.

Gabriel cautioned about getting too optimisticfurther flooding and damages could still be on the horizon for Bastrop County.

We still have threats of bad weather for our county, rain is still falling and its troublesome, Gabriel said.

The Colorado River is expected to crest at 1 p.m. Monday at 28.9 feet, or 41,900 cubic feet per second, Pape said. And in Smithfield, the river is expected to crest at 2 a.m. with 31.7 feet of water at a rate of 73,500 cubic feet per second.

It is in situations like this that I believe Texans show the best in themselves, Watson said. And we are seeing that right here.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net

Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF
Now Playing: Coast Guard rescued four people in distress aboard the vessel Signet Enterprise near Port Aransas, Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. A Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew launched to assist the people in distress. Video: San Antonio Express-News

Officials say the U.S. Coast Guard has rescued at least 20 people in various incidents as Harvey came through Texas.

Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector, said Saturday that two helicopters managed to rescue 18 people  three people from a fishing boat, four from a barge and 11 from two tugboats  when it became safe enough to do so.
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On Friday morning, several Hurricane Harvey evacuees stood outside a shelter, smoking cigarettes to pass the time and calm their nerves.

"I am very stressed," said Sonia Trejo, 35. "I was emotional, anxious. Everything is kicking in, but I can only hope for the best."

Trejo said she and her three children took a bus from Corpus Christi to San Antonio on Thursday. She arrived at the shelter around 1:30 a.m. and plans to stay there until authorities tell her it is okay to return home.

RELATED: Photos show Hurricane Harvey beginning to make landfall on Texas

Now Playing: Harvey storms across Texas Video: San Antonio Express-News

Hurricane Harvey isn't her first experience with natural disasters. She said she was stuck in San Marcos for two days with no electricity following the Memorial Day floods in 2015. Everything she owned was destroyed.

So, when authorities notified her that she could take a bus with her and her family to San Antonio, she jumped on the opportunity.

"I was ready," she said. "Oh god, I was ready to go."

More for you Texas couple finds ring lost in tornado, immediately gets engaged

As of about 3 p.m. Friday 700 evacuees had arrived in San Antonio.

About 200 hospital patients had also been evacuated from Corpus Christi.

Over 100 buses sat in a parking lot of the AT&T Center ready for deployment to the Corpus Christi area to pick up evacuees when necessary.

Any evacuees coming to San Antonio that need a place to stay are asked to first visit the check in center in the 200 block of Gembler Road, where they will be assigned to a shelter somewhere in the city.

The buses are using the AT&T Center parking lot as a refueling station before making the trip back to the coast to pick up more evacuees and bring them to San Antonio.

RELATED: Forecasts, closures and other things to know on Friday about Hurricane Harvey

According to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, San Antonio has 6,000 beds prepared for the evacuees.

Harvey isn't the first natural disaster evacuee Jeff Blevins, 43, has dealt with either. Just months ago, he was evacuated from his home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when a raging fire ripped through the area, destroying 17,000 acres.

Blevins and his family had just moved to Corpus Christi on Tuesday.

"Today we were going to get our P.O. Box," he said, laughing.

On Thursday, Blevins loaded his belongings and family into a car and headed north, like so many others fleeing the oncoming storm.

RELATED: Here are all the places being evacuated due to Hurricane Harvey

"It was crazy," Blevins said of the traffic on the route to San Antonio. "We had to stop for a while. We just pulled of to one of the picnic areas and waited."

They made it to San Antonio around 1 a.m. and navigated to the shelter using the Red Cross's app. He said he plans to stay at the shelter for as long as he needs to keep his family safe.

Hurricane Harvey is expected to make landfall Friday night as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing with it winds over 100 mph on the Coast.

Bexar County is under a tropical storm warning and a local disaster declaration, meaning the city's emergency operations center has been activated so officials can quickly send resources to respond to the storm.

Text "HARVEY" to 77453 for the latest Hurricane Harvey updates from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
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CUERO  Despite the milder evening in DeWitt County on Saturday, local officials warned that the worst is yet to come.

The storm is not gone. We'll continue to get rain and winds for the next 48 hours, said Cyndi Smith, spokeswoman for DeWitt County's emergency operations center.

By Tuesday, the Guadalupe River is expected to reach dangerously high levels, flooding many of the homes that were affected in the historic 1998 flooding.

The areas that were hit by that flood were identified for mandatory evacuations within the county. Cuero officials instituted a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

RELATED: Storm past, Guadalupe River towns brace for flooding

The official National Weather Service gauge in Cuero logged just 2.84 inches from 10 p.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Saturday, but surrounding areas were seeing up to 10 inches, officials said. Rain in neighboring Gonzales had reached 8.49 inches from 7 p.m. Friday to 9 p.m. Saturday, with isolated areas seeing 10 inches.

Now Playing: Harvey storms across Texas Video: San Antonio Express-News

In every direction around Cuero except southwest, there has been heavy rain, said NWS meteorologist Trevor Boucher. And theres a lot more to come. This (Harvey) is not going to be moving a whole lot over the next few days.

Boucher said there had been at least three high water rescues reported to the weather service in Bastrop and Caldwell counties.

The winds in Cuero that had earlier in the day reached 100 miles per hour were back to a strong but steady 65 miles per hour. But the destruction from Harvey, which was still a category hurricane when it churned through Cuero, is everywhere.

While it may look safe to be out, it's not, Smith said.

Smith said trees and power lines will continue to fall because the ground has been loosened from all the rain.

RELATED: At least 1,000 evacuees take shelter in San Antonio

Well into Saturday night, crews were repairing a dialysis center that had lost power.

Earlier in the day, about 150 people were forced to evacuate from a collapsing hotel. They were sent to the county's shelter, located at Cuero Intermediate School.

Many of the evacuees at the shelter said the Red Cross wasn't prepared for the number of people seeking shelter from the floods.

Red Cross and county officials said the shelter is in desperate need of non perishable foods and other snacks for the evacuees, who will be staying there for an indeterminate amount of time.

All we're hearing is the bad stuff, and then we have to try to keep calm, said Brandi Patterson, 24, one of those who took shelter at the school. We're scared we're not going to have a home anymore. It's terrifying.

sfoster-frau@express-news.net
About 50 women and children were stranded in San Antonio over the weekend after being released from immigration detention centers, according to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

The families had been held in the two family detention centers near San Antonio on Friday afternoon and were released at the bus station downtown after some buses out of the city had been canceled, said Barbie Hurtado, a spokeswoman for RAICES.

Unlike the incident last year in which 200 women and children were stranded in San Antonio without bus or airplane tickets, these families had bus tickets, Hurtado said. However, cancellations because of Hurricane Harvey, which has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, left them with no way of leaving the city and they didnt have money for lodging.

City officials and aid workers from the Interfaith Welcome Coalition were able to find the families shelter in a local church, Hurtado said.

They were really exhausted, she said. After everything theyve gone through  they still cant get to their families because of this horrible storm, so they cant leave.

Some of the immigrants were able to leave Sunday morning when bus service resumed northbound, Hurtado said, but six families remained in the shelter early Sunday afternoon. Hurtado said the women were not willing to comment because they were frightened.

Lori Chigdey, executive director of Corazon Ministries, said her group worked with the citys office of emergency management and the San Antonio Food Bank to provide the families with three meals a day, showers, a laundry service and hygiene supplies.

All the immigrants that ICE transferred Friday morning to the Greyhound station in San Antonio had confirmed tickets and itineraries, said Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, in a written statement.

Throughout the process, ICE remained in close contact with bus officials to ensure bus availability, and all aliens had confirmed bus transportation at the time at which ICE officers departed the station, Pruneda said. Ultimately, ICE kept two additional families in custody since their bus trip had been canceled.

The 1,400-bed family detention center in Dilley and a similar 800-bed facility in Karnes City are the only ones of their kind in the nation. They were opened in 2014 in response to large numbers of Central American families crossing the border and requesting asylum. The controversial centers have been the subject of a number of lawsuits, and after a 2015 ruling by a federal judge most families that request asylum are held for about three weeks then released to pursue their immigration court cases while living in the U.S.

While ICE regularly releases them in San Antonio, most go to join family elsewhere in the country.

Staff writer Alia Malik contributed to this article.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch
Police are searching for a suspect who allegedly approached a man sitting on his porch early Sunday, stabbed him in the neck and then fled.

The suspect, who has not been identified at this time, stabbed the victim around 1:30 a.m. at a home in the 200 block of Division Avenue on the city's South Side.
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San Antonio will continue to receive light rain and wind Sunday as Tropical Storm Harvey hovers east of Bexar County, dropping huge amounts of rain despite weakening significantly since making landfall.

Meteorologists say the San Antonio International Airport has recorded only 1.61 inches of rain so far, with Live Oak recording 2.7 inches of rain. On the North Side, Hollywood Park received 3.96 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Areas of eastern Bexar County have received a "significant amount more than that," according to Yvette Benavides with the National Weather Service.

RELATED: Evacuees take shelter at Cuero school, brace for the worst

Now Playing: Harvey storms across Texas Video: San Antonio Express-News

Benavides said there's still a chance San Antonio could see heavy rains and possible flooding, but the unpredictable nature of Harvey's path makes it difficult to say for sure whether the storm will get any worse in the area.

"It's really not moving at the moment," she said. "It just kind of wobbles back and forth, and that makes it a little difficult to determine how much the city will get."

The service forecasts a 90 percent chance of rain throughout Sunday with thunderstorms possible into Sunday night.

Bexar County remains under a flash flood watch until Wednesday at 7 p.m., and the county is still under a tropical storm warning.

East of Bexar is a different story as Harvey has stalled and is punishing the area with heavy rain. The NWS is warning residents in Gonzalez and DeWitt counties that heavy rainfall could last through Wednesday, which could cause "devastating mainstem river flooding."

RELATED: Port Aransas officials launch rescue operation after 'major damage,' mayor says

About 10 to 15 inches of rain, with isolated pockets of up to 19 inches, has already fallen east of the Interstate 35 corridor in Bastrop, Fayette, Lavaca and Caldwell counties. An additional 10 to 15 inches of rain is expected east of I-35 and I-37 through Wednesday.

Gonzalez County could also receive 30 to 50 mph winds, carrying with them the possibility of scattered power and communication outages.

North of San Antonio in San Marcos, officials opened a shelter late Saturday night and Kristi Wyatt, city communications director, said four people had checked in and that the shelter would remain open throughout Sunday.

Wyatt said no major flooding was reported in the area.

Kharley Smith, emergency management coordinator for Hays County, said there have been a few water rescues scattered throughout the county, but overnight the situation was "relatively calm."

Further east, Houston has received an astounding 20 to 30 inches of rain, and The Houston Chronicle is reporting five flood-related deaths.

"It's catastrophic, unprecedented, epic -- whatever adjective you want to use," Patrick Blood, a meteorologist with NWS, told the Houston Chronicle about the flooding. "It's pretty horrible right now."

RELATED: Reports: One person dead in Rockport as Harvey hit Coast

First responders have rescued hundreds of Houston residents and have had to evacuate two apartment complexes in a neighborhood north of the city.

San Antonio Fire Department Spokesman, Woody Woodward, said the department is sending firefighters to Houston to assist with storm-related emergencies. No hard details were yet available.

One person was also killed in Rockport after Harvey made landfall Friday night and about a dozen others were injured.

Bexar County largely avoided any serious damage, with the exception of a few downed trees and malfunctioning street lights.

Fifteen roads throughout the northern areas of San Antonio remain closed due to the possibility of flooding, and about 600 residents on the city's North Side were without power as of 6:15 p.m.

Benavides advised San Antonians to stay vigilant. The city has avoided the brunt of the storm for the time being, but everyone should try to stay up to date, because weather conditions are constantly changing she said.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Benavides said.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns

Staff writer Kelsey Bradshaw contributed to this story
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San Antonians went to grocery stores across the city to stock up on bottled water and canned goods in preparation for Hurricane Harvey, which was upgraded to a Category 4 storm by 6 p.m. Friday.

But locals visiting the Whole Foods Market in The Quarry weren't all that concerned about what the National Weather Service has called the "life-threatening" and "devastating" amount of water headed their way.

RELATED: Hurricane Harvey begins making its mark on Texas Gulf Coast

"Hopefully the power doesn't go out," said Jack Whitten of Houston. "We'll watch some TV, hang out. Just have a chill weekend."

Whitten's visiting San Antonio for the weekend, and he said the city is far enough inland for him to not take Harvey "too seriously."

"People just need to learn not to drive through water and not be stupid," he said.

Now Playing: Harvey storms across Texas Video: San Antonio Express-News

Paige Rodriguez, who was seen stocking up on water and canned goods, said she lived in Houston through Katrina and Ike.

"It was my friends who were like, 'Why haven't you stocked up on water and canned goods?!'" she said. "Personally, I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal."

Rodriguez said she watched the weather radars on the news Thursday evening, but on Friday, she was more concerned whether or not her kids would get out of school early.

"We're so far inland," she said. "We're gonna be fine. But we'll see."

One person who was taking Harvey seriously was Bobby Contreras, the senior pastor of Alamo Heights Baptist Church, who was on his fourth water run to Whole Foods on Friday.

"We're just getting the church ready for, really, more so after the storm," he said. "We're preparing how we serve best once the storm is done and the rain has subsided."

RELATED: NWS: Harvey could generate tornadoes east of Bexar County

Contreras said his church has a pantry they'll be pulling from to cook food for whoever needs it, space for anyone needing last minute shelter and, if the electricity doesn't go out, outlets to charge their phones.

In addition to serving as senior pastor at Alamo Heights Baptist Church, Contreras also works for the non-profit Blueprint Ministry, which serves socio-economically disadvantaged areas of San Antonio.

"My mind is definitely on them right now, too," he said, referring to the people he works with through the non-profit.

Dozens of H-E-B and Walmart stores have shut down businesses along the coast so that they can keep stores in San Antonio and Austin stocked with water and other vital supplies.

H-E-B has deployed mobile emergency response units around the city. The units include mobile kitchens and pharmacies, as well as generators and water tanks.

Walmart's emergency operation center in Arkansas is communicating with stores in Texas to determine where to send water, fuel and other supplies.

"You're working with traffic, you're working with weather," said spokesman Reagan Dickens. "You're working with high winds, high waters. The timelines (to restock) are a little more difficult to predict."

RELATED: Meteorologist: S.A. area residents should prepare for 'record-setting historic event'

First responders are taking Harvey seriously as well, having set up a command center at the AT&T Center grounds with room for up to 300 first responders. Trucks stocked with food and medicine are ready to deploy to the Texas coast, as are buses ready to bring back evacuees.

"We're preparing for what we would consider to be the worst case scenario," said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, "and that's really heavy rainfall and evacuees coming in."

Staff writers Joshua Fechter and David Hendricks contributed to this report.

Text HARVEY to 77453 to receive instant alerts on the massive Texas storm.

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Aug 27 (PTI) The visit of a top US official overseeing South Asian affairs to Pakistan has been postponed, the Foreign Office said today, amid indications that Islamabad was still evolving a response to Trump administrations new Afghan strategy.

Alice Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs and acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was scheduled to visit Islamabad next week, but the visit has been put off by the Pakistan government "until a mutually convenient time."

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The Foreign Office did not give any reason for postponing the visit.

But government sources said Islamabad was still evolving a response to the US accusations that Pakistan was providing safe havens to militants and prolonging the US 16-year Afghan war.

It would be "premature" to interact with the senior US State Department official at this time, they added.

Wellss visit would have been the first by any US official after US President Donald Trump unveiled the new policy for Afghanistan and the larger South Asian region.

The Pakistan government has tasked Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to garner support from friendly countries. He is expected to visit China, Russia and Turkey next week in the first phase of the countrys regional diplomatic outreach.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday visited Saudi Arabia and held talks with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

News reports in Pakistan said he was accompanied by Asif on the trip and discussed the US new Afghan strategy there.

The Pakistan-US ties received a fresh jolt yesterday when Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, claimed in a TV interview that his country was aware of Afghan Taliban leaderships presence in Peshawar and Quetta.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied it hosts the Taliban.

Today, Asif said the Afghan Taliban were the US and Afghanistans problem, not Pakistans.

He told reporters in Sialkot that Pakistan has been hosting the Afghan refugees for decades and the US "should help to repatriate them back to Afghanistan if they do not trust us." PTI SH ABH

--- ENDS ---
Turn on the news or read a newspaper opinion page and you are likely to see residents and writers urge the Legislature to do its job and pass a state budget. Theyre right. Our state desperately needs a budget.

However, the whole Legislature didnt fail to pass a budget. One party, the Democrat majority party, failed.

Connecticut Republicans proposed multiple budgets and offered revisions throughout the year. Our proposals would increase funding for education and protect services for the most vulnerable. We offered structural changes to achieve savings without tax increases.

When Democrats failed to produce their own budget, we offered to work with them to update our budget with their suggestions. We called for votes on our budgets and the governors budget. Republicans have done everything possible to move the legislature to act.

But Democrat lawmakers shut all our efforts down. Despite electoral gains by Republicans, Democrats retain the slimmest of a majority in state government and, therefore, control of the process.

The most direct evidence of this is the hastily called session to approve nearly 30 state employee union agreements brokered by the governor. Not a single Republican voted for this 10-year, no layoff package. It still passed the Senate by a 19-18 vote.

Democrats can do the same with a budget. So, why have the governor and the majority party not called us to vote instead of purposely delaying funding for schools and social services?

It begs the question: Are they using our schools and property taxpayers as hostages to force wavering Democrats into approving even more and higher taxes to pay for those state labor contracts that will create future deficits?

That would be more of the same.

Democrats controlled this process for more than 38 years. Most recently, theyve had two terms of control of the legislative and executive branches of government simultaneously. This governor and Democrats had an historic opportunity to address Connecticuts fiscal problems and put it on sound financial footing. But that hasnt happened.

Last week, House Democrats released a new budget proposal that raises and expands the sales tax. Again, more of the same.

Increasing and expanding the sales tax is not the answer. Connecticut residents and businesses already are taxed too much! Additionally, those hurt most by this regressive measure will be seniors on fixed incomes and those with the lowest incomes.

Because the poor and fixed income residents have limited money to spend, they have to make every dollar count. Increasing the sales tax further limits what they can afford.

Additionally, an increase could reduce instead of increase sales tax revenues; much like increasing income tax rates caused taxpayer exoduses and eroding revenue.

Even the governor said he doesnt believe we should increase the sales tax. Ive heard similar rumblings from some of my Democratic colleagues. Which explains why we dont have a state budget.

Democrats have a majority, but a majority of Democrats cannot agree how to solve the states financial problems.

Democrats agreed on passing a labor agreement that leaves us with fewer options to close the budget deficit and makes it more difficult to provide the necessary services to vulnerable populations without tax increases.

The new House Democrat budget contains more than a sales tax increase and legislators need to study what is in it. However, we need to act fast.

Gov. Malloy has proposed stripping state education funding from 85 of Connecticuts 169 communities. Another 54 communities will have funding drastically reduced.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano asked the state Attorney General whether the executive order containing these draconian cuts is even legal. We believe its not.

As budget conversations continue, Republicans continue to advocate for the policies we outlined in our budgets. We continue to fight for a new, fair Education Cost Sharing formula, which distributes funding based on poverty, population, need and other factors without decimating our towns as Democrat proposals would.

Republicans have not prevented approval of a state budget. We stand by our proposals and continue to advocate for the states best interests. We wont stop until a new budget passes.

Sen. Toni Boucher is a Republican representing the 26th District of Bethel, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport and Wilton.
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Toyotas 1794 edition of the Tacoma pickup truck commemorates the year Juan Ignacio de Casanova received a grant for a fertile tract of land that would become the site of Toyotas truck factory in south Bexar County more than 200 years later.

It couldnt have been easy for Casanova or his son, who later took over the family ranch, to make a living while Mexico rebelled against Spain, followed by Texas rebelling against Mexico. But they persevered and the land remained in the familys hands until Toyota Motor Manufacturing purchased it in 2003.

It also wasnt easy for Texas to win the Toyota plant against intense competition from sites in several other southern states. Project Starbright, its code name, was the ultimate economic development prize, promising thousands of construction jobs, thousands more permanent jobs and a multi-billion-dollar impact on the Texas economy.

The competition drew in governors, congressmen and business titans from across the south. But Texas won the day in the end. It was a victory of cooperation, collaboration and creativity.

Before Toyota selected San Antonio for the plant, the ad hoc Team Toyota came together to tackle every possible obstacle. The team included representatives of the governors office, local elected officials, business leaders, lawyers, the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation and anyone who could help make the Texas pitch stronger. It was a testament to the Texas spirit  we pull together, we think big and we fight for Texas.

Winning the Toyota sweepstakes ushered in more than $2.7 billion in direct and indirect capital investment, and about 5,700 jobs from Toyota and its suppliers, the San Antonio Express-News reported in 2013. More recently, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the main plant and its surrounding suppliers employ almost 7,000 people.

Those investments and good-paying jobs have a ripple effect throughout Texas, adding significantly to the economic vitality of our state.

Toyotas commitment to Texas and our nation goes beyond jobs and the economy. The company has provided millions of dollars to support projects in education, quality of life and other priorities in Texas.

A full 15 years after Texas landed on the list of finalists for the giant plant now located in south San Antonio, youve probably heard that San Antonio is pursuing a new, $1.6 billion joint Toyota-Mazda plant. The new facility is expected to create about 4,000 jobs. Thats big.

Now is the time for Texas to come together again, marshal the resources and people necessary and go all-in to win the latest competition for a major new Toyota (and Mazda) plant. We have the huge advantages of 15 years experience working with Toyota and an existing plant with land and suppliers already in place.

All Texans should also rally behind Gov. Abbott using Texas Enterprise Fund money to help close the deal. The Enterprise Fund was created when the competition for the Tundra factory 15 year ago exposed the states lack of a deal-closing fund, which some other states already had.

Texas secured the Toyota Motor North America headquarters project in Plano, and its estimated 6,400 jobs, with help from a $40-million Texas Enterprise Fund grant. Lets use the fund again to seal the deal for the new Toyota-Mazda plant.

Besides cash, the secret sauce that won over Toyota back in 2003 was the cooperation, collaboration and creativity they saw in Texas. No doubt it was the same when Toyota announced in 2014 that it would move its U.S. headquarters to Plano. Its the Texas way  we love locking arms with our fellow Texans to make big things happen.

Lets pull out all the stops and add a new chapter  Toyota-Mazda  to the amazing success story that is Texas.

Weston Martinez is a member of the Texas Real Estate Commission and Vice President of Business Development at Patel Gaines , a Texas-based law firm.
Overall, Texas school districts fared well on the states accountability score card, but a continued effort is necessary to close the achievement gaps across all student populations. The need is to aim higher.

About 95 percent of the 2,010 school districts in Texas met the minimum standards of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which measures whether students have mastered the content of the state standards for each grade level or subject.

In Bexar County, all 16 traditional public school districts received passing grades, the Express-News reports. Still, many individual campuses came up short.

In the San Antonio Independent School District, for example, 19 of the inner-city districts 93 campuses received failing grades. To its credit, SAISD is on year two of an ambitious five-year plan to reform its education system. It is on a good trajectory, and we await the results of these changes.

The states ratings are based on overall student performance, year-to-year student progress, achievement of economically disadvantaged students and the lowest performing racial or ethnic groups, and postsecondary readiness.

Getting a passing grade on the STAAR ratings list reflects well on a school district, but that should not be the end goal. Texas public schools need to graduate students who are college ready or equipped to enroll in certificate programs to increase their marketability in the workforce. The economic future of our state is at stake.

For decades the focus was on increasing high school graduation rates. Today, Texas boasts one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country at 89 percent. That is quite an achievement, but young adults need more than a high school diploma for success in todays job market.

As a state we are doing a miserable job of preparing students for life beyond high school. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, approximately 60 percent of students who enroll in two-year college require remediation classes. At the four-year university level, where the admission requirements are more stringent, the remediation level is 18 percent.

There is no one clear-cut solution to the states education woes. It is going to take combined efforts to bring about the necessary changes.

Some of the new initiatives we are seeing are encouraging. Parents play a very important role in a childs education, and there are efforts to get them more involved. Earlier this summer, parents were mailed reports on their childrens STAAR scores in a more user-friendly format. In addition, the Texas Education Agency provided web links to aid parents in assisting their children in problem areas.

It is also promising to see more and more school districts focusing turnaround efforts on recruiting quality teachers and providing them the professional development and support necessary to retain them.

The focus needs to be beyond just having all campuses and school districts earn passing grades. What is the utility of a passing grade if too many students still arent college ready?

Texas students need a public school education that equips them to continue to the next level without having to take remedial classes to compensate for what they didnt learn in high school.
It was in a sack. Residents said the baby was found by someone who was collecting bottles for recycling. The man wanted to use the sack...
By PTI: (EDS: Adds US state dept statement)

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Aug 27 (PTI) The Pakistan visit of a top US diplomat overseeing South Asian affairs has been postponed, the Foreign Office said today, amid indications that Islamabad was still evolving a response to Trump administrations new Afghan strategy.

Alice Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs and acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was scheduled to visit Islamabad next week, but her visit has been put off by the Pakistan government "until a mutually convenient time".

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The Foreign Office did not give any reason for postponing the visit.

But government sources said Islamabad was still evolving a response to the US accusations that Pakistan was providing safe havens to militants and prolonging the US 16-year Afghan war.

It would be "premature" to interact with the senior US state department official at this time, they added.

In Washington, the state department confirmed Wells trip has been postponed at Pakistan governments "request", but it too did not provide any reason for delaying the visit.

Wellss visit would have been the first by any US official to Pakistan after President Donald Trump unveiled the new policy for Afghanistan and the larger South Asian region.

It was scheduled as part of her three-nation South Asia tour. She would continue with her trip to Dhaka and Colombo beginning tomorrow, according to the state department.

The Pakistan government has tasked Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to garner support from friendly countries. He is expected to visit China, Russia and Turkey next week in the first phase of the countrys regional diplomatic outreach.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday visited Saudi Arabia and held talks with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

News reports in Pakistan said he was accompanied by Asif on the trip and discussed the US new Afghan strategy there.

The Pakistan-US ties received a fresh jolt yesterday when Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, claimed in a TV interview that his country was aware of Afghan Taliban leaderships presence in Peshawar and Quetta.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied it hosts the Taliban.

Today, Asif said the Afghan Taliban were the US and Afghanistans problem, not Pakistans.

He told reporters in Sialkot that Pakistan has been hosting the Afghan refugees for decades and the US "should help to repatriate them back to Afghanistan if they do not trust us." PTI SH ABH

--- ENDS ---
(Natural News) In something along the lines of an early warning, researchers at the Seattle-based University of Washington claim that they can hack into a computer with a small strand of DNA.

The experts presented their findings about a potential DNA malware infection experiment at last weeks 26th USENIX Security Symposium in Vancouver.

The Daily Mail summarized the results of this malware vulnerability demonstration.

Scientists have synthesized a strand of DNA that can be used to hack computers in a world first. The malware was encoded into a gene and used to take over a computer that analyses DNA code. Scientists warn that cyber criminals could one day use faked spit or blood samples to steal information from police forensics labs, hack into university computers, or infect genome files shared by researchers.

In a paper published for the symposium, the authors underscore that significant expansion in DNA sequencing technology could have security implications:

To our knowledge, ours is the first effort to broadly consider this [DNA processing] pipeline, and the first to demonstrate a DNA-based exploit.

Some crime labs across the country have already been compromised for conventional reasons such as employee misconduct or incompetence, but the study authors caution that their DNA computer malware experiment is difficult to replicate, and that DNA sequencing is not under threat by hackers in the present day.

Even if someone wanted to do this maliciously, it might not work  but we found it is possible, co-author Lee Organick noted. Organick discusses the project in more detail in the video embedded below.

Lead author Tadayoshi Kohno explained that while the current threat is small, given the technology advancements that will emerge in the next decade or two, it is useful for his team and the scientific community in general to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, The Atlantic reported.

In their paper, the scientists suggest that DNA research facilities, genomic testing labs, and other such institutions should proactively upgrade their software security measures to protect against malicious code hacks of this kind that could alter or steal sensitive genetic data. (Related: Read more about DNA developments at Science.NaturalNews.com.)

Separately, Natural News made known a new study suggesting that scientists have no idea about the utility of about 75 percent of the human genetic code beyond the 10 to 25 percent that is considered functional based on current knowledge. Last year, Natural News also reported that the unintended consequences of genetic editing technology could pose a national security threat, according to the U.S. government. (Related: Read more about human genome sequencing at Biotech.news.)

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

DNASec.CS.Washington.edu

TheAtlantic.com
(Natural News) Taking medical cannabis may significantly reduce the need for prescription medications, a recent study revealed.

As part of research, a team of health experts at the University of New Mexico examined patients who voluntarily enrolled in the New Mexico state medical cannabis program. The patients were also on scheduled prescription medications.

Prescription drug use was reported to the New Mexico Prescription Monitoring Program. Opiates and benzodiazepines were among the most common drugs that the patients used.

According to the research team, patients enrolled in the medical cannabis program have significantly lower monthly average number of prescriptions than those who did not enroll in the program. Enrolled patients also reduced the types of prescription drugs they took as well as the number of prescribers and related pharmacy visits, the scientists noted.

In addition, the health experts found that up to 71 percent of enrolled patients either ceased or reduced their use of scheduled prescription drugs within six months following enrollment.

The study was slated for publication in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

Previous studies support link between cannabis use, lower Rx drug use

The recent results coincide with findings from two studies published last year.

In one study, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Medical School examined 185 patients from a medical marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor between November 2013 to February 2015.

The research team found that patients who took medical marijuana to treat chronic pain exhibited a 64 percent reduction in their use of more traditional, opioid-based medications. The experts also noted fewer side effects and a 45 percent increase in quality of life in patients who took medicinal cannabis.

Study lead author Kevin Boehnke stressed that the country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, and said that the findings may hopefully lead to discussions about cannabis being a potential alternative to opioid treatment.

We are learning that the higher the dose of opioids people are taking, the higher the risk of death from overdose. This magnitude of reduction in our study is significant enough to affect an individuals risk of accidental death from overdose. We hypothesized that cannabis might be particularly effective for the type of pain seen in conditions such as fibromyalgia, since there are many studies suggesting that synthetic cannabinoids work in these condition. We did not see this because the patients in this study rated cannabis to be equally effective for those with different pain severity, senior author Dr. Daniel Clauw said in a university release.

Another study showed U.S. states that legalized medicinal cannabis use saw a significant decline in prescription drug use among the elderly and disabled population.

As part of the study, researchers at the University of Georgia assessed prescription data for nine conditions  such as anxiety, depression, seizures and glaucoma  in which medicinal marijuana may be of great use. (Related: Cannabis Compounds Found To Be SUPERIOR To Migraine Drugs.)

The scientists found that fewer prescriptions were written for each condition except for glaucoma in states where medicinal cannabis was allowed. Researchers said medicinal cannabis lowers eye pressure in glaucoma patients, but the effects lasted for only an hour.

Study lead author Ashley Bradford said the results suggest that people are really using medicinal marijuana for health purposes and not just for recreation.

It turns out that glaucoma is one of the most Googled searches linked to marijuana, right after pain. No doctor is going to let [a glaucoma] patient walk out without being treated. When states turned on medical marijuana laws, we did see a rather substantial turn away from FDA-approved medicine. The results show that marijuana might be beneficial with diverting people away from opioids, study co-author David Bradford told CBC News online.

Sources include:

NewsWire.com

NS.UMich.edu

CBC.ca
The state of California is hiring for positions related to the legalization of recreational marijuana.

California voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in November 2016.

As of January 1, 2018, it will be legal for anyone over the age of 21 to possess, transport and buy up to 28.5 grams of marijuana for recreational use.



In preparation for a newly-regulated cannabis industry, state licensing authorities are looking for people to help with the ongoing regulatory process.

The positions are located throughout the state and require people with computer, science, health or legal backgrounds and skills.

The California Water Resources Control Board is looking for a senior legal analyst based in Sacramento who will manage the agencys handling of cannabis cultivators who cause damage to the environment. The annual salary for the position runs $60-70,000.

There is also a position available for an associate program analyst who will develop an inspection system for cannabis cultivation in Southern California and keep an eye on trends including crop size, plant variety, and pesticide use. The minimum annual salary for this position based in Riverside County will be $57,000.

The California Department of Public Health is searching for two environmental scientists to work in San Diego County for the Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch (MCSB). The person in this position will make sure manufacturers abide by cannabis laws and regulations including whether products are packaged appropriately and child-resistant. Annual salaries range from $41,000 to $80,000.

The division is also hiring a Senior Environmental Scientist based in Los Angeles County who will oversee the Inspection and Compliance Unit. This department will inspect cannabis manufacturers and make sure they are using good manufacturing practices.

Also, the California Department of Food and Agriculture is looking for someone to build the department's system to monitor cannabis licensing and activity. This systems software specialist will be based in Sacramento County and will make an annual salary of $72-95,000 a year.

The Department of Consumer Affairs is hiring multiple environmental scientists to review applicants and inspect cannabis labs. The positions are based in Sacramento County with the Bureau of Cannabis Control.



Find more jobs with the state through the California Jobs website.
Thirty undocumented immigrants suspected of trying to cross into the United States from Mexico through a hidden tunnel spanning the border were detained by authorities in San Diego Saturday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Eduardo Olmos told NBC 7 that U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted the large group at around 1:30 a.m. near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in south San Diego County, near the border crossing bridge off Britannia Boulevard and Otay Pacific Drive.

When the suspects realized they had been seen by the agents, many of them tried to flee by going back into the mouth of a tunnel that investigators said had been constructed for the purpose of illegally smuggling undocumented immigrants from Mexico into the U.S.

Border agents followed the group and detained several on the surface of the tunnel at Drucker Lane and Siempre Viva Road; others were detained inside the tunnel, officials said.

Of those detained, 23 were Chinese nationals and seven were Mexican nationals. They are now in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol pending further questioning.

According to investigators, the tunnel began in a building on Calle Mar Barmejo in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego and three miles from the border crossing bridge.

Mexican authorities are working the investigation on that side, at the building, trying to determine who is responsible for the build-out and operation of the smuggling tunnel.

On the U.S. side, at least one agent was seen Saturday manning the tunnel's exit, which was located just north of the secondary fence in the vicinity of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Olmos said CBP agents would stay in the area as long as needed to aid in the investigation.

As of 4 p.m., Olmos said no drugs had been discovered inside the tunnel.

Members of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), are currently on scene investigating.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice sent this statement to NBC 7 about the tunnel, which read, in part:



"While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics. However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling.

The probe into the newly discovered tunnel is ongoing and members of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force are coordinating closely with their law enforcement counterparts in Mexico on the investigation. Preliminarily it appears this latest tunnel may be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered and seized by Mexican authorities."
Several thefts occurred Saturday at BART stations throughout the Bay Area, according to police.

At 8:04 a.m., a victim reported that her iPhone 6 Plus was stolen from her at the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. The suspect, who was described as a man between 25 and 30 years old with dark skin and wearing all black clothing, fled toward Market and Spear streets, police said.

At 10:40 a.m., a police officer at the Hayward station spotted a theft suspect running and pursued him. The suspect threw down a stolen phone, which was recovered, and continued to flee, police said.

The suspect was described as a black male in his teens, 5 feet 5 inches tall with a thin build, wearing a puffy jacket and dark pants. He remains at large, police said.

At 3:32 p.m., a victim at the Coliseum station reported that a suspect stole their wallet and cellphone on a train.

According to police, the suspect was described as a black man with curly hair and he was sweating profusely. He was wearing a black jacket, possibly leather, and a black shirt. He remains at large, police said.

Another victim reported at 6:01 p.m. that $90 was stolen from her purse while she was on the Fremont-bound train between 19th Street and MacArthur Boulevard. She did not see the suspect take the money from her purse, police said.

At the Pittsburg/Bay Point station, a victim reported at 8:25 p.m. that her cellphone was stolen while she was walking through the station's parking lot.

The suspect, who is at large, was described as a black woman, late teens to early 20s, wearing a dark shirt and a backpack. She was last seen running toward Bailey Road, police said.

Police also reported that two vehicles were stolen at stations on Saturday. A 1999 Ford was reported stolen from the Pleasant Hill station and a 1996 Toyota Camry was reported stolen from the Richmond station police said.
A "No to Marxism in America" rally in Berkeley on Sunday has been canceled amid "violent threats," but preparations are still being made in the event that chaos breaks out.

Despite the cancellation, some Berkeley residents fear that violence will once again rear its head as it did in April when supporters and detractors of President Donald Trump clashed on city streets.

"I'm always concerned about the security and I'm planning to stay away," Liza Malm of Berkeley said.

The alt-right has backed off. Organizers of two Bay Area controversial and potentially contentious political rallies have cancelled. In San Francisco, the planned rally at Crissy Field is a no-go. But Alamo Square is in the change of plans has neighbors there nervous. NBC Bay Area's Thom Jensen is tracking the changes in Berkeley and Jean Elle provides the latest out of San Francisco.

In a statement issued Friday, Cummings, who still plans to go to the event by herself, expressed "grave concerns for the safety of people" who had planned to attend her 1 p.m. protest at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.

"I stress I DO NOT WANT ANYONE COMING and if they do you will be turned away, I'm sorry for this but I want this event to happen peacefully and I do not want to risk anyone getting harmed by terrorists," Cummings wrote.

Brandon Morgan of Berkeley is one of those who plans to steer clear of the potential rally area.

"We're planning on staying home, staying away," he said. "But we hope that the community coming together will dissuade people who want to come and be violent."

The gathering's alleged ties to white nationalists was criticized by Berkeley officials at a news conference Tuesday, where Cummings showed up unexpectedly.

"From what were seeing, people like Richard Spencer and Kyle Chapman  very sort of 'alt-right leaders'  that have been in Berkeley have said that they intend to come this weekend," Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said, urging city residents to avoid the park where the rally was expected to unfold.



Upon being lumped with hate groups, Cummings responded: "I do not support white supremacy. White supremacy is not allowed at our rally. We do not want racists there. We do not want hateful people there. We do not want violent people there. If anybody is coming with the intent of violence, do not come to my rally."

Despite her unequivocal position, Berkeley's Deputy City Manager Jovan Grogan on Thursday denied Cummings' permit request, citing several city codes that she had failed to meet with her application, including a lack of explanation for security arrangements and absence of emergency medical service coordination. Cummings issued another statement Saturday claiming that she asked Berkeley police to escort her to and from the event, but she says she was denied.

In her statement Friday, Cummings emphasized that a one-person rally, featuring just her, will still occur Sunday.

"If In the event I am hurt or killed attending this rally," she wrote, "I ask you to please not retaliate on each other as result of my injuries. Let my life be the last one lost and hopefully we can wake up to the fact that we are one America and it is time we stop allowing the extreme people on the Alt Left and Alt right instigate us into more violence."



The idea behind the rally  which was meant to encourage people to take a stance against political violence and Marxist ideology  has deen diluted, Cummings claimed.

"This all needs to stop and we need the violence to come to an end," she wrote. "I have concerns that Antifa and BAMN will attack my people attending the event and in good conscience I cannot risk this happening."

Cummings also accused Berkeley city leaders and police of preventing people from carrying gear that will allow them to protect themselves.

Since Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States, Berkeley has become a flashpoint of political unrest. People who oppose him rioted on Election Night.

On Tax Day, hundreds exchanged blows, burned flags, and set off fireworks at dueling rallies at which 20 people were arrested and 11 injured, police said.

"Past experience shows that Antifa has thrown rocks, (M-80) explosives, and many other dangerous items that could kill a person and without some protective gear that might happen and that concerns me," Cummings wrote.

Antifa  or "anti-fascist"  is the term recently used to describe groups, who are far left-leaning.

Cummings described them as "people that do not care who they attack. They attack our veterans, our police, elderly ... and I cannot and will not allow innocent people to be hurt or subjected to this violence."

Protesters, no matter what side of the political spectrum they fall on, she said, gather based on the knowledge that freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment  an issue that has earned Berkeley flak in recent months.

"In the past that has not been so and police were ordered to stand down," Cummings said.

Reiterating her plan to be at the MLK park by herself, Cummings noted that she does not feel alone.

"I know the American people are with me and stand with me in healing this nation and it needs to start somewhere," she said in conclusion. "I stand up for all the American people who want to heal this nation and stop the fighting. I stand for all of you and I wanna see both sides come together."

Seemingly undeterred by Cummings' announcement, Berkeley officials on Friday imposed rules on anyone who gathers at Civic Center Park. People are not allowed to affix signs or flags on sticks or poles, and masks, scarfs and bandanas are not permitted either.

A number of items have been identified as potential safety hazards and banned:
A variety of Bay Area labor and community organizations held a training session Friday in San Jose for volunteers to learn how to help immigrants and their families deal with the effects of a workplace immigration raid.

The event was officially hosted by Rapid Response Network, which consists of a group of community organizations in the South Bay. It was hosted at the Laborers Union 270 on 509 Emory St. in San Jose.

Volunteers trained around a simulated raid from Immigrations Customs and Enforcement at a workplace, at a home without a warrant and how to handle family members who may be traumatized after the raid occurs. It also focused on how to protect families at risk of deportation. A similar training event also took place in Orange County.

State Assemblymember Ash Kalra and Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese attended the event. Both have vocally denounced the increased raids from ICE under command from the Trump administration.

"The Trump Administration has its game plan and we have ours," Cortese said in a statement. "Along with the faith-based, labor, and immigrant communities, we have built a robust network of compassionate volunteers willing to drop whatever they are doing at a moment's notice and ensure the safety of all our residents in the event of an ICE raid. We will continue to resist and persist the politics of hate and fear."

Cortese also said the county has invested $100,000 through contracts in June to support the Rapid Response Network. In addition, the county has invested $3.5 million in contracts to legal service organizations to provide direct legal representation to individual immigrants who face detention or deportation.

Advocates were also expected to call on the California Legislature to pass AB 450, which will make it tougher for employers to allow federal agents to raid their workplaces without a warrant or subpoena.

According to a 2011 study by the Center for American Progress, mass deportations decrease employment 17.4 percent and cost the California economy $301.6 billion.
An inmate at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin has been charged with murder for the death of his cellmate last month, prosecutors said.

James Hunter, 22, was charged last month for allegedly killing Antonio Rodriguez, 27, and is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin, across the street from the jail, on Sept. 7 to enter a plea.

Authorities said Hunter had been in custody on $10,000 bail after being arrested in Berkeley June 27 for vandalism and Rodriguez had been in custody on attempted murder and firearms charges since August 2015.

Rodriguez was found unresponsive on the floor of his cell at about 4:40 p.m. on July 6 after a fellow inmate told a deputy to check on him, Deputy Anthony Moschetti wrote in a probable cause statement.

Jail medical services personnel responded but Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene,Moschetti said.

Medical personnel noticed marks on Rodriguez's neck indicating that his death may not have been from natural causes, according to Moschetti.

Deputies who investigated Rodriguez's death found Hunter, who was his cellmate, and Hunter admitted that he'd been involved in a physical altercation with Rodriguez and that he had knocked Rodriguez to the ground and choked him until he became unconscious, Moschetti wrote.

Authorities haven't disclosed a motive for the killing.

Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly wasn't immediately available for comment on why Rodriguez's death wasn't previously disclosed.
Thirty undocumented immigrants suspected of trying to cross into the United States from Mexico through a hidden tunnel spanning the border were detained by authorities in San Diego early Saturday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent Eduardo Olmos told NBC 7 that U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted the large group at around 1:30 a.m. near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in south San Diego County, near the border crossing bridge off Britannia Boulevard and Otay Pacific Drive.

Hidden Border Tunnel Found at Otay Mesa Crossing

When the suspects realized they had been seen by the agents, many of them tried to flee by going back into the mouth of a tunnel that investigators said had been constructed for the purpose of illegally smuggling undocumented immigrants from Mexico into the U.S.

Border agents followed the group and detained several on the surface of the tunnel at Drucker Lane and Siempre Viva Road; others were detained inside the tunnel, officials said.

Of those detained, 23 were Chinese nationals and seven were Mexican nationals. They are now in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol pending further questioning.

[DONT CHANGE MAIN HEADLINE] San Diego's Border Busts

According to investigators, the tunnel began in a building on Calle Mar Barmejo in the Garita de Otay area in Tijuana, approximately 328 feet south of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego and three miles from the border crossing bridge.

Mexican authorities are working the investigation on that side, at the building, trying to determine who is responsible for the build-out and operation of the smuggling tunnel.

On the U.S. side, at least one agent was seen Saturday manning the tunnel's exit, which was located just north of the secondary fence in the vicinity of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Olmos said CBP agents would stay in the area as long as needed to aid in the investigation.

As of 4 p.m., Olmos said no drugs had been discovered inside the tunnel.

Members of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), are currently on scene investigating.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice sent this statement to NBC 7 about the tunnel, which read, in part:



"While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics. However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling.

The probe into the newly discovered tunnel is ongoing and members of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force are coordinating closely with their law enforcement counterparts in Mexico on the investigation. Preliminarily it appears this latest tunnel may be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered and seized by Mexican authorities."

Customs and Border Patrol officials told NBC 7 in the last two years there has been an uptick in nationals from countries other than Mexico trying to enter the country illegally.


By PTI: cleanliness campaign

New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) More than 2,30,000 villages have been declared open defecation free and about 67 percent population has toilets now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today and asked people to undertake Cleanliness is Service campaign ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti.

He asked the people to undertake the campaign to give a push to the creation of an environment of cleanliness while marking the third anniversary of the launch of Swachch Bharat programme.

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"The campaign for Cleanliness which was initiated three years ago will be marking its third anniversary on the 2nd October. The positive results are now being seen," Modi said in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat.

"Toilets have increased from 39 percent to almost 67 percent of the population. More than 2,30,000 villages have declared themselves open defecation free," said the prime minister who had launched the campaign after coming to power.

He said the upcoming Gandhi Jayanti should be celebrated as "Swachch Do Aktoobar, Clean 2nd October".

"To this end, beginning 15th September, let us take the pledge of Swachchta Hi Seva (cleanliness is service). Take one or another step towards cleanliness. Make your effort to be a part of it. You will see how this Gandhi Jayanti shines," Modi told the people.

"You can imagine the inner bliss of paying homage to our revered Bapu, with 15 days of this cleanliness campaign Swachchta Hi Seva, when we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on the 2nd of October," he said.

He said the campaign should be undertaken on the lines of the age-old belief Jal Seva, Yahi Prabhu Seva (service of water is the service to God.

He suggested that the campaign, in the form of a movement, could be undertaken utilising the festivals like Diwali, Navratra and Durga Puja.

"Donate labour....I urge all NGOs, schools, colleges, social, cultural and political leaders, people in the government, collectors and sarpanches, to begin creating an environment of cleanliness at least 15 days ahead of Gandhi Jayanti so that it turns out to be the 2nd October of Gandhi?s dreams," Modi said.

He said social media could also be used to push the campaign which can also be undertaken in the form of essay competitions in any language, short film competitions and painting competitions.

The best three participants ? three at the district level, three at the state level will be given prizes, the prime minister said, inviting one and all to join the Cleanliness Campaign. PTI AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---

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Illinois' four top legislative leaders met in Springfield yet again Sunday to iron out details for the "historic" school funding reform deal ahead of a vote in the House.

Democratic leaders, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, met once more with their Republican counterparts, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady Sunday afternoon.

On Thursday, the leaders announced that they had reached a tentative agreement on education funding reform, though in the days since, some lawmakers have said they're anxious that that compromise may be in trouble.

Part of the agreement causing some turmoil is a potential tuition tax credit program that would give families sending their children to private schools tax credits.

Republican leaders Jim Durkin and Jim Brady are optimistic that the bill will pass, even with opposition from some progressive lawmakers and teachers unions over the $75 million in funding.

Those funds are earmarked for low and middle-income private school students, and parents like what they ve heard about the new funding.

Some progressive Democrats have positioned themselves against the program as well, while Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has also voiced his own criticisms of the deal as a whole.

Rauner told business leaders in southern Illinois Friday that lawmakers were "on the verge of what is largely good education funding reform," but again blamed Madigan for inserting "a bunch of bad things in it," like funding for Chicago Public Schools that the governor said "shouldn't go to Chicago."

"Its not fair but its going to end up being a compromise," Rauner said. "Its not where wed like it to be and what Ill try to do is fix the problems with it in subsequent legislation."

Other politicians, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, are in favor of the bill. Emanuel says that it gives Chicago Public Schools some of the fixes they've needed, including pension reform that has strangled the district's finances.

Specifics of the deal  hammered out through a series of closed-door meetings like the one on Sunday  have not yet been made public. Legislators were briefed on its broad details Friday, though the legislation has not been formally introduced.

The House is expected to vote on the plan Monday, followed by a vote on Tuesday in the Senate - which already overrode Rauner's amendatory veto, but would need to approve any further changes to the bill.

The leaders will return to Madigan's office on Monday morning at 9 a.m. to further discuss the bill.
Just days after lawmakers announced that they had reached a tentative agreement on education funding reform, that compromise appears to be getting pushback from both sides of the aisle.

After applauding the four top legislative leaders for "coming to a consensus" on Thursday, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner swiped at Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan the following day for putting "a bunch of bad things" into the deal.

Appearing before the Marion Chamber of Commerce, Rauner told business leaders in southern Illinois on Friday that lawmakers were "on the verge of what is largely good education funding reform" to fix Illinois' school funding system that has been found to be among the least equitable in the nation.

"The bad news is, Speaker Madigan's caucus took the bill and inserted a bunch of bad things in it," Rauner said. "Were trying to get out as many of those as we can. Theyre trying to divert a lot of the money that should be coming to southern Illinois and central Illinois and divert it to the broken financial condition of Chicago. So, weve been battling that and its not been easy."

Adding that the funding in question "shouldnt go to Chicago," the first-term governor once again turned the blame on Democrats for inserting provisions "to assist Chicago in its financial crisis."

"Its not fair but its going to end up being a compromise," Rauner said. "Its not where wed like it to be and what Ill try to do is fix the problems with it in subsequent legislation."

Though he did not offer further details on what future changes may be in store, Rauners comments were a departure from his statement the day before.

On Thursday, he thanked the leaders for their work on the "historic" reform, which has been the center of a monthslong battle in Springfield as school budgets across the state hang in the balance.

At issue is Senate Bill 1, a measure passed by the legislature to move Illinois to an "evidence-based model" of education funding, which would take into account each districts individual needs, as well as its local revenue sources, when appropriating state aid  prioritizing districts that are furthest from being fully-funded.

Without an evidence-based model in place, no state funding can be disbursed to K-12 schools across Illinois at all, due to a provision in the budget passed in July that makes aid contingent on an overhaul of the funding formula.

Critics of SB 1, including Rauner, have called it a "bailout" for cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools because the bill as passed took into account the districts $505 million in unfunded pension liability, plus $221 million in its normal pension payments, as well as the $203 million Chicago Block Grant, when determining how much it should receive in state funding.

The governor's amendatory veto earlier this month made several changes to the bill that included the removal of those considerations  which would result in CPS receiving $463 million less in state aid, according to an analysis from the Illinois State Board of Education.

While specifics of Thursdays compromise  hammered out through a series of closed-door meetings  have not yet been made public, it may include an additional $300 million to CPS above Rauners plan, as well as giving the states largest school district the authority to raise property taxes.

In exchange, changes to the way tax increment financing districts are calculated into a schools local funding capabilities may be imminent, at Republicans behest, plus a potential allowance for districts to get rid of requirements like physical education, for which the state does not provide funding.

One of the more contentious results of the negotiations is a possible tuition tax credit pilot program for which officials may earmark up to $75 million for tax credits to parents who send their children to private schools.

That was one of the features that Rauner called a "good reform" on Friday, though progressive Democrats, as well as several unions like the Illinois Education Association, quickly denounced it as an effort to create a statewide voucher program.

A sponsor of SB 1 as it passed the legislature, state Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) tweeted Friday that he planned to vote against any bill "that contains a tax break for private scholarship donations," calling the proposal an "insidious right-wing assault on public education."

"This current deal is a naked attempt by billionaire right-wing ideologue Gov. Bruce Rauner to push through a reverse Robin Hood scheme that siphons money from poor school districts and lets the wealthy avoid paying their fair share in taxes," the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement, also slamming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his "tacit support of school vouchers."

State Senator Daniel Biss, widely thought to be among the more progressive candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to run for governor against Rauner, said he was "encouraged" by the negotiations before slamming the tax credit program.

"It is absurd that, in order to fund public schools, Governor Rauner and his allies are demanding a tax credit scheme that will just put more money in the pockets of millionaires and billionaires," Biss said in a statement.

"The private school voucher program doesn't help create a more equitable education system  it's a false choice, and just the latest example of Rauner putting millionaires over the middle class," he continued.

Legislators were briefed on broad details of the tentative deal Friday, though the legislation has not been formally introduced.

The four top leaders plan to meet again Sunday in anticipation of a House vote Monday, followed by a vote on Tuesday in the Senate - which already overrode Rauner's amendatory veto, but would need to approve any further changes to the bill.
On Saturday the Chicago Police Department unveiled a new website dedicated to informing the public about various reform efforts that the agency is engaging in.

The website is the culmination of a nearly-two year effort by the department that drew on the experiences and expertise of Chicago residents, police officers, and departments across the country, according to the CPD website.

The new site outlines reforms implemented and in progress, Mayor Rahm Emanuels office said in a statement. It presents messages from CPD leadership, reform-centered news and updates on progress in: transparency and accountability, community policing, policy and training, resources and supervision, and technology.

The website includes video clips of officers, including Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and sections detailing the various areas in which the department is seeking to implement reforms in.

The non-profit group Civic Consulting Alliance is helping the department with reform efforts, according to a press release.
Four people are dead and at least 27 more have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this weekend.

The most recent fatal shooting took place when a 51-year-old man was shot and killed in the 2100 block of South Leavitt just before 9 p.m. Sunday.

Police said the man was standing on a corner when two men in a Chevy shouted gang slogans at him and fired shots. The man was shot in both arms and the chest and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Area Central detectives were investigating.

A 16-year-old boy was shot in the back in the 3600 block of West Ohio just before 4 a.m. Saturday morning. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Circumstances around his shooting are still being investigated by police.

A 31-year-old man was found shot to death in the 6200 block of South King Drive at approximately 2:16 a.m. Saturday morning. Police responded to a call of shots fired at the location, where they found the man lying in the street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man was one of 10 people shot in the span of just five hours from Friday night into early Saturday morning.

Late Friday night, a 35-year-old man was shot in the head while he was standing at a gas station in the 5900 block of S. Morgan. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

One man was shot in the arm after he was pursued by a gunman in a black Hummer in the 3200 block of W. 60th St. The man was originally shot at by a man on foot, and when he tried to flee the scene in his car, another vehicle chased him, with multiple occupants firing shots at him.

The man refused medical treatment for his injuries, according to police.

Friday:

A 35-year-old man was shot in the 6900 block of S. Prairie at approximately 6:52 p.m. He was walking down a sidewalk when an unknown shooter pulled out a gun and fired shots at him. He suffered a gunshot wound in the left buttocks and was taken to Christ Hospital in stable condition.

In the 3200 block of W. Franklin, a 22-year-old man was shot in both legs and taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition at approximately 10:45 p.m. The man was getting in his car when shots rang out.

A 35-year-old man was shot in the head on the 5900 block of S. Morgan at approximately 11:20 p.m. while he was standing at a gas station. The shooters drove up in a Chrysler 300 and opened fire. The man was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead.

Saturday:

A 24-year-old woman was shot in the 6300 block of S. Ashland at approximately 12:05 a.m. She was walking northbound when shots were fired, striking her in the left arm. She was taken to St. Bernard hospital in stable condition.

In the 300 block of S. Albany, a 46-year-old man was shot in the right leg at approximately 12:10 a.m. He was walking on a sidewalk when a person in a passing vehicle fired shots at him. He was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in stable condition.

A 20-year-old man was shot in the neck while riding in a vehicle on the 5000 block of W. Division at approximately 12:35 a.m. He was transported to West Suburban Hospital in stable condition.

Two people were shot in the 1400 block of N. Talman at approximately 1:28 a.m. They were standing outside when a silver vehicle approached and one of the occupants opened fire. A 37-year-old man was shot in the arm and chest and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. A 34-year-old man was shto in the hand and abdomen and was taken to Stroger in stable condition.

A 32-year-old man was stopped at a stop sign in the 3200 block of W. 60 th St. at approximately 2:06 a.m. when a man on foot fired shots at him. As he drove away, a black Hummer pulled in behind him and fired more shots at him. He suffered a graze wound to his arm and refused hospitalization.

St. at approximately 2:06 a.m. when a man on foot fired shots at him. As he drove away, a black Hummer pulled in behind him and fired more shots at him. He suffered a graze wound to his arm and refused hospitalization. A 31-year-old man was shot to death in the 6200 block of S. King dr. at 2:16 a.m. Officers responded to the scene after a shots fired call and found the man lying on the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 16-year-old boy was shot in the back in the 3600 block of W. Ohio at approximately 3:48 a.m. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead according to the medical examiner's office.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the head in the 3300 block of W. Potomac at approximately 7:09 p.m. He was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the abdomen in the 6900 block of S. Prairie at approximately 7:45 p.m. He brought himself to St. Bernard Hospital in good condition.

A 24-year-old man was found lying on the ground after being shot in the head in the 6200 block of S. Laflin at approximately 11:04 p.m. He was taken to Christ Hospital in critical condition.

Two people were shot in the 3900 block of W. Van Buren at approximately 11:11 p.m. Two men were standing outside when they heard shots. A 20-year-old suffered a graze wound to the stomach and was taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition, and a 25-year-old suffered a graze wound to the buttock before being brought to Mt. Sinai in good condition.

A 15-year-old boy was shot in the right hip on the 6300 block of W. Montrose at approximately 11:30 p.m. He was sitting in a car when a person approached wearing a mask and fired shots at him. He was taken to Community First Hospital in stable condition.

An unknown perpetrator entered an apartment in the 2900 block of W. 40th at approximately 11:40 p.m. and shot a 20-year-old man multiple times. He was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition.
Robert E. Lee never fought a battle in Ohio during the Civil War. But he's part of one now.

A roadside marker honoring the Confederate general has swept a small city into the heated conflict over Confederate monuments, in the aftermath of the deadly violence triggered by a white supremacist rally this month called to protest the planned removal of a Lee statue in his home state.

"It's going on all over the country," said Larry Etter, shutting down his riding mower to chat. "Half the people didn't even know it was here. But now little Franklin, Ohio, is in it because of what happened in Virginia."

A movement in recent years to remove Confederate monuments and flags from public places as symbols of national division and black oppression has accelerated since the Aug. 12 rally in which a counter-protester was killed by a car driven into a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia.

It brought sudden attention to Franklin's 90-year-old rock marker, depicting Lee astride his horse, Traveller, and situated aside the "Dixie Highway," a roads network running from Miami to Michigan. Local news stories, an online petition and demonstrations raised debate over its continued display.

Franklin Township officials declared the monument wouldn't be moved. Then they announced they learned it was on property now controlled by the city of Franklin. A Franklin official then said the city wanted to give it back to Franklin Township.

The confusion seemed understandable since the monument  too small to be easily noticed by passing motorists and lacking a parking area  hadn't been in the news since someone accidentally drove into it in 1981.

By the morning of Aug. 17, when President Donald Trump made a series of tweets bemoaning the loss of history from the removal of "our beautiful statues and monuments," the Lee marker had been gone for hours, removed by workers overnight.

Residents were outraged, calling it tampering with history. The mainly blue-collar city of nearly 12,000 people was Trump country in the 2016 election, and residents echoed him.

"If every time someone says something like that is offensive and you take it down, where does history go?" asked Jo Ann Powell, who owns the Take-A-Look hair salon across the road from the monument site. "I think they're (city officials) falling into the trap."

At a heated meeting Aug. 21, City Manager Sonny Lewis stood by the decision.

"Call me a coward if you want to," Lewis told an overflow audience. "I would rather be called a coward than be standing up there two days later lighting candles at the memorial for somebody who's gotten hurt or killed."

Besides potentially drawing violent protests, the monument could have been defaced, as has happened to Confederate monuments elsewhere, officials said.

At a meeting three days later, township officials said they want to return the monument to public view, but aren't sure where yet.

Dan Darragh, a longtime Franklin journalist and historic preservationist, said he never heard any complaints about the monument before.

According to local history, a Franklin businessman with Southern roots admired Lee and supported the monument, dedicated "in loving memory" of Lee by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Otherwise, the region's closest tie to Lee might be nearby Dayton's native Martin Sheen's portrayal of him in the 1993 movie "Gettysburg."

University of Cincinnati history professor Christopher Phillips said a Confederate monument in a small Northern city reflects feelings more complex than North vs. South. Besides its demographics  Franklin's population is about 95 percent white  it's an area where many people feel left behind economically and distrustful of Washington.

Phillips said the passions aroused by such monuments are more about current political realities than historical figures and events.

"I think the Franklin monument is a perfect example of this, because it stands so apart from the war narrative," Phillips said.

At least 20 Franklin natives died in the Civil War, some fighting Lee-led troops in battles such as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

Darragh recalled little local interest in the dedication a few years ago at Woodhill Cemetery of a historical marker honoring contributions to the Union effort.

"All of the sudden, people are concerned about history," he said with a smile.

Etter has been cutting grass around the marker site for five decades, and he's volunteered to put it on his property nearby. He said he's not a fan of waving Confederate flags around, but believes the monument should be displayed again.

"That's history," Etter said.
Nearly two dozen Yale University graduate students arrested during a protest about alleged sexual harassment have had their charges dismissed after they performed community service.

The New Haven Register reports that 23 students were arrested in May for blocking streets in downtown New Haven during the protests.

All were charged with disorderly conduct. Three were also charged with interfering with a police officer.

Lawyers for the students had worked out an agreement at an earlier hearing to let them perform community service work in exchange for prosecutors likely dropping the charges.

During a follow-up hearing this week Superior Court Judge Thomas O'Keefe Jr. dismissed the charges.

Keefe said 20 of the students did five hours of community service. The three arrested on the additional interfering charge did 10 hours.
London police arrested a second man Sunday in connection with a suspect who drove up to a police van not far from Buckingham Palace then reached for a 4-foot (1.2-meter) sword, an incident detectives called a terrorism attempt.

Scotland Yard said three officers were slightly injured when they confronted the 26-year-old man who allegedly drove at the police van then stopped in a restricted area outside the gates of Queen Elizabeth II's London residence Friday night.

The driver reached for the sword in his car and repeatedly shouted "Allahu akbar!" ("God is great" in Arabic) during the incident, police said. The officers used tear gas to incapacitate the man and arrested him at the scene.

No one other than the man and the officers were injured. Two of the officers were treated for minor cuts in the hospital, while the third did not require hospital treatment.

Police said a second suspect, a 30-year-old man, was detained Sunday in west London on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Officers were searching an address in the area as part of the probe.

Police had said Saturday they believed the first suspect was acting alone and were not looking for potential accomplices. The force has obtained a warrant to detain him until Sept. 1.

"This is a timely reminder that the threat from terrorism in the U.K. remains severe," Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Dean Haydon said. "While we cannot speculate on what the man was intending to do  this will be determined during the course of the investigation  it is only right that we investigate this as a terrorist incident at this time."

Palace officials declined to comment. British media reported that no members of the royal family were in Buckingham Palace, one of London's top attractions, at the time. The queen typically spends the month of August at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.
The American Red Cross and other organizations are accepting donations to help those affected by Harvey.



Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane. It lingered over Houston as a tropical storm, causing unprecedented flooding and stranding residents who remained in their homes. Early Wednesday, Harvey made a second landfall, this time hitting southwestern Louisiana.



The Red Cross is calling for blood donations, being accepted throughout the country, on its website.

The Red Cross is also accepting donations online, which can be paid with a credit card or Pay Pal. You can call 1-800-RED CROSS or make a $10 donation by texting "HARVEY" to 90999. (The Red Cross reported that there were some delays with donations by text message after being inundated).

Other organizations are accepting donations as well. The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster group has a collection of member organizations who may be taking both donations and volunteers to help the flood-stricken region. Find out more on the NVOAD website.

The city of Houston established a relief fund, administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation, accepting tax-deductible donations online or by check, money order, wire transfer or financial assets.

And the Houston Independent School District is accepting donations through its regular donation page.

Learn more about federal disaster response at disasterassistance.gov.

NBC News also has a list of more places to give here.
The city of Dallas says state officials have asked them to prepare The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as a mega shelter to house Hurricane Harvey evacuees seeking safety from the deluge of rain and rising floodwaters along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The city said they plan to have the facility ready to accommodate 5,000 people by Tuesday morning.

We have been advised by the state to be prepared for up to 5,000 evacuees, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to accommodate our fellow Texans who may need assistance, said Rocky Vaz, director of the Dallas Office of Emergency Management. Many City departments, Red Cross, Dallas County, Parkland Hospital, the Salvation Army, Childrens Hospital and numerous volunteer agencies and organizations are now working out the logistics to have the shelter up and running and ready to take in guests Tuesday morning, Aug. 29.

Thank you DallasFireRes_q for help setting up#megashelter@dallasoem pic.twitter.com/9RhnfV5HPV  DallasOEM (@DallasOEM) August 28, 2017

Earlier Sunday, the city opened a third shelter for evacuees at the Samuell Grand Recreation Center after shelters at the Tommie Allen (123 people) and Walnut Hill (290 people) recreation centers reached capacity. The third shelter, like the previous shelters, is run by the American Red Cross.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gives the lastest update on the catastrophic flooding following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, Aug. 27, 2017. The governor announced he was mobilizing 3,000 national and state guard while adding that more counties have been added to the disaster list.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins previously voiced concern that there were not enough shelters for storm victims.



"We have approximately 740,000 people who live in this hurricane watch area of 30 counties, we have a maximum capacity, if we open all shelters  both private and public  in Texas of about 41,000 shelter spaces. So that's right at 700,000 people who we don't have shelter space for," Jenkins said. "So what I'm asking is that if your cousin who is a pain in the neck to you asks to sleep on your couch for a few days, let the cousin sleep on the couch."

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is being prepared to become a mega shelter for Hurricane Harvey evacuees. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has previously voiced concern that there were not enough shelters for storm victims.

Jenkins also voiced concern for evacuees coming up Interstate 45 from Houston who might not have enough money to fill up their tank running out of gas while on sitting in traffic turning the highway into a parking lot.



"Fill up that tank completely," he said. "It may take a lot more gas to make this trip, you may have a seven hour journey because of traffic."



Jenkins said most evacuees from Houston will come to Dallas, while Corpus Christi evacuees will go to San Antonio.



Texas Department of Transportation signs along the highway in Ellis County will instruct evacuees to call 211 to find out which Dallas shelters that are open.



For people interested in donating, Dallas County VOAD member Trusted World will accept new underwear, new socks, new warmups for men, women, children and infants, toiletries/hygiene products, baby formula and baby wipes, bottles, diapers and the Graco Pac n Plays for babies to sleep in.

Drop off is at 15660 N. Dallas Parkway, just north of Arapaho on the north side of the Parkway. Follow the signs to drop off donations. The donations center will open daily from 3 to 8 p.m. daily.

Donations can also be made online HERE.



NBC 5 and Kroger are teaming up to get help with the relief effort for the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Visit your neighborhood Kroger and make a monetary donation to the American Red Cross at Kroger's check-out registers. All of the money will go to the Red Cross Disaster Relief. The American Red Cross is working around the clock to help those in need by providing food, shelter and emotional support for the people whose lives have been disrupted. Visit RedCross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS for more information on the relief efforts.

Other ways to help the victims of Hurricane/TS Harvey:

DONATE MONEY

The Salvation Army is also accepting financial donations. Salvation Army 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769) HelpSalvArmy.org

DONATE BLOOD

Carter BloodCare will send blood donations to its partners affected by Hurricane Harvey. 1-877-571-1000. Text DONATE4LIFE to 444-999

HELP PETS

SPCA of Texas is expecting 300 cats and dogs to come to North Texas. The agendy is asking for donations of cat litter, litter boxes, towels, blankets, treats, toys and newspaper. Donations can be dropped off at the following two locations: SPCA of Texas Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center at 2400 Lone Star Drive in Dallas and the SPCA of Texas at 8411 Stacy Road in McKinney. Monetary donations can be made online at SPCA.org/gift
Todays Legend of Auburn is a great one. He is Daryl Bud Peck and his family. This is part one only of a two-part story. The second part will be printed sometime in the next few weeks. Here is Buds story in his own words:

I was born Nov. 1, in Downsville, in a house that was torn down to make way for the Downsville dam. I was the youngest of six children, and we were really poor! The country was just coming out of the Great Depression. Our mother and father worked from sunup till past sundown to care for their family (no public assistance at that time); everything came from the work of their hands."

My father moved the family from Downsville to Roxbury when I was about 2 years old and provided for his family as a share crop dairy farmer. My fondest memories were from the time my father worked as Teamster (driving horses) for the Sheppard estate in Roxbury.

When World War II broke out we moved to Sidney, and both of my parents went to work at the Bendix Aviation plant producing Magnetos for the war planes. This would be about the only time my parents had any money left over after the rent was paid and the cupboards were full.

I started in the fifth grade at the Sidney High School. I quit school the day I was 16 and went to work for Keystone Tree Surgeons as a climber, preparing large trees for take-down. I worked for Keystone for two years. During that two-year period I realized that my life was not headed in the right direction (alcohol). On my 18th (1950) birthday I joined the Army. On Jan. 29, 1951, I left for basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Two weeks later my mother received notice that my brother Kesley was MIA in Korea, and a short time later he was declared KIA  my mother collapsed. ... Because of his death I was declared a non-combatant. After completing basic training I was assigned to the Signal Corp. and sent to Fort Davens, Massachusetts, to attend Morse Code school. After completing code training, I was assigned to Army Security Agency and was transferred to Petaluma, California, in 1952, where I completed my enlistment in 1954.

I came home for Christmas 1952 and met Ann Morse from Sidney Center, a beautiful 18-year-old girl. After just one date I returned to Petaluma and resumed our relationship via telephone. (Ann was a switch board operator and during slow times, she would move a few plugs around so we could talk to each other.)

In February, I purchased an engagement ring, and sent it to my mother  she asked Ann if she would marry me, Ann said yes and she gave the ring to Ann  she accepted via telephone. I came home in July and we got married. Note: I was 20 years old and needed a note from my mother stating that I could get married. I also needed a note from my base commander stating that it would not interfere with my military obligations. The age of majority at that time for a male was 21, later dropped to 18.

I believe the seven months that we were in Petaluma, California, set the foundation of what turned out to be a 64-year marriage (no parents to run home to when times were not so good). Our total income for that seven months was my $226 per month  and we did it!

We returned home to Sidney in February 1954 and I went back to work at Keystone Trees. Poor management was causing the tree company serious problems, mainly payroll payments. I was forced to quit in late summer. During the period of my unemployment our daughter Kimberly Ann (now Mrs. Paul Dungey) was born six weeks early, at only 2 pounds 11 ounces. No insurance! This is the point where our married life took a turn for the better.

My mother brought to my attention to an ad in the local newspaper for an apprentice meat cutter at the local Acme Market. At the job interview I was asked how much do think the job is worth. My reply, I am currently receiving $35 a week unemployment. If you give me $36 I will be very pleased. Youre hired, you will need a white shirt, report on Monday. My mother bought the white shirt so that I could go to work on Monday.

The union pay turned out to be $48 for 43 hours. It was increased to $54 after a 30-day probation period. It was an excellent-paying job for the area at that time. I was able to work at the Tydol Gas Station nights pumping gas, and we were able to pay the hospital bills and work toward a better life.

After completing 18 months of my 24-month apprenticeship I was promoted to meat manager of the Acme in Sidney, a position that I held for a couple of years. During this period our son Darryl was born.

I think it is very important to mention here, my wife Ann stuck it out through the thick and thin and has been supportive of all that I have done throughout our marriage of 64 years and remains at my side every minute.

Here enters Auburn:

We now are a family of four and had moved to Auburn to an apartment over the Tom Contreras house, next door to the Gulf Gas Station (Marty Stanton) on the corner of Lansing and Grant avenues. We had many games of penny a point pitch and hearts. This was just after the fire at the Triangle Gas Station at the intersection of South and Lincoln streets that claimed the lives of firemen; one was the brother of Tom Contreras. Our family remaining in Sidney  and knowing we lived next door to a gas station and were renting from Contreras  caused them great concern for our safety. We later moved to Curtis Place, and there were 64 children living on Curtis Place at that time. Ray Riordan's family was a big part of the children population, and our daughter Kim was the rules enforcer for the entire block. (Recall Riordans Restaurant next to Speno Music)

We were able to purchase 55 Standart Ave., shown here today. During the move from Curtis Place to Standart Avenue, our son Caryl J. was born. After moving to Standart Avenue, Kimberly and Darryl started school at Lincoln Elementary School kindergarten (along with our black lab, Abby). Miss Wicks was a wonderful teacher and she allowed the dog to attend classes until the principle forced her to lock her out. During their time at Lincoln School, a couple of days a week, when I was unable to prepare lunch for them, they would walk to Herricks Diner (June and Ivan) to order their lunch, proudly saying My dad said that we could order anything we wanted; my dad would stop on his way home and pay our bill. June Herrick was a wonderful, hard working lady. Ivan had a used car lot at the side and back of the diner.

I had been transferred to Auburn to manage the meat department at the Acme Super Market when it first opened on Grant Avenue. I remained in that capacity for seven years and continued working for Acme until they left the upstate area. (Star Market was on the opposite end of the plaza.) At that time, there were four Acme Markets in Auburn: One was on Franklin Street near the Five Points, one on Genesee Street near the Sears store, one next to Bouleys office and the one on Grant Avenue. Five Market Baskets were scattered around the city, which were owned by Acme and were closed soon after Grant Avenue opened.

When Acme left the New York marketing area, I saw the writing on the wall before they closed the Genesee Street store. (I was meat manager at that time, I quit.) I went to work for several P&C Markets in and around Auburn until I was forced to retire in 1991 due to serious injury to my elbow.

After all three children were in school, Ann returned to work at General Electric as customer service representative until GE kinda fell apart. She also worked for Professor Long at the Cayuga Museum for a very short time. One day, he left the museum and locked Ann in the basement by accident. He didnt remember for four to five hours, and then returned to let her out later that evening.

Stayed tuned for Part 2 of Buds story and photos, which will be printed sometime over the next few weeks.
By PTI: Ahmedabad, Aug 27 (PTI) Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot today advised the media not to "generalise" about the terrorist attack in south Kashmirs Pulwama, saying it was an isolated incident.

The Union social justice and empowerment minister put yesterdays attack in the category of "ikki dukki ghatnae" (isolated incidents).

"It will be better if you do not try and generalise on the basis of such isolated incidents," said Gehlot, when asked by reporters when such terror attacks will stop.

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"Significant progress has been made in curbing the terror activities after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister," he said.

"After Modi became PM, we carried out surgical strikes. Now the government is working towards eliminating those who are funding terror activities. A large number of terrorists were killed in recent times," he said.

"Though some people are still active in two to three districts (of Jammu and Kashmir), they will also be eliminated in near future," Gehlot added.

The minister was here to attend a programme where assisting devices were distributed to disabled persons.

Eight security personnel, including four CRPF men, were killed in Pulwama after three militants launched a deadly suicide attack yesterday.

A CRPF jawan from the city, Dinesh Borase, was among those killed.

Gehlots statement drew a sharp reaction from the Congress.

"Gehlots statement was nothing short of an insult to the supreme sacrifice of our martyrs. If the PM has any sympathy for our martyrs, he must sack Gehlot immediately," said Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, who visited Borases family today.

State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki also slammed the BJP.

"The BJP and its government were never concerned about countrys citizens or the soldiers. After getting their votes, BJP leaders always try to play down such attacks as routine incidents," said Solanki. PTI PJT PD PJT KRK KUN

--- ENDS ---
A task force of 70 Los Angeles firefighters, four dogs and assorted equipment Saturday has begun to assemble at a Sherman Oaks fire station to prepare to deploy to the Texas coast to aid in Hurricane Harvey rescue and relief, authorities said.

The task force has begun the logistical process when they gather at Fire Station 88 at 5101 Sepulveda Boulevard, said Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Once they are prepared, they will set out for Texas.

The LAFD task force is the second from Southern California to be summoned to Texas. An Orange County task force left Irvine for San Antonio Friday.
Two dozen teams of students from around the globe competed in Hawthorne on Sunday in hopes of providing a critical component for the potentially revolutionary form of high-speed travel known as Hyperloop.

The brainchild of SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, the Hyperloop concept envisions people-carrying pods that are propelled through vacuum tubes, ultimately at speeds up to 700 mph. Such a system could potentially cut the commute time between Los Angeles and San Francisco to about 30 minutes.

Although Musk initially proposed the idea in 2013 and his companies performed some early engineering work, Musk described it as an "open-source" concept, and invited others to jump on the idea and develop it. Several outside companies -- including Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies - - have emerged to work on the project.

But Musk's SpaceX campus in Hawthorne will be the focus of the Hyperloop world Sunday as it hosts the Hyperloop Pod Competition. Two dozen student teams chosen from an original field of more than 120 have been working for two years on designs for the pods, and their efforts will culminate Sunday when their creations are propelled through a 1.25-kilometer Hyperloop test track.

The official goal of the competition is to "accelerate the development of functional prototypes and encourage innovation by challenging student teams to design and build the best high-speed pod."

In layman's terms: The fastest pod wins.

The teams began arriving in Southern California last week, since the pods must undergo a series of mechanical and structural inspections, and they must successfully complete a test run inside a 26-foot vacuum chamber.

Pods that pass those initial steps will be able to compete inside the 1.25-kilometer test track today. The races began at noon.

The winning pod, run by a team of 30 German students, topped speeds of 201 mph. Musk shared a video of the WARR team's winning pod on Twitter.

Among the two dozen teams of students competing were squads from UC Irvine, Cal State Sacramento, UC Santa Barbara, two teams from the University of Texas at Austin, and teams from India, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland and Japan.


The lone county currently at risk of going uncovered on the federal health law's insurance exchanges has landed an insurer.

Ohio-based insurer CareSource will step up to provide health insurance coverage in Paulding County, Ohio, in 2018, the company and the state Department of Insurance announced Thursday.

The most recent national analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation identified Paulding, just south of Toledo, as the final county still at risk of lacking a provider when 2018 signups begin Nov. 1. About 10 million people, including 11,000 Ohio residents, currently are served through HealthCare.gov and its state counterparts, a system created under the Affordable Care Act.

Earlier this year, well over 40 mostly rural counties faced the prospect of having no options for their exchanges, but insurers have gradually come forward to fill the gaps.

Insurers began pulling back from the exchanges after getting stung by heavy losses and struggling to attract enough young, healthy customers to balance all the claims they get from people who use their coverage. Many also cited uncertainty over the future of President Barack Obama's health care law, which Congress is revisiting  though, so far, without success.

Rural counties have been particularly uninviting for insurance companies because they usually have a smaller, older customer base and a care provider like a hospital system with a dominant market position. That can make it difficult to negotiate payment rates.

Health care consultant Robert Laszewski, a former insurance executive, said exchange coverage is a small, difficult slice of business for most insurers. Still, companies are expanding to fill the holes that develop in these markets, often after nudging from state regulators.

"Good, long-term relationships with the insurance commissioner are very important to an insurance company," Laszewski said.

Some insurers also have figured out they can make money on exchanges by targeting low-income customers, who receive big tax credits to help cover their insurance bills that can both insulate consumers and provide steady revenue to insurers.

In Ohio, 20 of 88 counties were threatened with a lack of coverage as insurers withdrew. State officials had previously announced coverage was restored to the other 19.

Republican Gov. John Kasich has been part of a bipartisan governors' group calling for action in Washington to strike a compromise on the embattled health care law, which many Republicans revile as "Obamacare," in order to stabilize insurance markets.

While insurers now have made preliminary plans to sell coverage on the exchanges in every U.S. county next year, they still have about a month to back out.

They are worried about the fate of billions of dollars in payments from the government to cover cost-sharing reductions for customers with modest incomes.

These payments reimburse insurers for lowering deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses for customers. They are separate from the income-based tax credits that help people buy coverage.

The federal government announced last week that it will make these payments for this month, but their future is unclear. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to end them, and insurers say premiums will soar for some of their plans if this happens.

California-based insurer Molina Healthcare has said it will increase premiums 55 percent next year for its exchange business, under the assumption that the cost-sharing reduction subsidies will not return. That premium increase would have been 30 percent if the insurer assumed that the subsidies would return.

CareSource President and CEO Pamela Morris expressed her company's commitment to the exchange, also called the Marketplace. The company had been one of the insurers to cover some other counties that lost their exchange options.

"The Marketplace provides vital health care coverage to more than 10.3 million Americans and we want to be a resource for consumers left without options," she said in a statement. "Our decision to offer coverage in the bare counties speaks to our mission and commitment to the Marketplace and serving those who are in need of health care coverage."

Ohio State Insurance Director Jillian Froment said working through the challenge of covering affected counties has been a priority of her staff in recent weeks.

"There is a lot of uncertainty facing consumers when it comes to health insurance and these announcements will provide important relief," she said.

AP Health Writer Tom Murphy reported from Indianapolis. Data editor Meghan Hoyer contributed from Washington, D.C.
A retired U.S. Army sergeant who was among the soldiers who came to the rescue for the victims of Hurricane Andrew in South Florida journeyed back to the field where a tent city was set up in the aftermath on the storm's 25th anniversary.

Returning to Homestead's Harris Field stirred up a lot of emotions for former Sgt. Andy Rubenstein of how the cavalry descended on the area to help in the aftermath of the deadly and devastating hurricane.

"The first couple of days was a shock to everyone, cause you were just in your home and now you are in a tent," Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein knows what it's like to serve in war zones, having spent time on the battlefield during Iraq's Desert Storm. But the South Florida resident who was then stationed at Fort Drum in New York was in no way prepared for the horrors of Hurricane Andrew.

"I got a knock on the door around 1 o'clock in the morning, 1:30, from my commander saying that we're going to be moving out to Andrew recovery," he said.

Within hours, his unit touched down in South Florida and his military convoy roared toward Homestead. He witnessed the devastation that appeared as though an enemy had detonated a bomb.

"It was sad, it was heartbreaking to see so many homes destroyed, kids and schools, everything was gone, there were no trees on the ground, literally everything was gone, it literally looked like a war zone," Rubenstein said.

He said once the soldiers arrived at Homestead Air Force Base, where they would be stationed, there were more startling images.

"Oh it was mess, the barracks were, blown out windows, planes were upside down, some of them, cars were a mess," he said.

But as a soldier, there was no time to grieve for the damage done to his community. The military mission to erect a tent city to sustain those who truly lost everything was underway.

"This is where people needed water, this is where people needed food, this is where people needed to get their lives back together," he said.

The military unit's other job was to keep the peace. And as people fought over things like ice, food and water, human vipers moved in to gouge and take advantage of those who were already hurting.

"We were chasing those people out and making sure they got water for free," Rubenstein said.

Visiting the site where he and other soldiers did so much to help his fellow South Floridians also conjured up a sentiment of satisfaction.

"Its nice to see everything back to normal 25 years later, at least from the eye," he said. "I hope people can come back here and remember what we did for them and what the military did for them.

Rubenstein retired from the Army and now helps other veterans who are dealing with PTSD and other ailments.
Dozens of people marched through the streets of Manhattan on Saturday night to protest the deadly shooting of a transgender woman by police in St. Louis earlier this week.

About 50 people rallied outside of the Stonewall Inn, an LGBT historical site in Greenwich Village, in honor of Kiwi Herring.

Herring was fatally shot by officers Tuesday morning after allegedly stabbing one of them.

Relatives and friends have said Herring was a transgender woman.

Police and witnesses have offered differing accounts of what happened in the moments leading up to Herring's death.
What to Know Hurricane Harvey made first landfall as Cat. 4 hurricane Friday evening, and lingered over the Houston area, causing "catastophic" flooding

Two people were killed as the storm cut through the Texas coast and dropped torrential rains.

Houston officials said more than 1,000 people had to be rescued from the flood waters.

Harvey spun deeper into Texas and unloaded extraordinary amounts of rain Saturday night and Sunday morning after the once-fearsome hurricane crashed into vulnerable homes and businesses along the coastline in a blow that killed at least two people and injured up to 14.

Houston-area officials said they already performed more than 1,000 water rescues and nearly 1,000 more were in queue early Sunday as torrential rain from Harvey in the city and across southeast Texas. The National Weather Service is asking people to get on their roofs if the highest floor of the house becomes "dangerous."

William P. Hobby airport in Houston said all flights were canceled Sunday, due to standing water on runways. All commercial flights from George Bush Intercontinental Airport were also canceled.



Throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared that toll was only the beginning. Authorities did not know the full scope of damage because weather conditions prevented emergency crews from getting into the hardest-hit places. And they dreaded the destruction that was yet to come from a storm that could linger for days and unload more than 40 inches of rain on cities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest.

In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of "massive" damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street.

"I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," said Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation but did not know how many heeded the order.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm's path. The mayor said his community took a blow "right on the nose" that left "widespread devastation," including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.

Rockport's roads were a mess of toppled power poles. A trailer blocked much of one major intersection. Wood framing from ripped-apart houses was strewn along Route 35 on the town's southern end.

Harvey's relentless wind tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium.

"We're still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started," said Aransas County spokesman Larry Sinclair.

Rockport Mayor Charles "C.J." Wax told The Weather Channel that the city's emergency response system had been hampered by the loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication.

A day earlier, Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios offered ominous advice, telling people who chose not to evacuate to mark their arms with Sharpie pens, implying that the marks would make it easier for rescuers to identify them.

One person was killed in Aransas County when in a fire at home during the storm, county Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. said. A second person died in flooding in Harris County, where Houston is located.

Gary Norman, a spokesman for the Houston emergency operations center, said late Saturday that the person was a woman appeared to have gotten out of her vehicle in high water, though authorities had not confirmed a cause of death. She was found by neighbors about 30 yards away from her vehicle, and Norman said she was pronounced dead at the scene by a doctor who was in the area.

Mills also said as many as 14 people suffered minor injuries in his county, including slips and falls, scrapes and a broken leg.

About 300,000 customers were without power statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott said it would probably be several days before electricity is restored.

Meanwhile, the storm was barely moving. Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Corpus Christi and Galveston receiving around 3 inches, Houston 7 and Aransas 10. Tiny Austwell got 15 inches.

In Houston, authorities were pleading with people not to leave their homes as a flood emergency was declared. Harris County authorities said they have reports of rooftop flood levels and urged residents not to go into their attics.

"This is the worst flooding we have ever seen," Harris County Flood Control Management's Jeff Linder said.

Houston city officials tweeted that their 911 services were at capacity.

"The streets are treacherous," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Elsewhere in the storm's immediate aftermath, the Coast Guard had rescued 20 people from boats and barges in distress, said Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector.

The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage. Because the city is the third-largest petrochemical port in the nation, the agency will be on the lookout for spills, Hahn said.

The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds.

Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday.

By 4 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Harvey continued to cause "catastrophic flooding in southeastern Texas." Harvey's maximum sustained winds were about 45 mph, but the storm was practically stationary as it dumped torrential rain over an area that included Houston.

The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of President Donald Trump's administration.

Trump met with his Cabinet and other senior administration officials to discuss the federal response to the damage and flooding, the White House said Saturday in a statement.

The president held a video conference from Camp David in which he instructed departments and agencies to "stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives," the statement said.

Trump, who on Friday signed a federal disaster declaration for coastal counties, also reminded department heads that the full impact of the storm will not be apparent for days. On Twitter, he commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the disaster.

In Corpus Christi, the major city closest to the storm's center, wind whipped palm trees and stinging sheets of horizontal rain slapped against hotels and office buildings along the seawall as the storm made landfall.

Daybreak revealed downed lamp posts and tree limbs and roof tiles torn off buildings. Along Interstate 45 leaving Galveston, the rain was so intense that drivers stopped under bridges because they could not see in front of them.

Rain fell on Houston at nearly 3 inches an hour, leaving some streets and underpasses underwater. The many drainage channels known as bayous that carry excess water to the Gulf were flowing freely and rising.

"Flooding is a minor issue so far," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator of the county that includes Houston, said. "Most of the watersheds are well within banks, but we're not out of this."

Francisco Sanchez, with the Harris County Emergency Management Office, said the storm would be around for a while.

"Someone is going to get those very high rainfall totals," he said. "Hopefully it's not us, but we're in that possibility area."

South of the city, about 4,500 inmates were evacuated from three state prisons in Brazoria County because the nearby Brazos River was rising.

The turbulent weather extended into southern Louisiana, where motorists were cautioned about the potential for high water, road hazards, high winds and tornadoes.

Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

The storm's approach sent tens of thousands of people fleeing inland.

Just hours before landfall, the governor and Houston leaders issued conflicting statements on evacuation.

The governor urged more people to flee, but Houston officials recommended no widespread evacuations, citing greater danger in having people on roads that could flood and the fact that the hurricane was not taking direct aim at the city.

The last Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Charley in August 2004 in Florida.

Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk, Juan Lozano and Nomaan Merchant in Houston; Tammy Webber in Chicago; David Phillip in Dickinson, Texas; and Jamie Stengle, David Warren and Claudia Lauer and in Dallas contributed to this report.
What to Know Westbound traffic switched to the new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge early Saturday

Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced the new $4 billion bridge Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony

The bridge will carry millions of people between Westchester and Rockland counties on a critical northeast U.S. transportation corridor

The new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, linking suburban Westchester and Rockland counties north of New York City, has opened for one direction of traffic.

Four westbound lanes of traffic started crossing the first span of the bridge early Saturday. The second span is slated to open next year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced the new $4 billion bridge, named after his father, on Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The project launched by the Thruway Authority in 2013 will replace the 62-year-old Tappan Zee Bridge, a critical link in the Northeast U.S. highway system. The bridge will carry more than 50 million vehicles a year across the Hudson River.

The Tappan Zee had served as the poster child for crumbling infrastructure. President Barack Obama used it as a backdrop in 2014 when he asked Congress for more infrastructure funding.

Cuomo hailed the beauty of the bridge and the speed at which it was constructed.

We are leaving an old, dangerous, traumatizing bridge, and its replaced by a new, safer, smarter structure, he said.
Tropical Storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the nation's fourth-largest city Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers who could not keep up with the constant calls for help.

The incessant rain covered much of Houston in turbid, gray-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighborhoods and high-water vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes or swam.

Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors. The flooding was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. They urged people to get on top of their houses to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

Judging from federal disaster declarations, the storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, or 6.8 million people in 18 counties. It was blamed for at least two deaths.

As the water rose, the National Weather Service issued another ominous forecast: Before the storm that arrived Friday as a Category 4 hurricane is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as 50 inches (1.3 meters) of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.

Some areas have already received about half that amount. Since Thursday, South Houston recorded nearly 25 inches (63 centimeters), and the suburbs of Santa Fe and Dayton got 27 inches (69 centimeters).

"The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before," the National Weather Service said in a statement.

Average rainfall totals will end up around 40 inches (1 meter) for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years.

"This disaster's going to be a landmark event," Long said.

Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many affected families to fend for themselves. And several hospitals in the Houston area were evacuated due to the rising waters.

On Sunday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said it has rescued more than 1,000 people and are being assisted by three additional flood rescue teams.

The rains will continue to come down here for an additional three to four days. Floodwaters will potentially rise. Folks need to pay careful attention to the information coming out of the Emergency Operations Center. said Vice Admiral Karl Schultz, Commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area.

Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig pulled a rowboat on a rope through chest-deep water for a mile to rescue Bartlett's mother from her home in west Houston. It took them 45 minutes to reach the house. Inside, the water was halfway up the walls.

Marie Bartlett, 88, waited in her bedroom upstairs.

"When I was younger, I used to wish I had a daughter, but I have the best son in the world," she said. "In my 40 years here, I've never seen the water this high."

It was not clear how many people were plucked from the floodwaters. Up to 1,200 people had to be rescued in Galveston County alone, said Mark Henry, the county judge, the county's top administrative post.

Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center was quickly opened as a shelter. It was also used as a shelter for Katrina refugees in 2005.

Gillis Leho arrived there soaking wet. She said she awoke Sunday to find her downstairs flooded. She tried to move some belongings upstairs, then grabbed her grandchildren.

"When they told us the current was getting high, we had to bust a window to get out," Leho said.

William Cain sought shelter after water started coming inside his family's apartment and they lost power. "I live in a lake where there was once dry land," he said.

Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety. Others waded while carrying trash bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in picnic coolers.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in. He urged drivers to stay off roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

"I don't need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm," Turner told a news conference. "We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically."

The deteriorating situation was bound to provoke questions about the conflicting advice given by the governor and Houston leaders before the hurricane. Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to flee from Harvey's path, but the Houston mayor issued no evacuation orders and told everyone to stay home.

The governor refused to point fingers on Sunday.

"Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made," Abbott, a Republican, said at a news conference in Austin. "What's important is that everybody work together to ensure that we are going to, first, save lives and, second, help people across the state rebuild."

Abbott later said on Twitter that another 1,000 National Guard members will be sent to Houston Monday, after already activating 3,000 National Guard and State Guard members on Sunday.



The mayor, a Democrat, defended his decision, saying there was no way to know which parts of the city were most vulnerable.

"If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," Turner said, citing the risks of sending the city's 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time.

Jesse Gonzalez, and his son, also named Jesse, used their boat to rescue people from a southeast Houston neighborhood. Asked what he had seen, the younger Gonzalez replied: "A lot of people walking and a lot of dogs swimming."

"It's chest- to shoulder-deep out there in certain areas," he told television station KTRK as the pair grabbed a gasoline can to refill their boat.

The Coast Guard deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

The White House announced that President Donald Trump would visit Texas on Tuesday. He met Sunday by teleconference with top administration officials to discuss federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The rescues unfolded a day after Harvey settled over the Texas coastline. The system weakened Saturday to a tropical storm.

The economic catastrophe caused by Harvey will linger for months, if not years.

The global insurance broker BMS Group, in a research report Sunday afternoon, estimated Harvey would cause "well over" $10 billion in economic losses and more than $5 billion in insured losses. (All losses in a disaster are economic losses, but only some are insured, which is why that figure is substantially lower.) Neither of those figures counts flooding losses covered by FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program.

The flood program -- which received major bailouts in 2005 and 2012 and is due to expire next month -- has more than $60 billion in policies in force just in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. "Clearly this could likely be one of the largest NFIP flood payout(s) in recorded history which will require a major relief bill," BMS said.

On Sunday, it was virtually stationary about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Victoria, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph (72.42 kph), the hurricane center said.

Harvey was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.
As a lawsuit continues to play out in court, transgender students in the Boyertown Area School District are still allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity after a ruling from a federal judge in Easton, Pennsylvania Friday.

Judge Edward G. Smith denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would have banned transgender students in the Boyertown Area School District from using bathrooms and locker rooms in line with their expressed gender identity instead of their sex assigned at birth.

The school district had no response to the ruling Saturday. Students return to school on Monday.

A lawsuit against the school district remains active in court. In March, a high-school junior identified as Joel Doe as well as his parents filed a lawsuit against the Boyertown Area School District, saying its transgender-friendly policy constitutes sexual harassment and a violation of privacy.

In October, 2016, Doe was changing into gym clothes in the boys' locker room before the mandatory PE class when he saw a student wearing shorts and a bra, according to the lawsuit. The second student had recently begun transitioning from female to male, said Kellie Fiedorek of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group representing the student who brought the suit along with three other students.

"Joel Doe experienced immediate confusion, embarrassment, humiliation, and loss of dignity upon finding himself in this circumstance," the lawsuit says.

After complaining to the school administration, Joel Doe was told that he had to "tolerate" the situation and make it as "natural" as possible, according to the lawsuit.



"Our laws and customs have long recognized that we shouldn't have to undress in front of persons of the opposite sex," said ADF Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek. "But now some schools are forcing our children into giving up their privacy rights."

Eliza Byard, executive director of Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the situation could have easily been resolved without a lawsuit had the school made the necessary arrangements for the student who felt uneasy. Byard said the school could have let "Joel Doe" use single occupancy or staff bathrooms and locker rooms.

"The existence of a transgender person living their life appropriately at school cannot constitute sexual harassment," Byard said. "It might make another student uncomfortable and in that case, there is a common sense legal remedy of providing separate accommodations to the student who feels uncomfortable."

The March lawsuit came a few weeks after the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era regulations that had instructed schools to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms in line with their expressed gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.



Byard said rescinding the Obama guidance has created uncertainty and led to discrimination against transgender children.

"The actions of our current administration have created confusion and a perceived opportunity to roll back the support currently available to trans students across the country," Byard said.

After the Obama regulations were rolled back, it is now up to the states to interpret anti-discrimination laws when deciding how students can use school facilities.

Three more Pennsylvania high school students joined the lawsuit against the Boyertown Area School District in April.


The question of what Pennsylvania's House Republican majority will do about a $2.2 billion hole in the state budget is sending ripples of worry through some quarters.

House GOP leaders have been quiet this month after the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan revenue plan in July that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf supports.

It is now two months since the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a 3 percent spending bump in the shadow of state government's largest shortfall since the recession.

"I don't think anyone thought it was going to go on this long," said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. Why it has "no one seems to understand," he said.

The quandary comes two years after Wolf and Republican lawmakers battled through a record-long, nine-month stalemate.

One of the biggest spending increases in this year's budget bill went to services for people with autism and intellectual disabilities, making it the best budget in a decade for those residents, said Maureen Cronin of the Arc of Pennsylvania. Now, Arc chapters from around the state are watching with rising concern.

"When they call me, they go, 'Is this going to be another nine months?'" Cronin said. "It's unnerving to watch. Every day, we're like 'What else is going to happen?' We appreciate how legislators are looking under every rock to try to find funds. But, at this point, we need a budget."

Looming in September is the potential for another downgrade to Pennsylvania's battered credit rating and Wolf may need to start freezing cash for state programs or postponing payments to vendors.

The Capitol is largely empty. Fingerpointing is sporadic.

Wolf is saying little and, with the government ostensibly operating normally, there's little public pressure to act, House members say. The House is scheduled to return to session Sept. 11, and votes are unlikely before then.

Instead of trying to hammer out a deal with Wolf or Senate leaders, top House Republicans have hunkered down and let rank-and-file members float ideas. They have had little contact with Wolf, Democratic lawmakers or Senate leaders.

"The governor's sitting around waiting, the Senate's sitting around waiting and our leadership is sitting around waiting to see if there's an organic solution," said Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia. "But I would predict there's not."

Taylor, some moderate Republicans and many House Democrats see an income tax increase as the fairest way to resolve an entrenched deficit that has dogged lawmakers since the Recession. But Wolf isn't asking for an income tax and, with the Legislature ruled by anti-tax GOP majorities, House Republicans are searching for other sources of cash.

"There's a lot of little pieces that have to come together yet, but we all want to avert a financial crisis," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York, said Thursday.

After years of opposition, House GOP leaders may eventually join Senate Republican leaders in allowing a vote on a Marcellus Shale natural gas production tax, a key pursuit of Wolf's. However, many House members who support the idea say they want a bigger tax than the $100 million proposal included in the Senate's revenue package.

House Republicans otherwise dislike the Senate's revenue plan. Even House Democratic leadership has been silent, reflecting rank-and-file discomfort.

Particularly objectionable is $1.3 billion in borrowing; $400 million in higher taxes on consumers' utility bills, primarily natural gas service; and $200 million in anticipated license fees by allowing an expansion of commercial casino offerings.

When it comes to expanding gambling, many House members side with allowing bars and truck stops to install slot-machine-style gambling terminals, rather than authorizing more commercial casinos.

House GOP members are trying to assemble a plan to divert cash from off-budget programs. How much money is actually available is in question, and siphoning cash from such operations as transportation projects or emergency response centers could be politically thorny.

Meanwhile, Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery, said he wants hundreds of millions of dollars in "corporate welfare" squeezed out. Rep. Carl Metzgar, R-Somerset, is among a group pressing House GOP leaders to pare the nearly $32 billion budget bill that lawmakers approved June 30. And $600 million in aid to Penn State, Pitt, Temple, Lincoln and the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school remains in limbo in the Legislature.
By India Today Web Desk: Vijay Deverakonda's romantic drama Arjun Reddy has opened to rave reception from critics and fans. The film, that released on Friday, is running to packed houses in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Notably, Arjun Reddy has attracted a lot of youngsters, thanks to Vijay's brilliant speech at the pre-release event of the film.

Interestingly, Arjun Reddy has impressed ace filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who lavished praise on Facebook. He wrote, "I always believed that all the heroes of today are very heavily dependent upon slow motion and ramping shots aided with ear splitting background music to appear heroic. Vijay Deverakonda is the first and only actor I ever saw who looks like a hero without the help of any slow motion or ramping shots. His eyes and his voice themselves emanate a built in background music from within himself."

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Drawing similarities with megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood actor Al Pacino, RGV said, "The truth is this that the moment the camera comes to 24 frames there's rarely an actor who can live up to the technical emotion created by varying camera speeds and background music. Vijay is the first actor I saw apart from Amitabh Bachchan who could live up to that same level of intensity without the aide of any cinematic techniques.

"I think Vijay Devarakonda is a combination of a young Amitabh Bachchan and a young Al Pacino and I strongly believe that he will be the trendsetter prototype for a new age hero. He will be for sure the Amitabh Bachchan of the TFI for a long long time and definitely the first Mega Star of Telangana State."

Arjun Reddy previously made headlines after senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao tore the posters of the film. Reacting to the incident, Vijay Deverakonda took to Facebook and asked Rao to just "chill".

In fact, RGV too slammed the Congress leader on Facebook.

Also starring Shalini Pandey and Kanchana, Arjun Reddy is directed by Sandeep Vanga.

ALSO READ: Vijay Deverakonda on lip-lock in Arjun Reddy: Had no qualms about it

ALSO READ: Vivegam Movie Review

ALSO READ: Vivegam box-office collection Day 3

WATCH HERE: Vijay Deverakonda's speech at Arjun Reddy launch

--- ENDS ---
A photo of six people doing a Nazi salute at a shopping center in Northern Virginia Friday morning energized an entire neighborhood to reject racist hate Friday night.

Ten times as many people showed up to the Dominion Hills Centre in Arlington to reject hate as who gathered earlier in the day to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the American Nazi Party's founder.

"My cousins, second cousins, uncles and aunts went to concentration camps and died," Arlington resident Renee Gorsky said.

She attended the rally to honor her family. Her parents fled Germany for Brazil before the Holocaust. Gorsky said she spoke with her parents on Friday.

"I showed them the picture of the Nazis here on Dominion Hills on my iPhone, through Skype, and my father became so distraught," she said as a crowd sang "God Bless America."

The rally was organized online within hours. Residents brought their children and held signs that they made.

George Lincoln Rockwell was shot by a former member of his group as he left a laundromat in the shopping center on Aug. 25, 1967. A photo that circulated online on Friday shows five men and a woman giving Nazi salutes as they face a flag with a swastika.

Arlington residents said they were horrified.

"To see the Nazi flag in our neighborhood raised was really disturbing," one woman said.

Many people who attended the rally said they were aware of the history of the shopping center -- which now has a pizzeria and a pet salon -- but it's Nazi history had no modern relevance to them, until now.
Rescue teams in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland, are heading to Texas to help out with rescue efforts from the effects of Hurricane Harvey.



The Virginia team said on Twitter it was activated as a water rescue team by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The team is expected to leave on Sunday.

It is unknown where specifically they would be headed. Some areas, including near Houston, have received as much as 40 inches of rain, and residents have been told to evacuate to their roofs if water reaches the top floors of their homes.

Harvey came ashore late Friday as a category 4 hurricane and has been lingering in the area. Forecasters said on Sunday that it is possible for the storm to go back out into the gulf briefly before making another landfall closer to Houston.

The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department said their modular swift water team, approximately 14 members, is heading to Texas on Sunday afternoon.

Montgomery County, Maryland, urban search and rescue team has been activated and awaiting word on when they will be leaving, according to fire and rescue spokesman Pete Piringer. Piringer said it is likely some "specialized" county resources would be requested by FEMA.
An 18-year-old has been arrested in the brutal beating of a black man during the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month, and a second suspect is wanted by police.

Daniel Borden, 18, is one of several people believed to have beaten DeAndre Harris in a parking garage, a spokesman for the Charlottesville Police Department told NBC29 in Charlottesville.

Photographs show several men beating Harris with poles and sticks near the violent rally Aug. 12. The 21-year-old suffered a broken wrist and a chipped tooth, and he got eight staples in his scalp to close a head wound.

Zach D. Roberts via AP

Borden was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated assault. He is being held in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A second man, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, also is suspected of beating Harris, police told NBC29. He is wanted on an aggravated assault charge and was last known to live in Marietta, Georgia, police said.

Charlottesville Police Department

Anyone with information on Ramos' whereabouts is asked to call police.



Borden surrendered to the FBI when he learned a warrant for his arrest had been issued, his lawyer, Greg Berberich, said in a statement to NBC29.

A white nationalist rally turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12.

The 18-year-old's lawyer blamed Black Lives Matter activists and anti-fascists for his client's alleged crimes.

"He will defend himself against charges filed as a consequence of rioting caused by the City of Charlottesville's decision to allow BLM and Antifah members to attack those protesting the removal of Robert E. Lee's statue from a local park," Berberich said in a statement.

"As Dan attempted to leave the protest grounds, he was struck in the head and tear gassed multiple times," the lawyer said. "Dan repeatedly requested protection from Charlottesville Police and was ignored. We believe Dan will be exonerated."

President Donald Trump responded to the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Additionally, police say Richard Wilson Preston was charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. The 52-year-old was in custody in Towson, Maryland.

James Alex Fields Jr. faces second-degree murder charges for driving a car into counter-protesters and killing Heather Heyer. He has been in custody since the day of the rally.

Police said Saturday that they have identified 35 victims in the car attack.
A motorcyclist involved in a three-vehicle accident in New Haven, Vermont has died as a result of his injuries.

Christopher Dusablon, 29, was pronounced deceased Saturday evening at an area hospital.

According to police, Dusablon was traveling northbound on US Route 7 when he crashed into another motorcyclist, 25-year-old Joshua Morris.

A 2011 Chevrolet Silverado was also involved in the crash.

Dusablon was lodged underneath the truck as a result of the accident. He was later pronounced dead at Porter Hospital.

Morris was also pinned underneath the truck until rescuers could extricate him.

Route 7 was closed for several hours as rescue teams worked to clear the scene.

The crash remains under investigation by New Haven police.
New Hampshire's loon population is up slightly from about a year ago, but the water bird known for its eerie call is still threatened in the state, particularly at one lake, where just a single chick hatched this year.

North America is home to five species. The common loon is the only one that breeds as far south as New Hampshire.

According to the Loon Preservation Committee, early numbers statewide total just under 300 pairs of loons, slightly higher than last year. The numbers are down, however, for pairs that are nesting and for chicks that have hatched and survived.

Squam Lake is the site of the state's worst decline in the loon population. The causes include lead fishing tackle that poisons the birds and increased boating and fishing.
No more excuses  the Lycra is out and the training has begun

NEIGHBOURS from Kintbury are saddling up for a gruelling charity ride across the country.

David Livingstone will be riding from Lands End to John OGroats for Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

He will be joined by Alistair Collins, who is raising money for Prostate Project.

Mr Livingstone is taking on the challenge after his wife Maura was diagnosed with cancer last year.

He said: My wife never smoked. It doesnt matter who you are, it can impact anyone.

I needed to get off my backside and do something and this has given me a bit of an incentive.

The diagnosis followed Mr Livingstones brother Andrew dying from a heart attack just a month beforehand, leaving his wife Ann and three children.

And in a further cruel twist, Ann and another close family member have been diagnosed with cancer.

Mr Livingstone said: Im inspired by both Maura and Ann in their refusal to bow down to this insidious disease.

They will not let it beat them or get them down.

So, for me, its now or never.

No more excuses  the Lycra is out and the training has begun.

Mr Livingstone and Mr Collins will be joining a group for the Deloitte Ride Across Britain from Lands End to John OGroats; taking on the 1,600km with 13,000m of hills in nine days.

The pair recently took to Northbrook Street for a fundraiser and have raised 4,000 so far.

The generosity of people has been amazing, Mr Livingstone said. I cant believe we have got this far.

Visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Livingstoned to make a donation.
Jonathan Ananda By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The future of Tata Motors problem child, the Tata Nano, has been in the balance for years. But, as sales dwindle to unflattering levels and allegations abound on the model acting as a drain on capital, the tiny car touted as the future of mobility for Indias budget-minded middle class might well be looking at another lease of lifeas an electric vehicle.

The last week saw several indications that the company is serious about transforming the car into an electric model.

On August 22, chairman N Chandrasekaran responded to questions from shareholders on the future of the car by sidestepping the question, only stating, we have issues we need to sort out. We will take a call which car needs to be stopped.

However, sources confirm that later during the week, the company conducted a test of an electric Nano at its test track in Coimbatore. Whats more, chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, whose pet project the car is, was also present.

On Saturday, the company confirmed that it will not phase out the Nano, but look at alternate avenues to reposition the car. We cannot phase out this car. Sentiments of the company, Ratan Tata and shareholders are attached to it. We are looking at how it can be repositioned, said Satish B Borwankar, chief operating officer, Tata Motors.



Analysts say the move to electrify, if it materialises, could well be the Nanos lifeline. The Nano has been struggling, despite the modifications and upgrades effected later. However, an electric version of the car could be a gamechanger, especially if it is released sooner than competition, observed a senior analyst.

Ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry has been outspoken about the financial disadvantages for Tata Motors in continuing to produce the car, stating that Tata Motors had taken a unanimous decision to discontinue production of loss-making Nano almost a year ago, but the car continued to be produced.

But, at the heart of the new possibilities opening up for the Nano is the governments push towards electrifying mobility in the country. Under GST, electric vehicles have a significant tax advantage over its fossil fuel driven peers, attracting only 12 per cent as opposed to 28 per cent and above. This opens up opportunities, especially in the pricing front.

The current version of the car has simply failed to attract too much consumer interest, one aspect of which is that customers feel the car is a bit too expensive for the segment and the competitions products are more attractive. A radical revamp could be the only way to save it, said a Chennai-based dealer.

CHENNAI: The future of Tata Motors problem child, the Tata Nano, has been in the balance for years. But, as sales dwindle to unflattering levels and allegations abound on the model acting as a drain on capital, the tiny car touted as the future of mobility for Indias budget-minded middle class might well be looking at another lease of lifeas an electric vehicle. The last week saw several indications that the company is serious about transforming the car into an electric model. On August 22, chairman N Chandrasekaran responded to questions from shareholders on the future of the car by sidestepping the question, only stating, we have issues we need to sort out. We will take a call which car needs to be stopped. However, sources confirm that later during the week, the company conducted a test of an electric Nano at its test track in Coimbatore. Whats more, chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, whose pet project the car is, was also present. On Saturday, the company confirmed that it will not phase out the Nano, but look at alternate avenues to reposition the car. We cannot phase out this car. Sentiments of the company, Ratan Tata and shareholders are attached to it. We are looking at how it can be repositioned, said Satish B Borwankar, chief operating officer, Tata Motors. Analysts say the move to electrify, if it materialises, could well be the Nanos lifeline. The Nano has been struggling, despite the modifications and upgrades effected later. However, an electric version of the car could be a gamechanger, especially if it is released sooner than competition, observed a senior analyst. Ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry has been outspoken about the financial disadvantages for Tata Motors in continuing to produce the car, stating that Tata Motors had taken a unanimous decision to discontinue production of loss-making Nano almost a year ago, but the car continued to be produced. But, at the heart of the new possibilities opening up for the Nano is the governments push towards electrifying mobility in the country. Under GST, electric vehicles have a significant tax advantage over its fossil fuel driven peers, attracting only 12 per cent as opposed to 28 per cent and above. This opens up opportunities, especially in the pricing front. The current version of the car has simply failed to attract too much consumer interest, one aspect of which is that customers feel the car is a bit too expensive for the segment and the competitions products are more attractive. A radical revamp could be the only way to save it, said a Chennai-based dealer.
By Shivendra Srivastava: In what can be described as an example of gross negligence by hospital authorities, a dead body of woman kept in a government hospital mortuary was scoffed by dogs in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow.

The ghastly incident took place at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital today. The body of the woman who died of food poisoning was preserved in morgue for post-mortem.

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However, owing to mismanagement and poor infrastructure, the body of the woman was eaten by stray dogs. The body mauled so badly that was damaged beyond recognition.

The woman, who was admitted to the hospital on Saturday, died while undergoing treatment. The body was later shifted to the hospital morgue. However, the incident has been attributed to the recklessness of the mortuary staff.

Following the incident, the mortuary guard, ward boy and supervisor have been suspended. An investigation into the incident is underway.

Director of the hospital Devendra Singh Negi said that stringent action will be taken against the staff for their irresponsibility. Negi added that any other person found guilty in the incident too will be punished.

Despite the hospital authorities stand to punish its staff, sources said that such incidents have happened here in the past too. However, such incidents have been suppressed by the authorities.

Also Read:

Jharkhand: 52 infants dead in last 30 days in MGM government hospital

Operation Gorakhpur: Probe exposes shocking truth behind infant deaths in BRD hospital

AIIMS suspends 12 students for ragging juniors

--- ENDS ---
Sesa Sen By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Indias month-long standoff with China at Doklam in Sikkim has yet again accentuated the countrys growing trade deficit with its northern neighbour. There has been a growing pandemonium for import restrictions on all Chinese goods, particularly electronic goods which currently constitute a huge chunk of shipments from across the border. However, experts say that it is not trade restrictions but the countrys weakness for these goods that explain Indias widening trade gap with China.

Indias trade deficit with China continues to balloon. Deficit currently stands at over $51.1 billion, on imports of $61.3 billion, indicating a steady rise in imports while growth in domestic manufacturing remains sluggish.

China, however, has not encouraged Indian exports as much. Major exports to China consist of input products used by Chinas own manufactuers, which it ships abroad  often back to India. For example, iron ore is one of largely exported items in the basket.India imports products are much higher up the value chain from the neighbouring country. In order to balance the Indo-Chinese trade, India has to promote Indian brands in China, besides exports of value added goods from the country, said A Sakthivel, regional chairman (South), Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

From toys to idols, watches to electronic gadgets and kitchen appliances, Chinese versions of everything is available at a cheaper price and is the root cause of infiltration of these goods in the Indian market. Though their quality is not up to the mark, consumers buy them anyway and this is one of the main drivers of the trade imbalance between the two neighbours, pointed out an analyst.

Trade skewed in favour of China also implies that the governments efforts to tighten rules for business might end up doing more harm than good. As per the latest data released by mobile shipment tracking firm IDC, a whopping 51.4 per cent of Indias $8 billion plus smartphone market in Q1 2017 was occupied by Chinese vendors with brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus.

The countrys telecom imports also stand at over `80,000 crore annually, much of it from Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE. In a bid to provide affordable electricity, India today mostly uses Chinese equipment for power generation.And, while the popular impression is that China is dumping consumer goods into India, it is a fact that India depends on China for capital goods too. According to Sakthivel, reduction in import of cheaper capital goods will also push up production costs.

CHENNAI: Indias month-long standoff with China at Doklam in Sikkim has yet again accentuated the countrys growing trade deficit with its northern neighbour. There has been a growing pandemonium for import restrictions on all Chinese goods, particularly electronic goods which currently constitute a huge chunk of shipments from across the border. However, experts say that it is not trade restrictions but the countrys weakness for these goods that explain Indias widening trade gap with China. Indias trade deficit with China continues to balloon. Deficit currently stands at over $51.1 billion, on imports of $61.3 billion, indicating a steady rise in imports while growth in domestic manufacturing remains sluggish. China, however, has not encouraged Indian exports as much. Major exports to China consist of input products used by Chinas own manufactuers, which it ships abroad  often back to India. For example, iron ore is one of largely exported items in the basket.India imports products are much higher up the value chain from the neighbouring country. In order to balance the Indo-Chinese trade, India has to promote Indian brands in China, besides exports of value added goods from the country, said A Sakthivel, regional chairman (South), Federation of Indian Export Organisations. From toys to idols, watches to electronic gadgets and kitchen appliances, Chinese versions of everything is available at a cheaper price and is the root cause of infiltration of these goods in the Indian market. Though their quality is not up to the mark, consumers buy them anyway and this is one of the main drivers of the trade imbalance between the two neighbours, pointed out an analyst. Trade skewed in favour of China also implies that the governments efforts to tighten rules for business might end up doing more harm than good. As per the latest data released by mobile shipment tracking firm IDC, a whopping 51.4 per cent of Indias $8 billion plus smartphone market in Q1 2017 was occupied by Chinese vendors with brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus. The countrys telecom imports also stand at over `80,000 crore annually, much of it from Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE. In a bid to provide affordable electricity, India today mostly uses Chinese equipment for power generation.And, while the popular impression is that China is dumping consumer goods into India, it is a fact that India depends on China for capital goods too. According to Sakthivel, reduction in import of cheaper capital goods will also push up production costs.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Centre has evolved criteria to identify posts in the PSUs, public sector banks and financial institutions comparable with those in the government to exclude the 'creamy layer' for the purpose of granting reservation benefits to the OBC employees.

A proposal to this effect was examined and approved by a panel of ministers and sent to the Union Cabinet for its final nod, a senior government official said.

The same panel had recently cleared the proposal to raise the 'creamy layer' ceiling for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category to Rs 8 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 6 lakh for central government jobs. The need to draw up the criteria arose as there was lack of clarity in the comparable posts in the state-run undertakings and the government.

The exercise to draw up the set of criteria was undertaken almost 23 years after a 1993 office order of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) providing for 27 per cent quota for the OBCs in government vacancies and laying down categories under the creamy layer.

This order merely stated that the criterion enumerated for Group A and Group B posts in government will apply to officers "holding equivalent and comparable posts" in the PSUs, banks and financial institutions.

"A vigorous exercise was carried out following which the criteria have been drawn up for equivalence of posts in PSUs, government banks and insurance organisations among others with those in the government.

"The proposal was for enhancement of the income ceiling for the exclusion of creamy layer and has been approved by the panel of ministers and sent to the Union Cabinet," the official said.

He said the move was aimed at ensuring parity between the posts in the state-run financial institutions with those in the government for the purpose of granting quota benefits to those eligible.

"There were discrepancies in granting benefits to the OBC employees of such organisations and some were getting undue benefits in the absence of a comparative chart of posts across government and PSUs," he said.

Under the 1993 memorandum issued by the DoPT, certain categories are listed under the creamy layer.

While categories like constitutional posts, Group A/Class I and Group B/Class II were clearly mentioned in it, there was no clarity in regard to the employees of PSUs, banks and insurance organisations.

The order further stated that pending the evaluation of posts on equivalence or comparable basis in these institutions, the criteria of income test would apply to the officers there.

NEW DELHI: The Centre has evolved criteria to identify posts in the PSUs, public sector banks and financial institutions comparable with those in the government to exclude the 'creamy layer' for the purpose of granting reservation benefits to the OBC employees. A proposal to this effect was examined and approved by a panel of ministers and sent to the Union Cabinet for its final nod, a senior government official said. The same panel had recently cleared the proposal to raise the 'creamy layer' ceiling for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category to Rs 8 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 6 lakh for central government jobs. The need to draw up the criteria arose as there was lack of clarity in the comparable posts in the state-run undertakings and the government. The exercise to draw up the set of criteria was undertaken almost 23 years after a 1993 office order of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) providing for 27 per cent quota for the OBCs in government vacancies and laying down categories under the creamy layer. This order merely stated that the criterion enumerated for Group A and Group B posts in government will apply to officers "holding equivalent and comparable posts" in the PSUs, banks and financial institutions. "A vigorous exercise was carried out following which the criteria have been drawn up for equivalence of posts in PSUs, government banks and insurance organisations among others with those in the government. "The proposal was for enhancement of the income ceiling for the exclusion of creamy layer and has been approved by the panel of ministers and sent to the Union Cabinet," the official said. He said the move was aimed at ensuring parity between the posts in the state-run financial institutions with those in the government for the purpose of granting quota benefits to those eligible. "There were discrepancies in granting benefits to the OBC employees of such organisations and some were getting undue benefits in the absence of a comparative chart of posts across government and PSUs," he said. Under the 1993 memorandum issued by the DoPT, certain categories are listed under the creamy layer. While categories like constitutional posts, Group A/Class I and Group B/Class II were clearly mentioned in it, there was no clarity in regard to the employees of PSUs, banks and insurance organisations. The order further stated that pending the evaluation of posts on equivalence or comparable basis in these institutions, the criteria of income test would apply to the officers there.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: An 11-year-old boy, G Adarsh Mudiraj, studying in Class VI at Delhi Public School, Nadergul branch died under suspicious conditions on Saturday. Adibatla police registered a case of suspicious death for investigation and sent the body to OGH mortuary for autopsy and his eyes were donated to LV Prasad Eye Hospital. On Saturday, some students including Adarsh went for singing competitions and won third prize. After returning to school, students were boarding the bus to leave to their homes.

Adarsh who had put his bag in the classroom on the first floor of the building rushed to get the bag, but did not return. The guard went upstairs to check, and found Adarsh unconscious. He screamed for help and rushed the boy to Amma hospital in LB Nagar and then to Kamineni hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead. The boys parents have decided to donate Adarshs eyes.

HYDERABAD: An 11-year-old boy, G Adarsh Mudiraj, studying in Class VI at Delhi Public School, Nadergul branch died under suspicious conditions on Saturday. Adibatla police registered a case of suspicious death for investigation and sent the body to OGH mortuary for autopsy and his eyes were donated to LV Prasad Eye Hospital. On Saturday, some students including Adarsh went for singing competitions and won third prize. After returning to school, students were boarding the bus to leave to their homes. Adarsh who had put his bag in the classroom on the first floor of the building rushed to get the bag, but did not return. The guard went upstairs to check, and found Adarsh unconscious. He screamed for help and rushed the boy to Amma hospital in LB Nagar and then to Kamineni hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead. The boys parents have decided to donate Adarshs eyes.
R Prithvi Raj By

Express News Service

BJP strongman Amit Shahs visit to Vijayawada, whenever that happens, since his immediate three-day visit from August 28 has been postponed, appears to be primarily intended to make the party poll-ready with or without the alliance with the Telugu Desam Party.Though the TDP has been a trusted friend of the BJP, the saffron party, like any other party, wants to grow independently by coming out of the TDPs shadow in Andhra Pradesh.Already in mission mode with his target 350 programme, BJPs Jadugar has already asked the party leaders in AP to examine the option A of sailing with the TDP and option B of charting its own course. For the time being, the TDP-BJP applecart will continue its journey though with slight bumps here and there, but in the long run the party seems to be having its own plans. Amit Shah, in his recent visit to the State, had said the BJP wants AP to become the gateway to the South which amply and eloquently speaks of the partys ambitions in the wake of its resounding victories in the North.



As far as TDP is concerned, the BJP State leaders say breaking or making alliances are usually done at the time of elections and in the meanwhile, the BJP like any other party is interested in trying to increase its reach to parts where its presence is not very satisfactory rather than breaking the bond of friendship which may not fetch any immediate results. We discus alliances at the time of elections and not now, said a BJP leader while not ruling out anything that might be unsavoury to the TDP.

As Amit Shah wants the party to be in power in Delhi for the next 50 years - which is a very very long shot - it appears he is making a foray into AP though it is difficult to predict to what extent he would be successful since the TDP is very strong in the State with the YSRC close on its heels.



When Amit Shahs programme in Vijayawada was finalised, it became clear that he wanted to be a listener to the opinions of the party workers at various levels so that he could finally draw a blueprint for the party to emerge strong in the State. Though it is not clear when he would visit Vijayawada but it would surely happen before long as he is now preoccupied with reconstitution of the Central Cabinet which is also being keenly watched by the party State leaders with M Venkaiah Naidu, the towering personality from AP, having moved on to become the Vice-President of India, leaving a void for Amit Shah to fill.



Vizag MP K Haribabu has been steering the party well till now. But his main source of strength being Venkaiah Naidu, may not be available to him for consultation from now on.

As he has already served his three-year tenure as the party State chief long ago and has been on borrowed time, it is believed that Amit Shah would attend to finding a replacement to Haribabu whether or not he is taken into the Central Cabinet. But the buzz in the BJP circles is that the party is considering taking one MP from AP as the Minister of State and it could be either Haribabu or Gokaraju Gangaraju.

According to sources, the BJP top leadership wants Haribabu in the Cabinet as some sort of a palliative to him since he has remained unhappy over the promise of creating a railway zone with Vizag as headquarters remaining on paper till now.



If Haribabu moves into the Cabinet, then who should lead the BJP in the State? This has been a problem hanging fire for a very long time with quite a number of names doing the rounds all the time but none seemed to have cut much ice with the BJP chief. There is also a chance of the party picking up Gangaraju to lead the party if Haribabu moves into the Cabinet. Gangaraju who is from RSS stock has good equations with Amit Shah.Party sources said the names of Rajahmundry MLA Akula Satyanarayana and MLC Somu Veerraju are also under consideration since they happen to belong to Kapu community which is numerically strong in the coastal belt, having a potential to tilt scales in an election.



There are aspirants from those who made lateral entry into BJP - Kanna Lakshminarayana and Daggubati Purandeswari - but they may not be hot favourites since they are not BJP leaders from inside.

Sources said that Amit Shah wants the party to grow independent of TDP but is not yet ready take any decision that would rock the TDP-BJP honeymoon. But at the same time, the party is also not against the YSRC with the saffron leadership showing equal importance to both Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. But the BJP leaders have their own ideas as to how to make the party stronger and they will become known only as they take a clear shape in Amit Shahs mind.



Assistant Resident Editor, Vijayawada raj@newIndianexpress.com

BJP strongman Amit Shahs visit to Vijayawada, whenever that happens, since his immediate three-day visit from August 28 has been postponed, appears to be primarily intended to make the party poll-ready with or without the alliance with the Telugu Desam Party.Though the TDP has been a trusted friend of the BJP, the saffron party, like any other party, wants to grow independently by coming out of the TDPs shadow in Andhra Pradesh.Already in mission mode with his target 350 programme, BJPs Jadugar has already asked the party leaders in AP to examine the option A of sailing with the TDP and option B of charting its own course. For the time being, the TDP-BJP applecart will continue its journey though with slight bumps here and there, but in the long run the party seems to be having its own plans. Amit Shah, in his recent visit to the State, had said the BJP wants AP to become the gateway to the South which amply and eloquently speaks of the partys ambitions in the wake of its resounding victories in the North. As far as TDP is concerned, the BJP State leaders say breaking or making alliances are usually done at the time of elections and in the meanwhile, the BJP like any other party is interested in trying to increase its reach to parts where its presence is not very satisfactory rather than breaking the bond of friendship which may not fetch any immediate results. We discus alliances at the time of elections and not now, said a BJP leader while not ruling out anything that might be unsavoury to the TDP. As Amit Shah wants the party to be in power in Delhi for the next 50 years - which is a very very long shot - it appears he is making a foray into AP though it is difficult to predict to what extent he would be successful since the TDP is very strong in the State with the YSRC close on its heels. When Amit Shahs programme in Vijayawada was finalised, it became clear that he wanted to be a listener to the opinions of the party workers at various levels so that he could finally draw a blueprint for the party to emerge strong in the State. Though it is not clear when he would visit Vijayawada but it would surely happen before long as he is now preoccupied with reconstitution of the Central Cabinet which is also being keenly watched by the party State leaders with M Venkaiah Naidu, the towering personality from AP, having moved on to become the Vice-President of India, leaving a void for Amit Shah to fill. Vizag MP K Haribabu has been steering the party well till now. But his main source of strength being Venkaiah Naidu, may not be available to him for consultation from now on. As he has already served his three-year tenure as the party State chief long ago and has been on borrowed time, it is believed that Amit Shah would attend to finding a replacement to Haribabu whether or not he is taken into the Central Cabinet. But the buzz in the BJP circles is that the party is considering taking one MP from AP as the Minister of State and it could be either Haribabu or Gokaraju Gangaraju. According to sources, the BJP top leadership wants Haribabu in the Cabinet as some sort of a palliative to him since he has remained unhappy over the promise of creating a railway zone with Vizag as headquarters remaining on paper till now. If Haribabu moves into the Cabinet, then who should lead the BJP in the State? This has been a problem hanging fire for a very long time with quite a number of names doing the rounds all the time but none seemed to have cut much ice with the BJP chief. There is also a chance of the party picking up Gangaraju to lead the party if Haribabu moves into the Cabinet. Gangaraju who is from RSS stock has good equations with Amit Shah.Party sources said the names of Rajahmundry MLA Akula Satyanarayana and MLC Somu Veerraju are also under consideration since they happen to belong to Kapu community which is numerically strong in the coastal belt, having a potential to tilt scales in an election. There are aspirants from those who made lateral entry into BJP - Kanna Lakshminarayana and Daggubati Purandeswari - but they may not be hot favourites since they are not BJP leaders from inside. Sources said that Amit Shah wants the party to grow independent of TDP but is not yet ready take any decision that would rock the TDP-BJP honeymoon. But at the same time, the party is also not against the YSRC with the saffron leadership showing equal importance to both Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. But the BJP leaders have their own ideas as to how to make the party stronger and they will become known only as they take a clear shape in Amit Shahs mind. Assistant Resident Editor, Vijayawada raj@newIndianexpress.com
By IANS

MUMBAI: Actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh has self-created an eco-friendly Ganesha idol and dedicated it to Indian farmers.

On Sunday, Riteish tweeted a video in which he is seen creating the idol using clay.

"Celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi in America. Made an idol, I humbly dedicate it to our Farmers," Riteish captioned it.

In the video, he says, "Hi guys, so this year again, I am going to make an eco-friendly Ganesha."

He is seen making the turbaned idol from scratch and even paints it.

"This turban represents every farmer in India. As a son of a farmer, I dedicate this idol to them," Riteish, son of late Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, posted.

Thanking his wife Genelia, Ritesh wrote: "I wanna thank Baiko for inspiring me to do this and also for shooting this video. God bless you all with happiness, prosperity and love."

MUMBAI: Actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh has self-created an eco-friendly Ganesha idol and dedicated it to Indian farmers. On Sunday, Riteish tweeted a video in which he is seen creating the idol using clay. "Celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi in America. Made an idol, I humbly dedicate it to our Farmers," Riteish captioned it. In the video, he says, "Hi guys, so this year again, I am going to make an eco-friendly Ganesha." He is seen making the turbaned idol from scratch and even paints it. Celebrating #GaneshChaturthi in America, Made an idol, I humbly dedicate it to our Farmers. #ECO #Planter #Visarjan #SonOfAFarmer #Bappa pic.twitter.com/OnuU1S0D6a  Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) August 27, 2017 "This turban represents every farmer in India. As a son of a farmer, I dedicate this idol to them," Riteish, son of late Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, posted. Thanking his wife Genelia, Ritesh wrote: "I wanna thank Baiko for inspiring me to do this and also for shooting this video. God bless you all with happiness, prosperity and love."
By IANS

Film: Arjun Reddy; Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga; Cast: Vijay Devarakonda, Shalini Pandey, Rahul Ramakrishna and Sanjay Swaroop

One can't help but fall in love with "Arjun Reddy", the film as well as the eponymous title role, even though you don't walk out of the cinema hall with a smile. If you fall in the category of the audience that believes cinema is meant to entertain, maybe this is not the film for you. You might as well watch a David Dhawan film.

If you like the kind of cinema that moves you, quite literally shakes you from within, "Arjun Reddy" is for you. By the end of the film, it stirs up an emotional storm deep inside with its raw, intense and honest portrayal of love and suffering.

In the opening shot, we are introduced to Arjun and Preethi, and we're told they are two bodies united by one soul. But theirs is not the kind of love story we are used to, especially Telugu audiences who are used to cheering for 50-plus stars romancing heroines half their age, singing duets in the Alps.

The love in "Arjun Reddy" is pure, unabashedly bold and hard-hitting. It touches the soul in ways it can't be explained. It gives the story a modern-day Devdas twist, while making the overall cinematic experience a journey to remember for a long time.

This is the story of the lead character Arjun Reddy, and yet there isn't a story, a structure to be precise, to follow and anticipate what might happen next. It's the rise, fall and rise of Arjun, and his journey of love and suffering, is nothing short of poetic and heart wrenching.

Writer-director Sandeep Reddy Vanga doesn't make us sympathise with Arjun's character, and that's a relief and achievement by itself. He makes us understand Arjun's love and pain from a very personal and subconscious standpoint, and in doing so, he strikes an emotional chord.

It's not the number of lip-locks or the use of expletives that make "Arjun Reddy" a brave film. What really makes it a brave film and its director, a man with guts, is that it ventures into a space Telugu cinema has dared to enter and I doubt if it will ever. It shows that any story, when told with conviction, will be accepted and celebrated.

Sandeep and Vijay, as director and hero, make the film for what it is, and both have paved the way for a new chapter in Telugu filmdom. If it was "Pellichoopulu" and "Kshanam" last year, it's "Arjun Reddy" in 2017, and these films assure there is light at the end of the tunnel.

As much as the film belongs to Sandeep, who is also its writer, it equally belongs to Vijay Devarakonda, who is the life of "Arjun Reddy". Vijay breathes life into the character and it's impossible to imagine anyone else in his shoes. Be it his passion, love, and rage; he portrays these several layers of his character with unparalleled realism.

Vijay's performance as a college-goer with serious anger issues or as the alcoholic surgeon will leave you in awe of his versatility in pulling off such diverse avatars with ease, as if it was child's play.

Sandeep presents Vijay's character from different perspectives and from each point of view; we get to understand Arjun even better. For Arjun's father, his son's actions are stains on his prestige. For his friends, Arjun's actions show his recklessness and free-spirited attitude. For Preethi, Arjun's actions show his madness and unwillingness to change, which she eventually embraces.

We get to learn more about Arjun - his strengths, his weaknesses and flaws - from every character around him.

"'Arjun Reddya' is not a film; it's an experience that'll stay with you. This is a very personal story of love and suffering, aided by beautiful cinematography and terrific music, particularly the background score.

At 190 minutes, there isn't a single lull moment in the film and it hooks you, quite literally till the end. This is the most original, experimental and daring work to come out Telugu cinema in a long time.

Film: Arjun Reddy; Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga; Cast: Vijay Devarakonda, Shalini Pandey, Rahul Ramakrishna and Sanjay Swaroop One can't help but fall in love with "Arjun Reddy", the film as well as the eponymous title role, even though you don't walk out of the cinema hall with a smile. If you fall in the category of the audience that believes cinema is meant to entertain, maybe this is not the film for you. You might as well watch a David Dhawan film. If you like the kind of cinema that moves you, quite literally shakes you from within, "Arjun Reddy" is for you. By the end of the film, it stirs up an emotional storm deep inside with its raw, intense and honest portrayal of love and suffering. In the opening shot, we are introduced to Arjun and Preethi, and we're told they are two bodies united by one soul. But theirs is not the kind of love story we are used to, especially Telugu audiences who are used to cheering for 50-plus stars romancing heroines half their age, singing duets in the Alps. The love in "Arjun Reddy" is pure, unabashedly bold and hard-hitting. It touches the soul in ways it can't be explained. It gives the story a modern-day Devdas twist, while making the overall cinematic experience a journey to remember for a long time. This is the story of the lead character Arjun Reddy, and yet there isn't a story, a structure to be precise, to follow and anticipate what might happen next. It's the rise, fall and rise of Arjun, and his journey of love and suffering, is nothing short of poetic and heart wrenching. Writer-director Sandeep Reddy Vanga doesn't make us sympathise with Arjun's character, and that's a relief and achievement by itself. He makes us understand Arjun's love and pain from a very personal and subconscious standpoint, and in doing so, he strikes an emotional chord. It's not the number of lip-locks or the use of expletives that make "Arjun Reddy" a brave film. What really makes it a brave film and its director, a man with guts, is that it ventures into a space Telugu cinema has dared to enter and I doubt if it will ever. It shows that any story, when told with conviction, will be accepted and celebrated. Sandeep and Vijay, as director and hero, make the film for what it is, and both have paved the way for a new chapter in Telugu filmdom. If it was "Pellichoopulu" and "Kshanam" last year, it's "Arjun Reddy" in 2017, and these films assure there is light at the end of the tunnel. As much as the film belongs to Sandeep, who is also its writer, it equally belongs to Vijay Devarakonda, who is the life of "Arjun Reddy". Vijay breathes life into the character and it's impossible to imagine anyone else in his shoes. Be it his passion, love, and rage; he portrays these several layers of his character with unparalleled realism. Vijay's performance as a college-goer with serious anger issues or as the alcoholic surgeon will leave you in awe of his versatility in pulling off such diverse avatars with ease, as if it was child's play. Sandeep presents Vijay's character from different perspectives and from each point of view; we get to understand Arjun even better. For Arjun's father, his son's actions are stains on his prestige. For his friends, Arjun's actions show his recklessness and free-spirited attitude. For Preethi, Arjun's actions show his madness and unwillingness to change, which she eventually embraces. We get to learn more about Arjun - his strengths, his weaknesses and flaws - from every character around him. "'Arjun Reddya' is not a film; it's an experience that'll stay with you. This is a very personal story of love and suffering, aided by beautiful cinematography and terrific music, particularly the background score. At 190 minutes, there isn't a single lull moment in the film and it hooks you, quite literally till the end. This is the most original, experimental and daring work to come out Telugu cinema in a long time.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: After a dull start in the wake of violence following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and sudden showers on Saturday, the Delhi Book Fair saw a large number of book lovers of the national capital turning up to the event on Sunday.

With the theme "Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat" (India reads, India grows), the Delhi Book Fair -- organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in association with the the Federation of Indian Publishers -- entered its 23rd edition.

Held at Pragati Maidan, the fair has been spread over two halls -- one dedicated to stationery items while the other has book stalls.

"Our focus this year is more on study books and syllabus guide materials. However, there are many stalls with story books as well," Pradip Chhabra, Organiser, Delhi Book Fair, told IANS.

Visitor Priyanka Bagaria, who came along with her son Granth, a student of class eight in Blue Bells Public School, said the availability of many books under one roof is a major reason for visiting the fair.

"Visiting Daryaganj is always not possible. Here I got rather more variety of study material and that too with more discount," Bagaria observed.

Like her, Ashish Aggarwal, a resident of Noida who was visiting Delhi Book Fair for the first time, said the lack of good bookstores in Noida drew him to the event.

"There aren't many book shops in Noida. Here I got many books which are not easily available in the market, especially some old books related to General Knowledge and communication skills improvement," Aggarwal said.

This year, the fair is providing a unique platform for business-to-business transactions, establishing new contacts, entering into co-publishing arrangements, translation and copyright arrangements, and reprinting of old and rare books, apart from providing retailing opportunities.

It will also host conferences and seminars, buyer-seller meets, book releases, discussions, literary activities for children and meet-the-author events.

The Delhi Book Fair will conclude on September 3.

NEW DELHI: After a dull start in the wake of violence following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and sudden showers on Saturday, the Delhi Book Fair saw a large number of book lovers of the national capital turning up to the event on Sunday. With the theme "Padhe Bharat, Badhe Bharat" (India reads, India grows), the Delhi Book Fair -- organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in association with the the Federation of Indian Publishers -- entered its 23rd edition. Held at Pragati Maidan, the fair has been spread over two halls -- one dedicated to stationery items while the other has book stalls. "Our focus this year is more on study books and syllabus guide materials. However, there are many stalls with story books as well," Pradip Chhabra, Organiser, Delhi Book Fair, told IANS. Visitor Priyanka Bagaria, who came along with her son Granth, a student of class eight in Blue Bells Public School, said the availability of many books under one roof is a major reason for visiting the fair. "Visiting Daryaganj is always not possible. Here I got rather more variety of study material and that too with more discount," Bagaria observed. Like her, Ashish Aggarwal, a resident of Noida who was visiting Delhi Book Fair for the first time, said the lack of good bookstores in Noida drew him to the event. "There aren't many book shops in Noida. Here I got many books which are not easily available in the market, especially some old books related to General Knowledge and communication skills improvement," Aggarwal said. This year, the fair is providing a unique platform for business-to-business transactions, establishing new contacts, entering into co-publishing arrangements, translation and copyright arrangements, and reprinting of old and rare books, apart from providing retailing opportunities. It will also host conferences and seminars, buyer-seller meets, book releases, discussions, literary activities for children and meet-the-author events. The Delhi Book Fair will conclude on September 3.
Marriages are made in heaven is the cliche. Some marriages are simply hell.

Triple talaq, a perverse, instant form of divorce, which enables a Muslim man to separate from his wife by uttering the word talaq thricealso through phone, texts, Skype and WhatsApphas been a weapon of gender and economic brutality for 1,400 years in Hanafi Islam.

A bitterly contested political and social issue, the exigencies of minority politics had been preventing successive governments from enacting marital reform in Islam since politicians had deemed it as interference in Sharia. Last week, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court quashed the practice calling it gender discriminatory and violation of right to equality, after five womenShayara Bano, Gulshan Parveen, Ishrat Jahan, Afreen Rehman and Farha Faizhad approached the courts for relief from the medieval practice. After the ruling, Shayara said, This is a happy moment for all Muslim women in India. This is a historic day for India.

Times have indeed changed. At the height of the debate, Muslim leaders argued that triple talaq is a religious issue, which cannot be judicially negotiated but most Islamic scholars held that the practice, though un-Islamic, is valid! In 1978, Shah Bano, a mother of five, was granted maintenance from her husband by the apex court. However, yielding to pressure from Muslim politicians, the Congress government of the day passed the Muslim Women Act 1986, which diluted the ruling.

The latest ruling will be valid until the ban becomes law in Parliament. Is this a prelude to a Uniform Civil Code? From Shah Bano to Shayara Bano, its been one long struggle for Muslim women to stand up and be counted like their sisters from all faiths. One they have won.

DELHI

For 35-year-old Tania Sharif, it wasnt easy to take care of her two growing children after her husband divorced her five years ago. The government school teachers ordeal began when she enrolled her teenage daughter in a public school. Her enraged husband gave her triple talaq while they were having breakfast. The moment I told him about our daughter getting enrolled in the school, he scolded me for not taking his consent. He wanted her to study in a madrasa, not in a regular school, says Tania.

She filed a case against her husband Abdul Sharif in a Delhi court seeking alimony and right to living. It was a challenge to upbring my two daughters without any financial support. I didnt lose hope and continued teaching. I got my daughters enrolled in my school, which made it easier for me take care of them and concentrate on my career, she says. I had no house, no money. He threw me out. My family refused to support me as for them triple talaq is a taboo.

Tania won the case, with the court granting her custody of Abduls house, ordering him to live separatley and give Rs 10,000 monthly maintenance to her and the children.

MAHARASHTRA



Sadiya Khan, 19, is an alima, one who has read religious texts thoroughly. The Pune girl got a rude shock in April 2016 when the mufti told her that the talaq her husband had Whats-Apped her was in accordance with Islam.A year on, anger has replaced shock. How could he do so? she asks of the muftis decision. There are elaborate procedures in Islam for separation. A senior maulana endorsed my views in a TV debate a few weeks ago. He agreed that talaq is not in accordance with Islamic law. Who made people like the mufti custodians of Islam?

Sadiya lost her parents when she was very young, and was raised by her grandparents. She studied in a madrasa and then completed a three-year course to become an alima, after which she was married off to a man who worked in a call centre. Her father-in-law was an auto driver and a cook.

Two days into my marriage they started demanding dowry. I told them that everything was done as per our capacity, which led to a quarrel. They kept repeating the demands, says Sadiya. When she got pregnant, Sadiya went to live with her grandparents. Two days later, her husband WhatsApped her talaq, talaq, talaq and told her not to return without dowry. When she confronted them in their house, he allegedly pushed her into the bathroom, hit her and made her drink shampoo. She was moved to hospital in a semi-conscious state. On coming to, she realised the physical assault had led to her abortion. Sadiya filed a police complaint against her husband and in-laws, which is ongoing in court.

It all made me realise I was right and had been wronged. That replaced fear and pity within myself with the anger, says Sadiya, who now wants to become a lawyer.

KERALA

One fine morning, P P Afsana from Idiyangara in Kozhikode received a mail from her husband pronouncing triple talaq. And with those three words, this 32-year-old was left destitute.

Afsana, an MA BEd, got married in April 2013. She was allegedly forced by her husband and his parents to quit her job as a school teacher. She was continuously harassed by her husband and his family members over her dark complexion and dowry. Five months into the marriage, her husband sent her home and refused to accept her back even after their daughter Amina was born.

After not answering my calls or messages for a few months, my husband informed me that he had divorced me. I didnt know what to do. He did not even follow the procedures mentioned in the Sharia law, she added.On a domestic violence case filed by her, the court issued a protection order in favour of Afsana. She staged a sit-in along with her two-year-old child outside her husbands house seeking justice. Afsana withdrew the case after the two parties reached an agreement over maintenance.

Afsana stays with her mother and siblings. Her husband has remarried.



BIHAR

Within a year after being married to Mohammad Munawwar at the age of 18 in Saharsa, illiterate Biwi Mariam began getting signals that he was unhappy with the marriage. When they had their first child two years later, she thought her marriage would improve. She never believed that Munawwar, whom she loved dearly, would give her triple talaq and desert her with their two children.

I was devastated and wanted to commit suicide. But the thought of my childrens future gave me courage, says Mariam, who lives in a rented single room. Her son Sayid is seven and her daughter Parveen is 20 months old. Mariam works as a domestic help, doing dishes in six homes. I cant buy milk for my daughter, nor books and clothes for my son. I take care of my old, sick mother. Life is hell for me, she says. Her father died six years ago.Munawwar, a tailor, had been pressuring her parents for a motorcycle, Rs 50,000 and a gold chain. He used to beat me up. Then he found another woman, said talaq to me three times, took everything we had and left, she says.



Mariam shot to the headlines last month when she insisted on meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his Saharsa visit. I failed to meet him. I wanted to tell him of my struggles and urge him to put an end to triple talaq in the country, says Mariam. The long practice of men marrying at whim, producing children and leaving them must end. Ill convert to Hinduism unless triple talaq is banned.

After she couldnt meet the Home Minister, the local Muslim clergy and her Muslim neighbours wanted me to shut up. They threatened of dire consequences. She fears for her and her childrens lives.

TAMIL NADU

Mehrunissa Bano (name changed) says, He just said three wordstalaq, talaq, talaqand my life wasnt the same. It shouldnt be so easy for him to move on. Can he give me back the time I spent with him? Can he make me the person I was before I met him? I only hope and pray now that no other girl goes through this.

Since childhood, women have been conditioned to believe in the happily ever after. Mehrunissa was no different. When this 21-year-old married Ashfaq Hussaini (name changed) in 2008, life seemed full of promise.

There was a problem with the way my husband handled the talaq and the way the qazi went about the procedure. If these people followed what is given in the Sharia law properly, there would have been no issue. Triple talaq, when done as per the rules, is not wrong, she says.

About her abusive marriage, Mehrunissa says, I was alive, but that was about it. They treated me like a prisoner. They took all my cash, clothes, and jewellery. They denied me food and water. I would beg and plead in vain. They would threaten that they would kill me or that my husband would get married to someone else.

One day, when the beatings became too much to take, Mehrunissa jumped from her second floor home and landed on an asbestos sheet on the first floor. The people on the ground floor helped her. Once on the ground, she didnt waste a second. She got into an autorickshaw and went straight to her maternal house. When asked if she felt any fear, she shrugs, What did I have to fear? My life was hell either way; this was my chance at a better life.

Later, there were some attempts to sort things out. Her brother, Ali Akbar (name changed), filed a complaint against Ashfaq and his kin. The accused gave an apology at the Vepery police station and promised to return Mehrunissas 30 sovereigns of gold in three months time.Those months turned into years, and Mehrunissa is still waiting for her gold. She went back to give her marriage another chance. But things were soon back to square one.My husband and mother-in-law would pour kerosene on me and threaten to set me ablaze. I was so petrified that I would lock myself in the bathroom, she says.

In the midst of all this, Mehrunissa got pregnant. My child made me want to stay alive. But that happiness did not last. One day, my in-laws gave me something to drink and I had to be rushed to the hospital. They had to operate on me when I was three months pregnant. I lost my child.

While she was mourning the loss of her child, Ashfaq sent a letter to Alis house, claiming that the qazi had accepted his divorce.Ashfaq never gave us a proper reason, which is mandatory under Sharia law, says an angry Ali, adding that Mehrunissa was not given her maintenance as prescribed by Sharia law.

She stays with us, but what if we were not there? Where would she have gone? Because the letter from the qazi is considered the final word, we are not able to challenge the decision in court, says Ali.

All I want for her now is a good man who will show her how to be happy again, is all that her mother can say.



TELANGANA

It takes an effort to make Tarannum Bhanu speak. Shaheen, the NGO that is helping her, coaxes her to open up. She speaks haltingly, I was 15 or 16 when I was married in 2005. I have seven sisters and it was natural that I would be married off early. He was an autorickshaw driver and had a lot of demands. I will leave you was something I would hear from him every day.Recalling the moment that she knew her marriage ended, she says, It was like my limbs were cut off. Suddenly I had to think about a roof over my head, money to buy groceries, and taking care of my four children. A lazy man, his demands were unending. When it was clear that Tarannum could not meet the demands, talaq it was.

While her two younger children stay with her, the elder two stay with the father. The older ones also complain that they are abused, but I have no control over anything, she rues.

Married at 16, all that Fatima Biwi (name changed) endured during the 24 years of her married life was abuse and torture. A train ticket examiner, Fatimas husband was a woman chaser. Koi aur mil gayi, chale gaye uske peeche (He would find another woman and go after her), explains an angry Fatima.

Just because a woman has the will and capacity to endure, life keeps throwing more challenges at her. I lost the will to live after he left me, she recalls, pulling up her burkha to show us lines on her neck after she tried to hang herself.

After repeatedly threatening her with talaq since 1993, her husband took the final step in 2015. It came as a shocker to Fatima. He came along with the woman he chose to live with and forcefully made Fatima sign a document. I dont know what I signed on, but I knew it was over and the one thing I felt strongly was the feeling of hopelessness, she recalls.

I was handicapped because I was dependent on him for more than 20 years. One of my children is mentally unstable. My daughter is yet to be married. My youngest son has seen the trouble I take to make ends meet and has stopped going to school. I get no money from him even though he is a government officer, says she between sobs.

Wasima Sultana is a 26-year-old who is clueless about how to deal with what life has thrown at her. She was still grieving about her trauma of losing her son months after he was born, when her husband and his parents started blaming her for the death.



I was married because everyone around me was getting married. We spent around Rs 20 lakh for the wedding but their demands for dowry were too high. He wasnt there besides me when I was pregnant. It was a complicated surgery, says she.

Two years after her husband pronounced divorce, she is actually relieved. I have no regrets that the relationship ended as it was abusive. He would keep threatening divorce for every small thing. We lived together for only one-and-a-half months, after which he left for Dubai. He would threaten me from miles away, Wasima recalls.While it was a sigh of relief, her struggles began after the divorce. I lost my father and I live with my mother. I filed a maintenance case in court, but the only progress is a new date every time, she shares.

(Names have been changed)



KARNATAKA

Hasina Banu (name changed) shudders when asked about the fateful day that plunged her into an abyss of fear and uncertainty, and made her a recluse. Her husband divorced her via triple talaq and threw her out of his house with her three children (the eldest was 11). Her parents were incapable of supporting her, as they had to arrange for the marriage of their other children. And all of this because her husband felt, after 10 years of marriage, that he could no longer support them.

Hasina, 31, lives in Azizuddin Road in Mangaluru. Her children were six, nine and 11 on that fateful day in January 2016. Her husband Ajmal (name changed) and his parents had been good to her, but had also always been powerless before their sons unreasonable anger.

The day is etched in Hasinas mind. Ajmal got into a rage and said he couldnt sustain the family. He wanted to marry another woman who would bring in a fat dowry, and Hasina would serve as her subordinate. He divorced her with the three words.Hasina belonged to a large but poor family. Her father is a loader in the port; her mother works in an oil mill. The eldest child among three sisters and four brothers, Hasina was just 20 when she was married off. The first baby followed the next year, followed by two more in quick succession. Ajmal was a well-to-do businessman who dealt in dry fruits.

Post the first pregnancy, things went downhill as Ajmals temper worsened, which also quelled the support from her in-laws. After the third pregnancy, Ajmal first uttered the word talaq, a sort of warning for what was to come.He first accused me that I wasnt helping his mother in household chores. My mother-in-law had testified that I was a great help to her. Then he accused me of being uneducated; my father-in-law supported me on this. The third and final reason he gave was that he was not able to support three children and a wife financially as it was putting his own life in jeopardy, recalls Hasina.

After the triple talaq, Hasinas biggest fear was the well-being of her children. She started working at the oil mill. She stays in a low-rent two-room set, courtesy of a family which took pity on her and the kids. She is learning to stitch with an old, borrowed sewing machine. My children go to school where they get mid-day meals, she says. And this is Hasinas biggest source of motivation and happinessher children.



Odisha

Nine years after her marriage, Kaniz Fatimas world came crashing down when she discovered that her husband, Mohammadd Hanif, a teacher, was having an extra-marital affair. They had two school-going sons.A native of Balasore district of Odisha, she married Hanif when she was 19.

Hanif also taught in a madrasa. At first, I thought he might change over time. I took good care of him and the family, although I was shattered from inside. I had no clue why would he be attracted to another woman, says 38-year-old Kaniz.But Hanif showed no change.

My husband wanted my consent for a second marriage, which I did not agree to, she says. During the fag end of 2012, Hanif uttered the dreaded words. It was like a ton of bricks hitting Fatima.A few months later, Hanif left for school and did not return. Fatima learned that he had taken leave without informing the family. He couldnt be traced.

Three months later, he re-appeared but did not come home. He stayed at the madrasa. There was no effort on his part to reach out to us. Then he sent two more talaq notices through court. Alongside came the iddat and meher via a pay cheque, says Fatima.Fatima didnt accept because she wanted justice. To corroborate his second and third talaqs, Hanif produced witnesses. As per the existing norms, the witnesses must be known to the wife, but in this case, Fatima didnt know any of them. She challenged the talaq in court and filed a case of domestic violence.

My father had helped my husband get a job and land, and constructed the house at Dhamnagar, only to witness his daughter getting tortured regularly, she says.While Hanif has remarried and has children with her, Fatima is struggling to meet her daily needs. She gets a monthly maintenance of Rs 14,000 from Hanif, of which Rs 8,000 goes for her childrens education. Fatima, who has studied up to Class VII, is now seeking her rights on the house, which she says is under forcible occupation of her husband and in-laws.



Uttar Pradesh

He says if I go through nikah halala, hell take me back. But what is the guarantee that the new one will leave me, and what is the guarantee that he (husband) will accept me. Ill lose both the worlds. How will I live? asks Shahla Naaz of Moradabad. Nikah halala involves a female divorcee marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce in order to make it allowable to remarry her previous husband.

After 13 years of marriage and three children to look after, Shahla was forced out of the house by her alcoholic husband Faridudeen in the dead of night eight months ago. Somehow I spent 13 years, howsoever torturous, with him, she says. Her husband has remarried. All through 13 years, my husband and his family used to demand one thing or the other. My father fulfilled the demands to the best of his capabilities, she says. Faridudeen is a quality control manager in a private firm.

Things triggered off when Shahla asked Faridudeen to get corrective surgery for their eldest daughters cleft lip. Shahla sold her jewellery to pay for the surgery. He stopped talking to me and his kids. He got engaged to another girl, she says. Even then, Shahla remained at her in-laws place and Faridudeen raped her for four continuous nights. After handing out talaq, physical relationship with the estranged wife is haraam as per our law. But he continued even without my consent, she says. After four nights of raping Shahla, Faridudeen went to his parents with his belongings on the upper floor of the house, leaving her to fend for herself along with the children.

Shahla, a post-graduate in English Literature, stayed on. After 20 days, Faridudeen forced her out of the house past midnight knowing her parents were away in Delhi. I had no option but to go to the police station where my husband was called, says Shahla. But the worst was yet to come. When confronted by the police, Faridudeen accused Shahla of prostitution. That was my last encounter with him. Now the case is in the court. He isnt ready to give us financial maintenance. He says if I want to go back, Ill have to go through nikah halala, which I can never agree to, she adds.

(By Kanu Sarda, Abhijit Mulye, Melena Thomas, Anand ST Das, Dia Rekhi, Rajitha Sanaka, M Raghuram, Baibhav Mishra and Namita Bajpai)

Marriages are made in heaven is the cliche. Some marriages are simply hell. Triple talaq, a perverse, instant form of divorce, which enables a Muslim man to separate from his wife by uttering the word talaq thricealso through phone, texts, Skype and WhatsApphas been a weapon of gender and economic brutality for 1,400 years in Hanafi Islam. A bitterly contested political and social issue, the exigencies of minority politics had been preventing successive governments from enacting marital reform in Islam since politicians had deemed it as interference in Sharia. Last week, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court quashed the practice calling it gender discriminatory and violation of right to equality, after five womenShayara Bano, Gulshan Parveen, Ishrat Jahan, Afreen Rehman and Farha Faizhad approached the courts for relief from the medieval practice. After the ruling, Shayara said, This is a happy moment for all Muslim women in India. This is a historic day for India. Times have indeed changed. At the height of the debate, Muslim leaders argued that triple talaq is a religious issue, which cannot be judicially negotiated but most Islamic scholars held that the practice, though un-Islamic, is valid! In 1978, Shah Bano, a mother of five, was granted maintenance from her husband by the apex court. However, yielding to pressure from Muslim politicians, the Congress government of the day passed the Muslim Women Act 1986, which diluted the ruling. The latest ruling will be valid until the ban becomes law in Parliament. Is this a prelude to a Uniform Civil Code? From Shah Bano to Shayara Bano, its been one long struggle for Muslim women to stand up and be counted like their sisters from all faiths. One they have won. DELHI For 35-year-old Tania Sharif, it wasnt easy to take care of her two growing children after her husband divorced her five years ago. The government school teachers ordeal began when she enrolled her teenage daughter in a public school. Her enraged husband gave her triple talaq while they were having breakfast. The moment I told him about our daughter getting enrolled in the school, he scolded me for not taking his consent. He wanted her to study in a madrasa, not in a regular school, says Tania. She filed a case against her husband Abdul Sharif in a Delhi court seeking alimony and right to living. It was a challenge to upbring my two daughters without any financial support. I didnt lose hope and continued teaching. I got my daughters enrolled in my school, which made it easier for me take care of them and concentrate on my career, she says. I had no house, no money. He threw me out. My family refused to support me as for them triple talaq is a taboo. Tania won the case, with the court granting her custody of Abduls house, ordering him to live separatley and give Rs 10,000 monthly maintenance to her and the children. MAHARASHTRA Sadiya Khan, 19, is an alima, one who has read religious texts thoroughly. The Pune girl got a rude shock in April 2016 when the mufti told her that the talaq her husband had Whats-Apped her was in accordance with Islam.A year on, anger has replaced shock. How could he do so? she asks of the muftis decision. There are elaborate procedures in Islam for separation. A senior maulana endorsed my views in a TV debate a few weeks ago. He agreed that talaq is not in accordance with Islamic law. Who made people like the mufti custodians of Islam? Sadiya lost her parents when she was very young, and was raised by her grandparents. She studied in a madrasa and then completed a three-year course to become an alima, after which she was married off to a man who worked in a call centre. Her father-in-law was an auto driver and a cook. Two days into my marriage they started demanding dowry. I told them that everything was done as per our capacity, which led to a quarrel. They kept repeating the demands, says Sadiya. When she got pregnant, Sadiya went to live with her grandparents. Two days later, her husband WhatsApped her talaq, talaq, talaq and told her not to return without dowry. When she confronted them in their house, he allegedly pushed her into the bathroom, hit her and made her drink shampoo. She was moved to hospital in a semi-conscious state. On coming to, she realised the physical assault had led to her abortion. Sadiya filed a police complaint against her husband and in-laws, which is ongoing in court. It all made me realise I was right and had been wronged. That replaced fear and pity within myself with the anger, says Sadiya, who now wants to become a lawyer. KERALA One fine morning, P P Afsana from Idiyangara in Kozhikode received a mail from her husband pronouncing triple talaq. And with those three words, this 32-year-old was left destitute. Afsana, an MA BEd, got married in April 2013. She was allegedly forced by her husband and his parents to quit her job as a school teacher. She was continuously harassed by her husband and his family members over her dark complexion and dowry. Five months into the marriage, her husband sent her home and refused to accept her back even after their daughter Amina was born. After not answering my calls or messages for a few months, my husband informed me that he had divorced me. I didnt know what to do. He did not even follow the procedures mentioned in the Sharia law, she added.On a domestic violence case filed by her, the court issued a protection order in favour of Afsana. She staged a sit-in along with her two-year-old child outside her husbands house seeking justice. Afsana withdrew the case after the two parties reached an agreement over maintenance. Afsana stays with her mother and siblings. Her husband has remarried. BIHAR Within a year after being married to Mohammad Munawwar at the age of 18 in Saharsa, illiterate Biwi Mariam began getting signals that he was unhappy with the marriage. When they had their first child two years later, she thought her marriage would improve. She never believed that Munawwar, whom she loved dearly, would give her triple talaq and desert her with their two children. I was devastated and wanted to commit suicide. But the thought of my childrens future gave me courage, says Mariam, who lives in a rented single room. Her son Sayid is seven and her daughter Parveen is 20 months old. Mariam works as a domestic help, doing dishes in six homes. I cant buy milk for my daughter, nor books and clothes for my son. I take care of my old, sick mother. Life is hell for me, she says. Her father died six years ago.Munawwar, a tailor, had been pressuring her parents for a motorcycle, Rs 50,000 and a gold chain. He used to beat me up. Then he found another woman, said talaq to me three times, took everything we had and left, she says. Mariam shot to the headlines last month when she insisted on meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his Saharsa visit. I failed to meet him. I wanted to tell him of my struggles and urge him to put an end to triple talaq in the country, says Mariam. The long practice of men marrying at whim, producing children and leaving them must end. Ill convert to Hinduism unless triple talaq is banned. After she couldnt meet the Home Minister, the local Muslim clergy and her Muslim neighbours wanted me to shut up. They threatened of dire consequences. She fears for her and her childrens lives. TAMIL NADU Mehrunissa Bano (name changed) says, He just said three wordstalaq, talaq, talaqand my life wasnt the same. It shouldnt be so easy for him to move on. Can he give me back the time I spent with him? Can he make me the person I was before I met him? I only hope and pray now that no other girl goes through this. Since childhood, women have been conditioned to believe in the happily ever after. Mehrunissa was no different. When this 21-year-old married Ashfaq Hussaini (name changed) in 2008, life seemed full of promise. There was a problem with the way my husband handled the talaq and the way the qazi went about the procedure. If these people followed what is given in the Sharia law properly, there would have been no issue. Triple talaq, when done as per the rules, is not wrong, she says. About her abusive marriage, Mehrunissa says, I was alive, but that was about it. They treated me like a prisoner. They took all my cash, clothes, and jewellery. They denied me food and water. I would beg and plead in vain. They would threaten that they would kill me or that my husband would get married to someone else. One day, when the beatings became too much to take, Mehrunissa jumped from her second floor home and landed on an asbestos sheet on the first floor. The people on the ground floor helped her. Once on the ground, she didnt waste a second. She got into an autorickshaw and went straight to her maternal house. When asked if she felt any fear, she shrugs, What did I have to fear? My life was hell either way; this was my chance at a better life. Later, there were some attempts to sort things out. Her brother, Ali Akbar (name changed), filed a complaint against Ashfaq and his kin. The accused gave an apology at the Vepery police station and promised to return Mehrunissas 30 sovereigns of gold in three months time.Those months turned into years, and Mehrunissa is still waiting for her gold. She went back to give her marriage another chance. But things were soon back to square one.My husband and mother-in-law would pour kerosene on me and threaten to set me ablaze. I was so petrified that I would lock myself in the bathroom, she says. In the midst of all this, Mehrunissa got pregnant. My child made me want to stay alive. But that happiness did not last. One day, my in-laws gave me something to drink and I had to be rushed to the hospital. They had to operate on me when I was three months pregnant. I lost my child. While she was mourning the loss of her child, Ashfaq sent a letter to Alis house, claiming that the qazi had accepted his divorce.Ashfaq never gave us a proper reason, which is mandatory under Sharia law, says an angry Ali, adding that Mehrunissa was not given her maintenance as prescribed by Sharia law. She stays with us, but what if we were not there? Where would she have gone? Because the letter from the qazi is considered the final word, we are not able to challenge the decision in court, says Ali. All I want for her now is a good man who will show her how to be happy again, is all that her mother can say. TELANGANA It takes an effort to make Tarannum Bhanu speak. Shaheen, the NGO that is helping her, coaxes her to open up. She speaks haltingly, I was 15 or 16 when I was married in 2005. I have seven sisters and it was natural that I would be married off early. He was an autorickshaw driver and had a lot of demands. I will leave you was something I would hear from him every day.Recalling the moment that she knew her marriage ended, she says, It was like my limbs were cut off. Suddenly I had to think about a roof over my head, money to buy groceries, and taking care of my four children. A lazy man, his demands were unending. When it was clear that Tarannum could not meet the demands, talaq it was. While her two younger children stay with her, the elder two stay with the father. The older ones also complain that they are abused, but I have no control over anything, she rues. Married at 16, all that Fatima Biwi (name changed) endured during the 24 years of her married life was abuse and torture. A train ticket examiner, Fatimas husband was a woman chaser. Koi aur mil gayi, chale gaye uske peeche (He would find another woman and go after her), explains an angry Fatima. Just because a woman has the will and capacity to endure, life keeps throwing more challenges at her. I lost the will to live after he left me, she recalls, pulling up her burkha to show us lines on her neck after she tried to hang herself. After repeatedly threatening her with talaq since 1993, her husband took the final step in 2015. It came as a shocker to Fatima. He came along with the woman he chose to live with and forcefully made Fatima sign a document. I dont know what I signed on, but I knew it was over and the one thing I felt strongly was the feeling of hopelessness, she recalls. I was handicapped because I was dependent on him for more than 20 years. One of my children is mentally unstable. My daughter is yet to be married. My youngest son has seen the trouble I take to make ends meet and has stopped going to school. I get no money from him even though he is a government officer, says she between sobs. Wasima Sultana is a 26-year-old who is clueless about how to deal with what life has thrown at her. She was still grieving about her trauma of losing her son months after he was born, when her husband and his parents started blaming her for the death. I was married because everyone around me was getting married. We spent around Rs 20 lakh for the wedding but their demands for dowry were too high. He wasnt there besides me when I was pregnant. It was a complicated surgery, says she. Two years after her husband pronounced divorce, she is actually relieved. I have no regrets that the relationship ended as it was abusive. He would keep threatening divorce for every small thing. We lived together for only one-and-a-half months, after which he left for Dubai. He would threaten me from miles away, Wasima recalls.While it was a sigh of relief, her struggles began after the divorce. I lost my father and I live with my mother. I filed a maintenance case in court, but the only progress is a new date every time, she shares. (Names have been changed) KARNATAKA Hasina Banu (name changed) shudders when asked about the fateful day that plunged her into an abyss of fear and uncertainty, and made her a recluse. Her husband divorced her via triple talaq and threw her out of his house with her three children (the eldest was 11). Her parents were incapable of supporting her, as they had to arrange for the marriage of their other children. And all of this because her husband felt, after 10 years of marriage, that he could no longer support them. Hasina, 31, lives in Azizuddin Road in Mangaluru. Her children were six, nine and 11 on that fateful day in January 2016. Her husband Ajmal (name changed) and his parents had been good to her, but had also always been powerless before their sons unreasonable anger. The day is etched in Hasinas mind. Ajmal got into a rage and said he couldnt sustain the family. He wanted to marry another woman who would bring in a fat dowry, and Hasina would serve as her subordinate. He divorced her with the three words.Hasina belonged to a large but poor family. Her father is a loader in the port; her mother works in an oil mill. The eldest child among three sisters and four brothers, Hasina was just 20 when she was married off. The first baby followed the next year, followed by two more in quick succession. Ajmal was a well-to-do businessman who dealt in dry fruits. Post the first pregnancy, things went downhill as Ajmals temper worsened, which also quelled the support from her in-laws. After the third pregnancy, Ajmal first uttered the word talaq, a sort of warning for what was to come.He first accused me that I wasnt helping his mother in household chores. My mother-in-law had testified that I was a great help to her. Then he accused me of being uneducated; my father-in-law supported me on this. The third and final reason he gave was that he was not able to support three children and a wife financially as it was putting his own life in jeopardy, recalls Hasina. After the triple talaq, Hasinas biggest fear was the well-being of her children. She started working at the oil mill. She stays in a low-rent two-room set, courtesy of a family which took pity on her and the kids. She is learning to stitch with an old, borrowed sewing machine. My children go to school where they get mid-day meals, she says. And this is Hasinas biggest source of motivation and happinessher children. Odisha Nine years after her marriage, Kaniz Fatimas world came crashing down when she discovered that her husband, Mohammadd Hanif, a teacher, was having an extra-marital affair. They had two school-going sons.A native of Balasore district of Odisha, she married Hanif when she was 19. Hanif also taught in a madrasa. At first, I thought he might change over time. I took good care of him and the family, although I was shattered from inside. I had no clue why would he be attracted to another woman, says 38-year-old Kaniz.But Hanif showed no change. My husband wanted my consent for a second marriage, which I did not agree to, she says. During the fag end of 2012, Hanif uttered the dreaded words. It was like a ton of bricks hitting Fatima.A few months later, Hanif left for school and did not return. Fatima learned that he had taken leave without informing the family. He couldnt be traced. Three months later, he re-appeared but did not come home. He stayed at the madrasa. There was no effort on his part to reach out to us. Then he sent two more talaq notices through court. Alongside came the iddat and meher via a pay cheque, says Fatima.Fatima didnt accept because she wanted justice. To corroborate his second and third talaqs, Hanif produced witnesses. As per the existing norms, the witnesses must be known to the wife, but in this case, Fatima didnt know any of them. She challenged the talaq in court and filed a case of domestic violence. My father had helped my husband get a job and land, and constructed the house at Dhamnagar, only to witness his daughter getting tortured regularly, she says.While Hanif has remarried and has children with her, Fatima is struggling to meet her daily needs. She gets a monthly maintenance of Rs 14,000 from Hanif, of which Rs 8,000 goes for her childrens education. Fatima, who has studied up to Class VII, is now seeking her rights on the house, which she says is under forcible occupation of her husband and in-laws. Uttar Pradesh He says if I go through nikah halala, hell take me back. But what is the guarantee that the new one will leave me, and what is the guarantee that he (husband) will accept me. Ill lose both the worlds. How will I live? asks Shahla Naaz of Moradabad. Nikah halala involves a female divorcee marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce in order to make it allowable to remarry her previous husband. After 13 years of marriage and three children to look after, Shahla was forced out of the house by her alcoholic husband Faridudeen in the dead of night eight months ago. Somehow I spent 13 years, howsoever torturous, with him, she says. Her husband has remarried. All through 13 years, my husband and his family used to demand one thing or the other. My father fulfilled the demands to the best of his capabilities, she says. Faridudeen is a quality control manager in a private firm. Things triggered off when Shahla asked Faridudeen to get corrective surgery for their eldest daughters cleft lip. Shahla sold her jewellery to pay for the surgery. He stopped talking to me and his kids. He got engaged to another girl, she says. Even then, Shahla remained at her in-laws place and Faridudeen raped her for four continuous nights. After handing out talaq, physical relationship with the estranged wife is haraam as per our law. But he continued even without my consent, she says. After four nights of raping Shahla, Faridudeen went to his parents with his belongings on the upper floor of the house, leaving her to fend for herself along with the children. Shahla, a post-graduate in English Literature, stayed on. After 20 days, Faridudeen forced her out of the house past midnight knowing her parents were away in Delhi. I had no option but to go to the police station where my husband was called, says Shahla. But the worst was yet to come. When confronted by the police, Faridudeen accused Shahla of prostitution. That was my last encounter with him. Now the case is in the court. He isnt ready to give us financial maintenance. He says if I want to go back, Ill have to go through nikah halala, which I can never agree to, she adds. (By Kanu Sarda, Abhijit Mulye, Melena Thomas, Anand ST Das, Dia Rekhi, Rajitha Sanaka, M Raghuram, Baibhav Mishra and Namita Bajpai)
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: A three-member suicide squad (fidayeen) of the Jaish-e-Mohammad stormed district police lines in south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Saturday, triggering a gunbattle in which eight security personnel  four policemen and four CRPF jawans  and two attackers were killed.

The gunfight was still going on late on Saturday. The three militants stormed well-fortified District Police Lines (DPL) in Pulwama, about 30 km from Srinagar, around 4 am, when police officials and their families were present, said J&K Director General of Police S P Vaid, adding that the militants then took shelter in the family quarters.

A policeman and a CRPF jawan were killed and five other security personnel injured as the gunbattle began. As it escalated, a contingent of the Special Operations Group of J&K police, army and paramilitary troops and armoured vehicles were rushed to the spot to rescue the policemen and their families as helicopters aided operations from above.

SRINAGAR: A three-member suicide squad (fidayeen) of the Jaish-e-Mohammad stormed district police lines in south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Saturday, triggering a gunbattle in which eight security personnel  four policemen and four CRPF jawans  and two attackers were killed. The gunfight was still going on late on Saturday. The three militants stormed well-fortified District Police Lines (DPL) in Pulwama, about 30 km from Srinagar, around 4 am, when police officials and their families were present, said J&K Director General of Police S P Vaid, adding that the militants then took shelter in the family quarters. A policeman and a CRPF jawan were killed and five other security personnel injured as the gunbattle began. As it escalated, a contingent of the Special Operations Group of J&K police, army and paramilitary troops and armoured vehicles were rushed to the spot to rescue the policemen and their families as helicopters aided operations from above.
By PTI

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh Congress has started the process to find the prospective candidates for the state assembly polls due in November this year.

The move comes amid reported remarks by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, at a Congress Legislative Party meet, that he would not contest the next election.

"In a meeting of the party's state executive, in which All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and incharge of party affairs for Himachal Pradesh Sushil Kumar Shinde and Singh were also present, it was decided that a reports be gathered from the districts about the image and winning prospects of the candidates," HP Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said.

He said that reports about the image, loyalty to the party and winning prospects of the candidates seeking the party tickets have been sought from office bearers of all 85 blocks and 17 organisational districts.

Sukkhu also said that the office bearers were also asked to give the report as well as remarks on the parameters like honesty, morality and public conduct of the ticket contenders.

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh Congress has started the process to find the prospective candidates for the state assembly polls due in November this year. The move comes amid reported remarks by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, at a Congress Legislative Party meet, that he would not contest the next election. "In a meeting of the party's state executive, in which All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and incharge of party affairs for Himachal Pradesh Sushil Kumar Shinde and Singh were also present, it was decided that a reports be gathered from the districts about the image and winning prospects of the candidates," HP Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said. He said that reports about the image, loyalty to the party and winning prospects of the candidates seeking the party tickets have been sought from office bearers of all 85 blocks and 17 organisational districts. Sukkhu also said that the office bearers were also asked to give the report as well as remarks on the parameters like honesty, morality and public conduct of the ticket contenders.
The seven security personnel of the Dera chief were themselves from the Haryana Police, but private commandos were also included, and sources in the Haryana Police said a definite attempt was made by them to help him flee in his private vehicle.

By India Today Web Desk: A Haryana Police officer has alleged that the security personnel that was attached to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had made an attempt to abduct him from the court complex following his conviction on Friday.

The seven security personnel of the sect chief were themselves from the Haryana Police, but private commandos were also included, and sources in the Haryana Police said a definite attempt was made by them to help him flee in his private vehicle.

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The police officer, who spoke to news agency IANS, said, "The attempt was made by his security personnel to take him away in his vehicle, along with his Z-plus security, from the court complex. They could have taken him to his thousands of followers who had gathered about one kilometre from the court complex after which it would have become very tough for the security forces to arrest him without causing several fatalities."

The attempt was thwarted when sensing the intention of the 7 or 8 security personnel, some Haryana Police officers and paramilitary force personnel inside the court complex in Sector 1 of Panchkula took Ram Rahim into custody after a scuffle.

The officer, who was present during the scuffle, revealed that Ram Rahim's security personnel also tried to stop security agencies from taking away the rape convict by laying down in front of the vehicle. They also tried to block the way of the police vehicle carrying the sect chief with a security jammer vehicle of the police but were stopped from doing so.

All the security personnel were later arrested and sent to on seven-day police remand. The arrested include Assistant Sub-Inspector Krishan Das, Head Constables Ajay, Ram Singh and Vijay Singh, Constable Balwan Singh (all from Haryana Police) and private security guards Pritam Singh and Sukhbir.

Police officials said the police team attached in the security of Ram Rahim had become his followers and indebted to him to such an extent that they allegedly assaulted their own senior officers and tried to free the self-styled godman.

The violence that ensued after Ram Rahim was convicted left 36 people dead and over 250 people injured. The self-styled godman will be produced in a Rohtak court on Monday where quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced.

Also Read:

Ram Rahim's rape was pardon: The guru's gufa and maafi of a sex fiend

We are considered pious but we live as prostitutes: Read full text of Sadhvi's letter that nailed Ram Rahim

Ram Rahim Family History: The story of a devil, a saint and Papa's angels

Watch Video: Ram Rahim verdict: 600 people detained, police arrest 6 guards of Gurmeet

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Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: THE Afzal Guru Squad (AGS) of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad was behind Saturdays fidayeen attack on District Police Lines (DPL) in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

AGS. This is the revenge for Afzal Guru, read a message on a pillar of one of the damaged buildings of DPL stormed by a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide squad.

A security official said AGS means Afzal Guru Squad. Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the Parliament attack case, was hanged and buried in Delhis Tihar jail on February 9, 2013.

Three fidayeen of Jaish had in a pre-dawn attack stormed the DPL in Pulwama district. In the more than 18-hour-long encounter, three Jaish militants and eight security men, including four policemen and four paramilitary CRPF men, were killed. About a dozen security personnel were injured.

The security official said it seemed that the AGS was involved in the fidayeen attack. He said the militants were heavily armed and well trained. They may have been pushed into J&K to carry out fidayeen attack on security installations, the official said.

He identified the slain militants as Dawood, Abu Bakar and Abu Saad, all Pakistani nationals. He said security agencies have launched an investigation to ascertain how the militants managed to storm the heavily fortified district police lines. We are probing whether it was a security lapse, he said.

A police officer said they were investigating whether the militants had recently infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack was the second major fidayeen attack launched by Jaish militants in Kashmir within a year.

Earlier on September last year, four fidayeen of Jaish had stormed an army base in Uri, killing 19 soldiers and injuring over two dozens others.

10 days after the deadly militant attack, army had conducted surgical strikes on militant launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) inflicting heavy casualties on militants.

Meanwhile, three policemen, constable Imtiyaz Ahmad Sheikh, SPO Mohammad Yousuf Hajam and SPO Mohammad Rafiq Hajam, who were killed in the fidayeen attack, were buried in their respective villages.

A police nursing orderly Amarjit Singh, who also died in the attack, was cremated in central Kashmirs Budgam district.

SRINAGAR: THE Afzal Guru Squad (AGS) of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad was behind Saturdays fidayeen attack on District Police Lines (DPL) in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. AGS. This is the revenge for Afzal Guru, read a message on a pillar of one of the damaged buildings of DPL stormed by a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide squad. A security official said AGS means Afzal Guru Squad. Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the Parliament attack case, was hanged and buried in Delhis Tihar jail on February 9, 2013. Three fidayeen of Jaish had in a pre-dawn attack stormed the DPL in Pulwama district. In the more than 18-hour-long encounter, three Jaish militants and eight security men, including four policemen and four paramilitary CRPF men, were killed. About a dozen security personnel were injured. The security official said it seemed that the AGS was involved in the fidayeen attack. He said the militants were heavily armed and well trained. They may have been pushed into J&K to carry out fidayeen attack on security installations, the official said. He identified the slain militants as Dawood, Abu Bakar and Abu Saad, all Pakistani nationals. He said security agencies have launched an investigation to ascertain how the militants managed to storm the heavily fortified district police lines. We are probing whether it was a security lapse, he said. A police officer said they were investigating whether the militants had recently infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir. The attack was the second major fidayeen attack launched by Jaish militants in Kashmir within a year. Earlier on September last year, four fidayeen of Jaish had stormed an army base in Uri, killing 19 soldiers and injuring over two dozens others. 10 days after the deadly militant attack, army had conducted surgical strikes on militant launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) inflicting heavy casualties on militants. Meanwhile, three policemen, constable Imtiyaz Ahmad Sheikh, SPO Mohammad Yousuf Hajam and SPO Mohammad Rafiq Hajam, who were killed in the fidayeen attack, were buried in their respective villages. A police nursing orderly Amarjit Singh, who also died in the attack, was cremated in central Kashmirs Budgam district.
Amit Agnihotri By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A day after 31 persons were killed in Sirsa and Panchkula in Haryana, the Opposition demanded the sacking of Haryana chief minister M L Khattar saying he failed to gauge the situation and control it in time. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, This is an inefficient, incompetent, ineffective state government. It should have been removed a while ago. It must be removed immediately under Presidents rule.

Singhvi cited two older incidents to point out how the Khattar government had failed to effectively deal with similar law and order challenges. In November 2014, supporters of godman Rampal had clashed with the police and in February 2016, the Jat quota agitation had turned violent, he said. The Congress said its government in neighbouring Punjab under chief minister Amarinder Singh had anticipated the problem and was better prepared to deal with Dera followers in the state.

The CPI-M, noting that the violence over the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was the third instance of law and order failure in Haryana, said, The chief minister cannot remain in officehe must be immediately sacked.

The party, in a statement, said, Earlier it was reported that the chief minister and the BJP MLAs had visited this godman to seek his blessings. This reflects the sympathetic manner in which the BJP sought to deal with the situation.

In Lucknow, BSP chief Mayawati also slammed the Khattar government terming the administrations poor handling of the protesting Dera supporters who went on a rampage as a shameful surrender to vote-bank politics.

NEW DELHI: A day after 31 persons were killed in Sirsa and Panchkula in Haryana, the Opposition demanded the sacking of Haryana chief minister M L Khattar saying he failed to gauge the situation and control it in time. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, This is an inefficient, incompetent, ineffective state government. It should have been removed a while ago. It must be removed immediately under Presidents rule. Singhvi cited two older incidents to point out how the Khattar government had failed to effectively deal with similar law and order challenges. In November 2014, supporters of godman Rampal had clashed with the police and in February 2016, the Jat quota agitation had turned violent, he said. The Congress said its government in neighbouring Punjab under chief minister Amarinder Singh had anticipated the problem and was better prepared to deal with Dera followers in the state. The CPI-M, noting that the violence over the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was the third instance of law and order failure in Haryana, said, The chief minister cannot remain in officehe must be immediately sacked. The party, in a statement, said, Earlier it was reported that the chief minister and the BJP MLAs had visited this godman to seek his blessings. This reflects the sympathetic manner in which the BJP sought to deal with the situation. In Lucknow, BSP chief Mayawati also slammed the Khattar government terming the administrations poor handling of the protesting Dera supporters who went on a rampage as a shameful surrender to vote-bank politics.
By IANS

AGARTALA: The outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) is planning to indulge in violence before and during the next assembly elections due in February next year, a police officer quoted four surrendered extremists as saying on Sunday.

Four NLFT guerrillas who fled from their Bangladeshi hideout surrendered to the Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday. The BSF handed over them to the Raishabari police station in Tripura's Dhalai district.

"The surrendered terrorists said they fled from their Bangladeshi camp last week. The NLFT leaders recently started recruiting new cadres to create violence before and during the next assembly elections. The four surrendered rebels are part of the newly recruited militants," Sub-Divisional Police Officer Jawahar Debbarma said here.

The militants told the police interrogators that the NLFT leaders in Bangladesh, supposed to provide them arms training, assured them that they could surrender after the next assembly polls and they would get government jobs.

"The NLFT leaders did not give any arms training to them. Instead, after their recruitment in April, they had been doing numerous work including cleaning in the camps in Chittagong hill tracts (in Bangladesh)," the police official said.

Meanwhile, Tripura Police are trying to get another arrested NLFT extremist, Naresh Chakma, 34, who is now in the custody of Assam police.

On August 12, the Government Railway Police (GRP) had arrested the NLFT rebel at Badarpur railway junction in southern Assam.

Over 600 cartridges were recovered from the extremist, a resident of Natun Bazar village in Gomati district in Tripura.

"Naresh also told Assam Police and GRP personnel that the NLFT has planned to incite violence in Tripura," another police official said on the condition of anonymity.

NLFT cadres undergo arms training in several hideouts in Bangladesh, which shares a 1,880-km border with India.

Banned in 1997, the outlawed outfit had sought Tripura's secession from India.





AGARTALA: The outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) is planning to indulge in violence before and during the next assembly elections due in February next year, a police officer quoted four surrendered extremists as saying on Sunday. Four NLFT guerrillas who fled from their Bangladeshi hideout surrendered to the Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday. The BSF handed over them to the Raishabari police station in Tripura's Dhalai district. "The surrendered terrorists said they fled from their Bangladeshi camp last week. The NLFT leaders recently started recruiting new cadres to create violence before and during the next assembly elections. The four surrendered rebels are part of the newly recruited militants," Sub-Divisional Police Officer Jawahar Debbarma said here. The militants told the police interrogators that the NLFT leaders in Bangladesh, supposed to provide them arms training, assured them that they could surrender after the next assembly polls and they would get government jobs. "The NLFT leaders did not give any arms training to them. Instead, after their recruitment in April, they had been doing numerous work including cleaning in the camps in Chittagong hill tracts (in Bangladesh)," the police official said. Meanwhile, Tripura Police are trying to get another arrested NLFT extremist, Naresh Chakma, 34, who is now in the custody of Assam police. On August 12, the Government Railway Police (GRP) had arrested the NLFT rebel at Badarpur railway junction in southern Assam. Over 600 cartridges were recovered from the extremist, a resident of Natun Bazar village in Gomati district in Tripura. "Naresh also told Assam Police and GRP personnel that the NLFT has planned to incite violence in Tripura," another police official said on the condition of anonymity. NLFT cadres undergo arms training in several hideouts in Bangladesh, which shares a 1,880-km border with India. Banned in 1997, the outlawed outfit had sought Tripura's secession from India.
Shankkar Aiyar By

On July 22, 2015, the then Attorney General of India asked the Supreme Court, Is right to privacy a fundamental right? On August 24, 2017, the Supreme Court delivered a resounding response. In a unanimous judgment, a nine-judge bench held that the right to privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty.

The judgment has righted a series of wrongsmost importantly, it has trashed the ADM Jabalpur ruling of the Emergency Era. The judgment made the right to privacy explicit, underlined personal libertiesfood and sexual preferences, right to abort and to end life, right to dissent, dissemination of personable information and established that the miniscule minority matter. Unmistakably, legislation and rules hereon will regularly face the challenge of the privacy factor.

The focus of agitation, litigation and the discourse thus far, has been triggered by Aadhaarits deployment and linkage. Challenges will be circumscribed by the caveat of reasonable restraint and arguments will need to factor the observations and rulings of the Supreme Court. This would include the August 2015 ruling on use of Aadhaar for programmes, the passage of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, in Parliament, the June 2017 ruling on the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN card, on the competence of Parliament to enact, that it didnt not find any conflict between provisions of Aadhaar Act and Section 139AA, and Justice D Y Chandrachuds observation on the vital role of the state in ensuring scarce public resources are not dissipated.

The discourse on privacy is at an inflexion pointin India and across the globe. The right to privacy has been enshrined. The issues of legitimacy, linkage, expansion and collection will be argued and heard in the court. The protocols and controls on collection and use of data will follow the judgmentthe committee, headed by Justice B N Srikrishna, has been mandated with the task of detailing systemic steps for data protection.

The quest to ensure privacy though requires more than just oversight on enrollment and collection of data. The discourse must evolve and shift orbit in consonance with needs of the interconnected world we live inremember, data isnt static and moves seamlessly across state and private platforms. It is critical to enlarge the discussion from collection to deployment and dissemination, to expand the scope to cover the actions of not just the state, which has coercive powers, but also the private corporations who seek to build monopolies for coercive commercial control.

Do we know enough about who is collecting what, when, where, and how much? Do we know who is sharing what, with whom, and for what?Imagine this. You get into a fit to get fit. You shop online for a wearable device to monitor your status and progress from sedentary to being active. You log on to an online site to buy one. You choose the device and pay online with your credit card. Once the wearable arrives, you login and register on the app, sync it with your phone and laptop. Typically through the day the wearable is enabled to track your activities, including details of what you eat, where you eat or drink.

Like others, you share progress on social media sitesin pictures, words or characters. You forward it to friends, post on picture sites. You were already emitting data, now you are emitting every step. Data from public and private monitoring systemscameras and face recognition systems. Nobody quite knows how much data is being emittedit is estimated that by 2025 digital data universe will be 180 zettabytessaid to be equivalent to around 250 billion DVDS. The larger question though is what happens to all that data in this one stream of activity?

Retrace the steps to the fine print called privacy terms of the devices and services in use. The internet service provider funnels information into silos, uses and shares information with third parties, and can even transfer information outside India. The device is pinging data to towers. The ecommerce site uses information to process orders, for delivery and mines preferences to recommend merchandise and shares it with third party contractors. The credit card company and the bank store, use and share data for cross-selling, for providing services/products. And there is more.

This is where discourse must be anchored. The question to ask: What about privacy of thought, action, transactions? The expanding use of artificial intelligence makes profiling of users easy through use of algorithms to derive cognitive features, draw inferences, for furtherance of material interests that may or may not be inimical to individual interest. The assurance of anonymisation is challenged by technology that enables re-identification. How vulnerable is the person and personhood and what can be done to empower the person.

This is not just an Indian situation. This is a global issue. The issue of data management needs to be spliced into operative parts. First and foremost, rid the obfuscation in consenta caller identity platform, for instance, claims to protect privacy even as it gets virtual access to the device. Apps regularly get access to info on location, IP, device ID, SIM usage, apps on board, OS, browsers, usage, address book and Metadata on calls and messages.

The next critical step is to empower users with a protocol for control over dataDavids must have the right to reclaim digital footprint from data Goliaths. Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee believes since data is held in proprietary silos, users lose our on benefits they would have if they had direct control over data and were able to choose when and with whom to share it with. Earlier this month, the UK government proposed a new data protection bill that proposes greater control over their dataeven erase personal data off the web. In India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has put out a consultation paper that seeks views on possibilities.

The question beyond the facility of control is whats in it for the user. Sure there is the free service, but providers are raking in revenues advertising and otherwiseand in many cases, data is dredged out of paid for services. Arguably control and ownership of data can leveraged for better servicessay health, credit or conveniences. It is also worth examining if a share of revenues be corralled for funding public goodsinternet connectivity, for instance, to bridge the digital divide?

The cumulative market value of the shares of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft is in excess of $2.9 trillion. There is a need for a rethink on how society can balance need for innovation with imperative for privacy and accountability, and how data can be used to try and even out asymmetry of access, opportunity and even incomes.

Can data be leveraged to for greater common good?

shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com

On July 22, 2015, the then Attorney General of India asked the Supreme Court, Is right to privacy a fundamental right? On August 24, 2017, the Supreme Court delivered a resounding response. In a unanimous judgment, a nine-judge bench held that the right to privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty. The judgment has righted a series of wrongsmost importantly, it has trashed the ADM Jabalpur ruling of the Emergency Era. The judgment made the right to privacy explicit, underlined personal libertiesfood and sexual preferences, right to abort and to end life, right to dissent, dissemination of personable information and established that the miniscule minority matter. Unmistakably, legislation and rules hereon will regularly face the challenge of the privacy factor. The focus of agitation, litigation and the discourse thus far, has been triggered by Aadhaarits deployment and linkage. Challenges will be circumscribed by the caveat of reasonable restraint and arguments will need to factor the observations and rulings of the Supreme Court. This would include the August 2015 ruling on use of Aadhaar for programmes, the passage of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, in Parliament, the June 2017 ruling on the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN card, on the competence of Parliament to enact, that it didnt not find any conflict between provisions of Aadhaar Act and Section 139AA, and Justice D Y Chandrachuds observation on the vital role of the state in ensuring scarce public resources are not dissipated. The discourse on privacy is at an inflexion pointin India and across the globe. The right to privacy has been enshrined. The issues of legitimacy, linkage, expansion and collection will be argued and heard in the court. The protocols and controls on collection and use of data will follow the judgmentthe committee, headed by Justice B N Srikrishna, has been mandated with the task of detailing systemic steps for data protection. The quest to ensure privacy though requires more than just oversight on enrollment and collection of data. The discourse must evolve and shift orbit in consonance with needs of the interconnected world we live inremember, data isnt static and moves seamlessly across state and private platforms. It is critical to enlarge the discussion from collection to deployment and dissemination, to expand the scope to cover the actions of not just the state, which has coercive powers, but also the private corporations who seek to build monopolies for coercive commercial control. Do we know enough about who is collecting what, when, where, and how much? Do we know who is sharing what, with whom, and for what?Imagine this. You get into a fit to get fit. You shop online for a wearable device to monitor your status and progress from sedentary to being active. You log on to an online site to buy one. You choose the device and pay online with your credit card. Once the wearable arrives, you login and register on the app, sync it with your phone and laptop. Typically through the day the wearable is enabled to track your activities, including details of what you eat, where you eat or drink. Like others, you share progress on social media sitesin pictures, words or characters. You forward it to friends, post on picture sites. You were already emitting data, now you are emitting every step. Data from public and private monitoring systemscameras and face recognition systems. Nobody quite knows how much data is being emittedit is estimated that by 2025 digital data universe will be 180 zettabytessaid to be equivalent to around 250 billion DVDS. The larger question though is what happens to all that data in this one stream of activity? Retrace the steps to the fine print called privacy terms of the devices and services in use. The internet service provider funnels information into silos, uses and shares information with third parties, and can even transfer information outside India. The device is pinging data to towers. The ecommerce site uses information to process orders, for delivery and mines preferences to recommend merchandise and shares it with third party contractors. The credit card company and the bank store, use and share data for cross-selling, for providing services/products. And there is more. This is where discourse must be anchored. The question to ask: What about privacy of thought, action, transactions? The expanding use of artificial intelligence makes profiling of users easy through use of algorithms to derive cognitive features, draw inferences, for furtherance of material interests that may or may not be inimical to individual interest. The assurance of anonymisation is challenged by technology that enables re-identification. How vulnerable is the person and personhood and what can be done to empower the person. This is not just an Indian situation. This is a global issue. The issue of data management needs to be spliced into operative parts. First and foremost, rid the obfuscation in consenta caller identity platform, for instance, claims to protect privacy even as it gets virtual access to the device. Apps regularly get access to info on location, IP, device ID, SIM usage, apps on board, OS, browsers, usage, address book and Metadata on calls and messages. The next critical step is to empower users with a protocol for control over dataDavids must have the right to reclaim digital footprint from data Goliaths. Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee believes since data is held in proprietary silos, users lose our on benefits they would have if they had direct control over data and were able to choose when and with whom to share it with. Earlier this month, the UK government proposed a new data protection bill that proposes greater control over their dataeven erase personal data off the web. In India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has put out a consultation paper that seeks views on possibilities. The question beyond the facility of control is whats in it for the user. Sure there is the free service, but providers are raking in revenues advertising and otherwiseand in many cases, data is dredged out of paid for services. Arguably control and ownership of data can leveraged for better servicessay health, credit or conveniences. It is also worth examining if a share of revenues be corralled for funding public goodsinternet connectivity, for instance, to bridge the digital divide? The cumulative market value of the shares of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft is in excess of $2.9 trillion. There is a need for a rethink on how society can balance need for innovation with imperative for privacy and accountability, and how data can be used to try and even out asymmetry of access, opportunity and even incomes. Can data be leveraged to for greater common good? shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com
T J S George By

Three weeks have gone by since the Gujarat Rajya Sabha election saw Ahmed Patel scoring a sensational victory over the formidable forces of Amit Shah. More than a humbling of the BJP, it was a life-giving boost to the Congress. Everyone expected the Congress to regroup with newfound confidence and emerge a fighting force again. But there is no sign of it yet. The reason is clear: The dynastic leadership remains invincible, immovable. And the reason for that? Amit Shahs good fortune.

In the mundane world of elections, Rahul Gandhi is indeed Amit Shahs most important asset. Even those who dislike the BJP, often vote for it because they dislike Rahul Gandhi more. We cant really blame them because the young Gandhi scion has a style that is off-putting. He seems impetuous by nature. Remember his walking into a press conference in Delhi and tearing up with contempt a copy of an ordinance issued by his own partys prime minister, the hapless Manmohan Singh? He is also politically insensitive; notice his frequent, unexplained absences from the country. There is something disconcerting even in his personal mannerismsrolling up his sleeves and striding around like a pahelwan. He just isnt the inspiring kind.

The defeat the Congress suffered in 2014 was so devastating that, for the first time, Congress leaders began talking in public about the partys problems. Satyavrat Chaturvedi, usually a vehement cheer leader of the dynasty, called for an honest and ruthless introspection. Priya Dutt, daughter of Indira Gandhi worshippers Sunil and Nargis Dutt, spoke of a disconnect between the leaders and the people.

Perhaps the most important critical note was struck by Milind Deora, a respected new-gen leader and close friend of Rahul.

He was smart enough not to blame Rahul directly. Instead, he said Rahul had advisers who had no electoral experience and were still calling the shots. He then explained: My comments are out of emotions of deep loyalty to the party and a sincere desire to see us bounce back.

Three years after that baring of the heart, newand shall we say more seniorvoices are being heard about the now-or-never moment the Congress is facing. Jairam Ramesh is an unblemished Congress loyalist and an unflinching Indira loyalist, as his new book Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature testifies. It must be heartache that made him say that the Congress was facing an existential crisis.

Every point he made was timely and important: Modi and Shah think differently, act differently and if we are not flexible in our approach we will become irrelevant, frankly; we must recognise India has changed, the Congress has to change; a collective effort by party leaders to overcome the challenges is essential. JR was not being negative. On the contrary, I think there is a lot of goodwill for the Congress, but people want to see a new Congress, he said.

There was no disenchantment with Rahul Gandhi; in fact he asked for an end to the uncertainty about Rahul becoming the President of the party. Manishankar Aiyar, the resident loyalist of Rajiv Gandhi and a man who brought some bold thinking into governance when he held office, joined JR in calling for a new Congress. As he put it: Congressmen should look at reality; we have only 44 members in the Lok Sabha. We need new ideas, new thoughts, new methods to be relevant.

Will such sober voices be heard? No chance.

The Gandhis do not hear what they dont want to hear. And there are enough veterans to humour them in self-interest. When Jairam Ramesh said the sultanate was gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still, tired old Sheila Dikshit asked whether he wasnt part of the sultanate? Tired old Veerappa Moily said the party should have zero tolerance for indiscipline. Tired old K V Thomas referred to the grand sacrifices made by people like him and mocked the Congress leaders who came through the back door. These are the rusted minds that sustain the unsustainable dynasty raj and lead the Congress to destruction.

People applauded the unusual conclave of party leaders under the inspiration of Sharad Yadav in Delhi recently. The reason was that it gave a ray of hope that a united Opposition might emerge. Undaunted, Amit Shah went beyond his earlier ambition of a Congress-mukt Bharat and proclaimed that the BJP rule will go on for 50 years. With the support he is getting from Rahul Gandhi, this should be easy.

Three weeks have gone by since the Gujarat Rajya Sabha election saw Ahmed Patel scoring a sensational victory over the formidable forces of Amit Shah. More than a humbling of the BJP, it was a life-giving boost to the Congress. Everyone expected the Congress to regroup with newfound confidence and emerge a fighting force again. But there is no sign of it yet. The reason is clear: The dynastic leadership remains invincible, immovable. And the reason for that? Amit Shahs good fortune. In the mundane world of elections, Rahul Gandhi is indeed Amit Shahs most important asset. Even those who dislike the BJP, often vote for it because they dislike Rahul Gandhi more. We cant really blame them because the young Gandhi scion has a style that is off-putting. He seems impetuous by nature. Remember his walking into a press conference in Delhi and tearing up with contempt a copy of an ordinance issued by his own partys prime minister, the hapless Manmohan Singh? He is also politically insensitive; notice his frequent, unexplained absences from the country. There is something disconcerting even in his personal mannerismsrolling up his sleeves and striding around like a pahelwan. He just isnt the inspiring kind. The defeat the Congress suffered in 2014 was so devastating that, for the first time, Congress leaders began talking in public about the partys problems. Satyavrat Chaturvedi, usually a vehement cheer leader of the dynasty, called for an honest and ruthless introspection. Priya Dutt, daughter of Indira Gandhi worshippers Sunil and Nargis Dutt, spoke of a disconnect between the leaders and the people. Perhaps the most important critical note was struck by Milind Deora, a respected new-gen leader and close friend of Rahul. He was smart enough not to blame Rahul directly. Instead, he said Rahul had advisers who had no electoral experience and were still calling the shots. He then explained: My comments are out of emotions of deep loyalty to the party and a sincere desire to see us bounce back. Three years after that baring of the heart, newand shall we say more seniorvoices are being heard about the now-or-never moment the Congress is facing. Jairam Ramesh is an unblemished Congress loyalist and an unflinching Indira loyalist, as his new book Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature testifies. It must be heartache that made him say that the Congress was facing an existential crisis. Every point he made was timely and important: Modi and Shah think differently, act differently and if we are not flexible in our approach we will become irrelevant, frankly; we must recognise India has changed, the Congress has to change; a collective effort by party leaders to overcome the challenges is essential. JR was not being negative. On the contrary, I think there is a lot of goodwill for the Congress, but people want to see a new Congress, he said. There was no disenchantment with Rahul Gandhi; in fact he asked for an end to the uncertainty about Rahul becoming the President of the party. Manishankar Aiyar, the resident loyalist of Rajiv Gandhi and a man who brought some bold thinking into governance when he held office, joined JR in calling for a new Congress. As he put it: Congressmen should look at reality; we have only 44 members in the Lok Sabha. We need new ideas, new thoughts, new methods to be relevant. Will such sober voices be heard? No chance. The Gandhis do not hear what they dont want to hear. And there are enough veterans to humour them in self-interest. When Jairam Ramesh said the sultanate was gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still, tired old Sheila Dikshit asked whether he wasnt part of the sultanate? Tired old Veerappa Moily said the party should have zero tolerance for indiscipline. Tired old K V Thomas referred to the grand sacrifices made by people like him and mocked the Congress leaders who came through the back door. These are the rusted minds that sustain the unsustainable dynasty raj and lead the Congress to destruction. People applauded the unusual conclave of party leaders under the inspiration of Sharad Yadav in Delhi recently. The reason was that it gave a ray of hope that a united Opposition might emerge. Undaunted, Amit Shah went beyond his earlier ambition of a Congress-mukt Bharat and proclaimed that the BJP rule will go on for 50 years. With the support he is getting from Rahul Gandhi, this should be easy.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Vijaya Bank on Saturday launched 100 Digital Villages initiative in an effort to bring residents of these villages under the formal banking system. The 100 villages were chosen from among 15 states across the country, including Karnataka. According to the bank officials, residents of these villages were not part of the formal banking system until now.

Through its initiative, the bank has now reached out to more than 2.35 lakh customers, all of whom will have access to digital banking through debit cards. Out of these, 2.1 lakh customers have seeded their Aadhaar numbers to their accounts. As many as 12,000 people have been accessing mobile wallets too. On Saturday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was in the city, launched the banks initiative. Speaking about the significance of digital banking for the country, Jaitley said that poor people not being unable to understand technology was a myth.

Earlier, when cell phones were launched, there was scepticism that the concept would not catch on but today almost everyone owns a mobile phone, he said, emphasising the need for tech-enabled banking. Even though India still has a long way to go before completely depending on digital banking, cash economy is cost-intensive, whereas a digital economy would incur comparatively lesser expenses, he added. The banks initiative was earlier launched with just five villages and has now expanded to include 100.

On the occasion, Vijaya Banka under its CSR initiative adopted 100 girl children from under privileged families and will bear their educational expenses up to postgraduation, an official statement from the bank said.

BENGALURU: Vijaya Bank on Saturday launched 100 Digital Villages initiative in an effort to bring residents of these villages under the formal banking system. The 100 villages were chosen from among 15 states across the country, including Karnataka. According to the bank officials, residents of these villages were not part of the formal banking system until now. Through its initiative, the bank has now reached out to more than 2.35 lakh customers, all of whom will have access to digital banking through debit cards. Out of these, 2.1 lakh customers have seeded their Aadhaar numbers to their accounts. As many as 12,000 people have been accessing mobile wallets too. On Saturday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was in the city, launched the banks initiative. Speaking about the significance of digital banking for the country, Jaitley said that poor people not being unable to understand technology was a myth. Earlier, when cell phones were launched, there was scepticism that the concept would not catch on but today almost everyone owns a mobile phone, he said, emphasising the need for tech-enabled banking. Even though India still has a long way to go before completely depending on digital banking, cash economy is cost-intensive, whereas a digital economy would incur comparatively lesser expenses, he added. The banks initiative was earlier launched with just five villages and has now expanded to include 100. On the occasion, Vijaya Banka under its CSR initiative adopted 100 girl children from under privileged families and will bear their educational expenses up to postgraduation, an official statement from the bank said.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: As the fraternal feud within the ruling AIADMK plumbed to greater depths, the chorus for a trust vote is growing louder, with the principal opposition DMK meeting Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Sunday morning. Dissenting MLAs within the ruling AIADMK, meanwhile said they would meet the President if the Governor refused to grant them time.

A crucial meeting has been convened in Chennai on Monday, when senior leaders of the ruling factions are expected to take key decisions including convening the general council to initiate the process of expelling general secretary VK Sasikala. Amid this, a ruling party MLA dropped another bomb, suggesting that the House be dissolved to pave the way for fresh elections.

The cacophony within has only grown, with ousted deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran terming his rivals, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, as betrayers. The latter faction hit back strongly, calling Dhinakaran a blackmailer.

VP to visit TN today

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will visit Chennai on August 27 to launch an event marking 75 years of the Quit India movement

ON Saturday, before leaving for a function at Tirupur, Dhinakaran went on a shuffling spree, replacing some of the office bearers with his loyalists. These included former minister S Gokula Indira who was replaced as organising secretary by comedian S Senthil. He also relieved P Kumar, senior leader from Tiruchi, as Youth Brigade secretary. What is going on today is a war between sacrifice and betrayal, Dhinakaran told reporters outside his residence in Adyar, Chennai. Later, he added at Tirupur: The surgery to protect the party has begun, and I will do anything for this with the approval of [aunt and general secretary] Sasikala.

Dhinakaran claimed senior ministers P Thangamani and SP Velumani, presently staunch loyalists of Chief Minister Palaniswami, had proposed his name for Deputy Chief Minister right in front of Palaniswami. All of them had canvassed votes for me in RK Nagar by-election. Now they have changed their mind, he said. Even as the ruling faction indulged in hectic discussions on dealing with the crisis, Palaniswami loyalist and Kunnam MLA RT Ramachandran sent shockwaves with his suggestion that fresh elections be called. I feel ashamed to hear the charges from leaders of AIADMK factions that the present government is corruption-ridden.

It is my view that Chief Minister Palaniswami should dissolve the government and face elections, he told the media at Sendurai in Ariyalur. Meanwhile, as the ruling party hurled from confusion to crisis, Leader of Opposition and the working president of DMK, MK Stalin, said at Tiruvarur that deputy opposition leader, Durai Murugan, would lead a delegation of senior party leaders to the governor on Sunday morning to reiterate the demand for floor test. Vidyasagar Rao, the Governor in-charge of Tamil Nadu, has remained selectively elusive after the political crisis exploded in the State. Staunch Dhinakaran loyalist Thanga Thamizhselvan, one of the MLAs who had submitted letters to the governor withdrawing support to Palaniswami as CM, told reporters in Puducherry that they would wait for two days. If the governor fails to meet us, we will take steps to meet the President, he said.

CHENNAI: As the fraternal feud within the ruling AIADMK plumbed to greater depths, the chorus for a trust vote is growing louder, with the principal opposition DMK meeting Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Sunday morning. Dissenting MLAs within the ruling AIADMK, meanwhile said they would meet the President if the Governor refused to grant them time. A crucial meeting has been convened in Chennai on Monday, when senior leaders of the ruling factions are expected to take key decisions including convening the general council to initiate the process of expelling general secretary VK Sasikala. Amid this, a ruling party MLA dropped another bomb, suggesting that the House be dissolved to pave the way for fresh elections. The cacophony within has only grown, with ousted deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran terming his rivals, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, as betrayers. The latter faction hit back strongly, calling Dhinakaran a blackmailer. VP to visit TN today Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will visit Chennai on August 27 to launch an event marking 75 years of the Quit India movement ON Saturday, before leaving for a function at Tirupur, Dhinakaran went on a shuffling spree, replacing some of the office bearers with his loyalists. These included former minister S Gokula Indira who was replaced as organising secretary by comedian S Senthil. He also relieved P Kumar, senior leader from Tiruchi, as Youth Brigade secretary. What is going on today is a war between sacrifice and betrayal, Dhinakaran told reporters outside his residence in Adyar, Chennai. Later, he added at Tirupur: The surgery to protect the party has begun, and I will do anything for this with the approval of [aunt and general secretary] Sasikala. Dhinakaran claimed senior ministers P Thangamani and SP Velumani, presently staunch loyalists of Chief Minister Palaniswami, had proposed his name for Deputy Chief Minister right in front of Palaniswami. All of them had canvassed votes for me in RK Nagar by-election. Now they have changed their mind, he said. Even as the ruling faction indulged in hectic discussions on dealing with the crisis, Palaniswami loyalist and Kunnam MLA RT Ramachandran sent shockwaves with his suggestion that fresh elections be called. I feel ashamed to hear the charges from leaders of AIADMK factions that the present government is corruption-ridden. It is my view that Chief Minister Palaniswami should dissolve the government and face elections, he told the media at Sendurai in Ariyalur. Meanwhile, as the ruling party hurled from confusion to crisis, Leader of Opposition and the working president of DMK, MK Stalin, said at Tiruvarur that deputy opposition leader, Durai Murugan, would lead a delegation of senior party leaders to the governor on Sunday morning to reiterate the demand for floor test. Vidyasagar Rao, the Governor in-charge of Tamil Nadu, has remained selectively elusive after the political crisis exploded in the State. Staunch Dhinakaran loyalist Thanga Thamizhselvan, one of the MLAs who had submitted letters to the governor withdrawing support to Palaniswami as CM, told reporters in Puducherry that they would wait for two days. If the governor fails to meet us, we will take steps to meet the President, he said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The State government has started online sale of Rajiv Swagruha flats to its employees on Saturday. Endowments and Housing Minister A Indra Karan Reddy and chief secretary SP Singh launched the portal for online sale of flats at Secretariat. The state government employees can now purchase their flat through www.tsswagruha.cgg.gov.in. Speaking on the occasion, the Housing minister said the state government works for the benefit of the employees.

The state will sell 3,710 Rajiv Swagruha flats constructed in Bandlaguda and Pocharam. The price for finished flats in Bandlaguda is fixed at `1,900 per sft, and `1,700 per sft for semi-finished flats. The price for finished flats in Pocharam is fixed at `1,700 per sft, and `1,500 per sft for unfinished flats. On the occasion, Chief Secretary SP Singh said selling Rajiv Swagruha flats to government employees is a friendly gesture.

It may be recalled that the flats of Rajiv Swagruha, both in Bandlaguda and Pocharam, were not sold owing to various problems. There had been no takers for these flats even after the repeated efforts by the state government in the last three years. Finally, the government has decided to sell the flats to its employees. The State government paid `1,069 crore interest on the loan taken for the construction of Rajiv Swagruha houses. So far, the State repaid `670 crore principal loan amount. Soon, the State government will repay another `400 crore loan to the banks.The Rajiv Swagruha flats were constructed in the combined AP government.

HYDERABAD: The State government has started online sale of Rajiv Swagruha flats to its employees on Saturday. Endowments and Housing Minister A Indra Karan Reddy and chief secretary SP Singh launched the portal for online sale of flats at Secretariat. The state government employees can now purchase their flat through www.tsswagruha.cgg.gov.in. Speaking on the occasion, the Housing minister said the state government works for the benefit of the employees. The state will sell 3,710 Rajiv Swagruha flats constructed in Bandlaguda and Pocharam. The price for finished flats in Bandlaguda is fixed at `1,900 per sft, and `1,700 per sft for semi-finished flats. The price for finished flats in Pocharam is fixed at `1,700 per sft, and `1,500 per sft for unfinished flats. On the occasion, Chief Secretary SP Singh said selling Rajiv Swagruha flats to government employees is a friendly gesture. It may be recalled that the flats of Rajiv Swagruha, both in Bandlaguda and Pocharam, were not sold owing to various problems. There had been no takers for these flats even after the repeated efforts by the state government in the last three years. Finally, the government has decided to sell the flats to its employees. The State government paid `1,069 crore interest on the loan taken for the construction of Rajiv Swagruha houses. So far, the State repaid `670 crore principal loan amount. Soon, the State government will repay another `400 crore loan to the banks.The Rajiv Swagruha flats were constructed in the combined AP government.
K Shiva Shanker By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: A peek into Operation Theatre-I of Osmania General Hospital (OGH) leaves one in a state of shock. Reason: An LED bulb is being used as a source of light to perform surgeries as the standard surgical lights have not been working for the past three months. The appalling situation can lead to dangerous consequences. Sources said that the LED bulb do not give the required amount of light and when there is low visibility, there is every chance of patient getting injured during surgery. Express secured a photograph where doctors were seen operating a patient under LED bulb. Only one of three operation lights is working.

The other two dysfunctional lights hang low beside the operation table. An electric wire is coiled around a stand and the bulb hung from socket. The LED bulb was purchased in April. Surgeries such as piles, hernia, splenectomy, cholecystectomy and others are performed at the operation theatre which has three units, located in the second floor of the hospitals in-patient block. The use of LED bulb to perform surgeries is not advisable for patients. Lets say a surgery involves finding the source of blood leakage and under low visibility, time taken to spot that source is more.

Thus, there will be excess loss of blood. Besides, there is a possibility that other internal parts might get injured when a body is surgically opened to perform a surgery. All of this increases the chances of a patients morbidity, sources said. When the condition of operation theatres were brought to the notice of the Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Ramesh Reddy, he said he would visit the hospital and look into the issue. Superintendent of the hospital Dr GVS Moorthy was not available for his comments.

HYDERABAD: A peek into Operation Theatre-I of Osmania General Hospital (OGH) leaves one in a state of shock. Reason: An LED bulb is being used as a source of light to perform surgeries as the standard surgical lights have not been working for the past three months. The appalling situation can lead to dangerous consequences. Sources said that the LED bulb do not give the required amount of light and when there is low visibility, there is every chance of patient getting injured during surgery. Express secured a photograph where doctors were seen operating a patient under LED bulb. Only one of three operation lights is working. The other two dysfunctional lights hang low beside the operation table. An electric wire is coiled around a stand and the bulb hung from socket. The LED bulb was purchased in April. Surgeries such as piles, hernia, splenectomy, cholecystectomy and others are performed at the operation theatre which has three units, located in the second floor of the hospitals in-patient block. The use of LED bulb to perform surgeries is not advisable for patients. Lets say a surgery involves finding the source of blood leakage and under low visibility, time taken to spot that source is more. Thus, there will be excess loss of blood. Besides, there is a possibility that other internal parts might get injured when a body is surgically opened to perform a surgery. All of this increases the chances of a patients morbidity, sources said. When the condition of operation theatres were brought to the notice of the Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Ramesh Reddy, he said he would visit the hospital and look into the issue. Superintendent of the hospital Dr GVS Moorthy was not available for his comments.
Manish Anand By

NEW DELHI: The Doklam military standoff appears to have cast dark clouds over the ambitious India-China strategic economic dialogue. The fifth episode of the talks seems uncertain with both countries digging in their heels on the border issue.

With NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya making an early exit from the successor to the Planning Commission, the dialogue has also lost one of the strongest voices within the government. Panagariya will leave NITI Aayog on August 31. Another official, Anil Kumar Jainwho was the key coordinator of the dialoguehas also moved out of the think-tank panel.

The fourth annual summit was held in October last year here and China has to host the fifth summit at a mutually convenient date. However, sources in NITI Aayog said the summit is not on their priority. The next NITI Aayog vice-chairman, Rajiv Kumar, will take over on September 1. He is known to hold views in contrast to Panagariya, who argued for closer economic ties between India and China by delinking the political aspect. Much of the agreements reached during the fourth summit have not been taken up by either of the two governments, said a senior NITI Aayog official.

A sub-group on infrastructure in the fourth summit had arrived at agreements for closer cooperation on semi-high speed railways, redevelopment of railway stations and a railway university. None of these is on the governments priority. The Ministry of Railways is taking the help of Japan in setting up a training institute on high-speed railways in Gandhinagar. The roadmap outlined by the fourth summit has lost direction in the absence of political commitment, added the official.

Outgoing NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya wanted to replicate the Chinese model of provincial economic zones in the form of coastal economic zones in India, besides promoting closer ties between Indian states and Chinese provinces. Panagariya believed that Chinese surplus capital could have quickened economic activities in India. But larger views against him by the likes of Swadeshi Jagran Manchs (SJM) Ashwani Mahajan stated that Chinese capital wasnt for Indias benefit, but for capturing the market only, said a NITI Aayog official, who added that Panagariyas successor (Rajiv Kumar) is closer in his outlook to SJM.

NEW DELHI: The Doklam military standoff appears to have cast dark clouds over the ambitious India-China strategic economic dialogue. The fifth episode of the talks seems uncertain with both countries digging in their heels on the border issue. With NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya making an early exit from the successor to the Planning Commission, the dialogue has also lost one of the strongest voices within the government. Panagariya will leave NITI Aayog on August 31. Another official, Anil Kumar Jainwho was the key coordinator of the dialoguehas also moved out of the think-tank panel. The fourth annual summit was held in October last year here and China has to host the fifth summit at a mutually convenient date. However, sources in NITI Aayog said the summit is not on their priority. The next NITI Aayog vice-chairman, Rajiv Kumar, will take over on September 1. He is known to hold views in contrast to Panagariya, who argued for closer economic ties between India and China by delinking the political aspect. Much of the agreements reached during the fourth summit have not been taken up by either of the two governments, said a senior NITI Aayog official. A sub-group on infrastructure in the fourth summit had arrived at agreements for closer cooperation on semi-high speed railways, redevelopment of railway stations and a railway university. None of these is on the governments priority. The Ministry of Railways is taking the help of Japan in setting up a training institute on high-speed railways in Gandhinagar. The roadmap outlined by the fourth summit has lost direction in the absence of political commitment, added the official. Outgoing NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya wanted to replicate the Chinese model of provincial economic zones in the form of coastal economic zones in India, besides promoting closer ties between Indian states and Chinese provinces. Panagariya believed that Chinese surplus capital could have quickened economic activities in India. But larger views against him by the likes of Swadeshi Jagran Manchs (SJM) Ashwani Mahajan stated that Chinese capital wasnt for Indias benefit, but for capturing the market only, said a NITI Aayog official, who added that Panagariyas successor (Rajiv Kumar) is closer in his outlook to SJM.
By India Today Web Desk: It took 15 years since the first rape charge for Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to get behind bars. Ram Rahim, who took in women into his dera as daughters turned them into sex slaves. The mirrored windows of his massive private residence hid stories of sexual exploitation, not heard since the Sultanate where emperors would have harems for concubines.

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Baba Ram Rahim, known as rockstar do-gooder and the guru who weaned thousands off drug addiction, himself has been a man addicted to power, pelf and non-consensual sex or rape. His victims were people who trusted him with their lives and sought spiritual solace from him. Most were so indebted to his holiness that they wouldn't so much as squeak even if they came to know of what he had done to their loved ones.

On the other hand some were so brainwashed that they believed his excesses were blessings, that they were the chosen ones. But one common thread runs through all this: Baba Ram Rahim was a predator in his own fortified spiritual playground.

WHAT TRANSPIRED IN BABA'S 'GUFA'?

He called his bedroom a cave (gufa), significant because gufas in mountains have long served as spaces for meditation for ascetics. Since Baba Ram Rahim called himself a saint, a cave seemed to be the natural moniker for his private quarters at the sprawling dera (ashram) spread over 700 acres in the town of Sirsa, in Haryana. But this cave will now go down in history as Rape Central.

People close to the dera told us a story that is salacious and intriguing at the same time. More than 200 women lived in the quarters surrounding Baba Ram Rahim's cave. Around 30 of them in white robes and flowing hair. They were invariably new entrants into the circle and were literally groomed for that shocking private encounter that would scar them for life.

The others wore gerua like sadhvis do. The sadhvis or sadhikas flanked him everywhere he went. Especially to his daily sermons from a stage that looked like a film set. The baba, in costumes ranging from plain white to shimmering shiny ones, would be surrounded by the sadhvis.

HE LURED AND TURNED WOMEN INTO HIS PRIVATE PROSTITUTES

Not many knew that, many of the sadhvis have been victims of his sexual violence. Baba Ram Rahim who promoted himself as the benevolent father figure who got sex workers married to his devotees had turned many unsuspecting young women into his private prostitutes.

The investigative agencies identified 24 of them and were able to track down 20 of them since the anonymous letter blew the lid off the sexual exploitation at the dera. They were now married and living regular family lives and didn't want the past to complicate their present.

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But from what we know from the testimonies of women who came forward emerges a pattern. The baba will pick a sadhvi (woman disciple), call them inside his cave bedroom and rape them. The act was called maafi in the closed circle of these exploited women. They often joked about who would be next to receive the maafi that the Huzoor Maharaj dispensed.

Maafi means pardon and Baba Ram Rahim had convinced them that saying no to his advances was a sin, since they had surrendered their tan-man (body and mind) to his godliness. That they belonged to him and only after surrendering their body to him can they be purified again. The act of rape had become an act of pardon and most women had resigned to their fate.

Those who resisted received threats of instant death. The man himself kept shiny firearms at an arm's length. They were rightly told that he had enough political muscle to get away with murder. The stories of devotees disappearing were not uncommon. Besides, most of these victims had their families devoted to the guru and in his cross hairs. They gave in lest their families should come in harm's way.

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THE LETTER WHICH NAILED RAM RAHIM

The girl on whose complaint this whole thing came to light lost her brother to a bullet. The journalist who first published her anonymous letter was shot at point blank. The girls were there because their families, who were blind bhakts of the baba, had sent them. For most, there was no option but to give in to the guru's whims.

Baba Ram Rahim's cave had a gate that was known to public and through which he drove his fancy cars into the building. The two other gates were used only by his private guards, always women, and the sadhvis or sevikas who attended to him. That included feeding and bathing the hirsute saint. The women's quarters were guarded by men who were either forcibly castrated or volunteered to be neutered. So mind-blowingly harem-like.

An Aaj Tak reporter who had visited Ram Rahim's private residence recalled seeing commando-style security guards, armed to the teeth, inside the building. Since he was provided Z+ Category security by the government, armed special forces from the Black Cat commandos guarded the complex where CCTVs cameras watched every movement of a visitor or a resident.

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Then there was a ring of plain-clothed mufti musketeers who were in charge of the outer circle of security. In fact, men with walkie-talkies were all over the dera, informing the security of whatever happened around them. It's a town in itself with its own petrol stations, factories, shops, megakitchens, marketplaces and, of course, private police.

HIS VICTIMS WERE BRAINWASHED

Ram Rahim's sermons were power shows, often attended by celebrities and politicians. Apart from building an aura around him, this also helped silence his critics and victims alike. The latter spoke in hushed tones about his maafis (rapes) and kept to themselves.

This had normalised his sexual offences and would-be victims would accept his excesses as blessings. The older ones would stay on as sadhikas, but most would be married off to male devotees at some point.

In 2002, one of them wouldn't take this lying down. She complained to her brother. The brother escaped from the dera with her. The two tried to approach authorities to file a complaint. That apparently was of no use.

She was a graduate, unlike most others who were hardly educated and belonged to poor families dependent on the dera. She wrote an anonymous letter to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The letter was published by a Sirsa newspaper. Two men on a motorcycle came to the editor's house and shot him. Ramchandra Chhatrapati's son Anshul carried on the battle of these women forward. An FIR was lodged and the CBI was asked to inquire into it.

Fifteen years later, on the testimonies of the victims, a special CBI court in Panchkula, convicted the dera head. Baba Ram Rahim is in jail and on Monday he will know the years he would have to spend in one for raping unsuspecting devotees. The castration and murder cases are next.

Also Read:

We are considered pious but we live as prostitutes: Read full text of Sadhvi's letter that nailed Ram Rahim

Yoga, tea and 2 slices of bread, this is how rape convict Dera chief Ram Rahim began his day in jail

Journalist who exposed Gurmeet Ram Rahim rape case was shot dead outside his house

Ram Rahim in jail: How an anonymous letter crushed the might of Dera godman

Also Watch:

Meet CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh who convicted Ram Rahim Singh

--- ENDS ---
By Ashmitha Gupta By

CHENNAI: A mere 3,101 of the total 19,677 post-graduate engineering seats have been filled in common admission counselling by Anna University in Tamil Nadu, which ended last week. This means a whopping 84 per cent of seats in courses like ME, M Tech and M Arch have no takers and most of the vacant seats are in private engineering colleges that have mushroomed across the state. It is learnt that the trend has been so at least for the past five years and people in the know attribute this to decline in the recruitment of teaching faculty by private engineering colleges.

Also, there are very few alternative avenues for engineering post graduates. The numbers were almost the same previous year too. We will surrender the vacant seats to private colleges and they are free to fill the seats themselves, says J Indumathi, secretary of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission. Similar to BE admissions, the common counselling for ME and MTech seats were conducted for 65 per cent of the seats that private colleges surrender towards government quota. Counselling was conducted through single-window system.

While seats in most of the government engineering colleges and well-known private colleges were filled, those in many private colleges had no takers. E Balagurusamy, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, said post graduation in engineering is mostly pursued by those interested in taking lectureship in colleges. As lesser and lesser students are taking BE courses, private colleges have also reduced the recruitment of lecturers.

CHENNAI: A mere 3,101 of the total 19,677 post-graduate engineering seats have been filled in common admission counselling by Anna University in Tamil Nadu, which ended last week. This means a whopping 84 per cent of seats in courses like ME, M Tech and M Arch have no takers and most of the vacant seats are in private engineering colleges that have mushroomed across the state. It is learnt that the trend has been so at least for the past five years and people in the know attribute this to decline in the recruitment of teaching faculty by private engineering colleges. Also, there are very few alternative avenues for engineering post graduates. The numbers were almost the same previous year too. We will surrender the vacant seats to private colleges and they are free to fill the seats themselves, says J Indumathi, secretary of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission. Similar to BE admissions, the common counselling for ME and MTech seats were conducted for 65 per cent of the seats that private colleges surrender towards government quota. Counselling was conducted through single-window system. While seats in most of the government engineering colleges and well-known private colleges were filled, those in many private colleges had no takers. E Balagurusamy, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, said post graduation in engineering is mostly pursued by those interested in taking lectureship in colleges. As lesser and lesser students are taking BE courses, private colleges have also reduced the recruitment of lecturers.
Harpreet Singh By

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is leaving no stones unturned to cut down state expenditure. He has taken several austerity measures, including a bare-minimum usage of the state-owned helicopter, to tackle the states financial crisis.

According to sources in the civil aviation department, ever since Singh took charge as the CM four months ago, the average flying time of the state-owned copter has been just 10 hours per month.

One-hour flying cost of the five-seater Bell 429 helicopter is Rs 1 lakh, which includes cost of petrol, maintenance and salaries of pilots and engineers. If a chopper is hired from an operator, the charge goes up to `1.80 lakh per hour.

During his last tenure (2002-2007), Singh used to fly an average of 20 hours a month. He used to often fly to his home town Patiala from Chandigarh. This is not the case anymore, with Singh opting to travel to Patiala by road this time.

He (Chief Minister) flew to Delhi from Chandigarh and vice versa. He also flew to Amritsar a couple of timesonce to Gurdaspur on Independence Day and once to Mansa. Singh has not been flying regularly, unlike his predecessor, said a senior official.

Explaining the other situations when the chopper was used, the official said, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal flew to Talwandi Saboo to attend a function. Also, DGP Suresh Arora used the helicopter this week to fly across the state to take stock of the law and order situation in the backdrop of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahims conviction.

On the other hand, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had been frequent flyers. In the last 10 years, the Badals had spent a little over Rs 100 crore on their flying. They flew two hours a day on an average either in the state chopper or planes hired for them by the government.

According to a civil aviation department official, during the Badal government, the state copter used to fly an average 480 hours a year. While the government helicopter flew about 40 hours a month (480 hours a year), the hired choppers or planes flew about 30 hours a month (360 a year)an average of 70 hours every month (840 a year)which meant two hours of flying everyday.

The CM has also scaled down his security personnel from 1,392 to 1,016 and ordered to end all deployment on his travel routes. His security is likely to be cut down further after the next review. He has also stopped use of sirens while he travels by road.

Singh has, time and again, made it clear that in the light of the states financial situation, he did not want to incur any unnecessary expenditure. His swearing in ceremony in March this year was a simple affair.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is leaving no stones unturned to cut down state expenditure. He has taken several austerity measures, including a bare-minimum usage of the state-owned helicopter, to tackle the states financial crisis. According to sources in the civil aviation department, ever since Singh took charge as the CM four months ago, the average flying time of the state-owned copter has been just 10 hours per month. One-hour flying cost of the five-seater Bell 429 helicopter is Rs 1 lakh, which includes cost of petrol, maintenance and salaries of pilots and engineers. If a chopper is hired from an operator, the charge goes up to `1.80 lakh per hour. During his last tenure (2002-2007), Singh used to fly an average of 20 hours a month. He used to often fly to his home town Patiala from Chandigarh. This is not the case anymore, with Singh opting to travel to Patiala by road this time. He (Chief Minister) flew to Delhi from Chandigarh and vice versa. He also flew to Amritsar a couple of timesonce to Gurdaspur on Independence Day and once to Mansa. Singh has not been flying regularly, unlike his predecessor, said a senior official. Explaining the other situations when the chopper was used, the official said, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal flew to Talwandi Saboo to attend a function. Also, DGP Suresh Arora used the helicopter this week to fly across the state to take stock of the law and order situation in the backdrop of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahims conviction. On the other hand, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had been frequent flyers. In the last 10 years, the Badals had spent a little over Rs 100 crore on their flying. They flew two hours a day on an average either in the state chopper or planes hired for them by the government. According to a civil aviation department official, during the Badal government, the state copter used to fly an average 480 hours a year. While the government helicopter flew about 40 hours a month (480 hours a year), the hired choppers or planes flew about 30 hours a month (360 a year)an average of 70 hours every month (840 a year)which meant two hours of flying everyday. The CM has also scaled down his security personnel from 1,392 to 1,016 and ordered to end all deployment on his travel routes. His security is likely to be cut down further after the next review. He has also stopped use of sirens while he travels by road. Singh has, time and again, made it clear that in the light of the states financial situation, he did not want to incur any unnecessary expenditure. His swearing in ceremony in March this year was a simple affair.
By Rakesh K Singh By

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing Doklam standoff, China has stepped up monitoring the Darjeeling unrest with its intelligence agencies regularly keeping tabs on social media pages related to the developments in the hill district of West Bengal. Chinese agencies are also suspected to be communicating with Naga insurgents who have been frequenting Nepal since the Doklam crisis. Assessments suggest China could be aiming to exploit the faultlines between the Gorkhas and the West Bengal administration to fuel unrest in the Northeast. China could also be seeking to use the ethnic links between Gorkhas of Nepal and India.

Gorkhas constitute a large part of the Indian armed forces. Chinese agencies could be aiming to use disgruntled Gorkhas from Darjeeling with the twin agenda of keeping a part of the Indian armed forces engaged in containing the unrest and also for other tactical ends, a senior intelligence official said.

There has been a long history of illegal smuggling of arms and ammunition from Yunnan province of China to the Northeast, which has been facing insurgency for decades. Renewed Chinese activities could be aimed at redoubling the efforts to revive insurgency in the Northeast, officials said.

Chinese intelligence modules have penetrated Buddhist monasteries along the Indo-Bhutan border. At least two to three dozen Buddhist monasteries have come up along the border during the last five yearsfrom eastern Sikkim to Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. The growth has been disproportionate to the followers of Buddhism.Intelligence audits suggest the monasteries could be involved in gathering intelligence and indoctrinating the local population.

The unusual growth of monasteries along the Silk Route in East Sikkim, Kalimpong sub-division of Darjeeling and Malbazar sub-division and parts of Alipurduar sub-division of Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal is being monitored by Indian agencies.Geopolitical location of these areas and its strategic importance from Chinas viewpoint make these developments a matter of concern and effective counter measures are being undertaken to protect our interests, a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

Beijing has also been running about 24 China Study Centres on the Nepalese side of the border to influence the Terai population and that in Jhapa and Illam districts of Nepal. China could use these centres as launching pads for exploiting the ethnic link between Nepalese population in Nepal and India.

DORMANT DRAGON

China is keeping tabs on social media pages about developments in Darjeeling

Chinese agencies are communicating with Naga insurgents

China may want to exploit faultlines between the Gorkhas and the West Bengal administration to fuel unrest in the Northeast

Renewed Chinese activities could be aimed at redoubling the efforts to revive insurgency in the Northeast

Chinese intel has penetrated Buddhist monasteries along the Indo-Bhutan border

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing Doklam standoff, China has stepped up monitoring the Darjeeling unrest with its intelligence agencies regularly keeping tabs on social media pages related to the developments in the hill district of West Bengal. Chinese agencies are also suspected to be communicating with Naga insurgents who have been frequenting Nepal since the Doklam crisis. Assessments suggest China could be aiming to exploit the faultlines between the Gorkhas and the West Bengal administration to fuel unrest in the Northeast. China could also be seeking to use the ethnic links between Gorkhas of Nepal and India. Gorkhas constitute a large part of the Indian armed forces. Chinese agencies could be aiming to use disgruntled Gorkhas from Darjeeling with the twin agenda of keeping a part of the Indian armed forces engaged in containing the unrest and also for other tactical ends, a senior intelligence official said. There has been a long history of illegal smuggling of arms and ammunition from Yunnan province of China to the Northeast, which has been facing insurgency for decades. Renewed Chinese activities could be aimed at redoubling the efforts to revive insurgency in the Northeast, officials said. Chinese intelligence modules have penetrated Buddhist monasteries along the Indo-Bhutan border. At least two to three dozen Buddhist monasteries have come up along the border during the last five yearsfrom eastern Sikkim to Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. The growth has been disproportionate to the followers of Buddhism.Intelligence audits suggest the monasteries could be involved in gathering intelligence and indoctrinating the local population. The unusual growth of monasteries along the Silk Route in East Sikkim, Kalimpong sub-division of Darjeeling and Malbazar sub-division and parts of Alipurduar sub-division of Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal is being monitored by Indian agencies.Geopolitical location of these areas and its strategic importance from Chinas viewpoint make these developments a matter of concern and effective counter measures are being undertaken to protect our interests, a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs said. Beijing has also been running about 24 China Study Centres on the Nepalese side of the border to influence the Terai population and that in Jhapa and Illam districts of Nepal. China could use these centres as launching pads for exploiting the ethnic link between Nepalese population in Nepal and India. DORMANT DRAGON China is keeping tabs on social media pages about developments in Darjeeling Chinese agencies are communicating with Naga insurgents China may want to exploit faultlines between the Gorkhas and the West Bengal administration to fuel unrest in the Northeast Renewed Chinese activities could be aimed at redoubling the efforts to revive insurgency in the Northeast Chinese intel has penetrated Buddhist monasteries along the Indo-Bhutan border
Anand S T Das By

NEW DELHI: The split in JD(U) is staring its leaders, including party national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in the face. With rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav looking set to attend RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadavs much-hyped rally on August 27 here against Nitishs wishes, the veteran socialist leaders loss of his Rajya Sabha berth and his formal exit from JD(U) are foregone conclusions.

That Sharad, the senior-most JD(U) leader and former national president of the party, is keen to challenge

Nitish with all his might was evident when his faction petitioned the Election Commission seeking its recognition as the real JD(U). The Nitish-led camp, which has expelled nearly 25 leaders close to Sharad, is waiting for the 70-year-old rebel to attend Lalus rally at Patnas Gandhi Maidan.

Despite warnings from Nitishs camp not to attend Lalus rally, a defiant Sharad indicated that he and leaders close to him would attend. Lalus rally, christened Remove BJP, Save India, will be a major gathering of Opposition parties where the script for the anti-BJP narrative in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be written. Sharad wants to be a part of this congregation as its politics suits his long socialist career.

Sharad dubbed Lalus rally as not an RJD rally, but a grand alliance rally.

This means he still insists that the grand alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress that ruled Bihar since November 2015 till Nitish walked out in July 2017 is intact. This claim has left many in Nitishs faction wary.

He (Sharad) is playing to Lalus scheme and the two Yadav leaders still have an eye on JD(U) legislators.

By claiming that the dead grand alliance is alive, the duo has hinted that they may launch a coup to break away JD(U) legislators and form a government, said a JD(U) leader. But the Nitish faction, waiting to execute Sharads disqualification from Rajya Sabha and his formal exit from the party, is confident that all 71 MLAs of the party are with the CM. They (Sharad faction) are making empty claims with prodding from Lalu Yadav, said JD(U) state president Bashistha Narayan Singh.

A leader close to the CM said the party will approach Chairman of Rajya Sabha seeking Sharads disqualification from the Upper House if he attends Lalus rally. Being seen with Lalu at the rally will accelerate Sharads decline in politics. Venkaiah Naidu would be too happy to invoke provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to disqualify him on the ground of defection, he said.

The clause was used in 2008 to disqualify BJPs Jai Narain Nishad from the Rajya Sabha. Then Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had acted against Nishad after the BJP petitioned him with a photograph showing the MP sharing the stage with Lalu.

But Sharad is hopeful of getting re-elected to the Upper House with RJD help. RJD is the largest party in the Bihar Assembly with 80 MLAs. With Congress support, RJD has enough strength to win two Rajya Sabha seats.

The impending split in JD(U) will be the 12th division of the Janata Parivar in the past 29 years of its existence. Itll leave Nitish weakened in the long run and will impact the outcome of the 2019 general elections in Bihar.

NEW DELHI: The split in JD(U) is staring its leaders, including party national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in the face. With rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav looking set to attend RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadavs much-hyped rally on August 27 here against Nitishs wishes, the veteran socialist leaders loss of his Rajya Sabha berth and his formal exit from JD(U) are foregone conclusions. That Sharad, the senior-most JD(U) leader and former national president of the party, is keen to challenge Nitish with all his might was evident when his faction petitioned the Election Commission seeking its recognition as the real JD(U). The Nitish-led camp, which has expelled nearly 25 leaders close to Sharad, is waiting for the 70-year-old rebel to attend Lalus rally at Patnas Gandhi Maidan. Despite warnings from Nitishs camp not to attend Lalus rally, a defiant Sharad indicated that he and leaders close to him would attend. Lalus rally, christened Remove BJP, Save India, will be a major gathering of Opposition parties where the script for the anti-BJP narrative in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be written. Sharad wants to be a part of this congregation as its politics suits his long socialist career. Sharad dubbed Lalus rally as not an RJD rally, but a grand alliance rally. This means he still insists that the grand alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress that ruled Bihar since November 2015 till Nitish walked out in July 2017 is intact. This claim has left many in Nitishs faction wary. He (Sharad) is playing to Lalus scheme and the two Yadav leaders still have an eye on JD(U) legislators. By claiming that the dead grand alliance is alive, the duo has hinted that they may launch a coup to break away JD(U) legislators and form a government, said a JD(U) leader. But the Nitish faction, waiting to execute Sharads disqualification from Rajya Sabha and his formal exit from the party, is confident that all 71 MLAs of the party are with the CM. They (Sharad faction) are making empty claims with prodding from Lalu Yadav, said JD(U) state president Bashistha Narayan Singh. A leader close to the CM said the party will approach Chairman of Rajya Sabha seeking Sharads disqualification from the Upper House if he attends Lalus rally. Being seen with Lalu at the rally will accelerate Sharads decline in politics. Venkaiah Naidu would be too happy to invoke provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution to disqualify him on the ground of defection, he said. The clause was used in 2008 to disqualify BJPs Jai Narain Nishad from the Rajya Sabha. Then Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had acted against Nishad after the BJP petitioned him with a photograph showing the MP sharing the stage with Lalu. But Sharad is hopeful of getting re-elected to the Upper House with RJD help. RJD is the largest party in the Bihar Assembly with 80 MLAs. With Congress support, RJD has enough strength to win two Rajya Sabha seats. The impending split in JD(U) will be the 12th division of the Janata Parivar in the past 29 years of its existence. Itll leave Nitish weakened in the long run and will impact the outcome of the 2019 general elections in Bihar.
By Harpreet BAjwa By

CHANDIGARH: School girls are making a difference in rural Punjab and Haryana, thanks to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Panipat two years ago. Take, for instance, Balial village near Sangrur in Punjab. With increasing incidents of eve-teasing, distraught parents had begun to put a stop to their daughters schooling. Worse, the girls were being married off at a young age. Geeta Devi, a Class VIII student of Satya Bharti Elementary School, was on the verge of a similar fate, when she decided to turn things around.

When I came to know that my parents were planning to marry me off, I managed to dissuade them from making me quit studies. I also influenced them by rallying the support of other girls who faced a similar situation. We started door-to-door campaigns to sensitise people on benefits of educating the girl child, and organised community discussions. Our fight against child marriage is our fight for the community, says Geeta, whose proud parents now support her desire to be a police officer.

Similar is the case with Nisha, Class X student of Adarsh Senior Secondary School at Rauni in Ludhiana. After migrating from Bihar to Punjab, Nisha lived with her parents and five siblings on the outskirts of Rauni. Her mother worked as a domestic help, father did menial jobs and the children were into packing incense sticks to lend a helping hand. It was then that Nisha decided to study. I convinced my mother to send me to school. Teachers encouraged me to dream, she says.Ten-year-old Jannat inspired her community when she mobilised material to build a toilet for an underprivileged family. On her daily route to school, Jannat often saw a family of five who defecated in the open.

They were poor and could not build a toilet. When our village sarpanch visited our school to attend a function as chief guest, I explained the situation to him. Encouraged by my teachers and my own confidence, I could persuade him to provide material to build a toilet at their home. I am proud to spread the message on sanitation I learnt at school, says the Class V student of Satya Bharti School at Udharsi village in Kurukshetra, Haryana.The attendance in Government Senior Secondary School at Kanina Mandi in Mahendragarh, Haryana, rose after a collective initiative by the girl students. Principal Snehlata said when she probed the reason for a drop in attendance, she found that girls skipped school during menstruation.

The school initiated a lecture series on Adolescent Issues with Focus on Menstrual HygieneMyths and Misconceptions, to impart insights into menstruation. A group of 46 girls attended the lecture. They took part in open discussions, where they were encouraged to find a solution to their problem. They proposed a sanitary pad bank, and subsequently, the school procured pads for them, says Snehlata.

CHANDIGARH: School girls are making a difference in rural Punjab and Haryana, thanks to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Panipat two years ago. Take, for instance, Balial village near Sangrur in Punjab. With increasing incidents of eve-teasing, distraught parents had begun to put a stop to their daughters schooling. Worse, the girls were being married off at a young age. Geeta Devi, a Class VIII student of Satya Bharti Elementary School, was on the verge of a similar fate, when she decided to turn things around. When I came to know that my parents were planning to marry me off, I managed to dissuade them from making me quit studies. I also influenced them by rallying the support of other girls who faced a similar situation. We started door-to-door campaigns to sensitise people on benefits of educating the girl child, and organised community discussions. Our fight against child marriage is our fight for the community, says Geeta, whose proud parents now support her desire to be a police officer. Similar is the case with Nisha, Class X student of Adarsh Senior Secondary School at Rauni in Ludhiana. After migrating from Bihar to Punjab, Nisha lived with her parents and five siblings on the outskirts of Rauni. Her mother worked as a domestic help, father did menial jobs and the children were into packing incense sticks to lend a helping hand. It was then that Nisha decided to study. I convinced my mother to send me to school. Teachers encouraged me to dream, she says.Ten-year-old Jannat inspired her community when she mobilised material to build a toilet for an underprivileged family. On her daily route to school, Jannat often saw a family of five who defecated in the open. They were poor and could not build a toilet. When our village sarpanch visited our school to attend a function as chief guest, I explained the situation to him. Encouraged by my teachers and my own confidence, I could persuade him to provide material to build a toilet at their home. I am proud to spread the message on sanitation I learnt at school, says the Class V student of Satya Bharti School at Udharsi village in Kurukshetra, Haryana.The attendance in Government Senior Secondary School at Kanina Mandi in Mahendragarh, Haryana, rose after a collective initiative by the girl students. Principal Snehlata said when she probed the reason for a drop in attendance, she found that girls skipped school during menstruation. The school initiated a lecture series on Adolescent Issues with Focus on Menstrual HygieneMyths and Misconceptions, to impart insights into menstruation. A group of 46 girls attended the lecture. They took part in open discussions, where they were encouraged to find a solution to their problem. They proposed a sanitary pad bank, and subsequently, the school procured pads for them, says Snehlata.
Madhya Pradesh

Perform or Perish: Ahead of the 2018 state elections, the ruling BJPs guiding mantra for its MLAs is perform or be ready to perish. State party president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan recently made it clear MLAs performance is under continuous scanner and that non-performers will be replaced with more promising candidates. During his Bhopal visit, BJP president Amit Shah had also told the state party unit to work for empowerment of booth level workers, which had reaped major dividends in the UP polls.

Boost to BJP Oldies: Shahs intention of not stopping old party leaders from contesting polls has revitalised nine-time MLA and ex-CM Babulal Gaur and former Union and ex-MP minister Sartaj Singh. Septuagenarian Singh and octogenarian Gaur were dropped from Shivraj Singh Chouhan Cabinet in June 2016 as the BJP disallows 75-plus candidates. Shah recently explained that it wasnt the partys the CMs discretion to induct

or drop anyone from his team.

Mixed Fortunes: Congress did well to win seven seats in Chhindwara, Balaghat and Mandla districts. Chhindwara is the stronghold of former Union minister and MP Kamal Nath. On the contrary, BJP won for the first time two local bodies head posts in Kailaras and Dabra, both in the stronghold of the partys chief whip in Lok Sabha and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. In Congress state president Arun Yadavs native Khargone, the party won posts of heads of two local bodies, making many party leaders in Bhopal feel that had Scindia campaigned for party candidates in Dabra and Kailaras, the outcome could have been different.

Chhattisgarh

Rewarded and Humiliated: Chhattisgarh school education minister Kedar Kashyap first awarded tribal officer S R Elma for his active social works. But after Kashyap received a complaint against Elma, a general manager of Kondagaon district industries centre, the minister allegedly threatened him to beat him with his shoes. A shocked Elma lodged a complaint with the collector against the minister, who denied any such remark.

Congress Exploits Cow Deaths: The opposition state Congress questioned the RSS silence over the deaths of hundreds of cows in gaushalas run by their party leader Harish Verma, who allegedly starved the animals to death. Where are the gau rakshaks now? asked Congress chief spokesperson Ramesh Varlyani. The BJP accused the Congress of playing politics over the cow deaths. Over 300 cows died in three government-aided cow shelters owned by Verma, who is now in jail.

Punjab

Taste of a Jam: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh got a taste of what the common man goes through every day on the streets. Singhs cavalcade was stuck in a traffic jam for over half-an-hour due to heavy rains at an intersection in Chandigarh. With no traffic policemen in sight, his security staff had to haggle and make way for his convoy.

Pre-poll Promises Crawl Along: A talkative Cabinet minister famous for his outbursts against the previous SAD-BJP government who has suspended over 40 officials is quiet now. His department officials, worried about who hell target next, are taking baby steps, leading to slow work. With work crawling at snails pace, some are wondering how the minister will be able to fulfill his pre-poll promises.

Madhya Pradesh Perform or Perish: Ahead of the 2018 state elections, the ruling BJPs guiding mantra for its MLAs is perform or be ready to perish. State party president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan recently made it clear MLAs performance is under continuous scanner and that non-performers will be replaced with more promising candidates. During his Bhopal visit, BJP president Amit Shah had also told the state party unit to work for empowerment of booth level workers, which had reaped major dividends in the UP polls. Boost to BJP Oldies: Shahs intention of not stopping old party leaders from contesting polls has revitalised nine-time MLA and ex-CM Babulal Gaur and former Union and ex-MP minister Sartaj Singh. Septuagenarian Singh and octogenarian Gaur were dropped from Shivraj Singh Chouhan Cabinet in June 2016 as the BJP disallows 75-plus candidates. Shah recently explained that it wasnt the partys the CMs discretion to induct or drop anyone from his team. Mixed Fortunes: Congress did well to win seven seats in Chhindwara, Balaghat and Mandla districts. Chhindwara is the stronghold of former Union minister and MP Kamal Nath. On the contrary, BJP won for the first time two local bodies head posts in Kailaras and Dabra, both in the stronghold of the partys chief whip in Lok Sabha and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. In Congress state president Arun Yadavs native Khargone, the party won posts of heads of two local bodies, making many party leaders in Bhopal feel that had Scindia campaigned for party candidates in Dabra and Kailaras, the outcome could have been different. Chhattisgarh Rewarded and Humiliated: Chhattisgarh school education minister Kedar Kashyap first awarded tribal officer S R Elma for his active social works. But after Kashyap received a complaint against Elma, a general manager of Kondagaon district industries centre, the minister allegedly threatened him to beat him with his shoes. A shocked Elma lodged a complaint with the collector against the minister, who denied any such remark. Congress Exploits Cow Deaths: The opposition state Congress questioned the RSS silence over the deaths of hundreds of cows in gaushalas run by their party leader Harish Verma, who allegedly starved the animals to death. Where are the gau rakshaks now? asked Congress chief spokesperson Ramesh Varlyani. The BJP accused the Congress of playing politics over the cow deaths. Over 300 cows died in three government-aided cow shelters owned by Verma, who is now in jail. Punjab Taste of a Jam: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh got a taste of what the common man goes through every day on the streets. Singhs cavalcade was stuck in a traffic jam for over half-an-hour due to heavy rains at an intersection in Chandigarh. With no traffic policemen in sight, his security staff had to haggle and make way for his convoy. Pre-poll Promises Crawl Along: A talkative Cabinet minister famous for his outbursts against the previous SAD-BJP government who has suspended over 40 officials is quiet now. His department officials, worried about who hell target next, are taking baby steps, leading to slow work. With work crawling at snails pace, some are wondering how the minister will be able to fulfill his pre-poll promises.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Top Baloch leaders in exile have welcomed President Donald Trump's new Afghan and South Asia policy and urged the US to fulfill its responsibilities to recognise and differentiate between its "friends and foes" in the region.

Trump last week hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

"We urge the US to fulfill its responsibilities to recognise and differentiate between its friends and foes in the region. We hope the US will not let us down this time and we will not have to do (sacrifices) like (killing of) Shahid Nawab Akbar Bugti who stood and fought for our shared values," said exiled Baloch leader Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti.

Switzerland-based Bugti, president of the Baloch Republican Party and successor of the slain Nawab Bugti was speaking at an event "Real Story Behind Assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti," organised by American Friends of Balochistan at the National Press Club here on Friday.

"We welcome President Trump's statement about new American strategy on dealing with Pakistan," Bugti said, adding that it was really encouraging for Baloch people to see the US Government recognise the real face of Pakistan.

Bugti said that the UN and US designated terrorists like Haqqani network leaders and people like Hafiz Saeed roam freely in Pakistan while the political leaders and activists of Balochistan are abducted and killed on a daily basis.

"My grandfather opposed Pakistani plan of giving borders to the Chinese. China is now building a huge military base in border in the pretext of so called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which the Baloch call the corridor of death and destruction," he said.

Nawab Mehran Marri, chief of the Marri tribe and president of the Balochistan House, also welcomed the new Afghan and South Asia policy.

WASHINGTON: Top Baloch leaders in exile have welcomed President Donald Trump's new Afghan and South Asia policy and urged the US to fulfill its responsibilities to recognise and differentiate between its "friends and foes" in the region. Trump last week hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists. "We urge the US to fulfill its responsibilities to recognise and differentiate between its friends and foes in the region. We hope the US will not let us down this time and we will not have to do (sacrifices) like (killing of) Shahid Nawab Akbar Bugti who stood and fought for our shared values," said exiled Baloch leader Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti. Switzerland-based Bugti, president of the Baloch Republican Party and successor of the slain Nawab Bugti was speaking at an event "Real Story Behind Assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti," organised by American Friends of Balochistan at the National Press Club here on Friday. "We welcome President Trump's statement about new American strategy on dealing with Pakistan," Bugti said, adding that it was really encouraging for Baloch people to see the US Government recognise the real face of Pakistan. Bugti said that the UN and US designated terrorists like Haqqani network leaders and people like Hafiz Saeed roam freely in Pakistan while the political leaders and activists of Balochistan are abducted and killed on a daily basis. "My grandfather opposed Pakistani plan of giving borders to the Chinese. China is now building a huge military base in border in the pretext of so called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which the Baloch call the corridor of death and destruction," he said. Nawab Mehran Marri, chief of the Marri tribe and president of the Balochistan House, also welcomed the new Afghan and South Asia policy.
By PTI

LONDON: Indians were among six men and two women killed in a major accident in which their mini bus got crushed between two trucks on a highway in southern England.

The crash occurred on the southbound M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire in the wee hours of yesterday.

All those who died were travelling in the minibus, which got crushed between the two larger vehicles. "We are extending all possible assistance to those affected by this tragedy," the Indian High Commission in London said.

The two truck drivers arrested from the scene of the accident were charged with causing death by dangerous driving this morning.

Thames Valley Police said 31-year-old Ryszard Masierak and 51-year-old David Wagstaff had been charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Masierak, also accused of careless driving while over the prescribed limit of alcohol, has been remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court tomorrow.

Wagstaff, charged with dangerous driving, has been bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court on September 11. "The charges are in connection with a collision shortly before 3:15 AM yesterday in which six men and two women died. Four people who were injured and taken to hospital remain in serious conditions," Thames Valley Police said in a statement.

The British police is yet to release details of those killed in the crash. The driver of the minibus has been identified as India- born Cyriac Joseph.

The 52-year-old father of two, originally from Kerala and based in the UK for 15 years, was described as "lovely and generous" by friends. The others in his minibus were tourists from Chennai who had reportedly hired the vehicle along with family based in Nottingham to travel to London, from where they had plans to go on a tour of Europe.

A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries.

South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham. Pictures from the crash site show extensive damage to the vehicles involved, including a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics.

Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, said, "We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time."

"Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries," Elmagdoub said.

LONDON: Indians were among six men and two women killed in a major accident in which their mini bus got crushed between two trucks on a highway in southern England. The crash occurred on the southbound M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire in the wee hours of yesterday. All those who died were travelling in the minibus, which got crushed between the two larger vehicles. "We are extending all possible assistance to those affected by this tragedy," the Indian High Commission in London said. The two truck drivers arrested from the scene of the accident were charged with causing death by dangerous driving this morning. Thames Valley Police said 31-year-old Ryszard Masierak and 51-year-old David Wagstaff had been charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Masierak, also accused of careless driving while over the prescribed limit of alcohol, has been remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court tomorrow. Wagstaff, charged with dangerous driving, has been bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court on September 11. "The charges are in connection with a collision shortly before 3:15 AM yesterday in which six men and two women died. Four people who were injured and taken to hospital remain in serious conditions," Thames Valley Police said in a statement. The British police is yet to release details of those killed in the crash. The driver of the minibus has been identified as India- born Cyriac Joseph. The 52-year-old father of two, originally from Kerala and based in the UK for 15 years, was described as "lovely and generous" by friends. The others in his minibus were tourists from Chennai who had reportedly hired the vehicle along with family based in Nottingham to travel to London, from where they had plans to go on a tour of Europe. A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries. South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham. Pictures from the crash site show extensive damage to the vehicles involved, including a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics. Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, said, "We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time." "Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries," Elmagdoub said.
By AFP

ROCKPORT (UNITED STATES): Hurricane Harvey lashed central Texas with torrential rains on Saturday, raising fears of "catastrophic" flooding after the megastorm -- the most powerful to hit the United States since 2005 -- left a deadly trail of devastation along the Gulf Coast.

The latest forecasts show that Harvey, now downgraded to tropical storm status, will hover along the shore for the next four or five days -- a dangerous possibility given the amount of potential additional rainfall.

The storm flattened buildings, toppled mobile homes, sent boats floating into deserted streets and left hundreds of thousands of people without power on the Gulf Coast, home to some of the country's most important oil refineries.

While only one person was known to have died, officials said they feared the worst was yet to come, with large areas of Texas under flash flood warnings and sporadic tornadoes touching down, tearing roofs off houses.

Harvey made landfall late Friday as a Category Four hurricane, pummeling the small town of Rockport outside Corpus Christi with sustained winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

It then made a second landfall a few hours later just north of Rockport, which was one of the hardest-hit areas.

While most residents did heed advice to head to safety, some hunkered down in Corpus Christi -- a city of about 325,000, where residents have been told to boil their water before using.

"I've never seen anything like this. We do have strong winds -- we're right next to the bay -- but nothing like last night," store owner Brandon Gonzalez told AFP.

"I mean, I was even a little bit terrified of what was going to happen. Our building was just shaking back and forth. It really got bad. I think we held up pretty good though."

- 'Long and frustrating' -

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at least 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain had fallen in some areas -- with another 20 or 30 inches possible.

"Our primary concerns remains dramatic flooding," Abbott told reporters.

As of late Saturday, about 230,000 customers were still without power, providers said. Roads were difficult to navigate due to debris and downed power lines.

"Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," the NHC warned.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said there should be no illusions about the long-term impact.

"This is going to be an unprecedented long and frustrating event for the state of Texas," FEMA director Brock Long told MSNBC. "The recovery from this disaster is going to be years."

- 'Severe blow' -

Emergency services were struggling to make headway as rains continued to pour down, although the Coast Guard managed to airlift 20 people and a dog to safety.

One person was confirmed to have died, with officials in Aransas county saying the victim had perished in a fire that broke out in his house.

President Donald Trump, aware of the damage to George W. Bush presidency's for his tardy response to Hurricane Katrina, said he was closely monitoring relief efforts from Camp David in Maryland.

"We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!" he tweeted, after meeting with his cabinet via teleconference to discuss the ongoing emergency operation.

The storm represents the first major domestic challenge for Trump, and he plans to head to Texas next week.

In Rockport, a local school and airport were among the places to suffer major damage while homes were also burnt to the ground as power cables caught fire. There were similar scenes in nearby Corpus Christi.

- Catastrophic flooding -

Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, said a strong ridge of high pressure was preventing the storm from dispersing.

"There's no sign of it really moving in a foreseeable future," he told AFP.

Coastal Texas is a fast-growing area, with some 1.5 million people moving into the region since 1999. It is also home to a large number of oil refineries and a number of major ports.

US authorities said about 22 percent of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico, accounting for more than 375,000 barrels a day, was shut down as of Friday.

"We recognize that the ports in this region are critical and vital to the nation's economy," said Captain Kevin Oditt, incident commander for the Coast Guard's Houston-Galveston post.

"We are preparing to open ports once the storm has passed or weather conditions permit."

- Leaving everything -

Many residents who fled the worst-affected areas in Texas headed for the city of San Antonio, where temporary shelters are run by the fire department.

"I only got what you see me with. Everything I had, I had to leave. Everything," Michael Allen, an evacuee from Corpus Christi, told AFP.

Harvey is the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland since Wilma struck Florida 12 years ago.

2005 was a huge year for hurricanes -- before Wilma, Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, leaving more than 1,800 dead.

In the Texas town of Victoria, Mayor Paul Polasek told CNN the storm was "not as bad as it could have been," but he nevertheless put in place a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

"Stay calm and relaxed," Polasek advised residents. "Do not travel. Restrict travel. It's not safe. (...) And help your neighbors."

ROCKPORT (UNITED STATES): Hurricane Harvey lashed central Texas with torrential rains on Saturday, raising fears of "catastrophic" flooding after the megastorm -- the most powerful to hit the United States since 2005 -- left a deadly trail of devastation along the Gulf Coast. The latest forecasts show that Harvey, now downgraded to tropical storm status, will hover along the shore for the next four or five days -- a dangerous possibility given the amount of potential additional rainfall. The storm flattened buildings, toppled mobile homes, sent boats floating into deserted streets and left hundreds of thousands of people without power on the Gulf Coast, home to some of the country's most important oil refineries. While only one person was known to have died, officials said they feared the worst was yet to come, with large areas of Texas under flash flood warnings and sporadic tornadoes touching down, tearing roofs off houses. Harvey made landfall late Friday as a Category Four hurricane, pummeling the small town of Rockport outside Corpus Christi with sustained winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It then made a second landfall a few hours later just north of Rockport, which was one of the hardest-hit areas. While most residents did heed advice to head to safety, some hunkered down in Corpus Christi -- a city of about 325,000, where residents have been told to boil their water before using. "I've never seen anything like this. We do have strong winds -- we're right next to the bay -- but nothing like last night," store owner Brandon Gonzalez told AFP. "I mean, I was even a little bit terrified of what was going to happen. Our building was just shaking back and forth. It really got bad. I think we held up pretty good though." - 'Long and frustrating' - Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at least 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain had fallen in some areas -- with another 20 or 30 inches possible. "Our primary concerns remains dramatic flooding," Abbott told reporters. As of late Saturday, about 230,000 customers were still without power, providers said. Roads were difficult to navigate due to debris and downed power lines. "Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," the NHC warned. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said there should be no illusions about the long-term impact. "This is going to be an unprecedented long and frustrating event for the state of Texas," FEMA director Brock Long told MSNBC. "The recovery from this disaster is going to be years." - 'Severe blow' - Emergency services were struggling to make headway as rains continued to pour down, although the Coast Guard managed to airlift 20 people and a dog to safety. One person was confirmed to have died, with officials in Aransas county saying the victim had perished in a fire that broke out in his house. President Donald Trump, aware of the damage to George W. Bush presidency's for his tardy response to Hurricane Katrina, said he was closely monitoring relief efforts from Camp David in Maryland. "We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!" he tweeted, after meeting with his cabinet via teleconference to discuss the ongoing emergency operation. The storm represents the first major domestic challenge for Trump, and he plans to head to Texas next week. In Rockport, a local school and airport were among the places to suffer major damage while homes were also burnt to the ground as power cables caught fire. There were similar scenes in nearby Corpus Christi. - Catastrophic flooding - Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, said a strong ridge of high pressure was preventing the storm from dispersing. "There's no sign of it really moving in a foreseeable future," he told AFP. Coastal Texas is a fast-growing area, with some 1.5 million people moving into the region since 1999. It is also home to a large number of oil refineries and a number of major ports. US authorities said about 22 percent of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico, accounting for more than 375,000 barrels a day, was shut down as of Friday. "We recognize that the ports in this region are critical and vital to the nation's economy," said Captain Kevin Oditt, incident commander for the Coast Guard's Houston-Galveston post. "We are preparing to open ports once the storm has passed or weather conditions permit." - Leaving everything - Many residents who fled the worst-affected areas in Texas headed for the city of San Antonio, where temporary shelters are run by the fire department. "I only got what you see me with. Everything I had, I had to leave. Everything," Michael Allen, an evacuee from Corpus Christi, told AFP. Harvey is the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland since Wilma struck Florida 12 years ago. 2005 was a huge year for hurricanes -- before Wilma, Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, leaving more than 1,800 dead. In the Texas town of Victoria, Mayor Paul Polasek told CNN the storm was "not as bad as it could have been," but he nevertheless put in place a dusk-to-dawn curfew. "Stay calm and relaxed," Polasek advised residents. "Do not travel. Restrict travel. It's not safe. (...) And help your neighbors."
By ANI

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump has threatened to terminate North American Free Trade Agreement talks with Canada and Mexico, saying that both are being very difficult in renegotiation of NAFTA.



We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate? Trump said in a tweet.



Trump had recently emphasised that the NAFTA talks with Canada and Mexico would not achieve a successful end.



"I think we'll probably end up terminating the NAFTA at some point. We have been so badly taken advantage of," he said.



"Personally, I don't think you can make a deal," he added, noting that if a mutual agreement to reform the North American Free Trade Agreement cannot be met, the United States will plan to withdraw.



Earlier this month, representatives from the U.S, Canada and Mexico began renegotiation talks over NAFTA.



NAFTA is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, which came into force on January 1, 1994.





In another tweet, Trump also reaffirmed his commitment to build the Mexico Wall, saying that the U.S. must build the wall.

With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other, he tweeted.





Putting up a wall along the US-Mexico border was part of Trump's campaign agendas, following which he issued an executive order in January for the beginning of construction.



Earlier, Trump had assured that the cost of building the 'wall' on the southern border with Mexico will come down when he gets involved with its design and negotiations.



He had also expressed his confidence that Mexico will 'eventually' pay for the border wall.



Trump had said in January that he will seek to pay for the wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico and as part of a larger comprehensive tax reform plan.



However, Mexico has adamantly rejected the notion that they would fund the border wall.

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump has threatened to terminate North American Free Trade Agreement talks with Canada and Mexico, saying that both are being very difficult in renegotiation of NAFTA. We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate? Trump said in a tweet. Trump had recently emphasised that the NAFTA talks with Canada and Mexico would not achieve a successful end. "I think we'll probably end up terminating the NAFTA at some point. We have been so badly taken advantage of," he said. "Personally, I don't think you can make a deal," he added, noting that if a mutual agreement to reform the North American Free Trade Agreement cannot be met, the United States will plan to withdraw. Earlier this month, representatives from the U.S, Canada and Mexico began renegotiation talks over NAFTA. NAFTA is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, which came into force on January 1, 1994. In another tweet, Trump also reaffirmed his commitment to build the Mexico Wall, saying that the U.S. must build the wall. With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other, he tweeted. Putting up a wall along the US-Mexico border was part of Trump's campaign agendas, following which he issued an executive order in January for the beginning of construction. Earlier, Trump had assured that the cost of building the 'wall' on the southern border with Mexico will come down when he gets involved with its design and negotiations. He had also expressed his confidence that Mexico will 'eventually' pay for the border wall. Trump had said in January that he will seek to pay for the wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico and as part of a larger comprehensive tax reform plan. However, Mexico has adamantly rejected the notion that they would fund the border wall.
There were striking differences between the photos tweeted by the RJD supremo and the news agency ANI. Some Twitterati noticed, and hilarity ensued.

Images of the BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao rally tweeted from the same vantage point by ANI and Lalu Prasad Yadav (Photos | Left: ANI/Twitter, Right: Lalu Prasad Yadav/Twitter)

By India Today Web Desk: Perhaps Kapil Mishra said it best.

"Who is handling social media for Lalu Yadav Ji?" the sacked AAP chief tweeted, attaching two vastly different photographs of the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo's 'BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao' rally, held today at Patna's Gandhi Maidan.

One of the pictures, a damp, grainy image resembling an oil painting, was a screenshot from Lalu Prasad's Twitter account. "No "Face" will stand in front of Lalu's "Base," the accompanying message read.

No "Face" will stand in front of Lalu's "Base". Come & Count as much as u can in Gandhi Maidan, Patna #DeshBachao pic.twitter.com/sXoAcpwNKw- Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) August 27, 2017

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The other, which didn't carry a photo credit, was similar to pictures tweeted by the news agency ANI. There appear to be far fewer people in these photos than in the one posted by Lalu Prasad.

Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad's son and Bihar's former deputy chief minister, claimed there were 30 lakh people at the rally.

If someone thinks BJP can't be defeated than come to Gandhi Maidan, 30 lacs people are waiting. #DeshBachao pic.twitter.com/qSzzuoos3K- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 27, 2017

While it's important to mention that Lalu Prasad's and ANI's pictures were shared more than an hour apart, there are other striking differences that are worth noting.

In Lalu Prasad's photo, the trees in the middle of the maidan are missing. And in the top right corner of the crowd is unclear, obscured by a particularly grainy patch.

RJD's Patna rally: Picture taken from same point where Lalu Prasad Yadav's purported picture was taken; crowd sizes are different. pic.twitter.com/3QuEsBlQua- ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, a top Opposition leader, had this to say.

Good to see ANI is taking on the responsibility of debunking false/doubtful claims. Look forward to this being done across party lines ????? https://t.co/SAckJM3o5P- Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 27, 2017

Nevertheless, the National Conference leader said it was "a damn decent crowd."

Other Twitterati couldn't resist poking fun at the RJD supremo. Here are a some examples.

Now crowd is pouring from the sky to fill the depression formed by Lalu ji's photoshop team. #Respect. pic.twitter.com/82sNAOvprV- PhD in Bakchodi ! (@Atheist_Krishna) August 27, 2017

Photoshop Hatao Asli Picture Dikhao ?????? pic.twitter.com/zBGomY7XZm- Rohit Bhat (@iRohitBhat) August 27, 2017

The RJD's rally comes weeks after the party was ousted from power in Bihar, following Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's dramatic resignation and re-appointment. Nitish left the erstwhile 'Mahagathbandhan' over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav, and joined forces with the National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP.

The 'BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao' rally was meant to unite India's Opposition parties against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political juggernaut, which has recorded impressive wins in local polls in Delhi and Mumbai, and has formed or joined governments in four states, including Uttar Pradesh.

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While former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Sharad Yadav attended the event, the Congress' President and Vice-President, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, didn't show up.

But in a letter, Rahul Gandhi said he was happy the rally was being held at a time when the basic structure of the nation was under attack

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's message on Patna rally pic.twitter.com/xVU1yPjZ80- ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

While Sonia, Rahul skip Lalu's anti-BJP rally, Sharad Yadav, Mamata, Akhilesh share stage

Rahul Gandhi chooses Norway over Lalu Prasad's 'BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao' rally

ALSO WATCH

Corruption charges against Tejashwi part of political conspiracy of Nitish, BJP: Lalu Yadav

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By PTI

WASHINGTON: The US is looking at ways to "more actively support" India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as the Trump administration considers it a very important matter, a top White House official has said.

A plenary meeting of the elite nuclear club in June failed to take a decision on India's application for its membership, but decided to discuss in November the issue of entry of non-NPT signatories.

China, a key member of the NSG, has been stridently opposing India's bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Its opposition has made India's entry into the 48-member group difficult as the NSG works on the principle of consensus.

"There is a meeting coming up shortly on this issue. The US is considering ways it can to support more actively India's membership in the NSG, because it is something that's very important to the US," the White House official told PTI.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was responding to a series of questions on what steps the Trump administration has taken so far to push Indias membership to the NSG, which has been blocked by China.

"The US is very supportive of India's membership in the NSG. That continues to be something very important, and in fact it came up during the meeting of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi with President (Donald) Trump (at the White House on June 26)," the White House official said.

"In terms of the specific interactions with China, I'm not aware if it's been raised. It's something certainly that the US does support," the official said, insisting that the Trump administration is committed to support India's case.

After India's application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan, the all-weather ally of China, too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing.

An NSG statement after the June meeting said the members had discussions on the issue of "Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of the Participation of non-NPT States in the NSG".

"The group decided to continue its discussion and noted the intention of the chair to organise an informal meeting in November," said the NSG statement issued at the end of the two-day plenary meeting in the Swiss capital Bern.

WASHINGTON: The US is looking at ways to "more actively support" India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as the Trump administration considers it a very important matter, a top White House official has said. A plenary meeting of the elite nuclear club in June failed to take a decision on India's application for its membership, but decided to discuss in November the issue of entry of non-NPT signatories. China, a key member of the NSG, has been stridently opposing India's bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its opposition has made India's entry into the 48-member group difficult as the NSG works on the principle of consensus. "There is a meeting coming up shortly on this issue. The US is considering ways it can to support more actively India's membership in the NSG, because it is something that's very important to the US," the White House official told PTI. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was responding to a series of questions on what steps the Trump administration has taken so far to push Indias membership to the NSG, which has been blocked by China. "The US is very supportive of India's membership in the NSG. That continues to be something very important, and in fact it came up during the meeting of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi with President (Donald) Trump (at the White House on June 26)," the White House official said. "In terms of the specific interactions with China, I'm not aware if it's been raised. It's something certainly that the US does support," the official said, insisting that the Trump administration is committed to support India's case. After India's application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan, the all-weather ally of China, too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing. An NSG statement after the June meeting said the members had discussions on the issue of "Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of the Participation of non-NPT States in the NSG". "The group decided to continue its discussion and noted the intention of the chair to organise an informal meeting in November," said the NSG statement issued at the end of the two-day plenary meeting in the Swiss capital Bern.
By PTI

CARACAS: Venezuelan troops taught civilians how to shoot rifles, fire missiles and engage in hand-to-hand combat during drills in defiance of US sanctions and President Donald Trump's threat of military action.

War planes, tanks and 200,000 troops of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) deployed along with 700,000 reservists and civilians as socialist President Nicolas Maduro launched two days of military exercises yesterday.

In a Caracas military academy, soldiers taught civilians how to use their fists, rifles, bazookas and anti-aircraft guns and supervised them on obstacle courses.

"Yankees out!" 60-year-old Erica Avendano yelled as she bashed a rag dummy with her rifle on an assault course.

"I hope nothing will happen, but we are ready for anything," she told AFP.

Trump warned earlier this month that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary."

Top US officials later played down the threat. "No military actions are anticipated in the near future," said US national security advisor HR McMaster.

But Trump's tough talk bolstered Maduro's oft-repeated claim that Washington is plotting to topple him and wants to grab control of Venezuela's oil -- the largest proven reserves in the world.

Gregorio Valderrama, a 23-year-old father of three, received a shooting lesson from soldiers on Saturday.

Valderrama said he was there to learn "to defend my country and my family."

"We may not know how to handle a rifle and when to shoot, but here we are learning," he added.

Elected in 2013, Maduro, the political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, has hung onto power despite food shortages and social upheaval.

His grip is largely thanks to the support of the military, which holds vast powers in his government, including over food distribution.

The opposition has repeatedly called on the army to abandon Maduro but so far he has faced only low-level dissent.

Military analyst Rocio San Miguel judged the weekend's exercises to be "mere propaganda" rather than a meaningful challenge to Trump.

She said they aimed to discourage "any disloyalty in the ranks of the FANB, which is a worry for the intelligence services," and "to reinforce the anti-imperialist line."

On Thursday, the president warned the armed forces not to break ranks.

"This is no time for any fissures," he said in a speech to the top military brass.

"Never before has Venezuela been threatened in such a way."

Tension surged again however when the White House on Friday unveiled its first-ever sanctions to target Venezuela as a whole, rather than just Maduro and his inner circle.

The measures ban trade in new bonds issued by the Venezuelan government or its cash-cow oil company, PDVSA.

That could choke off access to New York debt markets and raise the risk of Venezuela being forced into default.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces support "all measures being implemented to counter the financial blockade."

Venezuela's center right-led opposition and international powers including Washington say Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship.

Maduro's opponents accuse military police and pro-Maduro militia of beating and killing anti-government protesters who are demanding elections to replace him.

Protest clashes have left 125 people dead so far this year, according to prosecutors.

Maduro says the violence and the economic crisis are a US-backed conspiracy.

On Friday, he accused opposition leaders in his country of pushing for the US sanctions and called for legislative speaker Julio Borges to be tried for treason.

Also on Friday, Maduro called an "urgent" meeting of American companies that buy Venezuelan oil and hold Venezuelan bonds to discuss the sanctions.

CARACAS: Venezuelan troops taught civilians how to shoot rifles, fire missiles and engage in hand-to-hand combat during drills in defiance of US sanctions and President Donald Trump's threat of military action. War planes, tanks and 200,000 troops of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) deployed along with 700,000 reservists and civilians as socialist President Nicolas Maduro launched two days of military exercises yesterday. In a Caracas military academy, soldiers taught civilians how to use their fists, rifles, bazookas and anti-aircraft guns and supervised them on obstacle courses. "Yankees out!" 60-year-old Erica Avendano yelled as she bashed a rag dummy with her rifle on an assault course. "I hope nothing will happen, but we are ready for anything," she told AFP. Trump warned earlier this month that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary." Top US officials later played down the threat. "No military actions are anticipated in the near future," said US national security advisor HR McMaster. But Trump's tough talk bolstered Maduro's oft-repeated claim that Washington is plotting to topple him and wants to grab control of Venezuela's oil -- the largest proven reserves in the world. Gregorio Valderrama, a 23-year-old father of three, received a shooting lesson from soldiers on Saturday. Valderrama said he was there to learn "to defend my country and my family." "We may not know how to handle a rifle and when to shoot, but here we are learning," he added. Elected in 2013, Maduro, the political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, has hung onto power despite food shortages and social upheaval. His grip is largely thanks to the support of the military, which holds vast powers in his government, including over food distribution. The opposition has repeatedly called on the army to abandon Maduro but so far he has faced only low-level dissent. Military analyst Rocio San Miguel judged the weekend's exercises to be "mere propaganda" rather than a meaningful challenge to Trump. She said they aimed to discourage "any disloyalty in the ranks of the FANB, which is a worry for the intelligence services," and "to reinforce the anti-imperialist line." On Thursday, the president warned the armed forces not to break ranks. "This is no time for any fissures," he said in a speech to the top military brass. "Never before has Venezuela been threatened in such a way." Tension surged again however when the White House on Friday unveiled its first-ever sanctions to target Venezuela as a whole, rather than just Maduro and his inner circle. The measures ban trade in new bonds issued by the Venezuelan government or its cash-cow oil company, PDVSA. That could choke off access to New York debt markets and raise the risk of Venezuela being forced into default. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces support "all measures being implemented to counter the financial blockade." Venezuela's center right-led opposition and international powers including Washington say Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship. Maduro's opponents accuse military police and pro-Maduro militia of beating and killing anti-government protesters who are demanding elections to replace him. Protest clashes have left 125 people dead so far this year, according to prosecutors. Maduro says the violence and the economic crisis are a US-backed conspiracy. On Friday, he accused opposition leaders in his country of pushing for the US sanctions and called for legislative speaker Julio Borges to be tried for treason. Also on Friday, Maduro called an "urgent" meeting of American companies that buy Venezuelan oil and hold Venezuelan bonds to discuss the sanctions.
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By PTI: Jamshedpur, Aug 27 (PTI) Tata Steel today celebrated the 158th Birth Anniversary of Sir Dorab Tata, the elder son of Tata Steel founder J N Tata, here.

TV Narendran, managing director,(India and South East Asia) and R Ravi Prasad, president, Tata Workers? Union paid homage to the legend by offering floral tributes.

Narendran said, "The vision and the wisdom of JN Tata was translated into what we see around us by Sir Dorab Tata."

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"The challenges of setting up the Steel plant here over a hundred years back was many times greater than some of the challenges that we have gone through in setting up Kalinganagar Steel plant", he said.

Prasad said "JN Tata?s dream was fulfilled by Sir Dorab Tata. He worked for the welfare of employees from the very beginning and included schemes like provident fund, medical aid, maternity leave and Gratuity. PTI BS RG

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One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
A college student in West Bengal, in a unique initiative, has created a sticker that is used outside public toilets to make them accessible to transgenders.

By India Today Web Desk: A student in West Bengal has introduced toilets for transgender people by putting signs on already existing toilets.

Sobhan Mukherjee, is the creator of the stickers that read Tridhara, which is meant to signify the third gender. The stickers have been put outside already existing toilets in certain districts of West Bengal and has been hailed as a one of its kind step in India.

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Here's how the stickers look like:

The transgender community has welcomed the step and want it to spread in other areas as well.

In 2014, the apex court of India gave the "third gender" status to hijras and transgenders. The move was welcomed worldwide.

Although certified by law, the third gender still has to face discrimination in the country. Getting jobs and education is still a difficult task for the third gender, if not impossible. Eventually, most of them end up in sex trade or begging.

FYI || Beyond gender: 5 laws that prove new India is accepting the transgender community ||

FYI || Beyond gender: 5 laws that prove new India is accepting the transgender community ||

FYI || Watch how Indian Gods embraced transgenders and trumped prejudices ||

FYI || Union Minister Ramdas Athawale 'advises' transgenders not to wear sarees ||

FYI || India's first transgender sub-inspector to take charge in Chennai ||

FYI || First South American transgender father makes history by giving birth to baby boy ||

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: Public sector banks have taken loan recovery action under Sarfaesi law against 5,954 wilful defaulters owing about Rs 70,000 crore to the lenders.



At the end of March 31, 2017, 21 banks together have taken action against 5,954 wilful defaulters under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, as per data collated by the Finance Ministry.



The country's largest lender SBI has taken action against 1,444 such defaulters with an outstanding loan of Rs 20,943 crore.



Remaining 20 banks have taken action against 4,510 wilful defaulters with an outstanding loan of Rs 48,496 crore.



Total outstanding loans due to public sector banks by wilful defaulters amounted to Rs 92,376 crore, according to the finance ministry data.



The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs 92,376 crore at the end of the financial year 2016-17, from Rs 76,685 crore at the end of fiscal 2015-16 -- up 20.4 per cent.



At the same time, there has been close to 10 per cent increase in the number of wilful defaulters on annual basis. It increased to 8,915 at the end of March as against 8,167 in the previous fiscal.



Out of 8,915 cases of wilful defaults, banks have filed FIR (first information report) in 1,914 cases with outstanding loans of Rs 32,484 crore.



During 2016-17, 27 public sector banks, including SBI and its five associates, had written off Rs 81,683 crore, the highest in the last five fiscals. The amount was 41 per cent higher than that in the previous fiscal.



Gross NPAs of the public sector banks rose to Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 as against Rs 5.02 lakh crore a year ago.



In order to check incidences of wilful default, RBI has tightened the norms and made it clear that promoter of the defaulting company cannot escape from his responsibility even if he is not a whole-time director.



As per earlier guidelines, a bank couldn't label a non- whole-time director of a company as a wilful defaulter unless there was conclusive evidence that the individual was aware of the wilful default by the company and had not objected to it.



A wilful default occurs when a borrower does not honour an obligation despite having the capacity to pay or syphons off funds by disposing of assets without the knowledge of the bank, according to RBI.



RBI has allowed banks to name and shame wilful defaulters by publishing their photographs.
Mumbai: A Kochi-bound Air India plane, carrying over 150 passengers from here, had to abort takeoff at the last minute following a technical problem and was grounded.



The flight AI 054, that was scheduled to take off for Kochi from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 5.30 am, departed for its destination at around 9 am after the airline changed the aircraft, a source said.



An Air India spokesperson confirmed the delay of its Kochi flight from Mumbai due to technical issues.



The aircraft had to be grounded due to technical issues and the replacement (of the aircraft) took some time, which resulted in the flight getting delayed, the spokesperson said, without elaborating on the "technical" problem.



The Airbus 319 plane had started taxiing for the takeoff when the pilot reported some technical problem in the plane and decided abort the take off and return to the bay, the source said.



Air India engineers inspected the aircraft for nearly two hours, during which all passengers remained seated in the plane, the source claimed, adding that they later declared it unfit for flying.



"The stranded passengers were then taken back to the terminal building and went through the security check-in process all over again to board the replaced aircraft," the source claimed.



The average flying time between Mumbai and Kochi is 1 hour and 42 minutes.


Rohtak: A day before a special CBI court announces the quantum of punishment to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim,

Inspector General - Rohtak Range, Navdeep Virk, said, that strict instructions had been given, keeping in mind the recent events.



The IG said that a special courtroom had been set up inside the Sunairia Jail, and the special CBI judge will come to Rohtak. "The proceedings will start at around 2 PM."



A little later in the evening, when a team of senior police officers was out patrolling the area, IG Navdeep Virk told News18 that anyone, trying to do any mischief, will not be spared. "Shortest possible time will be taken to respond."



The Inspector General also said that hours before the proceedings begin on Monday, the senior-most police officers will monitor the situation.



"It is not just about the Sunariya town or the main prison area or the main Rohtak city.Even smaller towns located around Rohtak are being manned by separate senior police officers to avert any kind of untoward incident," IG Virk said.



The Inspector General requested media people to be careful and not to venture out in the area surrounding the Sunariya jail as "we have issued strict shoot at sight" orders in case of any mischief.



The followers will be questioned and will be asked to leave, IG Virk said, adding that a strict action will follow if they don't leave.



"Special police check post or nakas have been made on all the roads leading to Rohtak. Mixed component of Paramilitary officials and Haryana police will man the area," he said.



The police have made necessary arrangements to ensure zero traffic for several kms near the Rohtak jail and most of the trains to Rohtak have been stopped to avoid any unsupervised action.



Haryana police, assisted by Central police, district police and paramilitary officials are handling the situation.



"Army has been alerted and they have done a recce but they will not be needed," he said.



The police have checked the courtroom premises inside the jail and have made sure it is "foolproof", IG Virk said.



"No inconvenience will be caused to normal city dwellers. Section 144 has been imposed not a curfew."



Virk said that Police usually work on either the probability of any incident or intelligence inputs, "we are working on the basis of both so that no inconvenience is caused to the people".



All ten Dera ghars have been sealed in Rohtak and many Dera followers have been kept under preventive detention.


The blamegame over the violence in Haryana that killed 36 and injured 250 has already begun. Haryana Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said that the DCP of Panchkula was responsible for the failure of the law and order machinery. It was a lapse from the Panchkula DCP. He issued wrong order under CrPC, he said. The top state government official also insisted that no one will be spared and the guilty will be behind the bars.

Heres the recap:

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Chandigarh: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been lodged in Sunaria jail's 'approval cell' in Rohtak, after being convicted in a 2002 rape case, will now be identified as Prisoner Number 1997.



The Dera sect head spent his first prison night by roaming inside the cell till midnight, prison officials said.



According to the officials, the lone approval cell in the Rohtak jail has a total capacity of 12, but Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been kept in solitary confinement.



While the godman complained of uneasiness on his arrival from Panchkula on Saturday, a medical examination found him fit.



"Till midnight he spent his time roaming in the cell," jail officials said. A bowl of dal, two chapatis and mixed pickle were served to him for dinner, they said.



Meanwhile, Haryana DGP (Jails) K P Singh on Saturday said no special treatment was being extended to the Dera head.



Four prison officials have been put on duty near the Dera head's barrack to monitor his activities, Singh said.



"No special treatment is being given to him. He is being treated like any other ordinary prisoner. An ordinary prisoner sleeps on the floor and he too is doing the same," the DGP said.



The official though admitted that keeping a high-profile prisoner secure inside the jail was a challenge, he added that all adequate measures were being taken to avoid any trouble.



"We have made all arrangements inside the prison to keep the Dera chief secure. He has no contact with other inmates," he said.



Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted of rape by a court in Panchkula on Friday, triggering widespread violence and arson in Haryana and adjoining areas. A total of 36 people were killed and over 250 injured.
New Delhi/Rohtak: Counsel for Gurmeet Ram Rahim will be seeking a lenient sentence for the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, who was held guilty in a 2002 rape case, in a CBI Court verdict on Friday.



With the verdict going against the flamboyant godman, thousands of his followers went berserk outside the court premises in Panchkula, and across Haryana, Punjab and New Delhi. In the aftermath of the violence that left 36 dead in Haryana, CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh will be delivering his the sentence at the Rohtak District Jail on Monday.



Senior Advocate SK Garg Narwana told News18 that he believes Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is innocent. But in the face of the conviction, he will seek legal remedies.



"Of course as a lawyer of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, I believe that he is innocent. But since he has been convicted, I will plead for a lower sentence in case the court does not itself grant him the lowest possible term," Narwana told News18.



Narwana clarified that he is not a Dera Sacha Sauda follower. Interestingly, the senior lawyer is also handling four other cases against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, another convicted godman Rampal and the other rape accused spiritual leader, Asaram Bapu.



The Dera chief counsel also said that the minimum sentence in a rape case is seven years and extends to life imprisonment. Hence, in case the court grants the self-styled godman a sentence of more than seven years, "a plea for a shorter sentence will be made immediately."



Advocate Narwana, while discussing the future course of legal action for his client, told News18, "An appeal will be made in the High Court to reconsider the CBI verdict. Things will become clearer once we have the order in hand.



The four other cases against the Dera chief that Narwana is looking at, include a castration case, the case of a journalists murder and that of one of the rape victims brothers.



The senior advocate at the Punjab and Haryana High Court completed his law degree from Kurukshetra University in 1982 and has been practicing criminal law.
New Delhi: Haryana Home Secretary Ram Nivas on Sunday hit out at IPS officer Ashok Kumar, DCP Panchkula, saying that Kumar issued a wrong order under CrPC, "a huge lapse on his part", causing a large-scale violence in the city.



In order to avoid any untoward incident on Monday when the special CBI judge announces the quantum of punishment to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Nivas said that the security within 10 km of Rohtak jail was fool proof. "Even a bird cannot flutter its wings here," he said.



Nivas said that 552 people had been arrested in connection with clashes that led to the death of 36 people and caused injuries to more than 250 people. The Home Secretary requested media not to go anywhere without security, adding that more complaints will be registered on the basis of footage acquired from media.



The Punjab and Haryana court on Saturday had chastised the Haryana government, saying it had "let Panchkula burn for political gains". Nivas, however, denied "political surrender to allure a vote bank", as asserted by the court.



"There were some errors, but the government was acting cautiously," Nivas said, adding the current situation in Haryana shouldn't be compared to the Jat agitation.



Panchkula has a porous border and people trickled into the city from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, he said, "Posing a mammoth challenge to police."



"There was no lack of sincerity on part of the government. The chief minister never asked me to go slow," he said.



Dera Sacha Sauda supporters went on a rampage, minutes after a special CBI court pronounced Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty in a rape case filed in 2002.
Kolkata: An IIT Kharagpur professor drowned while trying to rescue his four-year-old son, who had fallen into a water body, in West Midnapore district, Bengal, on Sunday.



Joydip Bhattacharjee  an assistant professor, Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture at IIT Kharagpur  had taken took his two kids for a stroll near the campus to spend some time with them.



One of his children slipped into the water body while taking a selfie. Joydip drowned in an attempt to save his son.



He lost his balance while pulling his son out of the water. Locals rushed and took both of them out. They were rushed to a nearby hospital but Joydip was declared brought dead. His son is stable, said a police officer.



His body has been sent for post mortem examination and we are going to issue an order requesting people not to venture close or take selfies close to the water body, the officer added.



IIT-Kharagpurs registrar, Pradip Ghosh, said the entire faculty and students are in a state of shock after the incident. We dont have words to describe our pain. It is a big loss for us and the entire teaching community are with his family members, he said.



India has witnessed far more selfie deaths than any other country between March 2014 and September 2016. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Delhi in a collaborative study - Me, Myself and My Killfie: Characterizing and Preventing Selfie Deaths  claimed that out of 127 reported selfie deaths, 76 happened in India.
London: Indians were among six men and two women killed in a major accident in which their mini bus got crushed between two trucks on a highway in southern England.



The crash occurred on the southbound M1 highway at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire in the wee hours of yesterday(Saturday).



All those who died were travelling in the minibus, which got crushed between the two larger vehicles.



"We are extending all possible assistance to those affected by this tragedy," the Indian High Commission in London said.



The two truck drivers arrested from the scene of the accident were charged with causing death by dangerous driving this morning.



Thames Valley Police said 31-year-old Ryszard Masierak and 51-year-old David Wagstaff had been charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving.



Masierak, also accused of careless driving while over the prescribed limit of alcohol, has been remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court tomorrow(Monday).



Wagstaff, charged with dangerous driving, has been bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court on September 11. "The charges are in connection with a collision shortly before 3:15 AM yesterday in which six men and two women died. Four people who were injured and taken to hospital remain in serious conditions," Thames Valley Police said in a statement. The British police is yet to release details of those killed in the crash.



The driver of the minibus has been identified as India-born Cyriac Joseph.



The 52-year-old father of two, originally from Kerala and based in the UK for 15 years, was described as "lovely and generous" by friends.



The others in his minibus were tourists from Chennai who had reportedly hired the vehicle along with family based in Nottingham to travel to London, from where they had plans to go on a tour of Europe.



A five-year-old girl, a woman and a man are being treated in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, while another woman has serious injuries.



South Central Ambulance Service said those injured in the collision were taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham.



Pictures from the crash site show extensive damage to the vehicles involved, including a FedEx vehicle and one belonging to AIM Logistics.



Ismail Elmagdoub, director of AIM Logistics, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, said,"We would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families who have lost loved ones and also those whom have been injured at this very sad time." "Road safety and compliance is of the utmost importance to AIM Logistics and we are continuing to assist the police as much as possible with their inquiries," Elmagdoub said.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 27 (PTI) After six years of legal battle since he was given compulsory retirement by IIT Kharagpur on charges of misconduct, whistle-blower Professor Rajeev Kumar has finally got a posting at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

JNU in an order "requested" Kumar to "immediately" resume his duties at the School of Computer and Systems Sciences.

IIT Kharagpur had in May 2011 suspended Kumar on charges of misconduct. He was accused of damaging its reputation by levelling allegations of irregularities in admissions, purchase of laptops and rampant copying by students in exams.

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Kumar was hailed as an "unsung hero" by the Supreme Court the same year for his efforts to reform the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which has since been re-christened as JEE Advanced.

The penalty of compulsory retirement, imposed on Kumar by the authorities at IIT Kharagpur, was recently set aside by Pranab Mukherjee days before he demitted office as president.

After IIT Kharagpur relieved him of his duties, Kumar joined JNU in June 2015 through an order which granted him a lien for two years -- from June 12, 2015 to June 11, 2017.

The order had said he would be deemed to have resigned from IIT Kharagpur if he did not join it back at the expiry of the lien.

Lien represents the right of a government employee to hold a regular post, whether permanent or temporary, either immediately or on the termination of the period of absence.

When the JNU administration decided to confirm him as professor in May last year, he was asked to submit a copy of lien termination or resignation from IIT Kharagpur.

Kumar then submitted his resignation and lien termination request to the IIT, which did not accept it, saying a petition filed in the Delhi High Court by him "has not yet reached its logical conclusion".

It, however, accepted his resignation on August 14, 2017 following a Delhi High Court order in this regard.

Kumar had moved the High Court and obtained a stay on the IITs decision to impose the penalty of compulsory retirement on him.

The court had on August 16 clarified that in view of IIT Kharagpur accepting Kumars technical resignation, JNU was not required to release him on account of the request made by the technical institute.

"I wish to express my gratitude to uncountable individuals and groups worldwide who stood with me in this movement, which started in 2006. I pray to Almighty to strengthen academic fraternity for understanding the word, autonomy," Prof Kumar said. PTI AKV GVS AAR

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New Delhi: In a strange comparison, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani equated ISROs missiles with Rams arrows. In fact, the former RSS pracharak went on to say that what the space research organization is doing in 2017, Ram had already done it back in his day.



Tapan Misra, director of ISROs Space Applications Centre, was also present at the event.



The Gujarat chief minister was addressing a gathering of engineering students, when he connected the science of engineering with the mythical tales of Ramayana and shared anecdotes of engineering marvels during Rams reign.



According to an Indian Express report, while speaking at the convocation of Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM), Rupani said, Ram na ek ek teer, ek ek missile haata. Ane ISRO je kaam kare chhe, yeh Bhagwan Ram ye, tyaare chhodta hata. (Every arrow of Ram was a missile. The work that ISRO is doing, Lord Ram used to release those).



The Express report further writes that the BJP leader didnt stop at that. He said, If infrastructure is linked to Ram and Ramayan, then imagine what kind of engineers Lord Ram had to build the Ram Setu that links Sri Lanka and India Even squirrels offered their help in building the bridge Even today people say that remnants of Ram Setu are in the sea. Ram Setu was the imagination of Ram, and engineers then had built the temporary bridge.



As the audience of engineers and engineering students lauded Rupani for his vision, CM Vijay Rupani continued with his anecdotes.



He said, When Laxman fell unconscious in the battle, experts knew that there was a herb in the North which could cure him  research was available then. When Hanuman forgot which herb to pick, he brought the entire mountain. What kind of technology existed then which could help shift an entire mountain? This is also a story of infrastructure development.



Not just engineering, the Gujarat chief minister also dwelled on Ram mingling with followers from across caste divides. Rupani said, Back in those days, he had brought all castes together. The fact that he ate berries offered by Shabri shows that he had earned the trust of adivasis. Imagine Sugreev, Hanuman and the army of monkeysit was social engineering.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in a massive show of strength at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday, succeeded in rallying opposition parties behind him in his fight against the BJP.Buoyed by the huge turnout at Desh Bachao-Bhajpa Bhagao rally, the RJD chief and other leaders vowed to oust the BJP from power in the next general election.The rally was attended by five former chief ministers - Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Hemant Soren, Babulal Marandi and Akhilesh Yadav- and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.Apart from them, representatives from Congress, DMK, RLD, National Conference, Janata Dal (Secular) and left parties also participated in the mega show.Congress president Sonia Gandhi's recorded audio message was played and state congress chief Ashok Chaudhary read out the written speech sent by partys vice president Rahul Gandhi. Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav also addressed the rally.Lalu Yadav exhorted his supporters to expose the true colours of chief minister Nitish Kumar and teach him and BJP a lesson for betraying the mandate.I always knew Nitish Kumar had no moral or principles but I decided to back him to keep the BJP at bay. We made him the CM despite being the largest party with 80 seats but he was not comfortable with the growing popularity of my son and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, he said.The RJD chief attacked Nitish for swapping alliance and within four hours forming a new government with the BJP, the party against which Mahagathbandhan had won the last assembly election.Pointing at Sharad Yadav, the RJD leader said, Nitish has been betraying everyone for power. Sharad ji made him minister in the union government but he did not even spare him. Nitish had vowed to make SanghMukt Bharat but it is for everybody to see how he bowed down to them."Lalu claimed that the rally has sent clear signal to the country and the rally will pave way for a united fight against the BJP.Huge crowds gathered at the Gandhi Maidan for the anti-BJP rally. (Photo: Twitter)Sonia Gandhi's recorded audio message was played on the occasion as she could not attend the rally due to ill health. She accused the central government of snatching employment by its flawed economic policies and failing to create new employment opportunities. She also mentioned Gorakhpur incident where many children died due to lack of oxygen and alleged government's apathy towards weaker sections wherever BJP is in power.Without mentioning any party, Sonia vowed to fight the forces, who, she said, were creating atmosphere of fear in the country. "Some people are saying that opposition has become irrelevant. They should know that those who speak the voice of the people never become irrelevant. We are united in the fight for common people and we will succeed," she said.Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was greeted warmly by Lalu Prasad Yadav on the dais. Sharad, in his address, remembered how he and Lalu worked overtime to stitch the Mahagathbandhan in 2015 that defeated the BJP in a decisive manner and sent a signal to the rest of the country. He attacked Nitish for breaking the alliance and joining hands with the BJP against whom the election was fought.My party leaders have betrayed peoples mandate. They broke away from the Mahagathbandhan but this is intact in Bihar and would be strengthened in the rest of the country. I thank Lalu ji for organising this rally to start a new journey, he said.Sharad invoked Inqalab and stressed the fight for social justice, poor labourers and farmers needs to be intensified as the central government policies have failed to address their issues in the last three and half years.West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that Nitish became fearful of the BJP and surrendered before them but Lalu has once again proved why he was always considered a grassroot leader."Nitish betrayed Lalu but people of Bihar will give him a befitting reply in the next election. Lalu ji has been a trustworthy leader. He means what he says and people gathered here are behind him. Nitish's opportunism will prove him costly," she said.Mamata extended her full support to Lalu Prasad and alleged central agencies were hounding political parties who are against the BJP. They threaten to send us in jails but we are not fearful of them. We will fight them. They are dividing people on religious lines. I am a Hindu but why should I show them the certificate? she asked.
Kolkata: Two suspected cow thieves were allegedly lynched by villagers near Dhupguri of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal in the early hours of Sunday morning.



Police sources said those killed were identified as Hafizul Sheikh (22) and Anwar Hussain (20). Hafizul is from Dhubri district in Assam while Anwar is from Patlahawa village in Coochbehar.



The incident took place around 3:30 am at Dadan-II village near Dhupguri village. The villagers alleged that three cow smugglers entered their village and managed to steal seven cows from the area.



On their way out, the driver of the van, allegedly carrying stolen cows, lost his way. The night village guards noticed the van roaming suspiciously in the area and alerted the villagers.



The vehicle was intercepted and Hafizul and Anwar were caught allegedly with the stolen cows. However, the driver of the van managed to flee.



When youths failed to explain why they were roaming in the village in odd hours  the angry villagers lynched them on suspicion of cow thieves, a senior police officer said.



We have detained three people in this connection with the incident and are looking for the accused. We are inquiring whether they were actual cattle thieves or bought the cows from a cattle market in the area, he said, while adding that it is not yet confirmed that they were cow thieves.



Villagers had been complaining to the police of the rising cases os cow theft. But when the cops failed to put an end to the problem, the villagers formed their own village guard committee to protect cows from being smuggled.



In a similar incident on June 23, three people were lynched in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district after they were allegedly caught stealing cows from a house.
Pune: With China attempting to change the status quo on the Indo-China border, incidents like the Doklam standoff are likely to "increase" in the future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat threatened on Saturday.



The recent standoff in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future," Rawat said.



The Army chief was delivering the General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture on Indias Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct. The event was being organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University here on Saturday evening.



Later, while speaking to the reporters on the sidelines, he explained the statement and said, "We should not be complacent. Let us say that this standoff is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it cannot happen again in another sector.



"Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).



"Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops... however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.



General Bipin Rawat further added that during the flag meetings with their Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps keep insisting that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand-off began), but there has been no mutual agreement on it.



"Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives," he said.



Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted.



"This is due to the development of force infrastructure of military significance. Their force re-organisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," Rawat said.



While China continues to enhance its influence in the region, the Army Chief said, It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down."



"China is already doing so by increasing the defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India's sovereignty," he stated.



Confirmation for annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year, he said. "We have been doing the exercise every year. One year our team goes to China and on the second year, their team comes to us. While this time the exercise is planned in October, it is not being confirmed (from their side) yet, whether it will take place or not," he said.



Asked if the ongoing stand-off was the reason for this, Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."



Rawat also slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu & Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern.



Pakistan's unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China," Rawat said.
After turning the tables quietly on China in Sri Lanka two and a half years ago, India finds itself on the cusp of repeating this success in another SAARC nation in the Indian Ocean  Maldives. Only if India were willing to go the distance, that is!



It was in January 2015 when Chinas then staunch friend Mahinda Rajapaksa unexpectedly lost the Sri Lankan presidential election and his former cabinet colleague Maithripala Sirisena emerged from nowhere and pipped him to the post to become the president. Sirisena couldnt have managed this feat without a helping hand from India. Suddenly, China lost a powerful friend and the Chinese influence in Sri Lanka took a back seat overnight.



Now, another great friend of China, Maldivian President Yameen Abdulla Gayoom finds his foot on the banana peel and has been hemmed in by an increasingly strident Opposition led by his predecessor Mohammed Nasheed, a known friend of India and a fierce critic of China.



But before we take this point further, it would only be proper to give an update on the ongoing Maldivian political turmoil for the uninitiated, what India can do and has actually done so far.



Yameen has been so badly pushed to the wall in trying to stave off impeachment of Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed, his crony, that he may himself get impeached. He knows that this is precisely what the Maldivian United Opposition has been striving for. Therefore, he has tried every possible trick to not let the Oppositions hands reach the throat of the Speaker, Yameens last wall of defence.



Political unrest in Maldives entered a crucial stage in July when the opposition moved an impeachment motion against the Speaker. As many as 45 Members of Parliament, including 15 defecting MPs of the ruling party, signed the motion. This development effectively meant that the Yameen government had lost majority in the 85-member parliament.



On 24 July, the day when the Oppositions no-confidence motion against Maldivian Speaker was scheduled to come up, Major General Ahmed Shiyam, the chief of the defence forces, ordered his troops to seal off and then storm the Parliament. Since then the military has prevented Parliament twice more from taking up a motion to impeach Speaker by locking down the premises.



The Yameen government came up with a virtual midnight political coup on August 25 when major opposition leader Jumhooree Party MP Qasim Ibrahim was sentenced to 38 months in jail in absentia. Ibrahims sentencing is part of persecution of the Maldivian opposition since submission of impeachment motion against parliament Speaker. Ten more Maldives opposition MPs are on trial, three more have had their passports seized, while MP Faris Maumoon remains arbitrarily detained.



The Maldivian Majlis or parliament is the strongest institution in the country which can impeach even the president provided the motion is carried through with two-thirds majority. For this, the opposition requires the support of 57 MPs, not an undoable thing if they get rid of the Speaker.



Yameens game plan is simple: not to allow the opposition have its way and if you cant defeat them politically then put them in jail so that they are not in a position to fight. Yes, the presidential elections in Maldives are due next year but if Yameen were to stick to power by hook or crook and keeps the opposition reined in till then who knows whether he would hold the presidential elections at the scheduled time in the first place.



Now, lets come to the vital part of the story: what India has done so far and can do in near future. Well, India has maintained a stoic silence since Nasheed lost power in a political coup four years ago and since his incarceration began shortly thereafter. Indian reactions/statements on the Maldivian political developments have been extremely rare, largely because India didnt want to give an impression of interfering in the internal developments of a small neighbour.



Significantly, Maldives is the only SAARC country which Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasnt visited thus far. This tells volumes about Indias unease with the Yameen-led Maldives.



But now the Indian government has made a significant move quietly. Nasheed was invited earlier this week for attending a foreign ministry-sponsored seminar and he came, his first visit to India in three years.



Its a very significant move of diplomatic symbolism. Yameen would be blind not to see the obvious message. The move signals that India is now openly willing to embrace Nasheed. And for his part Nasheed did his bit by telling the Indian media that he and his Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) have been wooed by China in the recent past but he has consistently fobbed off Beijing.



This should give hope to lots of Maldivians who have been clamouring for a pro-active Indian support but not getting it all these years. The iron is hot. If the Indians exert more pressure on Yameen he will be forced to hastily prepare an exit plan. But the million dollar question is: will New Delhi push the envelope? Next few weeks should be interesting to watch!



(Rajeev Sharma is a strategic analyst and columnist who tweets at @Kishkindha. Views are personal)


New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned the violence by Dera Sacha Sauda followers in Haryana and said violence in the name of faith wont be tolerated.



I had said it from the Red Fort (in Independence Day speech) that in the name of faith, violence will not be tolerated. Whether the faith is religious, political or in favour of an individual or a tradition, nobody has the right to take the law into their hands in the name of faith, he said.



Thirty-six people were killed and 250 injured in Haryana on Friday, in violence that broke out after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, in a 2002 rape case.



A CBI Judge is slated to pronounce the sentence for the Dera chief on Monday.



The violence in a BJP-ruled state comes just weeks after the Prime Minister, in his Independence Day speech had said, Violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated in this country. He also described communalism and casteism as poisons for the country.



Modi, in his Mann Ki Baat address on Sunday reiterated his earlier stand. He said every citizen must follow the law of the land. He asserted that the Constitution provides scope for redressal of all kinds of grievances.



At a time, when the country is in the mode of celebrating festivals, news of violence from any part is naturally a matter of concern, he said.



The Prime Minister also said, non-violence has been the foundation of the country for ages. This is a country of Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. This is a country of Sardar Patel, who devoted his life for the unity," he said.
: Ahead of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's sentencing at Rohtak Jail on Monday, district administration has warned that miscreants attempting to create trouble may face tough action, including police firing.If there are any cases of self-immolation or suicides or a self-immolating person throwing himself or herself on to the police or paramilitary forces, Rohtak District collector Atul Kumar told News18, "We will not be left with any other option but shoot".Kumar, however, added that police will not be "reluctant to open fire but will resort to it only in the rarest of rare cases".District administration has the Army on standby, and it will reach here within an hour, in case any kind of violence breaks out, Kumar said."All schools, colleges, and universities have been directed to remain shut so that unnecessary confusion caused by traffic can be averted," Kumar said, adding, "we will be patrolling the area throughout the night."Inspector General Rohtak Range Navdeep Virk has warned mediapersons against venturing out in area surrounding the Rohtak jail. (Photo: Debayan Roy)The Collector also cited the Punjab and Haryana High Court order in which it directed the officers of the Haryana government "to use weapon or force as per the demand of the situation".Earlier in the day, Inspector General Rohtak range, Navdeep Virk told News18, "It is not just about the Sunariya town or the main prison area or the main Rohtak city.Even smaller towns located around Rohtak are being manned by separate senior police officers to avert any kind of untoward incident."The Inspector General requested media people to be careful and not to venture out in the area surrounding the Sunariya jail as "we have issued strict shoot at sight" orders in case of any mischief.The Haryana government got a rap on the knuckles from the Punjab and Haryana High Court after clashes between security forces and Dera Sacha Sauda supporters consumed 36 lives. "This was a political surrender to allure vote bank," the court observed.
Rohtak (Sunariya Khurd): The Rohtak District Jail Sunariya is not only located several kilometres from the main city but looks like an isolated island, with no human habitation nearby, albeit police officers patrolling the area can be seen.



One wonders why this jail was chosen for the self-styled godman over other urban ones? If one were to believe top police sources, the Jat demography of the area had a role to play in it.



Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been brought to this city because of its predominantly Jat population which dislikes the godman, Assistant sub-inspector of police, Ashwani Sharma, told News18 on Sunday.



The godman was convicted of rape charges by a special CBI court on Friday in a rape case filed in 2002. The Dera chief was immediately taken into protective custody by the army and flown to Rohtak jail even as his supporters rampaged through Panchkula, causing 36 deaths and numerous injuries.



Ashwani said that a CID report stated that this "prison would be the safest", and the facility will not come under attack from Dera supporters. "After the Jat violence and Baba Rampal episode, the Jats here dislike any such congregation. Hence, even the deployment of police is strong and peaceful."



Jaspal Sharma, sitting outside the Jat Bhawan in Rohtak, bypass road, said: "That Baba has been brought here because we have nothing to do with him. Jats do not like him and are not his followers. The city hardly has 10,000 to 15,000 Dera supporters, and they too are scattered. With such police deployment, there can be no attacks."



A female battalion has been stationed and a flag march is scheduled for 7 pm on Sunday, Ashwani said, adding, "There are 23 Para military battalion and 4 Haryana Police battalion."



Earlier in the day, 5 men were intercepted by police near Kanheri village in Rohtak. The men, cattle traders by profession, had asked the route to the jail where the Dera chief is currently lodged, leading to their questioning.



The Superintendent of Police Pankaj Nain had told News18 that there were intelligence inputs and a few Dera supporters were arrested to see that Dera supporters do not miss the eye of the police. On Saturday, nine were arrested here, on account of being Dera followers, but since then, no such arrests have taken place.
Chandigarh: The Punjab government has ordered the closure of all educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and technical institutions, in the 13 sensitive Malwa belt districts on Monday for the sentencing of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. In Chandigarh, however, schools and colleges will remain open.



According to officials, the decision was taken by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh due to the heightened tension in the wake of the conviction of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief in a rape case.



CBI judge Jagdeep Singh is expected to announce the Ram Rahims prison term at 2.30 pm in Rohtak on Monday. He faces a minimum sentence of seven years and it could go up to a maximum of life behind bars.



A spokesperson of the Chief Minister's office said that the Deputy Commissioners of all the 13 sensitive districts of the Malwa region - Sri Muktsar Sahib, Bathinda, Barnala, Mansa, Sangrur, Patiala, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Moga, Ludhiana, Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib - have been asked to declare a holiday in the educational institutions in their respective districts to avoid any sort of inconvenience to the students due to erratic bus service and other modes of transport.



Punjab had seen sporadic violence after the conviction of the self-styled godman on Monday. While the state government had managed to curtail most of the protesters, 42 people still got injured in stray incidents.



Most of the violence had been concentrated in Haryana, where 38 people had died and 269 got injured as mob of Dera supporters went on a rampage.



The Haryana government, too, has ordered schools and colleges in four districts to remain shut as it has increased security for Mondays sentencing. The Rohtak jail, which has been turned into a makeshift courtroom for the hearing, has also been fortified.
Dehradun: Twelve pair of shoes in boxes having the tricolour design on the covers were recovered from a shop in Almora, with locals speculating they were dispatched by China, police said on Saturday.



The shoe boxes with the design of India's national flag were received by a local shop owner, who reported the matter to the police, Almora Superintendent of Police P Renuka Devi told PTI over phone.



Locals speculate that the recovery of the shoe boxes from Almora, which is not very far from the Sino-India border in Pithoragarh, might be a handiwork of China to insult India, amid the ongoing standoff at Dokalam.



The consignment was received by the local shop owner from a distributor, named Tamanna Footwear, at Rudrapur in Udhamsingh Nagar district on Thursday, the SP said.



The Rudrapur-based shop owner said, however, he received the consignment from a supplier in Delhi.



"An FIR has been lodged against Tamanna Footwear as the national flag design on the footwear boxes seems intended to hurt Indian sentiments," she said.



The SP said nothing could be definitively said about the origin of the shoes or the boxes.



"Investigations are on and we are trying to ascertain from where the boxes originated," she said.
By PTI: Jammu, Aug 27 (PTI) Four civilians, including a woman and a boy, were injured in unprovoked indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir this evening, officials said.

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire in the Shahpur sector around 6 pm by firing from light to heavy weapons for nearly 45 minutes, they said.

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"We have received information that about four persons were injured in Pakistani firing and they are being evacuated to a hospital," District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar told PTI.

According to a police official, Jameel Ahmad (45) and Parvaiza Akhtar (20) of Bandichichi and Javaid Hussain (24)and 14-year-old Mohammad Qasim of Kaswa village were injured in the firing.

The injured were given first aid locally and then sent to a district hospital, the official said.

He said the troops guarding the LoC retaliated to silence the Pakistani guns and the exchange of fire caused panic among the border residents.

This is the first ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch sector after senior commanders of Army from both sides held a flag meeting at the LoC on August 24 in an attempt to de-escalate tension.

However, there has been firing from across the international border in the Jammu area in recent days. The latest violation comes barely a day after the BSF said that it had killed at least three Pakistani rangers after the other side indulged in unprovoked firing along the Indo-Pak border in the Pargwal area of Jammu.

"The situation along the international border in Jammu was peaceful today and there was no report of any violation reported from anywhere," a BSF officer said.

A day earlier, a BSF constable K K Appa Rao was hit by a sniper round in the nearby RS Pora sector when the Pakistani side took a direct aim at him while he was drinking water.

The two border guarding forces, on July 17, had held a commandant-level flag meeting in the Samba sector and "committed" themselves to maintaining peace.

In the flag meeting, the two sides had agreed to re-energise instant communication between field commanders to resolve petty matters.

Incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan have risen sharply this year.

Till August 1, there were 285 such violations by the Pakistan Army, while in 2016, the number was significantly lower at 228 for the entire year, according to Army figures. PTI TAS ADS

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Chandigarh: Haryana's intelligence agency cautioned on Sunday that violence may erupt in the state on Monday after the quantum of sentence is pronounced against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case, PTI reported.



"It has been reported by IG/CID that the situation is tense and violence may again continue for several days, especially on August 28, when the quantum of punishment will be announced," an official statement quoting Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Ram Niwas, told PTI.



However, Haryana DGP B S Sandhu assured that maintaining law and order would be the top priority for the police on Monday.



"The top priority now is to ensure that law and order is maintained when the sentencing of convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief takes place in Rohtak tomorrow," he told PTI.



To ensure that there is no repeat of violence that erupted in Panchkula last week when thousands of Dera followers gathered around the CBI court that convicted Singh, all routes to the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where the self-styled godman has been lodged, have been sealed.



As many as 103 'Nam Charcha Ghars' (congregation centers) of the Dera in the state have been "sanitised", he said. The process to sanitise Dera's headquarters in Sirsa will be undertaken on Monday, he said.



Officials said the Dera headquarters is witnessing a steady exodus of its followers who had gathered there in large numbers ahead of the verdict. Security agencies are also on maximum alert, they said, adding that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has been monitoring the entire situation. Fifty-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been lodged in the Sunaria jail after his conviction in Panchkula on Friday.



CBI judge Jagdeep Singh had held Ram Rahim, guilty of rape in a case that was registered on the basis of an anonymous written complaint in 2002 that he had sexually exploited two female followers.



Minutes after the sect head was convicted, his followers who had gathered in thousands over past few days in Panchkula, unleashed mayhem. At least 38 people died and over 250 were injured in the violence which broke out at Panchkula and Sirsa. The CBI filed a chargesheet against the Dera head in an Ambala court in July 2007 about five years after the registration of the rape case.



The BJP-led Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana drew sharp criticism from different quarters after the large scale violence and arson.
The crackling sound made by wooden tables and chairs piled high on a truck is not what one usually gets to hear while travelling from Rohtak to Sunariya Khurd, a village that lies just 10 km away from the main city.Around 10 wooden benches and a few tables have been carefully spaced out in the truck. Among them are a few iron benches. A man not older than 25 is crouched between all the furniture.These are for the court proceeding slated to take place in the jail on Monday, says Mahendra, who works at a local furniture rent shop.CBI judge Jagdeep Singh, who convicted the self-styled godman for rape and criminal intimidation on Friday, will fly down to the Rohtak jail on Monday to pronounce the prison term and fine. A makeshift court room is being prepared inside the jail for him.Outside the jail, roads leading to it have been enveloped by a security blanket.Police have set up barricades 1 km away from the jail where Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been kept. (Photo: News18)There are two roads which lead to the New District Jail, which now houses Ram Rahim. One from the side of Baba Mahantsangh College and the other from Sunariya village.If one comes to the city from Delhi, they would encounter the sole sugarcane juice vendor on the highway. Satish has been working here for two years and is from Jind.When asked where Sunaria jail is, he says with an unfazed expression, Wohi na jahan Babaji ko raka hai? Seedhey mud jao, par koi jaa nahi payega (that place where the godman has been kept? Go straight and take a turn, but they won't allow anyone to enter).With heavy deployment of Haryana police at every nook and corner, media vehicles have been diverted from the village route. Security forces have set up barricades just over a kilometre away from the prison here. One of the police officials told News18 that the prison was at a distance of 1200 metres from the barricade where all the vehicles have been stopped.Usually it takes about two and a half hours to reach Sunaria from Delhi, but with police patrolling every junction after Mundka, one gets easy access to the jail road only if travelling with proper documents.Beyond the check point, the road leading to the jail is lined with fields on both sides. Throughout the stretch, one police official has been positioned under shrubs at a gap of 200 metres.When one asks them about a possibility of an attack by Dera supporters or villagers, a calm reply satiates you. Sab bus tainaat hai. Panchkula nahi hona chahiye dobara (we are alert, can't afford another Panchkula), says an officer on the condition of anonymity.It's afternoon now, and besides police vehicles and media professionals, only villagers wondering in bewilderment are the ones seen here.After the Haryana police carried a confidential flag March here on Saturday night post 11.30 pm, another is slated to take place on Sunday evening just to make people realise that breaching security will be difficult this time.
France's wine production is expected to plummet 18 percent this year after spring frost damaged vines across the country, the government said Friday -- but a hot summer is expected to yield a top vintage.



"The 2017 wine harvest is expected to be 37.2 million hectoliters, which is 18 percent less than 2016 and 17 percent below the average over the past five years," the agriculture ministry said, echoing warnings from winemakers. Jerome Despey, the head of a governmental wine advisory board, told AFP last week he expected a 40 percent drop in output in the prime wine-growing region of Bordeaux, the country's largest.



In 2016, the sector had already suffered one of the poorest harvests in 30 years. The new drop in production is "mainly attributable to the severe spring frost that affected all the wine-growing regions to varying degrees at a sensitive time for the vine," the agriculture ministry said.



The bitter cold struck twice within a week in April, ravaging the fragile shoots and buds that had emerged prematurely following mild temperatures in March. To combat the frost, nervous winemakers in Bordeaux set fires in oil drums, then positioned them carefully between the rows of budding grapevines. Giant fans were also deployed to battle the cold, damp air settling on the plants.



Alsace, which produces mainly white wines, was also hard hit. Output there is expected to fall 30 percent, said Despey, who is also secretary general of France's biggest farmers union, the FNSEA.





The Loire valley also suffered, while in the south an exceptionally dry summer accelerated maturation but resulted in smaller grapes that are expected to yield a memorable vintage. Winemakers in parts of the southeast have begun harvesting the grapes, about two weeks earlier than usual.



Some losses are also anticipated in the Burgundy region, where the grapes have been repeatedly hit by hail in recent years. In the five years to 2016, hail knocked out as much as 50 percent of Burgundy's harvest, according to the Global Wine Risk Index.



A variety of strategies have been used to try to limit frost damage. Wind machines are also used to keep frost from setting in, while water sprinklers allow a fine coating of ice to form on vines that act as mini-igloos and keep them from freezing through.


It's the soundtrack of summer: ice cubes clinking, effervescent bubbles fizzing and corks a-popping. To help jazz up your backyard barbecue, summer dinner party or Sunday brunch, Colin Field, who helms the historic Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris, shares his recipe for the tragic 'Kashenka' cocktail, where lightly crushed strawberries represent a broken-hearted man's bleeding heart.



A historic watering hole named after its most famous and perhaps most loyal client, Ernest Hemingway, the Bar Hemingway is a small, intimate enclave at the rear of the five-star hotel, frozen nostalgically and elegantly in the 1920s.



In homage to the novelist, the bar is distinctly masculine and stately, with studded leather armchairs, a wood-paneled bar, and a horned animal head hanging proudly on the wall. Vintage typewriters, handwritten letters and portraits of Hemingway likewise line the walls.



Since taking helm of the bar in 1994, Field has become the face of Paris's legendary watering hole, going on to be named the world's greatest bartender by Forbes magazine, and creating a barman program for France's Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) program at the Sorbonne. The MOF program recognizes the best tradesmen and women in their category in France.



For those who aren't headed to Paris anytime soon or can't afford the $35 (30) price tag per cocktail, Field shares a recipe for the 'Kashenka', which tells the sad tale of a beautiful Polish dancer who breaks the heart of a poor artist, in drink form.



When the dancer realizes the gentleman is not as rich as she thought, she callously leaves him in search of another, wealthier man.



Lightly crushed fresh strawberries represent the poor sod's crushed soul, while homemade, five-month-old strawberry vodka symbolizes his bleeding heart.



Ice cubes bobbing in the bloody elixir represent her cold heartlessness.



While the Bar Hemingway uses a homemade strawberry vodka aged for five months, Field says store-bought strawberry vodka is permissible.



For the at-home version of the recipe for the broken-hearted and fans of sad love stories, mix 1 cl of strawberry vodka with 6 cl of vodka, and pour over lightly crushed fresh strawberries.


A district in London that lays claim to having the one of the best "curry corridors" in England and a park in Brooklyn that offers sweeping views of lower Manhattan have been named some of the coolest neighborhoods to visit right now by travel experts at Lonely Planet.







In their list of top 10 neighborhoods around the world, local experts helped spotlight some of the trendiest areas in their city at the moment -- neighborhoods that don't necessarily make the cut in generic travel guides.







They represent areas that have either been steadily developing over the years, or that are currently in the midst of a rapid transformation, "ripe for exploration right now." For travelers looking to experience a destination like a local, here are a few highlights:







Seongsu-dong, Seoul



Labeled the Williamsburg of Seoul, Seongsu-Dong is an industrial hub, home to abandoned warehouses and factories that have been salvaged and revitalized into trendy cafes, restaurants, galleries and independent shops. Some of the trendiest cafes include Cafe Onion, Zagmachi and OR.ER.







Sunset Park, New York City



Located below Park Slope, on one of the highest hills in Brooklyn, Sunset Park has become a popular gathering place for locals looking to savor the last rays of the summer sun this season. With Chinatown bordering the park on the east, and the Latin American community to the west, the park is described as a "heady mix of cultures and traditions." Its prime location likewise offers sweeping views of lower Manhattan.







Tooting, London



Curry lovers will want to bookmark a trip to South London's Tooting neighborhood, where restaurants like Dosa n Chutny and Apollo Banana Leaf helped make its high street one of the best "curry corridors" in the country. Tooting Market has been selling arts and crafts, apparel, and multicultural fare for 80 years. Punters can also grab a pint at quirky watering holes like The Castle, The Antelope and The Little Bar.







Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur



It's one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur that has seen an uptick of shiny shops, community-focused eateries and cosmopolitan conveniences. Look no further than the cafe-bakery Huckleberry, speakeasy Skullduggery and Flour, a North Indian restaurant that serves a "knockout biryani" for proof.
Ppl r talking abt d budget of #BabumoshaiBandookbaaz, yes it's a 5Cr film including P&A bt fr me it's an art of cinema regardless of budget.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) August 25, 2017

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, whose new film Babumoshai Bandookbaaz has released in theatres, says as an artiste he is more concerned about the art of cinema rather than focusing on its budget.Nawazuddin shared the budget of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz over Twitter on Friday."People are talking about the budget of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, yes it's a Rs 5 crore film including publicity and advertising, but for me it's an art of cinema regardless of budget," Nawazuddin posted.The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), earlier headed by Pahlaj Nihalani, had demanded 48 cuts in Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, which has intimate scenes, to get an 'A' certificate. But it has been cleared by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) with eight "minor and voluntary cuts".Directed by Kushan Nandy. Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is an action film, also starring Bengali actress Bidita Bag.
Los Angeles: Actor Orlando Bloom has been roped in to star in the upcoming Amazon drama series Carnival Row.



The hour-long series is a "fantasy noir set in a neo-Victorian city."



It will feature mythical creatures who have fled their war-torn homeland and gathered in the city as tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population, reports aceshowbiz.com.



At the center of the drama is the investigation of a string of unsolved murders, which are eating away at whatever uneasy peace still exists.



Bloom will portray Rycroft Philostrate, a police inspector investigating the murder of a faerie showgirl. Rycroft is not supposed to care about the death of another refugee, but he does, and getting to the bottom of what happened to her will come at a big cost.
Attach all Dera properties and sell them to compensate the national loss by arson and vandalism. Shame Gurmeet followers. No respect for you pic.twitter.com/Tgl03SYTpt  Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) August 25, 2017

Frauds.Blind faith in con people.Government must punish these fraudsters.Sukhwinder Kaur(Radhema)Gurmeet,Asaram,Nityananda.All Criminals! pic.twitter.com/1Sm2gqagBq  Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) August 25, 2017

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor has lashed out at self-proclaimed godmen like Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Asaram Bapu, Nityananda and god-woman Sukhwinder Kaur alias Radhe Maa and has urged the central government to take strict action against all of them.Rishi took to social media to slam the spiritual leaders after the conviction on Friday of Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a rape case."Attach all Dera properties and sell them to compensate the national loss by arson and vandalism. Shame Gurmeet followers. No respect for you," Rishi tweeted."Frauds. Blind faith in con people. Government must punish these fraudsters. Sukhwinder Kaur (Radhe Maa), Gurmeet, Asaram, Nityananda. All criminals," he added.The Union Home Ministry on Saturday said 31 persons were killed in Haryana Dera violence on Friday.Besides that, a ministry statement said 29 deaths occurred in Panchkula and two in Sirsa, where the Dera is headquartered.At least 250 persons were injured in the widespread mayhem that erupted immediately after the self-proclaimed godman was taken into custody. The injured included 60 policemen.
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday termed the latest political developments in Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK as "low comedy turning into farce", and asked why was the Governor not taking any action?



The Tamil Nadu assembly has 233 members and the Governor should not allow time to "artificially alter strength", he said in an apparent reference to the tug of war between AIADMK factions.



"AIADMK politics is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?" he tweeted.



There have been demands for a trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly by the DMK, Congress and the AIADMK faction led by TTV Dinakaran.



In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has 134 MLAs. There is no one representing the RK Nagar constituency in the House, which late AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had represented. The DMK has 89 seats, Congress eight and IUML one.



Nineteen AIADMK MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran revolted against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. The 19 MLAs have been staying in a resort in Puducherry. Later, two more MLAs jointed the Dinakaran camp.



The AIADMK will soon join the NDA and be a part of the Modi government at the Centre, a senior BJP leader has said. "The AIADMK will certainly join the NDA. It is only a matter of time. And when it joins the NDA, then it is natural that it will also join the government," the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.



He also played down the rebellion by a group of AIADMK MLAs, who owe allegiance to Dhinakaran, claiming that it was more an internal matter of the regional party and not a threat to the state government.



Following the recent merger of two AIADMK factions headed by Palaniswami and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, the party has been hit by fresh dissent with a group of MLAs rallying behind Dhinakaran, whose aunt, V K Sasikala, is the AIADMK chief and in jail on a corruption case.



The two factions' decision to remove Sasikala from the post of party general secretary triggered the unrest.
Chennai: A DMK-led delegation of opposition parties on Sunday called on Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and urged him to direct Chief Minister K Palaniswami to prove his majority in the Assembly in view of rebellion by a section of ruling AIADMK MLAs.



DMK also later said it would be constrained to move President Ram Nath Kovind, and if needed the court, if action was not initiated by Rao within a time frame.



Ever since 19 MLAs loyal to sidelined AIADMK deputy chief TTV Dinakaran met Rao on August 21 and expressed their lack of confidence in the Chief Minister, DMK has been demanding a floor test claiming that the present government had lost its majority.



In the 234-member assembly, the present AIADMK government "enjoys the support of only 113 MLAs including the Speaker," DMK working president M K Stalin said in a letter to Rao, the second since last week on the issue and handed over by the delegation.



Pointing out that his party had 89 MLAs, Congress eight and IUML one member, he claimed the number of MLAs opposed to the government stood at 120 including the "22 dissenting ruling party MLAs" in the 234-member House with one vacancy. "It is now abundantly clear that the Council of Ministers headed by Palaniswami has lost confidence of the majority MLAs," Stalin claimed.



Terming the situation as a "Constitutional crisis", Stalin requested the Governor to immediately intervene and order a floor test to prove Palaniswami government's majority. "...kindly take all measures to restore good governance and democracy in the state," the DMK leader said.



The delegation comprised Duraimurugan, DMK Rajya Sabha MPs Kanimozhi, RS Barathi, IUML MLA K A M Mohammed Abubacker, and Congress legislator and party whip, S Vijayadharani. Stalin had on August 21 itself written to Rao for a floor test shortly after the 19 MLAs met the Governor. He had also reiterated the demand in a statement days later.



Meanwhile, addressing a function near Tiruvarur on Sunday, Stalin said his party might have to approach President Kovind and later the court to "protect democracy" if suitable action was not initiated by Rao.



Echoing him, DMK's Deputy leader in the assembly Duraimurugan, who led the delegation, said, "We hope, the Governor will not push us to do that."



Rao assured them that he would scrutinise the matter and take appropriate action, he told reporters emerging from the Raj Bhavan.



The meeting of the opposition delegation with Rao comes days after Stalin and Congress Legislature Party leader K R Ramasamy separately wrote to him seeking a floor test. In his previous letter, Stalin had claimed that any delay in directing immediate floor test will only encourage "horse trading" and lead to "unsavoury political manipulations" and "injure" democracy.



Like in their previous letters, Stalin in his latest plea again cited the landmark SR Bommai case and said allowing the Palaniswami regime to continue would tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court judgement in that case.



The top court had held in the Bommai case that the only place to determine a government's majority was the legislative assembly.
The following editorial appeared in The Baltimore Sun on Thursday, Aug. 24:



Former National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper Jr. may have put it best when  appearing on CNN after Donald Trumps dyspeptic, disjointed, disgraceful pep rally Tuesday evening at the Phoenix Convention Center  he questioned the presidents fitness for office and whether hes looking for a way out. What if, Clapper wondered in his most sobering assessment, a president capable of such a downright scary and disturbing performance before cheering supporters decides to use nuclear weapons against North Korea? Theres actually very little to stop him, the career intelligence professional observed.

What made President Trumps speech so frightening that Clapper is thinking about nuclear codes? Perhaps it was the manic attacks on the Fourth Estate for which Trump summoned more fury than hes ever directed at neo-Nazis. Maybe it was yet another rambling account of Trumps accomplishments that bear little resemblance to the truth (like claiming to have signed more legislation than any previous president when hes actually signed fewer bills than the last six). Or his need to yet again relive his awful response to the deadly Charlottesville protest. Or perhaps to tease his audience that hes going to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos, and by so doing broaden his reputation for embracing racism at a time when the country desperately deserves better.

But were guessing it was the sum total of what amounted to a big, hot mess, an appearance that in many ways was par for the course  the kind of combative and self-congratulatory off-the-cuff speech Trump offered during the campaign and continues to trot back out as his political support slips, just more desperate and inappropriate. If Trumps initial reaction to Charlottesville, equating the white supremacists who marched in Virginia chanting Nazi slogans with counter-protesters, marked the low-point of his seven months in office (as the White House clearly saw it even if the president did not), why in the world would he want to again defend such actions Tuesday?

Oh, and heres the kicker: In his lengthy defense of his first reaction to Charlottesville  a response leading members of his own political party have panned, incidentally  President Trump blasted the media for failing to accurately report what he said while inaccurately reporting it himself by carefully leaving out those fateful words, on many sides, that he used to describe the violence and thus equate neo-Nazis with those who came to protest neo-Nazis. In psychology, this is called projection: The president accused the media including CNN, which carried that Saturday Charlottesville reaction live and in full, of doing what he himself did by carefully excising the offensive portion of his remarks  and thereby fundamentally misrepresenting what was said at the time.

Why the rally then? To excite his base? Its hard to believe even the most ardent Trump acolyte was thrilled by his 15-minute account of how he initially reacted to Charlottesville. Meanwhile, Trumps approval ratings are rock-bottom. To punish Arizonas incumbent Republican senators or The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN? If so, it doesnt appear to be working very well. Simply to feed his ego? That might be the only plausible explanation  but to what end? If the president were smarter, hed be doing whatever he could to repair his relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who, according to The New York Times (oh, that Fourth Estate), has privately expressed doubts that the president can salvage his presidency after his summer of ineptitude and poor judgment.

One can only wonder what its like to be Chief of Staff John Kelly right now trying to assert discipline on the Trump White House only to watch his hot-headed boss go on another self-destructive bender (complete with a post-rally shout-out to himself on Twitter Wednesday morning). Sen. McConnell is likely correct. Even Trumps claim that hes willing to shut down the federal government if he doesnt get enough money for the border wall sounds pretty empty when you have so little support in Congress and when you cant even bring yourself to fully denounce Nazis. But launch an intercontinental ballistic missile? That he can still do, and thats why its time for more Republicans to follow Tennessee Sen. Bob Corkers lead and openly call for greater stability and competence in the White House before things get even scarier.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Suday took a swipe at the BJP government in Haryana over the violence in Panchkula after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Look what happened in Panchkula, the government was unable to control the situation, the Trinamool leader said. Mamata and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav were among the opposition leaders who shared the stage with Lalu Yadav at his BJP bhagao desh bachao rally in Patna.

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Kolkata: Upset over Nitish Kumar joining hands with the BJP, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday defended her previous visits to Bihar by saying it was not to appease her Bihar counterpart but for the love of Bihar.



While addressing a huge rally under the banner of 'BJP bhagao, desh bachao', called by the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at Patnas Gandhi Maidan, she said, "In the upcoming elections, people of Bihar will boycott Nitish-BJP government. In the past, I came to Bihar twice for the swearing-in ceremony. It was not for Nitish Kumar but for the love of Bihar."



"We express our sympathies for the people of Bihar suffering from floods. Even Bengal is experiencing floods. We are all suffering...Tamil Nadu is being intimidated. Bengal is being intimidated. India is under threat," she said.



This is for the first time when Mamata has spoken against Nitish after her counterpart broke alliance with RJD and formed the government in alliance with the BJP in Bihar.



She said, We are not afraid. We are ready to fight. We cannot be intimidated. Fight us if you can. We will give our lives but never compromise with principles. People will vote the current government out over notebandi (Demonetisation).



Hitting out at the Centre, she said, "This is a 'Government of the agencies, for the agencies and by the agencies' at Centre. Send us to jail if you can. Let us see how many leaders you can send to jail. You will not have enough space to accommodate us all."



While questioning the 'achhe din (good days)', she said, "Almost three years have passed by but we haven't seen any 'achhe din'. Where is achhe din? There is a rise in unemployment. Minorities, Dalits and weaker sections are living under fear and farmers are dying in large numbers. The safety of women has become a big challenge."



Accusing RSS and the BJP for instigating riots for political benefits, she said, "I do not need any certificate of Hinduism from them. It is unfortunate that they failed to handle the situation at Panchkula (riots broke out after Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted in rape case). Whenever such incidents happen in BJP ruled states Army takes no time in controlling the situation but non-BJP states do not get any help."



"We are ready to sacrifice ourselves but we will not allow the disintegration of our country. This is just the beginning and I am sure people of India will soon oust BJP from power," Mamata said.
: Former Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Eknath Khadse , who resigned over corruption allegations last year, has said his situation is akin to that of party veteran L K Advani.Speaking at a function of the party's local unit in his hometown Jalgaon on Saturday, where Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan was also present, Khadse said, "I think my position in the state BJP is similar to (that of) our national leader L K Advani. The seniors are supposed to be only in the role of guides while the new (leaders) get the opportunity to work."As he said this, his supporters shouted slogans and demanded that the district unit pass a resolution that Khadse be reinstated in the state cabinet.Khadse asked them not to make such a demand. "I have worked for the party for so many years and helped the party grow. Advani did the same thing at the national level. But what we see now is that (the norm is) the elders should guide while the new ones get the chance," he said.Mahajan, who also addressed the gathering, said, "Everybody wants Khadse to come back to the cabinet, but a case is going on in the court against him. Therefore we will have to wait for some time."Khadse, who was the senior most member of Devendra Fadnavis-led government, resigned last year after he was accused of purchasing a piece of land illegally in Bhosari near Pune, misusing his official position.In the recently concluded monsoon session of state legislature Khadse had demanded that the government make a statement on the status of this land, but no statement has been made yet.
Patna: Thousands have trooped into Patna to participate in the 'Desh Bachao-Bhajpa Bhagao' rally being organised by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday. However, the rally has lost some of its significance, with the top Opposition leaders giving it a miss. Lalu Prasad Yadav had initially dubbed the event as the Opposition's show of strength against BJP.



Patna has turned green with huge billboards of the Yadav family. Hoardings with former Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswhi painted as Bahubali, have been installed at all major intersections and roads leading to the historic Gandhi Maidan where the Opposition leaders will address the crowd.



The ruling Janata Dal United (JDU) along with its new ally, BJP has citicised Lalu for organising a rally in Bihar at a time when the state is battling severe floods.



Meanwhile, in another jolt to Lalu, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati are not attending the rally despite the RJD chief having personally invited them.



Though the Congress will be sending CP Joshi and Ghulam Nabi Azad as their representative, Mayawati has turned down the invitation, saying her party would not attend such rally without seat sharing formula for elections in place.



Nitish's exit from the Mahagathbandhan was the first big jolt for Lalu's efforts to bring all opposition parties on the dais. Janata Dal Uniteds exit from the united Opposition axis has already punctured their spirit of a formidable alliance against the NDA.



Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, only two of the big regional leaders, have arrived in Patna to share the dais with Lalu.



The ruling NDA has mocked the rally as Pariwar Bachao-Rajniti Chamkao' (Save the Family, Shine in Politics) condemning Lalu of organising a rally when most of the people in the state are facing severe floods.
Kabul: As many as 13 people, including both Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded by a car bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, officials said.



Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor's spokesman who gave the casualty figures, said the attack occurred in a market in Nawa, a district in the centre of the province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks as government forces have battled for control with Taliban insurgents.



Afghan forces said they had retaken Nawa district in July but there has been continued fighting in the area since.



There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate comment from the Taliban, which has carried out regular suicide attacks in Helmand, where it controls much of the area outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.



The hospital in Lashkar Gah run by the Italian aid group Emergency said it had received 3 dead and 19 wounded while Bost Hospital, another facility, said it had received 10 wounded.



It was unclear whether any of the wounded had died after being taken to the hospitals.



The attack comes just days after a suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah killed at least seven people and wounded 40 as the Taliban continued its push to restore strict Islamic rule to Afghanistan and drive out foreign forces backing the government in Kabul.



U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground steadily in Afghanistan since a NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.
Beijing: China's military has promoted an army general who fought Vietnam in a brief border war in 1979, the Defence Ministry said, part of a broad reshuffle expected as part of this autumn's Communist Party congress.



In a brief statement late on Saturday, the ministry named army commander Li Zuocheng, 63, as the new chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army, replacing Fang Fenghui. It is not clear if Li also remains army commander.



The ministry did not directly announce Li's promotion, simply identifying him with his new title during a meeting with Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.



It did not say what had happened to Fang, who turns 67 next year and is likely to retire.



The move comes as President Xi Jinping oversees an ambitious military modernisation programme, including adding new aircraft carriers and developing stealth fighters, and taking a more assertive stance in the disputed East and South China Seas.



Li was last year subject to a glowing profile in the official Beijing Daily that described his time fighting the Vietnamese, showing black-and-white pictures of him, aged 26 at the time, in a trench and pointing out positions on a map.



The state-run Global Times said on Sunday that Li had been wounded in the war but performed so bravely he was given the title "war hero".



China invaded Vietnam on February 17, 1979, to punish Hanoi for toppling the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge in Cambodia one month earlier. China had previously given Hanoi steadfast support against US forces in the Vietnam War.



Relations with Vietnam have more recently soured again over the two countries' dispute in the South China Sea.



Fang earlier this month played host to US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, the top US military officer.



During Li's meeting with the Pakistan army chief, on the sidelines of a regional counter-terrorism summit, Li praised China-Pakistan ties and pledged deeper cooperation, the Defence Ministry said.



China and Pakistan consider each other "all-weather friends" and have close diplomatic, economic and security ties.



China defended Pakistan last week for its sacrifices after US President Donald Trump said the United States could no longer be silent about Pakistan's "safe havens" for militants and warned it had much to lose by continuing to "harbour terrorists".



China has its own security concerns in the region, in particular any links between militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Islamist groups China blames for violence in its far western region of Xinjiang.
Baghdad/ Erbil: Iraqi forces have retaken almost all of Tal Afar, Islamic State's stronghold in the country's northwest, the Iraqi military said on Sunday.



After just eight days of fighting, all 29 neighborhoods in Tal Afar city had been taken back from the militant group, the military said in a statement on Sunday.



However, fighting was ongoing in al-'Ayadiya, a small area 11 kilometres northwest of the city, where militants who fled the district's city center were hiding out, Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said.



Iraqi forces were waiting to retake the area before declaring complete victory in the offensive, he said.



Tal Afar was the latest objective in the US-backed war on the jihadist group following the recapture in July of Mosul, where it declared its self-proclaimed caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.



The offensive on Tal Afar, which lies on the supply route between Syria and the former Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, started on Aug. 20. Up to 2,000 militants were believed to be defending the city against around 50,000 attackers, according to Iraqi and western military sources.



Such a quick collapse of Islamic State in the city, which has been a breeding ground for jihadist groups, would confirm Iraqi military reports that the militants lack command and control structures west of Mosul.



Residents who fled Tal Afar days before the start of the offensive told Reuters that the militants looked "exhausted" and "depleted".



Tens of thousands of people are believed to have fled in the weeks before the battle started. Remaining civilians were threatened with death by the militants, according to aid organizations and residents who managed to leave.



Tal Afar has experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites after the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has produced some of Islamic State's most senior commanders.
Islamabad: Pakistan postponed a visit by a US acting Assistant Secretary of State, officials said, as small protests broke out against President Donald Trump's accusations that Islamabad was prolonging the war in Afghanistan.



The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Asian Affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first high-profile visit by a US official since Trump's Afghan policy speech on August 21.



"At the request of the Government of Pakistan, Acting Assistant Secretary Wells' trip has been postponed until a mutually convenient time," a US Embassy spokesperson told Reuters in Islamabad on Sunday.



Pakistan's foreign ministry released a statement with similar wording.



Neither side gave a reason for the postponement, but U.S. officials working in Pakistan have been on high-alert since Monday's speech.



Trump accused Pakistan of harbouring "agents of chaos" and providing safe havens to militant groups waging an insurgency against a US-backed government in Kabul.



Pakistani officials responded by saying the US should not "scapegoat" Pakistan and accused the American military of failing to eliminate militant sanctuaries inside Afghanistan.



In the southern metropolis of Karachi, police fired teargas at protesters from a religious student group as they began moving toward the US consulate building.



Between 100 and 150 protesters carrying placards bearing pictures of President Trump and chanting anti-U.S. slogans were kept at bay by police and not allowed within 3 km (2 miles) of the consulate.



On Friday, banned Islamist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa, held responsible by Washington and New Delhi for a series of coordinated attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, staged nationwide protests but also failed to draw large numbers.
Yagon, Bangladesh: Myanmar's government said it has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday.



The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said.



Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place near the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.



Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya - mostly women and children - were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border. Reuters reporters at the border could hear gunfire from the Myanmar side on Sunday.



Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border.



The violence marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.



While the chaos and lack of access made detailed assessments difficult, experts said the latest attacks were so widespread they appeared to be more akin to a movement or an uprising, rather than a regular insurgent offensive.



One army source said the military was also struggling to differentiate.



"All the villagers become insurgents, what they're doing is like a revolution," said the source in Rakhine. "They don't care if they die or not. We can't tell who of them are insurgents."



CHALLENGE FOR SUU KYI



The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi on Friday condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.



The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority.



Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 "ethnic villagers" who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.



The ministry is arranging facilities for them in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities.



"We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities," said Win Myat Aye. He was unable to describe the government's plans to help Rohingya civilians.



Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said.



People from Maungdaw and another town, Buthidaung, said on Sunday they worried food supply routes had been temporarily cut off.



"Buthidaung will face shortages of food, because no ships have arrived since the fighting started. It is also difficult to send food to the villagers stuck in other areas," Arakan National Party regional lawmaker, Tun Aung Thein, told Reuters by telephone from the town.



BREAKING POINT



The Myanmar army operation following attacks last year was heavily criticised internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson that a United Nations investigation said probably constituted crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking the U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.



The Rohingya have for years endured apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar - they are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements. Many Myanmar Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.



Observers worry that the latest attacks, across a wider area than October's violence and with many more people involved, represent a "breaking point" many Rohingya reached with the help of a charismatic insurgent leader, Ata Ullah.



Ata Ullah leads the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks and claimed responsibility for the latest offensive.



Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks.



Across the border, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said it was concerned thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" were planning to enter the country.



Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country's citizens.
Caracas: Venezuelan troops taught civilians how to shoot rifles, fire missiles and engage in hand-to-hand combat during drills in defiance of US sanctions and President Donald Trump's threat of military action.



War planes, tanks and 200,000 troops of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) deployed along with 700,000 reservists and civilians as socialist President Nicolas Maduro launched two days of military exercises on Friday.



In a Caracas military academy, soldiers taught civilians how to use their fists, rifles, bazookas and anti-aircraft guns and supervised them on obstacle courses.



"Yankees out!" 60-year-old Erica Avendano yelled as she bashed a rag dummy with her rifle on an assault course. "I hope nothing will happen, but we are ready for anything," she told AFP.



Trump warned earlier this month that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary."



Top US officials later played down the threat. "No military actions are anticipated in the near future," said US national security advisor HR McMaster.



But Trump's tough talk bolstered Maduro's oft-repeated claim that Washington is plotting to topple him and wants to grab control of Venezuela's oil -- the largest proven reserves in the world.



Gregorio Valderrama, a 23-year-old father of three, received a shooting lesson from soldiers on Saturday. Valderrama said he was there to learn "to defend my country and my family."



"We may not know how to handle a rifle and when to shoot, but here we are learning," he added.



Elected in 2013, Maduro, the political heir to the late Hugo Chavez, has hung onto power despite food shortages and social upheaval.



His grip is largely thanks to the support of the military, which holds vast powers in his government, including over food distribution.



The opposition has repeatedly called on the army to abandon Maduro but so far he has faced only low-level dissent. Military analyst Rocio San Miguel judged the weekend's exercises to be "mere propaganda" rather than a meaningful challenge to Trump.



She said they aimed to discourage "any disloyalty in the ranks of the FANB, which is a worry for the intelligence services," and "to reinforce the anti-imperialist line." On Thursday, the president warned the armed forces not to break ranks.



"This is no time for any fissures," he said in a speech to the top military brass.



"Never before has Venezuela been threatened in such a way."



Tension surged again however when the White House on Friday unveiled its first-ever sanctions to target Venezuela as a whole, rather than just Maduro and his inner circle.



The measures ban trade in new bonds issued by the Venezuelan government or its cash-cow oil company, PDVSA.



That could choke off access to New York debt markets and raise the risk of Venezuela being forced into default.



Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the armed forces support "all measures being implemented to counter the financial blockade."



Venezuela's center right-led opposition and international powers including Washington say Maduro is turning Venezuela into a dictatorship.



Maduro's opponents accuse military police and pro-Maduro militia of beating and killing anti-government protesters who are demanding elections to replace him.



Protest clashes have left 125 people dead so far this year, according to prosecutors.



Maduro says the violence and the economic crisis are a US-backed conspiracy.



On Friday, he accused opposition leaders in his country of pushing for the US sanctions and called for legislative speaker Julio Borges to be tried for treason.



Also on Friday, Maduro called an "urgent" meeting of American companies that buy Venezuelan oil and hold Venezuelan bonds to discuss the sanctions.
Ward Burton, a southern Virginia resident whose wildlife foundation is located on the route of the proposed 600-mile, three-state Atlantic Coast Pipeline, was completely opposed to the project when he first was contacted about it.

After meeting with ACP officials, however, Burton has changed his tune.

It didnt take me long to realize that ACP is as concerned about the environmental impact as I was, Burton said. They really want to leave a sound, environmentally positive footprint.  What I perceived to be a complete negative turned into a complete positive.

Burton, the founder and president of the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation  an organization that owns and manages more than 4,000 acres of land for the purpose of diversifying wildlife habitats through forestry stewardship and wetland creation  now believes the Atlantic Coast Pipeline actually will enhance the environmental value of the land, particularly through the projects recently announced Pollinator Habitat Initiative.

In a video released last week, ACP announced it is seeking to address the global crisis of declining pollinator populations by creating pollinator habitats along the route of the proposed pipeline.

As a lifelong conservationist who has extensive experience planting similar habitats on his land in the past, Burton said, I know that it works.

To use the [route] easements like this is a no-brainer for me, said Burton, whose wildlife foundation will be part of the ACP Pollinator Habitat Initiative.

Areas of the foundations two parcels that will be crossed by the pipeline will become pollinator habitats.

Not everyone is happy with the most recent development for the ACP, though.

The first rule of restoration is to protect what you have, to preserve all the cogs and wheels of the natural systems in place, said Ernie Reed, president of anti-pipeline group Friends of Nelson, in an email. This is akin to a proposal to level the natural history museum, destroy its entire contents and plumbing and then throw back a bone in its wake.

Reed and other opponents believe the pipeline would cause extensive damage to the environment.

According to a news release about the initiative, about 750 acres of suitable locations along roughly 50 miles of the proposed pipeline route in North Carolina and southern Virginia have been identified as the most suitable areas for the pollinator habitats.

This is an initiative that is trying to address a serious environmental problem, said Aaron Ruby, a spokesman for Dominion Energy, the lead developer of the ACP, in an interview.

According to the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences, pollinators are in decline across the globe. In the United States, beekeepers have lost about 30 percent of their colonies every year since 2006, which can be attributed to a number of stressors such as parasites, pesticides and increased land use.

Operations in Virginia with five or more colonies of honey bees suffered an 18 percent loss between January and March of 2017, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences.

We dont have the opportunities for the native grasses and wildflowers to grow and thrive as they have in the past, said Bob Glennon, a private lands biologist for Virginia Techs Conservation Management Institute who helped develop the ACP program.

He explained the opportunities for such plants arent as plentiful because appropriate land is being used for other purposes, such as farming.

The decline in pollinator populations is an issue because it directly affects residents, Glennon explained.

The Center for Pollinator Research says pollinators are necessary for three-fourths of major food crops.

According to the VDACS website, farmers depend on pollinators to produce important Virginia crops such as apples, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, squash and berries.

Glennon added pollinators also are necessary to produce food for animals.

Its not just the human foods here involved  its also all the wildlife food, he said.

The habitats that will be part of the program will give pollinators an undisturbed place to nest, too, Glennon explained.

According to Dominion, the project is voluntary, and officials have reached out to landowners whose land would be suitable for pollinator habitats to gauge their interest.

Dozens of native seed mixes have been developed for the program by Glennon and other wildlife experts, including native grasses such as Little Bluestem and Beaked Panicum, and wildflowers such as Partridge Peas and Black-Eyed Susans.

According to Glennon, the seed mixes consist of a variety of plants that bloom at different times, allowing insects to pollinate crops constantly.

It doesnt help if you fill your refrigerator on the first of the month if the foods all going to be rotten by the 10th of the month, Glennon said, emphasizing the importance of the sequence of flowering periods among plants included in the seed mixes that will be used.

Glennon said the Atlantic Coast Pipeline initiative will take extensive work by contractors to not only establish the habitats but also to maintain them. Dominion officials arent worried, however.

This is a long-term commitment, but its a commitment that our companys familiar with, Ruby said in an interview.

To date, Dominion has created more than 43,000 acres of pollinator habitats along existing electric transmission and distribution rights of way.

Were excited to build on that progress and continue doing our part to improve our regions natural environment, said Pamela Faggert, Dominions chief environmental officer and senior vice president for sustainability, in the release about the companys new initiative.

For more information about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Pollinator Habitat Initiative, visit atlanticcoastpipeline.com/pollinator.
Zanu PF Secretary for Administration, Dr Ignatius Chombo says the ruling party is now in serious campaign mode for the 2018 harmonised elections, which he hopes will be held in the first half of the year.





Speaking at the commissariat workshop on voter education and voter registration campaign held at the partys headquarters today, Cde Chombo said next years polls should give Zanu PF the mandate to continue running the country.





Simply put, Zanu PF has to continue to rule the country, as no one else has anything to offer. The Zanu PF government has many pending projects under ZIMASSET that it has to see to fruition. The successful completion of these projects will see the relegation of the MDCs and other opposition parties to the doldrums of political history, he said.





There is no doubt that the elections are going to take place in the first half of next year. Time is, therefore, of essence if we are going to put in place mechanisms that will help us win the election. Our victory next year must send a very clear and strong message to all and sundry that Zanu PF means serious business in fulfilling the mandate that the people of Zimbabwe have always bestowed on us to govern this country since 1980 when we attained independence, added Dr Chombo.





Cde Chombo also hailed the Zanu PF Youth League for setting the campaign trail in motion.

I am pleased that the Youth League has already set the pace with the Presidential Youth Interface Rallies which we have all seen to be overwhelmingly successful. Additionally the fact that the Youth have successfully lobbied to have President Mugabes birthday declared a National Holiday gives boost to the 21st February Movement. The Womens League has also been busy with a host of mobilisation programmes that feed into the Partys consolidated campaign strategy, he said.





Cde Chombo also reiterated the partys unanimous endorsement of President Robert Mugabe as its only presidential candidate for the elections.

He assured the party that resources will be availed in time for their election strategy roadmap.





Already we have distributed four vehicles to each province and more are on their way. The party is also mobilizing resources in an effort to meet the operational and administrative costs in the provinces, said Dr Chombo.





Speaking at the same workshop, the partys Chairperson for Discipline, Cde Patrick Chinamasa said all party members must be united, adding that the culture of suspending and firing of members is not acceptable.





Votes of no confidence can only apply to those who are incompetent, and must never be allowed to divide members. You must also bear in mind that it is only the disciplinary committee that confirms any action taken by the party against members, he said.





Zanu PF Secretary for War Veterans, Cde Sydney Sekeramayi said the freedom enjoyed by every Zimbabwean must be safeguarded by the party.





He said the war veterans must take a lead in campaigning for Zanu PF and must participate in mass mobilisation ahead of the elections. zbc
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Harvey spun deeper into Texas and unloaded extraordinary amounts of rain Saturday after the once-fearsome hurricane crashed into vulnerable homes and businesses along the coastline in a blow that killed at least three people in Houston after woman and child were found drowned in a submerged vehicle, reports the Houston Chronicle. In the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared that toll was only the beginning. Authorities dreaded the destruction that was yet to come from a storm that could linger for days and unload more than 40 inches of rain on cities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, reports the AP. "I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," said Port Aransas Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation but did not know how many heeded the order.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 directly in the storm's path. The mayor said his community took a blow "right on the nose" that left "widespread devastation." About 300,000 were without power statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott said it would be several days before electricity is restored. Meanwhile, the storm was barely moving. Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Corpus Christi and Galveston at around 3 inches, Houston 7 inches, and Aransas 10. Tiny Austwell got 15 inches. In Houston, authorities pleaded with people not to leave their homes as a flood emergency was declared. "The streets are treacherous," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said. By 4am Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Harvey continued to cause "catastrophic flooding in southeastern Texas." Harvey's maximum sustained winds were about 45mph, but the storm was practically stationary as it dumped torrential rain. (Read more Hurricane Harvey stories.)
President Trump's intervention in Joe Arpaio's fate dates back well before he announced the controversial pardon of the former Arizona sheriff on Friday, reports the Washington Post. Citing White House sources, the Post reports that Trump reached out to AG Jeff Sessions this past spring to see if the government could drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but "was advised that would be inappropriate." Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed Trump's inquiry, calling it "only natural the president would have a discussion with administration lawyers about legal matters." Trump acquiesced, but planned to issue the pardon in the event of a conviction, which came at the end of July. "We knew the president wanted to do this for some time now," one White House staffer tells the Post. Another adviser tells Politico it wasn't a "matter of if he was going to do it, it was a matter of when."

Despite his earlier inquiry, Trump issued the pardon without telling the Justice Department, which had no comment; Politico characterizes top officials there as surprised by the move. A former Obama counsel calls it "his backhand way of doing what he wanted to do at the front end," and a "vivid demonstration of how far removed from an appropriate exercise of the pardon power this was." Republicans including Arizona's senators have condemned the pardon, and Paul Ryan has joined their number, reports Politico, saying via a rep that he "does not agree with the decision." As for Arpaio himself, whom the Post characterizes as Trump's brother in arms in birtherism, "I didn't ask for the pardon," he says. "He wanted to do it because I think he understood what I was going through." (Read more President Trump stories.)
A brutal civil war in the world's youngest country has claimed the life of an American journalist. Freelancer Christopher Allen, who had been embedded with rebel troops, was killed during a battle with government soldiers in the South Sudan town of Kaya, reports Reuters. The State Department has confirmed Allen's death and occupation, though few details were available about him.

We are sad for his family," said one rebel. "He came here to tell our story." He added that Allen had been wearing jacket labeled PRESS. South Sudan has been a nation only since 2011, but it has been embroiled a civil war for four years now. The UN estimates that in addition to tens of thousands of people killed, more than 1 million people have fled into neighboring Uganda, per CNN. (More on the conflict here.)
A video of defense chief James Mattis giving an off-the-cuff pep talk to US troops is gaining traction online. In the clipsee it hereMattis asks the troops to "hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it," per the Guardian. It's not precisely clear where or when Mattis was speaking, but the best guess is that the impromptu speech was delivered in Jordan during Mattis' trip there last week, reports the Hill. The video was posted to a Facebook page called US Army WTF Moments," apparently because it's seen as a veiled criticism of President Trump and the turmoil generated in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville.

The only way this great big experiment you and I call America is gonna survive is if weve got tough hombres like you," Mattis tells the troops. "Youre a great example for our country right now. Its got some problems. You know it and I know it. Its got problems that we dont have in the military." At another point, Mattis suggested that America had lost its "power of inspiration," but would get it back. He added that the US has a second power"the power of intimidation, and thats you, if someone wants to screw with our families, our country and our allies. The video was shot before Trump signed a memo blocking transgender enlistments but also giving Mattis leeway on how to deal with transgender troops currently serving. (Read more James N. Mattis stories.)
An Idaho-born landscape painter who traveled the world on the strength of his sales, had one-man shows in New York, and commissioned a studio by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright is mostly forgotten now. Except by a southern Idaho historical society that owns 600 of Archie Teater's oil-on-canvas paintings and is working to revive interest in his art. Paintings by Teater, who died in 1978, once sold for thousands of dollars each. "They've lost their value because not a lot of people have heard of him," says Mike Owsley, president of the Hagerman Valley Historical Society. The society is raising money to replace its 1,200-square-foot museum in the tiny town of Hagerman with a building more than three times that size. It held an event earlier this summer at a nearby artist's studio designed for Teater by Wright, the AP reports.

Paintings by dead artists typically increase in value due to limited supply, but the prolific Teater created at least 4,000 works, with some estimates adding thousands more. Teater donated about 1,200 of his paintings to a fund for disabled children. The Idaho Community Foundation acquired 1,600 of his paintings in the mid-1990s, planning to sell them for charity. In 2003, the foundation started putting large quantities of the paintings on the market and prices plummeted. Teater is known for his impressionistic Western landscapes, particularly those involving the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Generally, experts say, a move toward modernism and abstractionism along with Teater's failure to make more of an effort to market his work outside Jackson Hole, where he had a gallery, account for his forgotten status. (Read more Idaho stories.)
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New Delhi:

A feeling of animosity made 25-year-old Mustakeem Ahmad kill his colleague who allegedly introduced him to smoking that caused him throat cancer.

As per the reports, Ahmad was a cook at a West Delhi restaurant and was so consumed with hate towards the victim named Inayat that he purchased a pistol and practiced with it several times before shooting the victim.

Inayat was reportedly better at work which developed a sense of enmity in Ahmad. He also started smoking cigarettes and marijuana and later blamed Inayat for the addiction.

Though Ahmad and Inayat were friends at the workplace, Inayat was reportedly better at his job and well-behaved and soon became the favorite of the restaurant owner, Shibesh Singh, DCP (southwest) said in a statement.

In the course of time, Ahmad developed throat infection, forcing him to consult a doctor. Ahmad has claimed that the doctor told him he had developed throat cancer due to excessive smoking, the DCP added.

Read more: Smokers show 200 per cent more hypersensitive behaviour, says study

Ahmad's work quality drastically sank and he was later removed from his job. He then went back to his native village in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh and bought a pistol to carry out the fatal act.

He first practiced firing in his village, before returning to Delhi a few days ago, said the DCP.

Ahmad first visited back to the restaurant on Thursday morning and tried to persuade the restaurant owner to fire Inayat. On failing to do so, he picked a fight with Inayat and shot him in the process.

Inayat was rushed to a hospital, but he was later declared dead. Ahmad fled the murder spot, said police.

Later, an informer told police on Friday that Ahmad was set to visit a relative in Uttam Nagar to take some money before leaving the city, after which a police team grabbed him after a chase.
Chennai:

A DMK-led delegation of Opposition parties on Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to conduct a floor test in the Assembly. They asked Rao to direct Chief Minister K Palaniswami to prove his majority in the Assembly in view of rebellion by a section of ruling AIADMK MLAs.

DMK also later said it would be constrained to move President Ram Nath Kovind, and if needed the court, if action was not initiated by Rao within a time frame.

Ever since 19 MLAs loyal to sidelined AIADMK deputy chief TTV Dhinakaran met Rao on August 21 and expressed their lack of confidence in the Chief Minister, DMK has been demanding a floor test claiming that the present government had lost its majority.

In the 234-member assembly, the present AIADMK government enjoys the support of only 113 MLAs including the Speaker, DMK working president M K Stalin said in a letter to Rao, the second since last week on the issue and handed over by the delegation.

Pointing out that his party had 89 MLAs, Congress eight and IUML one member, he claimed the number of MLAs opposed to the government stood at 120 including the 22 dissenting ruling party MLAs in the 234-member House with one vacancy.

It is now abundantly clear that the Council of Ministers headed by Palaniswami has lost confidence of the majority MLAs, Stalin claimed.

ALSO READ: Dhinakaran removes Udhayakumar as secretary of party forum

Terming the situation as a Constitutional crisis, Stalin requested the Governor to immediately intervene and order a floor test to prove Palaniswami governments majority.

...kindly take all measures to restore good governance and democracy in the state, the DMK leader said.

The delegation comprised Duraimurugan, DMK Rajya Sabha MPs Kanimozhi, RS Barathi, IUML MLA K A M Mohammed Abubacker, and Congress legislator and party whip, S Vijayadharani.

Stalin had on August 21 itself written to Rao for a floor test shortly after the 19 MLAs met the Governor. He had also reiterated the demand in a statement days later.

Meanwhile, addressing a function near Tiruvarur on Sunday, Stalin said his party might have to approach President Kovind and later the court to protect democracy if suitable action was not initiated by Rao.

Echoing him, DMKs Deputy leader in the assembly Duraimurugan, who led the delegation, said, We hope, the Governor will not push us to do that.

Rao assured them that he would scrutinise the matter and take appropriate action, he told reporters emerging from the Raj Bhavan.

The meeting of the opposition delegation with Rao comes days after Stalin and Congress Legislature Party leader K R Ramasamy separately wrote to him seeking a floor test.

In his previous letter, Stalin had claimed that any delay in directing immediate floor test will only encourage horse trading and lead to unsavoury political manipulations and injure democracy.

Like in their previous letters, Stalin in his latest plea again cited the landmark SR Bommai case and said allowing the Palaniswami regime to continue would tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court judgement in that case.

The top court had held in the Bommai case that the only place to determine a governments majority was the legislative assembly.

ALSO READ | Tamil Nadu: After AIADMK merger, MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran revolt against CM Palaniswami, DMK demands trust vote

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New Delhi:

In yet another incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops along Line of Control (LoC), five civilians, including a woman and two minor boys were injured in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, officials said.

The Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from light to heavy weapons for nearly 45 minutes, targeting forward posts and villages in the Shahpur sector around 6 pm, they said.

Five persons received splinter injuries in the cross LoC firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Two of them are undergoing treatment at the district hospital, District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar told PTI.

National Conference leader, Omar Abdulla who was on a visit to Poonch reached Hospital to meet local residents injured due to shelling by Pakistani troops shelling on Sunday evening.

(With PTI Inputs)

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New Delhi:

At least 52 infants have died in last one month in Jamshedpurs Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital.

As per ANI report, the superintendent of MGM hospital said malnutrition is the reason behind the deaths. The state has been facing the problem of malnutrition among kids, and latest figure added insult to injury.

The development came on the close heels of Gorakhpur tragedy where 30 kids died due to lack of oxygen.

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das had launched Nutrition Mission Jharkhand (NMJ) in 2015 to tackle the menace and had ordered to serve eggs in mid-day meal at all Anganwadi centres across the state.

Jharkhand: 52 infants dead in last 30 days in Jamshedpur's MGM Govt hospital, Superintendent of hospital says main cause is malnutrition pic.twitter.com/m2FmLgW5Tl  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

Also Read: Nitin Gadkari says it is difficult to provide professional health care to all at government facilities

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New Delhi:

A constable of Madhya Pradesh Police without caring for his life to save 400 school students ran for a kilometer with a 10 kilogram bomb on his shoulder at Chitora village in Sagar district, around 180 kilometers from state capital Bhopal.

According to eyewitnesses of the event, Madhya Pradesh Police constable Abhishek Patel carried a bomb  weighing 10 kilograms and 12 inch long  on his shoulder and ran with it for at least a kilometer to dispose it far away from human habitation.

Patel was part of the team which had rushed to Chitora village after an alert was raised regarding an abandoned bomb found lying in the background of the school.

While police team and school administration was thinking what to do, the 40-year-old Patel lifted the bomb on his shoulders and ran towards open area away from human habitat.

My only objective was to carry the bomb away from school and residential area. I was part of an operation few months back where a similar kind of bomb was spotted. Then we were informed that such bombs can create heavy damage within an area of 500 meters diameter, said Patel.

Sagar Inspector General of Police Satish Saxena Talking to media said, An army shooting range is near the village. Army has been informed about the bomb.

He added that police and army have launched a parallel investigation on how the bomb reached the school backyard.

Patel will be awarded for showing exemplary courage, he added.

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New Delhi:

A special investigation team has been set up to examine the suspicious substance recovered from a fire tender which was part of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhs cavalcade on Friday 25, Haryana Police said on Sunday.

The fire tender was one of the vehicles belonging to the Dera sect. Police had impounded the vehicle earlier.

Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) BS Sandhi said, The substance recovered from the fire tender is being investigated by a special investigation team.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Panchkula, Manbir Singh said, The fire tender had two tanks in it. Foul smell was coming out of the tanks. We have collected the substance from the tanks and have sent it to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory.

Police Commissioner AS Chawla told the media that the material found from the fire tender was not inflammable.

The matter was initially examined by our fire officers and crime unit. They found the substance had neutral pH value, added Chawla.

The commissioner further added that two more compartments were found. One of the compartment was 4-5 feet in length, was empty and smelled of petrol, he added.

Fire officers have been asked to check if such compartments are normal in a fire tender or not. If officers find any anomalies including storage of petrol then the owner will be arrested, added the commissioner.

A senior police officer of Haryana Police not willing to be identified told the media that 26 vehicles including high-end luxury cars have been seized. We have recovered weapons from these vehicles, the officer said.
New Delhi:

The security has been beefed up in Haryanas Rohtak ahead of pronouncement of quantum of sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case.

Once beaten, twice shy Haryana Police is ready to take every possible action to avoid repetition of Panchkula violence and a shoot at sight order could also be implemented if Dera followers resort to lawlessness.

Will implement shoot-at-sight orders if anti-social elements try to harm self or others, will take strong action according to the situation, news agency ANI reported Rohtak DC as saying.

Will implement Shoot-at-sight orders if anti-social elements try to harm self or others, will take strong action acc to situation: Rohtak DC pic.twitter.com/1EWlYyNiab  ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

A three tear security arrangements have been made around Rohtaks Sunaria jail where CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh will pronounce the quantum of sentence against Ram Rahim Singh.

"To ensure there is no repeat of the violence that erupted in Panchkula on Friday, all routes to the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where the self-styled godman has been lodged, have been sealed," Sandhi said.

"Police have also registered 52 cases and arrested 926 people in connection with the violence," he added.

Death toll in Dera violence rises to 38:

On August 25, a CBI court in Panchkula held Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape. Soon after the verdict, lakhs of Dera supporters rampaged through the towns of Haryana, damaging public property, setting media vehicles on fire, pelting stones on police and security forces and setting railways stations and other govt offices a light.

Also Read | Ram Rahim case: Haryana Police forms special investigation team to examine substance found in Dera cavalcade

As much as 38 people had died in the violence, most in Panchkula where the verdict against self-proclaimed Godman was announced.

"While 32 people died in the violence on Friday at Panchkula, six others died at Sirsa, where curfew is still in place," state DGP BS Sandhu said.

Internet suspended, schools closed in Haryana:

With Haryana's intelligence agency sensing more violence on August 28, when the quantum of punishment will be announced Internet services have been suspended and schools and colleges will remain shut.

"The Haryana government has extended the suspension of mobile internet services, including 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS, all SMS services and dongle services provided on mobile networks, except voice calls, in the state till 11.30 am on August 29," Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Ram Niwas said.

Delhi also on high alert:

Ahead of tomorrows sentencing, national capital Delhi has been put on high alert and the police have heightened vigil.

Madhur Verma, Delhi Polices Public Relations Officer, said additional forces have been deployed in sensitive areas and senior officers are keeping a tight vigil.

However, school and colleges will remain open.

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New Delhi:

A new study holds a strict warning for all mothers-to-be as consumption of alcohol during pregnancy may harm the baby. The findings reveal that globally eight in 1,000 babies are born with alcohol-related birth defects.

According to the study, U.K. is amongst the countries, where more children, as much as four times, are born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) - a series of developmental problems caused as a result of alcohol consumption than the global average.

Lead author of the study Dr. Svetlana Popova suggests that the issue should be prioritised in the public health index as the results indicate that one in every 13 women, who drink during pregnancy, will have a child with FASD.

The team from the Canadian Institute for Mental Health Policy Research analyzed 24 studies from around the world and found that about 32 in every 1,000 Britons have FASD, compared to the global average of eight in 1,000.

Read more: Chemicals in yoga mats may lower chances of pregnancy through IVF

As far as other countries are concerned, the numbers reveal 15 in 1,000 in the U.S., ten in France and 20 in Germany. South Africa has the highest proportion of people with FASD, with 111 in 1,000.

"Efforts should be made to educate all women of childbearing age about the potential detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing foetus", Dr. Popova explained.
New Delhi:

Samsung has started the pre-order bookings for its newly launched Galaxy Note 8. The smartphone will be released officially on September 15.

Samsung has commenced taking pre-orders for only a few countries which include the United States and the United Kingdom. The tech giant is expected to start pre-orders for its home country, South Korea on September 7, according to media reports.

It is still not known when the pre-order would start in the Indian market. Reports suggest the smartphone can be released in the country in early October.

As a matter of fact, the cost price of Galaxy Note 8 has not been revealed by the company. The cost of the smartphone is expected to be above $1000.

Galaxy Note 8 64GB model is being sold in the United States at a price of $929 including taxes. In Indian currency, it amounts to approx Rs 60,000.

There are reports which indicate that the actual production cost of the model is $350 (approx. Rs 23,000).

Talking about the features of Samsung Galaxy Note 8, it has a 6.3-inch AMOLED quad HD display with a pixel resolution of 2960 x 1440. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835/ Exynos octa core SoC.



Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is backed by a RAM of 6GB & internal storage of 64GB and also supports microSD card.




New Delhi:

As many as thirteen people were killed and 22 others injured in a suicide bomb attack near a military vehicle in Afghanistan's Nawa district of southern Helmand province on Sunday.

Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor's spokesman said a suicide bomber exploded himself in front of an armored vehicle in Dopul area of Nawa district.

Read more: Myanmar government evacuates 4000 non-Muslims from Rakhine state

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate comment from the Taliban or any other group for the attack.

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Houston:

Tropical storm Harvey has resulted in the death of at least three people in United States' Texas. Harvey is the most powerful hurricane which has struck the US mainland in twelve years. The hurricane made a landfall in central Texas coast as a category four storm, with winds of 195 km per hour.

According to the National Hurricane Centre, the powerful Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor in Texas. Texas is a very important state in the US as roughly 17 percent of the country's crude oil output and about 50 percent of its refining capacity is located here.

Houston, the most populous city in Texas, is home to the country's largest refinery and petrochemical complex.

In the Texas coastal city of Rockport, three people are confirmed dead this afternoon as a result of the storm. More victims are likely, officials said.

The storm, a Category 4 hurricane which was later downgraded to Category 1, had maximum sustained winds of 195 kmph. Resulting floodwaters were expected to reach 6 to 12 feet above ground level along the coast.

Harvey has impacted the Electric Reliability Council of Texas electric system, with 250,000 customers without power.

It is the most powerful hurricane to hit the US mainland since 2005. Its effects could linger for days, with heavy rainfall through next week estimated to 40 inches in some areas.

Millions of residents along the south Texas coast saw hurricane-force winds that uprooted trees and power poles.

They had frantically stocked up on food, water and gas, while others heading out of the storm's path boarded up windows and doors of their homes and businesses.

Airlines cancelled flights, schools were shuttered while concerts and other events in Houston and other coastal cities were postponed.

Thousands of cruise ship customers waited offshore until their vessels were able to dock safely.

At least 15,000 people aboard three Carnival Cruise Line ships scheduled to return to Galveston this weekend were delayed or detoured due to the hurricane.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city was "expecting a lot of rain, not too much wind. Let's assume there will be a lot of rain. The rain could come out of the bayou and overcome our capabilities".

Harvey is the first natural disaster faced by the Donald Trump administration.

Before the landfall, Trump signed a disaster proclamation for Texas, freeing up federal funds for assistance. He tweeted that he had spoken with the governors of Texas and Louisiana and was "here to assist as needed".

Earlier in the day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott had asked Trump to preemptively declare Harvey a "major disaster" in order to speed federal aid.

"We can obviously tell already at this stage this is going to be a very major disaster," Abbot said, as more than 1,000 National Guardsmen were activated. "We're going to be dealing with really record-setting flooding in multiple regions."

Highways leading from coastal areas were jammed as authorities issued urgent warnings to hundreds of thousands of residents to flee. Some highways were to be turned into one- way roads to speed the exodus from the storm zone.

A day before, oil and gas companies scrambled to prepare for Harvey, which developed so quickly in the Gulf of Mexico that many of them didn't have time to respond.

Royal Dutch Shell shut down and evacuated its 22-well Perdido oil and gas hub, the deepest floating oil platform in the world, the company said.

Other major companies, including Exxon Mobil and Anadarko, also began scaling back production.

Oil analysts predict it could take more than three weeks for refineries in its path to resume normal operations.

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Lahore:

Maryam Nawaz, the political heir apparent of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has begun campaigning for the Lahore National Assembly seat by-poll which is being contested by her ailing mother.



Sharif's wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is under treatment for throat cancer in London, will contest the September 17 election for the National Assembly seat despite her ailment.



Maryam, 43, is likely to play a key role in campaigning for the election for the NA-120 seat which felt vacant after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif on July 28 in the Panama Papers case.



Sharif reportedly pitched his wife to make his come back in the Prime Minister's house as 'first gentleman'.



Maryam held meetings with the PML-N workers of the NA-120 and motivated them for running an aggressive campaign to make her mother win the by-poll.



Maryam directed the party workers to do door-to-door campaigning and listened to the people's problems. She said she would also visit the constituency on a regular basis.



"My father is innocent. Nawaz Sharif is betrayed by whom he gave love. Those conspiring against him will be exposed soon," Maryam said.



She asked the workers to pray for the health of her mother.



Maryam has replaced her cousin Hamza Shahbaz in running the campaign of her mother amid reports that Sharif counts much on his daughter than his nephew.



Media reports had earlier said that Sharif had "smartly" denied his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, of becoming premier despite nominating him as his successor.



Sharif is set to leave for London, where his wife is being treat. He has reportedly booked tickets for tonight and August 28.



"We have asked Nawaz Sharif to go to London to see Begum Kulsoom in London," Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters.



He, however, denied that Sharif would leave the country under some deal.



"These are rumours as Nawaz Sharif will only go to London to see his wife," he said.



Sharif's political secretary Senator Dr Asif Karmani said earlier this week that Kulsoom may not be able to participate in election campaign because of her cancer treatment?but she would contest the election for sure and win it.



The former first lady, in her mid-60s, is being tipped as next prime minister replacing Shahid Khakan Abbasi after winning September 17 by-poll.

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New Delhi:

More than 4,000 non-Muslim villagers have been evacuated amid the ongoing clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Myanmar Army A in northwestern Rakhine state in the last three days, the Myanmar government said on Sunday.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmaras minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters, an international news agency, A that 4,000 aethnic villagersa who had fled their villages had been evacuated.

The minister also told the new agency that they are arranging facilities for non-Muslims in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities.

aWe are providing all support to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities,a said Win Myat Aye to the media.

In the meantime thousands thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh.

Myanmar ARMY donated lunch to 200 people at Yangon General Hospital pic.twitter.com/s8lYhiivVN a Kaitlyn (@maknaegguk) August 26, 2017

The death toll from the violence that had erupted on Friday has climbed to 98 which includes 98 insurgents and 12 security personnel.

On Friday, national leader Aung San Suu Kyi on condemned the raids carried out by insurgents wielding guns, sticks and country-made bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The social minister did not inform about the governmentas plans to help Rohingya civilians.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims a mostly women and children a were trying to cross the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the 1990s. A Both the nations regard them as the other countryas citizens.

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People in northeastern Japan have enjoyed an annual firework show that lit up skies over Omagari in Daisen City. This year, they had to make extra efforts to prepare for the event as the site was flooded due to heavy rain the previous day.

Pyrotechnicians from across Japan gathered to display the beauty and creativity of their fireworks. The show, which takes the form of a competition, attracts more than 700,000 spectators every year. About 18,000 fireworks lit up the summer sky on Saturday.

The event is held on a riverbank. People had to work overnight to prepare for the event all over again because of the flooding.

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Police in Tokyo have arrested an unemployed 39-year-old man on suspicion of extortion after he threatened to beat up a smartphone user unless he paid money for "bumping" into him.

According to police, the incident occurred on Friday night in Sumida Park in Taito Ward. Police said that a 34-year-old company employee was walking along, looking at his smartphone, when the suspect, Makoto Takahashi, bumped into him, Sankei Shimbun reported.

Takahashi yelled at the man for not watching where he was going and for not apologizing. He then threatened to beat him up unless he was paid money.

The man ran to a nearby police box and reported what happened. Takahashi fled but was picked up by a police patrol a short time later.

He was quoted by police as saying he needed money to make ends meet because he had no regular job.
Google Inc on Saturday accepted responsibility for widespread internet disruptions experienced across Japan the previous day.

The search engine giant apologized for the trouble, saying it was caused by a wrong network setting that was corrected within eight minutes of its discovery.

Google did not say whether human error or a technical malfunction was to blame.

The affected services used internet connections provided by NTT Communications Corp and KDDI Corp, both of which said Friday the issues were caused by a disruption in the flow of data traffic.

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This contract is in addition to the long list of transactions between French companies and Iran in the period following the nuclear agreement (called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) with the six world powers, concluded in July 2015. At that time, Hassan Rouhani, President of the Iranian executive branch, followed by Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, his Minister of Industry, Trade and Mines, went to Paris.

On the French side, two foreign ministers, Laurent Fabius and Jean-Marc Ayrault, as well as ministers of Economy, Transport, Foreign Trade, Agriculture and Higher Education, traveled to Tehran.

Regarding economic relations, according to a report by Muriel Penicaud, former director of the French Agency for International Business Development, since the signing of the nuclear agreement, officials from more than 300 French companies have visited Iran and more than 2,000 companies have expressed an interest in working with Iranian partners.

The biggest contract was signed by oil company Total who is joining an investment with more than 50% of shares in a $ 4.8 billion project for the development of an offshore gas field on the Persian Gulf. Other large contracts have also either been signed or are under negotiation. They include:

 The sale of more than 100 Airbus aircraft, ongoing negotiations for the sale of about 40 medium-haul aircraft PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) contracts with Iranian-Khodro and Saipa. Also, there have been negotiations between Alsthom with the Iranian companies IDRO and IRICO for the construction of train carriages, as well as joint venture contracts in various other fields.

This has resulted in a 235% increase in trade between Iran and France in 2016, according to Michel Sapin, the then-Minister of Economy and Finance in an interview published in the 4 March 2017 edition of Iranian daily Donyay -e Eghtesad.

Iran, with population of 80 million and an eager market, is a country with favorable conditions for business, but there are also risks and obstacles that could act against the process which could cause significant damage and financial losses.

First obstacle:

Internationally, US President Donald Trump is persistent on isolating the Iranian government and imposing new sanctions and this is a major disadvantage for potential investors. As a result of this new approach by the White House, the future of the nuclear agreement is called into question. Even without taking into account these doubts, the almost unanimous vote of the two chambers of the US Congress against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC / Pasdaran) in July 2017 is likely to make any transaction with Iran very risky.

First, because the law in question prevents major European banks from financing transactions with Iran for fear of US retaliation.

The second reason for this is due to the fact that most Iranian companies are linked, in one way or another, to the IRGC and / or their partners and they are all blacklisted in the United States.

A study on the evolution of the political economy in Iran that the author of this article carried out in 2015 shows how, over a period of ten years from 2005 to 2015, the IRGC and its affiliates took the monopoly of Irans most important economic institutions by forming a network of 14 major poles.

Because of this, it means that any foreign enterprise entering into commercial relations with Iran is visibly or invisibly involved in relations with IRGC. Some examples:

 With its investment in a gas field in Iran (South Pars), Total has created a partnership with an Iranian company and a Chinese company. Petropars, the Iranian company, is part of Naftiran Intertrade Company, which in turn is part of Nikou Oil. Yet the latter has been deeply involved in recent years in money laundering and the financing of the IRGCs missile program. It is for this reason that the United States put the company on its sanctions list in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

 The Airbus consortium has sold one hundred large and medium-sized carriers to Iran, while the entire Iranian fleet, including Iran Air airliners, has been strongly suspected of being used for transfer of IRGC troops and armaments and ammunition from Iran to Syria for several years.

When the first Airbus was delivered to Tehran on 13 January, Transport Minister Abbas Akhondi said the passengers on the first flight would be IRGC family members on a pilgrimage to the city of Mashhad.

 The PSA group (Peugeot-Citroen) has made an investment in partnership with the Iranian company Saipa, while the latter is part of the Bahman group belonging to the IRGC.

 K.B.C Trading Co. is the sole representative of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur in Iran. KBC Trading Co. is one of the subsidiaries of the Barakat Pharmaceutical Company, one of the most profitable companies in an organ that manages profits on behalf of the Supreme Leader (a body named Headquarters for executing the orders of the Imam Khomeini, better known as the Setad or Headquarters in Persian).

 One of the partners of the contract signed with auto manufacturer Renault on 7 August is the company Negin-Khodro apparently belonging to the private sector, but which is actually one of the companies with extremely corrupt leaders linked to the IRGC. Over the last three years, protests, sometimes with crowds of more than 4,000 people, were organized outside this companys offices to claim (in vain) their money stolen by its leaders.

In fact, one can hardly imagine making commercial or other transactions in Iran without the presence of the IRGC from one end of the chain to the other.

Second obstacle:

The other major problem concerns the political situation of Hassan Rouhani at the head of the government. Currently, a ruthless struggle for power rages in Iran. On the side, the president with very limited powers, on the other side the Supreme Leader who holds all the levers in all political, security, military, financial and religious fields. Even though the past 38 years have shown that none of the factions of this theocratic system are moderate or capable of becoming so, the European Union (including France) still seems to favor the faction headed by the president, who they nevertheless consider moderate. It is with this vision that the EU has invested in economic relations with Iran in the hope of seeing internal and international developments go in the direction of strengthening the position of Hassan Rouhani.

However, this policy is not unanimous within the EU itself. Countries such as the United Kingdom, one of the signatories to the nuclear agreement  which is still a member of the Union  and Poland, are opposed to it. On the Iranian side, this policy comes up against Irans military intervention and the de facto occupation of Syria by the IRGC on the one hand and the pursuit of the Iranian ballistic program on the other. All this goes against Frances Middle East policy.

Third obstacle:

A political logic, not just a commercial one, is at the origin of contracts signed by French companies with Iranian companies. A close and case-by-case analysis of these transactions clearly shows that it is the French side that benefits most and not the Iranian side. For political reasons, the Iranian government insists on the multiplication of such contracts to encourage the EU, in particular France, to remain on its side facing the United States.

Thus, if the domestic and international political situation of Iran improves, these contracts will undoubtedly be called into question. Conversely, if the situation of the Iranian theocracy continues to deteriorate and its confrontation with the United States gets worse, French transactions will also fall under US sanctions.

In light of these facts, French companies have shown great courage in doing business with Iran. But it is still an extremely risky gamble.
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Local residents have mobilized to assist with relief efforts in Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey continued to flood the area over the weekend.

Three volunteers from the American Red Cross Southbury office flew out of Hartford Sunday to support those displaced or trapped in the storm that had already killed at least three people.

Terri Thompson, of Waterbury, 60, expected to arrive in Dallas and then head to Houston, where she will act as a liaison between the Red Cross and the local government to coordinate their needs.

Thompson, who began volunteering for the Red Cross after retiring from her 37-year career with the state Department of Transportation, also traveled last year to Florida and North Carolina to assist victims of Hurricane Matthew.

She has been tracking the storm, which started out as a hurricane but was downgraded to a tropical storm, since it was on the Gulf Coast and, recognizing the dire need victims would have, signed up for a two-week stint in Texas.

With Harvey, its going (to be) monumental on the amount of efforts and the amount of shelters because some of these people may not even be able to come back to their homes, she said.

Thompson said she is not sure exactly what she will be doing until she gets there.

Every day it could change on what the needs are, she said. I suspect right now its trying to get people to a safe place. If they chose to stay out in the storm and not evacuate theyre at an extreme risk right now, so hopefully they can get to a shelter.

As she waited for her flight Sunday afternoon at Bradley International Airport, she said, in a phone interview, that she was mentally preparing herself for the tragedy she might see.

You are sometimes walking into situations where it is not the best environment, she said. Youre going to see things that are probably going to leave an impression on you for a long, long time.

She described her volunteer experiences as humbling.

You become very appreciative of what you have because there are so many who are without, Thompson said. It makes you want to give more.
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REDDING  In the latest celebration of the towns 250th anniversary, dozens of residents gathered in Putnam Park Saturday for an afternoon of historical fun.

Some visitors to the Family Day at Putnam Memorial State Park event wandered the grounds independently, completing a historical scavenger hunt of the 183-acre state park. But most joined park expert T.G. Henderson on a tour, where he explained the parks history as an encampment for soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

The event was co-sponsored by the Mark Twain Library and Friends and Neighbors of Putnam Park as part of the year-long Redding Reads program, which encourages all residents in town to read the same book. This years book, My Brother Sam is Dead, a novel that explores the towns history during the Revolutionary War, was chosen to help celebrate the towns 250th anniversary.

Ive read the book and my (three daughters) have all read the book and had a wonderful experience, said Hilda Rhodes, a resident joining Henderson on the tour Saturday.

Rhodes said she became interested in the history of the town when she moved to Redding from Oregon more than 50 years ago. She discovered when she arrived that her family had actually originated from Redding in the 1700s.

She said the Redding Reads program has helped get more residents interested in the towns history. She and her husband, Stan, have been to all of the years anniversary events so far.

I relate it to my family, which is really fun, Rhodes said. I dont think they teach the history as much as they used to, so (the program) has brought that back and Im really delighted.

Henderson said the book, although it is fiction, is historically accurate.

He said he became a volunteer at the park 11 years ago after a friend who knew Henderson didnt like history dared him to take the job. After about a year into the job, he became fascinated with the parks history and started doing his own research.

Residents and out-of-towners have been visiting the park more and more thanks to the Redding Reads program, he added.

About 300 books were available at the start of the program at the library, Town Hall, and other locations around town. Readers are asked to sign their name in the cover and return the book to one of the spots when they are finished.

The remaining events for the anniversary celebration include a program on how patriotism is remembered on Sept. 11, a birthday party for Redding in October, a twilight graveyard tour around Halloween, a discussion about religion and patriotism in November and a trivia contest in November.
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A dog that accidentally got loose Friday night during Hurricane Harvey has become an unlikely symbol of Texas strength.

Otis, a German shepherd mix, got loose Friday night from a screened-in back porch in Sinton, Texas, while in the care of Salvador Segovia, 65. Segovia was watching the dog, who belongs to his 5-year-old grandson Carter who had fled the city due to flooding.

When Segovia went to check in on the dog Friday night, he was gone.

FROM THE FIELD: Houston residents share Hurricane Harvey photos on social media

"I kept yelling his name and yelling his name and he wasn't around," Segovia told Chron.com Saturday afternoon.

Segovia checked his porch Saturday morning and noticed Otis' bag of dog food was missing. Segovia drove around his neighborhood looking for the pooch when he was flagged down by a neighbor who said they saw Otis walking around with the bag of food in his mouth.

Fellow neighbor Tiele Dockens also saw Otis and snapped a photo of him with his food that went viral. The image had been shared nearly 16,000 times by 4:50 pm on Saturday.

LIFE FINDS A WAY: Three babies born on Texas coast during Hurricane Harvey

"We are a population of about 6,000," Dockens told Weather.com. "We were out today clearing tree limbs from streets. Families are already starting to clean up. Our town is still out of water and power. I was driving around checking on family and friends' properties that decided to evacuate."

Segovia was able to track down Otis and bring him home before his grandson returned.

Otis is an all around special dog, Segovia said. He's been instrumental in helping comfort Carter following numerous hospital visits for seizures and asthma. Otis is also a local celebrity.

"Otis can go to Dairy Queen and he can get a hamburger. He's the only dog allowed to lie down in front of the county court house," Segovia said. "He also goes to H.E.B. He's not a stray. He's a good dog."
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REDDING  Jean-Pierre Jacquet, 72, set up his easel and painting supplies at Weir Farm Historic Site on Friday afternoon, enjoying the sunlight and low 70-degree weather.

He was painting the red studio belonging to American Impressionist artist J. Alden Weir, who acquired the farm at 735 Nod Hill Road in 1882.

Since then it has been home to three generations of artists and has inspired countless others, including Jacquet. It is now a National Historic Site.

Jacquet came Friday to participate in Weir Farms inaugural Art in the Park Festival and Contest.

I think its an ideal setting. There is so much to do here. Ill definitely come back to paint on my own, the 72-year-old Greenwich man said. Long live the festival.

The festival invited painters of all ages and skill levels to submit a piece related to the theme, Impressions of Weir Farm. Being the only national park dedicated to American painting, holding an art festival and contest seemed fitting, park ranger Kristen Lessard said, especially on the National Park Services 101st birthday.

Its been a place for artists to come since 1882 and wed like to continue that tradition, Lessard said, referring to Weir Farm, Connecticuts first national park. Everybody who comes here is part of that story.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., visitors experienced Weir Farm at its best; they engaged in a demonstration led by Master Impressionist instructor Dmitri Wright, visited activity stations with free-to-use art supplies, enjoyed cake and refreshments at the open house in the historic Weir House, and were offered a chance to showcase their original artwork.

Dozens of submissions were on display during the day and were judged on the use of color, quality of work, originality, creativity and how well the work related to the theme, with Weir Farm Artist-in-Residence Mary Vaughan as a guest judge. Entries were divided into several categories based on age, with a special category for professional artists.

Dotty Young, of Branford, came with her grandchildren, James and Olivia McNally, who both submitted a piece to the contest. The 6-year-old boy painted trees and the 4-year-old girl sketched a colorful drawing from her imagination.

Its a beautiful day, stunning park  Were thrilled, Young said. We like to visit national parks.

At the end of the festival, first place winners were announced as Leslie Carone in the professional category, Martha Lord in the adult category, Alexis in the childrens category and Bobbie Eikemullen in the Visitors Choice Award category. However, all entries are eligible to be part of an exhibit at the G&B Cultural Center in Wilton in September.

The free event was sponsored by Weir Farm National Historic Site, the Friends of Weir Farm, and the Weir Farm Art Center.

skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
WEST HAVEN >> Steve Gentile is moving his growing promotional marketing and printing business, Pinpoint Promotions, from Stratford to a long-vacant former warehouse at 45 Railroad Ave. near the West Haven Metro-North station because its the right location for his business.

Its open, easily customizable space, much larger than Pinpoints current home  and its walking distance to the train.

It took Gentile, who founded the company nine years ago and previously based it in Milford, just 2 1/2 years to outgrow Pinpoints current home at 53 Hancock St. in Stratford. But he and his business partner, T.J. Andrews, are not moving to West Haven because of any problem or dissatisfaction with Stratford.

Its just that for a company with 15 employees  about to grow to 17  who live as far away as Stamford, which uses additional talent that often comes from southwest Fairfield County or New York City, the West Haven spot is perfect.

If he needs to get to New York City or if an employee or collaborator needs to come in from Norwalk, Stamford or New York, they actually can make the trip as fast or faster than they can go to or from the Stratford location, which is just north of perpetually snarled Interstate 95.

No vehicle necessary.

We do a lot of business in New York City, so traveling to the City now will be much easier, Gentile said.

It took the Planning and Zoning Commission about 10 minutes to unanimously approve Gentiles application once he explained what he wanted to do  which fits in perfectly with what the city administration would like to see in that area  this past Tuesday night.

Welcome to West Haven! said PZC alternate Greg Milano, who complimented Gentile on the adaptive reuse of the building.

The approval came with four conditions: that Gentile post a bond to ensure that work is done to specs, file an as-built survey when its done, satisfy all National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System MS4 stormwater discharge requirements and that the company review a landscape plan with city staff before doing that work.

For city officials, Gentile and his company are a poster child for what they would like to see happen in the often-controversialtransit-oriented development zone around the railroad station.

I am excited and proud to announce the relocation of Pinpoint Promotions and Printing to the great city of West Haven, said Mayor Ed OBrien. The company is moving its headquarters to a much larger location on Railroad Avenue, an up-and-coming area, to enable its expansion and to better serve its clients.

Pinpoint is making a significant investment in the site, which is ideally located near Interstate 95, and is confident what the future holds for the neighborhood around the West Haven train station, OBrien said.

Commissioner of Planning and Development Joseph Riccio Jr. told the PZC, Were delighted to have a business like this ... Were happy that hes coming to West Haven.

While transit-oriented development around the railroad station has been a controversial issue in West Haven, the flashpoint generally centers around talk of large amounts of multi-family housing being built within walking distance of the station.

There has been no opposition to additional business development tied to or spurred by the station.

For Gentile, who grew up in Trumbull and lives in Monroe, the West Haven location was a no-brainer.

As a promotional marketing company, we do a lot of in-house production and fabrication and are able to streamline the process from concept to production, Gentile said one day last week. We do a lot of signage and printing, vehicle wraps, promotional wraps ... direct mail, pretty much any item that can be branded.

We have employees all over the state and West Haven is relatively centralized. So that was a big attraction, he said. The fact that the railroad station is walking distance from our soon-to-be front door was extremely attractive, and even for those who come in via I-95, Its easy on/off the highway.

The building itself is almost 25,000 square feet of relatively open space, which fits with the companys need to have an open floor plan to support collaboration and creativity, he said.

The Railroad Avenue space is about three times the size of Pinpoints current space, Gentile said.

But there were other attractions, as well.

In addition to just having a great office location, it seems like the proximity of restaurants, dining ... shopping, fitness centers ... the beach  it seems like theres activities around the office ... if people want to go for a lunch break or stay over a weekend, Gentile said.

The building itself is ideal, he said in an e-mail. At almost 25,000 square feet consisting of mostly open space its like blank canvas we can build-out to meet our needs. Plus there is plenty of parking.

Lastly, this location and property just felt like the right place to grow our business, Gentile said.

He said he hopes to close on the property within the next week or so. The buildout will take about two months.

Were hoping to be in there by the end of October, he said.

Just in case youre wondering, Gentile expects to drive to work, but we do a lot of work down in the city, so our guys will take the train down there all the time, he said. One or two live in Stamford and are looking forward to taking the train.

Pinpoint Promotions name was incorrect in the original version of this story. It has been corrected.
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Not even Hurricane Harvey can stop the gift of life from getting delivered.

Three babies were born Friday night in Corpus Christi just hours after the Category 4 storm made landfall. It has since been downgraded to a Category 1.

Two of the babies were delivered by C-section at Christus Spohn Hospital South while the third was delivered at home with the help of emergency personnel.

HUNKERING DOWN: Houston residents share Hurricane Harvey photos on social media

There was at least one boy and one girl born, Steven Alford, communication manager for the hospital, told Chron.com.





Both hospitals lost power overnight but have been able to keep its 25 total patients through the night comfortable thanks to generators.

"We continue to provide care. We are proud of our associates who provide care under literally the most difficult conditions. We lucked out," Alford said.

VERY WET: These Houston areas have received the most rainfall from Hurricane Harvey so far

The one baby born at home was Kataleya Rose, 6 pounds, 9 ounces, 18 inches long.

The baby's mother Isabel Pena and father Lee were waiting out the storm when Pena started feeling contractions. An ambulance was called while sister-in-law Jennifer Pena helped deliver the baby in the dark (the electricity was out).

"The ambulance had to drive slowly down the freeway as Harvey raged," Alford said. "Family arrived to Spohn South about 3:20 a.m. where mom and baby are now doing fine."

Pena was discharged Sunday.

VIDEO: Horse rescued during Hurricane Harvey flooding in College Station

"To me it's not the perfect time, but she wanted to make her entrance, and now she's here," Pena told Chron.com. "It was a bad experience, but it was worth it. We're so happy to have her."

Corpus Christi was one of the hardest areas hit by Harvey as it made landfall Friday.

The storm was downgraded to a Category 1 late Friday but is still forecasted to generate 75 mph winds and unload 15 to 35 inches of rain through the weekend. There may also be isolated pockets of rain totally 40 inches through Wednesday.

SHORT BREAK: Residents are water skiing through Houston during Hurricane Harvey

Dr. Kathleen Rasmussen, regional director of women's services helped deliver one of the other two babies born at Christus Spohn Hospital South that night via C-section:

"Everything went smoothly like it was a normal day. We held our composure during the storm and worked together as a team and just tried to be there for the patients and make sure everything went smoothly," Rasmussen told Chron.com. "It's definitely a first for me. I've never delivered a baby before during a hurricane. I'm proud of everybody from the nurses, to the doctors, to the anesthesiologists, to administration  everybody stepped up and was outstanding."
NEW HAVEN >> New medical treatments and public health efforts depend on clinical trials to test how effective they will be, and the community needs to be accurately represented for those studies to yield useful data.

But distrust and lack of knowledge about medical research among minorities has left African Americans and Hispanics underrepresented in trials that would be greatly enhanced by their participation.

First and foremost, there are specific diseases that are more prevalent in our minority populations, said Kelly Anastasio, associate director for clinical trial resources at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. Asthma and diabetes, for example, are more common among minorities. Breast cancer affects black women differently than it does white women.

Different minorities may respond differently to therapies, Anastasio said. From a disease perspective, its important that we dont have a one-size-fits-all, that we address all. The messaging should be appropriate for the folks that youre trying to reach.

That gap has been narrowed by a cooperative program between the center, congregations in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Junta for Progressive Action.

Asked by Yale School of Medicine faculty to look into the difficulties of recruiting subjects for clinical trials, the center formed focus groups to look at attitudes toward studies in the general population.

What we found was, in all the focus groups, all the minority participants said, Research  no way, no how, good luck  I dont want to be a guinea pig, said Tesheia Johnson, deputy director of the center.

People in our community didnt want to be involved in clinical research at all, said the Rev. Elvin Clayton, pastor of Walters Memorial AME Zion Church in Bridgeport. They didnt trust the powers that be.

Some of the mistrust had to do with memories of the Tuskegee Institute study in the 1930s, in which black men with syphilis were told they were being treated for the disease, when in fact they were not.

The blacks and Hispanics in the focus groups may have been unwilling to participate in trials, but they offered advice on how to approach their communities.

In the Hispanic focus group, they said partner with Junta or partner with the church, Johnson said. In the African-American group, they said focus on the church.

The center took on the goal of giving minority residents a good understanding of how research leads to therapies that could one day end up in their medicine cabinet and have it be more relational, Johnson said. The result was the Cultural Ambassadors program, in which church and Junta leadership encouraged their members to sign up for the centers Help Us Discover database.

At the beginning there was some resistance, more so from not understanding what it meant to be in a clinical study  and also people have their own myths and beliefs about being involved in studies, said Sandra Trevino, executive director of Junta.

We have people from all around the world who decide to move to New Haven and Fair Haven particularly, she said. They find themselves in Fair Haven and whatever health or health access meant in their country was not what it meant in New Haven. Often, medical studies were run by the government in the immigrants home countries.

Language was also an issue. Drogas  drugs in Spanish  is interpreted as referring to illegal drugs, so we had to use the word medicine, Trevino said. Junta has translated the consent forms and other materials used by the Yale center.

The partnership has also helped in preparing outreach materials that will reach minority communities, including appropriate photos. They were spending thousands of dollars in newspaper ads that didnt show faces of people of color, Johnson said.

It had to do with even the haircut and the type of clothes that the children wore in the materials, Clayton said.

Another way of building trust was putting the pastors faces on posters on buses and on cards placed in barber shops and beauty shops.

What helped the parishioners is we had a health fair, Clayton said. We had pictures and pamphlets and that helped people be knowledgeable of the studies that are available. Also, you can throw some messages into certain sermons that can help, he said.

At one time, minority participation in clinical trials was as low as 2 percent. Now at Yale, the lowest percentage of minority participation is 16 percent but the average is 22 to 67 percent, Johnson said. Volunteers can sign up to be added to the 9,000-member database at www.yalestudies.org or through the Research tab on their MyChart web page within Yale New Haven Health.

One of the reasons that minorities do not participate in clinical trial studies is the issue of being invited, said the Rev. LeRoy Perry Jr., pastor of St. Stephens AME Zion Church in Branford. You dont know about it if no one is recruiting in your area.

You have to start where people are, Perry said. So if our people have been left out of these studies and some of our people have trust issues about these studies, what YCCI has done is given us a bridge so that people can become aware and informed and not only aware and informed but it has empowered them to act.

He said the African-American community is concerned about illnesses such as depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, obesity and autism.

Diabetes and autism are also important among Hispanics, Trevino said, as well as high blood pressure and lupus.

Mental health is big as well, because in our culture  we dont talk about mental health, Trevino said. Its a taboo to talk about. Youre not supposed to talk about it, let alone go out and get help. However, a mental illness such as depression can increase drinking and drug use, she said.

I think another piece thats been really important to us is really becoming embedded in the minority community and being involved in functions they have going on, Anastasio said. Really showing that this is a partnership and weve really done this together.

Those efforts have included toy, clothing and back-to-school drives with children, just being a part of their community and not just showing up when we want to enroll subjects into research, Anastasio said.

So through this bilateral dialogue were able to bring awareness and, you might say in theological terms, light into darkness, Perry said.

The bottom line is trust, because people may not trust Yale but they trust Jesus, they trust the AME Zion Church and its leadership, Perry said. The AME Zion Church has been known to be [advocates] for the poor and the downtrodden, those individuals seeking justice and equity and opportunity.

One of the things about the AME Zion Church that impressed us is  at the denominational level there is a ministry of health, Johnson said.

Another benefit of the Cultural Ambassadors program is that the community partners help in determining what trials to conduct. Members of the AME Zion Church inspired a study into dyslexia, to determine whether it was properly diagnosed.

Members of Junta encouraged the center to do a study on asthma through the schools in the heavily Hispanic Fair Haven section. We were quite overwhelmed with the numbers who volunteered, said Trevino. We had so many people that we couldnt serve them all. Afterwards, we said we have to help serve these families.

Since they had met the quota for the study, Junta held an asthma screening fair.

I have been amazed with this partnership, Trevino said. I see it as a two-way street as regards to getting knowledge and information to the community and also informing them as far as access to health.

Two upcoming health fairs will offer people the opportunity to volunteer for clinical studies. One will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 16 at Walters Memorial, 445 Broad St., Bridgeport. Another will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rose Center, Scantelbury Park on Ashmun Street in New Haven.

Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382.
Three new affordable housing complexes are one step closer to coming to Flagstaff.

The city issued the request for proposals (RFP) for the scattered site affordable housing project this week. The locations for the request are on West Street, Sixth Avenue and Lone Tree Road and total about 4 acres of land.

Through September 26 the city will accept applications from developers for the project, which is expected to bring between 60 and 65 one- and two-bedroom rental units. The target demographic to rent the units will be those making 60 percent or below of the area median income,

The likely funding source for the developer awarded the contract will be the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which Flagstaff Housing Director Sarah Darr said has been one of the federal programs that has had the most success nationwide in creating affordable housing.

The city has nine apartment complexes that were created using the tax credit, which total 746 units. All of the properties created in Flagstaff hold only affordable units, Darr said in a report to the city council. The largest Low Income Housing Tax Credit development in Flagstaff is Oakwood Village Apartments, which offers 200 affordable units designed for families.

Two of the developments, Flagstaff Senior Meadows and Sandstone Highlands Senior Community, cater specifically to the elderly. All other projects in the city built using the program cater to families. High Country Estates, Cedar Crest Apartments, Oakwood Village Apartments, Pinehurst at Flagstaff, Sharon Manor Apartments, Timber Trails Apartments and Village at Lake Mary Crossing were all constructed using the tax credit program.

Denise Carter, the Chief Portfolio Officer for Pacific West Communities, which owns Pinehurst at Flagstaff, said the complex maintains a 100 percent occupancy rate. The lowest the complex has ever gone is 97 percent occupancy, meaning one unit is available, Carter said.

Pacific West owns about 165 affordable housing projects in the western United States, which usually utilize the 9 percent tax credit program, Carter said. There is also a program that offers a 4 percent tax credit option.

The program, which is an IRS program instead of a Housing and Urban Development one, was created in 1986. The first development in Flagstaff constructed using it was in 1996 on the east side of the city.

The program allocates tax credits to states based on population. The states department, the Arizona Department of Housing then awards the credits to developers with successful applications. The deadlines for developers to apply for the credits is in March.

Usually, the developers then sell the credits to investors. American Express, AT&T, J.P. Morgan Chase and Exxon Mobil have all been investors that have bought credits used for developments in Flagstaff, Darr said.

Generally, the companies that buy the credits have a significant lobby to them, Darr said.

However, the credits cannot be used until the developments are constructed and people are occupying them. The credits last for 10 years.

The investors cant use the tax credit unless there is a benefit to the community, Darr said. Thats why the city is usually very comfortable taking part in these. We are usually one of the smallest tools in the toolbox, and these bigger organizations want to make sure the benefit is being served. If not, they cant use their tax credit theyve purchased.

By selling the credits, developers have more cash up front to create the project, which makes the development more affordable to build, similar to the effect of paying for a house in cash. In exchange for the lowered cost, the developer agrees to a term of affordability, which Flagstaff requires to be 30 years.

Darr said the program suffered slightly during the recession, when credits were not valued as highly and companies were not willing to pay as much for them. If the tax code were to change significantly, the credit program could become a less useful piece for creating affordable housing, she said.

If an investors tax burden were to be significantly decreased, Carter said the program would definitely be affected, but said she would expect the effects to be more significant for the 4 percent program than in the 9 percent program that her company uses to build housing.

However, the program tends to be popular with both sides of the political aisle because it creates affordable housing while also leveraging public-private partnerships, Darr said.

Carter said the program is the most successful affordable housing program because it connects developers, investors and cities with people who are in need of affordable housing.

It makes this a reality for these people who really need it, Carter said.

The prices of the apartments are determined by the government and fluctuate depending on income. For a family making 60 percent of the area median income in Flagstaff, the prices of the affordable units that are already renting are between $643 and $780.

This request for proposals became controversial when the Flagstaff City Council originally voted to include a three-acre parcel of city-owned land on Fort Valley and Schultz Pass Roads in the request to be developed. The council later dropped that parcel from the request and added the parcel on Lone Tree Road after significant resistance from the public demanding the Schultz Pass parcel not be developed.
*Members Swear to Oath of Secrecy*Ready to Use Violence to Actualize Biafra*Group Scouts For Recruits Proficient in Foreign Languages* Officers Paid Based on Seniority from N10,000 to N30,000 Per MonthClutching a hand fan bearing the Biafra insignia and clad in all white Jewish attire, a skull cap and a pair of white shoes, the bespectacled, light-skinned, harmless-looking, slender leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu took measured steps. With arms akimbo, Kanu inspected what could be regarded as a guard of honour mounted by members of his Biafra Secret Service (BSS).That was on Tuesday, August 17, during Kanus inauguration of the BSS at his fathers residence in Isiama Afara in Ibeku clan, Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State. Kanus father, His Highness, Eze Israel Kanu is the traditional ruler of their community.The inauguration of BSS has heightened concerns over the objective of IPOB, as many see this as a call to arms as Kanu and his IPOB continue on the path to carve out a Republic of Biafra out of Nigeria. The basis for the agitations, IPOB insist, is the UN and African Union charter on human and peoples right which states that Indigenous People have the right to self-determination. IPOB said its main agenda is to liberate the People of Biafra forced into unholy unionism with the Nigeria state and the inauguration of the BSS is seen as a step in pursuing this end.In trying to force this move, the group has recently called for referendum for the People of Biafra, and also threatened to boycott Nigerias elections in all Biafran Territories, starting with the governorship poll in Anambra State in November, until the referendum to determine the fate of the South-East is conducted.Ironically, the inauguration took place in one of the last capital of the defunct Republic of Biafra (1967-1970) after the fall of Enugu. Though currently the capital of Abia State, Umuahia, from where the then Biafran leader, Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, fled into exile in Ivory Coast, had bitter taste of the war. For its troubles, the city now houses the National War Museum, a looming reminder of the devastations of war.If the museum is meant to be a deterrent for future conflicts, Kanu and IPOB overlooked that with the launch of the BSS which the Abia State Police command had declared an illegal and unlawful organization.Daily Trust on Sunday findings indicate that there might be more to the establishment of the BSS than meets the eye, although IPOB said it was set up to take care of the Igbo who could return from the northern part of Nigeria upon the expiration of the October 1, quit notice issued to the Igbo by a Coalition of the Arewa youths, a notice that was withdrawn last week in Abuja.But before the withdrawal notice, Kanu, while addressing the press after a meeting with Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) said the BSS, despite its array of officers and men dressed in all black tee shirts and red berets should not cause concerns. There is no need for people to be afraid because we will never ever resort to armed violence, he declaredHe said further that the BSS is like you have vigilante groups in other parts of the country equating his group to the Hisbah outfit that patrols some states in the North.On the purpose of creating the BSS, Kanu said, We set [it] up to tackle the menace of the Fulani herdsmen, lamenting that the police had done nothing to tackle the cases of violent incursions by armed raiders into villages across the country.Senator Abaribe told the press that Kanu had assured him that IPOB will remain non-violent.The narrative of the BSS being formed to monitor the return of the Igbo from the North is one that IPOBs spokesperson, Emma Powerful, had elaborated on when he said in an interview that, it was not a standing army but a vigilante group to monitor and ensure the safety of its people returning from the North over the October 1 quit notice served on Igbo people in the North by a Coalition of Arewa Youth.According to Emma, With October 1, 2017 looming, it has fallen on IPOB to ensure the welfare, safety and well-being of Biafrans returning home to prevent what happened in 1966 from happening again. Thats why BSS was inaugurated to gather intelligence and to safeguard those returning home to Biafraland from the North.The IPOB has disregarded the withdrawal of that quit notice by the Coalition of Arewa Youths.Whether the BSS was formed to tackle the Fulani Herdsmen, or to cater for the influx of Igbo migrants from the North, the police is clear about the illegality of the group.Abia State Commissioner of Police, Adeleye Oyebade, while addressing the press in Umuahia, warned those behind the BSS to quickly retrace their steps.The Commissioner emphasized that the Nigerian constitution recognised only the Nigerian Police, Nigeria Army and the Department of State Service. He re-stated that any other group claiming to be providing security without the backing of the constitution was illegal.The tough stand of the CP, however, is somewhat tampered by the tone of the state Police Public Relations Officer, Jeffery Ogbonna, who said, The Abia Police Command has put in place necessary machinery to checkmate their activities. They dont pose any threat to the command for now but we are really monitoring their activities.That notwithstanding, the group has managed to draw a reaction from President Muhammdu Buhari, who upon his return from a 103-day medical leave in London, said theFederal Government is not going to tolerate separatist movements and inflammatory statements that threaten Nigerias unity and stability.Nigerias unity is settled and not negotiable, President Buhari emphasized in a nation-wide broadcast on Monday morning, two days after his return.The governments stance has been consistent, even if not decisive. Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, while acting in the presidents stead had emphasized that hate speech would be treated as acts of terror.On Friday, the government asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to revoke the bail granted Kanu who is standing trial for treason.The application which was filed by the office of Nigerias Attorney General, cited Kanus inauguration of BSS as one of the instances of his violation of conditions for his bail, an action it said constituted threat to national security.The groups leader was granted bail on April 25 by Justice Binta Nyako.Other breaches of the bail conditions committed by the self-styled Biafra leader, as contained in governments counter-affidavit in support of the motion it filed before the court include alleged incitement of his supporters to disrupt, disallow and boycott elections in South East states, starting with Anambra State governorship election scheduled to hold on November 18, 2017, if the Federal Government failed to hold a referendum for the realisation of the state of Biafra nation.The Federal Government also accused Kanu of being in a crowd of more than 10 persons and granting press interviews.Findings by Daily Trust on Sunday showed that members of the BSS attended the inauguration from different states of the South-East zone, although including other states such as Rivers, Delta and others in the South-South zone and their declared aim, as shown in the video of the inauguration, was the restoration of Biafra.From findings, the BSS appears on the surface as a voluntary vigilante group. However, it was gathered that the idea to establish BSS was initiated immediately the IPOB leaders was released from prison.Despite the claims of being non-violent, findings show that the group might be prepared for violent confrontations.In one of the BSS drill sessions at the country home of Nnamdi Kanu witnessed by our correspondent, the Commissioner Head of BSS, Mr Aguoche Obidike, was heard saying, We are Biafra Secret Service men that have volunteered to defend Biafran land. Like our leader will rightly say, we are here to restore Biafra. We have come in peace but if the option given to us to restore Biafra is violent, without fear, the men and women are ready to take the land of Biafra from invaders and looters.An insider, who is a member of the Biafra Intelligence Unit, but pleaded not to be named, disclosed that members were placed under oath not to divulge information about the organization to any member of the Zoo community (Nigeria).Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that the Biafra Secret Service recruited highly qualified men and women from diverse backgrounds in Biafraland and all over the world who desire a fast paced, exciting and challenging career, who are ready to defend the land.According to the insider, the Secret Service is mandated by the IPOB leader to carry out dual missions: protection and criminal investigations.While their functions include protecting the IPOB leader, the group is also charged with investigation of a variety of crimes, including possible saboteurs of the Biafran cause.The group is also on the lookout for people with foreign language proficiency. This requires that the applicant should be able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social and professional topics, the source said.According to the insider, At the completion of all required training and graduation from the BSS training program, the graduating students would be posted to various offices while the best graduating student would be given an honourary award.According to an advert for recruitment into the group, seen by our correspondent, Candidates must be a Biafra citizens [sic] and must submit to urinalysis screening for illegal drug use prior to appointment. All Secret Service positions require a Top Secret security clearance. All applicants must undergo a full, Secret Service-specific, Top Secret clearance process regardless of who you are; certain positions may also require the applicant to successfully complete OATH of trust and medical examination. Age, vision and excellent physical condition requirements may also apply and more.Investigation by Daily Trust on Sunday revealed that forms issued to intending members dont have provision for passport photographs and identity cards are not issued to members.Registered members often flood newspaper stands where they try to convince people to support the agitation for Biafra.Our visit to the palace of Eze Isreal Kanu Uzoeze at Isiama Afara showed that members of BSS run day and night shifts. During the shifts, different kinds of foods are cooked in large quantities and dished out freely to the members.Also, BSS members have been seen strategically positioned at several security checkpoints to restrict movements of people.Also, members form advanced team who go ahead of their principal when visiting a state, to mingle with the locals to gather intelligence and report to Mr. Kanu.Nelson Madu who joined the Secret Service from Oyigbo in Rivers State said the organization is a volunteer service set up by the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra to provide security for the people of Biafra against attack by those he called external forces.Madu, who claimed to be a technician, said he was moved to join the service because of the selfless service being rendered by Kanu to the people of Igboland, saying that Biafra Secret Service is all out to protect the entire Biafraland which he claimed covered Abia, some parts of Niger Delta, Enugu, Anambra and Imo states.Our leader has made very clear the vision of BSS and that is where I stand. The service is entirely to provide security to Biafra people across the South-East zone. We are to protect our people from attack from whatever quarters.We are not going to carry arms but we have been briefed by various unit commanders on what to do at any given time. The group was set up as a vigilante group to monitor and ensure the safety of our people, especially those that reside in the northern part of the country.You are aware that the Arewa youths recently issued a three months ultimatum to Igbos residing in the North to quit the region by October 1st. We are not taking such threat lightly. We will do everything humanly possible to protect our brothers and sisters up there.Our mandate is specifically on intelligence gathering. We will also protect our communities against the invasion of the herdsmen. You are aware of the activities of herdsmen who are killing our people at the slightest provocation, he said.On how the recruitment is carried out, Madu said: Before you talk about joining the Service, you must be an IPOB member and you must believe in all its tenets and principles. You must be an able-bodied man or woman and be ready to render selfless service to the Biafraland. You must be loyal to our leader and be ready to obey your superiors.An insider informed Daily Trust on Sunday that although the services rendered by the members of the group ought to be voluntary, little stipends are given to them depending on their ranks. The sources said junior officers are paid N10, 000 while the top officers earn between N25,000 to N30,000 monthly.Again, an IPOB member who identified himself as Obidike Bright said the organization funds her activities using N500 monthly dues contributed by all registered members.Some insiders have claimed that IPOB had received money from foreign visitors.Members are charged N1,000 for a set of BSS uniforms, comprising a red beret, a pair of black shoes, white belt, black trousers, mostly jeans and customized polo.IPOB can never be militarised because we are naturally peace-loving people. More importantly, we consider peaceful agitation to be far more potent than armed struggle, so IPOB will never resort to armed struggle, the source said.The President of Civil Rights Realization Awareness Network (CRRAN), Barrister Olu Omotayo, said it was unlawful of Kanu to have inaugurated the group.Omotayo said only sovereign nations operate Secret Services, stressing that no country anywhere in the world has two Secret Services.If Kanu had gotten independence for Biafra, then he can now set up Biafra Secret Service because Secret Service is owned by only sovereign nations, Omotayo said.He said it is premature for Kanu, at this stage of his struggle when Biafra has not gained independence, to have set up BSS.In the struggle for the abolition of Apartheid system of government in South Africa, the ANC used to have a youth wing or militant wing but they never called it Secret Service, he said.Its not done. Except in a war situation, during the Nigeria-Biafra war, but right now Nigeria is not at war. And we cant have two countries in one, he said.He advised Kanu and his group to possibly change the name, BSS to another name because that word secret service is very strong.Also commenting on IPOB and the Biafra agitation saga, former Military Administrator of Delta State, Air Commodore Luke C. Ochulor, enjoined Kanu to go and read enough of History before embarking on his crusade.So, I will tell them that, if their luck holds out, they may be shocked at what they will see in the next 20 years. In order to face what may happen in the next 20 years, they should stay alive. The only way to stay alive is to listen to the elders because the elders will talk from the point of experience, he said.Ochulor, who fought on the side of Biafra during the civil war, said: The greatest attribute of a man is his brain. If you cut off a mans brain, you have killed him. If people use their intellect not in the wrong or negative way, they can develop things that can build them up in self help. Let us advise the youths, especially in this part of Nigeria to become self-reliant, use their brains to develop what people cannot give them. When they start doing that, possibly with God on their side, the government will now be doing something.Several efforts to get Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia) to speak on the Biafra force failed as when contacted he referred our correspondent to his media aide, Uche Awon. Awon was unavailable for comment.Abaribe had on Tuesday hosted the Leadership of IPOP at his Ohuru, Obingwa , Abia State country home on behalf of the Southeast senate caucus.But in an interview on Wednesday, Abaribe said the meeting with the IPOB leaders was convened to de-escalate the rising tension in the country.We want to ensure that whatever agitation that is going on should be within the ambit of the law.  [W]e want the government to understand that agitations are legitimate forms of protests against feeling of inadequacies in the federating unit.The government has a duty to address the legitimate concerns but when [it] views non violence as a challenge, we elders have it as a duty to come out to ensure that peace reigns, he said.
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 ...
Lawyer from United States law firm, Fein & DelValle PLLC, have filed a suit against Major-General TY Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff; Mr. Willie Obiano, governor of Anambra State; Mr. Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State governor and 13 others in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.The suit is a sequel to a trip the lawyers undertook to Enugu between 19 and 24 August, during which they said they were able to gather facts and conduct research to advance the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) lawsuit filed before the US District Court on behalf of 10 anonymous plaintiffs. The suit is against 16 individuals alleged to have had a hand in extra-judicial killings and torture of Igbo people, Christians, and those with critical political viewpoints.In the case, styled John Doe, et al v. Turkur Yusuf Buratai, et al (Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-0133), the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages to secure justice for the Igbo people, prevention of genocide, ethnic cleansing or extermination of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamic Hausa-Fulani terrorists.The lawyers stated that they are convinced that Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. According to them the sanctity of churches in Nigeria is routinely defiled through the killing of children, whose corpses are hidden between pews.This, in addition to the country's membership of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), and the adoption of the Sharia code by 12 Northern states, they noted, constitutes a violation of Nigerias secular constitution.They stated that the Christian Open Door Report of 2015 found that Boko Haram killed 11,000 Christians, destroyed 13,000 churches and 1,500 Christian schools, as well as internally displaced 2.6 million people, among who were 1.3 million Christians.They equally recalled that on 11 July, a coalition of Northern groups ordered 11 million Igbo people residing in North to relocate to their home states by 1 October, something the lawyers alleged was endorsed by the Federal Government and state governments in the North."The Government of Nigeria and 19 Northern states have tacitly endorsed the threatened genocide of twice the number exterminated by the Nazis in the Holocaust," the lawyers alleged.They noted that the federal and state governments in northern Nigeria refused to arrest those behind the chilling threat against the Igbo.In the suit against the Chief of Army Staff and others, the lawyers said the US District Court issued an order granting the plaintiffs' motion to proceed anonymously because they reasonably feared lethal retaliation against themselves or families if their identities were revealed.They argued that actions of the defendants in the suit amounted to crimes against humanity, which could be prosecuted in any jurisdiction in the world."Indeed, the Convention Against Torture mandates that signatory nations like the United States and Nigeria prosecute the crimes of torture or extrajudicial killings," the lawyers stated.A total of 14 of the 16 individual defendants is Federal Government officials, while the other two are Messrs. Obiano and Ikpeazu, both governors of Anambra and Abia states. The Anambra State governor, they noted, has apologized for the killing of the plaintiffs perpetrated under his watch.The defendants, the lawyers said, are yet to respond after 21 days of the service of the summons and complaint. They added that their chances of successful prosecution of the suit are bright."We are optimistic about our chances of victory at trial or earlier," they said.The defendants are represented by a California-based Nigerian law firm, which said it has been contacted by the Federal Government but not by individual defendants.
A member of the Boko Haram, identified as a commander in the terror group, has confessed to leading the operation to kidnap the Chibok gi...

A member of the Boko Haram, identified as a commander in the terror group, has confessed to leading the operation to kidnap the Chibok girls in 2014. The commander, identified as Auwal Ismaeela, confessed to the act in an interview with PRNigeria.



In the interview, he said: My self and Abu Hafsat, a Boko Haram commander, led other squads to abduct the Chibok girls. We led the operations to invade Gwoza, Bama, Limankara mobile barrack, Bita, Bosso, Madagali, Chibok, Pulka, Firgi, and Mubi.



In Madagali which was my home town, myself, Adam Vitiri, Abu Adam and Habu Kudama, some high-ranking Boko Haram Commander led an operation in 2014 where we killed some students and youth at the Central Secondary School in Sabon Garin Madagali.





In one of the operations, I abducted my wife named Maryam who had two kids for me in Sambisa Forest. It is unfortunate that I was brainwashed and misled not only on some abductions but in the killings of my own people that were innocent. I wholeheartedly regret my actions.



During a battle in Konduga, I lost my right leg and almost got burnt. Even at that, I did not stop fighting for the course. Sheikh Shekau ordered that I should be given a tricycle which I continued to use for various operations.

I willingly surrendered to the military because I was tired of the senseless killing and fight. I realised that our people have resort to stealing and all sort of atrocity contrary to the teaching and practice of Islam.

Women were being raped, sometimes publicly. Children died from malnutrition and disease as the living condition became harsher. As there was no food in the camp, people died every day because of hunger."
The way Bana Umar tells it, VOA (Voice of America) and other broadcasters helped convince him to leave Boko Haram.

The way Bana Umar tells it, VOA (Voice of America) and other broadcasters helped convince him to leave Boko Haram.Until the night of August 18, Umar was a fighter for the Islamist radical group, living at a camp in the vast Sambisa Forest, one of the groups long-time strongholds in the North East.The experience was certainly exciting. Umar says he served as a bodyguard for a commander, Abu Geidam, who he describes as very close to Abubakar Shekau, Boko Harams best known leader.And he saw action across Borno State. I have been to war about six times, he says. I fought in Wulari. I fought in Bita. I participated in the fighting around Chad. I was in the group that repelled Nigerian soldiers whenever they ventured into Sambisa.But his conscience was just as active as his gun. When asked if what Boko Haram does is good and right, he says it is not, because the group attacks people mercilessly and unjustly, and in his view, manipulates Islam to its own violent ends.Radio prompted him to make an escape plan.Umar says he heard promises from the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, that defectors from Boko Haram would be welcomed, not punished. And he heard how Boko Harams deadly ambushes and suicide bombings were received in the outside world.Many of us listened to radio stations like BBC and VOA, he says. I listened to these radio stations frequently to the extent that when I laid down to sleep I would be thinking of what I heard. I realized that all our activities were evil. We killed. We stole. We dispossessed people of their properties in the name of religion. But what we are doing is not religion. Finally I got fed up with the group.Umar is now in Maiduguri, after fleeing the Boko Haram camp. He described his experiences this week in an interview with VOA Hausa Service reporter Haruna Dauda. His comments, translated from Hausa, provide insight into how the militants recruit and retain fighters and are managing to survive in the face of a multi-nation offensive.Persuaded to join, scared to leaveUmar is 27 years old and hails from Banki, a town on Nigerias border with Cameroon. Until 2014, he made his living as a cell phone repairman and burning CDs.But that year, Boko Haram overran the town. Umar says his friend, Abu Mujaheed, lured him into becoming a member of the group. All Nigerians are infidels, and only the followers of Abubakar Shekau are true Muslims, Mujaheed said. Join and you can fight to kill all the infidels.Umar joined, but says he quickly got scared and wanted to run. He didnt, he says, because Abu Mujaheed told him he would be killed if he tried to escape.Asked this week if that was true, Umar said there is no doubt about it. Even mere rumour or allegation that someone is contemplating leaving the group would lead to the killing of the person, he says.He says Boko Haram also discouraged defectors by telling them General Buratais promise of amnesty for any escapee was a ruse.There are more than 1,000 Boko Haram members who would like to leave the group, Umar says. There are many people that were abducted from their home towns who dont know the way back to their places of origin. They [Boko Haram leaders] preach to such people not to leave, as if it was divine for them to be there.He adds: Even some original members of the sect now want to leave because soldiers have intensified the war against them unlike in the past.All Boko Haram members must take new names when they join the group, and Bana Umars name was changed to Abu Mustapha. He says he became a fighter, not a commander. He said the militants were living in the Jimiya section of the Sambisa Forest, which, according to him, was the headquarters for Boko Haram.At one time, he implies, living conditions were decent. In 2014, Boko Haram ruled large parts of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, and could operate almost at will.Now, he says, Life is difficult. It is not what it used to be in the past. Food is difficult for everyone.Some militants grow their own food, he says. But even when you farm, your leader could take all your farm produce from you in the name of religion. You are always told that your leader has rights over all you have and yourself, he says.Boko Haram leaders also use religion as a prod to violence, he says.They use religion to tell us to kill with the promise of going to paradise. Leaders quote profusely from the Quran and the sayings of the prophet [Mohammed] to support their arguments. As they explain to make us understand their own point of view as the absolute truth, we must keep saying Allah is great, Allah is great. Then we would go out to kill, he says.A call to repentBoko Haram has killed at least 20,000 people across Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger since it launched its insurgency against the Nigerian government in 2009. Attacks and bombings continue, even though the joint task force sponsored by those countries and Benin has stripped Boko Haram of nearly all the territory it once controlled, which leader Abubakar Shekau said would form the base of a caliphate.With the weight of the groups deeds bearing down on him, Bana Umar felt a growing need to flee. He didnt act, however, until someone else encouraged him to believe what General Buratai promised.He escaped on the night of August 18 with that person  the wife of his commander, Abu Geidam. On the 20th, they turned themselves in at a Nigerian army base in Maiduguri.Asked what he would say to Boko Haram fighters still in the Sambisa Forest, Umar says: I am calling them to repent, especially those who want to come out but are afraid Let people know that soldiers would not do anything to whoever voluntarily repents. I came out and no one harms me. Not one single soldier lays his hand on me.Nigerian officials are currently debriefing Bana Umar, as they do with all Boko Haram members who leave the group voluntarily. When they finish, he will be reintegrated into Nigerian society, although not in his hometown of Banki. He will be taken to another location where he isnt known, to make a fresh start.Courtesy: VOA
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen over N8, 627,458,773.36 billion in three accounts of Hajiya Muinat Bola S...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen over N8, 627,458,773.36 billion in three accounts of Hajiya Muinat Bola Shagaya, an associate and friend of a former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan.Shagayas relationship with about 10 firms/account names are also being investigated by the anti-graft agency, it was learnt yesterday.But Shagaya, who did not hold any public appointment during the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has dragged Unity Bank to the High Court of Lagos State for allowing the EFCC to Post No Debit (PND) on her accounts without a valid court order.She says the action taken on her accounts violates Section34 (1) of the EFCC Act, 2004.Besides, the withdrawal ban placed on one of her accounts has prevented her from defraying N514, 800,000 incurred as cumulative costs in the course of an Aircraft Lease Agreement of a bombardier Jet, according to documents which Shagaya filed and deposed to at the Court alongside with her counsel, Napoleon Emeaso-Nwachukwu.Hearing of the matter is slated for September 28.However, Unity Bank says its hands are tied by the law in complying with the EFCCs directives to freeze Shagayas accounts.The EFCC in a letter to the Unity Bank Managing Director in respect of one of the frozen accounts said: The commission is investigating a case in which the above-mentioned account featured.In view of the above, you are requested to kindly check the table below and provide us with Certified True Copies (CTC) of the following information, which should include but not limited to the following: (i) The deposit slips/telex copies (front and back) that conveyed the authority of the transactions; (ii) Any investment made with the funds in any of your products which should include fixed/term deposit and their liquidation and the interest incurred, Banks Acceptance, Commercial Papers and any other relevant information in relation to these.The EFCC listed the transactions in the said account as N300m(Bola Shagaya RTGS); N300m (Additional N300FTD at 15% TRAN); N500m (Time Deposit); N2,317,013,698.64 (BNG COLLAOS FOR FTD-CUSTOMER ACCOL); N2.3billion (Opening a Time Deposit Account); N292, 495, 029.82 (Withdrawal from Time Deposit); N292, 495, 029.82 (TAK Asset Mgt Limited); N300m (Term Loan booked for 356 days); and N2,025,455,015.08 (BNG COLLAPS OF FTD Customer Account.In a separate letter Cr: 3000/EFCC/LS/STF/ STF3MP/ Vol.11/182 which Shagaya made available to the court, the EFCC asked Unity Bank to Post No Debit(PND) on 10 accounts linked with her.The account names are (i) First Deep Water Discovery Limited; (ii) Bola Shagaya; (iii) FAPLiNs Nigeria Limited (iv) Lingo Nigeria Limited; (v) Buri Barclays BDC; (vi) Links Global Synergy Ltd; (vii) OKIOIL Nig. Ltd; (vii) JEMARVIZ Nig Ltd; (ix) PJ Oil and Gas Ltd; and (x) AFDIN Ventures Ltd.The anti-graft commission said: The commission is investigating a case in which the above mentioned accounts featured.You are requested to kindly place the account on Post No Debit (PND) category pending the conclusion of the investigation.This request is made pursuant to Section 38(1) and (2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and Section 21 of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.In the third letter, the EFCC said it was looking into two other accounts including Voyage Oil and Gas and Bola Shagaya from 2008 to date.It said: The commission is investigating a case in which the above mentioned accounts featured. In view of the above, you are requested to kindly provide us with Certified True Copies (CTC) of the following information which should include but not limited to the following: (i) The Mandate Card and statement(s) of all domiciliary and Naira account(s) in the above mentioned accounts from 2008 to date with letter of certification in accordance with Section 84 of the Evidence Act 2011; (ii) any investment made with the funds in any of your products which should include fixed/term deposit and their liquidation and the interest incurred, Bank Acceptance, Commercial Papers and any other relevant information related to these.You are further requested to kindly place the account on Post No Debit (PND) category pending the conclusion of investigation.But Shagaya accused Unity Bank of complicity on her travails following the banks alleged failure to exercise the requisite due diligence.She said the freezing of her accounts did not comply with Section 34(1) of the EFCC Act, 2004. She specifically referred to the banks refusal to allow her to make transactions on Account 000326118 including payment of N514, 800,000 to Global Apex Air Limited, through Heavywind Integrated Services, for the lease of a bombardier Jet.She said the Aircraft Lease Agreement between her and Global Apex Air Limited has been terminated with her forfeiting US$1million.In an affidavit she deposed to, Shagaya said: The official of the Defendant (Unity Bank) whom my Personal Assistant relayed the development to, informed him that on the 3rd of November, 2016, the Defendant received a letter from the EFCC through their Lagos office informing it that my account with it is under investigation and requested that the account be put on Post No Debit pending the outcome of the investigation hence the Defendants inability to honour my payment instruction.Initially I laughed off the excuse as a ploy of the Defendant to deter me from taking legal actions against it for dishonouring my payment instructions especially that of the 31st of October 2016 which ultimately led to the termination of the Aircraft Lease with Global Apex Air Ltd. And the loss of the sum of One Million United States Dollars deposited with the Lessor by me.On the 27th of January, 2017 the Defendant responded to my Solicitors letter. In its response, the defendant stated that: it observed that long before your client forwarded her cheques and payment instruction to the Bank as indicated in your letter under reference, the EFCC had formally informed the Bank that an investigation relating to your clients account was ongoing and sought the cooperation on the Bank accordingly. The Defendants letter ended by stating that Based on our understanding and the fact that the Bank was already aware that the Law Enforcement Agency had taken definite steps to comply with Section 34(1) of the EFCC Act, 2004, behoves the Bank not to allow the dissipation or removal funds in your clients account without appropriate clearance from the Law Enforcement Agency or a judicial order directing the release of the funds to your client.I will also contend at the hearing of this Suit that the Defendant negligently and wrongfully failed to exercise the requisite due diligence and by extension, the duty of care it owed me as my banker prior to complying with the alleged freezing instruction from the EFCC.The Defendant did not request and ensure it was obliged the Freezing Order from a court of competent jurisdiction prior to complying with the instruction to freeze the Claimants accountThe Defendant failed to honour the Claimants payment instructions of the 31st of October 2016 as well as those of the 1st and 2nd November 2016 which preceded the alleged instruction from the EFCC.The Defendant failed to promptly notify the Claimant of the freezing other account. The freezing of the Claimants account did not comply with Section 34(1) of the EFCC Act, 2004.Since the unlawful freezing of my account by the Defendant, I have not been able to transact with that account due to my inability to access same thereby causing business losses and opportunities.By reason the Defendants action, I have suffered loss of reputation and damages and my person brought to disrepute, public opprobrium and odium.The actions of the Defendant which consist in unlawfully freezing my account without an Order of a Court of competent jurisdiction and failing to disclose same to me promptly was unreasonable as well as defamatory of me before my business associates who now see me as a criminal and an untrustworthy fellow who is in the habit of issuing due cheques and payment instructions that she knew would not be honoured.She said she had lost a lot of business goodwill since her accounts were frozen includingo The loss of $1,000,000 deposited with Global Apex Air Ltd. Due to her in ability to pay accrued costs in line with Aircraft Lease Agreement which was occasioned by the failure of the Defendant to oblige the Claimants payment instruction to Heavywind Integrated Services.o Loss of business opportunities and goodwill occasioned by her inability to operate her account domiciled with the Defendant due to its freezing.o Loss of reputation occasioned by the Defendants wrongful dishonouring of her payment instructions to third parties.If not compelled by this Court, the Defendant will not on its own volition unfreeze my account even when it is glaring the Defendant had wrongfully breached the duty of care it owes complying with an illegal instruction in freezing my account.But in a letter to Shagayas counsel, Unity Bank said it has a legal and ethical responsibility to render assistance to law enforcement agencies.The bank explained its constraints in a letter by its Head, Legal Services Department, Mr. Alaba Williams and Mr. Olusegun Olukoya of the same department.The bank said: While the Bank respects the contractual nature of the relationship with your client, it is without prejudice to the Banks standing as a responsible law abiding Corporate Citizen.In spite of the Banks contractual relationship with your client, that relationship is not without a legal and ethical responsibility to render assistance to law enforcement agencies when required of the Bank.Considering the sensitive nature of the investigation touching your clients account as advised by the EFCC in October 2016, the Bank had to exercise caution in relation to further transactions, especially debits, in the account of your client under investigation.The need for the Bank to exercise due caution in the matter of the operation of your clients account after receipt of notification of the ongoing investigation by the EFCC was informed by our understanding of various existing statutory provisions relevant to the request of the EFCC received by the Bank.Based on our understanding and the fact that the Bank was already aware that the Law Enforcement Agency had taken definite steps to comply with section 34(1) the EFCC Act, 2004. It behoves the Bank not to allow the dissipation or removal of the funds in your clients account under investigation, before the Court Order seeking to preserve the funds was obtained.The contractual relationship between your client and the Bank does not permit us to pre-empt the investigation by the Law Enforcement Agency and the related Court Proceedings which outcome could lead to forfeiture of the funds in the same account.The Bank could be considered an accessory after the fact if it allowed the dissipation of the funds in your clients account without appropriate clearance from the Law Enforcement Agency or a judicial order directing the release of the funds to your client.Therefore contrary to the allegation in your letter, the Bank had a proper justification for refusing the payment instructions from your client for funds to be removed from her account in issue when there was an ongoing investigation by the EFCC in respect of the said funds. The Bank is therefore not in breach of any contractual obligation to your client. The Bank is also not liable to your client for the sum of N700,000,000.00 (Seven Hundred Million Naira) or any other sum that matter as damages claimed by you.Please, note that Unity Bank Plc. is committed to comply with the extant laws and Regulations of all competent Authorities and Jurisdictions.In addition to adopting best practices; ethical and legal considerations always guide our commercial decisions protecting the good name and the reputation of the bank remains the primary consideration in all actions taken by the Bank. Accordingly, the Bank protects its products and services from being involved in allegation of unlawful activities. Hence we will cooperate fully with all Regulators and Law enforcement Agencies.We are of the humble opinion that your client should kindly resolve any outstanding issues with the Law Enforcement Agency and facilitate the removal of the Post No Debit on her account with the Bank.Litigation against the Bank will therefore not be necessary in the circumstance.
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode on Saturday reacted to Federal Governments demand that an Abuja Federal High Court should ...

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode on Saturday reacted to Federal Governments demand that an Abuja Federal High Court should revoke the bail it granted the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Fani-Kayode, who took to his twitter handle, said the call for Kanus re-arrest is reckless and dangerous.





The Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, also observed that the call was pregnant with mischief.





He wrote: Calling for the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu is a reckless and dangerous course which is fraught with implications and pregnant with mischief.





Kanu, who is facing trial at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, was earlier in the year granted bail with conditions which he has allegedly flouted.





The IPOB leader since his bail has flouted most of the conditions attached to his bail, a situation that made the Federal Government to approach the court asking that Kanus bail be revoked recently.





The Federal Government again approached the Federal High Court demanding that Kanus bail be revoked.
Morgan Stara and her three brothers held handmade signs reading "Welcome Home Dad" as they waited inside the cafeteria at the Nebraska Air National Guard base in Lincoln on Saturday morning.

"They are so excited to see him," said their mom, Angie Stara. "It's been exhausting and overwhelming. Three months is a long time for kids."

Their father, Tech. Sgt. Lyle Stara, was one of 51 Nebraska Air National Guard members from the Lincoln-based 155th Air Refueling Wing welcomed home after an overseas deployment. They are part of the wing's operations, maintenance, logistic readiness and medical squadrons.

The Guard members were deployed from 30 to 94 days at the U.S. Central Command in Qatar, where they provided support to Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military's operation to intervene against the Islamic State group in the Middle East.

They arrived home on two KC-135 Stratotankers. Gov. Pete Ricketts, Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac and a Congressional delegation were there to greet them, thanking them for their service and their families for supporting them.

"Of course you miss them, but you're very proud of their service," said Nicole DeGrenier, who was among the family members in attendance. DeGrenier was waiting for her fiance, Staff Sgt. Chad Johnson, who spent 10 weeks in Qatar as a boom operator refueling airplanes.

"I was absolutely counting down," she said. "And it's just awesome to be here now."

Before Lyle Stara left, he gave his children a jar of Hershey's Hugs and told them they could each have one a day "from dad."

"And today they ate the last ones," Angie Stara said. "Chocolate for breakfast was OK today."
The secessionist group, Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB), has dared the Federal Government of Nigeria to attempt to re-arrest its lea...

The secessionist group, Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB), has dared the Federal Government of Nigeria to attempt to re-arrest its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.IPOBs challenge came as a response to an appeal by Nigerias Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, asking for the revocation of a court order that granted bail to Mr. Kanu. The minister also advocated the re-arrest and detention of the IPOB leader pending the determination of the charges against him.The Attorney General cited Mr. Kanus violation of his bail conditions as one of the major reasons the secessionist agitator should be arrested.Reacting to the ministers position, IPOB accused the Federal Government of playing politics, adding that Mr. Kanu could never be rearrested. The group also vowed that many tragic events would happen if Nigerian authorities ever rearrested the IPOB leader.IPOB is not doing anything about the order of [the Federal Government] through the Attorney General to revoke [a] court order and arrest Nnamdi Kanu again. We are just watching and waiting to see what is going to happen and how it will happen, the secessionist group stated.IPOB added, Think about what his re-arrest would cause in Nigeria. The FG is just playing politics. They cannot arrest Nnamdi Kanu. This is not the first time they would be calling for his re-arrest. Nevertheless, a lot of people have written articles stating the tragic that will happen if he is rearrested.IPOB restated its advice to all Igbo to leave the Northern part of Nigeria on or before October 1, 2017. It warned Igbo resident in the northern part of Nigeria not to fall into a trap set by Northerners.In April, a Federal High Court in Abuja granted bail to Mr. Kanu who is facing trial for alleged treason. The bail, which was granted on health grounds, came with certain conditions, including stipulations that the secessionist leader should not address rallies, grant interviews, or be at a gathering of more than 10 people.Mr. Kanu has since been addressing huge crowds of people who support his agitation for an independent republic of Biafra.
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) is not happy with the federal government for its alleged silence on intermittent clashes between herdsmen...

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) is not happy with the federal government for its alleged silence on intermittent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in different parts of the country. It blamed the federal government for failing to evolve a nationwide transition programme for herdsmen to embrace ranching as a solution to the persistent clashes.It therefore wants government to step in immediately and address the problem for peace to reign.The group, at an extraordinary session with Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State in Markurdi, also advised government to accept the socio-economic advocacy from southern Nigeria as a solution to the growing agitation for restructuring.The Southern Leaders Forum (SLF) at its last meeting in Lagos last week disagreed with President Muhammadu Buharis position on agitations for restructuring insisting that only restructuring will ensure the unity, peace and development of the country.Buhari in his last Mondays national broadcast had said Nigerias unity is settled and non-negotiable.Emerging from the NEFs session with Ortom yesterday, its spokesperson, Mr. Mustapha Wali, told reporters that the federal government has failed in intervening in sorting out these matters nationwide, all you hear are conferences and seminars of academics but the practical applicable and interventionist stage as it is happening now, is what should have been the case.Now that Benue has taken the bull by the horn as they say, we have to put a proposition for capital intensive possibilities for this transitional situations where the herdsmen are taught to ranch and to know that they are bitter times during transition and therefore, the federal government cannot avoid the responsibility of coming in to assist all the states and harmonize all these problems.It is in this respect as the convener (Dr. Paul Unongo) has stated, that we now intend to set-up a special intervention committee for the purposes of intervening in these kinds of situations, the transitional and legal situations to ensure there are no problems that will arise which are fully avoidable.Governor Ortom in an attempt to mobilize support for the open grazing prohibition and ranches establishment bill 2017, urged leaders in the region to speak up and find solution to the raging herdsmen/farmers conflict.He said: Our leaders have chosen to keep quiet and it is something that is to me a keg of gun-powder and we need to arise to our responsibilities as leaders to check this problem, the problem of herdsmen and farmers.Benue State in particular, was under siege since 2012, 13 local governments were completely displaced out of 23 local government, including my own local government.While serving as minister, my ancestral home was attacked and destroyed and that day alone, 53 of my people were murdered in cold blood, my farm was razed and destroyed.
The President of the Igbo apex socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze, Chief John Nwodo, yesterday rejected the planned re-arrest of the...

The President of the Igbo apex socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze, Chief John Nwodo, yesterday rejected the planned re-arrest of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, by the federal government.Federal Attorney-General, Justice Minister Abubakar Malami (SAN), announced on Friday that government had approached a high court to revoke Kanus bail for allegedly violating the conditions attached to the bail.But Nwodo, reacting to the AGFs statement, accused him of bias.He wondered why Malami failed to move against the Arewa youths who gave Igbo residing in the north an October 1 ultimatum to leave.He said Kanu is free as a citizen to hold any point of view no matter how displeasing to anyone, as long as such a view is not inciting or provoking any criminal activities.Nwodo, who made the associations stance known in a statement in Abuja, warned the AGF against exacerbating the tension in the country.He said: It has just been brought to my notice that the Attorney-General of the Federation has approached the courts to incarcerate Nnamdi Kanu for flouting his bail conditions.I am amazed that the distinguished attorney is prepared to contest the superiority of the provisions of the constitution on fundamental human rights of freedom of movement and freedom of association over an erroneous judicial proclamation violating those rights.I am equally miffed by the audacity with which the Attorney-General displays his bias without regard to his oath of office.A few hours ago under the watchful eyes of the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and in total defiance of the Head of States proclamation of the rights of a citizen of Nigeria to live anywhere in Nigeria and to do business anywhere in Nigeria, the Arewa youths, pretending to withdraw their quit notice gave qualifications to the presidents proclamation, issuing conditions for enjoyment of citizenship status.He added: These same Arewa Youths are supposed to have been arrested on the orders of the Governor of Kaduna State and the Inspector General of Police for acts of treason, conversion and sedition.As the Chief Law officer of the Federation the Attorney-General looks the other way. He does not go to court to seek an order of arrest or prosecution.Nnamdi, as a citizen of Nigeria, is free to hold any point of view no matter how displeasing to anyone so long as it is not inciting or provoking any criminal activities.Nwodo said although he and some Igbo leaders had disagreed with Kanu and Radio Biafra on a number of issues, they have upheld his right to differ in the spirit of democracy.He warned the AGF against aggravating the tension in the country by re-arresting the IPOB leader.He said: I and some Igbo leaders have differences of opinion with Nnamdi on a number of issues. We have been insulted and abused by Radio Biafra but we concede them their right to differ from us. We concede them their nature to be exuberant as youths but we cannot be judgmental about their rights.This is a democracy. In democracies leaders are abused, pelted with rotten eggs and booed at, as the former Edo State Governor was booed in Abuja a few days ago. These acts are not necessarily criminal.I urge the Attorney-General not to exacerbate our already tense nation by commencing a legal action which portrays him as biased, insensitive and misdirected.The federal government wants the Federal High Court, Abuja, to revoke the April 25 bail granted Kanu for allegedly breaching the conditions attached to the bail.Besides, government also requests an order directing Kanus arrest and committing him to custody pending trial as well as any such order the court may deem fit in the circumstance.Kanu is facing trial for alleged offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences.The offence for which he is standing trial is not ordinarily bailable but due to the magnanimity of the court and its quest for justice and fairness, he was granted bail on health grounds, Malami said through his spokesman, Salihu Isah.Among the other conditions for his bail is that he should not be seen in a crowd exceeding 10 people and he should not grant any interviews, hold or attend any rallies.And that he should file in court, medical updates of his health status every month. But rather than observing all of the conditions listed above, Kanu, in flagrant disobedience to the court order, flouted all conditions of the bail.According to the government, Kanu has in furtherance to the offence he was charged, inaugurated a so called Biafra Security Service, an act it describes as grave threat to national security and unity of the country.In a separate statement, the Kanu led IPOB said the federal government was out of order by moving for Kanus re-arrest.Spokesman for the group, Emma Powerful said in a statement in Owerri that threats and more threats heaped upon intimidation after intimidation do not wash with IPOB.Merely asserting that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a threat to the Nigerian government, according to Powerful, is not a crime unless accompanied by legally definable crime or offence.Before Buhari decides to make a move to arrest our leader, he must first go to court to obtain a court order or else it will be resisted by millions of IPOB members.Federal government must do exactly what IPOB did, after all the matter is before a court of competent jurisdiction. When IPOB complained about the inhumane bail conditions, we were advised to approach the court for variation.Whatever issue government of Buhari has with our leader Kanu must first be presented before Justice Binta Nyakos court for determination.Nnamdi Kanu is spiritually and mentally prepared for this epic battle. He is not afraid of being locked up without trial as long as his personal physician will be allowed to visit and attend to his medical needs.The Federal Government must also state where it is written in the 1999 Constitution that being in a crowd of more than 10 people, calling for election and attending rallies is a crime. Our teams of local and international lawyers are following the developments closely. That Nigeria is dangerously close to the brink of collapse today is a direct result of the first illegal arrest and detention of Kanu, arresting him again will plunge Nigeria into an unimaginable crisis.We are peacefully agitating for our independent homeland for the people of Biafra. We have engaged in any armed conflict of any sort, we have not called for the expulsion of any ethnic group, neither have we declared any state within a state. Nigerian government must explain which law of the land has been violated to justify their move to re-arrest our leader.Kanus lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor, had told PREMIUM TIMES, an online newspaper at the weekend that his client had successfully challenged the bail conditions referred to by the government.He was quoted as saying: Though we intend to file a formal response to their most misconceived motion, it is my position that it does not lie in the power of the AG to ask for the revocation of the bail granted to my client. The prosecution cant be seen at the same time as the persecutors.We have successfully challenged the bail terms we considered offensive to our clients constitutionally guaranteed rights. So their recent application is belated.Section 169 of the ACJA being relied upon by the AG cant avail the Attorney General absolute power to ask for the revocation of bail. Parties must be heard on the merit by the court.Ejiofor described the alleged security outfit created by Kanu as a mere group formed in the exercise of the citizens constitutional right.Kanus bail conditions preclude him from joining a crowd exceeding 10 people; granting press interviews; holding or attending rallies; and monthly filing in court medical updates of his health status.
Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has described as a game changer the ongoing photo exhibition in Abuja by a daughter...

Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has described as a game changer the ongoing photo exhibition in Abuja by a daughter of the president, Hanan Buhari.Her uncommon passion for photography, he said at the opening of the exhibition, tagged Innovation by Hanan, would encourage more young people to showcase their creativity.This exhibition is a game changer. A game changer in the sense that it is going to change the perception of our people towards the creative industry, Mohammed said.He described the creative industry comprising film, music, photography, interior decoration, architecture and publishing as the future of Nigeria.He added: In my generation, our parents wanted us to be lawyers, doctors, engineers and accountants. It was very unusual in those days to see a parent that will encourage his son or daughter to take to the creative industry.This is no longer the case. Regardless of background, gender, or education, the new and next generation are totally consumed by this creative sector.The minister said the work of Hanan would change the perception of people towards the industry, which is no longer for drop outs and the less-privileged in the society, but a sector for the highly talented.What we are witnessing today is an endorsement from the highest quarter that the creative industry is that area of our economy, which we have not really paid enough attention to, he said.
Unknown gunmen on July 27, shot dead one Mr John Agbonlahor in Benin City, raped his only daughter and left his wife partially blind an...

Unknown gunmen on July 27, shot dead one Mr John Agbonlahor in Benin City, raped his only daughter and left his wife partially blind and traumatized.

According to the traumatized widow, Elizabeth Agbonlahor, the masked gunmen stormed their residence on No 5 Adesuwa Street in Benin in an Ash coloured Toyota Camry car at about 9pm on the fateful day, while the family was watching Television.





The assailants rapped, banged on the door shouting: Where is Agbonlahor?





Scared, they could not open the door, forcing the irate assailants break it down.





Immediately they found their way into our sitting room, I tried to beg them and to inquire why they were looking for my husband. They shouted at me saying, do you think that we are here to play? And they started beating me. In the process, one of them used his gun to hit me on my left eye, recalled Mrs. Agbonlahor.





Her daughter, Prayer, tried to escape but the men caught her. Upon hearing his daughter's desperate scream for help, Mr Agbonlahor rushed to the scene but he was shot on the chest and died on the spot.





Mrs Agbonlahor said after shooting her husband, the gunmen fled, leaving her in severe pair.

"I could not imagine seeing my husband killed in my presence, after raping my daughter. I was also in great pains because of the injury on my eye. However, I managed to report the matter to the police who arrived at the scene and deposited his body at the mortuary, while my daughter was taken to the hospital for treatment.





The bereaved woman is yet to come to terms with the tragedy.

In fact, I am dumbfounded at the whole thing. Now, I have been made to become a widow overnight, my daughter was assaulted, while I am partially blind. What is my offence?





Mrs Agbonlahor has relocated to their village with her daughter for fear of her husbands killers would return to eliminate them.





An extract from the Crime Diary of State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Edo State Police Command, dated July 27, 2017 and signed by Mrs Carol Onyeka Afegbai, CSP, confirmed the incident.
The Secretary of Eastern Consultative Assembly and Deputy Secretary of Igbo Leaders of thought, Evang. Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, has describ...

The Secretary of Eastern Consultative Assembly and Deputy Secretary of Igbo Leaders of thought, Evang. Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, has described alleged plan by the Federal Government of Nigeria to re-arrest the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as a big mistake.In a statement yesterday, Ugochukwu-Uko warned that the agenda to re-arrest Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, agreed by the political class, sponsored by those fiercely opposed to the restructuring of Nigeria and endorsed by those who hate our people with passion, will permanently alter the Nigeria political firmament. This is probably ordained by God.For close to two years, the world has been regaled by series of childish mistakes by the Nigeria Government; as regards the manner the FG has handled agitation for self-determination.The decision to re-arrest Kanu in the belief that nothing will happen, is a very costly mistake. Arresting him in October, 2015 was a big mistake. Denying him bail was another mistake; executing his followers in cold blood in Aba, Onitsha, Asaba and Nkpor, a much bigger mistake. And now re-arresting a man who commands the fanatical following of millions of angry young men will definitely spur grave surprises for us all, head or tail, he said.Ugochukwu-Uko also alleged that the political leaders, who are hands and glove with the plotters of this decision, desperately want Kanu out of circulation; they claim he is a threat to their re-election. The enemies of restructuring see him as a big threat to the sustenance of the current unitary structure, they believe Kanu has singularly created so much awareness on the need to restructure, that the whole world has come to agree that restructuring Nigeria is inevitable. They blame Kanu for this and swore never to forgive him.
Former Special Adviser on New Media to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for approving a ...

Former Special Adviser on New Media to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for approving a new rail line from Kano to his hometown of Daura, Katsina State.

Recall that the Minister of Transportation had on Friday disclosed that Buhari had approved the rail line to Daura.





Reacting to the claim, Omokri wondered how Daura is contributing to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of the nation to warrant such huge investment.





Omokri noted that such decision was why Nigeria needs to be restructured to avoid lopsided allocation of resources.




Two factions of the Boko Haram insurgency group may be ready for talks with the Federal Government, a former commander of the group, Abdul...

Two factions of the Boko Haram insurgency group may be ready for talks with the Federal Government, a former commander of the group, Abdulkadir Abubakar, has claimed.

Abubakar, also known as Abu Muhammad, was the chief intelligence officer of the Boko Haram group and one of its top commanders, until his arrest in June by the military in Buni Yadi in Gujba local government area of Yobe State.





Abubakar told the News Agency of Nigeria at his cell in Maiduguri that Albarnawi and Mamman Nur factions of Boko Haram were willing to dialogue and cooperate with the government to defeat the most visible leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau.





According to him, Shekau, whose capture, dead or alive, the military high command has ordered, has been the major obstacle to peace, since the insurgency began in 2009.

Shekau is not willing to surrender due to his high handedness. Unfortunately, the government and military authorities accorded priority on dealing with Shekau, who is blood thirsty.

Albarnawi has indicated interest to dialogue with the government to end insurgency and provide a lasting solution to the crisis. Albarnawi discusses this with members of his circle. And I can assure the government that he would cooperate to achieve peace.

The two factions are willing to cooperate with Nigerian Government to defeat Shekau, he said.

Abubakars claim about the readiness of the factions to dialogue with the Nigerian authorities could not be verified as he had been incarcerated since June. But he insisted that the groups are predisposed to a peaceful resolution of the eight year-old crisis.





Abubakar claimed to have undertaken various espionage missions and provided intelligence to the insurgents, which enabled them to hit a long list of targets, among which were the abduction of 275 students at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok and the massacre of students at Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, where over 20 students were murdered at Buni Yadi.





He also claimed to have been involved in other attacks on schools in Maiduguri, Damaturu, Postikum and Mamudo.





The detained Boko Haram commander expressed his willingness to give the military useful information to crush the insurgents and arrest Shekau.

I am cooperating with the military and I am ready to provide information on the whereabouts of Shekau. Shekau has left his enclave in Sambisa and moved deep into Mandara Mountain. I know the area where he is hiding and willing to provide a guide to the military.

The intensified military offensive has weakened Shekaus position and that of the other groups, he added.
Youths in Uburu community, Ohaozara local government Area of Ebonyi state, the hometown of the Minister of Science and Technology, ICT, Dr ...

Youths in Uburu community, Ohaozara local government Area of Ebonyi state, the hometown of the Minister of Science and Technology, ICT, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu at the weekend threatened to stone the minister for petitioning against the release of the 150 million dollars to the state government.

According to them, others to be stoned include the former governor of the State, chief Martin Elechi, former Commissioner for Works and Transport, Engr. Paul Okorie. They consequently barred them from plying the roads constructed by the present administration.





In their separate statements, the special Adviser to governor David Umahi on youth mobilization, Mr Mark Onu said the youths in the state are immuned to resist or take any action against the minister for working against the state governor who is poised to develop the state.





He noted that the youths were determined to ensure that their words are put into action, expressing dismay that the minister failed to develop his community even when he was the governor of old Abia State.





Onu noted that the youths will do everything possible and within their reach to block the minister and others from coming into the state hence they are working against the release of the over 150 million US dollars to the state government aimed at reconstructing the ring roads which connected 8 LGAs in the state.





Also, the state PDP youth leader Elder Sam Igwe accused the minister of being the enemy of the state, stressing that, the governor has done what he supposed to do. He is not collecting the loan to do any other thing but to develop the state.

It is unfortunate that these miscreants including the minister are working against the release of the 150 million dollar loan to the state government.

Ogbonnaya Onu was the governor of old Abia state but he didnt do anything for Uburu people and now we have a good governor who within two years has developed the entire state.

We the youths of Ebonyi state will resist him and others who are working against the release of the 150 million dollars to the state because they lack integrity he stated.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained why he is opposed to those who are advocating for the restructuring of the country.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained why he is opposed to those who are advocating for the restructuring of the country.Obasanjo, who stated this in an interview with Channels Television, said Nigerians should rather advocate for a better management of the countrys resources.According to him, instead of fighting for restructuring, people should be concerned about inclusiveness and the restructuring of their minds.He stated, I have spoken to six different people who talk about restructuring and the six of them gave me different points of view. The other day, some people came to me and what they were talking about didnt make sense.So, what are we talking about? We have a country that God has endowed; the management of that endowment is what we have to work on. All hands must be on deck. Some of the people clamouring for restructuring are nostalgic about the countrys independence; thats their restructuring and some of them are nostalgic about post-independence. Some of them are nostalgic about their tribes, and thats their restructuring. I cannot be part of that.Speaking further, the ex-president said, My own restructuring is what I have said: we have to restructure our mentality. We have to restructure our minds. We have to restructure our understanding of Nigeria. What country do we want? And if we decide on what kind of country we want, how do we get that country? We need to get every Nigerian to have the feeling that they have a stake in the country?A similar view was expressed by the Arewa Consultative Forum and a member of the House of Representatives during the Second Republic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed.Mohammed revealed that the call for the restructuring of the country was a futile agitation.He said, I completely agree with what he (Obasanjo) said because we have done too many restructuring and none of that has done anything to improve the quality of the country. So, I think it is perhaps time we changed tactics and engage in a paradigm shift.Knowingly or unknowingly, I think Obasanjo may have paraphrased Socrates who said, Let us always define our terms before we get into any meaningful discussion. So far, I have not heard any meaningful definition of restructuring and as far as I am concerned, the whole thing is just a meaningless agitation. It is going nowhere and if we insist on doing it, it will only lead us to disaster.Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Alhaji Muhammad Biu, said what Nigeria needs is good governance at all levels.We have always said this and we still maintain that Nigeria doesnt need restructuring as being clamoured by some advocates of restructuring. What we need is good leadership at all levels of governance which comes with honesty and transparency. We should also understand our core values of equity, fairness and justice as a nation, the ACF spokesman stated.However, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, said the bone of contention is the structure of the country.The groups spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, said the current structure was anti-development and responsible for Obasanjos inability to achieve much during his eight-year rule as a civilian president.He said, We are saying the present condition of Nigeria is not conducive for development or growth. Obasanjo was president of Nigeria for eight years; yet he didnt even renovate the road that led to his farm. It is because the structure is anti-development. Meanwhile, Awolowo was premier of the Western region for seven years, and till date, we are still talking about what he achieved under the regional structure.He stated that Nigeria spent 90 per cent of its resources on overhead, an indication of the anti-development structure of the country.Speaking in a similar vein, the President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Pereotubo Oweilaemi, said Obasanjo or any other leader of the country would be wrong to ask those agitating for restructuring to first restructure their minds, asserting that the problems Nigerians face were caused by the countrys leaders.The IYC leader added that it was the position of the Niger Delta people that the country should be restructured so that they could have control of their resources.Obasanjo has done his best as a leader but it is not right for him to say that we should first restructure our minds. How can you restructure your mind when the establishment is not restructured? It is because the institutions are disorganised that people have defective minds, he said.
Several times each day, a Lincoln police cruiser pulls up to the three-story brick building just south of the O Street viaduct.

The officer helps someone out of the back of the cruiser, often people so drunk they can barely stand, so high they weave on the walk into the building.

Decades ago these people ended up in jail  for public intoxication, for trespassing, for disturbing the peace, for drunk driving.

But in 1979, the state abolished public intoxication as a crime, and cities such as Lincoln turned to a less-expensive alternative than jail for people who commit a minor crime while drunk or high or who are so high or drunk they are a danger to themselves or others.

In Lincoln, the Bridge (formerly Cornhusker Place) fills that role, providing a safe place for several thousand people a year in a program called civil protective custody.

But the Bridge is facing the loss of $50,000 to $60,000 a year in federal Medicaid funds from its $650,000 annual civil protective custody budget. And the nonprofit agency fears it could lose even more under the states new managed-care system.

Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister is concerned about the loss of civil protective custody services, an important service for the community. And hes been raising the Bridges financial problems at county and city government meetings for several months.

Law enforcement officers bring someone to the Bridge for civil protective custody services more than 3,600 times a year, and city police bring in about 85 percent of those people.

The sheriff's department, state patrol, university police and police from 15 other counties in Southeast Nebraska also bring people to the Bridge.

The city already provides about $373,000 a year for the Bridge program, which is a significant financial commitment, said Bliemeister.

But I believe their services are so valuable to overall public safety that I am searching internally for stop-gap funding, he said.

The Medicaid funding issue surfaced in January, when a new managed-care company handling the states Medicaid program determined civil protective custody didnt qualify under any Medicaid medical definition and stopped paying for that service for people on Medicaid.

For the past decade, the state Medicaid manager has paid for the Bridges civil protective custody services using the Medicaid code for social detoxification services, said Phil Tegeler, executive director of the Bridge.

Technically, civil protective custody services, which last up to 24 hours, arent as broad as social detoxification, where people stay for several days and are offered longer-term treatment options. Medicaid does cover social detoxification services.

In January, with new Medicaid management in place in Nebraska, the Bridge billed for those services as it had always done. But it was not paid.

So Tegelers staff began to ask questions. That's when they discovered Medicaid does not have a level of service defined as civil protective custody, and the new managed-care company said those services do not fall under any Medicaid definition.

The Bridge is continuing to work with state Medicaid staff hoping to find a solution, but for now the Bridge is losing about $4,800 a month in funding, Tegeler said.

The budget for civil protective custody "has never been easy, but it's always been doable," said Tegeler. "This makes it a lot more difficult."

"Its hard for me to understand how this issue comes to light today when there was no problem for decades, he says.

Tegeler is also concerned that a state decision relating to Medicaid funding may also affect another $100,000 in state and federal funds that flows through Region V Systems to the Bridge to help with the civil protective custody budget.

But Region V Director C.J. Johnson believes he can extend the flow of state and federal funds, even if he has to get a waiver from the federal government.

Region V did give the Bridge about $22,000 to help cover most of the $29,600 Medicaid funding loss from January through June.

Civil protective custody gives police a safe place, other than jail, to take people who are drunk and commit a minor crime or who are so drunk they are a danger to themselves or others, Bliemeister said.

About 70 percent of the people who were committed to civil protective custody last year were one-time admissions. About 20 percent were episodic, and were admitted several times. And about 10 percent are chronic, going in and out of civil protective custody over and over, Tegeler said.

By law people can be held for no more than 24 hours in civil protective custody. They can be released earlier to a sober, responsible person or if they are no longer legally drunk.

Civil protective custody prevents booking people in jail, saving money. It also saves time for officers attempting to find a family member or friend willing to take responsibility so the person won't go right back to his or her car and drive away still intoxicated, Bliemeister said.

And it provides a place for people who are so intoxicated they can't take care of themselves, he added.

"This is one of our important nongovernment partners that keeps our community safe and the people who live here safe," he said.
PARAMUS -- Authorities are investigating a deadly early Sunday morning crash near Bergen Town Center Mall in Paramus.

Two people died after they were ejected in the roll-over crash off of Route 4 East in the parking lot of Olive Garden restaurant, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said in a release.

Two others in the car also were ejected and injured in the incident.

Police had cleaned the area and left the scene by mid-morning.

A 19-year-old woman from Garfield was dead when police arrived. Two women from Garfield, both believed to be in their early 20s, and a 23-year old man from Paterson, were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.

One of the women was pronounced dead at the hospital, the other is still hospitalized with serious injuries. The man was treated and released.

The office did not name those involved in the crash pending family notification.

Local news footage shows a severly damaged white sedan, sitting in the Olive Garden parking lot at the Bergen Town Center mall.

The car, a 2001 Ford Mustang, was the only vehicle involved in the crash, Paramus Officer Robert Gleason said.

By mid-morning, officers had removed the car and were cleaning the scene. By nearly 11 a.m., police had left.

Crash investigation continues on route 4 east bound in Paramus. @News12NJ pic.twitter.com/v1DTh0wsOS  Jim Murdoch News12NJ (@ReporterJim) August 27, 2017

The right and center lanes were closed on Route 4 early Sunday morning due to the investigation, according to 511nj.org. All lanes were reopened as of mid-morning.

Most retail stores are closed on Sunday in Bergen County, but the Olive Garden restaurant, which was scheduled to open at 11 a.m., was set to open a bit later, around 12:30 p.m., a manager said.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office is handling the investigation. The cause of the crash is under investigation and a determination on whether charges will be filed has not been made, the office said.

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.

Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us: nj.com/tips.
HACKENSACK - A Closter woman has sued the Leonia Police Department, claiming they falsely arrested her two years ago and accused her of striking a crossing guard with her car.

Bridget Pursley (Leonia PD)

Bridgette Pursley, 52, claims in court papers she was driving to a business meeting about 3:30 p.m. on May 27, 2015 when she got into a screaming match with Charlie Lee, a school crossing guard on Broad Avenue.

Lee "started yelling at plaintiff very dramatically and aggressively moving in front of the plaintiff's vehicle and put up his hands," Pursley claims in the lawsuit, filed Aug. 7 in Bergen County Superior Court.

"Are you crazy?" Pursley claims she shouted back. "Why are you yelling at me when you see that I respectfully stopped as I'm supposed to?"

The suit claims Lee ran to the back of Pursley's vehicle, "made a loud, aggressive chant and karate-chopped" her car.

After further yelling from both parties, Pursley drove off, the suit states.

Leonia police later charged Pursley with third-degree assault, hindering apprehension and several motor vehicle violations, according to the suit.

The suit claims Lee told police Pursley hit him with her car.

Pursley was held in jail until she was able to post $2,500 bail, the suit states.

"Those charges were eventually dismissed," said Christopher C. Roberts, an East Orange attorney who filed the suit.

After her arrest, Leonia police issued a press release about the incident along with Pursley's photo. At least one local news organization posted the story and picture online.

Even though the criminal charges were dropped, website editors have not responded to a request to have the post removed, Roberts said.

Roberts said Pursley had been charged with indictable offenses but was only convicted of traffic violations.

She owned a dog-grooming business when the incident occurred but is currently unemployed, Roberts said.

"Right now, she would like for her name to be cleared," Roberts said. "This cloud still hangs over her. Every time somebody Googles her name this comes up."

"She wants them to finish the story. She wants a retraction," he said.

The complaint names the Leonia Police Department, Police Chief Thomas Rowe, individually and in his capacity as chief, the crossing guard and two detectives.

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, along with damages for pain and suffering, attorney fees and court costs.

A spokesman for the police department did not return a call seeking comment on Friday. A call to borough administration was not returned Friday.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A math teacher from Burlington County is among the thousands of cruise ship passengers who were reportedly stuck at sea or other ports due to tropical storm Harvey.

Brittany Dessin, 27, of Mount Laurel, was on a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean when the captain informed them Friday that the port they were supposed to return to in Galveston, Texas was closed in expectation of the Category 4 hurricane making landfall, according to her mother, Eileen Dessin, of Maple Shade.

The ship instead stayed an extra day in Cozumel, an island off of Mexico. Eileen Dessin said the port there was so crowded with stuck cruise ships that her daughter didn't even get off the ship.

Brittany Dessin said she doesn't consider herself to be stuck, just delayed. Plus, the weather has mostly been perfect.

"The plan is to hopefully be able to return to Galveston tomorrow," Brittany Dessin said, and she was able to change her flight back to tomorrow.

Cruise ships were still not operating at the Port of Galveston Sunday morning, according to the port's recorded message.

Brittany Dessin praised the ship's captain and staff for keeping the passengers safe and informed.

"The Carnival Breeze's crew has been amazing," she said. "They have been helpful, positive and have been creating events and activities to help us stay entertained."

Meanwhile, southeastern Texas is dealing with what the National Hurricane Center is calling catastrophic flooding and high winds. Many towns issued evacuation orders. Five people have died.

Harvey is expected to weaken to a tropical depression later Sunday, the center said.

In a statement on its website, Carnival said that two other ships have been affected by the storm and had to dock in New Orleans "for a short technical stop to replenish provisions before resuming course to Galveston" Saturday evening.

"Our intention is to be in position to take advantage of any docking opportunity that may become available in Galveston on Sunday or Monday," the cruise line said.

CNN reported that passengers aboard the cruise ships were concerned with getting kids back for their first day of school, or missing flights. Others worried about vehicles that they left parked in Galveston.

The port said on its Facebook page Saturday that the parking lot was not flooded and flood waters on the access roads had receded.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK -- A man serving a 55-year-sentence after being convicted in a 2011 killing will get a new trial because of the clothing testifying defense witnesses were wearing during his trial.

Keevin David, pictured in this mug shot provided by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

According to an appellate decision released Tuesday, witnesses testifying on behalf of Keevin David as he stood trial on charges he shot 19-year-old Tyrell Coleman to death appeared before the jury while wearing prison attire and handcuffs.

The jail uniforms and cuffs, David's attorney argued, undermined their credibility and prejudiced the jury.

"We agree...that he was deprived of a fair trial when a witness crucial to his defense testified in jail garb and handcuffs," two appellate judges wrote in their decision.

When witnesses need to be restrained for security reasons, the appeals court ruled a hearing must be held about it, and the jury must be instructed not to have the shackles influence their decision. Neither happened in this case, it said.

David, now 24, of Springfield, was tried twice - first in 2012, when a jury convicted him of weapons offenses but failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge against him; and again in 2013, when he was convicted of murder.

A spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said it was not planning to ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to consider the appellate ruling.

"We are reviewing the ruling and will likely begin to prepare to retry the case," she said.

Coleman was shot to death in the lobby of his Orange apartment building on Jan. 25, 2011, at 11:30 a.m., after walking home from school.

There were no witnesses to the shooting, and prosecutors never established a motive for the killing.

In an obituary, family members described Coleman, who went by the nickname "Relly," as happy-go-lucky and funny.

"He loved life, he loved his family, he loved his friends, and he loved being able to share that love with all the lives he touched in his short time with us," the obituary reads.

David's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the decision.

Jessica Mazzola may be reached at

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LOUISVILLE  A former chancellor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center has returned to work part-time as a pediatrician.

Dr. Harold Maurer, 80, said that he "failed retirement" in his two-month foray into doing little besides spending time with family and friends. He retired from UNMC nearly three years ago.

"I don't want my brain to turn to mush," he said.

His wife, Beverly, says she's ready for him to hang up his stethoscope, but he isn't.

"I enjoy seeing patients, and that's why I'm here," he said. "You do nothing, you've got a greater chance of developing dementia."

His schedule isn't intense. He said he often sees one to three patients a day at Children's Hospital & Medical Center.

"It takes me about 45 minutes to see a patient," he said. "I'm an old-time doctor."

When he was chancellor, Maurer raised hundreds of millions of dollars to transform the medical center's campus. Before the chancellorship, he was dean of medicine at the medical center for five years.

When Maurer worked as a physician, he helped develop a chemotherapy-radiation regimen for a rare childhood cancer that led to fewer amputations and more lives saved.

"He amazes me," said Dr. Bruce Gordon, the medical center's division chief for pediatric hematology and oncology. "If I was his age, the last thing I'd want to do is come into work."

Omaha resident Anabella Ceja, whose son was recently treated by Maurer, spoke highly of the doctor.

"I feel like the older the doctor is, the more knowledge they have," Ceja said. "He was really sweet and really nice."
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP)  Survivors of Hurricane Ian face a long emotional road to recover from one of the most damaging storms to hit the U.S. mainland. For those who lost everything to disaster, the anguish can be crushing to return home to find so much gone. Grief can run the gamut from frequent tears to utter despair. The Lee County medical examiner says two men in their 70s even took their own lives a day apart after viewing their losses. Experts say suicides climb after disasters and more funding for mental health should be provided as climate change makes storms and fires more frequent and devastating.
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.
Equipment for firefighters and rescue units is improving rapidly, but the cost of that equipment is escalating at the same time.

The need for better equipment and the rising cost of that equipment creates challenges for all departments but especially for the small, volunteer fire and rescue departments that dot southwest Iowa.

Walnuts Fire and Rescue Department is being proactive in addressing those issues. To help meet future needs, the department has established an endowment fund with the Pottawattamie County Community Foundation.

In partnership with the city of Walnut and the PCCF, we now have a fund in place with some seed money provided by the city to enhance our future services to the community, said Justen Tooley, Walnuts fire chief and a member of the Walnut City Council.

The Walnut Fire & Rescue Department currently covers 90 square miles of mostly rural, residential and farmland area. All of the current 31 members are firefighters, while 11 members are also emergency medical technicians and one is a paramedic.

The cost of equipping the departments volunteers is substantial. Turnout gear for a firefighter  helmet, coat, pants and boots  is currently about $5,000. Airpacks add about $3,500 to $4,000. The pagers used to notify volunteers of fire or rescue calls cost $400 to $500, and equipping firefighters with radios adds $3,000 to $4,000 per unit.

Tooley said the department is currently working to raise the $40,000 needed to purchase a new power cot for the rescue squad. This fall, five to seven additional members of the volunteer department will be trained as EMTs at a cost of $800 to $900 per person.

The department currently has two fire engines: a 1999 model and a newer, 2006 model.

Weve been fortunate in being able to purchase our vehicles outright, without issuing bonds or taking out loans, Tooley said. There have been several large donations from estates that have benefitted the fire department.

Jerry Mathiasen, PCCF president and CEO, explained that the fund that has been established is an agency endowment to which citizens and businesses can contribute. All donations to the fund are tax-deductible.

In addition to the tax incentive, PCCF will add a 10 percent incentive contribution for each dollar put into the fund. For example, if an individual or business contributes $1,000 to the Walnut Fire and Rescue fund, the contribution will grow to $1,100 with the PCCFs 10 percent contribution.

To help the fund grow, Tooley asks interested individuals or businesses to visit

ourpccf.org and go to the Donate to a Charitable Fund link to find information on the Walnut Fire & Rescue Fund.
Iowa, Nebraska and as many as a dozen other states are going after a $1.6 billion, 4,000-employee, 1,000-acre auto assembly plant planned by Toyota and Mazda for the United States.

A Wall Street Journal story said a Toyota consultant had been exploring sites secretly for more than six months in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas before announcing its plans in early August.

Tina Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority, said: Were certainly doing our best to talk about the business advantages of an Iowa location and discuss potential sites.

These projects can take years to develop, Hoffman said. It feels like were in the early stage of that, but the company will make the decision. Were certainly prepared to work at the speed at which they want to work.

Nebraska was not on the short list of states vying for the factory, according to a Wall Street Journal story earlier this month, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

I think were definitely in the running, David Brown, chief executive of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday. They havent come out and ranked anybody yet, but we have done enough that we are in the running for this.

Taylor Gage, a spokesman for Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, said such lists are industry speculation and not information from the businesses looking for a location.

Randy Thelen, the Omaha chambers top recruiter, said the Toyota consultant invited Nebraska to make a proposal and said Nebraska was one of 15 states in contention. That was still the case Thursday afternoon, he said.

Pat Haverty, vice president of the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, said the state is ready for the consultant to provide more information on sites. Proposed sites in Nebraska most likely would be in the eastern one-third of the state, where the population is concentrated, he said.

Omaha was a finalist for a BMW assembly plant in 1992 but lost out to Spartanburg, South Carolina. That near-miss gave Nebraska business recruiters experience that they used to attract other employers, however.

Ricketts and the states economic developers are telling Toyota and Mazda that the state would be the best place to help the company grow their operations, Gage said Thursday.

State Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, chairman of the Legislatures Revenue Committee, said the possibility is good news. ... Its great to see Nebraska in the running for this. That would be a tremendous investment in our state.

Barry Kennedy, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Nebraskas unemployment rate  2.8 percent, fourth-lowest in the nation  would not be a barrier.

This is the type of facility that would help attract more people to our state, Kennedy said. It would be a real boost to our economy.

The chance for such a plant underlines the value of state tax incentives for businesses that add jobs, Kennedy said.

If youre going to have any chance at all, youve got to be competitive, he said. Im guessing nearly every state in the nation would like to have this plant, and so every state in the nation is going to have some kind of an incentive package to lay on the table.

Members of the Legislatures Revenue and Appropriations Committees will get a briefing today on how the states business tax incentives are being used and how they affect government revenue. Lawmakers did not make major changes in incentives this year.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced three weeks ago that it would buy a 5 percent share of Mazda Motor Corp. and that the two would cooperate on the new U.S. assembly plant.

The plant would start production in 2021 and could turn out up to 300,000 vehicles per year, including Toyota Corollas and Mazda crossover vehicles.

Thelen, the Omaha chamber executive, said the recruiting team, headed by the governor, includes the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, the state chamber, chambers of commerce in Omaha and Lincoln, utilities, transportation companies and others.

This is a true team effort, hand in hand, arm in arm, Thelen said. We are absolutely driving as fast as we can.

He said Nebraskas advantages include two major railroads, Interstate highways and, compared with sites in the South or on the East Coast, proximity to retail markets on the West Coast.

Were confident we have the real estate that will work for this, he said.

Nebraskans have a good work ethic and problem-solving skills, Thelen said. Thats where were really going to shine. These are high-quality, high-paying jobs. Its sort of at the top of the economic-development food chain.

 World-Herald staff writers Joe Duggan and Martha Stoddard contributed to this story.
DES MOINES (AP)  Zachary Hageman moves through the almost-done luxury apartments near downtown Des Moines and points to the studs and wiring, the drywall and cabinets.

The 18-year-old is part of the cleanup crew, an entry-level position thats part of a new school program designed to give hands-on experience to high school students and recent graduates.

Once unsure of his future, the recent North High School graduate now plans to become an electrician. Its an in-demand job. In Iowa, experienced electricians average $30 an hour, or more than $62,000 a year, according to the Iowa Wage Report 2016.

Thats more than the states average wage of $20.12 an hour.

I know what I want to be doing, Hageman told The Des Moines Register. In construction, at the end of the day, youve done something that you can be proud of.

State and industry leaders want more teens to follow Hagemans lead into so-called middle skills jobs  those requiring additional training beyond high school but less than a four-year college degree.

As Iowa students head back to school, one of the hottest focuses is an effort to expand and elevate vocational and technical training in high school.

More than half of all Iowa jobs are for middle-skilled workers, but only one-third of Iowa workers are prepared to fill those positions, leaving a skills gap that spans multiple industries, according to a 2015 Iowa Workforce Development report.

Championed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, the states Future Ready Iowa initiative set a goal to have 70 percent of Iowas labor force earn training beyond high school by 2025. Currently, 58 percent of the states workforce, defined as ages 25 to 64, meets that benchmark.

More K-12 schools and Iowa companies are partnering to add and expand skilled-trades programs; from creating the Skilled Trades Academy in Des Moines to a pre-apprenticeship program in Boone that can reduce the amount of time it takes a student to complete a traditional apprenticeship.

The ability to earn a high-quality living with little debt  when you can give that hope to students and families, it inspires them to be engaged in their learning, said Aiddy Phomvisay, director of Central Campus in Des Moines.

Particularly in construction trades  where projected retirements are compounding hiring demands  businesses, industry associations and trade unions are working with educators to attract more students.

We see help wanted signs out there all the time, said Dan Knoup, executive officer of the Greater Des Moines Home Builders Association. The jobs are out there. The careers are available.

To meet the growing demand, Des Moines Public Schools created a new three-year Skilled Trades Academy at Central Campus. The school, which once housed the districts Technical High School, already had classes in welding, painting and drywall and homebuilding. It is adding HVAC and plumbing classes this school year, and it plans to add electrical the following school year.

We have individual welding booths. We have state-of-the-art ventilation systems, all the capabilities that they have with an apprentice shop, Phomvisay said. That includes close access to a loading dock so students can work on heavy pieces of metal. In addition, specialized equipment will allow students to learn more advanced skills, such as powder coating and pipe welding.

The expansion is possible thanks to a partnership with more than 30 business and industry leaders, who will donate more than $1.5 million over three years to pay for equipment and additional teaching positions. The program will eventually grow from three to six teachers.

Its critical for businesses to step up and help facilitate this, said Gary Scrutchfield, owner of Lumbermans Drywall & Roofing Supply. This is the future of our industry, and the future of the state. We need to participate and help (schools) move forward on this.

Lumbermans is part of the Skilled Trades Alliance, an industry group that formed to raise donations and support and advise the program.

In addition, Des Moines schools spent more than $6 million renovating classrooms, creating space to grow its existing skilled-trades program from about 90 to 300 students in three years. Students from 26 nearby districts as well as Des Moines high schools may enroll in Central Campus classes.

We want to be the best, Phomvisay said. We want to provide the very best to our students so theyre inspired and get to work in a world-class facility, with world-class training and certificates that will make them far more competitive.

As part of the Skilled Trades Academy, teens can earn certain safety and industry credentials while still in school, as well as apartment maintenance technician certification, helping some find work immediately after graduation.

For other students, the classroom training can lead directly to a trade apprenticeship program, and ultimately a high-paying job.

Across Iowa, for example, plumbers, pipe fitters and steamfitters can earn, on average, $31 an hour with experience, or more than $64,000 a year, according to a 2016 Iowa Wage Report. And theres often opportunity for overtime.

In central Iowa, after completing the five-year apprenticeship program with Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 33 and obtaining certain state licenses and certifications, a journey worker earns $33.65 an hour plus benefits.

The unions apprentice pay scale begins at $15.14 with regular increases after the first year.

Were getting paid well, said Trevor Campbell, an apprentice about to start his fourth year of training with Local 33.

Campbell said his career as a welder and steamfitter is opening financial doors. By the time youre a journeyman, youve got all the qualifications you need to perform a job and make a really good, middle-class wage and live the American dream.

To recruit teens into the trade, Local 33 partnered with Central Campus to allow students to work as helpers alongside journeymen. The students learn tool-handling and math skills, such as adding and subtracting fractions, are reinforced.

Youre starting to learn the trade, said Eric Smith, the unions training director. Its about getting better-quality candidates. They come out with the foundation that they need.

Such school-industry partnerships are becoming more common across Iowa. In Boone, for example, Kruck Plumbing and Heating, a mechanical contractor, is partnering with Boone High School as part of a new pre-apprenticeship program.

Our goal is to eliminate a year or two off their apprenticeship program, Boone Principal Kris Byam said. They (will) have an opportunity to cut down on the amount of time it takes them to become a journeyman plumber.

Most registered apprenticeship programs offered by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa take four years to complete, for example. Across industries and jobs, however, apprenticeships can range from one to six years depending on the complexity of work, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In Boone, students are introduced to a range of trades, including plumbing, HVAC, sheet metal and electrical work. They will complete hands-on training at a nearby apprentice shop.

Its like a kid who changes his major four times when theyre in college, said Chad Houston, Krucks president. We want them to see all different kinds and let them see which path fits them best.

A 2016 law that redesigns vocational school programs  now called career and technical programs  requires schools to partner with local business and industry leaders in an effort to better align school programs with the marketplace.

If youre going to have a program in skilled trades or construction, you need to have a robust advisory committee and business people saying: Here are the skills we need, said Jeremy Varner, the Iowa Department of Educations administrator for the Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation.

The law also addresses the uneven access Iowa students have to programs by establishing regional partnerships between schools and community colleges. Such programs often require a heavy investment in equipment, or a certain number of students to make the program viable.

Its hard for institutions to do it alone, Varner said.

But its not just the infrastructure and programming that pose a challenge. Many parents and teachers remain skeptical of so-called blue-collar work and encourage students to attend college instead. In the last 30 years, the status of vocational education plummeted, said Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

The message that went out was that vocational education was for kids who cant do academics, and that academics is crucially important because if you dont have academics you cant support a family, he said.

Yet in countries such as Switzerland, vocational training has taken a different route, including higher academic expectations and lessons, he said.

Industry leaders are confronting negative stereotypes head-on.

Parents will say, Use your brain. You dont want to work with your hands, but in this industry you have to have both motor skills, and math is critical, said Scrutchfield, owner of Lumbermans Drywall & Roofing Supply. You have to be able to think.

A key element is sharing what career advances are available, said Ginny Shindelar, vice president of education and training at the Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa.

While students may start as apprentices, they can become a journeyman or master in their trade, or move into the management side and become an estimator, project manager or superintendent.

Theres a whole lot of options out there, Shindelar said. Sometimes, when you think of construction, you dont think of all the possibilities.

Houston went the four-year route, graduating from Iowa State in 2004 before switching gears and starting an apprenticeship with Kruck, where he was working part time.

He worked his way up, earning his journeymans and masters licenses in plumbing, HVAC and sheet metal. Today, hes the companys president.

Everybody has their own path, Houston said. If you like to work with your hands, if you like to work outside, there are many, many opportunities out there to be successful with a skilled trade.

But industry leaders also dont want to sugar-coat the work ethic that trades require.

Theres very high-paid, high-skilled jobs that require effort, Scrutchfield said. In the trades, when its 20 below zero we work, when its 100 degrees we work.

Kort Kern thought about going directly into a trade after graduating from Des Moines Lincoln in 2012. Hed spent his senior year taking a half-day welding class at Central Campus  a needed break away from pushing papers for other classes, he said.

But when it came time to decide a career route, he met resistance from his parents. Both had degrees and envisioned the same for their son. It would never hurt to finish, they told him.

Kern graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelors degree but had trouble imagining himself at a desk job.

I missed getting to work with my hands after being in school for four years, Kern said.

Kern got in touch with his former welding teacher, who suggested an apprenticeship program.

The 23-year-old doesnt regret his college experience  he still might use it one day, he said  but his perspective has changed. Kern now sees his future as a pipe fitter, a career that doesnt require a college degree but does require specialized training.

Youve got to be thinking about what you like, he said. Do you like being on the computer? Do you like working with your hands?

Kern was recently accepted into the five-year apprenticeship program with the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 33. He now works at Excel Mechanical.

Id just say, theres nothing wrong with an honest day of hard work.
When money is tight at small, privately-run elementary schools, the needs of their libraries are often pushed down the list of priorities, according to an official of such a school.

A local restaurant wants to move those needs to the top of the list.

On Tuesday, the Runza Restaurant at 2146 West Broadway will donate 10 percent of its sales that day toward the library needs at Heartland Christian School in Council Bluffs.

Its part of the 15th annual Great Books for Great Kids fundraiser that Runza is sponsoring at all of its restaurants across the Midwest. Last year, more than $35,000 was raised chain-wide to benefit children in communities with Runza locations, and in the last 14 years, more than $435,000 has been donated, according to Becky Perrett, marketing director for Runza National, based in Lincoln, Nebraska. And, its so easy for the customers, she said.

There is nothing they have to do other than ordering their favorite Runza meals, Perrett said.

Understandably, Larry Gray, executive director of Heartland Christian School, had high praise for Runza.

Runza has taken care of us over the last few years, Gray said. It goes a long way.

As a private school, Heartland does not receive government funds, so its sources of revenue are limited to fundraisers and tuition, which mainly pays for salaries, basic supplies and bills, according to Gray.

A lot of times, libraries get pulled down the list, he said.

Last year, the local Runza donated around $500 to the schools library from this special one-day event, said Rob Kessler, manager.

They are so appreciative of that, he said of the school.

The local Runza will be open on Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Runza Restaurants are famous for the Runza sandwich with its blend of ground beef, cabbage, onions and secret spices baked inside homemade bread, plus made-to-order hamburgers and homemade onion rings. Runza operates and franchises 83 restaurants in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and two in Iowa, in Council Bluffs and Clarinda.
Contrary to how Council Bluffs school officials interpreted the rule, the Iowa Department of Public Health clarified Friday that no grace period should be given to students who have not received the newly required meningococcal vaccine.

The message states that, if the student does not have one of the required vaccinations, theyre not allowed to start in school, said Tanya French, public health nurse at the Council Bluffs Public Health Department.

Under the rule, seventh-graders must have had one dose of the vaccine and 12th-graders must have had two  or one dose, if they received one since they turned 16, the bulletin stated.

Basically, one dose is required to start school, the message stated. A Provisional Certificate of Immunization can only be issued when the student has already received one dose of the meningococcal vaccine and a second dose is needed to meet the requirements.

IDPH issued the warning after receiving questions about grace periods and waivers on the requirement this week as school districts prepared to begin the 2017-18 school year.

They had, essentially, a year grace period, said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist, saying that the law was passed by the Legislature in 2016 for implementation with the 2017-18 school year. What we cant do is we cant just arbitrarily change the law.

She noted that the state and many school districts had made an effort to get the word out well before school started this fall.

On Friday, officials at both Lewis Central and Council Bluffs Community School Districts said they hadnt turned anyone away on the first day of school because of the requirement.

Joel Beyenhof, principal at Lewis Central High School, said just a handful of students had shown up Wednesday without proof of vaccination.

Were working with all those families to try to get them taken care of, he said. If things arent corrected by next week, they may have to miss.

Diane Ostrowski, chief communication officer for Council Bluffs schools, said no students were turned away in the first two days of school.

Individuals with both districts who are responsible for the health programs did not return a request for an interview Friday afternoon.

Before the requirement was passed, 75 percent of Iowa adolescents were already vaccinated, according to Americas Health Rankings 2016 Annual Report.

Iowas Regents universities, along with many other colleges, require the meningococcal vaccination, Quinlisk said. People are most likely to catch the disease when they are young adults living in a college dormitory, she said.
The United States of America has been at war for the past 5,803 days in Afghanistan.

The war began with U.S. and British attacks against the Taliban after they refused to hand over Osama bin Laden in the days and weeks after 9/11.

President Donald Trump said in a speech earlier this week that, after the extraordinary sacrifice of blood and treasure, the American people are weary of war without victory. Nowhere is this more evident than with the war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history.

Trump blamed the lack of a victory on nation-building, the idea that prior to leaving the country we must rebuild enough infrastructure  physical, political, economic and militaristic  that it remains stable in our absence.

The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory, Trump said Monday night. They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

We should also note that the president said we will always win  yet history would disagree. Korea was a stalemate, as the recent rise in tensions proves, and victory cant be claimed in Vietnam, either. With Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, results in the Persian Gulf are mixed, too.

Those serving our country in the armed forces choose to put service before self  placing their love of country first, even should it demand the ultimate sacrifice. Such loyalty and selfless dedication deserves respect, and respect isnt given wearing rose-tinted glasses.

That is to say: We agree with the president that our armed forces deserve a plan for victory. But if victory isnt attainable, or the costs of victory  perhaps bringing back conscription  are too high, then our armed forces deserve to be pulled from harms way.

If a victory in Afghanistan isnt possible, were overdue to accept the war wont be won and start planning for a future where the war is finally over.

Bin Laden is dead. How long must we accept a tax on American blood and treasure to keep this uneasy stability, as locals allow terrorist groups to keep a foothold in the area?

Lets be clear: We want to see the years of war the U.S. has waged in Afghanistan to result in victory. Those deaths ought to have meaning.

But, if thats not possible, we urge Trump to not fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy, to accept any fallout and to reject fighting a perpetual war.
Trump call for transgender ban in military shocking

As a U.S. Army veteran that served during the Vietnam era, I am shocked and ashamed at President Trumps call to ban transgender people from the military. His reasons for the dictatorial decree: The burden of the tremendous medical costs and disruption to military readiness.

Those arguments are a smokescreen and untrue. Extensive studies have shown that there is only a 0.04-0.13 percent increase in total defense health care spending and there is no cost to military readiness associated with allowing trans people to serve. Whats really going on?

It was Vice President Mike Pence, influenced by the anti-LGBTQ groups such as the Family Research Council, who lobbied the House of Representatives to pass an amendment to the 2018 Defense Spending Bill that would have ended care for transgender people in the military who are transitioning. I am proud of the 24 Republicans who joined Democrats to vote it down. That was democracy in action  voting down a discriminatory and unjust amendment.

Now the President who promised in his campaign to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans from violence and oppression is trying to score cheap political points on the backs of the American soldiers.

I am hoping that Americans will stand up and speak up for these brave soldiers who put their lives on the line for this country.

Edward Kelly Jr., Red Oak

Iowa West says Thank you

On behalf of the Iowa West Foundation, I was privileged to take part in the Back to School ceremony for staff members of the Council Bluffs Community School District at the Mid-America Center. The Foundation was honored with a Distinguished Partner in Education award for our community leadership and partnership with the district, but that is not why I left impressed.

Throughout the program, representatives from each school had an opportunity to talk about their points of pride. Increased math and reading scores, stronger team cultures and reduced bullying were just a few of last years accomplishments that were celebrated. You could feel the enthusiasm and excitement in the room.

It was a pleasure to see the administrators, teachers and staff take great pride in what they do as they look forward to another year of rewarding work. Our community is very fortunate to have these dedicated professionals so committed to creating opportunities for all of our kids.

The Council Bluffs Community School District truly has made commendable progress over the years and positively impacted the outcomes of their students for years to come.

Pete Tulipana, President and CEO, Iowa West Foundation
We have endured Donald Trump for seven months. In that brief time, he has almost single-handedly destroyed the moral authority of the presidency of the United States at home and abroad, brought us to the brink of a nuclear war without consulting anyone and sown division and hatred across the land.

How can this nation endure another 41 months of this man?

We can't wait for special counsel Robert Mueller's evidence of Russian collusion. Even if Mueller finds that some of Trump's aides colluded, Mueller might well find that Trump had "plausible deniability." Top guns often arrange wrongdoing so they can plausibly deny they knew it was occurring. That's the art of the deal.

So how can Trump be removed?

There's already enough evidence to impeach him on grounds of abuse of power, obstruction of justice and violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. There is already enough evidence of mental impairment to invoke the 25th Amendment.

But with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, neither of these outcomes is likely.

Yet there's another way Trump can be effectively removed: He can be made irrelevant.

It's already starting to happen. The howling man-child who occupies the Oval Office is being cut off and contained.

Trump no longer has a working majority in the Senate because several Senate Republicans have decided the hell with him. Three Republican senators voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, dooming his effort. Almost all voted to restrict his authority over Russian sanctions.

They're also pushing forward with their own inquiry into Trump's Russian connections. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Lindsey Graham have even joined Democrats in introducing legislation to protect Mueller from being fired.

Republicans in the House won't fund his wall. Many refuse to increase the national debt in order to pay for his promised tax cuts. After Charlottesville, many more are willing to criticize him publicly.

Last week, Tennessee's Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, even questioned Trump's "stability" and "competence," saying Trump hasn't shown he understands "the character of this nation" and that without that understanding, "our nation is going to go through great peril."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz reports that GOP leaders are "personally wrestling with the trade-offs of making a cleaner separation with the president."

It helps that Republican patrons in big business are deserting Trump in droves. A number of CEOs have bolted his advisory councils. Many have issued sharp rebukes of Trump.

These are the people who raise big bucks for the GOP. Their dumping of Trump makes it easier for elected Republicans to do so, too.

Even James Murdoch, the 21st Century Fox CEO whose media outlets include Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The New York Post -- among the loudest mouthpieces for Trump -- is ditching him.

Last Thursday, Murdoch wrote in a widely circulated email that "what we watched ... in Charlottesville and the reaction to it by the president of the United States concern all of us as Americans and free people," and pledged $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League.

This doesn't mean Fox News or the Wall Street Journal will call for Trump's ouster. It does mean their commentators and editorial writers now have clear license to criticize him.

America as a whole is abandoning him. Trump's approval rating hit an all-time low of 34 percent last week. Even parts of his base are dropping him. New NBC News/Marist polls show that Trump's approval ratings have fallen below 40 percent in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- three states that were key to his election, which he won by a whisker.

Inside the administration, there are moves to contain and isolate the man-child.

On foreign policy, the Axis of Adults -- Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- is asserting tighter control, especially after Trump's tweetstorm over North Korea.

Reportedly, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are stepping up attempts to constrain him as well.

"You have no idea how much crazy stuff we kill," another White House aide told Mike Allen of Axios.

Plus, Stephen Bannon is gone.

All of this means that although Trump will still hold the title of president, he's on the way to being effectively removed from the presidency. Neutered. Defanged.

We're not out of danger. Trump will continue to rant and fume. He'll insult. He'll stoke racial tensions. He could still start a nuclear war.

But, hopefully, he won't be able to exercise much presidential power from here on. He's being ostracized like an obnoxious adolescent who's been grounded.

When the media stop reporting his tweets, his isolation and irrelevance will be complete.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on Monday will discuss a paving project for the District 11 parking lot.

A memorandum of understanding between the county, the state and Nebraska Public Power District concerning the countys leasing land for a trail will be discussed. The request is for the county to apply for a federally funded grant through the Nebraska Game and Parks Commissions Recreational Trails Program that would be used for the fourth phase of the Lake Maloney hiking and biking trail. The approximate length of this portion of the trail is 0.6 miles.

The commissioners also will consider a resolution determining the final allocation of the tax levy for political subdivisions.

Its basically where we say to the various districts, you get this much levy, Commissioner Joe Hewgley said. After they turn their budget in to us, its a matter of the assessor doing a mathematical calculation based on the valuation and (saying) for the amount of tax you need, this is what you get.

Hewgley said it is part of the budget process every year.

Discussion of personnel matters in the building and grounds department will be done in closed session to prevent needless injury to the reputation of the individuals concerned.

After the regular meeting, the commissioners will conduct a budget work session.

The regular meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Commissioners Room at the Lincoln County Courthouse.
Warriors prop Ben Matulino has admitted Sunday afternoon's match against the Manly Sea Eagles has been weighing heavily on his mind in recent times, as he prepares to farewell the stadium he has called home for the past decade.

One of the original success stories of the National Youth Competition system, Matulino made his NRL Telstra Premiership debut for the Warriors in Round 14 of 2008 and has hardly looked back, going on to amass 210 first-grade games for the club.

But while happy to go under the radar this week before his last home match in Auckland, Wests Tigers-bound Matulino told NRL.com it had been impossible to keep the occasion out of his head.

"I think about it every day that my time at the club is getting less and less, so I am just trying to make the most of it now and enjoying my time with the boys," Matulino said.

"I owe the club quite a bit, they signed me when I was a 17-year-old and I have been up here for 10 years now, so I owe them plenty. They have given me plenty.

"I just want to play my game and leave it at that, I don't need a send-off or anything like that."



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 25: Warriors vs Sea Eagles

There will be no dream finish for Matulino at the Warriors, with the club in the midst of a seven-game losing run which has seen them plummet down the ladder and miss the finals for the sixth year in a row.

Having made the play-offs in three of his first four seasons in the top grade, including the 2011 Grand Final, the 28-year-old prop hasn't played in the post-season since and said he would leave with some lingering disappointment.

"It's probably not the way I saw the end happening," Matulino said.

"Thinking back on it, when I first joined the team in 2008 making the finals was a regular thing and I took that for granted.

"As it turns out we haven't been there since making it this year was something I really wanted to do."

It is a similar story for departing back-rower Ryan Hoffman, who has spent three seasons in Auckland and captained the side last year.

"I regret that I never took the team to the semi-finals, 100 per cent," Hoffman said.

"I am just disappointed because I feel like I have some unfinished business with the club in taking them to the finals, unfortunately that won't happen, but you are always going to have regrets of the bad times.

"[But] I have really loved my three years regardless of what has happened on the field. Off field has been fantastic and it has been a great move for myself and my family."

In addition to Matulino and Hoffman, Sunday will also mark the home farewells for Kieran Foran and Charlie Gubb, while long-serving injured prop Jacob Lillyman remains without a contract beyond this year as well.
The motto of the United States is no longer "e pluribus unum." Sadly, it's become: "Hey! I was wronged. Get my lawyer on the phone!"

Or, recently, south of the Mason-Dixon line: "Let's grab clubs and tiki torches and go make trouble."

America has become a nation of victims. The same people who, a decade ago, might have scoffed at the idea that others were being victimized by societal norms, generational poverty and institutional racism have now themselves joined the pity party and donned the cloak of victimhood. Nursing a grudge is not just for minorities anymore.

Conservative white males have gotten in on the act, as they rail against globalization, corporate greed, immigration, political correctness, the anti-Confederate statue lobby, affirmative action and the man in the moon.

Those who for years shrugged off the notion that there was lingering racial and ethnic discrimination against Latinos and African-Americans now insist that there is rampant "reverse discrimination" against white people.

As they often do, politicians make the situation worse by giving people easy outs. And these days, as always, many people are glad to have excuses for their failures, setbacks and shortcomings. The bad guys are the banks, the rich, the corporations, the immigrants, the global market.

Victim anthems have been penned by Bruce Springsteen who, in concert, has introduced his haunting ballad "Youngstown" -- about the battered town in Northeast Ohio -- as a story about "losing everything even when you work hard and play by the rules."

A couple of generations ago, Americans survived tough times by hustling, believing in themselves and working harder. Today, this is the pep talk for the downtrodden: "Lost your job? The culprit is a racial quota or greedy boss or foreign worker. You're a victim."

That's a major takeaway from recent horrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hundreds of young white men who, intoxicated by a cocktail of entitlement and white privilege, expected to be running the country by now, instead feel as if the country is running over them. They worry that a society they feel pushes diversity, espouses liberalism and worships at the altar of political correctness doesn't have any room for them. And the last thing they want to do is look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own lives.

So they picked up torches, and marched, and shouted: "You will not replace us. Jews will not replace us."

This rank bigotry and anti-Semitism made other people feel victimized because they somehow thought they had a right to go through life without ever being offended by anything. The offended staged counterprotests, which made the original protesters feel victimized as if their right to free speech were being violated. And so on.

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is now the Land of the Aggrieved and the Home of the Picked On.

This transformation is much more important than the question that captivates the attention of the left and the media: Do we have a white supremacist in the White House?

A lot of my Latino and African-American friends are convinced we do. But I think they're wrong. What do they know? Some of them said the same thing about every Republican president since Ronald Reagan while turning a blind eye to outright racists in the Democratic Party.

Also, Donald Trump has been in the public eye for more than 30 years -- donating money to civil rights groups, posing for pictures with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and supporting Democrats. I personally never heard anyone say he was a racist or white supremacist until he became a Republican. That smells fishy.

Besides, Trump's presidency has an expiration date. In a few years, we'll wake up from this national nightmare.

It's the culture of victimhood that Americans should really be worried about. It wasn't just Trump, white supremacists, the media, local police and activists on the militant left who emerged from the Charlottesville fiasco with their reputations sullied. The American spirit also took a terrible beating.

When did the greatest country on Earth stop being a place where people -- with nothing but hunger for a second chance -- could come to work hard and build a new life? When did it become a place where everyone pushes their own set of grievances?

As an American, none of this makes sense. I thought we were made from heartier stock.
It may not be long before robots make up the majority of fast food restaurant staffs. And while that may mean faster and more consistent service for customers, it could also put many workers out of a job.

Rising minimum wages across the country and new advances in technology are pushing many fast food companies to look to automation. Wendy's announced in February it would install self-service kiosks in more than 1,000 locations nationwide to cut labor costs. McDonald's also announced in June it will install digital ordering kiosks in more than 2,500 of its stores.

Behind the counter, new technologies also are being developed to reduce the need for humans. A number of manufacturers are producing kitchen robots that can grill hamburgers and do the work of cooks.

Greg Creed, CEO of Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, told CNBC in March that machines could replace some human workers within a decade.

"I don't think it is going to happen next year or the year after, but I do believe that probably by the mid '20s to the late '20s, you'll start to see a dramatic change in sort of how machines run the world," Creed said.

One such robot coming on the market is called Flippy. It's a small cart on wheels that features an arm with six axes and can move in a wide array of motions to perform multiple functions. Detatchable tools and artificial intelligence programming enable it to make hamburgers, fry chicken and even cut vegetables.

CaliBurger has committed to rolling out Flippy robots in at least 50 of its restaurants in the next two years. John Miller, chairman of Cali Group, said that while the machines will work with its employees to make food "faster, safer and with fewer errors," their investment in robotics also is part of a broader vision for "creating a unified operating system."

Miller said the company would retrain certain staff to operate Flippy and that it would also redeploy more staff to the dining rooms to engage with customers.

Equipment manufacturers and fast food operators say with the falling prices of automation, they could quickly recoup their investments on labor savings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there are nearly 2.3 million people working as cooks in the U.S. earning an average of $10.99 per hour.

David Trimm, Wendy's Chief Information Officer, said in a recent conference call with investors that the cost of kiosks would be recouped in less than two years, and that some customers even prefer kiosks over humans.

"You will see customers deliberately going to those kiosks directly, bypassing lines  Some customers clearly prefer to use the kiosks," Trimm said.
Visitors to Saturdays historical tour of St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Michigan City heard tales of 150 years of devotion, both spiritual and communal.

The complete set of Zettler stained glass windows which encircled the interior of the church, the Alfonso Ianelli Indiana limestone altar and bishop chairs, and the mosaic stations of the cross are not only pieces of art, but they are part of St. Marys thanks to the dedication of the community over the decades.

We hope that people realize what treasures we have here, said Patricia Gruse Harris, historian for St. Marys whose great-grandparents were two of the original group of parishioners at the church 150 years ago.

The stained glass windows are priceless and were designed and installed here in 1927 by F.X. Stained Glass Studios in Munich, Germany. There are 18 Gothic style stained glass windows and we are the only church (in the world) to have a complete set, she said.

One of those windows, a rather large one, was commissioned and donated to the church by Vincent Milcarek, grandfather of the Rev. John Scott, who is now retired from the parish, though he attended Saturdays event and continues to serve in other ways.

My mother tells the story that my grandfather was a member of St. Stanislaus down the street because he was Polish, but his wife was German and was a member here at St. Marys. He was a contractor and donated a small window at his church, and his wife asked him to donate one here. But it was a lot bigger and he was shocked when he got the bill. It was $500, which was a lot of money in 1927, he said with a laugh.

The altar also involved multigenerational dedication, as intern Bailey Roberts told visitors during the tour.

Katherine Baker was married to a man who was well known in the community and was Episcopalian, but she was Catholic, and Catholics werent very liked in the 1800s, so she had to keep it under wraps. So her daughter, named Catherine with a 'C,' had this altar commissioned in 1927 in her mothers honor, perhaps as a way to say, 'Im still here and Im still Catholic,'" Roberts said.

Sacristan Grace Nygren explained to visitors the altar is a piece of art, uncovered from seven layers of latex paint during a restoration process in 2004.

The paint was so thick, you couldnt see the Bedford limestone," she said. "It weighs 23 tons and it was installed here, block by block. The Barker family and foundation helped to renovate and restore this and were extremely generous. They came from all over the world to see it when it was done.

For all parishioners, sharing the art and history of their beloved church over its 150 years has been a labor of love that perhaps none know as well as Gruse Harris, who has just completed writing a book on St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church which will be distributed during a Mass of Thanksgiving on Nov. 5.

I guess you could say that I have a love for it, she said, humbly.
Martin Jakubowski, Whiting's park director, is resigning in the wake of his guilty plea to assisting an Illinois man involved in dogfighting.

Mayor Joseph Stahura confirmed Jakubowski's departure Sunday afternoon.

The mayor issued a Facebook statement. "Knowing what I now know today and following a lengthy discussion with the employee, we both agree that Mr. Jakubowskis immediate resignation from all duties and responsibilities with the city of Whiting is in the best interest of both the city and the animal shelter."

Stahura said Sunday he had received more than 300 complaints following Jakubowski's guilty plea and the mayor's initial decision to retain Jakubowski as parks director and only remove him from supervision of the animal shelter.

Stahura said Sunday he wants to assure the public that dogfights weren't being staged at the city's animal shelter.

Stahura said he is requesting a full operational review of the shelter by an outside organization to ensure industry-wide standards are being met.

"It is extremely important to understand that I do not and have never condoned these actions and do not and will never take these issues lightly. Those that know me are aware that I personally modified our practices to ensure that our shelter operated as a no-kill facility and along with my staff worked extremely hard to fund and to build a new sorely needed animal shelter for our city.

"Nothing I can say about the employee will ever erase the things he did. He made a series of terrible mistakes that he will regret for the rest of his life," Stahura said.

Jakubowski appeared Thursday before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John E. Martin and admitted he assisted Pedro Cuellar, an Illinois man who recently pleaded guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy charge in New Jersey.

Court records didn't indicate Sunday whether the judge will accept the plea, which would result in a misdemeanor conviction. The plea is part of an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office.

A court document states Jakubowski admits giving Cuellar veterinary antibiotics the city had earlier purchased to treat two sick shelter cats.

Jakubowski also admits that between 2011 and 2016, he housed dogs for Cuellar at the city animal shelter buildings for up to a year. One of the dogs had scarring consistent with scars on dogs used in fights.

Jakubowski also gave two pit bull-type dogs from the citys animal shelter to Cuellar without standard adoption paperwork, knowing that Cuellar intended to transfer the dogs to other people.

Jakubowski also admitted to his own prior involvement in a "roll" dogfight in 2004. A "roll" is a dogfight staged for the purpose of assessing the fighting characteristics of a dog or dogs, rather than for wagering purposes, and is generally stopped by the handlers before serious injuries result.

The government is recommending Jakubowski be sentenced to three months of home confinement followed by six months of supervised probation.

Whiting Mayor Joe Stahura's complete Facebook statement on the resignation of Martin Jakubowski:

Let me start by saying that I regret having one of my actions or in this case inactions damage the fine City of Whiting's reputation. I truly appreciate the few kind words that were posted in the last few days and I still don't know how to react to the others. Below is a follow-up statement that will likely make some people happy, but I know will never satisfy the people who don't really care to understand the entire situation:

This past Friday, the Department of Justice issued a press release related to one of the citys employees who plead guilty to a misdemeanor related to his role in aiding a person who engaged in dog-fighting. When the press release was issued, I was out of the office on business. In route home, I received dozens of calls from the media and others demanding my position on the future employment of the employee. Without the benefit of having the details of the plea agreement or the case, I repeatedly made the statement that I didnt think the charges warranted his termination. Up until that point, I was only broadly aware of the circumstances based on prior discussions held with the employee, but I was waiting for the courts action before officially reacting. When I arrived at the office, I then discovered that one of our local newspapers had posted an extremely misleading headline to its online story that created a firestorm of responses that were irrational, misguided and grossly misinformed. This firestorm, resulted in my issuance of a statement in attempt to provide clarity to the situation, but the reaction was already out of control. In the social media posts, emails and phone messages that I received or read, 9 out of 10 people were led to believe that dog-fights were staged at the shelter or the employee was personally engaged in staging dog-fights. Sadly, many others have fabricated even more erroneous stories that were a gross exaggeration of the facts. None of the above referenced accusations ever occurred.

It is extremely important to understand that I do not and have never condoned these actions and do not and will never take these issues lightly. Those that know me are aware that I personally modified our practices to ensure that our shelter operated as a no-kill facility and along with my staff worked extremely hard to fund and to build a new sorely needed animal shelter for our city.

Nothing I can say about the employee will ever erase the things he did. He made a series of terrible mistakes that he will regret for the rest of his life. In situations like this, the easy action would have been for me to immediately terminate him. Simply wash my hands of a controversial situation. In a situation that triggers this much emotion and passion, it is very easy to make a decision that will be regretted. So I chose to pause until I had the chance to speak to people about the case, review the available information and to be sure I made the right decision. This was clearly articulated in my first statement.

Knowing what I now know today and following a lengthy discussion with the employee, we both agree that Mr. Jakubowskis immediate resignation from all duties and responsibilities with the City of Whiting is in the best interest of both the City and the Animal Shelter.

In an effort to protect the operation of the Animal Shelter and in attempt to prevent any incident of this nature from happening again, I will request a full operational review of the Shelter by a third party organization. All forms, policies and procedures will be reviewed to ensure industry-wide standards are being met.

I need to conclude with these comments. In todays world of discontent and lack of civility I am amazed at the anger displayed by people who had little or no detailed knowledge of this issue. Im not talking about compassionate and rational disagreement Im talking about vicious banter and death threats. You may feel that you have the right to engage in that level of attack, but I disagree.

Mayor Joe Stahura
MERRILLVILLE  The Catholic Foundation for Northwest Indiana hosts its annual celebration of Red Mass at 8 a.m. Sept. 21 at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 8303 Taft in Merrillville.

Bishop Donald J. Hying is the celebrant and homilist. Following the Mass, the Catholic Foundation is offering a free breakfast and continuing education seminar on Recent United States Supreme Court Decisions and Indiana Supreme Court Decisions Influencing Religion with Valparaiso University School of Law professor Derrick Carter. All faiths are welcome.

The Red Mass is steeped in tradition going back to 1245 in Paris and 1301 in Westminster. The tradition of the Red Mass arose in order to invoke the wisdom of the Holy Spirit upon judges, justices and the members of the legal profession at the beginning of each new judicial year. The ceremonys traditional name is derived from the color of vestments worn by the celebrant and concelebrants, the scarlet robes of judges in attendance (which were bright scarlet in the Middle Ages) and the scarlet gowns of the members of the law faculty.

Todays Red Mass brings members of the bar, government officials, the judiciary, the finance community and all those who work for justice together to reflect and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the coming year.

Carter has been teaching at Valparaiso University Law School for 26 years. Before becoming a professor at Valparaiso, Carter worked at the Michigan Appellate Defenders Office, a division of the Michigan Supreme Court, for 17 years. Carter has argued more than 600 criminal appeals before the Michigan and federal appellate courts and trial courts.

To register, visit www.catholicfuture.org or contact Liz Metts, executive director of the Catholic Foundation for Northwest Indiana, at 219- 769-9292, ext. 290 or lmetts@catholicfuture.org.
RACINE  Racine author James L. Neibaur was only 5 years old when he recognized the power film had to transport people  if only for a little while from the harsh and even traumatic realities of life.

It was in 1963, less than a week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and his parents decided to take the family to see a movie: Whos Minding the Store? starring a then 37-year-old Jerry Lewis.

They ended up at one of Racines regal movies houses. Neibaur cant recall which one, but what he does remember is what he saw on the faces of the fellow moviegoers that day: joy.

People were just rocking in the seats, laughing at the silly stuff Jerry Lewis was doing, and my young mind realized that this silly guy on the screen was making all these people happy during a very sad time, Neibaur said.

It was that moment that made Neibaur fall in love with cinema, he said, and later led to him interviewing Lewis for one of the more than 20 books he has written about the movies.

Making the connection

A comedy icon, Lewis died on Aug. 20 at the age of 91. Known for his rubber-faced antics, goofy voices and skill for slapstick, Lewis acted in more than 60 films.

Although he rose to fame in partnership with Dean Martin, he is best known for the films he made himself, including The Bellboy and The Nutty Professor.

As a film historian, it was those movies that prompted Neibaur to contact the star years ago to see if he might be willing to talk to him and his co-author, Ted Okuda, for their book The Jerry Lewis Films, a film-by-film look at the artists work.

I usually write about people like Charlie Chaplin and James Cagney, who arent around anymore, Neibaur said. I told Ted Jerry Lewis is alive and well, we have to try for an interview. Even if we got 20 minutes on the phone with him that would be something. 

After about a year of negotiations, Neibaur heard from Lewis management in September 1992 that the filmmaker would allow the pair to come and interview him while he was on his boat in the San Diego harbor.

On a boat

Initially, Lewis didnt know what to think of the authors, but as soon as he learned they had done their research about his work, he opened up, Neibaur recalled.

The group spent about 3 hours on Lewis boat that day, reconvening a few weeks later at Lewis home where they traded opinions about his films and metaphorically broke bread.

At one point during the interview, he said you guys hungry? We said, yes, we could eat, and he makes a phone call and said This is Jerry Lewis. We want some hamburgers, french fries and Cokes delivered to my house. And then someone from Wendys comes over with hamburgers, French fries and Cokes for everyone, Neibaur remembers. So I have an I ate fast food with Jerry Lewis at his house story.

What Neibaur recalls most about the conversations with Lewis was just how upbeat and respectful the actor-filmmaker was, even when he and the authors didnt agree.

Neibaur and Okuda werent big fans of the movie Cinderfella a spoof of the Cinderella fairy tale that Lewis was particularly proud of. Conversely, they really loved Its Only Money, a movie Lewis thought to be only fair, Neibaur said.

Star treatment

Nevertheless, when the book came out, Lewis was thrilled. He ended up purchasing about 100 copies and handing them out to friends, Neibaur said. Some of those friends later called Neibaur to express their appreciation, including Steven Spielberg, who took a class taught by Jerry Lewis as a film student.

Lewis had a very distinct use of editing and color and succession of shots, cinematic techniques that Spielberg learned a great deal from, said Neibaur.

If you watch Jerry Lewis better films you will not only see a very funny man, but a very, very good filmmaker whose use of the cinematic process was quite remarkable.
Bike parking provided

CHESTERTON  Tony Evans, owner of Chesterton Bicycle Station, is making bike riding more fun for members of Boys & Girls Clubs of Porter Countys Duneland Club by donating a bicycle rack for the new club.

We are very excited to have a bike rack for our Duneland Club and its members, said Ron Ranta, club director. We talk to kids every day about being physically active and fit. Tony and Chesterton Bicycle Stations gift of a bike rack allows kids to pedal their way to the club, stay active, and park their bike safely while at our club. We truly appreciate such generosity."

Evans dedicated the bike rack to club members while they presented him with a sign of thanks.

Foundation supports a safe spot

VALPARAISO  The Porter County Community Foundation awarded a $10,000 Community Fund grant to Family House, Inc.  an organization that provides a safe home-like environment for noncustodial parents to spend time with their children.

This funding will help Family House expand their services, further strengthening our community by supporting the development of strong families. Family House provides sliding scale support for supervised visitation and counseling for children and families that otherwise can't afford such services, said Christine Kostbade, executive director of Family House. Many families give up or don't follow through because they can't afford to pay for services. We don't want to see children left without a safe opportunity to see their parent and a chance for the parent(s) to improve their skills, with hopes to get their children home again. Family House provides over 3,000 visit hours annually to children and parents in the community.
MICHIGAN CITY The Economic Development Corp. Michigan City (EDCMC) and the Greater LaPorte Economic Development Corp. (GLEDC) again will partner together to host Made in LaPorte County" from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 14 at 4295 Ohio St.

Made in LaPorte County will allow local firms to display and showcase their products that are manufactured, assembled or distributed from LaPorte County. It will provide an opportunity for local citizens and visitors to view the interesting products firsthand, all at one location. The public will be able to actually see, touch and feel products manufactured in LaPorte County. The event will also provide an opportunity for local businesses to interface with one another on a business to business basis.

For the local workforce to develop and support our existing industry it is critical for our students to be introduced to our manufacturers and to understand the appropriate training needed to work at those businesses, said EDCMC Executive Director Clarence Hulse.

Registration is still open for manufacturers and the companies are encouraged to register now to secure their space. For more details about the event or to register, contact Katie Eaton at keaton@edcmc.com or 219-873-1211.
Indianas on a roll. Were on a record-setting pace for winning new economic development projects in 2017. Homegrown companies are thriving, and were supporting a growing, diversified economy with new initiatives like the Next Level Indiana Trust Fund.

Unemployment is low, and corporate confidence is high. Indiana is routinely lauded for its pro-growth business climate, world-class infrastructure, appealing quality of life and affordable cost of living.

But there is a caveat that chills this economic hot streak. Employers cant keep growing if they cant hire people with the right skills, and we need more Hoosier workers with the skills to secure better opportunities in our job market.

Thats why we introduced Next Level Jobs, a campaign targeting working-age Hoosiers and Indiana employers with the goal of skilling-up our workforce to fill the high-wage jobs available right now in every part of the state.

With funding from Workforce Ready Grants approved by the General Assembly this year, were saying to Hoosiers who havent yet earned a degree or certificate beyond high school: If youre willing to learn the skills that our employers need most, well pay for your training.

For businesses, were offering Employer Training Grants that will provide $2,500 per new employee that companies hire, train and keep for at least six months.

Both grant programs target Indianas fastest-growing industries with high-wage job openings, including advanced manufacturing, logistics, health care, in-demand business and IT services (such as accounting) and the skilled construction trades.

These two grants will provide about $24 million over the next two years to put Hoosiers to work in these fields as quickly as possible. The need today is great, and its only getting bigger.

Indiana will need to fill more than a million job openings within the next decade, and the majority of those jobs will require some education beyond high school. According to the Brookings Institution, Indiana ranks second in the nation for high-paying, high-tech advanced industry employment per capita  and more than 70 percent of these positions already require a college degree or industry certificate.

These are rewarding jobs that are well within reach for Hoosier adults. Workforce Ready Grants will provide free tuition for more than a hundred certificate programs at Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University. Employer Training grants will help Indiana companies offset the costs they incur when they hire and train new employees.

In total, Next Level Jobs will be a secret weapon for continued economic growth  strengthening our workforce and helping Hoosiers transform their professional lives. Indianas new Secretary of Career Connection and Talent Blair Milo will be working in partnership with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and the Commission for Higher Education to spread the word about this new statewide initiative and make that critical connection between Hoosiers, employers and the many programs and resources available through the state.

Its a smart program based on a simple truth: People power our economy.

Learn more and apply for either the Workforce Ready or Employer Training grant with a simple, five-minute online application at NextLevelJobs.org. Since the launch, more than 2,800 Hoosiers and 86 companies have completed applications. You can, too.
President Donald Trumps prime-time address at Fort Myer, Virginia, announced to the world that Americas longest war would continue. Presidents often have made the case for war and the use of force directly to the American people.

Reactions to the presidents speech have ranged widely, but in truth theres no speech Trump could have given that would satisfy everyone.

From the isolationist Bannonites to the resolute neo-conservatives, criticisms seem to flow endlessly while no one can seem to turn on the solution spigot.

In announcing a resurgent U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan to prevent it from becoming a terrorist safe haven again, Trump was alluding to the idea that there are essentially two kinds of errors: errors of commission and errors of omission. Trumps plan prioritizes avoiding an error of omission, the likes of which arguably set the conditions for the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant.

However, what isnt clear in the case of Afghanistan is that an error of commission in this case would ultimately be less costly. Indeed weve already directly spent more than $1 trillion on the conflict there. In the long run, blood and treasure spent in Afghanistan will continue adding up.

By premising our continued involvement in Afghanistan on preventing terrorist safe havens, the president is essentially implying that America is willing to spend an infinite amount to prevent a single terrorist incident. This logic gives license to authorize almost any action in Afghanistan  or anywhere in the world where terrorists can take safe haven. It seems the president is willing to make many errors of commission in an attempt to avoid errors of omission.

The presidents case did little to explain the costs of this continued involvement to the American people. The audience at Fort Myers was composed of active-duty military personnel, a small, all-volunteer military caste that has disproportionately carried the Afghanistan burden. Weve been at war for 16 years, but most of the American public has either willingly forgotten or deliberately ignored it.

The war doesnt pierce the public consciousness because few Americans bear the costs. But the public should be concerned about the opportunity costs of war  the U.S. budget is zero-sum, and there are more than a few fancy facilities that we built in Afghanistan. Meanwhile our bridges and roads at home are crumbling.

Perhaps it is time for everyone to bear the costs directly via a tax. Maybe then the public will start paying attention again.

Weve also never been allowed to address the havens that exist in neighboring Pakistan (where we found and killed Osama bin Laden). Modern wars end when a satisfactory political solution is reached; Afghanistan is no different.

So what is the political plan?

Getting to an answer to that question  and the right policy  on Afghanistan starts with Congress owning this war, in turn transmitting that ownership back to the American people by a conversation about updating the outdated and nonspecific 2001 authorization for continued U.S. action in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Trump national security team needs to fill in all the details on conditions for success in order to give Americans a better sense of whether they would be willing to bear those costs.
More than just the criminal behavior of Lake County's top cop was on trial in a recent federal bribery trial.

Also appropriately in the cross-hairs of federal prosecutor Philip Benson was former sheriff, and now convicted felon, John Buncich's propensity for flouting the very government ethics policies Buncich publicly espoused to follow.

All public officials, government employees and elected officeholders should see the trial for what it is: an indictment of any government leader who believes they're beyond the reproach of ethical guidelines and behavior.

A telling exchange came during the trial on Aug. 18 when Benson questioned Buncich about accepting political contributions  as it turns out, bribes  "on county property, on county time." The practice was a clear violation of the Lake County government employee handbook.

"It was my personal office," Buncich replied, then noting he didn't believe the employee handbook of ethics applied to him.

"Oh. So you don't have to follow the handbook for employees? Lake County pays your salary," Benson responded.

The federal prosecutor's response should send a chilling ripple down the backs of all government officials and employees who think they're somehow above laws and ethical rules of conduct.

Buncich clearly believed his elected sheriff's office gave him special dispensation beyond the rules other county employees are expected to follow.

It's the same vein of thinking that has led to more than 70 public corruption convictions of Region public officials, government employees and politically connected vendors since the late 1970s.

"Do you see a problem with having people you supervise selling campaign fundraising tickets to government vendors whose contracts you control?" Benson asked Buncich during the trial.

"It's no different than any other elected official," Buncich replied.

And therein lies a serious problem. Repugnant, unethical and illegal behavior has become so commonplace in some of our local political institutions that some pass it off as "no different" than what everyone else is doing.

Though he clearly felt himself above the rules governing other county employees, Buncich had previously signed on to the Shared Ethics Advisory Commission ethics pledge. That pledge asks candidates and public officials to "avoid impropriety and refrain from misusing an official position to secure unwarranted privileges."

We all should take heart, however, in justice being served.

The federal jury didn't accept as a defense that Buncich was just following the mold of his peers by accepting bribes and violating employee ethics or other rules or laws.

The felony guilty verdict issued Thursday was more than a victory over business-as-usual political corruption in Northwest Indiana.

It also can and should serve as a reminder to other public officials that a seat at the defense table of a Hammond federal courtroom awaits anyone using a government position as license to violate our trust.
America, listen up. Administration after administration hasn't come up with any viable answer to the problem in North Korea and many others in our world. The North Korean leader tortures and kills his own people without any thought.

Yet half of our country wants to belittle anything our new president and his administration considers doing in the future.

Let me remind you for the past eight years, the other half of the country did not agree with Barack Obama's answer of kicking the can down the road. And that goes for previous Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I don't have the answers. Do you?

So take a deep breath and relax. Refrain from getting your news from any one news outlet, and please don't rely on the internet. America needs you to be informed.

George Donati, Valparaiso
Good things are happening at Hebron Middle School under the leadership of Principal Jeff Brooks. I have had occasion to visit the school and have seen many wonderful things going on. The Hebron community should be proud of the great teachers, great support staff and great principal at the school.

The school has done an excellent job the last couple of years with its Shark Tank project, where students have to come up with creative business ideas and explain their concepts to a panel of judges. This is a great learning experience.

The school did a great job with taking the students outside and letting them experience firsthand the solar eclipse. This was very educational.

Hats off to the teaching staff, support staff and principal at Hebron Middle School for doing such a great job with the students with so many positive creative projects.

Brian Vukadinovich, Wheatfield
RACINE  A number of drownings and near-drownings this summer in Racine County is forcing officials to take stock, as some are calling it a crisis that needs to be addressed.

Drownings are a public health crisis, said Dave Benjamin, executive director of public relations for the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a nonprofit based in Illinois that educates schoolchildren about the dangers of water.

In the past two months, a number of young people from ages 4 to 23 have been pulled from the waters of Lake Michigan, the Root River, Quarry Lake and Browns Lake.

DJ Neal, 14, did not know how to swim when he went into the Root River with friends and drowned on July 4.

A 7-year-old Racine boy is still in the hospital in critical condition after falling into Lake Michigan at Pershing Park waiting for July 4 fireworks.

Amari Griffin-Brewer, 16, drowned July 30 while swimming with friends at Zoo Beach.

Najee Sherrod, 23, was pulled from Quarry Lake on Aug. 5 after being caught in fishing line. He is recovering at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

Tyrice Creed, 4, drowned Monday after slipping into Browns Lake at Fischer Park beach after wandering from a babysitter.

My son was enjoying a nice summer day with his caregiver, big brother Luciano, and little sister Ilyana, said his mother, Nicole Creed.

Nicole Creed told The Journal Times she believes drowning is a public health crisis that needs to be addressed.

I agree 100 percent. I have a lot to say about this being a crisis, Creed said.

She said Tyrice was excited to be starting school in September.

He just went school shopping for the first time picking out his first big-boy backpack. He will be deeply missed by his family, Creed said.

The area where Tyrice Creed drowned was among the few places in Racine County that has lifeguards. Guards are on duty at Fischer Park from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day, if staffing is available. A minimum of three guards is required, according to Racine County Chief of Staff M.T. Boyle.

Another guarded beach is North Beach in Racine, where lifeguards are on duty seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., from June 10 through Sept. 3. Zoo Beach in Racine has not been guarded this summer.

Racine County response

Our hearts break for the families that have lost children in recent drownings, Boyle said. These deaths were unspeakable tragic accidents. Although we could not have done anything to prevent these accidents, Racine County is committed to increasing public awareness regarding water safety and will explore opportunities to work with community partners to do so.

Racine County Public Health Administrator Dottie-Kay Bowersox offered these tips for public education:

People that do not know how to swim should not enter the water.

People should not swim when intoxicated.

Individuals involved in watercraft activities should always wear appropriate flotation devices.

Individuals should educate themselves and take advantage of materials and signs regarding rip currents.

Individuals who cannot swim should engage in swim classes.

Racine is fortunate to have a lifeguarded beach; people should swim only within the designated swimming zone and when lifeguards are present at North Beach.

Racine County has many unprotected waterways, so those enjoying the water should do so with an abundance of caution, Boyle said.

Boyle told The Journal Times its not the countys responsibility to provide swimming lessons, but added that a new partnership hopes to help with public education.

Last week, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said a new $6.5 million aquatic center, slated to be built at Pritchard Park in Racine and operated by the Racine Family YMCA, will help address the need for more swim classes in the community.

Flotation is key

Benjamin of the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project said flotation is the key for survival in the water.

Something happens in the water that causes panic. When you are struggling in water over your head, we recommend you flip over on your back, float and then follow the safest path out of the water, Benjamin said. When you are on your back, try to cough to get the water out and calm yourself down.

Benjamin said historically, most drownings do not occur with a victim using a life jacket.

People dont use them because theyre not fashionable, restrictive or because they overestimate their true swimming ability, Benjamin said.
Opelika police are investigating a shooting in the 3400 block of Arnold Avenue after a victim standing outside heard gunshots, and then felt himself get shot.

He fled on foot and called 911 for help.

The incident occurred at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday and when emergency personnel arrived, they treated the victim at the scene and then had him flown to Midtown Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia.

He was in stable condition at the time of the flight.

Police are investigating the incident as a first-degree assault.

Police also are investigating a separate crime that involved a first-degree armed robbery at Dollar General, 1515 Second Ave.

That incident occurred at about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday.

"The store clerk reported that the suspect entered the store armed with a firearm. The suspect forced the clerk to the register area and demanded money. The suspect struck the clerk with his hand during the robbery," according to a police statement.

"The suspect fled on foot and was last seen running west bound along First Avenue. The suspect is described as a black male. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and red pants. A red shirt covered his head," police said.

Both incidents remain under investigation by the Opelika Police Department.

Police ask that anyone with any information in either case call the Investigative Services Division at (334) 705-5220. Callers may also call the Secret Witness Hotline at (334) 745-8665. Callers may remain anonymous.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency. Days later, Gov. Kay Ivey signed an executive order creating the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council to help combat the problem of opiate addiction on the state level.

But what does that look like at the local level? Whether street drugs such as heroin or prescription opiates including Percocet and Vicodin, how prevalent are opioid-related incidents in Lee County?

We are definitely not in an epidemic status here, District Attorney Brandon Hughes said. But were seeing it grow. He added that a map from the Department of Forensic Sciences shows a lower number of opioid-related deaths in this region than other areas in the state, particularly north Alabama.

But that doesnt mean that people here are not addicted.

You try to identify, who are the people using opioids right now? And were just not seeing a ton of heroin. Its more the prescription painkillers that were seeing, Hughes said. I think part of the reason its growing is that people can take it and they dont view themselves as a drug addict. Its not a street drug. Its not marijuana, its not methamphetamine, its not cocaine and its not heroin.

The war on prescription drugs

Dr. Alan Moore is director of the Emergency Department of East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, where he has worked since 1994. Over the course of his more than two decades at the hospital, Moore said, the number of patients who are on chronic pain medication has increased dramatically.

Prescription narcotic usage across the country has increased, Moore said. There was a big push back in the early 2000s toward having hospitals be attuned to pain control efforts. The outshoot from that was, doctors started treating pain more aggressively. This is kind of a result of that, in my opinion.

Between January 2017 and June 2017, the emergency room at EAMC saw 106 patients with diagnosis related to opioid abuse and/or dependency, according to statistics provided by hospital spokesperson John Atkinson.

While prescription medications are not traditional street drugs manufactured in someones home, they are becoming street drugs as they are sold second- or third-hand, Hughes said.

Were getting trafficking cases, and the trafficking is no longer pounds of marijuana. Its no longer a lot of cocaine. Its bags of pills, he said.

The Lee County grand jury this week saw two cases involving people who had falsified prescriptions.

A lot of people talk about the war on drugs, its a victimless crime, all that stuff, Hughes said. Its a victimless crime until someone puts a gun in your face because they need money for drugs. Its a victimless crime until they break into your house because theyre looking for stuff to pawn so they can buy drugs, or theyre rummaging through your medicine cabinet, looking for hydrocodone, OxyContin and other prescription-type medications.

Alabama is number one in opioid prescriptions issued, which raises a red flag, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. His officers at the Lee County Sheriffs Office see more methamphetamine on the street than heroin or other street drugs.

But they are on the lookout for a particularly dangerous synthetic opioid, carfentanil.

Carfentanil, which is used to tranquilize elephants, is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl, which itself is 50 times more potent than heroin.

The United States Drug Enforcement Agency issued a warning to law enforcement agencies nationwide in September 2016 about the increased presence of the drug and the number of overdoses related to it.

Fentanyl can be mixed with heroin to increase its potency, according to the DEA. But a buyer or user may not know just what he or she is getting, or how high of a concentration of the synthetic heroin their dosage contains.

Its an officer safety issue, because if the time comes when we do encounter it, its so dangerous that just contact with skin or inhaling it can result in a possible overdose and death, Jones said. With opioids, its inherently dangerous when dealing with an overdose. When you add fentanyl, thats a huge concern.

While law enforcement officers keep their eyes open for traces of the super-lethal street drug, the community also is trying to curb the prescription opiate problem before it becomes an emergency in Lee County.

Taking responsibility

Last year, the State Health Planning and Development Agency considered allowing a Sumter County methadone clinic to relocate to Fox Run Parkway in Opelika. The Opelika City Council voted to oppose the facility moving to the area. Hughes, county and city officials spoke to state officials against the certificate of need, and were successful in blocking it.

Methadone is a drug. People talk about, Well, it helps people get off heroin, but its just addiction replacement, Hughes said. They get off that, but they get addicted to methadone. Thats why it was so critical that we work hard and work together to get that thing blocked.

Doctors also have a role to play in combating opioid abuse and preventing it from exploding in the Opelika-Auburn area.

Theyre prescription drugs, first of all, Hughes said. Were not seeing a lot of pharmacy thefts, which leads me to believe that the pills are getting to the street legally. Which tells me the doctors having to prescribe it to somebody, for them to go to a pharmacy and fill it out there.

Certain conditions do not necessitate pain medications, Moore said. Physical therapy, stretching and cold compresses can help many pain injuries in ways that narcotics cannot.

We have people trained to think they have to be on medications every day, he said. Narcotics are less effective the more you take them. Doctors have to stop worrying about factors other than the best care for the patient. We have to be consistent on what makes the best long-term care for patients.
Uganda is set to get over 100 power grid sites constructed in areas that cannot have access to the main electricity power grid.



The 400 mini grid stations will be funded under former US President Barrack Obama's Power Africa Initiative and will have over 140,000 new electricity connections in areas currently not connected to electricity.



Power Africa coordinator, Andrew Herscowitz, this week handed over the mini grid master plans to Energy and Mineral Development minister, Irene Muloni. The master plans have identified three rural electricity service territories to be used to connect electricity to areas with no grid access.

Andrew Herscowitz (R) Irene Muloni(C) and US Ambassador Deborah Malac

The master plans identified 140,000 potential new connections and over 100 mini-grid sites to be used to tap to grid extensions and off-grid projects. Mini grids are becoming popular in most parts of Africa because of their potential to decentralize electricity supply or what is known as rural electrification in Uganda.



Uganda has for the past ten years pursued an ambitious plan to increase power generation. While access to electricity in Uganda has rapidly increased over the past few years, more than 90% of Uganda's population still lives without access to electricity according to Rural Electrification Agency (ERA). The Agency says less than 7% of the rural population has electricity service.



With an ambitious target of achieving universal access to electricity by 2030, Uganda has been exploring mini grids for electrifying communities away from the grid - typically harnessing energy from available solar, wind, hydro and biomass.



Herscowitz said the master plans handed to government will play a fundamental role in achieving the government of Uganda's 2013-2022 Rural Electrification Strategy and Plan.



"The government of Uganda is an important Power Africa Partner that is supporting a predictable investment environment that attracts private sector interest in the energy sector. We look forward to using the momentum from Uganda's Power Africa to support Uganda's electrification efforts," said Herscowitz in a statement.



Minister Muloni said Uganda is looking forward to working with Power Africa to extend electricity to most rural Uganda.



"As we look to the future of Power Africa, Uganda is ready to tap into all of its resources, including human resources along with the water, wind, sun, gas, and steam that will power our economy," said Muloni



Muloni said Uganda appreciates the partnership of the US government, and welcomes the investment from outside developers and investors in the Energy sector.



Power Africa initiative was launched by former US President Barack Obama in Tanzania during his Africa tour in July 2013. The initiative aims at supporting economic growth and development by increasing access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power in Africa.



The Power Africa 2017 annual report released this week highlighted that the initiative has facilitated power transactions expected to generate more than 7,200 megawatts and supported private sector companies and utilities to connect over 10 million homes and businesses.



It said the US initiative has so far helped connect more than two million homes and businesses to such sources.



The annual report cites additional progress toward Power Africa's revised and expanded goal of supporting the installation in several countries of 30,000 megawatts of generation capacity and 60 million new electricity connections by 2030
On Friday, FRANCIS BYABAGAMBI, the town clerk of Jinja Municipal Council, was tasked by the Justice CATHERINE BAMUGEMEREIRE-led commission of inquiry into land matters, to explain how Church land ended up in the hands of private individuals.

The Church of Uganda gave the council a 99-year lease offer on its 43- acre plot in Jinja. The commission is investigating the circumstance under which the district land board issued freehold titles on a leased plot after queries were raised by the church. ALI TWAHA captured Byabagambis cross examination led by lead counsel, EBERT BYENKYA.

Francis Byabagambi before the commission

Byenkya: Please restate your name for the record?

Byabagambi: Im Byabagambi Francis, town clerk for Jinja Municipal Council.

Byenkya: How old are you?

Byabagambi: Im 48 years old.

Byenkya: Where do you live?

Byabagambi: I live in Magwa, central division, Jinja town.

Byenkya: How long have you been town clerk of Jinja?

Byabagambi: One year and one month my lord.

Byenkya: Who was your predecessor?

Byabagambi: Mr Kyasanku David.

Byenkya: The commission is inquiring into a complaint filed the Church of Uganda in respect of a property where they hold a freehold title. Are you familiar with that?

Byabagambi: A little bit familiar my lord.

Byenkya: According to the evidence from the church, they leased out that property for 99-years to Jinja Municipal Council. Are you aware of that?

Byabagambi: My lord Im aware.

Byenkya: The matter we are investigating is a complaint that there was a second freehold title that appears to have been created without the churchs knowledge and the church is complaining. Are you aware of that?

Byabagambi: My lord we also heard rumors that there are people who have land titles over the land that was leased to us. But we have not had concrete evidence to get the titles and to know who these people are.

Byenkya: What about the situation on the ground. You say there are rumors about other people holding titles but who has possession of this land?

Byabagambi: My lord this land is 43.9 acres. Four acres were sub-leased by Jinja Municipal Council, with the consent of the church, to the Ophthalmic Clinical Officers Training [school]. Another four acres were sub-leased to Jinja Nurses Training School. Sometime back, there was an arrangement to lease out 11 acres to a womens project, but I was informed that this project never took off. I believe that is the land which, it is alleged, people took away.

Byenkya: Indeed, that seems to be the land. And the allegation is that, somehow some freehold titles probably created by the district land board have been created on these 11 acres and the land has been sub divided.

Byabagambi: My lord, I got a report from the surveyor and it clearly showed that that land was planned and possibly some people are in possession of land titles but which we really have no much information.

Byenkya: If you talk about it being planned, wouldnt Jinja Municipal Council be the first party to know about it being planned?

Byabagambi: My lord that is the practice because Jinja Municipal Council is the planning authority. But at times things happen when we are not actually in the know. Land is planned, demarcated and titled without the knowledge of the planning authority.

Byenkya: So who would have done the planning?

Byabagambi: Im really not quite very sure who would have done the planning in that instance.

Byenkya: Im finding it strange because you have talked to the surveyor and you have seen land. I think its something you can investigate because this is land that is leased to the municipal council?

Byabagambi: My lord we tried to get a search, but even the search we got does not show these other titles. Even ours [lease title] that we know we have is also not being shown on the land title of the church and that explains the complexity of the matter. At times, land issues are conducted in a way that you cant get the information. But I handed the issue to the solicitor general to pursue.

Byenkya: Do you have a lawyer responsible for land in your municipality?

Byabagambi: My lord we dont a lawyer in the municipal structure.

Byenkya: When you say that you did a search, where did you do it?

Byabagambi: My lord I did the search at the zonal office in Jinja.

Byenkya: But you were searching for the freehold title of the church?

Byabagambi: Yes.

Byenkya: Because the problem might be that if someone else has created a completely different freehold title that search would be unlikely to tell you about the other freehold title. And this is why Im wondering whether you didn't have legal advisers?

Byabagambi: I think that is possibly what we did not get right.

Byenkya: What about the municipal council, do you have your lease hold title?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Byenkya: And you say your title is not registered upon the churchs title?

Byabagambi: That was actually surprising to us because our title is not an encumbrance on the title of the church.

Byenkya: I hope you are doing something about that?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord. Even yesterday, I went to the solicitor general to follow it up.

Byenkya: Now these 11 acres, they are in your town. Im sure you know the status of the 11 acres physically on the ground. What is the situation on the ground?

Byabagambi: As I said, we hear it in rumors. We dont have concrete evidence but Im also informed that they are about 10 houses which are on that land.

Byenkya: Im finding it unsatisfactory for you just to say; Im informed If you know that this is land that you have leased and you have not sub-leased it to anybody and there are 10 houses sitting on it, you can surely investigate that?

Byabagambi: My lord thats why I said we have given the issue to the solicitor general who is our lawyer to follow up on our behalf.

Byenkya: But as a land owner, following up somebody in possession of your land doesnt need a lawyer. You just walk in and ask why they are on your land. Im just not finding that you are managing the situation satisfactorily

Byabagambi: My lord as I said Im one year old [in the job] and this is something that happened over 10 years ago. Other people did not do anything. Its only me who thought that we need somebody to advise us.

Bamugemereire: But do you think the advice you are offering the council is the best? Before you wait for about three years for an opinion from the solicitor general, dont you have lawyers within who can tell you the position of a landlord [in relation] to squatters on your land? I dont even know what the solicitor general has to do with this land in the first place?

Byabagambi: My lord we came into possession of this land because we exchanged with the Church of Uganda

Bamugemereire: But you have leases not a title that is perennial.

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Justice Catherine Bamugemereire

Byenkya: So, you have a responsibility to return that land eventually to the church. When things like this happen... people come in. and you are not allowed to sub-lease that land without consent from the church.

So you havent sub-leased it to anybody but somebody has come onto the land, and youre the town clerk. I dont understand how you can just sit there while people are having houses on your land and you dont do anything?

Byabagambi: My lord we have had several meetings with the solicitor general and according to the advice we have been given, they said, the first instance would be to identify who these people are because most of them are not known.

Two, when we know them, then we go into discussions as to the next course of action because clearly, its illegal for them to have got those land titles. But the biggest problem as per now is that they are not known.

Byenkya: If I was the town clerk or a mayor of a town, I dont see anything difficult about going and asking residents to identify themselves and give you their status. In any case, were these houses built with plans approved by your council?

Byabagambi: My lord, I really doubt if these houses were built with plans because Im very sure

Bamugemereire: You know you are talking to us as the town clerk of Jinja Municipal Council when there is so much information that you can run the town on your laptop. So when you begin saying that Im not sure whether they were built on plan it begs the question whether you are sure you are a town clerk?

Byabagambi: My lord Jinja is a very big town.

Bamugemereire: So do you want it to be cut into small places. You cant manage ruling Jinja Municipal Council?

Byabagambi: My lord not that. What I wanted to demonstrate is that unless I go specifically to ask for that specific information, it may be very difficult for me to get it all on the finger tips

Bamugemereire: But you were coming to this commission of inquiry and you had been asked very specific questions. And you are supposed to get all the specific information?

Byabagambi: Unfortunately, I was not in office. I only came in yesterday. But I believe there specific recommendations which Im specifically getting from here. I think the issue of land in Jinja is a very complex issue. This has been a very long standing problem and I dont know why people feared to solve this problem.

Byenkya: Are you telling us that you are also scared to tackle his problem?

Byabagambi: My lord Im not really scared but I [dont] want to move directly into the problem. And that is why I thought using the office of the solicitor general would help us know the problem.

Byenkya: But the solicitor general is a lawyer. He is going to look [at your] information so that he can advise you. His not going to become the investigator, you have to investigate yourself. Otherwise, I can assure you he will not do anything for you because he is busy advising people who provide him with information. Its now becoming a question of competence if you cant do the most basic things

Byabagambi: My lord I believe Im a very competent person. Even if other town clerks have not ventured into that issue, personally, I thought by getting another person who is very neutral at another level can really help us to solve that problem.

Byenkya: When you talk about complexity of this problem, I get the feeling that these individuals are actually known and that they are powerful in Jinja...

Byabagambi: My lord I must admit that I dont have specific individuals that I know.

Ebert Byenkya (R) with the land probe commissioners

Byenkya: So why do you have to tip-toe around the issue if you dont even know who is involved?

Byabagambi: For us, we deal in councils and all matters of councils are decided in council. When you handle the matter in council and you see that youre not getting the right responses then you start doubting whether you should go wholesale or tread carefully.

Byenkya: Can you explain that; that you are sitting in council and youre not getting the right responses?

Byabagambi: I mean this land has been there for quite some time and you would think council should have taken on the matter very seriously. But when you find that it has not gone somewhere 

Bamugemereire: Can you explain in very specific terms when this matter comes up in council what kind of discussions come out on the floor?

Byabagambi: My lord Im saying that you will not see people talking directly that they should take repossession of that land.

Bamugemereire: Is it because its many of them that own plots in that area?

Byabagambi: My lord I dont know of individuals who own the plots.

Bamugemereire: Do you know the area we are talking about?

Byabagambi: Yes.

Bamugemereire: What is the name of the place?

Byabagambi: Its called Masese.

Bamugemereire: You dont know about councilors who have plots in that particular area?

Byabagambi: My lord I really dont know.

Byenkya: Because you have not bothered to find out. If they are legal houses, there must be approved plans somewhere in your organization. Isnt it?

Byabagambi: Yes if the plans were approved we obviously have possession of the plans.

Byenkya: And in order to submit a plan for approval, one must identify themselves, isnt so?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Byenkya: And one must present proof of ownership, isnt it?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Byenkya: So whats difficult about finding out who these individuals are?

Byabagambi: My lord if they submitted the plans and the plans were approved, those people can be known. But I believe such people dont submit plans, they build over night and that is why possibly they are not known.

Byenkya: And what is the fate of a person who has built a house without approved plans?

Byabagambi: My lord that is an illegal building.

Byenkya: Im failing to understand what your difficulty is. If you cant find approved plans then those buildings are illegal and you should be able to take action.

Byabagambi: I get that my lord.

Byenkya: I have seen at least some correspondences from the church. Has Jinja Municipal Council itself written any correspondences in respect of this land?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord. There was a letter written by the Jinja Municipal Council to the registrar of titles to have those titles identified and canceled.

Byenkya: And I see a letter by Kyasanku David dated February 4, 2015. Is that what you are referring to?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Byenkya: Have you, yourself written any letters to follow up?

Byabagambi: My lord I have been to that office following up that letter on so many occasions but I really did not get the responses that I deserved, and thats why I resolved to go to the solicitor general.

Byenkya: Who did you go to see there?

Byabagambi: I saw the principal land officer and he actually told me, then that they are also taking the matter up to have those titles canceled. But thats where he did not elaborate further.

Byenkya: Do you know the name of the principal land officer?

Byabagambi: Kanyoyole Joseph my lord.

Byenkya: Is he still there?

Byabagambi: No my lord.

Byenkya: But this is an old letter dated February, 2015. Dont you think you should have followed it with more recent correspondences to the current occupants of that office?

Byabagambi: I believe the solicitor general has taken it up and obviously will write the correspondences to that office on our behalf.

Byenkya: When did the solicitor general take it up?

Byabagambi: In May, 2017.

Byenkya: Since May, what has happened?

Byabagambi: We have met with them on three different occasions now.

Byenkya: Met with whom?

Byabagambi: The solicitor general's representatives.

Byenkya: Which officer is working on this?

Byabagambi: Shes called Barbra. I have forgotten the other name.

Byenkya: And what have you leant since that time in your three interactions?

Byabagambi: One, among the discoveries is that our title is not being reflected on the church title which makes it a little bit more risky. Two, I think the discussions with her, was to identify those people and also involve them to see whether they can surrender the titles that they have themselves. For those others who may not be willing, that we should possibly continue with the process of asking the registrar of titles to cancel the titles.

Byenkya: But who is going to identify them? Do you expect the solicitor general to identify them when she is here in Kampala?

Byabagambi: My lord I believe they are going to help us because the purpose of doing searches is to identify people who have land titles. And I believe as a lawyer, she has a way of getting some type of information that can lead us to the people who have the titles.

Byenkya: So what are you going to do now on your own because for three month the solicitor general is yet to give you information?

Byabagambi: I believe the first thing from here is to identify these people. Because the ten houses currently on the land sit on a very small portion of the 11 acres. But for those ones, I believe in about one week they should be known. Two, we are still engaging the solicitor general to find the other people who

Commissioner Freddrick Ruhindi: You keep on taking about the solicitor general; I worked in that office for quite some time. What instructions did you give her? It seems you are giving her a job

Byabagambi: I believe the solicitor generals role is

Ruhindi: No. check in your file. A solicitor general is there to take up legal matters. What legal issues did you bring to her for attention for her advice?

Byabagambi: My lord for people who have houses on that land, those ones we are going to identify. But for those who have land titles and they are not there, I believe thats why we need the help of the solicitor general to tell us where we can get the information that will lead us to know who those people are.

Bamugemereire: Really? This is what I have been telling you right from the beginning, that I dont think you understand the work of a solicitor general or even your own work. Do you have surveyors in the town council?

Byabagambi: Yes my lord.

Bamugemereire: Who do you think is the best person to identify for you those plots that youre not sure of, between a solicitor general and a surveyor?

Byabagambi: My lord I think its my surveyor.

Bamugemereire: Then why dont you fire your surveyor and get someone who can do the job?

Byabagambi: My lord I wouldnt want that because the surveyor has been the one that has been helping me to conduct all these searches.

Bamugemereire: And the surveyor cannot get to the bottom of this? Are you sure his not complicit?

Byabagambi: Im not really very sure about I...

Bamugemereire: Is your mind big enough to understand the things that happen in the land sector in Jinja?

Byabagambi: My lord when you see us using other offices

Bamugemereire: Yes, but we cant see you use for a solicitor general's office? A former attorney general is telling you that you cannot ask a state attorney who sits in the ministry of Justice to look at land which is next to you

Byabagambi: My lord advice well taken.

alitwaha@observer.ug
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Criminal complaints Monday, Aug. 21 through Friday, Aug. 25:

This list is not comprehensive. Municipalities are listed as they appear on the criminal complaint. Suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. To see mugshots of the accused, visit www.journaltimes.com/gallery. Additional information about the complaints can be found at: journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts.

Darnell V. Adams Jr., 600 block of N. Water St., Sheboygan, bail jumping, operate motor vehicle while revoked, and possession of marijuana.

Paige E. Anderson, 2000 block of Racine St., Racine, possess/illegally obtained prescription, possession of a controlled substance, resisting an officer, and disorderly conduct.

Crystal M. Benish, 200 block of N. Memorial Drive, Racine, disorderly conduct.

Anthony S. Berby, 2500 block of Ridgewood Ave., Racine, obstructing an officer.

Talyiah B. Brown, 1100 block of Reiley Court, Racine, pointing a firearm at another, bail jumping, disorderly conduct, and use of a dangerous weapon.

Thomas Brown Jr., 500 block of Eighth St., Racine, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Daniel J. Brunson, 3900 block of Jacob Court, Racine, disorderly conduct, use of a dangerous weapon, and possession of marijuana.

Isaiah T. Chambliss, 700 block of Lake Ave., Racine, disorderly conduct, and use of a dangerous weapon.

Brandyn R. Conda, 2300 block of Geneva St., Racine, uttering a forgery.

Brandyn R. Conda, 1800 block of Center St., Racine, manufacture/deliver marijuana.

Gilbert I. Cotton, 2000 block of Kearney Ave., Racine, uttering a forgery, disorderly conduct, and use of a dangerous weapon.

Marlon Curry, 3600 block of S. 23rd St., Milwaukee, escape.

Stephanie M. Darge, 900 block of Wisconsin Ave., Racine, maintaining a drug trafficking place, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

William B. Deadwyler Jr., 1900 block of S. 26th St., Milwaukee, operate motor vehicle while revoked.

Marco Antonio R. Delarosa, 6600 block of Hidden Creek Road, Racine, operating while intoxicated.

David J. Guerrero, 4000 block of Marquette Drive, Racine, possession of marijuana.

Kquinton L. Hadley, 2800 block of Douglas Ave., Racine, threat to law enforcement officer.

Loren F. Hamilton, 2900 block of Lincolnwood Drive, Racine, disorderly conduct, domestic abuse assessments, and battery.

Angel T. Harris, 2000 block of Racine St., Racine, operating without a license.

Phillip D. Hibbler, 1800 block of Taylor Ave., Racine, obstructing an officer, and bail jumping.

Tydelle D. Isom, 900 block of Racine St., Racine, criminal damage to property, and disorderly conduct.

Douglas R. Kauth, 1100 block of Monroe Ave., Racine, first degree sexual assault of a child, and use or threat of force or violence.

Daniel J. Koderca Jr., 3300 block of Meachem Road, Racine, operating while intoxicated.

Michael J. Kossack, 3000 block of Kearney Ave., Racine, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, and bail jumping.

Joseph C. Kostka, 1100 block of Oakes Road, Racine, disorderly conduct.

Lacy L. Lanciloti, 6700 block of 24th Ave., Kenosha, robbery with use of force, crime against an elderly or disabled person, and retail theft.

Marquis D. Lewis, 1900 block of Erie St., Racine, burglary of a building or dwelling, battery, obstructing an officer, and criminal trespass.

Kevin M. Likness, 1700 block of S. 115th Court, West Allis, operating a motor vehicle without owners consent.

Roxanne J. Listrom, 5300 block of Emstan Hills Road, Racine, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct, and bail jumping.

Robert C. Magee, 7200 block of 60th Ave., Kenosha, hit and run causing injury, and operating while intoxicated causing injury.

Nicole M. Maise, 6600 block of 15th Ave., Kenosha, possession of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver heroin, possession with intent to deliver/distribute a controlled substance on or near a park, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession of a controlled substance, and maintaining a drug trafficking place.

Joseph R. Martinez, 1900 block of St. Clair St., Racine, bail jumping, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct, and obstructing an officer.

Joseph P. Maziarka, 200 block of Madison St., Burlington, criminal damage to ATM/other machines, attempt entry into a locked coin box, and entry into a locked coin box.

Deion M. McMorris, 3800 block of Washington Ave., Racine, burglary of a building or dwelling, battery, criminal damage to property, and bail jumping.

Sean A. Moore Jr., 500 block of 3 Mile Road, Racine, burglary of a building or dwelling, battery, criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Jamaris L. Mosley, 1700 block of Cleveland Ave., Racine, substantial battery, and disorderly conduct.

Bessie A. Ortega, 1200 block of S. 30th St., Milwaukee, operating a motor vehicle without owners consent, and theft.

Destiny E. Payne, 3700 block of Douglas Ave., Racine, disorderly conduct, and resisting an officer.

Dwight Person III, 900 block of Racine St., Racine, recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon, and disorderly conduct.

Stephanie J. Petz, 3100 block of 6 Mile Road, Racine, hit and run causing injury.

Amber M. Pfeiffer, 1400 block of West St., Union Grove, operating a motor vehicle without owners consent, attempt theft-false representation, disorderly conduct, and obstructing an officer.

Ralph H. Ricketts, 300 block of Island Ave., Racine, operating while intoxicated, and operate motor vehicle while revoked.

Gregory P. Roark, 8000 block of 22nd Ave., Kenosha, retail theft.

Ted L. Rodriguez, 900 block of Center St., Racine, disorderly conduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Francisco J. Saez, 1600 block of W. Le Moyne St., Chicago, Ill., possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Manuel C. Salas III, 2000 block of DeKoven Ave., Racine, possess/illegally obtained prescription, and bail jumping.

Jacob A. Sepulveda, 2600 block of Violet Court, Racine, possession with intent to deliver or manufacture marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Donnie A. Smith, 2700 block of Gillen St., Racine, possession of a firearm by a felon.

Randall L. Smith, 6900 block of Middle Road, Racine, disorderly conduct, and domestic abuse assessments.

Shelby L. Stockinger, 100 block of Chestnut Ridge Drive, Hartland, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver narcotics, and bail jumping.

Isiah J. Scales, 500 block of Shelbourne Court, Racine, first degree sexual assault, and sexual contact with a child under age 13.

David S. Wells Jr., 1000 block of Park Ave., Racine, obstructing an officer, bail jumping, and operating without a license.

Leanna M. Wiertel, 1900 block of Erie St., Racine, battery, criminal damage to property, domestic abuse assessments, and disorderly conduct.

Casey W. Wilde, 500 block of N. Pine St., Burlington, substantial battery, domestic abuse assessments, and disorderly conduct.

Marcus L. Williams Jr., 200 block of N. Gladstone Ave., South Bend, Ind., forgery.

Ronald A. Williams, 4000 block of N. Sherman Blvd., Milwaukee, operate motor vehicle while revoked, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of marijuana.

Joaquin M. Ynocencio, 1200 block of Michigan Blvd., Racine, battery, domestic abuse assessments, and disorderly conduct.
LINCOLN  Like many parents, State Sen. Tyson Larson recently dropped off his son for his first day of school.

However, the school wasnt in Larsons northeast Nebraska legislative district, but 150 miles away, in west Omaha.

Larson maintains that there are extenuating circumstances behind his unique living arrangements, which keep him in Omaha most of the time and not in District 40, where he insists he rents a residence.

The main reason hes in Omaha, the 31-year-old legislator said, is because of his son. He has temporary sole custody of him, and enrolled him in an Omaha Westside district school for the boys stability, and because a custody battle with his ex-wife, who lives in the Omaha area, is not yet resolved.

But some wonder about the appearance of a senator not living in his district when the Legislature isnt in session, and wonder how effective a legislator can be if hes spending most of his time outside of the district he was elected to represent.

In an interview, Larson insisted that while his sons residency is in Omaha, his own official residence is a rented basement room at a Bloomfield, Nebraska, farmhouse  even though officials in that county say they cannot confirm that, and have been told hes not there and hasnt paid rent there.

Larson said he can still effectively represent his constituents in the State Legislature; his last visit to his district was two weekends ago.

It doesnt limit your effectiveness as a state senator, it doesnt limit your communication with your district, he said. It doesnt matter where you are. You could be halfway across the world.

Two officials from District 40 say that local residents arent thrilled by the arrangement but that since Larson is term-limited and cannot run for re-election next year, most people are looking past it.

Holt County Clerk Cathy Pavel compared the situation, jokingly, to Wheres Waldo?, the childrens book character whos depicted amid hundreds of other characters, forcing readers to look hard to discern wheres Waldo?

(Sen. Larson) used to pop in to chatter every once in a while, Pavel said. More recently, I have not seen the kid except on TV, when they were showing the legislative floor.

Holt County Board member Bill Tielke said that it was strange when Larson first ran for election in 2010: The then-candidate listed his residence as his grandparents ranch outside of ONeill, but he campaigned in a car licensed in Cass County, south of Omaha, where Larson grew up.

He made the promise that hed represent his area, and voters took him at his word, Tielke said. Larson changed his license plate to 36  Holt Countys number on the license plate  after he was elected.

Questions about a state legislators official residency come up from time to time. The issue was also raised earlier this year when it was alleged, by an unsuccessful election challenger, that Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers lived in Bellevue instead of his north Omaha district.

The challenge  which cost taxpayers nearly $43,000 in legal expenses  was denied.

The Nebraska Constitution requires that a senator must live for at least a year in his or her district prior to running for the Legislature. State law also says that residency is not necessarily based on where one is domiciled, but where he or she has the intention of returning.

In Chambers case, he presented documents showing that hes owned a house in his district for years. While he regularly picks up his legislative aide in Bellevue to carpool to the State Capitol in Lincoln, Chambers and other witnesses said he didnt reside there.

A residency complaint was also filed last year against Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer, then a candidate for the Legislature. The residence he listed in his northwest Nebraska district was a machine shed, remodeled to include bedrooms. The complaint against Brewer, who also has a home in Murdock, east of Lincoln, was dismissed for being filed too late. He was subsequently elected.

To be sure, several rural senators purchase condos or rent apartments in Lincoln to allow them to stay in the capital city during legislative sessions. But when the session is over, most legislators return to homes in their districts, not to third locations, like Omaha.

Larsons residency in his district has shifted in recent years.

Two years after he was first elected, he purchased a home in ONeill, within his district. But the house was sold a year ago as part of his divorce agreement.

In December 2016 Larson stated that he had residences in both Holt County and Douglas County. That information came in a legal request to have his divorce case transferred to Omaha.

Earlier this year, during the legislative session, he told World-Herald reporters that he had changed his residency to Bloomfield, which is also within his legislative district.

Last week he said he continued to rent, on a month-to-month basis, a room in the basement of a rural farmhouse.

Officials confirmed that he changed his voter registration in February to a Knox County address, but said that more than one attempt to confirm the change of residency have been unsuccessful.

The latest attempt was on July 19, when a postcard was mailed to Larsons Bloomfield address but was sent back as return to sender, according to Knox County Clerk Joann Fischer and County Attorney John Thomas.

Thomas said hes advised the county clerk to send a letter to Larsons State Capitol office to clarify the matter.

Were confused, he said.

Larson, on Friday, said he thought he had clarified the matter in February, shortly after changing his voter registration address. He said he was not aware that there was any confusion about it.

I have a lease at that residence, theres space there, I have received mail there, the senator said. He added that when he visits his district its usually back and forth, and that if he stays overnight, its at his grandparents ranch, so his kids can see them, rather than at the Bloomfield address.

Larson said that he was advised, by his divorce attorney, to keep his child in Omaha until the custody battle with his ex-wife concludes.

She is allowed court-ordered visitations every other weekend, at her mothers home in Bellevue, according to Larson. A half brother of his son is also present at those visits, the senator said, and its important that the two brothers maintain a relationship.

Larson became a father again in January, and he, his first son and his newest child stay at the mothers house in midtown Omaha.

The lawmaker said he hopes to be awarded permanent sole custody of his first son at a court hearing in October.

To critics of his living arrangements, Larson said that people look for reasons to criticize elected officials. He said that most of his colleagues understand his situation, and understand that family matters must be balanced with serving as a part-time legislator.

Im not in the middle of a campaign, Im obviously not running for anything, and wont run for anything else, said Larson, whose term in office ends in early January 2019.

While some state senators have resigned in the past due to family matters, he said he was not considering that.

Four legislative colleagues interviewed about Larsons dual residency had mixed reactions.

Most said that while it was important to be a consistent presence in the district to which they were elected, people can live and work in several places these days. Larson, for instance, is a public relations consultant, who said his office is where his laptop is located.

In the end, its an issue for voters to decide, said one senator.

Norfolk Sen. Jim Scheer, the speaker of the Legislature, said he thinks that residency rules should remain as flexible as they are now. Thats because several legislators, including him, have second residences in Lincoln, and because peoples jobs are often well separated from their home.

For instance, would an over-the-road truckers residence be his semi? he asked.

Were too mobile of a society now, Scheer said.
KENOSHA  WGTD (91.1 FM) is owned and operated as a public service of Gateway Technical College and is an affiliate of Wisconsin Public Radio. For an updated schedule, visit its website at www.wgtd.org.

The Morning Show airs every weekday between 8:10 and 9 a.m. Following is a schedule of show topics for the coming week:

Monday  More on the opioid epidemic. Part One: Gregg Albright, Chronic Disease Management Pharmacist at Ascension Wheaton Franciscan in Racine. Part Two; Ramsen Kasha, executive director of the Hazelden Betty Ford Center in Chicago, Ill.

Tuesday  Joan Brady, author of Alger Hiss: Framed: A new look at the case that made Nixon famous. Brady knew Alger Hiss personally. Her book examines the climate of fear in which the Alger Hiss case and others like it emerged. It is her contention that he was framed.

Wednesday  Dr. Wayne Thompson, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at Carthage College discusses the state of race relations in the United States, the root causes of racism, the rise of White Supremacy and Neo-Nazi groups.

Thursday  Nancy Pearl, affectionately known as Americas Librarian. We speak with her about her long career as a librarian and champion of books and reading, and about her first novel, Georgie & Lizzie. She appears at Boswell Books in Milwaukee (with WPRs Kathleen Dunn) on Sept. 9.

Friday  University of Wisconsin-Parkside chancellor Debbie Ford.

Saturday  Programming includes Financial Overview at 9 a.m., Breakfast Bytes at 9:45 a.m., Education Matters at 10:30 a.m. and Community Matters at 11:15 a.m.
Its been a century since a young Irish priest named Father Edward Flanagan welcomed homeless boys into a run-down Victorian mansion in downtown Omaha.

But as Boys Town celebrates its centennial, the organization is lessening its focus on the kind of residential care model that made it famous.

The latest wave came in June, as Boys Town announced the shuttering of sites in New York, Texas and California, including one residential care site in Orange County.

That leaves nine Boys Town sites in six states and the District of Columbia.

In 2000 under the Rev. Val Peter, then its executive director, the organization had 16 sites  though some were shelters without residential care.

The Rev. Steven Boes, current president and national executive director, insists the Flanagan mission of caring for American families and children remains, despite what he called some tough decisions to close sites.

A growing body of research suggests that many children do best when they remain in their own homes and communities. Regulatory hurdles also have hampered Boys Towns ability to offer residential care in some states.

While Boys Town leaders continue to advocate for the residential care model in certain circumstances, they also are investing in alternatives, including in-home family consulting.

We are serving more and more kids, mostly in their own homes, Boes said.

Last year Boys Town helped nearly 9,000 children nationwide by bringing family consultants to the childrens homes.

Thats compared with 1,100 children in the residential care Family Home model.

That model involves placing groups of six to eight children with emotional and behavioral issues in single-family homes with married couples. These children, ages 10 to 18, often have serious emotional or behavioral problems. The average stay is 12 to 18 months, with the goal of returning the children to their families or transitioning them to live on their own.

As Boys Town prepares to roll out its five-year strategic plan next month, the organization still has a fire in its belly to fight for its Family Home model.

Flanagans dream began in 1917 within the walls of a rented Omaha home and quickly moved to a sprawling campus near 139th Street and West Dodge Road. That will forever be in the DNA of Boys Town, Boes said.

It just might look a little different as a shift away from residential care continues nationally and at Boys Town. More than 95 percent of youths are now served through in-home or community support services, including school-based programs and the national hotline.

Boys Town decided to shutter its 80-acre residential site in Trabuco Canyon and two family homes in Tustin, California, after years of advocating for regulatory changes in that state. At the time of the June announcement, those homes housed 28 children.

The Trabuco Canyon site was one of 14 Boys Town residential care facilities opened in the 1980s and 90s as Peter worked to spread the model to larger metro areas around the nation.

Since then, changing state regulations have made it more difficult to implement the Boys Town model in many of those areas, said Bob Pick, executive vice president of youth care.

We opened those sites 20 or 30 years ago, and it was an exciting time, Pick said. But times change, contracts change and we have to serve kids with the highest quality. We just couldnt do that in some locations.

When the Trabuco Canyon facility opened, youths stayed for up to two years, Pick said, adding that Boys Towns own research shows that the minimum stay should be about six months and a yearlong stay is ideal.

Because of contractual rules including mandated length of stays in California, we couldnt get kids to stay longer than two or three months, Pick said. Thats just not quality care.

Closing those sites frees up $3.7 million that had been devoted to operating costs. That money will be reinvested in the organizations neurobehavioral research, which uses brain imaging to study the effectiveness of treatments. Those dollars also will support current residential programs in Florida, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.  places without limiting regulations, Pick said.

We are essentially looking at less (residential) sites but bigger sites serving more kids, Boes said.

As the new strategic plan is implemented, Pick said Boys Town will look at adding new residential care facilities in pro-residential states such as Florida.

Boys Town may be one of the few still committed to that, said Polina Makievsky, with the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

Over the past 20 years, nonprofits have abandoned residential care facilities in favor of in-home and community-based service models for at-risk youths and their families, Makievsky said.

Evidence is pointing to the fact that young people do best when they have permanency and are cared for in a family setting, she said.

Still, Makievsky said residential care is the best solution and a critical solution in certain situations.

We do caution against the pendulum swinging too far away from residential care, she said.

Since 2014 the alliance has offered nonprofits guidance on making the transition away from or downsizing residential care facilities. The Omaha Home for Boys participated last year and since 2011 has closed half of its residential care cottages.

Jeff Moran, president and CEO of the Omaha Home for Boys, said the decision was financial and followed the national trend. The reimbursement rate for residential services was 30 cents for every dollar, Moran said.

We just couldnt afford to supplement that difference without impacting our long-term sustainability, Moran said. This is just a part of adapting to whats going on in the realm of social services. This is the reality.

Omaha Home for Boys began as an orphanage in 1920, just a few years after Boys Town.

You cant have that kind of history if you arent willing to adapt to changes within the service industry, Moran said. Like Boys Town, we, too, are looking to be here another 100 years. But that means we have to keep up with whats changing.

The changes at Boys Town havent come without criticism.

The Rev. Peter worries that the closing of Boys Town sites and focus on research runs afoul of Flanagans mission. I gave my whole life to this  to Flanagans dream, Peter, 83, said. This is called Gods dream. Times change, but Gods dream doesnt.

Boes is quick to say that Flanagan would support the focus on research and the direction of Boys Town.

I believe if Father Peter was sitting in my chair, hed have to make the same hard decisions, Boes said. But, ultimately, we have the same mission. Just how we do it has changed.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump praised the federal government's response to Hurricane Harvey on Sunday morning, comments that came as millions still face the threat of deadly floods from the storm.

In tweets, Trump heralded the coordination between agencies and the federal government and said the response to the floods is "going well."

"Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government," he tweeted. "Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with. Thousands rescued."

Trump added: "Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen. Good news is that we have great talent on the ground."

The disaster is far from over for residents of Houston and other areas in the path of the storm. Local officials continued to warn residents about the risk of flash flooding and tornadoes.

Five people have been reported dead as a result of the storm, according to the National Weather Service. The Associated Press was reporting that Harvey was being blamed for killing at least two people and injuring up to 14.

Trump is monitoring the situation from Camp David, about 45 minutes north of Washington.

He is expected to participate in a briefing on the storm response at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Speaking on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said that state and local officials have been given all the resources they have requested from the federal government.

"We could not be more appreciative of what the federal government has done, from the president on down, because everything we've asked for, they have given us," Abbott said. "The most important thing was that I made a disaster declaration that the president granted very swiftly, and what that does is it triggers FEMA's involvement.

"FEMA has been very actively involved and engaged in this whole process, long before the hurricane even hit ground," he added. "And because of their assistance, it means that Texas will be able to begin the rebuilding process very swiftly."

Trump also said that he would visit Houston at a future date when his visit would not disrupt response efforts.

"I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption," Trump said. "The focus must be life and safety."
U.S. Rep. Don Bacon drew shouts, boos and cheers at a wide-ranging town hall meeting in north Omaha on Saturday.

The Republican congressman from Nebraskas 2nd District answered questions on several hot-button issues, including racism, health care and President Donald Trumps proposed ban on transgender military members.

Moderators Willie Barney of the Empowerment Network and William King, founder of The Boss radio station, drew written questions from the several hundred attendees. Questioners were allowed to ask follow-up questions.

After more than an hour of sometimes tense back-and-forth at North High School, Bacon said he heard about two issues that he wants to study more: proposed cuts to Community Development Block Grants and federal employee retirement benefits.

Several attendees wanted to hear Bacons take on the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that erupted into violence and the presidents response.

Trump has been criticized for saying that both sides were to blame for the violence, which led to a womans death, and that there are two sides to every story.

Bacon noted that in scripted comments a day after the event, Trump condemned white supremacy. But Bacon said the presidents unscripted comments were ambiguous, and there should be no ambiguity.

Bacon said Trump should have said: When it comes to how we verbalize our displeasure and our protest, weve got to do it in a peaceful way.

On health care, Bacon said hes heard both from people who support the Affordable Care Act and those who have been harmed by rising premiums under the law.

So far, Republican majorities in the House and the Senate  who have pledged to repeal and replace the ACA, also called Obamacare  have not come to an agreement on a new health care bill.

Bacon said he wants to see changes broken into several bills that could be passed piecemeal.

Walking away and doing nothing is a failure, he said at a press conference after the town hall event.

On Trumps objection to people who are transgender serving in the military, Bacon said the military owes us a study on whether there is an objective reason that a transgender person wouldnt be able to perform military duties.

The president on Friday directed the Pentagon to end recruitment of transgender individuals, though he left the door open for those currently in the military to continue serving. Trump had earlier said he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity.

Bacon noted Saturday that people with relatively minor health issues are not allowed to serve.

Theres a lot of good people who cant serve, today, who want to, said Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general.

He said Trumps reasons appear to be subjective, and Bacon wants to see objective data.

I believe that anybody who wants to serve, whos physically fit, who meets the requirements, should be able to serve, Bacon said.

At the press conference, Bacon said he does not support Trumps threat to shut down the government if the House and Senate dont agree on funding for a border wall.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Two people were injured, and drivers of both vehicles were cited, as the result of a car-motorcycle crash Saturday night on South Green Bay Road.

At 9:12 p.m. Saturday, Mount Pleasant police and South Shore fire and rescue crews were dispatched to the 900 block of South Green Bay Road (Highway 31) for a report of an injury accident. Upon arrival at the scene, police found glass debris in the northbound lane of Highway 31, along with a severely damaged Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the median at that location.

The injured operator of the motorcycle was located in the median strip near the downed bike, police said. Highway 31 is currently under construction, with the traffic lanes reduced from three lanes northbound and southbound to one lane in each direction.

An investigation at the scene indicated that a Toyota, operated by 37-year-old Luis Murillo of Racine, was backing out of a driveway into the northbound traffic lane. The motorcycle, operated by 25-year-old Brian Warren of Racine, was travelling in the northbound lane and collided with the rear of the Toyota. Warren was ejected from the motorcycle, coming to rest in the median.

Paramedics transported Warren to Ascension All Saints Hospitals emergency room for treatment of what police described as non-life-threatening injuries. He was later transferred to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, police said.

A 29-year-old female passenger in the Toyota also was transported to Ascension with what police described as minor injuries.

Police said that Murillo was cited for unsafe backing of a vehicle onto a highway. Warren was cited for operating a vehicle while under the influence, causing injury.

The crash remained under investigation as of late Sunday morning.

The Racine County Sheriffs Office assisted Mount Pleasant police with traffic control at the crash scene.
A 55 acre land belonging to Dera Sacha near Hyderabad under scanner

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Following the order of the High Court to attach properties of the Dera Sacha Sauda, the revenue department in Telangana verified land belonging to the ashram near Hyderabad.

The Dera owns a 55 acre land in Nalgonda district near Hyderabad. The Dera maintains that the land is meant for the construction of a college and school. Following the violence that erupted at Panchkula after the Dera chief was convicted revenue officials verified the documents of the land at Nalgonda, close to the proposed aerospace park. The Ashram is located in Veliminedu village in Nalgonda district. There are no constructions on the land barring a small room for the caretaker, Shyamlal.

Village sarpanch Maddela Mallaiah told reporters that the largest piece, an 11-acre plot was registered in the name of one I. Venkata Gandhi. "The 55-acre land was bought at different times from 2007 to 2015. The land is farm land as per our records as no mutation was sought so far," Mallaiah said. The villagers say that the money for the purchase and registration of the land has come from the Ashram Headquarters.

Caretaker Shyamlal who is a native of Haryana says that Baba has visited Hyderabad several times since 2002. However, Baba stayed in hotels where he conducted Satsangs. His last visit to Hyderabad was in 2012. Shyamlal who came to Hyderabad in 1987 become Baba's follower in 2007.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 8:59 [IST]
AIADMK crisis: DMK to meet Tamil Nadu Governor, urge for floor test

India

oi-Anusha

Opposition party in the Tamil Nadu assembly, DMK, is all set to up the ante demanding a floor test. Leaders of the DMK are expected to meet Tamil Nadu Governor Vidhyasagar Rao on Sunday to press for Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy to prove majority in the house. Meanwhile, the AIADMK has called for a privileges committee meeting.

On Sunday, TTV Dhinakaran removed Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy from all party post. DMK leader Duraimurugan along with five MLAs from the party is expected to meet the Governor. Leaders of the Congress are also likely to meet the Governor seeking No-confidence motion against the government. This would be the second time that both parties have urged for a floor test in the assembly fully aware that Edappadi Palanisamy does not have enough support to survive another.

The AIADMK has now called for a privileges committee meeting where action against 19 rebel MLAs is expected to be discussed. While two more MLAs of the party have extended their support to TTV Dinakaran, action is being mulled against 19 legislators who are currently lodged at a hotel in Puducherry.

The DMK has alleged that Edappadi Palanisamy government is keen on suspending members of the DMK as well as 19 legislators of AIADMK supporting TTV Dinakaran and documents for the same are being prepared. Governor Vidhyasagar Rao arrived in Chennai on Saturday giving rise to speculations that a floor test may be in order.

OneIndia News
Amit Shah gives Karnataka BJP one last chance to prove unity at core committee meet

India

oi-Anusha

BJP national president Amit Shah will oversee Karnataka unit's core committee in New Delhi on Saturday. This is the state BJP's final chance to prove that the party will put up a united fight ahead of the assembly elections in Karnataka. Despite allegations of attempting to engineer a rift within the party, national joint organizing secretary B L Santhosh is all set to get additional powers to keep the BJP in check.

Members of the state BJP core committee will meet on Saturday for a review of all that has taken place post-Amit Shah's visit to Bengaluru. While the BJP has managed to become active on the ground in terms of rallies, protests and agitation, intra-organisation powerplay needs to be put to rest. B L Santhosh is expected to get more control over the state party and become a bridge between the election in-charges appointed by Amit Shah, the party as well as the RSS. The core issue between Yeddyurappa and B L Santhosh was power-sharing. Saturday's meet is likely to put an end to the same.

"There really is no infighting anymore. All of that ended before Amit Shah landed in Bengaluru. Now is the time to give the central leadership the confidence that we can pull this off. There will be no arguments on who gets what responsibility. For now, there is no time for power tussle. Our focus in 2018 assembly elections and we have all decided to implement whatever is decided in the meetings. The same will apply to all meetings that are to come," said a party worker when asked if additional powers to B L Santhosh will once again create a rift.

A pre-poll survey that has predicted a massive win for the Congress will also be discussed in the meeting. The election committee will also meet newly appointed in-charge Prakash Javdekar on Saturday. The BJP will mull over conducting their own pre-poll survey to counter the existing one by C fore.

Amit Shah has sought a detailed report on all activities inside and outside the party office after his three-day visit. He will review the performance of each wing and leader who were given specific tasks during his visit. Saturday's meeting is also the Karnataka BJP's last chance to prove unity among leaders failing which, the central leadership will take full control of the state unit.

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Story first published: Saturday, August 26, 2017, 12:21 [IST]
Dera violence hits services in Uttarakhand; 80 buses suspended

India

pti-PTI

Dehradun, Aug 26: Around 80 buses were suspended in view of the violence that erupted in Haryana and Punjab after the rape conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

"Eighty Uttarakhand Roadways buses bound for adjoining states like Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have been suspended to avert any untoward incident," GM (operations) Uttarakhand Roadways Deepak Jain said.

However, buses are plying on Dehradun-Delhi route as of now, he said. He said the public has been inconvenienced due the suspension of the buses but the decision was taken for their safety in the wake of violence. Widespread violence and arson erupted in Haryana, and also in Punjab, after a special CBI court yesterday convicted the Dera chief in a rape case. The protesters set ablaze scores of vehicles.

PTI
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar says he had no role in Ram Rahim's parole

Except Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section, train services in Punjab and Haryana restored

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 27: The Indian Railways on Sunday said the train operations in Punjab and Haryana, except in the Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section, have been restored.

The security clearance for the section is awaited from state authorities, it said.

Twenty-five train services which were halted due to issues of rake balancing and availability had not been restored.

The railway also asked passengers to check the railway's online or telephonic enquiry facilities to find about train's status.

Protests by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim after he was convicted had forced the railways to cancel many trains in the region.

As many as 101 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the State, while the Army has been deployed in Panchkula and Sirsa. Curfew has been relaxed in Panchkula and Sirsa.

PTI
Fissures in the Morcha and the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling, August 26: Both the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) sailed into choppy seas with fissures appearing.

While Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Supremo Bimal Gurung made an oblique comment that some political leaders (also from within his party) were trying to frame him and were trying to get him arrested.

On the other hand, the scheduled meeting of the GMCC was cancelled on Sunday bringing to the fore difference among the constituent parties.

Gurung in an audio dispatch to media persons from an undisclosed location stated, "There is a conspiracy being hatched by some leaders from Darjeeling and Kurseong who are hand in glove with the West Bengal Government. They are trying to trap me. In the next 10 or 12 days I will make their names public."

Gurung claimed that despite the conspiracy being hatched he would not compromise on the Gorkhaland demand.

"I will not spare anyone who compromises on the Gorkhaland demand too," warned Gurung.

"Some leaders have written to the State Government without seeking my permission. Whichever party sits in talks with the State Government on August 29 will have to walk out if any other issue is discussed other than Gorkhaland. If the parties discuss any other agenda then we will not allow them to return to the Hills" warned Gurung.

He stated that his whereabouts were being leaked to the police by some leaders.

"However I have evidence that there are some leaders from within our party and other parties hand in glove with the State Government trying to get me arrested and derail the agitation. I will make all this public along with evidences," claimed Gurung.

Incidentally, Gurung has remained incommunicado since the Security Forces have set up base at Patleybash, 8km from Darjeeling town where Gurung resides and is a GJM stronghold. The police have also implicated him in the Darjeeling town and Kalimpong police station blasts on August 19 under Sections pertaining to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA.)

However, on August 23 Gurung had shot a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her to open dialogues on the Gorkhaland issue. However, the CM claimed that she had received no letter from Gurung. Instead, she stated that Binay Tamang, Chief Coordinator, GJM had written to the State stating that the GJM would attend talks in Kolkata on August 29.

Meanwhile, the GMCC (a conglomeration of 14 pro Gorkhaland outfits) was scheduled to meet at Kalimpong on Sunday to discuss whether the GMCC would be attending the Kolkata talks. They had demanded that the State should send the GMCC an official invitation for the talks.

"No such invite was received by the GMCC till Sunday, hence we could not hold the meeting on Sunday" stated Kalyan Dewan, Chief Coordinator, GMCC. Strong voices of discontent from constituent parties regarding the sudden cancellation were heard in Kalimpong.

"I had not heard of the cancellation hence I travelled to Kalimpong. In Kalimpong, we were told that the meeting has been cancelled. The reason behind this could have been GJM's unilateral declaration that they will be taking part in Kolkata talks. Going a step further the GJM even announced the names of the 5 member teams. We will sit in a Central committee meeting on Monday and announce the names of GNLF team attending the Kolkata talks." stated Neeraj Zimba, Spokesperson, Gorkha National Liberation Front.

The GJM and GNLF will be attending the Kolkata talks along with others. Jan Andolan Party (JAP) will also be sitting in a meeting in Kalimpong on Monday. "We will then decide whether we will attend talks or not. In case we decide to attend we will announce names of the team members" stated Dr. Harka Bahadur Chettri, President, JAP.

Though the Hill parties have been claiming that they will be pressing for Gorkhaland in the Kolkata talks, the letter of invite from the State Government for the talks clearly states that the meeting is being held with the objective "..... to restore peace and normalcy in the hills and remove the sufferings that the people now face in their daily lives."

The meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on August 29 at 4pm at Nabbanya- the State Secretariat.

With Sunday's development questions have been raised regarding the very existence of the GMCC. "The GMCC was constituted for a collective movement for Gorkhaland. How can constituent parties unilaterally declare that they will be attending talks with the State Government even before the GMCC meeting has taken place? When the constituent parties of the GMCC have already received invitation letters from the State Government and have decided to participate then what is reason for calling a GMCC meeting to decide on whether to attend or not. This makes the GMCC meeting redundant," claimed a political observer.

Members of the Civil Society have stated that as per resolution No 2 of the GMCC meeting held on 25th August 2017 in Kalimpong, it was unanimously decided that If GMCC does not get the formal invitation from the West Bengal Government, GMCC will not participate in the talk with the West Bengal Government on 29th August 2017.

It was also resolved that no political party will go as an individual and a separate entity in the talks with the West Bengal GGovernment.Only the representatives of the GMCC will participate in the proposed Talk.

Members of the Civil Society are of the view that if GMCC does not get any invitation from the West Bengal Government no political party should participate in the talks.

"If they decide to participate then GMCC's very existence will be questioned. In that case, the GMCC should be immediately dissolved and dismantled " stated a member of the GMCC preferring anonymity.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 21:03 [IST]
Gujarat Assembly polls: Saurashtra region, with 48 of 182 seats, is the piece everyone's eyeing

Gujarat polls: Congress promises to rename Narendra Modi Stadium if it wins

Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi to visit Ahmedabad on September 4

India

pti-PTI

Ahmedabad, Aug 27: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will visit Ahmedabad on September 4 to discuss the framework of the election campaign in the state.

He will address a gathering of party representatives from local bodies such as municipalities, municipal corporations and district and taluka panchayats, state Congress president Bharatisnh Solanki said.

Around 25,000 party workers are expected to participate in the program where framework of the election campaign for coming Assembly elections is expected to be discussed, he said.

Gandhi's campaign tours in the state are likely to begin in the later part of the month, starting from Dwarka in Saurashtra, Solanki said.

The Congress suffered a serious setback in Gujarat recently when thirteen of its MLAs quit the party.

On Sunday, Rahul gave Lalu Prasad Yadav's anti-BJP rally in Patna a miss and headed to Norway.

PTI
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar says he had no role in Ram Rahim's parole

Honeypreet accompanied Ram Rahim in chopper with court's permission, clarifies police

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With the Haryana government ordering a probe into how Honeypreet Insan, the adopted daughter of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was allowed to board the chopper which took the Dera chief to Rohtak jail, the Haryana police on Sunday said that she was allowed with court's permission.

Haryana DGP BS Sandhu told the media that Honeypreet accompanied Ram Rahim as he was not well.

"After Ram Rahim Singh's conviction, she (Honeypreet Insan) expressed her desire to go with him as attendant stating he is unwell...She was in chopper with court's permission," ANI quoted Sandhu as saying.

Photographs taken in the court complex show that Honeypreet accompanied the Dera chief to court and also sat beside him in the chopper.

This issue came up during the hearing in the Punjab and Haryana high court as well. Some members of the high court bar told the court that special treatment was being extended to the dera head after his arrest. Bar members said not only was Honeypreet allowed to accompany him, Gurmeet was also kept in a guest house before being shifted to jail.

[Who will be the next Dera chief? Here's a list of probables]

Speaking on the violence that followed after Dera chief's conviction, Sandhu said that 52 cases have been registered so far while 926 people have been arrested.

"Total 38 deaths, 32 in Panchkula and 6 in Sirsa. All 6 deceased people from Sirsa have been identified...24 deceased people from Sirsa have been identified, postmortem as been done," he added.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 18:17 [IST]
India, a country for 'Godmen': Politics, not divinity, their source of power

India

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

God and religion are big things in India and indeed around the world. Maybe a little more in the world's largest democracy than most other places. And unlike theocratic countries, 'gods' and 'godmen,' of not just one, but different religions and sects hold sway here than foreign.

While this might be considered an example of the secular nature of the country, it also leads to the increase in the number of what could be considered 'holy' or 'unholy' men and women, depending on one's opinion and beliefs.

And more the number of such men or women, more following they have, more the power they hold over political leaders of the day, given that devotees also happen to be voters at election time.

It's this die-hard support of their followers and control over them that ultimately leads to the preferential treatment such modern day gods enjoy from governments giving them special powers is entire country's concerns.

This influence, and not their closeness to god or of being gods themselves, is the source of the ability to wield their 'unholy' and at times illegal power, over other mere mortals and citizens of India, allowing them leeway when it comes to government actions and sanctions that few others will ever enjoy.

Ram Rahim, the prime and latest example

Incidents and happenings related to Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the self-proclaimed 'godman' with a huge following in North Indian states of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, are just the latest example of this.

Ram Rahim, was convicted in a rape case by a Special CBI court and this has led to chaos, especially in Panchkula district of Haryana, the state where his Dera headquarters is located. With over 36 people killed and around 269 injured after his followers ran riot following the verdict.

And the fact that Bharatiya Janata Party government of the state, led by its Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, who was openly supported by the 'spiritual' leader in the assembly elections, has been ineffective in controlling this, despite clear prior knowledge that such violence was possible, is an understatement at best.

Statements from not only Khattar but also those of another leader of the party, BJP Member of Parliament, Sakshi Maharaj, go a long way to show the reason behind the lack of proper handling, due to an anaemic manner of preparation, to tackle the critical and violent situations that rose after the conviction.

Khattar tried to take the blame away from the Dera followers, as a statement from his office read, "The Chief Minister said some anti-social elements got mixed up with the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda after the delivery of the verdict by the CBI court in the case involving the Dera chief, resorted to violence and disrupted the peace."

Meanwhile, the BJP MP, trying to defend the violence and attempting to absolve Ram Rahim of his crime said, "One person alleging sexual exploitation but crores stand with him today, why those crores of people are not being heard?" He even went on to blame the courts for their part, "If even bigger incidents take place, court will also be responsible not just Dera people, he said.

Little wonder then, that Punjab and Haryana High court in its observation told Haryana government, "You allowed the city to burn for political gains. It seems the government has surrendered to agitators."

How these 'Godmen' and 'Gurus' wield power

Though many would want to hope and attempt to explain the case of Ram Rahim as an exception, sadly even the staunchest followers of such men and supporters of politicians will not be able to prove that the current case is the norm and not the exception.

While getting away with crimes, or at least allegations of committing them, might be the most important way of using their importance for those in power, several allegations of them building empires by using quid pro quo relationship have also surfaced. This has led to even those who claim to be beyond materialistic things of the world to own them.

These come from the reality of many of them, at least the very famous ones who can be seen on television sets, are also very successful businessmen, with many having a 'rags to riches' story to boast of.

Example of these, though not all of them having grave legal allegations against them, include the Yoga guru, Ramdev, whose Fast-moving consumer goods company (FMCG), Patanjali, has quickly become one of the largest in the country, or Ram Rahim who himself through his companies sells products from cosmetics to food products and has also made and starred in movies. These are just two examples in a long list of such names.

With commercial activities often blanketed by the well publicised social welfare programs which they run through educational institutions, hospitals, among others. Many allegations have also been made against many such leaders using their well-amassed wealth and helping politicians in helping purify their illicit incomes through their business and welfare measures.

Such a nexus rarely coming to light given that those parts of it are the authorities in charge of agencies who are to expose such links. And while doing all this, such 'godmen' are not very shy about openly showing their links with leaders of the political class, often sharing the stage at public events from which both sides benefit.

So while Khattar has shared the stage with Ram Rahim, to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat program, even Modi thanked the Dera Sacha Sauda leader, as he tweeted on October 28, 2014, "Appreciable effort by Baba Ram Rahim ji & his team. Will motivate people across India to join Swachh Bharat Mission!"

'Holy' men and their 'Unholy' ways

Sadly, the latest guru to go to jail is one of many with whom the courts of the land, no matter what the intentions of those in power, caught up. And most of them on criminal charges starting from, murder, rape, molestation, abduction, criminal intimidation, violation of Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, and many other such crimes.

Even the collection of names of the 'holy' men of India belonging to different parts of the country, who have been sent to jail is full of those who have had or still enjoy do lakhs of followers with total commitment from their devotees.

It includes many such as, Asaram Bapu, the late Chandraswami, Sant Rampal, Swami Sadachar, Shiv Murat Dwivedi, Swami Premananda, Swami Amrita Chaitanya, Jayendra Saraswathi among others.

Though such examples where those claiming to be close or gods themselves, might show that justice is done in most cases, the reality of how difficult it is to get conviction with witnesses threatened, slow movement from investigative agencies under political pressure, or just plain murder of those willing to take stand or report against them, as seen in Asaram and Ram Rahim's case, show a different reality.

And the non-ending belief that the followers of such men seem to have in their gurus just goes on to make the task of those who would want to voice the crimes against them, which might also lead to the break in the political backing that they get, even more difficult.

It is such a reality of India's spiritual sphere that has gone far in not only making the life of victims more painful but also gives these modern day gods a standing unlike those of old, who though no doubt were treated with as much reverence and contempt in their times as any of the gods of today, yet surely did not enjoy similar say and power over the administration during their lives and times.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 6:25 [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

One Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir

J&K: Two civilians injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Two civilians were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Shahpur Kerni area of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Sunday.

The injured civilians have been rushed to a hospital in Poonch, said reports.

Reports say that Pakistan had initiated firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in Poonch and Sunderbani areas at 6 pm today.

On Friday, One BSF jawan was injured in the ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir's RS Pura sector.

Even on Wednesday, a ceasefire violation by Pakistan was reported in Jammu and Kashmir' Poonch area.

On Tuesday one woman was injured in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Baaz and Nambla areas of Uri sector in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

On Saturday, a 45-year-old lady had lost her life in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.

There has been an increase in the number of cease fire violations by Pakistan as it is trying to help terrorists infiltrate into the Valley. Intelligence Bureau officials report that there is a major push being made to enhance infiltrations.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 22:47 [IST]
CALEDONIA  If you havent sensed it already, there seems to be an urge to purge these days.

People have been clearing out basements, donating old clothes; even assessing their extensive bric-a-brac collections.

At his former shop at 303 Main St., retired retailer Doug Wick was a collector of business endeavors. There was Pac n Ship; Old Tymes Photo; Common Scents, where he sold fine soaps and scented oils; and later, Something U Need.

Opened in 2013  just two years before he retired  Something U Need was the fourth of Wicks shops within a shop, and it featured a bevy of the items the colorful businessman had collected over the years.

When the businesses closed in 2014, much of the collectibles migrated back to Wicks Caledonia home.

Now, three years later, Racines most beloved packrat is making a serious go of selling some of those treasures by holding what might be the most eclectic rummage sale locals have ever seen.

Masks and milk tins

On Saturday, Wick buzzed around the driveway and backyard of his house at 5435 Erie St., talking to interested shoppers and pricing everything from scented soaps to hood ornaments.

Spread out along tables was an array of items from vintage cameras and board games, like Whirl Out, to mid-century camping and bartending gear. There were old masks, craps tables, milking tins, transistor radios still their boxes, ice buckets, VHS tapes, inflatable toys  even a mannequin in a derby hat, and a pair of Donny Osmond knee socks.

Scoping the collection for finds was Racine area transplant Sarah Berkey, of North Bay, and her best friend, Wally Woodward of Michigan.

Berkey, 47, who just moved to North Bay to begin teaching history at The Prairie School, had already loaded up in car with items from the sale.

There is lot of cool stuff here, she said, later showing off some old municipal ornaments and a pair of old black light posters she had snagged.

Urge to purge

Asked about prompted the sale, Wick, 65, said simply: downsizing.

He seemed amazed by just how much stuff he really had.

When everything is placed in a room, everything fits. You remove it from there and it just explodes, he said.

In a Journal Times story from 2013, Wick said he started scavenging and collecting in about 1973 when he went to live first in Mesa, Ariz., then California. He started buying and selling at flea markets, eventually making $60 to $100 in a day  even without a vendors booth.

Wick plans to keep the sale going through the end of Labor Day weekend, selling as many things as he can.

He may not let go of everything, though.

On Saturday, he was so conflicted about selling an antique drill guide that he ended up offering buy it back.

How stupid of me to sell that unique item, he said, chuckling. Im a lousy businessman.
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

J&K: Pulwama terror attack was revenge strike by Jaish

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack at Jammu and Kashmir in which 8 security personnel were martyred. The group's spokesperson Hasan Shah said that it was the Jaish which carried out the attack.

Shah also detailed the entire operation to a local news agency in Pakistan. Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that they have managed to confirm that it was a Jaish led strike. It is being seen as a revenge strike, the IB officer also said.

Eight security personnel, including four CRPF men, were killed when terrorists carried out a suicide attack on a district police complex in south Kashmir's Pulwama today, triggering a massive gunfight in which the three terrorists were killed.

The terror strike took place at the crack of dawn when the terrorists, believed to be foreign mercenaries, entered the police complex in the worst-hit Pulwama district, 25 km from here.

Police, CRPF and Army personnel quickly swung into action and cornered the terrorists and ensured that family members of the police personnel living within the complex were taken out to safety.

By afternoon, the security personnel neutralised one of the three terrorist while another terrorist's body was recovered after 5 PM, officials said, adding the firing had stopped and the third body would be recovered soon.

The terrorists had entrenched themselves in all the three blocks of the police complex and were firing at the approaching troops, they said.

Lt Gen J S Sandhu, General officer Commanding of Srinagar-based XV Corps, said it is a "fidayeen" (suicide) attack.

Among those killed four were from the CRPF, one was a constable of Jammu and Kashmir Police and three were Special Police Officers working with the state police.

Two of the four CRPF personnel were killed at the fag end of the operation when they were defusing one of the improvised explosive devices planted by the terrorists.

Director General of Police S P Vaid said it was a sad day for security forces who suffered such a heavy causality.

"However, the boys fought bravely and we are only more determined to wipe out militancy from the entire state," he said.

A police official said that one of the terrorists came out of a building and fired indiscriminately during the encounter. "He was gunned down on the spot," the official said.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 8:36 [IST]
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

Kashmiri Pandits call for revocation of Article 370

India

pti-PTI

Jammu, Aug 27: Demanding creation of a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits within the state, Panun Kashmir, a representative body of migrant Kashmiri Pandits, on Sunday demanded revocation of the contentious Article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

At the body's annual national convention in Jammu, several resolutions were passed which besides revocation of Article 370, also called for a political reorganisation of the state and creation of a centrally-administered union territory north and east of the Jhelum river for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, a statement said.

Pledging to continue its struggle for a homeland, the delegates unanimously adopted the resolution seeking abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution.

"A resolve was made to support all efforts leading to repealing of the Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution. Panun Kashmir realises that unless Article 370 is abolished, the movement for repeated partitions of India will remain alive and potent," the statement said.

Former BJP leader Hari Om termed Article 35A as a "discriminatory and unconstitutional provision" and cautioned the government and people against settling of Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslims in Jammu region.

"The ongoing demographic attrition in Jammu needs to be reversed at every cost, as Jammu is the backbone of the nation in the state," he said.

Convener of Panun Kashmir, Agnishekhar called upon the youth of the community to keep working on "novel instrumentalities of struggle" for a homeland in exile and to awaken the world against the "Jihad" being unleashed.

PTI
Lalu runs pillar to post to galvanize opposition while Rahul scurries off to Norway

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's "Desh Bachao, BJP Bhagao" rally is not likely to be seen as a serious uprising against the ruling NDA with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi giving it a miss. Whatever may be said about the Congress, which has just over 40 seats in Lok Sabha, it is still the principal opposition party in the country.

At a time when the Grand Alliance was in shambles after Nitish Kumar switched sides, it was all the more important for Rahul Gandhi to be present at the rally in Patna.

Instead, Rahul has scurried off to Norway, without even giving a proper reason as to why he is heading to Norway the opposition unity is the need of the hour. His statement just says that he is on an official visit.

"I am confident that this rally would expose nefarious designs of the ruling party and their government. I very much wanted to attend this rally but I am on an official visit to Norway because of which I am unable to be there," Rahul's statement said.

In rest of the statement, he criticised the BJP government on usual lines, calling it anti-poor and anti-farmers.

"This rally comes at a time when the fundamentals of the nation are being attacked. They are using a combination of money and power to extend their influence on states now. This government has forgotten about the promises made to people in 2014," the statement added.

Meanwhile, a sea of people could be seen at Lalu's rally in Patna's Gandhi Maidan.

Rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav shared a stage for the first time with Lalu Yadav at the anti-BJP rally, ignoring the JD-U's warning not to attend it.

[Is Sharad Yadav's expulsion from JD (U) on the cards?]

Sharad Yadav was warmly welcomed by Lalu when he reached the stage. A smiling Lalu Prasad shook hands with him and hugged Sharad Yadav before the huge gathering.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also attended the rally.

Leaders of as many as 21 political parties are participating in the anti-BJP rally.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 16:41 [IST]
Doklam-like incidents may increase in future, says Army Chief

India

oi-Madhuri

Amid the ongoing standoff between the troops of India and China at Doklam in the Sikkim sector, Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said that incidents like the current situation in Doklam are likely to increase in future.

While speaking to media, Rawat said China is attempting to "change the status quo" on its border with India which we need to wary about.

He was delivering the General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture on 'India's Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct' organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University here this evening.

"Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). "Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops...however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.

"We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it can not happen again in different sector. "It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down," the Army Chief added.

He further said that the annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year. ''We have bee doing these excercises every year. However, this time, China has not yet confirmed whether it will take place or not.

Rawat also slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu & Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern.

OneIndia News (with inputs)
Ram Rahim convicted: Bengaluru ashram locked, followers return

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A small ashram set up for the followers of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who have migrated to Bengaluru has been locked. The ashram named Dhan Dhan Satguru was set up at Rukmini Nagar at Peenya a few years back.

The ashram was build on a 60 by 40 plot and was being run by four persons. The baba has no local followers. In fact the ashram was built for Ram Rahim's followers who had migrated to Bengaluru.

However following the conviction of the baba in a rape case, the ashram has been locked up and the followers have left for their home states. The area DCP Chetan Rathore had deployed a few security personnel outside the ashram on Friday as a precautionary measure. Police sources tell OneIndia that the following of the baba was very low. There were just four to five persons who were at the ashram.

Now the ashram has been locked up and the followers have gone back to Haryana, the source also said. Now that the followers have returned the police have withdrawn the security personnel from the site.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 9:11 [IST]
Tuesday is now No Meeting Day in Haryana and officers to be with people on Friday

Ram Rahim convicted: Curfew relaxed in Sirsa as violence subsides

India

oi-Madhuri

The district administration on Sunday relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa, after restrictions were imposed on August 24.

The curfew has been relaxed between 6 am to 11 am. Petrol pumps, shops and other commercial establishments were allowed to open in the area.

At present, prohibitory orders imposed in 11 of the 13 police districts in the national capital in the wake of the violence following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh will continue for now, police said on Saturday. The violence also spilled over into neighbouring Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi. However, the day-to-day life of the citizens would not be affected.

Section 144 was imposed in the entire city except for North and Central police districts on Friday night after multiple incidents of arson in the city following the conviction of the rape accused self-styled godman in Panchkula in Haryana.

The Haryana government sealed over 30 congregation centres of the Dera Sacha Sauda across the state even as it came under attack from the high court over Friday's violence that claimed 36 lives. The self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is now prisoner number 1997 in Sunaria jail's 'approval cell' in Rohtak spent his first night by roaming inside the cell till midnight.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 9:24 [IST]
Ram Rahim convicted: Haryana gears up ahead of crucial Monday sentencing

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Ahead of the crucial sentencing of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Monday, Haryana is all braced up. The crucial sentencing of the Dera chief convicted on rape charges is up on Monday at a special CBI court in Panchkula.

The Intelligence Bureau has warned of possible trouble, but this time around the state administration is taking no chances. 36 people were killed on Friday following the conviction as a result of which the capabilities of the state administration came under the scanner.

Director-General of Police, Haryana, B.S. Sandhu said that while 30 people were killed in Panchkula, six causalities were reported from Sirsa. "As many as 34 cases have been registered till now by the police in the entire episode, and 552 people have been arrested. Investigations are under way," he said.

As many as 101 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the State, while the Army has been deployed in Panchkula and Sirsa. Curfew has been relaxed in Panchkula and Sirsa, he said. Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said that the efficient action taken by the security forces to disperse the violent mob in about three-and-a-half hours had prevented the situation from worsening.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 7:42 [IST]
Ram Rahim convicted: Khattar to stay on as Haryana CM

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The BJP has made it clear that Manohar Lal Khattar will stay as the Chief Minister of Haryana. In a meeting chaired by BJP boss, Amit Shah along with the Harayana state general state secretary Dr Anil Jain, it was decided that Khattar will not be replaced or summoned to Delhi for any clarifications. The meeting was held in the aftermath of violence that erupted following the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a rape case.

This is not the time to indulge in politics. Instead the focus would be to maintain peace and take control of the situation, a senior BJP leader informed OneIndia. It is not the time to buckle under the pressure of the opposition, the leader also informed.

The BJP also took consideration of the fact that the Haryana government had managed to bring the situation under control in three hours. To say that the Prime Minister was unhappy with Khattar is misplaced, the BJP leader also informed. No plea to remove Khattar has been received from the Haryana state unit of the BJP, the leader also said.

For now the focus is on the sentencing that would be read out on Monday. The Centre is extending all help to the state to ensure that law and order is control, a senior Home Ministry official informed.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 8:45 [IST]
Nitish avoids speaking anything against friend-turned-foe Sharad Yadav in his daughter's constituency

Sharad Yadav likely to be expelled from JD (U)

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Taking a strong exception to Sharad Yadav attending anti-BJP rally in Patna, the Janata Dal (United) on Sunday said the former had indulged in 'anti-party' activity and created problems for his 'membership'.

Senior JD (U) leader K C Tyagi told news agency ANI that Sharad Yadav will lose the Rajya Sabha membership and the party would soon approach the Rajya Sabha chairman soon.

"We had informed him this would be seen as anti-party activity and it means that he has left party himself...According to 10th schedule, on doing this he will lose his Rajya Sabha membership as well," Tyagi said.

"By attending today's rally he (Sharad Yadav) has created a problem for his membership, we will soon apprise RS Chairman," he added.

Sharad Yadav on Sunday attended "Desh Bachao, BJP Bhagao" rally in Patna's Gandhi Maidan which was organised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Speaking at the rally, Sharad Yadav expressed disappointment over the collapse of the Grand Alliance in Bihar and vowed to build a national level Grand Alliance.

[Sharad Yadav vows to build national level Grand Alliance]

Last month, JD (U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister severed ties with the Grand Alliance over corruption allegations on former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and forged an alliance with BJP. The JD (U), RJD and Congress had formed an alliance ahead of Bihar Assembly elections to keep the BJP out of power.

[Is Sharad Yadav's expulsion from JD (U) on the cards?]

Nitish's decision did not go down well with Sharad Yadav as he openly critised Nitish's move and began hobnobbing with RJD and Congress.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 19:33 [IST]
Sharad Yadav receives threat letter for supporting anti-national forces

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Aug 27: Rebel Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday received a threat letter allegedly from a right wing group. The letter warned him against interfering in Bihar politics and supporting "anti-national" forces.

His office said they have informed the Union Home Ministry about the letter which was delivered at the Rajya Sabha member's residence by post recently.

The letter has warned him that he should not speak against the Bihar government and Hindu interests or he will have to suffer the consequences.

It said that he has made a big mistake by siding with "anti-national" forces. Yadav has come out against his party's decision to dump the "grand alliance" of the RJD and the Congress and to join the NDA.

PTI
Bihar: Over 200 students sick, claim they saw 'dead lizard' in mid-day meal

Sharad Yadav vows to build national level Grand Alliance

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Asserting that the mandate in Bihar was against the BJP and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, estranged BJP leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday said he was deeply hurt by the fall of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

At the "Desh Bachao, BJP Bhagao" rally in Patna's Gandhi Maidan, Sharad said, " I promise to build another one (Mahagathbandhan) at the national level."

"Mahagathbandhan was given a five-year mandate by the people of Bihar based on its policies, principles and the cumulative leadership that we presented," he added.

Former Bihar chief minister and Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav spewed venom at Nitish Kumar, who severed ties with the Grand Alliance and joined NDA, and called him a 'turncoat'.

"Nitish Kumar was like an uncle and will always be, but he has insulted the mandate given by the people of Bihar. He is a political turncoat and is hungry for power," he said at the rally.

Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav criticised the BJP-led government over the GST and demonetisation initiatives and sought answer from them on rising unemployment.

[Lalu runs pillar to post to galvanize opposition while Rahul scurries off to Norway]

Rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav shared a stage for the first time with Lalu Yadav at the anti-BJP rally, ignoring the JD-U's warning not to attend it.

Sharad Yadav was warmly welcomed by Lalu when he reached the stage. A smiling Lalu Prasad shook hands with him and hugged Sharad Yadav before the huge gathering.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also attended the rally.

[Thousands of people attend Lalu's anti-BJP rally in Patna]

Leaders of as many as 21 political parties are participating in the anti-BJP rally.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 17:44 [IST]
Stalin will become Tamil Nadu CM with Dinakaran's support: Swamy

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With the DMK pushing Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy-led government to prove majority in Tamil Nadu assembly, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday said TTV Dinakaran, with the support of 19 MLAs and DMK, can bring down the EPS government in the state.

While the two factions of the AIADMK, one under the Chief Minister and the other under former CM O Panneerselvam, merged on Monday, a third rival unit claiming loyalty to TTV Dinakaran has revolted against the party.

"Stalin currently has 90 MLAs and Dhinakaran has 22. If we add the Muslim League, CPI and parties who wish to bring down the EPS government, will vote for Dhinakaran, EPS and OPS won't have the 117 MLAs they need to achieve a majority" Swamy told news agency ANI.

On Sunday, TTV Dhinakaran removed Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy from all party post. DMK leader Duraimurugan along with five MLAs from the party is expected to meet the Governor. Leaders of the DMK are expected to meet Tamil Nadu Governor Vidhyasagar Rao to press for Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy to prove majority in the house.

[AIADMK crisis: DMK to meet Tamil Nadu Governor, urge for floor test]

In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly the AIADMK needs at least 117 votes to remain in power.

Right now, the two-leaf party has 134 seats in the Assembly, excluding the House Speaker's and Jayalalithaa's. However, while Palaniswami claims to have 104 MLAs on his side and Panneerselvam 10, Dinakaran has at least 22 including three Independent MLAs, and his numbers are likely to shoot up.

[AIADMK crisis: With support of 21 MLAs, Dinakaran says none can threaten him]

The DMK has alleged that Edappadi Palanisamy government is keen on suspending members of the DMK as well as 19 legislators of AIADMK supporting TTV Dinakaran and documents for the same are being prepared.

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 20:09 [IST]
What about defence confidentiality?', BEML staff ask Arun Jaitley, protest disinvestment

India

oi-Anusha

"BEML is not for sale. Save BEML, Save nation" banners welcomed Arun Jaitley to the PSU's unit in Bengaluru on Saturday. Employees of Bharat Earth Movers Limited made their angst clear to the Defense minister over the government's proposal to sell 26 per cent stakes in the company.

Dozens of employees gathered at the venue where Arun Jaitley inaugurated the BEML's third Line ultra modern metro manufacturing facility to enhance the production of metro cars. Many staff wore tags opposing the government's disinvestment move.

BEML manufactures in three verticals: rail and metro, earth moving equipment and defence. The staff claim that with disinvestment comes the risk of compromising on the confidentiality of defence manufacturing.

"We come under the ministry of defence. BEML started with an investment of Rs 5 crores but now we are a profit making entity with profits of Rs 3,560 crores. We request the government to not go ahead with its proposal of 26 per cent strategic sale," said Srinivas, the President of the BMEL employees association.

"We are a profit making company and are in the business of defence manufacturing. Our defence equipment has helped Indian military forces win two wars. If the government privatises this company, our documents, defence manufacturing secrets will be accessed by private persons. This should not happen. We have given Rs 960 crore in dividends to the government," he added.

"Why is the government moving to disinvest a profit making entity?"

A group of BEML staff made a representation to Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday and submitted a plea to stop the disinvestment process. The staff had just one question to ask, why is the government bent upon selling off a profit making entity?

"The purpose of setting up public sector itself is to generate employment, to ensure social justice and uplift the down trodden. This proposed disinvestment will defeat that very purpose. BSNL are classic examples. Corporates that come forward will eventually outsource it to someone else for marginal profits. They have no national interest. What happens to 8,000 employees of BEML, contract operators both technical and non-technical, vendors, suppliers etc?" asked Bhupathi Rao, General Secretary, BEML employees association.

Employees have been protesting at all BEML units since the government's decision became official. They intend to continue their protest until the government withdraws its decision.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, August 27, 2017, 6:32 [IST]
Bhutanese Queen praises Indira Gandhi as a powerful woman

International

pti-PTI

Thimphu, Aug 27: The Royal Queen mother of Bhutan, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck on Sunday praised former prime minister Indira Gandhi, describing her as a powerful woman who showed the world what women were capable of doing if they decide something.

Speaking at the launch of the book, "India's Indira: A Centennial Tribute" yesterday at the ongoing Mountain Echoes Festival, she recalled how Gandhi might not have been a tall woman but she certainly had a towering personality. "I still remember her photograph with the then American president Richard Nixon. She wasn't a tall woman, but she was a towering figure.

"Mrs Gandhi was a female icon and she showed it to the world what women are capable of doing if they decide something," she said. The book, compiled by the Indian National Congress, consists of articles, essays, photographs of the first woman prime minister of India.

The Queen Mother remembered Gandhi from the time when the latter came "sitting on a yak along with her father". She said the Gandhi family had been on close friendly terms with the royal family of Bhutan. "I used to admire the white streak of hair she had. Although I was very young, I still wanted that streak of white hair," she said.

The book, edited by senior leader Anand Sharma, has several photographs of Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru contributed by the royal family. The book also has a chapter by former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee.

Tharoor, who was also part of the launch, heaped praises over Indira Gandhi's leadership skills. He said after she became the prime minister, many had wondered if she was capable of the job. "But as it turned out, she became a better leader than many who came after her could only hope to be," Tharoor said.

PTI
Doklam standoff: US supports return of status quo on India, China border issue

International

pti-PTI

Washington, Aug 27: A senior Trump administration official on Sunday said that the US supports 'return of status quo' of the tri-junction point. He also said that United States is hopeful that India and China can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Doklam standoff.

The US is concerned about "sovereignty issues and adherence to international law" amidst increased tension between the two Asian giants, said a senior administration official. "We are monitoring the (Doklam) situation very carefully. We are concerned. We hope that the two sides can negotiate a peaceful resolution to the issue. We support return to the status quo," a senior administration official told PTI.

"We're also concerned about Bhutanese sovereignty issues. We're concerned in general terms about sovereignty issues and adherence to international law. I think that certainly pertains to this particular issue," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of confrontation between India and China. Even as China  both its officials and the state- sponsored media -- have increased its rhetoric over the past few months, which at times is seen as entering the domain of threatening; New Delhi, which has taken a mature and strong stand against Beijing, according to experts, is believed has not reached out to Washington on this issue. However, as a close friend the US has been closely monitoring the situation.

"We hope that India and China can find a negotiated solution to return to a peaceful state of affairs in the area. We are just watching it very carefully and we are in conversation with the Indian government about the issues. We stand ready to help if that is desired. But, for the time being, we're monitoring the situation carefully," the official said.

The senior administration official, in response to a question, however quickly clarified that there has been no such request from India and there is no such intention on the part of the United States as well. "What kind of help? You said ready to help," the official was asked. Well, you know, I think it's for India and China to decide if that was necessary. I think for the time being the US is monitoring the situation very closely and very carefully," the official said.

"You know, it (the United States) sees it as a bilateral issue between India and China to work through. But certainly, we are interested in seeing peaceful relations prevail in the region. "So, if there's anything the US can do to help that situation, we stand ready to assist," he added.

PTI
Recovery from Hurricane Harvey will take 'years': US emergency agency chief

International

oi-Madhuri

Hurricane Harvey left a trail of devastation on Saturday after the most powerful storm to hit the US mainland in 12 years made landfall in central Texas coast, destroying homes, severing power supplies and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee.

The head of of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency said,''It will take cities and towns in the path of Hurricane Harvey years to recover from the devastation created by the monster storm.''

The National Hurricane Centre said Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor in Texas, the US state where roughly 17 per cent of America's crude oil output and nearly half of the country's refining capacity is located.

The storm, a Category 4 hurricane which was later downgraded to Category 1, had maximum sustained winds of 195 kmph. Resulting floodwaters were expected to reach 6 to 12 feet above ground level along the coast.

Harvey has impacted the Electric Reliability Council of Texas electric system, with 250,000 customers without power. It is the most powerful hurricane to hit the US mainland since 2005. Its effects could linger for days, with heavy rainfall through next week estimated to 40 inches in some areas.

Millions of residents along the south Texas coast saw hurricane-force winds that uprooted trees and power poles. They had frantically stocked up on food, water and gas, while others heading out of the storm's path boarded up windows and doors of their homes and businesses.

Airlines cancelled flights, schools were shuttered while concerts and other events in Houston and other coastal cities were postponed. Thousands of cruise ship customers waited offshore until their vessels were able to dock safely. At least 15,000 people aboard three Carnival Cruise Line ships scheduled to return to Galveston this weekend were delayed or detoured due to the hurricane.

Harvey is the first natural disaster faced by the the Donald Trump administration. Before the landfall, Trump signed a disaster proclamation for Texas, freeing up federal funds for assistance.

He tweeted that he had spoken with the governors of Texas and Louisiana and was "here to assist as needed".

A day before, oil and gas companies scrambled to prepare for Harvey, which developed so quickly in the Gulf of Mexico that many of them didn't have time to respond. Other major companies, including ExxonMobil and Anadarko, also began scaling back production. Oil analysts predict it could take more than three weeks for refineries in its path to resume normal operations.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)
13 killed, 22 injured in blast in Afghanistan's Nawa district

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

At least 13 people were killed and 22 injured in a blast in Afghanistan's Nawa district on Sunday.

Tolo news reported that a suicide bomber exploded himself in front of an armored vehicle in Dopul area of Nawa district.

On Wednesday, five people were killed and around 40 other injured in suicide bombing in Lashkargah city in Helmand, southern Afghanistan. Two soldiers and three civilians were killed in the attack.

It may be recalled that at least 35 people were killed and more than 40 wounded after a suicide car bomb targeted a bus carrying ministry staff in Kabul earlier in August. The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack.

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When I arrived in Racine about a year and a half ago, one of the first organizations to reach out to me was United Way of Racine County. During our first meeting, we discussed their impact, their focus of Building an Educated Workforce and the opportunities to engage InSinkErators employees.

Were learning that todays workforce is looking for more opportunities to get involved and give back. In fact, a recent survey found that a companys social and environmental commitment is key to recruiting and retaining loyal employees. This is not a surprise. When people find meaning in their work, they can function at their best. As a business leader, its important to find opportunities to develop and strengthen relationships within our community, which in turn creates opportunities to increase employee engagement and build internal teamwork.

After my first meeting with leaders from United Way of Racine County, I was impressed by their desire to develop a relationship that would be mutually beneficial. At the time, we had just started discussing plans for our internal corporate campaign at InSinkErator, which is part of the annual United Way campaign. While InSinkErator has been a long-time supporter of United Way of Racine County  among the top 10 for company campaigns  I thought we could do more. United Way staff met with our staff several times to discuss strategies that they thought might help us to increase our companys annual contribution.

With United Ways guidance and the hard work of InSinkErators 2016 campaign planning team, we created a customized campaign plan that incorporated four key elements: support from leadership; company presentations; enjoyable fundraising activities; and promoting volunteer engagement.

As president of InSinkErator, I know the support and direction from our leadership team was crucial for success. We immediately started to think about what we could do as a leadership team to inspire folks to get involved. We committed to having United Way staff speak to every InSinkErator employee at both our Racine and Kenosha locations. My goal was not to push employees to support United Way, but to inform them of their impact so they could make an informed decision regarding their investment of time and money. We have found in the past that no one makes the case for impact like the folks leading our local nonprofit agencies. Whenever we can, we ask them to speak directly to our employees. We want InSinkErator employees to understand our communitys needs and have the opportunity to get involved in creating positive change in Racine County.

Thats why we support and encourage our employees to participate in volunteer activities like Day of Caring, Schools of Hope tutoring, Imagination Library fundraisers, youth mentoring and touring Knapp Community School.

The combination of these strategies had a huge impact on our campaign. Im proud to say that during our 2016 campaign we increased our employee participation by 23 percent, increased employee giving by 32 percent and more than tripled the number of leadership donors employees who donate $1,000 or more.

As a business leader, I strongly believe there is value in supporting United Way. I understand the communitys need to support the workforce of today and develop a ready and capable workforce for the future by providing opportunities to gain soft skills and training. Working together on issues that are bigger than any of us individually strengthens our team and also binds us more closely to our community.

When InSinkErator contributes time and money to organizations like United Way, we ensure that we have a ready workforce to hire. Were trying our best to exemplify what it means to Live United. I hope you will consider supporting United Way of Racine County this year. Start by requesting a meeting to learn more about their impact. Then find a way to give, advocate or volunteer. Together, we create change.

If you want to learn more about developing a relationship with United Way of Racine County, contact Alexa Haigh, vice president of investor relations, at ahaigh@unitedwayracine.org or 262-898-2254.
Dont drink the water. Or the alcohol, either.

For dozens of American tourists their quest for a sun-filled vacation at some of Mexicos exclusive resorts in Cancun, Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen and Riviera Maya, their dream get-away has instead turned into a nightmare of blackouts, hospital visits and in the case of one Wisconsin womandeath.

In a series of watchdog reports, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told how tainted alcohol is suspect in many of the incidents.

In one recent report, the newspaper said, The blackouts have happened to men and women, young and old, to singles and couples, according to interviews with travelers and family members whose loved ones died or were injured at the resorts, as well as hospital records, ambulance receipts, hotel correspondence and other documents.

The news reports chronicled how Abbey Connor, a 20-year-old from Pewaukee, Wis., died in January after being pulled listless from a pool at the Paraiso del Mar, one of several Iberostar resorts near Playa del Carmen where she had just started a vacation with her parents and brother. She was brain dead and taken off life support a few days later after being flown to a hospital in Florida.

Her brotherwho was also found face down in the resort poolsuffered a concussion, a broken collar bone and alcohol poisoning, but survived. According to reports they had been drinking at the resort for two hours and had blood-alcohol levels of 0.25 and 0.26.

The incident came four days before another American woman and her boyfriend blacked out after having a couple of mixed drinks and then two tequila shots at the same pool bar in the same resort.

After the initial report, the newspaper heard from other travelers who recounted 32 similar incidents of blackouts at Mexican resorts after drinking small or moderate amounts of alcoholsometimes as few as two drinks.

While many woke up hours later and found no obvious crime had been committed, others described gaining consciousness to learn they had been sexually assaulted, robbed, kicked out of their hotels or swindled by local hospitals and ambulance companies, the news reports said,

A few dozen incidents may not seem like many when you consider the resort region got 10 million foreign tourists last yearand is the top travel destination for Americans.

But it undercuts the notion that as long as you stay inside the resort you are safe. The fact is that Mexico has a major problem with adulterated alcohol. As much as 36 percent of the alcohol is consumed or produced illegally and is potentially dangerous. One reason is that Mexico has a 53 percent excise tax on alcohol, which makes bootleg tequila very profitable.

And if you are the unlucky traveler who happens to get a blackout dose like some of the travelers, you might end up paying huge medical fees from area hospitals that demand payment in advance, along with lackluster or indifferent investigations from Mexican police and the resorts themselves.

All-inclusive resorts, in Mexico or anywhere, should not have blackouts on their inclusive list.

The U.S. State Department issued a tepid alcohol cautionary advisory in the wake of the newspaper reports and Apple Vacations, which books trips for a half-million Mexico vacations each year, has said it will increase its efforts with resorts to comply with alcohol procurement regulations. Thats not very reassuring.

If Mexico cant get a grip on its bootlegging problems, it deserves to lose its $20 billion tourism industry.

Build a wallan economic one if necessaryby warning off unsuspecting U.S. tourists. Thats the dire challenge to the U.S. State Department, travel agents and companies and cruise lines here in the U.S. that service Mexican resorts.

A visit to the hospitalor the morgueis on no ones excursion list.
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Alana Barragan says she was so put off by the high-pressure sales pitch she encountered while car shopping at AutoNation Honda in Fremont, California, that she didn't buy one. After discussing the experience with a manager, he spent the next hour trying to hire her.

Barragan now sells about 18 vehicles a month for the store and finds women are some of her best customers. But car shoppers are hard pressed to find many salesmen like her. Even as women make or influence the majority of auto purchases in the U.S., retailers have failed to attract and retain female employees, according to CDK Global, which advises dealerships on sales strategies.

"That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into this," Barragan said of joining AutoNation Honda in January. "I could be more open and honest to customers and give them an experience that I would want. The customers appreciate that."

Women make up about 19 percent of U.S. dealership employees and most of those are support staff, according to the latest estimates from the National Automobile Dealers Association. The annual turnover rate for the few women who do sell cars is 88 percent, CDK says, meaning would-be buyers interested in negotiating with a female dealer may find themselves fresh out of luck.

"By dealerships not attracting and retaining women in the workforce, they are potentially missing out on a huge sales opportunity," said Grace Wepler, senior market research analyst for CDK.

The lack of women on car dealers' sales floors starts with lackluster hiring efforts. More than 60 percent of female dealership employees surveyed by CDK in May said their companies weren't doing anything to help recruit more women.

When women do get recruited, many say they find dealerships still aren't a welcoming place. More than half who CDK surveyed have been in their current position for six or more years, suggesting upward mobility is an obstacle. And 57 percent reported experiencing gender bias, like having to endure boorish, sexist banter.

"A lot of people are intimidated by the industry because it's a male-dominated field," said Barragan, 31, who previously sold appliances at Sears. "Initially the guys tried to say, 'Oh, let me help you, let me do that for you.' You just have to stand up to them and show them your confidence and say 'I've got this.'"

Kathy Caron, general manager of Hopper Buick GMC Dealership in Ontario, Canada, described the industry as "a boys club" and said women don't seek out jobs in dealerships because they're intimidated by that fact.

"I've gone to big GM functions, and I always say you never have to wait in line for the women's washroom," said Caron, who was among the CDK survey participants.

Sales roles in particular have a poor representation of women because of the long hours and lack of flexibility, said Judy Farcus Serra, chief financial officer of Headquarter Hyundai in Sanford, Florida.

"It's a dog-eat-dog kind of setup, an every man for them self kind of environment on the sales floor," said Serra, another CDK survey participant. Women need mentors to offer advice and support and few get such help, she said.

Women tend to get more support if they work in a dealership run by other women, with 63 percent saying the gender ratio in key positions was favorable at women-run dealerships compared with 29 percent in those run by men, CDK found. Women were also much less likely to be harassed, according to respondents.

General Motors is trying to increase the number of women owning Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac franchises from 243 stores, or 5.5 percent of its dealer network, said Jim Cain, a spokesman for the automaker. About 450 women have been named successors at existing dealerships and the largest U.S. automaker has an advocacy, mentoring and business development program as well as scholarships dedicated to these efforts, he said.

AutoNation, the largest dealer group in the country, has set goals to hire more women into general manager roles and at every other level of the company, said Andrea Schliessman, senior director of learning and development.

The share of women running AutoNation dealerships has increased to 7 percent this year from 4 percent in 2012, and the number of assistant service managers has more than doubled to exceed 300 in that time frame, said Dan Best, head of human resources for the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company.

AutoNation also is rethinking compensation and schedules to help recruit more women. Rather than pay employees entirely on commission and sometimes require them to work seven days a week, they can now opt to receive about half their pay in salary and also work closer to a 40 hour week, according to Best.

Whether employees are compensated with partial salary or pure commission, total pay ranges from about $42,000 to $47,000 for a starting sales associate, and the more flexible schedule can be attractive to female candidates, Best said.

"Late last year we started looking at changing things that had been a barrier to women and other employees," Schliessman said. So far this year, she said about 20 percent of new hires are women.

Barragan said she ultimately bought a used Honda Civic from another dealer the day she was turned off by the sales pitch at AutoNation Honda. She's now one of four women at the dealership selling alongside about 25 men.

"I do feel that women are more comfortable working with a woman sales associate," said Barragan, who eventually bought a new vehicle from her current employer. "They can feel like there's a little more trust, maybe, that we're not trying to just push something on them. Even as a customer myself, I felt that way, too. I didn't want someone pushing something on me."

-- Bloomberg News
I found myself nodding in agreement with J. Beldin's letter ("Responsibility for Wolves," Aug. 23). The wolves in our state are indeed being used as political pawns by the governor's office. Rep. Peter DeFazio sent an open letter to Governor Brown in disgust over this matter. The gray wolf has been trying to reclaim its rightful place in our state despite being shot, poisoned, trapped and otherwise harassed when it wanders into livestock country. The ranchers are compensated for their economic losses but the wolves pay with their lives. Seldom do we hear about the toll that sheep and cattle take on the environment - fouling streams, compacting the soil, damaging native plants, and often at the taxpayers' expense. The amount of fodder and water required to produce one pound of edible meat is massive. And let's not forget all the human health hazards associated with eating red meat. It's a no-brainer that the struggling wolf recovery must be given priority over the million-plus cattle industry. I call on Gov. Brown to do what she should have done a long time ago and demand that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife produce a wolf plan that is based on fact and not political point-making!

Donna B. Steadman, Durham
Don't judge on abortion alone: As a moderate Democrat, I started to read Knute Buehler's opinion piece ("Distorted abortion attack reveals a need for change in politics," Aug. 20) with some skepticism. But it did not take me long to agree with him on how voters should judge his position on abortion, make it legal but rare. I hope that voters will judge him and his opponent on how they plan to deal with the economy, PERS and other pressing issues. As Oregonians, we should recognize that no one should be defined by one moral issue, but rather by their broader views of how we should interact as citizens of this great state.

Brian Ruder, Northwest Portland

No single-issue elections: The Aug. 9 op-ed, "Don't be Fooled. Knute Buehler is not pro-choice," was a red herring, and I just saw that Buehler took the bait. Reproductive rights is not a political platform. This strident attempt to frame the conversation so narrowly misses the broader directive we have as Oregon voters.

We are hiring a leader for our great state, and I want to know where they intend to lead us - on education, tax policy, jobs and economic growth, PERS, housing, infrastructure, environment and our individual rights including reproductive rights and more. Gov. Brown has not been pushed to truly articulate a comprehensive vision, and I hope she and Knute Buehler both bring their "A" games this election. As voters, we should insist that this election conversation is elevated from tiresome identity politics into a larger discussion of all the issues we face as Oregonians. Let's make this important choice based on who has a better vision for the future, not simply who is more pro-choice.

Frank Reppenhagen, Southeast Portland

No such thing as pro-abortion: I just read Knute Buehler's August 20 opinion piece in Sunday's paper. He uses the term "pro-abortion." In my humble opinion, no one is pro-abortion. One may be pro-choice, or pro-life, but no one is pro-abortion. Please do not use that term. Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. Pro-choice folks believe that given a very difficult set of circumstances, the woman who is pregnant is the one to make the decision about aborting a child or not and choosing between the lesser of two evils. Which is worse: bringing a child into the world in which one cannot provide for or care for the child and who may also be drug addicted, or aborting? Pro-life folks are really pro-birth. Bring the child to birth, and their work is done. What happens next is no concern of theirs.

Hillary Hutchinson, Beaverton
Adults on the Spectrum Support Group

For adults with an autism spectrum disorder, 6:30-8:30 p.m., first and third Wednesdays, Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin office, 3720 N. 124th St., Suite O, Wauwatosa. Call 414-988-1260.

Al-Anon

Meetings are available daily. Call 262-632-0011.

Every Sunday, People, Places and Things, 8 a.m., Benjamin House, 4848 Highway H, Caledonia (Franksville).

Every Monday, 9:30-11 a.m., St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 216 E. Chandler Blvd., Burlington (smoke-free), 262-534-5711; 6 p.m., Alano Club, 1140 Douglas Ave., 262-634-9902.

Every Tuesday, 9:30 a.m., Grove Club, 1037 Grove Ave., 262-634-9656; Fresh Start, 9:30 a.m. (non-smoking), Covenant Presbyterian Church, 40 Ohio St., 262-634-4597; Courage to Change, 6 p.m., Benjamin House, 4848 Highway H, Caledonia (Franksville), non-smoking, 262-886-9611.

Every Wednesday, Listen and Learn, 6 p.m., Alano Club, 1140 Douglas Ave.; Newcomer, 8 p.m., The Grove Club, 1037 Grove Ave., 262-634-9656; 6 p.m., Alano Club, 1140 Douglas Ave., 262-634-9902.

Every Thursday, People, Places and Things, 1 p.m., Benjamin House, 4848 Highway H, Caledonia (Franksville area); 8 p.m., Grove Club, 1037 Grove Ave., 262-634-9656; 6:30 p.m., St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 216 E. Chandler Blvd., Burlington, 262-534-5711.

Alateens are welcome to Al-Anon meetings.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Meetings are available daily.

Grove Club, 1037 Grove Ave., 10 a.m. Sunday-Saturday; 4:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 8 p.m. Sunday open speaker meeting.

Olympia Brown UU Annex, 419 Sixth St., 9-10 a.m. Sundays. We Agnostics meeting for freethinkers.

Alano Club, 1140 Douglas Ave., 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily; 8 p.m. Sunday-Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday open speaker meeting.

Benjamin House, 4848 Highway H: 7:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; 7:30 p.m. second Friday open speaker meeting; 10 a.m. Sunday newcomer meeting.

Ascension All Saints Hospital, West Professional Building B, 3805B Spring St., Suite LL-20, 8 a.m. Tuesdays.

Racine Area Central Office, 3701 Durand Ave., 12:15 p.m. Sunday-Saturday.

Ascension All Saints Hospital, West Professional Building B, 3805B Spring St., lower level-Senior Advantage room, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays.

Meetings are available daily. This is not a complete list of Racine area meetings. Spanish speaking meetings are also available. For information on other meetings, call 262-554-7788.

Aphasia Community Group

3:15-4:30 p.m. Sept. 26, Aurora Wellness Center, 300 McCanna Parkway, Burlington. Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that affects the ability to speak and understand others. It does not impact intelligence. Facilitator is Susan Ludwig, speech pathologist.

Alzheimers Association Caregiver Support Groups

First Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-noon, and second Thursday, 6-7:30 p.m., Bethania Lutheran Church, 4120 Wright Ave. Call Marilyn Joyce, 262-833-8764 or e-mail Marilyn.joyce@racinecounty.com.

Second Thursday, 6:30-8 p.m., Waterford Methodist Church, 455 S. Jefferson St., Waterford. Call Rosemary Christensen, 262-514-2935, or Nancy Meyer, 262-210-4591.

Fourth Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Aurora Wellness Center, 300 McCanna Parkway, Burlington. Call Suzanne Malestic, 262-767-8313.

Asthma  Take Control

6-8 p.m., for more information and location call 800-499-5736.

Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin Parent Support Group

For parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder, 9:30-11:30 a.m., first Thursday, and 6:30-8:30 p.m. third Tuesday, Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin office, 3720 N. 124th St., Suite O, Wauwatosa. Call 414-988-1260.

Autism Solution Pieces Support Group

For parents, teachers and professionals to learn and share information for special needs individuals, 6:30-8 p.m., second Tuesday, Festival Foods, 5740 Washington Ave. Call Cindy Schultz, 262-639-3041, or go to www.autismsolutionpieces.com.

Battered/Formerly Battered Women Support Group

Call 262-633-3233 for time and location.

Blue Star Mothers of Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter No. 2

For mothers who have a son or daughter in the Armed Forces, 6:30 p.m., third Tuesday, Sturtevant Village Hall, 2801 89th St., Sturtevant. Food and share time is 6 p.m. For more information, call Sue Gourdoux, membership chair, at 262-884-8016 or send e-mail to bsmsewi@yahoo.com.

Brain Fitness Club

9:30-11:30 a.m. third Saturday, Mount Pleasant Lutheran Church, 1700 S. Green Bay Road. This group focuses on providing cognitive exercises, education and socialization to elders concerned about their memory. For more information, call Paulette Kissee at 262-595-2387 or go to www.alz.org/sewi.

Brain Injury Support Group

6:30-8:30 p.m., second Tuesday, Lakeview Specialty Hospital & Rehabilitation, 1701 Sharp Road, Waterford. For individuals and their family members who have sustained brain injuries due to trauma, stroke, aneurysm or other neurological incidents. Go to www.lakeviewsystem.com.

Breaking Chains 12-Step Recovery Support Group

6-7 p.m. every Monday, Racine Worship Center, 2000 Thurston Ave. This is not just for those with alcohol or drug addiction issues, but for anyone that needs help dealing with any tough issues.

Breast Cancer Support Group (Keep in Touch)

5:30-7 p.m., third Wednesday, Ascension All Saints Cancer Care, 3809 Spring St. Call Rhonda Deneka, cancer navigator, at 262- 687-5077 or email rhonda.deneka@wfhc.org.

Breast Cancer Support Group

5-6:30 p.m., first Monday, Aurora Wellness Center, 300 McCanna Parkway, Burlington. Addresses the fears and adjustments faced by women with breast cancer. Call 262-767-6374.

Cancer Support Group

1:30-2:30 p.m., second Monday, Aurora Medical Center, 10400 75th St., Kenosha. Call Renee Milne at 262-948-6437.

Cancer Support-Prostate Group  Us Too

A free support group for men (and their spouse or friend) who look for or need information upon learning they have prostate cancer or after receiving their therapy of choice, 5:30-7 p.m., third Thursday, Ascension All Saints Cancer Center, 3809 Spring St. Call 262-687-5094.

Caring & Sharing Grief Support Group

6:30 p.m., last Tuesday, Cross Lutheran Church, 126 Chapel Terrace, Burlington. Call 262-878-2011 or 262-763-3434.

Compassionate Friends Bereavement Support Group

A national support group for adults and siblings who have lost a child, 7 p.m., last Tuesday, Ascension All Saints Hospital lower level, 3801 Spring St. Call Diane Beck, 262-895-4888.

Domestic Violence Support Group

Sponsored by the Womens Resource Center for women who have been or are victims of domestic violence, 6-8 p.m. every Tuesday in Racine. A Burlington area group is also available. Free child care. Call 262-633-3233 or 262- 763-6226 (Burlington) for locations.

Domestic Violence Support Group at Love, Inc.

Call 262-763-6226 for time and location.

Emerge

A support network for families, friends and allies of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, 1-2:30 p.m., third Saturday, LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.

Entouch

A support group for those who have lost a loved one to suicide, 6:30-8 p.m., fourth Tuesday, Riverwood Church, 6919 McHenry St., Burlington. Members are not counselors but people who have experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide and hope to help others. Call 262-758-0886.

Evening Coffee Break

An interfaith Bible study for women, 6:15-7:30 p.m. most Thursdays, Racine Christian Reformed Church, 900 Illinois St. Call 262-634-0323.

Family Caregiver Support Groups

For more information on these support groups, call Marilyn Joyce at 262-833-8764 or e-mail marilyn.joyce@racinecounty.com.

First Friday support group by telephone, noon-1 p.m. (see above for call-in instructions).

Second Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Living Faith Lutheran Church, 2915 Wright Ave. (park and enter in back).

Second Tuesday, 1:30-3 p.m., Yorkville United Methodist Church, 17645 Old Yorkville Road, Yorkville.

Third Wednesday, 1:30-3 p.m., Burlington Senior Center Eppers Room, 209 N. Main St., Burlington.

Fibromyalgia Support Group

6-7:30 p.m., third Monday, Aurora Wellness Center, 300 McCanna Parkway, Burlington. Facilitated by Dawn Gruber of Aurora Rehab Services. Call 262-767-7122 or 262-767-7174 or go to http://aurorahealthcare.org.

Gender Nonconforming/Transgender Support Group

Support groups intended to help those who are transgender, gender nonconforming, questioning or looking for a way to come out. Group One for ages 24 and younger, 6-7 p.m., first Wednesday. Group Two for ages 25 and older, 6-7 p.m. last Wednesday. Groups meet at LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.

GriefShare Support Group

5:30-7 p.m. Wednesdays, Piasecki-Althaus Family Services Center, 2002 52nd St., Kenosha. A 13-week support group program open to all adults grieving the loss of a death of someone close. Registration fee of $20 includes workbook. To register, call call 262-658-4101 or email anne@piasecki-althaus.com. Go to www.griefshare.org.

Grief Peer Support Group

For children ages 3-18 who suffer the death of someone and parents/caregivers, first Thursday, 6 p.m., Family Service of Racine, 420 Seventh St. Advance registration required, call 262-634-2391.

Grief Support Group

2 p.m. first Thursday, Wilson Funeral Home, 1212 Lathrop Ave. Call June Hartog at 262-321-0031 for more information.

Grief Support Group

2 p.m. first and third Monday, Christ Church United Methodist, 5109 Washington Ave. Call Ron Hansen at 262-554-6756 or the church office at 262-632-1607.

Hepatitis C Support Group

Third Wednesday, 5:30-7 p.m., Ascension All Saints Hospital Library and Community Resources Center, 3801 Spring St. Call Arlene McEntegart at 262-687-8374 to attend.

La Leche League of Racine

A breast-feeding support group for pregnant women and nursing mothers, 10-11 a.m. second Tuesday, RG Natural Babies, 430 Main St. Babies and toddlers welcome. Call 262-598-9416 or 262-770-0484 before attending for the first time in case of an unforseen cancellation.

Lesbian Support Group

A support network for lesbians in all stages of their coming out/being out, 7-8:30 p.m., first and third Thursday, LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.

Living Beyond Cancer

3:30-5 p.m., second Thursday, Ascension All Saints Cancer Center, 3809 Spring St. Support group by Ascension All Saints Cancer Center helping cancer patients live as healthy as possible during and after cancer treatment. Call 262-687-5000.

Look Good, Feel Better

Ascension All Saints Cancer Center, 3809 Spring St. Held in cooperation with the American Cancer Society. Free program for women during cancer treatment that teaches beauty techniques to help combat the appearance-related side effects of treatment. To register, call 800-395-5665.

Low Vision Support Group

A chance to meet and exchange ideas with others with limited vision, 1:30-3 p.m., second Tuesday, United Way, 2000 Domanik Drive. Call 262-639-5288 or 262-637-4055 for more information.

Low Vision Support Group

Second Thursday, Westosha Senior Center, 19200 93rd St. (Highway C), Bristol. The group is led by Arneetrice Ellderman, rehabilitation specialist, Office for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Call 262-891-3436 for more information.

Mens Life

An interfaith Bible study for men, 6:15-7:30 a.m. most Thursdays, Racine Christian Reformed Church, 900 Illinois St. Call 262-634-0323.

Morning Coffee Break Interfaith Bible Study

An interfaith womens Bible study and support group, 9:30-11 a.m., every Thursday, Christian Reformed Church, 900 Illinois St. Nursery and story hour provided. Call 262-634-0323.

Mothers of Sexually Abused Children

Weekly support group for mothers of children/adolescents who have been sexually abused. For more information, call Terri DeWalt at Sexual Assault Services, 262-619-1634.

Multiple Myeloma Support Group Racine Area

Cancer support group, 7-8:30 p.m., second Monday, Ascension All Saints Cancer Center, 3809 Spring St. Patients from all medical groups are welcome. Call 262-687-5000.

Multiple Sclerosis Society  Racine Area Support Group

7 p.m., fourth Tuesday, Racine Christian Reformed Church meeting room, 900 Illinois St. Call David or Mary Frick, 262-886-8599.

Myeloproliferative Disease Support Group

For people with a myeloproliferative disease including essential thrombocytosis, polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis. Meetings are held quarterly at First Reformed Church, 7110 Old Spring St. (across from Roma Lodge). For more information, call Marge Blocks at 262-637-4338.

Narcotics Anonymous

7 p.m. every Saturday, St. Paul Baptist Church lower level, 1120 Grand Ave. (side entrance). Call 262-822-1968 for more information.

NAMI Bipolar/Depression Support Group

For adults who experience depression or bipolar disorder, 6 p.m., first and third Tuesday, Ascension All Saints Hospital, 1244 Wisconsin Ave. (use 13th Street entrance or entrance off parking ramp and take elevator to basement conference room). Call 262-637-0582.

NAMI Connection

A structured, weekly, recovery support group for adults living with any mental health diagnosis, 11 a.m. every Monday, Nami-Racine office, 2300 DeKoven Ave.; and 2 p.m. every Wednesday, Horlick Room, and 6 p.m., every Thursday, memorial dining room, Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital, 1320 Wisconsin Ave. Call NAMI Racine, 262-637-0582.

NAMI Family and Friends Support Group

For families or friends who have adult loved ones living with mental illness, 6 p.m., first and third Tuesday, Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital Horlick Room, 1320 Wisconsin Ave. Call 262-637-0582.

NAMI Schizophrenia Support Group

For adults living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 10:30 a.m., second Monday, Racine Friendship Clubhouse, 2000 17th St. Call 262-637-0582.

NAMI Survivors of Loved Ones of Suicide Support Group

Second and fourth Wednesday, 6-7:30 p.m., Ascension All Saints Hospital, 3801 Spring St. (lower level pavilion). Call 262-637-0582 or 262-637-6200.

Nicotine Anonymous

Open to anyone who wants to stop using tobacco, 5:30-6:30 p.m., every Tuesday, Benjamin House, 4848 Highway H, Caledonia (Franksville area). Call 262-721-8130.

Nicotine Anonymous

Weekly support group based on the 12 Step Recovery Program, every Tuesday, 7-8 p.m., Aurora Medical Center, 10400 75th St., Kenosha. Call Earl Tessin, 847-746-2343.

Overeaters Anonymous

7-8 p.m., every Monday (Newcomer/STEP), Living Faith Lutheran Church, 2915 Wright Ave., 262-989-7826.

5-6 p.m., every Thursday (literature reading), Ascension All Saints Hospital Horlick room, 1320 Wisconsin Ave., 262-989-7826.

12-Step Recovery Group for compulsive overeaters, anorexics and bulimics, 8:30-10 a.m. every Saturday, St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 216 E. Chandler Blvd., Burlington (use door off parking lot), 262-939-0819, and and 6:30-8 p.m. every Thursday, Peace Lutheran Church, 349 Wegge Court, Burlington (use lower level entrance in back), 262-424-6135. For more information, go to www.oa.org.

Parkinson Support Group Racine Area

For people with Parkinsons disease, their caregivers and others interested, 2-3:30 p.m., third Tuesday, Covenant Presbyterian Church, 40 Ohio St. (elevator available). Call 262-633-3553 or 800-972-5455.

Peer Education Support Group

For grieving children, teen-agers and families, 5:30-8 p.m., third Thursday, Mount Pleasant Lutheran Church, 1700 S. Green Bay Road. A meal will be provided at 5:45, and peer support begins at 6:30 p.m. Childcare will be provided for children 2 and under. Registration is required by calling 262-656-9656.

Pink Paddling Power Breast Cancer Survivors Support Group

Alternative exercise and wellness based breast cancer support group. For more information, go to www.pppracine.org.

For more information or for meeting time and place, call 262-687-8654.

Racine Area Home Schoolers

7-9 p.m., Sept. 18, Grace Church, 3626 Highway 31. Call 318-537-1013 for more information.

Racine Mothers of Multiples Club

6-8 p.m., Sept. 1, St. Lukes Health Pavilion family classroom, 3821 Spring St. (lower level). Open to mothers, fathers and siblings of twins, this social/support group discusses educational information available for the rearing, development and encouragement of individuality of multiples as is presented by doctors, educators and parents. Call 262-633-5547.

Recovery International

A support group for former nervous and mental health patients, 3-4:30 p.m., every first and third Monday, Racine Christian Reformed Church, 900 Illinois St. Call Dwayne Block, 262-567-4848.

Resolve of Wisconsin Kenosha/Racine Chapter

A national organization that provides information, advocacy and support to people experiencing infertility. Call 262-521-4590.

Rockstar Legends

A social group for people ages 40 and older and identify as LGBT or as an ally, 1-3 p.m. first Saturday, LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.

Separated/Divorced Support Group

Second and fourth Tuesday, 7-8:30 p.m., St. Edward Parish Center, 1430 Grove Ave. Call 262-636-8040 or 262-822-0082.

Sexual Assault Support Group for Women

Sponsored by Sexual Assault Services for adult women who have been sexually assaulted. Call Terri DeWalt at 262-619-1634 to register.

Sexual Assault Support Group for Women

Support group for women who were sexually abused as children. Call 262-656-3500 for details.

SISTERhood Girls Group

An evidence-based empowerment group for girls ages 10-17 from Racine County, 6-8 p.m. every Thursday, SAFE Haven Youth Shelter, 1030 Washington Ave. Dinner is provided. Call 262-412-1784.

Southshore Red Beacon AIDS Support Group

A program dedicated to being a support group for those affected or afflicted with HIV/AIDS, 7-9 p.m. third Friday, LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin, 1456 Junction Ave. This is a closed group and people must contact the facilitator at 262-664-4100 before attending.

Stroke Support Group

Fourth Monday, 10-11:30 a.m., Aurora Medical Center Conference Room E, 10400 75th St., Kenosha. Call Donna Wetzel at 262-948-5756.

Stronghold

A ministry of support and pastoral care to LGBTQ Catholics and Christians of other faith traditions, their family and friends, 6-7 p.m., second Thursday, HOPES Center, 507 Sixth St. (use Cup of Hope entrance). Participants meet for prayer, faith-sharing, dialogue and support in an environment of acceptance, dignity and love. Call Rita Burgess at 262-994-8733 or e-mail stronghold.wisconsin@hotmail.com.

Substance Abuse Peer Support Group/AODA

A support group of learning and growing together as peers in recovery from substance abuse, 7-9 p.m. every Saturday, LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.

Support Group for Family Members and Friends of Homicide Victims

9 a.m., second Saturday, Aurora Walk-In Facility, 8348 Washington Ave. For more information, call the Victim Witness Office at 262-636-3858 or 800-924-1506.

TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly)

Chapter WI 774, every Tuesday at Emmaus Lutheran Church, 1925 Summit Ave. Private weigh-in, 5:30 p.m., meeting follows, Barbara Presser, 262-633-9404.

Visions for Tomorrow

For parents or direct caregivers of children living with mental illness, first Tuesday. Call 262-637-0582 for time, location and required registration.

West County Consumer Self-Help Support Group

Self-help support for adults living with mental illness, second Monday, 6:30 p.m., and fourth Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Love Inc., 480 Pine St., Burlington. Call 262-637-0582.

Young Onset Parkinsons Support Group

7-8:30 p.m., second Wednesday, Aurora Medical Center, 10400 75th St., Kenosha. Call 262-767-7185 or 800-499-5736.

Youth Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Support Group

A support group for young people who are transgender/gender nonconforming individuals with topics guided by their needs and interests, 3:15-4:45 p.m. every Friday, LGBT Center of SE WI, 1456 Junction Ave. Call 262-664-4100.
Oregonians will be sitting ducks: We had a wonderful time at Silver Falls State Park watching the eclipse. It was an easy and very pretty drive from Clackamas. But the drive back was a total nightmare. It took us 8.5 hours to go 150 miles and we had to stop and find a hotel before getting to our destination and a room we had already paid for. Yes, there were warnings, but where were the traffic mitigation measures? In that whole stretch we didn't see one single police officer or traffic official.

There are so many things that could have been done. Two-lane roads could have been turned into one-way only with ample notice to local residents. This is what happens in the Outer Banks when there is a hurricane. Traffic lights could have been controlled to ease the flow. Alternate routes on secondary roads could have been publicized. It didn't have to be as bad as it was.

I pity Oregonians if there is a natural disaster that results in a mass evacuation. You will be sitting ducks stuck on highways going nowhere.

Deborah Roberts, Oro Valley, Arizona

Scared off by doomsday predictions: According to the August 22 article, "Eclipse 2017: Did Oregon really welcome 1 million visitors?" about the unexpectedly low numbers for total eclipse-watching, what Brad Schmidt and Elliot Njus fail to mention is that large numbers may have been scared off by the predictions of heavy traffic, fires, etc. That was the case with my husband and I, our friends, and my son in Seattle. When the catastrophes didn't materialize, we felt regret at our decision to stay home and felt even worse as the total eclipse watchers waxed rhapsodic on TV about the once in a lifetime emotional experience they would not have missed for anything! I guess from now on I will ignore the doomsday predictions.

Sandra Bly, Aloha
BY JULIE PARRISH

Since becoming active in Oregon politics, I've seen some serious campaign whoppers. But this summer's propaganda coming from Our Oregon, the front group for the public employee and nurses' unions, wins hands down for its doomsday scare tactics and false messaging about the health care tax referendum.

To hear it told by the tax supporters, Oregonians voting against health insurance and hospital sales taxes will surely cause some 375,000 people to lose their health care.

Fact: Referendum 301 only seeks to repeal $330 million in state taxes. Health care for 375,000 people costs taxpayers an estimated $3.87 billion in state and federal resources.

They've also glossed over how Oregon taxpayers paid for Medicaid payments for some 56,000 people who were found to have been ineligible to receive Medicaid. To be clear, $430 per person per month for 56,000 people represents more than $577 million in state and federal resources per biennium that we likely didn't need to raise.

While you've been struggling to pay for your own healthcare premiums, Oregon has been sending checks to Medicaid providers for people who were ineligible to receive benefits either because of the income they earn or where they live.

However, according to an article in The (Eugene) Register-Guard, raising taxes on your health care was Gov. Kate Brown's top priority. And she was handsomely rewarded for the effort. Some Medicaid providers who've benefitted from the overpayments just sent Gov. Brown $60,000 in campaign checks!

Additionally, issues with who qualifies for Medicaid won't end when the state finishes reviewing the eligibility backlog. Changes in minimum wage policy championed by Brown and Democratic legislators will likely render thousands more Oregonians ineligible. Rep. Cedric Hayden and I warned that a sharp increase in the minimum wage trajectory would come with a steep "benefits cliff" from which low income families would find it difficult to recover.

As of July 1, when the tri-county area's minimum wage rose to $11.25, a two-person family working 40 hours per week no longer qualified for Medicaid. However, a wage bump of about $3,000 annually does not make up for the net loss of Medicaid benefits that will put low-income families upside down several thousand dollars yearly and force them to rely on hospitals for primary care.

The Service Employees International Union claims thousands of their members receive Medicaid. Brown just gave SEIU members a $100 million dollar raise with a $15 base hourly wage. Both wage hikes will further reduce the overall Medicaid population as well as the amount of taxes the legislature needs to raise to cover people who are actually eligible for Medicaid.

So why would lawmakers pass sales taxes on healthcare plans and hospitals that will generate $330 million? Because they know surpluses can be swept into the state's general fund as extra revenue.

But nearly 217,000 Oregonians have already experienced double-digit rate increases and eye-popping deductibles. For families who don't qualify for federal tax credits, buying healthcare under the Affordable Care Act is almost untenable. And the legislature's failure to adequately address skyrocketing health care costs have already resulted in layoffs and hiring freezes at hospitals around Oregon.

Creating a sales tax on health care that disproportionately impacts non-profits, college students and even the K-12 education budget is not only wrong, it's immoral. It's ironic that Brown, Our Oregon and their surrogates, who've so loudly championed corporate tax increases, are complicit in supporting a healthcare tax that excludes large corporations and insurance companies. Once again, everyday Oregonians and small businesses will bear the brunt of bad legislative policy and an overzealous governor.

Brown's single-minded pursuit to pass these taxes is further evidenced by her signature on Senate Bill 229 to rig a special election and allow partisan lawmakers to write the ballot title for the health care referendum should it qualify for the ballot.

The public deserves a vote on whether we should allow a new sales taxes on healthcare plans and hospitals. If healthcare is a basic human need, taxing it is not the way to make it more accessible or affordable.

Julie Parrish represents House District 37, which includes parts of Tualatin and West Linn. More information is available Stophealthcaretaxes.com.
BY BRIAN BOQUIST and CLIFF BENTZ

In comparing the legislative success of the transportation package to the demise of the tax revenue reform effort, commentators opine that the revenue reform effort failed because the Democrats did not "get" the support of the Republicans. The assumption implicit in this assertion is that legislation is created by the majority party and then "shopped" to the minority party to "get" a willing Republican vote, and then the bill is passed.

As the Republican leaders of the transportation package effort, we assure Oregonians that this assertion, at least as far as the transportation bill is concerned, is totally wrong.

The Democrats did not craft the bill and then "get" Republican support. Instead, legislative leaders recognized that success in the Capitol and across the state required a balance between cost and benefit, rural and urban, Republican and Democrat, environment and industry, short term and long term, the two chambers of the legislature, and the Governor. They recognized that creating legislation that is less likely to be referred to voters relies on early and continually refined bipartisan ownership based on input in the design and content of the bill.

The transportation package was hammered out word by word, paragraph by paragraph, argument by argument, by 14 members of the transportation joint committee, who had equal say no matter their political hat. Much of the success of the 2017 transportation effort can be traced to House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney's decision to select and design this politically balanced, legislatively experienced committee. The Democratic leaders' willingness to delegate responsibility -- only re-entering the process, along with the Governor, at the end of the session -- played a big part in the passage of the bill. Along with months of effort, billions of dollars in give and take and true bipartisan design, that leadership allowed this bill to earn substantial majorities in both chambers.

Why is this tedious and time consuming approach necessary? Because without a carefully designed and inclusive process, meaningful reform that addresses both spending and tax issues will not make it through the building. And in the unlikely event that a tax bill does pass, on a partisan basis, odds are that it will be referred to the voters where it will fail: All of the effort, time and political risk down the drain.

Each legislator brings a different and important perspective to the process. And experience, respect, patience and friendship play a huge part.

But Republicans and Democrats' broad understanding of how to balance the state's needs dramatically increased the chance of success in solving Oregon's intractable problems. Given the undeniable need to address tax reform, the Public Employee Retirement System and spending in education and health care, we are hopeful that legislative leadership in the future will avoid the "get" approach. Instead, we hope they will soon form a nonpartisan joint committee to address these extraordinarily challenging issues in anticipation of the 2019 session.

-- Republican state Rep. Cliff Bentz represents House District 60. Republican state Sen. Brian Boquist represents Senate District 12.
As Oregon's K-12 students prepare for a new school year, parents eyeing larger class sizes and the state's miserably low graduation rate should make time to do some homework themselves. The assignment: Understand what it really means to advocate for education funding.

It's more complicated than parroting cries to make corporations "pay their fair share," the bumper sticker slogan pushed by the teachers union and others. Or marching in Salem demanding that legislators dedicate more revenue. Because to really understand why our schools continue to deliver less to students than other states, parents and community members must delve into the uncomfortable facts of where education dollars are going in the first place.

They can start with some basic truths about funding for our K-12 system. Oregon legislators have allocated Oregon's school districts more money than ever before. In fact, the K-12 budget for the 2017-2019 biennium is 11 percent greater than the budget in 2015-2017. That should be good news.

Yet school districts are making significant cuts due to rising pension and benefit costs, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Gordon Friedman recently reported. Portland Public Schools, which is receiving $29 million more from the state for the 2017 school year, is cutting 55 teachers' positions. Salem-Keizer is getting $31 million more and slashing 67 teaching positions. Think about that again. Tens of millions of dollars in more money and still they're cutting jobs.

That should raise one big question: Why? And then another: How do we fix that? Unfortunately, state leaders and the teachers union - our presumed education advocates - have instead sought to distract the public from those questions. Instead, they focus solely on revenue while others insist, falsely, that nothing can be done to ease the pension burden. That's exactly why parents and community members who are tired of students bearing the cost of pusillanimous politicians must look past the rhetoric, evaluate the situation and pressure legislators, the governor and school leaders to stop protecting adults and do something for students.

That means confronting the burden that the Public Employees Retirement System is placing on school districts. Schools and other public employers face steep increases in their required contributions to the pension fund due to a $24 billion imbalance between what the fund has and what it will owe in benefits. Those contributions are going to spike again in the 2019-2021 biennium and get even worse after that, seizing larger and larger shares of taxpayer money meant for providing services.

But earlier this year, Gov. Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek abruptly pulled the plug on proposals to ease those contributions by having employees share some of the burden of funding their own pensions. That's hardly unreasonable. Public employees receive both a pension and a separate 401(k)-like retirement account. Yes, both. It's a generous package that few private-sector employers offer. And Oregon's is the only pension in the country that requires no contribution from employees.

And that's only one aspect of how the state can temper the rise of pension costs if it could find the backbone to do so. While a state Supreme Court decision in 2015 ruled that the state cannot reduce benefits already earned, it also made clear the state has the authority to change benefits moving forward. One possibility? The state could eliminate its three-tiered system for calculating pension benefits for employees in their remaining years and go with the least-expensive tier, which has been in place for employees hired since 2003.

Then there's health benefits. Premiums for Oregon teachers are considerably higher than the national average, as a report by the Eugene Register-Guard in April showed. A Portland State University study recently found several Oregon school districts paying thousands of dollars more in health insurance than Seattle does for its teachers. And many teachers contribute nothing to their health insurance premiums. While the Legislature made a little headway in looking at teacher and public employee health care costs, the heavy lift is still to come.

The more districts spend on benefits, the less there is for salaries for additional teachers, librarians, school counselors and reading specialists - all of whom have a direct impact on students' education. Want physical education or other programs? Then press state leaders to confront the problems they ducked this year.

While this state needs a more stable revenue system that shifts more of the tax burden onto businesses, it's simply a red herring to claim that the state's K-12 troubles stem from corporations not paying enough.

Teachers absolutely deserve fair compensation and benefits. But this state needs an honest conversation about what "fair" means. Parents and community members can help spark that discussion by finding out for themselves what's driving K-12's funding problems and asking the uncomfortable questions. Then, they should insist that Brown and state legislators who claim to be education advocates show that they actually are.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board

Want to learn more? Check these links for background on PERS and health insurance:

Portland State University study on employer compensation costs for K-12 employees
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Sunny. Much cooler. High near 65F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low around 40F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
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100 get scholarships to study in China

A total of 100 students have got scholarships to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in different universities of China this year.
DECATUR  More than 100,000 people from nearly every state and 40 countries are set to converge on Decatur this week as the city again takes its place at the epicenter of the agriculture industry.

Tuesday marks the start of the Farm Progress Show, the largest outdoor agricultural show in North America, which has been held in Decatur every other year since 2005. The three-day event transforms more than 500 acres north of Richland Community College into a hub for companies to showcase the latest equipment and technological developments in agriculture.

Key players in agriculture policy often tour the show, including governors from several Midwest states and congressional representatives. This year, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is set to make an appearance.

Organizers estimate it also generates $10 million for the Macon County economy.

In other words, its the Super Bowl of farming, said Mat Muirheid, whose family has farmed near Oakley for more than a century.

I always look forward to the Farm Progress Show, he said. There is a sense of pride of having this event here.

Farm Progress combines elements of an international trade show, technology conference and demonstration site with more than 600 scheduled vendors to show products ranging from weed control to state-of-the-art combines, often accompanied by eye-catching 3-D displays.

Farmers and business executives walk exhibits to climb into the sleek tractors, view vegetables grown from the latest engineered seeds and learn about advancements to improve crop yields.

Field demonstrations are a key part of the event, allowing farmers to see equipment such as tractors and combines working side-by-side.

With temperatures expected to be in the high 70s throughout the week, Director Matt Jungmann is hopeful the show can live up to past successes.

We lay the groundwork, plant the seeds, he said. And now we hope that Mother Nature can agree.

The show, which alternates between locations in Decatur and Boone, Iowa, started in 1953 at Armstrong as an avenue to showcase developments in equipment, seed varieties and agricultural chemicals.

The show was held on the grounds of farmers in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa for decades before taking up biennial residence at the newly created Progress City USA grounds near Richland. Since then, the show, produced by London-based Informa Global Events, has continued to expand the Decatur grounds, which now span 90 acres for exhibits, 150 acres for parking and 350 acres for field demonstrations.

The site includes access roads and permanent buildings that are used for each show. Since the last show in 2015, about 1.3 miles of road have been repaved to handle additional traffic, said Richland's interim Director of Facilities Clay Gerhard.

That space is set to hit capacity despite recent struggles of the agriculture economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported earlier this year that the net farm income is expected to fall to $62.3 billion, half of the record $123 billion farmers earned in 2013.

Even as companies look to spend more wisely, Jungmann said they recognize the opportunity to bring their products to an international audience.

They know the value of marketing, whether its an up or down economy, he said. They know its a cyclical business. Theyre going to ride this thing out.

It had appeared as though the traditional Farm Progress concert would fall victim to the flagging farm economy, but organizers said last week country star Easton Corbin would be a late addition to the show with a free concert sponsored by Ram Trucks. Corbin, a Nashville-based artist with two No. 1 hits on Billboards Country music charts, is set to play at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Entrance to the show is not required to attend the concert. A separate, free parking lot will be available for concertgoers on the far north side of Progress City USA.

Its a great opportunity for the Decatur community, who may not be the target audience or customer for this show, to still be a part of the Farm Progress Show, Jungmann said.
BLOOMINGTON  Among the buzz of cicadas and hum of bagpipes, a section at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery was dedicated Saturday to veterans and their families.

Its so peaceful here, said Vonda Rodgers of Bloomington.

In her sons honor, the space was named The U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers Veterans Field during a ceremony, with recognition by the Bloomington-Normal American Legion Honor Guard.

Josh Rodgers was killed in action in Afghanistan on April 27 along with fellow Ranger Cameron Thomas of Ohio. Rodgers graduated from Normal Community High School in 2013 and would have turned 23 this week.

Rodgers was the first soldier to be buried in the cemeterys special section, which sits in the southeast corner of the cemetery. It is marked by a large granite marker and flagpole.

In addition to Vonda Rodgers, the large crowd included Joshs father, Kevin Rodgers, and loved ones.

Josh entered the gates of heaven without fear, pain, frustration or sorrow. If he were standing here today, thats what he wouldve wanted us to know, Vonda Rodgers told those assembled.

She asked all attending veterans and active military to stand for recognition.

Josh isnt a hero because he had to be carried off of that field. Hes a hero because he did exactly what you did; sacrifice your freedoms for the rest of us. You are our heroes and we thank you, she told them.

Rodgers hopes the memorial will draw not just veterans and family members of fallen soldiers, but anyone who wants to honor past and present soldiers.

Families of veterans or active military members or anyone in the community can come here and be together to remember their families and celebrate. I hope people can stop and remember the sacrifices that were made for their freedom. Remember, were all doing life together. This is an awesome place to remember that, she said.

Butch Ekstam, event coordinator for American Legion Post No. 635 in Normal, attended with 15 Legion members who played taps, fired a rifle volley and presented the Rodgers family with an honorary membership for Josh.

Ekstam lost his own son, Joseph M. Ekstam, who served in the Army in 2000.

That pain is never cured or satisfied. It never leaves you. But there is joy in sharing their memory with others, said Ekstam.

Cemetery officials said more than 6,000 visited the cemetery to pay respects at the visiting wall, which bears the names of military personnel lost or missing in the Vietnam War.

We wanted a place in the cemetery for veterans and their families to visit as a mini substitute for the traveling wall, said Gaye Nichols, cemetery administrative assistant.
BLOOMINGTON  The fact that marijuana was found in Kirk Zimmerman's car when he was arrested in 2015 is among five incidents of potential other crimes that prosecutors intend to present at his murder trial.

The 59-year-old defendant is accused of shooting his former wife, Pam Zimmerman, four times in November 2014 after he went to her financial services offices on Bloomington's east side.

Kirk Zimmerman has denied the accusations that he committed the murder; the state contends the shooting stemmed from an ongoing court battle related to child support payments.

In a court filing by the McLean County State's Attorney's Office, prosecutors list five examples of alleged misconduct by Zimmerman that they intend to ask a jury to consider.

A trial date has not been set.

It's anticipated that defense lawyer John Rogers will challenge the state's efforts to introduce the potential evidence that has not resulted in additional criminal charges against Zimmerman. The list of other crimes includes the marijuana allegedly found in Zimmerman's car and claims related to the couple's divorce.

The location of an unspecified amount of marijuana in Zimmerman's car when he was arrested July 21, 2015 in Bloomington is information the state wants a jury to hear, according to an Aug. 16 notice provided to Judge Scott Drazewski and the defense.

The filing is the first time authorities have publicly disclosed the drug allegation that does not include other details, including where the marijuana was found inside the car.

The animosity between the Zimmermans documented in emails and divorce records is the basis for the state's efforts to introduce Kirk Zimmerman's failure to pay court-ordered expenses for the couple's three children and an allegation that Zimmerman benefited financially from his ex-wife's death.

The couple was married for 20 years.

Other allegations prosecutors will try to introduce as evidence include Zimmerman being seen outside his ex-wife's kitchen window, and an alleged trip to Indiana by Zimmerman to purchase a firearm.

No weapon has been found in connection with the shooting death.

In a motion filed in July by the defense, Rogers argued that police failed to uncover any evidence that Zimmerman intended to buy a firearm, or that he made contact with anyone in the Crawfordsville/Lafayette area of Indiana, where the state believes Zimmerman traveled to buy a handgun.

The question of whether half of Zimmerman's $200,000 bond will be returned is among the issues expected to be argued at a Thursday hearing. The defendant has asked for the refund to allow him to pay for experts to challenge certain state evidence. Legal costs have drained Zimmerman's assets, Rogers said at a recent court hearing.

The state has subpoenaed financial records from Zimmerman's son, David, and former girlfriend, Kate Arthur, to determine what funds he may be able to access for legal expenses. David Zimmerman loaned his father $25,000 last year for legal costs, the lawyer for David Zimmerman said last week.
The start of the 1946-1947 school year, coming as it did a full year after the end of World War II, was a sign of the nations halting return to normalcy.

Yet the enormity of the global conflagration meant that prewar routine, however defined, wasnt coming back anytime soon. For instance, in the fall of 1946, with the two local universities bursting at the seams with returning military veterans, prefabricated barracks used to house prisoners of war were brought in to serve as temporary housing.

On the other hand, enrollments were relatively steady when it came to elementary, middle and high schools. There were 2,944 grade school and junior high students in Bloomingtons public school system, and 1,084 in the high school, for a district-wide enrollment of 4,028, a figure relatively unchanged from the previous school years total of 3,989.

At this time, Bloomington Public Schools included Bloomington High and 10 neighborhood schools  Bent, Edwards, Emerson, Franklin, Irving, Jefferson, Lincoln, Raymond, Sheridan and Washington. Although the city was much more compact in 1946 than it is today, the large number of schools meant elementary-age children could walk to school no matter where they lived in the city.

The wars impact, though, was felt elsewhere. There remained a scarcity of consumer goods, to cite one representative example of the many lingering effects of the ration economy. Childrens clothes were still hard to find, especially those modestly priced. The Pantagraph reported that in the weeks leading up to the start of school, mothers throughout the area were busy sewing clothes for their children.

One such mother was Eva Okell, who lived with her husband Robert and their family on Harwood Place in Bloomington. She sewed all her second-grade daughter Barbaras school attire except for coats and leggings. She made skirts from both a pair of mens wool trousers and her own outmoded clothes, saving upward of $3 on every homemade garment.

In 1946, there were still plenty of rural, one-room schools out in the McLean County countryside, though their days were numbered, thanks in large part to the graveling of many township roads and the increased reliability and safety of school buses.

There were 24 fewer rural schools in the county to start the 1946 school year than the year before, with 10 of those closing due to consolidations in the Stanford area and West Township. Others shuttered due to declining enrollments. That left 158 rural schools in the county in the fall of 1946, down from 182 the year before.

The great wave of school consolidation would come two years later, in 1948, leading to the abrupt closure of the majority of McLean Countys rural schools. The countys last remaining one-room schools, both located in Dale Township, closed after the 1959-1960 school year.

This being the Twin Cities, back to school also meant back to college, and 1946 was no different.

Returning veterans flocked to the two local universities, due in great measure to the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known popularly as the GI Bill. This led to acute shortages in on- and off-campus housing.

For its part, Illinois Wesleyan University placed an advertisement in The Pantagraph desperately seeking rented rooms with the hope of relieving the housing shortage facing the largest student body in school history.

By late August, IWU had capped enrollment at 950 students. Of those, around 480, or slightly more than half, were veterans under the GI Bill. The freshmen class alone included more than 180 servicemen and at least four servicewomen.

Relief came in the form of the aforementioned prefabricated army barracks, which in IWUs case were shipped from a former prisoner-of-war camp in Weingarten, Mo. There was irony in housing university-enrolled veterans in POW barracks, but what exactly was ironic no one quite knew.

The housing units included four main barracks, 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, which were divided into rooms. Even so, additional trailers had to be moved on or close to campus to house more students. The university also acquired two North Main Street residences and re-purposed them as dormitories, renaming the old homes DeMotte Lodge and Munsell Hall.

There was an even tighter squeeze at Illinois State Normal University, despite the conservative admission policies advocated by President R.W. Fairchild. In the fall of 1946, enrollment topped 1,800, with 635 of those veterans.

When school opened the second week of September, Fairchild had to tell some 100 veterans that they could not bring their families to campus as previously planned because the POW barracks erected on the University Farm wouldnt be ready until October at the earliest. Anywhere from 50 to 90 men were then temporarily housed in the Cook Hall gymnasium (see accompanying photograph), where they slept on wooden double bunks.

ISNUs POW barracks were located at the south end of the University Farm off Sudduth Road (now College Avenue), and were open to married and single students. By the spring of 1947, there were nearly 250 men, women and children making a home in what would soon take the name Cardinal Court (the university opened a new and permanent Cardinal Court along Gregory Street in 1959; the WWII barracks were razed in 1962).

Clearly, as evident by the growing number and size of families at Cardinal Court, veterans were busy with more than schoolwork. All this baby-making, of course, led to the baby boom generation and a sustained enrollment surge that got underway two decades later. ISNUs first baby boom class enrolled as freshmen in the fall of 1964.

On the elementary school level, in late August 1946, teacher Lucille Murphy was preparing for her 25th year in the classroom. A Normal resident, she taught at Little Brick School, which was on West Washington Street well outside Bloomington city limits. From 1927 to 1941, Little Brick was one of several one-room schools that served as real-world laboratories for ISNU faculty and students.

Murphy began her teaching career at Ireland Grove School, and put in 15 years at Little Red School (not to be confused with Little Brick!), located on Linden Street in north Normal.

Murphy didnt drive an automobile, so she always walked to and from school, which meant hoofing it upward of five miles a day, depending on where she was teaching. In 1946, she lived on the 300 block of Virginia Avenue, and so rode the city bus to Euclid and Grove streets on Bloomingtons western edge, and walked the rest of the way to Little Red School. For the 1946-1947 school year, she taught a combined first-through fourth-grade class of 20 boys and girls.
HOUSTON (AP)  Rescuers answered hundreds of desperate calls for help Sunday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey rose high enough to begin filling second-story homes, and authorities urged stranded families to seek refuge on their rooftops.

A fleet of helicopters, airboats and high-water vehicles confronted flooding so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. Rescuers got too many calls to respond to each one and had to prioritize life-and-death situations.

"It's heartbreaking," said Harris County sheriff's spokesman Jason Spencer.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance for those trapped inside homes, attics and vehicles. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up."

Officials urged people not to crawl into attics but to get on top of them. The Coast Guard advised people to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to themselves.

Police evacuated two apartment complexes overnight in the Greenspoint neighborhood, rescuing more than 50 children from rising water.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo stood in waist-high water during a livestream post on Twitter. "But it's Texas," he said. "We'll get through it."

Rainfall of more than 4 inches per hour resulted in water levels higher than in any recent floods and higher than during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, said Jeff Linder of flood control district in Harris County, which includes Houston.

Rescuers came by land, water and air.

In Friendswood near Houston, authorities asked people with flat-bottomed airboats or fuel for them to help rescue people, KPRC-TV in Houston reported Sunday morning.

In Houston, dump trucks and city buses were used to ferry residents to higher ground.

The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years.

"This disaster's going to be a landmark event."

The rescues unfolded a day after the hurricane settled over the Texas coastline. It was blamed for killing at least two people and injuring up to 14.

Anxiety ran high throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston because some of the areas with the greatest hurricane damage were inaccessible to rescuers. And the forecast for days of steady rain threatened to inundate the region's flat landscape with as much as 40 inches (100 centimeters).

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that he would visit Texas.

"I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption," the president posted on Twitter. "The focus must be life and safety."

In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of "massive" damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street.

"I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," said Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation but did not know how many heeded the order.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm's path. The mayor said his community took a blow "right on the nose" that left "widespread devastation," including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.

Rockport's roads were a mess of toppled power poles. A trailer blocked much of one major intersection. Wood framing from ripped-apart houses was strewn along Route 35 on the town's southern end.

Harvey's relentless wind tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium.

"We're still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started," said Aransas County spokesman Larry Sinclair.

One person was killed in Aransas County when in a fire at home during the storm, county Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. said.

Another person  a woman who tried to get out of her vehicle in high water  died in flooding in Harris County, where Houston is located, , though authorities had not confirmed a cause of death, said Gary Norman, a spokesman for the Houston emergency operations center.

As many as 14 people suffered minor injuries, including slips and falls, scrapes and a broken leg, Mills said.

About 300,000 customers were without power statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott said it would probably be several days before electricity is restored.

Meanwhile, the storm was barely moving. Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Galveston receiving around 8 inches (20 centimeters), Houston 11 (28 centimeters) and Aransas 10 (25 centimeters). Tiny Austwell got 15 inches (38 centimeters).

In Houston, authorities pleaded with people not to leave their homes as a flood emergency was declared.

"The streets are treacherous," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Elsewhere in the storm's immediate aftermath, the Coast Guard had rescued 20 people from boats and barges in distress, said Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector.

The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage. Because the city is the third-largest petrochemical port in the nation, the agency will be on the lookout for spills, Hahn said.

The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph (209 kph) winds.

Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday.

By 7 a.m. Sunday, Harvey was centered about 65 miles southeast of San Antonio, with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph (72.42 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center, which described the flooding as "catastrophic."

Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

The storm's approach sent tens of thousands of people fleeing inland.

Just hours before landfall, the governor and Houston leaders issued conflicting statements on evacuation.

The governor urged more people to flee, but Houston officials recommended no widespread evacuations, citing greater danger in having people on roads that could flood and the fact that the hurricane was not taking direct aim at the city.

The last Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Charley in August 2004 in Florida.
For three days this week, Decatur will be at the epicenter of the agriculture world.

The Farm Progress Show is in town, bringing with it more than 600 vendors and more than 100,000 spectators from throughout Central Illinois, the U.S. and more than 50 other countries who want to see the latest developments in ag technology.

Even in a community that is home to Archer Daniels Midland Co., there are those who see agriculture as nothing more than farmers, tractors, corn and soybeans.

But it is so much more.

The Farm Progress Show covers every aspect of the process, which is why it often is referred to as the super bowl of farm shows.

Want to see how a combine performs in the field? Of course, you can see that.

But visitors also can learn about the latest methods of preventing soil erosion, seed developments, grain storage and metal building options, use of drones, and animal care. They can test drive a variety of trucks, off-road toys and small implements.

So, you may be asking yourself whats in it for me? Im not a farmer. Im never going to buy any of this stuff. Why should I care about the Farm Progress Show beyond the prospect of needing to change my morning commute because of the flood of vehicles clogging the area around Progress City?

Consider this.

Show organizers took over the grounds in July, thus starting the massive task of constructing new buildings, putting up dozens of tents and placing tons of rock, wood chips and landscaping blocks. That work will continue until the show opens on Tuesday.

Much of this work is being done by crews from as far away as Florida, who have spent the past few weeks living in area hotels, eating at local restaurants and shopping at local stores. These same people will be in town in the weeks following the show, spending even more money.

As the show gets closer, the company workers who staff the many booths come to town. It also brings in key government officials. This year, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will lead a discussion of the upcoming Farm Bill.

Several members of Congress will be on hand. While here, Perdue will visit ADM and learn about the challenges facing a company that has undergone recent staff reductions locally and around the world. Addressing these concerns could prove pivotal to adding more jobs to the regional economy.

Then theres the army of local volunteers, who do everything from staffing information booths and admission gates to driving trams and managing the parking and food areas.

We couldnt do it without them, said Matt Jungmann, the shows director.

For their work, Jungmann said these groups receive donations from the Farm Progress Show that have been used to make improvements to their church buildings, buy equipment for their school bands and show choirs and provide for community outreach programs.

Jungmann said early estimates put the shows financial impact on the community at $10 million. He wouldnt be surprised if that number isnt higher.

That brings us back to the farmer. Armed with the latest information for improving their business, farmers can do an even better job of producing the crops and goods we need to feed the world.

Who doesnt benefit from that?
I have found the problem and have a solution to our money problems. While working for a large Illinois corporation, the company had all of us management people attend a seminar on problem solving. We learned that we had to clear our minds of all preconceived ideas about the problem. Then we had to find what had changed that could have caused the problem and then fix that.

So lets see what has changed in Illinois that may have caused our money problems. Our state Senate and House have not changed. We still have Madigan and Cullerton, who have worked with Republican governors. The only change has been our governor. The problem is now found.

Now we have to find a solution. We have a governor that wants to take money from rural and poor schools and funnel it to schools in rich areas and defund higher education. He would also love to get rid of unions and lower wages for all us middle class workers. Dont forget tax breaks for the rich. The solution is found. Vote in a new governor.

Let us not be too hard on our governor, after all he has a Ivy League education and lives in Winnetka, where the median family income is $250,000. It is hard for him to relate to any of us south of Howard Street in Chicago. He fooled us country folk once by wearing his Carhartt construction jacket, but we know that trick now.

Mike Kerber, Normal
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Average annual temp rose by 0.056 degree Celcius in the past 4 decades

The average annual maximum temperature of the country Nepal has risen by 0.056 degree Celsius, according to a recent study conducted by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DOHM).
Iran to 'legally pursue' Apple for cutting apps

08/27/17

Source: Press TV

There are reportedly more than 7 million iPhone holders in Iran.

Iran's new telecommunication minister says the country will legally pursue Apple for removing Iranian apps from its App Store.



The US technology company has cited American sanctions after a number of Iranian startups and online developers complained that Apple had suddenly cut their applications.



"Under the US sanctions regulations, the App Store cannot host, distribute or do business with apps or developers connected to certain US embargoed countries," Apple said in a message to Iranians.



Sanctions on Iran were lifted last year following its 2015 nuclear agreement with world countries, however, US President Donald Trump has pushed for more sanctions which the Islamic Republic says breach the accord.



Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi says Apple should respect its Iranian consumers who are estimated in the upwards of 7 million.



"Eleven percent of Iran's mobile phone market share is owned by Apple. Giving respect to consumer rights is a principle today which Apple has not followed," Jahromi tweeted on Friday.



"We will follow up the cutting of the apps legally," he added.



Apple's market in Iran is related to iPhone holders whose numbers are reportedly higher than those of Android users.



While Apple does not have an official store in Iran, its iPhones have an omnipresence in the country where users obtain the gadgets from places like Dubai and Hong Kong or relatives who visit the United States.



There are currently thousands of applications in Iran developed by startups which also provide services to Iranian users through App Stores outside the country.



Famous online store Digikala, ride-hailing Snapp, online meals delivery startup Delion Foods and e-commerce marketplace Bamilo are some of the companies which have seen their apps removed by Apple.
The Otabil family, appears to be in a distressful situation, following the collapse of Capital Bank and the loss of the familys 48percent shares, held in the name of Otabil and Associates, aside the 3percent shares the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) had in the bank, making a total of 51percent shares linked to Pastor Mensa Otabil.



One of the daughters of the General Overseer of International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), has taken to Facebook, writing an emotional message to her father after the collapse of Capital Bank.



Baaba Otabil, in a message on Facebook, described the comments made by critics after the collapse of the bank as heartbreaking.



She is said to have graduated from the Liberty University in Virginia USA recently, but not the Central University founded by the ICGC led by her father. She is yet to relocate to Ghana.



Unconfirmed reports by the Herald newspaper are that Otabil and Associates, has been the vehicle used to purchase and transact business for Pastor Otabil. There are reports of houses in the plush Trasaaco Valley. Some properties are also alleged to have been jointly bought in the names of Otabil and Associates, as well as ICGC.



There are also claims of a ranch located in Haymarket, Virginia owned by Otabil and Associates.



Pastor Otabil allegedly bought the property in 2012, valued at over $925,000.



The luxurious building is said to be 10 acres in size and has a two-storey building located on it. The building is said to cover an area of 6,000 sq. ft. It has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, garages and has colonial style architecture.



Strangely, the expensive ranch is located in the city of Virginia same as Baaba Otabils Liberty University- Christian university located in Lynchburg  Virginia. It is classified as a doctoral research university.



The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced that it is sending a team of investigators, auditors, accountants, lawyers and financial experts to UT and Capital banks, to probe the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the two banks.



Governor of the BoG, Dr. Ernest Addison, has cautioned that all persons found culpable would be duly sanctioned.



With the recent development, it is not certain whether auditors, will go in to investigate the personal assets of the directors of these banks. But already, some accounts of key officials, have been blocked as investigations continue.



Baaba Otabil wrote that I have seen and read things about my family online. Its been heart breaking to see some of the words people flying carelessly around but its life, I guess.



She narrated that, she called her father immediately she heard the news of the collapse of his bank.



I dont really know what I was expecting but the first few words out his mouth made me laugh until tears started to sting at the corner of my eyes. I mean, thick deep in his own burdens, He was comforting me and making sure that I was okay! I am just in awe of his strength, the post said.



She said, she liked the strength of her father and hoped her children would have her fathers character.



Capital and UT Banks, collapsed and was subsequently taken over by GCB Bank. Most Ghanaians on social media, mocked and criticized the known faces of the two banks; Dr Mensah Otabil and Kofi Amoabeng.



But Baaba Otabil believes this setback is a preparation for better things ahead for her father.



I know that there are bigger and better and greater things to come.



He has exuded such grace that I have no doubt that Jesus is about to do something greater in his life, she wrote on social media, she said.



Miss Baaba, praised the mental fortitude of her father, saying despite his troubles, the first few words that came out of his mouth made her laugh.



She continued to say, she has learned so much from her dad and wishes her future husband to be just like her father.



The peace that, continues to surround him in the midst of chaos. He never stops seeking God and He never stops believing. I have learned so much from my father throughout my years on earth. I want my future husband to be like him.



Not only her future husband but also, she wants her sons to grow up and be like him and her daughters picking up his character.



I want my sons to grow up and be like him. I want my daughters to have his character.



Meanwhile, commenting on the closure of his bank, Pastor Otabi,l told his congregation that people who have no right to even mention his name in their speech are now freely hurling insults at him.



Oh yes, Ive had some reality this week. You know when people who have no right to insult you, insult you; that is reality.



Read Baaba Otabils full statement below:



This man right here though, Hes my dad and with everything thats happened in the last couple of days, He has exuded such grace that I have no doubt that Jesus is about to do something greater in his life.



When I first heard what went on, I called him. I dont really know what I was expecting but the first few words out his mouth made me laugh until tears started to sting at the corner of my eyes.



I mean, thick deep in his own burdens, He was comforting me and making sure that I was okay! I am just in awe of his strength.



The peace that continues to surround him in the midst of chaos. He never stops seeking God and He never stops believing. I have learned so much from my father throughout my years on earth. I want my future husband to be like him.



I want my sons to grow up and be like him. I want my daughters to have his character. Dad, you are the best father a girl could ask for. I love you so so much. You have taught me what it means to be kind, honest, loving, and gracious. May God continue to surround you with his peace.



May Jesus continue to bless you with Grace. May the Holy Spirit continue to fill your heart with love. I know that there are bigger and better and greater things to come. #seriouslythebestfatherever.

Source: theheraldghana.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 Deputy Agric Minister, William Quaitoo, has rendered an unqualified apology for describing some Northern ethnic groups as difficult people.



According to him, the comment was unfortunate and rash.



The Deputy Minister whos also MP for Akim Oda has had to apologize after calls on him by the Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak to do so.



I think the comments made by the Deputy Agric minister are most unfortunate and very reprehensible and most demeaning to the several millions of farmers in the Northern part who have year in, year out contributed to substantially not only to feed us but also to keep a lot of the youth in that part of country employed.



Hon. Quaitoo later in a statement pleaded with Ghanaians to forgive him.



Below are details of the statement



APOLOGY AND RETRACTION OF STATEMENT



During an interview with Star FM on Thursday 25 September, 2017on Fall Army Worm (FAW) invasion of farms, I unconciousely said that the people of the North are difficult people, I lived with them, and I know them. This is just to take money from the Government.



I UNRESERVEDLY, RETRACT AND APOLOGIZE SINCERELY FOR THIS UNFORTUNATE STATEMENT AND PRAY ALL AND SUNDRY TO FORGIVE ME ON THIS SCORE.



Yes, I lived in Northern Region for 27 years and had all my formative years there. I often pride myself as a Dagomba and identify with them at all times. I cannot there consciously spite them.



Based on my past experience on Farmer Based projects, I meant to say some farmers can be difficult as it is with all Regions.



The question posed to me was whether the Agric. Ministry will compensate farmers who claim to have lost their investment due to FAW invasion. I answered that destruction of farms by FAW in the north was something I could not comprehend unless it is physically proven. This is because the north has only one planting season and this begins in June. In June, the Ministry had prepared fully (chemicals, trainings and human resources) to treat any farm that will be infested with FAW. So I expect that no such report will come from real farmers from the north if they really follow the defind FAW regime of the Ministry. I concluded that any farmer who reported and proved any loses to FAW will be attended to by the Ministry.



I thank all and sundry who follow my works and actions and pointed out this misttake to me. I ONCE AGAIN, SINCERELY RETRACT AND APOLOGIZE FOR MY UNGURDED STATEMENT.



I urge you all to continue to correct me on my duties. Thank you.



Signed

HON. WILLIAM A. QUAITTOO

DEP. MINISTER, AGRIC.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Peter Mac Manu has spoken for the first time about his recent deportation from Kenya during that countrys presidential elections.



Mr Mac Manu, who was attending Kenyas August 8 polls as leader of the observer mission of the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA), was denied entry for suspicion of coming to aid the opposition National Supreme Alliance (NASA) led by Raila Odinga to win the polls.



The East African authorities thought Mr Mac Manu was notorious for calling Ghanas polls in 2016 ahead of the electoral body, the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC).



He was thus made to return to Accra immediately he touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.



But speaking to 3FMs Kwakye Afreh Nuamah and TV3s Komla Klutse, Mr Mac Manu said he was simply denied entry and nothing happened in Kenya.



I dont know the definition of deportation vis-a-vis I wont allow you to come to my country, he said.



He pointed out that he was not the only one denied entry as Canadians, Americans and persons of other nationalities were sent back home.

Source: 3news









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former President John Agyekum Kufour has charged members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to be mindful of what the elephant family stands for.



Delivering a message at the National Delegates Conference being held in the Central Region, the former president said, the partys DNA was to come and discharge a duty to this nation. The gentle giant as he is popularly referred to said, the partys duty is to bring the nation out and enrich the people adding, not just the party people but the entire people of Ghana into a property owning economy. The NPP should never forget that its central duty as a party, is to take Ghana out of the mess that unfortunately for us weve been left into by the other side, Let me put it that way, he said.



Mr. Kufour stressed that its taken the NPP a long time to come into government and now that we have it, and there is so much to do; unfortunately the term of office is so short. We must keep on winning probably three, four or five times before the roots will go deep and we will become the party of the nation.



He entreated party members not to do or say anything or conduct themselves in any way that will sabotage the young government of Akufo-Addo.



He said anyone who will do so maybe someone who lacks understanding of the vision of the party. He advised individuals who have criticisms to do so indoors instead of washing the dirty linen of the NPP in public.



"In the short term, I want to l entreat each and every one of us not to do anything or say anything or conduct ourselves in any way that will rock this young government, you do that, then you are just not seeing the vision with which the party was founded. If you have criticism, please render the criticism indoors. We dont wash dirty linen in the public, thats an old adage," he said.

Source: rainbowradioonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A deputy Chief of Staff, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has described as infantile corrupt allegations leveled against him and his colleague, Samuel Abu Jinapor by musician, Kwame A Plus.



The outspoken musician in a Facebook post labeled the two as stupid and corrupt appointees of the President and wondered why they were appointed to deputize the Chief of Staff, Mrs. Osei-Opare.



NPP delegates congress. 7 months of NPP government. So far so good except appointing some very corrupt officials including the two very stupid deputy chief of staffs. Its amazing how Nana was able to appoint thieves whose level of stupidity is the same. Arrogant and corrupt fools. You think youll be in power forever. Even John Mahama I was not afraid of him then you, A Plus post read.



Using the same medium to respond to the allegation, an unfazed Asenso-Boakye dared A Plus to provide evidence to substantiate his claims.



According to Asenso-Boakye, the accusations are baseless adding that, it would be prudent if A Plus used social media in a more positive manner.



I will not be intimidated by your vile attacks on my person or held to ransom. You have enormous potential; please harness it more productively. I would earnestly urge you to use your time more judiciously to help move Ghana forward.



Indulging in baseless accusations and unsubstantiated claims of corruption and arrogance is beneath you and frankly discredits you in the eyes of right thinking Ghanaians. As the President noted at the just ended NPP Conference, he is willing and ready to look into any case of alleged corruption. You may kindly take up his generous offer and present your case to him.



While I have this opportunity, allow me to echo the sentiments of President J. A. Kufuor. We need matured minds in our Party and body politics. You will do well to heed the age old adage: "a word to the wise is enough" parts of his post read.



Below is Asenso-Boakye's full response:



Dear Kwame A Plus,



I have read with bemusement your infantile and opprobrious rants against my colleague and I, and which also seeks to question the judgement of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. This is quite regrettable given your avowed support for Nana Akufo-Addo's vision and commitment to accelerate the development of Ghana. We have work to do and in a hurry to alleviate the debilitating poverty that demeans our people. I genuinely expect all who profess to have the interest of Ghanaians at heart to dedicate themselves to the cause rather than engage in trivialities and attention seeking stunts.



As you may have noticed in my limited interactions with you, the attainment of Akufo-Addo's vision remains a cardinal priority and paramount consideration in my dealings with all and sundry. I have applied myself diligently and professionally in discharging my duties both as Political Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. My schedule in the dual capacity in which I serve His Excellency the President, affords me neither the time or luxury to be planning elaborate schemes to fleece the good people of Ghana who have graciously given us a sacred mandate.



Like you, many people contributed to our resounding electoral victory and remain eager to assist the government achieve its transformation agenda by building a resilient economy that provides fair and equitable opportunities for all. Yet, i must say that it is not everyone who has developed a nauseating sense of entitlement as you unfortunately have. It's a shame that you would sheepishly use your social media platform and following to seek to besmirch my image and reputation simply to score some measure of revenge for my inability to accede to your request.



I have endeavoured, in my social and political life, to treat everyone with whom I have had the privilege of meeting, big or small, famous or not, with the utmost respect and reverence.



May I reiterate to you, as I did in April, that I will not be intimidated by your vile attacks on my person or held to ransom. You have enormous potential; please harness it more productively. I would earnestly urge you to use your time more judiciously to help move Ghana forward.



Indulging in baseless accusations and unsubstantiated claims of corruption and arrogance is beneath you and frankly discredits you in the eyes of right thinking Ghanaians. As the President noted at the just ended NPP Conference, he is willing and ready to look into any case of alleged corruption. You may kindly take up his generous offer and present your case to him.



While I have this opportunity, allow me to echo the sentiments of President J. A. Kufuor. We need matured minds in our Party and body politics. You will do well to heed the age old adage: "a word to the wise is enough"



I wish you a pleasant day

Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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American actor, model and photographer, Lance Gross is currently visiting Ghana, and among many other things he is loving Ghanaian Jollof.

Lance, who is currently promoting the movie, When Love Kills(trailer below) , had a taste of Ghana jollof at Big Sams Kitchen, and rated it highly.

He made a post on Instagram saying: The Jollof Rice I just had was BOMB!

Lance is best known for his role as Calvin Payne on the TBS sitcom Tyler Perrys House of Payne, as well as appearing in other Tyler Perry productions such as the Meet the Browns film and Tyler Perrys Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.

He also co-starred in 2010s Our Family Wedding alongside Forest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia, America Ferrera, and Regina King. He also starred as Secret Service Agent Marcus Finley in NBCs political drama Crisis.



Lance can soon be seen in When Love Kills which premieres August 28 on TV One in the US. It based on a gripping true story and stars Niatia Lil Mama Kirkland as Falicia Blakely, a young woman who gets caught up with the wrong man who leads her down a dangerous path of drugs, gun and more.

At 16 and already a mother, Blakely is at odds with her mom and soon begins working at a strip club when she meets Dino (Lance Gross), a man who she thinks is the man of her dreams. Dino, however, is much more than he seems and soon pulls Falicia into a dangerous life of crime that changes everything she knows about herself.

Grosss late father was of Ghanaian decent and married his mother before moving the family to Nevada where Lance grew up.







































We made it! @codenamerico || These are JOKES people. Please relax, we're just happy to be here...I know the accent off. Thanks.

A post shared by lancegross (@lancegross) on Aug 25, 2017 at 8:08am PDT





Instagram Videos-







































The Jollof Rice I just had was BOMB! #chefSamofBigSamsKitchen @TheRajwaExperience #TheRajwaExperience

















A post shared by lancegross (@lancegross) on Aug 25, 2017 at 2:43pm PDT





Trailer

Lance with his late dad

Source: ameyawdebrah.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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As Texas feels the wrath of Hurricane Harvey, groups of volunteers and other organizations in Pennsylvania are traveling to the Lone Star State to lend a hand.

The American Red Cross is mounting a massive relief effort to help those affected by the storm. Volunteers from Central Pennsylvania are among those involved in the cause.

"The Central Pennsylvania Region has so far sent or assigned ten volunteers to areas that will potentially be affected by Hurricane Harvey," said Kim Maiolo, communications director for American Red Cross Central Pennsylvania, in a news release. "We're thankful for the dedication of volunteers who are willing to help those in need."

The Red Cross also is mobilizing hundreds of trained Red Cross disaster relief workers, truckloads of kitchen supplies as well as tens of thousands of ready-to-eat meals to support this response effort across the state. Trailers full of shelter supplies including cots and blankets -- enough to support more than 20,000 people -- are scheduled to arrive in Texas.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pittsburgh District began prepositioning emergency power assets in Texas, according to a news release issued Friday.

The Pittsburgh District will act as the Emergency Operations Center for the hurricane response, coordinating the nation's deployment of power experts, the assessment of critical power needs and the installation of generators.

"Our task is to support FEMA and the State of Texas," said Dave Bishop, Pittsburgh District temporary power emergency program manager. "We do this by installing generators at critical public facilities like hospitals, water treatment plants, emergency centers, fire and police departments and anything that the state says is critical to the life, safety and health of the people of Texas."

Hurricane Harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and one fatality has been confirmed as of Saturday afternoon.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday that two officials would also be traveling to Texas -- Randy Padfield, deputy director for response at Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and Ken Pagurek, a member of the Philadelphia Fire Department and Team Leader of PA-TF1.

"We can only imagine the impact this storm will have on the lives of people living and working in the path of this storm," Wolf said. "We are proud that we have highly trained people here in Pennsylvania who have the knowledge and skills to support the response to this massive storm."

How to help

Donations can be made to the American Red Cross to help people affected by Hurricane Harvey by visiting redcross.org, calling 1- 800-RED CROSS or texting the word HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from the storm and its aftermath.
Barbara Foundation distributes relief to Sarlahi flood victims

Barbara Peace Foundation (BPF) Nepal, with assistance of Hetauda Community Eye Hospital, has distributed relief to 113 flood-hit families from Chamar, Dom and Muslim communities of Sisuat village that was inundated by recent floods.
An employee folds merchandise at the Simons store at Londonderry Mall in Edmonton on Saturday, August 26, 2017. The head of Quebec-based department store chain Simons is feeling vindicated as it completes the first phase of a five-year, $200 million national expansion even as the empires built by the retailer's contemporaries seem to crumble around it. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Lisa Partridge is seen holding her daughter Adrianna, 4, in Comox, B.C., in this May 20, 2017, handout image. Partridge is HIV positive, but her medication suppresses the virus and she gave birth to her healthy daughter four years ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Lisa Patridge, *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, 30, is seen in Mississauga, Ont., on July 6, 2017. Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr returns to court this week to ask that his bail conditions be eased, including allowing him unfettered contact with his controversial older sister, more freedom to move around Canada, and unrestricted internet access. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel
Dr KC gives govt 10 days to revoke affiliation to Natl College

Dr Govinda KC on Sunday issued a 10-day ultimatum to the government to revoke its decision to grant affiliation to Kathmandu National Medical College.
Indian policemen walk in front of a store belonging to Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after it was sealed by authorities, near Sonipat, India, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. Security forces on Saturday patrolled the streets of the north Indian state where mobs went on a rampage after a court declared their quasi-religious sect leader guilty of raping two of his followers. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A police cordon outside Buckingham Palace where a man has been arrested after an incident, in London, Friday Aug. 25, 2017. A man armed with a knife was detained outside LondonAos Buckingham Palace Friday evening, and two police officers were injured while arresting him, police said. (Lauren Hurley/PA via AP)
The sister of Saif Zibyan who was kidnapped by Islamic State group militants weeps in a tent set up in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Abbas Ibrahim, the chief of Lebanese General Security, said Sunday that bodies believed to be of soldiers kidnapped by IS militants three years ago have been found buried near the border with Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Flood exposes bridge scandal in Bardiya

The people of Gulariya and Barbardiya have vented frustration as the Bardiya district authorities have not initiated a probe into the alleged use of substandard materials in a bridge that was damaged by the Babai river floods recently.
Meet Gavin and Macey Bebble, cousins and fellow St. Mary's stars

Two fellow Class of 2023 members, Gavin and Macey Bebble share a bond as cousins, friends and leading members of multiple talented St. Mary's teams.
Alt Right demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Read more

Cries of "Nazis, go home!" and "Shame! Shame!" filled the air as Angela King and Tony McAleer stood with other counterprotesters at the "free speech" rally in Boston last weekend.

They didn't join the shouting. Their sign spoke for them: "There is life after hate."

They know because McAleer and King were once young extremists themselves, before they co-founded the nonprofit Life After Hate to help former white supremacists restart their lives. To hear them talk about their pasts hints at what may be in the minds of those inside the far-right fringe groups whose actions have ignited raw, angry passions across the country. What are people thinking when they spew hate? Are they all true believers? What's more, how does someone get that way?

The uncovered American faces of white supremacy and neo-Nazism were broadcast on TV and the internet for all to see at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., this month, which ended in violence and with one person dead. The forces that drew them there are not new.

Hate groups in the U.S. number 917 and have been on the rise for two years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It attributes the trend partly to the attention given to extremist views during the 2016 presidential campaign.

But people don't perceive extremist groups' beliefs the same way. The term "alt-right"  referring to a loosely organized group that developed in response to mainstream conservatism and has been associated with white nationalism and anti-Semitism  was unknown to a majority of Americans in late 2016, according to a Pew Research Center survey. And familiarity rose in tandem with a respondent's education  about three-quarters of those with postgraduate degrees recognized the term, as did about 60 percent of college graduates. Among those with only a high school education, about a third had heard the term.

Those who study human behavior attribute hate speech more to deep personality issues than to a diagnosable mental illness. But they're also intrigued by how the white supremacy movement is rebranding itself for the 21st century. The well-known racist symbols of white robes and hoods or shaved heads and torches have given way to a clean-cut subtlety for the millennial generation. With heightened tensions on all sides, there's a renewed interest in explaining how minds turn toward hate.

"I felt power where I felt powerless. I felt a sense of belonging where I felt invisible," McAleer, 49, said of the pull of white nationalism that led him to spend 15 years as a skinhead recruiter and an organizer for the White Aryan Resistance.

"I was beaten at an all-boys Catholic school on a regular basis at 10 or 11," said McAleer, a middle-class kid from Canada, which left him with "an unhealthy sense of identity."

King, 42, who grew up in rural South Florida, said she turned to white nationalism as a child, first learning racial slurs from her parents. Growing up, she questioned her sexual identity and didn't fit in. At 12, she said, a school bully ripped her shirt open, exposing her training bra and humiliating her in front of her classmates.

"At that point, I decided if I became the bully, no one could do that to me," King said. She became a neo-Nazi skinhead at 15, and at 23 went to prison for three years for a hate crime. King had a tattoo of a swastika on her right hand; she has since covered it up with the likeness of a cat.

Young people with a troubled past are especially vulnerable, said psychologist Ervin Staub, of Holyoke, Mass., a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who studies social processes that lead to violence.

"Why would people join groups like that? It usually involves them finding no other socially acceptable and meaningful ways to fulfill important needs  the need for identity; the need for a feeling of effectiveness; the need for a feeling of connection," Staub said. "Often, these are people who don't feel like they've succeeded or had a chance to succeed across normal channels of success in society. They may come from families that are problematic or families where they're exposed to this kind of extreme views of white superiority and nationalism. If you don't feel you have much influence and power in the world, you get a sense of power from being part of a community and especially a rather militant community."

A 2015 report from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (known as START) found that former members of violent white supremacist groups showed almost half (45 percent) reporting being the victim of childhood physical abuse and about 20 percent reporting being the victim of childhood sexual abuse.

The study by sociologist Pete Simi of Chapman University in Orange, Calif., suggests that influences on these followers may be related more to the group's social bonds than ideology.

Simi, an expert on violence and extremist groups who has interviewed hundreds of former believers, co-wrote "American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate" with sociologist Robert Futrell of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Now that these groups are courting millennials, they've taken to changing their image, Futrell said.

"It's an attempt to distance from the past when the picture in all our minds of a white supremacist was the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] with a hood and cape or a neo-Nazi with a shaved head and tattoos. That's gone by the wayside over the last decade," he said.

Groups advocating white superiority have always preyed on "young, impressionable people who are loners or had a traumatic thing in their background," Futrell said. "What's different now is the range of ways the white power movement is reaching them. The internet is a boon to those who are stigmatized and relatively powerless."

The alt-right has gained power online, as its proponents use Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms to spread their message. A study last year from George Washington University found that white nationalists are heavy users of Twitter.

Yet while organizing has gone virtual, the power of a real-life crowd also fuels behaviors, said media psychologist Pamela Rutledge, director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, Calif.

"There's a long history starting with [psychoanalyst Sigmund] Freud on the impact of crowd behavior and mob mentality," she said. "People give up individual identity to support the norm of the group and affiliation with the group and end up behaving in ways they wouldn't otherwise individually."

In such tense conflicts, Futrell said, the natural cues that people use to understand appropriate behavior get skewed.

"It's not surprising in a combustible situation, when people are on edge, once an aggressive move is made, it cues to others that it's OK," he said. "This is the norm at that moment, and they act."

Forensic psychologist Laurence Miller, of Boca Raton, Fla., said there's a misunderstanding about the motivations of those who join fringe groups  that they have an ideology and search for a group when, really, it's the other way around.

"People will pick a belief system that best matches their personalities and their identities," he said.

But he emphasizes that humans are complex. In the Deep South, it was common for otherwise upstanding citizens  mayors, sheriffs and judges, among others  to be members of the KKK.

"You can have people who put on a hood and march with a torch and take their kids to the playground," Miller said.

KHN reporter Melissa Bailey contributed to this story from Boston. Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Former Lower Merion resident Christopher Allen, 26, a freelance journalist covering the civil war in South Sudan, was killed Saturday during a battle between rebels and government troops.

Allen, who worked with various news outlets, was killed in heavy fighting in the town of Kaya near the borders with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Government officials said at least 16 rebels were also killed in the fighting. They said Allen's body was taken to the military hospital in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

A 2013 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Allen had been embedded with Sudan's rebel forces for the past week.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan since the conflict broke out in 2014, and more than a million have fled across the border into Uganda because of the fighting in the border area.

Before working in South Sudan, Allen covered the war in Ukraine. He was one of the first journalists on the scene after Russia-backed rebels there were blamed for shooting down a Malaysian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard, said Pat Hughes, a friend of the family's and a former Inquirer copy editor.

"He had a passion for telling the stories of people touched by war," she said. "He went to South Sudan for the same reason all good journalists go to trouble spots: to get the story and to bring that story to the world's attention."

Hughes said that among the news outlets that ran Allen's articles were the Independent and the Telegraph, both of London, and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news agency. One of his first freelance articles was for the November/December 2014 issue of the University of Pennsylvania alumni magazine, the Pennsylvania Gazette, on his experiences being embedded with the Donbas Battalion in Ukraine.

In that article, he wrote: "I left academia because I believed that out here in a place where humanity is at its most exposed and raw, I might better understand something fundamental about the way the world works and the way history is madeabout who people really are."

Allen had attended Merion Elementary School, Bala Cynwyd Middle School, and Germantown Friends School for high school. After earning his degree at Penn, he completed a master's degree in European history through a program that included studies at Europe's top universities, Hughes said.

The nonprofit Human Rights Watch says much of South Sudan's infrastructure has been destroyed in the war. It says all sides in the conflict are responsible for human-rights abuses.

This article includes information from wire services.
Jack McMahon, lawyer for former Philadelphia police officer Stanley Davis, in front of the federal courthouse Friday on Market St. (JOY LEE / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ) Read more

A former Philadelphia Police narcotics officer admitted Friday to trading heroin and other drugs for sexual favors from women.

In a brief hearing in federal court, Stanley Davis, 50, pleaded guilty to federal drug distribution charges, telling U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick that he enticed two women he met in Kensington last year into a series of sexual liaisons in New Jersey motel rooms and in his police-assigned vehicle.

Investigators learned of the trysts after one of the women  Rosie Dorothy Forsyth, 28  was involved in a car wreck Nov. 16 while driving high, in which a 90-year-old woman was injured. The woman died six days after the crash. Upon arrest, Forsyth told investigators about her arrangement with Davis, said Jack McMahon, the officer's attorney.

Because it is not clear whether Forsyth had been using drugs she received from Davis at the time of the wreck, he is not charged with a crime related to her crash.

Davis, who retired earlier this year after 21 years on the police force and a stint on an FBI narcotics squad, faces up to 20 years in prison for drug distribution at a sentencing hearing Dec. 8.
Govt announces record Rs1.25b aid scheme for flood-hit farmers

The government on Sunday announced a Rs1.25-billion relief scheme for farmers in 30 districts who lost their crops to the recent floods.
Alison DiGiacomo (standing) teaches English to new immigrants Maria Cinhoihniang (front) from Myanmar; Rawnak Saaeed (seated, left) from Iraq; and Rola Hanan (right) from Syria. DiGiacomo launched the volunteer Crossing the Gap program in May to help refugees and immigrants assimilate in South Jersey. Read more

Rawnak Saaeed, Rola Hanan, and Maria Cinhoihniang  refugees from Iraq, Syria, and Myanmar, respectively  listen carefully to Alison DiGiacomo's questions.

"Do you see this guy? Where is he?" she asks, referring to a cartoon figure in a cartoon house on the monitor.

"He's on the steps. Just like my hand is on the table," says DiGiacomo, tapping the furniture for emphasis.

"You also say, 'step by step,' " Saaeed observes brightly.

Welcome to a conversational English class sponsored by Crossing the Gap, an all-volunteer program DiGiacomo launched in May to help refugees and immigrants assimilate in South Jersey.

"I saw there was a need, and I took some steps toward meeting that need," explains DiGiacomo, 28, a treatment coordinator at a Collingswood dental practice and a member of the borough's Fellowship Community Church.

The nondenominational Christian congregation on Collings Avenue supports Crossing the Gap and provides facilities for the English classes and other activities, such as the International Luncheon ("Come out and meet your new neighbors!") set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

"I have a great appreciation for what it feels like to be in a totally other world and have to find a restroom. Or make phone calls, or get an appointment," says DiGiacomo, of Haddon Heights. She grew up in New Gretna, Burlington County, learned Spanish while living in Mexico, and has done missionary work in Asia.

"Families come here, and [they're] all they have. I have great compassion for how isolated they feel," she says, "We focus on words they can use in their daily lives."

On a recent Monday evening, DiGiacomo got the room at Fellowship Community ready with the help of her boyfriend, Chris Latorre, of Blackwood, and volunteers Bill and Carolyn Strasle, who live in Audubon.

"The students just want to talk to you, and for you to talk to them, in English," Carolyn says. "They want to learn the nuances of conversation."

Generally, anywhere from a handful to a roomful of students show up for the once-a-week class. Many are recent arrivals to the United States, speaking primary languages such as Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, and Urdu.

DiGiacomo works closely with the Diocese of Camden's Catholic Charities office of Refugee and Immigration Services. The office is a leading agency in the local resettlement of refugees and immigrants from Syria, Iraq, Myanmar, and other nations disrupted by war or sectarian strife.

"Alison took the initiative," Patrick Barry, director of the Camden office, writes in an email.

"Community partnerships are a vital aspect to serving refugees.  A refugee resettlement program is only as successful as the community that supports it."

Despite President Trump's confrontational tone about refugee and immigration matters  all that boasting and bellowing about building walls  Crossing the Gap has been generally well-received.

One sign advertising the ESL classes was vandalized, and a customer at the Haddon Heights Farmers Market, where the organization occasionally sets up a booth, suggested that Crossing the Gap best not be signing up refugees for Medicaid.

But volunteers like church member Jamie Faith have been inspired to get involved in part because of anti-immigrant rhetoric; she also is motivated to "share the love of Christ" with people in need.

"I want to be another set of hands," says the 36-year-old Haddon Township resident, who certainly had her hands full with the little ones she was looking after down the hall from the classroom where their mothers were learning English. "I wish I could do more."

Saaeed, 38, Hanan, 33, and Cinhoihniang are married mothers with three children each; Saaeed says employment is her family's greatest challenge. She and her husband, Firas, both worked for universities in Baghdad, she as a secretary, he as an instructor.

"Every interview tells my husband he needs a certificate," says Saaeed, who lives in Audubon.

"His [resume] is high quality, I can show you. He has been driving for Uber and substitute teaching, but the income is not good."

But Saaeed, like her classmates, says she feels welcome in America, is glad to be here, and wants to volunteer with Crossing the Gap.

"It's the coolest thing  the refugees who speak more English want to be involved. They want to give back," says DiGiacomo, who accepts free-will offerings but pays for food and other expenses to help get her organization off the ground.

The magnitude of the global refugee crisis and the domestic political controversy about who, and how many, ought to be allowed into the United States can seem overwhelming and discourage people who want to volunteer from doing so, she notes.

"I look at the faces of the people who are in front of me," she says. "We're learning from each other, we're working together, and we're trying to find a middle ground.

"If we can help a handful of people's children to grow and succeed, then we've done something."


It's a stock response of every White House press secretary who's either caught off guard or is trying to dodge a sticky question. When a reporter asks a tough question during a briefing, the reply from the podium is often a punt: "I'll get back to you on that."

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump's press secretary, invoked some version of IGBTYOT 10 times on Thursday, which may be a record for a single briefing, if records for such things were kept. Among other topics, she vowed to get back to reporters after they asked questions about: foreign aid to Egypt; the president's ban on transgender members of the military; the arrest of a Russian dissident; the possibility of a presidential pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio; the job status of the Internal Revenue Service commissioner; and the White House's reaction to federal approval of Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods Market.

Don't hold your breath waiting for her to follow up.

White House reporters say it's unusual for Sanders, or her predecessors, to make good on a promise to get back to them with an answer. They tend to regard the get-back-to-you line the way a creditor reacts to being told the check is in the mail: They'll believe it when they see it.

Bloomberg News reporter Margaret Talev, for example, asked Sanders earlier this month about a report that the U.S. Air Force intended to purchase two Boeing 747s once used by a bankrupt Russian airline as a cheaper alternative to building a new Air Force One. "Can you verify the accuracy of the story?" Talev said. "Do you know if that's correct?"

Sanders said she'd check and reply later. Talev never heard back.

During the same briefing, CBS News reporter Chip Reid asked the press secretary if it would be "appropriate" for the president to apologize for telling police officers to be "rough" with suspects, a comment police officials and others had criticized. Sanders replied she would let him know if or when she knew.

She hasn't, Reid said.

"I don't cover the White House on a regular basis so I wasn't sure what to expect," he said. "But as I was leaving the briefing room that day a few people who cover the White House full time told me not to expect her to get back to me. So I wasn't surprised that she did not."

At a briefing in mid-July, Fox News Radio reporter Jon Decker asked Sanders if the president viewed Russia as "a friend, a partner, an ally or an adversary?" Decker had asked a variation of the question two days earlier. Another reporter had asked a similar question the day after that. Neither had gotten an answer. On the third try, Sanders still didn't have a response, but vowed, "I do assure you I will certainly work to make sure I get that answer to you."

More than a month later, there hasn't been an answer.

John Gizzi of Newsmax got the I'll-get-back-to-you treatment from Sanders in July when he asked her if Trump was willing to negotiate with Republicans in Congress about reforming Social Security and Medicare. Weeks later, Gizzi still hasn't gotten an RSVP from Sanders. He blames himself, in part, for "not pursuing or pressing (her) harder."

On the other hand, Gizzi did get a follow-up response from Sanders when he inquired about the U.S. delegation to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's funeral. Sanders delivered the details at a briefing in June. "I was impressed," he said.

Gizzi rates Sanders as "above average" in following up on his questions, the same Lake Wobegone-ish mark he'd give "most" of the nine press secretaries he's dealt with in covering the White House. "But none can be perfect and reply every time because there aren't enough hours in the day," he says.

In fact, given the many questions any White House faces, it's unlikely a press secretary could have all the answers right at his or her fingertips. So the get-back-to-you formulation makes sense as a hedge against speaking prematurely or without a full command of the facts.

But reporters suspect it can also be a convenient way to avoid talking about an issue that might embarrass the president, particularly in front of a roomful of journalists and a bank of live TV cameras.

Asked about her record of replying, Sanders said in an email she tries "to respond to as many questions as fully as I can at each briefing. I have also on several occasions followed up with reporters and answered their questions after the briefing when I can."

Asked in a subsequent email if she avoids inconvenient questions by declining to follow up, Sanders didn't follow up with an answer.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a letter to donors this week that it had learned that some donations to two annual fund-raising appeals had been "manually mishandled, misappropriated, or not processed," allegedly by a TD Bank employee who has been arrested.

"Currently, we are working to analyze the level of financial exposure in order to determine restitution for these campaigns," the letter on behalf of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput states. "It is important to note that this issue could not have been prevented by the archdiocese.

The letter, dated Aug. 24 and signed by Msgr. Daniel Kutys, says the breach could affect both those who mailed donations or put money in baskets passed from pew to pew during Masses. Online donations are not believed to be affected.

The donations by parishioners were made to the annual Catholic Charities and Seminary appeals. The money or checks were placed in separate lockboxes at a TD Bank office.

Donors' personal information does not appear to have been compromised, Kutys' letter says. The letter says it appears that an employee with access to donations kept in the lockboxes was involved. The unidentified employee is no longer with the bank and faces possible charges, according to the letter.

The situation "is being taken seriously and the investigation into this matter is ongoing" by the archdiocese, Kutys says in the letter. How many were sent is unclear.

Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Sunday the breach occurred even as the charities followed "best practices for large fund-raising initiatives of this nature."

Judith Rusk Schmidt, a TD Bank vice president for corporate media relations, sent the following statement by e-mail Sunday:

"At TD Bank, we consider the safety and security of our customers our top priority. After an internal investigation, we took decisive action for our customer, and determined that, to the best of our knowledge, all personal information stayed within the bank and was not compromised. We continue to work closely with the archdiocese to address any remaining concerns."

She did not release the employee's name.

Church officials say that it takes about three weeks for a donation to be processed. Donors who received a thank you letter or some acknowledgement of their contributions were not likely affected, the letter says. Those who did not receive an acknowledgement within the time may have been victimized, the archdiocese said.

Officials say that anyone who has questions or believes a donation might have been stolen should call 866-812-8700, a hotline set up by the archdiocese.

A copy of the letter is below:
A Lasting Legacy

MANISTIQUE - The families of Arvid and Elizabeth Nelson recently came together to find a way to make a difference for the children in Manistique. We wanted to contribute to...

Ladies Night Out takes place downtown tonight

MANISTIQUE  Ladies Night Out will take place in downtown Manistique tonight. The event will run from 5-9 p.m. During Ladies Night Out festivities, various downtown businesses will offer specials,...
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The following is a guest contribution by Stephen Lock.

The Trump administration is making no progress on a vital treaty that would protect US investors.

Just before his West Wing departure, Trump ideologue Steve Bannon made no secret of his desire to rip out the East Asia team at the State Department. And it isnt as if some corridors in the State Department already resemble the ghost-ship, Marie Celeste, with dozens of appointee vacancies and Julys first China-US Economic Comprehensive Dialogue achieved nothing (even the press conference was cancelled).

Terms of trade with China is something that, when not pandering to Trumps base, obsessed Steve Bannon as he openly talked about China fighting an economic war with the US. At the same time, it may be a surprise to many that Trump, the businessman-President isnt moving faster to give US investors in China better protection. Actually Trump has deeper business connections to China than is often realised: Bank of China is a major lender to his Tower at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, while state-owned bank, ICBC, is one of the largest tenants in Trump Tower. And all this is before the Kushner familys controversial Chinese roadshow.

This may actually be an area where Steve Bannon was more right than wrong. US firms in which US pension funds and retail investors have put their savings have sunk over $228 billion into inward investment in China. Much of these rest on the fragile reliability of Chinese contracts administered by Chinese courts.

Weak rule of law was always foreseen as a problem with emerging market investments, which is why bilateral investment treaties (BITs) were signed between states. The best of these contain an important investor protection: access to international arbitration. If you cant trust the local courts, then international arbitration  like the World Banks ICSID process  is crucial for investor justice. But not all BITs are the same.

China only generally accepted international arbitration in BITs following its Zou Chu Qu (or outward investment) policy in its 2001-2005 five-year plan. But around 70 still in-force, pre-2001 BITs have little recourse to international arbitration (China only signed the ICSID convention in 1990).

Today, however, Chinese business wants to protect itself using ICSID, as problems have arisen in Africa (when suddenly ICSID looks a good idea). Critics, including us, would argue the Chinese applaud arbitration for their investments abroad, but less so for disputes involving foreigners in China.

Take the case of Boris Goh. Goh is a Singaporean businessman who was invited to invest in the Chinese city of Qingdao (pronounced Tsingtao, like the beer). Goh signed a contract, under the 1985 Singapore BIT, to buy over 5 km2 of land, to develop entirely new areas of the City. His developments included over 1,200 condos and over 100 other properties. In todays values, this property empire would be worth up to US$10 billion. Goh says his investments were later stolen from him by officials from the regional Communist Party, for their personal enrichment, using forged documents and corrupt judges.

Goh fell victim to this massive alleged theft, having been disappeared, to a remote detention centre in the mountains. After seven months in prison, without charge or trial, he was released on the very day the last of his property was stolen (in a court hearing held behind his back).

There was nothing Goh could do about this outside of China because the 1985 Singapore-China bilateral investment treaty, under which Goh invested in China, offers no recourse to arbitration in the case of an investor-state dispute until all the Chinese legal options are exhausted. But, up against corrupt Communist Party officials, it was impossible for Goh to litigate in China (as well as potentially lethal for him). Gohs case demonstrates that a bad BIT is almost as harmful for investors as no BIT at all. Amazingly, the USA doesnt have its own BIT with China.

Why arent investment contracts in China respected? Behind much of this is a rather existential, but critical, difference between China and the West concerning the status of a contract. Westerners view contracts as mutually binding rights and obligations: fixed as if carved on a tablet of stone. The Chinese, however, see contracts only as a starting point of expected rights and obligations.

In China, business obligations rely rather more on guanxi (or personal connections) than written contracts. Guanxi is not necessarily corrupt (and it is important not automatically to conflate the two); but within China it will trump contracts every time.

Ten to fifteen years after a step change in the amount of foreign direct investment into China, the truth of the relative weakness of contracts in China is starting to become clear. There is even a growing problem in some Chinese M&A and securities deals. Given the amount of US investment at risk in China, it would be negligent of the Trump administration not to fix investor protection as a high priority like many European countries have done, with strong BITs.

The United States and China have been long negotiating their own BIT, in a glacially-slow process. Just recently, the Chinese sought to speed things up. It is vital, if the United States is to ensure Rule of Law for US direct investments in China, that Trump insists upon automatic recourse to ICSID for all US investor-state disputes, bypassing the lottery of Chinese domestic courts. If he doesnt then Donald Trump will have left US investors dangerously exposed.

By Stephen Lock, director of the Center for Justice in International Investment in China (CJIIC): a non-profit campaign which aims to highlight the lack of access to impartial civil justice in China for foreign investors involved in investor-state disputes
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Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the soul of a nation when he called out Trump for enabling the dark forces of racism while terrorizing Latinos.

The former VP wrote in The Atlantic:

We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support.

This is a moment for this nation to declare what the president cant with any clarity, consistency, or conviction: There is no place for these hate groups in America. Hatred of blacks, Jews, immigrantsall who are seen as the otherwont be accepted or tolerated or given safe harbor anywhere in this nation.

.

Then a week after Boston, we saw the truth of this president: He wont stop. His contempt for the U.S. Constitution and willingness to divide this nation knows no bounds. Now hes pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a concentration camp.

Joe Bidens voice of moral clarity is what America needs to hear right now. The dark clouds of racism and hate that Trump believes are a ticket to a second to his second term in office must be broken up by the sunshine of good people of all political beliefs standing together against hate. The polling shows that Trump opponents outnumber his supporters two to one, so the majority of the country has a choice. It can stand up and fight back with loud and overpowering unified voice, or it can bury its head in the sand and enable Trump by turning a blind eye.

Biden spoke to the soul of this country and who the nation really is. Donald Trump and his supporters are the backlashes against progress and tolerance. They are frightened, scared, and trying to hold back a force that always triumphs in the end.

Joe Biden is a good man who is standing up to evil. This isnt about politics, or 2020, but about the American people coming together to stop a president who wants to bring out the worst in the country.
Jaleshwor-Janakpur road section resumes

Jaleshwor-Janakpur road section, the main road section of Mahottari district, obstructed for the past 15 days after flood swept away the road section, has resumed from Sunday.
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Trump showed that he is mentally not there on Sunday by dismissing Hurricane Harvey flooding, which is killing people, as going great while focusing his attention on attacking Democrats and lying about Mexico paying for the wall.

First, Trump attacked Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri:

I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

The President dismissed the ongoing disaster in Texas:

Wow  Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Trump later repeated his lie that Mexico would pay for the wall:

With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Trump was more worried about attacking a Democratic Senator and creating a cover for his eventual backing off of a government shutdown over the wall than he is about people in Texas who are facing days of deadly rain and flooding.

A thousand people had to be rescued overnight as catastrophic flooding has Houston residents trapped in their city. The known death toll from the storm stands at two, but that number is certain to rise.

America needs a president that is focused on a historic natural disaster. Instead, Donald Trump is mentally AWOL. The president is babbling about his wall, attacking Democrats, and making threats about NAFTA. Someone should ask the people who are being submerged by flood waters if things are going great.

People are fighting for their lives, and Donald Trump doesnt seem to care.
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LAS VEGAS  Control of the U.S. Senate may come down to Nevada, where a slow ballot count entered its final act Saturday in the nail-biter contest between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. Read moreSenate control may come down to Nevada as count nears end
DOVER TOWNSHIP  A Friday night car crash led to a Winona man being sent to the hospital.

The crash happened shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday at the intersection of U.S. Highway 14 and Olmsted County Road 10 in Dover Township, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Ryan Nicholas Ballanger, 29, of Winona, was driving a car westbound on U.S. Highway 14 when he collided with a pickup being traveling northbound on Olmsted County Road 10 that was being driven by Brayden Russell Hart, 18, of Dover.

According to the state patrol, Ballanger suffered a non-life threatening injury and was transported to Mayo Clinic Hospital  Saint Marys Campus in Rochester. Hart was not injured in the crash.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Office, Dover Fire Department and Dover Ambulance and St. Charles Ambulance assisted at the scene.
This Washington Post story is called At CIA, a watchful eye on Mike Pompeo, the presidents ardent ally. It sounds like the CIA is spying on its own director. If there is such a thing as the deep state, I think we have sighted it.

According to Post reporter Greg Miller, Mike Pompeo has taken a special interest in an agency unit that is closely tied to the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, requiring the Counterintelligence Mission Center to report directly to him. Thats one way of putting it. A more honest way would be to acknowledge that the investigation in question is actually a broad counterintelligence probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The media and its Democratic allies would have us believe that Russian interference in that election is the greatest, most ominous intelligence caper of all time. Even if it falls somewhat short of that billing, as it almost certainly does, why shouldnt the head of the CIA take a special interest in the matter?

The Post and the Democrats cant have it both ways. Russian interference in the 2016 election cant be both an unprecedented assault on our democracy by a hostile foreign powers intelligence operatives and a matter as to which the CIA director should take little interest.

Im sure the Post, as well as Trumps enemies in the CIA, would like Pompeo to recuse himself from the investigation, as Jeff Sessions recused himself at the Justice Department. But theres no reason why he should.

Sessions recused himself because of testimony he gave regarding the Russian ambassador and, perhaps, because he was part of the Trump campaign team. Pompeo has given no problematic testimony about Russia and was not part of the Trump campaign.

Unlike Sessions, he did not even provide Trump an early endorsement. Even when Trump became the presumptive nominee, Pompeo would say only that he would support the nominee of the Republican Party because Hillary Clinton cannot be president of the United States.

That was then. Now, Pompeo works closely with President Trump, as one should want a CIA to do. But does this mean he is going to compromise the investigation into the 2016 election in order to help Trump politically?

There is no reason to think so. The anti-Trump, anti-Pompeo leakers at the CIA acknowledge that Pompeo has not impeded the investigation. However, they express concern about what he might do if the CIA uncovered new information potentially damaging to Trump and Pompeo were forced to choose between protecting the agency or the president. The fear, as one of them put it, is that if you were passing on something too dicey [to Pompeo] he would go to the White House with it.

The fear is absurd. If the Trumps enemies in the CIA, the FBI, or the Mueller dream team ever come up with anything damaging to Trump, the president will read about it in the Washington Post and the New York Times before anyone has time to go to the White House with it.

Moreover, executive-order guidelines prohibit the CIA from passing information to the White House for the purpose of affecting the political process in the United States. Neither the Post nor its sources offers any reason to believe that Pompeo would violate this order. In lieu of such evidence or analysis, the Posts Miller ends up whining about Pompeos social conservatism, as if it is somehow relevant.

Millers piece contains this bit of unintended irony: In addition to the importance of the Russia investigation, the other reason the CIA has given for Pompeos active participation in the matter is concern about leaks. The fact that CIA officials are smearing the director in the pages of the Washington Post, going so far as to say he cant be trusted to follow executive-order guidelines, strongly suggests that Pompeos concern about leaks is well-founded.

If CIA employees are going to keep a watchful eye on their director, they shouldnt object if their director keeps a watchful eye on them.
Kannywood multi-talented actor, producer, and director, Falalu Dorayi, has debunked the notion that Hausa language films are losing fans because they are being taken to the Cinemas in Northern Nigerian cities.

Findings by PREMIUM TIMES indicate that the absence of cinemas in major Northern Nigerian cities has seen erstwhile Kannywood fans gradually switching to purchasing Bollywood and Nollywood films instead.

Stakeholders say it is largely due to the fact that many lovers of Kannywood films are also Bollywood buffs.

In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES Mohammed Lere, Mr. Dorayi insists that the industry is still intact and getting more admirers by the day. He also gave reasons why major film players are returning to cinemas.

PT: Fans accused Kannywood producers of not consulting them before returning to cinemas and that it is now affecting the industry. Is that true?

Falalu: I want to categorically disagree with whoever those fans are. Nothing is changing from those who are actually following Kannywood and who have always been our fans.

One of the reasons we decided to fully return to the cinemas is how film makers in the Industry have been losing fortunes. As a film producer, director and actor, I know what it takes to produce a film. It is herculean, especially now that we all know there is this improvement that is noticed in Kannywood and other film industries around the globe.

PT: Did you bother to fight the piracy and who are the culprits?

Falalu: Let me tell you open and loud: We have understood that many marketers of our films are those championing piracy.

Hear how they do it. This guys after collecting your films to sell, they end up either using their allies or themselves to produce mass copies of the films and they sell at a cheaper price. When you return to them to collect your money, they will show you what you gave them that it is still not sold while the film has been in massive circulation in the country.

Another method pirates use again is, they will download the movie without your consent and put it in their phones. They sell it for N10 for a film. You can imagine someone spending N7 million in producing a film and at the end of it, it becomes a flop because of pirates.

All these are some of the reasons we have to finally return to the cinemas. Since our return two to three months ago, film makers have been smiling to the bank because they are getting results and pirates have been put out of business. The film maker makes profits while his film is still showing in the cinemas.

PT: Many of Kannywood fans are complaining that only Kano enjoys that privilege of watching your movies at they get released. What are you doing to make sure fans in other states enjoy them too?

Falalu: It is a good observation you are making here. Why we show these films in Kano first is because Kano has the facilities we need. There are functional cinemas and viewing centres that can show these films. Our films are shown in about 200 viewing centres across Kano. We are calling on producers to also take their films to other states so fans will not lose out at release.

PT: Your Kaduna fans are complaining that you are not doing same in the state?

Falalu: Kaduna is very strategic, but you should also know that Kaduna is one of our red zones. Piracy of our films in Kaduna is so high that one cannot imagine it. And another thing we learnt is that Kaduna people are not our real fans, they are merely pretenders. They watch more of Indian films instead. Whatever we try to do, one way or the other we get sabotaged there. That is why we concentrate on places where we are loved.

Kaduna people enjoy the Hausa dubbed Indian films instead. I watched one or two of those movies recently and I will argue with anybody who says it will affect Kannywood film production. People who dub those films do it to make a living. They are just dubbed, not Hausa films so I doubt they will run us out of the market. At some point, the marketers in Kaduna were not collecting our films. They only do business with those who do the dubbed films.

I know Kaduna and I have done film business in the state. We are going to also look at that issue and work to see we give the few fans we have good things.

But one thing we are also trying to do, not only for Kaduna but for other states, is to make sure a film stays in cinemas for at least seven days before we take it to another state, so that many people will have the opportunity of watching it. We are talking to ourselves, the producers, so this can be achieved.

PT: When are we expecting new films from the stable of Dorayi Films?

Falalu: We are releasing our long awaited Auren Manga during the Sallah festivities. We are going to flood the market with the film and also the trailer of Gwaska is coming out soon.

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A member of the Boko Haram, identified as a commander in the terror group, has confessed to leading the operation to kidnap the Chibok girls in 2014.



The commander, identified as Auwal Ismaeela, confessed to the act in an interview with PRNigeria, a news agency.



Over 200 girls were kidnapped by the sect from their school dormitory in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014. About 100 of them still remain with the terror group after majority of the remainder were released in talks with the federal government.



Mr. Ismaeela, who has surrendered to the Nigerian military, also told the news agency that he led other major operations and said he regretted his actions.



Read the statement by PRNigeria on its interview with Mr. Ismaeela below.



Ahead of the Islamic Festival of Eid-Kabir coming up by the weekend, a top Boko Haram commander who played a major role in the abduction of Chibok Girls and killing of youths in Madagali has surrendered and confessed to several acts of bloodletting on innocent people and destruction of properties across the length and breadth of the North-eastern part of the country.



In an interview with PRNigeria at a military facility for the repentant and surrendered Boko Haram members in the North-east, the ex-terrorist leader said he regretted the atrocities he was forced to commit against humanity.



The commander, Auwal Ismaeela, is currently cooperating with the Nigerian military with useful information on locations and hideouts of other top commanders of the deadly sect. He regretted his actions which according to him, run counter to several Islamic injunctions.



Mr. Ismaeela encouraged other top commanders of the sect to give up and surrender to the military.



My self and Abu Hafsat, a Boko Haram commander, led other squads to abduct the Chibok girls.



We led the operations to invade Gwoza, Bama, Limankara mobile barrack, Bita, Bosso, Madagali, Chibok, Pulka, Firgi, and Mubi.



In Madagali which was my home town, myself, Adam Vitiri, Abu Adam and Habu Kudama, some high-ranking Boko Haram Commander led an operation in 2014 where we killed some students and youth at the Central Secondary School in Sabon Garin Madagali.



In one of the operations, I abducted my wife named Maryam who had two kids for me in Sambisa Forest.



It is unfortunate that I was brainwashed and misled not only on some abductions but in the killings of my own people that were innocent. I wholeheartedly regret my actions.



During a battle in Konduga where myself and other Boko Haram commanders led the operations, I lost my right leg and was almost got burnt. Even at that, I did not stop fighting for the course. Sheikh Shekau ordered that I should be given a tricycle which I continued to use for various operations before I eventually surrendered.



He gave several reasons for his decision to voluntarily surrender to the Nigerian troops after realising the misleading sermons, barbaric indoctrination of the sect leaders and atrocities being committed in some of the Boko Haram camps.



He said: I willingly surrendered to the military because I was tired of the senseless killing and fight. I realised that our people have resort to stealing and all sort of atrocity contrary to the teaching and practice of Islam.



Women were being raped, sometimes publicly. Children died from malnutrition and disease as the living condition became harsher. As there was no food in the camp, people died every day because of hunger.



I will continue to cooperate with the security agencies in providing useful information on our mode of operations and to disclose top-secret hideouts of our commanders.



Meanwhile, more than One hundred (100) Boko Haram members and some commanders had in the recent past surrendered to the military knowing full well that their actions had become inimical to the overall interest and well-being of the nation and the surrounding countries of Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

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National Hospital makes frantic bid to woo patients

The Kathmandu National Medical College, which recently got affiliation to run medical courses, has made a desperate bid to attract patients to its Ghattekulo hospital run without permission.
NHRC in bid to blacklist rights violators

The National Human Rights Commission is preparing to blacklist people guilty of serious human rights violations for barring them from traveling abroad and enjoying state benefits.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party has condemned the deadly violence that followed the forcefully demolition of the popular Ekeukwu market, in Owerri, by the Imo State Government, yesterday.



PREMIUM TIMES confirmed at least one person, 10-year old Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, died, allegedly from bullet fired by soldiers, in the course of the demolition. But PDP, in a statement by its spokesperson, Dayo Adeyeye, said three people were killed.



We condemn the Forceful Demolition of the Popular Eke Ukwu Market and violent eviction of traders in Owerri by the Imo State Government using men of the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies during which three (3) people including a 10-year-old child were extra-judicially murdered and several other people were injured, said the PDP on Sunday.



The soldiers as well as agents of the police, the State Security Service and the Civil Defence, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, were deployed to maintain law and order during the demolition of the Owerri Main Market, popularly known as Eke-Ukwu Owerri, by the state government.



We gathered that the traders had resisted the governments efforts to demolish the market and relocate them to other place, before the Rochas Okorocha government decided to mobilise force for the demolition exercise, which started Friday night.



This violent eviction is all the more condemnable because it was carried out in violation of a pending Order granted by an Imo State High Court restraining the Imo State Government from demolishing the Market and Evicting the Traders, the PDP further stated.



This action, sadly, follows a pattern of the Use of the Apparatus of State Security to forcefully and violently carry out evictions of ordinary Nigerians from valuable property in blatant violation of Court Orders. Not very long ago, the Lagos State Government ordered the Forceful Eviction of indigent Nigerians from waterfront properties to enable it enter into joint venture agreements for the Construction of luxury apartments. Like the Owerri incident, this eviction led to the deaths of at least two (2) people and the Injury of several others, including women and children.



The opposition party said it was not opposed to urban renewal which Imo State government said prompted the demolition, but that peoples rights and the rule of law should be respected.



As much as we acknowledge the deals of development and the construction of critical infrastructure, these ideals must be pursued within the confines of respect for the Rule of Law as well as in a humane manner that preserves the dignity of indigent Nigerians while giving them viable and affordable alternatives regarding where to live, grow and trade, the PDP said.



Unfortunately, the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Okorochas party, PDP lamented, does not recognise such valuable ideals and as such, continues to design, promote and pursue anti-people policies.



The party then called for the immediate investigation of these extra-judicial murders and for the culprits to be brought to book.



Only such an action will give justice to the Dead and discourage the Use of the Police and other security agencies as tools for further oppression of ordinary Nigerians.



The Imo State Government had denied that there was violence during the demolition.

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Throughout South Jerseys farm country, cooler temperatures and plenty of rain have been welcome this summer.

But that pattern, along with some volatile storm patterns, has not been as welcome to beachgoers.

This summer may have seemed to be a bit of washout, but it actually has been quite average.

According to the National Weather Service, the Atlantic City area has received 15.32 inches of rain since June 1, on pace with seasonal averages.

We began a wet pattern starting last month, said Sarah Johnson, a National Weather Service Mount Holly forecaster.

Typically during the summer months, we have spottier coverage with storms. Weve seen several inches of rain in South Jersey, while North Jersey has about half of that. Johnson said. Weekly storms have seemed to be a pattern, with a volleying mix of pressure systems and cold fronts.

This year, July into August has been rather active severe weather-wise, said Michael Gorse, a National Weather Service severe weather forecaster.

So far this year, the National Weather Service in Mount Holly has issued 178 severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash flood warnings in the Atlantic City area.

Though the numbers do not reflect storm size or intensity, 2017 may be on track to surpass the 2016 total of 181 severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash flood warnings.

Atlantic and Cape May counties have seen several severe storms, with coastal flooding and significant rain.

Atlantic City Beach Patrol senior Lt. John Ammerman said the rain-out days havent seemed out of the ordinary for lifeguards.

On our end, the rainfall doesnt affect us he said. Weve only had to clear the beaches a handful of times.

The major concern for lifeguards is lightning. Despite the activity, Ammeran said, Absecon Island has avoided the brunt of the storms, which have skipped south or north of the island.

But the weather has had another effect. Frequent low pressure systems have kept the water temperature low  and prime for rip currents.

While rain-out days at the beach frustrate vacationers, Atlantic County farmers have enjoyed the cooler temperatures and ample rain.

Hammontons No. 1 crop, blueberries, had a banner year, said Anthony DiMeo III, of DiMeo Farms and Blueberry Plant Nursery.

The cool and rain have let him rely on nature, not his farms irrigation system, which has saved dollars.

When its too hot, the plants are just surviving and not growing, he said.
With less than two weeks until the Miss America competition gets underway, contestants will soon make their way from all areas of the United States to Atlantic City.

Miss Vermont Erin Connor arrived at Atlantic City International Airport on Sunday morning in a single-engine 200 horsepower Arrow airplane. Connor wasnt just arriving in unique style, but she was actually behind the controls, piloting the plane.

Its was a great day to fly, said Connor. What a great way to start off my 2018 Miss America journey.

After a more than 350-mile flight, with one stop in upstate New York, Connor was all smiles walking on the Tarmac. Wearing blue aviator sunglasses and her grandfathers World War II uniform shirt, Connors not only looked like a seasoned pilot, but has the credentials to back it up.

At 16, Connors got her pilots license, graduating from the Vermont Flight Academy at Vermont Technical College and receiving credits toward her high school diploma. Connors love of aviation is the inspiration for her platform, Tailwinds: training a new generation of women scientists.

I thought, Whats a better way to highlight my platform of encouraging women to enter into STEM fields and aviation than to fly down myself? Connor said.

Co-piloting with Connor was Vermont Flight Academy board member Doug White, who said it was a great experience to fly with Connor.

Erin has been a good driving force with the Vermont Flight Academy to get more girls interested in flying. You can see her excitement for flying and its great for the programs.

Meeting her at the airport was her father, Paul, who drove from Bridport, Vermont, and friend Caroline Bright, Miss Vermont 2010.

Bright not only shares the pageant bond with Connor but also an interest in flying and travel, working on the commercial side as a flight attendant for American Airlines.

Its so cool that she could do this, Bright said. Shes not the first Miss Vermont with a pilots license, but we believe shes the first ever contestant to fly herself to Miss America.

Connor now has a few days of rest and relaxation with family before the competition week duties begin. The contestants will officially check in Wednesday and the Miss America Arrival Ceremony will begin 5 p.m. at Kennedy Plaza on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
There seems to be no shortage of determination from several of the Miss America 2018 contestants, who after numerous attempts will get to perform and compete for the ultimate pageant title.

Victoria Huggins, 23, could have been 76th or 79th, but this was the year she took the title as the 80th Miss North Carolina. Huggins competed for the past five years to win the state crown, knowing one day shed make it.

I just love singing and performing, so I had to keep going, Huggins said.

While only starting pageants at the age of 19, Huggins was no stranger to the spotlight, competing on several talent reality shows, including Its Showtime at the Apollo, Star Search and American Idol, where she placed in the top 100.

Huggins said besides getting to perform her talent, what kept her motivated to continue with pageants was the opportunity to get a debt-free education.

I was really inspired to keep going because of the scholarship money, she said.

Through competing, Huggins has won more than $50,000 in scholarships. She is currently in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University studying government and political communications. Huggins already has a career in the broadcast news industry and aspires to be a political analyst but wouldnt mind continuing with school, if the situation presented itself.

I would even possibly go for a Ph.D. I would never want to waste a scholarship, she said.

Miss New Jersey Kaitlyn Schoeffels name has been in pageant booklets for a decade, first competing in the Miss New Jersey Outstanding Teen when she was 13.

On June 17, the 24-year-old Schoeffel was crowned Miss New Jersey after finishing as second runner-up in 2016 and falling all over the list the previous years.

It took a lot to be able to come back (for a sixth year), Schoeffel said the day after she was crowned. But I think it goes to show that if you keep trying and strive for your dreams, then you can do it.

Schoeffel said she first got involved in pageants because she wanted an opportunity to dance a solo in front of a crowd.

Its kind of funny. I won the state title for Outstanding Teen on my first try and Miss New Jersey on my last try, Schoeffel said.

In 10 years of competing, Schoeffel said, there were moments of discouragement and doubt.

I would ask myself the questions, Am I still enjoying what Im doing, and the answer would be yes. And am I improving as a person by doing this, ... and the answer was always yes, she said.

Schoeffels love of performing inspired her work with her platform Operation Empowerment to get children involved in the arts, as well as her work outside of the pageant world, including a past career as an Atlantic City showgirl and a magicians assistant.

Briana Kinsey, 23, had to travel more than 800 miles to finally get her crown. After competing for five years in the Miss Alabama competition, Kinsey competed for Miss District of Columbia, where she plans to attend medical school in the coming year.

It was my last year of eligibility, Kinsey said, and I still wanted to be a part of the Miss America Organization.

Kinsey said she struggled to keep going, but what kept her motivated was every year I competed, I was able to gain something new to make me a better person. She said competing in pageants helped her gain self-confidence and overcome a fear of public speaking, as well as inspire her platform and help her pick a career.

I started college as a marketing major and through my work with the Childrens Miracle Network, I met a pediatric endocrinologist who inspired me to go to medical school, she said.

Kinsey founded the nonprofit Daring to Defeat Diabetes and has spent her five years as a local pageant winner advocating for the cause.

The dream continues for these three ladies to become the final winner who walks the Miss America runway on Sept 10.
Thousands are seeking help and rescue in Houston after now Tropical Storm Harvey slammed into the coast and caused major flooding in and around the city over the weekend.

The American Red Cross is mounting massive relief efforts in response to the storm and New Jersey volunteers answered the call over the weekend to travel to Texas and assist with medical, rescue, shelter and other efforts.

About 17 volunteers have deployed to the area as of Sunday, said Diane Concannon, Red Cross communications director for the New Jersey Region. Most of the volunteers are experienced, she said, but some are traveling out of state for a disaster call for the first time.

For some, this is their first major deployment, Concannon said. They may have helped in local shelters here, but now they will be helping set up ones out of state, reporting to managers from Texas, California and elsewhere who are there to help.

Harvey made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Friday night as a Category 4 storm near Corpus Christi, and moved northeast along the Texas coast over Houston. Hundreds of calls were made into the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday as people became stranded on their rooftops due to flooding.

Concannon said volunteers commit to staying on the deployment for at least two weeks, but can stay longer if possible. She said more waves of New Jersey disaster relief workers are expected to deploy to the area in the following weeks.

Many have not been called yet, but are on standby, along with three emergency response vehicles, she said. I expect we (Red Cross) will be there for some time. Several volunteers volunteered in (Hurricane) Sandy, and others who were affected by it later joined the Red Cross to help others.

More than 1,800 people took refuge from the deadly storm Saturday night in 34 Red Cross and community shelters in Texas, officials said. These numbers are expected to grow and dozens of additional shelters could open.

Harvey will continue to produce large amounts of rain over the next several days, Red Cross officials said in a statement. Millions of people face flash-flood warnings, including the entire Houston metro area, which is under a flash flood emergency.

The Red Cross has enough shelter supplies in Texas to support 28,000 people and supplies for an additional 22,000 people are being sent in now.

These are really amazing people, Concannon said. They are always ready to go and do what they need to help.

To support Red Cross disaster relief efforts after Harvey, visit redcross.org, call 800-733-2767 or text the word HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
NRA to relocate quake-affected settlements to safer places

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has started enlisting quake-survivors residing in places at high risk of natural disaster in the beneficiary list for their relocation to safer places.
VENTNOR  A workshop on how property owners with repetitive flood losses can get reimbursed for costs of home elevations will be held 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Community Center behind the library, Atlantic and Newport avenues.

Planner James Rutala, of Rutala Associates, will share information on how property owners may qualify for the Flood Mitigation Assistance grant the Federal Emergency Management Agency offers incrementally over the next several years.

Grant funds are available to help communities reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured under the National Flood Insurance Program.

Grant program could reimburse owners who raise homes Property owners in Brigantine, Margate and Longport whose homes are below base flood elevation and repeatedly sustain flood damage may be eligible to receive a grant that would refund up to 75 percent of the cost of raising their homes.

More than 4,800 properties in Ventnor participate in NFIP, which insures more than $1 billion worth of property, Rutala said. Insurance premiums total about $4.4 million annually.

Reimbursement grants are available for structures that have had two flood-loss repairs that exceeded 25 percent of the market value of the home and resulted in increased flood-insurance rates. Severe repetitive flood-loss structures are those with four or more flood claims of more than $5,000 each or at least two claims that together exceeded fair market value for the structure.

Property owners must pay for the elevation before requesting reimbursement when the project is completed. The grant covers only the cost of elevation. The property owner must pay for any other improvements.

LoBiondo to fight proposed fee increases on flood insurance WASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-02) said this week that he will fight the Trump Administrations proposal to increase fees on policyholders.

Accepting the grant requires the homeowner to maintain flood insurance on the property in perpetuity. The requirement becomes part of the property deed.

Rutala will share information about the documents needed to participate, including FEMA declaration, photographs, proof of insurance coverage, elevation certificates and flood-loss history.

The deadline to submit grant documents is Sept. 15.
Old beliefs die hard

Let me take the liberty to change the famous Nepali axiomDhilo hos chhoraii hos (it doesnt matter how long it takes, but let me have a son) to Dhilo hos chori naii hos (it doesnt matter how long it takes, but let me have a daughter) in relation to the welcome enactment of a new law criminalising the Chhaupadi custom.
GAC Motor chose Wuzhen as the place to begin its redefinition of SUVs for young consumers because of the water town's rich history, its status as a hotbed for high-tech and innovation, and because of its youthful, fashionable and forward-thinking vibes, which is in line with the targeted young consumers of the two new models. Since 2014, Wuzhen has been the home for the World Internet Conference, which attracts prominent internet figures from 120 countries.

The GS7 and GS3 will add to the diverse and high-quality line of GAC Motor SUVs, noted Yu Jun, president of GAC Motor

GS7: A Carefree Riding Model

Designed for consumers who want a fashionable and carefree riding experience, the GS7, the mid-sized SUV that made its debut at the 2017 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in January, includes the following groundbreaking features:

Powered by the brand new GAC G-series 320T engine that offers maximum power of 148kW (201.28 horsepower) at 1,750 RPM and peak torque of 320N  m.

Acceleration from 0-100km (0-60 mph) within 9.5 seconds.

Equipped with 6AT gearbox, real-time 4WD system and MacPherson plus multi-link suspension to ensure optimal performance in all road conditions.

Developed on GAC Motor's G-CPMA (Cross-Platform Modular Architecture), which provides a vigorous stance, large, comfortable space, smart entertainment system and robust power control.

Enhanced by the 10-inch central touch-screen, wireless charging, keyless entry system and the newly developed "injoy" smart HMI system.

1.35-square-meter panoramic sunroof, 822 liters of trunk space and plenty of concealed storage, making for a spacious interior.

The GS7 was praised as "A New Generation Blockbuster SUV" by The New York Times and as an "Impressive Worldwide Debut" by Forbes at NAIAS. Together with GAC Motor's GS8, the two elite SUVs will satisfy the different needs of consumers in the segmenting mid- to high-end SUV market.

The GS7 is available within the price range of 149,800 to 209,800 yuan (US$ 22,538.19 to 31,565.49).

GS3: A Sporty Model

The GS3 has been built for young families, with an emphasis on a trendy and sporty design, comfortable cabin, smart technology and engaging riding experience. The sleek, ultra-safe SUV is equipped with GAC Motor's second-generation 200T engine that offers peak torque of 202Nm at 1,500 RPM. This competitive model is at the forefront of a new wave of sporty, trendy entry SUVs that are hitting the market.

It's also supported by smart technologies including human-auto interaction, Carlife smartphone intelligent interconnection feature and 3D voice navigation system.

The GS3 is priced between 70,000 to 110,000 yuan (US$ 10,490 to 16,484).

"Consumers have a growing need for high-quality and personalized products, and GAC Motor is dedicated to designing world-class vehicles that meet their needs using our industry-leading customer-oriented strategy. We're a market leader in China because we have deep insight into consumers' needs and we proactively plan to give them what they want. With the GS7 and GS3 joining our family of vehicles, our product lineup is more comprehensive and appeals to multiple market segments, attracting a wider array of customers," Yu said.

GAC Motor is on pace to achieve its sales target of 500,000 vehicles in 2017. In the next few years, the company will release 20 to 30 new models including SUVs, sedans, MPVs and electric vehicles to realize its goal of selling 1 million cars per year by 2020.

About GAC Motor

A subsidiary of GAC Group, GAC Motor develops and manufactures premium quality vehicles, engines, components and auto accessories, achieving a year-to-year growth rate of 96 percent in 2016, the highest among all Chinese brands in the corresponding period. GAC Motor now ranks the highest among all Chinese brands for four consecutive years and fifth among all global brands in J.D. Power Asia Pacific's 2016 China Initial Quality Study.

Media contact:

Sukie Wong

+86-186-8058-2829

[email protected]

Taki Jiang

+86-134-5028-4242

[email protected]

SOURCE GAC Motor
RIDGEFIELD, Conn., Aug. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that the RE-DUAL PCI trial evaluating Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) dual therapy for people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stenting met its primary endpoint, showing favorable new safety data on Pradaxa. The findings were presented today at a late-breaking spotlight session at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2017 in Barcelona, Spain and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

PCI, also known as angioplasty, is a medical intervention where stents may be used when widening arteries of the heart in patients with coronary artery disease. This intervention is conducted to restore or improve blood flow to the heart muscle.

"As many as 30 percent of people with atrial fibrillation have coronary artery disease that may require percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting. Before now, there has been limited research on the use of novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) in this setting," said Christopher Cannon, MD, cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, lead investigator of RE-DUAL PCI, and executive director of the Cardiometabolic Trials at the Baim Institute for Clinical Research. "Because a rising number of these patients are already on NOAC treatment  we believe these results will provide important new insights for healthcare providers performing this procedure."

The RE-DUAL PCI trial compared dual therapy with triple therapy after PCI with stent placement in approximately 2,500 adults with atrial fibrillation. Patients were either treated with Pradaxa and a single antiplatelet agent or with the vitamin K antagonist warfarin and two antiplatelets. The primary safety endpoint of the trial was defined by time to major bleeding events and clinically-relevant non-major bleeding events, when compared to triple therapy with warfarin.

"We believe that these results from the RE-DUAL PCI trial add to the growing body of evidence on Pradaxa and may help fill an unmet clinical need," said Sabine Luik, M.D., senior vice president, Medicine & Regulatory Affairs, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "The safety and efficacy of Pradaxa have been well-established through one of the largest stroke prevention trials, and it has the longest real-world experience of any available NOAC."

To learn more about results from the RE-DUAL PCI trial, please refer to the publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.

About RE-DUAL PCI

RE-DUAL PCI ( NCT02164864 ) evaluates dual therapy with dabigatran etexilate mesylate vs. triple therapy with warfarin in atrial fibrillation patients who have undergone PCI with stenting.



RE-DUAL PCI has randomized 2,727 adult patients who have undergone PCI with stenting (elective or due to an acute coronary syndrome) at 550 sites in over 40 countries worldwide.



The main objective of the study is to compare a dual antithrombotic therapy regimen of either 150mg or 110mg dabigatran etexilate mesylate twice daily plus clopidogrel or ticagrelor versus a triple antithrombotic therapy combination of warfarin plus clopidogrel or ticagrelor plus aspirin <= 100mg once daily.



The primary safety endpoint of the 30 month study is the time to first major bleeding event, as defined by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), or clinically relevant non-major bleeding event. The secondary outcome measures include composite efficacy endpoints of time to death or first thrombotic event (all death, myocardial infarction, stroke or systemic embolism) and unplanned revascularization.



About Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)

Patients with atrial fibrillation who undergo PCI with stenting are at increased risk of serious complications caused by blood clots, including stroke, systemic embolism, heart attacks, blood clots on the stents and potentially even death. Antithrombotic therapy is required to decrease patients' risk of suffering blood clots and their consequences.



These patients need antiplatelets to reduce their risk of stent thrombosis and anticoagulation to reduce the risk of stroke. The combination of dual antiplatelet therapy and anticoagulation up to now has been a major challenge and has led to frequent bleeding complications. Addressing this challenge is at the heart of research in this area.

About Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)

Indications and Usage

Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) capsules is indicated:

 to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION ABOUT PRADAXA

WARNING: (A) PREMATURE DISCONTINUATION OF PRADAXA INCREASES THE RISK OF THROMBOTIC EVENTS, (B) SPINAL/EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

(A) PREMATURE DISCONTINUATION OF PRADAXA INCREASES THE RISK OF THROMBOTIC EVENTS

Premature discontinuation of any oral anticoagulant, including Pradaxa, increases the risk of thrombotic events. If anticoagulation with Pradaxa is discontinued for a reason other than pathological bleeding or completion of a course of therapy, consider coverage with another anticoagulant

(B) SPINAL/EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

Epidural or spinal hematomas may occur in patients treated with Pradaxa who are receiving neuraxial anesthesia or undergoing spinal puncture. These hematomas may result in long-term or permanent paralysis. Consider these risks when scheduling patients for spinal procedures. Factors that can increase the risk of developing epidural or spinal hematomas in these patients include:

 use of indwelling epidural catheters

 concomitant use of other drugs that affect hemostasis, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), platelet inhibitors, other anticoagulants

 a history of traumatic or repeated epidural or spinal punctures

 a history of spinal deformity or spinal surgery

 optimal timing between the administration of Pradaxa and neuraxial procedures is not known

Monitor patients frequently for signs and symptoms of neurological impairment. If neurological compromise is noted, urgent treatment is necessary. Consider the benefits and risks before neuraxial intervention in patients who are or will be anticoagulated.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Pradaxa is contraindicated in patients with:

- active pathological bleeding;

- known serious hypersensitivity reaction (e.g., anaphylactic reaction or anaphylactic shock) to Pradaxa;

- mechanical prosthetic heart valve

WARNINGS & PRECAUTIONS

Increased Risk of Thrombotic Events after Premature Discontinuation

Premature discontinuation of any oral anticoagulant, including Pradaxa, in the absence of adequate alternative anticoagulation increases the risk of thrombotic events. If Pradaxa is discontinued for a reason other than pathological bleeding or completion of a course of therapy, consider coverage with another anticoagulant and restart Pradaxa as soon as medically appropriate.

Risk of Bleeding

 Pradaxa increases the risk of bleeding and can cause significant and, sometimes, fatal bleeding. Promptly evaluate any signs or symptoms of blood loss (e.g., a drop in hemoglobin and/or hematocrit or hypotension). Discontinue Pradaxa in patients with active pathological bleeding.

 Risk factors for bleeding include concomitant use of medications that increase the risk of bleeding (e.g., anti-platelet agents, heparin, fibrinolytic therapy, and chronic use of NSAIDs). Pradaxa's anticoagulant activity and half-life are increased in patients with renal impairment.

 Reversal of Anticoagulant Effect: A specific reversal agent (idarucizumab) for dabigatran is available when reversal of the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran is needed:

 For emergency surgery/urgent procedures

 In life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding



Hemodialysis can remove dabigatran; however clinical experience for hemodialysis as a treatment for bleeding is limited. Prothrombin complex concentrates or recombinant Factor VIIa may be considered but their use has not been evaluated. Protamine sulfate and vitamin K are not expected to affect dabigatran anticoagulant activity. Consider administration of platelet concentrates where thrombocytopenia is present or long-acting antiplatelet drugs have been used.

Thromboembolic and Bleeding Events in Patients with Prosthetic Heart Valves

The use of Pradaxa is contraindicated in patients with mechanical prosthetic valves due to a higher risk for thromboembolic events, especially in the post-operative period, and an excess of major bleeding for Pradaxa vs. warfarin. Use of Pradaxa for the prophylaxis of thromboembolic events in patients with AFib in the setting of other forms of valvular heart disease, including bioprosthetic heart valve, has not been studied and is not recommended.

Effect of P-gp Inducers & Inhibitors on Dabigatran Exposure

Concomitant use of Pradaxa with P-gp inducers (e.g., rifampin) reduces exposure to dabigatran and should generally be avoided. P-gp inhibition and impaired renal function are major independent factors in increased exposure to dabigatran. Concomitant use of P-gp inhibitors in patients with renal impairment is expected to increase exposure of dabigatran compared to either factor alone.

Reduction of Risk of Stroke/Systemic Embolism in NVAF

 For patients with moderate renal impairment (CrCl 30-50 mL/min), reduce the dose of Pradaxa to 75 mg twice daily when dronedarone or systemic ketoconazole is coadministered with Pradaxa.

 For patients with severe renal impairment (CrCl 15-30 mL/min), avoid concomitant use of Pradaxa and P-gp inhibitors.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most serious adverse reactions reported with Pradaxa were related to bleeding.

 Most frequent adverse reactions leading to discontinuation of Pradaxa were bleeding & gastrointestinal (GI) events.

 Pradaxa 150 mg resulted in higher rates of major and any GI bleeds compared to warfarin.

 In patients 75 years of age, the risk of major bleeding may be greater with Pradaxa vs warfarin.

 Patients on Pradaxa 150 mg had an increased incidence of GI adverse reactions. These were commonly dyspepsia (including abdominal pain upper, abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, and epigastric discomfort) and gastritis-like symptoms (including GERD, esophagitis, erosive gastritis, gastric hemorrhage, hemorrhagic gastritis, hemorrhagic erosive gastritis, and GI ulcer)

Other Measures Evaluated

In NVAF patients, a higher rate of clinical MI was reported in patients who received Pradaxa (0.7/100 patient-years for 150 mg dose) than in those who received warfarin (0.6).

Please see full Prescribing Information , including boxed WARNING and Medication Guide .

About Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Ridgefield, CT, is the largest U.S. subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation.

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, the company operates globally with approximately 50,000 employees. Since its founding in 1885, the company has remained family-owned and today creates value through innovation for three business areas including human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving lives and providing valuable services and support to patients and their families. Our employees create and engage in programs that strengthen our communities. Please visit our website to learn more about how we make more health for more people through our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

In 2016, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of about $17.6 billion (15.9 billion euros). R&D expenditure corresponds to 19.6 percent of its net sales.

For more information please visit www.boehringer-ingelheim.us, or follow us on Twitter @BoehringerUS.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. either owns or uses the trademarks Pradaxa and RE-DUAL PCI under license.

SOURCE Boehringer Ingelheim

Related Links

http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.us


ARUSHA, Tanzania, Aug. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, opens its TEDGlobal 2017 Conference today in Arusha, Tanzania. Themed "Builders. Truth-tellers. Catalysts." the event will host 700 attendees at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge for a program of 45+ speakers and performers sharing ideas in TED's signature format of short, powerful talks  no longer than 18 minutes. The four-day event will also feature presentations and performances from 27 TED Fellows. It marks TED's first return to Africa since the memorable TEDGlobal 2007 Conference held at the same location.

"Our event here a decade ago led to so many meaningful ideas, connections and collaborations," said head of TED Chris Anderson. "Now, we have a chance to reignite those sparks. The ideas emerging from Africa have the potential to create transformative impact, not just here on the continent, but worldwide."

"This gathering couldn't come a moment too soon," said TEDGlobal co-curator Emeka Okafor. "Africa has experienced spectacular economic, demographic and creative growth, but both opportunity and danger are rising at an exponential rate. Our conference will gather the idea catalysts, problem-solvers and change-makers already hard at work here charting Africa's own path to modernity."

The speakers and performers selected for TEDGlobal 2017 offer fresh, unique perspectives and solutions on a global level. They include:

OluTimehin Adegbeye, Writer and activist

Oshiorenoya Agabi, Neurotechnology entrepreneur

Nabila Alibhai , Place-maker

, Place-maker Alsarah & the Nubatones, East African retro-popsters

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf , Publisher

, Publisher Christian Benimana, Architect

Niti Bhan , Founder and owner, Emerging Futures Lab

, Founder and owner, Emerging Futures Lab Mahen Bonetti , Film curator

, Film curator Augustus Casely-Hayford , Cultural historian

, Cultural historian Natsai Audrey Chieza, Designer

Llew Claasen , Strategist

, Strategist Tania Douglas , Biomedical engineering professor

, Biomedical engineering professor Touria El Glaoui, Art fair curator

Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu , Indigenous knowledge expert

, Indigenous knowledge expert Kamau Gachigi, Technologist

Ameena Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius

Leo Igwe , Human rights activist

, Human rights activist Amar Inamdar , Entrepreneurial business leader

, Entrepreneurial business leader Joel Jackson , Transport entrepreneur

, Transport entrepreneur Tunde Jegede , Composer, cellist, kora virtuoso

, Composer, cellist, kora virtuoso Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda

Zachariah Mampilly , Political scientist

, Political scientist Vivek Maru , Legal empowerment advocate

, Legal empowerment advocate Kola Masha, Agricultural leader

Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, MIT professor, grassroots thinker-doer, author

professor, grassroots thinker-doer, author Thandiswa Mazwai, Singer

Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo , Language and culture advocate

, Language and culture advocate Sara Menker , Technology entrepreneur

, Technology entrepreneur Sethembile Msezane, Artist

Kisilu Musya, Farmer and filmmaker

Robert Neuwirth , Author

, Author Kevin Njabo, Biodiversity scientist

Ndidi Nwuneli, Social innovation expert

Dayo Ogunyemi , Cultural media builder

, Cultural media builder Nnedi Okorafor , Science fiction writer

, Science fiction writer Fredros Okumu, Mosquito scientist

Qudus Onikeku , Dancer, Choreographer

, Dancer, Choreographer DK Osseo-Asare, Designer

Keller Rinaudo, Robotics entrepreneur

Chris Sheldrick , Co-founder and CEO, what3words

, Co-founder and CEO, what3words Sauti Sol, Afro-pop band

George Steinmetz , Aerial photographer

, Aerial photographer Olufemi Taiwo, Historian and philosopher

Pierre Thaim , Chef

, Chef Ike Ude, Artist

Washington Wachira, Wildlife ecologist and nature photographer

Magatte Wade , Brand creator

, Brand creator Ghada Wali , Designer

A number of exciting brands and companies have partnered with TEDGlobal 2017 to help share ideas and foster an atmosphere of curiosity and discovery. Partners include: The Africa Center, Boston Consulting Group, Brightline Initiative, Gilead Sciences, Logitech, Omidyar Network, Sandstorm Kenya, Tommy Hilfiger, Westpac Banking Group and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Follow TEDGlobal 2017 on the TED blog, Facebook, Twitter (@TEDTalks), Instagram (@TED) and LinkedIn. The official hashtag of the event is #TEDGlobal.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, its TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences, and at thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels. Today there are more than 2,500 TED Talks available for free on TED.com, which are viewed about a billion times a year.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world.

SOURCE TED

Related Links

http://TED.com


Both CAD and PAD occur when arteries become hardened or narrowed due to a buildup of cholesterol and plaque, limiting blood flow to parts of the body. CAD occurs in the blood vessels that feed the heart, and PAD occurs in other blood vessels in the body (most often the legs, but also the brain, arms and abdomen). People with CAD might experience symptoms such as shortness of breath and chest pressure, while those with PAD may have painful cramping and numbness or weakness in their legs. A public health burden, CAD and PAD affect 16.5 millioni and 10 million Americansii, respectively, and can lead to serious health issues, like heart attack, stroke and even death.

Despite use of preventative medicines as directed by current guidelines, approximately 5% of people with CAD or PAD will experience a debilitating or fatal CV event each year.iii Part of the EXPLORER clinical research program, COMPASS is the only randomized study to investigate a Factor Xa inhibitor, specifically XARELTO, in preventing major CV events in this population.

"The results of COMPASS represent a true breakthrough in CAD and PAD, as they confirm the combination regimen of XARELTO and aspirin is highly effective and well-tolerated in preventing the devastating and irreversible CV events that often occur in these patients," said COMPASS lead investigator Dr. John Eikelboom, Associate Professor, Division of Hematology & Thromboembolism, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario. "In addition to achieving a positive balance of efficacy and safety, we observed a considerable reduction in stroke and CV death, which could have a profound effect on how physicians manage patients with stable CAD and PAD."

COMPASS, the largest clinical study of XARELTO to date, enrolled a total of 27,395 patients with stable CAD and/or PAD. Patients were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio, with one group receiving the XARELTO 2.5 mg twice-daily vascular dose plus aspirin 100 mg once daily regimen, another group receiving XARELTO 5 mg twice daily, and the final group receiving aspirin 100 mg once daily. Earlier this year, Janssen and its development partner Bayer announced COMPASS was being stopped approximately one year ahead of schedule due to efficacy, which was based on the recommendation of the study's independent Data Monitoring Committee.

COMPASS met its primary efficacy endpoint, with the XARELTO/aspirin regimen shown to be superior to aspirin alone, reducing major CV events by 24%. Specifically, 4.1% of patients receiving the XARELTO/aspirin regimen experienced a CV event compared to 5.4% of those receiving aspirin alone (HR=0.76; 95% CI, 0.66-0.86; p<0.001).



Researchers also made the following observations:

Specifically, the XARELTO  /aspirin regimen reduced the risk of any stroke by 42% (HR 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44-0.76; p<0.001), CV death by 22% (HR 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-0.96; p=0.02) and heart attack by 14% (HR 0.86; 95% CI, 0.70-1.05; p=0.14).

/aspirin regimen reduced the risk of any stroke by 42% (HR 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44-0.76; p<0.001), CV death by 22% (HR 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-0.96; p=0.02) and heart attack by 14% (HR 0.86; 95% CI, 0.70-1.05; p=0.14). For composite secondary efficacy outcomes, the XARELTO  /aspirin regimen was superior to aspirin alone. Notably, the XARELTO  /aspirin regimen reduced the combined secondary endpoint of coronary heart disease death, heart attack, ischemic stroke and acute limb ischemia by 28% compared to aspirin alone (3.6% vs. 4.9%; HR=0.72; 95% CI, 0.63-0.83; p<0.001).

/aspirin regimen was superior to aspirin alone. Notably, the XARELTO /aspirin regimen reduced the combined secondary endpoint of coronary heart disease death, heart attack, ischemic stroke and acute limb ischemia by 28% compared to aspirin alone (3.6% vs. 4.9%; HR=0.72; 95% CI, 0.63-0.83; p<0.001). The hazard ratio for all-cause mortality for the XARELTO  /aspirin regimen compared to aspirin alone was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.71-0.96; p=0.01).

/aspirin regimen compared to aspirin alone was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.71-0.96; p=0.01). Major bleeding was significantly higher in the XARELTO  /aspirin regimen with 3.1% experiencing a major bleed compared to 1.9% of those receiving aspirin alone (HR=1.70; 95% CI, 1.40-2.05; p<0.001). This was mainly due to an increase in bleeding leading to hospitalization, with most bleeding occurring in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Importantly, there was no significant difference in fatal bleeds, intracranial bleeds, symptomatic bleeding into a critical organ or bleeding into the surgical site requiring reoperation between the two groups, though the study was underpowered to detect these differences and the hazard ratios were higher compared to aspirin alone.

/aspirin regimen with 3.1% experiencing a major bleed compared to 1.9% of those receiving aspirin alone (HR=1.70; 95% CI, 1.40-2.05; p<0.001). This was mainly due to an increase in bleeding leading to hospitalization, with most bleeding occurring in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Importantly, there was no significant difference in fatal bleeds, intracranial bleeds, symptomatic bleeding into a critical organ or bleeding into the surgical site requiring reoperation between the two groups, though the study was underpowered to detect these differences and the hazard ratios were higher compared to aspirin alone. The effects of the XARELTO/aspirin regimen compared to aspirin alone on the primary outcome and on major bleeding were consistent among subgroups that were defined according to age, sex, geographic region, race or ethnic group, body weight, renal function, and history of cardiovascular risk factors.

Click to Tweet: Robust stroke and CV death reduction in pts with stable #CAD #PAD observed in COMPASS @ #ESCCongress

"COMPASS is the only clinical study to investigate the use of a Factor Xa inhibitor in people with stable CAD and PAD. The study embodies everything the EXPLORER program represents, which is to alleviate the burden felt by millions at high risk of having a major CV event," said James F. List, MD, PhD, Global Therapeutic Area Head, Cardiovascular & Metabolism, Janssen. "The combination regimen of the XARELTO 2.5 mg vascular dose and aspirin holds much promise for these patients, and we look forward to discussing these meaningful and significant data with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration."

Researchers also presented results from the XARELTO 5 mg twice daily group. Of patients taking XARELTO 5 mg twice daily, 4.9% experienced a major CV event compared to 5.4% of those receiving aspirin alone (HR=0.90; 95% CI, 0.79-1.03; p=0.12). These results were not statistically significant. Major bleeding was increased in the XARELTO 5 mg twice daily group compared to aspirin alone (2.8% vs. 1.9%; HR=1.51; 95% CI, 1.25-1.84; p<0.001).

PAD Subgroup Analysis

Presented during the same Hot Line session at the ESC Congress 2017, a separate subgroup analysis examined patients with PAD, comprising 27.3% of the total enrollment in COMPASS. In patients with PAD in COMPASS, the combination regimen of the XARELTO 2.5 mg twice-daily vascular dose and aspirin 100 mg once daily significantly reduced the combined risk of CV death, heart attack and stroke by 28% compared to aspirin alone (5.1% vs. 6.9%; HR=0.72; 95% CI, 0.57-0.90; p=0.005). Most notably, patients with PAD taking the XARELTO/aspirin regimen had significantly fewer major adverse limb events by 46% (1.2% vs. 2.2%; HR=0.54; 95% CI, 0.35-0.84; p=0.005), acute limb ischemia by 44% (0.8% vs. 1.4%; HR=0.56; 95% CI, 0.32-0.99; p=0.04) and major amputations by 70% (0.2% vs 0.7%; HR=0.30; 95% CI, 0.11-0.80; p=0.01) compared to those taking aspirin alone.

"People with PAD are generally at higher risk of CV events, including death, and have fewer medical options available than patients with CAD alone, making these results exceptionally meaningful," added Dr. Eikelboom.

Click to Tweet: Fewer amputations for stable #PAD pts, COMPASS researchers say @ #ESCCongress

About COMPASS

Sponsored by Bayer and independently managed by the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI), COMPASS was conducted at 602 centers in 33 countries. Lipid-lowering agents were used by 89.8% and ACE inhibitors or angiotensin-receptor blockers were used by 71.2% of patients in the study. Mean age of study participants was 68.2 years; 22% were female. Of those enrolled, 90.6% had a history of CAD while 27.3% had a history of PAD. Patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery were randomized between days four and 14 after surgery. All participants were seen at one and six months after randomization, and every six months thereafter. Mean duration of patient follow-up was 23 months.

The primary efficacy endpoint was the composite of major CV events, including heart attack, stroke or CV death. The primary safety endpoint was a modification of the ISTH (International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis) criteria for major bleeding, and included a composite of fatal bleeding, symptomatic bleeding into a critical organ or bleeding into the surgical site requiring reoperation, or bleeding leading to hospitalization (including presentation at an acute care facility without an overnight stay).

Secondary efficacy endpoints included the composite of coronary heart disease death, heart attack, stroke or acute limb ischemia (ALI); composite of cardiovascular death, stroke, heart attack or ALI; and all-cause mortality. Net clinical benefit also was assessed examining the composite of CV death, stroke, heart attack, fatal bleeding or symptomatic bleeding in a critical organ.

With upper GI bleeding being the most common complication in people taking antithrombotic therapy like XARELTO, COMPASS also examined the safety and efficacy of pantoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), compared to placebo in preventing upper GI complications in patients taking XARELTO. This part of the study is still ongoing. Of the 27,395 patients enrolled in COMPASS, 17,597 were not receiving a PPI at the time of enrollment and were therefore enrolled into the pantoprazole arms of the study.

About EXPLORER

The EXPLORER program is unmatched by any oral anticoagulant in the Factor Xa inhibitor class in its size, scope and ambition. A collaborative effort between Janssen and Bayer, EXPLORER seeks to generate important clinical evidence on the safety and efficacy of XARELTO and its potential role in addressing critical unmet medical needs. A number of the studies, including COMPASS, are designed to seek additional indications or expand the label for XARELTO to benefit more patients in need of additional therapies for their cardiovascular disease. By the time of its completion, more than 275,000 patients will have participated in the EXPLORER clinical development program, other completed and ongoing clinical trials, investigative registries and non-interventional studies.

More on CAD and PAD

CAD and PAD are common circulatory conditions. One-third to one-half of all middle-aged men and women in high-income countries are at risk of developing CAD during their lifetime.iv And, globally, screening studies suggest that approximately 20% of adults older than 55 years have evidence of PAD.v

WHAT IS XARELTO?

XARELTO is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in people with atrial fibrillation, not caused by a heart valve problem. For patients currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how XARELTO and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke.

XARELTO is also a prescription medicine used to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and to help reduce the risk of these conditions occurring again.

XARELTO is also a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of forming a blood clot in the legs and lungs of people who have just had knee or hip replacement surgery.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT XARELTO?

For people taking XARELTO for atrial fibrillation:

People with atrial fibrillation (an irregular heart beat) are at an increased risk of forming a blood clot in the heart, which can travel to the brain, causing a stroke, or to other parts of the body. XARELTO lowers your chance of having a stroke by helping to prevent clots from forming. If you stop taking XARELTO, you may have increased risk of forming a clot in your blood.

Do not stop taking XARELTO without talking to the doctor who prescribes it for you. Stopping XARELTO increases your risk of having a stroke.

If you have to stop taking XARELTO, your doctor may prescribe another blood thinner medicine to prevent a blood clot from forming.

XARELTO can cause bleeding, which can be serious, and rarely may lead to death. This is because XARELTO is a blood thinner medicine that reduces blood clotting. While you take XARELTO you are likely to bruise more easily and it may take longer for bleeding to stop.

You may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take XARELTO and take other medicines that increase your risk of bleeding, including:

Aspirin or aspirin-containing products

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

Warfarin sodium (Coumadin  , Jantoven  )

, Jantoven ) Any medicine that contains heparin

Clopidogrel (Plavix  )

) Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Other medicines to prevent or treat blood clots

Tell your doctor if you take any of these medicines. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if you are not sure if your medicine is one listed above.

Call your doctor or get medical help right away if you develop any of these signs or symptoms of bleeding:

Unexpected bleeding or bleeding that lasts a long time, such as:

Nosebleeds that happen often



Unusual bleeding from gums



Menstrual bleeding that is heavier than normal, or vaginal bleeding

Bleeding that is severe or that you cannot control

Red, pink, or brown urine

Bright red or black stools (looks like tar)

Cough up blood or blood clots

Vomit blood or your vomit looks like "coffee grounds"

Headaches, feeling dizzy or weak

Pain, swelling, or new drainage at wound sites

Spinal or epidural blood clots (hematoma): People who take a blood thinner medicine (anticoagulant) like XARELTO, and have medicine injected into their spinal and epidural area, or have a spinal puncture, have a risk of forming a blood clot that can cause long-term or permanent loss of the ability to move (paralysis). Your risk of developing a spinal or epidural blood clot is higher if:

A thin tube called an epidural catheter is placed in your back to give you certain medicine

You take NSAIDs or a medicine to prevent blood from clotting

You have a history of difficult or repeated epidural or spinal punctures

You have a history of problems with your spine or have had surgery on your spine

If you take XARELTO and receive spinal anesthesia or have a spinal puncture, your doctor should watch you closely for symptoms of spinal or epidural blood clots. Tell your doctor right away if you have back pain, tingling, numbness, muscle weakness, (especially in your legs and feet), or loss of control of the bowels or bladder (incontinence).

XARELTO is not for patients with artificial heart valves.

WHO SHOULD NOT TAKE XARELTO?

Do not take XARELTO if you:

Currently have certain types of abnormal bleeding. Talk to your doctor before taking XARELTO  if you currently have unusual bleeding.

if you currently have unusual bleeding. Are allergic to rivaroxaban or any of the ingredients of XARELTO.

WHAT SHOULD I TELL MY DOCTOR BEFORE OR WHILE TAKING XARELTO?

Before taking XARELTO, tell your doctor if you:

Have ever had bleeding problems

Have liver or kidney problems

Have any other medical condition

Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if XARELTO  will harm your unborn baby. Tell your doctor right away if you become pregnant while taking XARELTO  . If you take XARELTO  during pregnancy, tell your doctor right away if you have bleeding or symptoms of blood loss.

will harm your unborn baby. Tell your doctor right away if you become pregnant while taking XARELTO . If you take XARELTO during pregnancy, tell your doctor right away if you have bleeding or symptoms of blood loss. Are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if XARELTO passes into your breast milk. You and your doctor should decide if you will take XARELTO or breastfeed.

Tell all of your doctors and dentists that you are taking XARELTO. They should talk to the doctor who prescribed XARELTO for you before you have any surgery, medical or dental procedure.

Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Some of your other medicines may affect the way XARELTO works. Certain medicines may increase your risk of bleeding. See "What is the most important information I should know about XARELTO?"

Especially tell your doctor if you take:

Ketoconazole (Nizoral  )

) Itraconazole (Onmel  , Sporanox  )

, Sporanox ) Ritonavir (Norvir  )

) Lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra  )

) Indinavir (Crixivan  )

) Carbamazepine (Carbatrol  , Equetro  , Tegretol  , Tegretol  -XR, Teril  , Epitol  )

, Equetro , Tegretol , Tegretol -XR, Teril , Epitol ) Phenytoin (Dilantin-125  , Dilantin  )

, Dilantin ) Phenobarbital (Solfoton  )

) Rifampin (Rifater  , Rifamate  , Rimactane  , Rifadin  )

, Rifamate , Rimactane , Rifadin ) St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Ask your doctor if you are not sure if your medicine is one listed above. Know the medicines you take. Keep a list of them to show your doctor and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

HOW SHOULD I TAKE XARELTO?

Take XARELTO exactly as prescribed by your doctor.

Do not change your dose or stop taking XARELTO unless your doctor tells you to.

Your doctor will tell you how much XARELTO  to take and when to take it.

to take and when to take it. Your doctor may change your dose if needed.

If you take XARELTO for:

Atrial Fibrillation: Take XARELTO  1 time a day with your evening meal

If you miss a dose of XARELTO  , take it as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Take XARELTO 1 time a day with your evening meal If you miss a dose of XARELTO , take it as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Blood clots in the veins of your legs or lungs:



Take XARELTO  once or twice a day as prescribed by your doctor.

once or twice a day as prescribed by your doctor.



Take XARELTO  with food at the same time each day.

with food at the same time each day.



If you miss a dose of XARELTO  :

:



and take XARELTO  2 times a day: Take XARELTO  as soon as you remember on the same day. You may take 2 doses at the same time to make up for the missed dose. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Take XARELTO as soon as you remember on the same day. You may take 2 doses at the same time to make up for the missed dose. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.





and take XARELTO  1 time a day: Take XARELTO  as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Take XARELTO as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Hip or knee replacement surgery: Take XARELTO  1 time a day with or without food. If you miss a dose of XARELTO  , take it as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time.

Take XARELTO 1 time a day with or without food. If you miss a dose of XARELTO , take it as soon as you remember on the same day. Take your next dose at your regularly scheduled time. If you have difficulty swallowing the tablet whole, talk to your doctor about other ways to take XARELTO  .

. Your doctor will decide how long you should take XARELTO  . Do not stop taking XARELTO  without talking to your doctor first.

Do not stop taking XARELTO without talking to your doctor first. Your doctor may stop XARELTO  for a short time before any surgery, medical or dental procedure. Your doctor will tell you when to start taking XARELTO  again after your surgery or procedure.

for a short time before any surgery, medical or dental procedure. Your doctor will tell you when to start taking XARELTO again after your surgery or procedure. Do not run out of XARELTO  . Refill your prescription for XARELTO  before you run out. When leaving the hospital following a hip or knee replacement, be sure that you have XARELTO  available to avoid missing any doses.

. Refill your prescription for XARELTO before you run out. When leaving the hospital following a hip or knee replacement, be sure that you have XARELTO available to avoid missing any doses. If you take too much XARELTO, go to the nearest hospital emergency room or call your doctor right away.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF XARELTO?

Please see "What is the most important information I should know about XARELTO?"

Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You are also encouraged to report side effects to the FDA: visit http://www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088. You may also report side effects to Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., at 1-800-JANSSEN (1-800-526-7736).

Please click here for full Prescribing Information, including Boxed Warnings, and Medication Guide.



Trademarks are those of their respective owners.

Janssen and Bayer together are developing rivaroxaban.

For more information about XARELTO, visit www.xarelto.com.

About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies

At the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, we are working to create a world without disease. Transforming lives by finding new and better ways to prevent, intercept, treat and cure disease inspires us. We bring together the best minds and pursue the most promising science. We are Janssen. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it. Learn more at www.janssen.com. Follow us on Twitter at @JanssenUS.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding development of XARELTO (rivaroxaban). The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; manufacturing difficulties and delays; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes in behavior and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2017, including under "Item 1A. Risk Factors," its most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including under the caption "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements," and the company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies or Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

i Circulation. 2017; CIR.0000000000000485;ii AHA Statistical Update, Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics2017 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association, Originally published January 25, 2017, page 360, downloaded from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/01/25/CIR.0000000000000485

ii Circulation. 2017; CIR.0000000000000485;ii AHA Statistical Update, Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics2017 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association, Originally published January 25, 2017, page 408, downloaded from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/01/25/CIR.0000000000000485

iii Bhatt DL, Eagle KA, Ohman EM, et al. Comparative determinants of 4-year cardiovascular event rates in stable outpatients at risk of or with atherothrombosis. JAMA 2010;304:1350-7.

iv Lloyd-Jones DM, Larson MG, Beiser A, Levy D. Lifetime risk of developing coronary heart disease. Lancet 1999;353:89-92.

v Hankey GJ, Norman PE, Eikelboom JW. Medical Treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease. JAMA 2006;295(5):547-553.

Media Contact:

Sarah Freeman

Tel: (215) 510-4758

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contacts:

Johnson & Johnson

Joseph J. Wolk

Tel: (732) 524-1142

Lesley Fishman

Tel: (732) 524-3922

SOURCE Janssen

Related Links

http://www.janssen.com


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
New Delhi : CHINA: "The giant has awakened! Let the world tremble!"

ALSO CHINA: "We banned your tweet because it may cause our civilisation to collapse."

I totally don't get that country. Their messages are too mixed.

Mind you, the whole world is baffling these days. One of the defining questions of the modern era seems to be: What Is Your Position On Cow Poop?

Two news items that arrived in this columnist's inbox on the same morning highlighted the two main options.

An angry farmer used a farm machine to spray "a wave of manure" all over a law enforcement officer's vehicle, said a news item from Vermont in the United States. There was widespread disgust at the act, commentators said.

Covering your house with cow dung has huge benefits and will even make it proof against radioactive beams, a high court judge declared, according to news items from Rajasthan in India. Judge Mahesh Chand Sharma sang the praises of cow poop earlier this summer.

Clearly that US farmer should move to Asia and bring his dung-spraying machine.

What other news items highlight East-West differences?

A colleague pointed out that the US TV reality series "I Married A Stranger" is now playing on screens in Asia. "But marrying a stranger is normal in much of South Asia," she said. To have the same shock effect, she suggested starting a reality TV series called "I Married Someone I Knew".

Reader Amitava Bose noted that the US beauty contestant who said "marriage is between a man and a woman" was considered by Westerners to have said something utterly outrageous, while people from the East were left scratching their heads.

"In the West, failure to be politically correct is a far worse crime than murder," said Bose.

I was sceptical of this, but he pointed out that the Western media is beside itself with hysteria at President Donald Trump, who says politically incorrect things but has not murdered anyone. The exact same media worships the ground walked on by former President Barack Obama, who was politically correct but committed extra-judicial murder (he got his men to sneak into Pakistan and execute Osama Bin Laden and four others, including a woman).

Good point. Bose said that if I was ever arrested for assassinating someone in a Western country (unlikely), my best defence would be to say something like: "I supported transgender rights before it was cool."

This columnist, who has roughly equal numbers of friends who are Eastern and Westernised, liberal and conservative, tends to avoid these controversial issues.

But I was delighted to hear about a case in Mumbai that should keep all sides happy. A woman named Aarav Appukuttan felt her personality was male. A man named Sukanyeah Krishna felt his personality was female.

They went independently to a clinic for gender re-assignment -- but met and fell in love, the media reported.

Now the man-turned-woman plans to marry the woman-turned-man.

Their case stomps violently on tradition, so liberals will cheer loudly, but will ultimately end up with a male marrying a female, so conservatives can also cheer loudly.

Everybody's happy, just like the bride, in her macho suit, and the groom, in his pretty dress.

(Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments via his Facebook page)
Chandigarh, Aug 25 : Seen as an convict under law, treated as a God by his millions of followers, courted by politicians and political parties, protected by the police with Z-plus security cover and targeted by Sikh radicals, Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, is as controversial as he is colourful.

The sect chief, who turned 50 on the same day when the country marked 70 years of Independence, was convicted of rape by a CBI court in Panchkula on Friday, leading to some violence by his supporters. He has two shades to his personality as the head of the cash-rich Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) sect -- one of leader of social causes and another for controversies. He led an enigmatic life of ultra-luxury and pomp in public appearances The sect has under its belt several Guinness World Records, including largest blood donation camps in 2003, 2004 and 2010; has rehabilitated prostitutes, transgenders, alcoholics and drug addicts; and carried out disaster relief -- from the December 2004 Tsumani and Gujarat earthquake to flash floods in Uttarakhand.

The social activities of the sect -- from blood donation camps to running educational institutions and carrying out social welfare measures, have made it popular among millions of its followers, mostly from the poorers sections of the oppressed castes in society.

The DSS claims that it has over 7 crore followers across the country and abroad. A vast majority of these are in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The sect chief enjoys Z-plus security cover from the Haryana government, despite having been charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on two counts of murder conspiracy and one count of rape and sexual exploitation of a 'sadhvi' (female disciple).

Addressed as 'Saint Dr Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan' on the DSS official website, the sect chief has been involved in a major controversy with the Sikh community since April 2007 after he attired himself on the lines of 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh, during a ceremony. His action led to large scale violence in Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and other places.

Given the threat to his life, especially from Sikh radicals, Singh moves around in a fleet of bulletproof Land Cruisers and Mercedes SUVs and other luxury vehicles, and flies in private helicopters and aircraft.

He has survived assassination attempts in the past.

Wherever he goes, his followers, in thousands, reach that place much before him. At times, this brings normal life in cities and towns to a halt.

In the last few years, the sect chief has taken a fancy for films, He has acted in, directed, written and produced three films, figuring as the hero in them. All films had multi-crore budgets and released in 4,000-plus screens across the country.

He has sung songs in these films and has released albums like "Highway Love Charger" -- unleashing his 'rockstar' avatar. His other music albums include "Network Tere Love Da", "Thank U for That" and "Insan -- one who lives for others".

The sect claims that millions of his music CDs have been sold, most of them being lapped up by his followers. His songs and music encourage the youth and other people to keep away from evils like drugs, prostitution and alcohol.

The sect chief, who describes his music as of a "religious genre" and "gospel", has performed at jam-packed rock shows in New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Ramlila Maidan. He has done over 100 such shows so far.

The titles of his songs are equally interesting -- "Atom Bomb", "Kya Khoob" and "Charge Me".

The Dera chief is an accused in the murder of sect follower and his former manager, Ranjit Singh, in July 2002. Singh was murdered by sect activists, allegedly at the behest of the sect chief "as he knew too much about activities inside the sect headquarters".

He is also an accused in the murder of Sirsa-based journalist, Ram Chandra Chhatrapati, in October 2002 after the latter wrote about shady activities inside the sect headquarters near Sirsa, around 260 km from here.

The sect chief was convicted of rape and sexual exploitation of a former female follower, 15 years after the allegations were made in 2002.

The CBI, which is probing all three charges against him, has filed its charge-sheet against the sect chief and others in the other two cases.

The sect management has been refuting all the charges so far.

The sect and its chief wields political clout among its followers in Punjab and Haryana and is courted by political parties and leaders. The sect threw its weight behind the BJP in the 2014 elections in Haryana. Earlier it had sided with the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

The sect was founded in 1948 by Shah Mastana, who came from Baluchistan (now in Pakistan). He was succeeded by Shah Satnam Singh and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh succeeded him.

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)
Patna, Aug 26 : A day ahead of his "grand" anti-BJP rally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Saturday appeared calm, confident and sure that hundreds of thousands would participate in the "BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao" rally.

Rebel Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will attend the rally here, a RJD leader said.

Besides, Congress' C.P. Joshi, NCP's Tarique Anwar, RLD's Choudhary Jayant Singh, CPI's Sudhakar Reddy and former Jharkhand Chief Ministers Hemant Soren of the JMM and Babulal Marandi of the JVM, AIUDF chief Baadruddin Azmal, and leaders from DMK, JD-S and RSP will also attend the rally, the RJD leader said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has, however, refused to be part of the rally while Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is abroad.

Lalu Prasad, clad in his usual white cotton vest and lungi, relaxing on a chair at his 10, Circular Road official bungalow, said: "I am sure and certain (of a massive gathering). Where is the question of doubt?.

"Thousands of people, my party leaders, workers, supporters and sympathizers have already started arriving in Patna with drums, traditional music groups to be part of the rally."

He said they have arrived with dry food like 'sattu' and 'chura'. "Unlike other parties, my people are coming with their own arrangement of dry food," he added. "We have also arranged food for them."

Lalu Prasad's younger son Tejashwi Yadav, who has emerged as the new face of the RJD after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dumped the Grand Alliance and joined hands with the BJP to form government in July, campaigned vigorously across the state to mobilize his supporters for the rally.

Tejashwi Yadav, who is Leader of Opposition and former Deputy Chief Minister said: "We will expose Nitish Kumar's 'double speak' and his 'opportunistic alliance' with the BJP, in the rally."

Green, the Rashtriya Janata Dal's official colour, appeared to be the colour of the day.

RJD workers, sporting green caps and holding green flags and banners, have put up hundreds of welcome arches and hoardings in green in and around Patna, on all roads leading to the historic Gandhi Maidan, the venue.

People have started arriving to the city since Friday night. But crowds are likely to increase by Saturday evening with RJD leaders using big and small vehicles and trains to ferry their supporters to the rally.

"Lalu's party workers and supporters have literally painted Patna green," a district police official said.

"RJD's green billboards and graffiti are visible everywhere in Patna," said Shakti Yadav, RJD spokesperson.

He said this rally will again prove that Lalu is the "only mass leader" in Bihar and his social support base is still intact.

"Laluji is the only political force in Bihar that can challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party and counter it."

However, there is speculation that with floods affecting major parts of Seemanchal, Koshi and Mithilanchal regions of North Bihar, it would prove a big task for the RJD to mobilise party supporters from there.

Now, all eyes are on the RJD's rally as it is going to be a show of strength by Lalu Prasad.
Prepare for next year

After the death of my mother last April, I thought I would not write for at least a year. But when I saw a picture in Kantipur taken by photographer Narendra Shrestha of the blanket-wrapped, lifeless body of eight-year-old Kamal Sada from Koiladi floating on the muddy water, I could not resist writing.
Chandigarh, Aug 26 : The Haryana government on Saturday sacked Deputy Advocate General Gurdas Singh Salwara for carrying self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's bag after he was taken into police custody, an official said on Saturday.

Salwara, who is believed to be a relative of convicted Sacha Sauda Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh, was caught on camera while taking the bag from the godman in the court complex, a government official told IANS.

Panchkula town, adjoining Chandigarh, where the CBI court proclaimed the sect chief guilty, bore the brunt of violence on Friday and resembled a war zone with scores of burnt vehicles and properties damaged or torched.

CBI Special Judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002.

The self-styled godman is used to a life of ultra luxury and ostentatious public appearances.

The Dera chief was shifted to a prison near Rohtak town (about 70 km from Delhi) and was lodged in a barrack in the jail. The quantum of punishment would be pronounced in the prison on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana, led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, is facing flak from all quarters for going soft on the Dera chief, who had openly supported the BJP in the 2014 elections, and his unruly followers who staged the mayhem in Panchkula.

Sacking of the Deputy Advocate General is the second major head-roll since the violence.

Earlier, the government ordered the suspension of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ashok Kumar, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 2007 batch.
Bengaluru, Aug 27 : Globally renowned English-Australian chef, television show host and restaurateur Gary Mehigan says he believes that "regionality is what sets Indian food apart" from the cuisines across the world.

In an email interview with IANS from Melbourne, Mehigan said Indian food is gaining deserved attention globally. "We're close to seeing India explore its intellectual property, namely food, properly. We have many Indian chefs like Manish Mehrotra, Sanjeev Kapoor and many other names from all over the world infiltrating the food scene in a big way."

"People still sometimes see Indian food as a homogeneous chicken tikka, rogan josh, chicken vindaloo cuisine, when we know is far from the truth. Regionality is what sets Indian food apart. Regionality is what the world is going to appreciate when it starts to learn about Indian food," Mehigan explained.

"I hope I'm a part of those who bring great Indian food to Australia," said the chef, who is now the face of Fox Life's "Food @ 9: India Special with Gary Mehigan".

"There's quite a bit of Australian talent we're trying to showcase through the series. These shows get addictive and help us travel vicariously through our television sets," he stated.

Mehigan, who will be setting foot in India for the seveth time this November, said he carries back inspiration from the country to his kitchen from each visit.

"I love the country -- something about the colour, the chaos, the diversity and the originality of the food -- it all gets under your skin. I carry home a few recipes and ideas each time I visit. It's certainly changed the way I cook at home," he said.

Known popularly for shows like "Far Flung with Gary Mehigan", and for his presence as a judge on "MasterChef Australia", the chef expressed that food the world over has seen enormous changes driven by social media.

"I'm loving where food is at the moment. Ideas are being shared so quickly through social media -- whether it's Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I can browse through my Instagram and look at what some of my most favourite restaurants in the world are serving for lunch.

"The frame of reference for younger cooks is much bigger. They are able to browse through how a matcha ice-cream is made in Tokyo, or how funky desserts are made in Parisian cafes," Mehigan said.

All in all, it's a great thing for food with awareness growing, he opined. "This global club of foodies is only expanding. It's a great thing for food, our health and our planet too, if we care about where our food comes from."

Social media is also one of his ways to keep reinventing his food, said the chef, who has been in the industry for nearly three decades.

"Social media is there to keep my imagination going. I'm food obsessed. I go on holidays because of food. I think I've never been in love with food more than I am now," Mehigan said, signing off.

(Bhavana Akella can be contacted at bhavana.a@ians.in)
Kabul, Aug 27 : The US knows about the Afghan Taliban leaderships presence in Quetta and Peshawar city of Pakistan, commander of US Forces and Nato in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, has said.

The US commander said the issue of terrorist sanctuaries outside Afghanistan was serious and needed to be addressed.

"Support for terrorists and insurgents has to be reduced, has to be stopped," he told Tolo News in an interview on Saturday.

"I am primarily focused on activities inside Afghanistan but other officials are looking into the issue of sanctuaries in Pakistan," he said.

"The Quetta Shura, Peshawar Shura, these shuras are identified by cities inside Pakistan, we know Afghan Taliban leaders are in these areas."

Nicholson said that following US President Donald Trump's announcement of new Afghanistan and South Asia strategy, he as a commander had a new policy "One based on conditions and not time."

Trump, in his first address as the commander-in-chief, called for more troop deployment and India's role in Afghanistan while lambasting Pakistan for offering safe havens to "agents of chaos".

Asked if he saw Taliban as a terrorist organisation, Nicholson said: "They do terrorist activities and enable terrorists." He pointed out Taliban's links in the past with Al Qaeda.

Hoping the Taliban would enter the peace process with Washington, Nicholson said the military would continue to put pressure on their sanctuaries inside and outside Afghanistan.
Chandigarh, Aug 27 : Security forces were on high alert again on Sunday in Haryana and Punjab as both states braced for the announcement of quantum of punishment on Monday to Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who has been convicted of rape by a CBI special court.

The sentencing will be done in a court being specially set up inside the District Jail premises in Sunaria near Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi, where Ram Rahim was brought and lodged after his conviction.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation judge Jagdeep Singh, who had Friday held the Dera chief guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002, will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the quantum of punishment.

Curfew was reimposed in Haryana's Sirsa town, where the sect's headquarters are located, on Sunday and security forces braced themselves for any eventuality in and around Rohtak town in view of sentencing of the sect chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana.

The areas affected by violence in both states remained peaceful on Sunday even though security forces remained on high alert in both states, officials said.

In Sirsa, 260 km from here, where curfew was relaxed on Sunday morning for three hours, saw more Dera followers heading for the sprawling sect headquarters on the outskirts of the town as tension still prevailed.

The army and para-military forces are stationed outside the complex and have appealed repeatedly to the sect followers to vacate the premises. However, local authorities said that thousands of followers were still inside the complex, which is like a mini-city with a huge stadium, educational institutions, factories, markets and hospitals inside.

A media team from a national news channel was attacked in Sirsa by Dera followers, who chased and assaulted them in presence of the Haryana Police.

The attackers tried to snatch their camera and damaged it. The media team got minor injuries before they were rescued by security forces in the vicinity. However, the assailants took away their car.

Dera followers had attacked the media in Panchkula on Friday after the rape case verdict against the sect chief and outdoor broadcasting vehicles were set on fire by the mobs.

Haryana Director General of Police B.S. Sandhu meanwhile said that no incident was reported from anywhere in the state in the past 24 hours.

"Our top priority is to ensure security for the sentencing in Sunaria (Rohtak) tomorrow (Monday). We are fully prepared with police personnel, para-military forces and Army on stand-by," he said.

"We have searched and sanitised all premises of the sect at various places," he said, adding 826 arrests have been made so far in connection with the violence.

Authorities are apprehending that the situation could take a violent turn following the sentencing of the disgraced godman on Monday.

With tension building up in some parts of Haryana and Punjab in wake of the sentencing, both states suspended mobile Internet services till August 29 (Tuesday). In Haryana, all schools and other educational institutions have been ordered to remain closed on Monday.

Prohibitory orders, barring the assembly of five or more persons and carrying of firearms and other weapons, have been imposed in Fatehabad, Kaithal and Ambala districts.

The conviction verdict led to violence leaving 36 people dead. Of these, 30 died in Panchkula, where the court was located, while six died in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured.

However, curfew was withdrawn on Saturday in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, which saw the maximum violence on Friday.

Meanwhile, trains affected due to law and order situation have been resumed after receiving security clearance from authorities, the Railways said on Sunday.

"All the trains on Delhi-Jammu, Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh, Moradabad-Saharanpur-Ambala sections have been resumed with immediate effect," said Northern Railway spokesman Neeraj Sharma.

However, security clearance for Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section is still awaited and 25 trains are yet to be resumed, he said.
New Delhi, Aug 27 : Civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday advised airlines to "keep a check on airfares" on the sectors with flights connecting cities like Chandigarh, Jammu and Jaipur.

The DGCA's advisory comes on the back of the recent violence that has hit cities in Haryana and Punjab in the wake of the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for rape by a CBI court in Panchkula. He is slated to be sentenced on Monday.

"Airlines have been advised to keep a check on the airfares on these sectors," a senior DGCA official said.

"DGCA has already cleared one additional flight on Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi of Vistara for today (Sunday) and one each additional flight on Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi and Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi of Vistara for tomorrow (Monday)," he said.

According to the official, national passenger carrier Air India has been requested to explore the possibility of operating a flight on the Delhi-Jammu-Delhi sector on Monday.

"IndiGo has informed that they will mount an additional flight on Delhi-Jammu-Delhi sector on August 29," the official added.
San Antonio, Aug 28 : Hurricane Harvey, now weakened to a tropical storm, left at least five people dead and dozens injured as it swept through Houston, Texas, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Sunday.

Authorities fear that the torrential rains will cause major floods from the rivers that flow through Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States with a population of 2 million, Efe reported.

Though the NWS speaks of five people killed, the Sheriff's Office in Harris County, where Houston is located, could only confirm one fatality.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that while Harvey has maximum sustained winds of 65 kph (40 mph), the continued torrential rains make it as dangerous as a hurricane.

The NWS said the eye of the Harvey is now 55 km east-southeast of San Antonio.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday that the helicopters of emergency management teams are carrying out rescue missions in the Houston and east Texas areas.

Harvey, which made landfall Friday night in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, is scarcely moving at 2 kph in a south-southeasterly direction, which only increases its destructive power against everything in its path.

Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in 12 years, first made landfall in Rockport, located northeast of Corpus Christi, at 10:00 pm Friday with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will visit the affected areas of Texas as soon as possible.
Washington, Aug 28 : US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that his country needs a border wall because of Mexico's crime rate.

"With Mexico being one of the highest crime nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other," Trump tweeted, Efe news reported.

Trump is currently waging a budget battle with Congress to obtain funding for building the wall, not an easy task due to the total rejection by the Democratic opposition and some Republican lawmakers representing states on the border.

The president went so far this week as to threaten a partial government shutdown if congress fails to authorize the funds to build the wall on the border with Mexico, a country that, as Trump repeated Sunday, in the end with pay for the border wall one way or another, though he gave no further details.

Trump also asked his 36.8 million followers on Twitter if he should continue negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

"We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?" Trump asked on Twitter.

The Mexican government attributes Trump's words to a simple negotiating strategy, and was not surprised, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said this week.

The renegotiation of NAFTA began August 16 with a first round of talks that went on until August 20.

The next meeting will be in Mexico between September 1-5, for the negotiators' express purpose of reaching an agreement for the beginning of 2018.
We are honored to have partnered with such an amazing organization, by Andrew Cass, Cofounder and President. Joses Hands literally changes lives and everyone at Lifestyle Design International looks forward to helping them again in the future.

Lifestyle Design International funded the medicine for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. The sponsorship also paid for some of the costs associated with administering it to patients there. The organization that undertook the trip was Joses Hands. This nonprofit organization awards scholarships to students in the health care field and also helps them raise funds so they can go on mission trips like the one LDI sponsored.

Founded in 2009, Joses Hands goal is to connect underserved populations throughout the world with doctors and other medical professionals. There is a staggering need for medical care on the Dominican-Haiti border, says Alex Miranda, founder of JosesHands.org. We are grateful to each of our medical student volunteers for serving and to Lifestyle Design International for helping sponsor the medicine and students this year. This delegations work will have a huge impact on the people of the Dominican Republic.

LDIs sponsorship paid for thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment, supplies, and medication (both OTC and prescription). The group administered care throughout the northwest corner of the country, an area that lacks access to proper medical care and medicine. Between July 18th and 31st, a staff of medical professionals and other volunteers served dozens of people in need.

Their service included:



Patient CareLicensed physicians and residents (under physician supervision) attended to patients at makeshift and established community clinics, working closely with local doctors.

Medical Mission EducationPhysicians provided continuing education to local health students, who represent the future generation of medical missionaries.

Administration Non-medical missionaries partnered with the staff of local churches to help with the entire operation of clinics, which included registration, translation, prayer, delivering of medicines, and playing with children.

We are honored to have partnered with such an amazing organization, by Andrew Cass, Cofounder and President. Joses Hands literally changes lives and everyone at Lifestyle Design International looks forward to helping them again in the future.

About Lifestyle Design International:

We help people from all walks of life achieve true Lifestyle Design with a well-rounded, proven, and permanent dedication to our 3 Pillars: Wealth, Wellness & Entrepreneurship while providing a lucrative Income Opportunity for aspiring Entrepreneurs.

For more information about LDI, you can visit their website at http://lifestyledesigninternational.com
Dr. Tony Salamay - Panama City Chiropractor Most people dont know how their bodies function, let alone the cause of their dysfunction. It is important to note that you dont have to feel or be sick to detect dysfunctions in the body.

Top Panama City Nutritionist & Chiropractor, Dr. Tony Salamay invites everyone to come to the presentation to sort out the truth from the hype when it comes to nutritional supplements.

With their increasing popularity, theres far more misinformation out there about nutritional supplements than verified, medically sound advice. On TV and in every corner of the internet, hawkers claim that this supplement can do this or do that, cure every ailment or restore years of health to the body. Its only after investing huge amounts of time, effort, and money that most people learn which claims are only empty promises.

Even worse, so many of the advertisements disguised as medical advice provide conflicting information across different media, so the same substance that one source claims is a panacea is decried as toxic by another.

Is there any truth out there? Do the nutritional supplements yield the effect they claim to do or is it all just hype? Fortunately, at The Bay Clinic of Chiropractic, Dr. Salamay puts his expertise to the matter to help his patients sort out the fact from fiction to discover just what supplements and dosages are right for their specific physiologies.

According to Dr.Salamay, the number one reason is that people use supplements to control or manage a symptom. Although this can help, at best this kind of treatment is only temporary. It is really no different than using a drug to alleviate a symptom; however, the difference is that the likelihood of side effects is much less, he explains, since supplements are all natural.

The missing piece here, says Dr. Salamay, is the word function. Most people dont know how their bodies function, let alone the cause of their dysfunction. It is important to note that you dont have to feel or be sick to detect dysfunctions in the body.

One of the most proven methods of testing for function is laboratory testing. Most common is blood testing, but there are other laboratory tests such as urine, hair and saliva. Each test has its advantage over the other, and each tests for different things.

Ideally, it is best to get that done by a doctor who is looking at restoring function and health and not just trying to cover up symptoms, Dr. Salamay advises. Also, the ranges differ with functional levels. Those are tighter ranges that are reflective of health, not disease.

This is so important because when you understand what the supplements do in terms of how they promote healthy function, you can match that to the weak point of your own body based on its dysfunction. Voila! Its that simple.

Although Dr. Salamays functional process may not be as exciting as the common medical mantra of take this pill and youll drop your weight by ten pounds in a week, he urges his patients to consider their whole health over the long term over short, unsustainable gains. Rather than offering a magic potion, his clinic focuses on determining why a patients metabolism is stuck to begin with and determine the correct supplement to correct for deficiencies and promote sustainable wellness.

Lets say your thyroid is off or sub-optimal, Dr. Salamay suggests. There are plenty of natural supplements that will turn the thyroid on. This will ensure effective and steady weight loss over a period of time. Some examples would be tyrosine, iodine, selenium, gugul lipids, and vitamin D, which are effective for thyroid disorders. Depending on your thyroid pattern of imbalance, these supplements can help or be counterproductive, or sometimes even harmful!

However, Dr. Salamay urges people to recognize the complexity of the issue. Painting things with a broad brush and saying these thyroid supplements will help you lose weight is leaving a lot of truth out of it. This is exactly why nutritional supplements fail people: they think a specific supplement will work for them because they worked for this or that person, while in reality, every body is different and needs different things.

To put a fine point on it: nutritional supplements will work best when you understand how they work and how well they will work in your body based on where your weak points of dysfunction are. I dont want you to be wary of taking nutritional supplements, but to get the most out of them.

Dr.Salamay is considered one of the best chiropractors in northwest Florida. He operates the Bay Clinic of Chiropractic, an advanced chiropractic and nutritional facility in Panama City, Florida.

Contact:

Dr. Tony Salamay

Bay Clinic of Chiropractic

520 N MacArthur Avenue

Panama City, FL 32401

(850) 785-9372
Registered at EC, RJP-N seeks umbrella for fed, provincial polls

With the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal registering for the upcoming polls, the Election Commission has listed 64 political parties as of Saturday evening, according to EC officials.
Youth killed after tractor plunges 50 metres

A 20  year  old youth was killed and another injured after a tractor plunged 50 metres below the road at Khoploang Sundarkhola of Palungtar municipality  1 in Gorkha on Saturday.
The firms that were subpoenaed have been associated with consulting firms led by former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Both Flynn and Manafort are being scrutinized as part of the Russia investigation.

Manafort left the Trump campaign last August, and Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February, when it emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, the former Russian ambassador to the US.

The subpoenas come as both Flynn and Manafort face questions about allegedly failing to disclose the lobbying work they did on behalf of foreign governments, in violation of US federal law.

The Post reported that two of the subpoenas were issued to SGR LLC and Mercury Public Affairs, citing sources familiar with the matter. A lawyer representing SGR LLC confirmed to The Post that the firm had received a subpoena, and people close to Mercury Public Affairs said they had also received requests, though the company declined to comment.

Ukraine lobbying work

Mueller's team reportedly asked Mercury about public relations work it had conducted for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine at Manafort's request. The organization's stated goal is to foster closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union, as well as the United States. It was founded, however, by Leonid Kozhara, a senior member of parliament for Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions.

Manafort is linked to the party through his time serving as a top adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian strongman whom Manafort is widely credited with helping win the presidency in 2010.

Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 after widespread demonstrations again this decision to back out of a deal with the EU that would have distanced Ukraine from Russia and strengthened ties with the West. Yanukovych fled to Russia amid the protests, during which Ukrainian riot police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators, and is now living under the protection of the Kremlin.

Ukrainian prosecutors have said Yanukovych ordered the security forces' attack on protesters, and at least one human-rights lawyer representing the victims isinvestigating what role, if any, Manafort played in encouraging Yanukovych's crackdown.

Mercury worked with Podesta group  the lobbying firm led by John Podesta's brother, Anthony Podesta  on the Ukraine lobbying project, and the firms did not register as foreign agents at the time, saying they were working for a nonprofit and not a foreign government or political party, The Post reported. Both firms recently registered retroactively, however, acknowledging that the Party of Regions benefited from their work.

Manafort has drawn increased scrutiny from the FBI in recent months. The Washington Postreportedthat the bureau conducted a predawn raid on his home in July, and agents working with Mueller left Manafort's home "with various records."

Manafort has been cooperating with investigators' requests for relevant documents. But the search warrant obtained by the FBI in July indicates that Mueller managed to convince a federal judge that Manafort would try to conceal or destroy documents subpoenaed by a grand jury.

Turkey lobbying work

Mueller's team subpoenaed SGR after Flynn's lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, hired the group to ostensibly "promote a good business climate in Turkey," The Post reported. Flynn's firm hired SGR as part of its work with a Dutch company with links to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Although Flynn's group's initial stated goal in hiring SGR was to foster a stronger business climate in Turkey, it was later forced to indicate that it brought SGR on to "raise concerns" to the US about Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric currently living in exile in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan has blamed for mounting a failed coup against his government and fomenting dissent within Turkey.

Flynn's lobbying group has undertaken other efforts to discredit Gulen and bolster Erdogan as well. The firm reportedly did not want anyone to knowthat it was working on a documentary commissioned by a Turkish businessman to help Turkey's image in the wake of last July's failed coup.

The businessman, Ekim Alptekin, paid the Flynn Intel Group over $500,000 to produce a documentary about the dangers of Gulen, hetold The Wall Street Journal. "We thought that might have a good effect," he added. The film was never finished.

Flynn additionally raised eyebrows when hewrote an op-ed for The Hill, published on November 8, alleging Gulen helmed a "vast global network" that had "all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network."

In addition to being scrutinized as part of Mueller's probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016, Flynn is also under a separate FBI investigation for privately working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the 2016 campaign. Flynn informed the Trump transition team of the investigation in early January, weeks before Trump was inaugurated.

He did not resign until mid-February, after it was reported that he had discussed US sanctions against Russia with Kislyak during the transition period and misled Pence about the conversations.
She took to her Instagram page to share a cuddled up snap of herself and her husband, and caption it with the realest and the most refreshing words on marriage, we have encountered in recent times.

She wrote:

"I know that Hate is not the first enemy of love, Its Fear, as it destroys the ability to Trust....But

"I have learnt that Love is 2 people,who trust each other enough to say the truth no matter how bitter and it stays between them.. I know, that there are 2 kinds of pain, the one that hurts you and the one that changes you...But

"I have learnt that in all,you are my partner not my enemy as we either win together or loose together guiding each other like a secret.. I know ,that the scars you can't see ,are the hardest to heal....But

"I have learnt, that Happiness will always come to those who share their love selflessly as you can't have love without a little pain and if the bond is strong enough to overcome the obstacle, then its worth fighting for.. And I do know, that as parents,our marriage counts more not less because even the kids are counting on us....But

"I have learnt ,that commitment is staying loyal to what you said you will do long after the mode you said it in has left you... Its Hard ?Yes it is But

"I have learnt that couples who make it,aren't the ones who never had a reason to divorce but the ones who decided that their commitment to each other is more important than their flaws or differences......am never graduating from this school called Marriage.... Odi, I appreciate our similarities and I do Respect our flaws.....Am loyal to our love even in your Absence.

I Love You...But am still Angry jor

HWA To Us."

Prince Okojie's words toasting his wife mirrored the same depth and love, as he shared throwback photos of the two of them.

"On this day six years ago, we both made pledges and commitments in pursuit of a life journey.

"Today, those pledges and commitments are still alive, driving and rejuvenating in our everyday life.

"I would not have made a better choice if not YOU My Dear Wife.

"You have given me reasons to love and to stay in Love, I am so Happy and full of Life....No wonder the Bible says "A Merry heart does good like a Medicine."

"You are a full Package, Specially sent from God to me and there's no doubt that our success is in Christ.

"God bless and keep us together as we keep Flourishing. Happy Wedding Anniversary to us."

We just cannot have enough of them and we wish them many happy years together.

Mercy Johnson and Prince got married in 2012 and are blessed with four kids.
Usim, a resident of Dape village, Abuja, was convicted on a count charge of causing grievous hurt, offence contrary to Section 247 of the Penal Code.

Usim pleaded guilty and begged for leniency.

The Judge, Sadiq Abubakar, however, gave the convict an option of N10, 000 fine; saying that the punishment would serve as a deterrent to others.

The prosecuting counsel, Auhioboh Florence, had told the court that one Jerry Oyame, reported the incident at Utako Police Station on August 15.

Florence said that the convict committed the offence on same day at about 4.30 p.m. at Crystal Lodge, Abuja.
The judge, Yakubu Ishaku, ordered the remand of Adamu, docked on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and extortion, offences he denied committing.

Ishaku adjourned the case until September 4 for hearing.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Mr Frank Swem, told the court that on August 18, at about 11.15 a.m., Okon came to the Divisional Police Station at Masaka and reported the matter.

He said that on August 15, at about 10:40a.m., the defendant conspired with 15 others now at large to commit the crime.

Swem said that Adamu and his accomplices criminal trespassed into Leonard Hotel, located at Jankanwa Masaka and assaulted the complainant.

He added that they also fought with two customers that lodged in the hotel.

Swem said that as a result of the fight, they made away with two plasma television sets and assorted drinks worth N280,000.

He added that when the defendant was arrested, he admitted committing the offence.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 97 and 292 of the Penal Code.
The magistrate, Mrs O.A. Layinka, who granted the accused bail, ordered him to produce two sureties in like sum as part of his bail conditions.

Layinka said that the sureties must be gainfully employed and should show evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

She adjourned hearing in the case until October 2.

He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Sgt. Donjor Perezi told the court that the accused committed the offence on July 19 at the same address.

He alleged that the accused bolted with a car worth N3 million belonging to the complainant, Abodunrin Opanuga.

Perezi told the court that the complainant had allegedly handed over the car keys to the security guard, when he returned from work on the said date about midnight before he went to bed.

When the complainant woke up the following day at 9 a.m., he discovered that the accused had allegedly absconded with his car.

He also alleged that with the aid of the tracker installed in the car, police traced the car to somewhere in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Opanuga quickly notified a tracking company, who alerted their security operatives at Ibadan about the theft.

The complainant said that luckily for him, the security operatives were able to recover the vehicle and also apprehended the accused.

Opanuga reported the matter to the police and Joseph was arrested for further questioning, Perezi told the court.
Oluyemi, 18, and Ojugbele, 36, both residents of Isolo area of Lagos, are facing a four-count charge bordering on obtaining money under false pretences and stealing.

Police Prosecutor Simeon Imhonwa told the court that the accused committed the offences between Nov. 2014 and March 18, 2017 at Isolo.

Imhonwa said the accused, who worked in the accounts department of Jeed Trinity Schools located at Isolo, Lagos, collected the sum of N2.36 million from parents as school fees.

He said the accused failed to remit the money into the schools account and converted it to personal use.

The prosecutor said the case was reported by the proprietor of the school, Mr Idornigie Joseph, to the police.

Imhonwa also alleged that the accused forged an Access Bank teller of the schools account which he gave to parents.

The fraud was detected by auditors who were invited to check the schools accounts.

The offences contravened Sections 287, 314, 365 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 314 prescribes a 15-year jail term for offenders.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs B.O. Osunsanmi, in her ruling, granted each of the accused N300,000 bail with two sureties each in like sum.

Osunsanmi said the sureties must be gainfully employed and should also provide two years tax clearance.
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The ex-president himself has been at the receiving end of his baseless accusations and criticism.

I want to entreat each and every one of us not to, and let me repeat, not to say or do anything or conduct ourselves in any way that will destabilize the party," Mr Kufuor said at the NPP's delegates conference in the Central Region.

"If you have any criticisms, please render the criticism indoors. You dont wash dirty linen in public, he added.

Mr Agyapong, sitting last week on his won radio station Oman FM, launched a blistering attack on some family members of the president.

He also accused some presidential staffers of extorting many from people who want to see the president without providing any shred of evidence.

READ MORE: NPP to amend constitution to make flagbearer leader of party
"7 months of NPP government. So far so good except appointing some very corrupt officials including the two very stupid chief of staffs," he wrote on Facebook."It's amazing how Nana was able to appoint two thieves whose level of stupidity is the same. Arrogant and corrupt fools."

The comments drew widespread condemnation from his fans and members of the NPP prompting him to delete the comments.

This is not the first time he has launched such a unguarded attacks on some government officials.

READ MORE: A Plus takes swipe at NPP communicators
Mr Anyidoho took to the podium and sang: "The victory of NDC is coming and again, let the people say, Ehe edzo bordoor. The victory of the NDC is coming and again, let the people say, Ehe edzo bordoor. Say Ehe edzo bordoor, say say Ehe edzo bordoor and let the people say Ehe edzo bordoor.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona: Trump "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law" with the Arpaio pardon.

Sen. John McCain said in a statement on Friday:

"No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judges orders. The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: A "mockery of rule of law."

Trump's "" Pelosi said on Twitter.

A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan said Ryan "does not agree with this decision."

Paul Ryan's spokesman, Doug Andres said in a statement:

"The Speaker does not agree with this decision. Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon."

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates: Trump just revealed "his own contempt for our Constitution."

Jeff Flake, the junior Arizona senator, said Trump should have let "the judicial process ... take its course."

Flake wrote on Twitter: ""

Jeff Flake's primary challenger Kelli Ward applauded Trump and called Arpaio's actions as sheriff "heroic."

Kelli Ward said on Friday: "We applaud the President for exercising his pardon authority to counter the assault on Sheriff Arpaio's heroic efforts to enforce the nation's immigration laws."

Thank you, @realDonaldTrump... @ Dr. Kelli Ward

Arizona 7th Congressional District Rep. Ruben Gallego: Trump "blessed Arpaio's racist and unconstitutional police practices."

Gallego said: ""

Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights: Trump has "yet again damaged himself."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump "used the cover of the storm," referring to Hurricane Harvey, to pardon Arpaio.

Schumer said:

" Instead of seeking to unify the country as promised, POTUS has doubled down on encouraging white supremacists post-Charlottesville. "

Republican strategist and conservative commentator Ana Navarro: "It's another slap in the face to the Latino community."

Navarro torched the pardon on Friday night:

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut: This is a "middle finger to America."

Murphy said: ""

California Rep. Nanette Barragan said the pardon is "sending the message it is OK to racially profile."

Barragan, who represents California's 44th Congressional District, said the Arpaio pardon is ""

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: "He does not deserve a pardon."

The Democratic Rhode Island senator said:

"Arpaio systemically discriminated against AZ Latinos in defiance of our Constitution and ignored our courts. He does not deserve a pardon. Now is a time to bind the wounds left by white nationalists repugnant attacks in Charlottesville. Instead, President Trump has again doubled down on the side of ignorance, bigotry, intolerance, and hate."

New York Rep. Nita Lowey: "A flagrant abuse of his pardoning powers."

Lowey, who represents the 17th Congressional District of New York, said:

Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts: "Nobody is above the law. Period."

Kennedy, who represents Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District said: @POTUS"

The American Civil Liberties Union said the pardon is a "presidential endorsement of racism."

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone: "Eat it, liberals!"

Roger Stone indicated he saw the pardon as a political move.

.@realDonaldTrump pardons J... @ Roger Stone

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla: "Another attack on American values."
The plant has no power, so there's a risk that the plant could cause more explosions as the chemicals' temperatures continue to rise. People nearby have been advised not to return until the chemicals burn out.

Harvey's death toll continues to rise as family members and authorities report more fatalities. Galveston County Emergency Management confirmed three more deaths on Wednesday night, bringing the total so far to at least 41.

Some 33,000 people in Texas have sought refuge in more than 230 shelters, and 325,000 have signed up for disaster assistance, officials said.

"This is a landmark event for Texas," Brock Long, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, said Monday. "Texas has never seen an event like this."

Record rainfall and catastrophic flooding

Harvey arrived on the shores of Texas as a hurricane Friday night, packing sustained wind speeds as high as 130 mph. It made a second landfall as a tropical storm on the Texas border near Cameron, Louisiana, around 4:30 a.m. CT on Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, it was classified a tropical depression with maximum winds of 20 mph.

On Tuesday, a rain gauge near Highlands, Texas, a city east of Houston, registered 51.88 inches of rainfall  breaking the record for most rainfall from a single storm in the entire continental US.

The "relentless, torrential" rain has moved east, and forecasters don't expect it to fizzle out until at least Saturday. could get 3 to 5 more inches of rain by Saturday, with isolated areas seeing up to 10 inches.

Harvey was moving northeast across the top of Louisiana at 10 mph as of 10 a.m. CDT on Thursday, leaving flooding and destruction in its wake. The center of the storm was sitting about 150 miles north of Baton Rouge.

The National Weather Service called the rainfall event "unprecedented", and while the National Hurricane Center's warnings of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" have subsided, the floodwaters in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana will take days, if not a week, to retreat.

The storm surge  the quick rise in water caused by a hurricane's strong winds  crested several feet at the height of the storm on the Texas coast. By Thursday, all local storm surge warnings had ended.

Widespread devastation

Harvey's devastating hurricane-force winds, storm surge on the Gulf Coast, and landmark flooding inland combined to make it a catastrophic event for Texas.

Officials expect more deaths to be confirmed in the coming days. Houston police Chief Art Acevedo told The Associated Press on Monday that he was "really worried about how many bodies we're going to find" when the floodwaters recede.

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that a police Sgt. Steve Perez, a 60-year-old man who had been on the force for 34 years, died in his patrol car after he took a wrong turn and got caught in the high water.

Long said in a press conference Monday (and reiterated on Wednesday) that crews were still focusing on rescue and recovery and would have to wait until the storm passed to fully evaluate the damage. Flooding and debris on roadways are still keeping emergency crews from reaching some places.

Accounts of destruction in the areas hit hardest by Harvey have been steadily emerging.

Astounding video shows nume... @ Evan McMurry

Emergency crews plucked people from rooftops using aircraft, dump trucks, and boats as the floodwaters rose. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Wednesday that 8,500 people had been rescued statewide.

The Associated Press estimated that the storm knocked out power for about 300,000 residents over the weekend, and that there were still 107,000 power outages in Texas on Wednesday afternoon.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said 911 emergency services in the city had received over 56,000 calls by Monday. By Tuesday, police officers and firefighters had saved more than 3,500 individuals in Houston, Acevedo said.

Turner announced a curfew on Tuesday night, extending from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday, amid reports of looting, armed robberies and people impersonating police officers.

Near Port Arthur, Texas, a city located about 90 miles east of Houston in Jefferson County, over 26 inches of rain were recorded on Tuesday alone. Residents in the area were desperate to escape, and 150 boats came to find them. Mayor Derrick Freeman told CBS News that 20,000 homes had as much as 6 feet of water in them.

The coastal city of Rockport, Texas, located near the point where the hurricane initially made landfall, sustained extreme damage. Residents have been told it is not safe to return for the time being (a mandatory evacuation was put in place there). Mayor Charles Wax of Rockport told CNN there had "been widespread devastation."

As the storm approached Friday, Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios of Rockport requested that people who did not evacuate write their names and Social Security numbers on their arms in case rescuers later needed to identify them.

The Category 4 storm Hurricane Ike, the most recent major hurricane to hit the Texas Gulf Coast, caused $38 billion in damage in 2008. When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, it caused over $100 billion in damage.

Why hurricane categories dont tell the full story

Hal Needham, a hurricane scientist at Louisiana State University, wrote in a blog post on the weather site WXshift that a storm's category doesn't fully convey how dangerous rainfall could be and how much damage it could cause.

"Hurricanes and tropical storms throw three hazards at us: wind, rainfall, and storm surge," he wrote. "Think of the impacts separately. Storms with weaker winds are more likely to stall and dump heavier rainfall. This shocks people, as it would seem intuitive that a Category 5 hurricane would tend to dump more rain than a Category 1 hurricane. But the opposite is true."

While strong winds can rip shingles off roofs and tear down power lines, flooding often causes more widespread, costlier damage  and can be more dangerous for humans. The scale used to distinguish a hurricane from a tropical storm is based solely on maximum sustained wind, but Needham explained that "storms are too complex to define by one number."

Trumps first serious crisis

Hurricane Harvey is Donald Trump's "first serious" crisis from a natural disaster as president. He flew to Corpus Christi Tuesday morning with first lady Melania Trump to survey the damage and relief efforts, and made a stop in Austin to attend a briefing on emergency operations from Texas leadership.

"We want to do it better than ever before. We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it," Trump said at a press conference alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. "This was of epic proportion. Nobody's ever seen anything like this."

How Texas and Louisiana prepared

Thousands of Texas residents, many in the towns of Port Aransas, Port O'Connor, and Corpus Christi, near where the hurricane first made landfall, evacuated before the storm. The Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority began busing evacuees to San Antonio on Thursday.

Houston didn't order evacuations before the storm hit, and only issued orders in some areas of Harris County on Monday and Tuesday. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist at The Weather Company who cofounded the weather-data website Weather Underground, recommended evacuating only if local emergency experts said to do so. Many of the deaths during Hurricane Rita in 2005 occurred as people tried to evacuate.

He also issued a federal disaster declaration in 33 counties, which Trump approved. Trump has approved emergency disaster declarations in both Texas and Louisiana, directing federal aid toward the affected areas.

On Monday morning, Abbott activated the entire Texas National Guard of 12,000 people, and increased the number deployed to 24,000 National Guard troops on Thursday.

Before the storm hit, the American Red Cross opened pop-up shelters throughout Houston and San Antonio. Dallas opened shelters as well, and Mayor Mike Rawlings invited those stranded to seek refuge in a press conference Tuesday morning.

Turner, Houston's mayor, said Tuesday that more than 9,000 people are seeking shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center, the largest shelter that has been opened so far. It has a 5,000-cot capacity.

The Health and Human Services Department said it was deploying assets to Texas and Louisiana ahead of Harvey's landfall, moving six teams of emergency medical responders to the Dallas area as well as teams to support medical personnel in both states.

FEMA said it readied 3 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water, and 8,800 staff members for the storm response.
The accused, Chukwukebuka Onuoha, 39; Charles Ejezie, 35; Chimobi Nwaeze, 28; Tosin Oyetakin, 30 and Ernest Azuka, 23, all residents of Ajegunle Area of Lagos, are facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, stealing and burglary.

The prosecutor, Insp. Simeon Imhonwa, told the court that the accused committed the offences on July 12 at Ekundayo Street, Ajegunle, Lagos.

He said the accused conspired among them to break into the apartment of one John Olomu and committed the act.

The accused and his accomplices used a sharp object to gain access and were able to carry out the operation because the owner of the apartment had gone to work.

The accused and his cohorts were caught by the complainants neighbour, who saw the accused coming out with laptops and other valuables.

She raised an alarm and the people in the compound came out and apprehended the accused while they were trying to escape.

Olomu reported the case to the police immediately his neighbours notified him about the theft incident and the accused were arrested, Imhonwa said.

The offences contravened the provisions of sections 287, 307 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges levied against them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 287 prescribes a three-year jail term for stealing; Section 411 stipulates two years for conspiracy while Section 307 stipulates seven years for burglary.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs B.O. Osunsanmi granted the accused bail in the sum of N300,000 each with two sureties each in like sum.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convicts had pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of joint act and theft.

The Judge, Mr Abubakar Sadiq, held that the convicts confessional statements necessitated their convictions.

He also said that the prosecutor had carried out a diligent prosecution of the case, adding that the allegations brought against the convicts were not disputed.

This is a summary trial, meaning that the convicts did not waste the time of the court as they have before the court admitted to the offences.

But being first offenders, the court is therefore moved to show mercy by allowing them option of N20, 000 fine each, he held.

He also ordered the convicts to pay N561,700, each as refunds for value of the stolen consignment.

The judge, therefore, advised the convicts to stay away from crimes as they might not be lucky next time.

The prosecuting counsel, Mrs Florence Auhioboh, had told the court that the complainant, Nura Salisu of Sahara Maishayi, Gwarinpa, Abuja, reported the incident at the Gwarinpa Police Station on August 18.

She said police investigation indicated that the convicts conspired and dishonestly went into the complainants bedroom under construction to steal the electric wires valued at N1, 123, 400.

She said the offences contravened Sections 79 and 288 of the Penal Code.

She added that the convicts had burnt the wires and disposed them to unknown person at the rate of N14,000.

Auhioboh said the convicts had confessed to the crimes in their statements at the police station.
Useni, who resides at Jayi Tipper Garage, Abuja, was arraigned on a count charge of stealing. The convict pleaded guilty to the charge.

The judge, Abubakar Sadiq, however, gave the convict N10, 000 option of fine.

Sadiq said the punishment would have been more severe if he had not pleaded guilty, and saved the court the pains of prolonged prosecution.

He warned him against taking to crimes again.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Florence Auhioboh, told the court that on August 18, one Simon Shaapela of Behind Water Board Katampe Extension reported the matter at the Gwarinpa Police Station.

Auhioboh told the court that on the same date at about 7 a.m. the convict criminally went into the complainants house without his consent.

She said that the convict broke into the complainants room and stole his bag containing his ATM card, clothes, electrical cable and other items.

Auhioboh said that when the convict saw the complainant coming, he jumped through the window and ran, but was apprehended and handed over to the police.

She said that during police investigation and interrogation, the convict admitted committing the offence.

The prosecuting counsel said that the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 287 of the Penal Code.
Eyitayo, who resides in Ikotun area of Lagos, had pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of conspiracy, stealing and obtaining under false pretences.

He is accused of obtaining the money from five intending travellers  Benjamin Adebayo, Victoria Okugbe, Nurudeen Aditu, Chioma Chukwuemeka and Mathew Nosiru  on the pretext of procuring a Cyprus visa for them.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.A Layinka, who granted the bail, said that the accused should produce two sureties in like sum, who must be gainfully employed.

She said that the sureties should show evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government and adjourned the case till October 2 for mention.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Sgt. Donjor Perezi, told the court that the accused committed the offences sometime in December 2016, at Ijaiye area of Lagos.

Perezi said that the accused obtained N8.25 million from the complainants on the pretext of procuring a Cyprus visa for them, a representation he knew was false.

He said that the five complainants gave the money to the accused, having no idea that he was planning to defraud them.

The prosecutor said that the complainants claimed that the accused gave them fake visas, and when they realised, demanded that he should return their money.

He said that the accused, however, refused to refund their money.

Perezi said the offences contravened sections 287, 314 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Haruna, a resident of Abule-Osun on Badagry Expressway, Lagos, is standing trial on a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.A. Layinka, who admitted the accused to bail, ordered him to produce two sureties in like sum.

Layinka said the sureties must be gainfully employed with evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Donjor Perezi, told the court that the accused committed the offences on May 16 in Apapa, Lagos.

Perezi said the accused conspired with another man still at large to abscond with a Howo truck worth N25 million, property of Dangote Nigeria Plc.

He said the complainant (the company) claimed that the driver took the truck without authorisation and used it for an illegal haulage of contraband (Turkey) from Lagos to Benin.

The prosecutor said the accused and his accomplice were stopped by customs officials in Benin where the truck and the contraband were impounded.

Perezi said when the company noticed that one of its trucks was missing, it reported the case to the police, only to discover that one of their drivers, Haruna, had taken the truck out without authorisation.

The company got to know that the truck had been seized for illegal haulage of contraband by the driver.

Haruna was handed over to the police by the company, while his accomplice is still at large, Perezi said.

The offences contravened Sections 287 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sections 287 and 411 prescribe three and two years imprisonment respectively.
Olawale, 62, who resides in Akute area of Ogun, is being tried for conspiracy, stealing and obtaining money under false pretences.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. Donjor Perezi, told the court that the accused committed the offences sometime in February at Sowemimo Street, Ikeja.

Perezi said the accused collected the money from the complainant, Mr Adekunle Kuti, to import some building materials from Italy to be supplied to him.

He said the accused had no intention of supplying the complainant with the building materials (listo plate and scaffolding) as he converted the money to his personal use.

The accused, who had invested the money in a business, started giving the complainant excuses.

When the complainant got tired of the excuses, he reported the case to the police and the accused was arrested, he said.

The offences contravened Sections 287, 314 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 287 prescribes a three- year jail term for stealing, while Section 314 stipulates a 15-year jail term for obtaining money by false pretences.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Magistrate, Mrs O.A. Layinka, granted him bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum.

Layinka said the sureties should be gainfully employed with an evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.
Shaibu of Jabi Motor Park, Abuja, had pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a motorist in the traffic.

He pleaded with the court for leniency in sentencing him.

The judge, Mr Abubakar Sadiq, who gave the verdict, however, granted Shaibu an option of N5,000 fine.

Sadiq said the punishment should serve as a deterrent to others and warned the convict to desist from committing crime.

Earlier, Police Prosecutor Florence Auhioboh told the court that the accused committed the offence on Aug. 15 at Jabi at 11.40 a.m. when the complainant was driving toward Jabi Conoil Filling Station.

As the complainant was driving toward Jabi Conoil Filling Station, the traffic light stopped him and as the complainant moves with the green light popping up, the accused slapped him for no reason, she said.

Auhiobo said as a result of the slap the complainant lost control and hit an oncoming vehicle.
The terrorists were said to have invaded the remote villages of Abachari, Kote, Uda Lawanti and Wokilli, all in the Nganzi Local Government Area of Borno, around 9:30 p.m., killing 15 people and leaving many injured.

"The attacks happened in the villages on Wednesday night, but it was this morning that we brought fifteen of the corpses and buried them in Nganzi town," a civilian member of the Joint Task Force (JTF) said.

He said the dead bodies have been brought to Nganzi for burial, adding that "many women and children are still missing."

A military source, who buttressed the civilian's account, said the militant set the villages ablaze.

"The Boko Haram fighters burnt down the villages. They looted livestock and grains. Nothing was left in the villages. Some of the lucky ones are now taking refuge in Nganzi," the source said.

The suspected terrorists also attacked invaded Mallam Moduri and Kijimatari, two villages in Guzamala Local Government Area, about 2 a.m. on Thursday.

ALSO READ: 68 Boko Haram terrorists surrender in Borno

At least 12 persons reportedly died and dozens injured in the two communities.
Fayose, who spoke at the Grand- Finale of the 2017 edition of the Udiroko Cultural Festival in Ado Ekiti, said no single development project embarked upon by his administration would be abandoned; the biting economic recession notwithstanding.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor was the chief host at the cultural event in his capacity as the newly installed Apesin chieftaincy title holder in Ado Ekiti.

He listed his administrations projects to include the N5.7 billion over-head bridge (fly- over) in Ado Ekiti as well as the N3.8billion ulltra-modern Kings Market in Ado iEkiti.

He said that he would still do many other things that would distinguish the state capital from other towns before the expiration of his second term as governor in October 2018.

The governor asked for the continued support and cooperation of all residents, including traditional rulers, toward taking the state to higher pedestal.

NAN reports that the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe, in an opening address, thanked the governor and his administration for always supporting and committing funds to the Uditoko festival since coming into office.

He commended the governor for his ability to maintain peace and tranquility among the different segments in the state since coming to office.

Adejugbe also commended the state police command for living to expectation in securing lives and property.
The creator of the show Andy Amadi tweeted on May 1, 2017, that BK Chat was hitting America. He has kept his promise after holding auditions in New York City.

The teaser of BK Chat New York was released on YouTube on August 23, 2017. From the 2-minute long clip, this talk show is about to have a lot of drama like its London counterpart, maybe even more.

There are some familiar faces in the clip as some of the London favourites show up for BK Chat New York. There is also a new Nigerian in the mix of things.

ALSO READ: You need to watch BK Chat London

If all goes according to plan, BK Chat New York will be out in September 2017. For all fans of the indie hit show, get ready for another round of discussions on love, sex, marriage and other things.

The last season of BK Chat London went out on a high as the infamous Nunu spilled too much information about period sex.

The gang of season 2 recently had a reunion where they spoke about everything that happened from the highs, lows, drama and beef.

Since BK Chat seems to be spreading the franchise, when are we going to see BK Chat 'Gidi? The London show heavily features Nigerians, even though most of them are British citizens with Nigerian parents.
Mohammed made the declaration on Saturday in Yola while addressing members of the party.

He assured the members that they were all automatic delegates in the selection of candidates for all elective posts.

We have no godfathers, we have no moneybags; ours is a level playing field for all members, Mohammed said.

The chairman said the party had, however, allocated 30 per cent of its elective positions to women, 25 per cent to youths and five per cent to physically challenged.

We also believe in restructuring and devolution of power. I want to appeal to the National Assembly to revisit the issues, he said.

In his welcome address, Adamawa state chairman of the party, Alhaji Umar Jada, said APDA had a huge number of followers in the state, where it was considered as a liberator.

Jada said many people in Adamawa had started defecting from other political parties to APDA.

Highlights of the national chairmans visit to Yola include the swearing-in of the State and Local Government executives of the party and the inauguration of the APDA state headquarters.
On Monday, he welcomes the African leaders of Chad, Niger and Libya as well as his European counterparts from Germany, Spain and Italy for talks expected to focus on cutting illegal migration to Europe.

On Tuesday, he will speak at the annual meeting of France's ambassadors in Paris where he will lay out his priorities for the coming year in front of 200 envoys.

"Macron has made a successful entrance on the international scene in terms of style, and style is important in international affairs," said former diplomat Michel Duclos from the Montaigne Institute think-tank in Paris.

"Thanks to him, France is audible again in the world," he added. "Will that be followed by results? That's another question."

Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, won power in May determined to restore what he saw as the country's declining international prestige under former Socialist president Francois Hollande.

His first 100 days in office have been marked by a series of headline-catching announcements and a streak of meetings in Paris or abroad where he has often spoken candidly with foreign leaders.

He won plaudits at home for raising human rights in Russia during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, while he also took a stand against President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris accord on fighting climate change.

In Europe, he has singled out the hard-right government in Poland for criticism, saying the country had "decided to go against European interests in many areas."

EU reform

Macron's plans for the 28-member European Union are likely to be at the heart of his speech on Tuesday.

He has already spoken about his ambition to create a more "protective Europe" which better shields its people and industry from foreign investment in strategic economic sectors and unfair imports from abroad.

But he also has a long-term vision of deepening cooperation between the bloc's members and changing the EU's institutions, particularly for those members which use the euro as a common currency.

His ability to usher in changes, such as creating a new budget for the eurozone, will depend in large part on the success of his domestic economic overhauls, some experts say.

"Everyone in Europe, in Germany above all, is watching to see what Macron does with the labour code and his ambition of reducing the budget deficit," said former diplomat Pierre Vimont from the Carnegie Europe think-tank.

Macron's signature economic reform -- scrapping large parts of the country's 300-page labour code and trimming the powers of trade unions -- is set to be unveiled in September and will face immediate resistance from street protesters.

He has also vowed to cut public spending and respect EU budget rules, which state that a country should not run a deficit of more than three percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Macron is hoping that his reformist zeal in France will convince Germany, which goes to the polls in September, to join him in his drive to overhaul the European Union.

Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute for International Relations, said that the Franco-German alliance was important, but that Macron needed to take into account others.

"The relationship with Italy is difficult," he said, pointing to disagreements over the handling of illegal migration to Europe and Macron's decision to nationalise a strategic shipyard in July to stop it from falling into private Italian hands.

Italy was also left sidelined in efforts to bring stability to war-wracked Libya, a former Italian colony, when Macron organised a meeting between rival leaders in Paris in July without consulting Rome.

Macron then had to row back a promise to create "migrant hotspots" in Libya -- places where asylum seekers could lodge a request to travel to Europe -- which was again made without wider consultation.

Syria and Russia

Macron is also expected to confirm his policy on Syria and its President Bashar al-Assad in his speech on Tuesday.

He has already signalled his "pragmatism" about Assad, meaning that France is prepared to see him stay in power for a transitional period at the end of the country's war.

This was the view adopted by Hollande at the end of his term, having spent years calling for him to step down and viewing his departure as a pre-condition for ending the six-year conflict.
"As far as I am aware, we have still not received a response," a commission spokesman told AFP.

The EU executive will meet Monday to consider the issue, he added.

The Polish foreign ministry, for its part, told AFP that "as the deadline falls on a holiday, we consider that it ends on the first working day after that".

The ministry later added that it would send its response on Monday.

Tensions between Warsaw and the EU have been growing over what Brussels sees as a growing threat, not just to democratic standards in Poland but across the 28-nation bloc.

It could eventually lead to a case against Poland before the bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice, and possibly a fine.

The commission has said the threat to judicial independence comes from the Polish justice minister getting "discretionary power to prolong the mandate of judges who have reached retirement age as well as to dismiss and appoint court presidents."

Other concerns, it said, include "discrimination on the basis of gender" by setting the retirement age at 60 for female judges and at 65 for their male counterparts.

The legal overhauls have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears about the rule of law in one of the EU's leading former communist states in the east.

'Nuclear option'

Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads ever since Poland's governing PiS party announced reforms to the country's constitutional court after coming to power in late 2015.

European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans has warned that the commission is ready to immediately trigger the EU's never-used Article 7 procedure -- a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers -- if Supreme Court justices are sacked.

In a separate brewing row, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday made stinging comments against Warsaw for rejecting tough proposals to overhaul a controversial EU rule on cheap labour.

"Poland today is not a country that can show Europe the way, it's a country that has decided to go against European interests in many areas," Macron told a press conference during a visit to Bulgaria.

"Europe was built on public freedoms that Poland violates," he added. "It is placing itself on the margins of Europe's future history."

The EU has also warned Poland to obey a ban on logging in the ancient forest of Bialowieza, saying it would add any breach to the broader Brussels case against Warsaw over democratic standards.
The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingya already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer.

"All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards," Khaer told AFP.

Police said some of those detained had entered Bangladesh via the Ghumdhum border area -- where the Myanmar forces unleashed the barrage of fire just hours earlier.

"They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar," said one policeman on condition of anonymity.

Another 20 Rohingya were caught Sunday and sent back after crossing the Naf river, a natural border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, according to Ariful Islam, a commander with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

Another border officer, Manzurul Hassan Khan, said Sunday that fresh gunfire could be heard in villages across the border in Rakhine, a hotbed of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.

More than 100 people have died since Friday as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) ambushed Myanmar police posts with knives, guns and homemade explosives, killing at least a dozen security force members.

Thousands of Rohingya have fled towards Bangladesh, but authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with an untold number of people -- mainly women and children -- stranded along the border zone.

The impoverished country already hosts some 400,000 Rohingya refugees.

Officials in Cox's Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar that is home to several large refugee camps, have been instructed not to allow any "illegal entry" by Rohingya, Abdur Rahman, a senior government official, told AFP.

But Rohingya community leaders, local media and an AFP correspondent said despite heavy border patrols, at least 3,000 Rohingya refugees have managed to enter the country and found refuge in camps and villages since Friday.

'Merciless' violence

At least 100 mainly women and children arrived Sunday at a makeshift camp in Balukhali, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene, many bringing tales of horror from over the border.

"They fired so close that I cannot hear anything now," 70-year-old Mohammad Zafar said of armed Buddhists who shot dead his two sons in a field.

"They came with rods and sticks to drive us to the border yelling, 'Bengali bastards'", Zafar told AFP.

Rahima Khatun said she spent the night hiding in the hills after Buddhists in her village torched Rohingya homes and set upon men with machetes and clubs.

"We grew up with them. I cant figure out how they could be so merciless," she told AFP.

Others reported being sent across the border by their husbands and brothers, who stayed back to fight the army and Buddhist militias.

Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But in October ARSA attacked a string of Myanmar border posts, sparking a military crackdown that left scores dead and forced 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

Northern Rakhine has been stalked by violence since then, with civilians trapped between security forces and the militants -- who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against perceived collaborators with the state.

In Rakhine itself six members of a Hindu family have become the latest victims of the violence. Their bullet-riddled bodies -- including three children and a woman -- were discovered on Sunday and brought to a hospital in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine.

The victims had allegedly been shot dead by Rohingya militants on Saturday evening as they tried to flee to Maungdaw, a relative who lived in the town told AFP.

"We were still in contact with them yesterday by phone before they were killed. Now their dead bodies are in this hospital," the distraught man said.

The office of Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi posted pictures of some of the victims on its Facebook account, saying two women and four children survived the ambush and alerted authorities.

Myanmar's Rohingya are the world's largest stateless minority and endure severe restrictions on their movements.

Reviled and spurned as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, they live in fear of police and troops.

"They arrest and beat whoever they see along the way," a man, who gave his first name as Anawar, told AFP Sunday morning by phone.
They will choose a name for the party and candidates to run in next year's general elections.

"We are going to define the character of the political party that we aspire to build," former guerrilla commander Carlos Antonio Lozada told AFP.

He said they will also shape "its structure and name the leaders, at least at national level."

What's in a name

Another former commander of the force, Ivan Marquez, said he expected the movement to call itself the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia.

However, the overall FARC leader Rodrigo Londono canvassed opinion on Twitter and many respondents said they favored the name "New Colombia."

Conflict analyst Frederic Masse of Bogota's Externado University said the debate reflected a "dilemma" in the movement.

"Some want to keep the word 'revolutionary' while others want to change that to show that this is a new start," Masse said.

Seeking votes

Regardless of how many votes they may win, the peace deal signed with the government last year guarantees the new party five seats in each of the two legislative chambers for two terms.

"We hope to get enough votes not only to justify those five senate and five lower house representatives, but also we aspire hopefully to achieve an even greater representation," Lozada said.

Londono has ruled out the new party fielding a presidential candidate.

But he said it will support a candidate who guarantees the peace deal the FARC signed with center-right President Juan Manuel Santos.

'Liberal democracy'

The communist FARC formed in 1964 from a peasant uprising for rural land rights.

Its members have avoided publicly framing their current discussions on their political future with terms such as "socialist" and "communist" however.

Another former FARC commander, Pastor Alape, said they were looking for a broader "liberal democracy" movement.

Some ex-FARC leaders have said it will be "anti-imperialist" and "anti-patriarchal" in spirit.

Lozada said it would focus on promoting free health and education and environmental protection.

Challenges ahead

After 53 years of attacks and kidnappings, the FARC in its new form faces a struggle for acceptance.

Recent polls indicate that more than 80 percent of Colombians are opposed to it.

"There is a long history of grievances weighing against the FARC," said analyst Angelika Rettberg.

Voters narrowly rejected the peace deal in a referendum last year. Santos and the FARC tweaked it and the government pushed it through congress.

"The FARC will face a number of challenges The first is not to betray their support base. The second is to enlarge their electorate," said Masse.

"The third is to show that they are capable of doing politics differently and not letting themselves get sucked into traditional patronage politics."

History of violence

The FARC has invited other likely presidential candidates to its congress, though none has publicly confirmed attendance. It has also invited some 150 international participants.

The congress in Bogota runs until September 1, when the party will hold an official launch ceremony in Bolivar Square, the heart of the capital's political district.

The Colombian conflict drew in various rebel forces, paramilitary groups and state forces over the decades.

It left some 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.
"The police have interviewed the main suspect, and he is willing to communicate with the interviewing police officer," the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, adding that it would not release details of his statements while the investigation continues.

But the police now say the man's name is not Abderrahman Mechkah, as he was previously identified.

"He gave false information to the Finnish authorities when he arrived in Finland" and requested asylum, Detective Inspector Crista Granroth, who is leading the NBI's investigation, told AFP.

Police have said that the man targeted women in a rampage on August 18 at a market square in the southwestern port city of Turku.

Two women were killed and eight people were wounded: six women and two men who tried to fend off the attacker.

Reports in the Finnish media also say that while the man has acknowledged making the attacks, he said he had not intended to kill anyone and denied any terror motive.

Six other people have been arrested on suspicions of being involved in the attack, though three of them have since been released.

Two of the men released were a Moroccan national and an Algerian detained on Wednesday.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader said Merkel had tried to dictate terms for their sole televised debate next week, and accused her of abusing the perks of office by flying to campaign events "at a bargain price".

"There are many issues where people have the feeling that Merkel is out of touch," Schulz said in an interview on public broadcaster ARD.

The broadside comes as the former European Parliament chief is racing to narrow his party's gap in the polls with Merkel's conservatives.

The latest Deutschlandtrend survey for ARD put support for Merkel's CDU/CSU at 38 percent, followed by the SPD at 22 percent.

But Schulz insisted he could still win the race by focussing on those who have yet to make up their minds, after a study last week showed 46 percent of voters are still undecided.

"I want to reach those undecided people," said Schulz. "And if I can do that, then I can win the parliamentary elections."

He homed in on a report in news magazine Der Spiegel at the weekend which claimed that Merkel was using police and army helicopters on the campaign trail but that her party was only paying a fraction of market rates.

"She is using the infrastructure of the state to fly to her campaign events at a bargain price," Schulz said.

He also accused Merkel of shying away from a real debate after she reportedly rejected a television network's proposals to change up the format to allow for more spontaneity when the pair face off next Sunday.

"More and more people are seeing this as a kind of aloofness that is already playing a big role in this campaign and will mobilise my voters," said Schulz.

Asked to comment on the criticism in her own interview on ZDF television, Merkel replied that she has always tried "to do justice" to her office.

"And that means serving the people of Germany," she said.

"I look forward to next week's debate," she added.

'No grand coalition'

With neither of the two main parties on track for an overall majority in the September 24 vote, Schulz reiterated his stance that the SPD isn't interested in another stint as the junior partner in a Merkel-led government.

"I don't want to continue the grand coalition," he said.

"If she wants to come in under my leadership with the CDU as junior partner, then we can see. But I don't think they want to continue the grand coalition either."

Four smaller parties are also expected to clear the five-percent threshold to enter parliament this year, more than ever before.
Morales said he ordered the expulsion of Colombian national Ivan Velasquez "in the interests of the Guatemalan people, for the strengthening of the rule of law and our institutions," in a video published online.

"I order that he immediately leave the Republic of Guatemala."

He cited articles of the constitution and international conventions, implying that Velasquez had interfered in Guatemala's internal affairs.

Velasquez is the head of the UN International Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was "shocked" by Morales's move and "has repeatedly reiterated his full confidence in Commissioner Velasquez," Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

"Mr. Velasquez has worked tirelessly to promote a culture that upholds the rule of law and rejects corruption."

Corruption allegations

The commission helped prosecutors investigate a corruption scandal that toppled president Otto Perez in 2015.

Morales, a former comedian, won the subsequent elections and took over as president the following year.

Now investigators say Morales is suspected of failing to declare electoral campaign funds. They estimate the value of the suspect transactions at about $1.0 million.

On Friday, Velasquez and Guatemalan prosecutors applied to strip Morales of his immunity so he can be probed over the payments linked to his party, the National Convergence Front.

That same day, Morales met with Guterres.

Morales also said he was firing his foreign minister Carlos Raul Morales.

The minister was involved in Friday's meeting with the UN chief and denied having demanded Velasquez's removal.

Angry protests

Reports of plans to expel Velasquez had already sparked angry protests outside the presidential palace on Saturday.

That raised the prospect of a fresh wave of unrest like the one that broke out against Perez in 2015.

Protests against Velasquez's removal broke out again Sunday at his commission's headquarters and the country's constitutional court after the announcement.

Right-leaning Protestant Morales, 48, had promised to fight corruption.

But his perceived lack of action since taking office last year has driven down his popularity.

Activist Jorge Santos, head of the UDEFEGUA human rights group, warned the expulsion of Velasquez could spark a new crisis.

"We are faced with a government that has lost its legitimacy almost immediately," he told AFP.
Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting UN-backed Libyan premier Fayez al-Sarraj, Bashir also said security issues in Libya had made Khartoum's fight against human trafficking "more expensive".

"We are affected directly by the insecurity in Libya, which has made it expensive for us to fight human trafficking, illegal immigration and cross-border crimes," Bashir said.

"Those who are committing these crimes are using the instability in Libya, and using Sudanese territories to commit their crimes."

Every year tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa cross Sudan and enter Libya for their onward journey to Europe across the Mediterranean.

In recent years European and African authorities have put pressure on Khartoum to boost efforts to curb illegal immigration and human trafficking.

Khartoum recognises the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Sarraj, a rival of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is accused by Sudan of enlisting rebels from the country's Darfur region to fight alongside his forces.

Bashir reiterated that accusation on Sunday.

"We have some Sudanese members of rebel groups active in Libya as mercenaries," he said, without elaborating.

Sarraj said the two leaders discussed the security situation in Libya.

"Sudan is of strategic importance to Libya, and we discussed how to secure the border," he said.

The two leaders did not talk about last month's closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats by the Haftar-backed authorities in eastern Libya.

A pro-Haftar news agency had reported that the Sudanese mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya, was closed on the grounds that it damaged "Libyan national security".

According to officials in Khartoum, dozens of young Sudanese -- both men and women -- have been killed in Libya fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Libya has been rocked by chaos since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed revolution.
"Green is a beautiful colour, of healing, of growth, and strength in adversity," said Toby Laurent Belson, who works at a donation centre filled with piles of clothes for victims of the fire.

"The plan is to turn the carnival green for Grenfell," he said. The decorations "remind people of what's happened and show solidarity".

The colour was chosen by local schoolchildren as a way of paying homage to their friends lost in the blaze.

Hundreds were left homeless by the fire, in a working-class enclave of Britain's richest borough where multi-million pound mansions stand just a short walk from dilapidated public housing.

'Protest and celebrate'

The appeal for volunteers to help make decorations travelled far beyond the neighbourhood, thanks to social media. It is also a way of communicating the anger many feel against the local authorities they hold responsible for the fire.

"It's an opportunity for the communities to come together and combat a lot of the negative images we see on social media and through the news," said Swarzy Macaly, 24, a radio presenter from east London.

"I think there's a lot of anger because the tragedy should never have happened... And so people are angry and their anger is just, but it needs to be channelled".

The Caribbean-style festival in filled with piles of clothes was started in the 1960s following a series of race riots between new arrivals from former British colonies and local whites.

"Carnival was born through suffering. The beauty of carnival is the ability to be able to protest and celebrate," said Ursula Parvex, a 37-year-old local teacher who was wearing a green t-shirt.

Painter Sabrina Rowan Hamilton said it was "a way of celebrating multicultural London", symbolised by Grenfell Tower itself where 34 languages were spoken.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected over the two days of the carnival -- where there will also be more solemn moments to commemorate a tragedy that has scarred the local community.
And he warned both Mexico and Canada that if they continue to be "difficult" in trade talks, he make have to break off attempts to reform the NAFTA free trade pact.

Both positions put Trump on a collision course with many skeptical US lawmakers as much as they do with neighboring capitals, but remain popular with his electoral base.

"With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other," Trump tweeted Sunday.

"We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?"

Trump's positions on the wall and trade are well-known, and both were centerpieces of last year's White House campaign, but they may now run afoul of political reality.

US lawmakers return from their summer recess on September 5 needing to come up with a deal to fund the government and raise the federal debt ceiling.

The Republican majority wants to cut taxes and pass a costly infrastructure bill, but Trump has threatened to trigger a government shutdown unless it funds his wall.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly insisted that the multi-billion dollar cost of the wall would be borne by Mexico, an idea scornfully dismissed by Mexican officials.

Now -- while this remains a centerpiece of his populist speeches -- he accepts US funds will pay for construction, and Mexico will be forced to re-pay in some way later.

But Democrats oppose including wall spending in the spending bill, and Republican leaders will struggle to pass it, while also opposing a government shutdown.

Trump's homeland security adviser Tom Bossert attempted to explain the contradiction in an interview with ABC News.

"What we'll do here is go through the mechanism of getting the original initial money that we need for that capital project from Congress through an appropriations process and we'll responsibly construct the barrier on the border," he said.

"As we work with the Mexicans in other policies and trade policies and such, we'll determine ways for us to make that right."

At Trump's instigation, the United States, Mexico and Canada began renegotiating the 23-year-old trade deal earlier this month.

Trump has repeatedly called the agreement a "disaster" that exported US jobs to Mexico, while Mexico has dismissed his rhetoric as a negotiating tactic playing to his US base.
An anti-government alliance between Saleh and rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi has crumbled over the past week, with the two accusing each other of treason and back-stabbing.

Witnesses in Sanaa, which Saleh and Huthi jointly control, said the ex-president's forces had spread in southern parts of the capital near the presidential offices, which Saleh still holds despite resigning in 2012.

They said the forces had deployed in Sabaeen Square and the district of Hadda.

Saleh's General People's Congress party said in a statement on Sunday that "remaining silent on the incident would open the door to strife that would be difficult to contain".

Colonel Khaled al-Rida, the deputy head of foreign relations in the GPC, was killed in the clashes between supporters of Saleh and Abdul Malik al-Huthi late Saturday, the statement said.

A source within the GPC said the clashes erupted at a Huthi rebel checkpoint in Hadda after a dispute between fighters manning the checkpoint and armed supporters of Saleh who were driving by.

The rebel-run Saba news agency said two members of the Popular Committees, a tribal alliance largely dominated by the Huthis, were also killed.

Saleh and Huthi joined ranks in 2014 in a shock alliance that drove the internationally recognised government out of Sanaa and into the southern province of Aden.

From its inception, analysts have viewed the alliance as a tactical move by both sides, with rebels exploiting Saleh's political power and the former president benefitting from the Huthi's guns on the ground.

War of words

But in the past week, a war of words between Saleh and Huthi erupted with Saleh suggesting that his allies were merely "a militia", and the rebels calling him a "back-stabber" and "traitor" who would "bear the consequences" of his insult.

The most recent clashes have added fuel to the fire, with the GPC statement accusing a "group that knows no morality or oaths" of being behind the colonel's killing -- a thinly veiled reference to the Huthis.

The Huthis reportedly suspect Saleh has been negotiating with a Saudi-led military coalition that supports the Aden-based government.

Saleh, meanwhile, is said to be displeased with the Huthis' newfound power in the capital, where they run a number of key offices.

The Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen's war in March 2015 in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government against the Iran-backed rebels and Saleh.

The war has since pushed the country to the brink of famine, and killed more than 8,400 civilians -- including in coalition air strikes.

On Sunday UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged warring parties in Yemen to allow humanitarian aid into the country, namely by re-opening the international airport in Sanaa and Hodeida port.

The coalition supporting the Hadi government imposed an air and sea blockade on all rebel-held territory in March 2015 and tightened it in August last year saying it was the only way to stop weapons smuggling.

Hodeida, a port on the Red Sea, is a key entry point for aid also in rebel-held territory.

The coalition on Saturday claimed responsibility for an air strike in the Yemeni capital that killed 14 civilians the previous day, which it called a "technical mistake".

On Friday, the United Nations human rights office said air raids by the coalition had killed 42 civilians in Yemen in the past week, with multiple children among the dead.
It is far from the the first time these links have been made public. South Korea's chaebols, or family-run conglomerates, have long enjoyed close, opaque ties to political authorities.

"There is a well-founded concern that Korean corporations have too much financial influence over the political system through favours and friendships," Robert Kelly, professor of political science at Pusan National University, told AFP.

The chaebols were instrumental in the "Miracle on the Han" -- South Korea's rapid transformation from war-ravaged ruin to Asia's fourth-largest economy -- during which they received privileges in business and protection from foreign competition.

Several -- including LG and Hyundai as well as Samsung -- established global reputations while their hundreds of thousands of employees, often effectively hired for life, became the backbone of South Korea's new middle class.

But as GDP growth has slowed, public frustration with the chaebols has mounted. They are accused of choking off innovation, distorting markets, and engaging in corrupt practices to ensure founding families retain control.

Many young South Koreans feel that no matter how hard they work, they will never see their positions improve as their parents' did.

When millions of people took to the streets to demand president Park Geun-Hye's ouster over a burgeoning corruption scandal, their anger was directed almost as much at the companies that paid her secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil, as at her.

After Park's impeachment and dismissal, new president Moon Jae-In won a sweeping election victory campaigning on a platform of reform.

'Unprecedented jailing'

Samsung is by far the biggest of the chaebols, with its revenues equivalent to around a fifth of the country's GDP.

Lee Jae-Yong's father, who remains Samsung chairman, was previously convicted of bribery, tax and other offences himself, and the scion's grandfather also had brushes with the law, but neither was ever jailed.

Chaebol leaders have regularly enjoyed such privileges in the past, with trials ending in light or suspended sentences and courts citing their contributions to the economy.

But imprisoning the vice chairman of Samsung for five years -- even though the sentence could be reduced on appeal -- shows that now no-one is immune, the thinking goes.

Lee was also found guilty of perjury and other offences.

"The unprecedented jailing of the head of the country's most powerful chaebol will serve as a catalyst for changing the whole society," said Chung Sun-Sup, who runs specialist website chaebul.com.

Kim Joon-Woo, of Lawyers for a Democratic Society, said the Seoul Central District Court's decision was nudging South Korea toward a "more transparent capitalist economy".

"We welcome it as a warning signal over the dishonourable ties between politicians and businesses," he said.

Moon plans to loosen the concentration of economic power in the chaebols' hands, curbing unfair trade practices including cross-subsidies between units and implementing tougher regulations.

His ruling Democratic Party is seeking to limit acquisitions by subsidiaries of the top 10 chaebols, and prohibit new cross-shareholdings between them -- a favourite technique of founding families to maintain effective control with only a small ownership stake.

'No debts'

There have been promises of reforms before, from both sides of the political aisle, but they came to little.

Former Justice Party lawmaker Park Won-Wuk blamed a lack of political will and resistance from the chaebols, which warn of negative consequences for investment and employment.

"No politicians have been really free from collusive ties with chaebols," said Park. "But Moon, differently from his predecessors, owes no debts to chaebols, and his top officials in charge of chaebol reform are thoroughly reformist.

"Lee's imprisonment shows they are down to business quite seriously this time."

jpegMpeg4-1280x720Corruption remains "the single biggest issue" in South Korea, professor Robert Kelly told AFP.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International, ranked South Korea 52nd out of 176 countries in its perceptions index for last year, well behind neighbours Hong Kong, in 15th place, and Japan in 22nd spot.
RALEIGH, N.C.  In-home hospice care can mean everything to those with ailing or elderly pets.

Having a vet who can come to a pets home during its final days  either for palliative care or euthanasia  saves pets the anxiety of trips to the vet and gives owners peace of mind.

Theres a growing demand for such services, with at least three Raleigh, N.C., businesses devoted specifically to hospice or euthanasia care: Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice, Azure Holland Mobile Veterinary Services and Peaceful Passing Mobile Veterinary Services. (Peaceful Passing provides only euthanasia care, not veterinary hospice care.)

Lap of Love veterinarian Betsy King said the length of time a pet requires hospice varies depending on the pets condition.

Some pets that have mobility issues or bad, degenerative joints, things like that, they may be in hospice care for months, King said. Others that have more advanced conditions like terminal cancer, they may only be in hospice for a week. Sometimes those are situations where the owner isnt sure whether its time to say goodbye. They need our advice; they need to feel like theyve done everything they possibly can to make them comfortable and have them with them in comfort for as long as possible.

Julia Hamrick, a Peaceful Passing customer, said Dr. Jennifer Frey helped put her mind at ease about putting down her beloved Dachshunds, Roly and Lilah.

You always, even though you know its the right time, theres always that tiny bit of, Oh my God, could we have made him last a little longer? Hamrick said. (Freys) presence is so calming and so peaceful that I was able to be clear that the time was right, and it was the right thing to do.

Dr. Dana Lewis, of Lap of Love, said when determining an ailing pets needs, its an advantage to be able to see the pets homes.

We can evaluate anything at home that might impact their quality of life, Lewis said. Like, say if they have arthritis, and they have a lot of stairs in their home, or slippery floors or other pets that might be creating too much stress for that animal. We can make suggestions on how to do things in the home.

Tough but rewarding work

Both Frey and Dr. Azure Holland, founder of Azure Holland Veterinary Services, said its difficult to stay emotionally stable in their jobs.

I have to focus on the love, Frey said. Theres so much love in every appointment, every home that I visit. Thats what gets me through. It is emotionally stressful, especially when theres children involved and theyre reading letters and cards. It breaks my heart, but I do realize every patient leaves a legacy. Honestly, Im only serving the best of the best in the area who want what is best for their pet. I am honored to be in the presence of such a union, such a bond.

Holland said helping her own family put their golden retriever to rest peacefully at home inspired her to start her business.

Something I always think of is that none of the people who I have loved in my life ever said to me, We want to die in the hospital, Holland said. I really think that if we could have these honest conversations with our pets, they would feel very much the same way. I have two kitty cats, and for the most part, their whole world is our home and our house.

Her house, her bed, all at peace

Billy Fansler, whose dog, Lou, had cancer of the spleen and was euthanized by Betsy King, of Lap of Love, said he and his girlfriend knew they wanted a peaceful and calm environment for Lou.

Were kind of private people, maybe were not super-social people, so when were in that emotional state, its tough to let a stranger into that environment, Fansler said. Theres always this little worry  I dont want a stranger here taking away from this moment. (King) was just a total pro; she knew exactly what to say; she let us do our thing. That last moment, Lous last moments were just laying in the living room with her. I gave her Doritos, because she would always steal Doritos from me, and Id fuss at her. It was just this peaceful moment, and then Betsy left, and Lou got to pass in her most favorite place  her house, her bed, all at peace and everything.
CHICAGO (AP)  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a proposal limiting what employers screening job applicants can ask, including prior wage or salary history.

Rauner rejected the plan Friday, saying he supports the effort but Illinois should follow Massachusetts' lead, which prevents salary inquiries before the job offer, among other things.

Supporters say the proposal would've addressed Illinois' gender wage gap.

Rauner also vetoed a measure increasing penalties for employer wage theft. It was brought by state Sen. Daniel Biss, a Democrat seeking his party's nomination in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Rauner, a Republican, is seeking re-election.

Rauner says there's "little evidence" of a need to make failure to pay wages a felony instead of a misdemeanor.

Biss calls the veto "out of touch."

The legislation is HB2462 and SB1720.
DAVENPORT  Although she lost her house to foreclosure, Festival of Praise director Kathryn Bohn is more concerned about finding a home for a wounded warrior.

The highlight of a two-day "Night to Honor our Heroes" is a mortgage-free home being given away to a wounded veteran.

The announcement will come during a 7 p.m. Sept. 3 concert at LeClaire Park, 400 Beiderbecke Drive, Davenport, featuring noted Christian musician David Crowder that also will feature the JJ Weeks Band, special guest Jay Fondren and Rock Island Arsenal friends.

Tickets for $20 are available at all Illinois and Iowa Quad-Cities area Hy-Vee stores and Chick-fil-A's, or at itickets.com. Tickets go to $25 the day of the event. For group rates, call 563-359-7617. Children 12 and under and active military personnel will be free.

A free "Royal Kids Feast" is planned at 5 p.m. Sept. 2 featuring food, games, face painting, music, Jumpin' Joey's attractions, City Church Youth Band, QCC Dance ministry and City on a Hill, brought by High Praise Unlimited. For information, visit qcfestivalofpraise.com.

For more than 20 years, QC Festival of Praise has been the largest premiere outdoor Christian concert event in the Quad Cities area. It's partnering with Military Warriors Support Foundation from San Antonio, Texas, which is marking its 10th anniversary.

The two organizations first partnered in 2009.

Foundation leaders wanted to return to the Quad-Cities  what they referred to as "the Point of Origin" for their successes, Ms. Bohn said. The foundation has awarded nearly 800 mortgage-free homes to combat wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses.

Families have paid off nearly $17 million of personal debt, according to news release materials.

And it has awarded more than $200 million to wounded warriors, with the help of donating bank Wells Fargo, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Walmart.

Ms. Bohn's home was foreclosed in January, following the death of her husband, Ray Phillips, a Navy Seabee who always supported the military. She has since relocated.
In President Donald Trumps speech Monday evening -- a speech in which he was quite presidential, though he offset that with his demeanor at the Phoenix rally the next evening -- the president, heeding the counsel of the generals who advise him, reversed course and opted for increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

In a situation in which there are no good options, this is probably the lesser of evils.

Sixteen years after the U.S. became militarily involved in Afghanistan, I remain persuaded that this was the right decision. The bottom line here is quite simple: the Taliban in Afghanistan provided a safe haven from which al-Qaida could plan and implement terrorist attacks, including those of 9/11. That could not be allowed to continue unchallenged.

Much, however, has gone wrong since then. The decision of the Bush administration to invade Iraq was a huge blunder based on faulty (falsified?) intelligence. At a time when the Taliban was on the run in Afghanistan, the decision to invade Iraq siphoned off resources, both military and financial, from the war effort in Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to regroup and counterattack.

The Obama administrations record on Afghanistan, though perhaps not as misguided as that of the Bush administration, is not particularly stellar either. President Barack Obamas greatest blunder was announcing a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops even though the military situation was far from being resolved.

One does not need to be a military genius to know that if one side announces plans to withdraw while fighting is still going on, the other side will just hunker down until their opponent withdraws, and then move in and take over. And indeed, that is precisely what happened in Afghanistan.

Today, the Taliban have regained much of the territory they had lost, controlling somewhere between 35 and 60 percent of the country. (The figures are very soft on this matter.) Taliban fighters and groups affiliated with the Taliban can create roadblocks and ambushes whenever and wherever they wish in most parts of the country.

The Taliban has plenty of money at its disposal. It controls most of the province where the bulk of Afghanistans opium is produced, which provides a ready source of income.

For the United States, the choices at this point in time are quite stark -- withdraw and allow Afghanistan to once again become a safe haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who wish to attack us, or continue the war effort and hope for a better outcome. Both are flawed choices, with the latter probably being the lesser of evils.

It cannot, however, be endless war with no plausible resolution of the problem in sight. That is where the diplomatic part of the equation comes into play. And that is what President Trumps approach is sorely lacking.

Key positions in the U.S. Department of State, including that of ambassador to Afghanistan, have not yet been filled. President Trump has eliminated the office of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Instead of engaging in the hard work of negotiating, he prefers to talk about victory and destroying the enemy.

If there was one lesson to be learned from Vietnam, it is that we cannot defeat a determined indigenous group, which is what the Taliban is. The best we can hope for is a stalemate that will lead to a negotiated settlement. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is right in supporting peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban without preconditions.

That, however, is far easier said than done. Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the last Taliban leader open to peace talks, was killed in a U.S. drone strike last year. And with President Trump preferring to talk about victory over and defeat of the Taliban, there is little presidential support for peace talks. But perhaps that will change if the Taliban advance is halted, resulting in a military stalemate.

A note on a different matter: I cannot for the life of me understand why President Trump persists in attacking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican members of the U.S. Senate. Does he not realize that if he is to accomplish any of his legislative agenda, he needs their support? But then, given what he has on his agenda, perhaps it is best that it not be enacted.
For the week beginning September 14, the Russian military will conduct its quadrennial military exercise called Zapad, the Russian word for west. Earlier Zapad exercises have caused great apprehension among the NATO nations, and this one will be no exception.
Property details:

For auction is the total purchase price of 0.15 acres, 6534 square feet, of land in Lake County, Oregon. The property is just South West of the city of Lakeview Oregon. The land can be accessed via Kadrmas Road. Winning bidder will receive a Quitclaim Deed via certified mail once payment has cleared. Taxes are current and there are no liens on the property. Upon winning the auction, payment is required within 3 days of the end of auction. Accepted payments include; cashiers check or personal che...

Price: $ 222 Zip/Postal Code: 97630 Property Address: Kradmas Rd Seller State of Residence: Wyoming City: Lakeview State/Province: Oregon Location: 828**, Sheridan, Wyoming

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Property details:

Vacant Land in Twin Lakes, Lake County, Colorado! Item Id: Wilson01 Case Name: Wilson, Steven C Case Number: 17 10662 Trustee: Description: Estate's interest in 0.92 acres of vacant land in Twin Lakes, Colorado near Leadville. The property is located at 198 & 218 Mt Elbert Drive, Twin Lakes, CO 81251. The status of water, power, sewer and utilities is unknown. The APN# is 10363301. The legal description is 'Lots 115 & 116 Twin Lakes Addition 1-B Mt Elbert Plamor Ranch 548/335 Combined 10003633 &...

Price: $ 5,211 Seller State of Residence: Colorado Zip/Postal Code: 81251 Property Address: 198 & 218 Mt Elbert Drive State/Province: Colorado City: Twin Lakes Location: 812**, Canon City, Colorado

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University of Georgia students have been able to graduate with a masters degree in five years or less under the dual-degree Double Dawgs program, which has expanded across 14 schools with over 100 degree programs.
University of Georgia scientists in collaboration with researchers from other universities around the world recently published the first sunflower genome research in the journal Nature.
Leaders of several opposition parties on Sudnay came together at an Rashtriya Janata Dal rally in Patna and gave a call for dethroning the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next parliamentary election but much of the sheen was lost due to the absence of leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.

IMAGE: Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad with Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav during a rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday. Photograph: PTI Photo

Political heavyweights who attended the rally included West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad and Janata Dal-United rebel Sharad Yadav.

Buoyed by the impressive turnout at Gandhi Maidan, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.

Other opposition parties that were represented at the rally included the Nationalist Congress Party, the National Conference, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Kerala Congress, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Communist Party of India, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, the Janata Dal-Secular of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, the All India United Democratic Front of Assam, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist.

No CPI-M leader attended the rally citing the presence of Mamata Banerjee whose TMC is its main rival in West Bengal politics.

Besides the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the Grand Alliance over alleged corruption by Lalu and his family members, and later formed the government with the saffron party, was the butt of criticism by opposition leaders.

Rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav attended the rally, defying the party's directive against it, and spoke at length about the disintegration of the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

Yadav said he would now work for forging a Gathbandhan (Alliance) of 125 crore citizens, an apparent reference to attempts at cobbling together a coalition of opposition parties against BJP-led NDA.

Recorded messages of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi were played at the event. JD-S representative Danish Ali read out the message of his party leader H D Deve Gowda.

Lalu Prasad, Mamata Banerjee, Gulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and others mounted a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned what happened to his promise of ushering in 'achche din' (good days) in the three years that he has been in power.

IMAGE: Lalu Prasad with his daughter Missa Bharti and sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav at the rally. Photograph: PTI Photo

They blamed the Modi government for the "plight" of farmers, workers and youth.

Almost all the speakers recalled the triumph of the Grand Alliance in Bihar in 2015 which stopped the BJP juggernaut and vented their anger at Nitish Kumar for "betraying people's mandate by going with the BJP."

Speaking before host Lalu Prasad, Banerjee, who was the toast of the event, strongly criticised demonetisation and said it would lead to the downfall of BJP in the next election.

"Like nasbandi (forced sterlisation) had led to fall of Indira Gandhi, notebandi (demonestisation) will lead to the downfall of BJP," Banerjee declared.

She also accused the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre of bias against states non-BJP ruled states.

"When there is trouble in Haryana or Rajasthan (ruled by the BJP), they send the army but the same is not done in case of West Bengal in times of need," she said.

Banerjee also charged the Centre with "misusing" central agencies against opposition leaders "not joining the BJP chorus". "I am a fighter and will not be cowed down by such tactics," she asserted.

Lalu focused mostly on Nitish Kumar, calling him a Palturam (turncoat). "This is probably his last palti (about turn) as no party would trust him now," he said.

The RJD boss accused Kumar of getting false cases foisted on his family members with the help of the BJP as he is "jealous of the rise of Tejaswi Yadav."

Lalu also pointed an accusing finger at Kumar in the multi-crore rupees Srijan NGO scam and repeated the demand for his resignation. He demanded that the ongoing CBI probe be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Sharad Yadav, all set to face action for attending the RJD rally, did not name Kumar but spoke about how the faith of 11 crore people of Bihar who had voted for the Grand Alliance was broken. "It is for the first time that the manifestos of two rivals mingled midcourse."

"I am not afraid of you," he said, apparently referring to Kumar, and asserted that his struggle for the cause of farmers and workers would continue.

"I am facing 43 cases and both my legs were broken in the course of my struggle for the poor and downtrodden ... The fight would continue. Now I will work for forging a 'gathbandan' (coalition) for 125 crore citizens of the country," he added.

IMAGE: Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi greets Banerjee during the rally. Photograph: PTI Photo

A majority of the speakers including Banerjee, Congress' Gulam Nabi Azad, Akhilesh Yadav, JMM leader Hemant Soren, and RLD's Jayant Chaudhary praised Tejaswi Yadav, younger son of Lalu Prasad who is the leader of opposition in Bihar.

Gulam Nabi Azad, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha launched a blistering attack against Nitish Kumar and the NDA government at the Centre.

"Today one person is missing from this dais ... Nitish Kumar you have betrayed 11 crore citizens of Bihar by selling their vote to the BJP," Azad, whose party has decided to stay with the RJD, said.

"The BJP had used 26 helicopters and 6 planes during the Bihar poll campaign while the Grand Alliance had only four aircraft for campaigning. Still the poor of the state defeated the BJP and gave us massive the mandate ... Nitish Kumar left Lalu Prasad and now people of Bihar will leave him," Azad, who attended the rally with his party colleague C P Joshi, said.

Akhilesh Yadav questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of creating two crore jobs every year.

Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav blew the conch at the rally and said he had sounded "the bugle for Arjun" (his younger brother Tejaswi Yadav) to launch a decisive battle against Nitish Kumar and the BJP in Bihar.

Tejaswi Yadav, who had promised he would answer accusations about his integrity after the CBI registered a corruption case against him in land-for-hotels case, did not talk about it. Instead, he asked the gathering: "Do you believe that I am a thief or corrupt?"
1. Yes. The ordinance goes against state law and is not in the best interest of the cities.

2. Yes. At the very least, it should be amended to give police officers some discretion.

3. No. Voters approved the ordinance by large majorities; the councils cant ignore that fact.

4. No. The petition process has to be given a chance to work. Leave the ordinance alone.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the cities should move forward regarding the ordinance.

Vote

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The bureaucracy in Haryana blamed the government for inexperience and criminal negligence.

Aditi Phadnis reports.

A flag march by the army, 36 confirmed deaths (some from gunshot injuries), a sharp indictment from the Punjab and Haryana high court and an urgent meeting between Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and the BJP in-charge of Haryana, Anil Jain, only resulted in one concerted message coming out of the BJP: That Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, under whose watch three major law and order lapses happened, leading to large-scale arson and looting, will not be replaced.

With the party denying he had been summoned to Delhi, Khattar was effectively exonerated of responsibility of the fall-out of the rape conviction of godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and violence by his followers in Haryana and Rajasthan.

However, messages were sent out via social media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was deeply 'upset' at the events in Haryana.

Jain said people who died in clashes on Friday, August 25, were supporters of the Dera Sacha Sauda. All Dera Ashrams, he added, are being sealed and the Dera headquarter in Sirsa is being vacated.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh put out well-publicised messages that he had cancelled other engagements to stay put in the capital and monitor events in Haryana, as local administrative authorities entered Ram Rahim Singh's Sirsa ashram amid reports that large caches of firearms and explosives had been stored there.

Although all political parties have been complicit in the build-up Ram Rahim Singh got as a godman, the Congress criticised the BJP government in Haryana for 'sleeping' on the job even though it had more than adequate information that supporters were planning a violent stir.

In his defence, Khattar said the arson was the result of outsiders and 'anti-social elements'

The areas around Haryana remained tense on Saturday. Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar saw the closure of petrol pumps, fearing attacks by Ram Rahim Singh's followers; schools were ordered to be closed till Monday in Punjab and assembly of five or more persons was prohibited in most parts of the National Capital Region.

To prevent any further escalation when the quantum of Ram Rahim Singh's sentence is announced -- he faces up to seven years in jail -- sentencing on Monday will take place via video conferencing inside the jail in Rohtak where he is currently lodged.

Internally, the bureaucracy in Haryana blamed the government for inexperience and criminal negligence.

"Khattar has a reputation for personal honesty. But the same cannot be said of some of his colleagues: Both in the state and in Delhi. Money is changing hands freely in bureaucratic appointments and posting. When you buy and sell appointments, obviously, performance suffers," said a senior retired bureaucrat.

He gave the example of changes in land-use (CLU) cases. CLU was permitted over land adding up to around 18,000 acres during the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime. But no CLU files have been reopened.

"The gap between the people and the government is widening," he said.

Retired bureaucrats cite the way the Jat agitation was managed, the scale of the violence being unprecedented.

"The police and intelligence chiefs should have been replaced immediately. But one was promoted as the chief information commissioner of the state and the other was made the head of power board."

During the agitation, molestations were reported in Murthal. A commission set up by the government itself named officials who were responsible for negligence, leading to the molestations. No action was taken on the report.

The army, local administration and paramilitary forces are acting in concert to prevent further deterioration of the situation.

The high court has ordered that Dera properties be seized to compensate the state and people of Haryana for the public damage caused by vandals.

IMAGE: A scene from Panchkula, August 25, 2017. Photograph: PTI Photo
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  A Maryland man accused of firing a gun during the white nationalist Unite the Right rally this month has been charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school in an incident that may have been caught on video.

Richard Wilson Preston, 52, was arrested Saturday and is currently in the custody of the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson, Md. Charlottesville police said in a news release Saturday that Preston fired the gun Aug. 12 in the 100 block of West Market Street, which is a corner of Emancipation Park, where the rally was held.

In addition to Prestons arrest, Daniel Patrick Borden, 18, has been charged with malicious wounding related to an aggravated assault that day near the Market Street Parking Garage. He was arrested Friday and is currently in the custody of the Hamilton County Criminal Justice Center in Cincinnati.

Related to that same assault, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, also has been charged with malicious wounding. Ramos is currently wanted by the Charlottesville police and has a last known address in Marietta, Ga.

Police and city officials did not reply to multiple requests for confirmation that Borden and Ramos charges are related to the beating of Deandre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage.

The rally, scheduled to begin at noon Aug. 12, fell into chaos as white nationalist groups entered the park hours earlier. Ralliers and counterprotesters clashed.

Later that afternoon, Heather Heyer was killed near Fourth and Water streets after a car drove into a group of counterprotesters. James Alex Fields Jr., of Ohio, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, among other offenses. Police said Saturday that they have now identified 35 victims of the car attack.

In a video taken Aug. 12 by a legal observer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, a white man is seen at the corner of First Street North and Market Street, just outside Emancipation Park, pointing a gun and then firing it once toward a black man who had used a spray can as a torch, then putting the gun in his pocket, turning and walking away.

Police and city officials did not reply to multiple requests for confirmation that the man in the video is Preston.

The ACLU of Virginia said it noticed the specific content of the video on Aug. 16, when a legal observer uploaded it to the groups Dropbox account. Letters provided by the ACLU of Virginia show that staff sent the video to the FBI on Aug. 17 and then to Charlottesville and state police on Aug. 20.
The departing Confederacy left two sets of monuments in Richmond. One set you can see  the massive gravestones to a Lost Cause spreading stiffly and silently down the expanse of Monument Avenue. The second set you cannot see. These are the real artifacts of the Confederacy, driven underground and unacknowledged, which continue to control the lives of our citizens.

Our great American Revolution was only a half-revolution in Virginia. Half the population moved into full citizenship; half the population was consigned to a shadowy police state where wages, ownership, citizenship, and even legal marriage were unavailable. The only criterion used to differentiate these groups was race.

The Confederacy declared independence from the United States in order to maintain this dual system of privilege: full citizenship and unprotected slavery.

If Richmond is truly to become the Capital of Reconciliation  redeeming our shame  we would do well to spend our time, energy, and wealth removing these real artifacts of that Confederacy. They perpetuate its spirit; they continue its policies; and they actually continue the half-citizenship of the Confederacy for thousands of our people.

***

There are at least five major artifacts  representing the Confederacys dual system of privilege  which keep the Confederacy alive in modern metropolitan Richmond. Dealing with them is the task of serious people who believe in our nations deepest values.

(1) Deteriorated public school buildings.

In 1970, federal courts required the full racial integration of Richmonds majority-black school system. In 1971, the General Assembly prohibited Richmond from annexing territory and soon thereafter the courts rejected an integrated metropolitan school system.

At that time Richmond was almost completely in debt. The surrounding counties, with little historic debt, could build anything they wanted. Richmond could not afford the annual capital expense necessary to keep current with school construction. Today Richmond Public Schools buildings are severely deteriorated  45 years of restricted capital borrowing capacity have resulted in $600 million in deferred capital needs.

(2) Distressed public housing projects.

All of the public housing in metro Richmond was included within the circle of the permanent boundary that the General Assembly drew for the city of Richmond in 1971. Prior to that date, the legislature and Richmond leaders had concentrated all of the public projects in the very center and East End of the city.

As the heritage of the Confederacy, Richmonds poverty is mostly African-American. The federal governments support of low-income housing developments has diminished significantly since the public housing was built.

The citys revenue cannot pay for its renewal, and the General Assembly takes no notice. The communities are distressed, isolated, impoverished, and invisible.

(3) Buses that stop at the city line.

Today, metropolitan Richmond occupies approximately 1,200 square miles. But only 62 of those square miles have full-service public transportation. Buses stop at the boundary line of the small, unexpandable center city.

From 1980 to 2000, the federal and state governments spent more than $1.1 billion building a beltway for metro Richmond. But the General Assembly used tax funds in RVA almost solely for highways and excluded the building of a modern public transportation system serving everyone. It gave counties the ability to stop buses at the city line.

Today, only 10 percent of the metropolitan citys jobs and none of its community colleges are accessible by public transportation. Several hundred thousand citizens, most of them persons of color, are still in the Confederacy, segregated by transportation.

(4) Richmond city jail.

Located just blocks from the notorious private slave jails of the Confederacy, the enormous Richmond city jail is full of men and women who should be somewhere else. The cost of keeping a person in jail or prison in Virginia is estimated variously to be from $50,000 to $150,000 a year.

The unavailable funds needed to make education accessible to inner-city youth in concentrated poverty are about $10,000 a year. But the General Assembly desperately underfunds inner-city schools. Instead it annually condemns city schools for having lower test scores  results which it has guaranteed through discriminatory funding and jurisdictional re-segregation.

Far too many young persons end up in jail, in a state that calls a $201 theft a felony. Disenfranchised, they may live their lives in an enduring, shadowy sub-citizenship, which continues the duality of the Confederacy.

(5) The city of Petersburg.

Once the final bastion of Confederate resistance, Petersburg has become a monument to the Confederate spirit in Virginias urban policy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the General Assembly decided that Petersburg, along with the states other historic cities, could no longer expand its boundaries with metropolitan economic growth.

Most of these center cities were home to the impoverished portion of the urban population, largely African-American. Their wealth was being siphoned off into surrounding suburban jurisdictions. Petersburg was particularly vulnerable. The downward economic cycle was completely predictable.

Forty-five years later, Petersburg finally became penniless. The decision had been made by the General Assembly a half-century earlier. Petersburg is the most extreme example of the Confederate urban policy, which has affected all of Virginias historic independent cities.

***

It is far easier even to remove the massive statues on Monument Avenue than it is to deal with the hidden artifacts of the Confederacy in metro Richmond. It may also be one more false victory.

Does removal of statues mean that more or less attention will be paid in the future to the major work that is undone? These are public monuments to the hidden artifacts that still hold our metropolitan city in bondage to the scandal of the Confederacy. The gravestones will be removed, but the buried bodies will continue to haunt us. The national media will shift their attention somewhere else. But the hidden, destructive divisions will remain.

Above all, the Capital of the Confederacy needs to become the Capital of Reconciliation.
The bread and butter of the faith-based film genre is real-life stories, usually involving miracle healings or visions of Jesus himself, and often times both (Miracles From Heaven, 90 Minutes in Heaven). But the filmmakers of faith-based projects have been expanding their purview, in terms of genre, and in telling stories that usually depict a contemporary, inclusive representation of Christianity. The story behind All Saints, written by Steve Armour and directed by Steve Gomer, manages to encompass all of the above.

The line between fiction and non-fiction is deliberately blurred in All Saints, which tells the true story of a Tennessee church resurrected by unlikely saviors. The film was shot on location at the real All Saints Church in Smyrna, Tennessee, and many members of the church play themselves on screen. John Corbett puts his folksy charm to the role of the Rev. Michael Spurlock, who is tasked with putting a dying church out of its misery, its mortgage astronomical and membership dwindling. Its all set to become a big-box store, but with a vision from God and a few dozen Burmese immigrants, Michael reverses course, reviving the institution from a certain death.

Nelson Lee plays Ye Win, an ethnically Karen man from Burma, a refugee from brutal civil war, who has just arrived with a group of families in the United States. Lacking support and resources, he turns up at All Saints church. When the needy Karen land on his doorstep, the rebellious Michael decides that he speaks to a higher power than money  and that God has instructed him to plant a farm on the church land to feed the Karen people and pay the churchs mortgage.

All Saints is rather fascinating in its relationship to faith and religion. Its not so much about scripture as it is about community. The people who need community the most cling to the church not necessarily for the prayers, but for the people. Though there are a few well-placed Bible verses, this story is about the purpose that a church serves to bring different kinds of people together and offer common goals, salvation and collective endeavors.

The cinematic execution of All Saints is serviceable at best. Its stilted and awkward at times, with too much dead air hanging around, and often the stakes and roller coaster of ups and downs in the script seem out of step with the emotion on screen. There are high highs, low lows and last-minute saves that seem amped up for cinematic purposes.

Corbett is impassioned as Michael, even when his shaggy-dog sensibility doesnt quite fit this part. Lee gives the best performance in the film as the stoic and striving Ye Win, searching not even for the American dream, but simply a place to call home. He bonds with cranky Vietnam vet Forrest (Barry Corbin) through their shared war experiences and offers Forrest the thing he needed the most: a friend.

All Saints targets its faithful audience with a tale of Christian community that includes people of all races, nationalities, cultures and creeds coming together in service to each other. Its a sweet story, even if the storytelling falters and aesthetic packaging leaves something to be desired.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  The identity of who leaked a classified memo critical of Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones handling of communications, planning and the response to the white nationalist Unite the Right rally on Aug. 12 remains unconfirmed.

A few members of the city council have expressed frustration and disappointment that the document was leaked, but allegations and innuendos abound that it may have been one of them who leaked the document.

The memo was sent to Jones ahead of a closed-session meeting that the council held with him Thursday. The night before the meeting, Mayor Mike Signer said he called the meeting to discuss personnel matters with Jones and the council. City Attorney Craig Brown attended the meeting and also received the memo.

Sherry S, the anonymous person who used an email account with the name whistleblowrcville in it, did not respond to messages requesting an off-the-record conversation with promises of continued anonymity.

Within an hour after The Daily Progress published its first report about the leaked memo, Councilwoman Kristin Szakos contacted a staff reporter and alleged that the story was inaccurate because not all of the councilors approved the entire contents of the memo.

The document begins with an explanation that Signer prepared it with input from Szakos and council members Wes Bellamy and Kathy Galvin.

Councilman Bob Fenwick, the document says, did not respond to calls from Signer on the day the memo was sent to Jones.

Later in the day Friday, in another phone call, Szakos said she thought it was unfair that the document was leaked and reported on because Jones had provided sufficient answers to the questions he faced in Thursdays meeting.

Acknowledging that there had been speculation that he could be fired from his job, Jones said Friday that there was no discussion at Thursdays meeting of his being terminated.

He said the meeting was very productive, and that he was able to address the concerns the councilors brought to him and dispel any misunderstandings about the citys operational response to the rally and events before and after.

On Friday, the city announced that it had hired former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy to conduct a third-party investigation of how police managed three different white nationalist rallies over the past few months.

Szakos said she was very troubled that the document was leaked, and she worried that it could undercut the councils ability to work together moving forward.

It is our responsibility to have some oversight in trying to figure out what went well and what did not. But questions are not the same as condemnations, she said. We were not going in there accusing anyone of anything, she said. Thats not what I was doing, at least.

Fenwick also said the meeting was productive and that he thinks the city is on the right path, adding that he was not too troubled by the leak. He said he thinks that police operations that day were not a complete disaster.

It was as good as we could have expected, he said. Until the terrorist attack on Fourth Street (where a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring at least 35 others), I thought the city scored a victory.

In an email Friday, ahead of an interview later in the day, Fenwick noted that the memo had been prepared by Signer. He then said, I think I know who would have had the most to gain from sending it.

In the follow-up phone call, he refused to name the person he was talking about.

However, Fenwick mentioned that people he spoke with after Thursdays meeting said they were appalled by a statement Signer made on his Facebook page before Thursdays meeting.

Intended to explain the reason for the meeting, Signers statement was read by some as the mayor shifting blame for the tragedies of Aug. 12 onto Jones and city Police Chief Al Thomas. The statement also alluded to the conspiracy theories that claim Signer told police to stand down that day.

Signer said those allegations are unfounded because he has no authority in police operations and was barred from the police command center on the day of the rally.

In the council-manager form of government the city follows, the day-to-day duties of government, including public safety operations, are implemented and overseen by the city manager.

The primary responsibility of the mayor, who is elected by the council every two years, is to preside over the councils meetings. Among the councils responsibilities are making policy choices regarding a variety of subjects, including public safety and justice.

At Mondays council meeting, Signer was met by demands that he resign for the citys failure to prevent the rally from moving forward, and he was blamed, alongside other officials, for the violence and death at the rally.

Asked whether he leaked the document, Signer replied, absolutely not. He did not respond to subsequent phone calls and text messages Friday evening.

Earlier in the day, before any reports about the leaked memo were published, Signer said the leak was unacceptable, adding, I cannot comment on it and would ask you not to write about it.

Bellamy declined to comment on the leaked memo, saying that he did not want to talk about it and make things worse.

Jones said he isnt sure why someone would have wanted to leak the memo. Szakos declined to answer the same question.

Szakos said shes unaware if it was one of the councilors who might have leaked it to the media. Im not sure if one of them leaked it to someone else, who then chose or was asked to share it with reporters. Whoever did it, she said, shouldnt have because it was confidential.

Galvin did not respond to phone calls Friday.

After the closed-session meeting Thursday, Signer said he still has confidence in Thomas and Jones.

Alluding also to the pending third-party investigation of the citys operations and plans to meet with constituents in town halls in the coming weeks, Signer said Thursdays meeting was part of expressing our regret to the community about what happened, but also getting right any and all systems that we have going forward.
Hunter Radford, a carpentry student at Blacksburg High School, has been elected to serve as a SkillsUSA Region 2 vice president of the high school division. Radford was elected through a formal elections process in the SkillsUSA House of Delegates during the 53rd annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference held in Louisville, Kentucky, in June.

As regional vice president, Radford will serve as a student leader, spokesperson and ambassador for the SkillsUSA organization. He will speak on behalf of SkillsUSA before students, instructors and representatives of business and industry.

Hunter has excellent leadership skills and a strong work ethic, said Tim Lawrence, executive director of SkillsUSA. He is also quick to recognize the importance of communications and teamwork when it comes to success.

To run for a national office, SkillsUSA members must follow the election process for their local training program, school and state. Once they have made it to the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, candidates must then pass a knowledge test, interview for candidacy and begin the campaign process to student delegates representing the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Radford states: Becoming a national officer and being in the SkillsUSA organization has given me the opportunity to meet many great leaders who have helped me consistently grow. They have pushed me to go further and to go for what I believe in. It has also led me to make new friends and become bonded with others who have the same drive and passion that I have. I believe SkillsUSA is such a great experience no matter how old you are or where you come from, and I am dedicated in making sure others have the same opportunities that I have had as being a member.

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit partnership of students, instructors and industry with a mission of ensuring America has the skilled workforce it needs to stay competitive. The association serves more than 335,000 students and instructors each year.

in middle schools, high schools and colleges.

For information, go to SkillsUSA.org.

For more information, go to www.SkillsUSA.org.

 Submitted by Kim Radford
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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Argentinean National Securities Commission (CNV) shortened from 72 to 48 hours the payment and accreditation deadlines to settle any bond or stock traded on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange or the Electronic Open Market.

The move will come into effect from next Monday and is aimed to provide the Argentinean capital market with "greater dynamism, liquidity, and depth."

So far, the market has operated with a 72 hours settlement period, which implies that any agent or individual who buys a bond or stock must wait three days to be able to dispose of it.

Among its arguments, the CNV said that "it must act tending to simplify operations within the capital market to facilitate the access of small investors to it and to promote their integration."

by Agencia CMA Latam

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Argentinean government expressed its rejection to the 57-61% tariffs imposed by the United States Department of Commerce on its biodiesel exports. The preliminary sanction results of a research conducted by private U.S. biodiesel producers.

In a statement, Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that, along with the national private sector, it cooperates with the investigation that is being carried out, and clarified that, contrary to what was reported by U.S. agencies, Argentina does not grant subsidies to its biodiesel producers.

According to the ministry, the high tariffs imposed "do not correspond to any objective research or methodology acceptable from the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules point of view.

"Argentina will seek to reverse this preliminary decision by defending the interest of our country, will evaluate all available options and reserves the right to carry out relevant legal actions," the Foreign Ministry warned.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced changes to his cabinet, appointing a new oil minister and a new chairman of the state-owned oil company PDVSA. Eulogio Del Pino was appointed as new Oil Minister, while Nelson Martinez was nominated to lead PDVSA, changing places one with another.

"We have a firm proposition that we have been consulting with the world and will soon be presenting to key leaders within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries," Maduro said.

Del Pino, who was in charge of PDVSA, will be responsible for "international alliances, to advance at the summit of OPEC and non-OPEC Heads of State for the regulation of oil and gas prices," said the Venezuela President.

Martinez, who was Oil Minister, was designated to "working on import substitution in the Venezuelan oil industry, improving national refining capacity and strengthening alliances with the 40 companies that operate in the Orinoco Belt," according to a statement released by PDVSA.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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A cashier at Frankies Supermarket at Salelologa has been jailed for four years after she was convicted of stealing $52,481.40 from her former employer.

Antonina Pamata Paulo, also known as Pamata Paulo Pipi Salu, appeared before Supreme Court Justice Vui Clarence Nelson for sentencing on Friday.

The defendant faced six criminal charges of theft as a servant.

As the Head Cashier, Antonina was responsible for filling in the Cash Summary for each cashier and would sign it together with the relevant Cashier verifying the accuracy of the count.

The defendant would then compile a Daily Banking Schedule, which would be signed off by the Branch Manager.

According to evidence before the court, cash takings for the day was kept locked in the store vault overnight and banked the next day.

The defendants is also responsible to fill in the relevant Bank Deposit Slip, which she would have the Branch Manager sign.

The store also operates as a base for Frankies Company Limited Money Transfer Business, which was also under the jurisdiction of the defendant.

It was the practice at the store contrary to good financial and accounting procedure to borrow money from the Supermarket cash when necessary in order to supplement the Money Transfer operation.

This was done on a regular basis with Head Office approval and the short banking would be recorded, usually on the Daily Banking Schedule.

Head Office in Apia would subsequently reimburse the store by cheque delivered direct to the shop, which the defendant usually signed for. I am satisfied from the documents exhibited that the reimbursement cheques in this matter were personally received by the defendant."

The defendant was supposed to use these cheques to reimburse the store operation. The prosecutions case is that instead of doing that the defendant misappropriated the money to her own personal use.

Justice Vui pointed out the defendant elected to give evidence and her attempts to lay the blame for this upon her administrative and other inadequacies and at the feet of the Branch Manager are rejected.

She made no mention of this to the Police when interviewed by them. And she signed incriminating confessions and made incriminating admissions to the company officers investigating this matter."

The defendant is an educated young lady having reached Year 13 level according to her testimony and it was clear from her demeanour and answers especially in cross examination that she is quite intelligent."

The complainant company obviously shared this view that is why she was appointed Head Cashier of this branch in Savaii. She was smart enough to have her boss sign the 'short-banked' Deposit Slips even though she deposited the monies in the bank." So that if something went amiss she could always blame against the Manager, which she tried to do in her oral evidence before the court. I have no doubt if this was really the case she would have so informed the Police."

I do not accept she was coerced into making incriminating admissions to the company investigators by their promise that if she repaid the monies the matter would not be referred to the police, said Justice Vui.

I do accept however the defendant repaid some $6,000 tala to the complainant company. This will be taken into account in due course."

I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the defendant stole the funds as alleged totaling $45,616.10. On those charges I find the defendant guilty.

Justice Vui said the appropriate sentence the maximum penalty for this kind of offending is 10 years in prison for each charge.

Theft as a servant especially by young women in this country seems to be a popular pastime and the court frowns seriously on those involved in such matters."

Cases show that the normal penalty is imprisonment unless there are exceptional circumstances warranting some other treatment. No such exceptional circumstances exist here."

This is a large scale systematic theft of a significant sum by someone in a trusted position." The gravity of offending is high, the loss to the complainant company except for the $6,000 odd repaid by the defendant was great.

There is no question an imprisonment penalty is required for your matter the only issue is for how long.

Prosecution have suggested a start point for sentence of six years in prison. However Justice Vui thinks that is too high.

I will start sentence at 5 years in prison, from that start point is to be deducted mitigating factors in your favour. The first is for your clean record and good background as outlined in the pre-sentence report including references from your pulenuu and faifeau. For that I make the normal deduction of 6 months, leaves 4 years 6 months."

As stated post-offending you repaid some $6,000.00 of the money stolen from the complainant."

While that is only about 13% of the companies loss it is some attempt by you to make amends and does to the extent of the repayment mitigate the companys loss."

I have no doubt you are not in a position to pay more and neither are your parents who told the probation officer as much as they love you they cannot afford to make compensation in this case."

In any event even if the full amount were repaid that would not have saved you from a prison term given the seriousness of the offending."

But for the amount you have paid back I will make a 3 month deduction by way of partial restitution, leaves a balance of 4 years and 3 months."

Had you pleaded guilty at the outset of this trial you would have received a further and substantial deduction from sentence but you chose not to."

You defended this matter even though you had paid back some of the monies stolen, you had made oral and written confessions of guilt to the company and even though there was plenty of documentary evidence against you as disclosed by the trial documents.

Which you confirmed you had received but said you had left in Savaii when the trial commenced, leading to the court ordering the prosecution to supply you with a replacement set.

Notwithstanding all this you persisted in your denial of the charges and even after conviction you continued to do so as evidenced by your protestations of innocence to the Probation Office recorded in your pre-sentence report.

All this shows a lack of remorse which is why the court cannot accept the apology you expressed yesterday. Which was too little too late. Justice Vui noted the defendant is a young woman.

As a gesture of general leniency I will remove a further three months from your sentence, leaving a balance of four years in prison.
We should value our Samoan language and do the best we can to strengthen how it is used.

That is the message from the Chairperson of the Samoan Language Commission; Reverend Vaiao Alailima Eteuati.

He was speaking during a press conference to highlight the work of the Commission, especially in relation to how symbols are applied in the written word.

The Commission is concerned about the many ways the symbols and signs are wrongly used. Rev. Vaiao pointed out that our language is slowly fading because elders no longer place emphasis on its use and how it is used.

That is why the government has decided to find a way to bring back the Samoan language and use it correctly, said Rev. Vaiao.

Our language is our identity from God and that is why we had to bring this issue to the Cabinet.

The Commission was first established in 2014.

Our language is slowly slipping away, and thats why the government set up this Commission for us to look deeply at ways to recapture our Samoan Language.

The main goal now is for our people to emphasize and keep our Samoan language alive through writing and the main purpose of the legislation is to treasure and develop our language for the people of Samoa before they go outside of our country.

Rev. Vaiao added that the legislation is based on the correct use of punctuation marks or symbols in the Samoan language has been passed and approved by the Cabinet.

The macron (-) and apostrophe () are symbols that are normally used in the Samoan written language.

And it comes down to this, where we are required to emphasize the use of this method or these symbols to aid the clarity and comprehension of the written language. Clarity is the most significant factor here.

However, if these symbols are misused in any form of Samoan writings, the writer is the one at fault.

Rev. Vaiao highlighted the growing number of students failing Samoan language classes at school.

A lot of them dont have good results when it comes to Samoan exams and a reason given by teachers and educators is that this is one of the most threatening issues; the use of symbols in the written language, he said.

Dont use symbols on words that it shouldnt be used on.

The Commission initially convened on November 2014, after Parliament passed the Samoan Language Commission Act 2014 in August of the same year.

Under the Act, the Samoan Language is declared as an official language.

It is empowered to ensure the Samoan language is and remains a vibrant language and accorded the status, right and privilege as to the use in all government or State institutions.
A man from Tuanai has offered a different perspective about the cost of living.

Contrary to claims that it is far too expensive, Faafili Iosefa, of Tuanai, said it is not as expensive as people are making it out to be.

He said the response should be to work harder as opposed to complaining about it.

Life is not expensive, he said. The reason why people say its expensive is because they are not doing any work.

As a matter of fact, they are just sitting around doing nothing; we all know that this world, we can never gain anything without dropping a single sweat.

He said the cost of living is the same in all countries of the world.

We are all in the same race; we strive for what is best for our families even if it means we have to give up a couple of things that we want.

The 56-year-old father maintains that life is easy when we work hard.

In Samoa, we all know the kind of life that our parents brought us all up from, he said.

It was not an easy life. It was a hard one and that is why I dont understand why some families are finding it hard to live.

We have everything but its just that people are too dependent on hand outs.

Faafili said Samoa is a blessed country.

We have lots of fertile land, he said. So why struggle when we have these gifts from God to work on for our own good.

Faafili spoke to the Village Voice yesterday while he was working on their plantation.

He is a father of four.

Faafili believes in the power of faith and prayers.

If people work hard and serve the Lord with everything they have, I guarantee that blessings will pour to them like rain, he said.

I believe in the power of prayer because the more we pray the more we receive from God.
If you think life should be a breeze, you are on the wrong planet.

So says Johnny Tumanu of Tuanai who believes people should embrace changes and challenges as part of life.

Speaking to the Village Voice, Mr. Tumanu highlighted some of the changes and how its affecting our country.

We have new roads, people in our village have access to electricity and water and now its easier for everyone to do their own work knowing they have all that, said Mr. Tumanu.

But there are also changes that put a lot of pressure on people.

I know the cost of living is expensive and believe me I know, because there are times when I cant even afford what we need even if its just a can of fish (elegi).

Sometimes when were able to afford chicken for Sunday (toonai) it feels like winning a lottery.

The cost of living is like that; its affordable for others and not for others especially the ones who are low income earners.

Everything now requires payment; water, electricity and our childrens education. I have two kids in school and its not an easy thing to pay off even with my wife and other son working.

The 46 year old also went on to say that hes a big supporter of the Chinese shops in Samoa.

We shouldnt be complaining about the Chinese businesses.

Some have said that their products are cheap because they get broken easily but look at how expensive the cost of living is in our country and the Chinese businesses are actually helping us and honestly they are just lifesaving especially when it comes to food because most Samoans always want to buy chicken for food.

But I guess it all comes down to the people and how they are living their lives, are they working to earn a living or not?

If you want good things in life then I guess all you have to do is work hard. Its challenging but its also a life lesson for everyone.
It is all about grabbing the opportunity because it may only come around once. This was the most common feedback from the women of Siutu who attended the livelihood training carried out by Samoa Victim Support Group.

Centered at the Womens Committee Fale in Siutu, this was the first time a program has reached this village. And the interest from the whole village of Siutu was seen by the attendance and participation by elderly village leaders and nofotane women.

According to a village elder and high chief Mulipola Loia There have been a lot of programs that just passed Siutu, but this was the first program that was specifically for the women of Siutu. Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioo, the Chair of the Project Advisory Committee accompanied the S.V.S.G. President during this special training for the women of Siutu.

Siutu is rich in tapa cloth making. So while the trainers for the Nofotane Project went out there to empower the women of Siutu with skills in commercial cooking, handicraft, flower arrangement and fabric painting, they were in return trained on the whole process of making tapa, from extracting the bulk of the mulberry tree to the traditionally printing methods for the cloth.

Here were women with a rare talent, yet did not realize how far they can go when their products are properly marketed. A traditional cloth that can be used in various ways, Siutus tapa clothing were turned into coasters, sei, table mats, wall display and others. Some of the tapa clothing were brought back to Apia by the training team. A day later, SVSG had transferred to these newly established entrepreneur proceeds from the sale of their tapa clothing.

You can hear the excitement in their voices when we contacted these women to pick up their funds from the closest Western Union branch in Savaii. This is the expected outcome of the project; to empower nofotane women with skills necessary for them to earn a living to support themselves and their families.

A nofotane woman will always be a nofotane; the project is not attempting to change this cultural aspect of the FaaSamoa. The project merely aims to improve the economic empowerment of women and to increase their participation in domestic and community matters, as these are some of the most important contributing factors to achieving gender equality. Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President

Thank you so much to the village leaders, the Womens Committee and the women of Siutu for your hospitality, as you hosted the project team throughout the week. Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President
The decision to allow Chinese construction workers to work on Sunday has attracted widespread anger. Members of the public are very vocal against calling on the government to change the laws to stop them from doing Sunday work. What do you think? Should Chinese and other foreign builders be allowed to work on Sunday? Lizzy Hunt asked in todays Street Talk and this is what people said:

Tau Vaai, 20, Tulaele

There are Sundays where I dont go to church but staying home doesnt mean I have to go and do any construction work or any hard labor that I know I shouldnt be doing on a Sunday. With all the rumors that I heard about this construction work that these people are doing on Sunday when our Samoan people are going to church, its just not right, so I recommend that the government be able to think deeply about this matter and make sure that these Chinese wont be able to do their construction work on Sunday.

Neino Pili, 32, Faleasiu

If we are a Christian country then why are we allowing these outsiders to do their construction work on Sunday? I think its best that we do something about this matter asap. We cant just allow these Chinese to just do whatever they want on Sunday. Its really impolite for them to bang their hammers and just make noise while the people of Samoa sing and pray on Sunday. I suggest that they stop right now; I dont want to see them doing any more work on Sunday.

Logoitino Salima, 22, Vaiola

As a citizen of Samoa, I am really unhappy with these foreign people coming in our country, building businesses on our lands, bringing in different goods and now they are also doing their hammering and shoveling work on Sunday. They dont even have respect at all. I think this has to be stopped . The government should do something about this.

Ezra Lolo, 25,Lalomanu

In my own opinion, these construction workers shouldnt be able to do their hard works on Sunday, as a matter of fact, they should either stay home, cook some food and rest, and they must know that everyone goes to church on Sunday; even the prime minister himself never misses going to church, so why dont we just all do the same. If we dont go to church them we might as well spend our time to read our bibles or pray for the ones that are going to church but dont do any hard work.

Sio Sao, 44, Tufuiopa

It is unacceptable that we allow these foreigners to do construction work on Sunday while the citizens of our country are praising our Lord. Sometimes some Samoans join in and together they disrespectfully do their work on Sunday just because they wanted the money. I totally agree with Tuilaepa Soiamoa, if you dont go to church, read a Bible but dont do any hard labor on Sunday.

Tataisio Lafao, 20, Tapueleele

Our country is a Christian country yet why are we allowing these people who are not from our country to do their construction work on Sunday, a day where people spare to go to church?, whats even worse is that the work belongs to a Samoan. Isnt six days of the week be enough for them to do their hard work. The Government should make sure that these foreigners wont be able to do any more hard work on Sunday because its disrespectful especially when they make a lot of noise while people are there worshipping and resting on Sunday.
SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazil's mega-corruption scandal that has ensnared much of its political and economic elite has one sector of its struggling economy booming: the sale of electronic monitoring bracelets.

Wealthy businessmen or politicians caught up in the massive "Car Wash" investigation are often serving time at home, either by reaching plea bargains or appealing. That has made the use of bracelets much more common, not only by requiring them for high-profile convicts but by raising awareness about them with judges who are increasingly using them in other cases to ease dangerous overcrowding in Brazil's prisons.

"Thanks to the investigation, there are now more judges who know of the bracelets and require them in their decisions," said Marcelo Ribeiro de Almeida, director of Sao Paulo-based Synergy, one of the leading bracelet companies. "Our overcrowded and ineffective prison system has created that opportunity for business."

Launched in March 2014, the "Car Wash" probe has brought down scores of the country's elite. Top executives at state oil company Petrobras and construction companies like Odebrecht formed a cartel that would decide on the granting of inflated contracts, and which politicians and other officials would receive kickbacks. Over the course of a decade, more than $3 billion in bribes were doled out, according to authorities.

Over the last three years, federal judge Sergio Moro, the lead magistrate in the corruption probe, has sent nearly 30 top politicians and business leaders to house arrest, often after reaching plea bargains that helped dismantle the scheme. The small number of big fish prisoners has had a booming effect nationwide.

When the probe began, fewer than 10,000 inmates were under house surveillance in a handful of the country's most affluent states, according to the companies that provide the bracelets. Today there are more than 24,000 prisoners using devices in 22 out of 27 states. That number is expected to balloon to more than 120,000 in five years. One of the driving reasons is cost: monitoring an inmate with a bracelet costs about $200 a month, about  of the cost of prison.

The bracelets themselves cost between $30 and $120, and weigh less than a 1 pound. Sensitive bands go around the ankle, alerting monitors if removed.

At a Synergye call center in Sao Paulo, about 20 workers recently followed prisoners on computer screens.

"Ms. Adriana. How are you?" said a call-center worker. "Why did you leave the restricted area?"

But the bracelets are raising the question of fairness: Why should the rich or powerful get the chance to serve their sentences at comfortable homes while the poor have to endure prison?

Brazil has the fourth biggest inmate population in the world, with more than 600,000 prisoners in a system that often places white-collar and other non-violent offenders in the same penitentiaries as drug lords and leaders of violent gangs. Prisons are often way over capacity, infested with rats and unable to provide basic health services or even toilet paper. Riots in several prisons earlier this year left at least 125 dead.

"Some inmates go to huge mansions where they can do whatever they want," said former National Security Secretary Jose Vicente da Silva. "Where is the punishment in those cases?"

Others question the effectiveness of the bracelets.

"Private vendors are convinced that electronic monitoring devices can reduce crime, reoffending and recidivism. But the evidence for electronic bracelets from North America and Western Europe is still evolving," said Robert Muggah, research director for the Brazil-based think tank Igarape Institute.

Despite the criticism, the market for the bracelets will likely continue to grow as the "Car Wash" probe shows no signs of letting up.

Among those using the bracelets under house arrest are former Sen. Delcidio do Amaral, whose testimony implicated politicians across the board. Others have been sent home while they await trial, like deputy Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who was accused of carrying bribes for President Michel Temer, or Jose Dirceu, a chief of staff under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The four major Brazilian companies offering the service have been so successful that some are expanding to other Latin American countries.

One of the reasons is their technology: Brazilian bracelets have two SIM cards, which helps overcome notoriously faulty cellphone connections. Police also regularly visit inmates at their homes, which is when flaws in the system become more noticeable.

In August, a video of a police raid near the northeastern city of Maceio showed an inmate who had broken his electronic bracelet getting arrested again for drug trafficking.

"Police arrest us and the judges will let us go again," the man told a local television station as he was handcuffed. "I steal. I use drugs. I unleash hell and the judge will let me go. I even get a ride home with the police. This is Brazil."
The gripe from certain sectors of the community about companies carrying out heavy labour work on Sunday is not new.

The topic has been heavily debated before and it will continue to be so as long as nothing is done to appease these concerns.

The Tautua Samoa Party made the issue one of their campaign policies promising to stop foreign contractors from working on Sundays.

At the time, former opposition leader, Palusalue Faapo II, promised to restore the respect Samoa once had for Sundays.

It must be so difficult for the churches to perform its role when they see that the government doesnt care about Sundays, Palusalue said.

They are allowing contractors to work on Sundays, disrespecting Samoans and our Christian beliefs.

Palusalue said Samoa needs to go back to the path that our forefathers set for us and that involves respecting God and teaching foreigners to respect Samoas day of worship.

Sunday is a day of worship, he said. Any government must work with the churches to make sure Samoa is a God fearing country.

Some people have put money and contractual obligations before what is most important. They are ignoring whats most important to Samoa, which is our foundation and Christian beliefs.

As a country that is founded on Christian values, I am worried that our people are going to work on Sunday and not attending church.

I am not talking about the shops and other services that our people need on Sundays. I am talking about contractors who do work that disturb the peace on Sunday.

That was a few years ago.

Today, nothing has been done and foreign contractors have continued to carry out their heavy labour work on Sunday.

Last week, an unhappy mother, Tuilaepa Soiamoa Grey, revived the debate, questioning the legality of the recent amendment to the Constitution to allow Samoa to be declared a Christian State.

Tuilaepa accused the government leaders of being hypocritical and urged Samoans to wake up to what is happening.

As a Christian country, our day of worship is on Sunday, she said. I have nothing against the governments decision to make Samoa a Christian state. I fully support it.

But what I find contradictory and hypocritical is when the government changes the Constitution and yet allows foreigners to disrespect our day or worship by continuing to do hard labour of Sundays.

Tuilaepa said something must be done to put a stop to this.

Its really disturbing that I cannot have a peaceful Sunday when these Asians are doing hard labor work, she said.

What is the robustness of the Samoa Constitution when it comes to these Asians who are conducting heavy labor work on Sundays?

Whats more annoying is that their actions are a clear indication they have no respect for the laws of the land. Samoans they take the day off, they attend church and if you dont go to church, you still cannot do such heavy work on Sundays.

There are six days they can do their work but at least spare us the Sunday so we can worship peacefully.

The concerned citizen noted that Parliament should have made a note about this when they amended the Constitution.

She added that perhaps its time for the government to forbid any labour work on Sunday.

Again it goes back to when the government moved to legalizing that Samoa is a Christian state. Why is it that we are a Christian country, yet there are people who work hard labor on Sundays? These Asians clearly have no respect for our traditions.

Each and every Samoan knows that we dont do any hard labor work, what makes them any different? They are visitors to our country, whether they are citizens or not, they should respect our traditions.

Well Tuilaepa Mary has a legitimate point.

Although the foreign business Tuilaepa is accusing here has vehemently denied her claims, its worth noting that other foreign-owned contractors continue to work on Sunday.

The fact that the issue continues to surface means that there are people in the community who are deeply concerned about it.

Their opinions matter and they must not be ignored.

Samoa after is now a Christian state, and if its the Christian thing to do to go church on Sunday and respect it as a day of rest, why then is the government allowing these foreign contractors to disrespect our people?

What do you think?

Write and share your thoughts with us!

Have a fabulous week Samoa, God bless!
The Ministry of Health has made it a priority to educate and counsel commercial sex workers despite the government downplaying their existence.

The decision is revealed in a 98-page National HIV, AIDS, and STI Policy 2017-2022 report obtained by the Samoa Observer.

The commercial sex workers came under the prevention segment of the M.O.H. Policy report, which indicates that services are available to promote safer sex practices.

Information Education Communication (I.E.C) and counseling services shall be made free of stigma and at no cost to commercial sex workers in order to enable them to adopt safer sexual practices, the report reads.

Earlier this year, the Samoa Observer revealed that the number of female sex workers in Samoa was estimated at around 400. It was also revealed that most women are doing sex work for economic reasons. The age during which some of them begin sex work ranges from 13 to 21 years old.

The information was from the Pacific Multi-country Mapping and Behavioral Study 2016.

The same report was rubbished by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi who laughed at claims that poverty and hardship are to blame for the growing number of sex workers in Samoa.

Tuilaepa attacked the newspaper over its coverage of the issue describing the reporting as rubbish.

If that is true then you shouldnt find that in America, the wealthiest country in the world, yet there are a lot of women like that in America, Tuilaepa said. Thats where its wrong; you cant control this type of behavior.

Back to the M.O.H. Policy report, on commercial sex workers, it says that outreach is vital in this matter.

Outreach to this population is critical as their chances of exposure to HIV and STIs is high due to the fact that a lot of their clientele comes from international seafaring populations, sex work is illegal, and most are homeless lacking the income to access condoms and education.

Additionally, their social needs should be addressed by IEC, counseling, and behavior change services in order to address the social determinants of their sexual health risks. Due to the fact that sex work is illegal, all service providers must ensure confidentiality and make sure their use prevention services does not expose them to legal risk.

The Pacific Multi-country Mapping and Behavioral Study 2016 found that there are an estimated 400 female sex workers in Samoa.

Most women are doing sex work for economic reasons. Payment varies considerably from 50 to 200 tala.

These women have a wide range of clients, including local and foreign men.58.3% had children and the majority had no other employment.

The age at which women began sex work ranged from 13 to 21 years old.

The mean numbers of partners in the last 12 months was 10, of whom nine were clients (most likely many regular clients).

The M.O.H. Policy report further points out that only 33% of the participants used a condom on the last occasion of vaginal intercourse with a client; the majority were inconsistent condom users with clients in the last 12 months.

Condom use with casual non-paying partners was low; 50% used a condom on the last occasion.

A minority of the women (18.2%) drank alcohol in the last week. Their HIV knowledge was moderate.

None of the women had accessed a sexual health service in the last 12 months, although 60% had been given condoms in that period.

None had been tested for HIV in the previous 12 months. There is therefore a need for extensive condom programming and health education outreach to this group. Interventions should also seek to provide female sex workers with housing, sanitation, and economic services to support their participation in prevention interventions.

The M.O.H. Policy report also recommends that I.E.C. and behavior change programmes should be made available and accessible to promote safer sex practices including fidelity, abstinence, correct and consistent use of condoms according to well informed individual decision.

Endorsement of family planning, S.T.I. prophylaxis, and other prevention methods shall be integral to all sites of service delivery.

Sexual health strategies for healthy behavior and decision making should presumptively target all adults as having multiple partners.

This allows counselors to deliver health information without having to address a clients fidelity/infidelity directly, according to the M.O.H. Policy report.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Health, Leausa Toleafoa Dr. Take Naseri, said in their latest version of the HIV, AIDS, and STI Policy for 2017 to 2022.

Samoas health sector is currently in the midst of several very important developments. This latest iteration of the HIV, AIDS, and STI Policy is a much welcomed and timely resource designed to guide multi-sectoral response to these diseases during this time of change.

The efforts to prevent, treat, and improve care for these diseases have been greatly up-scaled since the implementation of the previous policy in 2011.

This draft of the policy seeks to build upon previous achievements of the health sector, address ongoing challenges, and expand prevention to a higher level in order to eliminate HIV and STI transmissions.

As STIs increase globally, the efforts to prevent, treat, and improve population sexual health must intensify. This version of the policy offers new approaches for addressing sexual health. He said guidelines for services providers, stakeholders, and partners have been included to better coordinate the multi-sectoral response to HIV, AIDS, and STIs.

The Ministrys commitment and strategies for reaching vulnerable populations are also detailed as part of ensuring a population based approach to sexual health prevention. Finally this document represents the extensive partnership between the Ministry of Health, the health sector, all stakeholders, and all partners.

Leausa also thanked all the people and organizations that contributed to the numerous consultations over the past two years to ensure this new policy would cover the evolving needs of the national response and the ever-changing context of HIV, AIDS, and STIs.

May this policy serve to strengthen our efforts to improve the health of our people, and reaffirm Samoas commitment in the global fight to stop HIV, AIDS, and STIs, he said.
The lease of customary lands for economic development can help address hardship, poverty and high unemployment rate.

This is the opinion of senior lawyer, Sala Josephine Stowers Fiu, who gave her legal perspective on the issue last week.

The former Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment A.C.E.O of the Legal Division was among speakers at the National Focus Group Dialogue hosted by the Samoa Umbrella for Non-Governmental Organization.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, Sala said the lack of understanding about the Constitution has played a big role in the confusion about the lease of customary lands.

To highlight her point in terms of using customary land for development, Sala pointed to Fiji.

The majority of their customary land are being used for business developments. They have set up a very good system for promoting the wider use of their lands, she said.

Sala is adamant the Constitution does not present any loopholes when it comes to customary land leases.

The Constitution is clear, there are three types of land, Customary, freehold and public. The customary land lease is under Article 1 and 2 of the Constitution, which protects the rights of the Samoan people to their customary lands.

This is the only article of the Constitution that states, it cannot be removed or changed by the 2/3 majority of parliament. It has to go out to a public referendum for public vote during a general election.

Only then that part of the Constitution can be changed, otherwise our rights are protected under the law.

The Constitution is a strong provision. Its not saying that customary land can be purchased because it cannot be sold, its prohibited under article one and two.

Its the only Constitution in the Pacific that has that provision.

That really goes to show the positive foresight of our forefathers, to ensure whatever happens in the future, customary lands remain as costmary lands and the rights of the family to the land are strongly entrenched in the Constitution.

Sala said people are becoming more aware of their rights.

And those rights are fully supported under the amendments, like the right to reject a mortgage over the lease; the right to terminate the lease if you find the lease rent in arrears.

You also have the right to disallow an assignment of lease; these new protections that are coming in through is to further support the rights of our people.

Sometime our people want to be part of the legal execution of the lease. We can actually allow that under the new amendments; because under the old procedures the Minister is emphasized as the trustee of the lease on behalf of the Aiga.

Now a family may say their Chief should be the other co-signature of the lease. , the fact that they are wanting to be a part in the legal process its a good step ahead to be confident that their rights are being recognized and that needs to be considered by the government.

At the end of the day, government has no rights over customary lands.

According to Sala the lease of customary lands has been in the Constitution for more than 50 years.

But I think the difficulty that our people are facing now is that it sounds foreign.

The majority dont have any idea of what that means, and it really comes down to advocacy work and for you as a customary land owner to implement the use of the lease. You need to come onboard and create a lease because its available.

She also made it clear that under our Constitution, it provides the opportunity for the Samoan people to make use of their customary land by way of lease for authorized purposes.

There are a lot of families out there that are not coming under the law to use the provision of law and perhaps those are the ones that are having difficulties ensuring that the rights of the people that own the land are protected.

There really needs for some full understanding of how the systems work in order for them to benefit, from relevant laws.

For instance, the laws allows leases of customary lands for the purposes of Hotels development, for industrial purposes or manufacturing all those purposes.

I suppose even the people that have money, do no entertain those particular opportunities. Thats where the setback comes in, in terms of promoting and making use of our customary land, she said.

According to Sala, 81% of Samoas lands are owned under communal basis.

Our customary lands manned by the Chiefs, because its our Chiefs that are the leaders of our lands, our families, our titles, everything to do with our customs.

And if the chief is not alert or perhaps fully aware of these opportunities with the support of his or her family then theres always a challenge and I suppose why the leases are not being widely used throughout the years.

As I stated during my presentation only 300 leases have been registered and that only comes to less than 1% of 81% of customary land.

Understand that not all customary lands are presented in an economic sort of way but there are opportunities for our people that are more valuable like the tourism. Like families who have land on the coast lines.

Families that are actually in a very elevated, nice ocean view, I suppose its really a matter of our people coming on board asking questions, wanting to know more about utilizing the leases and also for the government to do more promotions and these opportunities of the lease of customary land thats been in place for more than 50 years.
A contestant in the Miss Samoa pageant, Miss Adele Faaosofia, has become embroiled in a legal battle in Melbourne, Australia, two weeks from this years Pageant.

Miss Samoa Victoria, Adele Faaosofia, has had legal action taken against her for allegedly breaching her contract with CANTOA Organisation.

The matter is before the Magistrate Court in Melbourne.

The group responsible for running the Miss Samoa, Samoa Events Inc (S.E.I.) initially rejected an incomplete application from Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant for Ms. Faaosofia.

The rejection, according to S.E.I. was due to the fact that Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant did not meet the requirements or adhere to the rules of the pageant.

Ms. Faaosofia then moved to be sponsored by another group, Miss Samoa Victoria Inc.

Their application was accepted by S.E.I.

But this has upset the first group, Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant, who have taken the matter to Court.

In a media statement issued by Pulotu Canada McCarthy, of Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant, he claims that Ms. Faaosofia should not be allowed to contest the Miss Samoa title.

Court documents will be served to Adele as we speak, the statement reads.

Technically, Adele shouldn't be allowed to travel to the pageant to compete as the pending matter is now with the Court.

Should Adele still be travelling, the Samoa Pageant Office and C.E.O Laeimau Oketevi Tanuvasa, S.E.I and S.T.A C.E.O Sonja Hunter would be put on notice as this will be seen as they're aiding and abetting such a breach.

The Magistrate Court have also be notified of Adele's movement in the coming weeks.

Attempts to get a comment from S.E.I last week were not successful.

According to Pulotu, Ms. Fa'aosofia was stripped of her Miss Samoa Victoria Crown on Tuesday 15 August and therefore no longer represented the State of Victoria and the Samoa community under any leadership.

She currently has no crown and title and she shouldn't be allowed to compete without any endorsement by our Organisation (as per Contract) and the Samoan community in Victoria.

Also as per rules of the Miss Samoa Pageant:

The Eligibility for Contestants are :

(a) 'That the contestant having competed in a pageant in the same year must stand down for a period of two (2) years before entering the Miss Samoa Pageant'.

Pulotu claims that these rules clearly apply.

Also, the for the record and previously highlighted in Laeimau Oketevi Tanuvasa's rejection letter - here's the rebuttal to her false statement;

'Historical Details Record' produced by the Australian Business Register, shows that our registration of the ABN was current at the time of holding of the pageant on 29th July 2017. Further 'Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant' was a registered business at the time of holding the pageant and was not in breach of the rules of the Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant 2017 competition.

As the business name 'Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant' was registered and the ABN Number: 78 875 311 928 was likewise registered, Miss Samoa Victoria Beauty Pageant was not in any way breach of this rule of the Miss Samoa Pageant 2017 competition.

According to Pulotu, the rightful Miss Samoa Victoria 2017 is Irene Monalisa Siania.

Miss Samoa Victoria Irene Monalisa Siania is the official and legit Miss Samoa Victoria 2017 and she should be allowed and given the opportunity to contest at the Miss Samoa Pageant on behalf of the Samoa community in Victoria Australia.

It was not possible to get a comment from Ms. Faaosofia yesterday.
CITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council will meet in special session at 1 p.m. Tuesday at 1635 Faraday Ave., Room 173B, for a workshop on updates to city council procedure, when it will direct staff on desired amendments, deletions and additions.

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DEL MAR

The city of Del Mar is recruiting volunteers to serve on the citys seven-member Arts Advisory Committee. Application deadline is Sept. 8. The committee reviews, commissions, consigns and/or recommends art for display in public and private places in accordance with the Public Art Policy. Visit www.delmar.ca.us/volunteer or www.delmar.ca.us/619/Arts-Advisory-Committe.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas City Council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers, 505 S. Vulcan Ave., when it will declare its intent to begin the process of changing from at-large to district-based council member elections. The council will also consider accepting a $2.07 million grant from the state Coastal Conservancy to build the Cardiff Beach Living Shoreline Project; will review the Beacons Beach Access Reconstruction Project; and will discuss changing public road standards to incorporate design guides from the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

POWAY

The Poway City Council is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Thursdayin council chambers, 13325 Civic Center Drive, for a public hearing to discuss proposed district election maps.

SOLANA BEACH

The Robert Green Company and Zephyr are hosting a community outreach at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar to discuss the proposed full-service resort, public park and housing development at 929 Border Ave., overlooking North Beach in Del Mar at Camino Del Mar/Highway 101 and Border Avenue.

The city of Solana Beach is looking for a volunteer from the environmental or scientific community to serve on its Climate Action Commission. Applications are being taken through Friday. Find applications and information at cityofsolanabeach.org or at City Hall, 635 S. Highway 101. Call (858) 720-2400.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

DEL MAR

The Del Mar Union School District board is scheduled to meet at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at Del Mar Union School District Office Training Center, 11232 El Camino Real, San Diego.

SAN MARCOS

The County Board of Education is seeking community input on the proposed by-district change to the San Marcos Unified School Districts election system and the proposed boundaries of trustee areas. The public is invited to a hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the SMUSD Board Room at the district office, 255 Pico Ave., Suite 250. For updates and meeting information, visit sdcoe.net/sanmarcosupdates.

VISTA

The Vista Unified School District board is scheduled to meet in closed session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Morris Vance Community Room, 200 Civic Center Drive, and in open session at 7 p.m.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
CITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council met Tuesday for a review of the draft parking management plan for the Village, Barrio and beach area. The council also adopted a resolution accepting the findings of Parks & Recreation Department feasibility studies for a multigenerational community recreation center and an outdoor adventure park. After a hearing, the council granted an appeal of the Planning Commissions decision to allow permits for K1 Speed Indoor Kart Racing to operate a restaurant and serve beer and wine at 6212 Corte Del Abeto. Staff was directed to modify the permit to allow a restaurant without beer and wine service. Matt Simons and Brad Thorp were reappointed to the Parks & Recreation Commission.

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DEL MAR

The Del Mar City Council met in special closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. After the meeting, the city attorney reported that the investigation involving City Manager Scott Huth was ended and the claims made against him were unsubstantiated. The investigation involving employees in the Community Services Department was also reported as complete and sent to the city manager for action.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas City Council met Wednesday and heard a report on the FY 2017-18 Youth Commissions Work Plan. Changes approved included reducing membership to 11 students from grades 7-12, and reaching out to more middle and high schools.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss property negotiations. In regular session, the council heard public comment from roughly 90 people over several hours and then voted, 3-2, to direct staff to negotiate a contract with Maryland-based LS&S to outsource management of the Escondido Public Library.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside City Council met in closed session Wednesday for labor negotiations. In regular session, the council discussed funding for unfunded capital improvement projects by issuing new bonds or re-funding existing bonds, but a motion to do so failed. A motion to remove the El Corazon Aquatic Center and the Senior Center Community Room from the budgeting proposal and pass the bond issue also failed. Permits were approved for a massage establishment at 3768 Mission Ave., as was a resolution updating parts of the citys zoning ordinance.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos City Council canceled its Tuesday meeting.

SOLANA BEACH

The Solana Beach City Council met Wednesday in closed session to discuss litigation and personnel. In regular session, the council agreed to apply to the county for a $270,000 Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant for the La Colonia Skate Park. The council also approved several homeowners proposals for remodeling and construction.

The Robert Green Company and Zephyr are hosting a community outreach at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar to discuss the proposed full-service resort, public park and housing development at 929 Border Ave., overlooking North Beach in Del Mar at Camino Del Mar/Highway 101 and Border Avenue.

The city of Solana Beach is looking for a volunteer from the environmental or scientific community to serve on its Climate Action Commission. Applications are being taken through Sept. 1. Find applications and information at cityofsolanabeach.org or at City Hall, 635 S. Highway 101. Call (858) 720-2400.

VISTA

The Vista City Council met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the council held a hearing and approved the proposed Vista Emerald subdivision, which would comprise 27 single-family units at 729 N. Emerald Drive. The council requested that a portion of the project land be set aside as open space for a riparian habitat. The council approved installing the Time Machine sculpture in downtown Vista for a 90-day review period, after which a longer installation period would be considered.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas Union School District met in closed session Tuesday and then in open session, reported the appointment of Dr. Karla Groth as the director of curriculum, instruction and accountability. The board heard an update on the English Learner Summer Academy and discussed Parent Outreach during the 2017-18 school year. An additional teacher position for Olivenhain Pioneer was approved. First day of school visit information is posted on the districts Facebook page at https://bit.ly/2wrYgrB.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido Union School District board met in closed session Thursday to discuss litigation and personnel. In open session, the board heard a presentation on the districts goals and priorities for the 2017-18 school year, and awarded various contracts for services to students and the district.

FALLBROOK

The Fallbrook Union Elementary School District board met Monday and approved initial contract proposals from the Fallbrook Elementary Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association, Chapter 307. The board also approved hiring an additional teacher at Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary and a part-time music teacher; and approved the new position of executive director of pupil personnel services.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside Unified School District board met in closed session Tuesday to discuss personnel, litigation and labor negotiations. In regular session, the board approved contracts for various services to the district, including a memorandum of understanding with Big Brothers Big Sisters to mentor children at North Terrace, Santa Margarita and Stuart Mesa elementary schools with volunteers from the San Diego County & Camp Pendleton community. The board canceled a planned closed session for Friday for personnel evaluation of the superintendent.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos Unified School District board met in closed session Monday to discuss labor negotiations.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
In Franciscan Frontiersmen, longtime San Diego journalist Robert Kittle tells the story of three little-known friars  Pedro Font, Juan Crespi and Francisco Garces  who played important roles in the Spanish exploration and conquest of the Pacific coast in the late 1700s.

Its a story of adventure and hardship that illuminates the clash of cultures between the European newcomers and the Native Americans who had been here for centuries.

Kittle was the editorial page editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune for almost 20 years. He splits his time now between Cayucos on the Central California coast and Carefree, Arizona, but still travels regularly to San Diego, where he is on the board of trustees at the History Center in Balboa Park.

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Q: How did you first get interested in these three Franciscans?

A: My wife and I went on vacation to Majorca, which is the island off the coast of Spain where Junipero Serra was born. I went to Serras birthplace in the little village of Petra and I found a church there that I call the birthplace of California.

It was the church where Serra was educated, and on the walls are these paintings (of saints) that are about 400 years old. And who are they? The principal cities in California (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura) got named from those saints on the walls in the church. They were ingrained in Serras mind as a boy.

That prompted me to go find a good biography of Serra, and there werent any. The only biographies written of him were done by other Franciscans who tended to regard him as a saint. They werent objective biographies.

After about six months of research, I found out there were three other biographies of Serra in the works that were going to be published ahead of mine. So I got interested in these other players. They had been overlooked by historians. I settled on these three because they lived incredibly exciting lives, much more interesting lives than Serra did, and you could re-create their lives from their diaries, their journals and their letters.

My pitch to publishers was this: These three men opened up a broader swath and a more important swath of the North American continent than Lewis & Clark did.

Q: Why do you think they were overlooked?

A: They were overlooked because we primarily view ourselves, as Walt Whitman says in the quote I include at the beginning of the book, as just another England. And therefore we ignore the contributions of our Spanish heritage.

Another reason is that a lot of the history that was written in the 1800s of what occurred in the previous century was written by New England historians, men who worked at universities, and they were English. They tended to look down on the Spanish contribution. I think there were cultural prejudices.

Q: Tell me about the research you did.

A: I had great fun doing it. Ive gotten to know a lot of historians, and I have great respect for them, but most of them tend to stick to their desks. They dont get out in the field much. I made three trips to Spain for this book, going to the birthplaces of all three men. I got some grasp of where they came from.

I retraced the Spanish expeditions as best I could in my car. I was in Needles a couple of years ago, in May, and I took a photo of the temperature in my car. It was 122 degrees. Font had been there in May some 230 years earlier and I thought, Oh my God, he was on the back of a mule wearing a wool habit. I can only imagine how uncomfortable he was.

Im guessing, but I probably read 100,000 words that these men composed during their lifetimes. And you get to know them. The great danger as a biographer is that you will lionize them. You will make heroes out of them in a way that isnt realistic. I tried very hard not to do that.

In the book, you will see that Font was a real stinker. He was an unpleasant Franciscan in many ways. He approved of the physical abuse of one woman. He looked down on the Indians a lot. You can condemn Font for narrow-mindedness  you can condemn him for a lot of things  but my argument in talking to readers is that you have to try to understand him in the context of his times.

One of the great drawbacks to a historian writing about this period is that there was no written record by the Indians. They carried an oral history. So you see them only through the eyes of the Spaniards.

Today we have a much different view of Native Americans than we did even 50 years ago. When I was a boy, the Lone Ranger was on television with Tonto, his loyal buddy who had a feather in a band on his head. Today we tend to have an almost idealized view of Native Americans as living in perfect harmony until the Europeans arrived. Thats not at all accurate, either.

Q: You had a lot of material to work with. How did you decide what story to tell?

A: I didnt want to write an academic book. I wanted to write a book for the general reader. And I also didnt want to engage in these debates that historians at universities engage in. As a journalist, I just wanted to tell the story, a narrative history. I got out in the field and tried to understand what it was like to live on the trail. I went into the details of daily life that historians look at but dont think are as important as broad conclusions.

Because I wrote it from the first-hand accounts, I tended not to pay attention to what other historians said. I wanted to let the reader know what the food on the trail tasted like. I wanted to show the hardship  the fact that they were on the backs of mules for three months and when they got to San Gabriel Mission, (they) wrote back to the viceroy in Mexico City and said, Please, youve got to send us some underwear. All theirs was worn out. That kind of thing.

By the time the book was written, everybody said, This is a scholarly book and that I needed an academic publisher. If you go to an academic press, they send your manuscript out for scholarly review. And they dont publish it if the scholars say it isnt accurate.

My book went out and came back and one of the scholars said, Look, this book is just a story. It doesnt come to grips with all of these arguments we are having on our campuses about whether the Franciscans were saints or sinners.

My publisher wanted me to take account of that, so I wrote about it in the epilogue.

Q: And did you decide? Saints or sinners?

A: Many people view the Franciscans as villains. I dont. There were plenty of things that went wrong. The Franciscans did order the floggings of Indians, and they were awful and bloody. They werent spankings.

But at the time, the Spaniards came from what was arguably the most advanced civilization in Europe. And they came in contact with people they thought were basically living a Stone Age existence. They were to the Spanish very primitive.

If you say today that the Indians were primitive  its not exactly politically correct to say that. I appreciate hearing from the Indian scholars who basically say this: Our culture, our life ways, were just as good as the Europeans, just different.

That tends to be the modern way of looking at it, and thats fine, but I think we at least have to try to understand the context and the history.

And to understand this: The clash of cultures goes on today, too.

Franciscan Frontiersmen: How Three Adventurers Charted the West, by Robert A. Kittle, University of Oklahoma Press, 296 pages

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-2236
Forecasters said Sunday that a record-breaking heat wave will linger in Southern California until at least Thursday.

The National Weather Service said the heat poses a dangerous situation and urged residents to take precautions.

On Sunday, the temperatures ranged from the high 70s along the coast and in downtown Los Angeles to 106 in Woodland Hills, 102 in Van Nuys and 116 in Palm Springs. A few records were set for the day Saturday, and the NWS said it appears Paso Robles set a new record for the day Sunday at 108 degrees.

Officials said the hot, dry conditions would heighten the fire risk this week. And the heat is expected to worsen before it gets better.

Hot weekend, even hotter Monday-Wednesday.

A large, high-pressure system sitting over the Great Basin in Utah and Nevada, combined with a weak onshore flow and sunny skies, will support the warming trend, said Bonnie Bartling, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Forecasters have issued an excessive-heat watch for the region from Sunday morning through Tuesday evening, Bartling said.

Monday through Wednesday are expected to be the hottest days. The valleys, mountains and deserts could see high temperatures of about 108 degrees, Bartling said.

An excessive heat warning is in place from 10 a.m. Monday to 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Triple-digit temps across the region

Woodland Hills, one of the hottest spots in the San Fernando Valley, is forecast at 109 degrees early next week, she said.

Downtown Los Angeles and the coastal areas likely will see high temperatures ranging from the low 90s to about 100 degrees, she said.

Overnight temperatures will remain warm, ranging from the upper 60s to upper 70s across the Los Angeles region, Bartling said.

Palm Springs is expected to be broiling, with a high of 115 degrees forecast for Sunday and a mere dip to 112 degrees Monday, with lows in the upper 80s, according to the National Weather Service in San Diego. Riverside could hit 111 degrees Monday, and Temecula could get up to 105, forecasters said.

To read the article in Spanish click here

hailey.branson@latimes.com | @haileybranson

shelby.grad@latimes.com | @shelbygrad

UPDATES:

3:30 p.m. Sunday: Updated with new forecast, new details.
A small group of friends and neighbors were gathered around a backyard fire pit in 2011, and realized they each had a set of skills that could be put to good use, collectively. They used that backfence gathering to establish The Backfence Society, a Vista non-profit that produces interactive art events around the city and connecting artists to the community.

Our goal is to bring people together through interactive, approachable, authentic art experiences reflective of the community, said Sarah Spinks, president of the non-profit. Weve used our opportunities to challenge public perception about what is possible with art.

The organization started as a program within the Vista Art Foundation and became an autonomous group in 2016. They produce pop-up art events, host a monthly Drink and Doodle event, participate in community clean-up events, host workshops and collaborate with other local art organizations.

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Spinks, 35, lives in downtown Vista with her husband, Chad, and their 8-year-old son, Mack. Shes also a full-time tattoo artist, chair of the City of Vista Public Arts Commission, secretary for the Vista Art Foundation and a co-organizer for the annual Alley Art Festival. She took some time to talk about The Backfence Society, the importance of art in the community and what inspires her in her own art projects.

Q: Tell us about The Backfence Society.

A: Backfence Society is an art circus with a purpose of engaging community and bring creative types together that inspire one another. My role is the ringleader. Our group shows usually host a range of experience levels and styles. The City of Vista and local business owners have loaned us space for pop-up events and we currently have a hanging system in Milk Organics, which is opening this fall, on Broadway in downtown Vista.

Q: What kind of events have you produced over the past six years?

A: We have put on 11 pop-up art events. For every exhibit we have put on, we develop a theme and ask artists to submit work that speaks to that theme. Some of our exhibits have also included installation work, which have organically become collaborative projects.

Q: How do these events and spaces provide community engagement through art?

A: People love art and people are mystified by art because art is magical. Most people say things like, I cant draw or Im not an artist because either they or someone in their life didnt foster that relationship with art. Most people dont have the time to make art or they were told art wasnt that important. We need to shift institutionalized mindsets to understand just how much of a need art is for community. It is an investment in our own future as a community. Its like, if you know how to play guitar, sometimes you just play and it makes you feel a little better about the world you live in. It has therapeutic value. Its something you can bring out and it can help you cope with the insane world we are living in. This is what art can, and does, do for society.

What I love about Vista ...

I love living within walking distance to a downtown. I live up the street from Main Street in downtown Vista and I can go out to eat, get coffee, watch a movie, sing karaoke, drink beer and I dont have to spend any money on gas to do any of it. I love the street I live on because it has a ton of foot traffic, and I love to sit in my dining room and look out the window at the people walking by.

Q: Your organization wants to foster relationships that benefit both the community and the artists living there. What would those relationships look like in practice?

A: There are economic opportunities for artists here in North County, especially as it grows and people want their investments to stand out. But where do you find artists if you need one and arent connected to them? Backfence can help with that connection. We also have our social media platform where I am able to disseminate information. For instance, the public arts commission for the City of Vista holds monthly public meetings, and most recently the direction things were going in was not really indicative of the desire from the community. So, I put it out there to the community to attend those meetings. People listened and have been attending meetings, learning about the relationship the city has with public art and how they can join the conversation.

Q: What do you think the organization has done for the community of Vista over the years?

A: Weve used our opportunities to challenge public perception about what is possible with art. By transforming run-down buildings into vibrant exhibition spaces, we hope people see the transformative power of art and maybe inspire visions of their own. By creating a platform for a more diverse display of art that is inclusive but hung in an elevated style, its more reflective of the community. We like to think that we give inspiration and motivation for artists to go for it. I feel like we expand the communitys reception to art. We have been significant in letting creative types know that there is a place they can come to connect and share art.

Q: How long have you been an artist?

A: I remember drawing horses at Faith Lutheran Church during service as a kid. And I remember meticulously coloring every single page of my Keith Haring coloring book my artsy Aunt Theresa gave me for Christmas one year, unknowingly foreshadowing my later chosen profession. I started to learn how to tattoo in 2005 after getting my bachelors degree in literature and writing from California State University, San Marcos.

Q: What medium do you work in?

A: I tattoo for a living so I would say ink on skin is the thing I make the most money doing. Outside of tattooing, I work and have worked with with acrylics, oils, house paint and trash.

I love tattooing because it satisfies a desire in me to be very technically proficient at a task. Painting is really hard for me because I have to come up with the idea and the whole time I am working on the painting I have to be behind that idea of why Im making it, which doesnt always work out. This is why I have so many unfinished pieces of art lying around my house. But sometimes my brush does what I am telling it to.

Q: How would you describe the style of the art you create?

A: Bold and whimsical, heavily influenced by American traditional tattooing.

I fell in love with traditional tattoos in the early 2000s, particularly the painted flash designs by Sailor Jerry. I was drawn to the boldness and the deliberateness of the work. I love deliberateness in art, to be confident with the stroke of a line or movement with a brush. I am drawn to confidence in art. I strive every day to be more confident in my life and the art I create.

Q: What inspires you in your work?

A: My clients inspire the tattoos I make. I do my best to connect to the energy of my clients and give them the tattoo I am doing my best, to understand what they want. Right now, in my personal art, I am driven by the fact that in our society we are surrounded by trash. There is litter everywhere. I have no clue how we are going to solve any large problems when we cant even put trash in its proper place.

Q: Whats been challenging about your work with The Backfence Society?

A: Everything and nothing at the same time. The challenges are welcomed; it means work is getting done. I think of my work with Backfence as the best hobby ever. It satisfies a desire in me to make an impact on the place where I live, where my kid is growing up, and at the same time I gain skills and am constantly learning about art and leadership, and about people.

Q: Whats been rewarding about it?

A: All of the people I meet and figuring out my values and connecting with people who share my values. People tell me I inspire them to get more involved, which is the most rewarding thing I could ever hear. Imagine what the world would be like if even more people put aside the fear of not knowing how to get involved and just remembered how much of life really is just showing up, and then figuring it out after that. I feel like that has been my journey in this art life, I started just showing up and now I am the chair of the public art commission and I am using my voice to amplify the needs of my community.

Q: What has it taught you about yourself?

A: I am a leader and I can be decisive. I can push my own limits and the example I set for others is also inspiring to them.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

A: From my dad: Never act dumb, always have an opinion and invest in the future through children. And without labor, you have no wealth.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: People always seem surprised when they find out that I am left-handed. I feel like it makes total sense.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: Hanging out in my backyard, getting a home project accomplished, working on an art project with Mack, chipping away at a project with Chad, and drinking beer while I do it all. And topping it off with a delicious dinner my husband makes me because he was inspired by his favorite YouTube chef, Binging with Babish.

Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @lisadeaderick
At the heart of any story about the Marine code talkers of World War II is a bitter irony.

Urged by the federal government to never speak their language while growing up on the Navajo reservation, tribal members were recruited as radiomen by the Marine Corps in 1942, creating an unbreakable code that helped to beat the Japanese in one of Americas darkest hours.

In a Saturday ceremony, Miramars Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum dedicated an exhibit to mark the 75th anniversary of the code talker program. And although the display room pays homage to code talkers such as Chester Nez and Carl Gorman, the focus falls on Samuel Tsosie Sr., a Navajo from Arizona who left the reservation to enlist in the Corps in 1942.

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Tsosies Marine service uniform is there, complete with the ruptured duck emblem noting his honorary service during World War II and the bright blue and crimson Guadalcanal Patch.

It stands to the right of Tsosies Navajo Code Talkers Association outfit, complete with a special red code talkers Marine garrison cap.

Theres also the Congressional Silver Medal awarded to Tsosie and 300 other Navajo code talkers in 2001. The Marines estimate that they recruited about 400 Navajos into the program and 13 died in combat.

Maj. Howard Connor, the signal officer for the 5th Marine Division during World War II, concluded that were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.

The Navajo Nation mourned Tsosies 2014 death by flying the American flag at half-staff. He was 91 and had served in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment during brutal combat at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu and on Okinawa. In one engagement, he was knocked unconscious by a Japanese bomb.

Japanese code breakers were adept at deciphering American radio traffic, but cryptographers never cracked the Navajo system. Thats probably because figuring out the code required a deep understanding of Navajo language and pastoral life.

Its so, so hard to learn, said Tsosies grandson, Michael. You have to immerse yourself in the culture because, like, similar inflections in words can mean something totally different. Baby and coffee are almost the same word. Its just the inflection of what youre going to say.

The code talkers relied on a complicated cipher that used both a phonetic alphabet linked to unwritten Navajo nouns and a list of borrowed phrases the bilingual radiomen used to quickly describe Japanese weapons.

The S in the phonetic alphabet was dibeh  Navajo for sheep. The L was dibeh-yazzie, or lamb. The Y was tsah-as-zih, the yucca shrub.

A Japanese bomber was the Navajo word for buzzard. A fighter was a hummingbird. A submarine an iron fish.

Top active duty and retired military officials told The San Diego Union-Tribune that people often are confused about why Marine Corps Air Station Miramars Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum so prominently honors code talkers, but the answer is actually easy: the Navajo radiomen always have been part of San Diego and what later became Miramars active strike fighter base.

On May 5, 1942, the initial platoon of 29 Navajos arrived at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. After graduating, they received special instruction at Camp Elliotts Fleet Marine Training Center in how to encrypt messages and operate radios.

Air Station Miramar stands atop the former Camp Elliott.

To Miramar commander Col. Jason Woody Woodworth, the bravery and competence of the Navajo radiomen not only left a debt we can never repay, but their story continues to teach his Marines how to creatively adapt and overcome the most difficult of battlefield challenges.

Its a unique perspective ... of looking at warfare and trying to come up with a way to solve the problem of communications, said Woodworth, a career fighter pilot.

A hardscrabble life of herding sheep on the reservation, where Spam rolled in a tortilla was a rare treat, honed the code talkers into tough, smart and pragmatic Marines  even when stuck on a slow boat sailing through a hard rain to the South Pacific, according to code talker Tsosies son, Samuel Jr.

On the ship, they never got a chance to take a shower, said Samuel Jr., a former Marine military police patrol commander and retired Navajo Nation law enforcement officer. So when it rained really hard, all the Navajo ran out there with soap and started taking a shower in the rain.

By the time non-Indian GIs realized they should grab their soap and join them, the thunderstorm ended, he said.

After the war, his dad joined the Public Health Service in Winslow, Ariz., retiring after four decades to a home near Sunflower Butte. He rarely talked about his days in the service. Thats because the code talker program remained classified until 1968, and the Navajo were sworn to secrecy, family members said.

The code talkers other son, Gary Michael Tsosie, said an important legacy of the Navajo radiomen too often overlooked is what they brought with them to the Corps  a strong sense of fairness and tolerance, qualities that define life on an isolated reservation that sprawls over 25,000 miles of rural Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

We should all respect each other, no matter who we are or how we do things, the retired Marine combat engineer said. Thats how the Navajo teach. When I lived on the reservation, I never saw no white folks, no Hispanics, no African-Americans. Nobody. It was just us Navajos. But my grandfather always would tell me, It doesnt matter what the color of your skin is, as long as you treat people well. Thats all that matters. 

In their code, the Navajo radiomen called America Ne-he-Mah, Our Mother. The Corps? Din-neh-ih.

A nod to the centrality of family in traditional Navajo life, it means simply clan.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
Every gun tells a story.

Its a popular catchphrase used by law enforcement to describe how to trace a firearm, from manufacturer to distributor to point of sale to customer.

But a new crop of guns bear no markings of their origin.

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They are hand-built in homes and shared workshops, using mail-order parts and drilling machines that range from the rudimentary to the complex. They dont bear the serial numbers of licensed manufacturers. They are untraceable, hence their nickname: ghost guns.

In just the past few years, the advancement and availability of milling and 3-D printing technology has made it easier than ever to build your own guns.

While not illegal on the face of it, authorities have grown increasingly concerned about the potential for a growing black market that sidesteps state and federal gun laws regulating everything from background checks to banned weapons.

The build-your-own-gun movement took off a few years ago in California, home to some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and has more recently been spreading to other part of the country, said Paul Ware, counsel for the Los Angeles division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The division spans Southern California, from the Mexico border north to San Luis Obispo.

Ware first heard of the practice a few years ago when an investigator forwarded him a clip from San Diegos 10 News. A local business was inviting people to make their own AR-15-type weapons around Christmastime. While state law prohibits the sale of the completed rifles, it is not illegal to posses them in specific configurations. A new state law also requires AR-15 owners to register their weapons.

I watched the video and said Thats interesting, Ware said. He researched further and determined the business didnt have a firearms manufacturing license, which is needed to make guns for sale legally.

They are no longer in business, he said. We told them they needed a license, and they decided not to get a license.

The ATF displays guns made from unfinished lower receivers, making the guns untraceable. (Kristina Davis/U-T)

By law, licensed gun manufacturers are required to engrave identifying information on the weapons lower receiver. Its the hollow metal frame that by legal definition makes a gun a gun. The manufacturer name and unique serial number are marked on the piece, and the guns path to a distributor is recorded in its company records.

The distributor and gun dealer must also record their possession of the weapon, ending with to whom the gun is ultimately sold.

ATF is prohibited by law from keeping a national register of firearms, so when a gun pops up at a crime scene, it is this process of checking through private corporate records that traces the gun to potential suspects.

When a ghost gun shows up at a crime scene, that presents a problem.

How does it work?

The most important component to building an untraceable gun is the lower receiver. The easiest way to get one without the markings of a licensed manufacturer is to buy an unfinished lower receiver online.

Called ULR for short, the unfinished piece can be sold legally without a license as long as it is missing key components that make it a firearm. The gun industry has attached a threshold to this, typically describing an unfinished lower receiver as 80 percent done. But ATF says that there is no 80 percent rule  it either is a gun or isnt a gun, Ware said.

Once at home, the buyer can easily drill a few remaining holes in the unfinished metal shell. The now-finished lower receiver is then ready for its other parts  such as barrel, trigger mechanism, upper receiver and stock  all readily available online. Assemble it and youve got a working gun.

Lower receivers can also be milled from scratch at shared workshops that rent expensive machinery to the public.

It is not illegal to make or own these kinds of guns, and gun enthusiasts make up much of the fanbase for this do-it-yourself method.

Its not as nefarious as it sounds, said Steve Herrick, owner of MakerPlace in Morena, a workshop that rents everything from metalworking tools to 3-D printers to industrial sewing machines.

He said customers bring in their own computer software for the Computer Numeric Control, or CNC, machines, where they can make anything from a Barbie to a lower receiver.

The work required is not that hard. You dont have to be a skilled craftsman to do those things, he said.

He added: We try not to stick our nose in our customers business.

The one rule he asks gunmakers to follow is to not ever assemble the firearm at the workshop. They can make individual parts, most of which are not recognizable, Herrick said.

The guns are a far cry from the first models that were milled this way, Ware said.

People laughed off the first versions of 3-D guns, they were terrible, he said. They shot a few rounds, blew up in your hand. Its not that anymore. They are nearly as good as ones you can buy.

Against the law

What is illegal is to make these kinds of guns for sale, or to sell as a middleman. And a felon is prohibited from owning any kind of gun.

A black market for these untraceable guns  from Glock pistols to fully-automatic machine guns  has emerged, selling to customers without background checks.

Prohibited people have easy access to these guns, Ware said. They can make them themselves or buy from someone who makes it for them. It subverts the whole Gun Control Act. Most people think its hard to get a gun without a background check. Its not.

It was easy for Rolando Magana.

Prior convictions for domestic violence and making threats using a gun made him ineligible to own a firearm. So he went to ROHG Industries.

They were inviting the public to come in, you pick the parts you want, like a smorgasbord, a buffet, Ware said. They put it into the CNC machines and ask the customer to press the button. Believe it or not, they could manufacture and fully assemble a gun, in an hour, you walk out with a rifle.

The La Habra business kept records of its sales and photos of customers, but did not perform background checks, authorities allege. When the warehouse was searched in 2014, agents culled through about 520 customer profiles and learned 20 were convicted felons and another person was deemed mentally unfit to possess a gun, according to court documents.

One of those customers, Magana, admitted that hed bought guns and gun parts from the business and trafficked them in carloads to Michoacan, Mexico, according to the criminal complaint. A search of his house turned up an arsenal of guns marked with serial numbers, as well as unfinished lower receivers and plastic human restraints.

The warehouse owner, Joseph Roh, is set to go to trial in October in Orange County on a charge of manufacturing guns without a license.

Paul Joseph Holdy, a convicted felon with a history of drug offenses, was running a less sophisticated operation in San Diego.

Using drill presses and small CNC machine at his University City home, as well as the fancier machines at MakerPlace, Holdy made lower receivers and then assembled guns using component parts. He sold at least 18 guns to undercover ATF agents from June 2016 to May 2017, including short-barrel machine guns, assault rifles and handguns, according to his plea agreement and other court records.

The deals were often made in parking lots, and a few times the agents were invited to the house that he shared with his parents, according to court records.

Another local ring ran out of North County. A young mechanic, Christian Romero, was accused of making assault-style weapons from unfinished lower receivers and then selling the assembled weapons with help from friends for more than $1,000 each.

While federal authorities went after these operations criminally, ATFs Ware said the agency tries to first educate those in the industry about what is and isnt allowed. Most comply, he said.

ATF does not specifically track cases involving unfinished lower receivers, therefore it is unknown how frequently such guns are showing up at crime scenes or are seized. Local law enforcement are more likely to come across such weapons, Ware said.

San Diego police said officers rarely come across such guns.

An AR-15-style rifle pieced together from various parts was used in the 2013 rampage shooting in Santa Monica. John Zawahri, 23, killed five people, starting at his fathers home and ending at Santa Monica College. Police shot him in the schools library. Zawahri was also carrying a .44-caliber pistol.

The rifle appeared to have been modified to fire more rounds.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
An urban search and rescue force of 45 firefighters and support crew from San Diego County headed toward Hurricane Harvey in Texas late Saturday night.

In four hours, they loaded food, water, supplies and gear including two boats into a line of trucks that were to start caravaning east from a warehouse at the San Diego Fire-Rescue Training Academy off North Harbor Drive.

It will take them about 20 hours to reach a staging area in Fort Worth for similar teams arriving from around the country, San Diego fire Assistant Chief Chris Webber said.

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He did not know where they would be sent from there, but said the would likely be put to work as soon as they arrive at a disaster zone.

We anticipate theyll be doing slow-moving water rescues, flood rescues, from boats, Webber said.

The group, deployed as California Task Force 8, also may perform first aid on injured victims, set up relief centers, help distribute food and water and provide resource information to evacuees.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency activated 14 task forces from 11 states, including California, on Saturday.

Webber said San Diego is sending a Type 3 task force consisting of 35 firefighters, search and rescue and hazardous materials experts along with a support crew of 10. They are from fire departments around the county, along with San Diego Fire-Rescue.

Some of the support crew will drive the trucks and help with camp logistics.

Webber said the last time a full urban rescue task force from San Diego County was deployed was in 2008, also to a hurricane zone.

Its something we train for all the time, he added.
Trumps still blames everyone but himself

Regarding Trump blames media for Virginia criticism (Aug. 23): On Monday, President Trump gave a telepromptered speech to the nation about the 16-year war in Afghanistan and tried to unite the county. On Tuesday night, candidate Trump lashed out at the media, among other things.

He read his own remarks about Charlottesville, leaving out precisely those objectionable words and phrases that the press and the country had called him out on, all the while talking about how unfair and dishonest the media are when they reported on his words.

There is a difference between demagoguery and leadership, between campaigning and governing. And sadly, we see him seesawing, sometimes daily, back and forth between these two opposites. It does not bode well for democracy or civil society. Buckle up.

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Louise Buck

Clairemont

Media, SPLC just pushing leftist agendas

Lets face it, no matter what Trump said, or when, about the protests and counter protests, the left and their media enablers would have gotten hysterical. Only upside is that it gave relief from the Russian collusion delusion narrative.

Regarding 8 hate groups operate in San Diego County, law center reports (Aug. 23): The Southern Poverty Law Center names any group that doesnt agree with its left-wing positions a hate group so I am surprised you give it front-page prominence. Groups with Christian beliefs are likely targets as are anti-illegal-immigration groups or those who support the police. Frankly, in my opinion, SPLC is a hate group with lots of money to spend to push its leftist agenda.

Susan Page

Bankers Hill

Tolerance of hated, injustice unacceptable

Tolerance is not the way to counter injustice or hate. Those who inflict injustice or propagate hatred and those who tolerate injustice or are silent, both are equally guilty. We should always oppose injustice or hatred in a nonviolent and civilized way.

Sukumar Banerjee

San Diego

Actions, not skin tone, should be our gauge

With a background nearly identical to that of Gail Graham (Can only some be proud of their heritage? Aug. 23)  white, heterosexual woman, proud of my European ancestry  I read with interest the question she posed in her letter about people like me who were also there in Charlottesville, asking How do you label us?

I wont label Graham, but I hope people like her would go to Charlottesville in order to stand up in person to forces of hate like neo-Nazis, KKK members, and white supremacists.

Surely those who value the philosophical ideals and ideas of Western civilization, as Ms. Graham says she does, would not have gone to Charlottesville to make any common cause with neo-Nazis, whose World War II forebears were, after all, the architect of Western civilizations most brutal and disgraceful chapter.

Jacqueline Hanson

Pacific Beach

In response to the writers question, How do you label us? the answer is, people. We are the only nation on Earth that professes and actualizes, by government fiat, that all people be accepted as they are.

The corollary to that is equality in our society. It is, by definition, un-American to promote an opposing agenda. There are no two sides to bigotry and hate.

John H. Borja

San Diego

Letters and commentary policy

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In this column we have imagined World War II era walks along most old downtown Florence business blocks with aid of the 1942-43 City Directory, and today its the turn of the 100 block of North Dargan Street, once maybe the liveliest in town with a couple of the most celebrated corners at its south end.

The northeast Dargan-Evans corner was once called Lakes Corner because Lakes Drug Store had been there, but by 1943 it was replaced by the B&G Cafe. Also, it was at that corner that Florence city bus routes then made their half-hourly starts.

On the northwest corner Zeiglers Drug Store still operated, and outside, Pete Thornell had done his man-on-the-street radio show on the sidewalk. He gave away prizes and plugged his Super X gasoline stations, which underpriced all of the major gasoline brands around here. Also, on Saturday nights the Salvation Army band often played and urged people to behave.

On the west side then were the Dargan Street entrances to the Woolworth and Kress dime stores with Aiken and Co. and B.C. Moores store between them. Next were Williams Studios, photographers; Phillips Shoe Store; and Mitchells Super Grocery.

You might notice as we go along several grocery stores on the block and good opportunities for alcoholic beverages, something that 10 years earlier had been illegal. Grocery stores completely disappeared in the Great Flight of retail businesses from the downtown.

Continuing, we find Nassib S. Abdelnors department store, Najieb S. Abu Arabs liquor store, a clothing Outlet Store, and then after a vacancy, the Saleeby Cabinet Shop. The Joseph Nofal Department store was next, followed by Susie J. Buckheit millinery, Florence Feed Store, Florence Loan Office and Tribers Shoe Store.

The west side of the block ended with Gus Cafe, Aaron A. Wilson, confectioner, Poor Boy Lunch and Fish Market, Turbeville Groceries and Lylo Grocery. That brings us to Front Street and the Atlantic Coast Line tracks that led westward. Those tracks were first laid nearly a century earlier by the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, the areas first tracks. The ACL freight station was at that corner.

Across the street, heading back southward, we find Elmores Grocery, the Cut Price Clothing Shop and Rogers Inc., then Watkins Products, J.M. Baroodys liquor store and J&P Food Store, which might have caused some confusion with A&P.

Then there were Birdseye Flower and Seed, Becky Triber secondhand clothing, Matneys liquor store, Frozen Delight ice cream place, Michael Shia Grocery, Buckheit millinery, Farmer and City Feed Store, Outlet Store clothing and Louise Dress Shop.

Maybe the most impressive building on the block was next as we continue southward by the Rainwater Furniture Co., the Millers M System which was another grocer, Buckheit hat shop, Bashas womens clothes, Weaver Furniture Co. Fredlands Jewelers and Ritz Liquor Store, followed by Eleanor Dress Shop, Friendly Shoe Store, the Boston Cafe, the Dargan Street entrance to McCown-Smith Dept. Store, Carols Millinery and Bentons Dress Shop before returning to Lakes Corner, which kept that name for decades after the drug store of that name closed.

The Evans-Dargan intersection was the liveliest business corner in town until after World War II. One interesting thing was that five stores at the corner had entrances on both Evans and Dargan, Woolworths, Kress, McCown Smith, Millers Bootery and Belks Dept. Store. Woolworths, Kress and McCown-Smith all wrapped around businesses closer to the corner to reach entrances on both Evans and Dargan.

Across the tracks on the north end, the business area went on for little more than another block and was site of the Little Red Fish House, which was a popular grocery spot.

The 100 block of North Dargan had probably the most rundown of remaining downtown storefront blocks before present redevelopment gained steam. Now its really spruced up as vacant storefront buildings are preparing for new use. All of the storefronts facades are looking much better and businesses are moving into formerly vacant buildings. Some old storefront buildings are being converted into condos for people who would like to live downtown.

One old store front is being fixed up and will become the new site of the Art Trail Gallery, which is a sort of headquarters for much of Florences arts activity. Things are looking up.

Thom Anderson is a former editor of the Morning News. Email him at thidbit@aol.com.
Press Release

August 26, 2017 Legarda: Uplift Lives of Small Farmers by Addressing Malnutrition Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, today said that it is possible to uplift the lives of small farmers by addressing the nutritional needs of Filipino children. Legarda cited the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) nutrition program where small farmers plant the requirements for feeding programs. It is a convergence program of the OVP with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). "I believe in the advocacy of improving the nutritional needs of our children. I am glad that the OVP has this program and it should be supported by the whole bureaucracy," said Legarda. According to Vice President Leni Robredo, who presented the program during the Senate hearing for the proposed 2018 budget of the OVP, the program is successful in increasing the income of very small farmers. She said that in her district in Naga, the average income of small farmers increased from 1,800 pesos a month to 6,000-8,000 pesos a month. In this program, the small farmers provide the nutritional needs of schoolchildren by planting what is required by the DSWD as advised by the National Nutrition Council. "This is a good example of inclusive growth--the government addresses the needs of one sector, which is our schoolchildren, through the support of another sector, which is our small farmers, who also benefit through improved income. I hope this could be replicated in all parts of the country, especially in areas with high malnutrition incidence," said Legarda. The Senator added that local government units (LGUs) with exemplary nutrition program should be made models for other LGUs to replicate. The OVP said that the top five areas with high incidence of malnutrition are Biliran, Occidental Mindoro, Northern Samar, Catanduanes and Abra. Meanwhile, the LGUs of Malabon City and Quezon Province have very good nutrition programs, which are being showcased by the OVP. Legarda urged the OVP to strengthen collaboration with other government agencies to further boost its anti-poverty programs. She also requested for the OVP's one-year report on the needs of various communities it has visited. "We have so much unutilized funds which could be used to address the concerns of poor, far-flung areas. The inputs from the OVP would be very helpful in reminding the concerned government agency of the needs of those communities," Legarda concluded.
Press Release

August 26, 2017 Gov't told to hold job fairs for engineers to end talent shortage, project delays Government agencies with a "build, build, build" mission have been told to hold a job fair in order to fill the vacancies in engineering and other construction-related positions which have been blamed for the slowdown of infrastructure projects. The proposal was made by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, who said the lack in competent manpower to design, approve and oversee public works is a major cause of delay in their delivery. "The backlog is due to what is called technical deficit. Maraming ahensya ay kulang sa mga taong mangangasiwa sa mga proyekto," Recto said. He identified the agencies as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Education (DepED), Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Health (DOH). "For this year and next year, these four agencies will be building easily P1.5 trillion worth of infrastructure. Hindi pa kasama ang mga pinondohan ng ODA at PPP," Recto said. He was referring to big-ticket infrastructure projects bankrolled by official development aid and Public Private Partnership ventures. Recto said the DPWH has 1,777 vacancies in its approved plantilla of 19,501 personnel while the DOTr's mother agency, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), had 1,297 reported vacancies last year. With the creation last year of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the DOTC has been divided into two, the other being the DOTr. Recto said the DepED has also become a major infrastructure builder, with a yearly job order of classrooms in the tens of thousands. In 2017, DepED had a budget to build 47,492 new classrooms, and for 2018, it will be given money to build 47,000 classrooms, Recto said. But in a review of its 2016 spending , the Commission on Audit has scored DepED for failing to use P43 billion out of its P412.4 billion allocated budget that year. The underspending included the failure to use more than half of the funds allotted for buildings and equipment of the tech-vocational track in the senior high, or P2.2 billion out of P4.9 billion, crippling a major aim to produce jobs-ready graduates The same is true with the DOH, which has been getting billions of funds a year to build more hospitals, rural health units, and barangay clinics, under the multi-year Health Facilities Enhancement Project (HFEP). This year, the DOH has a budget of P24.2 billion for HFEP, and P 29 billion is proposed for next year. "Ang resulta tuloy ay it is suffering from an acute constipation of projects," he said. "Ang problema sa DepED, kulang ng engineers. Kaya one to two years delayed ang deliver ng classrooms. Ang DOH, ganoon din, kasi nga bulto ng mga empleyado nila mga manggagamot, hindi mga builders," Recto lamented. He conceded that this lack of competent technical personnel who will prepare, approve plans for projects, and supervise their construction, is the main culprit for the delays. Recto said this lack of personnel leads to slow spending. "Underspending is an offshoot of being understaffed. " "Yung sa capital outlays, na kasama ang infrastructure, ang total available budget ay P1.17 trillion in 2016, pero ang na-obligate ay P823 billion. Magkano natira? P352 billion," he said. "All these agencies have a personnel complement that was designed to handle the volume prior to the infrastructure boom. In short, they have reached peaked technical capacity. Overwhelmed na talaga. Kailangan na ng reinforcements," Recto said. To lure applicants, Recto said government must "adjust up the pay scale so it can compete in the job market." The Department of Budget and Management, he said, should review pay ceilings. "It can scrap unfilled and unneeded lower paying items, and consolidate them into one position with a higher pay. Sa ganoon, walang dagdag na pondo," he said. Recto recalled that as early as 2012, then DPWH secretary Rogelio Singson had been airing his frustration on how it was hard to attract talent given the low pay, resulting in a shallow bench of qualified civil engineers in an agency in the cusp of ramping up spending. Despite the fact that most of projects are now subcontracted to private builders, agencies still have to design, peg the cost, supervise the bidding, oversee the construction of projects, "and these require many man hours." "Eh doon na lang sa pag-approve ng PPP proposals, dapat may independent capability tayo, para hindi tayo gumasta ng malaki o mataga ng todo" he said.
Press Release

August 26, 2017 Zubiri proposes three-tiered sugar tax to address health needs, generate revenue

"Don't kill the industry" - Migz Zubiri Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri proposed a three-tiered tax on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) during the Committee on Ways and Means hearing on the comprehensive tax reform package dubbed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN). "We want to earn government revenue through the sugar tax but, we don't want to kill the industry," Zubiri stressed. "I believe that my proposal hits the sweet spot wherein the taxation method and tax rates can address important concerns such as government's need for revenue, need to stop the rising incidence of diabetes, obesity and dental caries among the many health issues related to excessive consumption of sugar. I also believe the tax rates to be adopted should also push my advocacy for the avoidance of cancer-causing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)." "We are studying the following. Specific tax based on content: Tier I: 0-5 gms. per liter : Exempt Tier II: 6-12 gms. per liter : P 3.00 Tier III: Above 12 gms. per liter : P5.00 Or, based on volume: P5 per liter for those containing locally-produced sugar P20 per liter for others which contain imported sugar and sweeteners such as HFCS." "I fully support the doctors' position to stop excessive sugar consumption. However, we should not slap a tax rate that will make sugar, food and beverage items containing sugar very expensive. If we tax it too steeply, people may not to be able to afford it because of the high price. One example is the flavoured milk drinks which improves taste and encourages milk drinking, especially among children." Zubiri warned that "an excessively high sugar tax could potentially lead to the collapse of the sugar industry, displacement of hundreds of thousands of farmers and mill workers and hunger of at least 5 million Filipinos heavily dependent on the sugar industry. That had happened in the 1980's when nosediving sugar prices forced planters to abandon large tracts of land and shut down mills. That even precipitated the holding of the Maskara festival when people wore masks with smiling faces, because they were in desperate times." Zubiri explained that the sugar industry is now very different from 30 years ago. "Today, most sugar holdings are small farms below three hectares such as in Negros where 95% of farmlands have been covered and distributed under the agrarian reform program. That's why it is so important for us to find the appropriate tax rates to slap on sugar-sweetened beverages. A collapsing sugar industry won't be affecting large hacenderos but the small farmers who in fact we need to support to be more productive." "A very important facet of the sugar tax is the fact that insurgency has always been high in sugar-producing provinces then and now. They are areas wherein sugar farmers and mill workers are experiencing a hard time. Let us not add to the incendiary situation, but, instead help Filipino sugar farmers, workers, millers and food processors. Let the Sugar Industry Development Act or SIDA achieve its objectives. So, we are studying the formula and language to encourage consumers and processors to purchase sugar produced by Filipino farmers at the same time mindful of our obligations in the World Trade Organization- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade." Zubiri said, "I will support this feature of the TRAIN believing we are imposing a health tax that is not anti-poor through a three-tiered SSB tax scheme."
East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier has been back home and getting an earful about the situation in Washington  but it was the proposed ballot measure to raise tolls on the states Bay Area bridges to help fund transit projects that got his blood boiling.

This is clear example of You scratch my back, and Ill scratch yours politics, said DeSaulnier, D-Concord.

The measure  which would raise tolls by $2 to $3  is being put together by a collection of Bay Area legislators. Its expected to generate about $125 million for a slew of road and mass transit improvements throughout the nine-county region.

Its all about getting money for projects in peoples districts rather than doing what really needs to be done, which is a second Bay Bridge crossing, DeSaulnier said. And they want the middle- and working-class people to pay for it.

DeSaulnier is not alone. State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, is raising questions about how the money would be spent, as is Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon.

Other East Bay officials, whose constituents would pay the bulk of the toll increase, have said theyll support the measure only if more projects are added to the goody list in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The measures author, state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, has said the measure would help ease traffic jams throughout the Bay Area. Spreading the money around, he said, is just the nature of winning voter approval.

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
The union Im privileged to work for, Service Employees International Union, has a core philosophy: Empowering and protecting workers improves society as a whole. The union is about more than a paycheck: Its about how ordinary people, together, can share in the power to improve their lives and their communities. This belief governs all of our work. We believe that this is whats missing in American policymaking, and even in a state like California, passing legislation that acknowledges the power of ordinary people is a fierce struggle against the powerful forces that are committed to hoarding the power for themselves.

Consider these examples:

Irene Botello, 35, has kidney failure. Staying alive means having her blood cleaned by a dialysis machine three days a week. The Fresno clinic is so understaffed, there was no one to help her when her blood pressure dipped and she lost consciousness. Only her wheelchair buckle saved her from hitting the ground. Dialysis center workers have protested and spoken out about such conditions; as a result, they were fired. Our efforts to raise the concerns of dialysis center workers are the motivation behind our legislation, SB349 and AB251, which seek to regulate and improve dialysis care, something workers desperately want, and the public needs.

Martin Harrison, 50, a father of five, was beaten and stunned to death with Tasers by sheriffs deputies in an Alameda County jail in 2010. His offense? Jaywalking. A lawsuit revealed a prison contractor, Corizon Health Inc., was to blame. The companys illegal decision to save money by replacing registered nurses meant less-qualified staff overlooked Harrisons medical condition. Despite his death and more than 1,300 lawsuits against the company, Alameda County signed Corizon on for another three-year contract after the company made hefty campaign donations to the sheriff. Public-sector workers have stood up to protest these pay-to-play politics and insist on accountability and transparency. When workers have the tools to hold government to a higher standard, we raise the bar not just for workers, but for taxpayers and the public. Thats why were sponsoring AB1250, to set minimum standards for contracting out by counties.

Bruce Hammer, a disabled Vietnam veteran living in Lake County, was locked in a room with no access to a bathroom. His caregiver, who had a criminal history, including elder abuse, stole from him. Our long-term efforts to improve private home care are directly related to unionization: When workers are trained and licensed, and have a voice, the quality of care will improve. Thats why our bill to give home care workers the choice to join a union, AB1513, is so important for workers, vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities.

Each of these pieces of legislation is a battle against corporate or governmental bosses who dont want workers to have a say. Taking on big corporations or politicians who are invested in the status quo may not win us a popularity contest, but ruffling feathers of the powerful wont stop us from doing whats right. Tell your legislator to support these important, even life-saving bills: www.legislature.ca.gov.

Laphonza Butler is the president of Service Employees International Union California.
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Montesacro Pinseria

Roman-style pinsa, a type of flatbread similar to pizza, is the specialty at this charming restaurant, tucked away in an alley just off of Sixth Street. Once inside, it feels like youve stumbled upon a delightful little slice of Rome.

510 Stevenson St., (415) 795-3040. www.montesacrosf.com

Sams American Eatery

Longtime theatergoers know that Sams, located steps from the Orpheum, is a reliable and affordable spot for a pre-show meal. The diner, which knows its audience, even offers special themed menus that tie into the the Orpheums various productions.

1220 Market St., (415) 626-8590. www.samssf.com

Fermentation Lab

This 6-month-old Mid-Market gastropub offers a solid list of local indie brews, plus a creative assortment of small bites. Living up to its name, the fermentation extends beyond the drinks with a variety of house-made made pickles.

1230 Market St., (415) 626-1592. www.fermlabsf.com

The Perennial

This fine dining restaurant offers mindful meals that are not only an elegant start to a night at the theater, but also environmentally conscious. If youre heading to a Sunday matinee, the restaurant also offers a four-course Sunday supper for $47 from 4 to 8 p.m.

59 Ninth St., (415) 500-7788. www.theperennialsf.com

Cadillac Bar & Grill

Just south of Market near the Orpheum, this spacious Mexican restaurant serves solid Tex-Mex fare and margaritas. It is focused on getting theater diners seated and served with maximum efficiency.

44 Ninth St., (415) 554-0181. www.cadillacbarandgrill.com

Kin Khao

Some of the best Thai food in town can be found at Pim Techamuanvivits petite restaurant tucked away at the corner of Mason and Ellis, in the Parc 55 Hotel, located just a short walk from the Curran and ACT theaters on Geary.

55 Cyril Magnin St., (415) 362-7456. www.kinkhao.com

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Hazel Southern Bar & Kitchen

Southern comfort food  fried chicken, sweet potato waffles, oxtail and grits, collard green dumplings  is the star here. Tip: If the restaurant is crowded, head through the connecting hallway (past the kitchen) to neighboring jazz club Mr. Tipples Recording Studio, which serves a truncated version of the menu.

1446 Market St., (415) 851-8562. www.hazelsf.com

Alta

The modern restaurant offers a NorCal menu with dishes like halibut crudo and Monterey squid porridge; it is a quick stroll to the Orpheum, as well as the symphony and opera.

1420 Market St., (415) 590-2585. www.altaca.co

Farmer Brown

Steps from the Golden Gate and Warfield theaters, this neighborhood staple offers Southern-inspired fare like seafood gumbo and jambalaya. The restaurant is also open for weekend brunch, if you want to fill up before a matinee performance.

25 Mason St., (415) 409-3276. www.farmerbrownsf.com

 Sarah Fritsche, sfritsche@sfchronicle.com
Climate change: Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, hosts a conversation on climate change with UC Berkeley Professor Daniel Kammen and Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown. The event is from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the San Francisco Zoo, Sloat Boulevard and Great Highway. Tickets required; event will also be streamed on Speiers Facebook page. Information and tickets: http://bit.ly/2uZ9ELJ

Virginia candidate: The Sister District Project is raising funds for Kathy Tran, a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, by hosting a discussion with Rita Bosworth, the Sister District Project founder, and former California Assemblyman Ted Lempert. 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., 390 Capistrano Road, Half Moon Bay. Information: www.goo.gl/d2KVLu

Sexual minorities: Phillip Ayoub, assistant professor of politics at Drexel University, discusses the recent history of transnational movement in Europe and the reasons for states varying approaches to legal recognition for LGBT rights. His talk begins at 4:10 p.m. Thursday in Room 382 of the humanities building at San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. at 19th Avenue. Admission is free. Information: https://lca.sfsu.edu/events/2017-08-31-231500/817163.

Town hall: Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, hosts a town hall meeting at the Crockett Community Center, 850 Pomona St., from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday. Information: www.facebook.com/events/336289353489096

Town hall: A forum for students in West Contra Costa middle and high schools and Contra Costa College. Speakers include members of the Richmond and El Cerrito city councils and other government panels. The event, hosted by Contra Costa Young Democrats, is at 5 p.m. Sept. 7 at John F. Kennedy High School, 4300 Cutting Blvd., Richmond. Information: www.youngdems.org

Voter registration: Volunteers will help new U.S. citizens register to vote after swearing-in ceremony. Sponsored by Democracy Action, which works to advance Democratic candidates. 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 7 outside the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Information: https://demaction.us

Picnic in the park: Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, hosts a picnic in Golden Gate Parks Marx Meadow picnic area Sept 10. RSVP: http://chiuassembly.ngpvanhost.com/form/-1081566039410473216

Town hall: Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, holds a town hall at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station. Information: http://bit.ly/2vpinSI

To list an event, email Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com.
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With singing, stomping and a few hallelujahs for good measure, the congregation at Glide Memorial Church welcomed its new president Sunday  a 46-year-old human rights worker who will try to fill the shoes of an 87-year-old Bay Area icon of the left.

Incoming church president Karen Hanrahan climbed to the stage, gave the Rev. Cecil Williams a kiss to seal the deal, then told a packed house of several hundred congregants that she was thrilled and delighted to be joining the church.

I feel a little teary-eyed right now, Hanrahan said, a common phenomenon at the churchs fabled Sunday morning celebrations where ushers routinely pass out tissues to the flock.

Hanrahan, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration, delivered a mini-sermon about being uplifted by the unexpected optimism of an exploited Afghan child bride whom she had befriended during her days as a globe-trotting United Nations aid worker.

We at Glide are part of a collective call for justice that is bigger and more powerful than hate, Hanrahan said  a sentiment that, at Glide, counts as preaching to the choir and everyone else as well.

The congregation fell silent when Williams, who has largely stepped back from the duties that made him the face of Glide for more than half a century, introduced her.

Karen will provide her unique wisdom and experience, and together lead us to the future, Williams said.

In other respects, it was a typical Sunday morning at the landmark church at Ellis and Taylor streets. The renowned choir swayed and swung, toddlers colored pictures at the foot of the stage, the brass band belted out spirituals, strangers embraced one another on cue and Williams urged the flock to affirm our real selves, and not just sit by but get up, get up, get up!  which the congregation did, as one.

Pastor Jay Williams, who since July has assumed the primary duties at the pulpit, roused the followers by recounting how Saturdays planned right-wing demonstration in San Francisco largely fizzled.

Hate tried to come to San Francisco, and we united and said, Not in our streets, the younger Williams roared. Not now, not ever!

Worshipers seemed delighted with the selection of Hanrahan, a lawyer and a native of Indianapolis, and impressed with her credentials with the State Department, with the United Nations and as an executive with the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Im so excited, said longtime congregation member Lisa Roa. She has great experience bringing people together to fight for social justice.

Worshiper Eric Poulson said the new president seems like a wonderful, strong dedicated and inspiring woman and the right person to walk in Williams shoes, or try to.

Hanrahan, wearing a blue business suit and clutching a laptop computer as she took the stage, smiled broadly as the celebration ended with a rousing sing-along of the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome. Several congregants noticed, however, that their new president was just about the only one in the hall not singing.

Maybe she doesnt know the words, Poulson said with a smile. Ill make some cue cards for her for next time.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
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It was a crazy day for Joey Gibson  one that ended with the Patriot Prayer leader showing up at the spot in the Presidio where he had once scheduled a rally for the right-wing group.

Gibson called off that event the day before it was to have been held Saturday, saying he would hold a news conference in Alamo Square Park instead. When police closed the park, Gibson hit the road, first to an online chat with friends, then to a press conference in Pacifica and finally to Crissy Field.

There, he joined about 20 would-be rally participants, some of whom said they had come from Oregon and Washington to attend the aborted rally.

They did not march, but mostly stood under the shade of a large tree in the middle of the field. The group said they had have been mislabeled as racists and white supremacists and that they were standing up for free speech.

It seems like if youre conservative in California, youre deemed as a racist, said Patrick Porcuna, a 28-year-old San Francisco resident, who identifies as libertarian and said he had voted for President Trump. Im down for people to talk and have free speech.

The group was confronted by counter-protesters, some of whom chanted, Black lives matter.

Im having to go from spot to spot because antifa really wants to come after me, Gibson said, referring to militant leftists who have confronted right-wing demonstrators at some rallies.

He left after about an hour, leaving the field to small knots of supporters and opponents.

Earlier Saturday, Gibson complained that the city had made it all but impossible for him to put on an event in public.

Today has been a crazy day, he said on a Facebook Live broadcast. Everywhere we go, the police, the city, they want to shut it down.

Gibson was forced to cancel his Alamo Square press conference when police closed the park Saturday morning and put up a fence around it.

He said officials such as Mayor Ed Lee and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco had wrongly labeled his group white supremacists while ignoring what he called the threat to public safety from counterprotesters such as those who massed outside Alamo Square on Saturday.

Officials countered that it was Gibson who had threatened public safety by pulling a last-minute location switch, to a spot where he had no permit for a rally.

Hamed Aleaziz and Catherine Ho are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com, cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz, @Cat_Ho
A rally at San Franciscos Civic Center Plaza on Saturday appeared to do exactly what organizers hoped it would  attract thousands of proponents of art, activism and love and keep them away from right-wing gatherings that, in the end, didnt come off.

The peaceful throng jammed around a stage near City Hall, where speakers called for a defeat of hatred and bigotry and music acts such as Michael Franti and Spearhead, Malo and the Brothers Comatose were on the bill.

Isnt it great to be in a place where youre with kindred spirits? said event organizer Kate Kendall, laughing.

Raquel Henry, 28, of the Inner Richmond stood beneath a tree and swayed to the music.

I decided to come here because I wanted to speak against oppression, she said. This has actually been more anticlimactic than I thought it would be. Things havent gotten out of hand and have been peaceful.

Alongside a nearby taco truck, Robin Gross posed with a sign reading No tacos for Nazis or KKK or white supremacists. She said she thought it would make people laugh. And it did.

I wanted to come at the message from a place of humor as opposed to aggression, she said. Lets just say Ive gotten a lot of comments about it.

Farther down Market Street, as the marching began in the Castro, Joe Weidman, 27, said he hoped that the creativity and beauty from our community can shine through hate.

As they marched from Castro and Market streets to the plaza across from City Hall, Weidman and dozens of other protesters carried artistic posters designed by Bay Area artists, including one that said Resist and another that showed a tiki torch with orange wildflowers blooming instead of flames.

Heather Heyer Heroine, said one poster, a memorial to the 32-year-old woman who died Aug. 12 while protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., when she was hit by a car driven by a suspected neo-Nazi.

We can have unity through love instead of division through hate, Weidman said. You have to leave your house. You have to show up. You have to say no to hate.

As the crowd gathered in the Castro, a flatbed truck with a stage in the back parked near the Castro Theatre and music blasted from its speakers.

Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, whose district includes the Castro, stood nearby. He said he was worried about the movements of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, which first canceled a rally at Crissy Field and then what it had billed as a news conference in Alamo Square Park.

Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson said he would be popping up at random spots around the city, and Sheehy said he worried the group would head to the Castro.

Theres amazing spirit and a lot of love here, he said, pausing to look at a police helicopter circling overhead. We dont know what the other side is planning. The last posting I saw said they would be out around the city. That concerns me. But I have every confidence the police can handle anything coming our way.

By mid-afternoon, Sheehys fears appeared to be unfounded: Gibson went to Pacifica to hold a news conference, and he and his sympathizers were nowhere to be found in the Castro.

Kelly Horner, 60, of Mill Valley held a poster with a tiny President Trump. She said the tension Saturday reflected the quality of White House leadership.

Im shocked and disgusted every single day by what is happening with our orange bully in chief, she said. I dont like Nazis in San Francisco or anywhere. We will chase them away. I can only hope that our presence here today will keep encouraging people to come out and stand up.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Lizziejohnsonnn
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Thousands of counterprotesters found themselves with no one to protest against when a planned right-wing gathering failed to materialize in San Francisco.

The collapse of Patriot Prayers plans, first for a rally at Crissy Field and then a press conference with the same lineup of speakers and bands at Alamo Square Park, left the field to those who had come to San Francisco to oppose them.

See? We won. They didnt even show up, said Trevor Martin, who took part in a peaceful march of counterprotesters from Alamo Square to the Mission District.

Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer leader who had sought to organize a freedom rally at Crissy Field before rescheduling for Alamo Square at the last minute, said he would have shown up had officials let him. City workers erected a fence around the square early Saturday, and at 10 a.m. police closed the park and told everyone in it to leave, saying they couldnt ensure public safety otherwise.

Today has been a crazy day, Gibson said. Everywhere we go, the police, the city, they want to shut it down.

Now Playing: Hundreds of protesters gathered near Alamo Square Park and Civic Center in San Francisco on Aug. 26, following the cancelation of a planned right-wing rally. Video: Kimberly Veklerov

Its unclear how many people ever intended to attend Gibsons event. He apologized to everyone that bought plane tickets and spent money to come down here, but the only evidence of support were the couple of dozen of Patriot Prayer supporters who stood around Saturday afternoon at Crissy Field, site of the originally scheduled event.

In any event, they appeared to be badly outnumbered by people who didnt want them there.

Leslie Manjarrez, 28, a teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco, said she came to Civic Center Plaza for a counterprotest rally featuring speakers and musical acts because I want to fight against the hate thats happening in our country. Its part of our duty as citizens.

Thousands of people attended the rally, boosted by a throng that marched down Market Street from the Castro district. Hundreds of other people headed to Alamo Square, some holding signs reading, Nope, not here today, Resist bigly and Nazis are losers.

Carlos Martinez, 24, and a friend took an overnight bus from their homes in Los Angeles after hearing about the Patriot Prayer event.

It was like, What can we do this weekend? Oh, lets go protest Nazis, Martinez said outside the fence around Alamo Square.

Penny Clifton, 51, a nonprofit worker who lives on Divisadero, stood across from the square on Steiner Street. She had planned to show up at the Crissy Field protest and was pleased that organizers could make new plans on the fly.

I just dont want any white supremacists in San Francisco, she said.

Gibson complained that Mayor Ed Lee, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other officials had unfairly tagged them with that label. He said that the group was simply trying to exercise its free-speech rights and that officials were pandering to the antifa, militant left-wing activists who have confronted right-wing demonstrators at some rallies.

Gibson said he would be popping up at random spots around the city, and by late afternoon put in an appearance at Crissy Field.

Waiting for him there was San Francisco resident Patrick Porcuna, 28, who identifies as Libertarian and said he voted for President Trump.

It seems like if youre conservative in California, youre deemed as a racist, Porcuna said. Im down for people to talk and have free speech.

Kathryn Townsend, who said she would have co-managed the Crissy Field event, traveled from Olympia, Wash., to attend. Like Gibson, she said the group stood for free speech, not racism.

Weve been called white supremacists. Its a flat-out lie, Townsend said. Im standing up for the right of Americans to speak without the threat of violence.

As a group of counterprotesters began chanting, Black lives matter, two Patriot Prayer supporters shouted back, Also!

With no Patriot Prayer sympathizers to rail against at Alamo Square, protesters there embarked on an early afternoon march to 24th and Mission streets. Participants were buoyed by the lack of opposition.

I dont stand for this alt-right stuff here where they know they dont belong, said Anthony Shuton, 48, who lives in the Mission District and joined the march when he heard the commotion.

Like many in San Francisco, he followed as best he could the promises of Patriot Prayer to turn up somewhere.

Their point seems to be to cause chaos and keep people running around, Shuton said. It seems to be working because these guys arent showing up anywhere.

The off-again, off-again protests in San Francisco left participants, police and officials at loose ends.

We dont know what the other side is planning. The last posting I saw said they would be out around the city, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy said as he watched the rally in the Castro. That concerns me. But I have every confidence the police can handle anything coming our way.

Theres amazing spirit and a lot of love here, he said, pausing to look at a police helicopter circling overhead.

San Francisco officials said all police officers were on duty Saturday. Mayor Ed Lee, who said he was deferring all decisions to police in the swiftly changing situation, said the city was prepared for contingencies and spontaneous events.

Late in the afternoon, Gibson and about two dozen members of Patriot Prayer showed up at Crissy Field, and some brief shouting matches broke out. Gibson, watched warily by park police, accused Lee and Pelosi of spreading untruths about him and his followers.

I truly believe they were trying to incite a riot, Gibson said.

At days end, Lee said he was proud to see the large and peaceful outpouring of residents march against hate.

They marched in the Mission. They marched in the Castro. They marched in Alamo Square, he said, standing outside City Hall. They made sure the themes of love and compassion dominated over hate speech.

Police Chief Scott said there were no major problems at any of the many demonstrations Saturday. One person was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public.

What you saw today is a city that came together, he said.

The next question is what will happen at a right-wing rally scheduled for Berkeleys Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Sunday. One of its organizers, Amber Cummings, asked supporters Friday not to attend the rally.

As for the people who showed up at Saturdays counterprotests, they were unsure of their plans.

I have to work a double (shift) tomorrow, said Courtney Gill, 27, who works at a bakery downtown and joined the march to the Mission when she got off work.

I just think whats going on this world is not good, she said. The more people who show up, the more represented our values can be.

Jose Martinez, 40, who works as a busboy at a Mission District restaurant said he joined in the rally before work to show solidarity against right-wing groups.

We have to stop the discrimination, he said. The more people they see, the more they know were against them.

Martinez has to work Sunday, so he wont be going to Berkeley either.

Chronicle staff writers Kimberly Veklerov and Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.

Kurtis Alexander, Rachel Swan, Catherine Ho and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com, rswan@sfchronicle.com, cho@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KurtisAlexander, @RachelSwan, @Cat_Ho, @SteveRubeSF
One sunny summer morning this month, a group of 20 teenage girls gathered in a conference room in the sleek offices of a tech company in New York. It was their fifth week of coding camp, and they were huddled around laptops, brainstorming designs for their final projects. One group was building a computer game that simulates the experience of going through life with depression and anxiety, while others were drafting plans for websites that track diversity at companies and help connect newly arrived immigrants with community groups.

They were working intently when Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of nonprofit Girls Who Code, dropped in to offer some encouragement.

How many of you take computer science class at your schools? she asked. Hands shot up. Are you the only girls in your class? she asked. Most of the girls nodded.

During the past five years, some 40,000 girls have learned to code through the organizations summer camps and after-school programs. But Saujani wanted to expand the groups reach, and was looking for new ways to recruit girls into the tech industry.

For a tech evangelist, her solution was surprisingly retro and analog: books. Girls Who Code is creating a publishing franchise and plans to release 13 books over the next two years through a deal with Penguin. The titles range from board books and picture books for babies and elementary school children, to nonfiction coding manuals, activity books and journals, and a series of novels featuring girl coders.

The organization just released its first two books  an illustrated nonfiction coding manual by Saujani, and a novel, The Friendship Code, which features girls who become friends in an after-school coding club.

I wanted to create a series of books that girls could see themselves in, where you could sneak in the algorithms and you sneak in the coding, Saujani said.

Lately, the niche has gotten considerably more crowded. A growing number of childrens books authors are using fiction to teach the fundamentals of coding, a trend that has coincided with a push by Silicon Valley to fund and expand technology training in schools.

Code.org provides free online coding lessons, and has crafted coding curricula for elementary, middle and high school students. Last year, Apple released a free app to teach the programming language Swift. Scratch Jr, a coding program designed for 4- to 7-year-olds, now has some 5 million users.

The Girls Who Code books are also arriving at a moment of heightened awareness and outrage over the scarcity and treatment of women in the tech industry. The issue has come into sharp focus in recent weeks, following the controversy over a Google engineers memo, in which he argued that women are underrepresented in computer science because of physiological differences. The memo, which led to the engineers firing, was widely seen as further proof of pervasive sexism in the industry.

Saujanis effort to counter the industrys gender imbalance, with coding clubs and now books, seems to have won over some major tech figures. Her new coding book features glowing endorsements from philanthropist Melinda Gates; Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Twitter; and Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg.

The daughter of two engineers who came to the United States as political refugees from Uganda, Saujani is in some ways an unlikely advocate for computer literacy. Her academic and professional background is in law, history and politics, not technology. Before founding her coding organization, she worked as a lawyer for a hedge fund and ran for Congress in 2010. She lost, spectacularly, and decided to start a nonprofit to teach computer literacy to girls.

Since its founding in 2012, the organizations coding clubs have rapidly spread across the country and now meet in 50 states. But demand has outstripped growth: 7,000 girls applied for 1,600 seats at the groups 80 summer camps.

So in early 2015, in an effort to extend the groups reach, Saujani, who published a book for adults about women and leadership in 2013, went to her literary agent and proposed a series of childrens books about coding. At the time, it seemed like an untapped market. Saujani met with several publishers, and was excited by Penguins strategy of flooding every corner of the childrens market, with board books like Baby Code! for 3- to 7-year-olds and novels for preteen girls.

Some tech experts say books could prove an effective way to recruit future coders, particularly girls, if the stories make programming seem creative and appealing. But others caution that books are not a substitute for hand-on instruction.

Josh Funk, a software engineer and the author of the picture book How to Code a Sandcastle, which will be published next year as part of the Girls Who Code line, sees books as a way to get kids interested in the subject, not as a stand-in for coding classes. You cant learn how to code by reading a picture book, he concedes.

Stacia Deutsch, who wrote The Friendship Code series, had no background in coding when Penguin hired her to co-write the books in consultation with Saujani. So she went to after-school coding workshops around Orange County, where she lives, and studied the organizations teaching manual. Using their curriculum, she focused on a handful of programming concepts and integrated them into the plot.

The novel centers on a girl named Lucy, who joins an after-school coding club and starts getting mysterious notes on her locker. To understand the messages, she has to master coding concepts like input/output, loops and variables.

Deutsch struggled at times to get those ideas across. In moments of panic, she called a coder friend for guidance. But in other ways, her status as a novice was an asset. Her characters did not know much about coding at the beginning of the novel, and neither, she presumes, will many of her readers.

I wanted someone who didnt know anything about coding to get excited about the possibilities, she said.

Alexandra Alter is a New York Times writer.
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Bedbugs didnt cause the breakup of Straten Schemel and his ex-girlfriend Paige Govey, but they contributed to it, both sides agree.

The former couple said they moved from San Jose, where they were bug-free, into San Franciscos Potrero Launch apartment complex in December 2015. Part of their 63-page lease agreement included a two-page addendum about bedbugs, Schemel said. The addendum noted that there may have been a prior infestation in the dwelling or building, but it was treated by a professional and the unit was believed to be free of further infestation.

He figured that was a routine disclosure and forgot about it, even after he and Govey started getting what they thought were spider or flea bites. One day we were laying there and saw a bedbug crawling across the bed, he said.

Govey would wake up with bedbugs crawling across her skin. It was literally, exactly what a nightmare would be, she said.

Schemel contacted management. He said exterminators came out every week for at least five weeks. The couple washed and dried their clothes and other fabrics on extreme heat. We ended up burning some nice articles, including a teddy bear that Goveys grandparents gave her when she was born, he said.

More for you New California law aims to stop spread of bedbugs

They packed up most of their belongings and kept them in a storage unit and in Schemels car. During this time, someone broke into my car and stole all my clothing, he said.

After the treatments, they moved everything back in, thinking the bugs were gone, but they returned. Exterminators were sent out again, but we said we are not packing up, you can exterminate around us, Schemel said.

During the treatments, Govey said, It became us living out of boxes, living in the same three outfits, spending every night vacuuming the bedding and box springs. It was a pretty large factor in a lot of fights.

After the second round of treatments, We stopped getting bit but kept finding remnants, dead carcasses, (bug) poop. By this time I had started making friends at the apartment complex and heard others were having the same issue, Schemel said.

Govey moved out of the small apartment in early August last year. Schemel moved out after his lease expired in December, but he still gets phantom feelings of bedbugs crawling across his skin.

The apartment was treated for bedbugs in December 2015, Potrero Launch management said in an email. The pest control contractor followed their standard protocol, treating the unit three times, and inspecting adjacent units for infestation. No bedbugs were found and the issue was isolated to the one apartment. There was an apparent reinfestation of the same residents apartment in March 2016, which was treated following the same protocol. The resident moved out in December 2016 and there have been no further reports of bedbugs for any unit on the property.

Govey still has her fried teddy bear. Its a sad reminder of the torture of these bugs, she said.

For related coverage, see this article on a new California law that aims to stop the spread of bedbugs.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
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PHOENIX  The Giants have had no shortage of lessons learned in 2017, which continued apace Sunday with their 80th loss. Chris Stratton struck out 10 for the second time in three starts, but the offense went to sleep and the Giants allowed nine eighth-inning runs in an 11-0 loss that completed a three-game Diamondbacks sweep.

Among the lessons for 2018 and beyond is, do not leave anything to chance in the bullpen.

The relief corps has not been as bad as last years, when the Giants led the majors with 32 blown saves, but the current season was not very old when it became evident the front office was too optimistic that the mere addition of closer Mark Melancon would fix the entire problem.

True, the bullpen took two body blows with Melancons forearm injury and Will Smiths elbow blowout at the end of spring training. But a dearth of experience among those who remained was costly. It would have been costlier without the shrewd acquisition and reclamation of Sam Dyson in June.

ALSO Giants waste seven strong innings from Bumgarner

When the Giants move into one of the most important offseasons in the Brian Sabean/Bobby Evans era, they will have to consider fortifying the bullpen again.

They probably have to acquire a reliable lefty specialist because Josh Osich and Steven Okert have not capitalized on the chance to replace Javier Lopez, who retired after last season.

The Giants might feel confident they are set on the right side but will enter the offseason with a lot of ifs.

Melancon appears headed for surgery with the hope he will be 100 percent healthy in time for spring training. Smith also hopes he will be recovered enough from Tommy John surgery to start the 2018 season in the bullpen. Neither of those is a given.

If Melancon and Smith are healthy at some point early in 2018, manager Bruce Bochy can look forward to the kind of experience the Giants have lacked since the Core Four of Lopez, Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt retired or moved on.

I think that has a big impact, Bochy said. Look at the experience we lost the last couple of years. Sometimes these things take time to jell, especially when you have injuries. We have a lot to look forward to with all the guys we have healthy next year.

Having two experienced closers in Melancon and Dyson will be a boon, especially if they are augmented by Smith and a potential lefty specialist.

That would leave a lot of middle-relief choices among organizational pitchers who have gained another year of experience.

Assuming they are not traded and are tendered contracts as arbitration-eligible players, Gearrin and Hunter Strickland have value. Their issue has been inherited runners.

Strickland has allowed 12 of his 26 inherited runners to score, Gearrin 19 of 33. This used to be a Giants strength. This year, they rank last in the league in stranding inherited runners.

Converted starter Kyle Crick is quickly climbing the ladder in this bullpen. On Sunday, he faced Paul Goldschmidt with two on and two out in the seventh and struck him out, the second time he bailed the Giants out of a tough spot in the series.

The Giants also have a wild card in Derek Law, who was supposed to be a right-handed setup man in 2017 but instead provided another reminder that inexperienced relievers can be hit or miss.

Law pitched well enough to earn four saves when Melancon first landed on the disabled list, but by late June he was back in Triple-A after his ERA ballooned to 5.40. He has been there since.

Law has righted himself at Sacramento, allowing one run over his past 10 appearances, and will be promoted with the Sept. 1 roster expansion.

More than anything hes started to command the ball like he did the year before, Bochy said. That goes with confidence more than anything. As far as velocity and stuff, those were fine.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @HankSchulman
On a Saturday in January in downtown San Francisco, half a block up from Market Street, shoppers and business people witnessed a jarring sight: a huge red swastika flag hanging over O'Farrell Street.

A crowd began to gather under the flag, eventually numbering as many as 3,000, The Chronicle reported. Enraged onlookers chanted, "Take it down! Take it down!" A nearby department store draped another flag beside the 4-by-8-foot Nazi banner  an even bigger, 10-by-20-foot American flag. But that wasn't enough to pacify what police were soon calling a riot.

Finally, two sailors on leave  Harold Sturtevant Jr. and E.G. Lackey  set about scaling the building's fire escape. Three other men and Chronicle photographer Bill Young trailed after them. Sturtevant ducked into the 10th floor window, followed by Lackey, who handed him a knife and lowered him onto the flagpole.

The date was Jan. 18, 1941. About 11 months later, Japan would launch an attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, prompting American involvement in World War II. But up until that point, the United States had been walking a fine line with Germany, maintaining diplomatic relations with the country despite growing popular resentment toward its fascist regime. It was not to last.

The ninth floor of 26 O'Farrell St., now one story below a jewelry shop, was then home to a German consulate. The flag was being flown to mark a national anniversary, and the consulate was legally allowed to display it. Sturtevant would later claim that he knew none of this; he assumed the flag was owned by a Nazi supporter. The crowd was "beginning to get mean," Sturtevant recounted to The Chronicle. He simply "thought it would be a good thing to get that swastika out of sight."

Sturtevant found himself sitting astride the flagpole, nine stories up. He reached for the flag. A consulate staffer tried to wrest it from his grasp, and a brief tug-of-war ensued, but Sturtevant prevailed. He tore the Nazi flag apart while the crowd roared its approval. Some grappled over the resultant shreds as they fluttered to the ground, hoping to keep them as souvenirs.

The mood in the streets was jubilant. But the "flag incident," as it was termed, instantly made national headlines and sparked a high-stakes diplomatic row. Consul General Fritz Wiedemann called the defacement of the Nazi flag a violation of international law. "The facts speak for themselves," he said in a statement.

Wiedemann happened to live in the picturesque Whittier Mansion in Pacific Heights, as SFGATE reporter Bob Bragman details here.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull expressed the U.S.'s formal regrets, even after Berlin condemned the flag-slashing as typical of a lawless democracy. "Even in the jungle, the rights of guests are respected," one dispatch seethed. Ultimately, the owner of the building terminated the consulate's lease, and the Germans vacated their O'Farrell outpost.

Local public opinion was as disparate as any social media firestorm today. "That U.S. sailor who tore down the Nazi flag ... was tearing at the very roots of what I interpret as civil liberties," The Chronicle's Herb Caen wrote. Several letters sent to The Chronicle's editor defended the two seamen, while others derided them as reckless. "If this world had more men of the Harold Sturtevant type," one letter said, "Hitlerism and Nazism would never have had a ghost of a chance."

Lackey and Sturtevant, for their part, were arrested and found guilty of misconduct. But the arresting officer testified that the men "felt they were doing their duty" in destroying the flag. Without a dishonorable discharge on his record, Sturtevant later re-enlisted.
Even though the right-wing Patriot's Prayer rally was canceled Saturday, thousands of counter-protesters carried on as planned around San Francisco.

One such demonstration was on Ocean Beach, where an estimated 1,000 people formed a giant heart Saturday afternoon.

An American flag was held up at the heart's center, as people sang songs such as, "This Land Is Your Land" and "God Bless America."

The mood on the beach was a "feeling of peace, safety, and strength in numbers," according to organizer Brad Newsham. "It is what the world needs. A small dose of that will go a long way."

Earlier in the day, thousands gathered across the bay in Walnut Creek, using their bodies to form a political message in the same vein: "END HATE!"

Newsham, a San Francisco taxi driver since 1985, says he has been organizing events like this since 2007, when he hosted his first aerial protest calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

In February, Newsham organized "between 4,600 and 5,600 participants" to spell "RESIST!!" on Ocean Beach.

Orchestrating these mass demonstrations is a lot of work, Newsham says, but he finds taking a stand rewarding. He has hosted 17 events in the past 10 years.

"If there was an algorithm to identify the 100 happiest days of someone's life, those 17 days would absolutely be among mine."

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas  Harvey spun deeper into Texas and unloaded extraordinary amounts of rain Saturday after the once-fearsome hurricane crashed into vulnerable homes and businesses along the coastline in a blow that killed at least two people and injured up to 14.

Throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared the toll would rise. They did not know the full scope of damage already done, and they dreaded the destruction that was yet to come from a storm that could linger for days and unload torrential rain, including in dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nations fourth-largest city.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Saturday that there had already been about 20 inches of rain in Corpus Christi and about 16 inches of rain in Houston. Our primary concern remains dramatic flooding, he said. Biggest concern is the possibility of between 20 and 30 more inches of rain.

Francisco Sanchez, with the Harris County Emergency Management Office  the area that includes Houston  said the storm would linger a while.

Someone is going to get those very high rainfall totals, he said. Hopefully its not us, but were in that possibility area.

Long after the system came ashore, weather conditions prevented emergency crews from getting into many of the hardest-hit places. In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of the extensive damage.

I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and thats about it, Mayor Charles Bujan said.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storms path. Mayor Charles C.J. Wax said his community took a blow right on the nose that left widespread devastation, including to homes, businesses and schools. Some structures were destroyed.

Rockports roads were a mess of toppled power poles. A trailer blocked much of one major intersection. Pieces of 100-year-old oak trees impeded the slow passage of emergency vehicles. Wood framing from ripped-apart houses was strewn along Route 35 on the towns southern end.

Harveys relentless wind tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium. The windows of some police vehicles had been blown out.

Were still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started, said Larry Sinclair, the Aransas County spokesman.

On Friday, Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios offered ominous advice, saying that people who chose not to evacuate should mark their arm with a Sharpie pen, implying that the marks would make it easier for rescuers to identify them.

As many as 14 people suffered minor injuries, including slips and falls, scrapes and a broken leg, Aransas County Judge C.H. Burt Mills Jr. said.

One person was killed in Aransas County in a fire at home during the storm, Mills said. A second person died in flooding in Harris County, where Houston is located, Jason Wiersema of the Harris County medical examiners office said late Saturday.

Elsewhere in the storms immediate aftermath, Coast Guard helicopters rescued 18 people from boats and barges in distress, said Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector.

The citys port was closed and will need a lot of repairs before it can reopen. Because Corpus Christi is the third-largest petrochemical port in the nation, authorities will also be on the lookout for spills, Hahn said.

The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds.

Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday. By Saturday evening, its maximum sustained winds had fallen to about 40 mph, and the storm was centered about 70 miles southeast of San Antonio.

The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of President Trumps administration. He met with his Cabinet and other officials to discuss the federal response to the damage and flooding, the White House said Saturday in a statement. On Twitter, Trump commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the disaster.

The Los Angeles Times

contributed to this report.

Frank Bajak is an Associated Press writer.
ATLANTA  The election of President Trump and Republican control of Congress meant the National Rifle Association could probably rest easy that gun laws wouldnt change for at least four years. But the NRA has begun a campaign not against pending legislation but what it sees as liberal forces bent on undoing the progress its made  and the political powerhouse is resorting to language that some believe could incite violence.

Using the hashtags #counterresistance and #clenchedfistoftruth, the NRA has put out a series of videos that announce a shot across the bow, and say the gun-rights group is coming for you and that elites ... threaten our very survival, terms that suggest opponents are enemy combatants.
President Trumps words to a Tuesday night rally in Phoenix were chilling in so many ways: Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job? The crowd of Trump supporters roared in assent.

On Friday evening, Trump made it official. Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff facing up to six months in jail for criminal contempt of court, received a presidential pardon.

Doing his job?

It is not the job of a sheriff to take the law into his own hands by violating the constitutional rights of Latinos by stopping and detaining them on his deputies race-based suspicions that they may be in the country illegally  in the absence of any evidence that they violated any other state law.

Doing his job?

It is not the job of a sheriff to defy a federal judge who ordered him to stop. It was that brazen refusal to obey a court ordered that led to Arpaios conviction.

Trump did not even wait for Arpaios October sentencing, or for a Justice Department recommendation, to act on his first pardon.

While there is no doubt about a presidents authority to forgive a federal crime, the message of this one is as unmistakable as it is despicable.

It tells law enforcement that the letter of the law is secondary to the whims of a rogue sheriff who made a career of harassing an immigrant community and humiliating people in his custody.

It tells all Latinos that they are fair game to be singled out for scrutiny of their immigration status.

It tells the judiciary that Trump, once again, has displayed open contempt for its role in enforcing the law and protecting the rights of individuals. This is the same Trump who as a candidate questioned whether an Indiana-native judge could be impartial because of his Mexican heritage; this is the same Trump who castigated judges who blocked his overreaching Muslim ban.

It tells Trump loyalists that he will not hesitate to invoke his powers to excuse their criminal activities. That message no doubt was comforting to the Trump associates who are targets in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and its possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Arpaio was a staunch Trump supporter. The two share a zeal to inflame fears about illegal immigration, and each had a history of making political hay over the racially loaded and unfounded rumor that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Doing his job?

Constituents of the self-styled Americas toughest sheriff decided otherwise, voting him out of office last year. A federal judge went even further, finding Arpaio criminally responsible for violating the civil rights of people he was sworn to serve and protect.

He kept Arizona safe! Trump tweeted Saturday.

The Arpaio pardon was a disgrace, and a warning that the basic protections of the U.S. Constitution are not safe from the impulses of a president willing to put loyalty to him above fidelity to the law.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
More than 50 people gathered Saturday at South Park to take a photo and make a point.

Adults and kids of different colors and heritages focused on what they have in common during the annual I am Billings photo shoot. The event was sponsored by the nonprofit organization Not in Our Town.

The diversity of Billings makes us strong, makes us vibrant, and its what we need to progress into the 21st century, Not in Our Town board member Fitzgerald Clark told the assembled group.

Its important, he said, to foster the spirit of unity and diversity, not conformity, but a love of being welcoming of all people from all backgrounds.

For the picture itself, photographer Mike Downing, standing on an elevated lift, called out the crowd on the steps of the gazebo to line up in rows. Those in the front displayed the orange and green letters that spelled out I AM BILLINGS.

Hold the B up, Downing said, as one little boy sat on the steps holding the letter in his lap.

The child gladly handed it to one of the adults and then peered out through the bottom half of the capital letter.

Everybody look up and act like youre having a lot of fun, Downing said.

The participants responded with laughter and smiles. After Downing snapped several photos, the group adjourned to the benches inside the gazebo to enjoy conversation and cake.

The event seems especially pertinent this year in the aftermath of what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, Clark said in an interview.

I do think we live in very challenging times where there are forces and people out there who want to drive wedges between groups of people, he said. So I think its more important now than ever to really demonstrate and really speak about the oneness of the community, the oneness of us as Americans, as people.

The fundamental truth, he said, is that as children of God, we have a responsibility to be lovers and caretakers of each other.

There are no people who dont count, he said. It doesnt matter your sexual orientation, whether youre transgender, men, women, whatever. Were all souls and we have the capacity to love each other and thats what we should aspire toward.

Clark, who brought his 11-year-old son, Zion, with him, said basic respect for other humans starts at home, with parents modeling behavior for their children. Hate is not natural to kids, he said  its something that youngsters learn.

As parents we have to take it upon ourselves to really consciously provide opportunities for our kids to interact with people who are different, to learn about differences, he said. To learn that those differences are not fundamental, that were a lot more alike than were unalike.

Throughout the year, Not in Our Town holds events to spur discussion, including an annual seminar in November that focuses on justice. It also sponsors vigils to bring people together for healing and connection when a painful local or national incident pierces the community's heart.

Mary Liz Rondeaux, a Crow woman who lives in Pryor, knows about pain in a community. She grew up in Lodge Grass, which recently experienced the pain of a triple homicide, and she still has family there.

I wanted to be part of this to show them that a town can come together, Rondeaux said.

While living away from Montana, she became part of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby.

When I came back to Montana, I wanted to let Network know that the diversity and the coming together is thriving in Montana, she said.

The Rev. Doug Garner and his wife, Lisa, recently moved to Billings where he is now pastor of Central Christian Church. They showed up for the photo Saturday, Lisa Garner said, because its important to support others.

For people who are sometimes treated less than, whether its because theyre in poverty or because they're LGBT or another minority, she said.

Doug Garner said Saturday wasnt the first time hed heard of Not in Our Town. He first became aware of the organization when he lived in the South in the early 1990s and events affecting Billings minorities spurred its creation.

Now hes glad to be part of that movement.

Thats how communities work together, he said. Its important to be part of that, and were excited to be here and part of Billings.
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The decision by police to step aside and allow black-clad demonstrators to take over Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Sunday was based on the safety of officers and protesters, a spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department said.

For hours, some 400 law enforcement officers from Berkeley, Oakland, UC Berkeley and Alameda County had control of the scene at the park, stopping anyone who entered at a single checkpoint, where they confiscated anything on a list of banned objects, including skateboards, eggs and any items that could be used as weapons.

But shortly after the scheduled 1 p.m. start time of an anti-Marxism rally, hundreds of black-masked agitators arrived at the scene. Rather than trying to take on the horde, the clearly overwhelmed police force allowed hundreds of people to pass barriers and enter the park unchecked.

Now Playing: Right-wing demonstrators were vastly outnumbered by counterprotestors in Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park and were driven out on August 27, 2017. Video: JW Player

We made a strategic decision to move our officers, Berkeley police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats said. We also want people to freely assemble.

Once in, the masked agitators beat and pepper-sprayed right-wing demonstrators, who were far outnumbered in the crowd. Mobs chased some of the right-wingers  a few dressed to show their support for President Trump  into the streets.

Wearing gas masks on the outskirts of the park, riot officers continued to attempted to control several fights using smoke canisters. Police arrested 13 people, including one on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Most were arrested in connection with banned items.

Before things got unruly, police had a zero-tolerance policy, immediately squelching any skirmishes and swiftly removing agitators from the heavily fortified park throughout the morning.

We tried to address things at the beginning. We tried to make sure things stayed peaceful, Coats said. We have to go through these things fairly often, so we try new and different strategies. Some work and some dont. Were learning.

The tactical approach came as law officials around the country have begun re-evaluating how they monitor and intervene at such rallies, after a deadly protest involving white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12.

The Berkeley City Council passed an emergency ordinance last week allowing the city to issue temporary rules for nonpermitted public events like Sundays. The new rules follow two violent clashes in Berkeley in April between similar groups.

On Sunday, the strategy of using overwhelming resources to preempt problems was similar to the approach taken by authorities in San Francisco a day earlier in response to a planned rally by the conservative group Patriot Prayer.

That groups organizer, Joey Gibson, had to be rescued by officers in Berkeley Sunday as he was being chased, beaten and pepper-sprayed.

Organizers of Saturdays event, initially scheduled for Crissy Field, called it off after the National Park Service put in sweeping security measures. In the end, a handful of members of the right-wing group turned up at Crissy Field.

The violence in Berkeley is under investigation. Coats asked people who had been in the crowd to report any injuries and to submit video. She said the Police Department is is creating a special website for people to submit video.

Chronicle staff writer Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report.

Lizzie Johnson, Erin Allday and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com, eallday@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn, @ErinAllday, @EvanSernoffsky
KATY RADDATZ/SFC

A Spare the Air Alert has been issued for Sunday in the Bay Area because of an excessive amount of smog expected in the region, air quality officials said today.

A high-pressure system over the region, triple-digit temperatures, light winds and smoke from Oregon wildfires are expected to contribute to unhealthy ozone levels in the South and East Bay regions, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management district.
John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Alex Washburn/Special to The Chronicle

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BERKELEY (BCN)

A man wanted in connection with trying to sexually assault a woman in El Cerrito on Tuesday was arrested in Berkeley Friday, police said.

Mario Xavier Hills, 28, of San Francisco, was arrested on suspicion of attempted sexual assault, according to the El Cerrito Police Department.

EXECUTION DATES SET: 18 inmates to get execution dates after California Supreme Court ruling

On Friday, a citizen spotted Hills near the Safeway on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.

The citizen contacted Berkeley police, Hills was taken into custody, and he was turned over to El Cerrito police.

REVENGE SHOOTING: Man gets 85 years to life for shooting 3 men in 2015

Police said Hills is accused of grabbing a woman and attempting to sexually assault her near the intersection of Stockton Avenue and Balra Drive.

The incident occurred around 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday.

The victim was able to scream and alert neighbors, and Hills fled the area.
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The water started bubbling up out of the nursing-home toilets around 3 a.m. It seemed like a bad sign  but not dire.

So when the overnight staff at La Vita Bella in Dickinson called owner Trudy Lampson early Sunday, she thought they had time to carry out carefully laid hurricane plans designed to ensure the safety of their 15 elderly patients battling dementia.

"We were so well-prepared," Lampson said. "We even had containers for the charts."

But by the time she arrived at the home on Oak Drive, water was already a foot deep. Half an hour later it was chest-high, and the meticulously curated medical notes floated atop a mess of debris and muck brought in with the floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey.

FEMA: Harvey is 'the worst disaster the state's ever seen

And, despite frantic phone calls from staff  some at the home, some trapped in their own residences  help did not come.

"I was on the phone with anybody except for God," said employee Tina Davis.

God didn't answer the phone, but in the end it was the Army National Guard that showed up to save the day, floating the wet, half-clothed residents out on mattresses to waiting trucks  massive light-medium tactical vehicles well-equipped for such conditions.

"The house was pretty much underwater," said an Army National Guard captain who asked not to be named.

Nine years ago, Lampson had evacuated the residents for Hurricane Ike. But this time, they stayed put.

David Popoff, emergency management coordinator for the city of Dickinson, located 30 miles southeast of downtown Houston, couldn't understand why.

"The mayor issued an evacuation warning for low-lying areas and people that were medically fragile and for some reason they didn't evacuate," he said.

The staff made their first calls for help in the early-morning hours, they later recalled. They tried 911, state officials, the fire marshal, and the mayor of a nearby town.

At one point, Lampson said, she was on the phone with a state official who said there was help at the scene  even though there was no one in sight.

Eventually, Lampson snapped a picture of the inundated house and sent it to her daughter, Kimberly McIntosh.

When McIntosh's husband shared the picture on Twitter, it went viral.

"Need help ASAP emergency services please," he wrote.

Still, they waited.

As the hours wore on, workers tried to placate the residents with Gatorade and cookies.

One asked repeatedly for her son. Another insisted they call a firefighter who'd helped her once, towns away.

DEBUNKED: TS Harvey victims, don't share viral National Guard social media message

"I was so scared," said Shantell Woodruff, a 17-year-old who works at La Vita Bella with her mother.

"I didn't know if I was going to get out or not."

Finally, around noon, help came.

Two patients were airlifted from the home, according to Popoff. Staffers said some were rescued by a friend with a boat.

And the Army National Guard pulled up with massive trucks to rescue the remaining 11 residents and five staff.

"It was about waist-deep water," the captain recalled. "And we were evacuating them out on mattresses."

Early Sunday afternoon, the wet and tired workers and their charges arrived at Santa Fe Elementary School, where some transferred to a bus headed for a church shelter in Alvin. Others went to the hospital as a precaution.

Pelted by a steady drizzle in the elementary school parking lot, Lampson reflected on the rescue effort: "I thought people would come quickly." And on the flood: "I thought we would have a couple hours."

Popoff offered sympathy.

"I don't blame her," he said. "We have made over 600 rescues today and I guarantee that for every one you talked to, we didn't come soon enough."

Even as Woodruff dried her tears and was loaded on the bus, Lampson, the owner, planned a return.

"I need to go back," she said. "We have like seven cats."
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CARACAS, Venezuela  Authorities have shut down two radio stations that aired critical coverage of President Nicolas Maduros government by refusing to renew their licenses, a broadcast executive announced, as the country staged military exercises in defiance of Washington and new U.S. sanctions.

Enza Carbone, president of the countrys Radio Chamber, said late Friday in a statement that the National Telecommunications Commission did not renew the stations permits when they expired and ordered them to cease transmitting.

The National Media Workers Union accused the government of taking arbitrary action and violating freedom of expression.

The closures came less than 48 hours after the commission ordered cable providers to remove the signal of Colombian TV stations Caracol and RCN. Maduro had sharply criticized foreign news coverage of the country and its months-long political crisis.

About 900,000 people, including soldiers and members of civilian militias, were expected to take part in the two days of martial drills over the weekend. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez inaugurated the exercises Saturday at a National Guard facility in eastern Caracas where dozens of snipers practiced their aim.

Washington accuses Maduro of imposing a dictatorship after the recent installation of an all-powerful constitutional assembly that has targeted political opponents and taken over lawmaking powers from the opposition-controlled congress. In remarks earlier this month, President Trump would not rule out a military option for Venezuela.

Critics call the assemblys creation a blatant, authoritarian power grab, while Maduro allies argue it offers a way out of the countrys political and economic crisis.

To greater democracy in Venezuela, the empire responds with more aggression, Padrino Lopez said, promising that the armed forces will support the government in standing up to the sanctions announced the previous day by Washington.

The sweeping penalties, which Trump signed by executive order, prohibit U.S. financial institutions from providing new money to Venezuelas government or the state oil company, PDVSA.

Fabiola Sanchez is an Associated Press writer.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy approaches, New York City is now helping those affected in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

The hurricane came ashore late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4 storm with 130 mile-per-hour winds. Hurricane Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday and left behind destruction in southeast Texas and Houston.

FDNY AND NYPD

New York City is sending 120 emergency personnel to assist and rescue those affected in the wake of the hurricane, officials announced Sunday.

"The FDNY's Incident Management Team and our Urban Search and Rescue Rapid Response Team will assist authorities on the ground," Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Sunday.

New York City is sending 120 emergency personnel to Texas to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.  Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 27, 2017

The Urban Search and Rescue Team New York Task Force 1, a compilation of FDNY and NYPD special operations team members, was set to deploy to San Antonio to await orders with rescue and recovery.

The team has a compilation of tools that include boats, motors, dry suits, rescue equipment for collapsed structures, rope equipment for confined space and a large compilation of Haz-Mat equipment and tools.

"We're also supplied with a large, self-sufficient cache of food and supplies that make us sustainable for up to 72 hours in a row, said FDNY Battalion Chief Jack Flatley, Task Force Leader of New York City's elite Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR) NY Task Force-1. "I believe we're ready to face any danger."

The team has been activated in the past to assist with emergency response throughout the world, including Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The team rescued or removed more than 100 people affected by Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina in 2016.

"We are trained to save lives before patients are extricated from natural or man-made disasters," said Silvana Uzcategui, an FDNY Rescue paramedic . "Our role in Texas is to provide medical care, to take care of civilians and the task force members. We're in the disaster zone. We're expecting torrential rains, winds, floods, and chaotic conditions. We're ready for it."

DONOVAN'S OFFICE ACCEPTING DONATIONS

Rep. Dan Donovan is accepting donated supplies for Harvey victims at his Staten Island location in New Dorp. His office is located at 265 New Dorp Ln., second floor.

"Even though some Texas representatives weren't there for New York City in our time of need, I fully intend to support any aid package that comes up for a vote in Congress," Donovan said. "I just hope that those who question whether one part of the country should help another when disaster strikes now understand that this is an American responsibility."

WHERE TO TURN

In an effort to help local schools ravaged by Hurricane Harvey, local non-profit Where To Turn is looking to get in touch with schools in Texas to ask what supplies they may need for the new school year.

Founder Dennis McKeon explained that local schools on Staten Island can partner with a Texas school and collect supplies based on a list the school will send. Where To Turn will then ship supplies directly to the Texan schools.

"When we get in touch with schools in Texas, we will ask them to provide us with a list with what they need," McKeon said. "The kids will collect whatever is on the list that they can."

McKeon said a meeting is scheduled this week to further discuss plans and donations for schools in need. Once McKeon receives lists from schools, he will then forward them along to schools interested in helping.

Where To Turn provided crisis relief services for more than 1,500 families of Sept. 11 victims. In the following years, the network has also helped victims of other tragedies, such as Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.

AMERICAN RED CROSS

The American Red Cross has set up a donation page on their website for the recovery of Hurricane Harvey. The American Red Cross of Greater New York is preparing a deployment team to help storm-ravaged areas in Texas.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Dozens of Red Cross volunteers gathered at the New World Preparatory Charter School in Port Richmond Saturday afternoon to install free smoke alarms across Staten Island.

The volunteers canvassed hundreds of homes in the borough to teach residents fire safety and install smoke alarms in houses without functioning devices.

The Red Cross launched their national Home Fire Campaign in 2014 to reduce deaths and injuries as a result of house fires.

The program emphasizes the importance of functioning smoke alarms and encourages residents to practice their fire escape plan.

According to the FDNY's Bureau of Fire Investigations, up to 70 percent of fire deaths in recent years took place in residences without a working smoke alarm.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Approaching the five year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy -- which wreaked havoc on Staten Island's shoreline communities, devastating thousands of homes and taking the lives of 24 people -- Staten Islanders are still recovering from the damage brought by the Oct. 29, 2012 storm.

And Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-North Shore) vividly remembers the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when Staten Island victims needed help finding lost family members, pets and temporary shelter, and there simply weren't enough portable bathrooms for those left homeless.

This is why Titone wants to impart all he learned from helping Island hurricane victims to those who lost all everything they owned in Hurricane Harvey.

The storm has caused thousands of residents to flee their flooded homes. Published reports have confirmed five people dead as of Sunday afternoon in the storm.

"We have the expertise in New York State for dealing with this (devastation after a hurricane). I would go one step further and say not only can we help with the financial aspect, we can tell them how to spend it," said Titone.

"My hope is that they (Texas officials) reach out to us and ask us how to do it," he added.

CALLING ON CONGRESS

Titone also reached out to Congressman Daniel Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) via twitter, urging him to assist the Texas victims.

"The knee-jerk reaction from New Yorkers is to stick it back to Sen. Ted Cruz and his colleagues who voted against giving us money (after Hurricane Sandy)," said Titone, referring to the fact that Texas Republican Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted against the federal Sandy aid package.

I urge my congressman @dandonovan_ny to support #hurricaneharvey victims despite @tedcruz cruelty to us after #Hurricane Sandy  Matt Titone (@MatthewTitone) August 26, 2017

But Donovan said he's committed to helping.

"Even though some Texas representatives weren't there for New York City in our time of need, I fully intend to support any aid package that comes up for a vote in Congress. I just hope that those who question whether one part of the country should help another when disaster strikes now understand that this is an American responsibility," said Donovan, who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications, which has oversight jurisdiction over disaster response policies.

STATE SENDING AID

Governor Andrew Cuomo's office has sent emergency personnel and equipment to help the recovery effort.

As #HurricaneHarvey continues to devastate the Gulf, I am deploying emergency personnel and equipment to help aid in the recovery effort.  Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 26, 2017

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- We've traveled across the borough and documented blights that plague neighborhoods from Tottenville to St. George.

They're commonly referred to as "zombie'' properties -- neglected and/or abandonned homes, public and private buildings and lots that are both an eyesore and a danger.

Many have been invaded by squatters -- often homeless or addicted wanderers -- who have attracted other unsavory characters to the neighborhood.

They bring vermon, mosquitoes and flies.

And in too many cases, they've been the site of fires. One killed a man and injured his son.

They are a health and safety hazard that neighbors have complained repeatedly about to public officials and they have rarely gotten action.

Sigificant hope of turning this Islandwide problem around surfaced when a new state law meant to combat the blight of zombie properties across the state was passed and signed by Gov .Andrew Cuomo in June 2016. The legislation also established a Community Restoration Fund.

Sen. Diane Savino. (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), along with Bronx Sen. Jeffrey Klein, championed the legislation to protect neighboring home values while ensuring the speedy rehabilitation of properties.

"This is a great day for the people of New York City, especially my constituents living in Staten Island and Brooklyn who've been dealing with this issue for far too long," Savino at the time.

The legislation followed a study that revealed that Staten Island, at the time, was home to 303 zombie homes, which resulted in a $50.7 million drop in property values of privately owned homes in surrounding neighborhoods.

The study, "The Next Great American Bank Robbery" that was launched by the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), highlighted financial and societal problems caused by zombie properties and that New York lacked effective enforcement to hold banks accountable for maintaining the properties.

The law requires banks and mortgage providers to maintain vacant and abandoned properties they have notes on or risk a $500 daily penalty -- even before foreclosure proceedings are over.

Now, there are at least 500 properties on Staten Island that are covered by the regulations, out of roughly 2,300 in all five boroughs and 20,000 across New York state, officials told the Advance.

But zero progress has been made despite the legislation.

That's because the state doesn't send anyone out to inspect these properties, relying instead on self-reporting and photos from financial institutions and information from municipalities like the city of New York.

The state's Department of Financial Services hasn't issued a single penalty against a bank or mortgage provider for failure to maintain and secure a property more than a year after the law requiring this upkeep was signed and eight months after it went into effect.

The program, "unfortunately, is in its infancy stages," said Alphonso David, the counsel to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Well, it's time get that legislation up and walking by having someone designate and deploy inspectors so the banks responsible either take action and clean and secure the sites or get fined.

WHAT'S IN THE LAW

Part of the law focuses on foreclosure prevention. There were about 820 foreclosure cases initiated on Staten Island last year, according to pre-foreclosure data provided by state.

The other measures are aimed at financial institutions, imposing a "pre-foreclosure duty" on banks and mortgage providers that didn't previously exist.

They must also inspect properties within 90 days of a delinquency. The properties are considered "vacant and abandoned" if three consecutive inspections 25 to 35 days apart and at different times of the day shows no signs of occupancy.

Banks and mortgage providers then self-report these properties to the state Department of Financial Services, or DFS, which is required under the law to keep a registry of them.

DFS has the authority to bring court actions against a non-compliant bank and levy a $500 daily fine -- but hasn't done so once.

State officials said that the law is still new and that properties must be three months delinquent and another few months vacant to be covered.

"We've actually received, you know, broad compliance from the banks and the servicers when we received a complaint about a particular property -- again, in the short time frame when the law has been in effect," Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo said.

STATE WORKING ON ENFORCEMENT PLAN

The state said DFS confirms information provided by financial institutions by contacting local municipal agencies. Smaller cities may not be able to verify each complaint, but New York City has several large departments with inspectors.

State officials initially said that the law wasn't intended for DFS to assume the role of code enforcement and the agency doesn't have the staff to do this, but added that there's nothing that prevents the state from creating a system to verify complaints themselves.

While state officials don't want to duplicate existing services, a spokesman said DFS is developing a "broad, strategic enforcement and outreach plan" with localities to make sure there's uniformity in enforcement.

State officials have also pointed out that the law gives individual cities the power to bring a court action or levy a fine, too.

State Sen. Diane Savino, who pushed for the legislation with the Independent Democratic Conference, acknowledged the law requires the active participation of local authorities.

"It's up to the local government to take action," she said. "We're allowing the banks to almost self-certify ... the state doesn't have the authority or the entity to go out and inspect."

New York City was recently awarded a grant that will be used to help create a database and system for tracking vacant and abandoned properties. This is intended to, at least in part, help the city coordinate with the state.

That's a promising step, but for the residents who have lived with these horrific conditions on their blocks for years, the time has come for aggressive, pro-active action.

They've waited long enough.

_____

This is part of an ongoing series of reports on Staten Island's zombie properties.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

'Zombie' property neglected by city: 'It's horrendous'

Part 4:

Zombie homes on fire: 'That's my biggest fear'

Part 5:

Why city can't just clean up zombie properties

Part 6:

State law to combat 'zombie' homes lacks enforcement against banks
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Happy Monday, Canberra, and welcome to another working week.

After a chilly start of minus 2.4 overnight, we're heading for a balmy top of 13 degrees today. We're not expecting any more snow.

Things will warm up throughout the week and we'll hit 19 on Saturday. Spring is just four days away.

Here's the local news to get your day started:

ACT and NSW in train clash over rail line
The business world may be enthralled with Amazon's moves to become a major supermarket player, but Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba says it is already strides ahead and is opening up new ways for Australia food producers to access its more than half-a-billion customers.

Alibaba has been an important avenue for Australia baby formula and vitamin producers to access the Chinese market, through its Alibaba.com wholesale website and its direct-to-consumer site Tmall, but Maggie Zhou, Alibaba's Australia and New Zealand managing director, said fresh produce now presented the greatest opportunity for growth.

Alibaba already sells some fresh products online and is pushing further into the category with its own supermarkets in China, opening 13 since 2015.

The company says it has tried to reinvent the supermarket experience at its Hema stores by removing the distinction between online and offline shopping, with shoppers using a smartphone app to make purchases and learn about products.
For the past few days I have listened to people I admire and people I don't, talk about the challenge of facing up to our colonial past. One comment that struck me the hardest on radio was that "none of Australia's first Europeans were as bad as their Confederate counterparts in the United States".

John Batman is widely known as the founder of Melbourne. He makes the American Confederates look friendly. As a bounty hunter in Tasmania he killed countless Aboriginal people. In his words: "We only captured that night one woman and a male child about two years old  next morning we found one man very badly wounded (and) shortly after we found another, alive but very bad  On Friday morning we left the place for my farm with the two men, woman and child, but found it impossible that the two former could walk, and after trying them by every means in my power, for some time, found I could not get them on I was obliged to shoot them ...".

Tasmanian Governor George Arthur wrote that Batman " had much slaughter to account for." This was a remarkable and telling accusation by a governor who was most definitely not known for his compassion.

On the issues of statues as emblems of our past, it's worth looking at how Berlin dealt with its own fascist monuments after World War II. Vacant, weed-covered building blocks sit throughout the city, as silent, empty reminders of what horror can be unleashed if people sit idly by for long enough.
Charlottesville, known as a progressive college town, is bracing for another white nationalist rally scheduled for Saturday.

Police anticipate as many as 2,000 to 6,000 people, including counterprotesters, to converge in the Virginia city, in an event that could be "the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States," as described by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On Friday night, alt-right activists gathered at the University of Virginia and marched holding torches throughout the campus.

After seeing images of the march, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer released a statement referring to Friday's rally as a "cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance march down the lawns of the architect of our Bill of Rights."

"Everyone has a right under the First Amendment to express their opinion peaceably, so here's mine: not only as the Mayor of Charlottesville, but as a UVA faculty member and alumnus, I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus," he added.

So how did Charlottesville, which previously has been of little interest to white nationalists, become the rallying ground for what appears to be the third such event in the city this year?

Saturday's "Unite the Right" event would bring white nationalists, neo-Confederates and alt-right activists to the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Emancipation Park, which had recently been renamed from Lee Park.

The same park was the site of a May demonstration in which a group carried torches led by white nationalist Richard Spencer around the Lee statue to protest its removal.

In July, a Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville drew about 50 Klan members and supporters who gathered around a statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

The historic city, home of Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, has become the latest Southern battleground over the contested removal of Confederate monuments.

Why Charlottesville?

Like many cities, Charlottesville has grappled with what to do with its Confederate monuments -- symbols of the Civil War that represent heritage to some, hate to others.

In April, the city council voted to remove the bronze statue of Lee, CNN affiliate WVIR reported. It was one of several steps Charlottesville is taking to reduce its Confederate monuments. The removal is on hold pending litigation.

The city became an ideal protest site for white nationalists.

"This entire community is a very far left community that has absorbed these cultural Marxist principles advocated in college towns across the country, about blaming white people for everything," said Jason Kessler, who organized the "Unite the Right" rally.

Kessler, a Charlottesville resident, blames what he calls "the anti-white hatred that's coming out of the city."

Although other cities such as New Orleans, St. Louis and Austin have contended with the Confederate monuments issue, it is Charlottesville where the rallies are happening.

"Charlottesville has kind of been put on the map recently," Mayor Mike Signer said last month. "We want to change the narrative by telling the true story of race through public spaces. That has made us a target for groups that hate that change and want to stay in the past, but we will not be intimidated."

Lasting impact of May's torch protest

Outraged by the decision to remove the Lee statue, protesters in May converged around the monument carrying torches led by Spencer, who had returned to his college town. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and lives in the state.

The gathering was swiftly condemned by city leaders, including Signer, who said it was "either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that harkens back to the days of the KKK."

But the fiery imagery from that event had a searing effect.

Kessler called it a "fantastic first event."

"Obviously that first event kickstarted public interest," he said.

The torch light rally was well-received by extremists, said Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and extremists.

"They love what they consider to be a powerful image. A lot of people pointed out that it looked like Klan harassing black people. They didn't have a problem with that."

"It's partly because that went so well, that's why they keep returning to Charlottesville," Beirich added.

KKK rally in Charlottesville

Two months later, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally at another Charlottesville park, which had been renamed Justice Park from Stonewall Jackson Park.

Clad in Klan robes and carrying Confederate flags, members of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan marched to the park and chanted "white power."

They were met with about 1,000 counterprotesters. The local chapter of the NAACP organized a counter-rally. Shouting "racists go home," the crowd drowned out the Klansmen's chants.

Kessler: 'We're going to have bigger events'

The previous two rallies were "seen as an affront to the liberal population of this city and of the country," Kessler said.

The events "reopened the wound. It stuck a finger on the raw nerve of this population that has already failed to get over the election of Donald Trump," he said.

Charlottesville, which has a population of 47,000, had 80% of its voters choose Hillary Clinton last year.

The city has not been known as a hotspot for white nationalism. There aren't historical precedents to the current white nationalist gatherings in Charlottesville, local historian Rick Britton said in an email.

And it may not be over after Saturday if Kessler gets his way.

"We're going to have bigger and bigger events in Charlottesville," he said.

While Charlottesville was once named America's happiest city in 2014 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, some residents aren't very happy about what's happening. Many are tired of the white nationalist rallies and have demanded the city revoke their permit.

In July, more that 200 residents packed City Hall demanding that the city cancel Saturday's rally, CNN affiliate WVIR reported.

"I can very easily see this just eroding and erupting throughout the streets of Charlottesville and putting our citizens in danger," said one speaker, Don Gathers.

"A five-hour block with over 400 angry folks coming in spewing just hatred and vitriol can truly be a problem and I don't know how you can control that," he said.

Meanwhile, some businesses have declared their stores as safe spaces and posted signs of support for equality and diversity ahead of the weekend's event, reported WVIR.

CNN's Brandon Griggs, Ralph Ellis, Kwegyirba Croffie, Devon Sayers and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
Claims that Shenhua's restricted coal mining will avoid affecting the aquifers of the rich farmlands of the Liverpool Plains are "false and ignorant", former state and private agronomists have said in a letter to Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

The government last month paid the Chinese coal miner $262 million for just over half the exploration licence area of the proposed mine at Watermark in northern NSW. Energy Minister Don Harwin said the buyback would ensure there was no mining on the fertile black soils of the plains.

Liverpool Plains are home to some of Australia's - if not the world's - richest soil. Credit:Kate Ausburn

But the agronomists, five of whom worked for the Department of Primary Industries or precursor departments, said limiting the proposed open cut mine to ridges would still likely affect surface and groundwater flows in the plains and downstream regions.

"The claim that mining the ridges above Breeza will not have an impact on farming operations is false and ignorant," the letter's authors said.



"Hydrogeological investigations have shown that there is a high degree of connectivity between the alluvial aquifers throughout the Namoi Valley."
Theatregoers and cast members of a gay drama on Sydney's north shore have had their tyres slashed in what police are treating as a potential hate crime.

Eight vehicles parked outside the Lane Cove Theatre Company's production of Holding the Man on Saturday night had their tyres punctured, NSW Police confirmed.

It is the second time the play - about two gay men living with HIV/AIDS - has been targeted this month, after posters were torn down around Lane Cove prior to opening night.

The theatre company's president, Lochie Beh, told the Herald it was a "ridiculous, cowardly act" that took place during what was supposed to be the show's final performance.
Margot Robbie was photographed in London on Monday, and if the paparazzi weren't given the correct details, we might never have guessed it was her because she appeared, as media outlets noted, completely unrecognisable.

The Australian actor, who shot to fame after playing Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in The Wolf of Wall Street, is filming a movie about Mary Queen of Scots, opposite Saorise Ronan, (who looks unfettered and delightful in the title role). And if the on-set pics are anything to go by, Robbie has transformed her blonde-haired, blue-eyed, tanned self to play the iconic monarch, replete with troubled skin, high forehead and frizzy red hair.

It's not the first time an actor has played the Virgin Queen. The role has been occupied by Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Bette Davis to name but a handful. And although each woman paid tribute to the iconic hairstyle of Elizabeth, none has gone to such extreme lengths as Robbie to look, well  how do we put this delicately? Like a bog-shovelling extra on Game of Thrones.

It's true that Elizabeth I had skin issues, due, apparently, to a nasty bout of smallpox. But it's also true that she had blackened teeth due to decay, so where do you draw the line?
As the NSW Parliament prepares to vote on a bill giving the terminally ill the right to end their lives with medical assistance, a new poll has found widespread support for such a proposal including 70 per cent of Coalition voters.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill will next month be introduced to the state's upper house where, if passed by a conscience vote, it will be referred to the lower house where Coalition MPs have a clear majority.

Nationals MP Trevor Khan supports euthanasia. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

A poll of more than 1000 Australians conducted by Essential Media this month found 73 per cent of voters supported allowing people experiencing "unrelievable suffering" to choose to die with a doctor's help.

About 70 per cent of Coalition voters supported the issue and 78 per cent of Labor voters. Only 15 per cent of voters were opposed and 12 per cent undecided.
A private Sydney school will pay back $4.3 million in taxpayer funds to the NSW government after it was found to have illicitly operated for profit for seven years.

The repayment agreement between Lakemba's Rissalah College and the NSW Education Department also states the school would lose all future funding if it ever employed, contracted or paid its former long-time principal, Ali Roude, or members of his family.

Former long-time principal Ali Roude oversaw the purchases of the Rossmore land. Credit:Ben Rushton

Mr Roude, an Order of Australia medallist, his wife Susan and his sister Nada, were sued by the 430-student primary school for allegedly benefiting from large unauthorised transactions.

The Roudes, who strongly denied the allegations, agreed to pay the school $300,000 as part of a separate 2015 settlement, without admitting fault.
Forensic police examined the house on Danny Road in Lalor Park after a girl was shot dead. Credit:Nick Moir

"The death of a three-year-old child in any circumstances is tragic," he said. "Tragic for the family, for police and other emergency services that attend these scenes."

Superintendent Carrett highlighted the shooting as a timely reminder for people to keep firearms stored safely.

Two men sit in the gutter after a girl was shot dead in Lalor Park. Credit:TNV

Mr Moussa appeared before Blacktown Local Court on Monday. He did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.

He is scheduled to appear before the same court again on Friday.

Neighbours described the traumatic scenes that unfolded as horrified relatives emerged from the house screaming and crying on Sunday night.

"I just heard the gun go off and I came outside to see what was happening," neighbour Mark Tupa said on Monday.

"The father came out and was screaming and crying. I saw another guy leave the house with blood all over his hands."

Mr Tupa said the girl's mother came out of the house shortly after, screaming at one of the men.

"She was just saying it was his fault and he shouldn't have had a gun in the house," he said.

"I seen these three little boys run out ... they were just crying and screaming for help," Mr Tupa said.

Footage taken shortly after showed a man sitting in the gutter rocking back and forth and wailing. He was later filmed being led to the back of a police van.

The girl's mother, who was screaming and crying, was led into an ambulance.

Once inside the ambulance, she shouted: "I hate you, f--- you, I hate you!"

She could also be heard screaming: "Not my baby girl, not my baby girl!" and "Rot in hell."

A man at the scene was heard shouting: "My niece just died."

Emergency services were responding to a report of what the caller said was "a domestic".

They had been called to the address in September last year, responding to a report of multiple gunshot sounds and yelling.

Forensic teams spent the night in the house and were working at the scene early on Monday morning.

Another neighbour said the scene was chaotic with the little girl's mother and father distraught.

With AAP
Parents will lobby the state government to change the strict rules around scripture in schools and the teachers' union will review its existing policy on special religious education after new data revealed a rise this year in the number of students who did not list a religion on their enrolment form.

A motion was passed on Saturday at the P&C annual general meeting to write to Education Minister Rob Stokes and urge him to change the rules that prevent students who opt out of scripture or ethics classes from doing any educational activities while SRE is being offered.

All NSW schools must set aside at least 30 minutes each week for special religious education. Credit:iStock

The motion said the P&C would ask Mr Stokes to amend the department's religious education implementation procedures to ensure that "all students participating in special religious education may be granted access to educational opportunities that align with the curriculum during the time scripture is being taught".

But a spokesman for Mr Stokes said the government would not be "revisiting its position".
Commuters wondering why trams aren't running more frequently on Sydney's inner west light rail line during peak hours despite a boom in passengers can now blame "capacity constraints".

Internal government documents obtained by Fairfax Media show constraints such as "power supply, stabling facilities, single track near Dulwich Hill and fleet size" are limiting a significant increase in services on the line from Central Station to Dulwich Hill during the morning peak, when overcrowding is at its worst.

Of an extra 95 weekly services announced last week by the state government, fewer than a third will run during the morning peak hours of 7am to 10am. The rest will operate during the "inter-peak" period of 10am to 3pm, and at weekends.

Patronage growth on the line from Central Station to Dulwich Hill has been "exceeding all expectations" of transport planners.
The future of fashion is in good hands in Brisbane with plenty of young visionaries set on forging a career in this most colourful of industries.

And on Tuesday they'll have a chance to shine in an event of their own as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane.

Budding designer Alice Litzow has launched her own label, AlcieMay.

Queensland University of Technology student Joeli Kabu is among those who'll be bringing his ideas to life on the runway for the NEXT Hotel Next Gen Group Show on August 29.

Kabu said he's been hooked on fashion since his first home economics class in Year 8  he's been studying at university for four years now and has his heart set on a career in fashion.
A Queensland man charged with the murder of his older brother is expected to front Southport Magistrates Court on Monday.

The 22-year-old allegedly poured accelerant over his sibling and set him on fire in the bedroom of a Gold Coast home in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Emergency services were called to the property on Bushmead Street at Nerang about 1.30am, where they found the 26-year-old victim.

He was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital but died later that day as a result of his injuries.

His 22-year-old younger brother was arrested and charged with murder following several hours of questioning.
The sister of a Gold Coast man who was burnt to death has posted a tribute to her brother on Facebook.

Reece Clarke, 26, died after he was allegedly set alight in the bedroom of a Nerang home by his younger brother early Saturday morning.

Twenty-two-year-old Ethan Clarke was charged with murder later that day.

'You will be epically missed': Katina Clarke with her brother Reece Clarke. Credit:Katina Clarke/Facebook

On Sunday, Katina Clarke said he would be missed.
Hundreds of Richmond residents have called on the Andrews government to reconsider its opposition to safe injecting rooms following the deaths of 34 drug addicts in the laneways of North Richmond last year.

A crowd of about 600 listened to the heart-wrenching accounts of families who had lost loved ones to drug addiction, which they insist could have been prevented.

Protesters rally in Victoria Street, Richmond, for a safe injecting room. Credit:Paul Jeffers

But Premier Daniel Andrews again refused to budge on the issue, which could play a key role in the battle with the Greens for the seat of Richmond at next year's election.

Following a rally on Victoria Street on Sunday, Laura Turner spoke of the death of her sister Skye, who died from a heroin overdose in March 2017. "She lay dead in the back of a van on Elizabeth Street in the CBD, that beautiful face, that incredible mind, had slipped away," she said.
Texas: Search and rescue teams sifted through wreckage across Texas on Saturday, US time after Hurricane Harvey slammed onto the Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, flattening mobile homes, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving more than 300,000 homes and businesses without power.

Across southern Texas, officials had yet to uncover the full extent of the damage. Heavy rain and lashing winds had covered roads in debris, blocking access to many small towns and rural areas.

Assistant fire chief with the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department Roy Laird said three people were dead in Aransas County. Throughout the day, emergency responders combed through the debris of collapsed buildings, broken power poles and uprooted palm trees.

With winds topping 210 km/h, Harvey is the first Category 4 storm to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charley struck Florida in 2004 and the first to hit Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961.
What began as a spontaneous movement calling for a serious inquiry into the gruesome death of a fishmonger in the mountainous the Rif region along Morocco's coast has turned into one of the longest protest movements in North Africa since the Arab Spring.

The protesters are seeking to draw attention to government corruption, as well as to the neglect of infrastructure and economic development in the region. Nasser Zefzafi, the leader of the group organising the protests  known as Hirak Chaabi, or the Popular Movement  has been in jail since late May.

In 2011, Morocco's King Mohammed VI pushed for constitutional reforms and ceded some power to Parliament in response to Arab Spring protests. Credit:Moroccan Royal Palace

When the Arab Spring protests toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, Moroccans also took to the streets. In response, King Mohammed VI pushed for constitutional reforms and ceded some power to Parliament. The country also enshrined Tamazight, the local Berber tongue, as an official state language in its constitution.

As a result of those relatively modest changes, Morocco had been mostly stable, even while uprising convulsed many countries in the region. But the death of the fishmonger, Mouhcine Fikri, in October jarred the status quo.
Three men allegedly involved in attacks on counterprotesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville earlier this month have been charged with felonies, Charlottesville police said late Saturday. One of the men has been identified as an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the men is still at large.

Police said 18-year-old Daniel P. Borden of Mason, Ohio, is allegedly part of a group of six men who violently beat a man in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department on August 12. That man, DeAndre Harris, suffered a broken wrist and a gash to his head which required 10 staples. The attack was captured on video.

Another suspect, Richard W. Preston, 52, is allegedly the man seen on video shot by the American Civil Liberties Union taking out a pistol and firing a round toward a counterprotester who was wielding a flaming can of aerosol. He then turns and walks away. Preston has identified himself to news media as the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in northern Maryland.

Preston spoke to a reporter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, two days after the rally and blamed the violence on the mayor of Charlottesville for reportedly instructing police not to intervene between the white supremacist protesters and the counterprotesters.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) Foundation has hit the ground running on a new project to restore keys areas of biodiversity on St. Maarten. With funding from the European Unions (E.U.) BEST 2.0 program, EPIC aims to restore areas within three characteristically different sites located at: Rainforest Adventures in St. Peters, Seaside Nature Park in Cay Bay and Little Key in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. Along with restoration, the project will also support education and outreach activities, including presentations and field trips to the restoration sites focused on the importance of biodiversity. EPICs Project Coordinator, Kippy Gilders, will oversee the project's activities.

Biodiversity can be defined as the variety of life that is found in a particular area. The European overseas regions and territories host over 70% of the E.U.s biodiversity. Despite the importance of these areas, they are highly vulnerable to a number of threats such as pollution and development. The three restoration sites represent ecologically important areas on St. Maarten that has become degraded by past human activities. Years of agriculture have stripped the sites at Rainforest Adventures and Seaside Nature Park of their original forest composition and this project aims to restore some of what was lost. Meanwhile, mangrove propagules will be planted at Little Key. Restored sites will offer valuable habitat for reptiles, fish, birds, insects, and spiders.

The first task of the project has been to conduct baseline assessments of the plant structure at each site. The assessment was conducted by Dr. Ethan Freid, the Chief Botanist at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve on Eleuthera, and will be used to decide which plants should be introduced at each site. Mark Yokoyama of Les Fruits des Mer conducted the reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate assessment. This assessment describes those animals present on the sites before restoration. Then at the end of the project, the same assessments can be repeated to scientifically conclude that the sites have become more biodiverse as a result of the project.

As the project continues, EPIC will reach out to schools, community groups, government departments, and businesses to promote habitat restoration and conservation. The value of biodiversity will be revealed through presentations, activities, field trips, and volunteerism. Citizen-scientists will help monitor plant growth and health. Planting of the tree saplings will occur in November of this year to be followed by a nature trail within the restoration area. With a clearly marked path and informational signs, this will be the first nature trail of its kind on St. Maarten!

This project, Restoration of Key Biodiversity Areas of St. Maarten, is supported by the BEST 2.0 Programme funded by the European Union. For more information or to become a volunteer, contact Kippy Gilders at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , +1 (721) 545-3009, or surf over to: www.epicislands.org.
Pond Island:--- The staff at the USM welcome the President of the University of the Virgin Islands, Dr. Hall, on campus at the University of St. Martin on Friday, August 25, 2017. Dr. Hall also attended the scheduled staff meeting, where employees got the chance to address pressing issues and concerns that they felt was affecting their students under the growing partnership.

Dr. Hall was without hesitation hands on to help resolved the issues at hand and took on full accountability of the challenges and hiccups that the University has been facing over the past year. The President of UVI then explained that theres been a search for representatives at UVI to Liaison with the students and teams at USM however, it has been clear that more is needed.

For such, plans for an on-campus liaison are in the works. This liaison would be based on the USM campus to assist students and answer pertinent questions. The best approach was determined to be someone established in St. Maarten who will have a nuanced grasp of the needs of the students. This person will also be travelling between USM and UVI to meet with key persons, maintain fruitful relationships and keep informed on the latest changes and developments to programmes and regulations.

This visit by the President of UVI, Dr. Hall, is symbolic of the fact that the concerns of St. Maarten students are being taken seriously. No one should be left behind in the educational and social progression of our island. The UVI@USM is the opportunity for all those persons who cannot leave the island to also obtain North American accredited Bachelor and Master degrees. Dr. Hall was cordially welcomed by stakeholders in the educational & social field such as Mr. Antonio Aventurin, the director of Study Financing, and Ms. Aida Holaman of the Department of Community Development. He also met the chief architect of education on Sint Maarten, the honourable Minister Ms. Silveria Jacobs.

The staffs of USM and UVI are confident this will g ways towards solidifying their relationship. DR. Hall mentioned The upcoming graduation of students next year through the UVI@USM partnership is significant. The goal has always been to expand and grow in new areas that we need to explore. New also is the start of a PhD programme, with one of USMs own who is pursuing a PhD. Mutually beneficial, this renewal of open communication between the universities is progress for tertiary education on the island.


Minister says planning, patience paying off

PHILIPSBURG:--- Head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB) Rolando Brison recently traveled to Holland to meet with St. Maartens marketing firm for the Benelux market, Aviareps, to analyze the companys recently concluded first year of activities for the island.

Representatives from Aviareps as well as Brison was extremely proud to note that they had managed to secure St. Maartens first flight out of Brussels (TUI Airlines from Brussels to St. Maarten) with two more airlines eying the destination.

Additionally, preliminary figures (to be released soon) show an increase stay over tourism from the Netherlands, and a sharp bump in brand recognition in the Dutch market, particularly from travel agents and tour operators.

What was interesting was the side effect the marketing campaign has had in drumming up interest from the German market. Being that Aviareps is one of the largest global destination marketing firms, they were able to use their firm in Germany to assist in gaining interest from three other European routes. One has already been finalized, Tui from Brussels, with two more airlines eyeing Cologne and Dusseldorf, Brison said.

He added that not only German tourist would use those routes. Cologne and Dusseldorf are airports that are closer and much cheaper to many major cities in the Netherlands such as Arnhem, Nijmegen and Eindhoven. So by opening these routes, we increase airlift for both our German and Dutch potential visitors.

Germans have an especially large interest in not just St. Maarten but also our surrounding islands. We expect that they will also "chip in" to help us seal the deal with the German operations. The big win was that in our short time working together that we were already able to finalize a new route for the destination: Brussels. This is the first time the destination will have direct scheduled service out of the lucrative Belgian market. Were very proud to have accomplished this and see more European routes close to being finalized., Brison said.

Minister of Tourism Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher said careful planning and patience continues to pay-off for St. Maarten. When we announce negotiations or goals, sometimes the expectation is that results must be seen immediately. This is not how the industry works. You have to set in place your plans and approaches to execute those plans and look forward to the results sometime later, she said.

So while the natural urge is to expect results right away, patience is starting to win through and we expect to see more in the months ahead and in 2018 when we will initiate and/or report on other plans to boost airlift and visitors to the destination, she added.
Claudettes release new album with show at The Acorn in Three Oaks
Algiers, August 27, 2017 (SPS) - Sahrawi human rights activist Aminatou Haidar advocated on Saturday in Algiers the setting up of a United Nations mechanism to monitor the violations of Sahrawi's human rights by Morocco, especially as the MINURSO" is powerless in the face of these violations."

She also hoped that the new UN Personal Envoy gave a new impetus to the peace process.

"Morocco continues to prevent NGOs, international organizations (political, parliamentary, unions and student organizations) and newspapers from visiting the Sahrawi occupied territories, with a view to hiding serious violations of human rights committed against Sahrawi civilians, who peacefully claim their right to self-determination and independence the exploitation of their natural resources and the release of all Sahrawi political detainees," said Haidar during a press conference jointly held with Fatma El Mehdi, member of the national secretariat of the Polisario Front and Secretary General of the National Union of Sahrawi women (UNFS) at the embassy of SADR in Algiers.

Haider also spoke of human rights violations by the Moroccan occupation against Sahrawi civilians between January and August 2017, and reported 225 peaceful demonstrations held by the Sahrawi people to claim their right to self-determination and fully exploit their natural resources, in addition to solidarity movements with the Sahrawi people.

"Moroccan authorities have repeatedly resorted to violence, electrocution and abusive arrests of 105 young Sahrawi," she said, stressing that 70 individuals are detained in various Moroccan prisons, including two minors.

She also referred to the political trials held on last July against Sahrawi human rights activists and activists, as well as iniquitous sentences against the political prisoners of Gdeim Izik group.

Moroccan authorities continue to prevent dozens of foreign observers from entering to occupied Western Sahara in order to conceal their inhuman practices inflicted on the Sahrawis, said the Sahrawi militant.

"The Sahrawi people are determined to continue the struggle until victory and proclamation of the Sahrawi state," said Haidar, calling for a "UN mechanism" to monitor Moroccan violations committed against Sahrawi citizens, especially as the MINURSO is powerless in the face of the crimes and violations committed by Morocco against the Sahrawi people."

She called for pressure on the Moroccan authorities to respect the decisions of international legality and the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.

The Sahrawi activist expressed the wish that the new UN Personal Envoy, Horst Kohler, fully assumes his duties and engages in "serious" negotiations.

She also welcomed Algeria's "strategic support" to the Sahrawi people and its just cause for self-determination.

For her part, Fatma El Mehdi said that since her accession to the African Union (AU), Morocco had tried in vain to expel Western Sahara from the African organization, saying that "the AU is a real actor and partner" of the Sahrawi Republic and has always defended the independence of this occupied territory. (SPS)

062/090/APS




STAMFORD  A number of swastikas and other graffiti discovered Saturday on a wall at a public high school has sparked outrage and concern in the community.

Police received a report of the vandalism at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering at 411 High Ridge Road at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sgt. Richard Phelan said.

The assorted graffiti included swastikas painted in black, an upside-down crucifix, and the numbers 666, according to Phelan. The F word was also painted in places, with several extra ks appended to it, a possible reference to the Ku Klux Klan.

Other scrawls appeared to be anti-school or obscene. One wall bore the message F___ AITE!!!

The incident is being investigated by the departments property crimes unit, Phelan said.

In a statement sent Sunday, the United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien and the recently started Jewish Community Relations Council said they were deeply disturbed by the symbols painted on the building.

The statement said there have been reports of two people being called anti-Semitic slurs while leaving local synagogues in the past two weeks.

We cannot and will not tolerate hate in our community, the statement said. We call on faith leaders to come together and speak out against hate. These hateful and disturbing acts are not just a Jewish problem, but one affecting all minorities.

This is not the only act of anti-Semitic vandalism in the city this summer. In July, a Stamford man used feces to smear a swastika and a Star of David near the entrance of the Rich Forum Media Center on Atlantic Street.

After investigators reviews video provided by the Rich Forum and a city traffic camera, police arrested 58-year-old Robin Spearman and charged him with a hate crime, as well as breach of peace for allegedly drawing the symbols.

The Academy of Information Technology & Engineering is an interdistrict public magnet high school with a student body of 700 from throughout western Fairfield County. The schools curriculum focuses on technological areas of study including biomedical science, information technology and engineering design, as well as business and fine arts.

Sharon Beadle, a spokeswoman for Stamford Public Schools, said the school would make any campus security video available to police.

This is really a matter for police and isnt a school matter, Beadle said. Obviously the school will cooperate with the police in any way to bring the investigation to a resolution.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact the Stamford Police Property Crimes Unit at 203-977-5828.
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TORRINGTON, Wyo.  The University of Wyoming Extension and the James C. Hageman Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center will host a mini field day on Wednesday, Sept. 6, from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by lunch. Dr. Vivek Sharma, irrigation specialist from the University of Wyoming Extension, will discuss two ongoing projects.

The first project is a collaboration with Agriscience Technologies looking at micro-nutrient applications to sugar beets. Past research has shown bigger roots, increased leaf area and earlier canopy closure, and an increased sugar percentage and tonnage. Both Sharma as well as representatives from Agriscience Technologies will be on-hand to discuss these concepts and how it is working on the research farm.

The second project is a soil moisture sensor field demonstration. Dr. Sharma has installed several different soil moisture sensors and will discuss the differences in their operation, maintenance and data interpretation. This will also include wireless soil moisture sensors.

There is no cost for the sessions, but we would appreciate an RSVP for lunch. Call Caleb Carter at the Goshen County Extension Office at 307-532-2436 to RSVP or with any questions.

PSC issues harvest season reminders for grain producers

LINCOLN  As harvest season gets under way, the Nebraska Public Service Commission reminds producers to familiarize themselves with Nebraska grain laws.

When it comes to protecting their assets, it is important for producers to know the law and how it will affect their business, said John Fecht, PSC Grain Department director.

Under the Grain Dealer Act, if a producer/seller wants to ensure their transactions with a grain dealer are covered by the grain dealers security posted with the PSC, they must demand payment within 15 days of completion of their contract with the dealer. Producers/sellers who choose not to demand payment within the 15 days after completion of their contract will be unsecured creditors of that dealer and forfeit any protection from the grain dealers security.

By knowing the law and demanding payment within the set timeframe, producers can save themselves time and money should a grain dealer go out of business, Fecht said.

Grain warehouse operators are also reminded by the PSC of the Emergency Storage Policy. In order to store grain on the ground, an Emergency Storage application must be filed with, and approved by the PSC. The Emergency Storage application can be found on the Grain Department page of the PSC website at www.psc.nebraska.gov/grain/pdf/emergency_storage_application.pdf.
LINCOLN  During the first two weeks of September, growers of small grains around the country will be contacted by the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service. The agency is taking a comprehensive look into the 2017 production and supply of small grains, which include wheat, oats, barley and rye.

The small grains industry is important to Nebraska agriculture and it is crucial for everyone to have accurate data about this key sector of the economy, said director of the NASS Northern Plains Regional Field Office Dean Groskurth. We will contact more than 2,500 producers in Nebraska to accurately measure 2017 acreage, yield and production for small grains and the quantities of grains and oilseeds stored on farm.

Responses to the survey will also be used in calculating county yields, explained Groskurth. USDA uses county yield information from the survey to evaluate and administer vital farm disaster mitigation and insurance programs such as the Agricultural Risk Coverage. Farmers who receive this survey should use this opportunity to assure their county is accurately represented in the calculation of Nebraska county yields. NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents and publishes only aggregate data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.

Survey results will be published in several reports, including the annual Small Grains Summary and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, both to be released on Sept. 29. These and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov. For more information, call the NASS Nebraska Field Office at 800-582-6443.
MINATARE  The downtown Minatare Fire Hall is quiet most days, but when the call comes in, the departments volunteer members are quick to respond to any emergency situation.

Whether its a tractor that tipped off the bridge and into the river, a tornado that destroyed houses and other property, or a drowning at the lake, volunteers with the Minatare Fire Department are ready to help their community recover.

One of the first to the fire hall is usually Tom Case, firefighter and former chief, who is also the utilities supervisor and emergency manager for the City of Minatare.

Case, a 33-year veteran, admits hes done a little bit of everything for the fire department. His brother had been a member, so, when he returned from the Army, some of the members talked him into joining.

I enjoy helping people, even though I usually meet them during the worst of circumstances, he said. Still, its rewarding work to help out in the community.

As a volunteer force of 18, members are working other jobs when that emergency call is sent out. Case said there are times where they dont get a call for two weeks. Other times, they can handle three calls a day.

Because the department handles a wide variety of calls, members have bunker gear hanging in the fire hall, ready for use for structure fires and auto accidents, and lighter gear for use in fighting grassland fires.

The Minatare Fire Department has two branches: one to respond to emergencies in town, and the rural fire district to handle emergencies in surrounding areas.

In 1988, they took over service from Melbeta to become the Minatare Melbeta Rural Fire District. They have a station and equipment in Melbeta and their response area covers about 342 square miles, which includes parts of Sioux and Banner counties. Their rescue unit also provides service for the Village of McGrew.

Well grab different gear depending on what kind of call it is, Case said. Weve assisted with everything from drownings to structure fires and large grassfires driven by the wind.

As a member of mutual aid, the department has been to Sioux County to help fight grassfires, assisted with forest fires in the Wildcat Hills, and helped other local fire departments.

Because were so close to Lake Minatare, we get a lot of calls there, he said. Tent and camper fires, drownings, burns are all part of the work.

Some of the members are certified Emergency Medical Technicians for rescue calls. Others are trained scuba divers who handle water rescues, and others handle hazardous materials cleanup and disposal.

As Case said, they do a little bit of everything.

Severe weather can also call firefighters into action without advance notice. Heavy rain, hail and tornadoes plowed through the area in early June. Bayard took the brunt of the damage, but Minatare was also impacted.

We didnt have a lot of hail, but we had a couple of lightning strikes that broke tree branches on power lines, Case said. The whole town lost power so we were helping the power company by keeping people away from downed lines until they could be repaired.

Other times, volunteers arent quite sure about the specifics of the emergency when theyre called. Case said one call came in about an explosion at the high school. Once they responded, they discovered a lightning strike had toppled the chimney. Fortunately, it was during the summer and classes werent in session.

That was a run where we didnt do much, but we didnt know what wed have when we responded, Case said. We made sure no power lines were down and no one was in the building.

In 2016, the Minatare Fire Department responded to 180 calls  72 fires and 108 rescues.
Talks began in Washington, D.C., on August 16 among trade officials from the United States, Canada, and Mexico on modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This has caused understandable concern for producers, but if the U.S. maintains the right priorities in these negotiations, the agriculture industry can benefit from an updated agreement.

Due to the efficiency and productivity of American agriculture, we produce more than we consume. Trade is vital to the health of the industry, and we should be doing everything we can to increase opportunities for our producers to feed the world.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is a strong, knowledgeable representative for U.S. interests in NAFTA negotiations. Ambassador Lighthizer has appeared before the Ways and Means Committee at multiple hearings and meetings in recent weeks, and each time he has made clear how well he understands the importance of NAFTA to U.S. agriculture.

There is good reason to be cautious in revising this agreement. Canada and Mexico are not only our neighbors but also two of our top trading partners, representing billion-dollar export markets for Nebraskas farmers and ranchers. Since NAFTA went into effect, U.S. trade with these two nations has more than tripled. With producers facing low commodity prices and other challenges, we cannot afford to cause further harm by negating the gains made under NAFTA.

Canada is the largest export market for U.S. agriculture products. In 2016, U.S. agriculture exports to Canada totaled $23 billion. Bilateral trade between Nebraska and Canada totals $1.9 billion a year. In 2015, Nebraska also exported more than $1.2 billion in goods to Mexico. Last year, Mexico was our countrys third-largest export market for agriculture products at $18 billion.

Since the Trump administration first discussed its intentions for NAFTA, I have said there is nothing wrong with taking a fresh look at a nearly 25-year-old agreement to see what has been working and what could use some updating. However, the current market access granted to U.S. exporters must be the baseline for renegotiation.

There are opportunities to strengthen NAFTA and expand economic gains for agriculture. Biotechnology is one of the greatest advancements in the industry, allowing producers to increase yields while using fewer finite resources. In the years since NAFTA was negotiated, biotechnology has expanded significantly. A modernized agreement should include updated standards based on sound science for these products.

Removing existing barriers to trade must remain the top priority for negotiators, rather than creating new ones. Our trading partners should be assured quality U.S. products will remain available and affordable for them, with the focus on increasing opportunities for U.S. exporters.

Overall, we must move through this process quickly. The Trump administration has targeted an early 2018 completion, and I am hopeful the negotiations will stick to this timeline. U.S. producers and our trading partners need certainty and as little disruption as possible.

I join with producers in Nebraska and across the country in watching closely as NAFTA negotiations continue. In my role on the Ways and Means Committee, which has congressional jurisdiction over trade policy, I will keep working on removing barriers and opening more markets for U.S. agriculture products.
The following cases were heard Aug. 18-24 in Iredell County District Court.

Aug. 18: Judge Dale Graham

 Carl James Broyles, resisting a public officers, credit for 15 days served.

Torrance J. Carter, simple assault, 30 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 16 hours of community service in 60 days.

 Kayla Dawn Caudill, shoplifting by concealing goods, 10 days suspension, 6 months unsupervised probation.

 Christian B. Conboy, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Matthew T. Holloway, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation.

 Gloria Ann Jordan, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 120 days.

 DeMarcus A. Kelley, possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, 10 days suspended, six months unsupervised probation.

 John Scott Lindley, larceny, 45 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Jaxon P. McAllister, possession of marijuana paraphernalia consolidated with possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, six months supervised probation and 24 hours of community service within 90 days.

 Lavere Rachel Metzger, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Wendy Gail Miller, second-degree trespassing, credit for four days served.

 Joseph Brinkley Nance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia consolidated with possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, six months of unsupervised probation and 16 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Cole Andrew Nelson, consuming alcohol under the age of 19, six months unsupervised probation and 18 hours of community service within 90 days.

 David William Nickel, driving while impaired, 12 months suspended, 24 months supervised probation.

 Taylor Brooks Orr, consuming alcohol under the age of 19, six months unsupervised probation and 18 hours of community service within 90 days.

 Jennifer Irene Peck, larceny, six months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service within 120 days.

 Steven D. Redfear, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 120 days.

 Neico Chavasse Rivers, possession of marijuana paraphernalia consolidated with possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, six months unsupervised probation.

 Scott D. Rodweailer, assault on a female, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Justin D. Shaffer, violation of a domestic violence protection order, 30 days suspended, 12 months supervised probation.

 Frank James Shear, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Sheldon M. Wenkel, driving while impaired, 24 months suspended, 36 months supervised probation and 30 days active; flee to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, 45 days suspended, 24 months supervised probation; driving while impaired, 18 months suspended, 36 months supervised probation and 10 days active.

 Alex Richard Wiler, driving while impaired, 12 months suspended, 24 months supervised probation and seven days active; possession of drug paraphernalia, 45 days suspended, 24 months supervised probation.

Aug. 21: Judge Deborah Brown

 Victoria Ash Blansett, simple assault, 30 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Laura Ann Coffey, larceny consolidated with larceny, 45 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Joshua Ronnie Cole, probation violation, 120 days active.

 Laura S. Eliott, probation violation, 10 days active and 12 months probation.

 Melissa A. Ferguson, probation violation, 10 days active; probation violation, 10 days active.

 Donnie Walter Grimes, probation violation, 10 weekends in jail, 12 months probation.

 Elizabeth L. Heggen, driving while impaired, 120 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 48 hours of community service in 150 days.

 James Andrew Myers, possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, 30 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Joshua M. Patterson, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, consolidated with possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, six months unsupervised probation.

 MeKenzie Corey Steele, probation violation, 120 days active; possession of drug paraphernalia, 45 days active.

 Gabrielle L. Tucker, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, consolidated with possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, six months unsupervised probation.

 Joshua Eric Booth, larceny consolidated with larceny, credit for 14 days served.

 Stormie Dawn Buelin, probation violation, 30 days active.

 William Jon Fleming, probation violation, 120 days active.

 Kristinna Sue Glover, probation violation, 91 days active.

 Kimberly Matheson, larceny, 120 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation; larceny, 120 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation.

 Dylin Vargas, larceny, credit for three days served.

 Jason Torrence, larceny, 120 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation.

Aug. 22: Judge Christine Underwood

 Ronald E. Banks, driving while impaired, 90 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 48 hours community service in 90 days.

 Rachel Marie Boland, driving while impaired, 24 months suspended, 24 months supervised probation and 30 days active.

 Orlando Brown, driving while impaired, 24 months suspended, 24 moths supervised probation and 30 days active.

 Xavious D. Caldwell, discharging a firearm in occupied property, six months unsupervised probation and 15 hours community service in 90 days.

 Michelle C. Cunningham, simple possession of a schedule II controlled substance, 45 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Virginia Encarnacion, medical assistance recipient fraud, consolidated with food nutrition fraud, 45 days suspended, 36 months supervised probation.

 Justin Ryan Gardner, possession of drug paraphernalia, six months unsupervised probation and 24 hours community service in 120 days.

 Quanterius M. Hooper, injury to personal property, six months unsupervised probation and 15 hours community service in 90 days.

 Ethan Mason Houpe, assault and battery, six months unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Matthew Gary Little, common law uttering, 120 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours community service in 90 days.

 Petrina Lyn McDaniels, possession of drug paraphernalia, 120 days suspended, 12 months supervised probation.

 Robert Damien Stack, possession of marijuana paraphernalia consolidated with possession of up to 1/2 ounce of marijuana, six months unsupervised probation and 18 hours of community service within 90 days.

 Michael E. Thompson, two counts of discharging a weapon in occupied property consolidated with discharging a weapon in occupied property, six months unsupervised probation and 15 hours community service in 90 days.

 Donta Saunders, hit and run causing property damage, credit for one day served.

Aug. 23: Judge Dale Graham

 Amy Marie Booth, violation of a court order, 72 hours active.

 Robert Lofton Britt, possession of an open container or malt beverage or unfortified wine on city or county property, six months unsupervised probation.

 Stormie Dawn Buelin, larceny consolidated with larceny, 45 days active.

 Noel Scott Dishmond, probation violation, 60 days active.

 Amy Pearson Drum, larceny consolidated with larceny, 60 days suspended, 12 months supervised probation.

 Charles David Gilmory, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, credit for 15 days served.

 Darius R. Houston, larceny, 30 days active.

 Darryl D. Jordan, possession of up to 1/2 ounce of marijuana, 20 days active.

 Umberto Nunez Navarro, probation violation, 45 days active.

 Dustin C. Odell, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 24 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours community service within 90 days.

 Brionna Lee Probst, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, credit for 45 days served.

 Andre Lamont Shephard, injury to personal property, 15 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation; communicating threats, 45 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation; assault on a female, 60 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation.

 Hayden Dajon Turner, larceny after breaking and entering consolidated with breaking and entering, 45 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation and 24 hours of community service in 90 days.

 Erika Crystal White, larceny consolidated with larceny, 120 days suspended, 24 months supervised probation.

 James Preston Brown, possession of drug paraphernalia consolidated with simple possession of a schedule IV controlled substance, 45 days active.

 Gerald Issac Lunsford, possession of marijuana paraphernalia consolidated with possession of drug paraphernalia, 80 days active.

Aug. 24: Judge Christine Underwood

 Pedro Alverez-Salas, driving after consuming under the age of 21, 45 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation; driving after consuming consolidated with reckless driving to endanger, credit for 45 days served; driving while impaired, 90 days suspended, 18 months supervised probation.

 Kevin Ray Bullin, injury to personal property, credit for two days served.

 Barbara T. Myers, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours community service in 160 days.

 Michael E. Orndorff, driving while impaired, 90 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Brian Henry Parish, driving while impaired, 60 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation and 24 hours community service in 60 days.

 Dylin Ryan Vargas, second-degree trespassing, 150 days suspended, 12 months unsupervised probation.

 Jaleel Marquis Phifer, breaking and entering, 45 days suspended, 12 months supervised probation.
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Theres no such thing as a vacation. Not for you, anyway. You cant escape work: even when youre off the clock, youre on the job, thinking about projects, heading off problems, solving conundrums or, in the new book Sulfur Springs by William Kent Krueger, solving crimes.

Bad news usually starts with a phone call, as every parent knows, but the call that came to the home of retired Tamarack County Sheriff Cork OConnor was different  the look on the face of Corks new wife, Rainys, was clear about that. Shed received a message from her son, Peter, and though it was staticky and near-unintelligible, two words were plain: Rodriguez and killed.

Alarmed at the message and the fact that Peter wasnt answering his phone, Rainy and Cork rushed to Arizona, near the Mexican border where, years before, Peter had spent three months in a tony Arizona rehab center. Once hed finished treatment, Peter stuck around, got a job, and had been living in the area for some time but, after inquiring, Cork discovered that no one claimed to know a Peter Bisonette. Peters photo and his physical description drew faux-blank looks, but the local border patrol seemed intent on following Cork and Rainy in their search for him.

When Cork began to hear whispers of danger attached to his stepsons name, and the remote starter on their rental Jeep turned the vehicle into a fireball, he and Rainy knew the whispers were true.

Peter, it appeared, had his mothers soft heart and had become a Desert Angel for illegal immigrants. His presence, therefore and for many reasons, was unwelcome in Sulfur Springs, and finding him (or his body) meant going deep into the desert. The unforgiving Arizona terrain was nothing like back home in Minnesota. The people in Sulfur Springs were equally unyielding, but Cork couldnt find Peter without help.

The question was: who could he trust?

Sulfur Springs might seem like something different  and it is, mostly.

As a Cork OConnor Mystery, it maintains the aura of Minnesota Nice, 10,000 lakes, and lush green forests that other novels in this series have. Admittedly, its premise is an otherwise bland-tasting blue-plate special of plot line (illegal immigration and drug smuggling) but heres the deliciousness: its served with a side dish of sand, cactus and nail-biting thriller.

That last part will make fans take notice: the homegrown crook youve come to expect is gone, replaced by a bigger, wider web of worse. Furthermore, Kruegers signature character, a widower for many years, is now married and readers arent entirely led to embrace his new wife; she has a dark past that hints of something untold.

Even Cork himself has changed with the wedding: hes edgier and angrier. Harder, even. Everyone feels subtly, urgently, not-quite-comfortable here, and the mood is as prickly as an Arizona cactus because of it.

That leads to a book thats noose-taut and totally un-let-go-able, a cant-miss for fans and a new obsession for new readers. Skip Sulfur Springs? Theres no such thing.
Back in April, Energy Secretary Rick Perry ordered up a study of the reliability of the nations electrical power grid. The coal and nuclear power industries had been arguing that the system faced challenges that required special breaks for their energy sectors.

President Donald Trump keeps looking for reasons to pump taxpayer resources into reviving the coal industry. This study undermines his case.

The study was released Thursday, and it found the energy grid is in pretty good shape. Theres room for modest investment in coal-fired plants, but little need for an all-out effort. Wind and solar power are playing an important role on the grid. Cheap natural gas, not government regulation, is primarily responsible for the closing of coal-fired plants. A few breaks on coal and nuclear regulations might be in order, but nothing dramatic.

The study addressed the so-called baseload power supply, electricity produced 24 hours a day by nuclear stations and gas- and coal-fired generators. Bulk power reliability is adequate today despite the retirement of 11 percent of the generating capacity available in 2002, the study found. It added that overall, at the end of 2016, the system had more dispatchable capacity capable of operating at high utilization rates than it did in 2002.

The coal and nuclear industries have been arguing that they need better compensation for the reliability of their energy contribution. They say that market subsidies for less reliable variable sources like wind and solar are cutting into their profits and contributing to plant closures.

Last week, during his meandering, 77-minute speech in Phoenix, Trump boasted, Weve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and its just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine, where theyre going to take out clean coal  meaning, theyre taking out coal, theyre going to clean it  is opening in the state of Pennsylvania.

The oxymoronic term clean coal refers to efforts to capture carbon dioxide emitted from burning coal and store it underground. Early efforts have been technically daunting and prohibitively expensive.

Trump also has ordered a complete review of problems facing the nuclear power industry, which accounts for 20 percent of the U.S. electrical supply. New plants are extraordinarily expensive, and older plants are closing. Illinois is among the states subsidizing aging nuclear plants just to preserve jobs.

The grid reliability study did recommend that federal agencies expedite permits for hydroelectric, coal and nuclear plants. The Environmental Protection Agency already has moved to cut regulations for new coal-fired plants, but even so, market forces make such investments dicey. Natural gas continues to be cheap, alternative sources like wind and solar are cheap, clean and growing and appliances are more energy-efficient, meaning energy use is down.

These are good things. Trumps Energy Department has now acknowledged that. The president should, too.
The best security for Americans and their money is provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has returned over $12 billion to more than 29 million citizens cheated in bad financial deals since 2008. That success may be exactly why President Donald Trump is trying to dismantle the agency at the precise time the nations consumers are most in need of a tough financial watchdog.

And rather than back down from congressional Republican pressure, the CFPB, under the direction of Democrat Richard Cordray, is ramping up. The agencys most recent effort is directed at supporting the right of consumers to group together in court action to fight unfair treatment.

Many consumers dont know when they sign contracts for certain bank accounts, loans and credit cards that they agree to mandatory arbitration clauses preventing them from joining group lawsuits.

After studying mandatory arbitration for five years, the CFPB recently finalized a rule preventing companies from denying groups of consumers the right to go to court. Republicans in Congress are fighting back against the rule at the same time Trump is trying to dismantle the agency. The House passed legislation overturning the CFPBs decision. The Senate has yet to act.

Wells Fargo makes a case for exactly why the protection bureau must remain active and robust, and why Congress should be increasing funding instead of threatening to cut it. If corporations are allowed to write the laws that govern them, consumers will lose every time. In the Wells Fargo example, the bank  the nations third largest  has promised to pay back customers who the bank forced to buy unnecessary car insurance. In some cases, the extra expense of that insurance ruined their credit ratings.

A bank-commissioned analysis of the auto insurance dealings showed that about 800,000 bank customers bought the unneeded insurance, which covered collision damage. The expense forced 274,000 of them into delinquency and resulted in almost 25,000 wrongful vehicle repossessions. The report estimated the bank owes $73 million to wronged customers.

Wells Fargo failed to notify all customers when the insurance was imposed and violated disclosure requirements on almost 100,000 policies in five states. The bank stopped the practice last September.

The CFPB received complaints about lender-placed insurance on auto loans and collaborated with the Los Angeles City Attorney last year in filing a lawsuit against Wells Fargo for opening about 2 million accounts without customer authorization. That case was settled for $185 million.

Consumers  that is, all of us  should battle attempts to strip away their power to join class-action lawsuits. Corporate and banking interests, which are able to hire the best lawyers and devote massive sums to defend their interests, have their thumbs on the scales in conflicts involving mandatory arbitration. Consumers who band together can force a better balance.
The festmaster who will reign over the 57th annual Oktoberfest in La Crosse looks forward to being in the Maple Leaf Parade without having to endure the ribbing he has received in the past.

I wont have people booing and hissing like they did when I was a politician, Brian Rude said with a hearty laugh, a jocular reference to parades the Republican marched in during his 17 years in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Rude, who lives in Coon Valley and is a vice president at La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative, was revealed as festmaster with his wife, Karen, as frau at the annual Festmasters Ball on Saturday night at the La Crosse Center.

No need to do a double take and check your calendar. The 57th annual Oktoberfest is still more than a month away, scheduled for Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, with the theme of Prost to the Midwest Coast.

The board of La Crosse Festivals Inc., which runs Oktoberfest, chose to spread activities out this year, introducing members of the royal family on a more relaxed schedule, in part to ease the crunch of having the Festmasters Ball, the Miss Oktoberfest Pageant, the parade marshal announcement, the Mrs. Oktoberfest Reception, Special Fester activities and other events all in a week to 10 days.

The festmaster, normally the last member of the royal family to be revealed, moved to the head of the family with the new schedule.

During an early festmaster reveal for the press on Thursday, Rude told of the charade that 2011 Festmaster Jerry Kember pulled on him to lure him to a March 29 meeting where he was told of his own selection.

Both are former board members of Gundersen Health System, and Kember summoned Rude to what he said was a meeting of former board members to weigh in on a proposal for the health system, Rude said.

I told Karen I had a weird feeling about the meeting, he said.

The queasy feeling was well founded, he discovered, when other ex-board members werent there and Kember confirmed that Rudes angst was legitimate. After the meeting, Brian said he called Karen once, and then again, but she didnt ask what had happened.

Anxious to spill the news but foiled by Karens coy card, Rude finally blurted, Dont you want to ask?

Standing next to her husband in one of four dirndls she has accumulated to don as frau, Karen smiled and said, I go with the flow, and its going to be a great adventure.

As is the custom, the identities of the festmaster and frau were a closely guarded secret until the very end, although the 150 or so of their closest friends in and around Coon Valley and Westby may have been suspicious when they received invitations to the ball without a clue as to the reason.

Were very excited  its a great tradition for a fall festival, said Brian, who showed off nicely tanned knees during his first experience with lederhosen.

Brian had been asked whether he would consent to being nominated for the festmaster pool a couple of times in the past, but the couple had declined, figuring they were too busy to shoulder a year jam-packed with royal responsibilities.

This year, we realized were always going to be busy, he said, so they agreed to serve, if selected.

Helping clear the calendar will be Karens retirement in January after 32 years as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Gundersen. Dairyland Power President and CEO Barbara Nick also aided the cause, agreeing to let him serve as the official face of Oktoberfest without docking his pay when he skips work to travel to other festivals as ambassador.

The fact that Brians official title is vice president of external and member relations greased the skids for that permission, Brian said, laughing heartily, as he does frequently.

Were still young enough to have a lot of fun, said Karen, whose claim to being 61 tempts one to check her ID to confirm whether she really is at least a decade or so older than she looks.

Brian planned to treat the ball as a birthday party of sorts: He turned 62 on Friday.

The Rudes have two sons  Erik, who lives in Westby with his wife, Kristie, and their son and daughter, and Nels, who lives in Madison and is a lobbyist, a profession Brian attributed to his own career as a member of the state Assembly and then Senate, rising to the level of president of that body.

The Rudes readily confess to having diluted bloodlines, although Karens DNA has more German than does Brians. She is 50 percent German, along with a mix of Swedish, Scottish and English, while Brian is three-fourths Norwegian and one-fourth Dane.

Noting that the various ethnic groups in the Coulee Region regularly participate in each others festivities, Brian said, I think theyll accept me.  Its about all countries.
President Donald Trumps pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Friday sends a clear message about where Trump really stands on the issue of racial and ethnic bias. Arpaio is a man who apparently believed the law is something that could be flexed, bent and even broken when it suited his needs. Arpaio had a history of blatant bigotry.

The pardon also sends the worst possible message to law enforcers across the country. Police motives are under constant scrutiny, especially when a white officer shoots a minority suspect. A presidential pardon for someone who openly profiled Latinos only confirms suspicions of skeptics that policing in America is unfair and racially biased.

Trump already was on thin ice regarding his commitment to equal justice. In New York last month, he told a gathering of law enforcers that it was OK to rough up certain suspects. After the Aug. 12 violence in Charlottesville, Va., Trump waffled about which side was more to blame neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan supporters, or their opponents  after an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer rammed his car into a crowd, killing one.

Republicans have denounced Trump and questioned in mental fitness for the presidency. Military generals felt compelled to clarify their stand on racist groups. At least one Jewish member of his Cabinet reportedly threatened to quit.

Yet Trump doubled down with his statement on Arpaio in Phoenix last week: Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job? he asked a crowd of supporters. Referring coyly to the question of a pardon, he said, I wont do it tonight because I dont want to cause any controversy. Ill make a prediction: I think hes going to be just fine.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton found Arpaio in criminal contempt after he repeatedly refused to abide by court orders to stop ethnically profiling Hispanics, detaining them without charge under the suspicion that they might be undocumented immigrants.

Not only did (Arpaio) 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 in her July 31 finding. Arpaio, 85, was due to be sentenced Oct. 5. His open defiance of federal court orders dates back to 2011, when Arpaio repeatedly indicated that he would not let any federal judge tell him what to do.

The presidential pardon suggests to officers who respect the law that theyre just a bunch of chumps. It signals to those few who operate on the margins of the law that its safe to go overboard. Arpaio represents the most repugnant example of American law enforcement run amok. And Trump now wants to honor him as a hero.
Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has reached in Tajikistan today on a three-day official visit, says Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

According to the statement issued by ISPR, the COAS reached Tajikistan for participation in Quadrilateral Counter Terrorism Coordination (QCTC) forum comprising Pakistan, China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Defence ministries and military leadership of all four countries have had held several staff level consultations over the last few months to formulate agenda points for conduct of this event.

Upon arrival, COAS called on the Tajik Defence Minister Mr Sherdil Mirzo and Chinese Chief of Joint Staff, General Li Zuocheng.

During the next two days the forum shall discuss regional security environment and way forward in relation to situation in Afghanistan and Counterterrorism efforts.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has said on Sunday that a deal was cut between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) over appointment of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and that PML-N had multiple opportunities to better the state of the country.

Khan addressed a press conference in the provincial capital today and said that NA-120 by-polls are the test case for Pakistani people.

The elections in the constituency would decide whether the country would change or dacoits rule would continue.

In a press conference that he addressed on Saturday (August 26), Khan rhetorically questioned why would the people of Pakistan comply with the courts orders when a three-time premier Nawaz Sharif did not respect the top court.

Khan alleged that billions of Rupees that belonged to Pakistan were transferred to foreign bank accounts by corrupt leaders. He said that PTI needs to sensitize the voters of NA-120 constitutency over the importance of the September 17 by-poll.
The top United States (US) official  Alice Wells  overseeing South Asia diplomacy was due to visit Pakistan tomorrow (Monday) following US President Donald Trumps stern allegations but her visit has been rescheduled for next week.

According to a notification issued by US embassy, the US official will visit Pakistan next week.

Alice Wells, who is the Acting Assistant Secretary of State in-charge of South and Central Asia, will meet Pakistani officials during her visit, the US State Department announced on Saturday.

Wells will be the first high-level US official to visit Pakistan after Trumps remarks with regard to his new policy for South Asia last week. However, this would be her second visit to Islamabad in the month.

During her visit first meeting earlier this month, Wells met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the federal capital.

Pakistans foreign office on Wednesday said that blistering criticism by US President Donald Trump was disappointing and denied accusations that it supported terrorist groups.

In a firm rebuttal to Trumps claims that Pakistan had harboured agents of chaos, the countrys Foreign Ministry issued a statement asserting its commitment to fighting terrorism.

No country in the world has suffered more than Pakistan from the scourge of terrorism, often perpetrated from outside our borders. It is, therefore disappointing that the US policy statement ignores the enormous sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in this effort, it said.

Trump dramatically increased the pressure on Pakistan during a much anticipated national address on Monday in which he laid out a new strategy on the United States involvement in Afghanistan.
A wildfire burning in the mountainous West Boulder area south of Springdale led to the evacuation of the entire West Boulder drainage Saturday afternoon.

"We sent up officers and reserves and search and rescue to go and do evacuations," said Brooke Osen, Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator for Sweet Grass County. "There's campgrounds up there, there's multiple summer houses and a lot of houses were not occupied."

The evacuation order was issued at about 3:30 p.m. The amount of people affected by what Osen described as a "full-on evacuation" was still unknown early Saturday evening.

Residents displaced by the fire are encouraged to check in at the Sweet Grass County Sheriff's Office building at 200 West First Ave. in Big Timber.

Shortly after 5 p.m. the fire, known as the Mendenhall Fire, was burning southward and estimated to be up to 700 acres and zero percent contained. By 8 p.m. no structures had been lost and the fire was estimated at between 1,500 and 1,600 acres, with lines beginning to become established around it. Sunday morning it was estimated to be 5 percent contained.

At about 4:40 p.m. a notice was issued to Main Boulder residents from the town of McLeod south and to East Boulder residents notifying them of the fire and the possibility of road closures and delays. Osen said it was not a pre-evacuation notice and the intent was to let people know of possible travel delays. West Boulder Road is blocked off completely, Osen said.

Assisting Sweet Grass County and Park County firefighters are both state and federal firefighting resources. More resources were expected to arrive Sunday, including a Hotshot crew and a Type 2 initial attack team.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation supplied 10 engines, two bulldozers, four helicopters, two lead planes, two air tankers, and two single engine air tankers, among other resources.

The fire was discovered early Saturday afternoon and its cause was under investigation, Osen said.

People with questions are asked to call Sweet Grass County Emergency Operations at 406-932-3028.
For more than six decades, the unsolved disappearance of Evelyn Hartley has mesmerized and perplexed the La Crosse community and beyond, sparking a book, CNN iReport and continued news coverage.

Now, the case is being re-imagined by author Rick Harsch in Voices After Evelyn, the first novel to be published by the Midwest-centric Maintenance Ends Press.

Its the case in La Crosse crime, said Harsch, 58, of Izola, Slovenia, and formerly of La Crosse. It seemed to resonate through the whole town.

On Oct. 24, 1953, Hartley, 15, a junior at Central High School, vanished from the Hoeschler Drive home of UW-La Crosse professor Viggo Rasmussen, whose 20-month-old baby she was caring for. After Evelyn failed to check in with her parents at 8:30 p.m., Hartleys father discovered the baby sleeping, a stepladder propped against an open basement window of the Rasmussen home, and Evelyns glasses, shoes and blood on the floor. Police dogs lost her scent two blocks away, where she was presumably transferred to a car.

Later, bloodied girls undergarments, as well as mens shoes and a blood-stained jacket of disparate sizes, were found near Coon Valley, leading police to suspect there were two abductors.

The community rallied, with thousands searching by foot while the National Guard and Air Force flew over wooded areas and boaters covered the river. A body was never found.

Harsch, a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction published in English, French and Slovene, became familiar with the saga in the 1980s. Despite breaking out with a series of meta-noir novels  The Driftless Trilogy  he wanted to explore the true crime genre, albeit with some creative license, after a conversation with a La Crosse friend about the Hartley case.

It was too big of an event not to (write about it), said Harsch, who also teaches maritime English. It had all these elements to it. People all had their theories.

In 2001, Harsch completed the manuscript and shared it with Todd Kimm, a fellow participant at the Iowa Writers Workshop, but the novel failed to find a publisher, sitting dormant for the next 16 years until Kimm, a former newspaper editor and regional magazine editor, created Maintenance Ends Press in honor of his late brothers Brent and Barry, the latter of whom produced Midwest-based films. The publishing company, an imprint of Ice Cube Press, is more than halfway through its fundraising goal of $10,000 and will offer a kind of off-center, adventurous, wild take on the Midwest, definitely something that goes against stereotypes and expectations, Kimm said.

The Midwest is kind of a neglected region in my opinion ... this nebulous cipher of a region, Kimm said. I thought (Voices After Evelyn) would be a good inaugural book for us. Its set in the Midwest, Rick is a Midwest author and this book really hasnt gotten the attention it deserved. I think people will really be interested in it ... it evokes the atmosphere of La Crosse at that time and just kind of the loss of innocence.

It was the theme of the wolf coming in and taking the baby. La Crosse (wanted) to exonerate itself, said Harsch, a UW-L graduate and proprietor of Jacks Used Books in downtown La Crosse from 1985 to 1987. This was the turning-point crime when (people realized) La Crosse is no longer a nice, safe city  its becoming what the rest of the country is becoming. (Before) you didnt lock your doors. As soon as Evelyn went, people would cover their windows with newspaper if they didnt have drapes.

Harsch interviewed locals who were alive when the Hartley abduction occurred, taking in story after story about the search, the suspects and La Crosse life in general in the 1950s, using their accounts to write the perspectives of fictional townsfolk and placing them in real locations such as the former Windmill Bar to create a semi-surreal but accurate tome centered on the aftermath of a shocking incident. As in his Driftless Trilogy, Harsch gives each character a distinct and at times darkly comic personality, from a man carrying on a relationship with a teen girl half his age to a feisty young woman with a penchant for records by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps.

Harsch opens the book in 1989, when a tip came in that the car used to take Evelyn was buried on a Pickwick, Minn., property, one of many false leads that poured in over the decades.

I didnt need to make up much, I just had to put people in this place, Harsch said. Most of whats relevant in this case is in the novel.

Harsch explores the extreme search tactics authorities employed, which included administering lie detector tests to every student and teacher at Central High School and checking the trunks of all vehicles, tagging them with a sticker once cleared.

One guy I talked to said he was really proud to get an OK sticker on his car  My family is clear, I didnt kill her! Harsch recounted.

Harsch doesnt presume to shed new light on the case with his book, slated for release in fall 2018, but hopes its long-awaited publication brings new attention to the city and Maintenance Ends Press.




Electronics maker Foxconn could make a historic investment in Wisconsins economy, but the proposed incentive deal to lure the company could put a $1 billion strain on the states budget in the next decade, according to an analysis on which lawmakers rely to assess the proposal.

Health care and education advocates and some Democratic lawmakers say thats a concern with the Foxconn deal, negotiated with the Taiwanese company by the administration of Gov. Scott Walker.

The state Assembly passed the Foxconn bill earlier this month; the Senate has yet to take it up.

It calls for the state to give $2.85 billion in state tax credits, among other incentives, to Foxconn over the next 15 years in exchange for locating a $10 billion display screen manufacturing campus at a site yet to be determined in southeastern Wisconsin.

Between now and 2026, an analysis by the Legislatures nonpartisan fiscal bureau projects the credits would drain more than $1 billion from the states general fund, which pays for schools, colleges, universities, health care and other programs.

The net analysis factors in the cost of the tax credits to the state as well as additional tax revenues the state would collect as a result of Foxconn. After the tax credits are projected to end in 2033, state government would start to make back its investment on Foxconn, eventually creating a positive return by 2043.

The budget impact would be most acute from 2021 through 2026, when the credits would cost the general fund between $169 million and $196 million each year, according to the fiscal bureau analysis.

Matt Kussow, director of Badger Advocates, a nonprofit group independent of UW-Madison that rallies state support for the university, said the cost of the Foxconn incentive deal is worrisome  in part because university funding often is targeted in a budget crunch.

Are we concerned? Absolutely, Kussow said. From a state budget perspective, absolutely, this will put pressure on very valuable resources.

Supporters of the proposal  which include Walker, most Republican lawmakers and business groups such as Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce  downplay these concerns. A Walker spokesman, Tom Evenson, said assessing Foxconns impact only on the state budget misses that it will add billions to our states GDP.

Governor Walker is confident we will be able to fund our priorities while bringing a new industry and tens-of-thousands of family-supporting jobs to America, right here in Wisconsin, Evenson said.

Recession could compound challenges

Jon Peacock, research director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, said the budget impact of the Foxconn deal alarms me.

Funding for education and Medicaid, the health coverage program for the poor or disabled, are most jeopardized by the strain the Foxconn deal will put on the budget, he said.

Im very worried what Foxconn will mean for those critical investments, Peacock said.

Jon Bales, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, said the same holds for school districts.

What it means in practice, for us, is competition will be stiffer for state dollars, Bales said.

The Foxconn tax credits would be refundable, meaning any amount by which they exceed the companys tax liability  which is expected to be near zero  is paid out to the company and counts as a cost to the state.

The fiscal bureaus projections for new state tax revenues from Foxconn include tax collections from its employees, employees of Foxconn suppliers and other induced economic activity such as goods sold to those employees.

The cost of the Foxconn tax credits is doable in the context of the overall budget, said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Walker has proposed spending about $17 billion in general fund spending each of the next two years.

Historic trends suggest ongoing growth in state tax revenues should more than cover the cost of the credits, Berry said.

A more problematic scenario could arise if the U.S., in the next decade, enters a recession, for which historical trends suggest it is due, Berry said. Recessions typically cause a downturn in tax collections.

In that scenario, Berry predicts that Foxconn and Medicaid will go to the front of the line for state dollars.

Everybody else has to endure some austerity, Berry said.

Two sides for

higher education

Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who sits on the Legislatures budget-writing committee, agreed the cost of the Foxconn tax credits will be manageable if state revenues, through tax collections, increase.

But Erpenbach said that may not be the case if an economic downturn occurs.

We have to pay (Foxconn) before we pay anybody else, Erpenbach said. That puts a lot of other things at risk.

If a sizable share of Foxconn employees are Illinois residents and pay income taxes in their home state, Erpenbach says projections of additional state tax revenues from the project also must be revised downward.

The bulk of the tax credits to be paid out to Foxconn during the next decade would be tied to the $10 billion the company plans to spend to build and equip its manufacturing campus. Those credits will amount to about $193 million a year from 2019 through 2026, according to the analysis.

The other tax credits, which are linked to job creation, would cost the state about $119 million a year starting in 2022, the analysis shows.

The fiscal bureau makes no claim to precisely predict how Foxconn will affect state finances. The bureau cautions its analysis must be considered highly speculative because of the inherent difficulty in projecting how the project will unfold 30 years into the future.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce lobbyist Scott Manley said the analysis fails to take into account the tremendous ripple effect Foxconn will have on the states overall economy.

There is no doubt that Wisconsin will experience greater revenue growth thanks to this once in a lifetime investment from Foxconn, Manley said. In the long run, this project will allow for greater investment in the states priorities, not less.

For public universities in Wisconsin, Foxconn could be a double-edged sword, Kussow said. It will create new competition for sought-after state dollars, but also could create significant research and educational opportunities for institutions such as UW-Madison.
WESTBY  A group concerned about the changing of hands of the former Driftless Meats building on Three Chimney Road in the town of Viroqua has was more information about the business plan of the new owner, Premium Iowa Pork.

Concerned Citizens for Smart Growth held an organizational meeting earlier this month at the Viroqua Town Hall. The goal of the group is to preserve Vernon County natural resources by protecting the water, land and air in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin.

About 25 people attended the meeting voicing concerns about the hog processing facility, which is expected to open late this year or in early 2018. Discussions centered around what effect it could have on the land, water and economic future of the area, but the discussion was filled with many unknowns about the actual business plan of Premium Iowa Pork, a subdivision of Gary Lynchs Lynch Livestock.

Many expressed fears the business will ultimately have an adverse effect on the lifestyles of many families if a slaughterhouse is allowed to open between Westby and Viroqua.

Concern was raised about possible stream and groundwater contamination.

Concerns were also voiced about the development of concentrated animal farming operations where hogs would be raised within a 50-mile radius of the new facility. That led to more questions and concerns about animal byproduct disposal at the processing facility after slaughtering and any potential odors created.

Declining property values, economic impact, employment and housing were all discussed.

In order to learn more about the local business plan a steering committee will contact Premium Iowa Pork to request a meeting with a representative of the company. A list of questions will be generated and a public awareness meeting will be scheduled in a larger venue.

Prior to the Aug. 15 meeting, CCSG had already developed a website and petition in hopes of raising awareness of its cause. The website provides some background information about the group and links to various other websites.

The CCSG website is at www.citizensforsmartgrowth.com.
The National Party has announced plans to provide the opportunity for every child in New Zealand to learn a second language at primary school.

The election promise was made today as part of a $379 million education package, focusing on stronger maths, technology and languages skills.

Now that the government books are in surplus, we want to invest more to help our young people embrace the tremendous opportunities New Zealand has through the next fifty years, says Prime Minister Bill English.

Opportunities from new technology, new ideas and ways of working, and stronger international connections.

Nothing can replace the thousands of motivated, professional teachers. But we can improve the tools they use and the support we give them to lift educational standards.

Education Minister Nikki Kaye says the party will invest $160 million over four years to provide schools and Communities of Learning with more expert language teachers, language specialists and online resources.

At least 10 priority languages for the programme will be set following consultation with communities, with Mandarin, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean likely to be included, along with Te Reo and New Zealand Sign Language, she says.

It will be up to school boards to decide which languages will be taught in each school, but they will be required to offer at least one second language to their students.

The new funding is made up of $354 million of ongoing funding over four years, plus a $25 million one-off investment in systems to extend National Standards.

Nationals Education Package
If youre here for a bit of a laugh, we have the perfect show just for you.

A bunch of New Zealand comedians have been specially handpicked to bring smiles to the Tauranga public next week.

The Best Comedy Festival Show on Earth started up last year, but this year will be touring around the North and South Island.

The line-up of comedians for the North Island shows will be Brendhan Lovegrove, Fan Brigade, Frickin Dangerous Bro, Melanie Bracewell, Brendon Green, and Eli Matthewson.

Travelling to 13 cities, theyll bring a smorgasbord of fast-paced comedy featuring six acts, hundreds of jokes and thousands of laughs.

Comedian Melanie Bracewell, 21, says this is the first time she has taken part in a road trip this big and is excited to join the other comedians on the tour.

Im excited to move around New Zealand, all of the trips that Ive done have been lovely, and Im just keen to check out everywhere.

She says all the comedians on the tour are quite close as everyone knows everyone in the comedy community.

Ive done a couple of road trips before and its just like a road trip with your friends, theres no real hostility at all in comedy, most people get along with everyone.

Tauranga should expect a bunch of high quality comedians, I dont want to put myself on a pedestal  everyone else that Im with is very excellent, so I can only assume that Im not horrible.

Melanie has shot to success in the comedy world after beginning her career as the 2014 winner of the 7 Days Comedy Apprentice competition and 2015 winner of the Raw Comedy Quest.

She says the comedy festival in Tauranga will be a fun night to have a few laughs and an opportunity to possibly meet the comedians afterwards.

Im sure we will see some of the locals post-gig, not every night, but Im keen to. I havent tabled the idea with any of the other acts yet, but Ill be keen to have a few beersies with the locals.

This tour will happen in stages with the tour going to the top half of the North Island, the Lower North Island and then the South Island.

The Best Comedy Festival Show on Earth Tour will be making its way to Tauranga on Wednesday, September 1, at the Baycourt Community and Arts Centre from 7.30-9pm.
Jeeez  what would we do after a game in those days if we didnt have a beer?

Its a poser from an ex-All Black. I mean, what would we do?

And so, on the strength of the fact there was nothing else to do, the tearaway Bay of Plenty flanker RJ Conway  Dick or Red as the rugby public knew him  sat down on many, many occasions and had a beer and traded banter with the Pinetree  the legendary Colin Meads who lost his biggest test match with pancreatic cancer this month.

He always liked a beer, says Conway from his home in Whakatane, himself a 10-test All Black and 72 caps for Bay of Plenty. Yes he liked a beer, dont you worry about that. And he enjoyed the banter.

Colin Meads, player of the 20th century, knighted for services to rugby and the community, selfless giver of his time, only the second ever All Black to be sent off, a man who played on in a test after breaking his arm.

Stuff of true legends. The Pinetree was 6ft 4in and 16 stone at his peak.

And a good fella, says Conway. Got on with everyone.

But internationally, on the field, Meads was notorious as a ferocious enforcer.

Arguably the best of our fiercest rivals, said South African Rugby president, Mark Alexander. An unnamed Welsh player described Meads as surly and mean and contact with him had the same impact as a 10-megaton bomb.

Conway plays down the reputation of the man who lived his later years in Papamoa and played bowls at Mount Maunganui.

Was he feared on the paddock? Wouldnt say so, says Conway. He was naturally a hard man because of his farming life. But he wasnt any harder than many other guys.

And Conway says when Bay of Plenty turned out against the Meads brothers from King Country, they could compete. They might have had Stan and Colin and we had Arthur Jennings and Manu Maniapoto  and we would come out pretty good.

No Pinetree never worried us, even when we were running out onto the field, we never thought about him. You had to have faith in your own guys.

Rugby pundits suggest the running and passing athlete that was Meads in his prime was way ahead of his time; his skills easily transportable into the modern game. Pinetree was a pretty tricky bugger. He was a great player. But modern players are pretty good too, dont worry about that. Hard to compare, says Conway.

Sir Colin Earl Meads was a character. Colin, just Colin, dont worry about that other rubbish, he once said. And on plans to immortalise him with a statue in his hometown of Te Kuiti, he was equally dismissive. A ridiculous idea but one he warmed to. Humble, gracious but stoic.

Now that character is gone.

Thousands are expected to turn out in the King Country town on Monday to farewell a great rugby player and a great man  Te Kuitis Pinetree even though all New Zealand laid claim to him.
Sandro Morelli, owner of Villa Tiberio restaurant in Marbella, takes great pride not just in the food that comes out of his kitchen but also in the flowers that adorn his diners surroundings. Sitting in the courtyard as I wait to meet him it is not difficult to see why; the setting is breathtakingly beautiful.

Sandro bought Villa Tiberio in the late 1980s when it

Years of charity work On 11 June Villa Tiberio hosted its annual Summer fundraiser in aid of Children with Cancer UK, raising 45,435 on the night. David Sullivan, joint chairman of West Ham United FC, donated a further 5,000 after the event. Cliff OGorman, CEO for the charity was delighted to be able to attend the occasion and later sent Sandro a letter expressing their gratitude, a letter which is now sitting pride of place in the entrance of the Marbella restaurant. In the letter Cliff explains that the money raised will be used to fund vital research as the charity strives to increase cancer survival rates. We wont rest until every young life can be saved, and every young cancer patient can look forward to a long, healthy life, he wrote. 2017 marks the tenth year that Morelli has organised that event which has now raised over 438,735 for Children with Cancer UK. The restaurateur has also helped to raise thousands of euros for Cudeca hospice and Unicef.

was a small, neglected house with a lot of grounds. It took about two years to change everything, explains Sandro, but I had a lot of help from the local authorities. Opened in 1989 it has become more than a restaurant: a meeting place for royalty and celebrities; a tranquil serenity under the glorious Marbella sunshine; a welcoming backdrop for hosting charity events - something that Sandro is extremely passionate about.

There is no denying the owners love affair with nature and architecture as you meander through the grounds; the mesmerising water features, intricately placed statues and stunning flowers make a visit to the restaurant an unforgettable experience before even setting eyes on the menu.

When talking to Sandro his love of Marbella - and the lifestyle it offers - is irrefutable. I dont know any other place that I would say to you right now that could compare better than Marbella. It is all about quality of life for the restaurateur and, from his point of view, Marbella excels in that respect: To get up in the morning and be able to swim in my pool, walk to the beach and have coffee, spend time with family - this is what life is all about.

Despite his success, he is humble and respectful with a passion for helping others. Reminiscing about his childhood he reveals that his sole aim was to help his parents because they were so poor.

Sandro remembers begging for cigarettes on the streets of Naples at just seven years old: If I could get four packs of cigarettes I used to run to the bus stop, sell them and run home to my mother and give her the money.

At the age of 18, he went to London with five shillings in his pocket and got a job as a washer-upper. Earning 8 a week, he would spend his weekends working as a waiter in Leicester Square and send the extra 2 wage to his mother.

Sandro recalls a memory from when he was 18 years old, working as a washer-upper in London: I have never forgotten; it was Christmas time and snowing; I was going to meet a girl and I saw a poor man, cold and sitting on the floor. I couldnt believe it so I invited him upstairs and gave him a cup of tea. I had a coat - a beautiful coat that my uncle sent to me from the United States, we were always very poor - and I gave it to him. He couldnt believe it, he was crying. I said dont cry and he said but youre giving me this coat and I said yes, you keep yourself warm! I never forgot that. I will always remember his face - he had tears in his eyes. I was so happy because I felt I was in a position to give someone something they needed. Its a great joy to give.

Having experienced life from different extremes, the Italian-born restaurant owner is disgusted by the untouchable disparity in the world today. No man or woman should be a billionaire - for me, it is immoral. How can you explain a child dying because they dont have any food and others have more money in the bank than they know what to do with?

His desire to help people has led Sandro to raise thousands of euros for charities over the years, including Cudeca, Unicef and Children with Cancer UK, and fundraisers continue to be a fundamental part of his work.

Sandros aim is to invest money in the future generations and help children grow up in a world away from war, poverty and starvation.

He is particularly passionate about raising money to help children as he believes their innocence is one of the pure beauties of the world. To me they give me the stamina to get on in life and be successful.

What we need to do to create a better world is to invest money not in nuclear warheads but invest money to ensure that every child that is born has food to eat, a home to live in and an education.

The interview draws to a close as Sandro receives a phone call and excuses himself to say goodnight to his seven-year-old grandson.
Cheap labor and overhead costs  Outsourcing to the Philippines can cost as low as 50% of what you would normally pay to a regular employee. Excellent communication skills  The Philippines has one of the highest English proficiency levels in the world, beating other outsourcing destination countries like India and China. This is attributed to the fact that the language is a vital part of the school curriculum, and thus, many have been trained and have been speaking English since they were children. Quality talent pool  With its literacy rate on the same level as progressive countries such as USA, UK, and Canada, the Philippines certainly boasts a large pool of working-aged, educated, English-speaking talent, as approximately 90% of their population is under 50 years old. Culturally compatible with western countries  Being under the influence of Spain and the US before becoming an independent country, many of the Philippines cultural aspects have roots in Western influences, which makes it easier for them to assimilate into the culture of their clients. Exceptional work ethic  Most Filipino workers are known to be friendly, hospitable, accommodating, and empathic  both in the workplace and in person. Strong government support  Several laws in the country have been passed to protect the welfare and safety of BPO professionals, along with a Council founded to formally regulate and protect the BPO industry in the country.

nowadays are becoming more competitive, more proactive, and more complicated. The environment has certainly shifted and there have certainly been highs and lows in the industry. With the stiff competition comes a definite rise in terms of operating and overhead costs, and this has become a burden towards many businesses. This has also made business owners realize that they need to find new ways and strategies so they can use their resources more efficiently while still retaining their competitive edge in the market. Let's check out the informativeto the Philippines. Over the years, a certain option has become more frequently-considered and has certainly grown in popularity: offshore outsourcing  a type of business process outsourcing (BPO). This gives business the option of outsourcing some of its tasks, roles, and processes to a BPO company in another country who meets the companys requirements in terms of expertise (often times needing to be equal) to save a significant amount of costs and still retain focus on the core functions of the business without compromising the quality of the outsourced jobs/tasks.A country that is well-known for its BPO industry is the Philippines, and it is one of the biggest factors contributing to the sudden rise of the countrys economic growth in recent years. The country has a steadying growth of new BPO companies that are all working to provide its clients with the kind of service they are looking for. Followinghas been provided by Global Outsourcing AU Here are thethis year:
I believe that the company did this as a sign of transparency -- all while proving to us and our followers online that their manufacturing process is truly world-class and top-notch.

Why in Shenzhen, you ask?

Despite that, however, I was still pleasantly surprised with a lot of things that I saw and experienced first-hand at the OPPO factory on August 3, 2017.

For one, I was shocked to see how massive their factory actually is! It's an entire compound made up of several buildings -- and we only got to tour a couple, I think.

As someone who believes that a company's products and services can only be as good as the values and principles that it holds, reading the contents of that board made me admire OPPO even more.

the workers had specific roles and working areas. They also had the same uniform, which is just a light blue version of what we were wearing

I carefully watched some of these workers as they went about their roles and I thought that they were very hard-working and focused.





They weren't chit-chatting at work or walking around aimlessly; No unnecessary activities just to kill time. They were very efficient.

Another thing that I noticed is that OPPO's manufacturing process makes the most of the collaboration between humans and machines.

For now, if I were to use but one word to describe OPPO's Factory in China as well as their manufacturing process, it would have to be "Impressive".

the overarching values that guide them in crafting products,

OPPO Mobile's factory is located in-- just like the factories of many other leading gadget manufacturers in the world.Well, from my own research, I found out that it would be most cost efficient for most tech brands to have their devices assembled there -- given that labor is cheap in that area and many factories for the parts used in these products are also within the vicinity.To be honest, this wasn't my first factory tour in Shenzhen. The first one was back in 2016 whenbrought me and my tech blogger friends to this same city in Guandong Province to see how their partner OEM assembles their phones and batteries.That said, even before flying to China with OPPO, I more or less already had an image in my mind of how the tour would go.Before entering the facility, our friends from OPPO HQ made us wear this garb, which supposedly keeps lint, hair strands, and other small particles on our shoes and clothing in check.We had to pass by several corridors before getting towhere OPPO assembles the mainboard of their handsets.This bulletin board in one of the hallways reminds all workers in the facility of the, which are:1. Solve problems on the site.2. Recognize the object of the problems.3. Find the origin of the problems on the basis of fact and data.Based on Taoist beliefs, the Xian Principles clearly guide OPPO employees in solving problems not just in the factory but also in other aspects of the company's operations.Before entering, we had to go through this large equipment that blows out and vacuums dust that may have clung to what we wearing. I think it's a good preventive maintenance procedure as meticulously removing dust from fresh electronic parts could add another layer to their already long assembly line.As you can see in the photo below,. They also had dark blue slacks and Crocs-like rubber slippers (with socks) on.Some workers are assigned to the assembly line itself while others operate the machines and robots that are used in the manufacturing process.These ladies inspect electronic parts at the end of the assembly line, making sure that they pass the strict quality standards of the company.Machines provide speed and accuracy in assembling some parts while humans are the ones who are on top of the operation of these equipment.Also, in the production line, I would imagine that because their faculties are not bound by strict programs or software, humans are more reliable in seeing the minutest flaws in parts or products that no machine can possibly spot.The next room that we entered was thewhere OPPO performs several tests on each handset that they assemble to make sure that they are durable, reliable, and safe to use.Here's a video that I made using clips that I recorded during the factory tour; I hope it gives you an idea of what it's like inside OPPO's manufacturing facilities.I was impressed withthe cleanliness of the surroundings, the well-oiled performance of the machines, and the efficiency of the workers. I loved how organized everything about the facility looked and felt. All these things considered, I would say OPPO is definitely one of the tech companies that others should look up to and perhaps even emulate when it comes tomobile devices.
OPPO and Vivo disrupted the smartphone retail space through cash-rich marketing, aggressive sales promoter incentives and previously unseen levels of retailer support.

This challenged the traditional vendor-dealer relationship

top global and local mobile phone vendors were left with no recourse but to double down on marketing spending to maintain the brand presence

As a technology blogger who is part of both OPPO and Vivo's digital marketing campaigns, I would say that their active partnership with bloggers and online influencers also contributed to their dominance in this space.



On the other hand, as a millennial mobile consumer, I think their Selfie-Centric brand positioning also helped in capturing the interest of millions of Pinoy consumers who love to take selfies alone or with their friends and loved ones. I've heard many Filipinos praise the selfie-taking prowess of smartphones made by these companies.

Within just a span of two years, Chinese handset brandsandhave been able to achieve tremendous success in the, the leading mobile devices market in the entire Asia Pacific region where competition among players in the smartphone industry is probably at its tightest.In fact, based on the findings of a research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), OPPO and Vivo were actually the 3rd and 5th most prolific handset vendors in the country in-- joining(1),(2), and(4) in the Top 5.For consumers and tech enthusiasts who have yet to get their hands on a phone made by these two players from China and are now wondering how these brand achieved great success in our market, IDC offers an explanation.According to- Market Analyst for Client Devices ofhe added.On top of all that, I would say that OPPO and Vivo's partnership with, a financial company that helps consumers purchase gadgets at 0% installment, along with wise choice of celebrity endorsers (for OPPO andfor Vivo), and carefully planned mall shows in the metro and in the provinces also became instrumental to their success.Qouting, The rise of OPPO and Vivo further affirmed the importance of combining an expansive sales and distribution approach with strong marketing and advertising strategies to capture consumer mindshare. To preserve brand equity among consumers, leading global and local vendors who have previously cut down on marketing spend back in 2016 were seen to divert their resources to funding actively on integrated marketing campaigns this year. ( source
After watching Donald Trumps campaign rally in Phoenix, it became clear that we in the media owe the president a sincere apology.

Trump used Tuesday nights rally to denounce the fake news media for being mean, dishonest, bad, America-hating and an all-around pain in his keister.

Referring to controversial comments he made in the wake of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Trump said: The words were perfect.

He even quoted his own perfect words, cleverly omitting the part where he blamed the Charlottesville tragedy on many sides rather than just on the Nazi side, creating the controversy in the first place.

After spending 15 or so minutes complaining about the media, he said of the media: For the most part, all they do is complain. ... These are really, really dishonest people and theyre bad people and I really think they dont like our country. I really believe that.

Well, I, for one, feel just terrible. It was never my intention, as a journalist, to make the president of the United States feel like hes under some form of scrutiny or that he should be held accountable for the words that fall out of his mouth.

I wasnt able to reach all my fake news brother and sisters after the rally _the instant-messaging system George Soros has us use was on the blink  but I feel confident most would concur with this formal apology.

President Trump:

As a fake news media member in good standing, I would like to sincerely apologize for forcing you to hold a campaign rally eight months into your first term as president.

Im sorry that in the course of that rally I forced you to misquote yourself and to devote one reference to Heather Heyer, the woman killed during the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, versus an inordinate number of references to the journalists who cover you and your administration.

I also showed poor judgment in making you seem almost annoyed that you had to properly denounce the various hate groups that marched in Charlottesville chanting, Jews will not replace us!

And I definitely shouldnt have had you say this during the rally: I hit em with neo-Nazi. I hit them with everything. I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis. I got them all in there, Lets see. KKK, we have KKK.

That almost made it sound like condemning hate groups made you the victim. Please accept my apology for that bit. It was callous and wholly inappropriate.

While Im apologizing for Nazi stuff, Im sorry I entered your brain and forced you to express sympathy for Jeffrey Lord, a commentator who was recently fired from CNN for tweeting Sieg Heil! at the head of a liberal watchdog group.

In retrospect, that was a weird and dreadfully timed thing to have you say, and I hope you will forgive me.

I regret having you say the following about clean coal: Theyre going to take out clean coal, meaning theyre taking out coal, theyre gonna clean it.

Upon further reflection, that statement made it sound like you havent the foggiest idea what the term clean coal means and are quite unintelligent. That is 100 percent my bad. Perhaps with time we can mend the damage my recklessness has done to your reputation.

On two occasions, I lied to you via telepathy and convinced you that the cameras broadcasting your rally had been shut down because the media were too frightened to share your criticism of CNN and other outlets. That was transparently false, particularly because I watched the rally in its entirety on CNN. Im sorry I made you lie about that. Twice.

Rather than have you refer to Republican Sen. John McCain, a war hero currently battling brain cancer, by name, I took the cowardly and childish path of instructing you to mock and taunt him using the phrase, One vote away. That was a reference to McCains deciding vote against your health-care bill, which would have repealed Obamacare.

Hearing you screeching, One vote away! like an insolent child did not set the presidential tone I hoped it would. It was a terrible decision by me, and I am drowning in my own shame.

Convincing you to say that you will, if necessary, shut down the government in order to build your preposterous border wall was folly of near-biblical proportions, framing you as either: stubborn and narcissistic to the point of jeopardizing the countrys fiscal well-being and doing real harm to Americans who rely on government services just to save face, or a liar.

I will never live that one down.

I promise, from here on, to pamper you, to coddle your ego, to deflect all blame on others and to never accurately report on you, because that causes you to call me fake news.

Please accept this apology. I am not at all proud of the things Ive made you do.

And America shouldnt be either.
For many Republicans, what matters most about Donald Trump is that hes demonstrated resolve against the enemy  not the Islamic State or the Taliban, but the media.

The media has become for the right what the Soviet Union was during the Cold War  a common, unifying adversary of overwhelming importance. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, religious conservatives and libertarians could agree that, whatever their other differences, godless communism had to be resisted. This commitment was the glue of the GOP coalition, and the basic price of admission to conservatism.

Now, a policy of containment, preferably rollback, of the mainstream media occupies that central role. Trump may not be delivering on his agenda, but hes a righteous, unyielding warrior against the media. And this is the one nonnegotiable. To put it in terms of the famous Isaiah Berlin essay, the fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one thing  CNN sucks.

The rights hostility toward the media is long-standing. In fact, no one has improved on what Spiro Agnew said in a famous speech in Des Moines, Iowa, in November 1969, or even really said anything new.

Agnew complained that after President Richard Nixon gave a televised speech, his words were instantly subjected to querulous criticism. He pointed out that the media is in a bubble, living in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City. And he wanted to limit the power of this small and unelected elite.

Newt Gingrich demonstrated the transformative potential of theatrical attacks on the media in his show-stopping performances at two South Carolina primary debates in 2012. He wouldnt have won the state without them.

Trumps insight was basically, What if every day were like that? After witnessing the fate of two candidates who got savage coverage in the general election, despite being a media darling in the case of John McCain and being an earnest, well-meaning man in the case of Mitt Romney, Republican voters were ready for harsher stuff.

Trump had long had his own problems with the media, namely that it wasnt nearly favorable enough to Donald Trump. With his talents as a showman, his taste for combat and his instinct for what energizes an audience, he was ideally suited to transfer his long-developed personal sensitivity to slights from reporters to the ideological realm of Republican presidential politics. In large part, he rode his mutual enmity with the media to the White House.

It remains a lifeline. Most commentators saw Trump angrily saying indefensible things about Charlottesville at the news conference last week; most Republicans saw him gamely standing his ground in front a group of braying reporters. At his rally in Phoenix, Trump upped the rhetorical ante and used the medias lack of credibility to try to undermine the critique of his Charlottesville remarks.

It helps him that the press is, indeed, worse than ever before. As the media environment has fractured, organizations feel less obligation to try to cultivate a broader audience. And as politics becomes more culturally charged, the divide between the heartland and the coasts where the media lives and works becomes important.

Then theres the reaction to Trump himself. Since he is genuinely outrageous, especially to coastal sensibilities, the media feels justified in its unremittingly harsh coverage.

The war with Trump also serves the twin goals of self-referentiality and ratings. CNN at times appears to be a network devoted to covering things that the president says about the network. Prior to Trumps rally in Phoenix, CNN relentlessly promoted the event. Then it broadcast the whole thing and devoted the rest of the night to commentators pronouncing themselves outraged and dismayed. At the end of the day, what had really happened? Nothing much, but at least something entertaining had filled the air.

Trump might well have been hate-watching much of it, pleased somewhere beneath his anger and disgust that he had, once again, proved to have the right enemy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that six people were killed and 53 injured in the blast. | Read More
Throughout this spring and summer, a debate over partisan attempts to take health care away from millions of Americans and raise costs for too many families consumed Washington.

In response, Wisconsinites joined people across our country in speaking out and fighting back against a number of Republican repeal plans that would have increased the number of people who are uninsured and forced many families to pay more for less care. Wisconsinites across our state made sure their voices were heard when Congressional Republicans advanced a plan with an age tax that would have priced many older Americans out of the individual market.

The people of Wisconsin did not send me to Washington to take peoples health care away. They have sent a clear message that they want us to work across party lines to make things better, not worse.

Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and six other senators to introduce the Medicare at 55 Act, which would provide the option for people between the ages of 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare.

Here is why I am supporting this reform. There are 41 million Americans between 55 and 64 years old, 3.6 million of whom lack any insurance coverage. Millions more are burdened by high insurance premiums, unaffordable deductibles and limited options.

These friends, family members and neighbors face unique health challenges and especially high health care costs. The average person in this age group pays more than $1,200 in annual out-of-pocket costs and is at a greater risk of suffering from chronic conditions such as diabetes or arthritis and medical emergencies such as heart attack and stroke. In addition, according to AARP, about four in 10 have a pre-existing condition.

Fewer and fewer employers offer coverage for workers who retire before 55. According to a recent study, in 2015 only 23 percent of large employers offered retiree coverage. The lack of affordable health insurance can have especially severe consequences for this populations health and retirement savings. We should work together to change this.

Our new legislation gives millions of older Americans another choice to buy affordable, quality health care coverage. For people between the ages of 55 and 64, the Medicare at 55 Act is a high-quality option that can help reduce health insurance costs and increase competition.

Medicare is an efficient, affordable health care program that is already serving millions of Americans. With the Medicare at 55 Act, an individual between the ages of 55 and 64 who buys into Medicare would be entitled to the same benefits and protections as an individual enrolled under parts A, B and D, including the ability to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan.

Individuals who choose to buy into Medicare would be eligible for the same tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies they would otherwise receive selecting a private plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

By giving 55 to 64 year-olds this new option, we may be able to strengthen the individual market, lower premiums and help make coverage more affordable for younger and healthier individuals.

At the same time, our legislation protects our current generation of Medicare beneficiaries by ensuring that it wont impact their benefits or the solvency of the Medicare program.

If our goal is to lower health care costs, which both parties agree we must address, then our legislation merits consideration as a critical piece of the solution.

Medicare is an essential pillar of our health care system that has served Wisconsin families well for more than 50 years. Since 1965, Medicare has been a trusted source of affordable health care for millions of older and disabled Americans.

As we move forward to provide more Americans with more health care choices, our Medicare at 55 Act can offer a quality option for people to get the affordable health care they need and deserve.

I strongly believe that if both parties look past the partisan debate in Washington, we can work together to find solutions that make health care more affordable and work for the American people.
I would like to publicly acknowledge and give some kudos to Congressman Ron Kind. His staff in Washington, D.C., graciously sat down with me (as did Sen. Johnson and Congressman Duffy) during a recent trip to advocate for increased accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

His staff is directly involved in communicating with the new Whistleblower Protection office at the VA in Washington instead of casually dismissing concerns and directing us elsewhere.

He was receptive to my concerns and has been in continuous contact with me since the trip as I advocate for greater accountability at the VA.

He is not washing his hands of it and promoting the mistaken belief that opioids, wait times, etc., are "one-offs" and the root of the VA's problems.

It is an accountability problem that requires constant oversight. It is a leadership problem at the VA where deck chairs are simply rearranged with retaliators and those complicit in corruption are shuffled to other jobs, promoted and only those who make the headlines are disciplined.

It is a rare politician who can see past the special interests that ultimately harm veterans.

I applaud Congressman Kind for taking concrete action to provide continued oversight, unlike so many politicians in Wisconsin and across the nation. I cannot say the same for Sen. Baldwin's office, which instead of meeting directed me to the VA itself to address continued problems.

Congressman Kind is doing the right thing and I applaud him for it.

Ryan Honl, Tomah
With the kids back in school and the suitcases of summer travels emptied and shelved in the closet once again, Ive been quietly haunted by the words of Henry Southworth Allen, a gifted cultural commentator who worked for many years at The Washington Post.

Danny Heitman's 'At Random': Thinking about end of summer In the early days of fatherhood, I began the school year with a five-minute drive to the car

It was Allen who suggested that we feel like our true selves only in summer vacation houses. Summer houses are where you believe that you become the Real You, and the rest of the year youre a ghost in the unreal city, wandering around like somebody looking for a car lost in a shopping center parking lot, he told readers. You work in places where you have to wear a picture of yourself on a card hung around your neck so people will know that youre you. You go to schools that train you to take tests that show how well they trained you to take the tests.  Everything is rules.

At summer vacation houses, on the other hand, everything is permitted as long as you hang up your bathing suit and dont track sand in the house.

Maybe Allen is overstating things, but if his point is that we should keep a bit of our vacation selves with us throughout the year, its a suggestion Im ready to embrace. How to do it? Some thoughts:

Get plenty of light. Whether we go to the beach or the mountains, the summer houses we rent all have big windows to provide scenic views. The light lifts my spirits, making me want more of it after I get back. Fall floods my living room back home as the sun hangs lower in the sky, its brilliance pouring through the shutters. Ill try to make time to enjoy it as autumn arrives, a tonic for the toxic headlines.

Take a break from social media. We stayed in a mountain house a few days this summer that had spotty internet service. By necessity, I kept offline a lot, and it did wonders for my mood. Ive resolved to take more breaks from the smartphone and laptop at home this fall, reconnecting with the joy of not being connected at all.

Danny Heitman's "At Random": Memories of a master builder In the 1940s, my grandmother was summoned to school to discuss her son, Buddy, who wasnt pa

Try something new. Summer is when I often try new dishes at roadside restaurants, tackle new diversions like zip-lining or go new places during days away from the office. Why let that change of pace go back in the drawer each autumn with the flip-flops and beach towels? Im promising myself to be more open to change even after summer fades.

See your friends. We vacation with friends most summers, reminding us how good it feels to see the people who know and love us best. Its an easy blessing to overlook in the urgencies of career and family, but I want to do better. Vacations are nice, but they shouldnt be the only times to enjoy whats really important.

Follow Danny Heitman on Twitter, @Danny_Heitman.
Gov. Scott Walker is seeking federal relief for people affected by Julys storms and flooding in Monroe County and 10 other western Wisconsin counties.

Walker sent a letter Wednesday to President Donald Trump requesting a federal disaster declaration for 11 western Wisconsin counties that sustained more than $10 million in damage to roads and public infrastructure from torrential rains and flash floods.

The request is for federal assistance to help local governments recover from the disaster in Buffalo, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Jackson, La Crosse, Lafayette, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau and Vernon counties.

Many roads were damaged and numerous culverts washed out when flash floods hit the region last month, Walker said. Im hopeful the Federal Emergency Management Agency will approve much-needed disaster assistance to help these communities recover.

Last week, FEMA, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Wisconsin Emergency Management conducted damage assessments across the affected areas with local officials.

If approved, FEMAs Public Assistance Program would help communities recover some of the costs incurred through responding to the floods, protecting citizens, removing debris, and repairing roads and other infrastructure.

FEMA covers 75 percent of eligible costs while state agencies, and the affected communities share the remaining 25 percent.

The program will not be available to private property owners, a release from the governors office stated, as requirements for federal relief of such expenses have not been met.

Most of the damage in Monroe County was in south and west of Tomah. The city of Tomah reported very little property damage from the storms.

Many roads were damaged and numerous culverts washed out when flash floods hit the region last month. Gov. Scott Walker
Fallen bricks from a home damaged by Hurricane Harvey sit on the ground Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Missouri City, Texas. Harvey rolled over the Texas Gulf Coast on Saturday, smashing homes and businesses and lashing the shore with wind and rain so intense that drivers were forced off the road because they could not see in front of them. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Pauline Hanson wearing a burqa in Parliament was a political stunt. We know that. It was not meant as a defence for women's rights. Obviously. You do not have to like her politics or her party. Put your aversion aside and focus on the issue she was raising. The burqa (niqab in Arabic) is a symbol. When you see it in a community, it indicates that an ideology and a radical form of Islam are spreading. In my field research on women and sharia law in Britain, South Africa and Middle Eastern countries, I heard this sentence a lot: "Ten years ago, we only had few women with the burqa. Today there are plenty." Let's just get something straight: the burqa is not Islamic. It is a custom imported from Najd, a region in Saudi Arabia and the power base of its Salafi fundamentalist form of Islam. Within Muslim countries it is very contested and considered fringe. Even conservative Mufti of Al Azhar  the highest religious authority in Sunni Islam  said in a 2010 TV program that the burqa is a "custom" not a "religious requirement". Until 1979 the burqa was not even mandatory in other regions of Saudi Arabia. It was the norm of Najd of course, but then in some Najdi Bedouin tribes, women won't even show their faces to their own sons. It was a tradition unique in its own right. Saad Al Salem, a Saudi writer, tells us in his autobiographythat before 1979 women in the southern region of Najran worked with men in the fields, danced together in their celebrations and did not cover their faces.

Senator Pauline Hanson wore a burqa into the Senate at Parliament House and it was not meant as a defence for women's rights. Credit:Andrew Meares That changed after 1979. The year is significant  it witnessed the Iranian Islamic revolution, the occupation of radical Salafis of the holy Kabaa in Mecca, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The three events led to an active Saudi policy, enforcing the dogmas of its politicised fundamentalism in its own borders and spreading it worldwide. Religion was a tool to fight communism and to claim leadership of the Islamic world. But it was not any religion that was promoted. It was a fringe fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Women according to this world view, are a source of evil that should be covered from head to toe to protect the men from seduction. They are perpetual minors, obedient to their male guardians. Husbands have the right to discipline their wives by beating. The issue does not only concern women. It has a significant political dimension that reaks havoc in any society it metastasises in. It functions as a sect, demanding from its supporters to separate themselves from their wider society, which it brands as apostate. Separation is not enough; one has to hate the "unbelievers" in heart and behaviour. Violence, that is Jihad, is considered a duty on every Muslim. Taking slaves during jihad is sanctioned (just listen to what Saudi Sheiks are saying). In Muslim majority countries, this type of Islam has led to persecution of minorities  think of the persecution of Christians and Ahmadyyias in Indonesia. In Western societies it leads to the segregation of Muslim minorities in closed societies. It paves the ground actively for the recruitment of disoriented youth to violence. So when you see women in burqa, think of the ideology that is mainstreaming it. We should confront it  Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Given Minister Dutton's rigid hardline policies, one can be easily forgiven for thinking computers run his portfolio.



Steve Ngeow Chatswood Chance to revise s44 wasted 36 years ago On the matter of dual citizenship, the Senate and its senators have been "hoist by its/their own petard". The 1981 Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in its report "Constitutional Qualifications of Members of Parliament", Canberra AGPS 1981, concluded in relation to section 44 "that, in most aspects, it was obscure in meaning, unduly harsh or manifestly inappropriate today, and that most of the disqualifying conditions should be deleted, reformulated, or replaced by ordinary legislation". The report specifically addressed the matter of being the citizen of another country. The report said that "a large number of Australian citizens have dual nationality and can do little or nothing to alter that status and that some countries do not recognise renunciation while others impose conditions difficult or impossible to fulfil." And this was in 1981! Thirty-six years later the "large number" would be significantly greater. If the Fraser Coalition government of the day had acted on the Senate Committee report we may not be in the "buggers muddle" we currently find ourselves in! High Court, please take note. Tiit Tonuri Cowra As lawyers and judges prepare to make section 44 into a nice little earner, we might do well to remember why the constitution forbids dual nationality and hence dual loyalty and allegiance. It's to minimise treason in the event of changed relationships. If we make exceptions for our friends across the Tasman, we'd have to do it for North Korea and other states it would suit to have a mole in our parliament. We might also remember that our Head of State is a foreigner with control over our Parliament; one who has already shown she's not above politics. We have a long tradition of looking after things that don't matter and ignoring the things that do. Our constitution was made into a shambles by the same sort of people now bunkering down to "solve" the mess section 44 covers. Why is it we'd rather look at the hole than the donut?



Greg Hamilton Hyland Park

US chief postie delivers more mail on much lower pay The new incoming Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate is going to start on a salary of $1.375 million a year and with the potential to earn 100 per cent of that as a bonus.which she probably will based on her predecessor's record, could earn as much as $2.75m a year ("Union anger over postie's pay", August 26-27). The Postmaster-General of the United States is Megan Brennan and she is paid a salary of $US276,840 a year and the US Postal Service delivers 154 billion items of mail each year compared to Australia Post's 3 billion. The $10.8 million being paid to the departing CEO Ahmed Fahour is outrageous and it is easy to see he was a banker in a previous life. It's a shame Megan Brennan wasn't approached for the job because even if it meant tripling her present salary, Australia Post would still be a mile ahead and would also be employing a very experienced person to run the organisation. Frank Adshead Mona Vale The postal union is justifiably upset with Ahmed Fahour's payout. As former postie of 14 years' experience, with many friends still in the industry, I can attest to the difficult conditions these dedicated workers are forced to endure. That includes unrealistic deadlines for sorting and mail delivery, which means either breaching OH&S rules or be faced with "counselling". Adverse weather is no excuse for being "late". Injured workers are forced to consult a company-appointed doctor whose only aim is a quick return to work, regardless of any contrary professional opinion. Removal of penalty rates and cooking of timesheets to avoid paying overtime are other ruses employed by managers keen on keeping their bonuses at any cost. Peter Mahoney Oatley

Critical PM would do better to lead Not many people would agree with the defacing of the Hyde Park statues. However, the reaction by Mr Turnbull and members of his government has been over the top with accusations of Stalinist-era actions by protesters. Perhaps the government, rather than trying to score cheap political points, should instead be looking for more creative ways to bring the whole Australian community together. What constructive action is the Prime Minister proposing to take in order to resolve the problem? Dimitris Langadinos Concord West Most people would no doubt be upset by the desecration of Sydney monuments over the weekend. Even more upsetting is the fact that many folk just don't seem to know enough of their own history, especially when it comes to pre-1788 Australia. For thousands of years prior to European settlement the local Indigenous peoples fought for dominance among themselves, often with the indiscriminate massacre of women and children. When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, the "custodians" of the Sydney region at the time, the Eora clan, were there purely because they had violently wiped out all other competing clans before them. However, perhaps the most upsetting and often ignored thing is that today's Aboriginal "historians" only ever seem to tell one side of the story, and conveniently omit the many violent genocidal massacres committed against their own people. Robert Hunter Bondi Junction

Regarding graffiti of statues in Hyde Park. Hey, Libs, it's just paint. Save the outrage for offences that really matter. Besides, didn't we take their country from them? So maybe a bit of push-back is OK? Or do we only want to remember conflicts like Kokoda where we new Aussies were the ones under threat? Keep it real. Respect. Lawrence Pope North Carlton, Victoria Just a thought. Leave the graffiti on national monuments in place for a determined period. If the artist is apprehended, charged and convicted, a plaque with his name should be placed in front of the vandalised object and removed only when the artist has cleaned their handy work up. Name, shame and photo in the national press. Paul Walker Forresters Beach Apropos the vandalism of our Hyde Park statues, a friend in New York tells me that the "barbarians at the gates" are thinking of removing the monument to Christopher Columbus in that city...where will this all end?

Helen Jordan Lane Cove Army's short memory The Australian military assessment of Afghanistan as a different and difficult problem with "remote mountain areas, border problems, corruption, no real sense of nation. And the Taliban is a very determined enemy" ("A test of patience", August 26-27). Haven't we learned anything from Vietnam, 50 years ago? Replace "Taliban" with "Vietcong" and the challenges seem identical.



Greg Pitty Wentworth Falls Credit:aurora daniels@canberratimes.com.au Cloud Arch over the top for philistines

The philistines are out in force railing against the Cloud Arch sculpture (Letters, August 26-27). Once again, as soon as something extraordinary is envisaged that may lift the spirits and the stakes, Australians rush to the safe ground of absolute ordinariness that becomes the mark of this country. Kim Carpenter Pyrmont Shame, Clover Moore, you took months after being told to remove the homeless people from Martin Place and still don't know what to do with them. The $11.3-plus million for Cloud Arch could instead purchase a couple of factories and turn them into accommodation. Why couldn't Clover get an Australian sculptor. No one asked us what to do with our money. Who are the idiots who vote for her. Shame, Clover, shame Bev Miles Raleigh We Town Hall pigeons can't wait for the Cloud Arch sculpture. "Look out, below".
According to Irish Central, his office wrote to the local Irish ambassador: "For over two years we have been searching the world in vain for a life-size bronze statue of Queen Victoria. We have looked to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Yemen, etc all to no avail. Yesterday, just when we were giving up hope we received advice that there is stored in Dublin a fine bronze statue of Queen Victoria ... it appears to be ideal to locate it in front of the Queen Victoria Building looking towards the town."

John Teahan, the director of the National Museum of Ireland, objected on the grounds that it was the work of an Irish artist, arguing with glorious indignation: "If we are deemed not to be mature enough to distinguish between the art-historical merits of Hughes' Victoria, for instance, and a symbol of authority, which does not or at least should not apply, I advise that such a figure be retained and protected until we have grown up sufficiently to look that Queen, long dead, straight in the eye."

In cabinet, Finance Minister John Bruton said the statue was "part of our heritage in no less a way than Norman or Viking remains". He was outvoted. The grand dame began her journey by sea and was unveiled here in 1987.

This episode shows the folly of much of the recent debate about history and statues, and the insistence of some that history is static and should not be contested. Statues are often relocated, swivelled, parked, stored or toppled. It's not "left-wing nonsense" as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton suggested, to dispute wording or form of public memorials. Nor is it the work of the Taliban, as the Daily Telegraph ludicrously suggested when Indigenous author Stan Grant pointed out it is factually incorrect to say Captain Cook discovered Australia.

We don't need to scramble to pull all flawed figures from our past  for surely few could ever remain  but Grant is right to argue we do need to understand and address the racism in our history. All nations do. We remain ignorant about ours. How many of us have reflected on the fact that Robert Towns was a slave trader when in Townsville?
It took 138 years, but the remains of what researchers believe were two Northern Cheyenne killed during the historic Fort Robinson Breakout of 1879 have been reunited with their ancestral homelands in southeastern Montana.

The two sets of remains have been stored at the Nebraska State Historical Societys museum in Lincoln. Last weekends repatriation ceremony was the first for the Northern Cheyenne since the tribes initial repatriations in 1993.

Wallace Bearchum, who serves as the vice chairman of the tribes cultural commission, was among about 10 tribal officials who traveled to Lincoln last week to reclaim the bodies.

Their return to the reservation was book-ended by traditional ceremonies in Lincoln and Busby, he said, followed by a formal burial Friday morning. During the initial rites in Nebraska, tribal dignitaries spoke to the ancestors, performed prayers and burned tribal medicines to prepare for the journey.

It was a spiritual, real emotional, powerful experience, Bearchum said. As we were leaving, we could feel what the remains were feeling, just a real relief that they were out of there and we could tell what they were feeling.  On the way back, when we were in the Black Hills, we could feel that they were happy being back in the homeland.

At the museum, the remains were placed in traditional cedar boxes, loaded into Bearchums car and driven Thursday through South Dakota to Busby, where teepees, a fire and meals had been prepared for the evening wake.

Several elders and other members of the tribe stayed up with the remains overnight, and about 50 tribal members joined Fridays procession from Busby to the Chief Two Moons Memorial on a hill overlooking town. The final resting place for the two tribal members shares space with at least 24 other Northern Cheyenne remains that were relocated during the initial repatriation effort in 1993.

Beyond the spiritual importance of the ceremonies and long-awaited return of their ancestors' remains, the most recent repatriation also holds a deep historical importance for the tribe.

Following their role in the defeat of General Custers Army at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Northern Cheyenne were hunted by the U.S. Army until their capture in 1877. With no reservation of their own at the time, the tribe was sent to live with the Southern Cheyenne in present-day Oklahoma, where many of their members perished due to the unfamiliar desert climate, disease and scarce assistance from the U.S. government.

With their tribe nearing its breaking point, two Northern Cheyenne chiefs, Little Wolf and Dull Knife, led an escape from the reservation in September of 1878, bringing about 300 people north in a journey back to their homeland in the Northern Plains.

The two leaders split up, and the pursuing U.S. soldiers eventually caught up to Dull Knifes band, forcing their surrender and confining them to Fort Robinson in northwestern Nebraska. Refusing to be relocated back to the brutal conditions they previously faced in Oklahoma, the remaining members of the tribe on Jan. 9, 1879, launched the Fort Robinson Breakout, a bloody skirmish alternately known as the Fort Robinson Massacre.

At least 64 Northern Cheyenne were killed over a two-week period beginning on the night of the breakout, according to historical accounts compiled by the American Indian Tribal Histories Project. Included in that total are 23 who initially escaped but were later cornered in a pit along a creek and shot by soldiers at point-blank range.

Kevin Kooistra serves as the executive director of the Western Heritage Center in Billings, which recently hosted an exhibit on the tribes struggle against the U.S. government. The Fort Robinson Breakout and the events surrounding it continue to have a profound effect on the tribes legacy, he said.

It's kind of like their Exodus. Its very important, he said. Referring to subsequent media accounts of the Breakout and federal investigations that were critical of the governments actions. I think what happened at Fort Robinson was kind of a turning point as far as the publics stance.

More than a century later, the Northern Cheyenne continued to play a role in shaping federal Indian policy.

Repatriations have been partly funded by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed by Congress in 1990. The law has helped tribes throughout the country to reclaim the remnants of their ancestors, and established requirements and procedures for returning human remains or cultural items likely belonging to native tribes.

One of the architects of that law, Bill Tallbull, was a Northern Cheyenne tribal historian who served on the committee that helped to draft the 1990 act. He was also responsible for the discovery of the two recently repatriated remains in Lincoln, Bearchum said.

A lot of this started with the late Bill Tallbull, he went around and found out about universities and museums that had Cheyenne remains, Bearchum said.

Tallbull worked with the Lincoln history museum to verify the suspected Cheyenne remains, which Nebraska State Archaeologist Rob Bozell said is typically determined by a preponderance of circumstantial evidence under the federal law.

We have to say, based on our evidence, heres our most likely understanding of who these remains are ancestral to, Bozell explained. There were some artifacts with them, some beads, glass beads and things that looked like they were from the 1870s, so by process of elimination, thats probably related to the Cheyenne outbreak.

The Nebraska Historical Societys analysis indicated that the two sets of remains belonged to a pair of males, aged 20 to 40, who were most likely Northern Cheyenne who were among the roughly 150 involved in the Fort Robinson Breakout.

Helping to lead the months-long effort to secure the remains was Teanna Limpy, the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Preservation Officer. While the tribe had initially learned of the suspected tribal remains in the late 1990s, Limpy said it took years to navigate the process and secure the resources needed to transmit the remains back to the tribe.

It took a lot of time to ensure that we were doing everything correctly," she said. "Its the first Ive had to do since being director of the programs, so it was something fairly new to my staff and people that werent at the 93 repatriations.

Despite the learning curve, however, she said her office will be better prepared to complete repatriation projects in the future.

Everything turned out great, and it was a beautiful ceremony, Limpy said. Im just happy that my ancestors were able to finally go back home to their people and to be reunited with their people after 138 years. I think thats whats most rewarding for all of us involved and for all the Cheyenne nations.
Recently we have seen in the news that Yarra City Council and this week Darebin City Council have taken an ethical stance to initiate a nationwide conversation and recognise the marginalisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community (ATSIC) on a day that celebrates our multi-cultural identity. From 2018 onwards, both councils have chosen not to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26, nor will they refer to it as Australia Day.

A report was commissioned by Yarra Council to gauge the attitudes of the local Aboriginal and Torres ATSIC members to January 26, provide some historical context for these attitudes and present recommendations on how the council might approach January 26 from 2018 onwards. In the ATSIC member consultations the majority of respondents described January 26 as a painful and alienating day.

The debate over Australia Day continues. Credit:Paul Jeffers

There were 13 recommendations suggested in this report, but the government chose to publicly respond to only one of these. Why was this  was it because it was easier to paint a negative picture of the change than if all 13 were considered?

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community are very proud Australians, who would very much like to be able to celebrate a day of national pride, but how can we be expected to celebrate on a date that to us symbolises a loss of country and culture. ATSIC members collectively refer to January 26 as Invasion Day or Survival Day, but each year the feelings of the first people are ignored.
The vandalism of statues of Captain Cook and former NSW governor Lachlan Macquarie is a "cowardly criminal act" reminiscent of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.

The statues in Sydney's Hyde Park were spray-painted with the words "Change the date" and "No pride in genocide" in the early hours of Saturday, references to the controversy over celebrating Australia Day on January 26.

NSW Police have released images of a man they want to speak to, described as being of Caucasian appearance with a full beard, wearing black sunglasses, khaki-coloured jacket with a red shirt or scarf underneath, black track pants and brown boots.

In a long and passionate Facebook post, Mr Turnbull said the graffiti was "part of a deeply disturbing and totalitarian campaign to not just challenge our history but to deny it and obliterate it".
Making tax-deductible superannuation contributions has long been a way to reduce capital gains tax in certain circumstances. A classic example is a retired couple aged 64 who sell property or shares that trigger a capital gain of $100,000, which reduces to $50,000 after application of the 50 per cent discount. By making a deductible contribution of $25,000 each to super, they can wipe out the capital gain.

I used the example of a couple aged 64 because you cannot contribute to super past the age of 65, unless you can pass the work test, which involves working 40 hours in 30 consecutive days in the financial year you make the contribution. I also used a retired couple because, until very recently, a person could not make a tax-deductible contribution if an employer was paying superannuation for them. Given that employer super is mandatory for most workers, this ruled out anybody who was working.

Superannuation contributions can be used to reduce your capital gains tax liability. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

It was an illogical regulation because anybody who wanted to make contributions in pre-tax dollars could simply enter into a salary-sacrifice arrangement with the boss.

But the playing field was levelled when the rules were changed on July 1, 2017. Now the restriction has been lifted and anybody who qualifies under the age limits can make total deductible contributions up to the limit of $25,000 a year (which includes any employer contributions made on their behalf).
A man suffering a gunshot wound to his shoulder was found on a footpath on the lower north shore of Sydney on Sunday night.

Emergency services were called to Mowbray Road West in Lane Cove, near Willandra Street, at about 10.25pm, where they located the 37-year-old man.

He was treated at the scene before being taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.

It's believed his injury is not life-threatening.

A crime scene has been established and detectives from North Shore Local Area Command attended the scene. They are conducting further inquiries.
A man has been stabbed following a brawl at a Gold Coast pub on Sunday afternoon.

The man suffered a "significant stab wound to the neck", while another man had a head injury following the incident at a Surfers Paradise bar, a Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said.

Both men were transported to Gold Coast University Hospital and one of the men was in police custody.

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said there was no hunt for other suspects.
RACQ and Suncorp have urged the Queensland government to reform the state's Compulsory Third Party insurance scheme in a bid to crack down on "rampant rorting".

But the Australian Lawyers Alliance has hit out the proposal and accused the two companies of trying to increase their profit margins.

RACQ and Suncorp are urging reform after a surge in exaggerated and suspicious claims.

The long-running competitors are pushing for change following a surge in exaggerated and suspicious claims for minor injuries like whiplash.

RACQ Insurance chief executive John Myler said an influx of New South Wales-based lawyers and claims farming had made the situation worse.
A 17-year-old boy has been flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition after a shooting at Neerim East, 115 kilometres east of Melbourne.

Paramedics were called to the scene about 2pm to attend to a boy with head injuries.

Credit:Paul Rovere

Police spokeswoman Creina O'Grady said police were at the scene of a firearms incident near Memory Lane, Neerim East.



"The circumstances are yet to be established and the investigation is ongoing," Ms O'Grady said.



"A 17-year-old boy has been airlifted to hospital with critical injuries."

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential crime report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
Hundreds of Richmond residents have called on the Andrews government to reconsider its opposition to a safe injecting room following the death of 34 drug addicts in the laneways of North Richmond last year.

A crowd of about 600 listened to the heart-wrenching accounts of families who had lost loved ones to drug overdoses, which they insist could have been prevented.

Protesters rally in Victoria Street, Richmond, for a safe injecting room. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Laura Turner spoke of the death of her sister Skye, who died of a heroin overdose in March this year.

"She lay dead in the back of a van on Elizabeth Street, that beautiful face, that incredible mind, had slipped away.
In a world where top ATARs and success are celebrated, one Melbourne school is embracing failure.

On Monday, the worst stuff-ups of Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School teachers will be projected onto screens in every classroom as the school kicks off Failure Week.

Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School wants to teach students the importance of failure. Credit:Justin McManus

"We are trying to curb an increasing trend we are seeing in students around perfectionism and concerns about grades, outcomes and achievement," the school's head of counselling Bridget McPherson said.

"We want our students to recognise that failure, and making mistakes, is a really crucial part of learning."
Hospitals and health services are being slugged with massive power cost increases as they struggle to balance budgets already under strain.

The cost of electricity has almost doubled for some services after a new 24-month contract came into place last month.

Health services are facing an estimated $44 million increase as part of the new electricity contract, according to Health Purchasing Victoria, which is responsible for securing bulk power deals.

It cited increased retail charges and the impact of volume growth.
Bangkok: Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has left her 15 year-old son in Thailand and will seek asylum in the United Kingdom after failing to show up for a negligence trial in which she faced 10 years' jail, according to sources in her party.

Ms Yingluck arrived in Dubai after flying in a private jet via Singapore, sources said.

Judges hearing the charges against Ms Yingluck have delayed delivering their verdict until September 27. Credit:AP

Her departure has prompted speculation in the Thai media that the military-run government facilitated her escape after cutting a deal with her family.

For two years the country's 50-year-old first female prime minister had been closely monitored by security services, often complaining about invasions of her privacy.
The Texas Department of Public Safety recently promoted Will Patton of College Station to the position of emergency plans section coordinator with the Texas Department of Emergency Management. Patton, who previously served as a supervisor with the state and federal plans unit of the department, will be stationed in Austin. He is a 2006 graduate of Texas A&M University and joined DPS in 2011.
The Bryan school district has reached a settlement with Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics Inc. over the expansion a ceramic catalyst manufacturing plant that resides near campuses.

According to the terms of a settlement agreement approved by trustees this week, the school district will withdraw its request for the state to reconsider granting the company a permit to expand production on its Bryan Saint-Gobain Norpro plant.

In exchange, Saint-Gobain cites plans to reduce the currently permitted total overall maximum allowed emissions by 15 percent.

According to the settlement agreement, the company will outline this reduction in its application to construct a seventh kiln -- the permit Bryan has been contesting involves the construction of a sixth kiln. The settlement states that the design of the sixth and seventh kiln as well as the use of "emission-control technology" will make the reduction possible.

Saint-Gobain also will provide the Bryan school district with emissions data for each of the next five years with the caveat that the plant will cease to do this if the district contests its construction of its seventh kiln.

Along with the data, Saint-Gobain will pay the district $15,000 once, which Bryan school board president Trey Moore said will be used to hire an expert -- probably someone at Texas A&M -- to analyze and explain the data the district receives.

More importantly to Moore, the district hopes to involve middle school and high school students in the process of looking over data.

The settlement comes after a lengthy back-and-forth between the district and the plant.

The school district contested the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's ruling that the a permit application for Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics Inc. to expand its Independence Avenue ceramic catalyst manufacturing plant meets legal requirements.

Under the expansion, the plant's annual emissions will increase by 111 tons.

At the time, Harry Wright, Bryan school district's attorney, wrote in his request to the TCEQ for reconsideration that the district was "extremely concerned" about possible harm that the increased emissions could have on students and staff at nine campuses within a 5-mile radius of the plant.

"I do feel [the settlement is] a win-win," Moore said. "They provide a lot of jobs in our community -- a lot of our students' parents work there -- and this is providing an opportunity now where we can turn this into a learning situation for science students and maybe come up with a future air quality engineer."

The plant has about 100 employees, most of whom live in Brazos County, says plant manager David Yandell.

From his point of view, the settlement and the public hearings gave the plant a chance to hear out the community out and give context to their operations. He said the plant is eager to give students tours of the facility and foster those relationships.

"We were already in compliance, so we felt like we were in a good position as far as being in compliance and in good environmental standing," he said. "We also felt good about that, going forward with the ISD, I think if they gave us the opportunity to really understand more about what their concerns were."

Moore said the district consulted air quality experts and environmental lawyers throughout the process and describes the outcome of the settlement as " mutually beneficial agreement for all parties involved."

"Obviously Saint-Gobain is in compliance, but I think by us bringing awareness of the issue and then they being willing to sit down with us and work with us, to provide the data, to see where the reductions were made," he said.
1 EVENT TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR

Aldersgate Methodist Church is hosting a traditional American folk dance on Sept. 2 from 7 to 10 p.m. 979-846-4504 or visit bcscontra.org.

SUNDAY

EVENTS

Free Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. The Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley. Families are invited to enjoy all the exhibits, including the new Illumination Station. For more information, visit cmbv.org.

Bryan-College Station Writing Group, 2 to 4 p.m. Larry J. Ringer Library. www.facebook.com/groups/BCSWriting.

MONDAY

CLUBS

Star Duplicate Bridge Club, 9:15 a.m. Brazos Center. For partnerships, call ahead 703-1769.

College Station Senior Advisory Committee meeting, 10 a.m. Southwood Community Center. Visitors are welcome. mrodgers@cstx.gov or 764-6371.

College Station Noon Lions Club, noon. Hilton Hotel. 690-8525. New members welcome. Check website for program: www.csnoonlions.org/.

Brazos Valley Community Band, 7:15 p.m. Covenant Presbyterian Church.

HEALTH AND FITNESS

Mind and Body workout, 9 a.m. Waldenbrooke Estates, community room. Get your daily dose of laughter and stretching. 774-1298.

Sit and Fit Chair Exercise Class, noon to 1 p.m. Southwood Community Center. mrodgers@cstx.gov or 764-6371.

SingleMoms Created4Change parenting class, 10 a.m. Lincoln House of Hope, 1013 Eleanor St., College Station. Call before to sign up at 575-1034.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Grimes St. Joseph Health Center activity room. 450-1750 or 936-662-0825.

Narcotics Anonymous, 8 to 9 p.m. Grimes St. Joseph Health Center activity room. 450-1750 or 936-662-0825.

TUESDAY

CLUBS

Bryan Noon Lions Club, 11:30 a.m. Brazos Center, 3232 Briarcrest Drive. 776-8338.

Brazos County Senior Citizens Association potluck luncheon, noon. 1402 Bristol St., Bryan. Visitors welcome. Rubber bridge begins at 1 p.m. 822-6873.

College Station Kiwanis Club, noon. Paolo's Italian Kitchen, 809 University Drive in College Station. 450-3236.

Brenham Rotary Club, noon. Faith Mission Cannery Kitchen, 314 Alamo St., Brenham. Brenhamrotary.org.

Bluegrass Jam Session, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Southwood Community Center. Open to all senior adults who enjoy listening to or playing bluegrass music. Beginners welcome.

Game Night for senior adults, 7 to 9 p.m. Southwood Community Center. Table games and dominoes provided, or bring your own favorite game. 764-6371 or mrodgers@cstx.gov.
College Station Mayor Karl Mooney is not backing away from his recent criticism of Texas A&M University System's public-private developments in the city, frustrating some administration officials who say he's delivering inaccurate information.

In an interview earlier this month with KBTX, Mooney expressed concern over the effects Park West -- A&M's recently-opened public-private student housing complex -- is having on city resources. He denounced the property's tax-exempt status, and the impact the new development will have on traffic along an already-congested George Bush Drive.

Mooney said in the Aug. 1 television interview that such public-private partnerships -- the developer pays for the project and leases the land from A&M -- might seem like a good deal from the A&M System's perspective, but not from the city's viewpoint.

"From ours, it's putting a lot of students in a very concentrated area where we already have traffic issues," Mooney told the reporter. "To make the necessary changes there is going to have to be additional dollars spent by the city that could otherwise be spent elsewhere."

Plans to improve the intersection at Bush and Wellborn Road have been in the works for years -- long before Park West was on the drawing board -- with the Texas Department of Transportation in charge of the project.

An estimated 60,000 cars travel daily down the roadway during the week, while 20 or so trains pass through the intersection; the state plans to build a pedestrian bridge, while separating the tracks from the roadway, much like it did less than a quarter of a mile to the north on Wellborn between west campus and the main part of the university.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M Transportation Services provides two bus routes which service the apartment complex where nearly 1,700 students are now living.

According to City of College Station documents obtained by The Eagle through an open records request, Mooney reached out to City Manager Kelly Templin the morning of Aug. 1 - the day of the television interview - to request "monetary numbers to illustrate what TAMU's Park West P3 project cost(s) the city" in preparation for a call-in interview with radio station WTAW set for the morning of Aug. 2.

Templin noted in his response to Mooney later that morning there are "no impacts to city utilities" for the Park West complex because the project is served by A&M's water, sewage and electricity.

In terms of roads in the area of Park West -- including Luther, Marion Pugh and George Bush Drive -- Templin said it is "hard to argue there will be huge impacts" despite the property not paying into a road maintenance fee. In a later message, however, Templin notes "there can be no doubt (Park West and Century Square) produce large amounts of traffic."

Century Square is another partnership in which private developers are leasing the property from A&M and paying for all costs associated with the apartment, hotels, restaurants an shops in the strip off University Drive where married student housing used to located.

Once all the buildings are occupied, its value will be roughly $300 million, which will be on the tax rolls for the city, county and schools.

In response to questions from The Eagle about his comments during the KBTX interview, Mooney declined to address them directly, instead saying its the desire of city leaders and staff to participate in a "healthy relationship of planning and partnership in the future with the university and the university system."

"The leaders and staff of the City of College Station are always willing and ready to work in partnership with Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M University System," Mooney wrote in an email response, declining to be interviewed. "It is a consistent objective of the city to be helpful in the University's growth and changes. For that purpose, city leaders and staff welcome any opportunity to engage in planning and addressing the needs of the University and the System, especially when those plans will have a direct impact on our community."

A week later, Texas A&M System officials released a statement pointing out that the new hotel and convention center being built on the A&M campus across from Kyle Field would not seek an exemption from the local hotel occupancy tax, which it could have done because it's a state agency. Like A&M, cities, the county and school districts do not have to pay taxes on property the entity owns.

System officials said Chancellor John Sharp already had been in talks with Brazos County Judge Duane Peters about the benefits of the hotel and conference center being included on the tax rolls.

Peters was outspoken in his support of the public-private developments when the announcement was made, praising the value added through job creation and property tax generation.

"For the first time in history, Texas A&M is putting property on the tax rolls instead of taking it off," Peters said. "Under the law, there are ways Texas A&M could have kept Century Square off the tax rolls but chose not to. Never before has the A&M System been so community-minded."

Peters said even though much of the university-owned land in College Station is tax-exempt -- like the Park West student housing complex -- it still contributes as an economic driver for the area.

A&M System Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs Phillip Ray said the announcement about the hotel tax served to address any "misperception" about the public-private partnerships, a veiled reference to Mooney's comments.

"I think there is some confusion and unfortunately, there may be some within the city of College Station that have a misunderstanding of how these projects are funded and the different attributes they provide," Ray said.

Mooney followed up with Templin Aug. 8 to request a report be prepared "that identifies the various undertakings that (the) city has had to endure and their costs" related to the Century Square and Park West projects, in response to recent "considerable discussion about the benefits to the city from TAMU-generated P3 projects," according to City of College Station documents.

"I am not seeking to get into a debate with the Chancellor or VP Ray, but I do want to be accurately prepared if and when a discussion arises," he wrote.

Templin again noted neither Park West nor Century Square is served by College Station utilities.

In the case of the latter, Templin said the City Council had previously moved to allow A&M to provide utilities to the mixed-use site -- an agreement he noted was executed by Mooney's predecessor, Nancy Berry -- due to a combination of costly improvements to the city's substation at Northgate, the anticipated power demands of the forthcoming second high rise apartment complex at Northgate and the construction timeline for the development.

Templin also told Mooney had the university not stepped in to provide utilities, the necessary improvements to accommodate the needs of Century Square would have impacted the cost of utility rates.

Laylan Copelin, vice chancellor for marketing and communication at the A&M System, said administrators have "a great relationship with the city manager and a majority of the city council."

"They are pleased that we are putting more than $300 million on the tax rolls, we've paid for utilities on several projects, invested $1 million in timing the traffic signals, and dedicated TTI (Texas Transportation Institute, a system agency) staff to address the city's traffic problems, to name a few examples," he said.

However, Copelin said there is some concern "the mayor has been getting some inaccurate information outside of the city staff."

"We are hopeful that we can persuade him to be a supporter of Texas A&M instead of a critic," Copelin said.
When Justin Calhoun and Erin Hill of Bryan selected Aug. 26 as their wedding date, they didn't realize Harvey would show up as a surprise uninvited guest.

But, even though the rain from the now-tropical storm, dampened the sidewalk outside The Woman's Club of Bryan, it couldn't dim the radiant smile Hill was wearing as she ran indoors to her reception dinner in bare feet and a black garbage bag covering her dress.

Getting to the reception from the All Faiths Chapel on Texas A&M's campus to the club was a bit of a challenge. Guests who were soaked to the bone had to enter the venue through the more-sheltered staff entrance near the kitchen.

Preparations didn't always go smoothly, either. Hill's hairstylist canceled at the last minute because of Harvey, and a business that was going to press her wedding gown before the ceremony was unable to do so. An order for flowers didn't process and nearly 15 guests from the Houston area had to cancel their plans to attend.

C&J's Barbecue held up their commitment to cater the reception, though one staff member slipped in a rain puddle at the kitchen entrance. Just before the reception started, stereo equipment began to glitch.

But the couple walked into their reception laughing and happy.

"I did feel panicky at first about this," Hill told The Eagle. "But then I just decided to have a good time... We did come up with the best wedding hashtag ever: '#HarveyEverAfter.'"

The couple remained positive, and things ended up working out: Hill's mother and friend styled her hair, and her dress was pressed at home. Friends replaced other items needed such as flowers, and the couple's photographer brought umbrellas for wedding photos in the rain.

The newlyweds agreed that the rain on their wedding day was a sign of good luck for the future.

"We must have won the lottery of love!" Hill said, laughing as she removed her trash bag in the reception hall.
Knowing flash flooding is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in Texas, Grimes County Deputy Matt Ortega tried to prevent a stranger from driving through dangerous water rushing over a two-lane rural road south of Navasota last year.

The driver ignored him, gunned the accelerator of his truck and what happened next is exactly why the Texas Department of Transportation, along with law enforcement and fire department officials, repeatedly push the slogan Turn Around, Dont Drown, whenever heavy rain hits.

As Lt. Chad Phillips and others with the College Station Fire Department were called to help Ortega, they were slowed by accidents on Texas 6 near where two tornadoes had just touched down.

In all that chaos during the May 2016 storm, five people were killed in Washington County alone; three of the dead were drivers who were in their vehicles when the flash-floods hit.

With flash flooding in the forecast through next week, this Eagle video is a reminder of what can happen.

For more on flooding safety, go to Ready.gov; for updates on Texas A&Ms College Station campus - emergency.tamu.edu.
Whats in a name?

Youd think Nestle Waters would go ahead and change one word in one of its best-selling brands to avoid legal hassle. Then again, the market for bottled water has been surging for years and shows no sign of stopping. Whats the occasional million in lawyers fees compared to a share of a market worth billions?

Stamford-based Nestle Waters, a unit of Swiss giant Nestle S.A., is the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed in Connecticut federal court on Aug. 15. Plaintiffs accuse Nestles Poland Spring Water Co. of defrauding customers by selling at premium prices common ground water as spring water. The suit alleges that Poland Spring does not satisfy the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations definition of spring water. The suit seeks unspecified damages for violations of state laws, including those of New Jersey and New York.

The plaintiffs claim that Poland Springs water is pumped out of the ground instead of naturally bubbling out of it, and that the companys handful of collection sites, comprising 99 percent of its product, are located near a current or former refuse pit, landfill or petroleum dump site.

This isnt the first time. In 2003, Nestle Waters settled another class-action suit almost identical to the one filed this month. Plaintiffs were a mix of lawyers representing customers and lawyers representing Nestles competitors. While not admitting to the allegations against it, Nestle Waters agreed to a $10 million settlement over five years that included costumer discounts and as well as $1 million in fees to the plaintiffs lawyers.

The plaintiffs, then and now, do not accuse Poland Spring of selling tainted water. They concede it disinfects and or purifies its product at the same time they imply that its natural spring water seeps from the bottom of a slag heap. But they arent the only ones playing loosey-goosey with language. So does Nestle.

It all comes down to what natural spring water means and whether Poland Spring is right in using that phrasing. Does it mean water springing out of the ground by itself? Or does it mean water thats collected before its springs up? And is that a distinction that communicates a significant difference?

The FDA says spring water is derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface of the earth thats collected only at the spring or through a bore hole tapping the underground formation feeding the spring.

In other words, the rules say you can collect water at the surface or you can dig a well to collect it before it surfaces. The FDA rules allow for both methods, even if the latter sounds like well water. Well water, however, has it own definition. It doesnt come from a spring, the FDA says. It comes from an aquifer.

The Poland Spring Water Co. digs wells at its sites and collects the water before it comes to the surface. But even if everything is aboveboard, and I dont doubt it is, the problem may be one on marketing rather than one of earth science. Is this spring water or common ground water? A lot rides on the answer.

The Poland Spring Water Co. says it complies with state and federal regulations, and that plaintiff claims against it are without merit. The company issued a statement last week saying that it meets all good manufacturing practices, product quality and labeling. We remain highly confident in our legal position.

I joked at the top that maybe Nestle Waters should just go ahead and take the word spring out of Poland Springs tagline to avoid legal exposure. But given how high the stakes are, and how much higher they have become since 2003, I wouldnt be surprised if the company took the plaintiffs to the wall.

Rising commodity prices mean parent company Nestle S.A. anticipates the weakest sales in two decades. Last month, the Vevey, Switzerland-based company told investors to expect sales growth as low as close to 2 percent. But water is growing, has been growing for years, and last year, water outsold soda.

So Nestle Waters is fending off court challenges even as its taking advantage of newfound customer worries about sugary drinks. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that water is now Nestles focal point for investment. It plans a new push to compete with the leading bottlers, Dasani (owned by the Coca-Cola Co.) and Aquafina (owned by PepsiCo). Those two account alone so far this year for over $2 billion in U.S. sales.

Whats in a name?

Well, a lot.

John Stoehr is a fellow of the Yale Journalism Initiative.
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Twenty years ago, Fran Pastore saw a need  and an opportunity.

Women entrepreneurs in Connecticut were grappling with a dearth of funding and support services to start and grow businesses.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., native realized she could help tackle womens unequal economic standing and create a new career for herself. She would build that idea into the Womens Business Development Council, a nonprofit that has helped to create and sustain thousands of womens businesses and jobs. Its two-decade record has garnered widespread acclaim, but looming state funding cuts threaten its mission.

Our work for women has never been more relevant, Pastore said in an interview last week at the WBDCs main offices, on Bedford Street, in downtown Stamford. It is more important than ever before for women to rise up to the challenges that we see before us to be leaders in business, in society, in politics, and to make our voices heard.

Starting up

Many women start businesses not only because they have a promising concept, but because they lack viable alternatives to earn a living. Pastore was no different.

When she formally launched the WBDC, Pastore was a 36-year-old single mother with 4- and 7-year-old daughters who had survived on unemployment insurance for 18 months.

Earlier, she worked as an analyst on Wall Street and in real estate. After moving in 1990 to Stamford from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., she went on to work for a short-lived womens economic development nonprofit.

The demise of that organization did not discourage Pastore. She wanted to create a new enterprise to offer dedicated training and support to women entrepreneurs.

My passions had always been around womens economic equity, small business and education for women, Pastore said. I had two daughters. I wanted them to be economically self-reliant. I was trying to figure out what could I do to help keep me local and have a career with passion.

Pastore cited the early support and mentorship of several women, including Patricia Russo, who was then a commissioner of the states Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. Russo used her political network to connect Pastore with then-Congressman Christopher Shays. The offices of Shays and then-U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman helped the WBDC to secure funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Fran just had this big vision for training programs that she wanted to be able to provide to women in Fairfield County who desperately needed the training to create the lives that they wanted to lead as entrepreneurs, said Russo, who is now executive director of the Womens Campaign School at Yale.

In the early 2000s, the organizations corporate funding declined because of a recession and the redirection of companies resources to projects responding to the 9/11 attacks. The WBDC found a lifeline from Stamfords city government when then-Mayor Dannel P. Malloy offered the group rent-free office space in the Stamford Government Center.

I wanted to see women get the support they need, and I wanted to see small businesses get the support they need, Malloy said in an interview last week. I saw small business development as part of Stamfords economic development. Some of my predecessors only concentrated on the big guys. I wanted to see a more diverse approach to job growth and economic development in Stamford.

The partnership with Malloys administration would become a model. In the ensuing years, the WBDC forged partnerships with local governments throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties. Now, the organization serves clients in nearly all of the 169 cities and towns in Connecticut.

Comprehensive services

Today, the WBDC operates as a de facto school for active and aspiring women business owners.

Its entrepreneurial and financial-education programming encompasses courses taught in the classroom and through webinars and teleconferencing, as well as one-on-one counseling.

The organizations flagship program, GPS  a Guide to Plan for Success, helps participants develop business plans during a nine-week course.

In 2015, Maclyne Josselin, who founded last year a personal-finance business, Project 13:7, enrolled in the GPS course. In a business-pitch session at the end of the program, Josselin met WBDC board member and Bank of New York Mellon community reinvestment officer Kerri Holloway. They established a rapport, and Holloway has since become an important mentor.

I think the class was helpful not only because of the content but because it was helpful to be among other women doing the same thing, Josselin said. And with Kerri as a mentor, shes giving me about 40 years worth of experience that I can learn from her.

To date, the WBDC has served more than 18,000 clients and helped to create some 1,800 businesses and supported another 3,500 existing establishments. It has supported the creation and maintenance of more than 4,200 jobs.

Major challenges

The WBDC faces a precarious financial future amid the states budget crisis.

After already seeing its state allocation drop in recent years from about $500,000 to approximately $350,000, it faces the prospect of losing the entire allotment. Malloys proposed budget for the next two years eliminated its funding. He said the cut did not represent a judgment of the organizations work, but reflected a response to the states fiscal predicament.

The organization could end up receiving a direct allotment or competing with other organizations for funding, depending on the spending plan approved by the state Legislature, Malloy said.

I am hopeful that there will be a continuation of efforts to help small businesses throughout the state, Malloy said.

Pastore is counting on legislators to restore funding. Without a $500,000 distribution, she said the organizations Danbury and Hartford offices cannot stay open.

Counting all funding sources, the WBDC operates with an annual budget of about $1.8 million.

Stemming from its fiscal pressures, the WBDC has reduced its staff through attrition. It now employs 10.

Related to the funding instability, the WBDC has suspended a microlending program started last year that provides loans between $2,500 and $25,000.

The organization will continue to offer a range of other services to help clients access capital, a chronic challenge for women in business. Only 4 percent of the total dollar value of small-business loans went to women entrepreneurs, according to a 2014 U.S. Senate report.

The potential funding drain looms as Connecticut continues to languish as a place for female business owners. It ranked 50th among states in overall economic clout for the growth of women-owned businesses between 2007 and 2016, according to a 2016 American Express report.

Pastore said she did not know why Connecticut lagged in the rankings, but that its low placement underscored the WBDCs importance and continued need for public funding.

Weve persevered for 20 years; weve seen some hard times, Pastore said. I have to remain positive that the good people in this state Legislature recognize the importance of our work. And I am not going to stop.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschott
Woodruff certified in Early Childhood Guidelines

First Presbyterian Preschool teacher Jeanne Woodruff has received her Early Learning Guidelines Certificate from the state of Nebraska.

Woodruff She has attended all the Early Learning Guidelines 7 domains  science, mathematics, language and literacy development, health and physical development, approaches to learning, social and emotional development, and creative art.

Woodruff has an associate of applied science degree in early childhood education. She has worked at the preschool for 18 years.

First Presbyterian Preschool can be reached at (308) 382-2947.

Jamieson attends tap dance training

Karen Jamieson, owner and artistic director of Heartland School of Dance in Grand Island, recently completed a seven-day training course in tap dance at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England.

The tap course, offered by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in London, focused on teaching the nine new tap grades, from pre-primary through intermediate pre-professional. The training focused on teaching fast close foot work, clear sounds and training musicality.

Jamieson is a certified teacher with both the ISTD and the Royal Academy of Dance.

Lane hired by Midwest LTC Pharmacy

Shayla Lane has joined the staff at Midwest LTC Pharmacy in Grand Island as a pharmacist.

Lane has a bachelor of science in nutrition science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a doctor of pharmacy from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. She completed her post-graduate pharmacy residency at the Grand Island Veteran Affairs Medical Center.

Previously, she was a pharmacy technician at The Pharmacy in Lincoln and a pharmacy intern at Nebraska Medicine in Bellevue.

Midwest LTC Pharmacy is located at 3003 Frontage Road, Suite 2.

Vaught named general manager at ISSI

Kevin Vaught is the new general manager of International Sensor Systems Inc. in Aurora.

ISSI is a custom electronics manufacturer. Vaught will oversee the firms marketing and sales functions as well as day-to-day operations, including direct involvement in revenue and cost elements of the firm.

He is a graduate of Henderson Community Schools, is a veteran of the United States Air Force and has a degree from Southeast Community College in architectural technology. He has 29 years of work experience in the areas of applications engineering, engineering management, project management, contract administration and materials management.

Vaught and his wife, Kimberly, live in Aurora with their two sons.
For the past decade, Grand Island has heightened its focus on preparing students for the workforce and not just for college.

While the traditional two-year or four-year routes may be the right choice for many, they arent for everyone. Education and business leaders, along with students and their parents, acknowledged the need for trades education and recognized the career potential for students in these areas, either with further education at a two-year college or with professional certifications.

There are several areas our education systems, along with community partners, are working towards addressing workforce shortages.

Career Pathways Institute has begun its fourth school year. Career Pathways Institute is a building devoted entirely to giving students a hands-on experience in fields such as information technology, drafting, construction, auto mechanics and manufacturing/welding. For the 2018-19 school year, Grand Island Public Schools will be moving to a Prep Academies focus. These academies (Human Services, Health Sciences, Arts and Communication, Business/Marketing, Management and IT, and Skilled and Technical Sciences) will focus on helping students understand the specific applications of academic subjects to the college and career fields and deliver work-based learning experiences.

Grand Island Northwest is currently launching a job shadow and internship program working with local businesses to expose students to opportunities available here in the Grand Island area. These programs are in place to deliver community education to the student base. To provide community education to the educators, the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce is beginning its second year of the Education Committee.

The focus of the Education Committee is to raise awareness of the career opportunities for students and build connections between area educators and business leaders in Grand Island. There are great career opportunities available right here in the Grand Island area. Each month during the school year the Education Committee will meet at a local business. While there, educators learn about the businesses history, what exactly the business does, what types of career opportunities are available within the company, education attainment levels necessary to potentially acquire those jobs and the approximate pay scales for those positions.

Last year the committee visited eight local businesses including Dramco Tool, GIX Logistics, Beavercreek Marketing and Five Points Bank. We will kick off the 2017-18 Education Committee meeting on Sept. 19.

If you are a local business leader that would like an opportunity for your business to be included in the Education Committee visit or if you are an educator and would like to become a part of the Grand Island Chamber of Commerces Education Committee, contact Michala Soundy at msoundy@gichamber.com or by phone at (308) 382-9210.

Michala Soundy is the director of workforce and development for the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce.
Unofficial enrollment is up in the Grand Island Public Schools, Northwest Public Schools and Central Catholic, while it is holding steady at Heartland Lutheran High School.

The four school systems collectively have more than 11,600 students. A breakdown:

-- Grand Island Public Schools had 9,763 students on the first day of school, which includes 388 kids enrolled in preschool. That total is 57 more than the number enrolled on the first day of the 2016-17 school year. The first-day enrollment of 388 preschool students was 29 more than the first day last year.

The first-day enrollment for K-5 students was 4,600, down seven students from last year.

Total middle school enrollment was 2,177, which is a drop of 31 compared to the first day last year. Walnut Middle School had 778 students on the first day, Westridge 692 and Barr 690. The total number of middle school students climbs to 2,177 when Skills Academy, Success Academy and Ombudsman students are included.

Grand Island Senior High had 2,598 students on the first day, which includes 18 Skills Academy students, 68 Success Academy students and 46 Ombudsman students. That is 66 more students in high school than were at GISH and all its specialized programs last year.

-- Northwest Public Schools had 1,484 K-12 students to begin the school year, up 34 compared to 1,450 in kindergarten through 12th grade at the start of the 2016-17 school year.

That total for the new school year climbs to 1,509 when 25 preschool students are included. The preschool enrollment will not become official until the kids actually show up for the first day of class.

Northwest Public Schools K-8 enrollment, by building, includes 357 at Cedar Hollow, 187 at District 1-R, 132 at St. Libory and 63 at Chapman  a total of 739 K-8 students. Chapmans enrollment is lower because that building has been converted into a K-5 school instead of a K-8 school.

The long-range plan for Northwest is to convert the remaining K-8 buildings to K-5 schools and create a consolidated 6-8 middle school for the district. However, that vision has a long way to go before it becomes a reality.

Northwest High School has a total of 745 students to start this school year.

-- Central Catholic has 286 students, which included 38 sixth-graders, 40 seventh-graders, 35 eighth-graders, 46 freshmen, 35 sophomores, 47 juniors and 42 seniors. That is eight more students than the 278 the school had at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

-- Heartland Lutheran has 61 students, with the largest classes in the first two years of high school. The school has 16 freshmen, 20 sophomores, 12 juniors and 13 seniors. Heartland Lutherans enrollment has ranged between about 61 and 65 students the past few years.

-- Trinity Lutheran, a long-term parochial elementary school, had 150 students for the beginning of the school year.

-- The Independent reported that during the 2016-17 school year, True North Church bought the building that houses Grand Island Christian School. In making the purchase, True North Church declared that Grand Island Christian School could use the building rent-free for five years. That relieved the financial pressure on Grand Island Christian, which had 15 students in preschool through sixth grade last year and continues with 15 students for the 2017-18 school year.

The beginning school enrollment numbers for Heartland Lutheran, Central Catholic, Northwest Public Schools and Grand Island Public Schools are subject to change. Grand Island is a large enough community that there are always people moving in and out, including school-age students. There also is an initial churn as students try to find the right fit when it comes to school. A student may attend one school for a few days, then transfer to a different school where they believe the course offerings and teaching staff are a better fit for them.

As a result, the Nebraska Department of Education does not have school districts, either public or private, report their official school enrollments until near the end of September.
Sunday, August 27, 2017

The Illinois Administrator recently filed a complaint alleging that an attorney engaged in misconduct as the CFO of an Illinois corporation that extracts and refines precious metals.

The allegations involve the email account of an employee who had left.

When [employee] Wokoun began his employment with PMRS, he received from PMRS an email account with the address dwokoun@pmrs-refining.com ("work email").

From at least the time Wokoun began his employment with PMRS to the date this complaint was filed, Wokoun also maintained an email account with Yahoo with the address d_wokoun@yahoo.com("personal email"). During that time, Yahoo provided methods by which its users can regain access to their accounts in the event that their sign-on information was lost or forgotten.

On or about February 15, 2013, Wokoun added his mobile number, ending in "4695", as a password recovery method for his personal email at Yahoo.

On or about March 16, 2013, Wokoun added his work email as an alternative password-recovery method for his personal email at Yahoo.

On March 1, 2014, Wokoun resigned from this employment with PMRS.

After Wokoun resigned from PMRS, Respondent deactivated Wokouns work email and all communications sent to dwokoun@pmrs-refining.com were automatically forwarded to another PMRS account with the address info@pmrs-refining.com ("the catch-all account"). All emails that were sent to inactive or misspelled PMRS accounts were automatically forwarded to this catch-all account, which Respondent monitored.

On March 4, 2014, three days after his resignation, Wokoun filed a three-count complaint against PMRS and its president, Sheldon Goldner ("Goldner"), in the Circuit Court of Cook County, in which Wokoun alleged battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of contract. The clerk of the court docketed the matter as Wokoun v. PMRS and Sheldon Goldner, 2014-L-2339.

Following his resignation from PMRS, Wokoun did not remove his work email as a recovery method for his Yahoo email account until sometime after July 4, 2014. As a result, Respondent periodically received in PMRSs catch-all account notifications of password changes to Wokouns personal email. Respondent did not notify Wokoun that his deactivated work email was still linked to his personal email, or that Respondent was receiving these notifications.

On July 4, 2014, Yahoos password-recovery process required a user to go to Yahoos sign-on page and click "Forgot My Password", upon which the user will be prompted to enter his Yahoo email account. Then, a user who had both a mobile number and an alternate email address on file could regain access to his Yahoo account in one of two ways: first, he could have received a SMS text message from Yahoo to his mobile number in which Yahoo would ask the user to enter an alphanumeric code provided by Yahoo and, upon entering the correct code, the user would be prompted to create and confirm a new password. This recovery method was Yahoos default option.

Alternatively, the user could have chosen to receive an email from Yahoo sent to the alternate email address in which Yahoo provided an account-specific uniform resource locater ("URL") link that, upon clicking it within a 24-hour expiration period, would take the user to a Yahoo password-creation screen where the user can create and confirm a new password.

On July 4, 2014, during the pendency of Wokouns lawsuit against PMRS, Respondent took the steps detailed...above, and received in PMRSs catch-all account a URL link provided by Yahoo. Respondent used the link to reset Wokouns password and intentionally gained access to Wokouns personal email account.

Upon gaining access to Wokouns personal email, Respondent performed with its inbox a search for "Jim Jackson". Jim Jackson ("Jackson") was the president of Chicago Direct Refiners, Inc., one of PMRSs competitors. Respondent proceeded to open and read at least 15 email exchanges between Wokoun and Jackson that occurred between March 18, 2014 and June 1, 2014. In those emails, Wokoun and Jackson discussed the possibility of Wokoun becoming an employee or having a business relationship with Chicago Direct Refiners. Respondent subsequently provided copies of the emails he obtained from Wokouns personal email account to PMRSs counsel.

On or about August 6, 2015, approximately 13 months after he first accessed Wokouns personal email inbox, Respondent, without disclosing his identity, mailed a package addressed to Wokouns attorney Daniel Hogan ("Hogan") at Hogans business address. The package contained copies of the emails Respondent printed out from Wokouns personal email account...

On February 4, 2016, Wokoun filed with the court a motion for sanctions in case number 2014-L-2339. Wokouns sanction motion alleged that Respondent had wrongfully accessed Wokouns personal email account, which contained over 80 email communications between Wokoun and Hogan that were subject to attorney-client privilege. In his motion, Wokoun requested that the court enter a default judgment against the defendants and impose against them compensatory and punitive damages.

Sanctions were imposed in the litigation as a result that included a default on the merits.

Here, the Administrator alleges that the respondent committed the state crime of computer tampering and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty in falsely representing to Yahoo that he needed a new password.

He also is alleged to have testified falsely in his deposition in the underlying litigation concerning the above conduct.

On January 23, 2015, Respondent gave his deposition in case number 2014-L-2339. During that deposition, Wokouns attorney Daniel Hogan asked Respondent the following question: "What investigation, if any, did you undertake to determine whether or not Dan Wokoun was involved with Chicago Direct Refiners of Illinois, Inc.?" In answering Hogans question, Respondent did not disclose that he had accessed Wokouns email on July 4, 2014.

On February 22, 2016, PMRS and Goldner filed with the court a response to Wokouns February 4, 2016 motion for sanctions. The defendants included in their response an affidavit executed by Respondent, in which Respondent stated that "on July 4, 2014, I clicked on a link contained in the most recent Yahoo email sent to the PMRS account" and that "after clicking the link and surprisingly being confronted with the Yahoo inbox, I was shocked to see that there were e-mails between Plaintiff and a known competitor."

Respondents representation that he was "confronted" with Wokouns personal email inbox was false because at the time Respondent executed the February 22, 2016 affidavit, Respondent knew that he had taken multiple steps, including changing the password, in order to gain access to Wokouns personal email inbox, and that Yahoo never provided Respondent or PMRS with a link that led directly to Wokouns personal email inbox.

Respondent knew his representations...were false at the time he made them.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/08/the-illinois-administrator-recently-filed-a-complaint-alleging.html
An army of volunteers along with the Nebraska State Fair staff, staff of the city of Grand Island, Chamber of Commerce and Visitor and Convention Bureau, area businesses and residents have spent the past few weeks sprucing up for the states largest multi-day event. OK, the College World Series is a close contender, having set a record attendance this year of 357,646, just short of the fairs record of 361,000 last year.

The flowers are in bloom, flags are flying, the grass has been mowed, weeds trimmed, and litter and trash removed by a legion of some 900 volunteers organized by Denise McGovern of Clean Community Systems.

When the gates opened Friday for the fairs eighth year in Grand Island, 1,000 volunteers and paid workers mobilized to keep the grounds clean and activities running smoothly.

The community had a rare opportunity to do a hospitality dry run this past weekend as more than 20,000 visitors came to witness the rare and spectacular total solar eclipse. By all accounts, those who came from the far reaches of the U.S. and several foreign countries left with positive feelings about Grand Island and all who helped enrich the experience of a lifetime.

Those on the front lines of our hospitality industry deserve great praise for their genuine helpfulness and maintaining Grand Islands acclaim as the City of Kindness. The restaurant, bar, and hotel workers, convenience store, service and retail clerks, as well as residents in general who accommodated visitors to our area can take credit for Grand Islands growing reputation as a welcoming oasis on the Great Plains.

Following on the heels of the Nebraska State Fair will be other major regional events  Husker Harvest Days Sept. 12 -14, the Aksarben Stock Shows debut in Grand Island Sept. 28-Oct. 1, Junk Jaunt Sept. 22  24, and Harvest of Harmony Oct. 6-7.

Agriculture is the heart and soul of three of these events, and a host of other events held on the Fonner State/Fair campus throughout the year. Grand Island hosts more 4-H and FFA youth events than any other city in America.

As the state of Nebraska celebrates its 150th birthday, the State Fairs roots run just as deep. Agricultural fairs predate the states founding.

Agriculture is the states most important economic sector. Celebrate 150 years of farm progress, Nebraskas hard-working farm and ranch families and The Good Life.

Come, be a part of another record breaking year for the Nebraska State Fair!
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
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 11:27 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae12487 4 Science & Tech social-media,application,content,music,video,Musical-ly Free

Musical.ly, a social media network where users share 60-second videos on their account, officially forms an Indonesian team to bring more local content to the platform.

"Indonesia is in the top five (users) globally; more than 10 million and it will continue to increase," musical.ly Indonesia country manager Teguh Wicaksono said in a press conference on Wednesday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Musical.ly is said to be popular among users aged between 13 and 20 years old. Setting itself apart from Snapchat and Instagram stories, it boasts the option to choose music for the video, as well as providing internal video editing features, simplifying the process without users needing to use external editing applications.

The editing options among others include a feature that tweaks the movement of the lips with the song being played in the background, a signature feature which make users recognize musical.ly as the application for lipsync.

Content created by "musers", the nickname for musical.ly users, among others are related to lifestyle, such as dance, makeup and comedy.

Read also: YouTube now demands 10K views before creators can monetize ads

Videos uploaded can also be shared on other social media platforms, such as YouTube and Instagram.

In Indonesia, Teguh said, the country office collaborates with local record labels to enrich the music collection on the social media platform. The move also aims to engage local communities to create content.

Cynthia Santa, a muser from Yogyakarta, said during the same event that her videos have amassed 291,000 followers to her account.

Her popularity has opened up opportunities for her, she said, as she receives advertising offers to promote on her posts. Cynthia said she could make Rp 3 million (US$225) in one video, depending on the brand and product.

Other than endorsements, Cynthia also said she could make money through stickers used in a live video. (liz/kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Chicago, United States  Sun, August 27, 2017 14:37 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae16753 2 Lifestyle fashion,#fashion,guns Free

In a distinctly American form of haute couture, a runway fashion show Friday showcased a range of accoutrements designed to carry concealed firearms -- in style.

From purses to holsters, attendees of the gun ownership and self-defense convention hosted by the National Rifle Association (NRA) will be treated to what the group says is the first-ever fashion show of its kind.

"We couldn't find an event that's been done like this before," NRA spokesman Jason Brown told AFP ahead of the show in Milwaukee, in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin.

"It's going to be really, really interesting to see all of these different products up on stage and modeled by people."

Models will display offerings from some 30 companies, including Femme Fatale, whose products include corset holsters, and Man-Pack, which makes shoulder bags designed for quick gun access.

Gun-toting attendees at the Milwaukee convention hall -- yes, guns are allowed inside -- will vote for their three favorites at the end of the show.

Read also: Furry Crocs, the latest innovation or fashion disaster?

A model walks the runway during the NRA Concealed Carry Fashion Show on Friday, August 25, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (AFP/Joshua Lott)

The NRA, the politically powerful gun rights group that regularly tussles with lawmakers over gun control, says some 16 million Americans are licensed to carry concealed firearms.

It insists that the country is safer -- not less so -- when more people carry guns.

Unlike the organization's annual meetings, which are reserved for members, the three-day convention is described as more of an educational opportunity for the general public.

"It's kind of this full, comprehensive look of what it means to be able to defend yourself," Brown said.

In addition to the fashion show, there are plans for a concert and dozens of workshops, such as one on how to stop life-threatening bleeding.

"We're going to pull out all the stops," Brown said, to help people make informed decisions about guns and self-defense.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 26 2017

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has dismissed rumors circulating on social media that he is ill.

You can see, I am perfectly healthy, right? Healthy, healthy, the vice president told reporters at his office in Jakarta on Friday.

He said he did not understand how fake news about him being ill could spread online. He decided to immediately hold a press conference to clarify the matter.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 13:08 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae13a11 1 City toll-road,construction,Idul-Adha Free

State-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga plans to temporarily halt construction of toll roads across the capital during the Idul Adha holiday in anticipation of traffic congestion.

The decision was made during a coordination meeting between the toll road operator and the Jakarta Police at the police headquarters on Friday.

Jasa Marga has conveyed that all construction works of toll roads and other roads across the capital will be stopped from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4, the Jakarta Police deputy head Brig. Gen. Suntana said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

He added that the decision was made so that motorists could use roads optimally.

Heavy vehicles would also be banned from passing toll roads to anticipate traffic congestion. The government will issue a regulation to limit trucks passing toll roads on certain days, Suntana said. (vny)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 19:00 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae2754e 1 City weather,BMKG,typhoon,Australia Free

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has forecast that Greater Jakarta will experience strong, dry winds for the next three days and warned that it could topple large billboards in some areas.

The agency's spokesperson, Harry Tirto Djatmiko, warned residents to keep an eye on billboards and tall trees that could pose threats in the event of a strong gush of winds.

"We also warn those who plan to travel on maritime transportation, there could be incidence of high waves," Harry said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Harry said the strong winds in the capital was the result of the country entering its peak dry season and the impact of tropical cyclone Pakhar, which is making a landfall in southern China.

"There's this high pressure system coming in from southeast Australia, which is higher than the one in Asia," he said.

He said cyclone Pakhar had helped pull the high pressure air from Australia toward Asia," he said, adding that winds could blow at 55 kilometers per hour.

Topics : weather BMKG typhoon Australia
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Tehran, Iran  Sun, August 27, 2017 14:04 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae15e99 2 Business technology,Iran,Apple,US,sanction Free

Iranians were joined by two ministers Saturday in protesting after Apple removed popular apps from its store, a move the American company says was made to comply with US sanctions.

"Today, respecting consumers' rights is a basic principle which Apple has not followed," Information and Communication Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi tweeted, promising to "legally pursue" the case.

"IT should be used for making human life better and comfortable not a tool for discrimination between countries," he wrote.

Jahromi said later Saturday on Instagram that he and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were working together to address the issue.

The hashtag #StopRemovingIranianApps has been trending on Iranian social media for several days, after Apple removed at least 10 of the country's most popular apps from its online store.

Those now missing include Amazon-style shopping apps Digikala and Bamilo, ride-hailing apps Snapp and Tap30, discount store Takhfifan and a brunch delivery service called Delion.

"We are unable to include your app on the App Store," a message sent to some of those companies reportedly said.

"Under the US sanctions regulations, the App Store cannot host, distribute, or do business with apps or developers connected to certain US embargoed countries."

The United States lifted some sanctions on Iran, particularly in the aviation sector, under a 2015 nuclear deal that saw Tehran limit its atomic programme.

But American individuals and companies are still barred from doing any business with Iranians because of much older and non-nuclear related sanctions on the Islamic republic.

"There are removed apps which did not have financial transactions, and due to sanctions, some of them were registered in countries other than Iran too," Azari Jahromi tweeted.

"The US does not sanction our weak points. They sanction our points of strength... This should make us country officials support this field," he said in a video published on the government's website.

"The recent action by the US shows we are on the right track... because they fear us and are removing these (apps)".

Topics : technology Iran Apple US sanction
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Linkedin Gwen Ackerman (Bloomberg) Jerusalem  Sun, August 27, 2017 19:38 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae28372 2 Business business,delivery,Iceland,Amazon Free

An Israeli autonomous drone delivery company has started commercial operations in Reykjavik, Iceland, one of the first in the world to offer the service on demand.

Tel Aviv-based Flytrexs drones will fly more than 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mile) across a large bay that separates two parts of the city, delivering for online marketplace Aha, company Chief Executive Officer Yariv Bash said in an interview.

The drones will drop off the goods at a designated landing pad where they will then be taken to their final destination by foot, scooter or car. The companies hope to receive regulatory approval by the end of the year to transport orders straight to customers backyards.

Drone-based disruption is only taking off, with Iceland as its runway, Bash said separately in a statement.

Using drones will save Aha 60 percent of delivery costs to that area of Reykjavik, where it serves 8,000 customers, he said. Currently the drones make up to 10 deliveries a day, and will double the number by the end of next week.

Some heavy-hitters are working on developing drone delivery, including Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Airbus SE, the European aerospace conglomerate, is starting a company to provide unmanned aerial services as well, estimating in May that the field could increase to more than $120 billion annually as the use of such fleets expands.

Amazon in December made its first-ever drone delivery -- a television streaming device and a bag of popcorn -- to a customer in the U.K., where the company is testing the technology, in part because of strict U.S. regulations. 7-Eleven and Dominos have used Flirtey drones to deliver packages, and Zipline flies unmanned aircraft to parachute medical supplies to remote African villages.

Bash, who previously headed SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit aiming to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon, doesnt see Amazon.com Inc. as a competitor. Amazon serves Amazon customers, he said in a phone interview. That leaves the rest of the market open for other drone companies.

The Israeli company is carrying out trial deliveries in countries other than Iceland, and has regulatory approval in one nation to do backyard drop-offs, said Bash, declining to elaborate.

Flytrex has raised $2.5 million from angel investors including Swiss venture capitalist Daniel Gutenberg, who also invested in Mobileye, the maker of software for driverless cars acquired by Intel Corp. earlier this year for $15 billion. It plans another financing round in the next few months, Bash said.

Topics : business delivery Iceland Amazon
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 19:35 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae28058 2 City Jakarta-accidents,elevator Free

A man named Fikri Haikal, 18, has died after being crushed by a cargo elevator on Saturday afternoon.

The incident took place at the PT LMI building on Jl. Raya Kembangan in West Jakarta at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Adj. Comr. Asmoro Bangun, the crime investigation unit chief at the Kembangan Police precinct, said.

The victim died immediately on the scene. His neck and a part of his face were crushed by a cargo elevator. We took his body to the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta, Asmoro said on Saturday as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

Police questioned several witnesses, including Rafli, 30, and Kiki Sriawan, 39, who were friends of the victim at the company.

Read also: Minor elevator incident at Soekarno-Hatta caused by faulty gearbox

The incident happened after Fikri insisted on taking the cargo elevator despite being warned not to do so by his friends. He then pushed the up button to get to the second floor while Rafli, feeling annoyed, pushed the down button. The elevator then moved uncontrollably, Asmoro said.

We have sealed the location and questioned witnesses who work in the building. But this is purely a work accident, he said. (rin)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Bangkok, Thailand  Sun, August 27, 2017 20:31 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae29677 2 World Thailand,politics,junta-government,Yingluck-Shinawatra,trial Free

Thailand's junta has come under fire from conservative allies following ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra's escape overseas, with many questioning how the military could have let her flee given she was heavily monitored.

Yingluck, whose government was toppled by the military in 2014, pulled a dramatic disappearing act before a scheduled court judgment on Friday in a criminal negligence trial.

She faced up to ten years in prison and a lifetime political ban if convicted. But instead she was a no show, with junta and party sources saying she had fled abroad.

Analysts say Yingluck most likely cut a secret deal with the junta to exit the country -- a charge the military has denied.

The leadership is desperate to avoid instability as it digs in for a long stay.

The junta says it does not yet know how the country's first female prime minister managed to slip the net.

But key conservative figures, some of whom agitated for the coup that toppled Yingluck and are seen as political allies of the junta, rounded on the military in a series of statements over the weekend.

"It was clear that security officials followed her closely and took photographs of her everywhere she went, all the time. But she still was able to escape," Panthep Puapongpan, one of the leaders of 2014 protests against Yingluck's government, told reporters.

"With Yingluck now escaped, the government, the security forces and the NCPO has to take responsibility," he added, using the official acronym for the junta.

Veera Somkwankid, another prominent opponent of the Shinawatra political dynasty, took to Facebook to vent his frustration.

"The government must hunt down the traitors and punish the persons (who might have helped her escape), otherwise the NCPO will end up being the defendant," he wrote.

Yingluck frequently complained of being constantly followed by military intelligence since she was ousted from office.

Thai media has been filled with speculation over how she might have escaped, with most suggesting she went to Cambodia either by land or sea in the days before the court verdict and then on to Singapore.
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Linkedin Toluse Olorunnipa (Bloomberg) Washington, United States  Sun, August 27, 2017 18:36 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae22f42 2 World trump,immigration,Racism,pardon-offer Free

President Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, using his first act of presidential clemency to give reprieve to a political supporter known -- and criminally convicted -- for his tough crackdown on illegal immigration.

"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon," the White House said in a statement. Trump lauded Arpaio for his "lifes work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration."

Arpaio, one of Trumps earliest supporters, was convicted of federal misdemeanor criminal contempt this year after a judge found he had defied a court order to stop targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. By pardoning Arpaio, Trump threatened to further inflame national tensions over race and immigration while also alienating some of the Republicans who have touted the importance of the rule of law.

Arpaio, who served for 24 years as the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, was defeated in last years election.

"I have to thank the president of the United States," Arpaio said in a telephone interview. "I feel vindicated."

Read more: How Trumps pardon of Arpaio will shatter norms

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican, was among those taking issue with Trumps decision.

Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States, according to an email from Ryans office Saturday. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.

Trump didnt vet the pardon through the Justice Department, according to an official with knowledge of the decision who asked not to be identified. That circumvented the traditional political process for issuing pardons.

Arizona Senator John McCain, A Republican whos clashed with Trump, said that while Trump may have the authority to pardon Arpaio, "doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Boyolali, Central Java  Sun, August 27, 2017 16:25 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae1a622 1 National health,accident,Central-Java,police Free

Two people in Boyolali, Central Java, died and two others were in critical condition after applying head lice medication on Friday.

Nine-year-old Qaulan Shakila and 4-year-old Khamila were rushed to the Pandan Arang General Hospital in Boyolali after using a solution to treat lice infestation on their heads. The two died shortly after undergoing intensive treatment at the hospital.

The mother of the two toddlers who helped with the lice treatment, Akhir Rutiyani, and the oldest child in the family, 12-year-old Klarisa, are in critical condition.

The incident happened when on Friday night, Akhir used anti-lice solution that she had purchased from a neighbor to treat her two daughters, helped by Klarisa.

An hour after applying the liquid solution, the four individuals in the family complained of nausea before passing out.

Boyolali Police chief Adj. Sr. Commissioner Setyo Budiono said the police were investigating the case by examining the type of anti-lice solution used and collecting information from eyewitnesses.

"It is difficult to determine the cause of death, but the fact is that they use anti-lice solution shortly before death," Setyo said.

He said investigators had sent sample of the medication to the police laboratory in Central Java capital Semarang.

The father of the two children, Hardi, said he was baffled by the incident.

"They have used the medication before and nothing happened. Why now?" he said.
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 13:01 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae12e4d 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Batam,snacks,Indonesian-culinary Free

The first otak-otak (fish cake) festival was recently held in Batam for two days on Aug. 25-26.

The culinary featured three competitions. The first was the competition for most favorite otak-otak creation by 34 participating booths of 18 hotels, 8 restaurants and 8 general participants based on reviews from visitors.

The second was otak-otak decoration competition where instead of visitors, a set of judges were chosen to assess the submissions.

The last one was cellphone photography competition for visitors where the first winner would bring home a total prize of Rp 1 million (US$75), Rp 750,000 for the second winner and Rp 500,000 for the third winner.

On the final night, a fish clean-up competition was held joined by female visitors.

Other than competitions, the event also hosted a cultural performance supported by Indonesian Carnival Association (Akari).

The Otak-otak Festival was part of Kepri Tourism Expo 2017, which aims to improve the regional economy through the tourism sector. For this year alone, Riau Islands has around 80 tourism-related events.

The province takes the third spot for the highest number of incoming foreign tourists with 20 percent, right after Bali (40 percent) and Jakarta (30 percent).

Riau Islands have been anointed as the Indonesian Marine Tourism Gate due to its geographically closeness to Singapore and [the fact that] plenty of yachts entered Indonesia from there, said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

Riau Islands is also included in the crossborder program by the ministry since the province is located close to other destinations, such as Bintan and Tanjung Balai Karimun. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 16:08 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae18a53 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Benoa,port,bali Free

Transportation Ministry Budi Karya Sumadi has issued the Benoa Port Master Plan (RIP) for the new concept of Benoa Port.

The new port of Benoa is set to become a huge international terminal that can accommodate large cruise ships and hundreds of yachts. It currently can only accommodate two cruise ships.

Budi said the project that has been abandoned for 17 years will soon begin following the issuance of the RIP.

The groundbreaking of the cruise ship terminal is scheduled to be held on Sept. 11.

The Benoa RIP is said to focus on optimizing the supporting facilities for yachts, including a 12-meter dredging, 200-meter expansion around the dock and the development of a cruise terminal.

The terminal reportedly would be able to welcome more than 100 yachts and has facilities such as resorts and shopping center.

The new facility is expected to be done by the end of 2018 prior to IMF  World Bank Annual Meetings 2018 that will be conducted in Bali.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the new terminal in Benoa would be very effective in attracting tourists who travel by sea. Each year the number of foreign tourists who use cruise ships around the East Asia  Australia region can reach up to three million people, however only 200,000 of them make a stop in Indonesia.

Hopefully this new terminal can help us reach the target of attracting 500,000 foreign cruise ship tourists in 2019, said Arief.

Apart from Benoa, we will also develop five other ports to become the arrival point of cruise ships, such as Belawan, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak and Soekarno-Hatta in Makassar, Arief added. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta  Sun, August 27, 2017 14:08 1904 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97ae166dd 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,bali,journalist Free

Six journalists from Osaka, Japan, have joined a familiarization trip to Bali where they visited tourist spots such as Angels Billabong, Broken Beach and Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida.

For Rie Miyosi of Outdoor Japan publication, this trip marked the second time she visited Bali after witnessing Kecak Dance performance in Uluwatu last year.

Rie said Bali is not just Kuta, Legian and Seminyak. "The island has many other tourist spots and the not-so-easy access to these places provides an additional value to the tourists," she said.

The roads to Angels Billabong, Broken Beach and Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida were a bit difficult but that means a good thing, said Rie, adding that if the access was easy, these places would become too mainstream.

The journalists arrived in Bali on Aug. 21 and went straight to Jimbaran for a seafood dinner while enjoying the sunset view. The group then visited Broken Beach in Nusa Penida on Aug. 23.

All my eyes could see are beautiful beaches and nice panoramic views. At first, I thought Indonesia would have a very hot weather just like in Japan but it turns out the weather in Bali is very good and breezy, said journalist Junya Konegawa of Kobe Shinbun.

Tourism Ministry's deputy minister for Overseas Promotion, I Gde Pitana, said the initiative to invite journalists on a famtrip is expected to increase the awareness of Indonesian tourism through media publication.

Japanese people still use media as the center of information in their country. This can be used to give a good image on tourism in Indonesia. These journalists are required to do social media postings apart from writing articles, said Pitana. (kes)
Coca-Cola has launched a $1 million (780,100) competition to find an alternative to sugar which can be safely used to sweeten food and drinks.

The company is hoping to crowdsource a replacement for sucrose (half glucose/half fructose) which has so far eluded the soft drinks giant.

Robert Long, senior vice president and chief innovation officer at Coca-Cola, said: Were always searching for newer, better ingredients, and we know that amazing ideas can come from anywhere.

The competition, posted on challenge site HeroX, is now open. Entrants have until January 18 to get their submission lodged. The winner will be announced in October 2018.

The challenge has been posted on HeroX (HeroX/The Coca-Cola Company)

The competition comes with a list of rules, including that the molecule/compound must be novel and not contain or be derived from Stevia or Lo Han Guo (Monk Fruit).

As part of the submission process, entrants must detail in scientific terms what happens when their sample is left in sunlight for 24 hours and how it degrades over 30 days.

The project is being led by Coca-Colas External Technology Acquisition Team (ETA), which explores and invests in emerging ingredients, packaging materials, beverage production technologies and more.

Molecules or compounds derived from Lo Han Guo will not be allowed in the contest (ThamKC/Getty Images)

Alongside the main Sweetener Challenge is the Sweet Story Challenge.

It too is listed on HeroX, albeit with a smaller prize of $100,000 (about 78,000).

The Coca-Cola Company Sweet Story Challenge is looking for your stories of the sweet in your life. More specifically, we are eager to learn about tried and true methods to naturally sweeten food or drink, or how your community, culture, or family has done so safely for many years.

Again, it is not interested in the use of Stevia or Lo Han Guo.

Coca-Cola has issued a second challenge (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Entrants must make a video to show how their community uses the ingredient. In addition, they have to detail how the plant is grown, how much it costs if bought and if they think it could be farmed.

Long said: These two challenges are very much rooted in our desire to make the drinks our consumers want to drink, and in our willingness to look beyond the walls of our company for breakthrough sugar alternatives that help us deliver the great taste people love but with less sugar and fewer calories.

Right, thinking caps on.
Cornwall is full of picturesque landscapes, tales of mystery and dark legends.

Located in the most southwest of England, I set off on foot as I hitchhiked my way across the county, and what I discovered will forever stay in my memory.

Cornwall is a beautiful, with a wild heather landscape that's filled with fauna and an abundance of flora, not to forget to mention its comfortable climate. I started my journey from the eastern part of the Cornish peninsula.

It didn't take long for the one of Cornish locals to stop their car along the roadside to assist me with my journey. My general experience with the residents was that all were openly friendly, welcoming and had a permenent smile on their face. For me it wasn't hard to wonder why they were in such good spirits, because there's a power present in the nature and landscape of Cornwall that absorbs you in a positive energy.

Worth nothing to those who live outside the county but priceless to those who do is the city called Warrnambool - Port Issac in the northern part of the county. In the local language the name of this place is Porthysek, which translates to "corn harbor".

In the past it was popular for its trade in grain, nowadays the residents of Port Isaac are well prepared for the arrival of tourists, with an abundance of restaurants, shops and guesthouses; and thanks to the extraordinary landscape it's a popular choice for directors who were filming series such as Doc Martin and Shell Seekers.

I was fortunate enough to reach the point where the land ended, which is the westernmost point in the UK  known as the Lands End. According to Cornish legends, near the Land's End lies the sunken land of Lyonesse, the British equivalent of Atlantis, traditionally linked to the legend of King Arthur.

With the right weather in the ocean, church towers are to be seen, and sailors say that near to Land's End from the sea come the sounds of bells; but unfortunately I didn't hear the sounds of the bells, and church towers didn't emerge from the oceans.

But maybe it was because the typical British weather was present.

Cornwall is a place for anyone who, for a moment, wants to experience hospitality, history, and unforgettable views.
A new drama about the victims of serial killer Stephen Port will focus on their families fight to uncover what happened, the BBC has announced.

Port was found guilty last year of murderring four young men by poisoning them with lethal doses of a date rape drug.

The Barking Murders, which is a working title, will be a three-part factual drama from Jeff Pope and Neil MacKay, the team behind the Moorside and Appropriate Adult.

The BBC (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Writer McKay told the Edinburgh International Television Festival: Four young men with their entire future ahead of them lost their lives in a brutal and tragic way.

This is a story not only of the consequences of that loss but also of the extraordinary courage and resilience shown by those who loved them as they sought truth and justice. It is a privilege to be able to tell it.

Pope, executive producer at ITV Studios, added: I think this is an opportunity to say something about how we dont always have to accept what we are told by those in authority, and how determination, sheer bloody-mindedness and  above all else  love, will always triumph.

BBC One also announced two new dramas set in Scotland  psychological drama The Cry, adapted from the Helen FitzGerald novel which chronicles the collapse of a marriage in the aftermath of a tragedy and explores the myths and truths of motherhood, and The Victim, a contemporary legal thriller told through the eyes of the plaintiff and the accused.

Donalda MacKinnon, BBC Scotland Director, said: Weve been very public about trying to boost our drama output as part of our strategy of providing programmes that are more relevant for audiences in Scotland  but which can also be enjoyed as compelling stories no matter where you live.

The BBC also announced new documentaries about the Grenfell Tower fire and the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Alison Kirkham, head of factual commissioning, told the festival: They become moments we all remember where we were and see history through those points in time.

With both of those documentaries, incredibly important moments in time, we are really proud. They are complicated and ambitious.

Kirkham also unveiled the footage from Blue Planet II and trumpeted the success of Planet Earth II earlier this year.

Sir David Attenborough (David Parry/PA)

An episode of Sir David Attenboroughs hit nature show did better with the important 16-34 demographic than The X Factor final, she said.

The channel also showed off footage from new game show The Button, which will see five families complete five challenges in one day.
Sam Gardner is an 18 year-old boy with autism. 1 in 68 Americans are living with autism. More than 1% of Britons are living with autism. So why is it only now, with billions of tv programmes having been produced, that we are able to see a story based around a main character who is living with autism?Atypical takes you on the journey of a number of weeks in Sam's life, portraying his hopes and dreams of finding a girlfriend. With the help of his therapist, Sam is able to begin to understand the world of dating and find his place in it. Obviously this therefore includes the awkward scenes of crude conversation about Zahid's (who is Sam's best friend and 'life advisor') perception/sexualisation of girls but this ultimately makes you view Sam as a normal teenage boy. The series has received mixed criticism and review, with a number of pieces claiming it to be a stereotypical representation of autism and therefore a misrepresentation of many people who do live with autism (these can be seen on Huffington Post Teen Vogue and The Atlantic ). However, personally I don't see this nearly as strongly as each of these reviewers makes out. Having worked with many people with autism through volunteering placements, I see many similar characteristics represented in Atypical which will be essential to opening the public's eyes.Keir Gilchrist plays Sam and although he is not on the autistic spectrum himself, he made a distinct effort to research the developmental disability in order to make his representation as true as possible. Gilchrist made it very obvious in an interview with Vulture that "Hes [Sam] one person that is on the autism spectrum. Hes a very specific character," and yet has still received criticism for not representing the whole autistic community - which would be a difficult task to say the least. Creator Robia Rashid, known for How I Met Your Mother, has been praised for her research into the scriptwriting for Sam's part. Rashid consulted University professors at UCLA's Center for Autism Research and Treatment in order to write the story as best she could, however her downfall lies in the casting. With a number of young male autistic actors in the world currently, it seems that Rashid could have cast any one of them to represent a more realistic version of Sam - despite Gilchrist's best attempts. The most important part of the show, to me, is the representation of family. No family is perfect and Atypical doesn't hide this at all; from Sam's mother, Elsa, embarking on an affair with a steamy bartender, to the discovery that Sam's father, Doug, left the family following Sam's diagnosis because he couldn't come to terms with it. Casey, who is Sam's younger sister, is seemingly the only person Sam can rely on; until she gains a scholarship to a new school and suddenly might not be able to be around for Sam all the time. The show leaves their family life with lots of loose ends (potentially for a second series?) although I feel that they grew and changed significantly as a family to come to where they are now. Be it Elsa's acceptance that Sam is growing up and she needs to let him go; Doug's acceptance that his son is autistic and he shouldn't be ashamed of it; or Casey's acceptance that she needs to be selfish sometimes to do what's best for her; they each prove that life does go on outside Sam and that having an autistic member of the family doesn't mean their lives stop - which is ultimately what Sam wants to prove through his pursuit of a girlfriend. Despite every bad review I have read, I can't help but feel like it is revolutionary that Atypical even exists. The first step to getting an accurate representation is to have any representation at all. Say there have been 2,500 American television shows produced with approximately 20 characters in each - from the statistic that 1 in 68 Americans are living with autism, there should be a minimum of 700 autistic characters throughout these shows alone. Sam Gardner is an 18 year-old boy with autism. But he is learning to not let that stop him living his life and finding a girlfriend. And I for one think that Atypical did a great job of opening society's eyes to the fact that there are people like Sam in this world.
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HAMILTON  The last of the Ravalli County residents who were ordered to leave their homes because of the Lolo Peak Fire have been allowed to return.

The Sheriff's Department and fire managers lifted the evacuation orders Saturday, but Sheriff Steve Holton said residents west of the town of Florence should stay on guard because the fire is still dangerous.

The lightning-caused fire is about 12 miles southwest of Missoula in western Montana. At one point, 750 homes were evacuated.

The fire has destroyed at least two homes and eight outbuildings, and a firefighter died Aug. 2 after a tree fell on him.

The fire has been burning since July 15 and has charred 54 square miles. It was 26 percent contained Saturday.
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."
Thomas Pikettys Liberation columns have been collated in book form. The medium matters a lot when it comes to writing.

Newspaper columns need to be very special to justify being turned into a book. They must possess a certain timeless quality. But thats extremely hard to achieve. Because when one is writing columns one is not actually trying to be timeless. One is trying to be timely. The first step is to look for a contemporary news peg. And on that peg you hang your thoughts, wisdom and wit. But, over time, the peg tends to crumble as it fades into memory and all that work slides off leaving a jumble of arguments and observations on the floor.

Viking seems to believe its got something more than a heap of mixed-up intellectual clothing from Thomas Piketty. It has put a collection of the French economists columns from the Liberation newspaper since 2009 in a smartly designed short tome and called it Chronicleswith a kicker, On Our Troubled Times. Does it hang together? Sadly not.

The collection has some interesting elements. Piketty fans will be fascinated to see that the economist had sketched out his famous equation about the rate of return on capital tending to be higher than the rate of growth (and thus inexorably driving inequality) as early as September 2009. Piketty writes nicely and the translation by Seth Ackerman is efficient.

He explains economic concepts around tax and the national accounts to the lay reader with the kind of clarity that generally comes from a deep understanding of the topic. And there are nuggets that non-French specialists will find interesting.

I confess I was not aware that there are legal limits in France (nominally the land of egalite) to ones freedom to disinherit ones children. But some of the columns seem to lack a substantive point. In others, interesting ideas, such as the economic benefits of worker representation on business boards, or the historic legacy of slavery on patterns of inequality are only very briefly sketched out. One is left wanting more. But a 700-word column permits no elaboration. And the overall effect of reading column after column from Piketty on the eurozone crisis is rather tedious. We keep hearing that the solution to the crisis is mutually issued debt.

That the European institutions must be democratised. That Germany and France need to show proper leadership. That tax competition between states is deeply damaging. That tax havens are a menace. That we need a progressive tax on wealth. The repetition isnt Pikettys fault. He was writing these columns weeks, sometimes years, apart.

And he was trying to get his arguments (often good ones as it happens) into the bloodstream of public debate. It takes many injections to achieve that. It just doesnt work very well to collect all the needles in a single book. One can see why Viking went for it, of course. Which publisher wouldnt want a piece of those blockbuster Piketty sales?

And some readers will be tempted by the books promise of brevity. But that would be a mistake. And the 16.99 price is frankly rather greedy for such a thin and flawed offering.

Readers would be better off buying Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which made Pikettys name. Now theres a proper book.

(The independent)
A 10-year-old boy saved the life of his little brother by using the CPR methods he learned while watching Dwayne Johnsons San Andreas.

Johnson took to social media to praise Jacob OConnor, after the Detroit-area youngster helped saved his two-year-old brother Dylan from drowning.

You know theres a little 10-year-old boy out there and his name is Jacob OConnor. Hes a real-life hero. He couldnt find his little two-year-old brother Dylan so he went out back and found little Dylan lying face down in their pool. Jacob pulled him out, remained calm and started administering CPR and chest compressions and saved his little brothers life.

He learned how to do this by watching this big, brown tattooed guy in his favourite movie San Andreas. Jacob, Im so proud of you so much so that Ive got to meet you. Ive got to shake the hands of a real-life hero, Johnson said.

According to Jacob, he remembers an important scene from San Andreas where Johnson was doing compression to save a life.

There was an earthquake, then it caused a tsunami and then there was a daughter that was drowning and he had to get her out and he did the same thing, the 10-year-old told ABC2 News.

After saving his brothers life, Jacob will now get a chance to meet the actor on set of his upcoming film Skyscraper.

When you come to my sets, its like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory dude because you can eat all the sweets you want and its all free, Dwayne teased. Yes, its free. Ill see you next week buddy.

Hopefully, your little 2yr old brother, Dylan is well enough to fly because I wanna meet him too. Ill have some very nice people contact your family in the upcoming days to make the arrangements, he added.
The eighth edition of the distinctive literary, arts and culture in Bhutans national capital, Thimphu celebrates the Untouched Beauty, Unexplored Ideas and Unstoppable Voices from the heart of the happiest country in the world.

Fashion, is one of the key themes for this years Mountain Echoes Literary Festival that brings together wellknown designers from across India and Bhutan. With an aim to build a common thread between the two countries and their shared culture, they join hands to curate collections which intersperse the textile traditions with contemporary style. Designers Chandrika Tamang and Chimmi Choden, and Pramod Kumar KG, festival co-director; talk about the fashion element, the global evolution of textiles, design traditions, and a deeper insight into the literature, arts and philosophy.

Excerpts:

Q Could you describe the fashion scene in Bhutan?

Choden: There is a huge creative burst happening in the country right now and this field has made a huge leap to the global stage like our film industry, fashion and music. Fashion in Bhutan will definitely be booming in the coming years with its unique identity. In fact, you can see the influence of Indian design all over on the streets of Thimphu.

Tamang: In Bhutan, we have different fashion for different ages. Youngsters get influence from Korean fashion, older people get going with comfort clothing and well-constructed styles, the rest follow and mix those two fashions. Q How has your work evolved over the years? Tamang: My designs and techniques have both evolved. I get inspiration from our national dress and try to give it a modern look using different fabrics, techniques and patterns.

Choden: Being a designer is a constant journey of change. The brand has grown so fast and we are constantly being invited to new events across the world. At the beginning, I said yes to every offer that came my way, but Ive learned how to balance now.

Q Are there any types of clothing that you avoid wearing?

Choden: If I feel I cannot carry it off or something that doesnt suit my physique, I try to avoid. Tamang: Once I learnt about the pollution that cloth makes, I have been trying to avoid nylons and synthetics at least.

Q How would you describe your design?

Choden: All our designs are brought to life by four master weavers, who have developed their craft over a lifetime on-the loom training. It is built upon traditional techniques to create new motifs and designs, and experiment with various fibres, patterns, and colour combinations that give a more contemporary vibe. The designs and construction of the garments transform traditional art work into relevant, wearable, one-of-a-kind pieces.

Tamang: I often buy raw silk from Assam and dye and mix it with hand-woven Bhutanese textile fabric. I have been inspired by Indian tie dye techniques and block printings and have been using turmeric, tea leaves, madder, gold marry leaves, purple cabbage, bit roots and flowers to dye the yarn or fabric.

Q What are your special collections for the festival?

Choden: We will showcase a fusion of Indian handloom Khadi with Bhutanese textiles woven on a traditional backstrap loom. The garments are inspired by traditional Bhutanese dress. Were using our traditional patterns on the textiles, but the cuts and construction are modern and wearable.

Tamang: The collection has 10 dresses, out of which the first five are inspired by the bright colours of the Buddhist flag. We use hand woven textile and silk on cotton and get its name from the five elements. Each dress is designed according to the significance of the elements. Additionally, the fading colour of the flags is considered auspicious so the other dresses in my collection will have light colours dyed naturally in raw silk.

Q Is there any prospect of an expansion of Indo-Bhutan couture that will hold your signature? There are plans for expansion in the near future. We would love to bring our work with Indian garments with Bhutanese textile or vice versa and make a contemporary collection.

Q What can one look forward to at the eighth edition of the Mountain Echoes Festival?

Pramod Kumar: With each edition, we aim to present a deeper insight into the literature, arts and philosophy of Bhutan and India. The discussion and discourse inspire both local and global audiences through a diverse range of topics. We try to give momentum that are reflective of global populations and continue to explore relevant issues. We have used India and Bhutans heritage of hand weaving and textiles to build a common thread and their shared cultures.

We have received tremendous positive feedback for each of the past editions as theres something for everyone. We are certain that our idyllic location, powerful programme and eminent speakers will leave audiences engaged and enriched.
A few years ago, somewhere in Quetta lived a beautiful young woman with her two girls and a husband renowned across the city as among the best sonologists. The couple decided to have a third baby in the hopes of having a boy this time round.

A few months into the pregnancy, however, it dawned on the woman that her life is not as precious as the foetus inside her womb. The baby on the way was a boy and things had changed for the mother.

It was almost as if she had ceased to exist. Doctors routinely take an oath to preserve life and to renew it. But in this case, the sonologist threw caution to the wind. Some months in, the womans consultant gynaecologist warned the family that continuing with the pregnancy would be risky for the mother.

In fact, the mother-to-be threatened to abort the pregnancy herself if her doctors advice was not heeded. But the sonologist insisted on forging ahead, come hell or high water. But the womans health did deteriorate over time. A few weeks before she was due, she was rushed to the hospital for an ultrasound.

Doctors detected neither foetal movement nor a heartbeat; they advised an induced abortion to save the mothers life and that too immediately. But the husband wanted to seek a second opinion  it was, after all, a male foetus.

The couple returned home that day only to return the next morning. But the woman succumbed to the unnecessary delay; her body was too frail to resist the toxins being released from the dead foetus a day more. Amid the sobs of her girls, she passed away, holding her peace and with it, her dreams and ambitions and perhaps those of her daughters too.

It was outright murder and I believe her consultant was equally responsible in the crime, for she let her patient go home because of what her husband wanted, says Dr Agha Xaher Gul, Head of Business Strategy at Marie Stopes. Dr Gul was completing his house job at the time; he says the incident shook Quetta. But then again, thousands of women have succumbed to their husbands maddening pursuit to have a son.

This case was no different. Of late, the trend of aborting a pregnancy if its a girl has caught on across Pakistan. Although data on abortions because of the sex of the foetus remains scant, the Population Research Institute, a non-profit research group, released some worrying statistics: of the 24 million sexselective abortions performed during 2000-2014 across the world, more than 1.2 million were estimated to have been carried out in Pakistan.

To put it simply: over 15 years, approximately 219 pregnancies were terminated every day on the basis of their sex. While many doctors shrug off this statistics claiming it to be untrue and unsubstantiated, veteran gynaecologist Dr Shershah Syed expresses the likelihood of its legitimacy, adding however that some might have been done as family planning. Sex-selective abortions are not uncommon and most likely these numbers are correct, says Syed.

Nobody can give exact figures but educated and uneducated people both try to find out about the sex of the foetus and go for an abortion if it is not a boy. The picture is grim as far as the girl child is concerned. Nobody cares about them and they are the cause of tension in families.

In the heart of the Karachi, in an old building, philanthropist Sarim Burney is sitting with a married couple. The woman is pregnant with her third daughter; they have just had an ultrasound done to confirm the sex.

The couple is there to inform Burney that they will abandon their baby after birth if indeed it is a girl. In case the ultrasound sex prediction proves inaccurate, they will keep the newborn. Burney tries to reason with the man not to discriminate between a boy and a girl. But the man insists he cannot afford another daughter due to lack of resources.

The couple returned to the trust after a few months with an adorable baby girl, recalls Burney. We offered an adequate monthly stipend to keep their daughter at home with them but they left the baby at the trust. Had we forced him to take the daughter back, the father would have dumped her or sold her off somewhere. We felt it was better to keep her with us.

The fact that the majority of babies recovered from garbage dumps are girls, the fact that most of the babies left in Edhi cradles, hospitals and maternity clinics are girls, the fact that less girls are born in Pakistan than boys and the fact that the primary and secondary school participation of girls is small in number in contrast to boys, is not just mere coincidence.

They are all tied together and point to the mindset of our society  the obsession to have sons, and the savagery and discrimination that results as its consequence. Of course, this is not the phenomenon of every Pakistani household  some are content with the children they have.

There are some who avoid a family with no son, and then there are those who nip the problem in the bud to maintain their ideal family.

They all are part of this society. Our society runs on a skewed gender valuation system in which sons enjoy pre-eminence as they are economic resources, support for elderly parents and, most importantly, prolong the familys patrilineal lineage.

Those considered the best kinds of people are parents with daughters whom they raise to be sons, but no one raises their sons to be their daughters. But is the desire for survival so intense that people would dump and dispose of their flesh of blood?

Faisal believes that people are exploiting ultrasound technology to determine the sex of the child before birth and choose whether or not to bring a girl child to this world. Those who do not get a chance to abort the pregnancy throw them in garbage dumps, offering them as food to street animals and leaving them to die a cruel death.

It was for this reason that Abdul Sattar Edhi had begun a cradle service, encouraging people with unwanted babies to let those newborns have a lease on life. Without legal oversight into the health sector, parents dumping their babies into trash dumps evade charges of second-degree murder. But when it came to the Edhi Foundations cradle service, they came under attack for encouraging people to have kids out of wedlock.

Of all the deserted babies found alive in the country, claims Faisal, about 90-95 percent were baby girls. He also notes that for every newborn boy left in an Edhi cradle, there are seven newborn girls.

And yet, the Edhi Foundation claims to receive a drastically lower number of babies from their cradles across the country as they did a decade ago. But if you think that this indicates things are getting better, think again.

Babies are now being sold in the name of adoption, claims Faisal Edhi, alleging that some NGOs and welfare organisations are also involved in it. This mafia lures the parents into selling their babies instead of dropping them in cradles. Then they sell these children on further for hefty amounts to adoptive parents. Sometimes a third-party agent or a middleman is involved too, explains Faisal. They are not unwanted children. They are planned babies, brought to this world to make money, often by families stricken with poverty.

Faisal Edhi recalls the smuggling of newborn infants to Malta in the early 2000s and how millions were allegedly earned by selling Pakistani babies abroad. Bilquis Edhi also speaks about how an educated couple adopted a child from the Edhi Centre and sold the child on later. The incidence of baby boys being sold is twice as much as baby girls, states Bilquis Edhi.

Every gynaecologist, at some time in their career, has witnessed prenatal and postnatal discrimination against newborn baby girls. One such doctor is Dr Mahjabeen Khan. She discusses a case where a husband stood outside the labour room, threatening his wife of divorcing her if she delivered a girl.

The baby was not even completely out when the patient sat up to check its gender. She had given birth to her eighth daughter and went in shock soon after, recalls Dr Khan. It was a normal case till then but suddenly complications arose because of the husband and his desire to have an heir. I can still hear echoes of him screaming. It was quite traumatic.

Discrimination can also be weighed with the amount of risk parents are willing to take to deliver their unborn child. Most parents do not take a risk if they know they are having a boy. Even if there is no need for a C-section, they insist to go for it to ensure zero threat to their unborn sons life, Dr Parveen says. But many parents resist a C-section to deliver a baby girl despite doctors recommendations to the contrary.

The senior gynaecologist also highlights that if two patients of the same name deliver babies at the same time, a boy and a girl, both families would be willing to claim the boy.

Pakistans sex ratio at birth (SRB) is fairly skewed. Typically the sex ratio at birth usually oscillates around 105 male births per 100 female births. In Pakistan, it is estimated to be 109.9. In other words, around 110 male births per 100 female births; this is close to India which is infamous for sex-selective abortions.

An in-depth analysis of the data from all five censuses conducted in Pakistan since 1951 also reveals that the male population has constantly dominated female population in numbers. As of the 1998 census, Pakistans overall sex ratio was 108.5 males per 100 females or 925 girl babies per 1,000 boy babies. When classified further, the distortion is found worse in Balochistan (114.6) and Sindh (112.2).

Although gender imbalances at birth are attributed to a set of local factors in each country, they are generally observed in regions with persistence of patriarchal norms and son preference. These are typically countries where people have easy access to sex-detection technologies and pregnancies are terminated on the basis of gender.

This practice is known as female foeticide and is quite common in China and India. Pakistan, however, doesnt have as skewed a SRB as its two neighbouring countries, but researchers suspect the problem is alarming because of the inordinate delay in carrying out the population census.

Somewhat similar to female foeticide is female infanticide, when parents neglect their female child deliberately and let them die (of starvation or thirst), resulting in their premature deaths. Researchers have observed higher rates of malnutrition in girls because of being weaned off breast milk earlier, either to feed the baby boy or in trying to get pregnant again in pursuit of a male child. This denial of breast milk/ sufficient food often results in the loss of many innocent lives.

A female sweeper of our hospital delivers twins, a boy and a girl. As time passes by, the baby boy continues to gain weight while the girl grows frail and dies within four months. She is starved to death gradually, in front of my eyes, as the mother found it more important to breastfeed the boy, recalls Dr Gul.

Female foeticide and infanticide, when combined together along with the number of females who died as a result of unequal opportunities or access to resources, lead to the missing women epidemic  a term coined by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to indicate the difference between the women present on the planet and those that would have been here had the sex ratio been natural worldwide.

The picture is gloomy, but a ray of hope is flickering on the dark horizon. Speaking about the preference of adoptive parents, Sarim Burney and Dr Mubina Agboatwalla, chairperson of HOPE, both agreed that trends have been changing.

Adoptive parents are really desperate to adopt a baby. Nowhere have I seen any discrimination, argues Dr Agboatwalla. Even if they have already adopted a baby girl they will still go for the baby girl if available.

She confirms, however, that around 70 percent of the abandoned babies left at the HOPE hospital and maternal clinics are girls. Burney adds that prospective parents prefer girls because boys are no more considered a support system for parents in their old age.

Indian social scientist and feminist activist Kamla Bhasin describes the patriarchal system as a war of resources where the man is the sun (the resource) and women are planets dependent on him to sustain life.

But perhaps, the stars will only align for girls if women are no longer financially dependent on anyone; and instead others are reliant on them.
In a world where everyone is talking about conservation of nature, it feels sad when one comes across the fact that human interference is posing a great threat to the avian habitat in the Dooars region of North Bengal.

Not many of us are aware that unscientific renovation, aforestation, rampant fishing, removal of water weeds and destruction of grassland are the major factors plaguing the avian population in wetlands. Debashis Das, associate professor of zoology, Toofangunj College, Cooch Behar said, Avian species are environmentally-sensitive fauna and it is imperative to take up the best conservation practices in order to sustain the population. We had taken up extensive research on the birds of Cooch Behar in which 210 species along with the subspecies of avifauna have been recorded in the district.

We have sighted 88 different kinds of migratory winged visitors of which 39 are exclusively migratory and 49 are resident-migratory. We have recorded 71 species of water birds from the wetland areas of Cooch Behar and 122 species of residential birds have been identified.

Das also pointed out that the forest spotted owlet has been recorded as critically endangered in Cooch Behar while there are three endangered avian species that include the lesser adjutant, Pallas fishing eagle and lesser kestrel.

Besides, there are three near-threatened avian species like darters, grey-headed fishing eagle and white-eyed pochard. In todays age, an increasing number of people are interested in capturing images of avian life. Das said, Low-cost digitalisation and largescale implementation of multimedia are pulling crowds into the avian habitat.

The population of house sparrow, pied mynah and rose-ringed parakeet has risen in the Cooch Behar area. The renovation of Sagardighi has prevented the arrival of migratory birds over the last five years.

Sometimes the inappropriate removal of water hyacinth can cause a disturbance in the avian habitat as happened at Rasik Beel in Toofangunj. The change in the course of swift-flowing rivers can also remove a bulk of the avian population.

Mass awareness is the need of the hour to sustain avian biodiversity. Das said, There should be strict implementation of Indian Wildlife Acts without any loophole. The government needs to step up and increase forest patches like the Gajoldoba Wetland in Jalpaiguri and Mahananda Barrage in the vicinity of Siliguri.

Das began his research journey back in 1995. Some of the other notable works of the zoologist include the changing scenario of bird richness in Central Bhutan. The latest published works of the zoologist is on the avian diversity of North Bengal around the river Torsa in the vicinity of Cooch Behar where 111 species of avifauna have been recorded of which 51 species are terrestrial, 27 are migratory, 24 are resident-migratory and 60 are only residential birds.

For the last 25 years the Bengal Florican has not been sighted in and around Cooch Behar owing to destruction of large grasslands that forms their breeding habitat.

Apart from poaching, a rise in elephant population is another key factor that has disturbed the habitat of the avian species. We have not come across any species of quail or partridge in North Bengal owing to the degradation of habitat and illegal poaching, said Das.
A media team from a national news channel was attacked by followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) on Sunday as the area around the sect headquarters remained tense.

The Dera followers, numbering five to six, chased the media team and assaulted them after stopping them near the sect headquarters, about eight kilometres from Sirsa town.

The attackers tried to snatch the camera of the team and damaged it. The media team got minor injuries in the attack before they were rescued by security forces in the vicinity.

However, the miscreants took away the car of the media team. The car, which contained equipment, was later recovered by the police.

Dera followers had attacked the media in Panchkula on Friday after the rape case verdict against the sect chief. Media outdoor broadcasting (OB) vehicles were set on fire by mobs of Dera followers.

Tension prevailed in and around the sect headquarters on Sunday with security forces still stationed close to it.

A large number of Dera followers continued to come to the sprawling campus on Sunday despite appeals by security forces and the administration to vacate the premises.

On August 25, CBI special court judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera chief, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002.

The areas affected by violence in Haryana and Punjab remained peaceful on Sunday even though security forces remained on high alert in both states, officials said.

Curfew was withdrawn in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh which saw the maximum violence on Friday following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Curfew was withdrawn in Kaithal town in Haryana and relaxed in Sirsa town, 260 km from here.

The death toll in the violence has gone up to 36. Of these, 30 died in Panchkula while six died in Sirsa town. Over 250 people were injured in the violence.

The sect chief was shifted to a prison near Rohtak town (about 70 km from Delhi). The prison has been put under heavy security. The quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced on Monday at a special court being set up in the prison premises.

The judge will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the sentence.
Donald Trump may not sound different from every other press statement and leaked comment that has come out of Washington since 9/11, but this is a different Washington.

The populist House of Representatives that has made a tradition out of trying to cut aid to Pakistan ever year now has the White House as a champion rather than a bulwark against it. The Senate, where sound policy thinking usually prevails, is unsympathetic.

Then senator Carl Levin took the first step in 2015 when he successfully amended the law, requiring the United States to hold back military aid if Pakistan failed to take sufficient action against the Haqqani network. Amendments like this usually come from the house and go nowhere. If passed into law, they are neutered: the president can waive the requirement rather than make a determination.

The Pressler Amendment fell in this category. It was waived year after year. But Levins amendment cannot be waived. For Levin, then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to take a hard line and succeed signalled that even sound minds in Washington are reaching for sticks instead of carrots. Sabre-rattling is typical of Congress, which has the final word on aid and sanctions, allowing the president to play good cop.

Trump is forcing a role reversal. This puts Pakistan in a tough position. Pakistan has never had strong relationships in Congress. The US-Pakistan relationship is one between executive branches, including militaries.

Now, Pakistans only allies might be parts of the State Department, including diplomats in Islamabad, some think tanks, and senators who will listen. For those who just asked, what does the US military think? Trump just told you what they think. In the US, the president is the commander-in-chief.

Really.

A popular argument is that America cannot afford to alienate Pakistan. The problem with this argument is that it is old, very old.

Another argument is that cooperation has been working lately. There have been positive overtures, with senior US officials praising Pakistans progress. But it doesnt count where it needs to. The Defence Department has failed Pakistan on the Levin certification since it became law.

Last year, Obamas defence secretary held back $300 million of $1 billion in Coalition Support Funds. This year, Trumps defence secretary cancelled $350m of $900m. The problem for America is this: Pakistan can afford to walk away.

A few hundred million dollars isnt much of a stick anymore. The China-Pakistan relationship is now worth $110bn, with around $4bn expected this year.

And those billions come easy. For $900m, Pakistan endures a volatile, loveless affair with the US while China offers billions without drama, as long as it promises that some government in the future will pay them back later.

The smart thing for Trump to do would have been to warm up to China and manage the relationship through them.

China has a level of power and influence in Pakistan now that the US never had. They also have a deep interest in getting Pakistan to manage its militancy problem, but they are quiet in their diplomacy.

Pakistan made up its mind about the US and the Haqqani network long ago. The grumbling in the US has been the same for over a decade: Pakistan is not going after Haqqani. Trumps national security team is still operating on the idea that US money but can buy a strategic shift, but they ignore history.

Pakistan has carried out military operations, in Swat and Fata (Zarb-i-Azb), when it has felt the imperative, not when the US has asked. Trumps strategy is high risk. Its one thing to exit the region and get tough on Pakistan.

Its another to dig your heels into the war in Afghanistan and then not only get tough on Pakistan but go zerosum with India. In a single speech, Trump suggested abrogating Americas relationship with Pakistan and deepening it with India.

Trump set up the contrast by asking Pakistan to contribute to the values that India represents: civilisation, order and peace. It wasnt too different from the black and white, with us or against us coercive diplomacy of the post-9/11 Bush days.

If America is recommitting to Afghanistan, it cant afford to have an alienated Pakistan next door and join hands with India in Afghanistan at the same time. Pakistans paranoia is bad enough already. Pakistan might placate the US in the short term.

They are good at that. But in the long run, little will change. Trumps bluff cant be called because he isnt bluffing. If Pakistan walks away, many will wish that they had done more to manage the relationship.

(The writer is a Wilson Center Global Fellow and a former staff aide to a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.)

Dawn/ANN
The tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan was symbolically the first country that Narendra Modi visited less than a month after he was sworn in as Prime Minister.

With a prescient eye on checkmating Chinas activism in geopolitical strategies, Modi had famously stated in Thimpu, In the guarantee of happiness, it is important what kind of a neighbour you get. Sometimes you get such a neighbour that in spite of having all the happiness and prosperity, you cannot live in peace.

These strategic portents were dangerously played out with Beijing reneging on the 1998 bilateral agreement between China and Bhutan, that promised to maintain peace and tranquility on the BhutanChina border areas.

It also stated that China fully respects the territorial integrity and independence of Bhutan. The Chinese unilaterally started constructing a road towards the Bhutanese Army Camp in Zomplri area of Doklam, forcing the demarche to the Chinese mission in New Delhi, by the resident Bhutanese envoy (Bhutan has no diplomatic relationship with any of the five permanent members of the Security Council).

Later, pursuant to the timehonoured Indian responsibility of protecting Bhutans sovereign territory, the latest 2007 India Bhutan Friendship Treaty clearly states that the two countries cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests. Neither Government shall allow the use of its territory for activities harmful to the national security and interest of the other. The Doklam impasse started at the Trijunction of the India-Bhutan-China border, pregnant with geo-political implications beyond the naive optics of pastoral claims.

The Chinese have had contentious border flare-ups with all almost all of the 14 of its contiguous countries, as also with the Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines and Brunei, with whom it shares its restive maritime borders. Though it is the largest armed force in the world, Chinas Peoples Liberation Army has never been able to permanently wrest lands militarily (except Tibet).

Three successive Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954-55, 1958 and 1995-96) and belligerent posturing notwithstanding, the independence of Taiwan cocks a snook at the Chinese, perennially. The Sino-Vietnamese war of 1979 and the multiple border-skirmishes thereafter, could not evict the Vietnamese control on Cambodia (military historians acknowledge the superior performance of the Vietnamese forces vis- a-vis, the PLA).

Similarly the Sino-Soviet border clashes in the Zhenbao (Damansky) Island in 1969, was not resolved till 2003, when the Russians and the Chinese agreed upon the demarcations. Even against India, the 1962 war and the 1967 border clashes at Nathu La and Cho La could not change the narrative of either Arunachal Pradesh or Sikkim (though regrettably, the Indians were unaware of the Chinese road in the barren Aksai Chin tracts, till 1957).

The Chinese territorial claims are based on convenience ~ either the historically signed treatise by its monarchist past are invoked, or blatantly rejected, if it doesnt suit the national script (e.g. the Tibet-Bhutan treatise pre-dating the annexure of Tibet by China, is considered invalid in the Doklam impasse). However, the undeniable Chinese economic juggernaut has empowered Beijing with an irresistible cheque-book power that it brazenly uses to ensnare and buy-out prospective countries into its hegemonic dreams.

In parallel, the one-party governance system has afforded the ability to take quick strategic compromise formulae to address the multiple fractures along its 22,000 km land borders. China has more or less settled the border disputes on its Northern and Western fronts that essentially date back to the disputes from the Soviet era.

Along with the rapprochement with Russia and the settlement of the once-contentious Heixiazi Island in 2011, the disputes with other Central Asian Republics like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan have been settled with daring quid-pro-quo of lands, with an eye to control Islamist Uighur militancy, access energy sources and captive markets, and quickly establish the geopolitical footprint via gargantuan infrastructural investments like OBOR (One Belt-One Road).

Similarly, China has made deep economic inroads into the traditional Soviet bastion of Mongolia, along with the strengthening of its chequebook impact in Pakistan with the economy sustaining and resuscitating projects like CPEC. While the discredited Myanmar junta regime was earlier supported by the Chinese, they are still offering a bait to the new regime in Yangon, and dangling the economic carrot in Nepal, Afghanistan and Laos with alternative and lucrative trading options.

Traditionally irate countries like Vietnam and Philippines have made their peace, even though Manila had raked up the sovereignty issues against China at the International Court of Justice.

The Chinese cheque-book literally bought-out the newly elected Filipino President, Rodrigo Duterte,- who immediately after winning the case against the illogical nine-dash-line approach of the Chinese in The Hague, succumbed immediately to the combination of Beijings dangling of the financial carrot and the unmistakable stick of severe reprisals.

Beyond, the immediate neighbourhood, the Chinese have furiously deployed the cheque-book approach to countries like Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and countries in Africa to widen their strategic footprint (e.g. the Chinese base in Djibouti).

However, the recent Chinese practice of sieving emotional nationalism onto border disputes affords a certain popular groundswell against possible compromises, and the accompanying conversations acquire a dimension of invaluable distraction from the real issues besetting the slow-down in Beijing. Collaterally, this strengthens the position of the wary Chinese regime.

The Chinese taunts of a Indian vassal-state to Bhutan and the parallel alluding of the hegemonic tendencies of India, are meant to provoke Bhutan, as was done with Nepal by stoking the fire during the 2015 blockade, that almost convinced the majority Khas Arya (hill elite), that India was behind the constitutional impasse and economic subjugation.

The devious aspersions were soon followed by the famed cheque-book approach that weaned a sizeable section of society into harbouring an antiIndia sentiment. Doklam-Bhutan is not the first territorial dispute and it certainly wouldnt be the last.

The Chinese are masters of realpolitik and they will deploy the carrot-and-stick policy, in order to realise their dream of the Chinese Century, wherein, territorial, political and sovereign usurpation of neighbouring countries is a definite element.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), Former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands & Puducherry)
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted in 2009. The RTE Act uniquely creates an obligation for unaided private schools located within a range of one km from the house of an applicant to provide primary education until class 8 free of cost.

For the education provided, such unaided private school could seek reimbursement from the state. The RTE Act, 2009 endeavors to create an egalitarian society promoting equality of opportunity and outcome to children from economically weaker section (EWS) and disadvantaged category (DG).

The recent judgment passed by the Honble Allahabad High Court in Sudheer Kumar v. State of U.P. has universal appeal and ubiquitous utility.

This judgment could set right what is wrong with the interpretation of the concept of neighbourhood under the RTE Act, 2009 in India. The Allahabad High Court passed this order while hearing a petition of a manual labourer whose five year old son applied for admission in a prestigious private school in Allahabad, and was spurned.

The reason supplied by the school was that the applicant failed to comply with the neighbourhood criteria as laid down in the U.P. RTE Rules of 2011.

The concept of neighbourhood purports to provide education to EWS and DG students in private unaided schools that fall within the range of one km from the house of a child. The rules drafted pursuant to RTE, 2009 in almost all the states endeavor to adopt this definition of neighbourhood. This has been done to promote the value of certainty and avoid any unsolicited chaos relating to admission.

In the absence of this rule, a child from any part of the district could have applied to any school, and this would have invested the school with an unfettered power to discriminate amongst the applicants in deciding the beneficiary.

This rule of one km guides the discretion of the schools and shackles it by setting out geographical contours in providing admission to applications. The Allahabad High Court, in a detailed judgment, held that neighbourhood criteria cannot mutilate the pristine purpose of the RTE Act, 2009 which endeavors to provide primary education to EWS and DG children in private unaided schools.

The judgment is unique in its ability to usher the jurisprudence on RTE Act, 2009 by equitably interpreting the neighbourhood criterion to grant relief to millions of children in the state. In Sudheer Kumar, the High Court made the distinction between those instances in which applications are more than the seats in a school and those in which seats are more than the applications.

The court majestically fused the principles of equity with right and gave it a tinge of altruism by spelling out that the concept of neighbourhood shall only apply in those cases where seats are less and students are more and not in those instances where seats are more than the students.

The court asserted that a subordinate law cannot subvert the principles ensconced in the enabling statute. This extraordinary interpretation echoes the spirit of 25 per cent in the RTE Act, 2009 and reinstates the hope of a weak parent in obtaining what is due to her  her rightful claim.

The use of costs in imposing an obligation to provide for free senior secondary education is new to the jurisprudence of socio-economic rights.

Since the litigation led to wastage of an academic year of the child, the court imposed costs on the school, and directed it to provide additionally education from class 9 to class 12 for free. This moral invocation of cost imbued with elements reflecting importance associated with primary education, might check the impishness of private schools.

To conclude, this judicious interpretation may go a long way in informing the other states in interpreting the neighbourhood criteria in promoting values of equity and equality.

The healing ability of this judgment could downplay the role of destiny, and offer a fair chance to millions of children across India in leading a dignified life.

(The author is Assistant Director of the Legal Aid Clinic at JGLS, and wrote the writ petition in Sudheer Kumar v. State of U.P)
The number of people displaced by conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mainly in the volatile Kasai region, has doubled in the past six months to four million, a United Nations official said today.

George Okoth-Obbo, the number two official at the UNs refugee agency (UNHCR), said its priority for Kasai was providing food and clothing for the 1.4 million who have fled their homes in violence that has killed more than 3,000 people.

Immediate protection was required, he told AFP on the last day of a three-day visit to the country, in particular for children who are sleeping in conditions that are difficult to imagine.

In the southeastern province of Tanganyika, clashes between Bantus and Pygmies have also forced thousands to flee, as has the long-running violence in the Kivu region, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO.

In Kasai, violence erupted last September after the death of a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the authority of President Joseph Kabilas regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The killing sparked violence that has escalated, including alleged violations of human rights such as extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture and the use of child soldiers.

In addition, about 33,000 Congolese have fled Kasai for Angola, with little prospect of being able to return anytime soon.

The conditions today in Kasai are such that we cannot encourage or promote the return of refugees, Okoth-Obbo said.

At the same time, the country is also having to cope with the arrival of about 50,000 refugees fleeing fighting in Rwanda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Burundi, he said. (AFP)
Iraqs Foreign Minister said on Saturday that 70 per cent of the city of Tal Afar in northern Iraq had been recaptured from militants of the Islamic State.

Tal Afar, located about 70 km west of the recently liberated city of Mosul, is the groups last bastion in northern Iraq, Efe reported.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari made his remarks at a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and French Defence Minister Florence Parly.

Le Drian and Parly are currently on a visit to the Arab country to tackle the fight against the IS.

The French ministers are scheduled to meet later on the day with Iraqi President Fouad Massoum and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Le Drian stressed his countrys support for Iraq, both in peace and war.

Parly congratulated Iraqi forces on the great victory over IS militants in Mosul, stressing that Paris backs Baghdad through either the formers contribution to the United States-led international coalition or bilateral cooperation.

Last week, al-Abadi announced the launch of a ground offensive against the IS in Tal Afar, following the militants defeat in its key stronghold of Mosul in July.


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NORTH ATTLEBORO  Talk of an override vote has raised questions of inefficiencies in the towns government  with perceived mismanagement of t
The last days of the Newfie Pride

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Technocrat Vishal Sikka, who logged out of software major Infosys on Thursday after quitting as its first non-founder CEO on August 18, denied joining the US IT major Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), said an Indian business news channel on Saturday.

"Reports of me joining HPE are false. Someone is trying keenly to put me in a box," Sikka told CNBC-TV18 in a video interview from the US.

Sikka, 50, remarked in the light of reports that Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy had written to his advisers that "he (Sikka) was more a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) material than a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) material".

Terming the return of Nandan Nilekani as Infosys' board chairman an excellent idea, Sikka said the latter was an extraordinary leader and an iconic man.

"I offered to quit as executive vice-chairman because I felt it was in the best interests of all concerned so that Nilekani could have a free hand. It also meant that the succession process would be complete," he noted.

Accepting Sikka's resignation as CEO, the Infosys board appointed him as the executive vice-chairman on the same day (August 18) till the new CEO took over by March 31, 2018 and elevated Chief Operating Officer (COO) U.B. Pravin Rao as the interim CEO and managing director (MD).

"I wanted to leave Infosys altogether after resigning as CEO last week, but the board had insisted I stay on for the sake of continuity," he pointed out.

A huge proponent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application to make a positive difference in the world, Sikka said he was excited to spend more time with his family at his Palo Alto home in the Silicon Valley of California.

Asked if he would agree to Infosys making the investigative report on the acquisition of the Israeli software firm Panaya Inc public, Sikka said it was up to the board and he would have gone along with its decision.

Infosys acquired the US-based automation technology firm Panaya for $200 million in February 2015 to offer large-scale enterprise software management as a service to its global clients.

The Panaya buyout became a bone of contention between the co-founders and the board due to alleged irregularities in its deal value and allegations by an anonymous whistleblower that company executives like Sikka had a personal interest in buying it.

One of the charges was that $20 million invested in Panaya before the deal were distributed to the shareholders, a charge Infosys denied claiming it (Panaya) had $18.6 million cash balance when bought.

"Panaya was looked at as an acquisition candidate based on its strategic fit. There was no conflict of interest due to Sikka's association with its investor Hasso Plattner, who was his boss in his previous job at the German software major SAP AG," said Infosys in a statement on February 20.

Though three investigations looked into the claims and found nothing, Murthy kept raising corporate governance issues at the company and asked the board to consider making the Panaya report public.

"The allegations were baseless, false, wrong. It is a completely nonsensical detour," claimed Sikka in the television interview.

On the hefty severance package paid to Infosys former Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal, Sikka said he had answered questions on it a thousand times.

Declining to share lessons he learnt at Infosys and if he could have done differently, Sikka hoped the outsourcing firm would move forward and get back to its business.

Asked if his being based out of the US and not Bengaluru was a problem, Sikka said as business was outside India, it was a complex balance of spending time, mostly in airplanes.

Admitting that his stint at Infosys from August 1, 2014 was an incredibly challenging job, Sikka said he was proud of the three years he spent in the iconic firm and was overwhelmed by the thousands of emails and communications he received from employees and clients.
Kaun Banega Mantri (who will become the minister) is a question everyone seems to be asking, but only a few know the answer for sure.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a call on expanding his ministry as some of the cabinet berths are vacant; new allies like the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) has to be accommodated. Given the volatility of situation in the AIADMK, informed sources said there was no hurry to include them in the alliance or the cabinet.

For once, no one is denying that cabinet expansion will not take place. Ironically, the talk about cabinet reshuffle has been underway since the Modi government completed three years in power in May. But, when will Modi announce his new addition to his team? The prime minister is known for unpredictability. Though an expansion is due, he will take a call when the buzz around the subject has subsided.

For the astrologically-inclined party, a window of opportunity will be before September 5. After that date comes a 15-day inauspicious period of pitr paksha (period for paying tributes to the ancestors according to Hindu traditions). Also, the prime minister is likely to travel to China to participate in the BRICS summit to be held between September 3 and 5. From there, he will travel to Myanmar.

The BJP is holding its two-day national executive on September 24 and 25 in New Delhi, where preparations for upcoming elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will be discussed and tributes will be paid to Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyayaya, whose one-year birth centenary celebrations end on September 25. BJP has invited all its MPs and ministers to be part of this session. Ideally, it would make sense that new team takes part in the celebrations, before the party gets into election mode.

Now, the key portfolios which are being handled by other ministers include defence, urban development and environment.

After a series of accidents, Suresh Prabhu had offered to quit his post, but was asked by the PM Modi to wait. Modi will be looking for a new minister for this key post. There are two contenders for the portfoliotransport minister Nitin Gadkari and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. Gadkari is considered one of the better performing ministers, someone who gets the work done.

Ananth Kumar could be considered for either railways or another meatier role. He could be given a more important position in view of the Karnataka elections next year.

There has also been a buzz around Piyush Goyal being elevated with a key ministry. As a power minister, he has been following the targets set for electrification of villages, a project dear to Modi's heart.

Defence and environment are two other key ministries which could get new ministers.

Manohar Parrikar as a minister, apart from his clean image, served another purpose in the governmentkicking up the rhetoric, which he did during the surgical strikes.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' name has been in the news for this post. But will Modi take him out of Maharashtra?

During his last cabinet expansion, Modi also rewarded parliamentarians who were better performers inside the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Anil Madhav Dave and P.P. Chaudhary were two such names. Modi, who has been a stickler for MPs performing inside the parliament with regular attendance and participation in the debates, could pick new names from the younger pool.

There is also a buzz around some of the ministers being returned to the organisation to work in Amit Shah's team.

Shah has been slow in changing people in his team. He worked with the existing officebearers, with a little tinkering when required. He never filled all the vacancies in his team.

One of the minister in the Modi cabinet, Kalraj Mishra, has already crossed the 75-year-old deadline that PM had set for his team. When Modi assumed office, he had included ministers who were below this age group. Mishra survived the axe due to Uttar Pradesh elections, as dropping his name would have meant upsetting the upper-caste vote bank in the state. Now, with elections over, will he be given a gubernatorial assignment? Earlier, Najma Heptullah exited the cabinet once she was 75-years-old. She is now the Manipur governor.

There is also a talk about giving more representation to the states which will go to polls in the next two years before 2019.

JD(U) will also need to be given cabinet berths. Modi and Nitish Kumar had met on Saturday as both of them made an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas in Bihar. But his party joining the ministry may mean over-representation of MPs from Bihar, as Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha, both allies, are part of it.

Could someone from Bihar be dropped?

But bringing new allies into the NDA fold would mean cementing the ties through cabinet berths.

Modi had twice expanded his team after he took over in May 2014first in November of the same year and the last in July 2016. The cabinet expansions are done, not only keeping in mind the work at the central level, but significant political considerations.

If all goes well, and even AIADMK becomes part of the NDA, then they would need to be placated with at least two cabinet berths, given their Lok Sabha strength.

Will it mean poaching seats where the BJP MPs could have been accommodated? Currently, there are 72 ministers in the cabinet, while the ministry can be expanded to include 83 ministers. So Modi has maneuvering space for eight to nine more ministers.
Tamil Nadu Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao on Sunday assured a delegation of opposition parties led by DMK that he would take necessary action when informed of the "minority" status of ruling AIADMK in the assembly, said DMK leader Duraimurugan.

Speaking to reporters, he said the delegation submitted the copy of the letter written by the party's working president M.K. Stalin to Rao and impressed upon the governor the need for Chief Minister K. Palaniswami to prove his government's majority in the assembly.

With the withdrawal of support to Palaniswami by 19 AIADMK legislators recently, the delegation told the governor that said the government is now a minority in the assembly.

According to Duraimurugan, Rao told the opposition delegation that he is aware of the developments and will take appropriate action.

Duraimurugan led the delegation comprising members from DMK, Congress and IUML.

On August 22, AIADMK's 19 legislators belonging to the jailed party General Secretary V.K. Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction gave letters to Rao, withdrawing their support to Palaniswami and saying they wanted a new chief minister.

The Dhinakaran faction resorted to the move as it was sidelined post-merger between the two factions led by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and Chief Minister Palaniswami.

As a part of the merger, the Panneerselvam-Palaniswami faction had announced that steps would be taken to dismiss Sasikala from the general secretary's post.
Iraq's foreign minister said on Saturday that 70 per cent of the city of Tel Afar in northern Iraq had been recaptured from militants of the Islamic State.

Tel Afar, located about 70km west of the recently liberated city of Mosul, is the group's last bastion in northern Iraq, Efe reported.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari made the remarks at a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian and French Defence Minister Florence Parly.

Le Drian and Parly are currently on a visit to the Arab country to tackle the fight against the IS.

The French ministers are scheduled to meet later on the day with Iraqi President Fouad Massoum and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Le Drian stressed his country's support for Iraq, both in peace and war.

Parly congratulated Iraqi forces on the great victory over IS militants in Mosul, stressing that Paris backs Baghdad through either the former's contribution to the United States-led international coalition or bilateral cooperation.

Last week, al-Abadi announced the launch of a ground offensive against the IS in Tel Afar, following the militants' defeat in its key stronghold of Mosul in July.
There were no drum rolls, no huge posters dotting the streets of Chennai. The merger of the two AIADMK factions, led by former Tamil Nadu chief minister O. Panneerselvam and his successor Edappadi K. Palaniswami, was supposed to bring cheer to the cadre. But it has only brought more uncertainty, what with V.K. Sasikalas nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran and his supporters playing spoilsport.

At the party headquarters on August 21, a subdued Panneerselvam said, We have now come together to follow the path laid by our revolutionary leader Amma [former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa]. Palaniswami, on the other hand, was beaming. The party will have a steering committee, led by Panneerselvam, he said. K.P. Munusamy, R. Vaithilingam and I will be part of the committee to lead the party effectively.

A three-time stopgap chief minister, Panneerselvam got a raw deal. As deputy chief minister, he has been allotted the finance, housing and urban development ministries, and not a powerful portfolio like home. Also, not many from his faction have benefited from the merger; only K. Pandiarajan found place in the cabinet. P.H. Manoj Pandian, son of P.H. Pandian, who had raised questions over Jayalalithaas death, might be made Tamil Nadu representative in Delhi. The post is now held by Thalavai Sundaram, who is close to Dhinakaran. And some Rajya Sabha members in the Panneerselvam camp like V. Maitreyan have been promised one more term.

A few compromises were made by the Palaniswami camp, too, but with little or no inconvenience to the top leadership. While D. Jayakumar had to part with his finance portfolio, he has retained the fisheries ministry. His son J. Jayavardhan is tipped to join the Union cabinet. The AIADMK is expected to join the National Democratic Alliance, like the Janata Dal (United) had done in Bihar.

The government seems to be stronger than earlier with more number of ministers, said political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy. On the face of it, Palaniswami has won and Panneerselvam had to settle for less. Now, Panneerselvam is the leader of the steering committee. But chances are that Palaniswami will lead both the party and the government in the near future.

Leader of opposition M.K. Stalin of the DMK wrote a letter to the governor demanding a floor test, and said that people had lost confidence in the corrupt government | PTI

This will widen the fissures in the party at the grassroots level. I was a district secretary when Amma was alive. I supported Panneerselvam all these days. But I dont know if I will get back my position in the party, said a member. Also, differences will emerge right from the stage of quoting tenders, said an office-bearer from Dindigul. There is no Amma to control them now.

On August 22, Dhinakaran, the partys deputy general secretary, revolted. Nineteen legislators of his faction called on governor C. Vidyasagar Rao, saying they had lost confidence in the chief minister. Dhinakaran also has the support of three other MLAs who had contested on the AIADMKs two leaves symbol. In the 234-member house, the party has 134 members, and Palaniswami would need the support of 117 members to prove his majority. Party insiders said Dhinakaran had asked Palaniswami to concede demands made by his aunt Sasikala, who is in jail in a case of unaccounted wealth. On August 23, Dhinakaran sacked six office bearers of the party. One of them, Vaithilingam, had demanded that Sasikala be expelled from the party.

The DMK, the main opposition party, has called for a trust vote. It had adopted a wait-and-watch policy while talks for the merger were on. But once Dhinakaran rebelled, opposition leader M.K. Stalin wrote to the governor, demanding a floor test, and said that people had lost confidence in the corrupt government. The call for a trust vote is legal and has a precedent, said DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai. In the case of [former Karnataka chief minister B.S.] Yeddyurappa, a trust vote was called within six days [in 2010], he said. The Supreme Court had approved it in the interest of justice and constitutional propriety.

Stalin is also trying to strengthen the opposition by bringing together leaders of other parties, like Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko.

It is the prerogative of the governor to call for a trust vote. Palaniswami should now come up with a solution, said Congress legislator S. Vijayadharini. But, it is better that he steps down.... It is not a majority government now.

But the DMK does not want an election now. So if the governor doesnt call for a trust vote, Stalin could take the matter to court, which will be more advantageous to his party. Also, sources said Dhinakaran and his MLAs were not interested in toppling the government. They are only threatening to do so to negotiate with Palaniswami and Panneerselvam.

But, the AIADMKs credibility has taken a hit. Writer and blogger A. Shankar said the party no longer had any strong leader, and the cadres might not support any of the three faction leaders for long. The infighting and lack of a strong leadership could bring down the partys vote share of 44 per cent in the next elections. Two or three years after it loses power, the AIADMK will turn into a small party like the MDMK or VCK, said Shankar.

Also, the growing influence of the BJP in Tamil Nadu politics cannot be ignored. The merger between the two AIADMK camps was orchestrated by the BJP and the RSS idealogue S. Gurumurthy. Till our Amma was around, neither [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi or [BJP chief] Amit Shah could make us fall at their feet, said Rajenthiran Thangadurai, an AIADMK member from Thanjavur.

BJP leader H. Raja, however, denied the partys role in the merger. It is the internal affair of the AIADMK. They fell apart, they have now come together, he said. I dont think even the MLAs supporting Dhinakaran will go to the extent of toppling the government. Ultimately, they all belong to the AIADMK and want the government to go on. However, the BJPs game plan is to weaken the AIADMK and run a puppet government. Its cadre base is growing, and with actor Rajinikanth eyeing a political role, it is advantage BJP in Tamil Nadu.
The multi-billion pound insurance industry, which ridiculously badges itself as a national success story, is discriminating against millions of loyal customers in the relentless pursuit of new business.

A major probe into the seedy world of insurance by The Mail on Sunday, based on the views of hundreds of readers, shows widespread disillusionment among many former longstanding customers of some of the biggest insurance brands in the country.

Customers who until recently have religiously stuck with their insurer through thick and thin believe their loyalty over the years has been abused.

Our probe, based on the views of hundreds of readers, shows widespread disillusionment among many former longstanding customers of some of the biggest insurance brands

They are angered by the fact that the cover they have or had  typically home or car insurance  is being routinely offered by their insurer to new customers at a far cheaper price.

They are also annoyed that some of the worst offenders are firms marketing themselves as elderly friendly, such as Rias and Saga, which sell cover to the over-50s.

Though a rising number of people are now wise to the anti-loyalty stance adopted by most insurers and either shop around at renewal or bargain with their provider, they remain aghast that companies are not interested in rewarding loyalty.

Some customers  such as Steve Taylor (see box)  now rotate their insurance providers so as to extract the keenest priced premiums.

James Daley, a consumer champion at website Fairer Finance, says our analysis highlights the 'dysfunctionality' of the insurance market and confirms the need for a major overhaul of its practices.

Recent regulatory action, he says, has been directed at encouraging customers to shop around more for insurance. Although welcome, he fears that those customers who remain loyal  either through a sense of duty or inertia  will be discriminated against more than ever.

CASE STUDY 1: I SWITCH TO KEEP MY PREMIUMS DOWN Strategy: Steve Taylor with his Aston Martin DBS and classic Jaguar SS 100 As a management consultant, Steve Taylor saw with his own eyes the money firms waste soliciting new business through the front door  while leaving the back door open for rivals to poach their customers. Steve, now retired, has witnessed staff being incentivised to sell while no encouragement was given to provide an adequate service to loyal customers. The insurance industry, he says, is among the worst in this regard and has failed to learn the lesson that it is far more cost effective to retain rather than recruit customers. It is why Steve, 61, always shops around for car insurance for his three cars  a Jaguar SS 100, an Aston Martin DBS and a Range Rover Vogue SE. Steve, from Orsett in Essex, says: 'I have yet to find an insurer who is prepared to cover my three cars on a single policy. As a result I have three separate policies. 'My approach is to find an acceptable insurer for each vehicle. Then on renewal I invariably switch. In year three, I switch again, usually back to my first insurer, which has all my details, and tends to offer a premium close to what I paid first time around. 'In year four, I revert to the insurer in year two. It is an approach I find works well and keeps costs under control.' For example, with his Range Rover Vogue, Steve was insured with Saga in 2014, then Privilege a year later before going back to Saga last year. On the Aston DBS, he has rotated between insurers Saga, Admiral and Flux. He is currently with Admiral. 'Loyalty just does not pay,' he says.

SOARING COSTS

Insurance costs are on the rise generally, a result of tax hikes (insurance premium tax) and, in the case of car cover, Government changes that have resulted in insurers paying out more for personal injury claims.

Experts state motor premiums are rising on average by between 11 per cent (Association of British Insurers) and 18 per cent (comparison website Confused).

Increases for home cover are gentler, at seven per cent. But these averages hide some shocking rises insurers are trying to pass on to longstanding customers, who are usually elderly.

Dennis Herbert is a retired train driver from Tyseley, Birmingham. Now aged 83, he is proud of the fact that in 65 years of driving he has never made an insurance claim.

For the past 35 years he has tootled around in a Mini Clubman Estate, a car that regularly draws admiration from people in the street who want to buy it.

He says: 'Nobody apart from myself and when it goes in for an MOT has ever put a spanner on it.'

Despite Dennis's exemplary driving record and the fact he drives no more than 250 miles a year  a result of having to care for his wife who is stricken with Alzheimer's  his longstanding insurer LV= took a different view.

In May it quoted him 456 to renew his cover  a jump of nearly 19 per cent on the year before and an increase over two years in excess of 25 per cent.

Annoyed, he rang LV= to see if he could get the quote reduced but it refused to budge. So he went to classic car specialist Lancaster Insurance which offered him equivalent cover for 255.

Pleased with his success, he challenged his home insurer Co-op Insurance when his policy came up for renewal.

Despite being with the Co-op since 1968 when he bought his house, it wanted to increase his premium 19 per cent to 238. Again, when it refused to reduce the quote, he found alternative cover with the Post Office for 197  less than he had paid the Co-op last year.

Dennis says: 'My years of loyalty meant nothing to either Co-op or LV=. Changing providers was a bit daunting at my age, but I was not going to have my finances impaired by inflated insurance premiums.'

EXPLOITING LOYALTY

A number of insurers market themselves as being elderly friendly or catering for a specific profession. But this does not mean customers get a fair deal. Far from it.

Retired police officer Brian Hodgson has always trusted Police Mutual for insurance. It was set up nearly 100 years ago to look after the financial welfare of police officers, serving and retired.

But when he recently received notice of sharp premium increases for both his home and car insurance, he decided enough was enough. Having never made a claim in more than 50 years of being with the insurer, he made enquiries elsewhere and found cheaper cover.

Now aged 82, Brian  from Whickham in Durham  feels as if he has been exploited. 'All the time I thought I was being treated favourably when I was not,' he says. 'Shame on them for failing to reward my loyalty.'

He is not a lone voice. A recent letter in the magazine for members of the National Association of Retired Police Officers raised similar concerns about officers thinking they were getting special deals when they were not. 'Buyer beware,' it warned.

Readers have also complained about big price hikes at over-50s insurers Saga and Rias. John Todman, who has been with Saga for 15 years, was shocked to be told his car insurance premium would increase nearly 52 per cent this month.

When he contacted Saga, he was told the increase was a general rise throughout the insurance industry.

John, from Salisbury in Wiltshire, has now found cover cheaper than he had been paying with Saga. 'It is irksome that 15 years of loyalty counts for nothing,' he says.

Peter Smith, from Broadstairs in Kent, is angry about his treatment at the hands of Rias.

Aged 63, he is proud that he has a longstanding record of no claims on car insurance. When he bought a second car late last year  a Kia Sportage to complement his Kia Magentis  he asked Rias whether it did multi-car discounts.

He was told no. The result was a quote for 993. If he paid monthly, he would have paid an effective surcharge of 24 per cent.

Shocked, he found cover a third of the price from LV=. Then when his Kia Magentis came up for renewal in May, he decided to move away from Rias, again in favour of LV=.

'Rias seemed put out when I upped sticks,' says Peter. 'But it was a no brainer. I now have my two cars insured for a price less than it wanted to cover just my Magentis. Of course, loyalty should be rewarded but it is a word lost on insurers.'

CASE STUDY 2: I'M BETTER OFF AFTER RENEWAL WAS BLOCKED When Pat McLaughlin's car cover came up for renewal last month, he assumed all would be fine. He had built up 11 years of no claims bonuses and had cut his mileage in his Seat Alhambra people carrier from 13,000 to 10,000 a year. All seemed tickety-boo. Yet his insurer, Direct Line, was not interested. It declined him cover. Bewildered, Pat, 66, who has retired after running a successful exhibitions firm, sought an explanation, only to be told that the underwriters 'don't like it'. Bewildered: Pat McLaughlin could not renew Subsequent phone calls got him no further, so he took out cover with A-Plan. Then, when his home insurance, also with Direct Line, on his house in Ringwood, Hampshire, came up for renewal this month, he took great pleasure in moving it, again to A-Plan. 'The nice thing,' he says, 'is that now my wife and I have car and home insurance which costs us 60 a year less than last year.'

WHAT TO DO

Insurers are now required by the regulator to provide policyholders with details of their existing premium when they give a renewal quote. It means customers can see the price hike they face without having to search for old paperwork.

Armed with the renewal notice, all policyholders should then use a comparison website  the likes of Confused and Gocompare  to see if they can find equivalent cover elsewhere at a cheaper price.

If they can  invariably policyholders will  they should go back to their existing insurer and ask if it is prepared to match or slightly undercut the price offered by the cheaper provider. Some firms will relent at this point. If they do not, move away.

This strategy is now employed by many policyholders, including Steve Lewis, a retired 64-year-old management consultant from Alvechurch in Worcestershire.

Steve, married to 59-year-old Jo, shops around for all his main household bills as a matter of course  home and car insurance, car breakdown cover, boiler breakdown insurance and gas and electricity supplier.

'It's simple,' he says. 'When cover comes up for renewal I compare it against rivals to see if I can get the same cheaper.

'I then ring my existing provider and ask whether it will reduce the renewal quote on the basis I am a valued customer.'

It is a strategy that pays off handsomely. After insuring the home with Castle Cover for five years, he moved this year to Legal & General saving 137 in the process  the L&G cover is also slightly better.

After 20 years of car breakdown cover with the RAC, he switched this year to the AA, paying 139 instead of the 191 the RAC wanted. On car insurance he stuck with Castle, but only after getting the original quote reduced from 332 to 290.

Steve says: 'It took me many years to realise a phone call with a threat to move cover  or an actual move  could be so financially rewarding. I hope that with the advent of comparison websites and growing computer literacy fewer of the older generation will be milked dry.'

He would also like all renewal notices to be more transparent. Steve says: 'The letter should state: 'We've reviewed your claims history and length of time with us and this is the lowest quote we can offer.

'Please contact us ONLY if you want to renew your insurance. If you can find a lower quote elsewhere we are sorry to see you go'.'

Has your loyalty been abused by an insurer? Email: jeff.prestridge@mailonsunday.co.uk
It is mighty time the regulator held the insurance industry to account for its appalling treatment of loyal customers.

As our special investigation highlights, longstanding customers are being taken for a ride by many insurers, in some instances paying up to ten times the market rate.

This is not because they are primarily elderly  most loyal customers by definition are getting on in years  and represent greater insurance risks. It is a result of an abuse of trust, plain and simple.

Insurance bosses, most of whom are currently enjoying long summer holidays in exotic locations, should hang their heads in collective shame.

Abuse of trust: longstanding customers are being taken for a ride by many insurers, in some instances payingLup to ten times the market rate

As should those that sit at the high table of the Association of British Insurers (the industry's Big Brother mouthpiece) and arrogantly proclaim that the insurance industry is a 'jewel in the UK's crown'. Yes, I am not making it up.

Huw Evans, director-general of the association, came out with such drivel in June.

Insurers penalise loyalty because they know they can get away with it. They pass on enormous price rises without many customers even batting an eyelid.

Yes, Great British politeness  'the price is going up so I must grin and bear it'  is all well and good, but it has allowed insurance companies to pick our pockets.

James Daley is founder of Fairer Finance, a website designed to help people find insurers whose policies are more customer-friendly.

He believes that the way many firms are now behaving is in clear breach of regulatory rules around 'treating customers fairly'.

In some cases he is convinced that insurers' behaviour is 'nothing short of exploitation'.

On Friday, he told me: 'Rewards for loyalty are now all but dead in the world of insurance. Shop around or get ripped off  that is the new rule.'

Though the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has tried to introduce more transparency into the market by requiring insurers to print last year's price on customers' renewal letters, this should be only the start of more regulatory intervention.

New rules next year will require insurers to act in their customers' 'best interests'. But on the evidence I have seen, few companies are in a position to comply with these.

If they are not up to scratch, they should be held to account and where necessary fined. Preferably (a pipe dream I know) these fines should be imposed on the directors of the offending businesses.

Maybe it is time for the Government to launch a probe into insurance pricing  as happened with retail banking  through the Competition and Markets Authority.

Our investigation into the murky world of insurance proves beyond doubt that many customers are being exploited to keep shareholders happy. What is good for customers is not necessarily good for shareholders, hence the abuse of loyal customers. Where we are now is untenable. We need change, as soon as possible.

Many of the country's leading investment houses lay great score on the value of 'active' fund management  portfolios, typically unit trusts or investment trusts, that are run by a human rather than a computer.

A good fund manager can help an investment house attract billions of pounds and make them millions of pounds of profits.

Think Anthony Bolton (now retired) and Fidelity in the 1990s. Think Neil Woodford and Invesco in the 2000s and more recently the same Mr Woodford and Woodford Investment Management.

Yet as the past few days have shown with sub-prime loans company Provident Financial, outstanding fund managers are not immune from making stock picking mistakes.

Woodford, like Invesco's Mark Barnett and James Goldstone, had filled his boots (his funds' boots) with Provident Financial's shares.

Some are now questioning Woodford's 'star' status. They have every right to do so, but at least he has had the bottle to explain his decision to invest in Provident Financial  and express his disappointment at the quadruple whammy that caused the company's shares to fall through the floor (see Fund Focus).

A better advert for active fund management than Invesco which has preferred to adopt the mantra: 'Mum's the word'.
Film fans were dealt a recent blow when internet giant Amazon said it was scrapping its DVD rental service LoveFilm By Post.

Here, we assess the best-value ways to watch your favourite movies.

VISIT A CINEMA

There is still no better way to watch a new blockbuster than on the big screen.

Although ticket costs can be prohibitive, there are some great discount deals available.

Odeon, the biggest cinema chain in Britain, is currently offering family tickets where two adults and two children aged 12 or under all pay the same child ticket rate. This means a 10.50 adult ticket can be purchased for just 7.95.

Sundae screening: Independents like the Picture House Cinema in Uckfield offer great value

Those aged 55 or over can also become members of the Odeon Silver Cinema club and watch films during the day with tea and biscuits for just 3.

If you have a Cineworld complex nearby you should consider a Cineworld Unlimited Card. You pay 17.90 a month and can enjoy as many movies as you like.

Those who visit Vue cinemas can enjoy a 'mini mornings' deal on a Saturday or Sunday. Film showings at 10am cost just 2.49.

Cinema chain Curzon offers 'cult' membership for 350 a year that gives the cardholder free entry to all its cinemas nationwide.

Independent gem: Electric Picture Palace in Southwold

Picturehouse, a 23-strong chain, offers those aged 60 or over free membership to the 'silver screen' club. Films shown during the day cost 5.50.

Small independents also offer great value. John Bennett is house director of the Electric Picture Palace in Southwold, Suffolk.

The 70-seater offers an eclectic mix of movies  from black-and-white classics such as Ealing comedy Whisky Galore! and Monsieur Hulot's Holiday to modern hits such as Beauty And The Beast and The Lego Batman Movie.

Tickets cost from 6 though there is an additional membership fee that starts at 3.

Bennett says: 'We try to make the most of the magic of the cinema, turning a trip to the movies into a special night out.

The dynamic of sharing your enjoyment of a film with an audience, especially when there is laughter, cannot be replicated by sitting at home watching a film alone.'

The Electric Picture Palace has an interval in all its movies so the audience can enjoy an ice cream or glass of wine. It also has a musical organ, commissionaire and usherettes.

Special night: John Bennett, of the Electric Picture Palace in Southwold at the organ keys

STREAM OVER THE INTERNET

The internet has transformed the way we watch movies and TV, with streaming and downloading revenue overtaking DVD sales for the first time last year.

Faster internet and technology improvements, such as internet-linked TVs, tablets and laptops used to stream movies, have fuelled the revolution.

Total revenue from digital video was 1.3 billion in Britain last year compared with almost 900 million from the sale of DVDs and Blu-ray.

Online giant Netflix is the market leader with about a quarter of UK households subscribing to the service. Other major players include Amazon and Sky along with Sky's Now TV service.

Alternatives that allow you to stream or download include Apple iTunes, Curzon Home Cinema and Mubi.

It is also worth taking advantage of the online BBC iPlayer service to browse through its movie choices. This service is paid for out of the 147 annual fee households pay for a TV Licence.

The British Film Institute has a BFI Player service with unlimited access to hundreds of movies  many picked by film critic Mark Kermode  for 4.99 a month.

They can be watched on your TV, smartphone or laptop and the contract can be cancelled at any time.

Edward Humphrey, director of digital at the British Film Institute, says: 'We want to offer a diversity of choice, not just mainstream movies that people often associate with streaming services.

'As long as you have a minimum download speed of two megabits per second on your internet at home you should be able to watch films with no problems.'

Those with a poor internet connection  perhaps a result of living in a rural area  may suffer lower speeds during busy times.

This can lead to 'buffering' where frames freeze or the picture goes into pixellation meltdown.

For watching high definition films five megabits a second is often the recommended minimum speed.

Netflix allows you to stream as many films as you like for 5.99 a month  or 7.49 if you want sharper high-definition.

Amazon also offers access to a huge library of movies for 5.99 a month. Those prepared to pay a bit more  7.99  also get access to Prime, its fast one-day delivery service for goods bought through its website.

Now TV sells a Sky Cinema Pass where viewers get access to Sky films for 9.99 a month. Mubi offers a wide range of movies that include world cinema and cult classics for 5.99 a month.

Apple iTunes focuses more on renting or selling individual movies rather than offering a monthly package where you access lots of films. Prices are usually 3.49 to rent  and stream  online or 4.49 for high-definition viewing.

Alternatively you can buy a movie where it is downloaded on to your laptop rather than streamed  but you may have to pay 9.99 for the privilege.

Curzon Home Cinema allows you to stream a wide range of movies. You can rent films to view  paying between 2.20 and 10 each time.

Curzon cinema card members enjoy a 15 per cent price discount. They can also stream up to 12 films for free each month through the Curzon12 service.

Fan: Jemima Codrington uses Cinema Paradiso

RENT FROM A STORE

The LoveFilm By Post DVD rental service will be axed at the end of October. Although marking the end of an era, it does not ring the death knell for DVD rentals.

The main alternative to LoveFilm is Cinema Paradiso. It has categorically ruled out closing, boasting 'we are here for many years to come'.

It also points out that unlike US giant Amazon  which owns LoveFilm  'we are proud of our British roots and we most certainly pay all our UK taxes'.

Cinema Paradiso has more than 90,000 titles in its film library. This means movie fans can enjoy classics, art house and world cinema films on top of blockbusters  providing a level of choice that is not always available from mainstream online providers.

For 6.98 a month subscribers can rent out two movies at a time  up to a maximum of four overall. Its most expensive package is 19.98 a month for which you can get three movies at a time with unlimited borrowing.

Jemima Codrington, 29, from Edinburgh, signed up to Cinema Paradiso two months ago after a friend recommended she watch French film Populaire.

The marketing manager says: 'There is something appealing about curling up on the sofa with a glass of red wine and a DVD to enjoy rather than streaming off a laptop. With streaming there is also the risk of the screen freezing at a crucial part in the film.'

She adds: 'I am a big fan of foreign films. You get a limited choice on streaming services against that available from DVD rentals.'

An alternative is to visit your local library. Struggling to attract bookworms into their premises, an increasing number now rent out movies. Library membership is often free and can enable you to take out films for up to a month.

There is often a charge of 2 a week for this service and you could be hit with a fine  typically 8  if you are late in returning the film. Favourite movies can be booked for free in advance by calling the library, while those in isolated or rural communities who have a library service van that visits the neighbourhood can ask for their favourite DVD choices to be brought along.

There are also a few independent DVD rental outfits that have survived the invasion of the internet.

Among these are 20th Century Flicks in Bristol; The Film Shop in Stoke Newington, North London; TVL Allstar Video in Haverhill, Suffolk; Movieworld in Manchester and Vogue Video in Edinburgh.

These outfits offer more than just a rental service. They provide a movie buff guide on niche films and specialist genres. They will also scour the market for rare, hard-to-find films.

20th Century Flicks charges 2 a week to rent a film  or 4 for three days with new releases. It also offers a postal service for 12 that enables you to rent out up to three films for a fortnight, though this is primarily for locals.

The Film Shop has a 'movie buffs' club that allows unlimited rentals for 15 a month. TVL Allstar Video charges 3.25 a rental  or 5 for two films.
Now is the ideal time to keep the memory of your summer holiday alive by getting your photos printed.

Sales of prints are in sharp decline thanks to the arrival of digital photography. It means cherished photos that were once stored in holiday albums now often only survive as megabytes on a smartphone, files in social media or in folders inside a computer.

According to research by photo shop Jessops, more than 40 per cent of holidaymakers have lost digital photos they wanted to get printed, with broken hardware and accidental deletion the most common explanations.

Picture of happiness: Deborah Reid, on one of her recent trips to Rome, uses Photobox for her prints

Given fewer people now order paper-printed snaps there is also a danger that even if copies of old photos do not get deleted following an accident, they could still be forgotten about and lost if mobiles or computers are subsequently replaced.

It is vital to have an external hard drive to provide a back-up against loss. It is also worth getting favourite holiday moments turned into prints to provide a further guarantee of their survival.

A common excuse for not having copies of digital photo turned into paper snaps is ignorance over how to go about it, but the process is easy, involving no more than a few clicks of a button on a website or phone app.

Payment can be made using a credit or debit card or an online payment facility such as PayPal.

Online pictures can be converted into print from about 5p a snap. It is also possible to have a couple of dozen photos put together into a hardback album for 20.

The more photos you order the cheaper each print becomes. For example, Jessops charges 15p a standard print for orders of less than 100 but this drops to 6p a print if you want more than 500  postage is extra.

Truprint charges 1.99 postage if you order up to 15 snaps but if you want 700 or more it costs 7.99.

With high street companies such as Boots and Jessops it is possible to pop into a shop and order photos in person by handing over a memory card or plugging in a smartphone, camera or laptop.

Deborah Reid, who lives near London Bridge, uses Photobox to print holiday snaps when she comes back from trips abroad. Her most recent travels took her to Rome.

She says: 'Taking photos on my phone is convenient. But when I get home from a holiday I go through the pictures on my laptop and then pick my favourite ones to turn into prints. If they are really good I get them framed  offering a permanent memory of my visit.'

The 26-year-old marketing manager also uses Photobox-owned service Moonpig to turn snaps into postcards to send to family when she is abroad. Moonpig allows photos taken on a mobile to be posted as a card with just a few clicks on the handset.

Moonpig sells postcards in bundles of eight for 6 plus from 65p each for postage. Similar personalised postcard providers include TouchNote and Funky Pigeon.

Steve Cochrane, a director at Jessops, says: 'There has been a seismic shift in the way we share our holiday memories in recent years.

'But nothing triggers nostalgia more than a physical photo you can hold in your hand, put into an album or hang on a wall.'

He says many people post their pictures on social media websites and then delete the original digital snaps, not realising that the online picture is 'compressed'. This means it loses some of its sharpness if you wish to make a paper copy in the future.

Digital snaps can be ordered in a variety of sizes as well as gloss or matt finishes. Pictures can even be printed on to mugs, cushions, calendars, wall art canvases and jigsaw puzzles.
Christopher Bailey, the former Burberry chief executive, has just cashed in 3.1 million of shares out of 10.5 million of options that came to fruition this summer.

It is part of a lucrative pay and perks package for the fashion guru, who received a 440,000 cash allowance last year when his remuneration totalled 3.5 million.

On top of that, he was handed 20,000 of non-cash benefits including a clothing allowance.

Bonanza: Former Burberry chief exec Christopher Bailey with Naomi Campbell

Although he could easily afford to pay full price, he also gets an 80 per cent discount off Burberrys high-priced clothing and accessories.

It means he could buy a reversible Donegal tweed and gabardine trench coat for 379, instead of the 1,895 an ordinary shopper would pay.

All Burberrys senior leadership and board members receive the perk. Ordinary employees receive discretionary discounts. The company says it considers them its most important brand ambassadors.

After tax and commission, Bailey received 1.65 million from the share sale.

A total of more than 680,000 of his options matured this summer, most of them from an award made three years ago, when he was made chief executive, to stop him being poached by a rival.

During his tenure he clashed with shareholders over pay after more than half of the investors refused to support an eye-watering pay package worth up to 27 million.

Bailey stepped aside last month after criticism over performance, but he has retained the role of chief creative officer, which he kept throughout his stewardship of the business.

The 46-year-old has also taken the new position of president.

New chief executive Marco Gobbetti  formerly boss of elite fashion house Celine  will receive similar pay and bonuses to Bailey, although his cash allowance is a far more modest 80,000.
TSB boss Paul Pester believes banks have lost touch with the local communities

It's 8am in St James's Park in Central London and I'm silently quailing as I limber up alongside Paul Pester, the chief executive of TSB bank, before the two of us head off for a morning run.

Pester, who wants to become the white knight of the tarnished banking industry, is not only a bit of a runner, he is a fully-fledged triathlete and a regular surfer.

He looks dauntingly fit, though fortunately, for me, he's carrying a slight injury, so I don't get left behind when we jog beside the lake, admiring the swans and pelicans as I grill him about the banking industry.

The other banks, he says, have learned nothing from the financial crisis: they continue to treat customers with contempt despite having to be bailed out by taxpayers.

They are still overcharging, still keeping customers in the dark about how much they are really paying, and still conniving in family debt problems by lending money irresponsibly.

'From a consumer perspective, nothing has changed. Can I, as a consumer, get a better deal? No. Do I feel the banks are operating on my behalf any more than they were? Probably no.'

'Depressingly, attitudes towards customers have not improved at all, despite the credit crisis,' he says, though he does concede they are safer because the regulators now insist they have a bigger cushion of capital.

Banks, he believes, have lost touch with the local communities they are meant to serve.

'They have lost that connection. You would put 100 of savings into your local high street bank and somehow it ended up supporting derivatives trading or buying sub-prime debt in the US.

When it goes horribly wrong it is taxpayers who pick up the pieces. That's the lesson of the financial crisis.'

Pester was at the epicentre of that crisis. He was running a triathlon in Norfolk when he learned from the television that Spanish bank Santander, then his employer, had taken over Bradford & Bingley, which had succumbed in the turmoil.

The following day he was dispatched to Yorkshire and stayed there for months.

'Bradford & Bingley was in the middle of a run on the bank. Nearly 1 billion went out the door in the first week. We were tracking deposits every hour. To see that amount go out is quite sobering.'

Fit for purpose: Ruth Sunderland joins TSB chief exec Paul Pester, for a morning run in St James Park

Fast forward nearly a decade to the present day and why is it that his fellow bank chief executives persist in treating customers shoddily?

'I don't know, maybe because they have a myriad of issues and it is too easy to lose sight of the customer. They are big and complex institutions.'

In its current incarnation, TSB was spun out of Lloyds in 2014, so despite the venerable name, it is a new bank untarnished by the sins of the credit crunch. So a cynic might point out that it's easy for Pester to act holier than thou. TSB is also launching small business banking next year, so it's in his interests to highlight his rivals' undeniable shortcomings.

Having said that, he certainly talks a good game.

'TSB was set up by a local vicar in Rothwell in Dumfriesshire in 1810. He invented an account where you could save a penny at a time and get 4 per cent interest. Over time people could help themselves out of poverty.

Double dip: Pester is a fully-fledged triathlete and a regular surfer

Banks should be there to help local economies thrive, it should be like It's A Wonderful Life,' he says, referring to the 1946 Frank Capra film starring James Stewart as the boss of a benevolent savings bank.

'With TSB, we were handed 632 Lloyds branches and it was a golden opportunity to say enough is enough, let's build a new bank in the interest of consumers.

'TSB is a simple institution, we do mortgages, loans, credit cards, current accounts and savings, we don't do all the funny stuff.'

He is concerned about a fresh build-up of consumer debt  a worry recently highlighted by the Bank of England. 'Some banks are offering unsecured loans of 50,000  bigger than my first mortgage. We don't do that. There is a bit of common sense needed, I would argue.

'Then there are credit cards offering zero per cent interest if you transfer your balance for around 14 months, then suddenly you go from nothing to 18 or 19 per cent. How do the lenders know people can afford it? Helping people borrow well is key. It is absolutely vital.'

One of his big hobby horses is the fact so few people switch their current accounts. The big lenders lose more account holders to death than to defection, he says.

This inertia is lucrative from their point of view. The banks make 8 billion a year from interest and charges on current accounts and on average, people could save 70 per annum by switching, or 260 a year for those who regularly go overdrawn.

People don't move accounts, he says, because they don't know what they are paying and because it is hard to move with an overdraft.

The solution: itemised bills each month and a 'credit passport' that will allow people to take their borrowings with them.

He says he is depressed because only two per cent of customers switch and the numbers have actually gone down, despite the fact that competition watchdogs spent almost three years investigating the current account market.

'Since they published their report on how to improve competition, it has gone exactly the opposite way. Switching has gone down by 14 per cent so 150,000 fewer customers are moving. I think the Competition and Markets Authority dropped the ball big time and fell right into the hands of the big banks.

'They were arguing that the market didn't need any change, it was all due to consumer inertia. It seems to me crazy that you blame a customer for not getting a good deal for themselves.'

All this campaigning is admirable, but wouldn't he change his tune if he were offered the chance to run one of the big banks? He is widely rumoured to be a candidate to take over from Antonio Horta Osorio at the helm of Lloyds. 'I'm very happy here,' is all he will say.

As well he might be. Pester earned nearly 3.7 million in 2016 including a 2.4 million bonus after a 'fantastic' year.

He modelled pay for staff, including himself, on the John Lewis partnership system, where everyone gets the same percentage bonus. Of course, for him that adds up to a lot more than for an ordinary bank teller.

He lives in Hampstead, North London, but also has a house in Cornwall he visits every three weeks, where he indulges his passion for surfing, along with his sons aged 21 and 23 and his 81-year- old father who still surfs. His mum died of breast cancer in 2005.

The 53-year-old did a degree in physics at Manchester University and a PhD at Oxford.

'I am Doctor Pester, actually. I don't feel I have thrown away my scientific talents by becoming a banker and in any case both my sons are scientists so I have produced two to replace me.'

While doing his PhD, he was sponsored by Texas Instruments and would add a stay in Hawaii on to his study trips to the US. 'I spent a month, three winters in a row, living in a beach hut. Obviously, I was doing my research but surfing all day. When I had to get a job it was a shock.

'I am a member of the Institution of Physics, once you are in you can never leave,' he jokes.

So you can split an atom but you can't fix the banks? 'Exactly. It shouldn't be rocket science, should it?' he says, as he speeds off into the distance.
AstraZeneca has confirmed it will expand its biggest British site in a major vote of confidence amid concerns that Brexit will hit pharmaceutical firms.

Andy Evans, head of Astras Macclesfield operations, told the Sunday Telegraph that the FTSE 100 firm will increase capacity at the site as part of an ongoing multi-million-pound investment in the business.

It has seen a large jump in demand for a prostate and breast cancer drug from Asia.

Brexit worry: Pharmaceutical firms fear drug approval could take longer after UK quits European Union

However, Astra said that chief executive Pascal Soriots warning last month that all new UK investment decisions had been put on hold because of Brexit uncertainty still stood.

Meanwhile, a Government report on Britains strategy for the life sciences sector by Oxford University professor Sir John Bell comes out this week.

It will recommend tax breaks and other incentives to encourage research and drug exports as the UK prepares to exit the European Union.

Pharma firms fear drug approval could take longer after Brexit, with the EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency, relocating from London.
Young Britons hoping a house price crash will let them buy a home could see their dreams thwarted, leading economists warn.

David Miles, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and now a professor at London's Imperial College, and colleague James Sefton argue in an influential report that house prices could continue to defy gravity.

The two say home values will carry on rising until the typical property costs 15 times the average income.

Warning: Economist David Miles believes that house prices will defy gravity for generations to come

The figure is already more than five times a first-time buyer's average income, according to Nationwide. London buyers have to find ten times their salary.

Some economists say home values are overinflated and will have to fall at some stage. But Miles believes they can continue rising for several generations, freezing first-timers out of the market.

David Miles believes home values will carry on rising until the typical property costs 15 times the average income

He says this is due in large part to the fact that public transport has barely improved since the Second World War. This means people cannot commute far to get to work.

He argues that the introduction of the Underground in London and buses there and in other cities allowed their populations to grow in the past without pushing up house prices to unaffordable levels.

This was because people could travel in from suburbs. But since there have been no major improvements in transport systems since the 1940s, prices have soared.

'If there was a bullet train that got you from where I live in Somerset to Paddington in 40 minutes, that would transform the market, not just in London but in Somerset. Land and house prices here are very cheap compared with London.'

Miles and Sefton have published a model predicting house price growth over the next 100 years.

'Over the next 50 years the cost of housing relative to wages will rise by about 40 per cent; over the 50 years after that, housing costs double relative to wages,' they predict in the paper, published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Miles says we may all end up renting and owning small stakes in homes through pension funds. He believes prices might not go up so much if people opt to live in flats or if transport gets better again.
The United Nations World Food Program says it has reduced food rations for 320,000 refugees living in northwest Tanzania as a result of funding shortfalls.

WFP said in a statement Sunday that it urgently requires $23.6 million to meet the food and nutritional needs of refugees through December. The affected refugees are primarily from Burundi and Congo.

Michael Dunford, the WHO representative in Tanzania, said "further ration cuts will be necessary" if donors do not respond immediately.

WFP says rations were reduced for the August distribution, reaching only 62 percent of the recommended daily intake of 2,100 kilocalories.

The U.N. has also been urging the international community to donate toward supporting over 2 million South Sudanese refugees sheltering in neighboring countries.

SOURCE: AFP
Tropical Storm Harvey lashed central Texas with torrential rains on Sunday, unleashing "catastrophic" floods after the megastorm  the most powerful to hit the United States since 2005  left a deadly trail of devastation along the Gulf Coast.

The storm has caused at least two deaths since making landfall late Friday as a Category Four hurricane, pummeling the town of Rockport outside Corpus Christi with sustained winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

One person was killed when their house caught fire in the Rockport area, local officials said.

And in Houston, a woman drowned when she left her car which had stalled in high water, local media reported citing police.

"Cannot emphasize enough how much flooding there is on roadways you are endangering yourself and our first responders by being out," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo wrote on Twitter.

Harvey slowly weakened as it advanced, ripping off roofs, flipping mobile homes, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark on the Gulf Coast, home to some of the country\s most important oil refineries.

The National Weather Service issued more than a dozen tornado warnings overnight for southeast Texas, including several in the Houston area.

Forecasts show Harvey hovering over the shore for the next days, dumping dangerous amounts of rain.

In Houston, a city of 2.3 million, the city streets turned into fast moving rivers with officials warning residents to stay home.

Hobby International, one of the city\s two airports, announced that all flights were canceled "due to standing water on runways," while George Bush International was operating at limited capacity.

"Catastrophic and life-threatening flash flood ongoing!" the NWS said on Twitter. "This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS situation! Do not travel unless told to."

"CATASTROPHIC LIFE THREATENING FLOODING ONGOING ACROSS SE TEXAS," it later emphasized.

Houston officials said that their 911 phone system was overwhelmed with emergency calls, mostly from stranded motorists.

 Recovery \will take years\ 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at least 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain had fallen in some areas  with another 20 or 30 inches possible. "Our primary concerns remains dramatic flooding," he told reporters.

The governor visited a shelter for coastal evacuees in the state capital Austin and handed out food, describing the damage to homes and property as "sheer tragedy".

"Some of them had their homes mowed down. Some of them will not have a place to return to It is our job to make sure they will be taken care of," he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said there should be no illusions about the long-term impact.

"This is going to be an unprecedented long and frustrating event for the state of Texas," FEMA director Brock Long told MSNBC.

"The recovery from this disaster is going to be years."

Emergency services were struggling to make headway as the rains continued to pour down, although the Coast Guard managed to airlift at least 20 people and a dog to safety.

President Donald Trump, aware of the damage to George W. Bush presidency\s for his tardy response to Hurricane Katrina, said he was closely monitoring relief efforts from Camp David in Maryland.

"We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!" he tweeted after a teleconference meeting with his cabinet to discuss the emergency operations.

He will visit Texas next week.

In Rockport, a local school and airport were among the places to suffer major damage while homes were also burnt to the ground as power cables caught fire. There were similar scenes in Houston and Corpus Christi.

"I\ve never seen anything like this. We do have strong winds  we\re right next to the bay  but nothing like last night," Corpus Christi store owner Brandon Gonzalez told AFP.

Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, said a strong ridge of high pressure was preventing the storm from dispersing.

"There\s no sign of it really moving in a foreseeable future," he told AFP.

Coastal Texas is a fast-growing area, with some 1.5 million people moving into the region since 1999. It is also home to a large number of oil refineries and a number of major ports.

US authorities said about 22 percent of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico, accounting for more than 375,000 barrels a day, was shut down as of Friday.

"We recognize that the ports in this region are critical and vital to the nation\s economy," said Captain Kevin Oditt, incident commander for the Coast Guard\s Houston-Galveston post.

"We are preparing to open ports once the storm has passed or weather conditions permit."

In Victoria, a town just north of Rockport, residents were shocked by the storm\s intensity.

"We didn\t know it was going to be a Category Four storm so we thought we\ll just ride it out," local resident Robby Villa told AFP.

"If I knew it was going to be what it came to be, I might have left sooner," he said.

Several locals, including Leslie Warner, worried about flooding.

"You know after the storm is done, from Austin and San Antonio, all that water is gonna come down here," she told AFP.

Harvey is the most powerful hurricane to hit the mainland since Wilma struck Florida 12 years ago.

2005 was a huge year for hurricanes  before Wilma, Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, leaving more than 1,800 dead.

SOURCE: AFP
Lebanon\s army on Sunday announced a pause in its offensive against Islamic State group militants along the border with Syria in exchange for information on troops taken hostage in 2014.

The armed forces launched their campaign against IS militants entrenched in the mountainous Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa areas on Lebanon\s eastern border on August 19.

"The army command announces a ceasefire beginning at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to make way for the last phase of negotiations linked to the fate of the kidnapped soldiers," it said in a statement on Sunday.

Nine troops are believed to still be held by IS after militants overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014 and kidnapped 30 soldiers and police.

The army has said the missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive against an estimated 600 IS fighters using the hilly border region as a base.

IS has claimed several attacks in Lebanon in recent years, including twin bombings in a densely populated Beirut suburb that killed 44 people.

An army source told AFP on Sunday that its command had agreed to IS\s request for a ceasefire in order to get more information on the missing soldiers.

The head of Lebanon\s General Security agency "Abbas Ibrahim has been authorised to negotiate with them for information on the kidnapped soldiers," the source said.

"In the meantime, the battle has stopped. If we find any ulterior motives or if we are dissatisfied with the solution, the army will continue its fight," the source added.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which launched its own simultaneous attack against IS from the Syrian side of the border, also declared a ceasefire Sunday.

The group\s War Media channel said the unilateral pause was "in the framework of a comprehensive agreement to end the battle in west Qalamun against Daesh (IS)".

Two sources with close knowledge of Hezbollah\s operations in the area told AFP that fighters from the group were searching west Qalamun for the bodies of the missing soldiers.

The troops have been missing since August 2014, when IS and then Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front briefly overran Arsal, a town on Lebanon\s restive eastern border with Syria.

The groups withdrew under a truce deal, but took 30 hostages from Lebanon\s security forces with them.

Al-Nusra and IS each executed two of their hostages, and a fifth died of wounds sustained during the fighting in Arsal.

After months of fraught negotiations, Al-Nusra handed over 16 of the soldiers and police in December 2015 in exchange for prisoners from Lebanese jails in a swap overseen by General Security chief Ibrahim.

Lebanese defence minister Yaacoub al-Sarraf told journalists on Sunday that there would be a formal announcement once he had "clear information" on what happened to the soldiers.

The army says its nine-day assault has squeezed IS into 20 square kilometres out of 120 held by the jihadists in Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa.

Six soldiers have been killed since the start of the assault, which the army has insisted is not being coordinated with Hezbollah.

Last month, Hezbollah carried out its own campaign further south on the border area against what is now Al-Qaeda\s former affiliate, after Al-Nusra broke off ties with the extremist group last year.

The six-day offensive ended with a ceasefire under which 8,000 refugees and jihadists were transported to northwestern Syria in return for the release of five captured Hezbollah fighters.

SOURCE: AFP
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A company whose officials have been major donors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo  and which received an unusual $25 million state grant for projects it was already building  also was allowed by state insurance regulators to issue a huge rate increase for plans sold by its health care company.

For 2017, the Department of Financial Services  which must approve rate increases for companies on the New York Affordable Care Act market  allowed Crystal Run Health Plan to increase its rates by 80.5 percent for individual plans and 58.5 percent for small group plans.

That was the highest in both categories by far for any non-Crystal Run company, with the next highest increase approved by DFS for individual plans 29.2 percent. The approved rates were announced by DFS in August 2016.

Crystal Run executives, doctors or their spouses have given at least $400,000 to Cuomo, including 10 donations each worth $25,000 over a two-day period in October 2013. A Cuomo campaign spokesman has said the donations stemmed from a fundraiser. Seven of the donors had otherwise not given in a New York election for at least a decade.

A Cuomo spokesman has repeatedly said that campaign donations never impact administration policy.

Crystal Run Health Plan was launched in 2015. In 2016, it sharply dropped its rates  to the lowest ones in the mid-Hudson region of New York  before the major hike for 2017.

For instance, the premiums for its most expensive plan for individuals went from from $570 to $451 in 2016. Then they spiked to $803 in 2017.

After the hike, the company's premiums reverted to the middle of the pack for that region of New York.

The physician-owned, Orange County-based company had requested even higher rates for 2017, which were lowered slightly by DFS.

DFS spokesman Richard Loconte defended the approval of the rate increases.

"In 2015, Crystal Run was a new insurer with no claims experience history and a small membership and therefore utilized a known actuarial firm to establish estimated premiums," Loconte said. "The differences in the rates between 2016 and 2017 reflect the fact that this is a new insurer with limited actual claims experience. Rates for 2017 reflected the fact that the insurer had accumulated more accurate data, enabling it to request more appropriately priced premiums. In approving any insurer's rates, DFS carefully reviews the available data to determine whether an insurer has the necessary resources to pay consumer healthcare claims."

Public comments about the huge 2017 hikes, posted on DFS' websites, show concern among customers of the company, who lobbied DFS not to approve them.

"If they get this HUG[E] increase, my premium will just about double," wrote one. "That is crazy."

"Crystal run [k]new exactly what they were doing by offering their plans in the beginning," wrote another. "I feel as though this is a bait and switch."

In seeking the rate hike for 2017, Crystal Run offered several justifications to DFS: That there were expected changes in medical and pharmacy claim costs; higher medical service unit costs than expected; and demographic changes and changes in administrative expenses, among other reasons.

The company could not be reached for comment.

For 2018, DFS approved in mid-August of this year very modest rate increases for Crystal Run: 6.8 percent for individuals and .8 percent for small groups.

As reported by the Times Union in February, the state in March 2016 gave the $25 million to Crystal Run to build two 70,000-square-foot health care facilities in West Nyack and Monroe, despite the fact that both had broken ground about six months earlier.

Crystal Run opened both health care facility projects before Comptroller Tom DiNapoli even approved the $25 million contract subsidizing them. The Department of Health says Crystal Run has not yet been reimbursed for its expenses and the "review process is ongoing."

The state Health Department said the projects landed the money because they were among the high-scoring proposals in a competitive state procurement process.

The developer for two projects was Columbia Development, the Albany-based firm whose principal is facing a state bid-rigging charge in a unrelated matter.
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Albany

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has sent more than 100 New York Air National Guard airmen as well as aircraft and vessels to Texas and Louisiana to assist with rescue and recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey.

Rescue teams, maintenance and support staff, three helicopters and a plane as well as several boats were leaving over the weekend from Francis S. Gabreski Airport on Long Island to Fort Hood to aid in the recovery efforts.

The personnel were from the Guards 106th Rescue Wing.

As Hurricane Harvey continues to devastate the Gulf Coast, I am deploying emergency personnel and equipment to help mitigate damage and aid in the recovery effort," Cuomo said in announcing the deployment.

"New Yorkers first-hand know the damage Mother Nature can cause, and we stand shoulder to shoulder with Louisiana and Texas."

Cuomo also spoke to Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and John Bel Edwards of Louisiana to offer assistance before and after the storm.

New York guard members have helped other states including Florida following Hurricanes Matthew, Frances, Ivan, and Dennis. The Empire State also dispatched more than 300 people to help in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, as well as another 18-member team after Hurricane Gustav.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Sadler's Joy overcame a slow break to pull off an upset win in Saturday's $1 million Grade I Sword Dancer over the Saratoga inner turf course.

Favorite Idaho was locked in a front-end battle with 31-1 shot Frank Conversation before shaking that rival off early in the stretch. Idaho then surrendered when faced with a challenge from Bigger Picture and Money Multiplier. As that pair approached the wire, they were overtaken by Sadler's Joy despite his hesitant start. He won by a nose.
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Selkirk

These are challenging times for CSX, the railroad that dominates freight business across upstate New York.

A new CEO is rolling out what he calls "precision scheduled railroading." Shippers consider it anything but.

After a number of complaints to regulators, the Surface Transportation Board has asked the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company to file weekly reports measuring everything from on-time performance to the number of locomotives in service.

And on Thursday, the board said it would hold a public listening session Sept. 12 to hear from CSX officials about service problems and what they're doing to recover from them.

Shippers are able to submit their complaints anonymously, and those contacted by the Times Union reported no problems with CSX services.

But industry sources report some shippers, upset by delays, have transferred freight to trucks. An official from the state's trucking trade group did not return a call for comment.

The four shippers petitioning the board for action  Foresight Coal Sales, Sugar Camp Energy, Williamson Energy and Consolidation Coal Company  all are involved in shipping coal from the Illinois Basin and northern Appalachia.

E. Hunter Harrison, the railroad executive brought in to improve CSX's financial performance, quickly moved to close some "hump yards," where gravity does the work of moving cars to different sidings to assemble trains, and to reduce the number of locomotives and cars in service by using equipment more efficiently.

The railroad subsequently reopened a hump yard in Indiana and has postponed or canceled the planned closing of the Selkirk hump at its massive railyard in suburban Albany.

CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle told the Times Union only that the Selkirk hump yard has not closed.

Meanwhile, trains are becoming longer. Several sources said privately that some trains number as many as 265 cars, nearly 3 miles in length. Doolittle didn't address length, saying only that, "in some cases, CSX is operating longer trains."

And average speeds haven't improved. In the week of Aug. 12 to 18, they ran at 13.1 mph, and are slower than the same period a year earlier.

Longer, slower trains can complicate the operation of Amtrak trains that share the tracks and typically travel at higher speeds.

Doolittle said CSX "provides Amtrak preference in accordance with federal law." One Amtrak manager said that trains hadn't faced any recent delays that were caused by CSX.

Amtrak reported its Empire Corridor trains were on time 84.1 percent over the past 12 months and 78.7 percent in July, the latest figure available.

Of the late trains that were delayed by other trains, 47.6 percent were blamed on Metro North Railroad, the downstate commuter agency, while 35.2 percent were blamed on CSX. Amtrak itself was blamed for 17.2 percent.

Of the major freight railroads over whose tracks Amtrak operates most of its service, Canadian Pacific had the best performance from July 2016 to June 2017. CP, which Harrison headed previously, had 409 minutes of delay per 10,000 Amtrak train miles traveled. CSX ranked fourth with 1,277 minutes of delay, just below Union Pacific (1,112 minutes) but ahead of its rival Norfolk Southern, which had 1,421 minutes of delay.

Canadian National ranked sixth with 1,603 minutes of delay.

The longer freight trains CSX has been operating can block highway traffic when they slow or stop, blocking crossings.

But Kerry Dineen, the mayor of Altamont, through which CSX freights travel on their way to and from Selkirk, said she hadn't noticed any problems.

Still, the concentration of towns and shippers can provide some challenges.

Said one retired railroader: "Precision railroading may work in Canada where you have long stretches" of open space. But in upstate New York, with communities and shippers located every few miles along a busy rail line, such lengthy trains can be more difficult to manage.

Prior to working at Canadian Pacific, CSX's Harrison worked for Canadian National.

At both companies, he impressed investors with his approach, making the railroads operate more efficiently while cutting costs.

Harrison wasn't happy with the latest criticisms from shippers, calling them "unfounded and grossly exaggerated."

Ironically, precision railroading is intended to operate trains on regular schedules, so that shipments aren't delayed while waiting for a train to fill.

"Right Car Right Train is no longer a measure that CSX uses to manage its operation," the railroad said in its report to the STB. "In precision scheduled railroading (PSR), if a car can be advanced on another train to speed transit or ensure its on-time arrival, there is not one 'right train.'"

Doolittle held out the promise of better service to come.

"The changes CSX is implementing today will deliver measurable improvements in key service metrics, resulting in our customers' freight moving more consistently, reliably and cost efficiently across the CSX network," he said. "(S)ome customers and other stakeholders have experienced unintended effects ... We have acknowledged these issues, and we are committed to working through and resolving them as quickly as possible."

eanderson@timesunion.com  518-454-5323
COEYMANS

One man was airlifted by helicopter to Westchester Medical Centers burn unit and another was taken to Albany Medical Center hospital after noon on Sunday after being injured by a torch welding device on a ship at the Port of Coeymans.

The worker who was airlifted had burns on all four limbs while the other man had a burn on his hand, said Coeymans Fire Chief Mark Deyo.

They were doing some maintenance and something flashed, Deyo said, adding that EMTs from the County Sheriffs Office were first on the scene. They were able to quickly get the men out of the ship, he added.

They did a good job of getting him off the ship, Deyo said. Any fire that resulted from the flash was quickly put out, he added.

The man worked on the ship and from the Philippines, port officials said. The ship was at the port unloading a shipment of sand and the men were doing maintenance in the vessels interior.

Ambulances from Bethlehem and firefighters from the Ravena fire department also responded to the call.
[August 27, 2017] Noblemen Launches Disruptive Luxury Men's Leather Bag Line

MONTREAL, Aug. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Noblemen, an online store that offers high-end men's leather bags without the designer label prices, proudly announces today they will be launching a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for their first line of luxury leather bags. Visit: http://www.nobleformen.com As a team comprised of leading leather and apparel industry executives, as well as e-commerce and social media experts with a proven track record of marketing success, Noblemen is poised to produce completely unique leather bags with an exclusive digital rollout. "With our Noblemen line, today men can finally get luxury brand quality leather bags at prices they can actually afford," said Michel Berbari, co-founder of Noblemen. "Until now, male consumers would be looking at thousands of dollars for acquiring a top-quality leather bag that turns heads. Fortunately, that's not the case anymore." All of Noblemen's bags are produced in factories that make leather bags for some of the world's most famous luxury brands. The finished products are created from the finest leather, materials, and trims. To meet our standards, the Noblemen team spends countless hours researching the latest styling and fashion trends. The team specializes in making best-in-class luxury leather bags that embody strength and manliness, as well as functionality an durability for daily use.



For their first campaign, Noblemen is showing three different bags that are crafted from soft leather with a defining army green trim: The Weekender: This timeless classic that is a fine example of Noblemen's impeccable craftsmanship. The spacious shape features two rolled top handles and a detachable shoulder strap;

The Messenger: Noblemen's soft-leather messenger bag is a sleek design, enlivened by their signature green on the buckles. It's shaped to a precise, rectangular silhouette and suspended from an adjustable leather strap for comfort. Its interior design also allows 15" laptop transportation. The Explorer: With its distinctive shape and minimalistic feel, the Noblemen Backpack in soft leather brings casual sophistication to any look. A visually powerful everyday bag inspired by the vigor of the outdoors, the backpack comes with a roomy interior. An attractive style marked by good taste. "We founded Noblemen because we wanted to offer the best quality men's leather bags without the exorbitant pricing today," said Berbari. "To make this possible, we cut out the high costs associated with designer brands such as advertising, expensive real estate, and huge overhead, Noblemen is hosting a crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter.com. Spread the word on the new launch of our men's luxury leather bag line, and head on over to our landing page to check out each product's distinctive features." To get access to early bird pricing, visit http://www.nobleformen.com/. Media Contact: Michael Berbari

Company Name: Noblemen Inc.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 514-317-0915

State: Quebec

Country: Canada

Website: www.nobleformen.com Related Files

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Pre-launch Landing Page View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/noblemen-launches-disruptive-luxury-mens-leather-bag-line-300509973.html SOURCE Noblemen Inc.

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BNL girls thump Mitchell at The Hive

Bedford North Lawrence defeated Mitchell 78-20 at the Hive on Saturday evening. The win moved the Stars to 3-0 on the season.
Casper residents will soon have more ways to stay informed about local government.

At Casper City Councils Tuesday night work session, Michael Szewczyk, the citys IT manager, and Tanya Johnson, the citys special projects analyst, presented the Council with a few options for improving technological communication with residents.

Council members opted to move forward with plans to broadcast meetings and work sessions on social media outlets, such as Facebook or YouTube.

We have to embrace technology, said Councilman Jesse Morgan.

Council also decided to connect the meeting room  where work sessions are held  so work sessions can be viewed online. Official meetings, which are held in the chamber area, are already broadcast on the government access channel and the internet.

It is what has to be done if we are going to be good to our citizens, said Councilman Dallas Laird.

The estimated cost of implementing the changes is $12,000, but Mayor Kenyne Humphrey said the Council can explore options that might lower that number.

Johnson said Thursday that shes pleased the Council is embracing technology.

Im really excited, she said. I think its going to open up a lot of doors.








We talked about this milestone on Friday and now it's news fact . . .From the morning, here's more info and a roundup of news on the murder today thatand marks the century mark in late August:At this point last year there were around 73 murders which makes this a 36% uptick in the count this year.Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.Developing . . .
MCI Traffic Stays Winning

Kansas City International Airport Records Third Busiest July on Record - Kansas City infoZine Kansas City International Airport Records Third Busiest July on Record Kansas City, MO - infoZine - The City of Kansas City, MO Aviation Department reports that 1,094,498 passengers arrived and departed through Kansas City International Airport's gates in July, a 4.1-percent increase from July 2016.

Meth Town Violence Escalates, Too

Man found shot to death in the road in Independence The Independence Police Department is investigating a fatal shooting after a man was found dead in the road Friday night. The department said officers responded to a call in the 8700 block of East St. John Avenue at 10:57 p.m. and found a white man with a gunshot wound on the pavement.

Tragic Tribute For Local Officer

Lee's Summit officer loses battle with cancer LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - A Lee's Summit police officer passed away early Saturday morning after losing his fight with cancer. Detective Shawn Rath, 44, was a ten-year veteran of the department who lost his battle with cancer in the early morning hours of August 26th.

Kansas City Helping Hand

Local group lends a helping hand after Hurricane Harvey makes landfall ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Hurricane Harvey caused damage across the Texas coast, bringing strong wind and rain. Friday, a group of volunteers with Heart to Heart left Kansas City to help people in shelters because of the hurricane. "We are here setting up to respond to the shelters in town.

KCMO Ideas For Tonight

Jazz History Tour & Other Weekend Possibilities The Jazz History Tour ($25) begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Chuck Haddix leads the walking tour in two parts that revolve around spots that were instrumental in jazz icon Charlie Parker's life. There's also a 2 p.m. chicken feed featuring fried chicken, Parker's favorite food, at the Bruce R.

Leanne hotness and some of the top stories for today that are worth a click. Checkit:And this is thefor right now . . .
CFRG: Jolie Justus must go! One way or the other!

Airport Committee

Bid Selection Committee

There are eight attorneys on our City Council. Jolie Justus is one of those attorneys. They all have sworn oaths to uphold the laws of the United States, The State of Missouri and the laws and Charter of the City of Kansas City. With the latter comes the responsibility to be good stewards of the Courts and represent the voters of KCMO, not special interests.Jolie Justus has violated the trust the voters of KCMO have placed in her. She agreed to chair theand more importantly thewhile the law firm where she is employed has business with one of the bidders and that bidder does extensive business with the airport and the city, millions of dollars every year!. She should have recused herself from day one!However, this is just part of the problem. She has taken substantial campaign contributions from this bidder (which is not illegal but it is questionable) and she has gone around town pushing the single terminal plan proposed by this bidder. These are conflicts of interest and should require her to recuse herself from further participation in this process. In fact, she should have never engaged in any of these discussions let alone chair the committee where her vote could select the bidder ( a client of her law firm) to build a new airport.Check out these links to the Cityc Code of Ethics:These links leave no doubt that Councilwoman Justus had a conflict of interest she should have disclosed and recused herself from the beginning. She should not vote on selection committee or when the council makes a selection. She should be removed immediately from the Airport Committee, The Airport Selection Committee and the City Council!Now comes word this bidder has been allowed to alter their bid perhaps as many as three times and has not complied with the guidelines set forth in the process. In addition, this bidder has received "special consideration by her selection committee and should be eliminated immediately from competing for the bid at the same time Justus recuses herself!The Ethics committee at the Law Firm which she works for should have caught this and told her early on she shouldnt participate. More importantly, the ethics officer on our City Council, Dan Fowler, should act immediately in recusing her from further proceedings. Other City Council Members (remember seven others are lawyers) who are party to this malfeasance expose themselves to potential litigation stemming from this process. They all know the law and have sworn to up hold it!If the Mayor and the City Council wont police themselves, then we must.Call to action: Dont wait for your neighbor or friend to do this. Step UP!(ph: 816-513-6509 .. Email: Dan.Fowler@kcmo.org) Tell him youre fed up and demand he remove Jolie Justus from the Airport committee and the Airport Selection committee. Then further suggest to Councilman Fowler, Councilwoman Justus be removed from the City Council. We need to pay close attention which members of the Council ask for or support her removal or resignation. Whoever doesnt is complicit. The only way to stop this criminality at City Hall is to take action NOW! Send a message that conflicts of interest and lying to the voters will not be tolerated.and the Citys Ethic Commission: http://kcmo.gov/ethicscommission/complaint-form/ The forms are there and you can do it on line. Do not wait, this must be done now!We will never have openness and honesty in our city government if we dont stop this type of activity. We believe the Mayor is complicit in all of this as he was well aware of the conflicts of interests and the ethics violations. He should have acted weeks ago.Councilman Fowler needs to hold a press conference tomorrow, MONDAY to tell the voters what he is going to do! Demand he do so...############
The studys conclusions warn of a possible exodus by the countrys shipping enterprises

Roughly one in two Greek shipping companies (56 percent) would consider relocating their administrative bases abroad, according to the findings of an Ernst & Young survey titled Repositioning Greece as a Global Maritime Capital.

The studys conclusions warn of a possible exodus by the countrys shipping enterprises at a time when global maritime centers are interested in attracting Greek shipowners.

The European Commissions Directorate-General for Competition is also causing uncertainty for the Greek shipping industry with its prolonged study of its legal framework in Brussels.

If the local shipping sectors legal framework becomes noncompetitive, or far more attractive offers are made by other countries, then a major exodus by Greek-owned shipping companies is possible, warned one sector entrepreneur, reflecting the sentiment of the Greek Shipowners Association.

In its recent annual report, the association stressed that the prevailing uncertainty is threatening Greek shipping, which represents half of Europes industry. The prospect of relocations by shipping firms to new bases offering more favorable conditions  beyond Europe, or even within Europe, to non-EU countries  can no longer be ruled out, the Greek Shipowners Association report warned.

Taxation and the regulatory framework, which scored 84 percent and 64 percent respectively in the study, were cited as the main reasons that would prompt shipowners to find new bases, according to Ernst & Young. Singapore and London ranked as the most popular alternative destinations, with scores of 52 percent and 48 percent respectively.

For the time being, Greece continues to find itself among the maritime capitals offering attractive environments for shipping companies, but the future is uncertain, sector pundits stressed, citing the fears felt over legal, regulatory and tax terms as primary concerns.

A total of 72 percent of the Ernst & Young studys respondents underlined they would actively support an official campaign for Greeces international promotion and further development as a global maritime capital.

International competition is intensifying, especially in Asian emerging markets, meaning that Greeces comparative advantages alone will no longer suffice for the country to maintain its position as a maritime capital, the study concluded.

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: fdecomite License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ekathimerini.com
Europe's future as envisioned by French President Emmanuel Macron with the urgent changes needed for the continent and the deepening of the strong relations between Greece and France will be at the center of the talks between the French leader and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, during the former's two-day visit to the Greek capital of Athens on September 7-8.

The talks will focus on three topics: attracting investments in Greece, the country's stable access to the markets and the future of Europe. The two leaders will also discuss EU-Turkish and EU-Russian relations, Cyprus, the developments in the Western Balkans and migration.

Tsipras shares to a large extent Macron's view on the future of Europe and consequently the Greek side considers this visit as crucial for the direction this dialog will take, according to government sources.

The two sides agree overall on the need to develop a political control and accountability over the implementation of European economic policy. In addition to the absolutely necessary democratization of economic governance, Greece also gives a special emphasis on the restoration of the balance between the economic and social dimensions of Europe, a matter closely linked to the abandonment of neo-liberal policies of unilateral austerity.

According to the same sources, the government feels that Macron's visit to Athens highlights the fact that the country has a crucial role to play in this ongoing dialog and has ceased in recent years to be considered as a mere observer.

At the same time, the visit of the French President is an acknowledgment of the upgraded geopolitical role of Greece and records the practical support of our country's growth dynamics.

Regarding France, the sources said that Macron is expected to present his vision for the future of Europe, the strengthening of European constitutional values and democracy. His speech is expected to reveal elements of the new EU and Eurozone architecture which is being discussed between Berlin and Paris in recent months. At the same time, he is expected to highlight the importance of Greece's effort to address possible European crises, such as those of recent years, defending international law and the European acquis.

According to the same sources, the Greek PM will stress the historic significance of Greek-French friendship and cooperation and France's key role in supporting Greece during the economic crisis - and specifically Macron's, during his tenure in the finance ministry. He will also note that the new EU and Eurozone architecture can lead to a better future for European citizens on the condition that it will be based on the development of a social, democratic Europe and the defense of the European acquis.

Macron will be escorted by Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire and the Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau. The French mission will also include businesspeople involved in the sectors of energy, infrastructure, tourism, start-ups, finance and the defence industry.

The sources noted the French president looks forward to strengthening his country's regional role and, in this light, attaches great importance to Greece's role in the wider region. He also lent practical support to Cyprus and expressed his readiness to exercise vigorous energy diplomacy.

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

Source: ANA-MPA
An Oman-based major distribution facility for building materials, which is among 10 projects planned by Chinese firms in Duqm, will be ready by the middle of 2019, according to a top-level official at Oman Wanfang.



The building material distribution centre, which is coming up in an area of 500,000 sq m, is being developed by Ningxia Ningqiao Commercial Investment and Operation Ltd. with an estimated investment of $46 million, added the Times of Oman report.



The Chinese company had signed a land lease agreement with Oman Wanfang in April this year for establishing the facility, it said.



Ali Shah, chairman of Oman Wanfang, said that the company do not have a very big building material distribution in the region. And the Duqm facility will support the regional development.



He added that the build material will be imported from China and other countries, and also noted that Duqm, which is also developing, requires a lot of building materials.



Shah stated that the proposed building material distribution centre will provide everything (for the construction sector), from steel bar to furniture.



He said the detailed design for the project is going on now. The work on building the facility will start by the end of the year and it will take one-and-a-half years to complete the facility.
Iraqi forces have said they are poised to recapture the city of Tal Afar from so-called Islamic State (IS) after six days of intense fighting.



Troops have cleared the old citadel and its surrounding neighbourhood of militants, Lt Gen Abdul Amir Yarallah was quoted as saying by BBC.



Clashes were still being reported in the northern outskirts of the city.



Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, is one of the jihadists' last remaining strongholds in Iraq. Last month, a long-running operation drove IS militants from the Iraqi city of Mosul.



Gen Yarallah, who is in charge the latest offensive, said his forces were now dealing with the final pockets of jihadi resistance in Tal Afar.



Footage from within the city shows Iraqi forces moving through the streets in tanks with black smoke billowing from targeted buildings.



"Tal Afar city is about to fall completely into the hands of our forces, only 5 per cent remains [under IS control]", a military spokesman was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.
The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Aramco and a Chinese company will set up a joint investment firm targeting Saudi Arabia's Jizan region, it has been revealed.



The company will be the biggest investment platform between the two countries, with the aim of attracting Chinese investments in various industrial sectors in Jizan, said Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih.



Saudi Arabia aspires to be the biggest investor in the sector of refining petrochemicals in the Chinese market, and there will be a big development in this field, said Al-Falih was quoted as syaing in an Arab News report.



Signed investment agreements between Saudi Arabia and China are worth more than $60 billion, he said in the report.



Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Wednesday held a meeting with Saudi businessmen representing various economic, industrial and investment sectors, in the presence of Al-Falih.



Last week Jeddah hosted the Saudi-Chinese Investment Forum, organised by the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources with the involvement of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, the Council of Saudi Chambers, and Saudi and Chinese businessmen.
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd)

Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd)

THE violent situation that prevailed at Panchkula is by now well-known to everyone. Television channels had been reporting developing events since morning.

This article, however, is about the acute lack of governance and how the administration of Haryana had no clue as to how to anticipate events in advance; make plans and be prepared for all likely contingencies  instead of either being goaded by others or getting into a fire-fighting mode, which seems to be the way our so-called governance works.

I read four national level papers every morning. This morning the papers arrived late. However, all had headlines about the impending situation that had been building up for the last at least four days, if not more. The headlines of all papers indicated that the media had grasped the essentials of the impending events. The headline of one stated: "Uneasy Calm, Tricity on the Edge"; the second called it a: "Lockdown in Punjab, Haryana, Army called out, curfew in Sirsa"; and its supplement ominously stated: "D-Day Today: Tricity on the Edge"; the third said: "Dera Followers Fan Out before Verdict"; and the next one: "D-Day, Army Called Out". So the print media was fully aware of the likely situation, as was the aam aadmi (not the political party, but the common citizen).

Yet, apparently the administration was gung-ho about it till the Punjab and Haryana High Court admonished the state government about not controlling the spate of premis (as the followers of the so-called Godman Ram Rahim are called), even though Section 144 had been imposed.

Ground Zero, where the police had placed elaborate barricades for preventing any non-authorised person from moving towards the courts complex was just about 80 metres or so from my house. This enabled me to relate to the visuals being transmitted by the television channels. As events unfolded, three things were absolutely clear to me. Firstly, the administration as well as the police of all types had only two major aims  to ensure that the court complex was sealed completely; and the accused was brought safely, without any hindrance and in time to the court. Little attention, if any, was paid to how the premis will react to an adverse verdict or the safety of the life and property of the aam aadmi. All this while, the influx of premis continued unabated and no attempts were made to control them.

The administration and the police had unfortunately made no contingency plans relating to how the premis, who had flooded Panchkula from a number of states, would react to an adverse verdict from their point of view. Resultantly, when the court's verdict of "guilty" became known, the premis quickly reacted with violence. Initial attempts by the variety of police forces were repulsed by the amassed premis and the police retreated (a euphemism for running back pell-mell). Thereafter, the premis, described more than once by Ministers of the state government as peaceful disciples, went on a rampage like goondas. They set fire to any vehicle in sight; assaulted the mediapersons, especially cameramen; and set fire to nearby government buildings, including the offices of the Income Tax Department and of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

While all this violence was going on, the accused was whisked away by helicopter to another city. This must have released a large number of police personnel for redeployment against the rioters. Whether this was done or not is not known, but there was no discernable increase in the police force preventing the hooliganism that was going on. Let me now turn to a different facet of the day's events. If it had not been for the judiciary's admonishment of August 23, we would have seen more violence, destruction of property and also potent danger to life and property of the aam aadmi. We need to compliment the Justices of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for their timely and firm admonishment. Otherwise, the political leaders would have continued to direct the police to go easy so that there was minimum adverse impact on their vote bank. A great pity indeed when the lives and properties of the aam aadmi are sacrificed on account of the single-minded pursuit of more votes, more seats in Vidhan Sabhas and the Parliament; and prolonged sitting on thrones of power and pelf!

On the other hand, this week has undoubtedly been the week of the higher judiciary for the historic judgments it has delivered on two major issues, viz. the Triple Talaq case and the Fundamental Right to Privacy. I do hope the present government, being peeved with the latter decision, does not queer the pitch by bringing in legislation to dilute this well-reasoned judgment passed unanimously by the full Bench of the Supreme Court.

Let me ask a fundamental question. Why can nothing substantive be achieved in our country without calling in the Army? When will the police as well as the Central Armed Police Forces (wrongly referred to as para-military forces by the media and others), be sufficiently trained and led to carry out tasks that fall fully and completely in their domain? Are seven decades of Independence and increasing salaries and allowances that have no relationship to their output, not enough? When will the political leadership dig out the recommendations for Police Reforms from their musty cupboards and implement them? Maybe they continue to be jumlas, despite the innumerable bhashans of the Prime Minister for change and the propaganda accompanying them. As far as the laxity of the administration is concerned, excuses and passing the buck have already started and are likely to gather pace in the coming days. The incompetence of the political leaders may again be papered over as was done in the aftermath of the infamous Jat agitation, under the same leaders. Some middle-ranking and junior officers may be suspended for a while and reinstated again, while the ubiquitous bureaucrat will again get away with murder; in this case not literally but in actuality.

The writer is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff
For the third time in three years Manohar Lal Khattar has proved that whenever faced with a volatile situation he as Chief Minister is unable to handle it. The Rampal incident in November 2014, which left six dead, was the beginning. Everyone then thought the man was new to the job and should get another chance. The breakdown of official machinery during the Jat agitation in February 2106 was a valid ground to remove Khattar. He had proved inept. Worse, he tried a cover-up and tested the high court's patience. Thirty lives were lost then, but Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were not ready to admit that they had made a wrong choice for Haryana. This time there is no excuse. Intelligence and media reports had warned him of the impending danger. The high court had told him a repeat of the Jat agitation would not be tolerated. Yet he played vote politics.

Khattar has been soft towards the Dera Sacha Sauda followers because the BJP is beholden to the rockstar Baba for its Haryana victory. The Prime Minister has publicly acknowledged his help. Khattar made the rape suspect a brand ambassador. To be fair, politicians from almost all parties have courted and lionised him. As Chief Minister, Badal almost secured pardon for the Baba who has been excommunicated from the Sikh Panth. As Chief Minister, Hooda provided him Z-plus security. It was because of politicians that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was able to build a spiritual empire. It is not just the Dera chief who has been declared guilty by the court; the entire political class that patronised him stands indicted.

After Friday's mayhem, the Modi-Amit Shah duo has little justification for letting Khattar continue. It is too much to expect the BJP to apologise for cosying up to a rape suspect-cum-convict for electoral advantage and take responsibility for the large-scale bloodshed, arson and inconvenience to people. Instead of acting firmly to save the life and property of citizens, Khattar pandered to Dera followers, letting them converge in Panchkula in large numbers. Sacking the CM is the minimum the BJP leadership can do to atone for its political sins. Haryana deserves better.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, August 27

An uneasy calm prevails in Sirsa ahead of the Special CBI Courts judgment on the quantum of sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case tomorrow. The district authorities as well as the dera management were wary of each others move throughout the day today.

While the district authorities are worried due to the presence of a large number of followers in the dera who could pose a threat to law and order tomorrow, the premis have apprehension that the Army or paramilitary forces may invade the dera under an operation.

The district authorities have already cut power supply to the dera and several localities on its land to force devotees to come out. They today succeeded in persuading over 3,000 followers to return home in Haryana Roadways buses. Several others are said to have left Sirsa in their own vehicles.

As the authorities have set up a barricade about 6 km from the dera towards the town and nobody is being allowed to go beyond that point, buses were brought from the other side near Nejia village, close to the dera, to ferry followers.

The authorities wanted to evacuate inmates of Shahi Betiya Basera and Shahi Asra Basera too but they were told that children refused to leave the dera.

Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh directed the revenue authorities to prepare a list of the dera properties for attachment in deference to the Punjab and Haryana High Court order.

A TV journalist, who was going towards the dera this morning, alleged that some premis beat him up for making videos of the dera.

However, the Deputy Commissioner said it was a case of an altercation between two persons and it has nothing to do with the media or the dera. We are not allowing anyone to cross the barricade. But an overzealous journalist tried moving towards the dera in his private car through narrow lanes where he hit a motorcycle, leading to a clash between him and the motorcycle riders, he said.

Meanwhile, the district administration relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here today, allowing people to go out for shopping and perform necessary chores. The authorities clarified that no further relaxation would be given till Tuesday morning.

11 from state among the dead

Chandigarh: The Haryana Government has released a list of 24 persons killed during the violence in Panchkula and Sirsa on August 25.
Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 26

The Haryana Government sealed 36 naam charcha ghar (dera ashrams) of the Dera Sacha Sauda across the state today. The action comes a day after dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted in a rape case by the Special CBI court in Panchkula and his followers indulged in large-scale violence.

In a statewide swoop, the authorities sealed dera ashrams, especially in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Ambala and Panchkula districts. The government seems to have acted on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas told The Tribune that a statewide search operation had been launched and dera ashrams where objectionable materials such as lathis, iron rods or other weapons were found had been sealed.

The court had ordered that all damage to property caused by Ram Rahim's followers be compensated by selling the dera properties. The court directed all Deputy Commissioners of Punjab and Haryana to provide it a list of dera properties. They were told to invite through public notices the claims for damages to property in the violence. The dera has been told not to alienate, sell or transfer its properties.

Meanwhile, soon after the government action, the sect removed the mention of its ashrams from its website.

Details of assets sought

Hisar: The district administration has asked a lead bank to provide the details of the accounts of the Dera Sacha Sauda. Deputy Commissioner Nikhil Gajraj has asked tehsildars to compile the details of the assets and properties of the dera. Sources said the state government has directed the district administrations to prepare a full report of the assets, bank accounts and other properties of the dera in different districts. Gajraj has urged people to inform his office about any damage caused by dera followers after the conviction of dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. "Any person having suffered damage to property could submit his claim for compensation by 5 pm tomorrow," he said.  TNS
Chandigarh, August 27

Haryana was on edge on Sunday, a day before the special CBI judge pronounces the sentence against the maverick Dera Sacha Sauda cult chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted of raping his two women followers, in Rohtak jail tomorrow.

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CBI court judge Jagdeep Singh will be flown to Rohtak district jail where he would pronounce the quantum of sentence against Singh, whose conviction on Friday saw his followers run riot in several places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

Ripples were also felt in Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

There was no report of any violence in Haryana since Saturday, even as security forces remained on high alert.

Relaxation in curfew was being given at various places where it had been clamped earlier, officials said.

In Sirsa, the district administration this morning relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here, after restrictions were imposed on August 24.

Rail services from Delhi to Katra via Ambala have been resumed, Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said, adding peace prevails in the state.

Punjab was also peaceful and no untoward incident had been reported from anywhere, an official spokesperson said.

Tight security arrangements were being put in place in Sunaria jail at Rohtak, where the CBI court judge will pronounce the quantum of sentence in the rape case against 50-year-old sect chief.

Authorities said they are ensuring that law and order is maintained at all cost on Monday when the sentence is pronounced.

The judge will be flown to the district jail in Sunaria, Rohtak, for pronouncing the quantum of sentence.

Security forces were on high alert in Haryana and strict vigil was being maintained in sensitive districts, including Panchkula, Sirsa, Rohtak and Fatehabad.

Educational institutions in Haryana to remain shut tomorrow

In view of the prevailing tense situation, all schools, colleges and other educational institutions will remain closed tomorrow, a senior official said.

All educational institutions, including government and private schools, colleges and other institutions in the entire state, will remain closed tomorrow," Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Ram Niwas, said in an official release.

At many sensitive places in Punjab, too, security forces conducted flag marches and kept a tight vigil in sensitive areas.

Punjab has tightened security at vital installations, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said on Saturday evening.

Singh will be visiting some of the affected areas of Punjab on Sunday to meet the people and the forces on the ground for maintaining peace.

Amarinder had on Saturday said Haryanas main fault was its failure to prevent such a large crowd from gathering in Panchkula.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday castigated the Haryana government over the deadly violence that erupted in the state, saying it had surrendered before the followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda head for political considerations.

In a big crackdown, the Haryana government had on Saturday sealed over 30 congregation centres of the Dera Sacha Sauda across the state, even as it came under attack from the High Court over Fridays violence that claimed 36 lives.

Four rifles, including an AK-47, pistols and petrol bombs were among the weapons seized from the supporters of the sect, whose chief was convicted on Friday in a 2002 rape case that sparked violence and arson, mainly in Panchkula and Sirsa, the police said.

Two cases of sedition were also registered against Dera followers, they added but did not give details.

Facing flak over the violence, the Haryana government had suspended Ashok Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Panchkula, alleging that his defective prohibitory orders allowed the crowd build-up in the district.

Paramilitary forces have been deployed in Rohtak, where Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will be sentenced on Monday. Indian Army has been kept on standby.

Security has been heightened around Sunaria jail complex, where Singh is currently kept.

Rohtak Range IGP and SP have issued warned Dera against entering the district.

District administrations of Rohtak and Kurukshetra have announced that all educational institutions will remain closed on Monday. TNS/ Agencies
Sirsa (Haryana), August 27

A 35-year-old cameraman of a news channel was on Sunday attacked allegedly by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after he tried to enter the campus of the sect.

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The group of followers ran away with his car and allegedly damaged the camera. The victim, identified as Sunil Kumar, suffered injuries in his hand and leg.

We have recovered the looted car from the possession of the followers and the victim has lodged a complaint, a senior police official said.

The incident took place when the cameraman along with a journalist tried to enter the sects premises and their car was spotted by the followers who then started chasing them.

He has been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Ram Rahims supporters had attacked mediapersons when violence had erupted after the conviction of the self-styled godman by a CBI court in Panchkula.

The district administration on Sunday relaxed curfew for five hours in and around Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here, after restrictions were imposed on August 24.

Yesterday, several Dera followers made their way out of the sprawling sect premises after police urged them to vacate the place. Around 1 lakh people, including women and children, were present in the sect headquarters.

The conviction of the Dera head triggered arson and violence across Haryana that claimed 36 lives and injured over 250 people.

In Sirsa, four people died and 58 have been injured. The violence also spilled over into neighbouring Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi. PTI
Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 27

The violence in Panchkula was not the first instance when the dera followers took the law into their hands. A decade back, the followers of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim had showed their strength when he was attacked by a bomb near Nilokheri on GT road on February 2, 2008.

Though the dera chief had escaped unhurt, while his two followers sustained injuries after the assailants missed the targeted vehicle, but his followers blocked the National Highway 1 for hours and also damaged several vehicles.

They even clashed with the police. That time also the police were struggling to tackle the situation as the number of the dera followers was swelling minute by minute.

The police had to fire rubber bullets to disperse the agitating dera followers.

Due to the terror of this agitation, people kept themselves locked in their houses and shops in Nilokheri and the vicinity.

The violence is still fresh in the mind of the residents of Nilokheri and adjoining areas.

The Panchkula violence by dera followers took me back to the evening of February 2, 2008, when the dera followers overpowered and blocked the NH-1.

They had even damaged the vehicles and had a clash with the police, said Suresh Midha, a resident of Nilokheri.

He added that hundreds of commuters were stuck for hours in traffic jam and they were also terrified with the act done by the followers.

I had also witnessed that violence and got scared. I was not able to judge the sentiments of the dera followers, who were ready to die, said Amit Kumar, a resident of Nilokheri.

In 2007, the dera head appeared in a print advertisement, which was perceived to be him imitating tenth Sikh guru  Guru Gobind Singh  and that led to large scale violent protests by Sikhs in Punjab and Haryana.

The dera head was on the way to New Delhi from Ambala when the incident took place.

The attack on him was also a part of the protest against the dera chief.

Later, a local court had sentenced seven persons, including Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terrorist Bakhshish Singh and his accomplice Swaran Singh and Mohinder Singh to 10-year imprisonment under Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act.

Other convicts Gurinder Singh, Hoshiar Singh, Dharminder Singh and Jaswant Singh were sentenced to five years imprisonment.

All convicts were held guilty of conspiring (120-B) and attempting to kill under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. Praveen Kaur of Patiala was acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence.




Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, August 27

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singhs loyalist and Cabinet minister Prakash Chaudhari said today that he would not contest the Assembly poll if Virbhadra leaves electoral politics.

The statement of the minister is an indication to the party high command that Virbhadra loyalists want free hand for the Chief Minister in the coming Assembly polls to ensure the win of the Congress.

During a District Congress Committee Sammelan at Mandi, Prakash Chaudhari had announced from the stage that if the party wanted to win again, it should give free hand to the Chief Minister. He did not even stop here and said the Congress was synonymous with Virbhadra (Himachal Main Congress ka Dusra naam Virbhadra hai).

The minister said during the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Shimla, a majority of the MLAs had expressed solidarity with the Chief Minister and said they would not contest if the Chief Minister did not participate in electoral politics.

Infighting within the Congress was seen at many places where the Chief Minister was on target, not from the BJP but from his own party men.

According to political analysts, it will be interesting to see the result in the coming days whether the Congress will be able to overcome the differences or not, which will have a long-lasting impact on the Congress prospects during the election.

Give free hand to CM
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 26

To counter Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her party ministers campaign to mobilise support for Article 35A, victims of this provision of the Constitution are going to Delhi on August 28 to brief the Central leadership about their unending plight.

Besides Central leaders of the BJP, these victims will also try to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

On our mission to counter the wicked campaign launched by Kashmir-centric parties, including the ruling PDP, we will reach Delhi on August 28 to meet the Central leadership of the BJP and some ministers of the Union Government, Labha Ram Gandhi, leader of West Pakistan refugees told The Tribune, adding, During our stay at Delhi, we will try to meet the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister to remind them of the promises of basic human rights to us.

Gandhi said West Pakistani refugees were already in touch with Valmikis, Gorkhas and some women-married outside J&K to jointly intensify the legal as well as political fight against discriminatory Article 35A. We are fully confident that the Centre is not going to oppose the abrogation of this Article in the apex court because the Central leadership is aware that neglected and marginalised section of the society is bearing the maximum brunt.

The Union Government has already assured that it will solve all issues pertaining to the West Pakistan refugees, Gandhi said while recalling their meeting with the Prime Minister on May 7, 2015, at New Delhi.

As reported earlier, West Pakistan refugees have taken initiatives to bring all victims of Article 35A under one umbrella to intensify the battle. After Mehbooba Muftis meeting with the Prime Minister to protect this Article, victims had announced to counter the ongoing campaign in favour of this provision.

Gandhi has also warned the BJP leadership against succumbing before the pressure tactics of those who are supporting this Article.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 26

Suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad fidayeen, believed to be foreign mercenaries, stormed the District Police Lines complex in south Kashmirs Pulwama today, entrenching themselves in all three blocks. In the raging gunbattle, four CRPF personnel and an equal number of policemen were killed. Three of the fidayeen were killed too.

The complex, that was attacked in the wee hours, houses the residences of top police officers and police and CRPF personnel. It is unclear as to how the militants managed to sneak inside the heavily-guarded compound, 35 km from Srinagar. They were noticed only when they opened fire on the forces preparing to move out at 4.15 am. In the initial firing, three CRPF men and a policeman were injured. They were evacuated to the Armys 92 base hospital.

There was no forcible entry, CRPFs Additional Director General SN Srivastava said. All residential quarters were quickly cordoned. They entered the family quarters where there were a lot of families. So, in the initial action we lost a J&K Police constable and two CRPF men. Thereafter, we brought the families safely out, General Officer Commanding (Chinar Corps) JS Sandhu told the media in Srinagar. He said there was no hostage-like situation, but two Special Police Officers (SPOs) were stuck inside one of the blocks. Their bodies were found during combing operations.

DGP Shesh Paul Vaid claimed there was no security lapse. The boys fought bravely and we are only more determined to wipe out militancy, he said.

Among the four slain CRPF men are Constable Jaswant Singh of 183 Battalion of Shekhupur Mari, Gurugram, and Head Constable Dhanawade Ravindra Baban of Satara, Maharashtra.

Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the attack. The authorities have suspended mobile Internet services in the area as a precautionary measure.

Three pakistani rangers killed

Jammu: A day after a BSF jawan was injured in a sniper fire, three Pakistani Rangers were shot dead by the BSF in the Chicken Neck area in Pargwal sector on the International Border on Saturday.
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 27

Calling for sustained efforts for abolition of discriminatory and unconstitutional Articles 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitution, the Panun Kashmir today said these provisions had deprived women and minority communities of their rights.

It said a separate homeland for Pandits in the Valley was the only solution to the plight of the community.

These issues were raised during Panun Kashmirs annual national convention organised to discuss political issues confronting the state, especially the displaced Pandits.

Speaking on the occasion, a prominent activist and a leader of Ek Bharat Abhiyan Ramesh Shinde said there was a need to work for the total integration of the state with the country and empowerment of Jammu, Ladakh and displaced Hindus.

Historian Prof Hari Om dwelt on how Article 35A had deprived women of their rights while the successive governments had allowed settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu province aimed at changing the demography of the region.

During the day-long convention, the organisation also reiterated its demand for a separate homeland in the Valley citing it as only long-term solution for the settlement of minorities.

The continuing struggle for implementation of the Margdarshan resolution for reorganisation of J&K and creation of a Centrally-administered union territory for the return and rehabilitation of Pandits will defeat the separatist ideology, said Agnishekhar, convener, Panun Kashmir.

The prominent speakers who spoke on the occasion included poet and writer Kshama Koul, former J&K DGP MM Khajuria, advocate Ankur Sharma and social activist Sushil Pandit.

Panun Kashmir chairman Ajay Chrungoo alleged that the events happening in Kashmir had clearly brought to the fore both the ideological content as well as the operational character of an intensely destabilising phenomenon.

The intense mobilisation of public support, convergence of mainstream parties and all pervading tentacles of violent Islamist movement leave us in no doubt that the nation is not facing any sporadic, occasional terror incidents but a full-fledged jihad, he said.
Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 27

The Education Department has instructed all Valley schools to hold extra classes and complete the syllabus on time so as to compensate for the academic losses faced by the students in the past six months.

Acknowledging that much of the students time had been lost due to the unfavourable circumstances in the Valley since July last year, the department has instructed the schools to devote maximum time to academics.

There is an immense need to dedicate more time to the academics in the educational institutions, read a circular from the Education Department.

The department has given strict instructions to all heads of the educational institutions in Kashmir to complete the practical and theoretical syllabus on time as the exams are less than two months away.

A provision of extra classes should be made, wherever necessary, the circular said.

The government has also instructed the schools to give minimum time to the co-curricular activities in the current session and focus on academics as most of the students up to Class XII have complained that they have completed only 50 per cent of the syllabus so far.

If need arises to devote time to the co-curricular activities, proper permission should be sought from the directorate, the circular read.

Just after a month of classwork following a three-month winter break, the student protests spread to schools and college across the Valley in April, affecting classwork for over two weeks.

The government closed schools from April 15 to June 1 in view of the protests.

In 2016, the students lost six academic months as the educational institutions remained shut during the unrest which began in July following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The government had to frequently close schools this year to prevent student protests. The protests affected the academic work in the educational institutions.

The official records show that the classes could be held for only 50 days from March to July 1 this year.

Exams 2 months away

The Education Department has given strict instructions to all heads of the educational institutions in Kashmir to complete the practical and theoretical syllabus on time as the exams are less than two months away

The government has also instructed the schools to give minimum time to co-curricular activities in the

current session

Studies hit by protests
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 27

The initial investigation into the deadly gunfight that left eight security personnel dead on Saturday has found that the three Jaish-e-Mohammad fidayeen may have entered the District Police Lines in Pulwama on Friday night, taking cover in thick vegetation and a water tank close to the complex.

Top police sources said the wire fencing of the Police Lines was cut near the water tank, hinting that the three fidayeen in fatigues might have infiltrated into the camp from that point.

The water tank is located between the fence and a security camp. The three militants scaled the boundary wall of the complex before cutting the barbed wire and entering the Police Lines premises. Though there was a sentry on duty, it seems that due to thick vegetation in the area, he did not notice them, a senior police officer said, wishing not to be named.

Questions are being raised as to how the three armed gunmen entered the highly guarded campus without getting noticed.

This year, the fidayeen have managed to storm at least two security camps in Kashmir.

Additional Director General, CRPF, SN Srivastava on Saturday said the fidayeen did not make a forcible entry into the complex.

There are also indications that the three fidayeen knew the target and immediately after firing at the forces, they took shelter in three separate residential blocks. At least 36 families of policemen were evacuated from these blocks.

The police officer said that preliminary investigation suggest that the three Jaish fidayeen were in Pulwama district from over one month and they might have infiltrated into the Valley in July.

But all this is under investigation. We have been getting reports of Jaish activities in the district, he said.

Another senior police officer said the three slain terrorists were Pakistani nationals and two among them were identified as Abu Dawood and Abu Saad. Eight security men, including four policemen and four CRPF men, were killed in one of the deadliest attacks this year.

Meanwhile, south Kashmirs Pulwama observed a shutdown to mourn the killing of three fidayeen, who were buried in north Kashmirs Baramulla district on Sunday.

Major fidayeen attacks in two years
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Gadkhal (Akhnoor), August 27

Humiliation being faced by Manohar Kumar, a West Pakistani refugee youth, during a recruitment rally on the outskirts of Jammu, has authenticated Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahirs observation that woes of these helpless people are mounting with every passing day.

The Union minister, while reviewing the progress of various packages announced by the Centre for all categories of refugees and displaced persons on Thursday, had expressed his anguish over the delay by the state government in issuing identity certificates to West Pakistani refugees.

My son Manohar Kumar had qualified all tests including the physical test for recruitment in Central forces but was shunted out at the last stage as he failed to prove himself a resident of Jammu, rued Mohan Lal. Although all refugees are living in penury, my son somehow managed to pass Class 12 with the hope of living a dignified life but the inhumane approach of the state government has shattered all his hopes, Lal said, adding that getting an identity certificate was rather impossible for poor and marginalised refugees.

The Union Home Ministry had asked the J&K Government to issue identity certificates as a relief to these refugees after they repeatedly knocked the door of the Union Government to solve their problem.

As these refugees are not eligible for government jobs in J&K, it was decided to issue them identity certificates so that they become eligible for jobs in the Central government departments.

Despite direction by the Union Government in 2016, the PDP-BJP government in J&K failed to complete the process as coalition regime virtually succumbed to the threats of the National Conference (NC) and the separatist leadership, who created the fear of demography change to oppose the move.

As per official data, there were 5,764 families, consisting of 47,915 persons, who had migrated from West Pakistan at the time of Partition and settled in various areas of Jammu province. At present, their number is not more than 1.5 lakh.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 27

The BJP will approach forthcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat and Karnataka elections under the leadership of the expected candidates Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Karnataka chief BS Yeddyurappa.

However, the party leadership continues to remain undecided on whether to name a CM candidate in the hill state that goes to polls with Gujarat or follow the successful Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand models  depending on Prime Minister Narendra Modis name and image.

BJP chief Amit Shah recently appointed eight top-ranking ministers as in-charge of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. For Himachal Pradesh, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot is the pointsperson and top leaders in the party say deliberations were on and the call on the critical issue would be taken soon.

In Himachal, the party has been out of power for past five years and has to take care of several factors, including the fate of 73-year-old former BJP CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and deep divisions in the local leadership.

Though speculations continue that Union Minister JP Nadda may be projected as the BJPs face in Himachal, it remains to be seen whether PM Modi would be agreeable to relieve another member of his Cabinet after Manohar Parrikar and Sarbananda.

A section believes the CM face should be someone actively connected with local politics like Satpal Singh Satti, Jairam Thakur or RSS man Ajay Jamwal.

Another point of view is that projecting a CM face could lead to problems, given the factionalism in the state leadership.

The BJPs decision to approach Assembly polls under the leadership of PM has been successful in most states, except Bihar. Meanwhile, after Kiran Bedi in Delhi and Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam, Yeddyurappa is the third person to be confirmed by the BJP as its face before elections. While Delhi proved to be a disaster, in Assam Sonowal went on to become the CM.

As far as Yeddyurappa is concerned, the former Karnataka CM holds the key to the BJP strategy to woo Lingayats and reclaim the southern state.

Meanwhile, Rupani is the incumbent CM. And as per the BJP's existing policy, it prefers to go with the incumbent CM in the state where it is in power.
Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26

The CBI today began its probe into the Srijan scam in Bihar involving the alleged transfer of government funds of Rs 1,000 crore to the accounts of an NGO in the Bhagalpur district of the state. The agency took over the case following a notification issued by the state as well as the Union government.

The prime investigating agency has registered 10 FIRs in the case that was being investigated by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police.

The agency received the necessary documents from the Bihar Government today.

The FIR was registered against Manorama Devi, director of Srijan Mahila Vikas Samiti in Bhagalpur; former branch manager and other officials of the Bank of Baroda in Saharsa; former bank manager and other officials of Bank of Baroda in Bhagalpur; former officials, cashier and head assistant of Special Land Acquisition Office in Saharsa in Bihar.

Sources said that the CBI had taken over the FIR of the Bihar Police as it was. Now, the agency will investigate the case on its own and will submit the chargesheet in court. The Bihar Police had issued a lookout notice against the secretary of Srijan, Priya Kumar, and her husband for allegedly swindling government money in Bhagalpur.

Priya Kumar is the daughter-in-law of Manorama Devi, the founder of the NGO.

Manorama Devi died early this year after which the NGO was being run by Priya Kumar and Amit Kumar, son of Manorama Devi, sources said. According to sources, the scam took place between 2007 and 2013.

Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, ordered the CBI probe into the scam last week as he moved quickly to rob the Opposition of an opportunity to question his policy of zero tolerance on corruption. The initial probe by the Bihar Police revealed the involvement of nationalised banks, government officials and employees in the fraudulent withdrawal of government funds, sources said.
SC VASUDEVA

Q. My father retired from service six years ago. He got leave encashment, gratuity and other benefits from government amounting to Rs 30 lakh to his credit. My query is whether he can withdraw money for below-mentioned purposes:

For religious purposes: Rs 4 lakh

For marriage of his daughter: Rs 12 lakh

For repair of house: Rs 4 lakh

Please guide whether any intimation is required to be given to the Income-Tax Department before or after the withdrawal.

 Gurdeep Singh Bindra

A. Section 10(10) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (The Act) exempts from tax any amount of death-cum-retirement gratuity received by an employee of the Central or State Government at the time of his retirement. Section 10(10AA) of the Act also exempts any amount received by an employee of the Central or the State Government as cash equivalent of the leave salary in respect of the period of earned leave at his credit at the time of his retirement. The amount so received by your father can therefore be used by him for any purpose. No tax would be chargeable on the amount withdrawn from the bank account in which such amount of gratuity and leave salary stands deposited. No information is required to be given to the department before or after withdrawal from the bank account wherein such amounts stand deposited.

Q. My father late Sarbans Singh expired on December 30, 2014. His date of birth was January 6, 1920. My father had FDRs in SBoP, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana, in joint name (Sarbans Singh + Harpal Singh) payable to either or survivor. He also had a joint savings bank account with me. During the financial year 2016-17, the bank credited FDR interest of Rs 89,735 in the joint savings bank account and deducted Rs 8,977 as TDS. My father did not have Aadhaar card.

How can I file ITR-I and get refund of Rs 8,977?

Who will sign the ITR-I return? Annual interest is credited by the bank in our joint savings account.

Form 16A has been issued by the bank in the name of Sarbans Singh. Please advise.

 Harpal Singh

A. Your father having died on December 30, 2014, the fixed deposit receipt as well as the savings bank account should have been designated in your name and the name of the deceased should have been deleted. The bank should have been informed about the death of your father and the relevant death certificate should have been filed as supporting evidence. The savings bank account and FDR would have been in your name after such deletion. In case your father had any taxable income, the tax return for assessment year 2015-16 (financial year 2014-15) should have been filed under your signatures as legal heir of your father after getting the status of legal heir registered with the tax department.

It seems above steps were not taken by you. It may be very difficult to get yourself registered as legal heir of your father at this stage. The registration process requires certain documents such as succession certificate, registered will, etc. to be filed with the department. This process may be tried at this stage but it seems to be a difficult process because the department may not agree to accept this contention after the delay of almost two years. On the basis of the facts given in the query, it may be very difficult to get the adjustment of tax deducted at source against the tax payable by you as the amount of interest would be includible in your income in case the status of legal heir is not accepted at this stage. You should take immediate steps to rectify this error at the level of the bank.

Q. What are the legal implications if my NRI son delays/does not convert his savings account in India into an NRO account?  Balkrishna

A. In accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2016 dated April 1, 2016 as amended from time to time, the existing account is required to be designated as an NRO account. You would therefore be well advised to inform your bankers about the status of your son having migrated abroad with an intention to stay outside India for an uncertain period. The implications of not informing earlier should be checked up with your bankers.
Rajesh Sud

I wouldnt have been writing this piece, if the calendar on my desk showed a date from a decade and a half back. The topic itself would have sounded alien to most. Financial literacy is now one of the top priorities for most nations. It is more critical for developing nations like India, where the majority find financial literacy beyond comprehension.

What is financial literacy

Financial literacy is the ability to use skills and knowledge to take effective and informed money management decisions.

Need of the hour

As per a global survey by Standard & Poors Financial Services LLC (S&P), only 25% of adults or less are financially literate in South Asian countries. For an average Indian, financial literacy is yet to become a priority. India is home to 17.5% of the worlds population and nearly 76% of its adult population does not understand even the basic financial concepts.

The survey confirms that financial literacy in India has consistently been poor as compared to the rest of the world. It can be detrimental to Indias ambition of becoming an economic super power in the coming years. Financial illiteracy puts a burden on the nation in the form of higher cost of financial security and lesser prosperity. Most people resort to investing more in physical assets and short-term instruments which clearly conflicts with the greater need for long-term investments, both for households to meet their life stage goals and for meeting the countrys capital requirements for infrastructure.

In addition, there are certain erroneous beliefs associated with financial literacy  the most common being the myth that one who is literate or rich is financially literate too. The need of the hour is for a drastic overhaul of approach to savings and investments by Indian households.

India way behind

India is way behind developed nations in financial literacy efforts. In the US, financial literacy promotion was started way back in 1908 by the American Credit Union Movement. In 1957, financial education was made compulsory by the state of Nevada, and other states followed.

Australia provides financial literacy education through customised programmes, while Asian countries such as Indonesia and Singapore have successful precedents in financial literacy drives.

Catch them young

It is a myth that financial literacy is more important for adults. We can achieve the desired results from financial literacy only when we start educating our children.

Need for joint efforts

Financial regulators in India  RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA  have created a joint charter called National Strategy for Financial Education detailing initiatives taken individually by them and other market players like banks, stock exchanges, broking houses, mutual funds, insurers etc. What is required is a joint effort by all the banking, financial services and insurance players for noticeable changes in the perceptions that an average Indian has about financial management.

Going digital

Empirical evidence points to the fact that digital efforts like video clips, short films and interactive quizzes on financial education have had a far greater impact than the traditional medium. Digital fluency is expected to increase with the governments initiatives such as Digital India.

The recent mammoth exercise of demonetisation should help bring many more people to the organised sector and thereby opening up possibilities for financial inclusion and literacy. Currently, only 35% of Indians have bank accounts, against 63% in China.

The launch of digital wallets, universal payments interface, and new age commercial and payment banks have paved new ways for a less-cash economy. There is a huge scope with only 2% of Indians using mobiles for payments, against 11% in Nigeria. The push to increase usage of mobiles for payments is significant.

The way forward

Financial literacy and financial stability are two key aspects of an efficient economy. There is a need to reach out to lower income groups and economically weaker sections on one hand and on the other to the millennials who are hyper-connected and require tailor-made financial products but have limited awareness of the possible financial solutions. All stakeholders, including consumers, must work in conjunction for financial literacy through a combination of innovative strategies.

The writer is Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Max Life Insurance. The views expressed in this article are his own
TWIN FALLS  As Shoshone Falls roared with the most water in years, the city parks department suddenly needed more toilet paper, portable toilets, trash cleanup and police presence in Shoshone Falls Park.

Vehicle fee collections, which typically begin in April, got pushed up by two weeks to capture early revenue. Throughout April, vehicle counts jumped more than 18,000 from what Shoshone Falls and Dierkes Lake had recorded a year before.

It was nuts, and there were a lot of people, Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Davis said. March was insane. April was insane.

That influx confirmed what local tourism leaders already knew: Southern Idahos outdoor recreation is the areas biggest draw.

Lodging tax collections in Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka and Twin Falls counties rose double digits again. Following a 17.2 percent increase in the 2016 fiscal year, the area reported a 10.8 percent increase in 2017, with collections of $828,733.

Many of those visitors showed up at Shoshone Falls and Dierkes Lake.

By June, the parks had welcomed more than 85,000 cars and 170 buses since mid-March, and the department sold 822 season passes. Combined, these brought in revenue of $281,624. Expenses were higher too, of course.

High-water years typically draw in more tourists to these areas, Davis said. In 2011, with high flows, the department saw a record $303,100 in revenues from April to October.

Were gonna break that record this year, Im positive, Davis said.

National media coverage of the falls likely contributed to the tourist boom, and visitor counts were still up in June despite Shoshone Falls having returned to normal scenic levels. But Davis also attributes the increase to Southern Idaho Tourisms marketing.

The falls boost to tourism lasted longer than the high water did, said Melissa Barry, director of Southern Idaho Tourism. The high water also brought in whitewater kayakers and other recreationists.

When Boises high river inhibited some spring and summer recreation, the Magic Valley capitalized on Treasure Valley water enthusiasts.

Were running a campaign right now that our river is not too high, and you can float it, Barry said in early summer.

A day in the life of Twin Falls tourism TWIN FALLS  Pausing over a freshly made bed, Ana Vasquez blushed as she remembered an embar

The high water allowed Idaho Guide Service to open up guided whitewater trips on the Murtaugh stretch of the Snake River for the first time since 2001, lead boatman and manager Daniel Gardner said. This attracted thrill-seekers from all over the U.S.

The company ran commercial trips from April through June. But when the Bureau of Reclamation dropped water levels unexpectedly, causing 80 customers trips to be canceled, Idaho Guide Service decided not to offer them again this season.

The high water has made the rafting companies in this area need to be adaptable, Gardner said.

More water wasnt a boon to all  the Idaho Regatta boat race scheduled for June in Burley was canceled right before Memorial Day weekend. Law enforcement officials were concerned about high-water wakes flooding nearby homes.

The Idaho Regatta typically brings 50 to 70 boats to Burley, committee chairman Louis Schindler said. Overall attendance is estimated at around 2,500 people.

For Burley, its one of the largest marine events that takes place this summer, he said.

Most who attend stay three or four nights and also attend a fish fry in Rupert. The committee estimates it lost $15,000 to $20,000 in revenue  money that it would have spent on next years race.
Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 26

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhs huge following has been attracting political parties in Punjab over the past over a decade, be it the SAD, BJP, the Congress or AAP. Politicians keep making a beeline to the dera to tap the 4-5 crore-strong vote bank.

The Sirsa-based dera, founded in 1948, stayed apolitical for over half a century. However, in the 2002 Assembly polls, its covert support helped the Congress return to power. The sect then launched a 45-member Political Affairs Wing (PAW) to advise followers on their political and electoral choices.

In the 2007 Assembly elections, the dera openly backed the Congress. Its sizeable vote bank in at least 40 of Malwas 69 segments played a key role as the party won 37 seats in the region against 29 bagged by the SAD-BJP alliance. However, the Congress failed to retain power as it was virtually routed in Doaba and Majha.

A couple of months after the SAD-BJP government took over, Ram Rahim kicked up a row when he allegedly imitated Guru Gobind Singh during a congregation at the Salabatpura centre in Bathinda on May 13, 2007. The controversy sparked violence between Premis and Sikhs, prompting the Akal Takht to pass a hukumnama (edict) against the dera. In a Panthic move, the then ruling SAD launched a tirade against Ram Rahim.

Political exigency forced the SAD to mend fences with the dera in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Its mediators convinced the sect management to extend support to SAD candidates Harsimrat Badal and Paramjit Gulshan. The deras PAW shrewdly played it safe by backing Congress candidates as well.

During the 2012 Assembly polls, the sect again walked a tightrope by supporting select candidates instead of political parties.

Sources said the dera supported the BJP in the 2014 Haryana polls after a bargain that the SAD would secure pardon for Ram Rahim from the Akal Takht. The Sikh clergy pardoned the dera chief in 2015, but the backlash from the community forced it to revoke the decision.

Prior to this years Assembly elections, Akali and Congress leaders wooed the dera for votes. AAP candidates were no different as Malkeet Thind and Narinder Sandha paid a visit to the dera.

The sect decided to back the SAD-BJP alliance, but it didnt make much difference as the Congress recorded a thumping victory, bagging 77 seats out of 117.

Its for the party high command to decide on seeking votes from deras. Considering the prevailing scenario, the day is not far when parties will avoid reaching out to the deras. As the CM, I wont allow violence by any sect in the state

Capt Amarinder Singh, CM

Its wrong to blame the state govt for the mayhem. Dera followers are blind in their faith, so the situation needed tactful handling. Faith is a very sensitive issue. There are many decisions taken by the govt that are never made public.

Kamal Sharma, former state BJP chief

I make a fervent appeal to the people of Punjab and other states to maintain peace at all costs. No religion preaches violence and all gurus and prophets have sent out a message of peace and communal harmony.

Parkash Singh Badal, EX-CM

I remained associated with the dera for about two decades, but stopped going there over a year ago after I opposed the activities of the sects political wing. I had questioned why this supposedly religious place had such a wing.

Master Baldev Singh, AAP MLA
Moga, August 26

Two senior activists of the Dera Sacha Sauda were arrested by the Moga police as a precautionary measure today.

The police officials said they had been identified as Baljit Kumar and Surjit Kumar, both brothers, who are renowned cloth merchants of the city. The police claimed that they held a secret meeting with a few dera followers last evening and issued instructions to them to disturb law and order.

They were produced before local SDM Charandip Singh, who sent them to judicial custody for seven days. The police had taken them to the Faridkot jail. The SDM has fixed September 2 as the next date of hearing in the case. A few more persons violating the curfew restrictions were rounded up by the police.  TNS
Beirut, August 27

Proposed tighter US sanctions on Hezbollah have been altered enough to allay fears of major damage to Lebanon's economy, a sign Washington is taking concerns about Lebanese stability seriously, banking and political sources said.

But banking figures told Reuters Lebanese authorities should not be complacent as US President Donald Trump's future stance on Iran and its allies cannot be predicted, and the bill won't be discussed and voted on until autumn when Congress reconvenes.

When drafts said to be US plans for extended anti-Hezbollah legislation circulated in Lebanon earlier this year, local media warned of dire consequences for Lebanon's fragile economy and fractious sectarian politics.

The main concern for Lebanese authorities is that US correspondent banks  which face huge fines if found to be dealing with sanctioned people or companies  might deem Lebanese banks too risky to do business with.

This would undermine the economy, which relies on dollar deposits transferred from expatriate Lebanese.

Lebanon's government, central bank and private banks have lobbied US politicians and banks hard this year  and continue to do so  to persuade Washington to balance its tough anti-Hezbollah stance with the need to preserve stability.

Their main message has been that the last thing needed by the United States, which backs the Lebanese army in its fight against Islamic State and other militants spilling over from Syria, is another failed state in the Middle East.

Their efforts may have worked. The draft law submitted to Congress in late July does not include the main elements that had caused what one banking source called "anxiety" in Beirut.

Financial sources told Reuters the proposed anti-Hezbollah legislation, when compared with earlier draft proposals, is more specific about who could be targeted, and is no longer seen as affecting the whole of Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim population.

Iran-backed hezbollah a major foe of US

The powerful Iran-backed, Shi'ite Hezbollah is in Lebanon's delicate, national unity government but classified as a terrorist group by Washington. US officials say Hezbollah is funded not just by Iran but also by networks of Lebanese and international individuals and businesses.

The US Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 aimed to sever the group's funding routes around the world, and in July Republican and Democratic US lawmakers proposed amendments to strengthen it.

Banking sources said the 2017 amendments do not significantly tighten the original legislation, the initial shock of which Lebanon has absorbed, and are unlikely to have a major impact if they become law.

"So far Lebanese authorities have been successful in limiting the fallout of US sanctions on Lebanese banks," said Mathias Angonin, an analyst at Moody's rating agency.

Lobbying

The amendments differ in key ways from draft plans believed to have originated with US lawmakers earlier this year.

Banking and political sources attribute this to Beirut's lobbying.

"It is definitely toned down compared to the one we saw when we were there, so obviously our arguments have been taken into consideration ... It is more targeted," Yassine Jaber, a member of parliament who led a political delegation to Washington in mid-May after the drafts appeared, told Reuters.

Banks like sanctions regulations to be specific about targets to avoid unexpected fines and avoid excluding people from the banking system unnecessarily.

Unlike the drafts, the amendments do not target the Shi'ite Amal movement of parliament speaker Nabih Berri for investigation, according to a publicly available copy of the legislation seen by Reuters.

Targeting both Amal and Hezbollah and their associates  the two parties representing Lebanon's Shi'ite population  risked marginalising a large section of society, banking and political sources said.

The current proposals would give the US president the power to decide who should be sanctioned instead of lower-level staff.

They also require sanctions be placed on people providing "significant" financial, material or technological support to Hezbollah. The word "significant" was not in the earlier draft.

Hezbollah's involvement in Syria's civil war, where it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is a cause of political tension in Beirut, straining Lebanon's policy of "dissociation" from regional conflicts.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said US attempts to weaken it will not work.

High stakes

With one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, growth battered by six years of war in adjacent Syria and a government struggling to agree vital reforms, Lebanon's economy is fragile.

Lebanese banks underpin the economy. Using money deposited by expatriate Lebanese, local banks buy government debt, financing the state's expanding budget deficit and debt.

"There's never been a problem with (this system) but it's a high stakes system," said Toby Iles of Fitch rating agency.

Deposits could dry up if correspondent banks deem Lebanon too risky and stop clearing dollar transactions for local banks.

Financial sources say confidence in the central bank's ability to apply regulation is strong. But Lebanon remains a politically risky country and correspondent banks have in recent years become more risk-averse globally as US anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering regulation has increased.  Reuters
Fourth District Congressman Tom Cole told CNN last week that President Donald Trump should lay off criticism of fellow Republicans.

Dont make it personal, Cole said.

Remember, these are members of your team, and you have a lot to get done this fall. You are going to need every vote youve got in the United States Senate.

Cole was interviewed Wednesday after Trump torched Republican senators who he said werent doing enough to further his agenda.

I think its a mistake to personalize things in politics. Who is your opponent today can be your friend tomorrow, Cole told CNNs John Berman.

Thats true on both sides of the aisle. We have Democrats that could vote with us on a number of things. If we make it impossible for them to do that, theyre going to put their own political survival ahead of, frankly, maybe what is something they actually believe.

We saw two different presidents in the last two nights. I thought the president did an exceptional job on Afghanistan and, frankly, was brutally honest with the American people, Cole said.

I liked that and respected the president for being straightforward.

I think we would be better served if thats the president we saw more often.

 Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World
Jenks Public Schools Superintendent Stacey Butterfield was among four people Gov. Mary Fallin named to a task force charged with reviewing the formula used to distribute state funding to public schools.

Fallin also named charter school founder and retired Oklahoma City hospital administrator Stanley Hupfield, Oklahoma Secretary of State Dave Lopez and Oklahoma Educated Workforce Initiative Executive Director Jennifer Monies.

The task force will have a total of 16 members, with the others to be appointed by the Senate president pro tempore, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Senate and House education committee chairmen.

It is expected to issue a report by December 2018.

Addiction panel: Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter appointed the nine-member state commission on opiod abuse, as authorized by Senate Concurrent Resolution 12.

Chosen were: State Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie; Oklahoma City businessman Bob Howard; Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Director John Scully; Oklahoma District Attorneys Council President Kevin Buchanan; Oklahoma State Medical Association President Kevin Taubman; Skiatook osteopathic physician Layne Subera; state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Director Terri White; and state Rep. Tim Downing, R-Purcell.

Absentee ballots: Sept. 6 is the application deadline for absentee ballots for the Sept. 12 special elections, which includes a Republican primary for Senate District 37 in Tulsa County.

Applications can be made in person at the Tulsa County Election Board, 555 N. Denver Ave., or by mail, e-mail or fax. See elections.ok.gov for details.

Outreach: Oklahomas Black Caucus says it wants to be more accessible to the public, and has planned a series of statewide events to build support for its agenda.

Only six of the Legislatures 149 members are black, which often makes pushing issues of particular interest to them to the forefront. Rep. George Young, D-Oklahoma City, said the caucus will focus on education, criminal justice reform, health care, economic reform and social justice.

Meetings and events: Third District Congressman Frank Lucas has two town hall meetings in the Tulsa area on Tuesday.

At 1:30 p.m., Lucas will be at the Pawnee City Hall, 510 Illinois St., Pawnee

At 3:30 p.m., Lucas will be at the Pawhuska Community Center, 520 Lynn Ave., Pawhuska.

One-liners: The Oklahoma District Attorneys Association honored Rep. Scott Biggs, R-Chickasha, who led opposition to Fallins criminal justice reform measures and came under considerable criticism for keeping one of them bottled up in committee last session. ... Free online training for Democratic Party candidates and volunteers is available at https://www.traindemocrats.org/okdemocrats.

 Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World

Randy Krehbiel

918-581-8365

Twitter: @rkrehbiel
Editorial Pages Editor Wayne Greene acknowledges that the futility of the Paris Agreement on climate change is a "valid concern" (Is Jim Bridenstine a climate change denier?). To say the least.

Proponents of the agreement are like the man who fell off the 100-story building. Someone on the 50th floor called out, "Are you all right?" He answered, "Fine so far!"

Climate activists eventually will smack into this reality: 10 billion humans living on Earth by 2050.

Ten billion. That's a gain of 2.5 billion in only 33 years.

Want to stop manmade climate change? Kill 3 billion or 4 billion people. Thankfully, thats as impractical as it would be immoral. No wonder the Paris Agreement targets carbon dioxide rather than population.

Yet even as environmentalists propose to restrict industry, soaring populations require all-out production of food, housing, clothing, transportation and infrastructure. Those 2.5 billion people dont arrive all on Jan. 1, 2050, you know.

Should all nations adopt China's one-child policy? Well, China abandoned that policy last year. It has resulted in far too few people to care for China's elderly. More ominously for political stability, 20 million marriage-age Chinese men lack a female counterpart.

Every conflict  from Syria to Charlottesville  arises from too many people with too much time on their hands competing for limited resources.

Meanwhile, a wildfire is raging in Greenland. North of the Arctic Circle, peat soil that once was permafrost is burning out of control.

Yes, humans contribute to climate change. No, we can't stop it. So we'd better prepare.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com.
JEROME  A 2015 Times-News project, the four-part El Nuevo Jerome series, explored the effects of Jeromes rapidly growing Latino population and the citys changing efforts to spread information to Latino residents.

Two years later, City Hall is still reinventing its outreach.

Monthly appearances on Spanish and English radio shows  including La Perrona  continue to be successful, City Administrator Mike Williams said in June. City officials talk about a topic relevant to whats happening in the city.

Thats something we find has been very helpful, Williams said. In addition to community members calling into the radio show, the city typically receives two or three calls after its over.

The printed version of a monthly city newsletter, available in Spanish and English, goes to local businesses and places such as Jerome Public Library and Jerome Senior Center.

But Williams said he hopes to change things up a little because hes not sure whether the printed newsletter is the most effective way to communicate with residents. Hed like to see the citys already active Facebook page have content available in Spanish, too.

Williams also wants residents to know theyre welcome to stop by City Hall with their questions. We hope its not a scary experience to come in and talk with city staff.

Its not a requirement for Jerome city employees to be bilingual, but when they are, thats fantastic and sets them apart, Williams said. The city recently hired another police officer who speaks Spanish fluently.

City Hall isnt alone in its effort to connect.

The Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs has visited Jerome several times in the past couple of years to get information about Jeromes Hispanic population and outreach efforts, share information and gauge which areas need improvement. Those visits included a public meeting in June about immigration; Williams, the mayor and the police chief attended, and it included a presentation by the Mexican Consulate.

In a May 2016 visit to Jerome, the Idaho commission met with Guadalupe Eudabe, a woman featured in the El Nuevo Jerome project. Eudabes 2-year-old son, Damian, was killed in September 2014 when he was hit by a pickup outside the familys home.

Almost a year after the boys death, Wendell resident Bernave Avila-Romero was charged with one felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death. Prosecutors later dropped the case.
TWIN FALLS  Scammers are calling people and threatening to arrest them if they dont buy a prepaid debit card and give the number to the scammers over the phone.

Twin Falls police took a report on Wednesday from someone who was taken by the scam, a statement said. One person reported being taken for $2,000. Variations of the scam are being reported nationwide, using reasons ranging from a traffic ticket to missed jury duty.

The scammers, police said, call people or leave a voicemail from a man claiming to be a local law enforcement officer, most often using the name of a real officer the victims can find online. The scammer may identify himself as a detective, deputy or being from the Warrant Division or Records Division.

The caller says there is a warrant for the persons arrest for missing a court date. Past versions have said the person was about to be arrested for failure to pay a traffic ticket or other violation. The caller says the victim will be arrested immediately if they dont buy a prepaid cash card and give the cards serial and security number to them over the phone, staying on the line with the victim or providing a callback number.

The numbers, police said, appear to be from Idaho but may in fact be coming from a voice-over-Internet protocol. Officers have called the numbers back and been unable to determine the locations. Police said anyone who gets such a call should hang up and immediately contact local law enforcement.

Legitimate law enforcement agencies, they said, dont call people and demand money under any circumstances. If you believe you may in fact have a warrant for your arrest or an unpaid fine, call your local law enforcement agency so you know youre really talking to them.

Police say never to give a credit, debit or prepaid cash card number over the phone. Individuals claiming to collect debts sometimes try to scare potential victims to persuade them to send money. Unlike a credit card, prepaid debit cards are untraceable and the charges cannot be reversed, so when the victim gives the card number to the scammer they are out of the money.

The FBI has a website being continuously updated on the latest phone, mail and Internet scams, fbi.gov/scams-safety.
At Station 15 on Prospect Street, just east of Fountain Square in Indianapolis is a man who, for almost 30 years, has dedicated his life to serving his community and country.



Long before Tom Farrington volunteered at the Indianapolis Fire Department, he had already spent nearly 10 years in the Indiana National Guard.

June 28, 2017 - Tom Farrington is a 19 year veteran of the Indianapolis Fire Department (left) and a 29 year veteran of the Indiana Army National Guard (right). Indiana National Guard photos and combined image by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Runser When I joined the Indiana National Guard in 1988, my initial goal was to pursue a college education, said Farrington. I also wanted to be a helicopter pilot, so I figured the best way would be to start out as a turbine engine mechanic.



After discovering his less-than-perfect vision would prevent him from becoming a pilot, he shifted his interest in another direction.



I spent six years as a helicopter mechanic then went to Delta Company (Long Range Surveillance), 1-151 Infantry Regiment, where I spent the next 20 years, said Farrington.



Having served in the long range surveillance, an airborne unit since 1994, Farrington sought to explore a career with the Indianapolis Fire Department.



He wanted to take the skills he learned through the guard and use them to serve his community as well. Recognizing that the two careers are very similar, it was a natural transition from soldier to another form of service  firefighting.



Years of consistent physical training already prepared Farrington for this career.



Standing at nearly 5-foot-10-inches tall and roughly 180 pounds, his brawny stature is impressive for someone half his age. In a loose-fitting, fire-retardant jacket he would appear to most as average, however, beneath the uniform is a 48-year-old who still maxes the Army Physical Fitness Test.



Ive know Tom for over 15 years. He can do it all. He's able to fix a vehicle, build a structure, lead an ambush ... obviously put out fires. Hes a jack of all trades, said Sgt. 1st Class Josh Harveth, who Farrington served with in Company D, 151st Infantry Regiment.



Farrington, along with many other service members, current and prior service, choose to serve within their city, state or country.



Although Tom is one of many firefighters in Indianapolis who also serve their country in the National Guard and Reserve, he is a shining example of the commitment and integrity shown by those drawn to a life dedicated to service, said Ernest Malone, Indianapolis Fire Department Chief.



Some kids spend their childhood dreaming of serving on the fire department, but this hasnt always been a goal of Farringtons. He pointed to his own life as an example of how a person can evolve over time.



You know, I never really grew up thinking I wanted to be a firefighter, Farrington said with a grin. It really happened by coincidence.



I had worked a lot of construction before becoming a firefighter. I was everything from a rough carpenter to construction superintendent, said Farrington.



He liked the idea of working full-time for the military though and started to work on temporary orders.



At one point, a bunch of guys I was working with said they were going to apply for the fire department, said Farrington.



At that time, he knew very little about the fire department and decided against applying.



A couple of them got hired, and I started to realize what a great opportunity it was and how synonymous it is with serving in the military, he added.



Service is in Farringtons DNA. His father, a decorated Army Special Forces officer who served in Korea and Vietnam, along with several clandestine missions, found his calling by accident as well.



My dad, Jim, was drafted for the Korean War, said Farrington. He ended up making a career out of it though. One thing led to another and he went to Officer Candidate School, got his commission, went to airborne and ranger school, then eventually ended up in Army Special Forces early in its inception.



His father has always been a role model in his life.



I used to think my dad walked on water, Farrington joked. Honestly, I thought that until I was almost 30.



Passing down the torch to Sam, his son and a recent graduate of the U.S. Army airborne school, marks three generations of paratroopers in the family.



One of the proudest moments of my career was going down to Fort Benning and pinning my original wings on Sam then my dad pinning his original sterling silver wings on him, said Farrington Just to be there with my son, it was a great day.



Service is more than just an obligation for the Farrington family; it is a lasting commitment to their community and country.



Not only does he serve his city, he has instilled the call to duty in his children, most notably Sam. The example shown by him and his wife Debbie, also an IFD firefighter, will only help to reinforce the holistic importance of family and service, said Malone.



Farringtons experience over the years, and support from his family, have allowed him to dedicate his life to service.



Every person has their reason they choose to serve, and for Farrington, its about the community, camaraderie and family.



Being able to serve in both capacities is very important to me, said Tom.



The most significant thing I have learned from both the military and fire department is working with people from all walks of life. It really has helped as a firefighter here in Indianapolis as well as a soldier at my unit. By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Runser, Indiana National Guard

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Copyright 2017 Comment on this article
My dad's grandmother lived more than 80 years, and never voted for a Democrat. On the porch of her farmhouse near Independence, Iowa, in election year 1928 she told him why: " The Democrats killed two of my brothers."

They were on her porch 63 years after the Civil War, but the emotional wounds of our nations costliest conflict were kept fresh by post-war politicians to prolong the divisive hate for their political purposes. General Ulysses Grants partisans in his 1868 presidential campaign proclaimed: Behind every rebel rifle there was a Democrat. Vote as you shot.

Variations of that theme were used to rally the faithful by waving the bloody shirt in the solidly Democratic South, as well as in solidly Republican New England and the upper Midwest where my father grew up. The political realignment which resulted from the Civil War continued from the 1860s to the 1930s.

The Democrats were the party of Jim Crow and apartheid for generations after the war on the United States in defense of slavery. In 1924, the Democratic National Convention agreed by only one vote to condemn the Ku Klux Klan. Prominent Democratic leaders, including President Woodrow Wilson, were kind in their comments about the Klan.

That attitude began to change with the New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt, which prominently shared Depression era government relief with black southerners as well as those who once owned them. That was the beginning of a political alignment that now may be ripe for realigning again.

The solid South is as one-party solid as it ever was, but now solidly Republican. Up North isnt as solid for the Democrats as the South once was, but they are as dominant there as the Republicans once were.

The signs now point to a new political alignment. The constitutional safeguards are well enough established, I think, that the United States will survive the rise of Trump. Im not sure the Republican Party will.

A solid majority of present day Republicans is blindly loyal to a president that a solid majority of the rest of the country sees as a morally blind, bloviating demagogue, who has as much use for the truth as a billy goat has for a marriage license. A minority of Republicans, including me, agree with the rest of the country. I have not the slightest doubt that the Republicans who repudiate Trump will be judged well in the annals of history. They may not, however, survive the near term judgment of the followers of the born-again confederacy, now in domination of the once Grand Old Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln.

We Republicans now openly confront ourselves, but the divided Democrats soon will, too. The Sanders faction is seething to stage its own populist rebellion against the corporate-connected elements of their party. A bitter and divisive battle is brewing.

Historians have speculated that if the liberal-minded Lincoln were alive today, he would be a Democrat.

What about Robert E. Lee, subject of the Charlottesville statue, and symbol of the old Democratic South? Im betting that if Lee were alive, along with his fellow Southerners, he would be marching with the Republicans.

Lincoln and Lee, serve today as symbolic examples of two war-torn and increasingly feeble old political parties, each now a house divided against itself. Neither can long endure half of one mind and half of another. Maybe multiple parties will emerge. Maybe two very extreme parties. But just maybe the moderate thinkers of both todays Democrats and Republicans will find more in common with each other than either will with the purists working to purge them.
Todays Big Story section, the weekly four-page spread we devote entirely to a single important issue, is a little bit different than usual. This week, were updating readers on whats happened since we published a few of the projects.

We learned the new crisis center in Twin Falls is seeing hundreds of patients, many of them surprisingly older than health officials expected.

We learned that tourism is surging even stronger again this year, with hotel lodging receipts up double-digits for a second year in a row.

We learned that last winters massive snowpack and spring flooding exposed dangers at the Oakley dam spillway, where officials had to divert water this spring to prevent a catastrophic flood; the countys disaster plan now identifies upgrades needed to better-manage high-water years.

And, on the lighter side, we learned the American Ornithological Society has recognized the Cassia crossbill, found only here in southern Idaho, as warranting species status. We featured the bird in a special report in 2015.

We also learned that our journalism is changing lives and making huge differences in our communities.

After we published a three-part series on troubles in the states foster-care program, especially a lack of qualified foster parents, interest in becoming a foster parent surged.

Its been hard to keep up with it all, said Ellen Leavitt, who handles foster parent licensing for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfares Twin Falls office.

Since the series published, triple the usual number of potential foster parents showed up for an informational meeting earlier this year. Training classes have been overcrowded, prompting the agency to add another class section to meet demand.

Magic Valley residents arent just opening their homes, theyre opening their wallets. After a special report on the Valley House Homeless Shelter, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a $65,000 gift for the home.

They told us they saw the article, Executive Director Sharon Breshears said. They wanted it to go toward the womens transitional housing.

Thanks to our reporting, more abused and neglected children will find stable homes in the Magic Valley. Battered women will have more resources.

We didnt set out for todays updates to toot the Times-Newss horn. Thats not what the Big Story is about. But, to me at least, the project proves that the quality journalism we provide each and every day is making the Magic Valley a better place to live. Thats powerful, and something Im really proud of.

I cant help but juxtapose that with the relentless attacks on the media, especially the criticism coming from Washington these days. Surely, some degree of criticism is warranted. Were writing the first draft of history, and we dont always get it right the first time.

But those occasions are rare. Theres no such thing as fake news in community newspapers. Most American journalism is the kind you see in the Times-News every day, where daily newspapers all over the country are trying their best to keep their communities informed and get it right. After all, our business lives and dies by our credibility. Nobody reads a source they dont trust or value.

As an industry, perhaps were not doing enough to show the value of quality news. Earlier this month in Minnesota, scores of newspapers ran blank front pages to underscore what the world would look like without journalism.

Id prefer to keep filling my pages with great reporting, especially the kind you see every Sunday in the Big Story. Good journalism makes us all smarter, better people. Good journalism is changing the world.


More than 2,500 guests dressed for a cause at Aid for AIDS of Nevadas (AFAN) 31st annual Black & White Party at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, raising more than $130,000 to benefit AFANs advocacy for those living with or affected by HIV/AIDS (Photo credit: Te Ann Lakeotes).

Photo credit: Jesse Lambert / Arch Angel Studios

Marco and Joanna from Sunny 106.5 kicked off the evening by introducing performances from East Side Riot and Michelle Johnson. Pia Zadora showed her support with a surprise donation of $1,000 through a representative, and Assemblyman Nelson Araujo presented an official proclamation honoring AFAN and the outstanding work they do in the community.

Photo credit: Te Ann Lakeotes

Stars aligned as local entertainers, socialites, and personalities came out in their best black and white for AFAN including longtime supporters Penn & Teller, Chippendales, Pole Show LA, Miss Grand Cuba 2017 Yvette Blaess, the cast of Reverie, Coco Montrese from Rupauls Drag Race, Zowie Bowie, Murray Sawchuck, the girls of FANTASY, Jarrett and Raja from Americas Got Talent, the Tenors of Rock, Chloe Crawford from Criss Angels Mindfreak, Brittany Brooks and Katrina Stuart from female empowerment band Femmology, Hayley and Emily Ferguson from The Bachelor, Jeff Timmons from 98 Degrees, the cast of Frank Marinos Divas, and Paul Hollowell from Finding Prince Charming.

Photo credit: Preston Powell Photography

Hosts Miguel Martinez-Valle and Norma Llyaman, the Duke and Duchess of Decadence for the evening, greeted the crowd and led them in a festive Mardi Gras parade into the New Orleans Soiree, where guests were treated to samples from Culinary Dropout, Pink Taco, Goose Island Beer Co., MB Steak, Shake Shack, Nobu, Brio Tuscan Grille, Dunkin Donuts, Ninkasi Brewing Company, Stoli Vodka, Kimo Sabe, and Born and Bred American Craft Vodka.

Photo credit: Te Ann Lakeotes

The stage came alive with performances from Human Nature, Frank Marinos Divas, Rupauls Drag Race Adore Delano, Piranha nightclub, BAZ, Miss Behave Game Show, Culture Shock, Pole Show LA, Absinthes Melody Sweets, Jacinthe Morearty, silk aerialist Brandon Scott, and aerial hoop performer Lyndsi Hardin. The cast of Magic Mike Live also made a surprise appearance as they revealed it all on stage and hosted a meet and greet.

Photo credit: Jesse Lambert / Arch Angel Studios

From ball gowns, balloon and showgirl dresses, stilt walkers, and illuminated garments, the highlight of the evening was the over-the-top and barely there fashions. Partygoers also had the chance to look into the future with a fortune teller, get their hair braided with glitter from Kelly Cardenas Salon, and interact in virtual reality using high-tech equipment.

We are honored to have so many people in the community involved to help put this event on year after year, said AFANs Executive Director Antioco Carrillo. We are here tonight to continue to raise funds to help those affected by HIV/AIDS and make Nevada AIDS-free. Until we find a cure we will continue to have this party and when we do, we will throw an even bigger party!

Photo credit: Jesse Lambert / Arch Angel Studios
On August 18, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) issued Official Dispatch No.11080/BTC-TCHQ to answer a motion by Serveone Vietnam Co., Ltd. (SOVN) on the import tax reimbursement process for the materials the company imports for LG Electronics Vietnams (LGE) production of export products.

Article 9(1d) of Law on Export and Import Duties No.107/2016/QH13 states that, Taxpayers shall have their tax payments reimbursed after goods serving as raw materials or supplies imported for the production of export goods for which import tax has been paid.

Article 36(3) of Government Decree No.134/2016/ND-CP on guidelines on the Law on Export and Import Duties states that the criteria for eligibility for the tax refund are the following:

The manufacturer of exported goods has a factory where the goods in question are manufactured in Vietnam. Additionally, the manufacturer owns or has the right to use machinery and equipment at a factory suitable for the raw materials, supplies, and component products imported for manufacturing; The value or quantity of imported raw materials, supplies, and components after which import duties are refunded is the actual value or quantity of raw materials, supplies, and components used for the manufacturing of the exported products; The exported products are declared as domestic exports; The manufacturer directly imports goods and exports the products or authorises another entity to do so.

MoF concluded that SOVN does not meet any of the outlined criteria and is therefore not eligible for reimbursement.

SOVN is a 100 per cent South Korean-invested company, a subsidiary of Serveone Co., Ltd. (a member of LG Corporation), which was formed as a satellite company to support LGs production in the northern port city of Haiphong. SOVN acts as the procurement agency for LGE, importing materials and selling only to LGE at a price that does not include import tax.

Based on this, SOVN saw no difference between its business with LGE and a normal export producer eligible for import tax reimbursement, as stated in Article 19 of the Law on Export and Import Duties. On July 18, SOVN sent Official Dispatch No.18072017/SOVN to the Government Office to request the PMs consideration and inquire about the reimbursement process, which was later relayed to MoF.

In the dispatch, SOVN cited MoFs Official Dispatch No.16224/BTC-TCHQ dated November 7, 2014 addressing New Viet Dairy JSC, a supplier of Vinamilk. New Viet Dairy is also a company that imports goods to then sell them to Vinamilk for export production at prices that do not include import tax. In this case, MoF concluded that New Viet Dairy was eligible for the tax reimbursement and instructed the company to finish submitting the tax refund documents.
The ceremony was witnessed by Politburo Member Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, and high-ranking dignitaries from both countries.

U Ohn Maung  Minister of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar received a souvenir from Nguyen Thanh Hung - Vietjets vice chairman

The route is expected to meet the increasing travel demand between the two countries and boost regional trade and integration.

The ceremony was on the agenda of the official visit of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Vietnamese Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong to Myanmar.

The Hanoi-Yangon route will be operated on a daily basis with a flight time of an hour and 55 minutes per leg.

High-ranking from both Vietnam and Myanmar attended the opening ceremony

The Hanoi-Yangon flight departs at 12:05 and arrives at 13:30 (local time) every day. The return flight takes off at Yangon at 14:30 and arrives at Hanoi at 16:55 (local time).

Yangon, the biggest city in Myanmar, is famous for her traditional culture and unique beauty. The city comforts tourists by her tranquility and hospitality featuring stunning pools, parks, the famous Shwedagon pagoda, and colourful streets.

Hanoi, the 1000-year-old capital of modern Vietnam, is an emerging tourist destination. Ho Chi Minh City is a famous hub of economy, finance, tourism, and modern life, while Hanoi is known for its deep cultural roots and culinary traditions.

With its high-quality services, special low-fare tickets, and diverse ticket classes, Vietjet offers enjoyable flights with a dynamic and friendly flight crew, comfortable seats, delicious hot meals, and special surprises as part of inflight activities, and amazing ticket fares during the daily Its time to Vietjet promotion.
This appeared in Fridays Washington Post:

President Barack Obamas much-hyped restoration of relations with Cuba was a bet that diplomatic and economic engagement would, over time, accomplish what 50 years of boycott did not: a rebirth of political freedom on the island. So far, the results have been dismal. In the two years since the U.S. Embassy in Havana reopened, repression of Cubansmeasured in detentions, beatings and political prisonershas significantly increased, while the private sector has remained stagnant. U.S. exports to Cuba have actually decreased, even as the cash-starved regime of Raul Castro pockets millions of dollars paid by Americans in visa fees and charges at state-run hotels.

Now theres another sinister cost to tallythe serious injuries inflicted on the U.S. diplomats dispatched to Havana. This month, the State Department announced that two Cuban embassy staff had been expelled from Washington because of incidents in Havana that left some American diplomats and staff members with a variety of physical symptoms.

Anonymous sources speaking to various news organizations have since provided shocking details: At least 16 American diplomats and family members received medical treatment resulting from sonic attacks directed at the residences where they were required to live by the Cuban government. A number of Canadian diplomats were also affected.

CBS News reported that a doctor who evaluated the American and Canadian victims found conditions including mild traumatic brain injury, with likely damage to the central nervous system. According to CNN, two Americans evacuated to the United States were unable to return to Havana, while others cut short their tours of duty.

The State Department is saying that it has not identified the source of the attacks, though it is holding the Cuban government responsible under the Vienna Convention, which requires host governments to protect diplomatic personnel. Some news reports have passed along speculation that rogue Cuban security forces might be to blame, or perhaps a third country interested in disrupting Cubas rapprochement with the United States. Such theories must be weighed against facts there: Cuba is a small, highly disciplined police state where next to nothing goes unobserved by the regimemuch less high-tech assaults on foreign diplomats.

In fact, the sonic attacks would be in keeping with, if an escalation of, harassment that U.S. diplomats have long suffered in Havana, including constant surveillance and home and vehicle break-ins. Instead of easing this abuse, the reopening of the embassy may have intensified it. And no, the Trump administration, which has largely preserved Obamas opening, is not to blame: State says the attacks began in November 2016. Rather than seize on them, the State Department under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has played them down; the Cubans were expelled in May, but no announcement was made until this month. The administration appears to be giving the Castro regime the benefit of the doubtwhich, considering its overall record since the restoration of relations, may be more than it deserves.
According to pledges made by the President of the region of the Iraqi Kurdistan, a referendum will take place on Monday 25 September 2017. The issue: the independence of a State called Kurdistan,

This Kurdistan would include both the region of the Iraqi Kurdistan and the territories that it annexed, working in collaboration with Daesh; the territories from which it had driven out most of the non-Kurdish populations so that today, the Kurds are in the majority.

At the time of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the United States would have considered these regions as being able to opt into forming part of the Kurdistan, that it (the U.S.), had declared by the Treaty of Sevres (1920), then disintegrated by the Conference of Lausanne (1923). According to the King-Craine Commission, the populations of what is now the region of the Iraqi Kurdistan and the annexed territories had only Kurdish minorities.

The Iraqi voters will be called to answer the following question: Do you want the Region of Kurdistan and the areas of Kurdistan that fall outside the jurisdiction of the Region to become an independent state?.

Those eligible to vote in this referendum will be the existing populations of the region of Iraqi Kurdistan and those in the annexed territories (but not the other Iraqis) if they fulfil the following conditions:

 they are over 18;

 they were registered on the electoral registers before 7 September; and

 for people originating from the regions concerned but living abroad, they are registered on the registers for electronic voting.

President Barzani is committed to ensuring that the press and his party do not accuse him of betraying the citizens that desire to remain part of Iraq.

The previous elections in the region of Iraqi Kurdistan and the elections for the current president of this region do not conform to the internationally accepted benchmarks for democracy.

- Thus, in 1992, voters totalled 971,953; but about ten years later, in 2014, the number had suddenly jumped to 2,129, 846.

 In 1991, after the international intervention against Iraqs invasion of Kuwait, the United States and the United Kingdom occupied the region of the Iraqi Kurdistan. A coalition government was formed by Massoud Barzani (pro-West) on the one hand and Jalal Talabani (pro-Iran) on the other. Next: Barzani requested President Saddam Hussein to fight the Taliban in the occupied territory. This President Hussein did, under the careful watch of the Anglo-Saxons. Finally, in 1998 a peace agreement was concluded in Washington. Under this peace accord, the region was divided into two parts. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the toppling of President Hussein, the West put Massoud Barzani in place as President (a decision not even ratified by an election) over the entire region on the condition that he finds a place in his government for Jalal Talabani. Barzani was finally elected President in June 2005 then re-elected in June 2010. His mandate ran out in June 2015 but he still remains in power (in fact he has been in power for 26 years without a break).

 Parliament, which can challenge the failure to hold a presidential election, is no longer assembled.

The Electoral Commission will have to take selective account of the votes of the annexed zones:

 If the majority of their voters vote yes, then they will be integrated into the new Independent state;

 if they vote no, they will remain attached to Iraq. However, their votes will be segregated from all the other votes counted. This will enable the voters in what currently comprises the region of Iraqi Kurdistan, to come to independence.

As early as 2004, the plan to establish a Kurdistan in Iraq had been laid out by the US Senator (and vice president to be) Joe Biden. This plan is officially supported by only one state: Israel.
On 25 August 2017, the Russian General Igor Kirillov confirmed, that his country had just dismantled two chemical weapons sites belonging to the Syrian Arab Army.

The Syrian Arab Republic had denied any involvement in the Ghouta chemical attack which took place in August 2013. It also confirmed that since the 1950s, it had had this type of weapon and lacked the means of destroying them. It had signed up to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and had entrusted the task of dismantling its installations and destroying its stocks to Russia and the United States. This is what was done for 25 sites. However, there were another two sites, the location of which still has not been revealed, which had been occupied by Jihadists. These sites have just been freed and dismantled.

On several occasions, states opposed to Syria and their press have gone on to accuse Damascus of chemical attacks, although the Syrian arsenal had been either destroyed or seized.

Russia has sent all the relevant information to the OIAC, the organ in charge of overseeing the Treaty.

Currently, there are only two states in the world that have not signed up to the Treaty and that hold important stock: Israel and Egypt.
Saudi Arabia continues with its preparations for King Salmanes abdication and for his replacement by his son, Prince Mohammed.

 First: Saudi Arabia is getting ready to withdraw from Yemen. Although Prince Mohammed is at the origin of the conflict, he has now understood that that he just cannot win this battle, and could let the responsibility of this disastrous adventure flow back to his father, King Salmane. This approach is confirmed by emails exchanged between the US ambassador Martin Indyk and the United Arab Emirates ambassador. These e mails were published by Middle East Eye [1].

 Second: Saudi Arabia would stop championing the Sunnis against the Shiites and would start, once again, championing the Arabs against the Persians. This would enable Riyadh to find a way out of the civil war which is currently taking place across the region of Qatif, where the Saudi Shiite populations have risen up [2]. Yet again, it is prince Mohamed with his proposal to execute the Oppositions leader, Sheikh El-Nimr, who raised this revolt. But a change of king would excuse the errors of the past [3]. This thinking seems confirmed by the official receptions for the Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr in Riyadh [4] and the Saudi the charge daffaires, Walid Boukhari, in Lebanon, by the Vice President of the Shiite Superior Council, Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan. Following through with this logic, Saudi Arabia has just reopened the border posts of Arar and Jumaima with Iraq, posts which have been closed for more than thirty years.

 Once these two changes have been made, the future king, Mohamed, could then announce that Saudi would help reconstruct Syria  an announcement that would put Irans generosity into perspective. Here we are talking of significant sums. Riyadhs decision to stop supporting the jihadists following Donald Trumps speech on 21 May 2017, also falls into this current of thought. It seems that Syria is also getting ready for this reversal. This is evidenced by the fact that this year, the annual trade fair took place in Damascus, something that had been suspended throughout the duration of the war.

Prince Mohamed acts on impulse and he would be quite capable of challenging his own decisions. Were this to happen, the change of sovereign in Saudi Arabia could usher in peace within Saudi borders as well as in Yemen and Syria.
I mean, come on. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

To those not especially up-to-date: Actors Sterling K. Brown and Brian Tyree Henry are best friends, have known each other for more than a decade, and are both now Emmy-nominated for This Is Us on the heels of a breakout 2016. (Brown also starred in The People v. O.J. Simpson; Henry in Atlanta.) Their firmly established connection has long been a point of intrigue. As for what has not been so clear: the specific details of their bond  which are truly the stuff of #FriendshipGoals. Indeed, several excellent tidbits were recently unveiled in a New York Times interview, and theyre enough to make this irresistible bromance all the more irresistible to the outside eye. For example: Did you know that Henry gave Brown the gentle but firm encouragement to depart the Lifetime series Army Wives after six years  to return to theater and not drain himself merely for a lot of money? That Brown once shaved Henry, who was set to play a drag queen onstage, with a pair of clippers in Park City, Utah? (It was very nice  I dont know many people who wouldve hooked a brother up like that, Henry recalled. I also think he was being very particular about his clippers.) That Brown slept on Henrys couch in New York whenever hed appear on Person of Interest? (Brown: Wed sit up, wed talk trash, wed watch TV, wed eat food, wed kick it. And wed talk about what its like to be in this business.) Or that their banter, even in a formal interview, could be so playfully prickly?

BTH: I was in Chicago filming a movie with Steve McQueen at the time 

SKB: Who was it? You dropped a name real quick. Want me to pick that up, Brian?

BTH: Oh, did I? Im so sorry, Viola Davis was also in it, too.

Perhaps most affectingly, however: Brown was thrilled to see that both he and Henry were nominated for Emmys, but was also surprised to see the latter recognized for This Is Us, on which he was only a guest star, and not Atlanta. Brown said he was looking forward to Paper Boi getting his due, fawning over Henrys performance in the acclaimed FX half-hour. Henry, naturally, provided an all-too-lovely response. You know how to make a black man blush, dude, he cracked. Thats damn near impossible.
Donald Trump is not a strategic thinker. Hes impulsive and reactive, sometimes to his benefit, but often to his detriment. And right now, hes reacting to his political troubles by lashing out at his own party in Congress. This doubtless makes him feel good  its obvious that he never feels more alive than when hes fighting with somebody.

But it also poses a serious threat to his entire presidency. Thats because you could hardly come up with a better way to depress Republican turnout in the 2018 midterm elections than what hes doing right now.

The Posts Philip Rucker, Sean Sullivan and Mike DeBonis describe the situation in Fridays Post:

President Trump is strategically separating himself from Republicans in Congress, an extraordinary move to deflect blame if the GOP agenda continues to flounder.

Trump deepened the fissures in the party on Thursday when he accused the top two leaders on Capitol Hill of mismanaging a looming showdown over the nations borrowing authority. Republican lawmakers and aides responded to the presidents hostility with broadsides and warnings of their own.

Frustrated by months of relative inaction at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and emboldened by his urge to disrupt the status quo, Trump is testing whether his own political following will prove more potent and loyal than that of his party and its leaders in both houses of Congress.

It isnt just Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis. Trump has also lashed out at Republican senators such as Jeff Flake of Arizona, against whom hes actively promoting a primary challenge. Friday morning, Trump responded to some criticism by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., by tweeting, Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in 18. Tennessee not happy!

The idea that Corker is constantly asking Trump anything is almost impossible to believe, because its not like theyre in daily communication and Corker is by all appearances possessed of some degree of dignity. (My guess is that they had one conversation in which Corker said that he was still deciding whether to run, and thats what Trump is turning into him constantly asking whether he should run.) The point, though, is to cast Corker as a supplicant, an underling, an inferior, someone crawling on his knees to beg for Trumps wisdom. If the president sees you as an adversary, even temporarily, he will do everything he can to belittle and humiliate you.

Thats how Trump operates, and he wont change. Legislative failures will be greeted with attacks on his own party, because whats important to him is that everyone knows it wasnt his fault. When Republican politicians see his low approval ratings and try to distance themselves from him, he wont do what previous presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have done in the same situation  gritted their teeth and accepted it as a manifestation of the primacy of self-interest for every politician  but instead will strike out angrily at them.

So consider the dynamic hes setting in motion. If he thinks that his following is more potent and loyal than that of his party and its leaders in Congress, hes almost certainly right. But thats just the problem.

The most important fact to keep in mind is that Trump will not be on the ballot in 2018, but Republican members of Congress will. When he fights with them, he not only diminishes them, he hurts their image among precisely the voters they need the most: loyal Trump supporters. Midterm elections are won and lost on turnout, and Trumps base is what stands between the GOP and disaster.

Yet Trump is discouraging them from feeling invested in the 2018 election. Hes promoting primary challenges (explicitly and implicitly) against members not because theyre insufficiently conservative, as was the case with tea party challenges during the Obama years, but because theyre insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump. Consider that in a recent GWU Battleground poll, 53 percent of Republicans who are represented by a Republican member of Congress said their member is not supportive enough of Trump. The president feeds that belief almost every day.

If theres a rebellion of Trump loyalists against GOP members of Congress, it wont have nearly the power of the tea party, and it probably wont strike the same terror into the hearts of Republican members. But it doesnt have to. If Trump is telling everyone that the Republican Congress is a bunch of losers and youre a loyal Trump voter, might you be a little less likely to turn out to vote in 2018 to support one of those losers? If theres a primary challenge from a candidate running on a platform of supporting Trump and the incumbent beats it back, doesnt that discourage you a bit more from getting to the polls to help that incumbent in the general election?

So while Democrats will be getting their voters to the polls with the message that Trump must be stopped, the person with the countrys loudest megaphone will be telling Republican voters that their own members of Congress are barely worth supporting. The effect that produces may not be enormous, and most Republican members come from safe districts, but even a marginal impact could make a difference.

While things could certainly change over the next year, its looking like we could be headed for a wave election in which Democrats do extremely well. But control of the House will be very tight because of the GOPs built-in advantage, a product of both gerrymandering and geographic distribution of both parties voters. This week, Decision Desk HQ released a forecast showing Democrats winning 54 percent of the national House vote, but Republicans winning 53 percent of the seats and retaining the majority (much like what happened in 2012, when Democrats won more votes but Republicans held on to control). The wave could be big enough to overcome that GOP advantage, but it will almost certainly be close, which means that if Trumps fights with Congress cost his party even a couple of seats, that could determine who controls the House.

All of this is happening because Trump is so relentlessly self-centered that he cant grasp the idea that even if Republicans in Congress are getting on his nerves, hell only hurt himself if he helps them fail. And if he thinks hes having a hard time now, just imagine what it would be like if Democrats controlled the House and they had the ability to stop every piece of legislation that Republicans propose  not to mention subpoena power. Then well really see what Trump is like when hes mad.
Gone With the Wind. Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull/Getty Images

Breaking from a 34-year-old tradition, the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, announced Friday that it will not show Gone With the Wind in its future summer movie series because of the films insensitive racial content. The decision comes in the wake of backlash over Orpheums screening on August 11, the same night that the white nationalist Unite the Right rally took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. Community members took to the venues Facebook page to denounce Gone With the Wind as racist and to call out its tributes to white supremacy. The 1939 classic film has long been criticized for its romanticized depiction of slavery and the American South of the 19th century.

The Orpheum appreciates feedback on its programming from all members of the mid-south community, Brett Batterson, president of Orpheum, said in a statement. The recent screening of Gone With the Wind at the Orpheum on Friday, August 11, 2017, generated numerous comments. 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.

Batterson told the Commercial Appeal in an interview that the groups decision was not a direct response to what happened in Charlottesville, even though increased public opposition was an ultimate factor. This is something thats been questioned every year, he explained. But the social media storm this year really brought it home.
The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District and the Communication Axess Ability Group will partner to present a training on disaster preparedness for the deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened. The free training program will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Public Health District building, 225 W. Waco Drive.

For real-time captions or a voice interpreter please call 512-481-7700. Requests must be received by noon Friday.

Rotary meeting

The Waco Rotary Club meeting Monday will include a visit from Rotary District Gov. Gene Holiman. The meeting will be from noon to 1 p.m. at the Lions Den, 1716 N. 42nd St. and cost $10. For more information, call 776-2115.

Parenting Hacks

Harris Creek Baptist Church will have a Parenting Hacks program from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the church, 401 Stageline Drive in McGregor. Baylor social work assistant professor Holly Oxhandler will talk about youth mental health.

The even is open to parents of children age 10 to 18. Dinner is provided. Register with Derek Davidson at ddavidson@harriscreek.org.

Genealogical society

The Central Texas Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the West Waco Library meeting room, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

The theme is Waco During World War I, and the meeting will feature a program on Camp MacArthurs impact on Waco.

Call 745-6018 for more information.

Choral auditions

The Central Texas Choral Society will hold fall auditions from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at Central United Methodist Church, 5740 Bagby Ave.

The community choir will perform a concert of choral classics on Nov. 13 and will be involved with the Sing-A-Long Messiah at Seventh & James Baptist Church in December.

To sign up for an audition, email centraltexaschoralsociety@yahoo.com.

Long term care seminar

The Area Agency on Aging of the Heart of Texas will have a legal seminar titled Long Term Care: Essential Documents and How to Survive Financially from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday. The event is free, but space is limited. Call 292-1843 to reserve a spot.
Waco native Robert T. Allen, 78, knew from the time he was 5 he wanted to be a Marine. At a wedding he attended, he saw a Marine in his dress blues and decided he wanted to be one, too. Later, when a recruiter spoke at high school, it only reinforced his dream. It made quite an impression on me, he said.

Allen, who grew up in South Waco, graduated from University High (formerly Waco Tech when he first started) and joined the Marine Reserves in 1955. He went on active duty long enough to get his basic and boot camp training completed.

In January 1960, he joined the regular Marine Corps and went to Camp Pendleton, where he applied for flight school in Pensacola as a Marine aviation cadet. In early 1962, he graduated first in his class as a commissioned second lieutenant naval aviator and was awarded his Navy League wings. He returned to Camp Pendleton following his training.

Allen flew several planes during training; initially, he flew the HOK-1 and the fixed-wing OE, smaller crafts used primarily for observation. Up to this point, life had been routine, but his new skills would soon be put to the test.

On Oct. 22, 1962, the crew got word that everyone was to report to duty stations immediately. In the ready room, as it was known, the pilots gathered to listen to President Kennedy address the nation on the growing Cuban Missile Crisis.

We had 48 hours to load the entire squadron on the helicopter carrier, Allen said. We set sail for Cuba. It was his first trip through the Panama Canal. Life was exciting in those days. We knew where we were going  to exciting times! Allen said.

He would get plenty of practice. The carrier participated with others in the blockade by sailing in an oval pattern within its designated area. Allen flew his small plane on and off with ease as part of Marine Observation Squadron 6.

In 1963, Allen became part of a cadre replacement in Okinawa, which rotated in and out of Vietnam every four or five months. He flew his small OE out of Da Nang in support of American helicopter pilots. The pilot would lead a squadron of Vietnamese troops to a previously scouted landing zone, where they were dropped off to fight.

Over four months, Allen counted approximately 50 bullet holes in his plane, but he was never wounded. We took many rounds because we were flying low, he said. His next rotation was to Atsugi, Japan, where he flew people and supply missions to Mount Fuji.

His real test was yet to come.

It was his worst Vietnam trip  and the one that still troubles him today  and it came after his commanding general took lead of the 1st Marine Air Wing at Da Nang. Allen, now a captain, agreed to go as the generals aide for three months and fly with a squadron the final nine.

Three months later, in 1967, Allen was flying daily. Having had jet training by this time, he flew the A-4 Skyhawk almost exclusively, racking up 400 missions in the I Corps region, the northernmost point in South Vietnam. He would be called from the hot pad to immediately execute a strike from a spotter on the ground or in the air, dropping napalm one time, or aiming a direct strike at a group of Viet Cong penned in underground. When he fired into the ground and he saw it swell up, he knew they were gone.

Living with the past

I still live with it every day, he said. It tears me up to think about this. Its also why hes never talked about it until now. As a compassionate Christian, it conflicts with his values. Its a terrible thing to know how many people Ive killed.

He has learned to live with his memories, perhaps aided by his wife, Lynn Hairston, whom he married in September 1969, a year after they met on a blind date. Allen was stationed at Quantico, Virginia, at the time. In 1972, he resigned his commission as a major, serving a total of 12 years of active duty and four in the reserves.

Allen enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington and earned his bachelors degree in classical guitar music. He taught others at UT-Arlington, the University of Texas at Austin (as a graduate assistant), the University of North Alabama and even McLennan Community College. In 1986, he went to work in Baylor Universitys financial office, retiring in 2008.

In September, the Allens will celebrate 48 years of marriage, just two days before he turns 79.

The couple have two boys, one of whom now serves as a captain in the Marines, no doubt influenced by his dads career.
William Jones

May 10, 1959 - Aug. 19, 2017

William Jones, 58, of Waco, passed away Saturday, August 19, 2017 in Waco. A celebration of life service will be held, with Military Honors presented at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, September 2, at the Bellmead Senior Center, 3900 Parrish Street in Waco, 76705.

William was employed as a truck driver for many years. He was an avid NASCAR fan, a Dale Earnhardt Sr. fan, and loved spending time outdoors with his family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Rosalie A. Reece McAtee; and great-niece, Anna Rose McAtee.

William is survived by his companion, Kelli of Waco; his father, Charles McAtee of Clarence, IA; his son, Justin Jones of Fort Worth; step-son, Chris Baker of Dallas; sister, Linda Wallace of Tipton, IA; brothers, Kevin Jones of Cedar Rapids, IA, Chuck McAtee of Tipton, IA, and Scott McAtee of Rochester, IA; three grandchildren; 12 nieces and nephews; and nine great-nieces and nephews.

Thoughts and memories may be shared at www.LakeShoreFH.com.
John Ivan Taverner

July 6, 1943 - Aug. 22, 2017

John Ivan Taverner passed away on August 22, 2017, after an earthly life which was richly blessed by God above. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m., Monday, August 28, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home. Graveside services will be at 10 a.m., Tuesday, August 29, at the Lorena Cemetery in Lorena, Texas.

John was born July 6, 1943, to Ivy George and Ina May Taverner in Long Beach, CA. He grew up in Blythe, CA, where he loved running track and field at Palo Verde High School. Being the oldest of 11 children, he learned early in life that life is best lived with nothing more than the love of the family and friends that surround you. In 1966, he graduated from Kearney State College in Nebraska. While there, he met the love of his life, Karen Lu Cherry. On October 8, 1965, they were united in marriage and were blessed with three children, Brenda, Bill and Betty.

In 2002, after many years working in the retail industry, raising a family together, and putting three kids through college, John and Karen achieved their lifelong dream and opened the Center Street Antique Mall in Lorena, Texas. John and Karen loved the community of Lorena. Their time in Lorena has blessed them both with many local neighbors as well as long distance "antiquers" that over the years have become lifelong friends. Customers and friends alike were always blessed with a friendly chat and one of his great stories that were guaranteed to put a smile on their face. In addition, John was also a member of the Journey Lorena Church, where he served as a board member. He also served on the Economic Development Committee for the City of Lorena, and for almost a decade he served as a board member of the Lorena Cemetery Association.

Those who knew John, remember him as a quiet man with a huge servant's heart. He was an amazing husband, an incredible father, an awesome grandfather, a caring uncle and a great friend. He made everyone feel like they were loved, because they were loved. He was a gracious man not just because of his faith in Jesus Christ as his savior, but because he also lived out this same faith every day in community with those God had entrusted to his care. He will be truly missed.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ivy and Ina Taverner.

Survivors include his wife, Karen; daughter and son-in-law, Brenda and Mike Smith; son and daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, Bill and Donielle Taverner, and Ryan, Blake, Seth and Sofia; daughter and son-in-law and three grandchildren, Betty and Pat Hart and Alison, Leah and Daniel. His siblings and spouses include Margaret Owens, Dorothy Roybal and Keith, Bruce Taverner and Linda, Jim Taverner and Melinda, Joe Taverner and Kathy, Susan Unverzagt and Tom, Tom Taverner and Diane, Sara Taverner, Kathy Taverner, Jenny Michaels and Don. He was also blessed with numerous nieces and nephews.

The family would like to thank everyone that prayed for healing and strength, offered hugs, brought food, helped with the store, and visited us at the hospital. We are forever grateful for your love and friendship. We would also like to express are deepest gratitude to the doctors, nurses and staff at Providence Hospital, Waco Surgical Center and Texas Oncology for the wonderful care that John received in their care.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to Lorena Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 51, Lorena, TX 76655 and designated for grounds improvement.

The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our "Tribute Wall" at www.WHBfamily.com.
After the passage of many desert sands in the hourglass of history, on-again, off-again U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is realizing its impulsive strategies and ill-conceived policies are not working in its favor. Whoever thought that, in this era of chest-pounding, the desert kingdom would at long last reach out to Iraq to mend relations between Riyadh and Tehran?

Impossible of these age-old enemies? One is, after all, the great Sunni leader of the Mideast; the other is a rising Shia power. Yet thats exactly what has happened this summer.

Iraqi TVs Alghadeer reports that Mohammed bin Salman, the impulsive crown prince who once vowed he would take the kingdoms fight to Iran, has reached out to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi requesting al-Abadi lead a mediation effort with Iran. Among glad tidings: a Saudi promise to treat warmly all Iranian Muslims making pilgrimages to holy sites in the kingdom.

Why the sudden change of heart from Saudi Arabia? The answer lies not only in the Middle Easts complex political dynamics but also in the kingdoms declining clout. Let no one fall for the Saudis increasingly empty promises and false declarations.

The kingdoms request that Iraq act as a mediator to mend Saudi Arabias relations with Iran shows the desert kingdom realizes a hard political truth: Rather than fight Iran on all fronts (including in the disastrous Yemen conflict next door), it makes sense to re-establish relations, work together (if only superficially) to resolve regional issues (including Syria, Yemen, Iraq, etc.) and, finally, find common ground on troublesome oil prices.

Another explanation: Saudi Arabia wants to accelerate inevitable political changes that will speed across the region once the Syrian conflict is resolved (if ever), tensions in Yemen subside, the blockade of Qatar is lifted and oil prices stabilize. My guess is someone is advising Saudi leadership not to lock horns with Iran because China and Russia will work behind the scenes to pull the two nations apart, purely as a favor to Iran.

Mind you, it is in the interest of both China and Russia that conflicts in the region persist. That way, both countries  Russia and China  can realize greater opportunities to multiply their economic and political footprints in the region and influence broader internal affairs of the Middle East.

Yes, there are those in the Middle East who dreamily argue that re-establishment of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia would bring long-lost stability to the region. I disagree. The reason for Saudi outreach stems from the kingdoms mounting fear of losing its leadership role and prestige  whatevers left of all this in the Middle East  in the face of Irans growing influence.

One doesnt have to look far to find evidence of Saudi outreach. For instance, Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite and an anti-American figure who commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and southern cities, recently visited the Gulf region during the ongoing dispute between Qatar and a Saudi-led bloc. (Qatar just Thursday reaffirmed its controversial diplomatic ties with Iran.)

Of note for those not near a world map: Shia-majority Iraq lies on the fault line between Shia-dominated Iran and Sunni-ruled Arab Gulf monarchies that include Saudi Arabia. As I argue in my forthcoming book, Saudi Arabia: Islam, Corruption and the Hidden Truth, the future of Saudi Arabia will change as the regions geopolitical shift continues. The future landscape is one in which (a) Irans influence continues to grow and (b) Saudi Arabia pursues unsound foreign policies, allows domestic discontent (high unemployment) to grow and permits royal family feuding to intensify. In short, Saudi Arabias desire to repair relations with Iran is merely a strategic move and has nothing to do with any tenets of Islamic brotherhood.

My sense is the desert kingdom  that is, the royal family  is worried more about its survival and domestic stability. Diverting attention to new partnerships or even diplomatic understandings, however hollow, could be a good strategy. However, if discontent seizes the people of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Khobar and Qatif and if complications arise in the Shia eastern province, things could quickly go south. And Iran stands to benefit from a destabilized Saudi Arabia. It could not only increase its influence in Iraq, Yemen and Syria more than it already has, it could also open up opportunities in other Gulf states, including Bahrain and Kuwait. That sends chills down spines of some observers in Sunni circles.
During one of my last terms in office in the Texas Legislature, while listening to the House debate state facilities funding, I found myself gazing at the Reagan Building, one of the few state office buildings on Texas Capitol grounds.

Id not given much thought to the Reagan Building and might have once assumed it was named for Ronald Reagan. With a few hours to burn, my idleness led me to sit down and find out just who this Reagan was.

Tennessee-born John Henninger Reagan was a Texas congressman who became postmaster of the Confederacy. After Richmond fell, Reagan fled south with Jefferson Davis, becoming secretary of the treasury right before he and Davis were captured. A decade later, Reagan returned to D.C., serving again as a congressman and then a senator. He ended his career on the Texas Railroad Commission, retiring in 1903, two years before his death.

Like many in this era, Reagan is hard to pigeonhole into a one-dimensional frame. He was initially pro-Union but, after fiery abolitionist John Browns famous anti-slavery raid, became a full-fledged secessionist. He advocated bringing the country together after the war but maintained positions blocking full rights for former slaves. And now his name is on our building.

I then went on to pull up the names of other buildings on Capitol grounds. One is named for Tom C. Clark, former U.S. attorney general and Supreme Court justice. Another honors Price Daniel, our former U.S. senator, governor and Texas Supreme Court justice. The last is named after Sam Houston and you must leave Texas immediately if you dont know what he did.

More to the point, I was baffled why Reagan was on par with Sam Houston and got his name on this big state government building. So after securing a few others opinions, including that of a former high school history teacher, I decided to initiate a more formal discussion.

Since the bill being debated involved facilities funding and since the Reagan Building was one of those facilities, I thought, Voila! and offered an amendment to rename the Reagan Building after famed attorney, educator and civil rights icon Barbara Jordan, the first African-American congresswoman from Texas. Today the Reagan Building is still the Reagan Building, so I guess you know how successful I was.

But since the University of Texas last week moved John Reagans statue from public grounds (its bound for the Briscoe Center for American History on campus) and the subsequent filing of a suit by the Sons of Confederate Veterans contesting the move, Im guessing were all about to have another discussion about the Reagan Building. And that discussion, if full of good faith, is important.

Im not one in favor of uprooting every dubious monument and renaming every building we have out of political correctness or some change in cultural or political emphasis. But I do believe a deliberate and open discussion should be had about those when legitimate questions arise. We should not try to erase history, but history is erased if we dont understand certain periods of history and the complexity of the people honored in bronze, brick or mortar. Most are not the starkly one-dimensional people now being made poster children of hate for some and gallant figures of virtue for others.

We can have honest discussions about Confederate General Robert E. Lees place in history, but if we are debating statues of Lee, then Lees own feelings on Confederate monuments should be considered. When asked about memorials after the war, Lee wrote: I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.

Of another monument proposal, Lee wrote: As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated, my conviction is that, however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt in the present condition of the country would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating its accomplishment; of continuing, if not adding to, the difficulties under which the Southern people labour.

Lees advice focuses on what helps speed our healing as a nation  and what simply serves to keep open the wounds of our prior division. That this discussion is still going on 150 years later says something about Lees post-war wisdom and judgment.

And just as we must put General Lee in the historical context of his time, we must look at the historical context of each monument itself at the time it was erected. After all, isnt the actual motive behind the statue essential to our broader understanding? Was it put up to actually honor someone for contributions to Texas? Or was it erected in the 1920s to make a political statement about something else going on in the 1920s, with the actual 1860s person memorialized being of secondary concern?

Our history is not kept or lost by a piece of granite but, rather, by whether or not we ourselves learn, remember and teach it. Regardless of how we memorialize regrettable parts of our past, we should all agree that they should not be forgotten.

So back to John Henninger Reagan. We need another discussion about renaming the Reagan Building after Barbara Jordan  or at least someone weve actually heard of. It might help, too, if the prospective honoree didnt have secession as a reason for glorification through the ages.
No matter where your viewpoint, in the path of totality or even a little outside of it, Mondays eclipse was awe-inspiring. Equally inspirational was the way Idahoans across the state worked together in the months leading up the big event.

Unless you secluded yourself on top of Mount Borah months ago, you know the eclipse was a major focus of the news and social media throughout the summer. For many in Idaho, however, the planning and preparation started months ago. The goal? To make sure Idahoans and the thousands of visitors coming to see the eclipse had the best experience possible. Not an easy task when there are so many unknowns.

From first responders, hospitals and the National Guard to parks and forest and land managers, communications experts, and transportation authorities, everyone had a hand in preparing for and successfully navigating the days surrounding the big event. What impressed me most was the high level of professionalism, the shared commitment to our common goal, and the fluidity of working across industries and professions  both public and private.

Behind the scenes in communities across the 300-plus miles the eclipse traveled across Idaho were hundreds of people keeping systems running, information flowing, and tending to those who needed help. Among those were Idahos community hospitals.

Oftentimes, we use the phrase always there when talking about how Idaho hospitals serve the community, which was clearly evident over the last week. Hospitals in the path of totality, many of them in small, very rural communities, worked for months to assure they had the expert medical professionals, supplies and transportation necessary in the event of a mass causality event or high patient volume. They staged ambulances and helicopters in remote locations to improve transportation and evacuation in areas where the roads might be impassable. They worked with first responders, neighboring hospitals outside of the path, and each other to share resources and create contingency plans. This same dedication could be found in all of the other agencies and public entities working to keep us safe.

Those of us who helped coordinate efforts with the Idaho Office of Emergency Management were encouraged by the positive outcomes of this weeks eclipse and that the hard work of so many unsung heroes paid off in an enjoyable, safe large scale event. But even more importantly, it demonstrated to me how much we gain in working together. The lines of communication and relationships strengthened during the eclipse will continue to serve Idaho well as those of us focused on the health and safety of Idahoans remain always there.
When he defended statues of Confederate heroes, President Trump promoted symbols of racism as they existed more than 150 years ago, embedded in the institution of slavery. By pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, Trump defended racism as it exists today, embedded in the mechanism of criminal law.

Lets not forget exactly why Arpaio was in trouble and awaiting sentencing before a federal court. In 2011, the Department of Justice issued a report finding that his office displayed a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos and that Arpaio was a primary cause of the problem. Two years later, a federal judge found that Arpaios office had engaged in systemic racial profiling and ordered specific remedies. Arpaio did not change his practices and in October 2016 a judge found him in criminal contempt  a charge that can result in a six-month jail sentence.

Its not surprising that Trump would have a certain affinity for Arpaio. Both are brash showmen, were early proponents of the false claim that President Obama was not born in America, and believe in law and order so long as it applies to other people. They even have a common enemy in Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake. Trump tweeted Flake was WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. Hes toxic! Meanwhile, Arpaio engaged in an odd attack on Flakes son and daughter-in-law, charging them with animal cruelty when an air conditioner failed in a kennel  charges dropped for lack of evidence.

The role of Confederate monuments is subject to a vigorous, worthwhile debate, centered on the context and value of those symbols. Few people, though, argue the men they depict should be celebrated because of their repugnant views on race. We have evolved as a moral nation beyond any belief there is value in the brutality of slavery.

What we have not evolved beyond is a system of policing that too often treats people differently based on race and ethnicity. That problem has been a mainstay of the news the past few years, driven by deadly shootings, racial disparities and a continuing fear in minority communities rooted in an often-reasonable belief police are more likely to hurt them than help them. And in the midst of this, Trump singles out for favor a man facing sentencing for exactly that wrong.

Much as Arpaio did violence to justice, Trump did violence to the idea of clemency by issuing a pardon. The contrast with President Obama could not be more stark. Obama used clemency to free hundreds of deserving long-term drug prisoners, many of whom were victims of an unfair crack cocaine sentencing scheme that led to the targeting and over-punishment of minority members. These were the least powerful people in our society, many of them older men and women locked up for decades for relatively minor crimes. In contrast, Trump has pardoned a powerful person for the abuse of that power.

Law and order should at the very least mean following the rules. With the Arpaio pardon, Trump didnt even try to follow the rules (though the Constitution does give Trump that ability). There is an established process for seeking clemency that begins with filing a petition. But rather than some citizen seeking mercy, Trump sought out someone he wanted to reward. Meanwhile, more than 11,000 people who followed the rules and did the work to file a thought-out petition still await a decision.

Perhaps more importantly, the Arpaio pardon violated a bedrock rule for recent clemency considerations: to be successful, an applicant must express remorse for his acts. I began a clemency clinic in 2011 and often distinguish it from the Innocence Project by saying we run the Guilty Project. The Department of Justice spells this out explicitly in its instructions for petitioners, saying that a petitioner should be genuinely desirous of forgiveness rather than vindication. Arpaio is a lot of things; contrite is not one of them.

Symbols matter. When we think of our presidents at their very best  Reagan at the Berlin Wall, for example  they often use symbolism to shape our national aspirations. Clemency itself reaches few people and is largely symbolic, a show of mercy to signify those who are deserving. It is best used to honor those who have suffered unduly and redeemed themselves, or to work toward the healing of a national wound. The Arpaio pardon does the opposite; it honors someone who hurt others unduly and exacerbates the divisions in our country.
As we watched the televised images of the noxious, violent white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, many of us felt our blood pressures rise. Many of us were, and are, angry. Many of us have been for some time about the resurgence of white supremacy and anti-Semitism we see all over the world.

In a time like this, Christians might ask whether we should, in fact, be angry. Should we not instead just conclude that this is what a fallen world is like and pray for the final judgment to come? If you are feeling distressed and heated, you have reason to be. White supremacy makes Jesus angry.

One of the many remarkable things about the picture we get of Jesus in the Gospels is how relatively calm he is. When his disciples are panicking in a life-threatening storm, Jesus is asleep. When villages reject the message, the apostles are angered but Jesus is not. Threatened with arrest and even execution, Jesus meets his accusers with tranquility. The Scriptures show us two things that make Jesus visibly angry: Religious hypocrisy and racial supremacist ideology.

Jesus spoke gently with those on the outside of the people of God, even those deep in sin, but of those who claimed the name of God, he was sharp and direct. Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites, blind guides and whitewashed tombs . . . full of the bones of the dead. Thats far from the kind, subdued way by which he spoke to the woman at the well, or the tax collectors and prostitutes. Likewise, we see perhaps the most angry picture of Jesus in his earthly ministry at the Temple when he took up a whip of cords and drove the sellers out of the holy place.

Why was Jesus so angered? After all, the money-changers were there to do a service for those offering sacrifice. He told us why. Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? Jesus said. But you have made it a den of robbers. 

The passage Jesus cites is from the prophet Isaiahs vision of the day when the foreigners, those of all the nations, will be brought in to the people of God. Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, The Lord will surely exclude me from his people,  Isaiah said. And let no eunuch complain, I am only a dry tree.

In some way, those who clamored for space in the temple courts were blocking the way of those God had welcomed into his house of prayer. Jesus reclaimed the space for the god who desires all tongues and tribes and nations to worship him through Jesus Christ.

The religious leaders and those keeping the worship of God from the nations had something in common: Both were seeking to keep people away from the kingdom of God, people they didnt feel were worthy of it. Jesus plowed through their barriers, and kept plowing, even after his resurrection from the dead. Immediately upon his enthronement in heaven, Jesus poured out his Spirit on those from nations all over the world. Seeing the multiethnic, multinational reality of these Spirit-bearing people, many were amazed and perplexed, asking, What does this mean?

What it meant was that Jesus was the house God promised to build, a house of prayer for all nations. Jesus further showed this by immediately building his African church, calling to himself a leader in, of all things, a eunuch, just as the prophet had foretold.

This is important for us right now because many of those advocating for white supremacy claim to do so in the name of Jesus Christ. Some of them speak of Christendom  by which they mean white European cultural domination  and not of Christianity. But many others are members of churches bearing the name of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be further from the gospel.

Blood and soil ethnic nationalism is not just a deviant social movement. It is the same old idolatry of the flesh, the human being seeking to deify his own flesh and blood as God. The Scripture defines this attempt at human self-exaltation with a number: 666. White supremacy does not merely attack our society (though it does) and the ideals of our nation (though it does); white supremacy attacks the image of Jesus Christ himself. White supremacy exalts the creature over the Creator and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against it.

This sort of ethnic nationalism and racial superiority ought to matter to every Christian, regardless of national, ethnic or racial background. After all, we are not our own but are part of a church  a church made up of all nations, all ethnicities, united not by blood and soil but by the shed blood and broken body of Jesus Christ.

The church should call white supremacy what it is: Terrorism, but more than terrorism. White supremacy is Satanism. Even worse, white supremacy is a devil-worship that often pretends that it is speaking for God.

White supremacy angers Jesus of Nazareth. The question is: Does it anger his church?
In the 2017 Trafficking in Persons report, U.S. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson wrote, Human trafficking is one of the most tragic human rights issues of our time. It splinters families, distorts global markets, undermines the rule of law, and spurs other transnational criminal activity. It threatens public safety and national security. But worst of all, the crime robs human beings of their freedom and their dignity. Thats why we must pursue an end to the scourge of human trafficking. In its report, the State Department quantified the more than 4,000 potentially human-trafficking related investigations and cases initiated by various federal agencies in fiscal year 2016 alone, and the U.S. Department of Justice secured convictions against 439 traffickers, a significant increase from 297 convictions in FY 2015. Federal law must reinforce efforts to end this horrible crime.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I co-sponsored two pieces of legislation, under the jurisdiction of the committee, aimed at addressing human trafficking. Both bills renew portions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, last renewed in 2013 as part of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which I worked to extend:

1) S. 1312, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and is also co-sponsored by 26 fellow senators. This legislation would reauthorize the TVPA and extend the authorization for expiring grant programs established by the TVPA that are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor. TVPA programs support victims of trafficking and assist with the identification and punishment of perpetrators. S. 1312 would also assist with the better collection of related crime data.

2) S. 1311, the Abolish Human Trafficking Act, was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and 30 of my fellow senators have co-sponsored this legislation that would reauthorize programs established by the TVPA that are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security. Additionally, it would establish Human Trafficking Justice Coordinators appointed within each U.S. Attorneys Office to focus on trafficking cases. Each designated prosecutor would have the capacity to investigate and prosecute complex cases that often cross multiple jurisdictions.

Both bills have broad support, including support among my fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported both bills that now can advance to consideration by the full Senate. This is a step in the right direction for ensuring that tools are in place to combat human trafficking.

Traffickers often seek out and abuse fellow Americans and others around the world who are struggling to get by, trying to get away from violent conditions at home and looking for help. We must do all that we can to stop this exploitation and ensure victims have access to the help they need. I look forward to advancing legislation that will assist with this effort.
Online secondary ticket resellers are back in the spotlight after the state government issued an urgent public warning about "unfair and unsatisfactory" sale tactics.

Minister for Better Regulation Matt Kean announced the warning on Sunday, targeting online ticket reseller Viagogo, which has been among the top five most complained about businesses for five months of the past year.

Fans of Adele have previously lost out to automated ticket scalpers that snag tickets en masse, to sell at inflated prices. Credit:AP

"Complaints to date have included delayed delivery, events being cancelled, heavily marked-up prices, hidden fees, and failure to provide refunds," Mr Kean said.

He estimated around 600 consumers had lost almost $130,000.
As Harvey's winds died down, trouble for Texas had just begun with unprecedented flooding across the heart of US energy production and in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States.

Harvey smashed ashore as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday near Rockport, Texas. Two deaths so far have been attributed to the storm and flooding, which has also halted about one quarter of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 5 per cent of US refining capacity.

Rockport, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey hit. Credit:Bloomberg

"This is catastrophic," said Greg Waller, a service co-ordination hydrologist with the National Weather Service's West Gulf River Forecast Centre in Fort Worth, Texas. "When we say record setting it means you cannot use history on your side because the rivers have never been this high before."

Damage from the initial strike won't tell the whole story, said Chuck Watson, director of research and development, at Enki Holdings in Savannah, Georgia. "If it was a traditional hurricane it would be a $2 billion storm, maybe $3 billion, but that is not what this storm is about," Mr Watson said.
Fast food giant McDonald's has defended not paying its workers weekend penalty rates as it came under pressure over a controversial wage deal estimated to leave nearly two-thirds of its workforce underpaid.

Senior executives at the burger chain were quizzed at a Senate inquiry on Friday about its agreement with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) that pays no weekend and very limited late-night penalties.

The fast food giant pays no weekend and limited late-night penalties. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The inquiry comes after a Fairfax Media investigation in 2016 found the agreement would result in nearly two-thirds of McDonald's workers being paid less than the award  the minimum pay and conditions safety net.

The findings were based on hundreds of payslips and the leaking of an entire store's roster that showed 63 per cent of employees at a large Sydney outlet were paid less than the award.
It was a glamorous musical showcase at the Sydney Opera House in front of an audience that included Nauru's President Baron Waqa.

But several members of Sydney's Chinese community claim the appearance of Taiwan's Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in July 2015 was largely funded by Teddy Junus using the proceeds of a multimillion-dollar immigration racket.

Mr Junus pictured with former trade minister Andrew Robb at a government-run networking event for Chinese businessmen. Credit:Facebook

Mr Junus  a wealthy north shore businessman who boasted of networking with Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and Kevin Rudd  is accused of rorting the system for subclass 457 and 163 visas, taking between $15,000 and $310,000 from dozens of hopeful migrants, most of whom were left with nothing.

The case, which is being investigated by NSW Police and the federal Department of Immigration, exposes the murky world of unlicensed migration agents and visa services exploiting the tens of thousands of Chinese people who are desperate to come to Australia.
"if we can't have this conversation in a country, democratically and respectfully, then it is just disgraceful": Stan Grant. Credit:Dallas Kilponen Grant lamented the actions of a small minority, stating that they reflect poorly on those who want to have a civil, rational debate. "People who do that, they actually reflect badly, not just on themselves, but if they actually care about Indigenous people and our cause, they are the ones who damage us. It's ridiculous. You know, we should all be able to come to this properly and conduct ourselves legally and respectfully." The male captured on CCTV appeared to carry a white can in his right hand. Credit:NSW Police "If you look at the history of the Aboriginal struggle in Australia, the history of it, has been peaceful. Indigenous people have conducted themselves with dignity, and peace and honour and have sought a way to be part of this country.

"And everything I have ever written has been about allowing us to feel as if we are part of this country too because we love it too and that's been the hallmark of the Indigenous struggle. So anything that goes to vilify people or mocking people or threatening people or defacing things is not what we do in Australia." A bag was also placed on the head of Governor Macquarie. Credit:Lily Mayers/ABC News Former prime minister Tony Abbott also condemned the acts of vandalism, calling for the vandals to be charged and prosecuted. "It's what happens when politically correct activists decide to jump on a US bandwagon. What I want to hear is an unequivocal statement from [Opposition Leader] Bill Shorten that our history must be respected and strong action by NSW Police and Sydney City council to prosecute politically motivated vandals," he said. James Cook is a most unlikely candidate to be dragged back and forth like a rag doll by today's cultural warriors. Credit:Cole Bennetts

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison also criticized the vandalism, in a statement on his Facebook page. "Enough is enough. This is a bloody disgrace. This is an insult to all fair minded Australians who don't look back on our history with ignorance or rose coloured glasses, but also rightly acknowledge our extraordinary achievements as a nation since Lt James Cook turned up almost 250 years ago." He said. The statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney's Hyde Park that was defaced, which is understood to have prompted Mr Bolt's column. Credit:Cole Bennetts "This kind of rubbish does not help keep one Indigenous child safe, in school or end up in a job. "This divisive BS political grandstanding and vandalism does nothing but indulge the egos of the perpetrators. It is an exercise in pure vanity. Grow up, you're not helping anyone or anything."

The statue of Queen Victoria was also targeted in the attack, with expletive-laden words painted onto the pedestal. Credit:Cole Bennetts Grant believes no positives will come from these acts, arguing that respectful debate is the most effective way to advance the cause of Indigenous Australians. "No good comes from illegality. And no good comes from whipping people up into a state of frenzy. What good comes from is people coming out into society and being able to speak and have rational debate without mocking people or vilifying people or threatening people or going out and defacing things. "It's just not what we do. You know, it's not what we do. And it's not how people should conduct themselves. No good comes from that sort of nonsense." The acts have largely been condemned, with many taking to Twitter to denounce the vandalism. However, many were also quick to condemn Grant for his comments throughout the week, blaming him for the vandalism.

Grant, however, argues that he has never encouraged this sort of behaviour. "I just look at it and whatever I write, whatever I try to do, is based around rational, civil, polite argument. Not mocking, hysterical, not vilifying, but saying how do we actually find a way to live together in this country. "If people want to go to anything that I've ever said, that's what they'll find. This sort of thing, and people turning it into ridiculous hysterical debate doesn't help, it's just ridiculous." NSW Police are investigating the incident, while City of Sydney council workers have finished cleaning the statues. Loading
A 30-year-old man is fighting for life after a friend found him injured in a laneway at a Perth park and rushed him to hospital.

The man was found with multiple serious injuries in the laneway between Chartwell Way and Talbot Road in Swan View in the early hours of Sunday, and taken to St John of God Hospital in Midland.

A man is in critical condition after being assaulted in a laneway in Swan View overnight. Credit:Michelle Smith

Police believe the man was the victim of a serious assault and say he is in a critical condition.

AAP
President Donald Trump's Middle East emissaries spent this week energetically selling his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative throughout the Arab world, from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Then they got to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

At the end of their meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the best that Trump's senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and his special envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt, could manage was a two-line statement saying that the Palestinians had agreed not to bolt from the US-led process.

A perception that Donald Trump's team is stocked with staunchly pro-Israel figures, like son-in-law Jared Kushner, isn't helping peace efforts. Credit:AP

In the exhausted, jaded, disillusioned world of Middle East peacemaking, that qualified as a small victory.

"We were encouraged by the sense of optimism," Greenblatt said in an interview Friday, of his tour of Arab capitals. "They believe the president is serious about this. They believe the president can pull this off."
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Alec Baldwin sues to 'clear his name' in movie set death
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By Steven Mulroy, University of Memphis

Aug. 27, 2017 | MEMPHIS, TN

By Steven Mulroy, University of Memphis Aug. 27, 2017 | 11:12 AM | MEMPHIS, TN

President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who illegally used racial profiling to enforce immigration laws, on Aug. 25.



Its true, Trump has the legal power to pardon pretty much anyone. But pardoning Arpaio may send the message that state and local officials can aggressively enforce federal immigration law, even if it risks racial profiling and violating the due process rights of citizens and noncitizens.



Legal limits on immigration enforcement



Arpaio has long been known for his harsh practices like requiring inmates to work on chain gangs and live in outdoor tent cities in the scorching Arizona heat. He prioritized immigration enforcement at the expense of crimes like sexual assault.



In 2011, a federal court found that Arpaios sheriffs department unconstitutionally racially profiled Latinos. The court additionally noted that state and county officials had no authority to enforce federal immigration law without authorization from the federal government. Arpaio had no such authorization.



As a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department civil rights lawyer, I know that state and local cooperation can be helpful in enforcing federal law. But as I teach my constitutional law students, when it comes to immigration, federal law usually preempts state law. State overenforcement of immigration law can actually interfere with federal policy. So, state officials should enforce federal immigration law only where the federal government asks them to.



More fundamentally, no federal or state official can legally target people for immigration-related stops and questioning just because they look Latino. And as the Supreme Court has stated, even noncitizens have the right to due process and to be free from racial discrimination, as long as they are present in the U.S.



Arpaios detentions and questioning thus broke the law by violating individuals due process and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The court ordered Arpaio and his office to stop using race as a factor in its enforcement decisions. His deputies could detain individuals based on probable cause that they had violated some state law, but not merely because they suspected them of being in the U.S. illegally.



Consequences of a pardon



In July, another federal judge convicted Arpaio of criminal contempt for intentionally violating the first courts prior orders. His sentencing hearing is set for this October.



It is unusual for a president to pardon someone before he or she is sentenced. Doing so suggests that Trump felt Arpaio did nothing wrong.



The pardon may encourage like-minded state and local officials to racially profile Latinos, too. More broadly, it may encourage state and local officers to aggressively enforce federal immigration law. Many experts and law enforcement officials criticize such state and local enforcement, saying it erodes trust with immigrant communities, making them too fearful to report local crimes and cooperate with police.



Arpaios pardon does not mean a complete clean slate for him. It would not erase a separate court ruling from 2016 that found him in civil contempt of court. Civil contempt is a noncriminal finding, which could require remedial measures like court-ordered reforms, reporting requirements and the like. These do not fall under the reach of the presidents pardon.



Nor does a pardon mean that he or his department are allowed to return to their unconstitutional practices. Arpaio himself is now out of office, having lost his most recent election. And the Maricopa County Sheriff Department is still under a court order to refrain from racial profiling and other illegal immigration enforcement efforts. But the pardon may embolden immigration hawks and infuriate Trumps opponents  which, in the end, might very well be the intention.



Former federal prosecutor and former civil rights attorney for U.S. Department of Justice Steven Mulroy litigated, published, and taught in the areas of constitutional law, civil rights, criminal law and procedure, and election law. He has been a law professor for 16 years. Currently, Mulroy is serving as Associate Dean at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
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By Jim Waters

Aug. 27, 2017 | LEXINGTON, KY

By Jim Waters Aug. 27, 2017 | 11:04 AM | LEXINGTON, KY

While no consequential research on Site-Based Decision Making (SBDM) councils has been conducted since former University of Kentucky professor Jane Clark Lindle's analysis 16 years ago, evidence abounds that this abnormal approach toward governing public schools is doing little to fulfill its mission, which, according to state statute, "is to improve student achievement."



Academic improvement across Kentucky isn't nearly rapid enough to prepare students for the future global marketplace.



Given the missing research, even the progress that's been made cannot reliably be attributed to this school-governance model.



The SBDM concept was the brainchild of Kentucky Education Reform Act geniuses who seemed mostly concerned about minimizing the influence of parents, administrators and locally elected school-board members regarding curriculum, finances and personnel.



Their success, however, has offered little in the way of positive results.



After more than 20 years of these councils  where teachers always have the majority vote and parents just as often sit in the minority  federal tests indicate fewer than three in 10 Kentucky eighth-graders do mathematics at a proficient level.



Since teachers are in firm control, one must ask if they're adequately trained for such additional duties as making the complex and sophisticated decisions required to properly handle local, state and federal dollars.



Is it reasonable to expect that each of the commonwealth's 1,253 public schools has the personnel required to manage curriculum and the hiring of staff effectively?



Do teachers really have adequate time to satisfy all SBDM demands and responsibilities while teaching a full class load?



As the Common Core wars have demonstrated, curriculum decisions are crucial to properly preparing students for their future.



Does a high school without anyone qualified to teach physics  as is the case with several Kentucky high schools  have the staff expertise required to develop an adequate science program?



Can a school without a qualified art teacher develop good artistic programs?



The six hours of training required for new SBDM members hardly seem adequate to prepare them to make informed decisions regarding finances, much guide complex curriculum options, which are becoming more intense as digital learning programs replace traditional classroom approaches.



Consider recent sanctions handed down by the Office of Education Accountability against former Superintendent of the Year Randy Poe  a longtime Kentucky educator who now leads the high-performing Boone County school district  and two of the county's middle-school principals related to a troubled adoption of a new digital learning program.



After more than two decades of SBDM governance, chaos and confusion continues  even in high-performing schools with award-winning leaders  about where the authority exists.



While serious issues linger regarding how Poe's team implemented the program, lowering the hammer on an accomplished educator and administrator like Poe confirms: this weird approach toward running schools is off-target but its supporters will go to the mat to keep it.



SBDM defenders won't like my idea of weakening SBDM councils' authority by relegating them to an advisory role.



But the dustup with Poe confirms and reinforces past calls in this column and elsewhere for a clearer chain of command in school districts.



I'm told repeatedly by SBDM defenders wanting to lower the volume on calls for reform that councils really don't have much flexibility regarding the spending of dollars or hiring of personnel.



Perhaps so for salaries and staff.



However, it's obvious SBDM defenders want to retain the capacity to lower the hammer on any administrator getting in the way of their curriculum choices.



Since curriculum is where the education rubber meets the road for our kids, we must end the SBDM-created chaos and return the authority in  and accountability for  our school systems to superintendents and the elected board members to whom they answer.



Jim Waters is president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky's free-market think tank. Read previous columns at www.bipps.org. He can be reached at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com and @bipps on Twitter.
For the past nine years, Clarence Russell has been giving tours to visitors and residents alike on the Winona Trester Trolley.

As the iconic red trolley makes it rounds to the citys scenic locations, riders also get to enjoy the knowledgeable and charming company of a man whos been part of Winona for over 50 years.

I enjoy meeting people, Russell said.

After retiring from Woodlawn Cemetery 14 years ago, he decided not to Sit around doing nothing, adding, I like doing what Im doing.

Rain or shine, the trolley provides a cohesive shot of Winona for tourists passing through, or longtime locals looking for a new perspective.

Passengers seat themselves on benches with a matching red cushions, looking out the large windows as Russell tells them through the intercom what theyre seeing.

Barb Fabian went on the tour with a group of seven other women from St. Lukes Church in Pickwick, Minn.

We learned bits and pieces that we never knew before, Fabian said. And weve lived here our entire lives.

Her friend from the same church, Robyn Nelson, said, I think each of us learned something new about our community. We thought it was an enjoyable ride.

Russell hopes to carry on the legacy of the trolleys original owner, Don Trester, for whom the company is named after.

Promoting the city of Winona was the shared goal of both Russell and Trester, who were close friends at the time.

Unfortunately, in 2007, Trester died from a stroke.

It took two years before Russell could become the owner of the trolley and carry on the dream of his friend. Since he finally did so, the trolley has been enjoyed during events and city tours in many capacities.

Earlier this year, Clarence received an award for Excellence in Tourism by an Individual from Visit Winona.

He still plans to offer the service all year round, even touring neighborhood Christmas lights in the holiday season.

During the ride, chimes of I didnt know that, and How long has this been here? could be heard from the group.

Nancy Fox was a passenger who came to Winona from Minneapolis to visit the Marine Art Museum for the first time after hearing about it for years.

Its a nice little town, Fox said. We came to see the Marine Art Museum, and it did not disappoint.

Though she said she wouldve liked more history, shed still recommend the Winona Trester Trolley experience.

It wasnt always smooth sailing, however.

Last year in August, the trolley caught fire during a tour.

Russell was proud to say all 23 passengers got off in two minutes without any injuries.

He later found another trolley out of Decorah, Iowa. It had Molly printed on the side, and Russell decided to leave it there.

There are several scenes that the tour covers, with different stops depending on the day of the week and the weathers cooperation.

Russell will roll through the Equestrian Center, Garvin Heights, and the Visitors Center before hitting the downtown area, which can include the history inside the Polish Heritage Museum, the wonders of the Watkins museum, and the beautiful St. Stans Basilica.

Russell will even offer a stop at the famous Bloedow's bakery if riders are willing.

The 28-mile city tour takes place twice a day on Saturdays, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
It was a pleasure to meet with Winona-area Senator Jeremy Miller and Representative Gene Pelowski recently and to share with them the impact of the University of Minnesota on your community and our entire state.

For example:

About 71 percent of our undergraduate students across our system on our five campuses  Crookston, Duluth, Morris, Rochester and the Twin Cities  are Minnesota high school graduates, and that includes 343 students from Winona, Fillmore and Houston counties. Another 30 or so will be incoming students across our system later this month, and I look forward to greeting them.

Plus, more than 1,700 of our alumni  including physicians, nurses, engineers, teachers and community leaders  live and work in your areas three counties.

Did you know that 43 percent of our Twin Cities campus students graduate with no government-secured debt? Let me repeat: zero debt for more than four in 10 of our students. Thats a fact that runs counter to the national narrative about debt-laden students and families.

For those students most in need  that is, from families making $50,000 or less  almost all of them can attend the University tuition free because of a collection of financial aid packages we provide. As the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college, this effort to keep the University affordable is very important to me.

With the power and reach of Extension, its 4-H and our historic commitment to Minnesotas agricultural and natural resources community, we continue to make feeding the world safely a priority of our teaching and our research.

And we are a center for preparing the next generation of Minnesotas health care work force and for seeking and finding cures and treatments for the most pressing diseases, with new statewide cancer clinical trials about to begin to better serve Greater Minnesota citizens.

Thank you to Senator Miller and Representative Pelowski for spending time with me this week. I look forward to working with them and their legislative colleagues as the University of Minnesota seeks to partner with the state to refurbish and renew our campuses aging infrastructure so that our students, faculty and staff can learn, teach and conduct research in safe and up-to-date world-class facilities.

Eric W. Kaler, President, University of Minnesota
Public school students take two kinds of tests:

Tests that measure an individual students progress to provide timely feedback for parents and teachers guiding the students education.

Standardized tests that attempt to measure how well schools are performing.

Starting with No Child Left Behind, federal law required states to administer standardized tests to all students, including those with disabilities. Congress reformed federal education law with the Every Student Succeeds Act, intending to give states more flexibility. The law still requires testing all students by grade and mandates the states to improve standardized testing scores every year.

Montana Superintendent of Schools Elsie Arntzen has drawn up a new state ESSA plan that calls for the biggest improvements in scores for special needs students because they were the lowest according to 2016 tests.

My job is to ensure proficiency, Arntzen told the Legislatures interim education committee last Tuesday. Special education scores have to grow at a greater rate.

Individualized progress

Special education students are required by another federal law to have an individual education plan. The IEP involves parents, teachers and other adults involved in the childs well-being. The IEP is the opposite of standardized.

In special education, its supposed to be individualized progress, said Rep. Kathy Kelker, of Billings.

Taking standardized tests can be stressful for any child, and more so for special needs students. Some kids really freak out, its not a comfortable situation for them, Kelker said. Some kids go with the flow.

If the child could meet math and reading proficiency standards, he wouldnt be in special education, said Kelker, who holds a doctoral degree in special education, taught special education at Montana State University Billings, taught in Billings Public Schools, consulted with special education co-ops and retired as executive director of Billings Head Start.

Having high expectations and helping a child meet those expectations leads to better outcomes, Kelker said, but she cautioned against setting yourself up for failure. How are we going to accomplish these very lofty goals and are we going to be beating ourselves up because we didnt have the resources?

Other states have proposed ESSA plans with special education proficiency gains as high or higher than Arntzens plan. But that doesnt make them a good deal for kids.

We call on Arntzen to submit a plan that makes the most sense for students with IEPs.

The biggest barrier for Montana special ed students isnt test scores; its lack of the intensity and scope of services they need to develop their full potential. Montana doesnt fund special education according to what students need. Funding is allocated on the assumption that 10 percent of students qualify for special education. (Nationally, 13 percent of students are in special education.) State and federal funding combined dont cover actual costs of special education, so local school districts are required to spend general fund money, too.

The interim legislative committee is studying Montanas special education funding.

Critical funding

Special education funding is a critical issue, Frank Podobnik, OPI special education administrator, told the committee. One of the largest co-ops in the state is not sure they can make through this year with funding.

Podobnik said the proposed ESSA goals wont be reached when were cutting staff, were cutting programs and teachers have 25 students with disabilities.

House Joint Resolution 1, which Kelker sponsored, called for the study of funding education for children with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency and gifted and talented children. The directive is to:

Consider how Montana could achieve the best match between funding and actual costs.

Prevent tendencies to over-identify special education students or elevate levels of service to receive more funding.

Consider alternative funding mechanisms to enhance the development of the full educational potential for students with special needs.

The results of this research and legislation recommendations will be presented to the 2019 regular session.

Arntzen told the committee that she had just received state results from the Smarter Balance standardized tests Montana students took early last spring. Neither schools nor parents have yet received student and classroom scores. The test measures schools, comparing last years class with the class of 2016. It doesnt measure how much an individual student learned in the year.

Lets not lose sight of the purpose of K-12 education: to develop the whole child, not to pass standardized tests.

Students need adequate support to succeed. The interim committee should focus on getting the best value for every dollar spent for students with disabilities and other special needs students. Cutting special education may cost more in the long run.




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Museum in a box treat for tenants

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Aug 27th, 2017

The memories came flooding back for tenants at the Plas Telford extra care housing scheme for older people in Acrefair, thanks to a visit from the Museum in a Box Team.

The volunteers brought a box full of memorabilia including old photos of local scenes, old newspapers and retro domestic appliances, chatting about their history and encouraging residents to share their own memories.

Weve had some great feedback from the tenants who really enjoyed the event, said Louise Blackwell, Community Development Officer for Clwyd Alyn Housing Association who thanked both the Museum in a Box volunteers and also Brian Edwards, Housing Support Assistant for Allied Health Care who helped out during the visit.
New Keep Safe Cymru Card aims to help keep vulnerable people safe

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Aug 27th, 2017

A new card designed to make vulnerable people more aware of their personal safety, to encourage reporting of a crime  especially hate crime  and to seek help if needed, has been launched by North Wales Police.

Launched at the National Eisteddfod in Bodedern, the Keep Safe Cymru card can be carried by anyone with a learning disability, dementia, mental health or communication need.

The scheme, which was originally launched in the South Wales Police area in 2016, works by helping the cardholder should they need assistance  whether they are lost, if they are a victim of crime or if they are in a situation that means they need some extra support.

The card will hold basic information about the individual such as how they communicate, if they have any health issues and any emergency contacts such as parents or carers.

When an individual registers for a Keep Safe Cymru card they will also be given access to the Police Disability Line. This is a dedicated non-emergency telephone number for people with a disability to use to contact the police. When calling this number the call handler will be aware before they speak to the caller that they have a disability.

This will ensure that the call handler is aware of any additional needs that the caller may have and can pass it onto any policing resource managing their report. This is not an alternative to the emergency 999 service; it is to be used instead of the non-emergency line only.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Debicki said: The card is an excellent opportunity and support mechanism that will enable us to engage with people with learning difficulties, dementia, mental health and a communication need.

Everybody has the right to feel safe in their communities. This initiative will enable us to be more accessible to our diverse communities, which will build personal confidence and encourage the reporting of incidents and crime to us.

Those carrying the card are provided with information on how to keep safe and how to access help if required through the scheme. It also allows for carers, family and friends to provide and put together information which could be vital to us in the event of a vulnerable person needing assistance.

He added: We very much hope that the Keep Safe Cymru initiative will build trust and confidence within our communities, promote accessibility and help to improve victim satisfaction. We are very proud to be involved in such an innovative and valuable initiative.

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Griffith said: I am very pleased that North Wales Police have adopted the Keep Safe Card.

I am confident that it will make a difference to many people who experience issues around mental capacity. A Keep Safe Cymru card will provide reassurance to relatives and carers, knowing that there is another layer of support available.

The information linked to the card will be invaluable to the North Wales Police in their interaction with vulnerable people.

Officers and staff across the region are now familiarising themselves with the scheme to prepare them for when they come across people in need who may be carrying the card.

Further work will continue over the coming weeks to adapt the scheme to assist veterans.

The scheme can be accessed in a number of ways including:

 Downloading the registration form via the North Wales Police website

 Ask for a form to be sent out via post by telephoning 01745 538467

 Contacting North Wales Police via the online webchat quoting Keep Safe Cymru card.

 Pick up a leaflet from the following Police Station front counters: Wrexham, Mold, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, Bangor, Caernarfon and Holyhead.

You can download the card here and here.
Some 100, residents of southern Tel Aviv and their supporters, gathered Saturday night in front of the house of Supreme Court Chief Justice Miriam Naor in Jerusalem's Rechavia neighborhood to protest the drawn out legal proceedings concerning illegal African migrants who have flooded their neighborhoods.

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Protestors carried Israeli flags and signs bearing inscriptions such as "High Court against the people, the people against the High Court" and "The elderly in the neighborhood want to live too."

"The debate over the third country protocolaccording to which migrants are supposed to be sent to a third countryis still ongoing in the High Court after 20 months," said Sheffy Paz, one of the leaders of the southern Tel Aviv residents' protest.

Protestors bearing a sign saying "South Tel Aviv liberation front" (Photo: Mati Amar, TPS)

"We want a ruling, and we want it now. This feet-dragging has become policy, and in the meantime nothing gets done. The situation in south Tel Aviv is bad. There's an immense takeover, we're here losing our lives and the High Court just gives us the runaround."

"South Tel Aviv residents have been suffering for a decade," Eitan Tadmor, south Tel Aviv resident, called on a megaphone. "There's no Shabbat, no security, no nothing. There's no authority without accountability. We're not here to leave. We'll come back every week until the people of Rechavia (neighborhood) get a taste of our suffering. Enough of the cruelty to Tel Aviv's poorest people. Enough strengthening the infiltrators at our expense."

The South Tel Aviv residents' protest (Photo: Mati Amar, TPS)

"The judicial authoritywhich is supposed to protect usis purposely dragging its feet. While the High Court justices live their lives in peace here, we live in a warzone," said Doron Avrahami, also a resident of south Tel Aviv. "There's a two-year lag on moving infiltrators to a third country, and it's simply not happening. The government made a decision, they should let it go through. It's simply impossible that every time they receive a petition, they reject it. There are hundreds of families living in fear in Shapira and HaTikva (neighborhoods). If the High Court wants (the infiltrators) so much, they should take them themselves."

"We've been living under terrorism and occupation for ten years now," commented city council member and resident of Kiryat Shalom Suzy Cohen. "We've been suffering violence and drunks in the streets, we've been living in a ghetto. We demand a solution."

Activists from right-wing movement Im Tirtzu also participated in Saturday's demonstration. "The High Court justices cannot continue their discriminatory policy against the residents of south Tel Aviv," said Alon Shwarterzer, head of Im Tirtzu's policy division.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards drones were documented attacking ISIS vehicles on the Syria-Iraq border, a new video by Hezbollah's military propaganda unit and the Hezbollah-controlled Al-Manar network shows.

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The video, apparently taken August 23, shows how a failed ISIS attack on a Syrian army and Fatemiyouna militia of Afghan fighters supported by the Revolutionary Guardsposition near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Snapshot from footage of Iran's drone strike against an ISIS vehicle, before and after impact

A later video also shows documentation from the ground of ISIS casualties alongside destroyed vehicles. The video's description said, "Clips showing the failure of ISIS in an attack carried out against a Syrian army and Fatemiyoun base near the Syria-Iraq border and the major casualties it sustained as a result of the watchful eyes of the Revolutionary Guards' drone unit."

Footage of Iran's drone attack against ISIS positions in Syria

X

The Al Mayadeen networkaffiliated with Hezbollahreported on the video and claimed the drones launched guided missiles at the ISIS fighters at the start of their attack, thereby killing or wounding many of them.

The Syrian army and Shiite militia, the network further claimed, were able to capture several vehicles and ISIS casualties.

News of the drone strikes follows a recent Hezbollah report on the Shiite organization's drones carrying out attacks against ISIS positions as part of the military advance the organization has begun in tandem with the Syrian army.

According to Hezbollah, the drones attacked ISIS positions and fortifications on the Syrian-Lebanese border and scored some direct hits.

Previous Hezbollah drone strike against ISIS

This isn't the first time Hezbollah drones were documented attacking in Syria. The organization has previously published similar records of drones attacking in the Aleppo region.

In the past few years, Hezbollah's attempts to upgrade and develop their drone capabilities have been the subject of much debate. The organization reportedly possesses hundreds of drones.

Syrian President Bashar Assad spoke last week about the assistance Syria has been receiving from Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah. "Hezbollah fighters have safeguarded Syria's lands the same as any Syrian warrior protecting his homeland," he said. "Iran has supported us from day one and provided us with limitless equipment and armaments as well as military advisors and political support."

"Russia has defended Syria in the Security Council and with supporting the Syrian army. It's been sending its forces and sacrificing lives," the beleaguered president added. "Support from our friends has shored up Syria's steadfast position. History will write about the assistance given to Syria from Russia and Putin, Iran and Khamenei and Hezbollah and Nasrallah."

Syrian artillery forces attacking the Islamic State (Photo: Reuters)

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman cautioned last Thursday that Israel would not accept "The fact Iran has been trying to turn all of Syria into a forward operating base against Israel, with military bases, thousands of Shiite mercenaries brought in from all over the Middle East into Syria with Revolutionary Guards air force and naval bases and the attempt to manufacture precise weaponry in Lebanon."

Despite his combative statements, Lieberman said all diplomatic options must first be exhausted. "I hope we can find a solution for it on the diplomatic level, thanks to the international community, with vigorous action from several directions. Otherwise, we'll have to think of something else," Lieberman said.

"At the end of the day, this reality is unacceptable, intolerable and Israel will not resign itself to accepting Syria as a forward operation base aimed solely against it, nor will it accept manufacturing of precise weaponry in Lebanon."
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has been working to prevent the construction of an Iranian missile factory for Hezbollah in his country.

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Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a warning on Thursday, saying Israel would not allow Iran to establish its presence in the Syrian Golan.

"Iran, via its Revolutionary Guard, is trying to create a new reality in the region with Iranian air force and naval bases in Syria, with Shiite militias numbering thousands of mercenaries and by manufacturing precise weaponry in Lebanon. Israel does not intend to resign itself to these attempts and will not act as onlooker from the sidelines," Lieberman said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri (Photo: AFP)

This was a change in policy from previous statements by Israeli officials, who have so far limited their warnings to "Israel would know what to do" about such a threat.

Lieberman's warning raised the alarm in Beirut, with Lebanese authorities worried it would be the country's citizens who pay the price of another war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In early July, the head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, confirmed reports of the plans to build an Iranian weapons factory in Lebanon.

Later reports indicated the factory would have two facilities: One at the Hermel area, in the eastern part of the Beqaa Valley, which would manufacture Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles with a range of up to 300km and the capability to carry a 400kg warhead.

Iranian Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missile (Photo: AP)

The second facility would be located on the Lebanese coast between the cities Tyre and Sidon. That factory would manufacture different parts of the missile, which would be later be put together in different factories at a later date, according to French magazine Intelligence Online.

Hezbollah, which has already accumulated over 100,000 rockets, is now seeking to target specific sensitive sites in Israel. To that end, it has been trying to obtain long-range guided missiles by smuggling them from Iran through Syria.

However, Israel has been targeting these weapons convoys, essentially foiling Hezbollah's smuggling efforts and leading the terror group to the conclusion its only option is to move the missile production into Lebanon.
BEIRUT - A ceasefire took effect on Sunday in an Islamic State pocket straddling the Syria-Lebanon border, where the jihadists have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with the Syrian army on the other.

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The Lebanese army announced that a ceasefire in its own offensive took effect at 7am (4am GMT) but did not mention a ceasefire on Syria's side of the frontier.

Hezbollah and Syrian army soldiers battling ISIS (: )

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Hezbollah and the Syrian army announced a ceasefire in their assault against Islamic State in Syria's western Qalamoun region, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said.

Hezbollah and Syrian fighters battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and Hezbollah together with the Syrian army, launched separate but simultaneous offensives against the Islamic State enclave straddling the border.

Hezbollah drone attacking ISIS positions

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Last week, Lebanon and Hezbollah each said they had made significant gains against Islamic State militants, driving them back into a smaller part of the arid hills on the border.

Hezbollah and Syrian fighters battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

Northeast Lebanon saw one of the worst spillovers of Syria's war into Lebanon in 2014, when Islamic State and other militants briefly overran the border town of Arsal. The fate of nine soldiers that Islamic State took captive then remains unknown.

Hezbollah and Syrian fighters battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

Lebanon's army said Sunday's ceasefire took effect to allow for negotiations over the fate of the soldiers. Mediated talks have begun with the militants, a Lebanese security source said later.

Hezbollah and Syrian fighters battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

The presence of two other militant groups on the border ended earlier this month, when they withdrew to rebel territory in Syria after offensives by Hezbollah and the Syrian army.

Missing soldiers

The security source said on Sunday that Hezbollah members had entered an area in western Qalamoun to confirm that the remains of the Lebanese soldiers were buried there.

In a speech last week, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Iran-backed group had begun talks with Islamic State on a truce.

Lebanese army battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

Shi'ite Hezbollah is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and its forces fight alongside the Syrian army in major battles. Washington classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

Lebanese army battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

Any coordination between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hezbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable US military aid the country receives.

The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating its attack with Hezbollah or the Syrian army.

Hezbollah bombing ISIS target in Qalamoun (: )

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A Western diplomat praised the Lebanese army's performance in the border battle in "a risky and complex operation" that the diplomat said would have been "simply unimaginable" a decade ago.

Lebanese army battling ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

"We see no evidence of substantive cooperation (between the army and Hezbollah)," the diplomat added.

A source familiar with the talks said there has been some communication between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah in the run up to the simultaneous ceasefires on Sunday.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will arrive on Sunday evening for a four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, his first to the region since taking office in January.

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At the beginning of his visit, Gutters has asked to lay a wreath on the grave of his friend, former president Shimon Peres. He will also lay a wreath on the grave of Theodor Herzl, the visionary of the Jewish state.

During his visit, he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Opposition chairman Isaac Herzog.

United Nations Secretary-General Guterres will be making his first visit to the region (Photo: AP)

Guterres will also meet with the family of IDF soldier Sgt. Oron Shaul, who was killed during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and his body was captured by Hamas, as well as the families of Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, both of whom entered the Gaza Strip and are believed to be held prison by Hamas. The family of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who suffered a similar fate as Shaul, will likely be unable to attend as they are scheduled to attend another event at the time of the meeting.

The UN chief is expected to see Israel in a helicopter tour and visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

Additionally, Gutteres is scheduled to meet with senior security officials, including Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Yair Kochavi, who will brief the UN leader on the latest intelligence reports regarding Iranian entrenchment in Syria.

The different Israeli officials will ask Gutteres to help recruit the help of the international community to stop Iran's increasing and dangerous influence in Syria as well as its efforts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. To that end, the Israeli officials will discuss increasing the activities of the UN peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.

Maj. Gen. Kochavi and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, will also present Guterres with Israel's policy in the West Bank, projects and challenges vis-a-vis Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the aid Israel provides around the world, including to Syrians wounded in the civil war.

Guterres will watch a demonstration of Israeli innovation in an effort to combat growing hostility towards the country in the UN. He will be shown several Israeli technological developments put into use around the world, saving lives and assisting people in third world countries.

On Wednesday, the UN secretary general will make a speech at the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.

After his visit to Israel, Guterres will travel to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and later visit UN facilities in Gaza.

While in the region, the UN chief will meet with Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, to discuss the peace process.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who will accompany Guterres on his trip, said Sunday, "In the face of attempts to hurt Israel at the UN, we expect to present to the secretary-general Israel's real face, its impressive achievements and its contribution to the world. in addition, we'll present him with the complex reality and challenges we deal with in the Middle East."
This past weekend saw the completion of a deal to purchase 17 more F-35 ("Adir") jets for the Israeli Air Force, bringing Israel's total to 50 F-35s set to enter into service in two squadrons.

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The Ministry of Defense's acquisition team signed the agreement in the United States with director of the US government's JSF program, making use of the option to purchase 17 more jets, which was approved by the Security Cabinet in its role as the ministerial committee on procurement.

F-35 jets in action (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

According to the contract, the planes' delivery will be completed by December 2024.

"This is the third deal for F-35 purchases the Ministry of Defense has penned in the past decade alone," said Dubi Lavie, the head of the Israeli delegation to the US.

"With every series of jets coming off the production line, the American manufacturer has committed to bringing the price for an individual plane down," Lavie added. "We're happy to announce that on this particular deal, the American project manager has successfully negotiated with the manufacturing company to bring down the average per-plane price to below $100 million. This is a significant reduction compared to the planes Israel has brought thus far."

The F-35's first flight (:  ")

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In the first deal, Israel paid $125 million per plane for 19 F-35s in total. In the second deal, the price went down to $112 million per plane for 14 jets. Israel expects the price to drop below $90 million per plane when it approaches the US again for planes for a third flight squadron.

This price reduction came after the Pentagon ordered 50 new jets from manufacturer Lockheed Martin. F-35 jets are considered to be more expensive for the Israeli Air Force compared to those purchased by the US Air Force due to the number of unique systems installed onboard the planes as per the operational requirements made by the IDF.

Prime Minister Netanyahu climbing into one of the already-delivered F-35s (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The prices of these planes were severely criticized by US President Donald Trump, who tweeted a month after going into office that "The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20."

Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman praised the signing of the deal, saying the purchase of "17 additional F-35 fighter jets is a significant and strategic addition of strength to the air force."

"The F-35 squadrons are the pinnacle of technology, and will assist the IDF and air force in meeting the many security challenges Israel faces head-on. They are a central aspect in protecting the safety of the people of Israel along the country's borders and even away from them," he added.

An F-35 fighter jet in flight (Photo: EPA)

The Ministry of Defense has purchased a total of 50 F-35A jets from the advanced fifth-generation. Five jets have already been delivered, and by 2021 Israel is set to receive 33 more from previous deals.

The fifth-generation fighter jet, also called a Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is manufactured in three versions: the A model for normal takeoff and landing, the B model for short takeoff and vertical landing and the C model for operations launched from aircraft carriers.

All 50 planes the Ministry of Defense procured for the air force are of the A model but were integrated with unique capabilities and advanced Israeli weapon systems.
Late night TV host Conan O'Brien landed in Israel Friday coming off a direct flight from Los Angeles in order to tape a documentary special for his TBS show.

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Documenting the journey started on the El-Al flight O'Brien took, filming a video in the plane's bathroom trying to read the Hebrew writing on a garbage disposal bin and a hand lotion bottle.

Conan and the El-Al flight crew (Photo: Uli Erez)

Then, O'Brien filmed a live Facebook video Saturday for his three million followers. In the videofilmed at the old Port of Jaffahe shares his first impressions of the country and Tel Aviv, commenting on the muscle-bound men in Speedos and beautiful women.

Conan's airplane bathroom video

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Conan then goes on to share culinary impressions from the Holy Land, saying he enjoyed shakshuka for breakfast and had a chance to drink Israeli beer Goldstar. He also tells of a Thai restaurant he was taken to. Despite initial disappointment at not being taken to a traditional Israeli eatery, O'Brien says it was the "best food" he'd ever had.

Conan's Facebook live broadcast

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The late night TV personality also weighed in on the Israeli weather, complaining about the heat. He said he took to wearing a hat, but looked too much like an old woman, so he stopped.

O'Brien is expected to stay in Israel throughout the week, and will visit Jerusalem and Bethlehem after departing Tel Aviv.
AMMAN  A Jordanian official says Jordan is negotiating with Germany over the legal status of German troops to be stationed in the kingdom, amid reports that disagreements delayed deployment.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday that Germany seeks immunity in Jordan for 250 soldiers who are part of the US-led campaign against Islamic State extremists. The report says Jordan balked at the demand.
Dozens of families of children suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) demonstrated outside the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on Sunday, demanding immediate funding of the life-saving drug Spinraza.

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SMA is a hereditary disease that causes weakness and muscle wasting because of the loss of lower motor neurons controlling movement.

Mothers of Israeli children suffering from SMA marched from Rehovot to Jerusalem, arriving to the capital on Friday, as part of the struggle to get funding for the drug, which costs NIS 2 million ($558,000) a year per patient.

SMA patients and their families protesting outside the Finance Ministry (Photo: Amit Shabi)

She went on to say that in other countries, "there are emergency systems in place to give the drug to anyone who needs it without having to wait for it to be approved as part of the healthcare basket (of medication and medical services subsidized or paid for by the government)."

Her daughter, she said, has French citizenship, which enables her to get the treatment in France, where there is already a system in place to provide the drug to patients. "I served in the army, my son serves in the army, I pay taxes, and yet I still need to leave the country to get treatment," Attali-Briand said.

Oren Katz, who has two daughters suffering from SMA, called on Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to hold an emergency discussion on the matter. "Some of the children are bedridden at home or at hospitals and have to breathe with the help of a respirator. There's a way to save children, but the state is not coming to their aid. This is unimaginable," he lamented.

Meretz MK Ilan Gilon joins the protesters (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Several months ago, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a breakthrough in treatment for SMA and approved the drug Spinraza, which in addition to stopping the deterioration of a patient's condition could also improve it.

Because of the high price tag, families are demanding the government to find funding for the drug even before the discussions over next year's healthcare basket.

Omer Ben-Bron, a 13-year-old who suffers from SMA, pleaded with the government "to find the budget so we can get the medication and be able to live a better life without having to depend on those around us."

A month ago, the family of five-year-old Shalev Bokovza launched a crowd funding campaign to help pay for the costly medication. Shalev was diagnosed at age seven months and his condition has been deteriorating since, with doctors concerned he will soon not be able to breathe on his own.

Shalev Bokovza

"If Shalev doesn't get the injections (of the drug), he won't live," his father Eldad told Ynet. "They told us he won't survive to the age of two, but he's been living for five and a half years thanks to the love he receives from his family."

Economy Minister Eli Cohen, who is a member of Kahlon's Kulanu Party, joined the parents' demonstration. "I couldn't remain indifferent to the protest," he said. "The parents are asking for something basic, there is nothing more important than that."

Cohen told the parents he would ask the ministers of health and finance to hold a discussion on funding for the drug, adding "There is no protest more just than yours."
Leah and Simcha Goldinthe parents of fallen IDF soldier Lt. Hadar Goldinangrily responded on Sunday afternoon to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's statement from earlier in the day, who urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not immediately appoint a new head negotiator to bring Israelis captured by Hamas, both those alive and dead.

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Hadar Goldin, together with Sgt. Oron Shaul, are believed by the IDF to have been killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, with their bodies held by Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas. For the past three years, Israel has been negotiating with Hamas to return their remains.

Simha (L) and Leah Goldin (Photo: Shaul Golan)

L to R: Goldin, Shaul, believed to be dead; and Mengistu, one of three Israelis still alive in Hamas captivity

In addition to the two fallen soldiers, three Israeli citiziens are currently held by Hamas, after apparently jumping voluntarily over the border fence with Gaza: Abera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Jumaa Ibrahim Abu-Ghanima. All three are reportedly suffering from mental illness.

Israel's chief negotiator with Hamas for captured Israelis, Yair Lotan, resigned from his post last week, explaining that holding said position for years has been personally wearing on him. The Goldin family reacted to his resignation by demanding that a new chief negotiator be immediately named in his stead. Lieberman, however, asked Netanyahu not to name Lotan's replacement before a new set of guidelines is recognized for any future negotiations.

Lieberman (Photo: AFP)

Speaking at a press conference set up in their family home in Kfar Saba on Sunday, the Goldins accused Lieberman of not putting pressure on Hamas to return Goldin and Oron's bodies, adding that "the State of Israel has a weak and cowardly defense minister."

"A defense minister that says the kind of things he said today, has no moral right to make decisions, to command an army or to lead a battle," said Simcha.

"This morning, the defense minister asked the prime minister not to appoint a new coordinator for the issue of the POWs and MIAs. I will allow others describe Lieberman's commitment to the IDF values, and refer to the matter at hand. Since the state's founding, Israel's policy on POWs and MIAs has always been determined by the prime minister. It is part of the responsibility and authority that comes with the job. I appeal to Prime Minister Netanyahu: a new coordinator for the affairs of the POWs and MIAs must be appointed immediately. We cannot abandon Hadar and Oron Shaul for even one day.

"You must preserve the values of the IDF and bring back Hadar and Oron. Our son is not a deal. I ask all the political forces: do not turn Hadar, our hero, into the price (we payed). Our life is not something we can talk about in market terms. From the very first day we have demanded that this equation be changed, so that (Israel) will put pressure on Hamas."

Goldin added that "everything the prime minister says is of great significance, especially in closed conversations. We believe Netanyahu. The time is now: the prime minister must act immediately and appoint a new coordinator who will step into Lior's shoes, receive the backing of the prime minister and win the famlies' trust."

Lotan (Photo: Ofer Amram)

The Goldins demanded that Israel take a tougher stance with Hamas. "Without pressure on Hamas we will never reach the Promised Land," added Simcha. "Lieberman knows our position very well. The reason for him not adopting it is because Israel has a cowardly minister of defense. He is good at talking and weak when it comes to action. We demand to implement the (Security) Cabinet's decisions from last January, namely, that the bodies of Hamas terrorists not be returned, that all (Hamas) prisoner visits be immediately stopped. Gentlemen, it is time to put an end to this 'summer camp.'"

Speaking after him, Leah Goldin said that Lotan's resignation indicated he had received not received political backing on his mission to return the bodies and captured Israelis. "With Lieberman's statement, everything is clear," she noted.

Leah recounted a private conversation they had held with Netanyahu following a memorial service for fallen soldiers. "We wanted to know what was going on. Remember, this event was immediately after the Turkish agreement (where Israel apologized for the Gaza flotilla incident, in which Turkish activists dies after attacking IDF soldiers, and on which it was hypothesized that Goldin and Shaul's bodies might be returned as part of the Israel-Turkey reconciliation deal). We were promised that Hadar and Oron would be part of that agreement."

"During our conversation, he (Netanyahu) approached us and asked for our opinion on the discussion that is going to be held in the cabinet regarding the Shamgar Report (which reportedly called on the government to cap the lenghts to which any future deal might go to in working for the release of captured Israelis, alive or dead). I looked him in the eyes and told him: 'We don't change the rules while there are soldiers in Gaza.' The prime minister immediately replied: 'You're right, and I am committed to this matter.' Since then, the prime minister has adopted this position. Since that meeting, Netanyahu has kept this promise. I ask the prime minister to continue to stand by it. Appoint a new coordinator and restore Hadar and Oron to us and to the Israeli people. "

Responding on Sunday to Lotan's resignation, Lieberman voiced his concern that Israel would find itself in a similar position to that of the Gilad Shalit deal, in which Netanyahu agreed to free over a thousand convicted terrorists for the return a singlelivingsoldier.





Shalit prior to his release from Hamas captivity

"I accept with understanding and love the criticism by the Goldin and Shaul families and continue being personally committed to returning home Hadar and Oron, as well as our other citizens being held in the Gaza Strip in violation of international law," Lieberman said Sunday.

Abu-Ghanima, one of three Israeli citiznes still in captivity (Photo: Roee Idan)

However, while stressing that he considers returning Israel's soldiers and citizens home to be "of supreme moral and ethical importance," he added that "we must not return to the mistakes we made in the Shalit deal."

Lieberman noted that among the 1,027 terrorists released in the 2011 deal that saw captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit returned to Israel alive were Mahmoud Qawasmeh, "who was released to the strip and funded the abduction of the three Israeli teens," and Yahya Sinwar, "who became the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It is the same Sinwar who is now setting strict demands that don't allow making any progress towards any sort of deal," Lieberman said.

Earlier this month, the Goldin family demanded that the government implement a cabinet decision to exert pressure on Hamas for the return of their son's body, threatening to take legal action and appeal to the High Court of Justice if it is not done.
Retired Major General Yitzhak Pundak died Sunday morning at the age of 104four years after receiving the rank of major general.

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His funeral will take place Monday at 5pm local time in the military section of the Kibbutz Nitzanim cemetery.

General Yitzhak recieves the rank of major general, 2013 (Photo: IDF)

Pundak is the first officer to be awarded the rank of major general after retiring from the IDF.

Pundak immigrated to Israel in 1933 when he was 19, and was a commander and fighter in the Haganah.

During the War of Independence, he commanded the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade and the battle on the southern front. His battalion suffered great loses during the battle for Kibbutz Nitzanim, which he commanded and was considered a failure and embarrassing surrender.

Pundak later served in various positions in the IDF, including commanding the Armored Corps and Nahal Brigade, until in 1959 he retired from the army with the rank of colonel.

Pundak, during his command of the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade (Photo: David Rubinger)

About five years before his release from the IDF, former chief of staff Moshe Dayan promised to appoint him to the rank of manor general, but did not do so.

"They took my rank in 1959. I do not want to complain about the chief of staff at the time because he is no longer alive," Pundak said in an interview with Ynet. "It wasn't right, but nothing I did helped."

Since then he has served in a number of public positions, including the head of the first council of Arad and ambassador to several countries in South America. In 1971, he accepted Defense Minister Dayan's request to return to the army and was appointed governor of the Gaza Strip with the rank of brigadier general.

In 2013, the former chief of staff, Major General (res.) Benny Gantz, decided to keep Dayan's promise and give Pundak the rank of major general.

"I'm not angry at anyone," Pundak said at the time. "I arrived in Israel in 1933 without education, without a family. Only in the State of Israel can a person reach the rank of major general at this age. So I'm not angry at anyone. I am very excited and will take pride in my new rank."

Yitzhak Pundak and Benny Gantz, at the ceremony (Photo: IDF)

The ceremony was attended by Pundak's family, former Chief of Staff Gantz, then-defense minister Moshe Ya'alon and former head of the IDF Manpower Directorate Orna Barbivai.

"Yitzhak, your great heritage has accompanied us over the years," Ganz told Pundak at the ceremony. "I feel that this is a unique and unprecedented event, an expression of thanks and appreciation for you and for your work. I'm glad I could do you justice. This is an emotional moment for you, your family and the IDF."
Sources in Brazil's Jewish community stated that Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Yossi Shelly, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is acting out of political motivations to sabotage former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon's participation in a public event in Brazil.

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Ya'alon, who is seemingly planning to return to politics, left on Saturday for a visit in the Jewish communities in America and will visit, among other places, Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he was invited by Keren Hayesod (the official fundraising organization for Israel) and a local Jewish organization to deliver a speech to the Jewish community.

Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Yossi Shelly (Photo: Yisrael Yosef)

Sources in Sao Paulo's Jewish community and sources close to Ya'alon accused Shelly of obstructing Ya'alon's visit, saying that Shelly went as far as telling members of the local Jewish community that whoever attends the event is "a traitor to the State of Israel."

Organizers of the event invited both Shelly and the Consul General of Israel in Sao Paulo Dori Goren to the event. Shelly immediately announced that he would not arrive, and according to the allegations, Goren was under heavy pressure to do the same. Goren allegedly eventually informed the organizers that he unfortunately could not attend.

A short time later, the consul received a directive from the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Jerusalem, informing him that he would attend the event, apparently after senior officials at the ministry realized that it was inconceivable for representatives of the state to boycott a visit of a former defense minister and IDF chief of staff.

Sources close to Ya'alon commented on the affair, calling it a "Scandal."

"The prime minister, who also serves as the minister of foreign affairs, is trying to sabotage (Ya'alon'sed) visit, purely over a political dispute. This is a shameful abuse of power.

"Everyone knows there is no opposition or coalition in the diaspora, and that Ya'alon presents a bipartisan position when abroad."

Moshe Ya'alon (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

A spokesperson for Ya'alon's stated that "as in all his conferences, in Israel and abroad, Ya'alon represents Israel and its national interests.

"The State of Israel is blessed with a responsible, experienced leadership such as Ya'alon, who is doing a very important national service in public relations, improving our image and promoting our national interests.

"It is regrettable and shameful that officials who should have the best interests of the state in mind are using diplomatic tools to interfere with this, due to extraneous considerations."

The Foreign Ministry responded by saying that "after examining the matter with the ambassador and the consul in Sao Paulo, it turns out that there is no basis to the alleged 'boycott' (Amb. Shelly had been accused of orchestrating).

"The State of Israel shall be represented by the Consul-General. We regret the baseless attempt to harm the good name of the Israeli ambassador."

The conflict between Netanyahu and Ya'alon broke out following the Elor Azaria affair. Ya'alon, who was the defense minister at the time, denounced Azaria, while Netanyahu expressed his support of the soldier.

Amid such growing tensions and opposing positions, Netanyahu eventually replaced Ya'alon as defense minister, handing the ministry to Avigdor Lieberman in a move that solidified his coalition. Ya'alon announced his resignation from the government and the Knesset, and explained it in his lack of trust in Netanyahu.

Since then, there have been several conflicts between the two. Recently, Ya'alon accused Netanyahu of corruption in the submarine affair and called on him to resign.

Ya'alon and Netanyahu (Photo: Haim Horenstein)

Yossi Shelly is very close to Netanyahu, and in 2005 worked to help him win the Likud primaries.

In 2013, Netanyahu asked to appoint him as the Likud general manager, but the appointment was denied over Shelly's 2008 indictment for presenting false affidavits when he asked to be appointed director-general of the Israeli Post Office. In 2012, a deal was signed in which Shelly pleaded guilty to the offense of violating a statutory duty without being convicted of committing it.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has petitioned the High Court of Justice for it to order the evacuation of the settlers who invaded the Macpelah House in Hebron about a month ago, barricading themselves inside the structure.

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The State Attorney's Office has already stated that the settlers must vacate the property. Negotiations have been initiated, but so far the settlers have refused to move.

Settlers protesting atop the Machpela House (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

At the request of the defense establishment, Mandelblit granted the invading settlers one more week "to evacuate peacefully." If such a scenario does not come about, secuirty forces will then go in and evacuate them by force.

On July 25, some 20 families, made up of roughly 120 settlers, invaded the Machpela House in protest of what they claimed was a delay in examining the building's purchase documents. The invasion took place about two weeks after Ynet reported that the Civil Administration had determined that their documents for the building's purchase were not forged, thereby granting the settlers ownership of the house.

"The Machpela House was purchased a few years ago, but to the disgrace of the Israeli government, families were prevented from living in homes that have been purchased for more than five years, without any moral or legal justification," the settlers claimed. "In these days of Jewish bloodshed, bereavement and pain, we call upon the Israeli government to vigorously raise the banner of settlement and loyalty to the Land of Israel. In the face of Jewish bloodshed, we demand that the Israeli government allow the families to live in the Machpela House immediately."

Barricading themselves inside the house (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Machpela House in Hebron is a three-story building that members of the settler movement "Harhivi" (li. "to widen") claim to have purchased from previous Palestinian owners and have tried to populate since 2012. After many protests and the invasion of some 14 families, it was evacuated and declared a closed military zone by the IDF.

A year later, following a shooting attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to allow settlers to move into the Machpela House, but was met with a High Court of Justice ruling that claimed that all the necessary permits for allowing such a move have not been filed. Since then, the families have been fighting to be granted said permits and move in to the building.
A few days before the IDF ended its withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, a unit of reservists soldies (or perhaps it was the act of an individual) raided an IDF stations in Sinai and scrawled: "We did not retreat. We gave it up for peace" in graffiti. The IDF then reliquished control of several important bases, as well as thousands of square kilometers of desert and mountainous terrain.

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The graffiti's writers did not know it, but with those few words they managed to outline a new Israeli policy in the political battle against the Arab countries: We are not retreating, we are giving it up for peace. Perhaps this is the right time to adopt this terminology, instead of presenting ourselves as "the cock of the walk" who can never surrender or lose in battle. We gave it up. We drove 80 kilometers back, we cleared out the entire Sinai Peninsula. Not "disengaged," not "evacuated," heaven forbid, no escape or capitulationwe gave it up.





The Sinai Desert (Photo: Roie Kais)

In the new reality of our region the Iranians are approaching the Israeli border in Syria and Lebanon, together with the army of Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, looking toward the liberation of al-Quds (the Arab name for Jerusalem) from the occupation of the "Zionist entity." The struggle against the spread of Iran's hold on Syria and Lebanon is liable to escalate into warand in recent days we have heard voices that do not rule out this possibility. Another option would be to adopt the principles of the Saudi peace initiative in order to finally reach the negotiations stage, followed by deal with the Palestinians and a solidifying of our relationship with the more moderate Sunni states in the struggle against Iran and its affiliates. From there, we must start the fight, for an agreement or for war, in the battle for Jerusalem, and not leave considerations to the last minute.

If we know in advance that we will finally relinquish control of some of the territories in Jerusalem that we annexed in 1967, for example, why bring about the deaths of hundreds of soldiers who might fall in battle over the same neighborhoods and villages? (During the Six-Day War some 180 soldiers were killed in battles fought in the neighborhoods in Jerusalem). The idea here is very simple: give up without a fight what can and should be relinquished, within the framework of an agreement. And before it, Israel must delineate in advance the borders that must be fought or not fought.

Should we completely withdraw to Israel's 1967 borders for the price of a peace agreement? The answer is no. There is a limit to the price Israel can afford to pay. Some will say we could have done the same in previous wars, and the answer to this would betrue. But it's not the same now, in that a current deal would grant us the kind of peace agreement that we have had with Egypt for 40 years and with Jordan for 23. Our neighbors do not like us, but when there is quiet on the border, you can live without love.

The situation is reminiscent of the joke about a Russian oligarch (or a German or Frenchman or anyone else) who saw a Bedouin in the desert sitting under a tree and enjoying his life, with fruit falling from the tree every so often and him proceeding to eat it. "Go to work, and after you have accumulated money, you can sit peacefully under a tree and eat its fruit," the oligrach teases. "And what am I doing now?" asked the Bedouin. Many of us want to be like the Bedouinlike him, we eat from the fruits of the tree (ie, peace), without paying the price.
US President Donald Trump met by teleconference Sunday with top administration officials as rescue workers continue to respond to rising flood waters from Hurricane Harvey.

The White House says Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, members of Trump's Cabinet and other senior officials discussed federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The White House says Trump stressed his expectation that "all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the governors of Texas and Louisiana" and that his "number one priority of saving lives."

Rising floodwaters from Harvey have forced thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground in Houston, overwhelming rescuers.

Trump announced Sunday he's planning a trip to Texas soon
Brazilian police have buried the 100th police officer to be killed in the state of Rio de Janeiro this year.

The grim milestone underscores a surge in violence that has prompted authorities to deploy Army troops across Rio, which hosted the 2016 Summer Games.

About 200 people attended the burial of Sgt. Fabio Cavalcante Sunday afternoon. The 39-year-old officer was killed on Saturday in Baixada Fluminense, one of Rio's most violent districts.

The married father of an 8-year-old was off duty when armed men approached. Authorities say he was shot at least 10 times.

Rio is by far the most dangerous place for police to work in Brazil. Many more officers are killed here than in much larger states, like Sao Paulo.
A Palestinian refugee receives a budget four times larger than a Syrian, Iraqi or African refugee, this according to a study conducted by the Abba Eban Institute of International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya.

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The findings of the study seem to reinforce Israel's traditional argument against the split between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance only for Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian refugees in Damascus, Syria, 2014 (Photo: AP)

The UN is currently addressing the largest refugee crisis in historywith about 68 million people worldwide seeking shelter.

At the end of last week, UNRWA released its annual financial report, which stated that in 2016 the organization spent an average of $246 for each of the 5.3 million Palestinians it defines as refugees, while UNHCR spent only a quarter of that, $58 per refugee.

In addition, the data show that UNRWA employs some 30,000 people, while the World Refugee Agency, which handles tens of millions worldwide, employs only 10,000 people.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor heads the Abba Eban Institute, which formulated a plan of action for structural changes that will improve the treatment of refugees around the world by merging UNRWA into the UNHCR.

"Consolidating the budgets and manpower of both agencies will lead to better treatment of refugees," Prosor said. "In Jordan, for example, there are 44 clinics that treat refugees from the civil wars in Syria and Iraq, out of 233 clinics that are required for this mission. Alongside them are 25 UNRWA clinics that ignore Syrian refugees and care only for Palestinian refugees.

"Uniting the resources of the two agencies will enable more quality and efficient assistance, and contribute to a solution for what that the UN itself has defined as the most serious refugee crisis in history."

Ron Prosor (Photo: EPA)

Prosor added that UNRWA is removing any chance of an Israeli-Palestinian understanding because it is working to empower the Palestinian refugee problem instead of trying to solve it, as evident by the increase from 710,000 refugees in 1948 to 5.3 million today.

Prosor added that he intends to present his plan to UN bodies soon and work to promote it.

A few weeks ago, the United States sought to reduce UNRWA's budget, and as a result, the Palestinians tried to transfer control of this budget to the UN General Assembly, but as a result of American pressure they withdrew this proposal.

UNRWA has a long history of anti-Israeli actions. A few weeks ago, for example, the organization's spokesman admitted that Hamas tunnels were located under the organization's schools in Gaza, and in Operation Protective Edge, UNRWA workers transferred weapons and ammunition concealed in the organization's facilities to Hamas.

Israel has for years argued that the UN and the Palestinians themselves are working to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem and oppose any attempt to permanently settle the refugees in the places where they are, including the refugee camps in the West Bank. Attempts to transfer the refugees in the West Bank to new residential neighborhoods have been thwarted by the Palestinian Authority.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories to discuss ways to revive the peace process.

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres arrived Sunday evening. He is set to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his three-day visit, his first since taking office.

Dujarric said in an email that the visit will allow Guterres to "to engage directly with Israeli and Palestinian people and their leaders" about "finding a long overdue peaceful resolution to the conflict."

The visit comes at a time of Israel-UN tensions.

Israel was angered by a resolution adopted by the UN's cultural agency that it says diminishes Jewish ties to Jerusalem. Israel also criticized the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon for being in its view soft on Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces on its border.
Cairo: A senior commander in al Shabaab, Somalia`s al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels, was killed last month in a US airstrike, the group said on Saturday in an online statement.

Somalia said at the time that its military and allied foreign troops had killed the man identified as Ali Moahmed Hussein or Ali Jabal, believed responsible for several bombings.

It did not disclose the nationality of the foreign troops, but American soldiers have in the past taken part in such raids.

"The cowardly American enemy planes tried to strike him. The first missed him and the second hit, making him a martyr," said the al Qaeda statement circulated on social media.

Somalia said last month that Ali Jabal`s death would "reduce al Shabaab`s ability to conduct senseless acts of violence against the people of Somalia, its East African neighbours, and the international community."

The insurgents have carried out frequent attacks in the capital Mogadishu as they bid to topple Somalia`s Western-backed government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops.

Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
New Delhi: Taking offense at Janata Dal-United (JD(U) rebel Sharad Yadav attending the anti-BJP rally in Patna, party leader KC Tyagi said that the "anti-party" activity might cost him his Rajya S membership.

"The party had informed him through me that if he attends the rally, it would be seen as an anti-party activity and that he has voluntarily quit the party," Tyagi said while speaking to ANI.

He added, "According to the 10th schedule, if someone is giving up his membership voluntarily, he ceases to be the member of the House."

Further, Tyagi said that the Rajya Sabha chairman will be apprised of Yadav's activity and that the matter will be looked into.

Tyagi also said that the anti-BJP rally in Patna was a launch pad for his sons.

"Just like a producer launches a film, Lalu Yadav launched his sons. Nobody takes Lalu Yadav seriously any more," he said.

Earlier today, Sharad Yadav expressed his disappointment at the fall of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, promising another 'Mahagathbandhan' to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, at the national level.

Addressing the gathering at Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) anti-BJP rally in Patna, Sharad Yadav said, "I am hurt due to the fall of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, but I promise to build another one at the national level."

He further described how the Grand Alliance was stitched in Bihar, stating that the mandate was given by the people for five years against the BJP leadership.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's mega rally 'BJP bhagao, Desh bachao' in Patna's Gandhi Maidan also saw participation from Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Benerjee.
New Delhi: The finance ministry is open to providing capital support for facilitating consolidation among state-owned banks, which are reeling under mounting bad loans, official sources said.

The Union cabinet has approved the setting up of an alternative mechanism, or a panel of ministers, to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks.

On receiving a proposal from stressed banks, if the ministerial panel finds that the merger is going to create a strong bank, it will not let it go for want of fund shortage, the sources said, adding that acquisition will come at a cost.

"First, the merger proposal should come from the board," said a source, who did not want to be named.

"If the Alternative Mechanism finds the match viable, the finance ministry could provide capital support to the acquiring bank if there is a shortfall," he said.

Sources said the government is keen that at least one merger proposal reaches a logical conclusion by the end of the current fiscal, which is next March-end.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the Cabinet decision last week, had said that the government has not set any target for consolidation.

There are now 20 public sector banks (PSBs) other than SBI. These state-owned banks are grappling with Rs 6 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which is about 75 per cent of the total distress.

After in-principle approval for consolidation, the banks would take steps in accordance with the law and Sebi requirements. The final scheme will be approved by the Cabinet.

An official source said: "It is not necessary that a larger public sector bank should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity so that the dependence on public exchequer is minimised."

Earlier this year, the government had approved the merger of SBI's five associate banks with itself. In March, the Cabinet also approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.

Five associates and BMB became part of SBI on April 1, 2017, catapulting the country?s largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB, were merged with SBI.

With the merger, the total customer base of the SBI reached around 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country. The merged entity began operation with deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore.

SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
New Delhi: In 1956, a team undertook an expedition to the Brazil rainforests to seek out a rare, mysterious species of monkeys  the Vanzolini saki. Unfortunately, however, they only encountered dead monkeys.

80 years later, during a recent trek this month, Laura Marsh, director of the Global Conservation Institute and a renowned saki expert, took it upon herself to go in search of a saki after identifying five new species of the monkeys in 2014.

To her excitement, the elusive primate that was first documented in the year 1936, showed itself to her. The saki expert told National Geographic: "I was trembling and so excited I could barely take a picture."

According to the Independent UK, Dr Marsh organised her "Houseboat Amazon" team to document the biodiversity in the region near Brazil's border with Peru  but with a special focus on finding the Vanzolini saki.

The Vanzolini bald-faced saki has shaggy black hair and distinctive golden legs. It was spotted running among the trees on all fours.

Lacking the prehensile tail of other monkeys, it moves more like a cat, Dr Marsh told National Geographic.
New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign taking responsibility for the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi`s son-in-law Robert Vadra said on Sunday.

"Panchkula is burning with 36 dead and 250 injured. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those affected... Khattar, the CM of Haryana, the nation wants you to take responsibility of security lapses and resign," Vadra tweeted.

Vadra lauded the Punjab and Haryana High Court order to compensate for the losses suffered in the violence by auctioning the Dera chief`s property.

He also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state of questioning his integrity and harassing him. Vadra said it was the time for the state government to prove its integrity and take responsibility for the "massacre".

"I appreciate the Punjab and Haryana High Court for pulling up Khattar government (for) letting the situation escalate," he said.

"Time and again, Khattar government has witch-hunted me, questioned me and my integrity, harassed me, without basis. Today, I ask them to prove their integrity and take responsibility of a glaring massacre, which happened under their nose," Vadra said.

"The whole country is shocked. India`s image across the world has taken a setback. Citizens need to unite and protect each other. I request the central government to give us our basic right of feeling safe and secure, ensuring such incidents of rioting do not occur again," he said.
New Delhi/ Bengaluru: Senior Bharataiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday said former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is illiterate like Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

Swamy made this comment when asked about Hooda's demand of President Rule in Haryana and dismissal of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after more than 30 persons died in the violence that erupted after conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case.

Talking to ANI BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that Hooda is making such statement because he is powerless and illiterate.

"He is saying such things because he is powerless now. President Rule cannot be imposed so easily. As per the Supreme Court's Bombay judgement, there are certain rules to impose President rule. Hooda ji is illiterate like Rahul Gandhi. He should once read the Bombay judgement then demand such things," Swamy said.

Another BJP leader S. Prakash said that Hooda should not make politically motivated statement instead should assist government in restoring normalcy in the state.

"Hooda should also explain that during his period Dera Sacha Sauda gained lot of popularity. He is also responsible for the violence. He is demanding President Rule and dismissal of Khattar government, but this is not the solution. He should join hands with the government to bring back the glory of Haryana," he told ANI.

The former Harayana chief minister on Saturday said that the violence that erupted in Haryana after the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's verdict, could have been avoided and asked the State Government to resign.

Addressing the media, Hooda said that he has never seen such kind of ruckus in a government and asked the BJP-led Haryana Government to resign on "moral grounds".

Hooda further said, "If they don't resign then the Centre must impose President's Rule here."

Hooda also said that people have lost faith in Khattar government, adding, "There is no law and order in the state. It feels like that there is no government in Haryana."

More than 30 people were killed, including two women and a child, and over 250 injured as violence erupted in Haryana and Punjab on Friday after the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was convicted in the rape case.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on August 28.
New Delhi: A day before rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's sentencing, Haryana's authorities have said that all the schools, colleges and other educational institutions in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal and Ambala will remain closed tomorrow to prevent more untoward incidents.

The comprehensive arrangements have been made to maintain law and order across Punjab and Haryana. The activities of anti-social elements are being closely monitored by the district administration with senior police personnel carrying out a flag march.

At least 36 Duty Magistrates and Police officers have been deployed by the district administration that is continuously monitoring the law and order situation in the violence-hit districts.

A special cyber cell has been set up for this, which will keep an eye on the social media constantly. The Control room has been set up by the district administration, which will be available for 24 hours.

The district magistrate has also appealed to the villagers not to pay any attention to any rumour of anti-social elements and in such situation can contact on telephone no. 01746-234223 of the control room.

The broadband and Internet lease lines in premises of the Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa have been suspended till August 29. However, voice calls on mobile networks are not affected.

The Section 144 will remain in effect till further orders.

Earlier in the day, Sisra Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh said that the blockades have been installed at all points since the judgment is coming tomorrow.

"We appeal to the people of media to not go to that side because our operation is underway.Some media personnel did not go in front of our army and also travelled through streets in private cab.Such adventures should be avoided by media.All miscommunications should be prevented. Our mandate is not to go inside the Dera but to protect our city, which we are doing it.

The security arrangements are uptight.There will be no relaxation on curfew tomorrow," Singh said.

Meanwhile, following developments have taken place in the DSS chief rape case:

- 30 died in Panchkula, 6 in Sirsa, 269 injured.

- There are about 3000-4000 people at Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa and are vacating gradually.

- No incident reported in last 24 hours.

- Court will be in Sonaria (jail), Rohtak and arrangements being made.

- Notification has been issued to make arrangements for sitting of CBI Court in Sunaria District Jail, Panchkula for pronouncement of quantum of sentence against Ram Rahim Singh.

- However, Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu has said that, "Ram Rahim Singh won't be produced in Panchkula".

- Deputy Advocate General Gurdas Singh Salwara was sacked after he was reportedly seen carried luggage of Ram Rahim Singh.

- People have vacated Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram in Bajenka village and the whole premises are being inspected by Police and Army in located in Sirsa district of Haryana.

- We found axes, batons, petrol bombs etc there. All objectionable objects have been seized and Dera has been completely vacated says Kaithal DC.

- Curfew will be relaxed, will assess situation, if everything remains peaceful will lift curfew in coming time says SSP Bhatinda, Punjab.

- Post-mortem of the bodies of deceased is underway; 90 people were admitted last night, no case of bullet injury has been found, says CMO, Civil Hospital, Panchkula.

- Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh chaired a high-level meeting to assess the law and order situation in the state after the violence which erupted post Ram Rahim Verdict.

- Punjab Police and Army conducted a flag march in the Moga district of Punjab.

- Police is in the process of establishing the identity of the 28 dead persons says Haryana Chief Secretary Depinder Singh.

Yesterday, the Chief Ministers of Haryana and Punjab issued separate appeals for the maintenance of law and order and calm after followers of Ram Rahim went berserk with grief and anger over his conviction.
New Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that China is attempting to 'change the status quo' on its border with India and incidents like the ongoing stand-off in the Doklam area are likely to 'increase' in future.

Speaking on the topic Indias Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Constructat the General BC Joshi Memorial Lecture , Rawat asserted, "The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future."

"Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops...however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.

He said that during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps insisting that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand- off began), but no resolution has been found yet. "Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives," Rawat stated.

Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted. "This is due to the development of force infrastructure of military significance. Their force reorganisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," Rawat said.

Later, speaking to reporters and explaining his statement that incidents like Doklam are likely to "increase", Rawat said, "We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it can not happen again in a different sector. "It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down," Rawat added.

China continues to enhance its influence in the regional security environment, he said. "It is doing so by increasing defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India's sovereignty," the Army chief stated.

Confirmation for annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year, he said. "We have been doing the exercise every year. One year our team goes to China and on the second year, their team comes to us. While this time the exercise is planned in October, it is not being confirmed (from their side) yet, whether it will take place or not," he said. Asked if the ongoing stand-off was the reason for this, Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."

He slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu & Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern. "Pakistan's unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications.

This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China," Rawat said.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi: Jammu Kashmir Awami National Party (JKNAP) and National Students Federation members have hit the streets to protest against Pakistan's atrocities in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan region.

The JKNAP and the students' body staged protest against the human rights violations committed by Pakistan authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistn-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The PoK locals carried out protests in support of political prisoners in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The protestors said Pakistan was plundering resources of the PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan, which should stop.

Earlier too, the JKNAP has been raising voice against Pakistan.

JKNAP leader Liaqat Hayat Khan in July had attacked Pakistan Army and its Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying they will now throw out terrorists sent by Islamabad to the PoK.

Khan warned the military leadership of Pakistan to stop sending militants to their soil as people of all religions co-exists in this land of peace.

Earlier in August, a massive rally was organised by J&K National Students Federation in Jandali (PoK) to liberate themselves from the clutches of Pakistan.

Taifoor Akbar, a political activist in PoK had said people of PoK are called traitors and are regularly abducted and thrown in jail in the name of National Action Plan.

In 2016, PoK locals had staged huge protests against the rigged July 21 election, which saw Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 32 out of 41 seats.

The protesters had claimed that they were not allowed to cast their votes, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and others rigged the polls in favour of Sharif's PML(N).
New Delhi: All eyes are on cabinet reshuffle which is around the corner. Narendra Modi-led NDA government emerging stronger after establishing supremacy in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, people are expecting some major surprises up the sleeves of the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah. Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO, ZMCL, is here with his in-depth analysis to decode the much talked about crucial reshuffle which is likely to have a major impact on forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Q. Will reshuffle happen on September 2 or Modi and Shah would look for some other auspicious day?

JC: Today, the entire country is discussing about the cabinet reshuffle. Informed sources say that the reshuffle would take place on September 2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a 3-hour long discussion with BJP Amit Shah on this matter and they have finalised the shape of the new cabinet. Everything is ready. They are just waiting for the signal from President House.

Q. What would be the scale of reshuffle? Will there be any merger of ministries?

JC: Sources say the reshuffle would affect around 24 ministers. In total, the cabinet will be reshuffled between 25 ministers. As far as merging few ministries for better governance and reducing the count of ministers are concerned, Narendra Modi is definitely thinking on this  people are speculating that fertiliser and agriculture ministries can be merged, railways and surface transport may be made one and similarly planning and programme implementation may be brought under one umbrella. If a major change happens in this area, that would be in railways and surface transport. The surface transport minister is Nitin Gadkari who is believed to be efficient and result oriented. No wonder if both the ministries are merged together.

Q. Will Suresh Prabhu leave Railway Ministry and will Nitin Gadkari replace him?

Suresh Prabhu has introduced a new concept after the two rail accidents: Concept of Accountability and Arun Jaitley has appreciated the concept but Prime Minister didnt accept his resignation. It seems PM will keep him in the cabinet.

Q. Will Shiv Sena lose its sheen in this cabinet reshuffle?

JC: As far as Shiv Sena is concerned, it will lose its relevance and bargaining power because there is every likelihood that AIADMK will join the government. They have got 37 MPs in Lok Sabha and 13 in Rajya Sabha. In such situation, Shiv Sena will not be in a position to bargain.

Q. What would be the role of Amit Shah in the cabinet?

Amit Shah is all-in-one The most impressive point is PM has complete trust in him. Pm has given the responsibility of winning 2019 elections to Shah After Amit Shah was elected in Rajya Sabha, media and people in BJP started speculating that Shah will be included in the cabinet. Shah himself ruled out his becoming the home minister. He wants to fulfil his responsibility as BJP chief. Some people say that he may be made the leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha.

Q. What would be parameters of cabinet reshuffle?

JC: This time, the only target for Modi and Amit Shah is to win the 2019 elections and corner 350 seats for BJP. The biggest parameter after the outcome of 2019 elections is your performance and your delivery.

Q. Will some ministers be made Governors?

JC: Definitely. When a reshuffle of such a scale happens in any party, people are adjusted, people are rearranged. Few ministers will become governors while few MPs will join the government. A relevant source has said that 7 governors are likely to get appointed. Kalraj Mishra, Lalji Tandon and Vijay Kumar Malhotra could be among them. RSS is to decide on names. As far as RSS is concerned, there is a great coordination between RSS and BJP. Broadly, it can be deduced that 7-8 governors will be affected after this reshuffle.

Q. What is the future of JDU in NDA? Will Nitish get Deputy PM post in 2019?

JC: A significant aspect of this reshuffle is that Nitish Kumars JDU is joining Modi government in the centre. Both the parties have mutually agreed on one post each of a Cabinet Minister and Minister of State. RPC Singh, who is a retired IAS officer and MP from Rajya Sabha may get a cabinet ministry while Santosh Kumar may be considered for MoS. Nitish Kumar clearly feels that no one has the capability to challenge the leadership of Narendra Modi for next 5-7 years. People are speculating that Nitish may leave Patna for Delhi and could take the oath of deputy Prime Minister with Narendra Modi.

Q. Will there be sizeable representation of states going for elections?

JC: Definitely, reshuffle brings an opportunity to reward states due for polls. Then Karnataka, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to get berths in cabinet. There are two cabinet ministers from Karnataka  Sharan Gauda and Anant Kumar there is a possibility that Anant Kumar gets an important portfolio. As far as Karnataka is concerned, BJP and Amit Shah believe that the party is going to form the government. But there is disagreement in ground reality. According to a survey, if elections happen today, BJP will be limited to only 65-70 seats. That means it is not easy to defeat Siddaramaiah, chief minister from Congress. Thats why it is possible that BJP focuses hard on Karnataka in coming time. BJP may appoint one more cabinet minister from Karnataka. For Gujarat, one minister from Gujarat may be upgraded and one may be replaced to set the tone right. Similarly, Himachal is also going for polls. Health Minister Nadda is from Himachal and he is very active. It is believed that Nadda will be projected as a chief ministerial candidate and he may be replaced with Anurag Thakur in the ensuing reshuffle.

Q. Will Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Piyush Goyal and Jayant Sinha be elevated to cabinet minister?

JC: As far as Dharmendra Pradhan is concerned, he has done well in petroleum ministry. For the first time, petroleum ministry is under supervision of Prime Minister. The way Ujjawala Scheme has been implemented by Pradhan, it is likely to garner votes for BJP in the coming elections in a big way. It looks for sure that Dharmendra Pradhan will be elevated to cabinet minister. As far as Piyush Goyal is concerned, power corridors are abuzz that he will be made finance minister while Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore may also be considered for promotion. Sinha is handling civil aviation which is realising the dreams of Prime Minister a common man gets an opportunity to fly people say that Sinha may be given an independent charge of a ministry related to economic affairs. A surprising speculation is - MoS finance from Rajasthan Arjun Meghwal may be elevated to cabinet minister.

Q. Will information and broadcasting ministry stay with firebrand minister Smriti Irani? Will Modi assign any important responsibility to her in 2019 Lok Sabha elections?

JC: The way Prime Minister has once again given the responsibility of Information and Broadcasting to Smriti Irani, one thing is clear that she will there to stay till 2019. As far as her relevance in UP is concerned, Modi and Shah, both know that she is one of the most popular face in UP. In 2019 elections, she will take on Gandhi family in Amethi, Raebareli.

Q. Will any CM from BJP ruled state get a berth in cabinet?

JC: The day Modi had taken oath for PM, I have been listening that chief ministers from Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will be summoned to centre or people close to Modi and Shah will become chief minister. Many campaigns were run. But nothing happened. It is clear that elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh will be contested in leadership of Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh respectively. It is also speculated that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis may be called on to centre and be given portfolio of defence or external affairs. Speculations are there but I dont think Fadnavis will leave Maharashtra for New Delhi.

Q. Will Arun Jaitley be relieved from Finance Ministry and will be given defence ministry full time?

Arun Jaitley is the biggest mystery of the Narendra Modi government Jaitley has complete control over the power corridor. Today, the biggest challenge in this cabinet reshuffle is whether Jaitley should be given finance ministry or defence ministry or whether he should be entrusted with the responsibility of both. In this government, Jaitley has the biggest say after Amit Shah. One ministry may go from his sleeves in this reshuffle.
New Delhi: A Swiss parliamentary panel will discuss next month necessary safeguards the European nation needs to adopt in automatic exchange of banking information with India and 40 other jurisdictions for checking alleged stashing of black money.

The Committee on Economy and Royalties of the National Council (CER-N), a key panel of Swiss parliament which rejected on August 15 a proposal seeking to outrightly suspend implementation of the AEOI Switzerland has agreed to adopt with 41 nations including India, will examine the criteria a country would need to satisfy to start getting access to data under the automatic information exchange.

According to the minutes of the last meeting of the committee, the CER-N will continue its examination at a meeting on September 11 of the 41 AEOIs agreed upon by the Federal Council, the highest decision making body of Swiss government.

In this context, the panel will also discuss how to strengthen the role of the relevant parliamentary committees in deciding whether or not to transmit data abroad.

The Federal Council adopted a resolution on June 15 regarding introduction of AEOIs with 41 jurisdictions including India. The decision is not subject to any referendum.

The council has also proposed to submit a report to Parliament in order to ensure that the necessary requirements, including on confidentiality and data protection, are met by the concerned countries before transmission of the data.

The report will also entail the possible measures in case of non-compliance.

At its meeting on August 15, the committee rejected by 13 votes to 10, with 2 abstentions, a proposal to suspend implementation of AEOIs until the Federal Council presents a list of criteria for judging whether the exchange can be activated with a country.

The majority observed that the question of criteria could be examined in the context of the discussion by article.

The committee went into the matter, without objecting to the Federal Council decision, on the control mechanism.

One of the demands, made by some political parties and banking industry, relates to asking the administration specific the criteria on which a country review would be based before deciding to transmit the data abroad.

Among others, the Swiss People's Party (SVP), a populist political party in Switzerland, has opposed the AEOI framework.

The opposition by SVP, which is known as a national- conservative and right-wing populist political party, is in sharp contrast to the official position of the Swiss government that has cited strong Indian data protection laws for agreeing to include India among jurisdictions for the Automatic exchange of information (AEOI) on financial matters.

It is one of the largest parties in the Federal Assembly and late last year it had supported a campaign, 'Yes to protect bank secrecy in Switzerland'.

Earlier, some private bank groups in Switzerland had opposed the pact but the government decided to go ahead with this framework after putting in place necessary data protection and confidentiality clauses.

A draft memorandum has been already ratified by the Swiss Federal council for implementing the automatic information exchange framework with India, which is expected to come into force from next year.

India has been pressing for long to have such a pact amid a widespread perception about Swiss banks being among the most-favoured for stashing of suspected black money.
Mumbai: Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam on Sunday said he was stopped by police from taking a delegation of striking cine workers to meet Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan.



"Early this morning, police came to my home and prevented me from going out. Later in the afternoon, I was taken to Versova Police Station and made to sit there till 6.30 pm before they allowed me to leave," Nirupam told IANS.



In the adjoining suburb of Juhu, Amitabh's Jalsa Bungalow resembled a fortress with several hundred policemen on guard ostensibly to prevent any untoward incident arising out of the cine-workers delegation.



The delegation, comprising representatives of the striking Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) - an umbrella organisation of more than 22 different unions - was planning to meet the megastar and request him to support their cause since they have been working with him since nearly five decades and he is the industry's "role model", Nirupam added.



"However, the BJP is attempting to break the legitimate agitation of FWICE, and despite their pleas, Amitabh Bachchan continues the shooting of the upcoming 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' show in Film City with police security. This is shocking and we will continue our protest," Nirupam said.



Later, police asked him to submit the memorandum, which would be duly forwarded to Amitabh.



Nirupam contended that a majority of the 1,50,000 cine-workers are on strike since August 15, but they are being threatened and intimated by a few members of a splinter group led by a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who is supporting the film-makers and trampling on the rights of the cine-workers.



The FWICE launched the indefinite strike 13 days ago demanding eight-hour shifts, safety at work, job security, health insurance and on-time payments among other things.



Accordingly, all shootings in studios in and around Mumbai and elsewhere in the country, besides on-locale shoots have been stopped.


Pune: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has said that Pakistan's alliance with the Jihadi groups has serious ramifications on India's security.

"Pakistan unabated alliance with the Jihadi groups has serious ramifications on our security. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalistic and Islamic ideologies," he said.

The Army Chief was speaking at an event organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University.

He also said that the neighbourhood continues to have 'proxy wars' in Jammu and Kashmir.

"This design entails employing non-state actors attempts are being made to expand infiltration attacks attempts across borders in other states as well along India's western frontier," he said.

General Rawat also said that the increasing presence of transnational actors in Pakistan in fundamental ideologies is a matter of great concern.

"This lends to complex dimensions to the threat not only to us but also for other countries of South and East Asia including China," he said.

He further said that the ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) attempt to aid infiltration by the Pakistan Army post and the Trans- LoC actions are being and will be "continued to be responded to, proactively" by the Indian Army.

"We shall take all necessary actions to negate, mitigate and destroy elements involved in planning taking actions against India's security interest" General Rawat said, as per ANI.

He also said that India has threat from the Northern and the Western front and therefore the Indian Army has to maintain strong defence forces.

Significantly, on August 22, US President Donald Trump had hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to 'agents of chaos' that kill Americans in Afghanistan and had warned Islamabad that it has 'much to lose' by harbouring terrorists.

Trump, in his first prime-time televised address to the nation as commander-in-chief, had came down heavily on Pakistan for its support to terror groups, saying the country receives billions in US aid but continues to harbour militants.

"For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror. The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict. And that could happen," Trump had said.

He had said after a 'comprehensive review', it was decided that the American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically.

Trump had said a pillar of his new strategy was a change in America's approach to Pakistan.

He had slammed Pakistan for its support to terror groups and had warned Islamabad of consequences if it continues to do so.

"We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond," Trump had said, as per PTI.

"Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbour terrorists," he had said, in an apparent warning to Pakistan.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Bollywood celebrities, including Twinkle Khanna, Anupam Kher and Raveena Tandon, have expressed their disapproval over the violence in Punjab and Haryana post Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's conviction in a 15-year-old rape case.

The Dera Sacha Sauda chief has been held guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples.

The agitated Bollywood stars took a stand against the violence that occurred in Haryana and Punjab in the name of supporting Ram Rahim that killed at least 28 and injured nearly 250 people.

Twinkle took to her Twitter account and wrote, "Our fault Babas exist as we turn towards them like silly sunflowers looking for the sun,forgetting that a halo is just a trick of the light!"

Veteran actor Kher tweeted, "Violence is what #GurmeetRamRahimSingh seems to have taught his followers. This is nonsense & Govt. needs to use full force to STOP it NOW."

Our fault Babas exist as we turn towards them like silly sunflowers looking for the sun,forgetting that a halo is just a trick of the light!  Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) August 26, 2017

Raveena posted, "The way the followers are reacting,rioting,itself proves what the cult was all about...saddened to see such shameful goons on the loose."

Absolutely! Hope this is seen through! They must pay! What about the tragic loss of lives??  Raveena Tandon (@TandonRaveena) August 25, 2017

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta also wrote, ?"Why should violent mobs still be called 'followers'? What happened to 'terrorists'? Or is that term reserved?"

Why should violent mobs still be called 'followers'? What happened to 'terrorists'? Or is that term reserved? August 26, 2017

Actor Vir Das? tweeted, "It's really quite simple...when your politicians use god to get or stay in power, they are not going to stand up to so called god-men."

1. Arrest MSG.

2. Arrest his violent followers.

3. Put them all in the same jail.

4. Film it weekly.

5. Show it to his other followers.  Vir Das (@thevirdas) August 26, 2017

Meanwhile, actress Esha Gupta? also tweeted, "Again.. riots in the name of religion.. #RamRahimVerdict.. prayers with all those stuck in the riots stricken areas/states ????"

Again.. riots in the name of religion.. #RamRahimVerdict.. prayers with all those stuck in the riots stricken areas/states August 25, 2017

Sirsa is the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda of which Ram Rahim, 50, is its chief.

The special CBI court in Panchkula on Friday convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 2002 rape case and ordered him to be taken into judicial custody.
Chennai: AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala's nephew TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday removed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami from Salem district secretary post.

The latest development comes after the AIADMK faction led by Dhinakaran on Saturday removed chief government whip S Rajendran from a key party post, two days after the latter sought disqualification of the 19 MLAs owing allegiance to him.

P Muthiayan was appointed in Rajendran's place.

Earlier, the AIADMK faction led by Palaniswami had declared as null and void the appointment of Dhinakaran as the deputy general secretary.

The Dhinakaran-loyalist MLAs had on August 22 Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao seeking removal of Palaniswami as the chief minister.

Dhinakaran on Saturday also replaced AIADMK's district secretaries of Villupuram (South) and Sivaganga.

Villupuram (South) functionary and MLA R Kumaraguru was being replaced by KGP Gnanamoorthy, Dhinakaran announced.

Dhinakaran, who is involved in a tussle for power with Palaniswami, has been reshuffling the party ranks in the past few days. He has removed, among others, five ministers, from party posts and replaced them with his supporters.

Shinakaran claimed that all the removals were done on the orders of Sasikala.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Sasikala's plea seeking review of its February 14 order restoring her conviction in a disproportionate assets case.

The top court had on February 14 restored the conviction of Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Elavarasi in the disproportionate assets case, with the bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose (since retired) and Justice Roy setting aside a Karnataka High Court order acquitting the three and late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Setting aside the High Court order, the top court restored the September 27, 2014 judgment of the trial court convicting and sentencing Sasikala and the other two.

Sasikala had been sentenced to four years jail and a fine of Rs 10 crore.

The top court verdict had come on an appeal of the Karnataka government challenging the May 11, 2015 High Court verdict acquitting Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and the other two in a case for amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 66.65 crore during Jayalalithaa's first term as Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996.
New Delhi: Recently, the shoot for an episode of 'The Kapil Sharma Show' was cancelled once again. But, this time, the ill-health of ace comedian Kapil Sharma is not the reason behind the same. Reportedly, Actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari returned to Delhi without shooting for the program.

I was here for a day to shoot for a Bhojpuri episode on Kapils show. But I got a call from him saying the shooting has been cancelled,' the 46-year-old star told DNA. It is being said that the episode wasn't shot because of the workers strike.

However, it is still not confirmed whether the Tiwari will be called again for a re-shoot.

An indefinite strike by cine employees has affected the smooth functioning of the film and television industries.

Those on strike include spot boys, junior artistes, technicians, cameramen, art directors, set designers, style photographers, stunt masters, make-up artistes and many others.
Washington: Anti- White Supremacy protestors will demand President Donald Trump removal from office by starting a 10-day march from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, D.C. on Monday.

The March is set to on August 28 and end in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Organizers say the march will be followed by an occupation of Washington, D.C. with daily nonviolent demonstrations, reported The Hill.

"This is the time to confront white supremacy in our government and throughout our history. We demand that President Trump to be removed from office for allying himself with this ideology of hate and we demand an agenda that repairs the damage it's done to our country and its people," the website for the march reads.

A number of activist groups such as the Women's March, Working Families Party, the Action Group Network, United We Dream, Color of Change, and others will be participating in the March to Confront White Supremacy.

Violence erupted in Charlottesville earlier this month at a protest when a man with alleged ties to white nationalists killed one person and injured dozens more by ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters. Tensions were further inflamed when Trump responded to the violence by blaming "many sides" for the violence.

The Charlottesville Police Department has charged three people in relation to the violence that followed the "Unite the Right" rally there on August 12.

Police said the Criminal Investigations Division charged Daniel Borden, 18, of Ohio with malicious wounding.

He was arrested Friday and is currently in the custody of the Hamilton County Criminal Justice Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Police also charged Alex Michael Ramos, 33, with malicious wounding and is currently wanted by the police department.

Both of these charges are in relation to an assault that happened in the 500 block of East Market Street in Charlottesville.

Police charged Richard Wilson Preston, 52, of Maryland, with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Police said this is in relation to a shots fired incident on August 12 in the 100 block of West Market Street in Charlottesville.

Preston was arrested Saturday and is currently in the custody of the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson, Maryland.
Cox`s Bazar: Bangladesh detained and forcibly returned 70 Rohingya migrants to Myanmar, police said Sunday, just hours after Myanmarese troops on the other side of the border had opened fire on people fleeing the country.

Police intercepted the Rohingya late Saturday after they crossed the "zero line" border zone, where Myanmar soldiers earlier fired mortars and machine guns at villagers making the dangerous dash from the northern state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.

The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingya already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer.

"All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards," Khaer told AFP.

Police said some of those detained had entered Bangladesh via the Ghumdhum border area  where the Myanmar forces unleashed the barrage of fire just hours earlier.

"They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar," said one policeman on condition of anonymity.

Rakhine has become a hotbed of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and spurned as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But in October a new militant group  the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)  attacked a string of Myanmar border posts, sparking a military crackdown that left scores dead and forced 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The latest violence erupted early on Friday as scores of men purportedly from ARSA, ambushed Myanmar police posts.

Using knives, some guns and homemade explosives they killed at least a dozen security force members.

Remote villages along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar have seen fierce fighting since then between suspected militants and Myanmar security forces.

The violence has left a total of more than 100 dead since Friday and forced thousands of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh.

But authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with thousands of people  mainly women and children  stranded along the border zone.

The Bangladeshi government has instructed local officials in Cox`s Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar that is home to several large refugee camps, not to allow any "illegal entry" by Rohingya, Abdur Rahman, a senior government official, told AFP.

The impoverished country already hosts some 400,000 Rohingya refugees.

But Rohingya community leaders, local media and an AFP correspondent said despite heavy border patrols, at least 3,000 Rohingya refugees have managed to enter the country and found refuge in camps and villages since Friday.

In Rakhine itself six members of a Hindu family have become the latest victims of the violence. Their bullet-riddled bodies  including three children and a woman  were discovered on Sunday and brought to a hospital in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine.

The victims had allegedly been shot dead by Rohingya militants on Saturday evening as they tried to flee to Maungdaw, a relative who lived in the town told AFP.

"We were still in contact with them yesterday by phone before they were killed. Now their dead bodies are in this hospital," the distraught man told an AFP reporter.

The office of Myanmar`s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi posted pictures of some of the victims on its Facebook account, saying two women and four children survived the ambush and alerted authorities.

Myanmar`s Rohingya are the world`s largest stateless minority and endure severe restrictions on their movements.

Northern Rakhine has been stalked by violence since last October, with civilians trapped between security forces and the militants  who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against perceived collaborators with the state.

Rohingya, meanwhile, live in fear of police and troops.

"They arrest and beat whoever they see along the way," a man, who gave his first name as Anawar, told AFP Sunday morning by phone.

"Not everyone is terrorist," he added. "We want a peaceful and calm society."
Beirutz: Lebanese soldiers in Islamic State captivity since 2014 are almost certainly dead, a senior security official said on Sunday, just hours after the army announced a ceasefire to hold talks over their fate.

The ceasefire halted the fighting in an Islamic State enclave at the Syria-Lebanon border, where the militants have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with Syrian troops on the other.

Islamic State has held nine Lebanese soldiers captive since 2014, when it briefly overran the northeast border town of Arsal with other militants - one of the worst spillovers of the Syrian conflict. The fate of the troops had been unknown since then.

The Lebanese army announced its ceasefire took effect at 7 a.m (0400 GMT). Hezbollah and the Syrian army also declared a ceasefire in their own attack against Islamic State in Syria`s western Qalamoun region, Hezbollah`s al-Manar TV said.

The ceasefire held on both sides of the border throughout the day, as sources said plans for an evacuation of the remaining militants were under discussion.

The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and Hezbollah together with Syrian government forces, launched separate but simultaneous assaults.

Both offensives have advanced towards the Syria-Lebanon frontier from opposite sides, hemming the militants into a small zone in the arid hills straddling the border. Lebanon`s army and Hezbollah have each said the battle was nearing victory.

The Islamic State pocket marks the last militant foothold along the Syrian-Lebanese frontier.

Defeating Islamic State there would end years of insurgents from Syria`s six-year war holding territory in the mountainous border region, and allow the two countries to consolidate control of the frontier.

The head of Lebanon`s internal security agency said the army and security forces had retrieved remains thought to belong six of the soldiers and were conducting digs on Lebanese land for two others. DNA tests were needed to confirm the identities.

"We believe, almost certainly, that these are the remains of the soldiers," said the general, Abbas Ibrahim, who mediated talks between the army and the militants. The whereabouts of the ninth soldier remain unknown.

The soldiers` families had gathered in central Beirut on Sunday, saying they would hold out hope until the last minute.

Ibrahim arrived in the afternoon to give them the news.

"I know this is a difficult moment ... Liberating the land calls for offering our souls to this country," he said.

"We do not bargain. We are in the position of the victor and are imposing conditions."

A military source had said earlier that Islamic State fighters had "succumbed ... and asked for the negotiations".

EVACUATION TALKS

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting Sunni militants along the border during Syria`s war, and has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Earlier this month, Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from Lebanon`s northeastern border region. They departed for insurgent territory in Syria after Hezbollah routed them in offensives with the Syrian army.

In a speech last week, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his Iran-backed group had begun talks with Islamic State on a truce.

The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating its attack with the Syrian army or Shi`ite Hezbollah, which Washington classifies as a terrorist group.

Any joint operation between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hezbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable U.S. military aid the country receives.

Hezbollah and its allies have been pressing the Lebanese state to normalise relations with Damascus, testing Lebanon`s official policy of neutrality towards the conflict next door.

Calls for closer ties come as Assad`s government has put rebels on the back foot and shored up its rule over the main urban centres in Western Syria.

A Western diplomat praised the Lebanese army`s performance in the border battle in "a risky and complex operation" and said it would have been "simply unimaginable" a decade ago.

"We see no evidence of substantive cooperation (between the army and Hezbollah)," the diplomat added.

A source familiar with the talks said Hezbollah and the Lebanese army had been communicating over the ceasefire and negotiations.

The Islamic State fighters had asked Hezbollah and the Syrian army to let them withdraw to Syria`s eastern province of Deir al-Zor, a pro-Damascus official had said. Deir al-Zor, a pro-Damascus official had said.

Several hundred militants are still holed up in the enclave. If the deal continues smoothly, they would evacuate likely there, Ibrahim said.

Damascus has approved an Islamic State-Hezbollah deal that allows for transferring the militants into eastern Syria, state media said on Sunday.

As Islamic State has lost vast territories in Iraq and Syria, many of its forces have retreated to Deir al-Zor province, which remains almost entirely under its control.
Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron`s popularity rating slumped a further 14 points in August to hit 40 percent, following a sharp 10-point drop the previous month, according to a poll released Sunday.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also saw his popularity fall, down nine points over the same period, with 47 percent now satisfied with his performance, the Ifop poll carried out for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed.

Macron has seen his popularity plunge 22 points since the first Ifop poll published three months ago, when he enjoyed a rating of 62 percent just after his May 7 election win.

At this point in 2012, his socialist predecessor Francois Hollande had a much higher popularity rating of 54 percent, while Nicolas Sarkozy boasted an even higher 67 percent in 2007.

Government spokesman Christophe Castaner conceded Sunday that there were "difficulties" and said that more efforts were needed to explain the policy changes proposed by Macron.

"We haven`t given enough meaning, explanation or education about things," Castaner said.

In August, 36 percent of respondents said they were "somewhat satisfied" with Macron, down 11 points, and four percent were "very satisfied", a fall of three points.

Macron, 39, who shot to power as the head of a new "neither right nor left" centrist party, has since come under fire for his monarchical style in office and attempts to cut public spending.

His plans for major overhauls to employment law, which he sees as vital to increasing investment and improving the business environment in France, will face a test from trade unions and leftist opponents next month.

The hard-left, Communist-backed CGT party has called for a one-day strike on September 12, while leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon set September 23 as the date for a major anti-Macron rally in Paris.

"On September 23, the French people need to march in Paris against the anti-democratic coup d`etat which is being organised against our social system," Melenchon told a crowd in Marseille on Sunday.

He added that "the French people have not given full powers to Macron" despite him winning the two-stage presidential election in April and May, and his Republic on the Move party winning a majority in parliamentary elections in June.

Macron, who has given only a handful of interviews since taking power, has also promised to speak more regularly in the months ahead, having started his term in office deliberately avoiding the media.

On Monday, Macron welcomes the African leaders of Chad, Niger and Libya as well as his European counterparts from Germany, Spain and Italy for talks expected to focus on cutting illegal migration to Europe.

On Tuesday, he will speak at the annual meeting of France`s ambassadors in Paris where he will lay out his foreign policy priorities for the coming year in front of 200 envoys.

The Ifop survey of 1,023 people was carried out online and by telephone on August 25 and 26.
Dhaka: After over 2,000 Rohingya refugees got into Bangladesh's territory, hundreds of them are still waiting in the no man's land to enter the country.

There is a sudden splurge in the number of Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh after the blood-shed in the Rakhine State of Myanmar continues, The Daily Star reported.

"We heard sounds of heavy gunfire near the Toombro border under Naikhyangchhari upazila," The Daily Star quoted chairman of Ghumdhum union Zahangir Aziz, as saying.

"Hundreds of Rohingya refugees were waiting near Toombro border trying to enter Bangladesh territory," he added.

A local public representative confirmed that 2,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through different points of Naikhyangchhari.

"Around 2,000 to 2,500 Rohingyas got into Bangladesh from Myanmar this evening [yesterday]," chairman of Ghumdum Union Parishad Md Zahangir Alam said.

One of the refugees, 48-year-old Mujibur Rahaman, who fled along with five family members from the Dekibunia area of Maungdaw in Rakhine, said, "The Myanmar Army and the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) have been torching our houses and showering bullets."

"We have entered Bangladesh to save our life," he added.

Earlier, the Myanmar Army chief, Min Aung Hlaing, said that at least 32 people were killed, including 11 Myanmar security personnel after alleged Rohingya militants attacked remote border posts in the Rakhine State.

The Rakhine State is home to the Rohingya community of Myanmar, ethnic Muslims, who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the country's Buddhist extremists.
Beirut: Lebanon`s Army on Sunday announced a pause in its offensive against Islamic State group militants along the border with Syria to allow for negotiations on troops held hostage since 2014.

The armed forces launched their campaign against IS militants entrenched in the mountainous Jurud Ras Baalbek and Jurud al-Qaa areas on Lebanon`s eastern border on August 19.

"The army command announces a ceasefire beginning at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to make way for the last phase of negotiations linked to the fate of the kidnapped soldiers," it said in a statement.

Nine troops are believed to still be held by IS after militants overran the town of Arsal along the Lebanese border in August 2014 and kidnapped 30 soldiers and police.

Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds while 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015.

The army has said the remaining missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive against an estimated 600 IS fighters in the hilly border region.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched its own simultaneous attack against IS from the Syrian side of the border in an area known as west Qalamun.

Hezbollah`s War Media channel also announced a freeze in fighting on Sunday.

It said the unilateral pause was "in the framework of a comprehensive agreement to end the battle in west Qalamun against Daesh (IS)."

Lebanon`s army has insisted it is not coordinating its assault with Hezbollah.
Beirut: The Syrian army has agreed to a deal between Islamic State and Hezbollah that allows the transfer of Islamic State militants from the Syria-Lebanon border into eastern Syria, state media said on Sunday.

"After the successes, our armed forces and (Hezbollah) achieved in the western Qalamoun ... the deal arranged between Hezbollah and the terrorist Daesh group has been approved," Syrian state television said, citing a military source.

It remained unclear whether the deal includes Islamic State militants only on Syria`s side of the frontier or on Lebanese territory too.

A ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning in the Islamic State enclave straddling the border, where the militants have been fighting Hezbollah with Syrian troops on one front and the Lebanese army on the other.
Barcelona: Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Saturday against terrorism under the motto "No tinc por" (I am not afraid) following the twin terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils earlier this month, which killed 15 people and injured more than 100.



Members of the civil society, emergency services, including health personnel from hospitals, and local and national police were leading the demonstration, Xinhua reported.



People from local businesses likened to Las Ramblas, where a van killed 13 people and injured over 100, as well as those who showed solidarity and helped citizens after the attack, were also present at the demonstration.



They were followed by the victims' families and representatives from organizations and associations that fight for peace.



Spanish King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, Defense Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal as well as Catalan authorities such as the president of the regional government Carles Puigdemont, were also attending the demonstration.



The demonstration started at 18:00 local time at Jardinets de Gracia and would end at Placa Catalunya, the square before the Ramblas.


Doha announced Friday that Ankara arrested five computer hackers believed involved in May hacking of Qatari news agency QNA, which sparked the diplomatic row between the tiny gas-rich country and its neighbors.

Our friends in Turkey answered us a short time ago. Five people were arrested and they are being investigated. The prosecutors in Qatar are working with the Turkish authorities to follow this case, said Ali al-Marri, Qatars general prosecutor.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt in May blocked all Qatar-linked news websites, including al Jazeera, over incendiary comments attributed to the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. In these comments, the Qatari ruler would have called Iran an Islamic power, described Hamas and Hezbollah resistance movements, and said that President Trump would not remain long as US President over domestic challenges.

Qatar quickly responded saying that hackers broke into its news agencys website and its Twitter feeder to post the fake remarks.

The small gas-rich country vowed to hunt down the hackers and called on US and British experts for help. Qatari authorities also noted they were convinced Saudi Arabia, UAE where behind the hacking.

The hacking preceded disruption of diplomatic relations in June by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain and the cutting of air, sea and ground links with Qatar.

Last month, Doha lambasted UAE for plotting the hacking after the Washington Post revealed that unnamed security official noted that they had no doubt that Emirati officials were involved in the hacking.

The US media indicated that US intelligence officials learned that senior UAE government officials discussed the planned hacking on May 23, the day before it occurred.

The crisis brought closer Qatar and Turkey.

Ankara, in the wake of the crisis, endorsed a parliament vote to bolster military presence in Qatar, arguing that the move was part of a military cooperation deal between the two countries. Ankara also helped shore the food shortage that erupted following the cut of air, sea and ground links. Turkey airlifted tons of food stocks into Qatar.
Yangon: Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said, while thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said. The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.

Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi on Friday condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority, and of defending the army`s counteroffensive after the October attacks.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmar`s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 "ethnic villagers" who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.

The ministry is arranging facilities for non-Muslims in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities.

"We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities," said Win Myat Aye.

He was unable to describe the government`s plans to help Rohingya civilians.

"It is very difficult to say - this is a conflict situation so it is very difficult to say who is right or wrong," he said.

Panic-stricken Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said.

"The clashes continued all day yesterday on the main road, there are a lot of landmines. I don`t think local authorities have enough food for all the people. The price of commodities is rising day by day," a local journalist from Maungdaw town said on Sunday.

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya - mostly women and children - were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border as gunfire could be heard from the Myanmar side, Bangladesh border guards said.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border.

Bangladesh`s foreign ministry said it was concerned that thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" had assembled near the border to enter the country.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country`s citizens.
Kabul: The US knows about the Afghan Taliban leaderships presence in Quetta and Peshawar city of Pakistan, commander of US Forces and Nato in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, has said.

The US commander said the issue of terrorist sanctuaries outside Afghanistan was serious and needed to be addressed.

"Support for terrorists and insurgents has to be reduced, has to be stopped," he told Tolo News in an interview on Saturday.

"I am primarily focused on activities inside Afghanistan but other officials are looking into the issue of sanctuaries in Pakistan," he said.

"The Quetta Shura, Peshawar Shura, these shuras are identified by cities inside Pakistan, we know Afghan Taliban leaders are in these areas."

Nicholson said that following US President Donald Trump`s announcement of new Afghanistan and South Asia strategy, he as a commander had a new policy "One based on conditions and not time."

Trump, in his first address as the commander-in-chief, called for more troop deployment and India`s role in Afghanistan while lambasting Pakistan for offering safe havens to "agents of chaos".

Asked if he saw Taliban as a terrorist organisation, Nicholson said: "They do terrorist activities and enable terrorists." He pointed out Taliban`s links in the past with al Qaeda.

Hoping the Taliban would enter the peace process with Washington, Nicholson said the military would continue to put pressure on their sanctuaries inside and outside Afghanistan.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS. Executive Director of the Development Foundation of Armenia (DFA) Armen Avak Avakian delivered Choose Armenia presentation on Armenias investment opportunities during a round-table discussion of business leaders in Los Angeles, the DFA told Armenpress.

A number of investment programs were discussed with American large and medium-sized business leaders.

The investment event was held by the initiative of the Armenian Consulate General in LA which was attended by the heads of chamber of commerce of Los Angeles and Orange counties, Glendale and Los Angeles cities, members of business consulting companies, heads of the US large and medium enterprises.

The DFA Executive Director presented to the business leaders Armenias readiness to become an important platform between the markets of Iran (GDP worth 450 billion USD) and EAEU (GDP worth 3 trillion USD). We have the energy to connect these two powerful economies. The readiness to assist at high level the foreign investors targeting these two major economies is an integral part of the government and the DFA strategy, he said. The DFAs task is not only to develop programs and present them to investors, but also to assist in post-investment period to effectively complete the work.

During the presentation Armenias achievements in IT field and Nation of Innovation video clip presenting the countrys opportunities have been displayed.

During the round-table discussion, head of Investment Policy department at the ministry of economic development and investments Vahagn Lalayan presented the terms of doing business in Armenia, favorable trade regimes with the countries of the EU and EAEU.




YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Armenia, the focus of the Armenia-Diaspora conference discussions will be on statehood as the major guarantee of the existence of the entire nation, editor-in-chief of Lebanons Aztag Daily Shahan Gantaharian said in an interview with Hayern Aysor, reports Armenpress.

He said the Armenia-Diaspora conferences are consistent in terms of topics, structure, participants and the goals that they pursue.

The representative body of organized Armenians gathered under one roof in Armenia is being gradually formed and will lead to the creation of a new mechanism. I think this conference will become a major loop in the chain of consistent strategies, he said, adding that the number of participants, the professionalism of the speeches and the involvement of various government agencies show that we are on the threshold of a transitional stage at the pan-Armenian level and as an Armenian World.

He also talked about the establishment of the Pan-Armenian Council, the first case attempt of which was successful in terms of coordination of the events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The Pan-Armenian Council is a necessity and an urgent imperative of strategic significance for Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora and in terms of coordinating the pan-Armenian issues and working together, Shahan Gantaharian said, expressing hope that the Council will also have regional councils or committees that will work together and share their plans with the Pan-Armenian Central Council.

On September 18-20 the Armenia-Diaspora 6th Pan-Armenian conference will be held in Yerevan which is entitled Mutual trust, unity and readiness. The conference will be attended by public, political figures, heads of pan-Armenian structures and community organizations, journalists, representatives of education, culture and spiritual fields from Diaspora, Armenia and Artsakh. High-ranking officials and spiritual leaders from Armenia and Artsakh will also take part in the conference.
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.
The Senate Redistricting Committee made a few tweaks to redrawn Senate maps, including an incumbent protection amendment for a Democrat, but otherwise passed the documents intact.The maps will be taken up by the full Senate Friday at 10 a.m.Majority Republicans turned back a series of amendments on party-line votes during Thursday's lengthy debate - among them a substitute map submitted by plaintiffs in the Covington v. North Carolina lawsuit. The court in the Covington case said 28 legislative districts are unconstitutional because they relied too heavily on race.Democrats buffeted Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, the committee chairman, with questions about whether race was considered, and what impact the proposed maps would have on the racial composition of districts.Each time, Hise replied race was not a factor, citing the criteria the committee adopted earlier in August..Both sides jousted throughout the meeting over esoteric formulas and models to determine whether a district is gerrymandered. And each side tried to secure a partisan advantage in the final product while claiming their efforts were more fair.Sen. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, expressed Republicans' suspicion about Democrats' motives when Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, said the two sides should sit down with affected constituents to craft mutually agreeable compromises.Bishop said the Democrats are prone to file lawsuits over election maps, and discussions in a working group could be cited later in litigation.Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, asked Hise whether an analysis would be presented of testimony given during Tuesday's public hearing. She said many speakers called for a nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission to draw new maps rather than allowing legislators to retain that function.Hise said noted the authority comes from the U.S. and state constitutions.he said. Some research shows those commissions don't produce districts any less partisan than legislatively drawn maps.In an odd turn of events, the committee did approve an amendment from Sen. Ben Clark, D-Hoke, to reconfigure Senate District 21.Clark has criticized the incumbency protection criterion adopted for the remapping. He has built a new home outside of his district under the proposed maps, and his amendment puts him back into District 21. About 300 households are affected by the change.The committee also approved an amendment by Blue to swap whole precincts between Senate Districts 14 and 15. He said that would keep several predominantly black neighborhoods intact and remedy what the court said was a gerrymandered district.But Blue failed to get any GOP support on an alternate map that changed districts throughout the state he presented on behalf of the Covington plaintiffs.
In regards to the Russia Election Tampering matter: Is President Trump being treated fairly by core Democrats and the Mainstream Media? Yes, the new president is guilty until proven innocent. No, President Trump's treatment is dictated by the usual Democrat double standard. Don't care; there are more important issues facing America. 103 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona was pardoned by President Donald Trump after being convicted by an activist federal judge, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, a Bill Clinton appointee, who found the Conservative Republican Sheriff guilty of a civil-contempt finding, a misdemeanor. The civil-contempt finding was for a host of charges that stipulated that Sheriff Arpaio violated the civil rights of illegal immigrants, protected by then President Barack Obama's Open Border Policy, which enticed Hispanics to come to across America's southern border with Mexico. One of the principle violations of Civil Rights for "Illegals" was found by this Judge to be due to Racial Profiling.On August 23, 2017, the 85 year old former Sheriff (defeated in 2016 after being elected to 6 terms as Maricopa County Sheriff) was pardoned by President Donald Trump for this, and all other possible crimes yet to be prosecuted by Democrat prosecutors and Democrat judges. Sheriff Joe Arpaio pioneered an active law enforcement paradigm of detaining illegal immigrants, mostly hispanic, and then turned them over to federal ICE agents for deportation which was a complete affront to the unconstitutional Open Border Policy of the Obama administration.President Barack Obama's Open Border Policy was the crown jewel within the Democrats' political strategy of enticing illegal Hispanics across the border to use the public assistance programs within counties and states to the benefit of these "Illegals", and the codependent relatives of these undetained subjects of this Open Borders plan of core Democrats. This political policy of the Democrat party to bring these "Illegals" to America was to reward the "Illegals" with their political brand of "Foreign Aid" to these border crossers to use these benefits to later favor Democrats in future elections, while these "Illegals'" codependent relatives benefit now, and vote Democrat now. One need only to listen to the words of core Democrats to realize this plan of theirs to use the public's treasury to buy hispanic votes now and in the future. An example of such is the proving Progressives' semantics of improperly referring to illegal immigrants as "undocumented immigrants" to the more recent reference: "Illegals" as just "immigrants" (implying an unprovable legal status); and, furthermore, decrying others who correctly refer to these illegal immigrants by their correct descriptor as "Racists".In recent years, the core Democrat policy of Open Borders, to shift the political demographics to favor Liberal /Socialist Democrats in elections, has become an untenable cost to taxpaying Americans, hence the popularity of activist law enforcement patriots like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. On Friday, August 24th, 2017, "Sheriff Joe" was rewarded for his patriotism by President Donald Trump, and now need not be worried about any prosecution for properly and patriotically doing his job.Sheriff Joe concluded after the presidential pardon:The unprincipled Democrat Media , wholly owned by the Democrat Party, went summarily apoplectic over the presidential pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as if the president had just pardoned a transvestite spy convicted of Treason (Obama), or a tax evader on the lamb, convicted of being an agent for Iran, and ato ... (Bill Clinton).As core Democrats, with their unprincipled owned media, continue to push the boundaries to delegitimize patriots like Sheriff Joe, there will be Americans that find that behavior abhorrent. Be aware that these good Americans ( "Deplorables" by Hillary Clinton standards) will continue to support innovative, if often inarticulate, politicians like President Donald Trump. My advice to these core Democrats advocating for a more Progressive /Socialist America: Save your strength; it is early yet in this President's first term.
Drug cartels and street gangs in Mexico are creating their own religions and altering beliefs in existing Catholic saints, in a move to create a new narcoculture that tries to morally justify crime and violence.

Some of these new figures of worship are existing Catholic saints, most of which have had their meaning altered for the narcoculture. Some are pulled from Aztec gods worshipped through human sacrifice, while others are new creations altogether.

The two most popular figures of worship in Mexico are products of this new narcoculture. The most popular is St. Jude Thaddeus, also called Saint Judas, while the second most popular is a newly created folk saint called Santa Muerte, Saint Death.

For the rest of Mexico, the growth in popularity of narco saints presents a moral crisis, since they are not only being used to alter the traditional, morally based faiths, but also to create a new system of morals that supports violent crime.

What is taking place in Mexico is a form of spiritual appropriation, whereby the existing religion is being altered to justify a criminal insurgency, according to Robert J. Bunker, adjunct research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute at U.S. Army War College.

There is a spectrum of beliefs in Mexico that ties directly to the growth of crime. Bunker said at one extreme, there are those who adhere to traditional Catholicism and other morally based religions. At the other extreme would be those individuals whom we consider to be evil in their value system.

Yet as the narcoculture continues to develop, it is becoming harder for people to differentiate the legitimate figures from the newly created narco saints. Bunker noted the case of Saint Judas, a legitimate Catholic saint now commonly worshipped for protection by smugglers, bandits, gangs, and drug cartel members.

He said a slightly more extreme case is the new bandit saint, Santo Nino Huachicolero, which is an alteration of a legitimate Catholic saint, Santo Nino de Atocha, or Holy Child of Atocha.

The Catholic News Service warned of the newly altered saint on May 12, noting that it was created by a gang of gasoline thieves known as huachicoleros southeast of Mexico City who altered the image of the Christ child to show him holding a gas can and hose. It cites Father Paulo Carvajal, archdiocesan spokesman, as stating: This image can never be accepted. Being a huachicolero is practically a crime. The church cannot be in favor of this, much less be in favor that images are used in this way.

Carvajal said the new saint is being used to deceive people. Locals following the new saint have even protested to defend the gas thieves from law enforcement.

Bunker noted the significance of the phenomena, saying, A venerated 13th-century Catholic saint has just been spiritually hijacked by criminal elements in Mexico and recast as the patron deity of gasoline thieves before our eyes.

With the creation of the new saint, another demographic, albeit a relatively small one, has just further rationalized their criminal behaviorswhich are at odds with state authorityby having someone to pray to in order to achieve success in their gasoline-stealing endeavors, he said.

From a Catholic Church and traditional Mexican societal perspective, another grouping of people just jumped ship and went over to the narco and criminal elements of society in both their hearts and minds.

Left-Hand Saints

The cases of sanctioned Catholic saints relate to spiritual appropriation, according to Bunker, whereby people are altering religions to justify actssuch as theft and smugglingthat would traditionally violate the religion.

On a spectrum that classifies beliefs on a left-hand path as ones that could be viewed as purely evil and on a right-hand path as ones of traditional morals, these new saints and figures fall from the middle to the left.

Bunker describes the spectrum of narco saints in the book Blood Sacrifices: Violent Non-State Actors and Dark Magico-Religious Activities, published in 2016.

Many cartels and criminal organizations in Mexico can no longer be viewed as merely conventional criminal groups, since many of them use narco saints to try to justify, or even sanctify, their crimes.

The Familia Michoacana cartel and the Caballeros Templarios cartel, which are two of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, worship the newly created San Nazario, The Craziest One. Their crimes play a direct role in their worship of their manufactured saint, who they believe requires torture, ritual killing, and cannibalism.

The Sinaloa cartel worships an unsanctioned saint of drug traffickers, bandits, and outlaws that they refer to as Jesus Malverde, also known as Generous Bandit.

Even Saint Death, which carries the image of the grim reaper, has a strong criminal following. According to Blood Sacrifices, the new folk saint is worshipped by the Los Zetas cartel, the El Gulfo cartel factions, and by many other gangs. Their worship often includes ritual killing, offering of human body parts, and cannibalism.

Mid-sized Mexican gangs and criminal outfits also have their manufactured saints. The Mexican Mafia, the Surenos, and Barrio Azteca, for example, worship the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli. Bunker notes that while the deitys requirements are often less gruesome than the new saints worshipped by many cartels, it is still used to justify the ideology of violent crime.

A Social Dilemma

For the rest of Mexico, the growth in popularity of narco saints presents a moral crisis, since they are not only being used to alter the traditional, morally based faiths, but also to create a new system of morals that supports violent crime.

In the conventional view of crime in the United States, people in criminal gangs are often motivated by financial gain, are pulled into lives of crime due to poverty or poor education, or join the gangs for a sense of belonging.

Bunker noted that while this conventional understanding of gangs and organized crime may still be largely accurate in the United States, it cannot be used to understand Mexican cartels or related Latin American gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street.

These groups, he said, are evolving into something much more dangerous that blurs our understanding of criminal activity and warfare. He said they have become challengers to the state and have carved out their own territories in many countries where they can act with impunity.

The creation of new religions only adds to the severity of the threat. He said the groups criminality is no longer just secular, since they have added a new spiritual component to their actions, and they are now spreading these new ideologies among the general populationcreating warped, criminalized societies.

Bunker noted that Americans and Europeans often see the world through utilitarian, rationalistic, liberal democratic and secular colored lenses, and these perceptual biases often prevent them from seeing that some groups may have perceptions completely different from their own.

This is whyas a nationthe U.S. falls into recurrent traps of our own making, he said, noting the U.S. attempts at nation-building in countries like Afghanistan that have often overlooked the tribal and factional cultures in those countries and their illicit markets in opium production.

The same has applied to other areas, including with drug cartels and terrorist groups. He said this perceptual bias has prevented many in the United States from being able to understand that some people, such as members of a specific cartel or a terrorist group, may kill for sport and pleasureas in the case of Los Zetasor truly believe that they are doing gods work while beheading someone, as in the case of Islamic State adherents.





ONE AMERICAN COUNTY.under Mex occupation





LOS ANGELES COUNTY HANDS MEXICOS ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS MORE THAN A BILLION PER YEAR.




Olympic athlete Noamy Grand'Pierre's mother says it's "pure coincidence" her daughter dove into the swimming world.

It was three drownings in the family that prompted her to enroll her five children in swimming lessons.

Clio, Naomy's mother, noticed older kids practicing for competitions after her daughter's lessons.

"I said, 'Naomy, instead of sitting there waiting for your brothers, we're going to put you in those practices,' and that's how it became a family sport," said Clio.

By the age of 19, Grand'Pierre was the first female swimmer to represent Haiti in the Olympics, when she competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Now, Grand'Pierre says, teaching people to swim is her way of helping uplift her community. She is giving young people free swimming lessons at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

'So many drowning cases'

Grand'Pierre's mother Clio told Radio-Canada that the family has been promoting swimming in the Haitian community at home and abroad.

"In the Haitian community, there aren't very many swimmers, it's really a minority, and that's why there are so many drowning cases, not only in Haiti, but among the diaspora as well," said Clio.

A study by the Lifesaving Society of Canada found that new Canadians are four times more likely to be unable to swim than those born in Canada. It also found more than half of immigrant parents are afraid their children will drown.

At the stadium, Naomy Grand'Pierre, who is on a swimming scholarship at the University of Chicago and hopes to qualify in the 2020 Olympics, is all smiles as she guides the five children in the lesson through the exercises.

"Remember, streamline. Okay, and then we'll do the flutter kick," she says as the kids laugh and splash away. "Perfect, yes!"

It was not lost on the family that only a couple hundred metres away more than 1,000 Haitian asylum seekers were being temporarily housed.

Story continues

Grand'Pierre says it's part of the reason she wanted to host the lessons at the stadium pool. "It is very symbolic," she said.

"It's a big deal  to come back and give back to the community and teach people how to swim," she said.

A dual U.S.-Haitian citizen, Grand'Pierre was born in Montreal and was also raised in Atlanta, Georgia.

On top of her training, she has been helping build pools in Haiti.

"One by one, we can start changing a culture in Haiti so that everyone sees the importance [of knowing how to swim] and even if it's just to learn how to swim and then you never swim again, I'll still be happy with that," she said.

As for whether she saw any future Olympian athletes in her group, she said, "Anyone can become an Olympian, just like anyone can learn how to swim."

"It just takes the right determination."

Giving back

Clio said it was the family's way of contributing to their community, which has been affected by the 2010 earthquake, that killed more than 200,000 people, a hurricane in 2015 and years of political instability.

"If these people are in the stadium, it's because they're looking for opportunity," she said, noting many had walked for kilometres at a time and crossed several borders  not just the one between Canada and the United States, where thousands have been pouring through in the past couple months.

"Haitians are hard workers and I believe that if these people, they travelled all the way to come here, imagine if you give them the opportunity to work and make a life for themselves."

Clio says success in the Haitian community abroad and at home means success for the country.

"The more Haitians we help succeed, the more Haitians will be available to come home with the resources necessary for us to rebuild our country," she added.
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's attorney general said Turkey has detained five suspects in connection with the hacking of Qatar's state news agency in May. The hacking helped precipitate the diplomatic rift that has since opened up between Qatar and some of its powerful Arab neighbors. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed ties with Qatar in June over comments briefly posted on the Qatar News Agency attributed to its ruler in which he allegedly praised their arch-foe Iran. Qatar said Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani did not make the statements and that hackers had posted a false story on QNA. In comments published by QNA on Saturday, Qatar's Attorney General Ali Bin Fetais al-Marri said the suspects were being interrogated, without specifying their nationalities or any other details. "Our friends in Turkey answered us a short time ago. Five people were detained and they are being investigated. Qatari prosecutors are working with Turkish authorities to follow this case," he was quoted as saying by Qatari media. Marri has said Qatar has evidence that the hack was linked to countries that have severed ties with Doha for allegedly supporting Islamist militant groups and advancing the agenda of their arch-rival Iran in the region - charges Doha denies. The dispute has defied mediation attempts by the United States and Kuwait. (Writing by Stephen Kalin Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Government bans import of gold, silver items from South Korea

Published: August 26, 2017

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in the Union Commerce Ministry has banned duty free imports of gold, silver items from South Korea.

These restrictions were imposed against the backdrop of sudden surge in imports of precious metals from South Korea, with which India has a free trade agreement (FTA) since January 2010. Now, importers will now have to obtain a license from the DGFT for importing gold and silver from South Korea.

Sudden surge

Under the India-South Korea FTA, India has allowed duty free import of gold and silver items. However, 12.5% countervailing duty was imposed to offset equal level of excise duty on gold and silver jewellery items produced domestically.

After goods and services tax (GST) regime was implemented from 1 July 2017, countervailing duty was abolished as it subsumed excise duty and only 3% GST was imposed on gold. This created a situation where importing gold via South Korea became profitable due to its duty free status with India even as government continued to impose 10% basic customs duty on gold imports from other countries. Between 1 July and 3 August 2017, gold imports from South Korea surged to $339 million against import of only $70.5 million in 2016-17.

Background

India is the worlds second largest gold consumer after China, with consumption of 674 tonnes in 2016. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), Indias gold demand is projected to rise to between 850 tonnes and 950 tonnes by 2020 from an estimated 650-750 tonnes in 2017.

Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)

The DGFT is the nodal agency responsible for execution of the import and export Policies of India. It is entrusted with responsibilities for formulating and implementing the foreign trade policy with the main objective of promoting Indias exports.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2017

Topics: DGFT  Directorate General of Foreign Trade  Free trade agreement  Gold Imports  India-South Korea  National  Trade

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After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings  though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.



Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance


Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 27

Trend:

Azerbaijan`s Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Office of the Prosecutor General have released a joint statement on a fire that occurred at a weapons and ammunition storage of a military unit of the Ministry of Defense.

The statement says that the fire, which occurred at 9.00 local time, caused several explosions.

A special commission involving representatives of the ministries of Defense, Emergency Situations, Internal Affairs, and Health, the State Border Service, Office of the Prosecutor General, local executive authorities and other state bodies was set up under instructions of the head of state in order to determine the cause of the incident and implement necessary security measures.

The statement says that as a result of immediate measures people living and serving in the territory of the military unit were evacuated.

According to information available as of 13.00, six persons working at the scene received minor injuries, no casualties or severe injuries were reported, the statement says.

In addition, people living in Sitalchay, Gilazi, Mammadhasan and Shurabad villages located in the vicinity of the military unit are being evacuated and temporarily resettled in the tents set up by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There is no threat to other residential areas.

The statement says that the Office of the Military Prosecutor launched a criminal case into the incident under articles 223.2 and 342.2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan is being kept informed of the course of the immediate measures, the statement says.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 27

Trend:

A fire that occurred at a weapons and ammunition storage of a military unit of the Ministry of Defense has been localized and prevented from spreading, Azerbaijan`s Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Office of the Prosecutor General have said in a second joint statement.

"As a result of immediate measures taken under instructions of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, at about 17.00 the fire was localized and prevented from spreading to other places, the blasts were prevented from spreading," the statement says.

The efforts are now ongoing at the site to find and neutralize fragments and unexploded ordnance scattered over the area, according to the statement.

"Five servicemen who received minor injuries as a result of the incident were discharged from Siyazan District Treatment and Diagnostics Center after receiving necessary treatment. Another person is still under medical examination at the hospital. There have not been any severe injuries or casualties in the incident," the statement says.

People who were evacuated from the places located in the vicinity of the scene of the incident have already been returned to their permanent places of residence.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 27

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Sea trials of Subsea Construction Vessel (SCV) named "Khankendi", which is being constructed within the second stage of the development of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz gas field, have been successfully completed, Baku Shipyard LLC told Trend.

The six weeks trials, which took place by the Caspian Sea shore, represented the simulation of vessels voyage in open waters, the company said.

"Throughout nearly two months intense diagnostics, maritime experts executed more than 120 different types of tests designed to evaluate everything, starting from Khankendis engine and propulsion performance to its dynamic positioning, navigation systems, cabin acoustics, as well as the offshore capabilities," the company noted.

The SCV is back at the shipyard for the finishing touches in preparations of the naming ceremony, scheduled for early September 2017, Baku Shipyard LLC added.

The Khankendi vessel is planned to be used in the subsea construction activities, on the Shah Deniz field, between 2017 and 2027. $378 million vessel was built under the supervision of DNV GL (Norway and Germany) company. It is 155 meters in length, 32 meters in width and has a 13-meter main deck.

The vessel will be equipped with the dynamic positioning system  for work in the 2.5-meter-high significant wave height (Hs), a 900 ton main crane  for 600 meter subsea operations, the 18-man two-bell diving system, two work-class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), a strengthened moon pool, two engine rooms with 6x4.4MW, as well as 2x3.2MW generators and has a total weight of 17,600 tons and a carrying capacity of 5,000 tons at the 6.5 meters draft.
Bill Cole is not a politician. Hes a community leader. He would make a spectacular mayor.

I watched Cole announce his candidacy. A large group gathered on the Rims on a beautiful day. Folks from across the political spectrum were there  Democrats, Republicans and a few Libertarians stood side by side, chatting and excited by the prospect that Cole could be our next mayor. His passion for Billings transcends political ideologies.

Bill is also concerned for the long-term future of Billings. He articulately lays out an impressive vision for what Billings can become, a real city that can compete with Boise, Salt Lake City and beyond. A key need is to attract the best in the next generation. Young professionals and their families want good jobs, schools, parks and trails. He says we need to roll out the red carpet to get them.

As a young professional and father of four small children, I like the sound of that. Will this cost something? Perhaps. Doing nothing will cost more. Cole believes in solid long-term planning, building consensus and getting things done. He works to develop public/private partnerships such as the Yellowstone Kelly Interpretive Site in Swords Rimrock Park, for which the city paid less than 10 percent. Currently, hes working on a 17-acre easement donated by Western Sugar to the city that so far has cost taxpayers nothing.

For a passionate leader dedicated to Billings' future, vote Bill Cole on Sept. 12.

Jacob Troyer

Billings
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Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 25

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

About 7.062 million tons of crude steel was produced in Iran during the first four months of the current fiscal year (March 20-July 21, 2017).

The figure shows a rise by 17 percent compared to the same period last year, the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), said.

The countrys crude steel output stood at 1.75 million tons in the fourth Iranian calendar month (June 21-July 21).

Irans privatized (state-run companies which recently have been handed over to the private sector) steel companies produced 5.382 million tons of crude steel during the period, meanwhile output of the private sector producers stood at 1.68 million tons.

Iranian steel producer companies also produced about 6.339 million tons of various steel products including beam, wide sheets, hot rolled sheets, galvanized steel and tubes during the 4-month period, indicating a rise by 10 percent compared to 5.75 million tons of products in the same period of the preceding year.

The privatized steel companies produced 3.675 million tons of steel products, meanwhile the share of the private sector producers stood at 2.664 million tons.

Iran exported 2.138 million tons of crude steel (67 percent increase year-on-year) and 414,000 tons of various steel products (52 percent fall) in the first four months month of current fiscal year.

The country also imported 761,000 tons of steel products in the 4-month period, 24 percent less year-on-year. Meanwhile 6,000 tons of crude steel was imported in the same four months (89 percent fall).

Based on a 2025 outlook, Irans steel output is to reach 55 million tons, 15 million of which should be exported. For the current Iranian year, it is predicted that Iran will produce 18 million tons of steel, exporting 6 million tons of it.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 27

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

The value of Turkeys total imports form Iran has witnessed a considerable surge over the first half of the current year, amid a sharp hike in oil imports.

According to the latest figures by Turkish Statistical Institute, the value of the countrys total imports from Iran in the first six months of 2017 hiked by 72 percent year on year, posting $3.783 billion.

Turkey over the first half of 2016 imported worth of $2.199 billion of goods and commodities from Iran.

Energy sector has apparently played a key role in the dramatic rise of Irans exports to Turkey, accounting for about 82 percent of the total imports of Turkey form Iran.

Oil

The volume of Irans oil exports to Turkey over the first half of 2017 increased 2.5 times compared to the same time last year.

The latest statistics by Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey indicates that the country imported about 244,000 barrels of oil from Iran on a daily basis in the first six months of the current year.

According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), per barrel of Irans oil over the first half of the current year valued at about $49.91 which means that Iran exported worth of $2.1 billion of oil to Turkey in the mentioned period, accounting for about 55 percent of the total exports of the Islamic Republic to its north western neighbor.

Turkeys daily imports of oil from Iran in the first half of 2016 stood at 105,000 barrels.

Gas and electricity

The 2017 figures by Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey, shows that the country imported about 26 million cubic meters of gas per day from Iran which indicates a surge of 23 percent compared to the first half of 2016.

The value of per cubic meter of Irans gas exported to Turkey stands at 20 cents which means that the Islamic Republic exported worth of $940 million of gas to Turkey.

Although Turkey in the recent years was among Irans power costumers, the report has not provided the latest figures on the country's electricity imports from Iran since the second half of 2016.

Non-oil goods

The above-mentioned figures indicate that the value of Irans non-oil exports to Turkey in the first half of the current year stood at about $740 million.

Irans non-oil exports to Turkey in the same period of time last year stood at about $728 million.

Comparing the figures of Irans non-oil exports to Turkey in the first six months of 2016 and 2017 shows the value of non-oil exports has remained almost same.

The trade turnover between the two countries hit $5.32 billion over the first half of 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 25

By Umid Niayesh  Trend:

Latest statistics from Irans Customs Administration, which covers a period from March 20 to July 21, points to a fall in Iranian exports to those economies that acted as re-exporting intermediaries.

Irans exports to Turkey and the UAE fell by 65.5 and 15.6 percent in value, while the value of exports to India, Pakistan and China declined by 12, 12 and 3 percent. 

It appears that with removal of restrictions under the nuclear deal that came into force last year, Iranian businesses are restructuring as well as redirecting their trade toward Europe and East Asia, especially toward Taiwan and the Republic of Korea, Mehrdad Emadi, a consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy, told Trend.

"This was an expected and positive effect of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka nuclear deal]. Iran is moving toward exporting to those economies where expected earnings are more attractive. And as a result, Turkey and the UAE are less relied on as go-betweens to third markets," the expert explained.

The picture for Iranian imports also confirms foreign firms greater interest in doing business.

"There are increases in Iranian imports from all the ten top countries. Britain with a 200 percent increase (be it from a very small base) is followed by Switzerland (81 percent), France (51 percent), the UAE (42 percent), Italy (26 percent), China (19 percent), Republic of Korea (15 percent) and Turkey (11 percent). All have exported more to Iran," Emadi said.

"I suggest two reasons, though there may be other forces at work contributing toward the increased imports. Firstly, removal of sanctions following the JCPOA removed the cost of doing business with Iran," he said, adding that lower shipping insurance, less perplexing financial restrictions and removal of the intermediaries have made it more attractive for the European firms to do business with Iran.

"Secondly, macroeconomic data on output and investment points also to a fall in the manufacturing activities and investment undertaken by private firms inside Iran," he said.

"Falling output may have created more demand for imports. Without further research and a closer examination of data, it is difficult to arrive at a clear picture of the dynamics that has governed the trade account in the period of focus here," Emadi explained.

He said the regional change in the direction and distribution of Iranian imports is mostly positive and congruent with the long term strategic interests of the economy.

Changes in the value of trade show that the EUs trade with Iran has risen by more than 46 percent, while a rise of 74 percent in trade with the ASEAN also suggests a restructuring in the foreign trade away from the lower income trade partners of Iran, Emadi said, adding that this is a positive change if Iran wishes to export more manufactured goods with a higher value-added content.

"These markets are more attractive targets for such a policy."

"A less encouraging observation is the small share of capital goods in Iranian imports which is only 16 percent as against 22 percent for consumer goods," he underlined.

Intermediate goods constitute 60 percent of Iranian imports, which perhaps suggests the dependence of the manufacturing on import of such goods which include components for industry, Emadi said, noting that this is also a source of concern should it continue on the path.
As many as 13 people, including both Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded by a car bomb in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, officials said, Reuters reported.

Omar Zwak, the Helmand governors spokesman who gave the casualty figures, said the attack occurred in a market in Nawa, a district in the center of the province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks as government forces have battled for control with Taliban insurgents.

Afghan forces said they had retaken Nawa district in July but there has been continued fighting in the area since.

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate comment from the Taliban, which has carried out regular suicide attacks in Helmand, where it controls much of the area outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

The hospital in Lashkar Gah run by the Italian aid group Emergency said it had received 3 dead and 19 wounded while Bost Hospital, another facility, said it had received 10 wounded.

It was unclear whether any of the wounded had died after being taken to the hospitals.

The attack comes just days after a suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah killed at least seven people and wounded 40 as the Taliban continued its push to restore strict Islamic rule to Afghanistan and drive out foreign forces backing the government in Kabul.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground steadily in Afghanistan since a NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.
At least seven PKK terrorists were killed on Sunday during a counterterrorism operation in three eastern provinces, Interior Ministry said, Anadolu reported.

Four PKK terrorists were killed in Baskale district of eastern Van province, two others in Zovank plateu neighbourhood of eastern Mus province and Kemah district of eastern Erzincan province, according to a statement released by the ministry.

One of the PKK terrorists killed in Mus was said to be Sidar codenamed Ridvan Yalcin, 23, who was the so-called regional public relations coordinator for the terror group.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015.

Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including women and children.
Vatan Sasmaz, a renowned TV host and actor, was shot dead in a hotel room in the Besiktas district of Istanbul on Aug. 27, Hurriyet reported.

The assailant, identified as former model Filiz Aker, reportedly fired four shots at Sasmaz before committing suicide at the scene.

Witnesses said Aker received a phone call while she was having dinner with her friends and later went to her room. Her friends informed hotel officials after they could not manage to open the door.

According to initial findings, Aker had been staying at the hotel for a month and she held a Greencard.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office stated that there were no immediate detentions into the incident.

Born in 1974 in Istanbul, Sasmaz began his acting career at a modeling agency in 1993. He acted in a number of commercial films and video clips.

In 2000, he acted as a morning TV host in private broadcaster ATV for four years and hosted magazine program for nine years.

He also performed on a number of TV series.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 27, 2017 - 21:38 | All, Japan

At least nine people died and six others went missing in the sea or rivers around Japan on Sunday, according to a tally compiled by Kyodo News.

In the city of Fukui on the Sea of Japan coast, Toshihide Ryuzoji, 60, died after going into the sea to save his pet parakeet which had fallen into the ocean.

In Hokota, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, two Peruvian, believed to be a father and his son, were confirmed dead after being swept out to sea while wading in water near the shore. The two came to the beach along with five others in two families.

In Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo, Takeshi Nagase, 77, died in a swimming competition at Zushi beach.

In Osaka Prefecture, two high school students, both aged 16, died after diving into the sea. According to local police, one boy drowned after jumping into the sea from a jetty and the other when he jumped in to rescue him. Swimming is prohibited in the area.

In Hokkaido, three high school students went missing while swimming at a beach in the city of Otaru with a group of friends, according to police and local coast guard.

The three male students disappeared around 11 a.m. when they and two other friends tried to swim back to shore after finding they were swimming in an area too deep to stand, the police and coast guard said.

As authorities could not find them with divers by sunset, they will resume the search from 5 a.m. Monday. The three are Masaya Tsuruga, 17, Shuji Nagahama, 18, and Teppei Sudo, 18.

The missing students, all third-year classmates, came to the beach in a group of 10 and had been swimming some 100 to 150 meters offshore.

They were swimming outside the area of the designated beach. The Zenibako beach is popular among people in Otaru and neighboring Sapporo, the prefectural capital of Hokkaido.

At a beach in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture, a father in his 50s went missing as he tried to save his drowning wife and daughter. They were rescued later.

In Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, a man went missing while snorkeling.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 26, 2017 - 14:43 | World, All

Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, sources in her Pheu Thai Party said Saturday, a day after she failed to show up for a court ruling.

According to the sources, Yingluck travelled to neighboring Cambodia and then flew to Singapore, from where she boarded a flight to the Middle East.

The date of her departure is unclear, but a close aide earlier said that she had left the country by Thursday. She apparently did not bring along her son or other family members.

The Supreme Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Yingluck, 50, after she failed to appear in the morning for the verdict in her trial over a controversial rice subsidy scheme. She had faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Yingluck, 50, is the younger sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and fled abroad to avoid a corruption conviction. He still lives in exile, using Dubai as a base, leading to speculation that Yingluck has joined up with him there.

During the trial, she denied charges of criminal negligence in connection with her government's rice-pledging scheme, which resulted in losses of some 500 billion baht (about $15 billion) for the country.

The government confirmed last month that it had temporarily frozen her properties and bank accounts.

Yingluck was ousted from office by the Constitutional Court over an abuse-of-power case, just days ahead of the military coup led by Prayut, then head of the army, in May 2014 that overthrew the Pheu Thai-led government.
EFE videos

Ilya Topper Estambul, 13 nov (EFE).- Un atentado terrorista con bomba causo este domingo al menos 6 muertos y 81 heridos, dos de ellos en estado grave, en la centrica calle Istiklal en Estambul, confirmo el vicepresidente de Turquia, Fuat Oktay, en rueda de prensa. "Por ahora tenemos un total de seis muertos, cuatro de ellos fallecidos en el mismo lugar de los hechos. Hay 81 heridos, de los que dos estan en estado grave", dijo Oktay. "Estamos evaluando que fue un ataque terrorista cometido por una mujer que hizo detonar una bomba", agrego. Poco antes, el presidente de Turquia, el islamista conservador Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ya habia anunciado que el incidente era con gran probabilidad un atentado terrorista. "Hay personas que han muerto en un atentado con bomba a las 16:20 horas (13:20 GMT) en Istiklal. Ofrezco mis condolencias a los muertos y mis deseos de recuperacion a los heridos. El Estado encontrara a los organizadores de este ataque terrorista", dijo Erdogan en una comparecencia en la television publica TRT. "El pueblo puede estar seguro de que se castigara a los agresores. Cuatro personas murieron en el lugar de los hechos y dos en el hospital", agrego el mandatario. Erdogan hablaba momentos antes de emprender viaje a Indonesia, donde arrancara el martes la cumbre de jefes de Estado del G20. "Si decimos que es definitivamente un acto terrorista, podemos equivocarnos. Pero por lo que me ha dicho el gobernador (de Estambul, Ali Yerlikaya), tiene aspecto de ser terrorismo. Se cree que hay una mujer implicada. Pero se tomara una decision definitiva tras la investigacion", matizo. La calle Istiklal, una avenida peatonal llena de comercios, que arranca en la emblematica plaza de Taksim, esta a todas horas llena de transeuntes, entre ellos muchos turistas. La autoridad de radiotelevision turca ha decretado una "prohibicion temporal" de emitir imagenes del lugar de los hechos y de dar informacion sobre posibles sospechosos, exceptuando declaraciones de autoridades, para no entorpecer la investigacion en curso. Un partido de futbol que iba a tener lugar entre el Besiktas y el Antalyaspor, en el estadio titular del primero, situado a solo 700 metros de Taksim, ha sido aplazado a otra fecha, informa la Federacion del Futbol Turca (TFF) en su web. Sin embargo, tanto las lineas de tranvia como las de metro en la zona de Taksim y los barrios adyacentes funcionaron con normalidad poco despues del ataque, informaron residentes de la zona. En 2016 hubo varios atentados terroristas en Turquia, la mayoria de redes del grupo yihadista Estado Islamico, en Estambul, uno de ellos en la propia calle Istiklal. Sin embargo, tras la masacre causada por un yihadista en la nochevieja de aquel ano en una discoteca a orillas del Bosforo, no hubo mas atentados en la ciudad. (c) Agencia EFE
Street signs lie on the ground after winds from Hurricane Harvey escalated in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S. August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

By Suzanne Barlyn

(Reuters) - The destruction that heavy rain and floods from Hurricane Harvey could inflict on Texas would add to the pile of debt owed by a federal flood insurance program that is due to expire in September, advocacy groups said.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) owes $24.6 billion to the Treasury. Most of it covered claims from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and floods in 2016, the programs third most severe loss-year on record with losses exceeding $4 billion, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which manages it.

The NFIP was extended 17 times between 2008 and 2012 and lapsed four times in that period. A 2012 law extended the program to September.

The only source of flood insurance for most Americans, it will be in place for homeowners and businesses in Harvey's path along the central Texas coast.

But Harvey-related claims covered under the program could push it deeper into the red and possibly toward its borrowing limit of just over $30 billion, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog in Washington, D.C.

Federal law requires that homes in flood-risk areas have flood insurance before a mortgage can be completed. The program is the only flood insurance available to the vast majority of Americans, although a small market for private flood insurance is sprouting in flood-prone states such as Florida.

Homebuilders, the real estate industry, and property owners in coastal communities have also long favored the program, which offers subsidized rates to many policyholders.

Advocates for reforming the program, which is administered by FEMA, said that Harvey's arrival so close to the program's Sept. 30 expiration date could move lawmakers to action.

"It would be our hope that this storm lights a fire under Congress to make reforms to the program," said Laura Lightbody, project director for flood preparedness at the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-partisan public policy group.

Story continues

"Right now, it's not on a sustainable path and carries a lot of other problems with it," Lightbody said. For example, she said, the program encourages development in flood-prone areas by making it easier to get insurance.

There are about 435,000 NFIP policyholders in shoreline communities of Texas, according to a Pew analysis of flood exposure data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The NFIP would have to pay claims from premiums it receives, if it exhausts its current borrowing limit, Ellis said. That could slow down processing, unless Congress agreed to an increase. But it is unlikely that Harvey claims would wipe out NFIP's borrowing authority, Ellis said.

The FEMA spokeswoman declined to comment on the NFIP borrowing limit or what would happen if it was exceeded.

POLITICAL FIX?

U.S. lawmakers have been considering legislative actions to reform the NFIP, including updating U.S. government flood zone maps, making more coverage available through private insurers and limiting or excluding coverage through the program for certain high risk properties.

The government has said it is impossible for the NFIP to repay its debt.

There is bipartisan support to modernize the program and Senate and House lawmakers have held at least six hearings this year about ways to do it. At the same time, many groups have been lobbying for special interests.

The National Association of Homebuilders said in June that it had worked with lawmakers to eliminate a provision from one bill that would have ended NFIP coverage for new homes constructed in so-called "100-year flood zones," areas estimated to have a one percent chance of flooding each year.

Professional risk managers are among those pushing Congress to extend the program beyond September to buy time for reforms.

Many businesses and institutions have building loans and leases that require NFIP flood policies, which would not be in effect if the program lapses, said Elizabeth Guimaraes, risk management director at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"Were talking all across the board, people not being in compliance with loans and leases. It's a huge problem," said Guimaraes, who is also a spokeswoman for the Risk Management Society (RIMS).

Harvey's timing may hasten congressional response. "These disasters do clarify the mind about the program," Ellis said.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)
President Donald Trump pardoned America's "toughest sheriff" Joe Arpaio on Friday.

He reportedly asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to drop the federal investigation into Arpaio.

This development could serve as a critical data point in special counsel Robert Mueller's apparent investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired James Comey.

The Washington Post's report on Saturday that President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions about dropping the case against former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio offers a critical window into Trump's thinking.

Trump's alleged conversation with Sessions and subsequent decision to pardon Arpaio could shed new light on Trump's motives when he spoke to former FBI director James Comey about ending the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn one day after Flynn resigned.

Arpaio, an early and enthusiastic Trump surrogate, was convicted of criminal contempt in July for violating a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.

When Trump allegedly asked Sessions this past spring whether it would be possible to drop the federal criminal investigation into Arpaio, Sessions told Trump such a move would be inappropriate, but that Trump could pardon Arpaio if he was convicted, The Post reported, citing three people familiar with the conversation.

Trump ultimately granted the pardon on Friday evening, sparking fierce backlash from liberals and some conservatives.

But some legal analysts also pointed out that Trump's decision to pardon Arpaio, and the actions he took preceding that, may serve as an important piece of evidence to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is reportedly investigating the president for obstruction of justice.

Specifically, Trump's decision to pardon Arpaio is key to determining his intent when he had the February conversation with Comey about dropping the Russia investigation before ultimately firing Comey after he refused to do so, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor.

Story continues

How Comey fits in

james comey

According to Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, Trump privately told Comey, who was spearheading the FBI's Russia probe at the time, he "hoped" Comey would "let this go," referring to the investigation.

Several Trump allies and Republican lawmakers have since grasped those words and said they do not prove Trump tried to obstruct justice by asking Comey to drop the investigation and subsequently firing him.

Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, for instance, zeroed in on the statement during Comey's testimony.

After reading out Comey's recollection of Trump's statement, Risch said to Comey, "He did not direct you to let it go."

"Not in his words, no," Comey replied.

"He did not order you to let it go," Risch said.

He later asked Comey: "Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where this  they said, or thought, they hoped for an outcome?"

When Comey said that despite Trump's words, he took it as a direction from the president of the United States, Risch said, "You may have taken it as a direction, but thats not what he said."

The main thing Mueller  who was put in charge of the Russia investigation after Trump fired Comey  would need to prove in an obstruction of justice case is whether Trump acted with corrupt, or unlawful, intent when he asked the FBI director to drop the Flynn investigation.

"[Trump's] defense would be that he thought it was appropriate to end the Flynn investigation because it was meritless and that there was nothing wrong with him, as president, making that determination," Mariotti told Business Insider.

But the president's decision to pardon Arpaio demonstrates that "this has become a pattern of activity where he tries to end investigations of his friends," he added. "Everything he said, did, and was told as to Arpaio is relevant to help us understand what he was thinking when he tried to end the Flynn investigation."

Moreover, despite statements from his allies and administration officials who painted Trump's comments to Comey as musings and not a direct order, Arpaio's pardon suggests "that he was serious about ending investigations as to his friends" and it wasn't "just idle talk."

A pattern emerges

Donald Trump Mike Flynn

Experts say that intent is difficult to prove, particularly when it comes to obstruction of justice.

Obstruction of justice is broadly defined: It involves any conduct in which a person willfully interferes with the administration of justice.

Trump's statements don't individually rise to the level of obstruction of justice, said Jens David Ohlin, an associate dean at Cornell Law School and an expert on criminal law.

"The obstruction of justice would flow from the entire landscape of Trump's behavior: telling Comey to back off on the Flynn investigation, firing him when he wouldn't, and then admitting on national television that he dismissed Comey because of the Russia investigation," Ohlin told Business Insider.

He added that Trump's statement to the Russians in the Oval Office, during which he called Comey "a real nut job" and said firing him had taken "great pressure" off of him, added weight to the inference that Trump used his executive authority to fire Comey to stymie a federal investigation.

The FBI's investigation has progressed in recent weeks  Mueller's team reportedly issued subpoenas to several Washington lobbying firms that have worked with Flynn's and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's consulting groups, and the special counsel is also scrutinizing a June 2016 meeting that Donald Trump Jr. had with a Kremlin-connected lawyer and a former Soviet military intelligence officer.

The Washington Post additionally reported earlier this month that the FBI conducted a predawn raid on Manafort's home in July. Agents working with Mueller left the former Trump campaign manager's home "with various records," according to The Post.

And recent revelations that lower-level aides were in touch with Russian contacts during the campaign will likely generate more evidentiary leads and indicate that individuals who were not previously at the center of the controversy will be of interest to congressional intelligence committees and the special counsel.

This latest development is just one of many leads that Mueller, who has reportedly broadened the scope of his investigation in recent weeks, could follow.

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BUTTE  Thanks to a new Anaconda restaurant that boasts some of Americas favorite Italian dishes, visitors driving west on Montana Highway 1 will now be greeted by a newly renovated building with a vibrant brick-red exterior.

In mid-July Heather and Keith Collins opened O'Bella  a classic Italian restaurant, according to the establishments website  at 1515 E. Commercial Ave.

In addition to a series of restaurants, the location once housed a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Heather Collins said one of the first things to go during the propertys renovation was the buildings iconic KFC pyramid.

Collins spoke with the Montana Standard on a sunny afternoon in mid-August in one of the restaurants many booths. Butcher paper and crayons topped the tables while music by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin played in the background.

We just wanted to have an environment that was fun and laidback, said Collins, describing O'Bellas atmosphere.

O'Bellas menu offers an array of American-Italian classics, ranging from meat and Margherita pizzas to pastas like fettuccine alfredo and black truffle macaroni and cheese. The restaurant also serves craft and Italian beer on tap and wine by the bottle or glass alongside soups, salads and starters, including fried mozzarella, calamari and bread sticks, which Collins said have so far been a favorite among patrons.

Our breadsticks are definitely what people are starting to rave about, said Collins, who noted that customers have the choice of dining in or ordering takeout.

Collins explained that freshness is one of the restaurants guiding principles, and that she and her husband are keeping the menu small so that they can focus on quality and consistency.

All of our sauces, our pizza, our dough, our dressings  everythings done from scratch here, said Collins. Our motto is quality, consistency and cleanliness.

OBella isnt the Collins first time at the rodeo when it comes to serving food.

The couple also owns Wind's Pasties, a pasty shop and distribution company in Anaconda, and has years of experience in the food-service industry in their former place of residence, Portland. There, Collins said, they learned the ins and outs of serving Italian fare and acquired a taste for fresh, handmade food.

We know Italian, we know pizzas really well, said Collins when asked why she and Keith chose the cuisine as their restaurants focal point.

If you think youve heard the Winds name before, youve most likely seen one of the companys pasties at your local grocery store.

The Collinses bought the business in 2009 and began to focus on the wholesale side of the operation, broadening its distribution to stores throughout Montana, as well as Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon.

The Montana Standard noted that several new restaurants and remodels have gone up in Anaconda recently, including the renovation of Donivan's Restaurant Pub & Casino on Park Avenue and the addition of Smelter City Brewing on Main Street, among others.

Collins said shes happy to be part of recent economic development and hopes that OBella and other new establishments will encourage people to start businesses in the Smelter City.

When asked what advice she has for people thinking of starting their own restaurant, Collins said prospective owners should be prepared to work  a lot.

Be willing to give 200 percent and all of your time for the first few years, said Collins. Always make sure that the customer is happy and the food is amazing  Customers are always willing to overlook mistakes when you first start out as long as the food is good when it reaches the table.
Travis Kalanick

Two of Uber's stockholders are demanding access to Uber's books in an effort to prove that Benchmark Capital leaked confidential information about Uber in order to take control over the company.

Lawyers representing investors Shervin Pishevar and Stephen Russell sent a letter to the Uber Board on Thursday which invoked Rule 220  a Delaware corporate law that gives individual stockholders the right to inspect corporate books.

In the letter, which was obtained by Business Insider, stockholders are requesting access to 13 different categories of Uber's books and records, many of which relate to Benchmark Capital's interactions with Uber.

The request specifically states that it's seeking documentation which proves that Benchmark leaked confidential information on Uber, particularly relating to the June report by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder. The Holder report looked into whether Uber had a culture of sexual harassment, among other things. News of the letter was first reported by Recode on Thursday.

The legal request follows another letter sent Thursday to Uber and Garret Camp, who is chairman of the app-based taxi company's board, in which Pishevar accused Benchmark of violating its fiduciary duty as a significant investor in Uber.

Pishevar alleged that Benchmark has tried to take over Uber's board of directors and tried to push through its own preferred CEO candidate, Meg Whitman.

Earlier this month, Benchmark sued Kalanick in an effort to have three board seats removed from his control  the seat occupied by Kalanick and two others that have yet to be filled. In the suit and in a letter later published to employees, Benchmark alleged that Kalanick was interfering with the search for a new CEO and was trying to get himself reinstated.

Uber declined to comment.

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A month has gone by since the last earnings report for SUPERVALUSVU. Shares have lost about 5.5% in that time frame, underperforming the market.

Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to the stock's next earnings release, or is it due for a breakout? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.

SUPERVALU Q1 Earnings Miss; Sales Top Estimates



SUPERVALU posted better-than-expected sales in first-quarter fiscal 2018. This marked second straight quarter of sales surprise after missing the consensus for seven quarters. However, earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.



Quarter in Detail



SUPERVALU posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.09 per share that marginally lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.10 by 10.0%. However, earnings grew 12.5% from the prior-year quarter, backed by higher sales in the wholesale business, offset by higher tax rate.



Net sales rose 6.3% year over year to $4.0 billion. Also, the top line came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 3.9 billion by 0.6%. This upside was backed by increased sales witnessed at the Wholesale segment, but were hurt by the decline in Retail net sales. The company also lost some volumes as Marsh Supermarkets, one of the companys large affiliations from fiscal 2017, filed for bankruptcy protection in May.



Gross profit was almost flat from the prior-year quarter at $551 million. However, margin contracted 80 basis points to 13.8%, due to the change in business segment mix, with Wholesale representing a larger portion of total sales and gross profit. Adjusted operating earnings also plummeted 24.7% due to higher selling and administrative costs.



Segment Details



Wholesale: Net sales at Wholesale business grew 12.4% year over year to $2.6 billion, mainly driven by sales to new customers, coupled with greater sales from new outlets operated by existing customers. These were partly compensated by stores from the previous year that are no longer supplied by the company. Lower military sales also dented sales growth. Also, the segments operating income came in at $71 million, up from $64 million recorded in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin however remained flat at 2.8%.



Retail: Net sales at Retail slipped 2.7% to $1.4 billion. This decrease represents store closures and unfavorable identical store sales of 4.9%, partly mitigated by sales from acquired and new outlets. Moreover, customer counts decreased 5.0%, while average basket size slightly increased in the quarter. Also, deflation remained flat in the quarter.



In fact, we note that this leading grocery dealer is witnessing sluggish sales in the retail business due to tough competitive pressure, lower store traffic and deflationary environment in the food industry. This is the ninth consecutive quarter of comp sales decline of the retail segment.



Further, the segment reposted operating loss of $4 million, down from $8 million of operating earnings in the year-ago quarter, due to lower sales and higher employee costs, partially due to acquired and new stores.



Corporate: During the fiscal first quarter, fees earned under services agreements were down 6.8% to $55 million. Further, the segment reported adjusted operating earnings of $13 million, down 7.1% as against operating income of $14 million delivered in the year-ago quarter.



Other Developments



At the end of the first quarter, SUPERVALU closed its deal to buy grocery distributor Unified Grocers for $375 million. This deal is in line with the companys Wholesale segments three-pronged strategy, which focuses on maintaining its existing customers; discovering more business with the existing customers and adding new wholesale customers. Hence, the acquisition will boost Supervalus wholesale business and will also complement its customer base.



Financial Update



SUPERVALUs cash and cash equivalents totaled $252 million as of Jun 17, 2017, compared with $332 million as of Feb 25, 2017. Long-term debt was $1.28 billion and total stockholders equity came in at $397 million as of Jun 17, 2017, compared with long-term debt of $1.26 billion and stockholders equity of $383 million in the preceding quarter.



Further, net cash from operating activities of continuing operations came in at $47 million in the quarter.



Outlook



For fiscal 2018, management expects adjusted EBITDA, including Unified Grocers, of $475 to $495 million.

Story continues

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

Following the release, investors have witnessed an upward trend infresh estimates. There have been three revisions higher for the current quarter compared to one lower.

SuperValu Inc. Price and Consensus

SuperValu Inc. Price and Consensus | SuperValu Inc. Quote

VGM Scores

At this time, SuperValu's stock has a poor Growth Score of F, however its Momentum is doing a lot better with a B. However, the stock was allocated a grade of A on the value side, putting it in the top 20% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of B. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

Our style scores indicate that the stock is more suitable for value investors than momentum investors.

Outlook

While estimates have been broadly trending upward for the stock, the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift. Notably, the stock has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We are expecting an inline return from the stock in the next few months.



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



SuperValu Inc. (SVU) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
psdeol wrote:

Although in some women, new studies indicate that abnormally low levels of the light-sensitive hormone melatonin in them may contribute to premenstrual depression, doctors are hesitant to recommend light therapy until additional studies have been completed.



A) Although in some women, new studies indicate that abnormally low levels of the light-sensitive hormone melatonin in them

B) Although new studies indicate that levels of the abnormally low light-sensitive hormone melatonin in some women

C) Although new studies in some women indicate that abnormally low levels of the light-sensitive hormone melatonin

D) Despite the fact that new studies are indicating abnormally low levels of melatonin, a light-sensitive hormone in some women that

E) Despite new studies that indicate that in some women, abnormally low levels of melatonin, a light-sensitive hormone,

Choice A:

Choice B:

Choice C:

Choice D:

Choice E:

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question-In Option A, we see a case of pronoun ambiguity; the pronoun "them" could refer to either "studies" or "women". Furthermore, we also see a modifier error; the phrase "in some women" incorrectly modifies the noun "new studies". Thus, Option A is incorrect.In Option B, we see a construction error that alters the meaning of the sentence. The term "abnormally low" should be used to modify the "level" of the "light-sensitive hormone melatonin", but in this answer choice it is used to refer to the hormone itself. Therefore, the intended meaning of the overall phrase changes from 'low levels of the particular hormone' to 'a hormone that is sensitive to abnormally low levels of light'. Thus, Option B is incorrect.Option C also displays a construction error that changes the meaning of the sentence. The phrase "new studies in some women" is improperly constructed and implies that the studies were conducted in some women. This meaning is different from the intended meaning and illogical. Thus, Option C is incorrect.Option D also displays a construction error that changes the meaning of the sentence. The phrase "a light-sensitive hormone in some women" implies that melatonin is only present in some women; this is not the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, Option D is incorrect.Option E displays correct construction throughout the sentence and conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, Option E is correct.To understand the concept of Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on the GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):All the best!Team_________________
chetan2u wrote:

Hi {b]mikemcgarry[/b],



If I were to get this Q, I would first eliminate Unidiomatic -- "Zhuangzi had an interpretation of Daoism "..

It may be OK to say- he had a dog.

He had a wish ... still be OK



But here the interpretation is HIS own and he is not keeping someone's else interpretation, so the CORRECT construction should use POSSESIVE- Zhuangzi's..



Using this to eliminate, we can home down to B, D and E..



1)Now in this three, E can be straightway eliminated for awkward structure-more than the highly imaginative interpretation of Daoism by Mengzis contemporary Zhuangzi- as it clearly does not parallel-Mengzis interpretation of Confucianism. AND ofcourse the second part is missing on 'DID'

2)B requires HAVE in second part rather than DO THIS -- for parallelism..



Having said that and agreeing we do use -- he had ___.. would not POSSESIVE form be better.



chetan2u

to have an interpretation

Early twentieth century conductors had an interpretation of Bach's music that sounds ponderous today

to have

someone has a temper

someone has an attitude

someone has aches and pains

someone has an illness

someone has strange ideas about something

someone has a profound sense of faith

someone has strong emotions

someone has a deep sensitivity



Magoosh Test Prep





Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Signature Read More

DearMy friend, expressing yourself in all bold, like expressing yourself in all caps, is considered rude in some circles. It is considered the equivalent of yelling and screaming incourteously, which may not be your intent.FWIW, the structure "" is not idiomatically incorrect. It is a bit long-winded and indirect, so it may be viewed as rhetorically problematic, especially in this sentence, but certainly there would be sentences in which it would be correct. For example:."Just because something is intrinsically mine doesn't automatically mean that the possessive is the only way to express it and that the verb "" is inappropriate. it is very natural to sayetc. etc.Does this make sense?Mike_________________
fameatop wrote:

I want to know what are Subgroup modifiers, how they function,how they are created & how they are tested on GMAT.



As per

Subgroup Modifiers- When you want to describe a part of a larger group with a modifier, use one of the following three Subgroup Modifier constructions.

Right: This model explains all known subatomic particles, SOME OF WHICH WERE only recently discovered.

Wrong: This model explains all known subatomic particles, SOME OF WHICH only recently discovered. - Why this sentence is incorrect or why verb is required after WHICH

Right: This model explains all known subatomic particles, SOME OF THEM only recently discovered. - Why this sentence is correct even though verb is not present after them.

Right: This model explains all known subatomic particles, SOME only recently discovered. - Why this sentence is correct.

Wrong: This model explains all known subatomic particles, OF WHICH SOME WERE only recently discovered.- Why this sentence is incorrect.



Hope you don't mind taking time to explain these concepts.

With Regards, Fame

Fame

All German people are blah blah blah, but some of them are blah blah blah .

Blah blah blah migratory birds, most of which are blah blah blah .

Blah blah blah subway trains in NYC, all having blah blah blah .

some, any, none, all, more, most

many, few, each, both, either, neither, half, one ,

I admire firemen, few of whom would do X

I have a low opinion of NY Yankees fans, many of whom doing X

I read a book about Chinese dynasty, most of which lasted blah blah blah

The city council took an extensive survey of houses in Berkeley, none of which having blah blah blah

(a)

(b)

She wrote her dissertation on mollusks, some of them growing blah blah blah.

The Protestant Churches believe blah blah blah, but some of them also believe blah blah blah.

The winner carried Ohio in all president elections since 1964, two of them involved a major third-party candidate

The Standard Model explains all known subatomic particles, of which some of them were only recently discovered

My friend he is intelligent

The Standard Model explains all known subatomic particles, some of them which were were only recently discovered

The store is open, the street which was recently paved.

The Standard Model explains all known subatomic particles, some of which only recently discovered

Lincoln was a noble man, a president who guided the country through wa



Magoosh Test Prep





Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.  William Butler Yeats (1865  1939) Signature Read More

DearOne of the strengths of is that they are hyper-thorough about everything. In a way, a weakness of this approach is that they can get you to worry about something that's not particular common. I would estimate that if you took 20 GMATs in a row, you would only see "sub-group modifiers" once or twice. It's just not that common.First of all, what is a subgroup modifier? Suppose the main clause of a sentence is talking about some large group ---- the Japanese, the auto industry workers, sea mammals, small towns in the US Midwest, the integers, the elements on the Periodic Table, verbs in the French language, Oscar-winning movies, etc. etc. ---- any large group of anything. Suppose the main clause says something about this large group in its entirety, and we want to make a further clarification either about the whole group or about some part of the group ----1)2)3)Those underlined phrase are examples of grammatically correct sub-group modifiers --- modifiers which talk about either part of the whole group (as in #1 & #2) or which add further clarification to the whole group (#3).Keep in mind, first of all, that in any of these, the "part" word could be any of what calls the SAMAN words () or any quantity word (etc.).Now, what's going on with the different grammatical structures following these?The words "which" and "who" & "whom" are relative pronouns --- these have to introduce a full [noun]+[verb] clause --- in fact, the relative pronoun will act as the noun in the clause, so it must be followed by a bonafide verb.4). = correct ("whom" is followed by a bonafide verb)5). = incorrect ("whom" + participle is not complete)6). = correct. same as #47). = incorrect, same as #5By contrast, suppose instead of a relative pronoun, we want to use an ordinary pronoun, "them" --- "some of them", "all of them", "most of them", etc. ---- now, this phrase is a noun, and we have two optionsan absolute phrase = [noun + participle]a coordinating conjunction (e.g. "and", "or", "but", etc.) and another independent clause = [noun] + [verb]8)= correct, absolute phrase9)= correct, two independent clauses, correctly joined by a coordinating conjunction.10). = incorrect, run-on sentence = tow independent clauses not properly joined by a conjunction.The foregoing should explain why the correct sentence in the are correct. Now, let's look at the sentences cites as incorrect:11). = Two pronouns = redundant. Basically you have a [noun][noun] structure, as in "." This occurs in colloquial speech, but it is incorrect in formal speech and never will be acceptable on the GMAT.12). This has the incorrect structure [independent clause][noun][modifier], as in "" = nonsense. That's the problem with this one.13). = same mistake as #5 & #7 above.Notice the general format [independent clause][noun][modifier] can be correct if the noun is an appositive phrase modifying something in the sentence, such as14)r. = the noun "president" is an appositive, modifying either "man" or "Lincoln."The problem, though, is that a subgroup ("some of them", "most of them", etc.) can never be an appositive for the whole group, which is why this otherwise acceptable structure is illegal in this context.BTW, the "model" discussed in the example sentences is known in Particle Physics as "the Standard Model", which is why I included this in the sentences.Does all this answer your questions?Mike_________________
Re: Most state constitutions now mandate that the state budget be balanced [ #permalink

Bunuel wrote:

Most state constitutions now mandate that the state budget be balanced each year.





(A) mandate that the state budget be balanced



(B) mandate the state budget to be balanced



(C) mandate that the state budget will be balanced



(D) have a mandate for a balanced state budget



(E) have a mandate to balance the state budget

[ mandate v/s have a mandate ]

constitution can mandate but cannot be mandated

'mandate the state budget'

mandating the state budget to do something

mandate that the state budget be balanced

It mandates that

state budget be balanced each year

Hence clearly A is the best choice of the lot.



AD

----------------



An admiration by anybody is an explanation understood by somebody !!!



Happy GMATing... Go Nuts Regards,AD---------------- Signature Read More

I tried answering this question on the basis of logic. Here is how I went about it.At first I see a 3-2 split at the beginning of the sentence.If we say, State constitutions now have a mandate, it somewhat implies that the constitution has been mandated by something or someone.That seems to be quite illogical asSo, option D and option E are quite simply eliminated using the above logical perspective.Next if we take (C), we can eliminate it on the basis of tense used 'will'. If we have mandated something how can we use the future tense 'will'. Think about it!Next if we take (B), here the partliterally means that the consitution is, which is illogical.Only we are left with the correct option (A).Most state constitutions noweach yearHere meaning seems to be quite clear.Some constitutions mandate to do something. -> What does it mandate ? ->...._________________
goodyear2013 wrote:

Some public health advocates have become concerned that directly advertising prescription drugs to consumers is likely to cause some patients to pursue certain medications that may be inappropriate for their individual health situation. However, marketing to consumers should not be limited as long as physicians also continue to be educated about such medications, because a physician's prescription is still required in order for patients to obtain these drugs.



Which of the following facts would most directly address the concern articulated by the public health advocates?



A) After a certain number of years, prescription drugs lose patent protection and other companies can then manufacture and market generic forms of the drugs.

B) Consumers can now find technical drug information on the Internet, information that previously would have been available only to physicians.

C) Physicians are also exposed to prescription drug advertisements that are directed toward consumers.

D) Physicians are not susceptible to pressure from patients in determining appropriate courses of treatment.

E) Fewer than 15% of patients are likely to remember and ask by name for specific drugs that they see advertised in magazines or on television.

Structure of Argument:

Conclusion

Type of Question:

address the concern articulated by the public health advocates

Solution:

Out of Scope.

Does not really allays the concerns of public health advocates (PHA) . It would actually prompt them to start protesting against the availability of information online as well.

We are now questioning the professional competencies of Physicians here not to mention that this is a reverse answer.

Says that Physicians won't be pressurized even if patients know certain things about their own ailment. - Correct

Does not allay the concern of PHA. Even if 1% patients remember and ask for a specific drug, main conclusion of argument fails.

7 dings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfjn_KHWG8 Signature Read More

I want to add a few things about this Question.This is one of the typical ways in which GMAT provides the stimulus of CR. They start with One point of view, view of public health advocates in this question, and then go on to refute that view as the final conclusion of the argument. Therefore, theof the argument is - marketing to consumers should not be limited as long as physicians also continue to be educated about such medications.Yes, it is difficult to categorize this question. Is it a Strengthen question or is it a Weaken question?Looking closely, the question asks for both. They want us to, which means we have to allay their concerns thereby, strengthen the argument's main conclusion. Hence in the traditional sense, this is a Strengthen Question.A) After a certain number of years, prescription drugs lose patent protection and other companies can then manufacture and market generic forms of the drugs.B) Consumers can now find technical drug information on the Internet, information that previously would have been available only to physicians.C) Physicians are also exposed to prescription drug advertisements that are directed toward consumers.D) Physicians are not susceptible to pressure from patients in determining appropriate courses of treatment.E) Fewer than 15% of patients are likely to remember and ask by name for specific drugs that they see advertised in magazines or on television._________________
- A beautiful Nigerian lady about to get married has lost her life

- The young lady was reportedly swept off by flood

Olivia Uchechi Ihionu, a beautiful Nigerian lady whose wedding has been fixed for December, lost her life in an unfortunate accident. The deceased was said to have lost her life while going to the church to worship on Tuesday, August 15 in Anambra.

31-year-old Ihionu reportedly got engaged December 2016 with her wedding set for December 2017. The news of the death of the young lady left many people in shock as she was described as a humble and kind hearted person.

The deceased was said to be the first daughter of her parents. The unfortunate incident which took the life of the young lady happened when she went to ease herself near a gutter. Sadly, she fell into the gutter and got swept off by the flood.

Uchechi Ihionu's funeral arrangement has been made. Source: Nairaland.

READ ALSO: Father of 5 battling cancer cries out after losing wife to the same illness (photos)

The engaged lady was later found dead in a neighboring village. People around claimed it rained heavily that day. Even though many of her loved ones are yet to come out of the shock, the burial arrangement has been made.

The young lady's wedding was set for December. Source: Nairaland.

PAY ATTENTION: Install the latest android app to get updates from Nigeria's number one online news platform

Her remains would on Monday, August 28 leave the Mater Amabilis mortuary in Akokwa for her fathers compound in Umuyaku Umuopia in Akokwa. The burial program would be done at St Jude Catholic Church, Umuopia Akokwa. Afterward, her body would be laid to rest in her fathers compound.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video below to see what the family of a petty trader killed by stray bullet wants after her death:

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


Native American tribes want to begin growing and selling marijuana. They hope it will help end poverty on reservations, the large areas where many Native Americans live. However, there is uncertainty about the future of US marijuana policy.

Cannabis is the plant that produces marijuana. The growth and sale of marijuana in some states has become a big business. Arcview is a cannabis investor network in California. It says the U.S. marijuana market earned $6.7 billion in 2016.

Supporters of cannabis say it has many uses. The male cannabis plant can be used to make hemp, which is used around the world in more than 25,000 products. These include food, fabric and medicine.

Multiple benefits

Leslie Bocskor is the founder of Electrum Partners, which helps states and Native American tribes enter the marijuana business.

He said hemp can be used to create plastics that are more environmentally friendly than those made from oil and gas, which are not biodegradable. Bocskor says when hemp is put into a landfill it will degrade and not cause damage to the environment. He said the creation of plastic products causes more pollution than the making of products from hemp.

Native American tribes have an advantage over other companies in the cannabis business. Many businesses in the United States lower their taxes by deducting their business expenses from their profits. But companies that grow and sell cannabis are not permitted to deduct their business expenses. This means they pay a higher tax rate than do other companies.

However, Native American tribes and the companies they own do not pay federal income taxes on money earned on reservations.

Bocskor says this means that a tribe-owned cannabis company could earn a profit margin of up to 85 percent.

Conflicting laws

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 bans the growth, sale and use of marijuana and other drugs. But the law has not stopped states from legalizing marijuana. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize marijuana for medical uses. Since then, other states have done so. Some states have also legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

In a document released in 2013, the United States Department of Justice said states could give their citizens the right to grow and sell marijuana. The department said people would not be arrested for doing so. There were some restrictions. For example, states could not permit cannabis to be grown on public land. They could not permit the sale of marijuana to young people, or let it be sold in states where it was still illegal. The department wrote similar rules for tribal governments a few months later.

Vincent Sliwoski is a lawyer in Portland, Oregon. Some of his clients are cannabis companies. He teaches cannabis law. He says the Justice Department document means the federal government does not want to spend money enforcing marijuana laws. But he says the Trump administration could change that policy.

Twenty-nine states and Washington, DC have legalized some form of marijuana use. Several tribes have tried to enter the marijuana business, but most have been stopped by the federal government.

Some Native Americans are operating successful marijuana businesses, including the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington State. Others have banned marijuana, like the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota.

Tribal operations raided

In July 2015, government agents raided two reservations in northern California. They said the tribes were producing a greater amount of marijuana than is permitted. The tribes denied the accusations.

Three months later, federal agents took hemp plants from the Menominee Nation in the upper-Midwestern state of Wisconsin. The agents said people who were not Native Americans were operating the tribes cannabis business. The agents also said that the tribe was producing plants with higher levels of THC than permitted. THC is a part of the cannabis plant that gives marijuana its psychoactive effects.

The Menominee tribe said it had asked the government to test the plants and had said it would destroy any plants that had levels of THC higher than permitted.

After these raids, the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe in South Dakota burned its crop and closed its cannabis-growing operations. The tribe feared it would also be raided.

It is not clear why some federal agents have raided some tribal marijuana operations. Sliwoski said it is possible that some police agencies do not understand the 2013 Department of Justice document, or are targeting Native American tribes.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he opposes the use of marijuana. An administration spokesman said the president sees a big difference between medicinal and recreational use of marijuana. He suggested that the administration may release a policy limiting the recreational use of marijuana.

Leslie Bocskor believes banning the medical and recreational use of marijuana would be very unpopular. He does not believe the federal government will take any action limiting the uses of the drug. And he notes that marijuana sales have brought a lot of money to some states. More than $500 million in taxes have been paid in Colorado by the marijuana industry since voters decided to legalize the drug in 2014.

Im Phil Dierking.

And I'm Caty Weaver.

Cecily Hilleary reported this story from Washington. Phil Dierking adapted it for VOA Learning English. Christopher Jones-Cruise was the editor.

Do you think marijuana should be legal or illegal? Why? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

biodegradable - adj. capable of being slowly destroyed and broken down into very small parts by natural processes, bacteria, etc.

cannabis - n. a drug (such as marijuana or hashish) that comes from the hemp plant and is smoked illegally

deduct - v. to take away (something, especially an amount of money) from a total

fabric  n. woven or knitted materia

landfill - n. a system in which waste materials are buried under the ground

marijuana  n. the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant that are smoked as a drug

profit margin  n. the difference between the cost of buying or making something and the price at which it is sold

psychoactive - adj. affecting the mind.

reservation  n. an area of land in the U.S. that is kept separate as a place for Native Americans to live

recreational  adj. done for enjoyment


China has only one chairman, and that is Chairman Mao Zedong.

Mao served as chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The position was so powerful that party leaders did away with the title within years of Maos death in 1976.

But is the title truly gone forever? Maybe not.

On June 30, at a military parade in Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping met troops from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The troops responded to greetings from Xi by shouting, Greetings, Chairman.

The title was heard again on July 30, during a military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the PLA in Inner Mongolia. At that event, troops also responded to Xis greetings by saying, Greetings, Chairman.



A new position for Xi?

Currently, Xi is both general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission.

But some wonder if Xi might use the National Congress meeting this autumn to claim the position of party chairman.

The move is important because it would permit Xi to have veto power over all the other members of the committee. It could also permit him to hold on to power longer. Xis current position as general secretary is limited to two terms.

Tai Ming Cheung is an analyst of Chinese and East Asian defense and national security affairs with the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego.

He said that Xis two recent meetings with troops showed that if the PLA and the country go to war, he is in charge.

With the National Party Congress set to meet, one might expect a few candidates to be working to follow Xi as party leader. But there were no other political leaders at any of these parades, so it looks as if hes not grooming a successor, and it looks as if he controls the military, Cheung told VOA Chinese.

Tom Fingar is a Shorenstein Asia-Pacific research fellow at Stanford University in California. He said the PLAs response to Xi as party leader shows the army takes orders from the party, not the people.

I do not see this as elevating Xi to the stature of Mao, Fingar said.

Why is the title important?

History may explain why some Chinese worry about bringing back Maos title of chairman.

Wenqian Gao is a senior policy adviser at Human Rights in China. He said, All the biggest disasters that occurred during the Communist rule were due to Chairman Maos unchecked power.

In May 1966, Mao started the Cultural Revolution to take full control over the Communist Party.

The New York Times said the exact number of dead during the Cultural Revolution is not known. But a number of one million or more is most commonly reported. Many died from food shortages, and others were killed by the government or died in prison because they were not seen as loyal enough to the Communist Party.

Im John Russell.

Ning Xin reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly 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

title - n. a word or name that describes a person's job in a company, government or organization

respond - v. to say or write something as an answer to a question or request

groom - v. to prepare someone for a particular job or position

successor - n. a person who succeeds another person

elevate - v. to make someone more important

stature - n. the level of respect that people have for a successful person, organization
Eskom has made a request to Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown to pay former CEO Brian Molefe a settlement payment of R11.2 million.

According to a report by the Sunday Times, Brown turned down the request.

The latest request, which was made this week, comes after a request by Eskom to pay Molefe a R30-million early retirement package in April.

Molefe headed up Eskom for 18 months before he resigned in December, after being implicated in former public protector Thuli Madonselas State of Capture report, stated the Sunday Times.

Outa has also opened a criminal case against Molefe for fraud and contravening the Public Finance Management Act and company law.

Eskoms interim board chairman Zethembe Khoza reportedly wrote to Brown stating that the R11.2-million payment to Molefe was fair.

But Brown replied with there is no basis to support a settlement with Mr Molefe.

Fat bonuses

The news of the proposed bonus comes after Outa stated that fat cats and corruption have driven up the price of electricity in South Africa.

It was also recently reported that Eskom wanted to pay employees a winter challenge bonus for keeping the lights on during winter this year.

Now read: Price of electricity in South Africa should be lower than 50c per kWh
Alpine to make 3 electric crossovers

Number of injured in Istanbul blast rises to 81

Paul McCartney sells guitar for $77,000 to support Ukraine

Erdogan says preliminary findings after Istanbul bombing point to terrorist attack

Erdogan says number of victims of Istanbul bombing rises to six

Authorities forbid TV channels to broadcast from Istanbul bombing site

Istanbul blast: Governor reports 4 dead and 38 wounded

Media: Terrorist attack considered as one of versions of bombing in Istanbul

Blast in Istanbul: victims reported

Reuters: National Bank of Ukraine prepares banking system for power outages

Explosion hits pedestrian street in Istanbul

Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin calls for Turkey to be recognized as sponsor of terrorism

Bloomberg columnist says Japan may be preparing for war with China

Reuters: U.S. to demand EU colleagues to continue aid to Kyiv at G20

Washington Post: U.S. intelligence believes UAE tried to interfere in U.S. politics

Yeni Safak: Turkey increases sales of winter products, blankets in EU by almost third since beginning of year

Fox News: Trump has been silent on social media for over 24 hours amid Republican failures

Lebanon extradites to Iraq relative of Saddam Hussein

Financial Times: Kyiv plans to nationalize more private companies

U.S. Senate declares 'death' of Republican Party after congressional elections

Head of U.S. Customs resigned

President of Georgia Zourabichvili says about 100 thousand Russians settled in country

CNN: Democrats to retain control of Senate after congressional elections

Alen Simonyan: We are truly and sincerely committed to the peace agenda

Artak Beglaryan: Genocidal purpose is apparent

French maritime services rescue more than 140 migrants trying to swim across English Channel

Biden says he is satisfied with results of midterm elections in U.S.

Slovenia holds second round of presidential elections

'Witch' burned alive in India, 14 arrested

COVID-19 cases are expected to surge in Germany this winter

Dollar makes worst showing in week since early days of COVID-19 pandemic

Macron confirms France's readiness to support normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku

Germany withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty

Is Jordan country that has not supplied arms to Armenia?: 'The press usually has reliable information'

European Commission approves nationalization of Russian Gazprom's German subsidiary

Pashinyan: If the state interferes with the exchange rate unnecessarily, the economy will only suffer

U.S. to work with strategic coalition of Southeast Asian countries

Armenian PM: To reform army, it is necessary to make military service more attractive

Putin and Raisi discuss topical issues of the bilateral agenda

Blinken: Ukraine must decide on timing and content of any talks with Russia

Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians

More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official

Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)

Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit

EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries

Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms

Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians

Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO

Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel

Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack

Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade

Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia

Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible

Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence

US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes
After two days of relief, smoke has once again moved into Missoula and the surrounding area.

The Lolo Peak and Rice Ridge fires grew over a combined 5,000 acres Saturday, leaving plenty of smoke on the wind ready to pool in the Missoula Valley. Air quality was unhealthy in Lolo and very unhealthy in Florence, according to the Missoula City-County Health Department.

Seeley Lake had hazardous air quality again Sunday morning, and the Health Department has advised residents to get out of Seeley Lake if possible to avoid health impacts.

There is currently no out-of-state smoke clogging the air, which is a small comfort for the next few days. Hotter, drier weather is expected to cause even more fire activity and accompanying smoke as a high-pressure ridge will keep smoke in the valleys.

David Noble, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said that the coming week will be similar to the smoke accumulation Missoula saw last week.

Temperatures are going to be 10 degrees above normal, Noble said. Fires will be producing a lot of smoke during the afternoons and evenings and its going to be stable at night, which means smoke will sock the valleys in again.

There is light at the end of the tunnel according to Noble.

Thursday and Friday will see increasing westerly winds, which should blow the smoke away, Noble said.

But until then, prepare for another smoky week.

***

Western Montana fire updates from Inciweb:

Lolo Peak fire: Saturday, firefighters burned out a large area by the Elk Meadows Road, sealing the fire from moving onto Highway 12. The fire has been stopped at the primary fireline from Elk Meadows Road, two miles north of the Idaho border all the way to Highway 12, east down to Lolo, and south to One Horse Creek Canyon.

Like links in a chain, these burnouts are proceeding south to protect homes and other values at risk by widening the buffer along the main control line, a report on Inciweb reads.

Firefighters continue mop-up operations and are patrolling around residences and control line during the day and night shifts.

All evacuation orders have been lifted, but warnings remain in effect in the Lolo Peak fire vicinity.

A public meeting was scheduled for the Lolo Peak fire Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Florence Baptist Church.

Meyers fire: The Meyers fire has burned 16,354 acres and is at 5 percent containment.

Public information officer Katie Knotek said that the fire is seeing slow growth now, with only 300 acres added to the burn since Saturday, and most of that growth was from unburned pockets of forest within the fire's perimeter.

Fire behavior has been minimal, Knotek said, but there might be more activity (Monday) as hot and dry conditions continue.

Blue Bay fire: Certified Fireline Explosives Blasters from the Lolo National Forest worked with firefighters already on scene at the Blue Bay fire to build line on the northern side of the fire Saturday.

Blasting on the fireline removed dangerous trees and allowed firefighters to removed blast-weakened trees close to the fireline. Crews are currently clearing overhead hazards and snags before they will begin to mop up the fire, extinguishing any remaining heat sources by hand.

The Blue Bay fire is still at 490 acres burned. Containment has risen to 60 percent.

Sprague fire: Glacier Parks Sprague fire continues to burn and has grown to 1,543 acres.

The fire is burning nine miles northeast of West Glacier and 124 personnel are assigned to the fire. Warmer temperatures and lower humidity levels over the next few days might cause an increase in fire activity.

Firefighters are clearing fuel from around structures while helicopters are being used to drop water when and where necessary.

Gibralter Ridge Fire: The Gibralter Ridge fire, seven miles east of Eureka, is at 27 percent containment and has burned more than 5,000 acres.

Crews have been working on firing operations in order to tie the fire to Grave Creek Road while other crews mop up along the perimeter, clearing snags and logs while extinguishing heat sources.

Evacuation warnings are in effect still for Sherman and Griffith creeks, Therriault Pass Road and the Stevens Creek areas.

Graves Creek Road and the Ten Lakes recreation road are still closed to the public.

Rice Ridge fire: Fire crews continued burnout operations on the north and south sides of the Rice Ridge fire Sunday in the Sawyers Creek and Morrel Mountain areas. Crews are tying fireline to roadways while removing brush and burnable debris with heavy equipment.

Rice Ridge added 3,587 acres to its burn total Saturday, which kept Seeley Lake in the hazardous morning air quality pattern it has been in for the last month. Smoke will stay in the area as fire conditions are expected to remain active in the Rice Ridge area.

Air operations had to be shut down Sunday evening when another drone was spotted in the area of the fire. Air resources had been requested by firefighters and were unable to assist in operations after the incursion, Inciweb reported.

Sunrise fire: The Sunrise fire sent up a large amount of smoke Saturday due to burnout operations completed by hotshot crews in an area of unburned fuel near the fireline. The crews burned ground debris and vegetation and avoided burning mature trees. The burn operation will be completed Sunday.

Fire suppression continues around the secured lines at the northwestern tip of the fire down to Quartz Creek and west to Fortysix Creek.
Editors note: This story is one of an occasional Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service series of pieces about community artists in Milwaukee.

Standing in the center of a former pediatrics office, artist Erick Ledesma cant hold back his excitement about the future of his new space. Grinning from ear to ear, its clear that he sees something in the empty office at 1308 S. Cesar Chavez Drive  its walls adorned with tiny images of green dinosaurs and prehistoric palm trees  that others cant.

Ledesma, a visual artist, acrylic painter and spray paint artist, envisions the former doctors office as a communal studio where different rooms expose community members to different art media. He also wants the studio to be a place where people feel welcome to stop by and create.

Ledesma is the first-ever Artist in Residence for the Cesar E. Chavez Business Improvement District. The residency program is part of the FARM Project, an effort to make Cesar E. Chavez Drive and the Clarke Square neighborhood a destination for both economic and cultural endeavors.

The FARM Project aims to "seed arts" into the community, creating connections among artists, residents and business owners. It has helped organize Ciclovia MKE, the Loteria! and La Siembra art exhibitions and the opening of the Cesar Chavez Drive memorial statue and plaza. "This is a next step to extend the Farm Project further," said Ian Bautista, executive director of the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative (CSNI).

Bautista added that Ledesma is fluent in English and Spanish, and "he is fluent in the culture of the South Side  how things operate and how people view themselves in the context of Milwaukee." Ledesma, who lived on the South Side as a child, also does a lot of work around identity. "It was a good fit," Bautista said.

Initially, the plan was for Ledesma to work in the studio from June until October, but as a result of complications securing a space, his residency began in August and will continue through November.

The residency is supported by the Mary L. Nohl Fund at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, as well as CSNI and other donors, including a property owner who agreed to discount the rent, according to Bautista.

When Ledesma applied for the residency, he proposed creating an interactive piece of artwork comprising of masks made by community members.

"Growing up in Puerto Rico, Im really attracted to mask making," Ledesma said. "I want people to create portraits of their identity with these masks to represent how diverse this community is," he added. The artwork will be permanently displayed on Chavez Drive.

"Cosecha, cosecha (harvest)!" Ledesma said. "I want to help harvest art in this community."

Danielle Nabak, project coordinator at CSNI, said Ledesma brings positive energy to Chavez Drive. "Having spent time here as a child, he feels connected to the community. Hes able to relate to the residents who live here.

"In the short time hes been in the space, hes been doing great job bringing people who wouldnt normally come to Chavez Drive as well as community members," added Nabak, who is working with the newly reconstituted Chavez BID.

During his residency, Ledesma will create five pieces of his own artwork. Ledesma receives a stipend and $3,000 to use for art materials.

Ledesma said he feels the arts are more relevant than ever, and are under attack in some communities, especially those being gentrified. "Me being a voice in this commercial space helps the community have a voice for themselves," he added. "I cant even verbalize what that means to me."

His goal for the residency is to help unite the Clarke Square community. "Ive seen art integrate my community back home in Puerto Rico. You can create unity by coming in contact with your neighbors through physical contact and shoulder-to-shoulder activity," Ledesma said.

"I dont want this space to be just mine, I want everyone to share in that  it belongs to everyone."
Montanans should support Helena city officials' decision to remove a Civil War memorial in a city park there. The monument, a granite fountain donated in 1916 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and placed in the city's Hill Park, was taken down Aug. 18 on orders from the Helena City Commission.

Let's not oversimplify this. It was not an easy decision. The national controversy of removing Confederate Civil War monuments is fraught with passion. Advocates have been vocal in their calls for the removals. Critics decry this as an effort to rewrite history.

But the latter arguments ignore reality.

Literally miles of shelves in the libraries of our communities and universities are filled with tomes about the events leading up to, during and following the Civil War. Curious and thinking Americans continue to pore over those books to try to understand this most wrenching era of American history. Scholars have devoted entire careers to this war. And so they should. The Civil War should never and will never be forgotten.

But the monument issue is wholly separate.

We erect statues and monuments to remember and to honor historic figures who acted selflessly and bravely for the greater good. Monuments erected in memory of members of the Confederacy invoke legitimate outrage from those whose ancestors the Confederates fought to keep in slavery.

Some have argued the monuments have artistic value. But to maintain Confederate war memorials on esthetic grounds reduces them to the status of mere ornaments and glosses over the fate of millions of black Americans who suffered unspeakable wrongs at the hands of their oppressors.

This is not to say these artifacts should be destroyed. They are relics of a different era and should be preserved. But they should be preserved in a museum setting where the curious can seek them out to learn from them. They should not be on display in public parks.

Around the nation, decisions about the fate of Confederate war memorials will be made on a local basis. Helena city commissioners did that for their community and our state. And they made the right decision.
By Jake Spring BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Michel Temer defended his opening of a vast Amazon area to mining, responding to criticism from lawmakers, environmental groups and supermodel Gisele Bundchen that it threatened the world's largest rainforest. Earlier this week, Temer abolished the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca) that had protected roughly 17,800 square miles (46,000 square km), an area larger than Denmark, from mining since 1984. The reserve in northern Amapa and Para is thought to be rich in copper, gold, iron ore and other minerals. Preserving the rainforest is seen as vital to countering climate change, given the Amazon's role in soaking up carbon emissions, environmentalists say. If mining is allowed to go forward, it could cause the biggest ever legally sanctioned destruction of the Amazon, Randolfe Rodrigues, a senator from Amapa state, told Reuters. Temer's office issued a statement late Thursday saying these concerns were overstated and allowing legal mining there would help combat illegal exploration. "Renca is not a paradise, as some would wrongly like to make it appear," the statement said. "Today, unfortunately, the territories of the original Renca are subject to the degradation caused by illegal gold miners, which besides plundering national wealth, are destroying nature and polluting waterways with mercury." Rodrigues, of the opposition Rede party led by former presidential candidate and environment minister Marina Silva, has proposed a measure in the Senate to block the president's decree. He hopes to rally public support for the measure and plans to file public interest lawsuits with federal courts in Amapa and Para states to block the decree from being executed. Renca was established by decree, making it difficult to argue Temer abolishing the area by decree was unconstitutional, said Izabella Pardinho, an environmental lawyer at Bichara Advogados based in Rio de Janeiro. Other legal grounds could support a case in the public interest, she said. "Shame! They are auctioning our Amazon! We cannot destroy protected areas for private interests," Bundchen wrote in a tweet. In June, Temer said in a tweet to Bundchen he would veto a measure to separately reduce protections of a different national forest after she criticized the move. He later supported a compromise to reduce the protected area by a lesser amount than originally proposed. Temer's office said any mining would need to comply with strict federal licensing requirements that provide environmental protection. The abolition of Renca does not lift other protections for native vegetation, nature conservation areas and indigenous land in the area. According to a 2010 government report, 69 percent of the Renca area in Amapa state is subject to other protections. Merely allowing mining near protected areas could generate conflict and put them under threat, WWF and Greenpeace said in statements. "The measure will accelerate the arrival of infrastructure and people for mining activities in areas of native forest, reproducing in the region the same lack of governance that permits the advance of deforestation and land grabs (elsewhere) in the Amazon," Greenpeace said. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Andrew Hay)
What does the future hold for Today as it goes fully digital? PHOTO: Screenshot

The writing was on the wall for Mediacorp when Ernest Wong came back to the national broadcaster as its chairman last July. And two weeks ago, Mediacorp appointed a surprise choice as its chief executive: Tham Loke Kheng.

Tham is not your normal, safe choice to run a sensitive business like Mediacorp. She is a battle-hardened media executive, having spent considerable time in the dog-eat-dog world of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Wong, who was CEO from 2000 to 2005, seems to have come with specific plans for the media giant as it flounders in a market facing declining advertising revenues and stiff competition from disruptive digital streaming businesses.

Then on Friday (25 August) came the news that the company has struck a deal with its rival Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to buy back the print giants stakes in the publisher of Today, Mediacorp Press, and the national broadcaster for $18 million. The deal comes with two catches  that Today, the print arm of Mediacorp, goes fully digital and, more importantly, that it stops publishing any soft copy of the computer-readable format of the newspaper that looks and feels like the print version of the paper for five years.

The bottom line is this: Today, which came on to the scene in 2000 with audacious ambitions to gobble up 10 per cent of The Straits Times advertising revenue, has now surrendered the print market to SPH. The deal comes 13 years after the latter gave up fighting a bloody war with Mediacorp in the TV market.

The duopoly of Mediacorp and SPH

With that, SPH has been given a respite but the bout has got a few more rounds to go. Will it continue to put its faith in The New Paper? Can the Chinese afternoon newspapers, Shin Min and Lianhe Wanbao, continue to provide very similar content and survive?

And the biggest question of all: Can SPH continue to bite at the fringes instead of executing some big bang decisions and, if so, for how long? But there is no doubt about one thing: that the reality of the death of print can now be discussed by observers without them being accused of purveying a doomsday scenario.

Story continues

For Today, it is a scenario the paper has been looking at for a couple of years. Print is the highest cost item for the paper because it does not have a printing press of its own and had to pay a bomb to a private printer, Kim Hup Lee, to get out 200,000 copies a day from Monday to Friday. The weekend edition went fully digital in April this year.

Today faces other challenges as well. Ad revenues in the digital world are miniscule and the fight is with world media giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. There is also the question of how Mediacorp will rationalise the digital offerings of Channel New Asia and Today.

The media scene has come one full circle after the government initiated a liberalisation drive to get the two giants to compete. Although the government does not have an official hand in the latest change, it is not beyond belief that it had at least some influence on proceedings. Look at what the government said in a Today article on the latest move, This is a commercial decision. In the next breath, it said, We have no objections to the proposed move. If it is a commercial decision, then why say it has no objections?

The ever-present government

Singapores media history is littered with examples of the governments visible and invisible hand. It was instrumental in getting United Overseas Bank (UOB) to underwrite a newspaper, The Singapore Monitor, in 1981. The goal was to provide competition for The Straits Times, which the authorities felt was getting a little laidback. A new company was formed to include the Chinese papers in the Monitor fold. That attempt failed miserably.

Then came another rationalisation move to get the Chinese papers under the SPH umbrella as a sop to the Chinese-educated, who were still sore about the forced closure of Nanyang University. Then came the liberalisation drive in 2000, with SPH getting a TV licence and Mediacorp a print licence. All these measures have failed.

Most of them were made under the late Lee Kuan Yew, whose obsession with media control was legendary. But times are changing dramatically and the current political leadership must decide if such government interventions are still useful for an industry struggling with declining revenues and fewer and fewer eyeballs.

As both Ernest Wong and new SPH chief Ng Yat Chung attempt to ensure the survival of their respective companies in a post-print world, a new reality will hopefully dawn on them. A post-mainstream media world has arrived and it is here to stay.

P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist and the former chief editor of Today, as well as a former editor at The New Paper. He is currently a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.
By Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's leftist FARC rebel group is introducing its political party at a conference that began on Sunday, a major step in its transition into a civilian organization after more than 50 years of war and its first chance to announce policy to skeptical voters. The six-day meeting in Bogota of FARC members, who have handed in more than 8,000 weapons to the United Nations during their demobilization, is expected to conclude on Friday with a platform that the party will campaign on in elections next year. Under its 2016 peace deal with the government to end its part in a war that has killed more than 220,000 people, the majority of fighters in the group formally known as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were granted amnesty and allowed to participate in politics. Whether the rebels will get backing from Colombians, many of whom revile them, remains to be seen. The FARC's often old-fashioned Marxist rhetoric strikes many as a throwback to their 1964 founding, but proposals for reforms to complicated property laws may get traction with rural voters who struggle as subsistence farmers. The peace accord, rejected by a less than 1 percent margin in a referendum before being modified and enacted, awards the FARC's party 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026, but the group may campaign for others. In a sight that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, FARC delegates arrived by bus to the center of the capital, escorted by police on motorcycles. "From this event on, we will transform into a new, exclusively political group that will carry out its activity by legal means," FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, who is known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, told hundreds of attendees at the event center in Bogota. "We have in front of us many challenges and many difficulties," Londono said. "Nothing is easy in politics." Rural improvements will remain a focus for the party, he added. Many delegates wore conference t-shirts with the slogan "A new party for a new country" and carried branded tote bags. A painting featuring images of Cuban revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Jesus Christ was on display. The party will initially be called the Revolutionary Alternative Force of Colombia, preserving the FARC initials in Spanish. Both legislative and presidential elections will take place in 2018. It is not yet clear in which races the FARC will run candidates. "I think the FARC will try for a regional consolidation, using the presence and influence they have in certain provinces," said Catalina Jimenez, politics professor at Externado University. "At a national level, they need a large amount of votes they still don't have." The FARC is open to coalitions, the group said this week. Fractured by infighting, leftist parties have long struggled in conservative-leaning Colombia, despite some success in winning urban positions. Widespread corruption scandals will probably be a top issue for the crowded field of 2018 presidential candidates. Campaigns are also likely to focus on proposals to improve the daily lives of Colombians, many of whom say they desperately need better security, public education and healthcare. The FARC says the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, which gives a certain amount of regulated funding to each party, should help carry the costs of the conference, given the rebels have handed over their assets as reparations for victims of the war. But while the peace deal is the cornerstone of Santos' legacy, the government has raised doubts about the veracity of the rebels' $324 million asset list. The government said this week that it was forming a commission to verify that the FARC had included all profits it may have earned from extortion, ransoms and drug trafficking, and the group must play by the same rules as any other party. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Frances Kerry and Lisa Von Ahn)
Disarmed fighters from Colombia's leftist FARC rebel force sought political rebirth on Sunday as they launched steps to transform into a party and seek elected office after ending a half-century armed struggle. About 1,200 delegates from the freshly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attended the opening of a founding congress to choose their political representatives ahead of next year's general elections. "At this event we are transforming the FARC into a new, exclusively political organization," said the force's commander Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko. He said the group will advocate "a democratic political regime that guarantees peace and social justice, respects human rights and guarantees economic development for all of us who live in Colombia." Former FARC fighters were bussed in from around the country to join the congress -- such as Jose Edwin Arias, 36. Arias said he lost both of his hands in an accident while handling explosives during the conflict. "We are going to launch our plan for society, without weapons," he said. - What's in a name - Having completed disarmament last month, the FARC will meet mostly behind closed doors this week to choose a name for the party and election candidates. Another former commander of the force, Ivan Marquez, said he expected the movement to call itself the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia. However, Timochenko canvassed opinion on Twitter and most respondents favored the name "New Colombia." Conflict analyst Frederic Masse of Bogota's Externado University said the debate reflected a "dilemma" in the movement. "Some want to keep the word 'revolutionary' while others want to change that to show that this is a new start," Masse said. - Seeking votes - Regardless of how many votes they may win, the peace deal signed with the government last year guarantees the new party five seats in each of the two legislative chambers for two terms. "We aspire hopefully to achieve an even greater representation," former guerrilla commander Carlos Antonio Lozada told AFP. Timochenko has ruled out the new party fielding a presidential candidate in 2018. But he said it will support a candidate who guarantees peace. Center-right President Juan Manuel Santos hailed Sunday's gathering. "Who would have thought a few years ago that this would be possible," he said. "What we have to do now is reconcile." - 'Liberal democracy' - The FARC formed as a communist movement in 1964 from a peasant uprising for rural land rights. Now after 53 years of attacks and kidnappings, it faces a struggle for political acceptance. "For the FARC, political action is not just electoral... it is about winning hearts more than votes," said Jesus Santrich, a senior FARC supervisor in the peace process. Voters narrowly rejected the peace deal in a referendum last year. Santos and the FARC tweaked it and the government pushed it through congress. "The FARC will face a number of challenges. The first is not to betray their support base. The second is to enlarge their electorate," said Masse. "The third is to show that they are capable of doing politics differently and not letting themselves get sucked into traditional patronage politics." - History of violence - The Colombian conflict drew in various rebel forces, paramilitary groups and state forces. It left some 260,000 people confirmed dead, 60,000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced. The government has opened peace talks with the last active group, the 1,500-strong National Liberation Army (ELN), in the hope of sealing what Santos calls a "complete peace." FARC leaders and officials warn that remnants of right-wing paramilitary groups are still carrying out attacks in the conflict zones. "We are afraid that our leaders will be assassinated," said one FARC delegate at Sunday's event, 53-year-old Efren Romana. The congress in Bogota runs until Thursday. On Friday, the party plans an official launch ceremony.
President Omar al-Bashir said on Sunday that the crisis in neighbouring Libya has impacted Sudan, with human traffickers using the East African country's territories to commit "cross-border crimes". Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting UN-backed Libyan premier Fayez al-Sarraj, Bashir also said security issues in Libya had made Khartoum's fight against human trafficking "more expensive". "We are affected directly by the insecurity in Libya, which has made it expensive for us to fight human trafficking, illegal immigration and cross-border crimes," Bashir said. "Those who are committing these crimes are using the instability in Libya, and using Sudanese territories to commit their crimes." Every year tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa cross Sudan and enter Libya for their onward journey to Europe across the Mediterranean. In recent years European and African authorities have put pressure on Khartoum to boost efforts to curb illegal immigration and human trafficking. Khartoum recognises the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Sarraj, a rival of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is accused by Sudan of enlisting rebels from the country's Darfur region to fight alongside his forces. Bashir reiterated that accusation on Sunday. "We have some Sudanese members of rebel groups active in Libya as mercenaries," he said, without elaborating. Sarraj said the two leaders discussed the security situation in Libya. "Sudan is of strategic importance to Libya, and we discussed how to secure the border," he said. The two leaders did not talk about last month's closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats by the Haftar-backed authorities in eastern Libya. A pro-Haftar news agency had reported that the Sudanese mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya, was closed on the grounds that it damaged "Libyan national security". According to officials in Khartoum, dozens of young Sudanese -- both men and women -- have been killed in Libya fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State jihadist group. Libya has been rocked by chaos since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed revolution. Jihadists, arms dealers and people traffickers have gained a foothold in the North African country as multiple authorities and dozens of militias vie for power.
Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu vowed to press on with an intensifying campaign for justice in defiance of "threats" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of ruling as a dictator. Kilicdaroglu, head of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), told Agence France-Presse in an interview he believed that Erdogan feared his movement and consequently was attacking him in nearly every public speech. The CHP leader, who analysts until now rarely saw as posing a major challenge to Erdogan, threw down a new gauntlet to the president this summer with a nearly month-long march complaining of injustice in Turkey in the wake of the July 15, 2016 failed coup bid. This weekend, he kicked off a four-day "justice congress" highlighting violations in the unprecedented crackdown that followed the failed coup, in a bid to build on the momentum of that march. "Let him (Erdogan) threaten as much as he wants, we are right. We will defend justice, democracy, judicial independence and media freedom to the end because we are right," said Kilicdaroglu. "He sees me as a threat. He is from time to time delivering speeches that contain threats but we will not be frightened off by their threats," the CHP leader said in front of his trailer at the outdoor event in the western Canakkale region. Erdogan has lambasted Kilicdaroglu in speeches and even darkly hinted that the CHP chief could himself face judicial proceedings. But Kilicdaroglu said this showed that "Erdogan is definitely shying away and scared of me". He accused the Turkish president, who has dominated Turkey for almost one and a half decades as premier and head of state, of suffering from "Kilicdaroglu illness" due to nearly daily tirades targeting him. - 'Do dictators have a career?'- Kilicdaroglu is hoping the appeal of his justice movement will go well beyond the CHP and help create a united front against the president ahead of 2019 elections. The stakes will be particularly high in the polls -- Erdogan this April won a referendum on enhancing the powers of the presidency which critics fear give the head of state near authoritarian powers. Asked if his movement could put the Turkish president's career in jeopardy, Kilicdaroglu said: "Erdogan does not have a career. Do the dictators have a career? Do coup plotters have a career?" Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of staging a "civilian coup" in the crackdown which critics say has gone went well beyond the coup plotters and targeted all kinds of dissidents. "Turkey is currently in a coup process. Parliament has been de-activated," Kilicdaroglu said. "They can seize assets or dismiss from the public sector whoever they want under a single decree. Can you call this democracy?" More than 50,000 people have been arrested under Turkey's over year-long state of emergency imposed after the failed coup, and almost three times that number have lost their jobs, including teachers, judges, soldiers and police officers. Kilicdaroglu however said: "We are coming together in spite of all impossibilities and all barriers... We are all together speaking up for democracy and human rights. That is of course scaring him.". The government insists the crackdown is essential to deal with the national security threat posed by the coup bid, blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who denies the charges. - 'Oppose one-man regime'- Asked if he was scared of being arrested, Kilicdaroglu replied: "Never." "We are the only party in Turkey that is doing most effective opposition against Erdogan. That is why he cannot tolerate our presence." Kilicdaroglu did not comment on if he would run in the presidential polls but he said the CHP's candidate would "oppose the one-man regime and advocate a democratic parliamentary system". Ankara's post-coup measures have led to an outpouring of global concern and set off alarm bells in Europe. Kilicdaroglu said: "We need to fight for journalists in prison, dismissed university academics, and teachers on hunger strike." "We will do it, we are determined. Are there impediments ahead of us? There are more obstacles than you would think. But it is our duty to overcome them."
Usefulness Content Freshness Why do we spend more time on business strategies compared to the people pursuing that strategy? "The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring" hopes to help with that. Written by an industry expert and CEO of an Inc. 500 company, this book details the process and approach you need to take to hire consistently and with more confidence so you can spend more time working instead of chasing new applicants.

If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

No matter what industry you are in, people are the engine of your business. They are also the most expensive part of your business with salaries, training costs, benefits, and taxes. Why, then, do business owners invest so little attention in the hiring process? Why do they focus on gut feelings (which can be biased) or forgo recruitment training for their hiring managers? The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring helps readers answer these questions with a hiring strategy and approach designed to improve the odds of hiring a team of all-star candidates.

What Is The Best Team Wins About?

People are almost always the single largest expense in a companys budget, yet most companies have a better process for buying coffee supplies than they do for hiring great talent. Why?

 From the Introduction in The Best Team Wins

The goal of Adam Robinsons book, The Best Team Wins, is to help readers improve their hiring odds by closing the gaps and resolving the inconsistencies in the hiring process. Robinson claims that the majority of hiring is most often seen from the perspective of lets fill this position quickly so we can make more money instead of lets make sure weve done everything we can to pick the best person. Even in cases where employers pay more attention to the hiring process, they often rely on gut feelings and a haphazard style of interviewing. This can be a recipe for disaster because hiring someone that isnt a good fit for your company can cost more than hurt feelings. It can cost you a lot in terms of wasted money, decreased productivity, and potential negative press (from disgruntled employees).

Robinsons response to all of this is predictive hiring. Predictive hiring is essentially structuring your hiring process so that you can pick the candidate who can help improve your business or organization over the entire time working with you. This process involves a four-step process that starts with clearly defining your role and slowly narrowing down the talent pool through interviews and other checks until you have the best candidate or candidates for the position. During the process, you develop a 30, 60 and 90 day plan that can be used to help align your potential employees goals with your business as well as test their performance during that critical first 90 days.

Robinson is a recruiting expert, speaker, and the CEO and founder of Hireology, a business that uses technology to improve recruiting decisions. Robinsons company, Hireology, was won several awards for customer service and workplace culture, including gaining #94 on the Inc. 500 list. He also serves as a leader with the Entrepreneurs Organization, a platform for global entrepreneurs.

What Was Best About The Best Team Wins?

Robinson has a lot of experience in the recruiting industry and it definitely shows in the content of this book. His book contains nuanced advice on gathering insights from the interview process, issues to check when reviewing resumes, and insights on how to improve the recruiting process. In the process, he offers unique insights that confront conventional thinking for readers who are tired of the same old HR advice.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

The Best Team Wins is a great read for managers and business leaders who want to improve their hiring success. It includes insights that can be helpful when hiring for any position, whether its a fry cook or the CEO of a multinational company. That being said, the book is heavily tailored to professional occupations (particularly sales), so some of the information, particularly the multi-stage interview process, may not apply for all positions. Readers will need to tailor the books advice for the positions they are looking to fill.

Why Read The Best Team Wins?

The Best Team Wins is a book that builds on the the practical recruiting experience accumulated by Robinson in his business, Hireology, as he encountered the same questions every business must answer. What is the best way to hire someone? Should I do a phone interview or in-person interview? Should I use a job board or other method? For any business manager or leader who struggles with these questions, this book provides industry experience and the template for a more consistent hiring process that is designed to bring attention to where it needs to be, hiring the best people you can so they can do the best job possible.

Get discounts and special offers on new and classic business books with an Audible Premium Plus membership. Learn more and sign up for an account today.
The Conrow Fire, a wildfire burning about five miles northeast of Whitehall, grew to 2,050 acres Saturday and is not contained.

The lightning-caused fire began at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday about a half mile from a communication tower on Bull Mountain. Butte District Ranger Dave Sabo told The Montana Standard that despite how close the fire is to the tower, the structure is not threatened. The tower is south of the fire, which is moving in a northerly direction.

The U.S. Forest Service is holding a public meeting at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Community Center, 11 North Division, Whitehall, to answer questions about the fire.

The fire is in a fairly remote area, said Sabo. Firefighters have used helicopters to drop water and fire retardant on the fire. There are also hotshots, two hand crews, three engines, one dozer, and four water tenders working the fire.

Winds traveling 10 to 15 mph Friday caused the fire to grow rapidly to the north and northwest. The fire is burning in grass, sage, juniper, and Douglas fir.

There are no road closures in the area at this time, but drivers traveling on Interstate 90 and Montana Highway 69 should expect smoky conditions.
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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.
AbbVie Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals in the worldwide. The company offers HUMIRA, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behcet's diseases; SKYRIZI to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults; RINVOQ, a JAK inhibitor for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis in adult patients; IMBRUVICA to treat adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and VENCLEXTA, a BCL-2 inhibitor used to treat adults with CLL or SLL; and MAVYRET to treat patients with chronic HCV genotype 1-6 infection. It also provides CREON, a pancreatic enzyme therapy for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency; Synthroid used in the treatment of hypothyroidism; Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation; Lupron for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids; and Botox therapeutic. In addition, the company offers ORILISSA, a nonpeptide small molecule gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist for women with moderate to severe endometriosis pain; Duopa and Duodopa, a levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel to treat Parkinson's disease; Lumigan/Ganfort, a bimatoprost ophthalmic solution for the reduction of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension; Ubrelvy to treat migraine with or without aura in adults; Alphagan/ Combigan, an alpha-adrenergic receptor agonist for the reduction of IOP in patients with OAG; and Restasis, a calcineurin inhibitor immunosuppressant to increase tear production, as well as other eye care products. AbbVie Inc. has a research collaboration with Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The county is embarking on a big initiative to extend railroad connections into its sprawling industrial park west of Butte, saying it could entice more companies to locate there and grow the state and local economy.

Butte-Silver Bow and the Port of Montana are now seeking formal proposals from engineering firms to help design and analyze rail extensions, but the overall project has been on the Tax Increment Financing Industrial Districts wish list for several years.

The board has earmarked $5 million to see it through, including design and construction, though the final price tag could be higher or lower.

It would certainly make our parcels more attractive, Todd Tregidga, chairman of the TIFID Board, said Friday. We can definitely feel from the marketplace that theres a demand for parcels directly served by rail and not just have it nearby.

The Port of Montana, located in the northern part of the Montana Connections industrial park, is already the only place in the state where two Class I railroads are located. Butte is also the only city in Montana where two major interstates  I-15 and I-90  intersect.

But while the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads serve the port, there are only two extensions into the rest of the industrial park. One is owned by Scoular Grain, and the other leads to the now-closed Solvay phosphorous plant.

Other businesses in the park can load products or materials onto trucks and put them on railroad cars at the port, of course. REC Silicon has done such transloading extremely well for more than 20 years, said TIFID administrator Kristen Rosa.

While the rail lines at the Port are a tremendous asset, Rosa said, spurs into the rest of the industrial park would be a big plus.

To date, we do not have anywhere that we can put somebody and say its already served, Rosa said. Our goal is to create a plan so that when that person (company) comes and they are really in need of rail service, we have it there.

The TIFID has $13 million to $15 million in reserves. Like all tax-increment districts, property taxes from new developments in the area are captured so they can be reinvested there instead of being doled out to all other local government units and schools.

Until recently, however, the TIFID lacked an available tract of land needed for new rail spurs. That changed when $30 million in upgrades to the countys Metro Sewer Plant were completed last year.

Before the upgrades, the plant sent some of its effluent water to a 100-acre area in the TIFID that was used to grow turf grass. That sod could then be transported to other public places. The newer plant takes certain nutrients out of the water so it doesnt need a secondary place to go.

So the sod farm became available to us at the industrial park, Rosa said. Now we have the land and we have room for what we believe is great rail access.

That access, she said, would be the only place in Montana where a business could locate and have direct connection to two major railroad lines right at its doorstep.

Tregidga said the potential payoff has already been demonstrated, since some ventures who have expressed interest in the park have asked about direct rail connections.

The deadline for submitting proposals and qualifications to the county for engineering and analyzing rail extension is 5 p.m. Sept. 7. There is no timeline yet on the overall project.
Filling of crucible with sample salt at JRC Karlsruhe

(Tech Xplore)Researchers at the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) in the Netherlands have begun experiments for the first time in many years to test thorium molten salt reactors. The experiments, in Petten, mark the first of its kind in over 45 years.

A post in Medium from Gijs Zwartsenberg, chairman, the Thorium MSR Foundation, [MSR stands for molten salt reactor] spelled it out: "On August 10, 2017, a set of concentric sealed tubes was entered into the core of the High Flux Reactor in Petten, Netherlands. In the smallest of these tubes sits an even smaller set of four graphite crucibles, containing a mixture of salts: lithium fluoride and thorium fluoride."

Responding to the news, The Engineer said thorium reactor research has reached a "new dawn." Thorium hopefuls think it could power the next generation of nuclear reactors.

Steven Ashley in New Scientist said the researchers "want to use thorium as a fuel for a molten salt reactor, one of the next generation designs for nuclear power."

Ashley said, "because nuclear power was traditionally tied up with nuclear weapons research, thorium was abandoned. Except for one test reactor that has been under construction in India since 2004, the last research into thorium reactors took place 45 years ago." Nonetheless, "Molten salt reactors are expected to be very well suited for using thorium as a fuel. The unique fluid fuel can incorporate thorium and U-233 fluorides as part of a salt mixture, to melt at very high temperatures."

Supporters think that thorium as an alternative to uranium could provide a cleaner, safer fuel source.

MIT Technology Review newsletter, "The Download" wrote that "Thorium has several advantages over uranium, the fuel that powers most nuclear reactors in service today. First, it's much harder to weaponize. Second, as we pointed out last year in a long read on thorium-salt reactors, designs that call for using it in a liquid form are, essentially, self-regulating and fail-safe."

(As mentioned earlier, "because nuclear power was traditionally tied up with nuclear weapons research, thorium was abandoned.")

Specifically, the August news centers around the Salt Irradiation Experiment (SALIENT) at the NRG research area in Petten.

The NRG describes itself as an internationally operating nuclear service provider. The company produces isotopes, conducts nuclear technological research, is a consultant on the safety and reliability of nuclear installations and provides services related to radiation protection.

The experiments are divided into steps and of course there are learning goals.

In the beginning step, the Petten team "will melt a sample of thorium salt fuel to see if, over time, the neutron bombardment triggers the nuclear reactions necessary to transmute the thorium into uranium isotopes that can undergo nuclear fission, and sustain the chain reaction needed to generate energy," said Ashley.

New Scientist walked readers through the steps to follow. "The next step is to study tough metal alloys and other materials that can survive the bombardment. Later research will examine how to deal with the waste from a molten salt thorium reactor. While safer than the long-lived products from a standard nuke, these will still need special disposal."

The discussion in Medium, in answer to why the team chose the lithiumfluoride/thoriumfluoride mixture as a start for their tryouts, said that was the salt of choice for the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR). That is a European concept for a waste-burning MSR. "For SALIENT-02, we will use a different mixture that will also contain beryllium, forming a mixture also known as FliBe, and uranium as the fuel."

Zwartsenberg's post in Medium quoted nuclear fuels expert and NRG scientist Ralph Hania: "SALIENT is a way to build up experience with the use of fission fuel in the form of a molten salt. That hasn't been done for decades and we're also doing it to train ourselves. It's important to notice that SALIENT is not a single experiment but really a series, and we'll build that up step by step. On the other hand, it is fundamental research, in which we look at the behavior of salt and the fission products that are formed in the salts."

What is the future of thorium? Ashley in New Scientist: "We need clean energy sources to stave off climate change, yet fears raised by Fukushima have caused nuclear power to stagnate. Maybe thorium's time has finally come."

The Thorium Energy World site: "Success at Petten might push countries like India to develop their technology faster; it may also give impetus to American startups, who have had some interesting ideas but struggle without the required funding and legislation to make them serious projects."

Still, US scientists interested in thorium's potential are not deterred. New Scientist reported that "A US startup based in Utah says it's developing a thorium reactor, the first in the U.S. in half a century, and a consortium of eastern Utah counties is exploring whether to participate in the project. Last month, Utah's Seven County Infrastructure Coalition issued a request to evaluate 'a thorium energy facility for producing electricity'."

 2017 Tech Xplore
DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar ordered the embassy of Chad be closed and gave its diplomats 72 hours to leave, the Qatari foreign ministry said on Thursday, accusing the African country of joining a "campaign of blackmail" with its decision to shutter the Qatari embassy. Qatar is involved in a row with four Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, over allegations that Doha supports terrorism. Qatar denies the charges. Chad said on Wednesday it was giving Qatari diplomats 10 days to leave the country, accusing Qatar of trying to destabilise the central African nation through its northern neighbour Libya. The director of the Qatari foreign ministry's media department said the timing of the Chadian decision shows that it "comes within the campaign of political blackmail against the State of Qatar with the intention of joining the siege countries for very well known reasons". Qatar refers to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt as the "siege countries" for imposing sanctions on it. Senegal said this week it had returned its ambassador to Qatar after having recalled him three months ago, in a bid to encourage a peaceful resolution to the feud. Chad did not provide any details to support the accusation that Doha was trying to destabilise it through Libya. The UAE and Qatar, which both played key roles in backing rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, have emerged as rivals on the battlefield with conflicting interests in Libya. The vacuum created by Gaddafi's downfall led to a flood of weapons from state arsenals into the hands of Islamist groups who then pushed south into Africa's Sahel nations where they launch attacks on military and civilian targets. (This version of the story corrects headline to 72 hours, not 27 hours) (Reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo, writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Toby Chopra)
There are many legends within the world of professional wrestling on globally there are few larger than Hulk Hogan but the Hulkster has left a gap since his absence.

The WCW legend has been absent from WWE since WrestleMania 31 and despite rumours that the 67-year-old would make his presence known soon, that may no longer be the case.

A world without Hogan

There have been many former employees of the WWE who have fallen out of favour with the company with their chances of returning very unlikely.

Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, fits firmly in the same category after a sex-tape scandal following by a racism allegation prompted his former employers to cancel his contract.

With his last appearance being in April 2014, and WWE removing any acknowledgement of the veteran from their website and history; the chance of a Hogan return is extremely low.

A recent survey by the company failed to list Hogan in a list of legends that also included; The Ultimate Warrior, Goldberg and Randy Savage, which given his contribution and accomplishments would make him an equal representative of his former colleagues.

While WWE have acted in what they feel is the most appropriate way, Triple H, Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, said in a 2015 interview regarding Hogan returning: "I hope so. It's about reinvigorating his brand and him as a human being and the confidence within the world as to who he is.

"But the one thing about people in general, when somebody is on top they love to see him fall and when they fall they love to see him make a comeback."

Other superstars that may never return

WWE can be a cruel company at times, with opportunities limited and chances to cement star power hard to come by, as many former employees have experienced - making a return unlikely.

CM Punk - Getting the first and possibly largest one out of the way, The Cult of Personality is a name rumoured for return, what seems like every week. The current UFC star has repeatedly vented his anger towards his treatment by WWE and has shot down any future returns blunty, making an appearance back in the squared circle very unlikely. Although a future Hall of Fame induction may be on the card in a decade or two.

'Stone-Cold' Steve Austin - Despite being friendly with WWE, the time for a Stone Cold return has come and gone with the 52-year-old way past his prime, with his health not something he would risk given his age. Despite his popularity, his in-ring work tumbled in his latter years given his broken neck he suffered in 1997 finally catching up with him. So with his age, outside ventures and health, don't expect to see an Austin match again.

Alberto Del Rio - The Mexican left WWE last year after his second return ended in a disaster. The current Global Force Wrestling star has been involved with current WWE superstar Paige, with the pair grabbing headlines following several public spats. Del Rio has been critical of the company, slandering the promotion, putting in severe doubt any future return.
Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina could help the Federal Emergency Management Agency avoid some of the same mistakes in disaster relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey  but the widespread flooding in Texas could be a test for FEMA Director Brock Longs push to ask states and localities to pay more for recovery than in the past, says a Virginia Tech expert who grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and now specializes in how governments manage emergencies.

"FEMA has learned one of the major lessons of Katrina  that they need to preposition resources close to the site of the damage but far enough away so that the resources themselves arent in danger. Once the storm clears, they can begin to send trucks, tents, food, generators, and water to the affected areas, says Patrick Roberts, an associate professor in Virginia Techs School of Public and International Affairs and the author of Disasters and the American State: How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected.

Quoting Roberts



On recovery challenges: Long term recovery will be a challenge if people from coastal cities such as Rockport have to relocate for long periods of time, or if Houston neighborhoods become uninhabitable. FEMA will have to work with HUD and other agencies to connect support for long term housing to economic development in the affected areas. Interagency cooperation will be key.

On federal support: "The recovery period will be a test for FEMA Director Brock Longs plan to ask states and localities to pay more for recovery than they did in the past. This has been one of his goals. Hes floated the idea of a disaster deductible, where states pay a certain amount of costs first, before federal funds kick in.

On other challenges: "Houston has the nations largest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants. Billions of gallons of oil and chemicals are at risk during a disaster. The industry has taken steps to protect oil and chemicals and to restore operations, but it will take weeks to assess the damage.



About Roberts



Virginia Techs Patrick Roberts grew up along the Texas Gulf Coast. He remembers preparing for hurricanes by boarding up his house and standing in long lines for water and food, ready to be without power for days. He is based at Virginia Techs National Capital Region near Washington, D.C. His research traces the development of disaster and security organizations and their capacity, performance, and especially their degree of autonomy, or ability to develop and pursue a perspective independent of the will of elected politicians and interests. Full bio here.

Schedule an interview



To secure an interview with Roberts, please contact Shannon Andrea at sandrea@vt.edu or 703-399-9494.
PetroChina Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in a range of petroleum related products, services, and activities in Mainland China and internationally. It operates through Exploration and Production, Refining and Chemicals, Marketing, and Natural Gas and Pipeline segments. The Exploration and Production segment engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. The Refining and Chemicals segment refines crude oil and petroleum products; and produces and markets primary petrochemical products, derivative petrochemical products, and other chemical products. The Marketing segment is involved in marketing of refined products and trading business. The Natural Gas and Pipeline segment engages in the transmission of natural gas, crude oil, and refined products; and sale of natural gas. As of December 31, 2021, the company had a total length of 26,076 km, including 17,329 km of natural gas pipelines, 7,340 km of crude oil pipelines, and 1,407 km of refined product pipelines. The company is also involved in the exploration, development, and production of oil sands and coalbed methane; trading of crude oil and petrochemical products; storage, chemical engineering, storage facilities, service station, and transportation facilities and related businesses; and production and sales of basic and derivative chemical, and other chemical products. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. PetroChina Company Limited is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.
Holy Trinity to host Monday football

The Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church will host an all-you-can-eat spaghetti and fried chicken dinner with open bar at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, at 2100 Continental Dr.

The evening includes watching the Monday-night ball game on the big screen along with half-time drawings. The grand prize is four game tickets to the Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals in Phoenix Nov. 9 along with $2,000 cash for expenses. Need not be present to win. Five $100 raffle winners will be announced as well.

Tickets, which are $110, allow four for dinner with one chance to win the grand prize.

Butte-toberfest planned for Oct. 7

The ninth annual Buttes Oktoberfest  Butte-toberfest  will be held from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Original Mine.

The kid-friendly event is free and features 15 Montana breweries, stein races, best dressed contest (male, female, and couple), food, live music, and more. Tickets must be purchased for the beer.

All funds raised from the event benefit Silver Bow Developmental Disabilities Council and furthering services for individuals with disabilities. This years funds will go toward building employment opportunities in the community and helping Discovery get the adaptive ski program up and running.

Funds raised when you purchase food at the event benefit the Butte High History Club and the activities they do throughout the year.

Library needs photographic images

The Butte-Silver Bow Public Library is seeking submissions for their 2018 fundraising calendar. Entries should be digital copies of any medium that portray Buttes past or present.

An image will be chosen for each month plus a cover image. Copies of the calendar will be sold through the library at both branches and various events around town for the purpose of raising funds for the library collections, events, and facilities. Contributors will get full credit for any submitted artwork.

Submissions are due by Oct. 1. Calendars will be printed and available for sale during November and December. All submission will be displayed in the Carle Gallery throughout January 2018.

Submissions should be delivered electronically either by email or flash drive. For details, got to www.buttepubliclibrary.info or contact Shari Curtis at 406-723-3361 or scurtis@buttepubliclibrary.info.
In her new book, Exporting Revolution: Cubas Global Solidarity, Margaret Randall gives a thoughtful historical analysis of the politics of the island nation, mostly during the Fidel Castro era.

Its an analysis based on her wealth of experience. Randall, an Albuquerque resident, lived in Cuba from 1969 to 1980 and has frequently visited there since. Shes observed the worldwide influences of the countrys revolution.

The books title and subtitle embody Randalls observations about the logic of Castros politics: The 1959 Cuban Revolution was the foundation for promoting free health care and education for all its citizens, and the promotion was exported internationally. That resulted in a solidarity with insurgents (aka liberation fighters) battling dictators in many Third World countries.

The Cuban governments strategy of international aid missions threatened Americas commercial interests and spheres of influence.

When I researched the book, I found that one of every 10 Cubans had done an international mission  in health, education, sports, culture and, of course, military missions as well, Randall said. She called it extraordinary humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Pre-Castro Cuba was an unofficial American colony. The Cuban Revolution flipped that thinking. When Cuba aligned with the Soviet Union, the island nation became a pawn in the Cold War.

Randall writes that the U.S. government used the phrase exporting revolution as a political tool to characterize communist Cuba as our enemy during, and beyond, the Cold War years.

For 55 years, the United States didnt have diplomatic relations with Cuba. No trade. And other countries could be penalized by the U.S. for docking in Cuban ports, Randall said.

Officially, a U.S. blockade is still in effect. However, some U.S. officials and CEOs of businesses have traveled to Cuba in recent years, setting up agreements that to some extend are able to circumvent the blockade, Randall said.

Though Randall sees long-term domestic benefits in Cubas international policies, she perceives a political downside to the late Fidel Castros 50 years of leadership.

But Fidel is a figure who is bigger than life. Hes a Nelson Mandela. On the one hand, hes beloved and revered, capable and smart. But on the other hand, I dont think its healthy for anyone to be in power for all those years. It creates corruption. To have a small group of leaders who are entrenched is not a good thing, Randall said.

Fidels brother and fellow revolutionary, Raul Castro, assumed the presidency in 2014, and he is expected to step down in 2018.

Cuba is at a crucial moment right now. The older generation that made the revolution is dying off. Raul is in his 80s, Randall said. The old-timers, theres a mystique around them thats carried them. 

Mystique itself isnt enough to make a good leader. Its time for new blood.

Randall is an internationally respected feminist poet, as well as a prose writer, an essayist, a translator and a photographer. In the 1960s, she lived in Mexico City, where she founded and co-edited a bilingual literary journal. After leaving Cuba, she worked for the Sandinista government in Nicaragua for several years before teaching at the University of New Mexico in American studies and Womens studies. Randalls manuscripts, papers and photographic negatives are housed at UNMs Center for Southwest Research.

Cuban The mystique Albuquerque author and veteran Castro watcher explores the island nations global impact
In his free time, Kirtland Air Force Bases range operations officer combines riding motorcycles and helping fellow veterans.

Dan Guillaume, who retired from the Air Force after more than 26 years of service, joined the American Legion Riders service group in New Mexico about five years ago to give back. Hes been riding motorcycles for more than 40 years.

Our main focus is helping veterans and their families, he said of the American Legion Riders.

Hes president of local Chapter 22, which has 53 members. The organization is part of the nationwide American Legion nonprofit group, and regular members must own motorcycles.

Guillaume estimates he spends about 20 hours a month volunteering with the chapter.

My biggest passion is Operation Wounded Warrior, he said. And the reason I say that is Ive seen the works that weve done, the results, the looks on the faces of the people weve assisted.

Operation Wounded Warrior, not to be confused with the unrelated Wounded Warrior Project, is the New Mexico American Legion Riders effort to help veterans and their families with needs such as wheelchair ramps, cars repairs or funeral expenses.

Really, it runs the gamut of what people might need, Guillaume said.

The Legion Riders require discharge paperwork and a personal visit to the veteran to make sure the needs are legitimate. The money to help comes from a statewide fund or the individual chapters budget.

Guillaume sometimes runs into veterans who wont accept help, a big concern for him.

That, to me, is the challenge, knowing what assistance they qualify for but are not willing to, one, ask for, or are willing to receive, he said.

The American Legion Riders also provide funeral escorts and color guards. One of the efforts that most touched Guillaume was helping escort the remains of 23 deceased veterans unclaimed remains to the Santa Fe National Cemetery for a burial service last fall.

To think we have that many veterans unclaimed by their family members  he said, letting the thought trail off.

Chapter 22 also supports several veterans homes in New Mexico, as well as Fisher House facilities, where the families of Veterans Affairs hospital patients can stay for free. Every September, Guillaume said, his chapter visits the Fisher House in San Antonio to help with time and donations.

Over the past decade, theyve given more than $1 million in monetary and in-kind contributions of comfort items to that facility.

A ground-breaking for a Fisher House on the Albuquerque VA hospital campus is scheduled for September, and local Legion Riders have been raising funds for it.

Thats going to be a big plus for our VA, Guillaume said.

The American Legion Riders also hold motorcycle rides to raise funds for charitable efforts and promote camaraderie.

Veterans, current service members and their spouses, children and grandchildren are eligible for membership in the American Legion and American Legion Riders.

For more information, contact Guillaume at dan41bo@msn.com.
Birds, bees, butterflies and bats.

About 35 percent of the worlds food crops and 75 percent of flowering plants depend on these winged creatures to reproduce. These pollinators have become increasingly threatened by human action; witness bee colony collapse disorder. Beehives have been disappearing at nearly twice the normal rate of loss, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

516 ARTS has gathered artists from New Mexico and across the globe for Cross Pollination in a response to this crisis. The exhibition also reveals a cross pollination between art and science.

More than 250 species of bees buzz through New Mexico, according to exhibition curator and beekeeper Valerie Roybal. Honeybees are not native to America; settlers brought them here from Russia and Italy. But Native Americans kept bees because they needed to grow crops, she said.

They were on the planet before us, Roybal said. There were paleolithic bees 40 million years ago. Plants, flowers and bees evolved together.

Santa Fe installation artists Susanna Carlisle and Bruce Hamilton created Vanishing II, a tribute to honeybees. Their installation duplicates the experience of being orbited by honeybees through video, sound, processing and projection in a pollination poem.

It really has to do with our concern about the demise of bees  climate change and pesticides and commercial intervention, Carlisle said. The bee colonies are fading all over the world. We wanted not to hit people over the head, but to increase awareness.

The installation features four videos projected within elliptical glass shapes.

Youre looking kind of in a fishbowl, Hamilton said.

Photographer and art teacher Kelly Eckel has researched and collaged photographs in her Morphogenic series of hybrid wings, a mosaic of eyes, larvae, wings and microscopic images of pollen.

A visit to her Albuquerque studio reveals a collection of fossilized rocks, shells, bones, cocoons and enlarged images of wings. A stack of Plexiglas boxes encases found moths, bumblebees and crysalis. The photographer shoots specimens at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and at the University of New Mexico.

In Bilateral Modification she pieced together bee wings, butterfly wings and moth wings to create a graceful medley in black and white. She jigsaws the individual body parts into a collage of fantastical shapes.

I look at the world in a broader sense, Eckels said. I look at the revolving mangrove. The tree of life is not so much a tree; its a mangrove. Its entangled. Were kind of a collage of whats happened before.

Another image resembles an archipelago of forms and textures quilted from bees eyes, water, dried sunflowers and grapes. A third reveals a moths proboscis, butterfly wings, a wasps nest.

In her classes, Eckel asks kindergartners to examine insects through her microscope.

Ive given my students loupes because I want them to understand pollinators, she said. Im hoping they dont want to kill things so much afterward.
GARDNERVILLE, Nev.  Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt may not have officially announced it, but speakers at his annual Republican fundraiser in northern Nevada have jumped to the conclusion by throwing their support behind his likely run for governor in the next election.

Laxalts 3rd annual Basque Fry is being held Saturday on a ranch near Carson City.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that Nevada Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson told the crowd of about 3,000 that he wants to make sure Laxalt takes the governors mansion in 2018.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is scheduled to speak, though Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have cancelled their appearances citing Hurricane Harvey.

A small group of protesters also briefly interrupted Laxalt as he took the stage.
The Nuclear Weapons Center, based at Kirtland Air Force Base, announced billions of dollars in nuclear weapons contracts last week, work aimed at modernizing the ground- and air-based legs of the countrys nuclear triad.

The contracts, labeled as technology maturation and risk-reduction projects, are one of the first stages of the acquisition process, where contractors complete preliminary designs, officials said.

On Tuesday, the center announced that two contracts worth up to $359 million apiece have been awarded to the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. for work on the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic weapon system program.

The system will replace the Minuteman III ballistic missile, which came online in the 1970s.

As others have stated, the only thing more expensive than deterrence is fighting a war, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein in a statement. The Minuteman III is 45 years old. It is time to upgrade.

The Air Force estimates the programs acquisition process to cost $63 billion.

Likewise, two approximately $900 million contracts were awarded to defense giants Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. to continue design work for the new Long Range Standoff weapon, which will replace the Air Launched Cruise Missile developed in the 1980s.

The cruise missile had a 10-year design life.

This (new) weapon will modernize the air-based leg of the nuclear triad, Secretary of the Air Force and former New Mexico congresswoman Heather Wilson said in a statement. Deterrence works if our adversaries know that we can hold at risk things they value. This weapon will enhance our ability to do so, and we must modernize it cost-effectively.

This projects acquisition process is estimated to cost $10 billion.

Once the contracts are completed, one contractor will be chosen to move on to the next engineering and manufacturing development phase of each project.

Requests for proposals for the projects were issued last summer.

The Pentagon is in the midst of what is called a Nuclear Posture Review, ordered by President Donald Trump in January, which will examine policies and technologies associated with revamping the countrys nuclear arsenal.

Initial steps to reinvigorate the weapons program were taken by the Obama administration.

Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy for the Arms Control Association, said his organization opposes both projects.

He said the group feels cruise missiles are redundant and should eventually be phased out, while the existing Minuteman III could be maintained and upgraded instead of a new system being built.

He also doubted the ability of the government to fund the projects in their entirety. The Arms Control Association estimates the projects  including production and sustainment  could cost up to $1.5 trillion.

Its unlikely, in my view, that there is going to be enough money to pay for everything thats currently planned, he said.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

A daughters claims of excessive billing and millions of dollars of mismanagement by her mothers corporate guardian/conservator were secret from the start. During four years of litigation, virtually all of the court case was sealed from public view.

Now the professional malpractice lawsuit  a rare case against a New Mexico court-appointed professional guardian/conservator  has ended with a secret out-of-court settlement.

The settlement came a month after the judge in the case reversed himself and opened up court files in response to a motion by the Albuquerque Journal. The terms of the settlement werent revealed publicly.

Without a public trial, which was set for October, the opportunity to learn more from Leonie Rosenstiels case against Decades LLC of Albuquerque appears all but lost, just as a commission appointed by the state Supreme Court is looking for ways to reform the system.

Nancy Oriola, founder of Decades, told the Journal on Friday that the settlement was an economic decision by the insurance companies that I agreed to. Otherwise, I feel I had a very strong case.

Rosenstiel, in a statement, told the Journal she believes she would have won at trial.

However, Im happy about the settlement, because I can now move on to other things. I am especially glad that the record of this case has been opened for all to see. Its my hope that these sorts of cases become more transparent in the future. Im deeply concerned that all the unwarranted secrecy has led to the perception among people caught in the system that commercial guardians and conservators are favored by the courts.

Rosenstiel, the daughter of a New York financier, was an only child, and the personal representative for her mother, Annette Rosenstiel.

Annette Rosenstiel, who died in 2012, was a published author and lecturer who held a Ph.D. in anthropology.

After her father died and her mother began to show signs of dementia, Leonie sought to become guardian for her mother, but ultimately agreed to the appointment of Decades as both the guardian to make decisions on her mothers daily care and as conservator tasked with overseeing her mothers finances.

Rosenstiels lawsuit in 2013 alleged that over a nine-year-period, Decades abused their position as the appointed guardian and conservator for her mother, who died at the age of 100.

The alleged abuse took multiple forms, her complaint stated. She contended that Decades breached its fiduciary duty by negligently handling her mothers assets and charging astonishing expenses for her mothers care, which included nearly $250,000 in legal fees.

Rosenstiels securities expert estimated that her mothers estate lost at least $10 million under Decades oversight, in part because the conservator firm failed to diversify her concentrated stock in New York Mercantile Exchange Holdings until after a dramatic drop in value.

Decades sought to disqualify that expert, maintaining that the firm had acted prudently, had no duty to act, and was bound by a court ruling that required prior court approval for any re-allocation of assets.

Leonie contended that the annual reports Decades was required to provide by law to the court didnt provide enough information for Leonie to ascertain the status of her mothers finances.

Only when Leonie went to court herself in November 2007, alleging mismanagement by Decades, did the company take steps to diversify the stock, she alleged. Then, six months before her mothers death, Decades asked the judge in the case to relieve it of all liability in the performance of its duties from November 2008 to December 13, 2011, her lawsuit stated. Decades, in its answer, denied that allegation .

Decades stated that, after Annettes death, her estate still had a total asset value of more than $5.6 million, which was net of years of expensive in-home care, guardianship and conservatorship expenses and hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts to her sole heir, Leonie.

Leonie Rosenstiel was clearly disappointed that she has not inherited as much as she would have liked. , Decades attorney said in one filing.

Oriola told the Journal she had several experts who would have testified that her company provided excellent care to Rosenstiel. She also said the estate did benefit by more than $6 million after her death. In our opinion we did well by Dr. Rosenstiel.

Rosenstiels securities expert Douglas Schultz concluded that Decades had neither the expertise or experience in how to deal with diversifying and hedging such a large concentrated asset. For Decades to say there are no damages to the estate, is like trying to take credit for the sun coming up in the morning because you happen to be on your porch watching, he wrote in a report.

In the civil lawsuit against Decades, state District Judge Alan Malott rendered only one substantive ruling on the lawsuits allegations. In May 2016, he denied a Decades motion to dismiss Rosenstiels claim that Decades had been negligent in failing to diversify.

There are genuine issues of material fact in dispute as to whether or not Decades LLC exercised due care and appropriate prudence in not seeking the Courts permission to re-allocate Ms. Rosenstiels (New York Mercantile Exchange) stock until late 2007, Malott wrote.

Closed from public view

For part of the case, the two sides argued over whether the filings in the case should be sealed from public view. Under state law, guardian/conservator court proceedings are closed to the public and all records filed in the case are sealed.

Decades argued that records in Rosenstiels civil case should also be sealed, because her allegations referenced the guardianship matter. The company stated that it welcomed scrutiny but added, despite Defendants desire for public vindication in its 10 plus year battle with Plaintiff, it is still constrained to respect Annette Rosenstiels privacy.

After various filings were sealed initially, Malott in 2014 imposed confidentiality on all further filings related to the guardian/conservator case, adding, The Court further bemoans the ongoing level of vitriol which counsel feels is appropriate in furtherance of these proceedings.

Guardianship matters are shrouded in secrecy  even after the incapacitated person is dead  and Malotts initial sealing order was upheld by the Supreme Court after Rosenstiels lawyers appealed.

But when the Journal asked Malott to reconsider this summer, Malott on July 10 rescinded his order. He concluded that Leonie Rosenstiel, as personal representative, had the authority to waive confidentiality.

One month earlier, Malott ruled against Rosenstiel in finding there were no grounds to force his recusal on the case. Rosenstiels attorney David Garcia argued that the judge had an appearance of bias when he criticized news coverage of guardianship issues and defended the guardianship industry at an Albuquerque Lawyers Club panel earlier this year.

Malott, in that ruling, made it clear he didnt want lawyers talking about the case publicly.

The parties and counsel are reminded the appropriate place for the trial is in the Bernalillo County Courthouse, not the Court of Public Opinion, Malott wrote.

Until an Aug. 7 mediation, court records show both sides were continuing to spar. Decades also challenged the fact that one of its insurance companies had failed to defend the company in the case.

Decades was founded in 2001 and provides comprehensive elder care services in New Mexico, according to its website. The company has been appointed by judges in more than 70 guardian/conservator cases since 2004, state court records show.
DENVER  The number of drivers involved in fatal crashes in Colorado who tested positive for marijuana has more than doubled since 2013, federal and state data show.

A Denver Post analysis of the data and coroner reports provides the most comprehensive look yet into whether roads in the state have become more dangerous since the drugs legalization.

Increasingly potent levels of marijuana were found in positive-testing drivers who died in crashes in Front Range counties, according to coroner data since 2013 compiled by The Denver Post. Nearly a dozen in 2016 had levels five times the amount allowed by law, and one was at 22 times the limit. Levels were not as elevated in earlier years.

Last year, all of the drivers who survived and tested positive for marijuana use had the drug at levels that indicated use within a few hours of being tested, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation, which compiles information for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

The trends coincide with the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado that began with adult use in late 2012, followed by sales in 2014.

However, Colorado transportation and public safety officials say the rising number of pot-related traffic fatalities cannot be definitively linked to legalized marijuana.

Positive test results reflected in the NHTSA data do not indicate whether a driver was high at the time of the crash since traces of marijuana use from weeks earlier also can appear as a positive result.

But police, victims families and safety advocates say the numbers of drivers testing positive for marijuana use are rising too quickly to ignore and highlight the potential dangers of mixing pot with driving.

We went from zero to 100, and weve been chasing it ever since, Greenwood Village Police Chief John Jackson said of the states implementation of legalized marijuana. Nobody understands it and people are dying. Thats a huge public safety problem.

The 2013-16 period saw a 40 percent increase in the number of all drivers involved in fatal crashes in Colorado, from 627 to 880, according to the NHTSA data. Those who tested positive for alcohol in fatal crashes from 2013 to 2015  figures for 2016 were not available  grew 17 percent, from 129 to 151.

By contrast, the number of drivers who tested positive for marijuana use jumped 145 percent  from 47 in 2013 to 115 in 2016. During that time, the prevalence of testing drivers for marijuana use did not change appreciably, federal fatal-crash data show.

State law does not require coroners to test deceased drivers specifically for marijuana use in fatal wrecks.

Among The Posts other findings:

Marijuana is figuring into more fatal crashes overall. In 2013, drivers tested positive for the drug in about 10 percent of all fatal crashes. By 2016, it was 20 percent.

More drivers are testing positive for marijuana and nothing else. Of the drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2014 who tested positive for cannabinoids, more than 52 percent had no alcohol in their system. By 2016, it had grown to 69 percent.

In 2016, of the 115 drivers in fatal wrecks who tested positive for marijuana use, 71 were found with the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana in their blood, indicating use within hours, according to state data. Of those, 63 percent were over the states limit for driving.

We are discouraged by the rising numbers. We had awareness campaigns four months after legalization and thought we were getting out ahead of it, said Sam Cole, spokesman for the traffic safety division of the Colorado Department of Transportation, where the FARS data for the state is collected.

Pointing to a number of different studies, the industry counters that the data is imprecise and does not definitively link fatal crashes to marijuana use.

Taylor West, former deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said unlike alcohol, marijuana can remain detectable in the blood stream for days or weeks.

So all those numbers really tell us is that, since legal adult-use sales began, a larger number of people are consuming cannabis and then, at some point . (are) driving a car, West said.

___

Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
Today we made history! It is with heartfelt appreciation that I write this letter to the Billings community who helped turn the dream of a new Catholic school into reality. More than 900 individuals and businesses gave from their hearts to change the face of Catholic education in Billings.

Over a century ago, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth saw the need for a Catholic school in Billings. Today we honored their dedication by opening the doors of the new St. Francis Catholic School on Colton Boulevard with a ribbon cutting ceremony and blessing by Bishop Michael Warfel. The Knights of Columbus 4th Degree presented the flags as the entire audience of nearly 700 attendees, recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Tom Hanel spoke to the students about the importance of prayer in our lives, and the importance of opening each day with the Pledge of Allegiance.

The fundraising for this $17.75 million project was started five years ago by a group of leaders who were determined to succeed. Rita Turley chaired the 16-member fundraising team, Mike Heringer co-chaired, while Ziggy and Stella Ziegler served as honorary chairs. There were periods of discouragement over the years, but each time, the team persevered. We are blessed by the support of the Billings community and want to thank each and every one of you who made this happen.

Thank you, Billings.

Janyce Haider, president

Billings Catholic

Schools Foundation
If you're primed for a broadside about how dysfunctional Congress is, how bitter partisanship has produced paralysis, and how this has endangered our democracy, you might want to skip this.

Because even though we see evidence enough of the things mentioned above, we also see exceptions. And here's one that's important to Butte and to Montana.

Steve Daines is a Montana Republican and Gary Peters is a Michigan Democrat. But one thing the two have in common is their states' suffering with the twin scourges of methamphetamine and opioid abuse.

Sens. Daines and Peters have introduced a bill together. It's a little bill, in terms of both scope and dollars, but if passed, its impact will be felt right here. The bill would allow children to benefit from federal foster-care support payments -- while staying with a parent in a licensed residential family-based drug treatment facility.

This means that if a parent is fighting drug addiction, a family doesn't necessarily have to be torn apart. A child staying with a parent during treatment is a constant reminder to the parent of the importance of success. Conversely, a child taken away and placed in foster care may never return, and a parent may well feel motivation for an improved life is already gone.

Montana has a record 3,400 children in foster care, and about a third of those are there because of methamphetamine use by parents.

In addition, the bill reauthorizes a regional partnership grant program which facilitates collaboration between local organizations and state agencies to improve the well-being of children who are in foster care or at risk of going into foster care because of parental drug abuse.

"We must work to put an end to this tragic trajectory and the meth epidemic that is closely tied to Montana's child welfare crisis," Daines said.

When support from the bill comes from everyone from Attorney General Tim Fox to Mark Azure, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council to Kim Dudik, Democratic legislator from Missoula, and the directors of multiple treatment programs and facilities around the state, it's clear how much this law is needed. Quite simply, it's a doorway to better outcomes for children and parents.

Get it passed, Congress, and here's a hat-tip to Sen. Daines for his efforts.
A man is dead after he shot a state police officer who had just handcuffed him  striking the officer in the badge, according to authorities.

The officer was taken to a local hospital and released soon after, according to New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas. The officer, whose name has not been released, suffered bruising and facial injuries from badge shrapnel and will be placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice.

William Wilson, 26, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The state police officer along with a San Juan County sheriffs deputy opened fire after Wilson fired a shot, Kassetas said in a news conference broadcast online.

Wilson was a passenger in a truck stopped at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday by a San Juan County Sheriffs Office deputy. Officers were looking for the truck because they believed it had been involved in recent larcenies and burglaries.

The state police officer arrived soon after as backup. The officer had a discussion with Wilson, Kassetas said, before cuffing Wilsons hands in front of his body.

Ultimately very shortly after that took place, that suspect produced a weapon, a revolver we believe, and fired it at my state police officer attempting to kill him, he said. That round went into his badge and vest.

Kassetas, speaking at a 3:30 p.m. news conference in Aztec, said its not clear how many rounds the officer and deputy fired. Asked whether the suspect was patted down for weapons, he said the situation unfolded in a matter of moments.

In a perfect world, yeah, people should be patted down and checked for weapons, but things happen very quickly, he said. My officers and the deputies have seconds to make a decision.

San Juan County Sheriff Ken Christesen took the news conference as an opportunity to criticize the Supreme Courts bail reform effort and new rules that aim to keep poor people from lingering in jail on bond they cant afford while allowing judges the option of keeping the most threatening defendants in jail awaiting trial without bond.

He said the rules put people like Wilson back on the streets too quickly. He said Wilson had a lengthy criminal record and Kassetas pointed out that Wilson was wearing a GPS monitor at the time of the shooting.

Online court records show Wilson was released Aug. 2 from the San Juan County jail, after he was charged with burglarizing his uncles home in July 2017. According to court documents, he stole a dozen firearms and about $500 in change during the burglary.

Wilson was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond and one of the conditions of his release was GPS monitoring.

Prior to that arrest, William had been convicted of nine felonies, including arson, battery on a police officer, residential burglary and drug possession.

Our judges, our lawmakers, and all law enforcement and every citizen of the state needs to stand up and stop this nonsense of catch and release, Christiansen said.

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Hall & Wilcox has played a key role in getting Australias first Pride Centre off the ground.The national business law specialist firm has acted as the primary legal advisor to the newly created organisation that will build and then operate the Victorian Pride Centre. For its work, which was predominantly on a pro-bono basis, the firm has been recognised as a gold partner of the centre.The Victorian Pride Centre is going to be a fantastic and long overdue resource for Australias LGBTI community, and we are proud to have had a long-running involvement in the project since mid-2016, said James Morvell, Hall & Wilcox corporate and commercial partner.The centre, which will be built in Melbourne, is supported by a $15m grant from the Victorian government. Bigger than the famous San Francisco LGBTI Community Centre, it will showcase LGBTI art and history while bringing together advisory, health and support services for the community.As the centre is being planned, Hall & Wilcox become the temporary home of the Victorian Pride Centre, hosting all board meetings for the project.Helping with the project is a logical step for the firm, said Natasha Toholka, Hall & Wilcoxs diversity and inclusion committee chair.We strive to embrace diversity and inclusion as a firm because we believe diversity allows us to become more innovative, relate better to our clients, and also contribute in a more fulsome way to the broader community, she said. Last year, we adopted a new diversity and inclusion policy. When we heard about the Pride Centre it seemed like an opportune time to make an even more tangible impact for an important cause for diversity and inclusion. We felt we had the right team and skill set to contribute.
The UKs Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued a stern warning to professionals in the legal industry that they must keep digital communication  such as on social media or through emails  professional, lawful, and inoffensive.The SRA said that new profession-wide notice comes after a significant increase in the number of complaints concerning inappropriate communications, especially via emails and social media, both inside and outside of practice.The notice is relevant to registered European lawyers and registered foreign lawyers, it said. It also concerns anyone working in an SRA-regulated practice  whether they are managers, consultants, employees, or trainees  regardless of whether they are acting as lawyers or as unqualified persons.Recently, the regulator said it has dealt with complaints over comments on race, sexual orientation, and religion. It has also investigated sexually explicit comments and the use of derogatory language against women. Some complaints were over comments intended to harass or victimise, or shock or threaten, people. The regulator also investigated offensive or abusive comments to another firm about that firm or its clients, or individuals who are unrepresented.The SRA warned lawyers and other legal industry professionals that they must uphold the rule of law and the proper administration of justice, act with integrity, maintain the trust of the public, and run businesses or carry out roles in a way that encourages equality of opportunity and respect for diversity.Not only could lawyers and other professionals in the legal industry face disciplinary action, they may also face criminal charges, the SRA said.
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Canada Just Isnt the Same as the U.S.

by Mark Baker

When Congress returns from summer recess in early September, they will consider a vote on H.R. 2997, the 21st Century AIRR Act, which would remove air traffic control from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and turn it over to the airlines. Supporters of the bill often point to our neighbors to the north as a shining example of how ATC privatization is successful, and some in Canada, including our counterpart, are content with what they have. But with operations that are one-tenth the scale and complexity of the U.S.s airspace system, comparing ourselves to Canada is a moot point.

Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., an outspoken critic of ATC privatization, said comparing American and Canadian air traffic is like comparing an apple to a horseshoe; you cant compare the two. The congressman makes a valid point since Nav Canada deals with air traffic roughly equivalent to that of Houston and Dallas combined, far from the nearly 44,000 daily flights the United States ATC system handles.

The U.S. national airspace system works well and is the envy of the world. Why would we want to jeopardize that? Broken promises, staff shortages, a lack of access and a decline in general aviation is what the U.S. airspace system faces if we mirror our Canadian counterparts.

At Missouris annual Tarkio Fly-in, pilots spoke out against the negative consequences of a privatized ATC system. Ron Renz, a test pilot, aeronautical engineer and user of both systems, was unimpressed with what privatization has done in Canada. Renz said GA fees in Canada have gone up while traffic has gone down and virtually every small airport is suffering. He witnessed the decline of GA, saying, Privatization has killed GA in Canada.

Most countries that switched to a privatized system did not receive the intended benefits. According to a 2016 Delta Air Lines study, Canadian fliers faced a 59-percent increase in ATC fees on airline tickets and in the U.K., passengers saw a 30-percent jump following privatization. Additionally, the Delta study also found that since 1998, Canadian ATC has seen their revenue go up by around 21 percent while flight volume actually decreased by 16 percent. The U.S. Government Accountability Office also found that following privatization, many Canadian general aviation pilots in rural areas faced an increase in local fees because privatization there seemed like such a good idea that the nation privatized its airports too.

Following privatization, Canadian ATC has experienced staffing shortages that continue to affect access. In Canada, NOTAMs are issued periodically advising VFR traffic of delays, reroutes or declined clearance requests around the countrys busiest airports such as Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg during peak operations.

Temporary VFR bans arent that uncommon with the Nav Canada system. Just recently, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association spoke out about a ban on VFR flights at Vancouver International Airport restricting VFR arrivals, other than seaplanes and helicopters. The Vancouver NOTAM is a special concern because its long continuous duration is unprecedented, said COPA President and CEO Bernard Gervais. COPA has been in contact with Nav Canada about the NOTAM and weve been assured that measures are being taken to correct the situation.

Barry Powers, a pilot who frequently flies up North, said privatization has hurt GA in Canada because of the associated costs. Now, they want to charge you for everything, they send a bill and it discourages people. When discussing privatization in the United States, Powers said, That would be a terrible idea. It [ATC] works well here.

Handing over control of the skies to the airlines with unchecked power would be disastrous. Nearly every airline has filed for bankruptcy, and these are the ones that charge billions each year just so you can bring your luggage, the ones that want to reduce seat sizes even further, the ones that have an excruciatingly dismal customer service record, and the ones that cant even handle computer glitches. How are they supposed to handle our entire airspace system and national security?

In addition to the broken promises, lack of access and decline of GA traffic, switching to an airline-dominated privatized system would add almost $100 billion dollars to the deficit, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently announced. That money is better spent on updating our system with newer technology. We have a system that works for all users today, as proven by our safety record, and theres no need to mimic Canadas ATC model.

Mark Baker is president and CEO of the U.S.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

We Wouldnt Go Back to Government ATC in Canada

by Bernard Gervais

So whats it like to fly in a privatized Air Navigation Services (ANS) system? Not that bad actually. Probably just cheaper and simpler. ANS (or ATC) has been privatized in Canada for the last 20 years. I was not around and not even a pilot back then when it happened, but I quickly caught up on the history, from looking at our old clippings and reading through historical documents. At first COPA was against privatization, not knowing what the future held for our members and their GA aircraft. Understandably, because the ANS Act said, Nav Canadas charges in respect to recreational and private aircraft must not be unreasonable or undue. Thats not the most reassuring piece of legislation you can find during a transition period. That left the door open to any type of speculation and a little apprehension amongst the aviation community.

Now, we know. Close to 30 percent of our members dont even pay a single penny because their aircraft weigh less than 1360 lbs. The vast majority pay $66 per year and the heavier birds (more than 3000 kg or 6600 lbs.) pay a little more. All of this has continuously come down over the years. Its also not costing the taxpayers anything, based on the user-pay model.

We have also noticed in the long run that there has not been any degradation of services for GA. The governance model in place is comprised of a board with four out of 15 positions being airlines-appointed. There is also 20-member Advisory Committee reporting to the board. It represents a broad spectrum of organizations with an interest in the ANS, half of which are GA associations. I sit on that committee.

Whats the typical use of the system? Whether VFR or IFR, you call up the 1-800 number, get a detailed weather briefing and then decide about filing your flight plan with the person now or later or it can be done electronically through any software like ForeFlight or Flight Plan. Thats it. Take off and your flight plan gets activated by ATC or at the time you said you would take off. Land and your plan gets closed by ATC. No need to call FSS. You get a bill once a year. Doesnt cost anything to taxpayers.

There are certainly some things affecting GA, specifically VFR and IFR training flights. The system is not perfect. With a lot of retirement from the baby-boomer crowd, there are staffing issues around the five or six biggest airports in the country on sunny weekends or peak vacation periods, where service can temporarily be denied. These issues would be like trying to get into JFK or Atlanta VFR with your C-172 on a beautiful Saturday morning, or trying to shoot an approach at OHare during peak inbound traffic. There may be some delays or you may get turned away. Still, there is no reason why this should happen and the situation is being closely watched by the Advisory Committee and Nav Canadas board.

So things are working out pretty good. Would anyone go back to a government-run system? No. Not everything is perfect, but our members all like the services and the system. It is one of the safest in the world, the governance model is just and fair, the fees are low (free for many) and we get great service, without costing taxpayers anything. Nav Canada has also been able to be innovative and is at the forefront of technology, as the major shareholder of Aireon (space-based ADS-B). With anticipated profits, is free ANS for all in Canada in the future? Perhaps.

Bernard Gervais is president of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association.
AVwebs General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSBs web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the accident, although some take longer. Find out more about Aviation Safety at www.aviationsafetymagazine.com.

May 13, 2017, Muskogee, Okla.

Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee 140

The airplane sustained substantial damage during a forced landing at about 1500 Central time, following a partial loss of engine power during cruise flight. The private pilot was not injured; his passenger sustained minor injuries. Visual conditions prevailed.

The pilot reported that about 20 minutes into a local flight, the airplane experienced a partial loss of engine power at 3000 feet msl. The pilot applied corrective actions, but the engine continued to operate at only 500 rpm. He chose to make a forced landing on a highway, during which the left wing struck a road sign and the nose landing gear fork separated from the strut. The airplane came to rest in a nose-down attitude.

Examination revealed the fuel selector was positioned to draw fuel from the right fuel tank, which contained about 10 gallons of fuel. Neither the left wing tank nor the supply line located between the engine driven fuel pump and the carburetor contained fuel. When the electric fuel pump was activated with the fuel selector on the left tank, the pump cavitated and discharged minimal fuel. When switched to the right fuel tank, the pump cavitated for a few seconds before it established a typical fuel flow.

May 15, 2017, Teterboro, N.J.

Gates Learjet Model 35A

At 1529 Eastern time, the airplane departed controlled flight while circling to land, and impacted a commercial building and parking lot. The captain and first officer died; no one on the ground was injured. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire. Visual conditions prevailed.

At about 1515, the flight was cleared to descend to 3000 feet msl, and then cleared for the ILS Runway 6 approach at Teterboro, circle to land Runway 1. The flight was subsequently cleared to land on Runway 1 and issued winds of 320 degrees at 16 knots, gusting to 32. Radar data indicate the flight did not start its right circling turn until it was less than a mile from the approach end of Runway 6.

A tower controller observed the airplane bank hard to the right, with its wings almost perpendicular to the ground. The airplane then appeared to level out for just a second or two before the left wing dropped, showing the entire top of the airplane. Other witnesses described seeing the airplanes wings wobbling before the left wing dropped and the airplane descended to the ground. The accident site was about nm from the Runway 1 threshold.

May 15, 2017, Dowling, Mich.

Mooney M20E Super 21

The airplane was substantially damaged at about 1330 Eastern time when it impacted trees, a fence and a telephone pole, while landing at a private grass airstrip. The solo private pilot was not injured. Visual conditions prevailed.

According to the pilot, the airspeed indicator was not indicating as high as it normally does during flight. While on final approach for landing, the pilot decreased his airspeed to 70 mph, but the airplane would not settle to the runway so he went around. During the second attempt to land, the pilot decreased his airspeed to 60 mph and forced the airplane to land. The airplane porpoised and continued off of the runway, hitting trees, a fence and a telephone pole.

May 15, 2017, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Mitsubishi MU-2B-40

At 1339 Eastern time, radar and voice communication were lost over international waters near Eleuthera, Bahamas. Debris associated with the airplane was found floating amidst a fuel sheen the following day. The airplane was en route from Puerto Rico to Titusville, Fla., at FL240. Instrument conditions prevailed; the flight was operating IFR.

According to FAA records, the airplane was a recent purchase, registered on January 23, 2017. It had been flown along the same route several times during the four months the pilot operated the airplane. After maintaining the same relative heading, airspeed and altitude for about 2.5 hours, the airplanes radar target went into coast status and there were no further communications with the airplane. The commercial pilot reported 1480 total hours of flight experience as of December 2016. Satellite imagery in the area depicted a consistent cloud layer with cloud tops around 40,000 feet. Upper air soundings confirmed icing conditions between -10 and -20 degrees C in clouds.

May 15, 2017, Firebaugh, Calif.

Lancair Evolution Experimental

The airplane was substantially damaged at about 1630 Pacific time during a forced landing. The private pilot and one rear seat passenger did not sustain any injuries. A front seat passenger and two rear seat passengers received minor injuries. Visual conditions prevailed; the aircraft was operated IFR.

While in cruise at FL250, the windshield exploded without any warning. The airplane instantly lost cabin pressure and the pilots headset departed the airplane. The pilot donned his oxygen mask and initiated a steep descent. After identifying the nearest suitable airport, the pilot followed the magenta line to the airport. On final approach, the left main landing gear did not show a down indication. The pilot recycled the landing gear to no avail and decided to land with the landing gear retracted. The airplane made contact with the runway at a high speed but then overran the runway, impacted a fence and traversed a road before it came to rest in a field.

May 22, 2017, Noatak, Alaska

Cessna U206F Stationaire

The airplane was destroyed when a fire broke out while taxiing after landing at a remote unimproved site. The commercial pilot and single passenger were not injured. Visual conditions prevailed for the Part 135 on-demand air taxi flight.

The pilot later reported taxiing to the end of the landing site and turning around while raising the airplanes flaps. He began to feel heat on his face and noticed flames in the aft cabin near the cargo door. Both the pilot and passenger immediately exited the airplane. The majority of the fuselage and right wing were consumed by fire.

May 24, 2017, Augusta, Ga.

Beechcraft Model 58 Baron

At about 0100 Eastern time, the airplane was substantially damaged during a gear-up landing. The commercial pilot was not injured. Instrument conditions prevailed for the Part 135 on-demand air taxi flight; the flight operated IFR.

The pilot later stated he departed on a personal flight at 0715. Later in the day, he accepted the accident flight with an expected departure time of 1630, but takeoff was delayed until 2000. The pilot stated that while on approach, he did not extend the landing gear at the final approach fix, which was standard procedure, and he failed to confirm a safe landing gear indication before landing. He reported that he was fatigued, and his attempts to contact the fixed base operator during approach distracted him. The pilot reported 14,000 total hours of flight experience, of which 6000 hours were in the accident airplane make and model.

May 27, 2017, Haines, Alaska

Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche

The airplane collided with the ground shortly after a low-level pass over a remote airstrip during a landing attempt. The commercial pilot and a pilot-rated passenger were fatally injured. The rear-seat passenger sustained serious injuries. Visual conditions prevailed.

The rear-seat passenger later reported the pilot intentionally shut down the right engine to demonstrate how to restart it. Despite several attempts, however, the engine would not rotate enough to start on battery power alone. The pilot then made several attempts to restart the engine by gaining altitude and diving the airplane to use airflow to assist in rotating the engine. After two unsuccessful attempts to air-start the engine, the pilot diverted to a remote gravel airstrip. Witnesses observed the accident airplane at tree top level at the end of the airstrip. It descended just before banking right and impacting the shoreline. The landing gear was found extended, the wing flaps were up. The right propeller was feathered; the left one was under power at impact.

This article originally appeared in the August 2017 issue of Aviation Safety magazine.

For more great content like this, subscribe to Aviation Safety!
Indian tech workers  for decades a backbone of the U.S. IT sector, and a big presence in U.S. university STEM programs  are facing a reckoning in the U.S. and at home, and are having to up their skills to adapt.

President Trump's proposals to curb immigration favor high-skilled, high-paying jobs, and target Indian IT outsourcing companies like Wipro and Infosys, which rely on H-1B visas to bring workers to the U.S.

The rise of automation and machine learning technologies will reduce some IT jobs, leading to layoffs.

Countries like Vietnam and the Philippines are quickly developing tech workforces that compete with India for outsourcing.

An increasing need for in-house tech collaboration is leading some U.S. and European firms to turn from outsourcing to local talent.

Why it matters: These shifts are a cloud hanging over one of the most vibrant sectors of the Indian economy: Indian IT  coding, creating and testing software, entering data, customer service  creates $150 billion in annual revenue and employs nearly 4 million people. The tech and political trends challenge all of this.

Depending how far they go, the trends are also a potential threat to Silicon Valley startups and IT companies that have formed a symbiotic relationship with Indian know-how and labor.

Automation has already had a huge impact on the nature of offshoring, says Gartner analyst Helen Huntley. Companies are increasingly hiring local rather than using offshore firms, in part so they can work with clients in real time instead of dealing with a 12-hour time difference.

As a result, Indian workers like workers across the globe will need to learn new skills.
President Trump will head to Texas on Tuesday, per Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. This morning, Trump tweeted that he will travel to Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption" to the ongoing rescue efforts in the affected areas.

The details of the president's trip are yet unknown. Sanders said the White House is coordinating with Texas officials.
26 August 2017 11:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Uztrade JSC under Uzbek Foreign Trade Ministry established a Trading House in Delhi in order to increase the volume of export deliveries and strengthen its position on the Indian market, according to the information published on the website of Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

Within the framework of Trade House operation, a permanent exhibition-sale is being created in the form of a show room, where consumer and food products of Uzbek producers will be presented.

In general, following the visit of Uztrade JSC to India, contracts were signed for the supply of legumes, licorice root, textile and other products from Uzbekistan for a preliminary sum of $30 million. The deliveries are planned from September.

The parties agreed to constantly increase the volume of trade on mutually beneficial bases.

A business forum between the delegations of Uzbekistan and India with the assistance of the India-CIS Chamber of Commerce was held in Delhi on August 22.

One of the main issues on the agenda of the talks was the discussion of strengthening trade and economic cooperation as well as increasing and improving the system of mutual deliveries of products.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
27 August 2017 11:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Raw materials still share the dominant part of Irans non-oil export basket, the latest report of Iran Custom Administration, which covers a period from March 20 to July 21, indicates.

Gas condensates, propane, butane and some other raw petroleum products - which Iran puts in the non-oil exports basket- made the countrys top exported goods during the 4-month period.

It is also notable that the exports from the petrochemical, and industry, the two key sectors in the economy show a decline of 3.7 and 17.7 percent in value during this period compared with the similar period a year earlier whilst the mining sector and traditional commodities (carpets and traditional craft) show increases in the value of 36.7 and 6.6 percent.

"Should the industry and petrochemical products do not recover a positive growth rate in their export earnings, then the trend could suggest a return to the export of unprocessed material and traditional products in the economy," Mehrdad Emadi, a consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy, told Trend commenting on the issue.

"This re-focus on the export of semiprocessed goods directly counters the objectives of the current governments economic policy toward the creation of a more diverse and globally competitive economy as well as it is incongruent with the objectives set out in the brief that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei provided the road map for improving the resilience of the economy against future shocks and restrictions," Emadi said.

However, it is early to consider the data as part of a trend and it could well be a short-term dynamics that will prove to be part of the structural adjustment as well as regional change in the direction of Iranian exports, he added.

Emadi further said that at the same time, the dynamics of export data are not encouraging for Iran's manufacturing sector.

"It may be worth mentioning that even with the decline in the value of exports, data on the metal-based semi-processed exports suggest a robust increase which is encouraging for the firms in this sector."

The expert also underlined that the unit cost of export shows a rise in earning of 2.3 percent whilst the metric for imports show a rise of 9 percent.

"Terms of trade in Iranian foreign trade show deterioration. One explanation may be that the country imports higher quality products which have a higher value. But the objective should be achieving a sharper rise in the unit value, indicating that the country is exporting products with higher added-value," Emadi explained.

The expert also touched upon the issue of Iran's negative trade balance during the last four months, which has raised certain concerns in the country.

While responding to the question of whether the Iranian policy-makers should be worried about the trade deficit, Emadi said that "from a policy-makers point of view my cautious answer is, not yet."

"Repressed demand for foreign, especially Western goods was always going to show its effects and translate into more purchase of such goods. Also the adjustment period from an economy under sanctions and controlled by oligarchs in its foreign trade to a more dynamic and competitive economy was never going to be easy or quick," he said.

But the metrics available on trade and investment point to the right direction, Emadi said, adding that Iran is importing more capital goods.

He further said that there are more joint venture agreements each quarter most of which actually have export clauses which require enhanced competitive to facilitate exporting more from Iranian plants. 

The key infrastructure projects in Iran are almost all tailored to facilitate trade with outside world at lower cost and more efficiently especially to facilitate exports, according to Emadi.

"And there has emerged an acceptance inside the policy-circle, be it not yet widely supported, that the path toward sustainable growth and rapid catch up goes through redirecting the economy toward becoming a major exporter in selected industries," he said underling that the path is neither straight nor easy as it was not easy for India, Vietnam, China, Republic of Korea, Mexico and Brazil.

Emadi noted that domestic opponents and those outside the country who wish to see Iran as a weak country hollowed out by cheap imports, suffering from sluggish production, chronic unemployment and falling real wages, have been quite vocal and active in their opposition.

"Yet, I am hopeful that increased awareness of the value and role of good economic governance shall overcome the obstacles," he said.

A prosperous economy in Iran could act as an engine of growth for the region as well as benefiting the advanced industrial economies of the world to expand their trade links in the region, he said, underlining that "this has the potential for being a win-win outcome."
Nicotine Reduction In Cigarettes May Curb Addiction: Study Wellness oi-Staff

Reducing nicotine content in cigarettes may decrease their addiction potential in vulnerable populations, a study suggests.

Researchers at University of Vermont in the US examined the addiction potential of cigarettes with reduced nicotine content in two vulnerable populations of smokers - individuals with psychiatric disorders and socioeconomically disadvantaged women.

"Evidence in relatively healthy and socially stable smokers indicates that reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes reduces their addictiveness," said Stephen Higgins, Professor at University of Vermont in the US.

"Whether that same effect would be seen in populations highly vulnerable to tobacco addiction was unknown," Higgins added.

The team studied 169 daily smokers, including 120 women and 49 men. A total of 56 of the participants were diagnosed with affective disorders, 60 with opioid dependence, and 53 were socioeconomically disadvantaged women.

Each study participant completed 14 two to four hour sessions, abstaining from smoking for six to eight hours before each of the sessions, which were organised in three phases.

Phase 1 included sampling of the research cigarettes in double-blind conditions, beginning with the smoking of the participant's regular brand cigarette and then smoking one research cigarette of identical appearance, but varying doses of nicotine in sessions two to five.

A Cigarette Purchase Task (CPR) was completed after each smoking session to measure the effects of cost on the participant's rate of smoking. Additional questionnaires assessed research cigarette evaluation, nicotine withdrawal, smoking urges, and nicotine dependence.

Phase 2 sessions asked participants to select which cigarette they preferred to smoke among six different dose combinations and used a computer programme, which recorded which of the two cigarettes participants preferred for that session and whether they wanted to continue to smoke after two puffs or abstain.

The final phase 3 followed the same protocol, but measured only the highest and lowest doses of nicotine.

While participants tended to prefer the higher nicotine dose content research cigarettes, the team found that the low-nicotine dose cigarettes could serve as economic substitutes for higher-dose commercial-level nicotine cigarettes when the cost of the latter was greater.

"This study provides a very encouraging indication that reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes would help vulnerable populations," Higgins said. The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

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Story first published: Friday, August 25, 2017, 20:49 [IST]
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/08/2017 (1905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tundra Oil and Gas confirmed the existence of an oil spill at a private property near Waskada earlier this month, but the companys chief executive officer said Friday they could not estimate how much crude oil spilled out of their steel pipe.

Ken Neufeld said staff is trying to determine that.

Everyone seems to be a little reluctant to hazard a guess, he said. It was not a lot within the water, so were a little challenged to know exactly how much.

According to a provincial spokesperson, the flowline spill was reported in Waskada Creek on Aug. 14. The spill entered the creek in stationary water.

All contaminated fluids and soils along the creek and creek bed were removed, the province said, and the operator will shape the creek bed to its original appearance.

Efforts to clean up the spill are ongoing and nearly complete, the spokesperson added.

Tundra acquired the pipeline in 2014 from another business and has since taken steps to ensure the lines integrity, Neufeld explained.

They have taken kilometres of the line out of operation and in other cases have run fibre glass or plastic liners through the pipe.

In 2015, the oil and gas company did an in-line integrity test, which showed everything in working order. An oil pressure test this March indicated the line was capable of handling significantly more pressure than its everyday requirements.

Were scratching our head as much as anything right now, Neufeld said. Thats why weve sent this 40-metre section of pipe away to labs, to get it analyzed, and get re-tested with tools and see what sort of correlations and conclusions we can draw.

The line has not been used since the spill occurred, he said.

Neufeld added they will test the wells to examine the level of production and determine how big the spill was.

In terms of the volume loss, he said, its not showing in our well tests as there being a significant change.

The spill was noticed on the evening of Aug. 14 through aerial surveillance Tundra conducts daily.

Neufeld said its concerning to come across a spill, which he believes the company works hard to prevent.

Do events occur? Of course they do, and its unfortunate, he said. We invest a lot in early leak detection in some areas, but the technology only goes so far, and it only applies to what we call single-phased fluids; in other words this was oil, water and gas, and the technology isnt really there for leak detection on these sorts of projects.

A mixture of oil, gas and water was transported through the pipe in question, the product that emerges from wells before it is treated.

On an average day, 126 cubic metres of fluid are transported through the pipeline, Neufeld said. He also explained that a total of 42 wells use the pipeline to transfer crude oil to production facilities.

Since the spill was noticed this month, regulatory bodies has done numerous tests such as sampling water and assessing local wildlife and aquatic populations, Neufeld said. All contaminated soil has been removed from the site and is being stockpiled for treatment.

Tundra Oil and Gas informed the landowner, regulator, Municipality of Brenda-Waskada and the provinces sustainable development department about the spill after it was realized, Neufeld said.

Its always a difficulty when something doesnt work the way it should. Not to draw a parallel, but you know, we try to make our roads safer, and we have accidents. We try to make them safer and do things to constantly do that, I think our industry is no different.

Municipal CAO Diane Woodworth said the spill occurred a mile and a half east of Waskada. She said the creek is often dry in the summer.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com, with files from Matt Goerzen

 Twitter: @ianfroese
Most working Australians are too scared to ask for more flexible hours to juggle family caring responsibilities because they are worried about job security, a national survey has found.

Owen Wareham, was nervous about asking to reduce his hours in a marketing job after his daughter Harriet was born nine months ago. But his Sydney employer has been very supportive in allowing him to reduce his hours from five to four days a week at its Brisbane office.

Owen Wareham and his daughter, nine-month-old Harriet. Credit:Cole Bennetts

The arrangement allows him to care for Harriet one day a week and his wife cares for her two days, with the remaining two days spent in childcare.

Mr Wareham plans to eventually return to five days a week when Harriet is older.
A federal police anti-bribery taskforce is examining if ASX-listed firm Iluka Resources has breached Australian corruption laws after acquiring a London firm accused of bribing high-ranking Sierra Leone officials to win mining licences.

The AFP's involvement in the case  which Iluka has not disclosed to the share market  comes after Fairfax Media revealed earlier this month that a secret internal inquiry by the Australian miner had embroiled a leading Sierra Leone presidential candidate, a cabinet minister and high-ranking officials in a bribery scandal.

The revelations place Australia's corporate foreign bribery detection regime under the spotlight, along with questions about how much companies need to tell shareholders about corruption allegations.

The latter topic has become contentious this week after the Commonwealth Bank was accused of failing to notify shareholders in a timely fashion about a longstanding investigation by anti-money laundering agency AUSTRAC. Steel maker Bluescope also disclosed recently that it is the subject of a cartel investigation.
One of Mark Zuckerberg's top lieutenants was in Sydney this week, as Facebook launched a charm offensive on the Australian media industry.

Adam Mosseri, a ten-year veteran of the social media behemoth and the man in charge of one of its most critical features, the news feed, was in town, offering olive branches to Australia's top publishers, including executives from Fairfax Media and News Corp.

Facebook is not the most popular entity on the planet among publishers, who - despite benefiting from its massive reach - also are being hurt by the network's growing dominance of the digital advertising market, alongside Google.

The good news for the local media industry was that Mosseri came bearing gifts: Facebook is testing new tools designed to weed out fake news and clickbait and to help publishers grow their audiences, and in theory even their revenues, including through subscriptions.
The key to Qantas being able to better its 2017's "second-highest ever' result this year is in some respects out of its hands.

This statement will probably see its chief executive, Alan Joyce, roll his eyes with frustration - given he has just finished what is probably Australia's largest ever corporate overhaul to transform the airline from a loss-making and deeply troubled business to one that is now booming by most financial measures.

But the vast majority of that hard work is now done. Over three years the company has eviscerated its cost base, improved service, resurrected the balance sheet - just as a start.

Qantas has taken plenty of risks, in particular with establishing Jetstar in Asia. And it's about to take another - but back to that later.
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 []
The world's richest man, Bill Gates, and fellow billionaire Richard Branson have joined other business giants investing in a nascent technology to make meat from self-producing animal cells.

The Silicon Valley start-up they back hopes to tap rising consumer demand for protein that's less reliant on feed, land and water.

Richard Branson, who has said he avoids beef because of the damage livestock does to the Amazonian rain forests, reckons one day all meat will "either be clean or plant-based".

Memphis Meats produces beef, chicken and duck directly from animal cells in the lab, without raising and slaughtering livestock or poultry. The company has just raised $US17 million ($21.5 million) from investors including Gates, Branson and Cargill, one of the world's largest agricultural companies, according to a statement this week on the San Francisco-based start-up's website.

"I'm thrilled to have invested in Memphis Meats," Virgin Group boss Branson said in an email in response to questions from Bloomberg News.
Labor is opposing the governments full 10-year tax cut for businesses with turnover of more than $2 million, which Mr Shorten describes as a "$65 billion tax giveaway".

Bill Shorten said while Labor backed the tax cut for businesses with turnover below $2 million, the tax cut for bigger businesses was misdirected. Credit:AAP

"The best contribution I can make for small business is to enable small business to pursue their own opportunities. We do it by a mindset of co-operation," Mr Shorten told the Vodafone National Small Business Summit on Friday.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor will co-operate with small businesses but will still push ahead with its plan to limit the company tax cut and tax trusts at a flat rate of 30 per cent .

"When you have gross national debt rocketing past a trillion dollars taking $65 billion out of the Australian budget without replacement revenue or an offset cut to expenditure is reckless," he said.

"If you take $65 billion out of the national budget over the next 10 years and you don't replace that money with new revenue or the equivalent amount of budget cuts. What it means is that not only will we have less to do more with but we will also have to service the increased national debt."

Mr Shorten said while Labor backed the tax cut for businesses with turnover of under $2 million, the tax cut for bigger businesses was misdirected, with $7 billion of the $65 billion reduction set to go to the big four banks.

"When we talk about this being a reduction, the big banks do not need a corporate tax reduction," he said.

"Another big chunk of the corporate tax reduction which the government is pushing through will go to multinationals headquartered overseas. Up to 60 cents in every dollar of the reduction will go overseas.
He says there are pros and cons to building a business from Bali. Adam McAsey, the founder of 8 Degree Projects which operates hospitality venues in Bali, says he loves island life. "It's challenging in terms of language barriers and how fast things happen," he says. "Cultural differences also, we have 230 staff at the moment across a range of cultures and faiths and that's something to juggle when you are dealing with ceremony days and things like that. We don't have to pay penalty rates in Bali but all our staff are full-time, we don't have the luxury of hiring casuals and part timers. You have to carry them for the high and low season." Mr McAsey operates 8 Degree Projects as a foreign-owned company in Bali and says he loves island life. Sam Stevenson, co-founder of Pared Eyewear: 'I had to manage everything which was challenging from the beginning.'

"The lifestyle is fantastic but we are so busy that we tend to work full-time," he says. "Predominantly it is head down, arse up there because we scaled so fast." Mr McAsey has big plans for his hospitality business beyond Bali. Sam Stevenson and Ed Baker enjoy the Bali lifestyle. We laugh about that because we had to go and sign the top tier department stores in the US before we could get a contract with a department store in Australia. Ed Baker "We have just opened up Bikini and now we have another block of land to focus three concepts on. We are licensing those and taking on different discussions about licensing on franchising to Jakarta, [Melbourne], Singapore and Hong Kong," he says.

The first step in 8 Degrees' expansion outside Bali has already been taken with Mr McAsey announcing Sisterfields will open in Jakarta in early November in PIK Avenue mall. The husband and wife entrepreneurs export their sunglasses to the world and this year inked a deal with David Jones in Australia. "We have created every brand and every concept so it is packaged up and can go that way," he says. "People picture you are doing business over in Bali and you are living on this tropical island, it's amazing and OK, we are doing very well, but it's a lot of hard work. It's not as easy or as cheap as people think." Sunglass empire One business that has already achieved its global ambitions from its Bali base is Pared Eyewear, founded by husband and wife team Ed Baker and Sam Stevenson.

The sunglasses company turns over $1 million a year and 70 per cent of its business now comes from the United States where Pared is stocked in Modus Operandi, Nordstrom and Neiman-Marcus. "Initially we moved here just to keep our cost of living down," Mr Baker says. "Paying rent in Sydney and living on my salary while starting a business was pretty hard. I had some contacts in Bali for freelance work here for different brands so I could move here and keep working for other companies and then Sam could work from Bali and focus on the business." The pair say the benefits of being Bali-based have gone beyond the cheaper cost of living. "We see it as a great Asia hub, it's very close to Singapore and all areas of China where we do the majority of our manufacturing," Mr Baker says. "We expanded and set up an office in Brisbane where we have a team of three and we travel a lot between Brisbane and Bali. We have our digital team in Bali and there are a number of entrepreneurs based here and there are Aussie groups here which are good for networking." Mr Baker says for a growing business sometimes it can be hard not being based in a major city.

"Often it's nicer to meet people face to face and sometimes we feel we miss out on a lot of events that would help us to grow the brand," he says. The pair met when they were both working for Australian label Ksubi  "it was an office romance", says Ms Stevenson. They decided to go out on their own and with support from family, friends and "a few minority investors" Pared was launched with $50,000. Now Pared is stocked around the world in countries including New Zealand, Canada and Japan and employs staff in Australia, the United States and Indonesia. This year Pared inked a deal with David Jones in Australia.
Both results were notable for the strong gains from the companies' generation businesses as wholesale prices spiked after the Hazelwood power station closure. Senator Nick Xenophon says Australia will be scarred. Credit:Andrew Meares Mr Frydenberg told the summit making it easier for businesses and consumers to shop around between energy retailers would help lower prices. "What we have done as the federal government is we have called in the retailers and we have demanded they do more with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in terms of providing information that will enable businesses to move their retailers or to move contracts," he said. "Businesses can save more than $1000 a year simply by moving retailers."

Despite the upward financial pressure, Mr Frydenberg was optimistic the federal government could reduce energy prices. You cannot be fair dinkum about energy prices in this country unless you have a commitment to a clean energy target. Bill Shorten "There are some positive signs coming through in the form of prices and supply over time," he said. Shorten: 'energy prices out of control' Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said more needed to be done.

"Energy prices are out of control for families and for businesses and they will continue to go up and up and up until we have energy policy certainty in this country which has to include, I submit to you, a clean energy target," he told the summit on Friday. Shorten said clean energy is key with "tens of thousands" of small business owners already embracing rooftop solar as a way of exerting some control over their bills. "The number of rooftop solar is going to grow as installation costs and operation costs drop further," he says. "I think though that the biggest impediment to the transition to more reliable cheaper energy is not the technology, not the consumers, not with business  to be blunt the problem is with politics." Shorten said all sides of politics needed to take some responsibility for this. "Policy uncertainty is driving rising prices," he said.

"There is a vacuum of policy certainty which discourages investors, generators and job creators from investing. That's why I've made clear the Labor party is prepared to put aside its preferred option, our choice is an emissions intensity scheme to reform the electricity generation industry, we will put that to one side if the government says it will come to a clean energy target. We are happy to compromise provided the clean energy target is fair dinkum." Shorten said the sooner the government can get on with policy the sooner it will unlock investment and with investment comes energy certainty and with energy certainty comes downward pressure on prices. "You cannot be fair dinkum about energy prices in this country unless you have a commitment to a clean energy target," he said. Xenophon: "It will scar us as a nation" Senator Nick Xenophon echoed Shorten's concern over a policy vacuum.
The NSW Department of Education has sacked the teacher who taught the wrong maths course to HSC students from the beginning of the year.

The casual maths teacher had been working in a temporary position at Coonamble High School in NSW's north-west since term one.

However, parents at the school said that other people who were involved also "need to take responsibility".

"It comes down to who his supervisors were and how that works up the chain of command," Lee O'Connor, whose daughter was taught the wrong course, said.
London: An Australian comedian has been named joint winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, a first for the city's Fringe festival in its 70-year history.

Hannah Gadsby's show Nanette was declared joint winner of the Best Comedy Award with that of British stand-up John Robins' The Darkness of Robins.

Edinburgh winner: Australian Hannah Gadsby Credit:JIM LEE PHOTO

It's been a record-breaking year for Gadsby. She's won the Best Comedy Performer at the Helpmann Awards, the Barry Award for Best Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the award for Best Comedy at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Gadsby announced at the Helpmann Awards in July that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival would be one of her last outings as a stand-up before she retires to Tasmania.


MA, 115 minutes



Based on the true story of Barry Seal, a former airline pilot who in the early 1980s became the surreptitious link between CIA arms shipments to Central America and Colombian cocaine shipments back to the United States, American Made has a buoyant, thrilling energy. Like Barry, a risk-taker who would back himself against long and risky odds, this freewheeling drama gets caught up in the moment. The difference is that the film knows how to play the aftermath.

American Made is written as a deft black comedy by Gary Spinelli and it cosies up to America's righteous faith in itself. Barry's unfulfilled by a repetitive day job air-hopping travellers and he can't resist when a CIA recruiter, Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), presents him with a very fast plane and a job snapping reconnaissance photos and delivering supplies to guerilla camps in Nicaragua and Honduras. One test flight with an open throttle and Barry is sold.

"We're building nations down there," declares Schafer, which actually involves destroying Nicaragua's fledgling Marxist regime, and the contradictions are just part of wayward energy marshalled by director Doug Liman. Soon, Barry is also dropping off bribes in Panama, before being summoned to Colombia, where the growing Medellin cartel needs better delivery options. A fee of $US2000 a kilo delivered makes sense to Barry, especially when the cargo size is in the hundreds of kilos.
Forty is the optimal age for women to start having regular mammograms to reduce the number of breast cancer deaths, according to a US study.

Researchers in New York compared the commonly recommended mammograms schemes used in the US to estimate the most effective at reducing breast cancer mortality.

These included annual screening from when women turn 40; annual screening between the ages of 45 and 54, then every second year from 55 to 79; or every second year from 50 to 74.

According to the computer modelling, the first scheme reduced breast cancer deaths by an estimated 40 per cent, compared with 23 per cent and 31 per cent for the other schemes.
The number of new HIV cases in NSW has plummeted to a record low, suggesting the state is on track to virtually eliminate HIV transmissions by 2020.

There were 101 HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men in the first half of this year  the lowest recorded in NSW since HIV emerged in the 1980s.

"We've seen new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men falling steadily for 12 months now despite an increase in HIV testing and we're confident this means HIV transmission is dropping," said NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant.

"This is a great achievement [and] we're a step closer to achieving our goal of virtually eliminating HIV in NSW by 2020."
Elyse Taylor has had a stellar modelling career since she was discovered 12 years ago. Now 30 and living in New York with her three-year-old daughter Lila, she's been the face of Estee Lauder and a Victoria's Secret Angel, walked the runway for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and DKNY, and graced the cover of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

We caught up with her during a recent trip to Australia in her role as the face of cosmetics brand Nude by Nature.

Moncler knit, $1400. Teva Hurricane sandals, $130. Credit:Trevor King

What attracted you to Nude by Nature?

I wear so much make-up for work and I want to balance that with products that are good for my skin. Nude by Nature has no synthetic ingredients and is also cruelty-free.
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 []
The Horlicks was in an overhead kitchen cupboard  one of those four-door jobbies that's undivided out the back  so when my blind hand reached in, it pushed some tea bags to one side, which pushed a can of peaches, which nudged a pack of muesli, which pressed a wine glass against a cupboard door, opening it. Out onto the sink leaped the wine glass  snapping the stem in two. I stood there blinking in disbelief. How, while being so reasonable, could I end up with such a disastrous result? It was all connected. Even the particular glass  a wedding gift from Sparkles, my first boyfriend ever. I picked up the two pieces and considered if they could somehow be fused back together. Who was I kidding? The glass was ruined. We were ruined. It had been a beautiful thing, but now it was ruined. I threw the pieces to the ground where they smashed to smithereens. Hmm. That felt good.

In the kitchen was a whole drawer dedicated to broken crockery  shards of love waiting for Araldite. Not any more. The first thing I saw was a birthday present from him, a willow-patterned Burleigh Ware cup that had lost its handle. It fitted so neatly into my hand. I pitched it into the floor where it created a most satisfying shatter. I pulled the drawer out and one by one methodically smashed the lot. Even now I can feel the shiver of pleasure that rose from deep within my guts. Anything chipped, cracked, ugly or his. Smash. Smash. Smash. An adorable Carlton Ware milk jug we bought on our honeymoon, now cracked, like us. Smash. A Wedgwood breakfast teacup, a tender something from my matron of honour, its pretty Picardy pink flowers chipped from washing it in the sink with other cups. Smash. By the time I'd cleaned out all the cupboards I was exhausted, and piled back into bed for the best sleep I'd had in months. Je ne regrette rien.

The next day was sunny and soundless as though a strong wind had blown all the noise away. I padded into the kitchen. You should have seen how much bone china was smashed on the kitchen floor. There were even shards in the bathroom. It took all morning to clean up and, with a deep spiritual calm, I stepped onto the landing holding a garbage bag full of remnants and into my neighbour, who seemed to be waiting for me.' "So, how are things?" he asked with unusual tenderness. "Good," I said. "Really good." "You're getting along all right by yourself in there?" "Yeah. No. Good. I think I'm doing all right."

"Okay. Well, take it easy then." What was I thinking? I lived in a block of flats and I'd broken every plate, mug and cup in the apartment at four in the morning. My life had completely stalled. And through the emptiness of this moment floated the word "America". It was as far away from Australia and my current life as I could imagine. I had wanted to run away from home when I was little, only my childish brain couldn't work out how to convince my mother (the love of my life) to come with me. America was where we would have gone, the land of sitcoms with happy endings and weekly comedy shows. It was Disneyland, the Muppets, and sandwiches made with that most mysterious combination  peanut butter and jelly. Growing up in Australia, everything seemed to focus outward. I could recite the American Declaration of Independence by heart. I loved Lucy. I knew the excitement of prom night and Halloween even though they weren't celebrated in my country.

As the youngest of five kids, my world was about long fights and short showers. I never saw that on TV. All I saw there was America  the real world. If I could just get there, everything would be all right. Like the memory of an old friend, that idea washed through me  run away to America. We had been trying to conceive using IVF, which had proved as fruitless as my other ventures. I worked in a production company developing television shows for executives who didn't buy them. I was in my mid-30s and I wanted more. There are some things you can do which strike a chord with everyone. Buying a flash American tank of a car and driving across the US is one. The only person who couldn't see the romantic majesty of this gesture was my mother, Joy. "Darling, if you insist on letting this problem devolve into full-blown crisis, can't you at least do it closer to home where I can keep an eye on you?" Mum and I are good friends. I love her but, more importantly, I like her. She's courageous and generous. She used to be in marketing and can put a positive spin on almost anything  but running away from your problems isn't one of them.

"This mad peregrination  you simply haven't thought it through. Where will you go? What will you use for money? Scotch may be the same in every language, but a woman can't live on whisky alone. The way I saw it, my husband had left and I was taking his cue to do the same. If Mum wanted to convince me of the folly of my plan to run away and drive across America, she'd need to helicopter in the cavalry. She went one better and called Sue. Sue came to Sydney from Wales as a "Ten Pound Pom". She was younger than Mum, but not young enough to be her daughter. I was younger than Sue, but also not young enough to be her child. "So what's this about going to America and killing yourself in a car?" Sue asked over Mum's signature pea and lettuce soup.

"Well, the plans are pretty ad hoc," I told her. It was an exaggeration  there were no plans. "There's family in LA, so I'll stay with them. I've got a school friend outside of New York  she'll put me up for a few days in Connecticut. Then I might visit Michele from the kids' show. She's studying philosophy in London. Qantas is doing this great deal where you get two cities in America and a free trip to Europe." "See," said Mum, "that's not a plan. It's barely an itinerary." Sue: "Where does the car come in?" "I'll drive from LA to New York. Americans love cars. I bet I can buy a good one for under five grand." "Five thousand dollars," said Mum. "Where are you going to get that?" "I could sell the car at the end."

"The world doesn't work like that." Mum was getting agitated, because Sue seemed to be crunching numbers on an envelope and not contributing. "You can't swan off to the Grand Canyon and then  what? Drive to New York? That's thousands of miles of deserts, and  I don't even know what's in the middle of America. What if you break down? What'll you do then?" "Meet people?" "What sort of people?" she continued.

"What if you break down in Washington or New Orleans or the Alamo? Who will you meet there?" "Harry Connick jnr? He's from New Orleans, isn't he?" Mum looked to her friend for support. "Sue!" she said. "Say something." "F--- it, I'm in." We both looked at Sue in surprise. You what? In choosing her friend to be the weapon of choice in this fight, Mum had forgotten one small thing  Sue can't say no to adventure. It doesn't matter how small. If you want a cohort in calamity, say skinny-dipping or a midnight picnic, Sue's the one you call. "Sorry, Joy," she said, apologising for the swearing, not changing camps, "we're too old to be frightened and too young to die." She turned to me. "I'll lend you the five grand.

I think I squealed. I certainly hugged her. "I'm going to America!" "And I'll give you half if you let me drive back with you." "You're going too?" Mum's voice rose like nails on a blackboard. "What about the restaurant?" "I love the restaurant, but do I own it or does it own me? If Sheridan can pick me up in New York, I'll drive back with her." Mum was waving her soup ladle in an attempt to stir up some counterargument. Droplets of pea soup and flecks of lettuce were splattering everywhere. She seemed to have run out of ideas.
ACT Policing was ripped off in an online drug deal by an anonymous cybercriminal during a covert operation.

The operation, in late 2015, involved police contacting a suspected dealer via the internet and striking an agreement to buy drugs.

Anonymous hacker

Police paid the cash and received a package, but the substance inside did not contain illegal drugs.

ACT Policing declined to provide additional information  including the amount of money paid - when questioned about the failed operation, saying the Crimes Act forbid further disclosure.
It is understood about 400 asylum seekers and their children are living in Australia at present after medical transfers from offshore processing and all of these people could be hit with the new visa conditions.

While children and families are not expected to be included in the first batch of asylum seekers subject to the new visa conditions, human rights advocates and workers contracted to provide services to those seeking refugee status fear they could be next.

"The sensible and compassionate thing to do would be to let them stay. Instead, Dutton is trying to starve them out."

"[Immigration Minister Peter] Dutton knows full well he is making people destitute. It's a cruel attempt to force them to return to danger. We're talking about people who have been part of our communities for years.

"This is one of the most extreme decisions the department has made in a long time," said a source who has worked for years in welfare for asylum seekers. "Depending on how this first lot goes down the families could be next. These people are the guinea pigs. It really is playing with people's lives."

If the government were to impose the "final departure" visa condition on family groups it would put at risk the living conditions of dozens of asylum seeker children born in Australia, including the 37 babies whose photographs were published by Fairfax Media in February last year.

The new visa will provide work rights to asylum seekers to allow them to apply for jobs. But their chances of obtaining employment will be extremely low because their visa conditions until now have forbidden any paid work or access to training programs.

Those aged above 18 and subject to the new visa will not be allowed to study in Australia. This could mean asylum seeker children who have been in school may be forced to quit once they turn 18. Those under 18 will be allowed to stay in school.

"School-aged children will continue to have access to education while you are on a bridging visa living in the community. Please remind your children that they will also be required to abide by Australian values and laws. Breaking Australian laws may result in their removal from the community," the Immigration department 's letter states.
New details about the family network that surrounded missing toddler William Tyrrell have been revealed as police stress his foster carers played no part in his disappearance.

Three-year-old William vanished from his foster grandmother's backyard on the NSW mid north coast in 2014.

The disappearance of the toddler in a quiet cul-de-sac in the sleepy town of Kendall sparked an intense and ongoing homicide investigation.

Police now believe William, who was dressed in a Spiderman suit at the time, was abducted while playing outside his grandmother's home.
In the wake of Prince Frederik's embarrassing knock-back at Jade Buddha, and the long list of overseas celebrities headed for our Commonwealth Games, it's time to bring all our international and interstate visitors up to speed with how things are done in Queensland.

1. Unless you have a security detail, you're not allowed to have a beer in a public place. For that reason, it's best to binge, in private. There's one exception, of course, and that's if you happen to be carrying an up-to-date passport, showing who you are, when and where you were born, the colour of your eyes, your height and where you reside. All in all, it's best to use a drive-through, where you don't need a licence, ID, or even to get out of your car.

Don't even think of going to Jade Buddha without an ID.

2. You might also want to stock up on food, before you arrive in Bris Vegas. Strict new trading hours means that in more than 20 regions across the state it is illegal for big supermarkets to open on Sundays. That means you cannot go grocery shopping on that day, so be prepared. It is only a short term prohibition, however; it will be looked at again in five years.

3. We have a flu epidemic now, but keep that under your hat because authorities certainly are. Up to 150 children were away in one school in Brisbane last week, but you won't read that anywhere. In fact, the government says no public schools were hit badly enough that warranted a shut-down. The same goes for Catholic schools. And independent schools don't have a central data base to collate that information. Oh, and we don't keep figures or details of any nursing homes or aged care homes that have gone into lock-down either. You'll need to check those details with someone in another state, if you come to Queensland, because it is not a state responsibility.
A Brisbane bus driver has been seriously assaulted by a teenage passenger, police say.

The boy, who boarded the bus with a female in the suburb of Mount Gravatt East about 6pm Saturday, became involved in an argument with the male driver.

Police said the bus driver was assaulted by a teenager. Credit:Wendy Hughes

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Police said headbutted the driver, causing a serious facial injury, then tried to assault the man further before fleeing on foot with his companion.
Brisbanes International Airport is going to be recreated, entirely from Lego bricks, by the airports new artist-in-residence, Ben Craig.

Mr Craig, also known as Ben the Brick Builder, takes colourful Lego bricks very seriously and did not let failing a high school art assignment or having his teacher tell him Lego was not art deter him.

He has since gone on to create many Lego creations, including using more than 20,000 Lego bricks to create a two-metre-high model of Londons St Pancras station and clock tower.

He will now take his Lego art to the Brisbane Airport and will create two large-scale works  a two-metre model showing a day in the life of Brisbane Airports International Terminal and a one-metre detailed aviation model.
A Queensland community legal centre will continue to examine the lawfulness of Adani's Carmichael mega mine after the Federal Court dismissed two bids to stop it from going ahead.

Appeals lodged by the Australian Conservation Foundation and traditional land owner Adrian Burragubba were on Friday dismissed by the Federal Court of Australia.

Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owner Adrian Burragubba's appeal was dismissed on Friday. Credit:Jorge Branco

However, Environmental Defenders Office Queensland chief executive Jo Bragg said it could appeal over the ruling in the High Court of Australia.

Ms Bragg could not confirm if that was the final legal option open to opponents of the Indian mining giant's $22 million project but said: "We're still very much examining all aspects of the project and its lawfulness."
Glitter fluttered through the wintry air on Saturday afternoon as more than 20,000 Melburnians took to the city streets to rally for same-sex marriage ahead of a postal vote on the issue.

A sea of protesters, many draped in rainbow flags and clutching colourful balloons, gathered outside the State Library for what organisers said was Australia's largest marriage equality rally.

The event was organised by Equal Love, an organisation that has been campaigning for marriage equality for 13 years.

"It's incredible ... there is an endless sea of people," the group's convenor Ali Hogg told the crowd, which stretched down Swanston Street.
Fresh from signing a new deal with international tech giant Microsoft, IT storage firm Canberra Data Centres has begun construction of a second massive Fyshwick facility.

Already providing data services to more than 40 federal government agencies and the ACT government, the firm broke ground on a new 20 megawatt building as part of plans to secure a bigger share of public service demand for computing and cloud services.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Microsoft's James Kavanagh and Canberra Data Centres boss Greg Boorer.

Launched by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, the firm said the project took its investment in Canberra to more than $500 million in 10 years.

Costing $150 million, the new project will create 100 jobs during construction.
Bill Shorten has slammed Turnbull government plans to end income support for up to 100 Australian-based asylum seekers and give them just three weeks to find a home, describing the decision as the Prime Minister's "weakest move yet".

The Greens have also criticised the move, vowing to try and use parliament to stop the change.

But a spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said on Sunday every illegal maritime arrival transferred to Australia for temporary medical assistance was aware that once their medical needs were met they would return to Nauru or Manus.

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge also defended the government, declaring the asylum seekers won't receive any further taxpayer support and will have to return to Nauru, Manus Island or their own country.
A majority of Catholics, Christians and other religious groups support same-sex marriage and are inclined to vote for it in the forthcoming postal survey, according to new polling commissioned by advocates.

The "yes" side starts the campaign with the backing of 66 per cent of all Australians, with support among the non-religious at 79 per cent, compared with 58 per cent among people of faith, the research shows.

Catholics and non-Christian religions were more likely to support same-sex marriage, with two thirds of both those groups indicating they were in favour. For Anglicans, Uniting Church and Church of England, the figure was 59 per cent.

Marriage equality advocates will use the findings to encourage Australia's 5 million Catholics to ignore directives from the church's leadership and instead vote with their conscience.
A computer algorithm has replaced humans to assess the security risk of asylum seekers, criminals and visa overstayers in Australian immigration detention centres.

The new Security Risk Assessment Tool, designed to assess "individuals who are considered to pose an unacceptable risk to the community", was quietly rolled out in September.

The assessment system is in place at Melbourne's high-security Maribyrnong immigration detention centre. Credit:Shannon Morris

A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the SRAT was guided by the detainee's behaviour both during and prior to detention, any signs of violent or aggressive behaviour and their known associations.

"It also considers a each detainee's individual circumstances including age and health," she said.
The international medical company contracted to look after refugees on Manus Island has no idea who will replace it in just two months when Australia withdraws entirely from the island.

International Health and Medical Services (IHMS), which runs a round-the-clock clinic at Australia's regional processing centre (RPC) and a smaller service in Lorengau, will depart Papua New Guinea on October 31 when its contract ends.

Refugees on Manus Island currently have medical services provided by an international contractor to Australia. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The RPC is due to close completely by that date, but about 700 refugees are still awaiting promised resettlement in the US, and the future for 250 asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected also remains uncertain.

Fairfax Media understands senior staff at IHMS are concerned that they have not been told who will take over the provision of medical services for the refugees and asylum seekers, and no handover process has commenced.
On Tuesday, Victoria's Yarra City Council unanimously voted to stop celebrating Australia Day as a council. Moreover, they have decided not to even refer to January 26 as Australia Day until 'a more appropriate term is adopted nationally'  one that reflects Indigenous dispossession.

The government responded swiftly, with the Prime Minister condemning the decision in parliament and Assistant Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke stripping the council of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies because it had used them for a political statement.

Yarra mayor Amanda Stone. The council unanimously voted to stop celebrating Australia Day. Credit:Paul Jeffers

They are not the first council to make moves in this direction, and won't be the last. The crux of the opposition to Australia Day is that it is a day of mourning for Indigenous Australians. Hence the name of the broader social movement opposed to Australia Day: Change the Date.

It is worth noting there are no other viable days for a national celebration: federation happened on January 1, but that's already a public holiday and - as it celebrates the political union between the colonies - it has the same problems as Australia Day. Anzac Day too is already a public holiday and not without its own controversy. The Eureka stockade was built and manned by miners, whose compatriots led decades of racist opposition to Chinese immigrants.
Several shops in Brisbane's south-west have reportedly been destroyed after a blaze tore through a shopping centre on Saturday morning.

Regional duty officer for Brisbane Inspector Rob Graham said the burnt remains of the Civic Centre has been declared a crime scene.

Medical Centre owner Dr Michael Ho got off a plane at 8am this morning to receive messages of the bad news. Credit:Ruth McCosker

Fire fighters were called to Civic Centre on the corner of Wirraway Parade and Corsair Avenue about 1.30am following reports of a commercial structure fire.

"There's 10 businesses that have been well and truly damaged or destroyed, potentially this whole block might have to get locked down, those assessments will occur over the next few days," Inspector Graham said.
The English officer and soldier who decided the site of Brisbane would be opposite what we today call South Bank Parklands had previously fought against French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at the epic Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

It was at this battle that Napoleon was finally defeated in Belgium by an alliance of British, Dutch and German forces under the control of the Duke of Wellington.

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, whose army fought against Lieutenant Henry Miller, the man who decided the site of Brisbane.

Napoleon, one of history's great generals, had been smuggled back from exile from the Mediterranean island of Elba in 1815 to push back the British and Prussian troops.

Napoleon and his troops had crossed from France into Belgium, where they came across resting British, Dutch and German troops.
As Samsung launches its new consumer-focused Galaxy Note8 in New York, the company is in conversation with Australian aviation about updating any remaining warnings about its previous Note7 phones, which were recalled after battery issues caused several cases of phones overheating and catching fire.

Samsung collaborated closely with aviation organisations in late-2016, and early this year, regarding safety messages and participation in the Note7 recall program. In most cases, references to Note7 have been removed across Australia and in markets around the world, the company said.

The new Note8, revealed overnight at an event in New York, will sell for $1499 when it goes on sale on September 22 in Australia, $250 more than last year's Note7.

The South Korean multinational is also ramping up its marketing spend  although it won't disclose how much it is spending  to reach a broader consumer audience and giving its loyal users, some of which were refusing to give up their Note7s even as the products were being recalled, freebies.
A solid five months after Samsung announced it, the Bixby voice assistant is finally available in Australia.

Bixby, sans voice capabilities, launched in Australia alongside the Samsung Galaxy S8, which has a dedicated side button to access its features. In Korea, where Bixby launched completely alongside the phone, a short press brings up the Bixby Home screen with calendar reminders, social media and AI-predicted recommendation cards, and a long press enables a Google Assistant-esque voice assistant.

Bixby can understand your voice and perform tasks with multiple steps, but is it really smart? Credit:Samsung

That voice assistant has been unavailable in English-language regions since launch, but the US got it a month ago, and Australia's turn is today. Australian phones  those with IMEIs sold in Australia  will have the update to Bixby progressively rolled out, and the contextual voice activation will be its centrepiece.

Now, if you press the Bixby voice button or swipe across your home screen to Bixby, you'll be given prompts to update. From then, you'll be able to long-press the S8's Bixby side button or say "Hi, Bixby" to activate it. Samsung also has a guide to Bixby's basic features to get you started.
Seoul: North Korea fired several short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast early on Saturday, South Korea and the US military said, as the two allies conducted annual joint military drills that the North denounces as preparation for war.

The US military's Pacific Command said it had detected three short-range ballistic missiles, all of which failed with one of them blowing up almost immediately after launch.

The three missile launches appear to have either failed in flight or exploded almost immediately, the US military said on Friday, adding they had posed no threat to North America or Guam.

"The first and third missiles at 11.49 am and 12.19 pm failed in flight. The second missile launch at 12.07 pm appears to have blown up almost immediately," Pacific Command said, using times at its Hawaii-based headquarters.
Bangkok: The top law office in the Philippines has claimed the execution of a high school student that sparked a public outcry across the country was an "isolated case" and "collateral damage" was inevitable in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre made the comments at a Senate inquiry which heard forensic evidence that 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos was slumped on the ground when three bullets were fired into his head in Caloocan City, in Manila last week.

Police had claimed the killing was done in self-defence.
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has declared "terrorism" has arrived in her country's western Rakhine State, as fighting escalates between Islamic militants and security forces, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.

"I strongly condemn today's brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State," said Ms Suu Kyi, who has been widely criticised for failing to condemn atrocities by Myanmar's army in the state that is home to more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims.

A border patrol guard at a police post in Kyee Kan Pyin, Buthidaung, in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Credit:AP

At least 89 people, including a dozen security forces, have been killed since about 150 insurgents, some carrying guns and home-made explosives, attacked 30 police posts on Friday.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which also calls itself Harakah al-Yaqin, claimed responsibility for the attacks that have stoked fears Islamic militants have opened up a new battlefront in Asia.
London: Holidaymakers in Britain had to be evacuated from a stretch of coastline after a chemical "haze" left many with streaming eyes, sore throats and vomiting.

Emergency services warned people along the east Sussex coast to keep doors and windows closed on Sunday after 50 people were affected along the shoreline from Eastbourne to Birling Gap, near Beachy Head.

Emergency vehicles at the scene near Eastbourne, UK. Credit:@Kyle_Crickmore

Coastguard rescue teams from Birling Gap, Eastbourne, Bexhill and Newhaven raced to help clear the busy beaches as visitors feared they had been struck by a chlorine leak.

Kyle Crickmore, who had been enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend sunshine at the beach at Birling Gap with his family, tweeted: "Some sort of chemical incident at Birling Gap, eyes are streaming and there's a strong smell of chlorine in the air".
Rome: An earthquake hit the tourist-packed holiday island of Ischia on Monday night, killing two people, injuring dozens and trapping three young brothers who survived for up to 16 hours before being rescued.

Tourists and residents on the island off the coast of Naples ran out onto the narrow streets after the quake wrecked a church and several buildings. Fearing aftershocks, many decided to leave the island early.

Rescuers found a baby boy called Pasquale in the wreckage and pulled him out alive in his nappy early on Tuesday, seven hours after the shock. There was a hush followed by loud applause.

Fire crews found his brothers Mattia and Ciro, aged seven and 11, stuck under a bed nearby. They kept talking to them and fed water to them through a tube.
Corpus Christi: Texans from the Louisiana border to the Hill Country in the middle of the state awoke to dire warnings of a major natural disaster on Saturday as Hurricane Harvey charged inland, with weather officials downgrading it to a tropical storm but cautioning that the danger was far from over.

Images of downed trees, collapsed buildings and darkened streets began trickling in early in the day, after the storm roared ashore at 10pm Central time on Friday with 180kmh winds - the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Wilma in 2005. But residents of a broad swath of Southeast Texas braced for further damage as weather officials warned of tornadoes, torrential downpours and potentially days of flooding, including in Houston, the nation's fourth largest city.

As of 7am Central time, the centre of the storm was sitting just 35km to the west of the coastal town of Victoria. The slow moving storm was still packing winds of 150kmh, but had weakened into a tropical storm later in the day.

The National Hurricane Centre is warning that though the storm is losing wind speed, its most lethal effects are still yet to come, as its cyclonic action draws moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and dumps it over the next several days, triggering "catastrophic" flooding over a quarter of the massive state.
Both major airports in Houston have been closed amid severe flooding blamed on Tropical Storm Harvey.

A Houston Airport System statement at midday on Sunday said George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport are closed to commercial flights until further notice.

Officials say roads in and out of both airports are shut down because of flooding.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall late on Friday night along the Texas coast about 370km southwest of Houston, but it wasn't until late Saturday night that what became Tropical Storm Harvey began bringing torrential rains causing flooding to the Houston area.

The airport system's website says Bush Intercontinental Airport is 37km north of downtown Houston and provides service via 29 passenger airlines.
"There's an oversaturation of everybody going for the joke. It makes it more important in a way to centre on the joke that we can always defend."

Speaking of other satirists, Shure says they've been keeping an eye on Australia's Betoota Advocate: "That one's been really fun to keep up with."

Shure, who joined The Onion as a copy editor "and never left", says that the key to good satire is that it should have a kernel of truth. "Also, its targeting has to be correct. So often we sit and analyse our jokes from all angles and with many people present so that it's commentary that punches up rather than down. It's not a defensible comment if it's targeting victims of violence and discrimination."

The Onion's collaborative process begins with a potential headline, supplied without any additional information. Each day at their offices in Chicago, Shure, some 13 writers and other staff consider some 100 headlines, based on the news cycles. The site will then publish about 12 original articles a day. Each headline is read aloud: if it gets voted in, a writer will then write the accompanying text.

Yet you can forget about images of Onion writers rolling around the aisles crying in laughter. "It is funny how often people visit our writers' room during a headline meeting when we create our content and are surprised by the fact that there is so little laughter sometimes, especially when we are trying to comment on actual news events," Shure says. "Very often we won't laugh or smile. We're kind of a bunch of stone-faced people and are very serious when we listen to the jokes."
Seoul: North Korea used a multiple-rocket launcher off its east coast on Saturday to fire three short-range missiles that could strike US military bases deep in South Korea, officials in Seoul said.

The launches were the North's first rocket tests since two intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, were fired last month. By resuming the tests, North Korea defied repeated urgings from the United States and South Korea to stop weapons trials and other provocations to pave the way for dialogue.

The US Pacific Command said that one of the three ballistic missiles had blown up immediately after blast-off, but that two others had travelled about 250km before splashing down.

That would be far enough to reach major South Korean and American military bases, including those near the city of Pyeongtaek, about 100km south of Seoul. The range would also be sufficient to reach Seongju, a South Korean town where the United States has begun installing an advanced missile-defense system known as THAAD.
Coping with Cancer After a Natural Disaster: Frequently Asked Questions for People With Cancer and Their Caregivers

Living through natural disasters like major weather events, hurricanes, or wildfires can be stressful, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The usual evacuation procedures and shelter locations, as well as their availability in your community, county, or state, will likely be different during the pandemic.

People in areas affected by natural disasters who need guidance from the American Cancer Society should call our National Cancer Information Center at 1-800-227-2345.

If you (or a loved one) have cancer and have had to evacuate your home or treatment center, or if your treatment plan has been changed due to a recent natural disaster, you may have trouble getting the cancer care you need. It's also important to remember that state, county, and local rules related to COVID-19 vary. The following questions and answers can help you figure out what you need to do and how to take care of yourself.

Cancer treatment

Q. What do I need to do first?

A: If youre in a temporary shelter, remember rules about social distancing and face coverings might be different from what you're used to at home. If possible, call shelters ahead of time to know what rules are in place. It's a good idea to find out if there are health care professionals on site.

If there are health care professionals on site, meet with them right away. Let them know that you have been getting cancer treatment and that you need to be put in contact with a doctor or hospital as soon as possible. If you will need a ride to get there, be sure to let them know this, too.

If there are no health care professionals at the temporary shelter or housing, ask the shelter director, landlord, or person youre staying with to help put you in touch with a local hospital, or call the American Cancer Society and we will help you. Our number is 1-800-227-2345. If 1-800 numbers arent working, look up the local American Cancer Society office number.

Q. What should I do if I have an emergency?

A: Get treatment at the nearest emergency room, especially if you have:

A fever

Shaking chills or sweats (often goes along with fever)

Redness, swelling, drainage, tenderness, or warmth at the site of an injury, surgical wound, or central venous catheter, or anywhere on the skin including the genital and rectal areas

A new pain or one thats getting worse

Sinus pain or headache

A stiff neck

A sore throat

Shortness of breath or cough

Burning or pain when you pass urine or bloody or cloudy urine

Many shelters have nursing staff who can help get you to an emergency room. Once youre at the emergency room, make sure you tell them about your cancer and if you dont have a new doctor yet, ask them for help finding one.

Q. What can I do to keep getting my cancer treatment?

A: If you are still in the area where your cancer doctor or treatment facility is located but have stopped treatment because of power outage, loss of transportation, damage to your home, or damage to the doctors office or treatment center, contact your doctor as soon as you can and find out what you need to do to continue treatment. If you cant get in touch with your cancer doctor, try your treatment center, local emergency room, or your regular family doctor if you have one.

If you had to leave the area where you were getting treatment, you need to find a new cancer doctor and treatment center as soon as you can. Ask for help from the shelter staff, Red Cross, Salvation Army, or local health department. If all else fails, go to a local hospital information desk and ask for help.

Q. What about my cancer medicines?

A: If you have your medicines with you and know how to take them, keep taking them on schedule. If you need medicine, are almost out of medicine, or are unsure how to take it, youll need to talk to a disaster-relief nurse or ask someone at the shelter for help getting in touch with a pharmacist or doctor, or you can contact your health insurance company.

Q. What if I dont know what kind of cancer treatment I was getting or what medicine I was taking?

A: If theres any way you can contact your doctor or treatment center, call and get your medical records sent to you or to a local cancer doctor as soon as possible. This helps the new doctor know how to go on with your treatment right away and get you any medicines you need.

Sometimes there are other ways to get details about your treatment. If you have health insurance and coverage for your cancer treatment, your insurance company will have records on what services youve had. You can ask that they share this information with you and/or the new doctor.

Q. What if I cant get my medical records or get in touch with my doctor?

A: Write down anything you can remember about your treatment so that youll have this information to share with the new doctor. Include things like:

Type of cancer and stage of cancer if you know it

Type of treatment like chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery

Date of your last treatment

Name of your doctor and treatment center

Any medicine youre taking (cancer medicines and other medicines, including over-the-counter drugs). If you dont know names, describe it by color; size; shape; shot, pill or in a bag; how often you take it; etc.

Other illnesses or health problems you have

Q. What if Im taking pain medicine or medicine for depression?

A: If you stop taking some pain medicines or depression medicines all at once, it can cause problems. When you contact your doctor, a new doctor, or a pharmacy about getting your cancer medicines, be sure to ask about your pain and/or depression medicines, too. Be ready to tell them if you are still taking them, have cut down on how much youre taking, or have run out of pain and/or depression medicine. If you have run out, tell them how long you have been without the medicines. Its also a good idea to tell the nurse at the shelter, a shelter worker, or a family member or friend that you take these medicines  just in case you do have problems.

Q. What about other medicines?

A: There are some medicines that you can do without for a few days, but stopping others can cause trouble. Suddenly stopping certain sleeping medicines or anxiety medicines can cause the opposite (rebound) effect for a few days. Medicines to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, seizures, and low thyroid levels are designed to help you manage a long-term problem, so if the drugs are stopped, the problem can get out of control. Talk to the nurse or shelter worker about these medicines too.

Q. When will I be able to go back to my doctor and treatment center?

A: If you plan to go back to your previous doctor or treatment center, let the new doctor know that, when possible, you want to go home for treatment. As cancer treatment centers reopen, your new doctor can let you know about the openings that affect you. Make sure to ask for a copy of any current medical records to take back to your old treatment center. Also, contact your health insurance company to make sure proper steps are taken to get coverage for the treatments you need.

Living conditions and hygiene

You need to be very careful to protect yourself from illness and infections. Some kinds of cancer and cancer treatments can weaken your immune system and make it very easy for you to get infections. These questions cover some of the things you can do to be safe in a shelter or short-term housing.

Q. Should I get immunizations or vaccines if they are offered?

A: If youre in an area where safe water and food may be a problem or you could be injured due to the natural disaster, you may be asked to get shots for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, the flu, pneumococcus, and tetanus. While these vaccines are safe and may be needed, make sure the person giving the shots knows you have cancer and when you last had treatment. If you can, talk to your doctor or a local doctor before you get any shots.

Its very important that you do not let anyone give you a live vaccine unless a cancer doctor who knows your medical history says its OK. Vaccines like the flu nasal spray, varicella zoster (for chickenpox or shingles), measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), and smallpox have live virus in them. (Please note, the flu shot is OK, only the nasal spray has live virus in it.) Sometimes the live viruses can cause serious problems for people with weak immune systems. Also, try to avoid close contact with people who have gotten live virus vaccines.

Q. What can I do to protect myself from infection and germs?

A: Do these things to protect yourself:

Wash your hands with soap and water as often as possible. Keep washing for at least 20 seconds or as long as it takes you to sing Happy Birthday from beginning to end, twice.

If you cant get soap and water, ask for alcohol hand sanitizers (that are at least 60% alcohol) and be sure to follow the directions on the product.

Avoid touching surfaces that are frequently touched, like handrails, as much as possible. If you have to touch these surfaces, wash your hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer immediately after.

Protect yourself from germs by wearing a mask or face covering when recommended or mandated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, practise social distancing. Stay at least 6 feet from other people who are not part of your household.

If theres no safe water or you dont know if the water is safe, drink only bottled water or boil water for one full minute. Allow it to cool before drinking.

Some foods might have germs that may be harmful to you. Make sure all meats are thoroughly cooked and all fruits and vegetables are thoroughly washed in safe water. Dont eat cooked foods that have been left at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Be sure to ask your doctor if there are foods you should avoid until you can get into permanent housing.

Keep any cuts or wounds clean and covered with bandages UNLESS your doctor tells you otherwise. If you have a triple antibiotic ointment or cream, use it daily if it is OK with your doctor.

Bathe or shower as often as you can and use clean towels if possible.

Dont share toothbrushes or unwashed eating utensils or cups with others.

Q. Should I ask to be separated from others in the shelter or home? Should I ask to go to a special needs shelter?

A: Some shelters may have separate areas for people with special medical needs. And in some cases, special needs shelters are available. Whether a special needs shelter would be better for you depends in part on where you are in your treatment plan. If youve just gotten chemo and have very low white blood cell counts, your risk for infections may be higher in a crowded public shelter. Still, your options may be limited. Try to talk with your doctor or an on-site health care provider about your medical situation to see what else might be available and whether another location might be safer for you.

You may find more medical care is available in special needs shelters, but dont worry if you cant get into one  just make sure to take good care of yourself and follow any instructions the doctor gives you. Try to keep your body clean and stay away from people who have fevers, coughs, or any other signs of illness.

Other information to help you through this time

Q. What should I do if I have private health insurance?

A: Be sure to contact your health insurance company as soon as you can, and let them know where you are staying. Ask if there are cancer doctors and hospitals nearby in your plan, or if you can go outside your network area. Because of the disaster, your insurance company may offer special services to help evacuees.

Be sure to take proof of health insurance with you to any medical appointments. If youve lost or dont have your insurance cards, ask your insurance company to mail you information at a local address or through the new doctors office.

Q. What should I do if I have Medicare, Medicaid, or children on the state Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP)?

A: Contact the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the national organization that oversees these programs to see if they have special plans to help disaster evacuees.

The number is 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048.

Q. How can the Red Cross or FEMA help me?

A: The American Red Cross provides shelter, food, and emotional support for those affected by natural disasters. Contact the Red Cross at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767).

If your losses occurred in a region that was declared a disaster area, you may qualify for federal relief funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Go to www.disasterassistance.gov/, call 1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362), or TTY users can dial 1-800-462-7585 to find out whether you are eligible.

We have a lot more information that you might find helpful. Explore www.cancer.org or call our National Cancer Information Center toll-free number, 1-800-227-2345. Were here to help you any time, day or night.
'The flock have made up their mind': Most Australian Christians back gay marriage ahead of national vote

Most Australian Christians, including Catholics  alongside other religious groups  are expected to back gay marriage in the nation's upcoming referendum, according to a new survey.

Among those of faith, 58 per cent support the 'yes' campaign, supporting the legalisation of gay marriage in Australia  where it currently is not legal.

Catholics were the most supportive for the proposal, with as many as two-thirds saying they would vote 'yes'  matching the proportion of non-Christian religious voters who said the same.

Among the Anglican and Uniting Church denominations, 59 per cent backed a 'yes' vote. Among all Australians, 66 per cent of the 1,000 polled supported gay marriage, while non-religious voters showed the most support at 79 per cent.

The survey was completed by the Jim Reed of Newgate Research, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia's non-binding postal-plebiscite will seek the will of the people on the question of gay marriage beginning September 12 and concluding November 7.

'The upper management of the church isn't listening to the flock,' said Tiernan Brady, the executive director of the Equality Campaign, who commissioned the poll.

'The flock have made up their mind on this, they support marriage equality.'

Last week saw several Christian leaders speaking out ahead of the national vote, with some Catholics warning of a threat to religious freedom.

Hillsong's Brian Houston warned of 'wide-ranging ramifications' for changing the definition of marriage, but urged all Australians to vote whatever their conscience might say on the issue.

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, said that its 180,000 employees such as teachers and nurses would be fired if they had same-sex marriages.

'I would be very emphatic that our schools, our parishes exist to teach a Catholic view of marriage,' Hart told Fairfax Media. 'Any words or actions which work contrary to that would be viewed very seriously.

'Our teachers, our parish employees are expected totally to uphold the Catholic faith and what we believe about marriage. People have to see in words and in example that our teaching of marriage is underlined.'
Nat Miller and Jim Bennett didnt have much time to chat. It was about 8:45 on a sunny Sunday morning in early May, and they were loading their gear onto two boatsa 20-foot skiff with a 115-horsepower outboard, and an 18-foot sharpie with a 50-horse outboardat Lazy Point, on the southern edge of Napeague Bay, on the South Fork of Long Island. We are working against the wind and the tide, Miller said as he shook my hand.

The men had already caught a fluke the size of a doormat and were eager for more. Miller and Bennett are Bonackers, a name for a small group of families who were among eastern Long Islands earliest Anglo settlers. The Bonackers are some of Americas most storied fishermen. Theyve been profiled several times, most vividly by Peter Matthiessen in his 1986 book Mens Lives. Millers roots in the area go back 13 generations, Bennetts 14. That morning, Miller and Bennett and five fellow fishermen were heading east to tend their pound traps, an ancient method of fishing in shallow water that uses staked enclosures to capture fish as they migrate along the shore. Miller and Bennett were likely to catch scup, bass, porgies, and other species.

If Governor Andrew Cuomo gets his way, though, they and other commercial fishermen on the South Fork may need to look for a new line of work. An avid promoter of renewable energy, Cuomo hopes to install some 2,400 megawatts of wind turbines off New Yorks coast, covering several hundred square miles of ocean; a bunch of those turbines will go smack on top of some of the best fisheries on the Eastern Seaboard. One of the projects, led by a Manhattan-based firm, Deepwater Wind, could require plowing the bottom of Napeague Bay to make way for a high-voltage undersea cable connecting the proposed 90-megawatt South Fork wind project to the grid. The proposed 50-mile cable would come ashore near the Devon Yacht Club, a few miles west of the beach on which we were standing. I have 11 traps, and all of them run parallel to where that cable is proposed to be run, Miller says. My grandfather had traps here, he adds before shoving his skiff into the water. I want no part of this at all.

The mounting opposition to the development of offshore wind in Long Islands waters is the latest example of the growing conflict between renewable-energy promoters and rural residents. Cuomo and climate-change activists love the idea of wind energy, but theyre not the ones having 500-, 600-, or even 700-foot-high wind turbines built in their neighborhoods or on top of their prime fishing spots. The backlash against Big Wind is evident in the numbers: since 2015, about 160 government entities, from Maine to California, have rejected or restricted wind projects. One recent example: on May 2, voters in three Michigan counties went to the polls to vote on wind-related ballot initiatives. Big Wind lost on every initiative.

Few states demonstrate the backlash better than New York. On May 10, the town of Clayton, in northern New Yorks Jefferson County, passed an amendment to its zoning ordinance that bans all commercial wind projects. On Lake Ontario, a 200-megawatt project called Lighthouse Wind, headed by Charlottesville, Virginiabased Apex Clean Energy, faces opposition from three countiesErie, Niagara, and Orleansas well as the towns of Yates and Somerset. An analysis of media stories shows that, over the past decade or so, about 40 New York communities have shot down or curbed wind projects.

Cuomo started pushing offshore wind because he and his political allies realized that building massive amounts of new wind capacity onshore isnt going to happen. In January, the governor contended that offshore wind poses none of the aesthetic problems that have made land-based projects so difficult. Not even Superman standing on Montauk Point could see these wind farms, he said. Maybe not; and maybe wealthy beachfront homeowners wont be able to see the proposed turbines, but lots of fishermen will. And that has them spoiling for a fight.

On May 6, at the Town Dock in Montauk, most of the fishing boats remained in their slips, due to high seas. The sentiment among the fishermen on the dock was identical to what Id heard from Miller and Bennett. Bruce Beckwith, owner of the trawler Allison & Lisa, had just backed into his slip after catching several bushels of fish in the bay. He had been fishing with his son, P. J., and grandson, Alex. Beckwith traces his familys roots in the region back more than 300 years. Im totally opposed to the wind project, he said. Its going to be a hazard to navigation. Standing near Beckwith was Ed Andresen, who also operates a trawler. When asked for his thoughts about offshore wind, he replied: I cant stand it. If you want wind energy, why would you put the turbines offshore?

Montauks fishermen are far from alone in their worries. Renewable-energy mandates will require installing thousands of offshore turbines all along the Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to the Carolinas. Last year, for instance, Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed into law a provision that requires his states utilities to purchase 1,600 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2026. During a meeting at Inlet Seafood, a Montauk restaurant owned by six local fishermen, Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told me that fishermen are facing permanent denial of their labor in the areas in and around the proposed projects. We cant go anywhere else, she tells me. Asked about the politics of offshore wind, Paul Farnham, who owns the Montauk Fish Dock, which packs fish for shipment and sale (on consignment) to the New Fulton Fish Market at Hunts Point in the Bronx, replies: Ill guarantee you, 90 percent or more of all these fishermen voted for Trump. It wasnt because they liked him. It was because they wanted less regulation.

Americas biggest environmental groupsincluding the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)are lobbying for more offshore wind capacity. Last December, after Americas first offshore projectthe Block Island facility located off Rhode Islands coastwent online, Kit Kennedy of the NRDC enthused that Block Island was only the beginning for this abundant energy resource! Like many other renewable-energy cheerleaders, Kennedy talked about jobs, citing a Department of Energy report that claimed that with the right policies in place, the offshore wind industry could support 160,000 jobs here in America.

The South Fork fishermen are fighting to preserve their access to some of the most productive fisheries in the world. Some 99 percent of all the wild-caught seafood in New York comes from Long Island. About 40 percent of that catch is landed by commercial fishermen working out of Montauk. They catch about 12 million pounds of seafood every yearworth about $16 million at the dock. But the South Fork has become a magnet for the ultrarich. Vacant lots within a few blocks of the beach sell for $9 million. And these 1 percenters have brought their trendy green politics with them. The town of East Hampton, which includes the hamlet of Montauk, has set a goal of meeting all of its electricity needs with renewables by 2020. If that means placing lots of wind turbines offshore, so be it. And if those pickup-driving Bonackers, living in their tiny homes, have to leave town, thats too bad, because, you know, climate change.

All the major environmental groupsincluding the Sierra Clubare lobbying for more offshore wind capacity.

Montauks fishermen face a flotilla of deep-pocketed foes. Deepwater Wind is part of the D. E. Shaw Group, a Manhattan-based investment firm that manages about $40 billion. Like every other company in the wind business, Deepwater Wind is rushing to collect tax credits. Such credits are the ultimate prize in tax avoidancefar more valuable than a deduction from revenue or accelerated depreciation. As my accounting consultant (and brother) Wally Bryce, a CPA, reminds me: Youd much rather get a tax credit because it applies dollar for dollar against what you owe the government. Onshore wind firms can collect a production tax credit, which applies to the amount of energy (measured in watt-hours) that a given project generates. Offshore wind companies take advantage of a different part of the tax code: the investment tax credit, which is based on their projects total costand is currently equal to 24 percent of that cost. If Deepwater Wind builds the South Fork project, it will collect some $170 million in tax credits.

Deepwater Wind and D. E. Shaw have close ties to the NRDC and to Cuomo. Max Stone, a managing director at D. E. Shaw, is a vice chair of NRDCs board of trustees. Before Kit Kennedy joined NRDC, she worked for Cuomo as head of the state attorney generals environmental protection bureau from 2007 to 2010. After joining NRDC, she wrote a blog post urging the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to include a Deepwater Wind project on its short list for a renewable energy contract. Basil Seggos, commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, worked at NRDC before working for Cuomo. David E. Shaw, founder of D. E. Shaw, has contributed widely to Democratic political campaigns, including more than $38,000 to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos campaigns for state attorney general and governor, Newsdays Mark Harrington reported in 2014.

Theres more. Cuomo recently appointed John Rhodes to run the state Public Service Commission. Rhodes had been head of the Energy Research and Development Authority. Before that, Rhodes worked atwhere else?the NRDC.

The fishermen are also fighting Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA. Last year, the state-controlled company (market capitalization: $58 billion) won an offshore wind lease with a record bid of $42.5 million. After winning the bid, Statoil suggested that the site could eventually accommodate about 1,000 megawatts of wind capacity. The lease was immediately lauded by the American Wind Energy Association, which said that the deal increases the strong momentum behind ocean energy resource.

While Big Winds myriad lobbyists exult over the Statoil deal, the new lease sits atop some of the best squid and scallop fisheries on the Eastern Seaboard, as Bonnie Bradys husband, Dave Aripotch, captain of a 73-foot trawler, Caitlin and Mairead, showed me with a heat map. Aripotch has been pulling squid from this area for years. He says that if the wind project is built on the tract, he may not be able to fish there anymore.

In November, Bradys Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, along with the Fisheries Survival Fund, the Rhode Island Fishermens Alliance, the town of Narragansett, Rhode Island, the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and several other groups of fishermen and fishmongers filed a federal lawsuit to stop the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from auctioning the tract that Statoil won. The suit claimed that the project would bring both great and actual harm to the fisheries. The lease sale happened anyway. In February, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the fishermens request for a preliminary injunction blocking the final ratification of the lease. The lawsuit, however, was allowed to continue.

Expanding offshore wind to the 2.4 gigawatts that Cuomo has pledged will require covering about 300 square miles of offshore territory with turbines. And thats only a small percentage of what could happen off U.S. coasts. Last year, the outgoing Obama administration published its National Offshore Wind Strategy, a document that claims that the U.S. can install 86 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050. (The words fishing and fishermen dont appear in the document.) It takes roughly 129 square miles for each gigawatt of wind-energy capacity; achieving the 86-gigawatt goal would require covering more than 11,000 square miles of offshore territorynearly eight times the size of Long Islandwith turbines.

Offshore wind energy has been hyped nearly as much as a Kardashian wedding. In 2011, theninterior secretary Ken Salazar spoke at an offshore wind energy conference in Baltimore. From Texas to Oregon, to up and down the Atlantic Coast, he observed, theres movement on offshore wind. He went on to say that the Obama administration had set an ambitiousbut achievablegoal of deploying 10 gigawattsthats 10,000 megawattsof offshore wind generating capacity by 2020. Were halfway through 2017, and the U.S. has just 30 megawatts of offshore wind capacity, so things arent proceeding as hoped.

The reality is that doing anything offshore is politically difficult and expensive. For proof, look at the case of Cape Wind, the 468-megawatt project that aimed to cover 24 square miles of Nantucket Sound with wind turbines. The backers of Cape Wind filed their first permit application in 2001. But the project ran into fierce opposition from landowners on Cape Cod, including, most prominently, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who didnt want the turbines installed anywhere near his familys Hyannisport haciendas. (Irony alert: Kennedy is a senior attorney at the NRDC, the very same group that is hyping offshore wind. Perhaps Superman would have been able to see Cape Wind from Hyannisport.) Despite getting environmental approvals from the federal government and the backing of many elected officials in Massachusetts, the project was finally halted for good in early 2016. Offshore wind projects in other countries have also been stymied. In 2015, for instance, the British government refused a permit for the 968-megawatt Navitus Bay offshore wind project, which was to be built in the English Channel, near the Isle of Wight. Among the stated reasons for rejecting the project, which would have utilized 650-foot-tall turbines, was its seascape, landscape and visual impact.

Cuomo has decided that New Yorkers should be using politically fashionable electricity instead of cheaper electricity generated from nuclear power and natural gas. Cuomo pushed forand gota deal that will prematurely close Westchesters Indian Point nuclear plant. He has banned hydraulic fracturing in New York, and his administration refuses to issue permits to new natural-gas pipelines. By constricting the flow of natural gas, Cuomo appears to be hoping that renewables in generaland offshore wind in particularwill be the go-to option for the states utilities.

But a bit of math shows just how tough that will be. Deepwater Winds proposed South Fork wind project will produce about 370 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. Compare that with Indian Point, which produces about 16,600 gigawatt-hours of energy per year. Thus, replacing a single nuclear plant with offshore wind energy will require building 45 offshore wind projects, all the size of the proposed South Fork project, which, if built, would be the nations largest. Add in the 29,000 gigawatt-hours that the New York Independent System Operator recently said will be needed to meet Cuomos goal of producing 50 percent of the states electricity from renewables by 2030, and the scale of the problem becomes even more obvious.

In addition to the political friction and scale problems, offshore wind energy is among the most costly ways of producing electricity. LIPA has agreed to pay Deepwater Wind about 22 cents per kilowatt-hour for the electricity produced from the South Fork project. But as Newsdays Harrington pointed out in February, the average cost of natural-gas-fired electricity on Long Island is about 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Thus, Cuomo is effectively preventing New Yorkers from using low-cost gas-fired electricity in favor of electricity from offshore that costs about three times as much.

That brings me back to Nat Miller. Just before launching his skiff into the water, Miller told me that he and his family are living in a 1,100-square-foot house and that, over the past five years, his electric bill had doubled. We are the last of the middle class out here, he said. Now they want to cram a wind farm up our ass so Cuomo can look good when he runs for president.

The push for expensive offshore wind energy, he predicts, will bury the working class. People with money are going to feel good about themselves as they are wasting electricity. Its such bullshit.

Photo: Jim Bennett and Nat Miller (pictured at Lazy Point, Napeague Bay) are Bonackers, part of a group of families who were among eastern Long Islands earliest settlers and have fished the waters for 14 generations. (COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR)
Jim Riley worked as a pilot for California Air National Guard. He flies a fighter jet for fun. He also started several software companies, including Learn.com.

But by far the hardest thing he's ever done in his life?

Starting a health-technology company.

"What was supposed to be a fun one or two-year project turned into a personal odyssey with a good part of my net worth invested in it," said Riley by phone.

Riley is far from alone. His experience is so common among the growing hoards of tech workers moving into health care that some hospital executives even have a name for it: The "pit of despair."

Aaron Martin, chief digital officer at Providence Health, said he sees this happen frequently. Martin used to work at Amazon , and he'll often recruit engineers from his former employer and other tech companies to his team. He likes the fresh perspective, and there's plenty of work to do to digitize the medical system.

According to Martin, many of these developers will first see a massive opportunity to bring health care into the 21st-century. That excitement turns to bitterness after they begin to understand the complexities of health care with its entrenched interests, regulatory hurdles, long sales cycles and more.

"There's this pit of despair when people realize that this stuff is really hard and complicated," said Martin. "And the penalty for screwing up is high."
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Alumni Exercises following the 366th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 25, 2017.

Mark Zuckerberg says young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents should be allowed to remain in the country, and criticized those who want to remove them as being motivated by politics.

The remarks were the Facebook founder's most pointed yet in support of minors who have been shielded from deportation under former President Obama's DACA program, for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

"No one should try to deport them just to make a political point, and the leaders threatening to take away their protections need to do the right thing," Zuckerberg wrote in an Aug. 25 Facebook post.

"DACA has allowed 800,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents to live, work and contribute to this country," he wrote in the post, which had been been "Liked" or otherwise reacted to by 36,000 people as of Sunday afternoon.

The comments put Zuckerberg in the middle of a contentious political battle that could soon be headed to court.

President Trump could be poised to end the program after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed it with senior White House officials last Thursday, Reuters reported.

Last month, a group of attorneys general from 10 states sent a letter to Trump, threatening to sue if he continued DACA, which Obama created by executive order in 2012.

Zuckerberg's post pointed to a pro-DACA opinion piece written last week by Donald Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of the Washington Post, whom Zuckerberg referred to as "my friend."

The Washington Post, now owned by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, has come under intense criticism from Trump.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was among those officials who signed the letter urging Trump to scrap the DACA program.

In January, Zuckerberg wrote a post soon after President Trump signed executive orders banning the admission of immigrants from a group of countries in the Middle East.

That earlier post, which touted Zuckerberg's immigrant roots, read:

"We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don't pose a threat will live in fear of deportation. We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That's who we are," Zuckerberg said then.
President Trump will visit Texas on Tuesday in the wake of catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey, the White House announced.



Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, "The President will travel to Texas on Tuesday. We are coordinating logistics with state and local officials, and once details are finalized, we will let you know. We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers."

The hurricane has now devolved into a tropical storm and is dumping rain on southern Texas. The National Weather Service said the final tally could top 50 inches, setting an all-time rainfall record for the state. Streets in Houston and many other cities are flooded.

Harvey came ashore late Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least two people. The death toll is expected to rise as the storm lashes the U.S. state for days, triggering record floods, tidal surges and tornadoes. Houston's Bush International and William P. Hobby airports canceled all commercial flights on Sunday. Hobby had standing water on the runway and said the arrivals area was flooded.

Major refineries are closing down, cutting at least 1 million barrels per day out of production, and the Houston Ship Channel, the busiest in the nation, is closed.

The visit will be a test for the president, as it's the first major natural disaster to strike the United States under his presidency. President George W Bush faced widespread criticism after the federal government was slow to respond in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which caused major floods in New Orleans in August 2005.
Insurance groups earn accreditation

The North Dakota Insurance Department was among four state insurance regulatory agencies to receive accreditation from the NAIC Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee at the summer meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Philadelphia.

Accredited insurance departments undergo a comprehensive, independent review every five years to ensure they meet financial solvency oversight standards.

The North Dakota Community Foundation recently received accreditation through the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations accreditation program.

The NDCF has maintained its accreditation continuously since 2006.

Grant helps with technology improvements

The Village Family Service Center in Bismarck received a $2,000 grant from MDU Resources Foundation to make technology improvements to its conference room.
President Donald Trump recently dismissed some of his senior staff as globalists and demanded that someone draw up a plan for tariffs that would affect China, Axios reported Sunday evening.

Citing multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting  and noting that the White House had not disputed the accounts the outlet reported that Trump had issued the demand during an Oval Office meeting with top advisors.

"So, John, I want you to know, this is my view. I want tariffs. And I want someone to bring me some tariffs," Axios quotes the president as saying to John Kelly, his chief of staff.

Trump then reportedly ended his meeting by saying: "I know there are some people in the room right now that are upset. I know there are some globalists in the room right now. And they don't want them, John, they don't want the tariffs. But I'm telling you, I want tariffs."

People in the meeting  which was set to be about plans to investigate China for intellectual property theft  included U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, trade advisor Peter Navarro, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to Axios.

Here's the non-denial that the White House gave to Axios: "The president has been very clear about his agenda as it relates to trade. Discussions pertaining to specific tariffs and trade deals are ongoing and have already resulted in many positive developments."

For more on Trump's discussion of China trade with his advisors, see the Axios report.
Getting this error. System.AccessViolationException was unhandled Message: An unhandled exception of type ' System.AccessViolationException' occurred in AxInterop.ShockwaveFlashObjects.dll Additional information: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt. When I have Adobe Flash security updates installed. Using this code Flash.Movie( " movie.swf" ) Flash.Play Then Flash.LoadMovie( 1 , " crash.swf" ) ' Crashes when Adobe Flash is updated, doesn' t allow top layer SWF to interact with Movie/base. To load multiple SWF layers at same time crashes. I ' m guessing the security update did something so you can' t write layered SWF code to the original SWF ' s memory. I don' t know why this is , but is there any fix or will there be one? This has been like this for about a year now, and it doesn ' t seem like it' ll be addressed.



System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt. at ShockwaveFlashObjects.IShockwaveFlash.LoadMovie( Int32 layer, String url) at AxShockwaveFlashObjects.AxShockwaveFlash.LoadMovie( Int32 layer, String url) at AEDab.Form1.ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged( Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\UDA\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\uh\uh\Form1.vb:line 77 at System.Windows.Forms.ListBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ListBox.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback( IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)



Hi,



I am getting the following error no matter what path I am giving for this file to load into a Table in the Database from Excel using Jet Engine



The path I have tried are

1. I kept the file on my local machine to run the Package from my Local machine, it said invalid Path (C:\Users\aaleem01\Desktop\Project Documents\Tucker Package\Daily Facets Report 8.21.17.xls)

2. I kept the shared drive/folder, still it gave me in valid file path (Z:\FileWatcher\Daily Facets Report 8.21.17.xls)

3. Then I dropped the file on the Server where Sql Server instance is running and used that path in creating the Connection string for Excel, still it gave me the same error



Can anybody tell me what could be wrong in my file Path, I am trying to execute a Script Task in which I load data from Excel file into a Sql Server Table.



Here is how my Code looks like:



C# string excelConnectionString = " Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + Dts.Variables[ " ExcelFullPath" ].Value + " ;Extended Properties=Text;" ; string sqlConnectionString = " Data Source=" + Dts.Variables[ " ServerName" ].Value + " ;Initial Catalog=" + Dts.Variables[ " Saw_Raw_DatabaseName" ].Value + " ;Integrated Security=SSPI;" ; using (OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(excelConnectionString)) { if (conn.State != ConnectionState.Open) conn.Open(); using (OleDbCommand oleCmd = new OleDbCommand( " select * from [" + Dts.Variables[ " SheetName" ].Value + " $]" , conn)) { using (OleDbDataReader reader = oleCmd.ExecuteReader()) { InsertData(Dts.Variables[ " TableName" ].Value.ToString(), reader, sqlConnectionString); } if (conn.State != ConnectionState.Closed) conn.Close(); } }



The exact error is as follows:



'C:\SSIS Packages\TempFiles\Daily Facets Report 8.21.17.xls' is not a valid path. Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file resides.



Any type of help can be very helpful like Code snippet, a link or a suggestion. Thanks in advance friends.



Thanks,



Abdul Aleem



"There is already enough hatred in the world lets spread love, compassion and affection."



modified 29-Aug-17 19:48pm.



How can i show a pie chart crystal report showing monthly auto sales for all models ( crosswind, d-max, alterra, Mu-X, N-Series, F-Series)?



Hi,



I am starting a process using P/Invoke of CreateProcessWithTokenW

Eyerthing works fine, e.g. when I run a simple command like "ipconfig > test.log" then the file contains the output of the file. Process Explorer also tells me that the process runs as the user I impersonated to...



When I start a GUI application, however, I run into a strange problem: The process starts without error and the icon of the process pops up in the taskbar (e.g. the notepad icon), but I cannot "look at the GUI". Its a bit hard to explain, but I can click on the taskbar icon and a frame of the Window appears, but is has no "contents". I can click on the close icon and the windows closes.



Please refer to this screenshot. It also shows that this is not a "move to screen" issue



ScreenShot



I'd be happy for all sorts of advice.



Cheers,

Guido







mea culpa.

The code is as follows



C# public class MyRunAs { [DllImport( " advapi32.dll" , SetLastError = true , CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)] internal static extern bool CreateProcessWithTokenW( IntPtr dupeTokenHandle, LogonFlags dwLogonFlags, string applicationName, string commandLine, CreationFlags dwCreationFlags, IntPtr environment, string currentDirectory, ref STARTUPINFO sui, out PROCESS_INFORMATION processInfo); [DllImport( " advapi32.dll" , SetLastError = true , CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)] internal static extern bool DuplicateTokenEx( IntPtr tokenHandle, int dwDesiredAccess, ref SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpTokenAttributes, int SECURITY_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL, int TOKEN_TYPE, ref IntPtr dupeTokenHandle); [DllImport( " userenv.dll" , SetLastError = true , CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)] private static extern bool CreateEnvironmentBlock( ref IntPtr lpEnvironment, IntPtr hToken, bool bInherit); [DllImport( " advapi32.dll" , CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true )] static extern bool CreateProcessAsUser( IntPtr Token, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string ApplicationName, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string CommandLine, ref SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES ProcessAttributes, ref SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES ThreadAttributes, bool InheritHandles, CreationFlags dwCreationFlags, IntPtr Environment, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] string CurrentDirectory, ref STARTUPINFO StartupInfo, out PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcessInformation); [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] internal struct SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES { internal int nLength; internal int lpSecurityDescriptor; internal bool bInheritHandle; } public enum CreationFlags { DefaultErrorMode = 0x04000000 , NewConsole = 0x00000010 , NewProcessGroup = 0x00000200 , SeparateWOWVDM = 0x00000800 , Suspended = 0x00000004 , UnicodeEnvironment = 0x00000400 , ExtendedStartupInfoPresent = 0x00080000 } public enum LogonFlags { WithProfile = 1 , NetCredentialsOnly } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] internal struct STARTUPINFO { internal int cb; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] internal string lpReserved; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] internal string lpDesktop; [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] internal string lpTitle; internal int dwX; internal int dwY; internal int dwXSize; internal int dwYSize; internal int dwXCountChars; internal int dwYCountChars; internal int dwFillAttribute; internal int dwFlags; internal short wShowWindow; internal short cbReserved2; internal IntPtr lpReserved2; internal IntPtr hStdInput; internal IntPtr hStdOutput; internal IntPtr hStdError; } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] internal struct PROCESS_INFORMATION { internal IntPtr hProcess; internal IntPtr hThread; internal int dwProcessId; internal int dwThreadId; } const int SecurityAnonymous = 0 ; const int SecurityIdentification = 1 ; const int SecurityImpersonation = 2 ; const int SecurityDelegation = 3 ; const int TokenPrimary = 1 ; const int TokenImpersonation = 2 ; const int LOGON_WITH_PROFILE = 1 ; const int LOGON_NETCREDENTIALS_ONLY = 2 ; private const int TOKEN_QUERY = 0x0008 ; private const int TOKEN_DUPLICATE = 0x0002 ; private const int TOKEN_ASSIGN_PRIMARY = 0x0001 ; private const int STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW = 0x00000001 ; private const int STARTF_FORCEONFEEDBACK = 0x00000040 ; private const int CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT = 0x00000400 ; private const int TOKEN_IMPERSONATE = 0x0004 ; private const int TOKEN_QUERY_SOURCE = 0x0010 ; private const int TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES = 0x0020 ; private const int TOKEN_ADJUST_GROUPS = 0x0040 ; private const int TOKEN_ADJUST_DEFAULT = 0x0080 ; private const int TOKEN_ADJUST_SESSIONID = 0x0100 ; private const int STANDARD_RIGHTS_REQUIRED = 0x000F0000 ; private const int TOKEN_ALL_ACCESS = STANDARD_RIGHTS_REQUIRED | TOKEN_ASSIGN_PRIMARY | TOKEN_DUPLICATE | TOKEN_IMPERSONATE | TOKEN_QUERY | TOKEN_QUERY_SOURCE | TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES | TOKEN_ADJUST_GROUPS | TOKEN_ADJUST_DEFAULT | TOKEN_ADJUST_SESSIONID; public static bool CreateTokenChild() { try { STARTUPINFO startInfo = new STARTUPINFO(); startInfo.cb = Marshal.SizeOf(startInfo); IntPtr dupeTokenHandle = IntPtr .Zero; WindowsIdentity id = new WindowsIdentity( " user@domain" ); IntPtr tokenHandle = id.Token; SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpTokenAttributes = new SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES(); lpTokenAttributes.nLength = Marshal.SizeOf(lpTokenAttributes); bool retVal = DuplicateTokenEx( tokenHandle, TOKEN_ALL_ACCESS, ref lpTokenAttributes, SecurityImpersonation, TokenPrimary, ref dupeTokenHandle); if (!retVal) { int winError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(); File.AppendAllText( " C:\\tmp\\out.log" , DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString() + " " + winError + Environment.NewLine); return false ; } string app = @" c:\Windows\System32

otepad.exe" ; string cmd = null ; string spath = @" C:\" ; IntPtr env = GetEnvironmentBlock(dupeTokenHandle); PROCESS_INFORMATION processInfo; bool ret = CreateProcessWithTokenW( dupeTokenHandle, LogonFlags.WithProfile, app, cmd, CreationFlags.UnicodeEnvironment, env, spath, ref startInfo, out processInfo); if (!ret) { int winError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(); File.AppendAllText( " C:\\tmp\\out.log" , DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString() + " error: " + winError + Environment.NewLine); return false ; } else { File.AppendAllText( " C:\\tmp\\out.log" , DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString() + " success " + Environment.NewLine); } } catch (Exception e) { return false ; } finally { } return true ; } private static IntPtr GetEnvironmentBlock( IntPtr token) { var envBlock = IntPtr .Zero; if (!CreateEnvironmentBlock( ref envBlock, token, false )) { throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(), " CreateEnvironmentBlock failed" ); } return envBlock; } }



Sorry for that lack of information. I somehow thought, its not code related but rather some security issue. I compared two processes with process explorer and the only thing that I realized was that "normal" processes have security attribute "NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE" which the process I am starting has not ...



I also tried CreateProcessAsUser and it shows exactly the same behavior ...



Cheers and thanks.

Guido



gobbo-dd wrote: I compared two processes with process explorer and the only thing that I realized was that "normal" processes have security attribute "NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE" which the process I am starting has not ... There's a nice hint.



If you ever created a Windows Service, you'll remember that you cannot access the desktop or interact with it if that flag is not set.



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



CreateProcessWithTokenW it says:



Quote: If the lpDesktop member is NULL or an empty string, the new process inherits the desktop and window station of its parent process. The function adds permission for the specified user account to the inherited window station and desktop. Otherwise, if this member specifies a desktop, it is the responsibility of the application to add permission for the specified user account to the specified window station and desktop, even for WinSta0\Default.



So how should I set this interactive flag if the function is supposed to take care of it ...







If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell







Anyone has an idea why it doesn't? Or how I could assign the proper permissions to the process, I create ?



Thanks

Guido



gobbo-dd wrote: And secondly, the documentation says that it should work ... Where does it say that? On MSDN it states that there are two alternatives if the call fails with an ERROR_PRIVILEGE_NOT_HELD.



gobbo-dd wrote: Anyone has an idea why it doesn't? ..because (AFAIK) you can only interact with windows-objects that belong to your desktop-object; that is user-specific, as it is created after logon. You could create a new desktop-object and show it there.



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell







it does not fail with "privilege not held" (i had that error 1342 and fixed it ...)

it even shows an icon in the taskbar (as you can see on the screenshot) - which indicates imho that the process is allowed to create "something" on the desktop....

it simply doesn't show the "full window"...



and yes, the documentation says:



Quote: If the lpDesktop member is NULL or an empty string, the new process inherits the desktop and window station of its parent process. The function adds permission for the specified user account to the inherited window station and desktop.



Quote: ..because (AFAIK) you can only interact with windows-objects that belong to your desktop-object; that is user-specific, as it is created after logon. You could create a new desktop-object and show it there.



Again - that is not what the documentation says "... process inherits ... "



Cheers

Guido



gobbo-dd wrote: which indicates imho that the process is allowed to create "something" on the desktop.... Which is what a service may do also, but it will not be showing a window unless it is marked as 'interactive'.



Found this[^] on SO, where the last answer suggests a possible solution



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell







IntPtr hWinSta = GetProcessWindowStation(); WindowStationSecurity ws = new WindowStationSecurity(hWinSta, AccessControlSections.Access); ws.AddAccessRule( new WindowStationAccessRule( " user@domain" , WindowStationRights.AllAccess, AccessControlType.Allow)); ws.AcceptChanges(); IntPtr hDesk = GetThreadDesktop(GetCurrentThreadId()); DesktopSecurity ds = new DesktopSecurity(hDesk, AccessControlSections.Access); ds.AddAccessRule( new DesktopAccessRule( " user@domain" , DesktopRights.AllAccess, AccessControlType.Allow)); ds.AcceptChanges();



Did the trick. Thank you veeery much for pointing me to this.



Cheers

Guido







If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



I have a panel of size width=150 pixel,height=100 pixel, backcolor=green with autoscroll is true. I also have a picturebox within that panel which contains a picture of size width=500 pixel, height=200 pixel. I also have a button, on clicking that button picturebox image rotates 90 degree clockwise. and according to that scrollbar values should change. but it is not.



Here is my code



Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click



Dim h, w



PictureBox1.Image.RotateFlip(RotateFlipType.Rotate90FlipNone)



PictureBox1.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.AutoSize

h = PictureBox1.Image.Height

w = PictureBox1.Image.Width



Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Maximum = 0

Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Visible = False



Panel1.VerticalScroll.Maximum = 0

Panel1.VerticalScroll.Visible = False



Panel1.AutoScroll = False



Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Minimum = 0

Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Maximum = w - 1

Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Visible = True

Panel1.HorizontalScroll.Value = 0



Panel1.VerticalScroll.Minimum = 0

Panel1.VerticalScroll.Maximum = h - 1

Panel1.VerticalScroll.Visible = True

Panel1.VerticalScroll.Value = 0



Panel1.AutoScroll = True



PictureBox1.Left = 0

PictureBox1.Top = 0



Panel1.Invalidate()

End Sub



My problem is: On form load both the scrollbars working perfectly. But after clicking the button picturebox rotates to 90 degrees, so picturebox's images's width and height values interchanges, so the scrollbars maximum values. But its not. After clicking the button first time vscrollbar does not go down after a certain value. This thing happens on odd number of clicking the button. On even number of clicking it works perfectly.



This odd and even number problem also interchanges when the original picturebox image dimension interchanges. i.e. when picturebox image width=200, height=500, then hscrollbar creates the problem on odd number of button clicking.


No constructive amibiguity, declares the headline on Keir Starmers Observer article today. The Shadow Brexit Secretary takes on a somewhat condescending tone as he lays into his opposite number in the body of the piece:

Constructive ambiguity  David Daviss description of the governments approach  can only take you so far. This has been underlined by the bland and noncommittal policy papers the government has published in the last two weeks.

No ambiguity  constructive or otherwise  there. This is a clear renunciation by the Opposition of being bland or noncommittal. Whatever Labour is about to say, its going to be absolutely non-ambiguous. Is that right?

I want to be absolutely clear about the type of transitional deal Labour would seek to negotiate. No constructive ambiguity. No mixed messages. A credible solution to one of the most important issues facing Britains exit from the EU.

Ok. Message received, Sir Keir. Not ambiguous. No mixed messages.

Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU. That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both.

Er, really? Abide by the common rules of both? Those common rules that include free movement of people  which page 28 of the Labour manifesto ruled out, saying: Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union. That seems to be one of those mixed messages that we were promised wouldnt sneak in to this article.

Unless, perhaps, hes redefining when we leave the European Union to mean the end of transition, not the normal definition of March 2019?

it provides maximum certainty for businesses and allays concerns that there will be delays or disruptions to trade when we leave the EU in March 2019.

Nope  just a mixed message, then. How about that war on ambiguity?

a transitional period under Labour will be as short as possible, but as long as is necessary. It cannot become a kind of never-ending purgatory. That would simply create its own uncertainty and ambiguity.

My first is in cupboard, but not in cowslip. Is he the Shadow Brexit Secretary or the Sphinx, riddling away? Finally, at last, we know Starmers unambiguous transitional period will be as short as possible, but as long as is necessary. Which is good, because everyone else was obviously planning one shorter than is possible, and longer than necessary, right?

Instead, transitional arrangements must be a bridge to a strong and lasting new relationship with the EU  not as members, as partners. That new progressive partnership should be based on our common values and shared history. It must extend far beyond trade and security to include education, science, technology, medicine and culture. It must be based on a deal that, as Labour made clear in our manifesto, retains the benefits of the customs union and the single market.

So here we are, back to where Labour were yesterday. They supposedly accept Brexit  even as Chuka Umunna and others use this new position to flirt with those who want to stop it, arguing an extended transition is really a route to stop it entirely. They know therell be a transition period, like the Government. They want a post-Brexit deal, just like everyone else. The want this deal to extend far beyond trade and security to include education, science, technology, medicine and culture, which is also the Governments position.

The problem, though, is as it was before Sir Keir boldly slew ambiguity. Labour declares that it wants a deal that retains the benefits of the customs union and the single market. They wont say exactly what should be counted within those benefits, but their dance of the seven veils implies that they mean all the trade and so on, but not the free movement. Except thats one of the four freedoms which the EU believes are indivisible  Cameron tried to get out of it, and they said no. Theyve continued to insist on that position ever since. How does Starmer propose to achieve what literally everybody, including Brussels, says cant be done?

How that is ultimately achieved is secondary to the outcome.

Oh. Seriously? I want it! You cant, it doesnt exist. That doesnt matter, I want it!

Theres a slight hint at what Starmer personally wants but cant seem to get his party to agree to earlier in the piece:

the need for more effective management of migration, which Labour recognise must be addressed in the final deal.

Far be it from me to suggest that a career lawyer might at times try to use technicality and verbiage to obscure his true meaning, but doesnt this seem to be a peculiarly clunky phrase, when the words ending free movement would be both more clear and more popular? Why would he tiptoe around that phrase  committed to, after all, in Labours own manifesto? Might it be that he is still, desperately, trying to retain full Single Market membership  with all the loss of border control and democratic control that involves  after all?

As Starmer wrote, Constructive ambiguitycan only take you so far. Having studied it carefully, hes kept the ambiguity, but decided to stop being constructive.
Ive argued repeatedly (both on this site and elsewhere) that Conservatives, in particular, have a responsibility to fight bad businesses. If we want to promote the free market, stand up for consumers and continue to improve the economy  as well as fend off the dangers of socialism  then we must stamp out the bad practices that undermine our case, harm the people and offer the left a stick with which to beat the very concept of private enterprise.

As so often when something is right for the country, theres also, of course, an electoral benefit in doing it, too. Few people are desperate to hike taxes, abolish property rights and put Whitehall in charge of vast swathes of the economy, but plenty are rightly hacked off with the incompetence, greed and abuses of the worst of the business community. They doubt that a state which struggles to do its existing jobs very well would be good at providing their financial services, their phone line or their food, but that doesnt offer a free pass to those firms who currently cock up  or worse  while doing so.

For that reason, its hard to disagree with the principle, at least, of Theresa Mays opinion piece in todays Mail on Sunday, in which the Prime Minister makes much the same case as this site has done for some years.

The practicality, however, is more difficult. For an urgent call to action, her article is stocked with very limited tools to do the job. Workers and shareholders should have a bigger say and a louder voice in the running of the companies in which they invest their labour and capital.

We remain justifiably dubious about demands for workers on boards  particularly if such positions were captured by politically-minded unions which are less and less representative of the modern British work force. Shareholders should certainly have greater power to control misbehaviour of overmighty executives in the firms which they, after all, own  but the Governments proposal of a register which lists companies which have experienced a shareholder revolt seems essentially useless. Such revolts are routinely reported by the business press already.

May urges voluntary action, and gives companies the opportunity to act as they think appropriate. Good ones will probably do so quite well, where it is less urgently needed, but bad ones are obviously less likely to do so. I somehow doubt that the Mike Ashleys of the world are going to reform themselves overnight after a fit of conscience. The Prime Minister therefore hints about a big stick, hidden behind her back: If we do not see sufficient progress, we reserve the right to take further steps.

The problem is that theres relatively little that the Prime Minister can do about any of this. She has an extremely big job on her hands in Brexit, and lacks a majority of her own with which to legislate on other controversial matters. Personally, while she survived the most dangerous period for her leadership, the aftermath of the election, her authority is now limited. Todays papers openly speculate on when she will leave office, and continue to mull who might take over when she does.

The responsibility to take on bad businesses applies to every Conservative. May also knows there is mileage in the issue, and is therefore deploying it as the other string to her Brexit bow. But she is extremely limited in what she can do to truly demonstrate action, and therefore there is very little progress that can be made on this front for now. That responsibility will fall to her successor.
Avangrid, Inc., an energy services holding company, engages in the regulated energy transmission and distribution, and renewable energy generation businesses in the United States. The company operates through Networks and Renewables segments. It is involved in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; and distribution, transportation, and sale of natural gas. The company also operates renewable energy generation facilities primarily using onshore wind power, as well as solar, biomass, and thermal power. It delivers natural gas and electricity to residential, commercial, and institutional customers through its regulated utilities in New York, Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts; and sells its output to investor-owned utilities, public utilities, and other credit-worthy entities. In addition, the company generates and provides power and other services to federal and state agencies, as well as institutional retail and joint action agencies; and delivers thermal output to wholesale customers in the Western United States. It owns eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving 3.3 million customers in New York and New England, as well as owns and operates 8.8 gigawatts of electricity capacity primarily through wind power in 22 states. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Orange, Connecticut. Avangrid, Inc. is a subsidiary of Iberdrola, S.A.
Everest Re Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Bermuda, and internationally. The company operates through Reinsurance Operations and Insurance Operations segments. The Reinsurance Operations segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents in Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and property and casualty reinsurance and insurance coverages, including marine, aviation, surety, errors and omissions liability, directors' and officers' liability, medical malpractice, mortgage reinsurance, other specialty lines, accident and health, and workers' compensation products. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. Everest Re Group, Ltd. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The following companies are subsidiares of HP: 3Com, 3PAR, ABB CADE, AOME Holdings Ltd., Albacore Holdings Jersey Ltd, Alpha Holding One B.V., Alpha Holding Two B.V., Anatolus Holding B.V., Apogee, Apogee Corp, Apogee Corporation Ireland Limited, Apogee Corporation Jersey Limited, Apogee Corporation Limited, Apogee Europe Limited, Apogee France Holdings SAS, Apogee France SAS, Apogee Germany Holding UG, Apogee Group Limited, Apogee Rentals Limited, Apollo Computer, AppIQ, Applied Optoelectronic Tech, ArcSight, Arnon Holding B.V., Arteis, Artivision Technologies, Aruba Networks, Atos Origin, Atos Origin Middle East group, Autonomy Corporation, Avantek, BAS - Burosysteme GmbH, BT & D Technologies, Balreed Digitec Group Limited, Balreed Digitec North Limited, Balreed Digitec SE Limited, Balreed Digitec UK Limited, Bamberga Holding B.V., Bitfone Corporation, Bluestone Software, Boonton Radio, Bristol Technology Inc., Bromium, Bromium UK Limited, CEC Europe Service Management, CGNZ, CaLan, China HP Co. Ltd Hangzhou Branch, China HP Co. Ltd., China HP Co. Ltd. Chengdu Branch, China HP Co. Ltd. Guangzhou Branch, China HP Co. Ltd. Jiangan Branch, China HP Co. Ltd. Nanjing Branch, China HP Co. Ltd. Shanghai Branch, Choose Packaging, City Docs Limited, City Docs Solutions Limited, Colorado Memory Systems, Colubris Networks, Colubris Networks, Compaq Cayman Holdings Company, Compaq Cayman Holdings General Partnership II, Compaq Information Technologies, Compaq Information Technologies LLC, Computing and Printing Global Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Computing and Printing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Consera Software, ConteXtream Inc, Convex Computer, David Vision Systems GmbH, Dazzle, Digipro Limited, Division, EDS (Electronic Data Systems), EEsof, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, ElseWare, Eon Systems, Eucalyptus Systems, Eunomia Holding B.V., ExcellerateHRO, Exstream Software, Extreme Logic, F&M Scientific Corporation, F. Smith & Co Office Equipment Limited, F.L. Moseley Company, Flame Holding B.V., Fortify Software, Four Pi Systems, GNA Biosolutions GmbH, HP Austria GmbH, HP Belgium BV, HP Bilgisayar ve Baski Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda. - Branch 01 Tambore, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda. - Branch 2 Sorocaba, HP Brasil Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Eletronicos Ltda. - Branch 3 Porto Alegre, HP Canada Co. HP Canada Cie, HP Canada Licensing L.P., HP China Holding B.V., HP Chongqing Co. Ltd, HP Chongqing Manufacturing Export Procurement and Settlement Co. Ltd, HP Colombia SAS, HP Computing and Printing Middle East FZ-LLC, HP Computing and Printing Nigeria Ltd, HP Computing and Printing Systems India Private Limited, HP Computing and Printing d.o.o., HP Deutschland GmbH, HP Deutschland Holding GmbH, HP Europe B.V., HP Europe B.V. - Abu Dhabi Branch, HP Europe B.V. Regional Dubai Branch, HP Europe BV Amsterdam Meyrin Branch, HP Finland Oy, HP France Holding SAS, HP France SAS, HP Global Trading B.V., HP Global Trading B.V. Kazakhstan Branch, HP Health Solutions Inc., HP Health Solutions Spain Sociedad Limitada, HP Hewlett Packard Group LLC, HP Inc AP Hong Kong Limited, HP Inc Argentina S.R.L., HP Inc Bulgaria EOOD, HP Inc Chile Comercial Limitada, HP Inc Costa Rica Limitada, HP Inc Czech Republic s.r.o., HP Inc Danmark ApS, HP Inc Gulf, HP Inc Hong Kong Limited, HP Inc Magyarorszag Kft., HP Inc Peru S.R.L., HP Inc Polska sp. z o.o., HP Inc Romania SRL, HP Inc Slovakia s.r.o., HP Inc Thailand Ltd., HP Inc Tunisie SARL, HP Inc UK Limited, HP India Sales Private Limited, HP Indigo B.V., HP Indigo Ltd, HP Information Technology R&D Shanghai Co. Ltd, HP International Pte. Ltd., HP International Pte. Ltd. Taiwan Branch, HP International Sarl, HP International Trading B.V., HP International Trading B.V. Puerto Rico Branch LLC, HP Israel Ltd, HP Italy S.r.l., HP Jade Holding LLC, HP Japan Inc., HP KSA Ltd., HP Korea Inc., HP Licensing Holding LLC, HP Luxembourg S.C.A., HP Malaysia Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd., HP Nederland B.V., HP New Zealand, HP Norge AS, HP Onyx Holding L.P., HP PPS Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., HP PPS Australia Pty Ltd, HP PPS Costa Rica Limitada, HP PPS India Operations Private Limited, HP PPS Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., HP PPS Maroc, HP PPS Philippines Inc., HP PPS Sales Sdn. Bhd., HP PPS Services India Private Limited, HP PPS Singapore Sales Pte. Ltd., HP PPS Sverige AB, HP Pakistan Private Limited, HP Panama Sales and Distribution S. de R.L., HP Print Services Ireland Limited, HP Printing Korea Co. Ltd., HP Printing Shandong Co. Ltd., HP Printing and Computing Solutions S.L.U., HP Printing and Personal Systems Hellas EPE, HP Production Company Limited, HP Puerto Rico LLC, HP R&D Holding LLC, HP R&D Singapore Pte. Ltd., HP Schweiz GmbH, HP Scitex Ltd, HP Singapore Private Limited, HP Solutions Creation and Development Services S.L.U., HP South Africa Proprietary Limited, HP South Africa Trust, HP Taiwan Information Technology Ltd., HP Technology Holdings LLC, HP Technology Ireland Limited, HP Technology Israel Ltd, HP Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd, HP Technology Vietnam Company Ltd, HP Trading Kunshan Co. Ltd., HP Trading Shanghai Co. Ltd., HP Trading Shanghai Co. Ltd. Dalian Branch, HP Trading Shanghai Co. Ltd. Zhangjiang Branch, HP UK Development Limited, HP US Digital LLC, HP USA Manufacturing LLC, HPCP  Computing and Printing Portugal Unipessoal Lda., HPI Bermuda Holdings LLC, HPI Brazil Holdings LLC, HPI Federal LLC, HPI J1 Holdings LLC, HPI Luxembourg LLC, HPQ Holdings LLC, Heartstream, Hewlett-Packard A.O., Hewlett-Packard Angola Lda., Hewlett-Packard Company Archives LLC, Hewlett-Packard Copenhagen B.V., Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P., Hewlett-Packard Enterprises LLC, Hewlett-Packard G.K., Hewlett-Packard Global Holdings B.V., Hewlett-Packard Global Investments B.V., Hewlett-Packard Industrial Printing Solutions Europe BV, Hewlett-Packard Ireland 1 Limited, Hewlett-Packard Ireland Holdings Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Japan Holding B.V., Hewlett-Packard Japan NK Holdings C.V., Hewlett-Packard KSA Ltd. Qatar Branch, Hewlett-Packard Lisbon B.V., Hewlett-Packard MENA FZ-LLC Libya Branch, Hewlett-Packard Mercator B.V., Hewlett-Packard Sunnyvale B.V., Hewlett-Packard West Indies Limited, Hewlett-Packard World Trade LLC, Hiflex Software, HyperX, IBRIX, IndiGo, Indigo America Inc., Iseo Holding B.V., Kale Holding B.V., Kale Holding B.V. Puerto Rico Branch LLC, Knightsbridge Solutions, Kopiervertrieb Rhein-Ruhr GmbH, Lefthand Networks, Limited Liability Company HP Inc, Logoworks, Lyra Holding B.V., MacDermid ColorSpan, ManageOne, Manzana Bidco Limited, Manzana Holdings Limited, Melodeo, Mercury Interactive, Metrix Network Systems, NUR Macroprinters, Neoware, Nihon HP Nin-I Kumiai, Novadigm, NuView ManageX, OOO Hewlett-Packard RUS, Office Perfection Limited, OneFlow Systems Limited, Opelin, Opelin, Open Skies, Opsware, Opsware, Optimization Systems, Optotech, OuterBay Technologies, OuterBay Technologies, PERSIST Technologies, PIXACO, PROLIN, PT Hewlett-Packard Indonesia, Palm, Palm, Peregrine Systems, Perigee Holdco UK Limited, Perigee Midco UK Limited, Perseus Holding B.V., PipeBeach, Poly, PolyServe, PrinterOn America Corporation, Printware Limited, Qosnetics, RLX Technologies, Regor Holding B.V., SPI Dynamics, Samsung Printing Solutions, Scitex, Scitex Vision, Scope Communications, Security Force Software, Shunra Software, Shunra Software, Silverwire Holding, Simpress Comercio Locacao e Servicos Ltda, Snapfish, StorageApps, Stratavia, Synstar, Tabblo, Talking Blocks, Tall Tree Insurance Company, Technology Partners, Telegra, Teradici Corporation, Teradici Inc., Teradici UK Limited, The Danwood Group Limited, The Technology Partners, Tower Software, Tower Software Engineering Pty Ltd, Transoft Networks, Trellis Software & Controls, Triaton, Trinagy, TruLogica, Trustgenix, VeriFone, Verifone, Versatest, Vertica Systems, Vital Technology Pte Ltd, Voltage Security, VoodooPC, Xact Document Solutions Limited, and Xera-Logic Group Limited.

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Luxfer Holdings PLC, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and supplies high-performance materials, components, and high-pressure gas containment devices for defense and emergency response, healthcare, transportation, and general industrial end-market applications. It operates in two segments, Elektron and Gas Cylinders. The Elektron segment focuses on specialty materials based on magnesium and zirconium. It provides magnesium alloys for use in variety of industries; magnesium powders for use in countermeasure flares, as well as heater meals; photoengraving plates for graphic arts; and zirconium-based materials and oxides used as catalysts and in the manufacture of advanced ceramics, fiber-optic fuel cells, and other performance products. The Gas Cylinders segment manufactures and markets specialized products using carbon composites and aluminum, including pressurized cylinders for use in various applications comprising self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) for firefighters, containment of oxygen, and other medical gases for healthcare, alternative fuel vehicles, and general industrial. Luxfer Holdings PLC has operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, rest of Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company was founded in 1898 and is based in Manchester, the United Kingdom.
Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its advice centers, RBC insurance stores, and mobile advisors; digital, mobile, and social platforms; independent brokers; and travel partners. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset servicing, custody, payments, and treasury services to financial and other investors; and fund and investment administration, shareholder, private capital, performance measurement and compliance monitoring, distribution, transaction banking, cash and liquidity management, foreign exchange, and global securities finance services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, advisory services, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, private equity firms, and governments. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
I have opinions on many things, but I do not tweet them.

If I must share, I voice the cream of the crop to Cheryl. I stay silent about the rest lest people begin to look at me strangely.

Yet here I am writing a column about Twitter, a distant also-ran to Facebook when it comes to absorbing my idle moments. If Twitter were a planet, it would be my Pluto. Facebook would be my Earth.

What prompts me is our president. Trump and his tweets have hijacked the national conversation on just about everything.

Biting the bullet, I began following @realDonaldTrump last week. I am now among his 35.6 million followers.

My first Trump tweet hit me in the gut. Fake News Media is out of control, Trump blasted.

No, no, no, I thought. YOU are out of control.

Then I calmed down. Its only a tweet, I thought. Im a big boy. If the president of the United States wants to attack the Napa Valley Register, so be it.

Then I got to wondering. If Trump can command national media with a steady barrage of micro messages, then what are our local politicians doing with Twitter?

Are our council members, our local supervisors, our legislators in Sacramento also going a little nutso?

First I checked out the Napa City Council. But for Juliana Inman and Doris Gentry, I didnt find much going on.

Peter Mott doesnt have a Twitter account. Scott Sedgley hasnt tweeted since June, 2012. Mayor Techel last tweeted in December 2014.

Inman is the councils Twitter champ, with over 6,000 tweets and more than 1,000 followers. Gentry, who only took office last winter, is approaching 2,000 tweets, with 120 followers.

Some Gentry tweets are little poems to Napa. love Napa we got it going she wrote while at a Tony Orlando concert. Before a council meeting she tweeted, let your voice be heard!

Inman tweets her whereabouts, thoughts about Robert E. Lee (a vicious slave owner and rebel) and also retweets news items, many with an anti-Trump theme.

The members of the Board of Supervisors are Twitter lightweights. Belia Ramos, 13 tweets since December; Alfredo Pedroza, 206 tweets over five years; Diane Dillon, 755 tweets in eight years; Ryan Gregory, 12 tweets since 2015; Brad Wagenknecht, one tweet on Aug. 1, 2013.

None of them tweets nasty. Most of it is deadly boring. Lots of shout-outs to people, events, organizations. Dillon often weighs in on pending legislation in Sacramento.

Our state reps, Assemblywoman Cecelia Aguiar-Curry and Senator Bill Dodd, post photos from cap and trade ceremonies, community fairs, appearances before Yolo County Realtors, tours of Fenway Park. After the violence in Charlottesville, both condemned white supremacists.

To find some sharper-edged political tweets from a local pol, you have to follow @RepThompson, who has nearly 18,000 followers, with 2,814 tweets since 2011.

A week ago he tweeted that he favored censuring President Trump for an inappropriate and offensive response to Charlottesville. That same day he also tweeted a shout-out to a car show that hed attended.

Thats Twitter for you. Happy tweets, angry tweets. Little moments frozen in time.

I called several of our local politicos to ask about their Twitter presences, or lack thereof.

Wagenknecht said he expects to add Twitter to his social media repertoire before he runs for re-election in 2018. People like to know youre interested in other people in this world, he said.

Describing herself as a news junkie, Inman said her Twitter feed keeps her in the swim of things. But while she will jab at Trump on Twitter, she wont follow him on Twitter. My head would explode, she said.

Mott said Twitter exceeds his tolerance for social media. I associate Twitter with Donald Trump, he said. Anything I can do to distance myself from that is good.

My own Twitter performance is nothing to brag about. Over five years, 440 followers, 298 tweets, almost all of them Napa Journal columns.

Unlike the presidents tweets, none of them has lit up the tweetosphere.
The NSIB has been investigating Delicia Gomez, 36, of Napa since the beginning of August after learning that she may have been selling heroin in Napa. Methadone, as well as a California ID card belonging to someone else, was found in her home on the 1100 block of Marina Way during a search warrant served on Aug. 10, officials said. Gomez was not arrested at the time, but the investigation into her alleged drug sale activities continued, culminating in an arrest warrant issued by the Napa County District Attorneys Office on Friday.
Best Buy Co., Inc. retails technology products in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Domestic and International. Its stores provide computing products, such as desktops, notebooks, and peripherals; mobile phones comprising related mobile network carrier commissions; networking products; tablets covering e-readers; smartwatches; and consumer electronics consisting of digital imaging, health and fitness, home theater, portable audio comprising headphones and portable speakers, and smart home products. The company's stores also offer appliances, such as dishwashers, laundry, ovens, refrigerators, blenders, coffee makers, and vacuums; entertainment products consisting of drones, peripherals, movies, music, and toys, as well as gaming hardware and software, and virtual reality and other software products; and other products, such as baby, food and beverage, luggage, outdoor living, and sporting goods. In addition, it provides consultation, delivery, design, health-related, installation, memberships, repair, set-up, technical support, and warranty-related services. The company offers its products through stores and websites under the Best Buy, Best Buy Ads, Best Buy Business, Best Buy Health, CST, Current Health, Geek Squad, Lively, Magnolia, Best Buy Mobile, Pacific Kitchen, Home, and Yardbird, as well as domain names bestbuy.com, currenthealth.com, lively.com, yardbird.com, and bestbuy.ca. As of January 30, 2022, it had 1,144 stores. The company was formerly known as Sound of Music, Inc. The company was incorporated in 1966 and is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota.
BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. It also provides global risk management and advisory services. The firm manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. It also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including structured funds. The firm launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and real estate mutual funds. It also launches equity, fixed income, balanced, currency, commodity, and multi-asset exchange traded funds. The firm also launches and manages hedge funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, currency, commodity, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap companies. It also invests in dividend-paying equity securities. The firm invests in investment grade municipal securities, government securities including securities issued or guaranteed by a government or a government agency or instrumentality, corporate bonds, and asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on bottom-up and top-down approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. In real estate sector, it seeks to invest in Poland and Germany. The firm benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against various S&P, Russell, Barclays, MSCI, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch indices. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; London, United Kingdom; Gurgaon, India; Hong Kong; Greenwich, Connecticut; Princeton, New Jersey; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, District of Columbia; Toronto, Canada; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Francisco, California.
Coeur Mining, Inc. explores for precious metals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold, silver, zinc, and lead properties. It holds 100% interests in the Palmarejo gold and silver mine covering an area of approximately 67,296 net acres located in the State of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico; the Rochester silver and gold mine that covers an area of approximately 43,441net acres situated in northwestern Nevada; the Kensington gold mine comprising 3,972 net acres located to the north of Juneau, Alaska; the Wharf gold mine covering an area of approximately 3,243 net acres situated in the northern Black Hills of western South Dakota; and the Silvertip silver-zinc-lead mine comprising 97,298 net acres located in northern British Columbia, Canada. In addition, the company owns interests in the Crown and Sterling projects located in southern Nevada; and the La Preciosa project located in Mexico. Further, it markets and sells its concentrates to third-party customers, smelters, under off-take agreements. The company was formerly known as Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation and changed its name to Coeur Mining, Inc. in May 2013.Coeur Mining, Inc. was incorporated in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
ST. HELENA  City officials learned an expensive lesson about an Environmental Impact Report at Tuesdays special joint meeting of the city council and planning commission.

The lesson, as Planning and Community Improvement Director Noah Housh summarized it, is: You cant write an EIR over a 10-year period.

Housh made the comment after telling officials the city would need to start over again on an EIR for the long-stalled General Plan update, a process that he estimated would take up to two years and probably cost $150,000-$300,000.

I am not able to bring the current document up to standards, Housh said.

The bad news came at the conclusion of Houshs report which traced the citys history of delay with the General Plan, a guiding document for all future development in cities required by the state constitution.

That delay, said Housh, has made the EIR that was completed and presented to the council in 2010, along with an updated General Plan, inadequate.

Seven years ago, Housh said in his report, concerns over adequacy of the citys water supply stalled the plan, consequently the EIR was not certified by city council.

Over the next four years multiple versions of the General Plan were drafted and revised, however, no action was taken to formally update the EIR, Housh said. The process was further complicated by staff turnover, according to Houshs report.

In 2015, a new planning director and two consultants were hired with the intention of completing both documents. The consultants were released the following year after drafting a partial EIR and the process was brought in-house for staff to complete.

After attempting to update the EIR for more than a year, staff determined significant and new technical information is necessary for the EIR to meet state requirements, Housh said. Fresh studies are needed in traffic impact, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality and noise levels, he reported.

Im very disappointed to be asking this of council, Housh concluded.

Planning Commission Chair Grace Kistner and Councilmember Mary Koberstein asked if it was necessary to start over. Couldnt a specialist be brought in to fix only the parts that are broken, making the process faster and less expensive?

Housh explained that any consultant is going to insist on an all-or-nothing contract, due to liability. The contractor, as a possible defendant in litigation, would insist on control over the whole document.

Planning Commissioner Bobbi Monnette wondered if it would be worthwhile getting other opinions on the situation.

That could be done, Housh said, with even more time and money and, ultimately, he believed, the same conclusion.

Housh said this doesnt mean all city improvements must stop. The council can still proceed with its priorities. The 2015 housing guidelines adopted by the city still apply, and the existing 1993 General Plan can be modified up to four times a year, according to the law.

Mayor Alan Galbraith reminded the group that the issue before them was limited to the EIR.

I dont see that we have a choice, Galbraith said. We need to go down this road to have a legally qualified EIR.

Council voted 5-0 to direct staff to draft a request for proposal for a qualified consultant.
Twitter, Inc. operates as a platform for public self-expression and conversation in real-time. The company's primary product is Twitter, a platform that allows users to consume, create, distribute, and discover content. It also provides promoted products that enable advertisers to promote brands, products, and services, as well as enable advertisers to target an audience based on various factors, including who an account follows and actions taken on its platform, such as Tweets created and engagement with Tweets. Its promoted products consist of promoted ads and Twitter Amplify, Follower Ads, and Twitter takeover. In addition, the company offers monetization products for creators, including Tips to directly send small one-time payments on Twitter using various payment methods, including bitcoin; Super Follows, a paid monthly subscription, which includes bonus content, exclusive previews, and perks as a way to support and connect with creators on Twitter; and Ticketed Spaces to support creators on Twitter for their time and effort in hosting, speaking, and moderating the public conversation on Twitter Spaces. Further, it offers products for developers and data partners comprising Twitter Developer Platform, a platform that enables developers to build tools for people and businesses using its public application programming interface; and paid access to Twitter data for partners with commercial use cases. Twitter, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is based in San Francisco, California.
Citigroup Inc. is one of the worlds largest financial institutions. It is the 13th largest bank globally by assets and 8th by market cap with operations in consumer and institutional banking. In the US, Citigroup is the 3rd largest bank by assets and one of the Big Four deemed systemically important and too big to fail.

Citigroup Inc. was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. The bank was run by Samuel Osgood who led the company with success for many years, even throughout the War of 1812. The bank was later renamed the National City Bank of New York in 1865 and by 1895 is the largest bank in the US. In 1913 it was the first contributor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a few years later it began to expand into overseas territories.

The bank became the First National City Bank of New York after another merger in 1955 and then later, the New York part was dropped off as part of the 150th-anniversary celebration. By 1974 the company is known as Citicorp which is still the operational branch of the business and a global banking powerhouse. A merger with Travelers insurance group in 1998 resulted in the name Citigroup but the joint venture did not last. By 2002 Travelers was publicly traded once again but Citigroup retained the new name.

Today, the company is headquartered in New York, New York but boasts more than 200 million customer accounts in 160 countries worldwide. As of mid-2022, it operated 2,649 branches in the United States, Mexico, and Asia. The company reports nearly 725 branches in the US and 1499 in Mexico with the rest scattered throughout its territory. Total annual revenue topped $75 billion in 2022.

Citigroup is a diversified financial services holding company that owns Citicorp among other assets. The companys mission is to serve as a trusted partner providing responsible financial solutions to its clients. Citigroup provides financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions. The company operates in two segments, Global Consumer Banking (GCB) and Institutional Clients Group (ICG).

The GCB segment offers traditional banking services including deposit and saving accounts, credit cards, personal loans, home loans, and investment services. This segment operates through local branches and digital means. The ICG segment offers wholesale banking products and services to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients.
For more than 40 years, the Lanuza family has been taking care of elderly folks  those on limited incomes and without deep pockets  at their Rosemont board and care home on Monticello Road in Napa.

Come Sept. 14, thats going to end. Family matriarch Helen Lanuza said the residential care facility for the elderly is closing.

Ironically, it was her own age that led to the decision.

Im getting so old, said Lanuza, who is now 87. I have to retire.

Rosemont residents were primarily over age 60. Some had dementia, Alzheimers disease or physical disabilities.

Most notably, Rosemont was one of only a few such homes in Napa that accepted residents who received Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The federal program gives a cash benefit to people who have disabilities and have low income and resources.

Rosemont residents typically paid between $1,026 and $1,046 per month for their care. Thats quite a bit less than other such facilities in the area, which can charge thousands of dollars more per month.

Its a hard decision to make, Lanuza said. Some residents have lived at Rosemont for 15 years, she said. They are just like family members.

For decades, Rosemont provided a crucial stop gap or support for folks who cant afford to pay the market rate for a residential care facility, said Joe Cherry, assistant public guardian with Napa County Health and Human Services.

The closure is a huge blow to the community, said Napan Yvonne Baginski, who works as an advocate for the elderly. Rosemont was a place where people could go when people didnt have many options.

Lanuza, who was born in the Philippines, said her family was committed to helping the elderly, especially those who couldnt afford to pay market rate prices for residential care.

That was my purpose  to help people, she said.

I sacrificed, she said. I dont buy serious things for myself. I always gave to my family.

The family, including her husband Edwin Lanuza, who passed away in 2016, helped run the business for many years.

The large home, built in the 1920s, features more than 11 bedrooms. Residents typically shared a room, said Lanuza.

We served a lot of people, but its a big sacrifice running this place, she said. Lanuza said she has spent thousands of dollars each month to keep the 7,000-square-foot home operating. In the colder months, the PG&E bill could run as high as $1,000 a month, she said.

Cherry represented a number of people who lived at Rosemont. The public guardian, or conservator, provides services for individuals who are unable to provide for their own basic food, clothing, and shelter needs.

Shes got a huge heart, Cherry said about Lanuza. You dont get into residential care for 40 years if you dont love it.

With Rosemont closing, there are few other such residential homes opening  especially those that cater to low-income residents. The rising cost of housing in Napa County and competition from larger corporations make it hard to start up, Cherry explained.

That leaves most of the residents with limited incomes to find a new home outside Napa, in areas such as Vallejo, Fairfield or Modesto.

Its not easy to find a home for people who are conserved by the state, Baginski said. Its so sad.

Rosemont provided a tremendous service to the community, she said.

This is one less option for people who are extremely low income or had mental health issues, said Baginski. This is a real blow to Napa. Many of the people living there had family here. Moving them to other communities is another blow.

As of mid-week, most of the homes 15 occupants had already moved out, with only two people remaining to be relocated.

One resident who has already moved is Russell Maillard, 65. Maillard now lives in a board and care home in Modesto.

It was the only place that had a space for him, his mother, Jo Maillard said.

Maillard, 94, explained that her son had lived at Rosemont for at least 10 years, maybe more. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic many years ago, and his care is directed by the county, she said.

Rosemont is a beautiful place, well kept, with lovely furniture, landscaping and decor, she said.

The California State Department of Social Services regularly inspected Rosemont. Only two serious violations were recorded in the past several years. For example, on one visit, the hot water at Rosemont was found to be 2 degrees warmer than the highest range allowed. One complaint noted an altercation between two staff that occurred in front of residents.

Maillard said her son was happy there, although the Monticello Road location was a bit isolated for walking or riding his bike.

She was stunned to hear of the closing. It was a total surprise. Having him move to Modesto was a shock, said Maillard, who doesnt drive.

The move means I just wont be able to see him. I dont expect people to drive me to Modesto. I have many wonderful friends but I wouldnt ask anybody to do that.

There may be opportunities for her son to travel to Napa on occasion, but that wont happen very often, she fears.

In the meantime, Russell Maillards county caseworker can look for a home closer to Napa, his mother noted.

I try to think positively, but Im missing him, said Maillard. We are very close.

Maillard said she was able to visit her son before he left, to say goodbye.

I told him I loved him. And that I would miss him and I would get him a cell phone. And that I would talk to him, said Maillard.

Lanuza said the family may sell their home, or perhaps consider renting rooms like a traditional boarding house.

For now, she hopes to spend some time traveling.

I have my family in Hayward, she said. I would like to visit them.
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Ltd., ABB d.o.o., ABB eMobility Digital Venture GmbH, ABB for Electrical Industries (ABB ARAB) S.A.E., ABB for Electrical Solutions and Technologies K.S.C.C., ABB s.r.o., ABB s.r.o., ABBNG Limited, APS Technology Group, ASEA BROWN BOVERI Portugal Unipessoal Lda, ASTI France SAS, ASTI Mobile Robotics, Asea Brown Boveri Electrica SGPS (Angola) Limitada, Asea Brown Boveri Industrial Technical & CommercialCompany of Imports  Exports S.A., Asea Brown Boveri Lanka (Private) Limited, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., Asea Brown Boveri S.A., Asea Brown Boveri S.A. de C.V., Asea Brown Boveri S.A.E., Asti Mobile Robotics GmbH, Asti Mobile Robotics Group SL, Asti Mobile Robotics SAU, B & R Automazione Industriale S.r.l., B & R Industrial Automation Ltd., B + R Industrie-Elektronik GmbH, B&R Automatyka Przemyslowa Sp.z.o.o., B&R Automacao Industrial Ltda., B&R Holding GmbH, B&R Industrial Automation, B&R Industrial Automation (China) Co. 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Ltd., Turbo Systems Verwaltungs Ltd, Turbocharging Bangladesh Limited, Turbocharging Brasil Ltda., Turbocharging Systems Co. Ltd., Turbocharging Systems France SAS, Turbocharging UK Limited, Turbosystems Nigeria Limited LTD, Validus DC Systems, Vectek Electronics, Ventyx, Verdi Holding Corporation, W.J. Furse & Co. Ltd., Yangzhou SAC Switchgear Co. Ltd, and Zhejiang Chargedot New Energy Technology Co. Ltd..

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The future of the cannabis industry in Napa County and its cities is still uncertain despite the passing of Proposition 64 last year. Local leaders met again this week to discuss the possibilities during a meeting of the Napa Countywide Cannabis Roundtable.

Some members of the roundtable, including Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Belia Ramos, recently headed out to Oakland to tour cannabis-related facilities. Ramos concern after touring the facilities was that there is very little regulation when it comes to marijuana edibles.

Its mostly an industry thats left to its own devices, she said at the meeting held in Napa on Friday.

American Canyon Mayor Leon Garcia echoed her concern, saying the packaging for edibles  including lollipops and baked goods  isnt child-proof like prescription drugs are. Instead, he said, they look appealing to children.

Paul Dohring, St. Helena City Councilman, said he was concerned about the lack of testing facilities.

If the number of testing labs doesnt increase, it could mean delays, said Conrad Gregory, director of government relations at Harborside Health Center in Oakland, one of the toured facilities. Testing will be required for everything, he said.

Harborside isnt the average dispensary, Gregory said. In addition to medicinal marijuana, the health center offers wellness classes like yoga as well as support programs for things like cancer and substance misuse. The center is already busy with limited parking at both its facilities and expects to see a new demographic of recreational users when the new law goes into effect, Gregory said. Traffic will see at least a 50 percent increase if not doubling, he said.

The potential boom in business is concerning to Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning, roundtable co-chair, who is afraid of the burden that will be put on small municipalities like Calistoga.

If retailers have to be a certain distance away from schools, preferably in a commercial location with adequate parking, there are limited opportunities in Calistoga, Canning said.

The permit process was also a concern of his since, as it was explained during the meeting, it seems that the state would like local jurisdictions to act as a filter  meaning that retailers would get their permits first from local jurisdictions before attempting to receive their state permits.

Vehicle traffic and parking was another hot topic of the meeting, leading Ramos to ask Gregory if Harborside has considered having a drive-thru pharmacy. The question as to whether or not that was legally a possibility didnt seem to be answered.

Despite being well attended, only a few individuals spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Will they be issuing cultivation permits in 2018? asked Donalee Shackleford. Supervisor Ryan Gregory, roundtable co-chair, said he doesnt know yet.

Napa resident Robin Rowe also spoke, just to let her local officials know how much residents need cannabis-related facilities in the county. Rowe has an epileptic daughter who takes medical marijuana. When she needs more, Rowe is required to go into other counties to get her daughters medicine.

Were way behind the times, Rowe said after the meeting. The medicine is a lifesaver  I wish theyd hurry up. By having retailers in the county, she said, taxpayers will not only save money but there will be an increase in revenue.

The roundtable will meet again on Sept. 25 to discuss public health and safety, and tax, revenue and banking issues.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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Critics of the movement to remove Confederate monuments often come back to the question: where will it end? As President Donald Trump asked, if we take down statues of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, will we then have to take down statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, too?

Supporters of monument removal have not always been persuasive when responding to this slippery-slope argument. They are wary of admitting that it will be difficult to reject the Lost Cause - the collection of historical myths meant to whitewash the hard truths of slavery and the Civil War - without rejecting American nationalism.

And they're right to be wary because the Lost Cause was itself a project of American nationalism. Many Americans felt it was necessary to adopt the myths of the Lost Cause to heal the wounds of the Civil War and rebuild the nation - even if this meant leaving African Americans behind. American nationalism and the Lost Cause are therefore tightly woven together, and unweaving them will require careful attention and honest conversation. Those who want to remove Lost Cause iconography from the public square must do the hard work of that unweaving or else the slippery-slope argument will be nearly insurmountable.

Those who wish to separate the Founders from the Confederates point out that while Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, they also did much good, and their monuments commemorate the good they did, not the evils they failed to overcome. Indeed, the principles of democracy and equality they espoused later emboldened the abolitionist movement and ultimately doomed the institution of slavery.

This argument is undermined, however, by the presence of more radical voices, particularly black voices, who reject it as slavery apologetics. We cannot, they argue, set apart some people as "good" slaveholders and others as "bad" slaveholders, or else we obscure the evil of slaveholding itself. Broderick Greer, an Episcopal priest in Memphis, has said plainly: "Enslavers don't deserve public reverence." Al Sharpton has even called for the public defunding of the Jefferson Memorial.

Others adopt a different tactic: emphasizing that the Confederates were traitors. Davis and Lee, both U.S. Military Academy grads, betrayed their oaths to "defend the Constitution of the United States." Though many of the Founders owned slaves, and many other American heroes were white supremacists, at least they did not betray their country.

But the traitor argument assumes an understanding of loyalty and nationality that historians are usually uncomfortable with, one that takes only the view of the victors into account. From the British point of view, what Washington and Jefferson did in leading the American Revolution was nothing short of treason. From the Confederates' point of view, meanwhile, seceding from the United States was their way of staying true to the Founders' vision of American liberty.

That sense of continuity with the Founders was an essential part of the Confederate argument. A delegate at the Confederate Constitutional Convention proposed they name their new nation the Republic of Washington. Davis was inaugurated on Washington's birthday and proclaimed that the Confederacy would "perpetuate the principles of our Revolutionary fathers." According to secessionists, the Founders, whatever their reservations, had left slavery intact, and it was Lincoln's Republican Party that had violated this agreement and betrayed the Constitution.

And the Confederates had good reason to believe this rationale. The United States had not only been a slaveholding nation for nearly a century. It also presided over the forceful removal of Native Americans. This deep vein of American racism continued after the Civil War with the mass murder of Filipino insurrectionaries and the internment of Americans of Japanese descent. Both Confederate nationalism and American nationalism centered on a celebration of white supremacy.

In fact, this shared commitment to white supremacy made reunion possible after the Civil War, at the expense of justice for African Americans. Many Americans believed it was necessary for the health of the nation to let bygones be bygones and reintegrate white southerners into the body politic. For white northerners, this meant abandoning Reconstruction - the period when the federal government intervened to protect freed people's lives and rights - and ceding the "Negro question" to white southerners, who quickly erected a system of segregation backed by anti-black terrorism.

It also meant rewriting history. In this new version, slavery was benign instead of cruel, and the Confederates seceded to preserve states' rights rather than slavery. (Few thought to ask why the second assertion was necessary if the first was true.) Like slavery and the war, Reconstruction too was whitewashed. At the war's end, white northerners initially saw "carpetbaggers" - northern migrants to the South - as heroic crusaders who would transform the South into a land of free labor and free soil. Within a decade, however, they turned against the carpetbaggers, recasting them as invaders who only wished to fleece the South and provoke the black population into a potential race war.

A reunification of the nation that failed to fully address the legacies of slavery was only justifiable if the war had not been about slavery. Instead, the war became God's way of strengthening the nation. Thomas F. Gailor, the Episcopal bishop of Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century, claimed that before the Civil War, Americans said that the United States "are"; after the war, they said "the United States is." The persistence of this narrative can be seen in Ken Burns's 1990 documentary "The Civil War," in which the novelist Shelby Foote, with his mesmerizing Mississippi drawl, repeated Gailor's claim about "is" and "are." Burns echoed this story in several interviews and considered it the essence of his documentary's story.

In this imagining of the war, it mattered little what either side had fought for. What mattered was that they had fought, and that out of the bloodshed emerged a new nation. It was in this vein that Americans celebrated the service of white southern men, including a former Confederate general, in the Spanish-American War, when the United States became a traditional imperial power.

It was also in this vein that D.W. Griffith titled his white-supremacist propaganda film about the Civil War and Reconstruction, "The Birth of a Nation," which audiences in the North and the South made the first American blockbuster. And it was in this vein that Trump implied that Lee was a Founding Father - a man who helped shed the blood that gave birth to a stronger nation.

Perhaps the United States did not need to abandon the cause of emancipation and adopt the Lost Cause myth to reintegrate the South. Perhaps it did not need to choose reunion of white Americans over justice for black Americans to get past the war and become the greatest economic and imperial force in the world. But we'll never know, because that's what it did. This is why those who want to take down Confederate monuments have a hard time reconciling it with their dedication to American nationalism. This is why they are not sure whether to declare, "This is not us!" in the wake of white-supremacist violence, or to say, sadly, "This is us."

They are afraid of where this kind of talk might end.
The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: 17111 Waterview Pkwy LLC, ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Acme Aerospace, Acme Aerospace Inc., Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Angus Electronics Co., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Armtec Countermeasures Co., Armtec Countermeasures TNO Co., Armtec Defense Products Co., Auxitrol SAS, Auxitrol Weston Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Auxitrol Weston Services China Ltd., Auxitrol Weston Singapore Pte. Ltd., Auxitrol Weston USA Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments LLC, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp LLC, CEF Industries LLC, CMC Electronics Aurora LLC, CMC Electronics Inc., CMC Electronics ME Inc., Champion Aerospace LLC, Chelton Avionics Holdings Inc., Chelton Avionics Inc., Chelton Limited, Cobham Aero Connectivity, Cobham CTS Limited, Cobham Defence Communications Limited, Cobham Defense Products Inc., DART Aerospace, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, Darchem Engineering Limited, Darchem Holdings Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., EST Defence Company UK Limited, Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Esterline Acquisition Ltd, Esterline Europe Company LLC, Esterline Foreign Sales Corporation, Esterline International Company, Esterline Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Corporation, Esterline Technologies Europe Limited, Esterline Technologies France Holding SAS, Esterline Technologies French Acquisition Limited, Esterline Technologies Global Limited, Esterline Technologies Holdings Limited, Esterline Technologies SGIP LLC, Esterline Technologies Unlimited, Esterline do Brasil Assessoria e Intermediacao Ltda, European Antennas Limited, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, Guizhou Leach-Tianyi Aviation Electrical Company Ltd, Harco, HarcoSemco LLC, Hartwell Corporation, Hytek Finishes Co., ILC Holdings Inc., IRVIN AEROSPACE LIMITED, IrvinGQ France SAS, IrvinGQ Limited, Janco Corporation, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Korry Electronics Co., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Leach Holding Corporation, Leach International Asia-Pacific Ltd, Leach International Corporation, Leach International Europe S.A.S., Leach International Germany GmbH, Leach International Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., Leach International UK Ltd, Leach Mexico Holding LLC, Leach Technology Group Inc., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., Mason Electric Co., Mastsystem Int'l Oy, McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S. de R.L. de C.V., NAT Seattle Inc., NMC Group Inc., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, Nordisk Aviation Products LLC, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas LLC, Norwich Aero Products Inc., Palomar Products Inc., Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Pressure Systems International Ltd, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller LLC, Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics Industries, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TA Aerospace Co., TA Mfg Limited, TDG Bavaria GmbH, TDG ESL Holdings Inc., TDG France Ultimate Parent SAS, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Telair International, Telair International GmbH, Telair International Services PTE Ltd, Telair US LLC, TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm Canada ULC, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm Technologies India Private Limited, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Wallop Defence UK Limited, Weston Aerospace Ltd, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, Young & Franklin Inc., and exas Rotronics Inc..

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NextEra Energy, Inc. is the largest electric utility holding company in the US. It operates a network of power generation and distribution facilities that include fossil-fuel-generated and green energy. As of mid-2022, the company was capable of generating 58 GW of electricity with nearly 60% of the load produced by green sources including wind and solar. In their view, going green isnt an option, its the solution. NextEra Energy has been recognized multiple times as a leader in clean energy and ESG practices and was ranked the #1 electric and gas utility on the Forbes list of Most Admired Companies.

The company is the result of several mergers that begin with FPL Group. FPL Group is now a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and the third-largest provider of electricity in the US servicing nearly half of Florida. FPL and its affiliates are the single largest provider of renewable energy generated from wind and sun. The group changed its name in 2010 following a decision to shift focus onto renewable energy sources.

Today, NextEra Energy, Inc through its subsidiary FPL serves about 12 million people in eastern and southwestern Florida. The company employs nearly 14,900 people who service 5.8 million accounts. The company is in business to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to retail and wholesale clients. Electricity is generated through wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, and coal-fired facilities.

The company is also engaged in the construction and operation of new facilities, specifically renewable power generation, storage, and delivery facilities, and can offer custom solutions tailored to any need. Offerings include tailored services to assist businesses with their transition to clean energy.

NextEra Energy also owns and operates 7 nuclear power stations in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin generating power for the wholesale market.

Unlike other companies that are targeting net-zero emissions, NextEra Energy has a plan to reach real zero and is investing heavily to reach that goal by 2045. The company had invested nearly $50 billion in green energy infrastructure and initiatives by mid-2022. The plan is to first work on reducing its own emissions and then take its knowledge and expertise to the world.
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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On bank board

Ron Rauschenberger, of Bismarck, has joined the board of directors of First Western Bank & Trust.

Rauschenberger, a former chief of staff for Govs. John Hoeven and Jack Dalrymple, was a special adviser to Gov. Doug Burgum. He retired from public service and has started a consulting business.

Two recognized

The GA Group law firms two attorneys have received recognition from Great Plains Super Lawyers.

Joel Gilbertson has been named a 2016 Super Lawyer in the area of government relations. The list is compiled from the top 5 percent of the attorneys in each state.

Levi Andrist has been named a 2016 Great Plains Rising Star. Rising Stars make up no more than 2.5 percent of the attorneys in the state.

Wiedrich certified

Sara Wiedrich, a family nurse practitioner at CHI St. Alexius Health Heart & Lung Clinic, has earned certified diabetes educator status after an examination.

Wiedrich earned bachelor's and master's in nursing degrees from the University of Mary and is board certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Schmaltz selected

Jane Schmaltz has become director of surgical services at CHI St. Alexius Health Bismarck.

She had been the interim director of surgical services at Alexius Health since April.

Schmaltz received a degree in nursing from the University of Cincinnati.

HIT honors three

Tonya Turner, Alyson Downs and Chelsey Richter were selected for the Achieved Excellence Award for the second quarter at HIT Inc. in Mandan.

Turner is a medical support professional in the developmental disabilities support program and has been employed at HIT for more than four years.

Downs is an occupational therapist at Dakota Alpha long-term care brain injury rehabilitation facility and has worked there for more than a year.

Richter is an assistant manager in the residential program and has been employed at HIT for eight years.

Employees of year

Five people have been named Sanford Health Employees of the Year for the Bismarck region. Nominations come from staff and management.

Recipients, their position and their awards are Wanda Wahl, executive assistant, Arlys Nelson Executive Assistant of the Year; Cristie Dockter, manager, respiratory therapy, Management Employee of the Year; Jessica M. Leingang, registered nurse, procedures ambulatory, Clinical Employee of the Year; Delphine Marshall, senior marketing specialist, Support Services Employee of the Year; and Dr. Eric Hart, physician, podiatry, Physician of the Year.

Promoted, hired

Lanny Harris, Michelle Miller and Mike Ross have been promoted, and Stacey Breuer hired, all at KLJ in Bismarck.

Harris and Ross are now divisional finance directors.

Harris joined KLJ more than 25 years ago and most recently was chief operating officer for Progress Solutions, a former subsidiary of KLJs parent company.

Ross began working for KLJ in 2012 and most recently served as a business financial analyst.

Miller and Breuer are divisional human resources directors.

Miller began working at KLJ more than seven years ago. She most recently was the companys recruiting manager, a role she will continue to serve part-time.

Breuer is also the corporate training manager. She has nearly 20 years of leadership, training, change management and business strategy experience.

New at Kupper

Five people have been hired by Kupper Chevrolet-Subaru, Mandan.

Dakota Boehm is an estimator at Kupper Auto Body & Glass and Sebastian Schroeder is a body shop technician.

New sales and leasing consultants are Daniel MacArthur, at Kupper Chevrolet, and Charlie Bell, at Kupper Subaru.

Jacob Rust is a technician at Kupper Subaru.

Closings leaders

Shirley Thomas and Tori Mathern had the most closed sales in July at Bianco Realty and were designated Realtors of the month.

De Kok as counsel

Amy De Kok has been hired as in-house legal counsel for the North Dakota School Boards Association, effective Sept. 18.

De Kok has been an attorney and shareholder at Fredrikson & Byron since 2010.

She holds a bachelors degree from North Dakota State University and a juris doctor degree from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.

Steele with HEI

Mark Steele is working full time again at Houston Engineering Inc. in Bismarck as a CAD designer.

Steele is a Bismarck native with an associate's degree in architectural drafting and estimating technology from North Dakota State College of Science, a certificate in GIS from Bismarck State College and a bachelor's degree in technical education from Valley City State University.

Steele worked at HEI before becoming a teacher at BSC and continuing with HEI as an intern.

Two join staff

Drs. Steve Inglish and Jon Solberg have joined CHI St. Alexius Healths Emergency & Trauma Center in Bismarck.

Both received medical degrees from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Inglish completed his emergency medicine residency at University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.

Solberg completed his emergency medicine residency at Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis, Wash. He is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Thiem included

Rebecca S. Thiem, with Serkland Law Firm in Bismarck, has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2018 in the practice areas of arbitration and commercial litigation.
Winery owners and winemakers are the rock stars of the Napa Valley wine scene. They are the ones whose names you know; they are the ones profiled in glossy magazines and gauzy television shows.

But as we enter another harvest season, it is worth remembering who it is who makes the Napa Valley wine industry possible  the thousands of farm workers who tend our vineyards and harvest our grapes.

For the most part they toil in anonymity, but they are vital to the health of the vines, not just at harvest but throughout the year, from pruning in the winter to maintenance and thinning in the summer to harvest in the fall.

This is hard manual labor, but it is also skilled labor. It requires an expert eye, a deep knowledge of the vines, and a deft touch to produce grapes at the level that Napa Valley winemakers demand and expect for their raw material.

That is why the Napa Valley farm worker community is so different than the traditional stereotype of farm labor as migratory and transient, dominated by men traveling alone or in groups.

Instead, the workers in Napas vineyards are increasingly year-round residents of the county, or they live permanently in nearby counties and commute in, the same as workers in other industries. Also, increasingly, the vineyards are attracting female workers.

Napa Valleys grape growing industry has recognized the change in its work force  from traditional migrant labor to a settled, specialized community.

The needs of farm workers have been an issue for the Napa Valley Grapegrowers from the moment it was founded in 1975, but it has become an increasing priority in the last decade. In 2008, the association began the annual STOMP fundraiser, which funds its programs for farm workers, and in 2011 the association spun off the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation, dedicated specifically to the issues associated with preserving and developing the workers, the first of its kind in the nation.

Since 2011, the Foundation has raised about $3 million to support professional development opportunities for vineyard workers. Most prominently it has offered English language courses for Spanish-speaking workers, but it has also offered courses in leadership and management and skills such as pruning and forklift certification. It has sponsored courses on safety and on etiquette and harassment to ease problems in mixed-gender work crews. It sponsors the annual pruning contest to recognize professional excellence among the workers.

And it doesnt just embrace the workers themselves, but also their families, offering classes on topics such as Navigating the American School System and sponsoring the annual Dia de la Familia festival.

The Register editorial board met with Foundation leadership recently and we were impressed with their vision of creating a sustainable and skilled workforce in the field and for integrating the workers and their families into the wider community. Their mission includes building a sense of pride and professionalism in the vineyards and raising the workers public profile and prestige so younger workers will be attracted to grape farming as a viable and honorable career.

The Foundation is also developing as a voice in political and economic discussions of how to provide affordable housing for these workers and their families as the workforce evolves beyond the traditional dorm-style housing offered at existing farm worker centers.

Based on our meeting, we are pleased with the work the Foundation is doing and we are impressed with the development of our farm worker community.

We commend the Foundation on its efforts on behalf of these workers, and we urge all of you not already involved in the grape and wine industries to recognize and celebrate the important part these workers play in making the Napa Valley what it is.
Its harvest in the Napa Valley, one of the most exciting times of the year. Its also a time when we get many questions at the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) about whats behind each bottle of Napa Valley wine.

When is harvest?

Typically, harvest starts by mid-August and ends by mid-November, but there are always exceptions. The timing is dependent on many factors: the weather during growing season as well as the previous winter; the location of the vineyard within Napa Valley  the southern part is cooled by the bay and the middle part is warmer; and the grape variety  pinot noir and aromatic white grapes like sauvignon blanc usually ripen first, while cabernet sauvignon needs more time on the vine.

What gets harvested?

Cabernet sauvignon accounts for about 40 percent of the volume and 60 percent of the value of the total crop in Napa Valley, but more than three dozen fine wine grape varieties flourish here. Chardonnay is the most abundant white wine grape. Other varieties include merlot, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir and syrah, but there are many others, from albarino to zinfandel. According to the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner, last years harvest yielded more than 150,000 tons of grapes valued at nearly $730 million.

Does Napa Valley grow most of Californias wine grapes?

Most people are surprised to learn that while Napa Valley is famous around the world for making high quality wines, we produce just 4 percent of all the wine grapes in California. Another surprise? Only 9 percent of Napa County is planted to wine grapes.

Who picks Napa Valleys grapes?

Vineyard workers are the heart of the Napa Valley wine community. These men and women not only help harvest the grapes each fall, but work all year to ensure the quality of our wines. They prune the vines in winter, manage the vine canopy in the spring and summer for optimal grape growth and ripening, drop fruit before harvest leaving only the best clusters on the vine and then pick the grapes once they are ripe.

After harvest, they help get the vineyards ready for winter by taking steps to prevent soil erosion and ensuring the vines are ready to go dormant. Napa Valley is famous for precision farming requiring highly-skilled, highly-trained, well-compensated laborers. Most wineries offer benefits, like bonuses, health care, retirement savings and continuing education.

Who makes Napa Valleys wines?

Our winemakers are also highly skilled. Many are graduates of the renowned U.C. Davis viticulture and enology program, and its not unusual for them to work many harvests here or in other parts of the world before they land a permanent winemaking job. Some winemakers are employed by one winery while others are consultants for multiple clients. Nearly 20 percent of NVV member wineries have a female winemaker.

Where can I learn more?

Follow the action at harvestnapa.com. Read regular harvest updates, see continuous social media coverage from vineyards and crush pads, view videos about how wine is made, get a glimpse into some local harvest traditions and download songs that help keep our winemakers and vineyard crews going during their busiest time of year. You dont have to work for a winery to experience the excitement of Napa Valleys harvest.
Apple has asked the Indian government to provide its suppliers with tax breaks.

Government officials have noted that implementing tax breaks for component suppliers would require a new policy that applied to all device manufacturers.

In May, the US firm began manufacturing iPhone SE devices in India, making it the second country after China where iPhones are assembled. The devices are produced at a facility in Bengaluru (Bangalore) set up by Apples contract manufacturer Wistron, after an agreement was reached in February to begin making lower-priced iPhones in India.

Prior to beginning production, Apple had requested a number of tax incentives, including a waiver of custom duties on importing components and equipment for fifteen years, and exemption from local sourcing requirements. The Department of Revenue rejected these demands but the firm went ahead with production regardless.

Indias government has however teased the possibility of incentives  potentially by pegging them to job creation. In June, the government asked Apple to lay out its long-term investment plans for Indian smartphone manufacturing, including an estimate of the number of jobs it would create. The government has stated that it is reviewing its manufacturing policy to encourage foreign investment and drive support for the Make in India campaign that has been spearheaded by the government of Prime Minster Narendra Modi.

Apple is bringing itself in line with the local content requirements stipulated by the Make in India campaign. The initiative aims to encourage domestic manufacturing, and has resulted in an estimated 75% of devices sold in India being assembled locally. In 2016, 2.5 million iPhones were shipped in India, with a third of these sold during Q4.

India has surpassed the US to become the worlds second largest smartphone market, after China.
A division of the taxpayer-owned RBS bank which was meant to help companies in trouble mistreated many of its clients but did not try to profit from their distress, according to a leaked report by the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority. According to the report, seen by the BBC, investigators found inappropriate action by Global Restructuring Group (GRG) was experienced by 92% of viable firms they dealt with. - Observer

The government has been urged to scrap HS2 and instead invest billions in futuristic hyperloop transport technology to boost the economy of northern England. Hyperloop systems, which are being developed by US entrepreneurs including Tesla founder Elon Musk, are magnetically levitating pods that travel through a vacuum tunnel at speeds close to the sound barrier  potentially putting Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds or Newcastle within about 30 minutes of the capital. - Sunday Times

Almost a million EU citizens working in Britain  many of them young, highly qualified and much sought-after by businesses  are either planning to leave the country or have already made up their minds to go as a result of Brexit, a study has found. A survey of 2,000 EU workers in Britain by KPMG, the professional services firm, found that 55% of those with PhDs and 49% of those with postgraduate degrees were either planning to go or were actively considering it. - Observer

Labour is promoting itself as the party of soft Brexit with a new policy of keeping the UK in the EU single market and customs union, perhaps indefinitely. The government has indicated it will seek a limited transitional arrangement with the EU after Britain leaves in March 2019. The Labour shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, said last night that under a Labour government the UK could stay in the single market and the customs union if a deal could be struck with the EU over freedom of movement. - Sunday Times

Theresa May is under pressure to reassure Japanese companies over the likely impact of Britains exit from the European Union on their UK investments when she visits Tokyo this week. The prime minister will arrive on Wednesday on a three-day trip that is expected to include a meeting with Emperor Akihito and free-trade talks with her Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. - Observer

Young Britons hoping a house price crash will let them buy a home could see their dreams thwarted, leading economists warn. David Miles, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and now a professor at London's Imperial College, and colleague James Sefton argue in an influential report that house prices could continue to defy gravity. The two say home values will carry on rising until the typical property costs 15 times the average income. - Mail on Sunday

A government-backed plan to create four new British biotech titans  each worth more than 20bn  is to be unveiled this week. Sir John Bell, a world-renowned Oxford University professor and adviser to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will reveal his recommendations for an industrial strategy for the life sciences sector in Birmingham on Wednesday, with industry sources suggesting he will advocate tax breaks and direct state investment to give additional support to Britains 60bn life sciences industry. - Sunday Times

It may not be glamorous, but Stevenage is set to become a world-leading centre for gene therapies, the new wave of pioneering treatments that hold great promise for tackling illnesses such as cancer and rare diseases. On the outskirts of the somewhat drab Hertfordshire town, a Government-backed drug development factory is springing up that covers an area the size of the pitch at Wembley Stadium. It will house start-ups dedicated to the fast-growing branch of gene medicine, which fights illnesses by modifying genetic code. - Sunday Telegraph

AstraZeneca, Britains second-largest drugmaker, has decided to expand its biggest UK factory after reversing a decision to put investment plans on hold because of Brexit uncertainty. The move, worth tens of millions of pounds, will be a boost for Britains 60bn life sciences industry. It is expected to be announced this week to coincide with the governments launch of its industrial strategy for the sector in Birmingham on Wednesday. - Observer

A new class of drugs which could prevent thousands of heart attacks and deaths from cancer has been hailed as the biggest breakthrough since statins. Scientists last night said the discovery ushered in a new era of therapeutics which work in an entirely different way to conventional treatment, with Novartis' canakinumab drug halving the chances of dying from cancer and protected against gout and arthritis. - Sunday Telegraph

The multi-billion pound insurance industry, which ridiculously badges itself as a national success story, is discriminating against millions of loyal customers in the relentless pursuit of new business. A major probe into the seedy world of insurance by The Mail on Sunday, based on the views of hundreds of readers, shows widespread disillusionment among many former longstanding customers of some of the biggest insurance brands in the country.

Traditional broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Sky could lose a combined 1bn per year if rival services from Amazon, Facebook and YouTube become dominant players in the TV industry over the next decade. A new report says that UK broadcasters could suffer the same fate as industries including music, news, insurance and property where powerful digital newcomers  including Apple, Google, YouTube, Moneysupermarket and Rightmove  muscled in as middlemen to take a significant share of revenues. - Observer

Estee Lauder shares flirted with all-time highs last week amid speculation the make-up giant is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs and Evercore on a sale, following a takeover approach worth more than $40bn (31bn). Reports suggest several other consumer good giants, such as FTSE 100-listed Unilever, are now looking at taking part in any Estee Lauder sale process. - Sunday Times

The internet is very, very early on in its evolution and is about to be unleashed on a swathe of industries so far untouched by its power for disruption, according to one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley. In an exclusive interview, Marc Andreessen, the billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of revolutionary web browser Netscape, said the next wave of technological disruption will have an impact on sectors previously thought safe from its reach  including law, medicine and construction. A steep drop in start-up costs is encouraging innovation, he said. - Sunday Times

A new register naming firms that find themselves under shareholder pressure over executive pay is to be launched later this year as part of government plans aimed at curbing boardroom excess and increasing transparency. In what was described by the government as a world first, the new register will name firms where a fifth of investors have objected to proposed executive annual pay packages. - Observer

Easyjet has been accused of inventing an air traffic control strike to avoid paying out thousands of pounds in compensation for a cancelled flight. The low-cost airline initially blamed the cancellation of its Gatwick to Belfast flight on industrial action, and turned down claims for compensation, however, no air traffic control strikes took place on June 23, the day of the flight. - Sunday Times

Two global cigarette giants are preparing a rescue plan for the tobacco wholesaler Palmer and Harvey (P&H), as it teeters on the brink of collapse. Imperial Brands, the owner of Lambert & Butler, and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which makes Silk Cut, are understood to have hired restructuring advisers at Deloitte and EY to assemble a rescue package for the business, which supplies 90,000 shops. - Sunday Times

Admiral Taverns, one of Britains biggest pub chains, is set to be sold to a US investment fund for 220m. Admiral, which owns more than 1,000 pubs across the country, is in advanced sale talks with New York fund Proprium Capital, sources said. The move comes after its owner, the hedge fund Cerberus, launched an auction process earlier in the summer. - Sunday Times

Crisis-hit Provident Financial could be forced to pay more than 200m compensation to customers for mis-selling products said to be similar to payment protection insurance (PPI). Shares in the 137-year-old lender crashed by two-thirds last week  one of the largest single-day falls recorded by a FTSE 100 company  after it admitted a new technology system and an overhaul of its lending business had wiped out profits. - Sunday Times

Peter Crook, the Provident Financial boss, raked in more than 35m during his decade as chief executive of the troubled doorstep lender, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal, a sum likely to anger investors sitting on huge losses following its startling meltdown. Mr Crook leaves behind what was one of the Footsies best paid chief executive jobs with an annual pay packet 40pc higher than the average salary. He earned 6.3m last year, and 7.5m in 2015, when the business was admitted to the FTSE 100.

Britains wild bumblebees are being wiped out by neonicotinoid pesticides, say two new studies that found the chemicals attack the insects nervous systems. One, at Royal Holloway, University of London, found thiamethoxam stopped bumblebee queens starting new colonies. - Sunday Times
Barcelona, Spain - 27 Aug 2017: High salt intake is associated with a doubled risk of heart failure, according to a 12-year study in more than 4 000 people presented today at ESC Congress.1

"High salt (sodium chloride) intake is one of the major causes of high blood pressure and an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke," said Prof Pekka Jousilahti, research professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland. "In addition to CHD and stroke, heart failure is one of the major cardiovascular diseases in Europe and globally but the role of high salt intake in its development is unknown."

This study assessed the relationship of salt intake and the development of heart failure. Estimation of individual salt intake is methodologically demanding and therefore suitable population-based cohorts are rare. This study used 24 hour sodium extraction, which is considered the gold standard for salt intake estimation at individual level.

This was a prospective follow-up study of 4 630 randomly selected men and women aged 25 to 64 years at baseline who participated in the North Karelia Salt Study and the National FINRISK Study between 1979 and 2002 in Finland. Baseline data collection included a self-administered questionnaire on health behaviour, measurements of weight, height and blood pressure, a venous blood sample for laboratory analysis, and collection of a 24 hour urine sample.

At the study site, nurses measured urine volume and took a 100 ml sample for laboratory analysis. One gram of salt intake was calculated as equal to 17.1 mmol sodium excretion.

The study cohort was followed up for 12 years through computerised register linkage to National Health Records. Cases of incident heart failure were identified from the Causes of Death Register, the Hospital Discharge Register and drug reimbursement records. The association of salt intake in quintiles (<6.8g, 6.8-8.8g, 8.8-10.9g, 10.96-13.7g and >13.7g/day) and the risk of an incident new heart failure event was estimated.

During the follow-up, 121 men and women developed new heart failure. In an age, sex, study year and area adjusted model, hazard ratios in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th salt intake quintiles, compared to the 1st one, were: 0.83, 1.40, 1.70 and 2.10. After further adjustment for systolic blood pressure, serum total cholesterol level and body mass index the hazard ratios were: 1.13, 1.45, 1.56 and 1.75, respectively.

Prof Jousilahti said: "The heart does not like salt. High salt intake markedly increases the risk of heart failure. This salt-related increase in heart failure risk was independent of blood pressure."

"People who consumed more than 13.7 grams of salt daily had a two times higher risk of heart failure compared to those consuming less than 6.8 grams," he continued. "The optimal daily salt intake is probably even lower than 6.8 grams. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum of 5 grams per day and the physiological need is 2 to 3 grams per day."

Prof Jousilahti concluded: "Studies in larger, pooled population cohorts are needed to make more detailed estimations of the increased heart failure risk associated with consuming salt."

###
Barcelona, Spain - 27 Aug 2017: PCSK9 is a co-activator of platelet function beyond its role in cholesterol homeostasis, according to research presented at ESC Congress today.1 The findings suggest that PCSK9 inhibitors, a new class of cholesterol lowering treatments, may also reduce thrombosis by interfering with platelet activation.

Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) is a main player in cholesterol homeostasis by inducing degradation of the low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol receptor. Emerging evidence indicates that plasma levels of PCSK9 predict recurrent cardiovascular events, for example myocardial infarction and angina, in patients with coronary artery disease, even in those with well controlled LDL cholesterol levels.

"We hypothesised that the contribution of PCSK9 to cardiovascular events might be mediated by as yet unknown cholesterol-independent pathways," said last author Dr Marina Camera, associate professor of pharmacology, University of Milan, Italy. "It has been reported that increased plasma levels of PCSK9 are associated with platelet reactivity. However, no study has so far evaluated whether or not PCSK9 directly affects the function of platelets."

Platelets play a key role in the acute, thrombotic complications of atherosclerosis by causing life-threatening ischaemic events at a late stage of the disease. Increased platelet activation (called platelet hyperreactivity) has been reported in patients with coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

This study evaluated whether PCSK9 modulates platelet activation. It also assessed whether PCSK9 is expressed in platelets from healthy subjects, stable angina patients, and patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The effect of PCSK9 on platelet function was studied using epinephrine-induced platelet aggregation in platelet-rich plasma preincubated or not with PCSK9. The effect of PCSK9 on platelet activation was investigated with whole blood flow cytometry evaluation of P-selectin, PAC-1 and tissue factor expression induced by epinephrine. PCSK9 expression in platelets was assessed by flow cytometry and further evaluated by western blot analysis in platelets and human megakaryocytes. PCSK9 levels were measured in platelets from 30 patients with stable angina (15 with diabetes, 15 without), ten patients with diabetes but without stable angina, and ten healthy people.

The investigators showed for the first time that:

PCSK9 is expressed in human megakaryocytes, the cells in the bone marrow responsible for producing circulating platelets. A subset of circulating platelets contains PCSK9, suggesting that there is a finely tuned mechanism for the direct transfer of PCSK9 from megakaryocytes to a certain number of platelets.

PCSK9 plays a role in platelet activation and aggregation.

Platelets from patients with both type 2 diabetes mellitus and stable angina contain twice the amount of PCSK9 as patients with only one, or neither, condition.

Dr Camera said: "Our data provide novel knowledge on the mechanisms regulating platelet activation in physiological and pathological conditions. Considering the contribution of platelets to cardiovascular disease, the findings also shed light on a new mechanism that may be involved in platelet hyperreactivity in patients with stable angina and diabetes mellitus."

She continued: "Based on our data it is possible that the pharmacological inhibition of PCSK9, besides down-regulating cholesterol levels, may have the added value of controlling the prothrombotic burden interfering with platelet activation."

###
Every year millions of people around the world are diagnosed with heart failure, a chronic, progressive condition where the heart is unable to pump enough oxygenated blood throughout the body. Researchers at the University of Utah Health and Klinikum Coburg, Germany co-led a clinical trial that showed radiofrequency catheter ablation lowered hospitalization and mortality rates by 47 and 44 percent respectively in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), a contributing factor to heart failure. The findings were presented on August 27 at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

"None of the traditional drug therapies are improving the patient's condition, a major medical dilemma when we see these patients in our clinics," said Nassir F. Marrouche, M.D., professor in Internal Medicine and Executive Director of the Comprehensive Arrhythmia Research and Management (CARMA) Center at U of U Health.

The medical community has long debated the ideal treatment for AF, especially for patients who suffer from left ventricular dysfunction, a weakening of the left ventricle that supplies most of the heart's pumping power. Until now, no clinical studies have been conducted that support one definitive treatment.

Marrouche and Johannes Brachmann from the Klinikum Coburg conducted the eight-year CASTLE-AF clinical trial to compare catheter ablation to conventional drug therapies recommended by the American Heart Association and European Heart Society to control the heart's rate.

"The CASTLE-AF clinical trial represents a landmark in the history of cardiovascular medicine because of its potential impact on our patients who are suffering from heart failure," said James Fang, M.D., Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Utah Health. "For the first time in a randomized study, the strategy of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation may be better than the current approach for these patients. It is also one of the many landmark contributions to cardiovascular medicine that the University of Utah has made over the past five decades."

After evaluating more than 3,000 patients from North America, Europe and Australia, researchers selected 363 participants with temporary or persistent AF and heart failure, characterized by heart function at less than 35 percent capacity, for the clinical trial. The patients were separated into two groups, receiving either radiofrequency catheter ablation (179) or a conventional drug therapy (184).

The clinical trial's end point was set at all-cause mortality and worsening of heart failure, resulting in an unplanned overnight hospitalization. Patients in the ablation group experienced lower overall mortality (28%; 51/179) compared to the medication group (46%; 82/184). In addition, catheter ablation resulted in lower cardiovascular mortality (13%; 24/179) compared to the medication group (25%; 46/184).

Special heart cells create electrical signals that cause the heart's upper and lower chambers to beat in the proper sequence to pump blood through the body. Abnormal cells can cause the heart to beat faster or irregularly, resulting in AF.

"Atrial fibrillation prevents the heart from filling and pumping properly," said Marrouche. "When the heart is not synchronized, it hastens heart failure and increases the risk of stroke."

During the ablation process, a catheter is snaked through the patient's body to the site of abnormal heart cells. The doctor delivers a dose of radiofrequency energy, similar to microwaves, to destroy the abnormal cells, which restores the heart's regular rhythm.

All of the participants included in the CASTLE-AF trial had previously received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which allowed for continuous monitoring of heartrate. The ICD may have improved mortality, which Marrouche believes is the primary limitation in this study that may have affected death rates in both groups.

"This clinical trial is the first time we can show with hard data that ablation is saving more lives than arrhythmia medications," said Marrouche. "It also lowers the cost of treating patients by keeping them out of hospital due to lower incidence of worsening heart failure."

###

The research results were released at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Barcelona, Spain on August 27, 2017 during a session on catheter ablation.

In addition to U of U Health and Klinikum, Germany, collaborating institutions include Kardiologie an den Ev. Elisabeth-Kliniken, Berlin, Germany; Klinik Rotes Kreuz, Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Klinikum Links der Weser, Bremen, Germany; Antonius Ziekenhuis Nieuwegein, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands; The Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Semmelweis Medical Univesity, Budapest, Hungary; State Research Institute of Circulation Pathology, Novosibirsk, Russia; Biotronik SE & Co. KG, Berlin, Germany; Deutsches Herzzentrum Munchen, Munich, Germany; Institute of Medical Statistics and Computational Biology, Cologne, Germany; and KMG Klinikum GmbH, Gustrow, Germany.

This research was supported primarily by Biotronik GmbH, a leading global medical device company with products and services focused on cardiovascular and endovascular diseases.
Sunday, August 27, 2017

Harvey on August 25th is the first category four hurricane to hit Texas in the 56 years since Carla on September 11th in 1961. When the oceanic 27 year half cycle phase of the 54 year Kondratiev cycle comes along, you have to expect repetitive big hurricanes will come along with it. In American economic and temperature cycle terms the period is 1994 to 2021. Like its predecessor period, 1940 to 1967, it is a high economic growth cooling temperature period. In World temperature cycle terms it is 1998 to 2025. The world predecessor period is 1944 to 1971, with each period starting with a peak temperature above the long term trend line and ending with a trough temperature below the long term trending line. Ironically, thanks to the new Greenhouse Effect trend line, this period will look like the stable period one quarter century from now in terms of land and the economy, but anything but stable in terms of hurricanes.

Great Hurricane Modern History

The first press releases of this four year press release campaign were about the great Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines in 2013. This was exactly 54 years after "The 1959 Pacific typhoon season that was regarded as one of the most devastating years for Pacific typhoons on record, with China, Japan and the Philippines sustaining catastrophic losses, (from Wikipedia)." "One top ten list of Philippines Typhoons has nine of them 1973 or more recent, all during the age of the current strong increase in global warming of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Only one other made the top ten, the 1958 typhoon Rita, the only one from the relatively cool fifties and sixties or the twenty year period 1952-1972. That one is 55 years ago from today's devastating Typhoon Haiyan suggesting it fits the 55 year cycle discovered by Klyashtorin." "Hurricane Sandy of 2012 was the next time the battery in New York flooded after the 1960 event 52 years before." "Not included in the above is Hurricane Hugo that dumped 12 inches of rain on North Carolina in September 1989, just 55 years after the last 12 inch North Carolina month of September in 1934." These last four quotes are from my November 12, 2013 press release immediately after Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. From Wikipedia: "On making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines. It is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6,300 people in that country alone. In terms of JTWC-estimated 1-minute sustained winds, Haiyan is the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record."

Great American Hurricanes

In 2004 PBS broadcast a special suggesting four great tragedies waiting to happen in the United States. One was a San Francisco earthquake, one was an EF5 tornado hitting Dallas, one was a hurricane hitting New Orleans and the last was a hurricane hitting New York. Those four events have now happened, except that the scale is lower for the San Francisco and Dallas cases. The EF4 tornado over Dallas suburb Garland on December 26, 2015 was tracking for the downtown Dallas when it lifted. The F5 over Fort Worth in 1957 is the big one for modern times, suggesting a 58 year cycle. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was easily the most devastating in US history, with the follow-up 83 year later in San Jose much weaker, and the follow-up 108 years later in the Napa Valley weaker still. 108 years is a perfect fit being two 54 year cycles later, 83 is two years off from the three half cycle trend changes perfect of 81 years.

New Orleans had hurricanes in 1893 (2000 deaths) and 1947, 54 year apart, then Katrina (1500 deaths) came four years late in 2005, 58 years later. Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012 famously just before the presidential election and two years early after the Battery last flooded 52 years before in 1960.

Texas Hurricanes Harvey and Carla

Harvey, 56 years after Carla in 1961 is only two years late from a perfect cycle, these are the most recent two category four hurricanes to land on Texas. Carla was once a CAT 5 but diminished just before landing and quickly dropped to tropical storm level the next day. Harvey threatens to persist for a while and dump 30 inches of rain over time on some spots, potentially much more devastating, as water is usually more devastating in a hurricane than wind. This could be worse than Katrina or Sandy in overall impact. This rainfall could exceed the Hugo levels in 1989 in North Carolina, where 12 inches of rain matches the monthly rainfall total of September 1934 in North Carolina, the same month 55 years before. That was the first major hurricane after the discovery that the American droughts of 1934 and 1936 were repeating in 1988, starting my whole research effort into the causes of the 54 year cycle.

Summary

My 56 event chart was posted on my academia.edu website in 2013 and included at the end of this general paper about the weather cycle: https://www.academia.edu/6002772/WEATHER_CYCLE_5p._from_1997_9p.2014

Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute

Nominated Vetted 2016, and one of 76 Given Odds (tied for 31st) for the Nobel Peace Prize 2017



contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com, info: www.realeconomy.com
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Mohanlal, the complete actor has always set new trends with his onscreen and offscreen appearances. Now, social media is going gaga over Mohanlal's latest look, which he sported during the Stunt Union's silver jubilee celebrations, held in Chennai.

The actor simply rocked in the mass look, with his signature mustache-beard look, teamed up with an orange kurti and coloured dhoti. While all the other celebrities opted for the formal looks, Mohanlal carried the mass get-up like a boss.

Mohanlal, who is back from Bhutan after a short vacation, has made a public appearance after a break. The actor's latest pictures clicked during the Stunt Union silver jubilee celebrations has been going viral on social media.

The grand event was attended by several eminent personalities of South Indian film industry, including Rajinikanth, Suriya, Dhanush, Vijay Sethupathi, Karthi, Vikram, Arya, Vishal, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Sivakumar, etc.

Reportedly, Mohanlal is all set to join the sets of his highly anticipated upcoming movie Odiyan, by the end of August. The movie, in which the actor essays the role of a black magician, is directed by ad film-maker VA Shrikumar Menon.
Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (MMP 1.13%) is a very well run midstream partnership. But if you are looking to maximize your income today, you might want to consider Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD 0.12%) and Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (HEP 0.69%). Both serve the oil and natural gas industry, are continuing to grow their distributions, and, perhaps most important, offer higher yields than Magellan.

Nothing wrong, but...

Magellan offers investors a robust 5.5% distribution yield today. It has increased its distribution for 17 consecutive years, and the average annualized distribution increase over the past decade was an impressive 11%. These are all great stats if you are an income investor.

Equally impressive, the partnership appears to be gearing up for more growth. It currently has around $1 billion in projects under construction today, with plans for more. In the end, there's a lot to like here. But if you are looking for income today, there are partnerships with similarly impressive distribution stats and growing businesses that offer higher yields.

The big one

The first place you should look for a higher yield is diversified midstream industry giant Enterprise Products Partners. It offers a 6.7% distribution yield, more than a full percentage point higher than Magellan. And the distribution has been increased for 20 consecutive years. Where it falls short of Magellan is in distribution growth, which has averaged around 6% annualized over the past 10 years. That's a notable difference, but if you are looking for a mix of distribution growth and high-income today, well, Enterprise wins.

The partnership currently has around $9 billion of growth investments in the works today as well. So it's reasonable to expect the company's long string of distribution increases to continue. The scale of Enterprise's investments, however, brings up another factor to consider: size.

Enterprise, with a $53 billion market cap, is much larger than Magellan, which stands at around $14.5 billion. Connected to that is Enterprise's widely diversified business, which spans across pipelines, storage, processing, and even a fleet of ships. It not only has its fingers in more pies than Magellan, where two businesses account for around 90% of gross margin, but it can take on projects that would be too large for its lower yielding peer.

If you are looking to generate as much current income as possible by owning great companies, Enterprise should rank higher than Magellan on your short list.

A little more risk, a lot more yield

Another name to consider is Holly Energy Partners, which currently offers a huge 8.3% yield -- nearly three percentage points more than Magellan. Holly has increased its distribution every year since it went public in 2004, bringing its streak to 13 consecutive years. The average annualized distribution increase over the last decade was roughly 6%, on par with Enterprise.

Holly's roughly $2 billion market cap, however, means it's notably smaller than both Enterprise and Magellan. It's also been adding leverage at a fast clip, with debt to EBITDA spiking over the past year or so. That's part of what has led investors to push the units lower and, thus the yield higher. That said, Holly's debt to EBITDA figure is still below that of Enterprise, and management has expressed a willingness to add debt in the near term to support acquisitions that will foster long-term growth.

On the growth front, Holly recently announced deals worth a combined $250 million to buy the remaining portions of pipelines in which it already had ownership stakes. And while a fast rise in the company's debt levels is worrying, its revenues are 100% fee based with roughly 80% locked in by long-term contracts. That means it should be able to handle the elevated debt level while it starts to work down leverage over time, using the cash flow generated by the new assets.

Magellan is a more conservatively run partnership, but if you are looking for a high level of income you might want to take a moment to examine Holly's business. The high yield might be worth the extra risk.

Income options

Magellan is a great partnership that would be a good option for most investors. Its distribution growth should be especially enticing to those focused on income growth. What it doesn't offer is the highest yield in the midstream space. Investors seeking to maximize current income today should look at equally well run Enterprise and its higher yield. And for those willing to take on a little more risk, Holly Energy's materially higher distribution yield might be a good fit despite its swiftly increasing debt load.
Motorola Moto X4 leaked in render along with specs sheet News oi -Chandrika The Moto X4 is expected to launch on August 24 in an event held in Brazil.

The Motorola Moto X4 never ceases to appear in leaks, does it? Well, after yesterday's live images, the smartphone has again been spotted in a new leak. However, this time the source is quite reliable.

Homatelecom, which is an official distributor of Motorola Mobility and Lenovo in Iran has posted two images of the Moto X4 on its Instagram account. The first image shows the Moto X4's rear panel, while the second one shows it sitting on a stand alongside a brochure of the smartphone. As apparent from the image above, the upcoming Motorola phone will arrive with horizontal dual cameras placed in a circular housing.

The camera sensors are accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash above. There signature M logo is also present just under the camera module. While previous leaks had suggested that the Moto X4 will sport a glass body, this one shows the smartphone with a matte finish.

To the disappointment of many fans, it does not appear to feature pins for connecting MotoMod accessories. Unfortunately, the front side of the smartphone is not revealed in the image.

Coming to the second image, it has a card showing the specifications of the Moto X4. According to it, the Moto X4 will be a dual-SIM smartphone with support for nano-sized SIM cards as well as dual stand-by mode.

Other feature includes a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display that will deliver a full HD resolution of 1,9201,080 pixels and a pixel density of 424 ppi.

The list doesn't specify the name of the processor that will power the device. It only mentions that there will be a Cortex A53 Octa-core chipset clocked at 2.2GHz. Presumably, the Motorola Moto X4 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor.

The smartphone will offer 32GB of internal storage space and 3GB/4GB of RAM. The rumored 64GB variant of the Moto X4 is missing in the list. Maybe because Iran won't be getting the 64GB model.

Speaking of the photography department, the Moto X4's rear dual camera setup is expected to be comprised of two 12MP sensors that will be equipped with features such as autofocus, touch focus, face detection, panorama, auto HDR and full HD video shooting at 30 fps. Likewise, there will be a 16MP selfie camera with support for full HD video recording at 30fps.

Backing the device up will be a decent 3,000mAh battery. We already know that Motorola is hosting a launch event on August 24 in Brazil. The Moto X4 is most likely to get unveiled at the same event.

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This summer has been hot for French Montana. In addition to his single, Unforgettable featuring Swae Lee, taking over the airwaves and the clubs, he also released his second studio album Jungle Rules as well as launching his own flavor of Ciroc French Vanilla. He also donated a large sum of money to the Mama Hope organization to help woman and children in Uganda. So while the Bronx rapper has been out hear collecting dubs, his efforts havent gone unnoticed.

Today, French Montana took to Instagram to share that he covered Paper Magazines August issue. Its a solid step forward for him that he has undoubtedly deserve to have. On his Instagram post, the caption reads Check me out on the cover of @papermagazine shot it in the only Blue City in the world  in Morocco. Chefchaouene the blue pearl of Morocco. I thought it was fake till I got there, and seen it with my own eyes ! Yes every house is blue.. the whole town is blue. Shout out to North Africa  where we also shot the #Famous vid comin soon  #junglerules

French went to Morocco with Eric T. White to shoot the cover in Chefchaouene, also known as the blue pearl of Morocco. French sits in front of a blue back drop with a blue scarf over his head. He also revealed on Instagram that he shot a new video in the North African country. The story itself covers a lot of ground, including his relationship with the Kardashian clan as a whole, his come up in the rap game, how his name came to be and more.

French Montana has had an interesting come-up in the rap game. While hes still regarded as a newer rapper, hes been hustling for music well before Soundcloud became a main platform for rappers to get their name out. His cover story with PAPER Magazine highlights a lot of factors people either dont know or dont bring up on the Bronx rapper. The story captures French Montana away from his celebrity and digs deep into his history as not only a rapper, but as a person.

Check the Instagram post below:
New York, Aug 27 (IBNS): Six out of 10 U.S. parents are choosing to get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for their children, according to a report published in this weekas Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends parents get two doses of HPV vaccine for their children at ages 11 or 12 to protect against cancers caused by HPV infections. Although most children are getting their first dose of HPV vaccine, many children are not completing the vaccination series.

Im pleased with the progress, but too many teens are still not receiving the HPV vaccine  which leaves them vulnerable to cancers caused by HPV infection, said CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D. We need to do more to increase the vaccination rate and protect American youth today from future cancers tomorrow.

Adolescents who get the first dose of HPV vaccine before their 15th birthday need two doses of HPV vaccine to be protected against cancers caused by HPV. Teens and young adults who start the series at ages 15 through 26 years need three doses of HPV vaccine to be protected against cancers caused by HPV.

The annual National Immunization Survey-Teen (NIS-Teen) report, which examines vaccination coverage among U.S. adolescents, found that 60 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 received one or more doses of HPV vaccine in 2016, an increase of 4 percentage points from 2015.

The report also showed that HPV vaccination is becoming more common among boys. The difference in vaccination rates between boys and girls has been narrowing in recent years. About 65 percent of girls received the first dose of HPV vaccine compared to 56 percent of boys receiving the first dose. These latest estimates represent a 6 percentage point increase from 2015 for boys, while rates for girls were similar to 2015.

Despite these increases, areas for improvement remain. While most adolescents have received the first dose of HPV vaccine, only 43 percent of teens are up to date on all the recommended doses of HPV vaccine. HPV vaccination rates were also lower in rural and less urban areas compared to more urban areas.

Clinicians have been working hard to protect children from cancers caused by HPV ever since the vaccine was first introduced over 10 years ago, and there are reasons to be encouraged about future trends in HPV vaccination.

In late 2016, CDC updated its HPV vaccine recommendations as new evidence showed that two doses of HPV vaccine in younger adolescents provided levels of protection similar to those seen for three doses in older adolescents and young adults. CDC recommends 11 to 12 year olds get two doses of HPV vaccine at least six months apart.

Recent changes to the vaccine recommendations mean preventing cancer is easier now than ever before, said Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Now is the time for parents to protect their children from cancers caused by HPV.

Recent data have also shown that HPV vaccination has led to dramatic declines in HPV infections, highlighting the importance of achieving and maintaining high HPV vaccination rates. Since the introduction of the first HPV vaccine, infections with HPV types that cause most of these cancers and genital warts have decreased by 71 percent in teen girls and 61 percent in young women.

Parents can take advantage of any visit to the doctors office to get the HPV vaccine for their child. Adolescents should get the HPV vaccine during the same visit they get whooping cough and meningitis vaccines.



Image:Wikimedia Commons
Srinagar, Aug 27 (IBNS): The 20-hour-long fierce gun-battle ended as security forces claimed that they killed all three foreigner militants who stormed a police complex in south Kashmiras Pulwama in a pre- dawn attack on Saturday, a senior police official announced on Sunday morning.

In a tweet, Deputy Inspector General of Police, South Kashmir, SP Pani wrote: All three terrorists involved in the police lines #Pulwama attack have been eliminated . Salute to the sacrifices of our brave hearts,

On Saturday three heavily armed militants stormed the police complex that also have residential buildings of Kashmir Police before dawn on Saturday leading to a fierce gunfight for the entire day.

Four policemen and four CRPF personnel including two Para troopers of Reserve Police were killed in the attack.

Pakistan based outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility and said Indian forces suffered massive casualties.

Meanwhile a wreath laying ceremony for two of the CRPF men Constable Borase Dinesh Dipak from Gujarat and Constable Mohammad Yasin Teli from Baramulla district in North Kashmir was held in the morning early on Sunday at regional training centre, Humhama, Srinagar.

On Saturday the CRPF paid tributes to the other two CRPF constables who died in the morning, Ravindra Baban Dhanawade of Maharashtra and constable Jaswant Singh of Haryana

Jammu and Kashmir police paid tributes to cops Imtiyaz Ahmad, Mohammad Yousuf Hajam, Rafiq Ahmad Hajam and Amarjeet Singh who were killed in the shootout. Their wreath-laying ceremony was held in district police lines Awantipora on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the killings and conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families.

Violence of last three decades or more has taken a heavy toll on the people of the State in terms of death and destruction, tearing apart of the social fabric, inflicting massive economic, academic and other losses besides the irreparable loss of human lives, she said in a statement.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Guwahati, Aug 27 (IBNS) : A lady journalist of a local news channel in Assam was killed while a speedy truck hit her in Guwahati on Saturday night.

According to the reports, the incident took place at GS road near Dona planet in the capital city of Assam.

The speedy bricks laden truck hit the lady journalist identified as Reema Sarma worked in Prag News, while she came from Dona planet with her scooty.

Local people had immediately rushed her to Guwahati Mediacl College Hospital (GMCH), but doctor declared to death.

The truck had fled from the area after the incident.

Meanwhile, Guwahati city traffic police SP Amanjeet Kaur said police is trying to capture the truck and arrest the driver after seeing the CCTV footage.

Several media, civil society, political organizations have condoled on the demise of the journalist.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)


Kolkata/Jalpaiguri, Aug 27 (IBNS): Two teenagers were beaten to death by locals over alleged cow theft at Barohalia village under Dhupguri Police Station limits in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal on the wee hours of Sunday, officials said.

According to reports, local residents intercepted a pickup van, full of cows, at around 2:30 am. and started beating two passengers of the van, after suspecting them to be cattle thieves.

Later, police went to the scene and after rescuing the duo from angry villagers, took them to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead.

According to police reports, the killed youths have been identified as Anwar Hossain and Hafizul Sheikh.

"Both the killed persons were around 19 years old. They have been identified as Anwar Hossain and Hafizul Sheikh who were the residents of Sakunibala area under Pundibari Police Station limits in West Bengal's Coochbehar district and Chotoguma area in Dhubri district of Assam respectively," a local police official told IBNS.

Police, however, have started probe into the matter and seized the pick up van.

"A heavy police force have been deployed to Barohalia village, where the incident took place last night, as the situation remains tense there," a police official said.

None has been arrested so far in connection with the lynching, according to reports.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Image: www.wallpapersafari.com)
Guwahati, Aug 27 (IBNS) : Tension still grips in various parts of Assam following the assault incident of indigenous people in middle Assamas Nagaon town.

Pro-talk ULFA leader Anup Chetia on Sunday said: "We will not tolerate if any outsiders assaulted indigenous people in Assam."

If any outsider (Bangladeshi migrants) think that, Assam is not suitable for him or them, then he or they can left our soil. We are not welcoming them to the state. If anyone went aggressive, then we will also too, the pro-talk ULFA leader said.

Earlier, the pro-talk ULFA leaders on Aug 25 had threatened to take up arms again if the state government wouldnt take appropriate measures to protect indigenous people of Assam.

The statement came from the pro-talk ULFA leaders after another Silapathar like situation created in the middle Assams town Nagaon.

According to the reports, a surrendered ULFA was allegedly assaulted and severely wounded him by a gang of youths including a BJP leader of a particular community inside a commercial establishment in the middle Assams town Nagaon few days back.

Following the incident, Nagaon police had arrested the wounded person and his three associates after the proprietor the shop filing an FIR against them for a dacoity attempt.

Protest against the incident, several organizations on Aug 25 had organized a protest rally and demanded the district administration and state government to arrest the culprits immediately.

Pro-talk ULFA leader Arobinda Rajkhowa said that, the present state government is totally failed to protect indigenous people of Assam and the recent Nagaon incident proved it again.

If the state government wouldnt take appropriate measures to protect our people, we will take up arms again, Arobinda Rajkhowa said.

The pro-talk ULFA leaders also demanded to release the surrendered ULFA members immediately and to arrest the culprits behind the incident.

Meanwhile, tension still prevails in Nagaon as several organizations and local people demanded district police to arrest all culprits behind the incident and staged protest against the incident in different parts of the state.

On the other hand, Prabajan Virodhi Manch said that, the state government and political leadership have abdicated their responsibility to the indigenous people.

Convenor the Manch and advocate of Supreme Court Upamanyu Hazarika said that instead of protecting indigenous people, their first priority is now going to protect the migrating people of a special community, which has triggered incidents like Silapathar and Nagaon creating a language divide.

State BJP president had recently said that, the promise of protecting Jati, Mati, Veti was in a national context and not to protect indigenous against Bangladeshi infiltration. Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that BJP did not come to power on the Assamese vote. It now remain for Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Sonowal to say that, he is the Jatiya Nayak of Bangladeshi, not of indigenous people, Hazarika said.

The Supreme Court advocate said the permanent solution against recurrence of such incidents is to give protection to indigenous people of Assam, similar to the protection enjoyed by indigenous is other north eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and which is possible by the Assam assembly enacting a legislation reserving land, resources, government job, educational reservation, trade licences etc only for those who were citizens of India and resident of Assam in 1951 and their progeny.

On the other hand, police on Saturday had arrested another culprit behind the indigenous people attack incident from Guwahati.

Meanwhile, the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) had protested against the Nagaon incident by lighting torches across the state on Sunday evening.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Patna, Aug 27 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday slammed the Centre and said it made false promises to the people of India in the name of 'acche din' (good days).

"Three years have passed. Where is achhe din? ," Banerjee said while addressing at the massive rally organised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in Patna on Sunday.

"Unemployment has risen, women are not safe, and farmers are dying. Minorities, Dalits and weaker sections are under threat," she said.

She said: "They only made false promises."

Banerjee said people will remove the BJP government at the Centre from power over the issue of note ban.

She said people are tortured in the name of GST.

"We are not afraid. We are ready to fight. We cannot be intimidated. Fight us if you can. We will give our lives but never compromise with principles. People will vote the current Govt out over notebandi," she said attacking the Centre.

The Centre had banned old Rs 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes last year in November.

She even mentioned the violence which Haryana saw on Friday following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case.

More than 30 people were killed as violence hit the state following the conviction.

Banerjee attacked the BJP-led government in the state over the issue and said: "RSS and BJP want to trigger riots for political benefits. They could not handle the situation at Panchkula. Army is immediately deployed for BJP-ruled States. But non-BJP States do not get any help."

Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday said a grand alliance will be formed at the national level to take on the BJP at the next Lok Sabha elections.

Sharad Yadav used the platform of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's grand anti-BJP rally in Patna to make the announcement.

Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BSP leader Mayawati, however, did not attend the rally.

Congress party's Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and party general secretary C P Joshi joined it .

Image: AITC Twitter page
Mumbai, Aug 27 (IBNS): An FIR has been lodged against veteran actor Rishi Kapoor for allegedly posting an offensive image of a child on Twitter, media reports said.

Advocate Adil Khatri, who is also the general secretary of Jai Ho Foundation, has lodged a police complaint against Kapoor for posting an 'offensive picture' of a child on his Twitter handle.

Adil Khatri told indianexpress.com that, We have filed a complaint with Mumbai Police Commissioner, Mumbai Cyber Cell and Ministry of Woman and Child Development against actor Rishi Kapoor for posting nude and pornographic image of a child on his Twitter account @chintskap.

He added, We dont know who the child in the picture is, but it is offensive as the child is naked and a headphone has been stuck into his private parts.

Kapoor has landed himself in controversies several times in past too with his witty comments on social media. Only recently, he had lashed out at director Anurag Basu for for the failure of Jagga Jasoos.
New York, Aug 27(Just Earth News): United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres, on an official visit to Kuwait, expressed gratitude to not only the Gulf country's leadership in humanitarian action, but the adialogue [a] and promotion of understanding Kuwait has shown in relation to all conflicts in the region.a

Speaking to reporters after meetings with the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Guterres recalled that during his tenure as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Amir had presided over three conferences to mobilize the international community to support the Syrian people suffering so much with the war that has been going on and on.

But it's not only the humanitarian leadership of Kuwait, it's the wisdom, the dialogue, the promotion of understanding that Kuwait has shown in relation to all conflicts in the region, explained Guterres, adding: Kuwait has no agenda. The agenda of Kuwait is peace; is understanding.

As for the current crisis in the Gulf, the Secretary-General said the position of the UN is very simple: we are here to support the Kuwaiti mediation.

Indeed, this visit had been an occasion to express deep appreciation and raise ideas about ways to strengthen the cooperation and dialogue between Kuwait and the UN, as we believe Kuwait is an extremely reliable partner in our common commitment to peace and security around the world.

Taking questions from reports, Guterres said that he and the Amir had discussed all the very difficult situations of the region, including Yemen, Syria, the drama of the Palestinian people, Libya, and the need to make sure that Iraq is able to come together in unity after defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh).

All of these aspects were discussed in a very detailed way. I had the opportunity once again to express my deep appreciation for all the initiatives that Kuwait has had in the relation to the solution to these crises, stated the UN chief.

Asked about plans to begin negotiations in Kuwait on the crisis in Yemen, the Secretary-General said the UN is doing its best to create the conditions for the present stalemate to be overcome. Kuwait has been very successful in the first conference that was organized. We will be working very closely with the [parties] to see when and how a new strong initiative will be possible, he stressed.

To a question on getting aid through Saan'a airport or Hodeida port, Guterres said that his Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, is pushing to create the conditions for both Hodeida and Saan'a to allow for an effective use, for humanitarian purposes, of these two very important infrastructures.

I hope it will be possible for an agreement to be achieved between the parties to allow for Hodeida and Saan'a to be fully operational for the humanitarian needs of the Yemeni people who are suffering in such a terrible way. They deserve our solidarity and our commitment, he stressed.

Prior to the start of his bilateral meetings, the Secretary-General went to UN House to meet with the staff. He thanked them for their hard work and dedication, and encouraged them to continue to strengthen the relationship between the United Nations and Kuwait.

While in Kuwait City, Guterres also had separate meetings with Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Marzouq Al-Ghanim, Speaker of the Parliament, along with other members of the legislative body.

The Secretary-General left Kuwait for Israel on Sunday evening.

Photo: UN/Stephane Dujarric

Source: www.justearthnews.com

Keyword: Kuwait, UN, Antonio Guterres, humanitarian leadership, regional diplomacy
Burma Northern Rakhine Cut Off As Violence Continues

Boats, usually bound for Maungdaw, in Rakhine State capital Sittwe. / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE, Rakhine State  Access to Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships of northern Rakhine State was cut on Saturday as boat services were suspended from the state capital Sittwe as attacks by Rohingya militants continued in the area since early Friday morning.

Boat service providers in Sittwe told The Irrawaddy requests to the Rakhine State government for security assistance had not been answered.

The three townships are only accessible via boat from Sittwe to Maungdaw.

We suspended our service as we dont dare to venture out without any security assistance, said a saleswoman from the Shwe Nadi Boat Services ticket counter, adding that she didnt know when the service would be resumed.

U Aung Kyaw Zan, state minister for industry and transportation, told The Irrawaddy he had informed boat services to operate based on the situation in Maungdaw.

Everyone knows what is happening there, we can only take action based on the situation there, he said.

Since Friday morning, attacks on around 30 police and army targets in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships caused the deaths of 10 policemen, one soldier, one immigration officer. At least 59 suspected militants were also killed.

The Myanmar government on Friday evening denounced those involved in the attacks as terrorists.
Burma Thousands of Buddhist Rakhine, Hindus Evacuated from Northwest Myanmar

An evacuation in Maungdaw Township on Friday. / Prof Win Myat Aye / Facebook

COXS BAZAR, Bangladesh  Myanmars said it had evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 104, the vast majority militants, plus 12 members of security forces and several civilians, according to a Reuters tally based on official releases.

The government said it was investigating whether members of international aid groups had been involved in an alleged siege by the insurgents of a village in Rakhine.

The United Nations had pulled out non-essential staff from the area, said a spokesman, while Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the Muslim minority in his weekly address in Rome.

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingyamostly women and childrenattempted to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border. Reuters reporters at the border heard gunfire from the Myanmar side, which triggered a rush of Rohingya towards the no mans land between the countries.

Please save us, 61-year-old Amir Hossain told Reuters near the Bangladeshi village of Gumdhum. We want to stay here or else well get killed.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

The violence marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation dogged by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi has condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 ethnic villagers who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.

Ongoing Clashes

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, reported several clashes involving hundreds of Rohingya insurgents across northern Rakhine state on Sunday.

The Tatmadaw column going to Nanthataung Village for operation also confronted about 800 Bengali terrorists at 9 a.m. today. They are still fighting there, the army said in a statement.

The term Bengali is seen as derogatory by many Rohingya as it implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although many can trace family in Myanmar for generations.

The government said it was investigating whether international non-government organization staff were involved when militants surrounded and blockaded a village in August.

A local reporter in the town of Buthidaung told Reuters he had seen nearly 100 staff of international aid agencies leave the town in speedboats following that statement.

The government also re-posted photographs of energy biscuits with the logo of the World Food Programme (WFP) on it which it said had been found at a terrorist camp in August.

The WFP said it took any allegation of food diversions very seriously, adding it had requested details on the biscuits from the authorities, but had not heard back.

In light of the situation on the ground, the UN in Myanmar has decided to temporarily relocate non-critical staff out of Maungdaw, the UN said referring to another major town in northern Rakhine, without giving more detail.

In a statement that risked complicating his visit to Myanmar planned for later this year, Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the Rohingya.

We all ask our Lord to come to their rescue and to prompt men of good will to come to their aid so they have full rights. Let us also pray for our Rohingya brothers, he said.

No Mans Land

The Rohingya have for years endured apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmarthey are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements. Many Myanmar Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government called on Rohingya civilians to cooperate with the security forces and said those not related to the insurgents would not be affected.

It has declared the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which instigated the October attacks and claimed responsibility for the latest offensive, a terrorist organization in the wake of the attacks.

On Sunday, it also indicated it may take action against media calling the group insurgents and not terrorists as per the governments designation.

At the no mans land near Gumdhum, dozens of Rohingya women, most wearing burqa, sat cramped under a few black plastic sheets shielding them from the harsh sun.

A number of Rohingya men ran to the unoccupied area between the two countries after several gun shots rang out on the Myanmar side.

Bangladesh border guard officials said they were providing food and water to the Rohingya, but that no one would be let in.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other countrys citizens.
When I first got a Mac in 2011, it was an amazing experience that made Windows seem even more broken, but after transferring data to a new Mac and several OS updates, it was time to re-install from scratch.

Im currently using a 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display, Core i5, 500GB SSD and 8GB RAM. Although the digerati/complainerati are always carrying on about wanting 32GB of RAM in their MacBooks, which I dont deny would be useful for many power users, my configuration has always worked very nicely for me.

However, after witnessing the effortless transfer of my entire system from my old non-Retina MacBook Pro 2010 to the 2013 model, and after having updated through several macOS versions, and after having installed a mountain of software it was time for an update.

Firefox, which I only used to post articles into iTWires CMS, was more sluggish than normal (and Ive since ditched it as entering articles via Safari, my everyday go-to browser, is working fine  bad habits of using Firefox for CMS data entry because of some issue from years ago with the CMS were hard to break.)

On top of that, Firefox still doesnt support Apples pinch to zoom on the trackpad  so goodbye at long last, Firefox, Im not re-installing you again.

Anyway, my Mac was feeling a bit sluggish, it seemed to be running out of memory, and while I only had what I needed automatically starting up at log-in, I had a ton of apps that I simply wasnt using.

So, I backed everything up with Time Machine, I made a backup to Acronis Cloud, I made another manual back-up of all my important folders to an external SSD and wanted to reload macOS from scratch.

I did save my macOS Sierra installation file when I had last downloaded, and was going to use DiskMaker X to make a Sierra USB boot disk.

However, DiskMaker X said there was some corruption with the file, so I started downloading it again. Even though I was on a 50Mbps connection, the download seemed too slow.

Because it was about 9am, and I knew Apple Broadway near Sydneys CBD wouldnt open until 10am, I decided Id drive over and get the Apple Genius Bar people to re-load macOS for me.

I got there at 9.40am, with only a couple of people waiting (and more slowly arriving). The Apple staff were inside having some kind of meeting.

A greeter was already outside with his iPad, setting quick appointments for people. Mine was precisely at 10am. I got in, a quick diagnostic of my Mac was done (it passed with flying colours), and within 10 minutes I was out the door again, with macOS Sierra freshly installed.

Ive since re-installed Office 365, Paragon NTFS to natively read and write NTFS formatted drives, Acronis True Image 2018, BTT from Boastr.net, Caffeine, Skype, Parallels Desktop 13, Windows 10 via Bootcamp, Acorn photo editor, VPNNinja, Touche Touch bar emulator, Uber, Duet, 1Password and Parallels Toolbox.

I still have various other apps I want to re-install, but my Mac is running smooth and fast, free of all the cruft accumulated over almost 7 years, hundreds of apps, billions of hours of Internet surfing, zillions of articles written, lots of peripherals plugged in and more.

Frankly, I should have done it earlier, but my Mac has always run impressively smoothly  there was no real need to re-install.

It was only in recent times that I felt things started deteriorating a little, until eventually I decided  that was it  a total re-install was in order.

The experience has been painless  all the apps Ive ever purchased have their installation keys waiting for me in my email or at the sites concerned, anything I need from the Mac App Store is still there.

Naturally, this advice is just as pertinent for PC users wanting a refresh, and yes, youll need some spare time, youll need to make sure you back up your passwords, your bookmarks, your documents, your emails and any other data you will need.

I wholeheartedly recommend not only using your operating systems built-in back-up tools, but also using third-party software like Acronis True Image 2018 for a fresh set of online and offline backups.

If you have the desire but not necessarily the technical skills, find a friend or family member with necessary know-how and time to help, or engage your local tech guy and pay them to help you backup and refresh your digital life.

Starting from scratch with a freshly re-installed system, only putting back the data and apps you need, is a wonderful thing.

It may well be time for you to do the same thing, too, but if not, back up anyway, and prepare for the day when youll take the re-installation plunge, too  and if you havent yet already  update to an SSD also.
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by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Shiite popular mobilization units (Iran-backed militias) have played a key role in taking of the northern city of Talafar from ISIL. The ninth armored division of the regular army and the militarys counter-terrorism brigandes have also played an important role. A government spokesman said that only 5% of the city center remains in the hands of Daesh (ISIL, IS, ISIS). The government has also captured the citys citadel.

Iraqi government spokesman Yahya Rasul said that the neighborhoods in the north of the largely Turkmen city still under Daesh / ISIL control included al-Muthanna al-Awwal, al-`Askari, and al-Sina`a. Some 27 other neighborhoods in the city have been liberated.

The military campaign continues to liberate the remaining 30% of the city and its environs still in Daesh hands.

On Friday, the Shiite militias had discovered a major Daesh/ ISIL weapons stockpile.

The Shiite militias had been kept out of the battle for Mosul, except to the degree that they surrounded it to the West and north and prevented Daesh fighters from escaping to Syria. Because Mosul is a largely Sunni Arab city with a proud Sunni heritage, having it conquered by the Shiite militias would have been problematic. Talafar, however, has a significant Shiite community and it used, as least, to be the majority, and so the same sensitivities are not there in this campaign.

The Sunni Arab Gulf press is complaining about Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadis deployment of these Shiite militias, saying that even Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disapproved of them playing a leading role in the assault.

In past campaigns by the popular mobilization units in Sunni areas, there have been reprisal killings and village massacres, making these militias anathema in the largely Sunni Gulf. Al-Khaleej in the UAE says that Iranian leader Ali Khamenei hailed the militias in ways that make it clear he views them as a pro-Iran force he can use to intervene in Iraqi affairs.

However upset the Sunni Arab monarchies in the Gulf might be, the Shiite militias are prominent in the Talafar campaign, and it is clear that Iran is happy enough with their role.

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Related video:

AFP: Iraq retakes Tal Afar centre, citadel from IS
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By Zoran Radosavljevic | EURACTIV.com |  

Muslims have come a long way towards integration into Western Europe, particularly in terms of language, education and work, but remain on the margins of everyday social acceptance, a study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung revealed on Thursday (24 August).

The survey was conducted among 10,000 people in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey. Refugees who arrived after 2010 were not included in the survey of the five European countries, which are home to almost 14 million Muslims.

The study said that progress in Muslim assimilation was not accompanied by an equal level of cultural and religious assimilation and social acceptance.

The Muslims strong religious commitment  the study said at least 41% of Muslims can be described as highly religious  and cultural differences continue to cause uneasiness among the local population and have a negative effect on their social participation.

Overall, Muslims, including refugees from recent years, are among the most rejected social groups, the study concluded but Stephan Vopel, a Bertelsmann Stiftung expert on social cohesion, said in an accompanying press release that it should not be so:

Islam is not an obstacle to integration. Muslims, even the highly religious, learn the new language and strive for higher education levels just as much as other immigrants When integration stalls, the state framework conditions are usually the reason, Vopel explained.

Slovak PM: Its impossible to integrate Muslims

Challenging the EUs political correctness, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he will not allow a large Muslim community in his country. Ficos anti-immigration rhetoric has boosted his Direction-Social Democracy party (SMER-SD) ahead of the 5 March elections.

Noting many positive aspects of assimilation in recent years, the study said that three-quarters of Muslims born in Germany have grown up with German as their first language. In the UK, about 60 percent of Muslim immigrants have grown up speaking English.

Most Muslims, around 90% on average, also feel closely connected to the country they live in, the study showed.

Contradicting another common prejudice, it found that the majority of Muslims  around 75% of those surveyed  have frequent social contact and spend their free time with non-Muslims. Such interaction is particularly common in Switzerland, Germany and France, and a little less in the UK and Austria.

However, 20% of the non-Muslims surveyed said they do not want to have Muslims as neighbours.

The situation is improving in education, particularly in France, where only one in ten Muslims leaves school before they turn 17. The rate is much higher in Germany and Austria, with 36% and 39%, respectively.

But Germany leads in labour market opportunities, as the employment rate among Muslims no longer differs from that of the total population. The situation is the same in Switzerland, while the jobless rate for Muslims in France is 14% compared to 8% for non-Muslims.

European court: Swiss Muslim girls must take swimming classes with boys

Muslim parents in Switzerland cannot refuse to send their daughters to mixed school-run swimming lessons, Europes rights top court ruled Tuesday (10 January), responding to a challenge by a Turkish-Swiss couple who argued the classes violated their beliefs.

However, the study said that relatively large income disparities between Muslims and non-Muslims continue to be observed in all the countries studied.

Furthermore, it said devout Muslims, even if well-educated, earn less and are less likely to be employed. The study said this could be an indicator of discrimination, but added that strict observance of religious duties can make it difficult to get or hold down a job, for example it may not be possible to pray five times a day or wear religious symbols.

So far, no country in Western Europe has found a convincing balance of equal opportunity and respect for religious diversity, said Yasemin El-Menouar, an Islam expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Via Euractiv.com

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Related video added by Juan Cole:

TRT World: Berlin home to more Turkish doner kebab shops as compared to Istanbul /a>




Hong Kong architect Gary Chang's furniture installation "Learning from Hong Kong: Compact Living _ a Global Phenomenon" is displayed at the "Confluence 20+" exhibition held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza / Courtesy of Seoul Design Foundation





By Yun Suh-young

In the fashion publication world, "The September Issue" refers to the most important edition of the year for a fashion magazine.

September is meaningful in many ways for the industry. It is the month that signals the change of season from summer to fall, and when a new fashion season begins. It is also the start of a new school year for schools following the North American system. Not to mention autumn is when important cultural happenings take place.

Seoul is also bracing for its own "September Issue" next month, as it will be hosting several events all themed around design. September is when Seoul Design Week is held annually in the city, this time around from Sept. 21 through 27 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. Another parallel event on design and architecture will begin in September, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism_ from Sept. 2 through Nov. 5. And last but not least, Seoul invited Hong Kong's Design Center to hold their 3rd "Confluence 20+" exhibition which will take place from Aug. 26 through Sept. 16 at the DDP in Seoul.

"Confluence 20+" is being held for the first time in Seoul and is the third stop after Milan and Hong Kong where the exhibition was held earlier this year. Following Seoul, the exhibition will head to Chicago. It is the third edition of an exhibition series aiming to present a holistic picture of Hong Kong's creative ecology. The first was held in 2007 and the second in 2010 as part of the Shanghai Expo.

"This time, I came up with the name 'confluence,'" said Amy Chow, curator of Confluence 20+, during a press tour of the exhibition in Seoul, Friday.

"Confluence means where rivers and streams merge. I tried to look for stories where inspirations merge between tradition and innovation. I selected 20 projects from 20 designers for the exhibition. With each story, there's an angle of 'confluence.'"

Chow visited the venue (DDP) five times just to understand the space.

When entering the "Design Museum" space starting from M2 of the building, the series of design works are exhibited along the pathway spiraling up to the fourth floor of the building. The space apparently fits well with the concept of the exhibition because the path is like a river flowing downwards. The exhibition can be enjoyed either from the fourth level down or from the second level up.

"This exhibition space is my concept of the river," said Chow. Moving from the second floor up, she explained every single piece of work by the 20 artists she selected.

James Law's works are miniatures of his mobile home concept in real-life size. A portable living unit called the "Alpod" was the concept Law had for the mobile home. It is a lightweight sturdy aluminum shell equipped with a power outlet, air conditioning, and a kitchen. Inside those miniature units, Law tried to depict a very local scene of Hong Kong for the exhibition.

Elaine Yan Ling Ng's The Fabric Lab exhibits a fascinating moving fabric called "Sensus" which responds to the proximity of humans by sensors. It is paving the way as a hybrid material to be weaved into clothing as smart fabric for the future.

Gary Chang built a typical Hong Kong "compact home" for his work titled "Learning from Hong Kong: Compact Living _ a Global Phenomenon." It is a wall constructed of assemblages of furniture, which is his experiment with the extreme conditions of limited space in high-density, hyper-urban environments.

"I've lived in my apartment for 40 years and I've never moved. Now I'm thinking it's too big. The most common apartment in Hong Kong is 18 square meters but it's getting smaller and smaller. Maybe one day, our home may become a wall," said Chang, speaking to reporters.

"I heard that Seoul's apartments are also getting smaller and smaller and one third of Seoul's households are single households. We're fighting a battle with space."

Lee Chi Wing created a mobile tea bar where people can stand up and have their tea while chatting with the person next to them, instead of the traditional sit-and-be-served tea rooms.

"While people consider coffee as hip and cool, tea isn't. I wondered why we can't make tea more hip and enjoyable? I wanted this bar to be a place where people can exchange ideas. This moving bar can be disassembled and reassembled."

While "Confluence 20+" touches upon the urbanism of Hong Kong, Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism expands the horizon to the world, including viewpoints of various global cities. The biennale is the first to be held in Seoul on urbanism and architecture and the theme for this year is "Imminent Commons." The biennale aims to share views and methodologies in solving various socio-cultural, architectural and urban ecology issues global cities are facing.

There are three tiers to the event _ theme exhibitions, city exhibitions, and on-scene projects. The theme exhibition will be held at Donuimun Museum Village near Gyeonghui Palace with programs including an exhibition called "Seoul on Air" which shows the augmented environment of Seoul's weather captured through sensors on public transportation. On the city exhibitions held at the DDP, various public projects in 50 cities across the world will be introduced, including London, New York, Vienna, Shanghai, and Pyongyang. For Pyongyang, a life-size model house of a Pyongyang apartment will be exhibited.

The third track involving on-scene projects will be experimental tours around Seoul to explore various themes from manufacturing, food scarcity to the walkable city.

The Seoul Design Week 2017 hasn't released a specific agenda yet on their event, but the theme will be "Design for Better Relationship." The annual event will include conferences and seminars, exhibitions, workshops for young designers, and outdoor markets and events.

For more information, visit confluence20.hk, www.seoulbiennale.org, and www.seouldesignweek.or.kr.
The local press is reporting that Brazilian construction company Odebrecht has announced plans to sell the Chaglla hydroelectric plant, one of the largest in Peru, for a sum of US1.4bn, to a Chinese consortium led by the state-owned Three Gorges Corporation. According to the local press, the completion of the deal for the plant, which generates 4% of Perus electricity, remains subject to the approval of Peruvian and Chinese authorities.

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by Aaron Baar , August 26, 2017



Amidst all the glitz, glamor and advertising during Sundays MTV VMAs something unprecedented is set to happen: a major advertiser will run a commercial in Spanish, without translation.

In an effort to show how it values multicultural consumers, the wireless companys new spot not only offers no translation for non-Spanish speakers, it features spokesman Thomas Middleditch looking befuddled trying to address the situation. This is definitely the first time Verizon has offered an untranslated ad during mainstream program, and is believed to be a first for any major advertiser.

We have a broad audience, and the bi-cultural audience is becoming more and more important, Diego Scotti, Verizons chief marketing officer, tells Marketing Daily. We wanted to connect with this audience in a special way.

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In the spot, a couple is eating at an outdoor restaurant, when they get a troubling notification on the phone. Cursing their lack of coverage, they work to eat quickly. Seeing the crisis, Middleditch apprehensively approaches the couple before being interrupted by a different spokesman, Hispanic Actor Luis Gerado Mendez. (Im someone like you, but en espanol, he explains to Middleditch.) Mendez commences explaining Verizons network superiority to the couple in Spanish while Middleditch looks on. (Middleditch continues his confusion even after the couples problem is solved, believing the term El Nino is in reference to the weather, rather than a little boy.)

Its cultural moment that makes sense as we try to tell our story in a number of different ways, Scotti says of placing the ad in the high-profile VMA awards.

The spot was developed by Verizons general market agency McCann and multicultural agency The Community. Though Scotti wouldnt offer specifics, its likely the ad  and others like it  will air in other general-market programming. Were going to be selective in terms of how we do it, he says. Well definitely do more and more of it.

In addition to running the mostly Spanish-language spot, Verizon will also be running a new spot featuring New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Junior. That spot is entirely in English.
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, August 27, 2017

Since his last Garfield At Large column in May, Bob Garfield has been quite busy. In addition to his ongoing role as co-host of WNYCs On The Media, and a fellowship at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Garfield is host and co-executive producer of The Genius Dialogues on Audible. He will also kick off the tour of his new one-man show, Ruggedly Jewish, which begins September 15 at the Philadelphia Theater Company.

MediaPost: Its been a while since your last MediaPost column and some readers might be surprised to learn your next act is a national tour of a one-man show, an evening with Bob Garfield entitled Ruggedly Jewish, which kicks off the Philadelphia Theater Companys 2017-18 season on a couple of weeks. What can attendees expect?

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Bob Garfield: Excellent question. It may be a 62-year-old man, who hasn't been in a stage show since he was 13, standing for 90 minutes in a puddle of his own urine. Or it would be a multimedia spectacle weaving various unlikely threads together on the general theme of "identity." Or, you know, both... all kinds of disparate elements along the path of understanding self. The individual self. The American self. The neo-Nazi self. And my personal Jewish self.

MediaPost: Funny title. Is it a comedy?

Garfield: Yes. Also no. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments, but also quite a few gasps and furrowed brows. And, I hope, a lot of audience introspection. There will also be some singing and (tasteful) nudity.

MediaPost: Do you have to be Jewish to love it?

Garfield: I would say that "Ruggedly Jewish" will offer a different experience for Jews in the audience than for non-Jews. However, there is not a single joke or passage in the show that will be lost on anyone based on religion, culture, race, gender or national origin. I don't want to do any spoilers, but the show is quite an odyssey, filled with deer, country music, cats (living and dead), mayonnaise, kidnappers, artichokes, worms, canned soup, a plush moose head and two U.S. presidents. It's like Levy's rye bread. You don't have to be Jewish....

MediaPost: During your MediaPost stint you wrote about a half-dozen columns referencing Jewishness. Why is it relevant to the advertising and media business?

Garfield: I did? You'd have to show me the columns. I have no idea. Makes me wonder if something has been percolating inside of me. In fact, something has indeed been percolating inside of me, because "Ruggedly Jewish" is the culmination of a lifelong journey -- and where it leaves me will turn out to be the chewy chocolate center of the show.

MediaPost: Are you concerned anti-Semitism is on the rise with the recent surge in Nazi, KKK and white supremacist activism, and if so, do you think there will be any backlash for the role Jews play in media?

Garfield: No. I do not think anti-Semitism is on the rise. I think, because of our historical moment, the public expression of anti-Semitism is on the rise. But the bigotry, suspicion, resentment, hatred and general stupidity are always there, in a certain segment of the population, all the time. Events have simply converged to unleash unspoken or whispered hatreds. As Chris Rock once put it, "That train is never late."
The Dodgers brought Yu Darvish off the disabled list Sunday to start against the Brewers and placed reliever Josh Fields on the 10-day DL with a lower back strain in a corresponding move. Darvish missed the minimum amount of time after going on the DL retroactive to Aug. 17 with lower back tightness. Before that, the trade deadline acquisition from Texas made three starts with his new club and allowed just five earned runs over 18 innings, with 22 strikeouts against four walks. He and ace Clayton Kershaw should form an elite tandem into the fall. Kershaw has been out since late July with a more severe back injury than the one Darvish dealt with, but the left-hander will start for the Dodgers next weekend, manager Dave Roberts announced Sunday (Twitter links via Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times). The team could use a six-man rotation with Darvish and Kershaw back in the fold, Roberts suggested.

Rockies manager Bud Black gave slumping closer Greg Holland a vote of confidence earlier this week, but after another rough outing Saturday, his hold on the ninth-inning job seems weaker. Black told reporters, including Thomas Harding of MLB.com, on Sunday that the Rockies will navigate the ninth while Holland works to fix his slider and simplify some things when it comes to basic pitching mechanics. Holland allowed two earned runs in a third of an inning Saturday, the fifth time in 10 appearances this month that he has yielded multiple ER. His ERA is now up to 4.05 after sitting at 1.56 on Aug. 4, and failing to turn things around over the next several weeks would seemingly increase the likelihood of Holland exercising his $15MM player option for 2018 in the offseason.

manager Bud Black gave slumping closer a vote of confidence earlier this week, but after another rough outing Saturday, his hold on the ninth-inning job seems weaker. Black told reporters, including Thomas Harding of MLB.com, on Sunday that the Rockies will navigate the ninth while Holland works to fix his slider and simplify some things when it comes to basic pitching mechanics. Holland allowed two earned runs in a third of an inning Saturday, the fifth time in 10 appearances this month that he has yielded multiple ER. His ERA is now up to 4.05 after sitting at 1.56 on Aug. 4, and failing to turn things around over the next several weeks would seemingly increase the likelihood of Holland exercising his $15MM player option for 2018 in the offseason. Speaking of players with big offseason decisions ahead, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Sunday that theres a good chance right-hander Johnny Cueto will return to their rotation next week (Twitter link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Cueto hasnt taken the mound since July 14 on account of a flexor strain. The injury, Cuetos underwhelming 2017 performance before landing on the shelf and his age (32 in February) will make it difficult for the longtime ace to opt out of the remaining four years and $84MM left on his contract after the season. Regardless of what he chooses to do over the winter, Cuetos comeback in 2017 wont affect righty Chris Strattons place in San Franciscos rotation, Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News writes. Stratton has racked up 24 1/3 innings of 2.59 ERA ball as a starter this season, though his strikeout and walk rates dont offer as much hope (5.94 K/9, 4.5 BB/9).
Takoradi, Aug. 25, GNA - The Western Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has expressed shock and displeasure at the conduct of a police constable against Nana Adu Kyei Danso Abiam, the host of "Wcnsom wcnsom" a programme on skyy power FM.

The crime of the journalist was that he dared to ask the officer why he rode a motorcycle without a helmet.

The officer, identified as Constable Wilson Bossey, is said to have brutally assaulted Nana Abiam also known in the media as Akyeamehen.

This incident which occurred around Arch Bishop Porter Girls Senior High School, took the timely intervention of some taxi drivers to save the situation.

The facts available indicates that the victim who was in an Accra bound vehicle questioned the said officer why he rode a motorcycle without a crash helmet.

This angered the officer and he ordered the vehicle to stop and dragged the journalist from the car and physically assaulted him and later handed him to a police patrol team to be sent to the Sekondi police station.

And all this occurred because the journalist by his training felt it was within his right to ask why the constable who is a guardian of the law was also riding a motorcycle without a crash helmet as required by the law.

A statement jointly signed by Regional Executives of the GJA: Mr Zambaga Rufai, Acting Secretary, Mr Moses Dotsey, Chairman and Mrs Mildred Siabi-Mensah, Treasurer, (the Regional Executives of the GJA) expressed their displeasure by the unfortunate development orchestrated by not less a person than an officer in charge of enforcing the laws of the country.

Consequently, "we demand an absolute and thorough investigation into the matter by the Regional Police Command; refund of the transport fare including a compensation package for interrupting his planned programme schedules".

We again demand the payment of the hospital bills incurred by the victim after the unprovoked and severe beatings he suffered at the hands of Police Constable Bossey.

The executive members said they are committed to work in collaboration with the police service to promote and maintain law and order in the country, but they were also bound by duty to expose officers and citizens who would engage in any form of lawlessness to subvert the democracy of the country.

"The conduct of the journalist in question we believe was in the right direction, he has constantly demonstrated his love for the country through his civic education programme on skyy power FM "Wcnsom wcnsom".

'We are counting on your cooperation as we work together to sanitize our democracy as a country, address breeding lawlessness, promote good governance and to make democratic Ghana safer for all citizens".

GNA

By Mildred Siabi-Mensah, GNA
Cape Coast, Aug. 27, GNA - Government ministers and bigwigs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Saturday rocked the Victoria Park in Cape Coast, the venue for the mammoth rally of the Party, with the popular Shatta Wale song 'Kakai,' as they exhibited their dancing skills.

Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, surprised many with her beautiful dancing moves.

Other ministers who equally matched Ms Akuffo with their skills were Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, Ms Adwoa Safo, the Minister of State in charge of Procurement, Madam Otiko Efisa Djaba, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and Mrs Samira Bawumia, Wife of the Vice President.

Their male counterpart were not left out as the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, put on his dancing shoes to exhibit calculated moves, who was joined by Mr Isaac Asiamah, the Minister of Sports, also with some amazing steps.

Lucky Mensah, who is well known for composing campaign songs for the opposition National Democratic Congress, this time round crossed carpet to the camp of the NPP, to entertain the massive crowd with a song, which exalted President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as one who had accomplished what a young and energetic Former President Mahama could not achieve.

Other musicians like Nana Boro and Praye also mounted the stage to rock the crowd with series of their hit songs, which highlighted the need for Ghanaians to support the One District, One Factory initiative of the Government.

Most party faithful, who adorned themselves with the Party's red, blue and white colours, were entertained to good music amid cheers and comradeship.

President Akufo-Addo thanked the people of the Central Region for the massive support, which culminated in the victory for the NPP in the 2016 General Election.

He said the journey to the Flagstaff House was made easier by the massive victory in the Region and gave the assurance that his government would reciprocate the gesture with more developmental projects for the people.

President Akufo-Addo gave a rendition of a thanksgiving song in honour of the

Almighty God for His manifold blessings and benevolence.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Cape Coast, Aug. 27, GNA - Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has admonished the New Patriotic Party faithful to desist from discussing internal party issues in public.

He said most political parties around the world that succeeded in government managed to settle internal wrangling using internal party structures, which won them multiple elections.

He said the NPP could fully accomplish its mission of transforming the economic fortunes of the country through sound policies and programmes if it managed to win four or five successive elections.

Former President Kufuor gave the advice when he addressed the 25th Annual Delegates' Conference of the NPP on Saturday at the New Examination Centre of the University of Cape Coast.

The three-day conference, on the theme: 'NPP: Delivering our Promises, Our Roots, Our Strength, Our Future,' brought together more than 5,000 delegates across the country.

It was organised in pursuant of Article 9 (1) of the Party's Constitution, which states that; 'There shall be a National Annual Delegates Conference which shall be the supreme governing body of the Party'.

The Former President said the world was in an era of technocracy where Information and Communication Technology was vital in the management of party structures and, thus, suggested the NPP strengthened its ICT structures to help resolve its challenges.

Meanwhile, addressing party supporters and sympathisers later at a rally at the Jubilee Park, also known as Victoria Park, in Cape Coast, ex-President Kufuor asked Ghanaians to exercise patience as the Government was implementing policies and programmes that would inure to their benefits in few years time.

He made an analogy of a farmer who acquired a 10-acre farmland to cultivate cassava, which would take more than a year to harvest and, therefore, advised Ghanaians not to be deceived by political propagandists claiming that the Akufo-Addo led Government was delaying in delivering on its promises.

He said any genuine government would set the right foundation in terms of policies and programmes before any meaningful impact would be made.

The rally was organised to climax the conference, and also to thank the people of the Central Region for showing massive support to the NPP in the 2016 General Election, which saw the Elephant Party sweeping 19 out of the 23 parliamentary seats there.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, then the Presidential Candidate of the Party, leapfrogged over his closest rival, then incumbent President John Dramani Mahama, to win the presidential race.

GNA

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Kenyasi (B/A), Aug. 27, GNA - Fall army worm have destroyed 986 hectares of maize farm in the Asutifi North District of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Mr James Adu, the Asutifi North District Director of Agriculture, said the Directorate had been able to recover 97 per cent of the affected farms.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a Town Hall Meeting at Kenyasi, Mr Adu advised maize farmers to report suspected cases to the Directorate for immediate action.

The meeting was jointly organised by the District Assembly and the Ministry of Information and offered opportunity to the general public to interact with the Assembly.

Mr Adu said the Government had supplied the Directorate with enough chemicals to fight the worm in the District.

He alerted livestock keepers about the outbreak of swine flu disease in parts of the country and advised them to quickly report suspected cases among their pigs.

Mr Adu said pigs infested by the flu would be killed but added that their owners would be compensated.

Reacting to questions on measures put in place to improve on cocoa production in Brong-Ahafo, Dr Nii Tackie-Otoo, the Regional Manager, Cocoa and Health Division of COCOBOD, said the Government had strengthened the mass cocoa spraying exercise.

He said his outfit was raising11.5 million cocoa seedlings to be supplied to farmers in the Region by the close of the year.

He said a community taskforce would soon be set up to supervise the spraying exercise, adding that the Government would provide recommended chemicals for it.

The Government had also increased allowances paid to people engaged to spray the cocoa farms from GH75.00 to GH200.00 to motivate them, Dr Tackie-Otoo said.

He expressed concern about the swollen shoot diseases attacking about 17 per cent of cocoa trees in the Region, with about 23 per cent of cocoa farms becoming old.

These problems, Dr Tackie-Otoo said, had affected quality of cocoa beans and decreased cocoa production.

That notwithstanding, he said, the Government had put in place several interventions to revamp the cocoa sector.

With the implementation of the artificial pollination exercise and irrigation schemes, the cocoa sector would soon witness sharp improvement in the next season, he said.

Mr Anthony Mensah, the Asutifi District Chief Executive, said the Government was poised to implement poverty reduction interventions to raise the standard of living of Ghanaians and urged the people to register with the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

GNA

By Dennis Peprah, GNA
Ashaiman, Aug. 27, GNA - Two ex-convicts, pardoned through the 'justice for all' programme in 2016 have been slapped with 10 years jail term by the Ashaiman circuit court.

The court presided over by Mr. Gabriel Mate -Teye sentenced the duo, Nichols Tetteh 23 years old and Kojo Boamah 26 years to 10 years in jail for stealing and related crimes.

The two were charged with conspiracy to commit crime, conspiracy to cause damage, possession of narcotic drugs, possession of fire arms and ammunitions without permission, attempt to steal among others.

Testifying to the court, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Marry Assan of the Afienya Division of the Ghana Police Service stated that , at about 1:00am on the 28th of February 2017, her outfit received a distress call from the complaint Mr Samuel Tetteh Zortorvi that, his mobile phone container shop was being broken into.

Chief Inspector Mary Assan said her officers were quickly dispatched to the scene and upon thorough search, the two were apprehended about 300 metres from the crime scene wielding locally manufactured pistol with ammunitions, substance believed to be Indian hemp, gas cylinders, bag and a wire cutter.

The prosecution officer said the criminals were able to cut the roof of the container but were unable to break through the security mesh when some residents spotted the incident and alerted the complainant which lead to the arrest of the two criminals.

The two convicts later pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against them and prayed the court to temper justice with mercy but the judge, Mr.Gabriel Mate-Teye said, they did not take advantage of the opportunity during trail to show remorse and plead for mercy but instead contested and denied all the allegations' and that it is irrelevant to ask for mercy now.

'You will go into the cooler again.'

The convicts: Nicholas Tetteh and Kojo Boamah met at the Nsawam prisons where they became friends and were released from prison in 2016 through the 'justice for all' programme.

GNA

By Isaac Newton Tetteh GNA
Tema Aug. 27, GNA - Ghana will enjoy uninterrupted and reliable electricity due to the arrival of the world's largest Powership, the 470 MV Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan ,says the Corporate Communications Specialist for the Karpowership Ghana Company Limited.

In a press release on Friday, Ms. Sandra Amarquaye said the Powership, which will generate a total of 450MW of electricity directly into the national grid for ten years, was an agreement signed between the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Karpowership Ghana Company Limited as part of Government's bid to end Ghana's power crisis.

She observed that 'Karpowership has a proven track record of supplying sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity with its operational 235 MW Karadeniz Powership Aysegul Sultan, which is moored at the Tema Fishing Harbour.'

Ms. Amarquaye said the 470 MW Powership would supply electricity through thermal power generation with its dual fuel engines and combined cycle power generation technology.

'The Powership will initially use low Sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to generate electricity, but the fuel will be converted to Natural Gas as soon as local Natural Gas supplies become available, ensuring cost savings for Ghana,' she said.

She indicated that the operations of the 470 MW Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan would contribute significantly to Ghana's electricity supply due to its reliability 'and create more employment opportunities.'

She said that Karpowership continued to perform her Corporate Social Responsibilities to Ghanaians since it began operations in December 2015 through the numerous projects it had undertaken.

She said Karpowership had provided bursary for brilliant but needy students in some schools, had provided school supplies to selected institutions, furnished a computer laboratory for a school, among others.

Ms. Amarquaye observed that Karpowership was the only owner, operator and builder of the first floating power plant fleet in the world and played an active role in medium to long-term investments with more than 2200 employees.

'Currently, Karpowership owns and operates 13 Powership with an installed capacity of 2.7 GW and 5.3 GW Powerships under construction, and is operational in Ghana, Indonesia, Lebanon and Zambia (via Mozambique),' she said. GNA

By Alexander Nyarko Yeboah, GNA
An independent financial analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford has accused the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of being business unfriendly.

According to him, EPAs handling of the of the Exton Cubic Groups bauxite deal has not been encouraging.

We have an EPA that is coming across to me as very business unfriendly. This is a very unfriendly way of encouraging local business persons to move on, he said.

EPA had given the company the permit to prospect bauxite in the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve in the Ashanti Region but later asked the company to halt operations because Exton Cubic breached certain conditions in the permit.

Although the Lands and Natural Resource Minister, Peter John Amewu cleared Exton Cubic of any wrongdoing, the EPA insists the company has no right to enter the forest.

The Public Relations Officer of Exton Cubic, Sammy Gyamfi had said the company has so far spent $20 million dollars on the prospecting deal hence their current predicament has been a headache to their business partners.

Speaking on the Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford said EPA's posture will deter other local businesses from growing.

If a company has sank 20 million dollars already into this prospecting initiative and intends to do a lot more with a whole integrated aluminum factory coming up and presumably that will entail another 200 million before trying to recoup its investment, the least you can do is to give them all the support they need and encourage them in order to get things done and especially so when they are going to create employment of about 20,000 to the youth.

It's time we stop doing this big person mentality thing that we do and get a little bit closer to the people who we are regulating and see what their challenges really are and how we can assist them to move the project forward, he added.

Exton battles gov't for trucks

In a related development, Exton Cubic is currently battling the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah and the Atwima Mponua District Chief Executive for confiscating trucks and equipment belonging to Ibrahim Mahama's Engineers and Planners (E&P), a civil engineering company Exton engaged to help it prospect the bauxite in the forest reserve.

Although the regional minister insists that it will only release the equipment when he receive proper documentation from Exton Cubic, the company's PRO has said Mr. Osei Mensah has refused to give meet them.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
The District Chief Executive for the Bongo District Assembly has hinted of ambitious plans to give a facelift to the district through governments One-Constituency-One-Million-Dollars policy.

The district lacking in social amenities is optimistic that, through the flagship programme, most of its developmental issues can be addressed.

District Chief Executive for Bongo Mr. Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa who disclosed this at a town hall meeting in Bongo said, the assembly has had a successful deliberations with the regional 10-member technical committee of the policy for clearance to implement projects.

We will use part of the one million dollars to construct the Namoo Boarder Nyariga road, rehabilitation of the Gorigu-Balungu road, the construction of a bridge at Beo, gravelling of the Bongo Assembly-Bong SHS road and the construction of culverts, aprons and approaches to open up the road network for easy movement of goods and services.

We intend to construct a modern morgue for the district hospital and purchase an ambullance to serve our needs and construct new CHPS compounds. We plan to construct and furnish slaughter houses at Bongo, Zorko and Beo markets.

Mr. Ayinsiba said, plans were far advanced to establish a clay factory under the One District One Factory Policy to supply clay and bricks to boost the districts financial fortunes and the construction industry.

The Bongo District Assembly had some collaboration with Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and University for Development Studies (USD) in the past and this led to major exploration surveys conducted into clay deposits at the Balungu area. We are now awaiting a legal document from SADA to create the opportunity for a joint venture while we are also preparing to legally secure the concession. The clay deposit in the district when explored, could feed the yet-to-be established factory for more than 42 years.

He added that, the assemble intends to procure 1,000 electric poles at a cost of GHC600,000.00 to undertake extension of electricity to hard-to-reach communities.

Mr. Ayinbisa said, the assembly has paid five months arrears of allowances owed traditional authorities in the area while caterers under the Ghana School Feeding programme have been paid two terms arrears owed them.

He indicated that,GHC533,082.00 has been disburse to 3,526 beneficiaries under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty(LEAP) for the 46th to 48th payment cycle.

He added that, the disability fund has also been increased from 2% to 3%.



By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana
President Akufo-Addo has called on Christians and all Ghanaians to seek God's intervention in the affairs of government to help them work to the benefit of the country.

Speaking at a thanksgiving service on Sunday at the Wesley Methodist Cathedral in the Central Region after the New Patriotic Party's delegates' conference, Akufo-Addo expressed his commitment to ensuring development of the country.

We have to remember at all times that we need the intervention of the lord on daily basis in our life so that He can give us wisdom, courage, health, and compassion so that we can do our work to the benefit of our people of Ghana, he said.

He thanked the people in Region for their support to him and the party during the 2016 elections noting that the party took the decision to host the conference in Cape Coast in appreciation of their assistance in helping the party capture power at the 2016 polls.

When the counting was over, we discovered that the Central Region, not only has established the fact that it was a barometer but has given us an extraordinary vote of confidence. From 7 seats, we went to 19 out of 23, he said.

The 25th annual Delegates' Conference was to afford the party the opportunity to take stock of their achievements over the past few years and strategize for the years ahead.

As part of events at the conference, some proposals including the expansion of their presidential electoral college were made.

Only 5,000 delegates are allowed to vote for national officers at the party's congresses but the current proposal seeks to have the number increased to 150,000 to be at par with the number of delegates who vote for to choose a flagbearer at the party's presidential primaries.

The conference has directed the National Council of the party to set up a Committee to look into all the proposals for constitutional amendments and present a report on the various proposals at a subsequent conference to be held before the end of the year.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Khartoum (AFP) - President Omar al-Bashir said on Sunday that the crisis in neighbouring Libya has impacted Sudan, with human traffickers using the East African country's territories to commit "cross-border crimes".

Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting UN-backed Libyan premier Fayez al-Sarraj, Bashir also said security issues in Libya had made Khartoum's fight against human trafficking "more expensive".

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at a joint press conference with Libya's unity government chief in Khartoum on August 27, 2017

"We are affected directly by the insecurity in Libya, which has made it expensive for us to fight human trafficking, illegal immigration and cross-border crimes," Bashir said.

"Those who are committing these crimes are using the instability in Libya, and using Sudanese territories to commit their crimes."

Every year tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa cross Sudan and enter Libya for their onward journey to Europe across the Mediterranean.

In recent years European and African authorities have put pressure on Khartoum to boost efforts to curb illegal immigration and human trafficking.

Khartoum recognises the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Sarraj, a rival of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is accused by Sudan of enlisting rebels from the country's Darfur region to fight alongside his forces.

Bashir reiterated that accusation on Sunday.

"We have some Sudanese members of rebel groups active in Libya as mercenaries," he said, without elaborating.

Sarraj said the two leaders discussed the security situation in Libya.

"Sudan is of strategic importance to Libya, and we discussed how to secure the border," he said.

The two leaders did not talk about last month's closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats by the Haftar-backed authorities in eastern Libya.

A pro-Haftar news agency had reported that the Sudanese mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya, was closed on the grounds that it damaged "Libyan national security".

According to officials in Khartoum, dozens of young Sudanese -- both men and women -- have been killed in Libya fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Libya has been rocked by chaos since the 2011 fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed revolution.

Jihadists, arms dealers and people traffickers have gained a foothold in the North African country as multiple authorities and dozens of militias vie for power.
The All African Student Union (AASU) have honored the Chief Executive of National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Plan-NEIP at its 6th summit in Ghana for his extraordinary zeal of promoting students activism and entrepreneurship.

Lawyer Kumah was awarded among Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a prominent Nigerian entrepreneur and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gambia, Prof. Dr Faqir Muhammad Anjum.

Mr. Kumah who was the Chairman for the occasion admonished the union to unite for a common goal. He said Africa can only develop and achieve its dreams if physical land barriers and race are relegated to the background.

Africans need to come together as one to champion the development of the continent. As a union of African students, many of you may become leaders in your various countries and is incumbent for you to make African unity a priority. Dr. Nkrumah made one of the most inspirational speeches known in Africa and World politics.

The speech is usually remembered for the often referred to statement, the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa. This statement was true and relevant at the time it was made and is even more relevant in modern times albeit in a different context

Lawyer Kumah advised the students to promote and lead the course of entrepreneurship in their respective countries driven by innovations for the betterment of the African continent.

The 6th All African Students union summit was held in Ghana with participants from all Africa countries in attendance.

The program was graced by the presence of the Minister of Education, Mathew Opoku Prempeh and the Youth and Sport Minister, Isaac Kwame Asiamah.
I decided to watch the NPP's Delegates Conference in Cape Coast against my usual suspect,Alhaji and Alhaji on Radio Gold. Unless,I have something else doing,I listen to Alhaji and Alhaji and sometimes flip the dial to Newsfile,since I am able to watch the repeat later in the night.

One speech that struck me was the speech delivered by former President Kuffour. He concluded the speech by saying that the NPP must focus on the "consolidation of power." To do this,he prescribed the following,

1.The party must have a team of backroom technocrats to help the party with serious political research and messaging. These researchers are to focus on the people only. What this means is that,you need researchers who can help you with best methods of divide and rule among others.

2.The party must learn to resolve differences indoors and that openly washing your dirty linens can destroy the party and it's credibility. These strategies can only come from a man who has failed before and has learnt from his mistakes. It is the strategies of an experienced politician.

This man became President between 2001-2008. He set out one of most vicious political strategy of victimization and demonization of the Rawlings administration. His brother in law,Hon JH Mensah,had indicated that by the time they were through with appointees of Rawlings, the NDC will be dead. Two things happened,get as many former appointees to the courts and also through the National Reconciliation Commission.

It was the days when the Fast Track High Courts became the slaughter house of NDC appointees. The view was that once you get the appointees of the NDC prosecuted and convicted whether justly or unjustly,the tag of corruption would have remained and ingrained in the minds of the voters.The NDC will not be politically attractive as a party of choice.

Secondly,by using the National Reconciliation Commission,you were directly appealing to the emotions of the people against the NDC as a political party made up of persons who simply abused the fundamental human rights of citizens. Reliving the past.

By the year 2008, the NDC rather focused on the issues of living standards and corruption in the Kuffour administration. The NDC then in opposition,did this relentlessly. Even though it did not have enough resources,and only Radio Gold,there was enough noise to get even the Joyfms to discuss corruption within the NPP. The NDC simply focused on anything about corruption in NPP. From Hon Dr Richard Anane,Haruna Essekou's famous kickback story.

It became worse when Mr Kuffour made the infamous "waa waa ,corruption is as old as man." Incidentally,it was in Cape Coast just as today's conference. Everywhere,NDC members were singing corruption,corruption,corruption. From the School feeding program and the use of maggots infested foods. Eventually,the Dutch government withdrawn their sponsorship of the program. Mr Kuffour,immediately recognized as he stated,"in Ghana,the one who fights corruption in his government is rather seen to be corrupt.I will not allow corruption to destroy my government."

What did he do? He established the Office of Accountability at the Office of the president. Immediately,it was nicknamed,"Office of Concealment." Do you know that by 2008,most first time voters didn't even remember what happened under Rawlings.They didn't remember any issues of corruption. What they knew was Kuffour and their living conditions.

What was the price of petrol among others. It was not surprising that the NPP lost in 2008. Good lessons for him. Fast forward to the 2016 elections,a little over 1.2 million first voters were added to the voters register. They are 18yrs and above.

The most active part of the voter population. They usually turn out in their large numbers to vote. They are young and active. They are voting the first time,it is a great experience for them. Older people usually tend to develop voting fatigue after two elections. Low turnout is usually among older people. By 2009 when the NDC came to power,those who turned 18yrs in 2016 were barely 10yrs old.

What was the level of their political consciousness? Zero All they knew related to living conditions under President Mahama. They can't remember anything more. They were likely to be influenced more with recent happenings than what happened in the past. The NPP is going to suffer the same fate. Young people who are 14yrs now should be 18yrs by 2020.

Every year from now,some thousands of young should be turning 18-yrs and therefore eligible to be registered to vote. Their first election will be in 2020. The battle should be targeted at them. They will only be experiencing the administration of Nana Addo as adults. Their parents will complain before them. They will express their daily frustrations in front of them. They will discuss low salaries with them.

They will show their disapproval of government policies in front of them. They will start forming their electoral decisions with what they hear. It is even more dangerous now,the era of social media and it's influence on our politics. Information is spreading fast. Most of these young people have a lot of information. They are whatsapp platforms and facebook. They will blame the government for no water,food price increases and fuel price going up. They will blame the current administration for their lack of jobs.

They will see increasing transport fares as the problem of the incumbent. Issues of corruption involving current government appointees will be greatly discussed in front of them. They are reading the Otiko Bugri naabu goat for appointment allegations among others. By 2020,their biggest considerations will be what is working for them. So when government officials or NPP members decide to trade accusations, it forms part of the national discussion. Until,Otiko Djaba spoke,who knew that Chairman Bugri was accepting goats,ducks and fowls for appointment?

Until,Ken Agyapong spoke,who knew that aides around the President were extorting money from people before you can see the President? Until the personal Prophet of the President spoke,I didn't know that the President has been hijacked by Gabby and Duke Ofori Atta.

I mean Prophet Owusu Bempah. So when former President Kuffour says don't wash your dirty linens in public,he is simply saying that don't give information that is within close corridors. People tend to believe it more. The NDC suffered it in the past. Once we are involved in competitive electoral politics,management of information is key. The NDC must take a cue from the speech of Mr Kuffour and get together closely. We need power. Think deeply about it.
Capitalism is a process of creative destruction, according to Austro-American economist Joseph Schumpeter.

That is working out right now as new communications technologies are revolutionizing sectors, including short-term housing and short-distance human transportation. Companies, such as Airbnb and Uber, are changing the meaning of "hotel" and "taxi."

Much of this is to the good, enabling society to get more satisfaction of human needs and wants from a given set of resources. But Schumpeters insight that economic creation inevitably is linked with destruction still applies. Innovations also destroy outdated businesses and products.

Airbnb and its small competitors are raising the same issues as Uber and Lyft: How can existing highly regulated businesses, such as traditional motels and taxicabs, survive when competitors using new technology and business models are allowed to sell essentially the same service while remaining largely exempt from similar regulation? This is a tangled mess of spaghetti.

Start with the issue at hand, which involves traditional land-use zoning. If a particular tract is already zoned for multiple-unit apartment buildings, should there be limits on renting such units to customers who will occupy them for only a few days?

The question was moot when existing zoning and rental property regulations were enacted decades ago. Then-existing information technology did not allow the easy assembly of the information needed for a traveler to select one room from a plethora of those offered. It would have required paper directories, often outdated, hours of long-distance calling, handwritten lists and much trust on both sides of the deal. Far easier to call the reservation number of a national chain.

A combination of new technologies revolutionized that. Wireless telephony, smartphones with more capabilities than a personal computer that could show photos and text, powerful search engines, cloud information storage, information security software, new electronic payment means  all these are needed to make something such as Airbnb work.

In the old days, the market failure that weighed down owner-to-guest short-term rentals was imperfect information. But technology changed and now an arthritic globetrotter visiting Spain can find a $39 room on the banks of Sevilles Guadalquiver River, a short walk from key tourist spots and on bus lines. And he can reserve a room in Granada directly below the battlements of the Alhambra for Saturday night. Or he could get a room within walking distance of the sheep barn at the state fair.

Before, the amount of time a landlord needed to arrange short-term stays was inordinately large compared to the marginal income such stays might bring in relative to traditional long-term leases. But now, renting apartments for a few days or weeks at a time is viable, extremely viable if the property is near some key destination, such as a stadium or hospital or a light rail line that can bring guests to myriad such attractions.

The primary economic purpose of land use regulation is to limit imposition of external costs. If there is a block of houses and someone can purchase a lot right in the middle and open a hide tannery or boiler repair shop, the value of use of the houses as residences is lowered for their owners. And their market values fall. A single-family home that is subdivided into rooms for 12 university freshmen is almost as noxious as the tannery. Zoning laws can prevent such external costs.

That is an economic efficiency argument, and it is not controversial among economists. But it opens the door to rent-seeking, the abuse of regulation by someone to take money from others. Owners of existing gas stations, payday loan operations, liquor stores or even pharmacies can lobby for regulations limiting the density of such businesses. If there already is one gas station or liquor seller in some defined area and new businesses of this type can be banned, it gives the existing businesses at least a bit more monopoly power.

Zoning also can make it difficult for societal-needed activities that inherently impose external costs, real or imagined. We are better off if there are half-way houses for troubled youths, recently released convicts and recovering addicts. But people don't want one of those facilities next to their own houses. Make it a wet house for non-recovering alcoholics or a transition program for child molesters and opposition is enormous.

The original intent of zoning was to lessen externalities. That is an economic efficiency question. But they now also are used to alleviate economic inequality. Regulations are crafted to increase the availability of affordable housing and broaden its distribution. This is an equity or fairness issue. On this, there is no consensus among economists the way there is on the efficiency aspects of zoning. Liberal economists are more likely to favor use of zoning to increase inexpensive rentals and conservative economists see it as yet another unneeded regulation burdening the economy and reducing the goods and services society can enjoy.

This issue is key. If renting short term through Airbnb is lucrative, will that reduce the stock of long-term rental properties and the availability of units that poor people can afford?

The effects of Airbnb, and the similar firms that will inevitably arise, on existing hotels and motels is not overtly on the table. But it certainly is in the background. Any restriction on rentals through a new internet-smart, phone-based technology reduces competition for existing hospitality providers. So they will be lobbying behind the scenes in any case.

Such new technologies are not going away. And they inevitably will engender calls for regulation. The variable pricing aspect of Uber means that fares spike during Manhattan rainstorms. There already are calls for municipal regulations limiting that. So we will see interesting economic debates like this for many years.
27.08.2017 LISTEN

"...Simpletons...Mr. Duodu neglects the fact that if there were two distinguishing traits between Kwame Nkrumah and J. B. Danquah, they were the latter's insistence on "Independence Not Now"...The UGCC, after all,...was NOT a political party...It is all about Unitary-Ghana, stupid!...Tell Ghana's children, Mr. Duodu, the part about the most active agent in history...No...In this particularly case, there are actually "several lifes", but just one (1) Founder of Ghana...It is in the record of Kwame Nkrumah's life!...Darn...So much for talk by self-claimed "Doyen of Gold Coast" politics...Kwame Nkrumah is the Founder (Father) of Ghana..." (Prof Lungu, 19 Aug 17).

We've just finished reading Mr. Cameron Duodu's, "Is there one 'history' or are there several 'histories' (See Note below).

In the paper about the version of the history about the "founder of Ghana" that is without blemish, versus the "flawed...Nkrumahist" version, Mr. Duodu summarily dismisses "Nkrumahist" with a single sentence at the top. In so doing, Mr. Duodu swiftly goes to bat for the "Danquah-Busia political tendency", proffering what to us is sadly a rather childish chicken-versus-egg theory. It is all about "tree..foliage...branches....stem....roots...", all of 4 complete paragraphs on behalf of the so-called, "Danquah-Busia political tendency."

Mr. Duodu neglects the fact that if there were two distinguishing traits between Kwame Nkrumah and J. B. Danquah, they were the latter's insistence on "Independence Not Now" and "Self Government Under J. B. Danquah", instead of outright independence for the Gold Coast.

The history shows plainly that J. B. Danquah, Kofi Abrefa Busia, and others failed in their attempts to sell their "Confederation for Ghana" idea. That self-serving agenda was stopped in its track by the forces of "Independence Now" that was spear-headed by Kwame Nkrumah. As a major agenda, "Unitary Ghana" is indeed the hallmark of the Kwame Nkrumah political agenda for the Gold Coast. It is the most significant ideology for the Gold Coast, soon to be Ghana.

That idea itself is the major reason the Volta Region, the last and only area of land added to the geographic extent of the Gold Coast, became part of Ghana with the same rights and privileges as the then-existing Regions, including Ashanti, Northern, Western, etc. It was through the singular efforts of Kwame Nkrumah that the Volta Region, all of its 20,570-km/2 (7,940 sq mi) land mass, became an integral part of Ghana.

Left to Danquah and his followers, not necessarily representative of all Ashantis and Akans, that would NEVER have occurred to the benefit of Ghanaians, as citizens living under a Unitary State banner, Ghana.

With all due respect to the effort and singular contributions of Paa Grant, the UGCC, after all, for all practical purposes, was NOT a political party!

Mr. Cameron Duodu, in his latest "diss" of Kwame Nkumah, observes of "'Nkrumahist' simpletons":

"...If you are an Nkrumahist, the answer is simple: Kwame Nkrumah, as the prime minister who received the instruments of Ghana's independence from the Duchess of Kent on 6 March 1957, automatically became the founder of Ghana.

That is what we will call "Kankan-Nyame conjecture"!

How about "Independence Now"!

How about "Unitary-Ghana"!

How about Volta Region!

All that, just to start, Mr. Cameron Duodu?

As "history" goes, we expected better judgment in this matter.

Fact is, if we know anything about Ghana at all, Mr. Cameron Duodu has been a practicing journalist for more than 2 generations of Ghanaians (and other readers, some, in the land of Ghana's colonial masters, we imagine).

But now, we must surmise that Mr. Duodu just recently figured out from a "...retired Professor of History...University of Ghana, Dr Robert Addo-Fening...", that politics is a factor of the human condition, that who people pay homage in history and culture is subjective.

Rather odd and not at all re-assuring at our age and experience, "'Nkrumahist' simpletons" would conclude!

So, did our retired professor, Dr. Addo-Fening, also take time to explain to you the difference between a colony and an independent country; a country versus a morass of dysfunctional communities; a Danquah-Confederate state versus an Nkrumah-type unitary Nation-State, precisely the kind Ghanaians still enjoy?

What exactly is Dr. Addo-Fening's opinion on the matter?

Must we conclude it is wishy-washy, as the air flows, in the wind?

To the point, of what good is a Nation-State if their Peoples cannot identify one (1) individual in their history (and culture) who is singularly most responsible for the commencement and actualization of that same Nation-State; the one single individual responsible for the break with their plundering, cheating, and arrogant colonial masters?

What election(s) did self-proclaimed "Doyen of Gold Coast politics", J. B. Danquah, ever win, even in his own Kyebi neck of the woods?

What projects, what programs, did J. B. Danquah ever cause to be planned, built, commissioned, for Ghana?

Darn!

So much for talk by our self-claimed "Doyen"!

But, it is all about Unitary-Ghana, stupid!

Maybe Mr. Duodu will show us what serious "Nkrumahist", what serious student of Ghana's history and development, ever advanced the pedestrian idea that Nkrumah is the Founder of Ghana, (i.e., the Father of Ghana) simply because it was he who received "the instruments of Ghana's independence from the Duchess of Kent on 6 March 1957".

Who ever said so, Mr. Duodu?

What does Mr. Duodo understand by agency --- what people actually did; what people actually said; what people actually preached, when it really counted?

Knowing what we know now, who was NOT for "Independence Now" and preferred the colonial masters delay "independence" for the Gold Coast, until sometime later?

Knowing what we know now, who was for secession and confederation the night before independence in 1957?

Tell Ghana's children, Mr. Duodu, the part about the most active agent in history!

Tell them who among the so-called "Big 6" stood their ground and actually defended the anti-colonial demonstrators and the inalienable right of the People of the Gold Coast to freely demonstrate 28 February, 1948, before the colonial master, in their stripped prison garb, but Kwame Nkrumah, alone!

Tell them who, through advocacy, struggle, and working with communities, including the same colonial power, in fact added to the Ghana geographic foot print, and as a result ensured additional territorial space, as we know Ghana's footprint, today!

No, Mr. Cameron Duodu.

In this particularly case, there are actually "several" lifes, but just one (1) Founder of Ghana.

It is in the record of Kwame Nkrumah's life!

It is in the record of Kwame Nkrumah's ideology - archived and still breathing, in Accra all the way to Zurich!

It is in his singular achievements for the Ghana Nation-State, from Akosombo Dam to university education, down to secondary schools, unlimited; precisely the kind Akufo Addo, like millions of other Ghanaian citizens, would later enjoy, and still do!

But, one must first move, Mr. Duodu, beyond those depraved smearing "Kankan Nyame" conjectures that have absolutely no bearing in fact or science, and the history you now question and trivialize.

Give us a break, Kankam-Nyame creator!

Buy no!

Humbly, one must to be sufficiently reflective and balanced in political orientation to appreciate the answer to the most significant question with respect to the Ghana Nation-State history.

There is one (1) history!

There is one (1) Founder!

There will always be one (1).

Kwame Nkrumah is the Founder (Father) of Ghana!

So it goes, Ghana, simply!

NOTES/SOURCES:

(1) Cameron Duodu. Is there one history or are there several histories?

(https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Is-there-one-history-or-are-there-several-histories-571269).

VISIT WWW.GHANAHERO.COM/VISIONS, FOR MORE INFORMATION:

SUBJ: Give us a break, Kankam Nyame creators: Kwame Nkrumah is the Founder!

Support Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh) Campaign/Petition:

https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa/

Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com26 Aug 17.

(Powered by: www.GhanaHero.Com).
The annual national conference of the Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria, SCSSN, supported by Pfizer, has ended Friday in Enugu with lots of sterling outcomes on the treatment, management and control of sickle cell disease in Nigeria.

The 3-day conference drew participants, stakeholders, partners and sponsors from different parts of the world. The theme of the conference Reducing the burden of Sickle cell disease in our communities was anchored on raising awareness for Sickle cell disease, SCD, increasing the understanding of the disease among the community health workers, to review the activities of the society since the last one held was two years ago, with a view to hearing from SCSSN members who were sponsored on scholarship to pursue their post-graduate degrees in Brazil, to outline research and training priorities, update current level of knowledge about the different aspects of the pathophysiology and management of Sickle cell and to hold a meeting of the West African Sickle Cell Network, which Nigeria is a host country.

The 3-day conference was kicked off with a pre-conference workshop with community health workers in the State.

Meanwhile the keynote speaker, and Professor of Haematology at the Muhumbili University of Tanzania,Lucio Luzzatto, was in accord with the call by concerned stakeholders for the Government to pass a bill on sickle cell control and management to better insure the life of the people living with sickle cell disease.

The Medical Director of Pfizer, Dr KodjoSoroh, has advised that the high death rate of Sickle cell disorder can be prevented through proper management and increased disease awareness programmes in rural areas. The Medical Director stressed that Pfizer will continue to support activities on how policies can be improved to adequately impact on Sickle cell patients.

He said there is no way Government can better manage the situation without making policies that will guarantee treatment for people with the disease.

Pfizer, a major sponsor of the 2017 SCSSN conference expressed their commitment to partner with the Government and stakeholders that are willing to make feasible policies towards reducing the burden of Sickle Cell in the country.

A Professor of PediatricHematology and Chaiman, Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria, Professor AdekunleAdekile has also called on the Government to support the Sickle Cell Society in order to reduce the burden of the disease in the communities. Heidentified poor leadership on the part of the Government as being responsible for the snail paced action against Sickle Cell in Nigeria and called on the National Assembly to revisit the Sickle Cell Act brought before the house four years ago with a view to passing it.

The chunk of the problem lies on the Government because over the years, they have paid lip service to Sickle Cell Disease control and management. The Government should make policies on SCD a serious one so that the life of patients can be insured. The National Assembly should revisit and possibly pass the Sickle Cell Act to ensure that people with the disease are covered, he said.

According to Adekile, Sickle Cell is a disease that is common all over the world, particularly in Nigeria, which has the largest burden with a total number of 1,500 children born every year with the disease. Adekile said that the problem of Sickle cell is pervasive and many of the patients live in the rural areas, pointing out that the care in the tertiary or secondary centres are not enough. He regretted that the Government has not paid adequate attention to tackling Sickle Cell Disease, noting that the disease cannot be controlled until a comprehensive National policy for the control and management of the patients is introduced.

On her part, the Director, Corporate Affairs Pfizer for Sub-Saharan Africa, said the community networking is critical to achieving the aim of reducing the burden of Sickle Cell in our communities. She noted that Sickle Cell is not a death sentence even as she advised parents to always identify with organisations that are committed to tackling the scourge.

Also speaking during the conference, the Director, Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centre in Ghana, Professor KwakuFrempong said that most people who are born with Sickle Cell disease in Africa are not diagnosed and many of them die as children. He observed that Government are not aware of the impact of SCD on childhood mortality while noting that there is no country in the whole of Africa that has programmes for new born screening.

Our Government must step up measures and provide some supplements so that people can be treated as the medical cost is usually beyond what people can manage, he said.

The Marketing Officer of Assene-Laborex Limited, a subsidiary of BioMedomics, Pharm. Santos Onuigbo, charged young people to know their genotype early enough before going into marriage, adding that the company is committed to ensuring that people get the awareness about their state and better treatment against the disease.

He maintained that the company is partnering with Non-Governmental Organizations to get maximum grassroots moblilisation against the disease.

A participant at the conference, Miss Grace Ocheigo, a student participant from Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU was all praise to SCSSN for another opportunity to interact and meet people that would have cost much to meet were it not for the meeting. The student participant said that students have a greater role to play in curbing the burden of the disease.

I want stakeholders to use students in the campaign to reduce the burden of the disease in the country because they are more vibrant and are closer to SCD patients than are older people.

Young people relate more their problems to their peers and when these students are speaking, it will have more effects because youths are naturally keen to listen to their mates on an issue. By so doing, they open up, which will give the student the opportunity to know how to followthem up she said.

She appealed to the Government and the NGOs to make screening materials available to medical students so that they can be fully engaged in the process in as much as grassroots mobilisation against the disease is concerned.

Other participants at the conference praised the meeting and said it gave them the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to clinical practice which were answered by seasoned practitioners. They also said the meeting enabled them to network and be involved in collaborative research into new trends in Sickle Cell disease.

Sickle Cell is a disease that is not as popular as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, but tons of babies born each year around the World inherit the disorder, according to reports. The disease is got by inheriting two copies of a defective gene from each patient. In the process, the red blood cell gets collapsed, forming a crescent moon-like shape, which make it difficult for oxygen to be transported to all parts of the body.

In an interview after the conference, the Vice-Chairman of SCSSN in Nigeria, Prof ObiageliNnodu said that about 3.6 million Nigerians are affected by the Sickle Celldisease which represent 2% of the countrys population. Professor Nnodu who is also a consultant Gynaecologist said apart from those directly affected, 25% of Nigerians are carrying the gene and therefore noted that theres every need to tackle its prevalence. She said Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria is an umbrella body that brings together professionals, advocates, and other interested parties both within the country and in the diaspora to tackle different aspects of Sickle Cell disease.

The Professor of Gynaecology said SCSSN has a special focus on the coordination of different groups, bodies and organisations working on Sickle Cell disease who hitherto do their programmes in an uncoordinated manner.

Nnodu called on the Ministry of Education to include Sickle Cell education in the countrys schoolcurriculum, so that from primary level children would have the necessary knowledge about Sickle Cell disease and can as well educate their parents who are not exposed to such health problems. She said that since 2010 when the umbrella body came into operation, the activities of groups and bodies working on Sickle Cell have received a boost through coordination.

According to her, Before 2010 many people were working on Sickle Cell, they were individualised and uncoordinated but this umbrella body has brought everyone together for effective and coordinated work. We have achieved many goals within the period which include a handbook on Sickle Cell that is available in our website, but most importantly is the use of instant Sickle Cell kit which we subjected to clinical evaluation to ensure it is effective in finding the gene status of persons.

We have worked with the Federal Ministry of health to develop uniform guidelines and strategic planning for efficient delivery of Sickle Cell Programmes among others, she added.
The Zeitgeist of society: it's collective dominant set of ideals that motivates people's actions within that society in a given era. What is the collective zeitgeist of Ghana? Does Ghana even possess one? Can the current collective metal state of Ghana sustain an industrialization movement?

Your first and best guess is most likely mine too.

A country sunk so deep in the ideals of Bretton Wood Marshal Plan remnants to the extent that everyone speaks of "development" without having an iota of idea what it actually means. All that people want is to develop but no three people in the 27 million-man-state will come closer to agreeing on a similar definition for development - a typical developmental state-trapping syndrome.

Whatever development means, President Akkufo Addo is determined to see Ghana move from being a predominantly agrarian economy. Correct me if I am wrong because that is what I understood from the whole plan. But that will not make him the man many envisage he will go down in history as. What will make him a trailblazer is not factories he will set up in all 216 districts of Ghana, but whether or not half of them can be sustained beyond the first decade.

Then again will the plan succeed even if the zeitgeist was at par with European industrial ideals as he seeks to build? I still have my doubts because a learned colleague, Amenuti Namer recently reminded us in an article published on grandmotherafrica.com entitled Africas Under Development In An Era of White Supremacist Culture, that Africa's lack of industrialization though it holds the best and largest deposits of the world's resources, was not by chance; that there is a clear explanation to that, which he brilliantly outlined.

Even if we consider the dreadful factors Narmer outlined as not so important, often when a leader and his or her visions are out of touch with the zeitgeist of their time, failure lurks around the corner. It is also often possible that the leader is not a visionary but is also submerged in the same zeitgeist as the people, in which case the proclaimed vision may be pure fantasy. Whichever way, sustaining an industrialisation moment definitely depends on the collective "zeitgeist" of a country.

Lest we be reminded of the famous "Special Presidential Initiative" under the senior brother of this administration, the Kuffour Admin, of which this president was foreign minister and attorney general, similar initiative, though not as all encompassing as this one is, promised factories like Pwalugu Tomato Factory, Ayensu Starch Factory and many other things, which may not be entirely dead but have not lived up to expectations. After that the Social Democrats-wana-bes also came with their own disturbing visions, from Komenda Sugar to Military Boot Factory, nothing is really working.

Kwame Nkrumah faced this zeitgeist disparity and the challenges it brings. Arguably, sustenance of an industrialisation plan forced him to become an autocrat. With his contemporaries swimming in neocolonialisms, the gap between his thoughts and vision and that of the people he whose living standard he wanted to uplift proved to be incongruent, a toxic mixture that forced him to force autocracy on them and silent his critiques.

So it is this simple. If Akkufo Prez Addo is not fantasizing and means business and the country's zeitgeist is good enough to sustain the vision, then everything is fine. Or, he is truly a visionary, the country's zeitgeist can't keep up with his vision and he is forced ensure his party continues to win power by hook or crook so he can sustain his vision.

This means his hands will be forced into doing something similar to what Nkrumah had to do. If it turns out he is not a visionary but was just reeling in a fantasy word in addition to the fact that the zeitgeist cannot sustain whatever he was dreaming, then Ghana faces another wave of enslavement through investor money. Because with this collective Zeitgeist in Ghana, investors will be forced to employ from outside, which creates a socio-economic stratification of foreign entities and personalities holding key positions and shipping their earnings and profits to their homelands with indigenes working the lowest brute labour base posts with minimum wage. Soon, if another place gives cheaper labour than Ghana, they will pitch tent there and close Ghana operations leaving the minimum wage worker with nothing, and an employment creating initiative becomes unemployment-managing exercise.Dr. Nkrumahspoke aboutthis. He wrote in "Ghana, The Way Out":

"The balance of payments problem is being tackled in the classic capitalist way of creating unemployment and devaluation of the cedi. Unemployment suits capitalism.It is an excellent thing for the so-called private enterprise. It weakens the bargaining power of workers (who have only their labour to sell), and it makes sure of a steady pool of cheap labour.

The basic principle of capitalism and so-called private enterprise (which in Africa generally means foreign private enterprise) is that an industrial or commercial project shall depend for its initiation or continuance according to how much profit it makes for the individual or group of individuals, such as shareholders.

Capitalists or private entrepreneurs always seek projects, which provide them with the greatest profit for the least investment in the shortest time. This is the principle on which they operate.It means that in Ghana they are only going to support or introduce such projects as will show them the maximum possible profits for the smallest effort in the shortest time, and in the most convenient place to fulfil these conditions.

They are not going to do something in Ghana if they can do it more cheaply and with greater profit somewhere else. Nor are they going to do it Ghana if it is in competition with some similar project they already have somewhere else."

Nkrumah said was about the qualified worker living within the same zeitgeist as his employer and can even protest because he knows his rights. So what about the one living with all kinds of colonialisms in a zeitgeist in disparity with that of the one he is employed with? That person is practically a slave.

As a microcosm of this phenomenon, here is an example. About 5 years after taking over the Ghana Telecom, Vodafone realised that beside the shortfall in qualified workforce in the tech sector in Ghana, serious issues exist in terms of work ethic. From lack of the needed discipline to work for a firm its seize to realising that graduating students were simply not equipped enough for real work world to the realisation that even the labour authorities did not understand proper work ethic. But Vodafone was not in the position to exploit this too much as a capitalist logic with suggest because their typesof work is predominantly based on expertise and therefore they have more to lose if they keep an unqualified personnel to exploit, and telecom being infrastructure business they, the could not fold up so easily like a factory would. They needed work ethic and with the expected mind-set or zeitgeist as vodafone itself. As Dr. Nkrumah espoused, in another sector where work is overwhelmingly labor, an investor the seizeof Vodafone will simply exploit the master-slave relation its recreates or set up base elsewhere where labour is cheaper.

Not in that position, Vodafone had to think outside the box. Employing only expatriates and leaving the manual labour for locals would be too expensive. So they hired a headhunting company to help them start a Diasporan workforce database. Their idea was to up the bar of local remuneration and create a pool of workforce of Ghanaian and other African Diasporans, most of whom are also desperate for opportunities at home in Ghana

Another five years down the line, this database has become redundant running between Accra and London because even Diasporan Ghanaians complain about the work ethic climate of the country, which leads back to a zeitgeist issue. Most expatriates and diaspora returnees have no good stories to share about the performance of the local workforce each time you sit down to have a chat on this issue. It is not like the locals are not trying. They are giving it their best. But a collective systemic zeitgeist, even in its simplest form, isnt there.

As local public office holders, career politicians and the entire leadership continue to miss the point and focus on petty thievery to buy pizza for girls the age of their daughter, the disparity in zeitgeist and what people do, continues to widen. The opposition side even worsens the mental state of leadership in this zeitgeist disparity. Not in government hence cannot superintend over the quagmire, the wana-be Social Democrats feel they might as well exploit the zeitgeist gap.

Knowing the peoples understanding of what a factory is may end up disturbing the plans, the opposition exploits it for all the bad reasons. They say the factories the government intend building will not be factories as long as they are not huge industrial buildings sitting on hectors of land built in steel and concrete with high chimneys releasing smoke in the skies on a 24 hour bases with armed security men at their entrances. The opposition says setting up plants within the localities next to local produces and processing them to find markets, something that my research proves is one of the ways that can give the plan a chance of surviving a decade, isnt good enough. One radio opposition interviewee said, "the president should say he is setting up cottage industry and not factories", as if this matters.

Both sides seem confused. The opposition SocDem wana-be is exploiting the mental state of the ordinary Ghanaian who thinks only a serious toxic waste vomiting huge industrial chimney can be called a factory, while the governing party isn't thinking it properly through - it is sucked in the populist aspect of its plan.

Meanwhile the Ghanaian can't keep time. He turns to go back home when on his way to work, it starts raining. He expects that when the Black Stars are playing in a different time zone on a weekday at 11am, he will not show up at work. Maybe his local line manager himself isn't going to show up at work that day to supervise him and their Indian or Malaysian expatriate boss must understand that. Then come things likethe ordinary Ghanaian's insatiable thirst for foreign goods and his equation of inferiority with what comes from his backyard.

Again, this is not because locals are lazy or incompetent as most hirers and experts in Human Resources think. It is simply because the zeitgeist of the local workforce is different from what a firm requires to stay competitive in a capitalist environment and neither school system or leadership is capable of teaching that.

You might be asking yourself so what can be done. Well, if it turns out the president is a visionary; here are a few things required. A certain level of mechanised thinking is needed in the entire country, placing the law above all, enforcing the law instead of appealing to people's conscience, stop depending on philanthropic organisations or benevolence of leaders, control people instead of trusting them, know when to pray and when to work, understand a certain level of required minimum standard of quality, put clearly measurable indicators and checks and balances in place, allow constructive criticism, separate religion and state affairs, and most importantly, check the leaders and punish them for their crimes as everyone else. This sounds like something that can only be achieved over generations. But without them, his plans have no chance of working beyond 5 years, and the president himself recently started alluding to a few of these issues. At his Labour Day address, he spoke about Ghanaian lateness to work and practicingregionor playing with mobile phones at work.

Another trouble is that this start the president himself is caught us in this. After winning elections, one of his first projects was building "a multi-faith national prayer Centre", withtaxpayer funds championed by Christians in multiple religions country. Voluntary open religious speeches and the fact that he ignored publicoutcry to cede the organization of annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Muslims themselves to run. On top of that, he appointed a religious affairs minister whose office recentlyhinted at organizing pilgrimage for Christians to Israel. The mixture seems toxic. Its like the president is trying to shoot himself in the knee.

Sitting in the car of a friend and listening to radio, an MP was gave an exclusive interview, commending him for installing Christian morning devotion in all schools in his constituency. When I argued it was a wrong move that as a lawmaker, he was fighting a wrong fight and should not be commended, my friend got angry and emotional. This country, with this mental geist far fromable to sustain industrialisation aside many other challenges,many in leadership positions continue to pour keroseneinto blazing flamesbyconstantly putting square pegs in rounds holesThe issue complicate further.

One needs to understand that the source of all this is psychological. It's a trauma that time after time, only very few amongst black people are able to overcome and chat the right course. The last leader to succeed in that is Nkrumah. The traumais in fact causative to the collective zeitgeist disparity. This has caused a downward trend from outside destructions to self-destructionthat has gone on for so long that a large percentage of the population derives their income from the destruction. People become inclined and ready to defend the pattern of destruction because any effort to introduce a new idea, no master how good it is, becomes a threat to their livelihood. Such societies need generations to be turned around, not by just providing them jobs.

Maybe we dont have to industrialise to attain middle-income status. No one stops to think in that direction. This is an out-side-the box thinking 21st century where people have used simple measures such as hosting world sporting events. Arguably, Seoul 88 Olympics was South Korea's break. Ghana wants to take the traditional industrialisation route to amiddle-income status. The Presidents idea in itself is not a bad one. But how many people in Ghana have the needed work ethic and the actual mentality to view a workplace with the entrenched collective systemic thinking needed to motivate an employee to work correctly knowing that his daily bread is tied directly to the activities he is discharging?

The only way this can be done is if blended with African way of life to avoid the inherent factors Narmer alluded to in his article. And is what the opposition is ridiculing.

One thing we need to understand is if the Ghanaian needs to wake up and go to work, he or she will, and in time. But without the collective zeitgeist in which at least half the country can reason, the factories will either collapse or foreign capital investors take over and ship profits out and all Ghanaians will enjoy will be to stay employed till another country offer the investors cheaper labour and other conditions.

The toxic mixture of the unparalleled expectations of Ghanaians, the nations stuck zeitgeist,the presidents ambitions (or maybe fantasies) and the opposition playing a permanent role as devils advocate borne out of confusion, points to a problematic future of this project. If such an idea will succeed, the nation has to be turned into a compact mind-set changing boot camp with laws and policies and their checks and balance mechanism, understanding of work output and its bearings on one's own life, clear and measurable indicators, and those not in favour a project knowingthe lines between self interest and common interest. Do you see this happening?
27.08.2017 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament of Ellembelle Constituency and a former Minister for Petroleum, Hon Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah has been honoured together with a member of Ghanaians by the United Clergy International Association.

The Award was given based on their immense contributions to Economic, Social, Religious and Political growth of the nation, Ghana.

The selection of the awardees was based on statistical device conducted by a team of proven Christian Management experts, whose duty it is to meticulously nominate responsible Ghanaians and Institutions to be respected with the award.

The team identified that, Hon Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah contributed immensely to the development of the oil and gas sector in Ghana.

These contributions includes the implementation of Ghana's no flaring policy by the establishment of Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, successful completion of the TEN and Off Cape Three Point (OCTP) projects that has helped increased Ghana's oil production, the passage of local content law which is pivotal for local business and skills development, the passage of the new exploration and production law with key transparency provisions and the Gas Master Plan to guide gas development and utilization in Ghana for the next 40 years. He supervised the deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector which served as the conduit for competitive market and the complete eradication of LPG and petroleum products shortages in Ghana.

In addition, the team considered his commitment to his constituents and fulfilling the image of the Ellembelle District through numerous developmental projects.

He was honoured with Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA) during the inauguration and 3rd ever global achievers leadership awards at the Osu Presby hall, Accra on the 25th August, 2017.

Receiving the award, Hon Armah Buah expressed optimism that this award will go a long way to motivate him to work even harder for Ghana. He also used the opportunity to thank those who helped to make this achievement possible especially his former boss, President John Dramani Mahama for his guidance and leadership.

The event was attended by a number of officiating clergy including Bishop Kwame Aburam Anoff Snr, the Executive Chairman of United Clergy International Association, Apostle Florence Brooks, USA, Dr. Felix Collins, Canada, Bishop Dr. Elisha Knox Kpo and Cardinal Dr. Ofori Atta and among others.
'The big truck is still on ...
23:34

Seven members of Donald Trump's cybersecurity team, including an Indian-origin data scientist, have resigned, accusing the US president of ignoring the pressing national security matters.

In a group resignation letter, the members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, whose purview includes national cybersecurity, cited both specific shortfalls in the administrations approach to cybersecurity,

and broader concerns that have undermined the "moral infrastructure" of the US, Fortune reported.

"You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process," the

letter reads.





They also cited his failure "to denounce intolerance and violence of hate groups" when asked about the "horrific violences in Charlottesville" as one of the reasons why they left.

Unite the Right march was organised on August 12 to protest against the proposed removal of a statue of General Robert E Lee, who commanded the pro-slavery Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Violence broke out after they were confronted by anti-racism groups and later a car ploughed into one group of anti-racism protesters in Charlottesville.

Trump had blamed both sides including the "alt-left" for the deadly violence.

The members, who were appointed under the previous administration, resigned just before the panel was supposed to hold its quarterly business meeting.

They include Obama-era officials: the first ever White House Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil, Office of Science and Technology Policy Chief of Staff Cristin Dorgelo and White House Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss.

The president recently lost two other panels before the NIAC members resigned. His administration dissolved the Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum, but not before a good number of their members already left.
- The Nigerian government has agreed to set up a committee to review the minimum wage for workers

- This committee is expected to include representatives of the government, NLC and employers

- However, Osinbajo said it had nothing to do with the agitation for a new minimum wage in the country

There is some good news for government workers in Nigeria as the government has finally put plans in motion to set up a tripartite committee to deliberate on a new minimum wage for workers in the country.

Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the FG had written them to forward a list of its representatives to the committee on minimum wage.

According to Punch, Ozo-Eson said:

A week ago, we were informed in a letter that the government has now agreed on a chairman and that we should send our list and we did that immediately.

What we are waiting for now is the inauguration of that committee so that it can do its work and we hope that is something that will happen without further delay.

It was also said that the committee is expected to include representatives of the government, NLC and employers.

READ ALSO: Labour threatens to shut down Nigeria over minimum wage

However, Ozo-Eson noted that what Osinbajo said had nothing to do with the agitation for a new minimum wage in the country, noting that the vice president was specifically talking about wages in the public sector.

From my reading of what the vice president said, I think he was referring to wages in the public sector. He was saying rather than consider a review of all wages in the public sector, the government would likely consider specific parastatals.

That has nothing to do with the agitation or the demand for a new minimum wage. The minimum wage as it stands is excessively eroded in value. It cannot be regarded as a living wage. The demand for the committee to start work on the minimum wage is completely on course. We expect that process to start as soon as possible, the NLC scribe said.

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Legit.ng earlier reported that the Federal Government has given an insight into the composition of the National Minimum Wage Committee and the criteria for selecting members.

We gathered that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who was speaking at an interactive session with newsmen in his office, revealed that government has appointed Chairman of National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) as committee secretary.

Watch this video as Nigerian speak on the salary being earned in the country:

Source: Legit.ng
- A top Boko Haram commander who co-led the abduction of the Chibok girls is giving useful information to the army on locations and hideouts of other top commanders of the sect

- Auwal Ismaeela says he regrets his actions of violence against his own people

- The ex-terrorist states that he voluntarily surrendered to Nigerian troops after realising that the activities of Boko Haram was contrary to the teachings of Islam

A top Boko Haram commander who co-led the operation that resulted in the abduction of about 276 girls in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014, has surrendered to the Nigerian army.

READ ALSO: Aso Rock CABAL stages comeback following Buharis return

The commander, Auwal Ismaeela, is currently helping the Nigerian Military with useful information on locations and hideouts of other top commanders of the sect.

Ismaeela, who also led several Boko Haram operations in the northeast which resulted in the killings of innocent people and destruction of properties said he regretted his actions.

Speaking in an interview with PR Nigeria at a military facility for the repentant and surrendered Boko Haram members in the north-east, the terrorist narrated how he and other terrorists carried out the Chibok girls abduction.

He said: My self and Abu Hafsat a Boko Haram commander led other squads to abduct the Chibok girls.

We led the operations to invade Gwoza, Bama, Limankara mobile barrack, Bita, Bosso, Madagali, Chibok, Pulka, Firgi, and Mubi.

In Madagali which was my home town, myself, Adam Vitiri, Abu Adam and Habu Kudama, some high ranking Boko Haram Commander led an operation in 2014 where we killed some students and youths at the Central Secondary School in Sabon Garin Madagali.

In one of the operations, I abducted my wife named Maryam who had two kids for me in Sambisa Forest."

The ex-terrorist said it was unfortunate that he was brainwashed and misled to carryout abductions and killing of his own people.

During a battle in Konduga where myself and other Boko Haram commanders led the operations, I lost my right leg and was almost got burnt. Even at that, I did not stop fighting for the course. Sheikh Shekau ordered that I should be given a tricycle which I continued to use for various operations before I eventually surrendered, he said.

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Ismaeela said he voluntarily surrender to the Nigerian troops after realising that the activities of Boko Haram was contrary to the teachings and practices of Islam.

He said: I willingly surrendered to the military because I was tired of the senseless killing and fight. I realised that our people have resort to stealing and all sort of atrocity contrary to the teaching and practice of Islam.

The ex-terrorist promised to cooperate with the security agencies in providing useful information on the operations of the sect and to disclose top-secret hideouts of other Boko Haram commanders.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram insurgents, on the night of Wednesday, August 23, attacked 4 villages in Nganzi Local Government Area of Borno state, killing no less than 27 people.

Legit.ng learnt that the terrorists attacked the Abachari, Kote, Uda Lawanti and Wokilli villages, all in the same local government area, at about 9:30pm killing 15 people and leaving several wounded.

A military personnel who also spoke to the press about the incident said that: The Boko Haram fighters burnt down the villages.

They looted livestock and grains. Nothing was left in the villages. Some of the lucky ones are now taking refuge in Nganzi." The terrorists continued the attacks on Thursday, August 24, by invading Mallam Moduri and Kijimatari, two villages in Guzamala local government area

In the video below, survivors of Boko Haram attacks narrate their horrible experience.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen over N8, 627,458,773.36 billion in three accounts of Hajiya Muinat Bola Shagaya

- Shagaya is an associate and close friend of a former First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan

- She is however challenging the action of the EFCC, saying it is violates the anti-graft body's act

A report by The Nation indicates that the EFCC has frozen over N8, 627,458,773.36 billion in three accounts of an associate and close friend of former first lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan, Hajiya Muinat Bola Shagaya.

According to the report, Shagayas relationship with about 10 firms/account names are also being investigated by the EFCC.

The Kwara-born billionaire is however fighting back as the report says she has dragged one of her banks to the High Court of Lagos state for allowing the EFCC to Post No Debit (PND) on her accounts without a valid court order.

She says the action taken on her accounts violates Section34 (1) of the EFCC Act, 2004.

Shagaya has since filed a court case via her counsel, Napoleon Emeaso-Nwachukwu and hearing of the matter is slated for Thursday, September 28.

Bola Shagaya is a close associate of Mrs Patience Jonathan. Photo credit: 3.bp.blogspot.com

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However, the bank says its hands are tied by the law in complying with the EFCCs directives to freeze Shagayas accounts.

The EFCC in a letter to the bank's managing director in respect of one of the frozen accounts said:

The commission is investigating a case in which the above-mentioned account featured.

In view of the above, you are requested to kindly check the table below and provide us with Certified True Copies (CTC) of the following information, which should include but not limited to the following: (i) The deposit slips/telex copies (front and back) that conveyed the authority of the transactions; (ii) Any investment made with the funds in any of your products which should include fixed/term deposit and their liquidation and the interest incurred, Banks Acceptance, Commercial Papers and any other relevant information in relation to these.

The EFCC listed the transactions in the said account as N300m(Bola Shagaya RTGS); N300m (Additional N300FTD at 15% TRAN); N500m (Time Deposit); N2,317,013,698.64 (BNG COLLAOS FOR FTD-CUSTOMER ACCOL); N2.3billion (Opening a Time Deposit Account); N292, 495, 029.82 (Withdrawal from Time Deposit); N292, 495, 029.82 (TAK Asset Mgt Limited); N300m (Term Loan booked for 356 days); and N2,025,455,015.08 (BNG COLLAPS OF FTD Customer Account.

In a separate letter Cr: 3000/EFCC/LS/STF/ STF3MP/ Vol.11/182 which Shagaya made available to the court, the EFCC asked the bank to Post No Debit(PND) on 10 accounts linked with her.

The account names are (i) First Deep Water Discovery Limited; (ii) Bola Shagaya; (iii) FAPLiNs Nigeria Limited (iv) Lingo Nigeria Limited; (v) Buri Barclays BDC; (vi) Links Global Synergy Ltd; (vii) OKIOIL Nig. Ltd; (vii) JEMARVIZ Nig Ltd; (ix) PJ Oil and Gas Ltd; and (x) AFDIN Ventures Ltd.

The anti-graft commission said: The commission is investigating a case in which the above mentioned accounts featured.

You are requested to kindly place the account on Post No Debit (PND) category pending the conclusion of the investigation.

This request is made pursuant to Section 38(1) and (2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 and Section 21 of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.

The EFCC has been on the case of Mrs Jonathan and her associates for a while

In the third letter, the EFCC said it was looking into two other accounts including Voyage Oil and Gas and Bola Shagaya from 2008 to date.

But Shagaya accused the bank of complicity on her travails following the banks alleged failure to exercise the requisite due diligence.

She said the freezing of her accounts did not comply with Section 34(1) of the EFCC Act, 2004. She specifically referred to the banks refusal to allow her to make transactions on Account 000326118 including payment of N514, 800,000 to Global Apex Air Limited, through Heavywind Integrated Services, for the lease of a bombardier Jet.

She said she had lost a lot of business goodwill since her accounts were frozen including

1. The loss of $1,000,000 deposited with Global Apex Air Ltd. Due to her in ability to pay accrued costs in line with Aircraft Lease Agreement which was occasioned by the failure of the Defendant to oblige the Claimants payment instruction to Heavywind Integrated Services.

2. Loss of business opportunities and goodwill occasioned by her inability to operate her account domiciled with the Defendant due to its freezing.

3. Loss of reputation occasioned by the Defendants wrongful dishonouring of her payment instructions to third parties.

But in a letter to Shagayas counsel, the bank said it has a legal and ethical responsibility to render assistance to law enforcement agencies.

While the bank respects the contractual nature of the relationship with your client, it is without prejudice to the banks standing as a responsible law abiding corporate citizen.

In spite of the banks contractual relationship with your client, that relationship is not without a legal and ethical responsibility to render assistance to law enforcement agencies when required of the bank.

Litigation against the bank will therefore not be necessary in the circumstance, part of the letter read.

READ ALSO: Police call on lawmakers to release Senator Misau for questioning

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has asked the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to provide the names of the informants that provided tips that led to the raid of Mrs Jonathan.

The house committee on public petition gave this order on Wednesday, July 26, in its session on a petition on incessant harassment of herself and family sent to it by the former first lady.

Watch the EFCC stage a walk against corruption in Abuja on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani speaks during a press conference in Doha on August 2, 2017. (AFP Photo)

DOHA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has arrested five people in connection with the alleged hack of Doha's state news agency, an incident which sparked the current Gulf political crisis, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Saturday.

The arrests were announced by Qatar's most senior legal figure, Attorney General Ali bin Fetais al-Marri.

"Five people were arrested and they are being investigated. The prosecutors in Qatar are working with the Turkish authorities to follow the case," he said in comments published by the Qatar News Agency (QNA).

The alleged hack of the QNA website took place on May 24, attributing explosive political remarks to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

The remarks covered sensitive regional political subjects such as Iran, Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Israel and the United States.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed ties with Qatar over its ties to Shiite Iran and support for Sunni Islamist extremist groups.

Qatar denies the charges and said Sheikh Tamim did not make the statements, but that the website was hacked.

Doha called in the FBI to help with the hacking investigation and has accused the UAE of being behind the cyber-attack. The UAE has denied the claims.
- The PDP has called for an investigation into the recent market demolition in Owerri, Imo state

- The demolition which allegedly led to the death of a 10-year-old boy has led to a lot of controversy

- The Imo state government led by Rochas Okorocha has repeatedly denied that anyone was killed

The demolition of the popular Ekeukwu market, in Owerri, by the Imo state government on Saturday, August 26 has led to a lot of controversy.

A 10-year old boy Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, allegedly died from a bullet fired by soldiers, in the course of the demolition.

According Premium Times, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has released a statement on Sunday, August 27, through its spokesperson, Dayo Adeyeye saying:

We condemn the Forceful Demolition of the Popular Eke Ukwu Market and violent eviction of traders in Owerri by the Imo state government using men of the Nigerian police force and other security agencies during which three (3) people including a 10-year-old child were extra-judicially murdered and several other people were injured.

This violent eviction is all the more condemnable because it was carried out in violation of a pending Order granted by an Imo State High Court restraining the Imo state government from demolishing the market and evicting the traders.

This action, sadly, follows a pattern of the Use of the Apparatus of State Security to forcefully and violently carry out evictions of ordinary Nigerians from valuable property in blatant violation of court orders.

"Not very long ago, the Lagos State Government ordered the Forceful Eviction of indigent Nigerians from waterfront properties to enable it enter into joint venture agreements for the Construction of luxury apartments.

"Like the Owerri incident, this eviction led to the deaths of at least two (2) people and the Injury of several others, including women and children.

READ ALSO: Okorocha denies death of three people in Owerri market demolition

As much as we acknowledge the deals of development and the construction of critical infrastructure, these ideals must be pursued within the confines of respect for the Rule of Law as well as in a humane manner that preserves the dignity of indigent Nigerians while giving them viable and affordable alternatives regarding where to live, grow and trade."

The party then called for the immediate investigation of these extra-judicial murders and for the culprits to be brought to book.

Only such an action will give justice to the Dead and discourage the Use of the Police and other security agencies as tools for further oppression of ordinary Nigerians.

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Meanwhile, there has been controversy surrounding the death of a 10-year-old boy, Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, who was allegedly shot dead by soldiers from the 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze.

The tragedy reportedly happened during the demolition of the Owerri Main Market, popularly known as Eke-Ukwu Owerri. Isaiah Ibeanusi, the father of the deceased boy, who was in tears at his No. 9 Oguamanam Street residence, close to the demolished market, told reporters that his son died instantly after a bullet hit him on his head.

Watch this Legit.ng video as traders speak of the market situation of other places:

Source: Legit.ng
- A former chief intelligence officer of the Boko Haram group, Abdulkadir Abubakar, says two factions of the group are ready for talks with the federal government

- Abdulkadir Abubakar, also known as Abu Muhammad, states that Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, has been the major obstacle to peace, since the insurgency began in 2009

- Abu Muhammad expresses willingness to give the military useful information to crush the insurgents and arrest Shekau

A former Boko Haram commander, Abdulkadir Abubakar, has disclosed that the elusive leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, has left his enclave in Sambisa forest and is currently hiding in Mandara Mountain.

READ ALSO: Aso Rock CABAL stages comeback following Buharis return

Abdulkadir Abubakar, also known as Abu Muhammad, was the chief intelligence officer of the Boko Haram group and one of its top commanders, until his arrest in June by the military in Buni Yadi in Gujba local government area of Yobe state.

He said two factions of the group were ready for talks with the federal government.

Abubakar told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at his cell in Maiduguri that Albarnawi and Mamman Nur factions of Boko Haram were willing to dialogue and cooperate with the government to defeat the most visible leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau.

According to him, Shekau, whose capture, dead or alive, the military high command has ordered, has been the major obstacle to peace, since the insurgency began in 2009.

Shekau is not willing to surrender due to his high handedness. Unfortunately, the government and military authorities accorded priority on dealing with Shekau, who is blood thirsty.

Albarnawi has indicated interest to dialogue with the government to end insurgency and provide a lasting solution to the crisis. Albarnawi discusses this with members of his circle. And I can assure the government that he would cooperate to achieve peace.

The two factions are willing to cooperate with Nigerian Government to defeat Shekau, he said.

Abubakars claim about the readiness of the factions to dialogue with the Nigerian authorities could not be verified as he had been incarcerated since June. But he insisted that the groups are predisposed to a peaceful resolution of the eight year-old crisis.

Abubakar claimed to have undertaken various espionage missions and provided intelligence to the insurgents, which enabled them to hit a long list of targets, among which were the abduction of 275 students at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok and the killings of students at federal government College, Buni Yadi. Over 20 students were murdered at Buni Yadi.

He also claimed to have been involved in other attacks on schools in Maiduguri, Damaturu, Postikum and Mamudo.

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The detained Boko Haram commander expressed his willingness to give the military useful information to crush the insurgents and arrest Shekau.

I am cooperating with the military and I am ready to provide information on the whereabouts of Shekau. Shekau has left his enclave in Sambisa and moved deep into Mandara Mountain. I know the area where he is hiding and willing to provide a guide to the military.

The intensified military offensive has weakened Shekaus position and that of the other groups, he added.

Abubakar revealed deep divisions and power struggle among the insurgents, claiming the Albarnawi and Mamman Nur factions were opposed to Shekaus leadership style and his bloodthirstiness.

He also blamed Shekau for many attacks on civilians by the Boko Haram insurgents.

During the early days of the insurgency we fought for what we thought was a just cause, to establish a caliphate where human beings are valued, cherished and respected.

After annexing vast territories, Shekau began to demonstrate his cruelty and atrocities against humanity.

In view of the high level atrocities committed by the group, some of the top commanders including myself, Albarnawi and Mamman Nur challenged Shekau, demanding an immediate end to the ugly saga.

Thereafter, Albarnawi and Mamman Nur parted ways, and formed their groups. Shekau is responsible for bombings and attack on soft targets in the North-East.

The Albarnawi and Mamman Nur groups never attacked schools, religious places of worship, markets, women and children. Our fight was strictly with security forces. Even the kidnapped oil workers would not be killed by the group, he said.

According to him, both Mamman Nur and AlBarnawi opposed the abduction of the Chibok school girls, women and children.

Shekau is fond of using the girls and other abducted women as toys, and bombers. He kills on the pretence of punishing for lies, theft, and rebellion. Shekau kills without justification.

Shekau arrogated to himself the powers to accuse, prosecute, convict and punish in total contradiction to Islamic teachings. Children and women also starved to death in Sambisa due to Shekaus cruelty, he said.

Meanwhile, a top Boko Haram commander who co-led the operation that resulted in the abduction of about 276 girls in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014, has surrendered to the Nigerian army.

The commander, Auwal Ismaeela, is currently helping the Nigerian Military with useful information on locations and hideouts of other top commanders of the sect.

Ismaeela, who also led several Boko Haram operations in the northeast which resulted in the killings of innocent people and destruction of properties said he regretted his actions.

In the video below, Nigerian Air Force gives an update on operations against Boko Haram in 2017.

Source: Legit.ng
- The All Progressives Congress (APC) has been re-energized by the return of President Muhammadu Buhari

- The party is fine-tuning plans to hold its first ever convention after winning the presidential election in 2015

- Efforts are on the way to ensure that the convention is successful

A report by Thisay newspaper indicates that the National Working Committee of the APC and governors elected on the partys platform will hold a crucial meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari to decide when its non-elective convention will be held.

According to the report, the convention is to take place immediately after the Sallah festivities in early September.

Legit.ng gathered that the ruling partys National Assembly caucus will also be in attendance at the all important meeting.

The non-elective convention is considered very significant because it will be first time the ruling party will be holding at the highest level since it took over power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

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A source quoted in the report stated that APC leaders believed that President Buharis presence was needed at the national convention, hence the delay.

The quick recovery of the PDP from its crisis and its ability to move on and organise a convention was also said to have put considerable pressure on the ruling party.

Most of the key players in APC are increasingly getting worried that if nothing is done to rally its members though convening of the National Executive Committee meeting and national convention, the PDP may gain an upper hand.

Although the party gave reasons of poor funding and logistic issues as the excuse for the continued delay in convening the convention, a reliable source within the leadership has confessed that the actual reason was the absence of President Buhari.

Efforts to persuade Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to stand-in for Buhari, while the president was away was also resisted.

It was in that line that the governors decided to pay a visit to the ailing President in London at the weekend on the advice of Osinbajo, the source said.

When contacted, the national publicity secretary of the APC, Malam Bolaji Abdulahi said: I do not know if such issue was discussed during the visit of Oyegun and the governors to London.

But I dont think there is anything about the convention to be discussed since we are in the process of conducting congresses to elect delegates for the convention.

The party first announced that it would be holding its national convention in April, but soon changed its mind and attributed the postponement to financial constraints.

READ ALSO: Tony Nwoye wins APC governorship primary election in Anambra

This week, President Buhari met with the leaders of the PDP and his party, the APC on Friday, August 25 at the Presidential Villa.

In the interview below with Legit.ng TV, APC chieftain, Comrade Timi Frank warns the party to resolve its internal bickering before 2019:

Source: Legit.ng
- The race for the Anambra governorship election is taking shape by the day

- The All Progressives Congress (APC) has kick-started the race by settling for a candidate

- House of Representatives member, Honourable Tony Nwoye, was voted overwhelmingly by the party's delegates

A member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Tony Nwoye, has emerged winner of the Anambra state APC governorship primary election, Channels TV reports.

According to the report, Nwoye scored 2,146 votes to defeat his nearest rival, Senator Andy Uba who got 931 votes on Sunday, August 27.

Nwoye was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last governorship election in the state where he lost out.

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Eleven aspirants were in the race to clinch the party's ticket.

APC's national auditor, George Moghalu polled 525 votes, while Bart Nwibe scored 414 and John-Bosco Onunkwo scored 85 votes.

Other results include Madu Nonso  21 votes, Nwike Patrick  20, Obidigbo Chike  22, and Okonkwo Donatus  10.

5,430 delegates from the 21 local government areas of the state reportedly participated in the exercise.

The APC chairman in the state, Mr Emeka Ibe, said he was satisfied with the conduct of the exercise, saying all the various stages were hitch-free.

He also commended the delegates for their conduct, as well as security agents and the media.

He expressed optimism that the party would win the main election scheduled for November.

READ ALSO: Igbos highest in national identity cards and international passports collection despite agitation

Nwoye's victory came despite media reports that he allegedly signed an agreement to cede 30% of Anambra states Internally Generated Revenue to a prominent billionaire businessman, Prince Arthur Eze.

The document also indicated that there was an agreement for Prince Eze to nominate 10 commissioners in the cabinet of Nwoye.

Watch the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi speak about the achievements of the federal government on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng
- Wife of the vice-president, Dolapo Osinbajo, says she worked with street urchins during her pastoral work

- Mrs Osinbajo states that during the period, she discovered that the youths on the streets abused mood altering substances

Wife of the vice-president, Dolapo Osinbajo, has disclosed that she worked for 10 years under the Lagos bridges with area boys in an effort to reshape the lives of street urchins during her pastoral work.

READ ALSO: Repentant BH commander narrates how Chibok girls abduction occurred

Mrs Osinbajo made the disclosure on Sunday, August 27, when speaking at a Teens Career Conference organised by The Everlasting Arms Parish (TEAP) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Garki, Abuja, Vanguard reports.

Area boys are loosely organized gangs of street boys and teenagers who roam the streets of Lagos state, extort money from passers-by, sell illegal mood altering substances, and sometimes resort to crime.

The wife of the vice-president said during the period she worked under the bridges, she discovered that the youths abused all kinds of mood altering substances.

She said: When I became a worker in the church, the first place I worked was the Teenage Church and for 10 years I was in the Childrens Church. For 10 years, I was under the bridge; under the bridge in Lagos with area boys."

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Mrs Osinbajo said by working with the street urchins, she had gathered firsthand knowledge of every kind of mood altering substance there is, and had seen the effects.

"Some of them have parents with very big names. There are some streets in Lagos that the names of the streets are names of people, some of which have their children under the bridge. There were people whose parents lived in America and yet their children were under the bridge. So, do not even imagine that it cannot happen to you, but you must be an example in your conduct," she said.

Meanwhile, the cabal in Aso Rock has reportedly staged a comeback in the presidency and has perfected a strategy to sideline vice-president Yemi Osinbajo from governance following the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from the United Kingdom where he was on medical vacation.

The Punch, citing sources familiar with happenings in Aso Rock, reports that a group comprising of some members of the presidents extended family and friends have again tightened their grip on the president to influence policy-making and determine those who get major appointments.

The return of the cabal to Aso Rock was also confirmed by a former member of the House of Representatives in the second republic, Junaid Mohammed.

In the video below, Yemi Osinbajo at the #Biafra50 event in Abuja said Nigerians are greater together than apart.

Source: Legit.ng
Police officers stand guard at a police cordon next to Buckingham Palace following an incident where a man armed with a knife was arrested outside the palace following a disturbance in London on August 26, 2017. (AFP PHOTO/ CHRIS J RATCLIFFE)

LONDON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- British police on Saturday opened a counterterrorism investigation after three officers were injured arresting a man with a 1.2-meter-long sword outside London's Buckingham Palace late Friday.

Counterterror police are questioning the 26-year-old suspect, who drove a car in front of a police van in a restricted area near Queen Elizabeth's official residence, police said in a statement.

The man reached for the sword after the unarmed officers approached the car and challenged him, police said, adding that the man repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar," meaning in Arabic "God is great."

The officers sustained slight cuts in a struggle to detain the man, who took the sword from the front passenger foot-well of his car, the police said.

Police said two of the officers were taken to a hospital for treatment and were later discharged. No members of the public at the scene are believed to have had any interaction with the arrested man.

The suspect was taken to a London hospital for treatment of minor injuries, police said, and he was being questioned at a central London police station.

It is too early to say what the man was planning to do, said Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Counter Terrorism Command.

No members of the British royal family were in Buckingham Palace at the time of Friday's incident, a palace spokeswoman said.

The incident came as police across Europe are on high alert following a spate of terrorist attacks this year. In the Britain alone, three attacks claimed the lives of dozens of people, while police in Spain are probing a suspected terrorist network after twin assaults in the northeastern region of the country earlier this month.
Biomedical engineering researchers will attack two banes of cardiovascular disease -; heart failure after heart attacks and the scourge of resistant high blood pressure -; with $4.8 million in National Institutes of Health grants that begin this fall.

One sign of the clinical significance of this research by the University of Alabama at Birmingham investigators are the percentile scores that Jianyi "Jay" Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and Gangjian Qin, M.D., received in those two NIH grant applications.

Zhang's plan to dissect the mechanisms of electromechanical integration of a human heart-muscle patch to aid survival and stability of the patch garnered a 1 percentile score, the highest possible. Qin's plan to dissect a novel molecular pathway in endothelial cells of arteries that appears to regulate contractile function and blood pressure has "significant potential to improve human health" from the disease and death caused by high blood pressure, NIH reviewers said, and Qin received a 2 percentile score.

Zhang, chair and professor of the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering and holder of the T. Michael and Gillian Goodrich Endowed Chair of Engineering Leadership, will receive $2.5 million over four years. Qin, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Molecular Cardiology Program, will receive $2.3 million over four years.

Zhang came to UAB in 2015 from the University of Minnesota Medical School with the goal of moving his work with engineered heart patches into human use within seven years. As chair of Biomedical Engineering, a joint department of the UAB School of Medicine and the UAB School of Engineering, Zhang has recruited top researchers, and he also was awarded $11 million of NIH funding in 2016 -; $8 million of which is shared in collaborations with University of Wisconsin and Duke University researchers.

One of the recent recruits to biomedical engineering is Qin, who serendipitously discovered a novel and fascinating line of research that may lead to new drugs for treatment-resistant high blood pressure, where existing blood pressure drugs are ineffective. People with resistant high blood pressure have increased risk of strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and arterial aneurysms, and high blood pressure is a leading cause of chronic kidney failure. Even moderately elevated arterial blood pressure shortens life expectancy.

At the time, Qin was interested in the often fatal heart failure that occurs months or years after heart attacks. He reasoned that growth of new blood vessels into the damaged heart tissue of the left ventricle could be boosted by altering the amounts of cell-cycle regulators in the E2F family of transcription factors, to speed division of cells in the endothelial tissue of arteries.

When he deleted one of the eight E2Fs that are found in mice and humans -; E2F2 -; it had no effect on cell growth. "But unexpectedly, we found a striking function," Qin said. "If you delete E2F2, the vessel is more contractile. It becomes rigid and hard, and this contributes to high blood pressure."

"So we had a question: How does E2F2 interact with other molecules to regulate blood pressure?" Qin did pull-down experiments with E2F2, where other proteins are flowed past tethered E2F2 molecules to see if any would bind. He found that a kinase enzyme called Sam68 did bind to the transcription factor.

When he knocked out the gene for Sam68 in mice, they had low blood pressure.

Ultimately, a series of experiments in Qin's lab and observations of other laboratories suggested a previously unknown mechanism of blood pressure control that involves E2F2/Sam68 and the expression of endothelial converting enzyme 1b. ECE-1b affects the levels of peptides that constrict blood vessels and raise blood pressure. Dysregulation of this pathway may contribute to blood pressure disorders, especially hypertension.

Despite a strong correlation, the E2F2/Sam68-ECE-1b pathway has not explicitly been linked to blood pressure regulation, and the mechanisms of how Sam68/E2F2 signaling regulates ECE-1b expression and blood vessel function remain uncharacterized.

Qin will use his new grant to search for the link to blood pressure regulation and characterize the mechanisms. His research could provide the missing links between the results of large-scale genomewide association studies of human high blood pressure and its pathogenesis -; namely how dysregulation leads to refractory hypertension.

Detailed knowledge of those steps would offer new targets for potential new drugs, which are especially needed to prevent or treat resistant hypertension.

Qin says he was attracted to UAB by the strong focus of clinicians and basic scientists on solving the clinical problem of hypertension, as well as the depth and breadth of cardiovascular disease research in biomedical engineering, the UAB Department of Pathology and the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease. He also has great interest in Zhang's research, where Qin's past work in stem cell biology and cardiovascular science can contribute.

As measured by NIH funding, the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering is the fourth-ranked biomedical engineering department among all departments that are jointly led by schools of medicine and engineering, according to the 2016 Blue Ridge NIH database.
Tinnitus is a common condition characterized by the perception of sound without an identifiable external source. It is often referred to as ringing in the ears, but it can take the form of various perceptions of sounds, including swooshing, clicking, buzzing, whistling, and hissing.

Tinnitus is usually a symptom of an underlying medical condition, such as age-related hearing loss, circulatory system problem, or ear trauma. There is no cure for the condition, but treatment focuses on managing the symptoms and treating the underlying condition.

Image Credit: Sjstudio6 / Shutterstock

At least 50 million people in the United States have experienced tinnitus or hearing noises without an external source. Subsequently, approximately one in five people with tinnitus experience discomfort that causes distress and negatively impacts their quality of life.

Tinnitus affects about 10 percent of people in the United States, and 90% of those persons also experience, hearing loss. About half of persons affected by tinnitus seek medical attention.

Chronic or persistent tinnitus is that lasting for six months or more. In some cases, the condition doesnt go away unless the underlying medical condition is identified and treated.

The exact cause of tinnitus is still unclear, but the most common conditions linked to its development include ear cell damage, age-related hearing loss, impacted cerumen, prolonged exposure to loud noises, changes in ear bones, head or neck injuries, and intake of some medicines. Other causes include eustachian tube damage, ear infection, traumatic brain injury, diabetes, acoustic neuroma, Menieres disease, and temporomandibular joint disorders.

Tinnitus and the brain

Many studies have shown that tinnitus has negative effects on the brain.

Tinnitus causes changes in brain networks

Tinnitus can make the brain more attentive. Though it sounds positive, in the long term, it can negatively impact the brain. In a study by researchers at the University of Illinois, they found that chronic tinnitus has been linked to changes in certain networks in the brain. These changes make the brain more attentive and less relaxed.

Tinnitus is linked to two networks in the brain, dubbed as the dorsal attention network, which recognizes stimulants like touch and noise, and the default mode network, which oversees activities during relaxation and rest.

When a thing captures a persons attention, the dorsal attention network activates. But in some cases, the default mode network would kick in, allowing the person to relax and prevent mental fatigue.

In a person with tinnitus, the brain focuses more on the ringing or buzzing sound, preventing him to go into default mode. The brain would always be attentive, leading to mental fatigue.

Tinnitus causes mental exhaustion

The condition is worse in people with chronic tinnitus. The brain isnt designed to be focused or attentive all the time. It needs ample time to relax and rest. Sleep, meditation, relaxation, and study breaks are essential to help the brain recover.

However, chronic tinnitus lets the person focus on the sound of the tinnitus every waking moment, not able to fully relax. This all leads to mental and physical exhaustion, restlessness, irritability, insomnia, and fatigue.

Treating the underlying medical condition behind tinnitus is the treatment to reduce its effects on the body and brain. While some types of tinnitus cant be completely eradicated, the symptoms can be alleviated, making it easier to cope with. Though not all treatments are promising to remove tinnitus, some measures may help make life easier.

Sources: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). (2017). https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/tinnitus

(2005). Brain Activity and Tinnitus. PLoS Med 2. journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020194

Haider, HF, Bojic, T., Ribeiro, S., Paco, J., Hall, D., and Szczepek, A. (2017). Pathophysiology of Subjective Tinnitus: Triggers and Maintenance. Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6277522/

American Academy of Otolayngology- Head and Neck Surgery. (2018). https://www.entnet.org/node/1324.

Schmidt, SA., Carpenter-Thompson, J., and Husain, F. (2017). Connectivity of precuneus to the default mode and dorsal attention networks: A possible invariant marker of long-term tinnitus. Neuroimage: Clinical. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.07.015

Further Reading
Registration is open for the 4th ESCMID Conference on Vaccines. New and old diseases in children and adults: unmet needs in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Friday 8 September to Sunday 10 September 2017. Registration for bona fide journalists is free.

The conference, organized by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), brings together about 40 internationally renowned experts who will present and debate the most recent data and approaches that will protect generations to come from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Novel inventions, better understanding of disease pathogenesis, and improved surveillance are constantly redefining vaccine strategies. The European section of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) helped develop a scientific programme addressing the most pressing questions.

Highlights include presentations on the progress that has been made in the management of viral diseases, including Zika or Ebola viruses, which have caused recent difficult-to-contain outbreaks. Prof. Marco Aurelio Safadi will review the tragedy of congenital Zika syndrome in Brazil, and Prof. Alan Barrett will present the progress of vaccines against Zika virus.

The current status of some new vaccines of utmost importance will be discussed: Prof. Stanley Plotkin will discuss new developments in human cytomegalovirus immunization while Prof. Adrian Hill and Prof. Miguel ORyan will review malaria and norovirus vaccines, respectively.

Other highlights include Prof. Ananda Bandyopadhyay from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who will discuss efforts to eradicate polio, and Prof. Federico Martinon who will address unexpected non-specific benefits of vaccines. International leader, Prof. Louis Bont chairs a symposium reviewing new vaccines targeting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes a great burden in children and adults.

The conference will also cover new and improved vaccines and approaches for diseases that are traditionally prevented by vaccination, such as pneumococcal diseases, tuberculosis, diphtheria and meningococcal infections. Dr Robb Butler from the WHO will address inequity in vaccine opportunities in Europe and the hot topic how experts can approach the media and the public to convince them that vaccines are safe and effective.

Topics include:

Equity in immunization

Exposing the gaps in vaccine-preventable diseases

Vaccines for new global threats

Innovative approaches for vaccines against old diseases

Approaches and communication for the implementation of vaccines

Non-specific effects of vaccines

Organizing Committee:

Ron Dagan, Beer Sheva, Israel

Robb Butler, Copenhagen, Denmark

Mario Poljak, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Susanna Esposito, Perugia, Italy

Lucia Pastore Celentano, Stockholm, Sweden

ESCMID welcomes the interest of the press and is happy to assist journalists attending the conference or to those who are interested in covering the conference off site. To register or for more information or please contact the ESCMID Communications Manager https:/ / www. escmid. org/ news_media/ media_information/
National magnet lab reached a record of 41.4 teslas at 1:10 p.m. on Aug. 21 with a resistive magnet. It was the culmination of two and a half intense years of design and development. In so doing, the lab reclaimed the record for the worlds strongest resistive magnet, which it had held for 19 years up until 2014.

The magnet is powered by 32 megawatts of DC (direct current) power. It leapfrog over the previous record-holders, a 38.5-tesla resistive magnet in Hefei, China, and a 37.5-tesla resistive magnet in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

The labs 45-tesla magnet, the worlds strongest continuous-field magnet, is a hybrid instrument and one of the labs most sought-after tools.

The new 41.4-tesla magnet is easier for scientists to use than a hybrid and gives them more flexibility to adjust the field and polarity during experiments. The new system will be made available to visiting scientists in the coming months, joining a fleet that features a pair of 35-tesla instruments that, until this week, had been the labs strongest resistive magnets.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 02:13:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition admitted on Saturday the targeting of a civilian house in Sanaa by mistake, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Col. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman of the coalition, said that the presence of "a technical mistake" had led to the accidental and unintentional targeting of the civilian house, which left 14 dead.

The spokesman expressed his deep sorrow over the occurrence of the accident and the damage to Yemeni civilians, as well as his sincere sympathy to the victims' relatives.

Al-Maliki said that the coalition had referred the incident to the Joint Investigation of Accidents Team (JIAT) for assessment to complete formal procedures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 02:28:30|Editor: Zhou Xin

People attend a peaceful gathering against a cancelled right-wing rally in San Francisco, California, the United States, on Aug. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Xu Yong)

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- A far-right group known as Patriot Prayer has relinquished the permit for a rally scheduled for Saturday afternoon in San Francisco on the U.S. West Coast.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a press release early Saturday that while the Golden Gate National Recreation Area confirmed that Patriot Prayer has cancelled the rally at Crissy Field, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and the city's public safety agencies are prepared for contingencies and spontaneous events.

"San Francisco does not welcome outside agitators whose messages of hate have the sole purpose of inciting violence," said Lee, who together with Nancy Pelosi, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was blamed by the leader of Patriot Prayer for mislabeling the group as promoting white supremacy and hatred.

Joey Gibson, in a Facebook Live broadcast Friday afternoon announcing his decision to call off the "free speech rally," said the event at Crissy Field, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, could be "a trap."

"After several conversations with the police and understanding the situation of what's going on, we decided that tomorrow really seems like a setup," Gibson said on Friday, without elaboration. "It doesn't seem safe. A lot of people's lives are going to be in danger tomorrow."

Short of identifying or clarifying its political ideology, Gibson and three other organizers claimed on the social media platform during the broadcast that Patriot Prayer is a multi-ethnic group.

The group is based in Portland, the biggest city of Oregon, a state north of California.

As an opponent of the rally in the wake of the Aug. 12 deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, during an event held by groups on the same side of political spectrum, Lee noted later Friday that "no permits have been requested or issued for Alamo Square this weekend," referring to the plan announced Friday afternoon by Gibson to hold a news conference Saturday at the city's Alamo Square Park.

In his latest statement, the mayor said "SFPD will have an enhanced presence at Alamo Square and in the surrounding neighborhoods."

"I want to reinforce that existing San Francisco law prohibits firearms and weapons in city parks," he said. "Those who seek to commit acts of violence or damage property will be arrested and prosecuted."

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area issued permits for five events at Crissy Field this weekend, including four counter-protests by local groups against Patriot Prayer.

While parallel events are planned to take place at Crissy Field, a major counter-protest is scheduled for Saturday at Civic Center Plaza in front of the historical San Francisco City Hall. Organizers of the counter-protest, called San Francisco Peacefully Unites Against White Nationalists, ask people to stay away from Crissy Field and disengage with members of the far-right group.

On their respective Facebook pages, 456 people say they will be at the Patriot Prayer rally while more than 2,800 others express their willingness to join the Civic Center counter-protest.

On Friday, hours before Gibson went public to cancel his rally, Lee joined dozens of elected officials and community leaders on the steps leading up to the city hall and told several hundred people in the audience that "you all know that some people are coming in tomorrow to our city - you know as well as I do that they have a message that we don't believe in, a message of hate."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 03:28:36|Editor: ZD

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces came close to liberating the whole city of Tal Afar from Islamic State (IS) militants on Saturday after a week-long offensive designed to dislodge the militants from the city and surrounding areas, the Iraqi military said.

The army's 9th Armored Division and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units recaptured the neighborhoods of al-Muthanna al-Oula and al-Muthanna al-Thaniyah in the afternoon, and raised Iraqi flags on some of their buildings, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the troops recaptured another eight neighborhoods in the city center, including al-Qal'a neighborhood and its old Tal Afar Citadel, a ruined Ottoman fortress.

The latest military push, backed by Iraqi and international aircraft, enabled security forces to almost take full control of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, except the small neighborhood of al-Askari and the industrial area in the northeast of the city.

During the day, the troops also freed 14 villages, Sheikh Ibrahim Mountain and the Zambar mountain range in the southeast and northeast of Tal Afar, according to JOC statements.

Meanwhile, Yarallah said in a brief statement that the operations will continue until the troops liberate the town of Ayadhiyah, some 11 km north of Tal Afar, and the surrounding villages.

The Tal Afar area is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the city of Tal Afar and three towns: Zummar, which is under control of the Kurdish security forces, Mahalabiyah, which was freed from IS militants during past few days, and Ayadhiyah, which is still under IS control.

The whole Tal Afar area consists of 47 villages scattered around the city and its three towns.

The majority of the population in the Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the Kurds and other minorities.

On Aug. 20, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, declared the start of an operation to retake control of Tal Afar and the nearby areas from IS militants.

The Tal Afar area, some 70 km west of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the province of Nineveh.
Record Rainfall for Houston and Beaumont

Houston received the brunt of Harveys rain, with parts of the city receiving more than 50 inches (here are more detailed maps of Houston). The storm made its final landfall in East Texas and Louisiana, dropping dozens of inches of rain on Port Arthur and Beaumont on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Source: National Weather Service

Surveying the Extent of the Damage

An initial damage assessment by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, released early on Wednesday, estimated that almost 60,000 structures were damaged in Texas. More than 25 percent of those structures sustained major damage or were destroyed, and reports of damaged structures are almost certain to grow.

Destroyed Major damage Minor damage Conroe Beaumont LA. More than 43,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Harris County. Port Arthur Pasadena Houston Galveston Bay City TEX. Freeport Victoria Gulf of Mexico Rockport The number of damaged structures around Rockport exceeded 1,500. Corpus Christi 50 MILES More than 43,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Harris County. Conroe Beaumont Port Arthur Pasadena TEX. Houston Galveston Bay City Freeport Victoria Gulf of Mexico Rockport The number of damaged structures around Rockport exceeded 1,500. Corpus Christi 50 MILES More than 43,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Harris County. TEXAS Conroe Beaumont Port Arthur Pasadena Houston Galveston Bay City Freeport Gulf of Mexico 50 MILES Conroe Beaumont LA. More than 43,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in Harris County. Port Arthur Pasadena Houston Galveston TEX. Bay City Freeport Victoria Gulf of Mexico Rockport The number of damaged structures around Rockport exceeded 1,500. 50 MILES Corpus Christi Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

Thousands Are in Shelters Across the State

Shelters big and small have opened across the state, as far away as in Dallas, where some evacuees ended up after fleeing the storm. The Texas Department of Public Safety counted nearly 35,000 people in about 240 shelters on Wednesday morning.

Dallas TEXAS Austin Houston San Antonio Victoria Laredo 100 MILES Dallas TEXAS Austin Houston San Antonio Laredo 100 MILES Source: Texas Department of Public Safety

The number of people in shelters has more than doubled since Tuesday. At least 47 shelters were opened in Houston and the largest by far was the downtown convention center.

Cypress Ranch High School 1,000 people M.O. Campbell Education Center 2,000 people HOUSTON Bay Harbour United Methodist Church 505 people George R. Brown Convention Center 7,550 people 10 MILES M.O. Campbell Education Center 2,000 people Cypress Ranch High School 1,000 people Bay Harbour United Methodist Church 505 people HOUSTON George R. Brown Convention Center 7,550 people 10 MILES Cypress Ranch High School 1,000 people M.O. Campbell Education Center 2,000 people HOUSTON George R. Brown Convention Center 7,550 people 10 MILES Cypress Ranch High School 1,000 people M.O. Campbell Education Center 2,000 people HOUSTON George R. Brown Convention Center 7,550 people Bay Harbour United Methodist Church 505 people Galveston Bay 10 MILES Source: Texas Department of Public Safety

How Harvey Strengthened

This video, based on composite satellite imagery, shows the storms path through the Gulf of Mexico from August 23 to Thursday.

What Is Known So Far About the Extent of Flooding

Preliminary data collected by the Dartmouth Flood Observatory from satellites shows extensive flooding along the Texas coast.

Extent of flooding Houston Detailed data not available Galveston Victoria Gulf of Mexico 20 miles Corpus Christi Source: Dartmouth Flood Observatory

Not all areas have been completely surveyed, so the map represents a minimum estimate of the flooded area, according to G. Robert Brakenridge, director of the observatory. The actual extent of the flooding is likely to be greater.

How Rivers Flooded

Floodwaters continued to rise in inland rivers as the storm moved through the region.

TEXAS 8 Austin 7 6 4 Houston 3 5 San Antonio 2 1 Corpus Christi South Texas river levels, feet above sea level Buffalo Bayou Guadalupe River Brazos River Colorado River 4 3 1 2 Flood stage 21 ft. 39 123 122 6 7 93 102 Fri. 6 a.m. Tues. 5 a.m. Trinity River Village Creek West Fork San Jacinto Brays Bayou 7 6 5 8 41 28 49 26 1 16 42 10 TEXAS 8 Austin 7 6 4 Houston 3 5 San Antonio 2 1 Gulf of Mexico Corpus Christi South Texas river levels, feet above sea level Buffalo Bayou Guadalupe River Brazos River Colorado River 4 1 3 2 Flood stage 21 ft. 39 123 122 6 7 93 102 Fri. 6 a.m. Tues. 5 a.m. Trinity River Village Creek Brays Bayou West Fork San Jacinto 7 6 5 8 41 28 49 26 1 16 42 10 8 Austin TEXAS LA. Beaumont 7 6 3 4 Houston 5 San Antonio 2 Gulf of Mexico 1 South Texas river levels, feet above sea level Buffalo Bayou Brays Bayou Trinity River Village Creek West Fork San Jacinto Guadalupe River Colorado River Brazos River 7 6 5 3 4 8 2 1 Flood stage 41 28 49 26 21 ft. 39 123 122 1 16 42 10 6 7 93 102 Fri. 6 a.m. Mon. 5 a.m.

History of Strong Storms That Made Landfall

Before Harvey, fewer than a dozen storms in the past century have reached land in the region as a Category 4 hurricane or higher.

Category 4 or Higher Hurricanes That Have Reached Land Category 3 or lower Category 4 Category 5 Austin LOUISIANA Houston Galveston Hurricane 1915 Betsy 1965 Carmen 1974 Great Galveston Hurricane 1900 TEXAS Freeport hurricane 1932 Carla 1961 Corpus Christi 1916 Texas hurricane Gulf of Mexico Beulah 1967 Brownsville Baton Rouge Austin LOUISIANA Houston 1915 San Antonio 1965 1974 TEXAS 1900 1932 1961 Corpus Christi Gulf of Mexico 1916 1967 MEXICO Austin LOUISIANA Betsy 1965 Houston Galveston Hurricane 1915 Great Galveston Hurricane 1900 TEXAS Carmen 1974 Freeport hurricane 1932 Carla 1961 Corpus Christi 1916 Texas hurricane Gulf of Mexico Beulah 1967 Source: International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship

Cities and Counties That Issued Evacuation Orders

As the hurricane approached, seven coastal counties in Texas and one Louisiana parish ordered mandatory evacuations in some areas. Corpus Christi mayor Joe McComb also encouraged residents to leave.

Cities and counties under evacuation Mandatory Voluntary Austin LOUISIANA Houston TEXAS San Antonio Galveston Island Gulf of Mexico Corpus Christi MEXICO Austin LOUISIANA TEXAS Houston San Antonio Galveston Island Corpus Christi Gulf of Mexico LOUISIANA Austin TEXAS Houston San Antonio Galveston Island Corpus Christi Gulf of Mexico

How the Storm Moved Through the Region

The hurricane made landfall in southern Texas Friday night as a Category 4. As the storm spun offshore and then back again, it continued to dump massive amounts of rain on Texas and Louisiana, raising the risk of additional flooding (path shown in Central daylight time). This map shows the available data from the National Weather Service.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 04:33:50|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 1 million Tanzanians will be employed by 25 formerly dormant industries to be reclaimed by by the government after their revival, an official said on Saturday.

The revival of the industries that were reclaimed after investors failed to develop them for over 20 years will be jointly funded by the country's social security funds, said Meshack Bandawe, secretary of the Tanzania Social Security Association (TSSA).

Bandawe said TSSA will team up with the National Health Insurance Fund, the Parastatal Pensions Fund, the National Social Security Fund , the Workers Compensation Fund and the Zanzibar Social Security Fund to invest in the reclaimed industries.

"The funds will be mandated to revive some of the dormant industries and construct new factories in Kilimanjaro, Iringa, Morogoro, Dodoma, Mwanza, Simiyu, Kagera and Coast regions," said Bandawe.

In line with the national development plan 2025, which is geared to transform Tanzania into a semi-industrialized middle income nation, President John Magufuli had in March last year directed social security funds to invest in industries.

Bandawe said feasibility studies for 15 industries have been completed, while studies on the other 10 industries will be completed within a short time.

"We have started to implement some of the projects. Our target is to ensure that all the factories become operative before 2019," said Bandawe.

On Aug. 10, Tanzanian authorities announced the repossession of 10 privatized industries after they had been dormant for 20 years.

Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment Charles Mwijage invited interested investors to apply for fresh acquisition of the industries.

He warned owners of five other industries and gave them a grace period until Aug. 22 to correct weaknesses or return the factories to the government.

The repossession of the industries by the government came after President Magufuli ordered the minister to reclaim them.

Earlier this month, Magufuli said there were 197 dormant industries in the country.

"We made mistakes when we privatized the industries," said Magufuli.

On July 27, the government said it had started looking for investors to develop industries which it has repossessed from investors who abandoned them after privatization.
Nearly 100 Countries Represented at 2017 Berlin Affiliate Conference in November

Published August 27, 2017 by Ivan P

This year's Berlin Affiliate Conference will host delegates from more than 97 different countries and offer excellent networking and learning opportunities.

This years Berlin Affiliate Conference hosted by iGB Affiliate is expected to see an increase in interest from the last year, attracting even more delegates in attendance. The Conference will take place from November 1st to November 4th at the Messe Berlin, and the hosts are excepting more than 3,200 delegates to join this year, which would be a significant increase in comparison to last years 3,000.

Marketing Strategies, Social Media, and More

During the conference, all the visitors will have a chance to access plenty of educational content, covering topics such as new marketing technologies, different revolutionary SEO strategies, effective affiliate business tools, etc.

Some of the highlights of this years BAC will be sessions about Google penalties, most successful application of Facebook ads, influencer marketing strategies, and more of the similar content aimed at improving the affiliate business.

Berlin Conference Continues to Grow

Apart from these official panels and sessions, there will also be plenty of opportunity for the delegates to meet and talk in a less formal environment during welcome drinks, networking parties, and similar events.

This years Berlin Affiliate Conference is sponsored by the name such as 888 , William Hill, and iAffiliates, which gives the event even more credibility and relevance. According to Shona ODonnell, iGB Head of Operations, the Conference will offer all the participants a chance to connect with many industry leaders and learn from some of the brightest minds.

The interest for this important affiliate event grows with every year. The last years conference was attended by 1,561 companies, and some 90% of them rated the event as excellent and announced theyd be returning in 2017 as well. With that in mind, Berlin expects to host visitors from more than 97 countries around the world during the first week of November.
From Gush Shalom

THE SPECTACLE is almost bizarre: a political party refuses to accept new members. And not just a few individuals, but tens of thousands. And not just any party, but the Likud ("Unification"), the main force in Israel's governing coalition.

Strange? But there is method in this madness. It may soon come before Israel's highest court.

The present leaders of the party, Binyamin Netanyahu and his fellows, are afraid that the people who are now seeking to register as Likud members are really settlers in the occupied territories, who want to take over the Likud, while in practice remaining loyal to their own parties, which are even more extremist.

One of the present Likud members of the Knesset has submitted a bill that may well be unique in the world. It arises from the fear that these new Likud members will not vote for the Likud in the general elections. To counter this possibility, the bill says that when a new member registers in the Likud party, their name will be struck from the general election voter registry, and they will be recorded as having voted for the Likud.

This is manifestly unconstitutional, since it negates the secrecy of the ballot. The legal adviser of the Knesset will probably block it. If not, it will go to the Supreme Court.

This all shows that the Likud is really a curious kind of bird. And not from today.

YEARS AGO, a leading French journalist came to me during an Israeli election campaign. I directed him to an election rally of Menachem Begin's.

When he came back he was bewildered. "I don't understand it," he exclaimed. "When he was talking about the Arabs, he sounded like a rabid fascist. When he was talking about social affairs, he sounded like a moderate liberal. How can this fit together?"

"Begin is not a great thinker," I explained to him. "All the ideology of the Likud goes back to Vladimir Jabotinsky."

Vladimir (or Ze'ev) Jabotinsky was the founder of the "revisionist" party, the parent of the Herut Party, which was the parent of the present-day Likud. He was born in 1880 in Odessa in the Ukraine. When he was a young man he was sent as a journalist to Italy, a country that had attained its freedom not so long before.

The Italian liberation movement was an unusual mixture of extreme patriotism and liberal social ideas. This fixed the young Jabotinsky's political outlook for life.

He was a very captivating person, extremely gifted in several fields. He wrote a novel (about the Biblical hero Samson), translated Edgar Allen Poe's poems into Hebrew, was a brilliant orator and gifted journalist, wrote songs and much more. In World War I he helped form Jewish battalions in the British army and was a junior officer in the conquest of Palestine.

A few years later the British partitioned Palestine and set up the separate Arab emirate of Transjordan. Jabotinsky objected and founded the ultra-Zionist "Revisionist Party," which demanded the "revision" of this decision.

Jabotinsky loathed the dour, socialist "pioneers" who dominated the Zionist community in Palestine and who hated him. I suspect that he was not too unhappy when the British kicked him out of the country. David Ben-Gurion called him "fascist" -- though, as an Italy-lover, Jabotinsky loathed Benito Mussolini.

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From Alternet

They say they're non-violent. But the rally's organizer appears with a man facing charges for attacking anti-Trump protesters.

The organizers of Saturday's canceled Patriot Prayer rally in San Francisco spent the day trying to become right-wing media stars.

Starting at noon, they broadcast conflicting messages from their Facebook pages. First, they canceled a 2pm press conference at a well-known city park, slammed city officials for suppressing their speech, and said they would tell the media where they could secretly meet them later.

Hours later, despite all their pronouncements that they had nothing to do with white supremacists and that they eschewed violence, the lead organizer of Saturday's rally, Joey Gibson, was onscreen next to a notorious right-winger, Kyle Chapman. Chapman was charged with attacking counter-protesters with a bat at an anti-Trump rally in Berkeley in March.

The first live video showed a split screen with Patriot Prayer organizer Will Johnson, alternately saying he thinks he's being taken off the air by Facebook while rejecting accusations that he affiliates with white supremacists. In the other panel was Gabriel Silva, driving a van through what appeared to be the streets of San Francisco while passengers pointed out signs that said "Resist Hate" and laughing at them.

"We want to make sure that the truth gets out," Johnson rambled on. "The truth has to get out. They are calling a black person, a Mexican person and a Japanese person and a female white supremacists when it is completely a lie. And if anyone believes that they might want to get checked out."

Johnson and his right-wing brethren are either deeply uninformed individuals playing a dangerous game, or immature egomaniacs seeking to become right-wing celebrities by trying to taunt a city. Sadly, it appears these right-wingers are all naive, attention-seeking jerks. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in an rolling updated blog, the city has been scurrying to deploy its entire police force on Saturday to defuse tensions as this cadre dangled its latest provocations and counter-protesters reacted.

The right-wingers scheduled and canceled a press conference at Alamo Square Park, a popular tourist vista, after the city put up fencing before dawn closing the park. They said they would later speak to the press in a "private" press conference from a location "not to be disclosed."

As the Chronicle noted, Patriot Prayer events have attracted many armed white supremacists similar to the marchers in Charlottesville. The paper reported that some white power symathizers showed up at Crissy Field, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where their planned rally had been canceled. (Johnson said they were anti-fascist activists in disguise.)

The Crissy Field organizers apparently chose that location because federal parkland is an open-carry zone, where guns can be displayed; in contrast to a city and state with strong gun control laws. When the National Park Service issued its permit for the event, it banned all guns, ammunition, sprays, and anything else that could used as be a weapon.

Meanwhile, before the Crissy Field rally was canceled Friday, San Francisco City Hall responded by organizing several dozen alternative events to promote peace and justice. The city also mobilized its entire police force to track and diffuse possible confrontations between the right-wingers and the counter-protesters. Hundreds of counter-protesters swamped city streets near Alamo Square, the Chronicle reported, and police urged them to go to a nearby plaza for a peace rally and concert.

As these actions unfolded on the streets, the Patriot Prayer organizers slammed local officials on Facebook, using a live feed to broadcast their comments (even as they accused Facebook of censoring them). In response, they received support from conservatives from across California and the country.

"So sad. Never thought I'd see the day when American patriots are deemed hate because they freaking love America. Sad. Keep strong and keep speaking truth," wrote one commenter.

"It doesn't matter, Will. That's the ONLY ammunition progressive liberals have to combat FACTS. They label dissenting opinions 'racist,' those who have them 'white supremacists,' and attempt to shut them down. Damn shame this is what our country has become," wrote another fan of the white supremacists.

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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)
From Reader Supported News



Attorney General Jeff Sessions

(Image by DHSgov) Details DMCA



Just when you thought Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III couldn't get any worse, he did. Sessions last week urged the White House to nominate a federal judge and former "tough on crime" prosecutor nicknamed (I'm not kidding) "Hang 'Em High" Henry Hudson to an independent, bipartisan panel that issues sentencing guidelines for federal crimes.

Sessions' recommendation is for one of three openings on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which, during the Obama administration, recommended reductions in mandatory minimum sentences, especially for drug offenses, and which implemented an across-the-board reduction in sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

More specifically, Sessions has ordered the Justice Department to urge the Commission to toughen sentences, especially for violent criminals, drug offenders, undocumented immigrant smugglers, and "career criminals." We probably can all agree that sentences should be tough for those people using violence in the commission of a crime or for those involved in human trafficking. But reinstating harsh mandatory minimums for nonviolent and/or first-time drug offenders is a mistake.

The problems with enhancing sentences for drug offenders and so-called career criminals are twofold. First, tough mandatory minimums simply don't work to reduce the crime rate. That's a proven fact. What does work, though, is rehabilitation and education, two things that are not found in the federal prison system.

When a person does 10 or 20 years (or longer) for a nonviolent drug offense, doesn't learn a skill in prison, or even how to read, and then returns home at the end of his sentence, what does Sessions think he'll do? He'll sell drugs, of course. It's the only thing he knows how to do. And in the meantime, the prisons are already full to bursting. The Bureau of Prisons accounts for a quarter of the Justice Department's entire budget. And its only accomplishment is to keep people in chains.

Second, what exactly is a "career criminal?" According to the Justice Department, it's any person with at least three arrests. It doesn't matter what those arrests are for, though. Do you have a DUI or trespassing charge from college? Strike one. Have you been arrested for protesting at a federal facility? Strike two. Any other federal arrest is strike three. Not only are you elevated on the federal sentencing chart, giving you a longer sentence, you face a tougher mandatory minimum, and your sentencing judge is not permitted any leeway in that sentence. You're treated the same way as somebody whose three crimes were murder, rape, and armed robbery. And remember, there's no such thing as federal parole.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has seven members, but three of those slots are vacant; two more become vacant on October 31. By law, three of the members must be federal judges and no more than four can be members of the same political party. It's easy to get around that last proviso by simply naming a conservative Democrat or independent to the panel. The bottom line, though, is clear: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions will control the Sentencing Commission in the next two months.

The only hope for holding off reimposition of the tough mandatory minimums that were lifted or eased during the Obama administration is through Congressional action. But don't hold your breath. Neither Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) nor House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) has been able or willing to push an already-popular bipartisan sentencing bill to his respective floor for a vote. And even if they did, Donald Trump would veto it.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 04:38:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced Saturday the launch of a media center to serve the international press reporting the current Hajj season.

The Ministry of Culture and Information said in a statement that the center will issue news releases in multiple languages, including English, French and German.

It will also provide services for foreign research and cultural organizations, the ministry added.

According to Islam doctrines, every Muslim, if physical and economic conditions permit, will carry out the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi's Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims, at least once in a lifetime.
First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo has called for the full support and participation of men in addressing the problem of mother-to-child HIV transmission as well as breast cancer in Ghana.



Speaking at the launch of the National Acceleration Plan for Pediatric HIV Services today at Ho, she said that though issues of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and breast cancer may focus on women, the involvement, encouragement, support and guidance of men in addressing these issues cannot be over-emphasized. She stressed that without full support of men, all the achievements we have chalked so far will be lost urging that that we need you now more than ever if we are to make greater strides.



She stated that though Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV services are being provided in more than 2000 facilities in Ghana to prevent new HIV infections in children, the current mother-to-child transmission of HIV above 10% and below 30% coverage of care for children and adolescents is unacceptable making it more important to drive us all to urgently move beyond business as usual, to fast-track the implementation of critical services for our children and adolescents.



She called for institutions not to leave the challenge to only government and state institutions to deal with but commit and support the four key steps adopted to eliminate this form of HIV transmission in the shortest time possible. This steps, she said, include ensuring that no girl or woman of reproductive age gets infected with HIV, preventing unwanted pregnancies in women living with HIV, prevention of HIV transmission from mother-to-child during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding and providing on-going support and care to mothers, their children and their families.



Mrs. Akufo-Addo also said that, for her, beside being a steering committee member of OAFLA and the Premier Ambassador of Ghana for HIV Advocacy, Elimination of Mother to Child HIV Transmission and Keeping Mothers Alive, as well as Empowerment of Young Women and Adolescent Girls in prevention of mother-to-child transmission and womens reproductive health, she has a great passion for dealing with healthcare issues of women and children therefore she will do all she can to better the lives of women and children.







The First Lady also expressed concern at breast cancer being the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in Ghana citing a GLOBOCAN report which indicates a prevalence of 37 in every 100,000 people. She noted that for the more 4000 Ghanaian women who suffer breast cancer each year, 70% of breast cancer cases are reported and diagnosed late making it incurable. She therefore encouraged all women screen regular and report all anomalies as soon as possible since breast cancer is curable especially if detected early.



She said that, as expressed by the President severally, she believes health services is a right for all Ghanaians and every Ghanaian must have easy access to it to improve their well-being



As part of the launch, Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) Ghana Chapter partnered with the Ghana AIDS Commission, Alere Incorporated and Roche Products Ghana Ltd, to undertake HIV, Breast Cancer and general health screening for the locals.

Source: newsroomgh.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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Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Saturday vowed not to preside over a corrupt government, warning his appointees that the law would catch up with them if found engaging in practices that demean good governance.



He said any allegation of corruption against any of his appointees would be investigated, vigorously and thoroughly, by the security agencies.



I am not going to preside over a government that is corruptany allegation made against any of my officials that is genuine would be investigated, President Akufo-Addo said at the National Annual Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the University of Cape Coast.



President Akufo-Addo said the people of Ghana have put their trust in the NPP Administration, thus, any official in his government, who attempts to abuse that trust, will be severely sanctioned.



He said the Party has put in a lot of effort to get to where it has gotten to, hence he will not allow anyone to rock and capsize the boat.



The President said in as much as he has directed the law enforcement agencies to investigate acts of corruption, those who made the allegations should be able to substantiate them for the law to take its course.



He gave the assurance that his government, and indeed the NPP, will be faithful to guarantee the freedoms of the people and fulfill all the pledges it made to ensure principled governance.



Failed promises undermine our prospects and the confidence people have in political leadersI will not allow anyone to capsize our boat, he said.



According to President Akufo-Addo, already, governments policies geared at bettering the socio-economic fortunes of Ghana are yielding results, and by the end of his term, Ghana would have witnessed unprecedented prosperity.



He said he had confidence in Ghanas future, adding that we will stay on course to ensure double digit growth to transform the economy of our great country.



The President, however, cautioned that the success of his government was dependent on the conduct of his officials, saying; Our conduct is what will determine our success.



If we conduct ourselves well, and respect the vision and aspirations of Ghanaians, we are assured of victory upon victory, he said.

Source: GBC









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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PR-Inside.com: 2017-08-27 11:12:03

Bayers data shows Xarelto  (rivaroxaban) significantly lowers the combined risk of stroke, cardiovascular death and heart attack in patients with chronic coronary or peripheral artery disease

The highly anticipated COMPASS study, halted early due to highly significant efficacy, reveals clear and consistent clinical benefit

Rivaroxaban vascular dose, 2.5 mg twice daily, plus aspirin 100 mg once daily showed a 22% relative risk reduction (absolute risk reduction (ARR): 0.47%) in cardiovascular death compared with aspirin 100 mg once daily alone (current standard of care)

Additionally, results showed an unprecedented 42% relative risk reduction (ARR: 0.65%) in stroke

COMPASS study presented at ESC Congress 2017  largest rivaroxaban study to date, enrolled 27,395 patients to investigate CAD and PAD

Bayer

Hayley Knight, Tel. 0118 206 3523

hayley.knight@bayer.com

Bayer and its cooperation partner Janssen Research & Development, LLC, today announced results at The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress that are set to change clinical practice in the UK for cardiologists treating patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and peripheral artery disease (PAD)1.

Highly anticipated Phase III COMPASS study data announced during two hot line presentations at ESC in Barcelona, and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed Bayers Factor Xa inhibitor, rivaroxaban (Xarelto) vascular dose, (2.5 mg twice daily), plus aspirin 100 mg once daily, reduced the risk of the composite endpoint of stroke, cardiovascular (CV) death and heart attack by 24% (relative risk reduction, ARR: 1.3%) in patients with CAD and PAD1. The study compared this combined approach with aspirin 100 mg once daily alone. Patients included in the study already received guideline recommended therapy for hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. A 5 mg twice daily dose of rivaroxaban was also investigated but did not reach statistical significance.

Rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily:

Was superior to aspirin 100 mg once daily alone for the prevention of the composite endpoint of stroke, CV death and MI (primary efficacy outcome) 1

Significantly reduced the risk of stroke by 42% (relative risk reduction, ARR: 0.65%), and CV death by 22% (relative risk reduction, ARR: 0.47%) 1

Demonstrated a 20% improvement (relative risk reduction, ARR: 1.14%) in net clinical benefit (defined as the reduction in stroke, CV death, and heart attack balanced against the most serious bleeding events) providing clinicians with the first evidence that rivaroxaban not only has a more favourable risk-benefit profile than current best practice, but also offers protective benefits in patients with the high risk conditions of CAD and PAD 1

Reduced the risk of heart attack by 14% (relative risk reduction, ARR: 0.31%) however this result was not statistically significant1

Overall bleeding incidence rates were low, and while there was an increase in major bleeding, notably there was no significant increase in fatal or intracranial bleeding. Importantly, in the PAD patient population, the combination of major adverse limb events plus all major amputations of a vascular cause were reduced significantly.

Dr Derek Connolly, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Birmingham City Hospital and COMPASS trial investigator commented: The results of the COMPASS trial exceeded all expectations, demonstrating efficacy in reducing serious cardiovascular events that was so compelling we offered the treatment to study participants in an open-label extension trial. This study further builds on rivaroxabans role in a wide range of complex conditions including atrial fibrillation. As the biggest study of rivaroxaban to date, cardiologists can now treat patients with CAD and PAD confidently.

Dr Luis Felipe Graterol, UK Medical Director, Bayer, said: The results from COMPASS have important implications for daily clinical practice, demonstrating the broader protective benefits of Xarelto across multiple indications. Bayer has a robust heritage in addressing unmet needs in cardiovascular health, and a strong pipeline of new indications that we hope will make a real difference for patients now and in the future. While Xarelto is already widely used by cardiologists across a spectrum of cardiovascular indications, Bayer is committed to investigating its wider benefits across new indications, as well as building on and refining current evidence to guide prescribing decisions.

The COMPASS study is the largest clinical study of rivaroxaban to date. The study was stopped approximately one year ahead of schedule due to highly significant efficacy and Bayer, Janssen and the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) are working towards offering rivaroxaban to study participants in an open-label extension trial. Rivaroxaban is the only non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) investigated in secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease.

The results, along with Bayers ongoing research into AF and concomitant conditions, have significant implications for how UK cardiologists will respond to high-risk patients now and in the future. Rivaroxabans extensive clinical development programme makes it the most studied novel OAC in the world. Since it was first approved in the orthopaedic setting in 2008, 23 million patients worldwide have received it in daily clinical practice2.

Reporting of side effects:

This medicine is subject to additional monitoring . This will allow quick identification of new safety information. You can help by reporting any side effects you may get. See www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard for how to report side effects.

About CAD and PAD

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease and is estimated to occur in up to 20-30% of patients with AF3. It is responsible for approximately 7.3 million deaths worldwide every year4, with up to half of all middle-aged men and women at risk of developing CAD during their lifetime5. The number of patients with AF and CAD that will have to undergo coronary revascularisation has doubled in the last decade6.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), while often undiagnosed, affects over 27 million people in Europe and North America and is an important risk marker of cardiovascular disease7.

About COMPASS1

The Phase III randomised controlled COMPASS study is the largest clinical study of rivaroxaban to date with 27,395 patients. COMPASS was conducted in collaboration with the PHRI in more than 600 research sites across more than 30 countries worldwide8.

The COMPASS study evaluated the use of rivaroxaban for the prevention of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) including CV death, myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke in patients with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease or both.

Patients received a run-in of aspirin 100 mg once daily for 30 days, and were then randomised in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive (with or without pantoprazole):

Rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily

Rivaroxaban 5 mg twice daily

Aspirin 100 mg once daily

Patients who were being treated with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) prior to enrollment continued with their existing medication. Patients without a continued need for PPI treatment were randomised to pantoprazole or its placebo.

Efficacy Outcomes1

For the primary efficacy outcome, rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily was superior to aspirin 100 mg once daily alone for the prevention of the composite endpoint of stroke, CV death and MI (hazard ratio [HR] 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66-0.86; P<0.001). Rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily reduced the risk of stroke by 42% (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.44-0.76; P<0.001, CV death by 22% (HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.64-0.96; P=0.02) and heart attack by 14% (HR 0.86; 95% CI 0.70-1.05; P=0.14). Rivaroxaban 5 mg twice daily also reduced the composite outcome of stroke, CV death and MI but these results were not statistically significant.

Rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily compared with aspirin 100 mg once daily alone improved the net clinical benefit defined as the composite of stroke, CV death, MI, fatal bleeding or symptomatic bleeding in a critical organ (HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.70-0.91; P<0.001). Rivaroxaban 5 mg twice daily compared with aspirin 100 mg once daily did not improve the net clinical benefit.

Safety Outcomes1

The main safety outcome was a modification of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) criteria for major bleeding, and included fatal bleeding, symptomatic bleeding in a critical organ, bleeding into a surgical site requiring reoperation, and bleeding leading to hospitalisation (including presentation to an acute care facility without overnight stay). Unlike the ISTH criteria, all bleeding leading to presentation to an acute care facility or hospitalisation was considered as major.

Rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily plus aspirin 100 mg once daily compared with aspirin 100 mg once daily alone increased the risk of major bleeding (HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.40-2.05, P<0.001). Most of the major bleeding was into the gastrointestinal tract, with no significant increase in fatal bleeds, intracranial bleeds or symptomatic bleeds into a critical organ.

Although there was also a significant increase in major bleeding as defined using the non-modified ISTH scale, incidence rates using this definition were approximately one-third lower when compared to those obtained when using modified ISTH criteria.

About Xarelto (Rivaroxaban)

The extensive clinical development programme for rivaroxaban evaluating/ investigating the protection of different patient populations at risk of venous and arterial thromboembolism (VAT) makes it the most studied novel OAC in the world. To date, Xarelto has been approved for use in more than 125 countries, across all indications, and in the UK specifically to date across the following indications9:

The prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in adult patients with non-valvular AF with one or more risk factors

The treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) and prevention of recurrent DVT and PE in adults

The prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in adult patients undergoing elective hip or knee replacement surgery

The prevention of atherothrombotic events in adult patients after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) with elevated cardiac biomarkers, co-administered with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) alone or with ASA plus clopidogrel or ticlopidine

Rivaroxaban was discovered by Bayer, and is being jointly developed with Janssen Research & Development, LLC. Xarelto is marketed outside the U.S. by Bayer and in the U.S. by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company). Anticoagulant medicines are potent therapies used to prevent and treat blood clots the consequences of which may be serious, or to treat serious illnesses and potentially life-threatening conditions. Before initiating therapy with anticoagulant medicines, physicians should carefully assess the benefit and risk for the individual patient.

Responsible use of Xarelto is a very high priority for Bayer, and the company has developed a Prescribers Guide for physicians and a Xarelto Patient Card for patients to support best practice.

Bayer: Science For A Better Life

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen. In fiscal 2015, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of EUR 46.3 billion. Capital expenditures amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, R&D expenses to EUR 4.3 billion. These figures include those for the high-tech polymers business, which was floated on the stock market as an independent company named Covestro on October 6, 2015. For more information, go to www.bayer.co.uk

Forward Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayers public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

1 Eikelboom, J.W., Connolly, S.J., Bosch, J., et al. Rivaroxaban With and Without Aspirin in Stable Coronary or Peripheral Artery Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 2017

2 Data on file, Bayer UK

3 Capodanno, D., et al. Management of Antiplatelet and Anticoagulation Therapy in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation in the Setting of Acute Coronary Syndromes or Percutaneous Coronary Interventions. Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. 2014; 7:113-24

4 Zaromitidou, M., et al. Atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease: from basics to genetics. 2016. UK: Elsevier.

5 Lloyd-Jones, D., et al. Lifetime risk of developing coronary artery heart disease. Lancet. 1999; 353(9147): 89-92

6 Bhatnagar, P., et al. The epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in the UK 2014. Heart. 2015;101(15): 1182-9

7 Belch, J., et al. Critical issues in peripheral arterial disease detection and management: a call to action. Arch Intern Med. 2003; 163(8): 884-92

8 Cappato, R., et al. COMPASS PAD study design. Exploring unmet needs in venous and arterial thromboembolism with rivaroxaban. Thromb Haemost. 2016; 116(2): 2-12

9 eMC. 2017. Xarelto SPC. Available at: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/25586 [Last accessed: August 2017]

UKXAR02170068a

Date of Preparation: August 2017

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201708270050
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France says it will aid reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Iraq as the war-torn nation attempts to finalize a victory over Islamic State (IS) militants, who have devastated much of the country.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said at a news conference during a visit to Baghdad on August 26 that "we are present in the war and we will be present in the peace.

France has played a major role in the U.S.-led coalition helping the Iraqi government battle the IS extremists who captured wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared an Islamic caliphate in areas they controlled.

Coalition air strikes helped Iraqi forces drive IS out of the northern city of Mosul, the extremists self-declared capital in Iraq, after a nine-month battle, dealing a major blow to the militant group.

Le Drians visit came as reports indicated Iraqi forces had captured the city center of Tal Afar, where IS remnants are attempting to hold out, and leaving government troops on the verge of victory in the city that used to be home to about 200,000 people.

Le Drian was in Baghdad with French Defense Minister Florence Parly to meet with Iraqi leaders.

"Even if our joint combat against [IS militants] is not finished, it is entering a phase of stabilization, of reconciliation, of reconstruction, a phase of peace, Le Drian told a joint news conference with Parly and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, in a statement released through his office, urged France to invest in Iraq "at the economic, commercial, and investment levels."

Those comments came as a French Foreign Ministry official said Paris would grant a 430 million euro loan ($473 million) to Iraq by the end of the year.

The French ministers met later with Kurdish leader Masud Barzani in Irbil in the Kurdistan autonomous region. U.S.-backed Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have contributed heavily to the fight against IS.

The Kurdish presidency released a statement saying Le Drian had vowed continued French support for the Peshmerga.

A controversial referendum on independence scheduled for September 25 by the Kurdistan Regional Government was also discussed, the statement said.

France and other Western countries have expressed concerns the referendum could ignite conflict between the Iraqi leaders in Baghdad and with neighboring states such as Turkey and Iran, which have large Kurdish populations.

With on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Authorities organized a folk costume parade and a concert in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, to mark the country's independence day on August 27. Meanwhile, hundreds joined a march called by the Union of Pensioners in Moldova to protest against corruption and low retirement pensions. Participants carried pickets with slogans such as "Stop social genocide," "Minimum pension is a minimum of existence," and "Moldova, the failed state where pensioners have been robbed by thieves from the government." (RFE/RL's Moldovan Service)
Moldova marked the 26th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union on August 27 with celebrations that included a folk-costume parade, speeches by political leaders, wreath-laying ceremonies at monuments, and a concert in the capital, Chisinau.

Meanwhile, hundreds joined a march called by the Union of Pensioners in Moldova to protest against corruption and low pensions.

Participants carried pickets with slogans such as "Stop social genocide," "The Minimum pension is a minimum of existence," and "Moldova, the failed state where pensioners have been robbed by thieves from the government."

Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, has been marred by widespread corruption, high migration, and an ongoing frozen conflict with its breakaway region of Transdniester.

President Igor Dodon, who has courted Russia and is at odds with his country's pro-European Union government, on August 27 decorated several people for contributions to closer ties with Russia.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip, in a speech to parliament, reiterated his government's determination to pursue closer ties with the EU.

The celebrations come amid hightened tensions with Russia, after Moldova's envoy to the United Nations, Victor Moraru, earlier this month called on the upcoming 72nd session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transdniester.

Moldova's move has sparked an angry response from the Russian government, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov calling it a "provocative initiative."

Russia maintains an estimated 2,000-strong force in Transdniester -- 1,500 troops that Moscow says guard huge Soviet-era arms depots, and up to 500 peacekeepers to ensure an uneasy 25-year-old cease-fire which ended a bloody conflict between Moldova and its eastern separatist region.

At a 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul, Moscow had pledged to withdraw its troops from Transdniester by 2002, but never followed suit.

In a congratulatory statement, the U.S. State Department said that Washington remains "committed to helping Moldova find a resolution to the Transdniester settlement process that will guarantee Moldovas sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"For the past 26 years, the United States has supported Moldovas pursuit of a prosperous European future characterized by a respect for democratic principles, human rights, and the rule of law," the August 27 statement said.


Pakistani police used tear gas and batons August 27 to disperse anti-U.S. protesters in the southern port city of Karachi, while in the capital, Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it canceled this week's visit by a senior U.S. delegation.

Alice Wells, Washington's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, had been scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on August 28 to meet with Pakistani officials.

No reason was given for the cancelation but it was apparently linked to the demand made last week by President Donald Trump that Pakistan shut down safe havens for the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan says it has no safe havens for the Taliban.

"At the request of the government of Pakistan, the visit of the U.S. delegation has been postponed until a mutually convenient time," the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

In Karachi police intervened when a group of Shi'ite students tried to march toward the U.S. Consulate and an officer was injured in the process.

In Islamabad, a group held a peaceful "Defense of Pakistan" rally on August 27 condemning U.S. policy.

In a speech announcing a new strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia, Trump said said that the United States wanted an immediate end to militant sanctuaries, particularly to members of the Haqqani network blamed for some of the worst attacks in Afghanistan.

Based on reporting by AP and dawn.com
As many as 13 people, including Afghan army soldiers and civilians, were killed and 18 wounded in a suicide car-bomb attack in the southern province of Helmand on August 27, officials said.

The attack occurred in a market in Nawa, a district in the center of Helmand, said Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor's spokesman, who gave the casualty figures.

The area has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks between government forces aand Taliban insurgents.

Afghan forces said they had retaken Nawa district last month but there has been continued fighting in the area since.

The Taliban, which controls much of Helmand outside the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, claimed responsibility for the attack in a WhatsApp message sent to journalists.

The attack comes just days after a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah killed at least seven people and wounded 40.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground in Afghanistan since a NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 06:39:07|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of police officers killed so far this year in Brazil's crime-riddled state of Rio de Janeiro reached 100 on Saturday, local media reported.

Sergeant Fabio Jose Cavalcante, 39, was shot and killed during an attempted armed robbery in Sao Joao de Meriti, in the metropolitan area of the capital Rio de Janeiro, according to online daily Extra.

His death brings the homicide rate among both working and off-duty state police officers to one every 57 hours, the highest rate since 2016, when an officer was killed every 53 hours.

Rising crime led the federal government to dispatch some 10,200 military troops and police officers to help cap violence in the state. They were mainly deployed to Rio and its metropolitan area, the country's leading tourism destination.

The state government announced this week it would restructure its Pacifying Police Units, special forces employed since 2008 to combat organized crime within the slums.

Some 843 Rio districts are under the control of organized criminal rings.
Ukrainian officials and local residents moved to stabilize conditions in the freshly recaptured southern city of Kherson, as Russian symbols were being torn down and with the restoration of Ukrainian radio and television service and a new police presence.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The action on November 12 came after months of occupation by Russian forces following their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February and as Ukrainian and Western officials hailed Kyivs latest extraordinary battlefield success and Moscows strategic failure.

Separately, Russian occupying forces said late on November 12 that they were preparing to leave the city of Nova Kakhovka, the site of a damaged dam on the Dnieper River, to a safer location, according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

As jubilant Kherson residents awoke the morning following the arrival of the first Ukrainian troops, Ukraines military said it was putting stabilization measures in place to ensure safety.

Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said about 200 officers were at their posts in Kherson and that checkpoints had been set up. Authorities also began seeking out any evidence of possible Russian war crimes, he said in a Facebook post.



The Ukrainian communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed in the strategic southern city and officials said aid supplies had begun to arrive from nearby regions.

Social media postings on November 12 showed local residents removing memorial plaques put up by Kremlin-installed authorities during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials warned that while special forces had entered central Kherson, the full deployment of Ukrainian troops was still under way and that some Russian soldiers could have shed military uniforms for civilian clothing and remained in the city.

Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemys presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

But he said that medicine, communications, social services are returning. Life is returning.

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to world leaders at an ASEAN summit in Cambodia, warned that the celebratory mood could turn grim with the possible discovery of war crimes evidence in Kherson.

Such evidence was discovered after Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions months ago.

Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from the Russian Army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by the Russian Army in the course of the occupation of the territories," he said. "Its not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.

The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said. "In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy.

Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia's announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson," Wallace said in a statement. "Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: 'What was it all for?'"

Meanwhile, Pavel Filipchuk, the head of the occupation government in Nova Kakhovka, told administrators and residents that Russian forces will be pullng back from the city on the right bank of the Dnieper River.

He cited concerns that the key dam could be damaged by missiles, which would result in flooding.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning to blast the dam, which has already been severely damaged.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department says it is "deeply troubled" by the detention of the director of Azerbaijans independent Turan News Agency and urged his immediate release.

We are deeply troubled by the August 24 arrest and three-month pretrial detention of Mehman Aliyev, the prominent editor-in-chief of Azerbaijans only remaining independent media outlet," the department said in a statement on August 26.

Other restrictive actions against Turan, including freezing its bank accounts and initiating tax-evasion charges against it, are also troubling, it added.

The statement said the actions of the government of Azerbaijan to curtail freedom of press and to further restrict freedom of expression are the latest in a negative trend that includes the governments May decision to block access to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other independent media websites.

The State Department urged the government to immediately release Aliyev, along with all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms, in accordance with its international obligations and OSCE commitments.

Azerbaijani authorities on August 25 ordered Mehman to be sent to nearly three months of detention pending trial on tax-evasion and abuse-of-powers charges.

The director had been detained a day earlier, about two weeks after the Tax Ministry on August 7 initiated the criminal tax-evasion probe into Turan, which has often reported critically of the government and its leaders.

The authorities alleged that the agency owed 37,000 manats ($21,500) in taxes for 2014-16.

On August 18, Aliyev told RFE/RL that all of Turan's bank accounts had been frozen by the authorities amid the criminal probe, which the news agency said was politically motivated.

The news outlet, which was established in 1990, publishes reports in Azeri, English, and Russian and cooperates with leading international news agencies.

It has been a critic of President Ilham Aliyev, who has ruled the oil-producing South Caucasus country of nearly 10 million people since shortly before the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, in 2003.

After Aliyev's detention and the freezing of its accounts, Turan in an August 25 statement announced it would be suspending operations starting September 1, with the hope of resuming operations at some point in the future.

Along with the U.S. State Department, the Azerbaijani authorities actions drew immediate rebuke from international rights groups and foreign leaders.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, on August 25 called on Azerbaijan to fully abide by its commitments to European Convention on Human Rights and to avoid yet another case of unjust deprivation of liberty, which has no place in a democratic society.

In a Twitter post, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland) called the charges against Aliyev "a tremendously troubling development," adding that "Azerbaijanis deserve a free and open press."

Reporters Without Borders said the case was based on "trumped-up charges."

The authorities are stepping up the pressure on Turan because they have been unable to force it to cooperate, said Johann Bihr, the head of RSFs Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

Mehman Aliyev is one of journalisms pioneers in Azerbaijan. His only crime is to have headed the countrys last independent media outlet. We demand his immediate release and the withdrawal of all the politically-motivated charges against Turan, he added.

On August 26, Turan reported that a "Public Committee for Freedom for Mehman Aliyev" had been formed after a meeting of representatives of "political forces, civil society, media, and families of political prisoners" at the opposition Musavat Party headquarters.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Baku correspondent Khadija Ismayilova, Turan News Agency, and AFP
TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan's government is abandoning an experiment introduced earlier this year that had given rare leeway to journalists on tightly controlled state television.

A departure from decades of precedent in one of the former Soviet Union's most authoritarian states, tolerance for live questioning of Uzbek officials had emerged amid criticism from the newly minted President Shavkat Mirziyoev that state TV was full of sycophantic adulation for public officials and needed to better reflect the realities faced by ordinary Uzbeks.

But authorities this week decided, at least for now, to halt live broadcasts of talk shows and panel discussions in which officials face journalists.

A presidential ally defended the return to canned programming and blamed it on impudence on the part of journalists.

Just because a couple of individuals have stepped over the line, that doesn't mean democratic reforms are being reversed, Abduqodir Toshkulov, a Mirziyoev backer and parliamentary deputy from Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov's Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party, said.

While it appears early to talk of meaningful "democratic reforms," Mirziyoev has announced modest shifts in domestic- and foreign-policy areas since taking office in December that have fueled speculation that he might be ever-so-slightly easing Uzbek authorities' grip on public life.

The reversal was announced to state broadcasters and journalists on August 21 by Aripov during a meeting headed by Mirziyoev's state adviser on information and culture.

An independent journalist with the Tashkent-based human rights group Compassion who was present at the meeting, Abdurakhmon Tashanov, speculated that Aripov's announcement must have been ordered by Mirziyoev because the prime minister is not in a position to contravene the directives of Uzbekistan's president.

Prime Minister Aripov's meeting with journalists at Uzbekistan's National Radio and Television Company was called as a result of the personal initiative of President Mirziyoev, Tashanov told RFE/RL.

Separate accounts from three journalists from Uzbekistan's state media who also attended the gathering -- but who asked not to be named because they fear retribution from state media managers -- indicate that the meeting became heated when Aripov began criticizing journalist Sherzod Qudrathojaev, the moderator of a live public-affairs talk show called International Press Club on the Uzbekistan 24 channel.

Since the daily weekday program began on April 7, state authorities complain that Qudrathojaev has displayed disrespect for public officials who appear on it -- including mayors, regional administrators, parliamentary deputies, and even cabinet officials like Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Komilov.

Aripov shouted contemptuously at Qudrathojaev, the sources who attended said.

They said Qudrathojaev responded by telling Aripov, Just because you are the prime minister now doesn't mean you are allowed to yell at me or address me in such a belittling way.

International Press Club appeared to have been growing in popularity but has not been broadcast since the August 21 meeting -- not even in a prerecorded format.

On his Facebook page, Qudrathojaev denied that his program has been canceled, saying that it would go back on the air after resolving some technical issues.

Meanwhile, two other live talk shows on the state-run Yoshlar youth channel -- Point Of View and Triangle -- are no longer being broadcast in the live format. Instead, they are being aired as prerecorded programs.

Under Uzbekistan's former autocratic ruler, the late President Islam Karimov, there was no live news or public affairs programming on state television. The only live broadcasts were of major sporting events like the Olympics.

Some public officials have incurred criticism under the live broadcast format with responses to public concerns that were widely seen as lacking media savvy.

Footage from a recent live broadcast of Point Of View went viral on Uzbek social media after a government official was seen laughing about interviews with impoverished Uzbeks who complained about rising meat prices.

Neither Mirziyoev's office nor Aripov's government has commented publicly about the heated argument between the prime minister and Qudrathojaev.

Mirziyoev ally Toshkulov said on August 23 that Qudrathojaev was using his program to promote himself.

There is no country in the world where journalists have such a disrespectful attitude toward mayors, ministers, and parliamentary deputies, Toshkulov argued. Giving an assessment of the work of these officials is the prerogative only of the president and not the job of journalists, he added.

Written by Ron Synovitz with reporting by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service and BBC Uzbek
Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, says that the country is not ready yet to join NATO.

Speaking in an interview that aired late on August 26 on Ukrainian Pryamyi TV, Volker said preparations for accession to the western security alliance take a long time, though he believes the country will be able to carry out all of the reforms, including in the area of security, needed to join NATO.

"The United States, the EU, and Russia should all understand that Ukraine is an independent country and it is up to Ukraine to determine when it will be ready to join NATO," Volker was quoted as saying.

"But this does not mean that Ukraine is close to receiving an invitation to NATO," he added.

Volker applauded Kyivs decision in 1994 to abandon nuclear weapons, saying he did not think that nuclear weapons were something positive for Ukraine."

In response to a question on the joint Belarusian-Russian military exercises due next month (September 14-20), Volker said the exercises, dubbed Zapad 2017 (West 2017), show that Western nations must develop their own security system together and be prepared for all possible scenarios.

A 2011 agreement between the member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) known as the Vienna Document, sets thresholds for the number of troops allowed to take part in exercises before the opposing side is allowed to demand a mandatory inspection.

Exercises involving 13,000 or more troops are subject to mandatory inspections. In the case of exercises involving 9,000 or more soldiers, the other side must be notified.

Russia and Belarus say the Zapad 2017 strategic exercises, which are conducted every four yearsy, are due to be attended by some 12,700 troops. However Lithuania, which has a common border with Belarus, and other critics say the actual number of troops taking part in Zapad 2017 could be as high as 100,000.

Based on reporting by Interfax, Deutsche Welle, and AFP
Maputo (Mozambique), August 26, 2017 (SPS) - African Union (AU) demanded from Morocco and all partners to respect the African organization as a unified block at the regional and international levels, asking the Moroccan delegation attending the ministerial meeting of the partnership summit between the African Union and Japan to sit beside Western Sahara to show respect to the unity of AU institutions and agencies.

The African Union demanded that Morocco and all partners respect the African organization following Moroccan attempts, over three days, to impose its positions and "exclude Western Sahara from the partnership meeting between the AU and Japan."

Those attempts to redirect the unified African position adopted by the Committee of Ambassadors on 22 and 23 August, and during the consultation meetings attended by the Committee of Ambassadors and the group of African Ambassadors in Japan were failed.

The African Union also requested from the Moroccan delegation to take a seat beside its Saharawi counterpart attending the meeting.

The interministerial meetings of partnership summit between AU and Japan opened Thursday, in Maputo, in the presence of President Philipe Nyusi of Mozambique, his Foreign minister and that of Japan, in addition to representatives of the World Bank, the UN-AU liaison office and the African Commission's deputy chairman. (SPS)

062/090/APS




R evellers at Notting Hill Carnival fell silent in a powerful tribute to victims of Junes Grenfell Tower tragedy.

A minutes silence was held across the whole carnival at 3pm on Sunday to remember those who were killed when fire ripped through the 24-storey building overnight.

Earlier in the day Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan had urged crowds at the two-day west London street party to keep the blaze victims in their thoughts and prayers, adding that the event takes place in the context of sadness and sorrow.

At least 80 people are feared dead following the June 14 Lancaster West estate blaze, including 52 who have been formally identified.

Revellers pause for a minutes silence at 3pm. / Getty Images

Floats moving along the parade route came to a complete stop, the music was cut and people stood still in their sunshine with their arms raised to mark the tragedy.

The usually noisy carnival site was quiet and many people were visibly moved and in tears as they stopped their celebrations and bowed their heads.

A klaxon sounded the end of the minutes silence and soundsystems resumed music as people hugged each other.

Many carnival-goers gathered outside the fire station in Notting Hill to honour the brave firefighters who pulled out survivors from the burning building.

The carnival site fell silent at 3pm and will again at the same time on Sunday. / Getty Images

Scores of revellers attended today's carnival dressed in green for Grenfell, as temperatures are hit 25C in the capital.

Revellers wearing green for Grenfell embrace as the tower itself can be seen in the background. / Getty Images

Performers passing the burnt-out tower have been encouraged to lower their music volume and walk respectfully instead of dancing while hundreds of hand-drawn tributes, flowers and candles laid in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire is protected by fencing.

Police officers take part in the minute's silence at Notting Hill Carnival. / MPS Norland

A "ring of care" was formed around the tower by police officers to protect Grenfell site from the hundreds of thousands of passing carnival-goers.

Organisers and community leaders hope the 2017 event will provide a healing opportunity for survivors of the blaze,

A second minutes silence will be held on Monday at the same time, 3pm.

Security at the carnival is also on high alert this year after a wave of terror attacks across the UK and Europe, including the Barcelona attack earlier this month.
C ounter-terrorism police have arrested a second man after a driver swerved at officers near Buckingham Palace before reaching for a 4ft sword.

Three officers were injured as they tackled the suspect in a restricted area of the Mall on Friday evening.

Detectives have been granted more time to quiz a 26-year-old Luton man who was arrested at the scene under the terrorism act.

He is also being held on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and assaulting police.

An ambulance leaves the scene following the attack / Getty Images

Officers today arrested a second 30-year-old man from west London on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism.

On Saturday morning Scotland Yard said they were treating the incident as terrorism.

A spokesman described how the suspect veered into a police van in a blue Toyota Prius.

Police outside Buckingham Palace / @1amrighturwrong/Twitter

Unarmed officers swooped on the vehicle and attempted to restrain the man who then reached for the weapon while repeatedly yelling Allahu Akbar, he added.

CS spray was used during the arrest.

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Mets counter-terrorism squad, later said investigations were being carried out in Luton and paid tribute to the officers involved.

He said: I would like to pay tribute to the bravery and professionalism of these officers who quickly brought this incident under control.

Their vigilance, courage and the swiftness of their response demonstrates how our officers are protecting the public at this time.
A former north London secondary school teacher has painted amazing images of inspirational black women across the capital in a bid to highlight the importance of female empowerment.

Dreph, whose real name is Neequaye Dsane, has adorned parts of east and south London with paintings of nine ordinary women who do extraordinary things.

The murals, all part of a project entitled You Are Enough, began popping up in January just weeks after the 43-year-old returned from his native Ghana.

He told the Standard that his trip reminded him of the importance of his heritage and highlighted the inspirational women in his life including his partner, friends and the mother of his nine-year-old son.

Inspirational women: A image of Mimi, Dreph's partner's friend, in east London / Dreph

Dreph said: The subjects are friends or family, an homage to extraordinary black women impacting lives in the community.

The series celebrates black women and each portrait is a depiction of the subjects resolve, humanity, loyalty, Intelligence, beauty, and strength.

I am utilising street art and social media to acknowledge and shine a light on the inspiring women in my life, who are not given the visibility they deserve.

The first image in the series appeared in Star Yard, off Brick Lane in east London and was later replaced by the sixth image in the project.

Mentor: An image of Myvanwy Evans who works as a youth mentor / Dreph

Fashion and furniture designer Nana Yaa Sakyibea, known as Mary, was Drephs muse for the first image.

He said of his subject: She wants people to feel at home in her clothes and thrives on seeing peoples self-esteem shoot from 10 to 100, based on what they are wearing.

Psychotherapist: Leyla Hussein is a psychotherapist specialising in supporting survivors of sexual abuse / Dreph

The artist describes another subject Holly, a survivor of domestic violence, as warm spirited with wisdom more than her 24 years and hails Tracy, the mother of his son, for her work with girls who have suffered sexual abuse.

Dreph, who quit a career in teaching last year to follow his dream, worked in education across the capital for 20 years.

Final image: Dreph painted friend Shaney in Shoreditch to complete his project / Dreph

He added that all of the women in the series have made a difference  a message he attempted to pass on to secondary school art pupils.

The painter said: When I was teaching I would ask them, what do you want to be? and it really struck me when the answer was famous.

We live in a culture where people are famous for being famous not for doing something, not for changing anything.

Drephs tenth mural was completed on Sunday and will depict friend Shaney who he met while travelling in Morocco.

The artist said: "Having spent the majority of her career as a Legal Secretary in a Magic Circle Law firm, although comfortable she was not content.

"She felt as though she was going through the motions and says that 'at some point we all have to work out what makes us happy'. So she followed her instincts, ignored the naysayers and after months of meticulous planning and rigorous saving, she finally quit her job to travel the world.

"I admire her outlook and courage for walking away from many of lifes luxuries and breaking societal norms."

Shaney's painting can be seen in Hanbury Street, Shoreditch.
L ondoners could bask in temperatures of 30C on what may be the hottest late August Bank Holiday on record.

The capital is enjoying a spell of fine weather over the Bank Holiday weekend, with the mercury peaking at 25C on Sunday.

And as thousands of revellers make their way to Notting Hill Carnival for a second day of celebrations on Monday, the mercury will soar further still.

Currently Britain's hottest temperature on record for the late August Bank Holiday is 28.3C in Cambridgeshire, set on August 27, 1990.

Met forecaster Marco Petagna told the Standard: Temperatures today are 25C or so in London and it has reached 26.2C in Fritton in Kent

There is plenty of sunshine around as well.

If anything it will be a warmer day tomorrow, 28 or 29C with a chance of it reaching 30C.

Again there will be lots of sunshine tomorrow."

However the weather is expected to take a turn for the worst on Tuesday, with clouds and rain replacing the scorching heat.

Mr Petagna added: It will be more of a cloudier day on Tuesday, with chance of showers breaking out through the day.

In the middle of the week there is a chance we will still see some rain at times, and it will generally cool off for a time.

On Thursday and Friday it will be bright again with temperatures back up to 21C or so.
A secret terror attack drill in Parliament has exposed shocking security weaknesses, it has been revealed.

Police posed as terrorists in a mock attack on the Palace of Westminster in a dramatic night-time operation earlier this year during recess, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Officers pretending to be attackers used a boat and travelled along the Thames to access Parliament via one of its riverside buildings.

According to the newspaper, three separate sources gave accounts of what had happened and said the ease with which the police were able to access Parliament showed MPs were sitting ducks.

A spokesman for the Houses of Parliament authorities would not confirm or deny that the operation had taken place.

Parliament: The police op reportedly saw officers use boats to access the Palace. / Getty Images

The officers were reported to have stormed into the Commons chamber within five minutes in a way which could have led to a "massacre" if the House had been sitting.

A review of security at the House of Commons is under way following the Westminster terror attack in March which killed a police officer guarding the palace's front gates.

The Telegraph said the review had highlighted the need for a barrier in the river to stop boats approaching Parliament, as well as an armed guard to protect entrances from the Thames.

A spokesman for the Houses of Parliament said: "The security of members, staff and the visiting public is our highest priority.

"While we cannot comment on the specifics of our security, we work closely with the police, security services and others to ensure that our security measures are effective and meet whatever level of security risk Parliament faces.

"These measures are always, and will continue to be, under constant review."


Rides Auto is opening a second location on the Strip in Mandan.

The new dealership, located at 2815 Memorial Highway in the former Speedway Restaurant & Lounge, will open Friday, according to Jay Braun, general manager and operating partner.

The Mandan store will primarily be a used truck and SUV dealership, carrying all makes and models, said Braun, adding the site will be able to keep about 50 vehicles on the lot, all mileage, all price points, so theres something for everybody.

A showroom will feature 10 to 12 custom motorcycles, from Harley Davidson to Victory.

Rides is also known for its classic cars, which will continue to be featured primarily at its north Bismarck location.

We just feel like Mandan is kind of a booming community. We think its really neat what theyre trying to do and we want to be part of it, Braun said of the decision to open a Mandan location.

The former restaurant has been remodeled and outside there is new lighting and landscaping.

Its completely different now, Braun said.

Hours at the new dealership will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

New training center open

The North Dakota Safety Councils new Safety Training Campus opened in Bismarck last week.

The campus trains on ways to reduce injuries and fatalities in homes and workplaces through hands-on interactive safety training.

In 2016, 113 people died in traffic crashes on North Dakota roadways. From 2012 to 2016, 460 claims were made for workplace injuries sustained during falls from a ladder or scaffolding. An additional 164 claims were submitted for injuries sustained while caught in or between a machine.

Interactive training techniques are critical to conveying safety knowledge and demonstrating safe behaviors because its more memorable and effective, according to the NDSC.

The new facility is located at 1710 Canary Ave. An open house will be held from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sept. 19 and will include tours and demonstrations in the Andeavor Hands-On Training Lab.

Register online at www.ndsc.org.

Heitkamp meets with women in business

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., met with the National Womens Business Council and local businesswomen in Bismarck last week to highlight support for women entrepreneurs.

Kari Warberg Block, founder and CEO of EarthKind, along with more than a dozen other female small businesses owners from across North Dakota, talked about research findings that indicated women in North Dakota are opening businesses faster now than they were prior to the recession. According to the NWBC, the number of women-owned business in North Dakota jumped by more than 33 percent since 2007 and is now at more than 20,000 businesses.

According to the 2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, North Dakota has about 23,500 women-owned businesses, which account for about one-third of the states small businesses. Women-owned businesses in North Dakota account for $3.9 billion in annual sales  a 234.7 percent increase since 1997.

The women discussed challenges, as well as support and investments, to get their businesses off the ground and growing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 09:04:30|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Xinhua writers Xu Liyu, Chen Junxia, Ding Yi, Jin Zheng

NAIROBI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- After a ride on Kenya's newly-launched Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Nairobi Railway Museum guide Daniel Shikoli felt an urge to tell visitors what it meant for the country to run a new, modern rail link after a century-long hiatus in rail projects.

Like Shikoli, Kenyans have good reason -- and ample opportunities -- to be excited. A trip by the Chinese-built SGR linking the port city of Mombasa and the capital Nairobi takes less than five hours for an otherwise tedious journey either by road or by a colonial-era railway.

Kenya Railways currently operates one daily service from Nairobi to Mombasa and another from Mombasa to Nairobi and is looking into the possibility of increasing the frequency of trains.

"It's so nice. The trip took only more than four hours," said Shikoli, who was among the first Kenyans to ride on the modern train.

Shikoli's one-off experience with the SGR came about thanks to a reward ticket from Kenya Railways which runs the Nairobi Railway Museum. But soon, his encounter with the new railway will become long running -- the museum has dedicated a room to the SGR and is in preparations to put the SGR section on show.

He said many newly-weds in Nairobi would visit the museum to avail themselves of the ages-old locomotives on display as a setting for their pre-wedding photograph. And a large number of school children patronize the museum for extended learning of history.

"They'll have more to see and learn how this railway changed our life," he said.

A GAME CHANGER

The SGR runs largely parallel to the meter-gauge railway that was originally built by British colonialists in the 19th century. The Nairobi Terminus is not only the end point of the SGR -- it is where it meets the old railway to facilitate onward journeys.

Mostly bankrolled by China and built by a Chinese company, the 480-km railway is Kenya's biggest infrastructure project since independence and is expected to help boost the East African nation's GDP by 1.5 percent annually.

The Kenyan government estimated that the new railway would cut the costs of freight service in East Africa by 79 percent and the time for delivery by half. The cost of doing business, as a result, would drop as much as 40 percent.

For many Kenyans, the SGR is tantamount to comfort and speed, and as such, the tourism industry stands to benefit from it.

Mombasa, a seaside resort town, traditionally sees a low season in tourist arrivals in June, but after the SGR had been in place, holidaymakers were flocking to the city.

Kenyan officials said in late July that the new railway had transported over 150,000 passengers between Mombasa and Nairobi in nearly two months since it was commissioned on May 31.

"The SGR project will open up the African hinterland and transform the life of ordinary citizens," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta highlighted in May.

Ephantus Kennedy, who joined the SGR as a train conductor after quitting his job as a flight attendant, told Xinhua he was lured by "opportunities in career growth" at the SGR.

A 2016 report on the social responsibilities of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR said the project created 46,000 jobs in Kenya.

And for Kenya and the region, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is a starting point.

Under the East African Railway Master Plan, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR will eventually link up with other standard gauge railways being built across the region.
T his is the heartwarming moment firefighters are hugged and applauded after Notting Hill fell silent to remember victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

A minutes silence was held at 3pm as revellers gathered for the annual carnival paid their respects to those who died in the blaze.

Footage shows carnival-goers thanking and embracing fire crews at the end of the silence on the first of the two-day event outside a west London fire station.

Crowds could be seen applauding and cheering for the brave crew members who pulled out survivors from the burning tower on June 14.

Notting Hill Carnival: Firefighters were hugged and applauded as revellers paid their respects to Grenfell Tower victims / BBC

Earlier in the day Londons Mayor Sadiq Khan urged crowds at the west London street party to keep the blaze victims in their thoughts and prayers.

He added that the event takes place in the context of sadness and sorrow.

In pictures: Notting Hill Carnival 2017 1 /29 In pictures: Notting Hill Carnival 2017 Dancers try to keep cool in the heat at Notting Hill Carnival Getty Images for RedBull Crowds flocked to the west London event Rex Features Dancers covered themselves in paint Getty Images Performers donning colourful outfits made their way through the streets Rex Features Revellers enjoying the sunshine at this year's Notting Hill Carnival Getty Images for RedBull Thousands of people joined in the celebrations at the 51st event Rex Features People of all ages dressed in colourful outfits took to the streets Rex Features Dancers donned colourful outfits Rex Features Dancers donned colourful outfits AFP/Getty Images Revellers take part in the traditional 'J'ouvert' opening ceremony Getty Images Dancers perform at the Family Day parade PA Sadiq Khan and MP Emma Dent Coad at the opening ceremony AFP/Getty Images Paint-covered revellers prepare for carnival Getty Images Performers enjoy the opening parade Getty Images Doves were released to honour Grenfell Tower victims PA Sadiq Khan took part in the dove release PA Firefighters joined crowds in a minute's silence for Grenfell victims on the street party's second day BBC Performers prepare to take part in the parade on the Monday PA Carnival performers parade in the sunshine on the main Parade day AFP/Getty Images A carnival performer poses in the sun AFP/Getty Images A performer poses on the main Parade day of the Notting Hill Carnival AFP/Getty Images A woman dances on day two of the Notting Hill Carnival in London Reuters

At least 80 people are feared dead following the Lancaster West estate blaze, including 52 who have been formally identified.

The minutes silence was held across the whole of the carnival, and saw floats moving along the parade route come to a complete stop.

The music was cut and people stood still to mark the tragedy.
R evellers descended on the streets of west London for a vibrant display of festivities as the 51st Notting Hill Carnival got underway.

Millions of people are expected to flock to the two-day event over the Bank Holiday weekend, which celebrates Caribbean and West Indian culture in the capital.

Photographs from the opening day showed performers donning brightly coloured outfits as they made their way through the streets in the glorious sunshine on Sunday.

Grinning carnival-goers were pictured covered in paint as they joined the celebrations as Notting Hill was transformed into a feast of music, dance and colour as floats paraded through the streets.

Performers donning brightly coloured outfits took to the streets of west London / Rex Features

Many revellers could be seen wearing green to the event, which they did as a mark of respect for those who died in the Grenfell Tower tragedy on June 14.

The burnt-out building could be seen in the distance as people, some pictured with banners and T-shirts that showed support for the victims' families, gathered in the area for the festivities.

The 51st Notting Hill Carnival is underway

As the first day of the carnival got underway, multi-faith leaders from across London, including Mayor Sadiq Khan, freed birds into the sky amid prayers for peace over the party weekend.

The streets of Notting Hill paused for a minutes silence at 3pm in respect for those who died in the blaze, and many were photographed with their heads bowed as they paid their respects.

Revellers party on a parked car during Notting Hill Carnival / Getty Images

Performers passing the tower were encouraged to lower their music volume and walk respectfully instead of dancing while hundreds of hand-drawn tributes, flowers and candles were laid.

The usually noisy carnival site was quiet and many people were visibly moved and in tears as they stopped their celebrations and bowed their heads.

Carnival-goers observe a minute's silence. / PA

A klaxon sounded the end of the minutes silence and soundsystems resumed music as people hugged each other.

Many carnival-goers gathered outside the fire station in Notting Hill to honour the brave firefighters who pulled out survivors from the burning building.

Notting Hill Carnival over the years - In pictures 1 /53 Notting Hill Carnival over the years - In pictures 1972 Charlie Gillett/Redferns 1975 Richard Braine/PYMCA/Rex 1976 Hulton Archive/Getty Images 1977 Associated Newspaper 1977 Daily Mail 1978 Frank Barratt/Getty Images 1978 Bill Johnson/Associated Newspapers 1978 Frank Barratt/Evening Standard 1980 Stuart Nicol/Evening Standard 1980 Evening Standard 1980 Evening Standard 1983 Peter Anderson/PYMCA/Rex 1984 John Minihan/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 1994 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 1994 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 1995 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 2003 Scott Barbour/Getty Images 2004 Graeme Robertson/Getty Images 2005 Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images 2005 Chris Jackson/Getty Images 2006 Miles Willis/Getty Images 2006 Miles Willis/Getty Images 2006 Miles Willis/Getty Images 2006 Chris Jackson/Getty Images 2007 Chris Jackson/Getty Images 2009 Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images 2011 Oli Scarff/Getty Images 2012 Oli Scarff/Getty Images 2015 Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images 2015 Daniel C Sims/Getty Images 2017 Getty Images 2017 Getty Images 2017 Getty Images for RedBull 2017 Getty Images for RedBull 2017 AFP/Getty Images 2018 Getty Images for Redbull 2018 Getty Images 2018 Reuters 2019 Getty Images 2019 Reuters

A second minutes silence will be held on Monday at the same time, 3pm.

Security at the carnival is also on high alert this year after a wave of terror attacks across the UK and Europe, including the Barcelona attack earlier this month.
S adiq Khan has urged crowds at Notting Hill Carnival to keep their thoughts and prayers with Grenfell Tower victims as revellers head to the annual two-day street party.

The Mayor of London spoke at the opening of the west London festival, after community leaders read prayers and released doves in tribute to the people killed in the tower block fire.

Speaking in blazing sunshine, Mr Khan said this years event takes place in the context of sadness and sorrow and added: So this carnival weekend, we honour the victims.

It comes after a morning of remembrance for those who died in the tragedy, when fire ripped through the 24-storey high-rise building on June 14.

Moving moment: Sadiq Khan joins faith leaders as doves are released at the opening of Notting Hill Carnival / PA

Crowds were moved to silence by a powerful rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water and multi-faith prayers were read at Sundays short morning service.

Mr Khan told those who had gathered in remembrance: Over this carnival weekend we pledge to redouble our efforts to support this community.

We make sure we have in our thoughts and our prayers all of those affected by the awful Grenfell Tower tragedy.

"Part of that pledge is making sure we get justice, we find out exactly what happened, we make sure those responsible are held to account, and also so this never, ever, ever happens again."

The city's mayor was also pictured embracing relatives of people who died in the fire. He greeted survivors sitting in a specially-reserved area, shaking their hands and hearing about their housing situations, 10 weeks on.

Condolences: Sadiq Khan meets relatives of people that died in Grenfell Tower at Notting Hill Carnival / REUTERS

The mayor spoke for a few minutes with Hamid Ali Jafari, 33, who said he was from the 11th floor of Grenfell Tower and is in a temporary flat, awaiting permanent accommodation.

Many revellers are today heading to the carnival dressed in green for Grenfell, as temperatures are expected to hit 25C or 26C in the capital.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to families of victims of the Grenfell Tower. / PA

Organisers and community leaders hope the 2017 event will provide a healing opportunity for survivors of the blaze, with a minutes silence to be held at 3pm on both days in tribute.

Performers passing the burnt-out tower have been encouraged to lower their music volume and walk respectfully instead of dancing while hundreds of hand-drawn tributes, flowers and candles laid in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire will be protected by fencing.

A "ring of care" will be formed around the tower by police officers to protect the Lancaster West estate from the hundreds of thousands of passing carnival-goers.

Security at the carnival is also on high alert this year after a wave of terror attacks across the UK and Europe, including the Barcelona attack earlier this month.
D avid Davis has called on the European Commission to be more "flexible" during Brexit negotiations.

The Brexit Secretary is heading to Brussels for the third round of formal talks over the UKs departure from the EU.

He will push for EU negotiator Michel Barnier to be less rigid in his refusal to discuss the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and Europe.

Mr Barnier has insisted that progress must be made on key aspects of the withdrawal deal, including the UK's "divorce bill", ex-pat citizens' rights and the Irish border, before there is any talk of future arrangements for crucial issues such as trade.

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU states will decide in October whether the divorce talks have got far enough to move on to the second phase.

Brexit: Article 50 Triggered - In pictures 1 /26 Brexit: Article 50 Triggered - In pictures Britain's ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow delivers British Prime Minister Theresa May's formal notice of the UK's intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels AFP/Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Common PA Britain's ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow delivers British Prime Minister Theresa May's formal notice of the UK's intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels AFP/Getty Images European Council President Donald Tusk holds a news conference after receiving British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit letter in notice of the UK's intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty to EU Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium Yves Herman/Reuters Prime Minister Theresa May takes her seat after announcing in the House of Commons PA The time 12:20pm shows on Big Ben on March 29, 2017 in London, England. The British Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the Houses of Parliament as Article 50 is triggered and the process that will take the United Kingdom out of the European Union begins Carl Court/Getty Images D-day: pro-EU protesters outside of the Houses of Parliament today as Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 AFP/Getty Images EU Council President Donald Tusk holds British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit letter which was delivered by Britain's permanent representative to the European Union Tim Barrow (not pictured) that gives notice of the UK's intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty in Brussels, Belgium Yves Herman/Reuters PMQ's in The House of Commons PA Jeremy Corbyn speaking at PMQ's in The House of Commons Sky News Theresa May leaving for the House of Commons Jeremy Selwyn Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at the headquarters of Vivendi in Paris where he took part in TV interviews to discuss the imminent triggering of Article 50 by the UK to leave the EU Stefan Rousseau/PA Britain's permanent representative to the European Union Tim Barrow arrives at the EU Council headquarters for as meeting before hand delivering British Prime Minister Theresa May's notice of the UK's intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty to EU Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium Yves Herman/Reuters Britain's ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow arrives at the British representation of the European Union in Brussels Aurore Belot/AFP/Getty Images A giant headed Theresa May in Parliament Square, London during a protest by Avaaz after PM signed a letter to trigger Article 50 that starts the formal exit process by the UK from the European Union David Mirzoeff/PA British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson walks down Whitehall Jack Taylor/Getty Images Britain's PM Theresa May signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, invoking Article 50. AFP/Getty Images

But Mr Davis is expected to urge Brussels to show more "imagination" to drive talks forward.

His Department for Exiting the EU has in the last week published a slew of papers setting out Britain's vision for a "deep and special" future partnership, dealing with issues ranging from the role of the European Court of Justice to customs arrangements and data protection.

While a UK Government source indicated that Mr Davis will warn Brussels not to "drag its feet" in discussions which must be completed in time for the deadline of March 2019.

"This round of negotiations will focus on thrashing out the technical detail on important matters related to us leaving the EU, and will act as a stepping stone to more substantial talks in September," said the source.

"The UK has been working diligently to inform the negotiations in the past weeks, and has published papers making clear our position on a wide range of issues from how we protect the safe flow of personal data, to the circumstances around Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"Now, both sides must be flexible and willing to compromise when it comes to solving areas where we disagree.

"As the EU itself has said, the clock is ticking so neither side should drag its feet."

Additional reporting by Press Association.
T he first victim of a devastating motorway crash which left eight people dead has been named as a father-of-two who was killed when the minibus he was driving collided with two lorries.

Cyriac Joseph, 52, was one of eight adults  six men and two women  killed when the minibus they were travelling in from Nottingham was involved in the pile-up on the M1 in Buckinghamshire on Saturday.

Indian-born Mr Joseph was driving a group of two or three families to Wembley coach station, north west London, when the crash happened, the Sunday Mirror reported.

His wife of 20 years Ancy is in hospital, where a man, a woman, a five-year-old and another passenger all remain in a serious condition, neighbours told the newspaper.

The couple, who celebrated their 20th anniversary last year have two children Benson 20 and Benitea, 16.

The crash happened on the southbound carriageway. / PA/Sky News

Relative Soyiman Joseph paid tribute to the driver, known as Benny, calling him his best friend.

He told the Sunday Mirror: Benny was the perfect driver. It is devastating.

He wrote in a Facebook post: Hearty condolences. I never thought yesterday 10 pm you say thank you to me it was our last meeting.

Two men have been arrested. / Sky News/PA

"My dearest friend Benny passed away this morning after a huge road accident happened in M1 in London."

Horrific images showed the minibus crumpled as police dealt with the aftermath of the crash between junctions 14 and 15.

The scene on the M1 near Newport Pagnell after six men and two women were killed. / Sky News

Witnesses compared the scene to a war zone.

Brett Smith, 36, was travelling home from a night out in a taxi when they saw the devastating scene on Saturday morning.

He said he saw blood everywhere as he rushed over to help the seriously injured five-year-old girl.

Mr Smith told the Sun: I heard crying.

I could see her face to face. I still see her now when I close my eyes.

Eight people were killed in the crash / Twitter/ItsOllieYT

He added she was trapped underneath a seat and screaming.

"I was getting her to hold my hand and my arm," he said.

Two men have been charged over the crash which happened around 3.15am.

Ryszard Masierak, aged 31, of Barnards Close, Evesham, Worcestershire, was arrested at the scene.

He was today charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was also charged with eight counts of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit.

Mr Masierak is being held by police and will appear at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on Monday.

A second man David Wagstaff, aged 53, of Derwent Street, Stoke-on-Trent, was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court on Monday.
S ixteen people are now confirmed dead after two terror attacks shook Spain.

A 51-year-old German woman died in hospital on Sunday, more than a week after the atrocities on in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils, Spanish authorities confirmed.

Around 120 people were injured in the attacks on August 17.

Authorities said 24 people remain in hospital, five of whom are in a critical condition.

A further four people are said to be seriously injured.

Mourners lay tributes in Las Ramblas / AFP/Getty Images

Thirteen people, including the latest, victim where killed when a van ploughed into pedestrians in Las Ramblas, Barcelona.

Hours later five people in an Audi A3 sped into crowds in Cambils, killing one woman, before being shot dead by police.

Salh El Karib was suspected of purchasing plane tickets for the terror cell / AP

Another man was found stabbed to death during a carjacking linked to the Las Ramblas attack.

Suspect Younes Abouyaaquob, 22, was shot dead by police several days later.

Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks 1 /18 Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks Spanish policemen patrol the streets after five terrorists were shot dead in the seaside resort of Cambrils EPA Forensic police officers at the scene in Cambrils where suspects were shot dead AFP Police officers stand next to the van involved on an attack in La Ramblas in Barcelona AP A woman displays a candle next to first flowers and a message to the victims on August 18, 2017 on the spot where yesterday a van ploughed into the crowd, killing 13 persons and injuring over 100 on the Rambla boulevard in Barcelona AFP/Getty Images A woman lights a candle next to first flowers and a message to the victims on August 18, 2017 on the spot where yesterday a van ploughed into the crowd, killing 13 persons and injuring over 100 on the Rambla boulevard in Barcelona. AFP/Getty Images Police officers check the area after towing away the van which ploughed into the crowd, killing at least 13 people and injuring around 100 others on the Rambla in Barcelona, on August 18, 2017 AFP/Getty Images Armed police stand in a cordoned off area after a van ploughed into the crowd, injuring several persons on the Rambla in Barcelona on August 17, 2017 AFP/Getty Images Armed police officers patrol a deserted street in Las Ramblas, in Barcelona, on Friday morning. AP The terrorists car, which flipped after crashing at the scene in Cambrils, before the occupants were shot dead EPA Injured people after a van crashed into pedestrians in a terror attack in Las Ramblas, Barcelona EPA Terror attack: Paramedics treat the injured in Barcelona AP An injured person is carried in Barcelona, Spain, AP Police direct crowds on Las Ramblas AP Paramedics treat victims injured when a van ploughed into pedestrians in Barcelona EPA Onlookers flee the scene of the terror rampage in Barcelona EPA Police officers cordon off a street in Barcelona, Spain after a van mowed down pedestrians in a terror attack AP Police officers cordon off a street in Barcelona, Spain after a van mowed down pedestrians in a terror attack AP A person is stretched out of a mall by medical staff members in a cordoned off area near Las Ramblas AFP/Getty Images

Police said they believed a 12-man terror cell had planned and carried out the attacks.

Eight are dead, while four appeared in court in Madrid last week. An investigation into the cells possible international links is ongoing.

Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks.
F or most JK Rowling is more synonymous with magic than mystery, but it's worth pointing out that the Cormoran Strike novels earned critical acclaim before it was discovered just who Robert Galbraith was.

Now the author and the BBC are hoping the winning PI protagonist will work just as well on screen as he did on the page.

Here's everything you need to know about the new show.

1. Its based on JK Rowlings Cormoran Strike novels

When youre a beloved childrens author-cum-national-treasure whos responsible for a cultural phenomenon that has millions of readers young and old around the world still hoping their Hogwarts letter is the post, its not easy to keep a low-profile.

World at her feet: JK Rowling at the Leicester Square premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them / Dave Benett

So when JK Rowling decided to turn her hand to crime novels she forwent the fanfare, and opted to use the pseudonym Robert Galbraith instead.

She got away with it for a while but thanks to a chatty lawyer and their social media savvy friend her secret didnt stay one for long.

But in JK Rowlings case loose lips dont sink ships so much as spark bestsellers and TV adaptations.

2. Its filmed in London, Kent and Cumbria

The upcoming series takes destinations as poles apart as Kensington and Cumbria in its stride.

Londoners will recognise several of the filming locations which include the Tottenham Pub on Oxford Street and Soho's Denmark Street where Strike's offices are based.

Strike - The Cuckoos Calling Trailer - BBC One

Theres also field trips to Kent's picturesque Penshurst Place and the Crow's Nest pub in the rather grittier Barrow-in-Furness.

3. It follows the adventures of an injured Iraq war veteran turned private investigator

Strike is wounded physically and psychologically - he bears mental scars from his time as a soldier and is missing the lower third of his leg.

But that's the least of it, his mother was murdered and he unsurprisingly had a troubled childhood.

This translates into a doggedly brilliant detective with an understandably less sparkling personal life. In series one he's investigating the death of a supermodel, whose brother isn't convinced she committed suicide.

BBC/Bronte Film & TV Ltd/Steffan Hill

4. It stars Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger

Still a relatively unknown British actor, Burke starred in another recent BBC series, its 2016 adaptation of War and Peace.

In that production he was the dastardly Dolokhov and by all accounts brings a touch of that roguish flair to his turn as Cormoran Strike.

Meanwhile Holliday Grainger plays his assistant/love interest who's desperate to be taken seriously as a detective.

Before long her skills are speaking for themselves and even impressing Strike, not that he's all that willing to admit it.

World's favourite BBC TV characters - In pictures 1 /13 World's favourite BBC TV characters - In pictures #1 - Sherlock played by Benedict Cumberbatch Robert Viglasky/BBC #2 - Doctor Who played by Peter Capaldi Guy Levy/BBC #3 - Luther played by Idris Elba BBC #4 - Basil Fawlty played by John Cleese (right) BBC #5 - The Stig played by ??? BBC #6 - Patsy Stone played by Joanna Lumley BBC #7 - Edmund Blackadder played by Rowan Atkinson (right) #8 - Hyacinth Bucket played by Patricia Routledge (left) BBC #9 - Geraldine, aka the Vicar of Dibley played by Dawn French BBC #10 - The Daleks BBC

5. Its going head to head with ITVs royal drama Victoria

Though the BBC criticised Channel 4 for its 'cynical' scheduling of the Great British Bake Off which clashed with its own The Big Family Cooking Showdown, the broadcaster has opted to face off against Mammoth Picture's other period drama behemoth, Victoria in a 9pm Sunday slot.

The BBC usually bests ITV in ratings battles but many would agree that nothing makes for cosier Sunday night viewing than a lavish but warm-hearted royal affair.

So the proof of the pudding will be in the viewing.

Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling begins on Sunday, August 27 at 9.05pm on BBC One.
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 09:19:32|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Seven years ago when Nepal implemented its 12th Periodic Plan, the Himalayan country announced a target of boosting its exports to 1 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the three-year plan in 2013.

However, Nepal failed to meet its export target with exports reaching just 748 million U.S. dollars in the final year of the 12th plan, according to Nepal's central bank data.

The Nepali government, following this, set the same target of 1 billion U.S. dollars for the 13th plan ending 2016.

Instead of a rise in exports, however, Nepal saw a downturn to 681 million U.S. dollars in the final year of the 13th periodic plan.

With the first year of the 14th plan concluding in mid-July this year, Nepal's exports increased slightly to 710 million U.S. dollars, according to the central bank. Nepal imported goods worth 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in the last fiscal year, the share of exports in total trade stands at just 7 percent.

The Nepali government officials and trade experts have said Nepal's small export basket, lack of production and productivity growth due to the rising outmigration of its youth population, poor transport and other infrastructure necessary to deliver goods in time internationally, are factors contributing to the failures of the plans to boost exports.

"We are not in position to boost exports even if we receive orders for large quantities of goods because we are lacking in large industries capable of fulfilling the demands," Rabi Shankar Sainju, joint secretary of Nepal's Commerce Ministry, told Xinhua recently, adding, "We have also failed to diversify our products as per the demands of the international market."

By comparison, the United States last year granted duty free access for 66 types of Nepali garment and carpet products for 10 years, but most of them are not familiar to mainstream garment manufacturers here.

"Our garment manufacturers have not shown an ability to diversify their goods as per the U.S. market yet," said Sainju. Readymade garments are one of the key export products of Nepal.

China has also been providing duty free access to Nepal for more than 8,000 goods but Nepali exporters have been unable to tap into these opportunities.

Nepali exporters say that they have to face various challenges, particularly related to quality standards in international markets.

Nepal's largest export market is India and most of the goods are primary agricultural products. However, exporters say it is not easy to export agricultural goods due to quality related concerns.

According to experts, large scale outmigration by Nepal's young population has also detrimentally affected industries and hit the export sector particularly hard.

"Until a few years ago, Nepali export industries were facing a militant labor force that held frequent strikes. More recently, labor relations have improved. But there is a labor shortage which has impacted the nation's ability to produce enough goods to meet demands," Purusottam Ojha, a trade expert, told Xinhua.

Ojha, who is also the former commerce secretary of the Nepali government, said the government has focused on promoting foreign employment which has increased the vulnerability of Nepal's economy.

"Nepal's economy may be vulnerable to incidents such as the diplomatic stand-off between Qatar and Saudi Arabia-led Gulf nations from where a large chunk of remittance comes into Nepal," said Ojha.

Experts also say there is a need for the right mix of exports and remittance for the improving health of Nepal's economy.

Nepal has taken some policy initiatives in this direction, such as providing export incentives to exporters and providing many inducements industries to be established inside Special Economic Zones (SEZs) through the SEZ Act and Industrial Enterprises Act.

The country has also made arrangements to provide loans at cheaper rates.

"But the policies are not being implemented properly," said Sainju.
China is apparently testing another update for its H-6K long range bomber. A cell phone photo recently appeared showing an H-6K with an aerial refueling probe. This really doesnt make much sense because extending the range of the H-6K as it was designed to carry long range missiles (land attack and anti-ship). Extending H-6K range so it can reach targets in Hawaii or the American west coast doesnt make much since as the risks of being detected and shot down along the way are too high.

There are, however, some practical uses of an H-6K that can refuel in the air. The most likely use of aerial refueling is to enable the H-6K to carry multiple ASAT (anti-satellite) missiles or one air launched satellite launcher. In both cases the H-6K could increase its payload by carrying much less fuel for takeoff and then when airborne take on enough fuel to fuel to complete the mission. That would involve flying high rather than far. This sort of thing has been done before and Chinese engineers are familiar with the details.

The U.S. has already developed and tested both ASAT missiles (ASM-135) and air launched satellite launcher rockets (the Pegasus). Back in the 1980s, the U.S. Air Force developed the ASM-135 for knocking down low orbit satellites by using a 1.2 ton missile launched from a high flying jet fighter. This was done in response to news that Russia was developing a similar system. The Russian system relied on killsats and was never that effective. A successful test of ASM-135 was conducted in 1985, but the program was shut down three years later because the air force preferred to spend the money elsewhere.

A little later, in the 1990s, a civilian firm (Orbital ATK) developed, tested and built Pegasus air-launched (from a B-52 or modified large airliner) three stage solid fuel rockets for putting small (up to half a ton) satellites into LEO (low earth orbit). The first version of Pegasus weighed 19 tons and the latest one 23 tons. So far (1990 to 2016) Pegasus has been launched 43 times and failed only 7 percent of the time. Most of the failed launches were early development models. In other words, Pegasus is still in use and the air force has admitted that the ASM-135 could resume production and be even more reliable, effective and cheaper because advances in missile and guidance tech since the 1980s.

China is not saying what its H-6K equipped with aerial refueling is going to do. In any event the H-6K in general appears to be largely a development project. Thats because since 2011 only about twenty H-6Ks have entered service and Chinese officials have said they want to develop a modern heavy bomber but that takes time and tinkering with the H-6 has always been seen as preferable to making a major investment in a new aircraft design.

The H-6K is the latest version of Chinas largest and most capable long range bomber and is basically a much improved and modernized version of a 1950s Russian design. The K model has a modern (glass) cockpit that consists largely of five flat screen touch displays rather than the older array of many switches and small analog indicators. These pictures also showed that the H-6K had a new side entry door that could use a stair or a ladder.

The H-6K entered service in 2011 after several years of development. The H-6K uses more efficient Russian engines (D30KP2) that give it a range of about 3,500 kilometers without aerial refueling. Electronics are state-of-the-art and include a more powerful radar. The fuselage of the bomber has been reinforced with lighter, stronger, composite materials giving it longer range and greater carrying capacity. The rear facing 23mm autocannon has been replaced with electronic warfare equipment. The current H-6K can carry six of the two-ton CJ-10A land-attack cruise missiles under its wings and one more in the bomb bay. These appear to have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, as they are similar to the older Russian Kh-55 (which could be armed with a nuclear warhead). The CJ-10A is sometimes described as a high-speed (2,500 kilometers an hour), solid fuel missile. But that type of missile is a short range (about 300 kilometers) anti-ship system. The CJ-10A appears to be more of a copy of the American Tomahawk (which uses a much slower jet engine). The CJ-10A can carry a nuclear warhead but usually does not. Armed with CJ-10A the H6K can attack American bases on Okinawa and Guam using air-launched cruise missiles. The H-6K can also carry up to eight anti-ship missiles, making it a threat to American carriers.

This became obvious in late 2015 when Chinese media made much of a training exercise over the South China Sea featuring H-6Ks. In that November exercise eight H-6Ks were seen more than a thousand kilometers out to sea and accompanied by electronic warfare aircraft. Four of the H-6Ks flew close to Okinawa and were photographed by Japanese aircraft. This was apparently an effort to demonstrate the Chinese capability to hit targets far from the Chinese mainland, especially American bases in Okinawa and Guam. This was but the latest effort to publicize the H-6K. Earlier China media heavily covered senior officials visiting airbases where the H-6K was shown off with journalists allowed to take close up photos of the aircraft, including the cockpit. Apparently that publicity did not do the trick so the November flights were used for emphasis.

There are about a hundred H-6s in service (out of about 200 built). These are Chinese copies of the Russian Tu-16s (about 1,500 built). Although the Tu-16 design is over fifty years old, China has continued to rely on their H-6s as one of their principal bombers. The H-6 is a 78 ton aircraft with a crew of four and two engines. Most models can carry nine tons of bombs and missiles, with the new H-6K able to haul about 12 tons. Most H-6s carry the CJ-10A and C201 missiles, as well as bombs. It does not appear that China is building a lot of H-6Ks, perhaps no more than thirty. The Russians kept their Tu-16s in service until the early 1990s, but China kept improving their H-6 copy. Thus the H-6K is a capable heavy bomber that may be around for another decade or two.
If Ivan Alexander goes back to school next month, the bell will ring summoning him to class. But the schoolyard will be silent, deserted.

Therell be no kids at play, no laughter, no chatter. Mr Blows, the no-nonsense schoolmaster wont be at the blackboard. Therell be no addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And Ohauiti Primary School itself will have gone.

There will be only ghosts, memories and stories.

Ivans now 89. At present or coming up. He remembers Mr Blows well. And painfully.

Eric Blows was a disciplinarian  liked the strap. And Ivan experienced Blows displeasure firsthand. Yes, I was doing a bit of cheating  I had a problem that I couldnt get my head around. So Ivan copped it fair.

Alexander Ivan Edward, as he would have appeared in the Ohauiti Primary School roll, born in 1928, started at the single class primary school in 1933, and left when he was 14. He just might be there for the school centenary on Sunday, September 3  a celebration for a school that doesnt exist any more.

There are a dozen former pupils still alive, all probably in their 80s says reunion organiser Sue Frieswyk. But descendants of pupils are coming out of the woodwork.

Itll be a small affair  20-30 people. Not huge, says Sue. Theyll gather at the Ohauiti Settlers Hall on Sunday morning, visit the site of the old school house up the road, ring a school bell and plant a tree.

You know, theres probably never been a reunion, reflects Sue. Its almost too late but not too late.

Ohauiti Primary School closed in 1945 and all the kids trundled off seven kilometres down the hill to Tauranga Primary. And the school building itself was carted down the road and integrated into the Ohauiti Settlers Hall. Its providing sustenance of a different kind now  its the supper room. Thats where the reunion lunch will be held  the supper room, the old schoolhouse, where all this started.

You can still make out the schools entranceway in the wood pattern on the hall floor. School kids trundled back and forth to class over that very timber 100 years ago.

Ivan Alexander also remembers a Miss Stansell. She lived in Tauranga and every day she would ride the potholed, metal road to the schoolhouse on an old Indian motorcycle. That must have impressed a boy.

And what was she like? Well, we were just kids, we did as we were told, we behaved ourselves and that was about it.

Ohauiti Primary School obviously has a history, but not a written history. We do know that it cost 236 pounds, two shillings and five pence and it was over budget. The specs also said it was to be built of kauri and totara, or whatever the most conveniently-obtained timbers were available. And it was painted with three coats of Hubbucks  the best quality white lead paint and raw linseed oil. OSH wasnt even a twinkle in our eyes in those days.

Probably the same reason teachers leaving Ohauiti Primary were gifted smokers accessories  pipes and lighters and the like. In 1929 when a Mr RJ Schischka left for Kaitaia he got a silver cigarette case but a more appropriate fountain pen from the kids.

There was another teacher, Miss McCorkindale, at Ohauiti Primary. She would have all the kids singing Waltzing Matilda first thing. Was she an Aussie? asked one former pupil, Margaret E Morton QSM.

Former Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward, who was an Aussie, dropped by the school in 1923. Blamed his lateness on the state of the roads and blathered on for an hour.

While riding home from school, Jack Webster was thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious for a day. Saddles werent commonplace those days.

Yet another teacher, Sandy Sandlant, drove to the schoolhouse from Matua each day. He would bring a crate of milk, decant it into a large pot, heat it on the potbelly and make cocoa for everyone.

Molly Bloor, another pupil, remembers an Anglican deaconess, Miss Burley, in a grey belted frock and black hat who would ride to the school in an elegant gig to give the kids religious instruction.

Outside, a landowner was having problems working a stock dog. It was told in no uncertain terms it had no pedigree. Miss Burley did her best to ignore the air pollution but I have always remembered her dignity when the odds were against her.

Ohauiti Primary School is defunct, closed its doors in 1945. But the stories live on. And many more will be spun at the school centenary on Sunday, September 3.

Meanwhile, up the road at the old schoolhouse site, a home is being constructed. A family is moving in and once again the schoolyard will sound to kids at play.

For more information or to join the reunion phone 07 544 2212 or email delaney@kinect.co.nz
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 09:29:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

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HAVANA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The first group of 200 former guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) arrived Saturday to study medicine in Cuba part of a Cuban government scholarship program in contribution to the peace process in that South American nation.

At Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, the young beneficiaries of these scholarships were received by Cuba's foreign ministry and health ministry, among others.

"Medicine in Cuba is one of the best in Latin America and for us it's a great achievement to be here and study medicine," Colombian young man Juan Quijano told Xinhua.

Being a family member of a former FARC guerrilla, Quijano was given the opportunity to come to Cuba for a study of six years so as to become a doctor.

"We are very grateful of Cuba that gave us this opportunity to be future doctors and to be able to help our Colombian people," he added.

Meanwhile, Laura Herrera, a relative of a disarmed guerrilla, added that the scholarship from the Cuban government is a "dream come true".

"Cuba is the cradle of Latin American solidarity and its medicine one of the best in the world, we are going to be doctors of conscience and science," said the young woman.

Former guerrilla Vilmar Asprilla came with his comrades from Bogota for a long but necessary process for the peace of his country.h "As a member of the FARC guerrilla, I believe that it is an important contribution from Cuba to the peace process and we hope to become doctors in the next six years to contribute to our society," said the former rebel.

Asprilla said that thanks to Cuba's offer of these 1,000 scholarships, young people who previously had no future in Colombia will be able to get a university degree.

"We are the first group and coming to study in Cuba is a great honor for us. We always admire Cuban medicine," he said.

The beneficiaries will begin their study at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in September.

ELAM director, Antonio Lopez, said the young Colombians will study the same medical curriculum as other students from different nations who study in the Caribbean island.

"We assume a great responsibility as a school because these people come from a different social system and were involved in an armed conflict for a long time. It is a matter of principle for us to train them as good doctors," he said.

The Cuban government announced the 1,000 medical scholarships for FARC members and victims of the Colombian armed conflict.

The scholarships, divided into 200 annually in 5 years, represent Cuba's contribution to the implementation process of the Colombian peace agreements signed in Havana last year.

Cuba hosted peace talks between the guerrilla and the Colombian government over more than four years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 10:09:51|Editor: Zhou Xin

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YANGON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's National Human Rights Commission has condemned Friday's deadly terrorist attacks on the security forces.

A statement from the commission released on late Saturday described the attacks as brutal acts which adversely affects the efforts of the government on stabilization and reconciliation in Rakhine state.

Terrorist attacks escalated in northern Rakhine state with six more civilians being killed in a new wave of ambushes by extreme terrorists on Saturday.

The escalation of the attacks has prompted the military to sweep against the terrorists.

Myanmar authorities on Friday declared the armed attackers and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) as extremist terrorist groups who have claimed the responsibility for Friday's attacks.

Timed to coincide with the release of the final report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, extremist terrorists launched renewed attacks on 30 police outposts in the state in the early hours on Friday, killing 12 security personnel and one immigration officer and leaving 77 terrorists dead with two captured alive so far.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 10:19:54|Editor: Yang Yi

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MACAO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Macao will face another typhoon and many airlines from and to Macao have been canceled, the special administrative region's multiple government departments said on Sunday.

The Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau has hoisted Signal No. 8 at 6:00 local time (GMT 2200). It said Typhoon "Pakhar" (1714) is located about 40 km southwest of Macao at 9:00 local time and moves toward the Pearl River Delta.

Macao International Airport said among the airlines taking off from Macao, 23 have been canceled and five delayed. For those heading for Macao, 21 have been canceled and seven delayed.

Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region Chui Sai On held a emergency meeting at the Macao Civil Emergency Response Center with major government departments representatives to discuss preventive measures against potential damages.

Typhoon Hato ravaged Macao days ago, leaving nine people dead and over 200 others injured.
Emily Harding loves the reaction she gets from first-time visitors to her Leslieville loft at iZone.

Walking to her suite, the concrete halls of the former munitions factory and Coca-Cola bottling plant are windowless and grey. Step past Hardings front door and her 2,300-square-foot, light-filled abode is a surprise of soaring, wood-lined ceilings, soft white walls, exposed beams and red brick. A sculptural staircase leads to the mezzanine, where Hardings bedroom is tucked to the side, and to the rooftop terrace.

When you walk in, there is a Wow factor, she says.

A life-sized replica of a woolly, white sheep standing on the floor catches the eye  and is actually a chair. An Andy Warhol Campbells Soup painting is among the artworks on the walls. The sheep, the paintings and most of the furniture  including modern tables by Stacklab  are for sale.

The loft is Hardings home, but also where she and business partner Jeff Dinan operate the Emily HardingGallery of contemporary Canadian, American, and European artists, and Palette, a company that combines art and fine food in curated dining events.

Harding, 32, studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and at Parsons School of Design, in New York, then earned a Certificate of Art Business at Christies Education in London. Dinan has an extensive background in the food and hospitality industry. On weekdays, he walks 10 minutes from his nearby home to Hardings loft where they huddle over laptops at the kitchen island.

The gallery is open by appointment only and Harding and Dinan also host private dinner parties in the space, like the one they held earlier this year for Porsche as a NXNE Music Festival event with renowned Ottawa chef Marc Lepine, owner of Atelier restaurant, creating the dishes. Dining tables were set up on the main level, the bar was up on the mezzanine and guests took their cocktails to the rooftop terrace to enjoy the city views.

Harding grew up in Toronto and has lived in New York City, London and Berlin. Her current Toronto home was inspired by artists she worked with in Berlin who had turned former industrial units into live-work lofts. After considering houses, apartments and condos here, she turned to Atria Development Corp.s iZone Live-Work Lofts, residences the firm first began developing a decade ago.

She bought the loft unfinished and worked with architect Ali Kafaei, of A & Architects Inc.A & Architects Inc., to make it her own. I didnt want it to look like a typical condo. I wanted to choose the materials, finishes and colours and to configure it to my needs. It was a tough but rewarding process.

Harding says the large, storeys-high space was perfect for a gallery  there are no windows, so artwork wont suffer sunlight damage, yet an abundance of natural light comes in from skylights.

Some of her paintings are sourced from contacts in Europe and New York; some come from owners who are downsizing and no longer have space for large artworks. She also hopes to help raise the profile of Canadian artists through her own gallery and through her international connections.

The loft is also large enough to stage events. The sleek white-and-wood kitchen, equipped with two ovens and two dishwashers, cost $200,000. Harding says she would not have spent that much had it been her own personal kitchen, but was necessary to accommodate high-profile chefs and to create gourmet meals on-site.

I hadnt lived in Toronto for a long time and Id never been to Leslieville, says Harding, who moved into the loft this past spring. But I could see how it was transforming and I liked the proximity of restaurants, bars and shops, and the sense of community.

Shes found a lively, collaborative, creative spirit within iZone, since many residents are involved in the arts and related industries. And then there are non-work-related get-togethers, such as ping-pong nights with neighbours.

After living in tiny apartments in other international cities, she says it took awhile to get used to the expansiveness of her loft  but she enjoys it. What she appreciates even more is the freedom to get up and walk down one flight of stairs to her job, a world away from her years in London commuting an hour and 15 minutes each direction in a crowded subway car.

I am happy hanging out here, she says.

WHY WORKING AT HOME WORKS FOR HER: It suits my personality. I like not having not have a 9-to-5 structure and Im happy to work until 11 p.m. if I need to.

WHY IT DOESNT WORK: The biggest challenge is staying motivated.

HOW SHE COMBATS CABIN FEVER: A neighbour calls every day and we go for coffee at the cafe on the corner. Or I go up to the rooftop terrace for a break. Having Jeff working here helps and we act as each others bosses.

HOW SHE SEPARATES WORK FROM HOME: We work Monday to Friday and keep regular hours, so during those hours, we treat it like an office. When those hours end, the work day is over. However, there are some days when we do work 12 to 14 hours.

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Calgary Pride organizers say a meeting with police and other officials was productive but never was intended to reverse a decision to bar officers from marching in their uniforms in this years parade.

The organization issued a statement Friday saying the aim of the meeting was to develop a better understanding of the issues raised by members of the LGBTQ-plus community about how police work with them.

The statement says the meeting, which was convened by the mayors office, included representatives from Calgary Pride, the police commission, Chief Roger Chaffin, and the chiefs gender and sexually diverse advisory committee.

Read more: Toronto police welcome at Pride celebrations, but not in uniform

It says the participants committed to work together over the next year to address the issues.

Calgary Pride said last month that it encourages police to take part in the Sept. 3 parade, as long as its without uniforms, firearms, vehicles or institutional representation, such as floats.

Chaffin expressed disappointment at the time, but said in Fridays statement that he wants Calgary to be a place where all people feel safe, especially when it comes to interacting with police.

We look forward to ongoing conversations with those in Calgarys LGBTQ-plus community that have concerns so we can find ways to improve our relationship and address their concerns, Chaffin said in the statement.

In January, Pride Toronto organizers agreed to a list of demands from the citys chapter of Black Lives Matter, including a ban on uniformed officers and police floats in the parade.

Pride Winnipeg invited police to march in its parade in June, but without cruisers or uniforms. Halifax police opted out of Julys Pride parade, citing the national debate on the topic.

In St. Johns, N.L., the Pride committee reversed course and invited uniformed police officers to march in the citys parade, which was also in July.

Im pleased that weve had the opportunity to continue discussions focused on creating impactful and inclusive solutions to positively enhance the relationship with all members of Calgarys gender and sexually diverse community, said Jason Kingsley, president of Calgary Pride, in the release.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in the statement hes pleased both Pride and police are committed to building a relationship.

These conversations are not always easy, but they are incredibly important, Nenshi said.

Kingsley also said Friday that conservative provincial politicians can attend the parade as spectators.

Jason Kenney, a United Conservative Party leadership contender and former federal cabinet minister, initially said he would not be going because he was not invited.

Kingsley said the only politician to get a formal invitation to its upcoming parade is Premier Rachel Notley.

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OTTAWAOn the eve of the only French debate of the NDP leadership race, contender Jagmeet Singh criticized two of his opponents for their statements on a contentious Quebec law that would ban face coverings, such as the niqab worn by Muslim women, for people who are giving or receiving public services.

Singh told the Star that he unequivocally opposes Quebecs Bill 62, and predicted that, if passed, it would be found to contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as Quebecs own human rights law.

He went on to call out two of his leadership opponents  Quebec MP Guy Caron and Manitobas Niki Ashton  for their positions on the matter, which he said amount to an inconsistent understanding of human rights.

Caron, the only Quebecer in the contest, released a Quebec 2019 policy platform this week. It included a pledge to respect the Quebec legislatures authority to pass laws on secularism, and said there is a consensus emerging from both left- and right-wing parties in the province over legislation that would impose some limits on religious clothing.

Carons platform also made clear that he personally believes government has no place dictating what people are allowed to wear.

Ashton, an MP from Manitoba, initially appeared to agree with Caron. In a statement this week to the Huffington Post, she said, There is a consensus emerging in Quebec on secularism, and that the Canadian government should respect the will of Quebecers on this matter.

She subsequently told the Star she disagrees with Carons position, but would hold judgment on the Quebec legislation until something is passed in the National Assembly. She emphasized that no government should dictate what people can wear, calling it a line in the sand that shouldnt be crossed.

Singh dismissed the position of each candidate.

To me, it doesnt sound like a consistent position. It doesnt seem like theyve thought this through and provided a consistency, or a consistent respect for human rights, he said.

Human rights shouldnt be a matter of popularity, he added. (Rights are) not supposed to be subject to the whims of the majority.

The fourth candidate in the race, Charlie Angus, this week said he doesnt trust politicians to legislate how women dress. I also know that any legislation at the provincial or federal level has to be charter compliant and thats the way it should be, Angus said.

The debate over secularism and the appropriateness of religious symbols in public institutions has burbled through Quebec politics for years. Recent examples include a controversial proposition from the Parti Quebecois during the 2014 election for a charter of Quebec values to legally enshrine a version of secularism in the province.

The leadership candidates vying for Thomas Mulcairs position as party leader have all remarked on Quebecs distinctness from the rest of Canada. As Carons platform for the province pointed out, Quebecs historical experience  the Catholic Church was closely linked with government and provided social services like education until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s  has led to a particular debate on the separation of state and religion in the province.

Speaking with the Star on Saturday, Singh acknowledged the provinces unique experience in this regard, but added that Quebec society isnt solely preoccupied with the question of secularism.

Its a nation that has a very clear commitment to social justice, he said, alluding to social policies in the province, such as universal child care, which many have said indicate a more left-leaning political bent.

Theres more to Quebec than just this one issue.

The place of religious clothing like niqabs and burkas also came up during the 2015 federal election, in which a ban on niqabs and burkas for people taken citizenship oaths was hotly debated.

In the months since, many NDP insiders blamed Mulcairs strong stance against the proposed niqab ban for their plummeting numbers in Quebec. The party went on to lose most of the seats it gained during the breakthrough Orange Wave election in 2011, when Jack Layton led the NDP to unprecedented success in the majority-francophone province.

The election also played out against the context of an increasingly visible Syrian refugee crisis  a chilling photograph of a dead toddler face down on a beach dominated the news  and featured an announcement from the Conservative party for a barbaric cultural practices snitch line.

If Singh were to win the NDP leadership race  he raised more money than all three opponents combined during the second quarter of the year, but has also lagged in polls of NDP members  he would become the first person of colour to lead a federal political party.

He said Canadians must show solidarity with Muslim Canadians who may feel targeted by legislation on religious clothing.

We need to oppose Islamophobia, he said. Hate is on the rise and we need to make a clear statement in opposition to that.

Sundays NDP leadership debate begins at 2 p.m.

Party members begin voting for a new leader Sept. 17.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 12:25:20|Editor: ZD

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Facebook was briefly down earlier Saturday for many users worldwide, with thousands of people reported log-in errors and problems posting and sharing on the social media platform.

The problem occurred at around 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) Saturday and lasted for a couple of hours before appearing to be resolved for many users, according to Down Detector, a site that tracks real-time outages and other online issues.

At its peak, the website received more than 3,400 reports of outages, according to Down Detector.

More than 40 percent of the users who experienced the technical glitch said they cannot log in their Facebook account, while some other 40-percent reported total blackout, and a few said they had problem loading pictures, according to Down Detector.

Facebook users also complained that they experienced the issue on both the mobile and web versions.

Facebook acknowledged the outage in a statement sent to media.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Facebook services. We quickly investigated and are currently restoring service for everyone. We're sorry for any inconvenience," a Facebook spokesperson noted.

The cause of the technical issue remains unknown.

Some users of picture-sharing app Instagram, owned by Facebook, also reported similar problems.

As an alternative, some people took to Twitter to share their experience, making #facebookdown and #instagramdown trending topics on Twitter.

However, the outages didn't seem to affect many people, and a majority number of them even said they enjoy a social-media-free weekend, according to Twitter polls conducted by Xinhua on Sunday morning.

By the time the story was released, more than a thousand Twitter users participated in Xinhua's polls.

Despite the Facebook outage, 38 percent of 501 participants said they enjoy the time offline, while roughly the same number said they feel just fine to have a social-media-free weekend.

Only 13 percent said they felt "a little uneasy" for not being able to use social media at weekends, and the same amount noted they were in "agony."

In a separate poll, 66 percent of more than 550 participants said they would spend a social-media-free weekend with friends and family or simply enjoy being alone.

"Because Instagram and Facebook are down, I actually talked to my family. They seem like really nice people," said Dev Mittal in a personal tweet in response to the outages.
CORNWALL, ONT.Their lives changed in an instant that July day when the government letter arrived telling them that her work permit was not being renewed.

For five years, Sheila Francois lived, worked and paid her taxes in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to help support her three teenage children. When she and husband, Frank, read that letter  no renewal and no explanation  they knew their life in the United States was over.

If you have status and you see that immigration stops it, right away you think one thing  deportations, says 44-year-old Frank Francois.

The minute we saw that happen and as we are watching the news, we saw Canada taking people, we said, we might as well take a chance.

The Francois family are among nearly 7,000 asylum seekers  most of them Haitian  who have flooded across the Quebec-New York state border since mid-July when the Trump administration announced it might end their temporary protected status, which was granted following Haitis massive 2010 earthquake. They are among the first few hundred the government has relocated to this eastern Ontario processing centre.

Read more:

Dedicated immigration team formed amid stream of asylum seekers crossing Quebec border

For hundreds fleeing Trump, this dead end at Roxham Rd. has become the gateway to Canada

Few here have heard of Justin Trudeau and no one says they saw his now-controversial January Twitter message welcoming immigrants facing persecution. The tweet was heavily criticized by the Conservative opposition for sparking the American exodus.

But many here say they uprooted their new American lives because of something more primal: they were driven by fear of the anti-immigration politics of President Donald Trump.

I decided to come to Canada because the politics of migration in the United States changed, says Haitian-born Justin Remy Napoleon, 39. I was scared. I came here to continue my life.

Like Frank Francois, Napoleon says he feared deportation over Trumps policy shift, so he left his adopted home in San Diego, flew to the eastern seaboard and boarded a bus for the northern border. It wasnt the first time he decided to start over in another country. He left Haiti in 2006 for the Dominican Republic and then went to Brazil.

Napoleon says he dreamed of coming to Canada from as far back as his time in Haiti. When he crossed the border earlier this month, I thought I was entering a paradise.

Jean-Pierre Kidmage, 43, took a three-day bus ride from Miami to New York before taking a taxi across the border. He says he doesnt know much about Canada but hes heard good things. He hit the road because he was worried the Trump administration would deport him.

Hes been here less than two weeks, but he wants to stay. I sleep well here. Better here than in the U.S.

Lingering unease is palpable outside Cornwalls Nav Centre, where they are being temporarily housed. Young men and women, some with children, pace the grounds, their eyes trained on mobile phones. More than a dozen adults politely decline interviews.

Some await taxis to take them into town to shop. A few roll suitcases towards a handful of cars and minivans bearing Quebec licence plates that periodically arrive during the day. The new arrivals here are free to go once they have registered their claims, and officials say most are headed to Montreal.

Now, more than a month and 2,550 kilometres after leaving his most recent home, Frank Francois sits on a bench in warm sunshine. He wont be photographed, but hes happy to discuss what has been a life of epic migration. It has been a life of running  from his native Haiti in 1997 to the Bahamas and from America to Canada.

He grew up on a farm in Port-de-Paix, the oldest of three brothers and four sisters. He yearned to become a doctor after high school, but there was no way his family could afford the $13,000 in tuition, so he got a visa to the Bahamas.

Soon, he began working construction jobs, sending some of his earnings home.

Once you make money to pay your bills, you can help the people that you left behind in Haiti.

He built his own family in the Bahamas. Thats where his three teenagers were born. His family spent a decade and a half there until more bad news arrived in the mail: the government informed him of a new law that called for the immediate expulsion of anyone who had been in the country as a visitor for more than 10 years.

Hard! Everywhere, he laughs.

His family re-established itself in Fort Lauderdale, near Miami, where Sheila had relatives. She went first with the three children, got visas, her work permit and set the kids up in school. Her husband got a visa and joined them in 2012.

He stayed after it expired and periodically found under-the-table work in construction, but it wasnt easy. Its hard when you dont have a legal status, to survive and work for your families.

The children went to school, made friends and the family got on with life in a rented apartment. Now, aged 13, 14 and 15, the Francois children have become extremely aware of the changing political climate in the U.S.

Every day, they say, Daddy, every time we watch the news we dont see any policy that the president (has) thats in our favour. They were afraid to face deportations.

Then, when their mothers rejection letter came, the kids weighed in again.

My children said, Daddy, we were born in the Bahamas  this is their words  we think Canada can help us.

They said, Daddy, lets go to Canada  find our way out.

Now, his familys fate rests on receiving one more piece of official government correspondence: a notice that they qualify to have their asylum claim heard. That would start a process that will allow his children to go to school and for him to get a work permit.

All I want Canadians to know about me is I am a working man, he says.

Im looking for work and Im looking for better education for my children. I want my children to be educated so they can help themselves. You understand?

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Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr returns to court this week to ask that his bail conditions be eased, including allowing him unfettered contact with his controversial older sister, more freedom to move around Canada and unrestricted internet access.

In support of his request, Khadr notes the conditions originally imposed two years ago were necessary as a graduated integration plan following his 13 years in American and Canadian custody. No issues have arisen since his release and the various restrictions have been revised several times  most recently in May last year, he says.

Currently, Khadr, 30, can only have contact with his sister Zaynab if one of his lawyers or bail supervisor is present. The condition is no longer necessary, he says.

I am now an adult and I think independently, he says in an affidavit. Even if the members of my family were to wish to influence my religious or other views, they would not be able to control or influence me in any negative manner.

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Zaynab Khadr, 37, who recently had a fourth child in Egypt, according to court filings obtained by The Canadian Press, was detained in Turkey a year ago for an expired visa. She and her fourth husband subsequently moved to Malaysia but are now said to be living in Sudan and planning to visit Canada.

I would like to be able to spend time with her and the rest of our family when she is here, Omar Khadr states. As far as I am aware, Zaynab is not involved in any criminal activities and is frequently in contact with the Canadian embassy in order to ensure that her paperwork is up to date.

Zaynab Khadr, who was born in Ottawa, was at one point unable to get a Canadian passport after frequently reporting hers lost. She was also subject to an RCMP investigation in 2005, but faced no charges. Her third husband, Canadian Joshua Boyle, is reportedly still a Taliban hostage along with his American wife and children in Afghanistan. In 2008, she went on a hunger strike on Parliament Hill to draw attention to her brothers plight as an American captive in Guantanamo Bay.

Several years ago, she and her mother infuriated many Canadians by expressing pro-al-Qaida views. Omar Khadr told The Canadian Press last month that he saw no point in decrying their views.

Im not excusing what they said. Im not justifying what they said, Khadr said. They were going through a hard time. They said things out of anger or frustration.

Khadr, who recently married, says a college in Red Deer, Alta., about a half-hour from where he spent time in maximum security after his return from Guantanamo Bay, has accepted him into its nursing program. He says he plans to leave his Edmonton apartment at the end of September and find new accommodation.

In another bail-variation request the court in Edmonton will consider on Thursday, Khadr asks for an end to a condition that he provide his supervisor notice about his travel plans within Alberta, and that he obtain permission to travel outside the province. Requiring him to remain in Canada would be sufficient, the documents state. He also wants restrictions on accessing computers or the internet lifted.

In May 2015, Alberta Court of Queens Bench Justice June Ross granted Khadr bail pending appeal of his conviction by a widely maligned U.S. military commission for five purported war crimes. The appeal in the States has stalled through circumstances outside his control and nothing has changed since his release, his filing says.

Khadr found himself at the centre of a fierce political firestorm amid word last month that the Canadian government, which apologized to him for breaching his rights, had paid him $10.5 million in compensation. He says he just wants to get on with his life.

I wish to become independent and to put my legal matters behind me, he says in his affidavit. I am a law-abiding citizen and I wish to live free of court-imposed conditions.

American soldiers captured a badly wounded Khadr, then 15 years old, in July 2002 following a fierce assault on a compound in Afghanistan in which a U.S. special forces soldier was killed. Khadr later said he pleaded guilty before the commission to throwing the deadly grenade as a way out of American detention. He returned to Canada in 2012 to serve out the rest of the eight-year sentence he was given.

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History is littered with lost civilizations: the Khmer empire that created Angkor Wat, the Mayans who left behind a magnificent step pyramid at Chichen Itza, the Nabataeans who carved breathtaking Petra out of solid sandstone, the mysterious inhabitants of Easter Island whose enormous enigmatic head monuments delight and puzzle.

To name just a few.

They abandoned their great cities and disappeared into the dust.

But they built things.

The Taliban have built nothing. Their claim to historical notoriety will be the wilful, pious destruction of precious shrines and statuary.

Their rabidly puritanical culture will collapse because it cannot stand in a world of modernity that has encroached even into the isolated crevices and defiles of Afghanistan. Cellphones and satellite dishes have brought the outside inside. Afghans understand what they do not have and what the Taliban aspire to take away. There is nowhere for forced ignorance to hide anymore.

This is the real long war the Taliban are destined to lose.

What they have in their favour, at this moment in time, is that Afghans, however much they may loathe the Taliban  overwhelmingly they do, even in the Pashtun south  they detest their endlessly corrupt and incompetent national government even more, a government that survives only with propping up by the West.

Oh, theyve indeed embraced bureaucracy  how Canadas then-Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, commanding officer, described the nation-building aspect of the mission to me in 2006  which is why hardly anything ever gets accomplished as ministry orders and security manifests pass through a multitude of hands, each generously greased, billions of dollars disappearing sideways. That too is Afghan culture, thieving, which is viewed as outwitting.

The vanishing money is a chronic and losing battle fought by donor nations.

The other long war  16 years and counting, a forever war that the sons and daughters of todays deployed solders may still be waging a generation from now  can yet go either way. We dont even have any idea what winning would look like, as the mission keeps changing from White House administration to administration.

President George Bush, contrary to pillars of Republicanism, talked about nation-building after the Taliban had been trounced. Thats what sold Canadas troop commitment (apart from special forces, in the unfussy business of killing) to the public; we were redeveloping, winning over hearts and minds. Except thats never a good fit for any military  theyre soldiers, not diplomats and not humanitarian aid providers.

But the profile played well to Canadians still in thrall to a Pearsonian peacekeeping ideal: useless when theres no peace for the blue berets to keep. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau embodies this anachronism.

It was Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said of Afghanistan in 2008, We cannot kill our way to victory. However seductive the proposition, thats never been the goal. Bombing the Taliban to the negotiation table has been the goal. With the insurgents  more hardcore militant than ever, merging with the Pakistan-based Haqqani network (the Taliban No. 2, head of military operations, hails from Haqqani)  making significant territorial gains, theres scarcely any reason to talk peace and reconciliation.

The Taliban have scuttled back to reclaim much of the territory vacated during the post 9/11 coalition military campaign. Crucially, however, they havent been able to get a toehold in Kabul. Or Herat. Or Mazar-e Sharif.

In broad strokes, the situation is nevertheless grim. Sangin, the strategic town in Helmand that a hundred British troops died trying to defend during the International Security Assistance Force era, fell to the Taliban in March. Vast swaths of Kandahar province, where 137 Canadian combat deaths were recorded, are now controlled by the insurgents.

According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, control or influence of the central government dropped to 65.6 per cent by May 1 from 70.5 per cent a year before. The Taliban controls, contests or influences 171 of 400 Afghan districts, mostly in rural areas and superficial in others. Theyve not been able to take and hold provincial capitals.

Thats the big picture and the Taliban take immense sustenance from it, as if their ascendancy is written in the stars. Because Afghanistan is where empires go to die. Except the Taliban are no more indomitable than invading empires, though they certainly are accommodating to vilified fanatical revolutionaries from Al Qaeda to, in its death throes, Daesh.

So this is what the Taliban  via spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid  had to say about President Donald Trumps oratorical doubling down last week on U.S. recommitment to the wars in Afghanistan:

Donald Trump is just wasting American soldiers. We know how to defend our country. It will not change anything. . . . For generations, we have fought this war. We are not scared. We will continue this war until our last breath. If the U.S. does not pull all its troops out of Afghanistan, we will make this country the 21st century graveyard for the American empire.

The usual rhetoric, conveniently leaving out the part where the Taliban were routed from Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

For now, Mujahid continued, I can tell you there was nothing new in his speech. It was very unclear.

On that point, at least, we are agreed.

The finest minds in the Pentagon have not been able to figure out how to take the Taliban off the board for keeps, in what has become Americas longest war, though it would indisputably involve some kind of political reconciliation for the insurgents and right now theyre hardline not-in-the-mood. Yet even a childs mind could grasp how foolishly  in his palpable reluctance  president Barack Obama waged the war during his two terms in the White House, even with his 2009 troop surge, virtually providing the Taliban with a timeline for troop reduction and eventual withdrawal.

In his speech last week, the otherwise incoherent and quite maddened Trump at least got this much right: Ive said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military operations. We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. Conditions on the ground  not arbitrary timetables  will guide our strategy from now on. Americas enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will.

The thing is, it does not appear that the generals or the president have a clue about their plans either, beyond the 3,900 troops that will be added to the U.S. existing military presence of 8,500 U.S. service members, about half involved in training and mentoring Afghan defence forces and the other gunning for terrorists.

Trump claimed the American objective in Afghanistan was not nation-building, which comes as jaw-dropping news, given the billions spent on aid to do precisely that.

I dont know what principled realism means. I dont know what our commitment is not unlimited means. I dont know what we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live or how to govern their own complex society means, unless women are to be driven back into their cloistered homes, away from education, and beaten with a stick, as the Taliban did when they ruled Kabul.

We are killing terrorists, Trump said.

Except kill a Taliban fighter and another will replace him, maybe five more.

We want (Afghanistan) to succeed but we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over.

Well, not in this Americas image, as she has presented herself over the past eight months or so.

It is indeed a vague strategy, albeit better left in the hands of the generals than this irrational president.

There is one solid bottom line: Eventually, even if decades from now, the U.S. will leave Afghanistan, hopefully better than they found it.

But the Taliban or its descendants and derivatives can wait out even that multi-generational war: They live there.

Its Afghans who will ultimately have to conquer Afghans.

Thats called civil war, which will draw in regional neighbours and non-regional (China, Russia) interests.

Deja vu all over again.

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What do you do if you are the U.S. president and one of your major cities is under water?

Well, youd want to start your day promoting a book by a Milwaukee county sheriff who has called Black Lives Matter a hate group, is a known racial profiler and, naturally, is a big Donald Trump supporter. The book foreword was written, of course, by your best bud forever in the media, Sean Hannity.

Then you would turn your attention to tropical storm Harvey, congratulating yourself on how you saved so many lives  a victory lap even as the water kept rising in Houston and area  but you wouldnt want to dwell on that, so you would move on to your 2016 electoral success in Missouri, take a shot at the crime rate in Mexico and again vow that it will somehow pay for a border wall, then move on to trade negotiations.

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?

Uh-oh. Trumps thumbs are now typing Canada on Sunday mornings.

Last week, in an infamous stream-of-consciousness meltdown in Phoenix, he said the same thing, telling supporters he would probably end up terminating the deal at some point, because we have been so badly taken advantage of.

One can get permanently lost down a rabbit hole trying to make sense of the various tweets and pronouncements from Trump, but the shout-out to Sheriff David Clarke, Trumps coming rally in Missouri, his ongoing fantasy about a Mexican-financed wall and his continued threats to tear up NAFTA actually do have a common thread.

They are all campaign preoccupations from a man who has never stopped campaigning and who never really became president.

The Trump tweet is the cyber-equivalent of the boss walking past the negotiating room banging on a frying pan with a hammer and squeezing an air horn.

But it is nothing more than that. This is no Art of the Deal. This is the Rant of the Attention-Seeker.

Its not about us. Its all about him.

Texans, at least those not scrambling atop their homes to save their lives, may want to be reminded that almost 50 per cent of their exports go to their top two trading partners, Mexico and Canada, and they import about 42 per cent of their goods from their NAFTA partners.

While youre trying to stay above rising floodwaters, its good to know your president is musing about ripping up a trade deal so vital to your state.

At least a couple of Canadian politicians couldnt help themselves Sunday.

The only thing that needs to be terminated is your presidency, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger wrote. Save yourself and your country. Resign and you will be popular everywhere.

NDP leadership candidate Charlie Angus was somewhat more poetic: A poor player struts/frets his hour on the stage and then is heard no more. A tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

He moderated his comments later in the day, pushing the government to keep its eye on the ball.

Thats what its doing.

Adam Austen, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, is becoming quite practised at tossing out the political equivalent of Xanax.

We will work with our partners at all levels in the United States to promote Canada-U.S. trade, which supports millions of jobs across the continent, he said.

As we have said before, trade negotiations often have moments of heated rhetoric. Our priorities remain the same, and we will continue to work hard to modernize NAFTA, supporting millions of middle-class jobs.

Even if Trump did, in a fit of pique, seek to terminate NAFTA, its not certain he could do it.

Congress, not Trump, is ultimately responsible for giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to any renegotiated deal. There is also legislation on the books that enshrines NAFTA and there could be enough pro-trade, had-enough-of-Trump Republicans to decide the 24-year-old legislation overrides any presidential attempt to kick the pact into the ditch.

All three countries have agreed to fast-track talks, but the first negotiating session has just ended and the second, in Mexico, doesnt begin until Friday.

They have to ignore the bully in the corridor banging on his campaign-era frying pan.

If youre Canadian and Trump thinks were being difficult, theres only one sane reaction: Good. And pack a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

Read more:

Trump tweets threat to pull out of NAFTA talks, calling Canada very difficult

Mexico to Trump: We dont negotiate on social media

Mexico a tough-minded amigo in NAFTA talks: Olive

Tim Harper writes on national affairs. Reach him at Tjharper77@gmail.com or on Twitter: @nutgraf1

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A reunion 72 years in the making took place last week at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum  and its all thanks to the Waterdown District High School Museum.

On Aug. 16 Tom van Roon and Ralph Berets met for the first time since 1945  when van Roons parents Johannes and Caterina van Roon hid the then-four-year-old Berets and his sister Marion in their home in German-occupied Holland.

The van Roons, who had seven children of their own, hid the young Jewish siblings in their Amersfoort home for about three weeks. The house had a secret trap door in a second floor closet, with a ladder to reach the homes rafters.

This spring, 17-year-old Waterdown student Matthew Lang needed a project for his Grade 11 history class, which runs the museum.

Lang had heard the story about his great-grandparents from his mother and set to work tracking down Berets in May. While they knew Ralph and his sister Marions first names, they had the wrong last name. After three weeks of searching, Lang got his grandfather involved and a call to his great-uncle put them on the right track.

Shortly after, Lang found himself calling Beretss number. Berets, now 77, lives in Arlington, Va. and was an English professor at the University of Missouri  Kansas City before retiring in 2002. His sister Marion, 80, lives in the Netherlands.

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The research led to last week, when van Roon was able to meet Berets in Washington, D.C.

Lang said when he started the project, he never expected to be able to set up a reunion.

Everybody is really happy with the outcome and getting to meet him was even better, he said, adding the reunion with Berets was documented by a local NBC affiliate at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Im really happy for my opa to get this experience.

Im really happy it turned out the way it did, because it started as just a school project and became a lot more than that.

Lang noted the final piece of the project is to get his great-grandparents recognized as Righteous Gentiles.

A program of the Israeli government, Righteous Gentiles is the phrase used for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Righteous Gentiles are honoured at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.

Lang noted the process involves having four witnesses pledge that his grandparents did harbour the Beretses.

We sent the paperwork in and were just waiting now, he said, adding just recently the family learned the application is being reviewed.

Van Roon, 79, said it was great to be able to meet Berets.

The Blind River, Ont., resident said when he found Beretss testimony online, it didnt mention his family by name, but noted they hid on the second floor, above an ice cream parlour.

That was my dads, he said. From then on the story just unfolded. Its just amazing.

Van Roon said it would be fantastic to have his parents recognized as Righteous Gentiles.

I still have two brothers left out of the six siblings I had and I think they would be really happy for our parents if that happened, he said.

Im really happy that I had the opportunity to meet Ralph and his wife, he said. He added now that he knows Marion lives in the Netherlands hell try to visit the next time hes in the country.

Its almost like an extended family now.

Lang noted while his great-grandparents werent looking for recognition for their actions, it would be nice to have. In fact, one of his mothers cousins even hired a private investigator to track Berets down, but they had the wrong name, so they came up empty.

I wasnt sure Id be able to do it, he said of tracking down Berets. Im just a high school kid. But I didnt give up on it.

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LONDONJabed Hussain said he was really lucky. The delivery driver was one of the latest victims in an alarming surge of acid attacks in Britain.

He was still trembling when he said, But they didnt get my face. They didnt ruin me.

Attacks by people throwing acid at their victims has tripled in the past three years in Britain, stoking fears that almost anyone can be the victim: from a moped rider to a city banker or politician.

The alarming rise comes amid a clampdown on weapons and fears of a frightening new crime fad involving teenage motorbike thieves using corrosive substances, in part because they are relatively easy to obtain.

Hussain, 30, was riding his three-wheel scooter, stopped at a traffic light in East London this month, when he felt what he thought was water, doused on him by a pair of faceless teenagers in wraparound helmets, mounted on a motorbike beside him.

Then I started to feel the burning, and I knew instantly what it was, Hussain said. Because this is what we are all fearing.

He ripped off his helmet and began clawing at his clothing. His assailants stole his bike and sped away, as Hussain begged passing motorists for help.

I must have looked like a mad man, Hussain said. Nobody would roll down their windows for me.

The United Kingdom is a safe country, but the spike in acid attacks is clearly unnerving: A possible assailant is anyone with bottle of bleach, ammonia or drain cleaner.

Because it is not like seeing a gun or a knife, said Rachel Kearton, assistant chief constable of the Suffolk Police, the National Police Chief Councils top investigator on corrosive attacks.

Because the intent is to maim and disfigure, Kearton said.

According to the London Metropolitan Police and regional police chiefs, there were more than 700 acid attacks last year, double the number in 2015.

Kearton said it appears likely that acid attack numbers will increase by another 50 per cent this year.

Police chiefs say there isnt a single motive behind the attacks, but acknowledge gangs and robberies seem to be playing a part. Some of the attackers are only teenagers. Of those whose ages are known, 21 per cent under the age of 18. The most common corrosive liquids are bleach, ammonia and acid.

According to leaders in Londons City Hall, many recent acid attacks are connected to violent and aggressive organized scooter theft. In a recent statement, they said this is particularly frightening for people who ride scooters in London.

Scooter drivers have staged a number of protests to highlight their concerns about being doused with acid in attempted bike robberies.

Police, victims and the gang members agree: There is just something terrifying about being splashed with acid.

Late last year, a London business executive named Gina Miller took the British government to court to decide if it could trigger Brexit, Britains withdrawal from the European Union, without parliamentary approval.

Since then, Miller said shes been living in fear someone will attack her.

I have been getting threats of having acid thrown in my face for months and months now. When I see someone walk toward me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out, she told Verdict magazine.

My life has completely changed, she said.

Ohid Ahmed, a councillor from Jabed Hussains East London neighbourhood, said although acid was certainly the latest weapon of choice for assailants, there was something deeper going on.

If you want to steal a moped, you can steal a moped, he said. The criminal can use a hammer, a knife or his fists, he said. But throwing acid is a hate crime, Ahmed said.

You are seeking to destroy your victim, he said.

Some places are taking extra precautions. This month, officials in some court buildings began asking anyone entering a court with a water bottle visitors, judges, lawyers  to take a sip test to prove their liquid isnt acid.

Britain is near the top, or the top of the pack globally, when it comes to reported attacks, said Jaf Shah, executive director of Acid Survivors Trust International, a London-based nonprofit. He said other countries, including India, probably have far more attacks, but they remain unreported.

The U.K. is unusual in that so many of the attacks are against men. In many other countries, women and girls are disproportionately affected with spurned men or jilted suitors dousing former wives or girlfriends in the hope of disfiguring them for life.

By contrast, Shah said, two-thirds of the victims in the U.K. are men. Campaigners say the rise in attacks could be linked to a clampdown on weapons.

In 2015, a two strikes rule was introduced so those convicted of carrying a knife for the second time received a mandatory six-month prison sentence.

Shah said for some gang members its possible that acid is becoming the weapon of choice because its now seen as a safe crime to commit because you cant be charged for carrying acid, only charged if police can prove intent.

To be sure, the number of acid attacks in the U.K. is dwarfed by gun and knife crime statistics.

But the increase is still alarming, and the British government is reviewing its guidelines to see if police and prosecutors have the powers they need and if new restrictions will be placed on retailers who sell corrosive liquids.

We have seen acid used in cases of gang violence, drug trafficking, domestic abuse and so-called honour-based violence, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd wrote in the Sunday Times. We can and will improve our response, she wrote.

Stephen Timms, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, has called on the government to introduce harsher punishment for the possession of corrosive liquids.

It should be a criminal offense to carry acid around on the streets in the same way that it is already in the U.K. a criminal offense to carry a knife, he said.

In Britain, it is illegal to carry a knife without a good reason.

Timmss constituency in east London has some of the highest levels of acid attacks in the country. An attack in June on two Muslim cousins sparked panic in the local community, he said. Jameel Muhktar and Resham Khan were celebrating Khans 21st birthday in east London on the day their worlds turned upside down. They were stopped at traffic lights when a man knocked on their car window and hurled acid at them.

After that attack, Timms said, people starting asking themselves, especially women, was it safe to walk down the street without someone throwing acid over you?

Writing from her hospital bed, Khan has won many admirers on social media for chronicling the highs and lows of her recovery.

My plans are in pieces; my pain is unbearable, and I write this letter in hospital whilst I patiently wait for the return of my face, she wrote in one blog entry calling on lawmakers and retailers to make a number of changes.

I cant dwell on the past but what I can do is help build a better future, one without attacks like these, she said.

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WASHINGTONAs Joseph Arpaios federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Donald Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration.

The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.

After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency.

So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judges order to stop detaining people merely because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants. Trump was, in the words of one associate, gung-ho about it.

We knew the president wanted to do this for some time now and had worked to prepare for whenever the moment may come, said one White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the action.

Responding to questions about Trumps conversation with Sessions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, Its only natural the president would have a discussion with administration lawyers about legal matters. This case would be no different.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Trumps decision to issue his first pardon Friday evening for Arpaio was the culmination of a five-year political friendship with roots in the birther movement to undermine president Barack Obama. In an extraordinary exercise of presidential power, Trump bypassed the traditional review process to ensure that Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court, would face no time in prison.

Trumps pardon, issued without consulting the Justice Department, raised a storm of protest over the weekend, including from some fellow Republicans, and threatens to become a stain on this presidents legacy. His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department, and taken together with similar actions could undermine respect for the rule of law, experts said.

Arpaio faced up to six months in prison and was due to be sentenced in October. During his 23 years as Maricopa County sheriff, Arpaio was a lightening rod, in part because of his aggressive crackdown on illegal immigrants. He also was accused of racial profiling, failure to investigate sex crimes, poor treatment of prisoners and other instances of police misconduct.

Jesse Lehrich, a spokesman for Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of former president Barack Obamas campaigns, said the pardon signals a disturbing tolerance for those who engage in bigotry.

He added: It sends an unsettling message to immigrants across the country. And its a repudiation of the rule of law. As a massive hurricane is hurtling toward the southern United States, the White House is focused not on saving lives, but on pardoning a man who committed unlawful acts of racial discrimination.

The White House announced the pardon amid preparations for hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, but the federal government said it was on top of the looming natural disaster.

Read more:

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Reaction to the decision was sharp and swift, including among some fellow Republicans with whom Trump has been feuding openly.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin disagreed with the pardon. Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States, Ryans spokesman, Doug Andres, said in a statement. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, echoed Lehrichs sentiment that Trump had sent a poor message about living by the rule of law. The states other Republican senator, Jeff Flake, who has been attacked by Trump and who is facing a potential primary challenge, was more muted.

Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course, Flake wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Trent Franks, another Arizona Republican, said he saw it as a just end to the saga of Arpaios legal entanglements, which included defying a court order intended to halt racial profiling of Latinos.

The president did the right thing  Joe Arpaio lived an honorable life serving our country, and he deserves an honorable retirement, Franks posted on Twitter.

Outside Arizona, most Republicans stayed quiet.

There is no legal dispute over Trumps ability to pardon in a contempt of court case, as was Arpaios. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that a presidential pardon for a criminal contempt of court sentence was within the powers of the executive, and Trump had telegraphed his move for days. But the pardon was unusual given that Arpaio was awaiting sentencing. It also had not gone through the normal pardon process, which includes lengthy reviews by the Justice Department and the White House counsels office.

Jens David Ohlin, vice-dean and professor at Cornell Law School, said he was disturbed by the pardon, given Trumps relationship with the judiciary.

Ever since the campaign and the beginning of his administration hes had a very contentious relationship with the judiciary and hasnt shown much respect for either members of the judiciary or the proper role of the judiciary within our constitutional structure, Ohlin said Saturday.

During the campaign, Trump called Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts an absolute disaster and disgraceful, mainly for two opinions Roberts wrote that left Obamas health care law intact. Trump also went after U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who presided over fraud lawsuits against Trump University. Trump said Curiel was a hater of Donald Trump who couldnt be fair to Trump because of Curiels Mexican heritage and because of Trumps campaign pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump also referred to U.S. District Judge James Robart as a so-called judge after Robart imposed a temporary halt on Trumps travel ban.

Many presidents have issued controversial pardons. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, one of his donors, in his final days in office. By definition, pardons absolve someone of having broken the law.

But Arpaio, who had yet to be sentenced in his criminal case, has long been accused of abuses against minorities, including repeated violations of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. His pardon struck a different political chord, one that led Democrats to tear into Trump.

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist who advised the main super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016, suggested that Trump was offering a different type of signal: one to people who might be approached by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as possible obstruction of justice by the president when he fired the FBI director, James Comey.

The Arpaio pardon was awful in and of itself, but I also think it was a signal to the targets of the Mueller investigation that I got your back,  Begala said on Bill Mahers HBO program Friday night.

David Axelrod, who was a senior adviser to Obama in the White House, saw a different motive at play. Trump, he argued, was sending a signal after removing his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, a nationalist who is an icon among segments of the presidents base.

I think this was a nod to the base, post-Bannon, that hes still with them, Axelrod said.

Although the pardon could in the short term energize Trumps conservative base, which includes many with strong anti-immigration views, the decision could further alienate voter groups, such as Latinos, whose support the Republican Party has said it needs to win future elections. Trump managed to defy those dynamics in 2016.

Arpaio was an early admirer of Trump. He appeared with him at a rally in Phoenix in 2015, and he vocally supported Trumps interest in raising false questions about whether Obama, the first black president, was born in the United States.

The sudden, and unusual, presidential pardon seemed to answer a lingering question: What future would await Arpaio, one of the most polarizing figures in law enforcement and a longtime darling of the far right, after he was voted out of office last fall?

Arpaio hinted to local reporters he might return to politics.

Arpaio told the Associated Press he wouldnt rule out running for office again, saying he would be very active politically, even at age 85. He had the same message for the states largest newspaper.

I told my wife I dont want nothing to do with politics, but now Ive got to rethink that, Arpaio told the Arizona Republic. I think Ive got a big political message to get out.

With files from The Associated Press and the New York Times

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HOUSTONTropical storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the fourth-largest city in the U.S. on Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers who could not keep up with the constant calls for help.

The incessant rain covered much of Houston in turbid, grey-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighbourhoods and high-water vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes or swam.

Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors. The flooding was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. They urged people to get on top of their houses to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

Judging from federal disaster declarations, the storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, or 6.8 million people in 18 counties. It was blamed for at least two deaths.

As the water rose, the National Weather Service issued another ominous forecast: Before the storm that arrived Friday as a Category 4 hurricane is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as 1.3 metres of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.

Some areas have already received about half that amount. Since Thursday, South Houston recorded nearly 63 centimetres, and the suburbs of Santa Fe and Dayton got 69 cm.

The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before, the National Weather Service said.

Average rainfall totals will end up around one metre for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The federal government is promising a muscular response, with 5,000 federal employees  including members of the coast guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department  on site in Texas and Louisiana to assist state and local officials.

Were setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years, William Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on CNNs State of the Union program Sunday. This disasters going to be a landmark event.

Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many affected families to fend for themselves. And rising waters forced the evacuation of several hospitals in the Houston area.

Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig pulled a rowboat on a rope through chest-deep water for a mile to rescue Bartletts mother from her home in west Houston. It took them 45 minutes to reach the house. Inside, the water was halfway up the walls.

Marie Bartlett, 88, waited in her bedroom upstairs.

When I was younger, I used to wish I had a daughter, but I have the best son in the world, she said. In my 40 years here, Ive never seen the water this high.

It was not clear how many people were plucked from the floodwaters. Up to 1,200 people had to be rescued in Galveston County alone, said Mark Henry, the county judge, the countys top administrative post.

Houstons George R. Brown Convention Center was quickly opened as a shelter. It was used as a shelter for Katrina refugees in 2005.

Officials in Dallas said they would open the citys convention centre to about 5,000 people who are fleeing from the hurricane-ravaged southern part of the state. Dallas has three shelters currently open for evacuees, but the convention centre will serve as a mega shelter.

The storm also blew through key areas for the U.S. oil and gas industry and was already causing some disruption of production. Exxon Mobil said on its website Sunday that it was shutting down operations at its huge Baytown refining and petrochemical complex because of flooding, while heavy rain prompted Royal Dutch Shell to close a large refining facility at Deer Park.

Shell, one of the largest producers in the Gulf of Mexico, said it had closed two offshore production platforms, Perdido and Enchilada Salsa, and evacuated most of the workers.

Still, the Gulf produces substantial quantities of oil and gas, and analysts say it is likely that the effect on energy prices and supplies will be limited by the substantial stocks of oil available, and products like gasoline that are on hand because of a long period of booming global output.

In the long term, Texas is likely to face a massive, multibillion-dollar rebuilding effort that may affect a generation  and what is sure to be daunting and sometimes depressing era of government trailers, red tape and fights with bureaucrats and insurance companies.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in. He urged drivers to stay off roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

I dont need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm, Turner told a news conference. We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically.

The deteriorating situation was bound to provoke questions about the conflicting advice given by the governor and Houston leaders before the hurricane. Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to flee from Harveys path, but the Houston mayor issued no evacuation orders and told everyone to stay home.

The governor refused to point fingers on Sunday.

Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made, Abbott, a Republican, said in Austin. Whats important is that everybody work together to ensure that we are going to, first, save lives and, second, help people across the state rebuild.

The mayor, a Democrat, defended his decision, saying there was no way to know which parts of the city were most vulnerable.

If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare, Turner said, citing the risks of sending the citys 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time.

Jesse Gonzalez, and his son, also named Jesse, used their boat to rescue people from a southeast Houston neighbourhood. Asked what he had seen, the younger Gonzalez replied: A lot of people walking and a lot of dogs swimming.

Its chest- to shoulder-deep out there in certain areas, he told television station KTRK as the pair grabbed a gasoline can to refill their boat.

Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety. Others waded while carrying trash bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in picnic coolers.

The coast guard deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

The White House announced that President Donald Trump would visit Texas on Tuesday. He met Sunday by teleconference with top administration officials to discuss federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The rescues unfolded a day after Harvey settled over the Texas coastline. The system weakened Saturday to a tropical storm.

On Sunday, it was virtually stationary about 40 kilometres northwest of Victoria, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of about 72 km/h), the hurricane centre said.

Harvey was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961s Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

Read more:

FEMA director says Harvey is probably the worst disaster in Texas history

Photos: Dramatic scenes from Houston as Harvey floodwaters wreak havoc

With files from the New York Times

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BEIRUTThe remains of eight Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by Daesh three years ago were located Sunday, a senior Lebanese official said, in a negotiated deal that followed a military offensive to drive the militants out of the border area with Syria.

Abbas Ibrahim, the chief of Lebanese General Security, said six bodies buried in Lebanon near the border with Syria were removed. He said the operation continued to pull out two more bodies but the fate of a ninth soldier remained unknown.

The soldiers remains were transported later Sunday to Beiruts military hospital for DNA tests to determine their identities.

Locating the soldiers remains was part of a deal that comes a week after the Lebanese military launched a campaign to drive out Daesh militants from some 120 square kilometres in a rugged mountainous area that straddles the Lebanese-Syrian border. Separately but simultaneously, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, in co-operation with the Syrian army, launched another offensive to pressure the militants in Syrian territories along the same border area.

The U.S-backed Lebanese army denies it co-ordinated with the Syrian government.

The deal also entails the transfer of remaining Daesh militants on both sides of the border to eastern Syrias Deir el-Zour province, which is mostly controlled by the extremist group. The Syrian government, backed by Russian air power and Iranian-organized militias, is preparing an offensive to recapture the oil-rich province.

After a week of fighting, ceasefires were announced on both sides of the border earlier Sunday. The Lebanese army said the halt in fighting, which came after 100 sq. km were cleared of militants, was to allow for negotiations to determine the fate of the soldiers.

Hezbollah and Syrian media said the ceasefire was to allow for the comprehensive deal.

Hezbollah, which western countries view as a terrorist organization, has been fighting alongside President Bashar Assads forces inside Syria since 2013.

Lebanons main political factions are bitterly divided over the war in neighbouring Syria, and many would fiercely object to any direct co-operation with Assads government. Lebanese were also divided over the outcome of the deal, some taking to social media to criticize the negotiations with the militants. Others hailed the deal and evacuation of the militants as a victory.

Ibrahim said after Daesh militants were driven into Syria under pressure from the Lebanese military, the deal became possible. He said detained militants revealed the location of the soldiers remains. They were still wearing their military uniforms, he said.

Ibrahim said he was part of the negotiations over the fate of the soldiers, but Hezbollah and Syria sorted out the larger deal.

The first article in this deal was (determining) the fate of the soldiers, Ibrahim told reporters from outside the tents set up for years by the families of the missing soldiers looking for their relatives. This case . . . has regrettably been closed on a dark note. Relatives of the soldiers broke down in tears and declined to talk to the media.

The soldiers were among more than 20 kidnapped in 2014 when militants linked to al-Qaida and Daesh, also known as ISIS, overran the border town, Arsal. Most of those kidnapped were later released. It was the most serious spillover into Lebanon from the six-year Syrian war. Al-Qaida-linked militants were evacuated from the area this month, following a Hezbollah offensive there.

The Syrian official news agency, SANA, said the area along the border would be declared free of Daesh militants soon. A Syrian military official told the agency that the evacuation of Daesh militants, negotiated by Hezbollah, has been approved.

Al-Ikhbariya quoted an unnamed Syrian field commander as saying the militants have been driven out of some 200 sq. km in Syria. Syrian media say about 400 militants and their families are expected to be evacuated toward Deir el-Zour, though it was not clear when that would take place.

The Central Military Media, an outlet run jointly by Hezbollah and the Syrian army, said according to the ceasefire deal, buses will transport Daesh fighters and their families to Boukamal, the Syrian town in Deir el-Zour, along the Iraqi border.

The bodies of five Hezbollah fighters were also brought back to Lebanon as part of the deal.

As negotiations for the evacuation of Daesh militants to Deir el-Zour were underway, Syrian troops backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias pushed their way into the province from Sukhna in the countrys centre.

The government troops and its allied militias have been moving toward Deir el-Zour from three different angles: in central, northern and southern Syria. The new advances bring the pro-government troops about 65 km from the provincial capital, where Daesh militants have besieged government troops for years. Daesh controls most of the oil-rich province.

Russian officials have said the priority is now to aid government troops in recapturing Deir el-Zour, which is southeast of Raqqa and where U.S-backed Syrian opposition forces are battling Islamic state group militants.

U.S-backed forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, are also making a bid for Deir el-Zour province, raising concerns of a potential friction with the Syrian troops.

Late on Saturday, Islamic State militants attacked a base of the SDF forces in Shaddadi town, about 120 km north of Deir el-Zour. Bassem Aziz, of the SDF media centre in the area, said 12 Daesh militants attacked their offices, including four suicide bombers. Aziz said the attack continued into the early hours Sunday and was foiled, leaving the attackers dead and a number of SDF fighters injured.

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In the days before smartphones, it was possible to spend an evening out without constant news alerts and Twitter notifications. On the night of Aug. 31, 1997, I attended a play and then dropped by a nightclub, so it was after midnight when I got into my car and flicked on the radio to hear the shocking news: Diana, Princess of Wales, had been killed in a horrific accident.

Within 24 hours, I was on my way to London to cover her funeral.

For the next week, I witnessed the raw grief and outrage of the British people: their anger at the royal family and their fury at the media, especially the paparazzi, whom they blamed for the car crash.

Every flower laid in front of Kensington Palace was a rebuke. For 17 years we have seen her in the papers and on television, mourner Ray Moore told me. Im quite hardened, but I was shocked at the grief I felt. It was like losing a member of the family.

It was the biggest story in the world: No detail was too small for the voracious public, but those of us reporting were regarded with resentment and suspicion.

The truth, of course, was more complicated. Diana was the most famous woman in the world  beloved, betrayed, pitied and pursued. Unlike the rest of the British royals, she innately understood the power of the media, and used it to become a superstar and, later, to wage war with the palace. She believed she could summon the cameras when she wanted flattering stories, and send them away when shed had enough.

Read more:

Would Princess Diana have retained her royal magic 20 years later? DiManno

What Dianas death means to me now, 20 years later: Timson

Who killed Princess Diana? Documentary makes case paparazzi hounded her to death

In the end, she was the victim of a taciturn royal family, an insatiable celebrity culture and her own tragic misunderstanding of what it meant to be a fairy-tale princess in the real world.

An estimated 750 million people worldwide watched the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, a 20-year-old beauty with no past and, it seemed, an unlimited future. From the moment reporters realized the shy kindergarten teacher was dating the heir to the throne, the public couldnt get enough of her.

To say she was woefully unprepared for the demands of the modern monarchy is an understatement. Charles  in love with Camilla Parker Bowles and ill-equipped to deal with a naive, emotionally fragile young woman  was unable or unwilling to help her.

So Diana turned to the public, which loved her for her beauty, her charisma and the affection it had never seen from other royals. She gave them an adorable heir and a spare. The tabloids were extravagant in their praise, breathlessly following her every move. She upstaged the other royals by charm or by calculation.

She cultivated reporters, flattering them, leaking choice bits of news. Let it not be said that she lacked sophistication about the media, her use of it and its use of her, Times of London editor Peter Stothard said after she died.

Later on, the media became her weapon of choice as she battled Charles during their separation and divorce. The palace was furious when she secretly cooperated with author Andrew Morton for the sensational biography Diana: A True Story.

She just couldnt really get to grips with being an international superstar on the one hand and being treated in such a poor way by both the royal family and particularly by Prince Charles, Morton told Frontline.

But it was Dianas 1995 BBC interview, where she confessed to depression, bulimia and infidelity, that was the last straw for the queen. The divorce was finalized the following year, and Diana lost Her Royal Highness.

The only thing that sells better than a fairy tale is a fairy tale gone wrong. Diana believed the only way to fight the royals was to have the public on her side. She sat alone in front of the Taj Mahal, and wore a sexy black dress the night Charles admitted to adultery on national television. Dianas quest for happiness became the new story line.

Its useful to remember Diana had a personal life when she wished  she kept her love affair with Hasnat Khan private for almost two years. The handsome heart surgeon wanted nothing to do with the media frenzy that surrounded Diana, so the two saw each other at home and Diana wore disguises when they went out in public. Convinced he could never live a normal life if they married, he broke up with her at the end of July 1997.

Shortly afterward, she was photographed with millionaire playboy Dodi Fayed in the south of France. As the tabloids covered the whirlwind romance, one of Dianas closest friends, Rosa Monckton, said she believed it was all a show to make Khan jealous.

On the way back to London, Diana and Dodi decided to stop in Paris for the night.

On the morning of Aug. 30, 1997, Diana called the Daily Mails Richard Kay, her favourite royal correspondent. She said she might withdraw from public life, but she still wanted to be a humanitarian. Maybe she was getting married. Maybe not.

That night, the paparazzi camped outside the Ritz Paris hotel as Diana and Dodi ate a late dinner. Slipping out the rear entrance, they hopped into the back seat of a car driven by Henri Paul, the hotels deputy head of security.

Over the past two decades, every detail of the next few hours has been dissected and debated: A few of the paparazzi jumped on motorcycles and pursued the Mercedes-Benz, which raced into the Pont DAlma tunnel, clipped the back of a white Fiat Uno and slammed into a pylon at about 160 kilometres per hour. An inquest would determine Pauls blood alcohol level was three times over the legal limit. Dodi and the driver died at the scene; Diana and a bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, were seriously injured (she died at the hospital).

The first photographer arrived within a minute of the crash. An emergency doctor who happened on the scene later testified the paparazzi took pictures (which were never published) but did not interfere with emergency personnel. Seven photographers were detained; they thought it was to give witness statements, but they were held for three days and charged with manslaughter. (The charges were later dropped.)

Within minutes of the breaking news, cable channels speculated the paparazzi had caused the crash. On CNN, Tom Cruise blasted the media: It is harassment, he proclaimed angrily. A few hours later, Dianas brother, Earl Spencer, read a scathing prepared statement:

I would say that I always believed the press would kill her in the end. But not even I could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death, as seems to be the case. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Dianas image, has blood on his hands today.

What struck me then was how easy it was to blame the media without mentioning the millions who buy the newspapers and magazines. Any suggestion that Diana was in any way responsible for the constant crush of reporters and photographers became blasphemy. Royal expert James Whitaker was forced to make a public apology following the accident: I regret now if I said anything that caused offence to anybody listening to what I thought was a balanced appraisal of Diana and her complicated life with photographers.

It would be disingenuous to say Diana deserved the constant attention, but it would be equally unfair to say she didnt actively participate in the process while complaining about how awful it was to be so famous. Of all the people who hungrily read every word written about her, Diana was the hungriest, wrote John Lanchester in the New Yorker. She pored over photos of herself, and loved the publicity that, by the end, had her entirely trapped.

The funeral was unbearably sad, mostly because of the young princes, who had tragically lost their mother. The royal family faced a crisis mitigated only by public affection for Dianas sons. Any forgiveness for Charles was swiftly revoked; the rest of the family  including the queen  were widely criticized for their tone-deaf response to Diana, in life and in death.

The queen made an effort to learn from the experience, says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, commissioning private polls and focus groups about the monarchy. Their takeaway was that they needed to show the royal family was more in touch with ordinary people, and to display more Diana-style empathy rather than classic royal restraint, she said.

Relations between the palace and the media have improved a lot, Smith said, thanks to relaxed protocol and more genuine co-operation. Camilla, once the villain of the story, has become a favourite of royal reporters for her down-to-earth style. The newspapers backed off when Prince William complained photographers got too close to Kate Middleton before their engagement and when Prince Harry warned them to stop following his girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle. Like other celebrities, they now bypass traditional media using Facebook and Twitter, which gives them more control.

But the 20th anniversary of Dianas death has opened old wounds, as the media revisits all the low points of her ill-fated marriage  infidelity, secret recordings, mutual humiliations  and its aftermath. Nearly all of her accusations about Charles and Camilla were well-known 20 years ago, but hearing them anew has given them unanticipated traction, particularly for young people, Smith said. Its still too early to tell if these waves of negative stories will inflict long-term damage on the monarchy, but in the short term, the reputations of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have certainly been tarnished by Dianas revelations. 

The Peoples Princess remains frozen in time: beautiful, dazzling, beloved  the kind of mythological perfection conferred by an early, tragic death. Its possible she would have matured into the international humanitarian she aspired to be, doting on her sons and grandchildren, still the most glamorous member of the royal family. Maybe she would have remarried. Maybe she would be older and wiser. She would have millions of Twitter followers.

And, I have no doubt, shed still be in a love-hate relationship with the media.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 14:00:32|Editor: Zhou Xin

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HOUSTON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- After the small city of Rockport bore the brunt of Hurricane Harvey's 210 km per hour winds Friday night, residents in the southern region of Texas, including Houston, are expecting heavy rain.

More bands of heavy rain are expected to start washing over the Houston area Saturday night, following the storms and at least seven tornadoes touched down through Saturday, which caused damage to buildings and plantations.

Tropical storm and storm surge warnings have been issued for parts of Texas, with the possibility of up to 1 meter of rain over the weekend.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday expanded his state disaster declaration to include 20 additional counties in response to the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

"The addition of these counties to the state disaster declaration will continue to allow Texas to quickly deploy all available resources to those affected by this devastating storm," said the governor.

"Hurricane Harvey has had a catastrophic impact on Texans and their property, and this declaration will help them rebuild and recover. The state will continue to provide as much aid as possible to these communities that have already lost so much," said Abbott.

Buffalo Bayou, a slow-moving river which flows through the city of Houston, is shown flooded on Saturday.

Officials in the greater Houston area urged coastal residents not to let their guards down. Even though Harvey had diminished Saturday from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm, the Houston area was in for dangerous storm-surge flooding, damaging winds and tornados.

Authorities in Texas confirmed that at least one person was killed and up to 14 were injured in Rockport.

About 4,500 inmates at three prisons in Rosharon were evacuated as heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey caused the Brazos River to rise. The prison facilities are in Brazoria County, located about 60 km south of Houston.

The prisoners from the Ramsey, Stringfellow and Terrell units were loaded onto Texas Department of Criminal Justice buses and relocated to facilities in East Texas.

The U.S. Coast Guard was busy as Hurricane Harvey made landfall, rescuing 18 people near Rockport and Port Aransas.

In Galveston Island, residents took the heavy rains in stride. Several tornados touched down during the storm, damaging a McDonald's restaurant and a condominium complex on Seawall Boulevard along the Gulf of Mexico.

Galveston resident Ernesto Maldonado, 19, said he wasn't about to let Hurricane Harvey keep him from providing for his wife and 1-month-old son. When the rains subsided, he hopped on his bicycle to pick up his paycheck from a restaurant where he works - about 8 km away.

"I was somewhat worried because I have a kid at home," he told Xinhua, adding "but this is my first storm like this, and I need to go get that money."

During a welcome break from the winds and rain in Galveston, resident Paulina Gomez took his dog, Dash, out for a romp in the waters that flooded the street outside his home.

"I was pretty concerned about my house and property, especially what happened in Hurricane Ike," said Gomez, 25. "Everybody was afraid and freaking out. We don't want to lose what little bit we've got."

The Gomez family hunkered down as the high winds pelted their one-story, wood-frame home. "We got a lot of food and water and flashlights, so we were ready for the hurricane and stayed right here."

Hurricane Ike, which came ashore in Galveston on Sept. 13, 2008, claimed 113 lives and caused 37.5 billion U.S. dollars damages in Texas.

Downgraded to a tropical storm, Harvey made its way westward in a slow but steady trajectory that made emergency officials uneasy.

Much of the grounds are already saturated, causing concerns the many streams and bayous in southeast Texas would overrun their banks, and flood coastal communities. So, the next 72 hours are paramount, said Galveston resident Greg Samford, a retired information technology specialist.

"We've got a lot of rain coming in the next few days," he said. "I've lived in Galveston all my life and have never seen it rain this much, five days in a row."

Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said flooding caused by heavy rains could reach some houses in low-lying areas.

"We are very concerned about fresh rainwater (floods)," he told Xinhua. "There is very little question that if you are in a house that's prone to flooding, there's virtually no way to stop that."

Meanwhile, four cruise ships bound for Galveston with more than 20,000 passengers aboard were forced to remain in the Gulf of Mexico as they awaited Harvey's departure from the Texas Gulf Coast.

Given the uncertainty of Harvey's track in Texas, it could be until Tuesday before the ships will be able to re-enter the Galveston Ship Channel, which has completely closed to traffic, said Roger R. Quiroga, director of economic development and external affairs at the Port of Galveston.

"We're waiting for the first ship to arrive about Tuesday, if we can get the cooperation of the Galveston-Texas City Pilots to allow their personnel to go out and get them in," he explain to Xinhua. The experienced pilots guide vessels safely to their berths or out to sea.

Three are the cruise ships from the Carnival Cruise Line, and the fourth is a Royal Caribbean vessel.
The devastation wrought by tropical storm Harvey is already apparent, even though forecasters say the storm may be only half done dumping rainfall totals measured in feet over the Texas and Louisiana coasts. In possibly the most starkly worded National Weather Service announcement imaginable, the agency said Sunday that this event is unprecedented and beyond anything experienced.

For many Americans, Harvey is bringing back memories of hurricane Katrina in 2005. Nearly 2,000 people died in the aftermath of that storm. The U.S. government and Federal Emergency Management Agencys response to Katrina was widely criticized, but Americans came together to offer housing, clothing, meals and monetary help to the affected. President George W. Bush even accepted a huge offer of aid from Mexico.

The aid Mexico sent was no small thing. It was an extraordinary gesture, and it may have saved many lives. Marking the first time that Mexican troops had set foot on U.S. soil since the Mexican-American War in 1846, then-president Vicente Fox sent an army convoy and a naval vessel laden with food, water and medicine. By the end of their three-week operation in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Mexicans had served 170,000 meals, helped distribute more than 184,000 tons of supplies and conducted more than 500 medical consultations.

Mexico and the United States are nations which are neighbors and friends which should always have solidarity in moments of difficulty, Fox told NBC News at the time.

Fast forward to now, as deadly Harvey pummels the greater Houston area. The United States now has a president who kicked off his election campaign with a speech that denigrated Mexicans. A president who has been vociferously assailed by Fox. And, as his tweets on Sunday revealed, a president who will take time to bully and belittle Mexicans while a catastrophe unfolds in his own country.

Here are Trumps tweets from Sunday morning, as Texas woke up to calamity.

With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.

We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?

The way things are looking with Harvey, Texans are going to be reeling for a long time. FEMA director William Long said Harvey could be the worst storm in Texass history. With the long border and historic ties between Texas and Mexico, one might expect a similar offer of aid from Mexico this time around. But would Trump ever accept Mexican aid? Would Mexico even want to offer it?

The Mexican government has not directly addressed the situation in Texas: With the storm underway, U.S. allies around the world may be waiting for the full extent of the disaster to be known before offering help. The Mexican Embassy in Washington was unable to comment for this report.

With Trump portraying Mexicans as criminals and their government as cheating Americans through the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trade deal many in both countries support, it is hard to imagine that wed see a replay of Mexicos post-Katrina compassion. But if Harvey ultimately displaces tens or hundreds of thousands of people, FEMA may need help.

If Mexico does offer aid, it will have an opportunity to be the bigger man. And such an offer would put Trump in a bind. Should he accept the generosity, which, to some of his supporters, might ring of hypocrisy and weakness? Or should he deny it, while Texans cope with a nightmare?

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Canadas positioning on the North Korean crisis must reckon one basic fact: Between the North Koreans and our American brethren, it is actually the Chinese who are the most geopolitically astute.

The stated Chinese position on the crisis is that should the North Koreans attack first, Beijing will remain neutral. But if the Americans attack first, then Beijing will side with Pyongyang.

How should we understand this position? Answer: the Chinese will always side with North Korea. Period.

For us and the world alike, this means that an American war with North Korea quickly evolves to an American war with China. Such a war would assume global proportions within a day, enveloping at least four continents  Asia, Oceania (to begin with, Australia and New Zealand), Europe (given the activation of Russia, Chinas ally), and yes, North America.

If there is some doubt that North Korea can strike American or Canadian cities today, then we must understand that China and Russia can easily have done so yesterday  in conventional and nuclear form alike.

The attraction for Canada of a Western war with China (and possibly also Russia) is zero. It would collapse a global order in which our country is generally faring well, further radicalize and destabilize our American neighbours and, critically, expose our territory for the first time in generations to direct attack and even occupation by serious foreign militaries.

Do we trust American analytics on this crisis? We should not. While we rely on American classified and popular assessments of any threat from North Korea, these analytics today suffer from three major weaknesses:

The absence of direct American relations with and therefore direct insight into North Korea.

Patently mediocre talent in national security positions in the White House.

A lack of trust between the U.S. intelligence services and the presidency.

Should we trust American strategic judgment on this crisis? Definitely not. And not just because of the general capriciousness and international inexperience of President Trump, but also because of the treatment of the North Korean file in particular by this administration.

For reasons of military doctrine, ideology and, to be sure, domestic political instability, the threat of North Korea has been amplified by the U.S. in recent months well beyond its proper proportions.

Certainly the notion that preventive or pre-emptive military action, including the use of nuclear weapons, over there in northeast Asia, may soon be warranted, at the potential cost of the destruction of several major cities and the death of millions of people, is not shared by countries like South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. They have far better analytics on North Korea and a deeper appreciation of what it is like to have large-scale warfare on their territory.

The bottom line for Canada is that we should not participate in any military action unless the U.S. is directly attacked. Until then, we should mobilize all our diplomatic, political and creative energies to push for de-escalation and an exit from the present hysteria.

This should not exclude the possibility of an eventual and, in my judgment, long overdue embassy in Pyongyang  something that would make Canada exceedingly useful diplomatically and strategically in the future of northeast Asian stability. (If Western democracies, such as Sweden and Germany, have embassies there, why not us?)

Should Canada worry that it will be punished by the U.S., in the NAFTA negotiations or through other vectors, because of such positioning on the North Korean crisis? No.

The disjointed and temperamental character of the present American executive branch suggests that any professed benefits to any proper Canadian behaviour are unreliable, while American punishment, itself not necessarily credible, may come at any time and in response to random stimuli.

Besides, as I have argued for nearly a year, this presidency will not last a full four years, and it will end in tears. War in North Korea, meant perhaps as a consolidation action by an unpopular administration beset by crises, will likely only accelerate this denouement.

Of course, as we in Canada keep our powder dry, the Chinese, who have gamed all these dynamics better than every other country, will see war against North Korea as an existential threat. They will not wait for a possible nuclear weapon to be deployed in their neighbourhood. And once a major power launches a first nuclear weapon this century, all bets are off among those powers that have the capability to respond.

Irvin Studin is editor-in-chief and publisher of Global Brief Magazine, and president of the Institute for 21st Century Questions.

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New York Citys Village Voice, the granddaddy of North American alternative newsweeklies, a community of which I am a part, announced on Tuesday its shutting down its print edition. It didnt have to be this way.

The first time I visited the dusty Village Voice offices was in 1984 when then-owner Rupert Murdoch had reluctantly agreed to let his staff host a bunch of visiting alternative newspaper publishers for a visit during their annual convention.

I was newly in the fold having co-founded Torontos NOW Magazine three years earlier. The dingy, but to me, glimmering, building and its staff were invested with all of the beautiful self-importance of mission journalists everywhere, sweetly, smugly certain they were doing important work, as was I.

The second time was in the mid-90s, a golden age of publishing, at least in revenue terms, including for alt-weeklies. The Voices then-publisher, David Schneiderman was trying to create a North American-wide empire of alternative newspapers and he wanted NOW to be part of it. I was admittedly intrigued, flattered at the least. And so began the disintegration of the Village Voice as they worked with a venture capital company to monopolize the anti-monopoly press. Co-founder Norman Mailer would not have been impressed.

Walking through the uneven floored building with Schneiderman, the whispers from eye-darting staff seemed to be of schemes, not scoops. It felt like staffers looked at me as if I was with The Man instead of fighting The Man. NOW eventually walked away from talks with the Voice as their conversations veered away from journalism and focused more on getting 35 per cent return on investment, compressing newsrooms and sharing reporters nationwide

The Voice got in a bloody battle with the cowboys at the hugely successful Phoenix-based weekly, the New Times. The New Times were more loud mouth libertarians than liberals, prepared for a death match for alt-media supremacy. Both companies and their backers were committed to buying as many alt weeklies as they could.

The fight between the Voice and the New Times ripped the heart out of the alt weekly world. When we should have been savoring the glory years before the internets assault on our young readers, we were consumed by which of the two companies was courting us.

The once anti-monopoly, anti-mainstream media were lining up to be consumed. After the late 90s crash, the two companies pushed the limits of U.S. antitrust laws, agreeing to shut down competing papers in shared markets.

The New Times won the battle in 2005, consuming the Voice and all of its publishing booty to create a huge, heartless alt media, virtual monopoly. Their glee at victory was indicated by renaming the new megacompany, Village Voice Media.

The Voice was the prize but they didnt treat it like one. The New Times cowboy boot wearing commando, Mike Lacey ambled into Manhattan and made it clear he wasnt impressed with the legacy of the admittedly now, somewhat dour paper. He threatened staff and eventually got rid of venerable and more expensive writers including: Nat Hentoff, James Ridgeway, Robert Christgau and more. Editors were changed as often as the sheets.

Lacey foolishly thought he had a franchise not a sacred trust, capable of being stripped to the bone with readers prepared to take whatever scraps he offered. And it didnt happen. Readership and page size shrunk as the watered down weekly faded to irrelevance. The Voice corporation became the very thing it was created to oppose and savvy readers moved on. The Voice wasnt a victim of the internet but of greed.

Eventually, Lacey and his crew gave up, the New Times took the adult advertising business, a website called Back Pages that features prostitution ads and sold the paper to the hapless publisher now overseeing the end of the era.

The end of the Village Voice in print is not a statement about the state of publishing but a morality tale about what happens when a values-based business sells its soul.

Michael Hollett co-founded NOW Magazine in 1981 and is the president of the NXNE music festival.

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Yonge St. is noteworthy for the small businesses and lowrise heritage buildings that have defined Canadas Main Street for decades. Hobby shops, bookstores, and owner-operated restaurants have made it a destination and precisely why we have wound-up in a terrible paradox.

For years, developers have been assembling properties, tearing down the old character buildings and constructing massive new condominiums. And now, after years of intensive planning policy work to protect the neighbourhood, it has been hit from another angle  property taxes.

Today, walking down from Bloor along Yonge, there are signs up in many of the windows declaring a tax revolt. I have never shied away from my position that Torontos taxes need to cover the services supporting the long-term success of its residents. However, the 400 per cent increase that some owners face is not only unacceptably high for them, it undermines all the recent planning work that has been done to keep the neighbourhood vital.

The policy gaps that existed for Yonge St. when I came into office in 2010 was massive. However, the community was mobilized from Bay St. to Church St. with residents, property owners, and businesses wanting to do their part to support the character of their neighbourhood.

That meant years of catch-up planning work and the drafting of two major area specific policies to limit heights and maintain the public realm, a Heritage Conservation District to preserve the heritage assets of the street, and an Official Plan amendment to prevent new developments for creating a visual wall on Yonge St.

Now, as we wait on the Ontario Municipal Board to authorize the last pieces of those plans, another provincial agency has thrown a curveball that could undermine it all.

In 1998, the Province of Ontario changed how its agent, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), calculate properties current value assessment (CVA), using a common valuation date. In the GTA, with an abundance of real estate transactions, MPAC uses the direct sales comparison approach to calculate property assessments. Any MPAC valuation process always begins with a determination of the highest and best use of the property, which on Yonge St., it seems that the assessors have determined it to be super tall condominium building.

As a result of this blunt application of the CVA methodology, MPAC is using the direct sales comparison of Yorkvilles 1 Bloor West development project at the corner of Yonge St. to forecast the highest and best use for every other commercial building on Yonge St. This approach contributes to a speculative real estate market where projected future values appear to be reported by MPAC as current values.

That is what has happened this year and Yonge St. owners are going to be face a terrible choice if we do not act  pass on the unpayable rate to their tenants through commercial leases or sell their lots to developers to avoid further losses.

Last week, I brought Yonge St. property owners and business operators to a meeting with MPAC representatives and we made our case. Shortly into the meeting MPAC announced its intention to reassess the disputed properties in the Heritage Conservation District and to have amended property assessment notices mailed to the owners in September.

In conversation, there was admission that MPAC may not have taken into consideration the entire planning regime of the historic street and it pledged to another look. This modest victory represents a temporary measure with yet-to-be-determined tax relief results. As one would expect, this positive announcement was met with cautious appreciation by those in attendance.

In the long-run, MPAC needs to expand its valuation approach to more accurately reflect the actual use of a property to determine a truer current value assessment. MPACs broad sweeping CVA approach fuels unchecked development and unintentionally destroys character neighbourhoods as we know them.

We need the province to work with the city to create a new property classification that effectively preserves independent businesses and small commercial retail properties, such as the 2- to 3-storey buildings that line almost every single street in Toronto.

We must not force out the very people who made Yonge St. a success in the first place. If we do not see action here and now, this sorry lesson will be forced upon every neighbourhood intensifying in the GTA.

Kristyn Wong-Tam is a Toronto City Councillor representing Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale.

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By now its starting to sound sickeningly familiar.

A young Black man is allegedly severely injured by a Toronto police officer. But the Special Investigations Unit, which is supposed to investigate suspected incidents of serious injury, death, or sexual assault when police are involved, is not even informed.

It smacks of an attempted cover-up. And, disturbingly, its the second such case to come to light in just over a month. These apparent efforts to hide serious events must stop or Torontonians will lose trust in their police force, if they havent already.

The latest case to come to public attention involves a 25-year-old Black man, who has asked to remain anonymous. He alleges he was getting into a taxi to visit a friend on a Saturday night in November, 2015, when Toronto police officers responding to a report of gunfire in the area dragged him out of the cab, kneed him in the back, beat him, illegally searched and groped him, and dragged him toward a police cruiser.

He says he lost consciousness at one point and was left with a concussion and mental trauma. In the end he was handcuffed but not charged with an offence.

Last week the SIU announced that Const. Joseph Dropuljic has been charged with the alleged assault of the man, who was just 23 at the time.

There is much that is concerning here.

First, the public must be confident that the SIU will be informed of serious injuries of citizens when police are involved, as the law clearly requires. Cases cannot be swept under the carpet, and police officers cannot seem to be covering up for each other.

Second, the ability of the SIU to investigate is seriously compromised when there is a lengthy delay in them being informed.

The matter is even more worrying considering this allegation follows charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and public mischief laid by the SIU last month against Toronto police constable Michael Theriault and his brother, Christian Theriault.

By now the details of the incident involving Dafonte Miller, who is 19 years old and Black, are well known. He says he was walking with friends on the night of last Dec. 28 in a neighbourhood in Whitby when he was involved in a confrontation with two men, one of whom identified himself as an off-duty police officer.

Miller ended up with serious injuries, including a broken nose, broken orbital bone, fractured right wrist and an eye so badly damaged it may have to be surgically removed.

Still, the SIU was not informed by the Durham force, where the alleged assault took place, or by Toronto police, who knew about the incident. Instead it was left up to Millers lawyer, Julian Falconer, to alert the SIU in April.

After a public outcry, the two police forces launched investigations into how they handled events surrounding Millers beating.

But there are problems with those investigations. The Toronto police, for example, are being investigated by Waterloo regional police and the report will be made public. But one police force investigating another is not a truly independent investigation. Worse, the Durham police are handling their own investigation and its chief has not said whether he will make the final report public.

Two things should happen now that there appears to be a frightening pattern involving young Black men.

First, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders should launch a second investigation to be conducted by an independent authority, such as a judge, into why the SIU was not informed of the latest case.

Second, the Ontario government should step in by launching its own investigation into why police forces are seemingly breaking the law to hide troubling events from the SIU.

The reports could help point the way to ensuring that no Ontario police force fails to report a serious injury of a citizen to the SIU again. That type of true accountability is the best way to ensure that similar incidents dont occur in the first place.

Correction- Aug. 31, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that stated that the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) did not find out from Toronto police about the incident of the young Black man allegedly severely injured by a Toronto police officer.

In fact, Toronto police notified the SIU of the case only 11 months after the incident after it was informed about it by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director. The law requires that police are required to immediately report cases of serious abuse to the SIU.

The OIPRD had been contacted by the African Canadian Legal Clinic, which the alleged assault victim had approached some months after the incident. The ACLC said at a news conference that the OIPRD referred the case to the SIU, but the OIPRD later clarified that it does not have the power to directly refer a case to the SIU.

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 14:20:38|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China must solve the lack of theories in AI development to achieve the goal of becoming a power for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by 2030, Turing Award-winning computer scientist Andrew Chi-Chih Yao said.

In the past 10 years, China has made great progress in AI development, but it should take the lead to make a breakthrough in AI theory development if the country wants a bigger achievement in the field, Yao said.

He stressed the importance of cooperation between universities and enterprises.

"Big companies cooperate with colleges in the U.S. and I hope that Chinese enterprises join hands with colleges for the long-term plan," Yao said. "I am now focusing on AI theory development. Let's wait and see what I can show you after two or three years."

Yao said he hoped China would make original achievements for intellectual property, instead of following sci-tech results from other countries.

Yao received the Turing Award, the most prestigious award in computer science, in 2000. He and nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang have given up their foreign citizenship and become Chinese citizens, according to an announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) early this year.

The two scientists were hired as foreign academicians at CAS and have become full academicians in accordance with the academy's regulations.
Tyler Technologies, Inc. provides integrated information management solutions and services for the public sector. The company operates in three segments: Enterprise Software; Appraisal and Tax; and NIC. It offers financial management solutions, including modular fund accounting systems for government agencies or not-for-profit entities; utility billing systems for the billing and collection of metered and non-metered services; products to automate city and county functions, such as municipal courts, parking tickets, equipment and project costing, animal and business licenses, permits and inspections, code enforcement, citizen complaint tracking, ambulance billing, fleet maintenance, and cemetery records management; and student information and transportation solutions for K-12 schools. The company also provides a suite of judicial solutions comprising court case management, court and law enforcement, prosecutor, and supervision systems to handle multi-jurisdictional county or statewide implementations, and single county systems; public safety software solutions; systems and software to automate the appraisal and assessment of real and personal property, as well as tax applications for agencies that bill and collect taxes; planning, regulatory, and maintenance software solutions for public sector agencies; software applications to enhance and automate operations involving records and document management; and data and insights solutions. In addition, it offers software as a service arrangements and electronic document filing solutions for courts and law offices; software and hardware installation, data conversion, training, product modification, and maintenance and support services; and property appraisal outsourcing services for taxing jurisdictions. The company has a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services for cloud hosting services. Tyler Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 14:25:40|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two militants of the Taliban insurgent group have been killed and 10 Afghan civilians injured in an accident blast in northern province of Kunduz, an eyewitness and an official said Sunday.

"The Taliban forced villagers to stand around an area along a road in Kharkaran area of restive Chahar Dara district late Sunday, to cover themselves while planting a landmine. But the home-made device detonated accidently, causing the casualties," a resident told Xinhua by phone anonymously.

The militants tried to cover themselves among the civilians and avoid bombing from the government air-force, he said.

Inamuddin Rahmani, spokesman of the provincial police department, confirmed the incident, saying three militants have been killed by their own mine in the area, where 10 civilians have also been injured.

The wounded people have been rushed to a hospital by residents, said the source.

On Saturday, five militants, including a local Taliban leader, were killed in a government forces' offensive in Chahar Dara.

Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency spreads from its traditional strongholds in the south and east to the once peaceful region in the north, where Taliban have been recruiting from the youth.
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.
AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of prescription medicines. Its marketed products include Calquence, Enhertu, Faslodex, Imfinzi, Iressa, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Lynparza, Orpathys, Tagrisso, and Zoladex for oncology; Brilinta/Brilique, Bydureon/Byetta, BCise, Byetta, Crestor, Evrenzo, Farxiga/Forxiga, Komboglyze/Kombiglyze XR, Lokelma, Onglyza, Qtern, and Xigduo/Xigduo XR for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; Bevespi Aerosphere, Breztri Aerosphere, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir Genuair, Fasenra, Pulmicort, Saphnelo, Symbicort, and Tudorza/Eklira/Bretaris for respiratory and immunology; and Andexxa/Ondexxya, Kanuma, Soliris, Strensiq, and Ultomiris for rare diseases. The company's marketed products also comprise Synagis for respiratory syncytial virus; Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent for Influenza; Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR for schizophrenia bipolar disease; Nexium, and Losec/Prilosec for gastroenterology; and Vaxzevria and Evusheld for covid-19. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. It has a collaboration agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to research, develop, and commercialize small molecule medicines for obesity; Neurimmune AG to develop and commercialize NI006; Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop eplontersen, a liver-targeted antisense therapy in Phase III development for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis; Proteros Biostructures GmbH to jointly discover novel small molecules for the treatment of hematological cancers; Sierra Oncology, Inc. to develop and commercialize AZD5153. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999. AstraZeneca PLC was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 14:55:04|Editor: Yang Yi

A postal staff worker shows commemorative stamps for the 13th Chinese National Games in Renxian County of Xingtai, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 27, 2017. China Post issued two stamps and a miniature sheet on Sunday to commemorate the National Games in Tianjin. (Xinhua/Song Jie)
Weve all been there. You visit a website where a banner encourages you to download a mobile app. And you dont want to do it  not because you have anything against apps, but because you dont want to hop out to the Play Store to download that app, then launch it, then find the thing you were looking for again.

(Image credit: Google)

Instant Apps is a neat technology from Google that offers a nice compromise. An app developer can create an Android app in a special way, breaking it up into small chunks that support individual activities (like watching a video or buying a product), as long as each activity requires downloading less than 4MB. If an app is structured to support Instant Apps, then you dont have to go to the Play Store at all. Just go to a website, and youll automatically download the tiny app piece necessary for the activity youre doing, seamlessly.

MORE: Best Android-Only Apps You Can't Find on iPhone

Instant Apps is available on most Android devices running Marshmallow (Android 6.0) or later, as long as you have a recent version of Play Services. That's hundreds of millions of devices capable of downloading Instant Apps. But you need to enable the feature first. Heres how to do that, along with how to know if a site or service supports Instant Apps.

1. Open Settings and tap on Google in the Personal section.



2. Scroll down until you find Instant Apps and tap on it. If you dont see Instant Apps, the feature is not yet supported on your device.



3. Flip the toggle to On. You should see your Google account listed at the top. If you have multiple accounts, this is where you select which account you want to use when you download Instant Apps. This is also the page where any Instant Apps you use will be listed.



4. Agree to the terms. Just tap Yes, Im in if you want to use Instant Apps.

Now that you've turned on Instant Apps, how do you use it? Its simple.

First, look for something on the web. Websites that have supported Instant Apps are marked with the word Instant next to their search result. There are a few exceptions: A Vimeo video thumbnail, for example, may not say Instant even though Vimeos app supports Instant Apps. There are quite a few supported apps, such as Wish, Jet, the NY Times Crossword, and Periscope, with many more on the way.

You can usually tell what sites have associated Instant Apps in the Google search results.

The first time you open a site with an Instant App, youll be prompted to use it or just go to the website.

Just tap Open App, its nearly as fast as loading the site and usually a better experience.

When youre using an Instant App, youll see a small lightning bolt icon in the upper left of the status bar.

Instant Apps act like real apps, so Google reminds you that youre using one in the status bar.

If you want to see which Instant Apps have been installed on your device, just hop back to the Settings menu where you first enabled the toggle.

As you use Instant Apps, the list will grow.

If you want to download the full app or delete the Instant App for one of these, just tap on it. You can select Install to get a Google Play card that will let you immediately install it, or Clear App Data to remove the Instant App and all its associated Data.



You can easily download the full app, keeping all your settings and data, or delete the Instant App.

One of the nice things about Instant Apps is that theyre pieces of full apps, and share data. So if you download the full app, your settings and logins and actions will carry over.
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FARGO -- The unfathomable appears to be moving toward grim reality in the case of a pregnant woman missing for more than a week.

With the Thursday discovery of a healthy newborn in a northside apartment building here, the arrests of two people suspected of kidnapping the child and no trace of the babys mother, police are considering all possibilities.

Among them, that Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind of Fargo, 22 years old and eight months pregnant, was taken against her will for the purpose of stealing her baby.

LaFontaine-Greywind was last seen Saturday, Aug. 19, when she went on invitation to an upstairs apartment where 38-year-old Brooke Crews and 32-year-old William Hoehn live.

Crews and Hoehn are in the Cass County Jail, held for felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

There are an estimated 17 cases of fetal abduction on record in the United States since 1974. Attackers -- most of them women -- either shot, bludgeoned or strangled their pregnant victims, then used a knife, scissors, box cutter or even car keys to cut through the womb.

As of 2010, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 13 such cases.

A search of media reports since turned up at least four more cases; the most recent happening in 2015 in Longmont, Co.

In that instance, a woman lured seven-months-pregnant 26-year-old Michelle Wilkins to her home with an offer of free baby clothes, then beat and stabbed her before removing her fetus. Wilkins lived through the attack by managing to lock herself in a room and call 911. Her baby did not survive.

In five of those 17 fetal abductions, both the fetus and pregnant woman died, according to news reports.

But in the majority, or 10 of those cases, the baby managed to survive the trauma of the attack, while the mother did not.

The Forum requested doctors at Sanford Health answer a question about the timeframe a fetus could survive if a woman in late pregnancy quit breathing or her heart stopped.

There can be so many variables involved in medical situations that it is difficult to give specifics without knowing the particular situation, said Dr. James Volk, vice president of Sanford Fargo.

The newborn in this case, discovered Thursday, Aug. 24, in Crews and Hoehns apartment, is being cared for at Sanford Childrens Hospital.

Fargo Police said the baby girl is in good health and is in protective custody of Cass County Social Services.

In a post on LaFontaine-Greywinds Facebook page two days before she disappeared, she indicated she had hit the 35-week mark of her pregnancy. She was due Sept. 20.

According to Sanford Health, babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered premature. However, babies have been shown to survive at just 22 to 23 weeks with specialized neonatal intensive care.

Fargo Police Chief David Todd said interviews with the two people in custody indicate it is LaFontaine- Greywinds baby, but DNA tests will be used to confirm the identification.

Dr. William Masello, the North Dakota medical examiner, said DNA testing is performed at the state crime lab, and the length of time it takes depends on the quality of the sample.

What they do, they take a toothbrush and try to get DNA, human cells, Masello said, then compare it with the babys DNA.

Ashton Matheny, who is LaFontaine-Greywinds boyfriend, told The Forum that police had taken the missing womans toothbrush from her apartment for DNA testing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 15:30:56|Editor: Song Lifang

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KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Six militants, including an al-Qaida weapons and cash facilitator, were killed in Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan overnight, the Afghan military said on Sunday.

"On a confirmed tip off, Afghan Special Operation Forces launched a raid to capture a senior al-Qaida facilitator in Lal Poor district, eastern Nangarhar province at 12:30 (local time) Saturday and the raid ended at 02:50 Sunday. As a result six militants, including the targeted man, were killed," the command of Special Forces said in a statement.

An additional four militants were captured and the security forces seized weapons and ammunition together with two telecommunication radios, the statement added.

In addition, two Taliban militants named Ibrahim and Mullah Khirullah were killed after Afghan air force conducted an airstrike in Wata Poor district, neighboring Kunar province late Saturday, according to Shirin Aga, an army spokesman, at the region.

Afghan security forces have beefed up security operations against militants, as Afghans have been witnessing a surge in attacks by Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militants across the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 16:21:07|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army and the allied Hezbollah group declared a ceasefire Sunday in the Qalamoun region, following the Islamic State (IS) group's surrender after intense battles, the pro-government al-Watan electronic newspaper reported.

The military operation ended at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) in the badlands of Qara in the Qalamoun region in Syria and the adjacent barrens of al-Qaa on the Lebanese side of the border, after the IS militants in that mountainous region declared their surrender to Hezbollah overnight, said the report.

Meanwhile, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported that the IS militants surrendered as the Hezbollah fighters were closing in on the Halimet Qara mountain in the rugged Qalamoun region.

IS negotiated with Hezbollah on two points, the first is the IS militants demand to leave with their families to their stronghold in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour in Syria, and in turn, they will reveal the destiny of around nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by IS on the Lebanese side of the borders in 2014.

Some reports suggested that the IS militants had already killed the Lebanese soldiers, as reports said Hezbollah was told by IS about their destiny, but the Shiite group will leave the declaration about the fate of the soldiers to the Lebanese army.

Still, it's not yet clear whether the IS will be granted a safe passage to Deir al-Zour, but the terror-labeled group has revealed to Hezbollah the location of the bodies of four Hezbollah fighters who were killed in the Qalamoun battle.

On Aug. 19, Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched their offensive on IS positions in the barrens of Qara and Jarajir in the western Qalamoun region, in tandem with a military operation by the Lebanese army on IS on the Lebanese side of the border to end the terror-designated group's presence on the borderline between Syria and Lebanon.

The operation came just a couple of weeks after Hezbollah and the Syrian army dislodged the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front from areas in western Qalamoun and the adjacent Juroud Arsal barrens on the Lebanese side of the border.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 16:31:10|Editor: Lu Hui

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NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS bloc grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa serves as "a testbed" for a "sharing governance" of global affairs, a leading U.S. expert said.

"BRICS makes that kind of contribution to the world governance by providing diversity," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"I think it would be a mistake, given the nature of humanity, to have only one organization like the United Nations... " he said, adding that a diversity of structures seems to be what makes the most sense over time in global governance since there is no perfection.

"It engages them (BRICS nations) to be a sort of hubs for broader global interaction," Kuhn said, "So Brazil is in South America. South Africa is obviously in southern Africa. These become sort of vehicles to engage more of the world, so that's all positive."

The longtime China observer noted that a greater participation of the five major emerging economies with "very different characteristics" also strengthens momentum for a multipolar world, which is crucial for promoting international stability.

"I am all for the key countries that whether judged economically or through other mechanisms to have greater participation in (global) organizations," Kuhn said.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), which is intended to focus on infrastructure and sustainable development projects, stands as a good example showing "what a new kind of world governance would look like," he said.

"Everybody has equal voting power. So that's a good sign," he added, referring to the NDB'S distinctive feature -- absolutely just distribution of votes between members, different from the quota system of other international financial institutions based on the role of a certain member.

Although with the overwhelmingly larger economy in BRICS, China "does not use that power in an aggressive way to take control" of the NDB, he noted, "I think that's a good signal. And China's doing it because it wants this greater participation in international affairs."

All BRICS countries should have "a greater say" in the international financial activity in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said.

In the World Bank, the BRICS countries, home to 42.6 percent of the global population and nearly half of the world's foreign exchange reserves, have a total of only 13 percent of voting rights, while the United States alone holds 15 percent.

The IMF agreed in 2010 to give emerging economies greater vote in decision-making, but the reform has been blocked by the United States, despite the fact that more than 140 countries have approved it.

"These should be adjusted... that's just not aligned with today's world in the same way," he said.

Since the first foreign ministers' meeting in 2006, BRICS countries have seen 10 years of rapid expansion in trade and economy. They currently account for nearly a quarter of the world economy and contributed more than half of global economic growth in 2016.

The 9th annual summit of the bloc, scheduled for Sept. 3-5 in Xiamen City of southeast China's Fujian Province, is expected to produce a declaration that lays out both the progress BRICS has made so far and its vision of future cooperation.

A "BRICS Plus" mode is expected to expand the bloc's partnership especially with developing countries, providing opportunities for other economies and injecting impetus into economic globalization. This will help make it a leading platform for South-South cooperation.
Lebanon's army on Aug. 27 announced a pause in its offensive against Islamic State group militants along the mountainous border with Syria to allow for negotiations on troops held hostage since 2014. (AFP Photo)

BEIRUT, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's army announced a pause on Sunday in its offensive against Islamic State (IS) militants along the border with Syria to allow for negotiations on troops taken hostage in 2014, the army said in a statement.

"The army command announces a ceasefire beginning at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) to make way for the last phase of negotiations linked to the fate of the kidnapped soldiers," the statement said.

Nine troops are believed to still be held by IS after militants overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014 and kidnapped 30 soldiers and police.

Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds, while 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015.

The army said the remaining missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive against an estimated 600 IS fighters in the hilly border region.

"The negotiations are ongoing for IS to withdraw and provide information on the fate of the troops," the source added.
Conflict, climate change, poverty and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic are driving massive humanitarian crises, leaving millions at risk of famine. Children are the most vulnerable during periods of famine and extreme food insecurity, facing a greater likelihood of severe malnutrition and death. These crises also produce irreversible, life-long consequences for children, leading to severe health and development challenges.

When we think of famine, we often think of a lack of food. But increasingly, the crisis is one not only of food insecurity, but also of clean water, sanitation and health care  especially disease prevention and treatment. Water and sanitation are just as important as food for children and families facing famine and food insecurity. Here are four reasons why:
Prominent Washington correspondents discuss the administrations decision to change military policy in Afghanistan and the possibility of a government shutdown over a proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States. Join moderator David Rennie of the Economist, and panelists Michael Williams of CBS Radio and Tom DeFrank of the National Journal for a lively discussion on Issues in the News.
El Salvador's government has asked the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status to nearly 200,000 of its nationals living in the United States, the country's foreign minister announced Friday.

In a one-on-one interview with VOA's Latin America service, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said tropical storms within the past five years, followed by drought conditions more recently, make the return of those citizens untenable.

"We've told the U.S. also that, of course they had their reasons initially for granting TPS in 2001  the instability following the earthquakes in January and February of 2001  and while we have overcome some of that instability, unfortunately we've suffered other catastrophes," Martinez said.

The U.S. originally granted TPS to Salvadorans in the U.S. in March 2001 following a series of earthquakes. The current designation will expire March 9, 2018.

In making the case to American officials while visiting Washington, Martinez said he also emphasized what Salvadorans are contributing to the U.S. economy.

"Around 90 percent of the [Salvadoran] TPS population is working  and working more than 40 hours [a week], sometimes back-to-back shifts. ... They work in key areas for economic development in the U.S., like construction, the restaurant industry, landscaping, hospitality, but also health care and home care, especially for children."

El Salvador also relies heavily on remittances from workers in the U.S.  recent data indicates 17 percent of the country's GDP depends on the money sent back to the Central American country  totaling $4.58 billion in 2016.

Each country covered by the program  designed, as the name states, to be a temporary measure during a crises, usually a natural disaster, epidemic or violent conflict  undergoes periodic review to determine if those citizens residing in the U.S. will still qualify for the status and work authorization.

There are 10 countries whose citizens may qualify for TPS currently.

During President Barack Obama's second term, for example, the Department of Homeland Security officials declined to renew TPS for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, assessing that the "widespread transmission of Ebola virus in the three countries that led to the designations has ended."

After May 2017, citizens from those countries who had not adjusted their immigration status were no longer protected from deportation.

Under the Trump administration, TPS status for Haitians is in jeopardy, with top officials announcing in May a shorter-than-average, six-month extension until January 22, 2018, and has told Haitians living in the U.S. under TPS to "prepare for their return to Haiti in the event Haitis designation is not extended again."

In the U.S., about 10 percent of the estimated 2 million people of Salvadoran origin are protected by TPS.

El Salvador has long struggled to contain a staggering homicide rate and transnational gang activity that stretches from Central America to the United States  a frequent talking point for the Trump administration officials, which has regularly  and erroneously  linked immigrants to crime.

Asked whether there has been increased cooperation between El Salvador and the U.S. on security issues under Trump, Martinez said there has been, although he is cautious to point out those efforts are a long time in the making.

"In reality, yes, there's been an increase, but it's a natural process that we've been developing with various U.S. [government] agencies," Martinez said. "What I can say is that, with regard to security issues, El Salvador is one of the United States' leading partners in the hemisphere."

Interview of Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez by VOA's Latin America Service Correspondent Gesell Tobias. Translation, additional reporting and text by VOA News Center Reporter Victoria Macchi.
A 51-year-old German woman died Sunday from injuries suffered in the Aug. 17 vehicle attack in Barcelona, raising the overall death toll in Spain's recent attacks to 16, health officials in Catalonia said.



The woman died in the intensive care unit of Barcelona's Hospital del Mar, according to the regional health department.



The latest death raises the toll to 14 in the van attack in Barcelona's popular Las Ramblas boulevard. Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and another woman died in an Aug. 18 vehicle-and-knife attack in the nearby coastal town of Cambrils.



More than 120 people were wounded in the attacks. Authorities say 24 remain hospitalized, five of them in critical condition.



On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 peace marchers flooded the heart of Barcelona shouting "I'm not afraid"  a public rejection of violence following extremist attacks, Spain's deadliest in more than a decade.



Emergency workers, taxis drivers, police and ordinary citizens who helped immediately after the Las Ramblas attack led the march. They carried a street-wide banner with black capital letters reading "No Tinc Por," which means "I'm not afraid" in the local Catalan language.



The phrase has grown from a spontaneous civic answer to violence into a slogan that Spain's entire political class has unanimously embraced.



Spain's central, regional and local authorities tried to send an image of unity Saturday by walking behind the emergency workers, despite earlier criticism that national and regional authorities had not shared information about the attackers well enough with each other.



In a first for a Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI joined a public demonstration, walking in Barcelona along with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other officials. A separate anti-violence rally was held in the northern town of Ripoll, home to many of the attackers.



Eight suspects in the attacks are dead, two are jailed under preliminary charges of terrorism and homicide and two more were freed by a judge but will remain under investigation.
The area around Houston, Texas, is getting no relief Monday from historic tropical storm rains that are expected to continue for several more days as rescuers work to reach those trapped by massive floods.

Forecasters expected the storm that came ashore as Hurricane Harvey on Friday night to drop as much as 25 centimeters (10 inches) of new rainfall around Houston overnight, further soaking the fourth largest city in the United States.

The region has already seen as more than 60 centimeters (24 inches) of rain in some places.

U.S. Weather Prediction Center lead forecaster Patrick Burke told VOA another 40 to 60 centimeters of rain is expected through at least Wednesday.

"The message we've been getting out today is that we've never seen a storm like this. We've never seen these rainfall amounts over such a large area, and so the damage is already catastrophic and unfortunately is going to continue to be catastrophic for days to come," Burke said.

Storm moving out but could strengthen



The National Weather Service said the center of the storm was drifting slowly to the southeast early Monday on a path that would take it back out into the Gulf of Mexico sometime Monday and allow for it to possibly strengthen slightly before making landfall again Tuesday.

With the storm bringing band after band of heavy rain over the region, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced early Monday it was beginning the controlled release of water from two reservoirs in order to help prevent them from failing and to reduce the risk of further flooding. The releases will continue for weeks.

Hundreds of rescue operations have taken place throughout the area with crews in helicopters, boats and wading through floodwaters on foot. Volunteers have joined police, fire and medical crews, as well as 3,000 National Guard members.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would order 1,000 more National Guard troops to Houston Monday. He has declared a state of disaster in about one-quarter of the state's counties, allowing the government to speed aid to those areas.

Every major highway into and out of Houston has become a river, and the city's two airports are closed. So far two deaths have been blamed on the storm.

Since the storm's path was plotted and predicted in great detail well before it hit Texas, questions are beginning to be raised about why no mass evacuation was ordered.



WATCH: VOA Spanish service reporter in Houston



It's impossible not to feel overwhelmed, VOA's Celia Mendoza said Sunday from Houston. She and other reporters trying to chronicle the tragedy wound up needing rescue themselves as the floods spread.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said it was not possible to overcome logistical obstacles to a large-scale evacuation. He defended his actions at a news conference late Sunday, saying it would have been "crazy" to attempt a mass movement of millions of people on such short notice.

Turner asked where the 6 million residents of Houston and its suburbs could have gone, since the city is by far the biggest population center in that part of Texas, the second largest U.S. state. The mayor said his decision not to order an evacuation was smart and in the best interest of Houstonians.

Advice from emergency officials



For those stranded in flooded parts of the city, emergency officials said no one should seek refuge in the attics of their homes, due to a risk that water rising to record levels would trap them in an enclosed area. The advice to all was simple: climb onto the roof and try to attract attention by waving a white cloth.

WATCH: FEMA official on current operations



Twenty-two aircraft were in the skies over Houston and its surroundings Sunday, trying to keep up with constant calls for help and searching for people marooned atop their homes. Helicopter rescues were common, and authorities had hundreds of boats out searching for flood victims. Some people managed to escape the flooded areas by kayak, canoe or inflatable rafts.

People who thought they might be able to walk to safety through water only waist- or chest-deep in their neighborhoods were warned to resist the urge to test strong currents.



The latest satellite imagery from the Gulf of Mexico The latest satellite imagery from the Gulf of Mexico



Trump plans Tuesday visit



President Donald Trump will visit the disaster area Tuesday, White House officials said, but only if it is clear that his trip will not disrupt relief efforts.

The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center warns of unprecedented and catastrophic life-threatening floods across southeast Texas. The National Weather Service said the breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before.

The White House said President Trump led a Cabinet meeting about the storm disaster, and that he expects all federal agencies to stay fully committed to helping state officials in Texas and neighboring Louisiana.

FEMA expects long-term operation



Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long told CNN television that members of his agency will be involved in operations in storm-damaged areas for years. He called the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey a landmark event.

Several Houston-area oil refineries shut down on Sunday as the storm continued. The closures take roughly 12 percent of U.S. fuel-making capacity offline, compounding concerns about fuel shortages and higher gasoline prices.

Harvey was the strongest hurricane to hit the United States mainland in more than a decade.

Celia Mendoza contributed to this report.

In Photos Hurricane Harvey hits Texas:
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 17:31:23|Editor: Song Lifang

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JUBA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said Sunday the slain U.S. journalist was fighting alongside rebels (SPLA-IO) allied to former First Vice President Riek Machar.

South Sudan army (SPLA) deputy spokesman Col. Santo Domic Chol said Christopher Allen was among the 16 rebel fighters killed during the fighting on Saturday afternoon, between government troops and rebels in the border town of Kaya located South East of the capital near the Ugandan border.

The man (Allen) was killed in the frontline together with the (SPLA-IO) rebels. The battle went on for one hour and during the mop up the body of the white man was found, Domic revealed in Juba.

"He is a white rebel because he was killed alongside rebels while he was holding a gun," he added.

Domic disclosed that they had identified the slain American journalist after cross examining his corpse and details in Juba.

He added that Allen's death vindicates and reinforces earlier suspicions by the South Sudanese authorities about some western powers backing rebels in the more than three years of violence that has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions as refugees in neighbouring countries.

Domic added further that this sensitive matter remains the work of the political class in Juba to deal with in collaboration with international diplomats.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Kiir and his former deputy Machar led to fighting that pitted mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital forcing Machar to flee into exile.
A court in Guatemala has blocked an order by the president of the Central American country to expel the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission investigating his campaign financing.

The constitutional court ordered the government not to carry out President Jimmy Morales's order to expel Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian national. The U.N. official has tried to investigate alleged illegal payments linked to the president's party, the National Convergence Front.

In a video published online Sunday, Morales said Velasquez should be expelled "in the interests of the Guatemalan people, for the strengthening of the rule of law and our institutions."

Velasquez said Friday that his International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, working together with Guatemalan government legal officials, believes that Morales violated campaign-financing laws before his election in 2015. In order to pursue the investigation, Velasquez said, he will seek to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution.

The court order to block Morales's retaliatory expulsion order is expected to force the president either to drop his action against Velasquez or defy the nation's top judges.

In Washington Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was "deeply concerned'' by Morales' decision. The U.S. statement supported Velasquez as an effective leader of the commission and said his commission should be able to "work free from interference by the Guatemalan government."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "shocked" to learn that Morales declared Velasquez persona non grata, according to his spokesman.

"He fully expects that Mr. Velasquez will be treated by the Guatemalan authorities with the respect due to his functions as an international civil servant," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Guartemala's attorney general, Thelma Aldana, has worked with the U.N. commission, known as CICIG. She has said Morales refused to account for more than $800,000 in campaign financing.

The same U.N. commission uncovered a corruption scandal that ousted Morales's predecessor, President Otto Perez, two years ago.

About 2,500 people protested in the capital on Saturday, demanding that Morales, a former comic actor who won election on promises to be honest, resign.


The mayor of Houston called on residents to "do their part" to ensure minimal loss of life in southeastern Texas as tropical storm Harvey caused unprecedented floods.

"People are wanting the assistance right now, theyre dialing 911 and sometimes are frustrated they cant get through, I understand that. But what I will say to you is that if we all work together  first responders, neighbors, good samaritans out there  the additional resources are being made available and are being deployed as we speak in different quadrants of the city," Sylvester Turner told a press briefing Sunday. "If we remain calm, and if everybody does his or her part, we will get through this with minimum loss of life, and this city will get right back on track and well move right forward."

IN PICTURES: Unprecedented Rains in Southeastern Texas

Turner said that over 2,000 calls asking for help in had been received as of Sunday. He also detailed a number of additional resources - including opening up community centers to be used as shelter and adding 40 more boats to rescue operations.

Turner also echoed police warnings to residents to go to their roofs, and not their attics should their homes begin flooding.

The National Weather Service in Houston called the flooding in the region "catastrophic, unprecedented, and life threatening" Sunday and warned that it could continue into next week.

At least two people died over the weekend as flooding and tornadoes presented continuing danger for the residents of southeastern Texas.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that at least seven tornadoes have touched down in the Houston area since Friday evening.

"It's impossible not to feel overwhelmed," VOA's Celia Mendoza said Sunday from Houston.

Celia Mendoza's Video Report From Houston

Everything is closed," she said. "People are concerned about what is happening to them  to their neighbors, theyre concerned about their homes," she said, noting that many people were stuck where they work and trying to keep in touch with their families at home.

Casualties

In addition to the two fatalities, Harvey injured at least 14 people. In the area between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared that toll was only the beginning. Texas officials say they expect to find further victims, however, as the storm moves inland.

"This is a situation that Houstonions have dealt with before, but this is one of the worst if not the worst that Houston has suffered," Texas governor Greg Abbott said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, adding that rescuing as many people as possible is "our top goal".

Speaking on CNN Sunday, FEMA administrator Brock Long said that the federal emergency services is "going to be there for years", calling this disaster a "landmark event".

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday to say that "great coordination" between multiple agencies has enabled thousands of victims to be rescued.

Trump also tweeted that he plans to visit the destruction in Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption."

Torrential rains

Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, with winds of 209 kph at the time of landfall, has already dumped more than 50 centimeters of rain in some places and is predicted to move through a 600-kilometer-wide swath of the Texas coast.

The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in southeast Texas, near the small town of Rockport not far from the city of Corpus Christi, slamming the state's Gulf Coast with strong winds and heavy rain over hundreds of kilometers of coastline. Since then it has gradually weakened.

Tens of thousands of Texas residents have fled inland to avoid wind and flooding from the threatening storm.

Governor Abbott said more than 1,000 state personnel have been assigned to search-and-rescue operations and theyve already made several rescues, hoisting people into helicopters to avoid floodwaters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is readying supplies and search and rescue teams at its regional coordination center in Denton, Texas to send out as soon as conditions permit.
Japan's Defense Ministry on Sunday said it was searching for three crew members of a Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter in the Sea of Japan after contact was lost with the chopper. One crew member had been rescued uninjured.

The ministry said the SH-60J anti-submarine warfare helicopter lost contact around 90 km (56 miles) off the coast of Aomori Prefecture late on Saturday.

It said the flight data recorder had been located, but did not say what had actually happened to the helicopter, whether it crashed or ditched into the sea. The MSDF has launched an investigation into the incident.

Earlier this month, four Japanese crew members were injured after their CH-101 chopper crashed on land during a training exercise at Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan.
A Jordanian official said Sunday that Jordan is negotiating with Germany over the legal status of German troops to be stationed in the kingdom, amid reports that disagreements delayed deployment.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany seeks immunity in Jordan for 250 soldiers who are part of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State group extremists. The report says Jordan balked at the demand.



The Jordanian official said talks with Germany are "subject to international diplomatic rules" and "equal mutual treatment." He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters on the issue.



Germany's Defense Ministry played down the report saying the negotiation process is ongoing and that ``we are in fruitful talks with Jordan.''



"We already started the deployment... and are expecting to be fully operational by October,'' said a spokesman for the German Defense Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.



Germany chose Jordan after previous host Turkey prevented German lawmakers from visiting the troops there.
The Lebanese army says it has found human remains believed to belong to troops kidnapped by Islamic State forces three years ago near the Syrian border.

The announcement came after the Lebanese army announced a unilateral cease-fire in its fight against the IS group along the border.

A statement from the army Sunday said the cease-fire began at 0400 UTC in order to allow for negotiations linked to the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped in August 2014.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Syrian army, which are fighting the Islamic State group in the same area, have also announced cease-fires.

Thirty Lebanese soldiers and police were kidnapped when Islamic State militants took control of the Lebanese border town of Arsal three years ago. Four were killed by IS, a fifth died of his wounds and 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015.
Human rights activists are urging Afganistan's President Ashraf Ghani to expand anti-torture laws enacted months ago to allow victims abused by security forces to seek restitution and compensation.

A "Redress Annex" attached to the anti-torture law would allow victims to take the government to civil court, something not currently allowed under the law, say activists.

The annex has been drafted and its backers hope Ghani will sign a decree making it an official part of the law. A spokesman for Ghani's office did not respond to requests for comment.

As of now, it is up to the government to investigate and prosecute members of its own security forces who are accused of torture, something activists and investigators say is rare.

"The pervasiveness of torture in Afghanistan makes its criminalization and the prosecution of alleged torturers an urgent priority," Human Rights Watch senior researcher Patricia Gossman wrote in a post calling for the annex to be enacted.

"But the government also needs to enshrine in law the rights of torture victims to redress for their suffering."

If prosecutors delay, "a compensation system would create a new avenue for holding the government accountable," she said.

Human rights investigators have praised recent moves by Ghani's administration to criminalize torture, but at a practical level reports of torture continue to be widespread.

In April, a U.N. report said measures by the government had failed to reduce torture, with nearly 40 percent of conflict-related detainees interviewed by the investigators reporting that they had been tortured or mistreated by Afghan security forces, mostly the police and intelligence services.

Among the methods described in the report were severe beatings to the body and soles of the feet with sticks, plastic pipes or cables, electric shocks, including to the genitals, prolonged suspension by the arms, and suffocation.

Allowing victims to sue in civil court would ensure that they receive compensation and create a public record of torture cases, said Shaharzad Akbar, a civil society activist who works on anti-torture causes.

"Governments across the world are hesitant to prosecute their employees, so redress creates a civil mechanism for the public to hold government accountable," she said.

"This leads to an internal conversation in the government about the responsibility of government entities to prevent torture."
U.S. President Donald Trump's new aid chief, Mark Green, kicked off an African tour in Sudan on Sunday, where he will assess whether Khartoum has done enough to get help into conflict areas to deserve eased sanctions.

It is Green's first trip as administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, a job he began two weeks ago amid talk of budget cuts and a wide-reaching reorganization of the agency by the Trump administration.

He is due to visit aid projects in drought-hit zones including neighboring Ethiopia, at a time when Washington is considering an estimated 30-percent cut in the budget of the State Department and USAID.

But his priorities will also include weighing whether Washington should reform one of its main diplomatic fronts in the region - a raft of sanctions imposed first over Khartoum's perceived support of global terrorism, later its violent suppression of rebels in Darfur.

U.S. officials have said existing limited steps to ease sanctions are meant to recognize progress in Sudan, particularly moves to reduce internal conflict and increase cooperation with Washington in the war against terrorism.

Just before leaving office, former U.S. President Barack Obama temporarily eased penalties against Sudan, suspending a trade embargo, unfreezing assets and removing financial sanctions.

In July, the Trump administration postponed for three months a decision on whether to remove the restrictions full-time  giving it an Oct. 12 deadline to make up its mind.

Part of Green's fact-finding mission, say the officials, will be to assess whether the Khartoum government is letting aid into Darfur and other rebellious border areas, one of several conditions that needs to be met.

Speaking to U.N. representatives and other donors hours after his arrival in Khartoum, Green said his visit showed the importance of improved humanitarian access.

"This review period is not the sole reason I am here, but it is one," he said. "I'm here to listen, learn, and gather information to take back to Washington as the administration evaluates Sudan's progress," he said.

Green assured donors that the United States would not walk walk away from funding the humanitarian crisis, despite the proposed budget cuts.

"The United States will not walk away from our commitment to humanitarian assistance, and we will always stand with people everywhere when disaster strikes, for that is who we are is Americans," said Green.

Any lifting of economic penalties would be a major turnaround for the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who once played host to Osama bin Laden and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.

Washington has not weakened its condemnation of the tactics the Sudanese government used in Darfur  and Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, alongside Iran and Syria.

But the different signals on sanctions have come at a time of seismic changes in the region  U.S. security officials have praised Khartoum's more recent help in fighting al Qaeda and dealing with the turmoil in northern neighbor Libya.

Diplomatic calculations have also changed since South Sudan collapsed into chaos after declaring independence from Sudan in 2011.

Green, a 57-year-old former four-term Republican congressman from Wisconsin, served as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania under President George W. Bush, and helped craft key areas of Bush's signature AIDS program, PEPFAR.

Earlier this month, he told Reuters he needed to do more with less as he faced the prospect of budget cuts, and had to prove to Trump that development assistance could further his "America First" agenda.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan have once again vowed to defeat the Islamic State militant group. the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan told VOA.

We can defeat and will defeat IS in the future, General John Nicholson, commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told VOAs Afghan service. Our primary goal this year has been to reduce their attempt at a caliphate in Nangarhar and we are doing that.

Islamic State's self-styled Khorasan Province branch (IS-K) emerged in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan more than two years ago and has wreaked havoc in several Afghan provinces, including eastern Nangarhar province where it has a presence in several districts.

The U.S. commander said ISs plan to establish a caliphate in Afghanistan has been foiled by Afghan and U.S. forces.

Islamic State Khorasan attempted to establish a caliphate in Afghanistan. They declared that Jalalabad would be the capital and they would take over Nangarhar, they have failed. Gen. Nicholson said.

New policy

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced his new policy for Afghanistan in which he gave battlefield decision-making powers to his ground commanders in Afghanistan.

The U.S. and the Afghan governments say their security operations in recent months have reduced the extremist groups strength and territorial control.

From the height of their expansion to about nine districts, we have squeezed them in three districts, Nicholson said, referring to the IS presence in Nangarhar. "We killed over two third of their fighters. We killed their last three emirs. So yes, we will defeat Daesh, he added, using an Arabic term for IS.

As the group is steadily losing strength and territory in Nangarhar, it is trying to expand to mountainous parts of the adjacent Kunar and Nuristan provinces. It has made inroads in the country's northern Jawzjan and Sar-e-Pul provinces.

As we put pressure on them, they have attempted to move to other parts of the country and we are following them there. We will stay on Daesh, Nicholson said.

American and Afghan forces conduct counterterrorism operations together, including operations against IS militants, the U.S. commander said.

Cooperation necessary

When I say we, I am talking about the Afghan Special Forces with the U.S. counterterrorism forces working together with Afghan airpower and U.S. airpower, he said.

The Afghan government says its forces are fighting along with U.S. forces to target terror groups fighting the government.

I think the policy and future strategy is now clear. The goal is to target and annihilate terrorists from wherever they operate and make sure that Afghanistan is stable and peaceful, said Ahmad Shah Katawazai, defense liaison at the Afghanistan Embassy in Washington. Our forces are committed to wipe them out and in some areas, particularly fight against IS, our special forces are fighting shoulder to shoulder together with U.S. forces.

Afghan special forces, backed by U.S. ground and airpower, have been engaged in fierce battles for the past four months to rout IS militants from Nangarhars Achin district, the groups stronghold.

As part of the goal of eliminating IS in Afghanistan this year, hundreds of IS fighters, including several senior commanders, have been killed in recent months. Abu Sayed, the groups top leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a U.S. airstrike last month. Sayed was the second IS leader in the past four months to have been killed.

But despite the battlefield losses, IS has been able to target Afghan villages and claimed responsibility for conducting a number of deadly attacks in major Afghan cities, including capital Kabul.

On Friday, the terror group claimed responsibility for storming a Mosque in Kabul, killing at least 28 worshipers and injuring more than 50 others during Friday prayers.

The U.S. general said he hopes the regional countries would support the fight against IS in Afghanistan.

Our message to the neighbors in the region is the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces are the ones who are fighting Daesh. So we would hope that neighbors and the other countries in the region would support the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces in the fight against Daesh.

Hekmat Sorosh with VOAs Afghanistan service contributed to this report from Kabul.
President Donald Trump should not have pardoned a former Arizona sheriff who was convicted of criminal contempt in a case of racial profiling, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said on Saturday.

Trump announced on Friday he was pardoning Joe Arpaio, an anti-immigration hardliner found guilty last month for flouting a 2011 court order that barred officers from detaining Latino motorists solely on the suspicion they were illegal immigrants.

"Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon," Ryan said in a statement.

"The speaker does not agree with the decision," Ryan's spokesman Doug Andres said.

Some other prominent Republicans, including Arizona Senator John McCain and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have also criticized Trump for the controversial pardon.

Arpaio, 85, was an outspoken supporter of Trump's presidential campaign and both men have argued for tougher policies against illegal immigration.

As president, Trump has broad powers to issue pardons and he had said Arpaio was convicted for "doing his job".

Arpaio lost his own bid for re-election in Arizona's Maricopa County in November, after 24 years in office.
The killing of an American journalist in South Sudan violates international humanitarian law and should be investigated, according to an international human rights group.



South Sudan's leaders should "condemn this killing, investigate how it happened and hold those responsible to account,'' Jehanne Henry, senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press.



On Saturday morning, 28-year-old freelance journalist, Christopher Allen, was killed when fighting erupted between opposition and government forces along the border between South Sudan and Uganda.



The rebel forces launched a coordinated attack on several towns along the Ugandan border, said the opposition's deputy spokesman, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel. Allen and two other journalists were embedded with the rebels on a two-week mission and they had come from Kampala, Gabriel told The Associated Press.



Gabriel alleged that Allen "was targeted and killed by the government forces for photographing the fight.'' He sent his condolences to Allen's family and friends.



Army spokesman, Col. Domic Chol Santo, dismissed the opposition account as "rubbish,'' saying the government forces acted in self-defense and Allen was killed in the crossfire near the town of Kaya, 2 kilometers (1 mile) from Bazi.



Allen, a freelance journalist, had been based on and off in Kyiv, Ukraine, for several years, said a member of the Ukrainian National Guard and a friend of Allen's during his time in Ukraine.



"He actually struck me as an intelligent fellow, open-minded,'' said the Ukrainian soldier who insisted on anonymity for security reasons.



He said Allen had embedded with a paramilitary group before embedding with his unit for three weeks in March, 2015, and that Allen told him he was interested in joining the military in the future.



South Sudan is one of the harshest climates in the world for journalists, according to press freedom groups. Recently the government has cracked down on the press, blocking several South Sudan news websites.



In the past few months, 15 South Sudanese journalists have been detained, beaten or denied access to information, according to the Union of Journalists in South Sudan and more than 20 foreign journalists have been denied entry or kicked out of the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 17:36:28|Editor: Song Lifang

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Somalia government has opened network operations center (NOC), the first of its kind for the Horn of Africa nation to provide free internet for federal institutions.

Abdi Ashur Hassan, Minister for Posts, Telecom and Technology who officially opened the centre late on Saturday, said the service would help the ministry reclaim its role as technology services provider for government institutions.

"We acknowledge that Internet service we offer does not cover the needs of the federal institutions in terms of both the number of those covered and the bandwidth speeds each site is allocated for," Hassan said.

"However, we will work with our partners in expanding the service in the near future," he added.

Deputy Prime Minister, Mahdi Guled said the centre is aimed at providing free Internet services to 26 federal government agencies in different parts of the capital Mogadishu.

"Supported by the World Bank, the NOC provides secure and reliable connection to the Internet and a dedicated service, which will offer 24/7 support, monitoring, and troubleshooting for government entities," Guled said.

The inauguration comes after Somalia's both Houses have approved the National Communications Act to regulate the country's telecommunication sector.

The telecommunications bill calls for the creation of telecoms regulatory authority, development of the country with telecommunications technology, protecting corporate and consumer rights and more participation by private sectors in developing the sector.

The Minister of education Abdirahman Dahir Osman Dr Osman Guled, said the free Internet services are helping the ministries and other institutions to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.
A suicide car bomber attacked a market in southern Afghanistan Sunday, killing at least 13 people and wounding many more.

The attack in Helmand province's Nawa district targeted a military convoy, local officials said. Most of the victims were Afghan soldiers and police personnel.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the past two years, and after the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops, the Taliban have stepped up attacks and spread out from their southern heartland across the country. Attacks in the north have also increased.

Government forces took control of the district from the Taliban last month, but fighting has continued. The Taliban still control several districts in Helmand, the largest Afghan province that shares its borders with Pakistan and Iran.

Sunday's attack followed another suicide attack last week in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, where a bomb explosion killed seven people and wounded 40 others.

In a separate incident on Sunday, two police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in western Nimroz province when their convoy was attacked by militants, a provincial official said.

No one has claimed responsibility for that attack.


Myanmar's government said it has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said.

Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place near the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.

Bracing for more violence, thousands of Rohingya - mostly women and children - were trying to forge the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and the land border. Reuters reporters at the border could hear gunfire from the Myanmar side on Sunday.

Around 2,000 people have been able to cross into Bangladesh since Friday, according to estimates by Rohingya refugees living in the makeshift camps on the Bangladeshi side of the border.

The violence marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

While the chaos and lack of access made detailed assessments difficult, experts said the latest attacks were so widespread they appeared to be more akin to a movement or an uprising, rather than a regular insurgent offensive.

One army source said the military was also struggling to differentiate.

"All the villagers become insurgents, what they're doing is like a revolution," said the source in Rakhine. "They don't care if they die or not. We can't tell who of them are insurgents."

Challenge for Suu Kyi

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi on Friday condemned the raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for the long-persecuted Muslim minority.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, told Reuters late on Saturday that 4,000 "ethnic villagers" who had fled their villages had been evacuated, referring to non-Muslim residents of the area.

The ministry is arranging facilities for them in places including Buddhist monasteries, government offices and local police stations in major cities.

"We are providing food to the people cooperating with the state government and local authorities," said Win Myat Aye. He was unable to describe the government's plans to help Rohingya civilians.

Rakhine residents in ethnically mixed or non-Muslim towns have readied knives and sticks to defend themselves. Many were stranded in their villages located in Muslim-majority areas as clashes continued and some roads had been mined, residents said.

People from Maungdaw and another town, Buthidaung, said on Sunday they worried food supply routes had been temporarily cut off.

"Buthidaung will face shortages of food, because no ships have arrived since the fighting started. It is also difficult to send food to the villagers stuck in other areas," Arakan National Party regional lawmaker, Tun Aung Thein, told Reuters by telephone from the town.

'Breaking point'

The Myanmar army operation following attacks last year was heavily criticized internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson that a United Nations investigation said probably constituted crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking the U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.

The Rohingya have for years endured apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar - they are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements. Many Myanmar Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Observers worry that the latest attacks, across a wider area than October's violence and with many more people involved, represent a "breaking point" many Rohingya reached with the help of a charismatic insurgent leader, Ata Ullah.

Ata Ullah leads the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks and claimed responsibility for the latest offensive.

Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organization in the wake of the attacks.

Across the border, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said it was concerned thousands of "unarmed Myanmar nationals" were planning to enter the country.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s and there are now around 400,000 in the country, where they are a source of tension between the two nations who both regard them as the other country's citizens.
House speaker Paul Ryan says he disagrees with President Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving his department's racial profiling policy.

Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon, Ryan spokesman Doug Andres said in a statement.

Both Republican Senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, also were critcal of the move.

In a statement late Friday, the White House said of Arpaio: "Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon."

Trump had hinted at a campaign-style rally last week that he might pardon Arpaio, whom supporters have called "America's toughest sheriff."

As sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, Arpaio was a vocal advocate for crackdowns on illegal immigration and last month was convicted of misdemeanor contempt of court because he refused to comply with a 2011 order by a U.S. district judge to stop traffic patrols that were aimed at identifying illegal immigrants.

Trump's Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert told ABC's This Week that the pardon was "pretty straightforward" and "just about every modern president ends up with some controversial pardons."

Some of Arpaio's critics have expressed disappointment over Trump's decision, including Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"With his pardon of Arpaio, Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice," Wang said, referring to Arpaio's unorthodox disciplinary measures, some of which -- such as the racial profiling policy -- have been ruled illegal.

"Once again, the president has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of color and have been struck down by the courts," she added. "His pardon of Arpaio is a presidential endorsement of racism."

The American Bar Association, a national organization of lawyers and other legal professionals, said in a statement it is disappointed in the president's action, which it said undermined public trust in the U.S. legal system. The ABA said Arpaio had "disobeyed the courts and violated the rights of people he was sworn to protect", substituting his own interpretation of justice for the law.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials called the pardon "an endorsement of racism from the highest office in the land."

Arpaio would have faced up to six months in jail at his October 5 sentencing.

"Sheriff Joe" has enjoyed a significant amount of publicity with his unorthodox disciplinary methods, such as placing inmates in desert tent camps housing more than 1,000 people, in a state where summer temperatures often climb past 100F (37C).

Amnesty International spoke out against the so-called "Tent City Jail" in 1997, saying it was not an "adequate or human alternative to housing inmates in suitable jail facilities."

The tent city continued to exist, however, until current Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone announced in April 2017 that it would be shut down. Penzone said the tent city was neither a deterrent to crime nor cost-effective.

Arpaio also made famous the practice of outfitting prisoners in pink underwear to cut down on theft. Later he sold customized pink boxers to the general public as a charity fundraiser.

He was also was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU accusing him of mistreating pre-trial detainees by feeding them rotten food, refusing them health care, and packing them tightly into overheated cells. A federal judge ruled in 2008 and again in 2010 that conditions in Arpaio's jails were unconstitutional.

Accused in the lawsuit of creating a "culture of cruelty" at Maricopa County facilities, Sheriff Arpaio has responded that his jails are meant as places for punishment.

He was investigated for abuse of power in 2008, in connection with an FBI investigation, but the inquiry was closed four years later by the Arizona U.S. Attorney's office with no charges filed.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice released the findings of a three-year investigation into complaints of racial profiling in Maricopa County. It found that under Sheriff Arpaio, the sheriff's office had "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos" reaching "the highest levels of the agency."

Arpaio appealed, but lost. On May 24, 2013, Arpaio and his office were found to be in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Maricopa County Sheriff is an elected position; Arpaio served six terms between 1992 and 2016, but lost last year's election to Paul Penzone.
U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to scrap NAFTA and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement.

"We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?" he wrote.

In a separate Sunday morning tweet, Trump repeated his pledge that Mexico will eventually pay for his proposed border wall, saying the barrier is needed due to Mexico's high crime rate.

In response, Mexico's foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday afternoon reiterating the country's position that it will not "in any way or under any circumstance" pay for Trump's signature border wall.

The ministry added that overcoming violent crime associated with cross-border drug trafficking is the responsibility of both nations, pointing to the high demand for drugs in the United States from Mexico and other countries.

Trump, a Republican, promised during his campaign to build the wall and overhaul or eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he cast as killing jobs and exacerbating the U.S. deficit, and to adopt a more protectionist stance for trade generally.

The first five-day round of talks between the three countries concluded last Sunday, with all sides committing to follow an accelerated process in revamping the agreement, which was originally signed by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat whose wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ran against Trump in the 2016 election.

The second round of NAFTA talks will kick off on Friday in Mexico City.

Mexico's negotiating position will continue to be "serious and constructive" and the country's negotiators will not hash out differences "via social media or the press," the foreign ministry's statement said.

Going into the next round of NAFTA talks, Trump has kept the heat turned up. Both Mexico and Canada have dismissed his musing in a Tuesday speech that "we'll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point" as a negotiating tactic.
Scientists have not been able to develop a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, despite working toward one for more than 100 years.

However, they may have stumbled onto something that could provide clues to advance the development of such a vaccine.

Decades ago, in the late 1990s, a strain of meningitis B was reaching epidemic proportions in New Zealand. A vaccine, MeNZB, was developed to protect young people who were at the highest risk of getting this particular type. It did not provide protection against any other strain.

Between 2004 and 2006, MeNZB was given to anyone under the age of 20. Babies and preschoolers were routinely immunized until 2008. People with a high medical risk continued to get the vaccine until 2011. Once the epidemic was over, the vaccination program was stopped.

However, scientists noticed that the meningitis vaccine also seemed to offer some protection against gonorrhea. A study published in the Lancet last month showed that one-third of the people who had received MeNZB did not get gonorrhea, compared to a control group who was not inoculated. The lead author noted that the bacteria causing both diseases share between 80 and 90 percent of their primary genetic sequences.

Dr. Steven Black, an infectious disease expert at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital, noted, This is the first time its been shown that you could have a vaccine that would protect against gonorrhea. And if these results are confirmed in another setting, that would mean that it would be very reasonable  to go forward with developing perhaps a more targeted vaccine. Black's comments were published in the current issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The World Health Organization reports that gonorrhea is becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat, warning that it could become incurable in the not-too-distant future. At the moment, there no new antibiotics being developed to treat this disease.

"The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them," according to Dr. Teodora Wi, a medical officer involved in human reproduction at the WHO, quoted in a news release from the UN agency.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States. All known cases must be reported to the CDC, but officials there estimate that they are notified of fewer than half of the 800,000 new cases each year.

Women may not have any symptoms, but untreated gonorrhea can cause serious health problems. It can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease. It can cause life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, and pregnant women can pass the disease to their babies. Gonorrhea can lead to infertility for both men and women, and can make those who have it more likely to get HIV.

The study about the New Zealand epidemic may change the approach toward developing a vaccine against gonorrhea.

The JAMA article concludes that ultimately, a preventive vaccine could be the only sustainable solution to a fast-changing bug that has proven adept at developing resistance.
One of the enduring images of the annual Kennedy Center Honors is of teary-eyed A-list artists with their rainbow-ribboned medals sitting next to a smiling president and first lady in the White House box.

But that money shot wont be happening this year, when LL Cool J, Carmen de Lavallade, Gloria Estefan, Norman Lear and Lionel Richie are celebrated for their contributions to the performing arts. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump bowed out of the 2017 event after Lear, de Lavallade and Richie said they wouldnt attend the White House reception before the Kennedy Center festivities Dec. 3. (The show is to be broadcast Dec. 26 on CBS.)

[Trump, first lady to skip Kennedy Center Honors over concerns of political distraction]

Trumps decision probably will not put a damper on the star-studded event, a highlight of Washingtons social calendar that brings celebrities, political leaders and corporate titans together to raise money for the Kennedy Centers programs. Trumps call for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts did not endear him to the cultural world, and his response to the Charlottesville demonstrations led many corporate leaders to resign from his business councils. So theres a whiff of the inevitable to this outcome, as well as a tacit acknowledgment of how hard it is to keep politics out of any Washington event.

Its a blessing in disguise, and not very well disguised, said Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor emeritus in public affairs and philanthropy at Indiana University. With an unpopular president, this is not going to be a big deal.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Kennedy Center Honors reception at the White House on Dec. 4, 2016. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

[Trump wants to cut the NEA and NEH. This is the worst-case scenario for arts groups ]

Presidents have no role in the selection of the honorees, who are chosen by a Kennedy Center committee from nominations by the public and past winners. But the president and first ladys presence helps to sell out the fundraiser. Since the first event in 1978, every president has attended, although Jimmy Carter skipped it in 1979 because of the hostage crisis, while George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton missed out because of trips to Europe in 1989 and 1994. Obama arrived late in 2015.

Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said there are no signs that the event will suffer from Trumps decision to stay away.

Our patrons, our friends, our donors love the weekend. They love coming here, and they plan their weekend around it, she said. We have not had any feedback that says, Im not coming. 

Thats good news for the arts centers finances. The Kennedy Center brings in $6.5 million to $7 million from the performance and post-show gala, with ticket prices of $500 to $6,000. But thats a fraction of the donations it generates. Patrons must give at least $10,000 to be eligible to buy tickets to the glamorous affair.

Trumps decision, although made three months before the show, came after the presale of tickets was underway. Earlier this month, CBS and Boeing were named exclusive sponsor and underwriter for the ceremony, respectively, and Boeings chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, is chairing the post-show gala. And corporate donors seeking to network will still have the opportunity to mingle with artists, celebrities and politicians.

There will probably be a fair number of senior staff there, Lenkowsky said. Corporate people have learned that the boss is not the guy you want; you want to be closer to the actual decision-makers.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are welcomed as they arrive at the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

This years impasse exposes political tensions that have bubbled under the surface for decades. Pianist Leon Fleisher, a 2007 honoree, wrote about his discomfort at attending the White House reception hosted by George W. Bush because he disagreed with Bushs policies on the war in Iraq and the torture of prisoners. Honors producer George Stevens Jr. told him that earlier honorees  including Isaac Stern and Arthur Miller in 1984  had similar misgivings. But all ended up following tradition.

Im somewhat grateful that [Trump] has bowed out, Fleisher said in a phone interview, adding that it would have been easier to decline had Trump been hosting. From his point of view, its the avoidance of a boring evening.

Political humor that had been avoided in previous celebrations crept into last years performance, held weeks after the election. Comedian Stephen Colbert slipped several digs at Trump into an opening monologue that included lavish praise for the Obamas. At the State Department dinner the night before the performance, actors Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey werent shy in expressing their fears about the incoming administration. And on her personal Facebook page on Jan. 20, the day Trump was sworn in, Rutter posted, A very sad and scary day in America. (Her public page has since been made private.)

[Kennedy Center Honors: How sweet it is to be loved by the nation]

We have worked to be entertaining but not political. At the State Department, people make their own comments that are not for public consumption, said Rutter, who added that she thought her Facebook post was private.

I have the utmost respect for the presidency and the nonpartisan tradition of the Kennedy Center, and over the course of this year I have personally welcomed the president, the vice president and many senior members of his administration to the Kennedy Center, and that will continue.

It is unclear how this years break in tradition will affect the ongoing relationship among the Trump White House, the Kennedy Center and the wider arts community. Some Kennedy Center insiders say the first year of an administration sets the tone for the rest of the term, but for Rutter, its too early to tell.

I am making no assumptions about the future, she said.
This video provided by the ACLU appears to show a man firing at counterprotesters during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12. (ACLU of Virginia)

This video provided by the ACLU appears to show a man firing at counterprotesters during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12. (ACLU of Virginia)

Arriving in Charlottesville for a rally planned by white nationalists earlier this month, Virginias top homeland security official nodded to a nearby group of men clad in camouflage and armed with semiautomatic rifles, believing they were soldiers in the states National Guard.

Then he did a double take.

Theyre not ours, are they? said the official, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran, who described the exchange in an interview. No, sir, came a reply from his deputy in the passenger seat. I dont think theyre with us.

The presence of the homegrown militia was just one in a series of unanticipated developments in Charlottesville for state and local law enforcement leaders who had planned for weeks for the Aug. 12 showdown between white nationalists and counterprotesters. Despite warnings to the city manager and police chief that a more aggressive approach was needed, including an appeal from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the local police in charge temporarily lost control of the city as people brawled on the streets, leaving one dead.

And though a torch-lit march the night before ended with white nationalists attacking college students, city officials said police stuck to a tactical plan that included little-to-no visible buffer zone between armed white nationalists and their armed opponents.





[Charlottesville victim was standing up for what was right]

Most dangerously, law enforcement experts say, officers initially deployed without adequate protective gear to break up fighting and were not well positioned to keep the peace. As fights erupted, police stayed back. They stood not between the two opposing groups but behind them and off to the sides. And when they cleared the park where rallygoers had gathered near a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, police flushed many of them directly onto the same street where counterprotesters were gathered, according to witnesses and video.

The area became a flashpoint, and video that surfaced Friday appears to show a white nationalist fire a handgun after leaving the park. By the end of the day, two police officers were killed in a helicopter crash.

The police tactics on the ground and approach mystified some law enforcement veterans and experts, including former Charlottesville police chief Timothy J. Longo, now a lecturer at the University of Virginia who teaches about the use of force by police.

How do you allow two completely divergent and armed groups to come in contact with one another, knowing full well for weeks in advance that there were warnings of violence? Longo asked. In the current climate, this has all the earmarks of something that will happen again, and certainly every city should be looking at what happened to learn a lesson.

In a confidential memo Thursday to City Manager Maurice Jones, the City Council demanded an explanation for the apparent unwillingness of officers to directly intervene during overt assaults captured in many videos.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, who was in charge that day, declined to be interviewed but said in a statement to The Washington Post that his office realized the potential for serious violence and worked closely with the state police.

A vehicle plows into a group of counterprotesters in Charlottesville after a white nationalist rally on Aug. 12, 2017. One woman died, and an Ohio man faces charges. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress)

We employed the Unified Command approach every step of the way that morning, which ultimately limited the number of injuries, arrests, and incidents within and immediately surrounding Emancipation Park, he wrote. There was never a stand down order issued. Instead, there were processes to initiate and multiple things going on all at the same time, that participants and the media would not have seen taking place.

[Mother of Charlottesville suspect describes him as very threatening]

Mayor Mike Signer and some council members, however, say they were locked out of the planning process. In Charlottesville, as in many municipalities in Virginia, the police chief reports to the city manager rather than to the mayor, and the mayor does not have the executive powers commonly held in many states.

On Friday, the council announced that Timothy Heaphy, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, would lead an independent review of the events of Aug. 12.

Court documents, internal city memos, emails and text messages show Charlottesville city leaders were often at odds in key respects in the weeks leading up to the rally. Signer led a push by council members as early as July 13 to relocate the rally outside of the citys downtown core. In the confidential memo, the council faulted Jones for failing to act quickly to relocate the protest and for his handling of the event overall.

Jones denied that he was slow to pursue the idea of moving the rally. The city ultimately decided to revoke the rally permit on Aug. 7, a decision organizers challenged successfully in federal court, with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Signer wrote on Facebook that, before the rally, he asked Chief Thomas what he could do to help.

The chief replied: Stay out of my way.

Requests from McAuliffe

A month earlier, Charlottesville and State Police had faced criticism for being too aggressive in their response to a Ku Klux Klan gathering. About three dozen Klan members, surrounded by a phalanx of state and local officers, demonstrated in another downtown park. The police, wearing riot gear, created a buffer zone between the Klan and approximately 1,000 protesters.

There were no reports of violence until the rally ended and straggling protesters confronted police, who then used tear gas to break up the crowd.

Charlottesville council members called for an investigation and public report.

The review never came. In its memo to Jones last week, the council said the failure to produce a report was a significant problem given the need for us to learn lessons from July 8 for August 12.

As Charlottesville was preparing for the Unite the Right rally this month, the governor called Signer on Aug. 2. He asked that Charlottesville shorten the length of the permitted rally and prohibit guns. He recommended that the city not allow backpacks into the protest area, citing warnings  including from the FBI  that bags could be used to conceal weapon or improvised explosive devices.

McAuliffe also wanted attendees to park outside the city and to be bused to downtown. He said he worried officers would not be able to maintain public safety when white nationalists and counterprotesters disbanded and headed back to their cars.

None of these restrictions were put into place, Jones acknowledged. He said that the city did not believe it had the authority to ban backpacks and that the busing plan was unrealistic because it would require cooperation from the protesters, who he said did not follow the previously agreed-to security plan.

Under Virginia state law, Thomas, the police chief, was in charge of handling the rally. But Moran and Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the state police, had separately made preparations. More than 600 troopers in Virginia were in Charlottesville or on their way. On the governors order, the National Guard had also moved a planned weekend training exercise for a military police unit from Manassas, more than 80 miles away, to the armory just outside Charlottesville.

As the rally date approached, however, confusion grew about the details.

The final location was not determined until Friday evening, when a federal judge ruled that it could proceed at Emancipation Park. The rallys organizers say they were given conflicting information from law enforcement about which routes to take to the park and what time they could arrive.

Thomas has said police attempted to keep the two sides separate but that rallygoers decided to change their plan and enter the park in different locations.

The rally was scheduled to start at noon Saturday. But organizers said in court records that police instead decided to open the grounds at 6 a.m. and reversed an earlier pledge to escort them into the park, a claim the city did not dispute in court documents.

Online message boards for white nationalists soon filled up with talk of getting to the park first to hold ground. The brew of conflicting information and confusion set the stage for a Saturday rally that became one of the most violent white-nationalist protests in decades.

A tinder box

When Moran left for Charlottesville the day before the protests, he joked with the governor about needing a bulletproof vest. The next day, he texted McAuliffe pictures of the heavily armed militia.

Im going to need that vest, he wrote.

At 8:30 a.m., the events organizer, Jason Kessler, arrived. His group encountered barricades blocking a rear entrance to the park that police had said the rallygoers were supposed to use, he said. They took side streets around to the front of the park, and there encountered a gantlet of counterprotesters to reach the park entrance, he said.

They created a tinder box, Kessler said. Police didnt provide the safe passage we expected, and the counterprotesters, they didnt get a fair shake, either  an area where they could safely express their views without fear of harm.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which trains law enforcement officers on best practices, said that Charlottesville appeared not to follow fundamentals for how to deal with events involving confrontational groups.

One of the most significant things you can do when you have two kinds of volatile groups is meet with them beforehand and establish strong lines of communications, Wexler said. You want to establish the rules of engagement, make sure they know their rights to express their opinions and keep them separate from the counterdemonstrators. Above all else, be a visible presence between the two, because otherwise you are inviting problems.

By 10 a.m., Market Street was filled. White nationalists were on a collision course with counterprotesters, marching directly past  or through  them on their way to the park. There was pushing and shoving. Many of the white nationalists wore helmets and protective eye goggles and carried shields, clubs and guns. Some counterprotesters, including a smaller number of antifa, or self-described antifascists, also wore helmets and goggles and carried makeshift shields and sticks.

We were starting to feel then obviously that things were starting to get to the point where we needed to accelerate our preparations, Moran said. I ran over to the command center on the Wells Fargos 6th floor and got a good view.  There was sporadic fighting. Theyd fight, theyd split up. But the groups were starting to amass.

Before 10:30 a.m., council members received an email from Jones, the city manager, warning that conditions were deteriorating and authorities probably would have to clear the park.

Soon, bottles and other objects began flying back and forth between rallygoers in the park and counterprotesters in the street. The police in the park and along its sides remained in place. None wore riot gear.

A few minutes later came the first extended brawl. A line of marchers with shields and clubs plowed through a line of counterprotesters. Both sides sprayed chemical irritants. Punches were thrown and bodies kicked to the ground.

The police did not intervene.

The worst part is that people got hurt, and the police stood by and didnt do a g------ thing, David Copper, 70, who was there to protest the white nationalists, told The Post that day.

Jones, the city manager, said, We were hoping for a peaceful demonstration but as the tensions rose, we transitioned our officers into riot gear.

By 11:15 a.m., commanders watching from the bank decided the only safe way to address the melee was to declare an unlawful assembly. At 11:22, they gave the white nationalists and counterprotesters 11 minutes to disperse.

Police forced rallygoers into the street filled with protesters. At one exit, a protester stood waiting with an aerosol can and a lighter that he ignited in a makeshift flame thrower. An ACLU video, first reported by the New York Times, appears to show one of the rallygoers pointing and shooting a handgun toward the protester with the flame thrower.

Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the white-nationalist Traditionalist Workers Party, said he asked an officer whether police were going to clear the street. The cop said, Its not my job,  Heimbach said. It was really unclear what the rules were. Or if there even were rules. We had no idea.

Council member Bob Fenwick, however, saw it differently. Most rallygoers headed out of the park peacefully, with some opposing groups standing a few feet from one another, he said. It was surreal, like a street festival, but one where every so often a fistfight would break out. But I thought the police had done a good job  if they had been down in the middle earlier, they would have been the target.

The National Guard took control of the park after it was cleared, but violent clashes continued to flare in the streets. Police say they swarmed from one hotspot to another. More than an hour passed before they regained control of downtown.

In that time, white men beat a black man with poles and sticks in the entrance of a major downtown parking garage, leading to one of the days most searing images. The beating continued without any sign of police intervention, video shows.

A frantic appeal came from Signer before 2 p.m. asking for police protection at the citys only synagogue  a location the mayor had raised alarms about in the days before the rally  after he was shown a series of tweets connected to a white-nationalist site. Its time to torch these jewish monsters lets go 3 pm. Another replied We must not slacken! SIEG HEIL.

Address? replied Moran in a text. On it.

By 1 p.m. Saturday, Emancipation Park was cleared of protesters and controlled by the National Guard.

It appeared the city had dodged the worst. Then Moran suddenly heard an alert inside the command center: pedestrians struck. He looked up at a screen showing a live video feed from a helicopter hovering overhead.

We saw the video and knew immediately what had occurred, he said.

Police had put roadblocks around downtown to keep cars away from pedestrians. But that did not stop a driver from speeding into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. The man behind the wheel was later identified as James Alex Fields of Ohio, 20, who faces charges including second-degree murder.

Moran picked up the phone and called the governor.

Youre about to see some very horrible video, Moran said. The public is going to see some horrible video.

Arelis R. Hernandez and Michael E. Miller contributed to this report.


When she died, Diana was the most famous woman in the world, her every move chronicled by an eager media and devoured by a voracious public, which clamored for the smallest details about the accident that killed her. (Pavel Rahman/AP)

In the days before smartphones, it was possible to spend an evening out without constant news alerts and Twitter notifications. On the night of Aug. 30, 1997, I attended a play and then dropped by a nightclub, so it was after midnight when I got into my car and flicked on the radio to hear the shocking news: Princess Diana had been killed in a horrific accident.

Within 24 hours, I was on my way to London to cover her funeral.

For the next week, I witnessed the raw grief and outrage of the British people: their anger at the royal family and their fury at the media, especially the paparazzi, whom they blamed for the car crash.

Every flower laid in front of Kensington Palace was a rebuke. For 17 years we have seen her in the papers and on television, mourner Ray Moore told me. Im quite hardened, but I was shocked at the grief I felt. It was like losing a member of the family.

It was the biggest story in the world: No detail was too small for the voracious public, but those of us reporting were regarded with resentment and suspicion.

The truth, of course, was more complicated. Diana was the most famous woman in the world  beloved, betrayed, pitied and pursued. Unlike the rest of the British royals, she innately understood the power of the media, and she used it to become a superstar and, later, to wage war with the palace. She believed she could summon the cameras when she wanted flattering stories, and send them away when shed had enough.

In the end, she was the victim of a taciturn royal family, an insatiable celebrity culture and her own tragic misunderstanding of what it meant to be a fairy-tale princess in the real world.



Prince Charles and Diana on their wedding day in 1981. She was 20 years old. (AP)

A weapon of choice

An estimated 750 million people worldwide watched the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, a 20-year-old beauty with no past and, it seemed, an unlimited future. From the moment reporters realized that the shy kindergarten teacher was dating the heir to the throne, the public couldnt get enough of her.

To say she was woefully unprepared for the demands of the modern monarchy is an understatement. Charles  in love with Camilla Parker Bowles and ill-equipped to deal with a naive, emotionally fragile young woman  was unable or unwilling to help her.

So Diana turned to the public, which loved her for her beauty, her charisma and the affection it had never seen from other royals. She gave them an adorable heir and a spare. The tabloids were extravagant in their praise, breathlessly following her every move. She upstaged the other royals by charm or by calculation.

She cultivated reporters, flattering them, leaking choice bits of news. Let it not be said that she lacked sophistication about the media, her use of it and its use of her, Times of London editor Peter Stothard said after she died.

[Dianas private tapes will air despite pleas from family and friends]

Later on, the media became her weapon of choice as she battled Charles during their separation and divorce. The palace was furious when she secretly cooperated with author Andrew Morton for the sensational biography Diana: Her True Story.

She just couldnt really get to grips with being an international superstar on the one hand and being treated in such a poor way by both the royal family and particularly by Prince Charles, Morton told Frontline.

But it was Dianas 1995 BBC interview, in which she spoke of depression, bulimia and infidelity, that was the last straw for the queen. The divorce was finalized the following year, and Diana lost Her Royal Highness.



The palace was furious when Diana cooperated with writer Andrew Mortion on a sensational biography. (AP)

After separating from Charles, Diana used the media in her war with the palace, as in this photo of her sitting alone in front of the Taj Mahal. (Udo Weitz/AP)

The only thing that sells better than a fairy tale is a fairy tale gone wrong. Diana believed that the only way to fight the royals was to have the public on her side. She sat alone in front of the Taj Mahal, and she wore a sexy black dress the night Charles admitted to adultery on national television. Dianas quest for happiness became the new story line.

Its useful to remember that Diana had a personal life when she wished  she kept her love affair with Hasnat Khan private for almost two years. The handsome heart surgeon wanted nothing to do with the media frenzy that surrounded Diana, so the two saw each other at home and Diana wore disguises when they went out in public. Convinced that he could never live a normal life if they married, he broke up with her at the end of July 1997.

Shortly afterward, she was photographed with the millionaire playboy Dodi Fayed in the south of France. As the tabloids covered the whirlwind romance, one of Dianas closest friends, Rosa Monckton, said she believed it was all a show to make Khan jealous.

On the way back to London, Diana and Dodi decided to stop in Paris for the night.

Princess Diana was killed at age 36 on Aug. 31, 1997 along with her lover Dodi al-Fayed when a limousine carrying them crashed in a Paris tunnel as it sped away from paparazzi.

Blood on their hands?

On the morning of Aug. 30, 1997, Diana called the Daily Mails Richard Kay, her favorite royal correspondent. She said she might withdraw from public life, but she still wanted to be a humanitarian. Maybe she was getting married. Maybe not.

That night, the paparazzi camped outside the Ritz Paris hotel as Diana and Dodi ate a late dinner. Slipping out the rear entrance, they hopped into the back seat of a car driven by Henri Paul, the hotels deputy head of security.

Over the past two decades, every detail of the next few hours has been dissected and debated: A few of the paparazzi jumped on motorcycles and pursued the Mercedes-Benz, which raced into the Pont DAlma tunnel, clipped the back of a white Fiat Uno and slammed into a pylon at about 100 mph. An inquest would determine that Pauls blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. Dodi and the driver died at the scene; Diana and a bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, were seriously injured (she died at the hospital).

The first photographer arrived within a minute of the crash. A doctor who happened on the scene later testified that the paparazzi took pictures (which were never published) but did not interfere with emergency personnel. Seven photographers were detained; they thought it was to give witness statements, but they were held for three days and charged with manslaughter. (The charges were later dropped.)

Within minutes of the breaking news, cable channels speculated that the paparazzi had caused the crash. On CNN, Tom Cruise blasted the media: It is harassment, he proclaimed angrily. A few hours later, Dianas brother, Earl Spencer, read a scathing prepared statement:

I would say that I always believed the press would kill her in the end. But not even I could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death, as seems to be the case. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Dianas image, has blood on his hands today.

What struck me then was how easy it was to blame the media without mentioning the millions who buy the newspapers and magazines. Any suggestion that Diana was in any way responsible for the constant crush of reporters and photographers became blasphemy. Royal expert James Whitaker was forced to make a public apology following the accident: I regret now if I said anything that caused offense to anybody listening to what I thought was a balanced appraisal of Diana and her complicated life with photographers.

It would be disingenuous to say Diana deserved the constant attention, but it would be equally unfair to say she didnt actively participate in the process while complaining about how awful it was to be so famous.

Of all the people who hungrily read every word written about her, Diana was the hungriest, wrote John Lanchester in the New Yorker. She pored over photos of herself, and loved the publicity that, by the end, had her entirely trapped.



Floral tributes to Diana filled the area outside Buckingham Palace after her death. (Sean Dempsey/AP)

Prince William, left, and Prince Harry watch Dianas coffin leave Westminster Abbey. (Adam Butler/AP)

Improved relations

The funeral was unbearably sad, mostly because of the young princes, who had tragically lost their mother. The royal family faced a crisis mitigated only by public affection for Dianas sons. Any forgiveness for Charles was swiftly revoked; the rest of the family  including the queen  were widely criticized for their tone-deaf response to Diana, in life and in death.

The queen made an effort to learn from the experience, says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, commissioning private polls and focus groups about the monarchy. Their takeaway was that they needed to show the royal family was more in touch with ordinary people, and to display more Diana-style empathy rather than classic royal restraint, she said.

Relations between the palace and the media have improved a lot, Smith said, thanks to relaxed protocol and more genuine cooperation. Camilla, once the villain of the story, has become a favorite of royal reporters for her down-to-earth style. The newspapers backed off when Prince William complained that photographers got too close to Kate Middleton before their engagement and when Prince Harry warned them to stop following his girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle. Like other celebrities, they now bypass traditional media and use Facebook and Twitter, which gives them more control.

[William and Harry open up about losing Diana in HBO documentary]

But the 20th anniversary of Dianas death has opened old wounds, as the media revisits all the low points of her ill-fated marriage  infidelity, secret recordings, mutual humiliations  and its aftermath. Nearly all of her accusations about Charles and Camilla were well-known 20 years ago, but hearing them anew has given them unanticipated traction, particularly for young people, Smith said. Its still too early to tell if these waves of negative stories will inflict long-term damage on the monarchy, but in the short term, the reputations of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have certainly been tarnished by Dianas revelations. 

The Peoples Princess remains frozen in time: beautiful, dazzling, beloved  the kind of mythological perfection conferred by an early, tragic death. Its possible she would have matured into the international humanitarian she aspired to be, doting on her sons and grandchildren, still the most glamorous member of the royal family. Maybe she would have remarried. Maybe she would be older and wiser. She would have millions of Twitter followers.

And, I have no doubt, shed still be in a love-hate relationship with the media.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 17:41:37|Editor: Song Lifang

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The government of Pakistan's eastern Punjab Province on Sunday shared a list of 69 most wanted terrorists with a head money between some 500 to 100,000 U.S. dollars with the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province, local Urdu media reported.

The Punjab government asked KPK to take action against the terrorists, as they are believed to be hiding in the northwestern province and have a strong nexus in neighboring tribal areas, according to the Dunya News.

The list has also been shared with police and other law enforcement agencies to arrest the hardcore militants involved in deteriorating law and order situation in the country.

The list broke down the wanted into three categories on the basis of the seriousness of the crimes and terrorist attacks they have carried out. However, the nature of their crimes has not been revealed by the report.

A total of 37 terrorists among the 69 on the list are said to be associated with various groups while others operate independently.

Law enforcement agencies in KPK and tribal areas have formed special teams to hunt down the militants.
Ariel O'Connor, an objects conservator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, looks into the "Three Room Dwelling" Nutshell crime diorama. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

Using a tiny paintbrush, Ariel OConnor carefully applied a compound to preserve the charred wall of a dollhouse featuring a grisly scene: The skull of a body lying in a bed inside peers out, beseeching the viewer to determine whether this was murder.

The dollhouse is one in a series of model whodunits used to train generations of police detectives in crime scene investigation. It is being cleaned, repaired and stabilized to be showcased at the Smithsonian American Art Museums Renwick Gallery beginning in October. It is the first time the collection, built about 70 years ago, will be on public display.

The location of everything in here is important and could be a clue, said OConnor, a Smithsonian conservator who is spending three months at the office of the chief medical examiner in Baltimore working on the tableaus.

The attention to detail is unbelievable, she said. You can see the craftsmanship on such a miniature scale.

The exhibition, Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, will be on display from Oct. 20 to Jan. 28, 2018. Visitors will be given flashlights and magnifying glasses to inspect the 19 dioramas, including Pink Bathroom, which depicts a widow found dead in her apartment by the buildings janitor. They will also be given access to the crime scene reports that investigators would receive during training. The solutions, however, will remain secret.

Lee was a wealthy Chicago heiress who helped establish a forensic pathology program at Harvard University, earning her the title godmother of forensic science. She meticulously built the dollhouses  with the help of a carpenter beginning in the 1940s to portray homicides, suicides, and accidental and inexplicable deaths.

They have been housed at the medical examiners office in Baltimore since 1966. Marylands medical examiner at the time, Russell S. Fisher, brought them here after Harvards Department of Legal Medicine closed. The models remain on indefinite loan from Harvard Medical School.

Not allowed to attend college, Lee got married at 19 and had three children, but later divorced. Years later, as her interest in forensics grew, she endowed a legal medicine department at Harvard in 1931, establishing herself in the new field.

Lee died in 1962 at age 83.

Nora Atkinson, the exhibits curator, said her work provides a window into the domestic lives of women and the working class. Lee focused on the invisible members of society, such as impoverished and female victims, and the details she included in her dioramas challenge the association of femininity with order and domestic bliss.

She is calling into question all of the assumptions, Atkinson said. This is the first time any of these are being seen in an art context versus a science context. . . . Its a woman in a mans world and a search for truth. Its a wonderful story on so many levels.

The Smithsonian approached the medical examiner with the request to put the dioramas on exhibit after Atkinson found details about them while researching another artist.

Bruce Goldfarb, spokesman for the examiners office, said allowing them to go on public display came with the opportunity to have the Smithsonian undertake the expensive process of conserving Lees work. A less exhaustive conservation effort was undertaken in the early 1990s.

Goldfarb said the project is desperately needed. The dioramas have been deteriorating, bulbs have burned out, pieces have come loose and fabrics are wearing. Some crimes cant be interpreted as Lee intended them because of aging. For example: Fake blood on the widows face in Pink Bathroom has turned purple, wrongly suggesting decomposition or asphyxiation.

They are at a point now that things were cracking and crumbling and had they not been attended to very quickly, things would have broken to the point that would have been irreparable, he said. They came at just the right time.

A Smithsonian spokeswoman said the museum did not have a tally for the cost of the conservation work, which is taking about three months. The museum also did not provide the amount of the exhibitions overall budget.

When the exhibit is over, the nutshells will return to Baltimore to be used for the annual Frances Glessner Lee Seminar in Homicide Investigation next spring, Goldfarb said.

The dioramas offer valuable training lessons even with todays technology, he said.

There is no other way to learn to see; its about training to observe, Goldfarb said. These three-dimensional representations do something that cant be done by any other medium. . . . They are like a real crime scene  as detailed and overwhelming.

Lee, who built the miniature models at her New Hampshire estate, based the scenes on real crimes in New England using witness statements, police reports and her own embellishments. The goal was to train homicide investigators to convict the guilty, clear the innocent and find the truth in a nutshell.

There were 20 nutshells originally, some single rooms, some entire houses. The bulk, 18, have been at the medical examiners office. One was ruined years ago in transit. The last one was discovered in the attic of Lees estate and has been on long-term loan to the Bethlehem Heritage Society in New Hampshire.

Lee spent $6,000 to $8,000 to build each one, roughly the cost to construct an actual house at the time. She used real tobacco to roll miniature cigarettes, knitted tiny stockings for her porcelain dolls and hand-painted a design on the floor of a bedroom scene to hide a clue.

In Barn, a porcelain doll is displayed with its feet crashed through a wooden crate and hanging from a rope  the barn hoist  with a noose around its neck. The elaborate scene shows the figure, a man, dressed in a blue shirt, trousers and suspenders. Theres a wooden saw horse and hay stuffed into a loft behind him. The scene is viewed through a pair of open wooden barn doors.

The diorama depicts a fictitious farmer, Eben Wallace, found dead on July 15, 1939. His wife, Imelda Wallace, told police in an eight-sentence statement that her husband was hard to get along with and would sometimes go to the barn to threaten suicide. He would stand on a bucket with a noose around his neck until she would persuade him to get down. On the day of his death, she had been using the bucket at the pump. Her husband had stood instead on the wooden crate.

Was it murder or suicide?

During a recent visit to the medical examiners office, OConnor, the Smithsonian conservator, had removed the back of the barn for reconditioning. To figure out what materials the doll is made from and whether it has lead shot in its legs to give it weight, she plans to run the tiny body through an

X-ray.

Loose pieces from a wood pile were lined up next to a miniature ax  complete with a rusted blade  and a water pump, all for OConnor and partner Haddon Dine to work on.

Visible on the back of the barn is a hand-colored photograph of New Hampshires White Mountains that Lee placed behind a faux window to create a scenic backdrop.

A major part of the conservation project is new light installation. A Smithsonian lighting expert produced circuit boards to develop tiny, low-heat LED electronics and glass bulbs. The old bulbs give off heat, accelerating the destabilization of the models.

The barn and the other dioramas will be transported to the Washington museum on a special truck, stowed inside custom-made transport boxes to minimize the effects of the trucks vibration, OConnor said. They will be placed in plexiglass display cases so they can be inspected from all sides.

To restore the pieces as Lee intended them, OConnor depends on her carefully trained eye. She looks for clues, just like a crime scene investigator: glue residue that reveals the original placement of a can of spaghetti or an ultraviolet light that exposes faded pencil markings.

I didnt know the parallels between the field of forensics science and the field of art conservation, OConnor said. The way we approach conservation treatments is quite similar to how detectives would approach crime scenes. We start with documentation and understanding exactly how things are.

Before we touch anything, we want to know where everything is.

An earlier version of this story stated that the dollhouses had been housed at the medical examiners office in Baltimore after Harvard sought to discard them. The dollhouses were brought to Baltimore after Harvards Department of Legal Medicine closed. They remain on loan from Harvard Medical School.
Usually, Fairfax County School Board races stick to familiar themes such as lowering class sizes, balancing budgets and improving teacher evaluation.

But the run-up to a special election Tuesday to fill a vacancy on the board of Virginias largest school system veered into national topics: U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss agenda, transgender student rights and debate over changing the names of schools that honor figures from the Confederacy.

Voters will decide who should replace Jeanette Hough, who resigned in May after her husband accepted a job overseas. Hough, who held an at-large seat on the 12-member board, was elected with backing of the local Republican Party in 2015 and was one of three GOP-backed members.

[Fairfax County School Board is getting a little bit more conservative]

Four candidates are vying for the seat.

Karen Keys-Gamarra, 57, a lawyer, has been endorsed by the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, the Fairfax Education Association and the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers.

Chris Grisafe, 37, a federal contractor who works on defense policy, has the backing of the Fairfax County Republican Committee.

Michael Owens, 43, a former teacher and now PTA president at Belvedere Elementary in Falls Church, and Sandra Allen, 48, a PTA volunteer at James Madison High in Vienna, are also running.

The board is officially nonpartisan, but in the past few years it has been starkly divided over issues such as honoring Confederate leaders and protecting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The board added LGBT topics to the family life curriculum and amended its nondiscrimination policy to include transgender students and staff members, moves that drew angry rebukes from some conservative parents. The school system has delayed implementing regulations that would spell out where transgender students can use the bathroom. The board voted last month to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High, which is named for a Rebel cavalry general. That decision culminated a two-year process that some said led to more polarization in the community.

[A Virginia school board votes to change name of J.E.B. Stuart High]

The state and local Democratic Party has donated more than $60,000 to Keys-Gamarras campaign, which accounts for most of her fundraising total. Grisafe has raised about $25,000.

Grisafe, who ran for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2011, has no children, but he said that good schools are critical to maintaining the countys high standard of living.

The quality, the value of property is all organized and essentially dependent on the quality of schools, Grisafe said. It impacts the desirability of community.

A former Coast Guard member who grew up in Southern California, Grisafe said he recognizes the importance of teachers and mentors, who helped him become the first in his family to graduate from college. He said he wants the school system to rein in spending by implementing zero-base budgeting and by evaluating programs to determine their worth.

I think we need to be wiser with how were investing our money, Grisafe said at a recent candidate forum at McLean High School. He assailed the board for not allowing enough community input before its decision to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart High and said he would support name changes at other schools only if the community favored it.

Grisafe said he wants to give transgender students access to private restrooms rather than allowing them to use bathrooms that dont match the sex on their birth certificates, a situation that he said could make some students uncomfortable.

Keys-Gamarra, who ran unsuccessfully in 2015 to represent the Sully district on the School Board, is a lawyer appointed by courts to represent the best interests of children in custody battles. She said her experience advocating has given her a perspective that would be useful to the board.

I believe that broad perspective and understanding is something that would allow me to help a lot of children and a lot of families at the school board level, Keys-Gamarra said. She has three sons who graduated from Fairfax schools.

Keys-Gamarra has campaigned on protecting the school system from federal education cuts proposed by President Trump and supported by DeVos. Many of those proposals are unlikely to be enacted, but they are nonetheless controversial.

She said she also wants to raise teacher salaries and cut class sizes, which may be tough to deliver given that the school system faced a $50 million shortfall this year. But she believes she can raise more revenue by courting corporate partnerships and selling naming rights to stadiums, and she wants to press the legislature to give school boards taxing authority to raise funds. She also said she wants to ensure transgender students can use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.

Owens said she wants to bring a nonpartisan approach to a board that she believes has fostered division in the community. She said that it should not have taken the board two years to vote on renaming J.E.B. Stuart High.

I think theres a lot of politics and I felt it would be really beneficial for the School Board to have an independent, nonpartisan voice, Owens said. She said the boards annual battles over the budget are also unproductive: You have to come to the budget process with the perspective of a teacher and a parent.

Allen, an immigrant from Bolivia, said she wants to advocate on behalf of minority students and address dropout rates among Latinos. There needs to be a change in the current climate . . . making it more welcoming, she said.
Police have made an arrest in the Aug. 12 assault of DeAndre Harris, who is seen being beaten in a parking garage beside the police station in Charlottesville after a white nationalist rally was dispersed by police. (Zach D. Roberts/AP)

Three men have been charged with felonies in attacks on counterprotesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville earlier this month, Charlottesville police said late Saturday. One of the men has been identified as an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the men is still at large.

Police said 18-year-old Daniel P. Borden of Mason, Ohio, is part of a group of six men who violently beat a man in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department on Aug. 12. That man, DeAndre Harris, suffered a broken wrist and a gash to his head that required 10 staples. The attack was captured on video.

Another suspect, Richard W. Preston, 52, is allegedly the man seen on video shot by the American Civil Liberties Union taking out a pistol and firing a round toward a counterprotester who was wielding a flaming can of aerosol. He then turns and walks away. Preston has identified himself to news media as the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in northern Maryland.

Preston spoke to a reporter in Fort Wayne, Ind., two days after the rally and blamed the violence on the mayor of Charlottesville for reportedly instructing police not to intervene between the white supremacist protesters and the counterprotesters.

Charlottesville and Virginia State Police were widely criticized for not making arrests or taking actions on violence in their presence. State police officers can be seen in the video standing near where Preston fired on the counterprotester, but a state police spokeswoman said troopers did not hear or see the incident because of the noise and chaos.

This video provided by the ACLU appears to show a man firing at counterprotesters during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12. (ACLU of Virginia)

A woman who had joined the counterprotesters, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car slammed into a crowd of people. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder in that case.

[Very threatening: Mother of Charlottesville suspect James A. Fields called 911 twice]

Borden was arrested Friday in Cincinnati and is being held in the Hamilton County jail on a charge of malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said in a news release. Preston was arrested Saturday on a charge of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, and was being held in the Baltimore County jail, police said.

Police are seeking help finding a third man, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, who they say was also involved in the beating of Harris. Ramos is charged with malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said.

A lawyer for Harris told the New York Times that he credited Shaun King, an activist and columnist for the New York Daily News, with using social media to identify the suspects in Harriss beating. King offered a reward for information leading to names of those involved in the attacks, and circulated photos and videos on Twitter. The lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, said Ramos was identified after he wrote about the attack on Facebook.

Charlottesville police asked that anyone with information on Ramoss whereabouts contact them at 434-970-3280.
Two kayakers try to beat the current of an overflowing Brays Bayou in Houston. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey began to fill second-story homes.

Aug. 27, 2017 Two kayakers try to beat the current of an overflowing Brays Bayou in Houston. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey began to fill second-story homes. Mark Mulligan/AP

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, is the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. Harvey has destroyed homes, severed power supplies and caused severe flooding.

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, roared ashore at 10 p.m. Friday with 130 mph winds  the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004.

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, roared ashore at 10 p.m. Friday with 130 mph winds  the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004.

The wind was so intense here that Cathy Dever thought it was a tornado  one that never seemed to end.

Dever fled her double-wide trailer and sought refuge in her neighbors utility closet, clutching a small plastic bag that contained her sons phone number. If she didnt survive, she thought, at least she would be quickly identified.

For hours she waited, flinching each time gravel and debris slammed against the storm shutters.

It was so loud, you could hear it picking up rocks off the landscape, Dever, 59, said Saturday, just after Hurricane Harvey made landfall over this spit of land 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi.

As residents emerged throughout the morning, local officials and emergency responders across the region scrambled to assess the damage.

Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast on Aug. 25 with extreme rain and 130 mph winds, and residents are bracing for more bad weather. (Victoria Walker,Whitney Leaming,Kurt Kuykendall/The Washington Post)

According to initial assessments, Corpus Christi was relatively spared a devastating impact, although half of the city lost electricity and roofs were blown off some buildings.

But in Rockport, as well as in the adjoining towns of Fulton and Aransas Pass, there were scores of damaged or destroyed properties across communities of mobile homes, middle-class houses and vacation retreats. The Category 4 hurricane tossed the mobile homes across streets and into neighboring structures, chewed through brick buildings and peeled off roofs and aluminum siding.

At the entrance to the resort town of Port Aransas on Mustang Island, law enforcement blocked the road. Power poles dipped tipsily over roads and electric lines lay deep in fast-moving water.

It is too dangerous, one Port Aransas police officer said. The roads are collapsing, and there are downed power lines everywhere.

Officers began conducting a search-and-rescue operation for eight people reported missing, according to an Aransas County sheriffs deputy. There is no cellphone service and no electricity, so we dont know how many people are actually in danger and how many people just cant get through.

Late Saturday afternoon, police started forcing evacuations of residents and tourists who had decided to stay on the island despite mandatory orders to leave, saying it was too dangerous for anyone to remain.

In Rockport, a town of about 10,000 residents, numerous buildings had collapsed, including several iconic structures in the beachy commercial district.

The wind shredded restaurants as well as antique, jewelry and book stores  sometimes randomly. On one street, the Quick & Save store had its roof blown off while the nearby Macs Pit Barbecue appeared largely intact.

Strip malls and hotels also suffered major damage. At the waterfront hotel Hunts Castle, the roof was peeled off and most windows were broken. A Washington Post videographer discovered a woman in a ground-floor room, where she was stocked with packs of cigarettes but no food. She refused to identify herself.

Yet the town and broader area appeared to escape the kind of catastrophic damage that Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm, inflicted on the upper Gulf Coast in 2005. Despite predictions of a 6- to 12-foot storm surge, residents and emergency management officials here say that amount of water never materialized.

I expected a lot worse, Dustin Wright, who lives four blocks from the coast and only suffered minor roof damage, said when he returned home Saturday after an overnight evacuation. Its a mess, but from what I can tell, the storm surge didnt even make it to me.

What the hurricane lacked in water, though, it made up for in wind. The National Weather Service reported gusts as high as 132 mph at Port Aransas on Friday night.

Long before the eyewall passed over the area, the wind sucked the windows out of nearly a dozen Aransas County Sheriff Departments vehicles.

Jimmy Kendrick, the mayor of Fulton, said he and several emergency management officials used an armored SWAT vehicle to try to escape from the wind. He thinks numerous mini-tornadoes passed over the peninsula as Harveys eye came ashore.

You couldnt even see the hand in front of your face in the wind-driven rain, said Kendrick, who lost the Sears appliance store he owns. Two school gymnasiums also were destroyed, he said. You just look around and see things are totally gone.

Phone, electric and gas service have been crippled throughout the area, and local officials on Saturday were raiding damaged school cafeterias to try to feed emergency workers.

Even in Corpus Christi, which was under a voluntary evacuation and suffered much less damage, unprepared residents struggled Saturday to find gas and food because stores were closed because of no electricity.

Kendrick said it may be weeks before Fultons evacuees can safely return. Those who refused to evacuate despite a mandatory order  about 1,000 of the towns 2,000 residents  will face days of intense suffering until relief supplies arrive, he predicted. And theyre complicating rescue efforts.

At a three-story apartment complex near Fulton, firefighters rescued a man midday after the top story pancaked onto the second floor. Kendrick said about a dozen people were injured there during the storm; many were treated at a makeshift hospital set up at the Aransas County Detention Center.

Susan Stewart, 52, was wandering through deep puddles and navigating around downed power lines with her 31-year-old son, who has mental disabilities, as the two searched for food and cellphone service. Taylor said they didnt have anywhere to evacuate to on Friday so they stayed behind in their trailer.

During the height of the storm, a tree crushed the porch.

But the trailer is still standing, said Stewart, who attributed her luck to her fellow parishioners at a Pentecostal church. They started praying for her when they heard she didnt evacuate, she said.

It was all night of slam, bang, boom, but the trailer didnt hardly rock.

Mary Lee Grant in Port Aransas contributed to this report.
Two kayakers try to beat the current of an overflowing Brays Bayou in Houston. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey began to fill second-story homes.

Aug. 27, 2017 Two kayakers try to beat the current of an overflowing Brays Bayou in Houston. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey began to fill second-story homes. Mark Mulligan/AP

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, is the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. Harvey has destroyed homes, severed power supplies and caused severe flooding.

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, is the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. Harvey has destroyed homes, severed power supplies and caused severe flooding.

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, is the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. Harvey has destroyed homes, severed power supplies and caused severe flooding.

When disaster struck, many Texans discovered Sunday that they had to be their own first responders. The government could help, but only to a point.

Police officers and firefighters rescued many people from floodwaters. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday that thousands of state and national guardsmen, 20 helicopters, and 60 boats and high-water vehicles had been deployed, and he declared that citizens should know that the cavalry is coming.

But the professional first responders could not handle all of the thousands of calls from people endangered by rising waters. The roads were largely impassable. Residents reported calling 911 and getting no answer. The Red Cross command center in Houston became physically isolated amid floodwaters.

So people had to take matters into their own hands. They connected on social media, asking for or offering help. They launched private boats and kayaks. They carried people to higher ground.

Youre seeing rescues from very expensive, high-end to very low-rent apartments, said West Houston business owner Jody Goldstein, 51. Its hitting people equally.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Aug. 27 said authorities in his state are focusing on saving lives as Harvey continues to pound Texas. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

The disaster Hurricane Harvey  now a tropical storm  has created is immense in scale, encompassing thousands of square miles of Southeast Texas. It has brought epic flooding that will affect millions of people. Rivers are still rising, the rain still falling.

This will be a devastating disaster, probably the worst disaster the states seen, William Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told The Washington Post on Sunday. The recovery to this event is going to last many years to be able to help Texas and the people impacted by this event achieve a new normal.

[Harvey drops nearly two feet of water on Houston area, causing deadly floods]

In an interview a few weeks ago, Long shared the one thing that worried him most when it comes to natural disasters: You know whats keeping me up at night? This country has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005.

That was the right thing to worry about, it has turned out. Long, just two months on the job, is coordinating the federal response to Harvey  the first storm of Category 3 or higher to hit the United States in 12 years  and the systems lethal aftermath.

FEMA acts as the nerve center for the entire federal government response, which now includes 5,000 federal employees in Texas, officials supplied by the Coast Guard, the Energy Department (whose staffers look for power failures and effects on oil production), the Department of Health and Human Services, and many other federal agencies.

FEMA said Sunday afternoon that it had 400 urban search-and-rescue personnel in Southeast Texas and that more than 500 additional rescuers would arrive Sunday evening. As of noon Sunday, the Coast Guard had 423 active-duty and auxiliary personnel and reservists deployed to the disaster zone, along with 16 helicopters flying rescue missions, Coast Guard spokesman Dave French said. The number of helicopters is slated to increase to 24 by Monday morning.

French said the agency has launched more than 2,000 rescue efforts and is searching for people stranded in homes and on rooftops in the Houston area.

The Department of Health and Human Services has assembled a team of 650 medical professionals in Dallas, waiting for orders to deploy to communities hit by the storm. Employees flew to the area Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from California, Ohio and other states. We can open a small emergency room, said Edward Gabriel, HHSs principal deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

President Trump signed a federal disaster declaration for the state, and Long said the move freed him to unify efforts and send in federal resources. Trumps declaration made federal financial assistance available to victims of the storm; they will have to apply for federal aid and can find information at disasterassistance.gov .

The unfolding disaster reflects the special vulnerability of Houston, the nations fourth-largest city, which is barely above sea level, sits next to the stormy Gulf of Mexico, and has grown into a sprawling, heavily paved metropolis notorious for flooding.

Harveys winds are creating a storm surge along the coast and in the bays and estuaries, essentially jacking up sea level and reducing drainage; gravity isnt much help.

The flooding in Houston also is slowing relief efforts elsewhere in Texas, which has experienced widespread flooding. Hundreds of Red Cross staffers and volunteers flew to Houston, expecting to drive to other affected areas to the south. But as the weather deteriorated Saturday, the organization determined that it was not safe to divert its staffers, issuing a shelter in place order.

Across Texas, 35 Red Cross shelters are open, but officials say the number will increase greatly on Monday. Relief efforts also are being slowed by a lack of hotel rooms in Corpus Christi, where many businesses remain closed because of widespread power outages. Those that remain open are overwhelmed by an influx of utility workers, fire and police crews, journalists, and evacuees.

Although FEMA has jumped on the Texas storm, its director has emphasized in recent interviews with The Post that the initial response to a disaster  whether its a wildfire, a flood, a tornado or some other calamity  has to come from local and state agencies.

Emergency managements a partnership. Its all based on a communitys capacity to handle an event, Long said. All disasters begin and end at the local level. As Long has described it, FEMAs job is to arrive when the local and state agencies are overwhelmed, which is what is happening in Texas.

Long has spoken of the need for a massive overhaul in how the country prepares for disasters, noting that the federal government alone cant always save the day. Ordinary citizens need to be prepared to be first responders, Long said. They need to have personal emergency plans. They need to be able to feed themselves for several days if disaster strikes. They need to be ready to save neighbors in harms way.

People need to be the help before the help arrives, he said this month at FEMA headquarters on what the agency referred to as a blue-sky day  a day without a major national catastrophe.

I think we have to look at how we ask citizens to be ready, first of all. We used to look at citizens as disaster victims. Now theyre looked at as what we call disaster survivors, he said. I think we have to focus our attention back on the citizens and how were training citizens to be truly ready for a disaster. Whether its an active shooter, whether its a tornado, in many cases citizens find themselves having to render first aid, CPR, or making safety decisions before the true first responders arrive.

W. Craig Fugate, President Barack Obamas FEMA director for two terms, said this month that Longs words about shared responsibility among federal, state and local agencies are an echo of what Fugate advocated for when he ran the agency.

Both men said, in different language, something similar: Americans tend to get complacent about the possibility of a disaster. We have a long way to go, Long said about the nations overall disaster readiness. Fugate, now retired, was more blunt: It sucks.

[All night of slam, bang, boom, then a scramble to assess the hurricanes damage]

Harvey made landfall late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane, then crept slowly inland. On Sunday, it was still a tropical storm, with a center of circulation 35 miles west-northwest of Victoria, Tex. The system had started to backtrack slightly Sunday, moving at just 2 mph to the southeast.

Harvey is the first major hurricane  Category 3 or higher  to hit the United States since Wilma in 2005.

Earlier that year, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people, most of them in Louisiana, and put much of New Orleans underwater. FEMAs initially sluggish and ineffective response to Katrina tarnished the agencys reputation. It became a late-night talk show joke after President George W. Bush praised Michael Brown, his FEMA director: Brownie, youre doing a heck of a job.

A 2006 law that Congress passed after Katrina is credited with improving the culture of an agency that had suffered from budget cuts and a lack of professional emergency managers early in the Bush presidency. The law required FEMA to dispatch teams to the scene along with massive relief supplies before a disaster hit.

Under Fugate, the agency improved coordination with the Red Cross and state and local emergency managers, and it boosted its use of social media to offer assistance to storm victims.

Yet even as nearly 60 federal agencies from the Defense Department to the Internal Revenue Service were on hand for the response to and recovery from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, FEMA confronted the limitations of bureaucracy in any disaster.

Large areas of New York and New Jersey were without electricity for weeks, for example, as FEMA struggled to get private utility companies and state agencies to move faster to restore power. Many homeowners who applied for disaster assistance found only confusion as they tried to navigate the many federal agencies tasked with helping them.

Trump has proposed cuts to federal emergency response funding. FEMAs $3.5 billion budget would lose $361 million under the spending plan the White House submitted to Congress in March.

Some programs criticized for a lack of effectiveness would be cut, but so would the federal commitment to helping state and local governments prepare for natural disasters through training, coordination, state-of-the-art equipment, and salaries and benefits for staff.

The Coast Guards $9.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 would be cut, too, by 14 percent.

With the Harvey disaster unfolding, the question is whether the storm could become another Katrina.

Its hard to say. This is totally different from Katrina, Long said Sunday, recounting Harveys unusual weather pattern. This is an incredibly unique event.

Tim Craig in Corpus Christi contributed to this report.
Weather officials downgraded Hurricane Harvey to a tropical storm Aug. 26, yet catastrophic flooding continues to plague Southeast Texas in the wake of the storm. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

Weather officials downgraded Hurricane Harvey to a tropical storm Aug. 26, yet catastrophic flooding continues to plague Southeast Texas in the wake of the storm. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

More than 3,000 national and state guard troops are being deployed to assist with relief and recovery efforts as the nations fourth-largest city and surrounding areas try to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which has transformed into a disaster of historic proportions. President Trump plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in a news conference that the perpetual rain and dire flash flooding has produced the strongest storm the state has seen in at least 50 years. He could not confirm death totals nor the number of evacuations, but the National Weather Service has said there have been reports of as many as five deaths. The service issued a statement that the storm was catastrophic and beyond anything experienced.

Outside the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Southwest Houston, Nichelle Mosby stood up to her knees in floodwater in the parking lot Sunday, grimacing with a towel over her head to block the rain.

Mosby and six family members, including a 4-year-old girl, had come from Louisiana to visit relatives. When Harvey hit over the weekend, they booked into the Courtyard, where they are stranded with dozens of other guests.

1 of 74 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Hurricane Harvey makes landfall, slams South Texas View Photos Within hours after landfall as a Category 4 storm, Harvey weakened to Category 1, though catastrophic floods were still expected. Caption The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical storm, is the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. Harvey has destroyed homes, severed power supplies and caused severe flooding. Aug. 27, 2017 Two kayakers try to beat the current of an overflowing Brays Bayou in Houston. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey began to fill second-story homes. Mark Mulligan/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

We went through Katrina, but this feels different, she said. Instead of a gradual buildup of rising water, this was like a gush of water that came up too fast.

By Sunday afternoon, the Weather Service was predicting that parts of Texas could receive nearly 50 inches of rain, what would be the largest recorded total in the states history. Communities in Southeast Texas, already experiencing water so high that it engulfed vehicles up to their car handles, were continually being beaten down by heavy, sideways rain.

[FEMA director calls storm a devastating disaster, says it could be the worst in Texas history]

The flood warnings also came with urgent pleas for residents to be cautious, stay indoors and not attempt to travel flooded roadways. Police and rescue workers implored residents who see floodwaters rising near their homes to make their way to the highest point possible  even if it is a roof  while awaiting rescue. On Saturday night, a woman was found dead near her vehicle, believed to have been trapped during a flood.

More than 82,000 homes were without electricity, and local news stations reported that Ben Taub Hospital, one of two trauma centers in the city, would soon have to evacuate.

The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched five helicopters, and Houston is expecting about 40 additional boats to find those in need of help, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference. He defended the decision not to issue evacuation orders, noting that it would have been a nightmare to empty out the population of his city and the county all at once.

You literally cannot put 6.5 million people on the road, Turner said.

As officials worked to execute a strategy, desperate families and residents crafted some of their own. At the urging of Houston police, they set out with boats and kayaks to help their friends in need. Families in flooded homes blew up inflatable pool toys to ferry children as they made their way out on foot.

In Katy, Erica Stietenroth, 38, said she was in tears driving around trying to find an open pharmacy to help her 8-year old daughter, who had a 105-degree fever. The emergency room on Saturday night didnt have the drugs she needed for her strep throat, so doctors wrote her a prescription.

She awoke Sunday morning and started her desperate search, ultimately finding a pharmacy inside a local grocery store  but it was unstaffed because people couldnt get in to work. An employee who happened to come in to shop for food got permission to mix the medication for her.

I was crying my eyes out for my baby girl, she said. By the grace of God, that employee was there.

By 7 a.m. Central time Sunday, the National Weather Service had recorded close to 25 inches of rain around Houston, with an additional three to seven inches expected. Warnings for flash flooding and tornadoes remained in place for a large swath of the state, and storm surges are expected along the coast, bringing flooding to typically dry areas. William H. Hobby Airport was shut down.

Theres flooding all over this city, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a live stream video early Sunday morning. We have one fatality, and a potential second fatality from the floodwaters out here.

William Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he expects the agency to be working in the area for years as Texas recovers from the storm.

[All night of slam, bang, boom, then a scramble to assess the hurricanes damage]

As it scrambles to open shelters across Texas, the Red Cross command center in Houston is now physically isolated because of floodwaters, said Paul Carden, district director of Red Cross activities in South Texas, which includes Corpus Christi.

The advice is if you dont have to be out, dont be out, said Bill Begley, a spokesman with the Joint Information Center in Houston around 7:30 a.m. Central time. He said most of the calls for help it has received have come from residents who tried to drive through the storm and wounded up getting stuck in high water.

President Trump praised the way the citys officials are handling the flood, tweeting at 8:25 a.m. that the Good news is that we have great talent on the ground. He promised to head to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.

Southwest Airlines flight attendant Allison Brown estimated that at least 50 flight attendants, a number of pilots, airport staff and hundreds of passengers have been stranded at Hobby Airport since at least 1 a.m. Sunday.

Brown said the airport flooded so quickly that shuttles were unable to get to them out. They were told by police that it would be unsafe to attempt to leave.

Luckily we have the restaurant staff or else we wouldve been stuck with no food, Brown said. Waters in the road are around four feet  minimum  surrounding the airport.

In Southwest Houston, the Brays Bayou had overflown its banks and completely swamped a bridge near the hotel, with waters rising at least 10 to 20 feet or more since Saturday. Its powerful brown flow carried large tree branches and other debris.

All roads in the area were underwater, and a park across the bayou was completely flooded. A car nearby had been abandoned, its doors left open. City traffic lights were still blinking red and green over the empty and flooded bridge, but most buildings visible in the area seemed to be dark and possibly without power.

In the lobby of the Marriott Courtyard there, John McMillian, 70, sat eating breakfast with his wife, Debbie McMillian, 64, and their daughter, Tara, 29.

They were in town so John McMillian could have five days of treatment for his leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center just down the road. He had three days of treatment and was supposed to have his fourth on Sunday, but now they were stranded.

If push came to shove, we could always wade to the hospital, he said.

Im not going to let him, dont worry, his wife added.

She said her new Acura was underwater in the parking lot.

I havent even made the first payment on it yet, she said.

Local station KHOU went offline while covering a live rescue of a driver in an 18-wheeler stuck in more than 10 feet of water near the Interstate 610 loop.

The reporter was able to flag down a rescue crew, but as the rescue was about to take place, the station went dark. The main office said the station had to evacuated because floodwaters seeped into the building.

Harvey pounded the Texas coast on Saturday, making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane that destroyed buildings and caused widespread power outages as residents evacuated towns. Later downgraded to a tropical storm, Harvey crept inland, then stalled and dropped hours of torrential rain that officials said has caused catastrophic flooding across a broad section of the state.

In Katy, Michele and Joel Antonini were in line at a cavernous HEB supermarket with 20 sacks of groceries. They had come out in the rain to buy food for elderly neighbors they would probably be taking in from Grand Lakes, where they used to live.

They bought sheet cakes, a roast, chips, hot dogs and hamburgers.

We just want to be ready if they are hungry and can get out, Michele said. We just want to be ready to help.

Amanda Picard, 35, a CrossFit trainer, said that they live behind a creek and that all their neighborhood lakes were flooded. They said they were doing a grocery run in case the storm goes on for days.

Its gonna be a long haul, said Picard, who was shopping for spring mix and frozen pizza with her husband and 6-year-old.

The small coastal town of Rockport, which took a direct hit from the storm, as search and rescue operations continued in ravaged areas that are still largely inaccessible. Officials said Rockport could receive as much as 60 inches of rain through midweek.

Weve been devastated, Rockport Mayor C.J. Wax said in a telephone interview. There are structures that are either significantly disrupted or completely destroyed. I have some buildings that are lying on the street.

To the west, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg urged residents to continue to stay off the roads as Harvey neared the city and brought wind gusts of up to 60 mph and heavy rain. The city is under a flash flood watch and tropical storm warning.

We dont want anyone in San Antonio to let their guard down, Nirenberg said.

The storm made landfall at 10 p.m. Central Time on Friday with 130 mph winds  the first Category 4 storm to hit the United States since Charley in 2004. By late morning Saturday, it had lost some of its punch but still had hurricane-force winds of 80 mph, having drifted to about 25 miles west of the inland city of Victoria. Shortly after noon, the National Hurricane Center downgraded Harvey to a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 70 mph.

Farther east, the hurricane has put officials in New Orleans and across Louisiana on alert, and Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said Saturday that it could be a week before the state has to cope with flooding. He said the pumping system in New Orleans, which flooded earlier this month after a heavy downpour, is steadily improving. Were a long ways from being out of the woods, but we are very thankful it hasnt been more severe up to now, he said of the storm.

Trump signed a disaster proclamation for Texas on Friday night after Abbott sent him a written request saying that Texas is about to experience one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the state. White House aides said Trump will visit Texas soon.

Trump said in tweets Saturday morning that he is closely monitoring the situation from Camp David, Md., and that federal officials have been on the ground since before the storm hit. He urged residents to be safe and pledged a thorough federal response. We are leaving nothing to chance, he wrote. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!

Sullivan reported from Houston, Galveston and Victoria. Baddour reported from Houston. Samuels reported from Washington. Tim Craig in Rockport and Corpus Christi, Brittney Martin in San Antonio, Ashley Cusick in New Orleans, Mary Lee Grant in Port Aransas, Tex., Sofia Sokolove in Austin, Emily Wax in Katy, Tex., and Joel Achenbach, Sandhya Somashekhar and Angela Fritz in Washington contributed to this report.
CALIFORNIA

Protesters turn out despite canceled rally

Hundreds of counterprotesters gathered near a barricaded San Francisco park Saturday despite the cancellation of a free-speech rally that city leaders feared could draw right-wing extremists.

The planned gathering by Patriot Prayer had been the centerpiece of a weekend of protests in the Bay Area that had raised concerns among officials two weeks after white nationalist activists fought with counterprotesters in Charlottesville.

Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who has denied that his group is extremist or white nationalist, wrote on Facebook on Saturday he would hold an indoor news conference and show up at random spots in the city to talk to residents.

 Reuters

FLORIDA

Police kill woman threatening suicide

Authorities said a Florida police SWAT team shot and killed an armed woman who had been threatening suicide.

The Broward County Sheriffs Office said a Sunrise Police SWAT team went to an apartment Friday where Kristen Ambury, 28, was armed and threatening to kill herself.

Sheriffs spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said in a news release Saturday that Ambury stopped communicating with officers, so the SWAT team entered the apartment. She said the officers encountered Ambury and shots were fired. She died at the scene. No officers were hurt.

 Associated Press

Teen found shot to death in Ohio police cruiser: Authorities said a 17-year-old male was found fatally shot in the back seat of a police cruiser in the northeast Ohio city of Akron. Akron police said in a statement that a gun was found Friday night next to the teen, whose name hadnt been made public. Police had not said whether the teen shot himself or how the gun ended up in the cruiser. The shooting occurred after the teen and two 18-year-old men were arrested in an earlier armed robbery and were placed in separate cruisers about 11 p.m.

Deputy fired after sheriff says he taunted autistic boy: A Florida sheriff fired a decorated deputy who was recorded taunting an autistic student at the middle school where he provided security and guidance. The Tampa Bay Times reported that Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri fired Deputy Ural Darling on Friday. Gualtieri said Darling, a 22-year veteran, took 13-year-old Evan Dowdy to the behavior therapists office at Osceola Middle School last May after the sixth-grader threw a book at a teacher. Darling, who had been assigned to the school for 16 years, berated the boy for 25 minutes in the office, ordered him to hold three to five books and throw them at him. When the boy complied, he told him to stop. He then threatened to put him in a mental hospital for life, Gualtieri said.

 From news services
SOUTH SUDAN

American reportedly killed in battle

An American has been killed in war-torn South Sudan, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday, but it did not release more details.

South Sudans army said the man was caught up in fighting between rebels and government forces.

The mans body was at the military hospital in South Sudans capital, Juba, until next of kin were notified.

South Sudan army spokesman Col. Domic Chol Santo said the man was killed Saturday morning when opposition rebels attacked the town of Kaya on the Ugandan border.

The man was caught in the fighting that also left 15 rebels dead, the army spokesman said.

Opposition spokesman William Gatjiath Deng said the man was a journalist and had been traveling from Ugandas capital, Kampala, with another spokesman, Lam Paul Gabriel, when South Sudanese forces attacked.

 Associated Press

France pledges support to help rebuild Iraq: France will help reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Iraq as it emerges from a war against the Islamic State, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday after talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad. We are present in the war and we will be present in the peace, Le Drian told a news conference in Baghdad with French Defense Minister Florence Parly and Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari. France is a main partner in the U.S.-led coalition helping Baghdad fight the militants who seized parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

ISIS claims knife attack on soldiers in Brussels: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a knife attack on soldiers in the Belgian capital of Brussels on Friday, the groups Amaq News Agency said. The executor of the stabbing operation in Brussels is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for attacks against coalition states, Amaq said Saturday, referring to a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Sunni militant group.

Violence within Yemen coalition kills 2: At least two people were killed when supporters of Yemens former president Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed with Houthi fighters in Sanaa, marking unprecedented violence within the alliance fighting a Saudi-led coalition. The tactical alliance between Saleh and the Houthis has often appeared fragile, with both groups suspicious of each others ultimate motives and sharing little ideological ground. Both sides jointly run northern Yemen and have been fighting the internationally recognized government, based in the south and backed by the Saudi-led coalition, for 2 years.

Israeli protests against Netanyahu continue: Ignoring a court order, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Israeli attorney generals home to demand that he indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges. Saturday nights demonstration comes a week after a pair of high-profile organizers were arrested and after Israels Supreme Court ruled that such protests could continue as long as they didnt exceed 500 people or include the use of loudspeakers in the residential area. The weekly vigils have become the vanguard of a grass-roots movement protesting Netanyahus alleged financial misdeeds and illicit ties to executives in media, international business and Hollywood.

 From news services
Fighters of Hashed Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization units) flash the victory gesture as they advance through a street in the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, after the Iraqi government announced the launch of the operation to retake it from Islamic State (IS) group control, on August 26, 2017. (AFP Photo)

BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces fully liberated the city of Tal Afar after an eight-day offensive to drive out the Islamic State (IS) militants from the city and surrounding areas, the Iraqi military said Sunday.

The army's 9th Armored Division and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units recaptured al-Askari neighborhood, the industrial area and adjacent village of al-Rahma in the northeast of the city, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.

By the recapture of the last neighborhoods, the troops completely freed the city of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, the statement said.

The troops and armored vehicles are pushing northward to the remaining IS-held town of Ayadhiyah and surrounding villages, it added.

The Tal Afar area is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the city of Tal Afar and three towns: Zummar, which is under control of the Kurdish security forces, Mahalabiyah, which was freed from IS militants during past few days, and Ayadhiyah, which is still under IS control.

The whole Tal Afar area consists of 47 villages scattered around the city and its three towns.

The majority of the population in the Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the Kurds and other minorities.

On Aug. 20, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, declared the start of an operation to retake control of Tal Afar and the nearby areas from IS militants.

The Tal Afar area, some 70 km west of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the province of Nineveh.
The state of Texas is in the midst of an extraordinary losing streak in federal courts over the way it conducts elections. It is hoping the Supreme Court will come to the rescue.

In the past couple of weeks, federal judges in four separate cases ruled that the Texas Legislature discriminated against minorities in drawing congressional and legislative districts, setting ID requirements for voters and even regulating who can assist voters for whom English is not their first language.

Two courts are considering whether the actions intended to discourage African American and Hispanic voters. If the courts find that the efforts were intentional, it could return Texas to the kind of federal oversight from which the Supreme Court freed it and other mostly Southern states in the landmark 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

As the decisions piled up, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) issued a string of statements denouncing the rulings, calling them outrageous and astonishing.

On Friday afternoon, he went to the Supreme Court for emergency relief rather than comply with a ruling that the state should call a special legislative session to draw new electoral districts in time for the 2018 elections.

The decision by a three-judge panel ordering new districts is not just wrong, but egregiously so, Texas told the Supreme Court.

But Democrats and civil rights activists in the state say the seemingly endless litigation over voting laws and redistricting decisions  and the comeuppance from federal courts  are the inevitable result of the Republican-led states aggression.

Its been a bad month for Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton, said state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, policy chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, a plaintiff in the lawsuits. Federal courts have issued three findings of intentional discrimination by the Texas Legislature in the past two weeks alone, evidence of its total disregard for the federal Voting Rights Act following the 2010 tea party surge.

A finding of intentional discrimination is especially important.

In the Shelby County decision written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court made unenforceable the part of the Voting Rights Act that required Texas and other states with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before making any changes to election laws.

But the decision retained a portion of the law that could put states back under the pre-clearance requirements  for up to 10 years  if courts find the states had engaged in intentional discrimination.

Its no surprise the issue of bail-in is coming up in Texas, said Richard Hasen, a voting law expert at the University of California in Irvine. It and North Carolina are the places most aggressive in passing and enforcing new laws after the Shelby County decision was handed down, he said.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit struck down in 2016 a comprehensive voting law passed by the North Carolina legislature, saying Republican lawmakers had targeted African American voters with almost surgical precision.

But the panel did not seek to put the state back under federal oversight. The Supreme Court turned down North Carolinas request to review the 4th Circuit ruling.

Texas has had an even more extended losing streak in the federal courts. Every court that has reviewed its comprehensive voter-ID law passed in 2011  including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative in the country  has concluded that the law has a discriminatory effect on minorities.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos, who was the first to find the Texas law discriminatory, ruled that changes enacted by the Texas Legislature this year to try to remedy its flaws were no better.

Ramos said the legislature didnt make a sincere effort to correct problems and trades one obstacle to voting with another.

She said she will hold a hearing next month to consider returning Texas to federal oversight. A decision in the affirmative would surely be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and, depending on the outcome, to the Supreme Court.

The three-judge panel that found some congressional and some legislative districts must be redrawn also found the legislature intended to discriminate against minorities.

The panel has not ruled on whether that should subject the state to the old pre-clearance requirements, which demanded the approval of the Justice Department or a panel of federal judges in Washington.

Texas has called the recent rulings unreasonable, saying that both in adopting the electoral maps and in changing the voting law the legislature was trying to satisfy judicial demands.

Simply put, the same map cannot be perfectly permissible when imposed by a court, but become intentionally discriminatory when adopted by the branch of government actually tasked with drawing maps, the state says in its petition to the Supreme Court.

In the initial challenges to the law in North Carolina and Texas, civil rights activists had an active partner in the Obama administrations Justice Department. But the department switched sides in the Texas voter-ID law when President Trump took office, saying Texass changes were satisfactory.

And, of course, the Supreme Court has changed, too. It declined to get involved in the Texas voting case when the court had only eight justices, before the recent appointment of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch; Roberts said earlier this year there was still work for the lower courts to do.

Texass emergency request in the redistricting case will force the courts hand.
As the first major natural disaster of his administration played out along the Gulf Coast, leaving millions at risk of deadly winds and flooding from Hurricane Harvey, President Trump was tweeting the unfolding events  live.

Wow  Now experts are calling Harvey a once in 500 year flood! Trump marveled in a tweet Sunday morning. Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen.

Even experts have said theyve never seen one like this! he added in another message.

In an effort to show his engagement, Trump fired off more than a dozen messages to the public on his favorite social media platform after Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast as a Category 4 storm.

He offered praise for the wonderful coordination between federal, state and local governments, and lauded the great talent on the ground.

Meanwhile, forecasters called for even more catastrophic rainfall. By Sunday afternoon, areas of Texas battled 15-foot floodwater, more than 1,000 people had been rescued, forecasters were warning that more than 50 inches of rain could fall  an astronomical total that probably would break records  and the city of Houston told residents that 911 was already overburdened with calls.

[ FEMA director says Harvey is probably the worst disaster in Texas history ]

The upbeat response from the commander in chief, punctuated by exclamation points, prompted questions about whether he was prematurely declaring the storm response a success, even while many still faced the prospect of deadly danger.

Its not premature if you do it the right way, homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said on CBSs Face the Nation, when asked whether Trumps tweets were proclaiming success before the worst of the storm had passed. What Brock Long at FEMA did and myself and the president, we got together and reviewed that carefully and decided on Friday night that the president would issue a major disaster [declaration] before landfall, he said. Long is the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It freed up federal resources, Bossert added.

Trump has monitored the storm from Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland about 70 miles north of the White House to which he traveled with his family Friday afternoon. In Washington, Vice President Pence, Bossert and other aides monitored the storm from the White House while Trump  who donned a USA-emblazoned campaign hat and jacket, sans tie  joined the meeting via teleconference.

What the president does during a big disaster shows leadership both to the federal employees who are involved, as well as to the public, to gain the cooperation to everyone involved as well as to reassure people, said Leo Bosner, an emergency management expert who has worked at FEMA for 29 years. Hes mostly a voice of reassurance and maybe giving people confidence, updating people on whats going on.

But he should not be trying to do the job of the FEMA director, he said.

Trumps handling of this crisis has been closely watched, even as the White House has faced scrutiny over several announcements Trump made late Friday just as the storm was about to hit. Perhaps the most controversial was his decision to pardon Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County who was convicted of criminal contempt for not ending his departments practice of detaining people merely on the suspicion that they were undocumented immigrants.

In the hours before the worst of Harveys wrath was felt, Trump received a public warning from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) about the risks to his presidency of not responding adequately  in tone and substance  to the most powerful storm to make landfall on U.S. shores in 12 years.

Keep on top of hurricane Harvey, Grassley wrote, urging Trump not to make the same mistake that President George W. Bush made in his response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

[Harvey causes deadly floods, is set to drop unprecedented rain totals in Texas]

Although Trump thanked Grassley for his warning, he seemed to heed it only sporadically.

On Sunday morning, Trumps first message of the day did not address the rising waters threatening the nations fourth-largest city. Instead, he pitched a book written by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, another supporter and controversial figure. Fifteen minutes later, Trump declared that continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with and reiterated his pledge to travel to Texas when it is possible to do so without causing disruption. (Later Sunday, the White House announced that Trump plans to visit the state Tuesday.)

It wasnt long before Trump had changed subjects again. As his aides and surrogates appeared on national television to address the storm response, Trump announced a political appearance in Missouri, noting that he won the state by a lot in the 2016 election. He fired a warning shot at Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), whom he identified by her initials, predicting that Republicans will win her seat in 2018.

My god, remarked Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), responding to Trumps message on Twitter. At this exact moment people are dying in the worst natural disaster of his Presidency & instead of leading hes attacking Democrats.

[All night of slam, bang, boom, then a scramble to assess the hurricanes damage]

Meanwhile, appearing on ABC s This Week, Bossert was pressed on other issues, including Trumps suggestion that he would be willing to shut down the government to secure funding for a wall along the Mexican border. Trump, who often watches his aides performances on TV, weighed in, reviving his campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the wall eventually, but not specifying how that would happen.

With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL, Trump wrote. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.

In a seemingly unrelated message, Trump slammed Mexico and Canada for being very difficult in negotiations over rethinking the North American Free Trade Agreement.

May have to terminate? he wrote in another tweet.

The presidents scattered focus contrasted with the message being delivered on his behalf by Bossert and Long, who collectively appeared on all the Sunday morning public affairs broadcasts to project the Trump administrations single-minded focus on responding to the hurricane.

What I have seen inside my agency is, I have got some of the most dedicated people in the entire federal government, great lines of communications with the president, Long said on CNNs State of the Union. Hes extremely concerned, incredibly engaged.

Bossert said that Trump participated in a two-hour meeting about the storm Saturday, in addition to a second teleconference briefing Sunday morning. He added that the president and vice president had called him and other officials about the storm response probably a dozen times each over the past day.

The president was actively involved in that and making sure our operations were coordinated, unsticking any disagreements, of which there were none at this stage, Bossert said. What I liken this to is a race: Were off and out of the blocks the right way.

Thats because of strong preparedness and strong leadership. But now we have to run that race, and then we have to finish that race well, he added.

Trump has gotten backup from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who praised the federal governments efforts to aid his state. Abbott endorsed Trump in the presidential campaign and urged fellow Republicans to do the same. And his friendly posture toward the administration is likely to forestall any messy disagreements between federal and state officials that emergency responses sometimes create.

Ill tell you what, we could not be more appreciative of what the federal government has done, from the president on down, Abbott said on ABC. Because everything weve asked for, they have given us.
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President Trump speaks for himself on his values, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday. The U.S. commitment to tolerance and equality is unchanged, Tillerson said, in the wake of controversy over Trump's response to racially tinged violence. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight We express America's values from the State Department  our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over, Tillerson said on Fox News Sunday, adding: And that message has never changed.

A United Nations committee last week criticized Trump for what it deemed his failure to fully condemn hatred and bigotry in the wake of deadly violence at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville earlier this month.

I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values, or the U.S. government's willingness to defend them, Tillerson said.

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Asked whether Trump's reaction, which included a statement that there was blame on many sides for the violence in Charlottesville, reflects American values, Tillerson answered evenly.

The president speaks for himself, he said.

When host Chris Wallace asked whether Tillerson was separating himself from Trump's remarks, Tillerson answered, I've made my own comment as to our values.

Tillerson's remarks followed pointed criticism of Trump's reaction from economic adviser Gary Cohn last week.

On North Korea, Tillerson said the missile tests don't necessarily mean that Kim Jong Un's regime is thumbing its nose at the offer of negotiations with the United States.

Clearly, they are still messaging us, as well, that they are not prepared to completely back away from their positions, Tillerson said. We continue to want the Kim regime to understand there is a different path that he can choose.

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The launch of three short-range missiles Friday followed statements from Trump and Tillerson last week that took note of what Tillerson called recent restraint on the part of Pyongyang.

Until Friday, North Korea had not launched any missiles since the unanimous approval of new United Nations Security Council sanctions three weeks ago. That caused Trump to say that North Korea was finally starting to respect us.

I dont know that we're wrong, Tillerson said. It's going to take some time to tell.

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Iraqi troops flash the victory sign from an armored vehicle during the advance throughTal Afar, west of Mosul. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

Iraqs military fully reclaimed this northern city from the Islamic State on Sunday in a rapid campaign that defied expectations that the extremist group would put up a fierce resistance in one of its last major strongholds.

The battle for Tal Afar, which lasted just eight days, highlighted the diminished capabilities of the Islamic State in Iraq a month after it lost the key bastion of Mosul to a coalition of Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes. The relatively quick victory is likely to determine how future fights against the militant group will be pursued.

Senior Iraqi military officers said the Islamic State has lost the will to fight in the face of a motivated and increasingly professional military. They are urging Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to authorize his armed forces to launch simultaneous battles for the last major cities the Islamic State controls.

[Battle of Mosul: How Iraqi forces defeated the Islamic State]

Since the Islamic State took over nearly one-third of Iraqs territory in 2014, Abadi has opted to reclaim cities one by one while the United States and other Western nations helped to rebuild Iraqs armed forces, which collapsed during the Islamic State blitz.

Now, with more than three years of combat experience, Iraqs security forces are eager to quicken the pace of the fight, with some commanders urging that the battles for the two remaining Islamic State strongholds, Hawija and Qaim, be launched at the same time.

The enemys back is broken, said Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridhi, a top commander of the elite counterterrorism service units in Tal Afar. Their morale is gone.

Aridhi is among a cadre of influential commanders who believe that the main branches of Iraqs armed forces  the army, federal police and counterterrorism service  are capable of fighting concurrent battles.

Those forces, along with 12 brigades of mostly Shiite militias, attacked Tal Afar on three fronts, breaking Islamic State defense lines on the edges of the city before rapidly advancing to the city center.

The troops were surprised by what Col. Arkan Fadhil, a counterterrorism service officer, called a controlled resistance by small clusters of Islamic State fighters, as well as the near-total lack of civilians in the city.

Ahead of the battle, Iraqs government and its U.S. military partners estimated that 10,000 to 50,000 civilians remained in Tal Afar under desperate conditions. The city had been surrounded by the Shiite militias since late November as Iraqs armed forces waged the grueling nine-month battle for Mosul, about 40 miles to the east.

We havent seen a single civilian, dead or alive, Aridhi said. If there were 20,000 civilians in Tal Afar, we would have only just taken the first neighborhood by now.

The large numbers of civilians complicated the battle for Mosul and led to high casualties there, although the exact number of civilian casualties has yet to be released by the government.

Tal Afar, by contrast, provided ample room for Iraqi troops to use heavy weaponry without fear of killing civilians. That use of firepower, along with the months-long siege, apparently sapped the militants effective deployment of their most ferocious weapons: car and truck bombs rigged with armor, commanders said.

U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes also pounded the desolate city, an important way station for the Islamic State to move fighters and resources between the territories it controlled in Syria and Iraq.

Along with the absence of residents, the number of Islamic State fighters in Tal Afar appeared to be vastly overstated. Before the operation was launched, Iraqs intelligence services estimated that between 1,400 and 2,000 militants occupied the city. Iraqs military said Saturday that 259 Islamic State fighters had been killed, suggesting that many had fled the battle into the vast desert north and west of the city toward Syria.

Mosul and cities such as Fallujah had been administrative centers that also housed Islamic State families, but the dusty Tal Afar did not appear to be much more than a military outpost for the group.

Houses inside the city appeared unlived in and were stocked with materiel to manufacture explosives and store military gear. In one house inside the Kifah neighborhood, the rooms were full of discarded tactical vests, sawed-off rifle butts and hundreds of feet of coiled wires, apparently used to make improvised explosive devices.

Two rusting trucks outfitted with metal plates to turn them into devastating armored bombs were left unfinished in a garage.

The siege worked in preventing the enemy from getting all the materials they needed to build explosives, said Maj. Raji al-Amidi of the counterterrorism service.

The swift collapse in Tal Afar was unexpected. The city had a unique standing in the Islamic States hierarchy, as it was once home to several top figures in the group and deputies to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Along with its strategic location, just 40 miles east of the border with Syria, it was one of the few places the Islamic State occupied despite the large population of Shiites, making it an important propaganda tool for a group with a stated goal of exterminating Shiites in Iraq.

With the Shiite militias surrounding Tal Afar and participating in the bid to reclaim it from the Islamic State, experts expected the militants to fight fiercely and try to inflict as much damage as possible before ceding the city, said Hisham al-Hashimi, who has advised the Iraqi government.

Tal Afar was an important point of identity for Daesh, Hashimi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

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After victory over ISIS, Mosul discovers the cost: Homes were turned into graves

Before-and-after images reveal the huge destruction in Mosul

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Syrian refugees arrive in Wadi Hamayyed on the outskirts of Lebanons northeastern border town of Arsal to board buses bound for the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib on Aug. 2. (Stringer/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

As Syrian refugees begin to trickle back to a homeland still at war, aid agencies fear that a proposed change to U.N. guidelines could accelerate the pace of returns.

At least 5.1 million people have left Syria during the six-year conflict, with most seeking safety in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) deemed the threat of violence and detention in Syria so grave that it has supported many of the refugees in the region.

But as the influx strains economies and deepens political tensions, host governments have discouraged refugees from settling permanently.

In Lebanon this year, Syrian refugees have been evicted from makeshift displacement camps. In Jordan, hundreds of Syrian refugees are being deported across the border monthly with little warning and no recourse.

Aid agencies and refugee advocates say they are worried that host governments might abuse planned changes to U.N. guidelines governing which Syrians are eligible for protection.

That the Syrian refugee crisis was long-term and therefore needed sustainable solutions was the very clear and dominant narrative until very recently. But now there has been a shift, said Jeff Crisp, a former head of policy development at UNHCR who is now an associate fellow at the London-based Chatham House foreign affairs think tank.

The U.N. agency said in June that it monitored a notable trend of spontaneous returns to Syria, with more than 22,000 refugees crossing back into the country between January and May.

[The hospitals were slaughterhouses: A journey into Syrias secret torture wards]

There are few signs that mass returns will happen anytime soon, but UNHCR is preparing to resettle the growing number who do cross back into Syria, recruiting new staffers in the country and seeking an additional $150 million to improve conditions there.

Sharing few public details, it has also notified dozens of relief groups of a proposed change to its considerations, last updated in 2015, regarding which Syrians fleeing the conflict would be eligible for international protection. At a recent meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, representatives grilled a UNHCR representative over whether the change could be abused by host governments as an excuse to send Syrians back across the border.

Will governments use this willfully? Maybe, said the representative, according to minutes of the meeting circulated among nongovernmental organizations in the region. Will we continue to protect Syrian refugees in Egypt? Absolutely.

Rula Amin, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, said the agency is working on an update that is still under review.

The increase in returns to Syria is partly a response to improving conditions in some areas of the country. Forces backing President Bashar al-Assad have recaptured most major urban centers, and thousands of rebel fighters once scattered throughout the country have relocated to an al-Qaeda-dominated province in the north under a series of government-driven truces.

But while government-held areas are largely secured from the threat of open warfare, many refugees fear the prospect of arrest or conscription to Syrias overstretched army on return.

I cannot trust anyone if I go back, said Emad, a student from Aleppo who spoke on the condition that his second name be withheld out of fear for his safety. Now living in Tripoli, Lebanons second-largest city, he described what was meant to be a short trip back to Syria in 2014 to secure paperwork needed for a Lebanese residency permit.

Arrested within hours of arriving in Damascus, the capital, he said he was tortured for more than a year in the most brutal of the Assad governments detention centers.

Other returnees say the grinding poverty of their lives abroad left them with little choice.

We always thought wed go back to Syria one day. We never realized it would be out of desperation or exhaustion, said Maya, a young mother of four now living in Damascus.

When the family lived in Lebanon, Maya and her husband stopped sending their children to school for two years after their residency papers expired.

No parent wants to make that decision, but what else were we meant to do? If the boys had to cross a checkpoint without their papers, something could happen to them. Im their mother, and I wouldnt have been able to reach them, she said.

Mike Bruce, an advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Beirut, said the cost and complexities facing Syrian refugees who apply for residency in Lebanon are causing families to struggle to meet even their most basic needs.

If refugees in Lebanon decide to return to Syria as a result of an erosion of security, protection or quality of life, or as a result of severe economic hardship, evictions or an otherwise coercive environment, we would not consider these returns to be voluntary,  he said.

Hundreds of refugees are also being sent back to Syria every month via Jordans Nasib border crossing, according to groups monitoring the situation. Relief groups say that some are being deported for security reasons but that the speed of the process makes it difficult to track and assess claims.

In recent weeks, rumors have swirled among refugees. A message claiming that families must leave by Sept. 1 went viral on messaging apps. Another falsely said UNHCR was planning to close its offices in Jordan.

At times its bordering on hysteria, one aid worker said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to comment publicly on the issue. Were doing a lot of work to try and calm people down, but its getting harder and harder to convince them that theyre safe.

Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.

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U.S.-led airstrikes are killing hundreds of civilians in the battle for Raqqa, groups say

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Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales at an international forum in June. On Sunday he moved to expel the head of an anti-corruption commission. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo (Charles Platiau/Reuters)

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales ordered the expulsion of the head of a United Nations-backed anti-

corruption group Sunday morning, attacking an organization whose rigorous investigations have put a former president behind bars and whose attention has now shifted toward alleged campaign finance violations by Morales himself.

Within hours, however, the Supreme Court blocked the expulsion order, at least temporarily, until it can look into the matter more thoroughly.

Moraless decision to attempt to expel Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian lawyer who has led the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (known by its initials in Spanish, CICIG) since 2013, was met with swift international condemnation. The United States, along with several other countries that backed the anti-corruption commission, issued a joint statement saying that the group had played a vital role in the fight against impunity in Guatemala. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was shocked by the decision, according to a statement issued by his spokesman.

I think this is a profound threat to the rule of law in Guatemala, said Adriana Beltran, a Central America expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. CICIG has dealt a huge blow against corruption working jointly with the public prosecutors office . . . [and] it has provided Guatemalans with a sense of hope.

Morales, in a video posted on the Guatemalan governments Twitter page, said that as president of a free, independent and sovereign state and exercising his constitutional rights, he was declaring Velasquez to be persona non grata. Morales also fired the foreign minister, Carlos Raul Morales, because he had refused to throw Velasquez out of the country.

Health Minister Lucrecia Hernandez Mack and her three deputies announced their resignations Sunday. In a public letter, Hernandez wrote that Morales, by attempting to expel Velasquez, was now in favor of impunity.

Later on Sunday, Guatemalas top court voted to issue a temporary injunction blocking the expulsion order. The court announced that it would deliberate on the case before making a further decision.

Over the past decade, CICIG has been a driving force in a series of corruption investigations against top government officials, and it helped inspire a nationwide protest movement in 2015. The commission of investigators and law enforcement officers, working with the Guatemalan attorney generals office, built a case against former president Otto Perez Molina, his vice president, Roxana Baldetti, and dozens of other people for public corruption. Perez Molina and Baldetti remain in prison.

CICIG was formed in 2007 as a way to bolster notoriously weak judicial institutions in a country where impunity was rampant and murders were hardly ever solved. The group, composed of investigators from around the world, has relied on sophisticated investigative techniques, wiretapping and examination of financial records to pursue the countrys most high-profile crimes.

But its success has generated critics within the government, who see it as a foreign body that undermines Guatemalan sovereignty. Every two years, the groups mandate must be renewed.

Morales, who was elected in 2015 after a career as a TV comedian, had run on the campaign slogan Neither corrupt nor a thief, riding the wave of anti-corruption sentiment in the country. Earlier this year, however, Moraless older brother and one of his sons were arrested on corruption charges.

On Friday, Velasquez, along with Attorney General Thelma Aldana, announced that there was evidence suggesting that Morales may have broken campaign finance laws when he was head of his political party, and Velasquez requested a formal investigation. For that to happen, Morales would have to be stripped of his immunity as president, which would require approval by the Supreme Court and Congress.

That same day, Morales, who has denied any wrongdoing, was in New York visiting Guterres, the U.N. chief, presumably to discuss CICIG. In Guterress statement on Sunday, he said Velasquezs work assisting Guatemalan institutions helped to ensure justice was done in numerous cases.

Read more

How a peaceful political uprising happened in war-scarred Guatemala

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From civil war to civil protest: A director looks back on three decades of filming Guatemala

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 18:06:48|Editor: Song Lifang

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TBILISI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- A M-8 helicopter crashed into a reservoir in central Georgia when fetching water to extinguish wild fire in the vicinity Sunday morning, injuring three crew members on board, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said.

The helicopter, which belonged to the border police of MIA, fell into the reservoir in Borjomi Gorge near the Kura River, sources with the ministry told media.

Fire brigades, rescuers and doctors have been mobilized near the area. The three injured crew members have been taken to a hospital in the capital city of Tbilisi with non-life-threatening injuries.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvilion said on Saturday that the massive forest fire broke out a week ago in Borjomi Gorge has been almost extinguished. The fire control headquarter would stay there for days to deal with potential disasters and prevent development of the fire, he said.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/08/2017 (1904 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The contrast between the peaceful atmosphere of Filipino festivals in Canada and the brutal violence of a drug war being waged half a world away in The Philippines couldnt be any starker.

As thousands flocked downtown Saturday to celebrate the sixth annual Manitoba Filipino Street Festival, socialize and munch on ethnic delicacies, it wasnt lost on anyone theres no peace on the streets in Manilla these days.

A Filipino teenager was at the centre of the latest outcry against the presidents bloody crackdown on illegal drugs in Manilla on Saturday when he was buried.

The 17-year-old student, Kian Loyd delos Santos, wanted to become a police officer. He ended up being one of more than 80 drug and crime suspects who were killed in purported gun battles with police over three days this month in the bloodiest few days of President Rodrigo Dutertes anti-drug campaign.

In Winnipeg, the citys population of Filipino Canadians is well aware of the violence.

Thousands watch The Filipino Channel broadcast daily from Manilla.

We see everything on TV every day. So all of us are afraid for our relatives. Thats what we talk about. We really dont know the extent of it so we dont want to give opinions, festival organizer, Winnipeg Filipino newspaper publisher Ley Navarro said Saturday.

During one televised hearing from The Philippines this week, for instance, one of the countrys top government human-rights officials expressed astonishment at police claims most of the more than 3,200 drug suspects they have shot since the crackdown began last year fought back, prompting officers to shoot them.

Aside from those deaths, more than 2,000 others have died in drug-related killings, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen, who human-rights groups allege are policemen in disguise or their civilian hit men. Police deny such claims.

The countrys president has expressed extraordinary support for police who are enforcing his crackdown.

Grieving families offer a far different perspective. Delos Santoss parents and some of their neighbours pointed to village security camera video that shows a man, who they say was delos Santos, being held by both arms and dragged away shortly before he was shot in a dark, muddy alley near a canal.

They said the video showed the teen was in police custody, clearly contradicting police claims that he tried to escape and that he had a pistol with him.

Police officers linked to the killing have acknowledged they are the ones in the video, but they said the man they were dragging away was someone else, not the teenager.

Over here, its hard to sort out the discrepancies in official accounts. At least one Filipino Canadian said in Winnipeg Saturday he backed the violence as a way to crack down on the rampant drug culture.

There are also plenty of others who question why the deaths appear to be among the young, the marginalized and the vulnerable with few reports of any major drug lords caught up in the dragnet.

 Alexandra Paul with files from wire services
(Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Border Patrol agents detained 30 undocumented immigrants Saturday in San Diego County on suspicion of illegally entering the country using a hidden underground tunnel.

The agents discovered the tunnel after they found 23 Chinese nationals and seven Mexican nationals who had apparently just been smuggled into the U.S. through the passageway, Ralph DeSio, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protections, told HuffPost.

NBC San Diego reports that the tunnel, which let out at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego County, began in a building in Tijuana, Mexico.

DeSio said that while underground tunnels arent new along that part of the border, theyre more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics.

However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling, he added.

The San Diego Tunnel Task Force is coordinating with Mexican authorities to investigate the tunnel, which authorities suspect might be an extension of an incomplete tunnel that had been previously seized by Mexican authorities.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
CAIRO (Reuters) - A senior commander in al Shabaab, Somalia's al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels, was killed last month in a U.S. airstrike, the group said on Saturday in an online statement. Somalia said at the time that its military and allied foreign troops had killed the man identified as Ali Moahmed Hussein or Ali Jabal, believed responsible for several bombings. It did not disclose the nationality of the foreign troops, but American soldiers have in the past taken part in such raids. "The cowardly American enemy planes tried to strike him. The first missed him and the second hit, making him a martyr," said the al Qaeda statement circulated on social media. Somalia said last month that Ali Jabal's death would "reduce al Shabaab's ability to conduct senseless acts of violence against the people of Somalia, its East African neighbors, and the international community." The insurgents have carried out frequent attacks in the capital Mogadishu as they bid to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and drive out African Union peacekeeping troops. Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. (Reporting by Ali Abdelatty, Writing by Stephen Kalin; editing by Ralph Boulton)
(JUBA, South Sudan)  An American has been killed in civil war-torn South Sudan, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday, while South Sudans army said he was caught in fighting between rebels and government forces.

The embassy confirmed the death of Christopher Allen and said his family had been notified. His body was taken to the military hospital in South Sudans capital, Juba.

South Sudan army spokesman Col. Domic Chol Santo told The Associated Press that the man was killed Saturday morning when opposition rebels attacked the town of Kaya near the Ugandan border.

He was caught in the fighting that also left 15 rebels dead, the army spokesman said.

Opposition spokesman William Gatjiath Deng said the journalist had been traveling from Ugandas capital, Kampala, with another spokesman, Lam Paul Gabriel, when South Sudanese forces attacked.

South Sudans civil war is well into its fourth year, with tens of thousands of people killed. The fighting, often along ethnic lines, defies peace deals and unilateral cease-fires.

Millions of people have fled the oil-rich but impoverished East African nation, creating what has been called the worlds fastest-growing refugee crisis. More than a million have fled across the border into Uganda, while fighting has flared in the border area.

The international community has struggled to find ways to end the conflict. Late last year, a U.S.-led attempt to have the U.N. Security Council impose an arms embargo on South Sudan failed with insufficient support. Both sides in the civil war have been accused of abuses.
A hawk became an unlikely sidekick to a Texas cab driver after seeking refuge inside the mans vehicle and apparently refusing to leave.

Houston driver William Bruso said he was stocking up on supplies on Friday ahead of Hurricane Harvey when he returned to find the bird sitting on his passenger seat.

He looks like hes scared. He doesnt know whats going on, Bruso narrates in one of 10 YouTube videos documenting the birds surprise visit. He just kind of hopped on in and doesnt want to leave. Im not sure what to make of it.

Bruso said he tried to shoo the hawk away, to no avail. Videos later showed the animal perched on the door of his parked car, still refusing to fly away. Bruso eventually took the bird inside and gave it chicken hearts to snack on.

A hawk perches on William Bruso's gloved hand after refusing to fly away. (Photo: William Bruso/YouTube)

It didnt take long for the feathered refugee to earn the name Harvey the Hurricane Hawk from Bruso  as well as a flock of concerned and curious fans.

Harvey stayed in Brusos home overnight, but a worker with the Texas Wildlife Rehab Coalition was seen scooping the bird up on Saturday and taking it to a shelter for professional care.

Hes been free to go, any time now, but theyre going to take him, Bruso said as a woman with TWRC retrieved Harvey. He may need to be rehabilitated so everyone knows hes in good hands.

A TWRC spokeswoman confirmed to HuffPost in an email on Sunday that the bird is safe with a licensed rehabilitator. She also shared a video of the hawk in a cage.

He has an injury that is preventing him from flying, so would not have survived the storm if he was not picked up, an unidentified woman is heard saying in the video.

The woman also notes that road flooding is preventing rescuers from reaching the wildlife center to perform an X-ray on the bird. Once the roads clear up, the hawk and other animals will undergo full checkups, she says.

TWRC accepts donations to care for the animals it rescues through its website.

This story has been updated to include comment from TWRC.

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Related Coverage

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Steve Culver cries with his dog Otis as he talks about what he said was the, 'most terrifying event in his life,' when Hurricane Harvey blew in and destroyed most of his home while he and his wife took shelter there on in Rockport.

Ofelia Castro leads her grandchildren across a flooded street as they continue an hours long trek from their flooded house in the Edgewood area of South Houston to a relatives apartment miles away.

Aaron Tobias who said he lost everything stands in what is left of his home in Rockport. Mr. Tobias said he was able to get his wife and kids out before the storm arrived but he stayed there and rode it out.

Damaged boats in a multi-level storage facility are seen in Rockport.

People gather supplies out of destroyed homes to take back to a shelter near City-By-The Sea, Texas.

A destroyed laundromat is seen in Rockport.

A destroyed apartment complex is seen on Aug. 26, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey passed through Rockport, Texas.

Donna Raney is helped out of the window by Lee Guerrero and Daisy Graham in Rockport.

Valerie Brown walks through a flooded area after leaving her apartment in Rockport.

Charlie Company of the 4th Assault Amphibious Battalion, Marine Forces Reserve arrive at the Central Mall in Port Arthur, TX on Thursday night after running rescue missions in the hardest hit areas of town throughout the day.

A Rockport firefighter goes door to door on a search and rescue mission as he looks for people who may need help.

Rescue personnel help Hersey Kirk as she is airlifted into a rescue helicopter.

Jacque McKay walks through the apartment complex where she lives in Rockport.

A damaged home is seen after Hurricane Harvey in Rockport.

Damage is seen to a shopping center in Victoria, north and farther inland than Rockport.

Damage is seen at a business near Rockport

A damaged mobile home in Victoria.

Damage to a hotel in Victoria.

A business is damaged in Victoria.

A light plane sits upside done at Rockport Airport.

A sunken boat at Rockport Harbor.

Destroyed houses in Rockport.

Light medium tactical vehicle's (LMTV) make their way through floodwaters near Bridge City in Texas.

A car lies abandoned in Rockport.

A police officer checks for survivors among destroyed houses in Rockport.

A gas station in Victoria.

Damage to homes is seen near Rockport

A sign on a Holiday Inn hotel in Victoria.

Just got out of Rockport; no cell service there; catastrophic damage; homes, businesses destroyed. #hurricaneharvey pic.twitter.com/CJKPJOhEHZ  Jeremy Schwartz (@JinATX) August 26, 2017

First light reveals heavy damage in Rockport, TX. #hurricaneharvey. pic.twitter.com/a9vVRn9iJS  Jeff Gammons (@StormVisuals) August 26, 2017

A burnt-out house that caught fire after Hurricane Harvey hit Corpus Christi.

A house suffers roof damage in Corpus Christi.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Democrats and a few Republicans condemned President Donald Trumps decision on Friday to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal judges order to stop racially profiling Latinos when enforcing immigration law.

The controversial sheriff, whose tactics have been widely condemned by immigrant rights groups, was set to be sentenced in October to up to six months in jail.

No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold, said Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain in a statement. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judges orders.

McCain added that Trumps pardon undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.

The states other U.S. Senator, Republican Jeff Flake, also chimed in to say he wished Trump would honor the judicial process.

The pardon is the latest issue to pit the Arizona Senators against the President, who spent time criticizing both McCain and Flake at his rally in Phoenix on Tuesday, when he hinted that he might pardon Arpaio. Trump didnt mention them by name at the rally, but he later followed up on Twitter to say he was not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!

.@POTUS's pardon of Joe Arpaio, who illegally profiled Latinos, undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law https://t.co/2FckGtwQ2m  John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 26, 2017

Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course.  Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) August 26, 2017

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, also spoke out Friday.

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Ban on transgender patriots eager to serve and defend our nation. Pardon for Sheriff who specialized in tormenting immigrants. Ay Dios mio.  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) August 26, 2017

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of using the heavy focus on Hurricane Harvey to quietly pardon Arpaio. Joe Arpaio ignored the courts and the rule of law in order to systematically target Latinos in AZ, he said on Twitter. The definition of racism and bigotry.

Heres how other Democrats reacted:

.@POTUS pardon of fellow birther Arpaio makes mockery of rule of law, & says communities of color can be targeted & abused w/ total impunity  Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) August 26, 2017

The Arpaio pardon is basically a big middle finger to America. A loud, proud declaration that this Administration supports racism.  Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 26, 2017

By pardoning Sheriff Arpaio, President Trump has once again made clear where he stands: on the side of racism and discrimination.  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 26, 2017

By pardoning his buddy Joe Arpaio, President Trump is celebrating one of our nations most notorious agents of racism and bigotry.  Tom Perez (@TomPerez) August 26, 2017

President Trumps pardoning of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is yet another reprehensible endorsement of hatred & bigotry from this White House https://t.co/CwtHpyDF4O  Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) August 26, 2017

Just another disappointing Friday report from the White House. @realDonaldTrump keeps disrespecting the American people. https://t.co/UQsMSV1oJP  Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) August 26, 2017

Joe Arpaio is a bigot who targeted the Hispanic community for years. He should have served his time. https://t.co/b60fRJFnTD  Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) August 26, 2017

Sen. Patrick Leahy REAX To #Arpaio Pardon: "It is disheartening that the President set the bar so very low for his first pardon. (1 of 6)  Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) August 26, 2017

Nobody is above the law, period. Tonight, @POTUS put bigotry before justice. https://t.co/u81YopwJe9  Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) August 26, 2017
Actor Haaz Sleiman opened up about his sexuality in an emotional video this week as part of a personal effort to combat violence against the LGBTQ community.

The 41-year-old Nurse Jackie star announced that he was a gay, Muslim, Arab American man in the clip, which can be viewed below. But Sleiman, who was born and raised in Lebanon, didnt stop there. Not only am I gay, but Im also a bottom, he added in the video, which was posted to his social media accounts Aug. 22. Not only am I a bottom, but Im also a total bottom, which means I like it up you know where.

Sleiman said he felt compelled to address his sexuality in response to a National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report released earlier this month that revealed a surge in hate-related homicides of LGBTQ people. He ended the video with a stern warning to perpetrators of anti-queer violence.

If you ever come to me, to kill me just because Im gay, I will destroy you, he said in the clip. I might be gay and I might be a nice guy, but dont get it twisted, because I will fuck you up.

The actor, who is also known for roles in The State and Of Kings and Prophets, appeared to drop hints about the forthcoming announcement on his Twitter and Instagram accounts in the days leading up to the videos release.

So... Do you guys think I'm straight, gay, bi, pan, trans, or just simply a narcissistic actor who takes way too many selfies? pic.twitter.com/TVWkfNIEZu  Haaz Sleiman (@haazsleiman) August 22, 2017

A post shared by Haaz Sleiman (@haazsleiman) on Aug 13, 2017 at 3:36am PDT

Where my gay Muslims at? pic.twitter.com/xEcoMjHqxV  Haaz Sleiman (@haazsleiman) July 31, 2017

On Friday, Sleiman posted a screenshot to Facebook and Instagram of a 2009 Advocate interview in which he said he was straight and had a girlfriend in New York. Though his Nurse Jackie character, Mohammed Mo-Mo De La Cruz, was gay, the actor said being asked about his own sexuality caught him off-guard.

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I was so shocked. I froze. My body started shaking. And then I lied and said I was straight, he wrote. Shame on gay people who are not kind to other gay people.

Journalist Brandon Voss, who conducted the interview, wrote Saturday that he would have honored Sleimans wish to avoid personal questions, but hadnt been informed by the actors team of his request beforehand.

My goal, however, was not to be unkind or shocking, Voss wrote in a NewNowNext piece. When writing for LGBT publications, I respectfully interview LGBT people, straight people, and those who choose not to identify publicly. But because these celebrities are speaking to LGBT press, I do offer them an opportunity to identify if they so choose, with the end goal of celebrating and normalizing all sexual identities.

Noting that hed since apologized to the actor, Voss added, Had Sleiman replied with I prefer to keep my private life private or Its more fun to keep people guessing, I would not have pressed the issue.

Despite those early struggles, its great to see Sleiman living his authentic life today.

Catch the latest in LGBTQ culture by subscribing to the Queer Voices newsletter.
The organizer of a right-wing rally scheduled to take place Sunday in Berkeley, Calif., has canceled the event and is urging others not to attend out of concern it could result in violent clashes with counter-protesters.

Im sorry for this but I want this event to happen peacefully and I do not want to risk anyone getting harmed, organizer Amber Cummings wrote in a statement to the Los Angeles Times about the event, which was called No to Marxism in America.

She said she had concerns about the presence of counter-protesters from anti-fascist groups, often known as antifa, that have drawn attention for sometimes employing militant tactics. Antifa protesters, who have also been the targets of violence, caused more than $100,000 in property damage at the University of California, Berkeley earlier this year in opposition to a speech by far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos.

I will attend this event alone and I stress please stop the violence, Cummings said.

Another right-wing event scheduled to take place in San Francisco on Saturday was canceled and turned into a news conference, the Los Angeles Times reported.

We have a lot of respect for the citizens in San Francisco and at the end of the day, we want people to be safe, Joey Gibson, founder of the Patriot Prayer group and organizer of the Freedom Rally event, told the Times. In our opinion, it seems like it would have been a huge riot.

Organizers of both events said they were not affiliated with racist or white supremacist groups but worried the rallies might be co-opted by such groups. Similar concerns about the presence of white supremacists at a right-wing Free Speech rally in Boston last week drove an estimated 40,000 people to march in protest of the event.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 18:26:53|Editor: Lu Hui

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces fully liberated the city of Tal Afar after an eight-day offensive to drive out the Islamic State (IS) militants from the city and its surrounding areas, the Iraqi military said Sunday.

The army's 9th Armored Division and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units recaptured al-Askari neighborhood, the industrial area and adjacent village of al-Rahma in the northeast of the city, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.

By the recapture of the last neighborhoods, the troops completely freed the city of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, the statement said.

The troops and armored vehicles are pushing northward to the remaining IS-held town of Ayadhiyah and surrounding villages, it added.

The federal police forces, known as Rapid Response, had ended their part in the offensive earlier, after recapture of three neighborhoods west of the central part of Tal Afar, according to a military statement.

The Tal Afar area is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the city of Tal Afar and three towns: Zummar, which is under control of the Kurdish security forces, Mahalabiyah, which was freed from IS militants during past few days, and Ayadhiyah, which is still under IS control.

The whole Tal Afar area consists of 47 villages scattered around the city and its three towns.

The majority of the population in the Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the Kurds and other minorities.

On Aug. 20, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, declared the start of an operation to retake control of Tal Afar and the nearby areas from IS militants.

The Tal Afar area, some 70 km west of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the province of Nineveh.

The United Nation's International Organization for Migration estimated that the population in Tal Afar and surrounding areas is some 10,000 to 40,000 people.

Before the liberation, the army's Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jubouri, commander of Nineveh's Operations Command, told reporters that he estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 IS militants left in Tal Afar.
By Jake Spring BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government defended the opening of a vast Amazon area to mining on Friday after criticism from lawmakers, environmental groups and supermodel Gisele Bundchen that it threatened the world's largest rainforest. Earlier this week, President Michel Temer abolished the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca) that had protected roughly 17,800 square miles (46,000 square km), an area larger than Denmark, from mining since 1984. The reserve in northern Amapa and Para is thought to have significant reserves of copper, gold, iron ore and other minerals. Environmentalists say the area is rich in biodiversity and hosts species yet to be studied. Mining and Energy Minister Fernando Coelho Filho said the decree could protect the area from illegal mining operations that the government says are polluting waterways, destroying the forest and plundering national wealth. "In an area that mining is permitted, they must follow the law, period," Coelho said. Mining remains off limits in parts of Renca marked as indigenous land or subject to full environmental protection, he said. If mining is allowed to go forward, it could cause the biggest ever legally sanctioned destruction of the Amazon, Randolfe Rodrigues, a senator from Amapa state, told Reuters. Temer's office issued a statement late Thursday saying these concerns were overstated and allowing legal mining there would help combat illegal exploration. "Renca is not a paradise, as some would wrongly like to make it appear," the statement said. Rodrigues, of the opposition Rede party led by former presidential candidate and environment minister Marina Silva, has proposed a measure in the Senate to block the president's decree. He plans to file lawsuits in Amapa and Para states to block the decree. "Shame! They are auctioning our Amazon! We cannot destroy protected areas for private interests," Bundchen wrote in a tweet. In June, Temer said in a tweet to the model he would veto a measure to separately reduce protections of a different national forest after she criticized the move. He later supported a compromise to reduce the protected area by a lesser amount than originally proposed. According to a 2010 government report, 69 percent of the Renca area in Amapa state is subject to other types of protections. Merely allowing mining near protected areas could generate conflict and put them under threat, WWF and Greenpeace said in statements. "The measure will accelerate the arrival of infrastructure and people for mining activities in areas of native forest, reproducing in the region the same lack of governance that permits the advance of deforestation and land grabs (elsewhere) in the Amazon," Greenpeace said. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Andrew Hay)
On Friday night, in the middle of a hurricane, President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who profiled Latinos and ignored a court order to stop.

It's nothing like what happened to Chelsea Manning, who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified documents and had the rest of her 35-year sentence commuted by President Obama in January.

Some people, however, were evidently using Obama's decision to commute Manning's sentence to justify Trump's decision to pardon Arpaio, who hasn't served any jail time for his conviction of criminal contempt or expressed any remorse for his history of racial profiling.

Manning quickly shut them down.

why does everyone insist on comparing my commutation with the pardon of some crooked cop ??  #FridayFeeling  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) August 26, 2017

"Why does everyone insist on comparing my commutation with the pardon of some crooked cop?" she tweeted Friday night, shortly after Trump pardoned Arpaio.

my name sure got thrown around tonight with pardon of crooked cop arpaio  a cop in a police state ? of course they are immune !!   Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) August 26, 2017

Trump hinted that he might pardon Arpaio during his rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. In a tweet Friday night, the president called the sheriff an "American patriot."

I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

Along with profiling Latinos, Arpaio was known for harsh, violent conditions in the jails he oversaw for over 20 years. He was also the sheriff who, you might remember, sent a member of his staff to Hawaii to look for Obama's birth certificate.

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So it's not surprising Manning would immediately criticize those who compared his case with herswhere both the situation of the pardon and commutation were wildly different, as were reasons why both were convicted.
Confederate flags are reportedly seeing a surge in sales. Alabama Flag & Banner, the last Confederate flag retailer in the United States, claims that the controversy from Charlottesville, Virginia, has benefitted its sales.

The small shop has seen an increase in sales following the protests in Charlottesville over the removal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's statue, according to CBS News. However, sales will likely remain steady as the push for the removal of more Confederate monuments occur, CBS News reported.

Belinda Kennedy, the owner of Alabama Flag & Banner, spoke with International Business Times Friday about the sales spike she's seen within her Huntsville, Alabama, business.

"By and large, the comments I hear from customers coming into our store, over the phone or by email are buying flags in order to offset the small minority who are demanding the removal of monuments, changing names of streets, schools, and buildings, wanting to deface mountains, and general trying to revise history," Kennedy told IBT. "The sales we are seeing are from all 50 states and several different countries."

"I have no intention of stopping our manufacturing," Kennedy said. "We are currently the only U.S.-based manufacturer of the flag. Our customer base includes mom-and-pop shops that do not want to sell China-made products but do want to continue to carry a full line of historic flags."

She added, "We are their only source for some of these flags. I do not see the demand for these flags decreasing any time in the near future."

The sales boost shouldn't come as a surprise. Retailers nationwide have halted the production of Confederate flags because of push-back from people in opposition to it. Convicted shooter Dylann Roof's 2015 rampage at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, became a cause of concern for major retailers. This incident led retailers to rethink selling Confederate flags to consumers.

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Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, eBay and Sears announced its intentions to place a ban on the sale of Confederate flags following the Charleston controversy. A Google spokesperson told Recode in 2015 that the tech company also planned to remove the Confederate flag from advertisements and Google Shopping.

The removal of Confederate monuments will likely move forward. A list of government officials in support of the removal of Confederate monuments is expanding country-wide, according to Reuters. Mayors of Baltimore and Lexington, Kentucky, intend to follow through with removal plans. Officials in Memphis, Tennessee, Dallas and Jacksonville, Florida, also announced its plans to push for the removal of Confederate statues.

The flag has served as a symbol associated with racism for many. However, those in support of the flag advocate its significance in U.S. history. Confederate flag enthusiasts have had a harder time obtaining it because of the nationwide production halt, as a result.

The removal of Confederate statues nationwide has likely increased the demand for shops like Belinda's to cultivate more flags.

"We started having an influx in business and none of the major manufacturers were willing to sell the stock they had  they weren't willing to continue production on Confederate flags," Kennedy told AL.com in a 2015 interview. "My responsibilities to my customers is to fill their needs when they want it and I had customers wanting it. I wasn't going to turn them away as I felt I had been turned away. We just decided to start cranking them out of our presses, cutting and sewing."

Kennedy added, "It's no different from a Betsy Ross flag, a Bennington flag, [or] any of the historic flags. It's simply a historic flag. It's not hate, it's history. It's a symbol of things that happened in the past and hopefully, we've learned from the past. The people that are making it a racial issue are pushing an agenda."

Confederate Flag

Photo: Getty Images

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Counterprotesters dominated the streets of San Francisco on Saturday morning after a right-wing free speech rally planned for Crissy Field was canceled.

Tensions swirled in advance of the weekend, as local officials feared the rally would attract white nationalists, potentially leading to violence with counterprotesters. Many critics said it was unsafe to hold such a politically charged event weeks after a deadly confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists and progressive activists clashed.

The group that organized the rally, Patriot Prayer, said on Friday that the event would be moved to Alamo Park in San Francisco because of concerns about safety at Crissy Field. But police had Alamo Park largely surrounded and fenced off on Saturday morning, with officers turning away counterprotesters who showed up with signs such as F Nazis. Later in the day, Patriot Prayers founder Joey Gibson said that alternate gathering had also been canceled.

Thousands of counter-demonstrators meanwhile gathered at various locations around the city, many intending to march through San Francisco to a musical Peace, Love and Understanding event near City Hall. One of those locations was the Castro, the citys historically LGBT district. Demonstrators, many of whom traveled to San Francisco from nearby cities, danced and waved signs with slogans like Fascism Shall Not Pass and Will Trade Racists for Refugees.

We have the fascists on the run, said California state Sen. Scott Wiener, standing among the throngs in the Castro. Weve sent a clear message to them that they have free speech, they can say what they want, but they cant be violent. And these people showed their true colors when they abandoned the event, he said.

Crissy Field is federal land, so the National Park Service was in charge of issuing the permit for the gathering. When that approval came through on Wednesday, there was a long list of banned items, ranging from helmets to pepper spray to selfie sticks. Wiener believes that it was various safety restrictions that led the group to call off the event less than 24 hours before it was supposed to start, because those would make it impossible for them to hold an explosive rally.

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In the early afternoon, Gibson appeared alongside right-wing activist Kyle Chapman in a Facebook Live post to discuss the decision to cancel the rally. Im sorry to everybody who bought tickets, paid for gas, Gibson said. I just felt like it was going to be a huge riot. He reiterated his belief that the cancellation was the fault of liberal detractors who characterized the event as a gathering of white supremacists, thereby attracting extremists.

Gibson has publicly disavowed white supremacy on several occasions, though individuals who hold those beliefs have been attracted to his events in the past. At a press conference in Pacifica on Saturday afternoon, he said his only plan was to personally show up at random spots in San Francisco to have dialogues with people who live here.

It was unclear if any of those who had planned to attend the event in Crissy Field would rally elsewhere during the weekend. A similar right-wing event planned for Sunday in Berkeley had also been canceled because of safety concerns.

The people taking to the streets of San Francisco appeared to be in a generally jubilant mood. At some counter-demonstrations, people were instructed to hug one another en masse. Protestors wore balloon-animal hats and blew giant bubbles. At Alamo Park, the location of the famed Victorian houses known as Painted Ladies, a giant banner had been draped across down from one of their roofs. It read Love Trumps Hate.

We are all about love and inclusion and embracing everyone, Wiener said, as a woman walked up to hug him in the Castro. Were going to celebrate and protest  and really show what this city is about.
This family handout photo released on August 12, 2017 shows Swedish journalist Kim Wall - AFP

Danish police are investigating a possible link between the eccentric inventor held over the death of a Swedish reporter and the unsolved murder of a Japanese student in 1986.

The dismembered body of Kim Wall, an award-winning freelance journalist, was found at sea after she disappeared while on board the submarine of Danish businessman Peter Madsen, 46.

Police in Copenhagen said the findings have led them to reopen the case of Kazuko Toyonaga, a 22-year-old Japanese tourist, in case the two killings are linked.

Toyonaga's body was found in separate locations off the waters of the Danish capital a month after she disappeared. Investigators say Wall's body was "deliberately" mutilated and weighed down with a metal object to try and avoid detection.

Mr Madsen denies killing the journalist, and says he dumped her body in the sea south of Copenhagen after she died in an accident. He also denies cutting off her limbs.

He has been held in formal custody since August 12 on suspicion of "negligent manslaughter" Wall was last seen on board Mr Madsen's 60-foot (18-metre) Nautilus submarine on August 10 when she went to interview him. Investigators found traces of her blood inside the vessel.

Peter Madsen (R), builder and captain of the private submarine "UC3 Nautilus" talks to a police officer in Dragoer Harbor south of Copenhagen on Friday

Danish prosecutors are seeking to charge him with murder and have until September 5 to request an extension of his custody. Mr Madsen, who describes himself as an "inventepreneur" on his website, is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Wall was a freelance journalist who had reported for The New York Times and The Guardian.

Her boyfriend reported her missing a day after the interview with Mr Madsen. That same day, Mr Madsen was rescued from waters between Denmark and Sweden shortly before his submarine sank. Investigators recovered and searched the sunken vessel, which police believe Mr Madsen sank intentionally.

Divers looking for missing Swedish journalist Credit: LISELOTTE SABROEi

The Nautilus was the biggest private sub ever made when Mr Madsen built it in 2008 with help from a group of volunteers. The volunteers were engaged in a dispute over the Nautilus between 2014 and 2015 before members of the board decided to transfer the vessel's ownership to Mr Madsen, according to the website.

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In 2015, Mr Madsen had sent a text message to two members of the board claiming: "there is a curse on Nautilus". "That curse is me.

There will never be peace on Nautilus as long as I exist," Mr Madsen wrote, according to a post written by the volunteers in Danish on the website. Danish police are still searching for the clothes Wall wore on the submarine: an orange fleece, a skirt and white sneakers.

According to her former classmate and close friend Yan Cong, the sneakers had sentimental value. "We sent each other photos of us wearing the sneakers during reporting trips from different parts of the world," Cong said.

"I believe she was wearing them when she went missing." Wall was a graduate of Columbia Graduate School of Journalism who had planned to move to Beijing to pursue her career, Cong said.
The 2 minutes of darkness caused by the total solar eclipse earlier this week may seem momentous, but it's nothing compared with the prolonged darkness that followed the dinosaur-killing asteroid that collided with Earth about 65.5 million years ago, a new study finds.

When the 6-mile-wide (10 kilometers) asteroid struck, Earth plunged into a darkness that lasted nearly two years, the researchers said.

This darkness was caused, in part, by tremendous amounts of soot that came from wildfires worldwide. Without sunlight, Earth's plants couldn't photosynthesize, and the planet drastically cooled. These two key factors likely toppled global food chains and contributed to the mass extinction at the end of the dinosaur age, known as the Mesozoic, according to the study. [Wipe Out: History's Most Mysterious Extinctions]

The finding may help scientists understand why more than 75 percent of all species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, and large marine reptiles, such as the plesiosaur, went extinct after the asteroid slammed into what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the researchers said.

Killer asteroid

When the space rock smashed into Earth, it probably triggered earthquakes, tsunamis and even volcanic eruptions, the researchers said. The asteroid hit with such force that it launched vaporized rock sky-high into the atmosphere. Up there, the vaporized rock would have condensed into small particles, called spherules.

When the spherules plunged back down to Earth, they collided with air molecules, causing friction and heating to temperatures hot enough to ignite fires around the world. In fact, a thin band of spherules can still be found in the geologic record, the researchers said.

Most large Mesozoic land animals died in the asteroid's immediate aftermath, "but animals that lived in the oceans or those that could burrow underground or slip underwater temporarily could have survived," the study's lead researcher, Charles Bardeen, a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement.

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"Our study picks up the story after the initial effects  after the earthquakes and the tsunamis and the broiling," Bardeen said. "We wanted to look at the long-term consequences of the amount of soot we think was created and what those consequences might have meant for the animals that were left."

Earth without photosynthesis

Even though researchers found evidence for the asteroid in the late 1970s, there still isn't "universal agreement" on how long Earth was shrouded in darkness after the space rock smacked into the planet, Bardeen told Live Science. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]

Bardeen and his colleagues used the most up-to-date estimates of the amount of fine soot in the geologic record  that is, 15,000 million tons. Then, they plugged that amount into the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model (CESM)  a modern chemistry-climate model that factors in components related to the atmosphere, land, ocean and sea ice. This model allowed the scientists to simulate the effect of soot in the years following the asteroid impact.

"Different studies have assumed various types of particles including dust, sulfates and soot," Bardeen told Live Science in an email. "All of these particles can block enough sunlight to cool the surface, but only soot is so strongly absorbing that it is self-lofting, can heat the stratosphere and reduces sunlight at the surface light to very low levels."

The new results show what a catastrophic effect the soot had on Earth.

"Our study shows it is dark enough to shut down photosynthesis for up to two years," Bardeen said. "This would have a devastating effect, particularly in the ocean, since the ocean relies upon phytoplankton as a primary source of food and loss of this would be catastrophic to the entire food chain."

Even if the soot levels had been one-third this estimated amount, photosynthesis would have still been blocked for an entire year, the researchers found.

Other catastrophic effects

In addition to stopping photosynthesis, this worldwide cloud of soot would have prevented much of the sun's heat from reaching Earth. After three years following the crash, the land and oceans would have cooled by as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) and 20 degrees F (11 degrees C), respectively, the researchers found. [Crash! 10 Biggest Impact Craters on Earth]

In contrast, the upper atmosphere, known as the stratosphere, would have warmed because that's where the soot floated around, absorbing the sun's heat. These roasting temperatures would have depleted the ozone, and also allowed for vast quantities of water vapor to hover in the stratosphere. When this water vapor chemically reacted in the stratosphere, it would have created hydrogen compounds that led to further ozone destruction, according to the researchers.

As the ozone disappeared and the soot cleared, damaging doses of ultraviolet light reached Earth, harming life there, the researchers said.

When the stratosphere eventually cooled down, the water vapor there condensed and began raining, abruptly washing away the soot, Bardeen said. As some soot left, the air there cooled, which in turn led the water vapor to condense into ice particles, which washed away more soot.

Once this cooling cycle repeated enough times, the thinning soot layer vanished within months, the researchers found.

Bardeen credited his friend Betty Pierazzo, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, with securing funding from NASA for an earlier study that enabled and inspired this study. Unfortunately, Pierazzo died before research on the end-Cretaceous asteroid got underway.

Bardeen also noted several limitations, including that the model is based on a modern Earth, and that at the end of the Cretaceous period Earth's continents were in different locations and the planet also had different atmospheric properties, such as different concentrations of gases.

The study was published online Monday (Aug. 21) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Original article on Live Science.

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Donald Trump has labelled the government of Nicolas Maduro a 'dictatorship': Ariana Cubillos/AP

Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing strong, new financial sanctions on the dictatorship in Venezuela, according to the White House, an escalation of the US's crackdown on the South American country.

The Maduro dictatorship continues to deprive the Venezuelan people of food and medicine, imprison the democratically-elected opposition, and violently suppress freedom of speech. the White House said in a statement.

The sweeping financial sanctions are aimed at restricting the ability of Mr Maduro's regime to finance its unconstitutional and undemocratic behaviour, according to a senior administration official.

We will not allow the United States financial system to participate in the underwriting of the Maduro dictatorship amid a wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy and the violent oppression of the Venezuelan people, a senior administration official said. Were closing off his access to the markets for the financing hes been using to prop up his regime and to fund the security apparatus that is repressing the Venezuelan people.

Under the new measures, institutions in the US will be prohibited from trading new bonds and stocks issued by Mr Maduros government, including through the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA), the parent company of Citgo. Banks also cannot engage in new lending with the government or the oil conglomerate. These new restrictions dealing with Venezuelas access to credit were effective immediately, officials said.

The sanctions are bound to dramatically escalate tensions between Venezuela and Washington and exacerbate the South American country's economic crisis.

Recession and currency controls in Venezuela have led to declines in local production and imports of foreign goods, resulting in shortages of everything from flour to vaccines and medicines. The crisis is so severe that 75 per cent of the countrys population has lost an average of 19 pounds in weight, a study by three Venezuelen universities has found.

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The White House said the sanctions are carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule, protect the United States financial system from complicity in Venezuela's corruption and in the impoverishment of the Venezuelan people, and allow for humanitarian assistance.

Maduros economic mismanagement and rampant plundering of his nations assets have taken Venezuela ever closer to default, it added. His officials are now resorting to opaque financing schemes and liquidating the countrys assets at fire sale prices.

A senior administration official said the goal of the US is to see the Venezuelan government restore its democracy by having free and fair elections, respecting the constitution, and releasing political prisoners. If Mr Maduro's regime does not comply, the US has more room to escalate sanctions, the official said.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey earlier this month, Mr Trump said the US has many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary.

The people are suffering and they are dying, the President said.

Mr Trump's signing of his executive order on Friday followed Mr Maduro's decision to convene a special assembly to rewrite Venezuela's constitution  a plan rejected by millions of Venezuelans in a referendum organised by the country's main opposition parties. Mr Maduro's regime declared the referendum as illegal.

Speaking at the United Nations on Friday, Venezuela's foreign minister Jorge Arreaza called the new US financial sanctions the worst aggressions to Venezuela in the last 200 years, maybe.

Using a phrase frequently deployed by Mr Trump to describe media coverage he doesn't like, Mr Arreaza also said his country was a victim of fake news that exaggerated its economic difficulties.
House speaker Paul Ryan said he disagreed with Joe Arpaio's pardon: AP

Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican in Congress, has condemned Donald Trump's decision to pardon of controversial former sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The party's speaker in the House of Representatives said he "does not agree" with the decision, joining other senior Republicans in a chorus of criticism.

Mr Arpaio, 85, was convicted of criminal contempt in July last year after ignoring a court injunction ordering him to stop racially profiling Latinos in Arizona.

The former sheriff of Maricopa County had faced possible jail time over his department's policy of detaining motorists on suspicion of being illegal immigrants based solely on their race.

The political ally of Mr Trump was granted the first pardon of the billionaire's administration this week in a move described by critics as "a presidential endorsement of racism".

"The speaker does not agree with this decision," a spokesman for Mr Ryan said. "Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon."

John McCain, the veteran Arizona senator and former Republican presidential candidate, led the criticism of Mr Trump over the pardon, which he said undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law".

The President has repeatedly praised Mr Arpaio's hardline stance on immigration, which included huge round-ups of suspected illegal migrants.

The former sheriff, who lost a bid for re-election in November after 24 years in office, was also notorious for his investigation into unfounded Trump-promoted claims questioning former president Barack Obama's US citizenship.

"Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration," said a White House statement announcing the pardon.

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In July last year US District Judge Susan Bolton ruled Mr Arpaio he had willfully violated a 2011 injunction barring his officers from stopping and detaining Latino motorists solely on suspicion that they were in the country illegally.

The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" claimed the prosecution was a politically motivated attempt by the Obama administration to undermine his re-election bid. Mr Trump said Mr Arpaio had been convicted "for doing his job".

He had been due to be sentenced on October 5 and faced a fine and maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Cecillia Wang, a lawyer who helped press the racial profiling case, described the pardon as a presidential endorsement of racism.

She said Mr Trump had "acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of colour and have been struck down by the courts".
The elusive Vanzolini saki monkey: National Geographic

A mysterious and elusive Amazonian monkey has been spotted in the wild for the first time in 80 years.

The Vanzolini bald-faced saki has shaggy black hair and distinctive golden legs and was first documented in 1936.

A team which undertook an expedition to the rainforest in Brazil in 1956 encountered only dead monkeys, meaning Laura Marsh, director of the Global Conservation Institute, was the first to see one alive in eight decades, during a recent trek.

The saki expert told National Geographic: "I was trembling and so excited I could barely take a picture."

Dr Marsh organised her "Houseboat Amazon" team to document the biodiversity in the region near Brazil's border with Perubut with a special focus on finding the Vanzolini saki.

They accomplished the mission on the fourth day, National Geographic reported.

It was spotted running among the trees on all fours. Lacking the prehensile tail of other monkeys, it moves more like a cat, Dr Marsh told the site.
North Dakota lawmakers will meet behind closed doors next month to discuss whether to proceed with a lawsuit over vetoes issued by Gov. Doug Burgum, the chairman of a powerful legislative committee said Saturday.

Legislative Management will meet Sept. 28 at the state Capitol before going into executive session, said Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks. The meeting will be closed to the public according to the attorney-client privilege exception to the state's open meeting laws, and any vote would be taken in public, he said.

A formal notice of the meeting has not yet been issued.

"Our sole purpose is to meet with attorneys and discuss whether or not Legislative Management wants to go forward with a lawsuit and what the parameters of that lawsuit would be," Holmberg said.

The committee already voted in June to proceed with litigation after Burgum issued several partial vetoes on spending bills after the Legislature adjourned in late April, but Holmberg said at the time another vote would take place before any lawsuit is filed.

Legislators and staff raised concerns that the "selective deletions" Burgum used could change the intent of legislation. Legislative leaders previously said they're seeking clarity for future lawmakers and governors on the "appropriate use of the governor's veto" and the separation of powers.

The vote set the stage for a rare legal battle between two branches of government and between a Republican-controlled Legislature and a first-term Republican governor.

"I think it's our responsibility to defend the legislative branch of government," House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, said in June.

Holmberg is unsure which way the committee is leaning on filing a lawsuit.

"That's one of the reasons why we want to meet and look at strategies with the attorneys," he said. "I have been a skeptic that the lawsuit could be successful, but that's one of the reasons that we want to meet with attorneys."

Holmberg said Legislative Council staff will be in attendance along with outside counsel, although he stopped short of saying they've been hired officially. He said legislators should turn to outside attorneys because "our Legislative Council folks are not litigators."

Burgums spokesman Mike Nowatzki said Saturday the governors office didnt have anything to add to previous statements. In June, the governor said there's a "natural ... push and pull between two branches of government to decide what's your authority and what's not."

"The authority of the Legislature is clearly that they're the appropriators," Burgum said. "It seems to me the executive branch and all the agencies, our job is to make sure that (we) maintain the authority and the flexibility to be the most efficient we can with those taxpayer dollars."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 18:26:54|Editor: ying

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. official for South Asian affairs Alice Wells will reach Pakistan on Monday, marking the first high-level tour by a U.S. diplomat after President Donald Trump unveiled his new South Asia policies, according to local reports on Sunday.

Wells, acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, will meet Pakistan's civil and military leadership during her two-day stay in the country, said the reports.

There is no official word from Pakistani side about Wells' arrival yet. However, the U.S. Department of State has already confirmed the visit.

The purpose of her visit would be to take the top leadership of Pakistan into confidence regarding U.S. policies, the reports said.

In Trump's South Asia policies, the president criticized Pakistan for its alleged poor performance in the war on terror, prompting Islamabad's opposition.

The expected visit to Islamabad is the second trip to Pakistan in this month by Wells, who is also the acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

During her first visit to Islamabad on Aug. 3, Wells appreciated Pakistan's sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and underscored the value of cooperation.
President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio Friday, sparing the controversial former Arizona sheriff a spell in jail.

The move has drawn an outcry from civil rights groups, given that Arpaio's conviction was for defying a court order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected immigrants. But others, including the president, have praised Arpaio's stance on law enforcement and immigration.

The sheriff who branded himself America's toughest lawman has long attracted controversy. As news of the pardon breaks, Newsweek reviews five of his biggest scandals.

Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio

Scott Olson/Getty Images

"Concentration camp"

As newly elected Sheriff of Maricopa County in the early 1990s, Arpaio pushed the construction of an open-air jail called 'Tent City,' which he claimed was a solution not only to prison overcrowding but to "soft" incarceration policies.

Inmates were made to wear pink underwear and handcuffs, meals were cut down to two a day with salt and pepper removed to cut costs and Arpaio pushed for mugshots of inmates to be posted online.

He also reintroduced the use of chain gangsincluding for women and juvenile inmates.

Responding to an audience member in 2008 at the Arizona American Italian Club in Phoenix, Arpaio allegedly boasted of the camps toughness, comparing it to a Nazi death camp.

"I already have a concentration camp," Arpaio said during the 2008 appearance. It's called Tent City."

Spiralling suicide rate

A 2015 investigation by the Phoenix New Times showed suicide rates of prisoners during Arpaios tenure dwarfed those in other country jails, with 24 percent of the 157 who died in his jail were logged by the coroner as having taken their own lives.

The second highest rate was 14 percent in Philadelphia jails over a comparable period.

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In another 73 cases the cause of death was recorded as unknown by county authorities. The lawsuits over the deaths cost Maricopa County $140 million.

Failure to investigate sex crimes

During a three year period ending in 2007, more than 400 sex crimes reported to Arpaios office, most from El Mirage, a suburb of Phoenix with a large immigrant population, were inadequately investigated or not investigated at all, it was claimed. Among them were 32 reported offenses against children.

In 2015 officials settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit out of court after the sheriff's office failed to properly investigate the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Racial profiling

Then in May, 2013, the Justice Department announced that it was investigating longstanding allegations of discrimination against Latino citizens by Arpaio's office.

That suit alleged the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office had targeted Hispanic immigrants during patrols and traffic stops and had violated their right to privacy under Arpaios leadership. The case was eventually settled in 2015, with the Sheriff's office agreeing to establish policies that prevented retaliation against officials who wouldn't comply with Arpaio's targeting of immigrant communities.

Then in early summer 2017, Arpaio went on trial accused of disobeying a court order to stop patrols targeting immigrants. In July he was convicted, and ahead of the presidential pardon had been scheduled to be sentenced in October. Arpaio could have faced up to six months in jail.

"Birther" investigation posse

Arpaios relationship with Trump began earlier this decade, as the property magnate geared up his political career by spreading the birther conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama.

Arpaio was one of the few public figures who also touted the theory, and in 2011 even announced he was forming a five man cold case posse to investigate the theory. In a letter to Arpaio, Trump praised the move.

The officials traveled to Hawaii to investigate Obama's birth certificate and claimed to have found evidence that it was a forgery. Critics denounced the move as a political stunt by Arpaio, who has continued to declare his belief in the theory. Trump regularly boasted that he would offer evidence, but as of this reporting, he has yet to do so.

Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obamas citizenship, and the courts have rebuffed a series of lawsuits.

In 2016 he endorsed Trump, spoke at the Republican National Convention that summer, and was even mentioned as a possible contender to head up the Department of Homeland Security.

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ZURICH (Reuters) - Five climbers were killed and one seriously injured after a mountain accident on Sunday in the Austrian state of Salzburg, the Austrian Press Agency reported. The tragedy involved a group of climbers in the so-called Mannlkarscharte, a gap in the mountains southwest of Salzburg at about 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) above sea level. One climber slipped on an icy area, causing the rest of the roped group to fall 200 meters into a glacier crevasse. The accident was observed by another group of climbers. The Red Cross said five rescue helicopters were sent to the scene. The survivor is in critical but stable condition in a Salzburg hospital. One of the dead was identified as a 34-year-old man from the state of Bavaria in Germany. One member of the rescue and recovery team was injured slightly by a rock fall. (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Alison Williams)
PANCHKULA, India (AP)  A north Indian court on Friday convicted the flamboyant leader of a quasi-religious sect of raping two of his followers, prompting thousands of supporters camped out near the courthouse to shout angry protests.

The court in the town of Panchkula announced the verdict in the 15-year-old case against the guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, prosecutor H.P.S. Verma said.

Fearing an outbreak of violence, more than 15,000 Indian police and paramilitary soldiers were patrolling the streets.

Verma said the sentence would be announced on Aug. 28.

The 15-year-old case was being tried in a special court run by Indias top agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The bearded guru, who had denied the charges, had arrived for the hearing with a 100-vehicle convoy that left his ashram early Friday.

His Dera Sacha Sauda sect claims to have some 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It has also taken up social causes such as organizing the weddings of poor couples.

Such sects have huge followings in India. Its not unusual for leaders to have small, heavily armed private militias protecting them.

Some 100,000 of his followers had camped overnight in parks, plazas and on the streets of the town, a quiet residential suburb of Chandigarh, which is the common capital of Haryana and Punjab states.

Police erected heavy metal barricades topped with barbed wire along main roads in the town, and blocked the road leading to the courthouse. Officers on horseback monitored the crowds nearby.

We are prepared to deal with any situation, but are confident that adequate measures have been put in place, said B. S. Sandhu, a top Haryana police official.

Army soldiers will later march through the streets to garner a sense of security, Sandhu told reporters, as helicopters whirred overhead before the verdict was read.

Authorities ordered Internet and cellphone services shut down across both Haryana and Punjab as a security precaution.

Train services were canceled through the area, leading to railway delays across north India. Schools and colleges were closed.
People often turn to a Google search when they want to research their symptoms. But now, people who Google one particular condition  "clinical depression"  on their smartphone will be asked if they would like to check if they're clinically depressed.

Tapping this text will take the person to a new page that introduces a screening questionnaire. The questionnaire, called PHQ-9, is a "clinically validated screening questionnaire which can help identify levels of depressive symptoms," Mary Giliberti, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said in a statement released by Google yesterday (Aug. 23).

The self-assessment is private, and could help determine a person's level of depression and the need for an in-person evaluation, Giliberti said. [9 DIY Ways to Improve Your Mental Health]

The screening questionnaire is not meant to act as a singular tool to diagnosis depression  in other words, a person can't be diagnosed with the condition simply by taking the survey online. Rather, it's designed to help increase awareness and could lead people to seek treatment, Giliberti said. "The results of the PHQ-9 can help you have a more informed conversation with your doctor," she said.

But what do mental health experts think about adding the questionnaire to Google searches?

"I think it's a great idea, because it provides a reliable, simple way of screening for depression," said Dr. Michael Thase, a professor of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "There will be false positives, for sure, but remember that this pops up only when people have sought information about clinical depression," Thase told Live Science.

Dr. David Hellerstein, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, agreed that false positives could come up. In other words, the questionnaire may suggest that people have clinical depression when they don't actually have the condition.

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For example, a false positive could occur in a person who is having a bad day or just got into a fight, Hellerstein told Live Science. But Google's use of the questionnaire will probably have more of a positive impact than a negative one, he added. "On the other hand, you're probably identifying many, many, many people who wouldn't otherwise think about [the symptoms of depression] and maybe helping direct some of them towards treatment," he said.

Consider how people look at symptoms of other conditions online, Hellerstein said. A questionnaire about asthma symptoms that mentions shortness of breath could capture a person who is having a heart attack, or someone who just had a cold. But you'd probably also find a lot of people in the middle who did have asthma, so it could raise awareness, he said.

For depression, this awareness is important: "Depression remains under-recognized and undertreated," Hellerstein said. [9 Celebrities Who Spoke Up About Depression]

Still, Hellerstein had several questions about Google's use of the screening device. For example, the questionnaire Google is using is a "really useful clinical screening instrument"; however, it probably wasn't designed to be used in a random population but rather in clinical and medical settings, he said. This gives researchers an opportunity to make the questionnaire more reliable for widespread use, he added.

Another question is, what would happen if a person took the questionnaire and learned that he or she was "really severely depressed"? Hellerstein said. There are privacy issues, he said, but would it be possible for someone to intervene and try to get that person to seek treatment?

Originally published on Live Science.

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By Brian Thevenot ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) - The most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years has killed at least one person and is now threatening catastrophic flooding as search and rescue teams deploy to the hardest-hit zones, authorities said on Saturday. Harvey slammed into Texas, the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry, late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to strike the state since 1961. It ripped off roofs, snapped trees, and triggered tornadoes and flash floods, while also curtailing a large portion of America's oil and fuel production and prompting price hikes at the pumps. Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days as it lumbers inland, bringing as much as 40 inches (102 cm) of rain and affecting heavily populated areas like Houston. One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Corpus Christi, as Harvey roared ashore overnight, Mayor Charles Wax said in a news conference on Saturday, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries like broken bones, another official said. The town took a direct hit from the storm and had streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday afternoon. At a recreational vehicle sales lot, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown into the middle of the street. By Saturday evening, a caravan of military vehicles had arrived in the Rockport area with people and equipment to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents. "It was terrible," resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters. The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4 a.m., he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm. "I could feel the whole house move." Before the storm hit, Rockport's mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury. A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media. Some were being used as shelters. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations. The streets of Corpus Christi, which has around 320,000 residents, were deserted on Saturday, with billboards twisted and strong winds still blowing. City authorities asked residents to reduce use of toilets and faucets because power outages left waste water plants unable to treat sewage. Elsewhere, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it was forced to evacuate some 4,500 inmates from three state prisons near the Brazos River because of rising water. Texas utility companies, meanwhile, said 220,000 customers were without power. The U.S. Coast Guard said it had rescued 15 people from distressed vessels on Saturday, and was also monitoring two Carnival Corp cruise ships carrying thousands of people stranded in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico due to the effects of the storm. Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale when it hit the coast, the second-highest category, and the most powerful storm in over a decade to come ashore anywhere in the mainland United States. HEADING INLAND, STORM WEAKENS Harvey weakened to tropical storm from hurricane strength on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The center of the storm was barely moving and was 142 miles (230 km) from Houston with sustained winds of 60 mph. Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States and home to a third of the 6 million people that could be impacted by Harvey, has gotten about 16 inches of rain so far, and will receive 2 to 3 more feet in the coming days, Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday afternoon. "This is serious," Turner said in a televised interview as Harvey turned into a tropical storm expected to linger over the mid Texas coast. "It is important that people stay off the roads." Turner said the city, which has faced flooding in recent years during smaller storms, is prepared for what he described as a "major water event." Other authorities warned of the potentially life-threatening impact of heavy rains between Houston and Corpus Christi over the next several days. The latest forecast storm track has Harvey looping back toward the Gulf of Mexico coast before turning north again on Tuesday. "This rain will lead to a prolonged, dangerous, and potentially catastrophic flooding event well into next week," the National Weather Service said. Harvey has triggered flash floods, the NWS said. The size and strength of Harvey dredged up memories of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that made a direct hit on New Orleans as a Category 3 storm, causing levees and flood walls to fail in dozens of places. About 1,800 died in the disaster made worse by a slow government emergency response. U.S. President Donald Trump, facing the first big natural disaster of his term, signed a disaster proclamation on Friday. He met with his cabinet and staff on Saturday to discuss the federal reaction to the storm, according to a White House statement. "President Trump emphasized his expectations that all departments and agencies stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives," according to the statement. GASOLINE PRICES SPIKE Utilities American Electric Power Company Inc and CenterPoint Energy Inc reported a combined total of around 240,000 customers without power. Several refiners shut down plants ahead of the storm, disrupting supplies and pushing prices higher. Many fuel stations ran out of gasoline before the storm hit, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency loosened gasoline specifications late on Friday to reduce shortages. The American Automobiles Association said pump prices rose 4 cents in four days in Texas to reach $2.17 a gallon on Friday. Disruptions to fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline futures to their highest price in four months. More than 45 percent of the country's refining capacity is along the U.S. Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation's crude is produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Just under 25 percent of Gulf output, or 429,000 barrels per day (bpd) had been shut in by the storm, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said on Saturday. (Additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw, Taylor Harris, Devika Krishna Kumar and Sophia Kunthara in New York; Liz Hampton, Ernest Scheyder, Marianna Parraga, and Ruthy Munoz in Houston; Writing by Simon Webb and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Lisa Shumaker)
Hurricane Harvey made a first landfall Friday as a Category 4 storm, slamming Texas with brutal winds and severe flooding, leaving Houston underwater and millions of residents in need of aid. The relentless storm has dropped record-breaking rainfall and made a second landfall Wednesday in Louisiana. Here are some ways you can help.

Red Cross

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recommended that those who want to help victims should donate to the American Red Cross, which he called a tremendous asset. A number of other organizations at the national, state and local levels will provide vital assistance to residents in the coming days, weeks and months.

Local and national relief organizations

The Salvation Army, Save the Children, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Heart to Heart and Samaritans Purse are all on the ground in devastated areas and seeking donations to continue their response efforts. Texas Diaper Bank is sending out disaster relief kits to those affected. Team Rubicon is an emergency response team made up of military veterans and first responders. Oath (which is the parent company of Yahoo News) offers matching funds for donations to the Red Cross and some other organizations.

Food banks

Feeding Texas is a statewide network of food banks, and Houston Press has compiled a list of food banks serving the area hardest hit by Harvey. That list includes Houston Food Bank, Galveston County Food Bank, Food Bank of Corpus Christi and San Antonio Food Bank, among others.

Pets

Animal welfare organizations will be on the ground helping nonhuman Texas residents. The Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society has a disaster response team deployed to Texas to aid in rescuing animals and supporting shelters. Local shelters like the Houston Humane Society and the Houston SPCA are both focused on Harvey relief, will need money, supplies, food, and foster volunteers.

Blood

Blood donations can be made through the American Red Cross, and Carter BloodCare, We Are Blood and the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center are all Texas-based organizations sure to be seeking increased donations.

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Other relief efforts

Airbnb has set up an Urgent Accommodations page, allowing evacuees to find a place to stay for free with the help of those able to offer their space at no charge.

A list of individual crowdfunding campaigns related to the hurricane can be found at GoFundMes Hurricane Harvey Relief page. GlobalGiving, another crowdfunding site, is aiming to raise $2 million for a relief fund.

Most of the above organizations have volunteer opportunities available as well.

For more updates on Harvey, click here for Yahoo News live coverage of the storm.

Read more from Yahoo News:
As Tropical Storm Harvey beats down on Houston, good Samaritans throughout the area are showing up for one another in whatever ways possible.

These shows of kindness  for strangers, for animals, for local correspondents  come as the city suffers historic flooding that the National Weather Service has deemed "unprecedented".

SEE ALSO: Apple is accepting donations through iTunes to aid Harvey storm relief

As the city braces for more rainfall in the coming hours, its residents are coming together to keep each other safe.

Tireless local reporters are sharing these stories on Twitter:

Wrecker driver Fernando has pulled out dozens trapped in flooded homes in SE Houston b/c he says it's the right thing to do @fox26houston pic.twitter.com/cHgSlPWNTm  Sally MacDonald (@SallyMacFox26) August 27, 2017

Video of Good Samaritan Joshua Way helping a stranded west Houston driver. Vidcred: Kameron Frederick. #abc13eyewitness #HurricaneHarvey pic.twitter.com/EwqJzDXcCb  Tom Abrahams (@TomAbrahams13) August 26, 2017

Crystal jaramillo and Trey Jones of Texas City say they've rescued about 22 people in their kayak. #harvey pic.twitter.com/i4J8pEiPLu  Marissa Barnett (@marissambarnett) August 27, 2017

Taking "Cash" back to Runge, TX. Owner found. But let's keep expectations low and wait for the handoff before cheering #powerofsocialmedia pic.twitter.com/cMhfPaKIsc  Aaron Jayjack (@aaronjayjack) August 26, 2017

Good Samaritan Aaron just showed up with a boat and bottled water to rescue people trapped in homes in Sagemont. @Fox26Houston #houstonflood pic.twitter.com/GcZIleu0rB  Sally MacDonald (@SallyMacFox26) August 27, 2017

Creekside Apts rescues by the dozens in Dickinson taking flood victims to higher ground and then by bus to shelters @KHOU @wfaachannel8 pic.twitter.com/UfsQ8I62wj  Kevin Reece (@KevinReeceWFAA) August 27, 2017

I'm so proud of my son. He carried an elderly neighbor upstairs to escape flooding. A fine young man. #khou #HouNews  The Bishop (@BillBishopKHOU) August 27, 2017

If you're in Texas right now and you suddenly find yourself in a position to help someone in need, please don't hesitate to act.
Harveys center is expected to move off the coast Monday, but rains likely will continue pummeling the region through Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday evening.

The storm has devastated Texas, destroying buildings and causing widespread power outages and massive flooding.

Houston is under a flood warning after a deluge of intense rain hit the city overnight Saturday. The citys emergency services are at capacity, and the William P. Hobby Airport has canceled all inbound and outbound flights.

Parts of the Houston area may see as much as 50 inches of rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.

The exact death toll is unclear, but the National Weather Service reports five people have died in the Houston area.

Authorities urge citizens to stay off the streets and to climb to rooftops if they are trapped.

HOUSTON  Two days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southern Texas, the city of Houston is facing life-threatening, catastrophic flooding that authorities warn could be historic.

Authorities in Houston, the countrys fourth-largest city, have issued a flash flood warning for the entire metropolitan region, where more than 6 million people live.

The National Hurricane Center said Sunday evening that the storms center was moving southeast and would continue to do so for the next two days. Harvey is expected to move off the middle Texas coast on Monday and meander just offshore through Monday night, the center forecasted.

But catastrophic rains are expected to continue plaguing the Texas coast through Friday, and those in Houston and other affected areas should not attempt to travel if theyre in a safe place, the NHC warned.

Earlier on Sunday, the National Weather Service reported that while winds were decreasing and Harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm, heavy rainfall is creating life-threatening hazards across much of Texas southeast. The service is predicting as much as 50 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the region as the slow-moving storm hangs over the state.

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This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced, the NWS tweeted Sunday.

President Donald Trump is expected to travel to Texas on Tuesday, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The White House is still finalizing the exact details of the trip.

This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced. Follow orders from officials to ensure safety. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/IjpWLey1h8  NWS (@NWS) August 27, 2017

NWS meteorologist Patrick Burke told HuffPost that the tropical storm is now stationary, and close enough to the water that it has an unlimited source of fuel. He warned that the weather event will affect the area for days, if not weeks.

There was also some concern that Harvey could make a potential second landfall, as some models predict the storm moving back over the Gulf of Mexico and gaining strength before striking land again.

If youre sitting in the Houston area and you see a break and the rain lets up, dont let your guard down. Its gonna come right back in, Burke said. Rainfall predictions are as high as weve ever made for a storm.

Authorities also issued a tornado watch for southern Houston on Sunday, with emergency services telling those in the affected area to hunker down in place and keep away from windows. The NHC additionally put parts of the Texas coastline under Tropical Storm Watch as of early Sunday evening, and declared several more tornado warnings for towns near the area.

Firefighters with the Houston Fire Department check on a submerged vehicle off Interstate 10 in Houston on Sunday. (Photo: David Lohr/HuffPost)

The exact death toll from the storm remains unclear as rescue workers struggle to reach affected areas, but the National Weather Service reported Sunday that five people have died in the Houston area.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has urged residents to prepare for days of heavy rains and flooding. During a press conference on Sunday morning, Turner advised residents to stay in place and said the city would be opening more shelters to cope with the effects of Harvey. The city is opening its George R. Brown Convention Center as one such storm shelter, and Dallas will open its Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on Tuesday morning.

Just stay put, Turner pleaded. We need you to help us.

Turner also told residents to refrain from driving and to stay off the streets unless its an emergency.

A submerged car in Katy, Texas, during the storm. Authorities are urging people to stay off the roads. (Photo: David Lohr/HuffPost)

A number of highway feeder roads were flooded just west of Houston on Sunday afternoon, and police had blocked roads to surrounding rural areas, where ranches and farms were also under several feet of water.

Electric signs on Interstate 10 traveling east into the city read High water and urged drivers to Turn around, dont drown.

Members of the Houston Fire Department were out searching the interstate for both trapped drivers and bodies on Sunday afternoon. They commandeered a HuffPost reporters boat to look for a woman trapped in her car. When a rookie fireman asked if they would be recovering bodies, another explained they were only picking up survivors on this pass.

Some residents with access to boats carried out their own rescues. Numerous videos showed citizens filling their private boats with evacuees and ferrying them to safety.

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Officials urged residents trapped in their homes to avoid sheltering in their attics and to get on their roofs instead. [H]ave reports of people getting into attic to escape floodwater, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo warned Sunday morning. [D]o not do so unless you have an ax or means to break through onto your roof.

The citys emergency services also tweeted that they were at capacity and asked residents to only call if they faced imminent danger. The mayor also advised people to give preference to life-threatening situations when calling 911.

Officials said the citys public hospital, Ben Taub, was evacuated Sunday due to flooding and power outages. Later in the day, Bayshore Medical Center, another Houston metropolitan area hospital, decided to suspend operations and evacuate its 196 patients.

A nursing home in Dickinson, southeast of Houston, also had to be evacuated by helicopter on Sunday afternoon as floodwaters crept up on elderly residents, according to the Daily News in Galveston County.

A partially submerged speed limit sign in Katy, Texas, shows how high the floodwaters have reached in some areas. (Photo: David Lohr/HuffPost)

Houstons emergency services had responded to 2,500 calls since midnight on Sunday, Turner stated during his Sunday morning press conference. There have been 250 rescues since Saturday night, the mayor said, all of them from vehicles.

The mayor defended the decision not to issue an evacuation order for Houston, saying it would have created a nightmare. Turner had cautioned residents against leaving the city on Friday: Please think twice before trying to leave Houston en masse. No evacuation orders have been issued for the city.

Texans received mixed messages from officials regarding evacuations in the lead-up to the storm. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued a statement on Friday advising Houston residents to evacuate north even if no local order to do so was in place.

Abnormally intense rains and flooding have battered Houston and the surrounding area in recent years. Last April, the area was soaked by what the local flood control district deemed a one-in-10,000 year rainfall event as 15 inches of rain poured in some parts of Houston in just 24 hours. In May 2015, at least six people died and more than a thousand vehicles were submerged when 12 inches of rain fell in just 10 hours.

The Houston area experienced similar rainfall totals in July 2012. Before that, the area hadnt been pummeled by such weather since the 1960s, the Houston Chronicle wrote last summer.

The rain on Sunday easily topped previous years heavy rains, however, with the National Weather Service reporting parts of Houston getting more than 30 inches of rain in the past 48 hours.

A partially submerged street in Katy, Texas. (Photo: Roque Planas/HuffPost)

Rockport, where the storm made landfall Friday night, was also dealing with devastation on Sunday. The town of 10,000 about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi reported major damage to homes and businesses. Officials there told The Weather Channel that the loss of cellular coverage was hindering rescue work.

Rockport Mayor C. J. Wax confirmed the death of a man who was trapped in his burning house, unable to be reached by rescuers during the height of the hurricane. Wax said at least 12 other people sustained injuries.

The Coast Guard said Sunday that it had rescued 32 people in distress at sea, according to The New York Times.

More than 300,000 people across Texas were without power on Sunday, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Abbott said in a press conference Sunday afternoon that 250 state highways were closed and 3,000 national guard and state guard members had been deployed.

Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared on CNN Sunday morning, warning that the disaster in Texas would be a landmark event.

FEMA is going to be there for years, Long said.

Lydia OConnor and Dominique Mosbergen contributed reporting.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Tehran (AFP) - Iran's new communications minister said Tuesday that negotiations were underway with Twitter to unblock the service, which has been banned for years despite being used even by the country's supreme leader.

The micro-blogging platform was barred at the time of mass anti-regime protests in 2009 that followed allegations of massive rigging in the re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"(Twitter) has announced that it is prepared to negotiate to resolve problems," Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi told the Iran daily newspaper.

"Considering the current situation there are grounds for such negotiation and interaction. Twitter is not an immoral environment needing to be blocked," he added.

The 36-year-old Jahromi became Iran's youngest-ever minister this week, and the first to be born after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

His selection has been criticised by rights groups over his involvement in surveillance during and after the mass anti-regime protests of 2009.

He rejected the criticism in a meeting with lawmakers this week, saying: "I wasn't responsible for surveillance -- I was in charge of the technical infrastructure for the surveillance industry, and I consider it an honour."

But Jahromi is also seen as a critic of online censorship in Iran, where platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter remain banned even if millions use them daily through easily available privacy software.

He said officials were also looking at ways to unblock YouTube while still censoring "immoral content" on the video-sharing service, and that a pilot project would allow universities to access the site.

There was no immediate response from Twitter or YouTube.

Jahromi added that the final decision on unblocking sites lay with Supreme Council for Cyberspace, which includes members of the hardline judiciary.

The 2009 protests were considered the first time that Twitter and social media were widely used to organise protests -- a model replicated when the Arab Spring movement erupted across the region the following year.

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"At that time and based on remarks made by the director of this network, Iran's government believed they had interfered in the country's internal affairs and for this reason Twitter was filtered," said Jahromi, who has more than 4,000 followers on the service.

- 'Cyberspace can uproot religion' -

Despite the ban, Twitter is widely used by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has official accounts in several languages, as well as President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Even Ahmadinejad joined the service this year.

But many conservatives remain worried about "Western infiltration" through social media.

In December 2016, Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahedi Kermani, who heads the Committee for the Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice, said the dangers of the internet were even greater than women failing to wear a headscarf.

"Bad hijab is a bad thing but cyberspace is a hundred times worse," he said in a speech to religious officials, highlighting the presence of porn and anti-religious sites.

"Cyberspace can uproot religion and Islam completely," he said.

Rouhani is thought to have favoured lifting the Twitter ban for some time, having even exchanged words with the site's co-founder Jack Dorsey back in 2013.

"Good evening, President. Are citizens of Iran able to read your tweets?" Dorsey posted shortly after Rouhani's first election win.

Rouhani replied: "Evening, @Jack... my efforts geared 2 ensure my ppl'll comfortably b able 2 access all info globally as is their #right."
Rome (AFP) - The Waldensian Evangelical Church on Friday became the first Protestant church in Italy to formally offer to "bless" same-sex couples in civil partnerships, a common practice in Protestant churches across Europe.

While same-sex couples in the country are not allowed to legally marry in a church, gay and lesbian couples will now be able to mark and celebrate their civil partnerships in a church service -- or "blessing" ceremony.

At least one partner must be a member of the Waldensian church however.

Gay blessings have been offered by the church since 2010 on a case-by-case basis, but with this position, the synod formally recognised "the plurality of different models of coexistence and family life in society".

The move follows Italy's adoption in October 2016 of civil unions for gays and lesbians, which came despite the Catholic Church's opposition.

With that legislation, Italy became the last country in Western Europe to legally recognise same-sex relationships.

Founded in the 12th century, the Waldensian Church preached the Christian Gospel in the countryside and was persecuted by the Catholic Church.

The world's oldest Protestant community founded some 350 years before Luther's reformation, Waldensians were repressed by the civil and religious authorities until the middle of the 19th century when modern-day Italy came into being.

The community now numbers between 25,000 and 40,000 believers, mostly in the north of Italy.

Gay marriage blessings are common in Protestant churches in the north of Europe, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 18:52:02|Editor: Lu Hui

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VIENNA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed and one was seriously injured as a mountain climbing group crashed in a mountain accident on the Mannlkarscharte district of Zell am See, in Salzburg, Austria, on Sunday morning, Austria New Agency APA reported.

A mountaineering traveller group might have crashed, said Anton Voithofer, a spokesman of the Red Cross was quoted as saying. Some five rescue helicopters are deployed at the site for first-aid operation.

"We are currently assuming that it was a matter of a skirmish. It is not possible to explain a misfortune," said the spokesman.

"At the moment, we can not care for any relatives, because it is not yet clear where the victims came from," Voithofer added.
Rome (AFP) - Italy is set to issue new guidelines on refugee evictions after the UN criticised the ousting of hundreds of people from a Rome building last week, local media reported Saturday.

The unexpected eviction -- carried out when Rome is virtually deserted at the height of the holiday season -- was seen by commenters as a sign of hardening attitudes in Italy towards asylum seekers.

On the morning of August 19, police rushed into the building near Rome's Termini main train station, giving the 800 people inside a mere 15 minutes to vacate.

The building had been peacefully occupied since 2013 by mainly refugees and asylum seekers from Eritrea and Ethiopia, some in the country for as long as 15 years.

"I left everything behind," a 30-year-old refugee told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, authorities returned to evict the remaining people, using water canons and batons to forcibly remove the hundred or so refugees still on the premises.

The violence quickly escalated with the squatters responding by throwing gas canisters and rocks at police. The violence "on both sides" was later condemned by top cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The images of violence went viral in Italy, with one video in particular of a police official making disparaging remarks sparking outrage.

The video showed the official saying: "Those people have to disappear, too bad for them. If they throw something, break their arm".

While opposition parties on the extreme right welcomed the evictions, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) voiced "grave concern".

UNHCR urged Italian authorities to "find an immediate solution for the people currently sleeping under the stars and ensure adequate integration measures for those with a right to international protection".

According to local reports, the interior ministry will propose new guidelines outlining that any future refugee expulsions will have to include relocation solutions for the most vulnerable.

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But relocating the Rome refugees has proved problematic.

Italian authorities have proposed to relocate the refugees to housing about 75 kilometres (50 miles) from Rome, which would delay enrolment for children already registered in Roman schools.

And the city's leftist mayor has opposed the relocation, saying he has already welcomed 40 asylum seekers in a town of 3,100 people.

Several hundred people, mainly leftists and migrants, demonstrated in Rome Saturday against the evictions.

- 'Live like animals' -

More than 600,000 people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East have arrived in Italy since 2014.

As it has become harder for such migrants to reach other European countries, Italy's reception facilities have come under strain and the centre-left government, facing elections next year, is under pressure on the issue.

Interior Minister Marco Minniti, who has ultimate responsibility for the initial eviction, has recently overseen a series of controversial moves aimed at ending the crisis.

These include steps to curb the activity of charity and other privately funded boats rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean and Italian naval support for Libyan coastguard efforts to intercept boats headed for Europe.

But Italy has proven to be a stable country for refugees and asylum seekers -- 40 percent of whom are approved for a residence permit though thousands still wait for a decision.

Once approved, refugees go through a six-month integration process where they learn Italian and are offered job and education resources.

But many find themselves on their own because there aren't enough places available. And those who do manage to find jobs in a country with 37 percent youth unemployment may not be able to find adequate housing.

"In Italy, we live like animals," an Eritrean refugee told AFP on Wednesday after the building was partially cleared.

The 28-year-old, who requested anonymity, railed against EU rules that prevent him from joining family in Sweden or in Belgium.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi blamed the current immigration situation on "years of negligence," adding that the "absence of serious national policies" has "created a war between poor people".
The Republican party cant just stand idly by after this. They must stand with Democrats and say enough

May the pardon serve as motivation for the two sides to work together to take our country back. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

It was a foregone conclusion that Donald Trump would pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio after a federal court found him in contempt of court for continuing to racially profile Latinos. After all, Arpaio was Trump before Trump: a bombastic, paranoid, unethical elected official who relishes media attention and the adoration of fans while ruthlessly trying to quash all real and imagined opponents.



No wonder Trump embraced him years before his presidential campaign. Nor is it a surprise that the 45th president called the 85-year-old an American patriot in an official White House statement on the pardon.

Arpaios decade-long, illegal campaign against undocumented folks was just the guacamole on top of the racist taco salad for Trump. And this pardon exposes better than anything the white-supremacist foundation of the Trump administration and his supporter base. Its also an opportunity for the left and right to finally unite in a common cause and defeat Trump.

The mainstream media has only recently covered Arpaios evil ways after  much like Trump  giving him years of free publicity for stupid stunts like creating chain gangs or issuing pink underwear to male inmates. But Arpaio didnt just pursue immigrants. He was a civil liberties and fiscal-conservative nightmare.



Hundreds of sex abuse cases languished under his watch, even as he had a deputy visit Hawaii to investigate President Barack Obamas birth certificate. Inmates died at alarming rates inside his jails, and guards took sadistic glee in beating up black, brown and white inmates.



When the Phoenix New Times printed his home address online in 2004 in the context of a story regarding Arpaios shady real-estate dealings, Americas Toughest Sheriff launched an investigation that led to the papers founders, Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, being arrested (the subsequent lawsuit filed by Larkin and Lacey, my former bosses, ended in a $3.75m settlement in their favor).



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The Maricopa County Sheriffs Department Arpaio was so out of control that an innocent man once languished in jail for four years because deputies framed the man in a fake murder plot against their boss.

(Quick aside: All of the above, and so much more, came from the Twitter feed of the Phoenix New Times, which has covered Arpaio better than anyone for nearly 25 years. In the wake of the print death of its former sister paper, the Village Voice, support your local alternative-weekly!)

What finally got Arpaio in legal trouble  illegally targeting Latinos  was actually the least of his crimes, only because racially profiling minorities is the default setting for most law enforcement. That battle alone cost over $44m in court fees. Add that to the more than $50m in legal settlements (as of 2008) that Maricopa County taxpayers had to pay out to victims of Arpaios regime, and you have a bigger money pit than Trumps Atlantic City casino.

Set aside the constant law-breaking for a second. The mantra weve heard from conservatives for decades is that they want less government overreach and waste  fair enough. Arpaio is the antithesis of that. Yet his record of ineptitude doesnt matter to Trump or his troglodyte fans. The ex-lawman pursued Mexicans (with a bona fide posse, no less)  and that was penance enough. Such a stance is hypocrisy at best, and outright racism at worst (and most likely both).

But theres an unexpected opening in all this bad news: a chance of redemption for the right that helped Trump win and keep Arpaio in power for so long. No good conservative can possibly support the pardon of a government leech, and should be deeply disturbed that, on the eve of a horrible hurricane, Trump decided to use his powers to help out a pal and shore up support among the most lunatic of his supporters.

Thankfully, there are good conservatives sickened by this development. On Twitter, Senator John McCain wrote that the pardon undermines [Trumps] claim for the respect of rule of law while his junior colleague, Jeff Flake, tweeted that he would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course.

But more need to emerge. The left cannot effectively take on Trump without members of the right, and the right needs to realize that the Arpaio pardon is their come-to-Jesus moment and unite with the side that has opposed him all along.



That unlikely coalition is actually what led to Arpaios decisive defeat last year, even as Trump took the Oval Office. May the pardon serve as motivation for the two sides to work together to take our country back.



We can only hope that Trump and Arpaio will one day find themselves in one of the sheriffs old tent prisons (which he once described as a concentration camp), gagging on green bologna sandwiches under the unforgiving sun, rotting in their own fetid hate.
(BRUSSELS)  Belgian soldiers shot a man dead in downtown Brussels on Friday evening after he attacked the troops with a knife in what prosecutors described as a terror attack.

Spokeswoman Esther Natus of the federal prosecutors office, which handles terrorism investigations, said the man twice shouted Allahu akbar, Arabic for God is great, as he ran at the soldiers.

We do consider it a terror attack, Natus said. She declined to identify the man or confirm whether he was known to police, saying only that the suspect is dead and one of the soldiers was slightly wounded.

Brussels Mayor Philippe Close said three soldiers came under attack and one had been hospitalized.

Federal Police spokesman Jonathan Pfunde also confirmed some details of the incident and said the attacker had been neutralized.

Belgiums anti-terror crisis center tweeted that the situation was under control.

All our support is with our soldiers, Prime Minister Charles Michel said via Twitter. Our security services remain on alert. We are following the situation closely.

Associated Press television images showed that police sealed off a main street near the Grand Place, a central square that is a popular tourist site.

A man who lives near where the incident took place on Boulevard Emile Jacquemain said he saw the attacker lying in the street in the aftermath.

I live right in front of the station. It was already blocked by police at the scene and there was a man lying on the ground. The police said he had been shot by soldiers, said Thomas da Silva Rosa, a public affairs consultant.

He was lying on the ground, appeared dead, he told AP.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people in attacks March 22, 2016, on Brussels main airport and subway system.

Soldiers and extra police have been deployed at public buildings and around large gatherings for more than a year.
By Wa Lone and Shoon Naing YANGON (Reuters) - Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Friday, and at least 59 of the insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed, the army and government said. The fighting - still going on in some areas - marked a major escalation in a simmering conflict in the northwestern state since last October, when similar attacks prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the early morning offensive, and warned of more. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar's most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. It now appears to have spawned a potent insurgency which has grown in size, observers say. They worry that the attacks - much larger and better organized than those in October - will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines. A news team affiliated with the office of national leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said that one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents had been killed in the fighting. "In the early morning at 1 a.m., the extremist Bengali insurgents started their attack on the police post ... with the man-made bombs and small weapons," said the army in a separate statement, referring to the Rohingya by a derogatory term implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh. The militants also used sticks and swords and destroyed bridges with explosives, the army said. The Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. FIRE AND FEAR The military counter-offensive in October resulted in some 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, where they joined many others who have fled from Myanmar over the past 25 years. The United Nations said Myanmar's security forces likely committed crimes against humanity in the offensive that began in October. On Friday, the United Nations condemned the militant attacks and called for all parties to refrain from violence. The United States also condemned the attacks on security forces and it warned the government against indiscriminate reprisals. "As government and security forces act to prevent further violence and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, we expect them to do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law, protects and respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, demonstrates transparency, and avoids inflaming a tense situation," the U.S. State Department said in a statement. The military said about 150 Rohingya attacked an army base in Taung Bazar village in Buthidaung township. Among the police posts attacked was a station in the majority-Rakhine village of Kyauk Pandu, 40 km (24 miles) south of the major town of Maungdaw. Police officer Kyaw Win Tun said the insurgents burned down the post and police had been called to gather at a main station. Residents were fearful as darkness approached. "We heard that a lot of Muslim villagers are grouping together, they will make more attacks on us when the sun goes down," said Maung Maung Chay, a Rakhine villager from the hamlet. The attack took place hours after a panel led by the former U.N. chief Kofi Annan advised the government on long-term solutions for the violence-riven state. Annan condemned the violence on Friday, saying "no cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing". 'RUNNING FOR OUR LIVES' Military sources told Reuters they estimated 1,000 insurgents took part in the offensive and it encompassed both Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships - a much wider area compared with October. The leader of ARSA, Ata Ullah, has said hundreds of young Rohingya have joined the group, which says it is waging a legitimate defence against the army and for human rights. "We have been taking our defensive actions against the Burmese marauding forces in more than 25 different places across the region. More soon!" the group said on Twitter. Chris Lewa of the Rohingya monitoring group, the Arakan Project, said a major concern was what happened to some 700 Rohingya villagers trapped inside their section of Zay Di Pyin village which had been surrounded by Rakhine vigilantes armed with sticks and swords. "We are running for our lives," said one of the Zay Di Pyin's Rohingya villagers reached by telephone, adding that houses had been set on fire. The government said the village had been burned down but blamed the fire on the Rohingya. Amid rising tension over the past few weeks, more than 1,000 new refugees have fled to Bangladesh, where border guards on Friday pushed back 146 people trying to flee the violence. Mohammed Shafi, who lives in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, said his cousin in Myanmar had told him of the trouble. "The military is everywhere. People are crying, mourning the dead," Shafi said. "Things are turning real bad. It's scary." (Additional Krishna N. Das in DHAKA, Yimou Lee in YANGON, Nurul Islam in COX'S BAZAR, Ruma Paul in DHAKA; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army began mediated talks with Islamic State on Sunday as a ceasefire took effect in its offensive against the militants at the northeast border with Syria, a security source said. The ceasefire started at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) to allow for negotiations over the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers who have been in Islamic State captivity since 2014, the army said. Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Syrian army also declared a ceasefire in their own assault against Islamic State on the other side of the border, in Syria's west Qalamoun region, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said. Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah members have entered an area of west Qalamoun to confirm that Lebanese soldiers held by Islamic State are buried there, the source said. (Reporting by Ellen Francis, editing by Louise Heavens)
CIA Director Mike Pompeo reportedly visited Moscow and held talks with Russian intelligence officials in May, four months after condemning the countrys authorities for orchestrating aggressive action during the U.S. election, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The newspaper did not specify what Pompeo discussed during his visit.

President Donald Trumps White House has been plagued by controversy over a handful of undisclosed contacts with Russian officials by several cabinet and campaign figures. The meetings prompted several investigations by lawmakers and the Department of Justice, and resulted in the Senate stripping Trump of the authority to lift sanctions on Russia.

According to Jonathan Eyal, International Director at Londons Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Pompeo's meeting could have been secret but without any sinister undertones.

It indicates one of the problems that the American intelligence community has, which is that relations with Moscow are so toxic now, and so politically charged at every level, that it is very difficult to engage in political discussion, he tells Newsweek. But at the same time, there are very practical issues that need to be discussed with Russian intelligence.

The CIA would normally need to keep in touch with Russian security services to discuss problems or harassment U.S. diplomats may have experienced under Russias jurisdiction. There is also a need to de-escalate some of the tit-for-tat stuff, says Eyal, referring to the recent deterioration in relations between the countries.

Intelligence agencies need personal contact to discuss practical issues, and they can be difficult to explain to the public, he says. The real question is whether there was any attempt by the Americans to reach an informal agreement on cybersecurity.

Pompeo has criticized Russia for orchestrating hacks during the U.S. presidential election that were possibly aimed at sabotaging Hillary Clinton's campaign. Whether Russia was behind the hacks remains a sticking point between the two countries. Dissuading Russia from similar cyber activity is the sort of argument Pompeo could make privately in Moscow with greater success than if it were public, Eyal says.

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What he could do is show the Russians that what they did was counterproductive, says Eyal. He can explain that what you have now is a president who is the most pro-Russian candidate to come into office probably since 1945, and he will end up more paralyzed than any other president in dealing with Russia. I would be amazed if Pompeo did not say that it was not clever, what they did in the U.S.

In private, the Russian position could be much more malleable, Eyal estimates, and could allow it to to get out of the tight corner they have painted themselves in without any combative rhetoric. That message can only be delivered privately.

The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.

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President Abraham Lincolns statue at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (Photo: Gary Cameron/Reuters)

No one has ever counted them, but surely they exist by the thousands, in almost every state: statues, parks and buildings honoring a man who, in the years leading up to the Civil War, publicly proclaimed his belief that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.

And who, as a white man, naturally expressed his sentiment in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

The man was Abraham Lincoln.

This thought arises in the context of the debate over removing Confederate monuments in the South, and the warning, by President Trump and others, that this puts us on a slippery slope toward renouncing all the other heroes of American history who do not meet our current standards of political correctness.

Related slideshow: Here are the beautiful Confederate monuments Trump wants to stay put >>>

Trump illustrated his point by reference to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were slaveowners, but the principle can be extended almost indefinitely. New York, the world capital of reductio ad absurdum, will be a test case. Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the creation of a task force to review the roster of historical figures honored in the citys public spaces, with an eye to uprooting memorials that could be construed as symbols of hate.

Some of the candidates for historys dustbin are already pretty obscure, including Horatio Seymour, a long-ago governor of New York whose portrait hangs near the mayors office in City Hall. Seymour ran for president, as a Democrat in 1868, with the unfortunate slogan: This is a white mans country. A statue in Central Park honors the 19th century physician J. Marion Sims, the father of modern gynecology, who did his pioneering research on slave women, allegedly without their consent or the use of anesthesia. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has already called for the removal of the statue, which was defaced Friday night with spray paint. Few New Yorkers even know that a plaque in the sidewalk on lower Broadway honors the French general Philippe Petain, who received a ticker tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for his exploits in the First World War but is remembered today primarily as a Nazi collaborator in the second.

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People protest against white supremacy in front of J. Marion Sims statue in New York on Aug. 19. (Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

But other monuments that may be up for review are among New Yorks most famous civic symbols, including the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle and Grants Tomb, honoring Civil War hero and President Ulysses S. Grant. Columbus, of course, has been a lightning rod for protest for years, partly for his treatment of the native people he encountered during his voyages, but also as a way of making a point about the centuries of exploitation that followed his discovery. Mark-Viverito has said she supports a review of the memorial to Grant, who is accused of anti-Semitism for an order he gave early in the war, which sought to curb black market trading in Southern cotton with the admittedly heavy-handed tactic of expelling Jews from several states under his armys occupation.

And an online petition recently was posted seeking to return Roosevelt Island, in New Yorks East River, to what is said to be its original Native American name of Minnehanonck. (The petition had only a couple of dozen supporters as of Sunday morning, but that was enough to warrant an article in the New York Post, which delights in tormenting political correctness.) The article notes that President Franklin Roosevelt, for whom the island was named in 1971, promulgated the infamous and inarguably racist order removing entire communities of legal immigrants and law-abiding American citizens of Japanese descent to internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

So how long will it be before the forces of iconoclasm turn their attention to that notorious racist Abe Lincoln  either sincerely or, more likely, as a way to subvert the campaign against Confederate monuments by carrying it to an illogical extreme?

In fact, there is a legitimate question here. When Trump made his point about Washington and Jefferson he was widely derided for missing the point, but in what way exactly? Most commentators pointed out that the two presidents were American heroes, while Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United States. That distinction will do when the question is whether to honor Confederate generals, but not every case is going to break down as neatly. If the bright line is defined as broadly as racism, as currently understood, then, yes, Nebraska, were looking at you: Want to choose a new name for your capital city? What are we going to do with all the pennies (and nickels, dimes and quarters) in our pockets?

City workers drape a tarp over the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 23 to symbolize the citys mourning for Heather Heyer, killed while protesting a white nationalist rally. (Photo: Steve Helber/AP)

The answer must be this: to look at statues and other forms of civic honor in terms of their intent and overall message, not the biographical details of the life they commemorate. Washington, Jefferson and Grant  and for that matter Lincoln  held some views we now consider repugnant (and which, in the cases of Grant and Lincoln, were belied by their own subsequent deeds and words), but in the context of their own times they were heroes. If Washington and Jefferson lacked the moral vision to abjure slavery, it is a blot on their characters, but one they shared with most of their contemporaries. But by the time of the Civil War, you didnt have to be a visionary to apprehend the monstrosity of enslavement. Upholding white supremacy was not just an incidental fact of Lees life, it was central to his place in American history, and the only reason there are statues to him at all. He isnt being honored for what he did in the Mexican-American War.

This is not to say there wont still be hard cases. You could, in principle, recognize Sims work in studying female anatomy while condemning his methods, but that would require an essay; a statue is a blunt statement, unsuited to convey nuance. If Sims hadnt come up with a procedure to repair vaginal fistulas, someone else would have, and theres a persuasive case that the cruelty of his methods outweighs his achievements. But it took Lincoln and Roosevelt, whatever their faults, to save the Union and preserve Western democracy. Saints, and statues of them, have their place. Its called church.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 18:57:04|Editor: ying

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BAKU, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out on Sunday morning at an ammunition depot of a military unit in Azerbaijan, causing multiple explosions and casualties, the Defense Ministry said.

There is no information about the location of the military unit from the ministry's statement. Local news websites reported the incident occurred in the eastern Khizi region, 104 km north of the capital city of Baku.

The statement confirmed casualties without giving an exact number. It said evacuations of injured people from the site have been hampered due to recurring explosions.

"Ten ambulances are currently directed to the blasted area. However, they can not approach the site considering additional explosions," Miralam Jalalov, who oversees the nation's ambulance service, was quoted as saying.

Local media said the motorway linking Baku with the country's Guba region close to the Russian border was shut in the wake of the incident. Residents in the nearby six villages were evacuated.

The cause of the fire remains unknown. Investigations are underway, the statement said.
Most U.S. citizens believe President Donald Trump is doing a bad job on a number of key issues, including his handling of a standoff with nuclear-armed North Korea and his push to build a wall along the Mexican border, a recent poll found.

Harvard Universitys Center for American Political Studies and market research firm Harris Insights and Analytics this week released their monthly national poll on current events, finding that 57 percent of respondents disapprove of Trumps leadership. While data gathered August 17 to 22 indicated that the U.S. was mostly supportive of the Republican leaders efforts to stimulate job growth, improve the economy and fight terrorism, it also demonstrated the majority of the nation was not satisfied with his administration of the government, his immigration strategy or his take on international affairs, including his militant rhetoric toward North Korea.

Related: North Koreas Kim Jong Un a better leader than Trump? Youngest head of state faces oldest U.S. president

The public is united that they do not want North Korea to obtain nuclear weapons and believe they would use them, HarvardHarris Poll Co-Director Mark Penn said, according to The Hill.

Ideally they want North Korea contained with sanctions and by getting the help of China. They are on the fence about the presidents handling of the situation, but its ultimately what kind of results he gets that will determine his public support on the issue, he added.

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Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Trump has increased sanctions against the Kim Jong Uns dictatorship, but the president and his administration have also continually said military intervention was a viable option. Trump has beefed up U.S. military presence in the Asia Pacific, infuriating North Korea. After North Korea successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) last month and claimed it now had the ability to deliver a nuclear strike against the U.S. for the first time, Trump took his war of words with Kim Jong Un to a new level by threatening to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen against the reclusive, militarized state.

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Shortly after, North Korea disclosed a plan to strike the U.S. island territory of Guam, causing a missile scare that Kim ultimately said could come to fruition if Trump made any moves to threaten North Koreas sovereignty. Polling responses indicated that 53 percent disapproved of Trumps handling of the crisis and that 56 percent said he went over the top and his response does nothing to resolve the situation. The majority, 62 percent, said the U.S. should maintain strategic patience with Kims government.

Respondents also came out against Trumps plan to curb illegal immigration by constructing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Only 3 percent said building the barrier should be a priority for Trump. The only initiative that received less support was the idea of scrapping the nuclear treaty with Iran, a move that only 1 percent said should come first. The two most popular directions for Trumps agenda were stimulating U.S. jobs growth (29 percent) and repealing and replacing his predecessors Affordable Care Act (16 percent).

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THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

Sixty percent of respondents felt that investigations into Trumps alleged collusion with Russia to win the election were hurting rather than helping the country, and 43 percent said they backed impeaching the president. On the other hand, 12 percent said he should merely be censured by Congress and 42 percent said nothing should be done.

Trump was the most recognizable U.S. politician, with his 96 percent response rate beating his 2016 race opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by one point. More, however, said they voted for Clinton, 45 percent, than Trump, 44 percent.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting soldiers shortly before his country launched three missiles into the sea: Associated Press

North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the sea , South Korea and the US said, as the pair conducted their annual military drills.

While the partnership says the exercises help them defend themselves, the isolationist state has long claimed they are preparations for launching nuclear war.

The US military's Pacific Command said it detected three short-range ballistic missiles, fired over a 20 minute period.

Two of the Norths missiles flew about 250km (155 miles) off the countrys east coast, the US military said, while one appeared to explode almost immediately. It was initially thought all of the missiles had failed.

North Korea threatened to surround the American territory of Guam with a sea of fire earlier this month, but Pacific Command said neither the US mainland or the island was threatened by the most recent launch.

The act of aggression follows a period of relative calm between the US and the North, with senior American officials praising the communist country for showing restraint by not firing any missiles since the end of July.

North Korea's last missile test on 28 July was for an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to fly 10,000 km (6,200 miles). That would put parts of the US mainland within reach and prompted heated exchanges that raised fears of a new conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles fired on Saturday were launched from the North's eastern Kangwon province into the sea.

Later, the South Korean Presidential Blue House said the North may have fired an upgraded 300-mm calibre multiple rocket launcher, but the military was still analysing the precise details of the projectiles.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the missiles did not reach its territory or exclusive economic zone and did not pose a threat to Japan's safety.

The White House said Donald Trump had been briefed about the latest missiles but did not immediately have further comment.

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The launches came within days of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praising the North with showing restraint by not launching a missile since the July ICBM test.

He said that a path could be opening for dialogue sometime in the near future.

Mr Trump also expressed optimism earlier this week about a possible improvement in relations. I respect the fact that he is starting to respect us, Mr Trump said of Kim Jong-Un.

North Korea's state media reported on Saturday that Mr Kim had guided a contest of amphibious landing and aerial strike by its army against targets modelled after South Korean islands near the sea border on the west coast.

The official KCNA news agency quoted Mr Kim as telling its Army that it should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul at one go and the southern half of Korea.

Within hours of the launch a new poster on a North Korean propaganda website showed a missile dealing a retaliatory strike of justice against the US mainland, threatening to wipe out the United States, the source of evil, without a trace.

Mr Kim ordered the production of more rocket engines and missile warheads during a visit to a facility associated with North Korea's ballistic missile programme.

Diagrams and what appeared to be missile parts shown in photographs published in the North's state media suggested Pyongyang was pressing ahead with building a longer-range ballistic missile that could potentially reach any part of the US mainland including Washington.

Reuters contributed to this report
North Korea fired off three short-range ballistic missiles roughly 20 minutes apart Saturday but one failed and none posed risk to the United States, the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement late Friday.

The North, which completed two missile tests last month that drew the ire and ridicule of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as its lone ally China, saw its first and third missiles fly roughly 155 miles to the northeast after being fired from the Kangwon province before crashing into the sea, according to Reuters.

The tests increased the Norths total number of missiles fired this year alone to 21 over the course of 13 tests, according to CNNs statistics. That puts the North well ahead of the pace it set last year when 24 missiles were fired.

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Getty Images/Chung Sung-Jun

Initially, Pacific Command announced the first and third missiles had failed to launch, but its assessment of the second missile blowing up almost immediately still appears to be accurate.

Along with the U.S., the territory of Guam, which had faced direct threats of a sea of fire from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was not in danger from the launches.

The South Korean government said Saturday its possible the North had tested a 300-mm caliber multiple rocket launcher, but that has not been confirmed by its military.

The tests were the first since July 28, when the North had fired off an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and major cities around the country if it was positioned for a longer trajectory.

But experts and reports have indicated its unclear if the Norths ICBMs were able to fly up into space and then survive re-entry into the Earths atmosphere in order to complete a strike.

The timing of the tests coincides with the U.S. and South Korean militaries participating in the joint Ulchi Freedom Drills, which involve computer simulations of a war and run until the end of the month, according to Reuters.

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Such drills, and others like them that have also involved Japan, have been a common point of anger for Kim and previous North Korean regimes. The North has long accused the U.S. and its Southeast Asian allies of planning for a pre-emptive strike to overthrow the authoritarian government, and thus is often used a reason for continued missile and nuclear defense proliferation.

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The woman was heard shouting 'go back to the f****** Philippines' at the couple: Screenshot

A Canadian woman who launched a tirade of racist abuse at a Filipino couple on a train was told to "get the f*** off" after passengers came to the pair's defence.

The woman, who was travelling on the Vancouver SkyTrain on Monday afternoon, started hurling insults at the couple and said she thought they were speaking too loudly.

The pair, who were speaking Tagalog, apologised to the woman, telling her it was normal for them to speak loudly.

But the woman interrupted, accusing them of making an "excuse" before adding: "Go back to the f****** Philippines."

Horrified train passengers immediately intervened, telling the woman "you're a racist" and "people care that you are here so get off."

The incident was caught on camera by multiple witnesses, including Ashley Klassen, who posted a video of the incident to Facebook.

She called it "probably the most disgusting thing Ive ever seen" and said it was an example of "unfiltered Vancouver racism."

Vancouver's transport police said in a statement: "Once the videos were reviewed by Transit Police, it was determined that the aggressor in this situation had used profane and racially slanted language toward the elderly couple and an investigation was launched.

"The suspect has been identified by Transit Police as a 75-year-old New Westminster woman. She is known to police for documented anger related issues in the past but there is nothing documented that would indicate there is a concern for public safety.

"The two witnesses who posted the videos will be interviewed shortly. The suspect will then be interviewed with a discussion and warning about her behaviour and conduct when using the transit system."
With a Category 4 hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Donald Trump decided it was the right time to pardon Joe Arpaio.

The former sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County was found guilty of criminal contempt for ignoring court orders to stop racially profiling drivers. (The ACLU has a good summary of why people are so critical of Arpaio.)

SEE ALSO: Trump blasts the media for not praising him when he was nice to Nazis

Trump strongly hinted that the pardon was coming earlier this week at a rally in Phoenix. Turns out he did it Friday  hours, according to CBS News, before he decided whether he would sign a disaster declaration for the states in the path of what could be the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since 2005.

.@MajorCBS: "The president pardoned Joe Arpaio tonight before he decided whether or not to sign a major disaster declaration for TX & LA." pic.twitter.com/ybSaD3QBDr  CBS News (@CBSNews) August 26, 2017

The timing  of both the pardon and Trump's decision Friday to sign a directive banning transgender people from the military  didn't go unnoticed.

Transgender Ban & Arpaio pardon on the same day, hiding behind the news of Hurricane Harvey. @realDonaldTrump is a hateful, cowardly menace. https://t.co/u2NxsXMYXi  Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) August 26, 2017

Trump knows banning transgender troops & pardoning Arpaio is morally wrong. It's why he's hiding it on a Friday in the midst of a hurricane.  Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) August 26, 2017

Trump pardons racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio Friday night in the middle of a life-threatening natural disaster. pic.twitter.com/4MC2T1raRO  southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 26, 2017

So Trump is using a landfalling major hurricane to obscure the fact that he's attacking trans people and immigrants, and pardoning a racist.  Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 26, 2017

Trans soldiers willing to die for our country: bad



Racist sheriff who broke the law: good.  Adam Smith (@asmith83) August 26, 2017

ah just our alpha male president pardoning his buddy under the cover of a huge natural disaster on a friday evening https://t.co/oevVDbXFNP  Matt Binder (@MattBinder) August 26, 2017

Not a good look for Trump as he handles the first major natural disaster of his presidency.
By Chris Kenning

(Reuters) - Hundreds of counter-protesters gathered near a barricaded San Francisco park Saturday despite the cancellation of a free-speech rally that city leaders feared could draw right-wing extremists.

The planned gathering by Patriot Prayer had been the centerpiece of a weekend of protests in the Bay Area that had raised concern among police and elected officials two weeks after right-wing activists, including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, fought with anti-racism protesters in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, who has denied that his group is extremist or white nationalist, wrote on Facebook Saturday he would show up at random spots in the city to talk to residents. He apologized to supporters who came for the fizzled event.

"Basically everywhere we go, the police, the city, they want to shut it down," Gibson said in a video posted on Facebook.

San Francisco city officials including Mayor Ed Lee had lobbied the National Park Service to deny a permit for Patriot Prayer to hold its event at Crissy Field, which is under federal control as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

When that permit was granted on Wednesday, Lee told residents of San Francisco to essentially boycott the rally.

In nearby Berkeley, officials earlier in the week had denied a permit for conservative activists to hold a "No to Marxism" rally Sunday.

Also Saturday, an estimated 400 counter-demonstrators gathered in Knoxville, Tennessee to protest less than two dozen demonstrators at a white separatist rally at the Fort Sanders Confederate memorial, which some have called to remove, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported.

Police officers and barricades separated the two sides. One organizer carried a sign reading, "Stand Against Leftist Hate" to the hisses and boos of counter-protesters, the paper reported. Photos showed them holding Confederate flags.

A woman who was not yet identified was arrested when she attempted to crash the counter-protester side late Saturday afternoon, according to local media.

(Reporting by Chris Kenning in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Rex Tillerson appeared to distance himself from Donald Turmp's comments about the Charlottesville violence - AFP

Donald Trumps values are not necessarily Americas values, according to Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, who ignited fresh questions on Sunday about the fall-out from the presidents handling of violence in Charlottesville earlier this month.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Mr Tillerson was asked about Mr Trumps comments apparently finding moral equivalence between white supremacists and the people who marched against them.

His response  in which he said there should be do doubt about the US governments commitment to long-held values but that the president speaks for himself - suggests he is the latest senior administration figure to distance himself from Mr Trumps position.

Must-watch. Wallace asks Tillerson if Trump speaks for American values: "The President speaks for himself." (Note Wallace's reaction.) pic.twitter.com/fHEk6qjwPd  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 27, 2017

In particular, he was asked whether the comments made it more difficult to promote American values overseas.

We express Americas values from the State Department, he said. We represent the American people, we represent Americas values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over and that message has never changed.

He was then asked about the presidents values.

The president speaks for himself, he replied.

Mr Trump has suffered a withering barrage of criticism after one person was killed in violence at a rally held by members of the extreme Right. The president responded by condemning bigotry and hatred on many sides.

Last week, Gary Cohn, Mr Trumps most senior economic adviser, told the Financial Times that he wrote a letter of resignation over the issue but never submitted it.

On Sunday, Joe Biden, Barack Obamas vice president, added his voice to the row, accusing Mr Trump of emboldening white supremacists.

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"Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate, he wrote in a commentary published by the Atlantic.

He called for clear, unequivocal condemnation.

"This is a moment for this nation to declare what the president can't with any clarity, consistency, or conviction: There is no place for these hate groups in America," he said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at the State Department in Washington: AP

Rex Tillerson, the USs top diplomat, has said Donald Trump speaks for himself on his values, but that there should be no doubts about the governments commitment to long-held American principles in the wake of violence in Charlottesville.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mr Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, told host Chris Wallace that the State Department expresses Americas values.

We represent the American people, we represent Americas values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to the equal treatment of people the world over, and that message has never changed, Mr Tillerson said.

Mr Wallace then suggested that people may begin to doubt whether were living those values following Mr Trumps response to violence that broke out at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and the United Nations reaction to the Presidents comments.

I dont believe anyone doubts the American peoples values, or the commitment of the American government, or the governments agencies to advancing those values and defending those values, Mr Tillerson said.

And the Presidents values? Mr Wallace asked, to which the Secretary of State replied: The President speaks for himself, Chris.

Are you separating yourself from that, sir? Mr Wallace followed up.

Ive spoken  Ive made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week, Mr Tillerson said.

In response to Mr Tillersons comments, Eliot Cohen, a former counsellor at the State Department, wrote on Twitter that he believed the Secretary of State just tossed the President of the United States under the bus.

I do believe that the Secretary of State just tossed the President of the United States under the bus. https://t.co/krcHL3L1TS  Eliot A Cohen (@EliotACohen) August 27, 2017

The UN last week criticised the President for failing to unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes in Charlottesville.

Mr Trump has received widespread bipartisan backlash for his comments appearing to equate white supremacists and new-Nazis with the left-wing demonstrators who opposed them at the rally. One Democrat even launched an effort to impeach the President over his response to the violence.
A child stands next to a line of police officers by San Francisco's Alamo Square as demonstrators rally ahead of a news conference by the organizers of the canceled rally on Aug. 26, 2017. (Photo: Stephen Lam via Getty Images)

A controversial Freedom Rally planned near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was canceled and replaced by a procession of dancing and merriment on Saturday.

The city had prepared for a street battle between the so-called alt-right and counterprotesters, but instead it got MC Hammer leading the public in song outside City Hall:

Much like the Free Speech rally held in Boston last weekend, where the cries of a few attendees were muffled by tens of thousands of protesters, this far-right rally had a much smaller voice than the city it occupied.

Hundreds of people were seen marching through the streets of San Francisco, decrying the white supremacists and other extremists that too many of these rallies have attracted this year.

The organizers of the aborted Freedom Rally  who ended up giving a press conference via Facebook from inside a home with the blinds drawn  sought to distance themselves from the event in Charlottesville, Virginia, two weeks prior that attracted neo-Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan and a bevy of white supremacists.

No extremists will be allowed in, the events Facebook page reads. No Nazis, Communist, KKK, Antifa, white supremacists ... This is an opportunity for moderate Americans to come in with opposing views. We will not allow the extremists to tear apart this country.

But theres a reason why the city and its mayor, Ed Lee, attempted to block permits for the rally; why House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it a white supremacist rally at Crissy Field; and why counterprotests were planned in opposition throughout the city: These rallies just keep attracting white supremacists, weapons and violence.

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The Freedom Rallys main organizer, Joey Gibson, is no stranger to how this works. The far-right icon has acknowledged that his rallies  including one held in Portland, Oregon, in June  attract white nationalists and other far-right extremists, many of whom bring along makeshift weaponry and spew forth hate speech. But Gibson has repeatedly claimed hes not one of them.

Im brown, so Im definitely not a white supremacist, definitely not a white nationalist, definitely not a Nazi because I want limited government, Hitler was all about big government, he told KOIN shortly after the violence in Charlottesville.

And though Gibson claimed this rally was set up to spread a message of love, you needed only to look at the planned keynote speakers to see an entirely different picture. One of them, Kyle Based Stickman Chapman, is an unquestionably violent far-right celebrity who has spent nearly a decade behind bars on three felony convictions. He earned his Stickman moniker after beating a protester with a stick at a violent pro-Trump rally in Berkeley.

That said, police had San Francisco handled. Police Chief Bill Scott said violence isnt going to be tolerated and promised a large police presence. Streets around Crissy Field were expected to be on lockdown, and the park service announced a ban on items regularly seen at these rallies: guns and weapons, helmets and shields, balloons, selfie sticks and pepper spray among them.

After the event was canceled, Gibson and Chapman gave their press conference from inside the darkened home, complaining that they werent given a fair chance.

Everywhere we go, the police, the city, they wanna shut it down, Gibson said.

In the afternoon, crowds gathered at Ocean Beach in the shape of a heart and sang even more:

Crowd dressed in red and pink singing This Land Is Your Land and Imagine at Ocean Beach pic.twitter.com/GxhKccwldn  eline gordts (@elinegordts) August 26, 2017

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:02:06|Editor: ying

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BARCELONA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- A woman injured in the terrorist attack in Barcelona on Aug. 17 has died in the Hospital del Mar in the city, bringing the death toll of Spain's double terror attacks to 16, the health department of the regional government of Catalonia, Generalitat reported on Sunday.

The 51-year old woman from Germany had been critically injured after a van mowed down the iconic street of Las Ramblas, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100.

A total of 24 people are in hospitals, 20 people from the attack in Las Ramblas and four from the attack in Cambrils. Five people are still critically injured and four have serious injuries.
A powerful storm lashed Hong Kong and Macau on Sunday, just days after a punishing typhoon swept through the region and claimed at least 18 lives.

Both cities raised a Typhoon 8 signal -- the third-highest warning level -- early Sunday as severe tropical storm "Pakhar" made landfall in the region, where emergency workers were still battling to repair Wednesday's damage.

A total of 206 flights were cancelled and another 471 delayed because of the latest storm, while 44 flights had to divert, Hong Kong's Airport Authority said. Cathay Pacific, the city's flagship, said "cancellations, diversions and severe delays" were expected.

All ferry services in Hong Kong were suspended until the storm warning was lowered in both cities in the early afternoon. A total of 236 trees weakened by Wednesday's typhoon were brought down by the latest storm in Hong Kong and there were 16 flooding reports.

No deaths were reported on Sunday but Hong Kong hospital officials said 62 people were injured. In Macau eight people were slightly hurt, a government spokesperson said.

A Chinese cargo ship was sinking east of Hong Kong Sunday morning but all 11 crew members were rescued.

Pakhar brought winds of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour to Hong Kong. Sunday is a holiday but on a working day the Typhoon 8 signal would have meant the shutdown of the stock market, schools and businesses.

In Macau authorities issued fresh flooding warnings as shops that were battered Wednesday remained closed on Sunday morning. Traffic lights stayed blacked out with power yet to return to parts of the city.

The water supply has been restored, a Macau government statement said Sunday, but buildings with damaged pumps still lack water.

"This is tough but there is nothing we can do," said shopowner Leung Chin-pang, who has been without water since the first storm hit.

- 'Lack of preparation' -

Pakhar -- named after a freshwater fish in the lower Mekong river -- arrived as worst-hit Macau was still picking up the pieces following Typhoon Hato, the city's strongest typhoon in 53 years according to its government.

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Hato, which triggered the most severe Typhoon 10 warning, ripped through the gambling hub Wednesday, plunging casinos into darkness and causing destructive floods.

The official death toll in Macau reached 10, as the government of the semi-autonomous Chinese city faced recriminations over its lack of preparedness.

A further eight people are known to have died from Typhoon Hato in the neighbouring mainland Chinese province of Guangdong, which Pakhar also reached mid-morning Sunday.

Dozens of visitors had returned to the main tourist attraction of Senado Square in Macau Sunday as the clean-up progressed.

Streets appeared cleaner after local residents of all ages and around 1,000 troops from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Macau garrison worked to clear piles of debris blocking the streets.

Four Hong Kong journalists covering the impact of the typhoon were barred entry into Macau Saturday on the grounds that they "threatened the stability of internal security", according to the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

The group in a statement expressed "deep regret" over the incident and urged Macau's authorities to respect press freedom.

Summer is typhoon season for the region including Hong Kong, which can experience storms of such severity that the entire city shuts down.
Counter-protesters converged on San Franciscos Alamo Square Saturday afternoon even after local officials had called off a planned and permit-granted protest by right-wing group Patriot Prayer the day before.

But the coordinator of Patriot Prayers event, Joey Gibson, also said he would hold a news conference at 2 p.m. local time and pop up at various locations around the city, according to the San Francisco Examiner. The conference was subsequently canceled.

The San Francisco Police Department, however, did advise on its official Twitter account for people to stay away from the area. Police had also ordered the crowd to disperse.

With a sign hung by a resident across from the square reading Love Trumps Hate, meant to invoke President Donald Trumps name after his reactions and statements to the violent August 12 clash in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in one persons death and more than a dozen people injured, the counter-protesters on the scene remained peaceful and even prided themselves on social media remaining in that peaceful state.

The scene was similar to last weekends counter-protesting in Boston, where thousands gathered to condemn a planned First Amendment rally that ultimately drowned out anyone affiliated with hate groups.

The counter-protesters lined up and began to march down one of the citys busiest streets and neighborhoods.

The city and the police department had prepared for protests by erecting a chain-link fence around the park, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and had also set up barriers to keep protesters away from residential streets with a one-block buffer zone.

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"The San Francisco Police Department has an enhanced presence at Alamo Square and in the surrounding neighborhoods," a police spokesperson told The Chronicle. "We will continue to evaluate situations as they evolve and make decisions based on the safety of the public.

Related Articles
Social media is helping track down the white supremacists responsible for brutally assaulting a counterprotester in Charlottesville.

Per a New York Times report, Daniel P. Borden, one of the multiple assailants who attacked 20-year-old Deandre Harris during the infamous "Unite the Right" rally on August 12 has been arrested. Police have also issued a wanted poster for Alex Michael Ramos, another man sought in connection to the crime. Both have face charges of malicious wounding.

SEE ALSO: You can honor Heather Heyer and other Charlottesville heroes starting today

As Harris' attorney S. Lee Merritt told the New York Times, the men responsible for his client's assault  video of which was disseminated across social media on and after August 12  have been identified largely thanks to journalist and activist Shaun King of the New York Daily News.

Shortly after video of Harris' assault hit social media, King began sharing photos of the assailants in hopes that others on Twitter might have clues as to their identities. These posts helped identify Borden and Ramos, and King is still working to identify the other assailants, even vetting suspects personally before releasing names.

These photos could not be any clearer.



Share them widely.



Together we can find this man and make sure he's arrested for what he did. https://t.co/0ffWMyD34B  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 14, 2017

We must identify every man in this video who assaulted Deandre Harris.



We have two:



Michael Ramos (Trump Hat)

Dan Borden (White Hardhat) https://t.co/ehLyiLvKYK  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 15, 2017

In a tweet posted Sunday, King said police officials have told himself and Merritt that they are relying on the activist's Twitter account to identify the other assailants. In the days after the violence in Charlottesville, local police faced criticism for failing to stop violence at the hands of white supremacists.

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Strange as it sounds, police have openly told @MeritLaw and I both that they are basically waiting on me to identify the remaining suspects. https://t.co/q3IvyP4dW4  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 27, 2017

Attorney Merritt heard police literally tell me that everything they knew about these men they got from my timeline. That's a mess. https://t.co/acjS3BKoj7  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 27, 2017

King isn't the only one who has leveraged his sizable social following to identify white supremacists the wake of the violent rally Logan Smith of @YesYoureRacist also tweeted photos of rally protesters in hopes of learning their identities. He successfully identified Peter Cvjetanovic, a student; and Cole White, who lost his job at a hot dog joint shortly after.

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

And as the New York Times reports, Richard W. Preston, a reported Ku Klux Klan member, was arrested after the ACLU of Virginia captured video of the man firing a gun in the direction of a counterprotester.
By Dinky Mkhize MIDDELBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Two white South Africans who were filmed forcing a wailing black man into a coffin were found guilty on Friday of kidnap, assault and attempted murder. The men said they had caught Victor Mlotshwa trespassing on their farm in possession of stolen copper cables. The 20-second video, widely circulated on social media last year, shows Mlotshwa cowering inside a coffin as one man pushes the lid down and the other threatens to put petrol and a snake inside. The case, heard at a court in Middelburg, about 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital Pretoria, has caused outrage in a country where deep racial divides persist 23 years after the fall of apartheid. Mlotshwa welcomed the ruling, telling Reuters: "I'm feeling very good. This is exactly what I've been looking for and finally justice has been served." A large crowd formed outside the packed courtroom. There was a heavy presence of police patrolling around the court. Members of the country's main political parties, including the ruling African National Congress, the main opposition Democratic Alliance party and the Economic Freedom Fighters gathered outside carrying placards, some which said "Down with racism!" and shouting slogans in support of Mlotshwa. Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa's 54 million population yet most its wealth remains in the hands of white people who account for about 8 percent of the population. Defendants Theo Jackson and Willem Oosthuizen have the right to appeal. They will remain free on bail until their sentencing on Oct. 23, Judge Segopotje Mphahlele said in her ruling. The bail conditions were not given. (Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Alison Williams)
Steve Bannon - EPA

Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, has said he intends to "light up" Mitch McConnell, the Republican senate leader.

Mr Bannon also said he was relishing his return to the news website Breitbart because in the White House he had "influence," but at Breitbart he has "power".

In an interview with The Economist, Mr Bannon vowed to support President Donald Trump, but also to pursue his agenda of economic nationalism.

He told the magazine: "We will never turn on him. But we are never going to let him take a decision that hurts him."

Mr Bannon added: "I am an ideologue, thats why I am out. I can rally the base, have his back. The harder he pushes, the more we will be there for him."

He added: "Mitch McConnell, I'm going to light him up."

Mr Bannon also castigated "the elites in Silicon Valley and Wall Street" as a "bunch of globalists who have forgotten their fellow Americans".

He also vowed to "screw up One Belt One Road," referring to a Chinese plan to expand its global trade.

Mr Bannon said he had wanted to talk to The Economist because "Youre the enemy. You support a radical idea, free trade. I mean it, thats a radical idea".
A Canadian woman in Vancouver who yelled Go back to the Philippines to an elderly Asian couple on the citys SkyTrain was a little shocked when the other passengers told her to leave.

The incident, which happened Monday afternoon, started when an unidentified woman started yelling at the couple, who were speaking Tagalog, because she thought they were too loud.

The male apologized to the woman, while explaining its normal for people to talk loudly in the Philippines, according to HuffPost Canada.

The woman responded angrily, I was born and raised right here, before adding. Go back to the fucking Philippines.

Ashley Klassen posted the encounter on Facebook and called it probably the most disgusting thing Ive ever seen. Unfiltered Vancouver racism.

Paula Correa, who, like the couple is also Filipino, said she posted a video of the encounter on social media because she wanted her fellow Canadians to see what happened.

Social media provides an illusion that these things happen in other places, in other countries  in the USA, for example, she told local radio station CKWX. But it can happen in the very place we call our home and it does happen and it did happen.

As Klassens video shows, numerous passengers came to the elderly couples defense including a teenager who suggested the woman yelling at them, Get the fuck off the train!

He then said, Youre racist.

The woman replied, I am not racist. I asked them to talk a little lower.

During the altercation, another rider alerted transit police officers by pressing an emergency strip, according to CTV News.

The woman exited the train before police officers arrived.

Officers interviewed the elderly couple, who said they didnt want any police involvement, according to a news release.

Transit police reviewed the videos of the incident and determined the woman had used profane and racially charged language toward the elderly couple.

An investigation has been launched and officers plan to speak to the aggressor who has been identified as a 75-year-old woman known to police for documented anger related issues in the past.

Story continues

Correa said she was shocked by the incident, but is glad to see others felt the same. Im so glad that there were so many people who stood up against this kind of hate, she told GlobalNews.ca.

Also on HuffPost

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LOL. They get a free education with an opportunity to play in the NFL. Get the fuck over it #WeAreAJoke #wearedone https://t.co/w1MSEdjtoO  We Are A Joke UA (@WeAreAJoke_UA) November 19, 2015

This shit is fucking hilarious and it's also a joke. Joke doesn't equal racism #wearedone #WeAreAJoke pic.twitter.com/NHjy3KOn2c  We Are A Joke UA (@WeAreAJoke_UA) November 20, 2015

Remember when black people couldn't go to college? THAT was oppression. What do you guys go through that can compare? #wearedone #WeAreAJoke  We Are A Joke UA (@WeAreAJoke_UA) November 19, 2015

Ithaca College officials trying to ID people making physical threats on Yik Yak https://t.co/wB8QDsQqQd pic.twitter.com/LwnbjcZwqA  The Ithaca Voice (@ithacavoice) November 13, 2015

University of Alabama

University of Alabama

University of Alabama

University of Alabama

University of Missouri

University of Missouri

University of Missouri

University of Missouri

University of Missouri

University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska

Yik Yak after UCONN students #StudentBlackOut day. But racism doesn't exist... pic.twitter.com/K5FE1GqIWW  Shakima (@miesh_b) November 20, 2015

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and wife Louise Linton may have used taxpayer money for a personal trip to view the solar eclipse: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

A watchdog group believes Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton may have used taxpayer money to watch the solar eclipse atop $200 billion worth of gold.

The pair travelled with Senator Mitch McConnell his home state, which happened to be in the prime eclipse viewing path. They viewed it atop Fort Knox, and Army base and the US gold bouillon depository.

Ms Linton's posted a picture on Instagram of her and Mr Mnuchin stepping off a government plane the day of the eclipse. In the post the Scottish-born actress described her outfit, naming several high-end fashion designers, calling it a "great #daytrip".

A commenter, Jenni Miller, criticised Ms Linton for bragging about her designer wear while many Americans are suffering financially.

It was Ms Linton's response which caught the eye of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Ms Linton wrote: "Did you think this was a personal trip?! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol".

CREW is now asking the Treasury Department for financial records showing "authorisation for and the costs" of the trip using a government plane.

In its Freedom of Information Act request, the group wrote: "At a time of expected deep cuts to the federal budget, the taxpayers have a significant interest in learning the extent to which Secretary Mnuchin has used government planes for travel in lieu of commercial planes, and the justification for that use."

We just FOIA'd all records for Mnuchin & Louise Linton's trip to KY on a gov't plane. There's more to this story & we're going to find it. pic.twitter.com/3wsMdveuUI  Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) August 23, 2017

Ms Linton went on to say in her lengthy response to Ms Miller that the commenter was "adorably out of touch" and said the couple had contributed more in US tax dollars than Ms Miller had.

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She later made her account private after massive backlash to her response and has since deleted the picture and issued an apology to Ms Miller.

The US Trearsury said in a statement that Mr Mnuchin had been in the state to discuss tax reform - a priority for the Trump administration - with Mr McConnell.

It also said Mr Mnuchin will reimburse the government for Ms Linton's travel "as is longstanding policy regarding civilians on military aircraft. The trip was originally planned for earlier in August but was postponed to accommodate the Congressional calendar."

CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz told CNBC that the issue would not have caught their attention if not for "the Instagram rant" by Ms Linton.

"That picture was clearly of a government plane, so that raised questions of what the relationship was of her to the trip, and what she was doing there," he said.

Mr Mnuchin is the fist Treasury Secretary to visit Fort Knox in nearly 70 years, according to Mr Mnuchin's own tweet. It is also another point that raised the watchdog group's suspicion.
It was a stunning moment. On Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested that the president of the United States does not speak for American values.

After deflecting questions from Fox News Chris Wallace about President Donald Trumps failure to condemn white supremacist groups who incited deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying that he and the State Department represent Americas values, Tillerson said that the president speaks for himself.

Tillersons statement caps a tumultuous two weeks in which Trump demonstrated that he has abandoned essential duties of the office, failing to provide basic, measured responses to violence and natural disasters.

Throughout last week, he continued to defend his widely condemned response to the violence in Charlottesville  in which he delayed and then backtracked on a denunciation of white nationalist, KKK and neo-Nazi groups  including during a campaign-style rally in Phoenix.

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Phoenix on Aug. 22, 2017. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images)

Trumps failure to provide the most elementary leadership earned criticism from lawmakers and leaders around the world  even from a United Nations panel on combating racial discrimination, which expressed deep concern about the example this failure could set for the rest of the world.

The night Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas, unleashing potentially historic rainfall, Trump announced he was pardoning former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who illegally targeted Latinos and was convicted of criminal contempt for violating a court order. In doing so, he bypassed the Department of Justices normal pardon procedures. (Trump reportedly asked his attorney general about closing the criminal case against Arpaio months earlier.)

On Sunday, as residents of Texas began evaluating the flooding and damage from the storm, Trump issued a stream of tweets congratulating authorities and himself for the recovery effort, which he bragged was going well! The tweets about Hurricane Harvey were sandwiched between posts on unrelated topics, including the presidents personal grievances.

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For example, Trump immediately followed the announcement that he would visit Texas with a tweet boasting about his election victory in a different state, while suggesting that he would help unseat the states Democratic senator.

I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Tillerson is not the only administration official attempting to distance himself from the president in recent days.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis can be heard telling U.S. troops in Jordan to hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other, in a video posted Thursday on Facebook. Mattis also said the U.S. will get the power of inspiration back, which many interpreted as criticism of Trumps leadership.

Its unclear exactly when Mattis made the impromptu remarks, though he stopped in Jordan during his overseas trip last week.

Youre a great example for our country right now, and it has got problems, Mattis said in the video. You know it and I know it. Its got problems we dont have in the military. And you just hold the line, my fine soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines.

The presidents economic adviser, Gary Cohn, told the Financial Times that he contemplated resigning after Trumps Charlottesville remarks, saying the administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups.

Of course, many in the Trump administration still unambiguously defend the president. After Trump delivered a scripted but conspicuously vague speech on his Afghanistan war strategy, Vice President Mike Pence insisted Trumps primetime address signaled American resolve. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the speech demonstrated the signs of a president.

The next day, Trump reverted to form at his no-holds-barred Arizona rally, making it next to impossible to believe that he will treat the presidency with the gravity the office is meant to hold.

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Steve Culver cries with his dog Otis as he talks about what he said was the, 'most terrifying event in his life,' when Hurricane Harvey blew in and destroyed most of his home while he and his wife took shelter there on in Rockport.

Ofelia Castro leads her grandchildren across a flooded street as they continue an hours long trek from their flooded house in the Edgewood area of South Houston to a relatives apartment miles away.

Aaron Tobias who said he lost everything stands in what is left of his home in Rockport. Mr. Tobias said he was able to get his wife and kids out before the storm arrived but he stayed there and rode it out.

Damaged boats in a multi-level storage facility are seen in Rockport.

People gather supplies out of destroyed homes to take back to a shelter near City-By-The Sea, Texas.

A destroyed laundromat is seen in Rockport.

A destroyed apartment complex is seen on Aug. 26, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey passed through Rockport, Texas.

Donna Raney is helped out of the window by Lee Guerrero and Daisy Graham in Rockport.

Valerie Brown walks through a flooded area after leaving her apartment in Rockport.

Charlie Company of the 4th Assault Amphibious Battalion, Marine Forces Reserve arrive at the Central Mall in Port Arthur, TX on Thursday night after running rescue missions in the hardest hit areas of town throughout the day.

A Rockport firefighter goes door to door on a search and rescue mission as he looks for people who may need help.

Rescue personnel help Hersey Kirk as she is airlifted into a rescue helicopter.

Jacque McKay walks through the apartment complex where she lives in Rockport.

A damaged home is seen after Hurricane Harvey in Rockport.

Damage is seen to a shopping center in Victoria, north and farther inland than Rockport.

Damage is seen at a business near Rockport

A damaged mobile home in Victoria.

Damage to a hotel in Victoria.

A business is damaged in Victoria.

A light plane sits upside done at Rockport Airport.

A sunken boat at Rockport Harbor.

Destroyed houses in Rockport.

Light medium tactical vehicle's (LMTV) make their way through floodwaters near Bridge City in Texas.

A car lies abandoned in Rockport.

A police officer checks for survivors among destroyed houses in Rockport.

A gas station in Victoria.

Damage to homes is seen near Rockport

A sign on a Holiday Inn hotel in Victoria.

Just got out of Rockport; no cell service there; catastrophic damage; homes, businesses destroyed. #hurricaneharvey pic.twitter.com/CJKPJOhEHZ  Jeremy Schwartz (@JinATX) August 26, 2017

First light reveals heavy damage in Rockport, TX. #hurricaneharvey. pic.twitter.com/a9vVRn9iJS  Jeff Gammons (@StormVisuals) August 26, 2017

A burnt-out house that caught fire after Hurricane Harvey hit Corpus Christi.

A house suffers roof damage in Corpus Christi.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:07:10|Editor: ying

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HANOI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Vietnam said it will, from Monday, recall over 20,000 cars branded Vios and Yaris to replace faulty air bag inflators.

The vehicles subject to the recall include 18,138 Vios cars domestically made in Vietnam from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 29, 2012, and 1,877 Yaris cars imported to the country between Sept. 1, 2009 and Aug. 31, 2012, Toyota Vietnam said on Sunday.

The defective cars were equipped with airbags whose inflators, made by parts supplier Takata Corp., could rupture, causing risks of injury.
Doha (AFP) - Qatar said Saturday that Turkey has arrested five people in connection with the alleged hack of Doha's state news agency, an incident which sparked the current Gulf political crisis.

The arrests were announced by Qatar's most senior legal figure, Attorney General Ali bin Fetais al-Marri.

"Our friends in Turkey answered us a short time ago," he said in comments published by the Qatar News Agency (QNA).

"Five people were arrested and they are being investigated. The prosecutors in Qatar are working with the Turkish authorities to follow the case."

The nationality of the suspects was not given.

The alleged hack of the QNA website took place on May 24, attributing explosive political remarks to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

The remarks covered sensitive regional political subjects such as Iran, Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Israel and the United States.

Less than a fortnight later, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed ties with Qatar over its ties to Shiite Iran and support for Sunni Islamist extremist groups.

Qatar denies the charges and says Sheikh Tamim did not make the statements, but that the website was hacked.

Doha called in the FBI to help with the hacking investigation and has accused the UAE of being behind the cyber-attack.

The UAE has denied the claims.

The current Gulf crisis has now lasted more than two months and as yet mediation efforts by Kuwait, the United States and Western Europe have failed to resolve the issue.
Canakkale (Turkey) (AFP) - Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu vowed to press on with an intensifying campaign for justice in defiance of "threats" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of ruling as a dictator.

Kilicdaroglu, head of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), told Agence France-Presse in an interview he believed that Erdogan feared his movement and consequently was attacking him in nearly every public speech.

The CHP leader, who analysts until now rarely saw as posing a major challenge to Erdogan, threw down a new gauntlet to the president this summer with a nearly month-long march complaining of injustice in Turkey in the wake of the July 15, 2016 failed coup bid.

This weekend, he kicked off a four-day "justice congress" highlighting violations in the unprecedented crackdown that followed the failed coup, in a bid to build on the momentum of that march.

"Let him (Erdogan) threaten as much as he wants, we are right. We will defend justice, democracy, judicial independence and media freedom to the end because we are right," said Kilicdaroglu.

"He sees me as a threat. He is from time to time delivering speeches that contain threats but we will not be frightened off by their threats," the CHP leader said in front of his trailer at the outdoor event in the western Canakkale region.

Erdogan has lambasted Kilicdaroglu in speeches and even darkly hinted that the CHP chief could himself face judicial proceedings.

But Kilicdaroglu said this showed that "Erdogan is definitely shying away and scared of me".

He accused the Turkish president, who has dominated Turkey for almost one and a half decades as premier and head of state, of suffering from "Kilicdaroglu illness" due to nearly daily tirades targeting him.

- 'Do dictators have a career?'-

Kilicdaroglu is hoping the appeal of his justice movement will go well beyond the CHP and help create a united front against the president ahead of 2019 elections.

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The stakes will be particularly high in the polls -- Erdogan this April won a referendum on enhancing the powers of the presidency which critics fear give the head of state near authoritarian powers.

Asked if his movement could put the Turkish president's career in jeopardy, Kilicdaroglu said: "Erdogan does not have a career. Do the dictators have a career? Do coup plotters have a career?"

Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of staging a "civilian coup" in the crackdown which critics say has gone went well beyond the coup plotters and targeted all kinds of dissidents.

"Turkey is currently in a coup process. Parliament has been de-activated," Kilicdaroglu said.

"They can seize assets or dismiss from the public sector whoever they want under a single decree. Can you call this democracy?"

More than 50,000 people have been arrested under Turkey's over year-long state of emergency imposed after the failed coup, and almost three times that number have lost their jobs, including teachers, judges, soldiers and police officers.

Kilicdaroglu however said: "We are coming together in spite of all impossibilities and all barriers... We are all together speaking up for democracy and human rights. That is of course scaring him.".

The government insists the crackdown is essential to deal with the national security threat posed by the coup bid, blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who denies the charges.

- 'Oppose one-man regime'-

Asked if he was scared of being arrested, Kilicdaroglu replied: "Never."

"We are the only party in Turkey that is doing most effective opposition against Erdogan. That is why he cannot tolerate our presence."

Kilicdaroglu did not comment on if he would run in the presidential polls but he said the CHP's candidate would "oppose the one-man regime and advocate a democratic parliamentary system".

Ankara's post-coup measures have led to an outpouring of global concern and set off alarm bells in Europe.

Kilicdaroglu said: "We need to fight for journalists in prison, dismissed university academics, and teachers on hunger strike."

"We will do it, we are determined. Are there impediments ahead of us? There are more obstacles than you would think. But it is our duty to overcome them."
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard is monitoring two cruise ships that have been unable to dock due to tropical storm Harvey and is preparing alternative arrangements, one of its commanders said on Saturday in a press conference. Three cruise ships operated by Carnival Corp carrying about 20,000 passengers have been stranded in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico waiting to dock at Galveston port. Two of them were temporarily diverted to New Orleans on Friday and the third has stayed in Cozumel, Mexico, the firm said. "We talk daily with the cruise ship operators as well as the city of Galveston and the Galveston Port Authority in order to try to identify opportunities to be able to get these cruise ships in," said Kevin Oditt, commander of the Coast Guard sector Houston-Galveston. The Coast Guard unit in Corpus Christi, Texas rescued 15 people from distressed vessels near Port Aransas earlier on Saturday. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Ruthy Munoz; editing by Gary McWilliams and Andrew Hay)
(Reuters) - The United States will likely continue to run a large current account deficit against other countries because of its status as a global safe asset haven among other reasons, a U.S. economist told an annual symposium of some of the world's most influential central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Saturday.

University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor Menzie Chinn's research also suggests lawmakers in the United States should look to domestic fiscal policy if they want to reduce external imbalances.

A glut of savings in other countries historically has fueled capital flows into the United States, and while global imbalances have shrunk back to pre-crisis levels such flows will continue to weigh on the nation's current account balance, especially as the quantity of safe assets has diminished in recent years.

The current account measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of a country.

Data shows that the savings glut effect on the current account has faded somewhat but the budget balance has retained its importance since the financial crisis, Chinn said in a paper delivered on the final day of the flagship three-day economic conference.

"Policymakers are clearly not going to seek to diminish America's ability to generate safe assets. On the other hand, fiscal policy can (and has) had a noticeable influence on current account imbalances," Chinn told the conference, whose theme this year is how to foster a dynamic global economy.

Global imbalances worry policymakers because they are seen as a risk to financial stability, though views differ on how much of a threat they pose.

The U.S. Congress faces a looming budget battle when it reconvenes in early September. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump promised to shut down the U.S. government if necessary to secure funding for a wall along the border with Mexico.

"For the United States, although the budget balance is not the largest single contributor to the current account imbalances, it is a substantial factor," Chinn said.

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That said, other factors will continue to keep the deficit in place, including the flow of excess savings to the United States.

A large proportion of capital flowing to the United States takes place in the form of purchases of U.S. government securities, particularly by foreign central banks. China and Japan are the largest foreign holders of U.S. government debt.

"While the particular creditor economies might change over time, the U.S. will tend to continue to run deficits larger than is explicable by other factors," he said.

With monetary policy tightening in the United States and the euro area and similar action in Japan unlikely in the near future "that particular combination will likely lead to an exacerbation, rather than amelioration, of the U.S. current account deficit," Chinn said.

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A United States citizen working in South Sudan as a freelance journalist was among 19 people killed on Saturday during fighting between government troops and rebels in Yei River state, the rebels and the military said. Christopher Allen, who worked for various news outlets, was killed in heavy fighting in the town of Kaya. South Sudan has been convulsed by conflict since late 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's troops against those of rebel leader Riek Machar. "On the ground, about 16 (bodies) have been found around the defensive position of the SPLA including this white man," Santo Domic Chol, a military spokesman, told Reuters. Three government soldiers were also killed, he said. The rebels identified him as Allen, who had been embedded with them for the past week. "We are sad for his family. He came here to tell our story ," said one rebel who knew Allen. He asked not to be named but said Allen had been in the middle of the fighting and wearing a jacket marked PRESS. Chol said the rebels had attacked an army base in Kaya but they were repulsed after an hour-long fight. The U.S. government did not respond immediately when Reuters sought comment. The country spiraled into civil war, with fighting along ethnic lines, after Kiir sacked Machar in late 2013. A peace accord was signed in August 2015 and Machar returned to the capital in April last year to share power with Kiir, before the deal fell apart less than three months later and Machar and his supporters fled the capital. The conflict has forced about 4 million people to flee their homes. Uganda currently hosts more than a million South Sudanese refugees, while over 330,000 have fled to neighboring Ethiopia. (Writing by Duncan Miriri; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Uber's choice of a replacement CEO just got more problematic. Former GE chief Jeff Immelt has announced that he has "decided not to pursue" Uber's top spot despite reports that he was the leading candidate. Immelt didn't say what prompted the withdrawal, but it's an unusually open declaration given that Uber hadn't publicly discussed that he was in the running. However, sources speaking to Recode suggest that he recently fell out of favor -- and that his departure is coming at a particularly bad time.

Supposedly, Uber is worried not just about criticism of Immelt's time at GE (his performance there was mixed), but also former CEO Travis Kalanick's eagerness to have Immelt take his old position. The investors at Benchmark are worried that Immelt might be too eager to please Kalanick and would give the ousted CEO too much power. The company is eager to prove that it has turned a corner after grappling with its toxic culture, and it may have trouble doing that if the very executive blamed for creating that culture comes roaring back.

Some members of Uber's board are pushing for HPE chief Meg Whitman to become CEO, since she's vehemently opposed to Kalanick's involvement. However, Whitman has publicly and staunchly rejected the possibility of becoming Uber's CEO, so her chances are slim.

Regardless of who gets the nod, you'll likely learn about the new CEO in the very near future. Recode hears that Uber is voting for its new leader today (August 27th), and it will tell employees about the choice by mid-week. The company likely won't waste much time before making its choice public -- it wants to show passengers and investors that its dark days are over, and that means picking the person who'll (hopefully) set Uber's course for years to come.

Update: The New York Times has a somewhat contradictory view of Whitman's chances. Two sources claim that Whitman is now the "likely candidate" despite her previous objections. It's not clear what (if anything) has swayed her opinion, however.
In pardoning the former sheriff of Maricopa County, our president sided with a lawless renegade over our federal judiciary and the constitution itself

Arpaio, the self-styled toughest sheriff in America, systematically abused his powers. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Who will go first, President Trump or our constitutional order? The question presses after the presidents most recent affront to our system of governance, his unpardonable pardon of former Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, announced last night in a presidential tweet.

This is hardly an ordinary exercise of the power to pardon, granted to the president under the terms of the constitution. The constitution gives the president the power to pardon to serve the interests of justice and mercy  to correct cases in which federal courts have acted with unwarranted severity. This is the principle that informs the practice.



In pardoning Arpaio, Trump has acted in contempt of this principle. Arpaio, the self-styled toughest sheriff in America, systematically abused his powers during his two decades in office before being voted out last November. Most notoriously, Arpaio commanded his police to detain people solely on the suspicion that they were illegal immigrants, even in cases where the suspects had violated no state law. This amounted to a blanket invitation to terrorize the domestic population through egregious practices of racial-profiling.

In 2011, a federal district court judge, a Republican appointee, ordered Arpaio to stop a practice that constituted a flagrant violation of constitutional rights. Rather than submit to the federal court order, Arpaio acted in open defiance, placing himself above the federal judiciary and the rule of law. Last month, he was properly convicted of criminal contempt for his defiance. He faced a maximum of six months in jail, but all that is now moot thanks to the presidents pardon.

Lacking the vision, tenacity, commitment and acumen to govern, Trump contents himself with acts of undoing

It is not hard to understand why Trump would pardon Arpaio. The two share dreary similarities: a willingness to scapegoat undocumented immigrants for the ills of the nation, a cavalier disregard for the inconveniences of legal constraints, an affection for strongman braggadocio. But more than that, the pardon is an expression of Trumps governing style in distilled form.

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Lacking the vision, tenacity, commitment and acumen to govern and shape policy, Trump contents himself with acts of spiteful erasure, gestures of teardown that require no more effort than a tweet or a signature.

Having lied that he had a beautiful, terrific and unbelievable health insurance plan to replace Obamacare; having lied that he had a detailed tax reform plan; having lied that he had a detailed plan to replace our crumbling infrastructure; having lied that Mexico would foot the bill for his beautiful wall, Trump works to keep his base in check with cheap yet profoundly damaging acts of undoing.

We have sadly grown familiar with the undoings of our unpresident. In his most recent tweets and off-script speeches, Trump has only raised the volume of his relentless attacks on the free press, the mainstay of democratic self-governance, and has chosen to undo the pretense that the president should work to unite a badly divided nation. And in his (un)signings, this unpresident has undone the Paris climate accord, has undone the participation of transgender people in the military, and now has undone the conviction of a renegade sheriff.

What unites these acts of teardown are their cheapness, cynicism and recklessness. They are cheap: requiring nothing in the way of the hard work of shaping and negotiating policy. This is a politics of fatigue, indolence elevated to administrative practice. They are cynical: the performance of a president-cum-snake-oil-salesman, working to dupe his credulous audience that his bogus recipes constitute the promised potent tonic. And they are reckless, profoundly reckless, as they represent a contempt for the rule of law and for the norms of constitutional democracy.

In pardoning Arpaio, our unpresident has undone the principle that informs the practice of pardon; he has sided with the lawless renegade against our federal judiciary and the constitution itself.
Motorists no longer find insects on their windscreens

Wildlife experts have been warning about the alarming decline in insects for decades.

But the fall in numbers of bugs in Britain has now reached such a troubling extent that even motorists are noticing that their windscreens are clear of squashed flies, gnats, moths and wasps.

Where a trip in high summer would once have necessitated taking a squeegee to the front window, now the glass is largely clear, drivers are reporting.

Writing in The Telegraph letters page earlier this week, Michael Groom of Teffont Evias, Wiltshire asked: Where have all the insects gone? My windscreen remains clear whatever the speed.

Reader Richard Acland, of Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, also noticed the vanishing bugs, and said he believed insecticides on crops were wiping out insect life, adding: This is why cars are not bug-splattered anymore.

Insects have suffered worrying declines in Britain

And they are not alone in noting the change. Entomologists actually call it the windscreen phenomenon, and it is has been noticed across Europe.

An amateur German group called the Krefeld Entomological Society has been monitoring insect numbers at 100 nature reserves in Western Europe since the 1980s. Although there were the annual fluctuations they discovered that by 2013 numbers began to plummet by nearly 80 per cent.

Experts mostly blame intensive agriculture and the use of pesticides over the past 50 years.

Since 2006, beekeepers in Britain have lost about a third of their managed bee colonies each year largely due to the loss of flower-rich grassland which has declined by 97 per cent from the 1930s, and the increased use of insecticides on crops.

Speaking about the lack of insects on windscreens, Matt Shadlow, Chief Executive of British insect conservation charity Buglife said: Yes, indeed this is a well recognised phenomenon.

Just today we had a member of the public phone up and say, unprompted, that the front of my car is now devoid of insects, and there are virtually no moths in the headlights.

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This is part of the wholesale loss of small animals in recent decades. The public know about bees and butterflies, but these are just the tips of the iceberg. Moths, hoverflies, wasps, beetles and many other groups are now sparse where once they were abundant.

Beetles may be being killed by cars

Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, has also monitored insect populations using traps across the country for more than 50 years. Chris Shortall, an entomologist from Rothamsted said they had found evidence that the number of flying insects is falling, but said the windscreen phenomenon was difficult to prove.

The loss of insects from our windscreens is a well-noted anecdote, however actually demonstrating it is very tricky, if not impossible, said Mr Shortall.

A Rothamsted study showed that in the West of England, around Hereford, the amount of aerial biomass - or flying insects - has fallen significantly since the 1970s. Other sites around Britain failed to capture declines, although the experts believe recording may have started too late to capture the impact of increased agricultural intensification.

A second report into the State of Britains Larger Moths, published in collaboration with the charity Butterfly Conservation, showed a fall of insects by 40 per cent in the South of England over the past 40 years.

The most recent RSPB State of Nature report, which brings together findings from 50 organisations, suggests there has been a 59 per cent decline in insects in the UK since 1970.

In 2004 the RSPB asked motorists to attach a splatometer to the front of their cars - a piece of PVC film to collect insects, to see if they were declining. They recorded 324,814 splats, an average of only one squashed insect every five miles.

However the survey was only carried out once so it was impossible to see whether bug numbers had fallen over time.

It has also been suggested that cars have changed shape over time, and are now far more aerodynamic, meaning fewer insects are hit.

And a recent paper by Canadian scientists suggests the upsurge in traffic could itself be responsible for the fall in insect numbers. After extrapolating data from a mile of highway in Ontario, researcher from Laurentian University calculated that hundreds of billions of pollinating insects were probably being killed by vehicles each year in North America.

Colin Lawes, from Royal Holloway University of London, found that a large number of stag beetles are killed by road traffic each year in Britain, with three times as many females killed as males.
This dog ran out to pick up a bag of food during Hurricane Harvey, because priorities

While Texans were stocking up their cabinets in preparation for Hurricane Harvey, one clever pup had plans of his own. Meet Otis, the dog who also stocked up for the storm. A woman in Stinton, Texas spotted him living his best life, walking the streets with a full bag of dog food dangling from his mouth. (And on National Dog Day, no less!)

Unfortunately, the storm ended up being catastrophic. Hurricane Harvey already claimed five lives this weekend and wreaked havoc for residents of southeast Texas and Louisiana. Heavy rainfall led to flood warnings throughout much of the area. The National Weather Service urged people to refrain from leaving their homes to avoid powerful winds and water currents. Its also expected to have an impact on gas prices nationally.

But that didnt stop Otis from venturing outdoors. Tiele Dockens shared a photo of the pooch on Facebook, bringing a little bit of humor to an otherwise devastating day.

Within one day, the pic gained more than 7,000 likes, 26,000 shares, and 2,000 comments.

This dog is walking around Sinton TX carrying a entire bag of dog food with him. LOL #refugeePSA: Owner is found. He is not a stray he just got out on his street.Dogs name is Otis. Posted by Tiele Dockens on Saturday, August 26, 2017

But dont worry  Otis isnt a stray. Dockens later updated the post to inform everyone that the German Shepherd has been reunited with his family. According to the Houston Chronicle, his owner is a 5-year-old named Carter who left the pup in the care of his grandfather after leaving the city to find safety from the flooding.

Today, Tiele shared a photo of herself visiting her neighbor Otis. Both look safe and in good spirits.

Otis Selfie please pray for Houston in this storm. #sintonstrong #wewillsurvive #hurricaneharvey #beprepared #otisselfie #towndog #prayersforvictimsofthisstorm Posted by Tiele Dockens on Sunday, August 27, 2017

65-year-old Salvador Segovia, Otiss caretaker during the storm, said the pup escaped from his screened-in back porch right as the hurricane started to hit. When Segovia went to check in on Otis, he noticed that his bag of dog food mysteriously missing. I kept yelling his name and yelling his name and he wasnt around, Segovia told the Houston Chronicle.

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Apparently, Otis is used to making food runs. In fact, hes something of a local celebrity.

Otis can go to Dairy Queen and he can get a hamburger. Hes the only dog allowed to lie down in front of the county court house, Segovia continued. He also goes to H.E.B. Hes not a stray. Hes a good dog.

Were glad to hear Otis is safe and are sending our well wishes to those in the storms path.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:12:12|Editor: Song Lifang

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LONDON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Britain's main opposition Labour Party opened up a clear divide with Theresa May's ruling Conservatives Sunday by announcing a dramatic shift in its Brexit policy.

The party's Brexit shadow secretary Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that Britain currently enjoy with the European Union.

"That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both," said Starmer in a keynote article published in the Observer newspaper.

Starmer said a transitional continuation of membership beyond the March 2019 departure date would be as short as possible but as long as necessary, but would also mean accepting the free movement of labour, possibly until around 2023.

Starmer said prime minister May's "ideological obsession with leaving the European customs union and the European single market during a transitional period means the options to deliver a good deal for Britain are diminishing fast.

He said "The fanciful and unachievable proposals put forward in the government's recent customs paper show the colossal risks it is willing to take with British jobs and the economy."

Labour says its new Brexit policy is in stark contrast to what the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond explicitly ruled out a fortnight ago when they stated that Britain would be outside the customs union and the single market in any transitional phase.

"Labour rejects that as an unnecessary and highly risky path to take," said Starmer whose intervention comes just 24 hours before Britain and the EU open their new round of Brexit negotiations Monday.

Starmer said that by remaining inside a customs union and the single market in a transitional phase Britain would be certain that goods and services could continue to flow between the EU and the UK without tariffs, customs checks or additional red tape.

"There would be no need to set up complex alternative customs or trading relations. Given that UK-EU combined import/export trade totaled 553 billion pounds (713 billion U.S. dollars) last year, this certainty would be hugely advantageous for British businesses and consumers," said Starmer.

He said it would not provide a durable or acceptable long-term settlement for Britain or the EU and would not provide certainty for either party. It would also leave unresolved some of the central issues the referendum exposed, in particular the need for more effective management of migration, which Labour said it recognised must be addressed in the final deal.

"That is why a transitional period under Labour will be as short as possible, but as long as is necessary. It cannot become a kind of never-ending purgatory. That would simply create its own uncertainty and ambiguity," said Starmer.

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Frances O'Grady welcomed Starmer's announcement.

She said: "Labour are clearly the grown-ups in the room. This is a sensible and reasonable approach to take. Sticking with our current deal during the transition will give working people certainty on their jobs and rights at work. Keeping all options on the table is the best negotiating strategy. The government were wrong to rule out staying in the single market, it's time for them to reverse gear."

Reports in the media quoted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's office as saying the proposals had been agreed with Corbyn and were official party policy.
Every year, for the past 26 years, something truly remarkable happens: an entire city appears out of the desert. Im speaking, of course, of Black Rock City, in Nevadas Black Rock Desert, erected for the quasi-ritualistic celebration of art, radical inclusion, and free-to-be-you-and-me-ness known as Burning Man.

Burners will come home raving about barter system and the impromptu wedding they attended in not much more than goggles, but the festival's most impressive feat may be this infrastructural coup. In a moment when the powers at be can't even fund the countrys shambling roads and bridges, the 2,000 organizers and volunteers who run Burning Man put togetherand then take aparta 70,000-person city in the space of two months. (That figure does not include emergency workers, government personnel, vendors, or contractors.)

So cities can learn a thing or two from this festival (and not just how to ride a bike through hangover and a dust storm). But the as the festival expands each year, it appears to need a few lessons of its own. How much does a citys character grow out of its shape, even a temporary one? And when you're free of certain constraintslike permanent residents and buildingswhat kinds of communities can you build?

A city like Black Rock, which exists as a flash in a playa, might be a good place to find out.

The Arc of Bureaucracy

During the first Burning Man festivals, on a beach in California, participants camped in a circle. We were attempting to recreate some of the intimacy of our original camping circle, but on a much larger civic scale, urban planner and early Burner Rod Garrett later wrote of the first Black Rock City. Still, the design was not especially intentional. We were engineering society but we weren't basing it on some elaborate intellectual construct, founder Larry Harvey told the design blog Dezeen.

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But for a place founded on principles like radical self-reliance and de-commodification, with an anything-goes spiritual through-line, the process of building up and then taking down Black Rock City stays pretty static year over year. This is, in part, because of the rules handed down by the ur-bureaucracy, the federal government of the US of A. The Bureau of Land Management has had a firm hand in guiding Burning Man since the mid-1990s, when the festival first officially alighted upon the playa.

This partially explains why the basic layout of Black Rock City hasnt changed significantly since 1997, when Garrett designed a half-moon grid with the pseudonymous Burning Man (a giant effigy made of wood) as the central focal and orientation point. The BLM requires organizers develop plans to deal with sanitation, emergency services, security, camping, traffic, parking, water and food supplies, communication, lasers, and fire. (At least two fire engines must be on site.) They have to come up with contingency plans the event of bad weather or social unrest. Burning Man must also coordinate with the Nevada Department of Transportation to get everyone in and out of the site. (Black Rock City traffic is legend. Redesigning the massive camp means doing all that work again.

It also explains why Black Rock City has built up its own bureaucracy-with-pizzazz. A Department of Public Works paints, welds, re-jiggers, and outlines the clock-themed street grid, which has named streets identified by time and letter. (Meet me by the gigantic Boeing 747, at 2:30 and G.) The BLM officially deputizes an in-house DMVDepartment of Mutant Vehicles, natchto hand out playa only documentation. (Art cars with flame effects shall not carry additional gasoline or diesel fuel tanks when in operation, reads one policy.) Black Rock Rangers provide an informal police force, acting as non-confrontational community mediators. Theres a Black Rock City hospital where physicians treated 2,300 people in 2011. Theres even a Kidsville. (Just over 1 percent of 2016 participants were under 19 years old.)

It's proof that cities don't need professional builders to spring out of nothing-ness. The playa has open pockets of meeting spaces, areas where Burning Man participants can find the friends theyre looking for and the ones they didnt know they had yet. Vehicles are, for the most part, banished to parking spots within the camps, with foot and dirt-gummed bicycle being the preferred mode of transport. There are a lot of good ideas from people who are not in the profession, says Kerry Rohrmeier, a geographer who studies intentional communities like Burning Man at San Jose State University. There are so many creative things that people have been able to accomplish on the nano-, site-specific scale.

Constant Disorientation

But there might be a cost to that hyper-efficient layout sameness, and the persistence of the clock grid. It works, its replicable, but theres not been a lot of evolution or experimentation, says Rohrmeier. You can come here, you can practice ideals and identities that you choose, but within these confines.

Rohrmeier argues that Burning Man might look different, physically, if many more sorts of people made their way to the playa. Seventy-nine percent of last years participants were white, and their median household exceeded $94,000 a year, more than double the countys median. Fifty-seven percent of 2016 Burners were male. Its rare today to see in Black Rock City something thats really pushing your design expectations, says Rohrmeier. You see a lot of replication of low density strip development. The city even has its own suburbs, where more spread out, self-contained communities can isolate themselves from the rest of the event-goers.

In 2015, a group of longtime Burners with a penchant for cities launched the Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning. It was not, in fact, another piece of centralized quasi-government, but an unofficial design competition, to conceptualize the shape of Black Rock City. One hundred architects, planners, mathematicians, and dilettantes from 30 countries submitted alternate designs, eventually published as the groups Big Book of Ideas. Burning Man organizers were happy to see the competition happen, but have yet to implement any of the designs.

There are the regulatory constraints, of course, but a bit of out-of-the-box thinking would be nice, says Brian McConnell, who organized the competition. If you go once its kind of overwhelming and interesting, but then it becomes a familiar place, he says. What if each year you went it would be a very different plan? A completely new city? And what lessons about creating novel spaces could all those Burners take home to their everyday cities?
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The protest Saturday in Moscow followed a series of measures clamping down on internet use (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV) (AFP)

Moscow (AFP) - About 1,000 Russians braved pouring rain in Moscow on Saturday to demonstrate against the government's moves to tighten controls on internet use, with police arresting about a dozen protesters.

Shouting slogans such as "Russia will be free" and "Russia without censorship", the protesters were escorted by several police officers, in a march authorised by local authorities.

Several were also marching in support of Khudoberdi Nurmatov, a reporter for the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, who faces deportation back to Uzbekistan over allegedly violating immigration laws.

Some of those were arrested, according to OVD-Info, a rights group that monitors detentions of activists, while an AFP photographer saw two protesters carrying rainbow flags detained.

In July, Russia's parliament voted to outlaw web tools that let internet users sidestep official bans of certain websites.

It allows telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor to compile a list of so-called anonymiser services and prohibit any that fail to respect the bans, while also requiring users of online messaging services to identify themselves with a telephone number.

"Innovation and technology will win! We will defend our freedoms!" one protester said, according to a broadcast of the march on YouTube.

Russia's opposition groups rely heavily on the internet to make up for their lack of access to the mainstream media.

But the Russian authorities have been clamping down on such online services, citing security concerns.

In June, Russian officials threatened to ban the Telegram messaging app after the FSB security service said it had been used by the attackers responsible for the deadly Saint Petersburg metro bombing in April.
In the weeks leading up to the Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist march that left one counterprotestor dead, organizers discussed inserting screws into flagpoles to be used as potential weapons and concealing firearms in the case of a gunfight, according to chatroom logs. In the days after the march, participants in the same chatroom created a meme from a photo of a car that struck and killed Heather Heyer, describing the incident as Back to the Fhurer.

Unicorn Riot

The chatroom transcripts and a related audio recording offer a new window into the mind set of march organizers before and after the August 12 rally. They were obtained and disclosed by Unicorn Riot, which describes itself as a media collective focusing on dynamic social struggles. Lawyers say the discussions could be useful in the criminal case against James Alex Fields Jr., accused of driving the car that killed Heyer, or civil lawsuits filed by people injured in the confrontation.

Unicorn Riot has so far published roughly 1,000 screenshots of chats, and the recording, conducted through the app Discord, from a source. A march organizer says the documents he has seen appear to be authentic. Transcripts show participants openly planning violence while organizers instruct them to obey the law. Participants on one call debated when it would be permissible to use riot shields as weapons. Some screaming little Latina bitch comes at you and knocks your teeth on your riot shield, that means you hit her, and youre going to get in trouble for the weapons, one participant says.

Unicorn Riot

Timothy Litzenburg represents two women injured in the melee who last week sued 28 groups and individuals, including the alleged organizers of the Unite the Right march. He says the documents could be the crux of the case, because they show a little flavor of how [organizers] totally intended on violence and mayhem.

The documents published by Unicorn Riot focus on months of chat logs from Charlottesville 2.0, a private server inside Discord operated by far-right provocateurs Jason Kessler and Eli Mosley, among others. Mosley, a self-described alt-right activist, says in an interview that the few documents and recordings highlighted on Unicorn Riots website appear authentic, but he does not trust the outlet. Mosley says the documents and recording show him repeatedly urging nonviolence; he says he banned 80 people from the Charlottesville server, some for advocating violence.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE,VA-AUG11:Chanting White lives matter! You will not replace us! and Jews will not replace us! several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists carrying torches marched in a parade through the University of Virginia campus last night.Beginning a little after 9:30 p.m., the march lasted 15 to 20 minutes before ending in skirmishing when the marchers were met by a small group of counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, the universitys founder. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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On the recording, Mosley says, Going up to, like, MSNBC and them interviewing you and you saying like, Yeah, I actually think we should kill every nonwhite on the planet  like, again, I dont necessarily like have an issue with listening to that on a podcast or whatever, but if you are gonna do something like that, even if its your true belief, thats not the objective of this rally.

Mosley says he is careful to hew to the Supreme Courts ruling in Brandenburg vs. Ohio, a landmark 1968 case that said the government cannot punish even hateful speech unless it incites imminent lawless action. Allen Lichtenstein, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says the ensuing violence would have to happen more or less immediately. Mosley says his political opponents get hysterical over the "dark humor" of the alt-right. The idea that little tractor meme is somehow a call to run people over is ridiculous, he says. In a courtroom, however, judges or juries may take a different view of such statements.

Litzenburg, the lawyer for the women injured at the protest, says the organizers warnings against violence may not protect them legally. Saying yall be good now wink wink I dont think washes your hands of violence in this case, he says. Potential claims by organizers that they acted in self-defense could be undercut by chatroom transcripts that show they were waiting and hoping for [an action] that will justifiably trigger a violent response, says Jeffrey Douglas, a board member of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

Unicorn Riot

Douglas says the documents could be useful for officials in other cities who want to regulate or ban similar marches. If you say, Look, there could be problems, we dont want problems, thats never going to be enough for the court to restrict otherwise protected speech, Douglas says. But if the government can show a well-founded basis that there was not just a likelihood of conflict but sort of preparation for illegal activity, then the courts are more likely to impose restrictions.

Discord allows users to create private, invitation-only group chat rooms, which Discord calls servers, that are not indexed or searchable. The company, which is also popular with gamers, has raised more than $100 million from top-tier venture capital firms like Benchmark, Greylock, and Accel. But its privacy and anonymity features became a draw for far-right groups, including those that organized the Charlottesville march. Since Heyers death, Discord expelled several extremist groups.

The footage and imagery from Charlottesville---gun-toting militants, anti-Semitic chants, melees in the street---has catalyzed opposition to neo-fascists and white nationalists, raising the prospect of future violence.

You put together a situation where you have Nazis and guns and torchlight parades saying Sieg heil, and people who are convinced the only way to stop that is direct action, youve got a recipe for trouble, says Lichtenstein, the former ACLU of Nevada lawyer. He notes that it is legal to openly carry a firearm in Virginia, raising tough questions for courts. What should be the rule as it relates to First Amendment protected demonstrations where legally carried firearms are there?"
-Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya is reported to have been involved in an accident

-The incident occurred as the lawmaker journeyed to Cape Coast to participate in yesterdays NPP Delegates Conference

-No casualties were recorded

Click here for all the latest news in Ghana

The Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo was purportedly embroiled in a car accident yesterday on her way to Cape Coast.

Sarah Adwoa Safo, Dome-Kwabenya MP

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It was reported that on August 26, the legislator was travelling to join her party faithful to mark the annual Delegates Conference in Cape Coast when an Opel Astra Salon car veered into the path of the Member of Parliaments car.

It is reported that the driver of the MPs Lexus Cross Country Automobile maneuvered out of the way but did not manage to make a clean shave as the bumber and headlights got damaged from the collision.

READ ALSO: Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams recounts horrific incident leading to the loss of his fingers

However, the driver of the Opel Astra vehicle, lost control and ended up in a ditch.

Reports that have emerged from the scene of the incident indicate that all the parties involved in the accident escape unharmed.

The vehicle reported to have been involved in the accident

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The Dome-Kwabenya MP came under a barrage of attacks when it was reported that she was taking credit for a project that was supposed to be credited to former president John Dramani Mahama. The lawmaker cleared the air on the matter and credit was given to whom it was due on the matter.

The lawmaker is also the Minister of State in charge of procurement in the current Akufo-Addo-led administration.

YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident?

Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook page, or contact us via info@yen.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 20:20:59|Editor: Lu Hui

Sacrificial bulls are seen at a livestock market ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival in Quetta, Pakistan, on Aug. 27, 2017. Muslims across the world are preparing to celebrate the annual festival of Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice. (Xinhua/Irfan)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:22:14|Editor: ying

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YANGON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Six family members have been killed by extremist terrorists in northern Rakhine state as they fled fighting on Sunday morning, according to a release of the information committee of the State Counselor's office.

A total of 12 people ran into a district court building under construction and were shot by terrorists already inside, the release said.

Six family members including three children died on the spot and two other women were seriously injured.

Four other children managed to escape and reached a school camp.

Earlier in the day, six civilians including some village heads and a child had also been killed in Maungtaw township, the release added.

Violence erupted on Friday in the state as insurgents attacked government security forces, sending civilians flee.

According to the release, terrorists also ambushed a police convoy with machetes and tried to attack security forces, but were repelled.

Security forces have been reinforced to fight the terrorists, the release said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:27:17|Editor: ying

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SHANGHAI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Over 140 items, including 83 antiques and about 60 replicas, are on exhibition in the Shanghai Lu Xun museum, showing the late literary master's friendship with over 100 foreigners.

Lu Xun is the pen name of Zhou Shuren (1881-1936). His works, including "The True Story of Ah Q" and "A Madman's Diary," put him the league of leading Chinese writers that ushered Chinese literature into the modern era.

During his stay in Shanghai from 1927 to 1936, the writer maintained close contact with many foreign people, including American journalist Edgar Snow, Japanese social activist Uchiyama Kanzo and Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.

The items on display, including items with Lu Xun's handwriting and many precious photos, showcases the writer's effort to encourage communication between China and other countries through art and literature.

The exhibition started last week and will last until November 20.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:37:20|Editor: Song Lifang

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel signed a deal to buy additional 17 stealth F-35 U.S.-made fighter jets, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The purchase was part of a larger deal to buy a total of 50 F-35 planes, the first of which arrived in Israel in December.

The deal was signed over the weekend in the United States, the statement said, following a cabinet decision from November 2016, which approved the purchase.

The acquisition is part of Israel's plan to replace its fleet of F-16 fighter jets with 50 new F-35, citing a need to ensure its military's qualitative edge in the region.

Currently, the Air Force has five F-35s, all are amidst "absorption process" and are expected to become operational by the end of 2017, according to the military.

The Defense Ministry did not specify the exact cost of the planes but said that in the recent deal, the price of the jets went under 100 million U.S. dollars per plane for the first time.

The Ministry said that due to the lower price, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will consider buying more planes, expanding the fleet from two squadrons, as currently planned, to three squadrons.

In 2011, Israel and Washington signed a Memorandum of Understandings, in which the U.S. Administration committed to enabling Israel to buy 75 F-35s.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman praised the deal as "a significant and strategic addition of strength to the Air Force."

"The F-35 squadrons are the pinnacle of technology and will assist the IDF and air force in meeting the many security challenges Israel faces head-on. They are a central aspect of protecting the safety of the people of Israel along the country's borders and even away from them," he said in a statement.

The high-tech fighter bombers have stealth capability that makes it nearly invisible to radars and can carry an increased number of bombs.

The aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., was criticized in the U.S. Congress over its costs and alleged engineering flaws.
Ibrahim Osman, representative of the scholarship winners, delivers his speech during the farewell ceremony in Nairobi, Aug. 24, 2017. A ceremony was held at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Thursday to bid farewell to 140 Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

NAIROBI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ibrahim Osman was exposed to the vagaries of life at a tender age, having been born in the semi-arid Mandera County where natural disasters and inter-communal hostilities over grazing land and water points are the norm.

The 18-year-old son of an elderly pastoralist from northern Kenya was determined to pursue formal education despite myriad obstacles, aware that it could open new opportunities in future.

Osman was among 140 Kenyan youth who benefited from this year's scholarships funded by the Chinese government to pursue elite disciplines like law, medicine and engineering in the Asian giant's leading universities.

Speaking to Xinhua at a pre-departure ceremony for beneficiaries of China-funded scholarships on Thursday, Osman was upbeat a degree in clinical medicine will transform his life and that of communities in the remote corners of northern Kenya.

"As a son of a cattle herder, I'm accustomed to life's drudgeries hence my determination to study hard in school and achieve my childhood dream of becoming a doctor. The opportunity to study in China is golden and will have a positive bearing in my future and that of my community," Osman said.

He graduated from high school last year and was among top scorers in national exams and was alerted by a mutual friend to apply for a scholarship funded by the Chinese government early this year.

"The thought of being selected for the Chinese government scholarship program sounded like a mirage in the beginning since I had minimal interaction with the rest of the world," said Osman.

He vowed to utilize his study tour in China to gain insight on a rich culture while acquiring knowledge on the latest discoveries in medicine.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa delivers a speech during a ceremony to bid farewell to Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China, in Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 24, 2017. A ceremony was held at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Thursday to bid farewell to 140 Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

At the same time, Osman said he will relocate back to Kenya after completing his under-graduate degree in clinical medicine and contribute to the transformation of health sector in the country.

"More importantly, I look forward to providing badly-needed health services in my locality where poverty, broken infrastructure, insecurity and harsh terrain have conspired to worsen the disease burden," Osman said.

Kenyan youth who benefited from this year's China-funded scholarships will start their under-graduate and post-graduate degree courses soon.

They were selected through a competitive process and will in future join the rank of highly skilled professionals the East African Nation is counting on to power its industrial progress.

Wamuca Kimani, a 24-year-old law graduate in a local private university was delighted to secure a scholarship to study for a master degree in international law at Xiamen University in East China's Fujian province.

The ambitious youth has always dreamt of a career in diplomacy or international commerce and hopes that an opportunity to study in China will bring him nearer to the goal.

"I was elated upon learning that I had been selected to study in China for a masters in international law under a fully funded government scholarship scheme. My parents and siblings too are excited about this new milestone," Kimani told Xinhua.

Her longtime friend, Vanessa Atieno was also excited by the prospect of joining Beijing-based Communication University of China where she will pursue a post-graduate degree in communications.

The 23-year-old daughter of middle class urban professionals intends to utilize her study tour in China to forge long-term friendships, improve proficiency in spoken mandarin and sample globally acclaimed cuisine in her new abode.

"Like everyone else, am delighted to join a prestigious university in China and pursue a career that I have always cherished since childhood. I hope to land a job in an international media agency upon finishing the master degree," said Atieno.

Participants pose for photos after a ceremony to bid farewell to Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China, in Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 24, 2017. A ceremony was held at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Thursday to bid farewell to 140 Kenyan students who have received scholarships to study in China. (Xinhua/Lyu Shuai)

Paul Muisyo, a 36-year-old government worker, likened the opportunity to study in China for a masters degree program in business administration to a leap into a bright new dawn.

"Given my humble background, it would have been unimaginable that one day I would board a plane and head to a foreign land for further studies. The Chinese government scholarship will fulfill my long-cherished dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur," said Muisyo.

The Chinese government has been offering annual scholarship to Kenyan youth to pursue courses of their choice since the two countries formalized diplomatic ties decades ago.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa disclosed that Beijing has so far provided about 1,000 government scholarships to Kenyan students in a bid to upgrade their skills and enhance their ability to survive in a fiercely competitive job market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 19:47:22|Editor: Song Lifang

Palestinians wait for travel permits to cross into Egypt through the Rafah crossing point, in the southern Gaza Strip on Aug. 27, 2017. Egypt on Sunday temporarily opened Rafah crossing point on its borders with Gaza Strip for two days in both directions to enable humanitarian cases of patients and university students to cross the borders into Egypt, and also to enable hundreds of Palestinians stranded in Egypt. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)

GAZA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Sunday temporarily opened Rafah crossing point on its borders with Gaza Strip for two days in both directions, local source said.

"It's the second time Egypt temporarily opens the only key crossing point with the Gaza Strip within the last couple of weeks," it said.

The first time Egypt opened the crossing point of Rafah was ten days ago to enable around 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims from the salient to head to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. The crossing remained close since March this year.

The crossing will be open for two days to enable humanitarian cases of patients and university students to cross the borders into Egypt and also to enable hundreds of Palestinians stranded in Egypt, Hamas said in the statement.

The temporary reopening of the crossing was part of understanding reached in June between Hamas movement and Egyptian security intelligence to ease the hard living situation in the enclave that is under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 20:11:43|Editor: ying

Newlyweds pose for a photo during a group wedding ceremony of the Qiang ethnic minority in Ningqiang County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Aug. 27, 2017. Ningqiang County held a group wedding ceremony for 7 couples on Sunday to greet the upcoming Qixi festival, or Chinese Valentine's Day, which falls on Aug. 28 this year. (Xinhua/Li Dehua)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 20:17:34|Editor: Song Lifang

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VIENTIANE, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government will employ only as many new staff as needed to fill the vacancies created by retiring officials, while also attempting to ensure that civil servants are more productive, the government has decided at a weekend meeting.

Consensus on the recruitment policy for 2018 was reached at the government's monthly meeting held on Thursday and Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Lao state-run media Vientiane Times reported on Sunday.

"The meeting agreed that in 2018 the number of new hires will correspond to the number of officials who retire," a statement released by the meeting said.

According to a government report, Laos currently has more than 183,000 civil servants. This equates to 2.8 percent of the total population.

More than 26,000 civil servants are employed at the central level of the government, 36,000 at the provincial level, and some 120,000 at district level.

The number of new recruits taken on next year will be determined by Prime Minister's Decision. The meeting called on all sectors at the central and local levels to review the positions currently held by officials, identifying those that are necessary and those that are not. This is aimed at producing officials who are fully employed and can do multi tasks.

The government stressed that departments at all levels should not expand further, as a way of making the civil service more effective and less wasteful.

The monthly meeting participants also discussed drafts of three decrees concerning national holidays, criteria for graduation from poverty and progress in development, and allowances for poor and disadvantaged primary school children. All of the decrees were approved in principle.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 20:47:39|Editor: ying

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BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has stepped up a crackdown on state-owned enterprises (SOE) debt to prevent systemic financial risks infecting the broader economy.

A recent State Council meeting agreed the work would be a priority in the ongoing campaign to bring down debt levels of SOEs administered by the central government, amid improving corporate performance.

Central SOEs have made headway in cutting outdated capacity, reining in debt risks and improving competitiveness. Given the favorable conditions, more effort is needed to cut the debt level of SOEs and a guideline will be formulated, according to the meeting.

China's non-financial SOEs have a high rate of leverage. Data from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed that the leverage ratios of financial institutions and non-financial institutions were 21 percent and 156 percent respectively at the end of 2015. The Economic Information Daily reported earlier that SOEs were responsible for about 60 percent of China's corporate debt.

At the recent National Financial Work Conference, the central government said deleveraging at SOEs was of the utmost importance and required that SOEs give priority to deleveraging and speed up the phasing out of debt-laden "zombie enterprises."

To reduce the leverage ratio, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has encouraged enterprises to optimize capital structure via public offerings on the stock market, and supported efforts in asset securitization, said Shen Ying, SASAC chief accountant.

As an important means to reduce SOE leverage, debt-to-equity swaps have been accelerated, allowing companies with long-term potential to exchange their debt for stocks. By the end of June, 12 central SOEs had signed debt-to-equity swaps agreements, she added.

Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of China, said that currently debt-to-equity swaps had mainly been introduced in sectors such as coal, iron and steel manufacturing.

They should expand to more heavily-indebted industries and real economy sectors with competitive product and good market prospects, he said.

According to the State Council meeting, debt-to-equity swaps will be pushed forward, with state investment funds encouraged to participate in the process. Central SOEs should speed up the pace of mergers and acquisitions.

Dong Ximiao said mergers and acquisitions were important ways to rein in SOE debt, and should go hand in hand with efforts in cutting outdated capacity.

Wu Qi, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said a breakthrough should be made in sectors with overcapacity, and that technological innovation should play a role in deleveraging as it helped improve corporate strength.

Combined profits of central SOEs rallied 16.4 percent year on year in the first seven months, in contrast with a 3.7 percent drop in the same period of 2016.

The debt-to-asset ratio edged down 0.2 percentage points from the beginning of the year. China's GDP expanded by 6.9 percent in the second quarter, flat from the first quarter but beating market expectations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 20:57:43|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Sunday approved to allow Islamic State (IS) militants to withdraw from the western Qalamoun region toward the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian army declared on Sunday its approval to allow Islamic State (IS) militants to withdraw from the western Qalamoun region toward the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, following their surrender to the military forces and Hezbollah, SANA said.

In a short military statement, the army said the approval comes after the defeat of IS in Qalamoun, where the terror-designated group was besieged by the army and Hezbollah fighters.

Earlier in the day, local media said the Syrian army and the allied Hezbollah group declared a ceasefire in the Qalamoun region, following the IS group's surrender after intense battles.

The military operation ended at 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) in the badlands of Qara in the Qalamoun region in Syria and the adjacent barrens of al-Qaa on the Lebanese side of the border, after the IS militants in that mountainous region declared their surrender to Hezbollah overnight, said the report.

Meanwhile, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported that the IS militants surrendered as the Hezbollah fighters were closing in on the Halimet Qara mountain in the rugged Qalamoun region.

IS negotiated with Hezbollah on two points, the first is the IS militants demand to leave with their families to their stronghold in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour in Syria, and in turn, they will reveal the destiny of around nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by IS on the Lebanese side of the borders in 2014.

Some reports suggested that the IS militants had already killed the Lebanese soldiers, as reports said Hezbollah was told by IS about their destiny, but the Shiite group will leave the declaration about the fate of the soldiers to the Lebanese army.

The terror-labeled group has revealed to Hezbollah the location of the bodies of four Hezbollah fighters who were killed in the Qalamoun battle.

On Aug. 19, Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched their offensive on IS positions in the barrens of Qara and Jarajir in the western Qalamoun region, in tandem with a military operation by the Lebanese army on IS on the Lebanese side of the border to end the terror-designated group's presence on the borderline between Syria and Lebanon.

The operation came just a couple of weeks after Hezbollah and the Syrian army dislodged the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front from areas in western Qalamoun and the adjacent Juroud Arsal barrens on the Lebanese side of the border.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:07:46|Editor: Song Lifang

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement on Sunday that he ruled out the release of Palestinian attackers jailed in Israel in exchange for Israeli citizens and bodies of soldiers.

Liberman said the return of Israeli citizens and bodies of soldiers continues to be a top priority.

"We cannot repeat the mistake of the Shalit deal," Lieberman said, referring to the 2011 swap deal with Hamas, in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit.

"1,027 terrorists were released including murderers and their activators such as Mahmoud Kawassmeh, who was released to the Gaza Strip and funded the kidnapping and murder of three youths, and Yahya Sanwar, who leads Hamas in Gaza.

Sanwar has now made stringent demands which cannot enable any kind of deal," Liberman said.

"It is important to draw up definitive guidelines for the state and its representatives and to stand fast before our enemies and emphasize to them that we have no intention of compromising Israel's security," he said.

Soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin were killed in Israel's offensive in Gaza in 2014. Their bodies are believed by Israel to be held by Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.

Israel believes that two Israeli civilians, Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have voluntarily crossed into Gaza, are also being held there.

Hamas has officially denied holding Mengistu.

Last week, Lotan handed his resignation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. No reason for the move was publicly cited.

Efforts to draft a deal through different brokers over the past years have yet to yield any results.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:17:51|Editor: ying

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GUANGZHOU, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- With a long whistle, a freight train coded X8426 and loaded with electronic products, garment and machinery left southern China's city of Guangzhou Saturday morning, heading for Vorsino, Kaluzhskaya Oblast in Russia.

The Guangzhou-Russia freight train was inaugurated a year ago.

Over the past year, a total of 43 trains have run on the route, delivering more than 17,000 tonnes of products, worth 236 million U.S. dollars, from Guangzhou to Russia.

It takes the train 15 to 18 days to reach Vorsino, about 10 days less than the sea-rail transport service, and 25 days less than a ship. The costs are just one-third of air transportation.

"Our train runs once per week and were fully loaded from March this year, one of the highest loading rates among all China-Europe routes," said Huang Zhongxi, general manager of Guangzhou Dashunfa Logistics, the train operator.

Kong Zhi, from Guangzhou customs, said they had set up a window for China-Europe trains and had significantly raised the clearance efficiency.

More than 20 Chinese cities now run trains to central Asia and Europe.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:22:53|Editor: Song Lifang

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BAKU, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Six people were injured in a fire outbreak which caused multiple explosions at an ammunition depot of the Azerbaijani military on Sunday, said a statement released by the country's defense ministry.

Six sustained minor injuries, while people in the military unit have been evacuated and temporarily resettled in tents.

It didn't disclose the location of incident. According to local news websites, the fire broke out in a military unit in Azerbaijan's Khizi region, 104 km north of the capital city of Baku.

A special commission has been set up to determine the cause of the incident and implement necessary security measures.

According to local media reports, motorway linking Baku with the country's Guba region close to Russia was shut off in the wake of the incident.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:27:58|Editor: Song Lifang

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CAIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is discussing with Saudi firms to increase their investments in the North African country, including the 3-billion-U.S. dollar investment by Al Sharbatly Group, state news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

Egypt's Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr met Sunday with Saudi investors Sheikh Abdel Rahman al Sharbatly and Sheikh Fahd Al Shobokshy to discuss means to increase their investments in Egypt.

Implemented in cooperation with Al Shobokshy, Al Sharbatly Group's investment in Egypt are currently estimated at about 3 billion dollars.

The group intends to invest an additional 2 billion dollars to expand two projects by its "Golden Coast" Company (GOCO) in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, as well as open the second production line of the South Valley Cement Company, and set up new real estate projects.

Nasr said that Egypt welcomes all investors who seek to expand their business in the country.

The government has taken a series of measures to facilitate the process in light of a decision made by the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council to raise the ceiling of investments to 51 billion dollars, she added.

During the meeting, Nasr said that the new investment law offers incentives for businessmen to set up projects in most-in-need areas, noting that a new investment map is being drawn to pinpoint more than 600 investment opportunities across Egypt.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:27:59|Editor: Song Lifang

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TOKYO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter belonging to Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) crashed during a drill Saturday night, leaving three crew members missing.

The SH-60J patrol helicopter lost contact at around 10:50 p.m. local time (1350 GMT) on Saturday during a landing and takeoff drill on a destroyer off Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.

Four people were on board the helicopter. One of them was rescued some 40 minutes after the incident, and the MSDF and Japan Coast Guard are still searching for the other three, according to the MSDF.

Japan's new Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Sunday that parts of the wreckage of the helicopter had been found around the crash area.

He also said that all helicopters of the same type have been grounded to ensure safety.

Shingo Mimura, governor of Aomori prefecture, said that the crash was "extremely regrettable" and could increase public distrust in the safety management of the SDF.

He urged the MSDF to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and to prevent similar incidents from happening.

The incident happened just 10 days after a MSDF CH101 helicopter flipped over at the Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi prefecture on Aug. 17, leaving four people on board injured.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 21:38:05|Editor: Song Lifang

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Bohuslav Sobotka on Sunday met with Iraqi leaders during his official visit to Iraq over bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields.

A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said that Abadi "praised the support of the Czech Republic to Iraq in its fighting against terrorism and Czech's assistance in the fields of humanitarian, medical, training and aviation."

Abadi also said that the Iraqi forces are fighting battles to liberate the city of Tal Afar and surrounding areas, asserting that the troops have liberated most of Tal Afar's areas, according to the statement.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) declared full liberation of the city of Tal Afar from the terrorist Islamic State (IS) group, and that the troops are pushing to liberate the town of Ayadhiyah, some 11 km north of Tal Afar.

Abadi also warned of acts of sabotage by IS militants group after they failed to confront the Iraqi forces in the battlefields, according to the statement.

For his part, Sobotka congratulated Iraq for the victories over IS militant group, confirming his country's support to Iraq in the war on terrorism, the statement added.

Another statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sobotka met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the two sides discussed bilateral relations and the war against IS group.

"Everyone stood with us either through the international coalition or outside the coalition, such as Iran, Russia and China," the statement quoted Jaafari as saying.

Jaafari called on the world countries to continue support Iraq and "contribute to the reconstruction of the infrastructure of its cities, and to help the return of families to their homes," the statement said.

Sobotka said that "one of the constants of our foreign policy is to stand by Iraq's side and support it in many areas, and we are pleased with the victories achieved in Iraq and will continue support you until the elimination of terrorism," according to the statement.

The Czech Prime Minister arrived in Baghdad on Saturday night on an official visit to Iraq. Czech is one of the contributors to the international anti-IS coalition led by the United States that has carried out airstrikes against IS in Iraq and Syria, and provided military equipment, training to Iraqi forces.
Mohamed El Gohary, Chairman and CEO of Cairo for Investment and Development speaks during an interview with media at El Robbiki Leather City in Badr City, east of Cairo, Egypt, August 14, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

CAIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is discussing with Saudi firms to increase their investments in the North African country, including the 3-billion-U.S. dollar investment by Al Sharbatly Group, state news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

Egypt's Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr met Sunday with Saudi investors Sheikh Abdel Rahman al Sharbatly and Sheikh Fahd Al Shobokshy to discuss means to increase their investments in Egypt.

Implemented in cooperation with Al Shobokshy, Al Sharbatly Group's investment in Egypt are currently estimated at about 3 billion dollars.

The group intends to invest an additional 2 billion dollars to expand two projects by its "Golden Coast" Company (GOCO) in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, as well as open the second production line of the South Valley Cement Company, and set up new real estate projects.

Nasr said that Egypt welcomes all investors who seek to expand their business in the country.

The government has taken a series of measures to facilitate the process in light of a decision made by the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council to raise the ceiling of investments to 51 billion dollars, she added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:03:12|Editor: Song Lifang

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by Maria Spiliopoulou, Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Herakleidon museum opposite the Acropolis hill offered this summer to visitors a unique journey to Greek seafaring from antiquity to modern times, showcasing through models of ships and nautical instruments Greeks' achievements in a field which is regarded as an integral part of their identity.

As the curtain of the exhibition "Voyage: Greek shipbuilding and seafaring" falls this week in Athens, the museum prepares to host another significant exhibition of ancient Chinese technology in autumn, Eleni Nomikou, the museum's director told Xinhua.

"Seafaring has formed Greeks' character. The spirit of Ulysses still exists in Greeks today. Shipping was and still remains their basic activity. The sea and shipping in particular offer Greeks wealth, vision and a future," Nomikou said.

"Greek ships did not carry only products, but also knowledge and culture throughout our history. Thanks to these vessels Greeks travelled the world, enriched their knowledge and used it to create on this land and give birth to the Greek civilization," she stressed.

A total of 35 handmade wooden models of vessels, complemented with works of art, maps, drawings and video projections narrate the history of Greek seafaring from prehistoric times to the middle of the 20th century.

Dimitris Maras, a mechanical engineer and model shipbuilder, who has studied in depth the shipbuilding history of Greece, as well as the construction of ship models over the past three decades, created the replicas with authentic materials, based on naval architectural drawings, following traditional methods, Nomikou explained.

Each section of the exhibition which was held under the auspices of the Hellenic Navy General Staff presents an important stage in the history of Greek seafaring.

The model of a vessel of the Minoan civilization which flourished from 2600 to 1100 BC, was built based on a mural unearthed on Santorini island, while for the replica of the early 19th century frigate "Hellas" Maras went through naval architectural designs of her sister ship, the US Navy's frigate USS Hudson.

The frigate "Hellas" was built in the U.S., arrived in Greece in 1826 and played a decisive role during the last years of the War of Independence against the Turks, as well as the steamship "Karteria" whose model was also put on display.

"Karteria", bought from Britain in 1825, was the first steamship of the Greek fleet and is considered the first steamship worldwide to have engaged in sea battles.

Christos Papamichalis was among the visitors who took a closer look at the replicas last week.

"I am a pensioner and I always liked creating ship models. Currently I am building small models of ships with driftwood and I wanted to check out the techniques used, how he makes the anchors, the ropes, the masts and the sails," he told Xinhua.

Among the highlights of the exhibition was also an interactive model of the Antikythera Mechanism, a complicated device dating back to the 2nd- 1st century BC which was recovered in 1901 from a wreck off the island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea.

During the exhibition visitors had the chance to observe the model of this ancient Greek analogue computer, which was created by Markos Skoulatos, a Physics expert, in operation.

As the Voyage exhibition is set to travel to Cyprus and the US, Herakleidon museum is getting ready to welcome for first time in Athens a remarkable exhibition of the technological and scientific achievements of the ancient Chinese civilization.

"The museum has signed a significant agreement with Beijing's China Museum of Science and Technology (CSTM) for the exchange of two exhibitions of ancient technology," Nomikou said.

"Ancient Greek technology will travel to China in October this year, while ancient Chinese technology will be presented in Herakleidon museum in less than a month. It will stay here for about 8 months giving the unique opportunity to Athenians, and not only Athenians, to see the achievements of Chinese people from antiquity to today in the fields of technology and science," she explained.

The deal was sealed as the two countries celebrate in 2017 the China-Greece Cultural Exchanges and Cultural Industry Cooperation Year as part of efforts to further enhance bilateral ties.

Through models and demonstrations over the next few months at Herakleidon museum visitors will have the opportunity to get acquainted with pioneering Chinese inventions covering a broad scientific spectrum from astronomy, mechanical engineering and seismography to papermaking, printing and weaving techniques.

In the meantime, CSTM will host an exhibition which will include reproductions of ancient Greek ships, metalcraft machinery, automation models and measuring instruments.

"The two great ancient civilizations, the Chinese and Greek, meet each other through their differences. It is so exciting when one discovers how two different civilizations, two different ways of thinking which progressed in parallel and did not meet essentially in antiquity, how through all this show man's effort to create and develop when facing the same issues," Nomikou noted.

The exhibition will also include a section on Chinese seafaring. "We will see their efforts in shipbuilding, how different were their vessels compared to the ships constructed by other people and how close they were regarding the key point: man's thirst to travel. This is eventually the common element we see regardless of the different ways and techniques used," Nomikou underlined.

Herakleidon Museum, founded by Paul and Anna- Belinda Firos, has been bringing art, education, and culture to the general public since 2004, providing educational programs for students and adults, as well as exhibitions of art and popularized science.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:03:13|Editor: Song Lifang

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Nearly two weeks ago, on August 13, a day after the deadly violence in Charlottesville in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia, it was said that a far-right group would come to this city on the U.S. West Coast.

At the time, at the Civic Center Plaza in front of San Francisco's historical City Hall, hundreds of residents gathered to show solidarity with Charlottesville, where a white nationalist rally turned violent, resulting in three deaths and the injury of dozens.

There were words then that the Patriot Prayer group would come to town for a rally at Crissy Field, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in this Northern California city.

The result, on Saturday, was that dozens of counter-protesters showed up at Crissy Field, where the Patriot Prayer rally was initially planned; thousands moved into Alamo Square Park, where the group said it would hold a news conference; and another thousands at Civic Center Plaza, for a "Peace, Love and Understanding" rally.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area actually issued permits for five events on Saturday, including one for Patriot Prayer's "free speech rally," and four others presumably for those that were against it.

On Friday afternoon, Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer, announced together with three other organizers in a Facebook Live broadcast that he would call off the rally, as it "seems like a setup," or "a trap," and "doesn't seem safe."

While blaming elected officials such as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, U.S. House of Representative member Nancy Pelosi and media for mislabeling the group as promoting white supremacy and hatred, Gibson said they would hold a news conference on Saturday at Alamo Square Park, to "tell truth."

However, Gibson never came.

Instead, he went to Pacifica, a city 13 miles, or 21 kilometers, to its south.

There, he did have a news conference, blaming elected officials again for going against his group and for emphasizing its possibility to bring in white nationalists for a violent confrontation with San Franciscans.

Patriot Prayer, according to their Facebook page, is based in Portland, the biggest city of Oregon.

At the Civic Center Plaza, the crowd started to build around noon. At 1:20 p.m., when the news broke out that the Patriot Prayer news conference scheduled for 2:00 p.m. was moving out of the town, people cheered and laughed.

The event was supposed to be speeches and songs, but ended up with songs and music.

The shadow of Charlottesville was subtle, with a counter-protester holding a sign that reads "Heather Sent Me," referring to Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal killed in the Charlottesville rally when a man drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters

Another sign showed Heyer's picture and her mother's words: "Hate only engenders more hate, and there's no purpose in hate."

For five hours, the music was loud and the crowd was cheerful. Unlike most other rallies, there was hardly any chants. But the crowd did pledge at the end: "No Hate in San Francisco."

At its height, the rally attracted an estimated 20,000 people, including counter-protesters from Alamo Square Park.

Mayor Lee issued a statement at end of the day, saying, "Today, the people of San Francisco, once again, peacefully united to reject hate and violence... Throughout our city, the theme of love and compassion loudly dominated the rhetoric of hate and violence."

Gibson, of Patriot Prayer, reportedly went to the Civic Center Plaza, only after the "Peace, Love and Understanding" rally ended.

On the Facebook social media platform, the 33-year-old acknowledged in a live broadcast Saturday that "today has been a crazy day."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:08:16|Editor: ying

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GUIYANG, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- In southwest China's Guizhou Province, home to national liquor Moutai, alcohol of any kind is set to be banned at the dinner tables of officials during work time to improve official's work style.

The strict ban, which takes effect on Sept. 1, applies to the Party and government departments, judicial organs and local state-owned companies. Liquor, red wine, beer and other drinks containing alcohol are all to be prohibited during official activities, except for important foreign or investment promotion occasions, which will require approval to serve liquor.

Discipline staff will be organized to check the implementation of the ban, and violators will be punished seriously, according to Zhang Ping, deputy head of Guizhou Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China.

"The receptions are just simply taking meals, which do not affect everyone's work schedule," said Shi Qingchang, Communist Party chief of Baisuo township, Guizhou. "The ban cuts expenditure and protects our health."

In late 2013, as part of a frugality campaign the central authorities issued a rule to ban cigarettes and high-end liquor in working lunches. Ever since, stricter local alcohol bans have been formulated and put into force in provinces such as Heilongjiang, Jilin, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The local alcohol bans show the ruling party's resolve to improve work style on a law-based track, said Zheng Dongsheng, professor in Party building at Guizhou Provincial Party School.

Over the past four years, the work style of officials has been more practical and efficient, with formalism and bureaucratism falling, he added.

However, cases of flouting alcohol bans remain common, as seen in exposure by discipline inspection authorities.

In eastern China's Shandong Province, 533 people were punished for enjoying banquets using public funds from January to July, according to the provincial discipline inspection commission Wednesday.

Nineteen officials in central China's Hunan Province were dealt with for drinking alcohol or gambling on a working day in December, said discipline authorities in Louxing district, Loudi city, in July. Among the violators, township Party secretary Xie Guoying was removed from his post.

Though alcohol is a major way for people to show their hospitality, it easily leads to corruption and sometimes even the accidental deaths of officials due to drunkenness. Attending banquets can be a heavy burden for many officials.

"Alcohol bans not only address dinner table corruption, but also liberate public servants," said Guo Ruliang, a county official in eastern China's Anhui Province.

Banning alcohol in official activities can improve the image of officials, but eliminating such a lingering sickness is an arduous long-term task, Zheng said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:18:18|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua ) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Sunday appealed for 23.6 million U.S. dollars from now through to December this year to be able to continue meeting the food and nutritional needs of refugees in Tanzania.

The world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide said in a statement that it has been forced to reduce food rations for 320,000 refugees in Mtendeli, Nduta and Nyarugusu Camps in northwest Tanzania as a result of funding shortfalls.

WFP provides refugees, primarily from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with five food commodities of maize meal, pulses, super cereal, vegetable oil and salt.

"Due to funding shortages, all five commodities were reduced for the August distribution, reaching only 62 percent of the 2,100 required kilocalories which is the recommended daily calorie intake," said the statement.

"Without an immediate response from donors, further ration cuts will be necessary as food stocks are simply running out," said WFP Tanzania Country Representative Michael Dunford.

Dunford added: "While WFP appreciates the support received so far, we are urgently appealing to donors to quickly come to the aid of the refugees and provide additional funding so that we can return to full rations and avoid any prolonged negative impacts."

The statement said reducing rations result in far-reaching and potentially life-altering consequences for refugees.

Cutting the intake of kilocalories and nutritional support can lead to acute malnutrition and increased vulnerability to disease, it said.

In addition to the five food items, WFP also provides hot meals for refugees upon arrival, supplemental rations for pregnant and nursing women and food assistance to hospital in-patients and people living with HIV/AIDS, said the statement.

It added that hot meals for refugees entering the country and supplementary feeding programmes remain unaffected by the current ration reductions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:43:26|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama introduced Sunday the new government cabinet composed of 11 ministries and two ministers of state.

Rama made the announcement of new cabinet during the proceedings of the ruling Socialist Party (SP) National Assembly where he stressed that there would be a lower number of ministries and institutions.

According to PM, a smaller government means a greater cooperation with the party and the parliamentary group.

Unlike the media suggestions or expectations, there are only three new names in the government as the other ones are the former Minister of "Rama 1" government who gave their resignation of the political deal of May 18 between Rama and opposition leader Lulzim Basha to appoint six technical ministers from the opposition.

Now that Rama's party won a second mandate and the political deal with Basha ended, Premier Rama decided to reappoint the former ministers.

Thus, Ditmir Bushati was reappointed as Albania's foreign minister, Arben Ahmetaj is back again as minister of finance, Fatmir Xhafaj is minister of interior, Ogerta Manastirliu is again minister of health, Lidita Nikolla is back to her post as minister of education and sports, Olta Xhacka as minister of defense, Damian Gjiknuri is reappointed as minister of energy, Blendi Klosi has moved to the ministry of tourism and environment, while Niko Peleshi who held the post of deputy Prime Minister has been appointed as minister of agriculture.

New names included in government are: Senida Mesi who is the new deputy Prime Minister, Etilda Gjonaj is the new minister of justice, Sonila Qato is new minister of state on entrepreneurship and Pandeli Majko is the new minister of state on Diaspora.

After introducing his new team, Rama said that although he fully supported them, the confidence would still be conditioned by their performance.

Meanwhile, he also introduced Gramoz Ruci as the new Speaker of Parliament.

Ruci has been the head of SP parliamentary group.

Rama highlighted his government's commitment to remain faithful to the country and common people, unwavering political will to undertake reforms, courageous governance and facing any opposition to change as the main pillars of governance over the next 4 years.

Rama also affirmed his willingness for dialogue with the opposition, noting that he would adopt a pro-active conduct toward the opposition.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:43:29|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) - For 24-year-old Liu Feicheng, the upcoming Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, is a good reason to reunite with his girlfriend Mao Yuxin, who lives over 2,000 kilometers away from him.

Liu, a programmer in the southern China city of Shenzhen, flew to Beijing on Saturday to celebrate the festival, which falls on Monday, with Mao, who works in public relations in Beijing.

The day of romance has become a witness to the endeavor of many Chinese couples who are fighting for their dreams in different cities.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

"I have to fly back the day before Qixi because I have a report to finish," Liu said.

Liu and Mao have been in love since 2012 when they were sophomores at university in the southern city of Guangzhou. After graduating in 2016 they found jobs, and their tale of two cities began to unfold.

Liu said he went to Shenzhen because the company's goal resonated with his own, and it was the place to tap his potential to the fullest.

Born in the north, Mao chose Beijing because the city is close to her home and offered her the best job she could find.

"There were times when I was down but was too busy to tell her," Liu said. "I had to handle difficulties by myself sometimes."

They meet every other month. Liu believes the long-distance relationship has improved him; each time they meet, he is more confident, braver and optimistic.

MODERN MAGPIE BRIDGE

The 2,000-year-old Qixi festival originated from a folk tale where a fairy called Zhi Nyu married a mortal called Niu Lang. Shortly after the couple had two children, the Goddess of Heaven, who was against their marriage, disrupted their life, separating them by the Milky Way after they were sent into the heavens as two separate stars.

According to the story, a group of magpies felt sorry for the lovers and so flew up to heaven every year to form a bridge. It was through this bridge that the lovers reunited every year, but only for a single night.

As many couples are separated by work or study, social media and transport build a modern "Magpie bridge" to unite them in virtual space or face to face.

Wang Lin was dispatched to an air force base in northwest China's Gansu Province, nearly 1,500 kilometers away from his wife Pang Ran, who is a freelance interpreter in Beijing.

Despite distance, they maintain an intimate relationship.

"We chat on WeChat all the time if he isn't on duty, and we call each other two to three times a day," Pang said.

Pang's schedule is flexible enough for her to visit her husband for about two weeks each visit.

She is not expecting a surprise on Qixi and said a call was enough.

"He is not that romantic, and we both don't care too much about festivals like the Valentine's Day," she said.

BELIEF FOR THE FUTURE

For Liu and Mao, the Magpie Bridge will not be for long. They plan to be in the same city within two years.

Beijing and Shenzhen are good destinations for them. Liu can go to Beijing where Internet companies abound, while Mao prefers the southern climate of Shenzhen.

Liu said some of his friends are also experiencing long-distance love. Even though they may not necessarily meet their lovers on Qixi, they are all in good relationship and are independent, Liu said.

"A friend of mine will soon settle in Guangzhou, and his girlfriend will leave Shenzhen to live with him," Liu said.

Some people deem long-distance relationships a torture, but Pang sees it as part of her life.

"It is our choice and also the choice of many military spouses. As long as we love each other, it's not a big deal how far we are separated geographically," she said. "After all, we believe we will live together in the near future."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 22:58:34|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Abdul Haleem

KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- "My daughter has been suffering severe heart disease since her infancy, but I couldn't treat her because of intense economic problem," 45-year-old Mohammad told Xinhua.

A resident of Samangan province, Mohammad has taken his seven-year-old daughter, Marwa, to check with Chinese doctors. He said he was thankful to neighboring China for sending a medical team to Kabul.

In war-torn Afghanistan, most parents of children with severe heart diseases are unable to provide treatment to their beloved ones due to extreme poverty.

"I took my daughter to Balkh provincial hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif city some two months ago, but doctors there advised me to take her to Kabul for checkup," Mohammad said.

He whispered that he was very happy that Chinese medical team checked her daughter here in Kabul free of charge.

Before the Chinese medical team arrived, Afghans used to take their children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) to Germany and India with the support of the Afghan Red Crescent Society for treatment.

This is the first time that a Chinese medical team has visited Kabul to provide medical treatment to needy children suffering from heart diseases.

Zahra Faizi, mother of six-year-old girl Marwa Mirahmad, is another Afghan who has taken her child to see Chinese doctors.

"After almost two days of traveling from the western Herat city, I arrived in Kabul to meet the Chinese physicians and seek their assistance for the recovery of my child," Faizi told Xinhua in the hospital where she was visiting the Chinese medical team.

"We are poor and have no money. I want my daughter to be treated free of charge," she muttered.

She noted that all Afghans, especially the poor and needy parents, are thankful to China for sending the medical team to help ailing children in their country.

A 10-member team of medical practitioners from China arrived in Kabul recently to help children with severe heart diseases during its 10-day stay in Afghanistan.

Based in a local health center - the Kabul Royal Hospital, the team checks up to 50 children in every two days. It has also promised to send some children to China for further treatment if their conditions require.

Another man, Fazal Ahmad, has also expressed happiness at seeing Chinese doctors in Afghanistan, saying the presence of the Chinese medical team has raised hope in his heart that his daughter could recover.

"I have no money to afford medical treatment for my daughter Asia who is six. But now I am sure my daughter will get her health back with the support of Chinese doctors," Ahmad told Xinhua.

"The situation in Afghanistan and the poor condition of parents who are in dire need of medication for their ailing children have drawn the attention of China's Red Cross Society, which has decided to send a medical team to Afghanistan," Sun Shuopeng, head of the team, told Xinhua.

He added that his team had recently launched the "Angels Tour -- Belt and Road Humanitarian Rescue Afghanistan Action for Children with Severe Diseases" in the Kabul Royal Hospital.

Under the initiative, the Chinese Red Cross foreign aid medical team will take CHD children who are screened in accordance with surgical indications in batches to China to receive free surgical treatment, Sun said.

The Chinese Red Cross Foundation established the Belt and Road Fraternity Fund in February and is committed to optimizing the humanitarian service supply along the Belt and Road routes.

Screening for CHD children in Afghanistan is the beginning of a humanitarian rescue program by the fund.

Nearly 7,000 Afghan children with the CHD are waiting for urgent treatment, according to figures provided by the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

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| 2017-08-27 23:18:37|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian deputy governor along with five businessmen have been busted for being involved in corrupt activities including bribery, profiteering and looting public funds, an official anti-corruption body said in a statement on Monday.

The Administrative Control Authority (ACA) added that the lady deputy of Alexandria governor received a bribe of about one million Egyptian pounds (over 56,000 U.S. dollars) from some businessmen to stop a removal decision of illegally constructed buildings on state-owned lands.

"She would also spare the businessmen paying the fines for such violations, which amount to 10 million Egyptian pounds (over 560,000 dollars)," said the ACA statement.

The case is part of a massive anti-corruption campaign launched by Egypt over the past few years that led to the arrest and imprisonment of several officials and senior employees and the retrieval of large amounts of public money.

In February, an Egyptian court sentenced a former irrigation minister to seven years in prison over corruption related to illegal sales of agricultural lands for construction.

Earlier in January, the authorities arrested the finance minister's former adviser for receiving 1 million Egyptian pounds from a contractor as part of a larger bribe for mispricing a state-owned land.

A former agriculture minister and his deputy were also sentenced to 10 years in prison over receiving bribes to grant state-owned land licenses to a business tycoon last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-27 23:18:38|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army has reached places 70 km away from the administrative borders of Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria, following recent progress in the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group in the southern countryside of Raqqa province, a well-informed source told Xinhua on Sunday.

The advance the Syrian army has achieved is in the Sholeh area in a desert area that connects the southeastern countryside of Raqqa with the administrative borders of Deir al-Zour, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The ground operations of the Syrian army in that area is supported by the Russian air force, with Russian officials recently saying that the priority is now to aid government troops in recapturing Deir al-Zour.

The Syrian forces are also advancing to reach Deir al-Zour from another direction, the desert of the central province of Homs, as the IS has kept the siege of the city since 2015.

In the eastern countryside of Raqqa, the Syrian army and allied forces captured all points taken by the IS group in their recent counteroffensive against the Syrian army, pro-government Sham FM radio reported.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have also been advancing in the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS, capturing 60 percent of it since launching an offensive two and a half months ago.

Both the SDF, a Kurdish-led group, and the Syrian army are fighting IS separately, with the SDF focusing on Raqqa while the army forces on driving out IS from Deir al-Zour.

Still, recent reports suggested that the SDF also aim to take parts of Deir al-Zour, raising concerns of possible tension with the Syrian army.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 00:48:57|Editor: yan

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KHARTOUM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya's Government of National Accord Fayez al-Sarraj on Sunday arrived in Khartoum on a one-day visit to Sudan.

Al-Sarraj was received upon arrival at Khartoum airport by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and a number of government officials.

"This is a very important visit. Sudan and Libya have historical relations and bonds," Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters.

He reiterated Sudan's support for Libya's stability, saying "Sudan is concerned with Libya's security and safety together with unity of its rivals."

He said the talks between al-Sarraj and the Sudanese government officials would review many issues, top of them realization of security and stability in Libya and the issue of the Sudanese armed groups which receive support and protection in Libya.

"There are Sudanese armed movements from the Darfur region that have entered Libya with few military equipment after they were defeated in Darfur, and these movements are sheltering in some areas outside the control of the Libyan government and international legitimacy, and working to undermine Sudan's security and stability," said Ghandour.

Khartoum said Commander of the Libyan forces, backed by the House of Representatives in Tobruk, Khalifa Haftar, is recruiting armed groups from Sudan's Darfur region in his war against other Libyan groups.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 00:53:59|Editor: yan

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KHARTOUM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday said his country has no agenda in Libya other than achieving Libya's unity, security and stability together with unity of its people.

Al-Bashir made the remarks when speaking at a press conference following joint talks with Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya's UN-backed government, in Khartoum Sunday.

"Sudan directly gets affected by the situations in Libya and by the state of instability there. We pay a high bill to combat illegal immigration, human trafficking and cross-border crimes that exploit the vacuum happening in Libya," said al-Bashir at the press conference.

"We do not have any agenda in Libya other than achieving unity of Libya, stability of Libya, security of Libya and unity of the Libyan people," he noted.

Al-Sarraj, for his part, speaking at the press conference, said that "our visit to Sudan comes within the framework of consultation with brotherly countries."

"We spoke about securing the joint border and supporting the bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Sudan is an important neighbor and we will work to build a better relationship," said al-Sarraj.

He reiterated the ability of Libya's internationally-backed government to find a solution for the current crisis in Libya, saying "the current crisis will be solved by achieving national reconciliation that ends the state of division and unites the institutions of the country."

Al-Sarraj arrived in Khartoum on Sunday on an official one-day visit, his first, to Sudan.

He was received upon arrival at Khartoum airport by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and a number of government officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 01:29:09|Editor: yan

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VIENNA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed and one seriously injured following a mountaineering accident in west Austria's Salzburg state on Sunday morning.

The accident occurred at Mannlkarscharte in Krimml municipality, southwest of the city of Salzburg.

Local newspaper The Krone reported that the incident occurred when the group of six reached an area located underneath a glacier. The rocks in that area were very loose, and appear to have caused the accident.

Another group of mountaineers about 30 to 50 metres behind observed the events, and stated that one of the group, that were roped together, wanted to turn back due to the risk involved. The others agreed, but as they turned to make their way back, a person in the group lost his footing and fell, pulling the others with him.

They fell about 100 metres onto a rock outcrop, before tumbling about the same distance yet again.

A mountain guide who observed the incident notified the authorities who sent rescue crews and helicopters. Rescue efforts were reportedly made difficult due to the risk of falling rocks.

The sole survivor was airlifted to hospital in critical condition, and has since been reported to have stabilized.

One of the deceased meanwhile has been identified as a 34-year-old German from the nearby state of Bavaria, with authorities believing it is likely the entire group came from there.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 01:59:20|Editor: yan

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ANKARA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least seven PKK militants were killed on Sunday during operations in three eastern provinces of Turkey.

The seven PKK militants were killed by separate raids in eastern Van province, Mus province and Erzincan province, according to a statement released by the interior ministry.

One militants killed in Mus, identified as Ridvan Yalcin, 23-year-old, was said to be a regional public relations coordinator of the outlawed organization.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government in July 2015.

Since then, some 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians were killed in PKK attacks, while more than 7,000 PKK members were killed during government operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 02:04:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LONDON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- A second man was arrested on Sunday after three police officers were injured by a man wielding a 1.2-meter sword near Buckingham Palace in central London on Friday.

The 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences, and a search of a property in west London is being carried out, the police said.

"The man was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism," and "he has been taken into custody," a police statement said.

The arrest was made after a 26-year-old man drove a car in front of a police van in a restricted area near Queen's official residence on Friday evening. The man, who comes from Luton some 50 kilometers north of London, had repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar", meaning in Arabic "God is great".

The man was arrested at the scene and remains in custody. Three police officers were slightly injured in a struggle to arrest the sword-brandishing man.

The police force on Sunday obtained a warrant to detain him until Sept. 1.

"This is a timely reminder that the threat from terrorism in the UK (United Kingdom) remains severe," Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Dean Hayton said.

The British police on Saturday opened a counterterrorism investigation into the incident, which came as police across Europe are on high alert following a spate of terrorist attacks this year.

In the Britain alone, three attacks claimed the lives of dozens of people, while police in Spain are probing a suspected terrorist network after twin assaults in the northeastern region of the country earlier this month.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 02:19:25|Editor: yan

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LONDON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two lorry drivers were charged on Sunday over a motorway crash that killed eight people on Saturday.

Ryszard Masierak, 31, of Barnards Close, Worcestershire, was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and eight counts of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit, Thames Valley Police said.

He was remanded in custody to appear at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court on Monday.

David Wagstaff, 53, of Derwent Street, Stoke-on-Trent, was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was bailed to appear at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court on Sept. 11.

Six men and two women were killed on Saturday when the minibus they were travelling in collided with two lorries on the M1 motorway near Milton Keynes, a large town which is located about 72 kilometers northwest of London.

A man and a woman were taken to hospital along with a five-year-old girl, all with life-threatening injuries, Thames Valley Police said.

The M1 is a south-north motorway in England connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 02:19:26|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, Aug 27 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's General Security Head Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim announced Sunday that the remains of eight of the missing soldiers have finally been discovered, after the servicemen were kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) group when it briefly overran the border town of Arsal in August 2014.

"Unfortunately, I had hoped that this case would have been resolved like the previous cases," Ibrahim said as he announced that six remains were retrieved in Wadi al-Debb on Lebanon's northeastern border.

He said "the dignity of the homeland requires us to sacrifice," adding that he hoped the bodies would be identified using DNA testing soon.

Ibrahim made the statement from Riad al Solh square, where the families of the nine missing soldiers set up a camp to demand government action shortly after the servicemen were taken.

Ibrahim said that the government received information in February 2015 that indicated that the soldiers had been killed, but authorities were not been able to verify it.

"Daesh (IS) gunmen who had surrendered during the ongoing push to rout militants from the border region had provided the information on the missing servicemen," he revealed.

Ibrahim said that Hezbollah had negotiated with the Syrian government and "we were the third party in the negotiations."

The retrieved bodies will be sent to the Military Hospital in Beirut for final identification, with results being expected late Sunday evening.
A Hezbollah fighter fires at a position of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria's Qalamoun region, on Aug. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Over 800 terrorists of the ISIL group were killed in Syria as a result of an operation conducted by the Syrian government forces and the Russian air force, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday.

"Government forces led by General Suheil al-Hassan, with the massive support of the Russian Air Force, eliminated the most efficient and well-armed ISIL unit in the Euphrates River valley near the town of Ghanem al-Ali on August 27, 2017," the ministry said in a statement.

More than 800 terrorists, 13 tanks, 39 pick-up trucks equipped with large-caliber machine guns, 9 mortars and artillery guns were destroyed during the operation, the document said.

A grouping of the Syrian government forces is currently waging an rapid offensive at the city of Deiz-ez-Zor along the eastern shore of the Euphrates River with the aim of liberating this city and destroying the last stronghold of the ISIL in Syria, according to the ministry.

Located in northeastern Syria, Deiz-ez-Zor has been under the ISIL's blockade for several years, with food and other cargoes being delivered only by air transportation.
Workers process glass products in the plant of Fuyao Group's Russian subsidiary in Kaluga Oblast on July 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Wu Zhuang)

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Europeans are confronted with a growing number of Chinese brands present on the continent. But few know that the windshield on their cars was made by Russians working for Fuyao Group.

Fuyao, the world's leading manufacturer of auto glass, is now steadily increasing production in its Russian subsidiary to meet growing demands from global auto makers in Europe.

"We expect our sales revenue to reach billions of rubles this year, representing a surge from 2016," said Xie Zhi, vice president of Fuyao Russia.

The Russian subsidiary is Fuyao's first overseas venture with a total investment of some 200 million U.S. dollars. It began production in 2013 with a designed annual capacity of 3 million car sets.

Surrounded by lush trees, the 130,000-square-meter Fuyao compound is located in an industrial park in Kaluga Oblast, about 160 km southwest of Moscow. Beside it sits a huge Volkswagen plant, which relies heavily on Fuyao auto glass.

In Fuyao's enormous workshop, Russian employees in dark blue uniform work next to yellow industrial robots at the production line. Shuttling forklifts swiftly move wooden boxes of glass products from the production line to transport trucks.

"We decided to invest in Russia because the auto market here is big and we can supply our products to other European countries as well," Xie said, adding that Russia is interested in Chinese investment and local authorities are always ready to lend a hand to Fuyao.

Chinese-Russian economic and trade cooperation has been expanding rapidly over recent years within the BRICS framework, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China's direct investment in Russia topped 14 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2016, holding its position as Russia's fourth largest investment source.

Alexander Fokin, a logistics manager at Fuyao Russia visited Beijing, Shanghai and the company's headquarters in east China's Fuqing City during a regular training tour.

"I get along with my Chinese colleagues and I like working in Fuyao because I can grow together with the company," said Fokin, who has been with Fuyao Russia from the beginning.

Fokin is one of the Russian employees that account for some 90 percent of the workforce.

"Fuyao has no specific requirements when hiring ordinary workers. Instead, we attach great significance to and spend great effort training them," Xie said.

According to Xie, an ordinary worker could earn about 30,000 rubles (more than 500 dollars) a month, a higher-than-average wage in the industry.

Vladimir Panishchev from Uzbekistan has been working in Fuyao Russia for four years. He lives with his wife and twin sons in the company's dormitory, where he only needs to pay for utilities.

"I love my job and I feel happy here," he said.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, is interviewed by Xinhua on Aug. 6, 2017 (Xinhua Photo/Zhang Zhihuan)

NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS bloc grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa serves as "a testbed" for a "sharing governance" of global affairs, a leading U.S. expert said.

"BRICS makes that kind of contribution to the world governance by providing diversity," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"I think it would be a mistake, given the nature of humanity, to have only one organization like the United Nations... " he said, adding that a diversity of structures seems to be what makes the most sense over time in global governance since there is no perfection.

"It engages them (BRICS nations) to be a sort of hubs for broader global interaction," Kuhn said, "So Brazil is in South America. South Africa is obviously in southern Africa. These become sort of vehicles to engage more of the world, so that's all positive."

The longtime China observer noted that a greater participation of the five major emerging economies with "very different characteristics" also strengthens momentum for a multipolar world, which is crucial for promoting international stability.

"I am all for the key countries that whether judged economically or through other mechanisms to have greater participation in (global) organizations," Kuhn said.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), which is intended to focus on infrastructure and sustainable development projects, stands as a good example showing "what a new kind of world governance would look like," he said.

"Everybody has equal voting power. So that's a good sign," he added, referring to the NDB'S distinctive feature -- absolutely just distribution of votes between members, different from the quota system of other international financial institutions based on the role of a certain member.

Although with the overwhelmingly larger economy in BRICS, China "does not use that power in an aggressive way to take control" of the NDB, he noted, "I think that's a good signal. And China's doing it because it wants this greater participation in international affairs."

All BRICS countries should have "a greater say" in the international financial activity in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said.

In the World Bank, the BRICS countries, home to 42.6 percent of the global population and nearly half of the world's foreign exchange reserves, have a total of only 13 percent of voting rights, while the United States alone holds 15 percent.

The IMF agreed in 2010 to give emerging economies greater vote in decision-making, but the reform has been blocked by the United States, despite the fact that more than 140 countries have approved it.

"These should be adjusted... that's just not aligned with today's world in the same way," he said.

Since the first foreign ministers' meeting in 2006, BRICS countries have seen 10 years of rapid expansion in trade and economy. They currently account for nearly a quarter of the world economy and contributed more than half of global economic growth in 2016.

The 9th annual summit of the bloc, scheduled for Sept. 3-5 in Xiamen City of southeast China's Fujian Province, is expected to produce a declaration that lays out both the progress BRICS has made so far and its vision of future cooperation.

A "BRICS Plus" mode is expected to expand the bloc's partnership especially with developing countries, providing opportunities for other economies and injecting impetus into economic globalization. This will help make it a leading platform for South-South cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-28 05:09:55|Editor: yan

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KHARTOUM, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's civil defense authority announced on Sunday a significant rise in the water levels of Nile River, urging citizens living in the islands and along the river to take extra precautions.

"The levels of Blue Nile River at Al-Daim station on the border with Ethiopia registered a significant rise of 60 cm, reaching 12.84 meters," Mohamedain Abul-Qasim, spokesman of the civil defense authority, said in a statement.

"The water discharge from Al-Rusaires Dam registered 565.55 cubic meters on Sunday, compared to 563.89 cubic meters on Saturday," he added.

Abdul-Qasim warned that the Nile levels might further rise in the coming days, saying that "the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone is still on the far north with expected rain falling."

Meanwhile, Sudan's Ministry of Water Resources, Electricity and Dams said the Blue Nile has reached its highest level in the past century, exceeding the time when Sudan was hit by the big flood in 1946.

The ministry urged citizens who live near the banks of the Nile and its tributaries, namely in Khartoum State, to take further precautions.

Earlier, Sudanese Meteorological Authority said that rains were expected in the Red Sea State, the southern parts of Northern State, Nahral-Neel, Kassala, Gedddarif, Khartoum, Gezira and Sinnar States in addition to Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile States.
Vehicles are stranded in flood in great Houston area, Texas, the United States, Aug. 27, 2017 as the Hurricane Harvey made its strong landfall over the Texas Gulf Coast Friday night. Widespread and worsening flood conditions prompted the closure of nearly every major road in Houston as the outer bands of Harvey swept through the Houston area over the weekend. Latest news reports said the storm death toll has climbed to at least 5. (Xinhua/Song Qiong)

HOUSTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott Sunday said the state has now activated 3,000 National Guard and State Guard members to take part in rescue operation as a result of severe damage and flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

A body was found not far from the coastal area in South East Texas on Sunday, the sixth death reported after Hurricane Harvey made a landfall in Texas Friday evening.

Local police said they are not sure if the death is directed related to Harvey. "At this time it is unknown if the subject passed away from health conditions or due to drowning," police said in a statement, noting water in the area was high overnight.

At a Sunday press conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 2,000 emergency calls had been received and more shelters would be opening.

The U.S. Coast Guard has focused all its resources on rescuing people in trouble as waters continue to rise in Houston and surrounding areas, with assistance coming in from bases all over the country.

Eight helicopters and three flood response teams have rescued 100 people so far, officials said, and have received 500 calls for assistance.

The agency said that an additional 11 helicopters are expected. Another flood response team is coming from nearby state Louisiana.

About 80 counties have been declared state disaster zones. Both major airports in Houston have been closed amid severe flooding.

A Houston Airport System statement on Sunday said George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport are closed to commercial flights until further notice.

Widespread and worsening flood conditions prompted the closure of nearly every major road in Houston as the outer bands of Harvey swept through the Houston area over the weekend.

Less than 24 hours after Harvey hit the Gulf Coast, more than 300,000 people were without power, according to AEP Texas, the transmission company that services the region hardest hit by the hurricane. AEP reported mass outages in areas along the Gulf Coast.

The loss of electricity was likely due to wind damage to more than 150 transmission circuits, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said, which oversees 90 percent of the state's electric grid.

Houston mayor Sylvester Turners said Sunday morning the George R Brown convention center has been opened as a shelter.

Hundreds of people sought shelters in the last 24 hours when Hurricane Harvey pummeled Houston area.

Latest news reports said the storm death toll has climbed to at least 5.

Houston government issued notice Sunday morning that the 911 services are at capacity.

"If you can shelter in place do so, a few inches in your home is not imminent danger. Only call if in imminent danger."

Widespread and worsening flood conditions prompted the closure of nearly every major road in Houston as the outer bands of Harvey swept through the Houston area over the weekend.

As of Sunday morning, Houston TranStar has already logged 174 high-water road closures in the area.

The White House said Sunday that President Dounald

Trump will visit hurricane-ravaged Texas on Tuesday amid the ongoing recovery efforts.

President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump's cabinet discussed federal support for response and recovery efforts, said the White House.
Pay your mortgage, rent

Mitchell said, In the same way that we have a responsibility, I want you, new home owners, to realise that you also have a responsibility.

Your responsibility is to honour your financial commitments.

Pay your mortgage and your monthly rent on time. Speaking at HDCs key handover ceremony held at Omardeens School of Accountancy auditorium on Cipero Street, San Fernando, Mitchell distributed keys to homeowners from various parts of south and central Trinidad.

By 2020, Mitchell said, government intends to complete construction of 5,000 units at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. And we will complete it with the little assistance that we will get from Central Government, but mainly from the proceeds from our mortgage conversions of lease-to-own and rentto- own. Only on Friday, there was a media tour of five of seven housing development projects under construction along the East West Corridor.

Yesterday, the Minister reiterated that 350 quality units would be delivered before the end of the year.

In all, across the country, we have 23 housing developments in our portfolio that are right now under construction that would add approximately 5,000 units to our Housing stock. And, as I have said, time and time again, we intend to complete all 5,000 by 2020. On the issue of squatter regularisation, Mitchell said the ministry worked over the past year on upgrading and improving the living conditions of those certificate of comfort holders who were living on State lands prior to 1998.

We are now able to offer over 4,000 certificate of comfort holders, that is, we are now able to offer 4,000 families marketable deeds of lease and statutory leases in areas such as Jacob Hill, Wallerfield; Glenroy, Princes Town; La Paille, Caroni; KP Lands, Valencia. Mitchell said the affordable mortgage programme administered through the TT Mortgage Finance Company was adjusted to encourage greater access and greater affordability to people seeking financing for their home and land purchases.

For those who wish to access the two per cent financing regime, the qualifying monthly income increased from $10,000 to $14,000 and the property value from $850,000 to $1million.

In terms of the five percent facility, the lower limit of $10,001 has been moved to $14,001 with a higher limit of $30,000. This would allow for the purchase or construction of properties up to $1.5 million on the open market as well as HDC properties.
100,000 undocumented migrants in TT

The report also said that at the rate at which foreigners were migrating to T&T, the countrys national security could be seriously compromised.

The report is online and is titled Trinidad and Tobago Immigration Detention Profile and was released into the public domain in March this year. The Global Detention Project is a an independent organisation in Geneva that tracks immigration in countries across the developed world.

The report stated that sources in the TT Government revealed that the country had 100,000 undocumented migrants. The report, however, contrasted with a report by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs that lists this country has having 49,000 illegal immigrants up until 2015.

The report said that Trinidad and Tobago was a stomping ground for illegal immigrants because, it being one of the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean, its people enjoyed an above-average per capita income for the region.

Its status has made this country an important transit and destination country as well as a major tourist destination, the report said.

According to the report, Guyanese and Jamaicans formed the two major groups of migrants living illegally here. It added that Venezuelans and persons from Ghana were also seeking refuge in TT in droves due to the economic situation in their respective countries.

The Global Detention Project report also noted that TTs treatment of detainees from Africa had been criticised due to the length of time they remained in custody. In many cases, immigrants remained in detention up to three years.

The report made no mention of the influx of Chinese into the country, though, unofficial reports from the Ministry of National Security up to April 2016, stated that 18,000 people had migrated from China to work and live here National Security Minister Edmund Dillon did not respond to telephone calls and text messages when contacted on the report yesterday.
Fuad: Lets debate abortion

Speaking in the wake of the discovery of a dead, newborn baby girl at the Beetham Landfill, Port-of-Spain, on Tuesday, Khan said the situation again reflected the need for urgent and comprehensive discussion on the issue.

Khan took to social media on Friday to air his concerns about the thorny issues, posting a video on Facebook in which he also spoke out against the bureaucracy in the Adoption Board.

Scavengers reportedly found the babys body in a garbage bag around 5.30 am and immediately alerted their supervisors.

Forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov, who said the baby was carried to full term and devoid of abnormalities, said the case should be deemed an infanticide. He said the baby died as a result of abandonment.

Khan said the only reason the baby could have been dumped at the landfill was because it was an unwanted child.

A lot of these people have nowhere to go and nobody to turn to, he said.

They dont have money for terminations.

They dont have anything because it is done clandestinely in the country.

So, it is time that the discussion starts that termination has to be dealt with for young people who do not want their children. Khan said he had raised the issue since 2011 when he was health minister in the Peoples Partnership Government.

People will say why I did not say that when I was minister. But I am on record talking about abortions and the need for proper terminations and legislation. Khan recalled that the issue surfaced again, one year ago, with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley indicated that the topic will be discussed even though Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh had shut it down.

But we have to be a little more specific than just consultations. During a post-Cabinet news briefing in April 2016, Rowley had said that while abortion was illegal, discussions on the issue will be ongoing because sometimes one had to challenge the law in order to solve problems more meaningfully. Yesterday, Khan said religious bodies will continue to resist such discussions.

They like to kick a fuss because that is where there relevance comes in and they utilise the unseen God, he said. But you have to think about human beings, human behaviour and I would like the Government to at least, discuss it and listen to the cries of the population.

There is something called pro-choice. We follow everything from the United States of America, why not follow pro-choice? The San Juan/Barataria MP also pointed to another reason why the issue of abortion was being avoided.

Nobody (politicians) wants to address it because you could lose votes. If you are going to lose votes, rather than deal with something that affects life, then something is wrong with the whole society. Gynaecologist Dr Jehan Ali also believes the time has come for frank discussion on abortion in relation to specific cases.

However, he said this must be viewed in the context of the babys physical disposition and the countrys religious and social realities. Khan also complained about the onerousness of the adoption process in this country for well-meaning couples.

To get any child adopted through the Adoption Board is like pulling teeth. All their rules and regulations is for people not to adopt children. Khan said drop boxes, which is used in some countries to address unwanted babies, could be considered locally because it is necessary.
Trinis in Texas

Although Harvey weakened overnight into a category 1 hurricane and has since been downgraded further to a tropical storm, it is destroying buildings, ripping off rooftops and creating life-threatening floods putting the lives of many at risk.

Trinidadians with friends and relatives in Texas were greatly concerned for their well being.

Gerard Alfred, who was previously a resident of Santa Rosa and is now living in Houston stated, The downpour here has not had much impact so far. Residents there were advised to stay indoors and no one was evacuated as Houston had not experienced a brutal onslaught of the storm.

Alfred said, Im waiting to see what happens with the storm but, if it turns, it could be bad for us. He continued, I dont know what will happen tomorrow morning, but he was hopeful that the storm would pass.

His locally-based family were worried at first but once they spoke to him they felt assured of his safety.

One relative said, Im not overly worried because I believe first-world countries, like America, are prepared for such events and I trust my relative to do what is necessary to protect himself. Brittany Louis, previously of Malabar, Arima, who lives in Arlington said, There is currently a state of emergency and people are advised to stay indoors.But, fortunately, before the storm, her family went back to Trinidad.

St Vincent-born Lorna Thomas, who previously lived in Laventille for more than 20 years, now resides in Houston and was in the midst of Harveys downpour when she spoke to Sunday Newsday.

There is a lot of rain and flooding, Thomas said. The rain is the one that is causing the major damage for me, if it continues it will be disastrous. The expected increase in the amount of rainfall worried both Thomas and her relatives. Houston was bracing itself for more than a foot of rain as the flooding continued to increase yesterday.

Thomas said that her area was not affected as bad as the other cities such as Corpus Christi on the southern side of Texas and expressed deep concern for others in surrounding vicinities.

There is a highway called highway 95 that had a tornado touch down there and routed out a lot of houses, she said.

When the storm made its second landfall on the North-eastern Shore of Copano Bay, Thomas concern grew, in particular, for a friend of hers who lived in Cypress.

There was a tornado in Cypress and it struck it real bad.

Houses have collapsed. Thomas said. A home caught on fire and 33 houses burnt down from that.

Its really serious but I have peace in the middle of the storm. Although Harvey left hundreds of thousands along the coast of Texas without electricity, Thomas fortunately received power for the entire duration of the storm.

She said, I have electricity where I am but in Cypress there are a lot of others without. Although Harvey had been reduced to a tropical storm Thomas said it was still bad because of strong winds.

Her niece, Masheica Thomas, said, We called her last night and she told us that a lot of people moved out so far but she was under her covers and safe. The following days of rain were expected to cause catastrophic flooding but the Texas residents were hopeful that it would not occur. Thomas said that many were advised to remain indoors for their safety.
Port Authority goes silent on Bridgemans

The withdrawal offered no explanation nor did it point to any specifics in the original release issued earlier Friday evening that needed correction or further clarification.

All it did was alert media houses that the original release was recalled. In its recalled release, the Port indicated that because of the ongoing investigations, it had no intentions to continue these matters in the public domain. The recalled release dealt with the number of offerings that were made to the PATT by Bridgemans Services Group and another agency, Ken Shipping and Marine, and denied communication or discussion with Bridgemans brokers.

The Port spoke about the number of meetings it held with Bridgemans, disclosing when the firm was contacted to arrange surveys for one of the ships and when the first face-to-face meeting between Bridgemans and PATT managers took place.
Duke hosts pre-swim press briefing today

The swim, which will include his colleague on the THAs Minority bench, Assemblyman Farley Augustine, is expected to begin at 8 am.

Duke, who has received a mixture of praise and cynicism from social media users since announcing his intention to swim across both islands on Monday, yesterday maintained the activity was necessary to highlight the plight of Tobagonians who had been deeply affected by the problems plaguing the sea bridge.

On his Facebook page yesterday, Duke, who is also the president of the Public Services Association, said he was preparing for the swim despite warnings from the TT Coast Guard about strong currents.

The inter-island sea route is currently being served by the TT Express and the Cabo Star cargo vessel.

However, Tobagonians have complained that the services were inadequate.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan announced three weeks ago that the contract for the Ocean Flower II vessel, procured from Bridgemans Services Group LP had been terminated.

The development prompted calls for Sinanan and members of the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT) to resign.

The Government subsequently appointed businessman Christian Mouttet to conduct an independent investigation into the procurement of both the Cabo Star and Ocean Flower II. Mouttets report is expected to be submitted to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in just under three weeks.

The PATT, Integrity Commission and a Parliamentary joint select committee are also conducting investigations into the procurement of the vessels to see if there has been any wrongdoing.

Duke, who, on Thursday, posted images of himself in a wet suit preparing for the swim, has said the voices of Tobagonians must be heard
Moonilal knocks house grandstanding

During a media tour of housing developments in St James, Valsayn, Arouca and Arima, Mitchell said Government was working towards delivering some 8,000 homes to HDC applicants by the year 2020, as it seeks to reduce an ever-growing backlog in applications at the State entity.

Mitchell estimated that the keys to some 700 homes will be distributed by the end of the year.

Moonilal was not impressed.

Mr Mitchell has engaged in public grandstanding  complete with hard hat and boots  while insisting that he will construct 8,000 units over the next 36 months despite his miserable record of non-performance, he said in a statement.

The Ministers circus was doubtlessly aimed at capturing media attention after two years of wretched failure and obscurity, even in a Government of hopeless under-performers. Moonilal said Mitchell must identify a single house built under his stewardship over the past two years and provide specifics of the planned construction of 8,000 homes over the next three years.

Mr Mitchell must provide precise details of his construction plan since there is no indication of any preparatory work. Previous incomplete housing projects have been abandoned and left to decay. Moonilal claimed the housing sector has collapsed with heavy equipment worth billions of dollars rusting and idle and thousands of skilled industry workers unemployed. Moonilal said Mitchells chronic failure contrasts that of the Peoples Partnership administration, which, he claimed, delivered more than 10,000 homes, built communities, regularised squatters, expanded the rent-toown programme and introduced public-private partnership construction projects.

The former governments Land for the Landless programme, he said, provided subsidised lots to low and middle-income families.

In opposition, the PNM had ridiculed the delivery of 100 homes to families each week, but Mr.Mitchell has not been able to hand over the keys for a single house constructed by his Government, Moonilal said.

Mr Mitchells promise of 8,000 homes in three years is as vacuous as his own performance as Minister of Housing. If the Minister can identify any achievement since his appointment, I will also believe there is no corruption in the lease of the vessel Ocean Flower 2. 
A series of network failures including Internet access difficulties hit Japan Friday.

The disruptions caused problems in various fields, including not being able to use online securities and banking services.

According to NTT Communications Corp., a communication failure occurred at 12:22 p.m. (3:22 a.m. GMT) and lasted till 12:45 p.m. in its OCN operation, the largest Internet connection service in the country with some eight million users.

The problems were caused by a system change of an overseas carrier, which is connected to the Internet in Japan, people familiar with the matter said, ruling out the possibility of a cyberattack.

NTTOCN
Police in Japan are on alert for conflicts between two rival gang groups as Sunday marks two years since they split up.

Members of Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, broke away from the group and set up the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi in 2015.

The National Police Agency says the Yamaguchi-gumi had 11,800 members and the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had 5,500 members as of the end of 2016.

The agency suspects the two groups have been involved in 97 conflicts since they broke up. It says 385 gang members were involved.
If you're the kind of person who prioritizes volunteer work, enjoys playing badminton and has an interest in studying, Shiga Prefecture might be your ideal home in Kansai.

On the other hand, if education and learning new skills are your top priorities, you're not too bothered about volunteer activities and you enjoy playing some sports, you might consider moving to neighboring Kyoto Prefecture.

And if you don't care at all about volunteer activities, but do enjoy learning, especially foreign languages other than English, you might want to consider Osaka Prefecture.

These are just some of the conclusions that might be drawn from the results of the latest survey by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry on how people in Japan's 47 prefectures use their leisure time. Results for the fiscal 2016 survey, which drew responses from 200,000 people in about 88,000 households nationwide, were released last month.

For Kansai's prefectures, which compete with each other for business and tax revenue, the survey is a benchmark highlighting the more attractive places in the region to live.

Shiga was No. 1 nationwide in terms of the number of respondents (33.9 percent) who said they'd participated in volunteer activities over the past year. But only Fukui (32.2 percent) and Nara (26.8 percent) scored above the national average of 26 percent in this category, which was also Hyogo's average.

Osaka (20.6 percent) was dead last among the 47 prefectures in terms of volunteer activities.
Never send a cop to do a man's job


Chad Fanaroff is a finalist in the Nickelodeon Toy Sprint.

South Africa: A Sandton resident (12) is one of 12 children who have earned their place in this years Nickelodeon Toy Sprint with Toys R Us!Chad Fanaroff, who attends Calibre Educational School in Bryanston, competed in the Toy Sprint and was selected out of 150,000 entries.The 12 toy enthusiasts competed in the final round of the competition where each contestant had 60 seconds to grab as many of their favourite toy picks as possible. The contestants managed to pile up their trolleys in record time and each scooped up toys with the combined value of R15,000.The first leg of the sprint began in Cape Town at the Toys R Us store in Canal Walk on Wednesday 5th July 2017. A week later, Chad Fanaroff sprinted through the Boksburg Toys R Us store.They completed the challenge after 5FM radio DJ, Sureshnie Rider sprinted through the aisles to benefit the charity she supports  Angel Wings Care Centre in Benoni.The final leg was held at the Toys R Us store in Gateway in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday 19th July 2017.Tasania Parsadh, channel director for Nickelodeon for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa told the Sandton Chronicle This years Nickelodeon Toy Sprint was a huge success with all 12 contestants walking away with fantastic toys of their choice, thanks to our partners Toys R Us.Now its up to them to rally for their friends and fans to vote for them to win the great prize to join us at the Nickelodeon Hotels and Resorts Punta Cana.Nicole Annells, Toys R Us marketing manager said, Getting to watch kids running through our awesome Toys R Us stores and getting all the toys they have ever dreamed of is so fulfilling and we absolutely love being part of such an incredible campaign.After all, making kids toy dreams a reality and bringing imagination to life is exactly what Toys R Us stands for. We cant wait to see who our ultimate winner will be.Neal Fanaroff, Chads father said, It has always been a dream of his to enter the toy sprint, he was very keen on entering.Fanaroff said Chad was jumping all over like a kangaroo.Chad stands a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for himself and three family members or friends to the Nickelodeon Hotels and Resort Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.The prize includes round-trip airfare, five nights accommodation plus $1 800 spending money. Fans who cast your vote and enter their details on the website also have the chance to win a Nintendo Switch.Chad is one 12 finalists of the 2017 Nickelodeon Toy Sprint, joining: Aishania, Julie, Keagan, Keenan, Meleeha, Nickholis, Nikhil, Singabakho, Tahil, Tiahna, and Vanya.Fans can vote for their favourite Nickelodeon Toy Sprint participant by visiting www.nickelodeonafrica.com and clicking on the Toy Sprint Vote banner.
Libyan forces aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have announced the arrest of a man believed to be one of the barons of illegal migration and oil smuggling in Libya, called king of smuggling.

Known as Fahmi Salim Musa Bin Khalifa, the man was arrested Thursday in the port city of Zuwara, North-western Libya by RADA Special Deterrence Force in a complex operation.

Khalifa is described as one of the top businessmen behind migrants trafficking business across the Mediterranean. He is also believed involved in fuel smuggling in the city of Zuwara and neighboring cities of Zawia and Sabratha.

Following the fall of Muammar Gaddafis regime in 2011, Libya became the main spot of illegal migration along the South Mediterranean coast.

Close to 100, 000 migrants on makeshift boats have transited through the North African country to reach Europes southern coasts, mainly via Italy.

The GNA and Italy have stepped up actions against the illegal boats. Libyan coastguards have multiplied arrests, threatening even international charities saving the migrants at sea to seize their boats. Rome and Tripoli believe the charities are in connivance with the smugglers.

Thousands have been reported dead while trying the risky journey.

Khalifa is believed to own a transport network. He also owns property in Malta and Turkey and is working on constructing a tourist village in Zuwara, Libya Herald reports citing RADA forces.
Moroccan Algerian relations are stagnant at their lowest level with no bilateral visits planned for Seven Years, deplored Moroccos Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita.

Speaking to Jeune Afrique Magazine, Bourita said that Moroccan-Algerian ties remain static and that the Arab Maghreb Union has not held meetings in years making it one of the least integrated groupings in the continent.

He deplored Algerias hostility to Moroccos quest to retake its legitimate place at the African institutional family. Algiers led anti-Moroccan campaigns deploying its diplomacy and media, he said.

In the interview, Bourita ranged over a number of topical issues of concern to Morocco and over the kingdoms relations with its neighbors and partners.

On Mauritania, Bourita said that Morocco maintains close ties with its southern neighbor marked by neighborliness and cooperation.

With the European Union, Bourita highlighted the over 50-year old partnership, adding that despite occasional disagreements the two parties maintain dialogue and find solutions that further reinforce Moroccan-EU ties.

Concerning the Canary Islands, Bourita said that the controversy surrounding the demarcation of maritime boundaries was resolved. Morocco proceeded to updating its legal texts governing all its territorial waters. These texts, which date back to the 1970s and early 1980s, had to be reviewed and adapted to new realities as well as the International Law of the Sea, he said.
It wouldnt be the first time the president has considered using his power to protect his friends from prosecution. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty

The Washington Post and New York Times reported on Saturday night that President Trump, months before pardoning exArizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, had explored the idea of simply quashing Arpaios criminal-contempt case as it wound its way through the courts. According to the Times Maggie Haberman:

During a wide-ranging meeting, the officials said, Mr. Trump asked both Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, and Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, what the options were for helping Mr. Arpaio, a longtime supporter who had been charged with defying a court order directing him to stop detaining people solely on the suspicion that they were undocumented immigrants.

Mr. McGahn and Mr. Sessions both promptly told the president that the case could not be dropped and the charges wiped away, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about Mr. Trumps private conversations. Mr. Trump then asked about other options, including his power to pardon Mr. Arpaio if he was convicted. He was told he had broad pardon powers, and was satisfied with that answer, the officials said. Mr. Arpaio was ultimately convicted last month, and Mr. Trump pardoned him before he was sentenced.

Arpaio and Trump have been close allies for years, and the two bonded over their love of delegitimizing President Obama  in 2012, Arpaio assembled a Cold Case Posse to ostensibly assist with Trumps bogus birther investigation. And, of course, the two share punitive, hard-line views on immigration, which made Arpaio a natural to warm up frenzied Trump campaign-rally crowds.

Trumps pardon of Arpaio, while legal, was unquestionably an abuse of power and rebuke to the justice system. But the idea that Trump would end an active investigation to benefit a political ally raised the specter of a more serious offense. And its not without precedent in this administration; in March, Trump asked FBI director James Comey to end an investigation into exnational security advisor Michael Flynn, a key incident in the widening investigation into Russias electoral interference.

So far, very few GOP lawmakers have rebuked Trump over the pardon. On Saturday, House Speaker Paul Ryan became the highest-ranking Republican to criticize the Arpaio pardon, though he didnt exactly bring the hammer down.

The Speaker does not agree with this decision, spokesperson Doug Andres said in a statement. Law enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.

Senator John McCain, a familiar critic of the president, had issued a harsh denunciation of Trumps decision, saying it undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions. Fellow Arizona senator Jeff Flake, whose recent book doubles as a searing critique of the president, was far milder, issuing a milquetoast-flavored condemnation:

Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course.  Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) August 26, 2017

Most other Republicans remained silent as Democrats fumed. Meanwhile, recollections of Arpaios cruelty during his long run as Maricopa County sheriff rolled in. A local Arizona newspapers recollection of some his worst transgressions had garnered over 136,000 retweets as of Sunday morning.
Speaking up against Breitbart would be doing the absolute least. So if she can't even do that.. especially as someone hyper aware of her image.

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Right? The fact that she can't even denounce that is very telling



She's the pr queen putting stories and statements right when something is written about her, but won't stay anything about this? Ok bitch I see you 

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All she would have to do is make a statement saying she's offended her lyrics are being used by a hate group. Feels pretty simple/easy.

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Yep



She's legit a tool of Satan I swear.

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Her team has the time and idleness to go after etsy sellers and Taylor has personally feuded with Katy for ridiculous reasons and a ridiculous length of time - and YET she can't refute nazis and say anything against Trump?



She ain't shit. She's a sympathizer, clear and simple.





Edited: y'all are fond of saying that Taylor is really progressive and liberal but doesn't speak out against white supremacy because she doesn't want to lose racist money. Like that's ANY better? You're telling me she doesn't believe this shit but still wants to profit off off it? Staying silent is being complicit. No one asks her to solve any politics issues, but she NEEDS to voice her opinion, otherwise she IS helping them.



Adele had no problems telling Trump to fuck off, even though her fanbase skews older and more conservative (or rather across the spectrum). Why can't Taylor do it?



Edited at 2017-08-27 02:08 pm (UTC)

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Yeah, that "through no fault of her own" is precious. She has no problem running her mouth when she needs pity and dollars but she has shit to say here? White Power Daddy bought that career and loves him some Donald. Something about apples and trees, whatever.

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ia. i'm sure her stans are crying about her being a secret woke queen or something and not wanting to give them the attention, but sis, that time has passed. you gotta denounce their shit in this climate.

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sometimes...people that are silent...are sympathizers.

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omg

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omg I just spat out my covfefe



(I went back and read that post and jfc what a wild ride, can't believe it's already been 2 months since covfefegate)

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OMG

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Oh nooooooooo

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Honestly being silent on issues such as these is just as bad as actively supporting them.

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this whataboutism tho...



the swifties really are radicalized like that other post said. sad!

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Fake news!

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he was sick!

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Um excuse yoooou... he only met with a fascist to discuss ~multicultural issues~

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I don't know why y'all keep bringing this up like the people who drag Taylor in these posts aren't the same ones that call Kanye trash in his posts. We're allowed to think that they're both terrible. That doesn't change the fact that the narrative in which her entire career has been framed and her refusal to call out the white supremacists that keep her name in their mouths blatantly caters to the prejudiced causes of these groups. Silence in this sort of situation may have been acceptable 5 years ago, but it sure as hell isn't now. Take off the stan glasses and think about it for a minute ffs.



Edited at 2017-08-27 02:20 pm (UTC)

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mte

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This ONTD though. If you denounce one thing it means you automatically support the alternative.

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mte

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EXACTLY

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And? This isn't an either or. They're both assholes.

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lol, nice derail tactic but this post isn't about Kanye.

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pop music's equivalent of "but her emails"?

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E X A C T L Y

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lmao I'm so here for this mess

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it's too early! it's too early!

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i like the edit of this gif where the cat picks up 2 suitcases

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fuck! i need that one

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Lol I wanna see that

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There are plenty of valid reasons to dislike Swift. Her not risking a torrent of shit from some of the most toxic, violent, and disgusting members of the internet is not one of them.

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Fair point. I feel like there's NO WAY that she doesn't have some multi-million dollar PR spin master advising her everyone move, so there must be SOME viable reason that she's ignoring this aside from the possibility that she a super secret Nazi who keeps an SS uniform in her batcave, right?

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..for instance, that she's a sympathizer?

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Not that I would wish that on anyone, but, speaking as a Black woman, I and many like me don't get that luxury. Literally just existing puts me at risk, and not just from these vile creatures. Even those who are meant to serve and protect are a risk to my safety and those in my community.

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girl she's pissed off so many rabid fan bases at this point getting anon hate from nazis after doing the right thing wouldn't be that different in terms of ha mentions

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lmao poor ha, able to threaten etsy sellers but unable to do the LEAST to tell nazis to fuck off

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Mte this obsession with her and Trump is truly over the top. It is not HER responsibility to bring that upon herself. We all know the vitriol she would get on top of what she already gets. Why is this her job? I think she made it pretty clear she wasn't voting or him. People always expect the women to risk their safety and careers, but what about the male popstars?

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She has used feminism as part of her brand and controls every part of her image, she addressed the suitcase dumb rumor and other actually petty and dumb stuff, like other celebrities, female celebrities have condemned Nazis, it's not too much to ask her to speak up about this, specially because they are using her lyrics and are calling her an aryan princess.





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lol @ this comment when some of the most powerless groups in the country have already been threatened/faced worse violence

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She's super rich and can afford security. She'd be fine lmao

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White Lady Logic



"But then they'd be mad at mmmeeeeeeeeeeeee."

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Her not denouncing Nazis is a perfectly valid reason to dislike her. Y'all stay trying it.

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But she's all good doing it when it's a "feud" with a black man over which her white ass got CAUGHT lying and she STILL comes out looking like a victim?



Please. She's privileged as fuck. The rest of us are out here risking OUR lives to fight nazis but we're worried about a little rich white girl getting her feelings hurt by nazis not buying her albums? I don't think so.

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lol oh please, fuck her!

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She has a responsibility to speak up against them, otherwise she's supporting them and their cause.

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Yep

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Part of me really does want her to ignore them and just pretend like they don't exist because having the biggest pop(?) star in the world give them attention is exactly what they want.



She could definitely say something about T*ump tho.

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I guess if someone is really self centered enough, they might secretly relish being at the center of any insane controversy/ conspiracy. I mean, there's no way this shitfest isn't generating a TON more internet traffic about her, and if that's more important than the specific nature of an image... why shut it down so quick?

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She doesn't need to speak out if she doesnt want to. Though it'd be nice just to see the alt-right get pissed.

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yes. she does. It's a moral responsibility as a human being, especially for someone so influential. It's such a white privilege thing to say "oh It doesn't affect me so I don't have to do anything" and its worse because she is actually benefiting from them by buying her album, etc.



Unless of course, the only reason she doesn't want to speak out is because she agrees with them... which is the only conclusion here because she is known to easily speak out over the most random, shallow things like people using her lyrics to sell items on easy, yet when alt-right use her lyrics to promote their causes, she is silent.

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You all need to stop with this shit.

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she's sidestepping and doesn't want to alienate part of her fanba$e. cares more about her coins. sad! but why hasn't she even acknowledged trump?she's sidestepping and doesn't want to alienate part of her fanba$e. cares more about her coins. sad!

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AHAHAAHAAHAH WHAT THE FUCK

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??? lmao that is like some kind of weird video game glitch like where they are walking against an invisible wall

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She doesn't fucking have to. Why do we need celebrities to validate our political choices? This is so stupid.

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OMFW

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is she supposed to?

or some rules she has to speak out? im confused

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for someone so image conscious you would think she would say something but the silence says so much.



welcome to trump's america

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Her perpetual victimization and 13 year-old mindset are pathetic on their own, but this... this is unforgivable.



The LEAST she can to is distance herself from nazis. It's not like Taylor's team isn't monitoring the news closely; it's not like she isn't aware of this. Breitbart is going all out for her (I'm not going to post anything from their website, but you should google that shit - unbelievable). And that Aryan goddess thing has been around for a while, too.



I was never a fan of Taylor and found her obnoxious since her 2010 VMA performance. I don't know how anyone can still be ignorant of her faux feminism and self-serving narratives.

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If she isn't a Trump supporter like her stans keep saying, she probably won't denounce Trump and the alt Right movement until her new record is out. Or she won't say anything at all because to her $$$$$ is everything.

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MTE. She's extremely calculated and all she cares about is money. No way in hell is she alienating anyone by speaking out about anything that matters.

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me opening ontd every morning these days

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I would die

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This is so cute

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lol it flopped so gently, cute

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lol they put the snake in the box just to film this

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so cute

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FUCK lmaoo

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never eating cheerios again now tbh!

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OMFG

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nooo

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aww is that where bb was hiding <3

ugh I hope taylor doesn't ruin snakes for me :C

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roflmfao

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lol

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you all are truly doing the most with this reach lol its new york times font. probably because the album cover has newspaper clippings all over it?? you can google it if you want.

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actually it's a cc0 font called Life of Pablo you can get on dafont.com iirc

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The official font of the Nazi regime was actually DIN.

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Easy to eschew makeup when your mom was a model, huh Zadie.

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No, but it's pretty damn easy to eschew makeup when you don't give a fuck and don't want to spend $$$$$$ on stupid stuff.

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lol, seriously. I had to buy a shitload of makeup recently because I have a couple of weddings coming up and I couldn't believe how much I had to spend. I don't understand people who constantly HAVE to have the lastest MAC eyeshadow collection or w/e, what a waste of money.

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Absolutely, but making it a ~political stance~ is the issue. As I said below, I think her tune would be different if she weren't conventionally beautiful/if she had acne, etc.

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And to accept that this is the way I look and if I'm fine with it than that's good enough for me.

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It's stupid to you. Doesn't mean others have to feel that way, nor should she force that view point on her daughter. It should be a choice.

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She didn't say anything about 'eschewing' anything...

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The idea of "makeup shaming" is a joke.



I hate this dumb trend of "feminist" makeup. I feel like we're all going backwards. Wearing makeup isn't feminist. I don't care if people wear it or not, but I wish everyone would acknowledge that there is huge societal pressure on women to do so and it comes from living in a patriarchal society where women are lauded for their beauty above all else.

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mte

People act like wearing makeup is seen as something unacceptable when it is the norm and almost required if you want to be taken seriously in most workplaces

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I'm so glad I work at a school with kids under the age of 12, it's my excuse for not wearing makeup daily (even though most of the teachers do lol). They don't really care how you look. However, the kids were *shook* when I wore a full face of makeup on picture day and could not stop staring at me.

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Wearing makeup isn't feminist.

Agreed.

But apparently everything women do has to be labeled as either feminist or antifeminist. It's ridiculous.

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ita

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thiiiiiiiis



and I mean I love makeup, I love buying it and attempting to look cute with it at least, but I'm fully aware that feeling like I have to wear foundation to go to the grocery store bc I have rosacea and acne is a deeply ingrained part of a patriarchal society where women are told from the first that we have to do more to look acceptable.



Same with doing my nails honestly. I love the result and it's really enjoyable to look down and see pretty nails, but I'm damn well aware that my likelihood of getting a job with a new manicure is increased over just bare nails and how misogynistic that is.

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ITA, it's ok to still do things while acknowledging the problems at the root of them.

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Absolutely and I say this as someone who wears and enjoys makeup. It's disheartening when you try to have a conversation about why we "choose" to wear makeup or why we style ourselves a certain way because people take it as a personal attack on them specifically instead of an examination of our cultural habits. It's the same when YouTube ~beauty gurus~ talk casually about getting lip fillers or Botox as if it's nothing and go on and on about it just being "to make themselves feel more confident" and I'm like "Can we talk about why this supposedly makes you feel more confident though...?" but noooo, people get all riled up and act like you're a "hater" and pile on so there's no possibility of discussion about the concept of makeup, plastic surgery, and how women feel we need to present ourselves in order to be "acceptable" or "pretty." It mostly bugs me because so many of their fans are SUPER young and don't really think critically about this shit yet... I mean, even I know it's kinda fucked up that I spend so much money and time putting colourful goo and powders on my face whereas a guy my age can walk around with his dark under eye circles and no one says shit to him, but if/when I do that, I'd get comments like "Are you tired?" or "Are you sick?"

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Yup. I also resent how much we have to pay for it and it's one extra thing we're pressured to budget for that men aren't.

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I had a customer come into my store and whine to one of my coworkers because the girls at my store don't always wear makeup and that "we'd be so much prettier with it on." Gross.

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feminist makeup is an oxymoron n a half



it's like saying smart american

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ty

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Everyone talking about how "IT'S FEMINISM BECAUSE I DO IT FOR ME!" have me smh. And the whole "IT'S SELF CARE!" thing.



Spending a ton of time and crazy amounts of money slathering on cosmetics every day would neither be ~feminist expression~ or ~self care~ if it wasn't an enforced norm in the patriarchal society we all live in.



If someone who had lived in space/a bubble free of human influence all their life said that, maybe i'd be more inclined to believe it as anything more than delusion.

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mfte



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totally agree and of course because capitalism the whole ~it's feminist to wear makeup!!~ nonsense has millions of teen girls dropping crazy amounts of money on the newest products, and all it does is line mens' pockets.

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this this this

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Makeup isn't feminist or anti-feminist. The idea that wearing it makes one more attractive is dependent on the wearer and application. Plenty of women don't apply makeup well and end up looking worse/not fitting into societal beauty standards although they have a ton on. Meanwhile other women don't wear any at all and would pass as naturally beautiful without it at all. It's really silly to say it is or isn't anything. It's a tool, like clothing and hair styling that allows women choices.

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Exactly



And also women's $$$$$$$$ gets spent in that shit.

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makeup shaming

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mte

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LOOKISM?? WTF?? we are definitely going backwards, i'm exhausted.

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This is killing me because I always thought of lookism as being the discrimination women face for NOT conforming to patriarchal beauty standards.

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MAKEUP SHAMING I can't



@god save us from this choice feminism hell

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Lmfao people are so fucking over the top and ridiculous about their makeup. ONTD is like 25% makeup posts now, it's sad.

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the people who follow those 29-step facial care routines boggle my mind like how do you have time for that??? i use a scrub or face wash, put on moisturizer and i'm good to go. i can't imagine having to buy dozens of products.

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I went to school to become an esthetician (haven't really used my license, oops) and we learned all about skincare, right. The toners, the masks, the steams, the massages. Know what I do? Cleanser, exfoliate, and use a moisturizer with suncreen, lol

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don't need to tell me twice.

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Honestly, KUDOS to her.



I wish my mother would have told me that instead of the opposite thing. 'You don't need makeup' is a perfectly healthy thing to say.

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yeah same cause my mom definitely told me i needed it lol

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Ugh your mom. Saw a little kid on legit baby high heels at the cafeteria and like so many people would hesitate to say anything because "maybe the little girl really wanted to be like mama". Yeah but what if she didn't and mama just thought a mini fashion model would be cute.



Let kids be kids, they can start beauty routines a few years later and then do them their entire lives lol

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Yeah, it's ridiculous. Tbf my mother commented on makeup when I was much older, and she wasn't malicious about it... she thought it would help me, and sadly enough it actually did, lol.

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same, my mother still gives me shit about not wearing makeup

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My mother was the opposite and basically said I was never allowed to wear makeup. She had (and has) a lot of weird and repressive ideas of femininity and sexuality though which kinda fucked me up, so idk, I think there must be a middle ground where a parent can let their kid have fun with it but also talk to them in age-appropriate language about sexism and the patriarchy and how it pressures women and girls into certain things...

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ia tbh

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it's only perfectly healthy if there is acknowledgement on the fact that nobody needs makeup

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yup. i did my my makeup every day in high school. my mother even bought me the expensive shit. and then when i was home for summer break freshman year in college, my mother was constantly telling me to put some blush and mascara on bc i stopped wearing it. in college i was too hungover to get up early and put 'my face' on tbh and pretty much stopped caring.

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Sis this. My mother always told me to wear mascara and a bit of eyeshadow when I was younger (because who knows you might meet a guy and what if he sees you completely barefaced?!) and went make-up free all the time. Now make-up is a hobby of mine and I genuinely love it and she feels like I use too much and have too much



Like, mom, you had a hand in promoting this and I will ensure to never do that to my future daughter.



Edited at 2017-08-27 03:51 pm (UTC)

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Seriously though. Having a 7-year-old that is already obsessing about her appearance, to me, is a slippery slope to other bad things like eating disorders. Tell her she's beautiful, she doesn't need makeup and send her out to go be a kid.

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we have this issue with my aunt and my cousin right now. my cousin is 22 and going through a really horrible break-up with a dude who cheated on her and my aunt's answer is to get all dolled up and put on make-up and my cousin's self-esteem is plummeting

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My mom doesn't wear makeup so I never was told that. I started wearing makeup in my 20s by choice. I never felt like I had to though. I look good either way imo.

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My mom never told me I needed it but then I had my dad's side of the family where we were expected to go out wearing makeup all the time (they're from Chile).

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Urgh yeah, my Mother as well is always saying that I should wear make-up more often, and that I look so much better when I make the effort. I mostly only bother with it when I'm going out for the evening these days tbh, when it's an occasion for dressing up a bit, but otherwise I'm not going to be putting on foundation, blusher etc on just to leave the house

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while ia there's a lot of people who have great skin and are conventionally attractive that always preach the ~natural look~ and ~less is more~ type of stuff and it gets annoying, but in this case it seems like she was mostly referring to her 7 yo daughter taking too long in front of a mirror? a 7 yo shouldn't be using makeup in the first place. besides, as much as i love messing with my makeup we shouldn't deny it's sad women even feel the need to completely change the shape of their face to fit beauty standards and whatnot. idk this seems like a silly reason to drag her for.

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Yeah, I agree with this. It is a lot easier for people with healthy, clear skin and who are conventionally attractive to go without makeup and still be called gorgeous than it is for those of us who look like garbage no matter what we do (lol), but on the other hand, it's a bit ridiculous that you can't even talk about why there's this pressure or expectation for women and girls to wear makeup in the first place without people freaking out about "shaming."

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Wow. The internalized misogyny charge is too much, she's not really wrong, imo.

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Exactly, the only internalized misogyny in this issue is the urge to wear makeup in the first place, due to patriarchal socialization.

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I can't with that bit lmaoo, makeup is not inherently female, how not liking it or criticizing it is internalized misogyny? or is the same case of people believing gender stereotypes = woman so if you don't like them then you are sexist? I can't.

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If my skin was flawless and I was actually pretty, I would probably not wear makeup, but since it's not and I'm not, I do.



My skin's improved a lot with being diligent with my skincare routine(s) and avoiding dairy as much as I can (goat cheese seems to be fine, but brie made with cow milk? omggggg it's cystic city which sucks because I LOVE brie ), but I'm still working on fading post-acne marks as much as I can with AHAs and niacinamide and Vit C etc. Can't really do much about the ugliness though, lmao. Also I feel like the thing that takes me the longest in my makeup routine is eyeliner because my right eye always comes out perf, but then the left eye is way too thick and I have to redo it >:(



...And I just ordered a few new single eyeshadows, an empty palette for them, and Ultra Blotted Lip in Doozy from Colourpop even though I really should not have spent that much money lmao D:

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I enjoy the fact that your username is milkradio, and you're commenting about milk.



(YOU'RE NOT UGLY THOUGH BB!! That's a LIE that the patriarchy has sold you - you're beautiful and amazing inside and out <333)

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lol i know it's so sad that dairy hates me like that! ice cream and milk and most cheese doesn't make a difference, but too much cheese ruins my skin but especially if it's brie which is my fav :'(



(but no, i am. my mother and sister are basically the only ones who've ever said i was pretty, which... yeah, doesn't count......... even when i said 'lol i'm so not photogenic, ew, i look like a goblin,' at an ugly photo of me we just took, my own 'best friend' (at the time) was like 'well at least you have a sense of humour about it,' like BITCH you're not supposed to shit on me when i'm shitting on myself wtf... not to mention i'm either invisible to men and the ones who do yell at me on the street will say something shitty like calling me a bitch or a cunt or a 'fat fuck,' so yeah, i'm no longer surprised or hurt when it happens, i just don't ever expect to be considered 'pretty' or 'hot' by anyone lmao. it's whatever at this point, man. i just wish being 'pretty' or 'hot' wasn't basically a requirement for women to be treated with basic decency, on top of being pros in our fields and having ~amazing personalities~ or whatever...)

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Commenting on the fact that women have to spend more time on their appearance is like feminism 101. That we can't even speak out against women feeling forced to wear make-up and look good, and that it starts at a young age, is really telling. Feminism is so watered down right now that we can't even critize the fact that girls feel pressure to look good and be attractive at a higher rate than boys and that this is bad? I mean... come on. "Make-up shaming", lol.

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iawtc

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Exactly

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Srsly this

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mte. it feels like we're going backwards in some aspects of feminism

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Ia! Focus has moved from what we can do as a collective to change the premise of society, to what individuals feel, and with that basis we can't actually do anything. If the answer to something like "women shouldn't feel forced to wear make-up/shave/look attractive/whatever" always can be "but I want to" we get nowhere. It doesn't matter if an individual person wants to or not, the whole point should be that no one should feel like they have to, or actually have to, which is now the case.



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I am not against this idea (for myself anyways.) I know that some people may want to spend more time applying their makeup, but things like contouring and strobbing aren't really my cup of tea  especially for just an "everyday" look.



And makeup shaming? Geez.

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It's amazing to me to see how much makeup culture has blown up in the past 5-10 years. Good grief @ the concept of "makeup shaming." Hmmm... okay.

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ok well it doesn't sound like it's something she thinks all women should abude by. it seems like a parental decision she's making for her daughter. is her daughter already wearing makeup at 7?? i stg i didn't start getting into makeup until i was in college and even now i'm not that into it.



i'm getting through swing time right now. it's the first time i've read anything by her. i thought the first 100 pages or so were good but now it's losing me. did anyone here read/like it?



last thing, i live in tx and i was just saying to my bf that there's never going to be another hurricane harvey and he retorted there's never going to be a harvey, period! and we were trying to think of the youngest person named harvey and it might be zadie's kid!

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I thought Swing Time was one of her worst books although still decent. And IA that the early parts are the best.



Honestly if you like the first bit of the book NW and White Teeth are her best books and cover a lot of the same ground (growing up biracial in council estates) much better.

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See, I was going to give Swing Time a chance. I hated White Teeth and couldn't get through NW. I think Zadie is just not for me :/

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It annoys me than in my own community its always light skin black women who be spitting shit like this not bothering to acknowledge the privilege they have for beign light skin and being seen a sbeautiful with or without makeup. These comments are stupid and annoying at this point.

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Thank you.

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exactly

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lol mte

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This is discrimination!! Us Ritabots needs to stay strong for one another!!

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wow. i don't work for Virgin but that's unfortunate. there's no written rule about taking photos with VIP but it's kind of implied we're not supposed to. some of us sneak and do it if their escort gets their permission. i've never gotten in trouble for it though.

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I don't think she took photos; it's that she talked about Rita (even if it was nice) in the service of her job. I was a flight attendant (different airline) and that would be a violation. It could lose the airline future celebrity clients if their flight attendants are going to be posting about them online. It sucks, but I can see why she was let go. :(

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true and IA. still unfortunate though. airlines are so strict. i never post photos on SM not that i have a ton of pictures or anything. [comment about certain female celeb being a fucking asshole redacted]



Edited at 2017-08-27 02:58 pm (UTC)

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Yup. Same.

I knew of people being told to take pics down if it showed even the airline name. Like even a selfie that showed the name in the background.

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There's nothing I hate more than a ritaphobe.

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came in here to say something about her workplace probably just finding out about her penisdog icon instead but i'm too late

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I don't know why I always assumed that was a hot dog.

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She was totally professional but yet was putting passenger information on social media? K.

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Was Z-list Rita Ora worth getting fired over, sis?

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Yikes. I've worked as a waitress/bartender in places that have had ~VIP clientele and the one thing they tell you over and over again is not to ask for pictures with them and especially don't post about it on social media. So her bosses were probably fairly pissed about this. If she really had to take the pic she should have at least not made a post about it.

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when will your favs?

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Wow, what an iconique way to get fired

she better write it in her resume for her next job application



ha impacT

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Charlotte Whittingham is an I C O N



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My friend is a journalist for a magazine and he gets to interview A-list celebrities and travel around the world but he never spills any tea, he only says so and so is nice and I'm like... And never ever takes photos with them because the magazine is very strict and he's not allowed to do any of that. Don't blame him, who would risk that awesome job that pays for traveling and going to nice events over some likes

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Who does he say is nice?

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he is not a friend if he can't spill any tea smh

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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ughhhh being a rita fan gets harder and harder every day

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takin her fans down with her

3 left to go

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lmao

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lool

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nice he keeps doing gay projects. is he still w his husband?

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he is.

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yeah. one of the very few out actors that still gets to do them

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I love Hugh Grant when he's doing actual acting and not just oh dear mugging, I think this'll be great

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He looks like Peter Dinklage

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omg, now I can't unsee that. They look like brothers.

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it's uncanny

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um

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I'm still so disappointed with London Spy, like, wtf was that even? He had such great chemistry with the blonde dude :(

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Yep, same. And that non-ending, wtf.

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yup...

some parts were sooooo boring. Idk how I did to watch it until the end.

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i read that as hugh dancy at first and got so excited





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oh shit, this is everything i never knew i needed!

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Where is this from?

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Ben Whishaw is just 



Also, at a glance I thought "Banana/Cucumber/Tofu" was a Benedict Cumberbatch joke. This site has ruined me.

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Banana/Cucumber/Tofu would have been awesome as a nickname.....

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Awe, I love Ben. I'm glad he's playing a lot of gay men. I hope it's a choice and not that people aren't casting him in straight roles anymore.

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he's had quite a few straight roles lately (although, not lead ones unfortunately)

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Perfume is one of my all time favorite movies

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This lgqbt friendly front page right now.

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ok speaking of gay british mini series, The Man in the Orange Shirt was posted on here and everyone made fun of how white it was. I just want to inform that the second part of the series has a really lovely interracial romance with dream wisp Julian Morris and super handsome David Gyasi. this has been a public service announcement!!!!

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thanks <3

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That Ben Wishaw's hair style in that photo is giving me Colin Morgan in The Living and the Dead vibes. It's nice.

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glad someone else pointed this out! it's eerie how similar they are.

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He took over for The Fonz just like on Happy Days.

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Why was Scott Mayo allowed to be in Arrested Development??? :/



I hate re-watching and seeing him pop up.





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I can't enjoy Bob Loblaw anymore

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Good post OP! Fuck the Baio's and anyone else that calls these attacks "false flags". Sorry you can't accept that you're on the very wrong, very violent, very racist side of history.

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I remember that dumb show he had where he thought it was cute he was 45 and still scared of commitment. I felt bad for his girlfriend THEN. Now she can rot tbh. These two miserable turds deserve each other.

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I just realized that every time I read about this the last two days, I was picturing Scott Wolf from Party of Five. I'm glad it's not. Just in case you were wondering, Scott Wolf doesn't seem to be pro-Tr*mp, but isn't a vocal opponent, either.

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Has he blocked Eliza Skinner yet? She's been on a tear against him.

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I know, right?! Like it's any better that you didn't make it up yourself when you shared it? Idiot.

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I'm sorry but if he was actually trying to provoke a conversation, you should kind of add a question mark instead of a period. Or you know, do a secondary tweet to explain what thoughts YOU had and ask for others. He's just trying to cover his ass

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As if there's a difference. I only retweet shit I agree with.

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I see the mods decided to play it fast and loose with the term 'celebrity'

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My brother's best friend's cousin died at the Pulse Nightclub shooting and he told the both of us like, it's truly so bizarre that people make up these theories that shootings like this are planned or fake or that all the people grieving are actors. He was like people were literally calling me and everyone grieving paid actors. People who believe this shit are truly sick fucks. If something horrible happens to them I wonder if they'll be so quick to doubt everything.

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I don't think he paid to too much thought, I think he just found it more bizarre. It must be like especially when you know the truth and it's personally impacting you how can anyone be so delusional to think otherwise.

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It's because they can't handle the truth, which is that shit happens, including random violence and death. If they can just figure out the key, it all makes sense, and then they can protect themselves. It's the same place that every bit of "Bad things only happen to bad people" comes from. Magical thinking.

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I know a few people who lost loved ones at Pulse and I was sick to my stomach reading comments online calling the relatives paid actors. People like that need to be committed. Idk how anyone can believe those things and be so cruel.

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WOW

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I briefly looked through some Sandy Hook conspiracy theories one time (of which I do not believe at all obviously but I wanted to see what they were even saying). It was as horrible as you think it is and one of the main screaming points is that they never released photos of the dead bodies. Like, you know, the bodies of the dead kids. Just imagine that-screaming on the internet demanding that photos of deceased children be posted for you to gawk at.

I think the fact that even some of the crime scene photos were released is awful.



That reply to Nelba Marquez-Greene is one of the more awful twitter responses I have seen. What trash.

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One of the victim's fathers actively tries to debunk the hoax (to little effect sadly) and one of the more prolific truthers told him he wouldn't be satisfied unless the dad exhumed his son's body so he can take examine it.



I wish someone would convince these ppl that drinking bleach destroys the chips the govt embedded on their brains or something

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And you know that even if that happened, those pieces of shit would still say stuff like "the dead bodies in the autopsy photos are fake" or "the dead body they exhumed in front of me was some other dead kid's body, you can't prove that it was THIS guy's son and that he was killed in that school."

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that's horrific. i have nothing for that except i honestly hope people with that mindset die, quickly, and don't take any of us with them.

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And you know for a fact that those cretins only want to get their hands on the photos to troll the families of the victims.

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they did release some of the crime scene photos??? D: hopefully it was after they'd removed the bodies of the victims.

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however, maybe your children are in a better place



Ooh I'm gonna fight her







How can someone be so ugly?

Ooh I'm gonna fight herHow can someone be so ugly?

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She's probably one of the same people who called Heather Heyer nothing but a fat whore/fat pig. They're revolting human beings and I really don't care if they lose everything in life, their jobs/homes/money/etc fucking rot!

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how do people even start to think about stuff like this? like what makes you think everything in life is a big conspiracy and the government hires people to pretend to be dead, etc? WHAT?

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I wonder this all the time like why do they think this, why do they think the government plans this? For what purpose? Is it just so people think guns are evil? Like jesus christ.

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Is it just so people think guns are evil?



And to ultimately take them away from people so when the government comes to herd people into the FEMA camps in old Wal-Marts the people can't fight back.



I get a headache trying to figure out how people can believe this stuff.

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Man I am so ashamed of my 10 yo self for being so into Chachi when it was the Fonz all along I should have been looking at.

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it's ok bb. you didn't know. I mean hell, after school as a kid a friend and i would race home to watch Charles in Charge.





kids have no taste. it's not our fault lol

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I'm just going to leave this right here. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/fWnrPFvHdz  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) August 24, 2017

He also recently blocked Alyssa Milano and a few other celebs on twitter when they hadn't even been mentioning him. #menareweak

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Yeah he blocked Kumail Nanjiani too. Basically any celeb who said anything negative about Tr**p was blocked. Snowflake.

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The paradox of plenty, natural resources are both a gift and a curse to emerging economies. Rather than providing a flourishing economy, often the result of discovering an abundance of new resources is quite the opposite.

The story is repeated over and over again throughout the world. Countries rich in natural resources have fallen victim to poverty, unrest, and tyranny.

In the 1997 study of Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andrew M. Warner, the writers suggest that rather than bolstering economic growth, countries with substantial resources often experience slower economic growth with little to no evidence to suggest geographical location or climate has any impact on this phenomenon.

There seems to be a direct relationship between reliance upon energy resources and authoritarianism. Larry Diamond of Stanford University said: "There are twenty-three countries in the world that derive at least 60 percent of their exports from oil and gas and not a single one is a real democracy.

Venezuela may be the most striking example of this occurrence right now. The country has the largest oil reserves on the planet, but is now experiencing one of the worst economic crisis in its history. Once the richest economy in South America, the country at present resembles one in the midst of a civil war. In 2014, the country saw its murder rate skyrocket.

Venezuelas overdependence on oil has led the country into a difficult position. Oil accounts for 96 percent of the countrys exports, leaving the country especially vulnerable to changes in the price of oil. Not only that, the countrys reliance on the resource has created a toxic relationship between the oil industry and the government, with corruption rampant and leaders unwilling to part with their cash cow.

On the other side of the world, Iraq has suffered a similar dilemma.

Over half of Iraqs GDP comes from oil, in fact, the countrys reserves represent 10 percent of the entire worlds total proven oil reserves.

In Saddam Husseins Iraq, the country suffered similar effects to Venezuela. Husseins regime used revenue generated from the countrys abundant resources to oppress citizens, boost the military, and funded fruitless wars with neighboring Iran and Kuwait. Additionally, the regime built large palaces and siphoned cash into their personal bank accounts.

These actions derailed the countrys economic promise and led to one of the deadliest wars in recent times.

In Africa, Nigeria was once set to breach the worlds top 20 economies. The country was experiencing a promising surge in growth. Beginning in 1956, when oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta, the country began down the dangerous path of oil reliance.

Related: Tesla Successfully Raises Funds As Cash Bleed Continues

Nigeria was hit especially hard the fluctuation of oil prices which took projects offline and crushed the nations GDP. Now, the country faces a negative growth rate and unrest. It must look toward other industries if it hopes to return to its former glory. Former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo noted: For too long, we have lived with borrowed robes, and I think for the next generation, for the 400 million Nigerians expected in this country by the year 2050, oil cannot be the way forward for the future.

It is true, diversification of a countrys economy is essential to combat this curse.

There are several countries which have identified their own overreliance on non-renewable natural resource and have begun to diversify their economies through new technological developments.

Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates are notable examples. Each has embarked on a path involving technology to ease their dependence on oil and gas.

Saudi Arabias Crown Price Mohammad bin Salman has developed the Vision 2030 plan. The plan seeks to accomplish a broad set of goals, but primarily to free Saudi Arabia from its reliance on oil. Through the development of renewable resources and consumer goods, the country aims to increase its non-oil exports as a share of GDP to 50 percent.

Saudi Arabia also aims to revamp their banking system through the use of blockchain technology to streamline its real estate sector within the country and ease trade-based transactions with its neighbors.

The United Arab Emirates is also looking to diversify. The country has recently invested $163-billion in renewable energy projects. Additionally, the UAE has unveiled its Energy Strategy 2050. Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President of UAE and the ruler of the emirate of Dubai explained: "The plan aims to increase usage efficiency by 40 percent and increase clean-energy contributions to 50 percent.

The UAE is also at the forefront of a move to streamline its government and banking sector by using blockchain technology with the goal to shift to a diversified and knowledge-based economy.

In UAEs Vision 2021, the country looks to blockchain technology to completely revamp the way the government tracks and processes data. Through the process of eliminating unnecessary complications in its bureaucratic process, the country aims to streamline its education system, healthcare, and banking sectors.

Russia may be one of the most interesting examples of diversification away from natural resources. Instead of completely abandoning its reliance on oil, the country is embarking on a path to create its own $100-billion Bitcoin mine.

Related: Goldman Sachs Warns Of Global Oil Demand Peak

The Russian government has developed a plan to create an initial coin offering (ICO) to fund a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation in which miners will use the countrys 20GW excess power capacity to mine Bitcoin in order to compete with China. RMC plans to use semiconductor chips designed in Russia for use in satellites to minimize power consumption in computers for crypto-mining, Putins internet ombudsman, Dmitry Marinichev, said at a news conference in Moscow. Marinichev added that the country has the potential to reach up to a 30 percent share in the global cryptocurrency market.

In this ambitious effort, the mining hardware is given to individuals, each of whom receive a share of the Bitcoin mined, providing not only incentive to participate, but a drastic economic shift, the outcome of which is yet to be seen.

While there may not be one simple solution in shifting away from natural resources, following these nations in their individual paths may provide solid examples moving forward. Through technology, there is now more opportunity than ever to diversify away for non-renewable natural resources.

By Michael Kern via Crypto Insider

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The electric vehicle revolution and the rapid adoption of solar and wind technology will break the worlds dependence on fossil fuels. For many countries, that will dramatically improve energy security, by reducing overreliance on volatile and unstable oil producing nations, particularly in the Middle East.

However, the switch to clean technology could swap out one geopolitical vulnerability for another. A new report looks at the geopolitics of renewable energy and concludes that the clean tech revolution will bring many new supply chain vulnerabilities just as they solve old geopolitical dependencies.

The report from Harvards Kennedy School of Government, the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs finds multiple geopolitical problems that will crop up from the spread of renewable energy.

First, the raw materials used to build solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles are often concentrated in very few  and sometimes unstable  countries. For example, more than half of the worlds cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lithium, as of now, is found mostly in the Lithium Triangle of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, although more lithium mines are opening up in Nevada in the U.S.

Also, nearly all of the worlds rare earth minerals are produced in China, and China and Russia control more than half of the worlds known reserves of rare earth minerals. This presents the possibility of a cartel forming, not unlike OPEC, to control the trade and pricing of rare earths.

Related: Oil Prices Rise As Texas Braces For Hurricane Harvey Landfall

Second, the area of finance and technology presents complications, which are more difficult to untangle. For instance, there will be fights over technology transfer, patents, anti-dumping, and the like. Developing and developed countries will clash over access to finance. Large pools of capital, such as sovereign wealth funds or state-owned companies, could dictate where and how money is spent. The effects of the clean energy revolution on the global flow of capital is still in its early stages.

Perhaps the most obvious geopolitical consequence of the switch to renewable energy is the possibility of a new resource curse that could emerge from the sale of raw materials and rare earths, creating new problems for new countries. Congo could see an influx of capital because of the demand for things like cobalt. While the country might welcome the windfall, it could also further fuel corruption and instability.

But an even grimmer scenario awaits the petro-states of yesteryear, which could become increasingly unstable as revenues dry up. What will happen in Saudi Arabia, for instance, if oil demand peaks and falls, taking oil prices down with it? Some argue that Saudi Arabia is already starting to see the writing on the wall, having declined to prop up oil prices back in 2014 in favor of a strategy of all-out production. If you have 100 years worth of oil reserves, then 25 years looks like a very short time frame, Martijn Rats, a Morgan Stanley oil analyst, told Bloomberg in an interview earlier this year.

Needless to say, Saudi Arabia has since backtracked on that market share strategy, as oil prices plunged to painfully low levels. But the partial IPO of Saudi Aramco, the implementation of new taxes, and major planned investments in non-oil activities are all part of an effort to pivot away from oil.

Saudi Arabia has blown through hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign exchange and has also turned to debt markets to plug budgetary holes. Expect more of that as the clean energy future unfolds and eats into oil demand. For weaker countries, acute destabilization is not out of the cards. There are a lot of complex reasons for Venezuelas current implosion, but low oil prices is certainly one of them.

Of course, there will be a lot of benefits to the clean energy transition. Leaving aside the obvious upside in regards to climate change  which has been discussed at length elsewhere  the economic benefits of switching to clean energy be overwhelmingly positive for most countries, the Harvard report says, although it adds that the benefits will be unequally distributed. New jobs, innovation, cheaper energy or access to energy in places that havent had it before  the benefits are too long to list here.

Related: Venezuelas Oil Fire Sale To Benefit Russia, China

To take one specific that highlights the complexity of the clean energy revolution, building out renewable energy will necessitate the transformation of electric grids, which might lead to greater interconnections across borders, reducing the incentive for conflict. The flip side of that is the proliferation of off-grid or micro-grid solutions could free countries up to pursue a more bellicose, or at least independent, path. The authors cite the case of the European Unions dependence on Russia for natural gas. If the EU broke that dependence with renewable energy, it would have been more open to harsher sanctions targeting Russias gas sector. In the future, the increasing self-reliance on home-grown distributed renewable energy could whittle away at the economic, energy, and infrastructure ties that bind nations together.

All of that is to say that the main takeaway is that the transition to cleaner energy is more or less inevitable, and while the benefits of doing so will be monumental, they also carry risks that many policymakers have yet to consider.

By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The National Disaster Management Organisation is warning of a possible flooding in areas along the White Volta in the Upper East Region following the spilling of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.



It has therefore asked farmers and residents in Bawku West, Talensi, Bunkprugu and other places in the catchment area to stay off their farms close to the riverbanks of the White Volta.



The Bagre Dam was spilled last Friday and NADMO says it could take three days for the flooding water to reach the catchment area.



Farmers in the area have defied the Ministry of Food and Agric buffer zone regulation to them to only farm 50 metres away from the White Volta.



NADMO says it has set up a 24-hour system to monitor the situation in the area. Issuing the flood alert at Galaka, a suburb of Sapeliga in the Bawku West District, National Deputy Director NADMO Abu Ramandan, said it is feared the flood would submerge some farmlands and settlements along the White Volta.



He assured that measures have been put on the ground to avert heavy impact but advised residents and farmers to be cautious.



Farmers who have farms along the riverbanks should cease going to their farms until the spillage is over. They shouldnt say they are going there to either continue with farming activities or to take their farm produce, he advised.



He warned the situation could be dangerous if people are not cautious during the period of spill, noting, the government of Ghana needs every single soul of Ghanaian.



Chief of Sapeliga, Naba Ayagiba Emmanuel Mbangiba , said the people were grateful to NADMO for alerting them but called for more education on the effects of the floods.



Director of NADMO for Bawku West, Moses Adukpam, underscored the need for NADMO to employ more staff to ensure effective running of the organisation.

Source: 3news









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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For the stream in Montana, see Baking Powder Creek

U.S. consumer-packaged baking powder. This particular type of baking powder contains monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, and cornstarch. U.S. consumer-packaged baking powder. This particular type of baking powder contains monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, and cornstarch.

Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid and is used for increasing the volume and lightening the texture of baked goods. Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid-base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture.

Baking powder is used instead of yeast for end-products where fermentation flavors would be undesirable[1] or where the batter lacks the elastic structure to hold gas bubbles for more than a few minutes,[2] or to speed the production. Because carbon dioxide is released at a faster rate through the acid-base reaction than through fermentation, breads made by chemical leavening are called quick breads.

Formulation and mechanism [ edit ]

Most commercially available baking powders are made up of sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda) and one or more acid salts. Typical formulations (by weight) call for 30% sodium bicarbonate, 5-12% monocalcium phosphate, and 21-26% sodium aluminum sulfate. The last two ingredients are acidic: they combine with the sodium bicarbonate and water to produce the gaseous carbon dioxide. The use of two acidic components is the basis of the term "double acting." Another typical acid in such formulations is cream of tartar, a derivative of tartaric acid. Baking powders also include components to help with the consistency and stability of the mixture.[3]

Commercial baking powder formulations are different from domestic ones, although the principles remain the same. Instead of sodium aluminum sulfate, commercial baking powders use sodium acid pyrophosphate as one of the two acidic components.

("MCP") is a common acid component in domestic baking powders. Monocalcium phosphate ("MCP") is a common acid component in domestic baking powders.

Baking soda (NaHCO 3 ) is the source of the carbon dioxide,[4] and the acid-base reaction can be generically represented as shown:[5]

NaHCO 3 + H+  Na+ + CO 2 + H 2 O

The real reactions are more complicated because the acids are complicated. For example, starting with baking soda and monocalcium phosphate the reaction produces carbon dioxide by the following stoichiometry:[3]

14 NaHCO 3 + 5 Ca(H 2 PO 4 ) 2  14 CO 2 + Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 OH + 7 Na 2 HPO 4 + 13 H 2 O

Starch component [ edit ]

Baking powders also include components to improve their consistency and stability. The most important additive is cornstarch,[3] although potato starch may also be used. The inert starch serves several functions in baking powder. Primarily it is used to absorb moisture, and thus prolong shelf life by keeping the powder's additional alkaline and acidic components dry so as not to react with each other prematurely. A dry powder also flows and mixes more easily. Finally, the added bulk allows for more accurate measurements.[6]

Single vs double-acting baking powders [ edit ]

The acid in a baking powder can be either fast-acting or slow-acting.[7] A fast-acting acid reacts in a wet mixture with baking soda at room temperature, and a slow-acting acid will not react until heated in an oven. Baking powders that contain both fast- and slow-acting acids are double-acting; those that contain only one acid are single-acting. By providing a second rise in the oven, double-acting baking powders increase the reliability of baked goods by rendering the time elapsed between mixing and baking less critical, and this is the type most widely available to consumers today. Double-acting baking powders work in two phases; once when cold, and once when hot.[8] Common low-temperature acid salts include cream of tartar and monocalcium phosphate (also called calcium acid phosphate). High-temperature acid salts include sodium aluminium sulfate, sodium aluminum phosphate, and sodium acid pyrophosphate.[9] Despite very low acute toxicity, exposure to aluminum salts has raised concerns regarding potential neurotoxicity.

For example, Rumford Baking Powder is a double acting consumer product that contains only monocalcium phosphate as a leavening acid. With this acid, about two-thirds of the available gas is released within about two minutes of mixing at room temperature. It then becomes dormant because an intermediate form of dicalcium phosphate is generated during the initial mixing. Further release of gas requires the batter to be heated above 140 F (60 C).[10]

History [ edit ]

Early chemical leavening was accomplished by activating baking soda in the presence of liquid(s) and an acid such as sour milk, vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar.[11] These acidulants all react with baking soda quickly, meaning that retention of gas bubbles was dependent on batter viscosity and that it was critical for the batter to be baked before the gas escaped. The development of baking powder created a system where the gas-producing reactions could be delayed until needed.[12]

German advertisement for Dr. Oetker's baking powder in 1903. German advertisement for Dr. Oetker's baking powder in 1903.

Advertisement for DeLand & Co's Chemical Baking Powder (Established 1852, Fairport, New York.) Earliest possible date: 1877; latest possible date: 1893 Advertisement for DeLand & Co's Chemical Baking Powder (Established 1852, Fairport, New York.) Earliest possible date: 1877; latest possible date: 1893

While various baking powders were sold in the first half of the 19th century, the modern variants in use today were discovered by Alfred Bird in 1843. August Oetker, a German pharmacist, made baking powder very popular when he began selling his mixture to housewives. The recipe he created in 1891 is still sold as Backin in Germany. Oetker started the mass production of baking powder in 1898 and patented his technique in 1903.

In the US, Joseph and Cornelius Hoagland developed a baking powder with the help of an employee following the American Civil War. Their formula became known as Royal Baking Powder. The small company eventually moved from Fort Wayne, Indiana to New York in the 1890s and became the largest manufacturer of baking powder in the US.[citation needed]

Eben Norton Horsford, a student of Justus von Liebig, who began his studies on baking powder in 1856, eventually developed a variety he named in honor of Count Rumford. By the mid-1860s "Horsford's Yeast Powder" was on the market as an already-mixed leavening agent, distinct from separate packages of calcium acid phosphate and sodium bicarbonate. His product was packaged in bottles, but Horsford was interested in using metal cans for packing; this meant the mixture had to be more moisture resistant. This was accomplished by the addition of corn starch, and in 1869 Rumford began the manufacture of what can truly be considered baking powder. In 2006 Rumford Baking Powder was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of its significance for making baking easier, quicker, and more reliable.[13]

During World War II, Byron H. Smith, an inventor in Bangor, Maine (U.S.), created a substitute product for American housewives, who were unable to obtain cream of tartar or baking powder due to war food shortages. Under the name "Bakewell", Smith marketed a mixture of sodium pyrophosphate mixed with corn starch to replace the acid cream of tartar component of baking powder. When mixed with baking soda, the product behaved like a single-acting baking powder, the only difference being that the acid is sodium acid pyrophosphate. A similar product is marketed today, under the name Bakewell Cream.

How much to use [ edit ]

Effective baking powder foams when placed in hot water. Effective baking powder foams when placed in hot water.

Generally one teaspoon (5 grams (0.18 oz)) of baking powder is used to raise a mixture of one cup (125 g) of flour, one cup of liquid, and one egg. However, if the mixture is acidic, baking powder's additional acids will remain unconsumed in the chemical reaction and often lend an unpleasant taste to food. High acidity can be caused by ingredients like buttermilk, lemon juice, yogurt, citrus or honey. When excessive acid is present, some of the baking powder should be replaced with baking soda. For example, one cup of flour, one egg, and one cup of buttermilk requires only  teaspoon of baking powderthe remaining leavening is caused by buttermilk acids reacting with  teaspoon of baking soda.[citation needed]

On the other hand, with baking powders that contain sodium acid pyrophosphate, excess alkaline substances can sometimes deprotonate the acid in two steps instead of the one that normally occurs, resulting in an offensive bitter taste to baked goods. Calcium compounds and aluminium compounds do not have that problem though, since calcium compounds that deprotonate twice are insoluble and aluminium compounds do not deprotonate in that fashion.

Moisture and heat can cause baking powder to lose its effectiveness over time, and commercial varieties have a somewhat arbitrary expiration date printed on the container. Regardless of the expiration date, the effectiveness can be tested by placing a teaspoon of the powder into a small container of hot water. If it bubbles energetically, it is still active and usable.[14]

Different brands of baking powder can perform quite differently in the oven. In one test, six U.S. brands were used to bake white cake, cream biscuits, and chocolate cookies. Depending on the brand, the thickness of the cakes varied by up to 20 percent (from 0.89 inches to 1.24 inches). It was also found that the lower-rising products made what were judged to be better chocolate cookies.[15]
When youre milking, it doesnt stop. The milk comes in by the bucket, and those buckets come in every day.

You have to be home to milk. There is no break until the cow or nanny goat dries up after months of milking.

An animal can be hurt by skipping her milking. She could get mastitis. She could become engorged and in pain.

Also, the refrigerator fills up fast with milk. We have big glass jars filled with milk.

A small amount, comparatively, is pasteurized for drinking. The rest is used for cheese of various kinds, from acid cheese we call paneer to cultured cheese like chevre.

Yogurt is good to make, as well. It doesnt last as long as cheese or butter. Cheese and butter allow us to take the warm seasons bounty into the summer, and sometimes into future years.

But, for those of us who think cultured foods are important for health, yogurt is actually great. It is a source of nutrition and an aid to digestion. It also tastes good.

We dont eat the processed kind. Ours is alive and tangy.

I like it plain, no sugar, no fruit. It helps me get through our ridiculous winters.

We havent been making yogurt of late. It seems easier to make in the winter months on top of the cook stoves warming cabinet. You put the cultured milk up there at night and in the morning its yogurt. There is no need for thermometers or fiddling around. Just put the mixture in the covered cup.

Then in the morning, eat it or put it in the fridge.

The world can be an awesomely productive place. As a matter of fact, it is. This is why there are price supports for dairy farmers and other commodity farmers.

Big business and big government are always trying to convince us that we can just barely keep up. Well, the U.S. actually has mountains of surplus cheese, and thousands upon thousands of tons of bread are thrown into dumpsters every day.

I have a Kenyan friend who runs an orphanage. He told me he wishes he could swim here every day just to pick up the food we throw away.

It isnt that Kenya couldnt produce more than enough food. There are some tangled reasons why all of Africa is not as productive as it should be, but the reason is not scarcity of resources, but human behaviors.

Consumer cultures, like ours, are not possible without the ability to waste. Food is wasted. Talent is wasted. Time is wasted. Energy is wasted. Potential is wasted.

Otherwise, great depressions would result, depressions caused by plenty. If there is too much of a thing, you cant get a dollar for it. Thats why consumer cultures can be called throwaway cultures.

I dont really have a fix. I live in this world, too, and participate as much as the next guy. Its not so bad for many.

Anyway, were not wasting our goats milk. The whey left over after cheesemaking mostly goes to the chickens. Cheese that doesnt work out, the same.

The cheese and dairy products we produce all get used by us or others who are very happy to get them.

So with eggs and cheese and vegetables, at least, we are producers.

Which lets us live our dual lives as average American consumers and not-so-average American throwbacks.

Its a lot of work, but its not so bad.
LAKE GEORGE  In the midst of chaotic and tumultuous times, art, literature, music and theater have often incited and soothed.

Consider graffiti artists gracing decaying inner cities with their vibrant colors and shapes, controversial tomes penned with the purpose of drawing others to rebellion and graphic images that force viewers to look.

And then there are those who create stories and venues to make turmoil fade, even if momentarily. During the Great Depression, fictional tales were printed and sold in books that easily fit inside a pocket for 25 cents, offering even the hungry a way to escape.

In the late 1960s, two such local visionaries, David Eastwood and Bruce Jordan, joined forces to create a local summer stock theater company, The Riverbend Players, kicking off what would later become known as the Lake George Dinner Theatre and today as The Lake Theatre.

It was 1968, a time of war, turmoil, protests and violence.

It was the same year that gas was about 34 cents a gallon, minimum wage was $1.60 an hour, a new car cost a little over $2,000, and the average house set back buyers about $4,300.

It was the same year that teens whispered about the real meaning behind the Beatles Hey Jude, lyrics; weed-toking hippies hitchhiked across the country spreading messages of peace, not war; and 550,000 troops fought in the tangled rice paddies and dense jungles of Vietnam.

It was the same year that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated and Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president.

But Eastwood and Jordan offered laughter and fun during such challenging times, producing the 1963 Neil Simon romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park.

Despite low turnout, the cast was excellent. For example, Mary McCormack went on to win a Tony nomination for her work on Broadway, said Terry Rabine, who has been involved with the area theater since 1970 and has owned it for the past decade. So it was a strong artistic beginning.

A year later, The Riverbend Players moved to Lake George, leased an old barn, remodeled it, installed 400 seats and called it the Towers Hall Playhouse. The first show at Towers Hall, another Neil Simon romantic comedy, Star Spangled Girl, broke even with ticket prices at $3 for adults and $2 for children.

In 1970, the theater season expanded to three shows, Fantasticks being the big hit, said Rabine, who performed in that production right out of high school. Towers Hall was home for six seasons. But there were problems. No heat. No air conditioning. And the roof leaked.

But it wasnt until 1976, after the Holiday Inn in Lake George and The Riverbend Players became partners, that the theater moved out of Towers Hall and the Lake George Dinner Theatre was born.

The rise and fall of dinner and a show

Although some draw parallels to medieval dinner feasts, the first formal U.S. dinner theater  Barksdale Theatre in Richmond, Virginia  opened in 1953.

An earlier version of dinner theater was actually started in 1949 when a restaurateur  Tony DeSantis  combined dinner and a play by producing plays in a tent next to his Illinois restaurant  the Martinique  to draw more patrons.

Still, it wasnt until the late 1970s, the same time the Lake George Dinner Theatre took shape, that they began popping up around the country. And in their heyday there were about 175, many with grand theaters that housed more than 400 for dinner and a show.

Nonetheless, a decade later, the American Dinner Theatre Institute reported that attendance had slipped dramatically, forcing more than 60 of those playhouses to close.

"Unfortunately, dinner theaters are gone," Rabine said. "There are only a handful left."

Having the distinction of being the smallest professional dinner theater in the country, the Lake George Dinner Theatre continues, now known as The Lake Theatre.

"It gets a little tight; we seat 125," Rabine said. "The benefit is the intimacy with the actors."

In the past few years, offbeat dinner theaters have been making somewhat of a comeback. Take the Teatro ZinZanni in Redmond, Washington. It's a thriving venue of cabaret and international cirque served with an elaborate meal that has been described as the Kit Kat Klub on acid.

50 years in the making

While a student at Hudson Falls High School, Rabine was cast in the Fantastics, and that summer, The Riverbend Players mounted the same production.

Three of us were invited from the high school production to join the show, he said. I was thinking, Im getting paid for doing theater.' I was paid $40 a week.

For the next several years, Rabine acted and stage-managed at Towers Hall before moving to Boston, where he earned his MFA from Brandeis University and remained for 15 years.

"I lived in NYC after Boston for four years. I continued to act while in New York," he said. "I returned to this area in 1989 and worked at Capital Rep and taught theater at Siena. I also did a lot of voice-over work for local radio and TV."

In Rabines absence, the theater company continued to grow, still offering professional summer stock. By 1976, they had moved out of the sprawling Towers Hall and into the Holiday Inn, offering dinner theater performances.

Things were a bit cramped at first. The stage cut right through the audience, almost a theater in the round, Rabine said. But the shows went on ... The Apple Tree, Broadway Bound and California Suite. And then in 1978 came a tremendous comedy success.

Co-founder Bruce Jordan wrote Shear Madness, based on a German murder-mystery, and it premiered at what was then called the Lake George Dinner Theatre with David Eastman producing.

With success after success, the dinner theater thrived. But in June 1992, tragedy struck the theater when David Eastwood, co-founder, producer and actor, died of leukemia.

But his wife, Vicky Eastwood, took over the Lake George Dinner Theatre, leading it for almost 16 more years before asking Rabine if he would take over and buy it from her in 2008.

"My agreement with Vicky to purchase the theater was to pay for the theater over a number of years," he said. "She and I still remain close friends and she is a strong supporter of the theater, which went not-for-profit in 2016."

After all these years, Rabine remains dedicated to The Lake Theatre.

"Local audiences and visiting bus tours choose from evening shows and luncheon matinees. Friendships are formed at the dinner tables over a three-course meal," he said, adding that patrons can also come for just the show, but tickets are limited.

The 2017 season brought back Neil Simons Last of the Red Hot Lovers, last produced in 1972, and it runs until Sept. 2. The second show, The Great Kooshog Lake Hollis McCauley Fishing Derby by Norm Foster, who is considered the Canadian Neil Simon, runs from Sept. 14 to Oct. 21.
Editor:

In 2014, voters reaffirmed the Conservative Party's position on Row C and in doing so made the statement that the Conservative Party has been a positive influence. With over 18,000 additional votes, voters clearly want our philosophy adopted. We provide the margin of victory in state and local races because our message resonates.

Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a position where blatant adversity is invading our core values in the town of Queensbury. The WCCP endorsed/authorized candidate incumbent Queensbury Town Supervisor John Strough because he shares our core values and is committed to them.

Candidates cannot have it both ways by undermining our role and venturing into unauthorized primaries. A candidate cannot attempt to appear on the Conservative Party line and Women's Equality Party line and claim to be a conservative. It is not in accordance with fact or reality. Both party agendas collide. There can be no commitment to any core values either way? It undeniably exhibits lack of judgment.

Should conservatives stand for the intentional intolerable destruction of our party? Answer for yourself and be cognizant that the Conservative Party has for 54 years avidly advocated on behalf of taxpayers locally and throughout New York state, fiscally and morally.

If you believe in your party, you must get out and vote for John Strough, Queensbury town supervisor, the true conservative, on Conservative Primary Day, Sept. 12, and reaffirm our mission that has been 54 years in the making.

Anton F. Cooper, committeeman-at-large, Warren County Conservative Committee
I would like to commend James Mackey and Travis Whitehead for their letters to the editor stating their opinions and viewpoints regarding Queensbury Town Supervisor John Stroughs behavior in regard to the charges of fraud and embezzlement brought against former grant writer David Decker. Mr. Stroughs lack of transparency by not bringing critical information and documentation to his fellow board members, the public and the town budget officer, raises doubts about his honesty and integrity while in office. I feel that John Strough should step down while the investigation of David Deckers case of fraud and embezzlement is taking place.

Ive been following politics much more closely over the past 15 years or so and Im very disappointed with the overall conduct of some of our legislators, whether it is at the federal, state or local level. For example, at the federal level, the voters of this great nation had to endure eight years of the worst administration of my lifetime by the anti-American community organizer Barack Hussein Obama. At the state level, we saw a number of legislators convicted of corruption while serving in office, most notably speaker Sheldon Silver, Majority Leader Dean Skelos along with Malcolm Smith, John Sampson, Eric Stevenson, Pedro Espada, and the list goes on. I feel that Albany is the armpit of political corruption. Its time for voters to pay closer attention to their politicians as they execute their positions.
Genres : Action, Crime, Thriller

Starring : Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth

Director : John Frankenheimer

Plot Synopsis

From director John Frankenheimer (Reindeer Games, The Manchurian Candidate) comes Ronin, a pulse-pounding, action-packed crime thriller featuring an all-star cast headlined by Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, Heat) and Jean Reno (Leon: The Professional).



On a rain-swept night in Paris, an international crack team of professional thieves assembles, summoned by a shady crime syndicate fronted by the enigmatic Deirdre (Natascha McElhone, The Devil's Own). Their mission: to steal a heavily guarded briefcase from armed mobsters, its contents undisclosed. But what begins as a routine heist soon spirals into chaos, with the group beset by a series of double-crosses and constantly shifting allegiances, and it falls to world-weary former CIA strategist Sam (De Niro) and laconic Frenchman Vincent (Reno) to hold the mission together.



A latter-day return to form for Frankenheimer, the film evokes the same gritty milieu as classic 70s crime fare like The French Connection, in addition to anticipating the early 21st century trend towards more grounded, realistic action movies, exemplified by the likes of the Bourne franchise. Arrow Video is proud to present Ronin in a brand new, cinematographer-approved 4K restoration, allowing this jewel in the crown of 90s thriller cinema to shine like never before.





Read our review of this disc in the site blog.
Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
The one thing I will always remember about Beth Carvey and her lifetime of work at Rock Island's Black Hawk State Historic Site is a time she talked to me about the American Indians towns in the area that is now the Quad-Cities.

Towns? I was used to hearing the word "villages" used in association with the Indians, and I asked her about that.

She chuckled a bit and said her use of the word "towns" was her way of making a statement, a way of pointing out that, subconsciously, people in general assign less importance to "villages" than to "towns" and that the places where Indians lived were every bit as important and legitimate as the towns of European settlers.

I thought that was very perceptive and it made me think then, and ever since, about how we use language and the shades of meaning, possibly pejorative, that accompany words that on their face seem innocent.

Thanks, Beth, for that enlightenment.

And thanks for your 36 years of giving tours and talks to perhaps a half-million school children, making sure history is not forgotten.

Carvey will retire Aug. 31 after 36 years (!) of working at the site. During that time, in addition to giving talks, she created displays, wrote a book titled "Twelve Moons: A Year with the Sauk and Meskwaki, 1817-1818" and personally pulled or cut out innumerable invasive plants, including garlic mustard, euonymous (burning bush) and buckthorn so that native plants would not be crowded out.

"I had my dream job," Carvey said. "It's been such an honor to work here. This is such a special place."

And made more special by people like her working there.

PLASTIC BOTTLES BACK IN NATIONAL PARKS: During a vacation swing through the five national parks in southern Utah a couple of years ago, I became aware of something I considered very wonderful: Water in plastic bottles was NOT for sale in the gift shops.

Having ready water and staying hydrated is especially important in these parks where people do a lot of hiking under a usually brilliant sun in often hot temperatures.

But instead of selling water, the rangers directed park-goers to nearby fountains where they could fill up their mouths and their reusable bottles as much as they wanted.

As with the example of Beth Carvey above, there was a point being made here. People were forced to think about why the bottles weren't there  forced to think about the untold amount of plastic created by the bottled water industry, about the untold gallons of fuel used to ship bottled water around the county, about the trash that inevitably follows, and, perhaps, the ethics of extracting water out of one community so that it can be sold at a profit by a private company to people in other communities.

Having to go to a water fountain and fill up my container made me feel proud of my country. Maybe having to do this would get at least a few people to rethink their habits.

But now plastic bottles are back.

Just recently the Trump Administration reversed the six-year policy that allowed parks to ban the sale of plastic water bottles.

The goal of the policy was to encourage Americas 417 federal parks to end bottled water sales where practical, arguing that the system needed to be an exemplar of sustainability.

Of those parks, 23 did so, but only after installation of water bottle filling stations and a campaign to inform visitors where those filling stations were.

But now it's business as usual.
Genres : Biography, Drama, War

Starring : Kate Mara, Edie Falco, Ramon Rodriguez, Bradley Whitford, and Common

Director : Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Plot Synopsis

MEGAN LEAVEY is based on the true life story of a young marine corporal (Kate Mara) whose unique discipline and bond with her military combat dog saved many lives during their deployment in Iraq. When she is assigned to clean up the K9 unit after a disciplinary hearing, Leavey identifies with a particularly aggressive dog, Rex, and is given the chance to train him. Over the course of their service, Megan and Rex completed more than 100 missions until an IED explosion injures them, putting their fate in jeopardy. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (BLACKFISH) from a screenplay by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo & Tim Lovestedt, the film also stars Edie Falco, Ramon Rodriguez, Bradley Whitford, and Common.
It is our great honor to lead our respective boards of directors in providing public television and radio services that enrich Iowas civic and cultural life and provide education opportunities for our children. During these complex times, our fellow board members are focused on ensuring the strength of public broadcasting now and into the future.

Almost everywhere you turn today, there are signs of division and disagreement across our great country. But here in Iowa we see signs of hope, especially in public media. A small taxpayer investment pays real dividends, creating more than just high-quality television and radio content  our shared missions are grounded in education, civic and civil discourse and community service.

Americas public media system raises the sights of Iowans every day. It prepares our children for school. It informs our engaged citizenry. It expands access and opportunity  over the air, via broadcast, on digital and mobile platforms and in our communities. We witness the impact of our missions each and every day; in Iowa classrooms, in Iowa families and in Iowa communities.

According to viewers, IPTV is the most trusted and safest place for children to watch television. Families tell us they see it as the best use of their kids screen time. In fact, a recent survey ranks PBS KIDS first among childrens TV networks in promoting school readiness. Parents credit PBS KIDS with their children showing more positive behavior. It makes a particular difference for children in low-income or rural communities who dont attend or have access to high-quality preschool. Public television also provides trusted and reliable learning tools for teachers, parents and homeschoolers. From Wild Kratts to Nature to NOVA, students and learners of all ages are exposed to the wonders of our world and the thrills of discovery and invention that can open doors to careers in high-demand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

More Iowans than ever before are turning to Iowa Public Radio for trusted and high quality news, talk and music programming. This year, IPRs audience has grown to over a quarter of a million listeners per week  an all-time high. National Public Radio was named the 2017 Harris Poll EquiTrend News Service Brand of the Year, and IPR listeners cite quality and depth of content as the things they most value about IPRs service. Nearly 80 percent of respondents to a recent member survey said that IPR enhances their quality of life here in Iowa. IPRs Talk of Iowa and River to River offer daily opportunities for civil dialogue about the issues facing our society, and IPRs national program offerings inform and engage and share stories that help us better understand each other.

Public media is part of unifying Americans around culture, too. At a time when funding for music and arts within our schools is being cut, public media provides access to the most sought-after performances for all Americans in every community  urban, suburban and rural. In the past year, IPTV provided a front-row seat to a behind-the-scenes making of Hamilton on Broadway as well as the Des Moines Metro Opera performance of Manon. IPR invited listeners to performances of Iowas operas and symphony orchestras and shared live sets from venues and music festivals across Iowa highlighting the states vibrant music scene.

You dont have to take our word for it. The American people believe in federal funding for public broadcasting. Its a bipartisan fact. One recent poll by the respected team of Hart Research (Democratic) and American Viewpoint (Republican) shows that more than 7 in 10 voters say public television is a good or excellent value for their tax dollars, on par with investments in highways, roads and bridges. Eighty-three percent of all voters  including 70 percent of those who voted for President Trump  say they would tell Congress to look for cuts somewhere other than public media.

In the context of the federal budget, funding for public broadcasting is a drop in the bucket, representing 0.01 percent of total expenditures. For every $100 of federal spending, public broadcasting receives just a penny. Yet this investment provides essential seed money for communities like ours, enabling public radio programs like River to River, Talk of Iowa and Symphonies of Iowa and public television programs like Iowa Ingredient, Market to Market and Iowa Press.

Federal funding is critical to ensuring we can carry out our shared missions to promote education, community service and public safety. It is important to let our lawmakers know that in many rural and underserved areas, Iowa families rely on over-the-air radio and television service.

Stations like Iowa Public Radio and Iowa Public Television exist to educate, inform, enrich and inspire our listeners and viewers. In an age of increasing polarization, public media provides rare common ground for people who come from different backgrounds and have varying perspectives. It offers elected leaders an opportunity to engage with the majority of Americans. If our leaders in Washington wish to serve their constituents, they will act to protect this fundamental American institution and strengthen it for future generations.
When Im traveling abroad and people ask me what makes America great, I have a list of things: Consistent city services like clean streets and garbage pickup. Vaccines are widely available. I say its nice to turn on the tap and always have a consistent supply of hot water. I sometimes mention, only half-joking, the incredible selection of shampoo and breakfast cereal. And I always say the thing that makes America really great is freedom of speech.

Im never afraid that Ill disappear after voicing a political opinion. Egyptian prisons, right now, are full of an estimated 40,000 arrested for speaking out against the president, including lawyers and journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 21 journalists were killed in 2017, 259 were imprisoned in 2016, and 55 are missing globally.

My dream for America is that we will always be shocked by the jailing of people for expressing opinions and that we will always have an independent press that is not state-sponsored or controlled.

I want to be on record now.

When I heard the President of the United States say from the stage in Arizona that journalists hate this country, my heart sank. He said, I really think they dont like our country. I really believe that.

And journalists across the nation started to worry. Journalists started to fear for their personal safety. So far, its just been taunts, T-shirts and finger gestures  the harmless material of rivalry. But, last week, we started to wonder out loud if there would be an incident soon  a journalist attacked, beaten or shot.

I saw journalists sharing their fears on private social media accounts and I saw the replies, Its not you. Youre one of the good ones. Its the other hypocrites." Nameless, faceless reporters who hate America.

Let me put a face on the media for a moment. The journalists I know see themselves as public servants. They are passionate about this country. They fight for it on a daily basis to make sure that government is open, that democracy is maintained. They are advocates for the First Amendment, not just so the press can speak but so we all can speak.

Most reporters I know are serious people, who believe in rules and law, who have a strict code of ethics.

Most reporters Ive know are idealists. They work long hours, under the daily stress of deadlines and high expectations of editors and readers. But, no matter how stressful it gets, every journalist I know wouldnt trade it for the world, because were doing something we believe in.

Most reporters I know are outsiders, by the nature of the profession. We do not caucus or sign petitions or put up political signs. Our role is to remain neutral, to observe and report, and not participate.

Because journalists are also human, we work to acknowledge the biases we do have -- to edit out adverbs and adjectives, deleting words like only and just. Pieces that are biased, we label as such  Viewpoint, Opinion, Column  so there is no confusion.

Journalists I know make mistakes. There are typos. There are errors. Bias slips through. And these are valid points. We should daily be held accountable.

What is not valid, what is dangerous, is to say that journalists hate this country.

A lot of other editors have written about this. The Chicago Tribune published a piece of satire. Humor -- thats how most reporters dealt with being told that the president believed they were not patriotic. They joked about it, so it didnt feel so terrifying.

Its not funny. Recently, the Committee to Protect Journalists, whose mission until now has focused on places like China, Ukraine and Syria, launched the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/)

Last week, the rhetoric crossed the line. I want to say it now before someone gets shot. I want to say it before any freedoms are taken away. I want to say this now, before Im not allowed to say it.
There was nothing unethical about Art Tate's call for justice. Iowa Board of Educational Examiners should end the prolonged unnecessary strife and place the blame squarely where it belongs, on the Statehouse steps.

The superintendent of Davenport Community Schools may have breached state law, which led to investigations into alleged ethics violations. The district's School Board may have acted as an accomplice. Together, Tate and the School Board knowingly flouted state code by spending down its reserves and, for the short term, ensuring Davenport's students get the same support as others in the state.

Illegal, probably. Unethical, not in the slightest.

It's been more than 250 days since state Education Department opened its investigation into Tate's budgetary maneuver. Under Iowa law, this entire masquerade should have been over after 180 days. Tate says the investigation is complete, but it has yet to come before examiners for a final ruling.

It's hard to finger Education Department investigators or even members of the board of examiners, however. They were, no doubt, hoping the Legislature would correct the historical injustice against which Tate and his School Board crusaded. There's a very good chance that the systematic unfairness of Iowa's funding formula gets put on trial in state Supreme Court, should examiners demand Tate's license.

At present, some districts receive up to $175 more in per-student state aid than districts on the low end, such as Davenport and Maquoketa. Iowa's disparate funding formula is a key player in a vicious cycle that hammers property-poor districts. Would-be homebuyers seek out better-funded schools. They buy homes and property in those districts. Property-poor neighboring districts  already starved by the state  bleed cash, resources and housing stock. And it's been happening for years all because of handshake politics four decades ago.

The prolonged nature of the investigation, which could end Tate's career, is evidence that education examiners are keenly aware that Tate is making a stand against injustice. His ouster would unite lawmakers, local officials, parents, School Board members and this editorial board into a nonpartisan chorus shouting disdain toward Des Moines. And Tate would attain near martyr status at the cost of his career.

Yes, education investigators and examiners clearly hoped lawmakers would rectify the situation and make it all go away. They, too, know where the blame falls here. No clear-thinking regulator or political appointee wants to grapple with the fallout that Tate's removal would ultimately cause.

But no, the Iowa Legislature was too busy celebrating its one-party domination  handing out senseless hyper-partisan victories  to actually get much of real substance through. Unions, voting access and women's health clinics were easy targets that left little time for grappling with real problems.

To be fair, Iowa Senate did ram through a bill that would have exonerated Tate and, over a decade, right the funding inequity. That fact alone proves that lawmakers aren't blind to the injustice of Iowa's school funding formula. Predictably, however, the legislation suffered an unceremonious death by neglect in the House, where members scrambled to ax programs and correct a budgetary shortfall of their own making. Lawmakers derided the budget mess and, yet, the state this past week still handed out $20 million in incentives to Apple for a new data center. That's roughly the first-year cost of the Senate's school funding fix. All told, Apple will receive more than $200 million in state and local incentives for just 50 promised jobs. And people wonder why the state's broke.

It would be tone-deaf for education examiners to ignore these realities.

Tate probably did violate state law last year when he used reserve funds to ensure students in Davenport receive the same support as those in more wealthy, well-connected districts. The board was probably complicit. But Tate's act of civil disobedience came after years of griping to lawmakers and state officials. It came after playing by the rules simply failed.

Tate's actions were likely illegal. But, in this instance, the law and basic equity are at odds.

It's the Legislature's years of inaction that violate every conceivable ethical maxim. Everyone knows it's the Legislature, not Art Tate, that should shoulder the blame. Educational examiners should say as much.
I went to a meeting about Wind Energy in Mitchell, SD this week. There I met representatives from over a dozen South Dakota counties, a member of the South Dakota legislature, county commissioners and nearly that many people from Nebraska. While I sat and listened to the many horror stories of citizens being forced to live with wind turbines near their home, it reminded me of how important our struggle against the Wind Energy scam really is.

I wonder how many land-owners willing to sign the fifty-year easement to build one of these 550-foot towers planned for sites in Nebraska are actually willing to live near one? I wonder how many Wind Energy company executives are willing to live near one? The Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln is only 400 feet tall by comparison.

The collusion between Wind Energy and government disgusts me. If the Federal Production Tax Credit for wind energy didnt exist, you would not see another industrial wind energy turbine built. As Warren Buffet said,

.on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."

He is absolutely right. Wind is an incredibly inefficient way to make electricity. Something that only makes electricity 30-40% of the time is why the industry will never stand on its own without being propped up by tax dollars. These dollars are taken by the federal government in taxation from all of us and then transferred to a few lucky people who own wind energy companies. Land owners are paid for their easement by the wind energy company with these dollars, many of whom live nowhere near the wind farm on their land. All of this is done because some wrong-headed mastermind in Washington D.C. decided wind energy was green.

Im all for green or alternative sources of energy, but wind energy is neither of these.

An industrial wind turbine will never produce enough electricity in its entire lifetime to off-set the so-called carbon footprint that was needed to manufacture, install and maintain it. Aside from tax dollars, wind is also utterly dependent on conventional power plants (coal, gas, etc) because when the wind doesnt blow, the wind farm still owes the power grid the rated generation capacity. Roughly 800 megawatts are produced by about 475 industrial wind turbines currently in Nebraska. Those 800 megawatts have to be delivered to the power grid every single day whether the wind blows or not. Additional capacity has to be built into near-by conventional power plants to pick up the slack from the wind farm when its not making power. Additional generation capacity isnt free, and its cost is reflected in the electric bill consumers have to pay. When you look at the all-in cost of electricity production, making these 800 megawatts all from coal in the first place would be greener and much cheaper than using wind.

People argue that wind energy is a private property rights issue. I hear it all the time; who are you to tell me what I can or cant do on my land? I understand this, but my question is, who pays the neighbors who had no say in the siting of these things? Who pays for their loss of property value? Who pays for the constant torment brought on by the incredible noise these turbines make? The 24/7 vibration constantly shaking their house? The flicker coming from the shadow of the blades causing migraines and nausea? Can you imagine a constant 55 decibel noise (like a window air conditioner) invading your home and there was NOTHING you could do to stop it? That was reported by a person whose house is 1.3 miles from a wind turbine. Imagine what its like for the person who is only 1000 feet from one of these things. 1000 feet is the set back the wind energy companies fight for from County Planning and Zoning Boards. Who fights for the property rights of people affected by these things?

We will meet with executives from NPPD concerning the R Line again next week. Im sure well hear the R Line has value in balancing electrical loads and relieving congestion on Nebraskas power grid. As I have stated before, I believe the chief purpose behind the current routing of the line is to service future wind energy projects in the Sandhills. I hope to convince them to change the routing and avoid the most environmentally fragile area of our State, but I am not very optimistic. The way Nebraska State laws are set up right now, the only citizen recourse to an NPPD board decision is litigation in the courts. Nebraska doesnt have a Public Utility Commission like many other States do. There is no entity of Nebraska State government to which a citizen can appeal an NPPD board decision.

Whether they keep making electricity or not, these gigantic steel and concrete structures will be there for generations, monuments to the greed of a few in a short-sighted land rush to hurry up and get them built and collect their profits off the backs of tax-payers before Uncle Sam wises up and shuts off this gravy train. This is despicable public policy. It hurts people. It hurts Nebraska, and Im going to do everything I can to stop it.

Please contact my office with any comments, questions or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov or call us at (402) 471-2628.
JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. | Explosives Ordinance Disposal technicians from around the U.S. Air Force participated in Operation Llama Fury 3.0, an EOD-specific exercise, Aug. 7-11, 2017, at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

Throughout the five-day event, EOD Airmen from Air Combat Command, Global Strike Command and Air Mobility Command, as well as a local Police Bomb Squad from Norfolk, Virginia, standardized EOD tactics, techniques and procedures through exercises that mimicked situations they could face at home or during overseas contingency missions.

The EOD mission is to neutralize whatever explosive threat presents itself and endangers lives, said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Taylor Saum, 633rd CES EOD member and OLF 3.0 exercise coordinator. This event presents numerous EOD challenges in situations that may not be routine for the participants. Llama Fury provides an excellent measure of each EOD teams current capability, and allows our community to share best practices.

The evaluations, or round robin activities, encompassed identifying, safely rendering and disposing conventional and chemical ordinances as well as improvised explosive devices, which they also had to collect evidence of.

After the teams rotated through the scenarios, they applied what they learned to work together in the culminating event, the crucible.

Staff Sgt. Timothy Donnan, 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal team leader, described the crucible as a gauntlet of tests, which mirrored wartime missions as it tied the weeks lessons into one night operation.

Low level is a condition that we like to try travel in when at war, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan being that night gives us the element of surprise, said Donnan. Just like in every kind of capability, even when driving, things are a lot different when you do them at night, and we want make sure we're always ready for that.

According to Tech. Sgt. Isiah Armstrong, 23rd CES EOD quality assurance and training section chief, OLF 3.0 will provide far-reaching benefits for more than those who attended.

I thought this was a great way to get them training on a scenario thats very possible, but not a lot of technicians have come across within the career field. They learned a lot to take back to their units and integrate into their training programs, said Armstrong. Across the career field we now can spread this knowledge and become better and provide safety and security for military as well as civilian populations.

As for civilian safety involving the finding of UXOs, especially in the local area, the devices are dangerous no matter what state they're in and EOD technicians or local bomb squads should handle the potential danger that may impact the local area.

At some point Virginia has either been a battlefield or a bombing range so there were many UXOs in the community, said Donnan, 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal team leader. Civil War, Revolutionary War and modern day UXOs were still found in this area, so it's very important to get the word out that we are here.
President Donald Trump signed proclamations Monday to significantly shrink two large national monuments in Utah after his administration reviewed sites nationwide.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made recommendations earlier this year about 27 monuments, including some boundary and rule revisions but no eliminations. Trump has yet to announce decisions on the other protected lands besides the two monuments in Utah: Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears.

The reduction in Utah is expected to trigger a legal battle.

A closer look at the issues that led to the review:

WHAT IS A NATIONAL MONUMENT?

The 1906 Antiquities Act, enacted under President Theodore Roosevelt, empowers the president to declare as national monuments any landmarks, structures and other "objects of historic or scientific interest" on land owned or controlled by the federal government.

Roosevelt established 18 monuments, including the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Most presidents since then have designated additional monuments. Congress has created others.

Most monuments are overseen by the National Park Service, although rules for their protection are less strict than for national parks.

Some are cared for by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service or the Forest Service. Each agency has policies for safeguarding the land while also allowing some public use. For instance, policies can include limits on mining, timber cutting and recreational activities such as riding off-road vehicles.

A CONTENTIOUS HISTORY

Many national monument proclamations have enjoyed broad support. Others have been fiercely contested in Congress and the courts, including designations by Franklin D. Roosevelt (Jackson Hole National Monument, now Grand Teton National Park); Jimmy Carter (vast lands in Alaska); and George W. Bush (Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument northwest of Hawaii).

Trump's choice of Jan. 1, 1996, as the starting date for his review was prompted by lingering resentment among Utah conservatives of Bill Clinton's designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that year.

Critics say presidents increasingly are protecting areas that are too large and do not fit the law's original purpose of shielding particular historical or archaeological sites. Designating millions of acres for scientific observation or sheltering rare species, they contend, is a "federal land grab" that ignores the wishes of local residents, although the lands already belonged to the government or were under federal control.

Zinke says the pendulum has swung too far toward protecting public lands and away from the "multiple use" concept advanced by Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the Forest Service and an early leader in the conservation movement.

Monument supporters say the designations are essential to protect sensitive areas from looting and damage. Complaints about people getting kicked off the land are exaggerated, they say, and opposition fades as nearby communities benefit from tourism the monuments attract.

A recent study by the nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics found that indicators such as employment, population and per capita income held steady or improved in sections of the U.S. West where monuments larger than 10,000 acres had been established since 1981.

LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Some monuments have been downsized over the years, either by presidential order or by Congress, while others have been enlarged. No such actions have been contested in court. No president has tried to revoke a predecessor's designation of a monument.

The Antiquities Act does not explicitly say whether a president can nullify a monument proclamation or reduce a monument's area. A legal analysis commissioned by the National Parks Conservation Association cites a 1938 opinion by then-Attorney General Homer Cummings, who wrote that a monument designation has the force of law and can be reversed only by Congress.

A House report accompanying the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 agreed, as do some environmental attorneys.

But a study for the conservative American Enterprise Institute released in March argues that when Congress authorizes the executive branch to write regulations, the power to repeal them generally can be assumed. That's especially so, it says, when a president is correcting a predecessor's act that exceeded what a law intended  such as creating vast monuments when the Antiquities Act says they should consist of "the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected."

WHAT'S NEXT?

Hours after Trump signed the proclamations, environmental groups on Monday sued to block his decision to scale back Grand Staircase-Escalante. Native American tribes also plan to sue to stop the reductions, and the lawsuits will likely trigger lengthy court battles.

Congressional Republicans have measures pending that would deny the president unilateral authority to designate future monuments, requiring approval of Congress or the governors and legislatures in affected states. Some would add further conditions.

The House Committee on Natural Resources approved legislation in October that would prohibit new monuments larger than 85,000 acres or within 50 miles of an existing one. Designations of areas larger than 10,000 acres would need backing from affected counties and states. Presidents could reduce the size of existing monuments, in some cases unilaterally and in others with approval of state and local officials.

The bill, which was introduced by Utah Republican Rep. Rob Porter and is awaiting a floor vote, also would limit what is eligible for protection under the Antiquities Act to "objects of antiquity" such as relics, artifacts and fossils. Designations no longer could be made on the basis of historical or scientific interest.
Jim Vargovichs role in the History Channels new Blood Money series is about the future as well as the past.

The owner of Double J Fencing said he was surprised when his business received an email about a year and a half ago from a production company saying they wanted to talk to him about a show.

I was like Yeah, right, Vargovich said.

The shows producers were looking for successful startup companies whose owners wanted to pass the business onto their children, and Vargovich fit right in. In business since 2012, Double J Fencing claims to be one of the largest fencing companies in Montana.

I replied to their email, and the next thing I knew, my phone started ringing off the hook, he said. The series is a different take on generational gaps; it isnt talked about much, but it makes business owners think about giving the business to their children without the proper education and work ethic.

The story is based on people who built a business from the ground up and offering our children an incentive and challenge.

In Vargovichs case, that challenge involved having his 16-year-old son, Talon, build a custom fence to hold in bison. He doesnt want to go into details and give away the shows ending, but notes that if successful, his son would get a $50,000 college scholarship.

Lets just say my son got his ass kicked from fighting fire, building fence, packing iron and moving buffalo, Vargovich said, laughing.

Susan Levoli, a vice president for publicity at the A&E Network, which is home to the History Channel, confirmed this week that Vargovich is part of a series for the History Channel, but declined additional comment.

Vargovich said that while the shows producers were interested in his son and the challenge, his personal history also piqued their curiosity. He said he had a pretty ragged childhood.

He joined the Army after high school, and eventually made his way to the Bitterroot Valley.

They had a lot of interest in my backstory, Vargovich said.

His also is the story that many Americans no longer see, Vargovich said  a story about people taking on the challenges of constructing something from the ground up, complete with their celebrations and tears. In addition, his business focuses on employing veterans, which Vargovich said adds layers to the story and is a challenge for all of America to undertake.

The actual filming was a bit disruptive, Vargovich said, but at the end of the day they stayed on task. The filming wrapped up about three weeks ago.

We were pretty focused on our work, Vargovich said. I think it was educational on both sides. They were enthralled with the Double J story; they said they had no idea businesses like this existed.
The Bitterroot Valleys state-run Job Service office is closing.

The six employees, and one temporary staffer, were told Wednesday that due to ongoing reductions in federal spending, their jobs are being cut effective Oct. 31, and people in Ravalli County who are searching for work will need to use the Missoula facility.

Job Service offices in Anaconda, Dillon and Lewistown also will be shuttered, according to Scott Eychner, the Workforce Services administrator for the Montana Department of Labor, affecting a total of 16 employees.

The irony of Job Services losing the jobs isnt lost on those involved in the decision.

We are offering six positions for those 16 people who are impacted, Eychner said, which includes two positions in the Missoula office. Unfortunately, this is what it will look like when funding gets cut. It translates to fewer opportunities for Montanans.

Jake Troyer, the Department of Labors spokesman, noted that since 2002, the federal Workforce Services Divisions federal funding has plummeted 55 percent, from $33 million to $15 million. Closing the four offices will save an estimated $800,000.

Vickie Steele, who manages the Bitterroot Job Service office and has worked there for about 25 years, said between telephone calls and walk-ins, they serve about 100 people each day. She understands the reasons behind the office closure, but is worried that people who are unemployed may not be able to afford to drive to Missoula. Shes hoping Job Service may provide a staff person travel to Hamilton once or twice a week.

None of the bugs have been worked out yet, but I want to reassure our clients that they will continue to be served, just from a little farther away, Steele said. Many people contact us by phone or electronically, so the distance hopefully will not be that far for folks.

Its too soon to know how this all will pan out in specifics. But I want to reassure folks in Ravalli County that we will make every attempt to serve them well.

Steele said that while many people call Job Service the unemployment office they offer a wide range of services.

Our customer base is both those seeking work and those wanting to post jobs . Theres a myriad of things that we do that are far beyond just matching job seekers with employers needs, she said, adding that they also help update resumes, teach interview skills, and administer grants that help improve job skills.

One item that wont change is filing for unemployment. Thats been moved mainly to an online process, and will continue as normal at https://app.mt.gov/ui4u/index. Other online services are available at https://jobs.mt.gov/jobs/home.seek
Genres : Documentary, Nature

Plot Synopsis

Ireland's Wild Coast is a journey along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world, featuring the wildlife and wild places that make it so special. As never captured before, this series features Ireland's west coast and wildlife wonders from the Skellig Rocks; to breaching humpback whales; to golden eagles; to majestic salmon; to the clash of Ireland's last surviving red deer stags.
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By REUTERS

PANCHKULA, August 27: Indian authorities have arrested hundreds of people and canceled more than 300 trains passing through two northern states after at least 29 people were killed in violent protests following the conviction of a self-styled godman.

Security forces were on standby outside the spiritual leaders headquarters where some 10,000 followers remained holed up, the Director General of Police in Haryana state, Baljit Singh Sandhu, told India Today news station.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group with a wide following in Punjab and Haryana states, was found guilty on Friday of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in the northern town of Sirsa.

Supporters rampaged in response, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, witnesses said.

At least 29 people were killed in Panchkula town where the court returned its verdict on Singh and more than 200 people were injured, mainly in Haryana state.

The protests, about 250 km (155 miles) from the Indian capital New Delhi, was one of the biggest this year related to a godman spiritual leader.

About 524 people had been arrested, Ram Niwas, a top Haryana administrator, told Reuters.

Authorities said they were bracing for Singhs sentencing on Monday when there could be more violence.

A spokesman for the northern division of Indian Railways said 340 trains have been canceled on Saturday as a precaution.

Were monitoring the situation but we may have to cancel more trains, Neeraj Sharma told Reuters.

Security personnel were still guarding Panchkula, which was among the worst affected towns during the violence, as some shops started to reopen and people came out of their homes.

I was just speaking with an army general to continue patrolling in Sirsa, said Niwas. Weve asked everyone to continue effective patrolling, because the (sentence) will be announced the day after.

Singh is also under investigation over allegations that he convinced 400 of his male followers to undergo castration. He denies those charges.
Kathmandu, Nepal : Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba returned to home on Sunday after concluding his five-day state visit to India.

PM Deuba had left for India for the maiden visit after assuming the top executive post on June 7.

PM Deuba has made a claim that his state visit to India became success. During his five days long state visit he had met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, External Affairs Ministers and opposition party leaders, among others.
By REUTERS

BHUBANESWAR, August 27: The death toll from floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal has climbed above 1,200, officials said on Friday, as rescue workers scramble to provide aid to millions of people stranded by the worst such disaster in years.

All three countries suffer frequent flooding during the June-September monsoon season, but international aid agencies say things are worse this year with thousands of villages cut off and people deprived of food and clean water for days.

Government officials in Indias eastern state of Bihar said at least 379 people had been killed over the past few days, with thousands sheltered in relief camps away from their inundated homes.

This year farming has collapsed due to floods and we will witness a sharp rise in unemployment, said Anirudh Kumar, a disaster management official in Patna, the capital of poor Bihar state known for mass migration to cities in search of jobs.

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, at least 88 people were killed when floods swamped nearly half of the vast state of 220 million people.

Rajan Kumar, a federal interior ministry official in New Delhi overseeing the rescue and relief operations, said at least 850 people had been killed in six flood-affected states in the past month.

A second wave of floods led to widespread destruction, he said. We will have to provide immediate rehabilitation aid to help millions affected directly.

NEPAL, BANGLADESH

In Nepal, 150 people have been killed and 90,000 homes destroyed in what the United Nations is calling the worst flooding there in a decade.

In Bangladesh, at least 134 people have died and more than 5.7 million been affected directly as monsoon flooding submerged more than a third of the low-lying and densely populated country.

Crops on 10,583 hectares have been washed away while another 600,587 hectares of farmland have been partially damaged, according the disaster ministry, in a big blow to the farm-dependent country which lost around 1 million tonnes of rice in flash floods in April.

I could not find a single dry patch of land, said Matthew Marek, the head of disaster response in Bangladesh for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, who made an aerial assessment of the worst affected parts of the country.

Farmers are left with nothing, not even with clean drinking water.
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August 27, 2017

SCOTUS fills out Fall docket with little prisoner lawsuit fee-award case

As reported here by Amy Howe via SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court this past Friday issued an unusual mid-summer cert grant a full month before their usual late September "long conference." Here are the basics:

[I]n a relatively unusual summer order, the justices [on August 25] added a new case, involving the interpretation of a federal law governing the award of attorneys fees to prisoners who prevail in civil rights cases, to their docket for the fall. [This] grant came in a case filed by an Illinois prisoner, Charles Murphy, who was awarded over $300,000 after he prevailed in a lawsuit alleging that corrections officers had badly beaten him, causing permanent damage to his eye. A provision in the Prison Litigation Reform Act indicates that, when a prisoner like Murphy is awarded money in a civil rights lawsuit, a portion of the judgment (not to exceed 25 percent) shall be applied to satisfy the amount of attorneys fees awarded against the defendants. The dispute now before the Supreme Court centers on exactly what the phrase not to exceed 25 percent means: Does 25 percent of the money awarded to the prisoner have to go toward his attorneys fees, before the defendants must also contribute to the fees, or can the district court require a smaller portion of the attorneys fees to come out of the prisoners award? In Murphys case, the district court awarded attorneys fees of approximately $108,000. It ordered Murphy to pay 10 percent of his award  approximately $30,000  to his attorney, with the roughly $78,000 remaining to come from the corrections officers. But on appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed the district courts ruling on the attorneys fees award. It interpreted the phrase not to exceed 25 percent to mean that 25 percent of the prisoners award was required to go to attorneys fees; under this construction, the corrections officials would have to pitch in only if the prisoners attorneys were still owed money after that. The court of appeals therefore ordered Murphy to contribute approximately $77,000 (rather than roughly $30,000) of his award to his attorneys; this left corrections officials on the hook for only approximately $31,000 (rather than the $78,000 that they owed under the district courts order). Murphy took his case to the Supreme Court, where he urged the justices to step in and resolve a conflict between the 7th Circuits interpretation and those of several other circuits that would give district courts discretion to decide how much of a prisoners award should go to his attorneys. The 7th Circuits rule, he argued, leaves prisoners whose constitutional rights have been violated with smaller net recoveries than Congress intended them to receive. Opposing review, the corrections officers ... effectively conceded that the courts of appeals are divided on how to interpret the phrase not to exceed 25 percent. But, they emphasized, the conflict is not as widespread as Murphy suggests, because only two courts of appeals have squarely held that the PLRA gives district courts discretion to choose any portion of the judgment up to 25% to apply to a fee award. And in any event, they added, the issue arises relatively rarely, because virtually no prisoners in PLRA cases are even represented by attorneys, much less prevail and receive money damages.... The [SCOTUS] calendar for October arguments is full, bolstered by two cases in which the justices are hearing oral arguments for the second time and two other cases  involving the Trump administrations travel ban and a challenge to Wisconsins redistricting maps  that are being argued earlier than they might normally have been. But the court still has 12 days of arguments (for a total of up to 24 arguments) to fill in the November and December sittings, with only 17 hours worth of arguments before todays grant. [This] grant should allow Murphys case to be briefed in time for oral argument in December, bringing the total of November and December arguments to 18.

Though I suppose it is useful for SCOTUS to settle a circuit split on this little fee issue, I find it more than a bit intriguing and ultimately frustrating that a rare dispute over how much a prisoner must pay his lawyer is now going to get more SCOTUS attention than far-more-common disputes over, say, how much time a juve offender can gets under Graham and Miller Eighth Amendment precedents or whether and how guideline enhancements based on acquitted conduct may be problematic in some cases given Apprendi/Booker Sixth Amendment jurisprudence. It seems a clear circuit split on a little issue that impacts a handful of prisoners still has a better chance of garnering SCOTUS review than challenging sentencing issues that can impact thousands of cases every year.

August 27, 2017 at 02:26 PM | Permalink

Comments

If it were only "a portion not to exceed 25%" I would agree with the district court, but the addition of "shall" changes that and I have to agree with the circuit court.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Aug 27, 2017 3:44:27 PM

It's easier for them to agree to settle a non-controversial dispute.

You know this, obviously, but so it goes. They are dealing with some controversial matters early in the term. Those things will likely be covered eventually. But, with the future of the Court in dispute past the upcoming term, they also might not want to take cases with short shelf lives either. Unless there is a way for them to decided 6-3 or something.

Posted by: Joe | Aug 28, 2017 11:25:23 AM

Looking at the textual language, it can be read in both ways: a) as granting the district court discretion in determining the share of the judgment that can be used to satisfy the plaintiff's attorney's fees (with the rest to be paid by the defendant); and b) creating a presumption that the attorney's fees will be paid from the judgment with a non-discretionary cap on the share of the judgment that will go to attorney's fees (with any excess to be paid by the defendant). Neither reading is particular compelled by the statutory language nor an unreasonable interpretation of the statutory language.

It will be interesting to see whether the parties and the justices turn to legislative history to resolve this ambiguity or turn to one of the default "tie-breaker" canons of construction.

Posted by: tmm | Aug 28, 2017 12:13:17 PM

This is a poorly drafted statute--and I am just asking, but shouldn't the prisoner lose? Wasn't it the responsibility of his attorneys to ensure that the form of verdict had an adequate breakdown of damages/fees? Seems to me that, if possible, that's the way to cut the Gordian KNot.

Curious everyone's thoughts on that.

Posted by: federalist | Aug 28, 2017 4:08:07 PM

Federalist, in most civil rights cases, the trial court may award attorney's fees to the prevailing party under 42 USC 1988(b). This award is separate from the award of damages. Under current practice, this award is made by the trial court after the trial is over (since it may include post-trial work as well) not by the jury. The award of attorney's fees is separate from the award for damages.

In this specific case, based on the judgment in the appendix to the petition for certiorari, the jury's verdict apparently itemized the damages awarded to the plaintiff's. After the verdict, plaintiffs then filed their motion for attorney's fees which was awarded by the trial court. In theory, I guess the law could be re-written to have the jury award the attorney's fees although I shudder to think of the complexity of an instruction on what time is compensable. It would not solve the problem, however, because in this case, the calculation of attorney's fees is clearly separate from the calculation of damages.

Posted by: tmm | Aug 29, 2017 11:18:18 AM

thanks tmm--seems to me, though, that the attorneys were incented to deal with this on the front end, rather than the back end . . . .

So, to put the question in reverse, if you were taking a PLRA case to trial, how would you ensure that attorneys fees were added to the base damages? Isn't this statute somewhat like the typical limitation found in private bills which often limit the amount an attorney can get from the award to 10%? That would be taken from the total award.

The statute is weird. It looks like, as drafted, it could be read to interfere with the fee agreement. That doesn't make a lot of sense either.

I think if the issue is just not to exceed 25%, then the district judge is probably within his/her rights--the statute seems to contemplate that the amount is capped at 25%, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the court is required to pick that percentage--10% is a portion of the award. Even 1% is a portion of the award and it is being applied. The Seventh Circuit appears to be interpreting the statute to say: "All attorneys fees awarded by the court to the prisoner shall be satisfied out of the judgment against the defendant, but if such amount exceeds 25% of such award, then the excess will be payable by the defendants."

I think the backdrop is that if discretion isn't controlled, the court is presumed to have it. So since tit isn't clear that the court cannot pick less than 25%, then it can.

Posted by: federalist | Aug 29, 2017 4:46:31 PM

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Saturday morning began with the SFPD closing down Alamo Square Park and shutting down streets within a two-block radius, all after Patriot Prayer organizer Joey Gibson had announced Friday that he would be having an afternoon press conference there in place of a canceled rally at Crissy Field. He ended up having no such press conference, but protesters appeared in droves, with several hundred gathering Saturday by noon for an impromptu rally against hate at the corner of Hayes and Steiner, after being denied entry to the park.

State senator Scott Wiener, who attended the march and rally, told the Golden Gate Express, "We had these fascists coming to town to try to provoke us, and we responded with a message of love and inclusion."

A separate rally was happening around the same time on Castro Street, where drag queen Juanita More, activist Cleve Jones, and a crew of speakers from Bay Area labor and activism communities spoke out against the kind of bigotry and white nationalism that was on display two weeks ago in Charlottesville  and which many imagined would arrive in San Francisco in tandem with the Patriot Prayer event.

The Bosslady has spoken.  @missmore8 #juanitamore #sanfrancisco #castro #cometogetherrally #harveymilkplaza #resist #whattheworldneedsnowislovesweetlove A post shared by Gianni Lyle (@fogpirate) on Aug 26, 2017 at 1:48pm PDT

The infuriatingly dense Gibson, meanwhile, held some kind of press conference in Pacifica Saturday afternoon, and then, as the Chronicle reports, showed up in Crissy Field anyway by late afternoon, flanked by "about 20 would-be rally participants, some of whom said they had come from Oregon and Washington to attend the aborted rally." Gibson and the others used the opportunity to again say they'd been mischaracterized as racists, and say something about the antifa being out to get them  even though there were no "antifa" in evidence Saturday, just San Francisco coming out to protest.

Thousands marched from both the Castro and Dolores Park to Civic Center, where a rally and concert went on into the afternoon, featuring performances by Michael Franti and Spearhead, Malo and the Brothers Comatose, and others.




125 Years Ago

Sunday shaving ban: The union barbers are still after those of their fellow craftsmen who insist on keeping their shops open on Sundays. Aaron and Joe Buckman were arrested on a charge of violating the Sabbath.

Fishing mishap: J. F. Peavey is confined to his home by reason of injuries to his face received while fishing at McCook Lake. In a friendly tussle with J. M. Cleland, he ran his eye against the end of an oar.

Obscene news: Chief of Police Hawman says that if newsboys cry the Chicago Sunday Sun on Sioux City streets they will be arrested for distributing obscene literature. The action is taken because of the recent sensational and libelous articles relative to prominent Sioux City people. Police intend to suppress the sale of this paper here for the same reason it has been suppressed in other cities.

100 Years Ago

Hip-pocket bootleggers: Hip-pocket bootleggers were responsible for 15 offenders who were charged with intoxication and appeared in police court. Booze squad leader Fred Spencer said the bootleggers are peddling the liquor from their pockets, which makes it almost impossible to catch them. Some of them are smuggling liquor in from Minnesota. The offenders were fined $25 or seven days in jail.

Baby parade: There were 250 future citizens who took part in the 14th annual baby parade in the Childrens Park Tuesday afternoon. The children gurgled and cooed as they passed in review before their fond mothers and relatives. The children were dressed in all manner of costumes, including Little Red Riding Hood, Old Mother Hubbard, Uncle Sam, Maj. Gen. Pershing, cowboys, Scotch lads and lassies and Red Cross nurses.

Making news: Architect William L. Steele will attend the laying of the cornerstone of the new $75,000 St. Frances Catholic Church Monday at Randolph, Neb. The second death of infantile paralysis to occur within a month in South Sioux City took place when Arthur Curry, 3, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Curry, succumbed to the malady. The paving of Douglas Street between Fourth and Sixth streets is completed and the street will open to traffic this week.

50 Years Ago

Day MIA: Veteran Air Force pilot George. E. Bud Day, 42, a former Sioux City resident, has been listed missing in action in North Vietnam while flying a mission. No details were given. Maj. Day, a graduate of Central High School and Morningside College, left for Vietnam on Easter Sunday, 1967, according to his sister-in-law Mrs. Russell Powell, 2119 Bryant St. His wife, the former Doris Sorensen Day of Sioux City and their four children live in Phoenix. (He was on his 65th mission in North Vietnam and was a prisoner-of war for five years, seven months.)

Macy pow-wow: Donald Lone Wolf of Winnebago won the first place prize of $60 in his performance in the Nebraska Centennial Pow-Wow presented by the Omaha Tribe in Macy, Nebraska. Second place winner was Howard Fox of Winnebago, winning a $40 prize. Indians from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and from as far as Boston, Mass., gathered in Macy for the event, which drew hundreds of entrants and spectators including 11 young foreign visitors from Brazil, Paraguay and Peru.

Under construction: Members of the new Nativity Catholic Parish in south Morningside have been spending much of their spare time this summer building a house for their priest, the Rev. Leo C. Harpenau. The house at 4242 Natalia Way is across the street from the $300,000 parish center which is under construction. The Rev. Harpenau hopes to move in by Christmas and use it as his rectory until a permanent rectory is built. Money from the sale of the current rectory at 2731 S. Cecelia St. will be used to pay for materials on the new house.

25 Years Ago

Orpheum closes: After 65 years as a center for movies and performances, the Orpheum Theater has reportedly closed its doors. The theaters lease is up at the end of August and wont be renewed. In recent years, the Orpheum, at 528 Pierce St., has offered $1.50 tickets for movie-goers. Restoration activists say the Orpheums doors wont be closed for long, according to Irving Jensen, president of the preservation project. He said the organization is getting closer to purchasing the historic theater.

In the news: Lucy Miller-Harris, vice president of development at Goodwill Industries, has earned certification from the National Planning Giving Institute. Sioux City native Dave Nixon, Jr. will join KTIV Channel 4 as news director. He is the son of former long-time Channel 4 news anchor, Dave Nixon. Harvey Sanford long time copy editor and police reporter at The Journal has retired after a 30-year career.

Vote on recorders office: Voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to abolish the Woodbury County Recorders Office after 7,808 signatures were presented to election officials. Only 524 signatures were required to put the measurer on the ballot. The initiative would reassign the duties of the auditors and treasurers offices, according to Charese Yanney, chairwoman of the Efficient Government Group.

These items were published in The Journal Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 1892, 1917, 1967 and 1992.
SIOUX CITY -- The Turquoise Tractor of Sioux City was voted into the final round of the 2017 Boutique Awards in the state of Iowa as a contender for Online Boutique of the Year and Overall Boutique of the Year.

The Boutique Awards is the only global recognition event for independent boutique retail owners in the fashion industry, hosted by The Boutique Hub. The Awards recognize and celebrate the best boutiques across all 50 States in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, in the categories of Storefront Boutique of the Year, Online Boutique of the Year, Childrens Boutique of the Year, Mobile Boutique of the Year, and State or Country Overall Boutique of the Year.
As the summer movie season comes to an end, it's clear there was no winner in the comedy sweepstakes. "Girls Trip" and "Rough Night" did business, but they weren't exactly classics.

Continuing the "Bridesmaids" concept -- women bonding on a trip -- "Rough Night" looked good but really tanked, largely because the premise tried to recover from an accident that happens much too early in the story.

Five friends in Miami to celebrate ones impending marriage welcome a male stripper into their home. One gets a little aggressive with him, he hits his head on the corner of a fireplace and dies.

What to do? Weekend at Bernies dealt with a similar problem, but it wasnt caused by the ones trying to hide it. Here, weve got an episode of How to Dispose of a Body. Theres a halfhearted attempt to make the five justified but it never quite works. Once the stripper goes down, the fun ends.

Scarlett Johansson plays the bride-to-be, a woman running for office. Jillian Bell is the party planner who wants to show everyone just how tight the two are. Throw in two besties, one rich and unhappy (Zoe Kravitz), the other poor and militant (Ilana Glazer), and an exchange student from Australia (Kate McKinnon) and the film could have clipped along nicely without the death.

Because Bells character doesnt realize how obnoxious she is, the weekend becomes an eye-opener in more ways than one. She battles rejection; Kravitz toys with the neighbors next door (Ty Burrell and Demi Moore). Paul W. Downs shows up, too, as Johanssons fiance who decides to drive day and night to prove his love (and discover why shes not answering her phone).

Theres plenty to consider without the cover-up. With it, Rough Night becomes a slog to the end, particularly since there are diamond thieves lurking in the neighborhood.

McKinnon gamely tries to get the kind of quick laughs she earns on Saturday Night Live but even her oh-so-good Aussie accent cant hide what others have written. Kravitz is appealing, too, but given almost nothing to do. Without her close encounter with the neighbors, she could have been eliminated from the film and no one would have been wiser.

Director Lucia Aniello peppers the story with plenty of pop culture references (remember the sad astronaut?), aiming this at a specific demographic. Routinely, Rough Night doesnt graze its target.

There are too many familiar moments to make it as fresh as The Hangover or as surprising as Bridesmaids.

Rough Night wants to play in the same arena (heck, it was probably pitched in that context) but it doesnt have the necessary skills. The actors are fine (even though Johansson can be counted on for more laughs than shes asked to land) but this isnt anything more than a series of unfortunate and unmotivated incidents. Rough night, indeed.
SIOUX CITY | Three years ago, after hearing the story of a woman in her 50s, who had been drugged, raped and forced to service men as a teenager growing up outside of Detroit, Franciscan Sister Shirley Fineran retired to her prayer room, where she sat and asked God for guidance.

"I felt called to do more than educate," explained Fineran, a licensed independent social worker and assistant professor of social work at Briar Cliff University. "I decided that I was going to develop a house for women who had been trafficked where they could come and live and be safe."

Fineran founded the nonprofit Siouxland Restoration Center to raise money to make her vision a reality. In April, she took possession of a spacious home on an acreage on the outskirts of Sioux City, which was donated by its previous owners.

In December, Fineran hopes to open Lila Mae's House, which she describes as a "place of healing," to seven women who have experienced sex trafficking. She said that referrals will come from local nonprofit organizations and that the women will be able to live in the home for two years.

Fineran said she needs approximately $600,000 to construct five bedrooms and two bathrooms in the home's basement and hire staff to teach life skills, assist with legal needs and provide job training and medical care.

"In this room, hopefully we will teach them basic life skills and job skills," Fineran said as she stood in a makeshift office that she plans to convert into a meeting room and classroom. "Most importantly, we'll hopefully teach them a sense of worth of themselves and independence and to know that there can be life beyond trafficking."

A growing problem

At a human trafficking conference held on Briar Cliff University's campus four years ago, Fineran said she was surprised to hear that this form of modern-day slavery was happening not only in countries such as Thailand and India, but also in Midwestern communities in the United States, including small towns in Northwest Iowa.

Human trafficking, which involves forced sex and/or labor, is one of the world's fastest growing criminal enterprises, netting an estimated $32 billion annually. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, 2,515 incidents of human trafficking were recorded nationwide between January 2008 and June 2010.

Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which serves victims and survivors of human trafficking in the United States and the anti-trafficking community, has fielded 926 calls regarding human trafficking in Iowa. According to the hotline, 42 cases of human trafficking have been reported in the state so far this year. The majority of victims involved in those cases are women and girls.

"Because we have used the term 'prostitute' when people are selling sex, then people think the women, girls and boys who are available for sex are choosing to do that themselves," Fineran said. "That's true in some cases, but in a large part, they are being controlled or forced."

In 2014, Fineran helped found the Siouxland Coalition Against Human Trafficking, a nonprofit organization working to abolish all forms of human trafficking in the tri-state area through education, advocacy and collaboration. Over the past year, she said she has spoken to more than 2,500 people about human trafficking and created a traveling exhibit to raise awareness of the issue.

Most sex trafficking victims identified in Siouxland are not from the area, according to Fineran, who said predators scour social media sites looking for teens who are lonely, being bullied or not getting along with their parents. She said kids who have been sexually abused or are in the foster care system are trafficked at a higher rate than their peers.

"Unfortunately, some parents traffic their own kids because either they don't have the money for drugs or they don't have money to maybe feed their family," she said. "Traffickers also hire young people in high school to recruit for trafficking."

According to Fineran, once a connection is made, the trafficker begins the grooming process. She said the trafficker makes promises of a better life and may even send gifts to his or her intended victim before setting up a face-to-face meeting.

"When they meet the first time, they will often continue to give them gifts," Fineran said of the trafficker, who will soon demand payment for his or her generosity. "They'll say, 'Well, I've been doing all of this for you, now you have to do something for me.'"

The victim complies, thinking the sex act is a one-time thing, but soon realizes he or she is trapped, according to Fineran, who said a girl or boy who is trafficked from Sioux City today could find herself or himself in Minneapolis by nightfall before being taken farther away to California.

"The person grooms them in the environment where they live and then after they get them hooked, they take them out of their community," she said. "A lot of Iowa's small communities are targeted because people are more trustworthy and often they're looking for excitement."

Blindfolded and stripped of all identification, money and means of communication, Fineran said victims, who are often given drugs, don't know where they are or how to get back home.

"After a while, the trafficker will convince them that nobody's looking for them," she said.

A place of healing

Fineran took a survivor in her 40s, who was trafficked by her boss, on a tour of Lila Mae's House, which was built in the 1970's and named after its designer.

She said the woman found the setting peaceful, until she walked down the stairs to look at the stark basement. The woman, who was kept in a basement and called "slave" by her trafficker, began to sweat, according to Fineran.

"My goal is that the lower level will not look like a basement," Fineran said of the blank canvas. "I want their bedrooms to be a place of refuge for them."

Upstairs, Fineran has plans to convert a space off the main entrance into a prayer/meditation room. Wallpaper, carpet and a buffet have all been removed from the kitchen and dining area, where volunteers will soon be laying vinyl tile.

"I'm hoping that we can have community volunteers come up and cook with the women at night. Many of them will not know how to cook, especially if they were trafficked as adolescents," Fineran said.

Two bedrooms on the second level are move-in ready, as is a first-floor suite reserved for the house manager, who will live on the property. Other staff members include an executive director, two case managers, interns and volunteers.

Fineran plans to make a solarium into an office and a screened-in porch into a four-season room furnished with swivel and rocking chairs. She also envisions building a labyrinth outside where the women can walk around and think about leaving the past behind and walking toward a brighter future.

"There's a lot to be done yet, but it'll happen," Fineran said confidently.
NORTH SIOUX CITY | Jim McDonald turns 89 years old on Thursday.

His daughter, Amy McDonald, surprised him with an early birthday gift, a seat on the Midwest Honor Flight on Tuesday. Jim McDonald was one of eight World War II veterans aboard an airplane that transported some 100 veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War to spend a day in Washington, D.C., free of charge, as a thank you for their service.

"I'd been to Washington, D.C., once before, but it was more than 80 years ago," Jim McDonald said from his apartment in North Sioux City. "I don't remember much about the first visit. That's a long time ago, you know!"

Much had happened to McDonald between trips to the nation's capital. A 1945 graduate of Smithland High School in Smithland, Iowa, McDonald enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 1946, after the war's end. That didn't stop him from serving overseas as war trials took place. He served with the 8th Army's Military Police unit as Japanese leaders, including Hideki Tojo, were put on trail for war crimes.

"I remember shipping out to Japan," he said. "I didn't leave the ship when we landed as we headed to Okinawa. I didn't leave the ship then, either. We shipped out to Manila, where we were finally allowed off the ship. We'd been on it a month."

McDonald served in Manila, Philippines, for one month before shipping back to Okinawa for a six-month stint. He then went back to Tokyo and guarded prisoners or kept the courtroom secure as the war trials commenced. He has a photo showing him standing in the courtroom, maybe 25 feet from Tojo, who served as Japanese premier during the war. Tojo was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was executed in December 1948.

"We were instructed to stand with our hands in front of us for 15 minutes and then we could put our hands behind us for 15 minutes," he said. "I never would have seen Tokyo or been involved in something like that if I wasn't in the Army."

McDonald was shipped home before the sentences were handed down. He recalled traveling via train from Washington state to Minneapolis and then boarding another train for Sioux City, where his sister and brother-in-law, Audrey and Leonard Daniels, of Merrill, Iowa, met him to take him home to the farm one mile south of Smithland.

"My parents (William and Alda McDonald), I remember, were building a home when I returned," McDonald said. "I came home in the fall of 1948 and actively began farming that next spring."

McDonald would raise grain and livestock near Smithland until the mid-1980s, when he transitioned into a six-year stint in real estate. Just over two decades ago, McDonald traveled to Denver, Colorado, to be with daughter Jill Lindgren and her newborn. "Grandpa" ended up staying for 20 years and helped his daughter with her two children.

"When the youngest graduated from high school, I moved back home," McDonald said. "And then Amy surprised me with the Honor Flight for my birthday."

McDonald joined the veterans and volunteers in seeing many sights, including the World War II Memorial, Arlington Cemetery and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, personal highlights.

"I had friends who had gone on previous Honor Flights and I never dreamed I'd be able to do it," McDonald said. "I always thought they (Honor Flights) were reserved for the men who were POWs or who had been injured."

The Honor Flights began for World War II veterans, but expanded to include those who have served time in the wars mentioned before.

"I paid nothing for this trip and everything was furnished," said McDonald, shaking his head in amazement. "We checked in at the airport in Sioux Falls at 4 a.m., our flight left at 6:30 a.m. and we landed in Washington around 9 a.m. We didn't get back to Sioux Falls until 9 p.m. They kept us moving."

Along the way, well-wishers saluted the veterans with cheers, handshakes, hugs and high-fives. The receptions in Washington, D.C., and back in Sioux Falls had McDonald pausing to find the words to describe his emotions.

"It puts a lump in your throat," he said. "I was awed by the reception we received everywhere we went. I'm so thankful for my daughter, Amy, for seeing that I got on an Honor Flight.

"I never thought I was worth of this attention," he concluded. "But I will say that it was so nice."

McDonald said he'll now work to see that one of his World War II buddies gets a seat on the next voyage.
SIOUX CITY | It was all smiles Saturday as Sioux City hosted two huge concerts that brought thousands of visitors to the downtown area.

Alternative-rocker Alanis Morissette had a sold-out outdoor concert at the Battery Park of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and country music superstar Toby Keith rocked a few blocks east at the Tyson Events Center.

Parking filled up quickly, at-capacity bars were forced to turn away thirsty patrons and restaurant goers had about an hour wait time to get a table before the shows' doors opened.

"I thought (Sioux City was) crazy. I thought they were trying to pull off a big stunt," said Kevin Hansen, of Danbury, Iowa, who came to see Keith. "But I think they are handling it really well."

Hansen was one that used the free shuttle service the city offered for the night that picked people up from all of the downtown parking ramps and took them right to the front of the Tyson and Battery Park. The shuttles were also scheduled to pick people up after the shows. The parking ramps were no charge.

"It made it so much easier," said Hansen, who parked in the Discovery Parking Ramp on Jones Street. "It saved a lot of hassle with traffic and parking."

"I like that they played music (on the trolley) it set the mood a little bit," said Tori Hansen, of Sioux City.

Keith is well-known for his patriotic country ballads, and Mystique Winters felt she had an obligation to attend.

"I'm a big fan of country. And I'm a U.S. citizen, so obviously I'm a fan," Winters laughed. "I'm excited to see him."

Courtney Moeller, of Vail, Iowa, traveled two hours to see Morissette who is playing only a handful of shows in the United States this year.

"I've listened to her when I was younger and as an adult, she kind of stopped touring," Moeller said waiting in line to get into Battery Park. "And now she is randomly in Sioux City so I had to come up."

Five Finger Death Punch with All That Remains and Arson will close the Battery Park's summer series on Sept. 1. The next big show at the Tyson will feature Travis Tritt and the Charlie Daniels Band Oct. 1.
First of all, I want to thank the brave men and women who serve and have served our country during both times of war and peace. All of you have put your lives on the line so Americans can enjoy freedom. Unfortunately, many have given their lives to ensure our constitutional rights.

We are fortunate that our forefathers gave us the right of free speech, allowing citizens to disagree with the government or anybody else as long as it does not encroach on someone else's rights.

It deeply saddens me when people act in such a manner that they are destroying our country. Demonstrating and speaking out for things you believe in is within your rights, but becoming violent and destructive is not. It appears to me that a vast, growing number of people have no respect for anything or anybody. The fact we have so many people who belong to hate groups (according to CNN, at least 900 hate groups exist) is horrifying.

It is disgusting to me to see people commit heinous acts of crime against their fellow man such as in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our forefathers did not give us the right to do harm to others with freedom of speech. They wanted us to fight for what we believe in with respect toward each other. What happened to disagreeing and demonstrating without violence? Why do some want to destroy history? No matter which side you are on, destroying history does not accomplish anything. We should embrace it and learn from it, so we do not repeat the mistakes.

President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker "Tip" O'Neill had respect for one another; because of the respect, they were able to get good things done for the nation. They got to know one another and developed a working relationship that was part of their success in their respective offices. They were leaders.

I recall attending state meetings in which the board consisted of Democrats, Republicans, men, women, Caucasians and people of color. Although at times we disagreed, we respected one another, we listened to each other with respect and we found ways to compromise for the good of our state. It was our strength, we were effective. No one side or person has all of the answers; respectfully listening to one another and infusing the best ideas from the discussion gave us the best answers to our problems. Yes, we came from different viewpoints, but listening and working together for a common goal was our strength. Common goals are so important. Generally, most people want the same things, but they have different ideas about how to achieve them. Keeping our eyes on the common goal helps map out the path to success, not fighting and violence.

I understand people are very passionate in their beliefs; that's terrific, it's important that we fight for what we believe. However, hate has no place in our society, we are a more compassionate nation than that. We continually prove that we do care about our nation and neighbors when tragedy strikes. In those times, we come together and help one another without questions. So why ruin the good things with hate?

Our country's citizens are angry about a lot of things, but anger does not accomplish anything. Positive actions do correct wrongs. Starting with little things is a good way to begin, such as lending a helping hand to someone, looking in on a neighbor, smiling at someone and saying "hello," opening a door for someone, and saying "please" and "thank you," to name just a few simple things.

One of our local churches, Sunnybrook, has started putting yard signs out saying, "Love Your Neighbor." In my opinion, that's a great way to begin to change attitudes and dissolve some of the anger. Churches have the opportunity to play a major role in helping with the attitudes of people. They can help teach young people about respect and how important it is.

We are fortunate to have organizations such as the Siouxland Y, Boys and Girls Club of America, Girls, Inc., the Girl Scouts, and the Boy Scouts, to name a few, that many communities do not. These organizations support parents in teaching their kids right from wrong with respect and manners.

Respect starts at home, by being respectful to your elders, friends and yourself. It is proven that when you dress appropriately for work or school, you are more successful. Your dress defines your attitude and how you feel about yourself, in my opinion. Appearing sloppy in the way you dress indicates to me that you do not care about your work or your performance in school. Too many have an attitude of not caring.

What happened in Charlottesville could happen in another community. Lets not allow it to happen in Siouxland. Get involved in supporting our community in a positive manner, embrace our differences and learn from others.

Charese Yanney of Sioux City is owner and managing partner of Guarantee Roofing, Siding and Insulation Co. She serves on the Iowa Department of Transportation Commission, the Iowa Economic Development Authority Vision Iowa board, the Missouri River Historical Development board and the Siouxland Initiative Executive Committee.
"I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire," said Winston Churchill to cheers at the Lord Mayor's luncheon in London in November 1942.

True to his word, the great man did not begin the liquidation.

When his countrymen threw him out in July 1945, that role fell to Clement Attlee, who began the liquidation. Churchill, during his second premiership from 1951-1955, would continue the process, as would his successor, Harold Macmillan, until the greatest empire the world had ever seen had vanished.

While its demise was inevitable, the death of the empire was hastened and made more humiliating by the wars into which Churchill had helped to plunge Britain, wars that bled and bankrupted his nation.

At Yalta in 1945, Stalin and FDR treated the old imperialist with something approaching bemused contempt.

War is the health of the state, but the death of empires.

The German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires all fell in World War I. World War II ended the Japanese and Italian empires -- with the British and French following soon after. The Soviet Empire collapsed in 1989. Afghanistan delivered the coup de grace.

Is it now the turn of the Americans?

Persuaded by his generals -- Mattis at Defense, McMasters on the National Security Council, Kelly as chief of staff -- President Trump is sending some 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to augment the 8,500 already there.

Like Presidents Obama and Bush, he does not intend to preside over a U.S. defeat in its longest war. Nor do his generals. Yet how can we defeat the Taliban with 13,000 troops when we failed to do so with the 100,000 Obama sent?

The new troops are to train the Afghan army to take over the war, to continue eradicating the terrorist elements like ISIS, and to prevent Kabul and other cities from falling to a Taliban now dominant in 40 percent of the country.

Yet what did the great general, whom Trump so admires, Douglas MacArthur, say of such a strategy?

"War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision."

Is not "prolonged indecision" what the Trump strategy promises? Is not "prolonged indecision" what the war policies of Obama and Bush produced in the last 17 years?

Understandably, Americans feel they cannot walk away from this war. For there is the certainty as to what will follow when we leave.

When the British left Delhi in 1947, millions of former subjects died during the partition of the territory into Pakistan and India and the mutual slaughter of Muslims and Hindus.

When the French departed Algeria in 1962, the "Harkis" they left behind paid the price of being loyal to the Mother Country.

When we abandoned our allies in South Vietnam, the result was mass murder in the streets, concentration camps and hundreds of thousands of boat people in the South China Sea, a final resting place for many. In Cambodia, it was a holocaust.

Trump, however, was elected to end America's involvement in Middle East wars. And if he has been persuaded that he simply cannot liquidate these wars -- Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan -- he will likely end up sacrificing his presidency, trying to rescue the failures of those who worked hardest to keep him out of the White House.

Consider the wars, active and potential, Trump faces.

Writes Bob Merry in the fall issue of The National Interest:

"War between Russia and the West seems nearly inevitable. No self-respecting nation facing inexorable encirclement by an alliance of hostile neighbors can allow such pressures and forces to continue indefinitely. Eventually (Russia) must protect its interests through military action."

If Pyongyang tests another atom bomb or ICBM, some national security aides to Trump are not ruling out preventive war.

Trump himself seems hell-bent on tearing up the nuclear deal with Iran. This would lead inexorably to a U.S. ultimatum, where Iran would be expected to back down or face a war that would set the Persian Gulf ablaze.

Yet the country did not vote for confrontation or war.

America voted for Trump's promise to improve ties with Russia, to make Europe shoulder more of the cost of its defense, to annihilate ISIS and extricate us from Mideast wars, to stay out of future wars.

America voted for economic nationalism and an end to the mammoth trade deficits with the NAFTA nations, EU, Japan and China.

America voted to halt the invasion across our Southern border and to reduce legal immigration to ease the downward pressure on American wages and the competition for working-class jobs.

Yet today we hear talk of upping and extending the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, of confronting Iran, of sending anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine to battle pro-Russia rebels in the east.

Can the new custodians of Trump's populist-nationalist and America First agenda, the generals and the Goldman Sachs alumni association, be entrusted to carry it out?
War/Peace  August 27, 2017  Lindsey German

Donald Trump spent a lot of time when campaigning last year denouncing Barack Obamas foreign policy. Yet within months of entering the White House he too is pledging to continue the war in Afghanistan, sending more troops not to engage in nation building as he puts it but to kill more terrorists. It is hard to see what another estimated 4000 troops will do that Obamas surge didnt do, or how he thinks that this move will in any way improve the fortunes of the U.S. backed government which is losing the war against the Taliban.

For those who are too young to remember the origins of this war, or to whom its origins are lost in the mists of time, it is worth restating that it was the first in the series of wars dubbed the War on Terror, launched by George W. Bush back in 2001, which was rapidly deemed a success since it overthrew the Taliban government. Since then, despite repeated declarations of turning points and victories, of stabilisation of the country, the war continues. Far from being defeated, it is estimated that the Taliban now control around half the country.

Trumps claim that the U.S. will kill more terrorists will no doubt be achieved, but at what cost? Earlier this year, he authorised the dropping of the mother of all bombs in Afghanistan, which undoubtedly killed many people. Yet only six months later he is faced with the prospect of escalating the war again with absolutely no likelihood that this will succeed.

Long War

This U-turn by Trump can be seen as an assertion of control by the military  who of course play a key role in his White House. But the military have consistently under estimated the strength of the Taliban (and more lately Islamic State), and have failed to win a war which has lasted three times as long as the First World War. There is no reason to believe this strategy will be any more successful.

But given Trumps other policies it can contain even greater dangers than we have seen so far. He attacked Pakistan for providing a safe haven for terrorism and effectively set it up for a sanctions regime. He also called on India to do more in Afghanistan  something which will cause alarm in Pakistan. Imposing sanctions on Pakistan  alongside those already imposed on Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela  is a signal for greater conflict in the region, not less.

The U.S. is also saying that it will call on its NATO allies to help with this latest escalation. British Prime Minister Theresa May will no doubt be first in line to stress the special relationship and send a meaningless token in his support. But we should remember that the NATO powers have never left Afghanistan and that their bombing, in particular, in recent years has led to many civilian deaths and to ever greater resentment toward the west. The Taliban even sent an open letter to Trump last week, calling on him to ignore his generals and Republican hawks, and stressing that continued war only led to new recruits to fight against the U.S. forces. In their words, Every child is raised with a spirit of vengeance in Afghanistan.

This, along with Trumps warmongering over North Korea, is exactly the time for Britain to break the special relationship with the USA. There is a tremendous sense of weariness over these wars and a recognition that  far from ending terrorism  they are helping foment it. The solution offered by Trump in Afghanistan is no solution, for the people of Afghanistan or for anyone else.

There is only one solution which is to recognise that this intervention is a major part of the problem and to get all the troops out.

Trump won his election in part on the basis that he would stop fighting costly wars  costly in terms of both lives and finance. He has now abandoned this aspiration. He and his allies like May flounder around with no idea how to end the wars, and are therefore committed to carrying them on. The cost is to the rest of us in wasted lives, millions made refugees, instability and terrorism.

Theresa Mays continued invitation to Trump for a state visit to Britain is a disgrace, and should be rescinded now. That, troop withdrawal and a change in foreign policy that breaks with Trump are the only antidotes to this continued disaster. 

This article first published by Stop the War Coalition .

For Canadas position, see Thomas Walkom: Canada mulls a return to the unwinnable Afghan War.
Mohawk Racetrack hosted a set of stakes events on its Saturday, August 26 program, including two $40,000 eliminations for the Canadian Pacing Derby, two divisions of the $226,050 Nassagaweya Stakes and one division of the $192,333 Eternal Camnation.

Rockin Ron blazed around the Mohawk oval to win the fastest of the two Canadian Pacing Derby eliminations, pacing a career-best 1:47.2 mile.

Unchallenged for the front going to the quarter, Rockin Ron dictated the pace through splits of :26.3, :54.4 and 1:21.2 before drawing away from pocket-sitter Sintra turning for home. Sintra was about three lengths away in second, with another three back to Mcwicked in third and Check Six and Rockeyed Optimist rounding out the finalists.

Winning his sixth race in 20 starts this season and his 26th in 76 overall, Rockin Ron, a five-year-old gelding by Real Desire out of the Sportsmaster mare Im All A Roan, has earned $815,858 in his campaign. Owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, and Rtc Stable Inc., trained by Ron Burke, and driven by Louie Philippe-Roy, he paid $12.40 to win.

"The only word I had before the race was Yannick [Gingras] telling me that I could drive him however I wanted," Louie Philippe-Roy said. "I just sat behind him; I was a passenger. I had a look around the last turn and saw Check Six was coming first up, so I was trying to keep Sintra in a little while, but my horse felt so good that I just let him go in the last quarter.

"I don't know [how he stacks up for the final]. It's up to how the race goes - Keystone Velocity showed he can be real good and sprint home fast, and my horse can race from anywhere, so that's a big advantage, too."

Launching off cover and down the center of the track, Keystone Velocity caught pocket-popper All Bets Off to win the first elimination for the Canadian Pacing Derby in 1:48.2.

Getting away sixth as Nirvana Seelster paced a quarter in :27, Keystone Velocity edged wide after a :55.1, catching cover from Dealt A Winner entering the far turn. As Dealt A Winner rushed toward the pacesetter, All Bets Off quickly tipped out of the pocket and drew alongside Nirvana Seelster at three-quarters in 1:22.2 before taking the lead at the top of the stretch.

All Bets Off kicked clear of Nirvana Seelster through the lane, with Keystone Velocity angling toward the center of the track and charging after the leader coming to the sixteenth pole, swooping past in the final strides to win while Dealt A Winner, Nirvana Seelster, and Easy Lover Hanover completed the top five advancing to the final next week.

A nine-year-old son of Western Hanover from the Run The Table mare Venus Killean, Keystone Velocity, a supplement into the Canadian Pacing Derby, won his seventh race in 14 starts this season and his 26th overall in 102 outings, earning $1,185,252. Owned by Allard Racing Inc., Kapildeo Singh, Earl Hill Jr. and V I P Internet Stables, trained by Rene Allard, and driven by Simon Allard, he paid $6.90 to win.

"He just doesn't want to get beat; he's just like Conor McGregor: he shows his fight and wants to win," Simon Allard said. "I was just going to race him to get into the final, but the horse is so sharp training and we've been keeping him in and making him brave; he's very ready for this race. [Now that we can pick our post] we might actually be able to control the race next week - this horse can go either way, so I can just pick what kind of trip I want.

"I'm glad my brother put him into the Canadian Pacing Derby and it's a dream come true that I get to race him there. I used to be in the dorm back in the day here as a groom, seeing Real Desire and Four Starzzz Shark win the race, so it's really a cool time now and I'm enjoying it."

Shadow Moon rallied wide of rivals and edged to a 1:51.4 lifetime-best mile in the first division of the Nassagaweya Stakes.

Starting from the second-tier, Shadow Moon positioned himself seventh while Phil The Thrill and Declan Seelster battled for control in :27.1, with Declan Seelster clearing the lead into the backstretch. On his back, Babes Dig Me was then left uncovered and managed to take the lead at the half in :54.4.

Approaching the far turn, Dragon Time moved first over out of fourth, with This Is The Plan on his back and Shadow Moon third over. Dragon Time inched up to match strides with the leader at three-quarters in 1:23.4, taking a narrow lead turning into the stretch.

Off cover, This Is The Plan rallied alongside Dragon Time coming to the eighth pole, while room opened at the inside for Declan Seelster to slide into contention and Shadow Moon began rolling down the center of the track. This Is The Plan grabbed the lead nearing the wire, but Shadow Moon stuck his neck in front at the line to win. This Is The Plan settled for second, Declan Seelster was third, and Twin B Tuffenuff closed for fourth.

By Shadow Play out of the Western Hanover mare Lofty Yankee, Shadow Moon, a winner of four races in five starts, has earned $146,738 for trainer Dr. Ian Moore along with partners R G Mcgroup Ltd. and Serge Savard. Driven by Trevor Henry, he paid $7.90 to win.

"It might've been a bad thing that he was trailing [in the second tier] actually," Trevor Henry said. "He gets pretty warm, but he's good off a helmet and it was probably the best thing for him.

"At the start [of his career], he had some trouble with his gait, but now his gait is beautiful. He has come a long ways."

Sitting second-last at the top of the stretch, 3-2 public choice Pedro Hanover flew down the grandstand side to overtake all his rivals and win the second division of the Nassagaweya in 1:52.1.

Casimir Richie P paced a :27.3 quarter before giving up the lead to Trump That, popping out of the pocket moving into the backstretch. Trump That soon yielded for the pocket as Courtly Choice advanced and cleared to the lead before a :55.4 half.

Moving into the far turn, Odds On Lauderdale marched uncovered after pacesetter Courtly Choice, hooking up at three-quarters in 1:24 before Courtly Choice began to give way. Hudson Phil tipped off cover and was wide of Trump That sliding past Odds On Lauderdale through the stretch. At the eighth pole, Pedro Hanover rushed alongside the battling trio and swept past to win, with Trump That taking second, Hudson Phil holding third, and Odds On Lauderdale fading to fourth.

Racing for owners Brad Gray and Denise Guerriero, Pedro Hanover, a two-year-old colt by Somebeachsomewhere from the Pro Bono Best mare Paulas Best, won his third race in five starts, amassing $114,657 in earnings. Trained by Andrew Harris and driven by Andrew McCarthy, he paid $5.00 to win.

"It looked like he was far out, but I knew as long as he was within six or seven lengths of them that he could catch them," Andrew Harris said. "He's got one of the biggest bursts of speed I've ever seen; his turn of foot is amazing.

"I didn't know I'd get him until about two weeks before [he debuted] and Corey Giles called me up and said 'Hey, I've got a nice little colt, and if you've got room I'd love for you to take him.' So obviously I took him; he's got great ownership and connections, but I didn't know he was this good. I can't take any credit for him - he's just a nice horse, [Corey] did a great job with him and now I just have to babysit him.

"He'll be back for the Metro, but we've got [Pennsylvania] Sires Stakes final next week at Pocono, so we'll be taking him there and hopefully we'll have a little luck there, too - he can't really come from off of it there so we'll have to adjust his racing style but I think he's finally ready for that."

Percy Bluechip remains undefeated in four outings, taking the $192,333 Eternal Camnation in 1:51.4.

Taking the lead through a :26.4 quarter, Percy Bluechip paced unchallenged to the half in :56.1 before encountering pressure from Kissin In The Sand positioned first over around the far turn, while Kendall Seelster paced in the pocket third and Pueblo Blue Chip on cover in fourth.

Past three-quarters in 1:24.1, Percy Blue Chip held the lead, with Kissin In The Sand parked wide of Kendall Seelster trying to edge out of the pocket. Getting room within the sixteenth pole, Kendall Seelster lunged after Percy Blue Chip late, but was a half-length shy of the 2-5 favourite. Kissin In The Sand finished third and Pueblo Blue Chip fourth.

Earning $240,767 for owners Shadow Two Stable, James and Wilma MacKenzie and Hudson Standardbred Inc., Percy Bluechip, a two-year-old filly by Shadow Play from the Artsplace mare Advantest, is conditioned by Dr. Ian Moore and was driven by Trevor Henry. She paid $2.90 to win.

"She's a very special filly, and she showed me tonight how sensible she is," Dr. Ian Moore said. "I only made a couple of bit changes and the plugs again tonight and she was very relaxed warming up - went a mile in 2:45, and was very relaxed in the race as well. Trevor [Henry] told me she was perfect and that he had to leave with her tonight; he really had no choice, which was kind of a shame after last week, but I think she'll be okay with that."

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Mohawk Racetrack.
As Hurricane Harvey Lashes Texas, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team Chaplains Deploy to Offer Hope and Comfort

Chaplains complete ministry in Barcelona following August terror attack

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 26, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Following last night's landfall of Hurricane Harvey, crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are arriving in Texas this weekend to offer emotional and spiritual care to evacuees, and to assess the areas with the greatest need. Billy Graham Rapid Response Team support vehicles are also en route, with more than 100 additional chaplains standing by as the situation and overall destruction becomes clearer.

"Though we all anticipated the impact of Harvey, there's no way to overstate the ferocity of a storm like this," said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. "We're praying for those who have been devastated by the hurricane, and we'll be there to offer the hope and comfort of Christ to those who are hurting."

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is deploying in coordination with Samaritan's Purse , the Christian disaster relief organization also headed by Franklin Graham . Together the two ministries will address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those who have been affected.

"As dawn breaks over south Texas, the damage brought by Hurricane Harvey through the night is coming into view with significant flooding still to come. More than 200,000 people are without power. This is the strongest storm to hit the U.S. in more than a decade," Graham said on his Facebook page this morning. "I know the people of Texas would appreciate your prayers for them during these difficult days."

The deployment to Texas marks the ministry's first hurricane response of 2017. Last year, more than 125 trained chaplains ministered to nearly 6,000 people across three areas of North and South Carolina following the impact of Hurricane Matthew.

In addition to the new deployment to Texas, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team has been ministering alongside churches in Barcelona since the August 17 terror attack that killed 13 people and injured scores more. That effort is concluding this weekend.

For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit www.billygraham.org/rrt . Updates can also be found at www.facebook.com/RRTChaplains

About the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team:

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team was developed by Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has since grown into a nationwide network of chaplains in 48 states who are specifically trained to deal with crisis situations. They have deployed to more than 255 disaster sites, including shootings, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.
Entertainment / Arts

by Stephen Jakes

Amagugu International Heritage Center held a Matobo Heritage Festival in Matobo district over the weekend, which attracted more than 150 participants from various backgrounds and age groups.A first of its kind, the festival attracted key stakeholders that included National Arts Council, Former Bulawayo Mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, members of the civil society and the general public.Students from High schools Wanezi High School and Dominican Convent High School could also graced the festival which had various activities lined.These included the tour of the murals, braai and music in the rocks, storytelling and discussion sessions where participants were made aware of various cultural and historic elements in Matobo that led to the area being declared a World Heritage Site.These include rock art, King Mzilikazi's grave, grain bins, Njelele shrine among many more.Participants were also treated to a Wosana traditional dance session, a symbolic dance traditionally performed at the Njelele shrine for rain making ceremonies.There were also Performances by various groups including IYASA, Djembe Monks, Drums of Peace, Nobuntu and Sunduza Dance Theatre.Founded by the respected historian Mr. Phathisa Nyathi, the Center has established itself as a leading promoter of local cultures in the Western region of Zimbabwe.It has also been instrumental in taking local cultures to regional and global spaces with its recent coverage by BBC being a testimony of its global reach and presence.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration is exploring new approaches for easing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that build on talks with a budding Sunni Arab coalition of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan.

Jared Kushner, the White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law, visited the leaders of all four countries during his Middle East trip this week. He was accompanied by special envoy Jason Greenblatt and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. The group came away hopeful that the new generation of Arab leaders is a potential game-changer, said a senior administration official.

Prince Khaled bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, gave an upbeat account of the talks with Kushner. He said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his older brother, is optimistic in light of the commitment of Donald Trump to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He said this weeks visit cemented Saudi and other Arab officials respect for Kushner and his team, who organized Trumps visit to the kingdom in May.

A first step in the new Palestinian strategy involves Gaza, which under Hamas has been Israels most implacable adversary.

The moderate Sunni coalition has tried to pull Hamas closer to Egypt and the UAE, and increase Hamas distance from Qatar, which for years has been a major financial backer.

The goal is to broker a reunification of Gaza with the Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, so that a united PA could represent all Palestinians. This would be a key step toward resuming broader negotiations.

The Trump administration seems to envision an outside-in strategy for breaking the Palestinian-Israeli stalemate. The U.S., its hoped, could eventually bring together Israelis and leaders of the major Arab states for a peace conference. Trumps unusually close relations with both Israel and the Gulf Arabs are part of this strategy.

The Gaza opening by the moderate Arabs is an unlikely offshoot of their bitter feud with Qatar, Turkey and other nations that support the Muslim Brotherhood militants who have long dominated Hamas.

Mohammed Dahlan, a Gazan Palestinian now living in the UAE, has been the key intermediary. He has traveled to Gaza and organized UAE-financed humanitarian assistance there, working in collaboration with Yahya al-Sinwar, the head of Hamas inside Gaza. The plan is to provide economic and social support, through Egypt and with Israels blessing, that can weaken the hard-liners control.

We both realized its time to find a way out in Gaza, Dahlan told The Associated Press last month after meeting with Sinwar, who was a childhood friend.

Dahlans aid to Gaza is said to include about $15 million a month in food and social assistance for families, plus an unspecified additional amount for electricity and water, an Arab official told me. Israel has allowed fuel and other shipments to pass from Egypt through the border crossing at Rafah, signaling tacit support.

Dahlan and his Emirati backers have bigger plans. He told the AP that the UAE has pledged to finance a $100 million electricity plant, to be built on the Egyptian side of the border, to help power Gaza. Although Dahlan is a long-time rival of Abbas, U.S. officials insist they dont want to undermine the PA leader.

Beyond the machinations in Gaza is a larger vision for restarting a Palestinian peace process drawing on the alliance of moderate Sunni leaders. Jordans King Abdullah and Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi already have extensive, friendly relations with Israel. Mohammed bin Zayed, the military leader of the UAE, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed dont have formal ambassadorial contacts with Israel. But they share a common enemy in Iran.

MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is known, has made some brash moves that have caused him trouble, including the war in Yemen. But hes willing to take risks on the reform side, too, including challenging the kingdoms religious establishment. Prince Khaled, the Saudi ambassador, said that MBS believes resolution of the Palestinian problem and peace with Israel is crucial for the future of the Middle East.

This young, dynamic leadership presents opportunities that may not have existed before, argues Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to Washington. The White House clearly shares that view.

When it comes to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, 50 years of peacemaking history sadly warns us that a new initiative probably wont work. And Trumps domestic problems weaken his ability to deliver on Kushners advance work. But it must be said: The opportunities for trade, investment and security cooperation between Israel and the Arabs have never been greater.
SAN DIEGO  The motto of the United States is no longer e pluribus unum. Sadly, its become: Hey! I was wronged. Get my lawyer on the phone!

Or, recently, south of the Mason-Dixon line: Lets grab clubs and tiki torches and go make trouble.

America has become a nation of victims. The same people who, a decade ago, might have scoffed at the idea that others were being victimized by societal norms, generational poverty and institutional racism have now themselves joined the pity party and donned the cloak of victimhood. Nursing a grudge is not just for minorities anymore.

Conservative white males have gotten in on the act, as they rail against globalization, corporate greed, immigration, political correctness, the anti-Confederate statue lobby, affirmative action, and the man in the moon.

Those who for years shrugged off the notion that there was lingering racial and ethnic discrimination against Latinos and African-Americans now insist that there is rampant reverse discrimination against white people.

As they often do, politicians make the situation worse by giving people easy outs. And these days, as always, many people are glad to have excuses for their failures, setbacks and shortcomings. The bad guys are the banks, the rich, the corporations, the immigrants, the global market.

Victim anthems have been penned by Bruce Springsteen who, in concert, has introduced his haunting ballad Youngstown  about the battered town in Northeast Ohio  as a story about losing everything even when you work hard and play by the rules.

A couple of generations ago, Americans survived tough times by hustling, believing in themselves and working harder. Today, this is the pep talk for the downtrodden: Lost your job? The culprit is a racial quota or greedy boss or foreign worker. Youre a victim.

Thats a major takeaway from recent horrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hundreds of young white men who, intoxicated by a cocktail of entitlement and white privilege, expected to be running the country by now, instead feel as if the country is running over them. They worry that a society that pushes diversity, espouses liberalism, and worships at the altar of political correctness doesnt have any room for them. And the last thing they want to do is look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own lives.

So they picked up torches, and marched, and shouted: You will not replace us. Jews will not replace us.

This rank bigotry and anti-Semitism made other people feel victimized because they somehow thought they had a right to go through life without ever being offended by anything.

The offended staged counterprotests, which made the original protesters feel victimized as if their right to free speech were being violated.

And so on.

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is now the Land of the Aggrieved and the Home of the Picked On.

This transformation is much more important than the question that captivates the attention of the left and the media (as if there were a difference at this point). Do we have a white supremacist in the White House?

A lot of my Latino and African-American friends are convinced we do. But I think theyre wrong. What do they know? Some of them said the same thing about every Republican president since Ronald Reagan while turning a blind eye to outright racists in the Democratic Party.

Also, Donald Trump has been in the public eye for more than 30 years  donating money to civil rights groups, posing for pictures with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and supporting Democrats. I personally never heard anyone say he was a racist or white supremacist until he became a Republican. That smells fishy.

Besides, Trumps presidency has an expiration date. In a few years, well wake up from this national nightmare.

Its the culture of victimhood that Americans should really be worried about. It wasnt just Trump, white supremacists, the media, local police, and activists on the militant left who emerged from the Charlottesville fiasco with their reputations sullied. The American spirit also took a terrible beating.

When did the greatest country on Earth stop being a place where people  with nothing but hunger for a second chance  could come to work hard and build a new life? When did it become a place where everyone pushes their own set of grievances?

As an American, none of this makes sense. I thought we were made from heartier stock.
WASHINGTON  Ive always struggled with how much financial freedom to give my children.

Im a life-long penny-pincher, and I wanted my children to embrace frugality, too. So I forbade certain spending. I didnt want them to grow up being spendthrifts.

But, as Ive matured and gotten better at parenting, Ive realized that sometimes I have to let my children make financial decisions that wont be wise.

Even writing that makes me grimace.

When it comes to their money, should parents let their children learn from their own mistakes?

For the longest time, back-to-school shopping for my three children created a lot of stress for them and for me. I wanted to spend as little money as possible, and my children, mostly the two girls, wanted to fit in with their friends. They begged for more trendy  i.e. expensive  clothes. My son didnt care what I bought.

Then one year my husband and I decided to give the children a set amount of money for school shopping. Wed give them the cash, and they could buy whatever they needed for school within that budgeted amount. So if my daughter wanted an expensive pair of jeans that would consume the majority of her allotment, that meant fewer clothes in her wardrobe.

It worked. When they were spending our money, they didnt pay attention to what stuff costs. They were all too busy complaining about how cheap we were and whining about where we were taking them to shop  discount stores.

But when it was their money, all of a sudden it was, I cant afford that.

For several years, T. Rowe Price has been examining the attitudes parents and their children have about money. The 2017 national survey of 1,014 parents with children ages 8 to 14, as well as the kids themselves, had two findings that are key to teaching your children about money: (1) Children have better financial habits when parents let them decide how to save and spend their own money; and (2) children learn to be good money managers by modeling what their parents do.

I got the modeling thing down. My husband and I have always showed by our behavior the importance of giving, the dangers of debt and the value of living within a budget.

The T. Rowe Price survey found that 44 percent of parents said they let their children decide how to spend and save their own money. The result of this financial freedom is that the kids are less likely to:

 Spend their money as soon as they get it.

 Lie about what they spent their money on.

 Expect their parents to buy them what they want.

The survey also found that children who are allowed to manage their money are more likely to talk to their parents about their finances.

Now that all my children work and earn their own money with various part-time jobs, I can attest to what T. Rowe Price found. My son, a rising sophomore in college, is a very cautious spender because of our talks about money. Generally, before spending the money he earns working as a lifeguard, hell consult his father or me. I frequently talk my son out of wasting money eating out. Although, considering the increase in the grocery bill during the summer, maybe I should have let him eat up his funds! Our girls also often talk to us about their spending plans.

I will say this, however: We have certain family values that we ask them to follow. They have to tithe. They cant buy clothes that are offensive or inappropriate.

They need to discuss with us big buys  computer, smartphone, etc.  that could impact the money they are required to save toward college expenses. We have saved for their college tuition, fees, and room and board, but they have to pay for their books and personal expenses. Besides, we want them to develop the habit of seeking good counsel before making a major financial move.

It always helps to talk out the reasons behind a major purchase.

We require them do research and comparison-shop.

So, I concede that theres merit in giving your children financial freedom with some limits. Keep an eye on their spending, and at times you may have to redirect them to a better choice or jump in when the costs of a financial mistake are too high.

Freedom doesnt mean theyll go buck wild with their money. If you model good financial behavior, theyre more likely to follow your example. And if they fall, dont be so quick to bail them out. Let them suffer the consequences. Let them live and learn.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Heal Zimbabwe has recorded a total of 29 cases of human rights violations from 14 districts from the 24th of July to the 18th of August 2017.The trust said a total of four different categories of human rights violations were recorded namely: Intimidation (with threats of violence or threats of withdrawal of food aid or agricultural inputs), forced participation (in political meetings, polling stations, Financial or material contributions), assault and disruption of political gatherings."The organisation noted that intimidation recorded the highest number of cases with 72.4% (21 cases), followed by forced attendance to political gatherings recording 17.25% (5 cases), assault which recorded 6.9% (2 cases) and disruption of meetings which recorded 3.45 % (1 case). Heal Zimbabwe observed that the majority of the human rights cases recorded are mainly centred on (i) the ongoing Presidential youth interface rallies, (ii) ZANU PF party restructuring processes and (iii) the falsehoods coined around the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) process," said the trust."Community members are being forced to attend ZANU PF restructuring meetings whether they support the party or not. Cases of harassment and intimidation are worrying especially now as the nation heads towards the 2018 plebiscite. HZT perceives intimidation as a hindrance to peaceful coexistence and a stumbling block towards freedom of expression in local communities and achievement of free, fair, peaceful and credible elections."The trust said the distributions reveal that human rights violations were recorded in a total of 14 Districts that are: Makonde, Gokwe South, Kariba, Hurungwe, Harare, Gutu, Zvimba, Mudzi, Mutoko, Nyanga, Muzarabani, Bindura, Zvishavane and Chivi."There was a slight increase from the districts recorded in the previous report which registered 10 districts compared to 14 recorded in this reporting period. Zvimba (6 cases) and Gutu (5 cases) districts recorded the highest number of violations largely because of the recently conducted Presidential youth interface rallies in Masvingo and Chinhoyi respectively," said the trust."Heal Zimbabwe observed that there was a slight increase in the number of human rights violations in this period (29 cases) compared to the previous report were 16 cases were recorded. Intimidation was recorded in 11 districts save for three districts that are Harare, Bindura and Nyanga. HZT recorded 37 perpetrators from all the human rights violations reported in the period under review (36 males and 1 female).""26 of the recorded perpetrators were largely within ZANU PF party local leadership, 4 local councillors, 3 police officers, 2 war veterans and 2 teachers. The victims varied from ordinary community members, village heads, opposition supporters, teachers and journalists," the trust added.
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31st BCS Assoc provides aid to Jamalpur flood victims



31st BCS Cadre Association provided assistance to the flood victims in Jamalpur district.

In the first phase, they distributed cash to the marginal farmers and destitute people at Awna Union in Sarishabari Upazila of the district, said a press release on Saturday.

Aminur Rahman, Ahsan Khan and Hossain M Al Junayed on behalf of the association operated the activities in presence of the Prime Minister's Protocol Official S M Khurshid Alam.

Alongside the duties of the government service, the association has been conducting different social and cultural activities, added the release.
Practising Nazrul's works to resist communalism stressed



Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday put emphasis on parctising the works of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam to resist communalism.

"There is no alternative to parctising the works of the national poet to thwart communalism ... we have to build a non-communal country by rooting out the poisonous tree of communalism," he said.

Quader, also the Road Transport and Bridges Minister, was talking to reporters after placing floral wreaths at the grave of Kazi Nazrul Islam on behalf of the Awami League on the occasion of the 41st death anniversary of the national poet.

The AL General Secretary said a non-communal Bangladesh will have to be established with the spirit with which Bangladesh was liberated.

He also called upon the followers and well-wishers of Nazrul as well as the conscious people of the country to build a non-communal Bangladesh.

AL Organizing Secretaries AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Khalid Mahmood Chowdhury and Enamul Haque Shameem, Labour Affairs Secretary Habibur Rahman Siraj, Office Secretary Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap and Cultural Affairs Secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil were, among others, present.

Later, the leaders of AL's associate bodies including Jubo League, Chhatra League, Sechchhasebak League and Dhaka South City Awami League paid tributes to the national poet by laying wreaths at his grave.
Boishakhi Tarun Sangha distributs relief goods

Sirajganj Correspondent :

Baishakhi Tarun Sangha, the traditional social welfare organi Sation of old Dhaka has stood beside the flood victims. They were distributing relief among two thousand families of flood affected people at Chauhali upazila of Sirajganj on Friday noon. Chief Executive Officer of Don Media Corporation's Rezaul Karim Hira, President of organisation's Imam Hossain and General Secretary Mahmudul Karim Khan, Senior Vice President Engioneer Kazi Md. Abdullah gave relief material to the victims. Relief materials were rice, dahl, soyabin oil, chime, molasses, parched rice, saline, water purifying tablets and cash. The Joint General Secretary of the organisation's Fazle Rabbi were also present. Engg. Md. Monir Hossain the chief instructor of Shyamoli Ideal Polytechnic Institute, Engg. Rafiqul Islam a leading businessman, Journalist Shahjalal and Bappi Lahiri Biplob also give support with them.

Apart from this, another organization named Pathikrit distributed relief material among the flood affected people.
Cattle markets gain momentum in dists

M.A. Awal, Narsingdi :

A large number of local cattle including bullocks, cows and buffaloes are being taken to different sacrificial markets including the biggest Potia Market at Shibpur Upazila in the district one week ahead of Eid-ul-Azha .

According to sources , a total of 105 cattle head markets are running in the district. The upazila wise markets are as, sadar-31, Belabo-10, Monohardi 19, Shibpur-11, Polash 06 and Raipura 28. On the other hand hast of the cattle heads are being attacked by leg disease (khura) while the customers are not interested to purchase as it is not perfect for sacrifice in the Eid-ul-Azha.

Animal Livestock Officer Dr. Abdus Samad told The New Nation that above one lakh cows have been supplied on ahead of Eid-ul-Azha from 532 diary farms and 4000 readers in different markets.

The owner of Baki Diary farm Sharifuzzaman of Basail under Narsingdi city said, the number of cow traders is less than previous years as the local traders are interested to purchase a little cows.

Even the cows and buffeters of Lustration spices are not selling satisfactorily causing profit of the owners. The importance of the second biggest cows market in the country Potia fall off due to communication problem.

The leasee of potia hat Abdul Jalil Member told this correspondent that this hat always sat on Saturday while it also sat two days including Wednesday too on ahead Eid.

Farmer Nazrul Islam of South Mirjanagar village returning have with lies Australian cow as it was raised 2.25 lakh as pries which was sold at tk 2.00 lakh last year. Another tradev Abdul Mannan of village Kumradi saed his bullock profit Tk 10 Thousands as the buyers told Tk 55 thousands.

Trader Khorshed Miah of same area told that he brought three bullocks on upcoming Eid-ul-Azha for sale while one bullock died of leg (khura) disease attacked valued Tk. 56000. The indian cows are not available at potia market this year. The trader Amjad Hossain said.

According to different cattle head market sources ari extra large bull in now being sold at rates between Taka 60,000 to 70,000 against last years rate of Taka 1,00,000 to Taka 1,50,000 and large one at Taka 70,000 to 75,000 against last years rate of Taka 40000 to 45,0000.

A mediun-size bull in selling at Taka 35,000 to 40,000 against last years aver age rate of Taka 40,000 to 45,000 while small one is being sold at Taka 30,000 to 32000 with possibilities of price reduction ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha festivity.

However, prices of goats are comparatively higher this year and a big goat is being sold at Tk 40,000 to 50,000 medium-size at Tk 15,000 to 20,000 while a small one is being sold at Taka 6,000 to 7,500 at different markets now the sources said.

Sylhet Correspondent says: The sales and bargaining of sacrificial animals at various cattle markets in Sylhet have been geared up ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

Cattle traders said despite import of a significant number of Indian cattle head, cattle markets are flooded with locally bred and reared cattle and goats.

Although there was a massive supply of cattlehead at Sylhet haat, there was not sufficient number of customers at the haat yet. Cattle traders at this haat have complained they were charging a low price of cattleheads because of low turnout of customers while customers at the haat, on the other hand, were complaining the price of sacrificial animals this year was a bit higher compared to previous years.

Sylhet haat situated Kazirbazar is the largest cattle haat of the district. Cattle traders and customers from all around the country visit this haat for a suitable bargain. Though the haat is generally held on Monday and Friday in the week, due to ensuing Eid, the haat is now held daily.

After visiting the haat on Tuesday, this correspondent found a huge supply of locally bred and reared cattleheads and goats. Although there was a small supply of Indian smuggled cattle and buffaloes, demands of locally bred and reared cattle and goats were the most.

Abdul Hamid , a cattle trader of Dakshin Surma upazila, said he had carried four locally bred cattle at the haat of which two have been sold. But, he complained, the price of cattle heads was lower as per expectation of the cattle rearers and cattle traders this year compared to last years. He further informed, this year a sacrificial bull or a calf is being sold by estimating Tk 20,000 to Tk 25,000 per maund of flesh derived from it after processing and slaughtering.

Anwar, a buffalo trader, the price of sacrificial animals this year was a bit lower. Moreover, the turnout of customers at various haats of the district was also very low. He opined, due to flood, higher price of essentials and economic insolvency, many people this year will not be able to purchase cattleheads for sacrificial purposes.

Afsaruddin , a leasee of the haat said, supply of Indian cattleheads was scanty this year and there was a sufficient number of locally reared cattle heads but the number of customers was very low here. However, he hoped, the number of customers would increase as the Eid approaching.

One of the cattle traders at the haat also said most of Indian cattle are carried to Dhaka, Chittagong because in those region there are many comparatively well off people and they like to sacrifice large cattle. He further said the price of Indian cattle was also higher and, in addition to the price of the cattle, it costs further Tk 3,000 for each cow as charge. As a result, local cattle traders are reluctant to bring Indian cattlehead in local haat.

BSS from Rajshahi reports: With only five days left for the Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival for the Muslims, cattle markets in the city and nine upazilas of the district along with its adjacent areas have gained momentum with numerous buyers and hundreds of sacrificial animals.

A huge number of sacrificial animals are being brought for sale at different cattle markets like City haat, Naohata haat, Baneswar haat, Keshor haat, Kanthakhali haat, Rajabari haat, Kakonhat, Mohisalbari haat and Machmoil haat.

Rajshahi City Corporation allowed installation of eight makeshift cattle markets in the metropolis which began to draw huge cattle, including imported ones from Myanmar as well as India.

Traders said there were plenty of supplies of cattle in the markets and their prices were similar to the last Eid-ul-Azha.

The price of an ideal sized cow or buffalo ranges starts from Taka 30,000 to 80,000 and a sheep or goat from Taka 8,000 to 25,000.

In addition to the city's biggest cattle market-City haat-, some temporary markets have been set up at Court Bazar, Shaheb Bazar Zero point, Railway Station, Court Station, Naodapara Aam Chattar and Kazla.

Besides the local buyers, the wholesale cattle traders especially from Chittagong and Dhaka are still purchasing heads of cattle from those haats and sending those to various places in the country for sale.

This year, the demand for domestic animals for sacrificial purposes seemingly increased as the wholesalers are sending large animal consignments to different big markets from Rajshahi. The price of sacrificial animals was steady but the price may shoot up a bit because of the soaring price of animal food and transport cost this year.

The farmers said because of high prices of fodder, many farm owners sold their cattle and opted for other trades as it was not possible for the farmers to gain profit in this business.

BSS from Khulna adds: Officials of Khulna Livestock Department said there is no need to import cattle on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha as adequate numbers of cattle have been reared in the region this year.

"The demand for sacrificial animals in Khulna division during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha can be met with locally-reared livestock," said Dr Arun Kanti Mondal, additional district livestock officer in Khulna today.

The livestock department had to import cattle a few years back, he said, adding that the scenario has changed a lot and the entire demand of sacrificial animals can be met with local cattle.

According to the livestock office, the demand for sacrificial animals in Khulna this year stands at 1, 12,365 which are 31,943 more compared to the last year.

A total of 57,827 sacrificial animals have been reared locally and the rest 54,538 would be met from animals brought from other districts.

"A good number of the cattle have been reared at 2,053 farms in the district. Moreover, a lot of people also reared cattle in their homestead in nine upazilas in Khulna," he added.


25th Robi-Dristy Debate held in Port city

Campus Report :

The closing ceremony of the Robi-Dristy Debate Competition has come to an end on Saturday at the Theater Institute in Chittagong. This was the 25th edition of this prestigious debate contest organized by Dristy Chittagong, says a press release.

Chittagong University, Chittagong Govt High School and Presidency International School were crowned as the champions in University, School and College level respectively. The college level debate competition was held in English language.

Kalokakoli High School became runner-up in school level and Tanvir from Chittagong Government High School was adjudged as the best debater. North-South University became runner-up in the University level debate competition.

Information Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister and eminent journalist, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury distributed prizes among the winners at the closing ceremony as chief guest. Robi's Chief Corporate and People Officer (CCPO) and former debater Matiul Islam Nowshad, banglanews24.com's Bureau Chief in Chittagong, Tapan Chakroborty; Sunrise Grammer School's Principal Safia Gazi Rahman, Robi's Cluster Market Director, Eastern Cluster, Nazir Ahmed and Bangladesh Debate Federation's President, Abdullah Muhammad Shukrana were present on the occasion as Special Guests. Dristy Chittagong's President, Masud Bakul presided over the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury said, "Current young generation is enriched with information. They have huge curiosity to gather knowledge. Youth from the entire country should take up debate as a means for developing their merit."

He added, if Dhaka is the head of the country, then Chittagong is the heartbeat. So, development of the city is the reflection of our country's development. Present Government under the leadership of Prime Minister is constantly working to develop the port city.

Robi's CCPO, Matiul Islam Nowshad in his speech said, "Ability to speak well and thinking power are mandatory for becoming a quality leader. He hailed Dristy as the factory of building leaders and said, Robi is proud of partnering with Dristy in bringing about positive changes in the society."

President of Drity Chittagong, Masud Bakul said, "Dristy Chittagong is the lone organization that is organizing school debate competition for the 25th consecutive year in the country. We believe, our effort can't go in vain in our pursuit to build a society based on rationality through youth engagement."

Senior Vice-Chairman, Saif Chowdhury; Vice President, Shahidul Islam; General Secretary, Saber Shah; Joint Secretary, Saifuddin Munna and Zunayed Koushik Chowdhury and Organizing Secretary, Kazi Arafat of Dristy Chittagong were also present on the occasion.
Traffic management in Dhaka city

Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :

Both are well connected to other cities through public transport and experiencing difficult management of traffic movement. Traffic management in Kolkata is way better than Dhaka . "Dhaka and kolkata both are metropolitan city but Dhaka has facing poor traffic system in other hand kolkatas traffic system better than Dhaka."

To cite a report:"Public transport in Dhaka is virtually non-existent and shittiest in South Asia. Because in Bangladesh, govt. and Dhaka city corporation are puppet against the bus owner thugs as they have been opposing any new attempt to introduce better big buses. In Kolkata 'One of the most important of these changes is closure of the Brabourne Road flyover, which carries huge traffic round the clock from Howrah. The transport system of Kolkata is a mix of modern mass rapid transport and the old transport modalities like the rickshaws. Kolkata is connected to the rest of India by the National Highways, the extensive network of the Indian Railways, and also by air. Most traffic to North-East India routes via Kolkata.

2 deputy commissioners, 8 assistant commissioners, inspectors, sergeants,assistant sub-inspectors, constables etc. work in this department to help motorists reach their destination safely in minimum time, in a city having roughly 10% roadspace.

As for set up total city is divided into 25 Traffic Guards. These Traffic Guards implement the policing with regard to traffic in the city. The Traffic Control Room functions round the clock to co-ordinate the field works of the fourteen Traffic Guards. The Traffic Control Room is responsible for traffic arrangements for special occasions, as well as, for piloting.

The Fatal Squad of this unit investigates cases of serious street accidents involving deaths. Road safety programmes are also organized by the Traffic Department. The Traffic Training School imparts training to the traffic police personnel regarding traffic control and regulation and traffic signaling.

The traffic department in Dhaks used to function under a Deputy Commissioner of police in 1976 who was assisted by Assistant Commissioners, Traffic Inspectors and Sergeants. In 1996, positions of two Deputy Commissioners (DC, Traffic North and DC, Traffic South) were created. However, position of an Additional Commissioner, a Joint Commissioner and four Deputy Commissioners were created in 2006. Its total sanction of manpower was also raised to 3,645 in the same year.The primary duty of Traffic department is to maintain smooth flow of traffic in the city. The Traffic Control Room functions round the clock to coordinate with the field units. Assistant Commissioners of police and their teams consisted of Traffic Inspector, Sergeant and Traffic Constables form the field units. These units, indeed implement the policing with regard to Traffic in the city. In discharging its duties smoothly and professionally, traffic department keeps rapport and liaison with the Ministry of Communication, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and other concerned authorities.

Compared to Kolkata Dhaka has long been witnessing hazardous traffic movement. Traffic movement is beyond control as there are too many cars and automobiles standing still in gridlock. More There a few alternative roads. Although a number of flyovers have been constructed traffic movement is not under control. Now metro railway is under construction. Whereas kolkata has numerous flyovers, alternatives roads, trams, circular trains and underground metro railway. There kolkata is almost jam free city. 'Kolkata Metro is the first underground Metro railway in India. It extends from Noapara near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Air Port, Kolkata to Kavi Subhash station near Patuli, the busy North-South axis of Kolkata over a length of 27.223 kms. The Metro railway, Kolkata was constructed progressively from 1972 to 2013. Phase-I a length of 16.450 kms from DumDum to Tollygunge (Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) having been completed in 1995 and in Phase-II a length of 5.834 kms from Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to Kavi Nazrul station is completed in August-2009. The last leg upto Kavi Subhash a length of 2.851 kms has been opened in October8,2010 for commercial operation. On 10th July 2013, Metro services further extended from DumDum to Noapara(2.091 kms). Tram is operated by the Calcutta tramsway company(CTC). It is currently the only operating tram network in India and the oldest operating electric tram in Asia, running since 1902.

We may well think of Kolkata ways of managing traffic. We have come to know that urban decentralization has been taking place in Kolkata. The population of Kolkata has been in declining sewing for last couple of decades. Residential enclaves with hotel and shopping malls are situated in the locations far away from the main city. Suburbs are well connected by circular train and buses. Dhaka cannot afford to accommodate more than 20 million city dwellers. The commercial and official districts should be shifted to the outskirts like what Mahthir Mahmud did in Malaysia. Ok we can only manage floating population during office hour through a systematic traffic network covering the suburbs. The coverage of commuter railwa system should be extended.



Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, (Chittagong University)
Scott Olson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Criticism over President Donald Trump's decision to pardon Joe Arpaio shows no signs of slowing down.



The former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, was pardoned Friday by the president for his conviction on criminal contempt of a federal court order that he stop detaining people based on their immigration status.

Critics of the pardon view the move as a direct affront to Latinos, who were primarily detained.



Other minority communities have since been vocal about being united with the Latino community.



The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded more than 100 years ago to fight defamation against Jewish Americans, was among one of the first community-based organizations to announce its solidarity with the Latino community.

The pardon will foster divisions in our country at a time when we need healing. - @JGreenblattADL https://t.co/RXG3f2DS1T  ADL (@ADL_National) August 27, 2017



"President Trumps pardon of Joe Arpaio defies explanation and flies in the face of American values," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the CEO of ADL, said Saturday in a statement. "We stand today with the Latino community, who have been the primary targets of Arpaios bigotry and feel the presidents decision to pardon him particularly acutely."



Greenblatt also took the opportunity to "question where President Trump stands on the rule of law."



He said, "Arpaio willfully defied a court order for racially profiling Latinos and now is getting away with it -- a very dangerous precedent. The pardon will foster divisions in our country at a time when we need healing. No doubt anti-immigrant extremists will celebrate this decision, but it is a sad day for Americans who care about justice, equality and strengthening our social fabric.



The ADL has had its eye on Arpaio for a while.



"The Anti-Defamation League has been exposing Joe Arpaios extreme anti-immigrant tactics and bigotry for years," Greenblatt said. "He has unlawfully targeted Latinos and intentionally held immigrants in deplorable and humiliating conditions. At the tent city jail he created in Arizonas sweltering heat -- boastfully comparing it to a concentration camp -- he humiliated detainees."



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Cross-border and inter-city bus companies will be prohibited from operating between 9pm and 5am as part of measures Government is crafting to curb road carnage.Illegal taxis, commonly referred to as mushika-shika, will be taken off the road permanently. Stiff penalties will also be introduced for overloading, speeding and defective vehicles.Authorities are tweaking these proposals for onward transmission to Cabinet which is likely to deliberate on them within a fortnight. A Government official who preferred anonymity told The Sunday Mail last week:"The draft proposes that driving for public transporters stop at 9pm and resume around 5am. Discussions around the issue are still underway as some are opposing the idea, arguing that it is not good for business."The proposal has been taken from other countries such as Zambia, which prohibit public transporters from operating after 9pm."Civil Protection Unit director Mr Nathan Nkomo confirmed the proposals, but would not be drawn into commenting further."A Cabinet Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management came up with a position paper that contains a raft of measures which will try to address the carnage issue," Mr Nkomo said."We have realised that most road carnage is being caused by human error. So, we are working on how best to curb speeding, overloading and removing unroadworthy vehicles from the roads. We have also included stiffer penalties for urban transport such as illegal taxis as they are contributing to deaths. All this comes against the backdrop of several accidents that have killed many of our people this year."Mr Nkomo said road traffic accidents cost Zimbabwe millions of US dollars yearly."We are supposed to receive US$2,7 million from Treasury as part of this year's disbursements (to road traffic accident victims' compensation). However, we have not yet received anything."Since January 2017, we have been helping families with burial assistance for their loved ones while mainly relying on donor funds. For the Mvuma accident, for instance, Government used over US$20 000 on DNA tests only. So, these measures will also help save meagre resources and channel them to other areas of need."Last April, 31 people were killed when a South Africa-bound bus they were travelling on was side-swiped by a haulage truck and caught fire near Mvuma.Two months later, 43 perished when a King Lion bus en route to Zambia rammed into a tree along the Harare-Chirundu Road.On Thursday, 11 people were killed in Kamativi when the lorry they were travelling in burst a tyre, veered off the road and plunged into a gorge.All the accidents occurred at night.
Finance Minister`s apology is not enough

THE sorry state of the banking sector with over 27 percent default loans in eight state-run banks with a national average of 10 percent for all is really disturbing to suggest a total breakdown in bank management and loan operation of public sector banks. Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday offered a public apology for managerial failure of the state-owned banks; which are now having a total of Tk 40,100 crore in default loans out of a total of Tk 74,194 crore in recent time. These banks are now mainly living on regular bail out from national exchequer but the question is how and why so much loans have become stuck up over the years and why the Finance Ministry remained unconcerned. In fact he encouraged bank looters by openly saying even big amounts were small money. He condemns the loan defaulters forgetting that business crisis may take place justifying failure to repay. There may be factors outside the control of the loanees for the bad days. But outright plundering was allowed for the incompetence of the Finance Ministry.





In our view mere apology of the Finance Minister for his failure is not enough, his incompetence should be recognised.

The fact is that his involvement with the ruling party politics left him utterly helpless to make compromise with big defaulters instead of tightening the screw on them. Particularly when Mohammad Abdur Razzak, the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance came up with open accusation against the ACC in a workshop for 'miserably failing' to book the perpetrators of loan scams in BASIC Bank and such other banks it has no clear answer. He said the committee has sent specific evidences to the ACC in BASIC Bank's loan scams involving Tk Tk 2,900 crore, which the Chairman personally sanctioned to 71 clients. These people are now mostly untraceable.



He wondered why the ACC representatives avoid attending meeting of the Standing Committee despite having sent invitations to talk on loan scams of the particular bank. But why the government should rely so much on the ACC. The corruption cases are not the best way to gain full deal with the defaulters. Many businesses could have been saved if bank officials were helpful to save the businesses. The corruption cases lead to other kinds of corruption. By putting the defaulting businessmen in jail they are incapacitated to be helpful to the banks. The corruption cases are also filed as a way of shirking responsibility of the high officials in the bank.





The basic problem is the lack of accountability. The power of corruption is the power of the government. The Finance Minister cannot see what a disaster the government has made for its failures in all sectors of the government.






'Militant' killed in Bhaluka bomb blast

UNB, Mymensingh :

A suspected militant was killed in a bomb explosion at a house in Kashor area of Bhaluka upazila on Sunday evening.

The deceased could not be identified yet.

Mamunur Rashid, officer-in-charge of Bhaluka Police Station, said the bomb went off at the house around 6pm.

The deceased 'militant' along with his wife and a child rented the house only three days back, he said, adding that they encircled the house for conducting a drive inside.

The OC also said they detained house owner Azim Uddin for interrogation.

Police suspected that the wife and the child of the alleged militant were also injured in the explosion and they managed to flee the scene.
Shamsuddin Chy`s remarks on CJ `contemptuous`, says Fakhrul

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgiron Sunday said ex-Supreme Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury should be put on trial for making 'contemptuous' comments on Chief Justice SK Sinha.

"His (Choudhury's) remarks are indecent, unforgivable and devoid of courtesy and norms. I think these remarks are tantamount to contempt of court for which he should be tried," said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He came up with the comments while talking to reporters after placing wreaths at the grave of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, marking his 41st death anniversary.

The way Choudhury talks and use words, the BNP leader said, it gives an impression that he lacks the minimum quality to be a apex court judge.

Earlier, at a discussionon Saturday, Choudhury doubted whether the 16th amendment verdict was written by the Chief Justice.

He also said, the observation made by the Chief Justice in the verdict is far away from the context "The person who doesn't believe in Bangabandhu's single leadership, and even was a member of Peace Committee in 1971 that he himself confessed has no right to live in this country. The Chief Justice should leave for Pakistan resigning from his post."

Reacting to his comments, Fakhrul said, "I don't know on which consideration Shamsuddin Choudhury was appointed to the post of a judge...The 16th amendment verdict was given unanimously by the Appellate Division. Those who raise equations about it and about the authority and the independence of the judiciary violate the constitution."

The BNP leader on behalf of their chairperson Khaleda Zia, paid homage to the national poet and prayed for salvation of his departed soul on the occasion of his death anniversary.

Mentioning that Nazrul's ideal is an inspiration for the nation, Fakhrul said, the poet had given the nation inspiration for waging the Liberation War and other rights movements. "His contributions to art and literature, and his patriotism are incomparable."
Myanmar army fire at fleeing Rohingyas

BGB DG warns of befitting reply: Cox's Bazar DC says they are entering despite vigilance, warnings

Women and children fleeing violence in their villages arrive at the Yathae Taung township in Rakhine State in Myanmar on Saturday.

Sagar Biswas :

The bordering area was rocked again on Sunday when Myanmar's Border Guard Police [BGP] fired gunshots for several times targeting the fleeing Rohingya Muslim refugees in different points of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Although tense situation raises often in Bangladesh-Myanmar border centering the Rohingya influx, this time the situation is too hot as BGP members are firing shots at them who have taken shelter in Bangladesh crossing the 'zero line', official sources said.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar Md Ali Hossain told The New Nation over phone last night that Myanmar forces opened fire several times even on Sunday. Especially, the BGP members fired bullets at Bandarban border while Rohingya refugees throng there to enter Bangladesh territory through hilly area.

About influx of Rohingyas, the DC said, "The refugees [Rohynga ] are continuously entering Bangladesh despite strict surveillance of BGB, Coast Guard, police and other agencies. We're trying hard to resist them, but it becomes difficult as they [refugees] are using huge bordering area to enter Bangladesh."

"We've got information about entering of a big batch of refugees, around 3000-4000, on Saturday late night through Ukhia border crossing the Naf River. Earlier, 600-700 refugees entered on Friday. At present, the refugees are staying scattered as they haven't scope to take shelter in the old Rohingya camps," Ali Hossain said.

Officials said thousands of Rohingyas - mostly women and children - were trying to cross the Naf River fearing more violence.

Earlier on Saturday, the BGP members fired shots targeting Rohingyas at Tambru area under Dhumdhum union of Naikhangchhari upazila in Bandarban district.

Against this backdrop, BGB Cox's Bazar Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Manjurul Hasan Khan said on Sunday that 'precautionary measures' have been taken following the incidents.

In the wake of BGP gunfire following fresh Rohingya influx, Director General of Border Guard Bangladesh [BGB] Major General Abul Hossain visited Naikhangchhari, a hilly bordering area of country's southeastern Bandarban district, on Sunday.

"Bangladesh will not give shelter to any terrorist in its border. Besides, BGB is ready to give befitted reply if Myanmar army tries to interfere in our territory violating border law," the BGB chief said.

According to media reports, Myanmar's government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border on Sunday.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces; the media said quoting government sources.

Meanwhile, over 5 lakh registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees have so far taken shelter in Bangladesh since 1970 after army-backed Myanmar government launched cleansing operation against Rohingyas.

The United Nations had said over 65,000 Rohingyas entered through different points of Cox's Bazar after the Myanmar army launched the crackdown in the Muslim dominated Rakhine state in October last year.

The Rohingya issue was raised in the last Organisation of the Islamic Conference [OIC] summit where State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam exchanged views with Foreign Minister of Malaysia Dato Sri Anifah Aman.

Bangladesh government informed the Malaysian Minister of the influx of Rakhine Muslims, residual refugees of past exodus and of 3,00,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals staying in Bangladesh.


Womans body found in city

Staff Reporter :

Police recovered a body of a woman from a house in Nama Para area of Khilkhet in the city on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Jelekha Khatun, 27, wife of one Samir Uddin, police said.

Sub-Inspector (SI) Sajal Mahmud of Khilkhet Police Station said that police recovered the body from a tin-shed house around 11:00 am and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for autopsy.

Jelekha Khatun, along with her husband and three sons, was living in a rented house in the area. Police suspect that the husband might have strangled his wife to death as he disappeared following the incident. The body bears only one mark on the throat.

We are investigating the incident, the SI said.

The body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) for an autopsy, he said.






3 held over Mirpur gang-rape

Staff Reporter :

Police in a drive arrested three young men on charge of raping a female garment worker in Darus Salam area of Mirpur of the capital on Sunday.

The arrested persons have been identified as Rony, 28, Babu, 32, and Rubel, 24, police said.

Shah Ali Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Anwar Hossain said that a garment worker was raped at a rickshaw garage around 09:00pm on Saturday.

Rubel was nabbed in cooperation with the locals when the girl was screaming, the police official said.

As per his information Rony and Babu were picked up, the OC said.

The girl was admitted to the One-Stop Crisis Center of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), he said.

A case was filed with the police station in this connection, the OC said.






Journo Allen killed in South Sudan fighting

Al Jazeera News :

At least 19 people have been killed in South Sudan, including an American freelance journalist, after fighting broke out between government troops and rebel forces in the southern part of the country, rebel leaders and the military said.

Christopher Allen, who worked with various news outlets, including Al Jazeera in the past, was killed in heavy fighting in the town of Kaya in Yei River State on Saturday.

"On the ground, about 16 [bodies] have been found around the defensive position of the SPLA including this white man," military spokesman Santo Domic Chol told Reuters news agency, referring to the SPLA national army.

Three government soldiers were also killed, he said.

Rebel forces identified the man found as Allen, who had embedded with them for the past week, along with two other journalists.

"We are sad for his family. He came here to tell our story," one rebel fighter, who asked not to be named, said.

He added that Allen had been in the middle of the fighting and wearing a jacket marked 'PRESS'.

The US embassy in the country confirmed that Allen had been killed and that his family had been notified.

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into war in December 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's troops against those or rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar.

A peace accord was signed in August 2015 and Machar returned to the capital in April last year to share power with Kiir, before the deal fell apart less than three months later and Machar and his supporters fled the capital.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A chief in Zhombe has been dragged to court after he allegedly took a beast from one of his subjects without his consent, before slaughtering it and calling for a village braai after he had found the man guilty of working in the fields on a "sacred" day.Chief Weight Gwesela was supposed to appear before Kwekwe magistrate Ms Vimbai Mutukwa last week but did not attend court resulting in the matter being postponed to a later date.However, the court heard that Mr Samson Mabukwa from Zhombe, who is an African Apostolic Church member, felt abused by the traditional leader whom he claimed was making his religious life unbearable by forcing him to observe Thursdays as sacred instead of Saturdays, a day which his church recognises.Allegations against Chief Gwesela are that he fined Mr Mabukwa a beast after he found him working in his field on a Thursday, a day that is sacred according to the African Traditional Religion.Mr Mabukwa, the court heard, did not willingly pay the beast, resulting in the chief sending his messengers to his homestead to drive one beast. Mr Mabukwa reported the matter to the police."I was ordered to pay an ox, three chief's messengers appeared at my homestead with a rope which they used to tie my ox and took it away," Mr Mabukwa told the court."A day later, I heard some of my church members saying that we have been invited at Chief Gwesela's homestead for a braai as he intended to slaughter my ox."Mr Artwell Chinamatira from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) who represented Mr Mabukwa appealed for the matter to be referred to the Constitutional Court."When the man was convicted the chief was both the plaintiff and the presiding officer which goes against the basic principle of natural justice," said Mr Chinamatira.Mr Vincent Chimwenje prosecuted.
News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT is intensifying efforts to boost electricity generation, with over US$151 million worth of new small hydropower projects lined up while US$154 million has been secured for the repowering of small thermal power stations.Efforts to increase power generation come as Government is finalising the Renewable Energy Policy framework as well as the Independent Power Producer (IPP) framework, which are both expected to result in greater private sector involvement.Investments in small hydro- power projects are seen as quick-wins following the success of four small hydropower stations  Nyamingura, Pungwe A and B, Hauna and Kupinga  which was commissioned last Thursday in Chipinge; which are feeding 28,6MW into the national grid.Currently, there is potential to develop small hydro stations at 17 dams across the country, with Osborne, Gairezi, Nyangombe and Kondo dams, primed as some of the best sites. Government is looking for investors for "priority" mini-hydro power projects such as Tokwe-Mukosi (US$40 million); Gairezi (US$90 million); Rusitu II (US$10 million); Rusitu (US$2,5 million) and Tsanga (US$8 million) hydropower projects.The five potential hydro- power stations can produce up to 53,8MW, with an annual output of 152 000MW. However, concerns over "low renewable energy feed-in tariffs" have generally spooked IPP investors, resulting in lack of development at some projects licensed several years ago.IPPs have been lobbying Government to increase the power tariff from the current average US9,86c per kilowatt hour, to spur investor appetite, but permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development Mr Partson Mbiriri said they are still working out a solution that would even out the interests of both, investors and consumers.Mr Mbiriri said while Government assessed the feed-in tariff in 2013 and reviewed it in 2015, adding a new tariff would hurt consumers."The problem with increasing feed-in tariffs is that consumers would get power at a higher tariff. So we want to balance the two issues so that people investing in electricity generation get some return but without exploiting consumers," said Mr Mbiriri.He conceded that coming up with an acceptable tariff would not be easy. Investment in renewable energy is relatively on the upside, with Old Mutual shelling out US$5,7 million in financing the Kupinga hydropower station that was commissioned in Chipinge last Thursday.Kupinga hydro has a rated capacity of 1,6MW and is already feeding power into the grid.But the attendant high initial cost of investment has scared many investors, and Mr Mbiriri said the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) would have to check the overall costs of power generation and "allow some reasonable surplus so that investors can get a reasonable return".". . . we can't peg the prices too high because while we will help investors to get a return on investment, we will be burdening consumers," said Mr Mbiriri.He could not be drawn into proposing an ideal tariff that would balance the aspirations of investors and consumers, saying at the current blend tariff of US9,86c per kWh, Zimbabwe is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive in Sadc.Some countries charge up to US17c per kWh. Mr Mbiriri said Government was hoping to marginally increase the tariff but has been prevented by the obtaining socio-economic challenges in the country."Any tariff increase will come from consultations and we see what we will come up with but I can't say what will happen. When we talk a lot we might affecting the way things are done."Zesa, which had a bid to increase tariffs to US14,49c per kWh thrown out by Zera last year, has revived the issue saying it was now more important to raise the tariff than any other time due to the need to settle the power import bill.The import bill stands at about US$50 million, with Eskom of South and Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) threatening to switch off Zimbabwe over unpaid obligations.Attempts by Zesa to request for a tariff increase coincide with plans by several sectors of the economy, especially manufacturing, to push for tariff reductions. The manufacturing sector wants a maximum tariff of US7c per kWh while the chrome industry seeks a 3c tariff; and bakers indicating they would need as low as US2c per kWh, to ensure viability.However, Mr Mbiriri hinted that a 2c tariff was not "possible because we don't get electricity anywhere at 2c per kWh".Small-thermal power stationsSmall thermal power stations  Munyati, Harare and Bulawayo  have been central to boosting availability of power in the country.But in recent years, output from the plants has been steadily declining owing to their age. Government now wants to re-power them. Re-powering is a process of replacing older power stations with newer ones which either have a greater nameplate capacity or more efficiency resulting in an overall increase in power generated.There are plans to start repowering the Bulawayo Power Station after the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a power generating unit of Zesa, got US$87 million from the Eximbank of India. ZPC spokesperson Ms Fadzai Chisveto told The Sunday Mail Business by email that: "A line of credit of US$87 million has been sourced for the Bulawayo repowering project from the Eximbank of India."The terms of the US$87 million deal could not be ascertained. Mr Mbiriri said repowering Bulawayo station would start by year end. "We are starting with Bulawayo at the end of this year. We got the money to repower Bulawayo through the Indian government."For the Harare project, we got funding from the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), then we finish off with Munyati. So these are projects we have lined up," said Mr Mbiriri.It could not be established how much was raised Harare but ZPC had said it was in the market sourcing US$72 million. The Harare plant has not been generating electricity since July 24 when Station 3 went down due to a governor control failure, while Boiler 1 also developed a tube leak during the same period.Repairs have been underway since then. Boiler 2 at the Harare plant was also undergoing statutory inspection and is expected back on line any time from now. Said Ms Chisveto: "Generally, our small thermals have aged and cannot generate at their original capacity, hence, the reduction in generation."ZPC is working on repowering projects in order to address the issue of ageing equipment. Repowering will involve the replacement of the old boilers with new circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) technology."The stations will also be uprated to generate 120MW at Harare and Munyati and 90MW at Bulawayo from the current average of 20MW."As of last Tuesday, Harare was not generating anything while Bulawayo was producing 20MW and Munyati 19MW. ZPC also had challenges with its coal suppliers at the beginning of the year until July, resulting in the reduction in generation.The coal problems have since been rectified and the company has started building up stock levels to ensure there is "enough for generation and so far we are doing well".The repowering projects come at a time when ZPC has also embarked on the expansion of both Kariba South Hydropower Station and Hwange Thermal Power Station's units 7 and 8.On completion, both projects would channel a combined 900MW to the national grid.The first 150MW from Kariba South are expected on December 24.
Opinion / Columnist

Don't be fooled  Even Political Junkies and spent forces can erect an Alliance  So just call it an erection and it will pass. (A weekend digest of Zimbabwean Politics)

When they don't agree with you - beat 'em up

I was lost but now I am found

Lost and Blind

Rookies, the excitable and the less thinking

Respect the book  by Thabo Mbeki the Zanu Pf spy

A wild solution

It's a Nation of Violent people and if you think you can take over power from a stinking old 93 year old Bob by raising your hands - forget it. If there is one prime legacy that Robert Mugabe will be remembered for is that of a violent man who blames everyone for Zimbabwe's problems except himself - a holy cow others say. Unfortunately this violent behaviour of Mugabe has led many to believe that violence is the solution for every little problem that one may have. Just recently, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (MT) dispatched his team of violent youth to go to Bulawayo, the country's second largest city, to go and beat up his Vice President (Thokozani Khuphe) for boycotting an event that Tsvangirai deemed important. They beat her, and left - back to Harare where they enjoy party immunity. Most citizens of the world watched helplessly when Mugabe's wife beat a defenceless kid in Johannesburg and left her with life scars and terror - only to receive immunity - just to show the domination of violence in our African society. Even the loud Julius Malema seemed to concur by his silence but then of course you cannot bite the finger that feeds you - poor Zuma, he did not see this coming.Well, in Zimbabwe the political Viagra has brought the prodigal sons home. Seeing the end of their political careers inevitable  political junkies  Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti returned to daddy MT (the highest bidder in the political prostitution ring) singing praises and worships to the person whom they believe will be paying their salaries if their little gamble works. You could not believe it when Welshman Ncube took the podium and sang praises of a man he despises so much. Looking back, if you were to hear Mr Ncube talking behind the scenes about Tsvaangirai and Harare per se, you would not believe his utterances at the launch of the new MDC, the MDC Alliance. Well, some of us are to blame as well because we followed his greed when he split the MDC under the guise of principles and all that bullshit. You must give it to the man. I suppose him and Jonathan Moyo were cut from the same cloth although Jonathan seems clever and less of a coward.But then again, they are going to the wrong man. Morgan Tsvangirai presents himself as a tired face of opposition who has been hip hoping from scandal to scandal thanks to his ever loyal supporters, the man has many lives (Just like the blind support Mugabe had in the 80s). For heaven's sake, the man once described Mugabe as a statesman during his days as Prime Minister and for sure he got paid for it, a Mansion, a Wife and some Medical Bills paid for. Zimbabweans are indeed a special breed. The combined faces of the new alliance has no idea of what is coming their way. They will be hit by a storm in their usual morning political pyjamas they have been wearing since they formed the MDC. Surely Grace Mugabe and Jonathan Moyo cannot destroy ZANU PF to create space for the MDC Alliance. Let alone who will take care of the misguided missiles like General Chiwenga, a lunatic embarrassing our respected troops. I will leave that to Philip Sibanda. The new alliance has no capacity to deal with that. To date - in their watch and gatekeeping tactics - they have allowed the Old Witch Mugabe to continue the vomit all over once beautiful territory. I am told he carries a peeing bag and stinks like hell to those that sit next to him in meeting. What a shame. On the other hand, Mugabe's Children are the Morden day untouchables together with their mother who clearly forgets to take her meds - causing diplomatic disputes everywhere she goes. Sooner or later, we might need to confine her into a mental institute where she belongs.I am told the new MDC Alliance's survival depends on seats allocation - who gets to contest where and how many safe seats do each party gets. To think of it, we haven't seen their campaign manifesto but they are already thinking about benefits. Typical innit? Selfish Bastards. Not that I am surprised though. I remember when the MDC first got to parliament. They were more excited about packages that come with being a Member of Parliament. They got cars, Housing allowances, Hotel stays and air travels. I was in Harare at one point waiting to catch a lift with the late Tsholotsho MP, Mtoliki Sibanda who had just been allocated a new car, a brand new Toyota Hilux Twin Cam. The man was excited to an extent that he had to drive down to Bulawayo a partially incomplete car with some parts to be assembled left out as the MP could not wait to drive his new baby. On the way he kept boasting about its raving capability and speed and the new car smell, regularly beating the dashboard in excitement.As a person who had asked for a lift, I seconded the excitement and reserved my disgust. To that effect, I am sure Mugabe had got himself one of the outstanding espionage operation - taking notes on what makes MDC representatives tick. The feeling was universal in the party as we all remember the pose and shine of the cars and our MPs at the time -sitting in high tables and driving nice cars. Well, it was their turn one would suppose. But then again you look at their behaviour during the Unity Government and see no change if not worse. Who in their right minds would accept a bodyguard from their sworn enemies? right. Well, it was MDC Ministers who did that without even thinking that all their movements were noted down for future dirty references. Hence, it was easy for Mugabe to dismiss them because he simply brought out the black book and made them choose between their dirty linen and a quiet life in their constituencies which many have since lost. Some cats were lucky to keep their mansions and even have their medical bills paid for by the enemy camp.In all this, one thing we must never forget is how education play a part in political management when it comes to the art of grabbing and keeping power - basic dictatorship. A brain that reads even the simplest of history is better placed than a brain that does not read at all. The history of politics in Zimbabwe informs us that Mr Mugabe spent a lot of years in prison, reading and attaining degrees in various faculties of education - violence included.This has for sure made him a better leader to completely outsmart his opponents.3. Not to insult the man who turned from being a terrorist to father of the nation - Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo - I do not know much of his educational history but I know the man had no political savvy and tactic. In the late 70s, ZANU PF intelligence deployed in Zambia to indirectly convince Nkomo that his commanders were sell-outs. We know the stories of our heroes like Nikita Mangena and how they died. Mugabe was already in preparation to deploy Gukurahundi and he knew if ZAPU commanders were alive, they would accept no nonsense.Zipra would have destroyed Zanla armatures in no time. But hey, not to dwell on history, let's look at how Mugabe played Tsvangirai and make a conclusion on who is better placed - a dictator with degrees (including those of violence) and an opposition leader who buys books at airports and read 3 pages before his Champaign arrives (assuming always flying Business Class and spending time in expensive yatchts). Two events come to mind - one that involves a foreign leader spying for Mugabe and a lack of judgement from Morgan Tsvaangirai.During my days at MDC I noticed how every time MDC had an upper hand in the political front making Mugabe feel threatened, Mugabe would call Mbeki to mediate and Mbeki will call Welshman to come and spill the MDC dirty linen and then Mbeki would revert to Mugabe some critical information which was then used to destroy MDC. The other simple example is the 2008 elections. Let us remember that in 2000 - if the MDC had decided to take it to the streets, there would be a massacre because at the time, the Zimbabwean military had just returned from DRC and being paid in USD with completely no knowledge of Zimbabwean politics. To them, the state was being threatened by the West and soldiers needed to fight their stooges, in this case make sure the MDC does not lead protests to take over the state house. A different scenario existed in 2008.The security sectors were ready to let go after having seen Mugabe mismanaging the country and there was nothing in it for them as they were suffering like everyone. But again, clever Mugabe knew protests were inevitable and all he needed was to make sure nobody leads such. So he whispered to Tsvangirai that he was going to be killed and the man took off to RSA for a month. At a dinner in Johannesburg (Joburg), a friend asked him why he was in Joburg when people needed a leader back home and he replied saying they wanted to kill him. My friend knocked some sense into him by saying in Joburg they can shoot him in the streets and call it a robbery while in Zimbabwe nobody could touch him seeing the whole world was watching. The man packed his bags and went back to Zimbabwe - tried to call for protests that failed dismally. One must remember Zimbabweans are starving and if you lose the momentum to protest the next day after election results, you are done - people want to work and eat.For me - there are two things. A revolution by the middle class or a military coup. For fast results, I would promote the latter. If the army can take over and arrest all political leaders from Zanu and MDC for 3 months, then call an election, I think one may learn one or two lesson in prison - mainly not to be a political fraudster. I am getting tired now but I will expand on these two important points in next weeks' weekend digest.
Opinion / Columnist

This article is part two of an article on current land rights in Zimbabwe. The first article was entitled: Rhodes' Estate Should Compensate White Farmers, Not Mugabe ; this article deals with damages and how much should then be paid to the white farmers whether in Zimbabwe or South Africa. Liability, as noted in the first article, lies with either Cecil John Rhodes' Estate (for funding colonization under the banner - Rhodesia) or the United Kingdom (under the Lancaster House Accord).The legal rule of damages is that whether Zimbabweans take their case to the International Court at the Hague, in protest against the United Kingdom for not honoring the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement or take the white farmers head-on at whatever forum will be established to settle this dispute, the land never had a good title because it arises from political displacement of African territorial homeland. The amount for compensation surely can never include the original stolen land: the Zimbabwean people or government should not pay for land that was stolen and then returned after a protracted bush War to win it back. Should Jews compensate those who stole their artwork during Nazi German for the storage, exhibition, and maintenance fees?Similar principles of compensation should be applied in court whether they involve Jews or Gentiles; Blacks or Whites; Men or Women.The Zimbabwean war for liberation was fought for land and this land has been subsequently returned to the rightful owners. Whether it was redistributed the right way or the wrong way after it was returned is a political question of democracy. The main issue is that the treaty clauses of the Lancaster House Peace Treaty were that land be given back to the majority Africans having lost the bush war waged by the Rhodesian Front. It was Zimbabwe that was the victor of that war, not Rhodesia. This was the battle between Zimbabwe and Rhodesia; between Colonial America and Great Britain in 1789... In essence, the bush war culminated in the Patriotic Front defeating the Rhodesian Armed Forces. The Patriotic Front, led by Zanu under Robert Mugabe was voted into government following a free and fair election monitored by the United Kingdom. This culminated in independence, in as much as the United States is now independent of the then Great Britain. A similar scenario: two States fighting over territorial jurisdiction...The Zimbabwean transition to power followed not a civil war but a revolutionary war that expanded the definition of citizen to include Africans, who were back then seen as infantile subjects. At this time in history, white Zimbabweans preferred to be known as Rhodesians. This is the backdrop to this contentious subject. For 100 years, 1890, to 1980 Zimbabwe was ruled by white settlers but the land has always been a product of African colonization, and African subjugation.I would like to address the issue of, "we found no one here when we came from Britain." This is perhaps one of the most dangerous doctrines that is circulating around the Zimbabwe / South Africa land rights issue. Unoccupied land within a territory does not mean it does not falll within the jurisdiction of that country. The land that was settled on by the farmers fell within the local African tribal government in the form of chiefdoms. Geography and an understanding of government existed long before white settlers in Africa. For example, Africans knew where the Zulu Kingdom started and ended. As such, unoccupied stretches of land in Zululand in 1820s still fell within that Kingdom, - it was not free land awaiting development. In fact, most of the land acquired by white settlers in Southern Africa as part of the colonization process was initially based on fraudulent treaties that asked merely for "mineral rights." These mineral rights were, in reality, a coded term for land rights and colonist. The white person with the mineral right would use this to say such and such an area belongs to him.The land in Zimbabwe was never truly the rightful property of white settlers who removed the African because it was based on theft, deception and lies; protected by a white government, and white racism. All this was overturned by the Lancaster House Accord. A treaty that while it was incorporated into the Zimbabwean constitution is still a valid treaty since some of its clauses refer to land, and settled a war between two warring Nation-State parties (Zimbabwe and Rhodesia). Treaties are a valid form of international law and unless annulled by a second treaty remain as such. As I have said in other articles, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe eventually need to sit down and discuss this issue again.The only measure of compensation for white farmers is for "land improvement," this is minus the cheap labour, which a constructive trust should be made for the African labourers who worked for close to nothing on the farms. Indeed, the success of the farming in Zimbabwe would not be possible if it were not for the cheap immigrant labour from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Should Jews compensate those who stole their artwork during Nazi German for the storage fees and up keep of these paintings?The importation of technology into Zimbabwe cannot be compensated because, in all regions, including Asia, shared technology is accepted as part of human co-existence. The white farmers bought machines with the proceeds that were a result of cheap immigrant labourers from Malawi and Zambia. This is the cycle that we have. If you remove the cheap labour then the whole system would have collapsed overnight, and Zimbabwean agriculture would not have been successful.It is a known fact that in litigation, sometimes the judge has to give a symbolic measure of damages as one dollar because while the litigant, here the white farmer, is right if one takes a superficial mode of analysis, however, the litigant is wrong if you look at the totality of facts. In any land dispute, even modern land disputes involving merely questions of who has a good deed, the fact that one has a deed in his name and his hands does not mean he is the rightful owner of the house; fraud and theft can set aside any purchase if the person knows the house is stolen. This is the rule on bonafide purchasers Again, this one dollar should be paid either by the Rhodes's Estate or the United Kingdom. One dollar because the Courts cannot ignore the pain and suffering caused by colonialism, cheap labour with no wages, humiliating conditions as farm labourers, the very embodiment of racism.To argue that a future government of say Tsvangirai or Tendai Biti should compensate farmers for land, is to ignore both the Lancaster House obligation under that Treaty and the Zimbabwean Revolutionary war of 1965-1979. Private litigation by farmers against Zimbabwe in South African courts is unfortunate because it undermines African sovereignty, for both Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is essentially undemocratic.-------------- Ken Sibanda, is an American Constitutional attorney, born in Transkei, South Africa. Known affectionately as "Tecumseh," he was written extensively for numerous world publications on democracy and the rule of law. He is the author of "I nternational Constitutional Law: Peace Accords, Most recently he directed the movie: 1948.
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Gatestone Institute..27 August '17..The Iona Community, about which I have written here before, is an ecumenical Christian fellowship in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, but its main activities take place on the island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides, which is seen as a place for spiritual retreats. It has an international reputation for preaching love, a spiritual vocation, and fellowship among Christians. To me however it is also deeply anti-Semitic through its extreme hatred for the state of Israel and its one-sided support of the Palestinian narrative  according to the definitions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the US State Department.Earlier this year, Sammy Stein, chairman of Glasgow Friends of Israel, complained to the group about remarks made at a meeting addressed by Iona's Leader-Elect, Dr. Michael Marten. Marten had argued more than once that Israeli soldiers routinely and deliberately shoot Palestinian children, while knowing that they are children. In a reply to Mr. Stein, Marten and the Reverend Peter Macdonald, the community leader, asserted that Marten's statement had been true, and tried to back up their vilification by referencing a number of media and UN reports, including anti-Israel NGOs such as B'Tselem and Electric Intifada. I was asked to respond to their diatribe; the result is the letter below. Will Macdonald and Marten, take in what it says and find a more honest way to express Christian concern, not just for the children of Gaza and the West Bank, but for Jewish children murdered in their beds and at school by Palestinian terrorists?
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Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members  Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party's faith  they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Some foreign forces have used religion to infiltrate China, and extremism and illegal religious activities are spreading in some places, which have threatened national security and social stability ... Religions should be sinicized  We should guide religious groups and individuals with socialist core values and excellent traditional Chinese culture and support religious groups to dig into their doctrines to find parts that are beneficial to social harmony and development.

It is important that Wang constantly reminds Party members not to have religious beliefs. Some people who claim to be scholars support religions us beliefs in the Party, which has undermined the Party's values based on dialectical materialism.

Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), wrote in an article released in the Qiushi Journal on Saturday, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee:The China authorities move is irresistibly reminiscent of the term thought crime which is an Orwellian neologism used to describe an illegal thought. The term was popularized in the dystopian novelby George Orwell, wherein thought crime is the criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question Ingsoc, the ruling party.In the book, the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects.Wang added:Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said on Tuesday:According to Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Committee, guiding religions to suit to China's development is a core policy to solve China's religious problems. The moves evolve with traditional Chinese values over years and meet the demand of socialist development.The problem with the bans is that they have a counter-effect and further accelerate what is prohibited. Banning religion empowers religious people and makes them gather in secret. Such a ban is going to be characterized as persecution among believers outside the country. The bottom line is that imposing bans on anything (in this case religion) have never been successful in the long term.
The prosecution of the ecologist Valery Brinikh for extremism collapsed yesterday in the city court at Maykop in the Adygea in southern Russia.The case was brought against Brinikh in 2014, for exposing bad waste disposal practices at a pig farm founded by Vyacheslav Derev, a member of the Federation Council (the upper house of the Russian parliament).Brinikh is a biologist, and had worked as a director of the Daur Nature Reserve (1993-99) and the Caucasus Nature Reserve (1999-2001). In 2012 he started campaigning, with local residents, against the stench and pollution caused by the Kievo-Zhuraki agro-industrial complex in the Teuchezhsk district of Adygea.
BELLEVILLE  Farmers have a lot of questions about water quality. Researchers at Southern Illinois University are hoping to provide some answers.

Increasing concern about nutrient loss and watershed contamination is driving solutions across the Midwest, with many farmers looking for proactive approaches to keeping fertilizers on the farm and out of waterways.

Farmers and ag advocates are well aware of legislation regulating fertilizer application in some regions of the country, such as the Chesapeake Bay. The lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works that targeted nitrate use was ultimately dismissed, but it has put the ag community on notice that nutrient loss strategies are necessary going forward.

These water quality concerns are going to be here a long time; theyre not going anywhere, said Jon Schoonover, a water quality specialist at SIU. Were looking at impending nutrient water quality standards. Were trying to help farmers come up with defense mechanisms.

To that end, Schoonover and colleagues are taking a close look at methods including cover crops, bioreactors and saturated buffers.

The university has established a working field in Massac County, near the Ohio River, with a saturated buffer system. A number of tile outlets were installed earlier this year with the goal of reducing nitrate runoff.

The structure consists of two lateral lines, 500 feet downstream and 500 feet upstream. Permanent vegetation borders the stream. A series of stop logs  adjustable elements that control water levels in a field  are part of the system.

The water level in a field can be raised, allowing water containing nitrogen to saturate the wooded vegetation, reducing nitrate flow into the stream.

A two-stage buffer is what were proposing, Schoonover told growers at a field day here. The control structures have three chambers. Were reducing the output of the water to the stream. Not only that, but the plants assimilate the nitrogen.

The researchers plan to monitor the project for up to four years. An economist will also do a full budget analysis.

Water quality specialists are also examining the effects of cover crops. Graduate student Gurbir Singh has spent the past three years studying the role of legumes and non-legumes in fixing nitrogen.

If there is no cover crop in fall, we have more nitrogen in the soil, and that nitrogen has potential to be lost into the water, Singh said. If you delay the termination date of legumes by two weeks to a month, it delays your planting date, but you get the benefit of fixing nitrogen.

Singh and his team followed corn harvest with cereal rye in September to determine whether the rye would take nitrogen from the soil and improve water quality.

Thats what we saw. When there are no cover crops, theres more N leaving, he said. Cover crops do work. They help in fixing that N into their biomass and make it potentially available in the crop.

Another consideration is moisture absorption. Use of sensors showed soils in which cereal rye was planted had significantly more moisture in the spring. On the other hand, hairy vetch showed significant transpiration of water.

Theres a potential benefit for this type of cover crop to get N, but it eats up your moisture, he said. You could plant it on areas of a field that get waterlogged.
TAMMS  Bats looking to spend the colder months in the Magazine Mine in Tamms can sleep easy this winter. Their hibernaculum is being donated to the Organization for Bat Conservation.

A media release announced the donation Friday. The release said Unimin, the current owner of the mine, will transfer mineral rights to the OBC for scientific purposes.

The donation will be made to enable the continuing education and environmental study of bat populations in their natural habitat, the release read.

Phil Garofalo, communications director for the OBC, said more specifically, it is believed this particular hibernaculum will be home to a bat population that may be minimally affected by White Nose Syndrome. This is a move, Garofalo said, to keep interaction (with the bats) to an absolute minimum.

Garofalo said WNS came to the United States in 2006  he said it is believed to come on equipment bought with European hikers. In the time since, it has reached half of the states in the U.S. Garofalo said White Nose is a fungus that grows on the noses of bats and causes them to wake during hibernation  this leads them to starve. Garofalo said one million native bats die a year from the condition.

Its a pretty awful situation, he said.There is no remedy, there is no cure that we have been able to discern. Garofalo explained that scientists are testing probiotics to fight the condition, but nothing is certain yet.

This should give farmers pause, Garofalo said, pointing to the fact that bats save corn farmers $1 billion a year in pest management.

Garofalo said the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as well as Ball State have conducted research, pointing to the value of the Magazine Mine and its bat population.

They believe the Indiana bat hibernaculum is there in that mine and the Indiana bat is already an endangered species of bat, he said.

Details of the mines transfer are still yet to be released, but a celebration of is planned for 1:15 p.m. Wednesday in Tamms.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. SVETLANA STEPANYAN, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent. No. 14-71891 Decided: August 25, 2017

Before: CLIFTON and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges, and RICE,** Chief District Judge.

MEMORANDUM*

Svetlana Stepanyan, a native and citizen of Armenia, petitions for review of the denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We deny the petition with respect to the application for asylum and withholding of removal, but we vacate and remand the CAT claim for further review.

I. Background

Because the Immigration Judge determined that Stepanyan was credible, we assume that her testimony and declaration are true. See Navas v. INS, 217 F.3d 646, 657 (9th Cir. 2000).

Stepanyan testified that she worked as a journalist and editor at a TV station in Armenia, where she was responsible for approving news broadcasts. The owner and operator of the station, her direct superior, was a prominent member of an opposition political party and was critical of the Armenian government. In 2006, an agent of the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) recruited Stepanyan to become an informant against the opposition party and the TV station's owner. She initially refused, but was coerced into helping the NSS by threats and an involuntary overnight detention.

The NSS eventually became dissatisfied with Stepanyan's efforts, and after she refused to help any longer, said the old regime was gone, and told them she was not their puppet, the agent threatened to use another language to secure her cooperation. Two days later, Stepanyan was assaulted near her apartment by two men who looked like bandits or thieves, who said they would make her disappear if she did not do as she was told. Stepanyan fled to the United States. After she left, her husband sent a letter to the prosecutor's office on her behalf. NSS agents and police then ransacked her house and beat her husband when he refused to help them, and they told him he would not see her again. NSS agents were again looking for her at home in Armenia as recently as the month before her asylum hearing. In the years since Stepanyan left Armenia, the TV station closed.

The IJ denied Stepanyan's petition for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed. It concluded that Stepanyan did not demonstrate that any harm she may have experienced on account of her political opinion, even if considered in the aggregate, rose to the level of persecution. It also concluded that the possibility of future persecution was not sufficient to demand relief. The BIA considered the country conditions report, but it concluded that the report did not support Stepanyan's application; she had not proven that any of the other reporters or journalists at her television station were persecuted. The BIA also affirmed the denial of Stepanyan's application for withholding of removal for the same reasons, and it affirmed the IJ's decision not to grant Stepanyan relief under the CAT without further explanation, although it did cite our decision in Arteaga v. Mukasey, 511 F.3d 940 (9th Cir. 2007). In Artega, we upheld the denial of CAT relief because the appellant had failed to prove that any potential torture he might experience in El Salvador would be at the hands of the government. Id. at 948.

Stepanyan petitioned for review, challenging the BIA's decision on each of her three claims for relief. Because the BIA agreed with the IJ's decision but did not adopt it, we limit our review to the BIA's written opinion. Maldonado v. Lynch, 786 F.3d 1155, 1160 (9th Cir. 2015) (en banc). We consider each of Stepanyan's claims in turn.

II. Asylum

To qualify for asylum, an applicant must show that she  is unable or unwilling to return to [her home country]  because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.  Ling Huang v. Holder, 744 F.3d 1149, 1152 (9th Cir. 2014) (quoting 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(42)(A)). We review factual findings  under the deferential substantial evidence standard. Ai Jun Zhi v. Holder, 751 F.3d 1088, 1091 (9th Cir. 2014). We may reverse factual determinations only when any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude to the contrary based on the evidence in the record. Id. (quoting 8 U.S.C.  1252(b)(4)(B)). Although the basis for our review is limited to the administrative record, we consider that record in its entirety, including evidence which contradicts the BIA's findings. Mgoian v. INS, 184 F.3d 1029, 1034 (9th Cir. 1999).

Here, the administrative record does not as a whole compel a conclusion contrary to that of the BIA, skeptical though we are of that conclusion. Although Stepanyan was assaulted outside her home, the identity and purposes of her attackers was uncertain. Nor was she harmed at the hands of the NSS during her overnight detention, and her former boss and co-workers have not been harmed, at least as far as she knows. The BIA was wrong to say that Stepanyan was never threatenedquite clearly she was, and her husband says he was even beaten by the NSSbut the threats were nonspecific and do not compel the conclusion that she was persecuted because of her political opinions. In addition, because many years have passed since Stepanyan left Armenia, no one else at the TV station has been harmed, and the TV station is no longer in service, we are not compelled to conclude that Stepanyan has a well-founded fear of future persecution. We therefore deny Stepanyan's petition for review of the BIA's decision on her asylum application.

III. Withholding of Removal

Because the standard for withholding of removal is more stringent than the well-founded fear standard governing asylum, Al-Harbi v. INS, 242 F.3d 882, 889 (9th Cir. 2001), we also deny review of the agency's decision not to grant withholding of removal.

IV. The Convention Against Torture

To obtain relief under the CAT, a respondent must show she is more likely than not to be tortured by the government (or with the government's consent or acquiescence) if she is returned to her home country. Avendano-Hernandez v. Lynch, 800 F.3d 1072, 1078-79 (9th Cir. 2015). But an application for CAT relief need not show that he will be tortured on account of any particular ground. Cole v. Holder, 659 F.3d 762, 770 (9th Cir. 2011).

As in our review of a claim for asylum, factual findings underlying the determination that an applicant is not eligible for relief under the CAT are reviewed for substantial evidence. Id. Unlike our review of a claim for asylum, however, when reviewing a claim for CAT relief, all evidence relevant to the possibility of future torture shall be considered. Id. (emphasis added) (quoting 8 C.F.R.  1208.16(c)(3)). [W]here there is any indication that the BIA did not consider all of the evidence before it, a catchall phrase does not suffice, and the decision cannot stand. Such indications include misstating the record and failing to mention highly probative or potentially dispositive evidence. Id. at 771-72. For that reason, we remand petitions when the agency has not considered relevant evidence. See, e.g., Pirir-Boc v. Holder, 750 F.3d 1077, 1085-86 (9th Cir. 2014); Madrigal v. Holder, 716 F.3d 499, 509 (9th Cir. 2013); Cole, 659 F.3d at 771-73; Aguilar-Ramos v. Holder, 594 F.3d 701, 705-06 (9th Cir. 2010).

Here, the BIA made one error and one omission that bear directly on the possibility that Stepanyan will face torture at the hands of the Armenian government. First, the BIA stated incorrectly that Armenian government agents had not threatened Stepanyan. As noted above, an NSS agent told her that they can do everything they want with me and nobody would ever find out, and when she eventually refused to help the NSS any longer, the agent told her that he would have to persuade her with another language. Second, the agency did not address the evidence that officers beat Stepanyan's husband after he sent a letter to a local prosecutor on her behalf, and that they told him he would never see her again. It is also unclear whether the BIA considered the country conditions evidence in evaluating the CAT claim.

Where, as here, the BIA has apparently not considered all evidence bearing on a CAT claim, the proper course, except in rare circumstances, is to remand to the agency for additional investigation or explanation. INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16 (2002) (per curiam) (quoting Florida Power & Light Co. v. Lorion, 470 U.S. 729, 744 (1985)).

DENIED in part, VACATED in part, and REMANDED in part.

I join Parts II and III of the majority disposition in denying the petition in connection with Stepanyan's claims for asylum and withholding of removal. As to the claim for relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), however, I respectfully dissent. The petition should be denied as to that claim as well.

I agree with the majority that the evidence does not compel the conclusion that Stepanyan has a well-founded fear of future persecution. It is, therefore, illogical to me to entertain the possibility that Stepanyan made a persuasive case that she is more likely than not to be tortured by the government (or with the government's consent or acquiescence) if she is returned to Armenia, the finding that would be required to support CAT relief, on the premise that the BIA might have reached such a conclusion if only it had considered all of the evidence.

The mistreatment that Stepanyan said that she suffered before she left that country did not, in my view, rise to the level of torture. The BIA already concluded that the harm Stepanyan suffered did not amount to persecution, and we agree that the evidence did not compel a different conclusion. [T]orture is more severe than persecution and the standard of proof for the CAT claim is higher than the standard of proof for an asylum claim. Nuru v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1207, 1224 (9th Cir. 2005). See 8 C.F.R.  208.18(a)(2) (Torture is an extreme form of cruel and inhuman treatment and does not include lesser forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment that do not amount to torture.). Nothing suggests that she is at greater risk today than she was then, especially as many years have passed, the TV station is no longer in operation, and nobody else connected with that station is known to have been harmed, either at the time or since then.

The majority nonetheless grants the petition and remands for further proceedings because the BIA has allegedly not considered all of the relevant evidence. But the evidence allegedly not fully considered would still not establish that, more likely than not, Stepanyan would be tortured if returned to Armenia. Even the precedent primarily relied upon by the majority to support its conclusion acknowledged that the BIA is not required to discuss each piece of evidence submitted. Cole v. Holder, 659 F.3e 762, 772 (9th Cir. 2011). In that decision we expressed concern for a failure to mention highly probative or potentially dispositive evidence. Id. Requiring discussion of evidence that would not change the ultimate result does not justify remand for further consideration.

The regulation that Cole purported to construe to require the BIA to demonstrate its consideration of evidence is 8 C.F.R.  1208.16(c)(3). It provides:

In assessing whether it is more likely than not that an applicant would be tortured in the proposed country of removal, all evidence relevant to the possibility of future torture shall be considered, including, but not limited to:

(i) Evidence of past torture inflicted upon the applicant;

(ii) Evidence that the applicant could relocate to a part of the country of removal where he or she is not likely to be tortured;

(iii) Evidence of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights within the country of removal, where applicable; and

(iv) Other relevant information regarding conditions in the country of removal.

The evidence that prompts the majority to grant Stepanyan's petition in part and to remand for further proceedings is not evidence of that nature. In particular, there was no evidence of past torture inflicted upon the applicant.

Given that the Immigration Judge and the BIA denied relief in the form of asylum or withholding of removal, it does not take much power of prognostication to foresee that Stepanyan will not be granted relief under CAT. Remanding this case to an agency that is already enormously backlogged is both pointless and wasteful. I respectfully dissent.

Because the BIA failed to consider significant evidence, the Court should grant the petition and remand all three claims. Within broad limits the law entrusts the agency to make the basic asylum eligibility decision here in question. In such circumstances a judicial judgment cannot be made to do service for an administrative judgment.  INS v. Orlando Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16 (2002) (internal citations omitted) (quoting SEC v. Chenery Corp., 318 U.S. 80, 88 (1943)). In reviewing the decision of the BIA, we consider only the grounds relied upon by that agency. If we conclude that the BIA's decision cannot be sustained upon its reasoning, we must remand to allow the agency to decide any issues remaining in the case. Andia v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 1181, 1184 (9th Cir. 2004) (citing Orlando Ventura, 537 U.S. at 1617). Accordingly, unless harmless, when the BIA fails to provide a reasoned explanation or fails to consider evidence, the proper course is to remand to the agency for additional consideration and explanation. See Hu v. Holder, 652 F.3d 1011, 1020 (9th Cir. 2011); Vitug v. Holder, 723 F.3d 1056, 1064 (9th Cir. 2013); Tukhowinich v. INS, 64 F.3d 460, 463 (9th Cir. 1995); Yan Rong Zhao v. Holder, 728 F.3d 1144, 1149 (9th Cir. 2013).

While denying the petition for asylum and withholding of removal, the majority uses the standard for reversal, rather than the standard for remand. Even recognizing the BIA's glaring mistakes, the majority undertakes a de novo review of the evidence and finds the entire record does not compel a contrary conclusion. That is the test for a reversal, not a remand. If the agency were to properly consider all of the evidence, we cannot state with confidence that the same decision would be made if we were to remand. The majority's skepticism recognizes this doubt. The BIA only considered the overnight detentionbut failed to consider the assault against Stepanyan and her husband in 1996, the forcible kidnapping , the numerous and serious threats , the later assaults against Stepanyan and her husband , the ransacking of her apartment, or the potential that Stepanyan would be jailed for her letter about the NSS. Remember, the BIA accepted the IJ's finding that she was fully credible. The BIA lightly dismissed the country reports because of an assumed lack of persecution against her co-workers and employer. The evidence not considered is highly significanteven without the disputed assault.

Indeed, the record compels the conclusion that  more likely than not (and certainly at least a ten percent chance )  Stepanyan will be persecuted and tortured upon removal. The threats, if carried out, would clearly amount to persecution and torture. Either by death or other nefarious means, making someone disappear is definitely persecution and torture. What matters is whether the actor has the will and ability to carry out the threats. Kaiser v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 653, 658-59 (9th Cir. 2004). The NSS's will is evidentthey have made good on past threats; and six years after she left, one month before her final hearing, the NSS was still visiting Stepanyan's home in Armenia asking for her. This allays any hope they have lost interest. The NSS's ability is demonstrated by Stepanyan's encounters and the country reports documenting flagrant abuses and censorship against journalists by the government. The closing of the news station illustrates such reprisalsthe country reports document that stations lose their license for their political speech.

FOOTNOTES

. Although it could be rational to predict, as the dissent does, that the BIA will again deny CAT relief on remand, our case law instructs us not to assume how the BIA will decide the claim with the benefit of a complete view of the evidence and record, at least when it is possible the BIA could come to a different conclusion. Here, the combination of threats to Stepanyan's life and country report evidence of treatment of opposition journalists could lead the BIA to conclude that Stepanyan would face sufficient risk of torture or death if returned to Armenia to warrant CAT relief. See, e.g., Pirir-Boc, 750 F.3d at 1080, 1085-86 (remanding a CAT claim where the petitioner had been outspoken in opposition to a group that had beaten and threatened him with death); Aguilar-Ramos, 594 F.3d at 703-06 (remanding to allow the BIA to consider country reports that might show the petitioner was in particular danger of torture or death on return to his home country).This result of remanding the CAT claim but not the asylum or withholding claim is admittedly an odd one on the whole, but it appears to be compelled by the precedents cited above: On the one hand, we must deny relief in the contexts of asylum and withholding of removal unless the administrative record presented to the agency compels a result contrary to the agency's decision. See Mgoian, 184 F.3d at 1034. And on the other, we remand claims for CAT relief if the agency has misstated the record and has not mentioned potentially dispositive evidence. See Cole, 659 F.3d at 771-72.

. See also SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 196 (1947) (the court is powerless to affirm  by substituting what it considers to be a more adequate or proper basis. To do so would propel the court into the domain which Congress has set aside exclusively for the administrative agency.).

. See also John W. Guendelsberger, Judicial Deference to Agency Decisions in Removal Proceedings in Light of INS v. Ventura, 18 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 605, 639 (2004) (If the agency's failure to consider relevant evidence or due process violations prevented a fair hearing, a court must remand in order to permit the agency to reconsider the issue after taking into account the relevant evidence or affording a new hearing to correct due process violations.).

. In attempting to give deference to the agency, the majority actually takes away the agency's ability to properly decide the case.

. This standard imposes an undue burden on the applicant. Merely because the IJ did not properly review the evidence, the applicant is now tasked with demonstrating she met the burden of proof on a much higher standard where all reasonable inferences are in favor of denying relief.

. See Xiao Ji Chen v. U.S. D.O.J., 471 F.3d 315, 335 (2d Cir. 2006); Palavra v. INS, 287 F.3d 690, 694 (8th Cir. 2002) (To deport the [applicant]  is a step of great significance in their [life]. They and we deserve a better brand of fact-finding by the BIA before this step can be judicially approved.).

. See fn. 8. The IJ mentioned two men put her in a vehicle [,], but later states [t]he only inconvenience it appears that she may have suffered was being held overnight at the police station.

. Including the threat that her husband would not see her again. Artiga Turcios v. INS, 829 F.2d 720, 724 (9th Cir. 1987) (threat via third party relevant).

. The record compels the conclusion that the NSS was behind the assault against Stepanyan. The events leading up to the assault support only one conclusion. The NSS agent first approached her on her walk home from work, asking her to not air news critical of the government. She refused. The next day she was forced into a vehicle by two men on her walk home from work, taken to a local police station, detained overnight, and threatened (you will leave when I decide; we hope you know we can do anything we want to you and no one will find out, and if you don't want trouble you had better do what we say). She decided she would quit her job, but her employer convinced her to stay by offering to help make it look like she was cooperating. Her feigned allegiance was discovered months later after she authorized a story critical of the government's interests. An hour after the story aired the NSS agent contacted her. She tried to deny responsibility, but the agent knew exactly that she aired it (there were moles at the station). Stepanyan got bold, telling the agent she was not their puppet and she would do what she thought was right; the agent told her she did not understand nice language and they would speak to her in a different language. Two days later, on her way home from work, two unidentified assailants punched her in the stomach, slapped her, cursed at her, told her to do what we tell you to do or you will disappear (while holding a knife to her face), but did not tell her to do anything else. According to a medical report, the punch caused internal bleeding.No other conclusion is reasonable: (1) the assault occurred two days after the NSS said they would speak to her in different language; (2) the assault was similar to the previous encounters (on her walk home from work, two unidentified men); (3) the threat she would disappear matches the threat that her husband would not see his wife again; (4) Stepanyan explained why the NSS would act with anonymity (They couldn't act openly.); (5) the country reports recount a pattern of attacks against the media by unidentified assailants; and (6) Stepanyan believed the NSS was behind the attackalthough she said the assailants looked like thieves or hoodlums, she reported that she knew why they were there, wrote a letter to the prosecutor's office about the attack, left for the United States after the attack out of fear and at the advice of her employer, and is fighting deportation, all while leaving her family behind.

. See Mashiri v. Ashcroft, 383 F.3d 1112, 1120 (2004) (assault on family relevant for eligibility).

. An absence of reported abuses against other employees or her employer is of no import, Lolong v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 1173, 1178 (9th Cir. 2007) (need only show individualized risk), especially given: (1) the widespread abuse of journalists; (2) Stepanyan was the only employee with authority to air news critical of the government; (3) some employees were moles, and employees would not provide information to her out of fear for retaliation; (4) her employer had been visited by the NSS and warned not to air certain material and had political connections protecting him; and (5) the station eventually lost its license.

. INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 440 (1987) (for asylum).

. The record also demonstrates Stepanyan suffered past persecution  giving rise to a presumption of future persecution  and further requiring a remand. Mamouzian v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 1129, 1134 (9th Cir. 2004); Orlando Ventura, 537 U.S. at 18.

. This is not surprising given she refused, then pretended to cooperate; took a strong stand when discovered; and reported the NSS to the prosecutor's office and, now, the United States. See Owino v. Holder, 771 F.3d 527, 533 (9th Cir. 2014) (application material is public, giving rise to the possibility of retaliation).
The Hunter Museum announces the current exhibition Thrill After Thrill: Thirty Years of Wayne White is being extended through the end of this year due to its popularity and the unique opportunities afforded by Mr. Whites deep ties to the community. The exhibition, which has been on view since June 30, explores Mr. Whites widely varied career in fine art and commercial set design and offers a behind the scenes look at his creation process and his early cartoons and sketches.

The Wayne White exhibit has been incredibly well-received by our community, noted Virginia Anne Sharber, executive director of the Hunter Museum. Its exciting to be able to share the artwork of native son Wayne White for a little longer and give community members a chance to experience all the facets of this wonderful exhibit.

The extension of this family friendly exhibit will allow many schoolchildren to learn about a locally-born artist and see the changing nature of Mr. Whites work through the course of 30 years of professional artistic practice. The exhibit features examples of art from Mr. Whites earliest days as a budding artist and student to his set design and other work in Hollywood to more recent projects.

The Hunters Family Fun Day on Sunday, Sept. 17, from 2-4 p.m., will allow kids of all ages to explore the magic of Thrill After Thrill with a variety of hands-on activities and performances inspired by the exhibit, including a teen zone with zine making, traditional Appalachian music and dance, word painting, and puppet making. Family Fun Day is sponsored by the Mark Hite Team, with refreshments courtesy of Publix.

Several additional exhibit-related programs and events are planned, including exhibit tours on select weekends, and a screening on Friday, Nov. 24, at 11:30 a.m. of Beauty is Embarrassing, a 2012 documentary about the life and career of Wayne White. For the most up to date information, visit huntermuseum.org.

Thrill After Thrill: Thirty Years of Wayne White is sponsored by MoonPie, celebrating 100 years.
Faculty and students in Claflin University's Art Department are taking their artwork beyond the classroom and on to the campus.

The department hosted its digital mural unveiling on Friday, Aug. 18, at the entrance of Laymen Hall, facing Asbury Hall. This is Claflin's first outdoor, digital mural with artwork created by Professor Habibur Rahman and assisted by alumna Khaliya Davis, '17.

The composition of the mural was based on teachings from Professor Rahman's digital design courses and was inspired by Hungarian painter and photographer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. "The design approach was similar to Moholy-Nagy's in the use of three dimensional geometric shapes," said Rahman.

Rahman and Davis also used 3D construction software programs throughout the design process. "We use the software in the art/digital design studio for many courses. The artwork you see is a 3D structure of straight and curvilinear forms woven together. Some forms are close and some are far away," continued Rahman. Additionally, vinyl film was mounted on an aluminum plate and coated with protective coatings and lamination to preserve the mural.

Claflin University established the first formal art department at a college/university in the state of South Carolina. "This mural is evidence of Claflin's commitment to innovation and providing exemplary academic programs and opportunities. The collaboration between Dr. Rahman and Khaliya Davis represents the University's history of producing visionary leaders and artists," stated Claflin President Dr. Henry N. Tisdale.

World-renowned artist Leo Twiggs, '56, internationally recognized artist Arthur Rose, '50, and MacArthur Goodwin, '63, past president of the National Art Education Association, are among the art department's notable alumni.

The digital mural design project was funded by a SEED Grant from the Office of the Provost. The art department plans to implement additional outdoor murals throughout the campus community.
DENMARK -- Denmark Technical College was once again on display at the Education and Business Summit in Greenville.

This year DTCs booth focused on two programs, Workforce Development and Dual Enrollment. Every year the DOE Mobile Training Unit is gassed up and makes to journey because as Stephen Mason, associate vice president of workforce development at DTC puts it, Its good to get out in public and let all the educators from across the state know DTC has training and partnerships available for high-paying jobs locally, here in South Carolina.

The Education and Business Summit is the premier Career and Technology Education state conference hosted by the Office of Career and Technology Education at the South Carolina Department of Education. DTC attends it every year possible.

It is South Carolina's largest annual professional development event for the state's career and technology educators and administrators. Over the years, the summit has grown to attendance levels of 1,500 plus. The conference lasts four days and consists of keynote presentations and sessions addressing best practices in education including character, life, and career skills; collaboration between business/industry, and career guidance.

This is not the only event the MTU attends. For years, DTC has been traveling across the state using the MTU to conduct STEM awareness demonstrations at all level schools and CATE centers upon request. It is an extremely popular program and absolutely free to the schools.

Interim President Christopher Hall loves the idea.

We need to reach the younger generation and promote the STEM fields before students get turned off by preconceived notions of what STEM entails. By letting students explore the hands-on demonstrations in the MTU, we are planting seeds for a future scientist or engineer!

Late afternoon as the DTC crew is packing up the equipment, exhausted from the long hours even before the long drive home, Mason reflects on why they do all this.

I cant tell you how many people come to the booth wanting information and then as we talk, they mention that they or a family member is a DTC graduate and the positive impact it has had on their lives and careers. DTC has a lot to be proud of. I guess that says it all.
Orangeburg's Department of Public Utilities customers will not see their rates go up following the decision to abandon work on the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion.

South Carolina Electric and Gas and Santee Cooper were partners on the project. DPU purchases power from SCE&G under a 2012 contract.

"The contract with SCE&G did not include DPU customers sharing in the cost of the unfinished or abandoned nuclear units," DPU spokesman Randy Etters said. "Therefore, this decision has no immediate impact to DPU customers."

Privately owned SCE&G and publicly owned Santee Cooper decided on July 31 to stop work on the Fairfield County project after jointly spending nearly $10 billion.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper customers have already paid $2 billion toward the project through rate hikes.

The defunct project accounts for 18 percent of SCE&G's residential electric bills and more than 8 percent of Santee Cooper's. Neither utility intends to refund the money.

SCE&G filed a request to recoup $5 billion over 60 years, with at least $2.2 billion of that coming from customers' bills. It has since withdrawn the request while lawmakers review the issue, but could refile.

In addition, Santee Cooper decided to hold off on increasing rates for two years.

Etters says DPUs costs will only be affected once the new nuclear units come online.

Should the units be abandoned after coming online, DPU customers would share in a percentage of the cost of replacement generation, which would also be capped, Etters said.

"This is not something that we anticipate in the near future, he said.

Etters said as a result DPU customers, have been insulated from this unfortunate series of events.

"The staff at DPU does hope for a speedy resolution to this issue, so those who have been negatively impacted can resume their normal lives," Etters said.

The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina Executive Vice President Lou Green says electric cooperatives in the state receive their power from Central Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.

Central is a generation and transmission cooperative that is a wholesale power supplier to 20 cooperatives. It does not serve retail consumers.

Green says Central Electric does feel it when Santee Cooper increases costs.

"Everybody is wanting exact numbers but generally speaking, about a half-cent per kilowatt hours is attributable to the construction of new nuclear plants," Green said. That has already affected wholesale rates.

How much the cooperatives have collectively put into the construction of the abandoned projects is unknown, Green said.

"We have not added the numbers up," he said.

Green says Central Electric is also anticipating the projects abandonment could add another half-cent to wholesale power rates.

"These are on the high end," Green said.

But what impact this will have on individual homeowner electric rates is still uncertain, he said. Cooperatives will be looking at their budgets and making decisions accordingly.

"One, the absolute amount is not known and, two, if you look at half a cent wholesale rate, that is relatively a small increase, Green said.

Green said both Central and the electric cooperatives did support the abandonment of the projects as the data showed it was the correct thing to do.

Green says he doesnt expect customers to receive refunds for whats already been spent.

"We are particularly interested of going forward," Green said. "You can't change what has been spent."
After more than two years under a temporary board appointed by state leaders, South Carolina State University is scheduled to get a new board next year.

Local lawmakers are divided over how the General Assembly should proceed, but agree the interim board helped guide the university during a difficult time.

"For the most part, that board has done a tremendous job given the circumstances they walked into," said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

"We are not where we need to be but we are certainly better than where we were. I give all the credit to the current board of trustees. They certainly walked into a mess, she said.

The university was in turmoil in 2015 when lawmakers created the seven-member interim board to oversee S.C. State. Members were appointed by state leaders, not elected by the General Assembly using the standard process.

That board is scheduled to end its work in June 2018, when it is replaced by a new 13-member board elected by members of the General Assembly.

That leaves open the possibility that an entirely new board could be installed next summer.

"I would not support replacing the entire board," said Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman. A clean sweep would create an institutional shock to the university which has already been through so much.

Matthews has talked to some of his Senate colleagues and says there is support to change the board election process.

The law creating the interim board states the temporary trustees shall serve until June 30, 2018, or until a full new board of trustees is elected and qualified.

Instead of appointing 13 board members at once, Matthews would like to keep the current members and add the other six over a three-year period.

For example, he said two seats could be filled in 2018, two could be filled in 2019 and two more in 2020.

He said that will ensure institutional knowledge will be retained on the board while remaining faithful to the statute.

"It will allow people who made the appointments of the current board to keep that authority and then we can continue to phase those in," he said. "There are six board members that can be added without changing the statute."

"The institution has made a lot of progress under the current board," Matthews continued. "I thank the board members and board chairman for doing that, but they still have work to do."

The General Assembly's College and University Trustee Screening Commission sent out notice last week that it is seeking letters of intent from people who want to be on the board of S.C. State and other universities.

S.C. State Chairman Charlie Way said when he received notice that it was time to select a new board, he was surprised. He sent the notice to the entire board of trustees and says it will be discussed at the board's Aug. 31 meeting.

"We have not sat down and talked about it yet," Way said.

Way, who was appointed by Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, does not know if he will seek to remain on the board.

"I will talk to him (Leatherman)," Way said.

Ultimately, Way says it will be up to lawmakers to decide what to do.

Looking back over the past 2-1/2 years, Way says the interim board made a hell of a lot of progress.

To have an entirely new board take over, would concern me a great deal," Way said.

"This board has worked together, with the exception of B.R. Skelton, who is new, since May of 2015," Way said. "I think we have come a long, long way. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said hes not concerned about the possibility of having an entirely new board.

"It is not unusual for that to happen," Govan said. "I don't think it is anything to panic about."

For instance, the previous S.C. State board was entirely replaced with the current interim board, Govan said. He said the entirely new board has shown it can be successful.

"I think of course there will be a learning curve, but we would be hard-pressed in one case to say it was OK and in this case it was not OK," Govan said. "I feel confident we will have quality people with the background and experience that will bring some positive things to the table and will be able to step in and do the job."

"The process will take care of itself," Govan continued. "I think it will be OK."

Govan said any of the current trustees can seek a seat on the new board if they choose.

Cobb-Hunter said shes also not concerned about the possibility of having an entirely new board.

"This is not something that was not known, she said.

Cobb-Hunter hopes that some of the current board members will run for seats on the new board.

She also hopes stakeholders and alumni who are concerned about the future of the board get involved, including encouraging potential board members to apply.

"We have had four years to do this," she said. "It should not be a surprise to anyone that the board's term will end in 2018."

Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, said an entirely new board, does not give me a lot of heartburn.

"We will have to wait and see if anyone runs that is currently on the board," Ott said. "They will be taken into consideration. This will be one of those side effects of having to do what we did."

Ott said his main concern is if no one files.

"That could present a challenge at that point," Ott said. "We would have to solicit then and maybe carry over some members of the current board, if they would be willing to serve."

Ott also noted the current board was entirely new.

"I think by all intents and purposes that has worked to this point," he said. "There has not been a lot negative surrounding it. We have settled into a pleasant period of moving forward."

Looking back, Govan says he is pleased with the current board.

"I don't have any major concerns," he said. "They certainly have done what we asked them to do and what they were mandated to do. For that we need to commend them and thank them for what they have done."

Govan does not blame all of the past problems of the university on its previous board.

He said the lack of stable leadership as well as lack of state financial support contributed to the university's woes.

But state funding has increased and leadership has been stable for the past year.

"Enrollment is beginning to bounce back and the institution continues to see progress," Govan said. "That is what we want it to continue to do. It is critical not only for South Carolina State but also for the community."

The General Assembly's College and University Trustee Screening Commission is seeking letters of intent in order to begin the screening and qualifying process for those interested in filling the 12 open seats at the university.

The deadline for the letters to be submitted is noon Wednesday, Sept. 13.

The open S.C. State seats include:

 1st Congressional District, seat 1 - term expires June 30, 2022

 2nd Congressional District, seat 2 - term expires June 30, 2020

 3rd Congressional District, seat 3 - term expires June 30, 2022

 4th Congressional District, seat 4 - term expires June 30, 2020

 5th Congressional District, seat 5 - term expires June 30, 2022

 6th Congressional District, seat 6 - term expires June 30, 2020

 7th Congressional District, seat 7 - term expires June 30, 2022

 At-large, seat 8 - term expires June 30, 2020

 At-large, seat 9 - term expires June 30, 2022

 At-large, seat 10 - term expires June 30, 2020

 At-large, seat 11 - term expires June 30, 2022

 At-large, seat 12 - term expires June 30, 2020

The governor also makes an appointment.

To find out more, including guidelines for seeking a seat, visit www.scstatehouse.gov/CommitteeInfo/Universities&CollegesScreeningCommittee/Univ&CollScreening.php
Orangeburg native Brenda Williams has never been one to back down from a challenge.

Born in 1952 as a minority woman growing up during the height of the civil rights movement, Williams knew early on she would have to work hard to show the world she could overcome all adversity.

"I saw the meanness and goodness of people," said Williams, reflecting on that period of time.

While the struggle for civil rights and equality was raging all around her, the young Williams was growing up in a loving, nurturing home.

This supportive environment helped propel her in a career at the Regional Medical Center, where she was the vice president of strategy and compliance. Williams retired from her position on Aug. 1 after 38 years of service.

Her last official work day was July 28.

"Even though there have been difficult times, I have really enjoyed my tenure here," Williams said. "I care about this community, and I especially care about this hospital."

Her retirement comes as the hospital searches for a new chief executive officer. Former CEO Tom Dandridge was removed by a divided board at the end of January after 24 years at the hospital.

While her goal has been to retire at the age of 65 for a long time, Williams said the change in hospital leadership helped make her decision a little easier.

"Quite frankly, we are under a period of transition here," she said. "There are a lot of things going on. We will be having a new president who will be identified soon.

"Generally, when a new person is identified, they look for their own team," Williams said. "Like I say, a new broom sweeps clean. A person will want to come in and have the latitude to develop his own team. I thought the timing was good for me."

Williams' position likely will not be filled until the hospital hires a permanent CEO. The national search for a new CEO could take between four to six months, although it may take longer, hospital officials say.

In the interim, Kathy Rhoad, who has served as the hospital's marketing director, assumed Williams' duties.

"I know, hope and trust we will identify a very knowledgeable, energetic president that will come in to lead this organization for many years to its greatest level of achievement," Williams said.

Love for health care

Williams was born June 22, 1952, in Orangeburg to Cecil and Ethel Williams. She is one of three siblings.

Her interest in health care started when she was a child.

"I used to play with little biddies, and I used to take Popsicle sticks and make crutches," Williams said. "I pretended they had broken legs."

This love of helping others was enhanced through her educational experience at Christ the King Catholic School, which she attended through the eighth grade.

That is where she learned about the importance of education and of the potential for a woman to be in a leadership role. The school was run by the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

The women in Williams' family always had careers, she said. Her grandmother and mother were teachers and her father was a tailor in Orangeburg.

"I grew up in a home where education was always very important," she said. "Community was always very important, family was always important, and God was most important."

Despite being raised Baptist, through her educational experience at Christ the King, Williams became a Catholic at about the age of 12. Today she is an active member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Orangeburg.

She said her mother served as a role model in showing love to others. She would open up her doors to college students at South Carolina State University or Claflin University for room and board, Williams said.

Her family was very close, she said.

"We would always share holidays," Williams said. "I was taught what is important are your actions and not your words. Believing in God and him being the leader of my life is helping people ... It is about walking the walk and not just talking the talk."

On a path to RMC

Williams first got exposed to the health care industry while in high school. She was a part of the first integrated Candy Striper group in Orangeburg, which is now called Junior Volunteers.

"When I went to college, I thought at first I wanted to be a physician, until I started taking all those lab courses," she said. "We had all those long labs. I said, 'No, I don't think I really want to do this.'"

While at S.C. State, Williams said she was introduced to health care through the university's career development center. She obtained a summer internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Atlanta.

"I was a monitor for the summer feeding program," she said, noting she also spent time in Charleston.

Williams received her bachelors degree in biology and chemistry from S.C. State in 1974.

While in college, she was contacted by Palmetto Health Richland about a job in hospital administration.

After doing some research, she decided she would need to get a master's degree to become a professional administrator.

Williams said at that time  in the mid-1970s in South Carolina  it was rare for an individual, especially a minority female, to have a master's degree in hospital administration.

She went on to receive the degree from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, in 1976.

Williams completed a year's residency in Washington, Pennsylvania and then began to look for a job closer to home.

"It was hard to find a job in hospital administration in the state but, because my parents were aging, I wanted to come back to the state," she said.

Williams got her first job with the Palmetto Lowcountry Health Systems Agency, a quasi-governmental non-profit charged with health planning and regulatory review in a 12-county area that encompassed Orangeburg.

"The president of this hospital at this time, H.F. Mabry, was chairman of the project review committee, which I staffed, and that is how I got to know him. He offered me a job to come home to Orangeburg. They were on the throes of planning a new hospital," she said.

"I took a salary cut to come here, but I wanted to be home, and I wanted to get the opportunity to work at a hospital," Williams said.

Time of transition, growth

She started working at RMC in October 1979 when the hospital was still located on Carolina Avenue. One of her duties was to oversee the equipment, telephone system and relocation planning for the present-day hospital.

"We had a well-thought-out plan," she said. "We moved in before schedule and under budget. One thing that made it easy is that most doctors really discharged most patients that could be discharged, so we had few patients to move."

She described the changes at the hospital over 38 years as "so massive it is hard to capture."

"There is no comparison in terms of scope of services and the number of employees," she said. "The growth we have had has just been phenomenal."

"Day one after we moved in here, the growth of same-day surgery was apparent," Williams said. "We immediately had to start renovating and planning to do a same-day surgery unit. This was not a part of the original hospital scheme."

She said about 60 percent of the surgery at that time was done on an ambulatory basis.

"We were more of an inpatient facility, but now we realize we have a responsibility for the total health of the community," Williams said.

As a result, the hospital has expanded community outreach programs and outpatient services.

She noted that in the past, the hospital did not own any practices. Today, it owns eight primary care practices and has a total of nearly 120 doctors.

"I think I have been an integral part of just about every expansion and new service we have done through the years," Williams said, noting none of it would have been possible without the assistance of others.

Over the years, Williams has managed engineering, marketing, grant writing, switchboard, volunteers, telecommunications, laboratory, Joint Commission review, planning, risk management, insurance, environment of care, environmental services, cardiology, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, the Healthy Living Center, the Vein Clinic, the Vascular Center, the Breast Health Center, the Dialysis Access Institute and the Mabry Center for Cancer Care.

She said she has seen many improvements, including expansion of the Mabry Center, construction of the hospital's Dialysis Access Institute and implementation of the Healthy Living Center.

Another aspect of growth she is proud of is the development of the volunteer services program.

"When I started working in the hospital in 1979, the volunteers services program was a rolling cart," she said. "Now I think we've got the best volunteer services program in the state."

RMC has about 160 adult and junior volunteers, Williams said, adding the volunteers not only contribute financially to the hospital but also run the mail room and the gift shop.

She said the last commitment from the volunteers was $500,000 to the cancer center and dialysis access institute. The volunteers also sponsor the summer enrichment program through which high school and college students get exposure to health care careers for six weeks in the summer.

Williams noted she is also proud of RMC's new community walking trail and the shuttle service that transports about 2,500 patients a month.

In addition to her work at the hospital, Williams has been involved in a number of community organizations and served on various boards, receiving a number of awards and recognitions for her service.

Of particular note, Williams is a founding member of the Orangeburg Family YMCA and the Orangeburg-Calhoun Free Medical Clinic.

The future

"The health care environment is ever-changing," Williams said. "All I can say over all my years is there never has been a dull moment."

The difficult times have been overcome by the grace of God, she said.

"If you do the right thing for the right reason and not for your benefit but for others, and if you serve God's purpose, you will be successful," she said. "I look forward to the future and to continuing to serve this community."

The biggest challenge facing the hospital is changes in reimbursement and the unknown future of the Affordable Care Act, Williams said.

"We have been severely impacted by the state not expanding Medicaid," she said. "Whatever changes come about through repeal and reform will certainly have a very significant impact on our hospital and will provide financial challenges beyond belief."

Williams said she is "confident the RMC will remain in one form or the other."

"One of the challenges going forward is what will be the sustainability plan of the hospital for the future," she said. "Things will not stay the same. This board will need to develop a very sound sustainability plan. I am confident the need is here. The community deserves the very best in health care. I am confident the leaders will see the way through so the hospital will continue."

Williams said she plans to do more traveling, to do some work at the new free-standing facility in Bamberg and to start a health care planning and project management and regulatory risk management consultation company.

"I am not leaving Orangeburg," she said.

"I am a member of a bridge club. I like to play bridge, and I would like to play more bridge. I don't think I will be bored."
WASHINGTON -- It's not surprising that we seem to be refighting the Civil War, since it never properly ended in the first place.

It might have, had Southerners listened to Robert E. Lee. The defeated general believed that erecting monuments to the Confederacy -- such as his equestrian statue in Charlottesville, now shrouded with a black tarp in mourning of Heather Heyer -- would be wrong.

"I think it wiser  not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered," he wrote in 1869 about proposed memorials at Gettysburg.

As soon as they got the chance, Southerners ignored Lee's advice. After the last federal troops were withdrawn from Southern capitals in 1877, whites began the process of re-subjugating African-Americans. It didn't take long: By the 1890s, blacks were being deprived of voting rights and terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan as the scaffolding of Jim Crow oppression was erected.

The Confederate memorial in Orangeburg, South Carolina, my hometown, was dedicated in 1893. It was one of the early ones; most throughout the South were built after the turn of the century. They were symbols of defiance, intended to let African-Americans and the federal government know who was back in charge.

My great-grandfather, Maj. John Hammond Fordham, was among the many black Southerners who were able to take advantage of the brief window of opportunity known as Reconstruction. Born in Charleston in 1854, he became a lawyer and held a series of government jobs, working at the imposing Custom House near the port. He was called "Major" because he was one of the founders of the Carolina Light Infantry, equivalent to a volunteer national guard unit and described by the Orangeburg Times and Democrat as "the first colored brigade organized in the South." He was active enough in Republican politics to correspond with Theodore Roosevelt.

Maj. Fordham moved to Orangeburg and built the house I grew up in. He and his wife had nine children, eight of whom survived to adulthood, and he was able to give them the education and resources they needed to build on the foundation he had laid. But the children's options, and those of the following generation, were deliberately and systematically limited by Jim Crow. The Fordhams achieved much, but only in spite of the circumstances the white power structure imposed.

The triumph of the civil rights movement eliminated legal oppression, but in many ways the states of the old Confederacy never fully rejoined the union. The South remained a region apart, after the Lyndon Johnson years becoming as solid a Republican bastion as it once had been for the segregationist "Dixiecrats."

Now, however, the South is becoming a different and more complicated place. One of the biggest and most important changes is a widening urban-rural split. Cities have become increasingly cosmopolitan, home to growing numbers of minorities, immigrants and transplants from other parts of the country. On maps showing party affiliation, cities such as Dallas, Birmingham and Atlanta are bright blue dots on fields of red.

And cities are where some of the most prominent Confederate statues and other memorials happen to be. So it was inevitable that those monuments to a lost war fought in defense of slavery -- or, if you prefer, symbols of the birth of Jim Crow segregation -- would come under critical scrutiny.

As for me, I couldn't care less about most street names. I sometimes commute to work on Lee Highway. I'll bet half the people driving down that road at any given time -- including millennials, Salvadoran immigrants, government workers who grew up in Utah or Vermont -- wouldn't know whether it was named after Robert E. or Spike.

Roads bearing a secessionist's full name are a bit different. The United Daughters of the Confederacy intended Jefferson Davis Highway, which begins in Arlington, Virginia, to stretch through the South and beyond, all the way to the Pacific. It exists today in many disconnected segments. Alexandria, Virginia, has been working to rename its part of the road for some time. A plaque in a San Diego park designating the western terminus was quietly removed last week.

And the statues? As societies have done for millennia, we erect and prominently display likenesses of figures we admire. When citizens no longer admire the person being honored, they should haul the statues down. They can go to museums or onto the scrap heap of history, where the Confederacy belongs.
Orangeburg Countys leaders are gambling that they can put new money to use to improve the quality of life here, thereby making our locale more attractive to people, industry and business.

People associated with existing enterprises in the county believe the gamble is shortsighted and that a new business license fee approved by County Council will hurt them and deter new ventures.

The Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce and the state chamber were voices in opposition to the fee, as was The Times and Democrat.

Orangeburg County Chamber President Melinda Jackson summarized the opposing view: We believe that it creates a hostile environment for those businesses who are considering a move to Orangeburg County.

The county in January will become the ninth in the state to mandate business licenses. A business will be assessed the license fee based on gross sales, another point of contention for opponents, who make the case that Orangeburg County is pushing for development in competition not only with other countries and states, but with other counties in South Carolina. The business fee is another hurdle to overcome  and a weapon that will be used by others in luring development their way and away from Orangeburg County.

County leaders counter they are pro-development and have proven it with a commitment to infrastructure such as shovel-ready industrial parks and incentives to attract industry to locate in them. They cite the capital project (penny) sales tax as a pro-active way to fund development but contend they must do more.

Pledging to do more to boost law enforcement and emergency medical services with an estimated $1 million annually, the elected leaders and the county administrator make the case that the business license fee is more attractive than a general tax increase. Legal limits on the amount of such an increase also make the fee a way to raise the amount of money the leaders said is needed.

Business opponents consistently went before council to tell leaders they are making a mistake and that they are burdening business in a way they will ultimately regret. As much as that remains to be seen, what is to be regretted now is the tone of the arguments that grew more bitter and divisive as the approval process unfolded.

Personal attacks were directed at members of council  and members of council countered with attacks on the business people about their motives. Hard feelings and animosity arent likely to subside quickly. But they should.

The members of County Council are elected by people with the belief that they will effectively serve their individual districts  but also strive for the betterment of the entire county. We believe they have the best interest of all people at heart.

But an elected official signs on for the job of listening to those who bitterly disagree with their approach and actions. Criticism should be expected  and heard. In the case of the business license, the opponents had ample ammunition to oppose council on policy grounds without questioning the motives of individual council members. The debate deteriorated. Thankfully  at least formally  it is now over.

In the world of business, word of mouth makes a lot of difference. Existing business and industry are annually praised as the cornerstones of the local economy and the primary developmental ambassadors for the county. Having them at odds with the county leadership cannot be a good thing. Fences must be mended.

The obligation falls on the county leaders to make good on their pledge to put new dollars to use in ways that will benefit the most people. They are requiring local business to take money out of its collective pocket to fund their priorities. They should not take lightly their obligation to deliver.
Community Will Rally After Racist, Nazi Graffiti Scrawled In Lincoln Square

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 27, 2017 2:40PM

Lincoln Square community members will hold an anti-white supremacy rally on Sunday evening after racist graffiti was scrawled on a garage and sidewalk in the neighborhood this weekend.

Graffiti that read Make Weimar Great Again and SS was scrawled on the garage door in the neighborhood and another tag that read Diversity Is White Genocide and You Will Not Replace Us was found nearby.

Dear @realDonaldTrump, look what you awoke in my American neighborhood, 500 feet from where my daughter, a 4G Holocaust survivor, sleeps. pic.twitter.com/JegARGRVP5  Solomon Lieberman (@sollylieb) August 26, 2017 We need a clean up on the 4600 block of Campbell in Lincoln Square, some bigots tagged the sidewalk pic.twitter.com/8sH4Ih8gOu  agitator in chief (@soit_goes) August 26, 2017



Stuart Lang, whose garage door was hit with the vandalism, told CBS Chicago: I have a neighbor who lives down the street who has a relative who is a Holocaust survivor  he came by and he was clearly distraught by it. Its meant to upset people and meant to divide people. Its a horrible thing to see, especially in our neighborhood.

Community members came together over the weekend to paint over the graffiti, according to ABC7 and DNA Info. Attendees at Sunday nights demonstration event plan to chalk positive messages around the rallying point, at Waters Elementary School (4540 N Campbell Ave), at 5 p.m.

The anti-racism event description notes:



"In response to the recent hateful graffiti found in Lincoln Square, our community must come together to show that we stand firmly opposed to any and all messages of white supremacy. Join your fellow community members to show that our community is one of acceptance and drown the hate with our messages of love."
The Excise Tax Law shall come into play effective October 1 in the UAE, Ministry of Finance was quoted as saying by Wam, the Emirates official news agency.



"The Tax shall impact all excise goods consumed inside the country, including all the country's free zones and ports," said Younis Haji Al Khouri, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, in exclusive statements to Wam.



"Commodities carried away out of the country by outbound travelers shall not be impacted by the tax, while those carried into the country shall be subject to the new law," he added.



The official statements come on the heels of the issuance of the Federal Decree-Law No 7 of 2017, whereby the tax shall be imposed on the "Excise Goods", which, along with the method of calculating the Excise Price, are subject to a decision by the UAE Cabinet, upon the recommendation of the Minister of Finance, provided that the tax rates do not exceed 200 per cent of the Excise Price.



The Excise Tax, which in itself is an indirect type of taxation, will help build a healthier and safer society. This tax is set to discourage the consumption of products that negatively impact the environment and, more importantly, peoples health, while the revenues it generates will go towards supporting advanced services for all members of society.



Al Khouri said the Executive Regulations shall determine the procedures, controls and percentage of the tax, which he explained will reach 100 percent for tobacco and energy drinks and 50 percent for sugary fizzy drinks. He affirmed that there are no other goods until now determined to be subject to the new tax.



As per initial estimates, the tax is forecast to generate up to around Dh7 billion ($1.9 billion) in annual revenues for the Federal Budget.



The Decree-Law also determines the specific dates for accounting for the tax, namely: the date on which the Excise Goods are imported, the date on which the Excise Goods were acquired by the Stockholder, if after the Decree-Law came into effect, or the date it came into effect otherwise, and in all other cases the date on which the Excise Goods were released for consumption. The release for consumption shall further be clarified in the Executive Regulation of the Decree-Law.
The seventh Annual Middle East Banking Innovation Summit, with Mada by Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority as lead sponsor, is less than a month away.



Organised by global conference producers, Expotrade, the two-day event will be held from September 18-19 at Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa.



Over the past few years, the role of technology in the banking and financial (BFSI) industry has transformed. This industry has embraced technology such as blockchain, bitcoin, and biometric to build its operations, develop a suite of products and services and enhance its customer experience. The summit will focus on the best practices and emerging trends influencing this industry, with over 40 international and regional banking experts delivering engaging sessions and participating in interactive panel discussions at the summit.



Bruno Ferreira, managing director, Alior Bank S.A., Poland will open the summit with a presentation on Beyond digital: what will convince customers to bank with you in the next few years. Taking the discussion further on customer interactions will be Simon Thompson, global head of Digital Commerce, HSBC and Peter Smith, senior vice president, CEO, Nordea Kredit. While Simon will deliver a presentation on the Emergence of a Data Driven Bank  Reinventing Customer Relationships on day 1 of the summit; Peters session will focus on Innovate Your Bank to a Customer-Focused Enterprise.



Across two days, the summit will cover over 15 topics including five panel-led discussions. Topics focusing on the role of the CIO as an innovation driver; innovation in retail banking; importance of blockchain for digital transactions; customer-focused to customer-centric approach in banks and cyber security will be panel discussions led by subject matter experts.



Sanjay Khanna, chief information officer, Rakbank; Sanjeev Mulay, CIO, First Gulf Bank; Nitin Bhargava, CTO - Head of Business Technology, Mashreq; Tariq Alusaimi, CDO/CIO, National Bank of Kuwait; Dr. Joseph George, Head of IT (Information Systems & Technology), National Bank of Fujairah and Bruno Ferreira, Managing Director, Alior Bank S.A., Poland will participate in the panel discussion on the role of the CIO as an innovation driver.



The blockchain panel discussion will witness industry leaders Rashed Al Blooshi, chief executive officer, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX); Brian Meenagh, Partner, Latham & Watkins; Zubair Ahmed, senior vice president, head of IT & Business Innovation, Emirates Islamic Bank and Ramana Kumar, managing director and head of GTB Business and Product Management, NBAD participate in an engaging discussion.



Over 20 companies have already extended support to the summit. Backbase, Nucleus Software, Comarch, Dorsum, MDSap, Appian, Olympic Banking System, intellect, ApPello, Delphix, WaveTech, SoftTech, Xpress Money, CA Technologies, Red Hat, Finesse and Emerico are some of the companies that are participating at the summit. - TradeArabia News Service


UAE has topped the list of countries that has the most number of students studying in premium, English international schools with 602,800 enrolees.



The data was released by ISC Research, ahead of IPSEF Forum Middle East, where it will make a presentation on the growth of international schools in the Middle East region.



With 288,300 students, Saudi Arabia landed in second place, followed by China with 256,000 students.



This development shows how increasingly important education has become in the Middle East, with governments across the region providing the right infrastructure and support for international schools to thrive, said Rhona Greenhill, co-founder, IPSEF, which organises the IPSEF Middle East scheduled on from September 27-29 at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai, UAE.



New international school development opportunities for the Middle East will be the subject of a presentation by Nalini Cook, head of Middle East Research, ISC Research where she will present the latest data on the English-medium K-12 international schools market in the region along with highlights of some of the development opportunities and challenges confronting the education sector in this part of the world.



IPSEF Middle East will also host a discussion of the market trends in education in the Gulf, taking a perspective on the impact of megatrends on education regionally. The presentation by Roland Hancock, director-Education, PwC will cover nurseries, K-12, higher education and vocational training and provide insights on what is changing from a policy, operator and investor perspective and how each can react to the drivers of change.



Additional data from ISC Research, the leading provider of intelligence on the English-medium K-12 international schools market globally, shows Dubai is top in the world as the leading international city in the world for international schools with 281, followed by Abi Dhabi with 151 is at second place.



As a country, however, the UAE slipped to second with the most number of English premium international schools with 596, just behind China which leads the global market with 620.



International school operators are looking to the Middle East for future growth, with school population expected to reach 15 million by 2020. More than 50,000 schools will be needed to address the gap, which will be met largely by state-funded and operated schools. But international schools will play a significant role, not just in filling a small part of the need, but more importantly in providing a world-class education that will hopefully yield competitive future university graduates who will provide manpower that is much needed in the regions still developing economies, added Greenhill.



Other studies have shown that both local and expatriate populations in the GCC, in general, are willing to bear the high cost of education at the international schools. One study conducted by Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia shows more than two-thirds in the kingdom preferred to enrol their children at international schools that offer international curricula, English language skills, and modern teaching practices. In the UAE, there is a general preference for the British and American curriculum, along with curricula offered by India and international baccalaureate schools.



Eighty-five new international schools and international school campuses were set up from January 2016-2017, and a significant number is expected to be added in the next few years as international school operators aggressively take advantage of the massive opportunities offered in by the regions growing education market.



IPSEF will also be featuring a new conference programme focusing on the higher education market in the region and will address key stakeholder groups involved in the higher education sector  such as colleges and universities who are looking to set-up branches or a new campus in the region, operators of existing higher education institutions, regulators as well as the supplier community that provides products, services and solutions for the higher education sector.



Dr. Warren Fox, chief of Higher Education at Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) noted Dubais increasingly important role as a leading regional education hub. Dubai has witnessed an average growth of over 10 per cent in student enrolment in the last decade. Over 40 per cent of all students in Dubai currently study at international campuses, which reflects Dubais appeal as an attractive higher education destination. Dubai is also home to the largest number of international campuses in the world.



This years IPSEF Middle East and Higher Education Forums is a must-attend event for local and international stakeholders who are eager to develop their business in the Middle East, learn from peers who have successfully achieved growth as well as understand the latest regulatory requirements that will help them navigate the education landscape throughout the region. - TradeArabia News Service


Oman Drydock Company (ODC), which owns and operates the sultanates only ship repair yard at Duqm, has signed a partnership agreement with Global Offshore & Marine Pte Ltd, a prominent Singapore-based shipyard, said a report.



Global Offshore & Marine, part of the well-diversified GlobalOne Group of Companies, is one of three international engineering partners identified by ODC as key to its long-term goal of adding new market segments to its portfolio of ship repair and maintenance services, added the Oman Daily Observer report.



Billed as a boutique shipyard, Global Offshore & Marine is a one-stop turnkey project specialist providing integrated services to the offshore and marine industry.



The company, established in 2006, operates from a 44,000-sq-m prime waterfront with a 200-m quayside from where it undertakes a wide range of turnkey projects, including structural steel fabrication, piping and electrical work, marine accommodation systems, living quarter modules, electrical houses and process modules.



Dr Ahmed al Abri, deputy CEO - operations, ODC, said that the deal is very significant indeed, as it places us in a strong technical position to acquire a share of the offshore repairs market.



He further explained that the pact with Global Offshore & Marine will enable ODC to exploit the Singapore yards strategic location, expansive facilities and years of maritime experience to help diversify the companys operations.
Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has announced the submission of the official bid proposal to the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), to host the 71st International Astronautical Congress in 2020 in Dubai, UAE.



IAF will announce the IACs 2020 hosting city on the last day of the coming edition that will take place in Adelaide, Australia, from September 25-29.



MBRSCs bid proposal includes a thorough explanation about the UAE space sector, the centres proposed plan to host the congress, importance of hosting IAC for the first time in an Arab and Islamic country, its positive impact on the space sector in the country and the region, said a statement.



In addition to that, the bid proposal mentioned the financial cost and various information about Dubai's economic, cultural and tourism advantages, it said.



Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, director general, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, said: We have applied to host this global event in Dubai with stems from our strong international presence in the space field and our ambitious future vision for space industry, research and sciences.



The centre has the support of a large number of local and international entities to host the conference, which includes federal and local organisations, space agencies, space companies, in addition to a number of universities in the UAE, he said.



Al Shaibani added: Dubai has several distinguished features and capabilities that make the city ready to host important and prestigious international conferences.



It has a world-class infrastructure, logistic services, transportation systems, organising plans, strategic geographic location and has a long history of organizing and hosting events, he said.



The UAEs sustainable space program and the vision to attain the sectors development in the country, region and the world are among the main pillars that distinguish us, Al Shaibani concluded.



Eng Salem Humaid Al Marri, assistant director general for Scientific and Technical Affairs at MBRSC said that a committee was established to prepare the official bid proposal, and will also be responsible for all the future procedures and requirements.



Al Marri said: The efforts and support of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and their advisory role at all levels; logistics, operations and organising.



Our success in hosting IAC 2020 will be an added value to the UAE's space sector and showcase our capabilities and potentials to attract world-class conferences to Dubai and the UAE, he added.  TradeArabia News Service


Florida's inbound tourism numbers broke previous records as a total of 60.7 million tourists visited the Sunshine State during the first half of the year, said a report.



The increase in travellers, which is a 4.1 per cent jump over the first six months in 2016  included 53.2 million domestic visitors, 5.3 million overseas tourists and 2.2 million Canadians, said a report in Tampa Bay Times.



This is an exciting and historic time for the Florida tourism industry, said Ken Lawson, CEO and president of Visit Florida, the states tourism promotion agency.






InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the worlds leading hotel companies, has announced the signing of Staybridge Suites Warsaw Ursynow  the first Staybridge Suites in Poland and the brands eighth property in Europe.



Due to open in late 2019, the 190-room new build hotel will operate under a franchise agreement with WIK Capital and will be located in Ursynow, Warsaws third largest district.



The hotel will benefit from close proximity to Warsaw Airport, which is only a 15 minute drive away, as well as popular tourist destinations including Kabaty Forest, Natolin Palace and the renowned Suzewiec horseracing track, making it an ideal choice for business travellers who will be in the city for an extended period of time, or guests seeking a home away from home during their travels.



Staybridge Suites aims to create a community feel for guests during their stay and the public spaces are commonly used for social events where guests can get to know each other. The hotels feature hallmarks designed to make guests feel comfortable and at home, including separate workspaces with free wi-fi throughout the hotel and a 24-hour Business Centre, ensuring guests can take care of business on their own schedule. Other features include a fitness room, laundry room facilities and a 24/7 convenience store.



Miguel Martins, director, Development Poland, IHG, said: We are excited to be bringing Polands first Staybridge Suites to Warsaw. As the financial hub of Poland, Warsaw is the perfect location for the brand. Staybridge Suites has more than doubled its presence in the last 10 years globally and as Warsaw becomes a tourism and business hub within Eastern Europe, it makes perfect sense to develop Polands first Staybridge Suites here.Cezary Tur, Business Development director, WIK Capital, commented: We are pleased to be opening our first IHG branded property in Warsaw in late 2019. IHG offered us all the qualities we are looking for in a long-term partner and we look forward to working together to make this property a well-loved hotel by business and leisure travellers.



Staybridge Suites is IHGs global extended-stay brand. Launched in Europe in 2008, the brand offers spacious studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites designed to create a homely residential environment to meet the needs of extended stay guests. It is ideal for business travellers on extended visits, those relocating or guests who are seeking a home from home environment during their holiday.



There are currently seven Staybridge Suites across Europe with a further six in the pipeline. - TradeArabia News Service
Casper residents, Dick and Linda Wheeler, have donated $250,000 in support of Harris Crossing, a 13-home development of Habitat for Humanity.

The Wheelers are longtime supporters of the work of Habitat for Humanity in Casper. The Harris Crossing development which will be a permanent, stable neighborhood for generations to establish roots.

The $2.5 million development encompasses a 2.91-acre undeveloped property in east Casper near the intersection of Shumway and Amherst streets. The cul-de-sac subdivision will hold 13 single-family homes once complete and it will be the largest Habitat for Humanity project in the Casper area.

Habitat for Humanity has commissioned the development of the engineered infrastructure including roads, curbs, gutters, and utilities with completion anticipated to be late fall. Construction of the first round of homes is scheduled for spring 2018.

Harris Crossing homes will be designed to a three-bedroom home, and as needed, accommodate larger households with additional bedrooms.

The subdivision, named Harris Crossing to honor local Habitat founders, Don and Hallie Harris, will be a collaboration of homeowners and community to create a supportive and thriving neighborhood.

Applications to Habitat for Humanitys Homeownership Program will be accepted through September 1. The Home Ownership Program offers the opportunity to become a homeowner to individuals willing to invest 500 sweat equity hours into building their home, attendance in home buyer education classes, and repayment of a no-interest mortgage once occupying their permanently affordable home.

To learn more about Harris Crossing, contact the administrative office at 234-1348, email designassocaite.habitat@gmail.com, or visit heartofwyoming.org.
For two minutes and 42 seconds of totality, actor Will Wallace stretched his arms toward heaven and held the eclipsed sun.

The crowd behind him, dark in the silvery midday dusk, clapped wildly. They cheered. They wept openly, overwhelmed by the sublimity of the moment.

And then the moon slid away, quietly as it came, and the sun flashed down on the theaters crowd once more. The actors began their work again performing the scenes of Prometheus, a local theater production that incorporated Mondays eclipse into its climax.

It was almost impossible to go on with the performance afterwards, Bill Conte, the plays writer and director, said Wednesday with a laugh. Everyone was just out of their minds with excitement that we actually pulled this off.

For Conte and his team, the eclipse performance was the reward for months of preparation and practice. And like many others around the state, the group hoped the eclipse would be an opportunity to show off their work and community to unprecedented crowds. To have a moment in the sun or, more appropriately, in the shadow.

Conte saw it as a chance to create unique art. Residents of a small town with a bad reputation saw it as a chance for redemption. Business owners viewed the eclipse as a chance to make a buck. Others considered it a chance to put their home or workplace on the map.

Now that the moment has come and gone, the Star-Tribune checked back in with the people who told us about their goals and hopes.

Charmed in Fremont County

The residents of Pavillion hoped the eclipse would help rebrand the tiny Fremont County town best known to outsiders for fracking and contaminated water. By a stroke of celestial luck, the town was smack in the middle of the path of totality and offered visitors almost two and a half minutes of totality, one of the longest durations in the nation.

Were pretty excited to have the exposure, Beckie Hatcher, the towns clerk, told the Star-Tribune in the weeks leading to the eclipse. It would be nice for the community to have feel-good press.

In total, a few hundred people visited the town for the eclipse, swelling the towns population of 231. Visitors from California, Georgia and Germany walked the streets, many of whom had never heard of Pavillion before arriving.

The visitors participated in a street dance and contributed more than $300 to the local food bank through a fundraiser breakfast. They seemed to enjoy the intimacy of a small town, Hatcher said Thursday.

They didnt really know what to expect, but they were charmed, she said.

Then, when the moment came, the crowd gasped simultaneously. They burst into cheers and applause.

It was really more than anybody had really anticipated, she said.

Business booms and busts

In Casper, local business set up booths downtown and peddled merchandise to the crowds wandering Second Street during the Wyoming Eclipse Festival.

Rob Staffig-Piotter, owner of Whitelace-n-Promises, saw the sales potential after selling more than 1,000 T-shirts featuring his original eclipse design. He hoped for Christmas-level sales but struggled to estimate how much stock to order.

You have no way of knowing how much to order, Staffig-Piotter said in July. Its something thats never happened.

The week after the eclipse, however, the owner was ecstatic about the shops success in selling its array of eclipse gear: T-shirts, shot glasses, magnets and coffee mugs.

Were wiped out all the way, he said Thursday. We had nothing left the day after.

His team designed a T-shirt for the day after the big moment that reads We came, we saw, we felt the shadow. Those shirts have been popular as well.

We wish we could have an eclipse every year, he said.

But in Douglas, at least one business owner was underwhelmed by the crowds.

Im not saying it was all doom and gloom, but not as good as anticipated, said John Hunt, owner of HeadStrong Brewery.

The owner prepared a hog roast and live music for the Thursday before the eclipse but made only $700 in sales. Business picked up later in the weekend, especially Sunday night, but never quite reached the levels Hunt was hoping for after a year of planning.

The visitors gave great feedback to the brewery and the travelers seemed to really appreciate Wyoming for its beauty, he said.

Great people, great times and that outweighs money sometimes, he said.

A ghost town revived

For months, John Voight and others have worked to prepare his ghost town for eclipse crowds. They mowed grass that had been growing unabated for decades. They took chainsaws to dead trees and leveled dirt roads, all in the hopes of showing what Sunrise had to offer  and why the work to preserve the abandoned mining town was worthwhile.

It paid off when 1,000 people came to the eastern Wyoming town for their eclipse moment  more than the towns population even at its peak. The visitors were treated to a square dance and a view of the eclipse from a high plateau. Organizers raised quite a bit of money for the archaeological work being done just yards from the historic YMCA building.

An impromptu community also grew over the weekend. Visitors volunteered to help with check-ins and other tasks. Campers gathered around a site one night to sing along to a mix tape of songs about the moon and the sun. Amateur astronomers shared views from the telescopes they hauled to the rural site.

People just fell in love with the experience, said Josie Voight, Johns daughter and one of the events organizers.

By 5:30 a.m. Monday, the day of the eclipse, visitors had already begun to line up outside the towns entrance gates, not scheduled to open until 8 a.m.

John Voight spent most of that morning shuttling people to the plateau above the town for broad views of the eclipse traveling across the prairie. Finally, minutes before totality began, John climbed once more to the ridge.

The crowd erupted in applause for the man who had worked so hard for them and his beloved town. They welcomed him into their midst before returning their gaze upward.

It was really something, said Johns other daughter, Jaren Cerf, who watched the eclipse on the plateau. I dont know how to describe it.

Reporting contributed by Star-Tribune staff writers Arno Rosenfeld, Brady Oltmans and Elysia Conner.
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Chinese publications have drawn much attention from overseas publishers during the ongoing Beijing International Book Fair, with many rights deals already being signed.

The Beijing International Book Fair is now in its 24th year. More than 2,500 exhibitors from 89 countries and regions are taking part in the fair, with overseas exhibitors accounting for 58 percent.

Around 40,000 books from over 300 major Chinese publishers are on display for overseas publishers and libraries. At the fair last year and the year before, the number of copyright trade agreements signed between Chinese and foreign companies exceeded 4,000 each year.

At this year's fair, Chinese publishers are continuing their efforts to market their books both in paper and digital form.

"Keywords to understand China: the Belt and Road Initiative," published by New World Press, has secured deals to publish in eight different languages.

The English version of Chinese novelist Jia Pingwa's "Happy Dreams" will be published by Amazon both in paper and digital.

"We hope to introduce more wonderful Chinese books to more foreign readers, building a bridge connecting Chinese and Western cultures," said Bruce Aitken, general manager of Amazon Reading China.

Tsinghua University Press agreed to cooperate with Royal Collions Publishing Group, working on the English translation of a series of cartoon books to introduce Chinese tales to children around the world.

The book fair is being held at the New China International Exhibition Center from Aug. 23 to 27.
Gov. Matt Mead is the most recent Wyoming leader to be approached by private prison companies interested in building a new penitentiary to replace the existing facility, which has significant structural concerns.

Mead said in a recent interview with the Star-Tribune that GEO Group, a private prison company out of Florida, had asked to meet with him. A different company, CoreCivic, met with House Speaker Steve Harshman in the spring and both companies presented to the legislatures Joint Appropriations Committee in July.

But like some other state officials, the governor was hesitant to allow a for-profit business to take over the states largest correctional facility.

As I sit here today, Im not in favor of that, he said. Im open to talk to those companies and maybe they can convince me otherwise, but I dont think it provides us the flexibility were going to want.

Inmates moved into the Rawlins prison in 2001 and the facility was expected to last at least 50 years. Staff began monitoring the buildings cracks and shifts in 2013, caused by underlying soils that heave and sink when met with moisture. The problems are complicated by the facilitys poor drainage system.

The shifts make doors hang ajar, walls separate and windows crack. The changes require daily maintenance by already overtaxed facility staff.

Lawmakers have considered multiple solutions to the issue: using bonds to fund a $83 million repair or rebuilding the prison on a different site near Rawlins with either private or state workers.

Private prisons

Mead expressed concern that a private company could be less amenable to workforce training or rehabilitative programs for substance abuse treatment and sex offenders because, ultimately, the companys goal is to turn a profit.

If the facility says, We cant do that, its not economical for that, what do we do then? he said. Its not like we can build another building. Youre kind of stuck in that situation.

The governors spokesman said Wednesday that Mead had yet to sit down with the company.

The two private prison companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic, pitched their services to the Joint Appropriations Committee when the group gathered in Rawlins in July. Representatives from the Wyoming Association of Correctional Employees and the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union spoke against using private prison companies.

It didnt appear that the companies presentations gained much traction, as lawmakers did not seriously discuss the option during their final comments and deliberation at the end of the meeting.

The state maintains a contract with CoreCivic that would provide housing to inmates should the prison become uninhabitable. The contract, which was extended in May to continue until June 2018, allows the state to house up to 750 inmates in the companys facilities at a cost of up to $5.1 million. The company, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, also operates the Cheyenne Transitional Center.

Funding

In December, Mead recommended that the Legislature authorize $83.5 million in bonds to pay for repairs suggested by an engineering firm hired to study the structural issues.

Lawmakers, however, decided to create a savings account for an eventual decision. They also authorized spending up to $15 million from the states rainy day fund in case of catastrophe that would require relocating prisoners.

In July, the Joint Appropriations Committee passed a motion recommending that the governor fund the solutions to drainage and grading issues at the facility as recommended by two different engineering firms. The motion also asks that a construction management expert oversee the projects.

Last week, Mead stood by his opinion that the prison should be repaired instead of rebuilt. He said that the committees decision to fix the drainage issues at the prison made sense and was worth trying, though not a complete solution.

I think theyre doing their best to figure out what can we do now, he said of the legislators.

However, he warned against paying for repairs in bursts, instead of tackling the issue all at once.

I dont want us to get into this situation where weve been before: $7 million this year, $7 million next year, $7 million the year after that, he said. And then $300 million (the estimated cost of a new facility) because were not fixing this thing.

He then turned to the question that many  citizens and lawmakers alike  have been asking: Why hasnt this been fixed yet?

Mead gave two reasons: legislators changing plans and opting to commission a review of the original engineering study, thus slowing the process, and the difficulty of completing construction projects at a high-security prison.

The Wyoming Legislature will likely take on the issue in the next session, slated to begin in February. The Joint Appropriations committee also discussed meeting separately once more before the session begins.
George Hanson pretty much pegged it last year when he announced plans to celebrated famed conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein during the 2018 Tucson Desert Song Festival.

The world would be watching, the festival director and former Tucson Symphony Orchestra conductor predicted, and indeed they seem to be starting to do just that.

In the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, in a story looking at all of the celebrations nationwide to commemorate the 100th year of Bernstein's birth, Tucson earned a mention alongside the Atlanta Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

The article, "From Ravinia to Vienna and beyond, the world will note Leonard Bernstein's centennial with 'thousands of concerts'," quoted Bernstein's daughter Jamie:  Leonard Bernstein at 100 will explore my fathers legacy from every angle. And thats a lot of angles.

Jamie Bernstein is among the guests expected to appear during the 2018 Tucson Desert Song Festival Jan. 17 thorugh Feb. 4.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Aug. 27 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.
Valley fever infects more than 13,000 people annually in Arizona and California and kills more than 100. Yet the two states spend less on public awareness about the disease in one year than the Bakersfield City School District spends on lunch milk for a month and less than Pima Countys Parks and Recreation Department spent on janitorial supplies in 2016.

Government-funded awareness campaigns can transform public behavior and lead to different approaches by doctors and nurses. When it comes to valley fever, though, state and local agencies in both states have historically struggled with support for one of the most important aspects of combatting the disease: warning the public of its existence.

Since the beginning of 2011, valley fever  which is caused by breathing in coccidioidal fungal spores that get swept into the air  has infected more than 75,000 people in California and Arizona, the two regions with the highest number of cases. California experienced a valley fever epidemic last year and a wet winter signals that 2017 could be worse.

Instead of funding more valley fever awareness work, the California Department of Public Health this year has routed awareness funding to more high-profile diseases, like the zika virus, for which there have been fewer than 20 diagnoses in California this year, and sexually transmitted diseases. The state budget for valley fever awareness: zero.

California also has not provided valley fever awareness funding to county public health agencies in at least three decades. Arizona, the other state where valley fever is widespread, hasnt done much better.

It is a disease that is not respected and not funded, said Pat White, who founded Arizona Victims of Valley Fever in Sun City West near Phoenix more than a decade ago. People come here for a convention, they go home, get sick and they dont know why.

Under former Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizonas valley fever program received $300,000 in state money in 2007. The money went into an education video, an enhanced surveillance project and research at the University of Arizonas Valley Fever Center for Excellence.

The surveillance identified costs of the disease as well as trends in duration and severity of illness and delays in diagnosis. It remains the largest population-based assessment of the effects of valley fever.

But with the onset of the recession, state valley fever funding disappeared in 2008. The Arizona Department of Health Services has relied on grants for its valley fever activities since 2010 and now operates on a $96,868 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant for surveillance and education. Since losing its state money, the programs budget has never exceeded $100,000 per year.

The recession came and we lost almost every single line item in the agency, including valley fever, said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association.

New research focus but no funds for awareness

The situation looked ripe for change after the first national symposium on valley fever. U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, hosted the event in 2013, shortly after a yearlong reporting project on valley fever by the Center for Health Journalism Collaborative, called Just One Breath, put the issue on the map. The symposium brought together leading physicians, politicians and public health officials, including the directors of the National Institutes of Health and the CDC. And it promised to finally bring needed resources and attention to the disease.

Everything in public health is a competing priority, said Kirt Emery, a recently retired Kern County, California, epidemiologist who has spent much of his career focused on valley fever. Ive seen great changes since that symposium at the national level.

McCarthys symposium was integral in securing $5 million for a clinical trial that launched last fall of fluconazole, a drug that has been used to treat valley fever off-label for years. The CDC also began investigating cocci cases far from traditionally endemic regions after the symposium.

The University of Arizona recently secured a $2.27 million, four-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to build a genetic profile of the people who get extremely ill from valley fever.

The symposium also resulted in the creation of the Congressional Valley Fever task force, aimed at improving awareness, reducing the risk of misdiagnoses and finding a viable cure.

It took a handful of us, a lot of phones called and being really annoying because of some of the bureaucracy, but weve kicked loose some money, weve kicked loose some priority. Were making progress, said Republican Rep. David Schweikert of Scottsdale, a task force co-chair.

Yet those positive results on a federal level havent translated into public health information for communities.

There has been no broad public awareness campaign in California with highway billboards or posters in stores, as there have been for drunken driving or the annual flu vaccine. No public service announcements run on television or radio.

Instead, most valley fever campaigns rely on that mainstay of low-budget outreach: the pamphlet.

Launching efforts on a shoestring budget

California Public Health Department officials acknowledge the lack of funding, but say they have done their part by making available fact sheets, posters, brochures and educational materials on the agency website and sharing materials on social media and in professional newsletters.

But those sometimes obscure publications are likely not seen by people who are most vulnerable to the disease  those who work outdoors, especially in construction, farm labor and other jobs that bring them into contact with dirt and dust.

To address these risks, the state says it has worked with CalFIRE to educate wildland firefighters on the dangers of cocci while battling blazes in endemic regions and consulted with the High Speed Rail Authority on best practices for construction of the multi-billion-dollar bullet train that will cut through high-risk areas.

Arizona has also settled for a low-cost awareness effort, putting several public service announcements on its website with the same message: Cough? Fever? Exhausted? Ask your doctor to test you for valley fever.

Thats way too passive, said Madalene Milano, a partner at GMMB, an international communications firm behind the successful Click it or Ticket campaign to increase seatbelt use. The sad thing is, a lot of times people will do a brochure or poster, or do a very static campaign, and thats not how people live their lives now.

Without special state funds, counties that are hardest hit have done their best to fill in the gap.

In Arizona, more than 50 libraries in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties have distributed valley fever educational brochures in English and Spanish. And public service video announcements ran for 27 days in Phoenix- and Tucson-area Harkins Theatres in 2014.

Such efforts are worthwhile, though they work better when sustained, said Dr. John Galgiani, director of the UAs valley fever center. With more funding, public health officials could increase outreach efforts to doctors, pay for regular public service announcements on radio and TV and put up billboards along major highways, he said.

McCarthy said resources would be best spent in creating online awareness efforts. The greatest place we can go is social media, he said.

But online efforts have languished. It wasnt until this month that the Congressional Valley Fever Task Force, founded in 2013, launched a website. And its Twitter and Facebook pages have fewer than 30 posts in two years.
A proposed 2015 sale of Arizona water to California that never happened is now a flash point in a controversy pitting Arizonas top water agency against the Central Arizona Project.

A newly disclosed memo from that year, written by a CAP attorney, characterized the proposal as a sale of some of Arizonas Colorado River water to the giant, six-county Metropolitan Water District in Southern California. Such a sale would be controversial in Arizona, given the longstanding adversarial relationship over water between the two states.

The deal would have allowed the Met to store or use 60,000 acre-feet of Arizonas Colorado River water for about $17 million in payments to CAP and a promise to return that water later to CAP, which serves drinking water to Tucson and Phoenix.

CAP officials said then and now that the arrangement would only have been to store 60,000 acre-feet of Arizonas share of river water with the Southern California water district  not to sell it. But Arizona Department of Water Resources officials have now seized on the 2015 memo to say this was a rogue action by CAP that shows that agencys authority must be curbed.

Under the proposed deal, the Met would have been required to return the water to Arizona when Lake Mead dropped below 1,050 feet, far lower than it is now. That low a lake level would trigger a serious shortage for the CAP, a $4 billion Arizona water project. But the deal was killed after the Arizona Department of Water Resources objected to it as illegal and bad policy.

State water resources officials say the May 2015 memo to four CAP officials from private CAP attorney Stuart Somach is a smoking gun.

The Sacramento-based lawyer wrote that I am not at all sure that one ever avoids the obvious reality that Arizona is, to a greater or lesser degree, selling water to California.

Overall, Somachs memo was favorable to the idea of the water transaction on other grounds. But its release has been used by the Arizona Department of Water Resources as ammunition in its effort to get legislation passed curbing CAPs legal authority.

These proposed measures have been debated by a Colorado River working group, appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey, thats been meeting privately through the summer.

One proposal under discussion would forbid CAP from hiring a Washington, D.C., lobbyist. Another would require periodic state audits of CAPs performance.

CAP officials, however, say that far from taking a rogue action, they were working with the state water department back in 2015 to evaluate the California plan in a collaborative and deliberative manner.

The very fact that the CAP bowed to the state agencys objections shows it was hardly acting as a rogue, project officials say.

Somach was making a point about the public perception of the proposal, not coming to a legal conclusion with regard to a sale, CAP spokeswoman Crystal Thompson said in an email to the Star.

The first part of the transaction involved Arizona water being stored in California, with California compensating Arizona for the costs involved. By itself, that would look like a sale, Thompson said. However, viewed as a whole, the proposal involved the second part, occurring later in time, which would have required California to return the same amount of water to Arizona (during a shortage). That element makes it clearly not a sale.

Private water attorney Kathleen Ferris, who was director of the state Department of Water Resources in the mid-1980s, countered that Somach says the obvious reality, not the perception, is that Arizona is by a greater or lesser degree selling water to California. CAP can claim anything they want but the facts are now what they are.

Tom Buschatzke, the Department of Water Resources current director, said, If their own attorney says its a sale, how is it not a sale? It would boggle my mind that anyone who read that would interpret that to mean it is anything other than a sale.

Somachs office referred a reporters request to speak to the attorney on the 2015 memo to CAP spokeswoman Thompson.

SHORTAGE PRESSURES

The CAP-Met deal was conceived at a time when short-term conditions on Lake Mead were more precarious than now. This month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said that after an unusually snowy winter in the northern Rockies, the Colorado River and its reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell, contain enough water that there is no chance of a shortage in 2018. There is a 31 percent chance of a shortage in 2019, the bureau said.

At the end of April 2015, by contrast, the previous winters snowpack was low enough that the bureau was predicting a much bigger chance of imminent shortages.

The Metropolitan Water District was facing its own water pressures then, as the California drought was peaking. The Met had received only 5 percent of its normal supplies from the California State Water Projects reservoirs in 2014.

The CAP laid out the early terms of the California deal in an April 20, 2015, memo, marked Confidential and Privileged. Its one of a package of memos on the deal that CAP gave the governors river working group this summer, including Somachs. Until then, state and CAP officials had withheld Somachs memo under a confidentiality agreement. Buschatzke said his agency decided to release it this month because CAP had given it to other parties.

The money paid to Arizona in this deal would have gone partly to CAP, some to offset higher water costs its customers  including Tucson  would pay for river water if less was available in a shortage. Some would have been spent to build wells and other infrastructure to retrieve water thats been stored underground across Arizona to be used during a severe shortage. The rest would have gone to the Arizona Water Banking Authority, which buys and recharges otherwise unused Colorado River water into the aquifer.

Besides the money paid to Arizona, the deals pros were that California would share a shortage with Arizona by repaying CAP the stored water during a shortage, CAPs memo said.

California has been considered free of worries about shortages because the 1968 law that authorized CAPs construction gave California first priority for river water during shortages and Arizona last priority.

Plus, the CAP would be supporting California during its drought, which theoretically would improve relations between the two fractious states.

But the memo acknowledged a key con: that this transaction would risk the optics of selling Arizonas unused water to the Metropolitan Water District, an agency long feared and distrusted in some circles in this state.

Plus, the memo said the deal would not address the Lower Colorado River Basins structural deficit between water use and supply that many experts consider the root cause of Lake Meads problems.

In several memos, CAP saw this plan as a demonstration project, implying that it could be done in future years if the first year proved successful.

Somachs May 12 memo laid out several uncertainties about the deal, including who, in fact, benefits from this transaction.

But he did find merit in the idea that it would have provided real wet water to CAP during a shortage.

That benefit has a great deal of value, he wrote.

On July 7, 2015, CAP official Chuck Cullom wrote other CAP officials an email saying water director Buschatzke and other state officials not only supported the concepts behind the deal, they were in lockstep on key issues.

OFFICIALS MEMORIES CLASH

In an interview this month, however, Buschatzke denied that his agency had ever endorsed the deal. Thats one of several differences the two agencies officials have in their recollections of it.

His agency knew nothing of this agreement until meeting with CAP and Met officials in mid-June, when we were invited to talk about drought planning, Buschatzke said.

After evaluating the proposal, the state water departments attorneys concluded it wasnt legal and that the only agency in Arizona authorized to do any form of interstate water banking  as this deal was proposed  is the Arizona Water Banking Authority.

Even then, the only forms of interstate banking authorized for the authority would be in Arizona, not out of state, Ferris said.

The state got most of the agreements key details after it signed a confidentiality agreement on them on July 7, 2015, Buschatzke said. Two weeks later, we did our analysis and told CAP that this deal was not going to work, he said.

On Aug. 7, 2015, CAP General Manager Ted Cooke wrote to Met officials that after talking with Buschatzke and meeting in executive session with CAPs governing board, it was clear this deal couldnt proceed.

Another reason the department opposed the deal is that the river water California would get could have been used instead to prop up Lake Mead to help avert a shortage, Buschatzke said.

We had a 75,000 acre-feet buffer at the lake, and CAP was going to take 60,000 of this buffer and ship it out to Met. This would have put Arizona at risk ... of going into shortage, he said.

CAP DEFENDS DEAL

In her memo to the Star this month, CAP spokeswoman Thompson said fears the deal could have caused a shortage were unfounded.

The water that would have been stored with the Met had been planned to be delivered  and was ultimately delivered  to the Arizona water banks underground recharge basins that year, Thompson said.

The result in either case was the same  there would have been no change to Lake Mead if the deal had gone through, she said.

CAP is saddened and disappointed that ADWR would continue to make false statements about discussions from two years ago, particularly since ADWR was party to the discussions and no agreement or action resulted, Thompson wrote.

This political rhetoric is a distraction that weakens and divides Arizona water users at the very time Arizona water managers need to work cooperatively to address the very real water issues facing our state.

But her statement regarding Lake Mead is contradicted by two memos contained in the package of documents CAP gave to the governors Colorado River task force. The memos, dated July 7 and July 8 of 2015 and again marked confidential, said the water the Met would store was water that CAP planned to use or store in Mead.

CAP also disagrees with the state on whether the deal was illegal.

Somachs May 2015 memo and Thompsons comments to the Star this month said CAP was authorized by federal interstate storage regulations to store the water in California.

Plus, the transaction was entirely within CAPs authorities under Arizona law, Thompson said.

Thompson didnt reply to requests from the Star for specifics on how the deal complied with Arizona law.
The Mexican American Studies program at Tucson Unified School District scored a knockout victory this week when a federal district court judge declared the law banning the courses to be motivated by, and enacted with, racial animus.

But almost six years after the program officially came to an end, that victory rang somewhat hollow to supporters of Mexican American Studies, who say despite the ruling, the program will probably never be exactly what it was before the state began its crackdown.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima declared the law violated students First and 14th amendment rights on Tuesday, Aug. 22, but the court is still awaiting a final round of legal briefings from both sides before settling on a remedy.

The plaintiffs in the case, two fathers of school-age children, are seeking an injunction against the Department of Education from enforcing the unconstitutional law, according to their attorney, Richard Martinez.

But the decision to revive the program would fall to the five-member TUSD Governing Board, which doesnt appear likely to resuscitate Mexican American Studies. Thats in part because the district has spent the past few years developing culturally relevant courses to replace ethnic studies programming.

Mexican American Studies began in 1998 as one of the many conditions required to prove the district was working to improve the academic achievement of minority students and to settle the districts decades-old desegregation order. In 2010, the state Legislature and then-Gov. Jan Brewer approved a law targeting the MAS program, forcing TUSDs Governing Board to eliminate the program in 2012 rather than face a 10 percent cut in state funding.

To keep in good standing with the districts desegregation order, the district in 2013 approved new culturally relevant curriculum to help minority students succeed and bridge the achievement gap.

CULTURALLY RELEVANT COURSES now in place

Teachers who worked in the Mexican American Studies program, and have since transferred to the districts new Department of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Instruction, say the two programs are the same, but different.

Maria Federico-Brummer, a former Mexican American Studies teacher who is now director of Mexican American Student Services knows detractors say the culturally relevant classes are a watered-down version of MAS.

But she noted that all the books MAS used have been incorporated into the curriculum and most of the teachers from the former MAS program are working in the Culturally Relevant Department.

The strongest elements of what we had are still intact, she said.

Still, something was lost when the TUSD Governing Board did away with MAS and replaced it with culturally relevant courses.

One of the big changes, Federico-Brummer says, is that the team who ran MAS was a very strong group of educators who were like-minded, committed, and were excited about being on the cutting edge of ethnic studies work.

Whereas with the culturally relevant classes, teachers are assigned, she said.

Theres no intrinsic drive, thats the major difference, she said, noting that the CRC teachers are good teachers doing good work, but theyre not necessarily trained in culturally relevant studies like the MAS teachers were.

THE RETURN

OF ETHNIC STUDIES?

All five members of the TUSD Governing Board said they were still grappling with what the federal district court ruling means for the board, the districts desegregation order, and the Culturally Relevant Department  and that theyre awaiting more information from staff and attorneys.

Two board members, Michael Hicks and Mark Stegeman, were steadfast opponents of the Mexican American Studies program, and both said they wouldnt want to bring back the MAS classes as they were before the ban.

Two other members of the board, Adelita Grijalva and Kristel Foster, are steadfast supporters of the MAS program. But both said simply restarting the MAS program probably isnt an option since theres another program in its place.

It would make more sense, Grijalva said, to try to incorporate anything that was lost from the MAS program back into the culturally relevant courses.

Its not something where we can just snap our fingers, she said. And Ive heard from some teachers who are teaching the courses that theyd like to keep the courses.

And Foster said that wouldnt be fair to the Culturally Relevant Department, which has made big strides over the past few years.

What I hope we do is give the freedom to that department, take that fear of that law away, and that those teachers are empowered to move forward and continue to do what theyre doing, she said.

The remaining board member, Rachael Sedgwick, said shes glad the clearly racist law was found unconstitutional. But she feels the MAS program had some serious problems, and she doesnt want TUSD to return to the days where it was constantly under a microscope for its controversial courses.

Sedgwick said she recognizes the value of MAS or courses like it. But eventually, she would like the district to move away from specific culturally relevant courses and incorporate culturally relevant material into all classes.

Complicating the issue is that the board will have to take into account the wishes of the plaintiffs in the desegregation order.

Sylvia Campoy, a representative for the Latino plaintiffs in the desegregation case, said in an email that they are hopeful the court order will serve as vindication for the MAS program, its teachers, administrator and supporters.

I am as hopeful that the court order will infuse total support from the TUSD administration and Board for the Mexican American Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Department and its critical work in serving TUSD students, she wrote in the email.

And the case still isnt over. The state could appeal.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, the defendant in the case, hasnt spoken to the Attorney Generals Office about her options yet, according to her spokesman, Stefan Swiat.

But Douglas predecessor, John Huppenthal, the original defendant in the lawsuit, said he doesnt expect her to appeal.

In this climate, theres not going to be an appeal that succeeds. And I dont think an appeal necessarily would be the best thing, Huppenthal said.

Also telling is that in Huppenthals final day in office, he issued a finding that declared TUSDs culturally relevant courses illegal. Then, as one of her first acts of business after taking over the office, Douglas conducted an intensive 60-day audit of the program, and did an about-face from her predecessor, declaring them legal.
Seeking the desert climate, Donna and Derek Wilson moved their five children from southeast Texas to Tucson this summer.

The dilapidated mobile home they rented at 110 E. Prince Road needed serious work, the couple admits. But it was walking distance to public schools and it seemed to have the makings of a home.

I cringed a little bit, but I was happy we had our own place, Donna Wilson said. We were gonna fix it up.

They quickly realized the trailers problems were more than cosmetic when monsoon rains streamed through leaks in the roof throughout July.

Now the family is fighting to avoid homelessness, after city code enforcement on July 31 informed them and two other families that their rented trailers had been condemned as uninhabitable  months before they moved in.

The three families were forced to vacate their homes by the end of the day. Two other tenants whose trailers were condemned during the July 31 code inspection also had to leave immediately.

Rachael Jackson, 33, said her family lived at Prince Road Park for almost two weeks before code enforcement said their trailer had already been condemned. Jackson is the breadwinner for her family, as her husband Joe cares for their three young children.

Jackson said shes now on the verge of losing her job as a pharmacy tech because of all the work shes missed while searching for a new home. One income isnt enough to find decent housing here, she said, and the family has been crashing with friends and moving between cheap motels throughout August.

Its like you get kicked down as soon as you start making it, Jackson said. Its been emotionally and mentally draining.

Since they were displaced, the Wilsons have stayed in four different hotels as they scramble to find a permanent place to stay. For more than two weeks, the seven-member family, plus a scrawny kitten named Spooky, was crammed into a single room at the Travel Inn motel on South Freeway Road, rotating who had to sleep on the floor.

I hate to see anyone else go through this, Wilson said. We have no money right now. Im scared. 

OUT-OF-STATE LANDLORD

The Wilsons say they are out $975 between their July rent and security deposit at Prince Road Park. They are hoping to get some of their money back from the parks out-of-state landlord, Todd Kroepel, a real estate investor in Southern California.

Kroepel is managing partner of Arizona-based limited liability company Talazera Holding Group LLC, which owns Prince Road Park. City code enforcement says the park is crime-ridden and filled with uninhabitable trailers.

Im not trying to take advantage of people that dont have a lot, Kroepel said in a phone interview last week. Im a fair guy. This is an unfortunate circumstance that happened probably due to my lack of supervision. But it got out of control and I dont know how people ended up in condemned units.

Prince Road Park has been on code enforcements radar, especially after faulty electrical wiring caused a trailer fire a few years ago, said Martin Romero, supervisor with the citys code enforcement department. A call from police investigating criminal activity at the property prompted the July 31 code inspection, he said.

Problems in the condemned trailers included hazardous wiring, broken toilets falling through the floor, roaches, broken cooling systems and roof leaks, Romero said.

The property owners should be aware of the type of units they are renting out, he said. We expect the property owners to be in compliance with all of our city codes.

Kroepel said he gave each displaced family $200 to pay for a week in a hotel while they got on their feet.

But one week isnt long enough to find decent permanent housing on a fixed income, all three families told the Star.

ITS BEEN A DISASTER

Kroepel said he specializes in running apartment complexes and he previously owned a few in Tucson. This month, he sold the Benson Motel on Benson Highway for $525,000, county records show.

He also owns a five-bedroom house in Poway, California, thats worth more than $744,000, according to the San Diego County Assessors Office.

Kroepel said he bought Prince Road Park under the assumption that running a trailer park would be like managing apartments.

Its been a disaster and were trying to sell it. Were just not qualified for a park like that, he said. We havent made money on this park for many years.

He said his investors no longer want to invest any money in upgrades to the park, since its not generating income. Kroepel said too many tenants werent paying rent, yet he still has to continue to make utility payments for the park.

It should have been able to be maintained on cash flow, he said. We were floating many families for free against our will. Thats not our business plan.

Kroepel blames one of the parks tenants for renting out the condemned trailers without his knowledge.

Whoever that woman is, she rented those out on her own, he said. I dont even know how she got the keys. She was not the manager.

On a recent afternoon at Prince Road Park, that woman, Elizabeth Keith, said she was the latest in a series of tenants who were acting as the parks property manager, with Kroepels consent.

She maintains that Kroepel asked her to be his point of contact and to get more tenants moved into the vacant, money-draining trailers. She said Kroepel refused to pay for any repairs and she did not know which trailers were condemned.

He refuses to do anything for his tenants and refuses to do anything for his managers, Keith said.

Kroepel said he was unaware so many trailers had been condemned at his property, which was featured in a December Star article on dangerous conditions in Tucsons trailer parks.

I got a lot of bad press and Ive been trying to help these people as much as I can, he said. Im off-site. I dont know the goings-on in the park.

CITY CODE VIOLATIONS

Because Kroepel has the protection of an LLC, city code enforcement cant cite and fine him personally. The department has to work with the city prosecutors office to cite him through the court system. Code enforcement is still preparing the proposed citations to send to the city prosecutor, but Kroepels fines will range from $150 to $2,500 per violation, Romero said.

Tucson City Prosecutor Alan Merritt said conditions in some Tucson mobile home parks are a real problem, but funding cuts have meant the city has fewer resources to proactively pursue negligent landlords.

If funding increased, wed certainly be more inclined to get more involved, Merritt said. He recalled one egregious mobile home park case in which raw sewage from the park was running down a city street.

It does affect the safety of the public, Merritt said. The conditions in some past (cases) were deplorable and frankly, unsafe.

ARGUMENTS OVER RENT

Kroepel initially denied receiving rent payments from any of the three families who were living in condemned trailers on his property. All three families claim they paid rent and a $400 security deposit, but since each family said they paid by either cash or a money order, they are struggling to prove it.

The Wilsons, whose main source of income is Derek Wilsons disability benefit, said they mailed two MoneyGram money orders directly to Kroepel at his home address on July 3.

Both of those money orders were deposited on July 11, according to MoneyGrams automated telephone tracking system.

The Wilsons shared their money-order stubs with the Star: one for their $400 security deposit and one for $575 in rent for July. A Star reporter observed the couple use MoneyGrams phone tracking system to confirm the money orders had been deposited.

The Wilsons would have to pay a fee to request a copy of the deposited money order, which would show who endorsed the money order before depositing it. That request could take weeks to fulfill.

After the Star informed Kroepel last week that the money orders mailed to him had been deposited, Kroepel said he double-checked his businesss bank account and discovered he did receive the Wilsons payments. On Friday, he said he will return their deposit and hopes to return their July rent, if his investors give their approval.

Paying rent by money order is common among low-income tenants who cant afford to maintain a checking account, said James Daube, staff attorney with Southern Arizona Legal Aid.

But the payment method leaves renters vulnerable to accusations of nonpayment, unless they insist on a written receipt up front, he said.

A money-order stub alone isnt proof that the landlord actually received the payment, Daube said.

Its indicative that you were preparing to pay, but it doesnt prove that you paid, he said. Even legitimate landlords sometimes are reluctant to give receipts because of the inconvenience of it, but you have to be adamant about that.

IT WAS OURS

Displaced tenant Jackson said until recently, shed managed to shield her children from the reality of their precarious housing situation.

Earlier this summer, they were evicted from another trailer park and had to temporarily live in a hotel. But the kids went to the hotel pool every day and thought they were on vacation, she said.

This time was different. The day code enforcement showed up, Jackson said her kids were interviewed by child welfare workers and her daughter overheard a police officer reprimanding her for letting the family live in squalor.

Jackson said her 5-year-old daughter, Maddy, later tried to comfort her.

She said, Youre not a bad mom. Its OK the house wasnt perfect, Jackson said. That was the hardest thing for me. I couldnt try to cover that up for them. They knew what was going on.

Jackson said she has called churches, the Salvation Army and other nonprofits but was told no help was immediately available.

Weve always tried our best, she said. We got into a place that wasnt great, but it was ours. We could make it ours.

RESOURCES STRETCHED

Most homeless shelters in Tucson are constantly near full capacity and cant meet the demand for services, said Tina Chaput, a coordinator for Gospel Rescue Mission, which has a hotel-style shelter for women and children, and a dormitory shelter for men.

The 103-bed women and childrens shelter receives about 25 calls for help a day, and on average has just four open beds each day, she said.

For those of us who are answering the phones, the hardest thing is having to say no, Chaput said. It is so frustrating to not be able to accommodate people crying on the phone who are going to be out on the street.

The nonprofit hopes to raise money to build a 200-bed mens shelter, which would nearly quadruple the capacity of its existing mens shelter.

For Robert Bilodeau, 36, losing the $800 he said he paid for rent and the security deposit at Prince Road Park has made it hard to save up enough to rent a decent place. He said he used his $660 Social Security disability payment, plus $140 he earned washing windows, to make the payment.

Bilodeau said hes looking for a job, but hes ashamed that hes had to resort to panhandling to pay for the hotel he and his wife are staying in as they seek a permanent home.

My moneys all gone and its caused a lot of discord between me and my wife. Im the one that said, Lets trust these people, he said. It was a place I could afford to get into. I just dont want anybody to fall for this again.
Last Tuesday was not a normal school day for Paloma Martinez. She went to classes that morning at City High School in downtown Tucson wheres she a junior. But that afternoon she got an education.

By 5 p.m. the 16-year-old was among thousands of energy-filled protesters, many carrying signs, nearly all shouting, whistling and sounding upbeat at the large peaceful demonstration before President Trumps rally at the Phoenix Convention Center. It was the continuation of Martinezs lessons as an active citizen, as a student engaged in the political process, as a young woman concerned about her future and that of her community. The protest was her real-time textbook on civics and history.

And while Martinez was just one in the massive crowd that filled Phoenixs downtown streets surrounding the Convention Center, in 107-degree heat, her presence mattered.

Im glad to see all these people standing together against racism. I feel like Im part of something big, said an almost shy Martinez, who wore a T-shirt with the logo of Flowers & Bullets, a Tucson grass-roots community organizing group. She was accompanied by her mother, muralist and artist Johanna Martinez, and two friends, Raquel Mogollon and Athena Hagen.

Martinez is part of something big: a growing wave of young people who are propelled to become active participants in civic engagement. Among the thousands at the protest were many teenagers, like Brenda Huerta Brown, an 18-year-old senior from Bostrom High School in Phoenix who befriended Martinez and accompanied the troupe from the light-rail stop to the protest site.

Im here to support the community, said Huerta Brown.

Martinez, who enjoys cooking and listening to hip-hop and the Beatles, said before the rally that she felt compelled to attend to stand up for my community and my people, and stand against what he (Trump) stands for.

At the rally, a wide cross-section of Arizonans was present. The protesters denounced Trump and the white nationalists movement that the president was slow to criticize after Charlottesville. Many protesters were also clearly in opposition to the possibility  which became reality three days later  that Trump would pardon former Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently was found guilty of ignoring a judges order to cease racial profiling of Latino residents.

But in the midst of it all at Tuesdays protest came the news from Tucson that a federal judge had ruled in favor of Tucson residents  Maya Arce, Korina Lopez, Nicolas Dominguez, Noah Gonzalez and Manuel Barcelo  who challenged the states ban on Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District. U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima found that Arizona enacted the ban with discriminatory intent that violated students constitutional rights.

Martinez learned another lesson: persistence.

The ruling is the result of young Tucsonans who refused to be cowed by the state, specifically by former Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal and former state Attorney General Tom Horne, Huppenthals predecessor, the principal architects of the ban, which the judge said was motivated by racial animus. The students, some of whom had organized as UNIDOS, clearly understood that the state maliciously terminated a successful academic program that benefited them in and out of school. Where they had previously felt neglected and marginalized, the stimulating Mexican-American Studies had turned them around.

Martinez was not a student in the now-vindicated program but in these heated political days, her life is turning around.

At a time when it appears that the Trump-led government and its institutions are abandoning young people, ethnic minorities and individuals who identify as LGBT, a day like Tuesday offers her hope.

I feel inspired, supported. Im not alone, Martinez said after the rally and before a clash broke out between a small number of protesters and Phoenix police.

The Tuesday rally was not the first large demonstration Martinez has attended. She took part in the large Jan. 21 Womens March in downtown Tucson the day after Trumps inauguration. She said she will continue to be active in opposing the presidents polices on the environment, women, minority rights and attacks on individuals sexual preferences. Martinez said a president should be able to see all sides.

I hope he hears us, she said. Hes pretending we dont exist.
Luz Rangel had run through her $10,000 savings and was cleaning houses to pay for her daily heroin use when she found out she was seven months pregnant.

The 26-year-old Tucson resident sobbed for hours upon learning during an emergency room visit in April that she was going to be a mother. She was devastated to think what she might have done to her unborn child.

Though she felt ashamed, she ended up admitting to staff at Banner University Medical Center-Tucson that she was misusing heroin and that she and her baby needed help. She immediately started methadone treatment and began regular meetings with Banner neonatal specialists.

At the moment Rangel asked for help, the hospitals doctors and nurses were in the midst of overhauling the way they treat a rising number of newborns who have been exposed to opioids in the womb.

Banners new protocol, which emphasizes continuous mother-baby bonding, shorter hospital stays and reduced drug intervention, could be important to other providers in Arizona and around the country as the number of newborns exposed to opioids in utero continues to climb.

The key to the new philosophy is that good parenting is better than any other intervention.

But helping people with substance use disorders become better parents is not something thats completed in one simple step.

At Banner, it included a culture change. Medical providers from multiple disciplines including social workers, physicians and nurses are now trained to view drug use during pregnancy as a health issue, not a moral failure.

Part of the training includes helping staff members understand the disease process of addiction, and that factors like unresolved trauma and untreated mental illness predispose people to high risk of drug misuse.

Most importantly, staff members learn that in order to get optimal results, the moms of drug-exposed babies need to feel welcome and included.

Maternal bonding and other nonpharmacological interventions, some experts believe, are worth far more in easing withdrawal symptoms for opioid-exposed newborns than any other care the baby receives.

Rather than giving the newborns the standard of morphine every three hours for withdrawal, hospital staff encourage other therapies they refer to as eat-sleep-console.

The mother trusts herself and she trusts us. It is collaborative, said Lisa Grisham, who is the hospitals neonatal nurse practitioner supervisor.

Understanding addiction and seeing the mom and family here, willing to take care of the babies, has been a big eye-opener, I think, for a bunch of our staff.

Ideally, Grisham said, engendering trust will change parental behavior and keep more moms with their babies.

Historically, parents of opioid-exposed newborns at the local Banner hospital have stayed away from the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, Grisham said. About 25 to 30 opioid-exposed babies are born at the hospital per year.

They feel horrible about what theyve done to their baby, she said. Its easier to stay home and stay comfortable in your home than to show up and have someone judge you.

Yale model

Since Banner is an academic medical center, one component to maintaining a good relationship with the parents of drug-exposed babies is ensuring the hospital does follow-up to gather much-needed data, said Dr. M.Y. Bader, a pediatrician and attending neonatologist at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson.

Bader is also medical director of the hospitals new Family Centered NAS Care Program. NAS stands for neonatal abstinence syndrome. When babies have been exposed to narcotic drugs in utero, it often leads to NAS, where the infant suffers withdrawal symptoms several days after birth.

NAS is primarily associated with opioid use during pregnancy. In Arizona, the rate of NAS babies more than doubled between 2008 and 2013, when there were 645 opioid-exposed babies born statewide. Bader estimates the annual number in Arizona is now between 700 and 800.

As neonatologists we used to measure treatment success by the type and amount of medication used, and the average length of stay in the hospital, he said. We are now more interested in knowing how many of these babies will be discharged home with their parents.

Researchers also want to track the development of NAS babies. Right now, their outcomes are not well understood.

The Banner program is built on a model that originated at Yale University.

Grisham, Bader and Banner NICU nurse developmental specialist Becky Coykendall traveled to Yale in February to learn about the program and study the feasibility of adopting it from Yale pediatrician Dr. Matthew Grossman.

In June, Grossman and his colleagues published a study of the approach in the Journal Pediatrics that looked at 287 infants exposed to methadone in utero both before and after the new approach.

The research concluded interventions that focused on nonpharmacologic therapies reduced hospital stays from 22 to six days, cut costs, and no adverse events were reported.

Withdrawal

NAS babies are hospitalized for on average 22 days at a cost of $45,000 to $90,000 per baby, national data shows. Hospital costs for an average non-NAS newborn are about $3,500.

Withdrawal symptoms for NAS babies are similar to what an adult would experience and can include uncontrollable crying, tremors, repetitive yawning, gastrointestinal issues and sleep problems. They can also have headaches, muscle and bone pain.

Babies get withdrawal from exposure to heroin and prescription painkillers like Oxycontin, Vicodin and Dilaudid. Exposure to methadone, Subutex and Suboxone, which are used to treat addiction by taking away cravings, can also lead to NAS.

In Arizona, as of Friday, 141 babies suspected to have NAS had been born since June 15, which is when the state began collecting opioid-related data in real time.

The data collection began after Gov. Doug Ducey declared a statewide emergency due to the states number of opioid overdose deaths  at least two per day last year. Since June 15, the Arizona rate has been nearly four suspected deaths daily.

The Tucson academic center is the first location in Banners system of hospitals in six states to adopt the Family Centered NAS Care program. But its expected to expand to other Banner sites owned by the Phoenix-based company, Bader said.

There are challenges to the program. Ideally moms are identified early, before they give birth. But many women wont admit they are using drugs during pregnancy because they are afraid of losing custody of their babies.

Moms must also be with their babies around the clock during the babys hospitalization, and not every mom agrees. They are encouraged to have family members at the hospital, too.

The baby is not going to stop withdrawing when they leave the hospital, Grisham said.

Nesting room

Rangel and her son, Alexander Ainza, who was born June 24, were the first mother and baby to try out Banners new program. One of the reasons is that Rangel was committed to getting better and had family members willing to help.

The NICU staff helped Rangel enroll in Medicaid and stayed in contact with her before and after she gave birth.

Arizona Department of Health Services data shows a majority of the NAS babies costs are covered by Medicaid, a government insurance program for low-income people. The states Medicaid program is called AHCCCS, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

After Rangel gave birth, she and Alexander stayed in their own private nesting room. She left the hospital only to get her methadone doses.

Rangel and Alexanders total hospital stay was 11 days  half the national average.

Since Alexanders birth, three other moms have given birth through the Banner program. Each stayed in the hospital just five days.

Always high

Rangel, a Tucson native, was prescribed opioid painkillers for chronic back pain at a local clinic and then became dependent on them. She turned to smoking black tar heroin when she could no longer get a prescription. The heroin was cheaper than buying pills on the street, though at $40 per day it devastated her bank account.

She went through the savings shed been building since age 11 with jobs at a swap meet, fast-food restaurants, a nursing home and housecleaning.

I got hooked pretty quickly. I was always high, she said.

Banners old way of handling adverse NAS symptoms like crying and tremors was morphine or clonidine. The dose was determined by something called the Finnegan scoring system that assesses withdrawal.

Under the Finnegan scoring method it is not unusual for NAS babies to have eight doses of morphine per day. The protocol also calls for slowly weaning the babies off the morphine before they are discharged.

By comparison, Alexander received just three doses of morphine during his entire hospitalization, and the next three babies treated in the Banner program did not receive any doses at all. Thats because the new program calls for giving morphine as needed only if the baby cannot be soothed or calmed or consoled by the mom and the staff.

All four of the babies treated through the program have gone home with one or both parents under close supervision by the states Department of Child Safety, Grisham said.

Child custody

Hospital officials work with the Department of Child Safety, which enrolled Rangel and Alexander in its own program called SENSE  Substance Exposed Newborn Safe Environment. The program includes an intensive regimen of home visits and in-home parent education.

SENSE started in 2006 but has been active in Pima County for less than a year.

The aim of SENSE is keeping families together, said Sue Smith, the prevention administrator at DCS. Opioid-exposed newborns are at a heightened risk for child abuse and neglect, Smith said.

DCS officials dont have data on how many NAS babies are removed from their parents custody.

The agency does track the number of substance-exposed newborns reported to its child abuse hotline  it was 356 statewide in July, and 4,059 total in 2016. The agency does not track by specific substance, though that could change in the future, Smith said.

At the root of the SENSE program is engaging with parents, side-by-side, and carefully listening to what they have to say.

My philosophy is that if you walk in and your body language and tone of voice say you are judging them, they are going to shut down and not want to engage, said Theresa Lindberg, the behavioral health clinical director at Casa de los Ninos, a nonprofit for families in crisis and pilot contractor for the SENSE program in Pima County.

We are not saying drug use is OK. But we want them to know, We hear you, she said. We want them to improve and to do the things they need to do to be better and improve their family so that DCS doesnt have to be involved.

Emerging field

Treating NAS babies is an emerging field and there are different ways hospitals are handling it, said Pat Brown, director of the womens and childrens department at Tucson Medical Center, which is Tucsons largest hospital and also has the most births of any hospital in the city  about 5,300 per year.

Thirty-four NAS babies had been born at TMC this year as of Aug. 15.

TMC may use the Yale model at some point, though not right now, Brown said. For one thing, the hospital does not have any nesting rooms. She also noted that not all moms are willing to stay with their babies 24 hours per day.

Theres good and bad about it. The kids go cold turkey, Brown said of the Yale model. Once they are finished with their withdrawals they have the same outcome. What you really need to work on is the environment when they go home.

TMC has its own program to treat the NAS population. Since April 2016 the hospital has had a designated nursery area for NAS babies, where mothers and families can speak freely without fear of being judged, Brown said, adding that the NAS staff also take a no judgment approach.

And TMC has a partnership with CODAC Behavioral Health Services designed to help parents and their NAS babies stay together. The hospital is trying other therapies, too, including infant massage and aromatherapy, Brown said.

We are open to anything that would be helpful, Brown said.

State health department director Dr. Cara Christ says that with the new opioid data collection, the state may in time be able to identify trends and best practices to better treat NAS babies.

State officials are also looking for better ways to prevent women of childbearing age from using opioids.

Tremors

On a recent Tuesday, Rangel was at the home of Alexanders paternal grandmother, Margarita Ainza. DCS has told Rangel that she must be under 24-hour supervision of at least one approved family member. Rangel hopes to one day be able to have her baby without family supervision, but that will be up to DCS officials, she said.

Rangel was terrified when Alexander was born. He shook and cried, had sweats, terrible diarrhea and wouldnt eat.

Hes an innocent baby and he suffered because of me, she said recently.

I know I am not going to drop dirty. I am never going back to that.

For now Alexanders father is not involved in his life, though his family is helping Rangel. She sees herself completing the hours she needs to become a certified nursing assistant, and eventually working and taking care of Alexander on her own.

She still has work to do, and finds parenting both difficult and stressful. But so far she is staying in touch with Grisham and the other hospital staff, is responsive to parent education, her family has been diligent about helping, and shes been following the program.

Alexander is the only thing that made me change, she said. He saved me.
A Tucson police detective who resigned from the department last year failed to properly investigate dozens of child sexual and vulnerable-adult abuse cases, allowing dangerous suspects to walk free, newly released police documents show.

The Tucson Police Departments office of professional standards began investigating Lisa Lopez in April 2016 after her supervisor suspected Lopez engaged in serious investigative misconduct during a vulnerable-adult case, according to documents from the investigation into the detective.

A comprehensive review of Lopezs past cases revealed 36 cases were mishandled or lacked a full investigation, according to the report, obtained by the Star through an open-records request.

It became very clear that Lopez intentionally and consciously made the decision to not properly investigate cases where children and vulnerable adults were victimized, Lt. Eric Johnson wrote in his review of Lopezs case. She even admitted during an interview that she was aware one of the suspects in a case was still at large and was likely reoffending.

Ms. Lopez has no business having the authority and responsibility of a police officer, Johnson wrote in the report, dated Sept. 23, 2016.

The investigation was completed in September  weeks after Lopez resigned  with the departments chain of command deciding the 19-year veteran should be fired.

We take these matters extremely seriously, up to the point that we will even terminate employees that violate these policies and procedures, said Mike Silva, police chief of staff. Theres a series of measures of oversight that are in place, both from a process standpoint and supervisory standpoint, that are designed to identify these kinds of issues.

When issues are identified, there are serious ramifications, Silva said.

This is a situation where we have an investigator and its bad behavior, theres no getting around that, he said. What we have to do in all these circumstances is punish accordingly and discipline accordingly.

Silva said that while Lopezs situation was an egregious example, issues like these are extremely rare.

We really didnt have any choice but to terminate, he said.

No actual investigative steps

A review of the 30 vulnerable-adult and six child sexual assault cases showed Lopez violated general orders in nine categories a total of 72 times. The violations include untruthfulness; on-duty conduct; reporting requirements; authority of police officers; accuracy and timeliness; evidence handling; prohibited uses of property; code of ethics and department values; and obedience to general orders.

Lopez, who was a detective for 12 years, failed in multiple cases to record interviews with either victims, suspects or witnesses, and, in some cases, Lopez never conducted the interviews.

When there were recorded interviews, many times Lopez never placed the interviews into the case file, the report said. Investigators also found that in several cases, Lopez never entered any evidence into the system and in one case destroyed evidence that she didnt think was of value.

It was even noted that Lopez appeared to take no actual investigative steps in some of her cases.

Lopezs complete lack of conscience and sympathy toward the most vulnerable people in Tucson is unforgivable, Johnson wrote in his review.

Her refusal to utilize basic investigative procedures all but guaranteed victims were likely to be further victimized, and very dangerous suspects were allowed to walk free and make this community a less-safe place to live, Johnson wrote.

In one instance, Lopez took numerous missteps in a case involving the alleged molestation of a 5-year-old girl by her mothers boyfriend, according to TPD documents.

In April 2012, the childs mother called police to say she saw her boyfriend inside of her daughters bedroom playing, and shortly after, the girl disclosed that the boyfriend had been molesting her every night.

Lopez was contacted by officers the night the report was made but didnt respond to the scene, saying shed be out the next morning, TPD documents show.

When officers told Lopez there could be physical evidence in the victims bedroom, Lopez told the officers to tell the childs mother to leave the bedroom as is and not touch anything.

The officer contacted a sergeant to express concern over not collecting the evidence and was told to take photographs and collect the items. At no time did Lopez submit any evidence in the case for forensic examination.

When confronted by investigators about why she didnt respond to the scene the night the report was made, Lopez took a long pause and then stated that she did not really remember the conversation because it was early in the morning, the report said, adding that records show that officers arrived on scene shortly after 7:30 p.m.

When pressed on the issue, Lopez said, All I can tell you is that I made the decision I made.

She told investigators she never submitted evidence for forensic testing because the Pima County Attorneys Office never asked her to.

The night the report was made, officers also identified a second possible victim and reported this to Lopez, who said she would interview the 10-year-old child later. Investigators were unable to locate any documentation to show she ever spoke to the second victim. When investigators contacted the mother of the 10-year-old victim, they were told that Lopez contacted her a year after the incident was reported to police.

Although Lopez obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect, she failed to have it properly recorded with the Pima County Sheriffs Department and it was never entered into state and federal law enforcement databases. The report also shows that Lopez made no attempts to apprehend the suspect.

As a result of the arrest warrant not being properly recorded, the suspect has not been apprehended for this offense for over four years, leaving him free to potentially victimize additional children, according to the report.

Lopez told investigators she thought she had enlisted the U.S. Marshals Service help to track down the suspect, but when she was told the warrant was never entered, she acknowledged that she couldnt have asked for the marshals assistance.

Lopez said not having the warrant recorded was unintentional, the report said.

At the completion of the office of professional standards investigation, the case was turned over to a sergeant in the child abuse unit and an arrest warrant was issued last year.

Its unclear if the suspect has been apprehended, as his name was not listed in the report.

Two years later, Lopez was assigned to investigate another case involving the younger victim, but it was unclear from the report if the girl was talking about the 2012 case or a new incident. The victims mother told police her daughter had been spending time with a male neighbor and she had found them in bed together, after which she disallowed contact between the two.

Lopez didnt conduct any interviews in the case, telling investigators she relied on the Department of Child Safetys investigation to determine that there wasnt a new incident, but never got a copy of the report or even the caseworkers name.

During the nine months she had the case open, Lopez said she did nothing more than try to contact the mother and speak with DCS.

She admitted she did nothing to identify the suspect and agreed in the interview that it would be easy for someone looking at her investigation to conclude that she did nothing to further the investigation, the report said.

The Star could not locate Lopez for comment.

A series of faulty investigations

Other flawed investigations, according to TPD investigators, include:

In 2015, Lopez was assigned the case of a 73-year-old group home resident who reported being tied down and beaten with a horse whip, but investigators were unable to locate any recorded interviews or even a case file for the investigation.

In 2016, Lopez was assigned the case of a 20-year-old man in a wheelchair whose school nurse observed what she thought were signs of a sexually transmitted disease. Lopez went to the hospital, but didnt interview the victims brother who was possibly a suspect or at least a witness in the case. Investigators located a recorded interview with the victim, but at no point does Lopez ask the victim any questions. Investigators determined Lopez did not investigate the potential sexual abuse.

In 2014, Lopez was assigned to investigate the attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl by a 17-year-old boy who was a resident at the girls group home. Although there is documentation that a Child Advocacy Center interview with the victim was conducted, Lopez never entered the interview into evidence and the case was closed due to the missing interview.

In 2015, a young woman told police she had been raped by her 20-year-old boyfriend when she was 15, and had a child as a result. Lopez conducted no interviews, despite previous cases from 2013 and 2014 in which information was previously reported about the suspect getting the victim pregnant. Her supplemental statement says there was no physical evidence of assault despite the fact that there was a child conceived from the alleged assault, the report says.

In 2013, a 15-year-old girl called 911, saying her father attempted to rape her, with a portion of the attempted assault captured on the 911 recording. Lopez documented in her report that she attempted to contact the father, but he was uncooperative. She wrote that she will be issuing a warrant for the mans arrest. Investigators said while it appeared Lopez obtained the warrant, she never had it officially recorded in Pima County Justice Court. Two years later, Oklahoma Child Protective Services contacted authorities in Tucson regarding an 8-year-old boy who said he was sexually abused by his father when he lived in Arizona. The father was identified as the same suspect in the previous case.

In additions to concerns about Lopezs work, investigators discovered she wasnt following orders about when and where she was supposed to report for duty. Lopez had been primarily working from the Arizona Attorney Generals Office but was ordered by her supervisor to work from TPD headquarters instead.

Concerns arose as to whether Detective Lopez was in fact working her scheduled 40 hours per week and what location she was working from, the report said.

Police investigators tracked Lopezs key card and login use at the Attorney Generals Office from Feb. 1 through April 22 and found six workdays showing no activity for Lopez, likely indicating that she was not in fact at work on those scheduled days, the report said.

The documents state that while her performance was not a direct result of failures by her supervisors, there were several issues that contributed to the situation. Those included that she did not work in close proximity to her supervisors, that her supervisors did not have direct knowledge of what Lopez was investigating, and that Lopez was afforded the autonomy to conduct investigation with minimal supervision.
 Flash

People hold signs reading "We are not afraid" in a demonstration against terrorism in Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Lino De Vallier)

Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Saturday against terrorism under the motto "No tinc por" (I am not afraid), after the attacks in Spain that killed 15 people and injured more than 100 others.

Placards of "I am not afraid", "We want peace, not arm sales", "The best answer is peace", "Their wars, our death" were showed by more than 500,000 people through the streets of Barcelona, according to local police.

The demonstration started at 6:00 p.m. local time (1600 GTM) at Jardinets de Gracia, was planned to go through the famous street Passeig de Gracia and finish at Placa Catalunya, the square just before the Ramblas, the iconic street where the first attack took place in which a van killed 13 people and injured over 100.

At Placa Catalunya, Catalan actress Rosa Maria Sarda and Miriam Hatibi, spokeswoman for Ibn Battuta foundation, made a joint speech. They said they were proud of the rapid response of emergency services and citizens that show solidarity, adding that love wins above hate.

"We are millions of people refusing violence and defending coexistence in Manchester and in Nairobi, in Paris and in Bagdad, in Brussels and New York, in Berlin and in Kabul", Sarda said.

In Ripoll where the 12-people cell behind the attacks were allegedly formed, a demonstration against terrorism was also held at the same time as in Barcelona. Hafida Oukabir, sister of Moussa Oukabir (one of the five men shot dead after stabbing pedestrians in Cambrils) and Driss Oukabir (arrested) made an emotional speech, saying that "we have to work together so that this will not happen again", adding that "we have to be self-critical and change many things".

On Friday, another demonstration was also held in Cambrils where a woman was killed and five people were injured, with the participation of more than 16,000 people, according to local police.

Barcelona's demonstration was led by members of the civil society, emergency and health services, regional and national police as well as people who helped those affected by the attacks. They were followed by the families' victims.

Spanish King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, as well as Catalan authorities such as the president of the regional government Carles Puigdemont, were also attending the demonstration.
A yellow Labrador retriever puppy is the newest member of the Pima County Sheriffs Department and will be deputized as its first therapy dog.

The 4-month-old pooch  who still has no name  will be assigned to the Mental Health Support Team unit to team up with Detective Shawn Degan.

Meanwhile, the sheriff's department is taking nominations to name the puppy. Submissions can be left on the department's Facebook page under the "Name Our Dog" post in comments. Nominations will be accepted until 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3.

The winning name will be revealed on the department's Facebook page soon after the contest, and the person who made the nomination will get to meet the puppy and receive some items.

Before the pup begins his duty, he must go through obedience school. He will begin classes in mid-October, which will be followed by more rigorous training, including how to enter buildings, said Sgt. Jill Isely, supervisor of the Mental Health Support Team unit.

The dog will then be trained as a therapy animal, and learn how to be a first responder to crime scenes. The training will take about a year. In the meantime, he will accompany Degan to work and get used to activity and being around people. He will get a feel for the job, but will not be deployed as a crisis response canine until he is ready, Isely said.

That should be by next April when he will respond with his partner Degan to scenes including shootings, crashes, fires and calls to mental health crisis situations. The dogs job is to help people who have experienced traumatic events calm down, said Isely.

A therapy dog can help in circumstances where vulnerable victims or witnesses are having a difficult time opening up or coping with tragedy. The dog can provide comfort, distraction and even a measure of relief at incidents involving injury or loss, Isely said.

If we determine the situation is appropriate, the dog will be brought out and victims, including witnesses, can pet the dog, sit with the dog and even throw a ball to the dog. We want to help them relax, said Isely, adding that the dog will interact with children, teens and adults.

A therapy dog can also comfort first responders at traumatic events. Studies have shown therapy dogs can bond with a person in a crisis and that interaction physically brings down the heart rate and blood pressure, said Isely, who learned about the critical work a therapy dog can do by researching the Scottsdale Police Department. Scottsdale police have worked for nine years with Fozzie, a golden retriever, who is a crisis response canine.

The Glendale Fire Department also works with a therapy dog, named Topaz. Isely said the use of therapy dogs in law enforcement is not common in the United States. I believe the use of these dogs is an untapped resource. We will start our program and then see how successful it is before we branch out, Isely said. She mentioned that therapy dogs are popular among the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Isely wrote a proposal for the Sheriffs Department to acquire a therapy dog, and Cenpatico Integrated Care, a behavioral and physical health-care provider in Southern Arizona, awarded a $10,000 grant in July for the crisis response canine program.

The puppy cost $1,000 and the grant will support the program, which includes the dogs training, veterinarian costs, kennels, and daily care and food for the first year, said Isely. The first-year expenses are the most, and then the dog will be fairly inexpensive to support, she said, adding that the department will pick up the costs, or she will apply for more grants.

This is the first time we have supported a crisis response dog program, said Greg Taylor, regional vice president of community affairs for Cenpatico Integrated Care.

The use of an animal helps people work through trauma and get back to their regular lives, said Taylor. This is a pretty progressive program that more first-responders are looking at to help people recover from trauma.
Ginny Roberts

My daughter Susans obituary appeared in these very pages before her July 1 memorial service. She died tragically from a stroke, struck down in her very prime.

We went to our non-denominational church for help in setting up her memorial. Susans cousin Nanette is an ordained Methodist minister with one of the biggest churches in Kansas City. Susan and Nanette both received their doctorates at the same time several years ago and were very close. Nanette wanted to do the memorial and Susan would have wanted her to.

We planned our memorial for Susan with one of the pastors on a Saturday, and he had full knowledge that we wanted our niece to share the service with him. Our church, however, had different ideas. We found out via late-night email that there was a problem with Susans service. No one from the church approached us in person or called us. The problem was that since the Rev. Dr. Nanette Roberts is female, she was not permitted to participate in the service to any great degree. The reason? Women are not allowed to speak to the men who would be there in the audience. Someone in the church made this decision based on some scripture found in Pauls writings. The Elders would not engage in a discussion with our grieving family.

So we took our case down the street to a loving church that welcomed us with open arms. Susan had a beautiful service, with the Rev. Dr. Nanette speaking eloquently about Susan and her contributions to her profession as a nurse with a doctorate.

For years we supported and loved our church, assuming they would minister to us in our time of need. So now we grieve losing this church along with losing a daughter. What happened to us was not right, and we can never go back there.

We have forgiven our church since to do so is in our best interests and we do not want to hold grudges or be bitter.

Thank heaven we had lots of love and support from friends and family and many within the church, who showered us with hugs and prayer and food. We had over 160 present at her memorial.

For those of us who believe that a church should support its people and provide safety and comfort in time of need, it is devastating to find out that isnt always the case. A church should not set itself up as judge or jury when its congregants need hospital visits, material assistance or funerals. Jesus set the church up to be a place of refuge and safety in a time of grief and loss. My comment to one of the elders, What would Jesus do? was met with stony silence. One of my Catholic friends quipped, Did you ask them what Pope Francis would do?

My good friend Gary had a similar situation when his brother died of AIDS. When Gary approached his pastor to perform the funeral, he was told that the church could not do that because Garys brother was gay. So Garys church judged a dead person and failed his family in their time of need.

Once a loved one has passed, is not the time to judge her or him, it is time to comfort the friends and family left behind. My daughter Susan was felled by a vicious blood clot. Once she is gone, we are left to deal as best we can with her loss. Our churchs job is to nurture and comfort us in her loss, not to judge our choice of pastors to preside over her memorial.

They say church attendance is declining; perhaps the failure to properly nurture and care for suffering people is one reason why. We gave our presence, our hearts and our money to our church for over 40 years. We are crushed by their refusal to honor our requests at our time of greatest need. We will find a new place to worship, our faith is stronger than ever, and it will be a church that will honor and take care of its people.

They tell us that Susans endowment through the TMC Foundation is growing. It will provide state-of-the-art care for high-risk pregnant mothers and their babies. I do not see our church listed as donors to her endowment.
It could be said that I started as an accidental activist.

While on a pilgrimage in Spain in 2015 down the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), my close friend and I decided our next adventure would be to attend the next presidential inauguration. Back then, no one had officially declared candidacy. A few days after deciding, a Canadian we met on the trail told us that Donald Trump was running.

We laughed long and loud. Our new friend had a wicked sense of humor, we thought.

As time went on, inauguration plans were made, dates selected, airplane tickets purchased and lodging reserved. Excitement ensued. Just imagine, we were going to witness history in the making  the first female president of the United States of America. Yes, just imagine. Just imagine our stunned shock, along with the majority of the voters, at the incomprehensible outcome.

We contemplated canceling our plans. We felt as if we had been ambushed and were deeply wounded.

A wise man, my father, stepped up and reminded us this inauguration was not about whether the outcome had gone our way. He said we had our plans in place and it was our duty to fulfill them. Whether we had won or lost was not the point. Senses dulled, we kept our plans in place.

Dismayed as we were at attending the inauguration, it meant we were going to be in Washington, D.C., for this little-known event being advertised as The Womens March. Whisperings of the march began to rumble, pick up steam and surge into a full-blown movement. A movement which recognized our concerns, elevated our spirits and paved a path for action.

The Womens March was salve for my soul and the start of my accidental activism.

The movement continues to provide. As devastating as Trumps election has been  with his hate-filled rhetoric, total incompetence, poisonous bullying, shameless narcissism and his lack of regard for facts, honesty or truthfulness  his election has reminded me of the importance of showing up and speaking out.

The results of my activism may not be fun or fair. But my part, however small, matters.

We must be foot soldiers  pain-in-the-butt soldiers, at least  who write letters, send emails and texts, make calls and show up in person to let our representatives and senators know that Trump and his evil policies are unacceptable and dangerous. In the midst of all the noise we must keep standing up, standing tall and standing strong while we keep pushing our county into the light.

Donald Trumps election had a strengthening effect on how I live my life. Civic engagement is a regular and ongoing part of my life now.

By attending the Womens March in D.C., joining a political Huddle group, regularly contacting senators and representatives, involvement in various activist groups and participating in marches and rallies, I have become a part of a powerful movement. A movement that works toward justice and embraces compassion, inclusivity and kindness. A movement that transports me from fearful to fearless.
A U.S. District Court judge has made official what TUSD Mexican American Studies supporters have known for years: Tom Horne and John Huppenthal were motivated to destroy the successful academic program for two reasons: racial discrimination against Latinos and their own political glorification.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima writes: Having thus ruled out any pedagogical motivation, the Court is convinced that decisions regarding the MAS program were motivated by a desire to advance a political agenda by capitalizing on race-based fears.

Reading the saga laid out in the courts decision memo, the examples of racial disregard for Mexican Americans are repeated and clear. There is a Keystone Cops quality to Horne and Huppenthals bureaucratic contortions. But theres nothing funny to redeem them in the end.

Hornes crusade began in 2006. He was then the state superintendent (and later the state attorney general) and he was offended by what he thought was rude behavior of some high school students.

Horne was offended that labor activist Dolores Huerta said Republicans hate Latinos at a Tucson High School assembly.

Horne, a Republican, called it hate speech and sent his deputy to make a speech in response. Some students refused to attend, some taped their mouths closed, some turned their backs.

Free speech. In a high school, of all places. The nerve.

At the event Horne saw a school librarian wearing a T-shirt with M.E.Ch.A  which is the Spanish acronym for Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan  a community organizing group. He looked it up and decided it was subversive.

Just think, if that school librarian had been wearing a Nike Just Do It T-shirt instead, maybe Arizona schools would have ended up with medically accurate sex ed classes.

The fight to kill MAS was a political gambit from the get-go. Both men used it as a badge of honor in their campaigns, describing their war and crusades against the subversive anti-American La Raza forces invading our schools. Huppenthal testified that the term Raza became shorthand for ... communicating with Republican primary voters.

Long story short, Horne and Huppenthal, also a Republican, got a law passed, which included prohibiting classes designed for particular ethnic groups, and then decided that TUSD had been violating it.

In the end, TUSD eliminated its MAS program and has replaced it with culturally relevant course material. It was that, or lose millions as punishment.

Horne and Huppenthal were found to have violated the plaintiffs 14th and First Amendment rights.

They violated far more than that. Horne and Huppenthal stole from students, particularly Latino students, the knowledge and belief that they belong, that their families experiences are the American story, that our history is just that  our history.

There isnt enough space here to recount all the ways Horne and Huppenthal manipulated their elected offices for their own ends.

Huppenthal was caught, while state superintendent, posting anonymously on a blog likening MAS classes to Hitlers rise, ranting against the use of Spanish, and posting I dont mind them selling Mexican food as long as the menus are mostly in English.

How can any student or family, no matter their background, have faith in the system when that trash is coming from the top?

This travesty boils down to two heart-breaking and infuriating lines from the court memo, on page 38:

Horne himself admitted that he did not enforce the statute against the Asian-American studies program in Tucson because he was told that it was academically an excellent program. Although Horne and Huppenthal were told that the MAS program was academically excellent, they refused to believe it.
The self-made man or woman  the one who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and achieved success through their effort alone  is a powerful myth. But anyone who has attained any measure of success can tell you that no one gets to where they are alone.

We are who we are thanks to the people who took the time to help us along the way. For many of us this begins with our parents, but it can be a sibling, a friend, a teacher, an employer.

Someone who helped us put on the boots, pointed out the straps and cheered us on as we worked our way up.

Now, imagine your life without them and you realize why mentoring is so important.

Imagine a young person growing up without a mentor and you realize why you should volunteer.

As reported in the Star last week in a series of articles by Johanna Willett, its easier than ever to find a mentoring opportunity in Tucson thanks to an initiative by Mayor Jonathan Rothschild.

Of special note in the effort is the call for African-American and Hispanic men.

While there is a general shortage of mentors, there is an even larger dearth of men of color partnering with mentoring organizations.

Along with a campaign to raise awareness, the mayors office has put together a list of 10 groups that match youth with mentors at mayorrothschild.com/mentor.

The time commitment required by each organization varies, but even if you only can spare a couple of hours a week, there are young girls and boys who can benefit from your attention.

When many of us think of mentoring, we flash to the Big Brothers Big Sisters model, where an adult spends two to three hours together with a child, two to three times a month.

If this is something you can do, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson needs your help.

The group has a waiting list of about 140 children and youth, boys and girls, who are awaiting matches.

There are also other groups that involve individual mentoring. These include Arizonas Children Association, which helps young adults who are aging out of the foster care system become self-sufficient; Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson offers homework help after school; Goodguides Youth Mentoring helps at-risk youth ages 12 through 17; and Youth on Their Own, which helps homeless teens.

If someone is better suited to a group setting, organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Boys to Men Tucson Mentoring, the Girl Scouts, and Leadership Institute Mentoring, offer different opportunities to volunteer.

Mentoring makes sense economically  Tucson youth who drop out or neither work or go to school represent a lifetime loss of billions to the economy at large  but all those billions are an abstraction that pales next to the positive impact you can have on a single life.

You can make our community a better place by mentoring.

You can make a difference by just showing up.
I dont have a charitable bone in my body. I breeze past the Western backpackers begging in the streets for their next bus fare without a glance. Ignoring the desperate pleas for help from lost English teachers and the moans of starving yoga teachers has become a pastime. Youll never see the inside of my wallet even if youre selling honey or sugarcane.

Yet I do have the occasional quiver of compassion for those less fortunate than myself and in a fit of insanity I will display some generosity. Recently having supported the fabulous work of SwimVietnam and the extraordinary work of the Kianh Foundation in the central region of Vietnam with small donations, I was struck by just how difficult it is to get some things to happen.

SwimVietnam, by the way, teaches local youngsters swimming and water survival skills as well as providing Vietnamese with teaching instructions meeting international standards. The Kianh foundation assists young people with handicaps and disabilities in developing both educationally and socially so they can lead more interactive and fulfilling lives.

Helping the disadvantaged is not just about raising money  what do you do beyond that point? Theres the need for office space, organizing and training staff and volunteers, managing budgets, specialized equipment to get, negotiating with local and national authorities, laws to comply with and after all that meeting the needs of your target group.

Yeah, we know all that, Stivi! Whats your point?

Ok, ok We know it takes money and organization but theres more to it than that; two things  knowledge and information. For charities and non-government organizations (NGOs) these two are critical. Its become a lot more than soup kitchens and a roof over your head these days. Theres the input of engineers, builders, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, doctors and dozens of other participants.

But the hardest part, in my opinion, after meeting some of the people involved, is getting some things to happen. How do you get swimming training aids for the kids like floating equipment and specialized medical stuff that cant be found in Vietnam or are only produced overseas? How do you ship over to Vietnam donated laptops? Yes, you could probably use FEDEX but NGOs need to save money, remember?

In the case of one kid who is deaf and blind, theres the question of locating and supplying a Vietnamese Braille teacher and Braille school books. Ive been looking into the subject for a while and not having much luck due to my inability to use Vietnamese well enough to explain what I want and also to find the organizations that might be able to help.

Fortunately the great thing in Vietnam is theres some Vietnamese person who wants to help and so were now trying to track down answers.

Another situation arose when someone from SwimVietnam was trying to get information and ideas for designing activities for children with learning difficulties in the pool. There are not a lot of those kinds of training manuals around the place!

Small issues, youd think but which can make a big difference. And thats where all of us come into the picture

Im sure theres someone reading this now who knows a guy who knows a girl who works somewhere whose second sisters cousin just happens to know how to do, make, get, obtain, buy, train, teach or fix the problem! See? Its not always about the money. You can do a lot more than you think!

Some of these things seem easy to solve but keep in mind that a lot of work is also done outside the major cities of Vietnam where access to specialized skills and equipment is harder to obtain. Next time youre at a charity event its worth asking the organizers about their situation and is there anything special they need?

By the way, if you do have an idea or suggestion about any of the problems Ive mentioned in this article, you can contact SwimVietnam or the Kianh foundation (or your favorite charity) via Facebook.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
ABC has dominated the Television wins at Queenslands Clarion Awards.

7:30, Australian Story and Landline were amongst ABC wins .

Sevens Murder Uncovered won Television Feature Documentary for its investigation into the 1991 killing of 12-year-old Leanne Holland. Executive Producer, Mark Llewellyn said: This award is recognition of trust-driven, tenacious journalism at its best. It was a significant scoop and remains the most definitive piece on the Holland investigation produced.

The awards, administered by the MEAA, were held on Saturday at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre.

All Media  Indigenous Issues Reporting

Michael Atkin: ABC TVs 7.30 Program: Rough justice: The Treatment of Young Indigenous Offenders in North QLD

All Media  Multicultural Queensland Award

Kristine Taylor, Roger Carter, Greg Hassall: ABC TVs Australian Story: Australian Story: A Field of Dreams

All Media  Rural Journalism

Dominique Schwartz: ABC TVs 7pm News: Death Row Dingos

All Media  Social Issues Reporting

Kirstin Murray, Roger Carter: ABC TVs Australian Story: Tough Love

All Media  Investigative Journalism

Michael Atkin: ABC TVs 7.30 Program, ABC News Online: Investigating the Rise and Fall of Careers Australia

Print/Text  News Report

Mark Willacy, Alexandra Blucher: ABC News Online: Environment Series

Regional & Community  Broadcast Report

Ben Millington: ABC TVs Landline and AM Current Affairs Radio: Inside Cleveland Youth Detention

Television  Current Affairs, Feature Documentary

Paula Doneman, Michael Usher, Duncan McNab, Stephen Peters, Mark Llewellyn: Channel Seven: Murder Uncovered  Who killed Leanne Holland?

Television  The John Bean Award for News and Current Affairs Camerawork

Scott Kyle: ABC TVs 7.30 Program: Quinkan Country

Television News Report

Nine News Team: Nine Network: Cyclone Debbie
House Husbands cast member Rhys Muldoon is convinced the series is not returning for a sixth season.

They are doing that thing where they go we are not saying yes but we are not saying no; that means no, he told News Corp last week.

Weve done five seasons. Were not coming back; lets just say it.

Another cast member has told me, chances of a return indeed looked slim. In March Firass Dirani publicly stated he too was ready to move on.

If they want to do six seasons, Im happy to close that book, he said.

Muldoon will appear in 2018 SBS drama Dead Lucky, which is created by House Husbands-own Ellie Beaumont & Drew Proffitt through Subtext Pictures.

Meanwhile a key cast member of Love Child recently told me they were yet to be locked down for any 5th season by Nine. The shows period costs will be a consideration.

Sony-owned Playmaker Media, which produces both dramas, has a new series on the way according to Create NSW funding, which is yet to be revealed, while the upcoming Easybeats miniseries is due on ABC later this year.

Nines Upfronts are due in October where it will formalise its upcoming and returning dramas.
I wonder if you would mind having a look at justice through a different perspective? To do this I will have to introduce two unpleasant examples of humanity so brace yourselves.

Law perhaps but not justice

First and by all means least we have Mr Clinton Barnes 34 from Tyne and Wear. This lively fellow likes nothing more than a spot of capering around, especially when he is drunk which according to all sources is almost always. Barnes was just passing a house fire with the fire service in attendance, you know, busy trying to save lives. He wanted to sample the insides of the engine and a smaller response vehicle.

When the beastly fire people asked him to leave he took umbrage. He managed to break one fire fighter's nose and punched and head-butted others. Was he jailed for these actions? No of course not, Suspended Sentence and a fine that will probably never be paid. He is an alcoholic his legal counsel informed the court, with mental health issues. I bet that soothed the families of the injured heroes.

People could have been killed for all this imbecile knew or cared. The fire fighters were searching the house believing people could have been trapped. Leaving that aside, three people who went out to do a dangerous job were left injured, one with a broken nose, without the least need. Those people could have been your family and they were serving us all.

And as we all know Mr Barnes is just one of the many hundreds of people who appear on shows like Caught on Camera, or Police Interceptors, or 999 What's Your Emergency? They cause chaos and harm, cost millions of pounds of emergency services money and at the end get a warning or a suspended sentence.

The next loathsome character

Now comes the second and more loathsome character. Nadeem Muhammed 43, smuggled a pipe bomb onto a plane flying from Manchester to Italy. A Pakistani man with an Italian passport he had tried to do a similar thing on a previous occasion, been caught and released because the flawed view of security was that first bomb was not viable.

The judge said this was completely incorrect and at least one of the bombs contained nitro-glycerine and nitrocellulose. The authorities tell us he will be imprisoned for 18 years but this is deliberately misleading, an attempt to make us believe appropriate justice is being applied. The man will be in prison for between 9 and 18 years and in these type of cases, the full term is rarely served.

Remember what this wretch tried to do. If a plane blows up at 38 thousand feet it depressurises instantly. Many people can't survive to get the oxygen mask on. Those who can have a terrifying few minutes of plunging hell before catastrophic impact with something hard. Men, women, children. Hindu, Jew, Muslim.

All slaughtered because of this cur. So what happens? He's had two chances, he goes to prison for nine years, fumes and if he is a zealot as seems most likely, recruits more vicious idiots to his way of thinking. Then he gets out and has a chance to repeat his actions. And like Barnes we know that there are many more of this type in prison presently, awaiting release. The shoe bomber to name but one.

Do you really think it's right that we should supply about ten thousand meals to Muhammed and then let him go, hoping he no longer wants to murder us? Really? Well, that's democracy I suppose (although someone should mention to the Liberals, who are suddenly keen for more referendums, that the public has not been asked the question about the death penalty for such a long time).

A new system of justice. Introducing Lord Cable-Clegg

What about a new system, where the people choosing to liberate these lunatics have to take real responsibility for their decision? Let's make up a character to illustrate this idea; Lord Cable-Clegg. This worthy knows a thing or two about justice. Two things actually; 1) No one is ever responsible for anything they do and 2) Prison is not about punishment. Cable-Clegg has two children and a wife and has been responsible for a review where he freed two villains, similar to the ones spoken of above well before he had to. A short while later this scenario plays out:

"Lord Cable- Clegg, bad news sir. That yob you released early, he's just head-butted a young girl, broke her nose badly.

Sorry sir but we will have to take Kirsty, your youngest daughter to the hospital and break her nose with a hammer, dear, dear. Take hold of her bailiff."

"But hold on!" pleads Cable-Clegg.

"Can't, sorry sir, but that's not the worst of it. The other villain you let go has just gone berserk on a ferry. Killed three people with a razor sharp machete. Have to take you the Mrs and your oldest daughter to the walled court yard at the back and shoot the lot of you! Bailiff, take them in charge. Very sorry Lord Cable Clegg, accountability and all you know."

Only an illustration of course, and it would be far from perfect, no sane person would take responsibility for releasing anyone. But the fact is people in authority are releasing dangerous people when they should not be free.

Other people are suffering in just the way the fictional Cable Clegg's family suffered. There are costs, often catastrophic ones to absolving people from consequences. Leniency should be applied sparingly and not endanger the innocent and vulnerable. I don't know what you think but I believe if the scenario we have just looked at was in play, far fewer dangerous lunatics would be released back into society.

And that would be a great thing!
Labour it seems has been doing some thinking about its relationship with the European Union post-2019. If Labour wins the next general election or somehow manages to form the government before 2019, Sir Keir Starmer has been outlining these policy changes.

Though leaving the political union Starmer has stated that a Labour government would want to stay in the single market and the Customs Union. He also said any future Labour government would renegotiate a new customs union and a single market.

Jeremy Corbyn however as leader seems to be a little more cautious than his Shadow Brexit Secretary not endorsing 100% what Starmer said.

Corbyn said these musings from Starmer were exactly that musings and nothing more. Labour he said had made no such commitments as yet however many in Labour do support a continuation of the single market and customs union when the UK leaves the EU.

Together with a rump of Tories who also support this any Conservative move for the UK to leave the customs union and single market would prove difficult when putting to the vote.

Chuka Umunna's take on policy shift

Chuka Umunna has stated that Labour's talk of a change of policy when it comes to the customs union and single market is indeed a change in direction. Umunna described as a British Obama is seen as a possible Labour leader and a man who would continue Blairism.

Umunna has been a cabinet minister when Labour was in power and for him to say something like this he must sense something going on in the rank and file of the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party). The right wing of the Labour party though in retreat has not gone away and will be ready to make a comeback should Corbyn fail for whatever reason.

Umunna would no doubt be one of the right's candidates, but then again perhaps Starmer would be a nominee too.

Rumours of Theresa May stepping down

According to an article in the Daily Mail, there are rumours afoot that once Theresa May has seen us through leaving the EU she will quit. The date will be August 30 but Downing Street has been pouring cold water on these rumours saying they are just "peak silly season" speculation.

May has been launching a charm offensive to get the public on side again and stave off any leadership challenge. It has been said however that it is unlikely that Theresa May will lead the Tories into another general election.

One Tory MP did indeed confirm this saying Theresa May will step down in September 2019.
Steven Wilson doesn't look like your average music megastar, nor does he act like it, and chances are you have never heard of him. However, the 49-year-old, who The Telegraph described as "The most successful British musician that most people have never heard of" has this week scored a UK number three album with his fifth solo album, To the Bone. Even more impressively, on the midweek charts, To the Bone was at number one and was only knocked down to Friday's number three position by music giant Ed Sheeran with his hugely successful third album Divide and Elvis Presley's The 50 Greatest Hits, the sales of which have sky-rocketed in the 40th anniversary of his death.

Steven Wilson, 'the king of prog rock'

In 2015, following the release of his previous album Hand. Cannot. Erase. Steven Wilson won three awards at the Progressive Rock Awards in London and was crowned "the king of prog rock". Even more impressively, Wilson has also received four nominations for the Grammy Awards: twice with the band Porcupine Tree, whom Wilson fronted from 1987 to 2010; once with his collaborative project Storm Collective and once as a solo artist. Additionally, he has worked with artists such as King Crimson; Yes; Marillion; Jethro Tull; XTC; Tears for Fears and Roxy Music.

Steven Wilson began recording To the Bone in December 2016. Having parted company with most of the members of the solo band he had used on Hand.

Cannot. Erase., Wilson played many of the instruments on To the Bone himself while enlisting the services of drummers Craig Blundell and Jeremy Stacey, who has previously drummed with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. The album also features two songs written by XTC's Andy Partridge, To the Bone and Nowhere Now.

While Steven Wilson's crowning as the "king of prog rock" has gained him a cult following, it has also pigeonholed him into a genre that is often associated with beard-stroking middle-aged men, ten-minute keyboard solos, science fiction themed albums and over-blown stadium extravaganzas.

However, while To the Bone does feature elements of the prog rock genre, it is, for the most part, much more reminiscent of the sophisticated pop sounds found on Tears for Fears' 1989 album Sowing the Seeds of Love and Talk Talk's 1986 album The Colour of Spring. Take, for example, the album's lead single, Permeating, which was inspired by ELO and ABBA.

So massive is 'Permeating's step away from the sound that Wilson is associated with that it has even managed to upset some of his fans for not being prog enough. One fan, a Spanish journalist, felt so incensed by the single, that he booked an interview with Wilson and flew to the UK to tell him that his new music was "shit".

A number three album, sell out shows at the Royal Albert Hall and still invisible in the mainstream

Whilst promoting To the Bone, the prog rock's underground hero told The Guardian, "I'm invisible in the mainstream, I can do two nights at the Royal Albert Hall and nobody notices except my fans". Selling out two shows at the Royal Albert Hall is a far cry from the days when Steven Wilson played to four people in a pub in Carlisle. This week, he told BBC Breakfast News, "It was a Tuesday night, it was raining and there were four people ... I think it is called paying your dues and I have certainly paid my dues".
An American Freelance Journalist who has been identified as Christoper Allen has been killed in South Sudan amid heavy fighting between government forces and rebels, according to Reuters.

Allen was among 19 others who have lost their lives in the battle that took place in the Yei River state. South Sudan has been in turmoil since 2013 with President Salva Kiir's government troops fighting against rebel leader Riek Machar's militia.

Santo Domic Chol, a military spokesperson, said sixteen bodies were found on the ground, among whom was Allen. Chol also added that three government soldiers have also been killed.

Allen was learning about the rebels

It was the rebels who identified Allen's body, claiming that the U.S. citizen had been with them for a week, learning about their lives and their cause, in order to publicise their story to the world.

One particular rebel who requested not to be named has claimed that Allen had been in the middle of the fighting wearing a PRESS jacket. "We are sad for his family. He came here to tell our story," he said.

Chol added that the fighting ensued when the rebel forces attacked an army base in Kaya. They were driven away after an hour-long battle.

South Sudan's civil war

South Sudan descended into Civil War when President Kiir sacked Machar, according to Eye Witness News.

The rebel leader acted as the first Vice President of South Sudan following the tiny nation's independence in 2011. In February 2013, he publicly admitted his ambition to challenge Kiir for the presidency. By July that year, Machar and the entire cabinet were fired by Kiir, which Machar described as a move of a dictator.

This consequently broke into all out war between Kiir's government and Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-In-Opposition, an anti-government rebel group.

As a result of this, more than four million people had to evacuate their homelands. Uganda currently harbours more than a million South Sudanese refugees while neighbours Ethiopia host around 333,000.

This is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world at the moment as hopes for peace in the tiny oil rich but indigent country appear slim in the foreseeable future.

A peace accord was signed in 2015 and Machar returned to the capital to share power with Kiir. But unfortunately, the wheels came off that deal less than three months later, and Machar had to flee the city with his rebels.

The United States government is yet to make a statement on Allen's death.
brain computers are entirely a new invention that Elon Musk is working to bring into a reality. Brain computing is based on the assumption that the human brain, which is a reservoir of neural cells or nerve cells, can transfer information through neurons (electrical transmission) to the computers. The easiest way to understand this concept is to consider the method with which the world-renowned British astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, talks to his students and audience by using a Speech Synthesizer connected to his computer. Elon Musk's brain computers, on the other hand, should be able to connect brains directly to the computers so that every thought in a person's brain will be displayed on or communicated through the computer.

A deluge of funds

Despite tweeting that outside investors are not momentarily welcomed, Elon Musk's Neuralink Corp has secured a total of $27 Million funds from undisclosed investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It is easy to understand why the company received such a deluge of funds; it all boils down to the man at the helms of affairs - Elon Musk - whose glaring successes at running Tesla, Inc., and SpaceX cannot be overlooked.

Can Neuralink Corp pull this off?

Elon Musk, 46, is known to be a goal-getter; so, all eyes will be on him to repeat the same miracles he has done at Tesla, Inc., and SpaceX. However, the Neuralink Corp's website offers sparse insights into what exactly the company will be doing to achieve this landmark invention.

The website only states that the Company "is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers." About the kinds of employees the Company would be hiring for this project, it is stated that "no neuroscience experience is required: Talent and drive matter far more.

...We expect our team to come from other areas and industries."

Possible benefits of brain computers

Brain computers should benefit those who have speech impediments such as people suffering from ALS and Parkison's disease. It may also be useful for those who are experiencing memory loss. The justice system could use brain computers to detect if an accused is lying or not.

However, it is too early to speculate on how brain computers will eventually be used. Elon Musk and the Neuralink Corp's team he is putting together must justify the practicality and safety of their project before it could be publicly embraced.
News from the USA that created a buzz around the world in the week 21 to 25 August varied from bizarre, to cute, and in some instances, horrifying. President Trump is the most newsworthy personality and not just within the USA.

Something horrifying happened in the stock exchange and a cute little girl stole the moment during a celebrity interview.

Bizarre news - nothing beats the latest Elon Musk theory. Dark thoughts? Look no further than Taylor Swift. Read on to find out the news that caused a buzz.

ITV's cute moment with Alastair Stewart

Live TV is always at risk of things going wrong and Alastair Stewart of ITV experienced a live moment of this nature on August 23.

This time, it was not a disaster but was simply a cute moment when a little girl stole the show during an interview with her mother while they were discussing milk allergies.

Out of nearly a 140 thousand views, only 24 people gave the little imp the thumbs down.

Bizarre News - Elon Musk and killer robots

Elon Musk is concerned about artificial intelligence and the potential of killer robots. This might sound like sci-fi but he is deadly serious.

Even Games Con fanatics took time out on August 22 to talk about Musk's bizarre and hopefully, not prophetic, take on AI.

TechNewsDay said it was "almost as though he had been sent back from the future to stop the robotic apocalypse uprising."

Horrific news that triggered panic on the stock market

Most of us, especially those with a blind faith that things will remain normal, or those who are numerically challenged, are bored silly with news from the stock markets.

Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people rushed off to view the news that caused such a buzz on the stock market on August 22.

It all revolved around the "Dreaded Hindenburg Moment." As there is no space here to explain what that means, it's probably best you watch the video below.

Celebrity News that buzzed - Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do' video

Taylor Swift released a video of her latest offering titled "Look What You Made Me Do." The vid contained some very dark lyrics which got every Swiftie fan buzzing.

You don't have to be a fan of Taylor Swift to want to know what the news is all about.

In a single day nearly half a million people viewed a clip about it all that was posted on the Clevver News YouTube Channel.

Pop over and find out what the buzz is all about by watching the video below.

News about President Trump

President Donald Trump is always news and constantly causing a buzz, so choosing which should feature in this was not easy. I decided to go with Trevor Noah and his take on the "Wall" in a Daily Show episode - mainly because so many people are unhappy with Trump that getting a laugh out of him has just got to be good for the soul.

It might appear to be old news from 25 April but the number of viewers on YouTube is still rising and over three and a half million people have viewed it, with the discussion in the comments still buzzing throughout the past week.
The relation between United States and North Korea may be far from cordial but it is not a setback for Tourists. America wants to impose a ban on travel to the secretive state and before that actually happens, some enthusiasts want to visit the country and enjoy the variety that it has to offer. The ban will take effect on September 1, after which U.S passports will no longer be valid in North Korea.

Tourists from the U.S. want to visit North Korea

CNN reports that, with fears of a US travel ban in the air, there is a rush among a section of Americans to go for a vacation to North Korea.

They feel the threat of arrest and imprisonment is not a deterrent, neither are possible threats of a nuclear war. They are tourists and want a change of scene. They want to appreciate the culture and cuisine of a new country and enjoy its surroundings even though it is obsessed with nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The reason for the ban was because of the mysterious death of a 22-year-old college student from Ohio in North Korea. He had been imprisoned there for nearly a year. When he returned to his parents, he was in a coma from which he never recovered. Obviously, the United States wants to ensure that such incidents are not repeated, hence the travel ban. It will not apply to journalists and certain others categories and exceptions will be at the discretion of the State Department.

Under the terms of the ban, US passports will not be valid for travel to, through and in North Korea. Those who intend to do so must obtain necessary permission.

Potentials of North Koreas tourism

Tourism helps to create a bond between people and globetrotters travel to different destinations around the world to satisfy their curiosity while exchanging views and thoughts.

Some destinations are known to be terror spots and the government issues advisories to caution tourists about the dangers. However, many of them ignore the threats of terrorism because they are driven by a hidden urge to mingle with others.

As far as North Korea is concerned, it is a secretive state and there is curiosity among outsiders to know more about a country that is determined to build nuclear missiles.

There is no official record maintained by the US State Department on the number of Americans who travel to North Korea, but according to tour operators, the numbers would be in the region of a few hundred every year. Therefore, instead of imposing an outright ban, the United States could have issued an advisory to caution those who want to visit the country about possible dangers they might encounter and precautions that they should take.
Ever since Kellyanne Conway was brought on board to join Donald Trump during his run for president, she's often found herself in controversial situations on cable news. During her latest run in with a cable news host, Conway was shot down once again.

Conway on Fox News

It was just last summer when Donald Trump was forced to make a major move with his presidential campaign. Paul Manafort, then Trump's campaign manager, was exposed for having financial ties to Russia and quickly resigned from his position once the news became public. In his place, the former host of "The Apprentice" brought in veteran Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway to fill the void.

Since then, Conway has transitioned into the role of presidential counsel, and has been a mainstay on cable news, typically being relegated to more conservative-friendly outlets like Fox News. While the hosts on Fox News have been accused of throwing softballs to members of the Trump administration, Conway was pressed on more than one occasion during a Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, as reported by Raw Story on July 30.

Joining Chris Wallace on Sunday was Kellyanne Conway who appeared to get under the skin of the Fox News host for deflecting from his questions that ranged from the potential reassignment of Jeff Sessions, to Obamacare, and the growing Russian scandal. "Kellyanne, youve got to allow me to ask some questions," Wallace finally said.

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway on discipline and chain-of-command among White House Staff: "I will... https://t.co/YxyiFBBzjX  FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 30, 2017

Chris Wallace then asked Kellyanne Conway if Donald Trump was considering moving Jeff Sessions from attorney general over to the new secretary of homeland security.

"Thats a personnel question that only the president can answer," Conway claimed, before oddly shifting the conversation to Trump's focus on cracking down on the MS-13 gangs.

Kellyanne Conway will do whatever it takes to avoid questions this morning. https://t.co/DgVN4cbGeT  Raw Story (@RawStory) July 30, 2017

I understand that," Chris Wallace went on to say, before asking, "The question is, is he considering moving (Sessions) if the immigration part of this is so important?" "I won't comment on that," Conway replied in deflection once again.

As the conversation moved on, Conway attempted to shift to Obamacare, where Wallace once again chimed in. "Lets not waste anymore time. Lets talk about Obamacare," he noted. At this point, Conway gave yet another runaround much to the chagrin of the Fox News host.

Moving forward

As Donald Trump and his team do whatever is in their power to shift focus away from the scandals, dissension, and trouble in the White House, enough information has leaked to the public to be more than obvious to the American people. After just seven months in the White House, Trump is now holding on to just a 35 percent approval rating, with numbers that don't look to be improving anytime soon.
Brock Long is the new director of FEMA (the author holds 3 FEMA certifications) and, unlike the massively unqualified FEMA director under George Bush II, the one who was so bad that Cuba was offering assistance during Katina, Director Long is highly qualified. Bushs Brownie was completely unqualified (as was Bush), tried to resign the morning Katrina was reported to be closing in on New Orleans and did resign three weeks later.

No one can really deal well with such a disaster as we see about to happen in Texas when Hurricane Harvey hits, but Director Long has long served in local and state emergency management so he will be as effective as anyone can be.

FEMA pre-positions vast stockpiles of supplies in relatively safe areas, ready to respond quickly to disasters.

Hurricane Harvey

There are multiple models of just what is about to happen in Texas as Hurricane Harvey strengthens in the warm waters of the Gulf but one thing for certain is that global warming has raised the temperature of the water and all experience, as well as all computer models, say that even slightly warmer water means a much more destructive hurricane.

NASAs Global Precipitation Mission satellite flew over Hurricane Harvey August 24 at 6:30 p.m. when sustained winds reached 86 MPH. The GPM satellite has a microwave imager (radar) which spotted bands of intense rainfall in the clouds.

The Goddard Profiling Algorithm analyzed these results as averaging about 2 inches per hour (35-inches maximum) but the story was still increasing in intensity. (GPM is a joint effort between NASA and the Japanese space agency.)

All models show a major disaster is imminent for the Gulf region of Texas but they differ in just how bad it will be.

But emergency management workers both local and FEMA must prepare for the worst and some predictions call for as much as 35 inches of rain over a week-long attack from Hurricane Harvey which could hit land, return to the Gulf to rebuild strength, then head to Texas again, over and over for as much as a week.

Trump response

President Trump has started out well with an early reassuring tweet.

But local residents are not responding well, with many refusing to evacuate despite the prediction for a potentially disastrous weather event which could leave some areas of Texas expected to be completely uninhabitable for weeks.

Reluctant evacuees

As a former emergency management coordinator, I know that the biggest problem faced by coordinators is getting people to evacuate.

Pets used to be the biggest problem - until recently the evacuation plans made no effort to rescue the pets and people often elected to remain and protect their pets instead of evacuating.

Fortunately, that has changed recently and many emergency management agencies have changed their policies and made accommodation for pets a priority. That has greatly improved the chances that people will also evacuate.

One local official in Texas said of the threat from Hurricane Harvey that it was time to notify those people who are refusing to evacuate that they should write their social security numbers on their arms with permanent markers - the implication being that it will be easier to identify bodies. This is actually a common tactic when faced with a potential disaster and people refusing to evacuate. Such individuals pose the most dangerous threat to emergency workers who will try to rescue them in the aftermath of a disaster, often at risk to their own lives.

In PA, we used to tell them to use toe-tags and offered to distribute them.

One of the major problems the Trump administration faces is the fact that even this far into the first term there are many, many posts still unfilled. With only a partial team in place, this has to weaken the ability of the Trump administration to respond to their first natural disaster.
Several details featured in the sixth episode of "Game of Thrones" season 7, titled "Beyond the Wall," suggest that the great battle of the Frozen Lake was all a trap orchestrated by the Night's King to capture one of Daenerys' dragons.

7. A White Walker patrol? What a coincidence!

A White Walker patrol was an opportunity too good to be neglected. Tormund and Jon decided to attack in less than ten seconds.

6. Only one wight survived

When Jon Snow kills the White Walker with Longclaw, every wight except one immediately dies. How convenient for team Jon!

A lonely wight was exactly what the crew was looking for.

5. Jon's men were forced towards the lake

Now things get serious. After being attacked by a bear who targeted Thoros the Red Priest (exactly the target the Night's King would have chosen), the group notices that hundreds of wights are approaching. Gendry runs towards the Wall, and no one attacks him (it's crucial that he reaches the Wall to send a raven to Daenerys). Where is the group forced to retreat? Towards a frozen lake where Jon and his companions are safely trapped with a wight in good condition. The perfect setup to convince Daenerys to fly north with her dragons.

4. Three javelins for three dragons

When we see the Night's King for the first time during episode 6, he is with four White Walkers.

Three of them are holding ice javelins: three javelins for three dragons.

3. The Night's King could have easily killed Jon

Why didn't the Night's King order his wights to attack and kill the humans as soon as the lake was frozen again? Why didn't he kill Jon with a javelin or using his magical powers? The White Walkers waited for many hours, for more than a day according to some fans' calculations.

Why? Because Jon wasn't the Night's King's target. He needed him alive to lure Daenerys up there.

2. Those giant chains

Not only did the Night's King show up with some ice javelins, he also killed Viserion near a lake where big chains could be found. Looks like he thought of everything.

1. How the Night's King orchestrated the trap

Our theory is simple: he's a greenseer. That's how he organized everything. We know he can use magical powers and we know he's been created by The Children of the Forest. We also know that he can sense when Bran is using his warging and time-traveling powers. We don't believe the Bran-is-the-Night's-King theory, but we think it's totally plausible for the Night's King to be a greenseer.
Amy Roloff's daughter-in-law Audrey is about ready to have her first baby with husband Jeremy, but it turns out that Amy is now out of town on a trip with her boyfriend. This is a very odd time for her to leave and everyone is wondering what made her decide to do it at this time. In Touch Weekly shared the details about what is going on. This will be Amy Roloff's second grandchild and her daughter Molly just got married.

Where did Amy go?

Amy headed off on a big cross country trip with her boyfriend Chris Marek. These two seem like they are pretty serious.

They are going on a road trip that will go across Oregon, Washington, and Canada. Audrey Roloff is actually due on September 1, which means that she could have her baby any day. A source shared that Matt sees it as odd that Amy would skip town at this time and maybe not be there when the baby is born.

As of right now, Amy Roloff isn't saying why she decided to leave town at this time. It is something that everyone sees as odd, but she isn't defending her decision. The fans would really like to hear her side of it, though.

The fans of "Little People, Big World" do know that Audrey wasn't very happy when Amy and Matt decided to get a divorce, but that was just what happened. These two are still getting along somewhat, but of course, things aren't perfect.

They have both moved on to new relationships. Matt even recently met Amy's new boyfriend and they got along just fine. They were all at Molly's big wedding when it happened.

Audrey Roloff's baby details

Audrey Roloff has already revealed that she is having a little girl. She is due any day now. Audrey and Jeremy Roloff just moved back to Portland to be close to the family.

They bought a house and are now near the family, which is perfect for them. They are going to be able to be seen more on "Little People, Big World" too now that they are always around where the cameras are filming. Jeremy and Audrey spent a lot of time getting their house ready for the baby. They actually did a lot of renovations to the home while Audrey was pregnant.

Are you shocked to hear that Amy Roloff decided to leave town at the same time as Audrey was due to have her baby? Do you think that they are having issues? Sound off in the comments section below, and don't miss new episodes of "Little People, Big World" on TLC when it returns. Maybe they will explain why Audrey's mother-in-law decided that it was time to go on vacation so due to her due date.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson took to Instagram on Friday to tell his followers a very heart-warming story about a real-life hero. It turns out the actors role in the movie San Andreas helped 10-year-old Jacob OConnor save the life of his two-year-old brother, Dylan, who was drowning in the familys backyard pool.

San Andreas saves the life of a two-year-old boy

The film San Andreas was released in 2015 and Johnson knew it was popular with many of his fans, but he never expected something like this to happen. In his Instagram post, The Rock went on to explain that Jacob was a real-life hero, who was looking for his little brother Dylan who was missing.

When Jacob went out to the backyard of their home, he found Dylan lying face down in the familys pool. Dwayne went on to say that Jacob kept his cool and pulled his little brother out of the water. He then calmly administered CPR and chest compressions,saving Dylans life.

The Rock wants to meet the real-life hero who saved his little brother

Johnson went on to say that Jacob had learned how to save his brother by watching a big, brown tattooed guy in the movie San Andreas, which is apparently the 10-year-olds favorite film. Johnson told Jacob in the post that he is very proud of him  so much so, he wants to meet him and shake the hand of a true, real-life hero.

I gotta shake the hand of a real life 10yr old hero.

Jacob, I'm gonna fly you and your family https://t.co/M02sek4KeD  Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 26, 2017

Speaking to ABC2 News, Jacob spoke about the film San Andreas saying there was an earthquake in the movie that caused a tsunami.

He remembered a girl who was drowning in the film and Johnsons character saved her life using chest compressions, so he just did the same thing with his little brother.

Real life 10yr old hero. Amazing resolve and calm at a time of heightened emergency. https://t.co/vFv4WUpmFJ  Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 26, 2017

Jacob and Dylan heading to Vancouver to meet The Rock

As reported by E!

News, chances are that Jacob and his family will be heading to Vancouver in the near future to meet The Rock in person on the set of his latest, upcoming movie Skyscraper. Meanwhile the Hollywood actor teased Jacob, saying his movie sets are just like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, meaning he and his little brother  if Dylan is well enough by then  can eat all the candy they like, for free.

Johnson ended up by telling Jacob that he will see him next week and that his people will be getting in touch with the family to make all the necessary arrangements.

Yup we're inviting the family to my set here in Vancouver. He's a special kid. 10yr old real life hero. https://t.co/4oZaxpNC8b  Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 27, 2017

It does sound like little Dylan will be able to make the trip, as ABC2 reports that the young boy was only in hospital for one day before being released and heading home.
The stars of Game of Thrones certainly have other projects lined up after the final episode of this season airs on HBO. So fans will have many opportunities to see their favorite actors play other characters on TV or feature film until GoT returns for its final season in 2018.

For Kit Harrington aka Jon Snow, it will be another struggle for the English throne tv series based on real historical events. He will star as the infamous Guy Fawkes in a 3-part series, "Gunpowder," which will be shown on BBC in a still to be announced release date.

Harrington is one of the executive producers of the show and he will be joined by Liv Tyler and Mark Gatiss in the cast.

J Blakeson will be the director.

With the hacking problems dogged HBO and Game of Thrones this season, it is interesting to note that Kit Harrington is set to play a character whose likeness was translated into a face mask popular to protesters and hackers, like the group called Anonymous. The hacker that breached HBOs network, however, is only known as Mr. Smith.

The Gunpowder Plot

The English historical event on November 5, 1605, that became known as the Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to assassinate King James I, a Protestant king, in order to restore a Catholic monarch on the throne. The plotters were provincial English Catholics that included Robert Catesby, the leader, Thomas Wintour and Guy Fawkes.

Fawkes played a central role in the execution of the plot because of his expertise in gunpowder. The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the kings opening of the Parliament. Fawkes and his group stacked 36 sacks of gunpowder in the cellars of the building directly beneath where the king would be seating when the monarch opens Parliament.

If the plan seems familiar toGame of Thrones fans, it's because of the similarities to how Cersei wiped out all of her enemies by igniting the wildfire stacked beneath the Sept of Baelor during the final episode last season.

Foiling the plot

The Gunpowder Plot, however, was discovered by King James I spymaster Robert Cecil and Guy Fawkes was arrested in the cellars of the House of Lords.

Fawkes was subjected to horrible torture and was sentenced to an even horrible manner of being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Fawkes avoid such gruesome experience though by jumping from the gallows thereby breaking his neck, which caused his death. Their leader, Robert Catesby, was never tried for he was killed evading capture.

Britain still holds November 5 as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night.
As Google prepares to release its latest Google Pixel 2 smartphone, the rumor persists that Google is planning to release a new Chromebook as well. Google may also be planning to release its latest version of the Home Mini, its smart speaker. Previously it was reported that Google would discontinue the Chromebook while in May Samsung released a version of it that didn't include OS 59, the latest version of the operating system.

Chromebook hasn't been updated in two years

MAC Rumors reported that Google hasn't released an updated version of the Chromebook in two years.

The new release may coincide with Project Bison, which was announced last year, and would bring to fruition Google's plans to update the notebook. The new Chromebook would include a 12.3-inch display, 32 or 128 GB of storage with either an 8 GB or 16 GB memory. This version might also include a tablet mode, and the price would start at about $799 with the goal of competing with the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Apple MacBook. It is unclear whether or not the new Chromebook would take the same form as the design of its competitors even though it would have the same internal power. The Home Mini is only rumored for release while it would provide a smaller, less expensive competitor to the Amazon Echo and would have a price tag of about $129.

XDA Developers reported that the last version of the Chromebook to be released was the Chromebook Pixel. Rumor is that Google will release a refreshed version of the laptop as well as a smaller version of the Home connected speaker. In addition to the new specifications meant to help the Chromebook compete with Microsoft and Apple, the new system would also come with a previously unreleased device, probably a stylus.

The timing is right for a new release of the Chromebook

PC World reported that Google is working on a follow-up to its discontinued Chromebook Pixel, which hasn't been available for sale since mid-2016. Since many consider this to be the best Chromebook ever made, it would be a nice surprise for those who are fans of the system.

Speculation said that the laptop would be retired so that Google could focus on its smartphone instead. Senior vice president for hardware Rick Osterloh seemed to confirm the rumor as being true when he said that the company had no plans to release a new model. A previous rumor promised a device with a detachable keyboard like the Microsoft Surface Pro and the ability to run Android apps.
Each year Bunol in the Valencia region of Spain turns seriously red as the worlds largest Food Fight, La Tomatina, hits town. Held each year on the last Wednesday of August, thousands of tomatoes fly, while participants get caught up in the total madness. Due to the recent brutal terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, however, security is being boosted to protect revelers and those more timid people watching the event.

Spanish streets run red with tomatoes

The population of the relatively small town of Bunol is set to expand by thousands on August 30 as the annual La Tomatina festival gets underway at 11 a.m.

Authorities in the town have organized a team of 740 officers from the police, health services and fire department, as well as many volunteers, to protect the participants.

To give you an idea of the event, around 180,000 ripe tomatoes (weighing approximately 160 tons) will be hauled in by trucks from Extremadura (where tomatoes are cheaper to buy) into the Plaza del Pueblo, ready for revelers to pelt each other.

Any brave souls venturing to #LaTomatina in Spain next week, dont forget a change of clothes eh! pic.twitter.com/Ai3kb0Yv7N  REMUS UOMO (@RemusUomo) August 25, 2017

Strictly speaking the festival should only start after one brave person shimmies up a two-story greased wooden pole to grab a leg of ham sitting at the top.

However, as this tends to take a long time, normally people get stuck into the La Tomatina food fight long before that brave person has reached their prize.

Water cannons are fired off to start the hour-long event and then everything is sheer chaos. As described by the official website, it is every man for himself as everyone throws as many tomatoes as they can and bodies wallow in the resulting tomato slime.

Once the fight is over, fire trucks are employed to hose down the streets with water from a local Roman aqueduct, getting the town back to its usual self. Participants have to fend for themselves to get clean, with many jumping into the nearby Bunol River, or if they are lucky, getting hosed down by a friendly local.

Oh dear it is messy.... https://t.co/nWoAxd2Nxx  SLProperties (@SLPropertiessl) August 25, 2017

Limited entrance to La Tomatina

As the La Tomatina event is highly popular, at one stage drawing around 45,000 people to the town, authorities decided a while ago to limit the number of visitors by using a ticketing system. These days only 22,000 tickets are available for the event, with the townspeople getting free access, while visiting participants have to pay around $12 per ticket.

The crazy tomato fight originated in Bunol in around 1945 and no one is 100 percent sure what started it. According to The Local, the most popular theory is that townspeople, upset with the citys councilmen, decided to attack them with tomatoes during a festivity in town. Whatever started it, it was so much fun the town has continued to repeat the event annually ever since.
At least 28 people have been killed in unrest that took place in India following the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case. Most of the victims are said to be supporters of the Guru.

Singh, who is known as the 'guru of bling' for his love for shiny jewels and extravagant lifestyle, was convicted on Friday in a case dating back to 2002. After the decision by the court, followers of the Guru went on a rampage, turning violent and clashing with the police.

The president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have condemned the violence and asked people to maintain peace.

Total chaos

Following the verdict by a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) court in Panchkula (Haryana) on Friday, enraged supporters resorted to violence, assaulting police officers, torching state buildings and attacking vehicles. According to local to reports, police used tear gas and water cannons to control the crowds. There also were various reports of live ammunition being used by security forces. Some of the victims were apparently killed by bullets fired by police officers.

Here's @IndiaToday's outdoor broadcast (OB) van being attacked & toppled by Dera thugs at Sirsa. #RamRahimGuilty pic.twitter.com/muNg83xT6k  Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 25, 2017

In the state of Haryana, where the violence was most intense, two railway stations, a power grid, and petrol stations were set on fire by the rioters.

Several attacks on journalists were also reported. Curfews were imposed in many areas of the state, but were later lifted, reports say.

Terrifying video of @IndiaToday's Ashutosh Mishra & Pradeep Gupta attacked in vehicle by Dera goons in Sirsa. #RamRahimVerdict pic.twitter.com/8VP1w2TEzy  Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 25, 2017

Mobile phone services were disrupted in some areas of the state.

Bus and train services were suspended in light of the violence.

Violence also broke out in the states of Punjab and Delhi.

Train has been set afire at Anand Vihar Railway Station in Delhi #RamRahimConvicted pic.twitter.com/EGNk7c3Qjj  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 25, 2017

Who is Ram Rahim Singh?

Singh, 50, is the leader of the spiritual group Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS).

The website of the organization describes it as an organization that works for humanity and preaches selfless services to others. The organization claims to have more than 60 million followers worldwide and devotees from various religions.

Singh, who is also an actor, became the leader of DSS in 1990 when he was just 23-years-old. Sigh has been the subject of various controversies over the years.

In 2007, he was accused of hurting religious sentiments of Sikh community after appearing in an advertisement wearing an attire resembling the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh. A criminal case was filed against him but was dropped in 2009.

Singh has also been accused of castrating nearly 400 of his followers to meet God. The case is still being investigated by the authorities.

Singh has denied the charges.

What next?

On Monday (27 August), the sentence will be announced by the CBI court. Singh could face a term of at least seven years, sources say. Some reports also state that he could be imprisoned for life. The hearing will be conducted via video-conferencing, according to local media.
MOMBASA, Kenya  Kenya's Mombasa port on Friday launched three China-aided container scanners to enhance efficiency in cargo clearance.

Speaking during the launch ceremony, John Njiraini, commissioner general of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), said the newly-installed non-intrusive cargo scanners include two fixed units and a mobile one, which will enhance KRA's capacity to scan all cargo of interest from a risk management perspective.

"Presently we scan about 500 containers every day and expect to increase this to about 750 containers or approximately 30 percent of all cargo with the newly-installed equipment," he said.

Njiraini recalled his visit to China's Shanghai and the port there. "I've seen how they use technology to facilitate customs process. There's no people at the big port and all the work is done automatically," he said, adding that Kenya will continue deepening engagement with China in utilization of customs clearance technology.

The Kenya official also expected the scanners to better facilitate business flow, clamp down on smuggling and thus generate more revenue.

Guo Ce, economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said he hoped the three advanced container scanners could help Mombasa port operate more efficiently and safely, so to drive local economic development and spur Kenya's economic growth.

He said with the two countries' economic cooperation deepening and expanding, areas adjacent to China-driven mega flagship projects are becoming a booming economic belt, where accelerated growth and investment have led to revitalized development in Kenya.

Guo said China's two centenary goals mirror the aspirations of Kenya's Vision 2030, and China will continue economic cooperation with Kenya, with the cargo scanners handover being one demonstration.

"I sincerely believe the project can bring better communications and pass down the Chinese-Kenyan friendship," he said.
BEIJING -- China must solve the lack of theories in AI development to achieve the goal of becoming a power for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by 2030, Turing Award-winning computer scientist Andrew Chi-Chih Yao said.

In the past 10 years, China has made great progress in AI development, but it should take the lead to make a breakthrough in AI theory development if the country wants a bigger achievement in the field, Yao said.

He stressed the importance of cooperation between universities and enterprises.

"Big companies cooperate with colleges in the U.S. and I hope that Chinese enterprises join hands with colleges for the long-term plan," Yao said. "I am now focusing on AI theory development. Let's wait and see what I can show you after two or three years."

Yao said he hoped China would make original achievements for intellectual property, instead of following sci-tech results from other countries.

Yao received the Turing Award, the most prestigious award in computer science, in 2000. He and nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang have given up their foreign citizenship and become Chinese citizens, according to an announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) early this year.

The two scientists were hired as foreign academicians at CAS and have become full academicians in accordance with the academy's regulations.
HCM CITY  Good logistics management, both by governments and businesses, will help enhance competitiveness and growth, Luong Hoang Thai, director general of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Department of Multilateral Trade Policy, has said.

Speaking at a workshop on promoting the integration of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into services-logistics global value chains (GVCs) in HCM City on Saturday, he said: Logistics is an integral part of global value chains. Since logistics are involved in a variety of areas such as sourcing and procurement, order fulfillment, storage of raw materials, production planning, scheduling, controlling cost effective flow, assembly, packaging, maintenance, warehousing, distribution, finished goods, customers service and others, there is huge room for SMEs involvement and their deep integration is inevitable.

The workshop, organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the APEC International Secretariat, was aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of logistics as an important service industry and SMEs participation in logistics as part of GVCs in the services industry.

The workshop contributes to  facilitating SMEs in logistics through sharing challenges, experiences and best practices as well as making recommendations on strategies and policies to facilitate SMEs integration into logistics GVCs, and last but not least enhancing SMEs participation in logistics for their own development.

At the workshop, experts and APEC officials spoke about the challenges facing SMEsintegration in logistics with a focus on policies and regulations.

They also shared experiences on how governmentspolicies and regulations can support SMEs participation in logistics.

A more in-depth understanding of the outsourcing process, its advantages and disadvantages as well as experiences in dealing with challenges raised from outsourcing were also discussed.

The one-day workshop also highlighted issues in supply chain management and SMEs capability in management and development.

Corazon C Curay of the Philippines told Viet Nam News on the sidelines: We would like to share our experience, our challenges, policies that need to be enacted by the Government. With the help of APEC we can push this reform though I know the Government is now doing something about it, and we are happy that we are moving forward.

I just read that we are the 10th fastest growing economy in the world, and that translates already to the SMEs. It is a good thing also that in the global competitiveness report, all the measures are up except logistics, so the Government is focusing on that.

The workshop was organised following the APEC 2014 GVCs blueprint and the initiative on promoting SMEs integration into GVCs in major industries in 2016 as well as responding to APEC ministers instructions to further work and develop initiatives in promoting SMEs integration in GVCs.

The workshops recommendations will be submitted to Committee of Trade and Investment (CTI) for further follow-up capacity building activities.

In the last decade APEC has made great efforts in translating its regional economic and technical co-operation into concrete activities to further benefit the business community and people through addressing emerging issues that affect business.

Of them, GVCs development and co-operation and promotion of SMEs integration into GVCs are high on agenda and supported by the APEC member economies via a chain of initiatives and activities that directly target and facilitate SMEs as key drivers of the global economy.  VNS
HCM CITY  The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has asked the Viet Nam Environment Administration (VEA) to co-operate with Khanh Hoa Provinces Department of Natural Resources and Environment to clarify the case of 10 nix waste tankers disappearance.

The disappearance of Huyndai Vinashin (HVS)s 10 nix waste tankers remains unknown. The main reason, as detected, is the companys inability to control those ships routes to cement factories in the past four years, the Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper reported.

Nix grains or copper slag used in ship repair were imported from South Korea. Nix waste is a hazardous material, which have to be directly transported to cement factories for treatment. However, in reality, two-thirds of HVSs partners to process nix waste are just brokers.

Unable to process used nix grains, Huyndai Vinashin signed contracts to transfer the waste to three partners as cement material at the price of VN63,000 (US$3) per ton.

However, there is no single regulation in the contracts that requests vehicles transporting the waste to use GPS which is supposed to help monitor the transportation and destination of the nix waste. Therefore, during the past four years, 309 tankers carrying about 400,000 tonnes of nix waste had sailed on the sea without any management.

If we see any non-cooperation from our partners, HVS will liquidate the contracts, Kim Chang Gyu, head of Huyndai Vinashins General Department, told the newspaper.

Huyndai Vinashin has to hold responsible for nix grains as they are the sources of this waste, said Hoang Duong Tung, deputy head of VEA as quoted by the Tuoi tre newspaper.

o Thanh Bai from Chemical Society of Viet Nam worried about how to manage the process of collecting and shipping nix waste from HVSs factory to cement factories.

In reality, illegal dumping waste into the sea happened in Viet Nam. Therefore, we have to strictly control the transportation of nix waste, not relying on shippers, he said.

However, Hai mentioned the potential of processing nix waste in cement factories. The emission control system of some modern cement plants like Holcim can manage air pollutants, especially dust and nix. Therefore, nix waste treatment in cement kilns is an economic and safe solution, he added.

Conversely, Pham Van Bac, head of the Ministry of Constructions Department of Construction Materials emphasised the importance of waste management in cement manufacturing.

"Nix waste contains a huge amount of heavy metals such as zinc, lead or copper. Therefore, it is essential to analyse ingredients of nix waste before using it as a cements additive, Bac said.  VNS
by Ha Nguyen

World renowned traditional musician and composer Vo Van Anh is returning to Viet Nam, her homeland, to continue implementing her Master-Apprentice programme.

The programme involves having famous musicians teach Vietnamese folk music to students from the country and abroad.

This year, it aims to help young music learners who love Vietnamese traditional music and instruments like the an tranh (16-chord zither), an bau (monochord) and several others to connect with eminent people like artists Xuan Hoach and Trong Thuy.

After one year, participants will perform before community as part of efforts to preserve and develop the arts, Anh said.

One of the ideas she is pursuing is to have the students play once a week at Quan An Ngon chain of restaurants, a culinary and tourism hub in Ha Noi or at the ancient Van Mieu (Temple of Literature).

Many of my students from the US and other countries such as Spain and Portugal who are accompanying me on this trip will join the programme, Anh said.

She set up a fund called Music Bridge in 2013 to encourage young musicians to compose, perform and teach traditional music and instruments. Their works would be an outlet for them to express their sentiments.

By doing so, we can develop and preserve our culture. Two workshops have been held in HCM City since the fund was set up, Anh told Viet Nam News.

Anh said movie producers (in the US and other countries) who wanted to use her music for their films have donated to the fund. For example, a producer will not have to pay royalties for her music but donate money to the Music Bridge fund.

Anh said she was particularly grateful to Pham Thi Bich Hanh, the owner and founder of Quan An Ngon restaurant chain in Ha Noi for her tireless contributions to the fund, organising concerts for her and artists and auctioning many items including her an tranh.

Hanh said her aim in setting up the Quan An Ngon restaurants was not only to introduce and develop traditional Vietnamese cuisine but also to preserve it for future generations. Anh has a similar purpose, so our thoughts meet, and I try to help".

She not only has a great passion for traditional music but also knows how to inspire young people to get involved and love the art, Hanh said.

Hanhs daughters o Minh Phuong, 15, and o Ha Phuong Anh, 11, have been learning to play the piano, but they are also keen on the an tranh.

We like the way teacher Anh performs the an tranh and the way she teaches us, said Phuong.

For example, when playing the folk song Keo Luoi (Drawing Fishing Net), Anh performs with the action of a real fisherman casting and drawing the net.

I understand the hard work a fisherman has to do to earn a living. Thanks to her, my performance improves every day, said Phuong. She said she loved the an tranh because it helps her understand her countrys cultural past.

She teaches us how to express our feeling and sentiments through breathing and moving while performing, said Phuong, who played the zither with a group of foreign students at the Kennedy Center in June 2015.

Instrumental: Vo Van Anh plays an tranh at a traditional music club in Ha Noi. Photos by Ha Nguyen

Anh tries to compose music that the youth can play on traditional instruments so that the music can give voice to the new generation and express their feeling.

She recalled: Once I had to make up a special version to teach my Japanese student. One day, I told her to play a Vietnamese folk song in which she had to mimic the sound of rain in Viet Nam. She played again and again but I couldnt hear the sound I expected. I told her that the raining sound in the country is often heavy, causing leaves to fall and tree branches to break.

The Japanese student understood. She said the sound of rain in her country is not as heavy as ours. So after hearing my explanation and watching my performance, she can play the Vietnamese folk song well, said Anh.

Anh recalled the oldest student shed ever had, an American woman named Laura Lopez, 84, who teaches piano to her two daughters at her home. Once, Laura had a chance to enjoy Anhs an tranh performance.

Laura said Anh played the instrument and her Vietnamese folk songs beautifully that it inspired her to learn it. Laura was very happy when Anh agreed to teach her.

Laura added through it she had come to know Vietnamese culture and could understand the origin of the songs she played. She even joined others to perform the Vietnamese instrument before US audiences.

Singing folk song: Anh performs her music at the Rooftop Restaurant &Bar in Ha Noi.

International co-operation

Anhs collaboration with many world famous musicians has expanded her musical repertoire and helped her share Vietnamese music with international audiences.

When I first resettled in the US, it took a long time to be understood by others, because foreigners only knew Viet Nam through the war, not its culture. So I have tried my utmost to bring our culture to the world through my music composing and teaching.

Anh was born in 1975 in Ha Noi. She began learning traditional music at the Ha Noi Conservatory of Music (now the Viet Nam National Academy of Music) since she was six. She graduated from the school in 1992.

Bich Vuong, one of her teachers, said Anh was always a leading student in the school. She won the first prize at the National Zither Competition and a Best Performance Award in HCM City in 1995.

Since settling in the US in 2001, she has focused on collaborating with musicians across different music genres to create new works, bringing Vietnamese traditional music to a wider audience and preserving her cultural legacy through teaching.

In 2002, she released her first CD, Twelve Months, Four Seasons. Her third CD, Three Mountain Passes, released in 2013, featured her as the guest artist with the Kronos Quartet.

Anh has also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, the Southwest Chamber Music, Eastby Oakland Symphony and other World Music (WM) artists. She has been invited and participated as screening judge in the WM category for the 2015 and 2016 Grammy Awards. She recently became the first Vietnamese artist to perform at at the White House.

Her Odyssey  from Viet Nam to America premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2016. This work aimed to highlight the incredible power of the human spirit to survive as embodied by the so-called boat people. It also sought to deliver the message of forgiveness, peace and unity.

Her works have earned high praise from the BBC, the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets. It was chosen among the National Public Radios (NPR) 10 Favorite World Music Albums of 2013.

Mark Swed of the Times said: Vos Three Mountain Pass which includes her music and traditional Vietnamese pieces on a number of Vietnamese instruments interestingly begs the question of what is American music, especially since a knockout on the disc is her transcription of French composer Erike Saties Gnossienne No 3.

Molly Sheredan of the New Music Box said: Indeed, Vos energy and enthusiasm for musical creativity seems to transcend any particular instrument and instead feed of a fundamental sonic curiosity as well as a desire to reflect on her culture heritage and share those sounds with new ears.

Heather Morris of the Peninsula Review wrote: Her appearance was dramatic, in a stunning costume and headdress, her music was riveting, her stage presence theatrical and her contribution to Vietnamese music culture outstanding.

Despite winning a lot of successes and titles, Anh still has a wish to return to Viet Nam and bring together traditional music lovers to popularize the art and preserve it.

She wants the State to pay more attention to traditional music artists because they are part of Viet Nams giant library of culture. VNS
by An Phuong

Reading books to the elderly, patients in hospitals, and the visually impaired has become a popular part-time job for young adults in HCM City.

The demand for book readers is surprisingly high, with the internet making it easier for readers and listeners to meet.

In fact, it is common to see looking for book readers on timviecnhanh.com, vietnamplus.com, vietlam24h.vn, and other websites.

Nguyen Thi Lan, 21, a student at HCM City Pedagogical University, told Sai Gon Tiep Thi (Sai Gon Marketing) newspaper that she began reading for others while taking care of a relative in the hospital.

As Lan was reading a book during her free time, older patients at the hospital asked her to read for them.

Initially, I didnt think of earning money, but the listeners began to pay me as I began to read to them more often. Book reading gradually became my source of income, she said.

Initially, she started reading to friends, and then later friends of friends, usually for VN40  50,000 (US$1.8  2.2) per hour, earning about VN2 million (US$88) per month.

In addition to going to peoples homes, Lan also visits Gia inh Peoples Hospital, Peoples Hospital 115 and Hung Vuong Hospital to read to patients.

Thu Cuc, also a student, said that book reading was appealing to those who love reading books.

If youre not interested in reading books and youre not a patient person, you cant sit and read for hours, she said.

Besides an interest in books, readers also need to speak clearly and softly to retain listeners interest for two to three hours, according to Thanh Hao, 20, a student at the University of Economics.

It seems like an easy job but, in fact, its not! But I love it since I can earn extra money and have an opportunity to read rare and valuable books that I previously could not access, Hao said.

Many listeners, mostly older people and patients, said they were thrilled to be able to listen to their favourite books and have enthusiastic discussions with the readers.

The hospital now seems like a friendlier, nicer place to stay as I have something else to do rather than staying in bed, said Kim Quy, 56, adding that she had made friends with some readers.

I feel younger and more alive, she said.

Phi, 65, who lives in Tan Binh District, said she used to have relatives read to her, but then asked for a paid reader after hearing about the service.

Minh, from Tan Phu District, said his daughter had formed a passion for books ever since he hired a reader for her.

I found the service to be reasonably priced. My reader loves kids and shes very helpful. I tend to tip her since my house is quite far from hers, he said.

Head for business: A patient gets a sampling of Dale Carnegie. Reading books for a fee has become a popular part-time job for university students in HCM City. Photo sgtiepthi.vn

Challenges

As fun and easy as it may sound, readers like Cuc and Hao have encountered a few problems.

Clients tend to be specific with their requests, such as book titles and reading duration, but some of them, after I show up at their house, ask me to read different materials, Hao said. I was asked by an elderly man to read an erotic book when the agreement was to read a romantic novel!

Cuc said that she once showed up to a client only to find that she had to read to a three- to four-year-old child.

Though reading for children is not difficult, she said she disliked having to act as a babysitter.

Some readers who had been booked to read for seven-year-olds discovered they had been hired to be tutors as well.

Despite the challenges, it is still important for paid readers to be considerate and straightforward when dealing with clients to avoid unnecessary arguments.

Most of the time I will turn down offers that require me to read after 9pm at private houses, Hao said, adding that she prefers to read to children and that her favourite genres are scientific books, childrens books and novels.

Ill continue to pursue the job since its flexible and Ive found joy bringing joy to people in need of the service, she said. VNS
by Hoang Hai Lam

While walking through the cave suddenly I saw a ferocious-looking hunter a few metres in front of me. He had unkempt hair, a bushy beard and hairy arms, with a gun in hands aimed at me. I hid behind a tree trunk, frightened to death.

The ecotour party was now deep in the cave. I hadnt wanted to come to the cave at all, it seemed like hell to me, and now here was Death, appeared before me. He wont mistake me for an animal, I said to myself. Then he inched towards me, finger on the trigger.

Bang went his gun. I fell onto the foot of the tree. I was trembling with fear. I touched my blouse, covering my hand with red liquid. Have I been shot like a wild animal? Or was he a clever animal with a gun? I asked myself again and again.

Tears dripped down my cheeks. In a few minutes Ill die, I said to myself.

I thought dying would be very painful, but I just felt a bit worried. Why has he tried to kill me? I asked myself. I closed my eyes, and felt liquid drip onto my face above. I swept my hand over the face. Blood! I cried. I looked above and saw a monkey with blood dripping from a gunshot wound.

The hunter tackled me to the ground, just as the poor animal fell to the floor. Blood was bubbling out of its mouth.

I screamed in terror. After that I just sat on the roots of the tree, as still as a stone and speechless, until my mates came to me. They asked me a lot of things, yet words failed me. They carried me straight to the hospital. I had no physical injuries but the doctor on duty declared I had lost my voice due to shock.

Im unable to talk for the time being, but nothing else happened to me. Let me go home, please, I wrote on a piece of paper for him.

However, I was kept back for further evaluation, as a mental patient, of course.

* * *

My 30-year-old doctor was called Sin. He was a mixed race man, with one parent Caucasian and the other Asian. He was good-looking, yet he had a sorrowful face, like that of Jesus. Everyday, he would speak to me for an hour in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Youll stay here until you fully recover from the trauma, Miss, he said.

Thats fine, as long as my family dont know Im here, I wrote to him. Im actually still on holiday as far as they know! I added.

In a terrible nightmare, images of that queer-looking stranger appeared with his gun aimed at me. Meanwhile, a big monkey was staring at me, showing its teeth then crawling towards me. When I woke up I was so panicked that Sin had to tranquillize me.

One day I sketched two separate portraits of the stranger and the monkey, each on an A-4 sheet then let my doctor see them, one after another.

Oh, youve tried to draw me, havent you? he asked. Youve portrayed me as an animal, whereas the other picture is a real animal that looks like me!

A moment later, he said, The first seems similar to my father to some extent.

Your father! Whereabouts does he live now? I wrote my question on a piece of paper.

I dont know exactly. Previously, he fought in South Viet Nam, When the war ended, he left for a Western country, one of his comrades-in-arms told me so.

How could you recognise your fathers face? I wrote.

By instinct, Miss.

It think I met him recently in Brai cave, I wrote again.

Really?

Its a wonderful cave, but unknown to most people, except for ecotourists. Its about 200-km northwest of here. During the war, it was a shelter for soldiers of both sides, I scribbled frantically.

Sin sighed.

The war ended a long time ago. I dont like pictures dealing with battles, he said before leaving.

I smiled. Suddenly, he turned back, staring at me again.

Your treatment is drawing to an end, he told me. If youre still unable to speak, Ill inform your family of your condition, Sin warned me. I wonder why nobody has come to visit you yet! Sin added sympathetically.

I smiled again.

It doesnt matter, I thought to myself. Theres lots of fun to be had here. Many patients in this mental hospital laugh more than they talk. Most of their conversations are incoherent. Im told that if anybody just laughs and says nothing, hell be seen as insane.

I was thought to be a madwoman too because I could not talk! Worse still, my portraits about Sin were condemned as defaming his reputation.

After lunch I took a deep nap until late afternoon. Waking up I found a bag of forest fruits by my side. To my surprise, I also discovered a long monkey tail among them. I shrieked loudly. At once Sin rushed in. He injected me with tranquillizers again. Soon, I was asleep. In my druggy sleep, I felt something touching my body again and again. It felt like somebody was lying on top of me. I woke up at once, startling my assailant and forcing him to flee. But I knew it was Sin who tried to deflower me. When I asked him about it, he seemed greatly repentant.

On another occasion, I made a picture in which he was eagerly clinging to a female patient. Close to them was a female monkey with a gun aiming at them both.

That female monkey was going to shoot you out of envy, he mocked at me after looking at the picture. Forgive me, Miss! I acted inappropriately because you looked very attractive. Im not even as good looking as you painted. Saying so, he nearly crumpled it up.

I snatched it back. After that, I jotted down a few words at the bottom of the picture, I really dont mean to find fault with you. Dont regard it as a beautiful work of art. The man I sketched is the one who offered me the fruits with a monkey tail.

Wow, that wicked hunter! he exclaimed. We failed to catch him that day. What was left behind was the bag of fruits on your table. Maybe, he has been arrested by the police, Sin told me.

Why? Because of his visit to a patient? I wrote.

Hmm, he had no identification and he had an old AK47.

Who called the police? I wrote.

Me!

So that guy is your father! I scribbled.

Are you mad? Im a human being while hes only a brute!

* * *

I left hospital at my parents request although I was still speechless.

Sadly, while my job at my parents company was left vacant, I stayed at home to play video games and sleep. Sometimes, I dreamt about my paintings, that horrible hunter and the fatal gunshot. One morning my mother handed me a newspaper where there was a photo of that detained hunter.

The picture shocked me so much my voice returned.

Have you read it? I asked my mother.

You can talk! Yes, I read it, my beloved daughter! It turned out that this wild man had been hidden for forty years in the forest and cave after the war.

I went out to look for Sin.

Holding a newspaper in both hands, he stared at me. I could not guess what he was thinking about, his attempt at raping me or the hunter.

In the late afternoon, Sin arrived at my place to take me to the prison where the hunter was detained.

The wild man smiled vaguely.

Sin talked to him in English which I did not understand well, except for a few words like war, family and children and the Vietnamese name Thy. The hunter was nodding his head, eyes brimming with tears.

Sin and I left the prison in his car. He drove me home without any explanation.

Thanks a lot, Miss, he said when I got out.

What for? I asked.

He is my father. Thy was my mother who passed away a long time ago. He has lived in the forest for years. Both of them promised to meet each other again in the wilderness some day, Sin told me before he drove away.

The gunshot, the war and his fathers love for his sweetheart named Thy!

I was unable to draw a painting dealing with these matters. Nor was I bold enough to tell anyone else about their story.

Today, sitting calmly, I put it down on paper with my belief that love and happiness can come to any human providing they cherish hope and wait for each other at all costs.

Translated by Van Minh
First published in Cedar Valley Business Monthly.

WATERLOO  Walking through the construction site outside her office, sidestepping materials and power cords, Stacey Bentley can barely contain her excitement. She greets the builders by name while giving a tour of whats completed so far, as well as a minds eye of what will be.

Weve got the best breakroom with the best view in town, she said, arms out wide, showing off the skyline of downtown Waterloo.

President and CEO of Community Bank & Trust, Bentley and her staff have worked through the noise and dust since construction began in June 2016 on the building at Commercial Street and Park Avenue.

Talks to spiff up the aging building began in fall 2013, but had to be put on hold for a crucial sidewalk repair on the Park Avenue side of the building. With no supports under the walkway, it had begun to crumble.

There were tunnels underneath, Bentley said. You could go down there and look up and see daylight.

Shoring up the sidewalk meant relocating a MidAmerican Energy transformer that was homed there, as well as wiring for city streetlights. The tunnel would then need to be supported with beams before being filled in. All to the tune of nearly $400,000.

We began thinking if we are going to invest almost a half a million dollars, are there other places we should go? she said.

That put the renovation project on hold for another six to nine months as a consultant was hired to determine if it made sense for CB&T to stay or leave its building in the heart of Waterloo.

We looked all over, Bentley said. Other locations would have been less expensive and easier, but we decided it was important to commit to the community, our employees and our clients. We wanted to stay and support downtown Waterloo.

Bentley hired architect Bob Zandi with Kirk Gross & Co. to come up with a fresh, modern design complete with all the technological bells and whistles. Local contractors and sub-contractors, with an emphasis on companies who do business with CB&T, were added to the roster to complete the work.

The $4 million project is scheduled for completion in mid-September, Bentley said.

The decades-old building once housed Iowa Public Service, the states former utility company. The lack of natural light and office space were among the many issues the renovation will address.

Walls were pushed out 6 feet on the first floor, and space added on the second floor created more office room and allowed for the construction of a large atrium over the first-floor waiting area. Plans initially called for Bentleys office to be on the second floor. She vetoed that idea.

I want to be down with the clients. That is really important to me, she said. Her office will now be on an outer corner of the first floor, allowing her to interact with bank customers.

The entrance to the bank has been moved from Commercial Street to the north side parking lot. A new glass-enclosed, two-story entrance was built, which required removing a portion of the second floor. A glass handrail bridge spans across the vestibule entrance lets in loads of natural light. A large wall inside the entrance is begging for art.

Wouldnt it be neat to feature the work of Iowa artists there? Bentley said.

A grand staircase punctuates the new lobby, and a glass handrail rings the central atrium space, allowing employees and customers complete sight lines between floors. A hospitality bar and large-screen TV will keep clients comfortable while they wait for bank services.

Conference rooms with state-of-the-art technology have been built, and comfortable, informal collaboration centers on both floors allow for more casual discussions with clients. The wealth management department will take a space on the second floor.

Teller operations will look different, too. All tasks can be completed within the teller stations.

Before, tellers had to take cash through the lobby each night. The cash vault is now in the station, Bentley said.

Drive-up windows will features state-of-the-art video screens for customer interaction that used to take place through a window.

All new furniture will replace the old, which was donated to more than 20 local non-profit agencies. One more round of donations will take place when the renovation is complete.

In August, the bank celebrated its 20th anniversary in the Cedar Valley. The renovation is the perfect celebration of that milestone.

Our goal was to stay and invest in downtown Waterloo. I think were meeting that. Im very happy with what were doing, Bentley said.
Legion post sets events

WATERLOO  American Legion Post 138 at 728 Commercial St. has several events planned.

At 11 a.m. Monday, hamburgers, fries and tenderloins are on the menu.

Tuesday there will be bingo at 6:15 and 7 p.m. Open pool is planned from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Snack bar open until 8 p.m.

Hot dogs, brats and pork ribeye chops will be available at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

A pepper tournament will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. On Sunday, bingo is planned for 1:15 and 2 p.m., with the snack bar open.

Eastern Star

hosts meeting

WATERLOO  The Cedar Valley Chapter #128, Order of the Eastern Star will host a meeting with the Worthy Grand Matron Jane Green and Worthy Grand Patron John Hauser at 2 p.m. Sept. 2 at 607 Bishop, Waterloo Masonic Temple.

There will be a presentation about the work being done at the Wynn Institute at the University of Iowa to cure all eye diseases, especially macular degeneration.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Bus tour set

to Minnesota

CEDAR FALLS  The Cedar Falls Historical Society is taking reservations for a holiday bus tour to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The four-day, three-night trip will take place Nov. 28 through Dec. 1 and will feature everything from historic homes decorated for the holidays to poinsettia displays and a glass-making demonstration.

Highlights will include the American Swedish Institute, the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, SkyRock Farms and the Landmark Centers Old Fashioned Holiday Bazaar.

The double occupancy price per traveler is $870. Members of the Historical Society and the First National Bank First Friends Club receive a member rate of $795 per traveler. Reservations will be taken until Aug. 31. For more information, call 266-5149, or go to www.cfhistory.org.

Steak dinner

set in Evansdale

EVANSDALE  Evansdale AMVETS Post 31 will serve a steak dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 2.

Also, a Poker Run is planned for Sept. 16, with kickstands up at 11 a.m.
WATERLOO  A Denver man accused of killing a Waterloo resident in 2015 is invoking Iowas newly passed stand-your-ground statute, possibly making it one of the first times the provision has been asserted in the state.

Steve Fordyce, 39, of Denver, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 43-year-old Donald Harrington. He waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the case to go to a bench trial in August 2016, and he has been awaiting a verdict since then.

Judge David Odekirk had been slated to unveil his verdict this week.

During trial, defense attorneys Christopher and Tiffany Kragnes said Fordyce was defending his sister and acted in self-defense when the larger Harrington came at him. Prosecutors argued self-defense didnt apply, in part because Fordyce didnt attempt to flee before shooting Harrington, who was unarmed.

Signed into law in April, about eight months after testimony ended in the trial, House File 517 does away with the attempt-to-leave requirement, stating a person who isnt engaged in illegal activity has no duty to retreat before using force. The stand-your-ground provision went into effect on July 1.

In a motion filed Wednesday ahead of this weeks sentencing hearing, the Kragneses said the presiding judge is required to apply the recently passed law because the verdict hasnt been issued.

As this case has not had a verdict rendered, it is still a pending and open case, the defense attorneys wrote in the motion.

Closings arguments Friday in Waterloo Locust Street murder trial WATERLOO -- Closing arguments were scheduled for Friday in the case of a Denver man accused 

Prosecutors havent filed a response to the motion as of noon Friday, and it wasnt clear if the motion will delay the verdict hearing.

In an unrelated case, a Des Moines woman, Sera Alexander, is also asserting the stand-your-ground law in the slaying of her stepfather. In that case, which hasnt gone to trial, a Polk County district court judge is trying to decide if the defense can use that argument because the slaying happened in May 2016, which is before the stand-your-ground provision was law.

Closings arguments Friday in Waterloo Locust Street murder trial WATERLOO -- Closing arguments were scheduled for Friday in the case of a Denver man accused 

According to testimony at Fordyces trial, Harringtons in-laws lived next door to Fordyces sister in Waterloo, and Harrington was upset over fruit snacks left in a yard during a visit Aug. 14, 2015.

When Fordyce and his two children began to leave, Harrington flipped his middle finger. Fordyce stopped his truck, and Harrington approached the vehicle and tried to open a door.

Fordyce, who had a permit to carry weapons, drove off but soon circled back and parked at his sisters home. He told police he was going to warn his sister about the encounter, and he then followed his sister and another woman next door, where yelling broke out with Harrington and his wife, who were on the porch.

When Harrington saw Fordyce, he left the porch and approached him. Harrington said hed kill Fordyce, Fordyces sister informed Harrington about the weapons permit, to which Harrington responded do it.

Fordyce would later tell police he felt threatened and suffered a number of health issues, so he fired four shots. The defense said Fordyce was at a greater risk of suffering serious injury because he was on blood thinners for a blood clot and was unable to retreat because he had a fractured foot.

Fatal wounds detailed at homicide trial WATERLOO  The state rested its first-degree murder case against Steve William Fordyce on Fr

Fordyce was about 5 feet, 10 inches and 220 pounds at the time of the shooting, and Harrington was 6 feet, 4 inches and about 280 pounds, according to testimony at trial.

One of the shots pierced a cell phone Harrington was holding, and Harrington was shot in the chest, hand and back shoulder, according to evidence at trial.
CEDAR FALLS  The Board of Education Monday will approve the substantial completion of grading on the new elementary school site.

The board meets at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 220 Clay St.

Bess Streeter Aldrich Elementary School is currently being constructed on land near Erik Road west of Hudson Road in southwestern Cedar Falls. A $406,500 contract to grade the site was awarded Sept. 12 to McAnnich Corp. of Des Moines.

Cedar Falls school board approves school grading package CEDAR FALLS  Dirt is ready to be moved on the site of a new elementary school.

The land includes 40 acres jointly purchased with the city of Cedar Falls.

The school is on the eastern half of the property and a city park will be on the western half. Development costs will be evenly shared, so the city will reimburse Cedar Falls Community Schools for half of the grading expenses.

Total budget for the project was $459,041, including $35,041 for architect and engineer design fees plus $17,500 in contingency and other expenses.

Actual expenditures totaled $451,460, or $7,581 under budget.

Besides the contract and design fees, additional costs were for testing, an environmental study and a traffic study.

A change order also reduced the overall contract cost.

In other business, the board is expected to approve a cooperative sharing agreement with Sumner-Fredericksburg Community Schools for womens swimming.
WATERLOO  The Board of Education Monday will set the salaries of the superintendent, district and building administrators and administrative support personnel.

The board meets at 6 p.m. in the Education Service Center, 1516 Washington St.

A three-year contract is expected to be approved for Waterloo Community Schools Superintendent Jane Lindaman. The increase in her salary will be revealed at the meeting. It is based on a series of indicators in a pay for performance plan such as ACT scores and the graduation rate.

Superintendent's leadership praised by Waterloo school board WATERLOO  Superintendent Jane Lindamans leadership of Waterloo Community Schools is being 

Last month, the board held a closed-door evaluation of Lindaman. At that time, board president Shanlee McNally expressed strong confidence in the superintendent.

The districts leadership team and the administrators will receive an average salary increase of 2.65 percent. The administrative support group will receive an average salary increase of 2.7 percent. All salaries are for the fiscal year that started July 1.

In other business, the board will:

Approve changes of assignment for two middle school assistant principal positions. Francisco Pepin has moved from Hoover to Bunger middle school, replacing Albert Wiggins. Samuel Kreassig has become a Hoover Middle School assistant principal with a salary of $88,000.

Accept a $6,650 donation from the R.J. McElroy Trust for emergency fund purposes at seven elementaries, all four middle schools and two high schools.

Recognize two new Partners in Education for Hoover. They include Wildwood Ranch of St. Charles and Hampton Inn of Waterloo.
WATERLOO  An incorrect property description is forcing another vote on the citys plans to sell the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center to a private developer.

Waterloo City Council members are scheduled to hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Monday in City Hall on a development agreement and sale of the downtown center to Omaha, Neb.-based Leslie Hospitality Co.

Terms of the deal are identical to an agreement approved by council members on a 4-0 vote July 17. The new hearing is required due to a faulty legal description for the property at West Fourth and Commercial streets.

Emails reveal rifts over convention center sale WATERLOO  The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center sale is still being debated in City 

Leslie Hospitality is the holding company for LK Waterloo, which will buy the 42-year-old convention center for $1; get a $1.05 million city grant to use toward an estimated $6 million in repair and renovation to the building; and receive 15 years of 34 percent tax rebates on the new taxable value created by the renovation.

A separate development agreement approved July 17 provides tax incentives for LK Waterloos $14 million acquisition and renovation of the adjacent Ramada Hotel into a Hotel RL. That agreement does not require another vote.

Councilmen Tom Lind and Steve Schmitt abstained from voting on the original development agreement, stating they did not feel the city had received enough financial information about Leslie Hospitality. Councilman Bruce Jacobs cited a conflict of interest in abstaining from the vote.

Edwin Leslie, the companys president and chief executive officer, held a public meeting Tuesday where he provided copies of his companys and his personal financial records. He provided a bank commitment letter received on a recent project and is still working to secure a bank commitment letter for the Waterloo project, which must be received before closing can occur on the convention center.

Leslie has been critical of what he believed to be unfair treatment beyond the bounds of normal scrutiny by the abstaining councilmen. Some of the concern was based on bankruptcies and lawsuits related to different individuals named Edwin Leslie.

Leslie explained during a public hearing prior to the July 17 vote two of the more than 40 hotel projects hed undertaken had failed due to a business partners conviction on tax evasion. He also noted he successfully sued the Internal Revenue Service over his own taxes in the past.

Schmitt, Lind and Jacobs have defended their requests for information, saying it was their duty to ensure the firm getting such a large city asset and grant had the wherewithal to be successful.

Other scheduled council business this week includes a public hearing on changes to the zoning ordinance that would make it easier for homeowners to get permission to raise chickens and other farm animals in residential areas.

Currently, a resident needs to get a special permit for a hobby farm following a hearing and approval from the Board of Adjustment if they want to raise farm animals in town. The proposed ordinance would allow residents to avoid the Board of Adjustment requirements if they meet certain criteria.

The ordinance would allow property owners with at least 5,000 square feet of fenced back yard to keep up to two small animals  chickens, rabbits, minks, geese, etc.  if their neighbors dont object. The measure would allow property owners to have another small animal for each additional 2,500 square feet of fenced yard up to a maximum of eight animals.
United Way rally

starts campaign

WATERLOO -- The Cedar Valley United Way will host Rally in the Valley 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center.

More than 400 people are expected to attend.

Money raised during the Cedar Valley United Way campaign will support local programs that focus on health, education and financial stability.

Attendees and community members will be asked to take photos in their Live United shirts at the Cedar Valley Strong photo booth and post their pictures to social media.

Jim McKernan, Cedar Valley United Way board chairman, will give an update on Cedar Valley United Way. Tony Thompson, Dan Trelka and Jeff Olson, the 2017 campaign chairs, will officially mark the beginning of the campaign.

Attendees have the opportunity to purchase balloons for $10 and win a prize donated by one of the many sponsors as well as purchase raffle tickets.

Everyone will receive a Live United T-shirt.

Ansborough lanes

to close Monday

WATERLOO -- A sewer project will restrict traffic on a portion of Ansborough Avenue this week.

The city plans to close the southbound lanes of Ansborough from University Avenue north to Hartman Avenue on Monday for the sanaitary sewer work. The two northbound lanes will be turned into single-lane opposing traffic.

Traffic control signs south of University Avenue will channel northbound Ansborough to a single land for right turns and through traffic. The dedicated left turn lane to westbound University will remain open.

Work is expected to be finished by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

C.F. school board

forum planned

CEDAR FALLS -- Candidates for the Cedar Falls Board of Education have been invited to participate in a forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 220 Clay St.

The public is welcome. The audience will have an opportunity to submit written questions at the forums.

The forum is sponsored by the Black Hawk/Bremer League of Women Voters, the Cedar Falls Education Association, and the Cedar Falls Association of Education Support Personnel.

No elementary

classes Friday

WATERLOO  Waterloo Schools will not be in session for kindergarten through fifth-grades in all elementaries Friday.

Kindergarten through fifth-grades will have parent-led conferences. Pre-k and grades 6-12 will be in session as usual.

Local Red Cross

workers in Texas

WATERLOO -- American Red Cross disaster responders from across Iowa have headed south to aid displaced residents in the path of Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas and Louisiana.

Ten Red Cross volunteers were deployed, including Cedar Valley residents Di and Dan Hulbert of Cedar Falls, Robert Jones and Joe Vich of Waterloo and John Shirkey of Oelwein -- emergency response vehicle crews; and Rod Hamer of Cedar Falls -- logistics.

Those wishing to help in the Red Cross effort can donate money by calling (800) 733-2767, at www.redcross.org or by mail at P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.
Citizen Trump perceived an opening for a new kind of presidential candidate and rejected traditional political rules. His victory surprised most of us. Hes often crude, coarse and undignified. He can be impetuous, petty and cruelly sarcastic. Ive described him as a bully and chauvinist.

But he keeps pushing, with results, to deliver on some of his promises, and he uses his bad-boy charm to occasional great advantage. Theres something intangible that compels people, mostly conservatives, to be close to history in the making.

From many, Trump receives only a barrage of bashing -- some of it self-inflicted. Their disdain for Trump is palpable, and their ability to be objective about him has disappeared. Others put just as much energy into singing Trumps praises. And many more confused souls drift back and forth between disgust and approval regarding the president. Hes an enigma within an enigma.

So, whats behind the committed support he enjoys?

Some pundits claim Trumps conservative supporters have joined the dark side -- the wicked, evil and mean world of Donald Trump. Conservatives see problems, causes and solutions differently from liberals but are certainly not evil. Conservatives are usually optimistic and full of visions for policies to make things better. So that doesnt seem to be a worthy explanation.

Some say Trumps visible popularity is a symptom of eroding moral absolutes and standards of propriety. However, most Americans would agree both presidential candidates exhibited at least some ethical and/or moral shortcomings. I dont think thats an adequate explanation.

Trumps emergence meant the age of nuanced governance is over. He brought an aggressive style of counterattack using plain and simple language. Maybe conservatives are reacting favorably to that approach. In spite of the apparent chaos and undiplomatic statements, many believe theres a method to Trumps madness -- that he knows what hes doing. That could be part of his appeal.

Conservative political comedian Evan Sayet suggests Trump borrowed Saul Alinskys tactic of personalized ridicule from the liberals. Paraphrasing Sayet: We tried dignity with Bush; we tried collegiality with McCain; we tried propriety with Romney. And it had no effect on the barrage of personal ridicule. While many conservatives may find fighting back for a change subliminally satisfying, that wouldnt be the whole answer either.

Perhaps fear of existential threats is what enhanced Trumps popularity and helped turn the presidential election against the presumed Clinton juggernaut. He keeps reminding us of those threats and is more inclined to strong deterrence than patient diplomacy and appeasement. That theory touches on policy priorities often popular with conservatives. Maybe were getting closer to an explanation.

So, what is behind Trumps support? Have we turned to the dark side? Are morality standards eroding? Do supporters like Trumps style of attack and fighting back? Are we afraid of existential threats? Perhaps some of each. However, I believe the biggest reason is conservatives are dedicated and resolute in their opposition to the Democrats policy priorities.

In the final analysis, its all about unacceptable alternatives.
If you travel frequently, you have probably seen the famous Karrass consulting group advertising seminars in airline magazines on business negotiating techniques. Their motto: You do not get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.

On the surface, the concept makes sense. But years ago while at the University of Northern Iowa, I overheard some students discussing this concept. It was refreshing to hear the reasons those students believed such an assertion may not be true. In business, Americans try to be competitive and negotiate well; but our value systems, be it religious-based or traditional, teaches us to also negotiate fairly. To be fair, the Karrass workshops also include a section on both-win negotiations. But, the motto that we dont get what we deserve assumes the other side is out to steal us blind, and the students thought people have more conscience than the motto implies.

Netflix recently released the story of Roger Stone, the notorious lawyer, political strategist and admirer of Richard Nixon. He argues in politics and in court, you must win at any cost. This in his view could include making false accusations, denying any wrongdoing and basically resorting to any means to win, even when many of his tactics are specifically prohibited by the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Once in power, presumably you can serve your country better and do what you think is best for the nation. Conversely, if you lose, you will not have the power to change anything. In other words, the end justifies the means. Stones long-term colleague Paul Manafort is currently at the center of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation for controversial Russia-related consulting services to the former president of Ukraine.

The Mafia operated based on win-at-any-cost rule. Dictators in many underdeveloped countries also live by it. They go one step further and resort to violence and assassination, something that thankfully has not been advocated by the likes of Roger Stone. (Although he does advocate for planting rabble rousers in the oppositions events and character assassination.)

The American system of justice and equality as etched in the Constitution and our value system, built on fairness ingrained over generations, make the likes of Roger Stone the exception not the norms. We need to emphasize this to our children. When our youths see stories on people like Stone they could lose hope, thinking this is how everyone behaves. We must highlight that societies that trample on basic principle of justice are called underdeveloped or third world. Resorting to lies and falsehoods to destroy a candidate and attacking their family members to ultimately win should not be in our fabric. These tactics were left behind in those countries from which our forefathers fled in despair. It is our collective adherence to our principles that makes us a successful country.

True, while every society may have its bad apples, it is the overarching good that overtakes the depraved.

The Supreme Courts ruling in 2010 upholding the rights of corporations to act as individuals when making political expenditures has resulted in campaigns being run by highly paid consultants and marketing firms. Such firms respond to nastiness with more nastiness and counter ugliness with more ugliness to ensure political bases remain charged up. They are paid to help the candidate win at any cost.

The millennials, unfortunately, have been exposed to an ugliness in politics that has been unique to the 21st century with social media only complicating the mix. Ultimately one can only hope when enough of us have had enough of it, the good in our collective souls will revert to more civility.
At times recently it felt as if a landslide were barreling down toward us and there was nothing we could do but point and yell out warnings.

The videos showed Charlottesville, Va., taken over by a sea of white men marching with tiki torches and yelling slurs against African-Americans and Jews. You could even watch the car backing up at top speed into a crowd of counterprotesters, resulting in one womans death. You could listen to leaders gloat about holding the largest white nationalist rally in over two decades. And you could hear President Donald Trump repeatedly make excuses for them, justify their rage and insist they included very fine people.

You could also see his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, stand by, arms folded, looking grim. And a Fox News anchor, live on air, calling Trumps response, which accused the counterprotesters of equal violence, disgusting.

This has struck a nerve, even in unexpected places.

Big-name Republicans, including former presidents and presidential nominees, called Trump out for not differentiating between the bigots and those opposing bigotry.

Top business executives pulled out of a business council Trump appointed them to, causing its collapse.

Even James Murdoch, the CEO of 21st Century Fox and son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, issued a blistering critique of Trumps response and pledged a million dollars each to two anti-hate organizations.

Yet for all that response, a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, in Des Moines last week, played down chances of an early change in the presidency. Grace Meng, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, was asked at a roundtable hosted by the Iowa AsianLatino Coalition whether enough congressional Republicans were distancing themselves from Trump to threaten his presidency. She said no. Though she takes comfort at the Republicans standing up to him, Meng said, We dont have the numbers. We lost 1,000 seats in 10 years, to be perfectly honest. Democrats are a minority in both the Senate and House.

The DNC is hoping new leadership and outreach to underrepresented populations will help it regain its lost foothold. Meng said the party had done a post mortem since losing the presidency last year and realized it had, for years, done insufficient outreach to urban, rural and minority communities, who felt abandoned by it.

We didnt even have a messenger in so many areas, she said, also blaming voter suppression and redistricting in part for the partys losses. But now, she says, the party is laying the groundwork for a different electoral outcome.

CNNs senior White House correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, said on the air last week the party has no leader and is in complete disrepair and disarray. It also lags well behind the Republican National Committee in fundraising, raising $38.2 million against the latters $75.4 million the first half of 2017.

Meng conceded, The DNC seemed like an extension of a presidential campaign. As this column lamented last July, under Debbie Wasserman Schultzs leadership, the DNC tried to stack the deck in favor of Hillary Clinton, alienating supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders himself has suggested the party has no message.

Other critics have claimed the partys focus on so-called identity politics has cost it in elections. Meng, whose mission includes outreach to minority groups, pushed back against that, but said Democrats can find ways to unite people because all groups care about something as fundamental as putting food on the table.

She says under the leadership of chairman Tom Perez and deputy Keith Ellison, the DNC is investing heavily in outreach to communities that felt neglected in the past. It will spend $10,000 a month in each states Democratic party through the 2018 elections, she said.

It did something unprecedented in sending representatives to Georgia to rally Latinos, Asian-Americans and African-Americans before an April congressional election, she said. Still, in what was dubbed the most expensive House race in U.S. history, Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Asked by a young Latina if hatred is growing and if minorities should have to worry about our safety, Meng said she had felt it necessary last week to talk to her own 9-year-old son about the Klan and racism.

So many people have woken up every day with that feeling in the bottom of our stomachs that a day like Saturday would come, she said.

Meng wouldnt predict what might come of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Trump or other investigations taking place in Congress, though she praised Mueller. She also had no response to a man who asked her who is the voice of the Democratic Party, saying only, I dont think theres anyone who knows better than Iowa who the next voice will be.

But people are clearly hungry for political leaders willing to stand up to Trump and bring others along. You can feel that sense of urgency across the country. Its at times like these coalitions are formed, grass-roots mass movements are built and new leaders emerge. So in fact, theres plenty for ordinary people to do rather than just watch the landslide.
Editorial thanks

HERMAN LENZ

SUMNER  Thanks to The Courier editorial board for having the gumption to write about the civil asset forfeiture laws. These are one more thing sneaked in under the radar by law enforcement lobbyists, and our lawmakers dont have the backbone to tell them no for fear of being labeled soft on crime.

The common citizens didnt initiate and push for such legalized theft/government tyranny. Its another example of runaway big government power.

Also, thanks for the editorials on climate change. The deniers of these are usually 1) big money/big business. If they had to convert to a nonpollution mode, it would reduce their profits, and 2) the radical religious extremists. If they had to admit human activity is causing climate change, theyd also have to admit that birth control is necessary.

Equality Day

CHERIE DARGAN

CEDAR FALLS  Thank you to Mayor Quentin Hart and the Waterloo City Council for designating Aug. 26 as Womens Equality Day with a proclamation that the city of Waterloo recognizes the commemoration of that day in 1920 on which the women of America won their right to vote.

Trumps turnover

VELMA FLAUCHER-FALCK

CEDAR FALLS  Some wonder why Donald Trump brings people into the White House for a time and then gets rid of them. This is my take: He sees capable people as a threat to himself. So he puts them in a position where he can find out what they think and how they operate. If they challenge him in any way or dont make him look superior, he has to get rid of them. Telling them they are fired reminds himself of how powerful he is.

There are times when Trump makes a rational declaration, but he seems incapable of following up on it when other people become involved. Once again, he has to prove his superiority. He is incapable of moving this country forward when he needs to fight about every issue. The blundering may well be his way of covering up his inabilities.

Know history

BOB BLACK

WATERLOO  History and the Bible have some things in common such as people interpreting both to fit their viewpoint. Take for instance a recent letter to the editor in which Civil War History was presented wrong.

1) Lincolns first inaugural address in which he mentions non-interfering states rights of owning, buying and selling human beings. This was a failed attempt to prevent a Civil War, later corrected by his Emancipation Proclamation.

2) The confederate vice president was not picked on for his thinking negros were not equal, for it was the general opinion in slave-holding states.

3) There were 1.1 million casualties of the Civil War through combat, combat wounds and disease. President Trumps remarks on the shame of Charlottesville Aug. 15 were disgraceful. It is time the Congress, the Senate and the GOP stop beseeching and start impeaching President Trump.

History lesson

KENNETH LYFTOGT

CEDAR FALLS  If anyone doubts slavery was the heart and soul of the Civil War they should look to those who fought the war. The good people of Cedar Falls, for example, sent hundreds of their sons into that war knowing that slavery not only degraded black people, it endangered white workers as well.

Henry Perkins, editor of the Cedar Falls Gazette, wrote in 1861: Does anyone for a moment suppose that if the South should be successful, it would re-establish a government like the present, like the one it is now endeavoring to destroy? If there are any such let them dismiss the thought immediately. A government founded by the slave oligarchy, with slavery as the cornerstone must, of necessity, be hostile to freedom. Mechanics, laborers, farmers, how do they speak of you today? Do they not call serfs, white-slaves, mud-sills, and every opprobrious epithet a pampered and haughty aristocracy can invent. Should the Southern cause prevail the condition of the middle and laboring classes of the North would be on the same footing as those in Poland or Hungary.
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The Fight against terrorism, and the ironical interpretation of biological origin of actors

While all the suspects of Barcelona terror attacks left Morocco at a very young age, some western media insist on labeling them as Moroccan, implicitly holding Morocco responsible for the terror attacks and damaging its international image.

Starting off from this outlook, the suspects committed the terror attacks because theyre of Moroccan origin. The media seemingly closes an eye that they were brought up in Spain and the Imam responsible for their radicalization left Morocco 17 years ago and that he himself was radicalized in Spain.

Moroccan or Spanish?

Younes Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van that crashed in Barcelonas Las Ramblas Avenue killing 13 people and injuring 120 people, was born in Mrit, a town located in the Middle Atlas. He emigrated to Spain, with his parents, at the age of 7 years.

His brother Houssain, one of the suspects killed by the Catalan police in Cambrils, emigrated along his brother to Spain when he was 4 years old.

The nationality of Hichamy brothers, terror attack suspects was also emphasized each time their names were mentioned in the press. Omar Hichamy, left his natal town Mrirt at the age of 3, while his brother Mohmed left at the age of 6.

The same case applies to the Aalla brothers. Born in Ksiba town, Said left Morocco at the age of 8, his brother Youssef at the age of 11.

Their brother, Mohamed Aalla, who was arrested by the police and released after his hearing by the judge, is the eldest of the suspects involved in terrorist attacks. He migrated to Spain at the age of 16, old enough to be influenced by Jihadist ideologies.

The case couldnt possibly apply to the Oukabir brothers, whose names were cited several times for the Barcelona attacks. Moussa, one of the five men killed in Cambrils, was born in Ripoll and bears Spanish nationality. His brother Driss was born in Aghbala and left Morocco when he was only 10 years old.

The last Moroccan whose name is quoted in the attacks of Catalonia is that of Mohamed Houli Chemlal. Born in Farhana, near Nador, emigrated to Spain while still an infant of six months.

The Land on which Terrorism Thrives

While it is established that all the suspects of the terror attack have left Morocco at an early age, western media sees that that being born in Morocco is a sufficient reason to assert that it is their nationality that incited them to commit the terrorist acts.

There are several reasons that cause youth to become radicalized. The conditions of living are among these reasons.

The suspects were raised and educated in Spain. It is there where their personalities and beliefs developed. However, once the terrorist acts broke out, the youth were spoken of as Moroccans.

The brothers Oukabir and Hachimy both lived in the town of Ripoll. They were next door neighbors. They went to the same schools with children of emigrants who resembled them, and where not many Spanish children lived.

This forced communalism in host countries gives rise to many frustrations and leads to withdrawal from outsider communities, making these young people easy targets for jihadist propaganda.

Aside from living in closed communities, the suspects involved in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils attended prayers in Ripoll and not in Morocco, making it the responsibility of Spanish authorities to monitor the ideological speeches in their country and not Moroccos.

Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty is suspected of having played a key role in the radicalization of the people involved in the attacks.

A native of the town of Chefchaouen, he left Morocco in the year 2000, without having any radicalized beliefs. Previously imprisoned for drug trafficking, he was influenced by extremist dogmas in a Spain correction facility.

Upon leaving prison, he became an imam in the town of Ripoll, without and accreditation from the Higher Council of Ulemas, which sends Moroccan Imams abroad. Thus Morocco cannot be penalized for his radical beliefs.

Although born in Morocco, the Moroccan terrorists owe their education, beliefs and ways of life to their host country because it is on its soil that terrorism thrives and not elsewhere.
Japan Reaffirms Support for Morocco and rejects the RASD adhesion to TICAD Process

Japan has expressed its regret over the incident in Mozambique in which the African countrys diplomats forced members of the Polisario Front into a joint Japan-Africa meeting in Maputo on Thursday.

The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita talked on Friday with his Japanese counterpart Kono Taro.

According to the Moroccan press agency Maghreb Arab Press (MAP), the Japanese Minister expressed his countrys regret over the incident, adding that he was astounded to see that the authorities in Mozambique disregarded event procedures in order to get the non-invited Polisario members inside, while denying entry to accredited delegation.

The minister explained that even some members of the Japanese embassy were ill-treated.

The remarkably undiplomatic behavior of Mozambique, one of the major backers of Polisario in Africa, led Japan to formally protest the host countrys behavior during the conference.

Kono reaffirmed Tokyos non-recognition of Polisario. It was for this reason that the separatist groups presence was not permitted.

The Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD) gathers the African countries recognized by the United Nations and Japan.

In its attempt to impose Polisario on the conference, Mozambique authorities had to use security elements to get the members of the separatist group, which included Mahfoud Saleck, the Foreign Affairs Minister of its self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), into the conference room.

The Moroccan and Japanese delegations then confronted the Polisario delegation during their first attempt to attend the meeting, and in response were manhandled by the host country security members.
The finance ministry is open to providing capital support for facilitating consolidation among state-owned banks, which are reeling under mounting bad loans, official sources said.

The Union cabinet has approved the setting up of an alternative mechanism, or a panel of ministers, to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks.

On receiving a proposal from stressed banks, if the ministerial panel finds that the merger is going to create a strong bank, it will not let it go for want of fund shortage, the sources said, adding that acquisition will come at a cost.

First, the merger proposal should come from the board, said a source, who did not want to be named.

If the Alternative Mechanism finds the match viable, the finance ministry could provide capital support to the acquiring bank if there is a shortfall, he said.

Sources said the government is keen that at least one merger proposal reaches a logical conclusion by the end of the current fiscal, which is next March-end.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the Cabinet decision last week, had said that the government has not set any target for consolidation. There are now 20 public sector banks (PSBs) other than SBI.

These state-owned banks are grappling with Rs 6 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which is about 75 per cent of the total distress. After in-principle approval for consolidation, the banks would take steps in accordance with the law and Sebi requirements.

The final scheme will be approved by the Cabinet. An official source said: It is not necessary that a larger public sector bank should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity so that the dependence on public exchequer is minimised.

Earlier this year, the government had approved the merger of SBIs five associate banks with itself. In March, the Cabinet also approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.
The Supreme Courts historic verdict banning triple talaq is both a boost and a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is a boost for the government because the judgement validates his campaign against a pernicious practice that Muslim women have long struggled to get abolished. Its a challenge because he must now affirm that he pursued this campaign for the right reasons  to help Muslim women in their fight for gender justice and equity  and not, as is widely perceived, as part of a Hindu majoritarian agenda to further diminish and ghettoize the Muslim community.

A five-judge Supreme Court Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, pronounced its judgment on the legality of the Islamic personal law practice of triple talaq and whether it violates the fundamental and human rights of gender equality and dignity of Muslim women. In a 3:2 majority judgment, the Bench set aside talaq-e-biddat or instant talaq, the practice of Muslim men divorcing their wives by uttering talaq thrice consecutively. It is a progressive decision which judiciary has taken. The defaulting husband could even take advantage of his own wrong and terminate the relationship. This injustice and oppression on female spouse and virtually left her remedy-less. It was being contended over the last several decades that this practice has become obsolete.

The decision which has come on 70th year of independence is a very progressive one and it should be welcomed by all section of the society. The Supreme Court has intervened at the right time. The majority view of the SC is absolutely clear that this instance pronouncement is not fundamental to the religion itself. Triple Talaq is not an essential part of the religion and therefore it is discriminatory. It compromises the dignity of women itself and being violating of constitutional guarantees itself is void. It is indeed a landmark judgement. Shayara Bano, Triple Talaq Victim and petitioner welcomed and support the judgement. Its a historic verdict for Muslim women.

The bench, comprising judges from different religious communities  Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Hindu, and Muslim  heard seven pleas, including five separate petitions filed by Muslim women challenging the prevalent practice. It has said that all personal laws must conform with the Constitution and rights of marriage, divorce, property and succession have to be treated in the same manner across communities.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Plentiful sunshine. Much cooler. High 57F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A clear sky. Low around 35F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
August 25, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  In an attempt to teach the Holy Quran to the deaf in the Gaza Strip, the Future Society for Deaf Adults (FSDA) offers religious and awareness courses aimed at interpreting the Quran using sign language. The initiative was first launched on Feb. 2, 2013. Courses are offered for deaf youth ages 12-18, targeting 500 deaf people in Gaza.

The courses are funded by the Sheikh Eid Bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Foundation and are given at the Dar al Quran al Karim Wa Sunnah, which has 14 branches in the Gaza Strip. Each class consists of 20 students.

Mervat Hamdan, 14, is one of the students who enrolled in the courses. She was able to memorize a few verses of the Quran.

Hamdan talked to Al-Monitor using sign language; her teacher Mervat Sayam interpreted the conversation. I am very happy to have memorized a few Quranic verses. "The FSDA offered us a booklet with image interpretations of the Holy Quran in sign language and text in Braille, as I also suffer from impaired vision, she said.

At first, I had some difficulties in learning the Quranic verses and the hadiths. I did not find much encouragement from the people around me, as they do not know sign language to try to give me advice. My mother was the one to encourage me to keep trying and to concentrate on memorization, she added.

Every word in the Quran has a special sign that helps explain it. As for the process of memorizing, the Quranic verses are written on the blackboard in front of the students and then they are explained, Sayam told Al-Monitor.

Sayam explained, The courses start off with giving general information about the number of Quranic verses and their parts. The memorizing process is done through tutorial videos on LCD screens, explaining the verse using sign language."

FSDA President Adham Eid told Al-Monitor, Ten years ago, most of the deaf Palestinians did not know who the Prophet was. However, today things have changed with the religious awareness courses in sign language, which were diligently prepared by Jordan's Conservation of the Holy Quran Society with the cooperation of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and a professional team of sign language interpreters over the past five years.

Eid added that one of the most prominent advantages of this initiative is the unification of sign language in interpreting the Holy Quran; in other words, the Quranic verses are being interpreted using the same signs and body postures.

According to Eid, on the social level the courses help integrate the deaf better in society, as they are now receiving religious education, which is a source of pride for some parents who used to hide their hearing-impaired children at home.

Eid added that students are provided with CDs with images that show sign language and Braille books.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2015, there are 2,409 people above 18 and 1,243 under 18 who suffer from hearing impairment in the Gaza Strip.

The only school in Gaza for the deaf is the Mustafa Sadeq Rifai Secondary School, which counts 160 students since its opening in February 2011. Female and male students are separated in the school. In 2015, the school graduated 130 students, who passed the official baccalaureate exams.

Although there should be more efforts employed to promote and start initiatives for deaf people in Gaza, teaching the Quran is seen as a major step, especially for many who were introduced for the first time to Quranic verses through this initiative.
August 27, 2017

Iran-Qatar seek better ties "in all fields"

Qatars Aug. 23 decision to return its ambassador to Tehran could strengthen Irans hand in Syria, while further blurring the Sunni-Shiite fault line in the region.

No surprise that Qatars announcement that it aspires to strengthen bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in all fields has inflamed the crisis in the Gulf. Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs, said the decision embarrasses Qatar.

The Qatari decision caught the United States flat-footed. The US State Department spokesperson said, There are diplomatic things that may be going on that were simply not aware of or cant speak about right now.  Im just not going to characterize it, whether its a good thing or a bad thing. But overall, we remain very concerned about the status of this dispute and were making those messages clear.

With the reset in ties with Qatar, Iran has now added a second Sunni state to its regional network. The telephone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, comes less than two weeks after the visit of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Irans chief of general staff, to Ankara.

Like Turkey, Qatar has been a significant player in Syria by supporting opposition forces, especially the Salafi armed group Ahrar al-Sham, the on-again, off-again partner of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, which has had links with al-Qaeda. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham presently has the upper hand in the battle for Idlib, where there are no winners, especially the people there who suffer under these armed gangs violence, thuggery and draconian imposition of Islamic law.

While Tehran and Doha may differ about the future of Syria, there is at least an expanding conversation among the regional powers, and that can only be to the good if the objective is to sustain the momentum created by US-Russian coordination in Syria and the Astana deconfliction process, which have helped give Syrians some reprieve from the war.

No doubt Yemen will also be on the agenda for future Iran-Qatar bilateral talks. Saudi Arabia can hardly be warmed by the thought of Iran-Qatar consultations on Yemen, where the kingdom is facing increased international scrutiny and criticism for airstrikes that have killed dozens of civilians in recent weeks.

Turkey weighs options in Idlib

Al-Monitor reported in March, While the United States is consumed with planning for unseating the Islamic State [IS] in Raqqa, Idlib may prove a comparable or perhaps even more explosive fault line because of the blurred lines among anti-Western Salafi groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, which is backed by Turkey, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [which is linked to al-Qaeda]."

Ali Hashem this week provides further details on Iranian-Turkish consultations about Idlib. To Iran, ending the war in Syria needs Turkish assistance, given Ankaras good ties with several groups that Tehran describes as 'terrorists,' writes Hashem. Either Turkey abandons these groups or convinces them to disarm, and then an everlasting political solution will become a reality. The side agreement on Idlib, which Turkeys Daily Sabah called a joint mechanism, was agreed upon within the framework of the Astana talks meeting in Tehran on Aug. 8-9. The Tehran meeting was held away from the media, upon Ankaras request.

The plan for Idlib, however, is hardly a done deal. Amberin Zaman writes, Turkey has asked Syrias most muscular Sunni Arab opposition militia, the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to disband itself. Zaman also says the United States was exploring ways to take joint action with Turkey in coordination with Russia to free Idlib of [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham], which all three consider a terror group. And then there is the Syrian government, which will also have its say.

The mistake in Idlib would be to give a reprieve to either Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or Ahrar al-Sham. In our score, their battle is mostly a family fight among armed jihadi groups that offer Syria no hope for a secular, tolerant or peaceful future. Any plan for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or Ahrar al-Sham to disband should include  for those who are not unrepentant terrorists or criminals  a process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. Otherwise, the day of reckoning with those groups will only be deferred.

Israel presents "big picture" on Iran to US, Russia

Ben Caspit quotes an Israeli security official as telling their US counterparts last week, 'Whatever happens here after the war in Syria will shape the face of the Middle East, and perhaps the entire world, for generations. If the cease-fire agreement does not also include a Shiite retreat, and not just a victory over the Sunnis, a disaster will happen. Youre disturbing the incredibly delicate balance in the Middle East,' he warned. 'The immediate price will be paid by those who live here, but in the end, the bill, once again, will be sent to you.'

Caspit writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees this current diplomatic effort as a continuation of his efforts to thwart the Iranian nuclear deal. He is doing exactly what he did during 2009-14, but hoping that hell have greater success this time.

In addition to the Aug. 18 visit to Washington by a senior Israeli security delegation led by Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad, This big picture is what the Israelis are also presenting to the Russians, Caspit adds. Cohen and the new National Security Council head, Meir Ben-Shabbat, flew with Netanyahu to [Sochi, Russia, for the Aug. 23] meeting with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Netanyahu told Putin that Irans presence in Syria is a threat to Israel, the Middle East and the entire world. He noted that Iran continues to threaten Israel's existence, to support terrorist organizations and to develop its missile capabilities.  Intelligence presented to Putin was meant to show him that Iran is not the stabilizing and responsible regional actor the Russians believe, but the complete opposite.

Caspit continues, At the moment, Israel is less worried about the situation in the Golan Heights, where it is clear that the Israel Defense Forces won't allow the Iranians or their surrogates to take hold. The Israeli concern is focused on whats happening in Syria and Lebanon. Reports that work is beginning to build a factory to produce precision rockets in Lebanon, using Iranian and North Korean technology, have caused much consternation in the region. Israel, as previously reported, does not intend to let such a factory reach the production stage. It hopes that Moscow and Tehran will at some point grasp this.

Charlottesvilles grim chapter in Israel

Akiva Eldar writes, When terror strikes in Trumps country and the assailants are not called Mohammed or Ahmed, Netanyahu does not dare draw the Holocaust weapon from his arsenal. The only reference by the Netanyahu family to Trumps outrageous equivalency between the neo-Nazis and their opponents came from his son Yair. He stepped up to defend the president, writing on Facebook that neo-Nazis are a thing of the past, whereas the thugs of 'Antifa and BLM who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much are getting stronger,' referring to the leftist anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter organizations.

Eldar concludes, The Charlottesville events will go down in the annals of Israeli history as one of the grimmest chapters in ties between the 'Jewish state' and the strongest Jewish community in the world. When Israel is in trouble, American Jews, whether Reform, Conservative or Orthodox, stand by its side. When American Jews found themselves in trouble, Israeli Jews, whether secular or religious, left wing or right, saw nothing, heard nothing, said nothing. Israeli citizens can only hope that the Jewish community in Virginia and the AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] offices in Washington have not heard the motto favored by the prime minister of Israel, who presumes to lead the Jewish people in the conflict with the Palestinians: If they give, they will get; if they dont give, they wont get.
August 24, 2017

As confidence in Palestinian leadership hits record-low levels, senior PLO officials are again discussing the idea of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, made of two independent states.

One of these PLO officials told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that in the latest meeting between Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Aug. 7, the two leaders agreed to tighten relations in several domains. The leaders decided to enhance security cooperation against the radical fundamentalist movement out of Iran and Syria and to strengthen economic ties, to support the Palestinian Authority (PA). They also decided to increase police collaboration with Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to cooperate on the Muslim safeguarding of Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount).

The PLO source said that given the domestic situation in the United States, with an administration that is barely viable, it is very unlikely that there will be a viable peace process. Faced with such a US administration and with [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahus annexation policies, we are forced to conclude that the Arab sides must act unilaterally in favor of Palestinian statehood," he said. He also claimed that senior Fatah echelons believe this can be achieved either by a violent uprising or by diplomacy. The status quo is untenable.

If a violent uprising is chosen as the course of action, there most likely will be an agreement of national unity with Hamas.

If diplomacy has the upper hand, ties to Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia will be strengthened and the Palestinian-Jordanian confederation will become an option again.

The senior PLO official argued that the Palestinians are more positive than the Jordanians on the concept of confederative ties. "What brought us recently closer was Netanyahu's intrusive security measures on Haram a-Sharif. The greater the cooperation between us and the Jordanians is on the security of Al-Aqsa, the greater the chances are for closer ties between the two sides of the [Jordan] river."

The PLO official belongs to a group of Oslo process veterans who have recently crafted a plan that would gradually lead to close ties between the Palestinians and the Jordanians. He explained that as joint protectors of Al-Aqsa, it is in the common interest of the Palestinian and Jordanian leaderships to explore such ties. Also, each side is eager to receive greater US economic assistance  the PA for its nation-building process and Jordan for its severe refugee crisis.

According to this plan, a gradual tightening of relations would take place within several spheres. A priority point would be tightening security cooperation between the Jordan Haram al-Sharif Waqf (religious custodian) and the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs. A second point would be strengthening economic cooperation, also on infrastructure such as water, energy and transportation. A third point would be coordinating policies vis-a-vis the United States and the European Union in relation to a two-state solution on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative. For these to be achieved, the plan establishes regular meetings between the leaders of the two sides and meetings of policy coordination between the two negotiation teams on all permanent-status issues.

Obviously, the route to any confederative relationship of this sort would encounter tremendous obstacles, mainly grounded in the demography of Jordan where half of the population is of Palestinian origin. Some Jordanians harbor suspicions that the Palestinian leadership aspires to create one day a "greater Palestine." Yet the current configuration in the international community may bring the parties to at least explore a gradual road map to a confederation between two states, Palestine and Jordan.

A senior official from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Israel is aware of those discussions and that the Jordanian king is highly reluctant to get engaged in the resolution of the permanent-status issues. Yet he admitted two things:

The first is that the relationship between Abbas and Abdullah are at a high positive point and that closer relations are being discussed between them, including the establishment of new joint crises committees.

The second element is that at some point a confederative relationship between the Jordanians and the Palestinians may be put on the table, but only after very measurable progress is made on all permanent-status issues between the Palestinians and Israel.

The Israeli diplomat argued that Netanyahu is in full control of the situation regarding the Palestinians and in close coordination with the Donald Trump administration.

Be that as it may, the confederative-ties plan must be approached in a broader context. The tumultuous domestic situation in the United States may very well lead to new positions among major regional players. These regional players understand this and are becoming more self-reliant.
August 25, 2017

BEIRUT, Lebanon  The Lebanese Armed Forces on Aug. 19 announced the launch of Fajr al-Joroud, an offensive against the Islamic State (IS) along the Lebanese-Syrian border. The campaign follows on the heels of a late July Hezbollah- and Syrian army-led offensive, backed by the Lebanese army, against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra) outside Arsal. The two operations indicate that a mutual decision must have been made by the three forces to remove the IS and al-Qaeda threats along their shared border. A week into the Arsal offensive, Hezbollah proclaimed victory and reached a cease-fire agreement with the fighters in the area.

The Lebanese Armed Forces have been trained and equipped by numerous Western countries, but mainly the United States and the United Kingdom. On the first day of the Fajr al-Joroud offensive, Lebanese Armed Forces spokesman Ali Qanso pronounced, The Lebanese army is not coordinating with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, either directly or indirectly. That said, images and sources on the ground suggest a different reality, indicating close coordination between the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Syrian army. This led to mockery on social media and the posting of pictures of Hezbollah fighters and Lebanese army soldiers side by side in the offensive accompanied by a hashtag in Arabic that loosely translates, Oh what a coincidence! Meanwhile, British and US officials have both confirmed their forces' active presence among the Lebanese Armed Forces in the previous and ongoing border operations, resulting in an incredibly awkward reality on the ground.

A Lebanese source with close contacts in both Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces pointed to one of the clearest indicators of the level of coordination among Hezbollah and the Lebanese and Syrian armies in describing the launch of Fajr al-Joroud. It was supposed to have started earlier that week, but Hezbollah and the Syrians werent ready until Thursday [Aug. 17], he told Al-Monitor. Once they were all ready, the Lebanese army announced the launch of the offensive on Saturday [Aug. 19]. They literally waited for their partners to be ready.

In an Aug. 3 television interview, Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk described the level of long-running cooperation and coordination between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Syrian army. For many years, the Lebanese army has had a liaison officer with the Syrian army and vice versa, he said. We are not in a war with Syria, so this coordination and communication between the two countries have always existed. There is nothing preventing the Syrian army from participating in the next offensive, as coordination exists.

Lebanon and Syria have indeed maintained active lines of communication, as publicly evidenced by the actions of Abbas Ibrahim, a retired major general who heads Lebanons General Security. Ibrahim has played a major role in mediation efforts and negotiations to secure the release of Lebanese and Syrian captives held by armed opposition groups. He coordinated closely with the Syrian army in the cases of the Lebanese pilgrims held in Azaz (2013), the Syrian nuns held captive in Maaloula (2014), the exchange of Lebanese security forces (and Syrian fighters) held by Jabhat al-Nusra (2015) and the exchange of Hezbollah fighters held by Jabhat al-Nusra's most recent incarnation in Idlib (in August). As for Hezbollah, the high level of cooperation between Lebanons strongest nonstate armed actor and the Lebanese army has long been an open secret.

So why issue a denial? Local and international politics are at play.

The United States and the United Kingdom cannot be seen as having any association, even indirect, with Hezbollah and the Syrian army, essentially forcing all parties concerned to participate in what can only be described as an international charade for the sake of plausible deniability. According to the source close to Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces, US Central Command called the Lebanese army chief and asked him to deny any cooperation, telling him that while they are aware of cooperation, it has to be denied publicly.

The Lebanese army emerged as a shell of its former self from the 15-year civil war in 1990, and was fractured, weak and under-equipped. Over the ensuing years, as the army tried to rebuild as a national institution, assorted Lebanese officials and international parties worked hard to prevent it from becoming a strong, well-equipped fighting force.

Local leaders favored a weak army because they feared a strong one could limit their power within their political fiefdoms, while foreign actors feared a strong army might pose a serious threat to neighboring Israel, with which Lebanon remains at war. Outside powers also voiced concern that army weaponry could end up in the hands of Hezbollah, further posing a threat to Israel.

Members of the Lebanese Armed Forces and Hezbollah have dismissed the notion that Hezbollah is interested in the Lebanese Armed Forces military equipment. Today, the Lebanese Armed Forces' most advanced vehicles are the M48A5 and M48A1 tanks, which are considered third-rate, having been phased out by the United States in the 1990s, and Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's tanks  T-72s and T-54s  are much more recent models. According to Israeli media, Hezbollah is currently in possession of some of the regions most technologically advanced weaponry.

At the end of 2013, Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon $3 billion to purchase predetermined weapons from France in an effort to build the army into a counterforce to Hezbollah. The gift was rescinded in February 2016 for what the Saudis supposedly considered Lebanon's failure to adequately condemn attacks on the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran. Political sources in Beirut say the aid was rescinded because Saudi Arabia did not have the money to pay for the package.

While the Lebanese Armed Forces have received foreign military aid, it has largely been of a non-lethal nature. Over a span of five years beginning in 2005, the United States provided non-lethal military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, including night-vision goggles, uniforms and a few Humvees, to the meager tune of $700 million. Then in 2010, along with France, Washington temporarily suspended aid to the army after pressure from Israel over concerns that materiel might end up in Hezbollah's hands.

Lebanese political officials also actively colluded with Israels most ardent ally to prevent the Lebanese army from obtaining advanced weaponry. When in 2008 the Russians offered to give the army a military package consisting of 77 T-72 tanks, ammunition and eventually MiG-29 fighter jets, in an effort to turn the Lebanese army into a national fighting force, Defense Minister Elias Murr, a close US ally, complained to the US ambassador. Murr said he had been trapped into accepting the gift, but would ensure that the army would not take it before 2040. Almost 10 years later, the Lebanese army is yet to accept delivery.

The clear and immediate threats from IS and al-Qaeda to Lebanons stability have forced states to step up and work on better equipping the army. As a local security source pointed out, They give enough to the Lebanese army for it to survive, but not enough for it to be strong enough to fight Israel.

Certain factions in the government have continued to scupper offers of military aid. A 2015 deal between the army and Russia  which included around 250 Kornet missiles, two dozen rocket launchers and dozens of rockets for $500 million  never materialized because government officials, in particular Hariri, opposed it. The same happened concerning an offer by Iran to supply the Lebanese Armed Forces with military aid in the battle against IS, but the pro-Saudi March 14 officials prevented the deal from seeing the light of day.

The current unspoken partnership between the Lebanese Armed Forces, Hezbollah and the Syrian army is a direct result of the efforts of those who have worked so diligently to keep the Lebanese Armed Forces under-equipped. By doing so, they have also inadvertently strengthened Hezbollah, making it the only viable military force in the country able to repel armed groups along the Lebanese border, and are now creating a reality on the battlefield that everyone is aware of but no one wants to acknowledge.
August 27, 2017

MOSCOW  With Moscow thinking about its post-Syria presence in the Middle East, building stronger ties with Egypt seems to be on the agenda.

On Aug. 21, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited the Russian capital to meet with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Prior to the visit, both parties sent strong and courteous signals of the importance of the encounter. Cairo emphasized that Moscow would be the first stop on Shoukrys three-day trip, which included Lithuania and Estonia, while Moscow had been saying that Egypt is one of Russias leading partners in the Middle East and North Africa and that the two countries have been bound together by yearslong traditions of friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and concurrence of approaches to regional and international issues.

After the meeting, Lavrov kicked off a press conference with Shoukry with the same statement on the importance of Egypt as Russias top regional partner. Essentially, as Moscow raises its voice on a number of regional issues, having Cairo share its vision is vital for the ultimate success of Russian efforts. In this respect, its no wonder Lavrov and Shoukry spent half of the time in the talks discussing Syria, Libya, Yemen and the Qatar crisis. Last week, state-operated RIA Novosti news agency, referencing a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry, reported the ministry was preparing Lavrovs tour of the Gulf, set for Aug. 27-30, with the goal of placing Russia at the center of mediation efforts in the Qatar crisis. If this is the case, then checking in with Egypt  one of the countries boycotting Qatar  was something Moscow deemed necessary to do before Lavrovs departure to the region.

Similarly, on the Yemeni track, hours into the Lavrov-Shourky discussions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov hosted Yemens newly appointed ambassador to Russia, Ahmed al-Wahishi. The two discussed the ongoing civil war in Yemen and the prospects of settling the conflict, advocating a comprehensive national dialogue with due regard for the interests of all major political forces.

In Syria, Egyptians were instrumental in helping the Russians set up de-escalation zones in eastern Ghouta and Homs by providing a platform for several meetings in Cairo. Now Russia is engaging with Egypt to promote the formation of a united Syrian opposition delegation  the next immediate task on Moscows Syria to-do list, which is taken very seriously in the Kremlin. According to a news release from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov declined to dwell on details of the process, only saying, We are working with other partners too on this, including Saudi Arabia.

On Libya, where Russia and Egypt are working closely together, Lavrov said Moscow and Cairo had an identical understanding of the need to prevent the isolation of any Libyan politicians, key figures or tribal leaders from the process, which should lead to restoring Libyan statehood. Russia continues to insist that participation of all Libyan political and tribal groups, without exception, is a precondition for progress in settling the conflict.

Top Russian and Egyptian diplomats discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but Lavrov made only a short reference to it, saying Russia wants the talks to resume once the proper conditions are created to prevent any unilateral steps. The restrained reaction of the Russian minister is understandable, since President Vladimir Putin was going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Sochi two days later, with both parties expecting an uneasy conversation over Irans increasing role in Syria. Putin and Netanyahu discussed Iran, Syria and other issues Aug. 23.

The day after Lavrovs meeting with Shoukry, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov met in Moscow with Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren. What is particularly striking about the encounter is that Ryabkov is primarily running the American track of Russian foreign policy; under ordinary circumstances, Bogdanov would meet with an ambassador from a Middle Eastern country.

The second part of the negotiations between Lavrov and Shoukry focused entirely on bilateral issues. Shoukry passed on a personal message from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Putin reiterating Cairos commitment to expanding contacts with Russia in all areas of mutual interest, including beefing up anti-terrorist cooperation.

The issue of direct flight connections between Russia and Egypt has been clouding progress on the bilateral agenda since the flights were suspended after a bomb exploded on a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, 2015. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility. Restoring direct flights has been a subject of continual negotiations, including during the visit of Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Egypt in May. Egyptian officials believed Moscow had been nitpicking over criteria for resuming flights. An Egyptian source close to the negotiation process told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity that many in Cairo thought the real reason behind Russias reluctance to restore the flights was Moscows desire to give Russias own resorts  particularly in Sochi, and now in the Crimean Peninsula  a chance to attract tourists. Ankara expressed a similar opinion when Moscow suspended charter flights for Russian tourists to Turkish resorts following Turkeys downing of a Russian jet on Nov. 24, 2015.

Another issue of mutual interest discussed during Shoukry's visit was Egypts proposed first nuclear power plant, which Russias State Atomic Energy Corp. (Rosatom) is to build at Dabaa. Egypts State Council is still running a legal checkup of the contract with Russia, and local environmental groups are raising concerns over potential contamination of the area. The plants first power unit was scheduled to begin producing energy in 2024, but this could be delayed as Rosatom says contracts that are near completion still need to be signed to start actual construction. Moscow and Cairo have other major projects on the table that the Joint Russian-Egyptian Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, convening in September, is supposed to kick-start. One initiative in which Moscow has a particular interest involves setting up an industrial zone along the banks of the Suez Canal that will include Russian companies.
Three men allegedly involved in attacks on counterprotesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville earlier this month have been charged with felonies, Charlottesville police said late Saturday. One of the men has been identified as an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the men is still at large.

Police said 18-year-old Daniel P. Borden of Mason, Ohio, is allegedly part of a group of six men who violently beat a man in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department on Aug. 12. That man, DeAndre Harris, suffered a broken wrist and a gash to his head which required 10 staples. The attack was captured on video.

Another suspect, Richard W. Preston, 52, is allegedly the man seen on video shot by the American Civil Liberties Union taking out a pistol and firing a round toward a counterprotester who was wielding a flaming can of aerosol. He then turns and walks away. Preston has identified himself to news media as the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in northern Maryland.

Preston spoke to a reporter in Fort Wayne, Indiana, two days after the rally and blamed the violence on the mayor of Charlottesville for reportedly instructing police not to intervene between the white supremacist protesters and the counterprotesters.

Charlottesville and Virginia State police were widely criticized for not making arrests or even taking actions on violence in their presence. State police officers can be seen in the video standing near where Preston fired on the counterprotester, but a state police spokeswoman said troopers did not hear or see the incident due to the noise and chaos.

A woman who had joined the counterprotesters, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car slammed into a crowd of people. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder in that case.

Borden was arrested Friday in Cincinnati and is being held in the Hamilton County jail on a charge of malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said in a news release. Preston was arrested Saturday on a charge of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, and was being held in the Baltimore County jail, police said.

Police were seeking help finding a third man, Alex Michael Ramos, 33, who also was allegedly involved in the beating of Harris. Ramos is also charged with malicious wounding, Charlottesville police said.

A lawyer for Harris told the New York Times that he credited Shaun King, an activist and columnist for the New York Daily News, with using social media to identify the suspects in Harris' beating. King offered a reward for information leading to names of those involved in the attacks, and circulated photos and videos on Twitter. The lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, said Ramos was identified after he wrote about the attack on Facebook.

Charlottesville police asked that anyone with information on Ramos' whereabouts contact them at 434-970-3280.

(c) 2017, The Washington Post. This story was written by Tom Jackman.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has taken center stage as Hurricane Harvey pounds his state. For many people around the country, it's their first introduction to the Texas head of state.

Abbott, a Republican, is the 48th governor of the Lone Star State. Prior to his election in 2014, he was the 50th and longest-serving Attorney General of Texas. Abbott also served as a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court and a State District Judge in Harris County, Texas.

Abbott, 59, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, later earning a law degree from Vanderbilt University. It was shortly after graduating from Vanderbilt that Abbott was paralyzed by a falling oak tree while jogging. He was paralyzed below waist-level, later having two steel rods implanted in his spine and undergoing extensive rehabilitation.

Abbott later reached a settlement of about $10 million with the property owners where the oak was located and a tree maintenance company.

"Some politicians talk about having a steel spine. I actually have one," he said when announcing his candidacy. "I will use my steel spine to fight for Texas values every single day."

Abbott is the first Texas governor to use a wheelchair. He is the first elected governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair since Alabama's George Wallace in 1983.

Abbott has praised the local and federal response to Hurricane Harvey, which has swept through the coast with damaging winds and life-threatening floods.

Pres. Trump granted my request for a disaster declaration allowing FEMA to swiftly help Texans rebuild their lives from #hurricaineharvey.  Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 26, 2017

Today I'm hosting a meeting at the state emergency operation center about our response to #HurricaneHarvey. pic.twitter.com/FcakawkhFt  Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 25, 2017
Rex Tillerson

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson smiles after finishing a television interview with Chris Wallace, the anchor of FOX News Sunday, in Washington, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson became the latest and highest-ranking administration official to distance himself from President Donald Trump, saying in a Sunday interview that the president "speaks for himself" in his response to racial hatred and violence.

Tillerson was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he thought Trump was expressing American values of tolerance and equality in his handling of racially tinged violence during a white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month.

"The president speaks for himself," he said.

When host Chris Wallace then asked whether Tillerson was "separating himself" from Trump's remarks, Tillerson answered, "I've made my own comments as to our values."

That was a reference to remarks Tillerson made Aug. 18 about inclusiveness and tolerance in a discussion of racial diversity and American values. His remarks were read as implicit criticism of Trump and his assertion that "both sides" were to blame for violence that killed a woman who was protesting the white-supremacist rally.

Tillerson's remarks followed harsh criticism of Trump from National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, who said in an interview Friday that he nearly quit over the president's handling of the events in Charlottesville.

"Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK," Cohn said in the Financial Times interview.

Cohn, who is Jewish, said that the administration "must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups."

Trump has condemned hate groups in the wake of Charlottesville but twice added equivocation about blame for violence and once said some "fine people" were among the white-supremacist marchers.

At a campaign rally before a largely white crowd on Tuesday in Phoenix, Trump decried the removal of Confederate statues - the flash point in Charlottesville - and blamed the news media for "trying to take away our history and our heritage."

Tillerson had told a group of State Department interns on Aug. 18 that "we do not honor, nor do we promote or accept, hate speech in any form."

Tillerson did not invoke Trump or levy direct criticism then, but his discussion of "hate speech" just days after the Charlottesville rally made his meaning clear.

"Those who embrace it poison our public discourse, and they damage the very country that they claim to love," Tillerson had said.

On Sunday, Tillerson rejected criticism from a United Nations committee last week that the Trump administration had failed in its response to Charlottesville and set a poor example for the rest of the world.

"We express America's values from the State Department - our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over," Tillerson said in the Fox interview, "and that message has never changed."

The leaders of Britain and Germany had previously said in response to Charlottesville that violence and bigotry must always be condemned.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed implicit criticism of Trump last week in impromptu remarks to U.S. troops captured on video.

Mattis says the country has "problems," and asks those in uniform to "hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it."

Mattis has not commented on the video, which was apparently recorded as he addressed troops in Jordan.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has defended Trump's remarks, but most other top aides have not directly addressed the controversy. Trump was privately furious about Cohn's rebuke, The Washington Post reported, but the president has not commented publicly on his aide's remarks.

Trump highly prizes personal loyalty and had earlier sharply criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for actions in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that Trump saw as disloyal.

It is not clear whether Tillerson has raised his concerns directly with Trump, although the two speak frequently and Tillerson met with Trump last week at the White House. Tillerson has not addressed whether he considered resigning over Trump's remarks.

Tillerson participated in Trump's video Cabinet meeting about flooding from Hurricane Harvey shortly after the television interview.

In that interview, Tillerson also addressed the departure Friday of former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, who had criticized Tillerson as one of the "globalists" thwarting Trump's "America First" agenda.

Wallace quoted from Gorka's resignation letter, which said that "a crucial element of the presidential campaign has been lost" because Trump's speech laying out his policy for Afghanistan did not mention "radical Islamic terrorism."

"I think he's completely wrong," Tillerson said. "I think it shows a lack of understanding of the president's broader policy when it comes to protecting Americans at home and abroad from all acts of terrorism."

Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief executive with no prior government experience, has expressed mainstream Republican views on many foreign policy issues and has lost some internal policy battles such as whether to remain a party to the landmark Paris climate accord.

"I don't see any division," between Trump's nationalist advisers and his more mainstream aides, Tillerson said Sunday.

He added: "I think it's a question of tactics and how you achieve those objectives. I think the president has been clear in his speech in Afghanistan that we are not undertaking nation-building," as Gorka and others have charged.

On North Korea, Tillerson said the nation's missile tests don't necessarily mean that Kim Jong Un's regime is thumbing its nose at the offer of negotiations with the United States.

"Clearly, they are still messaging us, as well, that they are not prepared to completely back away from their positions," Tillerson said. "We continue to want the Kim regime to understand there is a different path that he can choose."

The launch of three short-range missiles Saturday followed statements from Trump and Tillerson last week that took note of what Tillerson called recent "restraint" on the part of Pyongyang.

Until the launch, which came Friday night in the United States, North Korea had not launched any missiles since the unanimous approval of new United Nations Security Council sanctions three weeks ago. That caused Trump to say that North Korea was finally "starting to respect us."

"I don't know that we're wrong," Tillerson said. "It's going to take some time to tell."

(c) 2017, The Washington Post. Anne Gearan wrote this story.
"Big" Luther Strange appears to be in big trouble ahead of a Sept. 26 runoff against conservative firebrand Roy Moore, recent polling suggests.

Two polls, released in the past two weeks, show a similar result - Moore is ahead anywhere from 18 to 19 percent one month out from a crucial primary that could determine Alabama's next senator.

The previous polls have given Moore a decisive advantage in favorability scores, which means voters view the former judge as a more likeable person than Strange. In addition, Moore is polling strong among voters who likely backed U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Huntsville during the Aug. 15 primary. Brooks finished third with 82,363 votes.

Strange has since dismissed the polls, claiming that his campaign's internal polling suggests a much tighter contest. The Senate Leadership Fund - which is backing Strange's campaign - released a poll Thursday that shows the incumbent senator within 4 percentage points of Moore.

Political pundits in Alabama believe there is time for Strange to stage a comeback. Recent history shows that a big comeback is doable: In 2010, in Georgia, current Gov. Nathan Deal defeated Republican Karen Handel in a Republican runoff with a 50.2-49.8 percent win a mere 22 days after losing to Handel in the Republican primary by 11 percentage points.

Moore defeated Strange by a 38-32 percent margin during the Aug. 15 primary.

Strategic options

But what will it take for Strange to win? A variety of pundits have differing advice for the former Alabama Attorney General who was appointed to the job in February by former Gov. Robert Bentley.

Strange, as the top prosecutor in the state, has been repeatedly criticized for accepting the appointment since Bentley -- who resigned amid scandal in April -- was under investigation.

For Strange, most of the pundits believe he needs to continue releasing attack ads. They predict he will continue to "go negative" in the weeks leading to the runoff in an effort to drop Moore's favorable scores.

Strange has the financial backing to do so. Millions of dollars have already been pledged to back Strange's campaign by the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports GOP candidates backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"There is no other way than to go negative," said Steve Flowers, an author and political analyst whose weekly column about Alabama politics appears in more than 60 newspapers around the state. "You have to try and peel off Moore's hardcore support, which is very resilient and will be difficult to do."

Moore, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment from AL.com, anticipates the same thing.

"Washington should not control people in Alabama," said Moore during an interview Tuesday on FM Talk 106.5's "Midday Mobile" show. "When they do negative ads as they have done and put millions of dollars into it, it's not fair."

Jonathan Gray, a Mobile-based political strategist, said that Strange does have other options, though he anticipates more negativity coming from the senator's camp.

Those options, Gray said, include: Raising his favorability scores to flip the "negatives" hindering his campaign, limit messaging and run a more focused campaign, and host President Donald Trump for a campaign-style rally.

Gray said employing an alternative strategy to negative campaigning remains unlikely for Strange, including a Trump appearance in Alabama. Trump endorsed Strange, via Twitter posts, twice in the days leading up to the primary.

A Washington Post report on Friday indicates that Trump is considering turning his focus away from the Alabama contest.

"Long distance campaigning with TV ads, Twitter messages ... it won't be enough," said Gray. "If Donald Trump comes to Alabama, shakes hands, then that would have a dramatic change. But I don't suspect that will happen. There is too much at risk."

Gray said that Trump's continue involvement in the campaign could potentially alienate his evangelical conservative base which has thrust its support behind Moore's campaign, according to polling.

"Some will argue that he's too conservative, but no one can question whether Roy Moore is the anchor of conservative values in Alabama. Period. End of story," said Gray. "For Donald Trump to go up against someone like that is very risky. If Donald Trump loses, what does that say about his coattails and influence? You are talking about a president whose poll numbers (nationally) are falling. The whisper mill is he cannot impact public policy because he's lost credibility. The only thing he has going for him is he's the darling of the conservative right. If he goes up against the conservative right and loses, no one will be afraid of him anymore and he will be unable to get anything done."

William Stewart, professor emeritus of political sciences at the University of Alabama, said that Strange may have to become more like Trump and shed the "elitist" perception he's received before the primary.

"He lacks any charisma," said Stewart. "He's a very laid-back person who I consider a friend. This was all right as a Washington lobbyist and as attorney general, but running a race against Roy Moore is challenging to someone with his personality. He needs to get out among the people and make some controversial speeches."

Stewart, in fact, said "Big Luther" needs to be more like James "Big Jim" Folsom, who was Alabama's governor twice in the late 1940s and the 1950s.

Should "Big" Luther Strange be more like "Big" Jim Folsom? The populist Alabama governor's antics in the 1940s and 1950s garnered him much attention, and public support at the time. (file photo)

Folsom's antics included, among other things, campaigning with a hillbilly band. Folsom, a populist governor who was 6-foot, 8-inches tall, had a slogan as "the little man's big friend."

Strange is 6-foot, 9-inches tall, but his campaign hasn't developed an identifiable slogan.

"That is what Strange needs to do ... do things that will make news and also make a favorable impression on Alabama voters," said Stewart. "I can remember when the GOP was small and referred to as the country club set. That's how Strange is regarded. Ironically, he needs to distance himself from those who have supplied most of the funds for his campaign."

On a much more subdued note, Gray said, is that Strange could run a more targeted campaign focused on potential voters who view Moore negatively.

But at this point in the campaign, Gray said, it's "borderline impossible" for Strange to flip his own negative favorability scores. An Opinion Savvy-Decision Desk HQ poll, released Wednesday, showed that of 494 potential voters contacted, 45.9 percent view the senator unfavorably.

Conversely, a majority of those GOP voters, or 54.3 percent, view Moore favorably.

"Luther's negatives are so high because people think he sold out his principles to get the job," said Gray, referring to the Bentley appointment which occurred while Strange was attorney general and while the former governor was under investigation. "He could spend money on explaining away why he did what he did and if he does a good job at that, he may win some people back. It's incredibly expensive and difficult to undo those negatives."

Brent Buchanan, a Republican political strategist based in Montgomery, said the key for a Strange win is to increase his favorable scores, and identify his votes for a stronger turnout by "not tearing down Moore."

"It doesn't have to be quiet, but negative (campaigning against) Moore is just going to fire up his base," said Buchanan.

Quin Hillyer, a Mobile-based political writer -- who doesn't see a path for a Strange victory -- said the best approach for the senator is to focus on an issue and go positive.

"I would advise him to find some new issue, something positive, and make himself a crusader for it," said Hillyer. "Cut the horrendous negativity of his earlier campaign. Go down swinging for something positive he believes in."

'Bogus' polls

Strange, at this point, seems undeterred by the two polls.

At an appearance in Huntsville Thursday, he criticized the Opinion Savvy-Decision Desk HQ poll and an Aug. 20 poll conducted by Louisiana-based JMC Analytics and Polling. "I think those polls that are out now are bogus, honestly. The ones we've seen show it within 2 or 3 points, and I think next week, when people start doing legitimate, in-depth polling, you'll see that."

John Couvillon, who runs JMC Analytics and Polling in Baton Rouge, said he's not surprised with Strange's reaction.

"I'm accustomed to that kind of reaction when it's a number displeasing to one more candidates," he said. "It's nothing particularly surprising in that reaction from Senate Strange or any incumbent whose numbers are less than optimal."

Matthew Towery, with Atlanta-based Opinion Savvy, defended his company's work.

"Our data is consistent not only with the results of the first round, but also across multiple survey modes and demographics," said Towery. "Short of a miracle, (Strange's) campaign appears to be in serious trouble."

Strange said his campaign is "working very hard" to make sure voters know there is an election Sept. 26. Turnout will be key, only 17.6 percent of voters statewide showed up to vote during the primary and Secretary of State John Merrill has predicted an even lower turnout for the runoff.

The winner will face Democrat Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 general election.

"Now that the race is one-on-one, Luther is excited to continue sharing with Alabama voters his record of conservative accomplishments and fight for the rule of law, and his efforts to help President Trump achieve his America First agenda and to drain the swamp in Washington, as he did in Montgomery," said Shana Teehan, Strange's campaign spokeswoman.

Reporter Lee Roop contributed to this story.
The body of a 14-year-old girl was recovered from Ski Lake in Lake View on Saturday night.

The girl, who hasn't been publicly identified, was on a boat with a group of her friends and one of their parents when she fell off and went into the water sometime before 5:15 p.m., said Lake View Mayor Paul Calhoun.

Calhoun said officials don't yet know what caused the girl's death.

"We are now waiting for the coroner's office to come pick up her body," said Calhoun, who was at the scene. "By the grace of God, they were able to find her."

The boat driver told law enforcement the girl appeared to slip as she fell from the boat.

"He thought she would back up to the top of the water," the mayor told AL.com. "But 10 or 15 seconds went by, nothing. He jumped in the water and couldn't find her."

Calhoun said the victim's friends called for help. By 6:30 p.m. Lake View police officers were dressed in scuba gear and searching the lake. Hours later, the girl's body was recovered.

"It's just a terrible situation," the mayor said. "I prayed with the mother and hopefully brought her comfort. When he got there, the father embraced me and we prayed together."

Calhoun said the victim and her mother are from the Tuscaloosa County town of Lake View. The girl's father lives in Oneonta.

Calhoun said he did not have further details about the girl, such as where she went to school.

"A number of girls were out there doing their last hoorah before school cranks back up and Labor Day gets here," he said.

The Tuscaloosa County Rescue and Water Recovery Team assisted in the search.

Further details haven't been released.
We answer the most asked questions on Confederate statues and list those monuments that are being taken down.

Protests against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in Charlottesville turned violent on August 12, when white supremacists clashed with counterprotesters.

The incident triggered a national debate about other such Confederate monuments.

Below we answer the most asked questions.

What was the Confederacy?

The Confederate States of America , also known as the Confederacy , was a group of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860.

Confederate States of America Confederacy The Confederate states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas

Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

The desire of these states to preserve the institution of slavery was the primary motivation for secession and the main cause of the subsequent American Civil War.

The economies of these states were mostly dependent on the labour of enslaved people of African descent.

In 1865, after the loss of more than 600,000 lives, the Confederacy was defeated, and slavery was abolished.

What is a Confederate statue?

Monuments that are meant to honour Confederate leaders, soldiers or the Confederate states.

When were the Confederate statues erected?

Most of these statues were not built immediately after the wars end. The majority were erected between the 1890s and 1950s.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), there have been two periods in which there was a spike in the number of Confederate monuments and symbols.

The first began in around 1900, as states enacted Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise African Americans and formally segregate society, and lasted until the 1920s, when there was a resurgence in the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

The second was in the 1950s and 1960s as a backlash against the Civil Rights Movement.

How many Confederate statues are there?

In 2016, in the wake of the massacre of nine black church-goers by white supremacist Dylann Roof, the SPLC identified 1,503 Confederate place names and symbols across the country, noting that its list was not definitive.

These include monuments, memorials, statues, public schools, highways and county and city names among other things.

Of those, 718 were monuments and statues. Nearly 300 of them are in Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina.

Why is there a debate over Confederate monuments?

Groups that oppose the removal of the monuments argue that eradicating the monuments effectively erases history.

Some argue that these monuments are meant to celebrate Southern pride, while others believe these spaces should be preserved as reminders of the countrys darker moments.

But civil rights activists believe they serve as constant reminders of institutional racism, segregation and slavery.

The struggle over the countrys memory of the Confederacy and slavery has seen these historical sites become a venue for confrontations between the far right and anti-fascists.

Which statues have been taken down?

As of April, at least 60 symbols of the Confederacy had been removed or renamed since 2015, according to the SPLC.

Below are some of the Confederate statues that have recently been removed, hidden or for which there are plans to do so.

Charlottesville

Local authorities in the city of Charlottesville have voted to drape two Confederate statues in black fabric.

The covering of the statues is intended to signal the citys mourning for Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car slammed into a crowd protesting against the August 12 rally by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.





Maryland

In Maryland on August 18, Baltimore dismantled four Confederacy-related monuments under cover of darkness, including statues of Lee and Lieutenant General Thomas Stonewall Jackson.

General Jackson was considered one of the Souths most successful generals during the American Civil War.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said she and the city council decided to remove the monuments quickly and quietly.

Authorities also took down a statue of a 19th-century chief justice, Roger Taney.

Although not a Confederate monument, Taney wrote the 1857 Supreme Court ruling known as the Dred Scott decision that reaffirmed slavery and said black people could not be US citizens.

Texas

The University of Texas is removing statues of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston and Confederate postmaster general John H Reagan from a main area of the campus.

In 2015, the university moved a statue of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis from its perch by the clock tower to the universitys Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

North Carolina

Demonstrators stormed the site of a monument of a Confederate soldier outside a court in Durham, North Carolina, on August 14, and toppled the bronze statue from its base.

Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews said in a statement that his office would seek vandalism charges against those involved.

Florida

A monument to fallen Confederate soldiers in downtown Gainesville was brought down on August 14, and carried away by workers hired by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that placed it there 113 years ago, local media reported.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy is listed as a neo-Confederate group by the SPLC.

The statue now stands in Oak Ridge Cemetery near Rochelle, southeast of Gainesville.

California

A Confederate monument in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was taken down on August 15 after the cemeterys owners received numerous requests for its removal.

The memorial honoured Confederate veterans.

The statue stood since 1925 in a section of the graveyard where Confederate veterans and their families are buried.

New York City

Busts of Confederate General Robert E Lee and Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson will be removed from the City University of New Yorks Hall of Fame for Great Americans because New York stands against racism, Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted on August 17.

Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson will be removed from the CUNY hall of great Americans because New York stands against racism.  Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 17, 2017

Ohio

In Ohio police are conducting an investigation after a Confederate statue in a Civil War cemetery was vandalised on August 22.

The bronze statue of a Confederate soldier in Camp Chase Cemetery was toppled from its perch on an arch and decapitated.

Kentucky

On August 17, the City Council in Lexington approved a proposal to remove two Confederate statues from the citys historic court.

The mayor, Jim Gray, has 30 days to propose a new location for the statues, whose removal must be approved by the Kentucky Military Heritage Commission.
Thousands of refugees living near Arsal were sent back to Syria under a deal aimed at quelling border violence.

Bekaa Valley, Lebanon  Five times in as many years, the Lebanese army has forced Abu Ahmad and his family to dismantle and move the plywood-and-tarpaulin structure where they have lived in the Bekaa Valley since 2012.

It took me 15 days to build this one, Abu Ahmad told Al Jazeera, sitting on a thin red mat inside the familys most recent hand-built structure. Imagine  as soon as I finished building the last one, the army came and told me I had 10 minutes to take it down.

Their tent and 67 others in the village of Dalhamiyeh are among hundreds of informal clusters of Syrian refugee tents that dot the fertile plain, Lebanons breadbasket, along the border with Syria.

Abu Ahmads life in Lebanon has been one of near constant worry and instability, including fear of another security-based eviction by the Lebanese army; fear he will be unable to scrape together enough money for rent on their small scrap of land; fear of damaging his childrens future by sending them to work at local farms rather than to school; and increasingly, fear of when and how he will return home.

EXPLAINER: Syrias civil war

As a pair of rotating fans beats back the stifling summer heat, Abu Ahmad, a taxi driver from the central Syrian city of Hama, says he is concerned that his familys next move may be a forced march back across the border.

Were scared that at a certain point, they are going to try and force us to return to an area in Syria they consider safe. We dont want to be forcefully returned. We know those areas arent safe, he said.

Abu Ahmads fear peaked after a series of mass refugee returns organised by Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group and political party that has long served as a key ground force fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a swift six-day campaign in July, Hezbollah routed fighters belonging to the armed group Hayet Tahrir al-Sham from a mountainous border area near the town of Arsal, long exposed to spillover violence from the war in Syria. Taking advantage of the areas rugged terrain, hardline fighters had for three years used it to set up bases, and to attack and kidnap members of the Lebanese armed forces. An estimated 50,000 refugees had accumulated in the lawless enclave by the time Hezbollah moved in.

As part of a ceasefire deal to end the battle between Hezbollah and Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, at least 7,500 Syrians  including hardline fighters, their families and refugees living in the area  were bussed out of Lebanon and into Syrias northwestern Idlib province, an area now almost entirely controlled by Hayet Tahrir al-Sham.

The evacuation was quickly followed by a separate deal with a different rebel group operating in the area, in which Hezbollah led the transfer of another 3,000 refugees and rebels in the Arsal area across the border to Syrias Qalamoun region.

The exodus marked the largest formal repatriation of refugees since the war in Syria began nearly seven years ago. But international relief organisations were not given access to the returnees either prior to, or during, the transfers, and have cautioned that conditions for a safe and voluntary return might not have been met.

We believe many of the refugees that were brought to Idlib are not from there. If theyre not returning to their homes, its not considered a return; its secondary displacement, said Mike Bruce, an advocacy officer with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Lebanon.

Lisa Abu Khalid, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that conditions are not yet conducive for refugee returns to take place in safety and dignity, noting that the UNHCR was concerned that they were brought to an area where active fighting is taking place.

The operation in Arsal has brought questions to the forefront about the future of the five million Syrians displaced into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. In Lebanon, in particular, it comes as anti-refugee rhetoric has reached a pinnacle.

Lebanese leaders from across the political spectrum  including President Michel Aoun  have increasingly called for Syrian refugees to return home, voluntarily or not. Municipalities in the Bekaa have called for the shutdown of businesses run by Syrian refugees and the expulsion of refugees from their respective jurisdictions. Tens of thousands of people have signed online petitions calling for refugees to go home.

With an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has the highest number of refugees per capita worldwide. The burden is exacerbated by Lebanons weak political system: Politicians use refugees as deflection points as infrastructure projects stall, daily blackouts roll across the country and a years-long rubbish crisis remains unsolved.

The electricity situation is so bad that the energy minister this month inked a deal with Damascus, under which the neighbouring war-torn country will help Lebanon keep its lights on.

This is where the pressure starts, Sima Ghaddar, a Beirut-based policy associate with the Century Foundation, told Al Jazeera. Negative perceptions become public facts [and] Syrian refugees become the reason behind all of Lebanons economic, social and political problems.

READ MORE: Bringing facts back to Lebanons refugee conversation

While Abu Ahmad said that his personal relations with the local Lebanese community have been cordial, he worries that increasingly strident anti-refugee stands by community and political leaders could increase the domestic appetite for further mass returns.

Id return today if it was safe. I think any Syrian here would, he said. You think we like living in tents like this, sending our children out into the fields instead of educating them?

But return to where? he added. To Idlib? We know its not safe there.

Syrias neighbouring countries are increasingly pushing for refugees to be returned to safe zones proposed as part of a Russian-led de-escalation plan for Syrias seven-year war. But active fighting is still present in three of the four zones, including the province of Idlib.

Nearly two million people are packed into Idlib province, Syrias last northern rebel redoubt. Idlib has long been the dumping ground for evacuation deals that have emptied besieged rebel-held areas across the country; half the civilians now in Idlib have been internally displaced, and most rely on aid.

The future of the province is bleak. Civilians are exposed to bombing by both the Syrian government and the US-led international coalition as they increasingly target hardline fighters, steadily depleting aid and collapsing public services.

To be honest, all I see here are people arriving, not leaving, Abu Ahmads neighbour, Abu Ziad, told Al Jazeera. Just last night, some of my relatives arrived from Deir Az Zor.

Several tents away, a grandmother, her daughter-in-law and four young children sit in a baking hot tent with no fans. Still reeling from their journey, the grandmother tells of their escape, aided by smugglers, from an area in Syrias western desert controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, which is now under attack by Syrian government troops and US-backed forces. The family is broke and exhausted; the children are visibly disturbed.

Abu Ahmad notes that a return to government-controlled Syria is out of the question for many men who fear they could be attacked for fleeing the country or forcefully conscripted into the army. The situation in Idlib is looking increasingly grim and Deir Az Zor is out of the question for his family.

Of course, we want to return, Abu Ahmad said, but only when its safe.
Tanganyika, DRC  The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people worldwide. According to the United Nations, nearly half a million people were displaced in the southeastern province of Tanganyika between July 2016 and March 2017. Villagers fled their homes there to escape intercommunal fighting between Twa pygmies and Luba, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group.

Around 250,000 internally displaced people are now living in refugee settlements in and around the city of Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika province. The majority of them have limited access to healthcare, and face extreme shortages of food, water and shelter. The mortality rate for children under five is equivalent to that expected during the acute phase of an emergency.

But people here have been living in these conditions for months.

They have survived several attacks and have been forced to abandon their previous shelters. Each time, they lose some possessions and many have nothing left, explains Stephane Reynier de Montlaux, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials, MSF).

With the rainy season fast approaching and people living in overcrowded conditions without access to sufficient clean water, a cholera epidemic is feared.

An outbreak of violence around Kalemie during the past two months has left even more people displaced, while fires have destroyed several refugee camps.

On August 4, around 50 people were killed in clashes between the Twa and Luba near Kalemie. UN officials say they are concerned that the violence is escalating.

The roots of this violence can be found in past conflicts between the two ethnic groups, but with the arrival of Mai Mai armed groups from the restive North and South Kivus and the involvement of other local armed groups, the panorama of this conflict is growing more complex.
Big business claims that it is being ignored in the Brexit process. But research released today suggests that this is far from true. In fact, while small business, trade unions and public interest groups may be marginalised, large corporations are getting plenty of access to government ministers. Theyre determined to make sure that any type of Brexit becomes a big business Brexit.





The research, based on a disclosed list of government meetings between October 2016 and March 2017, shows that one in six ministerial meetings in David Davis Department for Exiting the EU over the last six months has been with business, the vast majority big corporations. In particular, the finance sector dominated those meetings, with 46 meetings being held with heavyweights including Goldman Sachs and HSBC.

The information weve received from the Department for International Trade is even worse  with one in nine meetings being held with business, most of it very big. Again, finance has done well  eight meetings with big bank HSBC, six with Barclays, and six with KPMG, as well as seven meetings with oil giant BP and five with big pharmaceutical corporation GlaxoSmithKline. This gives us some idea who Britain will be batting for post-Brexit  big finance, big energy, big pharmaceuticals.

Civil society only had five dedicated meetings with Liam Foxs Department for International Trade  out of 318 meetings altogether. Worse still, some of these organisations are actually pro-business groups advocating ultra-free market policies including the Adam Smith Institute and the Legatum Institute. Legatum is an influential think-tank, funded by a Dubai-based private investment group, which advocates the unilateral removal of agricultural tariffs and quotas, a move which would destroy small farmers in the UK.

OPINION: Brexit Britain  A United Kingdom of hate and denial

There couldnt be a greater contrast between the role big business has been given and the power of Britains elected representatives. The government only gave parliament the right to trigger Brexit talks after being forced to do so by the courts. MPs have virtually no power over trade deals  they cant scrutinise, amend or stop such deals. As things stand, disputes in the Wallonian region of Belgium will have more power over a final EU-UK trade deal than British MPs.

Big business is clearly being given more information, access and opportunities for influence than the rest of us. Unless we can prize open this process, a big business Brexit risks turning us into bargain basement Britain. by

What is being discussed in the ministerial meetings? Were not allowed to know, but next week, the government will introduce the Great Repeal Bill into parliament  a gigantic piece of legislation which aims to translate all current EU law into British law. This will entail much more than just changing the acronym EU to UK. It means leaving many institutions which allow for enforcement and keep them up-to-date. The Repeal Bill will also give the government extraordinary powers  named Henry VIII powers after our notorious renaissance monarch best known for beheading his wives  to make important decisions. Big business surely has something to say on this potential to shred various pieces of social and environmental regulation.

Its true that some big business was opposed to leaving the EU and wants to remain in the single market. If your business is based on a European market, any changes to UK regulation will threaten the ease with which goods can be sold into Europe. Some financial institutions will want so-called passporting right so they can continue to operate across the EU border.

But for many other businesses, the potential to cut regulation outside of the EU will undoubtedly appeal. In fact, financial institutions might want to divide up their operations, allowing a non-EU entity the ability to trade toxic financial instruments not allowed in the EU. Allowing American low-standard food into the UK  chickens washed in chlorine, beef pumped with hormones, GM wheat  might be disastrous for British farmers, but big food businesses will see the possibility it provides to make cheaper, worse-quality food.

The British government has repeatedly refused to give the public a running commentary on its position in the Brexit negotiations. But big business is clearly being given more information, access and opportunities for influence than the rest of us. Unless we can prize open this process, a big business Brexit risks turning us into bargain basement Britain.

Nick Dearden is the director of UK campaigning organisation Global Justice Now. He was previously the director of Jubilee Debt Campaign.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Indian human rights defender Babloo Loitongbam, who witnessed numerous instances of torture by Manipur security forces over the years, says that he has a particularly vivid memory of one victim: Khuraijam Pranam Singh.

His intestine was dangling out of his stomach. He was a young man and in a completely vegetative state, says Loitongbam. Thats the first impression of torture that still stays with me.





In July 2000, 23-year-old Pranam was picked up by Indian paramilitary forces in Manipur without any warning or explanation. He was never officially charged with a crime, but he was suspected of supporting an armed group, so he was detained and tortured. Thanks to the courageous efforts of a handful of human rights defenders and lawyers, after over two weeks of torture, he was freed.

In Indias northeastern state of Manipur, this incident isnt the first of its kind. Resistance against alleged Indian domination and territorial claims has given rise to nearly 30 active groups that aim to secede the state from India. Security forces in the region use this perceived threat to arrest, detain and torture alleged supporters of the resistance with impunity.

In October 2000, only two months after his arrest, Pranam attended a session held by the Independent Peoples Inquiry Commission (IPIC) set up to inquire into human rights violations in Manipur. Barely able to walk, Pranam was determined to narrate to the commission how he was stripped, his hands and legs were tied together and his body was turned upside down. The then 23-year-old had been brutally tortured by the arresting party.

READ MORE: Is free speech under threat in Modis India?

A rod was inserted up my anus and vigorously stirred thereby causing severe pain and bleeding, he said. The wooden rod broke inside my anus. Chilli powder was also applied to my eyes, anus and genitals as a result of which I could not urinate.

This incident was not the first or the last of its kind in Manipur.

In July 2004, only four years after Pranams ordeal, 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama Devi was taken from her house in the dead of the night by members of the Indian para-military forces for allegedly working for an armed group. The next day, her badly mutilated dead body was found only three kilometres away from her house. Her genitals were covered with bullet wounds, in an alleged attempt to cover up any evidence of rape.

In the absence of necessary checks, torture follows a constant, sometimes cyclical pattern. It repeats itself in different locations, with the same, or aggravated cruelty. by

A military inquiry into the incident, which took place in 2004 but made its findings public a decade later, unearthed the horrors Manorama endured before her death.

The inquiry report said that Manorama, who was clutching on to her mother Khumaleima, was dragged out screaming Ima Ima Khamu (mother, mother please stop them).

The disturbing report documented in detail the torture initially carried out inside her house. She was taken to a room and her helpless brother managed to catch a glimpse of Manorama, her hands behind her back, while a plain-clothes officer inserted a kitchen knife under her underwear.

Unfortunately, it is easy to guess the verdict of the Army Court of Inquiry. Not one person has been punished for this crime so far.

The government has used the armed struggle to normalise torture and impunity in this part of India. On July 1987, the Indian Army carried out a military operation dubbed Bluebird at the Manipur village of Oinam. The operation was in retaliation for an attack on an army post by the members of an armed group that left nine soldiers dead. It remains one of the worst instances of India attacking its own citizens. Houses were burned, schools and churches dismantled and villagers forced into hard labour. Several women were raped in public and 14 villagers brutally killed.

OPINION: Colonial trouble in Indias Northeast

Amnesty International comprehensively documented the human rights violations committed during the operation. According to its report, hundreds of villagers were tortured; subjected to electric shocks, mock executions, roller treatment, suspension and beatings.

Almost three decades later, the victims of Operation Bluebird, just like Pranam and Manorama, still await justice.

Torture spreading

The northeasts experience with torture is not unique. In April this year, an 11-second clip showing a Kashmiri man bound to the front of an army jeep in Indian-administered Kashmir was widely shared on social media. A sign reading, I am a stone pelter was attached to the mans chest. According to witness statements, the man, later identified as 26-year-old Farooq Ahmad Dar, was driven around in this position for five hours across 17 villages. The officer responsible was rewarded for his for sustained efforts in counterinsurgency operations.

This was not an isolated incident. In 2010, the cables released by Wikileaks exposed torture being used an integral part of Indias efforts to keep Kashmir under control. Today, torture in Indian-administered Kashmir, just like Manipur, remains an open secret.

The necessity for anti-torture laws

Back in 1955, the Indian army brought war and bloodletting to the Naga Hills region in northeastern India in an effort to stop nationalist and secessionist movements by Naga tribes. Nagas, who wanted to remain autonomous after Indias independence, were subjected to brutal methods of village regrouping that mirrored British operations in Malaya. Communities and families were torn apart.

In 1958, desperate to take the region under full control, the government passed the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), giving the armed forces wide powers to arrest, shoot, kill, occupy and destroy property in the Naga Hills with impunity. The scope of this act was later extended to other conflict ridden states including Manipur and Kashmir. In time, AFSPA among other lawless laws became the root cause of impunity and torture in India.





In 1997, India signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, but is yet to ratify it. In 2010, the Prevention of Torture Bill was prepared as an enabling legislation to ratify the UN convention, but it lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in May 2014. Today, AFSPA is still in force, but there is still no legislation to prevent torture in India.

In the absence of necessary checks, torture follows a constant, sometimes cyclical pattern. It repeats itself in different locations, with the same, or aggravated cruelty.

In 1966, India went as far as to use its fighter jets against armed rebels in the northeastern state of Mizoram. 13 civilians were killed in an unthinkable use of force by the Indian state, against the very people it is entrusted to protect. Village regroupings followed. The tactic of using the Indian air force against Indians recurred in April 2010; then Home Minister of India P Chidambaram thought if necessary, a mandate could be altered and air power used by the state to fight extremism in Chhattisgarh in Central India.

OPINION: Resistance is a way of life for Kashmiri youth

As an alternative to using fighter planes or pellet guns against itself, India needs to reckon with the fact that state sanctioned torture is futile. The Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau show that 1,145 unnatural deaths took place in prisons across India between 2005-2015. This is evidence that a stringent legislation is an imperative step towards preventing widespread custodial violence.

Today, state torture in India is no longer restricted to its northeastern corner. Be it in Manipur or Kashmir or Chhattisgarh, torture has become the norm in counterinsurgency operations or in police custody and successive governments chose to turn a blind eye to this reality.

On the 70th anniversary of Indias independence, it is high time for the Indian government to end its tacit approval of torture as a counterinsurgency method. It is, of course, necessary for the government to address any kind of violence and domestic threat, but it should not do this through violent methods. After all, there needs to be a wider difference between pre-independence India, and the current democratic state.

India needs to stop operating against its own people.

Arijit Sen is a human rights researcher. Arijit is a three-time recipient of Indias Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism for his reporting. Follow him on Twitter: @senarijit

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
It has become popular to describe the current situation on the Korean Peninsula as a slow motion Cuban Missile Crisis. The temptation to do so is understandable since there are significant similarities between the two. For instance, both occurred because the militarily weaker power made a strategic move to even the balance. In 1962, the Soviets tried to sneak missiles into range of the United States to offset their lack of reliable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Today, North Korea is undertaking an accelerated ICBM and associated nuclear warhead programme to deter the overwhelming conventional and nuclear superiority of the US.

Yet, there are critical differences that make the North Korean situation more intractable.





To begin with, this is the first foreign policy crisis of the seven-month old Trump Administration. By the time of the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy Administration had endured the Bay of Pigs fiasco, a shaky meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna and the erection of the Berlin Wall. President John F Kennedy had learned which individuals and agencies could be trusted and relied on. He had set up the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the National Security Council to manage crises.

The Trump Administration shows no such coherence at this point. Over a critical period of a few days, US policymakers announced a number of conflicting policies, seemingly hashing out whether regime change was an option, denuclearisation was a prerequisite to negotiations, and even if negotiations were possible, all in public. The press event on August 10, designed to show that everyone was on the same page would have been more convincing if strategist Steve Bannon (who has since been removed from the White House) and his nationalist wing of the White House were present.

OPINION: Should you be worried about North Korea?

A second major difference is that the Cuban crisis was handled largely in private save for the naval embargo. Most leaks appeared to be intentional. By contrast, the North Korean crisis has been handled mostly in public with (often-contradictory) statements by administration officials and (often unscripted) comments and tweets by President Trump that seem to be aimed directly at Kim Jung-un. Privately conveyed positions can be modified or even abandoned. Public positions are harder to climb down from.

It is essential that the Trump Administration get its act together, fill key empty positions and establish a working national security team structure. by

Perhaps it is only in hindsight that the resolution of the Cuban crisis seems so obvious. It was clear from the beginning that Kennedy could not and would not allow the Russian missiles to stay in Cuba. And it was clear the embargo could prevent further deliveries while air strikes would likely destroy those already there. The genius was finding a set of actions that would satisfy Khrushchev. A pledge not to invade Cuba somewhat mollified Castro, and a secret pledge to withdraw the US intermediate range ballistic missiles deployed in Turkey seemed enough for the Russian military and other Kremlin hardliners.

It took fierce internal argument and tough negotiations and no small amount of sleight of hand to get there, but at the end, it was a neat package.

There is no such neat package apparent in Korea. Yes, there are some things both sides may want, such as a Peace Treaty to finally end the Korean War and even normalisation of diplomatic relations, and North Korea will insist on US agreement not to seek regime change. But then what?

The US and South Korea are not giving up joint military exercises until, at a minimum, tensions have been dramatically reduced. Kim is unlikely to pause his weapons development for a pledge of no regime change so long as US forces remain on the Korean Peninsula. And then there is the true elephant in the room. Kim says he will never give up his nuclear weapons and indeed this is a requirement in the North Korean constitution. President Trump and his three predecessors have insisted he do so. Even if this could be kicked down the road, it is unlikely that the US would agree to begin negotiations while missile and nuclear tests continue. So the question may come down to this: Can a combination of sanctions and Chinese and US pressure get Kim to halt testing and start negotiations? If not, the impasse will remain, and the danger of war will not abate.

In the meantime, it is essential that the Trump Administration get its act together, fill key empty positions and establish a working national security team structure.

Col. Richard Klass, USAF (ret.) is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and the National War College, a Rhodes Scholar and a combat veteran. He is a board member at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
At least two killed and a flood emergency declared in Houston as Harvey brings torrential rain along Texas coast.

Tropical Storm Harvey has moved deeper into Texas, bringing heavy rain to the southern US states coastline and killing at least two people.

Throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people fear that death toll is only the beginning.

Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961s Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

The Category 4 hurricane weakened to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon and the National Hurricane Center said it was likely to weaken to a tropical depression later on Sunday.

READ MORE: Harvey downgraded but major floods to engulf Texas

The storm destroyed roofs and trees, caused tornadoes and flash floods and cut off power to nearly 230,000 people, mostly in the Houston area, on Saturday night.

Houston police officials said officers were evacuating two flooded apartment complexes.

There are a number of stranded people on our streets, calling 911, exhausting needed resources. You can help by staying off the streets, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter.

Al Jazeeras Allen Schauffler, reporting from Victoria, Texas, said: Officials are warning of the possibility of catastrophic flooding in this region, which is just 50km inland from the coast, and down to the coast and in a wide arc all the way to Houston.

The Harris County Joint Information Center said first responders were conducting hundreds of rescues early on Sunday morning as calls came in across the county.

Flood emergency

One person was killed in Aransas county in a fire at home during the storm, an official said. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries such as broken bones, another official said.

A second person died in flooding in Harris county, where Houston is located.

The storm could linger for days and unload more than 100cm of rain on cities, including Houston.

There, authorities were pleading with people not to leave their homes as a flood emergency was declared.

The streets are treacherous, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Rain fell on Houston at nearly 8cm an hour, leaving some streets and underpasses under water.

The many drainage channels known as bayous that carry excess water to the Gulf of Mexico were flowing freely and rising.

In Jersey Village, a city northwest of Houston, officials on Sunday recommended residents to consider evacuation, saying a bayou there may burst its banks before long.

Certainly, if people can stay in their homes, they can do that, Austin Bleess, the Jersey Village City manager, said.

Its quite possible that the streets could get impassable so we wanted to get that recommendation out.

South of Houston, about 4,500 inmates were evacuated from three state prisons in Brazoria county because the nearby Brazos River was rising.

Extensive damage

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storms path.

Mayor Charles Wax said his community took a blow right on the nose that left widespread devastation.

Rockports roads were a mess of toppled power poles, and wood framing from destroyed houses were strewn along a highway on the towns southern end.

Wax told The Weather Channel that the citys emergency response system had been hampered by the loss of mobile phone service and other forms of communication.

The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage. Because the city is the third-largest petrochemical port in the nation, the authorities will be on the lookout for spills, said Captain Tony Hahn.

The turbulent weather extended into southern Louisiana, where motorists were cautioned about the potential for high water, road hazards, high winds and tornadoes.
Rescue workers scramble to provide aid to millions of people stranded by worst monsoon floods in South Asia for years.

The death toll from monsoon floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal has climbed above 1,200, as rescue workers scramble to provide aid to millions of people stranded by the worst such disaster in years.

All three countries suffer frequent flooding during the June-September monsoon season, but international aid agencies say things are worse this year with thousands of villages cut off and people deprived of food and clean water for days.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit Bihar state on Saturday and has pledged a relief fund of $78m.





Government officials in Indias eastern state of Bihar told Reuters news agency on Friday that at least 379 people had been killed over the past few days, with thousands sheltered in relief camps away from their inundated homes.

This year farming has collapsed due to floods and we will witness a sharp rise in unemployment, said Anirudh Kumar, a disaster management official in Patna  the capital of poor Bihar state known for mass migration to cities in search of jobs.

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, at least 88 people were killed when floods swamped nearly half of the vast state of 220 million people.

Rajan Kumar, a federal interior ministry official in New Delhi overseeing the rescue and relief operations, told Reuters news agency that at least 850 people had been killed in six flood-affected states in the past month.

A second wave of floods led to widespread destruction, he said. We will have to provide immediate rehabilitation aid to help millions affected directly.

Left with nothing

In Nepal, 150 people have been killed and 90,000 homes destroyed in what the United Nations is calling the worst flooding there in a decade.

In Bangladesh, at least 134 people have died and more than 5.7 million were affected directly as monsoon flooding submerged more than a third of the low-lying and densely populated country.

IN PICTURES: Deadly floods hit South Asian states

Crops on 10,583 hectares of land have been washed away while another 600,587 hectares of farmland have been partially damaged, according to the disaster ministry, in a big blow to the farm-dependent country which lost around one million tonnes of rice in flash floods in April.

I could not find a single dry patch of land, said Matthew Marek, the head of disaster response in Bangladesh for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, who made an aerial assessment of the worst affected parts of the country.

Farmers are left with nothing, not even with clean drinking water.
Judges suspend President Morales order asking Ivan Velasquez to leave Guatemala after he moved to remove his immunity.

Guatemalas Constitutional Court has blocked President Jimmy Morales order to expel the head of a UN anti-corruption commission that is investigating his campaign financing.

Fransisco de Mata, the president of the court, said on Sunday that it had issued a temporary injunction blocking the order to expel Ivan Velasquez, head of the UN International Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

The court will now analyse the case before reaching a definitive decision. It was not clear how long that would take.

Morales had earlier said in a video posted on Twitter that the expulsion was in the interests of the Guatemalan people, for the strengthening of the rule of law and our institutions.

READ MORE: Comedian elected Guatemala president

He also announced the firing of Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales for failure to carry out the expulsion.

Morales order came after Velasquez and Guatemalas Chief Prosecutor Thelma Aldana announced on Friday that they would seek the removal of the presidents immunity so he could be investigated for campaign finance violations in 2015.

Velasquez, a Colombian national, said in the joint news conference with Aldana that funding of some campaign expenditures could not be explained. Morales has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Velasquez heads a 10-year-old commission of experts that has worked with Guatemalan prosecutors to root out corruption in the country.

The commission was key to bringing down former President Otto Perez Molina, who was forced to resign in 2015 and remains in prison.

Morales, a former comedian, won the subsequent elections and took over as president the following year.

State of flux

Morales initial order of expulsion was not received well both at home and abroad.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was shocked by Morales move and has repeatedly reiterated his full confidence in Commissioner Velasquez, Guterress spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

The embassies of international donor countries that support the UN commission  the United States, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, as well as the European Union  issued a joint statement regretting Morales decision.





The commission has played a vital role in the fight against impunity and corruption that undermine security and prosperity in Guatemala. The decision to expel Commissioner Ivan Velasquez harms the ability of CICIG to achieve its mandate, the statement said.

Reports of plans to expel Velasquez had already sparked angry protests outside the presidential palace on Saturday.

Some 2,500 people demonstrated in the capital, Guatemala City, to demand Morales to resign.

Protests against Velasquezs removal broke out again on Sunday at his commissions headquarters and the countrys Constitutional Court after the order.

Things really are in a state of flux, said Al Jazeeras David Mercer, reporting from the Guatemalan city of Antigua.

People are taking to the streets both to show their support for Velasquez and also show their disappointment in Morales, he added.

Sundays move capped days of speculation that Morales would move against Velasquez.

The president had travelled to the UN last week to meet Guterres and the government said topics included circumscribing the mandate of the anti-corruption commission led by Velasquez.
PM warns against further clashes after deaths of at least 30 in the streets amid angry protests over guilty verdict.

Thousands of supporters of a convicted Indian sect leader have ended a standoff with soldiers in India, a day before his sentencing which many fear could result in further violence.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, 50, was on Friday found guilty of raping two of his followers in 2002, a verdict that sent thousands of angry protesters rioting against the ruling in the streets.

At least 30 people were killed in the violence, more than 100 people were injured and more than 500 were arrested.

Judges are expected to sentence Singh on Monday. He faces seven years to life in prison.

Singhs group, Dera Sacha Sauda, has millions of followers.

READ MORE: Who is Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh?

Surjeet Singh, a police spokesperson, said a curfew imposed in Sirsa town, where the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters is located, was relaxed for five hours on Sunday to help people buy food and other essential items and outsiders to return home.

Fears of further violence

The presence of nearly 10,000 people in the headquarters has raised fears they may turn violent again after their leader is sentenced.

Indias prime minister condemned the recent mayhem and warned against more clashes.

People who take the law in their hands or take to violence will not be spared, no matter who they are, Narendra Modi said on Sunday in his monthly radio address, referring to the recent clashes.

India is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Buddha. Violence is not acceptable in the nation, in any form.

The judge will hold the proceedings in a prison in Rohtak town, where Singh has been held since Friday amid tight security.

Singh said hundreds of government forces, including the army, have been posted outside the groups headquarters since Fridays violence, when mobs set fire to government buildings, vandalised bus stations and government vehicles and attacked police and TV journalists in Panchkula.

Singh had denied the charges of raping the two women at his ashram 15 years ago.

Members of the group campaign for vegetarianism and against drug addiction.

They have also taken up social causes, such as organising the weddings of poor couples.

Huge followings

Groups such as Dera Sacha Sauda have huge followings in India and their leaders often maintain private militias for protection.

Clashes in 2007 between the Dera Sacha Sauda followers and members of the Sikh faith left at least three people dead in northern India.

In 2014, six people were killed when followers of another religious leader, the sect leader Rampal, fought street battles with police who were attempting to arrest him after he repeatedly failed to appear in court in connection with a murder trial.
Lebanon declares truce to pave way for release of ISIL-held troops as Syrian army and Hezbollah halt separate campaign.

Lebanons army has announced a ceasefire in its offensive against ISIL fighters at the countrys northeast border with Syria.

The ceasefire took effect at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) on Sunday in order to determine the fate of Lebanese soldiers who are in ISIL captivity, the military statement said.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeeras Mohammed Jamjoom said that the ceasefire was a significant development in Lebanon, given that the army seemed very confident just a couple of days ago that they were going to rid those areas of the last remnants of ISIL fighters.

Now, the Lebanese government is sending out a message that they care for their soldiers, and are trying to ensure that these soldiers can be released as quickly as possible, he said.

The fate of nine soldiers that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), took captive then remains unknown.

Syria, Hezbollah ceasefire

Shortly after, the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Syrian army, which are engaged in another offensive against ISIL on the other side of the frontier in Syria along the border with Lebanon, announced a ceasefire that took effect at the same time.

A Hezbollah military media unit said the ceasefire took place under a full agreement to end the battle in west Qalamoun against [ISIL].

At the time of writing, there were no reports of ISIL fighters failing to respect submit to both ceasefires.

Hezbollahs Al Manar TV reported that the armed group has received the bodies of five of its fighters who were held by ISIL. The bodies will be identified by DNA testing later.

The Lebanese army has been battling ISIL fighters in their last border foothold, near the town of Ras Baalbek.

The assault began last week, coinciding with the Hezbollah and the Syrian army offensive in Syrias western Qalamoun region.

MAPPED: The battle against ISIL

The Lebanese army said it is not coordinating its military operations with the Syrian army.

Northeast Lebanon saw one of the worst spillovers of Syrias war into Lebanon in 2014, when ISIL and other armed groups briefly overran the border town of Arsal.

Any coordination between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hezbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable US military aid the country receives.

Last week, Lebanon and Hezbollah each announced they had made significant gains against ISIL fighters, driving them back into a smaller part of the arid hills on the border.
Relatives doubt Israel police will properly probe killing of eight-year-old, whose family home was about to be seized.

An eight-year-old Palestinian girl who was run over by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank was buried on Sunday.

Aseel Abu Oun was killed a day earlier by a settler who drove his car near where she lived in the Foroush Beit Dajan village, in the Nablus district.

She was leaving a supermarket around noon with a friend when she was struck.

Haaretz, the Israeli daily newspaper, reported that police detained the driver of the vehicle for questioning.

Police said they opened an investigation, Haaretz reported, but did not specify whether the settler had been released.

However, members of Aseels family said the announcement of a police investigation was simply an attempt by the Israeli government to quell public anger.

READ MORE: Duma arson attack  The sadness has not stopped

We are used to the Israeli police and their ways of dealing with settler aggression or attacks on Palestinians, Jawdat Abu Oun, a relative of Aseels, told Al Jazeera.

We have asked for an independent, non-biased actor to oversee the investigation, but we dont think it will go anywhere, he said, adding that he believed it was likely the settler had already been released.

Tareq Abu Oun, the girls father, witnessed his daughter being run over and, with the help of other men, managed to stop the car from speeding away.

The settler was armed and they took his weapon from him until the Israeli police arrived, Jawdat said.

While it is legal for settlers to carry weapons in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are banned from being armed.

Aseel hoped for a better future

The victims short life was heavily affected by the Israeli occupation.

After moving his family from the village of Jaba to Foroush Beit Dajan, Abu Oun worked in agriculture but was plagued by constant visits and orders by the Israeli army to demolish his house.

Aref Daraghmeh, an expert on settlement affairs and Israeli violations, told local media that he had visited the 10-member family on Friday to document their suffering  the day Israeli forces officially notified them that their home would be seized.

I spoke to Tareq [Abu Oun] about the threats the Israeli authorities made to him about demolishing his home and dispersing his family, Daraghmeh said. Aseel was sitting on the floor, holding papers, and was full of hope for a better future for her and her family.

READ MORE: Palestinians brace for new West Bank settlement

An Israeli police spokeswoman told local media that emergency services had tried to resuscitate the child on Saturday. She was announced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Incidents of Jewish settlers running over Palestinian children in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem are not uncommon and are rarely investigated, even in fatal cases.

In 2014, five-year-old Inas Khalil and her friend Touleen Asfour were walking home from their nursery school near a village in Ramallah when they were hit by a settlers car. Inas died a few hours later.

Two weeks ago, four Palestinian boys  all six-year-olds  were severely injured when a settler mounted his car on a pavement in the East Jerusalem town of Silwan and struck them. The boys were all transferred to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

Follow Linah Alsaafin on Twitter: @LinahAlsaafin
Residents accuse security forces of shooting indiscriminately at the Muslim minority, forcing thousands to flee.

The Myanmar army has been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings in the restive Rakhine region, with residents and activists accusing soldiers of shooting indiscriminately at unarmed Rohingya men, women and children and carrying out arson attacks.

Authorities in Myanmar say close to 100 people have been killed since Friday when armed men, reportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), launched a pre-dawn raid on police outposts in the restive region.





The army has declared a war against terrorism, encircling the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, home to around 800,000 people, and imposed a curfew from 6pm (11:30 GMT) to 6am (23:30 GMT).

However, advocates for the Rohingya have given a much higher death toll, telling Al Jazeera that at least 800 of the Muslim minority, including dozens of women and children, have been killed in the violence.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the figures.

Aziz Khan, a Maungdaw resident, said the army stormed his village early on Friday and began firing indiscriminately at peoples cars and homes.

Government forces and the border guard police killed at least 11 people in my village. When they arrived they started shooting at everything that moved. Some soldiers then carried out arson attacks.

Women and children were also among the dead, he said. Even a baby wasnt spared.

OPINION: Myanmar needs to get serious about peace

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist and blogger based in Europe, said anywhere between 5,000  10,000 people had been driven from their homes by the recent offensive.

Using a network of activists on the ground to document the conflict, San Lwin said mosques and madrasas [religious Islamic institutions] had been burned to the ground, with thousands of Muslims stranded without food and shelter.

My own uncles were forced to flee by the government and the military, he told Al Jazeera.

There has been no help from the government, instead peoples homes have been destroyed and their goods looted.

Without food, shelter and protection, they dont know when well be killed.

Speaking to Al Jazeera under a pseudonym, Myint Lwin, a resident of Buthidaung township, said that fear had gripped every household.

People have been sharing videos of the killings on WhatsApp. Videos of women and children being killed. Innocent men being shot dead. You cant begin to imagine how scared we are.

Nobody wants to leave their home. Muslims are scared to go anywhere, hospitals, markets, anywhere. Its a very dangerous situation.

Videos uploaded on social media showed dozens of men, women and children fleeing with only the clothes on their backs while seeking refuge in rice and paddy fields.

OPINION: Regional actors should take a stand against Myanmar

Security has deteriorated sharply in Rakhine since Aung San Suu Kyis government sent thousands of troops into Rohingya villages and hamlets last October after nine policemen were killed by suspected Rohingya armed group in attacks on border posts.

The security forces offensive has been beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape; and forced more than 87,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

Matthew Smith, chief executive officer at Fortify Rights, a human rights group, said with the authorities treating all Rohingya as combatants, the governments account of the violence would be dubious at best.

The government has refused to cooperate with a UN fact-finding Mission on Rakhine and there are serious allegations of the military attacking unarmed civilians, he told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

A lot of people are on the run and they need serious protection and the authorities have not made it easy to help them.

Rakhine state is home to most of Myanmars 1.1 million Rohingya, who live largely in abject poverty and face widespread discrimination by the Buddhist majority.

The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations.

They have been rendered stateless by the government and the UN believes the armys crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing  a charge the government of Aung San Suu Kyi vehemently denies.

Follow Faisal Edroos on Twitter: @FaisalEdroos
Rights group asks Bangladesh not to turn away refugees, and slams Aung San Suu Kyis unacceptable response to crisis.

Bangladesh has detained and forcibly returned at least 90 Muslim Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, as thousands of civilians from the ethnic minority area, on the other side of the border, attempt to escape from continuing violence that has killed scores of people.

At least 20 Rohingya were caught on Sunday and sent back after crossing the Naf river, a natural border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Ariful Islam, a commander with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), told AFP news agency.

Separately, a group of 70 Rohingya were also sent back by police late on Saturday, after they crossed the zero line border zone, where Myanmar soldiers earlier fired mortars and machine guns at Rohingya villagers, making the dangerous dash from Myanmars northern state of Rakhine.

READ MORE: Myanmar troops open fire on civilians fleeing attacks

The villagers were caught roughly four kilometres inside Bangladeshi territory, en route to a refugee camp in Kutupalong, where thousands of Rohingya already live in squalid conditions, said local police chief Abul Khaer.

All 70 were detained and later pushed back to Myanmar by the border guards, Khaer told AFP.





They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar, another police officer said on condition of anonymity.

In its latest report on Sunday, the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, said the death toll from the clashes between security forces and Rohingya rebels that started on Thursday has reached 96  mostly alleged Rohingya attackers but also 12 security personnel.

Myanmars government has accused armed men from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of carrying out the deadly attack on police outposts, which sparked the latest violence.

Local Rohingya activists have reported a higher death toll, but Al Jazeera could not independently confirm the figures.

Since the violence erupted, thousands of Rohingya have fled towards Bangladesh, but authorities there have refused to let most of them.

Fleeing for their lives

Al Jazeeras Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the Bangladesh side of the border, said hundreds are stranded in at least two temporary camps set up by Bangladesh police.

The situation is very dire, and it has taken a new dimension because there is a small-scale insurgency within the Rohingya community in the Myanmar side.

For Bangladesh, it is a major challenge, he said, pointing that there are already an estimated half-million Rohingya in the country.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights, a human rights monitor in Myanmar, described the Rohingya situation as completely unacceptable and called on the international community to take an urgent humanitarian assistance on both sides of the border.





He said the military attacks carried out by Myanmar troops were indiscriminate.

We are consistently getting reports of army attacks on civilian populations, burning villages down, killing men, women and children, and this is leading people to flee for their lives.

One video posted on social media showed hundreds of Rohingya, drenched in the rain, clambering up and down a muddy hill while trying to cross a creek.

Smith urged Bangladesh not to turn Rohingya away, saying its government has an obligation to give at least temporary protection to refugees  running through forests, fleeing for their lives, in most cases with only the clothes on their back.

He also criticised Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi for waging a very dangerous propaganda campaign against humanitarian workers helping the Rohingya.

Shes been shockingly irresponsible with this crisis, he said. The international community needs to speak loudly, clearly and with a singular voice that this is completely unacceptable, and her government needs to change course.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people  predominantly Rohingya  from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

Aung San Suu Kyi has called Thursdays attacks a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state.
A suicide bomber detonated explosive-filled car in Helmand as an army convoy passed by, killing soldiers and civilians.

A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded several more in an attack on a convoy of Afghan soldiers in southern Helmand province late Sunday, an official said.

It was the latest in a series of deadly blows to Afghanistans beleaguered security forces and yet again underlined spiralling insecurity in the war-torn nation.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car as the Afghan National Army convoy passed a small market in Nawa District of Helmand, Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP news agency.

READ MORE: Rejected from Germany  One Afghans story

He added that civilians and forces personnel were among the dead while more than a dozen others had been wounded.

A source working at a nearby hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity that the bodies of 15 victims had been brought to the hospital. Another 19 injured were also admitted, he added.

The majority of the dead belong to Afghan forces and most of the wounded are civilians, the source said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a WhatsApp message sent to journalists.

Resurgent Taliban at peak of summer fighting

The deadly assault came days after a Taliban suicide bomber killed five civilians and wounded dozens of others, mainly children, when he detonated a car filled with explosives at a police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, Helmands capital.

That attack was the insurgents first major one since US President Donald Trump announced he was committing American troops to Afghanistan indefinitely.

At least 80 percent of the province is controlled by the Taliban, reported DPA news agency.





The resurgent Taliban are at the peak of their summer fighting season and have been ramping up their campaign against government forces.

Afghan police and troops  beset by a high death toll, desertions and nonexistent ghost soldiers on the payroll  have been struggling to beat back the Taliban since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

More than 2,500 Afghan police and troops were killed from January 1 to May 8.

Ordinary Afghans have also paid a heavy price for the 16-year US-led war.

Civilian deaths are at their worst since records began in 2009. In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.

Analysts have warned that Trumps commitment to sending thousands more American troops to Afghanistan  reversing earlier pledges to pull out  could heighten the rebellion and lead to more casualties.

The Taliban had called for a complete withdrawal of foreign forces and, following Trumps announcement, vowed to make the country a graveyard for US forces.
Anti-racist demonstrators take to the streets despite rally cancellation by the right-wing Patriot Prayer group.

More than a thousand people have protested a right-wing group in the US city of San Francisco, condemning white supremacy and bigotry.

The protesters showed up to Alamo Square Park on Saturday despite the cancellation of a rally and press conference by the right-wing Patriot Prayer group after officials walled off the area.

Right now, this is victory, protester Benjamin Sierra told The Associated Press.

They did not have enough gumption to do what they set out to do, he said.

On Friday, Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer, cancelled the so-called Freedom Rally over fears of a huge riot.

He said the group would instead hold a press conference on Saturday in Alamo Square Park.

READ MORE: Adopt a Nazi: How groups are countering neo-Nazis and white supremacists

But after police erected a fence around the park earlier in the day on Saturday to screen people as they entered, Gibson announced the event would be held indoors at a different location.

According to local media, Gibson eventually showed up to Crissy Field, the site of the originally scheduled rally, with about two dozen supporters.

They were eventually confronted by counterprotesters before leaving the area.

The Patriot Prayer leader has recently denounced white supremacy, but the groups rallies in the past have attracted white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members and others from a number of right-wing organisations, leading to violent confrontations with counterprotesters.

Many activists and rights groups have said Patriot Prayer seeks to provoke chaos and violence, especially because it often chooses to hold areas in more liberal communities.

Whose streets? Our streets

A number of politicians, both at the local and national level, repeatedly voiced concerns that the previously scheduled event by the Patriot Prayer group would lead to clashes with counterprotesters.

The San Francisco Bay Area is considered a cradle for freedom of speech and police in San Francisco have traditionally given demonstrators a wide berth.

However, after a man with links to a white supremacist group rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month, San Francisco police and civil leaders began to rethink their response to protests.

Gibson criticised the citys move to wall off the park as an attempt to silence his groups message.

READ MORE: Campuses, cities reject far right after Charlottesville

But the citys mayor, Ed Lee, defended the decision, saying that if people want to have a stage in San Francisco, they better have a message that contributes to peoples lives rather than find ways to hurt them.

Outside Alamo Square Park, protesters chanted, Whose streets? Our streets as they waved signs denouncing hate and bigotry.

More than a thousand others took to the streets in the citys Castro neighbourhood.

Hundreds had also protested on Friday under the banner United Against Hate.

San Francisco as a whole, we are a liberal city and this is not a place for hate or any sort of bigotry of any kind, protester Bianca Harris said.

I think its a really powerful message that were sending to people who come here to try to spew messages of hate that its just not welcome in this city.

Online, many used #NoHateInTheBay, #SFrally and #UniteAgainstHate to condemn white supremacy and racism.

Alamo Square SF today. Love and solidarity in action. #UniteAgainstHate Love wins. pic.twitter.com/uzb5TamOyA  Leigh Kimberg (@LeighKimberg) August 26, 2017
According to Messrs. Bing and Google, there are no statues of Theodor Herzl in the U.S. Still, its not inconceivable that there exists one somewhere, or, on some university campus, at least a bust of the founder of political Zionism. He was a popular figure in 50s, when Americans across the political spectrum celebrated the founding of Israel.

Now lets say the town or university, under pressure from CAIR, BDS, BLM, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student Association, and other teachers pets and their engage sponsors, decides to remove the statue or bust. This dead white male was a colonialist, an imperialist, and a racist, and should not be honored by a tolerant, multicultural community. His presence is creating a hostile environment.

So a group of Jewish and other students organize a rally in front of the bust to protest its removal. Leftist thugs vow that they will not let the rally take place. Racism is not protected speech.

Again, this is not inconceivable. In California alone, and just during the past year, mobs have forced the cancelation of talks by Charles Murray, Heather MacDonald, Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, and Milo Yiannopoulos, and on campuses across the country events sponsored by Jewish organizations have been disrupted and Jewish students intimidated.

The attacks at U.C. Irvine have been particularly egregious.

Those demonstrating against the removal of the bust would have a right to expect that their rally would be protected by campus security and local police. They would expect to be permitted to hear what their speakers had to say. The First Amendment is still on the books. It prohibits abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press and guarantees the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Imagine, then, that, though a federal judge has ordered that the event proceed, less than half an hour before its to begin, the police declare a state of emergency and order everyone to disperse. The reason? Protestors have been trying to push their way into the park and break up the rally and some of the Jewish students have defended the entrances. The police, who have failed to secure the park or keep the counterdemonstrators behind barricades, then force the students on to a street filled with counterdemonstrators. The cops disappear and the Jewish students have to run a gauntlet of black-clad, masked fascisti armed with bats and sticks, pepper spray, flamethrowers, bottles, and balloons of urine and dye. Some of those attending the rally are injured. None of the pogromchiks are arrested.

Would this be a scandal in the Jewish community? Would we hear denunciations of the police from the ADL, Hillel, the American Jewish Committee, and the local Federation? Probably.

But this outrage would likely inspire nothing more than a tepid response from university administrators or city fathers. There would be lamentations about the absence of civility, perhaps proposals for a dialogue between the two sides, and maybe a warning, as was issued after chanting demonstrators interrupted an Israeli film, chased away latecomers, and blocked the exits. Suspensions? Dont count on it.

But at least the media that covered the event would not confuse victim and perpetrators. The Jews would not be blamed for the violence when their rally was disrupted. And if a particularly sensitive and compassionate university president expressed regret for the violence on both sides, he would not be vilified.

Celebrating the perpetrator is, of course, the stock in trade of progressives -- from Trayvon Martin, the Horst Wessel of the left, and Michael (the Gentle Giant) Brown, to successful murderers Mumia Abu-Jamal and the legions of assassins from the PLO, Hamas, Hizballah, et. al.

What you have to do in this country to exonerate the would-be killer is show that the victim was guilty of a thought crime. Remember the desperate and expensive attempts to find some racist content in the tape of George Zimmermans 911 call?

So heres the message to my fellow Jews:

I wont insult your intelligence by disassociating myself from the views of Unite the Right rally participants.

The First Amendment, however, does not apply only to speech that is unobjectionable. What would be the reason for it if this were the case? The only speech thats prohibited was, once upon a time, that which posed a clear and present danger. Nearly fifty years ago the bar was raised: now only speech that is calculated to provoke imminent violence is excluded from protection under the First Amendment.

Though kill the Nazis, chanted by the Antifa and their friends, might meet that test, nothing said by the Unite the Right marchers does. White lives matter doesnt. Blood and soil doesnt. And Jews will not replace us, into which You will not replace us morphed, doesnt. Whether this refers to a nefarious plan by the Jews to give up birth control, or a plot to abandon the professions and go into truck-driving and dry-wall construction, or a conspiracy by the Elders of Zion to import more immigrants into the country, it does not pose the threat of imminent violence.

Because we didnt hear the speeches in Charlottesville, we dont know what their leaders believe, or how representative the sometimes imbecilic and offensive cherry-picked sound-bites from interviews are.

What you didnt hear at the rally were chants calling for the destruction of Israel.

Go on any campus during anti-apartheid week and you will.

We are told ad nauseum that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Except it is. Nearly 45% of the worlds Jews live the historic homeland of the Jewish people. For over a millennium, Jews, both in Europe and the Islamic world, were subject to arbitrary fees, confiscations, humiliations, expulsions, and, periodically, arson, robbery, rape, and murderous attacks. Jews, in turn, regarded themselves in exile, and knew they were tolerated only as long as rulers found them useful. Then, after they were granted civil and economic rights in Western Europe, their success triggered a new wave of anti-Semitism, despite their wish to assimilate and become merely Germans, Frenchmen, etc. of the Hebrew persuasion. The Holocaust was only the culmination of centuries of persecution, as were the pogroms, beginning with the Iraqi Farhud of 1941, that drove 800,000 Jews from lands in the Middle East and North Africa where theyd lived for 2,500 years. But the most compelling argument for a Jewish nation with a Jewish army is not what the Germans did, but what the British and Americans didnt do between 1941 and 1945.

If you identify with the fate of the Jewish people, you want to see Israel survive and prosper. Of course, just as Christianity attracted talented and ambitious converts, who were sometimes among the most zealous opponents of the Jews, so the dominant religion du jour has attracted numerous converts. Jews who demonize Israel are always welcome by the radical left.

Our Kulturtragers loathe Jewish nationalism only a little less than they loathe Western European and American nationalism. If you support Israel, be prepared to be labeled a hater and a racist. These labels exclude you from the protection of the First Amendment.

You are not being threatened by punks in white polo shirts parading under tiki torches. Waiting for you at the bottom of the slippery slope are the masked, black-clad Antifa, with sticks, mace, blowtorches, bags of urine, and bottles of concrete. And their violence will be applauded, or at least defended, by clergy, professors, entertainers, journalists, and politicians with advanced views.
Its not the so-called Confederate statues that are the problem.

The problem is the hold that Marxist art theory and criticism has on the U.S. art world.

The destruction of our heritage is all part of a Soviet-style purge of the arts, brought to you by Marxist Democrats and the Left.

The destruction is part of a movement to redefine the role of public art.

Where did this start?

Some say it started in our universities and made its way to the streets of our big cities.

More specifically, like Obama politics, the social unrest over public art started in Chicago.

Few remember when the great, first act in U.S. Marxist art criticism took place. It was 1988.

The headline in the New York Times read, Chicago Aldermen and Police Seize Portrait That Blacks Deem Offensive.

Into the Art Institute they stomped, those Democrat alderman, and pulled the painting off the wall.

They were offended.

There was no discussion of what makes a work of art great, or why some say the purpose of art is to offend and to challenge the viewer.

Nope.

If the painting offends someone, especially a Democrat, it must be removed.

But wait.

What if you are offended by a work of art that shows a Christian crucifix suspended in a jar of urine?

Serrano, who has faced censorship and violent threats for nearly three decades, argues that we must protect all speechwhether we agree with it or not.

That defense of his Piss Christ, does not work in Chicago or among the Black Lives Matter crowd, today.

As soon as they finish with the slaveholders they will start in on the Christians.

Back in Chicago, Carl Rohl-Smiths masterpiece is still in a Chicago warehouse. It was removed from public display because it offended some, even though it is one of the best examples of 19th century sculpture in the city.

At the Chicago dedication of the monument in 1893, Pullman wrote a letter to be read. In it Pullman states he desired to erect "an enduring monument, which should serve not only to perpetuate and honor the memory of the brave men and women and innocent childrenthe pioneer settlers who suffered herebut should also stimulate a desire among usto know more of the struggles and sacrifices of those who laid the foundation of the greatness of this city.

You would expect that artists who believe in freedom of expression would defend statues like this ands the one in Charlottesville.

They dont.

They dont because Marxist art theory has taken over their minds.

What is important, now, is not art for art sake, but art for the sake of so-called social justice. Defending freedom of speech in the arts is not politically correct.

Aimee Tomasek, chair of Valparaiso University's art department, said, You can argue that any sculpture is art in some way, but it's a loose argument. I don't know that these statues are worthy of preservation as art objects so much as historical objects  made to preserve a lost cause, a lost war. They weren't made with great artistic intent, but with political intent. And intent matters in this case.

No artist seems willing to challenge Tomaseks statement, a statement made with obvious political intent. One thing the Marxists arent, is accepting of loose arguments. Its all roped and tied, all black and white for her, the proletariate against the bourgeoisie.

She should be reminded that when we make all art political, our art criticism becomes political, too, a politics that turns the world on its head.

Many Marxist art critics reverse the critical process. Like the criticism coming out of Indiana, these critics start with Marxist theory and then work backwards to the art object.

The results would look very different if they started with the art object and worked forward to a critical theory.

Has anyone come forward and defended the statue in Charlottesvilles Lee Park (now called Emancipation Park) as a work of art that has to be judged, not from a political or Marxist point of view, but simply as a work of art?

Youd expect some artists to do so, but many are afraid. Like the Soviet art world of old, the present art world is so dominated by Marxists under the banner of multiculturalism or feminism, that artists risks their career by going against the tide.

Other artists are so committed to the politics of progressivism that they cannot see how someday their own art may be destroyed by a changed politics.

As to the Marxist art critics in New Orleans, remember that New York sculptor Alexander Doyle was hired to sculpt the statue, which was first installed in 1884. Born in Ohio, Doyle went to Italy to study sculpture in Bergamo, Rome, and Florence. While in Italy, Doyles talent was so recognized that he was made an honorary member of the Royal Raphael Academy of Urbino.

We dont know if any of Doyles relatives owned slaves of any kind. But no matter. In the eyes of Marxist critics, he should have identified with the proletariat and had enough good sense and moral virtue, especially retroactive moral virtue, to have declined the Lee commission.

Like Carl Rohl-Smiths Chicago statue, the Lee statute in Charlottesville started out as a memorial and gift to the city. In 1917, McIntire gave the site to the City of Charlottesville in order to erect thereon a statue of General Robert E. Lee and to present said property to the City as a memorial to his parents'"

Henry Shrady was commissioned to execute the sculpture in 1917. For those who dont remember, Henry Merwin Shrady was an American sculptor, best known for the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Writing in the American Review of Reviews for 1922, Albert Shaw says of Shradys work, Mr. Shradys modeling of horses in action has hardly been equaled by any other sculptor.

Would Aimee Tomasek reply to this loose evaluation of Shradys work by saying, O.K., but it not the horse we object to, but the man riding the horse?

This suggest a compromise. Mutilate the art by leaving the horse and taking the man. But that will not work for Marxist critics. They are driven by a new purity.

In their quest for political purity, when will BLM ask for Shradys statue of Grant in Washington, D.C. to be removed?

Should we not preserve Shrady's public works, no matter what politics surrounds them?

It has been said that Henry Merwin Shrady also created some of the finest bronze wildlife and Indian sculptures of the American West.

Too bad, the Marxist art critics say. Melt down those bronze buffalos.

How many slaves did Shradys relatives own? And if he did own any slaves, so what, he was white so by definition he was a racist.

It has been asked how can their be art after Freud and Marx? The attacks on public art in Chicago, New Orleans and Charlottesville show us that the future of public art and memorials is dead.

Marxist art critics are going to make sure we have a city that is gray, modern and filled with gigantic puppies by Jeff Koons.

Memory by its very nature has become offensive.

In the meantime, dont forget that the Coliseum in Rome was built by Jewish slaves captured when Jerusalem fell in 70 AD.

Does it offend your Marxist eyes to gaze upon those arches?

The ghost of Alaric rides with the Democrats.
Today is the anniversary of a singular event that actually did change the earths climate for a couple of years (after which Natures mighty equilibrating power returned things to normal): the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano. Grantee Kleza writes:

Krakatoa blew apart on this day in 1883 and the shockwaves resulted in terrifying natural phenomena and dramatic climate change. (snip) Krakatoa had been steaming, rumbling and bubbling since May 1883 when explosions could be heard in what is now Jakarta, 160km away. Ash was blown 6km into the sky. The Earths violence subsided for a while but the volcanic fury was finally unleashed on August 26 and reached its ear-splitting crescendo on the morning of the 27th when more than 70 per cent of the island blew up in a series of four massive explosions. Sailors on ships in the Sunda Strait 60km away suffered burst ear drums from the noise. A black cloud of ash was estimated to be 27km high. At least 36,000 people died from the force of the blasts and the tsunamis they created. Ships were rocked as far away as South Africa and at some places, walls of water were recorded as being 30m high. Massive amounts of sulphur dioxide were hurled into the stratosphere, which darkened the sky for years. The Brisbane Courier informed readers that in the aftermath of Krakatoas eruption, passengers on ships coming from America to Australia reported that in the vicinity of the tropics, people were very much astonished at seeing the sun, almost all day long, of a pale blue colour; and on another occasion it appeared green. While the Earth was also treated to spectacular sunsets, there were chaotic weather patterns and the Earth was cooled by as much as 1.2C for the next five years. [emphases added]

While Krakatoa is the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, volcanoes have been, and remain, the source of vast amounts of pollutants, including particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and CO2. And we have only a tenuous grasp on the amount of greenhouse gasses bubbling up from undersea volcanoes. Consider that just 3 years ago, the first underwater 3-D survey of the ocean floor revealed as many as 20,000 undersea volcanoes, some of them extinct, others dormant, and others still emitting gasses and lava that bubble up constantly into the atmosphere. Nature has a way of dealing with these gasses, as the recovery from Krakatoas massive emissions demonstrates. Plant life thrives with higher CO2 levels, and turns CO2 back into O2 and carbon (which often becomes fuel, as in wood).

The late and sorely missed Michael Crichton penned the best description of natures mighty dominance over mans puny efforts, and the late and sorely-missed Charlton Heston read it for listeners of the Rush Limbaugh Show in 2007:

Indonesia, where whats left of Krakatoa exists, already celebrates the anniversary of the eruption in the Lampung Krakatau Festival. Now that the carnage is a distant memory, it is appropriate for the rest of the world to follow the lead of Indonesia.

Those on the left who attribute mystical powers to Mother Gaia ought to be in the forefront of these celebrations, though it would require them to see through the flimflam of climate change hucksters like Al Gore.

Hat tip: John McMahon and Monica Showalter
It appears that New York City may remove statues of Christopher Columbus.

On August 16, 2017, Mayor DeBlasio tweeted:

After the violent events in Charlottesville, New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property.

DeBlasio was joined by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito who said:

There's very much an ongoing dialogue and debate in the Caribbean, particularly in Puerto Rico where I'm from, about this same conversation that there should be no monument or statue of Christopher Columbus based on what he means or what he signifies ... the Native population that was there when he came, oppression, and everything that he brought with him"

The statue was donated to New York in 1892 by an Italian-American group, it is located at Columbus Circle:

After the violent events in Charlottesville, New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property. 2:02 PM - 16 Aug 2017

Evidently the rap against Columbus is that his discovery of the Americas led to the Europeans settling in the Americas. The arrival of the Europeans led to spoilation of the paradise where the indigenous or natives led peaceful lives with no wars, fighting, slavery, hunger, disease, etc. As every good Leftist, now a Democrat, and follower of the Mainstream/Fake News Media, knows all these problems were caused by the Europeans who settled in the Americas. Maybe we also should stop using the word AMERICA since it is derived from another European Italian, Americo Vespucci. Also, change the name of the Verrazano Bridge and Columbus Circle, and every city named Columbus and Columbia.

DeBlasio and Melissa Viverito are both of Italian descent. Both used the Italian-sounding surnames of their mothers which helped them get Italian votes in New York City. DeBlasio and Viverito are offended by the Italian Christopher Columbus but not offended enough that they used their Italian surnames to get votes.

Melissa is a supporter of Occupy Wall Street. She has really suffered because of the Christopher Columbus discovery: Melissa attended Columbia University and Baruch College. She inherited $6,700,000 from her father, a doctor, and owns a condo worth $1,300,000, in addition to rental properties. I dont know how she bears up with this oppression caused by Chris Columbus.

The premise of the drive to remove statues of Columbus is that the European settlement of the Americas was bad, and specifically, the United States is bad. No Columbus, then no Europeans, then no USA, so goes the logic. Thus, Columbus may be a symbol of hate.

Maybe Mayor DeBlasio and Viverito, before they take down the statue of Columbus, can explain to us why immigrants from all over the world came to and still want to come to the U.S.A. If it is so bad, why do we have an issue with illegal immigrants, errrrr, excuse me, undocumented immigrants, who flock to the U.S.A?

Why do the Dems go to court to oppose the Trump travel ban? Why do the Dems support sanctuary cities, open borders, and oppose the border wall? If the U.S.A. is so bad, started by Columbus, then it would seem logical that the Dems and their media cheerleaders would want to keep immigrants OUT of the U.S.A., not allow them IN. After all we are a bad nation which started from Columbuss discovery of the America.
The Illinois state government missed its annual payments to schools this month for the first time in history and a compromise hammered out between the two parties may not pass the legislature this week.

The failure of the legislature to come to an agreement on a new funding formula for public schools means that it is possible that the schools will not open on time. Governor Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan hashed out a compromise last week, many of the details of which are still secret. But even with the prospect of shuttered schools, opposition to the deal is building on both sides.

NBC5

At issue is Senate Bill 1, a measure passed by the legislature to move Illinois to an evidence-based model of education funding, which would take into account each districts individual needs, as well as its local revenue sources, when appropriating state aid  prioritizing districts that are furthest from being fully-funded. Without an evidence-based model in place, no state funding can be disbursed to K-12 schools across Illinois at all, due to a provision in the budget passed in July that makes aid contingent on an overhaul of the funding formula. Critics of SB 1, including Rauner, have called it a bailout for cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools because the bill as passed took into account the districts $505 million in unfunded pension liability, plus $221 million in its normal pension payments, as well as the $203 million Chicago Block Grant, when determining how much it should receive in state funding. The governor's amendatory veto earlier this month made several changes to the bill that included the removal of those considerations  which would result in CPS receiving $463 million less in state aid, according to an analysis from the Illinois State Board of Education. While specifics of Thursdays compromise  hammered out through a series of closed-door meetings  have not yet been made public, it may include an additional $300 million to CPS above Rauners plan, as well as giving the states largest school district the authority to raise property taxes. In exchange, changes to the way tax increment financing districts are calculated into a schools local funding capabilities may be imminent, at Republicans behest, plus a potential allowance for districts to get rid of requirements, like physical education, for which the state does not provide funding. One of the more contentious results of the negotiations is a possible tuition tax credit pilot program for which officials may earmark up to $75 million for tax credits to parents who send their children to private schools.

Rauner appears resigned to some kind of bail out for the Chicago Public Schools, despite heavy criticism that the CPS has mismanaged its finances for years. The $300 million in the funding compromise for the CPS is the absolute minimum the city needs to avoid major layoffs and classroom cutbacks later this year.

Downstate Republicans bitterly resent that money going to a school system so woefully mismanaged. It is schools in their districts that will suffer because of the bailout.

But Madigan and his allies in the Illinois House have their orders from the Cook County machine. The bailout will not only save the CPS this year, but the rejiggered funding formula will be very generous to Chicago in the future.

Rauner, who is running for re-election next year, was elected on an ambitious reform program that included reining in the unions and reforming the massive pension problems faced by the state. He has been unable to accomplish anything, despite preventing the passage of a budget for 2 years. In July, his own party turned their back on him to override his veto and approve a budget.

That he was forced to give up so much to the Democrats to get the education funding bill compromise does not bode well for his electoral chances. Republicans may feel he isn't worth putting their own political fortunes at risk and, along with teachers unions, work to defeat the compromise.

If that happened, the resulting chaos of parents scrambling for child care so that they have someone to watch their children while they go to work could ensure that Rauner becomes a one term governor.
Without thinking much about it, someone who overdoses on prescription opioids of heroin can just keep going right back to Medicaid for more easy access to the drug that nearly killed them the first time. The state just keeps paying for it.

Which is why, according to a new study, Medicaid recipients are three times more likely to overdose on opioids than people on private insurance.

Sure, it's easy to dismiss the opioid crisis as a phenomenon peculiar to people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. But obviously, there are causes and mechanisms here, which is why the numbers are coming in as they are. It's not just the supposed character flaws of those taking these opioids that is at work, it's the drug dealer that accommodates them on the other side, which in this case, the state. Dependency on the state seems to be fuelling dependency on drugs as much as anything.

According to the Washington Free Beacon:

The study evaluated Medicaid claims in Pennsylvania from 2008 through 2013 for those individuals ages 12 to 64 who had experienced a prescription opioid or heroin overdose. There were 6,013 cases found3,945 were individuals who overdosed on prescription opioids and 2,068 overdosed on heroin. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individuals on Medicaid are three times more likely to have a risk of opioid overdose than those who are privately insured. Fifty-nine percent of those who overdosed on opioids were given opioid prescriptions after they overdosed, and 39.7 percent of those who overdosed on heroin were given the same. "Our findings signal a relatively weak health system response to a potentially life-threatening event," said Julie Donahue, Ph.D., who authored the study. "However, they also point to opportunities for interventions that could prevent future overdoses in a particularly vulnerable population."

Notice also that the states that have increased Medicaid expansion in the greatest amounts due to the Affordable Care Act are also the ones that are known to have the greatest problems with the opioid crisis, if one takes a look at this graph here:

This is not to say there aren't other causes for the opioid crisis as well. President Obama's open borders policy opened the floodgates for cartel imports of opiates for one. The pressures on the medical profession, in which doctors are pressed by addicts to prescribe opioids in unsafe amounts or else be hit with bad patient reviews is another. There also is the poverty and lack of opportunity that motivates many to want to take opioids. But there is little doubt the round-heeled way Medicaid prescribes in its runaway expense culture plays a role, too.

So much for the claim about the heartlessness of private insurance companies. At least its recipients are alive to tell about it. Things happen because there are incentives for them to happen. If a gift is freely given, you take it, as Milton Friedman once observed. And to paraphrase his student, Thomas Sowell, you can have all the opioid addiction you'd like to pay for.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced some rowdy demonstrators at a campaign event in Quedlinburg, Germany on Saturday, in advance of the September 24 election. The demonstrators were protesting Merkel's open borders policy from 2015 that saw nearly a million refugees, mostly from Iraq and Syria, pour into the country.

Merkel had a change of heart in 2016, closing several border crossings and denying asylum to many. The result was that only 280,000 refugees entered Germany that year, and only 108,000 so far this year.

But Merkel told a local newspaper that she does not regret her decision to allow so many potential terrorists into the country. Germany has suffered a spate of terror attacks in the last two years and many blame Merkel's policies for the attacks.

Bloomberg:

I would make all of the important decisions of 2015 the same way again, Merkel was quoted as saying in a Welt am Sonntag newspaper interview published Sunday. Four weeks before Germanys election on Sept. 24, the comments underscore her conviction that there was a humanitarian need to open the border when a record influx of refugees made their way through southern and eastern Europe to Germany that year. Part of the problem in the buildup to the 2015 crisis is that Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Italy were too often left alone by other European Union countries to deal with refugees arriving from outside the bloc, Merkel was quoted as saying. She renewed her campaign pledge that Germany should never again witness such an emergency. Merkels open-borders stance depressed her approval ratings last year and spurred the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party after a record number of 980,000 asylum seekers, many of them fleeing war in Syria, arrived in Germany in 2015. Critics included U.S. President Donald Trump, who called Merkels policy a catastrophic mistake in an interview with European media. Merkels poll numbers rebounded as the influx ebbed to 280,000 last year, restricted by border closures along the so-called Balkan route and a refugee accord between the EU and Turkey. Some 106,000 asylum seekers arrived in the first seven months of 2017, led by Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, according to German Interior Ministry figures. Support for Merkels Christian Democratic-led bloc declined 1 percentage point to 38 percent while her main opponent, the Social Democrats led by challenger Martin Schulz, also fell 1 point to 23 percent, according to a weekly Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag newspaper. At the same time, 51 percent of Germans would vote for Merkel if the chancellor were elected directly, compared with 22 percent for Schulz, according to the newspaper. That compares with a 39-38 percent edge for Merkel in January, when Schulzs emergence as her main challenger gave the SPD a temporary poll boost. The pro-business Free Democrats and the Alternative for Germany gained one point each in the weekly survey, polling 9 percent and 8 percent respectively, with the anti-capitalist Left party unchanged at 9 percent and the Greens declining 1 point to 7 percent.

What is going to save Merkel from defeat is the weakness of her main rival, Social Democrat Martin Schulz, whose far left platform has put off millions of voters who might otherwise vote for a viable alternative to Merkel. But the Alternative for Germany party who oppose Merkel's refugee policies, are going to take millions of votes from Merkel's coalition, putting her outright election as chancellor in jeapordy.

The AfD has been making their opposition felt on the campaign trail.

The Hill:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced rowdy protesters at a campaign event in Quedlinburg, Germany on Saturday, including jeers and chants of "liar, liar". Reuters reported that Merkel was interrupted during a 30-minute campaign address in the city by groups of unruly demonstrators holding signs that read "Merkel must go". Many accused Merkel of terror attacks in the nation in recent years. Merkel, who is running for the nomination of the Christian Democratic Union party for a fourth term in office, is reportedly a favorite to win in September. According to Reuters, Merkel responded to the protesters by saying Germany's problems won't be solved by "screaming." I hope you were able to understand some of that even though some of you out there kept on yelling, Merkel told the crowd. "Some believe the problems in Germany can be fixed by screaming - but I dont think so and the majority of the people here dont think so either, she added. Some people cant do anything else but scream and shout - but were not going to let them lead us astray.

"Diversity makes us strong in Germany and that's something we want to maintain," she said Saturday. Sound familiar? It's a statement that's impossible to prove. In fact, the question could be asked; was Germany stronger internally when it was a homogenus, mostly Christian country? And the follow up question: In what way has Germany become "stronger" with the influx of several million aliens who are rejecting German culture and trying to impose their own?

For the present, it doesn't matter. Unless Merkel makes a major faux pas, she is assured of a victory on election day.
America is situated in the Eye of the Storm. Since last November, Donald Trump and the nation have had to endure unprecedented hatred and obstruction from the left. Everything Trump has tried to do, all the initiatives that he ran and was elected on, are opposed in knee-jerk fashion. Not just opposed, but viciously attacked, with lies pouring out like a hurricane-force wind. No lie is too preposterous for the media to latch onto and amplify, if they think it will help with their goal of overthrowing this Presidency. The Russian Collusion Delusion was hammered month after month, despite a total lack of factual basis, until it is dropped suddenly when it becomes clear that the real colluders are on the Democratic side.

For anyone with eyes to see, a coup has been brewing in plain sight. His enemies, including many in his own party, are plotting to overthrow the man properly elected President according to the method laid out in the Constitution. The Republican leader of the Senate recently expressed open doubt (open in the sense that he leaked it to the press) that Donald Trumps presidency could survive. What loyalty from the man who undoubtedly owes Trump for the fact that he still occupies that position of power!

Recently with the events in Charlottesville, this torrent of hatred has appeared to reach a peak, like an eyewall of a hurricane striking with ferocity. In a carefully choreographed encounter with two groups of haters, deliberately funneled together and encouraged to clash, the desired result of violence took place. It is glaringly obvious that the side identified with "the right" was penetrated by agents from the Soros/Obama cabal, and purposely goaded into a situation where Trump would be blamed for any violence that ensued. It is equally obvious that the other side, Antifa, represents the army of brownshirts that Barack Obama long fantasized about forming. All eerily familiar, to anyone acquainted with the history of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Hurricane Harvey has rudely interrupted this campaign to remove a President, rightfully capturing all the headlines, and promising to continue to do so for days. A good time for the anti-Trump forces to pause and ask themselves, Do we really want to do this?

Clearly the answer will be yes for the new Red Army -- leftist Democrats, the leftist media, and their black-clad shock troops. But the folks who really need to pause are those on the brink of allying themselves with these extreme leftists, men and women who used to consider themselves Republicans. Do creatures from the fetid swamp that is Washington DC such as McConnell and Ryan understand what will happen if they succeed in destroying this President? If that happens their party is finished, and so are they. Voters will not forget, and they will not forgive. And they will no longer vote for Republicans.

Ironically, the Republican Party was formed as a third party in just such a moral and existential crisis, as the vehicle for those who were willing to take a stand against slavery. Abraham Lincoln was the recognized leader of the new third party, and the Whigs, who refused to take a stand on the burning issue of the day, went into the dustbin of history. The same thing could now happen to the party who once led the fight against slavery. Ironic, since Donald Trump as President is the leader of the party, and he is falsely smeared as a racist each and every day by the mob that once was known as the news media.

If those currently plotting this coup decide to move forward, the shock waves are going to going to make the eyewall of a hurricane pale in comparison. A new civil war, and a new party to carry the hopes of conservatives, are just two of the predictable outcomes. Never-Trumpers, geriatric office-clingers, and country-club Republicans better choose well which side they are on.
The Vatican has called an ISIS terrorist video from the Philippines threatening the life of the pope "worrying" and made vague statements about security being in ready to halt the potential attack.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's No. 2 official, said he has seen the video of militants desecrating Christian statues and threatening the pope by saying they'll come to Rome, as they tear in half photos of him and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The video was mostly filmed in the Philippines, where ISIS has been clashing with government forces for control of the city of Marawi, MailOnline reported. Parolin said: "Obviously, one cannot help but worry, above all for the senseless hatred that it is." But he said the Vatican has not added more measures to its already bolstered security.

It's not their first threat against the Vatican. Terrorists launched another video with St. Peter's Square in their crosshairs in 2015, created in the wake of their murder of a group of Egyptian Christians on a beach the same year.

The Swiss Guards recently said it is "only a matter of time" before the terrorists do their worst to strike at the Vatican.

The threat comes at a peculiar time - in the wake of words from the pope urging Europe to take all comers in great refugee inflow, without regard for "national security concerns."

In the message, Francis demanded governments welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants, saying Jesus message of love is rooted in welcoming the rejected strangers of every age. He demanded a simplified process of granting humanitarian and temporary visas and rejected arbitrary and collective expulsions as unsuitable. He said the principle of ensuring each persons dignity obliges us to always prioritize personal safety over national security.

Whose personal safety that might be was not specified. But it appeared the Holy Father placed a higher value on the right of potential terrorists to come to Europe to live the good life than the right of their intended victims to live without fear, whether Europe's victims of Afghani rape maurauders, or Europe's victims of the next terrorist spectacular.

It was a singularly irresponsible statement because what on earth did he think national security concerns were except for protection for the lives of the people these nations' leaders have a sacred duty to protect? The pope's remark about 'obliges us to always prioritize personal safety over national security concerns' makes absolutely no sense given that the personal safety of Europeans is exactly what is known as national security. Anything else is to prioritize terrorists' lives over those of the locals.

Now he's got some 'worrying' things himself with this absurd policy position. Yes, we understand he wants to ensure that Christian duties to strangers are followed, but this does not necessarily mean taking good with bad into a home country and hoping the bomb doesn't go off. If it did, there'd be no ISIS terrorist video to find "worrying."

There are many ways to help refugees besides extending immigration to them and witih ISIS already stating that it has infiltrated refugee streams, there is every reason to shut the door and keep them out until they can be sorted out. Refugee camps near their home country should do the job just fine.

Somehow, it's easy to throw ordinary people off the side and declare them expendible in the great quest to fill Europe's baby bust. But it all looks different when in the eyes of the Vatican when it's the Holy Father's life on the line. The Vatican should have known better, because it comes out looking hypocritical now.
Two rallies planned in San Francisco and Berkeley this weekend were cancelled after Antifa and other groups threatened rally participants.

In San Francisco, a free speech demonstration planned by the group Patriot Prayer was cancelled by organizer Joey Gibson because of threats demonstrators had received online and the attitude of the city's Democratic politicians who, although allowing the demonstration to take place, walled off the park where it was to be held, thus preventing anyone from hearing what the group had to say.

Another rally in Berkeley never got a permit but was going to be held anyway until more threats from Antifa forced its cancellation too.

The hysteria ginned up about white supremacists and Nazis resulted in Patriot Prayer being branded a "hate group" and Democratic politicians pretending that they were. This despite the Southern Poverty Law Center - not known for their tolerance of conservative and religious groups - stating on their website:

"At his most recent rally, in Seattle on Aug. 13, Gibson openly denounced white supremacism and neo-Nazis. In subsequent interviews, he has taken lengths to explain that he now works to actively exclude them. There were no visible signs of white-nationalist members at the Seattle rally."

Earlier rallies organized by Gibson featured some uninvited guests - white supremacists and Nazis who started melees with counterprotesters. The inexperienced activist did not know how to exclude the extremists. He appears to be getting better at it, but that hardly mattered to the far left Democratic authorities in San Francisco.

ABC News:

"They're definitely doing a great job of trying to make sure my message doesn't come out," Gibson said. San Francisco officials closed the park where Gibson had planned a news conference after cancelling the rally at Crissy Field. City officials surrounded Alamo Square park with a fence and sent scores of police officers -- some in riot gear -- to keep people out. Mayor Ed Lee defended the city's response. "If people want to have the stage in San Francisco, they better have a message that contributes to people's lives rather than find ways to hurt them," Lee said. "That's why certain voices found it very difficult to have their voices heard today." Gibson later spoke in suburban Pacifica with a handful of supporters that included African Americans, a Latino and a Samoan American. Several said they support President Donald Trump and want to join with moderates to promote understanding and free speech. More than a thousand demonstrators against Patriot Prayer still turned out around Alamo Square park waving signs condemning white supremacists and chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!" Hundreds of others took to the streets in the Castro neighborhood. "San Francisco as a whole, we are a liberal city and this is not a place for hate or any sort of bigotry of any kind," Bianca Harris said. "I think it's a really powerful message that we're sending to people who come here to try to spew messages of hate that it's just not welcome in this city." Benjamin Sierra, who organized counter protesters, said the demonstration had become a "victory rally."

This is a tipping point for not only freedom of speech, but also freedom of thought, of assembly and yes, of religion. There were religious overtones to this planned demonstration that liberal Democrats in San Francsico refused to recognize and tolerate.

See how easily liberals equate political opposition to white supremacy? It was effortless. And if anyone believes that this isn't a portent of the near future, they haven't been paying attention.

It won't just be conservative rallies that are shut down by threats of violence. Attacking Republicans is the logical extension of this kind of oppression and intimidation of people who hold opposing viewpoints is going to be worth millions of votes to liberal Democrats in the 2018 and 2020 election.

Is there a danger that conservatives may consider relying on white supremacists and Nazis to fight back on their behalf? No bigger mistake could be made. But when physical harm is threatened and the police stand down, what's to be done?

When a conservative group is prevented from making its voice heard in the most liberal city in America, the country is in huge trouble.




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.
According to the Mossos dEsquadra [the Catalan police force], a group of Islamic extremists were planning an attack on a synagogue in Barcelona, while engaged in spreading jihadi propaganda and recruiting fighters to send to Syria. The eleven members of the group were arrested on 8 April 2015 in Sabadell, Terrassa, Sant Quirze del Valles, Barcelona and Valls. Operation Charon, named after the Greek god of the underworld, is the first and only instance of a jihadist plot to be foiled by the Mossos while the cell was actively engaged in the process of preparing attacks in Barcelona. It was also a clear case of the Spanish National Police sabotaging a terrorist investigation conducted by Catalan police.

The scandal came to light a month after the arrests, following the lifting of reporting restrictions: the Mossos claimed that one or more Spanish police officers had warned one of the alleged jihadists that they were under investigation. The then Interior Minister, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, responded to the accusations by saying that they were "sinking to a new low" and showing no "sense of state". His Catalan counterpart at the time, Ramon Espadaler, refused to back down. "We have clear evidence that said interference took place, in what is an extremely serious matter", he declared at a press conference.

The documents relating to the Charon case include a report by the Mossos Department of Information which is especially damning. It details how in October 2014 the surveillance team tasked with following the suspected terrorists became aware that the individuals were also being watched by Spanish National Police officers. They were spotted on four occasions, with their suspicions being confirmed when they checked the registration numbers of the agents unmarked cars: they were all owned by Spains Ministry of Interior.

A futile meeting

The report goes on to detail that as a result of these events, on 23 October 2015, a meeting was held between two commissioners, a deputy chief and two inspectors from the National Police and a commissioner, a superintendent, two sergeants and a deputy inspector from the Mossos. The representatives of the Catalan police explained that they were investigating a jihadist cell on the orders of Madrids National Court and asked the National Police not to meddle in the probe. Their Spanish counterparts agreed not to interfere, excusing the events by claiming that they were pursuing another case in Terrassa, which explained why their officers had crossed paths.

A week after the meeting, the Catalan police once again saw two Spanish police officers following one of the individuals they had under surveillance. What is more, the suspect realised that he was being followed. In November of the same year, the Catalan police officers spotted National Police officers four times and on two occasions the Spanish officers asked them to stop following the men which the Catalan operatives had under surveillance by order of a judge. According to the Mossos, on every occasion National Police senior officials were notified. In addition, since they had tapped the suspects phones, they also learnt that three members of the cell were aware they were being followed by Spanish police officers.

What finally forced the Mossos to act, however, was when on 7 November, two Muslim converts from Mataro attended a meeting of the alleged jihadists to warn them that "a police chief" had told them that the Mossos were investigating them and that they would all be arrested. The Mossos were informed of this fact by a mole working inside the group and who, as a result, was in danger of being exposed. According to the report, ten days later, the Mossos observed one of the two converts meeting with two National Police inspectors, one of whom had been present at the meeting between the two police forces.

Some of the individuals under investigation were spooked, causing them to change their phone number or to stop using it to discuss jihad. They ceased to hold meetings, and other individuals acted as lookouts to ensure they werent being followed when they were on the move. Three of the suspects involved in the case were arrested in Bulgaria as they tried to make their way to Syria. The National Court ended up shelving the Mossos case, since in its opinion the Spanish police had not interfered in the investigation nor had it endangered the life of the Mossos mole.
Youd know a Yael Farber production at 100 paces. The air sweetly smoked and full of noises. The lighting crepuscular but sharded with moonlight. The movement deliberate, registering the actors full body weight. And thats all before anyone speaks a word.

Becoming intimate with a directors style and sensibility is a theatregoing pleasure. Its not the author who delivers the screed or the actor who makes it live before us. Their work is unseen yet irresistible. Some directors have a style so transparent you cant confidently identify it; others a trademark that stains each piece like a tattoo, building on previous successes or (less happily) repeating them.

All the freight it can carry

Farber  a South African artist now living in Canada  has become an increasingly familiar theatrical auteur in Britain. She made her name at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 with a Zorro flourish (Mies Julie), and has since created work for Londons prestige spaces  the Old Vic, National and Donmar theatres. Two of these productions (The Crucible and Salome) were also screened in cinemas to an international audience.

The environments Farber creates are distinctive  elemental, all-embracing. Every inch of her world is filled, dense with soundscore and dusty light. That can be riveting  especially in Lorraine Hansburys Les Blancs, a rediscovered epic of colonial Africa given the weight it deserved, all the freight it could carry to portray a land in flux.

But without the scaffolding of a steel-frame text, the style rots and cloys. Salome  Farbers own panting adaptation of Wilde, the Bible and the Coco de Mer catalogue  was an overripe dud, because the language was as portentous and blurry as the visuals. But a dud, even if penitential to sit through, can be useful to think about  it shows the edges of an approach, the borders of a territory, a directors places of safety and adventure.

Mies Julie, in retrospect (though not only retrospect, as it returned to Edinburgh this summer), may have been an outlier. The rapid get-in demanded by fringe venues in festival frenzy doesnt allow for painstaking control of sound and light, for monumental visual statements. As Strindbergs play is rethought in post-apartheid South Africa, with race intensifying the wounding arguments about gender, an earth-floored kitchen must stand in for the entire contested nation. No revolving stage, no chorus  its a domestic interior with the immensity of a landscape.

David Harrowers Knives in Hens is another intimate play with epic force. In Britain (though not elsewhere in Europe) it is a studio piece (it premiered in 1995 at the Traverse and Bush theatres). Just three characters knotted together in a story that might be a bawdy tale from Chaucer or Boccaccio, or a Hardyesque bind of misery. In pre-industrial somewhere, an unnamed woman works with her ploughman husband, until the despised neighbouring miller offers the potential of language so that she can begin to rethink her world. Like the texts of Farbers most successful productions, it feels written in flint and stone, words so harsh and heavy you could almost grasp them.

And here the hewn force of the design comes into unsparing focus. The unremitting soundscape by Isobel Waller-Bridge and Christopher Shutt, always on the edge of melody, suggests the womans unvoiced world about to take shape. Soutra Gilmours set in the half light  a stone floor lost beneath soil, a vast millstone looming at the back wall (no designer works more intensively through shades of grey as Gilmour: shes unmatched in charcoal, dove, slate). Tim Lutkins lighting pools in weak sun and candlelight, dusted with handfuls of the millers flour.

Its an elemental environment; but a world that is slowly leaving the enduring familiarity of the elements behind, edging towards the industrial revolution. To read, to write is to look within but also beyond. Communication, maybe even with persons unknown, wriggles free from the imperatives of sunrise, sunset. Farbers production is terrific, not just because it explores the sombre triangle of relationships with such rough-sweated precision, but because it summons a world that will pass, has passed, may be forgotten. The style that makes this world also unmakes it. Its the essence of Farbers style, and contains its own challenge.

Follow David on Twitter  @mrdavidjays
The most recent visit to Sweden stays with me more than three weeks after my return. In great part, that is because music I heard at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival refuses to leave my head. A piece played in Ystad by more than one group hangs on persistently and delightfully. It is De Salde Sina Hemman, also known in Sweden as Imigrantvisa. It is a traditional song associated with Swedish people who joined the migration to The United States from the late 19th century into the 1920swell more than a million of them. Here we see a section of The Emigrants by the popular artist S. V. Helander (18391901) showing a young farmer bidding a sober farewell to friends and relatives.

Many Americans first became aware of the song when Art Farmer made it a part of his 1964 album To Sweden With Love under the title They Sold Their Homestead. Like much Swedish folk music, it manages to be lilting with a tinge of sadness. Its a melody that stays with you, whether or not you have been to Sweden. Farmers quartet includes Jim Hall, guitar; Steve Swallow, bass; and Pete LaRoca, drums. If you get a content warning, simply click on Watch on YouTube.

Have a good weekend.
On a seasonable Saturday evening, more than 450 Corvettes streamed through the streets of downtown Carlisle for the 27th annual Chip Miller Memorial Corvette Parade, cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd lined up among the main thoroughfares of the borough.

The parade is produced by the Downtown Carlisle Association in partnership with Carlisle Events and sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union. The parade is a regular feature of Corvettes at Carlisle, the largest Corvette event in the world and held each year at the Carlisle Fairgrounds. This years multi-day event took place this past weekend.

By Thursday, 466 cars were registered for the parade, according to the DCAs website, keeping in line with recent years figures.

This is a great number and shows how interested these car enthusiasts are in downtown Carlisle and having a great time in our town, said Glenn White, executive director of the DCA. (Downtown) restaurants have a great night, some pulling in a whole weekends revenue in four hours.

Hordes of spectators filled the streets of downtown Carlisle for the parade. Some eagerly stepped forward with cameras, while others simply craned their necks for a better view as passing drivers smiled and waved to the crowd. Passing cars bore license plates from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and many other states, as well as Pennsylvania.

A few cars even carried Canadian flags, while American flags on vehicles were flown in abundance.

This was the first time that Dennis Byers and son, Michael Byers, both of Newville, came to watch the parade. Michael Byers said they were there, in part, to support St. Johns Preschool, located directly behind where they were standing on North Hanover Street in St. Johns Episcopal Church. Michael Byers sons, Wyatt, 5, and Charlie, 3, played nearby in the preschools fenced yard while the facility conducted a sidewalk ice cream fundraiser.

I think (my sons) are more excited about the ice cream than the cars, Michael Byers laughed.

Joe Purdom, of Carlisle, said he liked the cars as well as the ice cream. He watched the parade from the town square with wife Carole, daughter, Jen, and son-in-law, Don, as well as his young grandchildren, Wyatt and Maggie. I like watching all of the Corvettes and I see a lot of friends here, he added.

Parade participants also said they liked meeting up with friends at each years event. This was the fifth year that James and Nancy Jo McCannon, of Bloomington, Minnesota, met up at the Carlisle parade with friends from Albany, New York. They also learned that their blue 2016 Corvette was selected as a 2017 Celebrity Choice Award Winner by Tim Delaney just before the parade started, they said.

This was the third year that Super Dave Mueller of Bel Air, Maryland, drove in the parade in the beautiful town of Carlisle. His 2010 yellow Corvette carries the license plate, Yolo 1. He first heard about the show from his friend, Joe, from Fallston, Maryland, he said.

Leo Plante traveled nine hours from his home in Augusta, Maine, to drive his 2002 yellow Corvette. He was there for his fifth or sixth time, he said, with brothers, Tony and Tom.

We just love the cars, the Corvettes, the people here in Pennsylvania, Plante said. The event is well organized, and the people who set it up do a wonderful job.
Photographer Kesava Murthy clicks photos of predators and their kills, and some incredible images of life in the wild.

Laughing Hyenas, also known as spotted hyenas, are part of recyclers of Savannah along with the vultures

When Kesava Murthy clicks photos of predators and their kills, he doesnt necessarily aim to scare. Over the years, the photographer was able to capture some incredible photos of life in the wild. Starting from Leh/Ladakh to down south, salt pans of Gujarat to the largest mangroves in West Bengal, he has covered many wildlife-centric locations in India. Every year he visits Maasai Mara, as Kenya is his wildlife pilgrimage.

An African lion having its kill A tiger from Ranthambore

I love mountains and Bhutan was no exception. Currently, Im exploring new locations in South-east Asia and recently visited Indonesia to capture some amazing avian wonders, he says.

The silver-backed jackal

The photographer, who is a certified naturalist and has keenly studied animal behaviour in the wild, talks about the dangers of wildlife photography. Moving inside forests is dangerous as you might encounter wild animals anytime. One has to understand that it is us who are in their home and we have to play by their rules. While inside the forest, wear dull coloured clothes, dont make loud noises, take cues from the forest and be attentive. This will help to locate and stay at a safe distance from animals like elephants, bears and tigers, he says, adding, During a photo tour to Jim Corbett National park, we were trying to photograph a group of elephants who were drinking water in the gorge. Suddenly a matriarch from another group who were coming down the hills came charging at us as they didnt expect our presence.

A cheetah dragging its kill

Kesava began photography from a very young age. My dad had an old Yashica camera, which I used to shoot random pictures in my childhood. I didnt know much about cameras but what I learnt was how to see differently through the camera to make an image. This fixation with the view-through-the-lens stayed with me and I decided to work part-time at a local photo studio during my college days, where I learnt the nuances of basics of photography. My first big break was covering the annual day at my college. It was 2004 when I got my first film camera with my brothers help, he reveals.

Sonam guarding her kill

Kesava watched channels such as NatGeo and Discovery and developed an interest in wildlife photography. He soon enrolled for a certified naturalist course to learn animal behaviour in the wild.

An African leopard guarding its kill

One life is not enough to cover all the locations but if given a chance I would love to explore more of South-east Asia, Madagascar and all of India, says the Bengaluru-based photographer.

It was 2011 when Kesava finally realised that he could take up photography as a full-time profession. One thing lead to another and in no time, parents, their friends and many others were on board too. I took them on expeditions, thanks to the many natural avenues rich in flora and fauna in India. The tours got bigger and this group of ardent followers lead to the creation of Birdwing Photo Tours, a platform for photo-enthusiasts. However, without my wife Harinis support, it wouldnt be possible to be on the move always, he says.

Wait, let me pose for a photo, first!

Talking about his all-time favourite shot, he says, My favourite shot is one in Amboseli, Kenya, of an elephant herd marching with an approaching storm behind them.
Nationalism is one thing in which people dont calculate economic gain and loss.

Lord Meghnad Desai in his new book Politic Shock writes on how the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the United States challenged the liberal order that has been the dominant political thought for over 50 years. Both these leaders, seen as rank outsiders to the system, even disliked by the elite in their own parties, successfully challenged the conventional wisdom and sent shockwaves across the liberal world with their victories. Lord Desai believes the liberal order which successfully defeated the Communists will have to reform if it wants to survive. Excerpts:

I will start from the last chapter of your book where you have talked about the possibility of a war, with the US and India on one side and China and Pakistan on the other. With the military standoff between India and China on at Doklam now, what are the chances of a war between these two nations?

I think theres a huge possibility. The timing is very hard to predict. What is happening right now, in a slow way, is that small skirmishes are happening on different fronts, not just Doklam but in Ladakh and other areas. I have believed it for a long time that there is got to be some sort of major confrontation between China and India because the problem of the border is much more serious for China and Chinese nationalism than it is for India. The Chinese national view is a deep wound which they believe when China was weak and the British were powerful, they took a lot of territory in the Tibet region and incorporated it into British India. And they thought that the Congress would be sympathetic because of the anti-imperialistic background, but when Independence came, Nehru took a view that our borders are our borders, get lost... They very strongly believe that China wont be full until their territories are back. You know how nationalism works. They seem very sore about Arunachal Pradesh, which was incorporated into Indian territory in 1937, so they feel it was a very late addition and they want it back. But this is not how the Indian public sees it. They see it is our territory, and that the Chinese are coming in, like they did it in 1962. In 1962, the Chinese did not have preparedness to stay (in Indian territories). In 1962, China was having one of its biggest famines, which we did not know at that time, in which 40 million people died. Compared to 1962, China today is much stronger, richer, more influential and powerful internationally. The Indian government knows there is a serious possibility of (an escalation) ... that is why the Chief went to Ladakh. We are all talking about Doklam and it suddenly happened in Ladakh. It is a long border.





China is trying to become an economic superpower and India is also one of the fastest growing economies. Will it be in the interest of both nations to go for war in the current circumstances?

Nationalism is one thing in which people dont calculate economic gain and loss. They say this is my country and my country has to win, and I will take any loss. We have not gone to that point yet, but we have to understand what Chinas thinking is. A few days back, on the Doklam issue, China said that India is behaving like a colonist. It will happen partly, I suppose, if Trump gets cross with North Korea and North Korea fires a missile and the US bombs North Korea... All I am saying is that this has all the ingredients of a confrontation, but whether a confrontation will happen... If I was an astrologer I would tell you, but I am not an astrologer.

You have written about the liberal order being challenged by the election of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump...

It is being challenged because one of the things it has long depended on was some sort of centralist politics. The major political parties didnt disagree with the fundamentals. Everything had converged at the centre  be it Republicans, Conservatives and so on. And suddenly you have outsiders come in, who do not accept the consensus, specially Mr Trump. Here too, when Mr Modi got elected, though he is not as much of an outsider as Mr Trump is, the usual reaction was  Oh my God, how can he become Prime Minister of India, he is terrible, and so on... Even his party did not believe this man can bring a majority, and he got majority ... and that was the great surprise to the liberal order because it was not meant to happen. People said he cant be Prime Minister. Whats happening is the usual assumptions that India is like this, India is secular... are being challenged. These are being challenged as the liberal order failed to understand that there is dissatisfaction among people who feel they are not being served by the dominant order and that they were neglected.

What are the other reasons for the liberal order which prevailed for so long being challenged?

The real reason was the financial crisis of 2008. We are in the ninth year of recession... (and) people say we have recovered, but it still doesnt feel like the old days. Prosperity has sort of still not returned to any economy. There is a feeling that the current younger generation is never going to have as good a life as their parents had. This is a big challenge to an order which was dependent on saying that we will give you democracy and we will give you prosperity. And it had defeated the Communist system, which had said forget democracy, we will give you prosperity. The challenge is how the liberal order responds to people who feel deprived so that they continue with their commitment to it and not drift to the extreme right-wing or left-wing parties.

You have compared Mr Modi with Mr Trump. But Mr Modi had huge experience as chief minister of Gujarat, whereas Mr Trump seems somewhat unpredictable.

They are outsiders in different senses. Mr Modi has a lot of executive experience, but he is an outsider in the sense that for the elite, which was occupying all the top posts, for them he was an intruder. Even in his own party, when he was made chief campaigner, he was not liked because they were upper caste and Mr Modi was something low down. So he broke a barrier, but as he is a right-winger, no one gives him credit. People who dont like him dont hear what Mr Modi says. So he is an outsider in that culture, even though he has got a lot of political experience. Mr Trump did not have any. Mr Trump was an insider in a way that he was a lot on TV and people knew about him. Mr Trump was a public figure in American life for a long time. Mr Modi was popular in the rank and file of the party, but not in the leadership.

There was a lot of expectation from Mr Modi that he would unleash big-bang reforms.

A lot of commentators who wanted to come to terms with Mr Modi  we projected onto him our expectations that he would be really a radical reformer, a market type of reformer. He himself said little about it.

But his image, which he developed as Gujarat CM...

There is still a possibility that he will do big-bang reforms in his second term. This is what Margaret Thatcher did. People forget that Margaret Thatcher did no reforms in her first term. He does not control the Rajya Sabha, and you cant reform if you dont control the Rajya Sabha. But a lot of reforms have happened, which people say are not big-bang reforms, such as Jan Dhan Yojana, LPG gas, GST. Quite a lot of things have been done; the most important of which, I think, is the building of toilets. He changed the political conversation and things are moving in his favour as the Opposition is totally crippled. Until something really goes wrong, he can more or less count on a second term. The other thing that is going in his favour is the Supreme Court decision on triple talaq. However, as far as economic philosophy is considered, there is no difference between the BJP and the Congress and other parties. They all believe in the State, in subsidies, they cowed down before the unions, no labour reforms law. Mr

Modi has not shown courage to reform labour laws and even land laws. There is this idea that big businesses are not good, the State is good. It may be that Mr Modi has big reforms up his sleeve, but he will not do it until he is secure in his second term with a majority in the Rajya Sabha and a single-party majority in the Lok Sabha.
New Delhi: The finance ministry is open to providing capital support for facilitating consolidation among state-owned banks, which are reeling under mounting bad loans, official sources said.

The Union cabinet has approved the setting up of an alternative mechanism, or a panel of ministers, to decide on consolidation proposals for state-run banks.

On receiving a proposal from stressed banks, if the ministerial panel finds that the merger is going to create a strong bank, it will not let it go for want of fund shortage, the sources said, adding that acquisition will come at a cost.

"First, the merger proposal should come from the board," said a source, who did not want to be named.

"If the Alternative Mechanism finds the match viable, the finance ministry could provide capital support to the acquiring bank if there is a shortfall," he said.

Sources said the government is keen that at least one merger proposal reaches a logical conclusion by the end of the current fiscal, which is next March-end.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after the Cabinet decision last week, had said that the government has not set any target for consolidation. There are now 20 public sector banks (PSBs) other than SBI.

These state-owned banks are grappling with Rs 6 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, which is about 75 per cent of the total distress. After in-principle approval for consolidation, the banks would take steps in accordance with the law and Sebi requirements.

The final scheme will be approved by the Cabinet. An official source said: "It is not necessary that a larger public sector bank should overtake a small or mid-size lender. If there is synergy, two or three banks can merge to create a bigger and stronger entity so that the dependence on public exchequer is minimised."

Earlier this year, the government had approved the merger of SBI's five associate banks with itself. In March, the Cabinet also approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with SBI.

Five associates and BMB became part of SBI on April 1, 2017, catapulting the countrys largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB, were merged with SBI.

With the merger, the total customer base of the SBI reached around 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMs across the country.

The merged entity began operation with deposit base of more than Rs 26 lakh crore and advances level of Rs 18.50 lakh crore. SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
The banking sector is saddled with NPAs of over Rs 8 lakh crore of which Rs 6 lakh crore PSBs.

RBI had identified 12 accounts each having more than Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans and accounting for 25 per cent of total NPAs of banks.

New Delhi: The government has notified the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act under which it can authorise the RBI to issue directions to banks to initiate insolvency resolution process to recover bad loans.

The banking sector is saddled with non-performing assets (NPAs) of over Rs 8 lakh crore, of which Rs 6 lakh crore is with public sector banks (PSBs).

Earlier this month, Parliament had approved the Act, which replaced an ordinance in this regard.

The government in May had promulgated an ordinance authorising the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue directions to banks to initiate insolvency resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Following the ordinance, the RBI had identified 12 accounts each having more than Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans and accounting for 25 per cent of total NPAs of banks for immediate referral for resolution under the bankruptcy law.

The loan defaulters identified by the RBI include, Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel, ABG Shipyard, Electrosteel and Alok Industries. Under the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2017, the RBI can issue directions to banks for resolution of stressed assets.

The RBI can specify authorities or committees to advise banks on resolution of stressed assets.

The members on the committees will be appointed or approved by the RBI. The bulk of the NPAs are in sectors such as power, steel, road infrastructure and textiles.
Court asks Haryana CM why state allowed entry of anti-social elements into Panchkula.

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday came down heavily on the Haryana state government, holding it responsible for the violence that erupted in Panchkula on Friday and resulted in the deaths of 31 people, after the CBI special court verdict against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The high court held chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar responsible for protecting Dera Sacha Sauda.

A full bench of the court, comprising acting Chief Justice S. Singh Saron, and Justices Avneesh Jhingan and Surya Kant, was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a Panchkula resident, raising law and order concerns, after a large number of people reportedly entered the district despite prohibitory orders.

Asking the state government how they could fail to notice the build-up of Dera supporters in Panchkula, the court said said that if Mr Khattar knew that anti-social elements created problems as per his statement, why was the government not able to prevent their entry into the ditrict for the past seven days. This was political surrender to lure votebank, the court said.

Punjabs advocate general Atul Nanda said that the bench had taken serious cognizance of Fridays violence. The court observed that the loss due to the violence is a loss of the nation and the taxpayer. This loss will be compensated by those who are responsible for this loss, he told reporters.

He said the court had directed Dera Saacha Sauda to give a list of its properties and not sell or transfer its properties till further order.

The court has also directed the deputy commissioners of Punjab and Haryana to collect claim petitions from people who have suffered losses due to the violence and submit these to respective advocate generals who will then place these before the court, he added. The court has fixed the next date of hearing for August 29, he said.

Meanwhile, director general of police B.S. Sandhu informed that two cases of sedition had been registered against Dera followers. He said that the police had recovered one AK47 rifle and one Mauser from a vehicle of a Dera follower, and two rifles and five pistols from another vehicle during the operations. As many as 524 persons have been arrested under eight different FIRs registered against the Dera followers.

The law-and-order situation is being maintained and constantly monitored in the entire state, and no incident has occurred anywhere after 6.30 pm on Friday. As many as 101 companies of paramilitary have been deployed in the state; six columns of the Army have been deployed in Panchkula, and four in Sirsa. Curfew has been relaxed in Panchkula and Sirsa.

He said that the district administration, Sirsa, with the assistance of police, paramilitary and military forces, was sanitising and securing the area outside Dera Sacha Sauda. He said that the casualties of the violence did not include any local resident.

Refuting reports that the Dera chief was being provided VIP treatment, the chief secretary said he was transported to the district jail in Rohtak in a helicopter due to security concerns. He is being treated like any other inmate. He is being provided the same food and facilities and has not been provided an air-conditioned cell. His Z-plus security was withdrawn automatically, he added.
He said, during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Army insisted that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions.

Pune: China is attempting to "change the status quo" on its border with India and incidents like the ongoing standoff in the Doklam area are likely to "increase" in future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Saturday.

"The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future," Rawat said.

He was delivering the General BC Joshi Memorial Lecture on 'India's Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct' organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University in Pune this evening.

"Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops...however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations," said Rawat.

He said that during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps insisting that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand- off began), but no resolution has been found yet.

"Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives," he said.

Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted.

"This is due to the development of force infrastructure of military significance. Their force reorganisation along with developing capabilities in space and network-centric warfare is likely to provide them greater synergy in force application," Rawat said.

Later, speaking to reporters and explaining his statement that incidents like Doklam are likely to "increase", Rawat said,

"We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it cannot happen again in different sector.

"It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down," the Army Chief added.

China continues to enhance its influence in the regional security environment, he said.

"It is doing so by increasing defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India's sovereignty," he stated.

Confirmation for annual joint military exercises with China is still awaited this year, he said.

"We have been doing the exercise every year. One year our team goes to China and on the second year, their team comes to us. While this time the exercise is planned in

October, it is not being confirmed (from their side) yet, whether it will take place or not," he said.

Asked if the ongoing stand-off was the reason for this, Rawat said, "It could be, but we are not sure."

Rawat slammed Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country is a matter of grave concern.

"Pakistan's unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China," Rawat said.

The Army Chief refused to comment on Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who recently got bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, saying the issue is before the courts.
The Prime Minister made the aerial survey of four districts affected by the flood  Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar conduct an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in the state. (Photo: PTI).

Patna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced Rs 500 crore relief package for Bihar, which is reeling under severe flood for the past several days.

The Prime Minister announced the relief package after he conducted an ariel survey of the flood- affected zones along with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. During the review meeting after the survey, he also assured to constitute a high-level committee to assess the damage caused by the floods.

The Prime Minister made the aerial survey of four districts affected by the flood  Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria.

However, the relief package announced by the Prime Minister has not appeased the Opposition parties in Bihar. RJD chief Lalu Yadav, who has planned a BJP Bhagao Desh Bachao rally to expose BJPs failure on Sunday, questioned the PMs aerial survey saying the Centre ignored Bihar but after the damage has been done, Prime Minister is conducting an aerial survey.

The RJD chief also dubbed the flood as a man-made disaster and blamed officials for ignoring the repair work of dams before the floods.

Engineers ignored the repair work of the dams here. This is clearly not a natural disaster, engineers and officials are behind the flood, he said.

According to a statement of the state disaster management department, flood waters in several parts of Bihar have started receding, which reduced the number of relief camps to 368 from 624. The death toll, however, has mounted to 418 and around 1.67 crore people in 19 districts have been badly affected.

According to a survey report, as many as 87 deaths have been reported from Araria district alone followed by Sitamarhi where 43 people lost their lives due to flood situation. At least 40 deaths were recorded in Katihar, 36 in West Champaran, 32 in East Champaran, 28 people died in Madhubani, 26 in Darbhanga, 24 in Kishanganj, 22 in Madhepura, 20 in Gopalganj and 16 deaths in Supaul.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a bank robbery in Lower Allen Township Saturday morning.

Lower Allen Township police were called to the BB&T Bank at 3599 Old Gettysburg Road at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Police described the suspect as a black man in his 20s, about 5-foot-10 and wearing a hat, a quarter zip long-sleeved shirt, dark-colored gym shorts, and glasses.

Police said he handed a bank teller a note demanding money. After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect fled on foot.

No weapon was displayed.

Camp Hill Borough Police, Upper Allen Township Police, Hampden Township Police, New Cumberland Police, Shiremanstown Police, and the Pennsylvania State Police all assisted in searching the area for the suspect. Lower Allen Township Police also used their K-9 Team to search for the suspect, however he was not located.

Anyone with additional information on this case is asked to call Lower Allen Township Police, specifically Cpl. Sentman, via Cumberland County Communications at 717-238-9676. Or, you may contact Cumberland County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-628-8477, or by email at contact@cumberlandcrimestoppers.net.
Sonowal reiterated that harmony and unity are the strengths of the greater Assamese society.

Guwahati: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal called upon people to maintain communal harmony in the backdrop of recent skirmish between a businessman and pro-talk Ulfa leaders in central Assams Nagaon district.

Terming the reported skirmish unfortunate, Mr Sonowal expressed deep dissatisfaction over the attempt of a section of people to add communal colour to it and called on all communities of the state to maintain peace and harmony.

The incident had taken place on Tuesday in Nagaon town when some traders assaulted surrendered Ulfa leaders who went to collect fund for flood relief.

Mr Sonowal reiterated that harmony and unity are the strengths of the greater Assamese society that has assimilated people from different faiths, beliefs and linguistic groups over the years. I am deeply saddened by the recent untoward incident that took place in Nagaon and I appeal to the people of the state to maintain peace and harmony in face of provocation. We must stay united and thwart all evil designs of divisive forces, he said in a written statement.

Referring to Swargadeo Chaolung Siu Ka Pha and his policy of assimilation, Mr Sonowal said that the bedrocks of our culture and civilisation are unity and harmony.

After Siu Ka Pha, Shankardev amplified the vision and synergy of the Assamese society as he welcomed people of all castes and creeds to accept the faith of Ek Saran Naam Dharma which eventually strengthened the Assamese community, the chief minister stated

Further stating the contribution of former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University Ashutosh Mukherjee, who was the man behind the introduction of Assamese language in the university curriculum, Mr Sonowal said that the foundation of Assamese literary movement took root in Kolkata through setting up of Asomiya Bhasa Unnati Sadhini Sabha under the pioneering leadership of Lakshminath Bezbaruah.

How can we forget that one of the most revered figures of Assam Dr. Bhupen Hazarika is equally a household name in Bengal. Along with Assam and Mumbai, Kolkata was one of the places where the maestro created many of his greatest compositions, Mr Sonowal said adding that the contributions of Hemanga Biswas to Assamese art and culture are equally significant and inspiring for the Assamese society.
Schools, colleges shut in Haryana & Punjab; some in Delhi too.

Chandigarh/New Delhi/ Rohtak: As the toll in Fridays violence rose to 38 on Sunday, security was beefed up in Haryanas Rohtak district and Sunaria prison in Rohtak city was turned into a virtual fortress a day before a CBI judge is scheduled to pronounce the sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, lodged in the prison after his conviction for rape on Friday.

Panchkula-based judge Jagdeep Singh will travel to Rohtak and announce the Dera chiefs sentence at around 2.30 pm at a makeshift court in the jail on Monday.

The police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in Rohtak and the Army was put on standby on Sunday. Schools and colleges across Haryana and Punjab will remain closed on Monday. Some schools in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh have also decided to remain shut on Monday.

As curfew continued in Sirsa, where the Dera headquarters is located, the state government extended the statewide suspension of mobile Internet services, including 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS, all SMS services and all dongle services on mobile networks, except voice calls, till 11.30 am on Tuesday. Similar curbs were imposed in Punjab. The Internet leased lines at the Dera premises in Sirsa were also suspended till Tuesday.

Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu told reporters in Chandigarh that maintaining law and order will be the top priority on Monday. Apart from the police, 23 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed.

To ensure there is no repeat of violence that erupted in Panchkula on Friday, all routes to Sunaria jail in Rohtak have been sealed, Mr Sandhu said.

The police has, so far, registered 52 cases and arrested 926 people over the violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, Mr Sandhu said.

Four rifles, including an AK-47, pistols and petrol bombs were among the weapons seized from the supporters of the sect.

Two Dera spokesmen, Aditya Insan and Dhiman Insan, were booked for sedition on the basis of news reports that accused them of inciting the violence on Friday.

The Punjab and Haryana high court took notice of the news report, after which an FIR was lodged in Panchkula.

Sedition and attempt to murder charges have also been slapped on seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, who were part of the Dera chiefs security detail when he had arrived at the Panchkula CBI court on Friday.

Sedition charge has been slapped against seven persons, including five Haryana police personnel, inspector Karambir Singh of Panchkula police station said on Sunday.

The seven securitymen allegedly tried to free the cult chief after he was brought out of the Panchkula court complex, he said.

Earlier, Mr Sandhu said Dera ashrams were searched and sanitised ahead of the sentencing of the cult chief on Monday.

He also assured protection to the media. I assure you that the media is safe, we are part of the same system, he said, referring to the attacks on the media by alleged Dera followers on Friday.

In terms of restoration of public transport, he said bus and railway services, specially from Delhi to Katra, had resumed. Trains towards Hisra and Rohtak have a few restrictions.

The DGP added the death toll in Fridays violence in Panchkula and Sirsa had risen to 38. While 32 people lost their lives in Panchkula, six others died at Sirsa, he said. During the violence, 76 vehicles were burnt, including 53 in Panchkula, and the rest in Sirsa, he added.

All the deceased from Sirsa had been identified. Of those who died in Panchkula, 24 had been identified, he said.

IGP (Rohtak range) Navdeep Virk, who is overseeing the security arrangements in Rohtak, said there was a complete clampdown on Dera centres and all their functionaries put under detention in the state.

Section 144 CrPC, prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons, and carrying of firearms and other weapons is already in place in Rohtak, he said.

In another development, the authorities in Uttar Pradeshs Shamli district, bordering Haryana, have told all schools to remain closed on Monday in view of the sentencing of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The Shamli district authorities have also sealed roads that connect the district with Haryana.

Revenue officials of both Haryana and Punjab have also started preparing lists of properties and assets of the sect on the high courts direction.

The court had sought by Tuesday a list of the Deras assets which can be attached in case it is found that the sects followers were responsible for property damage in Fridays violence.

Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh said on Sunday that no compensation would be given by his government to lawbreakers from his state who were killed in the Panchkula carnage. On August 25, a CBI court in Haryanas Panchkula held the Dera sect head, who has lakhs of followers in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of rape of two female disciples 15 years ago.

The verdict was followed by violent protests by the cult heads followers.

Final countdown
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister and President are among key speakers in the event on the theme of peace, progress and prosperity.

New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will participate in the two-day Indian Ocean Conference (ICO) to be held in Colombo from Thursday. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister and President are among key speakers in the event on the theme of peace, progress and prosperity.

The IOC 2017, to be held at Temple Trees, the official residence of the Sri Lankan PM, is being co-hosted by the India Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank, in collaboration with RSIS, Singapore, and NIFS, Colombo  both research and study centers.

The conference will have speakers from 25 countries. Representatives from around 35 countries are expected to participate in the event. This will be second ICO conference. The first was held in Singapore in 2016 in partnership with think tanks from Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The conference will be inaugurated by Seychelles vice-president Vincent Meriton, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Singapore foreign affairs minister Vivian Balakrishnan besides Ms Swaraj, while Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will deliver the valedictory address, a statement said.

The conference will also be attended by officials from the USA, Australia and Germany among others.
Yadav, who is charting a different path after Nitish decided to break away from the grand alliance, is presently a JD(U) RS member.

Patna: Unfazed by threat of party action, rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav arrived in Patna on Sunday to take part in RJD leader Lalu Prasad's political show tomorrow which he described as "rally of Mahagatbandhan" (grand alliance).

He, however, refused to make any comment on the JD(U) headed by Nitish Kumar issuing a warning over his participation in Prasad's rally.

"Earlier it was rally of RJD but now it has become a rally of Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) to save the country," Yadav told reporters at Jay Prakash Narayan Airport here on arrival.

Asked about his party warning that participation in the rally would invite action against him, Yadav refused to make any comment saying "Kuch nahi bolna hain" (I have nothing to say)".

Another JD(U) rebel and suspended Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar who also came here for the rally claimed that many genuine workers of JD(U) would participate in the rally at Gandhi Maidan.

JD(U) principal general secretary KC Tyagi repeated that with departure of "mahanayak" (great leader) of the erstwhile grand alliance (Nitish Kumar) the Mahagatbandhan ceases to exist.

"Its an RJD rally in which nobody from the party should go," Tyagi said.

"Jo jayega woh napega (who so ever will go will invite punishment)," he said.

Sharad Yadav who is charting a different path after Nitish decided to break away from the grand alliance of JD(U), RJD, and Congress, is presently a JD(U) Rajya Sabha member.

Tyagi and Nitish have hinted that in the event of Yadav participating in Prasad's rally in violation of the party line, he might lose his RS membership.

Sharad Yadav would be a prominent personality at Prasad's political show along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, among others.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been on the offensive against Mr Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi over the Srijan scam.

New Delhi: JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who walked out of the Grand Alliance to join the NDA could be in trouble as the CBI on Saturday took over the probe into the multicrore Srijan scam in Bihar, in which government funds worth about Rs 1,000 crore were allegedly diverted to the accounts of a non-governmental organisation.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has been on the offensive against Mr Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi over the Srijan scam. The CBI registered 10 FIRs to probe the scam. Earlier, the scam was being investigated by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar police.

The RJD chief had also released photographs of the BJP minister Giriraj Singh, Shahnawaz Hussain, Sushil Kumar Modi and Godda MP Nishikant Dubey with the prime accused and NGO founder Manorama Devi. The Bhagalpur based-NGO  Srijan Mahila Vikas Samiti  was allegedly diverting the funds being received from the government for other private projects. Incidentally, Ms Devi died early this year. Over and above Ms Devi, the CBI has also named the former and present managers of the Bank of Barodas Saharsa and Bhagalpur branches. Cashiers of both these branches have also been named by the CBI. The NGO has been accused of embezzling crores of rupees from different accounts of the district administration with the alleged connivance of government officials and bank staff on the pretext of several welfare schemes. The Bihar Police has issued a lookout notice Ms Devis son Amit Kumar, daughter and the secretary of the NGO Priya Kumar and her husband.

The RJD chief, who himself was being investigated by the CBI and other central agencies has been targeting the Nitish government and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi over the Srijan scam. The Bihar chief minister, who had snapped ties with the RJD and Congress, to cross over the saffron camp will now have to remain somewhat cautious, sources said. It may be recalled that Lalu Yadav had earlier dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take action against Sushil Modi as he was the finance minister of Bihar during the time when the money from the government exchequer was being embezzled by the NGO.

Preliminary investigation by the Economic Offences Wing of the Bihar police revealed the involvement of nationalised banks, government officials and employees in the fraudulent withdrawal of government funds in three districts of Bhagalpur, Banka and Saharsa. So far 18 persons have been arrested by the Bihar police.
A group of six robbers was trying to sneak into an electronics goods showroom at around 2 am.

New Delhi: An elderly man foiled a robbery bid in a shop in his neighbourhood in northeast Delhi's Karwal Nagar area by shooting at one of the robbers in the early hours on Saturday, police said.

A group of six robbers was trying to sneak into an electronics goods showroom at around 2 am. They tried to remove CCTV cameras of the shop that triggered a sensor and alerted shop owner Akash Jain who lived a few kilometres away, said a police officer.

Jain called Ashok Kumar, 55, who lives near his shop when alerted by the sensor. Kumar challenged the robbers who fired at him, he said.

He then went back to his house and brought his gun and fired at the robbers. A bullet hit one of them while others managed to escape, said the officer.

"The injured robber was later identified as Danish, 27, a resident of Welcome area. He was found to be involved previously in five criminal cases," he said.

Police took Danish to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. Three country-made pistols were found by the police from the spot. The gun used by Kumar has been taken for investigation purposes, added the officer.
Sources added the minister and his wife were allegedly one-third shareholders in these companies during the period.

New Delhi: A day after registering an FIR against Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case, the CBI on Saturday maintained that he could not explain funds received by four companies in which he is a shareholder.

Sources said a total of Rs 4.63 crore was allegedly received through Prayas Info Solutions, Akinchan Developers, Managalyatan Projects and Indo-Metal Impex Pvt Limited in 2015-16 while Mr Jain was serving as a minister. Sources added the minister and his wife were allegedly one-third shareholders in these companies during the period.

During the questioning, the minister and his wife could not explain Rs 1.62 crore, approximately one-third of funds received by the companies during 2015-17, sources said. Mr Jain was examined twice by the agency, while his wife was quizzed once, they said. The agency has alleged that the minister had control over these companies either in the form of being one of the directors and by holding one-third of shares of these companies in his name or in the names of his family members or others.

Although he had resigned from directorship of the three companies in 2013, before contesting elections, however, his investments in these companies were allegedly continued, said a senior CBI official. He said it was further alleged that the companies did not have any business and were shell companies and were utilised for parking money in the form of investments in equity shares in connivance with Kolkata-based shell companies.
The police took action against the couple after receiving a complaint against them from a Solapur-based civil surgeon M.R. Pattanshetty.

Mumbai: The Akluj police in Solapur district has arrested a doctor couple for allegedly carrying out illegal abortions in their hospital at Akluj.

The couple has been identified as Dr Tejas Gandhi (42) and his wife Dr Priya. The police had apprehended them on Thursday from a maternity and nursing home, run by them in Akluj and officially arrested them later. The duo has been arrested for alleged violation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

The police is suspecting that as many as 36 illegal pregnancy terminations have taken place at their facility and in five cases, sex determination were conducted at the nursing homes sonography centre. The centre is registered in Priya Gandhis name.

The police took action against the couple after receiving a complaint against them from a Solapur-based civil surgeon M.R. Pattanshetty.

Arun Sawant, a senior inspector at the Akluj police station, has said that his team has arrested the couple under relevant sections of the MTP Act and for causing miscarriage and disappearance of evidence.

The police raided the nursing home on Thursday after receiving the information and found out that the clinic was unauthorised.

According to the police, a register was found at the hospital that contained names of 36 women and some gynaecological procedures, done for miscarriage or abortion, were also mentioned in front of those names.

Pattanshetty, the complainant, has claimed that he had received information from his Satara counterpart about the illegal activities being carried out at the couples nursing home.

Pattanshetty also said that the centre and the machine have been sealed and the process of registering a case in the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) has been initiated.
Amit Shah was unveiling a book on PM Modi in the city.

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah lavished praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having brought hardcore party workers into mainstream politics. Making a government is easy but nurturing a hardcore worker is much tougher. Narendrabhai helped thousands of such workers in Gujarat and brought them into the mainstream of political activities, Mr Shah said while unveiling a book on Mr Modi in the city. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was present for the book release.

Mr Shah also visited various Ganesh mandals in the city. He went to Lalbaugcha Raja around noon and also visited BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelars Ganesh mandal in Bandra west. In the evening he launched a book originally written in Gujarati and now translated in Hindi on the life of Mr Modi

People know Narendrabhai since he became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. That is obvious too. But, very few people know anything about his life before that and particularly till 1995 when BJP came to power in Gujarat, said Mr Shah.

The BJP chief recalled Mr Modis struggle-filled early life and also his contribution in building the party in Gujarat from scratch. When BJP came to power in Gujarat in 1995, there was no public anger against the then Congress government. BJP had only 12 MLAs. But, it was Narendrabhais planning and organisational skills that brought BJP to power and made it Ajinkya (invincible), said Mr Shah.

The BJP president also spoke about how Mr Modi made 24-hour electricity supply possible in Gujarats villages. In his speech Mr Shah also said, Now Narendrabhai is not just the leader of India but the world is recognising his leadership. Wherever he goes, thousands of people welcome him. This is a proud moment for India as a country.

It was expected that Mr Shah would address key political issues like reshuffling in the state BJP or outside leaders joining the party. But BJP sources said he kept Sundays visit strictly private and did not discuss political matters.
When we interact with society and State institutions, we have to cede a part of our privacy.

By ruling that the right to privacy is a fundamental right, the nine- judge Supreme Court bench has set the stage for a three-judge bench to decide on the validity of Aadhaar. Aadhaar has been challenged by a clutch of 21 petitions, starting with the first one filed in 2012 by a retired Karnataka high court judge, Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, claiming that the collection of biometric data and linking it to various activities of citizens threatened their right to privacy. The 91-year-old retired judge will now have his day in court, as will those 20 others.

The name Aadhaar was chosen as it was envisaged as the basis of a transparent new way of governance and compliance. While the provocation was Aadhaar, the issue before the Supreme Court was a much larger one, relating to the fundamental character of Indian democracy. The Supreme Court, however, made it clear that the right to privacy is not absolute, and space will have to be conceded to the State and other authorities who need basic information and proof of identification to go about their business. The Supreme Court also enjoined the State to ensure that the data is protected, as guarding citizens privacy is its duty.

The nine-man bench unequivocally rejected the States contention that privacy was an elitist construct. To argue privacy was not a fundamental right was imbecilic enough, but to argue it was an elitist construct reflects on the mentality of the lawyer-politicians at the helm of affairs. The eminent lawyers who argue in courts do so on their clients instructions. The Aadhaar scheme is a huge and costly effort, and if its potential is not usefully exploited to the fullest extent, it will be a wasted effort with people having little to show except for a numerical identification. There is a huge space between just being a person with a number, and to becoming just a number, as in some Orwellian nightmare. The governments argument that theres no right to privacy was in its sheer brazenness and philosophical hollowness reminiscent of the argument by late Niren De, then attorney-general, that during the Emergency even the right to life can be suspended. It is arguments like these that cause citizens to distrust the States motives and think the worst. Personal identification numbers linked to bank accounts and income-tax are quite normal in many countries.

In India, where the biggest item in the Budget after interest is subsidies, Aadhaar was envisaged as the base of a system that would ensure beneficiaries got their full benefits instead of being diddled of them by governmental and other intermediaries by direct transfer of benefits. Remember Rajiv Gandhis famous comment that 85 per cent of funds meant for people didnt get to them. Aadhaar was also envisaged as the base of a system that by being linked with bank accounts and income-tax identification (PAN) would result in fewer escapes from the tax net and fewer transactions outside the banking system.

Now theres so much hue and cry about the biometric data stored with Aadhaar. As biometric verification, in this case fingerprint and retinal scans, requires a person to be present, it actually adds a layer of dense security. The usual types of identification like name, ID number and password can be stolen, lost or forged. All these along with name and photographs are identification data that we routinely part with, whether for a visa, passport, drivers licence or bank account. Yet when it comes to giving our government this data, we are clearly uncomfortable. The level of distrust also depends on class. Poor people are quite willing to part with these as they hope it will entitle them to long-denied benefits. Most rich people have much to hide, and are thus wary about parting with personal data. It is this that possibly caused the governments lawyers to dismiss the fears as an elitist construct.

Privacy, like all other fundamental rights, are circumscribed by the rights of others and the collective us. In a dictum almost a hundred years ago and that is still cited, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote what is perhaps the most-quoted sentence in US Supreme Court history: The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. With this he made it clear there were limits on the First Amendment, that guaranteed free speech.

Ironically, it was this dictum that was often misused to limit free speech. It was used to imprison antiwar activists during the two world wars. It was only in 1969 that the US Supreme Court vastly expanded the limits of free speech. by ruling even inflammatory speech is protected under the First Amendment, unless the speech is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

People who are against the government having your personal data and the means to track your movements, money transfers and spending habits, fear the misuse of State powers, as we saw in the US after the Justice Holmes dictum. Privacy as a right is no less valuable than free speech. Privacy, in its simplest sense, is the right to be left alone. In the technologically advanced society we live in, unfortunately, you can only be left alone if you live on a deserted island like Robinson Crusoe.

When we interact with society and State institutions, we have to cede a part of our privacy. The State and the myriad private and public institutions that constitute the society we now live in require information about a person. As we move ahead, with technological changes cascading upon us at a pace we have never seen before, the notion of privacy is still a work in progress. We must therefore constantly seek to redefine the limits of individual liberties whichever way the times demand.
Mr Deuba publicly said during his four-day official visit last week that his government would not permit any anti-India activities.

For some time India-Nepal relations have not been on an even keel, although high-level visits have taken place recently and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself been in Kathmandu twice since assuming office in 2014.

In this backdrop it was reassuring to see Nepal PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, who heads a coalition of his Nepali Congress and former PM Pushp Kumar Dahal Prachandas Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), making New Delhi his first port of call after taking charge in his fourth stint as Prime Minister.

Mr Deuba publicly said during his four-day official visit last week that his government would not permit any anti-India activities. This has a specific context, of course. Indias open border  for goods and people to easily cross over  with Nepal is exploited by drug traffickers as well as Pakistan-based terrorist elements, and border management is a serious concern.

Mr Modi drew attention to the importance of security considerations and strengthening India-Nepal relations in defence and security, rightly noting an interdependence existed in the security matrix of the two countries.

There is another compelling concern, however: efforts by China to disturb India-Nepal ties. Since Chinas Doklam incursion in June (involving Bhutans claims), which has led to a military standoff between India and China in the eastern Himalayas, Beijing has been provoking Kathmandu to begin a discussion on its own tri-junction problem involving its giant neighbours India and China.

At the India-Nepal-China tri-junction at Lipulekh in the Uttarakhand region, India and Nepal have a small area where the boundary is not settled. Beijing is instigating Kathmandu to rake this up. For this reason, Beijing is said to have been closely monitoring Mr Deubas India trip. In the event, the Nepal leader did not oblige.

While this was helpful from the Indian perspective, we should be mindful that Mr Deubas current political status in his country needs to be shored up for him to be able to withstand any carrot-and stick policy that the Chinese may like to inject. A day before he arrived in India, his government was not able to have passed in Parliament a constitutional amendment to accommodate the political sensitivities of Madhesis of the Nepal terai, who are people of Indian origin. Apart from money to explore for oil in the Nepal-Tibet border region, and other such allurements, Beijing could seek to exploit the parliamentary deficiency of the Deuba government through Nepalese political elements sympathetic to it, for example former PM K.P.Oli and his Communist Party (UML).

Helping Nepal and Bhutan, which share a border with both India and China, retain their sovereignty in the full sense of the word, while keeping bilateral ties smooth, is a key challenge for India in the coming years.
The official release of Galaxy Note 8 is slated for September 15.

Samsung has kicked off pre-orders for its newly launched Galaxy Note 8 smartphone, weeks ahead of its official release slated for September 15.

The S. Korean-based tech giant has started taking pre-orders for a handful of countries, including United States and Britain, while it is expected to open pre-order window on Sept. 7 in its home market, reported news agency Yonhap. The pre-order date for the Indian market is yet unknown. However, the phone is expected to get released in India in early October.

Samsung hasnt officially disclosed the price of the Galaxy Note 8 model. But the price tag is expected to hover above $1000.

In America, the 64GB model of Galaxy Note 8 is being sold for $929 (approx Rs 60,000) including taxes, according to industry sources.

The actual production cost of the Galaxy Note 8 is estimated at $350 (approx. Rs 23,000).

Despite, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics statement, the company will try to set the price of the Galaxy Note 8 below 1 million won ($887), he does not wish to make the device too expensive for users, Note 8 seems to hold a higher price tag in major markets.

To recall, Galaxy Note 8 features a 6.3-inch AMOLED quad HD display with 2960 x 1440 pixel resolution, is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835/ Exynos octa core SoC, backed by 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with support for microSD card. On the photography front, the Galaxy Note 8 boasts a dual camera setup with two 12MP sensors  one wide angle lens and one telephoto lens and an 8MP selfie shooter. The phablet runs on Android 7.1.1 with companys UI on the top. The Galaxy Note 8 has a dedicated button for Samsungs virtual voice assistant Bixby. The Galaxy Note 8 draws power from a 3300mAh battery and is IP68 certified water and dust resistant. Connectivity on the smartphone includes NFC and MST for Samsung Pay, and offers USB Type-C charging port.
The petition urged apex court to quash July 28 judgment in Panama leaks case.

Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday filed a second review petition against his disqualification and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references in the Supreme Court.

The petition urged apex court to quash July 28 judgment in Panama leaks case. In his first review petition, Nawaz Sharif had challenged the five-member benchs verdict which brought a premature end to his premiership.

Mr Sharif, in the new petition, stated that though FZE company was not mentioned in petitions filed against him yet he was disqualified over not withdrawing salary from the company.

The petitioner further pledged that law did not allow monitoring of trail courts proceedings and stated that order of completing probe against Sharif family within six months would affect proceedings.

On July 28 this year, countrys top court had ousted Nawaz Sharif in Panama Leaks Case and had instructed the accountability watchdog to file references against Sharif family.

Mr Sharifs daughter Maryam Nawaz officially launched the election campaign of NA-120 Lahore by-poll that is being contested by her mother Kulsoom Nawaz.

Maryam Nawaz said that the local bodies representatives will make Nawaz Sharif PM for the fourth time. She said NA-120 by-poll was an election of every workers victory, therefore, we need to win it.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave deadline of August 31 to its Lahore and Rawalpindi officers regarding references against Sharif family.

NAB has got record from all the relevant departments for investigation however, its Executive Board will formally give approval to file references against the Sharif family.

Supreme Court had directed NAB to prepare three references in which one was regarding Al-Azizia Steel Mill while the other two were about London flats and 16 offshore companies held by the Sharif family.
Cops estimate that 3,000 supporters had gathered outside the court in Bangkok.

Bankok: Thailands former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled to Dubai, senior members of her party said on Saturday, a day after she failed to show up for a negligence ruling in which she faced up to 10 years in prison.

Puea Thai Party sources said Yingluck left Thailand last week and flew via Singapore to Dubai where her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption, has a home.

We heard that she went to Cambodia and then Singapore from where she flew to Dubai. She has arrived safely and is there now, said a senior member of the Puea Thai Party who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said the cops had no record of Yingluck, 50, leaving the country and were following developments closely.

A Reuters reporter was stopped by security at the exclusive Emirates Hills community in Dubai, where Thaksin has a home. Cops estimate that 3,000 supporters had gathered outside the court in Bangkok on Friday where Yingluck was due to hear a verdict in a negligence trial against her involving a rice buying policy of her administration.
Militants driven out of one of their last strongholds in war-torn country.

An Iraqi forces officer flashes victory gesture from the turret of an armoured vehicle during the advance through Tal Afar, west of Mosul. (Photo: AFP)

Baghdad: Iraqi forces have driven the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from central Tal Afar and its historic citadel, they said on Saturday, placing them on the verge of fully recapturing one of the last ISIS strongholds in the country.

The advance, just days into an assault on the strategic town, comes six weeks after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the jihadists in second city Mosul, where the jihadist group declared its caliphate in 2014.

Units of the counter-terrorism service liberated the citadel and Basatin districts and raised the Iraqi flag on top of the citadel, operation commander General Abdulamir Yarallah said in a statement.

The CTS and federal police units had also seized three northern districts and the Al-Rabia neighbourhood west of the citadel, a day after taking the district of Al-Talia to the south.

Clashes were ongoing on the northern outskirts and Iraqi forces were dealing with final pockets of jihadists inside the city, Yarallah said.

Government troops and units of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, backed by a US-led coalition against IS, launched the assault on Sunday after weeks of coalition and Iraqi air strikes.

Tal Afar sits on a strategic route between ISIS-controlled territories in Syria and Mosul, 70 kilometres further east.

Progress there has been far more rapid than in Mosul, Iraqs second city, which fell to Iraqi forces in July after a gruelling nine-month battle.

Officials have said they hope to announce victory in Tal Afar by Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday set to start in Iraq on September 2.

Most of Tal Afars 200,000 residents, the majority of them Shiite Turkmens whose beliefs are anathema to the Sunni hardliners of ISIS, fled as the jihadists arrived.

Pro-government forces faced an obstacle course of roads blocked with earth embankments and strategically-parked trucks, as well as sniper fire and mortar shelling.

Troops also said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by the jihadists to launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape.

The International Organization for Migration said thousands of civilians had fled Tal Afar since the offensive began.

Those who flee through desert areas face soaring temperatures for long periods, putting them at risk of dehydration, said Viren Falcao of the Danish Refugee Council.

Once Tal Afar is retaken, Baghdad is expected to launch a new offensive on Hawija, 300 kilometres north of Baghdad.

IS is also present in the vast western province of Anbar, where it controls several zones along the Syrian border with war-ravaged Syria, including the Al-Qaim area.

The jihadist group has lost much of the territory it controlled and thousands of its fighters have been killed. The foreign and defence ministers of France visited Baghdad Saturday to affirm their countrys support in the fight against IS.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly, who arrived in the Iraqi capital on Friday evening, were scheduled to meet Abadi. French forces have carried out air and artillery strikes in support of Iraqi operations.

As long as our common enemy has not been eradicated, France will continue to take part in the campaign, Parly said.
'Tal Afar city is about to fall completely into the hands of our forces, only five percent remains' under IS control, said Iraqi army.

Military forces are reportedly moving from the western and northeastern front of Tal Afar. (Photo: AFP)

Tal Afar (Iraq): Iraqi forces raised the national flag on Saturday in the heart of Tal Afar, Islamic States stronghold in the countrys northwest, and said they were poised to take full control of the city after a week-long offensive.

Tal Afar is the latest objective in the US-backed war on the jihadist group following the recapture in July of Mosul, where it declared its self-proclaimed caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Tal Afar was cut off from the rest of ISIS-held territory in June and the campaign to recapture it started on Aug. 20, when up to 2,000 militants were believed to be defending it against around 50,000 attackers, according to western military sources.

Tal Afar city is about to fall completely into the hands of our forces, only five percent remains under Islamic State control, an Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters.

Elite forces had liberated the heart of the city and raised the national flag on top of the citadel building, a statement from the Iraqi joint operations command said. Much of the Ottoman-era building was destroyed by the militants in 2014.

Such a quick collapse of Islamic State in the city, which has been a breeding ground for jihadist groups, would confirm Iraqi military reports that the militants lack command and control structures west of Mosul.

A Reuters visuals team in Tal Afar said fighting had eased on Saturday, with just occasional artillery rounds heard. There was no sign of civilians in two neighborhoods it visited.

God willing, the remaining part will be liberated soon, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said earlier at a news conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and French Defence Minister Florence Parly, in Baghdad.
During the Angelus, Pope Francis paused for a moment of silence on behalf of Myanmars often rejected Bengali minority. As he did with the apostles, Jesus "expects from his people a different and superior answer than those of public opinion." He also wants to continue to build his Church with small stones. Indeed, no small stone is useless; on the contrary, in the hands of Jesus a small stone becomes precious.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis today issued an appeal on behalf of flood victims in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. He also spoke about and prayed for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Bengali origin that migrated to Myanmar.

At the end of the Angelus prayer together with the pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square, the pontiff spoke about the "big floods [that] hit Bangladesh, Nepal and India. I express my closeness to the people and I pray for the victims and all those who suffer because of this calamity."

For weeks, rains have been so abundant in the countries of South Asia that many villages and cities have been flooded. It is estimated that at least 16 million people have been affected. In each country, the local Caritas has been mobilised to help people cope with the emergency.

Sadly, the pope said in his address, "There have been reports about the persecution of our brothers and sisters, the Rohingya religious minority. I would like to express all my closeness to them. Let all of us ask the Lord to save them and encourage men and women of goodwill to help them, and give them full rights. Let us also pray for our Rohingya brothers and sisters" and then he paused for a moment of silence.

Two days ago, the report by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the situation of this migrant population was made public, but both Myanmar and Bangladesh have rejected it. Recently, Burmese nationalists, often helped by the military, have clashed and killed minority Rohingya.

Earlier, Francis spoke about todays gospel (Mt 16:13-20), in which Jesus asked his disciples about what people thought of him, which he followed by asking "But who do you say I am?" (16:15). "With that but Jesus definitively separated the Apostles from the mass, as if he were saying: But you, who are with me every day and know me from close up, what have you learnt more? The Master expects from his people a different and superior answer than those of public opinion."

In his reply to Jesus' question, Peter said You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God (16:16). On his lips, Simon Peter found words bigger than himself, words that did not come from his natural abilities.

Perhaps he did not finish elementary school, and [yet] he was able to say these words, greater than himself! But they were inspired by the Heavenly Father (16:17), who revealed to the first of the Twelve (Apostles) the true identity of Jesus. He is the Messiah, the Son sent by God to save humanity. And from this answer, Jesus understood that, thanks to the faith given by the Father, there was a solid foundation upon which he could build his community and Church. Hence, he told Simon: And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (16:18).

"Even with us today, Jesus wants to continue to build his Church, this house, on solid foundations but one that is not lacking in cracks, and in need of constant repair. All time. The Church always needs to be reformed, repaired. We certainly do not feel like rocks, only like small stones. However, no small stone is useless; on the contrary, in the hands of Jesus a small stone becomes precious, because he picks it up, looks at it with tenderness, works it with his Spirit and puts it in the right place, where He had always thought of putting it, and where it can be most useful to the whole building.

Each of us is a small stone, but in the hands of Jesus we participate in building the Church. All of us, even if we are small, we become living stones because when Jesus picks up his stone, he makes it his own, makes it alive, full of life, full of life from the Holy Spirit, full of life from his love. Thus, we have a place and a mission in the Church: she is a community of life, made up of many different stones, which form a single building in the sign of brotherhood and communion."

"What is more, todays Gospel reminds us that Jesus also sought for his Church a visible centre of communion in Peter  He too is not a big stone; he is a small stone, but taken by Jesus he becomes a centre of communion  in Peter and those who succeeded him in the same primatial responsibility, who from the earliest days have been identified in the Bishops of Rome, the city where Peter and Paul bore witness in blood."

"Let us entrust ourselves to Mary, Queen of the Apostles, Mother of the Church, the pope said in concluding. She was at the cenacle, near Peter, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and urged them to go out, to announce to everyone that Jesus was the Lord. Today may our Mother support us and accompany us with her intercession, in order to fully realise that unity and communion for which Christ and the Apostles prayed and gave their life."